A LETTER SENT FROM A Country Gentleman to a Friend, a Member of the House of COMMONS: Concerning the taking of Marleborough.  
Of the disorders of the Parliament Soldiers; persuading to an Accommodation.  
Printed in the Year. 1642.   

A Letter from a Country Gentleman to a Friend, a Member of the House of Commons.  
SIR,  
I Have received your passionate Letter, and must confess myself extremely moved by it, but not altogether your way; there is not an expression in the first part, to which my heart consents not: 'tis indeed a sad and miserable condition we are fallen into, to be weltering one in another's blood, before we know why we are angry; and to see our Houses and Towns fired, and our Neighbours and Friends taken Prisoners, by men who do not only speak the same language with us, but are of our own Families, and of the same (or seem to be of the same) Religion; so that (as you say) you may well wonder, how men who take such different ways, can pretend they desire the same ends. I have thus fare kept you company very willingly, with the same grief and amazement, but when you seem to lay this fault wholly upon the King and his followers (whom you accuse of great rapine, cruelty, and inhumanity;) you must give me leave to descent from you upon such reasons as (if I have not forfeited the esteem I have had with you will make some impression in you.  
You know how fare I have always concurred with you, and swayed by the singular regard I have had of your wisdom and integrity, given up much of my understanding to your Authority, and upon that score you know have done somewhat my own judgement would not now warrant, very much to the service of the Parliament, from whom I received public thanks; and therefore I had reason to expect more protection, at least less damage from any forces maintained and employed by them, then from the King's Army, with whom I could not but know myself to be in a just prejudice; and when you know now that I have been visited by the Soldiers of both Armies, you will believe me a competent Reporter of their behaviours.  
It was my turn first to receive your Troopers, 300 of them being quartered at this Town, no fewer than 30 disposed themselves to my house; I received them as friends, and you know am not usually very ill provided for the entertainment of as good a company: many of them were Commanders, and undertook to tell me, my affection was very eminent to the Persons who employed them, so that I confess I looked for no other pressures from them, than the charge of that nights receiving them.  
And 'tis true they left me the next morning, but so unhandsomely, that besides the insolency of finding fault, and commanding all my servants, (having used myself and my children with great pride and incivility) they spoiled more of my goods of all sorts, than they had spent, (though they must confess they wanted nothing but the honesty to deserve it) and pilfered and stole many things of value, telling me to my face, that it was necessary to make that waste, that the Cavaliers might be disappointed: And indeed the night following the Cavaliers came, double the number to my house, that had been there before, commanded only by the Coronet of the Troop, (whereas of the other there were not fewer than ten Officers, whereof four were Captains) you will imagine the trim usage I had from those, who told me they came to defend me, had not left me courage to stand the shock of another entertainment of those, who could not but hear somewhat of me, which might expose me to their fury, at least would justify any excess towards me; I gave direction they should be as well treated as my store would bear, though in truth the vile licence of the forerunners had not left me ordinary provision for horse or man, and withdrew myself to that honest Parson's house, who disputed with you when you were last here; and was by him privately sheltered (though many Soldiers were then with him too) from discovery.  
The Company removed the next morning, and they were not gone two hours from my house before I returned thither, where I assure you I found all things as orderly, as unspoyled, as if my best friends had been my guests, and one of my servants told me, that he had rather meet with 100 Cavaliers, than 10 Roundheads: 'tis true, they had as good provision for themselves and their horses as could be made, which they received with so much Civility to all my servants, as if they thought themselves beholding to them for it (though it was much worse than had been given the day before) and departed without the least disorder.  
For the business of Marleborough, which you say was carried with so much fierceness and barbarity in firing and plundering the Town, I beleleeve you have not that relation so perfectly, and ingenuously made to you, as in truth the matter will bear; you must think my information is not partial on the King's part, when I receive it from one who fled to a friends house of mine for shelter, and lost at least the value of 300 l. by the King's Soldiers in that Town.  
You know well how that Town hath behaved itself all this year, in raising great sums of money against the King (for that the Army which hath given him Battle, is not against him, can no longer be understood) in gathering and exercising Soldiers, as if they defied any Enemy, how they seized upon His Majesty's provisions, bought and paid for by His Commissary of the victuals for the supply of Redding, and would not suffer them to be carried thither. The King could not but think of reducing this place, and to that purpose sent the Lieutenant General of His Horse (a Gentleman, whatever vote you please to pass upon him, of great reputation in the Countries through which he passes, for his sober government of his charge) with Instructions, most suitable to his nature, That if his reception into that Town, was such as became them to give, he should suffer no violence to be exercised by the Soldiers, but should bring away the Arms which had been so ill used, and some seditious Persons who had infected that place, and put His Majesty to that trouble, with some other directions that sufficiently expressed a care of that people, and a willingness to believe them in the number of His Subjects.  
When this piece of the Army (the reputation of which might well have dispersed that rabble) by slow marches, had brought itself within a little distance of the Town, a fellow sent by the foolish Knave Franklin, who they say hath brought all this calamity upon a place he hath been long in spoiling, came to them with a ridiculous Letter of advice, to a person of Honour amongst them.  
The Messenger who might have expected worse usage, was brought before the Lieutenant General, who caused all the men to be ranged before him, than asked him, whether he thought the strength of that Town could resist that force, the fellow answered, it could not resist a quarter of that power: Get your ways then (said that Gentleman) to your friends, and tell them what you have scene, if they throw down their Arms, and submit themselves to His Majesty, they shall be used like friends, and receive no prejudice by the Soldiers, but if they make resistance, and force us to enter the Town in blood, it will not be in my power to preserve them. The man returned, did his errand in the presence of him who gives me this account, and who immediately fled, when he found the perverseness of that Franklin would neither submit to the advice, or suffer it to be communicated to the rest of the Town: When the Army advanced, all possible resistance was made, and many Soldiers of the Kings dangerously wounded, out at windows, and from their works, insomuch as they were compelled to burn some houses, in which Musqueteers were placed to give fire upon them.  
Think sadly with yourselves, how your Army (which committed such outrages and plunderings in the poor City of Winchester, where the Gates were opened to them, and no show of resistance made by the people of that place) would have requited such opposition, nay was it ever known, that after such a contention less than a slaughter of the Enemy, and a sacking of the Town followed? yet as there as nothing of the first here, so there was so little of the other (and yet more I believe then the Commanders could have wished) that they have only cause to curse those who drew such visitants to them.  
But no more of these particulars, let us rather raise a compassion one towards another out of the consideration of these miseries, and to what height they will in a short time be improved, then contract a bitterness, and hatred against those with whom we must live happily, if there be any hope of happiness left for this poor Kingdom.  
You will think this a strange dialect for me to use, whom you have known to concur with the fiercest men in the fiercest resolutions; but if you were out of the House of Commons, where all Arguments tending one way, beget a general consent in opinion, and so whatever is thought easy is concluded lawful, and spent one Month with me in the Country (though you know it is a place was never fond devoted to the King's command) you would observe a strange dejection in the spirits of the people, and if I am not cozened, an inquisitive, by questions they did not use to ask, Who raised Arms first? Why they did it? What the Commonwealth wanted? Whether the King hath denied any thing was not in his lawful power to deny? Whether the preferring half a score persons (for they say, all these calamities have grown from no more, and some will undertake to name them) be of that value, that so many widows must be made, so many children fatherless, and such a desolation brought upon the whole Kingdom for them? with the like questions, which in a little time may raise such a storm, as the cunning and power of both houses cannot allay.  
'Tis true, they do yet yield some obedience to the terrible warrants which summon them to appear with their Arms in your commands, but with such grumbling, and unwillingness, such a peremptoriness not to fight, that I should think myself very unsafe with a guard of 5000. of them.  
Let me tell you, since the business at Edge hill, the inclinations even of the hottest men in our Country are strangely startled and perplexed, not with the sense of being beaten (whether that were so, or to such a degree, is not material) but with the apprehension of the known extreme visible danger the person of the King (whom we had all so often sworn to defend, and for the preservation of whose person the Country people believed even this Army to be raised) was that day in; believe it you will never be able more to persuade them, that so many Canon and Musket shot were made at him for the safety of his Person.  
And these Considerations do not only make impression in us here, but have had a great influence with men whose Affection, and courage you do not suspect. I assure you one of your chief Leaders (you will easily guess the man by what he hath since done, told me, and he told it me in the hearing of four or five of your most active friends) that in a week after that battle he slept not an hour with the horror of the thought, what it was to kill the King, and had that agony of soul about him, that he would not endure again so long for the greatest preferment in the Kingdom.  
One of the slanders by (who used that industry to gather up the Arms about the Field, and sent them to you to Warwick) sharply answered him, If he had gone to bed in his right mind, he would have dreamt that he was rescuing the King out of the hands of Thiefs, and would have feared no accidents: he replied soberly, that such Arguments do arise from the warmth and faction of debate, never are supplied out of the innocence of sleep. I beseech you (said the other scornfully) what medicine have you since applied to yourself, for the recovery of your rest: Repentance, saith he, and resolution to be mad no more. It had been well, said the other, you had slept first, for now me thinks this resolution seems but an effect of your madness. I am content (he replied with an angry smile) you should think so, but when you come home, recollect all that I have said to you this day, and if I am not deceived, you will change your mind too. He hath been as good as his word, you never saw such an alteration in a man, such a sadness and damp of spirit, and he protested to my yesterday, if a peace were not concluded speedily, we should have our Christianity suspected, and be beaten out of all places with stones by the people.  
Sir, trust me, it concerns you, it concerns us all, that you find some way to quiet and compose these distractions. It is not the name of a Parliament, of evil Counselors, Malignant Cavaliers, and other hard words will keep the people longer asleep to their own ruin: you may remember the Council-table, yea, and the Star-Chamber too, names of reverence, but when they left their Justice, they lost their reputation; neither was Ship-money grievous, because it was a supply to the King, (Let us not deceive ourselves, Englishmen naturally love their King, and what starts soever they may make, will retire into their loyalty, to the ruin of their seducers;) but because it did, or might take more from them than they were willing or able to spare, and what power soever doth, or endeavours to do the same things, will have the same fate in the affections of the people.  
Do you think the condition of the poor Countryman hath not suffered a sad alteration, from a State (in which you found him) wherein he knew what was his own, and was not capable of any violence, for which he was not sure of a remedy and reparation, to this wherein he receives commands under the penalty of plundering and hanging, from persons of whom he never heard, for Horses, for Money, for personal attendance, of which, as he can find no ground, so he can hope for no end; and sees the twentieth part of his estate taken from him, to continue and maintain a calamity, which makes all the rest of no use to him? I say again, no cunning, wit, and industry will longer bewitch the people to this folly and tameness.  
A blunt neighbour of mine told me yesterday, that the Parliament had ill luck, is discountenanced all men, whose Wisdom, Justice, and Charity, the Country could confide in, and confided in none so much as in those who are only known by the ill they have heretofore done; and asked me whether my Lord Re●ohford, Fielding, and Hastings were not like to be precious Instruments of a Reformation: I answered, Great Counsels were not to be undervalved by the meanness or unworthiness of some of their members. He replied, 'Twas true, when the Counsels justified themselves; but 'twas time to look upon the particular persons, when nothing was said in defence of the Actions, but the power and reputation of the Actors.  
These skirmishes I meet with, even with those, who when you and I parted, were in the Catalogue of your followers, if there be the same alteration in other places, on my word it will not be long in your power to make so good an end of these troubles, as now it is. For God's sake call up all that is of prudence and generosity about you, and if there be any thing I have said moves you, impart it to our friends in Red crossestreet, and join all your endeavours for a happy Accommodation.  
FINIS.