ABINGTONS And Alisburies PRESENT MISERIES.  
Both which towns being lately lamentably plundered by Prince Robert and his Cavaliers.  
Expressly related as it was certified to some of the Honourable the High Court of PARLIAMENT.  
And therefore published,  
By G. H.  
LONDON, Printed by Rich. Herne.   

ABINGTONS AND Alisburies Present Miseries.  
THe cruelty of those insatiate vultures the Cavaliers has been so abundantly testified through most part of this kingdom, that many hundred of poor wretches with daily execrations curse their violence, which has in no place been extended with more rigour then at the two good towns of Abington and Alisbury, sisters in calamity, only Alisbury appears the elder, having preceded Abington some days in her misfortune. Alisbury a very signal town in Buckingham shire, still loyal to the commonwealth, whither about some five days since, a thousand of the Cavaliers, all Troopers, came Commissary Wilmot being their Commander in chief under Count Robert, who was not there in person. Well, thither they came, and billeted themselves for that night in the best inns, and other houses of quality about the town, being indeed indifferent courteously entertained by the Inhabitants of Alisbury, more for fear then love, they hoping by their friendly usage to mollify their savage disposition of their unwelcome guests, who they knew were apt for all mischief's men durst attempt, caring neither for God nor the devil, But, as says the Poet: 
Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem  
testa diu—   
It was impossible to alter the customary proceedings of the Cavaliers, which is resulted into a second nature, their rapine and theft, seeming as individual to them, as if it were their inseparable essence.  
In the morning therefore these violaters of all divine and human laws, began to put in act all their determined purposes, and every one to fall upon the house that he was harboured in, which in most outrageous and inhuman manner was exposed a prey to their ravenous appetites, neither the entreaties of men, the tears and prayers of women and children, being sufficient to persuade remorse into these demidivells; in an instant you might have seen all that good town in a confusion and uproar; the money, plate, pewter, brass, and all things that were of worth or portable, being snapped up by their violence, and all other householdstuff which was not for its weight or bigness fit to be carried away, being spoiled and made useless; some you might have seen cutting Bedsteads in pieces, some unripping the Beds, and casting abroad and trampling on the feathers that the night before gave ease to their ungracious bodies, divers hewing Tables, and pulling down the very wainscot which they cast into the Chimney, making that which before was an ornament to the room, a fire to warm the naked walls: hangings which were not of much worth, running the same destiny, those of Arras they packed up, intending to make sale of them with the next opportunity; nor did their barbarous cruelty end here, the very cattle in the stalls and adjoining yards, as Cowes, and the like, they houghed, or shot to death with their Carabines and Petronels: divers of them in their beastly and libidinous fury, offering violence to the honest Matrons and beautiful Virgins, but therein they met stout resistance, divers of the women courageously resisting their attempts, and some sheathing their Knives and Spits in the bowels of these miscreants, more savage than the Turks themselves: the townsmen seeing all things go thus to ruin, their houses, goods and cattle, nay, their wives and children undone before their faces, and of the trained bands coming into them from the neighbouring towns and Hamlets, began to pull up their courages and resist the Cavaliers, who busy about their prey, had no thought of being surprised or assaulted, but they had reckoned, it seems, without their hosts, who resolved to make them pay part of the reckoning with their lives, falling therefore upon by parties in the several houses where they were acting their villainies with muskets, Pikes, pitchforks, and what weapons they could possibly get, the Cavaliers amazed, and finding it no business to be slighted, began to draw together into one body for the defence of themselves and their unlawful-gotten purchase of Money and Plate, leaving all the rest, as brass, Pewter, and the like; divers also minding their prey they were possessed of, more than the safety of their companions, got out to their horses, and rid away as fast as they could; so that of a thousand of them not above four hundred got together into the marketplace, where the townsmen and villagers with their Pikes and muskets assaulted them so hotly, that they tumbled above a score of them from their horses, their Commanders seeing the service grow hot, and that the country still came in upon them, were cautious of staying any longer in that place, and therefore turned faces about, and putting spurs to their horses, fled out of the town as fast they could, all of them not scaping befitting punishment (if death can be a sufficient punishment for such Monsters) for the men of the town following them as fast as they could through the streets, discharged their muskets with so good aim, that they slew near fifty more; thus God in his great mercy delivered that good town from the fury of those desperate Malignants, and turned their mischief upon their own heads; the greatest damage the townsmen received, being in the loss of their Money and Plate, which indeed was no great nor considerable sum: the wealthy men of that town, ever since the arrival of the Cavaliers into the parts thereabouts keeping no Plate at all, or very little in their houses, and no more money than what served for their domestic expenses; so that the Cavaliers, considering the men they lost, had no great reason to boast of their purchase. While these mischievous Malignants were acting this cruel outrage at Alisbury, other birds of the same feather, children of Belial, under the command of Count Robert, were performing the like abominable outrages in and about the good town of Abington, where Prince Robert coming with his Cavaliers, to a gentleman's house of good quality and much wealth, if I mistake not, the Gentleman was called Master Ashcombe, plundered it without all mercy, using the good old Gentleman very despiteously, taking away at least two thousand pounds in money, part of which, as it is reported, Prince Robert restored back to the gentleman's daughters, for portions, perhaps that bounty being but the hand to some sinister ends he had upon their chastities. From hence they came into the town of Abington, six miles from Oxford and there billeted themselves, where they had most mind to take up their lodgings, forcing their landlords to provide them what dainties their luxuries had most mind to, or that the town could yield them. The poor townsmen willing to please them, as they of Alisbury▪ in hope their courtesy might provoke them to courteous usage, had the same destiny which Alisbury had, the next morning the greedy and insatiate Cavaliers, by the permission at least, if not commission from their general, began their accustomed work of plundering by degrees, that so the misery of the townsmen might the longer last, taking from them at first only their Money all that they could possible lay hands on, pretending that they wanted their pay from the King, who had no Money, and that it was fit they should be satisfied of some body, none fitter than they, who, as they termed them, were Malignants and Roundheads. The poor townsmen being unable to make resistance, seemed willing enough to part with their moneys, thinking they would not offer to deprive them of their goods; but when they had rioted away their coin, losing one to another at Dice, than they fell to rifling the houses, all the best furniture and ornaments, either of Pewter, brass, or the like being straight seized on by those that had debauched away their money, and carried to Oxford, and there made sale of: divers of the townsmen stand to compound for their goods, giving them a considerable sum of Money in lieu of them, which they took with a thousand dammees, swearing not to meddle with them, but their money was no sooner spent (and it always burned in their pockets bottoms, according to the proverb) but presently, not regarding their oaths and hideous protestations, fell presently a rifling again, some of the owners ransoming their goods twice or thrice from th●se thieves, at last were forced to part with them in spite of their teeth; the Pewter, brass, and such portable mettle commodities being all gone, they proceeded to other household stuff, as Beds and curtains, rugs and hangings, and the like: they made spoil also of Tables, chairs and stools, not leaving any Inhabitant any thing of value in their houses but the houses themselves, which if they could have made sale of or carried away, would not have escaped their all-devouring fingers; so that the town of Abington is in a most distressed estate, plundered by these insatiate Cavaliers, who like a consuming fire destroy all before them wheresoever they come; being indeed, as it was anciently said by the Italians of Attila and his Huns, the very scourges of God for our offences. Heaven deliver all good people from the hands of such prodigies, and send them their deserved reward the gallows, which, according to the proverb, groans for them, and then we should, no doubt, have a fair accord between his Majesty and his high Court of Parliament, which God preserve.  
FINIS.