he had then had the fairest opportunity for a general turn of all his affairs, that he ever had in all the latter part of this war: for Montrose, a gallant daring soldier, who from the least shadow of force in the farthest corner of his country, had, rolling like a snowball, spread all over Scotland, was come into the south parts, and had summoned Edinburgh, frightened away their statesmen, beaten their soldiers at Dundee and other places, and letters and messengers in the heels of one another, repeated their cries to their brethren in England, to lay before them the sad condition of the country, and to hasten the army to their relief. The Scots' lords of the enemy's party fled to Berwick, and the chancellor of Scotland goes himself to General Lesly, to press him for help.

In this extremity of affairs Scotland lay, when we marched out of Wales. The Scots at the siege of Hereford hearing the king was gone northward with his horse, concluded he was gone directly for Scotland, and immediately send Lesly with four thousand horse and foot to follow, but did not yet raise the siege.

But the king, still irresolute, turns away to the eastward, and comes to Lichfield, where he showed his resentments at Colonel Hastings, for his easy surrender of Leicester.

In this march the enemy took heart; we had troops of horse on every side upon us, like hounds started at a fresh stag. Lesly, with the Scots, and a strong body followed in our rear, Major-general Pointz, Sir John Gell, Colonel Roseter, and others, in our way; they pretended to be ten thousand horse, and yet never durst face us. The Scots made one attempt upon a troop which stayed a little behind, and took some prisoners; but when a regiment of our horse faced them, they retired. At a village near Lichfield, another party of about a thousand horse attacked my regiment; we were on the left of the army, and, at a little too far a distance. I happened to be with the king at that time, and my Lieutenant-colonel with him, so that the major had charge of the regiment; he made a very handsome defence, but sent messengers for speedy relief; we were on a march, and therefore all ready, and the king orders me a regiment of dragoons and three hundred horse, and the body halted to bring us off, not knowing how strong the enemy might be. When I came to the place, I found my major

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hard laid to, but fighting like a lion; the enemy had broke in upon him in two places, and had routed one troop, cutting them off from the body, and had made them all prisoners. Upon this I fell in with the three hundred horse, and cleared my major from a party who charged him in the flank; the dragoons immediately alighting, one party of them comes up on my wing, and saluting the enemy with their muskets, put them to a stand; the other party of dragoons wheeling to the left, endeavouring to get behind them. The enemy perceiving they should be overpowered, retreated in as good order as they could, but left us most of our prisoners, and about thirty of their own. We lost about fifteen of our men, and the enemy about forty, chiefly by the fire of our dragoons in their retreat.

In this posture we continued our march; and though the king halted at Lichfield, which was a dangerous article, having so many of the enemy's troops upon his hands; and this time gave them opportunity to get into a body; yet the Scots, with their General Lesly, resolving for the north, the rest of the troops were not able to face us, till having ravaged the enemy's country through Staffordshire, Warwick, Leicester, and Nottinghamshire, we came to the leaguer before Newark.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE KING'S ARMY ATTACKS NEWARK-SUCCESSFUL EXCURSION INTO LINCOLNSHIRE SIEGE OF HUNTINGDON- BRAVE ACTION OF A DRAGOON-THE MARQUIS OF MONTROSE DOES GREAT SERVICE IN SCOTLAND-I LEAVE THE ARMY ON A VISIT TO MY FATHER'S-DISASTROUS TERMINATION OF THE WAR, AND FATE OF THE KING'S PARTY.

THE king was once more in the mind to have gone into Scotland, and called a council of war to that purpose; but then it was resolved by all hands, that it would be too late to attempt it; for the Scots, and Major-general Pointz, were before us, and several strong bodies of horse in our rear; and there was no venturing now, unless any advantage presented to rout one of those parties which attended us.

Upon these, and like considerations, we resolved for

Newark; on our approach, the forces which blocked up that town, drew off, being too weak to oppose us; for the king was now above five thousand horse and dragoons, besides three hundred horse and dragoons he took with him. from Newark.

We halted at Newark to assist the garrison, or give them time rather to furnish themselves from the country with what they wanted, which they were very diligent in doing; for, in two days' time, they filled a large island, which lies. under the town, between the two branches of the Trent, with sheep, oxen, cows, and horses, an incredible number; and our affairs being now something desperate, we were not very nice in our usage of the country; for really if it was not with a resolution, both to punish the enemy, and enrich ourselves, no man can give any rational account why this desperate journey was undertaken.

It is certain the Newarkers, in the respite they gained by our coming, got above 50,000l. from the country round them, in corn, cattle, money, and other plunder.

From hence we broke into Lincolnshire, and the king lay at Belvoir Castle, and from Belvoir Castle to Stamford. The swiftness of our march was a terrible surprise to the enemy; for our van being at a village on the great road called Stilton, the country people fled into the isle of Ely, and every way, as if all was lost. Indeed our dragoons treated the country very coarsely; and all our men, in general, made themselves rich. Between Stilton and Huntingdon we had a small bustle with some of the associated troops of horse, but they were soon routed, and fled to Huntingdon, where they gave such an account of us to their fellows, that they did not think fit to stay for us, but left their foot to defend themselves as well as they could.

While this was doing in the van, a party from Burleigh House, near Stamford, the seat of the Earl of Exeter, pursued four troops of our horse, who straggling towards Peterborough, and committing some disorders there, were surprised before they could get into a posture of fighting; and encumbered, as I suppose, with their plunder, they were entirely routed, lost most of their horses, and were forced to come away on foot; but finding themselves in this condition, they got into a body in the enclosures, and in that posture turning dragoons, they lined the hedges, and fired upon the

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enemy with their carabines. This way of fighting, though not very pleasant to troopers, put the enemy's horse to some stand, and encouraged our men to venture into a village, where the enemy had secured forty of their horse; and boldly charging the guard, they beat them off; and recovering those horses, the rest made their retreat good to Wansford Bridge; but we lost near a hundred horses, and about twelve of our men taken prisoners.

The next day the king took Huntingdon; the foot which were left in the town, as I observed by their horse, had posted themselves at the foot of the bridge, and fortified the pass, with such things as the haste and shortness of the time would allow; and in this posture they seemed resolute to defend themselves. I confess, had they in time planted a good force here, they might have put a full stop to our little army; for the river is large and deep, the country on the left marshy, full of drains and ditches, and unfit for horse, and we must have either turned back, or took the right hand into Bedfordshire; but here not being above four hundred foot, and they forsaken of their horse, the resistance they made was to no other purpose than to give us occasion to knock them in the head, and plunder the town.

However, they defended the bridge, as I have said, and opposed our passage. I was this day in the van, and our forlorn having entered Huntingdon, without any great resistance, till they came to the bridge, finding it barricaded, they sent me word; I caused the troops to halt, and rode up to the forlorn, to view the countenance of the enemy, and found by the posture they had put themselves in, that they resolved to sell us the passage as dear as they could.

I sent to the king for some dragoons, and gave him account of what I observed of the enemy, and that I judged them to be a thousand men; for I could not particularly see their numbers. Accordingly, the king ordered five hundred dragoons to attack the bridge, commanded by a major; the enemy had two hundred musketeers placed on the bridge, their barricade served them for a breastwork on the front, and the low walls on the bridge served to secure their flanks; two bodies of their foot were placed on the opposite banks of the river, and a reserve stood on the highway on the rear. The number of their men could not have been better ordered, and they wanted not courage answerable to the conduct of

the party. They were commanded by one Bennet, a resolute officer, who stood in the front of his men on the bridge with a pike in his hand.

Before we began to fall on, the king ordered to view the river, to see if it was nowhere passable, or any boat to be had; but the river being not fordable, and the boats all secured on the other side, the attack was resolved on, and the dragoons fell on with extraordinary bravery. The foot defended themselves obstinately, and beat off our dragoons twice; and though Bennet was killed upon the spot, and after him his lieutenant, yet their. officers relieving them with fresh men, they would certainly have beat us all off, had not a venturous fellow, one of our dragoons, thrown himself into the river, swam over, and, in the midst of a shower of musket-bullets, cut the rope which tied a great flat-bottomed boat, and brought her over. With the help of this boat, I got over a hundred troopers first, and then their horses, and then two hundred more without their horses; and with this party fell in with one of the small bodies of foot that were posted on that side, and having routed them, and, after them, the reserve which stood in the road, I made up to the other party; they stood their ground, and having rallied the runaways of both the other parties, charged me with their pikes, and brought me to a retreat; but by this time the king had sent over three hundred men more, and they coming up to me, the foot retreated. Those on the bridge finding how it was, and having no supplies sent them, as before, fainted, and fled; and the dragoons rushing forward, most of them were killed; about a hundred and fifty of the enemy were killed, of which all the officers at the bridge, the rest ran away.

The town suffered for it; for our men left them little of anything they could carry. Here we halted, and raised contributions, took money of the conntry, and of the open towns, to exempt them from plunder. Twice we faced the town of Cambridge, and several of our officers advised his majesty to storm it; but having no foot, and but twelve hundred dragoons, wiser heads diverted him from it; and leaving Cambridge on the left, we marched to Woburn, in Bedfordshire, and our parties raised money over all the county, quite into Hertfordshire, within five miles of St. Albans.

The swiftness of our march, and uncertainty which way we intended, prevented all possible preparation to oppose us,