1643. 66 ' of Newcastle. I leave it to the reader without other translation or comment. "Extincta Castro Fax pulchra novo est; "Sit nota Pharos; Auster disparem "Haud tulit casum: Murus, cui addita est "Urbs casus; Herois Teutonici Myrmidones astant magno cum Duce. "Pacata Thule est; nec Noto timor The city of Bristol was struck with terror when Waller hastened in with the fugitives from his late defeat. In a few days he rode away t London, accompanied by a small party of gentlemen; where the parliament, with a policy that has been compared to that of the Roman senate, when they congratulated the general who had been beaten at the battle of Cannæ, received him with triumphal honours and congratulations; and this might tend to remedy the depression of the public mind. But he had left the governor and the parliamentarians of Bristol to gloomy forebodings. They had all along considered that the fate of that place depended upon the fortune of Waller. [107] Indeed he had himself cherished the notion; and, to secure his success, had drained it of twelve hundred of its best troops, now dispersed and lost to the service; and those that remained, too few to man the extensive works, were dis heartened by the unpropitious turn of affairs; and probably placed no great confidence in the military talent and prowess of their commander. Fiennes had made many bold and inflammatory speeches in the house; [108] but,l ike Demosthenes of old, his talent was rather suited to the senate than the field. [109] He had boasted, indeed, at Bristol, that "he would dispute every foot of ground with the enemy to the "uttermost: that his flag of truce should be his winding sheet; that he "would keep the city, or it should keep him, or he would lay his bones "therein." But as the hour of trial drew nigh, he awaited it with secret apprehensions; [110] while an army led by the Princes Rupert and Maurice re-appeared before the walls, from which the banners of twelve regiments of cavalry, and fifteen of infantry, were discovered floating against him. On the day after their arrival the royalists determined to attempt a general assault; and they executed it on the following morning. Several of the storming parties were repulsed with slaughter; one of them, however, under the command of Colonel Washington, seconded by the Cornish foot, established itself within the rampart at the suburbs, near the College Green. Then it was that the governor's infirmity betrayed itself in pale looks and contradictory commands, and in calling his men from the line under pain of death. Some of his officers, so far as they might, endeavoured to remonstrate; and the soldiers retired murmuring that they were betrayed. The very women, if we may believe the witnesses upon his trial, shewed a more vigorous determination to defend the town. Fiennes hastily proposed a parley, called a council of war, and surrendered. [111] On Wednesday the twenty-sixth of July, the king's troops took possession of the place. This was one of the severest losses that the parliament had as yet sustained; and it especially affected the people of London, who carried on a far more extensive intercourse with Bristol than with Gloucester; and whose property to a considerable amount was lodged there at the time of the capitulation. [112] From the first impression of astonishment and vexation, they were quickly called off by alarm for the probable fate of Gloucester. Both houses became seriously alive to its condition; and more than ever aware of the necessity of making some efforts to preserve it. 1643. July 26. 1643. By letters from the governor and principal officers, dated July the twentyJuly 29. ninth, they were urged to send men, money, arms, and ammunition; and Aug. 1. the commons immediately passed an order [113] that Sir William Waller should despatch some troops to strengthen the garrison; and that they should be assisted with seventeen hundred pounds. An answer was written to Massey assuring him of relief; but it may safely be affirmed that none of the supplies thus voted reached the city in time. [114] In the mean while the pecuniary burdens imposed upon them by their new political masters were not trivial. The tax at this period for the general maintenance of the army, amounted in the county to the weekly sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, and in the city to sixty-two pounds ten shillings; and this was to be raised by weekly assessments upon the inhabitants. [115] The king had long been troubled by distractions and jealousies among his officers, arising chiefly from the advancement of the young princes, his nephews, to high commands. And it happened that, after the surrender of Bristol, a misunderstanding respecting a governor arose between Prince Rupert and the Marquess of Hertford, which Charles found necessary to appease by his presence. He accordingly repaired thither from Oxford, and, having accomplished his object, held a council to deliberate upon the future operations of the campaign. Several days had been passed inactively; and it was necessary to follow up the advantages that had been gained. Never had the cause of the king stood higher since the war began. Two armies, that had been united for the late undertaking against Bristol, were now to be again divided; and it was debated to what points they should be immediately directed. The result of the council was, that one of them should march under Prince Maurice into the west, and that the king should lead the other towards Gloucester. Perhaps no single determination involved more momentous consequences. And forasmuch as the siege of Gloucester is not only the most eminent feature in the historical view of transactions confined to the county, but casts a general shade over the whole civil war, it may be important to enter somewhat minutely into the motives, by which the resolution to undertake it was swayed. It is useless to look at what might have been done. The city of London, to human calculation defenceless, may seem to have presented a fairer and more decisive object; but the plan of marching at once upon a capital, so frequently and successfully practised in modern tactics, was not then understood. The following were the reasons, as they are given by Clarendon, for attempting the siege of Gloucester. "There was not a man who did not think the reducing of Glou"cester a city within little more than twenty miles of Bristol, of mighty "importance to the king, if it might be done without a great expense "of time and loss of men. It was the only garrison the rebels had "between Bristol and Lancashire, on the north part of England, and if "it could be recovered, his majesty would have the river of Severn "entirely within his command, whereby his garrisons of Worcester and "Shrewsbury, and all those parts, might be supplied from Bristol; and "the trade of that city thereby so advanced, that the customs and duty might bring a notable revenue to the king; and the wealth of the city increasing, it might bear the greater burden for the war: a rich and "populous country, which had hitherto rather yielded conveniences of "" quarter than a settled contribution, (that strong garrison holding not "only the whole forest divison, which is a fourth part of the county of "Gloucester, absolutely in obedience, but so alarmed all other parts, "that none of the gentry, who for the most part were well affected, "durst stay at their own houses) might be wholly in the king's quarters, "and by how much it had offended, and disquieted the king, more than "other counties, by so much the more money might be raised upon "them. Besides the general weekly contributions, the yeomanry, who "had been most forward and seditious, being very wealthy, and able to "redeem their delinquency at a high price (and these arguments were "fully pressed by the well affected gentry of the county, who had "carried themselves honestly, and suffered very much by doing so, "and undertook great levies of men, if this work were first done); "there was another argument of no less, if not greater moment than "all the rest. If Gloucester were reduced, there would need no "forces to be left in Wales, and all those soldiers might be then drawn g 1643. 1643. "to the marching army, and the contributions and other taxes assigned "to the payment of it." [116] The benefits that the king might derive from this measure, should it prove successful, did not escape the notice of his opponents, and may serve as some vindication of its having been adopted; and, after all that has been said about the impolicy of it, the earnestness and apprehensions of the parliament are a confirmation that the views entertained respecting it were not so erroneous as may have been supposed. Nathaniel Fiennesand others, in a despatch sent to his father, Lord Say, in the preceding March, pleading the necessities and importance of Bristol, use these words. "If he gaine this town he "will soone subdue Gloucester, and become Master of all the tract between Shrewsbury, and the Lizard's Point in Cornwall, a quarter so " plentifull as his plundering army yet never saw." [117] Besides this, Fiennes and Clifton his lieutenant professed openly after the surrender of Bristol," that they would be hanged if Gloucester could hold out "two days, if the enemy came before it." [118] And though these were the expressions of men who spoke with a keen sense of theirown recent misconduct, and a wish to justify it, they might not have been uttered without reason or effect. The general opinion of its own inhabitants was on the same side. "Gloucester," says Corbet, "did stand "alone, without help and hope." Rapin, a soldier by profession, and no mean judge in military and political affairs, is one of the few historians who vindicate the conduct of Charles in this particular." If even some of his friends," he observes, "have blamed him for undertaking this siege, it may be "affirmed, the ill success was the best foundation of their opinion. For 66 my part, I believe he had all the reason in the world to undertake “ it." [119] The fault was not so much in the design as in the exe cution. All could foresee the advantages of success if it could be cheaply obtained, but hardly any seem to have anticipated or calculated the immense evils of delay. Some, however, have asserted that the king did not altogether approve of it, and that the queen, then at Oxford, whose influence over his councils is well known, [120] was |