Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	army_n	call_v	great_a	1,613	5	2.9383	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87268	The copy of a letter sent from a person of much honour and reason, accidentally present at that hot encounter betwixt the forces under the command of the Lord Goring, Earle of Norwich, and Sir Charles Lucas of the Royall Party, and those under the command of the Lord Fairfax of the Parliaments party, on the 13. of Iune, in the suburbs of Colchester.	C. I.	1648 (1648)	Wing I2; Thomason E448_15	3,136	8

The Copy of A LETTER Sent from a person of much Honour and Reason accidentally present at that hot encounter betwixt the Forces under the Command of the Lord Goring Earle of Norwich and Sir Charles Lucas of the ROYALL Party And those under the command of the Lord Fairfax of the Parliaments party on the 13. of Iune in the Suburbs of COLCHESTER Printed in the yeare 1648. The Copy of a Letter sent from a person of much Honour and Reason accidentally present at that hot encounter betwixt the Forces under the command of the Lord Goring Earle of Norwich and Sir Charles Lucas of the Royall party and those under the command of the Lord Fairfax of the Parliaments party on the 1 of June in the Suburbs of Colchester SIR THough I ever found a strong aversion in my genius from becoming a mandrake and groaning blood ruine and death and have beene so happily exempted from this heavy storme of calamity and desolation which this our bloudy intestine warre hath showred downe upon three Kingdomes that I have hithert● lived safe both in the Protection of my solitude and neutrality yet being by the fortune of some businesse with the Lord Fairfax at that instant an eye witnesse of the most remarkable passages in the hot and bloudy encounter betwixt the Forces of the Lord Goring Sir Charles Lucas Sir William Compton Sir George Lisle and others of the Royall party and of the Lord Fairfax I conceived my selfe obliged by the duty of friendship to give you a short but faithfull account of my observation assuring my selfe that by how much the lesse interest I have in eithers engagement or successe the more credit you cannot but in justice give to my relation On Tuesday the 13. of Iune in the afternoon the Lord Fairfax being marched near to Colchester sate down with all his field Officers at a Councel of War within half a mile of the town what their determination was though I was removed at too great a distance to hear the Vote yet the issue encourages my conjecture that it was to fall on that evening For immediately the Army was drawn out into a spacious Campania enriched with a luxurious crop of wheat Here● stood divided betwixt the pleasure of so gallant an object as an Army complete both in persons and discipline and the sorrow of beholding the spoile of that rich blessing which is so essentiall to the life of man that the same bounty that gave it is pleased to call the staffe of bread No sooner was the Army thus in a full body but there followed so deep and unbroken a silence for the space of half an hour that midnight seems thunder if compared to it there appearing no noise but what every man heard from the violent motion of his own heart Had some augur been there he might have safely foretold that many of them should ere many minutes be received into an eternall silence This ●alme dissolved some officers of the Army were sent to survey the Suburbs among these Col. Bakster returning told the Generall that if he would be pleased to let him have a party of 500 commanded men he would attempt the great street in the Suburbs which on reason he conceived saul●able This motion was embraced seconded and put in execution but with so fatall a destruction of the greatest number of the assistants the Defendants which were men whose Martiall education and experience ennobles them as much as their high births and plentifull fortunes at the same moment powring in whole vollies of cannon and musquet shot so levell in the face of the enemy that there seemed to follow as many wounds as shots and as many deaths as wounds However the designe was pursued with 500. more who receiving the same welcome their bold fellowes had were put not onely to a stand but some confused retreat or repulse call it which you please which the General perceiving drew the whole Army to engage in the action driving on the foot with the Horse so violently that I never read of any president that may parallel him but the furious Bajazet the Second who used to force on his souldiers on their enemies swords valuing men no better then stones to dead the shot and blocks to fill up ditches for the living to passe over Had the great masters of valour the Romanes been spectators of this action they would have frowned on the Commanders and called them rather rash then valiant The towne husbanding this opportunity discharged such thicke peales of great and small shot on them that I beheld amongst them that horrid slaughter of men and horse which in my melancholy lecture of bloudy battles I saw in fancy with so much compassion that could not but drop some tears to embalm the slaine But how pensive this blacke sight made me I shall leave your reason to judge when you have considered the horror of bloud spent in fury and the melancholy complexion of my mind enclined to hold a sypathy with all sorrow that my senses communicate to me Notwitstanding this confusion and butchery of the common souldiers who had some Officers fell with them to conduct them into the other world the Generall constant to his purpose and more in love with his former good fortun then present safety goaded up his men on the mouth of the Canon with such fury pardon me if I call it not valour since it wanted wisdom that the Defendants were forced to desert the Suburbs and Retreat speedily into the City leaving without the gates about 350 of their choicest men whose habit and gallant deportment in their diftresse and imprisonment spoke them Gentlemen to the most enraged and malitious of their Enemies For according to the custome of Warre being examined by the Generall concerning the number strength resolution and defences of their friends within the Town they scorned to return any other Answer but that though being Prisoners and at mercy they would soo●er embrace the worst of deaths the anger and wit of their Foes could contrive then reveale a title of any thing that might prejudice their friends or secure their Adversaries Thus long Victory stood hovering unresolved on whose head to place her Garland The Generall thus possessed of the Suburbs the gallant prisoners were made a prey to the common Souldiers who exchanged their Habits but could not so disguise them but the bravery of their minds was plainly legible to every eye that was acquainted with the characters of vertue The next businesse was the placing of Guards on either part the Parliament Porces in that Street they had so dearly won the Royall in the Town they had so bravely defended for the darknesse of night forbad any further Action for the present But this remora was soon removed by an accident for whether it was design or fortune is yet to me uncertain the firing of two or three houses in the Suburbs For by the light of the flames the Town discovering where and in what Posture the Enemy lay let fly their Cannon and Musquet upon them with such well directed fury that I may boldly affirm that among such a number of men and horse there never was so bloody an Execution Here you might have seen the limbs of men horses armes fire and dust confused together in one horrid Chaos The Lord Fairfax so farre engaged himselfe both to encourage and relieve his men in this distresse that a Cannon shot from the Town strock him blind with the dust it raised for halfe an houre The Horse thus brought on in the mouth of destruction by the example more then the command of their Generall rusht on so farre that three whole Troopes brought beyond all possibility of Retreat were all taken Prisoners and the rest so shattered that in a great consusion they shogd of to the same place where this fatall design was concluded on by the Councell of Warre And thus was this violent Feaver for the present cured by the most prodigall effusion of blood that ever History tells us was drawn forth betwixt such small Parties in so few minutes For on an exact survey of the slaine on ●oth sides my Arithmetick accounted no lesse then 1500 dead bodies The rehearsall of some of the premises will satisfie your curiosity of knowing on which side the greatest number fell for the nature of the action tells us that the Assailants could not but loose ten for one Besides this irrepatable losse of stout and experienced Souldiers whose lives providently spent on a Forraign Enemy might have revived the Ancient glory of our Nation and some faithfull Officers instructed in the principles and Discipline of their Generall I cannot but discover my observation of some cloud that from hence is risen to ecclipse the glory of the Lord Fairfax it being the first remarkable check his fortune ever received Thus Sir you have a true and impartiall draught of this action according to the best observaton of Your humble Servant C.I. Chenceford the 15. of Iune 1648. FINIS