A The foot were divided into six regiments. Many of the men had been in the militia, and still wore their uniforms, red and yellow. The cavalry were about a thousand in number; but most of them had only large colts, such as were then bred in great herds on the marshes of Somersetshire for the purpose of supplying London with coach-horses and cart-horses. These animals were so far from being fit for any military purpose that they had not yet learned to obey the bridle, and became ungovernable as soon as they heard a gun fired or a drum beaten. small body-guard of forty young men, well armed and mounted at their own charge, attended Monmouth. The people of Bridgewater, who were enriched by a thriving coast trade, furnished him with a small sum of money.* All this time the forces of the government were fast assembling. On the west of the rebel army Albemarle still kept together a large body of Devonshire militia. On the east the train-bands of Wiltshire had mustered under the command of Thomas Herbert, earl of Pembroke. On the northeast, Henry Somerset, duke of Beaufort, was in arms. The power of Beaufort bore some faint resemblance to that of the great barons of the fifteenth century. He was President of Wales and lord lieutenant of four English counties. His official tours through the extensive region in which he represented the majesty of the throne were scarcely inferior in pomp to royal progresses. His household at Badminton was regulated after the fashion of an earlier generation. The land to a great extent round his pleasure grounds was in his own hands, and the laborers who cultivated it formed part of his family. Nine tables were every day spread under his roof for two hundred persons. A crowd of gentlemen and pages were under the orders of his steward. A whole troop of cavalry obeyed the master of the horse. The fame of the kitchen, the cellar, the kennel, and the stables was spread over all England. The gentry, many miles round, were proud of the magnificence of their great neighbor, and were at the * Oldmixon, 702. same time charmed by his affability and good nature. He was a zealous Cavalier of the old school. At this crisis, therefore, he used his whole influence and authority in support of the crown, and occupied Bristol with the train-bands of Gloucestershire, who seem to have been better disciplined than most other troops of that description.* In the counties more remote from Somersetshire the supporters of the throne were on the alert. The militia of Sussex began to march westward, under the command of Richard Lord Lumley, who, though he had lately been converted from the Roman Catholic religion, was still firm in his allegiance to a Roman Catholic king. James Bertie, earl of Abingdon, called out the array of Oxfordshire. John Fell, bishop of Oxford, who was also Dean of Christ Church, summoned the under-graduates of his university to take arms for the crown. The gownsmen crowded to give in their names. Christ Church alone furnished near a hundred pikemen and musketeers. Young noblemen and gentlemen commoners acted as officers, and the eldest son of the lord lieutenant was colonel.† But it was chiefly on the regular troops that the king relied. Churchill had been sent westward with the Blues, and Feversham was following with all the forces that could be spared from the neighborhood of London. A courier had started for Holland with a letter directing Skelton instantly to request that the three English regiments in the Dutch service might be sent to the Thames. When the request was made, the party hostile to the house of Orange, headed by the deputies of Amsterdam, tried to cause delay; but the energy of William, who had almost as much at stake as James, and who saw Monmouth's progress with serious uneasiness, bore down opposition, and in *North's Life of Guildford, 132; Accounts of Beaufort's progress through Wales and the neighboring counties in the London Gazettes of July, 1684; Letter of Beaufort to Clarendon, June 19, 1685. + Bishop Fell to Clarendon, June 20; Abingdon to Clarendon, June 20, 25, 26, 1685; Lansdowne MS., 846. a few days the troops sailed. The three Scotch regiments were already in England. They had arrived at Gravesend in excellent condition, and James had reviewed them on Blackheath. He repeatedly declared to the Dutch embassador that he had never in his life seen finer or better disciplined soldiers, and that he felt the warmest gratitude to the Prince of Orange and the States for so valuable and seasonable a re-enforcement. His satisfaction, however, was not unmixed. Excellently as the men went through their drill, they were not untainted with Dutch politics and Dutch divinity. One of them was shot and another flogged for drinking the Duke of Monmouth's health. It was, therefore, not thought advisable to place them in the post of danger. They were kept in the neighborhood of London till the end of the campaign; but their arrival enabled the king to send to the west some infantry which would otherwise have been wanted in the capital.† Among these While the government was thus preparing for a conflict with the rebels in the field, precautions of a different kind were not neglected. In London alone, two hundred of those persons who were thought most likely to be at the head of a Whig movement were arrested. prisoners were some merchants of great note. who was obnoxious to the court went in fear. gloom overhung the capital. Business languished on the Exchange; and the theaters were so generally deserted that a new opera, written by Dryden, and set off by decorations of unprecedented magnificence, was withdrawn, because the receipts would not cover the expenses of the performance. The magistrates and clergy were every where active. The Dissenters were every where closely observed. In Cheshire and Shropshire a fierce persecution raged; in Northamptonshire arrests were numerous; and the jail of Oxford was crowded with prisoners. June 30 No + Citters, July, July 1, 1685; Avaux Neg., July; London Ga zette, July 6. July 10 Barillon, July, 1685; Scott's Preface to Albion and Albanius. Puritan divine, however moderate his opinions, however guarded his conduct, could feel any confidence that he should not be torn from his family and flung into a dungeon.* Meanwhile Monmouth advanced from Bridgewater, harassed through the whole march by Churchill, who appears to have done all that, with a handful of men, it was possible for a brave and skillful officer to effect. The rebel army, much annoyed both by the enemy and by a heavy fall of rain, halted in the evening of the twentysecond of June at Glastonbury. The houses of the little town did not afford shelter for so large a force. Some of the troops were therefore quartered in the churches, and others lighted their fires among the venerable ruins of the abbey, once the wealthiest religious house in our island. From Glastonbury the duke marched to Wells, and from Wells to Shepton Mallet.† Hitherto he seems to have wandered from place to place with no other object than that of collecting troops. It was now necessary for him to form some plan of military operations. His first scheme was to seize Bristol. Many of the chief inhabitants of that important place were Whigs. One of the ramifications of the Whig plot had extended thither. The garrison consisted only of the Gloucestershire train-bands. If Beaufort and his rustic followers could be overpowered before the regular troops arrived, the rebels would at once find themselves possessed of ample pecuniary resources, the credit of Monmouth's arms would be raised, and his friends throughout the kingdom would be encouraged to declare themselves. Bristol had fortifications which, on the north of the Avon toward Gloucestershire, were weak, but on the south toward Somersetshire were much stronger. It was therefore determined that the attack should be made on the Gloucestershire side; but for this purpose it was necessary to * Abingdon to Clarendon, June 29, 1685; Life of Philip Henry, by Bates † London Gazette, June 22 and June 25, 1685; Wade's Confession; Oldmixon, 703; Harl. MS., 6845. take a circuitous route, and to cross the Avon at Keynsham. The bridge at Keynsham had been partly demolished by the militia, and was at present impassable. A detachment was therefore sent forward to make the necessary repairs. The other troops followed more slowly, and on the evening of the twenty-fourth of June halted for repose at Pensford. At Pensford they were only five miles from the Somersetshire side of Bristol; but the Gloucestershire side, which could be reached only by going round through Keynsham, was distant a long day's march.* That night was one of great tumult and expectation in Bristol. The partisans of Monmouth knew that he was almost within sight of their city, and imagined that he would be among them before daybreak. About an hour after sunset, a merchantman lying at the quay took fire. Such an occurrence, in a port crowded with shipping, could not but excite great alarm. The whole river was in commotion. The streets were crowded. Seditious cries were heard amid the darkness and confusion. It was afterward asserted, both by Whigs and by Tories, that the fire had been kindled by the friends of Monmouth, in the hope that the train-bands would be busied in preventing the conflagration from spreading, and that, in the mean time, the rebel army would make a bold push, and enter the city on the Somersetshire side. If such was the design of the incendiaries, it completely failed. Beaufort, instead of sending his men to the quay, kept them all night drawn up under arms round the beautiful church of St. Mary Redcliff, on the south of the Avon. He would see Bristol burned down, he said; nay, he would burn it down himself, rather than that it should be occupied by traitors. He was able, with the help of some regular cavalry which had joined him from Chippenham a few hours before, to prevent an insurrection. It might have been beyond his power at once to overawe the malcontents within the walls and to repel an attack from without; but no such attack was made. The fire, which caused so much * Wade's Confession. |