1643.] sir A. Aston is wounded at Reading.

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near London; and those that were sent to London, as many cart-loads were, were brought in the night, and disposed with great secrecy, that the citizens might take no notice of it: the stratagems of this kind are too ridiculous to be particularly set down, though pursued then with great industry, insomuch as some were punished for reporting that there were very many soldiers killed and hurt before Reading; and it was a mark of malignity to believe those reports; so unfit the people were to be trusted with all truths.

Within a week after the beginning of the siege, sir Arthur Aston the governor being in a court of guard near the line which was nearest to the enemy's approaches, a cannon shot accidentally lighted upon the top of it, which was covered with bricktile, a piece whereof, the shot going through, hit the governor in the head, and made that impression upon him, that his senses shortly failed him, so that he was not only disabled afterwards from executing in his own person, but incompetent for counsel or direction; so that the chief command was devolved to colonel Richard Fielding, who was the eldest colonel of the garrison. This accident was then thought of great misfortune to the king, for there was not in his army an officer of greater reputation, and of whom the enemy had a greater dread. The next night after this accident, but before it was known at Oxford, a party from thence under the command of Mr. Wilmot, the lieutenant general of the horse, without any signal opposition, put in a supply of powder, and a regiment of five hundred foot into the town, but received advertisement from thence of the governor's hurt, and that

they must expect to be relieved within a week, beyond which time they should not be able to hold out. How ill the king was provided for such an expedition, will best appear by remembering how his forces were then scattered, and the present posture he was then in at Oxford.

The nimble and the successful marches of sir William Waller, whom we left triumphing in Wales, after his strange surprise of the lord Herbert's forces near Gloucester, caused the king to send prince Maurice with a strong party of horse and dragoons to attend him, who moved from place to place with as great success as speed, after his success at Hynam; and to make the shame of those officers the less, with the spirit of victory doubled upon him, he came before Hereford, a town very well affected, and reasonably well fortified, having a strong stone wall about it, and some cannon, and there being in it some soldiers of good reputation, and many gentlemen of honour and quality; and three or four hundred soldiers, besides the inhabitants well armed; yet, without the loss of one man on either side, to the admiration of all who then heard it, or have ever since heard of it, he persuaded them fairly to give up the town, and yield themselves prisoners upon quarter; which they did, and were presently by him sent for their better security to Bristol.

From thence he marched to Worcester, where his conquests met some stop; for though the town was not so strong, nor the garrison so great, (I mean of soldiers; for the inhabitants were more,) as Hereford, nor one officer in it of more experience than he had gotten this unhappy war, the

1643.] but is repulsed before Worcester.

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inhabitants had the courage to resolve not to admit any summons or messenger from him; and when his drum, against all signs made to him from the walls not to approach, did notwithstanding refuse to return without delivering his message, they shot at him, and killed him; and when sir William Waller himself, to revenge that affront, marched with his whole body towards them, (there being only an old gate, without bridge or work, before it, to hinder his entrance into the town,) they entertained him so roughly, that he was forced to retire with the loss of some officers, and about twenty common men; after which, his men having not been accustomed to such usage, he got over the Severn again, and, with quick night marches, so avoided prince Maurice, (who took no less pains to meet with him,) that with some few light skirmishes, in which he received small loss, he carried his party safe, and full of reputation, through Gloucester to the earl of Essex's army before Reading; himself being sent for to London, upon a design that must be hereafter mentioned.

The great want at Oxford (if any one particular might deserve that style, where all necessary things were wanted) was ammunition; and the only hope of supply was from the north; yet the passage from thence so dangerous, that a party little inferior in strength to an army was necessary to convey it; for though the earl of Newcastle, at that time, was master of the field in Yorkshire, yet the enemy was much superior in all the counties between that county and Oxford; and had planted many garrisons so near all the roads, that the most private messengers travelled with great hazard, three being

intercepted for one that escaped. To clear these obstructions, and not without the design of guarding and waiting on the queen to Oxford, if her majesty were ready for that journey, at least to secure a necessary supply of powder, prince Rupert resolved in person to march towards the north, and about the beginning of April (the treaty being then at Oxford, and [there being] hopes that it would have produced a good effect, at least that the earl of Essex would not have taken the field till May) his highness, with a party of twelve hundred horse and dragoons, and six or seven hundred foot, marched towards Litchfield; which if he could reduce, and settle there a garrison for the king, lay most convenient for that northern communication; and would with it dissolve other little adjacent holds of the enemy's, which contributed much to their interruption. In his way thither, he was to march through Bromicham, a town in Warwickshire before mentioned, and of as great fame for hearty, wilful, affected disloyalty to the king, as any place in England. It is before remembered, that the king in his march from Shrewsbury, notwithstanding the eminent malignity of that people, had shewed as eminent compassion to them; not giving way that they should suffer by the undistinguishing license of the soldier, or by the severity of his own justice; which clemency of his found so unequal a return, that, the next day after his remove thence, the inhabitants of that place seized on his carriages, wherein were his own plate and furniture, and conveyed them to Warwick castle; and had from that time, with unusual industry and vigilance, apprehended all messengers who were

1643.]

north, and takes Bromicham.

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employed, or suspected to be so, in the king's service; and though it was never made a garrison by direction of the parliament, being built in such a form, as was indeed hardly capable of being fortified, yet they had so great a desire to distinguish themselves from the king's good subjects, that they cast up little slight works at both ends of the town, and barricadoed the rest, and voluntarily engaged themselves not to admit any intercourse with the king's forces.

In this posture prince Rupert now found them, having in the town with them at that time a troop of horse, belonging to the garrison of Litchfield, which was grown to that strength, that it infested those parts exceedingly; and would in a short time have extended itself to a powerful jurisdiction. His highness hardly believing it possible, that, when they should discover his power, they would offer to make resistance, and being unwilling to receive interruption in his more important design, sent his quarter-masters thither to take up his lodging; and to assure them, "that if they behaved

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themselves peaceably, they should not suffer for "what was past:" but they had not consciences good enough to believe him, and absolutely refused to let him quarter in the town; and from their little works, with mettle equal to their malice, they discharged their shot upon him; but they were quickly overpowered, and some parts of the town being. fired, they were not able to contend with both enemies; and, distracted between both, suffered the assailant to enter without much loss; who took not that vengeance upon them they deserved, but made them expiate their transgressions with