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1643.

On the evening before the king appeared in Tredworth it was rumoured in Glocester that he would take up his quarters at Prinknash, the residence of the dowager lady Bridgeman; but the Iter Carolinum shews that from the first he fixed himself at Matson. His two eldest sons, Prince Charles and the Duke of York, were with him; and that venerable mansion now retains a memorial of these youths, who with their knives or swords are said to have made several incisions in a stone window-sill in one of the upper chambers, which in the various alterations that the fabric has experienced have never been effaced to the present hour. [149] The old church close to the house was used as a magazine, and the ammunition was kept there under a strong guard. [150] No spot could be more convenient for the king, because it was entirely out of the range of shot, and a few minutes ride would bring him to inspect the operations. Sometimes he was seen at the head of the horse, who had little to do but to parade and forage. [151] The parliamentary journals accused him of not venturing within two miles of Gloucester, but the Mercurius Aulicus [152] rebuts the charge: want of personal courage was never among his failings. He remained at Matson till the business was over, with the exception of only four days, when he rode to Oxford [153] to advise with his council respecting the Earls of Bedford, Clare and Holland, who had deserted the parliament, and wished to be admitted to a reconciliation. These noblemen followed him to Glocester, and fought for him at Newbury; but not conceiving themselves treated with sufficient attention, returned afterwards to their former associates. [154] Sir William Davenant, the poet laureat, received the honour of knighthood during the siege. [155]

Many of the nobility were quartered in little cottages with which the country abounded; and here in some low-roofed hut, when the toil and hazards of the day were done, sat Sunderland, [156] listening with delight to Falkland, while he disputed with the acute Chillingworth upon religious topics,-for such was the fashion of conversational intercourse at the time, as tranquilly and abstractedly in the neighbourhood of guns and drums, as though he had been in his mansion at Tew near Oxford,

whither the eminent scholars of that university were wont to resort, as to "a college situated in a purer air." [157] Both Sunderland and Falkland, who was secretary to his majesty, exposed themselves much in the trenches, and the latter was even blamed for his unnecessary contempt of danger. Chillingworth, who had exchanged his pen for a sword, and his academical habit for a military cloke, came down from Oxford to superintend the construction of the machines already alluded to which were framing with all possible dispatch in the quarters of the Earl of Forth by Lanthony. They seem to have been but just completed when the siege was raised, and they fell into the enemies' hands. The men of Gloucester derided them as "imperfect and trou❝blesome," and abused the contriver of them; but had they been brought into action and employed with skill and resolution, there is still room for doubt, whether they might not have been found more formidable than they appeared. [158] The three excellent persons abovementioned cordially detested this unnatural war; but felt it an engagement of duty to attend upon their king; and all within a few months breathed their last in his cause. [159]

The common soldiers were hutted in the different encampments, and the army was, upon the whole, healthy during their stay. The weather had been particularly favourable; for, excepting on one night, (August 24) when they were annoyed by wet in the trenches, no rain had fallen till the evening on which they retired. The foot, by their undaunted behaviour at Bristol, had spread the terror of their name before them, [160] and the horse were ever reputed victorious: they were in most superb condition; great numbers of gentlemen served in the ranks. [161] Clarendon reckons them at eight thousand: [162] but their presence, for the service they performed, was worse than unnecessary here, where unless in one sally they found no available employTheir chief use must have been in foraging. Plundering went on in all directions. The noble historian confesses "that a very great "licence broke into the army both among officers and soldiers; the malignity of those parts being thought excuse for the exercise of any "rapine or severity among the inhabitants. Insomuch as it is hardly

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"to be credited, how many thousand sheep were in a few days destroyed, "besides what were brought in by the commissaries by a regular provi"sion; and many countrymen imprisoned by officers without warrant or "the least knowledge of the king's, till they had paid good sums of mofor their delinquency; all which brought great clamour upon the discipline of the army, and justice of the officers, and made them like"wise less prepared for the service they were to expect." [163] In the midst of this disorder the forces had greatly increased from different quarters; and this gradual augmentation of strength may account for disagreements that are found in the statements of their numbers; the highest estimate places them at thirty thousand, and they were unquestionably one of the finest bodies that Charles ever brought into the field. To all this power Massey had no more to oppose than about fifteen hundred men of all ranks and arms, clubmen included; certainly not enough to man the works and walls; and when they endeavoured to do it, there they stood, a thin rank without seconds in case of storm. They were compelled to be on duty day and night, and had no The distribution of this slender force in the different guards on the whole line of fortifications was at the East, West, South, and two North gates and the turnpike between the latter; at the Alvin and Blind gates, and the quay; interiorly at the Barbican hill, the Castle, St. Mary's, the Marshalsea, St. Katherine's, the College, the Boothall, the Tolsey, and Lower Tolsey, and the main guard. [164] This was established at the wheat market, near the cross, in the Southgate-street, and had a lantern burning here were always a hundred and twenty men. Near each of the posts was a guard house, where the soldiers were regularly supplied with wood, coals and candles. The principal magazine had been shifted from St. Bartholomew's hospital, and a place was fitted up in the Crypt church for the ammunition; probably in the vaults of the Crypt itself, as a place of greater security, they deposited the powder. Of this they consumed forty-six single barrels, out of their stock of fifty, when the besiegers withdrew; but they must have used more; for they worked two mills, which, one historian says, produced three barrels per week. A quantity of lead had been brought from the ruined palace at the Vine

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yard; [165] and the plumbers made the bullets. Powder, bullets and match were distributed upon some occasions by proclamation from the mayor by the common crier. In the reports that were at first prevalent in the king's army touching the scantiness of provisions in the city there was not the least truth of all the necessaries and some of the superfluities of life, of corn and cattle, water, wine, spirits and strong waters, no doubt there was enough and to spare while the exigency continued upon them.

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"Thus was Gloucester," says May, "on all sides blocked up, and "nothing expected but a most furious and bloody business. The king's "commanders, being many of them gentlemen of great skill and expe"rience of conduct, had made their approaches (by the confession of "all) with as much advantage as could be, and placed their batteries "accordingly; the soldiers on that side had shewed themselves very "swift and indefatigable in their intrenchments, and as bold in all attempts which they made upon the town. Nor were the besieged "behind hand in courage, patience and activity; as appeared, not only "in their defences, but in their frequent sallies; the Governour Massey "being admired by his enemies, for the great skill and dexterity which "he shewed upon all occasions." His quarters in a house, part of the Grey Friers, [166] were in the very focus of the contest, close to that part which was most fiercely assaulted. He was bravely seconded by his officers and garrison, whose spirits rose in proportion as they per ceived their efforts attended with success. Among these officers, particularly in Lord Stamford's regiment, were several men of military talent and sterling valour; Constant Ferrer, town major, Captains White and Mallery, and Captain Harcus, who was slain; among the armed townsmen, Wise, the mayor, Pury, the father and son, and Backhouse, acted conspicuous parts. [167] Their vigorous sallies greatly interrupted the besiegers: they drove them out of the trenches and carried off their tools; pushed on to their batteries, took one of them in reverse, and spiked their cannon: but it must be admitted that in all of these they were not equally successful: especially in that of the night of the

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twenty-first of August, conducted by Captains Stevenson and Moore, in which the earl of Sunderland [168] says they were "well beaten ;" and Dorney, and Corbet as partial in his way as Clarendon, admit the unfavourable issue of this sally. On the twenty-third of August they were also driven in; after which they seldom ventured out, and only in small parties. Mines and countermines failed owing to the springs. [169] It was excellent policy in Massey, when the guns of the enemy were silent, to keep up an alarm, lest the country should conclude, from an interval of silence, that the place was taken. The comparative losses were nearly equal, but that of the king appeared by far the greatest. Out of his thirty thousand, one thousand were estimated to have perished; [170] but of the fifteen hundred of the garrison, not more than fifty men. And that there is no exaggeration in this estimate is partly evident from the registers of the different parishes; in which the deaths, had they been more numerous, would have been recorded: but in these no overwhelming addition to the entries of burials is to be found. [171]

In this state matters continued till the fifth of September. A point of pride or obstinacy in Charles rendered him averse to repeating his summons, lest it should seem to detract from the honour of the enterprize, while his troops cherished an expectation that the city would soon be taken. At the beginning of the last week in August many were confident that it could not hold out four days. [172] The Earl of Forth at that time began to fire red-hot balls from a battery at Lanthony, [173] which produced no effect; for though the greater part of the houses were built of timber, not one of them took fire. [174] Attempts by letter and conference to induce the besieged to yield were unavailing. Taunts and sarcastic jests, [175] usually thrown out upon such occasions, were given and retorted. The accidental killing of a pig by a ball furnished the garrison with a subject of merriment which they cast in the teeth of their adversaries, whom they threatened to beat soundly for eating their cabbages; the royalists on the other hand tried to mortify the besieged by informing them of the inability of Essex and Waller to come to their relief, threatened to grant them no quarter, [176] and that they would hang the twelve aldermen upon the twelve sign posts of the inns in the city. [177]

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