......, ^iln t ';*-'-': \- ^Kj F THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA UNIVERSITY OFN.C. AT CHAPEL HILL This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under “Date Due.” If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE DUE RET. DATE DUE AUG-4 -s SET S 4 HI RET. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2020 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill https://archive.org/details/novelsmiscellane02defo_0 BOHN’S STANDARD LIBRARY. DE FOE’S WORKS. VOL. II. THE NOVELS AND o-ZiLr \ SjS f V F <4 bu** w f MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF DANIEL DE FOE. WITH PREFACES AND NOTES, INCLUDING THOSE ATTRIBUTED TO SIR WALTER SCOTT. MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER, MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON, DICKORY CRONKE, ETC. I LONDON : REPRINTED FROM STEREOTYPE PLATES BY WM. CLOWES & SONS, LTD., STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. CHAPTER I. My birth and parentage—Strange dreams of my mother previous to my birth—My education—My father extremely indulgent—On my return from Oxford, he proposes marriage to me, which I decline, and am permitted to travel, accompanied by a young college acquaintance— Journey from Dover to Paris, and incidents on the road—Adventures which happen at Paris—Account of our journey to Italy . . 1 CHAPTER II. Reflections—Journey to Grenoble, and description of the Swiss troops there—Account of the king and court—Depart for Pignerol—Siege of Casal—I escape great danger in an action there—March to Saluces— Death of the Duke of Savoy—I catch the plague—Recover and spend the winter at Milan—Journey through Italy, and singular adventures there ..13 CHAPTER III. Arrive at Vienna—Account of the war in Germany—Of the famous conclusions of Leipsic—Journey from Vienna to Prague—Dreadful storm of Magdeburgh, and cruelties of the imperial soldiers—I leave the emperor’s service in disgust, and arrive at Leipsic—Account of affairs there . . ..26 CHAPTER IV. I quit the Saxon camp, and join the Swedish army—Discipline of the Swedes—My comrade enters the Swedish service—Sir John Hepburn introduces me to the king—His conversation—I enter into the service —Battle with Tilly’s army, who is completely defeated—The camp given up to plunder.40 CHAPTER V. Arrival at Erfurt—I receive a wound before the Castle of Marienburgh— Gracious reception of the king—Bravery of a private musketeer— Battle of Oppenheim—March to Mentz—Letter from my father—The king appoints me a colonel of horse—Battle of Lech, and defeat of Tilly.57 rO VI CONTENTS.-MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. CHAPTER VI. Farther proceedings of the campaign—Dangerous skirmish before Ausburg —General Tilly dies almost at the minute the king has his horse shot under him — Farther proceedings—Taking of Freynstat—Battle of Attembergh—Gallantry of a Saxon captain—I am taken by the enemy —Death of the king.77 CHAPTER VII. Great lamentations for the loss of the king—The town of Leipsic recovered by stratagem, whereby I regain my liberty—I leave the ^ service, and spend two years a wanderer—Battle of Nordlingen— Bravery of old Horn—Melancholy event of the battle—I leave the army, and visit Holland—Return to England—Proceedings there 93 CHAPTER VIII. War with the Scots—I volunteer to meet the enemy—Bad behaviour of our men—Conduct of the Scots—Base end of the expedition—A peace concluded — I visit the Scotch camp—Uncouth appearance of the soldiers—Character of the Highlanders.104 CHAPTER IX. War breaks out again in the north—I join the king*s army—Action with the Scots, in which they are victorious—Great discontents in England— Character of the king—I am sent on a message to the Scotch army—The king is reduced to submit to their terms—Encroachments of the par¬ liament—The gates of Hull shut against the king—The king raises an army—Loyalty of the English gentry . . t . .114 CHAPTER X. The royal army takes the field—Action with the rebels under Essex— Battle of Edgehill—The Parliament claims the victory—They vote an address for peace—Sad reflections on the miseries of civil war . 128 CHAPTER XI. Comical adventures, in which a female captain is victorious—Bravery of tiie parliament troops at Brentford—The winter spent in fruitless treaties —I am wounded in a skirmish with the enemy—Farther proceedings of the armies .......... 144 CHAPTER XII. Cromwell makes his appearance on the stage, and turns the fortune of the war against the king’s party—Frequent and disastrous actions—The Scots declare for the parliament, and enter England, with an army in the north—The king brings Irish regiments over, which gives great disgust—I am detached with Prince Rupert to the relief of York, which we accomplish—Disastrous action with Cromwell . .160 CONTENTS.—MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER, vii CHAPTER XIII. Narrow escape from the battle—Dangers of our retreat—Two of our party and myself disguise ourselves, and go to Leeds to learn news— Engagement with the country fellows on our return—Our party attempts to join Prince Rupert—Adventures on the road—We join the prince at Kendal, in Westmoreland . . . . . .174 CHAPTER XIV. State of the prince’s army—Skirmishes—The king’s army obtains some partial successes in the west—The armies join at Oxford — Farther proceedings—Bad conduct of the parliament soldiers—Negotiations with the parliament for peace—Proceedings of the division to which I belonged in the army . . . . . . . . 1S9 CHAPTER XV. Action with Colonel Forbes, a Scotchman—I visit my father, wno is prisoner of war at Shrewsbury, and obtain his exchange—Sir Thomas Fairfax appointed general of the parliament army—The king’s obser¬ vation thereupon—Leicester taken by storm—Battle of Naseby—Fatal consequences thereof—The king retires to Wales . . . 203 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 . . . . . . . . . . .217 CHAPTER XVII. Various opinions on the king’s throwing himself upon the fidelity of the Scots—The Scotch parliament refuse to receive him into Scotland—The king is given up—Consequences thereof—Reflections—The king’s death—Conclusion . . . . . . • ♦ .231 CONTENTS. f / MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETCN. CHAPTER I. I volunteer on board the London, and go out with the Duke of York’s expedition to Holland—Join the French fleet—General engagement with the Amsterdam squadron—Singular account of our pigeons aboard the London—Prince of Conde routes our forces—March to Quarignan and Valenciennes—The Prince of Orange leaves the army in disgust, but recedes from that resolution—The siege of Maestrich—False attack on Wyck—Siege of Cambray and St. Omars .... 273 CHAPTER II. The famous peace concluded—Desperate battle at St. Dennis—Return to England—Commission given by King James—Earthquake at Dixmuyd —Siege of Namur—Prince Vaudemont’s grand retreat—Destruction of Brussels—Villeroy’s great army . . . . . . 291 CHAPTER III. Plot to assassinate King William—Account of the conspiracy—Dissi¬ pation of the guard at Shoerbeck—Left in a garrison without ammu¬ nition—Narrow escape from a hired incendiary—The advantage of a Jew as proveditor to the army and troops—Short description of Valencia and Barcelona.305 CHAPTER IV. Negligence of the Governor of Monjouick—Extraordinary resolution of the Dutch general—Account of the great action at Monjouick—Panic among the soldiery—Great enterprise of the sailors at the siege of Barcelona—Difficulty of mounting a battery—The Duchess of Popoli in the engagement—Surrender of Barceloaa—Remarkable instance of Catholic zeal.322 CHAPTER V Barcelona under King Charles—Bold peremptory demand on the autho¬ rities of Nules immediately to surrender—Singular interview between Earl Peterborow and Mahoni, and the result therefrom — Short de¬ scription of Valencia, and prodigious victory—Peterborow’s stratagem to outwit the fleet at Barcelona—Ultimate release of Barcelona 339 CONTENTS.-MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. IX CHAPTER YI. The king begins his journey to Madrid, and Peterborow to Valencia— Sad accident at St. Jago—Peterborow leaves Valencia—Savage cruelty of the Spaniards at Campilio—Amours of two English officers with nuns—Saint Vincent’s procession—Curious customs of the Valencians during Lent . . . ..358 CHAPTER VII. Alicant besieged by General Gorge—Remarkable feat of a Scotch dragoon —Messenger to Alicant—Letter from the king of Spain to the queen of England—The siege of Carthagena—Signal defeat of the English before Villena—Comic appearance of Major Boyd on his journey to Venissa—• Interesting account of hermits’ cells at Montserat . . . 375 CHAPTER VIII. Denia a garrison, by order of King Charles—Extraordinary storm of locusts—Singular mine explosion at Alicant—Sainte Clemente de la Mancha, rendered famous by the renowned Don Michael Cervantes— Interesting accounts—Surprising flight of eagles—The Inquisition 399 CHAPTER IX. Bull-fight at La Mancha—Temperance and bigotry of the Spaniards— Reserve custom of gentlemen in company with ladies—Wretched music, except at Valencia—Music at executions—Singular appeal of a clergy¬ man to conscience, and very interesting conclusion . . . 416 CHAPTER X. The shade of Don Quixotte—Concise account of Madrid—Anecdote of Mahoni and General Stanhope—The Escurial—Account of the Convent of the Carthusian Order ....... 436 CHAPTER XI. Brief description of Biscay and other towns—Isle of Conference, and interview between the kings of France and Spain—Narrow escape from being drowned—Tempest in the Bay of Biscay, and miraculous de¬ liverance—Arrival in England—Conclusion .... 152 CONTENTS DICKORY CRONKE; OR, THE DUMB PHILOSOPHER. PART I. Birth and Parentage ...... Loses his Master and Mistress ..... Constant Practice and Regular Management . . Wonderful Recovery of Speech .... Good Advice to his Sister and Friends . . . Mysteriously becomes again Dumb .... . Page 469 . . 471 . . 473 . . 475 477 479 PART II. Abstract of Faith, &c. Meditations and Observations .... 483 PART III. Prophetic Observations. An Elegy .. . . 489 EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS IS NOBODY’S BUSINESS. Scarcity of Female Servants ....... 499 Thefts committed by Female Servants ..... 501 Vails to Servants a bad practice ...... 503 Servants’ Apparel ought to be regulated. 595 Anecdote of a Servant Wench . . . . , . 597 Reform of many Abuses among Servants . . . . 599 Robberies committed by Shoe-blacks . . . . 5 x 1 Employment suggested for Vagrants ... . . 513 Regulations for Porters and others ... . . 515 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. Advertisement to the Edinburgh Edition of 1809. Whether this interesting work is considered/ ay i romance, or as a series of authentic memoirs, in which the only fabulous circumstance is the existence of the hero; it must un¬ doubtedly he allowed to he of the best description of either species of composition, and to reflect additional lustre, even on the author of Robinson Crusoe. There is so much simplicity and apparent fidelity of state¬ ment throughout the narrative, that the feelings are little in¬ debted to those wflio would remove the veil; and the former editors, perhaps, have acted not unwisely in leaving the cir¬ cumstances of its authenticity in their original obscurity. The Memoirs of a Cavalier, have long, however, been ascer¬ tained to he the production of Daniel de Foe. Both the first and second editions were published without date ; but, from other evidence, the work appears to have been written shortly after Robinson Crusoe, in 1720-1. A few Notes have been added to the present edition, col¬ lected from the periodical publications of the time (now rare and curious), to exhibit the exact coincidence of the facts themselves, with the transactions narrated in these Memoirs. Edinburgh , 1809. THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As an evidence that it is very probable these memorials were written many years ago, the persons now concerned in the publication, assure the reader, that they have had them in their possession finished, as they now appear, above twenty years. That they wei*e so long ago found by great accident, among other valuable papers, in the closet of an eminent public minister, of no less figure than one of King William’s secretaries of state. As it is not proper to trace them any farther, so neither is there any need to trace them at all, to give reputation to the story related, seeing the actions here mentioned have a suf¬ ficient sanction from all the histories of the times to which they relate, with this addition, that the admirable manner of relating them, and the wonderful variety of incidents, with which they are beautified in the course of a private gentleman’s story, add such delight in the reading, and give such a lustre, as well to the accounts themselves as to the person who was the actor, that no story, we believe, extant in the world ever came abroad with such advantage. It must naturally give some concern in the reading, that the name of a person of so much gallantry and honour, and so many ways valuable to the world, should be lost to the reader. We assure them no small labour has been thrown away upon the inquiry; and all we have been able to arrive to of discovery in this affair is, that a memorandum was PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xiii found with this manuscript, in these words, but not signed by any name, only the two letters of a name, which gives us no light into the matter; which memoir was as follows: Memorandum. — 1 found this manuscript among my father’s writings , and I understand that he got them as plunder , at, or after , the fight at Worcester , ivhere he served as major of - ’s regiment of horse on the side of the parliament. I. K. As this has been of no use but to terminate the inquiry after the person, so, however, it seems most naturally to give an authority to the original of the work, viz., That it was born of a soldier; and, indeed, it is, through every part, related with so soldierly a style, and in the very language of the field, that it seems impossible anything, but the very person who was present in every action here related, could be the relator of them. The accounts of battles, the sieges, and the several actions of which this work is so full, are all recorded in the histories of those times ; such as the great battle of Leipsic, the sacking of Magdeburg, the siege of Nuremburg, the passing the river Leek in Bavaria; such also as the battles of Keynton, or Edge-hill; the battles of Newbury, Marston- moor, and Naseby, and the like. They are all, we say, recorded in other histories, and written by those who lived in those times, and, perhaps, had good authority for what they wrote. But do those relations give any of the beautiful ideas of things formed in this account? Have they one half of the circumstances and incidents of the actions them¬ selves that this man’s eyes were witness to, and which his memory has thus preserved? He that has read the best accounts of those battles will be surprised to see the par XIV PREFACE.-MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. ticulars of the story so preserved, so nicely, and so agree¬ ably described; and will confess what we allege, that the story is inimitably told; and even the great actions of the glorious King Gustavus Adolphus receive a lustre from this man’s relations, which the world was never made sensible of before, and which the present age has much wanted of late, in order to give their affections a turn in favour of his late glorious successor. In the story of our own country’s unnatural wars, he carries on the same spirit. How effectually does he record the virtues and glorious actions of King Charles I., at the same time that he frequently enters upon the mistakes of his majesty’s conduct, and of his friends, which gave his enemies all those fatal advantages against him; which ended in the overthrow of his armies, the loss of his crown and life, and the ruin of the constitution. In all his accounts he does justice to his enemies, and honours the merits of those whose cause he fought against; and many accounts recorded in his story, are not to be found even in the best histories of those times. What applause does he give to the gallantry of Sir Thomas Fairfax, to his modesty, to his conduct, under which he him¬ self was subdued, and to the justice he did the king’s troops when they laid down their arms. His description of the Scots’ troops in the beginning of the war, and the behaviour of the party under the Earl of Holland, who went over against them, are admirable ; and his censure of their conduct, who pushed the king upon the quarrel, and then would not let him fight, is no more than what many of the king’s friends (though less knowing as soldiers) have often complained of. In a word, this work is a confutation of many errors in all PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XT the writers upon the subject of our wars in England, and even in that extraordinary history written by the Earl of Clarendon; but the editors were so just, that, when near twenty years ago, a person who had written a whole volume in folio, by way of answer to, and confutation of, Clarendon’s history of the rebellion, would have borrowed the clauses in this account, which clash with that history, and confront it; we say, the editors were so just as to refuse them. There can be nothing objected against the general credit of this work, seeing its truth is established upon universal history; and almost all the facts, especially those of moment, are confirmed for their general part by all the writers of those times. If they are here embellished with particulars, which are nowhere else to be found, that is the beauty we boast of; and that it is that must recommend this work to all the men of sense and judgment that read it. The only objection we find possible to make against this work is, that it is not carried on farther ; or, as we may say, finished, with the finishing the war of the time: and this we complain of also. But then we complain of it as a misfortune to the world, not as a fault in the author; for how do we know but that this author might carry it on, and have another part finished which might not fall into the same hands, or may still remain with some of his family, and which they cannot indeed publish, to make it seem anything perfect, for want of the other parts which we have, and which we have now made public. Nor is it very improbable, but that if any such farther part is in being, the publishing these two parts may occasion the proprietors of the third to let the world see it; and that, by such a discovery, the name of the person may also come to be known, which would, no doubt, be a great satisfaction to the reader as well as to us. Xvi PREFACE.-MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. This, however, must be said, that if the same author should have written another part of this work, and carried it on to the end of those times; yet, as the residue of those melan¬ choly days, to the restoration, were filled with the intrigues of government, the political management of illegal power, and the dissensions and factions of a people, who were then even in themselves but a faction, and that there was very little action in the field; it is more than probable, that our author, who was a man of arms, had little share in those things, and might not care to trouble himself with looking at them. But, besides all this, it might happen, that he might go abroad again, at that time, as most of the gentlemen of quality, and who had an abhorrence for the power that then governed here, did. Nor are we certain, that he might live to the end of that time, so we can give no account whether he had any share in the subsequent actions of that time. It is enough, that we have the authorities above to recom¬ mend this part to us that is now published; the relation, we are persuaded, will recommend itself, and nothing more can be needful, because nothing more can invite than the story itself, which, when the reader enters into, he will find it very hard to get out of, until he has gone through it. TIIE PUBLISHER OF THE SECOND EDITION TO THE READER* The following historical memoirs are writ with so much spirit and. good sense, that there is no doubt of their pleasing all such as can form any just pretensions to either. How- ever, as, upon reading of a hook, it is a question that naturally occurs, “Who is the author?” and as it is too much the custom in these days, to form our sentiments of a performance, not from its intrinsic merit, hut from the senti¬ ments we form of the writer, the present republication of these memoirs will renew an inquiry which has been often made, “Who wrote them?” Some have imagined the whole to be a romance; if it be, it is a romance the likest to truth that I ever read. It has all the features of truth, it is clothed with her simplicity, and adorned with her charms. Without hazard I may venture to say, were all romance writers to follow this author’s example, their works would yield entertainment to philosophers, as well as serve for the amusement of beaux-esprits. But I am fully persuaded, our author, whoever he was, had been early concerned in the actions he relates. It is certain, no man could have given a description of his retreat from Marston-moor to Rochdale, and from thence over the moors to the north, in so apt and proper terms, and in so exact a manner, unless he had really travelled over the very ground he describes. I could point * Printed at Leeds, by James Lister, without date. h VOL. II. XY111 TO THE READER. out many other instances in the course of the memoirs, which evidence, that the author must have been well acquainted with the towns, battles, sieges, &c., and a party in the actions he relates. But, as it is needless to do this, all that remains is, to trace our author to his name. He says he was second son to a Shropshire gentleman, who was made a peer in the reign of King Charles I., whose seat lay eight miles from Shrewsbury. This account suits no one so well as Andrew Newport, Esq., second son to Richard Newport, of High Ercoll, Esq.; which Richard was created Lord Newport, October 14th, 1642. This Andrew New¬ port, Esq., whom we suppose our author to be, was, after the Restoration, made a commissioner of the customs, probably in reward of his zeal and good services for the royal cause. The several illustrations these memoirs furnish to the history of those times they refer to, the variety of adventures they contain, and the elegant account herein given of the wars in Germany and England, will abundantly recommend them to the curious. MEMOIRS O P A CAVALIER; ORA MILITARY JOURNAL OF The WARS in Germany, AND The WARS in England , From the Year 1632, to the Year 1648. Written above Fourscore Years ago by an English Gentle¬ man, who served first in the Army of Gustavus Adolphus, the glorious King of Sweden, till his Death; and after that, in the Royal Army of King Charles the First, from the Beginning of the Rebellion, to the End of that War. Sic ubi delectos per torva armenta juvencos Agricola imposito sociare Affectat aratro : Illi indignantes quis nondum vomere Multo Ardua nodosos cervix descendit in Armos, In diversa trahunt , atg ; acquis vencula laxant Firibus, et vario covfundunt limite Suicos : Hand secus indomitos pr weeps Discordia Fratres Asperai. - - - Stat. Theb. Lib. 1. Et Fratres, natosq ; sms videre, patresque: Eepressum est civile nej'as Lucan, Lib. 4. - ' MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. CHAPTEE I. KY BIRTH AND PARENTAGE-STRANGE DREAMS OF MY MOTHER PREVIOUS TO BIY BIRTH-MY EDUCATION-BIT FATHER EXTREBIELY INDULGENT-ON BIY RETURN FROBI OXFORD, HE PROPOSES BIARRIAGE TO BIE, WHICH I DECLINE, AND ABI PERBIITTED TO '‘RAVEL, ACCOBIPANIED BY A YOUNG COLLEGE ACQUAINTANCE-JOURNEY FROBI DOVER TO PARIS, AND INCIDENTS ON THE ROAD-AD¬ VENTURES WHICH HAPPEN AT PARIS-ACCOUNT OF OUR JOURNEY TO ITALY. It may suffice the reader, without being very inquisitive after my name, that I was born in the county of Salop, in the year 1608; under the government of what star I was never astrologer enough to examine; but the consequences of my life may allow me to suppose some extraordinary influence affected my birth. If there be anything in dreams also, my mother, who was mighty observant that -way, took minutes, which I have since seen in the first leaf of her Prayer Book, of several strange dreams she had while she was with child of her second son, which was myself. Once she noted that she dreamed she was carried away by a regiment of horse, and delivered in the fields of a sen, that as soon as it was born had two wings came out of its back, and in half an hour’s time flew away from her; and the very evening before I was born she dreamed she was broug to bed of a son, and that all the while she was in labour man stood under her -window beating on a kettle-druri which very much discomposed her. My father was a gentleman of a very plentiful fortune. VOL. H. I 1 2 MEMOIRS OF A OAVALIER. having an estate of above 5,0U0£. per annum, of a family nearly allied to several of tlie principal nobility, and lived about six miles from the town of High-Excol; and my mother being at - on some particular occasion, was surprised there at a friend’s house, and brought me very safe into the world. I was my father’s second son, and therefore was not altogether so much slighted as younger sons of good families generally are; but my father saw something in my genius also Avhich particularly pleased him, and so made him take extraordinary care of my education. I was taught therefore, by the best masters that could be had, everything that was needful to accomplish a young gentleman for the world; and at seventeen years old my tutor told my father an academic education was very proper for a person of quality, and he thought me very fit for it: so my father entered me of -college in Oxford, where I continued three years. A collegiate life did not suit me at all, though I loved books well enough. It was never designed that I should be either a lawyer, physician, or divine ; and I wrote to my father that I thought I had stayed there long enough for a gentleman, and with his leave I desired to give him a visit. During my stay at Oxford, though I passed through the proper exercises of the house, yet my chief reading was upon history and geography, as that which pleased my mind best, and supplied me with ideas most suitable to my genius: by one I understood what great actions had been done in the world, and by the other 1 understood where they had been done. My father readily complied with my desire of coming home, for besides that he thought, as I did, that three years’ time at the university was enough, he also most passionately loved me, and began to think of my settling near him. At my arrival I found myself extraordinarily caressed by my father, and he seemed to take a particular delight in my conversation. My mother, who lived in perfect union with him, both in desires and affection, received me very pas¬ sionately: apartments were provided for me by myself, and horses and servants allowed me in particular. My father never went a hunting, an exercise he was exceeding fond of, but he would have me with him; and it INDULGENCE OF MY FATHER. 3 pleased him when he found me like the sport. I lived thus, in all the pleasures ’twas possible for me to enjoy, for about a year more; when going out one morning with my father to hunt a stag, and having had a very hard chase, and gotten a great way off from home, we had leisure enough to ride gently back ; and as we returned, my father took occasion to enter into a serious discourse with me concerning the manner of my settling in the world. He told me, -with a great deal of passion, that he loved me above all the rest of his children, and that therefore he intended to do very well for me; and that my eldest brother being already married and settled, he had designed the same for me, and proposed a very advantageous match for me with a young lady of very extraordinary fortune and merit, and offered to make a settlement of 2,000/. per annum on me, which he said he would purchase for me without diminishing his paternal estate. There was too much tenderness in this discourse not to affect me exceedingly. I told him I would perfectly resign myself unto his disposal. But, as my father had, together with his love for me, a very nice judgment in his discourse, he fixed his eyes very attentively on me; and though my answer was without the least reserve, yet he thought he saw some uneasiness in me at the proposal, and from thence concluded that my compliance was rather an act of dis¬ cretion than inclination ; and, that however I seemed so absolutely given up to what he had proposed, yet my answer was really an effect of my obedience rather than my choice; so he returned very quick upon me, Look you, son, though I give you my own thoughts in the matter, yet I would have you be very plain with me; for if your own choice does not agree with mine, I will be your adviser, but will never impose upon you; and therefore let me know your mind freely. I don’t reckon myself capable, sir, said I, with a great deal of respect, to make so good a choice for myself as you can for me; and though my opinion differed from yours, its being your opinion would reform mine, and my judgment would as readily comply as my duty. I gather at least from thence, said my father, that your designs lay another way before, however they may comply with mine ; and therefore I would know what it was you would have asked of me if I had not offered this to you; and you must not deny me you? 4 MEMOIRS OF A CAY ALTER. obedience in this, if you expect I should believe your readi« ness in the other. Sir, said I, ’twas impossible I should lay out for myself just what you have proposed; but if my inclinations were never so contrary, though at your command you shall know them, yet I declare them to be wholly subjected to your order. I confess my thoughts did not tend towards marriage or a settlement; for though I had no reason to question your care of me, yet I thought a gentleman ought always to see something of the world before he confine-d himself to any part of it; and if I had been to ask your consent to any¬ thing, it should have been to give me leave to travel for a short time, in order to qualify myself to appear at home like a son to so good a father. In what capacity would you travel ? replied my father; you must go abroad either as a private • gentleman, as a scholar, or as a soldier. If it were in the latter capacity, sir, said I, returning pretty quick, I hope I should not misbehave myself; but I am not so determined as not to be ruled by your judgment. Truly, replied my father, I see no war abroad at this time worth while for a man to appear in, whether we talk of the cause or the encouragement; and indeed, son, I am afraid you need not go far for adventures of that nature, for times seem to look as if this part of Europe would find us work enough. My father spake then relating to the quarrel likely to happen between the king of England and the Spaniard (upon the breach of the match between the king of England and the infanta of Spain, and particularly upon the old quarrel of the king of Bohemia and the Palatinate), for I believe he had no notions of a civil war in his head. In short, my father, perceiving my inclinations very for¬ ward to go abroad, gave me leave to travel, upon condition I would promise to return in two years at farthest, or sooner, if he sent for me. While I was at Oxford I happened into the society of a young gentleman, of a good family, but of a low fortune, being a younger brother, and who had indeed instilled into me the first desires of going abroad, and who I knew pas¬ sionately longed to travel, but had not sufficient allowance to defray his expenses as a gentleman. We had contracted a very close friendship, and our humours being very agreeable START OR MY TRAVELS. 5 to one another, we daily enjoyed the conversation of letters. He was of a generous free temper, without the least affecta¬ tion or deceit, a handsome proper person, a strong body, very good mien, and brave to the last degree. His name was Fielding, and we called him captain, though it be a very un¬ usual title in a college; but fate had some hand in the title, for he had certainly the lines of a soldier drawn in his coun tenance. I imparted to him the resolutions I had taken, and how I had my father’s consent to go abroad; and would know his mind, whether lie would go with me: he sent me word, he would go with all his heart. My father, when he saw him, for I sent for him imme¬ diately to come to me, mightily approved my choice; so we got our equipage ready, and came away for London. ’Twas on the 22nd of April, 1630, when we embarked at Dover, landed in a few hours at Calais, and immediately took post for Paris. I shall not trouble the reader with a journal of my travels, nor with the description of places, which every geographer can do better than I; but these me¬ moirs being only a relation of what happened either to our¬ selves, or in our own knowledge, I shall confine myself to that part of it. We had indeed some diverting passages in our journey to Paris; as, first, the horse my comrade was upon fell so very lame with a slip, that he could not go, and hardly stand ; and the fellow that rid with us express, pretended to ride away to a town five miles off to get a fresh horse, and so left us on the road with one horse between two of us; we followed as well as we could, but being strangers, missed the way, and wandered a great way out of the road. Whether the man performed in reasonable, time or not, we could not be sure, but if it had not been for an old priest, we had never found him. We met this man, by a very good accident, near a little village whereof he was curate: we spoke Latin enough just to make him understand us, and he did not speak it much better himself; but he carried us into the village to his house, gave us wine and bread, and entertained us with wonderful courtesy. After this he sent into the village, hired a peasant and a horse for my captain, and sent him to guide us into tlio road. At parting, he made a great many compliments to U3 in French, which we could just understand ; but the sum was, to excuse him for a question he had a mind to ask us. Aftei 6 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. leave to ask what he pleased, it was, if we wanted any money tor our journey, and pulled out two pistoles, which he offered either to give or lend us. I mention this exceeding courtesy of the curate, because, though civility is very much in use in France, and especially to strangers, yet it is a very unusual thing to have them part with their money. We let the priest know, first, that we did not want money, and next, that we were very sensible of the obligation he had put upon us ; and I told him in particular, if I lived to see him again, I would acknowledge it. This accident of our horse was, as we afterwards found, of some use lo us. We had left our two servants behind us at Calais to bring our baggage after us, by reason of some dispute between the captain of the packet and the custom¬ house officer, which could not be adjusted, and we were will¬ ing to be at Paris. The fellows followed as fast as they could, and, as near as we could learn, in the time we lost our way were robbed, and our portmanteaus opened. They took what they pleased; but as there was no money there, but linen and necessaries, the loss was not great. Our guide carried us to Amiens, where we found the ex¬ press and our two servants, who the express meeting on the road with a spare horse, had brought back with him thither. We took this for a good omen of our successful journey, having escaped a danger which might have been greater to us than it was to our servants ; for the highwaymen in France do not always give a traveller the civility of bidding him stand and deliver his money, but frequently fire upon him first, and then take his money. We stayed one day at Amiens, to adjust this little disorder, and walked about the town, and into the great church, but saw nothing very remarkable there ; but going across a broad street near the great church, we saw a crowd of people gazing at a mountebank doctor, who made a long harangue to them with a thousand antic postures, and gave out bills this way, and boxes of physic that way, and had a great trade, when on a sudden the people raised a cry, Larron, Lcirron (in Eng¬ lish, Thief, Thief), on the other side the street, and all the auditors ran away from Mr. Doctor, to see what the matter was. Among the rest we went to see ; and the case was plain and short enough. Two English gentlemen and a A FRENCH PTriKPOCKET. 7 Scotchman, travellers as we were, were standing gazing at this prating doctor, and one of them catched a fellow picking his pocket. The fellow had got some of his money, for he dropt two or three pieces just by him, and had got hold of his watch ; but being surprised, let it slip again ; but the rea¬ son of telling this story, is for the management of it. This thief had his seconds so ready, that as soon as the English¬ man had seized him, they fell in, pretended to be mighty zealous for the stranger, take the fellow by the throat, and make a great bustle ; the gentleman not doubting but the man was secured, let go his own hold of him, and left him to them. The hubbub was great, and it was these fellows cried Larron , Larron; but, with a dextei’ity peculiar to themselves, had let the right fellow go, and pretended to be all upon one of then- own gang. At last, they bring the man to the gentleman, to ask him what the fellow had done ? who, when he saw the person they seized on, presently told them that was not the man. Then they seemed to be in more consternation than before, and spread themselves all over the street, crying Larron , Larron , Larron , pretending to search for the fellow; and so one one way, one another, they were all gone, the noise went over, the gentlemen stood looking at one another, and the bawling doctor began to have the crowd about him again. This was the first French trick I had the opportunity of seeing; but I was told they have a great many more as dexterous as this. We soon got acquaintance with those gentlemen, who were going to Paris as well as we; so the next day we made up our company with them, and were a pretty troop of five gentlemen and four servants. As we had really no design to stay long at Paris, so, indeed, excepting the city itself, there was not much to be seen there. Cardinal Richelieu, who was not only a supreme minister in the church, but prime minister in the state, was now made also general of the king’s forces, with a title never known in France before nor since, viz., lieutenant-general au place dn Roy , in the king’s stead, or as some have since translated it, representing the person of the king. Under this character he pretended to execute all the royal powers in the army, without appeal to the king, or without waiting for orders ; and having parted from Paris the winter before, had now actually begun the war against the duke of 8 MEMOIRS OF A OAV AFTER. Savoy; in the process of which, he restored the duke of Mantua, and having taken Pignerol from the duke, put it into such a state of defence, as the duke could never force it out of his hands, and reduced the duke, rather by manage and conduct than by force, to make peace without it; so as, annexing it to the crown of France, it has ever since been a thorn in his foot, that has always made the peace of Savoy lame and precarious; and France has since made Pignerol one of the strongest fortresses in the world. As the cardinal, with all the military part of the court, was in the field; so the king, to be near him, was gone with the queen and all the court, just before I reached Paris, to reside at Lyons. All these considered, there was nothing to do at Paris ; the court looked like a citizen’s house when the family was all gone into the country; and I thought the whole city looked very melancholy, compared to all the fine tilings I had heard of it. The queen-mother and her party were chagrined at the cardinal, who, though he owed his grandeur to her immediate favour, was now grown too great any longer to be at the command of her majesty, or indeed in her interests; and therefore the queen was under dissatisfaction, and her party looked very much down. The protestants were everywhere disconsolate; for the losses they had received at Rochelle, Nismes, and Montpelier, had reduced them to an absolute dependence on the king’s will, without all possible hopes of ever recovering themselves, or being so mueh as in a condition to take arms for their re¬ ligion ; and therefore the wisest of them plainly foresaw their own entire reduction, as it since came to pass ; and I remem¬ ber very well, that a protestant gentleman told me once, as we were passing from Orleans to Lyons, that the English had ruined them ; and therefore, says he, I think the next occasion the king takes to use us ill, as I know it will not be long before he does, we must all fly over to England, -where you are bound to maintain us for having helped to turn us out of our own country. I asked him what he meant by saying the English had done it ? He returned short upon me; I do not mean, says he, by not relieving Rochelle, but by helping to ruin Rochelle, when you and the Dutch lent ships to beat our fleet, which all the ships in France could mot have done without you. RUN A MAN TIIROUGH THE BODY. 9 I was too young in the world to be very sensible of this before, and therefore was something startled at the charge; but when I came to discourse with this gentleman, I soon saw the truth of what he said was undeniable, and have since re¬ flected on it with regret, that the naval power of the protes- tants, which was then superior to the royal, would certainly have been the recovery of all their fortunes, had it not been unhappily broke by their brethren of England and Holland, the former lending seven men-of-war, and the latter twenty, for the destruction of the Rochellers’ fleet; and by these very ships the Rochellers’ fleet was actually beaten and destroyed, and they never afterwards recovered their force at sea, and by consequence sunk under the siege, which the English after¬ wards in vain attempted to prevent. These things made the protestants look very dull, and ex¬ pected the ruin of all their party; which had certainly happened had the cardinal lived a few years longer. We stayed in Paris about three weeks, as well to see the court, and what rarities the place afforded, as by an occasion which had like to have put a short period to our ramble. Walking one morning before the gate of the Louvre, with a design to see the Swiss draw up, which they always did, and exercised just before they relieved the guards; a page came up to me, and speaking English to me, Sir, says he, the captain must needs have your immediate assistance. I that had not the knowledge of any person in Paris but my own companion, whom I called captain, had no room to question, but it was he that sent for me ; and crying out hastily to him, Where ? followed the fellow as fast as it was possible. He led me through several passages which I knew not, and at last through a tennis-court, and into a large room, where three men, like gentlemen, were engaged very briskly, two against one. The room was very dark, so that I could not easily know them asunder; but being fully possessed with an opinion before of my captain’s danger, I ran into the room with my sword in my hand. I had not particularly engaged any ot them, nor so much as made a pass at any, when I received a very dangerous thrust in my thigh, rather occasioned by my too hasty running in, than a real design of the person; but enraged at the hurt, without examining who it was hurt me, [ threw myself upon him, and run my sword quite tlmough his body. 10 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. The novelty of the adventure, and the unexpected fall of the man by a stranger, come in nobody knew how, had be¬ calmed the other two, that they really stood gazing at me. By this time I had discovered that my captain was not there, and that ’twas some strange accident brought me thither. I could speak but little French, and supposed they could speak no English; so I stepped to the door to see for the page that brought me thither ; but seeing nobody there, and the passage clear, I made off as fast as I could, without speaking a word; nor did the other two gentlemen offer to stop me. But I was in a strange confusion when, coming into those entries and passages which the page led me through, I could by no means find my way out; at last, seeing a door open that looked through a house into the street, I went in, and out at the other door; but then I was at as great a loss to know where I was, and which was the way to my lodging. The wound in my thigh bled apace, and I could feel the blood in my breeches. In this interval came by a chair; I called, and went into it, and bid them, as well as I could, go to the Louvre ; for though I knew not the name of the street where I lodged, I knew I could find the way to it when I was at the Bastile. The chairmen went on their own way, and being stopped by a company of the guards as they went, set me down till the soldiers were marched by; when looking out, I found I was just at my own lodging, and the captain was standing at the door looking for me. I beckoned him to me, and, whispering, told him I was very much hurt, and bid him pay the chairmen, and ask no questions, but come to me. I made the best of my way up stairs, but had lost so much blood, that I had hardly spirits enough to keep me from swooning, till he came in : he was equally concerned with me to see me in such a bloody condition, and presently called up our landlord, and he as quickly called in his neighbours, that I had a room full of people about me in a quarter of an hour. But this had liked to have been of worse consequence to me than the other; for by this time there was great inquiring after the person who killed a man at the tennis- court. My landlord was then sensible of his mistake, and came to me, and told me the danger I was in, and very honestly offered to convey me to a friend’s of his, where I should be very secure; I thanked him, and suffered myself to be canded at midnight whither he pleased. He visited me DISORDER OE FRENCH AFFAIRS. 11 very often, till I was well enough to walk about, which was not in less than ten clays, and then we thought fit to be gone ; so we took post for Orleans; but when I came upon the road I found myself in a new error, for my wound opened again with riding, and I was in a worse condition than before, being forced to take up at a little village on the road, called -, about-miles from Orleans, where there was no surgeon to be had, but a sorry country barber, who never¬ theless dressed me as well as he could, and in about a week more I was able to walk to Orleans at three times. Here I stayed till I was quite well, and then took coach for Lyons, and so through Savoy into Italy. I spent near two years’ time after this bad beginning, in travelling through Italy, and to the several courts of Rome, Naples, Venice, and Vienna. When I came to Lyons, the king was gone from thence to Grenoble to meet the cardinal, but the queens were both at Lyons. The French affairs seemed at this time to have but an indifferent aspect; there was no life in anything but where the cardinal was. He pushed on everything with extraor¬ dinary conduct, and generally with success; he had taken Suza and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy, and was prepar¬ ing to push the duke even out of all his dominions. But in the mean time everywhere else things looked ill; the troops were ill paid, the magazines empty, the people mutinous, and a general disorder seized the minds of the court; and the cardinal, who was the soul of everything, desired this interview at Grenoble, in order to put things into some better method. This politic minister always ordered matters so, that if there was success in anything the glory was his; but if things miscarried it was all laid upon the king. This con¬ duct was so much the more nice, as it is the direct contrary to the custom in like cases, where kings assume the glory of all the success in an action ; and when a thing miscarries, make themselves easy by sacrificing their ministers and favourites to the complaints and resentments of the people; but this accurate refined statesman got over this point. While we were at Lyons, and as I remember, the third day after our coming thither, we had liked to have been involved in a state broil, without knowing where we were. 12 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. It was of a Sunday, in the evening; the people of Lyons, who had been sorely oppressed in taxes, and the war in Italy pinching their trade, began to be very tumultuous ; we found the day before the mob got together in great crowds, and talked oddly; the king was everywhere reviled, and spoken disrespectfully of, and the magistrates of the city either winked at, or durst not attempt to meddle, lest they should provoke the people. But on Sunday night, about midnight, we were waked by a prodigious noise in the street; I jumpt out of bed, and, running to the window, I saw the street as full of mob as it could hold. Some, armed with muskets and halberds, marched in very good order ; others in disorderly crowds, all shouting and crying out, Du paix le Roy , and the like. One, that led a great party of this rabble, carried a loaf of bread upon the top of a pike, and other lesser loaves, signifying the smallness of their bread, occasioned by dearness. By morning this crowd was gathered to a great height; they run roving over the whole city, shut up all the shops, and forced all the people to join with them ; from thence they went up to the castle, and, renewing the clamour, a strange consternation seized all the princes. They broke open the doors of the officers, collectors of the new taxes, and plundered their houses, and had not the persons themselves fled in time, they had been very ill treated. The queen-mother, as she was very much displeased to see such consequences of the government, in whose management she had no share, so I suppose she had the less concern upon her. However, she came into the court of the castle and showed herself to the people, gave money amongst them, and spoke gently to them; and by a way peculiar to herself, and which obliged all she talked with, she pacified the mob gradually, sent them home with promises of redress and the like; and so appeased this tumult in two days, by her prudence, which the guards in the castle had small mind to meddle with, and if they had, would, in all probability, have made the better side the worse. There had been several seditions of the like nature in sundry other parts of France, and the very army began to murmur, though not to mutiny, for want of provisions. This sedition at Lyons was not quite over when we left the place, for, finding the city all in a broil, we considered MADE PRISONERS 01' WAR. 13 we had no business there; and what the consequence of a popular tumult might be, we did not see, so we prepared to be gone. We had not rid above three miles out of the city, but we were brought as prisoners of war, by a party of mutineers, who had been abroad upon the scout, and were charged with being messengers sent to the cardinal for forces to reduce the citizens; with these pretences they brought us back in triumph, and the queen-mother being by this time grown something familiar to them, they carried us before her. When they inquired of us who we were, we called ourselves Scots ; for as the English were very much out of favour in France at this time, the peace having been made not many months, and not supposed to be very durable, because parti¬ cularly displeasing to the people of England; so the Scots were on the other extreme with the French. Nothing was so much caressed as the Scots, and a man had no more to do in France, if he would be well received there, than to say he was a Scotchman. When we came before the queen-mother she seemed to receive us with some stiffness at first, and caused > her guards to take us into custody; but as she was a lady of most exquisite politics, she did this to amuse the mob, and we were imme¬ diately after dismissed; and the queen herself made a handsome excuse to us for the rudeness we had suffered, alleging the troubles of the times; and the next morning we had three dragoons of the guards to convoy us out of the j urisdiction of Lyons. CHAPTER II. REFLECTIONS-JOURNEY TO GRENOBLE, AND DESCRIPTION. OF THE SWISS TROOPS THERE-ACCOUNT OF THE KING AND COURT-DEPART FOR PIGNEROL-SIEGE OF CASAL- I ESCAPE GREAT DANGER IN AN ACTION THERE-MARCH TO SALUCES-DEATH OF THE DUKE OF SAVOY-1 CATCH THE PLAGUE-RECOVER AND SPEND THE WINTER AT MILAN-JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, AND SINGULAR AD¬ VENTURES THERE. 1 confess this little adventure gave me an aversion to popu¬ lar tumults all my life after, and if nothing else had bein in 14 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. the cause, would have biassed me to espouse the king’s party in England, when our popular heats carried all before it at home. But I must say, that when I called to mind since, the address, the management, the compliance in show, and in general the whole conduct of the queen-mother with the mu¬ tinous people of Lyons, and compared it with the conduct of my unhappy master the king of England, I could not but see that the queen understood much better than King Charles, the management of politics, and the clamours of the people. Had this princess been at the helm in England, she would have prevented all the calamities of the civil war here, and yet not have parted with what that good prince yielded in order to peace neither ; she would have yielded gradually, and then gained upon them gradually; she would have man¬ aged them to the point she had designed them, as she did all parties in France; and none could effectually subject her, but the very man she had raised to be her principal support; I mean the cardinal. We went from hence to Grenoble, and arrived there the same day that the king and the cardinal, with the whole court, went out to view a body of six thousand Swiss foot, which the cardinal had wheedled the cantons to grant to the king, to help to ruin their neighbour the duke of Savoy. The troops were exceeding fine, well-accoutred, brave, clean-limbed, stout fellows indeed. Here I saw the cardinal; there was an air of church gravity in his habit, but all the vigour of a general, and the sprightliness of a vast genius in his face; he affected a little stiffness in his behaviour, but managed all his affairs with such clearness, such steadiness, and such application, that it was no wonder he had such success in every undertaking. Here I saw the king, whose figure was mean, his counte¬ nance hollow, and always seemed dejected, and every way discovering that weakness in his countenance, that appeared in his actions. If he was ever sprightly and vigorous, it was when the cardinal was with him; for he depended so much on every¬ thing he did, that he was at the utmost dilemma when he was absent, always timorous, jealous, and irresolute. After the review the cardinal was absent some days, having ARRIVE AT PIGNEROL. 15 been to wait on the queen-mother at Lyons, where, as it was discoursed, they were at least seemingly reconciled. I observed, while the cardinal was gone, there was no court, the king was seldom to be seen, very small attendance given, and no bustle at the castle ; but as soon as the cardinal returned, the great councils were assembled, the coaches of the ambassadors went every day to the castle, and a lace of business appeared upon the whole court. Here the measures of the Duke of Savoy’s ruin were con¬ certed, and in order to it the king and the cardinal put themselves at the head of the army, with which they imme¬ diately reduced all Savoy, took Chamberry and the whole duchy, except Montmelian. The army that did this was not above twenty-two thousand men, including the Swiss, and but indifferent troops neither, especially the French foot, who, compared to the infantry I have seen since in the German and Swedish armies, were not fit to be called soldiers. On the other hand, considering the Savoyards and Italian troops, they were good troops, but the cardinal’s conduct made amends for all these deficiencies. From hence I went to Pignerol, which was then little more than a single fortification on the hill near the town called St. Bride’s ; but the situation of that was very strong. I mention this because of the prodigious works since added to it, by which it has since obtained the name of the right hand of France; they had begun a new line below the hill, and some works were marked out on the side of the town next the fort; but the cardinal afterwards drew the plan of the works with his own hand, by which it was made one of the strongest fortresses in Europe. While I was at Pignerol, the governor of Milan, for the Spaniards, came with an army and sat down before Casal. The grand quarrel, and for which the war in this part of Italy was begun, was this: the Spaniards and Germans pretended to the duchy of Mantua; the Duke ofNevers, a Frenchman, had not only a title to it, but had got possession of it; but, being ill-supported by the French, was beaten out by the im¬ perialists, and after a long siege, the Germans took Mantua itself, and drove the poor duke quite out of the country. The taking of Mantua elevated the spirits of the Duke of Savoy ; and the Germans and Spaniards, being now at moro 16 MEMOIRS OF A CAYA1IER. leisure, with a complete army, came to his assistance, and formed the sieee of Montserrat. For as the Spaniards pushed the Duke of Mantua, so the French by way of diversion lay hard upon the Duke of Savoy; they had seized Montserrat, and held it for the Duke of Mantua, and had a strong French garrison under Thoiras, a brave and experienced commander; and thus affairs stood when we came into the French army. I had no business there as a soldier, but having passed as a Scotch gentleman with the mob at Lyons, and after with her majesty, the queen-mother, when we obtained the guard of her dragoons ; we had also her majesty’s pass, with which we came and went where we pleased; and the cardinal, who was then not on very good terms with the queen, but willing to keep smooth water there, when two or three times our passes came to be examined, showed a more than ordinary respect to us on that very account, our passes being from the queen. Casal being besieged, as I have observed, began to be in danger; for the cardinal, who it was thought had formed a design to ruin Savoy, was more intent upon that than upon the succour of the Duke of Mantua; but necessity calling upon him to deliver so great a captain as Thoiras, and not to let such a place as Casal fall into the hands of the enemy, the king, or cardinal rather, ordered the Duke of Momorency, and the Mareschal D’Effiat, with ten thousand foot and two thousand horse, to march and join the Mareschals de la Force and Schomberg, who lay already with an army on the frontiers of Genoa, but to weak to attempt the raising the siege of Casal. As all men thought there would be a battle between the French and the Spaniards, I could not prevail with myself to lose the opportunity, and therefore, by the help of the passes above mentioned, I came to the French army under the Duke of Momorency. We marched through the enemy’s country with great boldness and no small hazard, for the Duke of Savoy appeared frequently with great bodies of horse on the rear of the army, and frequently skirmished with our troops, in one of which I had the folly, I can call it no better, for I had no business there, to go out and see the sport, as the French gentlemen called it. I was but a raw soldier, and did not like the sport at all, for this party v as surrounded GREAT DANGER IN ACTION. 17 by the Duke of Savoy, and almost all killed, for as to quar¬ ter, they neither asked nor gave. I ran away very fairly one of the first, and my companion with me, and by the goodness of our horses got out of the fray, and beiug not much known in the army, we came into the camp an hour or two after, as if we had been only riding abroad for the air. This little rout made the general very cautious, for the Savoyards were stronger in horse by three or four thousand, and the army always marched in a body, and kept their par¬ ties in or very near hand. I escaped another rub in this French army about five days after, which had liked to have made me pay dear for my curiosity. The Duke de Momorency, and the Mareschal Schomberg joined their army about four or five days after, and imme¬ diately, according to the cardinal’s instructions, put themselves on the march for the relief of Casal. The army had marched over a great plain, with some marshy grounds on the right, and the Po on the left, and as the country was so well discovered that it was thought im¬ possible any mischief should happen, the generals observed the less caution. At the end of this plain was a long wood, and a lane or narrow defile through the middle of it. Through this pass the army was to march, and the van began to file through it about four o’clock ; by three hours’ time all the army was got through, or into the pass, and the artillery was just entered, when the Duke of Savoy, with four thousand horse, and fifteen hundred dragoons, with every horseman a footman behind him, whether he had swam the Po, or passed it above at a bridge, and made a long march after was not examined, but he came boldly up the plain, and chai'ged our rear with a great deal of fury. Our artillery was in the lane, and as it was impossible to turn them about, and make way for the army, so the rear was obliged to support themselves, and maintain the fight lor above an hour and a half. In this time we lost abundance of men, and if it had not been for two accidents, all that line had been cut off; one was, that the wood was so near that those regiments which were disordered presently sheltered themselves in the wood; the other was, that by this time the Mareschal Schomberg, with the horse of the van, began to get back through the lane, VOL. II. C 18 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. and to make good the ground from whence the other had been beaten, till at last by this means it came to almost a pitched battle. There were two regiments of French dragoons who did ex¬ cellent service in this action, and maintained their ground till they were almost all killed. Had the Duke of Savoy contented himself with the defeat of five regiments on the right, which he quite broke and drove into the wood, and with the slaughter and havoc which he had made among the rest, he had come off with honour, and might have called it a victory ; but endeavouring to break the whol party, and carry off some cannon, the obstinate resistance of these few dragoons lost him his advantages, and held him in play till so many fresh troops got through the pass again, as made us too strong for him; and had not night parted them he had been entirely defeated. At last, finding our troops increase and spread themselves on his flank, he retired and gave over. We had no great stomach to pursue him neither, though some horse were ordered to follow a little way. The duke lost above a thousand men, and we almost twice as many, and but for those dragoons, had lost the whole rear¬ guard and half our cannon. I was in a very sorry case in this action too. I was with the rear in the regiment of horse of Perigoort, with a captain of which regiment I had contracted some acquaintance. I would have rid off at first, as the cap¬ tain desired me, but there was no doing it, for the cannon was in the lane, and the horse and dragoons of the van eagerly pressing back through the lane, must have run me down, or carried me with them. As for the wood, it was a good shelter to save one’s life, but was so thick there was no passing it on horseback. Our regiment was one of the first that was broke, and being all in confusion, with the Duke of Savoy’s men at our heels, away we ran into the wood. Never was there so much dis¬ order among a parcel of runaways as when we came to this wood; it was so exceeding bushy and thick at the bottom there was no entering it, and a volley of small shot from a regiment of Savoy’s dragoons, poured in upon us at our breaking into the wood, made terrible work among our horses. For my part I was got into the wood, but was forced to quit my horse, and by that means with a great deal of diffi* MARCH TO SALUCES, WHICH SURRENDERS. culty got a little farther in, where there was a little openi olace, and being quite spent with labouring among the bushes, 1 sat down resolving to take my fate there, let it be what it would, for I was not able to go any farther. I had twenty or thirty more in the same condition came to me in less than half an hour, and here we waited very securely the success of the battle, which was as before. It was no small relief to those with me to hear the Savoy¬ ards were beaten, for otherwise they had all been lost; as- for me, I confess, I was glad as it was, because of the danger,, but otherwise I cared not much which had the better, for 1 designed no service among them. One kindness it did me, that I began to consider what I had to do here, and as I could give but a very slender account of myself, for what it was I run all these risks, so I resolvedi they should fight it among themselves, for I would come among them no more. The captain with whom, as I noted above, I had contracted! some acquaintance in this regiment, was killed in this action,, and the French had really a great blow here, though they took care to conceal it all they could; and I cannot, without; smiling, read some of the histories and memoirs of this action,, which they are not ashamed to call a victory. We marched on to Saluces, and the next day the Duke ofi Savoy presented himself in battalia, on the other side of a; small river; giving us a fair challenge to pass and engage him. We always said in our camp that the orders were to fight the Duke of Savoy wherever we met him; but though he' braved us in our view, we did not care to engage him, but we brought Saluces to surrender upon articles, which the duke could not relieve without attacking our camp, which he did not care to do. The next morning we had news of the surrender of Mantua to the imperial army; we heard of it first from the Duke of Savoy’s cannon, which he fired by way of rejoicing, and which seemed to make him amends for the loss of Saluces. As this was a mortification to the French, so it quite damped the success of the campaign, for the Duke de Momo- rency imagining that the imperial general would send imme¬ diate assistance to the Marquis Spinola, who besieged Casal, they called frequent counsels of war what course to take, and] at last resolved to halt in Piedmont. 20 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. A few days after, their resolutions were chjmged again, by the news of the death of' the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emanuel, who died, as some say, agitated with the extremes of joy and grief. Hkis put our generals upon considering again, whether they should march to the relief of Casal, but the chimera of the Germans put them by, and so they took up quarters in Piedmont; they took several small places from the Duke of Savoy, making advantage of the consternation the duke’s sub¬ jects were in on the death of their prince, and spread them¬ selves from the sea-side to the banks of the Po. But here an enemy did that for them which the Savoyards could not, for the plague got into their quarters and destroyed abundance of people, both of the army and of the country. I thought then it was time for me to be gone, for I had no manner of courage for that risk; and I think verily I was more afraid of being taken sick in a strange country, than ever I was of being killed in battle. Upon this resolution I procured a pass to go to Genoa, and accordingly began my journey, but was arrested at Villa Franca by a slow linger¬ ing fever, which held me about five days, and then turned to a burning malignancy, and at last to the plague. My friend, the captain, never left me night nor day; and though for four days more I knew nobody, nor was capable of so much as thinking o’f myself, yet it pleased God that the distemper gathered in my neck, swelled and broke; during the swell¬ ing I was raging mad with the violence of pain, which being so near my head, swelled that also in proportion, that my eyes were swelled up, and for twenty-four hours my tongue and mouth; then, as my servant told me, all the physicians gave me over, as past all remedy, but by the good providence of God the swelling broke. The prodigious collection of matter which this swelling dis¬ charged, gave me immediate relief, and I became sensible in less than an hour’s time; and in two hours, or thereabouts, fell into a little slumber, which recovered my spirits, and sensibly revived me. Here I lay by it till the middle of Sep¬ tember: my captain fell sick after me, but recovered quickly; his man had the plague, and died in two days; my man held it out well. About the middle of September, we heard of a truce con¬ cluded between all parties, and being unwilling to winter al SPEND THE WINTER AT MILAN. 21 Villa Franca, I got passes, and though we were both weak, we began to travel in litters for Milan. And here I experienced the truth of an old English pro verb, that standers-by see more than the gamesters. The French, Savoyards, and Spaniards, made this peace, or truce, all for separate and several grounds, and every one were mistaken. The French yielded to it because they had given over the relief of Casal, and were very much afraid it would fall into the hands of the Marquis Spinola. The Savoyards yielded to it, because they were afraid the French would winter in Piedmont; the Spaniards yielded to it, because the Duke of Savoy being dead, and the Count de Colalto, the imperial general, giving no assistance, and his army weakened by sick¬ ness and the fatigues of the siege, he foresaw he should never take the town, and wanted but to come off with honour. The French were mistaken, because really Spinola was so weak, that had they marched on into Montferrat, the Spaniards must have raised the siege ; the Duke of Savoy was mistaken, because the plague had so weakened the French, that they durst not have stayed to winter in Piedmont; and Spinola was mistaken, for though he was very slow, if he had stayed before the town one fortnight longer, Thoiras the governor must have surrendered, being brought to the last extremity. Of all these mistakes the French had the advantage; for Casal was relieved, the army had time to be recruited, and the French had the best of it by an early campaign. I passed through Montferrat in my way to Milan just as the truce was declared, and saw the miserable remains of the Spanish army, who by sickness, fatigue, hard duty, the sallies of the garrison, and such like consequences, were re¬ duced to less than two thousand men, and of them above a thousand lay wounded and sick in the camp. Here were several regiments which I saw drawn out to their arms, that could not make up above seventy or eighty men, officers and all, and those half starved with hunger, almost naked, and in a lamentable condition. From thence I went into the town, and there things were still in a worse condition, the houses beaten down, the walls and works ruined, the garrison, by continual duty, reduced from four thousand five hundred men, to less than eight hundred, with* '22 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. ■out clothes, money, or provisions; the brave governor weak with continual fatigue, and the whole face of things in a .miserable case. The French generals had just sent them thirty thousand crowns for present supply, which heartened them a little, but had not the truce been made as it was, they must have sur¬ rendered upon what terms the Spaniards had pleased to make them. Never were two armies in such fear of one another with so little cause ; the Spaniards afraid of the French whom the plague had devoured, and the French afraid of the Spaniards whom the siege had almost ruined. The grief of this mistake, together with the sense of his master, the Spaniards, leaving him without supplies to com¬ plete the siege of Casal, so affected the Marquis Spinola, that he died for grief, and in him fell the last of that rare breed of Low Country soldiers, who gave the world so great and just a character of the Spanish infantry, as the best soldiers of the world ; a character which we see them so very much de¬ generated from since, that they hardly deserve the name of soldiers. I tarried at Milan the rest of the winter, both for the recovery of my health, and also for supplies from England. Here it was I first heard the name of Gustavus Adolphus, the king of Sweden, who now began his war with the emperor; and while the king of France was at Lyons, the league with Sweden was made, in which the French con¬ tributed one million two hundred thousand crowns in money, and six hundred thousand per annum to the attempt of Gustavus Adolphus. About this time he landed in Pomerania, took the towns of Stetin and Straelsund, and from thence proceeded in that prodigious manner, of which I shall have occasion to be very particular in the prosecution of these memoirs. I had indeed no thoughts of seeing that king, or his armies. I had been so roughly handled already, that I had given over the thoughts of appearing among the fighting people, and resolved in the spring to pursue my journey to Venice, and so for the rest of Italy. Yet I cannot deny, that as every gazette gave us some accounts of the conquests and victories of this glorious DEMORALIZED SOCIETY OF ITALY. 23 prince, it prepossessed my thoughts with secret wishes of seeing him; but these were so young and unsettled, that I drew no resolutions from them for a long while after. About the middle of January I left Milan and came to Genoa, from thence by sea to Leghorn, then to Naples, Rome, and Venice, but saw nothing in Italy that gave me any diversion. As for what is modern, I saw nothing but lewdness, private murders, stabbing men at the corner of a street, or in the dark, hiring of bravoes, and the like; all the diversions here ended in whoring, gaming, and sodomy. These were to me the modern excellencies of Italy; and I had no gust to antiquities. ’Twas pleasant indeed when I was at Rome to say, Here stood the capitol, there the colossus of Nero, here was the amphitheatre of Titus, there the aqueduct of-, here the forum, there the catacombs, here the temple of Venus, there of Jupiter, here the pantheon, and the like, but I never designed to write a book; as much as was useful I kept in my head, and for the rest, I left it to others. I observed the people degenerated from the ancient glorious inhabitants, who were generous, brave, and the most valiant of all nations, to a vicious baseness of soul, barbarous, treacherous, jealous and revengeful, lewd and cowardly, intolerably proud and haughty, bigoted to blind, incoherent devotion, and the grossest of idolatry. Indeed I think the unsuitableness of the people made the place unpleasant to me, for there is so little in a country to recommend it when the people disgrace it, that no beauties of the creation can make up for the want of those excellen¬ cies which suitable society procure the defect of; this made Italy a very unpleasant country to me, the people were the foil to the place, all manner of hateful vices reigning in their general way of living. I confess I was not very religious myself, and being come abroad into the world young enough, might easily have been drawn into evils that had recommended themselves with any tolerable agreeableness to nature and common manners; but when wickedness presented itself full-grown, in its grossest freedoms and liberties, it quite took away all the gust of vice that the devil had furnished me with, and in this I 2i MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER, cannot but relate one scene which passed between nobody but the devil and myself. At a certain town in Italy, which shall be nameless, because I won’t celebrate the proficiency of one place more than another, when I believe the whole country equally wicked, I was prevailed upon, rather than tempted, a la courtezan . If I should describe the woman, I must give a very mean character of my own virtue to say I was allured by any but a woman of an extraordinary figure; her face, shape, mien, and dress, I may, without vanity, say, the finest that I ever saw. When I had admittance into her apartments, the riches and magnificence of them astonished me; the cupboard or cabinet of plate, the jewels, the tapestry, and everything in proportion, made me question whether I was not in the chamber of some lady of the best quality; but when, after some conversation, I found that it was really nothing but a courtezan, in English, a common street whore, a punk of the trade, I was amazed, and my inclination to her person began to cool. Her conversation exceeded, if possible, the best of quality, and was, I must own, exceeding agreeable; she sung to her lute, and danced as fine as ever I saw, and thus diverted me two hours before anything else was dis¬ coursed of; but when the vicious part came on the stage, I blush to relate the confusion I was in, and when she made a certain motion, by which I understood she might be made use of, either as a lady, or as - I was quite thunder¬ struck, all the vicious part of my thoughts vanished, the place filled me with horror, and I was all over disorder and distraction. I began however to recollect where I was, and that in this country these were people not to be affronted; and though she easily saw the disorder I was in, she turned it off with admirable dexterity, began to talk again a la gallant , received me as a visitant, offered me sweetmeats and some wine. Here I began to be in more confusion than before, for I concluded she would neither offer me to eat or to drink now without poison, and I was very shy of tasting her treat; but she scattered this fear immediately, by readily, and of her own accord, not only tasting but eating freely of everything she gave me; whether she perceived my wariness, or the SINGULAR ADVENTURE. 25 reason of it, I know not, I could not help banishing my suspicion, the obliging carriage and strange charm of her conversation had so much power of me, that I both eat and drank with her at all hazards. When I offered to go, and at parting presented her five pistoles, I could not prevail with her to take them, when she spoke some Italian proverb which I could not readily under¬ stand, but by my guess it seemed to imply, that she would not take the pay, having not obliged me otherwise: at last I laid the pieces on her toilette, and would not receive them again; upon which she obliged me to pass my word to visit her again, else she would by no means accept my present. I confess I had a strong inclination to visit her again, and besides thought myself obliged to it in honour to my parole; but after some strife in my thoughts about it, I resolved to break my word with her, when, going at vespers one evening to see their devotions, I happened to meet this very lady very devoutly going to her prayers. At her coming out of the church I spoke to her, she paid me her respects with a “ Signior Inglese,” and some words she said in Spanish smiling, which I did not understand. I cannot say here so clearly as I would be glad I might, that I broke my word with her; but if I saw her any more, I saw nothing of what gave me so much offence before. The end of my relating this story is answered in describing the manner of their address, without bringing myself to confession; if I did anything I have some reason to be ashamed of, it may be a less criroe to conceal it than expose it. The particulars related, however, may lead the reader of these sheets to a view of what gave me a particular disgust at this pleasant part of the world, as they pretend to call it, and made me quit the place sooner than travellers use to do that come thither to satisfy their curiosity. The prodigious stupid bigotry of the people also was irksome to me ; I thought there was something in it very sordid. The entire empire the priests have over both the souls and bodies of the people, gave me a specimen of that meanness of spirit, which is nowhere else to be seen but in Italy, especially in the city of Rome. At Venice I perceived it quite different, the civil authority having a visible superiority over the ecclesiastic; and the 26 MEMOIRS jK A. CAVALIER. church being more subject there to the state than in any other part of Italy. For these reasons I took no pleasure in filling my memoirs of Italy with remarks of places or things; all the antiquities and valuable remains of the Roman nation are done better than I can pretend to, by such people who made it more their business; as for me, I went to see, and not to write, and as little thought then ot these memoirs, as I ill furnished myself to write them. CHAPTER m. ARRIVE AT VIENNA-ACCOUNT OF THE WAR IN GERMANY -OF THE FAMOUS CONCLUSIONS OF LEIPSIC—JOURNEY FROM VIENNA TO PRAGUE-DREADFUL STORM OF MAGDE- BURGH, AND CRUELTIES OF THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS-1 LEAVE THE EMPEROR’S SERVICE IN DISGUST, AND ARRIVE AT LEIPSIC-ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS THERE. I left Italy in April, and taking the tour of Bavaria, though very much out of the way, I passed through Munich, Passau, Lintz, and at last to Vienna. I came to Vienna the 10th of April, 1631, intending to have gone from thence down the Danube into Hungary, and by means of a pass which I obtained from the English ambassador at Constantinople, I designed to have seen all the great towns on the Danube, which were then in the hands of the Turks, and which I had read much of in the history of the war between the Turks and the Germans ; but I was diverted from my design by the following occasion. There had been a long bloody vvar in the empire of Germany for twelve years, between the emperor, the Duke of Bavaria, the King of Spain, and the popish princes and electors on the one side, and the protestant princes on the other; and both sides having been exhausted by the war, and even the catholics themselves beginning to dislike the growing power of the house of Austria, ’twas thought all the parties were willing to make peace. Nay, things were brought to that pass that some of the popish princes and electors began to talk of making alliances with the King of Sweden. WAR IN GERMANY. 27 Here it is necessary to observe, that the two Dukes of Mecklenburgh having been dispossessed of most of their dominions by the tyranny of the Emperor Ferdinand, and being in danger of losing the rest, earnestly solicited the King of Sweden to come to their assistance; and that prince, as he was related to the house of Mecklenburgh, and especially as he was willing to lay hold of any opportunity to break with the emperor, against whom he had laid up an implacable prejudice, was very ready and forward to come to their assistance. The reasons of his quarrel with the emperor were grounded upon the imperialists concerning themselves in the war of Poland, where the emperor had sent eight thousand foot and two thousand horse to join the Polish army against the king, and had thereby given some check to his arms in that war. In pursuance therefore of his resolution to quarrel with the emperor, but more particularly at the instances of the princes above named, his Swedish majesty had landed the year before at Straelsund with about twelve thousand men, and having joined with some forces which he had left in Polish Prussia, all which did not make thirty thousand men, he began a war with the emperor, the greatest in event, filled with the most famous battles, sieges, and extraordinary actions, including its wonderful success and happy conclusiqn, of any war ever maintained in the world. The King of Sweden had already taken Stetin, Straelsund, Rostock, Wismar, and all the strong places on the Baltic, and began to spread himself in Germany; he had made a league with the French, as I observed in my story of Saxony; he had now made a treaty with the Duke of Brandenburgh, and, in short, began to be terrible to the empire. In this conjecture the empire called the general diet of the empire to be held at Ratisbon, where, as was pretended, all sides were to treat of peace, and to join forces to beat the Swedes out of the empire. Here the emperor, by a most exquisite management, brought the affairs of the diet to a conclusion, exceedingly to his own advantage, and to the farther oppression of the protestants; and in particular, in that the war against the King of Sweden was to be tarried on in such a manner that the whole burthen and 28 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. charge would lie on the protestants themselves, and they be made the instruments to oppose their best triends. Other matters also ended equally to their disadvantage, as the methods resolved on to recover the church lands, and to prevent the education of the protestant clergy; and what remained was referred to another general diet to be held at Frankfort-au-main, in August, 1631. I won’t pretend to say the other protestant princes of Germany had never made any overtures to the King of Sweden to come to their assistance, but it is plain that they had entered into no league with him; that appears from the difficulties which retarded the fixing of the treaties afterwards, both with the Dukes of Brandenburgh and Saxony, which unhappily occasioned the ruin of Magdeburgh. But it is plain the Swede was resolved on a war with the emperor; his Swedish majesty might, and indeed could not but foresee, that if he once showed himself with a sufficient force on the frontiers of the empire, all the protestant princes would be obliged by their interest or by his arms to fall in with him, and this the consequence made appear to be a just conclusion; for the electors of Brandenburgh and Saxony were both forced to join with him. First, they were willing to join with him, at least they could not find in their hearts to join with the emperor, of whose powers they had such just apprehensions ; they wished the Swedes success, and would have been very glad to have had the work done at another man’s charge; but like true Germans they were more willing to be saved than to save themselves, and therefore hung back and stood upon terms. Secondly, they were at last forced to it; the first was forced to join by the King of Sweden himself, who being come so far was not to be dallied with; and had not the Duke of Brandenburgh complied as he did, he had been ruined by the Swede; the Saxon was driven into the arms of the Swede by force, for Count Tilly, ravaging his- country, made him comply with any terms to be saved from destruc¬ tion. Thus matters stood at the end of the diet at Ratisbon ; the King of Sweden began to see himself leagued against at the diet both by protestant and papist; and, as I have often heard his majesty say since, he had resolved to try to force ORIGINAL CAUSES OE THE WAR. 29 $iem off from the emperor, and to treat them as enemies equally with the rest if they did not. But the protestants convinced him soon after, that though they were tricked into the outward appearance of a league against him at Ratisbon, they had no such intentions; and by their ambassadors to him let him know, that they only wanted his powerful assistance to defend their councils, when they would soon convince him that they had a due sense of the emperor’s designs, and would do their utmost for their liberty; and these I take to be the first invitations the King of Sweden had to undertake the protestant cause as such, and which entitled him to say he fought for the liberty and religion of the German nation. I have had some particular opportunities to hear these things from the mouths of some of the very princes them¬ selves, and therefore am the forwarder to relate them; and I place them here, because previous to the part I acted on this bloody scene, it is necessary to let the reader into some part of the story, and to show him in what manner and on what occasions this terrible war began. The protestants, alarmed at the usage they had met with at the former diet, had secretly proposed among themselves -fo form a general union or confederacy, for preventing that ruin which they saw, unless some speedy remedies were ap¬ plied, would be inevitable. The elector of Saxony, the head of the protestants, a vigorous and politic prince, was the first that moved it; and the landgrave of Hesse, a zealous and gallant prince, being consulted with, it rested a great while between those two, no method being found practicable to bring it to pass; the emperor being so powerful in all parts, that they foresaw the petty princes would not dare to nego¬ tiate an affair of such a nature, being surrounded with the imperial forces, who by their two generals Wallestein and Tilly, kept them in continual subjection and terror. This dilemma had like to have stifled the thoughts of the union as a thing impracticable, when one Seigensius, a Lutheran minister, a person of great abilities, and one whom the elector of Saxony made great use of in matters of policy as well as religion, contrived for them this excellent ex¬ pedient. I had the honour to be acquainted with this gentleman while I was at Leipsic; it pleased him exceedingly to have 30 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. been the contriver of so fine a structure as the conclusions of Leipsic, and he was glad to be entertained on that subject. I had the relation from his own mouth, when, but very modestly, he told me he thought it was an inspiration darted on a sudden into his thoughts, when the Duke of Saxony calling him into his closet one morning with a face full of concern, shaking his head and looking very earnestly : What will become of us, doctor ? said the duke, we shall all be un¬ done at Frankfort-au-main. Why so, please your highness? says the doctor. Why, they will fight with the King of Sweden with our armies and our money, says the duke, and devour our friends and ourselves, by the help of our friends and ourselves. But what is become of the confederacy then, said the doctor, which your highness had so happily framed in your thoughts, and which the landgrave of Hesse was so pleased with ? Become of it, says the duke, it is a good thought enough, but it is impossible to bring it to pass among so many members of the protestant princes as are to be con¬ sulted with, for we neither have time to treat, nor will half of them dare to negotiate the matter, the Imperialists being- quartered in their very bowels. But may not some expedient be found out, says the doctor, to bring them all together to treat of it in a general meeting ? It is well proposed, says the duke, but in what town or city shall they assemble, where the very deputies shall not be besieged by Tilly or Wallestein in fourteen days time, and sacrificed to the cruelty and fury of the emperor Ferdinand? Will your highness be the easier in it, replies the doctor, if a way may be found out to call such an assembly upon other causes, at which the emperor may have no umbrage, and perhaps give his assent? You know the diet at Frankfort is at hand; it is necessary the protestants should have an assembly of their own, to prepare matters for the general diet, and it may be no difficult matter to obtain it. The duke, surprised with joy at the motion, embraced the doctor with an extraordinary transport. Thou hast done it, doctor, said he, and immedi¬ ately caused him to draw a form of a letter to the emperor, which he did with the utmost dexterity of style, in which he was a great master, representing to his imperial majesty, that in order to put an end to the troubles of Germany, his majesty would be pleased to permit the protestant princes of the empire to hold a diet to themselves, to consider of such PROTESTANTS CONCLUSIONS FOR MUTUAL DEFENCE. 31 matters as they were to treat of at the general diet, in order to conform themselves to the will and pleasure of his imperial majesty, to drive out foreigners, and settle a lasting peace in the empire; he also insinuated something of their resolutions unanimously to give their suffrages in favour of the King of Hungary, at the election of a king of the Romans, a thing which he knew the emperor had in his thought, and would push at with all his might at the diet. This letter was sent, and the bait so neatly concealed, that the electors of Bavaria and Mentz, the King of Hungary, and several of the popish princes, not foreseeing that the ruin of them all lay in the bottom of it, foolishly advised the emperor to consent to it. Id consenting to this the emperor signed his own de¬ struction, for here began the conjunction of the German protestants with the Swede, which was the fatalest blow to Ferdinand, and which he could never recover. Accordingly the diet was held at Leipsic, February 8th, 1630; where the protestants agreed on several heads for their mutual defence, which were the grounds of the follow¬ ing war; these were the famous conclusions of Leipsic, which so alarmed the emperor and the whole empire, that to crush it in the beginning, the emperor commanded Count Tilly immediately to fall upon the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Saxony, as the principal heads of the union ; but it was too late. The conclusions were digested into ten heads: 1. That since their sins had brought God’s judgments upon the whole protestant church, they should command public prayers to be made to Almighty God for the diverting the , calamities that attended them. 2. That a treaty of peace might be set on foot, in order to come to a right understanding with the catholic princes. 3. That a time for such a treaty being obtained, they should appoint an assembly of delegates, to meet preparatory to the treaty. 4. That all their complaints should be humbly represented to his imperial majesty, and the catholic electors, in order to a peaceable accommodation. 5. That they claim the protection of the emperor, accord¬ ing to the laws of the empire, and the present emperor’s solemn oath and promise. 6. That they would appoint deputies who should meet at 82 MEMOIRS CE A CAVALIER. certain times to consult of their common interest, and who should be always empowered to conclude of what should be thought needful for their safety. 7. That they will raise a competent force to maintain and defend their liberties, rights, and religion. 8. That it is agreeable to the constitution of the empire, concluded in the diet at Augsburg, to do so. 9. That the arming for their necessary defence shall by no means hinder their obedience to his impei’ial majesty, but that they will still continue their loyalty to him. 10. They agree to proportion their forces which in all amounted to seventy thousand men. The emperor, exceedingly startled at the conclusions, issued out a severe proclamation, or ban against them, which im¬ ported much the same thing as a declaration of war, and commanded Tilly to begm, and immediately to fall on the duke of Saxony, with all th«. fury imaginable, as I have al¬ ready observed. Here began the flame to break out; for upon the emperor’s ban, the protestants send away to the king of Sweden for succour. His Swedish majesty had already conquered Mecklenburgh, and part of Pomerania, and was advancing with his victo- •ious troops, increased by the addition of some regiments raised in those parts, in order to carry on the war against the emperor, having designed to follow up the Oder into Si¬ lesia, and so to push the war home to the emperor’s heredi¬ tary countries of Austria and Bohemia, when the first mes¬ sengers came to him in this case; but this changed his measures, and brought him to the frontiers of Brandenburgh, resolved to answer the desires of the protestants. But here the duke of Brandenburgh began to halt, making some diffi¬ culties and demanding terms which drove the king to use some extremities with him, and stopt the Swedes fora while, who had otherwise been on the banks of the Elbe, as soon as Tilly the imperial general had entered Saxony, which if they had done, the miserable destruction of Magdeburgh had been prevented, as I observed before. The king had been invited into the union, and when h . first came back from the banks of the Oder, he had accepted it, and was preparing to back it with all his power. The duke of Saxony had already a good army, which h« JOURNEY FROM VIENNA TO PRAGUE. 33 had with infinite diligence recruited, and mustered them under the cannon at Leipsic. The king of Sweden having, by his ambassador at Leipsic, entered into the union of the protes- tants, was advancing victoriously to their aid, just as Count Tilly had entered the duke of Saxony’s dominions. The fame of the Swedish conquests, and of the hero who commanded them, shook my resolution of travelling into Turkey, being resolved to see the conjunction of the protestant armies, and before the fire was broke out too far, to take the advantage of seeing both sides. While I remained at Vienna, uncertain which way I should proceed, I remember I observed they talked of the king of Sweden as a prince of no consideration, one that they might let go on and tire himself in Mecklenburgh, and thereabout, till they could find leisure to deal with him, and then might be crushed as they pleased; but ’tis never safe to despise an enemy, so this was not an enemy to be despised, as they af¬ terwards found. As to the conclusions of Leipsic, indeed at first they gave the imperial court some uneasiness, but when they found the imperial armies began to fright the members out of the union, and that the several branches had no considerable forces on foot, it was the general discourse at Vienna, that the union at Leipsic only gave the emperor an opportunity to crush ab¬ solutely the dukes of Sar.ony, Brandenburgh, and the land¬ grave of Hesse, and they looked upon it as a thing certain. I never saw any real concern in their faces at Vienna, till news came to court that the king of Sweden had entered into the union ; but as tb is made them very uneasy, they be¬ gan to move the powerf llest methods possible to divert this storm; and upon this news Tilly was hastened to fall into Saxony before this un ; on could proceed to a conjunction of forces. This was certainly a very good resolution, and no measure could have been more exactly concerted had not the diligence of the Saxons prevented it. The gathering of this storm, which from a cloud began to spread over the empi? e, and from the little duchy of Mecklen¬ burgh, began to threaten all Germany, absolutely determined me, as I noted before, as to travelling; and laying aside the thoughts of Hungary, I resolved, if possible, to see the king of Sweden’s army. I parted from Vie nna the middle of May, and took post for VOL. II. D 34 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. Great Glogau in Silesia, as if I had purposed to pass into Poland, but designing indeed to go down the Oder, to Cus- trin, in the marquisate of Brandenburgh, and so to Berlin; but when I came to the frontiers of Silesia, though I had passes I could go no farther, the guards on all the frontiers were so strict; so I was obliged to come back into Bohemia, and went to Prague. From hence I found I could easily pass through the impe¬ rial provinces, to the Lower Saxony, and accordingly took passes for Hamburgh, designing however to use them no far¬ ther than I found occasion. By virtue of these passes I. got into the imperial army, under Count Tilly, then at the siege of Magdeburgh, May the 2nd. I confess I did not foresee the fate of this city, neither I believe did Count Tilly himself expect to glut his fury with so entire a desolation, much less did the people expect it. 1 did believe they must capitulate, and I perceived by discourse in the army, that Tilly would give them but very indifferent conditions ; but it fell out otherwise. The treaty of surren¬ der was as it were begun, nay some say concluded, when some of the outguards of the imperialists finding the citizens had abandoned the guards of the works, and looked to them¬ selves with less diligence than usual, they broke in, carried a half-moon sword in hand with little resistance; and though it was a surprise on both sides, the citizens neither fearing, nor the army expecting the occasion, the garrison, with as much resolution as could be expected under such a fright, flew to the walls, twice beat the imperialists off, but fresh men coming up, and the administrator of Magdeburgh himself being wounded and taken, the enemy broke in, took the city by storm, and entered with such terrible fury, that without respect to age or condition, they put all the garrison and in¬ habitants, man, woman, and child, to the sword, plundered the city, and when they had done this, set it on fire. This calamity sure was the dreadfulest sight that ever I saw; the rage of the imperial soldiers was most intolerable, and not to be expressed ; of twenty-five thousand, some said thirty thousand people, there was not a soul to be seen alive, till the flames drove those that were hid in vaults and secret places to seek death in the streets, rather than perish in the fire. Of these miserable creatures some were killed STORM OF MAODEBURGH. 35 too by the furious soldiers, but at last they saved the lives of such as came out of their cellai’s and holes, and so about two thousand poor desperate creatures were left; the exact num¬ ber of those that perished in this city could never be known, because those the soldiers had first butchered, the flames after¬ wards devoured. I was on the other side of the Elbe when this dreadful piece of butchery was done; the city of Magdeburg had a sconce or fort over against it, called the toll-house, which joined to the city by a very fine bridge of boats. This fort was taken by the imperialists a few days before, and having a mind to see it, and the rather because from thence I could have a very good view of the city, I was gone over Tilly’s bridge of boats to view this fort. About ten o’clock in the morning I perceived they were storming by the firing, and immediately all ran to the works; I little thought of the taking the city, but imagined it might be some out¬ work attacked, for we all expected the city would surrender that day, or next, and they might have capitulated upon very good terms. Being upon the works of the fort, on a sudden I heard the dreadfulest cry raised in the city that can be imagined; ’tis not possible to express the manner of it, and I could see the women and children running about the streets in a most lamentable condition. The city wall did not run along the side where the river was with so great a height, but we could plainly see the mar¬ ket-place and the sevei’al streets which run down to the river. In about an hour’s time after this first cry all was in confusion; there was little shooting, the execution was all cutting of throats, and mere house murders; the resolute garrison, with the brave Baron Falconberg fought it out to the last, and were cut in pieces, and by this time the imperial soldiers having broke open the gates and entered on all sides, the slaughter was very dreadful. We could see the poor people in crowds driven down the streets, flying from the fury of the soldiers, who followed butchering them as fast as they could, and re¬ fused mercy to anybody; ’till driving them to the river’s edge, the desperate wretches would throw themselves into the river, where thousands of them perished, especially women and chil¬ dren. Several men that could swim got over to our side, where the soldiers, not heated with fight, gave them quarter, d 2 36 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. and took them up; and I cannot but do this justice to the German officers in the fort, they had five small flat boats, and they gave leave to the soldiers to go off in them, and get what booty they could, but charged them not to kill anybody, but take them all prisoners. Nor was their humanity ill rewarded; for the soldiers, wisely avoiding those places where their fellows were em¬ ployed in butchering the miserable people, rowed to other places, where crowds of people stood crying out for help, and expecting to be every minute either drowned or murdered ; of these at sundry times they fetched over near six hundred, but took care to take in none but such as offered them good pay. Never was money or jewels of greater service than now, lor those that had anything of that sort to offer were soonest helped. There was a burgher of the town, who seeing a boat coming near him, but out of his call, by the help of a speaking trumpet, told the soldiers in it he would give them twenty thousand dollars to fetch him off; they rowed close to the shore, and got him with his wife and six children into the boat, but such throngs of people got about the boat that had like to have sunk her, so that the soldiers were fain to drive a great many out again by main force, and while they were doing this, some of the enemies coming down the street desperately drove them all into the water. The boat, however, brought the burgher and his wife and children safe ; and though they had not all that wealth about them, yet in jewels and money he gave them so much as made all the fellows very rich. I cannot pretend to describe the cruelty of this day, the town by five in the afternoon was all on a flame; the wealth consumed was inestimable, and a loss to the very conquerer. I think there was little or nothing left but the great church, and about one hundred houses. This was a sad welcome into the army for me, and gave me a horror and aversion to the emperor’s people, as well as to his cause. I quitted the camp the third day after this execu¬ tion, while the fire was hardly out in the city; and from thence getting safe conduct to pass into the Palatinate, I turned out of the road at a small village on the Elbe, called Emerfield, and by ways and towns I can give but small account of, CRUELTIES OF THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS. 37 having a boor for our guide, whom we could hardly under¬ stand, I arrived at Leipsic on the 17 th of May. Wc found the elector intense upon the strengthening of his army, hut the people, in the greatest terror imaginable, every day expecting Tilly with the German army, who, by his cruelty at Magdeburgh, was become so dreadful to the protes- tants, that they expected no mercy wherever he came. The emperor’s power was made so formidable to all the protestants, particularly since the diet at Ratisbon left them in a worse case than it found them, that they had not only formed the conclusions of Leipsic, which all men looked on as the effect of desperation rather than any probable means of their deliverance, but had privately implored the protection and assistance of foreign powers, and particularly the king of Sweden, from whom they had promises of a speedy and power¬ ful assistance. And truly if the Swede had not with a very strong hand rescued them, all their conclusions at Leipsic had served to hasten their ruin. I remember very well, when I was in the imperial army, they discoursed with such contempt of the forces of the protestants, that not only the imperialists, but the protestants themselves gave them up as lost; the emperor had no less than two hundred thousand men in several armies on foot, who most of them were on the back of the protestants in every corner. If Tilly did but write a threatening letter to any city or prince of the union, they presently submitted, renounced the conclusions of Leipsic, and received imperial garrisons, as the cities of Ulm and Memingen, the duchy of Wirtemburgh, and several others, and almost all Suaben. Only the duke of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse upheld the drooping courage of the protestants, and refused all terms of peace; slighted all the threatenings of the imperial generals, and the duke of Brandenburgh was brought in after¬ wards almost by force. The Duke of Saxony mustered his forces under the walls of Leipsic, and I, having returned to Leipsic two days before, saw them pass the review. The duke, gallantly mounted, rode through the ranks, attended by his fieldmarshal Arnheim, and seemed mighty well pleased with them, and indeed the troops made a very fine appearance; but I that had seen Tilley’s army, and his old weather-beaten soldiers, whose discipline and exercises were so exact, and their 38 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. courage so often tried, could not look on the Saxon army without some concern for them, when I considered who they had to deal with. Tilly’s men were rugged surly fellows, their faces had an air of hardy courage, mangled with wounds, and scars, their armour showed the bruises of musket bullets, and the rust of the winter storms. I observed of them their clothes were always dirty, but their arms were clean and bright; they were used to camp in the open fields, and sleep in the frosts and rain ; their horses were strong and hardy like themselves, and well taught their exercises. The soldiers knew their business so exactly that general orders were enough ; every private man was fit to command, and their wheelings, marchings, counter-marchings, and exercise were done with such order and readiness, that the distinct words of command were hardly of any use among them; they were flushed with victory, and hardly knew what it was to fly. There had passed messages between Tilley and the duke, and he gave always such ambigious answers as he thought might serve to gain time; but Tilley was not to be put off’ with words, and drawing his army towards Saxony, sends four propositions to him to sign, and demands an immediate reply. The propositions were positive. 1. To cause his troops to enter into the emperor’s service, and to march in person with them against the King of Sweden. 2. To give the imperial army quarters in his country, and supply them with necessary provisions. 3. To relinquish the union of Leipsic, and disown the ten conclusions. 4. To make restitution of the goods and lands of the church. The duke being pressed by Tilly’s trumpeter for an immediate answer, sat all night, and part of the next day, in council with his privy councillors, debating what reply to give him, which at last was concluded, in short, that he would live and die in defence of the Protestant religion, and the conclusions of Leipsic, and bade Tilly defiance. The die being thus cast, he immediately decamped with his whole army for Torgau, fearing that Tilly should get there before him, and so prevent his conjunction with the Swede. The duke had not yet concluded any positive treaty ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS AT LEIPSIC. 39 with the King of Swedeland, and the Duke of Brandenburgh having made some difficulty of joining, they both stood on some niceties till they had like to have ruined themselves all at once. Brandenburgh had given up the town of Spandau to the king by a former treaty to secure a retreat for his army, and the king was advanced as far as Frankfort upon the Oder, when on a sudden some small difficulties arising, Branden¬ burgh seems cold in the matter, and with a sort of indiffer¬ ence demands to have his town of Spandau restored to him again. Gustavus Adolphus, who began presently to imagine the duke had made his peace with the emperor, and so would either be his enemy, or pretend a neutrality, generously delivered him his town of Spandau; but immediately turns about, and with his whole army besieges him in his capital city of Berlin. This brought the duke to know his error, and by the interpositions of the ladies, the Queen of Sweden being the duke’s sister, the matter was accommodated, and the duke joined his forces with the king. But the Duke of Saxony had like to have been undone by this delay; for the imperialists, under Count de Furstem- burgh, were entered his country, and had possessed them¬ selves of Halle, and Tilly was on his march to join him, as he afterwards did, and, ravaging the whole country, laid siege to Leipsic itself; the duke, driven to this extremity, rather flies to the Swede than treats with him, and on the second of September the duke’s army joined, with the King of Sweden. I had not come to Leipsic but to see the Duke of Saxony’s army, and that being marched as I have said for Torgau, I had no business there ; but if I had, the approach of Tilly and the imperial army was enough to hasten me away, for I had no occasion to be besieged there; so on the 27th of August I left the town, as several of the principal inhabitants had done before, and more would have done had not the governor published a proclamation against it; and besides they knew not whither to fly, for all places were alike exposed. The poor people were under dreadful apprehensions of a siege, and of the merciless usage of the imperial soldiers, the example of Magdeburgli being; fresh before them, the duke and his army gone from them, and the town, though well furnished, but indifferently fortified. 40 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER, In this condition I left them, buying up stores of provisions, working hard to scour their moats, set up palisadoes, repair their fortifications, and preparing all things for a siege ; and following the Saxon army to Torgau, I continued in the camp till a few days before they joined the King of Sweden. I had much ado to persuade my companion from entering into the service of the Duke of Saxony, one of whose colonels, with whom we had contracted a particular acquaintance, offering him a commission to be cosnet in one of the old regiments of horse ; but the difference I had observed between this new army and Tilly’s old troops had made such an impression on me, that I confess I had yet no manner of inclination for the service; and therefore persuaded him to wait a while till we had seen a little farther into affairs, and particularly till we had seen the Swedish army, which we had heard so much of. The difficulties which the elector Duke of Saxony made of joining with the king were made up by a treaty concluded with the king, on the 2nd of September, at Coswick, a small town on the Elbe, whither the king’s army was arrived the night before ; for General Tilly being now entered into the duke’s country, had plundered and ruined all the lower part of it, and was now actually besieging the capital city of Leip- sic. These necessities made almost any conditions easy to him ; the greatest difficulty was that the King of Sweden demanded the absolute command of the army, which the duke submitted to with less good will than he had reason to do, the king’s experience and conduct considered. CHAPTER XV. I QUIT THE SAXON CAMP, AND JOIN THE SWEDISH ARMY- DISCIPLINE OF THE SWEDES-MY COMRADE ENTERS THE SWEDISH SERVICE-SIR JOHN HEPBURN INTRODUCES MB TO THE KING-HIS CONVERSATION-1 ENTER INTO THE SERVICE—BATTLE WITH TILLY’S ARMY, WHO IS COM¬ PLETELY DEFEATED-THE CAMP GIVEN UP TO PLUNDER. I had not patience to attend the conclusions of their par¬ ticular treaties, but as soon as ever the passage was clear I QUIT THE SAXON AND JOIN THE SWEDISH ARMY. 4 ] quitted the Saxon camp, and went to see the Swedish army. I tell in with the out-guards of the Swedes at a little town called Beltsig, on the river Wersa, just as they were relieving the guards, and going to march ; and, having a pass from the English ambassador, was very well received by the officer who changed the guards, and with him I went back into the army. By nine in the morning the army was in full march, the king himself at the lieesd of them on a grey pad, and, riding from one brigade to another, ordered the march of every line himself. When I saw the Swedish troops, their exact discipline, their order, the modesty and familiarity of their officers, and the regular living of the soldiers, their camp seemed a well ordered city; the meanest countrywoman with her market- ware was as safe from violence as in the streets of Vienna. There were no regiments of whores and rags as followed the imperialists; nor any woman in the camp, but such as being known to the provosts to be the wives of the soldiers, who were necessary for washing linen, taking care of the soldiers’ clothes, and dressing their victuals. The soldiers were well clad, not gay, furnished with excellent arms, and exceeding careful of them; and though they did not seem so terrible as I thought Tilly’s men did when I first saw them, yet the figure they made, together with what we had heard of them, made them seem to me invincible. The discipline and order of their marchings, camping, and exercise was excellent and singular, and which was to be seen in no armies but the king’s, his own skill, judgment, and vigilance, having added much to the general conduct of armies then in use. As I met the Swedes on their march I had no opportunity to acquaint myself with anybody, till after the conjunction of the Saxon army, and then it being but four days to the great battle of Leipsic, our acquaintance was but small, saving what fell out accidently by conversation. I met with several gentlemen in the king’s army who spoke English very well, besides that there were three regiments of Scots in the army; the colonels whereof I found were extraordinarily esteemed by the king; as the Lord Rea, Colonel Lumsdell, and Sir John Hepburn. The latter of these, after I had by an accident become acquainted with, I found had been for many years acquainted with my 42 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. father, and on that account I received a great deal of civility from him, which afterwards grew into a kind of intimate friendship. He was a complete soldier indeed, and for that reason so well-beloved by that gallant king, that he hardly knew how to go about any great action without him. It was impossible for me now to restrain my young comrade from entering into the Swedish service, and indeed evervthing was so inviting that I could not blame him. A captain in Sir John Hepburn’s regiment had picked acquaint¬ ance with him, and he having as much gallantry in his face as real courage in his heart, the captain had persuaded him to take service, and promised to use his interest to get him a company in the Scotch brigade, I had made him promise me not to part from me in my travels without my consent, which was the only obstacle to his desires of entering into the Swedish pay; and being one evening in the captain’s tent with him, and discoursing very freely together, the captain asked him very short, but friendly, and looking earnestly at me, Is this the gentleman, Mr. Fielding, that has done so much prejudice to the king of Sweden’s service? I was doubly surprised at the expression, and at the colonel, Sir John Hepburn, coming at that very moment into the tent; the colonel hearing something of the question, but knowing nothing of the reason of it, any more than as I seemed a little to concern myself at it; yet after the ceremony due to his character was over, would needs know what I had done to hinder his majesty’s service. So much truly, says the captain, that if his majesty knew it, he would think himself very little beholden to him. I am sorry, sir, said I, that I should offend in anything, who am but a stranger; but if you would please to inform me, I would endeavour to alter anything in my behaviour that is prejudicial to any one, much less to his majesty’s service. I shall take you at your word, sir, says the captain; the king of Sweden, sir, has a particular request to you. I should be glad to know two things, sir, said I; first, how that can be possible, since I am not yet known to any man in the army, much less to his majesty? and secondly, what the request can be? Why, sir, his majesty desires you would not hinder this gentleman from entering into his service, who it seems desires nothing more, if he may have your consent to it. I have too much honour for his majesty, returned I, to deny anything which Mr COMRADE ENTERS THE SWEDISH SERVICE. 43 he pleases to command me; but methinks it is some hard¬ ship, you should make that the king’s order, which it is ver^ probable he knows nothing of. Sir John Hepburn took the case up something gravely, and drinking a glass of Leipsic beer to the captain, said, Come, captain, don’t press these gentlemen; the king desires no man’s service but what is purely volunteer. So we entered into other discourse, and the colonel perceiving by my talk that I had seen Tilly’s army, was mighty curious in his questions, and seeming very well satisfied with the account 1 gave him. The next day the army having passed the Elbe at Wittem- berg, and joined the Saxon army near Torgau, his majesty caused both armies to draw up in battalia, giving every brigade the same post in the lines as he purposed to fight in. I must do the memory of that glorious general this honour, that I never saw an army drawn up with so much variety, order, and exact regularity since, though I have seen many armies drawn up by some of the greatest captains of the age. The order by which his men were directed to flank and relieve one another, the methods of receiving one body of men if disordered into another, and rallying one squadron without disordering another, was so admirable; the horse everywhere flanked, lined, and defended by the foot, and the foot by the horse, and both by the cannon, was such, that if those orders were but as punctually obeyed, it were im¬ possible to put an army so modelled into any confusion. The view being over, and the troops returned to their camps, the captain with whom we drank the day before meeting me, told me I must come and sup with him in his tent, where he would ask my pardon for the affront he gave me before. I told him he needed not put himself to the trouble; I was not affronted at all, that I would do myself the honour to wait on him, provided he would give me his word not to speak any more of it as an affront. We had not been a quarter of an hour in his tent but Sir John Hepburn came in again, and addressing to me, told me he was glad to find me there; that he came to the captain’s tent to inquire how to send to me; and that I must do him the honour to go with him to wait on the king, who had a mind to hear the account I could give him of the imperial army from my own mouth. I confess I was at some loss in my mind how to make my addrest to his majesty; but X had 44 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. heard so much of the conversable temper of the king, and his particular sweetness of humour with the meanest soldier, that I made no more difficulty, hut having paid my respect to Colonel Hepburn, thanked him for the honour he had done me, and offered to rise and wait upon him. Nay, says the colonel, we will eat first, for I find Gourdon (which was the captain’s name), has got something for supper, and the king’s order is at seven o’clock. So we went to supper, and Sir John becoming very friendly, must know my name; which, when I had told him, and of what place and family, he rose from his seat, and embracing me, told me he knew my father very well, and had been intimately acquainted with him; and told me several passages wherein my father had particu¬ larly obliged him. After this we went to supper, and the king’s health being drank round, the colonel moved the sooner because he had a mind to talk with me. When we were going to the king, he inquired of me where I had been, and what occasion brought me to the army. I told him the short his¬ tory of my travels, and that I came hither from Vienna on purpose to see the King of Sweden and his army; he asked me if there was any service he could do me, by which he meant, whether I desired an employment. I pretended not to take him so, but told him the protection his acquaintance would afford me was more than I could have asked, since I might thereby have opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, which was the chief end of my coming abroad. He perceiving by this that I had no mind to be a soldier, told me very kindly I should command him in anything; that his tent and equi¬ page, horses and servants, should always have orders to be at my service; but that, as a piece of friendship, he would advise me to retire to some place distant from the army, for that the army would march to-morrow, and the king was resolved to fight General Tilly, and he would not have me hazard myself; that if I thought fit to take his advice, he would have me take that interval to see the court at Berlin, whither he would send one of his servants to wait on me. His discourse was too kind not to extort the tenderest acknowledgment from me that I was capable of; I told him his care of me was so obliging, that I knew not what return to make him, but if he pleased to leave me to my choice, I desired no greater favour than to trail a pike under His com¬ mand in the ensuing battle. I can never answer it to your INTRODUCED TO TIIE KING. 45 father, says he, to suffer you to expose yourself so far. I told him my father would certainly acknowledge his friend¬ ship in the proposal made me ; but I believed he knew him better than to think he would be well pleased with me if I should accept of it; that I was sure my father would have rode post five hundred miles to have been at such a battle under such a general, and it should never be told him that his son had rode fifty miles to be out of it. He seemed to be something concerned at the resolution I had taken, and replied very quickly upon me, that he approved very well of my courage; but, says he, no man gets any credit by run¬ ning upon needless adventures, nor loses any by shunning hazards which he has no order for. It is enough, says he, for a gentleman to behave well when he is commanded upon any service; I have had fighting enough, says he, upon these points of honour, and I never got anything but reproof for it from the king himself. Well, sir, said I, however, if a man expects to rise by his valour, he must show it somewhere; and if I were to have any command of an army, I would first try whether I could deserve it; I have never yet seen any service, and must have my induction some time or other. I shall never have a better schoolmaster than yourself, nor a better school than such an army. Well, says Sir John, but you may have the same school and the same teaching after this battle is over ; for I must tell you beforehand, this will be a bloody touch. Tilly has a great army of old lads that are used to boxing, fellows with iron faces, and it is a little too much to engage so hotly the first entrance into the wars. You may see our discipline this winter, and make your cam¬ paign with us next summer, when you need not fear but we shall have fighting enough, and you will be better acquainted with things. We do never put our common soldiers upon pitched battles the first campaign, but place our new men in garrisons, and try them in parties first. Sir, said I, with a little more freedom, I believe I shall not make a trade of the war, and therefore need not serve an apprenticeship to it. It is a hard battle where none escapes; if I come off, I hope I shall not disgrace you, and if not, it will be some satisfac¬ tion to my father to hear his son died fighting under the com¬ mand of Sir John Hepburn, in the army of the King oi Sweden, and I desire no better epitaph upon my tomb. Well, says Sir John; and by this time we were just come to 46 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. the king’s quarters, and the guards calling to us interrupted his reply; so we went into the court yard where the king was lodged, which was in an indifferent house of one of the burghers of Debien, and Sir John stepping up, met the king coming down some steps into a large room which looked over the town wall into a field where part of the artillery was drawn up. Sir John Hepburn sent his man presently to me to come up, which I did; and Sir John, without any cere¬ mony, carries me directly up to the king, who was leaning on his elbow, in the window. The king turning about; This is the English gentleman, says Sir John, who I told your majesty had been in the imperial army. How then did he get hither, says the king, without being taken by the scouts ? At which question Sir John said nothing. By a pass, and please your majesty, from the English ambassador’s secretary at Vienna, said I, making a profound reverence. Have you then been at Vienna? says the king. Yes, and please your majesty, said I; upon which the king folding up a letter he had in his hand, seemed much more earnest to talk about Vienna, than about Tilly. And pray what news had you at Vienna? Nothing, sir, said I, but daily accounts, one in the neck of another, of their own misfortunes, and your majesty’s conquests, which makes a very melancholy court there. But pray, said the king, what is the common opinion there about these affairs ? The common people are terrified to the last degree, said I; and when your majesty took Frankfort upon Oder, if your army had marched but twenty miles into Silesia, half the people would have run out of Vienna, and I left them fortifying the city. They need not, replied the king, smiling, I have no design to trouble them, it is the Protestant countries I must be for. Upon this the Duke of Saxony entered the room, and finding the king engaged, offered to retire; but the king, beckoning with his hand, called to him in French. Cousin, says the king, this gentle¬ man has been travelling, and comes from Vienna, and so made me repeat what I had said before; at which the king went on with me, and Sir John Hepburn informing his majesty that I spoke high Dutch, he changed his lan¬ guage, and asked me in Dutch where it was I saw General Tilly’s army; I told his majesty at the siege of Magde- burgh. At Magdeburgh! said the king, shaking his head; Tilly must answer to me one day for that city, and, if GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF TILLY’S ARMY. 47 not to me, to a greater king than I. Can you guess what army he had with him? said the king. He had two armies with him, said I, but one I suppose will do your majesty no harm. Two armies! said the king. Yes, sir, he has one army of about twenty-six thousand men, said I, and another of above fifteen thousand whores and their atten¬ dants ; at which the king laughed heartily. Ay, ay, says the king, those fifteen thousand do us as much harm as the twenty- six thousand; for they eat up the country, and devour the poor protestants more than the men. Well, says the king, do they talk of fighting us ? They talk big enough, sir, said I, but your majesty has not been so often fought with, as beaten in their discourse. I know not for the men, says the king, but the old man is as likely to do it as talk of it, and I hope to try them in a day or two. The king inquired after that, several matters of me about the Low Countries, the prince of Orange, and of the court and affairs in England; and Sir John Hepburn informing his majesty that I was the son of an English gentleman of his acquaint¬ ance, the king had the goodness to ask him what care he had taken of me against the day of battle. Upon which Sir John repeated to him the discourse we had together by the way; the king, seeming particularly pleased with it, began to take me to task himself. You English gentlemen, says he, are too forward in the wars, which makes you leave them too soon again. Your majesty, replied I, makes war in so pleasant a manner, as makes all the world fond of fighting under your conduct. Not so pleasant neither, says the king; here’s a man can tell you that sometimes it is not very pleasant. I know not much of the warrior, sir, said I, nor of the world, but, if always to conquer be the pleasure of the war, your majesty’s soldiers have all that can be desired. Well, says the king, but however, considering all things, I think you would do well to take the advice Sir John Hepburn has given you. Your majesty may command me to anything, but where your majesty and so many gallant gentlemen hazard their lives, mine is not worth mentioning ; and I should not dare to tell my father, at my return into England, that I was in your majesty’s army, and made so mean a figure, that your majesty would not permit me to fight under that royal standard. Nay, replied the king, I lay no commands upon you, but you axe young. I 48 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. can never die, sir, said I, with more honour than in youi majesty’s service. I spake this with so much freedom, and his majesty was so pleased with it, that he asked me how I would choose to serve, on horseback or on foot. I told his majesty I should be glad to receive any of his majesty’s commands, but, if I had not that honour, I had purposed to trail a pike under Sir John Hepburn, who had done me so much honour as to introduce me into his majesty’s presence. Do so, then, replied the king, and, turning to Sir John Hepburn, said, And pray do you take care of him ; at which, overcome with the goodness of his discourse, I could not answer a word, but made him a profound reverence, and retired. The next day but one, being the 7th of September, before day the army marched from Dieben to a large field about a mile from Leipsic, where we found Tilly’s army in full battalia in admirable order, which made a show both glorious and terrible. Tilly, like a fair gamester, had taken up but one side of the plain, and left the other free, and all the avenues open for the king’s army; nor did he stir to the charge till the king’s army was completely drawn up and advanced towards him. He had in his army forty-four thousand old soldiers, every way answerable to what I have said of them before; and I shall only add, a better army, I believe, never was so soundly beaten. The king was not much inferior in force, being joined with the Saxons, who were reckoned twenty-two thousand men, and who drew up on the left, making a main battle and two wings, as the king did on the right. The king placed himself at the right wing of his own horse: Gustavus Horn had the main battle of the Swedes, the Duke of Saxony had the main battle of his own troops, and General Arnheim the right wing of his horse. The second line of the Swedes consisted of the two Scotch brigades, and three Swedish, with the Finland horse in the wings. In the beginning of the fight, Tilly’s right wing charged with such irresistible fury upon the left of the king’s army, where the Saxons were posted, that nothing could withstand them ; the Saxons fled amain, and some of them carried the news over the country that all was lost, and the king’s army overthrown; and indeed it passed for an oversight with BATTLE WITH TILLY’S ARMY. 49 gome, that the king did E.ot place some of his old troops among the Saxons, who were new raised men. The Saxons lost here near two thousand men, and hardly ever showed their faces again all the battle, except some few of their horse. I was posted with my comrade, the captain, at the head of three Scottish regiments of foot, commanded by Sir John Hepburn, with express directions from the colonel to keep by him. Our post was in the second line, as a reserve to the king of Sweden’s main battle, and, which was strange, the main battle, which consisted of four great brigades of foot, were never charged during the whole tight; and yet we, who had the reserve, were obliged to endure the whole weight of the imperial army. The occasion was, the right wing of the imperialists having defeated the Saxons, and being eager in the chase, Tilly, who was an old soldier, and ready to prevent all mistakes, forbids any pursuit; Let them go, says he, but let us beat the Swedes, or we do nothing. Upon this the victorious troops fell in upon the flank of the king’s army, which, the Saxons being fled, lay open to them. G-ustavus Horn commanded the left wing of the Swedes, and, having first defeated some regiments which charged him, falls in upon the rear of the imperial right wing, and separates them from the van, who were advanced a great way forward in pursuit of the Saxons; and having routed the said rear or reserve, falls on upon Tilly’s main battle, and defeated part of them: the other part was gone in chase of the Saxons, and now also returned, fell in upon the rear of the left wing of the Swedes, charging them in the flank; for they drew up upon the very ground which the Saxons had quitted. This changed the whole front, and made the Swedes face about to the left, and make a great front on their flank to make this good. Our brigades, who were placed as a reserve for the main battle, were, by special order from the king, wheeled about to the left, and placed for the right of this new front to charge the imperialists; they were about twelve thousand of their best foot, besides horse, and, flushed with the execution of the Saxons, fell on like furies. The king by this time had almost defeated the imperialists’ left wing; their horse, Avith more haste than good speed, had charged faster than their foot could follow, and, having broke into the king’s first line, he let them go; VOL. II. E 50 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. where, while the second line bears the shock, and bravely resisted them, the king follows them on the crupper with thirteen troops of horse, and some musketeers, by which, being hemmed in, they were all cut down in a moment as it were, and the army never disordered with them. This fatal blow to the left wing gave the king more leisure to defeat the foot which followed, and to send some assistance to Gustavus Horn in his left wing, who had his hands full with the main battle of the imperialists. But those troops, who, as I said, had routed the Saxons, being called off from the pursuit, had charged our flank, and were now grown very strong, renewed the battle in a terrible manner. Here it was I saw our men go to wreck ; Colonel Hall, a brave soldier, commanded the rear of the Swedes left wing; he fought like a lion, but was slain, and most of his regiment cut off, though not unrevenged; for they entirely ruined Furstemberg’s regiment of foot. Colonel Cullembach, with his regiment of horse, was extremely overlaid also, and the colonel and many brave officers killed, and in short all that wing was shattered and in an ill condition. In this juncture came the king, and having seen what ha¬ voc the enemy made of Cullembacli’s troops, he comes riding along the front of our three brigades, and himself led us on to the charge; the colonel of his guards, the Baron Dyvel, was shot dead just as the king had given him some orders. When the Scots advanced, seconded by some regiments of horse, which the king also sent to the charge, the bloodiest fight began that ever men beheld; for the Scottish brigades giving fire three ranks at a time over one another’s heads, poured in their shot so thick, that the enamy were cut down like grass before a scythe ; and following into the thickest of their foot, with the clubs of their muskets made a most dread¬ ful slaughter, and yet was there no flying. Tilly’s men might be killed and knocked down, but no man turned his back, nor would give an inch of ground, but as they were wheeled, or marched, or retreated by their officers. There was a regiment of cuirassiers, which stood whole to the last, and fought like lions; they went ranging over the held when all their army was broken, and nobody cared for charging them; they were commanded by Baron Cronen- burgh, and at last went off from the battle Avhole. These wei’e armed in black armour from head to foot, and they car* Tilly’s army defeated. 51 no J off their general. About six o’clock the field was cleared of the enemy, except at one place on the king’s side, where some of them rallied, and, though they knew all was lost, would take no quarter, but fought it out to the last man, being found dead the next day in rank and file as they were drawn up. I had the good fortune to receive no hurt in this battle, excepting a small scratch on the side of my neck by the push of a pike; but my friend received a very dangerous wound when the battle was as good as over. He had engaged with a German colonel, whose name we could never learn, and having killed his man, and pressed very close upon him, so that he had shot his horse, the horse in the fall kept the colonel down, lying on one of his legs, upon which he de¬ manded quarter, which Captain Fielding granted, helping him to quit his horse, and having disarmed him, was bringing him into line, when the regiment of cuirassiers, which I men¬ tioned, commanded by Baron Cronenburgh, came roving over the field, and with a flying charge saluted our front with a salvo of carabin-shot, which wounded us a great many men; and among the rest the captain received a shot in his thigh, which laid him on the ground, and being separated from the line, his prisoner got away with them. This was the first service I was in, and indeed I never saw any fight since maintained with such gallantry, such despe¬ rate valour, together with such dexterity of management, both sides being composed of soldiers fully tried, bred to the wars, expert in everything, exact in their order, and incapable of fear, which made the battle be much more bloody than usual. Sir John Hepburn, at my request, took particular care of my comrade, and sent his own surgeon to look after him ; and afterwards, when the city of Leipsic was retaken, provided him lodgings there, and came very often to see him ; and in¬ deed I was in great care for him too, the surgeons being very doubtful of him a great while; for, having lain in the field all night among the dead, his wound*, for want of dressing, and with the extremity of cold, was in a very ill condition, and the pain of it had thrown him into a fever. ’Twas quite dusk before the fight ended, especially where the last rallied troops fought so long, and therefore we durst not break our order to seek out our friends, so that’twas near seven o’clock the neKt morning before we found the captain, who, though very E 2 52 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. weak by the loss of blood, had raised himself up, and placed his back against the buttock of a dead horse. I was the first that knew him, and running to him embraced him with a great deal of joy; he was not able to speak, but made signs to let me see he knew me, so we brought him into the camp, and Sir John Hepburn, as I noted before, sent his own sur¬ geons to look after him. The darkness of the night prevented any pursuit, and was the only refuge the enemy had left; for had there been three hours’ more daylight, ten thousand more lives had been lost, for the Swedes, and Saxons especially, enraged by the obsti¬ nacy of the enemy, were so thoroughly heated that they would have given quarter but to few. The retreat was not sounded ’till seven o’clock, when the king drew up the whole army upon the field of battle, and gave strict command that none should stir from their order; so the army lay under their arms all night, which was another reason why the wounded soldiers suffered very much by the cold ; for the king, who had a bold enemy to deal with, was not ignorant what a small body of desperate men rallied together might have done in the dark¬ ness of the night, and therefore he lay in his couch all night at the head of the line, though it froze very hard. As soon as the day began to peep, the trumpets sounded to horse, and all the dragoons and light horse in the army were commanded to the pursuit. The cuirassiers and some commanded musketeers advanced some miles, if need were, to make good their retreat, and all the foot stood to their arms for a reserve ; but in half an hour word was brought to the king, that the enemy were quite dispersed, upon which detachments were made out of every regiment to search among the dead for any of our friends that were wounded; and the king himself gave a strict order, that if any were found wounded and alive among the enemy, none should kill them, but take care to bring them into the camp: a piece of hu¬ manity which saved the lives of near a thousand of the enemies. This piece of service being over, the enemy’s camp was seized upon, and the soldiers were permitted to plunder it; all the cannon, arms, and ammunition were secured for the king’s use, the rest was given up to the soldiers, who found so much plunder that they had no reason to quarrel for shares. For my share, I was so busy with my wounded captain, that I got nothing but a sword, which I found just by him CAMP GIVEN UP TO PLUNDER. 53 when I first saw him; but my man brought me a very good horse, with a furniture on him. and one pistol of extraor¬ dinary workmanship. I bade him get upon his back and make the best of the day for himself, which he did, and I saw him no more till three clays after, when he found me out at Leipsic, so richly dressed that I hardly knew him; and after making his excuse for his long absence, gave me a very pleasant account where he had been. He told me, that according to my order, being mounted on the horse he had brought me, he first rid into the field among the dead, to get some clothes suitable to the equipage of his horse, and having seized on a laced coat, a helmet, a sword, and an extraordinary good cane, was resolved to see what was become of the enemy, and following the track of the dragoons, which he could easily do by the bodies on the road, he fell in with a small party of twenty-five dragoons, under no command but a corporal, making to a village, where some of the enemy’s horse had been quartered. The dragoons, taking him for an officer, by his horse, desired him to command them, told him the enemy was very rich, and they doubted not a good booty. Pie was a bold brisk fellow, and told them with all his heart; but said he had but one pistol, the other being broke with firing; so they lent him a pair of pistols, and a small piece they had taken, and he led them on. There had been a regiment of horse and some troops of Crabats in the village, but they were fled on the first notice of the pursuit, excepting three troops, and these, on sight of this small party, supposing them to be only the first of a greater number, fled in the greatest confusion imaginable. They took the village and about fifty horses, with all the plunder of the enemy; and with the heat of the service he had spoiled my horse, he said, for which he had brought me two more; for he, passing for the commander of the party, had all the advantage the custom of war gives an officer in like cases. I was very well pleased with the relation the fellow gave me, and laughing at him, Well, captain, said I, and what plunder have you got ? Enough to make me a captain, sir, says he, if you please, and a troop ready raised too ; for the party of dragoons are posted in the village by my command, till they have farther orders. In short, he pulled out sixty or seventy pieces of gold, five or six watches, thirteen or 54 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. fourteen rings, whereof two were diamond rings, one of which was worth fifty dollars; silver as much as his pockets would hold, besides that he had brought three horses, two of which were laden with baggage, and a boor he had hired to stay with them at Leipsic till he had found me out. But I am afraid, captain, says I, you have plundered the village, instead of plundering the enemy. No indeed, not we, says he, but the Crabats had done it for us, and we light of them just as they were carrying it off. Well, said I, but what will you do with your men ; for when you come to give them orders they will know you well enough? No, no, says he, I took care of that; for just now I gave a soldier five dollars to carry them news that the army was marched to Moersburg, and that they should follow thither to the regiment. Having secured his money in my lodgings, he asked me if I pleased to see his horses, and to have one for myself? I told him I would go and see them in the afternoon ; but the fellow being impatient, goes and fetches them. There were three horses, one whereof was a very good one, and, by the furniture, was an officer’s horse of the Crabats ; and that my man would have me accept, for the other he had spoiled, as he said. I was but indifferently horsed before, so I accepted of the horse, and went down with him to see the rest of his plunder there. He had got three or four pair of pistols, two or three bundles of officers’ linen, and lace, a field bed and a .tent, and several other things of value; but at last, coming to a small fardel, And this, says he, I took whole from a Crabat running away with it under his arm ; so he brought it up into my chamber. He had not looked into it, he said, but he understood it was some plunder the soldiers had made, and, finding it heavy, took it by consent. We opened it, and found it was a bundle of some linen, thirteen or fourteen pieces of plate, and in a small cup, three rings, a fine necklace of pearl, and the value of one hundred rix- dollars in money. The fellow was amazed at his own good fortune, and hardly knew what to do with himself. I bid him go take care of his other things, and of his horses, and come again ; so he went and discharged the boor that waited, and packed up all his plunder, and came up to me in his old clothes again. How now, captain, says I, what, have you altered your equipage already? I am no more ashamed, VALUE OF MY SERVANT’S PLUNDER. 55 Bir of your livery, answered he, than of your service, and nevertheless your servant for what I have got by it. Well, says I to him, but what will you do now with all your money f I wish my poor father had some of it, says he ; and for the rest, I got it for you, sir, and desire you would take it. He spoke it with so much honesty and freedom, that I could not but take it very kindly; but however, I told him I would not take a farthing from him, as his master; but I would have him play the good husband with it now he had such good fortune to get it. He told me he would take my directions in everything. Why then, said I, I’ll tell you what I would advise you to do ; turn it all into ready money, and convey it by return home into England, and follow yourself the first opportunity, and with good management you may put yourself in a good posture of living with it. The fellow, with a sort of dejection in his looks, asked me, if he had disobliged me in anything ? Why ? says I. That I was willing to turn him out of his service. No, George (that was his name), says I, but you may live on this money without being a servant. I’d throw it all into the Elbe, says he, over Torgau bridge, rather than leave your service; and besides, says he, can’t I save my money without going from you ? I got it in your service, and I’ll never spend it out of your service, unless you put ice away. I hope my money won’t make me the worse servant; if I thought it would I’d soon have little enough. Nay, George, says I, I shall not oblige you to it for I am not willing to lose you neither. Come then, says I, let us put it all together, and see what it will come to. So he laid it all together on the table ; and by our computation he had gotten as much plunder as was worth about one thousand four hundred rix-dollars, besides three horses with their furniture, a tent, a bed, and some wearing linen. Then he takes the necklace of pearl, a very good watch, a diamond ring, and a hundred pieces of gold, and lays them by themselves ; and having, according to our best calculation, valued the things, he put up all the rest; and as I was going to ask him what they were left out for, he takes them up in his hand, and coming round the table, told me, that if I did not think him unworthy of my service and favour, lie begged I would give him leave to make that present to me ; that it was my first thought, his going out; that he had got it all in my service, and he should think I 56 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. had no kindness for him if I should refuse it. I was resolved in my mind not to take it from him, and yet I could find no means to resist his importunity ; at last I told him, I would accept of part of his present, and that I esteemed his respect in that as much as the whole, and that I would not have him importune me farther; so I took the ring and watch, with the horse and furniture as before, and made him turn all the rest into money at Leipsic; and not suffering him to wear his livery, made him put himself into a tolerable equipage, and taking a young Leipsicer into my service, he attended me as a gentleman from that time forward. The king’s army never entered Leipsic, but proceeded to Moersburg, and from thence to Halle, arid so marched on into Franconia, while the Duke erf Saxony employed his forces in recovering Leipsic, and driving the imperialists out of his country. 1 continued at Leipsic twelve days, being not willing to leave my comrade until he was recovered ; but Sir John Hepburn so often importuned me to come into the army, and sent me word that the king had very often in¬ quired for me, that at last I consented to go without him. So having made our appointment where to meet, and how to correspond by letters, I went to wait on Sir John Hepburn, who then lay with the king’s army at the city of Erfurt in Saxony. As I was riding between Leipsic and Halle, I ob¬ served my horse went very awkwardly and uneasy, and sweat very much, though the weather was cold, and we had rid but very softly. I fancied, therefore, that the saddle might hurt the horse, and calls my new captain up : George, says I, 1 believe .his saddle hurts the horse. So we alighted, and look¬ ing under the saddle found the back of the horse extremely galled; so I bid him take off the saddle, which he did, and giving the horse to my young Leipsicer to lead, we sat down to see if we could mend it, for there was no town near us. Says George, pointing with his finger, If you please to cut open the pannel there, I’ll get something to stuff into it, which will bear it from the horse’s back ; so while he looked for something to thrust in, I cut a hole in the pannel of the sad¬ dle, and following it with my finger I felt something hard, which seemed to move up and down: again, as I thrust it with my finger, Here’s something that should not be here, gays I, not yet imagining what afterwards fell out, and calling, Kun back, bad© him put up his finger; Whatever it is, saya FIND MONET IN MY HORSE’S SADDLE. 57 he, it is this hurts the horse, for it bears just on his back when the saddle is set on. So we strove to take hold on it, but could not reach it; at last we took the upper part of the saddle quite from the pannel, and there lay a small silk purse wrapt in a piece of leather, and full of gold ducats. Thou art born to be rich, George, says I to him, here’s more money. We opened the purse, and found in it four hundred and thirty-eight small pieces of gold. There I had a new skirmish with him whose the money should be. I told him it was his; he told me no, I had accepted of the horse and furniture, and all that was about him was mine, and solemnly vowed he would not have a penny of it. I saw n© remedy but put up the money for the present, mended our saddle, and went on. We lay that night at Halle, and having had such a booty in the saddle, I made him search the saddles of the other two horses ; in one of which we found three French crowns, but nothing in the other. CHAPTER V. ARRIVAL AT ERFURT—I RECEIVE A WOUND BEFORE THE CASTLE OF MARIENBURGH-GRACIOUS RECEPTION OF THE KING-BRAVERY OF A PRIVATE MUSKETEER-BATTLE OF OPPENHEIM-MARCH TO MENTZ-LETTER FROM MY FATHER-TILE KING APPOINTS ME A COLONEL OF HORSE -BATTLE OF LECH, AND DEFEAT OF TILLY. We arrived at Erfurt the 28th of September, but the army was removed, and entered into Franconia, and at the siege of Koningshoven we came up with them. The first thing I did, was to pay my civilities to Sir John Hepburn, who re¬ ceived me very kindly, but told me withal, that I had not done well to be so long from him; and the king had particu¬ larly inquired for me, had commanded him to bring me to him at my return. I told him the reason of my stay at Leipsic, and how I had left that place, and my comrade, before he was cured of his wounds, to wait on him, according to his letters. He told me the king had spoken some things very obliging about me, and he believed would offer me some command in the army, if I thought well to accept of it. I told him I had promised my father not to take service in an army without 58 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. his leave; and yet if his majesty should offer it, I neither knew how to resist it, nor had 1 an inclination to anything more than the service, and such a leader; though I had much rather have served as a volunteer at my own charge (which, as he knew, was the custom of our English gentle¬ men), than in any command. He replied, Do as you think fit; but some gentlemen would give twenty thousand crowns to stand so fair for advancement as you do. The town of Koningshoven capitulated that day, and Sir John was ordered to treat with the citizens, so I had no farther discourse with him then ; and the town being taken, the army immediately advanced down the river Main, for the king had his eye upon Frankfort and Mentz, two great cities, both which he soon became master of, chiefly by the pro¬ digious expedition of his march; for within a month after the battle, he was in the lower parts of the empire, and had passed from the Elbe to the Rhine, an incredible conquest; had taken all the strong cities, the bishoprics of' Bamberg, of Wurtzburg, and almost all the circle of Franconia, with part of Schawberland ; a conquest large enough to be seven years a making by the common course of arms. Business going on thus, the king had not leisure to think of small matters, and I being not thoroughly resolved in my mind, did not press Sir John to introduce me. I had wrote to my father, with an account of my reception in the army, the civilities of Sir John Hepburn, the particulars of the battle, and had indeed pressed him to give me leave to serve the King of Sweden; to which particular I waited for an answer, but the following occasion determined me before an answer could possibly reach me. The king was before the strong castle of Marienburg, which commands the city of Wurtzburg; he had taken the city, but the garrison and richer part of the burghers were retired into the castle, and trusting to the strength of the place, which was thought impregnable, they bade the Swedes do their worst; it was well provided with all things, and a strong garrison in it; so that the army indeed expected it would be a long piece of work. The castle stood on a high rock, and on the steep of the rock was a bastion, which de¬ fended the only passage up the hill into the castle ; the Scots were chose out to make this attack, and the king was an eye¬ witness of their gallantry. In this action Sir John was not WOUNDED BEFORE CASTLE OF MARIENBCRG. 59 commanded out, but Sir James Ramsey led them on; but [ observed that most of the Scotch officers in the other regi¬ ments prepared to serve as volunteers for the honour of their countrymen, and Sir John Hepburn led them on. I was re¬ solved to see this piece of service, and therefore joined myself to the volunteers; we were armed with partisans, and each man two pistols at our belt. It was a piece of service that seemed perfectly desperate; the advantage of the hill, the precipice we were to mount, the height of the bastion, the resolute courage and number of the garrison, who from a complete covert made a terrible fire upon us, all joined to make the action hopeless. Rut the fury of the Scots musketeers was not to be abated by any difficulties; they mounted the hill, scaled the works like madmen, running upon the enemy’s pikes; and after two hours’ desperate fight, in the midst of fire and smoke, took it by storm, and put all the garrison to the sword. The volunteers did their part, and had their share of the loss too, for thirteen or fourreen were killed out of thirty-seven, besides the wounded, among whom I received a hurt more troublsome than dangerous, by a thrust of a halberd into my arm, which proved a very painful wound, and I was a great while before it was thoroughly recovered. The king received us as we drew off at the foot of the hill, calling the soldiers his brave Scots, and commending the officers by name. The next morning the castle was also taken by storm, and the greatest booty that ever was found in any one conquest in the whole war; the soldiers got here so much money that they knew not what to do with it, and the plunder they got here and at the battle of Leipsic, made them so unruly, that had not the king been the best master of discipline in the world, they had never been kept in any reasonable bounds. The king had taken notice of our small party of volunteers, and though I thought he had not seen me, yet he sent the next morning for Sir John Hepburn, and asked him if I were not come to the army. Yes, says Sir John, he has been here two or three days; and as he was forming an excuse for not having brought me to wait on his majesty, says the king, in¬ terrupting him, I wonder you would let him thrust himself into such a hot piece of service as storming the Port Graft; pray let him know I saw him, and have a very good account of his behaviour. Sir John returned with this account to me, 60 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. and pressed me to pay my duty to his majesty the next morning; and accordingly, though I had but an ill night with the pain of my wound, I was with him at the levee in the castle. I cannot but give some short account of the glory of the morning; the castle had been cleared of the dead bodies of the enemies, and what was not pillaged by the soldiers, was placed under a guard. There was first a magazine of very good arms for about eighteen or twenty thousand foot, and four thousand horse, a very good train of artillery, of about eighteen pieces of battery, thirty-two brass field pieces, and four mortars. The bishop’s treasure, and other public monies not plundered by the soldiers, was telling out by the officers, and amounted to four hundred thousand florins in money; and the burghers of the town, in solemn procession, bare¬ headed, brought the king three ton of gold, as a composition to exempt the city from plunder. Here was also a stable of gallant horses, which the king had the curiosity to go and see. When the ceremony of the burghers was over, the king came down into the castle court, walked on the parade, where the great train of artillery was placed on their carriages, and round the walls, and gave order for repairing the bastion that was stormed by the Scots; and as, at the entrance of the parade, Sir John Hepburn and I made our reverence to the king, Ho, Cavalier, said the king to me, I am glad to see you, and so passed forward; I made my bow very low, but his majesty said no more at that time. When the view was over, the king went up into the lodg¬ ings, and Sir John and I walked in an antichamber for about a quarter of an hour, when one of the gentlemen of the bed¬ chamber came out to Sir John, and told him the king asked for him; he stayed but a little with the king, and came out to me, and told me the king had ordered him to bring me to him. His majesty, with a countenance full of honour and good¬ ness, interrupted my compliment, and asked me how I did; at which, answering only with a bow, says the king, I am sorry to see you are hurt, I would have laid my commands on you not to have shown yourself in so sharp a piece of ser¬ vice, if I had known you had been in the camp. Your majesty does me too much honour, said I, in your care of a life that has yet done nothing to deserve your favour. Ilia ms majesty’s generosity to me. 61 majesty was pleased to say something very kind to me, relat¬ ing to my behaviour in the battle of Leipsic, which I have not vanity enough to write ; at the conclusion whereof, Avhen I replied very humbly, that I was not sensible that any service I had done, or could do, could possibly merit so much good¬ ness, he told me he had ordered me a small testimony of his esteem, and withal gave me his hand to kiss. I was now conquered, and, with a sort of surprise, told his majesty I found myself so much engaged by his goodness, as well as my own inclination, that if his majesty would please to accept ot my devoir, I was resolved to serve in his army, or wherever he pleased to command me. Serve me ! says the king, why so you do ; but I must not have you be a musketeer, a poor soldier at a dollar a week will do that. Pray Sir John, says the king, give him what commission he desires. No commis¬ sion, sir, says I, would please me better than leave to fight near your majesty’s person, and to serve you at my own charge, till 1 am qualified by more experience lo receive your commands. Why then it shall be so, said the king, and I charge you, Hepburn, says he, when anything offers that is either fit for him, or he desires, that you tell me of it; and giving me his hand again to kiss, I withdrew. I was followed, before I had passed the castle gate, by one of the king’s pages, who brought me a wai'rant, directed to Sir John Hepburn, to go to the master of the horse, for an immediate delivery of things ordered by the king himself for my account; where being come, the querry produced me a very good coach with four horses, harness and equipage, and two very fine saddle-horses, out of the stable of the bishop’s horses afore-mentioned ; with these there was a list for three servants, and a warrant, to the steward of the king’s baggage to defray me, my horses and servants, at the king’s charge, till further order. I was very much at a loss how to manage myself in this so strange freedom of so great a prince; and consulting with Sir John Hepburn, I was proposing to him whether it was not proper to go immediately back to pay mv duty to his majesty, and acknowledge his bounty in the best terms I could ; but while we were resolving to do so, the guards stood to their arms, and we saw the king go out at the gate in his coach to pass into the city, so we were diverted from it for that time. I acknowledge the bounty of the king was very surprising, but I must say it was not so 62 MEMOIRS OF A JATALIER. very strange to me when I afterwards saw the course of his management. Bounty in him was his natural talent, but he never distributed his favours but where he thought himself both loved and faithfully served; and when he was so, even the single actions of his private soldiers he would take parti¬ cular notice of himself, and publicly own, acknowledge, and reward them, of which I am obliged to give some instances. A private musketeer, at the storming the castle of Wurtz- burg, when all the detachment was beaten otf, stood in the face of the enemy, and fired his piece ; and, though he had a thousand shot made at him, stood unconcerned, and charged his piece again, and let fly at the enemy, continuing to do so three times; at the same time, beckoning with his hand to his fellows to come on again, which they did, animated by his example, and carried the place for the king. AVhen the town was taken, the king ordered the regiment to be drawn out, and calling for that soldier, thanked him before them all for taking the town for him, gave him a thousand dollars in money, and a commission with his own hand for a foot company, or leave to go home, which he would; the soldier took the commission on his knees, kissed it, and put it into his bosom, and told the king he would never leave his service as long as he lived. This bounty of the king’s, timed and suited by his judg¬ ment, was the reason that he was very well served, entirely beloved, and most punctually obeyed by his soldiers, who were sure to be cherished and encouraged, if they did well, having the king generally an eyewitness of their behaviour. My indiscretion rather than valour had engaged me so far at the battle of Leipsic, that being in the van of Sir John Hepburn’s brigade, almost three whole companies of us were separated from our line, and surrounded by the enemies’ pikes. I cannot but say also, that we were disengaged, rather by a desperate charge Sir John made with the whole regiment to fetch us off, than by our own valour, though we were not wanting to ourselves neither ; but this part of the action being talked of very mu ah to the advantage of the young English volunteer, and possibly more than I deserved, was the occasion of all the distinction the king used me with ever after. I had by this time letters from my father, in which, though with reluctance, he left me at liberty to enter into arms if I thought fit, always obliging me to be directed, and, as he said* COMMAND A PARTY AT FORT jPPENHEIM. 63 commanded by Sir John Hepburn. At the same time he wrote to Sir John Hepburn, commending his son’s fortunes, as he called it, to his care ; which lettei’S Sir John showed the king, unknown to me. I took care always to acquaint my father of every circum¬ stance, and forgot not to mention his majesty’s extraordinary favour, which so affected my father, that he obtained a very honourable mention of it in a letter from King Charles to the King of Sweden, written by his own hand. I had waited on his majesty with Sir John Hepburn, to give him thanks for his magnificent present, and was received with his usual goodness, and after that I was every day among the gentlemen of his ordinary attendance ; and if his majesty went out on a party, as he would often do, or to view the country, I always attended him among the volunteers, of whom a great many always followed him ; and he -would often call me out. talk with me, send me upon messages to towns, to princes, free cities, and the like, upon extraordinary occasions. The first piece of service he put me upon had like to have embroiled me with one of his favourite colonels. The king was marching through the Bergstraet, a low country on the edge of the Rhine, and, as all men thought, was going to besiege Heidelberg, but, on a sudden, orders a party of his guards, with five companies of Scots, to be drawn out; while they were drawing out this detachment, the king calls me to him, Ho! c walier, says he, that was his usual word, you shall command this party; and thereupon gives me orders to march back all night, and in the morning, by break of day to take post under the walls of the fort of Oppenheim, and immediately to intrench myself as well as I could. Grave Neels, the colonel of his guards, thought himself injured by this command, but the king took the matter upon himself; and Grave Neels told me very familiarly afterwards, We have such a master, says he, that no man can be affronted by. I thought myself wronged, says he, when you commanded my men over my head; and for my life, says he, I knew not which way to be angry. I executed my commission 30 punctually, that by break of day I was set down within musket shot of the fort, under covert of a little mount, on which stood a windmill, and had indifferently fortified myself, and at the same time had posted 6ome of my men on two other passes but at farther distance 64 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. from the fort, so that the fort was effectually blocked up on the land side. In the afternoon the enemy sallied on my first intrenchment, but being covered from their cannon, and de¬ fended by a ditch which I had drawn across the road, they were so well received by my musketeers, that they retired with the loss of six or seven men. The next day, Sir John Hepburn was sent with two brigades of foot to carry on the work, and so my commission ended. The king expressed himself very well pleased with what I had done ; and when he was so, was never sparing of telling of it, for he used to say, that public commendations were a great encouragement to valour. While Sir John Hepburn lay before the fort, and was pre¬ paring to storm it, the king’s design was to get over the Rhine, but the Spaniards which were in Oppenlieim had sunk all the boats they could find ; at last the king, being informed where some lay that were sunk, caused them to be weighed with all the expedition possible, and in the night of the seventh of December, in three boats passed over his regiment of guards, about three miles above the town, and as the king thought secure from danger. But they were no sooner landed, and not drawn into order, but they were charged by a body of Spanish horse, and had not the darkness given them opportunity to draw up in the inclosures in several little parties, they had been in great danger of being disordered; but by this means they lined the hedges and lanes so with musketeers, that the remainder had time to draw up in battalia, and saluted the horse with their muskets, so that they drew farther off. The king was very impatient, hearing his men engaged, having no boats nor possible means to get over to help them. At last, about eleven o’clock at night, the boats came back, and the king thrust another regiment into them, and, though his officers dissuaded him, would go over himself with them on foot, and did so. This was three months that very day when the battle of Leipsic was fought, and winter-time too, that the progress of his arms had spread from the Elbe, where it parts Saxony and Brandenburgh, to the lower Palatinate and the Rhine. I went over in the boat with the king. I never saw him in so much concern in my life, for he was in pain for his men ; but before we got on shore the Spaniards retired. However the king landed, ordered his men, and prepared to intrench. SCALE THE PORT AND TAKE POSSESSION. G5 but he had not time; for by that time the boats were put oft again, the Spaniards, not knowing ’more troops were landed, and being reinforced from Oppenheim came on again, and charged with great fury; but all things were now in order ; and they were readily received and beaten back again: they came on again the third time, and with repeated charges attacked us, but at last finding us too strong for them, they gave it over. By this time another regiment of foot was come over, and as soon as day appeared, the king, with the three regiments, marched to the town, which surrendered at the first summons, and the next day the fort yielded to Sir John Hepburn. The castle of Oppenheim held out still with a garrison of eight hundred Spaniards, and the king, leaving two hundred Scots of Sir James Ramsey’s men in the towh, drew out to attack the castle. Sir James Ramsey being left wounded at Wurtzburg, the king gave me the command of those two hundred men, which were a regiment, that is to say, all that were left of a gallant regiment of two thousand Scots, which the king brought out of Sweden with him, under that brave colonel; there was about thirty officers, who, having no soldiers, were yet in pay, and served as reformadoes with the regiment, and were over and above the two hundred men. The king designed to storm the castle on the lower side by the way that leads to Mentz, and Sir John Hepburn landed from the other side, and marched up to storm on the Rhine port. My reformado Scots, having observed that the town port of the castle was not so well guarded as the rest, all the eyes of the garrison being bent towards the king and Sir John Hepburn, came running to me, and told me they believed they could enter the castle sword in hand, if I would give them leave. I told them I durst not give them orders, my commission being only to keep and defend the town ; but they being very importunate, I told them they were volun¬ teers, and might do what they pleased; that I would lend them fifty men, and draw up the rest to second them, or bring them off, as I saw occasion, so as I might not hazard the town. This was as much as they desired; they sallied immediately, and in a trice the volunteers scaled the port, cut in pieces the guard, and bnrst open the gate, at which the fifty entered; finding the gate won, I advanced im- VOL. H. F 86 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. mediately with a hundred musketeers more, having locked up all the gates of the town but the castle port, and leaving fifty still for a reserve just at that gate; the townsmen too, seeing the castle as it were taken, run to arms, and followed me with above two hundred men. The Spaniards were knocked down by the Scots before they knew what the matter was, and the king and Sir John Hepburn, advancing to storm, were surprised, when, instead of resistance, they saw the Spaniards throwing themselves over the walls to avoid the fury of the Scots. Few of the garrison got away, but were either killed or taken, and, having cleared the castle, I set open the port on the king’s side, and sent his majesty word the castle was his own. The king came on, and entered on foot. I received him at the head of the Scots reformatloes, who all saluted him with their pikes. The king gave them his hat, and turning about, Brave Scots! brave Scots! says he, smiling, you were too quick for me; then beckoning to me, made me tell him how and in what manner we had managed the storm, which he was exceeding well pleased with, but especially at the caution I had used to bring them off if they had miscarried, and secure the town. From hence the army marched to Mentz, which in four days’ time capitulated, with the fort and citadel, and the city paid his majesty three hundred thousand dollars to be exempted from the fury of the soldiers; here the king himself drew the plan of those invincible fortifications, which, to this day, make it one of the strongest cities in Germany. Friburg, Koningstien, Niustat, Iveiser-Lautern, and almost all the Lower Palatinate, surrendered at the very terror of the king of Sweden’s approach, and never suffered the danger of a siege. The king held a most magnificent court at Mentz, attended by the landgrave of Hesse, with an incredible number of princes and lords of the empire, with ambassadors and residents of foreign princes; and here Iris majesty stayed till March, when the queen, with a great retinue of Swedish nobility, came from Erfurt to see him. The king, attended by a gallant train of German nobility, went to Frankfort, and from thence on to Iloest, to meet the queen, where her majesty arrived February 8th. ARRIVAL OF THE KING OF BOHEMIA. 67 During the king’s stay in these parts, his armies were not idle; his troops, on one side, under the Rhinegrave, a brave and ever-fortunate commander, and under the landgrave of Hesse, on the other, ranged the country from Lorrain to. Luxemburg, and past the Moselle on the west, and the Weser on the north. Nothing could stand before them the Spanish army, which came to the relief of the catholic electors, was everywhere defeated, and beaten quite out of the country, and the Lorrain army quite ruined; ’twas a most pleasant court sure as ever was seen, where every day expresses arrived of armies defeated, towns surrendered, contributions agreed upon, parties routed, prisoners taken, and princes sending ambassadors to sue for truces and neutralities, to make submissions and compositions, and to pay arrears and contributions. Here arrived, February 10th, the king of Bohemia from England, and with him my Lord Craven, with a body of Dutch horse, and a very fine train of English volunteers, who immediately, without any stay, marched on to Hoest to wait upon his majesty of Sweden, who received him with a great deal of civility, and was treated at a noble collation, by the king and queen, at Frankfort. Never had the unfortunate king so fair a prospect of being restored to his inheritance of the Palatinate as at that time; and had King James, his father-in-law, had a soul answerable to the occasion, it had been effected before; but it was a strange thing to see him equipped from the English court, with one lord and about forty or fifty English gentlemen in Ins attendance; whereas, had the king of England now, as it is well known he might have done, furnished him with ten thousand or twelve thousand English foot, nothing could have hindered him taking a full possession of his country and yet even without that help did the king of Sweden cleai' almost his whole country of imperialists, and after his death, reinstall his son in the electorate, but no thanks to us. The Lord Craven did me the honour to inquire for me by¬ name, and his majesty of Sweden did me yet more, by- presenting me to the king of Bohemia; and my Lord Craven gave me a letter from my father, and speaking something of my father having served under the Prince of Orange in the famous battle of Neuport, the king, smiling, returned, And 68 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. pray tell him from me his son has served as well in the warm battle ol' Leipsic. My father, being very much pleased with the honour I had received from so great a king, had ordered me to ac¬ quaint his majesty, that if he pleased to accept of their service he would raise him a regiment of English horse at his own charge, to be under my command, and to be sent over into Holland; and my Lord Crave,n had orders from the king of England, to signify his consent to the said levy. I acquainted my old friend Sir John Hepburn with the contents of the letter, in order to have his advice, who, being pleased with the proposal, would have me go to the king immediately with the letter, but present service put it off for some days. The taking of Creutznach was the next service of any moment; the king drew out in person to the siege of this town ; the town soon came to parley, but the castle seemed a work of difficulty; for its situation was so strong and so surrounded with works behind and above one another, that most people thought the king would receive a check from it; but it was ' not easy to resist the resolution of the king ol Sweden. He never battered it but with two small pieces, but having viewed the works himself, ordered a mine under the first ra¬ velin, which being sprung with success, he commands a-storm; I think there was not more commanded men than volunteers, both English, Soots, French, and Germans: my old comrade was by this time recovered of his wound at Leipsic, and made one. The first body of volunteers of about forty, were led on by my lord Craven, and I led the second, among whom were most of the reformado Scots officers who took the castle of Oppenheim. The first party was not able to make anything of it; the garrison fought with so much fury that many of the volunteer gentlemen being wounded, and some killed, the rest were beaten off with loss. The king was in some passion at his men, and rated them for running away, as he called it, though they really retreated in good order, and commanded the assault to be renewed. It was our turn to fall on next; our Scots officers, not being used to be beaten, advanced im¬ mediately, and my Lord Craven, with his volunteers, pierced in with us, fighting gallantly in the breach with a pike in his CONTENTS OF MY FATHER’S LETTER. 69 hand, and, to give him the honour due to his bravery, he was with the first on the top of the rampart, and gave his hand to my comrade, and lifted him up after him ; we helped one another up, till at last almost all the volunteers had gained the height of the ravelin, and maintained it with a great deal of resolution, expecting when the commanded men had gained the same height to advance upon the enemy, when one of the enemy’s captains called to my Lord Craven, and told him, il they might have honourable terms they would capitulate ; which my lord telling him he would engage for, the garrison fired no more, and the captain leaping down from the next rampart, came with my Lord Craven into the camp, where the conditions were agreed on, and the castle surrendered. After the taking of this town, the king hearing of Tilly’s approach, and how he had beaten Gustavus Horn, the king’s fieldmarshal, out of Bamberg, began to draw his forces to¬ gether, and leaving the care of his conquests in these parts to his Chancellor Oxenstein, prepares to advance towards Bavaria. I had taken an opportunity to wait upon his majesty with Sir John Hepburn, and being about to introduce the discourse of my father’s letter, the king told me he had received a com¬ pliment on my account in a letter from King Charles. I told him his majesty, had by his exceeding generosity bound me and all my friends to pay their acknowledgments to him, and that I supposed my father had obtained such a mention of it from the king of England, as gratitude moved him to; that his majesty’s favour had been shown in me to a family both willing and ready to serve him; that I had received some commands from my father, which, if his majesty pleased to do me the honour to accept of, might put me in a condition to acknowledge his majesty’s goodness, in a manner more proportioned to the sense I had of his favour; and with that I produced my father’s letter, and read that clause in it which related to the regiment of horse, which was as follows: “ I read with a great deal of satisfaction the account you give of the great and extraordinary conquests of the King of Sweden, and with more his majesty’s singular favour to you. I hope you will be careful to value and deserve so much honour. I am glad you rather chose to serve as a volunteer at your own charge, than to take any command, which, for want of experience, you might misbehave rj. £0 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. “ I have obtained of the king that he will particularly thank ■his majesty of Sweden for the honour he has done you ; and if his majesty gives you so much freedom, I could he glad you should in the humblest manner thank his majesty in the name of an old broken soldier. “ If you think yourself officer enough to command them, and his majesty pleased to accept them, I would have you offer to raise his majesty a regiment of horse, which I think I may near complete in our neighbourhood with some of your old acquaintance, who are very willing to see the world. Ii his majesty gives you the word, they shall receive his com¬ mand in the Maes, the king having promised me to give them arms, and transport them for that seiwice into Holland; and I hope they may do his majesty such service as may be for your honour, and the advantage of his majesty’s interest and glory. “Your loving father.” It is an offer like a gentleman and like a soldier, says the king, and I’ll accept of it on two conditions; first, says the king, that I will pay your father the advance money for the raising the regiment; and next, that they shall be landed in the Weser or the Elbe, for which, if the King of England will not, I will pay the passage; for if they land in Holland, it may prove very difficult to get them to us when the army shall be marched out of this part of the country. I returned this answer to my father, and sent my man George into England to order that regiment, and made him quarter-master. I sent blank commissions for the officers, signed by the king, to be filled up as my father should think fit; and when I had the king’s order for the commissions, the secretary told me I must go back to the king with them. Accordingly I went back to the king, who, opening the packet, laid all the commissions but one upon a table before him, and bade me take them, and, keeping that one still in his hand, Now, says he, you are one of my soldiers; and therewith gave me his commission, as colonel of horse in present pay. I took the commission, kneeling, and humbly thanked his majesty. But, says the king, there is one article of war I expect of you more than of others. Your majesty can expect nothing of me which I shall not willingly comply with, said I, as soon as I have the honour to understand what it is. Why, it is, COMMISSIONED AS COLONEL OF HORSE. 71 says the king, that you shall never fight but when you have orders ; for I shall not be willing to lose my colonel before I have the regiment. I shall be ready at all times, sir, returned I, to obey your majesty’s orders. I sent my man express with the king’s answer, and the commission to my father, who had the regiment completed in less than two months’ time, and six of the officers, with a list of the rest, came away to me, whom I presented to his ma¬ jesty when he lay before Nuremburg, where they kissed his hand. One of the captains offered to bring the whole regiment travelling as private men into the army in six weeks’ time, and either to transport their equipage, or buy it in Germany; but it was thought impracticable. However, I had so many came in that manner that I had a complete troop always about me, and obtained the king’s order to muster them as a troop. On the 8th of March the king decamped, and marching up the river Maine, bent his course directly for Bavaria, taking several small places by the way, and, expecting to engage with Tilly, who, he thought, would dispute his entrance into Bavaria, kept his army together; but Tilly, finding himself too weak to encounter him, turned away, and leaving Bavaria open to the king, marched into the Upper Palatinate. The king finding the country clear of the imperialists, comes to Nuremberg, made his entrance into that city the 21st of March, and being nobly treated by the citizens, he continued his march into Bavaria, and on the 26th sat down before Donawert. The town was taken the next day by storm, so swift were the conquests of this invincible captain. Sir John Hepburn, with the Scots and the English volunteers at the head of them, entered the town first, and cut all the garrison to pieces, except such as escaped over the bridge. I had no share in the business of Donawert being now among the horse, but I was posted on the roads with five troops of horse, where we picked up a great many stragglers of the garrison, whom we made prisoners of war. It is observable, that this town of Donawert is a very strong place, and well fortified, and yet such expedition did the king make, and such resolution did he use in his first attacks, that he carried the town without putting himself to 72 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. the trouble of formal approaches. It was generally his way, when he came before any town with a design to besiege it, he never would encamp at a distance, and begin his trenches a great way off', but bring his men immediately within half musket-shot of the place; there, getting under the best covert he could, he would immediately begin his batteries and trenches before their faces ; and if there was any place possi¬ ble to be attacked, he would fall to storming immediately. By this resolute way of coming on, he ‘carried many a town in the first heat of his men, which would have held out many days against a more regular siege. This march of the king broke all Tilly’s measures, for now he was obliged to face about, and leaving the Upper Palati¬ nate, to come to the assistance of the Duke of Bavaria; for the king being twenty thousand strong, besides ten thousand foot and four thousand horse and dragoons which joined him from the Duringer Wald, was resolved to ruin the duke, who lay now open to him, and was the most powerful and invete¬ rate enemy of the protestants in the empire. Tilly was now joined with the Duke of Bavaria, and might together make about twenty-two thousand men ; and in order to keep the Swedes out of the country of Bavaria, had planted themselves along the banks of the river Lech, which runs on the edge of the duke’s territories; and having forti¬ fied the other side of the river, and planted his cannon for several miles, at all the convenient places on the river, resolved to dispute the king’s passage. I shall be the longer in relating this account of the Lech, being esteemed in those days as great an action as any battle or siege of that age, and particularly famous for the disaster of the gallant old general Tilly ; and for that I can be more particular in it than other accounts, having been an eye¬ witness to every part of it. The king being truly informed of the disposition of the Bavarian army, was once of the mind to have left the banks of the Lech, have repassed the Danube, and so setting down before Ingolstat, the duke’s capital city, by the taking that strong town, to have made his entrance into Bavaria, and the conquest of such a fortress, one entire action; but the strength of the place, and the difficulty of maintaining hi3 army in an enemy’s country, while Tilly was so strong in the PREPARE TO ENGAGE WITH TILLY AT LECH. 73 field, diverted him from that design; he therefore concluded that Tilly was first to be beaten out of the country, and then the siege of. Ingolstat would be easier. Whereupon the king resolved to go and view the situation of the enemy. His majesty went out the 2nd of April with a strong party of horse, which I had the honour to command ; we marched as near as we could to the banks of the river, not to be too much exposed to the enemy’s cannon, and hav¬ ing gained a little height, where the whole course of the river might he seen, the king halted, and commanded to draw up. The king alighted, and calling me to him, examined every reach and turning of the river by his glass, but finding the river run a long and almost a straight course, he could find no place which he liked, but at last turning himself north, and looking down the stream, he found the river fetching a long reach, double short upon itself, making a round and very narrow point. There’s a point will do our business, says the king, and, if the ground be good, I’ll pass there, let Tilly do his worst. He immediately ordered a small party of horse to view the ground, and to bring him word particularly how high the bank was on each side and at the point; and he shall have fifty dollars, says the king, that will bring me word how deep the water is. I asked his majesty leave to let me go, which he would by no means allow of; but as the party was draw¬ ing out, a serjeant of dragoons told the king, if he pleased to let him go disguised as a boor, he would bring him an account of everything he desired. The king liked the motion well enough, and the fellow being very well acquainted with the country, puts on a ploughman’s habit, and went away imme¬ diately with a long pole upon his shoulder; the horse lay all this while in the woods, and the king stood undiscerned by the enemy on the little hill aforesaid. The dragoon with his long pole comes down boldly to the bank of the river, and calling to the centinels which Tilly had placed on the other bank, talked with them, asked them if they could not help him over the river, and pretended he wanted to come to them. At last being come to the point, where, as I said, the river makes a short turn, he stands parleying with them a great while, and sometimes pretending to wade over, he puts his long pole into the water, then finding it pretty shallow, he pulls off his hose and goes in, still thrusting his pole in before him, till being gotten up to his middle, he could reach beyond 74 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. him, where it was too deep, and so shaking his head, comes back again. The soldiers on the other side laughing at him, asked him if he could swim ? He said no. Why you fool you, says one of the centinels, the channel of the river is twenty feet deep. How do you know that? says the dragoon. Why our engineer, says he,-measured it yesterday. This was what he wanted, but not yet fully satisfied; Ay but, says he, may be it may not be very broad, and if one of you would wade in to meet me till I could reach you with my pole, I’d give him half a ducat to pull me over. The inno¬ cent way of his discourse so deluded the soldiers, that one of them immediately strips and goes in up to the shoulders, and our dragoon goes in on this side to meet him ; but the stream took the other soldier away, and he being a good swimmer, came swimming over to this side. The dragoon was then in a great deal of pain for fear of being discovered, and was once going to kill the fellow, and make off; but at last resolved to carry on the humour, and having entertained the fellow with a tale of a tub, about the Swedes stealing his oats, the fellow being cold, wanted to be gone, and as he was willing to be rid of him, pretended to be very sorry he could not get over the river, and so makes off. By this, however, he learned both the depth and breadth of the channel, the bottom and nature of both shores, and everything the king wanted to know. We could see him from the hill by our glasses very plain, and could see the soldier naked with him ; says the king, Pie will certainly be discovered and knocked on the head from the other side: he is a fool, says the king, if he does not kill the fellow and run off; but when the dragoon told his tale, the king was extremely well satisfied with him, gave him one hundred dollars, and made him a quarter-master to a troop of cuiras¬ siers. The king having farther examined the dragoon, he gave him a very distinct account of the shore and ground on this side, which he found to be higher than the enemy’s by ten or twelve foot, and a hard gravel. Hereupon the king resolves to pass there, and in order to it, gives himself particular directions for such a bridge as I believe never army passed a river on before nor since. His bridge was only loose planks laid upon large trestles, in the same homely manner as I have seen bricklayers raise PLAN A BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER. 75 a low scaffold to build a brick wall; the trestles were made higher than one another to answer to the river, as it became ■deeper or shallower, and was all framed and fitted before any appearance was made of attempting to pass. When all was ready, the king brings his army down to the bank of the river, and plants his cannon as the enemy had done, some here and some there, to amuse them. At night, Api'il 4th, the king commanded about two thousand men to march to the point, and to throw up a trench on either side, and quite round it, with a battery of six pieces of cannon, at each end, besides three small mounts, one at the point and one of each side, which ha'd each of them two pieces upon them. This work was begun so briskly, and so well carried on, the king firing all the night from the other parts of the river, that by daylight all the batteries at the new work were mounted, the trench lined with two thousand musketeers, and all the utensils of the bridge lay ready to be put together. Now the imperialists discovered the design, but it was too late to hinder it. The musketeers in the great trench, and the five new batteries, made such continual fire, that the other bank which, as before, lay twelve feet below them, was too hot for the imperialists; whereupon Tilly, to be provided for the king, at his coming over, falls to work in a wood right against the point, and raises a great battery for twenty pieces of cannon, with a breastwork, or line, as near the river as he could, to cover his men, thinking that when the king had built his bridge, he might easily beat it down with his cannon. But the king had doubly prevented him, first, by laying his bridge so low that none of Tilly’s shot could hurt it; for the bridge lay not above half a foot above the water's edge, by which means the king, who in that showed himself an excellent engineer, had secured it from any batteries to be made within the land, and the angle of the bank secured it from the remoter batteries on the other side, and the con¬ tinual fire of the cannon and small shot beat the imperalists from their station just against it, they having no works to cover them. And in the second place, to secure his passage, he sent over about two hundred men, and after that two hundred more, who had orders to cast up a large ravelin on the othe? 76 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. bank, just where he designed to land his bridge; this wag done with such expedition too, that it was finished before night, and in condition to receive all the shot of Tilly’s great- battery, and effectually covered his bridge. While this was doing, the king on his side lays over his bridge. Both sides • wrought hard all day and all night, as if the spade, not the sword, had been to decide the controversy, and that he had got the victory whose trenches and batteries were first ready. In the mean while the cannon and musket bullets flew like hail, and made the service so hot, that both sides had enough to do to make their men stand to their work; the king in the hottest of it, animated his men by his presence, and Tilly, to give him his due, did the same; for the execution was so great, and so many officers killed, General Attringer wounded, and two serjeant-majors killed, that at last Tilly himself was obliged to expose himself, and to come up to the very face of our line to encourage his men, and give his necessary orders. And here, about one o’clock, much about the time that the king’s bridge and works were finished, and just as they said he had ordered to fall on upon our ravelin with three thou¬ sand foot, was the brave old Tilly slain with a musket bullet in the thigh. He was carried off to Ingolstat, and lived some days after, but died of that wound the same day as the king had his horse shot under him at the siege of that town. We made no question of passing the river here, having brought everything so forward, and with such extraordinary success ; but we should have found it a very hot piece of work if Tilly had lived one day more; and, if I may give my opinion of it, having seen Tilly’s battery and breastwork, in the face of which we must have passed the river, I must say, that whenever we had marched, if Tilly had fallen in with his horse and foot, placed in that trench, the whole army would have passed as much danger as in the face of a strong town in the storming a counterscarp. The king himself, when he saw with what judgment Tilly had prepared his works, and what danger he must have run, would often say, that day’s success was every way equal to the victory of Leipsic. Tilly being hurt and carried off, as if the soul of the army had been lost, they began to draw off; the Duke of Bavaria took horse, and rid away as if he had fled out of battle for his life. TILLY SLAIN AND HIS ARMY DEFEATED. 77 The other generals, with a little more caution, as well as courage, drew off by degrees, sending their cannon and bag¬ gage away first, and leaving some to continue firing on the bank of the river to conceal their retreat. The river pre • venting any intelligence, we knew nothing of the disaster be¬ fallen them; and the king, who looked for blows, having finished his bridge and ravelin, ordered to run a line of pali- sadoes, to take in more ground on the bank of the river, to cover the first troops he should send over; this being finished the same night, the king sends over a party of his guards to relieve the men who were in the ravelin, and commanded six hundred musketeers to man the new line out of the Scots’ brigade. CHAPTER VI. FARTHER PROCEEDINGS OF THE CAMPAIGN—DANGEROUS SKIRMISH BEFORE AUSBURG-GENERAL TILLY DIES ALMOST AT THE MINUTE THE KING HAS HIS HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM-FURTHER PROCEEDINGS-TAKING OF FREYNSTAT—- BATTLE OF ATTEMBERGH-GALLANTRY OF A SAXON CAPTAIN -1 AM TAKEN BY THE ENEMY-DEATH OF THE KING. Early in the morning, a small party of Scots, commanded by one Captain Forbes, of my Lord Rea’s regiment, were sent out to learn something of the enemy, the king observing they had not fired all night; and while this party were abroad, the army stood in battalia, and my old friend, Sir John Hepburn, whom of all men the king most depended upon for any desperate service, was ordered to pass the bridge with his brigade, and to draw up without the line, with command to advance as he found the horse, who were to second him, came over. Sir John being passed without the trench, meets Captain Forbes with some prisoners, and the good news ot the enemy’s retreat. He sends him directly to the king, who was by this time at the head of his army, in full battalia, ready to follow his vanguard, expecting a hot day’s work of it. Sir John sends messenger after messenger to the king, entreating him to give him orders to advance; but the king would not suffer him; for he was ever upon his guard, and would not venture 78 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. a surprise; so tlie army continued on this side the Lech all day and the next night. In the morning the king sent for me, and ordered me to draw out three hundred horse, and a colonel with six hundred horse, and a colonel with eight hundred dragoons, and ordered us to enter the wood by three ways, but so as to be able to relieve one another; and then ordered Sir John Hepburn, with his brigade, to advance to the edge of the wood, to secure our retreat; and at the same time commanded another brigade of foot to pass the bridge, if need were, to second Sir John Hepburn, so warily did this prudent general proceed. We advanced with our horse into the Bavarian camp, which we found forsaken; the plunder of it was inconsider¬ able, for the exceeding caution the king had used gave them time to carry off all their baggage; we followed them three or four miles, and returned to our camp. I confess I was most diverted that day with viewing the works which Tilly had cast up, and must own again, that had he not been taken off, we had met with as desperate a piece of work as ever was attempted. The next day the rest of the cavalry came up to us, commanded by Gustavus ’Horn, and the king and the whole army followed; we advanced through the heart of Bavaria, took Rain at the first summons, and several other small towns, and sat down before Ausburg. Ausburg, though a protestant city, had a popish Bavarian garrison in it of above five thousand men, commanded by a Fugger, a great family in Bavaria. The governor had posted several little parties, as outscouts, at the distance of two miles and a half, or three miles, from the town. The king, at his coming up to this town, sends rue with my little troop, and three companies of dragoons, to beat in these outscouts. The first party I light on was not above sixteen men, who had made a small barricado across the road, and stood resolutely upon their guard. I commanded the dragoons to alight, and open the barricado, which, while they resolutely performed, the sixteen men gave them two volleys of their muskets, and through the enclosures made their retreat to a turnpike about a quarter of a mile farther. We passed their first traverse, and coming up to the turnpike, I found it defended by two hundred musketeers. I prepared to attack them, sending word to the king how strong the enemy was, and desired some foot to be sent to me. My dragoons fell on, and though DANGEROUS SKIRMISH BEFORE AUSBURG. 79 the enemy made a very hot fire, had beat them from this post before two hundred foot, which the king had sent me, had come up. Being joined with the foot, I followed the enemy, who retreated fighting, till they came under the can¬ non of a strong redoubt, where they drew up, and I could see another body of foot of about three hundred join them out of the works; upon which I halted, and considering I was in view of the town, and a great way from the army, I faced about, and began to march off; as we marched I found the enemy followed, but kept at a distance, as if they only designed to observe me. I had not marched far, but I heard a volley of small shot, answered by two or three more, which I pre¬ sently apprehended to be at the turnpike, where I had left a small guard of twenty-six men, with a lieutenant. Immedi¬ ately I detached one hundred dragoons to relieve my men, and secure my retreat, following myself as fast as the foot could march. The lieutenant sent me back word, the post was taken by the enemy, and my men cut off; upon this I doubled my pace, and when I came up I found it as the lieu¬ tenant said; for the post was taken and manned with three hundred musketeers, and three troops of horse ; by this time also I found the party in my rear made up towards me, so that I was like to be charged, in a narrow place, both in front and rear. I saw there was no remedy but with all my force to fall upon that party before me, and so to break through before those from the town could come up with me; wherefore, commanding my dragoons to alight, I ordered them to fall on upon the foot; their horse were drawn up in an enclosed field on one side of the road, a great ditch securing the other side, so that they thought, if I charged the foot in front, they would fall upon my flank, while those behind would charge my rear ; and indeed had the other come in time, they had cut me off. My dragoons made three fair charges on their foot, but were received with so much resolution, and so brisk a fire, that they were beaten off, and sixteen men killed. Seeing them so rudely handled, and the horse ready to fall in, I relieved them with one hundred musketeers, and they renewed the attack at the same time with my troop of horse; flanked on both wings with fifty musketeers, I faced their horse, but did not offer to charge them; the case grew now desperate, and the enemy behind were just at my heels, with near six 80 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. hundred men. The captain who commanded the musketeers, who flanked my horse, came up to me; says he, If we do not force this pass all will be lost; if you will draw out your troop and twenty of my toot, and fall in, I’ll engage to keep off the horse with the ,rest. With all my heart, says I. Immediately I wheeled off my troop, and a small party of the musketeers followed me, and fell in with the dragoons ttnd foot, who seeing the danger too, as well as I, fought like madmen; the foot at the turnpike were not able to hinder our breaking through, so we made our way out, killing about one hundred and fifty of them, and put the rest into confusion. But now was I in as great a difficulty as before, how to fetch off my brave captain of foot, for they charged home upon him. He defended himself with extraordinary gallantry, having the benefit of a piece of a hedge to cover him ; but he lost half his men, and was just upon the point of being defeated, when the king, informed by a soldier that escaped from the turnpike, one of twenty-six, had sent a party of six hundred dragoons to bring me off. These came upon the spur, and joined with me just as I had broke through the turnpike ; the enemy’s foot rallied behind their horse, and by this time their other party was come in, but seeing our relief, they drew off together. I lost above a hundred men in these skirmishes, and killed them about one hundred and eighty; we secured the turn¬ pike, and placed a company of foot there, with a hundred dragoons, and came back well beaten to the army. The king, to prevent such uncertain skirmishes, advanced the next day in view of the town, and, according to his custom, sits down with his whole army within cannon-shot of their walls. The king won this great city by force of words; for by two or three messages and letters to and from the citizens, the town was gained, the garrison not daring to defend them against their wills. His majesty made his public entrance into the city on the 14th of April, and, receiving the com¬ pliments of the citizens, advanced immediately to Ingolstat, which is accounted, and really is, the strongest town in all these parts. The town had a very strong garrison in it, and the Duke of Bavaria lay intrenched with his army under the walls of it, on the other side of the river. The king, who never loved long sieges, having viewed the town, and brought his army THE KING’S HORSE SHOT UNDER HIM. 81 within musket-shot of it, called a council of war, where it was the king’s opinion, in short, that the town would lose him more than it was worth, and therefore he resolved to raise his siege. Here the king going to view the town, had his horse shot with a cannon-bullet from the works, which tumbled the king and his horse over one another, that everybody thought he had been killed, but he received no hurt at all; that very minute, as near as could be learnt, General Tilly died in the town, of the shot he received on the bank of the Lech as aforesaid. I was not in the camp when the king was hurt, for the king had sent almost all the horse and dragoons, under Gus~ tavus Horn, to face the Duke of Bavaria’s camp, and after that to plunder the country, which truly was a work the soldiers were very glad of, for it was very seldom they had that liberty given them, and they made very good use of it when it was; for the country of Bavaria was rich and plen¬ tiful, having seen no enemy before during the whole war. The army having left the siege of Ingolstat, proceeds to take in the rest of Bavaria; Sir John Hepburn, with three brigades of foot, and Gustavus Horn, with three thousand horse and dragoons, went to the Landshut, and took it the same day. The garrison was all horse, and gave us several camisadoes at our approach, in one of which I lost two of my troops, but when we had beat them into close quarters, they presently capitulated. The general got a great sum of money of the town, besides a great many presents to the officers. And from thence the king went on to Munich, the Duke of Bavaria’s court; some of the general officers would fain have had the plundering of the duke’s palace, but the king was too generous ; the city paid him four hundred thousand dollars, and the duke’s magazine was there seized, m which was a hundi'ed and forty pieces of cannon, and small arms for above twenty thousand men. The great chamber of the duke’s rarities was preserved by the king’s special order, with a great deal of care. I expected to have stayed here some time, and to have taken a very exact account of this curious laborat ory; but being commanded away, I had no time, and the fate of the war never gave me opportunity to see it again. The imperialists, under the command of Commissary Osta, vol. ii a MEMOIRS OF A CATALJEB 62 had besieged Bibrach, an imperial city not very well fortified, and the inhabitants being under the Swede’s protection, de¬ fended themselves as well as they could, but were in great danger, and sent several expresses to the king for help. The king immediately detaches a strong body of horse and foot, to relieve Bibrach, and would be the commander him¬ self. I marched among the horse, but the imperialists saved us the labour ; for the news of the king’s coming frighted away Osta, that he left Bibrach, and hardly looked behind him till he got up to the Bodensee, on the confines of Swis- serland. At our return from this expedition, the king had the first news of Wallestein’s approach, who, on the death of Count Tilly, being declared generalissimo of the emperor’s forces, had played the tyrant in Bohemia, and was now advancing with sixty thousand men, as they reported, to relieve the Duke of Bavaria. The king, therefore, in order to be in a posture to receive this great general, resolves to quit Bavaria, and to expect him on the frontiers of Franconia; and because he knew the Nurembergers, for their kindness to him, would be the first sacrifice, he resolved to defend that city against him what¬ ever it cost. Nevertheless he did not leave Bavaria without a defence; but on the one hand he left Sir John Bannier, with ten thousand men, about Ausburg, and the Duke of Saxe-Wey- mer, with another like army, about Ulme and Meningen, with orders so to direct their march, as that they might join him upon any occasion in a few days. We encamped about Nuremberg, the middle of June. The army, after so many detachments, was not above nineteen thousand men. The imperial army, joined with the Bavarian, were not so numerous as was reported, but were really sixty thousand men. The king, not strong enough to fight, yet, as he used to say, was strong enough not to be forced to fight, formed his camp so under the cannon of Nuremberg, that there w~as no besieging the town, but they must besiege him too ; and he fortified his camp in so formidable a manner that Wallestein never durst attack him. On the 30th of June, Wallestein’s troops appeared, and on the 5th of July, encamped close by the king, and posted themselves not on the Bavarian side, but between the king an d his own friends of THE KINor PROMISES HIS SUPPORT TO NUREMBERG. 83 Schwaben and Frankenland, in order to intercept his provi¬ sions, and, as they thought, to starve him out of his camp. Here they lay to see, as it were, who could subsist longest; the king was strong in horse, for we had full eight thousand horse and dragoons in the army, and this gave us great ad¬ vantage in the several skirmishes we had with the enemy. The enemy had possession of the whole country, and had taken effectual care to furnish their army with provisions; they placed their guards in such excellent order, to secure their convoys, that their waggons went from stage to stage as quiet as in a time of peace, and were relieved every five miles by parties constantly posted on the road. And thus the imperial general sat down by us, not doubting but he should force the king either to fight his way through, on very disadvantageous terms, or to rise for want of provisions, and leave the city of Nuremberg a prey to his army ; for he had vowed the destruction of the city, and to make it a second Magdeburgh. But the king, who was not to be easily deceived, had counter¬ mined all Wallestein’s designs ; he had passed his honour to the Nurembergers, that he would not leave them, and they had undertaken to victual his army, and secure him from want, which they did so effectually, that he had no occasion to expose his troops to any hazard or fatigues for convoys or forage on my account whatever. The city of Nuremberg is a very rich and populous city, and the king being very sensible of their danger, had given his word for their defence; and when they, being terrified at the threats of the imperialists, sent their deputies to beseech the king to take care of them; he sent them word he would, and be besieged with them. They, on the other hand, laid in such stores of all sorts of provision, both for men and horse, that had Wallestein lain before it six months longer, there would have been no scarcity. Every private house was a magazine, the camp was plentifully supplied with all manner of provisions, and the market always full, and as cheap as in times of peace. The magistrates were so careful, and preserved so excellent an order in the disposal of all sorts of provision, that no engrossing of corn could be practised; for the prices were every day directed at the town house ; and if any man offered to demand more money for corn, than the stated price, he could not sell, because at 84 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. the town store-house you might buy cheaper. Here are two instances of good and bad conduct; the city of Magdeburgh had been entreated by the king to settle funds, and raise money for their provision and security, and to have a sufficient garrison to defend them, but they made difficulties, either to raise men for themselves, or to admit the king’s troops to assist them, for fear of the charge of maintaining them; and this was the cause of the city’s ruin. The city of Nuremberg opened their arms to receive the assistance proffered by the Swedes, and their purses to defend their town and common cause, and this was the saving them absolutely from destruction. The rich burghers and magistrates kept open houses, where the officers of the army were always welcome ; and the council of the city took such care of the poor, that there was no complaining nor disorders in the whole city. There is no doubt but it cost the city a great deal of money; but I never saw a public charge borne with so much cheerfulness, nor managed with so much prudence and conduct in my life. The city fed above fifty thousand mouths every day, including their own poor, besides themselves ; and yet, when the king had lain thus three months, and finding his armies longer in coming up than he expected, asked the burgrave how their magazines held out ? he answered, they desired his majesty not to hasten things for them, for they could mantain them¬ selves and him twelve months longer, if there was occasion. This plenty kept both the army and city in good health, as well as in good heart; whereas nothiug was to be had of us but blows ; for we fetched nothing from without our works, nor had no business without the line, but to interrupt the enemy. The manner of the king’s encampment deserves a particu¬ lar chapter. He was a complete surveyor, and a master in fortification, not to be outdone by anybody. He had posted his army in the suburbs of the town, and drawn lines round the whole circumference, so that he begirt the whole city with his army; his works were large, the ditch deep, flanked with innumerable bastions, ravelins, hornworks, forts, redoubts, batteries, and palisadoes, the incessant work of eight thousand men for about fourteen days; besides that the king was adding something or other to it every day ; and the very posture of his camp was enough to tell a bigger GRAND DESIGN TO PRESERVE THE CITY. 85 army than Wallestein’s, that he was not to be assaulted in his trenches. The king’s design appeared chiefly to be the preservation of the city; but that was not all. He had three armies acting abroad in three several places. Gustavus Horn was on the Mosel; the Chancellor Oxenstern about Mentz, Cologn, and the Rhine ; Duke William and Duke Bernard, together with General Bannier, in Bavaria: and though he designed they should all join him, and had wrote to them all to that purpose, yet he did not hasten them, knowing that while he kept the main army at bay about Nuremberg, they would, without opposition, reduce those several countries they were acting in to his power. This occasioned his lying longer in the camp at Nuremberg than he would have done, and this occasioned his giving the imperialists so many alarms by his strong parties of horse, of which he was well provided, that they might not be able to make any considerable detachments for the relief of their friends ; and here he showed his mastership in the war, for by his means his conquests went on as effectually as if he had been abroad himself. In the mean time, it was not to be expected two such armies should lie long so near without some action. The impei'ial army being masters of the field, laid the country for twenty miles round Nuremberg in a manner desolate. What the inhabitants could carry away had been before secured in such strong towns as had garrisons to protect them, and what was left the hungry Crabats devoured, or set on fire ; but sometimes they were met with by our men, who often paid them home for it. There had passed several small encounters between our parties and theirs ; and, as it falls out in such cases, sometimes one side, sometimes the other, got the better; but I have observed, there never was anj. party sent out by the king’s special appointment, but always came home with victory. The first considerable attempt, as I remember, was made on a convoy of ammunition. The party sent out was commanded by a Saxon colonel, and consisted of one thousand horse, and five hundred dragoons, who burnt above six hundred waggons, loaded with ammunition and stores for the army, besides taking about two thousand muskets, which they brought back to the army. The latter end of July the king received advice, that the 86 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER imperialists had formed a magazine for provision at a town called Freynstat, twenty miles from Nuremberg. Hither all the booty and contributions raised in the Upper Palatinate, and parts adjacent, was brought and laid up as in a place of security; a garrison of six hundred men being placed to defend it; and when a quantity of provisions was got together, convoys were appointed to fetch it off. The king was resolved, if possible, to take or destroy this magazine ; and sending for Colonel Dubalt, a Swede, and a man of extraordinary conduct, he tells him his design, and withal, that he must be the man to put it into execution, and ordered him to take what forces he thought convenient. The colonel, who knew the town very well, and the country about it, told his majesty he would attempt it with all his heart, but he was afraid it would require some foot to make the attack ; But we can’t stay for that, says the king; you must then take some dragoons with you ; and immediately the king called for me. I was just coming up the stairs, as the king’s page was come out to inquire for me; so I went immediately in to the king. Here is a piece of hot work for you, says the king, Dubalt will tell it you ; go together and contrive it. We immediately withdrew, and the colonel told me the design, and what the king and he had discoursed ; that, in his opinion, foot would be wanted, but the king had declared that there was no time for the foot to march, and had proposed dragoons. I told him, I thought dragoons might do as well; so we agreed to take sixteen hundred horse and four hundred dragoons. The king, impatient in his design, came into the room to us to know what we had resolved on, approved our measures, gave us orders immediately; and turning to me, You shall command the dragoons, says the king, but Dubalt must be general in this case, for he knows the country. Your majesty, said I, shall be always served by me in any figure you please. The king wished us good speed, and hurried us away the same afternoon, in order to come to the place in time. We marched slowly on because of the carriages we had with us, and came to Freynstat about one o’clock in the night, perfectly undiscovered ; the guards were so negligent, that we came to the very port before they had notice of us. and a Serjeant with twelve dragoons thrust in upon the out-sentinels, and killed them without noise. TAKING OF FREYNSTAT. 87 Immediately ladders were placed to the half-moon, which defended the gate, which the dragoons mounted and carried in a trice, about twenty-eight men being cut in pieces within. As soon as the ravelin was taken, they burst open the gate, at which I entered, at the head of two hundred dragoons, and eeized the drawbridge. By this time the town was in alarm, and the drums beat to arms, but it was too late ; for, by the help of a petard, we broke open the gate and entered the town. The garrison made an obstinate fight for about half an hour, but our men being all in, and three troops of horse dismounted coming to our assistance with their carabines, the town was entirely mastered by three of the clock, and guards set to prevent anybody running to give notice to the enemy. There were about two hundred of the garrison killed, and the rest taken prisoners. The town being thus secured, the gates were opened, and Colonel Dubalt came in with the horse. The guards being set, we entered the magazine, where we found an incredible quantity of all sorts of provision. There was one hundred and fifty tons of bread, eight thousand sacks of meal, four thousand sacks of oats, and of other provisions in proportion. We caused as much of it as could be loaded to be brought away in such waggons and carriages as we found, and set the rest on fire, town and all; we stayed by it till we saw it past a possibility of being saved, and then drew off with eight hundred waggons, which we found in the’ place, most of which we loaded with bread, meal, and oats. While we were doing this, we sent a party of dragoons into the fields, who met us again as we came out, with above a thousand head of black cattle, besides sheep. Our next care was to bring this booty home without meeting with the enemy; to secure which, the colonel imme¬ diately despatched an express to the king, to let him know of our success, and to desire a detachment might be made to secure our retreat, being charged with so much plunder. And it was no more than need ; for though we had used all the diligence possible to prevent any notice, yet somebody more forward than ordinary had escaped away, and carried news of it to the imperial army. The general upon this bad news, detaches Major-general Sparr, with a body of six thou¬ sand men, to cut off our retreat. The king, who had notice of this detachment, marches out in person, with three thousand men, to wait upon General Sparr. All this was the account 88 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. of one day. The king met General Sparr at the moment when his troops were divided, fell upon them, routed one part of them, and the rest in a few hours after; killed them a thousand men, and took the general prisoner. In the interval of this action, we came safe to the camp with our booty, which was very considerable, and would have supplied our whole army for a month. Thus we feasted at the enemy’s cost, and beat them into the bargain. The king gave all the live cattle to the Nurembergers, v r ho, though they had really no want of provisions, yet fresh meat was not so plentiful as such provisions which were stored up in vessels and laid by. After this skirmish, we had the country more at command than before, and daily fetched in fresh provisions and forage in the fields. The two armies had now lain a long time in sight of one another, and daily skirmishes had considerably weakened them ; and the king beginning to be impatient, hastened the advancement of his friends to join him, in which also they were not backward ; but having drawn together their forces from several parts, and all joined the Chancellor Oxenstern, news came the 15th of August, that they were in full march to join us; and being come to a small town called Brock, the king went out of the camp with about one thousand horse to view them. I went along with the horse, and, the 22nd of August, saw the review of all the armies together, which were thirty thousand men in extraordinary equipage, old soldiers, and commanded by officers of the greatest conduct and experience in the world. There was the rich Chancellor of Sweden, who commanded as general, Gustavus Horn, and John Bannier, both Swedes and old generals ; Duke William and Duke Bernard of Weymar, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the palatine of Birkenfelt, and abundance of princes and lords of the empire. The armies being joined, the king, who was now a match for Wallestein, quits his camp, and draws up in battalia before the imperial trenches ; but the scene was changed. Wallestein was no more able to fight now than the king was before, but, keeping within his trenches, stood upon his guard. The king coming up close to his works, plants batteries, and cannonaded him in his very camp. The imperialists finding the king press upon them, retreat BATTLE OF ATTEMBERGH, 89 into a woody country about three leagues, and taking posses¬ sion of an old ruined castle, posted their army behind it. This old castle they fortified, and placed a very strong guard there. The king having viewed the place, though it was a very strong post, resolved to attack it with the whole right wing. The attack was made with a great deal of order and resolution, the king leading the first party on with sword in hand, and the fight was maintained on both sides with the utmost gallantry and obstinacy, all the day, and the next night too ; for the cannon and musket never gave over till the morning. But the imperialists having the advantage of the hill, of their works and batteries, and being continually relieved, and the Swedes naked, without cannon or works, the post was maintained; and the king finding it would cost him too much blood, drew off in the morning. This was the famous fight at Attembergh, where the imperialists boasted to have shown the world the King of Sweden was not invincible. They call it the victory at Attembergh ; ’tis true, the king failed in his attempt of carry¬ ing their works, but there was so little of a victory in it, that the imperial general thought fit not to venture a second brush, but to draw off their army, as soon as they could, to a safer quarter. I had no share in this attack, very few of the horse being in the action ; but my comrade who was always among the Scots volunteers, was wounded and taken prisoner by the enemy. They used him very civilly, and the king and Wallestein straining courtesies with one another, the king released Major-general Sparr without ransom, and the imperial general sent home Colonel Tortenson, a Swede, and sixteen volunteer gentlemen, who were taken in the heat of the action, among whom my captain was one. The king lay fourteen days facing the imperial army, and using all the stratagems possible to bring them to a battle, but to no purpose; during which time we had parties con¬ tinually out, and very often skirmishes with the enemy. I had a command of one of these parties in an adventure, wherein I got no booty, nor much honour. The king had received advice of a convoy of provisions which was to come to the enemy’s camp from the Upper Palatinate, and having h great mind to surprise them, he commanded us to waylay them with twelve hundred horse, and eight hundred dragoons. 90 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER I had exact directions given me of the way they were to come, and posting my horse in a village a little out of the road, I lay with my dragoons in a wood, by which they were to pass by break of day. The enemy appeared with their convoy, and being very wary, their outscouts discovered us in the wood, and fired upon the centinel I had posted in a tree at the entrance of the wood. Finding myself discovered, I would have retreated to the village where my horse were posted, but in a moment the wood was skirted with the enemy’s horse, and a thousand musketeers advanced to beat me out. In this pickle I sent away three messengers, one after the other, for the horse, who were within two miles of me, to advance to my relief; but all my messengers fell into the enemy’s hands. Four hundred of my dragoons on foot, whom I had placed at a little distance before me, stood to their work, and beat off two charges of the enemy’s foot, with some loss on both sides ; mean time, two hundred of my men faced about, and rushing out of the wood, broke through a party of the enemy’s horse, who stood to watch our coming out. I confess I was exceed¬ ingly surprised at it, thinking those fellows had done it to make their escape, or else were gone over to the enemy; and my men were so discouraged at it, that they began to look about which way to run to save themselves, and were just upon the point of disbanding to shift for themselves, when one of the captains called to me aloud to beat a parley and treat. I made no answer, but, as if I had not heard him, immediately gave the word for all the captains to come together. The consultation was but short, for the musketeers were advancing to a third charge, with numbers which we were not likely to deal with. In short, we resolved to beat a parley, and demand quarter, for that was all we could expect; when on a sudden the body of horse I had posted in the village, being directed by the noise, had advanced to relieve me, if they saw occasion, and had met the two hundred dragoons, who guided them directly to the spot where they had broke through, and altogether fell upon the horse of the enemy who wei-e posted on that side, and mastering them before they could be relieved, cut them all to pieces, and brought me off. Under the shelter of this party, we made good our retreat to the village, but we lost above three hundred men, and were glad to make ofi from the village too, for the enemy were very much too strong for us. OBLIGED SPEEDILY TO RETREAT. 91 Returning thence towards the camp, we fell foul with two hundred Crabats, who had been upon the plundering account. We made ourselves some amends upon them for our former loss, for we showed them no mercy; but our misfortunes were not ended, for we had but just despatched those Crabats, when we fell in with three thousand imperial horse, who, on the expectation of the aforesaid convoy, were sent out to secure them. All I could do, I could not persuade my men to stand their ground against this party; so that, finding they would run away in confusion, I agreed to make off, and facing to the right, we went over a large common at full trot, till at last fear, which always increases in a flight, brought us to a plain flight, the enemy at our heels. I must confess I was never so mortified in my life ; it was to no purpose to turn head, no man would stand by us, we run for life, and a great many we left by the way, who were either wounded by the enemy’s shot, or else could not keep race with us. At last, having got over the common, which was near two miles, we came to a lane. One of our captains, a Saxon by country, and a gentleman of a good fortune, alighted at the entrance of the lane, and with a bold heart faced about, shot his own horse, and called his men to stand by him and defend the lane. Some of his men halted, and we rallied about six hundred men, which we posted as well as we could, to defend the pass; but the enemy charged us with great fury. The Saxon gentleman, after defending himself with exceed¬ ing gallantry, and refusing quarter, was killed upon the spot. A German dragoon, as I thought him, gave me a rude blow with the stock of his piece on the side of my head, and was just going to repeat it, when one of my men shot him dead. I was so stunned with the blow, that I knew nothing; but recovering, I found myself in the hands of two of the enemy’s officers, who offered me quarter, which I accepted; and indeed, to give them their due, they used me very civilly. Thus this whole party was defeated, and not above five hundred men got safe to the army, nor had half the number escaped, had not the Saxon captain made so bold a stand at the head of the lane. Several other parties of the king’s army revenged the quarrel, and paid them home for it; but I had a particular loss in this defeat, that I never saw the king after; for though 92 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. his majesty sent a trumpet to reclaim us as prisoners the very next day, yet I was not delivered, some scruple happening about exchanging, till after the battle of Lutzen, where that gallant prince lost his life. The imperial army rose from their camp about eight or ten days after the king had removed, and I was carried prisoner in the army till they sat down to the siege of Coburgh Castle, and then was left with other prisoners of war, in the custody of Colonel Spezuter, in a small castle near the camp called Newstad. Here we continued indifferent well treated, but could learn nothing of what action the armies were upon, till the Duke of Friedland, having been beaten off from the castle of Coburgh, marched into Saxony, and the prisoners were sent for into the camp, as was said, in order to be exchanged. I came into the imperial leaguer at the siege of Leipsic, and within three days after my coming, the city was surrendered, and I got liberty to lodge at my old quarters in the tow-n upon my parole. The King of Sweden was at the heels of the imperialists ; for finding Wallestein resolved to ruin the elector of Saxony, the king had re-collected as much of his divided army as he could, and came upon him just as he was going to besiege Torgau. As it is not my design to write a history of any more of these wars than I was actually concerned in, so I shall only note, that, upon the king’s approach, Wallestein halted, and likewise called all his troops together, for he apprehended the king would fall on him ; and we that were prisoners fancied the imperial soldiers went unwillingly out, for the very name of the King of Sweden was become terrible to them. In short, they drew all the soldiers of the garrison they could spare out of Leipsic, and sent for Papenheim again, who was gone but three days before, with six thousand men, on a private expe¬ dition. On the 16th of November, the armies met on the plains of Lutzen; a long and bloody battle was fought, the imperialists were entirely routed and beaten, twelve thousand slain upon the spot, their cannon, baggage, and two thousand prisoners taken, but the King of Sweden lost his life, being killed at the head of his troops in the beginning of the fight. LAMENTATIONS FOR THE KING’S DEATH. 93 CHAPTER VTX. GREAT LAMENTATIONS FOR THE LOSS OF THE KING-THE TOWN OF LEIPSIC RECOVERED BY STRATEGEM, WHEREBY I REGAIN MY LIBERTY-1 LEAVE THE SERVICE, AND SPEND TWO YEARS A WANDERER-BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN -BRAVERY OF OLD HORN-MELANCHOLY EVENT OF THE BATTLE-1 LEAVE THE ARMY, AND VISIT HOLLAND- RETURN TO ENGLAND-PROCEEDINGS THERE. It is impossible to describe the consternation the death of this conquering king struck into all the princes of Germany; the grief for him exceeded all manner of human sorrow. All people looked upon themselves as ruined and swallowed up; the inhabitants of two-thirds of all Germany put themselves into mourning for him; when the ministers mentioned him in their sermons or prayers, whole congregations would burst out into tears. The elector of Saxony was utterly inconsol¬ able, and would for several days walk about his palace like a distracted man, crying the saviour of Germany was lost, the refuge of abused princes was gone, the soul of the war was dead; and from that hour was so hopeless of outliving the war, that he sought to make peace with the emperor. Three days after this mournful victory, the Saxons recovered the town of Leipsic by stratagem. The Duke of Saxony’s forces lay at Torgau, and perceiving the confusion the imperialists were in at the news of the over¬ throw ot their army, they resolved to attempt the recovery of the town. They sent about twenty scattering troopers, who, pretending themselves to be imperialists fled from the battle, were let in one by one, and still, as they came in, they stayed at the court of guard in the port, entertaining the soldiers with discourse about the fight, and how they escaped, and the like ; till the whole number being got in, at a watchword, they fell on the guard, and cut them all to pieces; and immediately opening the gates to three troops of Saxon horse, the town was taken in a moment. It was a welcome surprise to me, for I was at liberty of 94 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. course ; and the war being now on another foot, as I hought, and the king dead, I resolved to quit the service I had sent my man, as I have already noted, into England, in order to bring over the troops my father had raised for the King of Sweden. He executed his commission so well, that he landed with five troops at Embden, in very good condi¬ tion ; and orders were sent them by the king, to join the Duke of Lunenberg’s army; which they did at the siege of Boxtude, in Lower Saxony. Here, by long and very sharp service, they were most of them cut off, and though they were several times recruited, yet I understood there were not three full troops left. The Duke of Saxe Weymar, a gentleman of great courage, had the command of the army after the king’s death, and managed it with so much prudence, that all things were in as much order as could be expected, after so great a loss; for the imperialists were everywhere beaten, and Wallestein never made any advantage of the king’s death. I waited on him at Hailbron, whither he was gone to meet the great Chancellor of Sweden, where I paid him my respects, and desired he would bestow the remainder of my regiment on my comrade the captain, which he did with all the civility and readiness imaginable. So I took my leave of him, and prepared to come for England. I shall only note this, that, at this diet, the protestant princes of the empire renewed their league with one another, and with the crown of Sweden, and came to several regula¬ tions and conclusions for the carrying on the war, which they afterwards prosecuted under the direction of the said chan¬ cellor of Sweden. But it was not the work of a small diffi¬ culty, nor of a short time ; and having been persuaded to continue almost two years afterwards at Frankfort, Hailbron, and thereabout, by the particular friendship of that noble wise man, and extraordinary statesman, Axel Oxenstern, chan¬ cellor of Sweden, I had opportunity to be concerned in, and present at, several treaties of extraordinary consequence, suf¬ ficient for a history, if that were my design. Particularly I had the happiness to be present at, and have some concern in, the treaty for the restoring the posterity of the truly noble Palsgrave, King of Bohemia. King James of England Lad indeed too much neglected the whole family; SPEND TWO TEARS AS A WANDERER. 95 and I may say with authority enough, from my own know¬ ledge of affairs, had nothing been done for them but what was from England, that family had remained desolate and forsaken to this day. But that glorious king, whom I can never mention without some remark of his extraordinary merit, had left particular instructions with his chancellor to rescue the Palatinate to its rightful lord, as a proof of his design to restore the liberty of Germany, and reinstate the oppressed princes who were subjected to the tyranny of the house of Austria. Pursuant to this resolution, the chancellor proceeded very much like a man of honour ; and though the King of Bohemia was dead a little before, yet he carefully managed the ti'eaty, answered the objections of several princes, who, in the general ruin of the family, had reaped private advantages, settled the capitulations for the quota of contributions very much for their advantage, and fully re-installed the Prince Charles in the possession of all his dominions in the Lower Palatinate, which afterwards was confirmed to him and his posterity by the peace of Westphalia, where all these bloody wars were finished in a peace, which has since been the foundation of the Protestants’ liberty, and the best security of the whole empire. I spent two years rather in wandering up and dorvn than, travelling, for though I had no mind to serve, yet I could not find in my heart to leave Germany; and I had obtained some so very close intimacies with the general officers, that I was often in the army, and sometimes they did me the honour to bring me into their councils of war. Particularly at that eminent council before the battle of Nordlingen, I was invited to the council of war, both by Duke Bernard of Weymar, and by Gustavus Horn. They were generals of equal worth, and their courage and expe¬ rience had been sc well and so often tried, that more than ordinary regard was always given to what they said. Duke Bernard was indeed the younger man, and Gustavus had served longer under our great schoolmaster the king ; but it was hard to judge which was the better general, since both had experience enough, and shown undeniable proofs both of their bravery and conduct. I am obliged, in the course of my relation, so often to 96 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. mention the great respect I often received from these great men, that it makes me sometimes jealous, lest the reader may think I affect it as a vanity. The truth is, and I am ready to confess the honours I received, upon all occasions, *rom persons of such worth, and who had such an eminent share in the greatest action of that age, very much pleased me; and particularly, as they gave me occasions to see everything that was doing on the whole stage of the war : for, being under no command, but at liberty to rove about, I could come to no Swedish garrison or party, but, sending my name to the commanding officer, I could have the word sent me ; and if I came into the army, I was often treated as I was now at this famous battle of Nordlingen. But I cannot but say, that I always looked upon this particular respect to be the effect of more than ordinary regard the great King of Sweden always showed me, rather than any merit of my own ; and the veneration they all had for his memory made them continue to show me all the marks of a suitable esteem. But to return to the council of war; the great, and indeed the only question before us was, shall we give battle to the imperialists or not? Gustavus Horn was against it, and gave, as I thought, the most invincible arguments against a battle that reason could imagine. First, they were weaker than the enemy by above five thousand men. Secondly, the cardinal infant of Spain, who was in the imperial army, with eight thousand men, was but there en passant , being going from Italy to Flanders, to take upon him the government of the Low Countries; and if he saw no prospect of immediate action, would be gone in a few days. Thirdly, they had two reinforcements, one of five thou¬ sand men, under the command of Colonel Cratz, and one of seven thousand men, under the Rhinegrave, who were just at hand, the last within three days’ march of them. And, Lastly, they had already saved their honour, in that they had put six hundred foot into the town of Nordlingen, in the face of the enemy’s army, and consequently the town might hold out some days the longer. Fate rather than reason certainly blinded the rest of the generals against such arguments as these. Duke Bernard, « BRAVERY OF OLD GENERAL HORN. 97 and almost all the generals, were for fighting, alleging the affront it would be to the Swedish reputation to see their friends in the town lost before their faces. Gustavus Horn stood stiff to his cautious advice, and was against it; and I thought the Baron D’Offkirk treated him a little indecently; for, being very warm in the matter, he told them, That if Gustavus Adolphus had been governed by such cowardly council, he had never been conqueror of half Germany in two years. No, replied old General Horn, very smartly, but he had been now alive to have testified for me that I was never taken by him for a coward; and yet, says he, the king was never for a victory with a hazard, when he could have it without. I was asked my opinion, which I would have declined, being in no commission, but they pressed me to speak. I told them I was for staying at least till the Rhinegrave came up, who at least might, if expresses were sent to hasten him, be up with us in twenty-four hours. But Offkirk could not hold his passion, and, had not he been overruled, he would have almost quarrelled with Marshal Horn. Upon which the old general, not to foment him, with a great deal of mildness stood up, and spoke thus: Come, Offkirk, says he, I’ll submit my opinion to you and the majority of our fellow-soldiers; we will fight, but upon my word we shall have our hands full. The resolution thus taken, they attacked the imperial army. I must confess the councils of this day seemed as confused as the resolutions of the night. Duke Bernard was to lead the van of the left wing, and to post himself upon a hill which was on the enemy’s right without their intrenchments; so that, having secured that post, they might level their cannon upon the foot, who stood behind the lines, and relieved the town at pleasure. He marched accordingly by break of day, and, falling with great fury upon eight regiments of foot, which were posted at the foot of the hill, he presently routed them, and made himself master of the post. Flushed with this success, he never regards his own concerted measures of stopping there, and possessing what he had got, but pushes on, and falls in i with the main body of the enemy’s army. While this was doing, Gustavus Horn attacks another post on a hill, where the Spaniards had posted, and lodged 98 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. themselves behind some works they had cast up on the side of the hill; here they defended themselves with extreme obstinacy for five hours, and at last obliged the Swedes to give it over with loss. This extraordinary gallantry of the Spaniards was the saving of the imperial army; for Duke Bernard having all this while resisted the frequent charges of the imperialists, and borne the weight of two-thirds of their army, was not able to stand any longer; but, sending one messenger in the neck of another to Gustavus Horn for more foot, he finding he could not carry his point, had given it over, and was in full march to second the duke. But now it was too late; for the King of Hungary seeing the duke’s men as it were wavering, and having notice of Horn’s wheeling about to second him, falls in with all his force upon his flank, and, with his Hungarian hussars, made such a furious charge, that the Swedes could stand no longer. The rout of the left wing was so much the more unhappy, as it happened just upon Gustavus Horn’s coming up; for, being pushed on with the enemies at their heels, they were driven upon their own friends, who, having no ground to open and give them way, were trodden down by their own runaway brethren. This brought all into the utmost con¬ fusion. The imperialists cried Victoria , and fell into the middle of the infantry with a terrible slaughter. I have always observed, it is fatal to upbraid an old experienced officer with want of courage. If Gustavus Hoi'n had not been whetted with the reproaches of the Baron D’Offkirk, and some of the other general officers, I believe it had saved the lives of a thousand men; for, when all was thus lost, several officers advised him to make a retreat with such regiments as he had yet unbroken ; but nothing could persuade him to stir a foot, but, turning his flank into a front, he saluted the enemy as they passed by him in pursuit of the rest, with such terrible volleys of small shot, as cost them the lives of abundance of their men. The imperialists, eager in the pursuit, left him unbroken, till the Spanish brigade came up and charged him. These he bravely repulsed with a great slaughter, and after them a body of dragoons; till being laid at on every side, and most of his men killed, the brave old general, with all the rest who were left, were made prisoners. The Swedes had a terrible loss here, for almost all their MELANCHOLY EVENT OE THE BATTLE. 99 infantry were killed or taken prisoners. Gustavus Horn re¬ fused quarter several times; and still those that attacked him were cut down by his men, who fought like furies, and, by the example of their general, behaved themselves like lions. But at last, these poor remains of a body of the bravest men in the world, Avere forced to submit. I have heard him say, he had much rather have died than been taken, but that he yielded in compassion to so many brave men as Avere about him; for none of them would take quarter till he gave his consent. I had the worst share in this battle that ever I had in any action of my life; and that Avas, to be posted among as brave a body of horse as any in Germany, and yet not be able to succour our OAvn men ; but our foot Avere cut in pieces, as it Avere, before our faces ; and the situation of the ground Avas such as Ave could not fall in. All that Ave Avere able to do, was to carry off about two thousand of the foot, who, run¬ ning aAvay in the rout of the left Aving, rallied among our squadrons, and got away Avith us. Thus avc stood till Ave saw all Avas lost, and then made the best retreat we could to save ourselves ; several regiments having never charged nor fired a shot; for the foot had so embarrassed themselves among the lines and works of the enemy, and in the vine¬ yards and mountains, that the horse were rendered abso¬ lutely unserviceable. The Khinegrave had made such expedition to join us, that he reached within three miles of the place of action that night, and he Avas a great safeguard for us in rallying our dispersed men, Avho else had fallen into the enemy’s hands, and in checking the pursuit of the enemy. And indeed, had but any considerable body of the foot made an orderly retreat, it had been very probable they had given the enemy a brush that would haA T e turned the scale of victory; for our horse being Avhole, and in a manner un¬ touched, the enemy found such a check in the pursuit, that sixteen hundred of their forwardest men, folloAving too eagerly, fell in Avith the Rhinegrave’s advanced troops the next day, and were cut in pieces without mercy. This gave us some satisfaction for the loss, but it Avas but small compared to the ruin of that day. We lost near eight thousand men upon the spot, and above three thousand pri¬ soners, all our cannon and baggage, and a hundred and li 2 100 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. twenty colours. I thought I never made so indifferent a figure in my life, and so we thought all; to come away, lose our infantry, our general, and our honour, and never fight for it. Duke Bernard was utterly disconsolate for old Gus- tavus Horn ; for he concluded him killed; he tore the hair from his head like a madman, and telling the Rhinegrave the story of the council of war, would reproach himself with not taking his advice, often repeating it in his passion. It is I, said he, have been the death of the bravest general in Ger¬ many ; would call himself fool and boy, and such names, for not listening to the reasons of an old experienced soldier. But when he heard he was alive in the enemy’s hands, he was the easier, and applied himself to the recruiting his troops, and the like business of the war ; and it was not long before he paid the imperialists with interest. I returned to Franckfort au Main after this action, which happened the 17th of August, 1634 ; but the progress of the imperialist was so great that there was no staying at Franck- fort. The Chancellor Oxenstern removed to Magdeburg, Duke Bernard and the landgrave marched into Alsatia, and the imperialists carried all before them for all the rest of the campaign. They took Philipsburgh by surprise; they took Ausburgh by famine, Spire and Treves by sieges, taking the elector prisoner. But this success did one piece of service to the Swedes, that it brought the French into the war on their side ; for the elector of Treves was their confederate. The French gave the conduct of the war to Duke Bernard. This, though the Duke of Saxony fell off, and fought against them, turned the scale so much in their favour, that they recovered their losses, and proved a terror to all Germany. The farther accounts of the war I refer to the histories of those times, which I have since read with a great deal of delight. I confess, when I saw the progress of the imperial army after the battle of Nordlingen, and the Duke of Saxony turn¬ ing his arms against them, I thought their affairs declining; and, giving them over for lost, I left Franckfort, and came down the Rhine to Cologne, and from thence into Holland. I came to the Flague the 8th of March, 1635, having spent three years and a half in Germany, and the greatest part of it in the Swedish army. I spent some time in Holland, viewing the wonderful power of art, whick. I observed in fortifications of their towns, SPEND SOME TIME IN HOLLAND. 101 where the very bastions stand on bottomless morasses, and yet are as firm as any in the world. There I had the oppor¬ tunity of seeing the Dutch army, and their famous general Prince Maurice. It is true the men behaved themselves well enough in action, when they were put to it, but the prince’s way of beating his enemies without fighting, was so unlike the gallantry of my royal instructor, that it had no manner of relish with me. Our way in Germany was always to seek out the enemy and fight him; and, give the impe¬ rialists their due, they were seldom hard to be found, but were as free of their flesh as Ave were. Whereas Prince Maurice Avould lie in a camp till he starved half his men, if by lying there he could but starve two-thirds of his enemies; so that indeed the war in Holland had more of fatigues and hardships in it, and ours had more of fighting and blows. Hasty marches, long and unwhole¬ some encampments, Avinter parties counter-marching, dodg¬ ing, and intrenching, Avere the exercises of-his men, and oftentimes killed him more men Avith hunger, cold, and dis¬ eases, than he could do with fighting; not that it required less courage, but rather more, for a soldier had at any time rather die in the field a la coup de mousquet, than be starved with hunger, or frozen to death in the trenches. Nor do I think I lessen the reputation of that great general, for it is most certain he ruined the Spaniard more by spin¬ ning the war thus out in length, than he could possibly have done by a SAvift conquest; for had he, Gustavus like, Avith a torrent of victory, dislodged the Spaniard from all the twelve provinces in five years (Avhereas he was forty years in beat¬ ing them out of se\mn), he had left him rich and strong at home, and able to keep the Dutch in constant apprehensions of a return of his poAver ; whereas, by the long continuance of the Avar, he so broke the very heart of the Spanish monarchy, so absolutely and irrecoverably impoverished them, that they haA r e ever since languished of the disease, till they are fallen from the most poAverful, to be the most despicable nation in the Avorld. The prodigious charge the King of Spain Avas at in losing the seven provinces, broke the A r ery spirit of the nation ; and that so much, that all the wealth of their Peruvian moun¬ tains have not been able to retrieve it; King Philip having often declared that war, besides his armada for invading 102 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. England, had cost him three hundred and seventy millions of ducats, and four hundred thousand of the best soldiers in Europe; whereof, by an unreasonable Spanish obstinacy, above sixty thousand lost their lives before Ostend ; a town not worth a sixth part, either of the blood or money it cost in a siege of three years ; and which at last he had never taken, but that Prince Maurice thought it not worth the charge of defending any longer. However, I say, their way of fighting in Holland did not relish with me at all. The prince lay a long time before a little fort called Shenkscans, which the Spaniard took by sur¬ prise, and I thought he might have taken it much sooner. Perhaps it might be my mistake; but I fancied my hero, the King of Sweden, would have carried it sword in hand in half the time. However it was, I did not like it; so in the latter end of the year I came to the Hague, and took shipping for England, where I arrived, to the great satisfaction of my father, and all my friends. My father was then in London, and carried me to kiss the king’s hand. His majesty was pleased to receive me very well, and to say a great many very obliging things to my father upon my account. I spent my time very retired from court, for I was almost wholly in the country ; and it being so much different from my genius, which hankered after a warmer sport than hunt¬ ing among our Welch mountains, I could not but be peeping in all the foreign accounts from Germany, to see who and who was together. There I could never hear of a battle, and the Germans being beaten, but I began to wish myself there. But when an account came of the progress of John Bannier, the Swedish general in Saxony, and of the constant victories he had there over the Saxons, I could no longer con¬ tain myself, but told my father this life was very disagreeable to me; that I lost my time here, and might to much more advantage go into Germany, where I was sure I might make my fortune upon my own terms; that, as young as I was, I might have been a general officer by this time, if I had not laid down my commission; that General Bannier, or the Marshal Horn, had either of them so much respect for me, that I was sure I might have anything of them; and that if he pleased to give me leave, I would go for Germany again. AGAIN ACCEPT A COMMISSION. 103 My father was very unwilling to let me go, but seeing me un¬ easy, told me, that, if I was resolved, he would oblige me to stay no longer in England than the next spring, and I should have his consent. * The winter following began to look very unpleasant upon us in England, and my father used often to sigh at it; and would tell me sometimes, he was afraid we should have no need to send Englishmen to fight in Germany. The cloud that seemed to threaten most was from Scotland. My father, who had made himself master of the arguments on both sides, used to be often saying, he feared there was some about the king who exasperated him too much against the Scots, and drove things too high. For my part, I confess I did not much trouble my head with the cause; but all my fear was, they would not fall out, and we should have no fighting. I have often reflected since, that I ought to have known better, that had seen how the most flourishing provinces of Ger¬ many were reduced to the most miserable condition that ever any country in the world was, by the ravagings of soldiers, and the calamities of war. How much soever I was to blame, yet so it was; I had a secret joy at the news of the king’s raising an army, and nothing could have withheld me from appearing in it; but my eagerness was anticipated by an express the king sent my father, to know if his son was in England ; and my father having ordered me to carry the answer myself, I waited upon his majesty with the messenger. The king received me with his usual kindness, and asked me if I was willing to serve him against the Scots ? I answered, I was ready to serve him against any that his majesty thought fit to account his enemies, and should count it an honour to receive his commands. Hereupon his majesty offered me a commission. I told him, I supposed there would not be much time for raising of men ; that if his majesty pleased, I would be at the rendezvous with as many gentle¬ men as I could get together, to serve his majesty as volunteers. The truth is, I found all the regiments of horse the king designed to raise, were but two as regiments : the rest of the horse were such as the nobility raised in several counties, and commanded them themselves; and, as I had commanded a regiment of horse abroad, it looked a little odd to serve with a single troop at home; and the king took the thing presently. 104 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. Indeed it will be a volunteer war, said the king, for the northern gentry have sent me an account of above four thou¬ sand horse they have already. I bowed, and told his majesty I was glad to hear his subjects were^o forward to serve liiir.. So taking his majesty’s orders to be at York by the end of March, I returned to my father. CHAPTER VIII. WAR WITH THE SCOTS-1 VOLUNTEER TO MEET THE ENEMY -BAD BEHAVIOUR OF OUR MEN-CONDUCT OF THE SCOTS -BASE END OF THE EXPEDITION-A PEACE CONCLUDED- I VISIT THE SCOTCH CAMP-UNCOUTH APPEARANCE OF THE SOLDIERS-CHARACTER OF THE HIGHLANDERS. My father was very glad I had not taken a commission ; for, I know not from what kind of emulation between the western and northern gentry, the gentlemen of our side were not very forward in the service ; their loyalty to the king in the succeeding times made it appear it was not from any dis¬ affection to his majesty’s interest or person, or to the cause ; but this however made it difficult for me when I came to get any gentleman of quality to serve with me ; so that I pre¬ sented myself to his majesty only as a volunteer, with eight gentlemen, and about thirty-six countrymen, well mounted and armed. And, as it proved, these were enough, for this expedition ended in an accommodation with the Scots; and they not advancing so much as to their own borders, we never came to any action ; but the armies lay in the counties of North¬ umberland and Durham, eat up the country, and sent the king a vast sum of money, and so this war ended, a pacifi¬ cation was made, and both sides returned. The truth is, I never saw such a despicable appearance of men in arms to begin a war in my life ; whether it was that 1 had seen so many braver armies abroad that prejudiced me against them, or that it really was so ; for to me they seemed little better than a rabble met together to devour, rather thar light for their king and country. There was indeed a grea appearance of gentlemen, and those of extraordinary quality; BAD behaviour of OUR men. 105 but their garb, their equipages, and their mien, did not look like war; their troops were filled with footmen and servants, and wretchedly armed, God wot. I believe I might say, without vanity, one regiment of Finland horse would have made sport at beating them all. There was such crowds of parsons (for this was a church war in particular), that the camp and court was full of them; and the king was so eternally besieged with clergymen of one soit or another, that it gave offence to the chief of the nobility. As was the appearance, so was the service. The army marched to the borders, and the head-quarter was at Berwick- upon-Tweed; but the Scots never appeared, no, not so much as their scouts. Whereupon the king called a council of war, and there it was resolved to send the Earl of Holland, with a party of horse into Scotland, to learn some news of the enemy; and truly the first news he brought us was, that finding their army encamped at Coldingham, fifteen miles from Berwick, as soon as he appeared, the Scots drew out a party to charge him; upon which most of his men halted, I don’t say run away, but it was next door to it; for they could not be persuaded to fire their pistols, and wheel off like soldiers, but retreated in such a disorderly and shameful manner, that, had the enemy but had either the courage or conduct to have followed them, it must have certainly ended in the ruin of the whole party. I confess, when I went into arms at the beginning of this war, I never troubled myself to examine sides ; I was glad to hear the drums beat for soldiers, as if I had been a mere Swiss, that had not cared which side went up or down, so I had my pay. I went as eagerly and blindly about my busi¬ ness as the meanest wretch that listed in the army ; nor had I the least compassionate thought for the miseries of my native country, till after the fight at Edgehill. I had known as much, and perhaps more, than most in the army, what it was to have an enemy ranging in the bowels of a kingdom ; I had seen the most flourishing provinces of Germany reduced to perfect deserts, and the voracious Crabats, with inhuman barbarity, quenching the fires of the plundered villages with the blood of the inhabitants. Whether this had hardened me against the natural tenderness which I afterwards found return upon me or not, 1 cannot tell; but I reflected upon myself afterwards with a great deal of trouble for the unconcerned- 106 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. ness )f my temper at the approaching ruin of my native country. I was in the first army at York, as I have already noted, and, I must confess, had the least diversion there that ever I found in an army in my life; for when I was in Germany with the King of Sweden, we used to see the king, with the general officers, every morning on horseback, viewing his men, his artillery, his horses, and always something going forward ; here we saw nothing but courtiers and clergymen, bishops and parsons, as busy as if the direction of the war had been in them. The king was seldom seen among us, and never without some of them always about him. Those few of us that had seen the wars, and would have made a short end of this for him, began to be very uneasy; and particularly a certain nobleman took the freedom to tell the king, that the clergy would certainly ruin the expedition. The case was this, he would have had the king have immedi¬ ately marched into Scotland, and put the matter to the trial of a battle; and he urged it every day; and the king finding his reasons very good, would often be of his opinion; but next morning he would be of another mind. This gentleman was a man of conduct enough, and of un* questioned courage, and afterwards lost his life for the king. He saw we had an army of young stout fellows, numerous enough; and though they had not yet seen much service, he was for bringing them to action, that the Scots might not have time to strengthen themselves; nor they have time, by idleness and sotting, the bane of soldiers, to make themselves unfit for anything. I was one morning in company with this gentleman, and as he was a warm man, and eager in his discourse, A pox of these priests, says he, it is for them the king has raised this army and put his friends to a vast charge, and now we are come, they won’t let us fight. But I was afterwards convinced the clergy saw farther into the matter than we did. They saw the Scots had a better army than we had ; bold and ready, commanded by brave officers ; and they foresaw, that, if we fought, we should be beaten, and if beaten, they were undone. And it was very true, we had all been ruined if we had engaged. It is true, when we came to the pacification which followed, I confess I was of the same mind the gentleman had been of 5 CONDUCT OF THE SCOTS. 107 i'or we had better have fought and been beaten, than have made so dishonourable a treaty, without striking a stroke. This pacification seems to me to have laid the scheme of all the blood and contusion which followed in the civil war; for whatever the king and his liiends might pretend to do by talking big, the Scots saw he was to be bullied into anything, and that, when it came to the push, the courtiers never cared to bring it to blows. I have little or nothing to say as to action in this mock expedition. The king was persuaded at last to march to Berwick; and, as I have said already, a party ot horse went out to learn news of the Scots, and as soon as they saw them, run away from them bravely. This made the Scots so insolent, that whereas before they lay encamped behind a river, and never showed themselves, in a sort of modest deference to their king, which was the pretence of not being aggressors or invaders, only arming in their own defence ; now, having been invaded by the English troops entering Scotland, they had what they wanted; and to show it was not tear that restrained them before, but policy, now they came up in parties to our very gates, braving and facing us every day. I had, with more curiosity than discretion, put myself as a volunteer at the head of one of our parties of horse, under my Lord Holland, when they went out to discover the enemy ; they went, they said, to see what the Scots were a-doing. We had not marched far, but our scouts brought word they had discovered some horse, but could not come up to them because a river parted them. At the heels ot these came another party of our men upon the spur to us, and said the enemy was behind, which might be true, for aught we knew, but it was so far behind that nobody could see them, and yet the country was plain and open for above a mile before us. Hereupon we made a halt, and indeed I was afraid it would have been an odd sort of a halt, for our men began to look one upon another, as they do in like cases when they are going to break ; and when the scouts came galloping in, the men were in such disorder, that, had but one man broke away, I am satisfied they had all run for it. I found my Lord Holland did not perceive it; but after the first surprise was a little over, I told my lord what I had observed; and that unless some course was immediately 108 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. taken, they would all run at the first sight of the enemy, I found he was much concerned at it, and began to consult what course to take to prevent it. I confess it is a hard question, how to make men stand and face an enemy, when fear has possessed their minds with an inclination to run away ; but I’ll give that honour to the memory of that noble gentleman, who, though his experience in matters of war was small, having never been in much service, yet his courage made amends for it; for I dare say he would not have turned his horse from an army of enemies, nor have saved his life at the price of running away for it. My lord soon saw, as well as I, the fright the men were in after I had given him a hint of it; and, to encourage them, rode through their ranks, and spoke cheerfully to them, and used what arguments he thought proper to settle their minds. I remembered a saying which I had heard old Marshal Gus- tavus Horn speak in Germany, If you find your men falter, or in doubt, never suffer them to halt, but keep them advancing; for while they are going forward it keeps up their courage. _ As soon as I could get opportunity to speak to him, I gave him this as my opinion. That’s very well, says my lord, but I am studying, says he, to post them so as that they can’t run if they would; and if they stand but once to face the enemy, I don’t fear them afterwards. While we were discoursing thus, word was brought, that several parties of the enemies were seen on the farther side of the river, upon which my lord gave the word to march ; and as we were marching on, my lord calls out a lieutenant, who had been an old soldier, with only five troopers whom he had most confidence in, and having given him his lesson, he sends him away. In a quarter of an hour, one of the five troopers comes back, galloping and hallooing, and tells us his lieutenant had with his small party beaten a party of twenty of the enemy’s horse over the river, and had secured the pass, and desired my lord would march up to him immediately. It is a strange thing that men’s spirits should be subjected to such sudden changes, and capable of so much alteration from shadows of things. They were for running before they saw the enemy, now they are in haste to be led on, and, but that in raw men we are obliged to bear with anything, the disorder in both was intolerable. The story was a premeditated sham, and not a word of NOVEL MIXTURE OF HORSE AND FOOT. 109 truth in it, invented to raise their spirits, and cheat them out of their cowardly phlegmatic apprehensions, and my lord had his end in it, for they were all on fire to fall on; and I am persuaded had they been led immediately into a battle begun to their hands, they Avould have laid about them like furies, for there is nothing like victory to flush a young soldier. Thus, Avhile the humour was high, and the fermentation lasted, away we marched; and passing one of their great commons, which they call moors, we came to the river, as he called it, where our lieutenant was posted with his four men. It was a little brook, fordable with ease, and leaving a guard at the pass, we advanced to the top of a small ascent, from whence we had a fair view of the Scots’ army, as they laid behind another river larger than the former. Our men were posted well enough, behind a small enclo¬ sure, with a narrow lane in their front; and my lord had caused his dragoons to be placed in the front, to line the hedges ; and in this posture he stood viewing the enemy at a distance. The Scots, who had some intelligence of our coming, drew out three small parties, and sent them by different ways, to observe our number ; and forming a fourth party, which I guessed to be about six hundred horse, advanced to the top of the plain, and drew up to face us, but never offered to attack us. One of the small parties, making about a hundred men, one- third foot, passes upon our flank in view, but out of reach ; and as they marched, shouted at us, which our men, better pleased with that work than fighting, readily enough answered, and fain would have fired at them for the pleasure of making a noise; for they were too far off to hit them. I observed that these parties had always some foot with them, and yet if the horse galloped or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were as forward as they, which was an extraordinary advantage. Gustavus Adolphus, that king of soldiers, was the first that I have ever observed found the advantage of mixing small bodies of musketeers among his horse; and had he had such nimble strong fellows as these, he would have prized them above all the rest of his men. These were those they call highlanders ; they would run on foot with their arms and all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and yet keep pace with the horse, let them go at what rate they 110 MEMOIRS OF A OAVALIEB. would. "When I saw the foot thus interlined among the horse, together with the way of ordering their flying parties, it presently occurred to my mind, that here was some of our old Scots come home out of Germany, that had the ordering of matters; and if so, I knew we were not a match for them. Thus we stood facing the enemy till our scouts brought us word the whole Scots’ army was in motion, and in full march to attack us ; and though it was not true, and the fear of our men doubled every object, yet it was thought convenient to make our retreat. The whole matter was, that the scouts having informed them what they could of our strength, the six hundred were ordered to march towards us, and three regiments of foot were drawn out to support the horse. I know not whether they would have ventured to attack us, at least before their foot had come up ; but whether they would have put it to the hazard or no, we were resolved not to hazard the trial, so we drew down to the pass; and, as retreating looks something like running away, especially when an enemy is at hand, our men had much ado to make their retreat pass for a march, and not a flight; and, by their often looking behind them, anybody might know what they would have done if they had been pressed. I confess, I was heartily ashamed when the Scots, coming up to the place where we had been posted, stood and shouted at us. I would have persuaded my lord to have charged them, and he would have done it with all his heart, but he saw it was not practicable ; so we stood at gaze with them above two hours, by which time their foot were come up to them, and yet they did not offer to attack us. I never was so ashamed of myself in my life; we were all dispirited; the Scots’ gentlemen would come out single, within shot of our post, which, in a time of war, is always accounted a challenge to any single gentleman, to come out and exchange a pistol with them, and nobody would stir ; at last our old lieutenant rides out to meet a Scotsman that came pickering on his quarter. This lieutenant was a brave and a strong fellow, had been a soldier in the Low Countries ; and though he was not of any quality, only a mere soldier, had his preferment for his conduct. He gallops bravely up to his adversary, and exchanging their pistols, the lieutenant’s horse happened to be killed. The Scotsman very generously dismounts, and engages him with his sword, and fairly masters him, and BASE END **HE EXPEDITION. Ill carries nim away prisoner; and I think this horse was all the blood that was shed in that war. The lieutenant’s name, thus conquered, was English, and as he was a very stout old soldier, the disgrace of it broke his heart. The Scotsman indeed used him very generously; for he treated him in the camp very courteousl} T , gave him another horse, and set him at liberty, gratis. But the man laid it so to heart, that he never would appear in the army, but went home to his OAvn country, and died. I had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with indignation at the cowardice of the men; and my lord was in as great a fret as I, but there was no remedy ; we durst not go about to retreat, for we should have been in such confusion, that the enemy must have discovered it. So my lord resolved to keep the post, if possible, and send to the king for some foot. Then were our men ready to fight with one another who should be the messenger; and at last, when a lieutenant with twenty dragoons was despatched, he told us afterwards, he found himself a hundred strong before he was gotten a mile from the place. In short, as soon as ever the day declined, and the dusk of the evening began to shelter the designs of the men, they dropt away from us one by one ; and at last in such numbers, that, if we had stayed till the morning, we had not had fifty men left, out of twelve hundred horse and dragoons. When I saw how it was, consulting with some of the officers, we all went to my Lord Holland, and pressed him to retreat, before the enemy should discern the flight of our men; so he drew us off, and we came to the camp the next morning, in the shamefulest condition that ever poor men could do. And this was the end of the worst expedition ever I made in my life. To fight and be beaten, is a casualty common to a soldier, and I have since had enough of it; but to run away at the sight of an enemy, and neither strike or be stricken, this is the very shame of the profession, and no man that has done it, ought to show his face again in the field, unless disadvan¬ tages of place or number make it tolerable, neither of which was our case. My Lord Holland made another march a few days after, in hopes to retrieve this miscarriage ; but I had enough of it, bo I kept in my quarters ; and though his men did not desert 112 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. him as before, yet, upon the appearance of the enemy, they did not think tit to fight, and came off with but little more honour than they did before. There was no need to go out to seek the enemy after this ; for they came, as I have noted, and pitched in sight of us, and their parties came up every day to the very outworks of Berwick ; but nobody cared to meddle with them ; and in this posture things stood when the pacification was agreed on by both parties ; which, like a short truce, only gave both sides breath to prepare for a new war more ridiculously managed than the former. When the treaty was so near a conclusion, as that conversation was admitted on both sides, I went over to the Scotch camp to satisfy my curiosity, as many of our English officers did also. I confess, the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the highlanders ; the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. They were genei’ally tall swinging fellows ; their swords were extravagantly, and, I think, insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings, of a stuff they called plaid, striped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready for Bartholomew fair. They are in companies all of a name, and therefore call one another only by their Christian names, as Jemmy, Jockey, that is, John; and Sawny, that is, Alexander, and the like. And they scorn to be commanded but by one of their own clan or family. They are all gentlemen, and proud enough to be kings. The meanest fellow among them is as tenacious of his honour, as the best nobleman in the country, and they will fight and cut one another’s throats for every trifling affront. But to their own clans, or lairds, they are the willingest and most obedient fellows in nature. Give them their due, were their skill in exercises and discipline proportioned to their courage, they would make the bravest soldiers in the world. They are large bodies, and prodigiously strong; and two qualities they have above other nations, viz., hardy to endure hunger, cold, and hardships, and wonderfully swift of CHARACTER OP THE HIGHLANDERS. 113 foot. The latter is such an advantage in the field, that I know none like it; for if they conquer, no enemy can escape them ; and if they run, even the horse can hardly overtake them. These were some of them, who, as I observed before, went out in parties with their horse. There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots’ army, armed only with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had a pistol, but no muskets at that time among them. But there were also a great many regiments of disciplined men, who, by their carrying their arms, looked as if they understood their business, and by their faces, that they durst see an enemy. I had not been half an hour in their camp after the ceremony of giving our names, and passing their outguards and mainguards was over, but I was saluted by several of my acquaintance; and, in particular, by one who led the Scotch volunteers at the taking the castle of Openheim, of which I have given an account. They used me with all the respect they thought due to me, on account of old affairs; gave me the word, and a serjeant waited upon me whenever I pleased to go abroad. I continued twelve or fourteen days among them, till the pacification was concluded; and they were ordered to march home. They spoke very respectfully of the king, but I found were exasperated to the last degree at Archbishop Laud and the English bishops, for endeavouring to impose the Common Prayer Book upon them; and they always talked with the utmost contempt of our soldiers and army. I always waived the discourse about, the clergy, and the occasion of the war; but I could not but be too sensible what they said of our men was true, and by this I perceived they had an universal intelligence from among us, both of what we were doing, and what sort of people we were that were doing it; and they were mighty desirous of coming to blows with us. I had an invitation from their general, but I declined it, lest I should give offence. I found they accepted the pacification as a thing not likely to hold, or that they did not design should hold; and that they were resolved to keep their forces on foot, notwithstanding the agreement. Their whole army was full of brave officers, men of as much experience and conduct VOL. II. i 114 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. as any in the world; and all men who know anything of war, know good officers presently make a good army. Things being thus huddled up, the English came back to York, where the army separated, and the Scots went home to increase theirs; for I easily foresaw, that peace was the farthest thing from their thoughts. CHAPTER IX. WAR BREAKS OUT AGAIN IN THE NORTH— I JOIN THE KING’S ARMY-ACTION WITH THE SCOTS, IN WHICH THEY ARE VICTORIOUS—GREAT DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND - CHARACTER OF THE KING-1 AM SENT ON A MESSAGE TO THE SCOTCH ARMY-THE KING IS REDUCED TO SUBMIT TO THEIR TERMS-ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PARLIAMENT ■-THE GATES OF HULL SHUT AGAINST THE KING - THE KING RAISES AN ARMY — LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH GENTRY". The next year the flame broke out again; the king drew his forces down into the north, as before, and expresses were sent to all the gentlemen that had command*, to be at the place by the 15th of July. As I had accepted of no command in the army, so I had no inclination at all to go ; for I foresaw there would be nothing but disgrac® attending My father observing such an alteration in my usual forwardness, asked me one day, what was the matter, that I, who used to be so forward to go into the army, and so eager to run abroad to fight, now showed no inclination to appear when the service of the king and country called me to it ? I told him I had as much zeal as ever for the king’s service, and for the country too; but he knew a soldier could not abide to be beaten; and being from thence a little more inquisitive, I told him the observations I had made in the Scots’ army, and the people I had conversed with there ; And sir, says I, assure yourself, if the king offers to fight them, he will be ! eaten; and I don’t love to engage when my judgment tells me beforehand I shall be worsted; and, as I had foreseen, it came to pass j for the Scots resolving to THE KING ACTS WITHOUT A PARLIAMENT. 11 * proceed, never stood upon the ceremony of aggression, as before, but on the 20th of August they entered England with their army. However, as my father desired, I went to the king’s army, which was then at York, but not gotten all together: the king himself was at London, but upon this news takes post for the army, and advancing a part of his forces, he posted the Lord Conway and Sir Jacob Astley, with a brigade of foot and some horse, at Newborn, upon the river Tyne, to keep the Scots from passing that river. The Seots could have passed the Tyne without fighting; but, to let us see that they were able to force their passage, they fall upon this body of men; and, notwithstanding all the advantages of the place, they beat them from the post, took their baggage and two pieces of cannon, with some prisoners. Sir Jacob Astley made what resistance he could, but the Scots charged with so much fury, and being also overpowered, he was soon put into confusion. Immediately the Scots made themselves masters of Newcastle, and the next day of Durham, and laid those two counties under intolerable contributions. Now was the king absolutely ruined; for among his own people the discontents before were so plain, that had the clergy had any forecast, they would never have embroiled him with the Scots, till he had fully brought matters to an understanding at home; but the case was thus :—The king, by the good husbandry of Bishop Juxon, his treasurer, had a million of ready money in his treasury, and, upon that account, having no need of a parliament, had not called one in twelve years; and perhaps had never called another, if he had not, by this unhappy circumstance, been reduced to a necessity of it; for now this ready money was spent in two foolish expeditions, and his army appeared in a condition not fit to engage the Scots; the detachment under Sir Jocob Astley, which were of the flower of his men, had been routed at Newborn, and the enemy had possession of two entire counties. All men blamed Laud for prompting the king to provoke the Scots, a headstrong nation, and zealous for their own way of worship; and Laud himself found, too late, the consequences of it, both to the whole cause and to himself, for the Scots whose native temper is not easily to forgive an i 2 116 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. injury, pursued him by their party into England, and never gave it over, till they laid his head on the block. The ruined country now clamoured in his majesty’s ears with daily petitions, and the gentry of other neighbouring counties cry out for peace and a parliament. The king embarrassed with these difficulties, and quite empty of money, calls a great council of the nobility at York, and demands their advice, which any one could have told him before, would be to call a parliament. I cannot, without regret, look back upon the misfortune of the king, who, as he was one of the best princes in hi* personal conduct that ever reigned in England, had yet some of the greatest unhappinesses in his conduct as a king, that ever prince had, and the whole course of his life demonstrated it. 1 . An impolitic honesty. His enemies called it obstinacy: but as I was perfectly acquainted with his temper, I cannot but think it was his judgment, when he thought he was in the right, to adhere to it as a duty, though against his interest. 2. Too much compliance when he was complying. No man but himself would have denied, what at some¬ times he denied, and have granted what at other times he granted; and this uncertainty of council proceeded from two things:— 1. The heat of the clergy, to whom he was exceedingly devoted, and for whom indeed he ruined himself. 2. The wisdom of his nobility. Thus, when the counsel of his priests prevailed, all was fire and fury; the Scots were rebels, and must be subdued, and the parliament’s demands were to be rejected as ex¬ orbitant. But whenever the king’s judgment was led by the grave and steady advice of his nobility and counsellors, he was always inclined by them to temperate his measures between the two extremes; and had he gone on in such a temper, he had never met with the misfortunes which after¬ wards attended him, or had so many thousands of his friends lost their lives and fortunes in his service. I am sure, we that knew what it was to fight for him, and that loved him better than any of the clergy could pretend to, have had many a consultation how to bring over our master from so espousing their interest, as to ruin himself for it ; but it was in vain. A FLEET SENT OUT AGAINST THE SCOTS. 117 I took this interval, when I sat still and only looked on, to make these remarks, because I remember the best friends the king had were at this time of that opinion, that it was an unaccountable piece of indiscretion, to commence a quarrel with the Scots, a poor and obstinate people, for a ceremony and book of church discipline, at a time when the king stood but upon indifferent terms with his people at home. The consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his subjects to rebel against him; it embroiled him with his parliament in England, to whom he was fain to stoop in a fatal and unusual manner to get money, all his own being spent, and so to buy off the Scots, whom he could not beat off. I cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics of his ministers. If they overruled this unhappy king to it, with design to exhaust and impoverish him, they were the worst of traitors ; if not, the grossest of fools. They prompted the king to equip a fleet against the Scots, and to put on board it five thousand landmen. Had this been all, the design had been good, that while the king had faced the army upon the borders, these five thousand landing in the frith of Edin¬ burgh, might have put that whole nation into disorder. But, in order to this, they advise the king to lay out his money in fitting out the biggest ships he had; and the Royal Sovereign, the biggest ship the world had ever seen, which cost him no less than 100,000Z. was now built, and fitted out for this voyage. This was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that could be given, and made us all believe we were betrayed, though we knew not by whom. To fit out ships of a hundred guns to invade Scotland, which had not one man-of-war in the world, nor any open cenfederac.y with any prince or state that had any fleet! it was a most ridiculous thing. A hundred sail of Newcastle colliers, to carry the men, with their stores and provisions, and ten frigates of forty guns each, had been as good a fleet as reason and the nature of the thing could have made tolerable. Thus things were carried on, till the king, beggared by the mismanagement of his counsels, and beaten by the Scots, was driven to the necessity of calling a parliament in England. It is not my design to enter into the feuds and brangles of this parliament. I have noted by observations of their 118 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. .mistakes, who brought the king to this happy necessity of calling them. His majesty had tried parliaments upon several occasions before, but never found himself so much embroiled with them but he could send them home, and there was an end of it; but as he could not avoid calling‘these, so they took care to put him out of a condition to dismiss them. The Scots’ army was now quartered upon the English, The counties, the gentry, and the assembly of lords at York, petitioned for a parliament. The Scots presented their demands to the king, in which it was observed, that matters were concerted between them and a party in England; and I confess, when I saw that, I began to think the king in an ill case ; for, as the Scots pre¬ tended grievances, we thought, the king redressing those grievances, they could ask no more; and therefore all men advised the king to grant their full demands. And whereas the king had not money to supply the Scots in their march home, I know there were several meetings of gentle¬ men with a design to advance considerable sums of money to the king to set him free, and in order to reinstate his majesty, as before. Not that we ever advised the king to rule without a parliament, but we were very desirous of putting him out of the necessity of calling them, at least, just then. But the eighth article of the Scots’ demands expressly required, That an English parliament might be called to remove all obstructions of commerce, and to settle peace, religion, and liberty ; and in another article they tell the king, the 24th of September, being the time his majesty appointed for the meeting of the peers, will make it too long ere the parliament meet. And in another, That a parliament was the only way of settling peace, and bringing them to his majesty’s obedience. When we saw this in the army, it was time to look about. Everybody perceived that the Scots’ army would call an English parliament; and whatever aversion the king had to it, we all saw he would be obliged to comply with it: and now they all began to see their error, who advised the king to this Scotch war. While these things were transacting, the assembly of the peers met at York; and by their advice a treaty was begun with the Scots. I had the honour to be sent with the first message, which was in writing. SENT MESSENGER TO THE SCOTCH ARMY. 119 I brought it, attended bj a trumpet, and a guard of five hundred horse, to the Scots’ quarters. I was stopped at Darlington, and my errand being known, General Lesly sent a Scots’ major and fifty horse to receive me, but would let neither my trumpet or guard set foot within their quarters. In this manner, I was conducted to audience in the chapter- house at Durham, where a committee of Scots’ lords, who attended the army, received me very courteously, and gave me their answer in writing also. It was in this answer that they showed, at least to me, their design of embroiling the king with his English subjects; they discoursed very freely with me, and did not order me to withdraw when they debated their private opinions. They drew up several answers, but did not like them ; at last, they gave me one which I did not receive; I thought it was too insolent to be borne with. As near as I can remember, it was thus:— The commissioners of Scotland, attending the service in the army, do refuse any treaty in the city of York. One of the commissioners, who treated me with more dis¬ tinction than the rest, and discoursed freely with me, gave me an opportunity to speak more freely of this than I expected. I told them, if they would return to his majesty an answer fit for me to carry, or if they would say they would not treat at all, I would deliver such a message. But I entreated them to consider the answer was to their sovereign, and to whom they made a great profession of duty and respect; and at least they ought to give their reasons, why they declined a treaty at York, and to name some other place, or humbly to desire his majesty to name some other place. But to send word they would not treat at York, I could deliver no such message, for, when put into English, it would signify, they would not, treat at all. I used a great many reasons and arguments with them on this head; and at last, with some difficulty obtained of them to give the reason, which was the Earl of Strafford’s having the chief command at York, whom they declared their mortal enemy, he having declared them rebels in Ireland. With this answer I returned. I could make no observa¬ tions in the short time I was with them ; for as I stayed but one night, so I was guarded as a close prisoner all the while. I saw several of their officers whom I knew, but ffiey durst not 120 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. speak to me; and, if they would have ventured, my guard would not have permitted them. In this manner I was conducted out of their quarters to my own party again, and having delivered my message to the king, and told his majesty the circumstances, I saw the king receive the account of the haughty behavi-our of the Scots with some regret; however, it was his majesty’s time now to bear, and therefore the Scots were complied with, and the treaty appointed at Rippon; where, after much debate, several preliminary articles were agreed on, as a cessation of arms ; quarters, and bounds to the armies ; sub¬ sistence to the Scots’ army ; and the residue of the demands was referred to a treaty at London, &c. We were all amazed at the treaty, and I cannot but remember, we used to wish much rather we had been suffered to fight; for though we had been worsted at first, the power and strength of the king’s interest, which was not yet tried, must, in fine, have been too strong for the Scots; whereas now we saw the king was for complying with anything, and all his friends would be ruined. I confess, I had nothing to fear, and so was not much con¬ cerned ; but our predictions soon came to pass ; for no sooner was this parliament called, but abundance of those who had embroiled their king with his people of both kingdoms, like the disciples, when their master was betrayed to the Jews, forsook him and fled ; and now parliament tyranny began to succeed church tyranny, and we soldiers were glad to see it at first. The bishops trembled, the judges went to gaol; the officers of the customs were laid hold on; and the parliament began to lay their fingers on the great ones, particularly Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford. We had no great concern for the first, but the last was a man of so much conduct and gallantry, and so beloved by the soldiers and principal gentry of England, that everybody was touched with his misfortune. The parliament now grew mad in their turn; and, as the prosperity of any party is the time to show their discretion, the parliament showed they knew as little where to stop as other people. The king was not in a condition to deny any¬ thing, and nothing could be demanded but they pushed it. They attainted the Earl of Strafford, and thereby made the king cut off his right hand to save his left, and yet not save it THE KING SUBMITS TO THEIR TERMS. 121 neither. They obtained another bill, to empower them to sit during their own pleasure, and after them, triennial parlia¬ ments, to meet whether the king call them or no ; and granting this completed his majesty’s ruin. Had the house only regulated the abuses of the court, punished evil counsellors, and restored parliaments to their oi'iginal and just powers, all had been well; and the king though he had been more than mortified, had yet reaped the benefit of future peace; for now the Scots were sent home, after having eaten up two counties, and received a prodigious sum of money to boot. And the king, though too late, goes in person to Edinburgh, and grants them all they could desire, and more than they asked ; but in England, the desires of ours were unbounded, and drove at all extremes. They threw out the bishops from sitting in the house, make a protestation equivalent to the Scotch covenant; and this done, print their remonstrance. This so provoked the king, that he resolves upon seizing some of the members, and, in an ill hohr, enters the house in person to take them. Thus one imprudent thing on one hand produced another of the other hand, until the king was obliged to leave them to them¬ selves, for fear of being mobbed into something or other unworthy of himself. These proceedings began to alarm the gentry and nobility of England; for, however willing we were to have evil counsellors removed, and the government return to a settled and legal course, according to the happy constitution of this nation, and might have been forward enough to have owned the king had been misled, and imposed upon to do things which he had rather had not been done ; yet it did not follow, that all the powers and prerogatives of the crown should devolve upon the parliament, and the king in a manner be deposed, or else sacrificed to the fury of the rabble. The heats of the house running them thus to all extremes, and at last to take from the king the power of the militia, which indeed was all that was left to make him anything of a king, put the king upon opposing force with force; and thus the flame of civil war began. However backward I was in engaging in the second year’s expedition against the Scots, I was as forward now; for I waited on the king at York, where a gallant company of gentlemen as ever were seen in England, engaged themsciveB 122 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. to enter into Ms service ; and here some of us formed ourselves into troops for the guard of his person. The king having been waited upon by ihe gentry of York¬ shire, and having told them his resolution of erecting his royal standard, and received from them hearty assurances of support, dismisses them, and marches to Hull, where lay the train of artillery, and all the arms and ammunition belonging to the northern army, which had been disbanded. But here the parliament had been beforehand with his majesty, so that when he came to Hull, he found the gates shut, and Sir John Hotham, the governor, upon the walls, though with a great deal of seeming humility and protestations of loyalty to his person, yet with a positive denial to admit any of the king’s attendants into the town. If his majesty pleased to enter the town in person with any reasonable number of his household, he would submit, but would not be prevailed on to receive the king, as he would be received, with his force, though those forces were then but very few. The king was exceedingly provoked at this repulse, and indeed it was a great surprise to us all; for certainly never prince began a war against the whole strength of his kingdom under the circumstances that he was in. He had not a garrison, or a company of soldiers in his pay ; not a stand of arms, or a barrel of powder, a musket, cannon, or mortar; not a ship of all the fleet, or money in his treasury to procure them ; whereas the parliament had all his navy, and ordnance, stores, magazines, arms, ammunition, and revenue, in their keeping. And this I take to be another defect of the king’s counsel, and a sad instance of the distraction of his affairs ; that when he saw how all things were going to week, as it was impossible but he should see it, and it is plain he did see it, that he should not, long enough before it came to extre¬ mities, secure the navy, magazines, and stores of war, in the hands of his trusty servants, that would have been sure to have preserved them for his use, at a time when he wanted them. It cannot be supposed but the gentry of England, who generally preserved their loyalty for their royal master, and at last heartily showed it, were exceedingly discouraged at first, when they saw the parliament had all the means of making war in their own hands, and the king was naked and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or money to pro¬ cure them. THE QUEEN JOTNS THE KING’S ’ORCES. 123 Not but that the king, by extraordinary application, ’Vcuvered the disorder the want of these things had thrown him into, and supplied himself with all things needful. But my observation was this, had his majesty had the magazines, navy, and forts in his own hand, the gentry, who •wanted but the prospect of something to encourage them, had come in at first, and the parliament being unprovided, would have been presently reduced to reason. But this was it that baulked the gentry of Yorkshire, who went home again, giving the king good promises, but never appeared for him, till by raising a good army in Shropshire and Wales, he marched towards London, and they saw there was a prospect of their being supported. In this condition the king ei’ected his standard at Notting¬ ham, August 2nd, 1642, and, I confess, I had very melancholy apprehensions of the king’s affairs ; for the appearance to the royal standard was but small. The affront the king had met with at Hull had baulked and dispirited the northern gentry, and the king’s affairs looked with a very dismal aspect. We had expresses from London of the prodigious success of the parliament’s levies, how their men came in faster than they could entertain them, and that arms were delivered out to whole companies listed together, and the like : and all this while the king had not got together a thousand foot, and had no arms for them neither. When the king saw this, he immediately despatches five several messengers, whereof one went to the Marquis of Worcester into Wales; one went to the queen, then at Windsor ; one to the Duke of Newcastle, then Marquis of Newcastle, into the north; one into Scotland, and one into France, where the queen soon after arrived, to raise money, and buy arms, and to get what assistance she could among her own friends : nor was her majesty idle, for she sent over several ships laden with arms, and ammunition, with a fine train of artillery, and a great many very good officers; and though one of the first fell into the hands of the parliament, with three hundred barrels of powder and some arms, and a hundred and fifty gentlemen, yet most of the gentlemen found means, one way or other to get to us, and most of the ships the queen freighted arrived; and at last her majesty came herself, and brought an extra¬ ordinary supply, both of men, money, arms, &c., with which she joined the king’s forces under the Earl of Newcastle in 124 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. the north. Finding his majesty thus bestirring himself to muster his friends together, I asked him, if he thought it might not be for his majesty’s service to let me go among my friends, and his loyal subjects about Shrewsbury? Yes, says the king, smiling, I intend you shall, and I design to go with you myself. I did not understand what the king meant then, and did not think it good manners to inquire; but the next day I found all things disposed for a march, and the king on horseback by eight of the clock; when calling me to him, he told me I should go before, and let my father and all my friends know he would be at Shrewsbury the Saturday follow¬ ing. 1 left my equipages, and taking post with only one servant, was at my father’s the next morning by break of day. My father was not surprised at the news of the king’s coming at all; for, it seems he, together with the loyal gentry of those parts, had sent particularly to give the king an invi¬ tation to move that way, which I was not made privy to; with an account what encouragemeut they had there in the endeavours made for his interest. In short, the whole coun¬ try was entirely for the king ; and such was the universal joy the people showed when the news of his majesty’s coming down was positively known, that all manner of business was laid aside, and the whole body of the people seemed to be resolved upon the war. As this gave a new face to the king’s affairs, so I must own it filled me with joy ; for I was astonished before, when I considered what the king and his friends were like to be exposed to. The news of the proceedings of the parliament, and their powerful preparations, were now no more terrible; the king came at the time appointed, and having lain at my father’s house one night, entered Shrewsbury in the morning. The acclamations of the people, the concourse of the nobility and gentry about his person, and the crowds which now came every day into his standard, were incredible. The loyalty of the English gentry was not only worth notice, but the power of the gentry is extraordinarily visible in this matter. The king, in about six week’s time, which was the most of his stay at Shrewsbury, was supplied with money, arms, ammunition, and a train of artillery, and listed a body of an army upwards of twenty thousand men. His majesty seeing the general alacrity of his people, immediately issued out commissions, and formed regiments of LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH GENTRY. 125 horse and foot; and having some expei'ienced officers about him, together with about sixteen who came from France, with a ship loaded with arms and some field-pieces, which came very seasonably into the Severn, the men were exer¬ cised, regularly disciplined, and quartered, and now we began to look like soldiers. My father had raised a regiment of horse at his own charge, and completed them, and the king gave out arms to them from the supplies which I mentioned came from abroad. Another party of horse, all brave, stout fellows, and well mounted, came in from Lancashire, and the Earl of Derby at the head of them. The Welchmen came in by droves; and so great was the concourse of people, that the king began to think of marching, and gave the command, as well as the trust of regulating the army, to the brave Earl of Lindsey, as general of the foot; the parliament general being the Earl of Essex; two braver men, or two better officers, were not in the kingdom; they had both been old soldiers, and had served together as volunteers in the Low Country wars, under Prince Maurice. They had been com¬ rades and companions abroad, and now came to face one another as enemies in the field. Such was the expedition used by the king and his friends, in the levies of this first army, that, notwithstanding the wonderful expedition the parliament made, the king was in the field before them; and now the gentry in other parts of the nation bestirred. themselves, and seized upon and gar¬ risoned several considerable places for the king. In the north, the Earl of Newcastle not only garrisoned the most consider¬ able places, but even the general possession of the north was for the king, excepting Hull and some few places, which the old Lord Fairfax had taken up for the parliament. On the other hand, entire Cornwall, and most of the western counties, were the king’s. The parliament had their chief interest in the south and eastern part of England; as Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Bedford, Hun¬ tingdon, Hertford, Buckinghamshire, and the other midland counties. These were called, or some of them at least, the associated counties, and felt little of the war, other than the charges ; but the main support of the parliament was the city of London. The king made the seat of his court at Oxford, •vbich he caused to be regularly fortified. The Lord Say had been here, and had possession of the city for the enemy, 126 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. and was debating abost fortifying it, but came to no resofei* lion, which was a very great oversight in them ; the situation of the place, and the importance of it, on many accounts, to the city of London, considered; and they would have retrieved this error afterwards, but then it was too late; for the king made it the head-quarters, and received great supplies and assistance from the wealth of the colleges, and the plenty of the neighbouring country. Abingdon, Wallingford, Basing, and Reading, were all garrisoned and fortified as outworks, to defend this as the centre. And thus all England became the theatre of blood, and war was spread into every corner of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. I had no command in this army ; my father led his own regi¬ ment; and, as old as he was, would not leave his royal master; and my elder brother stayed at home to support the family. As for me, I rode a volunteer in the royal troop of guards, which may very well deserve the title of a royal troop; for it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of the nobility, and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and I think not a person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. We reckoned in this troop two-and-thirty lords, or who came afterwards to be such: and eight-and-thirty of younger sons of the nobility, five French noblemen, and all the rest gentle¬ men of very good families and estates. And that I may give the due to their personal valour, many of this troop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops under their command, in the service of the king; many of them lost their lives for him, and most of them their estates: nor did they behave unworthy of themselves in their first showing their faces to the enemy, as shall be mentioned in its place. While the king remained at Shrewsbury, his loyal friends bestirred themselves in several parts of the kingdom. Goring had secured Portsmouth; but being young in matters of war, and not in time relieved, though the Marquis of Hertford was marching to relieve him, yet he was obliged to quit the place, and shipped himself for Holland, from whence he returned with relief for the king, and afterwards did very good service upon all occasions, and so effectually cleared himself of the scandal the hasty surrender of Portsmouth had brought upon his courage. The chief power of the king’s forces lay in three places, in POSITION OF THE TKOOPS 12? Cornwall, in Yorkshire, and at Shrewsbury. In Cornwall, Sir Ralph Hopton, afterwards Lord Hopton, Sir Bevil Granvil, and Sir Nicholas Slamming, secured all the country, and afterwards spread themselves over Devonshire and Somerset¬ shire, took Exeter from the parliament, fortified Bridgewater and Barnstable, and beat Sir William Waller at the battle of Roundway Down, as I shall touch at more particularly, when I come to recite the part of my own travels that way. In the north, the Marquis of Newcastle secured all the country, garrisoned York, Scarborough, Carlisle, Newcastle, Pomfret, Leeds, and all the considerable places, and took the field with a very good army, though afterwards he proved more unsuccessful than the rest, having the whole power ol a kingdom at his back, the Scots coming in with an army to the assistance of the parliament; which indeed was the general turn of the scale of the war; for, had it not been for the Scots’ army, the king had most certainly reduced the parliament, at least to good terms of peace, in two years’ time. The king was the third article: his force at Shrewsbury I have noted already ; the alacrity of the gentry filled him with hopes, and all his army with vigour, and the 8th of October, 1G42, his majesty gave orders to march. The Earl of Essex had spent above a month after his leaving London (for he went thence the 9th of September) in modelling and drawing together his forces ; his rendezvous was at St. Albans, from whence he marched to Northampton, Coventry, and Warwick, and leaving garrisons in them, he comes on to Worcester. Being thus advanced, he possesses Oxford, as I noted before, Banbury, Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, out of all which places, except Gloucester, we drove him back to London in a very little while. Sir John Biron had raised a very good party of five hundred horse, most gentlemen, for the king, and had possessed Oxford; but on the approach of Lord Say quitted it, being now but an open town, and retreated to Worcester; from whence, on the approach of Essex’s army, he retreated to the king. And now all things grew ripe for action, both parties having secured their posts, and settled their schemes of the war, taken their posts and places as their measures and opportunities directed, the field was next in their eye, and the soldiers began to inquire when they should fight; for as yet there had been little or no blood drawn, and it was not long before they had 128 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. enough of it; for I believe I may challenge all the historians in Europe to tell me of any war in the world where, in the space of four years, there were so many pitched battles, sieges, fights, and skirmishes, as in this war; we never encamped or intrenched, never fortified the avenues to our posts, or lay fenced with rivers and defiles; here was no leaguers in the field, as at the story of Nuremberg, neither had our soldiers any tents, or what they call heavy baggage. It was the general maxim of this war, Where is the enemy ? let us go and fight them: or, on the other hand, if the enemy was coming, What was to be done ? why, what should be done ? draw out into the fields, and fight them. I cannot say it was the prudence of the parties, and had the king fought less he had gained more; and I shall remark several times, when the eagerness of fighting was the worst council, and proved our loss. This benefit however happened in general to the country, that it made a quick, though a bloody end, of the war, which otherwise had lasted till it might have ruined the whole nation. CHAPTER X. THE ROYAL ARMY TAKES THE FIELD-ACTION WITH THE REBELS UNDER ESSEX-BATTLE OF EDGEHILL-THE PAR¬ LIAMENT CLAIMS THE VICTORY-THEY VOTE AN ADDRESS FOR PEACE-SAD REFLECTIONS ON THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR. On the 10th of October the king's army was in full march, his majesty generalissimo, the Earl of Lindsey, general of the foot, Prince Rupert, general of the horse; and the first action in the field was by Prince Rupert and Sir John Biron. Sir John had brought his body of five hundred horse, as I noted already, from Oxford to Worcester; the Lord Say, with a strong party, being in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and expected in the town; Colonel Sandys, a hot man, and who had more courage than judgment, advances with about fifteen hundred horse and dragoons, with design to beat Sir John Biron out of Worcester, and take post there for the parliament. The king had notice that the Earl of Essex designed for Worcester, and Prince Rupert was ordered to advance with ACTION WITH THE REBELS UNDER ESSEX. 129 a body of horse and dragoons, to face the enemy, and bring ofi Sir John Biron. This his majesty did to amuse the Earl of Essex, that he might expect him that way; whereas the king’s design was to get between the Earl of Essex’s army and the city of London; and his majesty’s end was doubly answered; for he not only drew Essex on to Worcester, where he spent more time than he needed, but he beat the party into the bargain. I went volunteer in this party, and rid in my father’s regiment; for though we really expected not to see the enemy, yet I was tired with lying still. We came to Worcester just as notice was brought to Sir John Biron that a party of the enemy was on their march for Worcester, upon which the prince, immediately consulting what was to be done, resolves to march the next morning, and fight them. The enemy, who lay at Pershore, about eight miles from Worcester, and, as I believe, had no notice of our march, came on very confidently in the morning, and found us fairly drawn up to receive them; I must confess this was the bluntest downright way of making war that ever was seen. The enemy, who, in all the little knowledge I had of war, ought to have discovered our numbers, and guessed by our posture what our design was, might easily have informed themselves that we intended to attack them, and so might have secured the advantage of a bridge in their front; but, without any regard to these methods of policy, they came on at all hazards. Upon this notice, my father proposed to the prince to halt for them, and suffer ourselves to be attacked, since we found them willing to give us the advantage; the prince approved of the advice, so we halted within view of a bridge, leaving space enough on our front for about half the number of their forces to pass and draw up; and at the bridge was posted about fifty dragoons, with orders to retire as soon as the enemy advanced, as if they had been afraid. On the right of the road was a ditch, and a very high bank behind, where we had placed three hundred dragoons, with orders to lie flat on their faces till the enemy had passed the bridge, and to let fly among them as soon as our trumpets sounded a charge. Nobody but Colonel Sandys would have been caught in such a snare; for he might easily have seen that, when he was over the bridge, there was not room enough for him to fight in; but “The Lord of Hosts” was VOL. II. K 130 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. so much in their mouths, for that was the word for th;.t day, that they took little heed how to conduct the host of the Lord to their own advantage. As we expected, they appeared, heat our dragoons from the bridge, and passed it; we stood firm in one line with a reserve, and expected a charge; but Colonel Sandys, showing a great deal more judgment than we thought he was master of, extends himself to the left, finding the ground too straight, and began to form his men with a great deal of readiness and skill; for by this time he saw our number was greater than he expected; the prince perceiving it, and foreseeing that the stratagem of the dragoons would be frustrated by this, immediately charges with the horse, and the dragoons at the same time standing upon their feet, poured in their shot upon those that were passing the bridge; this surprise put them into such disorder that we had but little work with them; for though Colonel Sandys, with the troops next him, sus¬ tained the shock very well, and behaved themselves gallantly enough, yet, the confusion beginning in their rear, those that had not yet passed the bridge were kept back by the fire of the dragoons, and the rest were easily cut in pieces. Colonel Sandys was mortally wounded and taken prisoner, and the crowd was so great to get back, that many pushed into the water, and were rather smothered than drowned. Some of them who never came into the fight were so frightened that they never looked behind them, till they came to Pershore; and, as we were afterwards informed, the life-guards of the general who had quartered in the town, left it in disorder enough, expecting us at the heels of their men. If our business had been to keep the parliament army from coming to Worcester, we had a very good opportunity to have secured the bridge at Pershore; but our design lay another way, as I have said, and the king was for drawing Essex on to the Severn, in hopes to get behind him, which fell out accordingly. Essex, spurred by this affront in the infancy of their affairs, advances the next day, and came to Pershore time enough to be at the funeral of some of his men; and from thence he advances to Worcester. We marched back to Worcester extremely pleased with the good success of our first attack; and our men were so Hushed with this little victory, that it put vigour into the THE KING CALLS A COUNCIL OF WAR. 131 whole army. The enemy lost about three thousand men, and we carried away near one hundred and fifty prisoners, with five hundred horses, some standards and arms, and, among the prisoners, their colonel, but he died a little after ®f his wounds. Upon the approach of the enemy, Worcester was quitted, and the forces marched back to join the king’s army, which lay then at Bridgenorth, Ludlow, and thereabout. As the king expected, it fell out; Essex found so much work at Worcester to settle parliament quarters, and secure Bristol, Gloucester, and Hereford, that it gave the king a full day’s march of him; so the king, having the start of him, moves towards London; and Essex, nettled to be both beaten in fight, and outdone in conduct, decamps, and follows the king. The parliament, and the Londoners too, were in a strange consternation at this mistake of their general; and had the king, whose great misfortune was always to follow precipi¬ tant advices,—had the king, Isay, pushed on his first design, which he had formed with very good reason, and for which he had been dodging with Essex eight or ten days, viz., of marching directly to London, where he had a very great interest, and where his friends were not yet oppressed and impoverished, as they were afterwards, he had turned the scale of his affairs; and every man expected it; for the members began to shift for themselves, expresses were sent on the heels of one another to the Earl of Essex, to hasten after the king, and, if possible, to bring him to a battle. Some of these letters fell into our hands, and we might easily discover that the parliament were in the last confusion at the thoughts of our coming to London; besides this, the city was in a worse fright than the house, and the great moving men began to go out of town. In short, they expected us, and we expected to come; but providence, for our ruin, had otherwise determined it. Essex, upon news of the king’s march, and upon receipt of the parliament’s letters, makes long marches after us, and on the 23rd of October reaches the village of Keynton, in Warwickshire. The king was almost as far as Banbury, and there calls a council of w r ar. Some of the old officers that foresaw the advantage the king had, the concern the city was in, and the vast addition, both to the reputation of his forces and the increase of his interest, it would be, if the 132 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIEK. king could gain that point, urged the king to march on to London. Prince Rupert, and the fresh colonels, pressed for fighting; told the king it dispirited their men to march with the enemy at their heels; that the parliament army was inferior to him by six thousand men, and fatigued with hasty marching; that, as their orders were to fight, he had nothing to do hut to post himself to advantage, and receive thefn to their destruction; that the action near Worcester had let them know how easy it was to deal with a rash enemy; and that it was a dishonour for him, whose forces were so much superior, to he pursued hy his subjects in rebellion. These and the like arguments prevailed with the king to alter his wiser measures, and resolve to fight. Nor was this all; when a resolution of fighting was taken, that part of the advice which they who were for fighting gave as a reason for their opinion was forgot, and, instead of halting, and posting ourselves to advantage till the enemy came up, we were ordered to march back and meet them. Nay, so eager was the prince for fighting, that when from the top of Edgehill, the enemy’s army was descried in the bottom between them and the village of Keynton, and that the enemy had bid us defiance, by discharging three cannons, we accepted the challenge, and answering with two shots from our army, we must needs forsake the advantage of the hills, which they must have mounted under the command of our cannon, and march down to them into the plain. I confess, I thought here was a great deal more gallantry than discretion; for it was plainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and putting it into the hands of the enemy. An enemy that must fight, may always be fought with to advantage. My old hero, the glorious Gustavus Adolphus, was as forward to fight as any man of true valour, mixt with any policy, need to be, or ought to be ; but he used to say, an enemy, reduced to a necessity of fighting, is half beaten. It is true, we were all but young in the war; the soldiers hot and forward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with the enemy. But I take the more notice of it here, because the king in this acted against his own measures ; for it was the king himself had laid the design of getting the start of Essex, and marching to London. His friends had invited him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeply for the omission ; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, and ERROR IN DEPLOYMENT OF THE KING'S ARMY. 133 Buffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; an error, I say, the King of Sweden was never guilty of; for if all the officers at a council of war were of a different opi¬ nion, yet, unless their reasons mastered his judgment, their votes never altered his measures; but this was the error of our good, but unfortunate master, three times in this war, and particularly in two of the greatest battles of the time, viz., this of Edgehill, and that of Naseby. The resolution for fighting being published in the army, gave an universal joy to the soldiers, who expressed an extra¬ ordinary ardour for fighting. I remember, my father talk¬ ing with me about it, asked me what I thought of the ap¬ proaching battle ; I told him, I thought the king had done very well; for at that time I did not consult the extent of the design, and had a mighty mind, like other rash people, to see it brought to a day, which made me answer my father as I did. But, said I, sir, I doubt there will be but indifferent doings on both sides, between two armies both made up of fresh men, that had never seen any service. My fathei minded little what I spoke of that; but, when I seemed pleased that the king had resolved to fight, he looked angrily at me, and told me he was sorry I could see no farther into things. I tell you, says he, hastily, if the king should kill and take prisoners this whole army, general and all, the par¬ liament will have the victory; for we have lost more by slipping this opportunity of getting into London, than Ave shall ever get by ten battles. I saw enough of this after¬ wards to convince me of the weight of what my father said, and so did the king too ; but it Avas then too late; ad¬ vantages slipt in Avar are never recovered. We were noAv in a full march to fight the Earl of Essex. It was on Sunday morning the 24th of October, 1642, fair Aveather o\'er head, but the ground \ r ery heaA r y and dirty. As soon as we came to the top of Edgehill, we discovered their Avhole army. They Avere not draAvn up, having had tAVO miles to march that morning; but they were very busy form¬ ing their lines, and posting the regiments as they came up. Some of their horse were exceedingly fatigued, having marched forty-eight hours together; and had they been suffered to folloAV us three or four days’ march farther, several of their regiments of horse Avould have been quite ruined, 134 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. and their foot would have been rendered unserviceable for the present. But we had no patience. As soon as our whole army was come to the top of the hill, we were drawn up in order of battle ; the king’s army made a very fine appearance ; and indeed they were a body of gallant men as ever appeared in the field, and as well fur¬ nished at all points; the horse exceeding well accoutred, being most of them gentlemen and volunteers; some whole regiments serving without pay. Their horses very good and lit for service as could be desired. The whole army were not above eighteen thousand men, and the enemy not one thousand over or under, though we had been told they were not above twelve thousand; but they had been reinforced wdth four thousand men from Northampton. The king was with the general, the Earl of Lindsey, in the main battle; Prince Rupert commanded the right wing, and the Marquis of Hertford, the Lord Willoughby, and several other very good officers, the left. The signal of battle being given with two cannon shot, we marched in order of battalia down the hill, being drawn up in two lines, with bodies of reserve; the enemy advanced to meet us much in the same form, with this difference only, that they had placed their cannon on their right, and the king had placed ours in the centre, before, or rather be¬ tween two great brigades of foot. Their cannon began with us first, and did some mischief among the dragoons of our left wing; but our officers perceiving the shot took the men and missed the horses, ordered all to alight, and every man leading his horse, to advance in the same order; and this saved our men, for most of the enemy’s shot flew over their heads. Our cannon made a terrible execution upon their foot for a quarter of an hour, and put them into great con¬ fusion, till the general obliged them to halt, and changed the posture of his front, marching round a small rising ground, by which he avoided the fury of our artillery. By this time the wings were engaged, the king having given the signal of battle, and ordered the right wing to fall on. Prince Rupert, who, as is said, commanded that wing, fell on with such fury, and pushed the left wing of the par¬ liament army so effectually, that in a moment he filled all with terror and confusion. Commissary-general Ramsey, a BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. 135 Scotchman, a Low Country soldier, and an experienced officer, commanded their left wing; and though he did all that an expert soldier and a brave commander could do, yet it was to no purpose; his lines were immediately broken, and all overwhelmed in a trice : two regiments of foot, whether as part of the left wing, or on the left of the main body, I know not, were disordered by their own horse, and rather trampled to death by the horses, than beaten by our men; but they were so entirely broken and disordered, that I do not remember that ever they made one volley upon our men; for their own horse running away, and falling foul on these foot, were so vigorously followed by our men, that the foot never had a moment to rally or look behind them. The point of the left wing of horse were not so soon broken as the rest, and three regiments of them stood firm for some time : the dexterous officers of the other regiments taking the oppor¬ tunity, rallied a great many of their scattered men behind them, and pieced in some troops Avith those regiments; but after two or three charges, which a brigade of our second line, following the prince, made upon them, they also were broken with the rest. I remember, that at the great battle of Leipsic, the right wing of the imperialists having fallen in upon the Saxons with like fury to this, bore down all before them, and beat the Saxons quite out of the field; upon which the soldiers cried, Victoi’ia! Let us follow! No, no, said the old general Tilly, let them go, but let us beat the SAvedes too, and then all’s our OAvn. Had Prince Rupert taken this method, and instead of following the fugitfres, who Avere dispersed so effectually, that two regiments would have secured them from rallying; I say, had he fallen in upon the foot, or wheeled to the left, and fallen in upon the rear of the enemy’s right wing of horse, or returned to the assistance of the left Aving of our horse, avc had gained the most absolute and complete victory that could be; no* 1 had one thousand men of the enemy’s army got off: but this prince, avIio was full of fire, and pleased to see the rout of the enemy, pursued them quite to the tOAvn of Keynton, where indeed he killed abundance of their men, and some time also Avas lost in plundering the baggage : but in the mean time, the glory and advantage of the day was lost to the king ; for the right wing of the parliament horse could not be so broken. Sir William Balfour made a despe• 136 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIF.K. rate charge upon the point of the king’s left; and had it not been for two regiments of dragoons, who were planted in the reserve, had routed the whole wing; for he broke through the first line, and staggered the second, who advanced to their assistance, but was so warmly received by those dragoons, who came seasonably in, and gave their first fire on horseback, that his fury was checked, and having lost a great many men, was forced to wheel about to his own men ; and had the king had but three regiments of horse at hand, to have charged him, he had been routed. The rest of this wing kept their ground, and received the first fury of the enemy with great firmness ; after which, advancing in their turn, they were once masters of the Earl of Essex’s cannon. And here we lost another advantage : for if any foot had been at hand to support these horse, they had carried off the cannon, or turned it upon the main battle of the enemy’s foot; but the foot were otherwise engaged. The horse on this side fought with great obstinacy and variety of success a great while, Sir Philip Stapylton, who commanded the guards of the Earl of Essex, being engaged with a party of our Shrewsbury cavaliers, as we called them, was once in a fair way to have been cut off by a brigade of our foot, who, being advanced to fall on upon the parliament’s main body, flanked Sir Philip’s horse in their way, and, facing to the left, so furiously charged him with their pikes, that he was obliged to retire in great disorder, and with the loss of a great many men and horses. All this while the foot on both sides were desperately en¬ gaged, and coming close up to the teeth of one another with the clubbed musket and push of pike, fought with great resolution, and a terrible slaughter on both sides, giving no quarter for a great while ; and they continued to do thus, till, as if they were tired, and out of wind, either party seemed willing enough to leave off, and take breath. Those which sulfered most were that brigade which had charged Sir William Stapylton’s horse, who, being bravely engaged in the front with the enemy’s foot, were, on a sudden, charged again in front and flank, by Sir William Balfour’s horse, and disordered, after a very desperate defence. Here the king’s standard was taken, the standard-bearer, Sir Edward Varney, being killed; but it was rescued again by Captain Smith, and brought to the king the same night, for which the king knighted the captain. This brigade of foot had fought all the day, and had not THE PARLIAMENT CLAIMS THE VICTORY. 137 been broken at last, if any horse had been at hand to support them. The field began to be now clear, both armies stood, as it were, gazing at one another, only the king, having rallied his foot, seemed inclined to renew the charge, and began to cannonade them, which they could not return, most of their cannon being nailed while they were in our possession, and all the cannoneers killed or fled, and our gunners did execution upon Sir William Balfour’s troops for a good while. My father’s regiment being in the right with the prince, I saw little of the fight, but the rout of the enemy’s left, and we had as full a victory there as we could desire, but spent too much time in it. We killed about two thousand men in that part of the action, and having totally dispersed them, and plundered their baggage, began to think of our fellows when it was too late to help them. We returned however victorious to the king, just as the battle was over; the king asked the prince what news? He told him he could give his majesty a good account of the enemy’s horse : Ay, by G—d, says a gentleman that stood by me, and of their carts too. That word was spoken with such a sense of their misfortune, and made such an impression in the whole army, that it occasioned some ill blood afterwards among us ; and, but that the king took up the business, it had been of ill consequence ; for some person who had heard the gentleman speak it, in¬ formed the prince who it was, and the prince resenting it, spoke something about it in the hearing of the party when the king was present. The gentleman not at all surprised, told his highness openly, he had said the words; and though he owned he had no disrespect for his highness, yet he could not but say, if it had not been so, the enemy’s army had been better beaten. The prince replied something very disobliging ; upon which the gentleman came up to the king, and kneeling, humbly besought his majesty to accept of his commission, and to give him leave to tell the prince, that, whenever his high¬ ness pleased, he was ready to give him satisfaction. The prince Avas exceedingly provoked, and, as he was very pas¬ sionate, began to talk very oddly, and without all government of himself. The gentleman, as bold as he, but much calmer, preserved his temper, but maintained his quarrel; and the king was so concerned, that he Avas very much out oi humour with the prince about it. HoAvever, his majesty, upon con¬ sideration, soon ended the dispute, by laying his commands 138 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. on them both to speak no more of it for that clay; and refus¬ ing the commission from the colonel, for he was no less, sent for them both next morning in private, and made them friends again. But to return to our story ; we came back to the king timely enough to put the Earl of Essex’s men out of all humour of renewing the fight; and, as I observed before, both parties stood gazing at one another, and our cannon playing upon them, obliged Sir William Balfour’s horse to wheel off in some disorder, but they returned us none again ; which, as we afterwards understood, was, as I said before, for want of both powder and gunners ; for the cannoneers and firemen were killed, or had quitted their train in the fight, when our horse had possession of their artillery; and as they had spiked up some of the cannon, so they had carried away fifteen carriages of powder. Night coming on, ended all discourse of more fighting; and the king drew off and marched towards the hills. I know no other token of victory which the enemy had, than their lying in the field of battle all night, which they did for no other reason, than that, having lost their baggage and provisions, they had no where to go; and which we did not, because we had good quarters at hand. The number of prisoners and of the slain, were not very unequal; the enemy lost more men, we most of quality. Six thousand men on both sides were killed on the spot, whereof, when our rolls were examined, we missed two thousand five hundred. We lost our brave general the old Earl of Lindsey, who was wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds; Sir Edward Stradling, Colonel Lunds- ford, prisoners ; and Sir Edward Varney, and a great many gentlemen of quality, slain. On the other hand, we carried off Colonel Essex, Colonel Ramsey, and the Lord St. John, who also died of his wounds; we took five ammunition waggons full of powder, and brought off about five hundred horse in the defeat of the left wing, with eighteen standards and colours, and lost seventeen. The slaughter of the left wing was so great, and the flight so effectual, that several of the officers rid clear away, coasting round, and got to London, where they reported, that the parlia¬ ment army was entirely defeated, all lost, killed, or taken, as if none but them were left alive to carry the news. Tills ANOTHER ATTACK ANTICIPATED. 13J* filled them with consternation for a while, but when other messengers followed all was restored to quiet again, and the parliament cried up their victory, and sufficiently mocked God and their general, with their public thanks for it. Truly, as the fight was a deliverance to them, they were in the right to give thanks for it; but as to its being a victory, neither side had much to boast of, and they less a great deal than we bad. I got no hurt in this fight; and indeed we of the right wing had but little fighting; I think I discharged my pistols but once and my carabin twice, for we had more fatigue than fight; the enemy fled, and Ave had little to do but to follow, and kill those we could overtake. I spoiled a good horse, and got a better from the enemy, in his room, and came home weary enough. My father lost his horse, and, in the fall, was bruised in his thigh by another horse treading on him, which disabled him for some time, and, at his request, by his majesty’s consent, I commanded the regiment in his absence. The enemy received a recruit of four thousand men the next morning; if they had not, I believe they had gone back towards Worcester ; but, encouraged by that reinforce¬ ment, they called a council of war, and had a long debate whether they could attack us again ; but, notwithstanding their great victory, they durst not attempt it, though this addition of strength made them superior to us by three thousand men. The king indeed expected, that when these troops joined them they would advance, and we were preparing to receive them at a village called Arno, where the head-quarter continued three or four days; and, had they really esteemed the first day’s work a victory, as they called it, they would have done it, but they thought not good to venture, but marched away to Warwick, and from thence to Coventry. The king, to urge them to venture upon him, and come to a second battle, sits down before Banbury, and takes both town and castle, and makes two entire regiments of foot, and one troop of horse, quit the parliament service, and take up their arms for the kin". This was done almost before their O faces, which was a better proof of a victory on our side, than they could pretend to. From Banbury we marched to Oxford ; and now all men saw the parliament had made a uo MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIEB. great mistake, for they were not always in the right any more than we, to leave Oxford without a garrison. The king caused new regular works to he drawn round it, and seven royal bastions, with ravelins and outworks, a double ditch, counterscarp, and covered way; all which, added to the advantage of its situation, made it a formidable place, and from this time it became our place of arms, and the centre of affairs on the king’s side. If the parliament had the honour of the field, the king reaped the fruits of the victory ; for all this part of the country submitted to him. Essex’s army made the best of their way to London, and were but in an ill condition when they came there, especially their horse. The parliament, sensible of this, and receiving daily accounts of the progress we made, began to cool a little in their temper, abated of their first rage, and voted an address for peace; and sent to the king to let him know they were desirous to prevent the effusion of more blood, and to bring things to an accomodation, or, as they called it, a right understanding. I was now, by the king’s particular favour, summoned to the councils of war, my father continuing absent and ill; and now I began to think of the real grounds, and, which was more, of the fatal issue of this war. I say, I now began it, for I cannot say that I ever rightly stated matters in my own mind before, though I had been enough used to blood, and to see the destruction of people, sacking of towns, and plunder¬ ing the country ; yet it was in Germany, and among strangers; but I found a strange, secret, and unaccountable sadness upon my spirits to see this acting in my own native country. It grieved me to the heart, even in the rout of our enemies, to see the slaughter of them ; and even in the fight, to hear a man cry for quarter in English, moved me to a compassion which I had never been used to; nay, sometimes it looked to me as if some of my own men had been beaten ; and when I heard a soldier cry, O God, I am shot! I looked behind me to see which of my own troop was fallen. Here I saw myself at the cutting of the throats of my friends; and indeed some of my near relations. My old comrades and fellow- soldiers in Germany were some with us, some against us, as their opinions happened to differ in religion. For my part, I confess I had not much religion in me at that time; but VOTE AN ADDRESS FOR PEACE. 141 I thought religion, rightly practised on both sides, would have made us all better friends; and, therefore, sometimes I began to think, that both the bishops of our side, and the preachers on theirs, made religion rather the pretence than the cause of the war; and from those thoughts I vigorously argued it at the council of war against marching to Brentford, while the address for a treaty of peace from the parliament was in hand; for I was for taking the parliament by the handle which they had given us, and entering into a negotiation with the advantage of its being at their own request. I thought the king had now in his hands an opportunity to make an honourable peace; for this battle of Edgeliill, as much as they boasted of the victory to hearten up their friends, had sorely weakened their army, and discouraged their party too, which in effect was worse as to their army. The horse were particularly in an ill case, and the foot greatly dimi¬ nished ; and the remainder very sickly. But, besides this, the parliament were greatly alarmed at the progress we made afterwards ; and still fearing the king’s surprising them, had sent for the Earl of Essex to London, to defend them ; by which the country was, as it were, deserted and abandoned, and left to be plundered; our parties overrun all places at pleasure. All this while I considered, that whatever the soldiers of fortune meant by the war, our desires were to sup¬ press the exorbitant power of a party, to establish our king in liis just and legal rights ; but not with a design to destroy the constitution of government, and the being of parliament; and therefore I thought now was the time for peace, and there were a great many worthy gentlemen in the army of my mind; and, had our master had ears to hear us, the war might have had an end here. This address for peace was received by the king at Maiden¬ head, whither this army was now advanced, and his majesty returned answer by Sir Peter Killegrew, that he desired no¬ thing more, and would not be wanting on his part. Upon this the parliament named commissioners, and his majesty, except¬ ing against Sir John Evelyn, they left him out, and sent others; and desired the king to appoint his residence near London, where the commissioners might wait upon him. 1 Accordingly the king appointed Windsor for the place of treaty, and desired the treaty might be hastened. And thus all things looked with a favourable aspect, when one unlucky 142 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. action knocked it all on the head, and filled both parties with more implacable animosities than they had before, and all hopes of peace vanished. During this progress of the king’s armies, we were always abroad with the horse ravaging the country, and plundering the roundheads. Prince Rupert, a most active vigilant party- man, and, I must own, fitter for such than for a general, was never lying still, and I seldom stayed behind; for our regi¬ ment being very well mounted, he would always send for us, if he had any extraordinary design in hand. One time in particular he had a design upon Aylesbury, the capital of Buckinghamshire; indeed our view at first was rather to beat the enemy out of the town, and demolish their works, and perhaps raise some contributions on the rich country round it, than to garrison the place, and keep it; for we wanted no more garrisons, being masters of the held. The prince had two thousand five hundred horse with him in this expedition, but no foot; the town had some foot raised in the country by Mr Hampden, and two regiments of country militia, whom we made light of, but we iound they stood to their tackle better than well enough. We came very early to the town, and thought they had no notice of us; but some false brother had given them the alarm, and we found them all in arms, the hedges without the town lined with musketeers, on that side in particular where they expected us, and two regiments of foot drawn up in view to support them, with some horse in the rear of all. The prince willing however to do something, caused some of his horse to alight, and serve as dragoons; and having broken aAvay into the enclosures, the horse beat the foot from behind the hedges, while the rest who were alighted charged them in the lane which leads to the town. Here they had cast up some works, and fired from their lines very regularly, considering them as militia only, the governor encouraging them by his example; so that finding without some foot there would be no good to be done, we gave it over and drew off; and so Aylesbury escaped a scouring for that time. I cannot deny but these flying parties of horse committed great spoil among the country people; and sometimes the prince gave a liberty to some cruelties which were not at all for the king’s interest; because, it being still upon our own THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR. 143 country, and the king’s own subjects, whom, in all his decla¬ rations, he protested to be careful of, it seemed to contradict all those protestations and declarations, and served to aggra¬ vate and exasperate the common people; and the king’s enemies made all the advantages of it that was possible, by crying out of twice as many extravagancies as were com¬ mitted. It is true the king, who naturally abhorred such things, could not restrain his men, no nor his generals, so absolutely as he would have done. The Avar, on his side, Avas very much a la voluntier; many gentlemen served him at their own charge, and some paid Avhole regiments themselves. Some¬ times also the king’s affairs were straiter than ordinary, and his men Avere not very well paid, and this obliged him to wink at their excursions upon the country, though he did not approve of them ; and yet, I must OAvn, that in those parts of England Avhere the Avar Avas hottest, there never was seen that ruin and depopulation, murders, ravishments, and bar¬ barities, which I have seen even among protestant armies abroad in Germany, and other foreign parts of the world. And if the parliament people had seen those things abroad, as I had, they Avould not have complained. The most I have seen was plundering the towns for provi¬ sions, drinking up their beer, and turning our horses into their fields, or stacks of corn; and sometimes the soldiers Avould be a little rude with the wenches ; but, alas ! Avhat Avas this to Count Tilly’s ravages in Saxony ? Or Avhat was our taking of Leicester by storm, Avhere they cried out of our barbarities, to the sacking of NeAV Brandenburgh, or the taking of Magdeburgh ? In Leicester, of seven or eight thousand people in the town, three hundred were killed ; in Magdeburgh, of twenty-five thousand, scarce two thousand seven hundred Avere left, and the whole tOAvn burnt to ashes. I myself have seen seventeen or eighteen villages on fire in a day, and the people driven away from their dAvellings, like herds of cattle; the men murdered, the Avomen stript, and seven or eight hundred of them together, after they had suffered all the indignities and abuses of the soldiers, driven stark naked in the winter through the great tOAvns, to seek shelter and relief from the charity of theirenemies. I do not instance these greater barbarities to justify the lesser actions, which are nevertheless irregular; but, I do say, that circum- 144 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. stances considered, this war was managed with as much humanity on both sides as could he expected, especially also considering the animosity ot parties. CHAPTER XI. COMICAL ADVENTURES, IN WHICH A FEMALE CAPTAIN IS VICTORIOUS-BRAVERY OF THE PARLIAMENT TROOPS AT BRENTFORD-THE WINTER SPENT IN FRUITLESS TREATIES -1 AM WOUNDED IN A SKIRMISH WITH THE ENEMY -FARTHER PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARMIES. But to return to the prince; he had not always the same success in these enterprises; for sometimes we came short home. And I cannot omit one pleasant adventure which happened to a party of ours, in one of these excursions into Buckinghamshire. The major of our regiment was soundly beaten by a party, which, as I may say, was led by a woman; and, if I had not rescued him, I know not but he had been taken prisoner by a woman. It seems our men had besieged some fortified house about Oxfordshire, towards Tame, and the house being defended by the lady in her husband’s absence, she had yielded the house upon a capitulation; one of the articles of which was to march out with all her servants, soldiers, and goods, and to be conveyed to Tame; whether she thought to have gone no farther, or that she reckoned herself safe there, I know not; but my major, with two troops of horse, meets with this lady and her party, about five miles from Tame, as we were coming back from our defeated attack of Aylesbury. We reckoned ourselves in an enemy’s country, and had lived a little at large, or at discretion, as it is called abroad; and these two troops with the major were returning to our detachment from a little village, where, at the farmer’s house, they had met with some liquor, and truly some of his men were so drunk they could but just sit upon their horses. The major himself was not much better, and the whole body were but in a sorry condition to fight. Upon the road they meet this party; the lady having no design of fighting, and being, as she thought, under the protection of the articles, sounds a parley, and A FEMALE CAPTAIN VICTORIOUS. 145 desired to speak with the officer. The major, as drunk as he was, could tell her, that by the articles she was to be assured no farther than Tame, and being now five miles beyond it, she was a fair enemy, and therefore demanded to render themselves prisoners. The lady seemed surprised; but being sensible she was in the wrong, oftered to compound for her goods, and would have given him 300/., and, I think, seven or eight horses. The major would certainly have taken it, if he had not been drunk; but he relused it, and gave threatening words to her, blustering in language which he thought proper to frighten a woman, viz., that he would cut them all to pieces, and give no quarter, and the like. The lady, who had been more used to the smell of powder than he imagined, called some ot her servants to her, and, consulting with them what to do, they all unanimously encouraged her to let them fight; told her it was plain that the commander was drunk, and all that were with him were rather worse than he, and hardly able to sit their horses; and that therefore one bold charge would put them all into confusion. In a word, she consented, and, as she was a woman, they desired her to secure herself among the waggons; but she refused, and told them bravely, she would take her fate with them. In short, she boldly bade my major defiance, and that he might do his worst, since she had ofiered him fair and he had refused it; her mind was altered now, and she would give him nothing, and bade his I officer that parleyed longer with her, begone; so the parley ended. After this, she gave him fair leave to go back to his men; but before he could tell his tale to them, she was at his heels, with all her men, and gave him such a home- I charge as put his men into disorder; and, being too drunk i to rally, they were knocked down before they knew what to 1 do with themselves; and in a few minutes more they took to a plain flight. But what was still worse, the men, being some of them very drunk, when they came to run for their lives, fell over one another, and tumbled over their horses, and made such work, that a troop of women might have ; beaten them all. In this pickle, with the enemy at his heels, I came in with him, hearing the noise; when I appeared, ] the pursuers retreated, and, seeing what a condition my people were in, and not knowing the strength of the enemy, I contented myself with bringing them off without pursuing VOL. II. L 146 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. the other; nor could I ’ hear positively who this female captain was. We lost seventeen or eighteen of our men, and about thirty horses; but, when the particulars of the story was told us, our major was so laughed at by the whole army, and laughed at everywhere, that he was ashamed to show himself for a week or a fortnight after. But, to return to the king. His majesty, as I observed, was at Maidenhead addressed by the parliament for peace, and Windsor being appointed for the place of treaty, the van of his army lay at Colnbrook. In the meantime, whether it were true, or only a pretence, but it was reported the parliament-general had sent a body of his troops, with a train of artillery, to Hammersmith, in order to fall upon some part of our army, or to take some advanced post, which was to the prejudice of our men; whereupon, the king ordered the army to march, and, by the favour of a thick mist, came within half a mile of Brentford before he was discovered. There were two regiments of foot, and about six hundred horse in the town, of the enemy’s best troops; these taking the alarm, posted themselves on the bridge at the west end of the town. The king attacked them with a select detachment of his best infantry, and they defended themselves with incredible obstinacy. I must own, I never saw raw men, for they could not have been in arms above four months, act like them in my life. In short, there was no forcing these men; for, though two whole brigades of our foot, backed by our horse, made five several attacks upon thorn, they could not break them, and we lost a great many brave men in that action. At last, seeing the obstinacy of these men, a party of horse was ordered to go round from Osterly; and, entering the town on the north side, where, though the horse made some resistance, it was not con¬ siderable ; the town was presently taken. I led my regiment through an enclosure, and came into the town nearer to the bridge than the rest, by which means I got first into the town ; but I had this loss by my expedition, that the foot charged me before the body was come up, and poured in their shot very furiously; my men were but in an ill case, and would not have stood much longer, if the rest of the horse coming up the lane had not found them other employ¬ ment. When the horse were thus entered, they immediately dispersed the enemy’s horse, who fled away towards London, BATTLE OF BRENTFORD DISHONC URABLE. 147 and falling in sword in hand upon the rear of the foot, who were engaged at the bridge, they were all cut in pieces, except about two hundred, who, scorning to ask quarter, desperately threw themselves into the river Thames, where they were most of them drowned. The parliament, and their party, made a great outcry at this attempt; that it was base and treacherous while in a treaty of peace; and that the king, having amused them with hearkening to a treaty, designed to have seized upon their train of artillery first, and, after that, to have surprised both the city of London and the parliament. And I have observed since, that our historians note this action as contrary to the laws of honour and treaties; though, as there was no cessation of arms agreed on, nothing is more contrary to the laws of war than to suggest it. That it was a very unhappy thing to the king and whole nation, as it broke off the hopes of peace, and was the occa¬ sion of bringing the Scots’ army in upon us, I readily acknow¬ ledge ; but that there was anything dishonourable in it, I cannot allow: for, though the parliament had addressed to the king for peace, and such steps were taken in it, as before; yet, as I have said, there was no proposal made on either side for a cessation of arms; and all the world must allow, that in such cases the w'ar goes on in the field, while the peace goes on in the cabinet. And if the war goes on, admit the king had designed to surprise the city or parliament, or all of them, it had been no more than the custom of war allows, and what they would have done by him, if they could. The treaty of Westphalia, or peace of Munster, which ended the bloody wars of Germany, was a precedent for this. That treaty was actually negotiating seven years, and yet the war went on with all the vigour and rancour imaginable, even to the last: nay, the very time after the conclusion of it, but before the news could be brought to the army, did he that was afterwards King of Sweden, Carolus Gustavus, take the city of Prague, by surprise, and therein an inestimable booty. Besides, all the wars of Europe are full of examples of this kind ; and, therefore, I cannot see any reason to blame the king for this action as to the fairness of it. Indeed, as to the policy of it, I can say little ; but the case was this, the king had a gallant army, flushed with success, and things hitherto had gone od very prosperously, both with his own MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 148 army and elsewhere ; he had above thirty-five thousand men in his own army, including his garrisons left at Banbury, {Shrewsbury, Worcester, Oxford, Wallingford, Abingdon, Heading, and places adjacent. On the other hand, the par¬ liament army came back to London in but a sorry condition*; for, what with their loss in their victory, as they called it, at Edgehill, their sickness, and a hasty march to London, they were very much diminished; though at London they soon recruited them again. And this prosperity of the king’s affairs might encourage him to strike this blow, thinking to bring the parliament to better terms, by the apprehensions of the superior strength of the king’s forces. But, however it was, the success did not equally answer the king’s expectation ; the vigorous defence the troops posted at Brentford made as above, gave the Earl of Essex oppor¬ tunity, with extraordinary application, to draw his forces out to Turnham-green; and the exceeding alacrity of the enemy was such, that their whole army appeared with them, making together an army of twenty-four thousand men, drawn up in view of our forces, by eight o’clock the next morning. The city regiments were placed between the regular troops, and all together offered us battle; but we were not in a condition to accept it. The king indeed was sometimes of the mind to charge them, and once or twice ordered parties to advance to begin to skirmish, but, upon better advice, altered his mind ; and indeed, it was the wisest counsel to defer the fighting at that time. The parliament generals were as unfixed in their resolutions on the other side, as the king: sometimes they sent out parties, and then called them back again. One strong party, of near three thousand men, marched off towards Acton, with orders to amuse us on that side, but were coun¬ termanded. Indeed, I was of the opinion we might have ventured the battle; for, though the parliament’s army were more numerous, yet the city trained bands, which made up four thousand of their foot, were not much esteemed, and the king was a great deal stronger in horse than they; but the main reason that hindered the engagement was want of ammunition, which the king having duly weighed, he caused the carriages and cannon to draw off first, and then the foot, * General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, p. 52, says, “ their men returned from Warwick to London, not like men who had obtained a victory, but like men that had been beaten.” WINTER SPENT IN FRUITLESS TREATIES. 149 the horse continuing to face the enemy till all was clear gone, and then we drew off too, and marched to Kingston, and the next day to Reading. Now the king saw his mistake in not continuing his march for London, instead of facing about to fight the enemy at Edgehill. And all the honour we had gained in so many successful enterprises lay buried in this shameful retreat from an army of citizens’ wives. For, truly, that appearance at Turnham-green was gay, but not great. There were as many lookers-on as actors; the crowds of ladies, apprentices, and mob, was so great, that, when the parties of our army ad¬ vanced, and, as they thought, to charge, the coaches, horsemen, and crowd, that cluttered away, to be out of harm’s way, looked little better than a rout; and I was persuaded a good home charge from our horse would have sent their whole army after them: but so it was, that this crowd of an army was to triumph over us, and they did it; for all the kingdom was carefully informed how their dreadful looks had frightened us away. Upon our retreat, the parliament resent this attack, which they call treacherous, and vote no accommodation; but they considered of it afterwards, and sent six commissioners to the king with propositions ; but the change of the scene of action changed the terms of peace, and now they made terms like conquerers, petition him to desert his army, and return to the parliament, and the like. Had his majesty, at the head of his army, with the full reputation they had before, and in the ebb of their affairs, rested at Windsor, and commenced a treaty, they had certainly made more reasonable proposals , but now the scabbard seemed to be thrown away on both sides. The rest of the winter was spent in strengthening parties and places; also in fruitless treaties of peace, messages, re¬ monstrances, and paper war, on both sides, and no action remarkable happened anywhere, that I remember. Yet the king gained ground everywhere, and his forces in the north increased under the Earl of Newcastle ; also my Lord Goring, then only called Colonel Goring, arrived from Holland, bringing three ships loaden with arms and ammunition, and notice that the queen was following with more. Goring brought four thousand barrels of gunpowder, and twenty thousand small arms; all which came very seasonably, for 150 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 'lie king was in great want of them, especially the powder. Upon this recruit, the Earl of Newcastle draws down to York, and being above a thousand strong, made Sir Thomas Fairfax give ground, and retreat to Hull. Whoever lay still, prince Rupert was always abroad, and I chose to go out with his highness as often as I had oppor¬ tunity ; for hitherto he was always successful. About this time the prince, being at Oxford, I gave him intelligence of a party of the enemy who lived a little at large, too much for good soldiers, about Cirencester: the prince, glad of the news, resolved to attack them ; and though it was a wet season, and the ways exceeding bad, being in February, yet we marched all night in the dark, which occasioned the loss of some horses and men too, in sloughs and holes, which the darkness of the night had suffered them to fall into. We were a very strong party, being about three thousand horse and dragoons, and coming to Cirencester very early in the morn¬ ing, to our great satisfaction the enemy were perfectly sur¬ prised, not having the least notice of our march, which answered our end more ways than one. However, the Earl of Stamford’s regiment made some resistance ; but the town having no works to defend it, saving a slight breastwork at the entrance of the road, with a turnpike, our dragoons alighted, and forcing their way over the bellies of Stamford’s foot, they beat them from their defence, and followed them at their heels into the town. Stamford’s regiment was entirely cut in pieces, and several others, to the number of about eight hundred men, and the town entered without any other resistance. We took twelve hundred prisoners, three thousand arms, and the county magazine, which at that time was con¬ siderable ; for there was about one hundred and twenty barrels of powder, and all things in proportion. I received the first hurt I got in this war, at this action; for having followed the dragoons, and brought my regiment within the barricado which they had gained, a musket-bullet struck my horse just in the head, and that so effectually, that he fell down as dead as a stone, all at once. The fall plunged me into a puddle of water, and daubed me, and my man having brought me another horse, and cleaned me a little, I was just getting up, when another bullet struck me on my left hand, which I had just clapped on the horses mane, to lift myself into the saddle. The blow broke one of my fingers, and PROSPERITY OF THE KING'S AFFAIRS. 151 ‘rruised my hand very much, and it proved a very painful hurt to me. For the present I did not much concern myself about it, but made my man tie it up close in my handkerchief, and led up my men to the market-place, where we had a very smart brush with some musketeers who were posted in the churchyard; but our dragoons soon beat them out there, and the whole town was then our own. We made no stay here, but marched back with all our booty to Oxford, for we knew the enemy were very strong at Gloucester, and that way. Much about the same time, the Earl of Northampton, with a strong party, set upon Lichfield, and took the town, but could not take the close; but they beat a body of four thou¬ sand men coming to the relief of the town, under Sir John Gell, of Derbyshire, and Sir William Brereton of Cheshire, and killing six hundred of them, dispersed the rest. Our second campaign now began to open; the king marched from Oxford to relieve Reading, which was besieged by the parliament forces ; but Colonel Fielding, lieutenant-governor, Sir Arthur Ashton being wounded, surrendered to Essex before the king could come up; for which he was tried by martial law, and condemned to die, but the king forbore to execute the sentence. This was the first town we had lost ip the war; for still the success of the king’s affairs was very encouraging. This bad news however was overbalanced by an account brought the king at the same time, by an express from York, that the queen had landed in the north, and had brought over a great magazine of arms and ammunition, besides some men. Some time after this, her majesty marching southward to meet the king, joined the army near Edgehill, where the first battle was fought. She brought the king three thousand foot, fifteen hundred horse and dragoons, six pieces of cannon, fifteen hundred barrels of powder, and twelve thousand small arms. During this prosperity of the king’s affairs, his armies increased mightily in the western counties also. Sir William Waller indeed commanded for the parliament in those parts too, and particularly in Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Berk¬ shire, where he carried on their cause but too fast; but farther west, Sir Nicholas Flamming, Sir Ralph Hopton, and Sir Bevil Greenvil, had extended the king’s quarters from Corn¬ wall through Devonshire, and into Somersetshire, where they took Exeter, Barnstaple, and Biddeford; and the first of these 152 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. they fortified very well, making it a place of arms for the west, and afterwards it was the residence of the queen. At last the famous Sir William Waller, and the king’s forces met, and came to a pitched battle, where Sir William lost all his honour again. This was at Roundway-down, in Wiltshire. Waller had engaged our Cornish army at Lansdown, and in a very obstinate fight had the better of them, and made them retreat to Devizes; Sir William Hopton, however, having a good body oi foot untouched, sent expresses and messengers, one in the neck of another, to the king for some horse, and the king being in great concern for that army, who were composed of the flower of the Cornish men, commanded me to march with all possible secrecy, as well as expedition, with twelve hundred horse and dragoons from Oxford to join them. We set out in the depth of the night, to avoid, if possible, any intelligence being given of our route, and soon joined with the Corni&h army, when it was soon resolved to give battle to Waller, and, give him his due, he was as forward to fight as wo. As it is easy to meet when both sides are willing to be found, Sir William Waller met us upon Roundway-down, where we had a fair field on both sides, and room enough to draw up our horse. In a word, there was little ceremony to the work; the armies joined, and we charged his horse with so much resolution, that they quickly fled, and quitted the field ; for we over-matched him in horse, and this was the entire destruction of their army : for their infantry, which outnumbered ours by fifteen hundred, were now at our mercy; some faint resistance they made, just enough to give us occasion to break into their ranks with our horse, where we gave time to our foot to defeat others that stood to their work; upon which they began to disband, and run every way they could, but our horse having surrounded them, we made a fearful havoc of them. We lost not above two hundred men in this action ; Waller lost above four thousand killed and taken, and as many dispersed that never returned to their colouvs; those of foot that escaped got into Bristol, and Waller, with the poor remains of his routed regiments, got to London ; so that it is plain some run east, and some run west, that is to say, they fled every way they could. My going with this detachment prevented my being at the siege of Bristol, which Prince Rupert attacked much about THE SIEGE OF BRISTOL. 153 the same time, and it surrendered in three days. The par¬ liament questioned Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor, and had him tried as a coward by a court-martial, and con¬ demned to die, but suspended the execution also, as the king did the governor of Reading. I have often heard Prince Rupert say, they did Colonel Fiennes wrong in that affair; and that if the colonel would have summoned him, he would have demanded a passport of the parliament, and have come up and convinced the court, that Colonel Fiennes had not misbehaved himself; and that he had not a sufficient garrison to defend a city of that extent; having not above one thousand two hundred men in the town, excepting some of Waller’s runaways, most of whom were unfit for service, and without arms; and that the citizens in general being disaffected to him, and ready on the first occasion to open the gates to the king’s forces, it was impossible for him to have kept the city; and when I had farther informed them, said the pi'ince, of the measures I had taken for a general assault the next day, I am confident I should have convinced them, that I had taken the city by storm, if he had not surrendered. The king’s affairs were notv in a very good posture, and three armies in the north, west, and in the centre, counted in the musters above seventy thousand men, besides small garrisons and parties abroad. Several of the lords, and more of the commons, began to fall off from the parliament, and make their peace with the king; and the affairs of the par¬ liament began to look very ill. The city of London was their inexhaustible support and magazine, both for men, money, and all things necessary; and whenever their army was out of order, the clergy of their party in but one Sunday or two, would preach the young citizens out of their shops, the labourers from their masters, into the army, and recruit them on a sudden; and all this was still owing to the omission I first observed, of not marching to London, when it might have been so easily effected. We had now another, or a fairer opportunity than before, but as ill use was made of it. The king, as I have observed, was in a very good posture; he had three large armies roving at large over the kingdom. The Cornish army, victorious and numerous, had beaten Waller, secured and fortified Exeter, which the queen had made her residence, and was there delivered of a daughter, the Princess Henrietta Maria, 154 MEMOIRS OF A CAYALIER. afterwards Duchess of Orleans, and mother of the Duchess Dowager of Savoy, commonly known in the French style by the title of Madame Royal. They had secured Salisbury, Sherborn Castle, Weymouth, Winchester, and Basing-house, and commanded the whole country, except Bridgewater and Taunton, Plymouth and Lynn; all which places they held blocked up. The king was also entirely master of all Wales, Monmouthshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worces¬ tershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and all the towns from Windsor up the Thames to Cirencester, except Reading and Henley ; and of the whole Severn, except Gloucester. The Earl of Newcastle had garrisons in every strong place in the north, from Berwick-upon-Tweed, to Boston in Lin¬ colnshire, and Newark-upon-Trent, Hull only excepted, whither the Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas were retreated, their troops being routed and broken, Sir Thomas Fairfax, his baggage, with his lady and servants, taken prisoners, and himself hardly escaping. And now a great council of war was held in the king’s quarters, what enterprise to go upon ; and it happened to be the very same day when the parliament were in a serious debate what should become of them, and whose help they should seek ? And indeed they had cause for it; and had our counsels been as ready and well grounded as theirs, we had put an end to the war in a month’s time. In this council the king proposed the marching to London, to put an end to the parliament, and encourage his friends and loyal subjects in Kent, who were ready to rise for him; and showed us letters from the Earl of Newcastle, whereir he offered to join his majesty with a detachment of four thousand horse, and eight thousand foot, if his majesty thought fit to march southward, and yet leave forces sufficient to guard the north from any invasion. I confess, when I saw the scheme the king had himself drawn for this attempt, I felt an unusual satisfaction in my mind, from the hopes that we might bring this war to some tolerable end; for I pro¬ fessed myself on all occasions heartily weary of fighting with friends, brothers, neighbours, and acquaintance; and I made no question, but this motion of the king’s would effectually bring the parliament to reason. All men seemed to like the enterprise but the Earl of Worcester ; who, on particular views for securing the country THE CITY OF GLOUCESTER BLOCKADED 355 lehind. as lie called it, proposed the taking in the town of Gloucester and Hereford first. He made a long speech of he danger of leaving Massey, an active bold fellow, with a strong party, in the heart of all the king’s quarters, ready on all occasions t'o sally out, and surprise the neighbouring garrisons, as he had done Sudley Castle and others; and of the ease and freedom to all those western parts, to have them fully cleared of the enemy. Interest presently backs this advice, and all those gentlemen whose estates lay that way, or whose friends lived about Worcester, Shrewsbury, Bridge- ; north, or the borders ; and who, as they said, had heard the 1 frequent wishes of the country to have the city of Gloucester I reduced, fell in Avith this advice, alleging the consequence it was of for the commerce of the country, to have the naviga- j tion of the Severn free, which Avas only interrupted by this one town from the sea up to ShreAVsbury, &c. I opposed this, and so did several others : Prince Rupert was vehemently against it; and Ave both offered, Avith the troops of the county, to keep Gloucester blocked up during ; the king’s march for London, so that Massey should not be ! able to stir. This proposal made the Earl of Worcester’s party more eager for the siege than before; for they had no mind to a blockade, which Avould lead the county to maintain the troops all the summer; and of all men, the prince did not please j them ; for he having no extraordinary character for discipline, i his company Avas not much desired even by our friends. ' Thus, in an ill hour, it was resolved to sit down before ! Gloucester. The king had a gallant army of twenty-eight ! thousand men, whereof eleven thousand horse, the finest body of gentlemen that ever I saAV together in my life ; their horses without comparison, and their equipages the finest and the I best in the Avorld, and their persons Englishmen, Avhich, I think, is enough to say of them. According to the resolution taken in the council of war, the army marched AA’estAvard, and sat doAvn before Gloucester 1 the beginning of August. There Ave spent a month to the 1 least purpose that ever army did ; our men received frequent j affronts from the desperate sallies of an inconsiderable enemy. I cannot forbear reflecting on the misfortunes of this siege ; our men were strangely dispirited in all the assaults they 156 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. gave upon the place ; there was something looked like disaster and mismanagement, and our men went on with an ill-will and no resolution. The king despised the place, and meaning to carry it sword in hand, made no regular approaches, and the garrison being desperate, made therefore the greater slaughter. In this work our horse, who were so numerous and so fine, had no employment. Two thousand horse had been enough for this business, and the enemy had no garrison or party within forty miles of us; so that we had nothing to do but look on with infinite regret, upon the losses of our foot. The enemy made frequent and desperate sallies, in one of which I had my share. I was posted upon a parade, or place of arms, with part of my regiment, and part of Colonel Goring’s regiment of horse, in order to support a body of foot, who were ordered to storm the point of a breastwork which the enemy had raised to defend one of the avenues to the town. The foot were beat off with loss, as they always were ; and Massey, the governor, not content to have beaten them from his works, sallies out with near four hundred men, and, falling in upon the foot as they were rallying under the cover of our horse, we put ourselves in the best posture we could to receive them. As Massey did not expect, I suppose, to engage with any horse, he had no pikes with him, which encouraged us to treat him the more rudely; but as to desperate men danger is no danger, when lie found he must clear his hands of us before he could despatch the foot, he faces up to us, fires but one volley of his small shot, and fell to battering us with the stocks of their muskets in such a manner that one would have thought they had been madmen. We at first despised this way of clubbing us, and, charging through them, laid a great many of them upon the ground; and, in repeating our charge, trampled more of them under our horses’ feet; and wheeling thus continually, beat them off from our foot, who were just upon the point of dis¬ banding. Upon this they charged us again with their fire, and at one volley killed thirty-three or thirty-four men and horses; and had they had pikes with them, I know not what we should have done with them. But at last charging through them again, we divided them; one part of them, THE KING’S ARMY MUCH DISTRESSED. 157 being hemmed in between us and our own foot, were cut in pieces to a man; the rest, as I understood afterwards, re¬ treated into the town, having lost three hundred ol their men. In this last charge I received a rude blow Irom a stout fellow on foot, with the butt-end of his musket, which per¬ fectly stunned me and fetched me off from my horse; and had not some near me took care of me, I had been trod to death by our own men. But the fellow being immediately killed, and- my friends finding me alive, had taken me up, and carried me off some distance, where I came to myself again, after some time, but k,new little of what I did or said that night. This was the reason why I say I afterwards under- j stood the enemy retreated; for I saw no more what they did then; nor indeed was I well of this blow for all the rest of the summer, but had frequent pains in my head, dizzinesses and swimming, that gave me some fears the blow had in- ; jured the scull, but it wore off again; nor did it at all hinder my attending my charge. This action, I think, was the only one that looked like a defeat given the enemy at this siege; we killed them near I three hundred men, as I have said, and lost about sixty of our troopers. All this time, while the king was harassing and weakening the best army he ever saw together during the whole war, the parliament generals, or rather preachers, were recruiting | theirs; for the preachers were better than drummers to raise | volunteers, zealously exhorting the London dames to part with their husbands, and the city to send some of their | trained-bands to join the army for the relief of Gloucester; and now they began to advance towards us. The king, hearing of the advance of Essex’s army, who by this time was come to Aylesbury, had summoned what forces he had within call to join him; and, accordingly, he received three thousand foot from Somersetshire, and, having battered the town for thirty-six hours, and made a fair breach, resolves upon an assault, if possible to carry the town before the enemy came up. The assault was begun about seven in the evening, and the men boldly mounted the breach; but, after a very obstinate and bloody dispute, were j beaten out again by the besieged with great loss. Being thus often repulsed, and the Earl of Essex’s army approaching, the king calls a council of war, and proposed 158 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. to fight Essex’s army. The officers of the horse were for fighting; and, without doubt, we were superior to him both in number and goodness of our horse, but the foot were not in an equal condition ; and the colonels of foot representing to the king the weakness of their regiments, and how their men had been baulked and disheartened at this cursed siege, the graver counsel prevailed, and it was resolved to raise the siege, and retreat towards Bristol, till the army was re¬ cruited. Pursuant to this resolution, the 5th of September, the king, having before sent away his heavy cannon and baggage, raised the siege, and marched to Berkley Castle. The Earl of Essex came the next day to Birdlip hills; and understanding, by messengers from Colonel Massey, that the siege was raised, sends a recruit of two thousand five hundred men into the city, and followed us himself with a great body of horse. This body of horse showed themselves to us once in a large field fit to have entertained them in; and our scouts having assured us they were not above four thousand, and had no foot with them, the king ordered a detachment of about the same number to face them. I desired his majesty to let us have two regiments of dragoons with us, which was then eight hundred men in a regiment, lest there might be some dragoons among the enemy, which the king granted, and accordingly we marched, and drew up in view of them. They stood their ground, having, as they supposed, some advantage of the manner they were posted in, and expected we would charge them. The king, who did us the honour to command this party, finding they would not stir, calls me to him, and ordered me, with the dragoons and my OAvn I’egiment, to take a circuit round by a village to a certain lane, where in their retreat they must have passed, and which opened to a small common on the flank, with orders, if they engaged, to advance and charge them in the flank. I marched immediately; but though the country about there was almost all enclosures, yet their scouts were so vigilant that they discovered me, and gave notice to the body; upon which their whole party moved to the left, as if they in¬ tended to charge me, before the king with his body of horse could come; but the king was too vigilant to be circumvented so; and, therefore, his majesty, perceiving this, sends away three regiments of horse to second me, and a messenger THE KING’S AFFAIRS BEGIN TO DECLINE. 159 before them, to order me to halt, and expect the enemy, for that he would follow with the whole body. But before this order reached me, I had halted for some time; for, finding myself discovered, and not judging it safe to be entirely cut off from the main body, I stopt- at the village, and, causing my dragoons to alight, and line a thick hedge on my left, I drew up my horse just at the entrance into the village, opening to a common ; the enemy came up on the trot to charge me, but were saluted with a terrible fire from the dragoons out of the hedge, which killed them near a hundred men. '•This being a perfect surprise to them, they halted; and just at that moment they received orders from their main body to retreat; the king at the same time appearing upon some small heights in their rear, which obliged them to think of retreating, or coming to a general I battle, which was none of their design. I had no occasion to follow them, not being in a condition to attack their whole body; but the dragoons coming out into the common, gave them another volley at a distance, which reached them effectually ; for it killed about twenty of them, and wounded more; but they drew off, and never fired a shot at us, fearing to be enclosed between two parties, and so marched away to their general’s quarters, leaving ten or twelve more of their fellows killed, and about a hundred and eighty horses. Our men, after the country fashion, gave them a shout at parting, to let them see we knew they were afraid of us. However, this relieving nf Gloucester raised the spirits as well as the reputation of the parliament forces, and was a great defeat to us; and from this time things began to look with a melancholy aspect; for the prosperous condition of the king’s affairs began to decline. The opportunities he had let slip were never to be recovered; and the parliament, in their former extremity, having voted an invitation to the Scots to march to their assistance, we had now new enemies to en¬ counter ; and indeed there began the ruin of his majesty’s affairs; for the Earl of Newcastle, not able to defend himself against the Scots on his rear, the Earl of Manchester in his front, and Sir Thomas Fairfax on his flank, was everywhere routed and defeated, and his forces obliged to quit the field to the enemy. 1 GO MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. CHAPTER XII. CROMWELL MAKES HIS APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE, AND TURNS THE FORTUNE OF THE WAR AGAINST THE KING’S TARTY-FREQUENT AND DISASTROUS ACTIONS-THE SCOTS DECLARE FOR THE PARLIAMENT, AND ENTER ENGLAND, WITH AN ARMY IN THE NORTH-THE KING BRINGS IRISH REGIMENTS OVER, WHICH GIVES GREAT DISGUST -1 AM DETACHED WITH PRINCE RUPERT TO THE RELIEF OF YORK, WHICH WE ACCOMPLISH—DISASTROUS ACTION WITH CROMWELL. About this time it was that we first began to hear of one Oliver Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spread first into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed the three kingdoms He first was a private captain of horse, hut now commanded a regiment, whom he armed cap-a-pee a la cuirassier; and joining with the Earl of Manchester, the first action we heard of him, that made him anything famous, was about Grantham, where, with only his own regiment, he defp,<‘ d twenty-four troops of horse and dragoons of the king’s lorces : then at Gainsborough, with two regiments, his own of horse, and one of dragoons, where he defeated near three thousand of the Earl of Newcastle’s men, killed lieutenant-general Caven¬ dish, brother to the Earl of Devonshire, who commanded them, and relieved Gainsborough; and though the whole army came in to the rescue, he made good his retreat to Lin¬ coln with little loss; and the next week he defeated Sir John Henderson, at Winsby, near Horn castle, with sixteen regi¬ ments of horse and dragoons, himself having not half that number, killed the Lord Widdrington, Sir Ingram Hopton, and several gentlemen of quality. Thus this firebrand of war began to blaze, and he soon grew a terror to the north ; for victory attended him like a page of honour, and he was scarce ever known to be beater during the whole war. Now we began to reflect again on the misfortune of oui master’s counsels. Had we marched to London, instead of HUSO'S TROOPS SURPRISED AT CIRENCESTER. 161 besieging Gloucester, we had finished the war with a stroke. The parliament’s army was in a most despicable condition, and had never been recruited, had we not given them a month’s time, which we lingered away at this fatal town of Gloucester. But it was too late to reflect; we were a dis¬ heartened army, but we were not beaten yet, nor broken ; we had a large country to recruit in, and we lost no time, but- raised men apace. In the mean time his majesty, after a short stay at Bristol, makes back again towards Oxford with a part of the foot, and all the horse. At Cirencester we had a brush again with Essex; that town owed us a shrewd turn for having handled them coarsely enough before, when Prince Rupert seized the county maga¬ zine. I happened to be in the town that night with Sir Nicholas Crisp, whose regiment of horse quartered there, with Colonel Spencer, and some foot; my own regiment was gone before to Oxford. About ten at night, a party of Essex’s men beat up our quarters by surprise, just as we had served them before ; they fell in with us, just as people were going to bed, and having beaten the outguards, were gotten into the middle of the town, before our men could get on horseback. Sir Nicholas Crisp hearing the alarm, gets up, and, with some of his clothes on, and some off, comes into my chamber. We are all undone, says he, the roundheads are upon us. We had but little time to consult; but being in one of the principal inns in the town, we presently ordered the gates of the inn to be shut, and sent to all the inns where our men were quartered to do the like, with orders, if they had any back-doors, or ways to get out, to come to us. By this means, however, we got so much time as to get on horse¬ back, and so many of our men came to us by back-ways, that we had near three hundred horse in the yards and places behind the house; and now we began to think of breaking out by a lane which led from the back part of the inn ; but a new accident determined us another, though a worse way. The enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards I of the inns, Colonel Spencer, the other colonel, whose regi¬ ment of horse lay also in the town, had got on horseback i before us and engaged with the enemy, but being overpowered, I retreated fighting, and sends to Sir Nicholas Crisp for help. Sir Nicholas, moved to see the distress of his friend, turning to me, says he, What can we do for him ? I told him I VOL. II. M 162 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. thought it was time to help him, if possible; upon which, opening the inn gates, we sallied out in very good order, about three hundred horse ; and several of the troops from other parts of the town joining us, we recovered Colonel Spencer, and charging home, beat back the enemy to their main body. But finding their foot drawn up in the church-yard, and seve¬ ral detachments moving to charge us, we retreated in as good order as we could. They did not think fit to pursue us, but they took all the carriages which were under the convoy of this party, and loaden with provisions and ammunition, and above five hundred of our horse. The foot shifted away as well as they could. Thus we made off in a shattered con¬ dition towards Farringdon, and so to Oxford, and I was very glad my regiment was not there. We had small rest at Oxford, or indeed anywhere else; for the king was marched from thence, and we followed him. I was something uneasy at my absence from my regiment, and did not know how the king might resent it, which caused me to ride after them with all expedition. But the armies were engaged that very day at Newbury, and I came in too late. I had not behaved myself so as to be suspected of a wilful shunning the action; but a colonel of a regiment ought to avoid absence from his regiment in time of fight, be the excuse never so just, as carefully as he would a surprise in his quarters. The truth is, it was an error of my own, and owing to two days’ stay I made at the Bath, where I met with some ladies who were my relations; and this is far from being an excuse ; for if the king had been a Gustavus Adol¬ phus, I had certainly received a check for it. This fight was very obstinate, and could our horse have come to action as freely as the foot, the parliament army had suffered much more ; for we had here a much better body of horse than they, and we never failed beating them where the weight of the work lay upon the horse. Here the city trained-bands, of which there were two regiments, and whom we used to despise, fought very well. They lost one of their colonels, and several officers in the action ; and I heard our men say, they behaved themselves as well as any forces the parliament had. The parliament cried victory here too, as they always did; and, indeed, where the foot were concerned they had some advantage; but our horse defeated them evidently. The DEATH OF THE EARL OF CARNARVON. 163 king drew up his army in battalia, in person, and faced them all the next day, inviting them to renew the fight, but they had no stomach to come on again. It was a kind of a hedge-fight, for neither army was drawn out in the field; if it had, it would never have held from six in the morning till ten at night. But they fough lor advantages ; sometimes one side-had the better, sometimes another. They fought twice through the town, in at one end, and out at the other, and in the hedges and lanes with exceeding fury. The king lost the most men, his foot having suffered for want of the succour of their horse, who, on two several occasions could not come at them. But the parlia¬ ment foot suffered also, and two regiments were entirely cut in pieces, and the king kept the field. Essex, the parliament general, had the pillage of the dead, and left us to bury them; for while we stood all day to our arms, having given them a fair field to fight us in, their camp rabble stript the dead bodies, and they not daring to venture a second engagement with us, marched away towards London. The king lost in this action the Earls of Carnarvon and Sunderland, the Lord Falkland, a French marquis, and some very gallant officers, and about twelve hundred men. The Earl of Carnarvon was brought into an inn in Newbury, where the king came to see him. He had just life enough to speak to his majesty, and died in his presence. The king was exceedingly concerned for him, and was observed to shed tears at the sight of it. We were indeed all of us troubled for the loss of so brave a gentleman, but the concern our royal master discovered moved us more than ordinary. Everybody endeavoured to have the king out of the room, but he would not stir from the bed-side till he saw all hopes of life were gone. The indefatigable industry of the king, his servants and friends, continually to supply and recruit his forces, and to harass and fatigue the enemy, was such, that we should still have given a good account of the war, had the Scots stood I neuter. But bad news came every day out of the north ; as jbr other places, parties were always in action ; Sir William Waller and Sir Ralph Ilopton beat one another by turns; md Sir Ralph had extended the king’s quarters trom ^aunceston in Cornwall, to Farnham in Surrey, where he m 2 164 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. gave Sil William Waller a rub, and drove him into the castle. But in the north the storm grew thick, the Scots advanced to the borders, and entered England, in confederacy with the parliament, against their king; for which the parliament requited them afterwards as they deserved. Had it not been for the Scotch army, the parliament had easily been reduced to terms of peace ; but after this they never made any proposals fit for the king to receive. Want of success before had made them differ among themselves; Essex and Waller could never agree ; the Earl of Manchester and the Lord Willoughby differed to the highest degree; and the king’s affairs went never the worse for it. But this storm in the north ruined us all; for the Scots prevailed in Yorkshire, and being joined with Fairfax, Manchester, and Cromwell, carried all before them; so that the king was i obliged to send Prince Rupert, with a body of four thousand horse, to the assistance ot the Earl of Newcastle, where that prince finished the destruction of the king’s interest, by the rashest and unaccountablest action in the world, of which I shall speak in its place. Another action of the king’s, though in itself no greater a cause of offence than the calling the Scots into the nation, gave great offence in general, and even the king’s own friends disliked it; and was carefully improved by his enemies to the disadvantage of the king, and of his cause. The rebels in Ireland had, ever since the bloody massacre of the protestants, maintained a war against the English, and the Earl of Ormond was general and governor for the king. The king finding his affairs pinch him at home, sends orders to the Earl of Ormond to consent to a cessation of arms with the rebels, and to ship over certain of his regiments hither to his majesty’s assistance. It is true, the Irish had deserved to be very illtreated by the English ; but while the 1 parliament pressed the king with a cruel and unnatural war at home, and called in an army out of Scotland to support their * quarrel with their king, I could never be convinced that it was : such a dishonourable action for the king to suspend the correction of his Irish rebels, till he was in a capacity to do it with safety to himself, or to delay any farther assistance; to preserve himself at home; and the troops he recalled i being his own, it was no breac h of his honour to make use THE KING BRINGS IRISH REGIMENTS OVER. 165 of them, since he now wanted them for his own security, against those who fought against him at home. But the king was persuaded to make one step farther, and that, I confess, was unpleasing to us all; and some of his best and most faithful servants took the freedom to speak plainly to him of it; and that was, bringing some regiments of the Irish themselves over. This cast, as we thought, an odium upon our whole nation, being some of those very wretches who had dipt their hands in the innocent blood of the protestants, and, with unheard-of butcheries, had massa¬ cred so many thousands of English in cool blood. Abundance of gentlemen forsook the king upon this score ; and, seeing they could not brook the fighting in conjunction with this wicked generation, came into the declaration of the parliament, and making composition for their estates, lived retired lives all the rest of the war, or went abroad. But as exigencies and necessities oblige us to do things which at other times we would not do, and is, as to man, some excuse for such things ; so I cannot but think the guilt and dishonour of such an action must lie, very much of it at least, at their doors who drove the king to these necessities and distresses, by calling in an army of his own subjects, whom he had not injured, but had complied with them in everything, to make war upon him without any provocation. As to the quarrel between the king and his parliament, there may something be said on botli sides; and the king saw cause himself to disown and dislike some things he had | done, which the parliament objected against, such as levying ] money without consent of parliament, infractions on their j privileges, and the like. Here, I say, was some room for an argument, at least; and concessions on both sides were need- j ful to come to a peace; but for the Scots, all their demands I had been answered, all their grievances had been redressed, they had made articles with their sovereign, and he had per¬ formed those articles; their capital enemy, episcopacy, was abolished ; they had not one thing to demand of the king which he had not granted ; and, therefore, they had no more cause to take up arms against their sovereign, than they had against the grand signior. But it must for ever lie against them as a brand of infamy, and as a reproach on their whole nation, that, purchased by the parliament’s money, they sold their honesty, and rebelled against their king for hire ; and it 166 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. was not many years before, as I have said already, they were tally paid the wages of their unrighteousness, and chastised for their treachery, by the very same people whom they thus basely assisted ; then they would have retrieved it, if it had not been to late. But I could not but accuse this age of injustice and parti¬ ality, who, while they reproached the king for his cessation ot arms with the Irish rebels, and not prosecuting them with the utmost severity, though he was constrained by the necessities of the war to do it, could yet, at the same time, justify the Scots taking up arms in a quarrel they had no concern in, and against their own king, with whom they had articled and capitulated, and who had so punctually complied with all their demands, that they had no claim upon him, no grievances to be redressed, no oppression to cry out of, nor could ask anything of him which he had not granted. But as no action in the world is so vile, but the actors can cover with some specious pretence, so the Scots, now passing into England, publish a declaration to justify their assisting the parliament: to which I shall only say, in my opinion, it was no justification at all; for, admit the parliament’s quarrel had been never so just, it could not be just in them to aid them, because it was against their own king too, to whom they had sworn allegiance, or at least had crowned him, and thereby had recognised his authority; for if mal-administra- tion be, according to Prynne’s doctrine, or according to their own Buchanan, a sufficient reason for subjects to take up arms against their prince, the breach of his coronation oath being supposed to dissolve the oath of allegiance, which, however, I cannot believe ; yet this can never be extended to make it lawful, that because a King of England may, by mal-adminis- tration, discharge the subjects of England from their allegiance, that therefore the subjects of Scotland may take up arms against the King of Scotland, he having not infringed the compact of government as to them, and they having nothing to complain of for themselves : thus I thought their own arguments were against them, and heaven seemed to concur with it; for although they did carry the cause for the English rebels, yet the most of them left their bones here in the quarrel. But what signifies reason to the drum and the trumpet. The parliament had the supreme argument with those men, THE SCOTS ENTER ENGLAND. 167 viz., the money; and having accordingly advanced a good round sum, upon payment of this (for the Scots would not stir a foot without it), they entered England on the 15th of January, 1643, with an army of twelve^thousand men, under the command of old Lesley, now Earl of Leven, an old soldier of great experience, having been bred to arms from a youth, in the service of the Prince of Orange. The Scots were no sooner entered England, but they were joined by all the friends to the parliament party in the north; and first, Colonel Grey, brother to the Lord Grey, joined them with a regiment of horse, and several out of Westmore- land and Cumberland, and so they advanced to Newcastle, which they summoned to surrender. The Earl of Newcastle, who rather saw than was able to prevent this storm, was in Newcastle, and did his best to defend it; but the Scots, increased by this time to above twenty thousand, lay close siege to the place, which was but meanly fortified ; and having repulsed the garrison upon several sallies, and pressing the place very close ; after a siege of twelve days, or thereabouts, they enter the town sword in hand. The Earl of Newcastle got away, and afterwards gathered what forces together he could ; but not strong enough to hinder the Scots from advanc¬ ing to Durham, which he quitted to them, nor to hinder the conjunction of the Scots with the forces of Fairfax, Manchester, and Cromwell. Whereupon the Earl seeing all things thus going to wreck, he sends his horse away and retreats with his foot into York, making all necessary preparations for a vigorous defence there, in case he should be attacked, which he was pretty sure of, as indeed afterwards happened. York was in a very good posture of defence ; the fortifications very regular, and exceeding strong; well furnished with provisions; and had now a garrison of twelve thousand men in it. The governor under the Earl of Newcastle was Sir Thomas Glenham, a good soldier, and a gentleman brave enough. The Scots, as I have said, having taken Durham, Tyne¬ mouth Castle, and Sunderland, and being joined by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had taken Selby, resolve, with their united strength, to besiege York; but when they came to view the city, and saw a plan of the works, and had intelligence of the strength of the garrison, they sent expresses to Manchester and Cromwell for help, who came on, and joined them with 168 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. nine thousand, making together about thirty thousand men, rather more than less. Now had the Earl of Newcastle’s repeated messengers convinced the king, that it was absolutely necessary to send some forces to his assistance, or else all would be lost in the north. Whereupon Prince Rupert was detached with orders first to go into Lancashire, and relieve Latham-house, defended by the brave Countess of Derby; and then, taking all the forces he could collect in Cheshire, Lancashire, and York¬ shire, to march to relieve York. The prince marched from Oxford with but three regiments of horse, and one of dragoons, making in all about two thousand eight hundred men. The colonels of horse were Colonel Charles Goring, the Lord Biron, and myself; the dragoons were of Colonel Smith. In our march, we were joined by a regiment of lioi’se from Banbury, one of dragoons from Bristol, and three regiments of horse from Chester: so that when we came into Lancashire we were about five thousand horse and dragoons. These horse we received from Chester were those who having been at the siege of Nantwich were obliged to raise the siege by Sir Thomas Fairfax; and the foot having yielded, the horse made good their retreat to Chester, being about two thousand ; of whom three regiments now joined us. We received also two thousand foot from West Chester, and two thousand more out of Wales; and with this strength we entered Lancashire. We had not much time to spend and a great deal of work to do. Bolton and Liverpool felt the first fury of our prince. At Bolton, indeed, he had some provocation; for here we were like to be beaten off. When first the prince came to the town, he sent a summons to demand the town for the king, but received no answer but from their guns, commanding the messenger to keep off at his peril. They had raised some works about the town; and having by their intelligence learned that we had no artillery, and were only a flying party, so they called us, they contemned the summons, and showed themselves upon their ramparts ready for us. The prince was resolved to humble them, if possible, and takes up his quarters close to the town. In the evening, he orders me to advance with one regiment of dragoons, and my horse, ATTACK UPON BOLTON, LANCASHIRE. 169 I to bring them off, if occasion was, and to post myself as near as possibly I could to the lines, yet so as not to be discovered; and at the same time having concluded what part of the works to fall upon, he draws up his men on two ! other sides, as if he would storm them there; and on a signal, I was to begin the real assault on my side, with my dragoons. I had got so near the town with my dragoons, making them creep upon their bellies a great way, that we could hear the soldiers talk on the 'walls, when the prince, believing one regiment would be too few, sends me word, that he had ordered a regiment of foot to help, and that I should not discover myself till they were come up to me. This broke our measures; for the march of this regiment was discovered by the enemy, and they took the alarm. Upon this I sent to the prince, to desire he would put oil the storm for that night, and I would answer for it the next day; but the prince was impatient, and sent orders we should fall on as soon as the foot came up to us. The foot marched out of the way, missed us, and fell in with the road that leads to another part of the town; and being not able to find us, make an attack upon the town themselves; but the defendants being ready for them, received them very warmly, and beat them off with great loss. I was at a loss now what to do; for hearing the guns, and by the noise knowing it was an assault upon the town, I was very uneasy to have my share in it; but as I had learnt under the king of Sweden punctually to adhere to the execution of orders, and my j orders being to lie still till the foot came up with me, I would not stir if I had been sure to have done never so much service; but however, to satisfy myself, I sent to the prince to let him knoAv that I continued in the same place, expecting the foot, and none being yet come, I desired farther orders. The prince was a little amazed at this; and finding there must be some mistake, came galloping away in the dark to the place, and drew off the men; which was no hard matter, for they were willing enough to give it over. As for me, the prince ordered me to come off so privately, as not to be discovered if possible, which I effectually did: and so we were baulked for that night. The next day the ' prince fell on upon another quarter with three regiments of foot, but was beaten off with loss ; and the like a third time. At last, the prince resolved to carry it, doubled his numbers, 170 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. and renewing the attack with fresh men, the foot entered the town over their works, killing, in the first heat ot the action, all that came in their way; some ot the foot at the same time letting in the horse; and so the town was entirely won. There was about six hundred of the enemy killed, and w r e lost above four hundred in all, which was owing to the foolish mistakes we made. Our men got some plunder here, which the parliament made a great noise about; but it was their due, and they bought it dear enough. Liverpool did not cost us so much, nor did we get so much by it, the people having sent their women and children, and best goods, on board the ships in the road; and as we had no boats to board them with, we could not get at them. Here, as at Bolton, the town and fort was taken by storm, and the garrison were many of them cut in pieces, which, by the way, was their own faults. Our next step was Latham-house, which the Countess of Derby had gallantly defended above eighteen weeks, against the parliament forces; and this lady not only encouraged her men by her cheerful and noble maintenance of them, but by examples of her own undaunted spirit, exposing herself upon the walls in the midst of the enemy’s shot, would be with her men in the greatest dangers ; and she well deserved our care of her person; for the enemy were prepared to use her very rudely, if she fell into their hands. Upon our approach, the enemy drew off; and the prince not only effectually relieved this vigorous lady, but left her a good quantity of all sorts of ammunition, three great guns, five hundred arms, and two hundred men, commanded by a major, as her extraordinary guard. Here the way being now opened, and our success answer¬ ing our expectation, several bodies of foot came into us from Westmoreland, and from Cumberland; and here it was that the prince found means to surprise the town of Newcastle- upon-Tyne, which was recovered for the king, by the management of the mayor of the town, and some loyal gentlemen of the country, and a garrison placed there again for the king. But our main design being the relief of York, the prince advanced that way apace, his army still increasing; and being joined by the Lord Goring, from Richmondshire, with four thousand horse, which were the same the Earl o i ACCOMPLISH THE RELIEF OF YORK. 171 Newcastle had sent away when he threw himself into York with the infantry. We were now eighteen thousand effective men, whereof ten thousand horsq and dragoons; so the prince, lull of hopes, and his men in good heart, boldly marched directly for York. The Scots, as much surprised at the taking of Newcastle, as at the coming of their enemy, began to inquire which way they should get home if they should be beaten ; and calling a council of war, they all agreed to iaise the siege. The prince, who drew with him a great train of carriages charged with provision and ammunition, for the relief of the city, like a wary general, kept at a distance from the enemy, and fetching a great compass about, brings all safe into the city, and enters into Y’ork himself with all his army. No action of this whole war had gained the prince so much honour, or the king’s affairs so much advantage as this, had the prince but had the power to have restrained his courage after this, and checked his fatal eagerness for fighting. Here was a siege raised, the reputation of the enemy justly stirred, a city relieved and furnished with all things necessary, in the face of an army, superior in number by near ten thousand men, and commanded by a triumvirate of Generals Leven, Fairfax, and Manchester. Had the prince but remembered the proceeding of the great duke of Parma at the relief of Paris, he would have seen the relieving the city was his business; it was the enemy’s business to fight, if possible ; it was his to avoid it; for having delivered the city, and put the disgrace of raising the siege upon the enemy, he had nothing farther to do, but to have waited till he had seen what course the enemy would take, and taken his farther measures from their motion. But the prince, a continual friend to precipitant counsels, would hear no advice ; I entreated him not to put it to the hazard ; I told him, that he ought to consider, if he lost the day, he lost the kingdom, and took the crown off from the king’s head. I put him in mind that it was impossible those three generals should continue long together; and that, if they did, they would not agree long in their counsels ; which would be as well for us as their separating. It was plain Manchester and Cromwell must return to the associated counties, who would not suffer them to stay, for fear the king should attempt them; that he could subsist well enough, 172 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. having York city and river at his back; but the Scots would eat up the country, make themselves odious, and dwindle away to nothing, if he would but hold them at bay a little ; other general officers were of the same mind; but all I could say, or they either, to a man deaf to anything but his own courage, signified nothing. He would draw out and fight, there was no persuading him to the contrary, unless a man would run the risk of being upbraided with being a coward, and afraid of the work. The enemy’s army lay on a large common, called Marston-moor, doubtful what to do. Some were for fighting the prince, the Scots were against it, being uneasy at having the garrison of Newcastle at their backs; but the prince brought their councils of war to a result; for he let them know they must fight him, whether they would or no ; for the prince being, as before, eighteen thousand men, and the Earl of Newcastle having joined him with eight thousand foot out of the city, were marched in quest of the enemy ; had entered the moor in view of their army, and began to draw up in order of battle ; but the night coming on, the armies only viewed each other at a distance for that time. We lay all night upon our arms, and with the first of the day were in order of battle ; the enemy was getting ready, but part of Manchester’s men were not in the field, but lay about three miles off, and made a hasty march to come up. The prince’s army was exceedingly Avell managed; he himself commanded the left wing, the Earl of Newcastle the right wing; and the Lord Goring, as general of the foot, assisted by Major-general Porter and Sir Charles Lucas, led the main battle. I had prevailed with the prince, according to the method of the King of Sweden, to place some small bodies of musketeers in the intervals of his horse, in the left wing, but could not prevail upon the Earl of Newcastle to do it in the right; which he afterwards repented. In this posture w r e stood facing the enemy, expecting they would advance to us, which at last they did; and the prince began the day by saluting them with his artillery, which being placed very well, galled them terribly for a quarter of an hour ; they could not shift their front, so they advanced the hastier to get within our great guns, and consequently out of their danger, which brought the fight sooner on. The enemy’s army was thus ordered; Sir Thomas Fairfax had the right wing, in which was the Scots’ horse, and the DISASTROUS ACTION WITH CROMWELL. 173 horse of his own and his father’s army; Cromwell led the left wing, with his own and the Earl of Manchester’s horse; and the three generals, Lesley, old Fairfax, and Manchester, led the main battle. The prince, with our left wing, fell on first, and, with his usual fury, broke, like a clap of thunder, into the right wing, of the Scots’ horse, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and as nothing could stand in his way, he broke through and through them, and entirely routed them, pursuing them quite out of the field. Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a regiment of lances, and about five hundred of his own horse, made good the ground for some time; but our musketeers, which, as I said, were placed among our horse, wei'e such an unlooked-for sort of an article, in a fight among the horse, that those lances, which otherwise were brave fellows, were mowed down with their shot, and all was put into confusion. Sir Thomas Fairfax was wounded in the face, his brother killed, and a great slaughter was made of the Scots, to whom, I confess, we showed no favour at all. While this was doing on our left, the Lord Goring, with the main battle, charged the enemy’s foot; and particularly one brigade, commanded by Major-general Porter, being mostly pikemen, not regarding the fire of the enemy, charged with that fuiy in a close body of pikes, that they overturned all that came in their way, and breaking into the middle of the enemy’s foot, filled all with terror and confusion, inso¬ much that the three generals thinking all had been lost, fled, and quitted the field. Put matters went not so well with that always unfortunate gentleman, the Earl of Newcastle, and our right wing of horse ; for Cromwell charged the Earl of Newcastle with a powerful body of horse ; and though the earl, and those about him, did what men could do, and behaved themselves with all possible gallantry, yet there was no withstanding Crom¬ well’s horse ; but, like Prince Rupert, they bore down all before them ; and now the victory was wrung out of our hands by our own gi’oss miscarriage ; for the prince, as it was his custom, too eager in the chase of the enemy, was gone, and could not be heard of; the foot in the centre, the right wing of the horse being routed by Cromwell, was left, and without the guard of his horse. Cromwell having routed the Earl of Newcastle, and beaten him quite out of the field, 174 MEM< IRS OF A CAVALIER. and Sir Thomas Fairfax rallying his dispersed troops, they tall all together upon the foot. General Lord Goring, like himself, fought like a lion; but forsaken of his horse, was hemmed in on all sides, and overthrown ; and an hour after this, the prince, returning too late to recover his friends, was obliged with the rest to quit the field to conquerors. This was a tatal day to the king’s affairs, and the risk too much lor any man in his wits to run ; we lost four thousand men on the spot, three thousand prisoners, among whom was Sir Charles Lucas, Major-general Porter, Major-general Telier, and about one hundred and seventy gentlemen of quality. We lost all our baggage, twenty-five pieces of cannon, three huudred carriages, one hundred and fifty bar¬ rels of powder, and ten thousand arms. The prince got into York with the Earl of Newcastle, and a great many gentlemen, and seven or eight thousand of the men, as well horse as foot. CHAPTER XIII. NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE BATTLE-DANGERS OF OUR RETREAT-TWO OF OUR PARTY AND MYSELF DISGUISE OURSELVES, AND GO TO LEEDS TO LEARN NEWS- ENGAGEMENT WITH THE COUNTRY FELLOWS ON OUR RE¬ TURN-OUR PARTY ATTEMPTS TO JOIN PRINCE RUPERT- ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD-WE JOIN THE PRINCE AT KENDAL, IN WESTMORELAND. I had but very coarse treatment in this fight; for returning with the prince from the pursuit of the right wing, and find¬ ing all lost, I halted, with some other officers, to consider what to do ; at first we were for making our retreat in a body, and might have done so well enough, if we had known what had happened before we saw ourselves in the middle of the enemy; for Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had got together his scattered troops, and joined by some of the left wing, knowing who we were, charged us with great fury. It was not a time to think of anything but getting away, or dying upon the spot; the prince kept on in the front, and Sir Thomas Fairfax, by this charge, cut off about three regiments SOME OF THE KING’S TROOPS MUCH PERPLEXED. 175 of us from our body, but bending bis main strength at the prince, left us, as it were, behind him, in the middle of the held ol battle. We took this for the only opportunity we could have to get off, and joining together, we made across the place of battle in as good order as we could, with oui carabines presented. In this posture we passed by several bodies of the enemy’s foot, who stood with their pikes charged to keep us off; but they had no occasion, for we had no design to meddle with them, but to get from them. Thus we made a swift march, and thought ourselves pretty secure; but our work was not done yet, for, on a sudden, we saw ourselves under a necessity of fighting our way through a great body of Manchester’s horse, who came galloping upon us over the moor. They had, as we suppose, been pursuing some of our broken troops which were fled before, and seeing us, they gave us a home charge. We received them as well as we could, but pushed to get through them, which at last we did with a considerable loss to them. However, we lost so many men, either killed or separated from us (for all could not follow the same way), that of our three regiments we could not be above four hundred horse together when we got quite clear, and these were mixt men, some of one troop and regiment, some of another. Not that I believe many of us were killed in the last attack, for we had plainly the better of the enemy; but our design being to get off, some shifted for themselves one way, and some another, in the best manner they could, and as their several fortunes guided them. Four hundred more of this body, as I afterwards understood, having broke through the enemy’s body another way, kept together, and got into Pontefract Castle, and three hundred more made northward, and to Skipton, where the prince afterwai'ds fetched them off. These few of us that were left together, with whom I was, being now pretty clear of pursuit, halted, and began to inquire who and what we were, and what we should do ; and on a short debate, I proposed we should make to the first garrison of the king’s that we could recover, and that we should keep together, lest the country-people should insult us upon the roads. With this resolution we pushed on west- H ward for Lancashire; but our misfortunes were not yet at an end: we travelled very hard, and got to a village upon the river Wharf^ near Wetherby. At Wetherby there was a 176 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. bridge, but we understood that a party from Leeds had secured the town and the post, in order to stop the flying cavaliers, and that it would be very hard to get through there, though, as we understood afterwards, there were no soldiers there but a guard of the townsmen. In this pickle we consulted what course to take; to stay where we were till morning, we all concluded would not be safe; some advised to take the stream with our horses, but the river, which is deep, and the current strong, seemed to bid us have a care what we did of that kind, especially in the night. We resolved therefore to refresh ourselves and our horses, which indeed is more than we did, and go on till we might come to a ford or bridge, where we might get over. Some guides we had, but they either were foolish or Arise, for after we had rid eight or nine miles, they plunged us into a river at a place they called a ford, but it was a very ill one, for most of our horses swam, and seven or eight were lost, but we saved the men ; however, we got all over. We made bold with our first convenience to trespass upon the country for a few horses, where we could find them, to remount our men whose horses were drowned, and continued our march; but being obliged to refresh ourselves at a small village on the edge of Bramham-moor, we found the country alarmed by our taking some horses, and we were no sooner got on horseback in the morning, and entering on the moor, but we understood we were pursued by some troops of horse. There was no remedy but we must pass this moor ; and though our horses were exceedingly tired, yet we pressed on upon a round trot, and recovered an enclosed country on the other side, where we halted. And here, necessity putting us upon it, we were obliged to look out for more horses, for several of our men were dismounted, and others’ horses dis¬ abled by carrying double, those who lost their horses getting up behind them ; but we were supplied by our enemies against their will. The enemy followed us over the moor, and we having a woody enclosed country about us, where we were, I observed by their moving, they had lost sight of us ; upon which I proposed concealing ourselves till we might judge of their numbers. We did so, and lying close in a wood, they past hastily by us, without skirting or searching the wood, which was what on another occasion they would not have done. 1 ENGAGE THE ENEMY IN A WOOD. 177 found they were not above a hundred and fifty horse, and considering that to let them go before us, would be to alarm the country, and stop our design; I thought, since we might be able to deal with them, we should not meet with a better place for it, and told the rest of our officers my mind, which all our party presently (for we had not time for a long debate) agreed to. Immediately upon this I caused two men to fire their pistols in the wood, at two different places, as far asunder as I could. This I did to give them an alarm, and amuse them; for being in the lane, they would otherwise have got through before we had been ready, and I resolved to engage them there, as soon as it was possible. After this alarm, we rushed out of the wood, with about a hundred horse, and charged them on the flank in a broad lane, the wood being on their right. Our passage into the lane being I narrow, gave us some difficulty in our getting out; but the | surprise of the charge did our work ; for the enemy thinking we had been a mile or two before, had not the least thoughts of this onset, till they heard us in the wood, and then they who were before could not come back. We broke into the lane ! just in the middle of them, and by that means divided them; and facing to the left, charged the rear. First our dismounted men, which were near fifty, lined the edge of the wood, and fired with their carabines upon those which were before, so warmly, that they put them into a great disorder. Mean¬ while, fifty more of our horse from the farther part of the wood showed themselves in the lane upon their front; this ; put them of the foremost party into a great perplexity, and ! they began to face about, to fall upon us who were engaged in the rear ; but their facing about in a lane where there was no room to wheel, and one who understands the manner of wheeling a troop of horse must imagine, put them into a great disorder. Our party in the head of the lane taking the 'advantage of this mistake of the enemy, charged in upon them, land routed them entirely. Some found means to break into the enclosures on the other side of the lane, and get away. About thirty were killed, and about twenty-five made pri¬ soners, and forty very good horses were taken; all this while not a man of ours was lost, and not above seven or eight svounded. Those in the rear behaved themselves better ; for bey stood our charge with a great deal of resolution, and all ve could do could not break them; but at last our men, who 178 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. had fired on foot through the hedges at the other party, coming to do the like here, there was no standing it any longer. The rear of them faced about, and retreated out of the lane, and drew up in the open field to receive and rally their fellcrsvs. We killed about seventeen of them, and fol¬ lowed them to the end of the lane, but had no mind to have any more fighting than needs muse; our condition at that time not making it proper, the towns round us being all in the enemy’s hands, and the country but indifferently pleased with us; however, we stood facing them till they thought fit to march away. Thus we were supplied with horses enough to remount our men, and pursued our first design of getting into Lancashire. As for our prisoners, we let them off on foot. But the country being by this time alarmed, and the rout of our army everywhere known, we foresaw abundance of difficulties before us; we were not strong enough to venture into any great towns, and we were too many to be concealed in small ones. Upon this we resolved to halt in a great wood, about three miles beyond the place where we had the last skirmish, and sent out scouts to discover the country, and learn what they could, either of the enemy or of our friends. Anybody may suppose we had but indifferent quarters here, either for ourselves or for our horses ; but, however, we made shift to lie here two days and one night. In the interim I took upon me, with two more, to go to Leeds to learn some news ; we were disguised like country ploughmen ; the clothes we got at a farmer’s house, which for that particular occasion we plundered; and I cannot say no blood was shed in a manner too rash, and which I could not have done at another time; but our case was desperate, and the people too surly, and shot at us out of the window, wounded one man, and shot a horse, which we counted as great a loss to us as a man, for our safety depended upon our horses. Here we got clothes of all sorts, enough for both sexes, and thus dressing myself up a la paisant, with a white cap on my head, and a fork on my shoulder, and one of my comrade’s in the farmer’s wife’s russet gown and petticoat, like a woman; the other with an old crutch like a lame man, and all mounted on such horses as we had taken the day before from the country; away we go to Leeds by three several ways, and agreed to meet upon the bridge. My pretended countrywoman acted VISIT LEEDS IN DISGUISE TO LEARN NEWS. 173 her part to the life, though the party was a gentleman of good quality of the Earl of Worcester’s family; and the cripple did as well as he ; hut I thought myself very awkward in my dress, which made me very shy, especially among the soldiers. We passed their sentinels and guards at Leeds un¬ observed, and put up our horses at several houses in the town, from whence we went up and down to make our remarks. My cripple was the fittest to go among the soldiers, because there was less danger of being pressed. There he informed himself of the matters of war, particularly that the enemy sat down again to the siege of York; that flying parties were in pursuit of the cavaliers ; and there he heard that five hundred horse of the Lord Manchester’s men had followed a party of cavalier’s over Bramham-moor; and, that entering a lane, the cavaliers, who were a thousand strong, fell upon them, and killed them all but about fifty. This, though it was a lie, was very pleasant to us to hear, knowing it was our party, because of the other part of the story, which was thus ; that the cavaliers had taken possession of such a wood, where they rallied all the troops of their flying army; that they had plundered the country as they came, taking all the good horses they could get; that they had plundered Goodman Thompson’s house, which was the farmer I mentioned, and killed man, woman, and child ; and that they were about two thousand strong. My other friend in woman’s clothes got among the good wives at an inn, where she set up her horse, and there she heard the same sad and dreadful tidings; and that this party was so strong, none of the neighbouring garrisons durst stir out; but that they had sent expresses to York for a party of horse to come to their assistance. I walked up and down the town, but fancied myself so ill-disguised, and so easy to be known, that I cared not to talk with anybody. We met at the bridge exactly at our time, and compared our intelligence, found it answered our I end of coming, and that we had nothing to do but to get back to our men ; but my cripple told me he would not stir till he bought some victuals, so away he hops with his crutch, and buys four or five great pieces of bacon, as many of hung beef, and two or three loaves; and, borrowing a sack at the inn (which I suppose he never restored), he loads his horse, and, getting a large leather bottle, he filled that of aqua vitas 180 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. instead of small beer; my woman comrade did tbe like. 1 was uneasy in my mind, and took no care but to get out of the town ; however, we all came off well enough ; but it was well for me that I had no provisions with me, as you will hear presently. We came, as I said, into the town by several ways, and so we went out; but about three miles from the town we met again exactly where we had agreed. I being about a quarter of a mile from the rest, I met three country fellows on horseback; one had a long pole on his shoulder, another a fork, the third no weapon at all, that I saw; I gave them the road very orderly, being habited like one of their brethren; but one of them stopping short at me, and looking earnestly, calls out, Hark thee, friend, says he, in a broad north-country tone, whar hast thou thilk horse ? I must confess I was in the utmost confusion at the question, neither being able to answer the question, nor to speak in his tone; so I made as if I did not hear him, and went on. Na, but ye’s not gang soa, says the boor, and comes up to me, and takes hold of the horse’s bridle to stop me ; at which, vexed at heart that I could not tell how to talk to him, I reached him a great knock on the pate with my fork, and fetched him off his horse, and then began to mend my pace. The other clowns, though it seems they knew not what the fellow wanted, pursued me, and, finding they had better heels than I, I saw there was no remedy but to make use of my hands, and faced about. The first that came up with me was he that had no weapons, so I thought I might parley with him ; and, speaking as country-like as I could, I asked him what he wanted? Thou’st knaw that soon, says York¬ shire, and I’se but come at thee. Then keep awa’, man, said I, or I’se brain thee. By this time the third man came up, and the parley ended ; for he gave me no words, but laid at me with his long pole, and that with such fury, that I began to be doubtful of him. I was loath to shoot the fellow, though I had pistols under my grey frock, as well for that the noise of a pistol might bring more people in, the village being in our rear, and also because I could not imagine what the fellow meant, or would have; but at last, finding he would be too many for me with that long weapon, and a hardy strong fellow, I threw myself off my horse, and, running in with him, stabbed my fork into his horse; the horse, being wounded, staggered awhile, and then fell down* ENGAGEMENT WITH THREE COUNTRY FELLOWS. 181 and the booby had not the sense to get down in time, but fell with him ; upon which, giving him a knock or two with my fork, I secured him. The other, by this time, had fur¬ nished himself with a great stick out of a hedge, and, before I was disengaged from the last fellow, gave me two such blows, that if the last had not missed my head, and hit me on the shoulder, I had ended the fight and my life together. It was time to look about me now, for this was a madman; I defended myself with my fork, but it would not do; at last, in short, I was forced to pistol him, and get on horse¬ back again, and, with all the speed I could make, get away to the wood to our men. If my two fellow spies had not been behind, I had never known what was the meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripple had all the particulars ; for he being behind us, as I have already observed, when he came up to the first fellow, who began the fray, he found him beginning to come to himself; so he gets off’, and pretends to help him, and sets him upon his breech, and, being a very merry fellow, talked to him, Well, and what’s the matter now, says he to him; Ah, wae’s me, says the fellow, I’se killed ! Not quite, mon, says the cripple. O that’s a fause thief, says he, and thus they parleyed. My cripple got him on his feet, and gave him a dram of his aqua vitm bottle, and made much of him, in order to know what was the occasion of the quarrel. Our disguised woman pitied the fellow too, and together they set him up again upon his horse, and then he told them that that fellow was got upon one of his brother’s horses who lived atWetherby; they said the cavaliers stole him, but it was like such rogues (no mischief could be done in the country, but it was the poor cavaliers must bear the blame), and the like; and thus they jogged on till they came to the place where the other two lay. The first fellow they assisted as they had done the other, and gave him a dram out of the leather bottle; but the last fellow was past their care; so they came away. For when they understood that it was my horse they claimed, they began to be afraid that their own horses might be known too, and then they had been betrayed in a worse pickle than I, and must have been forced to have done some mischief or other to have got away. I had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was 182 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. any occasion ; bi t their stay was not long, and the two troopers saw them at a distance coming towards us, so they returned. I had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had enough of staying in the wood; for other intelligences agreed with ours, and all concurred in this, that it was time to be going: however, this use we made of it, that, while the country thought us so strong, we were in the less danger of being attacked, though in the more of being observed; but all this while we heard nothing of our friends, till the next day. We then heard Prince Rupert, with about a thousand horse, was at Skipton, and from thence marched away to Westmoreland. We concluded now we had two or three days’ time good; for, since messengers were sent to York for a party to sup¬ press us, we must have at least two days’ march of them, and therefore all concluded we were to make the best of our way. Early in the morning, therefore, we decamped from those dull quarters ; and as we marched through a village, we found the people very civil to us, and the women cried out, “ God bless them, it is a pity the roundheads should make such work with such brave men,” and the like. Finding we were among our friends, we resolved to halt a little and refresh ourselves; and, indeed, the people were very kind to us, gave us victuals and drink, and took care of our horses. It happened to be my lot to stop at a house where the good woman took a great deal of pains to provide for us; but I observed the good man walked about with a cap upon his head, and very much out of order. I took no great notice of it, being very sleepy, and having asked my landlady to let me have a bed, I lay down and slept heartily: when I waked, I found my landlord on another bed, groaning very heavily. When I came down stairs, I found my cripple talking with my landlady ; he was now out of his disguise, but we called him cripple still; and the other, who put on the woman’s clothes, we called Goody Thompson. As soon as he saw me, he called me out; Do you know, says he, the man of the house you are quartered in ? No, not I, says I. No, so I believe, nor they you, says he ; if they did, the good wife would not have made you a posset, and fetched a white loaf for you. What do you mean ? says I. Have you seen the man ? says he. Seen him, says I, yes, and heard him too; THE WOUNDED COUNTRYMAN MY LANDLORD. 183 the man is sick, and groans so heavily, says I, that I could not lie upon the bed any longer for him. Why, this is the poor man, say he, that you knocked down with your tork yesterday, and I have had all the story out yonder at the next door. I confess it grieved me to have been forced to treat one so roughly who was one of our friends, but to make some amends, we contrived to give the poor man his brother’s horse ; and my cripple told him a formal story, that he believed the horse was taken away from the fellow by some of our men ; and, if he knew him again, if it was his friend’s horse, he should have him. The man came down upon the news, and I caused six or seven horses, which were taken at the same time, to be shown him; he immediately chose the right; so I gave him the horse, and we pretended a great deal of sorrow for the man’s hurt; and that we had not knocked the fellow on the head as well as took away the horse. The man was so overjoyed at the revenge he thought was taken on the fellow, that we heard him groan no more. We ventured to stay all day at this town, and the next night, and got guides to lead us to Blackstone-Edge, a ridge of mountains which parts this side of Yorkshire from Lancashire. Early in the morning we marched, and kept our scouts very carefully out every way, who brought us no news for this day: we kept on all night, and made our horses do penance for that little rest they had, and the next morning we passed the hills, and got into Lancashire, to a town called Littleborough, and from thence to Rochdale, a little market-town. And now we thought ourselves safe as to the pursuit of enemies from the side of York; our design was to get to Bolton, but all the country was full of the enemy in flying parties, and how to get to Bolton we knew not. At last we resolved to send a messenger to Bolton; but he came back and told us, he had, with lurking and hiding, tried all the ways that he thought possible, but to no purpose; for he could not get into the town. We sent another, and he never returned ; and some time after we understood he was taken by the enemy. At last one got into the town, but brought us word, they were tired out with constant alarms, had been straitly blocked up, and every day expected a siege, and therefore advised us either to go northward, where Prince Rupert and the Lord Goring ranged at liberty; or to get over Warrington bridge, and so secure our retreat to Chester. This double direction 184 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. divided our opinions; I was for getting into Chester, both to recruit myself with horses and with money, both which I wanted, and to get refreshment, which we all wanted; but the major part of our men were for the north. First, they said, there was their general, and it was their duty to the cause, and the king’s interest obliged us to go where we could do best service; and there were their friends, and every man might hear some news of his own regiment, for we belonged to several regiments ; besides, all the towns to the left of us were possessed by Sir William Brereton; Warrington and Northwich garrisoned by the enemy, and a strong party at Manchester; so that it was very likely we should be beaten and dispersed before we could get to Chester. These reasons, and especially the last, determined us for the north, and we had resolved to march the next morning, when other intelli¬ gence brought us to more speedy resolutions. We kept our scouts continually abroad, to bring us intelligence of the enemy, whom we expected on our backs, and also to keep an eye upon the country; for, as we lived upon them something at large, they were ready enough to do us any ill turn, as it lay in their power. The first messenger that came to us, was from our friends at Bolton, to inform us, that they were preparing at Manchester to attack us. One of our parties had been as far as Stockport, on the edge of Cheshire, and was pursued by a party of the enemy, but got off by the help of the night. Thus all things looking black to the south, we had resolved to march north¬ ward in the morning, when one of our scouts from the side of Manchester assured us, Sir Thomas Middleton, with some of the parliament forces, and the country troops, making above twelve hundred men, were on their march to attack us, and would certainly beat up our quarters that night. Upon this advice we resolved to be gone; and getting all things in readiness, we began to march about two hours before night; and having gotten a trusty fellow for a guide, a fellow that we found was a friend to our side, he put a project into my head, which saved us all for that time ; and that was, to give out in the village, that we were marched back to Yorkshire, resolving to get into Pontefract Castle ; and accordingly he leads us out of the town the same way we came in; and taking a boy with him, he sends the boy back just at night, and bade him say he saw us go up the hills at Blackston- ADVENTURES ON THE ROAD. 185 Edge; and it happened very well; for this party were so sure of us, that they had placed four hundred men on the road to the northward, to intercept our retreat that way, and had left no way for us, as they thought, to get away, but back again. About ten o’clock at night they assaulted our quarters, but found we were gone ; and being informed which way, they followed upon the spur, and travelling all night, being moon¬ light, they found themselves the next day about fifteen miles east, just out of their way ; for we had, by the help of our guide, turned short at the foot of the hills, and through blind, untrodden paths, and with difficulty enough, by noon the next day, had reached almost twenty-five miles north, near a town called Clithero. Here we halted in the open field, and sent out our people to see how things were in the country. This part of the country, almost unpassable, and walled round with hills, was indifferent quiet; and we got some re¬ freshment for ourselves, but veiy little horse meat, and so went on ; but we had not marched far before we found our¬ selves discovered ; and the four hundred horse sent to lie in wait for us as before, having understood which way we went, followed us hard; and, by letters to some of their friends at Preston, we found we were beset again. Our guide began now to be out of his knowledge ; and our scouts brought us word, the enemy’s horse was posted before us; andweknewthey were in our rear. In this exigence, we resolved to divide our small body, and so amusing them, at least one might get off, if the other miscarried. I took about eighty horse with me, among which were all that I had of my own regiment, amounting to above thirty-two, and took the hills towards Yorkshire. Here we met with such unpassable hills, vast moors, rocks, and stony ways, as lamed all our horses, and tired our men ; and sometimes I was ready to think we should never be able to get over them, till our horses failing, and jack- boots being but indifferent tilings to travel in, we might be starved before we should find any road or towns, for guide we had none, but a boy who knew but little, and would cry when we asked him any questions. I believe neither men nor horses ever passed in some places where we went, and for twenty hours we saw not a town nor a house, excepting sometimes from the top of the mountains, at a vast distance. I am persuaded we might have encamped here, if we had had 186 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. provisions, till the war had been over, and have met with no disturbance ; and I have often wondered since, how we got into such horrible places, as much as how we got out. That which was worse to us than all the rest was, that we knew not where we were going, nor what part of the country we should come into, when we came out of those desolate crags. At last, after a terrible fatigue, we began to see the western parts of Yorkshire, some few villages, and the country at a distance looked a little like England; for I thought before it looked like old Brennus hill, which the Grisons call the grandfather of the Alps. We got some relief in the villages, which indeed some of us had so much need of, that they were hardly able to sit their horses, and others were forced to help them off, they were so faint. I never felt so much of the power of hunger in my life, for having not eaten in thirty hours, I was as ravenous as a hound; and if I had had a piece of horseflesh, I believe I should not have had patience to have stayed dressing it, but have fallen upon it raw, and have eaten it as greedily as a Tartar. However, I eat very cautiously, having often seen the dan¬ ger of men’s eating heartily after long fasting. Our next care was to inquire our way. Halifax, they told us, was on our right; there we durst not think of going ; Skipton was before us, and there we knew not how it was; for a body of three thousand horse, sent out by the enemy in pursuit of Prince Rupert, had been there but two days before, and the country people could not tell us, whether they were gone or no; and Manchester’s horse, which were sent out after our party, were then at Halifax, in quest of us, and afterwards marched into Cheshire. In this distress we would have hired a guide, but none of the country people would go with us; for the roundheads would hang them, they said, when they came there. Upon this I called a fellowtome, Harkyefriend, says I, dost thee know the way so as to bring us into Westmoreland, and not keep the great road from York ? Ay marry, says he, I ken the ways weel enou. And you would go and guide us, said I, but that you are afraid the roundheads will hang you? Indeed would I, says the felloAV. Why then, says I, thou hadst as good be hanged by a roundhead as a cavalier; for, if thou will not go, I’ll hang thee just now. Na, and ye serve me soa, says the fellow, I’se ene gang with ye; for I care not for hanging; and ye’ll get me a good horse, I’se FALL IN WITH AN EXCELLENT GUIDE. 187 gang and be one of ye, for I’ll nere come heame more. This pleased us still better, and we mounted tbe fellow, for three of our men died that night with the extreme fatigue of the last service. Next morning, when our new trooper was mounted and clothed, we hardly knew him ; and this fellow led us by such ways, such wildernesses, and yet with such prudence, keep¬ ing the hills to the left, that we might have the villages to re¬ fresh ourselves, that without him, we had certainly either perished in those mountains, or fallen into the enemy’s hands. We passed the great road from York so critically as to time, that from one of the hills he showed us a party of the enemy’s horse, who were then marching into Westmoreland. We lay still that day, finding we were not discovered by them ; and our guide proved the best scout that we could have had; for he would go out ten miles at a time, and bring us in all the news of the country. Here he brought us word, that York was surrendered upon articles, and that Newcastle, which had been surprised by the king’s party, was besieged by another army of Scots, advanced to help their brethren. Along the edges of those vast mountains we past, with the help of our guide, till we came into the forest of Swale; and finding ourselves perfectly concealed here, for no soldier had ever been here all the war, nor perhaps would not, if it had lasted seven years, we thought we wanted a few days rest, at least for our horses, so we resolved to halt, and while we did so, we made some disguises, and sent out some spies into the country; but, as here were no great towns, nor no post road, we got very little intelligence. We rested four days, and then marched again; and, indeed, having no great stock of money about us, and not very free of that we had, four days was enough for those poor places to be able to maintain us. We thought ourselves pretty secure now; but our chief care was, how to get over those terrible mountains; for, having passed the great road that leads from York to Lan¬ caster, the crags, the farther northward we looked, looked still the worse, and our business was all on the other side. Our guide told us he would bring us out if we would have patience, which we were obliged to, and kept on this slow march till he brought us to Stanhope, in the county of Dur¬ ham, where some of Goring’s horse, and two regiments of foot had their quarters. This was nineteen days from the 188 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. battle of Maiston-moor. The prince, who was then at Ken¬ dal, in Westmoreland, and who had given me over as lost, when he had news of our arrival, sent an express to me to meet him at Appleby. I went thither accordingly, and gave him an account of our journey, and there I heard the short history of the other part of our men, whom we parted from in Lancashire. They made the best of their way north. They had two resolute gentlemen who commanded; and being so closely pursued by the enemy, that they found them¬ selves under the necessity of fighting, they halted, and faced about, expecting the charge. The boldness of the action made the officer who led the enemy’s horse (which it seems were the county horse only), afraid of them; which they per¬ ceiving, taking the advantage of his fears, bravely advance, and charge them; and, though they were above two hundred horse, they routed them, killed about thirty or forty, got some horses, and some money, and pushed on their march night and day; but coming near Lancaster, they were so waylaid and pursued, that they agreed to separate, and shift every man for himself; many of them fell into the enemy’s hands, some were killed attempting to pass through the river Lune ; some Avent back again, six or seven got to Bolton, and about eighteen got safe to Prince Rupert. The prince avus in a better condition hereabouts than I expected ; he and my Lord Goring, with the help of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and the gentlemen of Cumberland, had gotten a body of four thousand horse, and about six thousand foot; they had retaken Newcastle, Tinmouth, Durham, Stockton, and several towns of consequence from the Scots, and might have cut them out work enough still, if that base people, resolved to engage their whole interest to ruin their sovereign, had not sent a second army of ten thou¬ sand men under the Earl of Calendar, to help their first. These came and laid siege to Newcastle, but found more vigorous resistance now than they had done before. There were in the tOAvn Sir John Morley, the Lord CraAvford, Lord Rea and Maxwell, Scots, and old soldiers, Avho were resolved their countrymen should buy the tOAvn very dear, if they had it; arid had it not been for our disaster at Marston-moor, they had never had it; for Calendar finding he Avas not able to carry the tOAvn, sends to General Leven to come from the siege of York to help him. 6TATE OF THE PRINCE’S ARMY. 188 CHAPTER XIV. STATE OF THE PRINCE’S ARMY-SKIRMISHES—THE KING’S ARMY OBTAINS SOME PARTIAL SUCCESSES IN THE WEST- THE ARMIES JOIN AT OXFORD-FARTHER PROCEEDINGS -BAD CONDUCT OF THE PARLIAMENT SOLDIERS-NEGO¬ TIATIONS WITH THE PARLIAMENT FOR PEACE-PROCEED¬ INGS OF THE DIVISION TO WHICH I BELONGED IN THE ARMY. Mean time the prince forms a very good army, and the Lord Goring, with ten thousand men, shows himself on the borders of Scotland, to try if that might not cause the Scots to recall their forces; and, I am persuaded, had he entered Scotland, the parliament of Scotland had recalled the Earl of Calendar, for they had but five thousand men left in arms to send against him; but they were loath to venture. However, this effect it had, that it called the Scots north¬ ward again, and found them work there for the rest of the summer, to reduce the several towns in the bishopric ot Durham. I found with the prince the poor remains of my regiment, which, when joined with those that had been with me, could not all make up three troops, and but two captains, three lieutenants, and one cornet; the rest were dispersed, killed, or taken prisoners. However, with those, which we still called a regiment, I joined the prince, and after having done all we could on that side, the Scots being returned from York, the prince returned through Lancashire to Chester. The enemy often appeared and alarmed us, and once fell on one of our parties, and killed us about a hundred men ; but we were too many for them to pretend to fight us, so we came to Bolton, beat the troops of the enemy near Warrington, where I got a cut with a halberd in my face, and arrived at Chester the begining of August. The parliament, upon their great success in the north, thinking the king’s forces quite broken, had sent their general, Essex, into the west, where the king’s army was commanded 190 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. by Prince Maurice, Prince Rupert’s elder brother, but not very strong; and the king being, as they supposed, by the absence of Prince Rupert, weakened so much as that he might be checked by Sir William Waller, who, with four thousand five hundred foot, and fifteen hundred horse, was at that time about Winchester, having lately beaten Sir Ralph Hopton. Upon all these considerations, the Earl of Essex marches westward. The forces in the west being too weak to oppose him, everything gave way to him, and all people expected he would besiege Exeter, where the queen was newly lying-in, and sent a trumpet to desire he would forbear the city, while she could be removed; which he did, and passed on westward, took Tiverton, Biddeford, Barnstaple, Launceston, relieved Ply¬ mouth, drove Sir Richard Grenvil up into Cornwall, and followed him thither, but left Prince Maurice behind him with four thousand men about Barnstaple and Exeter. The king, in the mean time, marches from Oxford into Worcester, with Waller at his heels; at Edgehill his majesty turns upon Waller, and gave him a brush, to put him in mind of the place; the king goes on to Worcester, sends three hundred horse to relieve Durley Castle, besieged by the Earl of Denby, and sending part of his forces to Bristol, returns to Oxford. His majesty had now firmly resolved to march into the west, not having yet any account of our misfortunes in the north. Waller aiid Middleton waylay the king at Cropedy bridge. The king assaults Middleton at the bridge; Waller’s men were posted with some cannon to guard a pass ; Middle¬ ton’s men put a regiment of the king’s foot to the rout, and pursued them. Waller’s men, willing to come in for the plunder, a thing their general had often used them to, quit their post at the pass, and their great guns, to have part in the victory. The king coming in seasonably to the relief of his men, routs Middleton, and at the same time sends a party round, who clapt in between Sir William Waller’s men and their great guns, and secured the pass and the cannon too. The king took three colonels, besides other officers, and about three hundred men prisoners, with eight great guns, nineteen carriages of ammunition, and killed about two hun¬ dred men. Waller lost his reputation in this fight, and was exceedingly slighted ever after, even by his own party; but especially PARLIAMENT ARMY APPLY FOR HELP. 191 t>y such as were of General Essex’s party, between whom and Waller there had been jealousies and misunderstandings for some time. The king, about eight thousand strong, marched on to Bristo 1 where Sir William Hopton joined him, and from thence he follows Essex into Cornwall; Essex still following Grenvil, the king comes to Exeter, and joining with Prince Maurice, resolves to pursue Essex; and now the Earl of Essex began to see his mistake, being cooped up between two seas, the king’s army in his rear, the country his enemy, and Sir Richard Grenvil in his van. The king, who always took the best measures when he was left to his own counsel, wisely refuses to engage, though superior in number, and much stronger in horse. Essex often drew out to fight, but the king fortifies, takes the passes and bridges, plants cannon, and secures the country to keep off provisions, and continually strengthens their quarters, but would not fight. Now Essex sends away to the parliament for help, and they write to Waller, and Middleton, and Manchester to follow, and come up with the king in his rear; but some were too far off, and could not, as Manchester and Fairfax ; others made no haste, as having no mind to it, as Waller and Middleton, and if they had, it had been too late. At last the Earl of Essex finding nothing to be done, and unwilling to fall into the kings hands, takes shipping, and leaves his army to shift for themselves. The horse, under Sir William Balfour, the best horse officer, and, without com¬ parison, the bravest in all the parliament army, advanced in small parties, as if to skirmish, but falling in with the whole body, being three thousand five hundred horse, broke through, and got off. Though this was a loss to the king’s victory, yet the foot were now in a condition so much the worse. Brave old Skippon proposed to fight through with the foot and die, as he called it, like Englishmen, with sword in hand ; but the rest of the officers shook their heads at it: for, being well paid, they had at present no occasion for dying. Seeing it thus, they agreed to treat, and the king grants them conditions, upon laying down their arms, to march off free. This was too much ; had his majesty but obliged them upon oath not to serve again for a certain time, he had done his business; but this was not thought of; so they passed 192 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. free, only disarmed, the soldiers not being allowed so much as their swords. The king gained by this treaty forty pieces of cannon, all of brass, three hundred barrels of gunpowder, nine thousand arms, eight thousand swords, match and bullet in proportion, two hundred waggons, one hundred and fifty colours and standards, all the bag and baggage of the army, and about one thousand of the men listed in his army. This was a complete victory without bloodshed; and, had the king but secured the men from serving but for six months, it had most effec¬ tually answered the battle of Marston-moor. As it was, it infused new life into all his majesty’s forces and friends, and retrieved his affairs very much; but especially it encouraged us in the north, who were more sensible of the blow received at Marston-moor, and of the destruction the Scots were bringing upon us all. While I was at Chester, we had some small skirmishes with Sir William Brereton. One morning in particular Sir William drew up, and faced us, and one of our colonels of horse observing the enemy to be not, as he thought, above two hundred, desires leave of Prince Rupert to attack them with a like number „ and accordingly he sallied out with two hundred horse. I stood drawn up without the city with eight hundred more, ready to bring him off, if he should be put to the worst, which happened accordingly; for, not having discovered neither the country nor the enemy as he ought, Sir William Brereton drew him into an ambuscade; so that before he came up with Sir William’s forces, near enough to charge, he finds about three hundred horse in his rear. Though he was surprised at this, yet, being a man of a ready courage, he boldly faces about with a hundred and fifty of his men, leaving the other fifty to face Sir William. With this small party, he desperately charges the three hundred horse in his rear, and putting them into disorder, breaks through them, and, had there been no greater force, he had cut them all in pieces. Flushed with this success, and loath to desert the fifty men he had left behind, he faces about again, and charges through them again, and with these two charges entirely routs them Sir William Brereton finding himself a little disappointed, advances, and falls upon the fifty men just as the colonel came up to them; they fought him with a grea* deal of bravery, but the colonel being unfor« THE KING’S ARMY MORE SUCCESSFUL. 193 tunately killed in the first charge, the men gave way, and tame flying all in confusion, with the enemy at their heels. As soon as I saw this, I advanced, according to my orders, and the enemy, as soon as I appeared, gave over the pursuit. This gentleman, as I remember, was Colonel Marrow ; we fetched olf his body, and retreated into Chester. The next morning the prince drew out of the city with about twelve hundred horse and two thousand foot, and attacked Sir William Brereton in his quarters. The fight was very sharp for the time, and near seven hundred men, on both sides, were killed ; but Sir William would not put it to a general engagement, so the prince drew off", contenting himself to have insulted him in his quarters. We now had received orders from the king to join him; but I representing to the prince the condition of my regiment, which was now a hundred men, and, that being within twenty- five miles of my father’s house, I might soon recruit it, my father having got some men together already, I desired leave to lie at Shrewsbury for a month, to make up my men. Accordingly, having obtained his leave, I marched to Wrex¬ ham, where, in two days’ time I got twenty men, and so on to Shrewsbury. I had not been here above ten days, but I received an express to come away with what recruits I had got together, Prince Rupert having positive orders to meet the king by a certain day. I had not mounted a hundred men, though I had listed above two hundred, when these orders came ; but leaving my father to complete them for me, I marched with those I had, and came to Oxford. The king, after the rout of the parliament forces in the west, was marched back, took Barnstaple, Plympton, Laun¬ ceston, Tiverton, and several other places, and left Plymouth besieged by Sir Richard Grenvil; met with Sir William Waller at Shaftesbury, and again at Andover, and boxed him at both places, and marched for Newbury. Here the king sent for Prince Rupert to meet him, who, with three thousand horse, made long marches to join him; but the parliament have joined their three armies together, Manchester from the north, Waller, and Essex, the men being clothed and armed, from the west, they attacked the king, and obliged him to fight the day before the prince came up. The king had so posted himself, as that he could not be obliged to fight but with advantage ; the parliament’s forces VOL. II. O 194 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. being superior in number, and therefore, when they attacked him, lie galled them with his cannon, and declining to come to a general battle, stood upon the defensive, expecting Prince Rupert with the horse. The parliament’s forces had some advantage over our foot, and took the Earl of Cleveland prisoner ; but the king, whose foot were not above one to two, drew his men under the cannon of Dennington Castle, and having secured his artillery and baggage, made a retreat with his foot in very good order, having not lost in all the fight above three hundred men, and the parliament as many. We lost five pieces of cannon, and took two, having repulsed the Earl of Manchester’s men on the north side of the town, with considerable loss. The king, having lodged his train of artillery and baggage in Dennington Castle, marched the next day for Oxford; there we joined him with three thousand horse and two thousand foot. Encouraged with this reinforcement, the king appears upon the hills on the north-west of Newbury, and faces the parliament army. The parliament having too many generals as well as soldiers, they could not agree whether they should fight or no. This was no great token of the victory they boasted of; for they were now twice our number in the whole; and their foot three for one. The king stood in battalia all day, and finding the parliament forces had no stomach to engage him, he drew away his cannon and baggage out of Dennington Castle in view of their whole army, and marched away to Oxford. This was such a false step of the parliament’s generals, that all the people cried shame of them: the parliament appointed a committee to inquire into it. Crom well accused Manchester, and he Waller, and so they laid the fault upon one another. Waller would have been glad to have charged it upon Essex ; but as it happened he was not in the army, having been taken ill some days before ; but, as it generally is, when a mistake is made the actors fall out among them¬ selves, so it was here. No doubt it was as false a step as that of Cornwall, to let the king fetch away his baggage and cannon in the face of three armies, and never fire a shot at them. The king had not above eight thousand foot in his army, and they above twenty-five thousand. It is true, the king had eight thousand horse, a fine body, and much superior to BAD CONDUCT OF THE PARLIAMENT SOLDIERS. 195 theirs ; but the foot might, with the greatest ease in the world have prevented the removing the cannon, and in three days’ time have taken the castle, with all that was in it. Those differences produced their self-denying ordinance, and the putting by most of their old generals, as Essex, Waller, Manchester, and the like ; and Sir Thomas Fairfax, a terrible man in the field, though the mildest man out of it, was voted to have the command of all their forces, and Lambert to take the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax’s troops in the north, old Skippon being major-general. This winter was spent, on the enemy’s side, in modelling, as they called it, their army; and on our side, in recruiting ours, and some petty excursions. Amongst the many ad¬ dresses, I observed one from Sussex or Surrey, complaining of the rudeness of their soldiers, and particularly of the ravishing of women, and the murdering of men ; from which I only observed, that there were disorders among them, as well as among us, only with this difference, that they, for reasons I mentioned before, were under circumstances to prevent it better than the king. But I must do the king’s memory that justice, that he used all possible methods, by punishment of soldiers, charging, and sometimes entreating the gentlemen not to suffer such disorders and such violences in their men; but it was to ho purpose for his majesty to attempt it, while his officers, generals, and great men winked at it; for the licentiousness of the soldier is supposed to be approved by the officer, when it is not corrected. The rudeness of the parliament soldiers began from the divisions among their officers; for, in many places, the soldiers grew so out of all discipline, and so unsufferably rude, that they, in particular, refused to march when Sir William Waller went to Weymouth. This had turned to good account for us, had these cursed Scots been out of our way, but they were the staff* of the party ; and now they were daily solicited to march southward, which was a very great affliction to the king and all his friends. One booty the king got at this time, which was a very seasonable assistance to his affairs, viz., a great merchant ship richly laden at London, and bound to the East Indies, was, by the seamen, brought into Bristol, and delivered up to the king. Some merchants in Bristol offered the king o 2 196 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 40,000^. for her, which his majesty ordered should be ac¬ cepted, reserving only thirty great guns for his own use. The treaty at Uxbridge now was begun, and we that had been well beaten in the war, heartily wished the king would come to a peace; but we all foresaw the clergy would ruin it all. The commons were for presbytery, and would never agree the bishops should be restored; the king was willinger to comply with anything than this, and we foresaw it would be so ; from whence we used to say among ourselves, That the clergy was resolved, if there should be no bishop, there should be no king. This treaty at Uxbridge was a perfect war between the men of the gown ; ours was between those of the sword ; and I cannot but take notice how the lawyers, statesmen, and the clergy of every side bestirred themselves, rather to hinder than promote the peace. There had been a treaty at Oxford some time before, where the parliament insisting that the king should pass a bill to abolish episcopacy, quit the militia, abandon several of his faithful servants to be exempted from pardon, and making several other most extravagant demands, nothing was done, but the treaty broke off, both parties being rather farther exasperated, than inclined to hearken to conditions. However, soon after the success in the west, his majesty, to let them see that victory had not puffed him up so as to make him reject the peace, sends a message to the parliament to put them in mind of messages of like nature which they had slighted; and to let them know, that, notwithstanding he had beaten their forces, he was yet willing to hearken to a reasonable proposal for putting an end to the war. The parliament pretended the king, in his message, did not treat with them as a legal parliament, and so made hesitations; but, after long debates and delays, they agreed to draw up propositions for peace to be sent to the king. As this message was sent to the houses about August, I think they made it the middle of November before they brought the propositions for peace; and when they brought them, they had no power to enter either upon a treaty, or so much as preliminaries for a treaty, only to deliver the letter, and receive an answer. However, such were the circumstances of affairs at this THE PARLIAMENT SUE FOR PEACE. 197 time, that the king was uneasy to see himself thus treated, and take no notice of it. The king returned an answer to the propositions, and proposed a treaty by commissioners, which the parliament appointed. Three months more were spent in naming commissioners. There was much time spent in this treaty, but little done ; the commissioners debated chiefly the article of religion, and of the militia ; in the latter they were very likely to agree; in the former both sides seemed too positive. The king would by no means abandon episcopacy, nor the parliament presby¬ tery; for both, in their opinion, were jure divino. The commissioners finding this point hardest to adjust, went from it to that of the militia; but the time spinning out, the king’s commissioners demanded longer time for the treaty; the other sent up for instructions, but the house refused to lengthen out the time. This was thought an insolence upon the king, and gave all good people a detestation of such haughty behaviour ; and thus the hopes of peace vanished ; both sides prepared for war with as much eagerness as before. The parliament was employed at this time in what they called modelling their army; that is to say, that now the independent party beginning to prevail, and, as they outdid all the others in their resolution of carrying on the war to all extremities, so they were both the more vigorous and more politic party in carrying it on. Indeed the war was after this carried on with greater ani¬ mosity than ever, and the generals pushed forward with a vigour, that, as it had something in it unusual, so it told us plainly from this time, whatever they did before, they now pushed at the ruin even of the monarchy itself. All this while also the war went on; and though the par¬ liament had no settled army, yet their regiments and troops were always in action, and the sword was at work in every part of the kingdom. Among an infinite number of party skirmishings and fights this winter, one happened which nearly concerned me, which was the surprise of the town and castle of Shrewsbury. Colonel Mitton, with about twelve hundred horse and foot, having intelligence with some people in the town, on a Sunday morning early broke into the town, and took it, castle and all. The loss for the quality, more than the number, was 198 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. very great to the king’s affairs., They took there fifteen pieces of cannon, Prince Maurice’s magazine of arms and ammuni¬ tion, Prince Rupert’s baggage, above fifty persons ot quality and officers: there was not above eight or ten men killed on both sides ; for the town was surprised, not stormed. I had a particular loss in this action; for all the men and horses my father had got together for the recruiting my regiment were here lost and dispersed; and, which was the worst, my father happening to be then in the town, was taken prisoner, and carried to Beeston Castle, in Cheshire. I was quartered all this winter at Banbury, and went little abroad; nor had we any action till the latter end of February, when 1 was ordered to march to Leicester, with Sir Marma- duke Langdale, in order, as we thought, to raise a body of men in that county and Staffordshire, to join the king. We lay at Daventry one night, and continuing our march to pass the river above Northampton, that town being possessed by the enemy, we understood a party of North¬ ampton forces were abroad, and intended to attack us. Ac¬ cordingly, in the afternoon, our scouts brought us word, the enemy were quartered in some villages on the road to Coventry ; our commander thinking it much better to set upon them in their quarters, than to wait for them in the field, resolves to attack them early in the morning, before they were aware of it. We refreshed ourselves in the field for that day, and getting into a great wood near the enemy, we stayed there all night, till almost break of day, without being discovered. In the morning, very early, we heard the enemy’s trumpets sound to horse; this roused us to look abroad; and, sending out a scout, he brought us word a party of the enemy was at hand. We were vexed to be so disappointed, but finding their party small enough to be dealt with, Sir Marmaduke ordered me to charge them with three hundred horse and two hundred dragoons, while he, at the same time entered the town. Accordingly I lay still till they came to the very skirt of the wood where I was posted, when I saluted them with a volley from my dragoons out of the wood, and immediately showed myself with my horse on their front, ready to charge them; they appeared not to be surprised, and received our charge with great resolution ; and, being above four hundred men, they pushed me vigorously in their turn, putting my me:i GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF MY DIVISION. 199 intj some disorder. In this extremity, I sent to order my dragoons to charge them in the flank, which they did with great bravery, and the other still maintained the fight with desperate resolution. There was no want of courage in our men on both sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and at last routed them, and drove them back to the village. Here Sir Marmaduke Langdale had his hands full too; for my firing had alarmed the towns adjacent, that when he came into the town, he found them all in arms; and, contrary to his expectations, two regiments of foot with about three hundred horse more. As Sir Marmaduke had no foot, only horse and dragoons, this was a surprise to him ; but he caused his dragoons to enter the town, and charge the foot, while his horse secured the avenues of the town. The dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and Sir Marma¬ duke falling in with his horse, the fight was obstinate and very bloody, when the horse, that I had routed came flying into the street of the village, and my men at their heels. Immediately I left the pursuit, and fell in with all my force to the assistance of my friends ; and, after an obstinate re¬ sistance, we routed the whole party; we killed about seven hundred men, took three hundred and fifty, twenty-seven officers, one hundred arms, all their baggage, and two hundred horses, and continued our march to Harborough, where we halted to refresh ourselves. Between Harborough and Leicester we met with a party of eight hundred dragoons of the parliament forces. They found themselves too few to attack us, and therefore, to avoid us, they had gotten into a small wood ; but perceiving them¬ selves discovered, they came boldly out, and placed themselves at the entrance into a lane, lining both sides of the hedges with their shot. We immediately attacked them, beat them f rom their hedges, beat them into the w T ood, and out of the wood again, and forced them at last to a downright run away, on foot, among the enclosures, where we could not follow them, killed about a hundred of them, and took two hundred and fifty prisoners, with all their horses, and came that night to Leicester. When we came to Leicester, and had taken up our quarters, Sir Marmaduke Langdale sent for me to sup with him, and told me that he had a secret commission in his pocket, which his majesty had commanded him not to 200 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. open until he came to Leicester ; that now he had sent for me to open it together, that we might know what it was we were to do, and to consider how to do it; so pulling out his sealed orders, we found we were to get what force we could together, and a certain number of carriages with ammunition, which the governor of Leicester was to deliver us, and a certain quantity of provision, especially corn and salt, and to relieve Newark. This town had been long besieged ; the fortifications of the place, together with its situation, had rendered it the strongest place in England; and, as it was the greatest pass in England, so it was of vast consequence to the king’s affairs. There was in it a garrison of brave old rugged boys, fellows, that like Count Tilly’s Germans, had iron faces, and they had defended themselves with extraordinary bravery a great while, but were reduced to an exceeding strait for want of provisions. Accordingly we received the ammunition and provision, and away we went for Newark; about Melton-Mowbray, Colonel Roseter set upon us with above three thousand men ; we were about the same number, having two thousand five hundred horse and eight hundred dragoons. We had some foot, but they were still at Harborough, and were ordered to come after us. Roseter, like a brave officer, as he was, charged us with great fury, and rather outdid us in number, while we defended ourselves with all the eagerness we could, and withal gave him to understand we were not so soon to be beaten as he expected. While the fight continued doubtful, especially on our side, our people, who had charge of the carriages and provisions, began to enclose our flanks with them, as if Ave had been marching; which, though it was done without orders, had two very good effects, and which did us extraor¬ dinary service. First, it secured us from being charged in the flank, which Roseter had twice attempted; and secondly, it secured our carriages from being plundered, which had spoiled our whole expedition. Being thus enclosed, Ave fought with great security; and though Roseter made three desperate charges upon us, he could never break us. Our men received him with so much courage, and kept their order so Avell, that the enemy finding it impossible to force us, gave it over, and left us to pursue our orders. We did not offer DETERMINATION TO RELIEVE NEWARK. 201 to chase them, but contented enough to have repulsed and beaten them off, and our business being to relieve Newark, we proceeded. If we are to reckon by the enemy’s usual method, we got the victory, because we kept the field, and had the pillage of their dead ; but, otherwise, neither side had any great cause to boast. We lost about one hundred and fifty men, and near as many hurt; they left one hundred and seventy on the spot, and carried off some. How many they had wounded we could not tell; we got seventy or eighty horses, which helped to remount some of our men that had lost theirs in the fight. We had, however, this disadvantage, that we were to march on immediately after this service ; the enemy only to retire to their quarters, which was but hard by. This was an injury to our wounded men, whom we were after obliged to leave at Belvoir Castle, and from thence we advanced to Newark. Our business at Newark was to relieve the place, and this we resolved to do, whatever it cost, though, at the same time, we resolved not to fight, unless we were forced to it. The town was rather blocked up than besieged; the garrison was strong, but ill provided; we had sent them word of our coming, and our orders to relieve them, and they proposed some measures for our doing it. The chief strength of the enemy lay on the other side of the river; but they having also some notice of our design, had sent over forces to strengthen their leaguer on this side. The garrison had often surprised them by sallies, and indeed had chiefly subsisted for some time by what they brought in in this manner. Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who was our general for the expedition, was for a general attempt to raise the siege; but I had persuaded him off that: first, because if we should be beaten, as might be probable, we then lost the town. Sir Marmaduke briskly replied, A soldier ought never to suppose he shall be beaten. But, sir, says I, you’ll get more honour by relieving the town, than by beating them: one will be a credit to your conduct, as the other will be to your courage; and, if you think you can beat them, you may do it after¬ wards, and then, if you are mistaken, the town is nevertheless secured, and half your victory gained. He Avas prevailed with to adhere to this advice, and accordingly we appeared before the town about tAvo hours 202 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. before night. The horse drew up before the enemy’s works; the enemy di rw up within their works, and seeing no foot, expected when our dragoons would dismount and attack them. They were in the right to let us attack them, because of the advantage of their batteries and works, if that had been our design ; but, as we intended only to amuse them, this caution of theirs effected our design; for, while we thus meed them with our horse, two regiments of foot, which came up to us but the night before, and was all the infantry we had, with the waggons of provisions, and five hundred dragoons, taking a compass clean round the town, posted themselves on the lower side of the town by the river. Upon a signal the garrison agreed on before, they sallied out at this very juncture, with all the men they could spare, and dividing themselves in two parties, while one party moved to the left to meet our relief, the other party tell on upon part of that body which faced us. We kept in motion, and upon this signal advanced to their woi'ks, and our dragoons fired upon them; and the horse wheeling and countermarching often, kept them continually expecting to be attacked. By this means the enemy were kept employed, and our foot, with the waggons, appearing on that quarter where they were least ex¬ pected, easily defeated the advanced guards, and forced that post, where entering the leaguer, the other part of the garrison, who had sallied that way, came up to them, received the waggons, and the dragoons entered with them into the town. That party, which we faced on the other side of the works, knew nothing of what was done till all was over; the garrison retreated in good order, and we drew off, having finished what we came for 'without fighting. Thus we plentifully stored the town with all things wanting, and with an addition of five hundred dragoons to their garrison; after which we marched away without fighting a stroke. Our next orders were to relieve Pontefract Castle, another garrison of the king’s, which had been besieged ever since a few days after the fight at Marston-moor, by the Lord Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and other generals in their turn. By the way, we were joined with eight hundred horse out of Derbyshire, and some foot, so many as made us about four thousand five hundred men in all. COLONEL FORBES COMMANDS THE SIEGE. 203 CHAPTER XV. ACTION WITH COLONEL FORBES, A SCOTCHMAN-1 VISIT MY FATHER, WHO IS PRISONER OF WAR AT SHREWSBURY, AND OBTAIN HIS EXCHANGE-SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX AP¬ POINTED GENERAL OF THE PARLIAMENT ARMY-THE KING’S OBSERVATION THEREUPON-LEICESTER TAKEN BY STORM-BATTLE OF NASEBY-FATAL CONSEQUENCES THEREOF-THE KING RETIRES TO WALES. Colonel Forbes, a Scotchman, commanded at the siege, in the absence of the Lord Fairfax; the colonel had sent to my lord for more troops, and his lordship was gathering his forces to come up to him ; but he was pleased to come too late. We came up with the enemy’s leaguer about the break of day, and having been discovered by their scouts, they, with more courage than discretion, drew out to meet us. We saw no reason to avoid them, being stronger in horse than they ; and though we had but a few foot, we had a thousand dragoons, which helped us out. We had placed our horse and foot throughout in one line, with two reserves of horse, and between every division of horse, a division of foot, only that, on the extremes of our wings, there were two parties of horse on each point by themselves, and the dragoons in the centre on foot. Their foot charged us home, and stood with push of pike a great while ; but their horse charging our horse and musketeers, and being closed on the flanks with those two extended troops on our wings, they were presently disordered, and fled out of the field. The foot thus deserted, were charged on every side, and broken. They retreated still fighting, and in good order, for a while; but the garrison sallying upon them at the same time, and being followed close by our horse, they were scattered, entirely routed, and most of them killed. The Lord Fairfax was come with his horse as far as Ferry¬ bridge, but the fight was over; and all he could do was to rally those that fled, and save some of their carriages, which else had fallen into our hands. We drew up our little army in order of battle the next day, expecting the Lord Fairfax 204 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER would have charged us ; hut his lordship was so far from any such thoughts, that he placed a party of dragoons, with orders to fortify the pass at Ferrybridge, to prevent our falling upon him in his.retreat, which he needed not have done ; for having raised the siege of Pontefract, our business was done, we had nothing to say to him, unless we had been strong enough to stay. We lost not above thirty men in this action, and the enemy three hundred, with about a hundred and fifty prisoners, one piece of cannon, all their ammunition, a thousand arms, and most of their baggage ; and Colonel Lambert was once taken prisoner, being wounded, but got olf again. We brought no relief for the garrison, but the opportunity to furnish themselves out of the country, which they did very plentifully. The ammunition taken from the enemy was given to them, which they wanted, and was their due, for they had seized it in the sally they made, before the enemy was quite defeated. I cannot omit taking notice, on all occasions, how exceeding serviceable this method was of posting musketeers in the in¬ tervals, among the horse, in all this war. I persuaded our generals to it, as much as possible, and I never knew a body of horse beaten that did so ; yet I had great difficulty to pre¬ vail upon our people to believe it, though it was taught me by the greatest general in the world, viz., the King of Sweden. Prince Rupert did it at the battle of Marston-moor ; and had the Earl of Newcastle not been obstinate against it in his right wing, as I observed before, the day had not been lost. In discoursing this with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, I had related several examples of the serviceableness of these small bodies of firemen, and, with great difficulty, brought him to agree, telling him, I would be answerable for the success; but, after the fight, he told me plainly he saw the advantage of it, and would never fight otherwise again, if he had any foot to place. So having relieved these two places, we hast¬ ened, by long marches, through Derbyshire, to join Prince Rupert on the edge of Shropshire and Cheshire. We found Colonel Roseter had followed us at a distance, ever since the business at Melton-Mowbray, but never cared to attack us, and we found he did the like still. Our general would fain have been doing with him again, but we found him too shy. Once wc laid a trap for him at Dove-bridge, between Derby JOIN PRINCE RUPERT IN CHESHIRE. 205 and Burton-upon-Trent, the body being marched two days before ; three hundred dragoons were left to guard the bridge, as if we were afraid he should fall upon us. Upon this we marched, as I said, on to Burton, and, the next day, fetching a compass round, came to a village near Titbury Castle, whose name I forgot, where we lay still, expecting our dragoons would be attacked. Accordingly the colonel, strengthened with some troops of horse from Yorkshire, comes up to the bridge, and finding some dragoons posted, advances to charge them: the dragoons immediately get a horseback, and run for it, as they were ordered; but the old lad was not to be caught so ; for he halts immediately at the bridge, and would not come over till he had sent three or four flying parties abroad, to discover the country. One of these parties fell into our hands, and received but coarse entertainment. Finding the plot would not take, we appeared, and drew up in view of the bridge, but he would not stir; so we continued our march into Cheshire, where we joined Prince Rupert and Prince Mau¬ rice, making together a fine body, being above eight thousand horse and dragoons. This was the best and most successful expedition I was in during this war. It was well concerted, and executed with as much expedition and conduct as could be desired, and the success was answerable to it; and indeed, considering the season of the year, for we set out from Oxford the latter end of February, the ways bad, and the season wet, it was a terrible march of above two hundred miles, in continual action, and continually dodged and observed by a vigilant enemy, and at a time when the north was overrun by their armies, and the Scots wanting employment for their forces; yet, in less than twenty-three days, we marched two hundred miles, fought the enemy in open field four times, relieved one garrison besieged, and raised the siege of another, and joined our friends at last in safety. The enemy was in great pain for Sir William Brereton ancl his forces, and expresses rid night and day to the Scots in the north, and to the parties in Lancashire, to come to his help. The prince, who used to be rather too forward to fight, than otherwise, could not be persuaded to make use of this opportunity, but loitered, if I may be allowed to say So, till the Scots, with a brigade of horse and two thousand foot, had 206 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. joined him; and then it was not thought proper to engage them. I took this opportunity to go to Shrewsbury to visit my father, who was a prisoner of war there, getting a pass from the enemy’s governor. They allowed him the liberty of the town, and sometimes to go to his own house upon his parole, so that his confinement was not very much to his personal injury; but this, together with the charges he had been at in raising the regiment, and above 20,000^. in money and plate, which at several times he had lent, or given rather, to the king, had reduced our family to very ill circumstances; and now they talked of cutting down his woods. I had a great deal of discourse with my father on this affair; and finding him extremely concerned, I offered to go to the king, and desire his leave to go to London, and treat about his composition, or to render myself a prisoner in his stead, while he went up himself. In this difficulty I treated with the governor of the town, who very civilly offered me his pass to go for London, which I accepted; and waiting on Prince Rupert, who was then at Worcester, I acquainted him with my design. The prince was unwilling I should go to London, but told me he had some prisoners of the parliament’s friends in Cumberland, and he would get an exchange for my father. I told him if he would give me his word for it, I knew I might depend upon it, otherwise there was so many of the king’s party in their hands, that his majesty was tired with solicitations for exchanges ; for we never had a prisoner but there was ten offers of exchange for him. The prince told me, I should depend upon him; and he was as good as his word quickly after. While the prince lay at Worcester he made an incursion into Herefordshire, and having made some of the gentlemen prisoners, brought them to Worcester; and though it was an action which had not been usual, they being persons not in arms, yet the like being my father’s case, who was really not in commission, nor in any military service, having resigned his regiment three years before to me, the prince insisted on exchanging them for such as the parliament had in custody in like circumstances. The gentlemen seeing no remedy, soli¬ cited their own case at the parliament, and got it passed in their behalf; and by this means my father got his liberty; and, by the assistance of the Earl of Denbigh, got leave to PARLIAMENT ARMY VOTE FAIRFAX AS GENERAL. 207 come to London to make a composition, as a delinquent, for his estate. This they charged at 7000/.; hut by the assist¬ ance of the same noble person, he got off for 4000/. Some members of the committee moved very kindly, that my father should oblige me to quit the king’s service; but that, as a thing which might be out of his power, was not insisted on. The modelling of the parliament army took them up all this winter, and we were in great hopes the division which appeared amongst them might have weakened their party; but when they voted Sir Thomas Fairfax to be general, I confess I was convinced the king’s affairs were lost and des¬ perate. Sir Thomas, abating the zeal of his party, and the mistaken opinion of his cause, was the fittest man amongst them to undertake the charge : he was a complete general, strict in his discipline, wary in conduct, fearless in action, unwearied in the fatigue of the war, and, withal, of a modest, noble, generous disposition. We all apprehended danger from him, and heartily wished him of our own side; and the king was so sensible, though he would not discover it, that, when an account was brought him of the choice they had made, he replied, he was sorry for it; he had rather it had been anybody than he. The first attempts of this new general and new army were at Oxford, which, by the neighbourhood of a numerous garrison in Abingdon, began to be very much straitened for provisions; and the new forces under Cromwell and Skip- pon, one lieutenant-general, the other major-general to Fair¬ fax, approaching with a design to block it up, the king left the place, supposing his absence would draw them away, as it soon did. The king resolving to leave Oxford, marches from thence with all his forces, the garrison excepted, with design to have gone to Bristol, but the plague was in Bristol, which altered the measures, and changed the course of the king's designs, so he marched for Worcester, about the beginning of June, 1645. The foot, with a train of forty pieces of cannon, marching into Worcester, the horse stayed behind some time in Gloucestershire. The first action our army did, was to raise the siege of Chester. Sir W ill iam Brereton had besieged it, or rather blocked it up, and when his majesty came to Worcester, ha 6ent Prince Rupert with four thousand hor^e and dragoons! 208 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. with orders to join some foot out of Wales, to raise the siege ; but Sir William thought fit to withdraw, and not stay for them, and the town was freed without fighting. The governor took care in this interval to furnish himself with all things necessary for another siege ; and as for ammuni¬ tion and other necessaries, he was in no want. 1 was sent with a party into Staffordshire, with design to intercept a convoy of stores coming from London, for the use of Sir William Brereton ; but they having some notice of the design, stopt, and went out of the road to Burton-upon-Trent, and so I missed them; but that we might not come back quite empty, we attacked Hawkesly-house, and took it, where we got good booty, and brought eighty prisoners back to Worcester. From Worcester the king advanced into Shropshire, and took his head-quarters at Bridgenorth. This was a very happy march of the king’s, and had his majesty proceeded, he had certainly cleared the north once more of his enemies, for the country was generally for him. At his advancing so far as Bridgenorth, Sir William Brereton fled up into Lancashire; the Scots’ brigades who were with him retreated into the north, while yet the king was above forty miles from them, and all things lay open for conquest. The new generals, Fairfax and Cromwell, lay about Oxford, pre¬ paring as if they would besiege it, and gave the king’s army so much leisure, that his majesty might have been at New¬ castle before they could have been half way to him. But heaven, when the ruin of a person or party is determined, always so infatuates their counsels, as to make them instru¬ mental to it themselves. The king let slip this great opportunity, as some thought, intending to break into the associated counties of North¬ ampton, Cambridge, and Norfolk, where he had some interests forming. What the design was, we knew not, but the king turns eastward, and marches into Leicestershire, and having treated the country but very indifferently, as having deserved no better of us, laid siege to Leicester. This was but a short siege; for the king resolving not to loose time, fell on with his great guns, and having beaten down their works, our foot entered, after a vigorous resistance, and took the town by storm. There was some blood shed here, the town being carried by assault; but it was their own faults; for, after the town was taken, the soldiers and towns* THE KING’S AKMY BESIEGES LEICESTER. 209 men obstinately fought us in the market-place; insomuch that the horse was called to enter the town to clear the streets. But this was not all. I was commanded to advance with these horse, being three regiments, and to enter the town ; the foot, who were engaged in the streets, crying out, Horse, horse. Immediately I advanced to the gate, for we were drawn up about musket-shot from the works, to have supported our foot, in case of a sally. Having seized the gate, I placed a guard of horse there, with orders to let nobody pass in or out, and dividing my troops, rode up by two ways towards the market¬ place ; the garrison defending themselves in the market-place, and in the church-yard, with great obstinacy, killed us a great many men ; but as soon as our horse appeared, they demanded quarter, which our foot refused them in the first heat, as is frequent in all nations, in like cases; till at last, they threw down their arms, and yielded at discretion; and then, I can testify to the world, that fair quarter was given them. I am the more particular in this relation, having been an eyewitness of the action, because the king was reproached in all the public libels, with which those times abounded, for having put a great many to death, and hanged the committee of the parlia¬ ment, and some Scots, in cold blood, which was a notorious forgery; and as I am sure there was no such thing done, so I must acknowledge I never saw any inclination in his majesty to cruelty, or to act anything which was not practised by tile general laws of war, and by men of honour in all nations. But the matter of fact, in respect to the garrison, was as I have related; and, if they had thrown down their arms sooner, they had had mercy sooner ; but it was not for a conquering army, entered a town by storm, to offer conditions of quarter in the streets. Another circumstance was, that a great many of the inhabitants, both men and women, were killed, which is most true ; and the case was thus. The inhabitants, to show their over-forward zeal to defend the town, fought in the breach; nay, the very women, to the honour of the Leicester ladies, if they like it, officiously did their parts; and after the town was taken, and when, if they had had any brains in their zeal, they wmuld have kept their houses, and been quiet, they fired upon our men out of their windows, and from the tops of their houses, and threw tiles upon their heads; and I had several of my men wounded so, and seven or eight killed. This ex- VOL. II. p 210 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. asperated us to the last degree; and, finding one house better manned than ordinary, and many shot fired at us out of the windows, I caused my men to attack it, resolved to make them an example tor the rest; which they did, and breaking open the doors, they killed all they found there, without distinction ; and I appeal to the world if they were to blame. If the par¬ liament committee, or the Scots’ deputies, were here, they ought to have been quiet, since the town was taken ; but they began with us, and, I think, brought it upon themselves. This is the whole case, so far as came within my knowledge, for which his majesty was so much abused. We took here Colonel Gray and Captain Hacker, and about three hundred prisoners, and about three hundred more were killed. This was the last day of May, 1645. His majesty having given over Oxford for lost, continued here some days, viewed the town, ordered the fortifications to be augmented, and prepares to make it the seat of war. But the parliament, roused at this appearance of the king’s army, orders their general to raise the siege of Oxford, where the garrison had, in a sally, ruined some of their works, and killed them one hundred and fifty men, taking several prisoners, and carrying them with them into the city; and orders him to march towards Leicester to observe the king. The king had now a small, but gallant army, all brave tried soldiers, and seemed eager to engage the new-modelled army ; and his majesty, hearing that Sir Thomas Fairfax having raised the siege ol Oxford, advanced towards him, fairly saves mm the trouble ot a long march, and meets him half way. The army lay at Daventry, and Fairfax atTowcester, about eight miles off. Here the king sends away six hundred horse, with three thousand head of cattle, to relieve his people in Oxford ; the cattle he might have spared better than the men. The king having thus victualled Oxford, changes his resolu¬ tion of fighting Fairfax, to whom Cromwell was now joined with four thousand men, or was within a day’s march, and marches northward. This was unhappy counsel, because late given. Had we marched northward at first, we had done it; but thus it was. Now we marched Avith a triumphing enemy at our heels, and at Naseby their advanced parties attacked our rear. The king, upon this, alters his resolution again, and resolves to fight, and at midnight calls us up at Harborough to come to a council of war. Fate and the king’s opinion BATTLE OF NASEBY. 211 determined the council of war: and it was resolved to fifrht. o Accordingly the van, in which was Prince Rupert’s brigade of horse, of which my regiment was a part, countermarched early in the morning. By five o’clock in the morning, the whole army, in order of battle, began to descry the enemy from the rising grounds, about a mile from Naseby, and moved towards them. They were drawn up on a little ascent in a large common fallow field, in one line, extending from one side of the field to the other, the field something more than a mile over; our army in the same order, in one line, with the reserves. The king led the main battle of foot, Prince Rupert the right wing of the horse, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the left. Of the enemy Fairfax and Skippon led the body, Cromwell and Roseter the right, and Ireton the left. The numbers of both armies so equal, as not to differ five hundred men, save that the king had most horse by about one thousand, and Fairfax most foot by about five hundred. The number was in each army about eighteen thousand men. The armies coming close up, the wings engaged first. The prince with his right wing charged with his wonted fury, and drove all the parliament’s wing of horse, one division excepted, clear out of the field, Ireton, who commanded this wing, give him his due, rallied often, and fought like a lion; but our wing bore down all before them, and pursued them with a terrible execution. Ireton seeing one division of his horse left, repaired to them, and keeping his ground, fell foul of a brigade of our foot, who coming up to the head of the line, he like a madman charges them with his horse. But they with their pikes tore him to pieces; so that this division was entirely ruined. Ireton himself thrust through the thigh with a pike, wounded in the face with a halberd, was unhorsed and taken prisoner. Cromwell, who commanded the parliament’s right wing, charged Sir Marmaduke Langdale with extraordinary fury; but he, an old tried soldier, stood firm, and received the charge with equal gallantry, exchanging all their shot, carabines, and pistols, and then fell on sword in hand. Roseter and Whaley had the better on the point of the wing, and routed two divisions of horse, pushed them behind reserves, where they rallied, and charged again, but were at last defeated; p 2 212 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIEB. the rest of the horse now charged in the flank retreated fight¬ ing, and were pushed behind the reserves of foot. While this was doing, the foot engaged with equal fierce¬ ness, and for two hours there was a terrible fire. The king’s foot, backed with gallant officers, and full of rage at the rout of their horse, bore down the enemy’s brigade led by Skippon. The old man wounded, bleeding, retreats to their reserves. All the foot, except the general’s brigade, were thus driven into the reserves, where their officers rallied them, and brought them on to a fresh charge; and here the horse having driven our horse above a quarter of a mile from the foot, face about, and fall in on the rear of the foot. Had our right wing done thus, the day had been secured ; but Prince Rupert, according to his custom, following the flying enemy, never concerned himself with the safety of those behind ; and yet he returned sooner than he had done in like cases too. At our return we found all in confusion, our foot broken, all but one brigade, which, though charged in the front, flank, and rear, could not be broken, till Sir Thomas Fairfax himself came up to the charge with fresh men, and then they were rather cut in pieces than beaten; for they stood with their pikes charged every way to the last extremity. In this condition, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, we saw the king rallying his horse, and preparing to renew the fight; and our wing of horse coming up to him, gave him opportunity to draw up a large body of horse, so large, that all the enemy’s horse facing us, stood still and looked on, but did not think fit to charge us, till their foot, who had entirely broken our main battle, were put into order again, and brought up to us. The officers about the king advised his majesty rather to draw off; for, since our foot were lost, it would be too much odds to expose the horse to the fury of their whole army, and would be but sacrificing his best troops, without any hopes of success. The king, though with great regret at the loss of his foot, yet seeing there was no other hope, took his advice, and retreated in good order to Harborough, and from thence to Leicester. This was the occasion of the enemy having so great a FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE BATTLE. 213 number of prisoners; for the horse being thus gone off, the foot had no means to make their retreat, and were obliged to yield themselves. Commissary-general Ireton being taken by a captain of foot, makes the captain his prisoner, to save his life, and gives him his liberty for his courtesy before. Cromwell and Roseter, with all the enemy’s horse, followed us as far as Leicester, and killed all that they could lay hold on straggling from the body, but durst not attempt to charge us in a body. The king expecting the enemy would come to Leicester, removes to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where we had some time to recollect ourselves. This was the most fatal action of the whole war; not so much for the loss of our cannon, ammunition, and baggage, of which the enemy boasted so much, but as it was impossible for the king ever to retrieve it. The foot, the best that he was ever master of, could never be supplied; his army in the west was exposed to certain ruin ; the north overrun with the Scots; in short, the case grew desperate, and the king was once upon the point of bidding us all disband, and shift for ourselves. We lost in this fight not above two thousand slain, and the parliament near as many, but the prisoners were a great number; the whole body of foot being, as I have said, dispersed, there were four thousand five hundred prisoners besides four hundred officers, two thousand horses, twelve pieces of cannon, forty barrels of powder, all the king’s baggage, coaches, most of his servants, and his secretary, with his cabinet of letters, of which the parliament made great improvement, and, basely enough, caused his private letters between his majesty and the queen, her majesty’s letters to the king, and a great deal of such stuff, to be printed. After this fatal blow, being retreated, as I have said, to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, the king ordered us to divide; his majesty, with a body of horse, about three thousand, went to Lichfield, and through Cheshire into North Wales, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale, with about two thou¬ sand five hundred, went to Newark. The king remained in Wales for several months; and though the length of the war had almost drained that country of men, yet the king raised a great many men there, recruited 214 MEMOIRS OE A CAVALIER. bis horse regiments, and got together six or seven regiments of foot, which seemed to look like the beginning of a new army. I had frequent discourses with his majesty in this low ebb of his affairs and he would often wish he had not exposed his army at Naseby. I took the freedom once to make a proposition to his majesty, which, if it had taken effect, I verily believe would have given a new turn to his affairs; and that was, at once to slight all his garrisons in the kingdom, and give private orders to all the soldiers, in every place, to join in bodies, and meet at two general rendezvous, which I would have appointed to be, one at Bristol, and one at "W est-Chester. I demonstrated how easily all the forces might reach these two places; and both being strong and wealthy places, and both sea-ports, he would have a free communication by sea, with Ireland, and with his friends abroad; and having Wales entirely his own, he might yet have an opportunity to make good terms for himself, or else have another fair field with the enemy. Upon a fair calculation of his troops in several garrisons and small bodies dispersed about, I convinced the king, by his own accounts, that he might have two complete armies, each of twenty-five thousand foot, eight thousand horse, and two thousand dragoons; that the Lord Goring and the Lord Hopton might ship all their forces, and come by sea in two tides, and be with him in a shorter time than the enemy could follow. With two such bodies he might face the enemy, and make a day of it; but now his men were only sacrificed, and eaten up by piecemeal in a party war, and spent their lives and estates to do him no service. That if the parliament garrisoned the towns and castles he should quit, they would lessen their army, and not dare to see him in the field ; and if they did not, but left them open, then it would be no loss to him, but he might possess them as often as he pleased. This advice I pressed with such arguments, that the king was once going to despatch orders for the doing it; but to be irresolute in council, is always the companion of a declining fortune ; the king was doubtful, and could not resolve till it was too late. And yet, though the king’s foices were very low, his majesty was resolved to make one adventure more, and it THE KING RETIRES TO WALES. 215 was a strange one; for, with hut a handful of men, he made a desperate march, almost two hundred and fifty miles, in the middle of the whole kingdom, compassed about with armies and parties innumerable, traversed the heart of his enemy’s country, entered their associated counties, where no army had ever yet come, and, in spite of all their victorious troops facing and following him, alarmed even London itself, and returned safe to Oxford. His majesty continued in Wales from the battle at Nasebv till the 5th or 6th of August, and till he had an account from all parts of the progress of his enemies, and the posture of his own affairs. Here we found, that the enemy, being hard pressed in Somersetshire by the Lord Goring, and Lord Hopton’s forces, who had taken Bridgewater, and distressed Taunton, which was now at the point of surrender, they had ordered Fairfax and Cromwell, and the whole army to march west¬ ward, to relieve the town ; which they did, and Goring’s troops were worsted, and himself wounded at the fight at Langport. The Scots, who were always the dead weight upon the king’s affairs, having no more work to do in the north, were, at the parliament’s desire, advanced southward, and then ordered away towards South Wales, and were set down to the siege of Hereford. Here this famous Scotch army spent several months in a fruitless siege, ill provided of ammunition, and worse with money; and having sat near three months before the town, and done little but eat up the country round them; upon the repeated accounts of the progress of the Marquis of Montrose in that kingdom, and pressing instances of their countrymen, they resolved to raise their siege, and go home to relieve their friends. The king, who was willing to be rid of the Scots upon good terms; and therefore to hasten them, and lest they should pretend to push on the siege to take the town first, gives it out, that he was resolved with all his forces to go into Scotland and join Montrose; and so having secured Scotland, to renew the war from thence. And accordingly his majesty marches northwards, with a body of four thousand horse; and, had the king really done this, and with that body of horse marched away (for he had the start of all his enemies, by above a fortnight’s march). 216 MEMOIRS OP A CAVALIER. 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 chan¬ cellor 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. Lssly, with the Scots, and a strong body followed in our rear, Major-general Pointz, Sir John Gell, Colonel Iloseter, 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 THE KING’S ARMY ATTACK NEWARK. 217 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, War¬ wick, 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-1 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 218 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. Newark; on our approach, the forces which blocked up that town, drew oft, 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 50,000/. 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 them¬ selves 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 fixed upon the SIEGE OF HUNTINGDON. 219 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 foi’ty of their horse; and boldly charging the guard, they beat them off; and recover¬ ing those horses, the rest made their retreat good to TVansford 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 loot 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 ol drains and ditches, and unfit for horse, and we must have either turned back, or took the right hand into Bed¬ fordshire ; but here not being above four hundred loot, 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 re¬ sistance, 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 dra¬ goons 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 220 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. 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 them¬ selves 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 re¬ serve 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 Bedford¬ shire, 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, THE SCOTS, ILL PAID AND FED, MARCH NORTHWARD. 221 and we met with no party able to make head against us. From Woburn, the king went through Buckingham to Oxford; some of our men straggling in the villages for plunder, were often picked up by the enemy; but in all this long march, we did not lose two hundred men, got an in¬ credible booty, and brought six waggons loaden with money, besides two thousand horses, and three thousand head of cattle into Oxford. From Oxford his majesty moves again into Gloucester¬ shire, having left about fifteen hundred of his horse at Oxford, to scour the country, and raise contributions, which they did as far as Reading. Sir Thomas Fairfax was returned from taking Bridgewater, and was sat down before Bristol, in which Prince Rupert commanded, with a strong garrison, two thousand five hundred foot, and one thousand horse. We had not force enough to attempt anything there ; but the Scots, wbo lay still before Hereford, were afraid of us, having before parted with all their horse under Lieutenant-general Lesly, and but ill stored with provisions; and, if we came on their backs, were in a fair way to be starved, or made to buy their pro¬ visions at the price of their blood. His majesty was sensible of this, and had we had but ten regiments of foot, would certainly have fought the Scots ; but we had no foot, or so few as not worth while to march them. However, the king marched to Worcester, and the Scots apprehending they should be blocked up, immediately raised the siege, pretending it was to go to help their brethren in Scotland, and away they marched northwards. We picked up some of their stragglers, but they were so poor, had been so ill paid, and so harassed at the siege, that they had neither money nor clothes; and the poor soldiers fed upon apples and roots, and eat the very green corn as it grew in the fields, which reduced them to a very sorry con¬ dition of health, for they died like people infected with the plague. It was now debated whether we should yet march for Scotland, but two things prevented. 1. The plague was broke out there, and multitudes died of it, which made the king backward, and the men more backward. 2. The Mar¬ quis of Montrose having routed a whole brigade of Lesly’s best horse, and carried all before him, wrote to his majesty, 222 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. that he did not now want assistance, but was in hopes in a few days to send a body of foot into England, to his majesty’s assistance. This over confidence of his was his ruin ; for, on the contrary, had he earnestly pressed the king to have marched, and fallen in with his horse, the king had done it, and been absolutely master of Scotland in a fortnight’s time; but Montrose was too confident, and defied them all, till at last they got their forces together, and Lesly, with his horse out of England, and worsted him in two or three encounters, and then never left him till they drove him out of Scotland. While his majesty stayed at Worcester several messengers came to him from Cheshire for relief, being exceedingly straitened by the forces of the parliament: in order to which, the king marched; but Shrewsbury being in the enemy’s hands, he was obliged to go round by Ludlow, where he was joined by some foot out of Wales. I took this opportunity to ask his majesty’s leave to go by Shrewsbury to my father’s, and taking only two servants, I left the army two days before they marched. This was the most unsoldier-like action that ever I was guilty of, to go out of the army to pay a visit, when a time of action was just at hand; and, though I protest I had not the least intimation, no, not from my own thoughts, that the army would engage, at least before they came to Chester, before which I intended to meet them; yet it looked so ill, so like an excuse, or a sham of cowardice, or disaffection to the cause, and to my master’s interest, or something I know not what, that I could not bear to think of it, nor never had tli6 heart to see the king’s face after it. From Ludlow the king marched to relieve Chester: Poyntz, who commanded the parliament’s forces, follows the king, with design to join with the forces before Chester, under Colonel Jones, before the king could come up. To that end, Poyntz passes through Shrewsbury the day that the king marched from Ludlow ; yet the king’s forces got the start of him, and forced him to engage. Had the king engaged him but three hours sooner, and consequently farther off from Chester, he had ruined him ; for Poyntz’s men, not able to stand the shock of the king’s hoi'se, gave ground, and would in half an hour more have been beaten out of the field; but Colonel Jones, with a strong party from the camp, which was within two miles, comes up in the heat of the action, falls on DISASTROUS TERMINATION OF THE WA£ 223 ii the king’s rear, and turned the scale of the day. The body was, after an obstinate fight defeated, and a great many gentlemen of quality killed and taken prisoners; the Earl of Lichfield was of the number of the former, and sixty-seven officers of the latter, with a thousand others. The king, with about five hundred horse got into Chester, and from thence into Wales, whither all that could get away made up to him as fast as they could, but in a bad condition. This was the last stroke they struck, the rest of the war was nothing but taking all his garrisons from him, one by one, till they finished the war with the captivating his person, and then, for want of other business, fell to fighting with one another. I was quite disconsolate at the news of this last action, and the more, because I was not there; my regiment was wholly dispersed, my lieutenant colonel, a gentleman of a good family, and a near relation to my mother, was pri¬ soner, my major and three captains killed, and most of the rest prisoners. The king, hopeless of any considerable party in Wales, Bristol being surrendered, sends for Prince Rupert, and Prince Maurice, who came to him. With them, and the Lord Digby, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and a great train of gentlemen, his majesty marches to Newark again, leaves a thousand horse with Sir William Vaughan, to attempt the relief of Chester, in doing whereof he was routed the second time by Jones and his men, and entirely dispersed. The chief strength the king had in these parts was Newark, and the parliament were very earnest with the Scots to march southward, and to lay siege to Newark; and while the parliament pressed them to it, and they sat still, and delayed it, several heats began, and some ill blood between them, which afterwards broke out into open war. The English reproached the Scots with pretending to help them, and really hindering their affairs. The Scots returned, that they came to fight for them, and are left to be starved, and can neither get money nor clothes. At last they came to this, the Scots will come to the siege, if the parliament will send them money, but not before. However, as people sooner agree in doing ill, than in doing well, they came to terms, and the Scots came with their whole army to the siege of Newark. 224 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. The king, foreseeing the siege, calls his friends about him, tells them, he sees his circumstances are such, that they can help him but little, nor he protect them, and advises them to separate. The Lord Digby, with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, with a strong body of horse, attempt to get into Scotland to join with Montrose, who was still in the highlands, though reduced to a low ebb ; but these gentlemen are fallen upon on every side and routed, and at last being totally broken and dispersed, they fly to the Earl of Derby’s protection in the Isle of Man. Prince Rupert, Prince Maurice, Colonel Gerard, and above* four hundred gentlemen, all officers of horse, lay their com¬ missions down, and seizing upon Wooton-house for a retreat, make proposals to the parliament to leave the kingdom, upon their parole, not to return again in arms against the parlia¬ ment, which was accepted, though afterwards the princes declined it. I sent my man post to the prince to be included in this treaty, and for leave for all that would accept of like conditions, but they had given in tlm list of their names, and could not alter it. This was a sad time ; the poor remains of the king’s for¬ tunes went everywhere to wreck; every garrison of the enemy was full of the cavalier prisoners, and every garrison the king had was beset with enemies, either blocked up or besieged. Goring and the Lord Hopton were the only remainder of the king’s forces which kept in a body, and Fairfax was pushing them with all imaginable vigour with his whole army, about Exeter, and other parts of Devonshire and Cornwall. In this condition the king left Newark in the night, and got to Oxford. The king had in Oxford eight thousand men; and in the towns of Banbury, Farrington, Dunnington-castle, and such places, as might have been brought together in twenty-four hours, fifteen or twenty thousand men, with which, if he had then resolved to have quitted the place, and collected the forces in Worcester, Hereford, Lichfield, Ashby- de-la-Zouch, and all the small castles and garrisons he had thereabouts, he might have had near forty thousand men, might have beaten the Scots from Newark, Colonel Jones from Chester, and all before Fairfax, who was in the west, could be able to come to their relief, and this his majesty’s friends in North Wales had concerted; and, in order to it, Sir THE KING’S PARTY ARE DISPERSED. 225 Jacob Ashby gathered what forces he could, in our parts, and attempted to join the king at Oxford, and to have pro¬ posed it to him ; but Sir Jacob was entirely routed at Stow,- on-the-Wold, and taken prisoner, and of three thousand men not above six hundred came to Oxford. All the king’s garrisons dropt one by one; Hereford wdiicli had stood out against the whole army of the Scots, was surprised by six men and a lieutenant, dressed up for country labourers, and a constable pressed to work, who cut the guards in pieces, and let in a party of the enemy. Chester was reduced by famine, all the attempts the king made to relieve it, being frustrated. Sir Thomas Fairfax routed the Lord Hopton at Torrington, and drove him to such extremities, that he was forced up into the farthest corner of Cornwall. The Lord Hopton had a gallant body of horse with him of nine brigades, but no foot; Fairfax, a great army. Heartless, and tired out with continual ill news and ill success, I had frequent meetings with some gentlemen, who had escaped from the rout of Sir William Vaughan, and we agreed upon a meeting at Worcester of all the friends we could get, to see if we could raise a body fit to do any service ; or, if not, to consider what was to be done. At this meeting we had almost as many opinions as people; our strength appeared too weak to make any attempt, the game was too far gone in our parts to be retrieved; all we could make up did not amount to above eight hundred horse. It was unanimously agreed not to go in to the parliament as long as our royal master did not give up the cause ; but in all places, and by all possible methods, to do him all the service we could. Some proposed one thing, some another: at last we proposed getting vessels to carry us to the Isle of Man, to the Earl of Derby, as Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Lord Digby, and others had done. I did not foresee any service it would be to the king’s affairs, but I started a proposal, that, marching to Pembroke in a body, we should there seize upon all the vessels we could, and embarking ourselves, horses, and what foot we could get, cross the Severn sea, and land in Cornwall to the assistance of Prince Chai’les, who was in the army of the Lord Hopton, and where only there seemed to be any possibility of a chance for the remaining part of our cause. VOL. II. Q 226 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. This proposal was not without its difficulties, as how to get to the sea-side, and, when there, what assurance of shipping. The enemy, under Major-general Langhorn, had overrun Wales, and it would he next to impossible to effect it. We could never carry our proposal with the whole assem¬ bly ; but, however, about two hundred of us resolved to at¬ tempt it, and the meeting being broke up without coming to any conclusion, we had a private meeting among ourselves to effect it. We despatched private messengers to Swansea and Pem¬ broke, and other places; but they all discouraged us from the attempt that way, and advised us to go higher towards North Wales, where the king’s interest had more friends, and the parliament no forces. Upon this we met, and resolved, and having sent several messengers that way, one of my men provided us two small vessels in a little creek near Harleigh Castle, in Merionethshire. We marched away with what expedition we could, and embarked in the two vessels accordingly. It was the worst voyage sure that ever man went; for, first, we had no manner of accomodation for so many people; hay for our horses we got none, or very little, but good store of oats, which served us for our own bread as well as provender for the horses. In this condition we put off to sea, and had a fair wind all the first night, but early in the morning a sudden storm drove us within two or three leagues of Ireland. In this pickle, sea-sick, our horses rolling about upon one another, and ourselves stifled for want of room, no cabins nor beds, very cold weather, and very indifferent diet, we wished our¬ selves ashore again a thousand times; and yet we were not willing to go on shore in Ireland, if we could help it; for the rebels having possession of every place, that was just having our throats cut at once. Having rolled about at the mercy of the winds all day, the storm ceasing in the evening, we had fair weather again, but wind enough, which being large, in two days and a night we came upon the coast of Cornwall, and, to our no small comfort, landed the next day at St. Ives, in the county of Cornwall. We rested ourselves here, and sent an express to the Lord Hopton, who was then in Devonshire, of our arrival, and desired him to assign us quarters, and send us his farther ENTIRE DEFEAT OF LORD HOPTON AND HIS HORSE. 227 orders. His lordship expressed a very great satisfaction at our arrival, and left it to our own conduct to join him as we saw convenient. We were marching to join him, when news came that Fairfax had given him an entire defeat at Torrington. This was hut the old story over again; we had been used to ill news a great while, and it was the less surprise to us. Upon this news we halted at Bodmin, till we should hear farther; and it was not long before we saw a confirmation of the news before our eyes; for the Lord Hopton, with the remainder of his horse, which he had brought off at Torring¬ ton in a very shattered condition, retreated to Launceston, the first town in Cornwall, and hearing that Fairfax pursued him, came on to Bodmin. Hither he summoned all the troops which he had left, which, when he had got together, were a fine body indeed of five thousand horse, but few foot but what were at Pendennis, Barnstaple, and other garrisons; these were commanded by the Lord Hopton; the Lord Go¬ ring had taken shipping for France, to get relief, a few days before. Here a grand council of war was called, and several things were proposed; but, as it always is in distress, people are most irresolute, so it was here. Some were for breaking through by force, our number being superior to the enemy’s horse. To fight them with their foot would be desperation, and ridiculous; and to retreat would but be to coop up themselves in a narrow place, where, at last, they must be forced to fight upon disadvantage, or yield at mercy. Others opposed this as a desperate action, and without probability of success; and all were of different opinions. I confess, when I saw how things were, I saw it was a lost game, and I was for the opinion of breaking through and doing it now, while the country was open and large, and not being forced to it when it must be with more disadvantage; but nothing was resolved on, and so we retreated before the enemy. Some small skirmishes there happened near Bodmin, but none that were very considerable. It was the first of March when we quitted Bodmin, and quartered at large at Columb, St. Denis, and Truro, and the enemy took his quarters at Bodmin, posting his horse at the passes from Padstow on the north, to Warbridge, Lestithel, and Foy, spreading so from sea to sea, that now breaking Q 2 228 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. through was impossible. There was no more room for counsel; ior, unless we had ships to carry us off, we had nothing to do but when we were fallen upon, to defend ourselves, and sell victory as dear as we could to the enemies. The Prince of Wales, seeing the distress we were in, and loath to tall into the enemy’s hands, ships himself on board some vessel at Falmouth, with about four hundred lords and gentlemen ; and, as I had no command here to oblige my attendance, I was once going to make one ; but my comrades, whom I had been the principal occasion of bringing hither, began to take it ill, that I would leave them, and so I resolved we would take our fate together. While thus we had nothing before us but a soldier’s death, a fair field and a strong enemy, and people began to look one upon another; the soldiers asked how their officers looked, and the officers asked how their soldiers looked, and every day we expected to be our last, when, unexpectedly, the enemy’s general sent a trumpet to Truro to my LordHopton, with a very handsome gentlemanlike offer. That, since the general could not be ignorant of his present condition, and that the place he was in could not afford him subsistence or defence, and especially considering, that the state of our affairs was such, that, if we should escape from thence, we could not remove to our advantage, he had thought good to let us know, that, if we would deliver up our horses and arms, he would, for avoiding the effusion of Christian blood, or the putting any unsoldierly extremities upon us, allow such honourable and safe conditions, as were rather better than our present circumstances could demand, and such as should discharge him to all the world, as a gentleman, as a soldier, and as a Christian. After this followed the conditions he would give us, which were as follow: viz., That all the soldiery, as well English as foreigners, should have liberty to go beyond the seas, or to their own dwellings, as they pleased; and to such as shall choose to live at home, protection for their liberty, and from all violence, and plundering of soldiers, and to give them bag and baggage, and all their goods, except horses and arms. That for officers in commissions, and gentlemen of quality, he would allow them horses for themselves and one servant, or more, suitable to their quality, and such arms as are HONOURABLE CONDITIONS OF SURRENDER OFFERED. 22b suitable to gentlemen of such quality travelling in times ol peace ; and such officers as would go beyond sea, should take with them their full arms and number of horses as are allowed in the army to such officers. That all the troopers shall receive, on the delivery of their horses, twenty shillings a man to carry them home ; and the general’s pass and recommendation to any gentle¬ man who desires to go to the parliament to settle the composition for their estates. Lastly, a very honourable mention of the general, and offer of their mediation to the parliament, to treat him as a man of honour, and one who has been tender of the country, and behaved himself with all the moderation and candour that could be expected from an enemy. Upon the unexpected peceipt of this message, a council of war was called, and the letter read ; no man offered to speak a word; the general moved it, but every one was loath to begin. At last, an old colonel starts up, and asked the general, what he thought might occasion the writing this letter ? The general told him, he could not tell; but he could tell he was sure of one thing, that he knew what was not the occasion of it, viz., that is, not any want of force in their army to oblige us to other terms. Then a doubt was started, whether the king and parliament were not in any treaty, which this agreement might be prejudicial to. This occasioned a letter to my Lord Fairfax, wherein our general returning the civilities, and neither accepting nor refusing his proposal, put it upon his honour, whether there was not some agreement or concession between his majesty and the parliament, in order to a general peace, which this treaty might be prejudicial to, or thereby be prejudicial to us. The Lord Fairfax ingenuously declared, he had heard the king had made some concessions, and he heartily wished he would make such as would settle the kingdom in peace, that Englishmen might not wound and destroy one another ; but that he declared he knew of no treaty commenced, nor anything past, which could give us the least shadow of hope for any advantage in not accepting his conditions. At last, telling us, that though he did not insult over our circum 230 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. stances, yet, if we thought fit, upon any such supposition, to refuse his offers, he was not to seek in his measures. And it appeared so, for he immediately advanced his forlorns, and dispossessed us of two advanced quarters, and thereby straitened us yet more. We had now nothing to say, but treat, and our general was so sensible of our condition, that he returned the trumpet with a safe conduct for commissioners at twelve o’clock that night; upon which a cessation of arms was agreed on, we quitting Truro to the Lord Fairfax, and he left St. Albans to us to keep our head quarters. The conditions were soon agreed on ; we disbanded nine full brigades of horse, and all the conditions were observed with the most honour and care by the enemy that ever I saw in my life. Nor can I omit to make very honourable mention of this noble gentleman, though I did not like his cause; but I never saw a man of a more pleasant, calm, courteous, down¬ right honest behaviour in my life ; and, for his courage and personal bravery in the field, that we had felt enough of. No man in the world had more fire and fury in him while in action, or more temper and softness out of it. In short, and I cannot do him greater honour, he came exceedingly near the character of my foreign hero Gustavus Adolphus, and in my account, is, of all the soldiers in Europe, the fittest to be reckoned in the second place of honour to him. I had particular occasion to see much of his temper in all this action, being one of the hostages given by our general for the performance of the conditions, in which circumstance the general did me several times the honour to send to me to dine with him; and was exceedingly pleased to discourse with me about the passages of the wars in Germany, which I had served in ; he having been, at the same time, in the Low Countries, in the service of Prince Maurice; but I observed, if at any time my civilities extended to commen¬ dations of his own actions, and especially to comparing him to Gustavus Adolphus, he would blush like a woman, and be uneasy, declining the discourse, and in this he was still more like him. Let no man scruple my honourable mention of this noble enemy, since no man can suspect me of favouring the cause THE KING QUITS THE TOWN IN DISGUISE. 231 he embarked in, which I served as heartily against as any man in the army; bnt I cannot conceal extraordinary merit for its being placed in an enemy. CHAPTER XVII. VARIOUS OPINIONS ON THE KING’S THROWING HIMSELF UPON THE FIDELITY OF THE SCOTS—THE SCOTCH PARLIA¬ MENT REFUSE TO RECEIVE HIM INTO SCOTLAND-THE KING IS GIVEN UP-CONSEQUENCES THEREOF-REFLEC¬ TIONS-THE KING’S DEATH-CONCLUSION. This was the end of our making war; for now we were all under parole never to bear arms against the parliament; and though some of us did not keep our word, yet I think a soldier’s parole ought to be the most sacred in such case, that a soldier may be the easier trusted at all times upon his w r ord. For my part, I went home fully contented, since I could lo my royal master no better service, that I had come off no worse. The enemy going now on in a full current of success, and the king reduced to the last extremity, and Fairfax, by long marches, being come back within five miles of Oxford, his majesty, loath to be cooped up in a town which could on no account hold long out, quits the town in a disguise, leaving Sir Thomas Gflenham governor, and being only attended with Mr. Ashburnham and one more, rides away to Newark, and there fatally committed himself to the honour and fidelity of the Scots, under general Leven. There had been some little bickering between the parlia¬ ment and the Scots’ commissioners, concerning the propositions which the Scots were for a treaty with the king upon, and the parliament refused it. The parliament, upon all proposals of peace, had formerly invited the king to come and throw him¬ self upon the honour, fidelity, and affection of his parliament; and now the king from Oxford offering to come up to London, on the protection of the parliament for the safety of his person, they refused him, and the Scots differed from them in it, and were for a personal treaty, This, in our opinion, was the reason which prompted the 232 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. king to throw himself upon the fidelity of the Scots, who really by their infidelity had been the ruin of all his affairs, and now, by their perfidious breach of honour and faith with him, will be virtually and mediately the ruin of his person. The Scots were, as all the nation besides them was, sur¬ prised at the king’s coming among them: the parliament began very high with him, and sent an order to general Leven to send the king to Warwick Castle; but he was not so hasty to part with so rich a prize. As soon as the king came to the general, he signs an order to Colonel Bellasis, the governor of Newark, to surrender it, and immediately the Scots decamp homewards, carrying the king in the camp with them; and, marching on, a house was ordered to be provided for the king at Newcastle. And now the parliament saw their error, in refusing his majesty a personal treaty, which, if they had accepted (their army was not yet taught the way of huffing their masters), the kingdom might have been settled in peace. Upon this the parliament send to General Leven to have his majesty* not to be sent, which was their first language, but be suffered to come to London, to treat with his parliament: before it was, Let the king be sent to Warwick Castle; now it is, to Let his majesty come to London to treat with his people. But neither one or the other would do with the Scots : but we, who knew the Scots best, knew that there was one thing would do with them, if the other would not, and that was money; and therefore our hearts ached for the king. The Scots, as I said, had retreated to Newcastle with the king, and there they quartered their whole army at large upon the country; the parliament voted they had no farther occasion for the Scots, and desired them to go home about their business. I do not say it was in these words, but in whatsoever good words their messages might be expressed, this and nothing less was the English of it. The Scots reply, by setting forth their losses, damages, and dues, the substance of which was, Pay us our money, and we will be gone, or else we won’t stir. The parliament call for an account of their demands, which the Scots give in, amounting to a million ; but, according to their custom, and especially finding that the army under Fairfax inclined gradually that way, fall down to 500,00(P. and at last to four; but all the while this is transacting, a separate treaty is carried on at London with THE KING REFUSED ADMISSION TO SCOTLAND. 233 the commissioners of Scotland, and afterwards at Edinburgh, by which it is given them to understand, that whereas, upon payment of the money, the Scots’ army is to march out of England, and to give up all the towns and garrisons which they hold in this kingdom, so they are to take it for granted, that it is the meaning of the treaty, that they shall leave the king in the hands of the English parliament. To make this go down the better, the Scotch parliament, upon his majesty’s desire to go with their army into Scotland, send him for answer, that it cannot be for the safety of his majesty or of the state, to come into Scotland, not having taken the covenant; and this was carried in their parliament but by two voices. The Scots having refused his coming into Scotland, as was concerted between the two houses, and their army being to march out of England, the delivering up the king became a consequence of the thing unavoidable, and of necessity. His majesty thus deserted of those into whose hands he had thrown himself, took his leave of the Scots’ general at New¬ castle, telling him only, in few words, this sad truth, that he was bought and sold. The parliament commissioners received him at Newcastle from the Scots, and brought him to Holmby-house, in Northamptonshire; from whence, upon the quarrels and feuds of parties, he was fetched by a party of horse, commanded by one Cornet Joyce, from the army, upon their mutinous rendezvous at Triplow-heath ; and, after this, suffering many violences, and varieties of circumstances among the army, was carried to Hampton-Court, from whence his majesty very readily made his escape; but not having notice enough to provide effectual means for his more effectual deliverance, was obliged to deliver himself to Colonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight. Here, after some very indifferent usage, the parliament pursued a farther treaty with him, and all points were agreed but two : The entire abolish¬ ing episcopacy, which the king declared to be against his conscience and his coronation oath, and the sale of the church lands, which he declared, being most of them gifts to God and the church, by persons deceased, his majesty thought could not be alienated without the highest sacrilege, and, if taken from the uses to which they were appointed by the wills of the donors, ought to be restored back to the beira and families of the persons who beoueathed them. 234 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. And these two articles so stuck witli his majesty, that he ventured his fortune and royal family, and his own life, for them : however, at last, the king condescended so far in these, that the parliament voted his majesty’s concessions to he suf* ficient to settle and establish the peace of the nation. This vote discovered the bottom of all the counsels which then prevailed; for the army, who knew, if peace were once settled, they should be undone, took the alarm at this, and, clubbing together in committees and councils, at last brought themselves to a degree of hardness above all that ever this nation saw ; for, calling into question the proceedings of their masters who employed them, they immediately fall to work upon the parliament, remove Colonel Hammond, who had the charge of the king, and used him honourably, place a new guard upon him, dismiss the commissioners, and put a stop to the treaty; and, following their blow, march to London, place regiments of foot at the parliament-house door, and as the members came up, seize upon all those whom they had down in a list as promoters of the settlement and treaty, and would not suffer them to sit; but the rest, who being of their own stamp, are permitted to go on, carry on the designs of the army, revive their votes of non-addresses to the king, and then, upon the army’s petition, to bring all delinquents to justice, the mask was thrown off; by the word all is declared to be meant the king, as well as every man else they pleased. It is too sad a story, and too much a matter of grief to me, and to all good men, to renew the blackness of those days, when law and justice was under the feet of power; the army ruled the parliament, the private officers their generals, the common soldiers their officers, and confusion was in every part of the government. In this hurry they sacrificed their king, and shed the blood of the English nobility without mercy. The history of the times will supply the particulars which I omit, being willing to confine myself to my own accounts and observations : I was now no more an actor, but a melan¬ choly observer of the misfortunes of the times. I had given my parole not to take up arms against the parliament, and I saw nothing to invite me to engage on their side; I saw a world of confusion in all their councils, and I always ex¬ pected that in a chain of distractions, as it generally falls out, the last link would be destruction ; and though I pretended REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS. 235 to no prophecy, yet tlie progress of affairs have brought it to pass, and I have seen Providence, who suffered, for the coi'rection of this nation, the sword to govern and devour us, lias at last brought destruction by the sword, upon the head of most of the party who first drew it. If, together with the brief account of what concern I had in the active part of the war, I leave behind me some of my own remarks and observations, it may be pertinent enough to my design, and not unuseful to posterity. 1. I observed, by the sequel of things, that it may be some excuse to the first parliament, who began this war, to say that they manifested their designs were not aimed at the monarchy, nor their quarrel at the person of the king; because, when they had him in their power, though against his will, they would have restored both his person and dignity as a king, only loading it with such clogs of the people’s power as they at first pretended to, viz., the militia, and power of naming the great officers at court, and the like; which powers, it was never denied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of this king’s reign, and several things done illegally, which his majesty had been sensible of, and was willing to rectify; but they having obtained the power by victory, resolved so to secure themselves, as that, whenever they laid down their arms, the king should not be able to do the like again; and thus far they were not to be so much blamed, and we did not, on our own part, blame them, when they had obtained the power, for parting with it on good terms. But when I have thus far advocated for the enemies, I must be very free to state the crimes of this bloody war, by the events of it. It is manifest there were among them, from the beginning, a party who aimed at the very root of the govern¬ ment, and at the very thing which they brought to pass, viz., the deposing and murdering of their sovereign; and, as the devil is always master where mischief is the work, this party prevailed, turned the other out of doors, and overturned all that little honesty that might be in the first beginning of this unhappy strife. The consequence of this was, the presbyterians saw their error when it was too late, and then would gladly have joined the royal party, to have suppressed this new leaven, which had infected the lump ; and this is very remarkable, that most of lhe first champions of this war, who bore the brunt of it 236 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. when the king was powerful and prosperous, and when the/e was nothing to be got by it but blows, first or last, were so ill used by this independent powerful party, who tripped up the heels of all their honesty, that they were either forced by ill treatment, to take up arms on our side, or suppressed and re¬ duced by them. In this the justice of Providence seemed very conspicuous, that these having pushed all things by violence against the king, and by arms and force brought him to their will, were at once both robbed of the end, their church-govern¬ ment, and punished for drawing their swords against their masters, by their own servants drawing the sword against them ; and God in his due time, punished the others too ; and, what was yet farther strange, the punishment of this crime of making war against their king, singled out those very men, both in the army and in the parliament, who were the greatest champions of the presbyterian cause in the council and in the field. Some minutes too of circumstances I cannot forbear observing, though they are not very material, as to the fatality and revolutions of days and times. A Roman catholic gentleman of Lancashire, a very religious man in his way, who had kept a calculate of times, and had observed mightily the fatality of times, places, and actions, being at my father’s house, was discoursing once upon the just judgment of Godin dating his providences, so as to signify to us his displeasure at particular circumstances ; and, among an infinite number of collections he had made, these were some which I took particular notice of, and from whence I began to observe the like: 1. That King Edward the YIth died the very same day of the same month in which he caused the altar to be taken down, and the image of the blessed Virgin, in the cathedral of St. Paul’s. 2. That Cranmer was burnt at Oxford the same day and month that he gave King Henry the YIHth advice to divorce his queen Catherine. 3. That Queen Elizabeth died the same day and month that she resolved, in her privy council, to behead the Queen of Scots. 4. That King James died the same day that he published his book against Bellarmine. 5. That King Charles’s long parliament, which ruined him, began the very same day and month which that parliament COMPARATIVE VISITATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. 237 began, that, at the request of his predecessor, robbed the Roman church of all her revenues, and suppressed abbeys and monasteries. IIow just his calculations were, or how true the matter of fact, I cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several actions and successes of this war. And I found a great many circumstances, as to time or action, which befell both his majesty and his parties first. Then others which befell the parliament and presbyterian faction which raised the war. Then the independent tyranny which succeeded and sup¬ planted the first party. Then the Scots who acted on both sides. Lastly, The restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty and religion of our ancestors. 1. For King Charles the First; it is observable, that the charge against the Earl of Strafford, a thing which his majesty blamed himself for all the days of his life, and at the moment of his last suffering, was first read in the lords’ house on the 30th of January, the same day of the month six years that the king himself was brought to the block. 2. That the king was carried away prisoner from Newark, by the Scots, May 10th, the same day six years that, against his conscience and promise, he passed the bill of attainder against the loyal noble Earl of Strafford. 3. The same day seven years that the king entered the house of commons for the five members, which all his friends blamed him for, the same day the rump voted bringing his majesty to trial, after they had set by the lords for not agreeing to it, which was the 3rd of January, 1648. 4. The 12th of May, 1646, being the surrender of Newark, ti e parliament held a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for ‘be reduction of the king and his party, and finishing the war, which was the same day five years that the Earl of Strafford was beheaded. 5. The battle of Naseby, which ruined the king’s affairs, and where his secretary and his office was taken, was the 14th of June, the same day and month the first commission was given out by his majesty to raise forces. 6. The queen voted a traitor by the parliament the 3rd of 238 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. May, the same day and month she carried the jewels intf, France. 7. The same day the king defeated Essex in the west, his son King Charles II. was defeated at Worcester. 8. Archbishop Laud’s house at Lambeth assaulted by the mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon the Scots. 9. Impeached the 15th of December, 1640, the same day twelvemonth that he ordered the Common Prayer Book of Scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the Scots; from which all our troubles began. But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me. 1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his majesty, and refused him admittance into Hull before the war, was seized at Hull by the same parliament for whom he had done it, the same 10th day of August two years that he drew the first blood in that war. 2. Hampden, of Buckinghamshire, killed the same day one year that the mob petition from Bucks was presented to the king about him, as one of the five members. 3. Young Captain Hotham executed the first of January, the same day that he assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first skirmish with the king’s forces at Bramham-moor. 4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August, 1641, that the parliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day and month, anno 1648, the parliament were assaulted and turned out of doors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were therefore called the Rump. 5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made him general of the horse, and went over to the parliament; and the 9th of March, 1641, carried the commons’ reproaching declaration to the king; and afterwards, taking up arms for the king against the parliament, was beheaded by them the 9th of March, 1648, just seven years after. 6. The Earl of Holland was sent to by the king to come to his assistance, and refused, the 11th of July, 1641, and that very day seven years after was taken by the parliament at St. Needs. C )MPAKAliVE VISITATIONS OP PROVIDENCE. 239 7. Colonel Massey defended Gloucester against the king, and beat him off the 5th of September, 1643 ; was taken after by Cromwell’s men fighting for the king, on the 5 th of Sep¬ tember, 1651, two or three days after the fight at Worcester. 8. Richard Cromwell resigning because he could not help it, the parliament voted a free commonwealth, without a single person or house of lords; this was the 25th of May, 1658 ; the 25th of May 1660, the king landed at Dover, and restored the government of a single person and house of lords. 9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the parliament, April the 20th, being the same day he proposed to Oliver Cromwell to take upon him the title of king. 10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir Thomas Fairfax, revolted to the parliament; the same day nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored the royal authority. 11. The parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham’s repulsing the king at Hull, the 28th of April, 1642 ; the 28th of April 1660, the parliament first debated in the house the restoring the king to the crown. 12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and held their first meeting to seize upon the king’s person, and take him into their custody from Holmby, the 28th of April, 1647 ; the same day, 1660, the parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed as many of them as could be found. 13. The parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting her husband, the king, May the 3rd 1643 ; her son, King Charles II. was presented with the votes of parliament to restore him, and the present of 50,000/. the 3rd of May, 1660. 14. The same day the parliament passed the act for recog¬ nition of Oliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert broke up the parliament, and set up the army, 1659, Oc¬ tober the 13th. Some other observations I have made, which, as not so pertinent, I forbear to publish ; among which I have noted the fatality of some days to parties, as, The 2nd of September, the fight at Dunbar ; the fight at Worcester ; the oath against a single person past; Oliver’s first parliament called : for the enemy 240 MEMOXliS OF A CAVALIER. The 2nd of September, Essex defeated in Cornwall; O.iver died ; city works demolished: for the king. The 29th of May, Prince Charles born ; Leicester taken by storm; king Charles II. restored: ditto. Fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as, 1. The English parliament call in the Scots, to invade their king, and are invaded themselves by the same Scots, in defence of the king, whose case, and the design of the parlia¬ ment, the Scots had mistaken. 2. The Scots, who unjustly assisted the parliament to conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and without any pretence on the king’s part, are afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same parliament they assisted. 3. The parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed by the very army they had raised. 4. The army broke three parliaments, and are at last broke by a free parliament, and all they had done by the military power, undone at once by the civil. 5. Abundance of the chief men, who, by their fiery spirits, involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first or last, met with ruin or disgrace from their own party: 1. Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the parliament. 2. Major-General Massey three times taken prisoner by them, and once wounded at Worcester. 3. Major-General Langhorn, 4. Colonel Poyer, and, 5. Colonel Powell changed sides, and, at last taken, could obtain no other favour than to draw lots for their lives; Colonel Poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death. 6. Earl of Holland, who, when the house voted who should be reprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the Earl of Holland, who, excepting one offence, had been their constant servant, voted Goring to be spared, and the earl to die. 7. The Earl of Essex, their first general. 8. Sir William Waller. 9. Lieutenant-General Ludlow. 10. The Earl of Manchester. ERRORS OF THE KlNCf AND HIS FRIENDS. 241 Ail disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, and introduce a party. In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, one of the king, and one of his friends. Of the king, that, when he was in their custody, and at their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies ; that he did not at first grant the Scots their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone into Scotland; and then, if the English would have fought the Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who would have had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his assistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting to serve him. While his majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and, in politics, her majesty’s advice was certainly the best; for, however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he was then in. The error I mention of the king’s friends was this, that, after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but must hasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, in small parties ; and I always found these effects from it: 1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption; as, particularly, in the case of the first assault the army made upon them, when Colonel Pride, with his regiment, garbled the house, as they called it: at that time, a fair opportunity offered, but it was omitted till it was too late. That insult upon the house had been attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrections of' the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out the better. 2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and always suppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king’s interest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than thirty thousand of his best friends VOL. II. K 242 MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER. cut off iii the several attempts made at Maidstone, Colchester, Lancashire, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston, War¬ rington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those Scots’ armies had been defeated. But the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, I had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them ; but I never saw any tolerable ap¬ pearance of a force able to match the enemy, and I had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let them alone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that which¬ soever party had come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all the rest. This was plain by the course of things afterwards, when the independent army had ruffled the presbyterian parliament, the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored the king with all their hearts; and many of them did join us at last. And the consequence, though late, ended so, for they fell out so many times, army and parliament, parliament and army, and alternately pulled one another down so often, till at last the presbyterians, who began the war, ended it; and, to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, and brought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved the ruin of his father’s government, being the 29 th of May, the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London concluded their secret league with the Scots, to embroil hia father King Charles the First. 243 NOTES. Note I. Page 31. The Protestant diet at Leipsic was begun Feb. 8, 1630, and continued to April 3, 1631. Four principal reasons were assigned for the con¬ gress. “ The first of these four was this: That whereas the Duke of Saxony had, in the time of the diet of Frankfort, written advice unto the emperour, of the King of Sweden’s approaching, the emperour tells him againe, how he hoped that himselfe (Saxon) and. Brandenburg would well aide him. By which answer, Saxony perceived a new bill of charges comming upon the Protestants next those parts where the King of Sweden was landed. The second was this: The round course taken by the em¬ perour for the recovery of the church-lands. A third was this: That rigide course (taken by advice of the Jesuites) for reformation of the Pro¬ testant churches and schooles, and the forbidding of the libertie of the Augustane Confession. The fourth was, that decree of the emperour’s for the continuance of the warres against the King of Sweden.”—The Swedish Intelligencer , Part I. London, 1634. 4. p. 2 Q. Note II. Page 32, penult line. Of these levies the Elector of Saxony was to raise six regiments; Bran- denburgh three ; each of the circles of Swabia, the Rhine, and Franconia, three ; Lower Saxony one. Each regiment of foot was to consist of three thousand, and of horse one thousand.— lb. p. 28. Note III. Page 34. The storming of Magdeburg by John Tsercla, Count of Tilly, has always been considered as one of the most horrible butcheries which occurred in any war ; and has only been paralleled by the conquerors of Ishmail and Warsaw, in our days. The anniversary is still commemorated by the inhabitants; and their panic, during the late disgraceful siege, was con¬ siderably increased by the recollection. The following is the account of the siege in the Swedish Intelligencer: “Upon the 12th of April, Tilly first presents himselfe in full battaglia within a mile of the city; at which time believed it was, that he would at least have fallen upon the great star- sconce, or toll-house, by the old Elbe; but that day attempted he no more, than to beat some guards out of their redoubts into the city. The 13th he laies his siege; himself, Pappenheim, Savelli, Holstein, and Mans- feldt, round begirting it. This done, twelve pieces of cannon are placed against the bridge over the Elbe, upon which he made five hundred and sixty-eight shot that same day; his intent being to cut that passage off, that the town by it might send no succours to the foresaid sconce, or toll-house; but the General Falkenburg conveniently flanking some paces upon the R 2 244 NOTES. toll-house, quite at last dismantled the enemies cannon. This not suc¬ ceeding, Tilly falls pell-mell at once upon both these places, giving eight several assaults unto them: but the Lord Falkenburg, with four whole cannon double charged with stones, old iron, &c., about twelve o’clocke at night, made them to give over. Some prisoners the next day taken, con- fesse there were two thousand men that day slain of the assailants. This toll-house was a notable piece of fortification,* built on the other side the Elbe. To this Tilly now turned all his battery ; heere he falls to myning, and all to no purpose. On the 15th, both by land and water he layes at it; but three hundred muskettiers being by him sent in boates to assaile it on the water’s side, were by those of the fort driven ashoare, and either all drownd or slaine by the citizens; two hundred also at the same time lost their lives on the land side. Now was there newes brought into Tillie’s campe, of the King of Sweden’s being upon his march, for the relieving of the besieged ; a council of warre thereupon being called, some troups are sent towards Wittenberg and the Dessau bridge, there to stave off the king’s forces. The newes of his coming againe slackning, April 21, to worke he fals againe ; and giving on upon the toll-house, that notable piece is forsaken by the Magdeburgers; who, at their retreate, offring to tire it, the place was rescued by the Imperialists. Upon this, were all the forts on that side of the Elbe, either taken or given over; the bridge also by Tilly burned, and approaches made unto the city; which was from thence immediately battered. Now were the besieged forced to burne their own New Towne; where two thousand Imperialists immediately lodging themselves, fell to mining, and shooting of grenadoes into the city. The 29th, by a sally out upon these in the New Towme, are some one hundred slaine. The mynes doe no hurt, until one Farenback, a notable enginer, takes them in hand; who sappes himselfe under the towne- ditches to the very hard wals, which he much shakes, by springing of a mine; in return of which service and some others, the emperor makes him a colonell, granting him commission to raise two new regiments. May 2. The Imperialists in the new city, having suddenly in the night¬ time cast up a battery, shrewdly punish the besieged. May 7. General Tilly comes himselfe into the New Towme, together with Pappenheim, then generall of the ordnance, and the Count of Schomberg, sergeant- major-generall; and a great shew of ladders is made, as if there were a purpose of a general scaladoe. Tillie’s hope was, that the towne wmuld presently parly, upon sight of these preparations ; but they taking the alarme at it, instantly inanne all their bulwarks. The 8th day is spent in shooting at a certain high tower, from which the towne-cannon much plagued the besiegers. This day Tilly sends a trumpet to summon the towne; they send another to him to signify their willingness to yield, might but their administrator still enjoy his bishopricke, and the towne their priviledges. This not consented to, the 9th day Pappenheim at¬ tempting to scale the wals, is by a sally beaten off; in which some of the enemies’ mines being discovered, are by countermines in the towne defeated. That day is another trumpet sent into the towme. Towards evening, was there much bustling observed, and carriages to and againe in the enemies * If is still one of the strongest fortifications belonging to the town, md denominated Stern-Schanze. NOTES. 245 leaguer: yea, they were perceived to rise with their whole army (as the towne thought), and to march to Offensleben, half a mile from them. All that night was the Lord Falkenburg upon the wals; who perceiving in the morning no danger of assault, cals the city together into the state-house, to give answer to the enemies trumpet; yea, so secure they were, that the over-watcht souldiers are suffered to go from their courts of guarde to take some sleepe; and some say, that the townesmen were gone to church to give God thanks for their deliverance from the siege. Thus, the wals being found empty, about 7 on the Tuesday morning, May 10th, Pappenheirn having given the word, Jesu-Maria, to his souldiers, and a white string about their armes, makes towards the Heideker port; where, having thrown turfs and faggots into the ditch to fill it, thorow it, up to the middle, the Imperialists runne, with scaling ladders upon their backs The walls are in a trice mounted, the towne entered, and the souldiers fall to killing. Falkenberg now flying in upon them, beates them back to the very wals againe; but a port being by this tyme opened, and the enemies horse let in, the valiant Falkenberg is slayne with a shot; the administrator hurt both in the thigh and head, and so taken. Whilst all thus goes to wraike, a mighty fire breakes out (how, none knowes), and it being a great windy day, all was on the sudden become one great flame, the whole towne being in twelve houres space utterly burnd to cinders, excepting a hundred and thirty-nine houses. Six goodly churches are burnt: the cathedrall. together with St. Marie’s church and cloister, were by the monkes and souldiers diligently preserved. Twenty thousand people, at least, were killed, burned, and smoothered; syxe thousand being observed to be drowned in the Elbe. Tilly’s Wallons* would give quarter to few ; and the Crabatsf never used to give or beg any; so that all were killed. May 12th, came Tilly into the towne, and finding some hundreds of women and children in the church, he gives them their lives, and some bread too; next day he forbids pillaging. Upon Sunday, May 15th, because he would have this cathedrall as like to Rome as might be, that is, dedicated in blood ; he causes it to be cleansed and new consecrated; masse and Te Deurn being sung in it, in thanksgiving for the victory. Future ages may perhaps compare the destruction of this goodly city unto that of Troy or of Jerusalem.”—p. 116-119. Note IV. Page 41. The accession of King James to the throne of England, and tne sub¬ sequent pacification of the borders and Highlands, had not destroyed the restless and impatient valour of the Scots. When the war in Germany broke out, several chieftains raised regiments chiefly at their own expense. Among these was Sir Houcheon Mackay, who had often been proceeded against for his predatory incursions into Sutherland. Upon his return from Germany, he was, for his services, created Lord Reay. Various methods of raising recruits were employed, and the following curious song. * Soldiers raised in the Netherlands. t The Croats, who rendered themselves so famous in the Seven Years’ War, and were by Joseph II. very impoliticly formed into regular regi- merits. 246 NOTES. printed from on ancient MS., contributed probably net a little to incre»i« the number ol' volunteers : All brave lads that would haisard for honour. Hark! how Bellona her trumpet doth blow J Mars, with many a warlike banner. Bravely displayed invits yow to go ! Germani, Suedden, Denmarke, are smoking With a crew of brave lads others provoking. All in their armour bright, Daisling great Cesars sight. Summons you to ane fight! Tan la ra ra. O, Viva! Viva! Gustavus we cry! Heir we shall either won honour or dye. Thow that riseth before the day dawning. Mounted ere Phoebus saluteth the morne, Yoffing, crying, youlling, yelling, Lyk ane citie swyne summonds out with an home. What honour canst thou gain by thy conquisht attending,- When thou hes brought a poor baist to her ending ? Please your yelping hounds. And hear our martial sounds. Till al the hills resounds : Tan la ra ra ! fy, boyes! fy, boyes ! leave it not there. For honour is not gotten by hounting the hair. Thou fyne thing, that still art resorting. In princes pallaces deckt up like an ap. Flattering, fawning, cringing, and courting. Changing each moment in a new munkish shape; Thinkest thow that a denti thing, or a fyne galliard. Or that my laidies glov honours appallart. Or Madams sqwivering voice. Or such a fidling noice. Sounding like, Sa Sa boyes ! Tan la ra ra ! ’Jp lads! up lads ! up and advance. For honour is not gotten by a cringe or a dance. Thow that on thy pillow lyes sleiping, Pampert with pleasures, and pufft up with pride. And in thy armes a wanton keeping Thinking ther is no heavns besyd, Slave to the womens lust, when thou doeth mount her What honour canst thou gain by thy raincounter ? Shame to the shall remain. When we shall honour gain. Where many a hero’s slain! Tan ta ra ra. Fy, man 1 fy, man! leave it for shame. For honour is not gotten by so easie a gain. All brave lads, raise up yovr spirits ! Honour abydeth you attendit by fame j NOTES. 247 Men are rewarded according to their merits Honour begeteth that winneth the same. Vivat, Gustavus! I pray God protekt him. And send the devill to the colstreat, for it doth expect him! Charge lads ! fall in a round. Till Cesar shall give ground. Hark, hark! our trumpets sound. Tan ta ra ra! Vivat Gustavus Adolphus ! we cry. Here we shall either wone honour or dy. At Frankfort upon the Oder, Colonells Hepburn and Lumsdell, men¬ tioned in the text, performed prodigies of valour. “ The king calling the valiant Sir John Hebron (Hepburn) and Colonell Lumsdell unto him, * Now, my brave Scots (saies he), remember your countrymen slaine at New Brandenburg.’ Lumsdell, therefore, with his regiment of English and Scots, and Hebron, with his High Dutchers, presse upon that sally port, and the enemies bullets flying as thick as hail, Lumsdell, with his drawne sword in his hand, cries, ‘ Let’s enter, my hearts ! ’ thrusting him¬ self in amongst the thickest of them. His men followes resolutely, the pikes first entring; all knocking down the enemies most pitifully ; for the inner port being shut behind them, they had no way to escape, but the little clicket-gate; through which as many as could crept into the towne. And by this time the greater gate being broke open, Hebron and Lumsdell, entering with their men, make a most pittifull slaughter; and when any imperialist cryed, ‘Quarter!’ ‘New Brandenburg!’ cries the other, and knocks him down. One Scotchman protested he had killed eighteen men with his owne hand. Here did Lumsdell take eighteen colours; yea, such testimony shewed he of his valour, that the king, after the battell, bade him aske what he would, and he would give it him. Sir John Hepburn, shewing extraordinary valour, was here hurt in the legge .”—Swedish Intelligencer, ut supra, p. 90. Note V. Page 63. The account of the siege and surrender of Oppenheim corresponds pretty accurately with that given in the work we have had occasion to quote so frequently, excepting in so far as respects the cavalier himself. During the storming of the castle [p. 65], “fell there out a pretty merriment, which some readers may perchance be pleased withall. Whitest the most of the Spannish were begging for quarter, a certaine officer, with some others of his men, not daring to trust the courtesy of an enemy, fairly slips away from the Scots that had so ferryted them, running out of the towne for life, even close beside the king’s army. It chanced that a hare, start¬ ing out of the bushes about the ditch, ranne directly before the Spaniards, and, within a few paces after, two or three other hares, also ranne as directly after them. The Swedish soldiers laughed heartily to see, what a convoy the Spaniards had gotten. ’Tis ill luck (saies one of their souldiers), to have one’s way crost with a hare; and that ill lucke is now ours, for we are likely to get but Kttle honour by them, should all their countrimen run away in the like manner.”—Ibid P. II. p. 47 248 NOTES. Note VI. Page 68. Tlie siege of Creutznach was most obstinately contested, and the des¬ perate valour of William, first Lord Craven, was such, that, on his coming into the King of Sweden’s presence, his majesty told him, ‘ he adventured so desperately, he bid his younger brother fair play for his estate.’ In 1626 he had been created Lord Craven of Hamstead Marshall, county Berks. In 1637 he was, along with Prince Rupert, taken prisoner, and, on obtaining his liberty, served the States of Holland, under the Prince of Orange. The 16th of March, an. 16 Car. II. he was created Earl Craven, of Craven, county Ebor. In 1670 he was appointed Colonel of the Coldstream regiment of guards. When King James II. endeavoured to take it away from him, ‘ If they took away his regiment, they had as good take away his life, since he had nothing else to divert himself with.’ He was, however, obliged to give it up, at King William’s accession, to the crown. He died April 9, 1597, aged eighty-eight years and ten months. Note VII. Page 76. This celebrated bridge is described at full length in the Swedish Intelligencer. It was framed by the Swedes, who acted as carpenters, and the Fins as pioneers. The following note is singular; but the extra¬ ordinary valour of the Swedes, even in the present day, must make us hesitate how far we should believe the insinuations against them ; though the Fins are well known to be a pusdlanimous people. “The Swedes generally, one with another, are all carpenters; and the Fins, being a plain, simple, and droyling kinde of people, are more used for the spade than for the sword; notwithstanding we have heard so much of the great exployts of these Finlanders. The Swedes and Finlanders, plainly, are not the best souldiers of the army; ’tis the Scots and Germanes that have done it; and yet have both the other done their parts also.”—P. II. p. 142. Marginal Note.—De Foe, in this part, as well as in many others, has made great use of this interesting work. The account of the bridge and the battle, as well as of the supposed means by which Tilly might have gained the battle, correspond together accurately in both works. “ When Cardinall Passman, the emperor’s ambassadour with the Pope, had the first newes brought him of this victory, and of the manner of it, he to ins friends pronounced. Actum est, 1 There is an end of all;’ which some interpreted to be meant of the empire and of the Romish religion.” —“And yet had not the king escaped so cheap as with the lives of two thousand brave men; had not he that directed David’s sling-stone into Goliah’s forehead, guided one bullet into Altringer’s forehead, and another into Tilly’s thigh-bone; had not this brave old count beene thus spoyled, the king had found but an unfriendly welcome into Bavaria,” &c.—Ibid, p. 148. Tilly is one of the numerous list of imperial generals, who were frequently unfortunate, yet still acquired a high reputation, such as Wallenstein, Daun, Melas, &c. Note VIII. Page 82. The conditions under which the celebrated Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, took the charge of generalissimo of the army were most peremptory. He was to be generalissimo for life, and that in the most WOTES. 249 absolute mannei, for the emperor, the king of Spain, and the whole house of Austria. The emperor should not be present at the army, much less have any command over it; the free liberty of confiscating and pardoning the countries he conquered was stipulated for by him: the duchy of Mecklenburg, with other dominions, were promised to him, &c. Note IX. Page 83. “The king had now 132 ensignes of foot, which made up 10,767, in the musterbooke; and 152 troops of horse, wffiich came to 7,676. In all 18,443 men . 5 ’—Swedish Intelligencer, P. II. p. 140. Note X. Page 92. The celebrated victory of Lutzen was gained on the 6th of November, 1632, old style. In the Swedish Intelligencer, a long account of it is introduced, consisting of 48 quarto pages. The king previously harangued the Swedes and Germans, separately, both together consisting of seven¬ teen thousand or eighteen thousand men. The watchword of his army was, Gott mit uns, God with us; that of the imperialists, Jesus Maria. Both the armies had had the same in the great battle of Leipsic. The king, in the midst of the battle, had charged a numerous body of cuirassiers, but, they being too powerful, he was forced to retreat, and wounded in the left arm. As he was carried off the field, a cuirassier who knew him came behind him, and, crying out, “This is the right bird,” shot him through the body; but was immediately killed himself, by Luchan, the king’s master of the horse. The king’s body was forced to be abandoned, and he was stript of everything about him by the imperial soldiers, who were anxious to have a relic of so renowned a commander. It is well known that afterwards the body of the king was recovered, and a most complete victory gained. One of the best imperial commanders, Count Pappenheim, was slain by a bullet from a falconet. He had, previous to the battle, taken the sacrament, confessed, and made this short testament. His soul he commended to God ; his body (if he were slain), to the emperor, and his wife and children to Wallenstein. The imperialists vauntingly claimed the victory, but acknowledged that the king of Sweden was the bravest enemy, and the best captain, that ever was in Christendom. A stone pillar, to the north of the town of Lutzen, still marks the spot where he fell. Note XI. Page 99. In this disastrous battle, the Swedish veteran. General Gustavus Horne, vrith Field-Marshal Gratz, and two other generals, were taken prisoners; and several generals and superior officers killed. The defeat w T ould have been still more complete, if the Rhinegrave Otto Ludwig, with his forces, had not approached, and prevented the pursuit of the Swedes, by the cavalry and Croats. Note XII. Page 107. The Earl of Holland entered Berwick with the king, May 30, 1639, wid the 31st he marched with two hundred horse to Dunse. “ Upon tha 250 NOTES. coming of our forces into the town [the expected Scots army was not to be found, but] the people cryed, ‘ God bless the king,’ and that they were all his majesty’s obedient subjects, and readily brought forth their Scots ale and what they had, to bid the English welcome.” Rushworth’s Collections, vol. II. p. 929. June 3, the earl again entered into Scotland, with four thousand horse, but retired before the numbers of the Scots, and the superior skill of the Scottish general, Lesley. Note XIII. Page 115. The 27th of August, 1640, at night, General Lesley arrived within a mile of Newcastle, and finding it garrisoned, marched the next morning to Newburn-ford, where he found the pass defended with strong works and six cannon, and guarded with three thousand horse and twelve hundred foot. He placed his own ordnance upon an adjoining hill, and so harassed the English foot, that they fled in disorder, and abandoned their cannon. The horse attempted to rescue them, but were put to flight by Colonel Lesley, with about fifteen hundred horse. Upon this occasion, the cele¬ brated gentleman-troop of Sir John Suckling was routed, and some of his horses taken. Note XIV. Page 125. Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsay, was eldest son of Peregrine Lord Willoughby, of Eresby, a celebrated worthy of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. He was born in 1582 ; and, in 1603, succeeded to the office of Lord High-chamberlain of England; in 1626 he was created Earl of Lindsay; in 1635, appointed Lord High Admiral; and in 1642, General of the king’s forces. The same year, 23rd October, he was killed at the battle of Edgehill. Note XV. Page 125. Robert, Earl of Essex, was the only son of the great favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and, when young, was married to Lady Frances Howard. His divorce from her is well known; and he retired in disgust from the court in consequence of it. He died September 14th, 1646. Note XVI. Page 138. “ Those of ours (the parliamentary army) taken by the enemy were, the Lord St. John, who was mortally wounded, and declared, at his death, a full satisfaction and cheerfulness to lay down his life for so good a cause; Colonel Walton, a member of parliament; and Captain Austin, an eminent merchant in London; of whom the last died through the hard usage he received in the gaol of Oxford, to which he was committed. It was observed, that the greatest slaughter on our side was of such as ran away ; and on the enemy’s side, of those that stood; of whom I saw about three¬ score lie within the compass of threescore yards, upon the ground whereon that brigade fought in which the king’s standard was.—We took prisoners the Earl of Lindsey, general of the king’s army, who died of his wounds ; Sir Edward Stradling, and Colonel Lunsford, who were sent to Warwick NOTES. 251 Castle.” Memoirs of Lieutenant-general Ludlow.* Edin. 1751, p. 44.— The king published a declaration to his subjects after the late victory against the rebels, which was answered by a similar declaration of the lords and commons. Note XVII. Page 152. After the parliamentary army had possessed themselves of Reading, they had several skirmishes with the royalists, in one of which, Hampden, the great patriot, lost his life. Sir William Waller engaged the king’s western army at Lansdown. The Cornish men stood their ground till they came to push of pike, but were then routed, and their commander, Sir Bevil Grenville, killed. General Ludlow, soon after, joined Waller. “ But,” he says in his own Memoirs, “ the great hopes we had conceived of enjoy¬ ing some quiet in the west, by the means of this victory, were soon blasted. For a body of horse sent from Oxford, not being attended by any of our army (though, as I have heard, commanded so to do), engaged our horse at Roundway-hill; where the overforwardness of some of our party to charge the enemy upon disadvantageous ground, was the principal cause of their defeat. The horse being routed, our foot quitted their ground, and shifted for themselves ; many of whom were taken, and many killed j the rest retreated to Bristol.”—Vol. I. p. 54. Note XVIII. Page 154. “ In the mean time, the king’s army besieged Gloucester, the king being there in person to countenance the siege. The besieged made a vigorous defence for about a month ; during which time, the parliament took care to recruit their army, in order to relieve them. Their rendezvous was appointed on Hounslow-heath ; whither some members of parliament (of which my father was one) were sent, to inspect their condition, that their wants, being known, might be the better supplied, who found them a very shattered and broken body; but the city being then very affectionate to the public, soon recruited them; and drew forth so many of their trained bands and auxiliary regiments, as made them up a gallant army. In their march to Gloucester, some of ours fell upon a party of the enemy at Ciren¬ cester, of whom they took many prisoners, and seized a great quantity of provisions, which they found prepared for the enemy; who, upon our approach, raised the siege.”—Ibid. p. 50. A particular and very circum¬ stantial detail was published of this siege, in quarto, by order of par¬ liament. Note XIX. Page 162. “ The Earl of Essex, having relieved the town of Gloucester, was marching back again, when he perceived the enemy endeavouring to get between him and London ; and to that end, falling upon his rear with a strong party of horse, they so disordered his men, and retarded the march * Ludlow’s statements, of course, lean towards the side most favourable to the party he was engaged in; but, for this reason, form proper annota¬ tions to those in the text, which are put into the mouth of one of the cavalier faction. 252 NOTES. of his army, that he found himself obliged to engage them at Newbury. The dispute was veiy hot on both sides, and the enemy had the better at first; but our men resolving to carry their point, and the city regiments behaving themselves with great bravery, gave them, before night, so little to boast, that the next morning they were willing to permit the Earl of Essex to march to London, without interruption. Few prisoners were taken on either side. The enemy had several of quality killed.—We lost a colonel of one of the city regiments, together with some inferior officers.” -’-Ludlow ut supra, p. 57. Note XX. Page 167. Alexander Lesley, Earl of Leven, for the first time, evinced his military genius as a volunteer in Lord Vere’s regiment, in Holland, and afterwards went into the service of the great King of Sweden, who appointed him to defend the town of Stralsund against the imperialists.—This he accom¬ plished, and obliged the great Wallenstein to retire, though he had boasted he would take the town if it were even chained to the firmament. In 1630, he drove the imperialists out of Rugen, and then returned home. His actions at the head of the Scotch army are, for the most part, detailed in the text. In 1641, he was created Earl of Leven, and died at Balgony, in Fife, in the year 1662. Note XXI. Page 170. This heroic lady, was Charlotte, daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, Duke of Thouars, Prince of Palmont, &c., and wife of William, sixth Earl of Derby, who suffered death in the year 1651, for his loyalty to his king. She not only defended successfully Hotham-house, in 1644, but in 1651, for a long time, the Isle of Man, which was the last place in the English dominions that submitted to the commonwealth. She was detained in prison till the restoration; and died March 21st, 1663. Note XXII. Page 172. The battle of Marston-moor was fought July 2nd, 1644. Ludlow has the following observation, similar to some of our cavalier’s : “ If Prince Rupert, who had acquired honour enough by the relief of York, in the view of three generals, could have contented himself with it, and retreated, as he might have done, without fighting, the reputation he had gained would have Caused his army to increase like the rolling of a snow-ball; but he thinking this nothing, unless he might have ably forced his enemies to a battle, against the advice of many of those that were with him,” &c.—Vol I. p. 107. The country people, it is said, buried four thousand men, of which the prince is reported to have lost three thousand. In a letter from the parliamentary generals, they state their loss to have been one lieutenant- colonel, some few captains, and only two or three hundred men ; which is not credible, considering the defeat of one of their wings.—Rushworth, III. 635-636. Note XXIII. Page 203. This affair is represented as a very slight skirmish by Ludlow, (I. 104.) who hitherto had served under the defeated Sir William Waller. Of the parliamentary army, were taken prisoners Colonel Wemys, T utenant- VOTES. 253 colonels Baker and Baynes, and several other officers. “ Dolonel Middleton was dismounted amongst the king’s forces, of whom one, taking him for a commander of their’s, mounted him again, and bid him make haste, and kill a roundhead; and so he escaped.”—Ilushworth, III. 676. Note XXIV. Page 208. According to Ludlow, the king lost, during the storm, about seventeen hundred men; and those of the town about one hundred. Note XXV. Page 212. “ Being encouraged by his success at Leicester, and with the considera¬ tion that he was to encounter with an unexperienced enemy, upon advice that our army was in search of him, the king advanced towards them ; and both armies met in the field of Naseby, on the 14th of June, 1645. Some days before, one Colonel Vermuyden, an old soldier, who commanded a regiment of horse, had laid down his commission ; whether through diffi¬ dence of success, or any other consideration, I know not, and, in the beginning of the engagement, Major-general Skipton, the only old soldier remaining amongst the chief officers of the army, received a shot in the body from one of our own party, as was supposed, unwittingly ; whereby he was in a great measure disabled to perform the duty of his place that day, though extremely desirous to do it.—Under these discouragements, the horse upon our left wing were attacked by those of the enemy’s right, and beaten back to our cannon; which were in danger of being taken, our foot giving way also: but our right wing being strengthened by those of our left that were rallied by our officers, fell upon the enemy’s left wing; and having broken and repulsed them, resolving to improve the opportunity, charged the main body of the king’s army; and, with the assistance of two or three regiments of our infantry, entirely encompassed the enemy’s body of foot; who, finding themselves deserted by their horse, threw down their arms, and yielded themselves prisoners. By this means, our horse were at leisure to pursue the king, and such as fled with him towards Leicester, taking many prisoners in the pursuit; who, with those taken in the field, amounted in all to about six thousand, and amongst them, six colonels, eight lieutenant-colonels, eighteen majors, seventy lieutenants, eighty ensigns, two hundred inferior officers, about a hundred and forty standards of horse and foot, the king’s footmen and servants, and the whole train of artillery and baggage. This victory was obtained with the loss of a very few on our side, and not above three or four hundred of the enemy.”— Ludlow, I. 131. END OF THE CAVALIER, MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAELETON. PREFACE TO CARLETON’S MEMOIRS. i CONTAINING BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH. From an anecdote in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ive are referred to the following Memoirs for the best account of the military achievements of the Earl of Peterborough. “The best account of Lord Peterborough that I have happened to meet with, is in Captain Carleton’s Memoirs. Carleton was descended of an officer who had distinguished himself at the siege of Derry.* He was an officer, and, what was rare at that time, had some knowledge in engineering. Johnson said he had never heard of the book. Lord Elliot had a copy at Port Elliot; but, after a good deal of inquiry, procured a copy in London, and sent it to Johnson; who told Sir Joshua * Mackenzie, in his “ Narrative of the Siege of Londonderry,” mentions no officer called Carleton. There is indeed a Colonel Crofton frequently spoken of. But as Carleton himself served in the great Dutch war of 1GG5, we can hardly suppose him descended of a person distinguished by feats of arms in 1688. VOL. n, 2 , 258 PREFACE. Reynolds, that he was going to bed when it came, but was so much pleased with it, that he sat up till he read it through, and found in it such an air of truth, that he could not doubt its authenticity; adding with a smile, in allusion to Lord Elliot’s having recently been raised to the peerage, I did not think a young lord could have mentioned to me a book in the English history that was not known to me.”— Boswell’s Life of Johnson. A short sketch of the life of this celebrated general may be no unpleasing introduction to a volume, which derives its chief value from narrating his glorious successes. Charles Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, was born in 1G58; and, in June 1675, succeeded to the title of Lord Mordaunt and the estate of his family. He was educated in the navy, and in his youth served with the Admirals Torrington and Narborough in the Mediterranean. In 1680 he accompanied the Earl of Plymouth in the expe¬ dition to Tangier, where he distinguished himself against the Moors. In the succeeding reign, Lord Mordaunt opposed the repeal of the Test Act in the blouse of Lords; and having thus become obnoxious to the court, obtained liberty to go into the Dutch service. When he arrived in Holland, he was, as we learn from Burnet, amongst the most forward of those who advised the Prince of Orange to his grand enterprise. But the cold and considerate William saw obstacles, which escaped the fiery and enthusiastic Mordaunt; nor, although that prince used his services in the Revolution, does he appear to have reposed entire confidence in a character so opposite to his own. Yet Mordaunt reaped the reward of hus zeal, being in 1688 created Earl of Monmouth, lord of the bedchamber, and first commissioner of the treasury, which PREFACE. 259 last office he did not long retain. He accompanied "William in his campaign of 1692 ; and in 1697 succeeded to the title, which he has so highly distinguished, by the death of his uncle Henry, the second Earl of Peterborough. In the first year of Queen Anne’s reign, Peterborough was to have been sent out as governor-general of Jamaica, but the appointment did not take place. In 1705 he was appointed general and commander-in-chief of the forces sent to Spain, upon the splendid and almost romantic service of placing Charles of Austria on the throne of that monarchy. The wonders which he there wrought, are nowhere more fully detailed than in the single pages of Carleton.* Barcelona was taken by a handful of men, and afterwards relieved in. the face of a powerful enemy, whom Peterborough compelled to decamp, leaving their battering artillery, ammunition, stores, provisions, and all their sick, and wounded men. He drove before him, and finally expelled from Spain, the Duke of Anjou, with his army of twenty-five thousand French, although his own forces never amounted to half that number. All difficulties sunk before the creative power of his genius. Doomed as he was, by the infatuated folly of Charles, and by the private envy of his enemies at home, to conduct a perilous expedition, in a country ill affected to the cause, without sup plies, stores, artillery, reinforcements, or money; he created substitutes for all these deficiencies,—even for the last of them. He took walled towns with dragoons, and stormed the caskets of the bankers of Genoa, without being able to offer them security. He gained possession of Catalonia, of the * See also the “ Earl of Peterborough’s Conduct in John Freind. London, 1707. S}ain.,” by Dr. 5 2 PREFACE. 2G0 kingdoms of Valencia, Aragon, and Majorca, with part of Murcia and Castile, and thus opened the way for the Earl of Galway’s marching to Madrid without a blow. Nor was his talent at conciliating the natives less remarkable than his military achievements. With the feeling of a virtuous, and the prudence of a wise man, he restrained the excesses of his troops, respected the religion, the laws, even the prejudices of the Spaniards; and heretic as he was, became more popular amongst them than the catholic prince whom he was essaying to place on their throne. Yet, as SAvift has strongly expressed it, “ the only general, -who, by a course of conduct and fortune almost miraculous, had nearly put us into possession of the kingdom of Spain, was left Avholly unsupported, exposed to the envy of his rivals, disappointed by the caprices of a young unexperienced prince, under the guidance of a rapacious German ministry, and at last called home in discontent.*” The cause of this strange step it would be tedious here to investigate. One ostensible reason was, that Peterborough’s parts were of too lively and mercurial a quality, and that his letters showed more Avit than became a general; a common¬ place objection, raised by the dull malignity of common-place minds against those whom they see discharging with ease and indifference the tasks which they themselves execute (if at all) with the SAveat of their brow, and in the heaviness of their heart. It is no uncommon error of judgment to maintain a priori , that a thing cannot possibly be Avell done, which has taken less time in doing than the person passing sentence had anticipated. There is also a certain hypocrisy in business, whether civil or military, as Avell as in religion, Avhich they will do well to observe, who, not satisfied with discharging * Conduct of the allies. PREFACE. 261 their duty, desire also the good report of men. To the want of that grave, serious, business-like deportment, which admits of no levity in the exercise of its office; but especially to the envy excited by his success, Britain owed the recall of the Earl of Peterborough from Spain, during the full career of his victories. The command of the troops devolved on the Earl of Galway; a thorough-bred soldier, as he was called; a sound-headed, steady, solid general, who proceeded, with all decency, decorum, and formal attention to the discipline of war, to lose the battle of Almanza, and to ruin the whole expedition to Spain. In June 1710-11, the thanks of the House of Peers were returned to the Earl of Peterborough for his services in Spain; and the chancellor used these remarkable words in expressing them :—“ Had your lordship’s wise counsels, par¬ ticularly your advice at the council of war in Valencia, been pursued in the following campaign, the fatal battle of Almanza, and our greatest misfortunes which have since happened in Spain, had been prevented, and the design upon Toulon might have happily succeeded.” In the years 1710 and 1711, the earl was employed in embassies to Turin, and other courts of Italy, and finally at Vienna. He returned from the German capital with such expedition, that none of his servants were able to keep up with him, but remained scattered in the different towns where he had severally outstripped them. He outrode, upon this same occasion, several expresses which he had himself despatched to announce his motions. Swift at this time received a letter from him, dated Hanover, and desiring an answer to be sent to him at his country-house in England.* * Swift’s Journal to Stella, 24th June, 1711. PREFACE. 262 Indeed, Peterborough’s characteristic rapidity of travelling was about this time celebrated by the dean, in a little poem inscribed to him:— Mordanto fills the trump of fame. The Christian world his deeds proclaim. And prints are crowded with his name. In journeys he outrides the post. Sits up till midnight with his host. Talks politics, and gives the toast. Knows every prince in Europe’s fac. 3 . Flies like a squib from place to place. And travels not, hut runs a race. From Paris Gazette a-la-main, This day arrived, without his train, Mordanto in a week from Spain. A messenger comes all a-reek, Mordanto at Madrid to seek ; He left the town above a week. Next day the post-boy winds his horn. And rides through Dover in the mom 3 Mordanto’s landed from Leghorn. Mordanto gallops on alone, The roads are with his followers strowa. This breaks a girth, and that a bone. His body active as his mind. Returning sound in limb and wind. Except some leather lost behind. A skeleton in outward figure; His meagre corpse, though full of vigour. Would halt behind him, were it bigger. PREFACE. 263 So wonderful his expedition. When you have not the least suspicion, He’s with you like an apparition. Shines in all climates like a star; In senates bold, and fierce in war; A land commander, and a tar. Heroic actions early bred in, Ne’er to be matched in modern reading, But by his namesake, Charles of Sweden Peterborough’s haste was, in 1711, probably stimulated by the interest he took in the great public discussions on the policy of continuing the war with France. He argued in the affirmative with great ability, but without success. Although a strenuous Whig in principle, he was disliked by most of his own party, and greatly caressed in consequence by the Tories. After his return to England, he obtained the regi¬ ment of the royal horse guards, and the honours of the garter, being installed 4th August, 1713. In November following, we find the earl British plenipotentiary to the King of Sicily and other Italian potentates; and in March, 1713-14, he was ap¬ pointed governor of the island of Minorca. Under George I. and George II. the Earl of Peterborough was general 0 f the marine forces in Great Britain. In October, 1735, he found it necessary to set sail for Lis¬ bon for recovery of his health ; “ no body,” to use Pope’s ex¬ pression, “ being so much wasted, no soul being more alive.'’ lie was cut in the bladder for a suppression of urine; imme¬ diately after which cruel operation, he took coach, and tra¬ velled no less a journey than from Bristol to Southampton, “ like a man,” says the same poet, “determined neither to 264 PREFACE. live nor die like any other mortal.” lie died on his voyage to Lisbon, 25th October, 1735, aged seventy-seven. The Earl of Peterborough was twice married, and left two sons and a daughter by his first wife. To all the talents of a general and negotiator, this won- deiful man added those belonging to a literary character, lie associated with all the wits of Queen Anne’s reign, was a liv ely poet, and his familiar letters are read to advantage O amongst those of Gay, Arbuthnot, Swift, and Pope. He lived in great intimacy with the last, who boasts, that, He, whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines, Isow forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines ; Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain. To Pope, Peterborough bequeathed on his deathbed hia watch, a present from the King of Sardinia, that, as he ex¬ pressed it, his friend might have something to put him every day in mind of him. The frame, in which were lodged such comprehensive talents, was thin, short, spare, and well calculated to endure the eternal fatigue imposed by the restless tenant within. The famous lines of Dryden might be happily applied to the Earl of Peterborough:— A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to deca) r . And o’er informed the tenement of clay. ITis face, judging from the print in Dr. Birch’s Lives, was thin ; his eye lively and penetrating. Such was Charles, Earl of Peterborough, one of those phe¬ nomena whom nature produces once in the revolution of cen- PREFACE. 265 turies, to show to ordinary men what she can do in a mood of prodigality. To this short sketch of the principal character in these Memoirs, the publishers would willingly have added some particulars of the author; but they are unable to say more on the subject than may be collected from the work itself, and the original preface. It is obvious that Captain George Carleton was one of those men who choose the path of mili¬ tary life, not from a wish to indulge either indolent or licen¬ tious habits, but with a feeling of duty, which should be deeply impressed on all to whom their country commits the charge of her glory, and of the lives of their fellow-subjects. There is a strain of grave and manly reflection through the work, which speaks the author accustomed to scenes of dan¬ ger, and familiar with the thoughts of death. From his studies in mathematics, and in fortification, he is entitled to credit for his military remarks, which are usually made with simple modesty. His style is plain and soldier-like, without any pretence at ornament; though in narrating events of im¬ portance, its very simplicity gives it occasional dignity. Of the fate of the author after deliverance from his Spanish cap¬ tivity, we know nothing; but can gather from some passages in his Memoirs, that it did not correspond with his merit.* * The Memoirs were first printed in 1743, f with the following comprehen¬ sive title page:—“ The Memoirs of Captain George Carleton, an English officer, who served in the two last wars against France and Spain, and was present in several engagements, both in the fleet and army. Containing an account of the conduct of the Earl of Peterborough, and other general t This is an error, as will be seen by the facsimile title-page prefixed to the present edition. The book was originally printed in 1728, but the edition of 1743 is the first which contains the preliminary account of the Earl of Peterborough, — H. G. B. 266 PREFACE. While we hope that our present army possesses many such characters, as the reflecting, manly, and conscientious Carle- ton, we heartily wish them better fortune. officers, admirals, &c., and several remarkable transactions both by sea and land. In which the genius, pride, and barbarity of the Spaniards, during the author’s being a prisoner of war among them, are set in a true light. Together with a description of many of their cities, towns, &c. ; particularly Valencia, Barcelona, Molviedro, Saguntum, Alicant, Montserat, Denia, St. Clement dela Mancha, Madrid, Valladolid, Bilboa, St. Jean de Luz, Bayonne, Pont d’Esprit, Pampeluna, Saragoza, &c. Their manners and customs, both religious and civil; observations on their monasteries and nunneries, and their manner of investing nuns. Likewise their buli- feasts, and other public diversions." THE MEMOIRS OF AN English Officer, Who serv’d in the Dutch War in 1672. to the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713. Containing Several Remarkable Transactions both by Sea and Land, and in divers Countries, but chiefly those wherein the Author was per¬ sonally concern’d. Together with A Description of many Cities, Towns, and Coun¬ tries, in which he resided; their Manners and Customs, as well Religious as Civil, interspers’d with many curious Observations on their Mo¬ nasteries and Nunneries, more particularly of the famous one at Montsercit. On the Bull-Feasts, and other publick Diversions; as also on the Genius of the Spanish People, amongst whom he continued several Years a Pri¬ soner of AVar. No Part of which has before been made publick. By Capt. GEORGE CABLET ON. LONDON , Printed for E. Symon, over against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill. M DCC XXVIII. . J - TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SPENCER LORD COMPTON, BARON OF WILMINGTON, KNIGHT OF THE BATH, AND ONE OF HIS MAJESTY’S MOST HONOUR- ABLE PRIVY COUNCIL. It was my fortune, my Lord, in my juvenile years, Musas cum marte commutare; and truly I have reason to blush, when I consider the small advantage I have reaped from that change. But lest it should be imputed to my want of merit, I have wrote these Memoirs, and leave the world to judge of my deserts. They are not set forth by any fictitious stories, nor embellished with rhetorical flourishes ; plain truth is cer¬ tainly most becoming the character of an old soldier. Yet let them be never so meritorious, if not protected by some noble patron, some persons may think them to be of no value. To you, therefore, my Lord, I present them ; to you, who have so eminently distinguished yourself, and whose wisdom has been so conspicuous to the late representatives of Great Britain, that each revolving age will speak in your praise ; and if you vouchsafe to be the Mecamas of these Memoirs, your name will give them sufficient sanction. An old soldier I may truly call myself, and my family allows me the title of a gentleman; yet I have seen many favourites of fortuue, without being able to discern why the}' 270 DEDICATION. should be so happy, and myself so unfortunate. But let not that discourage your Lordship from receiving these my Me moirs into your patronage; for the unhappy cannot expect favour, but from those who are endued with generous souls. Give me leave, my Lord, to congratulate this good for¬ tune, that neither Whig nor Tory (in this complaining age) have found fault with your conduct. Your family has pro¬ duced heroes, in defence of injured kings; and you, when it was necessary, have as nobly adhered to the cause of liberty. My Lord, Your Lordship’s most obedient, And most devoted humble Servant, G. Carleton. TO THE READER. The author of these Memoirs began early to distinguish himself in martial affairs, otherwise he could not have seen such variety of actions, both by sea and land. After the last Dutch war he went into Flanders, where he not only served under the command of his Highness the Prince of Orange, whilst he was generalissimo of the Dutch forces, but like¬ wise all the time he reigned King of Great Bi'itain. Most of the considerable passages and events, which happened during that time, are contained in the former part of this book. In the year 1705, the regiment, in which he served as captain, was ordered to embark for the West Indies ; and he, having no inclination to go thither, changed with an half¬ pay captain ; and being recommended to the Earl of Peter¬ borough by the late Lord Cutts, went with him upon that noble expedition into Spain. When the forces under his Lordship’s command were landed near Barcelona, the siege of that place was thought by several impracticable, not only for want of experienced engineers, but that the besieged were as numerous as the be¬ siegers ; yet the courage of that brave earl surmounted those difficulties, and the siege was resolved upon. Our author having obtained, by his long service, some I knowledge of the practic part of an engineer, and seeing at that critical time the great want of such, readily acted as one, which gave him the greater opportunity of being an eye- 272 TO THE READER. witness of liis Lordship’s actions; and consequently made him capable of setting them forth in these his Memoirs. It may not be, perhaps, improper to mention, that the author of these Memoirs was born at Ewelme in Oxford¬ shire, descended from an ancient and an honourable family. The Lord Dudley Carleton, who died secretary of state to King Charles I., was his great uncle ; and in the same reign his father was envoy at the Court of Madrid, whilst his uncle, Sir Dudley Carleton, was ambassador to the states of Hol¬ land ; men in those days respected both for their abilities and loyalty. MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. CHAPTER I. I VOLUNTEER ON BOARD THE LONDON, AND GO OUT WITH THE DUKE OF YORK’S EXPEDITION TO HOLLAND—JOIN THE FRENCH FLEET-GENERAL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE AMSTERDAM SQUADRON-SINGULAR ACCOUNT OF OUIi PIGEONS ABOARD THE LONDON-PRINCE OF CONDE ROUTES OUR FORCES-MARCH TO QUARIGNAN AND VALENCIENNES-THE PRINCE OF ORANGE LEAVES THE ARMY IN DISGUST, BUT RECEDES FROM THAT RESOLUTION -THE SIEGE OF MAESTRICII-FALSE ATTACK ON WYCK —SIEGE OF CAMBRAY AND ST. OMARS. In the year one thousand six hundred and seventy two, war being proclaimed with Holland, it was looked upon, among nobility and gentry, as a blemish not to attend the Duke of York* aboard the fleet, who was then declared admiral. With many others, I, at that time about twenty years of age, entered myself a volunteer on board the London, commanded by Sir Edward Sprage, vice-admiral of the red. The fleet set sail from the buoy of the Nore about the beginning of May, in order to join the French fleet, then at * Afterwards James II. By the treaty betwixt England and France, six thousand of the British troops were to assist the French army against the Dutch. The two fleets of France and England joined the 2nd May. The English consisting of a hundred, and the French of forty sail. Tlie States had seventy-two large ships and forty frigates. VOL. II. t 274 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. anchor in St. Helen’s road, under the command of the Count de Estree. But in executing this design we had a very nar¬ row escape: for De Ruyter, the admiral of the Dutch fleet, having notice of our intentions, waited to have intercepted us at the mouth of the river, tut by the assistance of a great fog, we passed Dover before he was aware of it; and thus he miscarried, with the poor advantage of taking only one small tender. A day or two after the joining of the English and French, we sailed directly towards the Dutch coast, where we soon got sight of their fleet; a sand called the Galloper lying be¬ tween. The Dutch seemed willing there to expect an attack from us : but in regard the Charles man-of-war had been lost on those sands the war before, and that our ships drawing more water than those of the enemy, an engagement might be rendered very disadvantageous, it was resolved in a coun¬ cil of war to avoid coming to a battle for the present, and to sail directly for Solebay; which was accordingly put in execution. We had not been in Solebay above four or five days, when De Ruyter, hearing of it, made his signal for sailing, in order to surprise us; and he had certainly had his aim, had there been any breeze of wind to favour him. But though they made use of all their sails, there was so little air stirring, that we could see their fleet making towards us, long before they came up; notwithstanding which, our admirals found diffi¬ culty enough to form their ships into a line of battle, so as to be ready to receive the enemy. It was about four in the morning of the 28th of May, being Tuesday in Whitsun week, when we first made the discovery ; and about eight the same morning, the blue squa¬ dron, under the command of the Earl of Sandwich, began to engage with Admiral Van Ghent, who commanded the Amsterdam squadron ; and about nine the whole fleets were under a general engagement. The fight lasted till ten at night, and with equal fury on all sides, the French excepted, who appeared stationed there rather as spectators than par¬ ties ; and as unwilling to be too much upon the offensive, for fear of offending themselves. During the fight the English admiral had two ships dis¬ abled under him ; and was obliged about four in the afternoon to remove himself a third time into the London, where he re- LOSS OP THE ROYAL JAMES. 275 mained all the rest of the fight, and till next morning. Never¬ theless, on his entrance upon the London, which was the ship I was in, and on our hoisting the standard, De Ruyter and his squadron seemed to double their fire upon her, as if they re¬ solved to blow her out of the water. Notwithstanding all which, the Duke of York remained all the time upon quarter¬ deck, and as the bullets plentifully whizzed around him, would often rub his hands, and cry, Sprage, Sprage, they follow us still. I am very sensible latter times have not been over favourable in their sentiments of that unfortunate prince's valour, yet I cannot omit the doing a piece of justice to his memory, in relating a matter of fact, of which my own eyes were witnesses, and saying, that if intrepidity and undaunted¬ ness may be reckoned any parts of courage, no man in the fleet better deserved the title of courageous, or behaved himself with more gallantry than he did. The English lost the Royal James, commanded by the Earl of Sandwich, which, about twelve (after the strenuous en¬ deavours of her sailors to disengage her from two Dutch fire- ships placed on her, one athwart her hawsers, the other on her starboard side), took fire, blew up, and perished, and with her a great many brave gentlemen as well as sailors, and amongst the rest the earl himself, concerning whom I shall farther add, that in my passage from Harwich to the Brill, a year or two after, the master of the packet-boat told me, that having observed a great flock of gulls hovering in one particular part of the sea, he ordered his boat to make up to it; when discovering a corpse, the sailors would have re¬ turned it to the sea, as the corpse of a Dutchman ; but keep¬ ing it in his boat, it proved to be that of the Earl of Sandwich. There was found about him between twenty and thirty guineas, some silver, and his gold watch; restoring which to his lady, she kept the watch, but rewarded their honesty with all the gold and silver. This was the only ship the English lost in this long engage¬ ment. For although the Katherine was taken, and her commander, Sir John Chichely, made prisoner, her sailors soon after finding the opportunity they had watched for, seized all the Dutch sailors who had been put in upon them, and brought the ship back to our own fleet, together with all the Dutchmen prisoners; for which, as they deserved, they were well rewarded. This is the same ship which the Earl x 2 276 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. of Mulgrave, afterwards Duke of Buckingham, commanded the next sea fight, and has caused to be painted in his house in St. James’s Park. I must not omit one very remarkable occurrence which happened in this ship. There was a gentleman aboard her, a volunteer, of a very fine estate, generally known by the name of Hodge Vaughan: this person received, in the beginning of the fight, a considerable wound, which the great confusion during the battle would not give them leave to inquire into; so he was carried out of the way, and disposed of in the hold. They had some hogs aboard, which the sailor, under whose care they were, had neglected to feed; these hogs, hungry as they were, found out, and fell upon the wounded person, and between dead and alive eat him up to his very skull, which, after the fight Avas over, and the ship retaken, as before, Avas all that could be found of him. Another thing, less to be accounted for, happened to a gentleman volunteer Avho was aboard the same ship with my¬ self. He aauis of knoAvn personal courage, in the vulgar notion of it, his SAVord ncA'er having failed him in many pri- A'ate duels. But notwithstanding all his land-mettle, it was observed of him at sea, that whenever the bullets whizzed over his head, or any Avay incommoded his ears, he immedi- ately quitted the deck, and ran doAvn into the hold. At first he was gently reproached ; but after many repetitions, he was laughed at, and began to be despised; sensible of which, as a testimonial of his valour, he made it his request to be tied to the mainmast. But had it been granted him, I cannot see any title he could have pleaded from hence to true magna¬ nimity ; since to be tied from running away can import nothing less than that he would have still continued these signs of cowardice if he had not been prevented. There is a bravery of mind which I fancy few of those gentlemen duellists are possessed of. True courage cannot proceed from what Sir \\ alter Raleigh finely calls the art or philosophy of quarrel. No ! It must be the issue of principle, and can have no other basis than a steady tenet of religion. This will appear more plain, if those artists in murder will give themselves leave coolly to consider, and answer me this question,—Avhy he that had ran so many risks at his sword’s point, should be so shamefully intimidated at the Avhiz of a cannon-ball ? SINGULAR ACCOUNT OF PIGEONS. 277 The names oj those English gentlemen who lost their lives , as 1 remember , in this engagement. Commissioner Cox, captain of the Royal Prince, under the command of the admiral; and Mr. Travanian, gentleman to the Duke of York ; Mr. Digby, captain of the Henry, second son to the Earl of Bristol; Sir Fletchvile Hollis, captain of the Cambridge, who lost one of his arms in the war before, and his life in this; Captain Saddleton, of the Dartmouth; the Lord Maidstone, son to the Earl of Winchelsea, a volun¬ teer on board the Charles, commanded by Sir John Harman., vice-admiral of the Red. Sir Philip Carteret, Mr. Herbert, Mr. Cotterel, Mr. Poyton, Mr. Gose, with several other gentlemen unknown to me, lost their lives with the Earl of Sandwich, on board the Royal James; Mr. Vaughan, on board the Katherine, commanded by Sir John Chichely. In this engagement, Sir George Rook was youngest lieu¬ tenant to Sir Edward Sprage ; Mr. Russel, afterwards Earl of Orford, was captain of a small fifth rate, called the Phoe¬ nix ; Mr. Herbert, afterwards Earl of Torrington, was captain of a small fourth rate, called the Monck; Sir Harry Dutton Colt, who was on board the Victory, commanded by the Earl of Ossory, is the only man now living that I can remember was in this engagement. But to proceed, the Dutch had one man-of-war sunk, though so near the shore, that I saw some part of her main¬ mast remain above water ; with their Admiral Van Ghent, who was slain in the close engagement with the Earl of Sandwich. This engagement lasted fourteen hours, and was looked upon the greatest that ever was fought between the English and the Hollander. I cannot here omit one thing, which to some may seem trifling; though I am apt to think our naturalists may have a different opinion of it, and find it afford their fancies no un¬ diverting employment in more curious, and less perilous reflections. We had on board the London, where, as I have said, I was a volunteer, a great number of pigeons, of which our commander was very fond. These, on the first firing of our cannon, dispersed, and flew away, and were seen nowhere 278 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. near 115 during the fight. The next day it blew a brisk gale, and drove our fleet some leagues to the southward of the place where they forsook our ship, yet the clay after they all returned safe aboard; not in one flock, but in small pai’ties of four or five at a time. Some persons at that time aboard the ship admiring at the manner of their return, and speaking of it with some surprise, Sir Edward Sprage told them that he brought those pigeons with him from the Straits; and that when, pursuant to his order, he left the Revenge man-of-war to go aboard the London, all those pigeons, of their own accord, and without the trouble or care of carrying, left the Revenge likewise, and removed with the sailors on board the London, where I saw them : all which, many of the sailors afterwards confirmed to me. What sort of instinct this could proceed from, I leave to the curious. Soon after this sea engagement I left the fleet. And the parliament, the winter following, manifesting their resent¬ ments against two of the plenipotentiaries, viz., Buckingham and Arlington, who had been sent over into Holland; and expressing, withal, their great umbrage taken at the prodigious progress of the French arms in the United Provinces; and warmly remonstrating the inevitable danger attending England in their ruin ; King Charles from all this, and for want of the expected supplies, found himself under a neces¬ sity of clapping up a speedy peace with Holland. This peace leaving those youthful spirits that had by the late naval war been raised into a generous ferment, under a perfect inactivity at home ; they found themselves, to avoid a sort of life that was their aversion, obliged to look out for one more active, and more suitable to their vigorous tempers abroad. I must acknowledge myself one of that number ; and therefore in the year 1674 I resolved to go into Flanders, in order to serve as volunteer in the army commanded by his highness the Prince of Orange. I took my passage accord¬ ingly at Dover for Calais, and so went by way of Dunkirk for Brussels. Arriving at which place, I was informed that the army of the confederates lay encamped not far from Nivelle, and under the daily expectation of an engagement with the enemy. This news made me press forward to the service; for which purpose I earned along with me proper letters of TERRIBLE WHIRLWIND. 270 recommendation to Sir Walter Vane, who was at that time a major-general. Upon farther inquiry I understood that a party of horse, which was to guard some waggons that were going to Count Montery’s army, were to set out next morning; so I got an Irish priest to introduce me to the commanding officer, which he readily obliged me in ; and they, as I wished them, arrived in the camp next day. I had scarce been there an hour, when happened one of the most extraordinary accidents in life. I observed in the east a strange dusty-coloured cloud, of a pretty large extent, riding (not before the wind, for it was a perfect calm) with such a precipitate motion, that it was got over our heads almost as soon as seen. When the skirts of that cloud began to cover our camp, there suddenly arose such a terrible hurricane, or whirlwind, that all the tents were carried aloft with great violence into the air; and soldiers’ hats flew so high and thick, that my fancy can resemble it to nothing better than those flights of rooks, which at dusk of evening, leaving the fields, seek their roosting places. Trees were torn up by the very roots; and the roofs of all the barns, &c., belonging to the prince’s quarters, were blown quite away. This lasted for about half an hour, until the cloud was wholly past over us, when as suddenly ensued the same pacific calm as before the cloud’s approach. Its course was seemingly directly west; and yet we were soon after informed, that the fine dome of the great church at Utrecht had greatly suffered by it the same day. And, if I am not much mistaken, Sir William Temple, in his Memoirs, mentions somewhat of it, which he felt at Lillo, on his return from the Prince of Orange’s camp, where he had been a day or two before. As soon after this as I could get an opportunity, I delivered, at his quarters, my recommendatory letters to Sir Walter Vane; who received me very kindly, telling me at the same time, that there were six or seven English gentlemen, who had entered themselves volunteers in the prince’s own company of guards ; and added, that he would immediately recommend me to Count Solmes, their colonel. He was not worse than his word, and I was entered accordingly. Those six gentlemen were as follows;-Clavers, who since was better known by the title of Lord Dundee; Mr. Collier, now Lord Portmore ; Mr. Rooke, since major-general; Mr. Hales, who lately died, and was for a long time governor of 280 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARI.ETON. Chelsea Hospital; Mr. Yenner, son of that Venner remark¬ able for his being one of the fifth-monarchy men ; and Mr. Boyce. The four first rose to be very eminent; but fortune is not to all alike favourable. In about a week’s time after, it was resolved in a council of war, to march towards Binch, a small walled town, about four leagues from Nivellc ; the better to cut off the provisions from coming to the Prince of Conde’s camp that way. Accordingly, on the 1st of August, being Saturday, we began our march; and the English volunteers had the favour of a baggage waggon appointed them. Count Souches, the impei’ial general, with the troops of that nation, led the van; the main body was composed of Dutch, under the Prince of Orange, as generalissimo ; and the Spaniards, under Prince Vaudemont, with some detachments, made the rear-guard. As we were upon our march, I being among those detach¬ ments which made up the rear-guard, observed a great party of the enemy’s horse upon an ascent, which, I then imagined, as it after proved, to be the Prince of Conde taking a view of our forces under march. There were many defiles, which our army must necessarily pass ; through which that prince politically enough permitted the imperial and Dutch forces to pass unmolested. But when Prince Vaudemont, with the Spaniards, and our detachments, thought to have done the like, the Prince of Conde fell on our rear-guard; and, after a long and sharp dispute, entirely routed them; the Marquis of Assentar, a Spanish lieutenant-general, dying upon the spot. Had the Prince of Conde contented himself with this share of good fortune, his victory had been uncontested: but being pushed forward by a vehement heat of temper, which he was noted for, and flushed with this extraordinary success, he resolved to force the whole confederate army to a battle. In order to which, he immediately led his forces between our second line and our line of baggage ; by which means the latter were entirely cut off, and were subjected to the will of the enemy, who fell directly to plunder; in which they were not a little assisted by the routed Spaniards themselves, who did not disdain at that time to share with the enemy in the plundering of their friends and allies. The English volunteers had their share of this ill fortune with the rest, their waggon appointed them being among NARROW ESCAPE "WITH THE ENEMY. 281 those intercepted by the enemy; and I, for my part, lost everything but life, which yet was saved almost as unaccount¬ ably as my fellow-soldiers had lost theirs. The baggage, as I have said, being cut off, and at the mercy of the enemy, every one endeavoured to escape through or over the hedges. And as in all cases of like confusion, one endeavours to save himself upon the ruins of others ; so here, he that found himself stopt by another in getting over the gap of a hedge, pulled him back to make way for himself, and perhaps met with the same fortune from a third, to the destruction of all. I was then in the vigour of my youth, and none of the least active, and perceiving how it had fared with some before me, I clapt my left leg upon the shoulders of one who was thus contending with another, and with a spring threw myself over both their heads and the hedge at the same time. By this means I not only saved my life (for they were all cut to pieces that could not get over), but from an eminence, which I soon after attained, I had an opportunity of seeing and making my observations upon the remaining part of that glorious conflict. It was from that advantageous situation, that I presently discovered that the imperialists, who led the van, had now joined the main body. And, I confess, it was with an almost inexpressible pleasure, that I beheld, about three o’clock, with what intrepid fury they fell upon the enemy. In short, both armies were universally engaged, and with great obstinacy disputed the victory till eleven at night, at which time the French, being pretty well surfeited, made their retreat: nevertheless, to secure it by a stratagem, they left their lighted matches hanging in the hedges and waving with the air, to conceal it from the confederate army. About two hours after, the confederate forces followed the example of their enemies, and drew off. And, though neither army had much reason to boast, yet, as the Prince of Orange remained last in the field, and the French had lost what they before had gained, the glory of the day fell to the Prince of Orange; who, although but twenty-four years of age, had the suffrage of friend and foe, of having played the part of an old and experienced officer. There were left that day on the field of battle, by a general computation, not less than eighteen thousand men on both 282 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAKLETON. sides, over and above those who died of their -wounds: the loss being pretty equal, only the French carried off most prisoners. Prince Waldeck was shot through the arm, which I was near enough to be an eye-witness of; and my much- lamented friend, Sir Walter Yane, was carried off dead. A wound in the arm was all the mark of honour that I as yet could boast of, though our cannon in the defiles had slain many near me. The Prince of Conde (as we were next day informed) lay all that night under a hedge, wrapped in his cloak; and either from the mortification of being disappointed in his hopes of victory, or from a reflection of the disservice which his own natural overheat of temper had drawn upon him, was almost inconsolable many days after. And thus ended the famous battle of Seneff. But though common vogue has given it the name of a battle, in my weak opinion it might rather deserve that of a confused skirmish; all things having been forcibly carried on without regularity, or even design enough to allow it any higher denomination; for, as I have said before, notwith¬ standing I was advantageously stationed for observation, I found it very often impossible to distinguish one party from another. And this was more remarkably evident on the part of the Prince of Orange, whose valour and vigour having led him into the middle of the enemy, and being then sensible of his error, by a peculiar presence of mind, gave the word of command in French, which he spoke perfectly well. But the French soldiers, who took him for one of their own generals, making answer that their powder was all spent, it afforded matter of instruction to him to persist in his attack, at the same time that it gave him a lesson of caution, to withdraw himself, as soon as he could, to his own troops. However, the day after the Prince of Orange thought proper to march to Quarignan, a village within a league of Mons ; Avhere he remained some days, till he could be supplied from Brussels with those necessaries which his army stood in need of. From thence we marched to Valenciennes, where we again encamped, till we could receive things proper for a siege, Upon the arrival whereof, the prince gave orders to decamp, and marched his army with a design to besiege Aeth. But TKE PRINCE OF ORANGE LEAVES THE ARMY. 283 having intelligence on our inarch that the Mareschal de Humiers had reinforced that garrison, we inarched directly to Oudenard, and immediately invested it. This siege was carried on with such application and success, that the besiegers were in a few days ready for a storm; but the Prince of Conde prevented them, by coming up to its relief. Upon which the Prince of Orange, pursuant to the resolution of a council of war the night before, drew off his forces in order to give him battle; and to that purpose, after the laborious work of filling up our lines of con travail ati on, that the horse might pass more freely, we lay upon our arms all night. Next morning we expected the imperial general, Count Souches, to ioin us; but instead of that, he sent back some very frivolous excuses, of the inconveniency of the ground for a battle; and after that, instead of joining the prince, marched off quite another way; the Prince of Orange, with the Dutch and Spanish troops, marched directly for Ghent; exclaiming publicly against the chicanery of Souches, and openly declaring that he had been advertised of a con¬ ference between a French capuchin and that general, the night before. Certain it is, that that general lay under the displeasure of his master, the emperor, for that piece of management; and the Count de Sporck was immediately appointed general in his place. The Prince of Orange was hereupon leaving the army in great disgust, till prevailed upon by the Count de Montery, for the general safety, to recede from that resolution. How¬ ever, seeing no likelihood of anything farther to be done, while Souches was in command, he resolved upon a post of more action, though more dangerous; wherefore ordering ten thousand men to march before, he himself soon after followed to the siege of Grave. The Grave, a strong place, and of the first moment to the Hollanders, had been blocked up by the Dutch forces all the summer; the Prince of Orange therefore, leaving the main army under Prince Waldeck at Ghent, followed the detachment he had made for the siege of that important place, resolving to purchase it at any rate. On his arrival before it, things began to find new motion; and as they were carried on with the utmost application and fury, the besieged found themselves, in a little time, obliged to change their haughty summer note for one more suitable tc the season. 284 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. The prince, from his first coming, having kept those within hotly plied with ball, both from cannon and mortars, Monsieur Cliamilly, the governor, after a few days, being weary of such warm work, desired to capitulate ; upon which hostages were exchanged, and articles agreed on next morning. Pursuant to which, the garrison marched out with drums beating and colours flying two days after, and were conducted to Charleroy. By the taking this place, which made the Prince of Orange the more earnest upon it, the French were wholly expelled their last year’s astonishing conquests in Holland. And yet there was another consideration, that rendered the surrender of it much more considerable. For the French being sensible of the great strength of this place, had there deposited all their cannon and ammunition, taken from their other conquests in Holland, which they never were able to remove or carry off, with tolerable prospect of safety, after that prince’s army first took the field. The enemy being marched out, the prince entered the town, and immediately ordered public thanksgivings for its happy reduction. Then, having appointed a governor, and left a sufficient garrison, he put an end to that campaign, and returned to the Hague, where he had not been long before he fell ill of the small pox. The consternation this threw the whole country into, is not to be expressed; any one that had seen it would have thought that the French had made another inundation greater than the former. But when the danger was over, their joy and satisfaction for his recovery was equally beyond expression. The year 1675 yielded very little remarkable in our army. Limburgh was besieged by the French, under the command of the Duke of Enguien, which the Prince of Orange having intelligence of, immediately decamped from his fine camp at Bethlem, near Louvain, in order to raise the siege. But as we were on a full march for that purpose, and had already reached Ruremond, word was brought, that the place had surrendered the day before. Upon which advice, the prince, after a short halt, made his little army (for it consisted not of more than thirty thousand men) march back to Brabant. Nothing of moment, after this, occurred all that campaign. In the year 1676 the prince of Orange having, in concert with the Spaniards, resolved upon the important siege of SERIOUS LOSS IN MAKING A BREACH. 285 Maestrich, the only town in the Dutch provinces then remain¬ ing in the hands of the French, it was accordingly invested about the middle of June, with an army of twenty thousand men, under the command of his highness Prince Waldeck, with the grand army covering the siege. It was some time before the heavy cannon, which we expected up the Maes, from Holland, arrived; which gave occasion to a piece of raillery of Monsieur Calvo, the governor, which was as hand¬ somely reparteed. That governor, by a messenger, intimating his sorrow to find we had pawned our cannon for ammunition bread ; answer was made, that in a few days we hoped to give him a taste of the loaves, which he should find would be sent him into the town, in extraordinary plenty. I remember another piece of raillery, which passed some days after between the Rhinegrave and the same Calvo. The former sending word, that he hoped within three weeks to salute that governor’s mis¬ tress within the place, Calvo replied, he would give him leave to kiss her all over, if he kissed her anywhere in three months. , But our long expected artillery being at last arrived, all this jest and merriment was soon converted into earnest. Our trenches were immediately opened towards the dauphin bastion, against which were planted many cannon, in order to make a breach; myself, as a probationer, being twice put upon the forlorn hope to facilitate that difficult piece of service. Nor was it long before such a breach was effected as was esteemed practicable, and therefore very soon after it was ordered to be attacked. The disposition for the attack was thus ordered; two serjeants with twenty grenadiers, a captain with fifty men, myself one of the number; then a party carrying wool sacks, and after them two captains with one hundred men more; the soldiers in the trenches to be ready to sustain them, as occasion should require. The signal being given, we left our trenches accordingly, having about one hundred yards to run, before we could reach the breach, which we mounted with some difficulty and loss; all our batteries firing at the same instant, to keep our action in countenance, and favour our design. When we were in possession of the bastion, the enemy fired most furiously upon us with their small cannon through a thin brick wall, by which, and their hand grenadoes, we lost more men than we did in the attack itself. 286 MEMOIRS Of CAPTAIN CARLETON. But well had it been had our ill fortune stopped there ; for as if disaster must needs be the concomitant of success, we soon lost what we had thus gotten, by a small but very odd accident. Not being furnished with such scoops as our enemies made use of in tossing their hand grenadoes some distance olf, one of our own soldiers aiming to throw one over the wall into the counterscarp among the enemy, it so happened that he unfortunately missed his aim, and the grenade fell down again on our side the wall, very near the person who fired it. He, starting back to save himself, and some others who saw it fall doing the like, those who knew nothing of the matter fell into a sudden confusion, and imagining some greater danger than there really was, everybody was struck with a panic fear, and endeavoured to be the first who should quit the bastion, and secure himself by a real shame from an imaginary evil. Thus was a bastion, that had been gloriously gained, inadvertently deserted; and that too with the loss of almost as many men in the retreat as had been slain in the onset; and the enemy most triumphantly again took possession of it. Among the slain on our side in this action, was an ensign of Sir John Fenwick’s regiment; and as an approbation of my services, his commission was bestowed upon me. A few days after it Avas resolved again to storm that bastion, as before ; out of three English, and one Scotch regiments, then in the camp, a detachment was selected for a fresh attack. Those regiments were under the command of Sir John Fenwick (avIio was afterwards beheaded), Colonel Ralph Widdrington, and Colonel Ashley, of the English; and Sir Alexander Collier, lather of the present Lord Portmore, of the Scotch. Out of every of these four regiments, as before, were detached a captain, a lieutenant, and an ensign, Avitb fifty men : Captain Anthony Barnwell, of Sir John Fenwick’s regiment, Avho was now my captain, commanding that attack. At break of day the attack was begun with great resolution; and though vigorously maintained, was attended with the desired success. The bastion was again taken, and in it the commanding officer, Avho in service to himself, more than to us, told us that the centre of the bastion would soon be blown up, being to his knowledge undermined for that purpose. But this secret proved of no other use than to make us, by way of precaution, to keep as much as we could upon the FALSE ATTACK ON THE FORTRESS OF WYCK. 287 rampart. In this attack Captain Barnwell lost lus life ; and it happened my new commission was wetted (not, as too frequently is the custom, with a debauch, but) with a bullet through my hand, and the breach of my collar-bone with the stroke of a halberd. After about half an hour’s possession of the bastion, the mine under it, of which the French officer gave us warning, was sprung; the enemy at the same time making a furious sally upon us. The mine did a little, though the less execu¬ tion, for being discovered; but the sally no way answered their end, for we beat them back, and immediately fixed our lodgment; which we maintained during the time of the siege. But to our double surprise, a few days after they fired another mine under, or aside, the former, in which they had placed a quantity of grenadoes, which did much more execution than the other: notwithstanding all which, a battery of guns was presently erected upon that bastion, which very consider ably annoyed the enemy. The breach for a general storm was now rendered almost practicable; yet before that could be advisably attempted, there was a strong hornwork to be taken. Upon this exploit the Dutch troops only were to signalise themselves ; and they answered the confidence reposed in them; for though they were twice repulsed, at the third onset they were more suc¬ cessful, and took possession ; which they likewise kept to the raising of the siege. There was a stratagem laid at this time, which in its own merit one would have thought should not have failed of a good effect; but to show the vanity of the highest human wisdom, it miscarried. On the other side of the Maes, oppo¬ site to Maestrich, lies the strong fortress of Wyck, to which it is joined by a stone bridge of six fair arches. The design was, by a false attack on that regular fortification, to draw the strength of the garrison to its defence, which was but very natural to imagine would be the consequence. Ready to attend that well-concerted false attack, a large flat-bottomed boat, properly furnished with barrels of gunpowder, and other necessaries, was to fall down under one of the middle arches, and when fixed there, by firing the powder, to have blown up the bridge, and by that means to have prevented the return of the garrison to oppose a real attack at that instant of time to be made upon the town of Maestrich by the whole army. 288 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETOjf. The faLe attack on Wyck was accordingly made, which, as proposed, drew the main of the garrison of Maestrich to its defence, and the boat so furnished fell down the river as pro¬ jected, but unfortunately, before it could reach the arch, from the darkness of the night, running upon a shoal, it could not be got off'; for which reason the men in the boat were glad to make a hasty escape for fear of being discovered; as the boat was, next morning, and the whole design laid open. This stratagem thus miscarrying, all things were immedi¬ ately got ready for a general storm, at the main breach of the town; and the rather, because the Prince of Orange had received incontestable intelligence, that Duke Schomberg, at the head of the French army, was in full march to relieve the place. But before everything could be rightly got ready for the intended storm (though some there were who pretended to say, that a dispute raised by the Spaniards with the Dutch, about the propriety of the town, when taken, was the cause of that delay), we heard at some distance several guns fired as signals of relief; upon which we precipitately, and, as most imagined, shamefully drew off from before the place, and joined the grand army under prince Waldeck. But it was matter of yet greater surprise to most on the spot, that when the armies were so joined, we did not stay to offer the enemy battle. The well-known courage of the prince, then general¬ issimo, was so far from solving this riddle, that it rather puzzled all who thought ot it; however, the prevailing opinion was, that it was occasioned by some great misunderstanding between the Spaniards and the Dutch. And experience will evince, that this was not the only disappointment of that nature, occasioned by imperfect understandings. Besides the number of common soldiers slain in this attack, which was not inconsiderable, we lost here the brave Rhine- grave, a person much lamented on account of his many other excellent qualifications, as well as that of a general. Colonel Ralph Widdrington, and Colonel Doleman (who had not en¬ joyed Widdrington’s commission above a fortnight), Captain Douglas, Captain Barnwell, and Captain Lee, were of the slain among the English; who, indeed, had borne the whole brunt of the attack upon the dauphin’s bastion. I remember the Prince of Orange, during the siege, re¬ ceived a shot through his arm ; which giving an immediate alarm to the troops under his command, he took his hat off 8TEGE OF CAMBEAY A ED ST. OMEES. 289 his head with the wounded arm, and smiling, waved it, to show them there was no danger. Thus, after the most gallant defence against the most courageous onsets, ended the siege of Maestrich ; and with it all that was material that campaign. Early in the spring, in the year 1677, the French army, under the Duke of Orleans, besieged at once both Cambray and St. Omers. This last the Prince of Orange seemed very intent and resolute to relieve. In order to which, well know¬ ing by sad experience, it would be to little purpose to wait the majestic motions of the Spaniards, that prince got together what forces he could, all in Dutch pay, and marching forward with all speed, resolved, even at the hazard of a battle, to attempt the raising the siege. Upon his appearing the Duke of Orleans, to whose particular conduct the care of that siege was committed, drew off from before the place, leaving scarce enough of his men to defend the trenches. The prince was under the necessity of marching his forces over a morass ; and the duke well knowing it, took care to attack him near Mont Cassel, before half his little army were got over. The dispute was very sharp, but the prince being much outnumbered, and his troops not able, by the straightness of the passage, to engage all at once, was obliged at last to retreat, which he did in pretty good oi'der. I l’emember the Dutch troops did not all alike do their duty ; and the prince seeing one of the officei'S on his fullest speed, called to him over and over to halt; which the officer in too much haste to obey, the pi'ince gave him a slash over the face, saying, By this mark I shall know you another time. Soon after this retreat of the prince, St. Omers was suiTendei’ed. Upon this retreat the prince marching back, lay for some time among the boors, who from the good discipline, which he took care to make his troops observe, did not give us their customai’y boorish reception. And yet as secure as Ave might think ourselves, I met Avith a little passage that confirmed in me the notions, which the generality, as Avell as I, had imbibed of the private bai'bai'ity of those people, whenever an oppor¬ tunity falls in their way. I Avas strolling at a distance from my quarters, all alone, when I found myself near one of their houses; into which, the doors being open, I ventured to enter. I saAV nobody Avhen I came in, though the house was, for that sort of people, well enough furnished, and in pretty decent order. I called, but nobody answering, I had the VOL. II. u 290 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARL ETON. curiosity to advance a little farther, when, at the mouth of the oven, which had not yet wholly lost its heat, I spied the corpse of a man so bloated, swollen and parched, as left me little room to doubt that the oven had been the scene of his destiny. I confess the sight struck me with horror; and as much courage and security as I entered with, I withdrew in haste, and with quite different sentiments, and could not fancy myself out of danger till I had reached our camp. A wise man should not frame an accusation on conjectures; but, on inquiry, I was soon made sensible, that such bar¬ barous usage is too common among those people; especially if they meet with a straggler, of what nation soever. This made me not very sorry when we decamped, and we soon after received orders to march and invest Charleroy; before which place we stayed somewhat above a week, and then drew off. I remember very well, that I was not the only person then in the camp that was at a loss to dive into the reason of this investiture and decampment; but since I at that time, among the politicians of the army, never heard a good one, I shall not venture to offer my sentiments at so great a distance. We, after this, marched towards Mons ; and, in our march, passed over the very grounds on which the battle of Seneff had been fought three years before. It was with no little pleasure, that I re-surveyed a place, that had once been of so much danger to me ; and where my memory and fancy now repeated back all those observations I had then made under some unavoidable confusion. Young as I was, both in years and experience, from my own reflections, and the sentiments of others, after the fight was over, methought I saw visibly before me the well-ordered disposition of the Prince of Conde ; the inexpressible difficulties which the Prince of Orange had to encounter with; while at the same moment I could not omit to repay my debt to the memory of my first patron, Sir Walter Yane, who there losing his life, left me a solitary wanderer to the wide world of fortune. But these thoughts soon gave place to new objects, which every hour presented themselves in our continued march to Enghien, a place famous for the finest gardens in Flanders, near which we encamped on the very same ground which the French chose some years after at the battle of Steenkirk; of which T shall speak in its proper place. Here the Prince END OF TIIE CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS. 291 of Orange left our army, as Ave afterwards found, to pass into England; where he married the Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York. And after his departure, that campaign ended without anything farther material. CHAPTER II. THE FAMOUS PEACE CONCLUDED—DESPERATE BATTLE AT ST. DENNIS-RETURN TO ENGLAND — COAIAIISSION GIVEN BY KING JAMES-EARTHQUAKE AT DIXMUYD-SIEGE OF NAMUR-PRINCE VAUDEMONT’s GRAND RETREAT-DESTRUC¬ TION OF BRUSSELS-VILLEROY’s GREAT ARMY. Now began the year 1678, famous for the peace, and no less remarkable for an action previous to it, Avhich has not failed to employ the talents of men, variously, as they stood affected. Our army, under the Prince of Orange, lay encamped at Soignies, where it was whispered that the peace was concluded. Notwithstanding which, two days after, being Sunday the 17th day of August, the army Avas drawn out, as most others as Avell as myself apprehended, in order to a feux de joye ; but in lieu of that, avc found our march ordered towards St. Dennis, where the Duke of Luxemburg lay, as he imagined, safe in inaccessible intrenchments. About three o’clock our army arrived there, Avhen A\ r e received orders to make the attack. It began with a most vigorous spirit, that promised no less than the success which ensued. The three English and three Scotch regiments, uqder the command of the ever renowned Earl of Ossory, together with the Prince of Orange’s guards, made their attack at a place called the Chateau; Avliere the French took their refuge among a parcel of hop-poles ; but their resource Avas as weak as their defence, and they Avere soon beaten out with a very great slaughter. It was here that a French officer having his pistol directed at the breast of the prince, Monsieur D’Auverquerque inter¬ posed, and shot the officer dead upon the spot. The fight lasted from three in the afternoon till nine at night, when, growing dark, the Duke of Luxemburg forsook his intrenchments, into which we marched next morning. u 2 292 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. And to see the sudden change of things! that very spot of ground, -where nothing hut fire and fury appeared the day before, the next saw solaced with the proclamation of a peace. About an hour before the attack began, the Duke of Monmouth arrived in the army, being kindly received by the Prince of Orange, bravely fighting by his side all that day. The woods, and the unevenness of the ground, rendered the cavalry almost useless ; yet I saw a standard among some others, which was taken from the enemy, being richly embroidered with gold and silver, bearing the sun in the zodiac, with these haughty words, Nihil obstcibit eunte. On the news of this unexpected victory, the States of Holland sent to congratulate the prince; and to testify how much they valued his preservation, they presented Monsieur D’Auverquerque, who had so bravely rescued him, with a sword, whose handle was of massy gold, set with diamonds. I forgot to mention that this gentleman received a shot on his head at the battle of Senetf; and truly, in all actions, which were many, he nobly distinguished himself by his bravery. He was father of this present Earl of Grantham. The names of the English officers ivhich I knew to be killed in this action. Lieutenant-colonel Archer, Captain Pemfield, Captain Charieton, Lieutenant Charleton, Captain Richardson Lieutenant Barton, Captain Fisher, Ensign Colvile. T\ ith several others, whose names I have forgot. Lieutenant-colonel Babington, who began the attack b y beating the French out of the hop-garden, was taken prisoner. Colonel Hales, who was a long time governor of Chelsea College, being then a captain, received a shot on his leg, of which he went lame to his dying day. The war thus ended by the peace of Nimeguen, the regi¬ ment in which 1 served was appointed to lie in garrison at the Grave. We lay there near four years, our soldiers being mostly employed about the fortifications. It was here, and by that means, that I imbibed the rudiments of fortification, and the practical part of an engineer, which in my more advanced years was of no small service to me. Monmouth’s rebellion in England. 293 Nevertheless, in the year 1684, our regiment received orders to march to Haren, near Brussels; where, with othei forces, we encamped, till we heard that Luxemburg, invaded by the French, in a time of the profoundest peace, had sur rendered to them. Then we decamped, and marched to Mechlin; where we lay in the field till near November. Not that there was any war proclaimed, but as not knowing whether those who had committed such acts of hostility in time of peace, might not take it in their heads to proceed yet farther. In November we marched into that town, where Count Nivelle was governor: the Marquis de Grana, at the same time, governing the Netherlands in the jurisdiction of Spain. Nothing of any moment happened after this, till the death of King Charles II. The summer after which, the three English and three Scotch regiments received orders to pass over into England, upon the occasion of Monmouth’s rebellion; where, upon our arrival, we received orders to encamp on Hounslow Heath. But that rebellion being soon stifled, and King James having no farther need of us, those regiments were ordered to return again to Holland, into the proper service of those who paid them. Though I am no stiff adherer to the doctrine of predesti¬ nation, yet to the full assurance of a providence I never could fail to adhere. Thence came it, that my natural desire to serve my own native country prevailed upon me to quit the service of another, though its neighbour and ally. Events are not always to direct the judgment; and therefore whether I did best in following these fondling dictates of nature, I shall neither question nor determine. However, it was not long after my arrival in England before I had a commission given me by King James, to be a lieutenant in a new-raised regiment under the command of Colonel Tufton, brother to the Earl of Thanet. Under this commission I sojourned out two peaceable campaigns on Hounslow Heath, where I Avas an eyeAvitness of one mock siege of Buda: after which our regiment Avas ordered to Berwick, where I remained till the Revolution. King James having abdicated the throne, and the Prince of Orange accepting the administration, all commissions were ordered to be renewed in his name. The officers of our regiment, as well as others, severally took out theirs 294 MEMOIRS CF CAPTAIN CARLETON. accordingly; a very few excepted, of which number was out colonel, who refusing a compliance, his commission was given to Sir James Lesly. The Prince of Orange presently after was declared and proclaimed king, and his princess queen, with a conjunctive power. Upon which our regiment was ordered into Scotland, where affairs appeared under a face of disquietude. We had our quarters at Leith, till the time the Castle of Edin burgh, then under the command of the Duke of Gordon, had surrendered. After which, pursuant to fresh orders, we marched to Inverness, a place of no great strength, and as little beauty; though yet I think I may say, Avithout the least danger of an hyperbole, that it is as pleasant as most places in that country. Here we lay two long winters, perpetually harassed upon parties, and hunting of somewhat wilder than their wildest game, namely, the Highlanders, who were, if not as nimble-footed, yet fully as hard to be found. But General Mackay having received orders to build a fort at Inverlochy, our regiment, among others, was com¬ manded to that service. The two regiments appointed on the same duty, with some few dragoons, were already on their march, which having joined, we marched together through Louquebar. This sure is the wildest country in the Highlands, if not in the world. I did not see one house in all our march; and their economy, if I may call it such, is much the same with that of the Arabs or Tartars. Huts, or cabins of trees and trash, are their places of habitation, in which they dwell till their half-horned cattle have devoured the grass, and then remove, staying nowhere longer than that convenience invites them. In this march, or rather, if you please, most dismal peregrination, we could but very rarely go two on a breast, and oftener, like geese in a string, one after another. So that our very little army had sometimes, or rather most commonly, an extent of many miles; our enemy, the High¬ landers, firing down upon us from their summits all the Avay. Nor was it possible for our men, or very rarely at least, to return their favours with any prospect of success; for as they popped upon us always on a sudden, they never stayed long enough to allow any of our soldiers a mark, or even time enough to fire. And for our men to march or climb up TWO COMMANDERS ESCAPE NAKED. .295 those mountains, which to them were natural champaign, would have been as dangerous as it seemed to us impractic¬ able. Nevertheless, under all these disheartening disadvan¬ tages, we arrived at Inverlochy, and there performed the task appointed, building a fort on the same spot where Cromwell had raised one before. And, which was not a little remarkable, we had with us one Hill, a colonel, who had been governor in Oliver’s time, and who was now again appointed governor by General Mackay. Thus the work on which we were sent being effected, we marched back again by the way of Gillycranky, where that memorable battle under Dundee had been fought the year before. Some time after, Sir Thomas Levingston, afterwards Earl of Tiviot, having received intelligence that the High- landers intended to fall down into the lower countries in a considerable body, got together a party of about five hundred (the dragoons, called the Scotch Greys, inclusive), with which he resolved, if possible, to give them a meeting. We left Inverness the last day of April, and encamped near a little town called Forrest, the place where, as tradition still confidently avers, the witches met Macbeth, and greeted him 'with their diabolical auspices. But this story is so naturally displayed in a play of the immortal Shakespeare, that I need not descend here to any farther particulars. Here Sir Thomas received intelligence that the High- landers designed to encamp upon the Spey, near the laird of Grant’s Castle. Whereupon we began our march about noon; and the next day about the break thereof, we came to that river, where we soon discovered the Highlanders, by their fires. Sir Thomas, immediately on sight of it, issued his orders for our fording the river, and falling upon them as soon after as possible. Both were accordingly performed, and with so good order, secrecy, and success, that Cannon and Balfour, their commanders, were obliged to make their escape naked. They were about one thousand in number, of which were killed about three hundred; we pursued them till they got up Cromdale-hill, where we lost them in a fog. And indeed, so high is that hill, that they who perfectly knew it, assured me that it never is without a little dark fog hanging over it. And to me, at that instant of time, they seemed 296 MEMOIRS 01 CAPTAIN CAELETON. rather to be people received up into clouds, than flying from an enemy. Near this there was an old castle, called Lethendy, into which about fifty of them made their retreat, most of them gentlemen, resolving there to defend themselves to the last. Sir Thomas sent a messenger to them, with an offer of mercy, if they would surrender: but they refused the proffered quarter, and fired upon our men, killing two of our grenadiers, and wounding another. During my quarters at the Grave, having learnt to throw a grenado, I took three or four in a bag, and crept down by the side of a ditch or dyke, to an old thatched house near the castle, imagining, on my mounting the same, I might be near enough to throw them, so as to do execution. I found all things answer my expectation; and the castle wanting a cover, I threw in a grenado, which put the enemy immediately into confusion. The second had not so good success, falling short; and the third burst as soon as it was well out of my hand, though without damage to myself. But throwing the fourth in at a window, it so increased the confusion which the first had put them into, that they immediately called out to me, upon their parole of safety, to come to them. Accordingly I went up to the door, which they had barri¬ caded, and made up with great stones ; when they told me they were ready to surrender upon condition of obtaining mercy. 1 returned to Sir Thomas; and telling him what I had done, and the consequence of it, and the message they had desired me to deliver (a great many of the Highland gentlemen, not of this party, being with him), Sir Thomas, in a high voice, and broad Scotch, best to be heard and understood, ordered me back to tell them, He would cut them all to pieces, for their murder of two of his grenadiers, after his proffer of quarter. I was returning, full of these melancholy tidings, when Sir Thomas, advancing after me a little distance from the rest of the company; Hark ye, sir, says he, I believe there may be among them some of our old acquaintance (for we had served together in the service of the States in Flanders), therefore tell them they shall have good quarter. I very willingly carried back a message so much changed to my mind; and upon delivering of it, without the least hesitation, DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH FLEET. 297 they threw down the barric-ado, opened the door, and out came one Brody, who, as he then told me, had had a piece of his nose taken off' by one of my grenadoes. I carried him to Sir Thomas, who confirming my message, they all came out, and surrendered themselves prisoners. This happened or. May-day in the morning; for which reason we returned to Inverness with our prisoners, and boughs in our hats; and the Highlanders never held up their heads so high after this defeat. Upon this success Sir Thomas wrote to court, giving a full account of the whole action. In which being pleased to make mention of my behaviour, with some particularities, I had soon after a commission ordered me for a company in the regiment under the commaud of Brigadier Tiffin. My commission being made out, signed, and sent to me, I repaired immediately to Portsmouth, where the regiment lay in garrison. A few da} r s after I had been there, Admiral Russel arrived with the fleet, and anchored at St. Helen’s, where he remained about a week. On the 18th of May the whole fleet set sail ; and it being my turn the same day to mount the main guard, I was going the rounds very early, when I heard great shooting at sea. I went directly to acquaint the governor, and told him my sentiments, that the two contending fleets were actually engaged ; which indeed proved true, for that very night a pinnace, which came from our fleet, brought news that Admiral Russel had engaged the French Admiral Turvile ; and, after a long and sharp dispute, was making after them to their own coasts. The next day, towards evening, several other expresses arrived, one after another, all agreeing in the defeat of the French fleet, and in the particulars of the burning their Rising Sun, together with many other of their men-of-war, at La Hogue. All which expresses were immediately for¬ warded to court by Mr. Gibson, our governor. About two months after this, our regiment, among many others, was, according to order, shipped off on a secret expedition, under the command of the Duke of Leinster, no man knowing to what place we were going, or on what design ; no, not the commander himself. However, when we were out at sea, the general, according to instructions, opening his commission, we were soon put out of our suspense, and informed that our orders were to attack Dunkirk. But what 298 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAHLETON. was so grand a secret to those concerned in the expedition, having been intrusted to a female politician on land, it waa soon discovered to the enemy; for which reason our orders were countermanded, before we reached the place of action, and our forces received directions to land at Ostend. Soon after this happened that memorable battle at Steen- kirk, which, as very few at that time could dive into the reason of, and mistaken accounts of it have passed for authentic, I will mention somewhat more particularly; the undertaking was bold ; and, as many thought, bolder than was consistent with the character of the wise undertaker. Never¬ theless, the French having taken Namur, and, as the malcon¬ tents alleged in the very sight of a superior army, and nothing having been done by land of any moment, things were blown into such a dangerous fermentation, by a malicious and lying spirit, that King William found himself under a necessity of attempting something that might appease the murmurs of the people. He knew very well, though spoke in the senate, that it was not true that his forces at the siege of Namur, exceeded those of the enemy; no man could be more afflicted than he at the overflowing of the Mehaigne, from the con¬ tinual rains, which obstructed the relief he had designed for that important place ; yet since his maligners made an ill use of these false topics, to insinuate that he had no mind to put an end to the war, he was resolved to evince the contrary, by showing them that he was not afraid to venture his life for the better obtaining what was so much desired. To that purpose, receiving intelligence that the Duke of Luxemberg lay strongly encamped at Steenkirk, near Enghien (though he was sensible he must pass through many defiles to engage him, and that the many thickets between the two armies would frequently afford him new difficulties), he re¬ solved there to attack him. Our troops at first were forced to hew out their passage for the horse; and there was no one difficulty that his imagination had drawn that was lessened by experience; and yet so prosperous were his arms at the beginning, that our troops had made themselves masters ot several pieces of the enemy’s cannon. But the farther he advanced, the ground growing straightu*, so straight as not to admit his army’s being drawn up in battalia, the troops behind could not give timely succour to those engaged, and the cannon we had taken was lorcibly left behind in order to DARING COURAGE OF SIR ROBERT DOUGLAS. 299 make a good retreat. The French had lost all their courage in the onset; for though they had too fair an opportunity, they did not think fit to pursue it, or at least did it very languidly. However, the malcontents at home, I remember, grew very well pleased after this; for so long as they had but a battle tor their money, like true Englishmen, lost or won, they were contented. Several causes, I remember, were assigned for this mis¬ carriage, as they called it: some there were who were willing to lay it upon the Dutch ; and allege a saying of one of their generals who, receiving orders to relieve some English and Scotch that were overpowered, was heard to say, Damn ’em, since they love fighting let ’em have their bellies full. But I should rather impute the disappointment to the great loss of so many of our bravest officers at the very first onset. General Mackay, Colonel Lanier, the Earl of Angus, with both his field-officers, Sir Robert Douglas, Colonel Hodges, and many others falling, it was enough to put a very considerable army into confusion. I remember one particular action of Sir Robert Douglas, that I should think myself to blame should I omit: seeing his colours on the other side the hedge, in the hands of the enemy, he leaped over, slew the officer that had them, and then threw them over the hedge to his company; redeemiug his colours at the expense of his life. Thus the Scotch commander improved upon the Roman general; for the brave Posthumius cast his standard in the middle of the enemy for his soldiers to retrieve, but Douglas retrieved his from the middle of the enemy, without any assistance, and cast it back to his soldiers to retain, after he had so bravely rescued it out of the hands of the enemy. From hence our regiment received orders to march to Dix- muyd, where we lay some time, employed in fortifying that place. While we were there, I had one morning steadfastly fixed my eyes upon some ducks, that were swimming in a large water before me ; when all on a sudden, in the midst of a perfect calm, I observed such a strange and strong agitation in the waters, that prodigiously surprised me. I was at the same moment seized with such a giddiness in my head, that, for a minute or two, I was scarce sensible, and had much ado to keep on my legs. I had never felt anything of an earthquake before, which, as I soon after understood from others, this was; and it left, indeed, very apparent marks of 300 memoirs of captain carleton. its force in a, great rent in the body of the great church, which remains to this day. Ha vino; brought the intended fortifications into some tolera- ble order, we received a command, out of hand, to re-embark for England. And, upon our landing, directions met us to march for Ipswich, where we had our quarters all that win¬ ter. From thence Ave Avere ordered up to London, to do duty in the Tower. I had not been there long before an accident happened, as little to be accounted for, without a divine provi¬ dence, as some Avould make that providence to be, that only can account for it. There was at that time, as I Avas assured by my Lord Lucas, constable of it, upwards of tAventy thousand barrels of gun- poAvder in that they call the White Tower, when all at once the middle flooring did not only give Avay or shrink, but fell flat down upon other barrels of poAvder, together with many of the same combustible matter which had been placed upon it. It Avas a providence strangely neglected at that time, and hardly thought of since ; but let any considerate man consult the consequences if it had taken fire ; perhaps to the destruc¬ tion of the Avhole city, or, at least, as far as the bridge, and parts adjacent. Let his thoughts proceed to examine why or how, in that precipitate fall, not one nail, nor one piece of iron, in that large fabric, should afford one little spark to in¬ flame that mass of sulphurous matter it was loaded with ; and if he is at a loss to find a providence, I fear his friends will be more at a loss to find his understanding. But the battle of Landen happening while our regiment Avas here on duty, Ave Avere soon removed, to our satisfaction, from that pacific station to one more active, in Flanders. NotAvithstanding that fatal battle the year preceding, namely, a.d. 161)4, the confederate army under King William lay encamped at Mont St. Andre, an open place, and much exposed; while the French were intrenched up to their very teeth, at Vignamont, a little distance from us. This afforded matter of great reflection to the politicians of those times, Avho could hardly alloAV, that if the confederate army suffered so much, as it really did in the battle of Lan¬ den, it could consist with right conduct to tempt, or rather dare a iicav engagement. But those sage objectors had forgot the well-known courage of that brave prince, and were as little capable of fathoming his designs. The enemy, who, to NAMUR INVESTED BY THE EARL OF ATHLOXE. 301 their sorrow, had by experience been made better judges, were resolved to traverse both ; for which, purpose they kept close within their intrenchments ; so that after all his efforts, King William, finding he could no way draw them to a battle, suddenly decamped, and marched directly to Pont Espiers, by long marches, with a design to pass the French lines at that place. But notwithstanding our army marched in a direct line, to our great surprise, we found the enemy had first taken pos¬ session of it. They gave this the name of the Long March, and very deservedly; for though our army marched upon the string, and the enemy upon the bow, sensible of the import¬ ance of the post, and the necessity of securing it, by double horsing with their foot, and by leaving their weary and weak in their garrisons, and supplying their places with fresh men out of them, they gained their point in disappointing us. Though certain it is, that march cost them as many men and horses as a battle. However, their master, the French king, was so pleased with their indefatigable and auspicious dili¬ gence, that he wrote, with his own hand, a letter of thanks to the officers, for the great zeal and care they had taken to prevent the confederate army from entering into French Flanders. King William, thus disappointed in that noble design, gave immediate orders for his whole army to march through Oude- nard, and then encamped at Rosendale ; after some little stay at that camp we were removed to the Camerlins, between Newport and Ostend, once more to take our winter quarters there among the boors. We were now in the year 1695, when the strong fortress of Namur, taken by the French in 1692, and since made by them much stronger, was invested by the Earl of Athlone. After very many vigorous attacks, with the loss of many men, the town was taken, the garrison retiring into the castle. Into which, soon after, notwithstanding all the circumspection of the besiegers, Mareschal Bouflers found means, with some dragoons, to throw himself. While King William was thus engaged in that glorious and important siege, Prince Vaudemont being posted at Watergaem with about fifty battalions and as many squad¬ rons, the Mareschal Villeroy laid a design to attack him with the whole French army The prince imagined no less, there- 302 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. fore he prepared accordingly, giving us orders to fortify out camp, as well as the little time we had for it would permit. Those orders were pursued; nevertheless, I must confess, it was beyond the reach of my little reason to account for our so long stay in the sight of an army so much superior to ours. The prince in the whole could hardly muster thirty thousand; and Yilleroy was known to value himself upon having one hundred thousand effective men. However, the prince provi¬ sionally sent away all our baggage that very morning to Ghent, and still made show as if he resolved to defend him¬ self to the last extremity in our little intrenchments. The enemy on their side began to surround us; and in their mo¬ tions for that purpose, blew up little bags of gunpowder, to give the readier notice how far they had accomplished it. Another captain, with myself, being placed on the right, with one hundred men (where I found Monsieur Montal endea¬ vouring if possible to get behind us), I could easily observe they had so far attained their aim of encompassing us, as to the very fashion of a horse’s shoe. This made me fix my eyes so intently upon the advancing enemy, that I never minded what my friends were doing behind me: though I afterwards found that they had been filing off so very art¬ fully and privately, by that narrow opening of the horse-shoe, that when the enemy imagined us past a possibility of escape, our little army at once, and of a sudden, was ready to dis¬ appear. There was a large wood on the right of our army, through which lay the road to Ghent, not broader than to admit of more than four to march abreast. Down this the prince had slid his forces, except to that very small party which the captain and myself commanded, and which was designedly left to bring up the rear. Nor did we stir till Captain Collier, then aid-de-camp to his brother, now Earl of Portmore, came with the word of command for us to draw off. When Villeroy was told of our retreat, he was much sur¬ prised, as thinking it a thing utterly impossible. However, at last, being sensible of the truth of it, he gave orders for our rear to be attacked; but we kept firing from ditch to ditch, and hedge to hedge, till night came upon us; and so our little army got clear of its gigantic enemy with very in¬ considerable loss. However, the French failed not, in their customary way, to express the sense of their vexation at this BOMBARDMENT OF BRUSSELS. 303 disappointment, with fire and sword in the neighbourhood round. Thus Prince Vaudemont acquired more glory by that retreat than an entire victory could have given him; and it was not, I confess, the least part of satisfaction in life, that myself had a share of honour under him to bring off the rear at that his glorious retreat at Arseel. However, in farther revenge of this political chicane of the Prince of Vaudemont, and to oblige, if possible, King William to raise the siege from before Namur, Villeroy entered into the resolution of bombarding Brussels. In order to which he encamped at Anderleck, and then made his approaches as near as was convenient to the toAvn. There he caused to be planted thirty mortars, and raised a battery of ten guns to shoot hot bullets into the place. But before they fired from either, Villeroy, in compliment to the Duke of Bavaria, sent a messenger to knoAV in what part of the town his duchess chose to reside, that they might, as much as possible, avoid incommoding her, by directing their fire to other parts. Answer was returned, that she was at her usual place of residence, the palace; and accord¬ ingly their firing from battery or mortars little incommoded them that way. Five days the bombardment continued; and Avith such fury, that the centre of that noble city was quite laid in rubbish. Most of the time of bombarding I was upon the counterscarp, where I could best see and distinguish ; and I have often counted in the air, at one time, more than tAventy bombs; for they shot Avliole volleys out of their mortars all together. This, as it must needs be terrible, threAV the inhabitants into the utmost confusion. Cart-loads of nuns, that for many years before had never been out of the cloister, Avere hoav hurried about from place to place, to find retreats of some security. In short, the groves, and parts remote, were all croAvded ; and the most spacious streets had hardly a spectator left to vieAV the ruins. Nothing Avas to be seen like that dexterity of our people in extinguishing the fires ; for where the red hot bullets fell, and raised neAv conflagra¬ tions, not burghers only, but the vulgar sort, stood staring, and, Avith their hands impocketed, beheld their houses gradually consume ; and Avithout offering prudent or charit¬ able hand to stop the growing flames. But after they had almost thus destroyed that late fair city, 304 MEMOIRS 3F CAPTAIN C^RLETON. Villeroy, finding he could not raise the siege of Namur by that vigorous attack upon Brussels, decamped at last from before it, and put his army on the march towards Namur, to try if he could have better success by exposing to show his pageant of one hundred thousand men. Prince Vaudemont had timelv intelligence of the duke’s resolution and motion ; and resolved, if possible, to get there before him. Nor was the attempt fruitless ; he fortunately succeeded, though with much fatigue, and no little difficulty, after he had put a trick upon the spies of the enemy by pretending to encamp, and, so soon as they were gone, ordering a full march. The castle of Namur had been all this time under the fire of the besiegers’ cannon ; and soon after our little army under the prince was arrived, a breach, that was imagined practic¬ able, being made in the Terra Nova (which, as the name imports, was anew work, raised by the French, and added to the fortifications, since it fell into their hands in 1692, and which very much increased the strength of the whole), a breach, as I have said, being made in this Terra Nova, a storm, in a council of war, was resolved upon. Four entire regiments, in conjunction with some draughts made out of several others, were ordered for that work, myself command¬ ing that part of them which had been drawn out of Colonel Tiffin’s. We were all to rendezvous at the abbey of Salsines, under the command of the Lord Cutts ; the signal when the attack was to be made, being agreed to be the blowing up of a bag of gunpowder upon the bridge of boats that lay over the Sambre. So soon as the signal was made, we marched up to the breach with a decent intrepidity; receiving, all the way we advanced, the full fire of the Cohorn fort. But as soon as we came near enough to mount, we found it vastly steep and rugged. Notwithstanding all which, several did get up, and entered the breach; but not being supported as they ought to have been, they were all made prisoners; which, together with a wound which my Lord Cutts received, after we had done all that was possible for us, necessitated us to retire with the loss of many of our men. Yilleroy all this while lay in sight, with his army of one hundred thousand men, without making the least offer to incommode the besiegers; or even without doing anything more than make his appearance in favour of the besieged, PLOT TO ASSASSINATE KING WILLIAM. 305 and reeonnoitering our encampment; and, at last, seeing, or imagining that lie saw, the attempt would be to little purpose, with all the good manners in the world, in the night, he withdrew that terrible meteor, and relieved our poor horses from feeding on leaves, the only inconvenience he had put us to. This retreat leaving the garrison without all hope of relief, they in the castle immediately capitulated. But after one of the gates had been, according to articles, delivered up, and Count Guiscard was marching out at the head of the garrison, and Bonders at the head of the dragoons, the latter was- by order of King William, arrested, in reprize of the garrisoi of Dixmuyd (who, contrary to the cartel, had been detained prisoners), and remained under arrest till they were set free. CHAPTER III. PLOT TO ASSASSINATE KING WILLIAM-ACCOUNT OF TIIE CON¬ SPIRACY-DISSIPATION OF THE GUARD AT SHOERBECK- LEFT IN A GARRISON WITHOUT AMMUNITION-NARROW ESCAPE FROM A HIRED INCENDIARY-THE ADVANTAGE OF A JEW AS PROVEDITOR TO THE ARMY AND TROOPS-SHORT DESCRIPTION OF VALENCIA AND BARCELONA. At the very beginning of the year 1G96 was discovered a plot, bt only to have had its origin from hell or Rome : a plot which would have put Hottentots and barbarians out of countenance. This was called the Assassination Plot, from the design of it, which was, to have assassinated King William a little before the time of his usual leaving England to head the army of the confederates in Flanders. And as nothing could give a nobler idea of the great character of that prince than such a nefarious combination against him ; so, with all considerate men, nothing could more depreciate the cause of his inconsiderate enemies. If I remember what I have read, the sons of ancient Rome, though heathens, behaved themselves against an enemy in a quite different manner. Their historians afford us more instances than a few, of their generous intimations to kings and generals, VOL. II- X S06 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. under actual hostilities, of barbarous designs upon their lives. I proceed to this of our own countrymen. Soon after the discovery had been made, by persons actually engaged in that inhuman design, the regiment in which I served, with some others then in Flanders, received orders, with all expedition, to embark for England; though, on our arrival at Gravesend, fresh orders met us to remain on hoard the transports till we had farther directions. On my going to London, a few days after, I was told that two regiments only were now designed to come ashore ; and that the rest would he remanded to Flanders, the danger apprehended being pretty well over. I was at TV hitehall when I received this notice ; where, meeting my Lord Cutts (who had, ever since the storming of the Terra Nova at Namur, allowed me a share in his favour), he expressed himself in the most obliging manner; and, at parting, desired he might not fail of seeing me next morning at his house, fo 1 ’ he had somewhat of an extraordinary nature to communicate to me. At the time appointed, I waited on his lordship, where I met Mr. Steel (now Sir Richard, and at that time his secretary), who immediately introduced me. I found in company with him three gentlemen; and after common saluta¬ tions, his lordship delivered into my hands an order from the king in council to go along with Captain Porter, Mr. de la Rue, and Mr. George Harris (who proved to be those three with him), to search all the transports at Gravesend, in order to prevent any of the conspirators getting out of England that way. After answering that I was ready to pay obedience, and receiving, in private, the farther necessary instructions, we took our leave, and oars soon after for Gravesend. It was in our passage down, that I understood that they had all been of the conspiracy, but now reluctant, were become witnesses. When we came to Gravesend, I produced my authority to the commanding officer, who very readily paid obedience, and gave assistance ; but after our most dilligent search, finding nothing of what we looked for, we returned that very night to London. Next day a proclamation was to come out for the appre¬ hending three or four troopers, who were sent over by King James, with 1,000/. reward for each ; Mr. George Harris, THE CONSPIRATORS DISCOVERED. 307 who was the fourth, being the only evidence against the other three. No sooner were we returnedfrom Gravesend, but Harris had intelligence brought him, that Cassells, one of the three, was at Mr. Allen’s in the Savoy, under the name of Green. Upon which we went directly to the place ; and inquiring for Mr. Green, we were told he lodged there, and was in his room. I was obliged by my order to go along with them, and assist them; and very well was it that I was so : for in consideration of the reward in the proclamation, which, as I have said, was to come out the next day, Harris and the rest were for deferring his seizure, tdl the coming out of that proclamation; but making answer, that in case of his escape that night, I must be responsible to my superioi’s, who, under the most favourable aspect, would construe it a neglect of duty, they Avere forced to comply ; and so he Avas taken up, and his name that night struck out of the proclamation. It is very true, by this faithful discharge of my trust, I did save the government 1,000/. ; but it is equally so, that I never had of my governors one farthing consideration for Avhat others termed an over-officious piece of service ; though in justice it must be OAvned a piece of exact and disinterested duty. Some feAvdays after, attending by direction at the secretary’s office, with Mr. Harris, there came in a Dutchman, spluttering and making a great noise, that he was sure he could dis¬ cover one of the conspirators ; but the mien and the behaviour of the man, would not give anybody leave to give him any credit or regard. HoAvever, the man persisting in his asser¬ tions, I spoke to Mr. Harris to take him aside, and ask him Avhat sort of a person he Avas : Harris did so; and the Dutchman describing him, says Harris, returning to me, I’ll be hanged if it be not Blackburn. Upon which Ave had him questioned somewhat more narrowly ; when having no room to doubt, and understanding Avhere he Avas, Colonel Rivet of the guards Avas sent for, and ordered to go along with us to seize him. We AA r ent accordingly ; and it proving to be Blackburn, the Dutchman had 500/., and the colonel and others the remainder. Cassells and Blackburn, if still alive, are in Newgate, confined by act of Parliament, one only witness, Avhich Avas Harris, being producible against them. When Blackburn was seized, I found in the chamber Avith x 2 308 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN 1AKLETON. him, one Davison, a watchmaker, living in Ilolbom. 1 carried him along with me tp the secretary of state ; but nothing on his examination appearing against him, he was immediately discharged. He offered afterwards to present me with a fine watch of his own making, which I refused; and he Ion" after owned the obligation. So soon as the depth of this plot was fathomed, and the intended evil provided against, as well as prevented, King William went over into Flanders, and our regiment thereupon received orders for their immediate return. Nothing of any moment occurred till our arrival at our old quarters, the Camerlins, where we lay dispersed amongst the country boors W farmers, as heretofore. However, for our better security in those quarters, and to preserve us from the excursions of the neighbouring garrison of Furnes, we were obliged to keep an outguard at a little place called Shoerbeck. This guard was every forty-eight hours changed and remounted with a captain, a lieutenant, an ensign, and threescore men. When it came to my turn to relieve that guard (and for that purpose I was arrived at my post), it appeared to me with the face of a place of debauch, rather than business ; there being too visible tokens that the hard duty of both officers and soldiers had been that of hard drinking, the foulest error that a soldier can commit, especially when on his guard. To confirm my apprehensions, a little after I had taken possession of my guard, the man of the house related to me such passages, and so many of them, that satisfied me that if ten sober men had made the attack, they might have fairly knocked all my predecessors of the last guard on the head without much difficulty. However, his account administered matter of caution to me, and put me upon taking a narrower view of our situation. In consequence whereofj at night, I placed a sentinel a quarter of a mile in the rear, and such other sentinels as I thought necessary and convenient in other places ; with orders, that upon sight of an enemy the sentinel near should fire; and that upon hearing that, all the other sentinels as well as he, should hasten in to strengthen our main guard. What my jealousy, on my landlord’s relation, had suggested, happened accordingly. For about one in the morning I was alarmed with the cry of one of my sentinels. Turn out, for A PRESENT FROM OFFICERS OF THE GARRISON. 303 God’s sake ; which he repeated with vehemence three or four times over. I took the alarm, got up suddenly, and Avith no little difficulty got my men into the ranks, when the person who made the outcry came running in, almost spent, and out of breath. It was the sentinel that I had luckily placed about a quarter of a mile off Avho gave the alarm, and his musket flashing in the pan without going off, he endeavoured to supply Avith his voice the defect of his piece. I had just got my men into their ranks, in order to receAe the enemy, when, by the moonlight, I discovered a party advancing upon us. My out-sentinel challenged them, and, as I had precau¬ tioned, they answered, Hispanioli; though I knew them to be French. However, on my survey of our situation by daylight, having marked in my mind a proper place for draAving up my men in case of an attack, Avhich Avas too narrow to admit of more than two on a breast, and which Avould secure between us and the enemy a ditch of water ; I resolved to put in practice what had entertained me so Avell in the theory. To that purpose I ordered my first rank to keep their post, stand still and face the enemy, Avhile the other two ranks stooping, should fblloAV me to gam the intended station; which done, the first rank had orders to file oft* and fall behind. All Avas performed in excellent order; and I confess it Avas Avith no little pleasure that I beheld the enemy, for the best part of an hour, in consultation Avhether they should attack us or no. The result, nevertheless, of that consultation ended in this ; that, seeing us so Avell upon our guard, it Avas most advisable to draAV off They soon put their resolution into practice, which I Avas very glad to see; on examination a little before, having found that my predecessor, as in other things, had failed of conduct, in leaving me a garrison without ammu¬ nition. Next morning I Avas very pleasingly surprised Avith a handsome present of Avine, and some other necessary refresh ments. At first I made a little scruple and hesitation Avhether or no to receive them; till the bearer assured me they Avere sent me from the officers of the next garrison, Avho had made me a visit the night before, as a candid acknowledgment of my conduct and good behaviour. I returned their compliment, that I hoped I should never receive men of honour othenvise than like a man of honour; which mightily pleased them. 810 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON Every of which particulars the Ghent Gazetteer the week after published. We had little to do except marching and counter-marching all the campaign after; till it was resolved in a council of war, for the better preserving of Brussels from such insults as it had before sustained from the French, during the siege of Namur, to fortify Anderlech; upon which our regiment, as well as others, were commanded from our more pacific posts to attend that work. Our whole army was under movement to cover that resolution; and the train fell to my care and command in the march. There accompanied the train a fellow, seemingly ordinary, yet very officious and courteous, being ready to do anything for any person, from the officer to the common soldier. He travelled along and moved with the train, sometimes on foot, and sometimes getting a ride in some one or other of the waggons ; but ever full of his chit-chat and stories of humour. By these in¬ sinuating ways he had screwed himself into the general good opinion ; but the waggoners especially grew particularly torn! of him. At the end of our march all our powder-waggon's were placed breast-a-breast, and so close, that one mis¬ carrying would leave little doubt of the fate of all the rest. This, in the camp, we commonly call the Park; and here it was that our new guest, like another Phaeton, though under pretence of weariness, not ambition, got leave of the very last carter to the train to take a nap in his waggon. One who had entertained a jealousy of him, and had watched him, gave information against him ; upon which he was seized and brought to me as captain of the guard. I caused him to be searched; and, upon search, finding match, touchwood, and other dangerous materials upon him, I sent him and them away to the provoe. Upon the whole, a council of war was called, at which, upon a strict examination, he confessed himself a hired incendiary; and as such received his sentence to be burnt in the face of the army. The execution was a day or two after, when, on the very spot, he farther acknowledged, that on the sight or noise of the blow, it had been concerted that the French army should tall upon the confederates under those lamentable circum¬ stances. The peace of Eiswick soon after taking place, put an end to all incendiarisms of either sort. So that nothing of a THE CHANCE OF FORTUNE VERY OBSCURE. 311 military kind, which, was now become my province, hap¬ pened of some years after. Our regiment was first ordered into England, and presently after into Ireland. But as these Memoirs are not designed for the low amusement of a tea-table, hut rather of the cabinet, a series of inglorious inactivity can furnish but very little towards them. Yet as little as I admired a life of inactivity, there are some sorts of activity to which a wise man might almost give supineness the preference. Such is that of barely encountering elements, and waging war with nature; and such, in my opinion, would have been the spending my commission, and very probably my life with it, in the West Indies. For though the climate, as some would urge, may afford a chance for a very speedy advance in honour, yet, upon revolving in my mind, that those rotations ot the wheel of fortune are often so very quick, as well as un¬ certain, that I myself might as well be the first as the last; the whole of the debate ended in somewhat like that couplet of the excellent Hudibras :— Then he, that ran away and fled, Must lie in honour’s trucklebed. However, my better planets soon disannulled those me¬ lancholy ideas, which a rumour of our being sent into the West Indies had crowded my head and heart with. For being called over into England upon the very affairs of the regiment, I arrived there just after the orders for their transportation went over; by which means the choice of going was put out of my power, and the danger of refusing, which was the case of many, was very likely avoided. It being judged, therefore, impossible for me to return soon enough to gain my passage, one in power proposed to me that I should resign to an officer then going over; and with some other contingent advantages, to my great satis¬ faction I was put upon the half-pay list. This was more agreeable, for I knew, or at least imagined myself wise enough to foretell, from the over-hot debate of the house of commons upon the partition treaty, that it could not be long ! before the present peace would at least require patching. Under this sort of uncertain settlement I remained with the patience of a Jew, though not with Judaical absurdity, 812 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. a faithful adherer to my expectation. Nor did the con« sequence fail of answering; a war was apparent, and soon after proclaimed. Thus, waiting for an opportunity which I flattered myself would soon present, the little diversions of Dublin, and the moderate conversation of that people, were not of temptation enough to make my stay in England look like a burthen. But though the war was proclaimed, and preparations accordingly made for it, the expectations from all received a sudden damp by the as sudden death of King William. That prince, who had stared death in the face in many sieges and battles, met with his fate in the midst of his diversions, who seized his prize in an hour, to human thought, the least adapted to it. He was a hunting, his customary diversion, when, by an unhappy trip of his horse, he fell to the ground; and in the fall displaced his collar-bone. The news of it immediately alarmed the court and all around; and the sad effects of it soon after gave all Europe the like alarm. France only, who had not disdained to seek it sooner by ungenerous means, received new hope from what gave others motives for despair. He flattered himself, that that long- lived obstacle to his ambition thus removed, his successor would never fall into those measures which he had wisely concerted for the liberties of Europe; but he, as well as others of his adherents, was gloriously deceived. That god¬ like queen, with a heart entirely English, prosecuted her royal predecessor’s counsels; and, to remove all the very faces of jealousy, immediately on her accession, despatched to every court of the great confederacy persons adequate to the importance of the message, to give assurances thereof. This gave new spirit to a cause that at first seemed to languish in its founder, as it struck its great opposers with a no less mortifying terror. And well did the great successes of her arms answer the prayers and efforts of that royal soul of the confederacies, together with the wishes of all that, like her, had the good, as Avell as the honour of their country at heart, in which the liberties of Europe were included. The first campaign gave a noble earnest of the future. Bon, Keysenvaert, Venlo, and Ruremond, were found forerunners only of Donawert, Hoclistet, and Blen¬ heim. Such a march of English lorces to the support of the tottering empire, as it gloriously manifested the ancient EMBARK WITH EARL PETERBOROW FOR SPAIN. 313 genius of a warlike people, so was it happily celebrated with a success answerable to the glory of the undertaking, which concluded in statues and princely donatives to an English subject, from the then only emperor in Europe. A small tribute, it is true, tor ransomed nations and captived armies, which justly enough inverted the exclamations of a Roman emperor to the French monarch, who deprecated his legions lost pretty near the same spot; hut to a much superior number, and on a much less glorious occasion. But my good fortune not allowing me to participate in those glorious appendages of the English arms in Flanders, nor on the Rhine, I was resolved to make a push for it the first oppor¬ tunity, and waste my minutes no longer on court attendances •, and my Lord Cutts returning with his full share of laurels for his never to he forgotten services at Venlo, Ruremond, and Hochstet, found his active genius now to he reposed under the less agreeable burthen of unhazardous honour, where quiet must provide a tomb for one already past any danger of oblivion; deep wounds and glorious actions having anticipated all that could be said in epitaphs or literal inscriptions. Soon after his arrival from Germany he was appointed general of all her majesty’s forces in Ireland ; upon which, going to congratulate him, he was pleased to inquire of me several things relating to that country, and particularly in what part ot Dublin I would recommend his residence; offering at the same time, if I would go over with him, all the services that should fall in his way. But inactivity was a thing I had too long lamented ; there¬ fore, after I had, as decently as I could, declined the latter part, I told his lordship that as to a place of residence, I was master of a house in Dublin, large enough, and suitable to his great quality, which should be at his service on any terms he thought fit. Adding, withal, that I had a mind to see Spain, where my Lord Peterborow was now going ; and that if his lordship would favour me with a recommendation, it would suit my present inclinations much better than any farther tedious recess. His lordship was so good to close with both my overtures; and spoke so effectually in my favour that the Earl of Peterborow, then general of all the forces ordered on that expedition, bade me speedily prepare myself; and so, when all things were ready, I embarked with that noble lord for Spain, to pursue his well-concerted undertaking; which, in 314 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. the event, will demonstrate to the world that little armies, under the conduct of auspicious generals, may sometimes pro¬ duce prodigious effects. The Jews, in whatever part of the world, are a people indus¬ trious in the increasing of mammon; and, being accustomed to the universal methods of gain, are always esteemed best qualified for any undertaking where that bears a probability of being a perquisite. Providing bread, and other requisites, for an army, was ever allowed to carry along with it a profit answerable; and Spain was not the first country where that people had engaged in such an undertaking. Besides, on any likely appearance of great advantage, it is in the nature as well as practice of that race, strenuously to assist one another, and that with the utmost confidence and prodigious alacrity. One of that number, both competent and willing enough to carry on an undertaking of that kind, fortunately came at that juncture to solicit the earl of Peterborow to be employed as proveditor to the army and troops, which were, or should be, sent into Spain. It will easily be admitted that the earl, under his present exigencies, did not decline to listen. And a very considerable sum being offered by way of advance, the method common in like cases was pursued, and the sum proposed accepted; by which means the Earl of Peterborow found himself put into the happy capacity of proceeding upon his first concerted project. The name of the Jew who signed the contract was Curtisos; and he and his friends, with great punctuality, advanced the expected sum of 100,000/. sterling, or very near it; which was immediately ordered into the hands of the paymaster of the forces; for though the earl took money of the Jews, it was not for his own, but public use. According to agreement, bills were drawn for the value from Lisbon, upon the Lord Godolphin, then lord-treasurer, all which were, on that occasion, punctually complied with. The Earl of Peterborow having thus fortunately found means to supply himself with money, and by that with some horse, after he had obtained leave of the Lord Galloway to make an exchange of two regiments of foot, received the arch¬ duke, and all those who would follow him, aboard the fleet, and, at his own expense, transported him and his whole retinue to Barcelona : for all which prodigious charge, as I have been very lately informed, from very good hands, that noble earl SURRENDER OF DENIA. 31-5 never to this day received any consideration from the govern¬ ment, or any person whatsoever. We sailed from Lisbon, in order to join the squadron under Sir Cloudsley Shovel: meeting with which at the appointed, station off Tangier, the men-of-war and transports thus united, made the best of their way for Gibraltar. There Ave stayed no longer than to take aboard two regiments out of that garrison, in lieu of two out of our fleet. Here we found the Prince of Hesse, Avho immediately took a resolution to folloAv the archduke in this expedition. He Avas a person of great gallantry, and having been viceroy of Catalonia, was received on board the fleet with the utmost satisfaction, as being a person capable of doing great service in a country where he Avas Avell knoAvn, and as well beloved. Speaking Latin then pretty fluently, it gave frequent opportunities of conversing Avith the tAvo father-confessors of the Duke of Austria; and upon that account I found myself honoured with some share in the favour of the archduke himself. I mention this, not to gratify any vain humour, but as a corroborating circumstance, that my opportunities of infor¬ mation, in matters of consequence, could not thereby be supposed to be lessened; but that I might more reasonably be imagined to arrive at intelligence, that not A r ery often, or at least not so soon, came to the knoAvledge of others. From Gibraltar we sailed to the bay of Altea, not far distant j from the city of Valencia, in the road of Avhich we continued j for some days. While Ave were there, as I Avas very j credibly informed, the Earl of Peterborow met Avith some fresh ' disappointment; but Avhat it Avas, neither I nor anybody else, | as far as I could perceive, could ever dive into: neither did it. appear by any outward tokens in that noble general, that ; it lay so much at his heart as those about him seemed to assure me it did. HoAvever, Avhile Ave lay at Altea bay, two bomb-vessels and j a small squadron were ordered against Denia, which had a : small castle ; but rather fine than strong. And, accordingly, upon our offer to bring to bear Avith our cannon, and preparing to fix our bomb-vessels, in order to bombard the place, it j surrendered ; and acknowledged the archduke as laAvful King 1 of Spain, and so proclaimed him. From this time, therefore, i speaking of that prince, it shall be under that title. General j Kamos Avas 1 fit commander here; u person avIio afterwards 816 MEMOIRS OF CARTA IN CARLETON. acted a very extraordinary part in the war carried on in the kingdom of Valencia. But notwithstanding no positive resolutions had been taken for the operations of the campaign, before the archduke’s departure from Lisbon, the Earl of Peterborow, ever solicitous of the honour of his country, had premeditated another en¬ terprise, which, had it been embraced, would, in all probability, have brought that war to a much more speedy conclusion ; and at the same time have obviated all those difficulties, which were but too apparent in the siege of Barcelona. He had justly and judiciously weighed, that there were no forces in the middle parts of Spain, all their troops being the extreme parts of the kingdom, either on the frontiers of Portugal, or in the city of Barcelona; that with King Philip and the royal family at Madrid there were only some few horse, and those in bad condition, and which only served for guards; if therefore, as he rightly projected within himself, by the taking of Valencia, or any seaport town that might have secured his landing, he had marched directly for Madrid; what could have opposed him ? But I shall have occasion to dilate more upon this head a few pages hence; and therefore shall here only say, that though that project of his might have brought about a speedy and wonderful revolution, what he was by his orders afterwards obliged, against his inclinations, to pursue, contributed much more to his great reputation, as it put him under a frequent necessity of overcoming difficulties, which to any other general would have appeared insurmountable. Valencia is a city towards the centre of Spain, to the sea¬ ward, seated in a rich and most populous country, just fifty leagues from Madrid. It abounds in horses and mules, by reason of the great fertility of its lands, which they can, to great advantage, water when and as they please. This city and kingdom was as much inclined to the interest of King Chai’les as Catalonia itself; for, even on our first appearance, great numbers of people came down to the bay of Altea, with not only a bare offer of their services, but loaded with all manner of provisions, and loud acclamations of Viva Carlos, tercero , Viva. There were no regular troops in any of the places round about it, or in the city itself. The nearest were those few horse in Madrid, one hundred and fifty miles dis¬ tant ; nor any foot nearer than Barcelona, or the frontiers of Portugal. ORDERS TO PROCEED TO CATALONIA. 317 On tlie contrary, Barcelona is one of the largest and most populous cities in all Spain, fortified with bastions ; one side thereof is secured by the sea, and the other by a strong for¬ tification called Monjouick. The place is of so large a cir¬ cumference, that thirty thousand men would scarce suffice to form the lines of circumvallation. It once resisted lor many months an army of that force ; and is almost at the greatest distance from England of any place belonging to that monarchy. This short description of these two places will appear highly necessary, if it be considered, that no person without it, would be able to judge of the design which the Earl ol Peter- borow intended to pursue, when he first took the archduke aboard the fleet. Nevertheless, the earl now found himself under necessity of quitting that noble design, upon his receipt of orders from England, while he lay in the bay of Altea, to proceed directly to Catalonia; to which the archduke, as well as many sea and land officers, were most inclined; and the Prince of Hesse more than all the rest. On receiving those orders, the Earl of Peterborow seemed to be of opinion that, from an attempt which he thought under a probability of success, he was condemned to under¬ take what was next to an impossibility of effecting; since nothing appeared to him so injudicious as an attempt upon Barcelona. A place at such a distance from receiving any reinforcement or relief; the only place in which the Spaniards had a garrison of regular forces ; and those in number rather exceeding the army he was to undertake the siege with, was enough to cool the ardour of a person of less penetration and zeal than what the earl had on all occasions demonstrated. Whereas, if the general, as he intended, had made an imme¬ diate march to Madrid, after he had secured Valencia and the towns adjacent, which were all ready to submit and de¬ clare for King Charles ; or, if otherwise inclined, had it not in their power to make any considerable resistance; to which, if it be added, that he could have mules and horses imme¬ diately provided for him in what number lie pleased, together with carriages necessary for artillery, baggage, and ammu¬ nition ; m few days he could have forced King Philip out of Madrid, where he had so little force to oppose him. And as there was nothing in his way to prevent or obstruct his marching thither, it is hard to conceive any other part King 318 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CAIiLETON. Philip could have acted in such an extremity, than to retire either towards Portugal or Catalonia. In either of which cases, he must have left all the middle part of Spain open to the pleasure of the enemy ; who in the mean time, would have had it in their power to prevent any communication of those bodies at such opposite extremes of the country, as were the frontiers of Portugal and Barcelona, where only, as I said before, were any regular troops. And, on the other side, as the forces of the Earl of Peter - borow were more than sufficient for an attempt where there was so little danger of opposition ; so if their army on the frontiers of Portugal should have marched back upon him into the country, either the Portuguese army could have ! entered into Spain without opposition, or, at worst, supposing the general had been forced to retire, his retreat would have been easy and safe into those parts of Valencia and Andaluzia, which he previously had secured. Besides, Gib¬ raltar, the strongest place in Spain, if not in the whole world, was already in our possession, and a great fleet at hand ready to give assistance in all places near the sea. From all which it is pretty apparent, that in a little time the war on our side might have been supported without entering the Me¬ diterranean ; by which means all reinforcements would have been much nearer at hand, and the expenses of transporting troops and ammunition very considerably diminished. But none of these arguments, though every one of them is founded on solid reason, were of force enough against the prevailing opinion for an attempt upon Catalonia. Mr. Crow, agent for the queen in those parts, had sent into England most positive assurances that nothing would be wanting, if ones our fleet made an invasion amongst the Catalans ; the Prince of Hesse likewise abounded in mighty offers and pro¬ digious assurances ; all which enforced our army to that part of Spain, and that gallant prince to those attempts in which he lost his life. Very much against the inclination of our general, who foresaw all those difficulties, which were no less evident afterwards to every one; and the sense of which occasioned those delays, and that opposition to any effort upon Barcelona, which ran through so many successive councils of war. However, pursuant to his instructions from England, the repeated desires of the archduke, and the importunities of the TI100PS ENCAMP NEAR BARCELONA. 319 Prince of Hesse, our general gave orders to sail from Altea towards the bay of Barcelona, the chief city of Catalonia. Nevertheless, when we arrived there, he was very unwilling to land any of the forces, till he saw some probability of that assistance and succour so much boasted of, and so often promised. But as nothing appeared but some small numbers of men very indifferently armed, and without either gentle¬ men or officers at the head of them, the Earl of Peterborow was of opinion, this could not be deemed sufficient encourage¬ ment for him to engage in an enterprise, which carried so poor a face of probability of success along with it. In answer to this it was urged, that till a descent was made, and the affair thoroughly engaged in, it was not to be ex¬ pected that any great numbers would appear, or that persons of condition would discover themselves. Upon all which it was resolved the troops should be landed. Accordingly our forces were disembarked, and immedi ately encamped; notwithstanding which, the number of succours increased very slowly, and that after the first straggling manner. Nor were those that did appear any way to be depended on ; coming when they thought fit, and going away when they pleased, and not to be brought under any regular discipline. It was then pretended, that until they saw the artillery landed as well as forces, they would not believe any siege actually intended. This brought the general under a sort of necesity of complying in that also. Though certainly so to do must be allowed a little unreasonable, while the majority in all councils of Avar declared the desigt to be impracticable ; and the Earl of Peterborow had positive orders to proceed according to such majorities. At last the Prince of Hesse was pleased to demand pay for those stragglers, as officers and soldiers, endeavouring to maintain that it could not be expected that men should venture their lives for nothing. Thus we came to Catalonia upon assurances of universal assistance; but found, when we came there, that avc Avere to have none unless Ave paid for it. And as Ave Avere sent thither Avithout money to pay for any¬ thing, it had certainly been for us more / tolerable to have been in a country Avhere Ave might have taken by force Avhat we could not obtain any other Avay. However, to do the Miquelets all possible justice, I must say, that notwithstanding the number of them which hovered 820 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. about tbe place, never much exceeded fifteen hundred men; if sometimes more, oftener less ; and though they never came under any command, but planted themselves where and as they pleased, yet did they considerable service in taking possession of all the country houses, and convents, that lay between the hills and the plain of Barcelona; by means whereof they rendered it impossible for the enemy to make any sorties or sallies at any distance from the town. And now began all those difficulties to bear, which long before, by the general, had been apprehended. The troops had continued under a state of inactivity for the space of three weeks, all which was spent in perpetual contrivances and disputes amongst ourselves, not with the enemy. In six several councils of war the siege oi Barcelona, under the cir¬ cumstances we then lay, was rejected as a madness and impossibility. And though the general and Brigadier Stanhope (afterward Earl Stanhope) consented to some effort, yet it was rather that some effort should be made to satisfy the expectation of the world, than with any hopes of success. However, no consent at all could be obtained from any council of war ; and the Dutch general, in particular, declared that he would not obey even the commands of the Earl of Peter- borow, if he should order the sacrifice of the troops under him in so unjustifiable a manner, without the consent of a council of war. And yet all those officers who refused their consent to the siege of Barcelona, offered to march into the country, and attempt any other place that was not provided with so strong and numerons a garrison ; taking it for granted that no town in Catalonia, Barcelona excepted, could make long resistance, and in case the troops in that garrison should pursue them, they then might have an opportunity of fighting them at less disadvantage in the open field, than behind the walls of a place of such strength. And, indeed, should they have issued out on any such design, a defeat of those troops would have put the province of Catalonia, together with the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, into the hands of King Charles more effectually than the taking of Barcelona itself. Let it be observed, en passant , that by those offers of the land officers in a council of war, it is easy to imagine what would have been the success of our troops had they marched directly from Valencia to Madrid. For if after t .vo months DISSATISFACTION OF ARRANGEMENTS AT CATALONIA. 321 alarm, it was thought reasonable, as well as practicable, to march into the open country rather than attempt the siege of Barcelona, where forces equal, if not superior in number, were ready to follow us at the heels; what might not have been expected from an invasion by our troops when and where they could meet with little opposition ? But leaving the consideration of what might have been, I shall now endeavour, at least with great exactness, to set down some of the most remarkable events from our taking to the relief of Barcelona. The repeated refusals of the councils of war for undertaking the siege of so strong a place, with a garrison so numerous, and those refusals grounded upon such solid reasons, against a design so rash, reduced the general to the utmost perplexity. The court of King Charles was immerged in complaint; all belonging to him lamenting the hard fate of that prince, to be brought into Catalonia only to return again, without the offer of any one effort in his favour. On the other hand, our own officers and soldiers were highly dissatisfied that they were reproached, because not disposed to enter upon and engage themselves in impossibilities. And, indeed, in the manner that the siege was proposed and insisted upon by the Prince of Hesse, in every of the several councils of war, after the loss of many men thrown away to no other purpose, but to avoid the shame, as the expression ran, of coming like fools and going away like cowards, it could have ended in nothing but a retreat at last. It afforded but small comfort to the earl to have foreseen all these difficulties, and to have it in his power to say, that he would never have taken the archduke on board, nor have proposed to him the hopes of a recovery of the Spanish monarchy from King Philip, if he could have imagined it probable, that he should not have been at liberty to pursue his own design, according to his own judgment. It must be allowed very hard for him, who had undertaken so great a work, and that without any orders from the government; and by so doing could have had no justification but by success ; I say, it must be allowed to be very hard, after the undertaking had been approved in England, that he should I find himself to be directed in this manner by those at a 1 distance, upon ill-grounded and confident reports from Mr. : Crow; and compelled, as it were, though general, to follow VOL. II. Y 322 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. the sentiments of strangers, who either had private views of ambition, or had no immediate care or concern for the troops employed in this expedition. CHAPTER IV. NEGLIGENCE OF THE GOVERNOR OF MONJOUICK-EXTRA¬ ORDINARY RESOLUTION OF THE DUTCH GENERAL-ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT ACTION AT MONJOUICK-PANIC AMONG THE SOLDIERY-GREAT ENTERPRISE OF THE SAILORS AT THE SIEGE OF BARCELONA-DIFFICULTY OF MOUNTING A BAT¬ TERY-THE DUCHESS OF POPOLI IN THE ENGAGEMENT- SURRENDER OF BARCELONA-REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF CATHOLIC ZEAL. Such were the present unhappy circumstances of the Earl of Peterborow in the camp before Barcelona:—impossibilities proposed ; no expedients to be accepted ; a court reproaching ; councils of war rejecting; and the Dutch general refusing the assistance of the troops under his command; and, what sur¬ mounted all, a despair of bringing such animosities and differing opinions to any tolerable agreement. Yet all these difficulties, instead of discouraging the earl, set every faculty of his more afloat; and, at last, produced a lucky thought, which was happily attended with events extraordinary and scenes of success much beyond his expectation ; such as the general himself was heard to confess, it had been next to folly to have looked for; as certainly, in prima facie , it would hardly have borne proposing, to take by surprise a place much stronger than Barcelona itself. True it is, that his only hope of succeeding consisted in this: that no person could suppose such an enterprise could enter into the imagination of man ; and, without doubt, the general’s chief dependence lay upon what he found true in the sequel; that the governor and garrison of Monjouick, by reason of their own security, would be very negligent, and very little upon their guard. However, to make the experiment, he took an opportunity, unknown to any person but an aid-de-camp that attended him, and went out to view the fortifications; and there being no horse in that strong fortress, and the Miquelets being ADVANTAGE OF POSITION AT BARCELONA. 323 possessed of all the houses and gardens in the plain, it was not difficult to give himself that satisfaction, taking his way by the foot of the hill. The observation he made of the place itself, the negligence and supineness of the garrison, together with his own uneasy circumstances, soon brought the earl to a resolution of putting his first conceptions in execution; satisfied as he was, from the situation of the ground between Monjouick and the town, that if the first was in our possession, the siege of the latter might be undertaken with some prospect of success. From what has been said, some may be apt to conclude, that the siege afterward succeeding when the attack was made from the side of Monjouick, it had not been impossible to have prevailed, if the effort had been made on the east side of the town, where our forces were at first encamped, and where only we could have made our approaches if Monjouick had not been in our power. But a few words will convince any of common experience of the utter impossi¬ bility of success upon the east part of the town, although many almost miraculous accidents made us succeed, when we brought our batteries to bear upon that part of Barcelona towards the west. The ground to the east was a perfect level for many miles, which would have necessitated our making our approaches in a regular way ; and consequently our men must have been exposed to the full fire of their whole artillery. Besides, the town is on that side much stronger than any other ; there is an outwork just under the walls of the town, flanked by the courtin and the faces of two bastions, which might have cost us half our troops to possess, before we could have raised a battery against the walls. Or supposing, after all, a competent breach had been made, what a wise piece of work must it have been to have attempted a storm, against double the number of regular troops within? On the contrary, we were so favoured by the situation when we made the attack from the side of Monjouick, that tire breach was made and the town taken without opening of trenches, or without our being at all incommoded by any sallies of the enemy ; as, in truth, they made not one during the whole siege. Our great battery, which consisted of upwards of fifty heavy cannon, supplied from the ships, and managed by the seamen, were placed upon a spot of rising y 2 821 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. ground, just large enough to contain our guns, with two deep hollow ways on each side the field, at each end whereof we had raised a little redoubt, which served to preserve our men from the shot of the town. Those little redoubts, in which w r e had some field pieces, flanked the battery, and rendered it entirely secure from any surprise of the enemy. There were several other smaller batteries raised upon the hills adjacent, in places not to be approached, which, in a manner, rendered all the artillery of the enemy useless, by reason thei ' men could not ply them but with the utmost danger ; whereas, ours were secure, very few being killed, and those mostly by random shot. But to return to the general. Forced as he was to take this extraordinary resolution, he concluded, the readiest way to surprise his enemies, was to elude his friends. lie there¬ fore called a council of war ashore, of the land-officers; and aboard, of the admirals and sea-officers; in both which it was resolved, that in case the siege of Barcelona was judged impracticable, and that the troops should be re-embarked by a day appointed, an effort should be made upon the kingdom of Naples. Accordingly, the day affixed being come, the heavy artillery, landed for the siege, was returned aboard the ships, and everything in appearance prepared for a re-embarkment. During which, the general was obliged to undergo all the reproaches of a dissatisfied court; and, what was more uneasy to him, the murmurings of the sea-officers, who, not so competent judges in what related to sieges, were one and all inclined to a design upon Barcelona; and the rather, because, as the season was so far spent, it was thought altogether improper to engage the fleet in any new undertaking. However, all things were so well disguised by our seeming preparations for a retreat, that the very night our troops were in march towards the attack of Monjouick, there were public entertainments and rejoicings in the town for the raising of the siege. The Prince of Hesse had taken large liberties in complain¬ ing against all the proceedings in the camp before Barcelona : even to insinuations, that though the earl gave his opinion for some effort in public, yet used he not sufficient authority over the general officers to incline them to comply ; throwing out withal some hints, that the general, from the beginning, had declared himself in favour of other operations, and PETERBOROW RESOLVES TO ENGAGE THE ENEMY. 325 against coming to Catalonia; the latter part whereof was nothing but fact. On the other side, the Earl of Peterborow complained, that the boasted assistance was no way made good ; and that, in failure thereof, his troops were to be sacrificed to the humours of a stranger: one who had no command, and whose conduct might bear a question whether equal to his courage. These reproaches of one another had bred so much ill-blood between those two great men, that for above a fortnight they had no correspondence, nor ever exchanged one word. The earl, however, having made his proper dispositions, and delivered out his orders, began his march in the evening, with twelve hundred foot and two hundred horse, which, of necessity, were to pass by the quarters of the Prince of Hesse. That prince, on their appearance, was told that the general was come to speak with him ; and, being brought into his apartment, the earl acquainted him, that he had at last resolved upon an attempt against the enemy; adding, that now, if he pleased, he might be a judge of their behaviour, and see whether his officers and soldiers had deserved that character which he had so liberally given them. The prince made answer, that he had always been ready to take his share ; but could hardly believe that troops marching that way could make any attempt against the enemy to satis¬ faction. However, without farther discourse, he called for his horse. By this we may see what share fortune has in the greatest events. In all probability the Earl of Peterborow had never engaged in such a dangerous affair, in cold blood and unprovoked ; and if such an enterprise had been resolved on in a regular way, it is very likely he might have given the command to some of the general officers : since it is not usual, nor hardly allowable for one that commands in chief, to g u in person on such kind of services. But here we see tin general and prince, notwithstanding their late indifferent harmony, engaged together in this most desperate under taking. Brigadier Stanhope and Mr. Methuen, now Sir Paul, were the general’s particular friends, and those he most consulted and most confided in ; yet he never imparted this resolution of his to either of them, for he was not willing to engage them in a design so dangerous, and where there was so little hope 326 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. of success ; rather choosing to reserve them as persons most capable of giving advice and assistance in the confusion, great enough already, which yet must have been greater if any accident had happened to himself. And I have very good reason to believe, that the motive which mainly engaged the Earl of Peterborow in this enterprise, was to satisfy the Prince of Hesse and the world, that his diffidence proceeded from his concern for the troops committed to his charge, and not for his own person. On the other hand, the great characters of the two gentlemen just mentioned, are so well known, that it will easily gain credit, that the only way the general could take to prevent their being of the party was to conceal it from them, as he did from all mankind, even from the arch¬ duke himself. And certainly there never was a more universal surprise, than when the firing was heard next morning from Monjouick. But I now proceed to give an exact account of this great action; of which no person, that I have heard of, ever yet took upon him to deliver to posterity the glorious particu¬ lars ; and yet the consequences and events, by what follows, will appear so great, and so very extraordinary, that few, if any, had they had it in their power, would have denied themselves the pleasure, or the world the satisfaction, of knowing it. The troops, which marched all night along the foot of the mountains, arrived two hours before day under the hill of Monjouick, not a quarter of a mile from the outward works: for this reason, it was taken for granted, whatever the de¬ sign was which the general had proposed to himself, that it would be put in execution before daylight; but the Earl of Peterborow was now pleased to inform the officers of the reasons why he chose to stay till the light appeared. He was of opinion that any success would be impossible, unless the enemy came into the outward ditch under the bastions of the second enclosure ; but that if they had time allowed them to come thither, there being no palisadoes, our men, by leaping in upon them, after receipt of their first fire, might drive them into the upper works; and following them close, with some probability, might force them, under that confusion, into the inward fortifications. Such were the general’s reasons then and there given; after which, having promised ample rewards to such as dis- DISTRIBUTION OF TI1F TROOPS FOR ATTACK. 327 charged their duty well, a lieutenant, with thirty men, was ordered to advance towards the bastion nearest the town; and a captain, with fifty men, to support him. After the enemy’s fire, they were to leap into the ditch ; and their orders were to follow them close, if they retired into the upper works: nevertheless, not to pursue them farther, if they made into the inner fort; but to endeavour to cover themselves within the £or2;e of the bastion. A lieutenant and a captain, with the like number of men, and the same orders, were commanded to a demi-bastion, at the extremity of the fort towards the west, which was above musket-shot from the inward fortification. Towards this place the wall, which was cut into the rock, was not faced for about twenty yards ; and here our own men got up, where they found three pieces of cannon upon a platform, without any men to defend them. Those appointed to the bastion towards the town, Avere sustained by two hundred men; with which the general and prince went in person. The like number, under the direc¬ tions of Colonel Southwell, were to sustain the attack to¬ wards the west; and about five hundred men were left under the command of a Dutch colonel, whose orders were to assist where, in his own judgment, he should think most proper ; and these were drawn up between the two parties appointed to begin the assault. My lot was on the side where the prince and earl were in person; and where we sustained the only loss from the first fire of the enemy. Our men, though quite exposed, and though the glacis was all escarped upon the live rock, went on with an un¬ daunted courage ; and, immediately after the first fire of the enemy, all that were not killed or wounded leaped in, pel- mel , amongst the enemy ; who, being thus boldly attacked, and seeing others pouring in upon them, retired in great con¬ fusion ; and, some one way, some another, ran into the inward works. There was a large port in the flank of the principal bas¬ tion, towards the north-east, and a covered way, through which the general and the Prince of Hesse followed the flying forces ; and by that means became possessed of it. Luckily enough, here lay a number of great stones in the gorge of the bastion, for the use of the fortification; with which we made a sort of breastwork, before the enemy re- 328 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. covered of tlieir amaze, or made any considerable fire upon us from their inward fort, which commanded the upper part of that bastion. _ We were afterwards informed, that the commander of the citadel, expecting but one attack, had called off the men from the most distant and western part of the fort to that side which was next the town; upon which our men got into a demi-bastion in the most extreme part of the fortification. Here they got possession of three pieces of cannon, with hardly any opposition; and had leisure to cast up a little intrenchment, and to make use of the guns they had taken to defend it. Under this situation, the enemy, when drove into the inward fort, were exposed to our fire from those places we were possessed of, in case they offered to make any sally, or other attempt against us. Thus we every moment became better and better prepared against any effort of the garrison ; and, as they could not pretend to assail us without evident hazard, so nothing remained for us to do till we could bring up our artillery and mortars. Now it was that the general sent for the thousand men under Brigadier Stanhope’s command, which he had posted at a convent, half¬ way between the town and Monjouick. i here was almost a total cessation of fire, the men on both sides being under cover. The general was in the upper part of the bastion; the Prince of Hesse below, behind a little work at the point of the bastion, whence he could only see the heads of the enemy over the parapet of the inward fort. Soon after an accident happened, which cost that gal¬ lant prince his life. The enemy had lines of communication between Barcelona and Monjouick. The governor of the former, upon hearing the firing from the latter, immediately sent four hundred dragoons on horseback, under orders that two hundred dis¬ mounting should reinforce the garrison, and the other two hundred should return with their horses back to the town. When those two hundred dragoons were, accordingly, got into the inward fort, unseen by any of our men, the Spaniards, waving their hats over their heads, repeated over and over, Viva el Rey, Viva. Ihis the Prince of Hesse unfor¬ tunately took for a signal of their desire to surrender. Upon which, with too much warmth and precipitancy, calling to the soldiers following, They surrender, They surrender” ha TIIE PRINCE OF HESSE KILLED. 329 advanced with three hundred men, who followed him with¬ out any orders from their general, along the curtain which led to the ditch of the inward fort. The enemy suffered them to come into the ditch, and, there surrounding them, took two hundred of them prisoners, at the same time making a discharge upon the rest who were running back the way they came. This firing brought the Earl of Peterborow down from the upper part of the bastion, to see 'what was doing below. When he had just turned the point of the bastion, he saw the Prince of Hesse retiring, with the men that had so rashly advanced. The earl had exchanged a very few words with him, when, from a second fire, that prince received a shot in the great artery of the thigh, of which he died immediately, falling down at the general’s feet, who instantly gave orders to cany off the body to the next convent. Almost the same moment, an officer came to acquaint the Earl of Peterborow that a great body of horse and foot, at least three thousand, were on their march from Barcelona towards the fort. The distance is near a mile, all uneven ground; so that the enemy was either discoverable, or not to be seen, just as they were marching on the hills, or in the valleys. However, the general directly got on horseback, to take a view of those forces from the rising ground without the fort, having left all the posts, which were already taken, well secured with the allotted numbers of officers and soldiers. But the event will demonstrate of what consequence the absence or presence of one man may prove on great occa¬ sions ; no sooner was the earl out of the fort, the care of which he had left under the command of the Lord Charlemont- a person of known merit and undoubted courage, but some¬ what too flexible in his temper, when a panic fear (though the earl, as I have said, was only gone to take a view of the enemy) seized upon the soldiery, which was a little too easily ; complied with by the Lord Charlemont, then commanding officer. True it is; for I heard an officer, ready enough to take such advantages, urge to him, that none of all those posts we were become masters of were tenable; that to offer at it would be no better than wilfully sacrificing human lives to caprice and humour; and just like a man’s knocking his head against stone walls to try which was hardest. Having 830 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. overheard this piece of lip-oratory, and finding, by the answer, that it was too likely to prevail, and that all I was like to say would avail nothing, I slipped away as fast as I could to acquaint the general with the danger impending. As I passed along, I took notice that the panic was upon the increase ; the general rumour affirming that we should be all cut off by the troops that were come out of Barcelona, if we did not immediately gain the hills, or the houses possessed by the Miquelets. Officers and soldiers, under this prevailing terror, quitted their posts, and in one united body, the Lord Charlemont at the head of them, marched, or rather hurried, out of the fort, and were come half-way down the hill before the Earl of Peterborow came up to them; though, on my acquainting him with the shameful and surprising accident, he made no stay; but answering, with a good deal of vehemence, Good God, is it possible ? hastened back as fast as he could. I never thought myself happier than in this piece of service to my country. I confess I could not but value it, as having been therein more than a little instrumental in the glorious successes which succeeded; since immediately upon this notice from me, the earl galloped up the hill, and, lighting when he came to Lord Charlemont, he took his half pike out of his hand, and turning to the officers and soldiers, told them, if they would not face about and follow him, they should have the scandal and eternal infamy upon them of having deserted their posts, and abandoned their general. It was surprising to see with what alacrity and new courage they faced about, and followed the Earl of Peterborow. In a moment they had forgot their apprehensions, and, without doubt, had they met with any opposition, they would have behaved themselves with the greatest bravery. But as these motions were unperceived by the enemy, all the posts were regained, and anew possessed, in less than half an hour, without any loss; though, had our forces marched half musket-shot farther, their retreat would have been perceived, and all the success attendant on this glorious attempt must have been entirely blasted. Another incident which attended this happy enterprise was this: the two hundred men which fell into the hands of the enemy, by the unhappy mistake of the Prince of Hesse, were carried directly into the town. The Marquis of Risburg, EXPLOSION OF A MAGAZINE. 331 a lieutenant-general, who commanded the three thousand men which were marching from the town to the relief of the fort, examined the prisoners as they passed by; and they all agreeing that the general and the prince of Hesse were in person with the troops that made the attack on Monjouick, the marquis gave immediate orders to retire to the town; taking it for granted that the main body of the troops attended the prince and general; and that some design therefore was on foot to intercept his return, in case he should venture too far. Thus, the unfortunate loss of our two hundred men turned to our advantage, in preventing the advance of the enemy, which must have put the Earl of Peterborow to inconceivable difficulties. The body of one thousand, under Brigadier Stanhope being come up to Monjouick, and no interruption given us by the enemy, our affairs were put into very good order on this side ; while the camp on the other side was so fortified, that the enemy, during the siege, never made an effort against it. In the mean time, the communication between the two camps was secure enough; although our troops were obliged to a tedious march along the foot of the hills, whenever the general thought fit to relieve those on duty on the side of the attack, from those regiments encamped on the west side of Barcelona. The next day, after the Earl of Peterborow had taken care to secure the first camp to the eastward of the town, he gave orders to the officers of the fleet to land the artillery and ammunition behind the fortress to the westward. Immedi¬ ately upon the landing whereof, two mortars were fixed ; from both which we plied the fort of Monjouick furiously with our bombs. But the third or fourth day, one of our shells, fortunately lighting on their magazine of powder, blew it up, and with it the governor and many principal officers who were at dinner with him. The blast, at the same instant, threw down a face of one of the smaller bastions ; which the vigilant Miquelets, ready enough to take all advantages, no sooner saw (for they were under the hill, very near the place), but they readily entered while the enemy were under the utmost confusion. If the earl, no less watchful than they, had not at the same moment thrown himself in with some regular troops, and appeased the general disorder, in all probability the garrison had been put to the sword. How¬ ever, the general’s presence not only allayed the fury of the 832 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. Miquelets, but kept his own troops under strictest discipline: so that, in a happy hour for the frighted garrison, the general gave officers and soldiers quarters, making them prisoners of war. How critical was that minute wherein the general met his retreating commander! A very few steps farther had excluded us our own conquests, to the utter loss of all those greater glories which ensued. Nor would that have been the worst; for, besides the shame attending such an ill-concerted retreat from our acquests on Monjouick, we must have felt the accumulative disgrace of infamously retiring aboard the ships that brought us; but heaven reserved for our general amazing scenes, both of glory and mortification. I cannot here omit one singularity of life, which will demonstrate men’s different way of thinking, if not somewhat worse; when, many years after (to one in office, who seemed a little too deaf to my complaints, and by that means irritating my human passions), in justice to myself, as well as cause, I urged this piece of service, by which I not only preserved the place, but the honour of my country; that minister petite , to mortify my expectations, and baffle my plea, with a grimace as odd as his logic, returned, that, in his opinion, the service pretended was a disservice to the nation; since perseverance had cost the government more money than all our conquests were worth, could we have kept them. So irregular are the conceptions of man, when even great actions thwart the bent of an interested will. The fort of Monjouick being thus surprisingly reduced, furnished a strange vivacity to men’s expectations, and as extravagantly flattered their hopes ; for, as success never fails to excite weaker minds to pursue their good fortune, though many times to their own loss, so is it often too apt to push on more elevated spirits to renew the encounter for achieving new conquests, by hazarding too rashly all their former glory. Accordingly, everybody now began to make his utmost efforts; and looked upon himself as a drone, if he was not employed in doing something or other towards pushing forward the siege of Barcelona itself, and raising proper batteries for that purpose. But, after all, it must injustice be acknowledged, that, notwithstanding this prodigious success that attended this bold enterprise, the land forces, of themselves, without the assistance of the sailors, could never have reduced the OFFICERS OF THE FLEET ACT ON LAND. 333 town. The commanders and officers of the fleet had always evinced themselves favourers of this project upon Barcelona. A new undertaking so late in the year, as I have said before, was their utter aversion, and what they hated to hear of. Elated, therefore, with a beginning so auspicious, they gave a more willing assistance than could have been asked, or judiciously expected. The admirals forgot their element, and acted as general officers at land: they came every day from their ships, with a body of men formed into companies, and regularly marshalled, and commanded by captains and lieutenants of their own. Captain Littleton, in particular, one of the most advanced captains in the whole fleet, offered, of himself, to take care of the landing and conveyance of the artillery to the camp. And answerable to that, his first zeal, was his vigour all along; for, finding it next to an impossi¬ bility to draw the cannon and mortars up such vast precipices by horses, if the country had afforded them, he caused harnesses to be made for two hundred men; and, by that means, after a prodigious fatigue and labour, brought the cannon and mortars, necessary for the siege, up to the very batteries. In this manner was the siege begun; nor was it carried on with any less application; the approaches being made by an army of besiegers, that very little, if at all, exceeded the number of the besieged; not altogether in a regular manner, our few forces would not admit it, but yet with regularity enough to secure our two little camps, and preserve a communication between both not to be interrupted or in¬ commoded by the enemy. We had soon erected three several batteries against the place, all on the west side of the town, viz., one of nine guns, another of twelve, and the last of upwards of thirty. From all which we plied the town incessantly and with all imaginable fury, and very often in whole volleys. Nevertheless, it was thought not only advisable, but necessary, to erect another battery upon a lower piece of ground, under a small hill; which, lying more within reach, and opposite to those places where the Avails Avere imagined Aveakest, Avould annoy the tOAvn the more; and being de¬ signed for six guns only, might soon be perfected. A French engineer had the direction; and, indeed, very quickly per¬ fected it. But, when it came to be considered which way tc 834 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. get the cannon to it, most were of opinion that it would ba absolutely impracticable, by reason of the vast descent; though, I believe, they might have added a stronger reason, and perhaps more intrinsic, that it was extremely exposed to the fire of the enemy. Having gained some little reputation in the attack of Monjouick, this difficulty was at last to be put upon me; and as some, not my enemies, supposed, more out of envy than good will. However, when I came to the place, and had carefully taken a view of it, though I was sensible enough of the difficulty, I made my main objection as to the time for accomplishing it; for it was then between nine and ten, and the guns were to be mounted by daylight. Neither could I at present see any other way to answer their ex¬ pectations, than by casting the cannon down the precipice, at all hazards, to the place below, where that fourth battery was erected. This wanted not objections to; and, therefore, to answer my purpose, as to point of time, sixty men more were ordered me, as much as possible to facilitate the work by numbers; and, accordingly, I set about it. Just as I was setting all hands to work, and had given orders to my men to begin some paces back, to make the descent more gradual, and thereby render the task a little more feasible, Major Collier, who commanded the train, came to me; and per¬ ceiving the difficulties to the undertaking, in a fret told me I was imposed upon, and vowed he would go and find out Brigadier Petit, and let him know the impossibility, as well as the unreasonableness, of the task I was put upon. He had scarce uttered those words, and turned himself round to perform his promise, when an unlucky shot with a musket- ball wounded him through the shoulder ; upon which he was carried off, and I saw him not till some considerable time after. By the painful diligence, and the additional complement of men, however, I so well succeeded (such was my great good fortune), that the way was made, and the guns, by the help of fascines, and other lesser preparations below, safely let down and mounted; so that that fourth battery began to play upon the town before break of day, and with all the success that was proposed. In short, the breach, in a very few days after, was found THE DUCHESS OF POPOLI CRAVES PROTECTION. 635 wholly practicable; and all things were got ready for a general storm. Which Don Valasco, the governor, being sensible of, immediately beat a parley; upon which it was, among other articles, concluded that the town should be surrendered in three days; and the better to ensure it, the bastion, which commanded the port St. Angelo, was directly put into our possession. But before the expiration of the limited three days, a very unexpected accident fell out, which hastened the surrender. Don Valasco, during his government, had behaved himself very arbitrarily, and thereby procured, as the consequence of it, a large proportion of ill will, not only among the towns¬ men, but among the Miquelets, who had, in their zeal to King Charles, flocked from all parts of Catalonia to the siege of their capital; and who, on the signing of the articles of surrender, had found various ways, being well acquainted with the most private avenues, to get by night into the town; so that early in the morning they began to plunder all that they knew enemies to King Charles, or thought friends to the prince, his competitor. Their main design was upon Valasco, the governor, whom, if they could have got into their hands, it was not to be questioned, but as far as his life and limbs would have served, they would have sufficiently satiated their vengeance upon. He expected no less, and therefore concealed himself, till the Earl of Peterborow could give orders for his more safe and private conveyance by sea to Alieant. Nevertheless, in the town all was in the utmost confusion; which the Earl of Peterborow, at the very first hearing, hastened to appease; with his usual alacrity, he rode all alone to Port St. Angelo, where, at that time, myself hap¬ pened to be; and demanding to be admitted, the officer of the guard, under fear and surprise, opened the wicket, through which the earl entered, and I after him. Scarce had we gone a hundred paces, when we saw a lady I of apparent quality, and indisputable beauty, in a strange, i but most affecting agony, flying from the apprehended fury of the Miquelets; her lovely hair was all flowing about her shoulders, which, and the consternation she was in, rather added to, than anything diminished, from the charms of an excess of beauty. She, as is very natural to pec pie in distress, made up directly to the earl, her eyes satisfying her 336 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. he was a person likely to give her all the protection she wanted. And, as soon as ever she came near enough, in a manner that declared her quality before she spoke, she craved that protection, telling him, the better to secure it, who it was that asked it. But the generous earl presently convinced her he wanted no entreaties, having, before he knew her to he the Duchess of Popoli, taken her by the hand, in order to convey her through the wicket, which he entered at, to a place of safety without the town. I stayed behind, while the earl conveyed the distressed duchess to her requested asylum; and I believe it was much the longest part of an hour before he returned. But as soon as ever he came hack, he, and myself at his command, repaired to the place of most confusion, which the extraordinary noise full readily directed us to ; and which happened to be on the parade before the palace. There it was that the Miquelets were making their utmost efforts to get into their hands the almost sole occasion of the tumult, and the object of their raging fury, the person of Don Valasco, the late governor. It was here that the earl preserved that governor from the violent, but perhaps too just resentments of the Miquelets ; and, as I said before, conveyed him by sea to Alicant. And, indeed, I could little doubt the effect, or be anything surprised at the easiness of the task, when I saw that wherever he appeared the popular fury was in a moment allayed, and that every dictate of that general was assented to with the utmost cheerfulness and deference. Valasco, before his embarkment, had given orders, in gratitude to his preserver, for all the gates to be delivered up, though short of the stipulated term ; and they were accordingly so delivered, and our troops took possesison so soon as ever that governor was aboard the ship that was to convey him to Alicant. During the siege of Barcelona, Brigadier Stanhope ordered a tent to be pitched as near the trenches as possibly could be with safety; where he not only entertained the chief officers who were upon duty, but likewise the Catalonian gentlemen who brought Miquelets to our assistance. I remember I saw an old cavalier, having his only son with him, who appeared a fine young gentleman, about twenty years of age, go into the tent, in order to dine with the brigadier. But, whilst they were at dinner, an unfortunate shot came from the bastion of St. Antonio, and entirely struck off the head of the son. The PROCESSION OP THE CITIZENS OF BARCELONA. 337 father immediately rose up, first looking down upon his head¬ less child, and then lifting up his eyes to heaven, whilst the tears ran down his cheeks, he crossed himself, and only said, Fiat voluntas tua! and bore it with a wonderful patience. It was a sad spectacle, and truly it affects me now whilst I am writing. The Earl of Peterborow, though for some time after the revolution he had been employed in civil affairs, returned to the military life with great satisfaction, which was ever his inclination. Brigadier Stanhope, who was justly afterwards created an earl, did well deserve this motto, Tam Marte quam Mercurio; for truly he behaved, all the time he continued in Spain, as if he had been inspired with conduct; for the victory at Almanar was entirely owing to him; and likewise at the battle of Saragosa he distinguished himself with great bravery. That he had not success at Bruhega was not his fault, for no man can resist fate; for it was decreed by heaven, that Philip should remain King of Spain, and Charles to be Emperor of Germany. Yet each of these monarchs have been ungrateful to the instruments which the Almighty made use of to preserve them upon their thrones; for one had not been King of Spain but for France; and the other had not been emperor but for England. Barcelona, the chief place in Catalonia, being thus in our hands, as soon as the garrison, little inferior to our army, had marched out with drums beating, colours flying, &c., according to the articles, Charles III. made his public entry, and was proclaimed king, and received with the general acclamations, and all other demonstrations of joy suitable to that great occasion. Some days after which, the citizens, far from being satiated with their former demonstrations of their duty, sent a petition to the king, by proper deputies for that purpose appointed, de siring leave to give more ample instances of their affections in a public cavalcade. The king granted their request, and the citizens, pursuant thereto, made their preparations. On the day appointed, the king, placed in a balcony belonging to the house of the Earl of Peterborow, appeared ready to honour the show. The ceremonial, to speak nothing figuratively, was very fine and grand : those of the first rank made their appearance in decent order, and upon fine horses; and others under arms, and in companies, marched with native gravity and grandeur, all saluting his majesty as they passed VOL. II. 2 338 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. by, after the Spanish manner, which that prince returned with the movement of his hand to his mouth; for the Kings oi Spain are not allowed to salute, or retui'n a salute by any motion to, or of, the hat. After these followed several pageants; the first of which was drawn by mules, set off to the height with stateliest feathers, and adorned with little bells. Upon the top of this pageant appeared a man dressed all in green, but in the like¬ ness of a dragon. The pageant making a stop just over against the balcony where the king sat, the dragonical representative diverted him with great variety of dancings; the Earl of Peterborow all the time throwing out dollars by handfuls among the populace, which they as constantly received with the loud acclamation, and repeated cries of Viva, Viva, Carlos Terceros! Viva la Casa (V Austria! When that had played its part, another pageant, drawn as before, made a like full stop before the same balcony. On this was placed a very large cage, or aviary, the cover of which, by springs contrived for that purpose, immediately flew open, and out of it a surprising flight of birds of various colours. These, all amazed at their sudden liberty, which I took to be the emblem intended, hovered a considerable space of time over and about their place of freedom, chirping, singing, and otherwise testifying their mighty joy for their so unexpected enlargement. There were many other pageants ; but, having little in them very remarkable, I have forgot the particulars. Nevertheless, every one of them was dismissed with the like acclamations of Viva, Viva; the whole concluding with bonfires and illuminations, common on all such occasions. I cannot here omit one very remarkable instance of the catholic zeal of that prince, which I was soon after an eyewitness of. I was at that time in the fruit-market, when the king passing by in his coach, the host, whether by accident, or contrivance, I cannot say, was brought, at that very juncture, out of the great church, in order, as I after understood, to a poor sick woman’s receiving the sacrament. On sight of the host, the king came out of his coach, kneeled down in the street, which at that time proved to be very dirty, till the host passed by ; then rose up, and taking the lighted flambeau from him who bore it, he Pile sved tue priest up a straight nasty alley, and the e up a dark ordinary MERRIMENT OVER A DRUNKEN GRENADIER. 339 pair of stairs, where the poor sick woman lay. There he stayed till the whole ceremony was over, when, returning to the door of the church, he very faithfully restored the lighted flambeau to the fellow he had taken it from, the people all the while crying out, Viva, Viva! an acclamation, we may imagine, intended to his zeal, as well as his person. Another remarkable accident, of a much more moral nature, I must, in justice to the temperance of that, in this, truly inimitable people, recite. I was one day walking in one of the most populous streets of that city, when I found an uncommon concourse of people, of all sorts, got together; and imagining so great a crowd could not be assembled on a small occasion, I prest in among the rest; and, after a good deal of struggling and difficulty, reached into the ring and centre or that mixed multitude. But how did I blush, with what confusion did I appear, when I found one of my own country¬ men, a drunken grenadier, the attractive loadstone of all the high and low mob, and the butt of all their merriment! It will be easily imagined to be a thing not a little surprising to one of our country, to find that a drunken man should be such a wonderful sight: however, The witty sarcasms that were then, by high and low, thrown upon that senseless creature, and, as I interpreted matters, me in him, were so pungent, that it I did not curse my curiosity, I thought it best to withdraw myself as fast as legs could carry me away. CHAPTER V. BARCELONA UNDER KING CHARLES—BOLD PEREMPTORY DE¬ MAND ON THE AUTHORITIES OF NULES IMMEDIATELY TO SURRENDER-SINGULAR INTERVIEW BETWEEN EARL PETER- BOROW AND MAHONI, AND THE RESULT THEREFROM-SHORT DESCRIPTION OF VALENCIA, AND PRODIGIOUS VICTORY- PETERBOROW’S STRATAGEM TO OUTWIT THE FLEET AT BARCELONA-ULTIMATE RELEASE OF BARCELONA. Barcelona being now under King Charles, the towns of Gironne, Tarragona, Tortosa, and Lerida, immediately declared for him. To every one of which engineers being ordered, it was my lot to be sent to Tortosa. This town is z 2 840 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. situated on the side of the river Ebro, over which there is a fair and famous bridge of boats. The waters of this river are always of a dirty red colour, somewhat fouler than our moor¬ ish waters; yet it is the only water the inhabitants drink, or covet to drink ; and every house providing for its own convenience cisterns to preserve it in, by a few hours stand- in" it becomes as clear as the clearest rock water, but as soft as milk. In short, for softness, brightness, and pleasantness of taste, the natives prefer it to all the waters in the world: and I must declare in favour of their opinion, that none ever pleased me like it. This town was of the greater moment to our army, as opening a passage into the kingdom of Valencia on one side, and the kingdom of Arragon on the the other ; and being of itself tolerably defensible, in human appearance, might pro¬ bably repay a little care and charge in its repair and improve¬ ment. Upon this employ was I appointed, and thus tvas I busied till the arrival of the Earl of Peterborow with his little army, in order to march to Valencia, the capital of that province. Here he left in garrison Colonel Hans Hamilton’s regiment; the place, nevertheless, was under the command of a Spanish governor appointed by King Charles. While the earl stayed a few days at this place, under expectation of the promised succours from Barcelona, he re¬ ceived a proprio (or express) from the King of Spain, full of excuses, instead of forces. And yet the very same letter, in a paradoxical manner, commanded him, at all events, to at¬ tempt the relief of Santo Mattheo, where Colonel Jones com¬ manded, and which was then under siege by the Conde de los Torres (as was the report), with upwards of three thousand men. The Earl of Peterborow could not muster above one thousand foot, and about two hundred horse, a small force to make an attempt of that nature upon such a superior power ; yet the earl’s vivacity (as will be occasion¬ ally farther observed in the course of these Memoirs) never much regarded numbers, so there was but room, by any stratagem, to hope for success. True it is, for his greater encouragement and consolation, the same letter intimated, that a great concourse of the country people being up in arms, to the number of many thousands, in favour of King Charles, and wanting only officers, the enterprise would be easy, and unattended with much danger. But, upon mature inquiry. EAST MEANS OP MARCHING INTO SANTO MATTHEO. 311 the earl found that great body of men all in nubibus ; and that tiie conde, in the plain truth of the matter, was much stronger than the letter at first represented. Santo Mattheo was a place of known importance ; and that from its situation, which cut off all communication be¬ tween Catalonia and Valencia ; and, consequently, should it fall into the hands of the enemy, the earl’s design upon the latter must inevitably have been postponed. It must be granted, the commands for attempting the relief of it were pressing and peremptory : nevertheless, the earl was very conscious to himself, that as the promised re-enforcements were suspended, his officers would not approve of the attempt upon the foot of such vast inequalities; and their own de¬ clared sentiments soon confirmed the dictates of the earl’s reason. He therefore addresses himself to those officers in a different manner : he told them he only desired they would be passive, and leave it to him to work his own way. Ac¬ cordingly, the earl found out and hired two Spanish spies, for whose fidelity (as his great precaution always led him to do) he took sufficient security; and despatched them with a letter to Colonel Jones, governor of the place, intimating his readiness, as well as ability, to relieve him ; and, above all, exhorting him to have the Miquelets in the town ready, on sight of his troops, to issue out, pursue, and plunder, since that would be all they would have to do, and all he would expect at their hands. The spies were despatched accordingly; and pursuant to instructions, one betrayed and discovered the other, who had the letter in charge to deliver to Colonel Jones. The earl, to carry on the feint, having, in the mean time, by dividing his troops, and marching secretly over the mountains, drawn his men together, so as to make their ap¬ pearance on the height of a neighbouring mountain, little more than cannon-shot from the enemy’s camp, the tale of the spies was fully confirmed; and the conde, though an able general, marched off with some precipitation with his army ; and, by that means, the earl’s smaller number of twelve hundred, had liberty to march into the town without interruption. I must not let slip an action of Colonel Jones’s just before the earl’s delivery of them. The conde, for want of artillery, had set his miners to work ; and the colonel find¬ ing they had made some dangerous advances, turned the course of a rivulet, that ran through the middle of the town, 342 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. in apon them, and made them quit a work they though was brought to perfection. Santo Mattlieo being relieved, as I have said, the earl, though he had so far gained his ends, left not the flying enemy without a feint of pursuit; with such caution, never¬ theless, that in case they should happen to be better informed of his weakness, he might have a resource either back again to Santo Mattheo, or to Vinaros on the sea side ; or some other place, as occasion might require. But having just before received fresh advice, that the re-enforcements he ex¬ pected were anew countermanded ; and that the Duke of Anjou had increased his troops to twelve thousand men ; the officers, not enough elated with the last success to adventure upon new experiments, resolved, in a council of war, to advise the earl, who had just before received a discretionary com¬ mission in lieu of troops, so to post the forces under him, as not to be cut off from being able to assist the king in person, or to march to the defence of Catalonia, in case of necessity. Pursuant to this resolution of the council of war, the Earl of Peterborow, though still intent upon his expedition into Valencia (which had been afresh commanded, even while his supplies were countermanded), orders his foot, in a truly bad condition, by tedious marches day and night over the moun¬ tains, to Vinaros; and with his two hundred horse set out to prosecute his pretended design of pursuing the flying enemy; resolved, if possible, notwithstanding all seemingly desperate circumstances, to perfect the security of that capital. To that purpose, the earl, with his small body of patrolers, went on frightening the enemy till they came under the walls of Nules, a town fortified with the best walls, regular towers, and in the best repair of any in that kingdom. But even here, upon the appearance of the earl’s forlorn (if they might not properly at that time all have passed under that character), under the same panic they left that fencible town, with only one thousand of the townspeople, well armed, for the defence of it. Yet was it scarce to be imagined, that the earl, with his small body of two hundred horse, should be able to gain admission; or, indeed, under such circumstances, to attempt it. But, bold as the undertaking was, his good genins went along with him ; and so good a genius was it, that it rarely left him without a good effect. He had been told the day before, that the enemy, on leaving Nules, had got possession NEWS OF THE TAKING OF NULES. 343 of Villa Real, where they put all to the sword. What would have furnished another with terror, inspired his lordship with a thought as fortunate as it was successful. The earl rides up to the very gates of the town, at the head of his party, and peremptorily demands the chief magistrate, or a priest, immediately to be sent out to him; and that under penalty of being all put to the sword, and used as the enemy had used those at Villa Real the day or two before. The troops, that had so lately left the place, had left behind them more terror than men ; which, together with the peremptory de¬ mand of the earl, soon produced some priests to wait upon the general. By their readiness to obey, the earl very justly imagined fear to be the motive ; wherefore, to improve their terror, he only allowed them six minute’s time to resolve upon a surrender, telling them that otherwise, so soon as his artillery was come up, he would lay them under the utmost extremities. The priests returned with this melancholy message into the place ; and in a very short time after the gates were thrown open. Upon the earl’s entrance, he found two hundred horse, which were the original of his lordship’s forming that body of horse, which afterwards proved the saving of Valencia. The news of the taking of Nules soon overtook the flying enemy ; and so increased the apprehensions of their danger, that they renewed their march the same day; though what they had taken before would have satisfied them much better without it. On the other hand, the earl was so well pleased with his success, that, leaving the enemy to fly before their fears, he made a short turn towards Castillon de la Plana, a considerable, but open town, where his lordship furnished himself with four hundred horses more; and all this under the assurance that his troops were driving the enemy before them out of the kingdom. Hence he sent orders to Colonel Pierce’s regiment at Vinaros to meet him at Oropesa, a place at no great distance ; where, when they came, they were very pleasingly surprised at their being well mounted, and furnished with all accoutrements necessary. After which, leaving them cantoned in walled towns, where they could not be disturbed without artillery, that indefatigable general, leaving them full orders, went on his way towards lortosa. At Vinaros the earl met with advice, that the Spanish militia of the kingdom of Valencia were assembled, and had S44 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON*. already advanced, a day’s march at least into that country, Upon which, collecting, as fast as he could, the whole corps together, the earl resolved to penetrate into Valencia directly; notwithstanding this whole collected body would amount to no more than six hundred horse and two thousand foot. But there was a strong pass over a river, just under the walls of Molviedro, which must be first disputed and taken. This, Brigadier Mahoni, by the orders of the Duke of Arcos, who commanded the troops of the Duke of Anjou in the kingdom of Valencia, had taken care to secure. Molviedro, though not very strong, is a walled town, very populous of itself, and had in it, besides a garrison of eight hundred men, most of Mahoni’s dragoons. It lies at the very bottom of a high hill; on the upper part whereof they show the ruins of the once famous Saguntum ; famous sure to eternity, if letters shall last so long, for an inviolable fidelity to a negligent confederate, against an implacable enemy. Here yet appear the visible vestigia of awful antiquity, in half standing arches, and the yet unlevelled walls and towers of that once celebrated city. I could not but look upon all these with the eyes of despite, in regard to their enemy Hannibal; with those of disdain, in respect to the uncommon and unaccountable supineness of its confederates, the Romans; but with those of veneration, as to the memory of a glorious people, who, rather than stand reproached with a breach of faith, or the brand of cowardice, chose to sacrifice themselves, their wives, children, and all that was dear to them, in the flames of their expiring city. In Molviedro, as I said before, Mahoni commanded, with eight hundred men, besides inhabitants; which, together with our having but little artillery, induced the officers, under the Earl of Peterborow, reasonably enough to imagine and declare, that there could be no visible appearance of surmounting such difficulties. The earl, nevertheless, instead of indulging such despondencies, gave them hope, that what strength served not to accomplish, art might possibly obtain. To that purpose, he proposed an interview between himself and Mahoni; and accordingly sent an officer with a trumpet to intimate his desire. The motion was agreed to ; and the earl having previously stationed his troops to advantage, and his little artillery at a convenient distance, with orders they should appear on a slow march on the side of a rising hill, CAPITULATION OP MOLVIEDEO. 345 during the time of conference, went to the place appointed ; only, as had been stipulated, attended with a small party of horse. When they were met, the earl first offered all he could to engage Mahoni to the interest of King Charles; proposing some things extravagant enough (as Mahoni himself some time after told me) to stagger the faith of a catholic; but all to little purpose : Mahoni was inflexible, which obliged the earl to new measures. Whereupon the earl frankly told him, that he could not, nowever, but esteem the confidence he had put in him ; and, therefore, to make some retaliation, he was ready to put it in his power to avoid the barbarities lately executed at Villa Real. My relation to you, continued the general, inclines me to spare a town under your command. You see how near my forces are ; and can hardly doubt our soon being masters of the place ; what I would therefore offer you, said the earl, is a capitulation, that my inclination may be held in countenance by my honour. Barbarities, however justified by example, are my utter aversion, and against my nature; and to testify so much, together with my good will to your person, was the main intent of this interview. This frankness so far prevailed on Mahoni, that he agreed to return an answer in half an hour. Accordingly, an answer was returned by a Spanish officer, and a capitulation agreed upon : the earl at the same time endeavouring to bring over that officer to King Charles, on much the same topics he used Avith Mahoni. But finding this equally fruit¬ less, Avhether it was that he tacitly reproached the officer Avith a want of consideration in neglecting to folloAV the example of his commander, or Avhat else, he created in that officer such a jealousy of Mahoni, that Avas afterward very serviceable to him in his farther design. To forward Avhich to a good issue, the earl immediately made choice of tAvo dragoons, aa t 1io, upon promise of promotion, undertook to go as spies to the Duke of Arcos, Avhose forces lay not far off, on the other side a large plain, which the> earl must unavoidably pass, and which would inevitably be attended Avith almost insuperable dangers, if there attacked by a force so much superior. Those spies, according to instructions, Avere to discover to the duke, that they overheard the conference betAveen the earl and Mahoni; and at the same time saw a considerable number of pistoles delivered 346 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN OARLETON. into Mahoni's hands, large promises passing at that instant reciprocally ; but above all, that the earl had recommended to him the procuring the march of the duke over the plain between them. The spies went and delivered all according to concert; concluding, before the duke, that they would ask no reward, but undergo any punishment, if Mahoni did not very soon send to the duke a request to march over the plain, in order to put the concerted plot in execution. It was not long after this pretended discovery, before Mahoni did send indeed an officer to the duke, desiring the march of his forces over the plain; but, in reality, to obstruct the earl’s passage, which he knew very Avell must be that and no other way. However, the duke being prepossessed by the spies, and what those Spanish officers that at first escaped had before infused, took things in their sense ; and as soon as Mahoni, who was forced to make the best of his way over the plain before the Earl of Peterborow, arrived at his camp, he was put under arrest, and sent to Madrid. The duke having thus imbibed the venom, and taken the alarm, immediately decamped in confusion, and took a different route than at first he intended ; leaving that once formidable plain open to the earl, without an enemy to obstruct him. In some little time after he arrived at Madrid, Mahoni made his innocence appear, and was created a general; while the Duke of Arcos was recalled from his post of honour. The day after, we arrived at Valencia; the gates of which fine city were set open to us with the highest demonstrations of joy. I call it a fine city; but sure it richly deserves a brighter epithet; since it is a common saying among the Spaniards, that, The pleasures of Valencia would make a Jew forget Jerusalem. It is most sweetly situated in a very beautiful plain, and within half a league of the Mediterranean sea. It never wants any of the fragrancies of nature, and always has something to delight the most curious eye. It is famous to a proverb for fine women ; but as infamous, and only in that so, for the race of bravoes, the common com¬ panions of the ladies of pleasure in this country. These wretches are so case-hardened they will commit a murder for a dollar, though they run their country for it when they have done. Not that other parts of this nation are uninfested with this sort of animals ; but here their numbers fO’e so great, that if a catalogue was to be taken of those in other parts of SIX HUNDRED PRISONERS TAKEN TO VALENCIA. 347 that .ountry, perhaps nine in ten would be found by birth to be of this province. But to proceed: though the citizens, and all sorts of people, were redundant in their various expressions of joy, lor an entry so surprising, and utterly lost to their expectation, whatever it was to their wishes, the earl had a secret con¬ cern for the public, which lay gnawing at his heart, and which yet he was forced to conceal. He knew, that he had not four thousand soldiers in the place, and not powder or ammunition for those; nor any provisions laid in for anything like a siege. On the other hand, the enemy without were upwards of seven thousand, with a body of four thousand more, not fifteen leagues off, on their march to join them. Add to this, the Mareschal de Thesse was no farther off than Madrid, a very few days’ march from Valencia; a short way indeed for the earl, who, as was said before, was wholly unprovided for a siege, which was reported to be the sole end of the mareschal’s moving that way. But the earl’s never-failing genius re¬ solved again to attempt that by art, which the strength of his forces utterly disallowed him. And in the first place, his intelligence telling him that sixteen twenty-four-pounders, with stores and ammunition answerable for a siege, wrnre shipped off for the enemy’s service at Alicant, the earl forth¬ with lays a design, and with his usual success intercepts them all, supplying that way his own necessities at the expense of the enemy. The four thousand men ready to re-enforce the troops nearer Valencia, were the next point to be undertaken ; but liic labor, hoc opus; since the greater body under the Conde de las Torres, who, with Mahoni, was now re-instated in his post, lay between the earl and those troops intended to be dis¬ persed. And what enhanced the difficulty, the river Xucar must be passed in almost the face of the enemy. Great dis¬ advantages as these were, they did not discourage the earl. He detached by night four hundred horse and eight hundred foot, who marched with such hasty silence, that they sur¬ prised that great body, routed them, and brought into Valencia six hundred prisoners very safely, notwithstanding they were obliged, under the same night covert, to pass very near a body of three thousand of the enemy’s horse. Such a pro¬ digious victory would hardly have gained credit in that city, if the prisoners brought in had not been living witnesses of 348 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. the action, as well as the triumph. The Conde de las Torres, upon these two military rebuffs, drew off to a more con¬ venient distance, and left the earl a little more at ease in his new quarters. Here the Earl of Peterborow made his residence for some time. He was extremely well beloved ; his affable behaviour exacted as much from all; and he preserved such a good correspondence with the priests and the ladies, that he never failed of the most early and best intelligence; a thing by no means to be slighted in the common course of life ; but much more commendable and necessary in a general, with so small an army, at open war, and in the heart of his enemy’s country. The earl, by this means, some small time after, receiving early intelligence that King Philip was actually on his march to Barcelona, with an army of upwards of twenty-five thou¬ sand men, under the command of a mareschal of France, began his march towards Catalonia, with all the troops that he could gather together, leaving in Valencia a small body of foot, such as in that exigence could best be spared. The whole body thus collected made very little more than two thousand foot and six hundred horse ; yet resolutely with these he sets out for Barcelona: in the neighbourhood of which, as soon as he arrived, he took care to post himself and his diminutive army in the mountaius which environ that city; where he not only secured them against the enemy, but found himself in a capacity of putting them under perpetual alarms. Nor was the mareschal, with his great army, capable of returning the earl’s compliment of disturbance; since he himself, every six or eight hours, put his troops into such a varying situation, that always when most arduously sought, he was farthest off from being found. In this manner the general bitterly harassed the troops of the enemy, and by these means struck a perpetual terror into the besiegers. Nor did he only this way annoy the enemy; the precautions he had used, and the measures he had taken in other places, with a view to prevent their return to Madrid, though the invidious endeavoured to bury them in oblivion, having equally contributed to the driving of the Mareschal of France, and his catholic king out of the Spanish dominions. But to go on with the siege: the breaches in the walls of that city, during its siege by the earl, had been put into tole- TAKING OF THE FOKT OF MONJOUICK. 349 Table repair; but those of Monjouick, on the contrary, had been as much neglected. However, the garrison made shift to hold out a battery of twenty-three days, with no less than fifty pieces of cannon; when, after a loss of the enemy of upwards of three thousand men (a moiety of the army em¬ ployed against it when the earl took it), they were forced to surrender at discretion. And this cannot but merit our ob¬ servation, that a place which the English general took in little more than an hour, and with very inconsiderable loss, afforded the Mareschal of France a resistance of twenty-three days. Upon the taking of Fort Monjouick, the Mareschal de Thesse gave immediate orders for batteries to be raised against the town. Those orders were put in execution with all expedition; and at the same time his army fortified themselves with such intrenchments, as would have ruined the earl’s former little army to have raised, or his present much lesser army to have attempted the forcing them. However, they sufficiently demonstrated their apprehensions of that watchful general, who lay hovering over their heads upon the mountains. Their main effort was to make a breach between Port St. Antonio and that breach which our forces had made the year before ; to effect which, they took care to ply them very dili¬ gently both from cannon and mortars ; and in some few days their application was answered with a practicable breach for a storm ; which, however, was prudently deferred for some time, and that through fear of the earl’s falling on the back of them whenever they should attempt it, which, consequently, they wrnre sensible, might put them into some dangerous disorder. And now it was that the Earl of Peterborow resolved to put in practice the resolution he had some time before con¬ certed within himself. About nine or ten days before the raising the siege, he had received an express from Brigadier Stanhope (who was aboard Sir John Leake’s fleet, appointed for the relief of the place, with the re-enforcements from England), acquainting the earl, that he had used all possible endeavours to prevail on the admiral to make the best ot his way to Barcelona; but that the admiral, however, persisted in a positive resolution not to attempt the French fleet before that place under the Count de Tholouse, till the ships were joined him, which were expected from Ireland, under 350 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. the command of Sir George Bing. True it was, the fleet under Admiral Leake was of equal strength with that under the French admiral; but, jealous of the informations he had received, and too ready to conclude that people in distress were apt to make representations too much in their own favour ; he held himself, in point of discretion, obliged not to hazard the queen’s ships, when a re-enforcement of both cleaner and larger were under daily expectation. This unhappy circumstance (notwithstanding all former glorious deliverances), had almost brought the earl to the brink of despair; and, to increase it, the earl every day received such commands from the king within the place, as must have sacrificed his few forces, without the least proba¬ bility of succeeding. Those all tended to his forcing his way into the town ; when, in all human appearance, not one man of all that should make the attempt could have done it, with any hope or prospect of surviving. The French were strongly encamped at the foot of the mountaius, distant two miles from Barcelona: towards the bottom of those hills, the avenues into the plain were possessed and fortified by great detachments from the enemy’s army. From all which it will be evident, that no attempt could be made without giving the enemy time to draw together what body of foot they pleased. Or, supposing it feasible, under all these difficult circum¬ stances, for some of them to have forced tlieir passage, the remainder, that should have been so lucky to have escaped their foot, would have found themselves exposed in open field to a pursuit of four thousand horse and dragoons ; and that for two miles together; when, in case of their enclosing them, the bravest troops in the world, under such a situation, would have found it their best way to have surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Nevertheless, when Brigadier Stanhope sent that express to the earl, which I just now mentioned, he assured him in the same, that he would use his utmost dilligence, both by sea and land, to let him have timely notice of the conjunction of the fleets, which was now all they had to depend upon : adding withal, that if the earl should at any time receive a letter, or paper, though directed to nobody, and with nothing in it but a half sheet of paper cut in the middle, he, the earl, might certainly depend upon it that the two fleets were joined, and making the best (f their way for Barcelona. It will NOVEL EXPERIMENT TO REACH BARCELONA. 351 easily be imagined tlie express was to be well paid ; and being made sensible that he ran little or no hazard in carrying a piece of blank paper, he undertook it, and as fortunately arrived with it to the earl, at a moment when chagrin and despair might have hurried him to some resolution that might have proved fatal. The messenger himself, however, knew nothing of the joining of the fleets, or the meaning of his message. As soon as the Earl of Peterborow received this welcome message from Brigadier Stanhope he marched the very same night, with nis whole little body of forces, to a town on the sea shore, called Sigetli. No person guessed the reason of his march, or knew anything of what the intent of it was. The officers, as formerly, obeyed without inquiry, for they were led to it by so many unaccountable varieties of success, that affiance became a second nature, both in officer and soldier. The town of Sigeth was about seven leagues to the west¬ ward of Barcelona ; where, as soon as the earl with his forces arrived, he took care to secure all the small fishing-boats, feluccas, and sattees; nay, in a word, every machine in which he could transport any of his men; so that in two days’ time lie had got together a number sufficient for the conveyance of all his foot. But, a day or two before the arrival of the English fleet off Sigeth, the officers of his troops were under a strange consternation at a resolution their general had taken. Impa¬ tient of delay, and fearful of the fleets passing by without his knowledge, the earl summoned them together a little before night, at which time he discovered to the whole assembly, that he himself was obliged to endeavour to get aboard the English fleet; and that, if possible, before the French scouts should be able to make any discovery of their strength : that, finding himself of no farther tise on shore, having already taken the necessary precautions for their transportation and security, they had nothing to do but pursue his orders, and make the best of their way to Barcelona in the vessels which he had provided for them : that they might do this in perfect security when they saw the English fleet pass by ; or if they should pass by in the night, an engagement with the French, which would be an inevitable consequence, would give ther/ sufficient notice what they had to do farther. 352 MEMOIRS OF ATTAIN CARLETON. This declaration, instead of satisfying, made the officers ten times more curious ; but when they saw their general going, with a resolution to lie out all night at sea, in an open boat, attended with only one officer, and understood that he intended to row out in his felucca five or six leagues distance from the shore, it is hardly to be expressed what amazement and concern surprised them all. Mr. Crow, the queen’s minister, and others, expressed a particular dislike and uneasiness; but all to no purpose, the earl had resolved upon it. Accordingly, at night, he put out to sea in his open felucca, all which he spent five leagues from shore, with no other company than one captain and his roAvers. In the morning, to the great satisfaction of all, officers and others, the earl came again to land; and immediately began to put his men into the several vessels which lay ready in port for that purpose. But at night their amaze was renewed, \A r hen they found their general ready to put in execution his old resolution, in the same equipage, and Avith the same attendance. Accordingly, he again felucca’d himself; and they saw him no more till they were landed on the mole in Barcelona. When the Earl of Peterborow first engaged hums. If in the expedition to Spain, he proposed to the queen and her ministry, that Admiral Shovel might be joined in commission with him in command of the fleet. But this year, when the fleet came through the Straits, under Vice-admiral. Leake, the queen had sent a commission to the Earl of PeterboroAV for the full command whenever he thought fit to come aboard in person. This it Avas that made the general endeavour, at all hazards, to get aboard the fleet by night; for he Avas apprehensive, and the sequel proved his apprehensions too Avell grounded, that Admiral Leake would make his appear¬ ance with the Avhole body of the fleet, which made near tAviee the number of the ships of the enemy ; in Avhich case it Avas natural to suppose, that the Count de Tholouse, as soon as eA r er the French scouts should give notice of our strength, Avould cut his cables and put out to sea to avoid an engage¬ ment. On the other hand, the earl Avas very sensible, that if a part of his ships had kept astern, that the superiority might have appeared on the French side ; or rather, if they had bore aAvay in the night, towards the coast of Africa, and fallen to the eastAvard of Barcelona the next day, a battle had TROOPS LANDED IN BARCELONA. 353 been inevitable, and a victory equally certain ; since the enemy, by this means, had been tempted into an engagement, and their retreat being cut off, and their whole fleet surrounded with almost double their number, there had hardly been left for any of them a probability of escaping. Therefore, when the Earl of Peterborow put to sea again the second evening, fearful of losing such a glorious oppor¬ tunity, and impatient to be aboard to give the necessary orders, he ordered his rowers to obtain the same station, in order to discover the English fleet. And according to his wishes he did fall in with it; but unfortunately the night was so far advanced, that it was impossible for him then to put his project into practice. Captain Price, a gentleman of Wales, who commanded a third-rate, was the person he first came aboard of; but how amazed was he to find, in an open boat, at open sea, the person who had commission to com¬ mand the fleet! So soon as he was entered the ship, the earl sent the ship’s pinnace with letters to Admiral Leake, to acquaint him with his orders and intentions; and to Brigadier Stanhope, with a notification of his safe arrival; but the dark¬ ness of the night proved so great an obstacle, that it was a long time before the pinnace could reach the admiral. When day appeared, it was astonishing to the whole fleet, to see the union flag waving at the main-topmast head. Nobody could trust his own eyes, or guess at the meaning, till better certified by the account of an event so singular and extra¬ ordinary. When we were about six leagues’ distance from Barcelona, the port we aimed at, one of the French scouts gave the alarm, who making the signal to another, he communicated it to a third, and so on, as we afterward sorrowfully found, and as the earl had before apprehended. The French ad¬ miral being thus made acquainted Avith the force of our fleet, hoisted sail, and made the best of his way from us, either pursuant to orders, or under the plausible excuse of a re¬ treat. This favourable opportunity thus lost, there remained nothing to do but to land the troops with all expedition ; which Avas executed accordingly : the regiments, which the Earl of Peterborow embarked the night before, being the first that got into the tOAvn. Let the reader imagine low pleasing such a sight must be to those in Barcelona, reduced VOL. II. A A 354 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. as they were to tlie last extremity. In this condition to see an enemy's fleet give way to another with reinforcements from England, the sea at the same instant covered with little vessels, crowded with greater succours; what was there want¬ ing to complete the glorious scene, hut what the general had projected, a fight at sea, under the very walls of the in¬ vested city, and the ships of the enemy sinking, or towed in by the victorious English ! But night, and a few hours, de¬ feated the latter part of that well-intended landscape. King Philip, and the Mareschal of France, had not failed to push on the siege with all imaginable vigour; but this re¬ treat of the Count de Tholouse, and the news of those rein¬ forcements, soon changed the scene. Their courage without was abated proportionably, as theirs within was elated. In these circumstances, a council of war being called, it was unanimously resolved to raise the siege. Accordingly, next morning, the first of May, 1706, while the sun was under a total eclipse, in a suitable hurry and confusion, they broke up, leaving behind them most of their cannon and mortars, together with vast quantities of all sorts of ammunition and provisions, scarce stopping to look back till they had left all but the very verge of the disputed dominion behind them. King Charles looked with new pleasure upon this lucky effort of his old deliverers. Captivity is a state no way desirable to persons however brave, oi the most private station in life; but for a king, within two days of falling into the hands of his rival, to receive so seasonable and unexpected a deliver¬ ance, must be supposed, as it really did, to open a scene to universal rejoicing among us, too high for any words to ex¬ press, or any thoughts to imagine, to those that were not present and partakers of it. He forthwith gave orders for a medal to be struck suitable to the occasion ; one of which, set round with diamonds, he presented to Sir John Leake, the English admiral. The next orders were for recasting all the damaged brass cannon which the enemy had left; upon every one of which was, by order, a sun eclipsed, with this motto under it: Magna parvis obscurantur. I have often wondered that I never heard anybody curious enough to inquire what could be the motives to the King of Spain’s quitting his dominions upon the raising of this siege; very certain it is, that he had a fine army, under the com¬ mand of a mareschal of France, not very considerably de- CONTRAST OF THE CONTENDING POWERS. 355 creased, either by action or desertion ; but ail this would rather increase the curiosity than abate it. In my opinion, then, though men might have curiosity enough, the question was purposely evaded, under an apprehension, that an honest answer must inevitably give a higher idea of the general, than their inclinations led them to. At first view, this may carry the face of a paradox ; yet, if the reader will consider, that in every age virtue has had its shaders or maligners, he will himself easily solve it, at the same time that he finds himself compelled to allow, that those who found themselves unable to prevent his great services, were willing, in a more subtile manner, to endeavour at the annulling of them by silence and concealment. This will appear more than bare supposition, if we com¬ pare the present situation, as to strength, of the two contend¬ ing powers. The French, at the birth of the siege, consisted of five thousand horse and dragoons, and twenty-five thou¬ sand foot; effective men. Now, grant that their killed and wounded, together with their sick in the hospitals, might amount to five thousand, yet as their body of horse was entire, and in the best condition, the remaining will appear to be an army of twenty-five thousand at least. On the other side, all the forces in Barcelona, even with their reinforcements, amounted to no more than seven thousand foot, and four hundred horse. Why then, when they raised their siege, did not they march back into the heart of Spain, with their so much superior army? or, at least, towards their capital? The answer can be this, and this only; because the Earl of Petei’borow had taken such provident care to render all secure, that it was thereby rendered next to an impossibility for them so to do. That general was satisfied, that the capital of Catalonia must, in course, fall into the hands of the enemy, unless a superior fleet removed the Count de Tholouse, and threw in timely succours into the town; and as that could not depend upon him, but others, he made it his chief care and assiduous employment to provide against those strokes of fortune to which he found himself again likely to be exposed, as he often had been; and, therefore, ! had he recourse to that vigilance and precaution which had | often retrieved him, when to others his circumstances seemed to be most desperate. The generality of mankind, and the French in particular, A A 2 356 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. were of opinion, that the taking Barcelona would prove a decisive stroke, and put a period to the war in Spain; and yet at that very instant, I was inclined to believe, that the general flattered himself it would be in his power to give the enemy sufficient mortification, even though the town should be obliged to submit to King Philip. The wise measures taken induced me so to believe, and the sequel approved it; for the earl had so well expended his caution, that the enemy, on the disappointment, found himself under a necessity of quit¬ ting Spain; and the same would have put him under equal difficulties, had he carried the place. The French could never have undertaken that siege without depending on their fleet for their artillery, ammunition, and provisions; since they must be inevitably forced to leave behind them the strong towns of Tortosa, Lerida, and Taragona. The earl, there¬ fore, whose perpetual difficulties seemed rather to render him more sprightly and vigorous, took care himself to examine the whole country between the Ebro and Barcelona; and, upon his doing so, was pleasingly, as well as sensibly satisfied, that it was practicable to render their return into the heart of Spain impossible, whether they did or did not succeed in the siege they were so intent to undertake. There were but three ways they could attempt it: the first of which was by the sea-side, from Taragona towards Tortosa; the most barren, and consequently the most improper, country in the universe to sustain an army ; and yet to the natural, the earl had added such artificial difficulties, as rendered it absolutely impossible for an army to subsist, or march that way. The middle way lay through a better country indeed, yet only practicable by the care which had been taken to make the road so. And even here there was a necessity of marching along the side of a mountain, where, by vast labour and in¬ dustry, a highway had been cut for two miles, at least, out of the main rock. The earl, therefore, by somewhat of the same labour, soon made it impassable. He employed to that end many thousands of the country people, under a few of his own officers and troops, who, cutting up twenty several places, made so many precipices, perpendicular almost as a wall which rendered it neither safe, or even to be attempted by any gingle man in his wits, much less by an army. Besides, a very few men, from the higher cliffs of the mountain, might DIFFICULTIES OF THE FRENCH TROOPS. 35 ? have destroyed an army with the arms of nature only, by rolling down large stones, and pieces of the rock, upon the enemy passing below. The last and uppermost way lay through the hilly part ot Catalonia, and led to Lerida, towards the head of the Ebro, the strongest place we had in all Spain, and which was as well furnished with a very good garrison. Along this road there lay many old castles and little towns in the mountains, naturally strong; all which would not only have afforded opposition, but at the same time have entertained an enemy with variety of difficulties; and especially as the earl had given orders, and taken care that all cattle, and everything necessary to sustain an army, should be conveyed into places of security, either in the mountains or thereabouts. These three ways thus precautiously secured, what had the earl to apprehend but the safety of the archduke ; which yet was through no default of his, if in any danger from the siege? For I well remember, on receipt of an express from the Duke of Savoy (as he frequently sent such to inquire after the proceedings in Spain), I was showed a letter, wrote about this time by the Earl of Peterborow to that prince, which raised my spirits, though then at a very low ebb. It was too remarkable to be forgot; and the substance of it was, that his highness might depend upon it, that he, the earl, was in much better circumstances than he was thought to be. That the French officers knowing nothing of the situation of the country, would find themselves extremely disappointed, since, in case the siege was raised, their army should be obliged to abandon Spain ; or, in case the town was taken, they should find themselves shut up in that corner of Catalonia, and under an impossibility of forcing their way back, either through Arragon or Valencia: that, by this means, all Spain, to the Ebro, would be open to the Lord Galoway, who might march to Madrid, or anywhere else, without opposition. That he had no other uneasiness or concern upon him, but for the person of the archduke, whom he had nevertheless earnestly solicited not to remain in the town on the very first appear¬ ance ot the intended siege. 858 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAELETOA. CHAPTER VI. THE KING BEGINS HIS JOURNEY TO MADRID, AND PETERBOROW TO VALENCIA-SAD ACCIDENT AT ST. JAGO-PETERBOROW LEAVES VALENCIA-SAVAGE CRUELTY OF THE SPANIARDS AT CAMPILIO-AMOURS OF TWO ENGLISH OFFICERS WITH nuns — saint Vincent’s procession—curious customs OF THE VALENCIANS DURING LENT. Barcelona being thus relieved, and King Philip forced out of Spain, by these cautious steps taken by the Earl of Peterborow; before we bring him to Valencia, it will be necessary to intimate, that, as it always was the custom of that general to settle, by a council of war, all the measures to be taken, whenever he was obliged for the service to leave the archduke; a council of war was now accordingly held, where all the general officers, and those in greatest employ¬ ments at court, assisted. Here everything was in the most solemn manner concerted and resolved upon; here garrisons were settled for all the strong places, and governors appointed; but the main article then agreed upon was, that King Charles should immediately begin his journey to Madrid, and that by the way of Valencia. The reason assigned for it was, because that kingdom being in his possession, no difficulties could arise which might occasion delay, if his majesty took that route. It was likewise agreed in the same council, that the Earl of Peterborow should embark all the foot not in garrisons, for their more speedy, as well as more easy conveyance to Valencia. The same council of war agreed, that all the horse in that kingdom should be drawn together; the better to ensure the measures to be taken for the opening and facilitating his majesty’s progress to Madrid. Accordingly, after these resolutions were taken, the Earl of Peterborow embarks his forces, and sails for Valencia, where he was doubly welcomed by all sorts of people, upon account of his safe arrival, and the news he brought along; with it. By the joy they expressed, one would have imagined that the general had escaped the same danger with the king; and, in truth, had their king arrived with him in person, the peterbor yw well received at Valencia. 359 most loyal and zealous would have found themselves at a loss how to have expressed their satisfaction in a more sensible manner. Soon after his landing, with his customary vivacity, he applied himself to put in execution the resolutions taken in the councils of war at Barcelona; and, a little to improve upon them, he raised an entire regiment of dragoons, bought them horses, provided them clothes, arms, and accoutrements; and in six weeks’ time had them ready to take the field ; a thing, though hardly to be paralleled, is yet scarce worthy to be mentioned among so many nobler actions of his; yet, in regard to another general, it may merit notice, since, while he had Madrid in possession near four months, he neither augmented his troops, nor laid up any magazines; neither sent he all that time any one express to concert any measures with the Earl of Peterborow; but lay under a perfect inactivity, or which was worse, negotiating that unfortunate project of carrying King Charles to Madrid by the round¬ about and ill-concerted way of Arragon; a project not only contrary to the solemn resolutions of the council of war, but which, in reality, was the root of all our succeeding mis¬ fortunes ; and that only for the wretched vanity of appearing to have had some share in bringing the king to his capital; but how minute a share it was, will be manifest, it it be considered that another general had first made the way easy, by driving the enemy out of Spain; and that the French general only stayed at Madrid till the return of those troops which were, in a manner, driven out of Spain. And yet that transaction, doughty as it was, took up four most precious months, which most certainly might have been much better employed in rendering it impossible for the enemy to re-enter Spain; nor had there been any great difficulty in so doing; but the contrary, if the general at Madrid had thought convenient to have joined the troops under the Earl of Peterborow, and then to have marched directly towards Pampelona, or the frontiers of France. To this the Earl of Peterborow solicited the king, and those about him ; he advised, desired, and entreated him to lose no time, but to put in execution those measures resolved on at Barcelona. A council of wa' 1 in Valencia renewed the same application; but all to no purpose, his route was ordered him, and that to meet his majesty on the frontiers of Ar> 860 MEMOIRS OF CAFTAIN CARLETON. ragoi:. There, indeed, the earl did meet the king; and the French general an army, which, by virtue of a decrepit intelligence, he never saw or heard of till he fled from it to his camp at Guadalira. Inexpressible was the confusion in this fatal camp; the king from Arragon, the Earl of Peter- borow from Valencia, arriving in it the same day, almost the same hour that the Earl of Galway entered, under a hasty retreat before the French army. But to return to order, which a zeal of justice has made me somewhat anticipate; the earl had not been long at Valencia before he gave orders to Major-general Windham, to march with all the forces he had, which were not above two thousand men, and lay siege to Requina, a town ten leagues distant from Valencia, and in the way to Madrid. The tOAvn was not very strong, nor very large; but sure the oddliest fortified that ever was. The houses in a circle con- nectively composed the Avail; and the people, who defended the town, instead of firing from hornworks, counterscarps, and bastions, fired out of the windows of their houses. NotAvithstanding all which, General Windham found much greater oppositon than he at first imagined; and therefore, finding he should want ammunition, he sent to the Earl of PeterboroAv for a supply; at the same time assigning, as a l’eason for it, the unexpected obstinacy of the town. So soon as the earl received the letter, he sent for me; and told me I must repair to Requina, Avhere they would want an engineer; and that I must be ready next morning, when he should order a lieutenant, Avith thirty soldiers, and tAVO matrosses, to guard some powder for that service. Accord¬ ingly, the next morning Ave set out, the lieutenant, who was a Dutchman, and commander of the convey, being of my acquaintance. We had reached St. Jago, a small village about midway betAveen Valencia and Requina, when the officer, just as he Avas got without the town, resolving to take up his quarters ok the spot, ordered the mules to be unloaded. The poAvder, which consisted of forty-five barrels; was piled up in a circle, and covered with oil-cloth to preserve it from the weather; and though Ave had agreed to sup together at my quarters within the village, yet, being Aveary and fatigued, he ordered his field-bed to be put up near the powder, and so lay down to take a short nap. I had scarce been at my 8AD ACCIDENT AT ST. JAGO. 381 quarters an hour, when a sudden shock attacked the house so violently, that it threw down tiles, windows, chimneys and all. It presently came into my head what was the occasion ; and, as my fears suggested, so it proved: for running to the door, I saw a cloud ascending from the spot I left the powder pitched upon. In haste making up to which, nothing was to be seen but the bare circle upon which it had stood. The bed was blown quite away, and the poor lieutenant all to pieces, several of his limbs being found separate, and at a vast distance from each other; and particularly an arm with a ring on one of the fingers. The matrosses were, if possible, in a yet worse condition, that is, as to manglement and laceration. All the soldiers who were standing, and anything near, were struck dead. Only such as lay sleeping on the ground escaped; and of those one assured me, that the blast removed him several feet from his place of repose. In short, inquiring into this deplorable disaster, I had this account: that a pig running out of the town, the soldiers endeavoured to intercept its return; but driving it upon the matrosses, one of them, who was jealous of its getting back into the hands of the soldiers, drew his pistol to shoot it, which was the source of this miserable catastrophe. The lieutenant carried along with him a bag of dollars to pay the soldiers’ quarters; of which the people, and the soldiers that were saved, found many, but blown to an inconceivable distance. With those few soldiers that remained alive, I proceeded, according to my orders, to Requina; where, when I arrived, I gave General Windham an account of the disaster at St. Jago. As such it troubled him, and not a little on account of the disappointment. However, to make the best of a bad market, he gave orders for the forming of a mine, under an old castle, which was part of the wall. As it was ordered, so it was begun, more in terrorern, than with any expectation of success from it as a mine. Nevertheless, I had scarce began to frame the oven of the mine, when those within the town desired to capitulate. This being all we could aim at, under the miscarriage of our powder at St. Jago (none being yet arrived to supply that defect), articles were readily granted them; pursuant to which, that part of the garrison, which was composed of Castilian gentry, had liberty to go where- ever they thought best, and the rest were made prisoners of war. Requina being thus reduced to the obedience of Charles III., 862 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. a new raised regiment of Spaniards was left in garrison, the colonel of which was appointed governor; and oui. supply of powder having at last got safe to us, General Windham marched his little army to Cuenca. Cuenca is a considerable city, and a bishopric; therefore, to pretend to sit down before it with such a company of foragers, rather than an army, must be placed among the hardy influences of the Earl of Peterborow’s auspicious administration. On the out part of Cuenca there stood an old castle, from which, upon our approach, they played upon us furiously: but as soon as we could bring two pieces of our cannon to bear, we answered their fire with so good success, that we soon obliged them to retire into the town. We had raised a battery of twelve guns against the city, on their rejection of the summons sent them to come under the obedience of King Charles; going to which, from the old castle last reduced, I received a shot on the toe of one of my shoes, which carried that part of the shoe entirely away, without any farther damage. When I came to that battery, we plied them warmly (as well as from three mortars), for the space of three days, their nights included; but observing, that in one particular house they were remarkably busy, people thronging in and out below, and those above firing perpetually out of the windows, I was resolved to have one shot at that window, and made those officers about me take notice of it. True it was, the distance would hardly allow me to hope for success ; yet as the experiment could only be attended with the expense of a single ball, I made it. So soon as the smoke of my own cannon would permit it, we could see clouds of dust issuing from out of the Avindow, which, together with the people’s crowding out of doors, convinced the officers, whom I had desired to take notice of it, that I had been no bad marksman. Upon this, two priests were sent out of the place with proposals; but they were so triflingly extravagant, that as soon as ever the general heard them, he ordered their anSAver in a fresh renewal of the fire of both cannon and mortars. And it liappeend to be with so much havoc and execution, that they Avere soon taught reason ; and sent back their divines with much more moderate demands. After the general had a little modelled these last, they were accepted; and according to the articles of capitulation, the city was that RET11EA1 rROM VALENCIA. 363 very da}’- surrendered into our possession. The Earl of Duncannon’s regiment took guard of all the gates; and King Charles was proclaimed in due form. The Eaid of Peterborow, during this expedition, had left Valencia, and was arrived at my Lord Galway’s camp at Gaudalaxara: who, for the confederates, and King Charles in particular, unfortunately was ordered from Portugal, to take the command from a general, who had all along been almost miraculously successful, and by his own great actions paved the way for a safe passage to that of his supplanter. Yet, even in this fatal place, the Earl of Peterborow made some proposals, which had they been embraced, might, in all probability, have secured Madrid from falling into the hands of the enemy: but, in opposition thereto, the Lord Galway, and all his Portuguese officers, were for forcing the next day the enemy to battle. The almost only person against it was the Earl of PeterboroAV ; who then and there took the liberty to evince the impossibility of coming to an engagement. This the next morning too evidently made apparent, when, upon the first motion of our troops towards the river, which they pretended to pass, and must pass, before they could engage, they were so warmly saluted from the batteries of the enemy, and their small shot, that our regiments were forced to retire in confusion to their camp. By which rebuff, all heroical imaginations were at present laid aside, to consider how they might make their retreat to Valencia. The retreat being at last resolved on, and a multiplicity of generals rendering our bad circumstances much worse, the Earl of Peterborow met with a fortunate reprieve, by solicitations from the queen, and desires tantamount to orders, that he would go with the troops left in Catalonia, to the relief of the Duke of Savoy. It is hardly to be doubted, that that general was glad to withdraw from those scenes of confusion, which were but too visible to eyes even less discerning than his. However, he forbore to prepare himself to put her majesty’s desires in execution, as they were not peremptory, till it had been resolved by the unanimous consent of a council of war, where the king, all the generals, and ministers, were present, that it was expedient for the service that the Earl of Peterborow, during the winter season, should comply with her majesty’s desires, and go for Italy; since he might return before the opening of the campaign, if it should be necessaiy 364 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. And return indeed he did, before the campaign opened, and brought along with him 100,00(E. from Genoa, to the great comfort and support of our troops, which had neither money nor credit. But, on his return, that noble earl found the Lord Galway had been near as successful against him, as he had been unsuccessful against the enemy. Thence was the Earl of Peterborow recalled to make room for an unfortunate general, who, the next year, suffered himself to be decoyed into that fatal battle of Almanza. The Earl of Peterborow, on his leaving Valencia, had ordered his baggage to follow him to the camp at Guadalaxara; and it arrived in our little camp, so far safe in its way to the greater at Guadalaxara. I think it consisted of seven loaded wagons • and General Windham gave orders for a small guard to escort it; under which they proceeded on their journey: but, about eight leagues from Cuenca, at a pretty town called Huette, a party from the Duke of Berwick’s army, with boughs in their hats, the better to appear what they were not (for the bough in the hat is the badge of the English, as white paper is the badge of the French), came into the town, crying all the way, Viva Carlos Tercero, Viva! With these acclamations in their mouths, they advanced up to the very waggons ; when attacking the guards, who had too much deluded themselves with appearances, they routed them, and immediately plundered the waggons of all that was valuable, and then marched off. The noise of this soon reached the ears of the Earl of Peterborow at Guadalaxara ; when leaving my Lord Galway’s camp, pursuant to the resolutions of the council of war, with a party only of fourscore of Killegrew’s dragoons, he met general Windham’s little army within a league of Huette, the place where his baggage had been plundered. The earl had strong motives of suspicion, that the inhabitants had given intelligence to the enemy; and, as it is very natural, giving way to the first dictates of resentment, he resolved to have laid the town in ashes ; but when he came near it, the clergy and magistrates, upon their knees, disavowing the charge, and asserting their innocence, prevailed on the good nature of that generous earl, without any great difficulty, to spare the town, at least not to burn it. We marched, however, into the town, and that night took up our quarters there; and the magistrates, under the dread THE NUNNERY AT HUETTE. 365 of our avenging ourselves, on their part took care that we were well supplied. But, when they were made sensible ot the value of the loss which the earl had sustained, and that on a moderate computation it amounted to at least eight thousand pistoles, they voluntarily presented themselves next morning, and, of their own accord, offered to make liis lord- ship full satisfaction, and that, in their own phrase, de contado, in ready money. The earl was not displeased at their offer; but generously made answer, That he was just come from my Lord Galway’s camp at Chincon, where he found they were in a likelihood of wanting bread; and, as he imagined it might be easier to them to raise the value in corn, than in ready money; if they would send to that value in corn, to the Lord Galway’s camp, he would be satisfied. This they with joy embraced, and immediately complied with. I am apt to think the last century (and I very much fear the current will be as deficient), can hardly produce a parallel instance of generosity, and true public-spiritedness; and the world will be of my opinion, when I have corroborated this with another passage some years after. The commissioners for stating the debts due to the army, meeting daily for that purpose, at their house in Darby-court in Channel-row, I there mentioned to Mr. Read, gentleman to his lordship, this very just and honourable claim upon the government, as monies advanced for the use of the army; who told me, in a little time after, that he had mentioued it to his lordship, but with no other effect than to have it rejected with a generous disdain. While we stayed atHuette, there was a little incident in life, which gave me great diversion. The earl, who maintained a good correspondence with the fair sex, hearing from one of the priests of the place, that, on the alarm of burning the town, one of the finest ladies in all Spain had taken refuge in the nunnery, was desirous to speak with her. The nunnery stood upon a small rising hill within the town, and, to obtain the view, the earl had presently in his head this stratagem; he sends for me, as engineer, to have my advice, how to raise a proper fortification upon that hill, out of the nunnery. I waited upon his lordship to the place, where, declaring the intent of our coming, and giving plau¬ sible reasons for it, the train took, and immediately the lady abbess, and the fair lady came out to make intercession, that 366 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. his lordship would be pleased to lay aside that design. The divine oratory of one, and the beautiful charms of the other, prevailed ; so his lordship left the fortification to be the work of some future generation. From Huette the Earl of Peterborow marched forwards for Valencia, with only those fourscore dragoons, which came with him from Chincon, leaving General Windham pursuing his own orders to join his forces to the army, then under the command of the Lord Galway. But stopping at Campilio, a little town in our way, his lordship had information of a most barbarous fact committed that very morning by the Spaniards, at a small villa, about a league distant, upon some English soldiers. A captain of the English guards (whose name has slipped my memory, though I well knew the man), marching in order to join the battalion of the guards, then under the command of General Windham, with some of his soldiers that had been in the hospital, took up his quarters in that little villa. But, on his marching out of it, next morning, a shot in the back laid that officer dead upon the spot; and, as it had been before concerted, the Spaniards of the place at the same time fell upon the poor weak soldiers, killing several; not even sparing their wives. This was but a prelude to their bar¬ barity ; their savage cruelty was only whetted, not glutted. They took the surviving few, hurried and dragged them up a hill, a little without the villa. On the top of this hill there was a hole, or opening, somewhat like the mouth of one of our coal-pits; down this they cast several, who with hideous shrieks and cries, made more hideous by the echoes of the chasm, there lost their lives. This relation was thus made to the Earl of Peterborow, at his quarters at Campilio, who immediately gave orders for to sound to horse. At first we were all surprised; but were soon satisfied, that it was to revenge, or rather do justice on, this barbarous action. As soon as we entered the villa, we found that most of the inhabitants, but especially the most guilty, had withdrawn themselves on our approach. We found, however, many of the dead soldiers’ clothes, which had been conveyed into the church, and there hid. And a strong accusation being laid against a person belonging to the church, and full proof made that he had been singularly industrious in the execution o.i PERILOUS POSITION OP A POOR SOLDIER. 367 that horrid piece of barbarity on the hill, his lordship com¬ manded him to be hanged up at the knocker of the door. After this piece of military justice, we were led up to the fatal pit, or hole, down which many had been cast headlong. There we found one poor soldier alive, who, upon his throwing in, had catched fast hold of some impending bushes, and saved himself on a little jutty within the concavity. On hearing us talk English, he cried out; and ropes being let down, in a little time he was drawn up; when he gave us an ample detail of the whole villany. Among other particulars, 1 remember he told me of a very narrow escape he had in that obscure recess. A poor woman, one of the wives of the soldiers, who was thrown down after him, struggled, and roared so much, that they could not, with all their force, throw her cleverly in the middle; by which means, falling near the side, in her fall she almost beat him from his place of security. Upon the conclusion of this tragical relation of the soldier thus saved, his lordship gave immediate orders for the firing of the villa, which was executed with due severity; after which his lordship marched back to his quarters at Campilio ; from whence, two days after, we arrived at Valencia; where, the first thing presented to that noble lord, was all the papers taken in the plunder of his baggage, which the Duke of Berwick had generously ordered to be returned him, without waste or opening. It was too manifest, after the earl’s arrival at this city, that the alteration in the command of the English forces, which before was only received as a rumour, had deeper grounds for belief than many of his friends in that city could have wished. His lordship had gained the love of all by a thousand engaging condescensions; even his gallantries, being no way prejudicial, were not offensive; and though his lord- ship did his utmost to conceal his chagrin, the sympathy of those around him made such discoveries upon him, as would have disappointed a double portion of his caution. They had seen him unelated under successes, that were so near being unaccountable, that, in a country of less superstition than Spain, they might almost have passed for miraculous ; they knew full well, that nothing but that series of successes had paved a passage for the general that was to supersede him; 303 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. those only having removed all the difficulties of his march from Portugal to Madrid; they knew him the older general; and therefore, not knowing that, in the court he came from, intrigue was too often the soul of merit, they could not but be amazed at a change, which his lordship was unwilling anybody should perceive by himself. It was upon this account, that, as formerly, he treated the ladies Avith balls, and to pursue the dons in their OAvn humour, ordered a tawridore, or bull-feast. In Spain, no sort of public diversions are esteemed equal with this. But the bulls provided at Valencia, not being of the right breed, nor ever initiated in the mysteries, did not acquit themselves at all masterly; and, consequently, did not give the diversion or satisfaction expected. For which reason I shall omit giving a description of this bull-feast; and desire my reader to sus¬ pend his curiosity till I come to some, which, in the Spanish sense, Avere much more entertaining; that is, attended Avith much greater hazards and danger. But though I have said the gallantries of the general Avere mostly political, at least very inoffensive; yet there happened about this time, and in this place, a piece of gallantry, that gave the earl a vast deal of offence and vexation ; as a matter that in its consequences might have been fatal to the interest of King Charles, if not to the English nation in general; and which I the rather relate, in that it may be of use to young officers and others ; pointing out to them the danger, not to say folly, of inadvertent and precipitate engagements, under unruly passions. I have said before, that Valencia is famous for fine Avomen. It indeed abounds in them; and among those, are great numbers of courtezans, not inferior in beauty to any. Nevertheless, trvo of our English officers, not caring for the common road, hoAvever safe, resolved to launch into the deeper seas, though attended Avith much greater danger. Amours, the common failing of that fair city, was the occasion of this accident, and tAvo nuns the objects. It is customary in that country for young people, in an evening, to resort to the grates of the nunneries, there to divert themselves, and the nuns, Avith a little pleasant and inoffensive chit-chat. For, though I have heard some relate a world of nauseous passages at such conversations, I must declare that I never saw or TWO NUNS ELOI-E WITH TWO OFFICERS. 369 heard anything unseemly; and therefore, whenever I have heard any such from such fabulists, I never so much wronged my judgment as to afford them credit. Our two officers were very assiduous at the grates of a nunnery in this place; and having there pitched upon two nuns, prosecuted their amours with such vigour, that, in a little time, they had made a very great progress in their affections, without in the least considering the dangers that must attend themselves and the fair; they had exchanged vows, and prevailed upon the weaker vessels to endeavour to get out to their lovers. To effect which, soon after, a plot was laid ; the means, the hour, and everything agreed upon. It is the custom of that nunnery, as of many others, for the nuns to take their weekly courses in keeping the keys of all the doors. The two love-sick ladies giving notice to their lovers at the grate, that one of their turns was come, the night and hour was appointed, which the officers punctually observing, carried off their prey without either difficulty or interruption. But next morning when the nuns were missing, Avhat an uproar was there over all the city ! The ladies were both of quality; and therefore the tidings were first carried to their relations. They received the news with vows of utmost vengeance; and, as is usual in that country, put themselves in arms for that purpose. There needed no great canvassing for discovering who were the aggressors; the officers had been too frequent, and too public in their addresses, to leave any room for question. Accordingly, they were complained of and sought for; but sensible at last of their past temeritv, they endeavoured, and with a great deal of difficulty, perfected their escape. Less fortunate were the two fair nuns; their lovers, in their utmost exigency, had forsaken them; and they, poor creatures, knew not where to fly. Under this sad dilemma they were taken ; and, as in like offences, condemned directly to the punishment of immuring. And what greater punishment is there on earth, than to be confined between four narrow walls, only open at the top; and thence to be half supported with bread and water, till the offenders gradually starve tu death ? The Earl of Peterborow, though highly exasperated at the proceedings of his officers, in compassion to the unhappy fair, VOL. II. b v 370 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. resolved to interpose by all the moderate means possible. He knew very well, that no one thing could so much preju¬ dice the Spaniard against him, as the countenancing such an action: wherefore, he inveighed against the officers, at the same time that he endeavoured to mitigate in favour of the ladies : but all was in vain; it was urged against those chari¬ table intercessions, that they had broke their vows ; and, in that, had broke in upon the laws of the nunnery and religion; the consequence of all which could be nothing less than the punishment appointed to be inflicted. And, which was the hardest of all, the nearest of their relations most opposed all his generous mediations; and those, who according to the common course of nature, should have thanked him for his endeavours to be instrumental in rescuing them from the im¬ pending danger, grew more and more enraged, because he opposed them in their design of a cruel revenge. Notwithstanding all which the earl persevered ; and after a deal of labour, first got the penalty suspended; and, soon after, by the dint of a very considerable sum of money (a most powerful argument which prevails in every country), saved the poor nuns from immuring; and at last, though with great reluctance, he got them received again into the nunnery. As to the warlike lovers, one of them was the year after slain at the battle of Almanza; the other is yet living, being a brigadier in the army. While the Earl of Peterborow was here with his little army of great heretics, neither priests nor people were so open in their superstitious fopperies, as I at other times found them. For which reason I will make bold, and by an antichronism in this place, a little anticipate some observations that I made some time after the earl left it. And as I have not often committed such a transgression, I hope it may be the more excusable now, and no way blemish my Memoirs, that I break in upon the series of my journal. V alencia is a handsome city, and a bishopric ; and is con¬ siderable, not only for the pleasantness of its situation and beautiful ladies, but (which at some certain times, and on some occasions, to them is more valuable than both those put together) for being the birth-place of St. Vincent, the patron of the place; and next, for its being the place where Santo Domingo, the first institutor of the Dominican order, had his education. Here, in honour of the last, is a spacious and CONVENT OF THE DOMINICANS. 371 rery splendid convent of the Dominicans. Walking bj which, I one day observed over the gate, a figure ot a man in stone; and near it, a dog with alighted torch in his mouth. The image I rightly enough took to intend that of the saint; but enquiring of o-ne of the order at the gate the meaning ot the figures near it, he very courteously asked me to walk in, and then entertained me with the following relation :— When the mother of Santo Domingo, said that religious, was with child of that future saint, she had a dream which very much afflicted her. She dreamt that she heard a dog bark in her belly ; and inquiring (at what oracle is not said) the meaning of her dream, she was told, That that child should bark out the Gospel (excuse the bareness of the expression, it may run better in Spanish; though, if I remember right, Erasmus gives it in Latin much the same turn), which should thence shine out like that lighted torch. And this is the reason, that wherever you see the image ot that saint, a dog and a lighted torch is in the group. He told me at the same time, that there had been more popes and cardinals of that order than of any, it not all the other. To confirm which, he led me into a large gallery, on each side whereof he showed me the pictures ot all the popes and cardinals that had been of that order; among which, I particularly took notice ot that of Cardinal Howard, great uncle to the present Duke of Norfolk. But after many encomiums of their society, with which he interspersed his discourse, he added one that 1 least valued it for, that the sole care and conduct of the inquisition was intrusted witli them. Finding me attentive, or not so contradictory as the English humour generally is, he next brought me into a fair and large cloister, round which I took several turns with him ; and, indeed, the place was too delicious to tire, under a conversation less pertinent or courteous than that he entertained me with. In the middle of the cloister, was a small, but pretty and sweet grove of orange and lemon trees ; these bore fruit ripe and green, and flowers, altogether i on one tree ; and their fruit was so very large and beautiful, i and their flowers so transcendently odoriferous, that all I had ] ever seen of the like kind in England, could comparatively pass only for beauty in epitome, or nature imitated in wax* b p 2 37 ? MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. work. Many flocks also of pretty little birds, with their cheerful notes, added not a little to my delight. In short, in life, I never knew or found three of my senses at once so exquisitely gratified. Not far from this, Saint Vincent, the patron, as I said before, of this city, has a chapel dedicated to him. Once a year they do him honour in a sumptuous procession. Then are their streets all strewed with flowers, and their houses set off with their richest tapestries ; every one strives to excel his neighbour in distinguishing himself by the honour he pays to that saint; and he is the best catholic, as well as the best citizen, in the eye of the religious, who most exerts himself on this occasion. The procession begins with a cavalcade of all the friars of all the convents in and about the city. These walk two and two with folded arms, and eyes cast down to the very ground, and with the greatest outward appearance of humility imagin¬ able ; nor, though the temptation from the fine women that filled their windows, or the rich tapestries that adorned the balconies, might be allowed sufficient to attract, could I observe that any one of them all ever moved them upwards. After the friars is borne, upon the shoulders of twenty men at least, an image of that saint, of solid silver, large as the life : it is placed in a great chair, of silver likewise ; the staves that bear him up, and upon which they bear him, being of the same metal. The whole is a most costly and curious piece of workmanship, such as my eyes never before or since beheld. The magistrates follow the image and its supporters, dressed in their richesl apparel, which is always on this day, and on this occasion, particularly sumptuous and distinguish¬ ing. Thus is the image, in the greatest splendour, borne and accompanied round that fine city ; and at last conveyed to the place from whence it came; and so concludes that annual ceremony. The Valencians, as to the exteriors of religion, are the most devout of any in Spain, though in common life you find them amorous, gallant, and gay, like other people, yet, on solemn occasions, there shines outi ight such a spirit, as proves them the very bigots of bigotry; as a proof of which assertion, 1 CUSTOMS OP THE VALENCIA'S. 373 will now give some account of such observations as 1 had time to make upon them, during two Lent seasons while I resided there. The week before the Lent commences, commonly known by the name of Carnival Time, the whole city appears a perfect Bartholomew fair; the streets are crowded, and the houses empty ; nor is it possible to pass along without some gambol or jack-pudding trick offered to you. Ink, water, and sometimes ordure, are sure to be hurled at your face or clothes ; and if you appear concerned or angry, they rejoice at it, pleased the more, the more they displease ; for all other resentment is at that time out of season, though at other times few in the world are fuller of resentment, or more captious. The younger gentry, or dons, to express their gallantry, carry about them egg-shells, filled with orange or other sweet water, which they cast at ladies in their coaches, or such other of the fair sex as they happen to meet in the streets. But, after all, if you would think them extravagant to-day, as much transgressing the rules of common civility, and neither regarding decency to one another, nor the duty they owe to Almighty God; yet when Ash-Wednesday comes, you wall imagine them more unaccountable in their conduct, being; then as much too excessive in all outward indications of humility and repentance. Here you shall meet one bare¬ footed, Avith a cross on his shoulder, a burthen rather fit for somewhat with four feet, and which his poor two are ready i to sink under, yet the vain Avretch bears and sweats, and ! sweats and bears, in hope of finding merit in an ass’s labour. Others you shall see naked to their Avaists, whipping themselves with scourges made for the purpose, till the blood | folloAvs every stroke ; and no man need be at a loss to folloAV them by the very tracks of gore they shed in this frantic per- . ambulation. Some Avho, from the thickness of their hides, or i other impediments, have not power by their scourgings to ! fetch blood of themselves, are followed by surgeons with their I lancets, Avho, at e\ T ery turn, make use of them, to evince the I extent of their patience and zeal by the smart of their folly. ' While others, mingling amour Avith devotion, take particular care to present themselves all macerated before the windoAva 374 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. of their mispresses ; and even in that condition, not satisfied with what they have barbarously done to themselves, they have their operators at hand, to evince their love by the number of their gashes and wounds; imagining the more blood they lose, the more love they show, and the more they shall gain. These are generally devotees of quality ; though the tenet is universal, that he that is most bloody is most devout. After these street exercises, these ostentatious castigations, are over, these self-sacrificers repair to the great church, the bloodier the better; there they throw themselves, in a condition too vile for the eye of a female, before the image of the Virgin Mary; though I defy all their race of Fathers, and their infallible Holy Father into the bargain, to produce any authority to fit it for belief, that she ever delighted in such sanguinary holocausts. During the whole time of Lent, you will see in every street some priest or friar, upon some stall or stool, preaching up repentance to the people; and with violent blow on his breast, crying aloud, Mia culpa, mia maxima culpa, till he extract reciprocal returns from the hands of his auditors on their own breasts. When Good-Friday is come, they entertain it with the most profound show of reverence and religion, both in their streets and in their churches. In the last, particularly, they have contrived about twelve o’clock suddenly to darken them, so as to render them quite gloomy. This they do, to intimate the eclipse of the sun, which at that time happened. And to signify the rending of the vail of the temple, you are struck with a strange artificial noise at the very same instant. But when Easter-day appears, you find it in all respects with them a day of rejoicing; for though abstinence from flesh with them, who at no time eat much, is not so great a mortification as with those of the same persuasion in other countries, who eat much more, yet there is a visible satisfaction darts out at their eyes, which demonstrates their inward pleasure in being set free from the confinement of mind to the dissatisfaction of the body. Every person you now meet greets you with a Resurrexit Jesus; a good imitation of the primitive Christians, were it the real etfect of devotion. And all sorts of the best music (which here indeed is the SIEGE OF ALICANT. 375 best in all Spain), proclaim an auspicious valediction to the departed season ot superficial sorrow and stupid superstition. But enough of this: I proceed to weightier matters. CHAPTER vn. ALICANl BESIEGED BY GENERAL GORGE-REMARKABLE FEAT OF A SCOTCH DRAGOON-MESSENGER TO ALICANT-LETTER FROM THE KING OF SPAIN TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND- THE SIEGE OF CARTHAGENA-SIGNAL DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH BEFORE VILLENA-COMIC APPEARANCE OF MAJOR BOYD ON HIS JOURNEY TO VENISSA-INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF HERMIT’S CELLS AT MONTSERAT. While we lay at Valencia, under the vigilance and care of the indefatigable earl, news was brought, that Alicant was besieged by General Gorge by land, while a squadron of men- of-war battered it from the sea; from both which the besiegers played their parts so well, and so warmly plied them with their cannon, that an indifferent practicable breach was made in a little time. Mahoni commanded in the place, being again received into favour ; and cleared as he was of those political insinuations before intimated, he now seemed resolved to confirm his in¬ nocence by a resolute defence. However, perceiving that all preparations tended towards a storm, and knowing full well the weakness of the town, he withdrew his garrison into the castle, leaving the town to the defence of its own in¬ habitants. Just as that was doing, the sailors, not much skilled in sieges, nor at all times capable of the coolest consideration, with a resolution natural to them, stormed the walls to the side of the sea; where, not meeting with much opposition (for the people of the town apprehended the least danger there), they soon got into the place ; and, as soon as got in, began to plunder. This obliged the people, for the better security of themselves to open their gates, and seek a refuge under one enemy in opposition to the rage of another. General Gorge, as soon as he entered the town, with a 376 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. good deal of seeming lenity, put a stop to the ravages of the sailors ; and ordered proclamation to be made throughout the place, that all the inhabitants should immediately bring in their best effects into the great church for their better security. This was by the mistaken populace as readily complied with; and neither friend nor foe at all disputing the command, or questioning the integrity of the intention, the church was presently crowded with riches of all sorts and sizes. Yet, after some time remaining there, they were all taken out, and disposed of by those that had as little property in them as the sailors they were pretended to be preserved from The Earl of Peterborow, upon the very first news of the siege, had left Valencia, and taken shipping for Alicant, where he arrived soon after the surrender of the town, and that outcry of the goods of the townsmen. Upon his arrival, Mahoni, who was blocked up in the castle, and had expe¬ rienced his indefatigable diligence, being in want of provisions, and without much hope of relief, desired to capitulate. The earl granted him honourable conditions, upon which he de¬ livered up the castle, and Gorge was made governor. Upon his lordship’s taking ship at Valencia, I had an op¬ portunity of marching with those dragoons which escorted him from Castile, who had received orders to march into Murcia. We quartered the first night at Alcira, a town that the river Segra almost surrounds, which renders it capable of being made a place of vast strength, though now of small importance. The next night we lay at Xativa, a place famous for its steadiness to King Charles. General Basset, a Spaniard, being governor, it was besieged by the forces of King Philip; but, after a noble resistance, the enemy were beat off, and the siege raised; for which effort, it is supposed, that on the retirement of King Charles out of this country, it was de¬ prived of its old name Xativa, and is now called San Felippo ; though to this day, the people thereabout much disallow by their practice, that novel denomination. We marched next morning by Monteza ; which gives name to the famous title of knights of Monteza. It was, at the time that Colonel O’Guaza, an Irishman, was governor, be¬ sieged by the people of the country, in favour of King Charles; but very ineffectually, so it never changed its COURAGE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEWS. 377 sovereign. That night we quartered at Fonte de las Figuras, within one league of Almanza, where that fatal and unfor¬ tunate battle, which I shall give an account of in its place, was fought the year after, under the Lord Galway. On our fourth day’s march we were obliged to pass Villena, where the enemy had a garrison. A party of Mahoni’s dragoons made a part of that garrison, and they were com¬ manded by Major O’Roirk, an Irish officer, who always carried the reputation of a good soldier, and a brave gentle¬ man. I had all along made it my observation, that Captain Matthews, who commanded those dragoons that I marched with, was a person of much more courage than conduct; and he used as little precaution here, though just marching under the eye of the enemy, as he had done at other times. As I was become intimately acquainted with him, I rode up to him, and told him the danger, which, in my opinion, attended our present march. I pointed out to him just before Villena, a jutting hill, under which we must unavoidably pass ; at the turning whereof, I was apprehensive the enemy might lie, and either by ambuscade, or otherwise, surprise us ; I there¬ fore entreated we might either wait the coming of our rear¬ guard, or at least march with a little more leisure and caution. But he, taking little notice of all I said, kept on his round march ; seeing which, I pressed forward my mule, which was a very good one, and rid as fast as her legs could carry her, till I had got on the top of the hill. When I came there, I found both my expectation and my apprehensions answered: lor I could very plainly discern three squadrons of the enemy ready drawn up, and waiting for us at the very winding of the hill. Hereupon I hastened back to the captain with the like speed, and told him the discovery I had made; who never¬ theless kept on his march, and it was with a good deal of difficulty that I at last prevailed on him to halt, till our rear¬ guard of twenty men had got up to us. But those joining us, and a new troop of Spanish dragoons, who had marched to¬ wards us that morning, appearing in sight; our captain, as if he was afraid of their rivalling him in his glory, at the very turn of the hill, rode in a full gallop, with sword in hand, up to the enemy They stood their ground till we were ad- £78 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. vanced within two hundred yards of them, and then in con¬ fusion endeavoured to retire into the town. They were obliged to pass over a small bridge, too small to admit of such a company in so much haste; their crowding upon which obstructed their retreat, and left all that could not get over to the mercy of our swords, which spared none. However, narrow as the bridge was, Captain Matthews was resolved to venture over after the enemy; on doing which, the enemy made a halt, till the people of the town, and the very priests, came out to their relief with fire-arms. On so large an appearance, Captain Matthews thought it not ad¬ visable to make any farther advances ; so, driving a very great flock of sheep from under the walls, he continued his march towards Elda. In this action we lost Captain Top- ham and three dragoons. I remember we were not marched very far from the place where this rencounter happened, when an Irish dragoon over¬ took the captain, with a civil message from Major O’Roirk, desiring that he would not entertain a mean opinion of him for the defence that was made; since, could he have got the Spaniards to have stood their ground, he should have given him good reason for a better. The captain returned a com- plimental answer, and so marched on. This Major O’Roirk, or O’Roork, was the next year killed at Alkay, being much lamented; for he was esteemed both for his courage and conduct, one of the best of the Irish officers in the Spanish service. I was likeivise informed, that he was descended from one of the ancient Kings of Ireland: the mother of the honourable Colonel Paget, one of the grooms of the bed¬ chamber to his present majesty, was nearly related to this gallant gentleman. One remarkable thing I saw in that action, which affected and surprised me ; a Scotch dragoon, of but a moderate size, with his large basket-hilted sword, struck off a Spaniard’s head at one stroke, with the same ease, in appearance, as a man would do that of a poppy. When we came to Elda (a town much in the interest ot Kins: Charles, and famous foi its fine situation, and the largest grapes in Spain), the inhabitants received us in a manner as handsome as it was peculiar; all standing at their doors with lighted torches, which, considering the time APPOINTED SOLE ENGINEER AT A LICANT. 379 we entered, was far from an unwelcome or disagreeable eight. The next day, several requested to be the messengers of the action at Villena to the Earl of Peterborow at Alicant; but the captain returned this answer to all, that, in consi¬ deration of the share that I might justly claim in that day’s transaction, he could not think of letting any other person be the bearer. So, giving me his letters to the earl, I the next day delivered them to him at Alicant. At the delivery, Colonel Killegrew (whose dragoons they were) being present he expressed a deal of satisfaction at the account, and hia Lordship was pleased at the same time to appoint me sole en¬ gineer of the castle of Alicant. Soon after which, that successful general embarked for Genoa, according to the resolutions of the council of war at Guadalaxara, on a particular commission from the Queen ot England, another from Charles, King of Spain, and charged at the same time with a request of the Marquis das Minas, General of the Portuguese forces, to negotiate bills for 100,000/. for the use of his troops. In all which, though he was, as ever, successful, yet may it be said, without a figure, that his departure, in a good measure, determined the success 01 the confederate forces in that kingdom. True it is, the general returned again with the fortunate fruits of those ne¬ gotiations ; but never to act in his old auspicious sphere; and therefore, as I am now to take leave of this fortunate general, let me do it with justice, in an appeal to the world, of the not to be paralleled usage (in these latter ages at least) that he met with for all his services; such a vast variety of enter¬ prises, all successful, and which had set all Europe in amaze; services that had given occasion to such solemn and public thanksgivings in our churches, and which had received such very remarkable approbations, both of sovereign and parlia¬ ment, and which had been represented in so lively a manner, in a lette-r wrote by the King of Spain, under his own hand, to the Queen of England, and communicated to both houses in the terms following :— “ Madam, my Sister, “I should not have been so long ere I did myself the honour to repeat the assurances of my sincere respects to you, had I not waited for the good occasion which I now 380 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN C ARLETONj acquaint you with, that the city of Barcelona is surrendered to me by capitulation. I doubt not but you will receive this great news with entire satisfaction, as well because this happy success is the effect of your arms, always glorious, as from the pure motives of that bounty and maternal affection you have for me, and for everything which may contribute to the advancement of my interest. “ I must do this justice to all the officers and common soldiers, and particularly to my Lord Peterborow, that he has shown in this whole expedition, a constancy, bravery, and conduct, worthy of the choice that your majesty has made of him, and that he could no ways give me better satisfaction than he has, by the great zeal and application which he has equally testified for my interest, and for the service of my person. I owe the same justice to Brigadier Stanhope, for his great zeal, vigilance, and very wise conduct, which he has given proofs of upon all occasions: as also to all your officers of the fleet, particularly to your worthy admiral, Shovel, assuring your majesty, that he has assisted me in this expedition, with an inconceivable readiness and applica¬ tion, and that no admiral will be ever better able to render me greater satisfaction than he has done. During the siege of Barcelona, some of your majesty’s ships, with the assistance of the troops of the country, have reduced the town of Tarra¬ gona, and the officers are made prisoners of war. The town of Girone has been taken at the same time by surprise, by the troops of the country. The town of Lerida has sub¬ mitted, as also that of Tortosa upon the Ebro; so that we have taken all the places of Catalonia, except Roses. Some places in Arragon, near Sarragosa, have declared for me, and the garrison of the castle of Denia in Valencia have maintained their post, and repulsed the enemy; four hundred of the enemy’s cavalry have entered into our service, and a great number of their infantry have deserted. “ This, madam, is the state that your arms, and the inclina¬ tion of the people, have put my affairs in. It is unnecessary to tell you what stops the course of these conquests ; it is not the season of the year, nor the enemy; these are no obstacles to your troops, who desire nothing more than to act under the conduct that your majesty has appointed them. The taking of Barcelona, with so small a number of troops, is very remarkable; and what has been done in this siege is almost LETTER TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. 381 tvithout example ; that with seven or eight thousand men of your troops, and two hundred Miquelets, we should surround and invest a place that thirty thousand French could not block up. “After a march of thirteen hours, the troops climbed up the rocks and precipices, to attack a fortification stronger than the place, which the Earl of Peterborow has sent you a plan of; two generals, with the grenadiers, attacked it sword in hand. In which action the Prince of Hesse died glori¬ ously, after so many brave actions; I hope his brother and his family will always have your majesty’s protection. With eight hundred men they forced the covered way, and all the intrenchments and works, one after another, till they came to the last work which surrounded it, against five hundred men of regular troops which defended the place, and a reinforce¬ ment they had received; and three days afterwards we be¬ came masters of the place. We afterwards attacked the town on the side of the castle. We landed again our cannon, and the other artillery, Avith inconceivable trouble, and formed two camps, distant from each other three leagues, against a garrison almost as numerous as our army, whose cavalry was double the strength of ours. The first camp was so well in¬ trenched, that it was defended by two thousand men and the dragoons; whilst we attacked the town with the rest of our troops. The breach being made, we prepared to make a general assault with all the army. These are circumstances, madam, which distinguish this action, perhaps, from all others. “ Here has happened an unforeseen accident. The cruelty of the pretended viceroy, and the report spread abroad, that he would take away the prisoners, contrary to the capitulation, provoked the burghers, and some of the country people, to take up arms against the garrison, whilst they were busy in packing up their baggage, which was to be sent away the next day ; so that everything tended to slaughter; but your majesty’s troops, entering into town with the Earl of Peter¬ borow, instead of seeking pillage, a practice common upon such occasions, appeased the tumult, and have saved the town, and even the lives of their enemies, with a discipline and generosity without example. “What remains is, that I return you my most hearty thanks for sending so great a fleet, and such good and valiant 382 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. troops to my assistance. After so happy a beginning, I have thought it proper, according to the sentiments of your generals and admirals, to support, by my presence, the conquests that we have made; and to show my subjects, so affectionate to my person, that I cannot abandon them. I receive such succours from your majesty, and from your generous nation, that I am loaded with your bounties ; and am not a little concerned to think, that the support of my interest should cause so great an expense. But, madam, I sacrifice my person, and my subjects in Catalonia expose also their lives and fortunes, upon the assurances they have of your majesty’s generous protection. Your majesty and your council knows better than we do what is necessary for our conservation. We shall then expect your majesty’s succours with an entire confidence in your bounty and wisdom. A farther force is necessary ; we give no small diversion to France, and without doubt they will make their utmost efforts against me as soon as possible ; but I am satisfied, that the same efforts will be made by my allies to defend me. Your goodness, madam, inclines you, and your power enables you, to support those that the tyranny of France would oppress. All that I can insinuate to your wisdom, and that of your allies, is, that the forces employed in this country will not be unprofitable to the public good, but will be under an obligation and necessity to act with the utmost vigour against the enemy. I am, with an inviolable affection, respect, and most sincere acknowledge¬ ment. Madam, my Sister, Your most affectionate Brother, Charles.” From the Camp at Senia, before Barcelona, the 22nd of October, 1705. And yet, after all, was this noble general not only recalled, the command of the fleet taken from him, and that of the army given to my Lord Galway, without assignment of cause ; but all manner of falsities were industriously spread abroad, not only to diminish, if they could, his reputation, but to bring him under accusations of a malevolent nature. I can hardly imagine it necessary here to take notice, that afterward he disproved all those idle calumnies and ill-invented rumours$ or to mention what compliments he received, in the mosr CALUMNIES AGAINST LORD PETERBOROW. 383 sulemn manner, from his country, upon a full examination and thorough canvassing of his actions in the house of lords. But this is too notorious to be omitted, that all officers coming from Spain were purposely intercepted in their way to London, and craftily examined upon all the idle stories which had passed, tending to lessen his character; and when any officers had asserted the falsity of those inventions (as they all did, except a military sweetener or two), and that there was no possibility of laying anything amiss to the charge of that general, they were told that they ought to he careful, however, not to speak advantageously of that lord’s conduct, unless they were willing to fall martyrs in his cause; a thing scarce to be credited even in a popish country. But Scipio was accused, though as my author finely observes, by wretches only known to posterity by that stupid accusation. As a mournful valediction, before I enter upon any new scene, the reader will pardon this melancholy expostulation. How mortifying must it be to ac Englishman^ after he has found himself solaced with a relation of so many surprising successes of her majesty’s arms, under the Earl of Peterborow ; successes, that have laid before our eyes provinces and kingdoms reduced, and towns and fortresses taken and relieved; where we have seen a continued series of happy events, the fruits of conduct and vigilance; and caution and foresight preventing dangers that were held, at first view, certain and insurmountable; to change this glorious landscape, I say, for scenes every way different, even while our troops were as numerous as the enemy, and better provided, yet always baffled and beaten, and fiying before the enemy, till j fatally ruined in the battle of Almanza : how mortifying must ! this be to any lover of his country! But I proceed to my i Memoirs. Alicant is a town of the greatest trade of any in the kingdom of Valencia, having a strong castle, being situated on a high hill, which commands both town and harbour. In this place I resided a whole year ; but it was soon after my first arrival, that Major Collier (who was shot in the back ' at Barcelona, as I have related in the siege of that place), i bearing of me, sought me out at my quarters; and, after a particular inquiry into the success of that difficult task flat be left me upon, and my answering aL his questiors to 384 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. satisfaction (all which he received with evident pleasure), ha threw down a purse of pistoles upon the table; which 1 refusing, he told me, in a most handsome manner, his friend¬ ship was not to be preserved but by my accepting it. After I had made some very necessary repairs, I pursued the orders I had received from the Earl of Peterborow, to go upon the erecting a new battery between the castle and the town. This was a task attended with difficulties, neither few in number, nor small in consequence; for it was to be raised upon a great declivity, which must render the work both laborious and precarious. However, I had the good fortune to effect it much sooner than was expected ; and it was called Gorge’s battery, from the name of the governor then commanding; who, out of an uncommon profusion of generosity, wetted that piece of gossipping with a distinguishing bowl of punch. Brigadier Bougard, when he saw this work some time after, was pleased to honour it with a singular admiration and approbation, for its completeness, notwithstanding its difficulties. This work, and the siege of Carthagena, then in our possession, by the Duke of Berwick, brought the Lord Galway down to this place. Carthagena is of so little distance from Alicant, that we could easily hear the cannon playing against, and from it, in our castle, where I then was. And I re¬ member my Lord Galway, on the fourth day of the siege, sending to know if I could make any useful observations as to the success of it; I returned, that I was of opinion the town was surrendered, from the sudden cessation cf the cannon, wdiicli, by our news next day from the place proved to b*» fact. Carthagena is a small sea-port toAvn in Murcia; buy has so good an harbour, that when the famous adm'ral Doria was asked, Avliich Avere the three best havens in the Mediterranean, he readily returned, June, July, and Carthagena. Upon the surrender of this place, a detachment of foot wa3 sent by the governor, with some dragoons, to Elsha; but it being a place of very little strength, they were soon made prisoners of war. The siege of Carthagena being over, the Lord Galway returned to his camp ; and the Lord Duncannon dying in Alicant, the first guns that were fired from Gorge’s battery. BATEMAN’S REGIMENT LOST TIIROUGII CARELESSNESS. 385 were the minute-guns for liis funeral. His regiment had been given to the Lord Montandre, who lost it before he had possession, by an action as odd as it was scandalous. That regiment had received orders to march to the Lord Galway’s camp, under the command of their Lieutenant- colonel Bateman, a person before reputed a good officer, though his conduct here gave people, not invidious, too much reason to call it in question. On his march, he was so very careless and negligent (though he knew himself in a country surrounded with enemies, and that he was to march through a wood, where they every day made their appearance in great numbers), that his soldiers marched with their muskets slung at their backs, and went one after another (as necessity had forced us to do in Scotland), himself at the head oi them, in his chaise, riding a considerable way before. It happened there was a captain, with threescore dragoons, detached from the Duke of Berwick’s army, with a design to intercept some cash that was ordered to be sent to Lord Galway’s army from Alicant. This detatchment, missing of that intended prize, was returning very disconsolately, re injecta; when their captain, observing that careless and disorderly march of the English, resolved, boldly enough, to attack them in the wood. To that purpose he secreted his little party behind a great barn; and so soon as they were half passed by, he falls upon them in the centre with his dragoons, cutting and slashing at such a violent rate, that he soon dispersed the whole regiment, leaving many dead and wounded upon the spot. The three colours were taken ; and the gallant lieutenant-colonel taken out of his chaise, and carried away prisoner with many others; only one officer, who was an ensign, and so bold as to do his duty, was killed. The lieutenant, who commanded the grenadiers, received the alarm time enough to draw his men into a house in their way; where he bravely defended himself for a long time ; but, being killed, the rest immediately surrendered. The account of this action I had from the commander of the enemy’s party himself, some time after, while I was a prisoner And Captain Mahoni, who was present when the news was brought, that a few Spanish dragoons had defeated an English regiment, which was this under Bateman, protested to me, that the Duke of Berwick turned pale at the relation; and VOL. II. C C 386 MEM01 life OF CAPTAIN CARLET01T. when they offered to bring the colours before him, he would not so much as see them. A little before the du-ke went to supper, Bateman himself was brought to him; but the duke turned away from him without any farther notice, than coldly saying, that he thought he was very strangely taken. The wags of the army made a thorough jest of him, and said his military conduct was of a piece with his economy, having, two days before his march, sent his young handsome wife into England, under the guardianship of the young chaplain of the regiment. April loth, in the year 1707, being Easter Monday, we had in the morning a hying report in Alicant, that there had been the day before a battle at Almanza, between the army under the command of the Duke of Berwick, and that of the English under Lord Galway, in which the latter had suffered an entire defeat. We at first gave no great credit to it; but alas! we were too soon wofully convinced of the truth of it, by numbers that came flying to us from the conquering enemy. Then, indeed, we were satisfied of truths, too difficult before to be credited. But, as 1 was not present in that calamitous battle, I shall relate it, as I received it from an officer then in the duke’s army. To bring the Lord Galway to a battle, in a place most commodious for his purpose, the duke made use of this stratagem; he ordered two Irishmen, both officers, to make their way over to the enemy as deserters; putting this story in their mouths, that the Duke of Orleans was in full march to join the Duke of Berwick with twelve thousand men; that this would be done in two days, and that then they would find out the Lord Galway, and force him to fight, wherever they found him. Lord Galway, who at this time lay before Villena, receiving this intelligence from those well-instructed deserters, imme¬ diately raised the siege ; with a resolution, by a hasty march, to force the enemy to battle, before the Duke of Orleans should be able to join the Duke of Berwick. To effect this, after a hard march of three long Spanish leagues in the heat of the day, he appears a little after noon in the face of the enemy with his fatigued forces. Glad and rejoiced at the sight, for he found his plot had taken, Berwick, the better to receive him, draws up his army in a half moon, placing at a pretty good advance three regiments to make up the centre, lord galway's army entrapped. 387 with express order, nevertheless, to retreat at the very first charge. All which was punctually observed, and had its desired effect: for the three regiments, at the first attack, gave way, and seemingly fled towards their camp; the English, after their customary manner, pursuing them with shouts and hollowings. As soon as the Duke of Berwick perceived his trap had taken, he ordered his right and left wings to close; by which means, he at once cut off from the rest of their army all those who had so eagerly pursued the imaginary runaways. In short, the rout was total, and the most fatal blow that ever the English received during the whole war with Spain. Nor, as it is thought, with a great probability of reason, had those troops that made their retreat to the top of the hills, under Major-general Shrimpton, met with any better fate than those on the plain, had the Spaniards had any other general in the command than the Duke of Berwick ; whose native sympathy gave a check to the ardour of a victorious enemy. And this was the sense of the Spaniards themselves after the battle; verifying herein that noble maxim, that victory to generous minds is only an inducement to moderation. The day after this fatal battle (which gave occasion to a Spanish piece of wit, that the English general had routed the French), the Duke of Orleans did arrive indeed in the camp, but with an army of only fourteen attendants. The fatal effects of this battle were soon made visible and to none more than those in Alicant. The enemy grew every day more and more troublesome; visiting us in parties more boldly than before ; and often hovering about us so very neai, that with our cannon we could hardly teach them to keep a proper distance. Gorge, the governor of Alicant, being recalled into England, Major-general Richards was by King Charles appointed governor in his place. He was a Roman Catholic, and very much beloved by the natives on that account; though, to give him his due, he behaved himself ; extremely Avell in all other respects. It was in his time, that a design was laid of surprising Guardamere, a small sea-port : town in Murcia: but the military bishop (for he was, in a literal sense, excellent tarn Marte, quam Mercurio), among his \ many other exploits, by a timely expedition, prevented that. Governor Richards, my post being always in the castle, had sent to desire me to give notice whenever I saw an,y c c 2 388 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETON. parties of the enemy moving. Pursuant to this order, dis¬ covering, one morning, a considerable body of horse towards Elsha, I went down into the town, and told the governor what I had seen ; and without any delay he gave his orders, that a captain, with threescore men, should attend me to an old house about a mile distance. As soon as we had got into it, I set about barricading all the open places, and avenues, and put my men in a posture ready to receive an enemy, as soon as he should appear ; upon which the captain, as a teint, ordered a few of his men to show themselves on a rising ground just before the house. But we had like to have caught a Tartar : for, though the enemy took the train I had laid, and, on sight of our small body on the hill, sent a party from their greater body to intercept them, before they could reach the tOAvn; yet the sequel proved, we had mistaken their number, and it soon appeared to be much greater than we at first imagined. However, our outscouts, as I may call them, got safe into the house; and, on the appearance of the party, we let fly a full volley, which lay dead on the spot three men and one horse. Hereupon the whole body made up to the house, but stood aloof upon the hill without reach of our shot. We soon saw our danger from the number of the enemy; and well for us it was, that the watchful governor had taken notice of it, as well as we in the house. For, observing us surrounded with the enemy, and by a power so much superior, he marched himself, with a good part of the garrison, to our relief. The enemy stood a little time as if they would receive them ; but upon second thoughts they retired, and, to our no little joy, left us at liberty to come out of the house and join the garrison. Scarce a day passed but we had some visits of the like kind, attended sometimes with rencounters of this nature; insomuch that there was hardly any stirring out in safety for small parties, though never so little a way. There was, within a little mile of the town, an old vineyard, environed with a loose stone wall; an officer and I made an agreement to ride thither for an airing. We did so, and, after a little riding, it came into my head to put a fright upon the officer. And very lucky for us both was that unlucky thought of mine; pietending to see a party of the enemy make up to us, I gave him the alarm, set spurs to my horse, and rid as fast as legs could carry me. The officer no way bated of bis speed; and COMICAL APPEARANCE OF MAJOR BOYD. 389 we had scarce got out of the vineyard, but my jest proved earnest; twelve of the enemy’s horse pursuing us to the very gates of the town. Nor could I ever after prevail upon my fellow-traveller to believe, that he owed his escape to merri¬ ment more than speed. Soon after my charge, as to the fortifications, was pretty well over, I obtained leave of the governor to be absent for a fortnight, upon some affairs of my own at Valencia. On my return from whence, at a town called Venissa, I met two officers of an English regiment, going to the place from whence I last came. They told me, after common congratu¬ lations, that they had left Major Boyd at a little place called Capel, hiring another mule, that he rode on thither having tired and failed him ; desiring withal, that if I met him, I would let him know that they would stay for him at that place. I had another gentleman in my company, and we had travelled on not above a league farther, whence, at a little distance, we were both surprised with a sight that seemed to have set all art at defiance, and was too odd for anything in nature. It appeared all in red, and to move; but so very slowly, that if we had not made more way to that than it did to us, Ave should have made it a day’s journey before we met it. My companion could as little tell what to make of it as I; and, indeed, the nearer it came, the more monstrous it seemed, having nothing of the tokens of man* either Avalking, riding, or in any posture whatever. At last, coming up with this strange figure of a creature (for now we found it was certainly such), what, or rather who, should it prove to be, but Major Boyd! He was a person of himself tar from one of the least proportion ; and, mounted on a poor little ass, with all his Avarlike accoutrements upon it, you will allow must make a figure almost as odd as one of the old centaurs. The Morocco saddle that covered the ass, Avas of burden enough for the beast, Avithout its master; and the additional holsters and pistols made it much more weighty. Nevertheless, a curb bridle of the largest size covered hi? little head, and a long red cloak, hanging doAvn to the ground, covered jack-boots, ass. master, and all. In short, my com panion and I, after Ave could specifically declare it to be a man, agreed Ave never saAV a figure so comical in all our lives. When Ave had merrily greeted our major (for a cynic could not have forborne laughter), he excused all as well as ho 390 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. could, by saying, he could get no other beast. After which, delivering our message, and condoling with him for his present mounting, and wishing him better at his next quarters, ne settled into his old pace, and we into ours, and parted. We lay that night at Altea, famous for its bay for ships to water at. It stands on a high hill; and is adorned, not defended, with an old fort. Thence we came to Alicant, where having now been a whole year, and having effected what was held necessary, I once more prevailed upon the governor to permit me to take another journey. The Lord Galway lay at Tarraga, while Lerida lay under the siege of the Duke of Orleans; and having some grounds of expectation given me, while he was at Allicant, I resolved at least to demonstrate I was still living. The governor favoured me with letters, not at all to my disadvantage ; so taking ship for Barcelona, just at our putting into the harbour, we met with the English fleet, on its return from the expedition to Toulon under Sir Cloudsly Shovel. I stayed but very few days at Barcelona, and then proceeded on my intended journey to Tarraga ; arriving at which place, I delivered my packet to the Lord Galway, who received me with very great civility ; and, to double it, acquainted me at the same time, that the governor of Alicant had wrote very much in my favour; but though it was a known part of that noble lord’s character, that the first impression was generally strongest, I had reason soon after to close with another saying, equally true, That general rules always admit of some exception. While I was here, we had news of the taking of the town of Lerida; the Prince of Hesse, brother to that brave prince, who lost his life before Monjouick, retiring into the castle with the garrison, which he bravely defended a long time after. When I was thus attending my Lord Galway at Tarraga, he received intelligence that the enemy had a design to lay siege to Denia ; whereupon he gave me orders to repair there as engineer. After I had received my orders, and taken leave of his lordship, I set out, resolving, since it was left to my choice, to go by way of Barcelona, and there take shipping for the place of my station; by which I proposed to save more time than would allow me a full opportunity of visiting POSITION OF MONTSERAT. 391 Montserat, a place I had heard much talk of, which had filled me with a longing desire to see it. To say truth, I had been told such extravagant things of the place, that I could hardly impute more than one-half of it to anything but Spanish rhodomontadoes, the vice of extravagant exaggeration being too natural to that nation. Montserat is a rising lofty hill, in the very middle of a spacious plain, in the principality of Catalonia, about seven leagues distant from Barcelona to the westward, somewhat inclining to the north. At the very first sight, its oddness of figure promises something extraordinary ; and even at that distance the prospect makes somewhat of a grand appearance: hundreds of aspiring pyramids, presenting themselves all at once to the eye, look, if I may be allowed so to speak, like a little petrified forest; or, rather, like the awful ruins of some capacious structure, the labour of venerable antiquity. The nearer you approach, the more it affects ; but, till you are very near, you can hardly form in your mind anything like what you find it when you come close to it. Till just upon it, you would imagine it a perfect hill of steeples; but so intermingled with trees of magnitude, as well as beauty, that your admiration can never be tired, or your curiosity surfeited. Such I found it on my approach ; yet much less than what I found it was, so soon as I entered upon the very premises. Now that stupendous cluster of pyramids affected me in a manner different to all before ; and I found it so finely grouped with verdant groves, and here and there interspersed with aspiring but. solitary trees, that it no Avay lessened my admiration, while it increased my delight. These trees, which I call solitary, as standing single, in opposition to the numerous groves, which are close and thick (as I observed when I ascended to take a view of the several cells), rise generally out of the very clifts of the main rock, with nothing, to appearance, but a soil or bed of stone for their nurture. But though some few naturalists may assert, that the nitre in the stone may afford a due proportion of nourishment to trees and vegetables; these, in my opinion, were all too beautiful, their bark, leaf, and flowers, carried too fair a face of health, to allow them even to be the foster-children of rock and stone | only. Upon this hill, or, if you please, grove of rocks, are thirteen 392 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAREETON. hermits* cells, the last of which lies near the very summit. You gradually advance to every one, from bottom to top, by a winding ascent, which to do would otherwise be impossible, by reason of the steepness; but though there is a winding ascent to ev ery cell, as I have said, I would yet set at defiance the most observant, if a stranger, to find it feasible to visit them in order, if not precautioned to iollow the poor borigo, or old ass, that, with panniers hanging on each side of him, mounts regularly and daily, up to every particular cell. The manner is as follows :— In the panniers there are thirteen partitions ; one for every cell. At the hour appointed, the servant having placed the panniers on his back, the ass, of himself, goes to the door of the convent at the very foot of the hill, where every partition is supplied with their several allowances of victuals and wine. Which, as soon as he has received, without any farther attendance or any guide, he mounts and takes the cells gradually in their due course, till lie reaches the very upper¬ most. Where, having discharged his duty, he descends the same way, lighter by the load he carried up. This the poor stupid drudge fails not to do, day and night, at the stated hours. Two gentlemen, who had joined me on the road, alike led by curiosity, seemed alike delighted, that the end of it was so well answered. I could easily discover in their countenances a satisfaction, which, if it did not give a sanction to my own, much confirmed it, while they seemed to allow with me that these reverend solitaries were truly happy men. I then thought them such; and a thousand times since reflecting within myself, have wished, bating their errors, and lesser superstitions, myself as happily stationed : for what can there be wanting to a happy life, where all things necessary are provided without care ? where the days, without anxiety or troubles, may be gratefully passed away, with an innocent variety of diverting and pleasing objects, and where their sleeps and slumbers are never interrupted with anything more offensive, than murmuring springs, natural cascades, or the various songs of the pretty feathered quiristers ? But their courtesy to strangers is no less engaging than their solitude. A recluse life, for the fruits of it, generally speaking, produces moroseness; pharisaical pride too often sours the temper; and a mistaken opinion of their own merit too hermits’ cells at montserat. 393 naturally leads sucli men into a contempt of others: but, on the contrary, these good men (for I must call them as I thought them) seemed to me the very emblems of innocence ; eo ready to oblige others, that at the same instant they seemed laying obligations upon themselves. This is self-evident, in that affability and complaisance they use in showing the rarities of their several cells ; where, for fear you should slip anything worthy observation, they endeavour to instil in you as quick a propensity of asking, as you find in them a prompt alacrity in answering, such questions of curiosity as their own have inspired. In particular, I remember one of those reverend old men, when we were taking leave at the door of his cell, to which, out of his great civility, he accompanied us, finding by the air of our faces, as well as our expressions, that we thought ourselves pleasingly entertained ; to divert us afresh, advanced a few paces from the door, when, giving a whistle with his mouth, a surprising flock of pretty little birds, variegated, and of different colours, immediately flocked around him. Here you should see some alighting upon his shoulders, some on his awful beard, others took refuge on his snowlike head, and many feeding, and more endeavouring to feed, out of his mouth; each appearing emulous, and under an innocent contention, how best to express their love and respect to their no less pleased master. Nor did the other cells labour under any deficiency of variety: every one boasting in some particular, that might distinguish it in something equally agreeable and entertaining. Nevertheless, crystal springs spouting from the solid rocks were, from the highest to the lowest, common to them all; and, in most of them, they had little brass cocks, out of which, when turned, issued the most cool and crystalline flows of i excellent pure water. And yet, what more affected me, and which I found near more cells than one, was the natural i cascades of the same transparent element; these, falling from one rock to another, in that warm, or rather hot climate, gave not more delightful astonishment to the eye, than they ; afforded grateful refreshment to the whole man. The streams falling from these, soften, from a rougher tumultuous noise, into such affecting murmurs, by distance, the intervention of ; groves, or neighbouring rocks, that it were impossible to see or hear them, and not be charmed. 394 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. Neither are those groves grateful only in a beautiful verdure ; nature renders them otherwise delightful, in loading them with clusters of berries of a perfect scarlet colour, which, by a beautiful intermixture, strike the eye with additional delight. In short, it might nonplus a person of the nicest taste, to distinguish or determine, whether the neatness of their cells, within, or the beauteous varieties without, most exhaust his admiration. Nor is the whole, in my opinion, a little advantaged by the frequent view of some of those pyra- midical pillars, which seem, as weary of their own weight, to recline and seek support from others in the neighbourhood. When I mentioned the outside beauties of their cells, I must be thought to have forgot to particularize the glorious prospects presented to your eye from every one of them ; but especially from that nearest the summit. A prospect, by reason of the purity of the air, so extensive, and so very entertaining, that to dilate upon it properly to one that never saw it, would baffle credit; and naturally to depaint it, would confound invention. I therefore shall only say, that on the Mediterranean side, after an agreeable interval of some fair leagues, it will set at defiance the strongest optics; and although Barcelona bounds it on the land, the eyes are feasted with the delights of such an intervening champaign (where beauteous nature does not only smile, but riot), that the sense must be very temperate, or very weak, that can be soon or easily satisfied. Having thus taken a view of all their refreshing springs, their grateful groves, and solitary shades under single trees, whose clusters proved that even rocks were grown fruitful; and having ran over all the variety of pleasures in their several pretty cells, decently set off with gardens round them, equally fragrant and beautiful, we were brought down again *o the convent, Avhich, though on a small ascent, lies very near the foot of this terrestrial paradise, there to take a survey of their sumptuous hall, much more sumptuous chapel, and its adjoining repository, and feast our eyes with wonders of a different nature; and yet as entertaining as any, or all, we had seen before. Immediately on our descent, a priest presented himself at the door of the convent, ready to show us the hidden rarities. And though, as I understood, hardly a day passes without :he resort of some strangers to gratify their curiosity with thi HALL AND CHAPEL OF THE CONVENT. 395 wonders of the place, yet is there, on every such occasion, a superior concourse of natives ready to see over again, out of mere bigotry and superstition, what they have seen perhaps a hundred times before. I could not avoid taking notice, however, that the priests treated those constant visitants with much less ceremony, or more freedom, if you please, than any of the strangers of what nation soever; or, indeed, he seemed to take as much pains to disoblige those, as he did pleasure in obliging us. The hall was neat, large, and stately: but being plain, and unadorned with more than decent decorations, suitable to such a society, I hasten to the other. When we entered the chapel, our eyes were immediately attracted by the image of our lady of Montserat (as they call it), which stands over the altar-piece. It is about the natural stature, but as black and shining as ebony itself. Most would imagine it made of that material; though her retinue and adorers will allow nothing of the matter. On the con¬ trary, tradition, which with them is, on some occasions, more than tantamount to religion, has assured them, and they re¬ late it as undoubted matter of fact, that her present colour, if I may so call it, proceeded from her concealment, in the time of the Mooi-s, between those two rocks on which the chapel is founded ; and that her long lying in that dismal place changed her once lovely white into its present opposite. Would not a heretic here be apt to say, that it was a great pity that an image which still boasts the power of acting so many miracles, could no better conserve her own complexion? At least it must be allowed, even by a good catholic, to carry along with it matter of reproach to the fair ladies, natives of the country, for their unnatural and excessive affection of adulterating, if not defacing their beautiful faces, with the ruinating dauberies of carmine. As the custom of the place is (which is likewise allowed to be a distinguishing piece of civility to strangers), Avhen we approach the black lady (who, I should have told you, bears a child in her arms ; but whether maternally black, or of the mulatto kind, I protest I did not mind), the priest, in great civility, offers you her arm to salute ; at which junc¬ ture, I, like* a true blue Protestant, mistaking my word of command, fell foul on the fair lady’s face. The displeasure in his countenance (for he took more notice of the rudeness 396 MEMOIRS 01 CAPTAIN CARLETON. than the good lady herself) soon convinced me of my error; however, as a greater token of his civility, having admitted no Spaniards along with my companions and me, it passed off the better; and his after civilities manifested that he was willing to reform my ignorance by his complaisance. To demonstrate which, upon my telling him that I had a set of beads, which I must entreat him to consecrate for me, he readily, nay eagerly complied ; and having hung them on her arm for the space of about half, or somewhat short of a whole minute, he returned me the holy baubles with a great deal of address, and most evident satisfaction. The reader will be apt to admire at this curious piece of superstition of mine, till I have told him that even rigid Protestants have, in this country, thought it but prudent to do the like; and likewise having so done, to carry them about their persons, or in their pockets ; for experience has convinced us of the neces¬ sity of this most catholic precaution ; since those who have here, travelling or otherwise, come to their ends, whether by accident, sickness, or the course of nature, not having these sanctifying seals found upon them, have ever been refused Christian burial, under a superstitious imagination that the corpse of a heretic will infect everything near it. Two instances of this kind fell within my knowledge; one before I came to Montserat, the other after. The first was of one Slunt, who had been bombardier at Monjouick ; but being killed while we lay at Campilio, a priest, whom I ad¬ vised with upon the matter, told me, that if he should be buried where any corn grew, his body would not only be taken up again, but ill-treated, in revenge of the destruction of so much corn, which the people would on no account be persuaded to touch; for which reason we took care to have him laid in a very deep grave, on a very barren spot of ground. The other was of one Captain Bush, who was a prisoner with me on the surrender of Denia; who being sent, as I was afterwards, to St. Clemente la Mancha, there died; and, as I was informed, though he was privately, and by night, buried in a corn field, he was taken out of his grave by those superstitious people, as soon as ever they could dis¬ cover the place where his body was deposited. But I return to the convent at Montserat. Out of the chapel, behind the high altar, we descended into a spacious room, the repository of the great offerings SUPERSTITIOUS TRIBUTE TO THE LADY. 397 made to the lady. Here, though I thought in the chapel itself I had seen the riches of the universe, I found a prodi¬ gious quantity of more costly presents, the superstitious tri¬ bute of most of the Roman Catholic princes in Europe. Among a multitude of others, they showed me a sword set with diamonds, the offering of Charles III., then King of Spain, but now Emperor of Germany. Though, I must con¬ fess, being a heretic, I could much easier find a reason for a fair lady’s presenting such a sword to a King of Spain, than for a King of Spain presenting such a sword to a fair lady; and by the motto upon it, Pulchra tamen nigra , it was plain such was his opinion. That prince was so delighted with the pleasures of this sweet place, that he, as well as I, stayed as long as ever he could; though neither of us so long as either could have wished. But there was another offering from a King of Portugal, equally glorious and costly, but much better adapted; and therefore in its propriety easier to be accounted for. That was a glory for the head of her ladyship, every ray of which was set with diamonds, large at the bottom, and gradually lessening to the very extremity of every ray. Each ray might be about half a yard long; and I imagined in the whole, there might be about one hundred of them. In short, if ever her ladyship did the offerer the honour to put it on, I will, though a heretic, venture to aver, she did not, at that pre¬ sent time, look like a human creature. To enumerate the rest, if my memory would suffice, would exceed belief. As the upper part was a plain miracle of nature, the lower was a complete treasury of miraculous art. If you ascend from the lowest cell to the very summit, the last of all the thirteen, you will perceive a continual conten¬ tion between pleasure and devotion; and at last, perhaps, find yourself at a loss to decide which deserves the pre¬ eminence : for you are not here to take cells in the vulgar acceptation, as the little dormitories of solitary monks : No! neatness, use, and contrivance, appear in every one of them; and though in an almost perfect equality, yet in such perfec¬ tion, that you will find it difficult to discover in any one oi them anything wanting to the pleasure of life. If you descend to the convent near the foot of the venerable hill, you may see more, much more of the riches of the world; but less, far less appea.-ance of a celestial treasure. Perhap® 308 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. it might he only the sentiment of a heretic; but that awe and devotion, which I found in my attendant from cell to cell, grew languid, and lost, in mere empty bigotry and foggy superstition, when I came below. In short, there was not a greater difference in their heights, than in the sentiments they inspired me with. Before I leave this emblem of the beatific vision, I must correct something like a mistake, as to the poor bongo. I said at the beginning, that his labour was daily; but the Sunday is to him a day of rest, as it is to the hermits, his masters, a day of refection. For, to save the poor faithful brute the hard drudgery of that day, the thirteen hermits, if health permit, descend to their ccenobium , as they call it; that is, to the hall of the convent, where they dine in common with the monks of the order, who are Benedictines. After seven days’ variety of such innocent delight (the space allowed for the entertainment of strangers), I took my leave of this pacific hermitage, to pursue the more boisterous duties of my calling. The life of a soldier is in every re¬ spect the full antithesis to that of a hermit; and I know not whether it might not be a sense of that, which inspired me with very great reluctancy at parting. I confess, while on the spot, I over and over bandied in my mind the reasons which might prevail upon Charles V. to relinquish his crown; and the arguments on his side never failed of energy, when I could persuade myself that this, or some like happy retreat, was the reward of abdicated empire. Full of these contemplations (for they lasted there), I arrived at Barcelona; where I found a vessel ready to sail, on which I embarked for Denia, in pursuance of my orders. Sailing to the mouth of the Mediterranean, no place along the Christian shore affords a prospect equally delightful with the castle of Denia. It was never designed for a place of great strength, being built and first designed, as a seat of pleasure to the great Duke of Lerma. In that family it many years remained; though, within less than a century, that, with two other dukedoms, have devolved upon the family of the Duke de Medina Celi, the richest subject at this time in all Spain GAR.iiSON OF DENIA. ."99 CHAPTER VIII. DENIA A GARRISON, BT ORDER OF KING CHARLES—EXTRA¬ ORDINARY STORM OF LOCUSTS—SINGULAR MINE EXPLOSION AT ALICANT-SAINTE CLEMENTE DE LA MANCHA RENDERED FAMOUS BY THE RENOWNED DON MICHAEL CERVANTES_ INTERESTING ACCOUNTS-SURPRISING FLIGHT OF EAGLES- THE INQUISITION. Denia was the first, town, that, in our way to Barcelona, declared for King Charles; and was then, by his order, made a garrison. The town is but small, and surrounded with a thin wall; so thin, that I have known a cannon-ball pierce through it at once. When I arrived at Denia, I found a Spaniard governor of the town, whose name has slipt my memory, though his be¬ haviour merited everlasting annals. Major Percival, an Englishman, commanded in the castle, and on my coming there, I understood it had been agreed between them, that in case of a siege, which they apprehended, the town should be defended wholly by Spaniards, and the castle by the English. I had scarce been there three weeks before those expecta¬ tions were answered. The place was invested by Count D’Alfelt, and Major-general Malioni; two days after which, they opened trenches on the east side of the town. I was necessitated, upon their so doing, to order the demolishment of some houses on that side, that I might erect a battery to point upon their trenches, the better to annoy them. I did so; and it did the intended service; for with that, and two others, which I raised upon the castle (from all which we fired incessantly, and with great success), the besiegers were sufficiently incommoded. I he governor of the town (a Spaniard, as I said before, and with a Spanish garrison) behaved very gallantly ; inso¬ much, that what was said of the Prince of Hesse, when he so bravely defended Gibraltar against the joint forces of I ranee and Spain, might be said of him, that he was governor, engineer, gunner, and bombardier all in one : for no man 400 MEMO T RS OF CAPTAIN CARLETOtf. could exceed him, either in conduct courage. Nor were the Spaniards under him less valiant or vigilant; for in case the place was taken, expecting but indiflerent quarter, they fought with bravery, and detended the place to admiration. The enemy had answered our fire with all the ardour imaginable; and having made a breach, that, as we thought, was practicable, a storm was expected every hour. Prepar¬ ing against which, to the great joy of all the inhabitants, and the surprise of the whole garrison, and without our being able to assign the least cause, the enemy suddenly raised the siege, and withdrew from a place which those within imagined in great danger. The siege thus abdicated (if I may use a modern phrase), I was resolved to improve my time, and make the best pro¬ vision I could against any future attack. To that purpose 1 made several new fortifications, together with proper case¬ ments for our powder, all which rendered the place much stronger, though time too soon showed me that strength itselt must yield to fortune. Surveying those works, and my workmen, I was one day standing on the great battery, when casting my eye toward the Barbary coast, I observed an odd sort of greenish cloud making to the Spanish shore; not like other clouds, with ra¬ pidity or swiftness; but with a motion so slow, that sight itself was a long time before it would allow it such. At last it came just over my head, and interposing between the sun and me, so thickened the air, that I had lost the very sight of day. At this moment it had reached the land ; and though very near me in my imagination, it began to dissolve, and lose of its first tenebrity, when, all on a sudden, there fell such a vast multitude of locusts, as exceeded the thickest storm of hail or snow that I ever saw. All around me was immedi¬ ately covered with those crawling creatures; and they yet continued to fall so thick, that with the swing of my cane I knocked down thousands. It is scarce imaginable the havoc I made in a very little space of time; much less conceivable is the horrid desolation which attended the visitation of those animalculae. There was not, in a day or two’s time, the least leaf to be seen upon a tree, nor any green thing in a garden. Nature seemed buried in her own ruins, and the vegetable world to be supporters only to her monument. I never saw the hardest winter, in those parts, attended with any equal DEVASTATION AND PESTILENCE BY LOCUSTS. 401 desolation. When, glutton-like, they had devoured all that should have sustained them, and the more valuable part of God’s creation (whether weary with gorging, or over-thirsty with devouring, I leave to philosophers), they made to ponds, brooks, and standing pools, there revenging their own rape upon nature, upon their own vile carcases. In every one of these you might see them lie in heaps like little hills; drowned indeed, but attended with stenches so noisome, that it gave the distracted neighbourhood too great reason to apprehend yet more fatal consequences. A pestilential in¬ fection is the dread of every place, but especially of all parts upon the Mediterranean. The priests, therefore, repaired to a little chapel, built in the open fields, to be made use of on such-like occasions, there to deprecate the miserable cause of this dreadful visitation. In a week’s time, or thereabouts, the stench was over, and everything but verdant nature in its pristine order. Some few months after this, and about eight months from the former siege., Count D’Alfelt caused Denia to be again invested; and being then sensible of all the mistakes he had before committed, he now went about his business with more regularity and discretion. The first thing he set upon, and it was the wisest thing he could do, was to cut off our com¬ munication with the sea. This he did, and thereby obtained what he much desired. Next, he caused his batteries to be erected on the west side of the town, from which he plied it so furiously, that in five days’ time a practicable breach was made ; upon which they stormed and took it. The governor, who had so bravely defended it in the former siege, for¬ tunately for him, had been removed; and Francis Valero, now in his place, was made prisoner of war with all his i garrison. After the taking the town, they erected batteries against the castle, which they kept plied with incessant fire, both from cannon and mortars. But what most of all plagued us, and did us most mischief, was the vast showers of stone3 1 sent among the garrison from their mortars. These, terrible in bulk and size, did more execution than all the rest put together. The garrison could not avoid being somewhat j disheartened at this uncommon way of rencounter, yet, to a man, declared against hearkening to any proposals of sur¬ render, the governor excepted; who, having selected more 402 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. treasure than he could properly or justly call his own, was the only person that seemed forward for such a motion. He had more than once thrown out expressions of such a nature, hut without any effect. Nevertheless, having at last secretly obtained a peculiar capitulation for himself, bag, and baggage, the garrison was sacrificed to his private interest, and basely given up prisoners of war. By these means, indeed, he saved his money, but lost his reputation; and soon after life itself. And sure everybody will allow the latter loss to be least, who will take pains to consider that it screened him from the consequential scrutinies of a council of war, which must have issued as the just reward ot his demerits. The garrison, being thus unaccountably delivered up and made prisoners, were dispersed different ways: some into Castile, others as far as Oviedo, in the kingdom of Leon. For my own part, having received a contusion in my breast, I was under a necessity of being left behind with the enemy, till I should be in a condition to be removed; and when that time came, I found myself agreeably ordered to Valencia. As a prisoner of war, I must now bid adieu to the active part of the military life, and hereafter concern myself with descriptions of countries, towns, palaces, and men, instead of battles. However, if I take in my way actions of war, founded on the best authorities, I hope my interspersing such will be no disadvantage to my now more pacific Memoirs. So soon as I arrived at Valencia, I wrote to our pay¬ master, Mr. Mead, at Barcelona, letting him know that I was become a prisoner, wounded, and in want of money. Nor could even all those circumstances prevail on me to think it long before he returned a favourable answer, in an order to Monsieur Zoulicafre, a banker, to pay me, on sight, fifty pistoles. But in the same letter he gave me to under¬ stand that those fifty pistoles were a present to me from General (afterwards Earl) Stanhope; and so indeed I found it, when I returned into England, my account not being charged with any part of it; but this was not the only test I received of that generous earl’s generosity. And where’s the wonder, as the world is compelled to own, that heroic actions and largeness of soul ever did discover and amply distinguish the genuine branches of that illustrious family? TERRIFIC MINE SPRUNG AT ALICANT. 403 This recruit to me, however, was the more generous for being seasonable. Benefits are always doubled in their being easily conferred and well timed ; and with such an allowance as I constantly had by the order of King Philip, as prisoner of war, viz., eighteen ounces of mutton per diem for myself, and nine for my man, with bread and wine in proportion, and especially in such a situation ; all this, I say, was sufficient to invite a man to be easy, and almost forget his want of liberty; and much more so to me, if it be considered that that want of liberty consisted only in being debarred from leaving the pleasantest city in all Spain. Here I met with the French engineer who made the mine under the rock of the castle at Alicant; that fatal mine, which blew up General Richards, Colonel Syburg, Colonel Thornicroft, and at least twenty more officers. And yet, by the account that engineer gave me, their fate was their own choosing; the general, who commanded at that siege, being more industrious to save them than they were to be saved. He endeavoured it many ways: he sent them word of the mine, and their readiness to spring it; he over and over sent them offers of leave to come and take a view of it, and inspect it. Notwithstanding all which, though Colonel Thornicroft, and Captain Page, a French engineer in the service of King Charles, pursued the invitation, and were permitted to view it, yet would they not believe; but re¬ ported on their return, that it was a sham mine, a feint only, to intimidate them to a surrender, all the bags being filled with sand instead of gunpowder. The very day on wliieh the besiegers designed to spring the mine, they gave notice of it; and the people of the neighbourhood ran up in crowds to an opposite hill in order to see it: nevertheless, although those in the castle saw all this, they still remained so infatuated, as to imagine it all done only to affright them. At length the fatal mine was i sprung, and all who were upon that battery lost their lives; and, among them, those I first mentioned. The very recital hereof made me think within myself, Who can resist his fate? 1 That engineer added farther, that it was with an in¬ credible difficulty that he prepared that mine; that there were in the concavity thirteen hundred barrels of powder; lotwithstanding which, it made no great noise without, D D 2 404 MEMOIRS OE CAPTAIN CARLETON. whatever it might do inwardly; that only taking away what might he not improperly termed an excrescence in the rock, the heave on the blast had rendered the castle rather stronger on that side than it was before; a crevice or crack, which had often occasioned apprehensions, being thereby wholly closed and firm. Some farther particulars I soon after had from Colonel Syburg’s gentleman; who, seeing me at the playhouse, challenged me, though at that time unknown to me. He told me, that, the night preceding the unfortunate catas¬ trophe of his master, he was waiting on him in the case¬ ment, where he observed, some time before the rest of the company took notice of it, that General Richards appeared very pensive and thoughtful; that the whole night long he was pestered with, and could not get rid of a great fly, which was perpetually buzzing about his ears and head, to the vexation and disturbance of the rest of the company, as well as the general himself; that in the morning, when they went upon the battery, under which the mine was, the general made many offers of going off; but Colonel Syburg, who was got a little merry, and the rest out of a bravado, would stay, and would not let the general stir; that at last it was proposed by Colonel Syburg to have the other two bottles to the queen’s health, after which he promised they would all go off together. Upon this, my relater, Syburg’s gentleman, said, he was sent to fetch the stipulated two bottles; returning with which, Captain Daniel Weaver, within thirty or forty yards of the battery, ran by him, vowing he was resolved to drink the queen’s health with them; but his feet were scarce on the battery, when the mine was sprung, which took him away with the rest of the company; while Major Harding, now a justice in Westminster, coming that very moment off duty, exchanged fates. If predestination in the eyes of many is an unaccountable doctrine, what better account can the wisest give of this fatality ? Or to what else shall we impute the issue of this whole transaction ? That men shall be solicited to their safety; suffered to survey the danger they were threatened with; among many other tokens of its approaching cer¬ tainty, see such a concourse of people crowding to be spectators of their impending catastrophe; and after all FOUNDER. OF THE FRANCISCAN ORDER. 405 this, so infatuated to stay on the fatal spot the fetching up, to the other two bottles; whatever it may to such as nevei think, to such as plead an use of reason, it must administer matter worthy of the sedatest consideration. Being now pretty well recovered of my wounds, I was, by order of the Govenor of Valencia, removed to Sainte Clemente de la Mancha, a town somewhat more inland, and consequently esteemed more secure than a semi-seaport. Here I remained under a sort of pilgrimage upwards oi three years. To me, as a stranger, divested of acquaintance or friend (for at that instant I was sole prisoner there), at first it appeared such, though in a very small compass of time, I luckily found it made quite otherwise by an agreeable conversation. Sainte Clemente de la Mancha is rendered famous by the renowned Don Michael Cervantes, who, in his facetious but satirical romance, has fixed it the seat and birthplace of his hero Don Quixotte. The gentlemen of this place are the least priest-ridden, or sons of bigotry, of any that I met with in all Spain ; of which, in my conversation with them, I had daily instances. Among many others, an expression that fell from Don Felix Pacheo, a gentleman of the best figure thereabout, and of a very plentiful fortune, shall now suffice. I was become very intimate with him ; and we used often to converse together with a freedom too dangerous to be common in a country so enslaved by the Inquisition. Asking me one day, in a sort of a jocose manner, who, in my opinion, had done the greatest miracles that ever were heard of? I answered, Jesus Christ. It is very tr le, says he, Jesus Christ did great miracles, and a great one it was to feed five thousand people with two or three small fishes, and a like number of loaves' but St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, has found out a way to feed daily one hundred thousand lubbarda with nothing at all; meaning the Franciscans, the followers of St. Francis, who have no visible revenues, yet, in their way of living, come up to, if they do not exceed, any othci order. Another day, talking of the place, it naturally led us into a discourse of the Knight of la Mancha, Don Quixotte. At which time he told me, that, in his opinion, that work was a perfect paradox, being the best and worst romance that evei 406 MEMOIRS OP CAPTAIN CARLETOW. was wrote. For, says he, though it must infallibly please every man that has any taste of wit, yet has it had such a fatal effect upon the spirits of my countrymen, that eveiy man of wit must ever resent; for, continued he, before the appearance in the world of that labour of Cervantes, it was next to an impossibility for a man to walk the streets with any delight, or without danger. There were seen so many cavalieros prancing and curvetting before the windows of their mistresses, that a stranger would have imagined the whole nation to have been nothing less than a race of knight errants. But after the world became a little acquainted with that notable history, the man that was seen in that once celebrated drapery, was pointed at as a Don Quixotte, and found himself the jest of high and low. And I verily believe, added he, that to this, and this only, we owe that dampness and poverty of spirit, which has run through all our councils for a century past, so little agreeable to those nobler actions of our famous ancestors. After many of these lesser sorts of confidences, Don Felix recommended me to a lodging next door to his own. It was at a widow’s, who had one only daughter, her house just opposite to a Franciscan nunnery. Here I remained some¬ what upwards of two years ; all which time, lying in my bed, I could hear the nuns early in the morning at their matins, and late in the evening at their vespers, with delight enough to myself, and without the least indecency in the world in my thoughts of them. Their own divine employ too much employed every faculty of mine, to entertain anything incon- sentaneous or offensive. This my neighbourhood to the nunnery gave me an oppor¬ tunity of seeing two nuns invested ; and in this I must do a justice to the whole country to acknowledge, that a stranger, who is curious (I would impute it rather to their hopes of onversion, than to their vanity), shall be admitted to much greater freedoms in their religious pageantries, than any native. One of these nuns was of the first quality, which rendered the ceremony more remarkably fine. The manner of invest¬ ing them was this : in the morning her relations and friends all met at her father’s house ; whence, she being attired in her most sumptuous apparel, and a coronet placed on her head, they attended her, in cavalcade, to the nunnery, the INVESTMENT OF NUNS AT DE LA MANCHA. 407 streets and windows being crowded, and filled with spectators of all sorts. So soon as she entered the chapel belonging to the nunnery, she kneeled down, and, with an appearance of much devotion, saluted the ground ; then rising up, she advanced a step or two farther; when on her knees she repeated the salutes ; this done, she approached to the altar, where she remained till mass was over : after which, a sermon was preached by one of the priests, in praise, or rather in an exalted preference, of a single life. The sermon being over, the nun elect fell down on her knees before the altar; and, after some short mental orisons, rising again, she withdrew into an inner room, where, stripping off‘ all her rich attire, she put on her nun’s weeds; in which, making her appearance, she, again kneeling, offered up some private devotions ; which being over, she was led to the door of the nunnery, where the lady and the rest of the nuns stood ready to receive her with open arms. Thus entered, the nuns conducted her into the quire, where after they had entertained her with singing, and play¬ ing upon the organ, the ceremony concluded, and every one departed to their proper habitations. The very same day of the year ensuing, the relations and friends of the fair novitiate meet again in the chapel of the nunnery, where the lady abbess brings her out, and delivers her to them. Then again is there a sermon preached on the same subject as at first; which being over, she is brought up to the altar in a decent, but plain dress; the fine apparel, which she put off on her initiation, being deposited on one side of the altar, and her nun’s weeds on the other. Here the priest in Latin cries, Utrum orum mavis , accipe: to which she answers as her inclination, or as her instruction, directs her. If she, after this her year of probation, show any dislike, she is at liberty to come again into the world: but if awed ( by fear (as too often is the case), or won by expectation, or present real inclination, she makes choice of the nun’s weeds, she is immediately invested, and must never expect to appear i again in the world out of the walls of the nunnery. The young lady I saw thus invested was very beautiful, and sang the best of any in the nunnery. There are in the town three nunneries, and a convent to every one of them; viz., one of Jesuits, one of Carmelites, and the other of Franciscans. Let me not be so far mistaken. 408 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLE! OW. to have this taken by way of reflection. No! whatever some of our rakes of the town may assert, I freely declare, that I never saw in any of the nunneries (of which I have seen many both in Spain and other parts of the world), anything like indecent behaviour, that might give occasion for satire or disesteem. It is true, there may be accidents, that may lead to a misinterpretation; of which I remember a very untoward instance in Alicant. When the English forces first laid siege to that town, the priests, who were apprehensive of it, having been long since made sensible of the profound regard to chastity and modesty of us heretics, by the ignominious behaviour of certain officers at Rota and Porta St. Maria; the priests, I say, had taken care to send away privately all the nuns to Majorca. But that the heretic invaders might have no jealousy of it, the fair courtezans of the town were admitted to supply their room. The officers, both of land and sea, as was by the friars pre¬ imagined, on taking the town and castle, immediately repaired to the grates of the nunnery, tossed over their handkerchiefs, nosegays, and other pretty things; all which were doubtless very graciously received by those imaginary recluses. Thence came it to pass, that, in the space of a month or less, you could hardly fall into company of any one of our younger officers, of either sort, but the discourse, if it might deserve the name, was concerning these beautiful nuns; and you would have imagined the price of these ladies as well known as that of flesh in their common markets. Others, as well as myself, have often endeavoured to disabuse those gloriosos, but all to little purpose, till more sensible tokens convinced them that the nuns, of whose favours they so much boasted, could hardly be perfect virgins, though in a cloister. And I am apt to think those who would palm upon the world like vicious relations of nuns and nunneries, do it on much like grounds. Not that there are wanting instances of nunneries disfranchised, and even demolished upon very flagrant accounts; but I confine myself to Spain. In this town of La Mancha, the corrigidore always has his presidence, having sixteen others under his jurisdiction, of which Almanza is one. They are changed every three years, and their offices are the purchase of an excessive price, which occasions the poor people’s being extravagantly fleeced, nothing being to be sold but at the rates they impose; and 6UKF11ISIXG FLOCK OF EAGLES. 409 everything that is sold, paying the corrigidore an acknowledg¬ ment in specie, or an equivalent to his liking. While I was here, news came of the battle of Almanar and Saragosa; and giving the victory to that side which they espoused (that of King Philip), they made very great re¬ joicings. But soon, alas, for them, was all that joy converted into sorrow: the next courier evincing that the forces of King Charles had been victorious in both engagements. This did not turn to my present disadvantage; for convents and nunneries, as well as some of those dons, whom afore I had not stood so well with, strove now how most to oblige me, not doubting but if the victorious army should march that way, it might be in my power to double the most signal ot their services in my friendship. Soon after, an accident fell out, which had like to have been of an unhappy consequence to me. I was standing in company, upon the parade, when a most surprising flock ot eagles flew over our heads, where they hovered for a con¬ siderable time. The novelty struck them all with admiration, as well as myself. But I, less accustomed to like spectacles, innocently saying, that, in my opinion, it could not bode any good to King Philip, because the eagle composed the arms of Austria; some busybody, in hearing, went and informed the corrigidore of it. Those most magisterial wretches embrace all occasions of squeezing money, and more especially from strangers. However, finding his ex¬ pectations disappointed in me, and that I too well knew the length of his foot, to let my money run freely, he sent me next day to Alercon; but the governor of that place having had before intelligence that the English army was advancing that Avay, refused to receive me, so I returned as I went; only the gentlemen of the place, as they had condoled the first, congratulated the last; for that corrigidore stood but very indifferently in their affections. However, it was a warning to me ever after, how I made use of English freedom in a Spanish territory. As I had attained the acquaintance of most of the clergy and religious of the place, so particularly I had my aim in obtaining that of the provincial of the Carmelites. His convent, though small, was exceeding neat; but what to me was much more agreeable, there were very large gardens belonging to it, which often furnished me with salading and 410 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. fruit, and much oftener with walks of refreshment, the most satisfactory amusement in this warm climate. This ac¬ quaintance with the provincial was by a little incident soon advanced into a friendship, which was thus: I was one day walking, as I used to do, in the long gallery of the convent, when, observing the images of the Virgin Mary, of which there was one at each end, I took notice that one had an inscription under it, which was this: Ecce Virgo peperit filium; but the other had no inscription at all; upon which, I took out my pencil, and wrote underneath this line: Sponsa Dei, patrisque parens, et filia filii. The friars, who at a little distance had observed me, as soon as I was gone, came up and read what I had writ; reporting which to the provincial, he ordered them to be writ over in letters of gold, and placed just as I had put them; saying, doubtless such a fine line could proceed from nothing less than inspiration. This secured me, ever after, his and their esteem; the least advantage of which was a full liberty of their garden for all manner of fruit, salading, or whatever I pleased; and, as I said before, the gardens were too fine not to render such a freedom acceptable. They often want rain in this country; to supply the defect of which I observed in this garden, as well as others, an invention not unuseful. There is a well in the middle of the garden, and over that a wheel, with many pitchers, or buckets, one under another, which wheel being turned round by an ass, the pitchers scoop up the water on one side, and throw it out on the other into a trough, that by little chan¬ nels conveys it, as the gardener directs, into every pai't of the garden. By this means their flowers and their salading are continually refreshed, and preserved from the otherwise over-parching beams of the sun. The Inquisition, in almost every town in Spain (and more especially if of any great account), has its spies, or informers, for treacherous intelligence. These make it their business to ensnare the simple and unguarded, and are more to be avoided by the stranger than the rattlesnake, nature having appointed no such happy tokens in the former to foreshow the danger. I had reason to believe that one of those vermin once made his attack upon me in this place; and aa SPIES OF THE INQUISITION. 411 they are very rarely, if ever, known to the natives them¬ selves, I, being a stranger, may be allowed to make a guess by circumstances. I was walking by myself, when a person, wholly unknown to me, giving me the civil salute of the clay, endeavoured to draw me into conversation. After questions had passed on general heads, the fellow ensnaringly asked me how it came to pass that I showed so little respect to the image of the crucified Jesus, as I passed by it in such a street, naming it? I made answer, that I had, or ought to have, him always in my heart crucified. To that he made no reply; but, pro¬ ceeding in his interrogatories, questioned me next whether I believed a purgatory ? I evaded the question, as I took it to be ensnaring ; and only told him that I should be willing to hear him offer anything that might convince me of the truth, or probability of it. Truth? he replied in a heat; there never yet was man so holy as to enter heaven without first passing through purgatory. In my opinion, said I, there will be no difficulty in convincing a reasonable man to the contrary. What mean you by that? cried the spy. I mean, said I, that I can name one, and a great sinner too, who went into bliss without any visit to purgatory. Name him if you can, replied my querist. What think you of the thief upon the cross, said I, to whom our dying Saviour said, Hodie eris mecum in paradiso ? At which being silenced, though not convicted, he turned from me in a violent rage, and left me to myself. What increased my first suspicion of him was, that a very short time after, my friend the provincial sent to speak with me ; and repeating all passages between the holy spy and me, assured me that he had been forced to argue in my favour, and tell him that I had said nothing but well : For, says he, all ought to have the holy Jesus crucified in their hearts. Nevertheless, continued he, it is a commendable and good thing to have him represented in the highways. For suppose, said he, a man was going upon some base or profligate design, the very sight of a crucified Saviour may happen to subvert his resolution, and deter him from committing theft, murder, or any other of the deadly sins. And thus ended that conference. I remember, upon some other occasional conversation after, the provincial told me, that in the Carmelite nunnery next to 412 SIEMOIBS OB CAPTAIN CAItLETOW. his convent, and under his care, there was a nun that was daughter to Don Juan of Austria; if so, her age must render her venerable as her quality. Taking notice one day, that all the people of the place fetched their water from a well without the town, although they had many seemingly as good within, I spoke to Don Felix of it, who gave me, under the seal of secrecy, this reason for it: When the seat of the war, said he, lay in these parts, the French train of artillery was commonly quartered in this place; the officers and soldiers of which were so very rampant and rude, in attempting to debauch our women, that there is not a well within the town which has not some Frenchmen’s bones at the bottom of it; therefore the natives, who are sensible of it, choose rather to go farther afield. By this well there runs a little rivulet, which gives head to that famous river called the Guadiana; which running for some leagues under ground, affords a pretence for the natives to boast of a bridge on which they feed many thousands of sheep. When it rises again, it is a fine large river,and, after a currency of many leagues, empties itself into the Atlantic ocean. As to military affairs, Almanar and Saragosa were victories so complete, that nobody made the least doubt of their settling the crown of Spain upon the head of Charles III. without a rival. This was not barely the opinion of his friends, hut his very enemies resigned all hope or expectation in favour of King Philip. The Castilians, his most faithful friends, enter¬ tained no other imagination ; for, after they had advised, and prevailed that the queen with the prince of Asturias should be sent to Victoria, under the same despondency, and a full dispiritedness, they gave him so little encouragement to stay in Madrid, that he immediately quitted the place, with a resolution to retire into his grandfather’s dominions, the place of his nativity. In his way to which, even on the last day’s journey, it was his great good fortune to meet the Duke of Vendosme, with some few troops, which his grandfather Louis XIV. of France had ordered to his succour, under that duke’s command - The duke was grievously affected at such an unexpected catastrophe ; nevertheless, he left nothing unsaid or undone, that might induce that prince to turn back; and at length prevailing, after a little rest, and a gr eat deal of patience, by VISIT TO THE CHAPEL OF THE LADY DE ATOCHA. 413 the coming in of his scattered troops, and some few he could raise, together with those the duke brought with him, he once more saw himself at the head of twenty thousand men. While things were in this manner, under motion in King Philip’s favour, Charles III., Avith his victorious army, advances fonvard, and enters into Madrid, of which he made General Stanhope governor. And even here the Castilians gave full proof of their fidelity to their prince; even at the time Avhen, in their opinion, his affairs were past all hopes of retrieve, they themselves having, by their advice, contributed to his retreat. Instead of prudential acclamations therefore, such as might have ansAvered the expectations of a victorious prince, noAV entering into their capital, their streets Avere all in a profound silence, their balconies unadorned Avith costly carpets, as Avas customary on like occasions ; and scarce an inhabitant to be seen in either shop or Avindow. This, doubtless, Avas no little mortification to a conquering prince; liOAvevcr, his generals were Avise enough to keep him from showing any other tokens of resentment, than marching through the city Avith unconcern, and taking up his quarters at Villaverda, about a league from it. Nevertheless, King Charles visited, in his march, the chapel of the Lady de Atocha, where finding several English colours and standards, taken in the battle of Almanza, there hung up, he ordered them to be taken doAvn, and restored them to the English general. It Avas the current opinion then, and almost universal con¬ sent has since confirmed it, that the falsest step in that Avhole Avar, Avas this advancement of King Charles to Madrid. After those two remarkable victories at Almanar and Sara- gosa, had he directed his march to Pampeluna, and obtained possession of that place, or some other near it, he had not only stopt all succours from coming out of France, but he would, in a great measure, have prevented the gathering together of any of the routed and dispersed forces of King Philip; and it was the general notion of the Spaniards I conversed with while at Madrid, that had King Philip once again set his foot upon French land, Spain would never have been brought to have re-acknowledged him King Charles with his army having stayed some time about Madrid, and seeing his expectations of the Castilians joining him not at all answered, at last resolved to decamp, and 414 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. return to Saragosa. Accordingly, with a very few troops, that prince advanced thither; while the main body, under the command ot the Generals Stanhope and Staremberg, passing under the very walls of Madrid, held on their march towards Arragon. After about three days’ march, general Stanhope took up his quarters at Breuhiga, a small town half walled ; General Staremberg marching three leagues farther, to Cifuentes. This choice of situation of the two several armies, not a little puzzled the politicians ot those times; who could very indifferently account for the English general’s lying exposed in an open town, with his few English forces, of which General Harvey’s regiment of fine horse might be deemed the main, and General Staremberg encamping three leagues farther off the enemy. But to see the vicissitudes of fortune, to which the actions of the bravest, by an untoward sort ot fatality, are often forced to contribute! none who had been eyewitnesses of the bravery of either of those generals at the battles of Almanar and Saragosa, could find room to call in question either their conduct or their courage ; and yet in this march, and this encampment, will appear a visible ill conse¬ quence to the affairs of the interest they fought for. The Duke of Vendosme having increased the forces which he brought from France to upwards of twenty thousand men, marches by Madrid directly for Breuhiga, where his intelli¬ gence informed him General Stanhope lay; and that so secretly, as well as swiftly, that that general knew nothing of it, nor could be persuaded to believe it, till the very moment their bullets from the enemy’s cannon convinced him of the truth. Breuhiga, I have said, was walled only on one side, and yet on that very side the enemy made their attack But what could a handful do against a force so much superior, though they had not been in want of both powder and ball; and in want of these, were forced to make use of stones against all sorts of ammunition which the enemy plied them with ? The consequence answered the deficiency ; they were all made prisoners of war, and Harvey’s regiment of horse among the rest; which, to augment their calamity, was immediately remounted by the enemy, and marched along with their army to attack General Staremberg. That general had heard somewhat of the march of Vendosme, and waited with some impatience to have the confirmation of BA'iTLE AT VILLA VICIOSA. 415 it from General Stanhope, who lay between, and whom he lay under an expectation of being joined with ; however, he thought it not improper to make some little advance towards him : and accordingly, breaking up from his camp at Cifu- entes, he came back to Villa Viciosa, a little town between Cifuentes and Breuhiga. There he found Vendosme ready to attack him, before he could well be prepared for him, but no English to join him, as he had expected; nevertheless, the battle was hot, and obstinately fought; although Starem- berg had visibly the advantage, having beat the enemy at least a league from their cannon ; at which time, hearing of the misfortune of Breuhiga, and finding himself thereby frus¬ trated of those expected succours to support him, he made a handsome retreat to Barcelona, which in common calculation is about a hundred leagues, without any disturbance of a,n enemy, that seemed glad to be rid of him. Nevertheless, his baggage having faller into the hands of the enemy, at the beginning of the fight, King Philip and the Duke of Ven¬ dosme generously returned it unopened, and untouched, in acknowledgment of his brave behaviour. I had like to have omitted one material passage, which 1 was very credibly informed of; that General Carpenter offered to have gone, and have joined General Staremberg with the horse, which was refused him. This was certainlv an oversight of the highest nature; since his going would have strengthened Staremberg almost to the assurance of an entire victory ; whereas his stay was of no manner of service, but quite the contrary : for, as I said before, the enemy, by remounting the English horse (which perhaps were the com- pletest of any regiment in the world), turned, if I may bo allowed the expression, the strength of our artillery upon our *dlies. 410 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETOW. CHAPTER IX. BULL-FIGHT AT LA MANCIIA—TEMPERANCE AND BIGOTRY OF THE SPANIARDS-RESERVE CUSTOM OF GENTLEMEN IN COMPANY WITH LADIES-WRETCHED MUSIC, EXCEPT AT VALENCIA-MUSIC AT EXECUTIONS-SINGULAR APPEAL OF A CLERGYMAN TO CONSCIENCE, AND VERY INTERESTING CONCLUSION. Upon this retreat of Staremberg, and the surprise at Breu- liiga, there were great rejoicings at Madrid, and everywhere else, where King Philip’s interest prevailed. And indeed it might he said, from that day the interest of King Charles looked with a very lowering aspect. I was still a prisoner at La Mancha, when this news arrived; and very sensibly affected at that strange turn of fortune. I was in bed when the express passed through the town, in order to convey it farther; and in the middle of the night I heard a certain Spanish Don, with whom, a little before, I had had some little vai'iance, thundering at my door, endeavouring to burst it open, with, as I had reason to suppose, no very favourable design upon me. But my landlady, who hitherto had always been kind and careful, calling Don Felix and some others of my friends together, saved me from the fury of his designs, whatever they were. Among other expressions of the general joy upon this occasion, there was a bull-feast at La Mancha ; which being much beyond what I saw at Valencia, I shall here give a description of. These bull-feasts are not so common now in Spain as formerly- King Philip not taking much delight in them. Nevertheless, as soon as it was published here, that there was to be one, no other discourse was heard ; and in the talk of the bulls, and the great preparations for the feast, men seemed to have lost, or to have laid aside, all thoughts of the very occasion. A week’s time was allowed for the building of stalls for the beasts, and scaffolds for the spec¬ tators, and other necessary preparations for the setting off their joy with the most suitable splendour. On the day appointed for the bringing the bulls into town, SULL FEASTS. 417 the cavalieroes mounted their horses, and with spears in their hands, rode out of town about a league, or somewhat more, to meet them : if any of the bulls break from the drove, and make an excursion (as they frequently do), the cavaliero that can make him return again to his station among his com¬ panions, is held in honour, suitable to the dexterity and ad¬ dress he performs it with. On their entrance into the town, all the windows are filled with spectators; a pope passing in grand procession could not have more; for what can be more than all ? And he, or she, who should neglect so rare a show, would give occasion to have his or her legitamacy called in question. When they came to the Plaza, where the stalls and scaf¬ folds are built, and upon which the feats of chivalry are to be performed, it is often with a great deal of difficulty that the brutes are got in ; for there are twelve stalls, one for every bull, and as their number grows less by the installing of some, the remainder often prove more untractable and unruly; in these stalls they are kept very dark, to render them fiercer for the day of battle. On the first of the days appointed (for a bull-feast com • monly lasts three), all the gentry of the place, or near adja¬ cent, resort to the Plaza in their most gaudy apparel, every one vying in making the most glorious appearance. Those in the lower ranks provide themselves with spears, or a great many small darts in their hands, which they fail not to cast or dart, whenever the bull, by his nearness, gives them an opportunity. So that the poor creature may be said to fight, not only with the tauriro (or bull-hunter, a person always hired for that purpose), but with the whole multitude, in the lower class at least. All being seated, the uppermost door is opened first; and as soon as ever the bull perceives the light, out he comes, snuffing up the air, and staring about him, as if in admiration of his attendants ; and with his tail cocked up, he spurns the ground with his fore feet, as if he intended a challenge to his yet unappearing antagonist. Then, at a door appointed for that purpose, enters the tauriro all in white, holding a cloak in one hand, and a sharp two-edged sword in the other. The bull no sooner sets eyes upon him, but, wildly staring, he moves gently towards him; then gradually mends his pace, till he is come within about the space of twenty yards VOL. II. E E 418 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CARLETON. of the tauriro; when, with a sort of spring, he makes at him with all his might. The tauriro, knowing by frequent expe¬ rience, that it behoves him to be watchful, slips aside just when the bull is at him; when casting his cloak over his horns, at the same moment he gives him a slash or two, always aiming at the neck, where there is one particular place, Avhich if he hit, he knows he shall easily bring him to the ground. I myself observed the truth of this experiment made upon one of the bulls, who received no more than one cut, which happening upon the fatal spot, so stunned him, that he remained perfectly stupid, the blood flowing out from the wound, till, after a violent trembling, he dropt down stone dead. But this rarely happens, and the poor creature oftener re¬ ceives many wounds, and numberless darts, before he dies. Yet whenever he feels a fresh wound, either from dart, spear, or sword, his rage receives addition from the wound, and he pursues his tauriro with an increase of fury and violence. And as often as he makes at his adversary, the tauriro takes care, with the utmost of his agility, to avoid him, and reward his kind intention with a new wound. Some of their bulls will play their parts much better than others ; but the best must die. For when they have behaved themselves with all the commendable fury possible, if the tauriro is spent, and fail of doing execution upon him, they set dogs upon him; hough him, and stick him all over with darts, till, with very loss of blood, he puts an end to their present cruelty. When dead, a man brings in two mules dressed out with belts and feathers, and, fastening a rope about his horns, draws off the bull with shouts and acclamations of the spectators, as if the infidels had been drove from before Ceuta. I had almost forgot another very common piece of barbai’ous pleasure at these diversions. The tauriro will sometimes stick one of their bull-spears fast in the ground, aslant, but levelled as near as he can at his chest; then pre¬ senting himself to the bull, just before the point of the spear, on his taking his run at the tauriro, which, as they assured me, he always does with his eyes closed, the tauriro sips cn one side, and the poor creature runs with a violence often to stick himself, and sometimes to break the spear in his chest, unning away with part of it till he drop. BULL FEASTS. 419 This tauriro was accounted one of the best in Spain; and indeed I saw him mount the back of one of the bulls, and ride >n him, slashing and cutting, till he had quite Avearied him ; at which time dismounting, he killed him with much ease, and to the acclamatoiy satisfaction of the whole concourse: for variety of cruelty, as well as dexterity, administers to their delight. The tauriroes are very well paid, and, in truth, so they ought to be ; for they often lose their lives in the diversion, as this did the year after in the Avay of his calling. Yet it is a service of very great profit Avhen they perform dexterously: for, whenever they do anything remarkable, deserving the notice of the spectators, they never fail of a generous gratification, money being throAvn down to them in plenty. This feast (as they generally do) lasted three days ; the last of which was, in my opinion, much before either of the others. On this, a young gentleman, Avhose name Avas Don Pedro Ortega, a person of great quality, performed the exercise on horseback. The seats, if not more croAvded, were filled with people of better fashion, who came from places at a distance to grace the noble tauriro. He Avas finely mounted, and made a very graceful figure: but as, Avhen the foot tauriro engages, the bull first enters ; so in this contest, the cavaliero ahvays makes his appearance on the Plaza before the bull. His steed was a maneged horse; mounted on which, he made his entry, attended by four foot¬ men in rich liveries; who, as soon as their master had rid round, and paid his devoirs to all the spectators, AvithdreAV from the dangers they left him exposed to. The cavaliero having thus made his bows, and received the repeated vivas of that vast concourse, marched Avdth a very stately air to the very middle of the Plaza, there standing ready to receive his enemy at coming out. The door being opened, the bull appeared ; and as I thought Avith a fiercer and more threatening aspect than any of the former. He stared around him for a considerable time, snuffing up the air, and spurning the ground, without in the least taking notice of his antagonist. But, at last, fixing his eyes upon him, he made a full run at the cavaliero, Avliich he most dexterously avoided, and, at the same moment of time, passing by, he cast a dart that stuck in his shoulders. At this, the she'its and vivas ay ere repeated j and I observed a hand- £ M 2 420 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN CAKLETON. kerchief waved twice or thrice, which, as I afterwards under¬ stood, was a signal from the lady of his affections, that she had beheld him with satisfaction. I took notice, that the cavaliero endeavoured all he could to keep aside the bull, for the advantage of the stroke; when, putting his horse on a full career, he threw another dart, which fixed in his side, and so enraged the beast, that he seemed to renew his attacks with greater fury. The cavaliero had behaved himself to admiration, and escaped many dangers, with the often repeated acclamations of viva, viva; when, at last, the enraged creature getting his horns between the horse’s hinder legs, man and horse came both together to the ground. I expected at that moment nothing less than death could be the issue; when, to the general surprise, as well as mine, the very civil brute, author of all the mischief, only withdrew to the other side of the Plaza, where he stood still, staring about him as if he knew nothing of the matter. The cavaliero was carried off not much hurt, but his delicate beast suffered much more. However, I could not but think afterward, that the good-natured bull came short of fair play. If I may be pardoned the expression, he had used his adversary with more humanity than he met with; at least, since, after he had the cavaliero under, he generously forsook him, I think he might have pleaded, or others for him, for better treatment than he after met with. For, as the cavaliero was disabled and carried off, the foot tauriro entered in white accoutrements, as before; but he flattered himself with an easier conquest than he found. There is always on these occasions, when he apprehends any imminent danger, a place of retreat ready for the foot tauriro; and well for him there was so ; this bull obliged him over and over to make use of it. Nor was he able at last to despatch him, without a general assistance; for I believe I speak within compass, when I say, he had more than a hundred darts stuck in him. And so barbarously was he mangled and slashed besides, that, in my mind, I could not but think King Philip in the right, when he said, That it was a custom deserved little encouragement. Soon after this tauridore, or bull-feast, was over, I had a mind to take a pleasant walk to a little town, called Minai, about three leagues off; but I was scarce got out of La "lancha, when an acquaintance meeting me, asked where I TEMPERANCE OF THE PEOPLE AT LA MANCHA. 421 Was g:ing? I told him to Minai; when, taking me by tlfS hand, Friend Gorgio, says he in Spanish, come back with me; you shall not go a stride farther; there are Piearons that way; you shall not go. Inquiring, as we went back, into his meaning, he told me, that the day before, a man, who had received a sum of money in pistoles at La Mancha, was, on the road, set upon by some, who had got notice of it, and murdered him; that, not finding the money expected about him (for he had cautiously enough left it in a friend’s hands at La Mancha), they concluded he had swallowed it; and there¬ fore they ript up his belly, and opened every gut; but all to as little purpose. This diverted my walk for that time. But, some little time after, the same person inviting me over to the same place, to see his melon-grounds, which in that country are wonderful fine and pleasant, I accepted his invitation, and, under the advantage of his company, went thither. On the road, I took notice of a cross newly erected, and a multitude of small stones around the foot of it: asking the meaning whereof my friend told me, that it was raised for a person there murdered (as is the custom throughout Spain), and that every good catholic, passing by, held it his duty to cast a stone upon the place, in detestation of the murder. I had often before taken notice of many such crosses; but never till then knew the meaning of their erection, or the reason of the heaps of stones around them. There is no place in all Spain more famous for good wine than Sainte Clemente de la Mancha ; nor is it anywhere sold cheaper; for, as it is only an inland town, near no navigable river, and the people temperate to a proverb, great plenty, and a small vend, must consequently make it cheap. The wine here is so famous, that, when I came to Madrid, I saw wrote over the doors of most houses that sold wine, Vino Sainte Clemente. As to the temperance of the people, I must say, that, notwithstanding those two excellent qualities of goo