little began to take heart againe as thinking themselves secure from any opposition or Inconveniencie being amongst our professed Friends When our condition gave another reverse and was like to change for the worse then ever before For after he had run through so many difficulties and wearied out with so tedious marches our Soldiers ready almost to fall downe in the Street for want of foode to sustaine them we were like to fall into another encounter with adverse fortune The Generall notwithstanding his great age which might easily have dis-inabled him from such toyle yet as if he had beene absolutely Indefatigable or else miraculously nourisht not receiving almost any rest or sleepe for the space of foure daies and three nights and yet not seeming to want any posted immediately away againe to Chelmsford where the Gentry of the Country were met giving order for the Quartering that shattered Army in Stratford till further orders from him But when Quarter-master Generall Carter had sent for the Constable and given him Orders accordingly The Constable seeming to goe about in obedience to his Warrant whilst by some other Gentlemen he was civilly and honourably treated as a stranger makes no long stay ere he returned againe accompanied with three or four burly Gentlemen as I conceive Justices of Peace of that part of the Country who making it their businesse began to question the Quarter-master Generall of his Authority of Quartering an Army in that Country intimating that they were all quiet before and at peace amongst themselves and with the Parliament and that the Parliament had granted them what they desired and had sent them an Act of Indempnity But we bringing an Army into their County should draw down the Parliaments Army upon them and make it a Seat of Warre and they could not any way condescend that we should fix a Quarter there it being no way for their safety but like to prove the readiest way to their destruction Cheerfull expressions to men that had run through so many hazards and confused difficulties Having let our own Country to the Cruelty of a most barbarous and mercilesse Enemy to come as by an abolute associated engagement to their assistance whereby we hoped to be strong enough to break the bonds and tear off the shackles from our most inhumanly imprisoned Soveraign and unnaturally enslaved Country-men and now no sooner entred the Confines of their County from whence so many publick Declarations of their Loyall and sincere Intentions had flowne abroad throughout the Kingdom and so late checked the Insolence of the proud Enemy and beaten them off from forcing a violent incursion upon it and to have such an unexpected welcome was too harsh and severe and might have proved very mischievous if resented by the inferiour sort of the Army whose fury knowes little or no more when enflamed with so just a discontent But the Quarter-master Generall returned them this Answer in short That for the power by which he Quartered that Army it was by Commission from the Generall and that he quartered them in that place by immediate Command also from him But for our comming into that Country it concerned him not to dispute it neither could he give any other account then the Engagement between both Counties and the Generall the Earl of Norwich But if they should desire any further satisfaction to their desires they must receive it from the Lord Generall himselfe But the Generall being gone to Chelmsford Sir Will Compton being Major Generall hearing of this dispute came also to them and gave the like satisfaction but would not long dispute the businesse with them knowing nothing at all of them nor by what Authority they were empowred to make those interrogatories And now our Blouds being hardly coole since the last Affront when heated again by this new and the consideration of the sad successe of our so just and honourable Designes almost boyling to fury resolved to Quarter there till we should againe receive Orders from the Generall and then in case the businesse of the Country should prove so contrary to our hopes and the expectations of the whole Kingdome as to answer the expressions of those men of Beliall to March on forcing our way through all obstructions till we should find a party to joyne with or be destroyed in the Field that we might thereby win an Honourable Liberty or Tombe Here we Quartered till Wednesday in the afternoon it being Sunday morning when we came thither still keeping the Enemy in some play who lay with their Guards within half a mile of us and their Scouts still pekiering with us at Bow Townes end All which time the Earl of Norwich continued at Chelmsford agitating the businesse with the Gentlemen of the County and minding to what it would turne there who had not long before put forth this declaratory Engagement The Engagement or Declaration of the Grand Jury Free holders and other Inhabitants of the County of Essex in prosecution of their late Petition presented to both Houses WE the Grand Jury Free-holders and other the Inhabitants of the said County in the prosecution of the said Petition doe Engage our selves one to another and Declare 1. That we will not pay any more Exoise or other Taxes till all the desires expressed in our said Petition be obtained by us 2. That we will admit of no Souldiers to come into our County but such as agree with us in our said Petition and in this Engagement 3. That we will imploy our utmost endeavours to preserve and defend our Royall King Charles His Kingly Government the Subjects Liberty and the known Lawes of this Kingdome That is to say the Common and Statute Lawes and will never submit our selves to any other kind of Lawes much lesse to any Arbitrary power whatsoever 4. That we will protect and defend one another and all that shall adhere to us in the pursuance performance and keeping of this Engagement And that if any Inhabitant of our County shall refuse to joyne with us herein we shall esteeme him a person dis-affected to the Peace and welfare of the same But notwithstanding this Engagement they were yet backward enough in prosecuting any thing to the purpose in answer to their Petition or Association here When his Excellency came he found the greatest part of the Gentry of the County met but all business so dis-joyn'd and so strangely confused as there seemed almost an impossibility of any good to proceed from that so high Engagement and mountainous Conception And our party consequently left as inconsiderable to be cut in pieces by a most cruell Enemy who had already possessed themselves of our whole Country ruin'd our Friends made lavish havock of our Estates and having proclaimed us Traytors for comming thither for their assistance would prove as undoubtedly prodigall of our lives if ever we should fall under their power The distraction indeed was so great that the Gentlemen and Commoners who came there with
County also there being so many Centlemen then met together from every Lath and Hundred a more fitting opportunity could never have been fancied Then on the backside of every Petition was Endorsed this Post-script It is desired that all Copies and Subscriptions be brought into Rochester on Munday the 29. of this Instant May 1648. And that all who intend to accompany this Petition doe meet at Black-heath the day following by nine of the Clock in the morning By this meanes the whole County might unanimously go not only in their Subscriptions but in the presentation of it to the Parliament But there were at the same time some of the Grandees in the City who by no means could swallow it lest it should have choaked their Reputation with the House and indeed being stung with too guilty a Conscience found this pill too harsh a Corrasive to them Amongst the rest Sir Henry Heyman and Sir Michaell Lnsey who posted immediately away to the Parliament to give them a timely notice for prevention of a design so Honourable Conscientious and Religious but absolutely destructive to their Interest and Proceedings or at least that they might by being praemoniti be also praemuniti which two are seldome other then Correlatives the one drawing a usuall consequence from the other as indeed it proved by them as will afterwards appear by their Votes and Stratagems against it But ere they went out of the tender affection his rebellious Bowels yearn'd with towards his true Bretheren in Iniquity went to the Prison where White the Barber lay for his horrid Villany the man not being yet recovered and brought him out with hat in hand giving him thanks for his so good service and extraordinary zeal to the Cause and thus set him at liberty without ever being questioned for his Fact Upon Sunday following Letters were sent from the Speaker of the Lower House to all the Deputy Lieftenants in the County and what Justices of Peace the House thought good that they understood of an intended Petition to be preferred to the House from that County willing them to use their utmost indeavours for the speedy preventing it and suppressing the people in it Never disputing the Justice of it nor injustice of themselves in denying the proceeding of it which was as horrid as might be for any man that knowes how to judge between right and wrong almost in any thing knowes that the intentions of a Kings calling a Parliament are for the speedy redressing the agrievances of his Kingdome and the admitting by him and the choosing by the People the Commons into Parliament never for any other reason then to present the Agrievances of the Commons in generall for what part of the Kingdome they served as Representatives by way of Petition from them to the King and Lords for redresse But they have now so altered the Constitution of Parliament by their new-found Kirk-lawes of Reformation that no man no not the best of Polititians is Physitian good enough to feel its pulse though in a most horrid distraction too of ill humours and our blessed Reformers have so long faught for the Priviledge of Parliament as that they have both lost that and the Liberty and true Rights of the Subject with the Prerogative of the King to Boot and Metamorposed the Lawes of the Kingdome into the shapelesse monster of an Arbitrary Government and Tyrannous power of the Sword But these Letters also they were ordered and authoriz'd to Seize and Surprize all persons they should find or suspect to to be active in the prosecution of it to secure all Castles Towns and strong holds in the County and by their greatest care to prevent all publick Meetings at any places whatsoever within the County except their own Then began the Committee to thunder abroad their loud menaces with high threats to all such as should dare to prosecute so bold a Villany and tumultuous Seditions as they tearmed it and issued forth a Libellous Order against it and all such as should signe it or any way prosecute the progresse of it amongst the people by any publique or sinister means The Order was as followes By the Deputy Lieutenants of the County of KENT the City and County of Canterbuy at their Generall Meeting at Maidstone the 16. of May 1648. WHereas we understand that diverse persons have given out that they intend to assemble themselves towards the latter end of this Moneth or the beginning of the next at severall dayes and places upon pretence of carrying a Petition to the Parliament which doth concern matter against the Authority of both Houses and tendeth to the raising of Seditions and Tumults within this County We having lately received a speciall Command from the House to use our best endeavours for the preserving the peace of that County doe hereby in order thereunto advise all whom it may concerne to forbear all occasions of publick disturbance by any such pretence whatsoever And if any well-affected persons have beene abused and misled so as to Signe or procure hands to any such seditious Paper under the name of a Petition and upon false-giving out that the Deputy Lieutenants of this County doe approve thereof to the end that such well-meaning persons may be undeceived we having seen a Copie of the said pretended Petition doe hereby signifie our utter detestation of such Seditious practices and doe advise all well-wishers to their Countries peace to take heed thereof and to Counsell and perswade their Neighbours accordingly And if any pretended Copies of such pretended Petition come unto or be in their hands to deliver up the same unto the next Deputy Lieutenant And we doe hereby require the Ministers of severall Parishes publickly to read this signification in their Parish Churches upon the next Lords Day after the receit hereof immediately before they begin their Morning Sermon And the Church Wardens of the severall Parishes are hereby required the next day after the time appointed for the said Publication to certifie what hath beene done therein under their hands unto the next Deputy Lieutenants who is hereby directed forthwith to transmit the said Certificate to the standing Committee at Maidstone that so notice may be taken what Ministers and Church Wardens or other Persons doe their Duty therein And such as shall be found wilfully faulty may be proceeded against accordingly Ant Wilding John Rivers Richard Lee. Thomas Lewis James Oxenden Richard Beale Thomas Syliard Lam Godfrey Will James John Bix Will Keniorash To the Mayor of Gravesend who is hereby required to cause Proclamation hereof to be read in open Market next day after the receit hereof in the height of the Market by the common Cryer and afterwards to deliver it to the Minister of the said Parish to read it in the Church But this violent course of theirs in indeavouring to obstruct added rather a more vigorous life to it and made it fly through the County with a far greater velocity and the more
we the Commanders and Officers of the Ship called the Constant Reformation with the rest of the Fleet have secured the Ships for the service of the King and Parliament and we have refused to be under the Command of Colonell Rainsborow by reason we conceive him to be a man not well-affected to the King Parliament and Kingdome And we doe hereby declare unto you That we have unanimously joyned with the Kentish Gentlemen in their just Petition to the Parliament to this purpose following viz. First that the Kings Majesty may be with all expedition admitted in safety honour and freedome to Treat with his two Houses of Parliament Secondly That the Army now under the Command of the Lord Fairfax their Arreares being paid them be forthwith Disbanded Thirdly That the knowne Lawes of the Kingdome may be re-established and continued whereby we ought to be Governed and Judged Fourthly That the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects may be preserved And to this end and purpose we have sent our loving friend Captain Penrose with a Letter to the Earl of Warwick and we are resolved to take in no Commander whatsoever but such as shall resolve to live and die with us in the behalf of the Kingdome and Paliament which is the positive result of us And We humbly desire your speedy Answer Officers of the Constant Reformation Thomas Lisle Licutenant And Michell Boatswain James Allen Gunner Tho Best Carpenter Officers of the Swallow Leonard Harris Captaine Joh London Master Nic Lawrance Licutenant Andrew Jackson Gunner John Short Carpenter Signed also by the Captain of the Roe-Buck Hynde and severall other Officers of these and other Ships This day about night the Articles for the Castles of Deale and Wamer were signed and the one delivered before the other after the Commissioners marched away Their conditions upon surrender were to march away with their baggage leaving their Arms and Ammunition behind them entirely without any imbezelment or diminution The Rendevouze being broke up they marched away and quartered in Sandwich againe that night leaving in Deale Anthony Hamond Esq. and Cap. Bargrave who had been formerly an Officer of the Navie both Justices of Peace and gallant discreet men not according to those of this wise reformation as Commissioners for the managing of the businesse there and in the Fleet having sent away for Sir John Mince Capt. Fogg and some others Officers that had formerly been employed at Sea by the King and for their Loyalties displaced by the Parliament who were also earnestly desired by the Officers and marriners aboarde When they came to Sandwich having beene so prosperous in all these undertakings and done so much in so little time as indeed amazed the whole Country The Mayor and his brethren began to comply and received them with farre more cheerfulnesse then before they had done and that night made them a present of two hundred pounds to the advancement of the Designe who before were so needy they knew not how to subsist amongst themselves much lesse to raise any summe of money for extraordinary service The next morning they hasted their march from thence to Canterbury leaving also behind them two or three Commissioners and five trained companies for the better securing that Town being a place very factious and apt to take the opportunity of the weaknesse of the Country to make a mutinous opposition in case of a retreate That night being Sunday night they quartered in Canterbury not slipping any opportunity or minute of time without an improvement of it to the best advantage and acting something to the furtherance of that Engagement the next day being the appointed limitation for their meeting at Rochester Here there came in many Gentlemen and others to Joyn with them that were not at all Engaged before unlesse against us amongst the rest Sir John Roberts and one or two Deputy Lieutehants more who Signed to the Petition and Subscribed to the Loane of Money although they had before engaged themselves with the rest of the Committee against the Petition But rather like Physitians that out of a private interest are nimble to assist and pleasure others to profit themselves than out of any cordiall affection to so just and honest an enterprize The Dutchmen of the City which indeed are very numerous engaged themselves for the raising and paying of two Companies here also Colonell Hammon compleated his Regiment many more men comming in to him and others that he had raised in the City and neere about fitted themselves for a farther March In this City and Suburbs were three Trained Compaines which were all drawn up to Armes which that they might secure the place with the two Dutch Companies then a raising they left behind some Knights and Gentlemen to manage the Affaires in that part of the County were left there lest some insurrection might happen by the obstructers of the designe who swarmed about that place and by surprizing it not onely doe much mischief in the Rear of the Body but in case so much misfortune should befall them as to force them to a Retreat which caution is no whit too soon remembred in the strongest or more prosperous Armies at any time and which indeed most unfortunately fell out to them at the last In this time the noble Peer the Earl of Tha. acted his most Heroick gallantry about Ashford Hotfield and Charing being indeed the first that rose and drew that part of the Country to a resolution of betaking themselves to their Armes by sending his Letters to all Gentlemen he knew had any power and secured above a thousand men in that part to rise in a short time and at the first of any rising at all in the County giving an account of it also to Squire Hales encouraging him thereto who farre more gallantly proceeded than ever he began So now when he had made a fair and hopefull beginning and had assured very large assistance from his purse makes a slovenly exit from this scene of Honour and obscures himselfe behinde the hanging of Apostatisme In so much that when he was sought for by his neighbouring Gentlemen whom he had incited by his forwardnesse and invited by perswasions the Noble Earle was fled not for Religion nor I thinke to any to take councell of his peere the Earle of Pembroke whom after some grave and wise consultation had he Engaged so farre as to goe with him to Derby-house there to plead with the quintessence of his oratory for forgivenesse promising if he might but scape a whipping then never to doe so againe Which he did Where the gallant and doubty Earle after a pause for recovery of breath made what discovery the whole action was lyable to and his capacity could reach Making also severall propositions to the Committee which he assured them was the only way to remove those distempers declaring that he had heard such things from divers Gentlemen in the Engagement that gave assurance to his
had by a Declaration which he had published pretended to be in lest by violently taking him away they might cause a Mutinous Hubbub in the Town and Country But this would not take for when they came to the House this precious Prince and his confederates surmising their intentions as guilty of their reall Knaveries refused to let them in Captaine Forstall shutting his doores told them the Prince had commanded him to keep them out and he durst not disobey him This they took as a high indignity and affront and upon their desires Master Carter immediately drew up sixty Musquetteers before the house to force an entrance the rest of the party loading their Musquets and lighting their Matches stood all to their Armes expecting some suddaine service for now the whole Town grew into a Mutiny and Distraction so that the Commissioners were forc'd to prepare themselves for to fight too for they did expect it every minute and commanded all Houses and Shops to be shut up Mean time this young Impostor raunting in his new invested Authority waves his Hat and Plume out at the window calling out Raise the Towne Raise the Towne Seamen stand to me Seamen throwing out handfulls of Money into the Streets among the people which began to swarme up and down in throngs and tumults women weeping for the violence they feared would be done to their Prince and men swearing they would all die rather than suffer the Prince to be injured any way or violently taken away Almost every one either certainly believing him to be really the Prince of Wales or else undoubtedly confederates in the same designe raised so high a Tumult as would have ended in much mischief had not the Gentlemen bestirr'd themselves resolutely and undauntedly in the quelling them But whilst they were thus forcing an entrance into the House those Confederates who were within privately conveyed him through the Back-side and some Seamen waiting purposely at the Water-side transported him immediately over into the Isle of Thanet where a party being sent after him found him that night at Master Crispes house at Supper where he was entertained like him that he pretended himself to be from whence he was conveyed to Canterbury Master Crispe being so courteous as to lend him his Coach thither also and from thence to Newgate This passage being over he escaped for the time they took Captaine Forstall and would have carryed him away prisoner for refusing to let them enter his House and by that meanes expressing his confederacy in the designe of that Mock-Prince and so being the cause of the Hubbub in the Towne which was so dangerous as might have caused much Bloud But pretended he did really believe him to be the Prince and he had commanded him to it and he durst not disobey him Then the Town Clark engaging himselfe for his appearance when he should be called to answer for his default he was left behind Then the Gentlemen leaving some of those men they brought with them and an Officer with them in the Town for the securing of it and Orders to the new Captaines to call their Companyes to their Armes they Marched away with the rest towards Dover where they found Colonell Hammons Regiment encreased by that time to five hundred and upwards and Colonell Hattons of Horse to be about 200. according to their former Orders drawing up to face the Castle with some Trained Companies of that part of the County and many people with Cartes of Scaling-ladders Spades Shovels and Pickaxes according to the former dayes Warrants Here they found the Town in a joyfull posture to receive them with much alacrity where Captaine Bethels Fort resigned to them and all the Towne unanimously betook themselves to their Armes Trained men which were two Companies and others to joyn with them in so hopefully-happy a designe as by all appearance that must of necessity be In the afternoon diverse summons were sent to the Castle for Surrender of it to the service of the King and Country but all denyed Sir H. a grand Independent and Parliament man being then in it pretending no power at all there as by his Letters indeed appeared yet bearing the only sway commanding all privately by whose command those in the Castle had made incursions up on the Country a night or two before and drove in many Sheep for to Victuall it resolving to make out his own Interest as it seemes under the notion of the Parliaments for it was without any Commission from them as if it were an axiome amongst them every one to act his phansie for the propagating the generall Calamity of the Kingdome no matter at what rate so their interest were secured So large an extent hath their arbitrary Prerogative and unlimitted illegall Jurisdiction as to abhor as destructive all conscience or thought of affection to their Countryes peace which easily discovered it self by the answers he made to the Letters and Propositions which were sent into the Castle to him from the Commissioners As if that burden of intollerable guilt of innocent bloud and unparallel'd misery of this gasping Nation had over-whelm'd his Conscience with a cloud of dispaire of any other safety than the old Roman Rule Per 〈◊〉 semper sceleribus tutum est Iter knowing indeed himselfe to have been as zealous a promoter and accessory to the generall Calamity as any confederate in the grand Juncto what ever to whom indeed the name of Peace is as odious as the Punishment they know themselves guilty of and if given over to the hand of Justice and the Law of the Kingdome they must unavoidably perish under Of which I doubt not but though their resolutions be with Cataline yet their end will be as the thirty Tyrants of Athens whose proceedings have not much deviated from theirs Now they sent not only summons to the Castle but also civill Letters to Sir Hen H. to invite him to a compliance or at least to a cessation from his Engagement with all promises of their Engageing for his security and fafety either for his staying in the County or passing to London or where he pleased But he was farre enough from hearkning any whit to their civill Treaty and by his meanes and one Lieutenant Swans who had before betrayed the Princes Commission after he had engaged his faith for the acting according to it and indeavoured the taking away the lives of some Gentlemen that himselfe treated with about it those in the Castle withheld from any rendition though often summoned and the greatest part as often willing to deliver This night Major Keme that went to the Fleet returned assuring that those Letters he carryed to the Commissioners were not onely received with extraordinary cheerfulnesse but answered with as industriously reall action relating that the Mariners had no sooner read them but immediately declared one and all for the King the liberty of the Kingdome and the Engagement of the Gentlemen of Kent Boldly disputing the
next morning came down a post with an order from the House of Commons to Rochester to the Commissioners joyned in that Engagement to this purpose that whereas they did understand that the people of Kent were comming up to Westminster in a tumultuous and pretended petitionary way they knew not the Intentions of it and had therefore referred them to treat with the Generall the Lord Fairfax and the Committee of Derby-house This rigorous order of prevention being received and read In the morning the Generall councell being met the businesse was scand and discust for now this graine of paper had quite turned the Ballance and absolutely altered the constitution of the Generall Interest for they could not but believe that the Army would advance entirely against them knowing well enough considering the posture the Country was in what it would be to treat with a conquering and potent adversary in that inexperienced condition I meane of a new rais'd and unmodelled body of raw men Whereupon by a generall result orders were immediately dispatched away to Dartford and the other places adjacent where the maine Body then quartered and lay upon Guard to march then back to Rochester having also intelligence within a very short time that the Lord Fairfax with his maine Body was advanceing towards us already But however upon their retreate left a Guard at a place called Stone bridge neer Gravesend to secure that passe but they could not long hold it the enemy for so we might easily guesse them to be by this time by the ceizing all Gentlemen and others they met comming up so close although to say truth a better order might have been observed in it and indeed would had the Party been a formidable Body When they came back to Rochester Master Mat Carter having received Commission of Quarter-master Generall of all the forces then raised or to be raised in that County from the Commissioners and Gentlemen engaged received Orders from the Councell for the Quartering them there Whereupon he first caused them to be drawn up by distinct Regiments in severall Fields whereby he was able to take an exact account of the strength of every Regiment so to know how to dispose of them and ascertaine the Councell of the full number in grosse which then he Mustred in rank and file compleatly arm'd seven thousand of the Infantry and as well accoutred being most of them very sufficient men of ability and not wanting of as Honourable resolutions The Horse not being drawn together but abroad the most of them upon severall parties could not be so well taken notice of At which time also there were at severall places of the Country about three thousand more which never came up to this party as at Canterbury Maidstone Sittingborne Sandwich and Dover This gallant Body by his care were equally divided into Quarters in Rochester Strood and Chatham the Horse in Villages neer adjacent And the Engagers now began to cling more closely and taking time by the fore-locke thought it not good to let slip any minute lest their hopes and security might be lost with it and began more seriously to consider what might most probably advance their safety and honour knowing that what they were now to trust too was difficult severity of Fortune the Army being like enough to fall in suddainly upon them Amongst many considerations at last they easily concluded that the next businesse that must be endeavoured must be to mould that party into a formidable Army and to appoint one particular man to Command in Chief For now they were forc'd to stand upon their own guard to maintain that with the Sword which was intended onely in a just and peaceable way according to the Ancient Customes of this Kingdome But this is a new liberty of the Subject none of the old I am sure A sad world when men shall fall deeper into the pit of Destruction by the endeavours of those they supplicate for aid to bring them out and who by naturall as well as legall alliance and interest are bound to assist and by themselves placed for it If this be to Reforme Heavens blesse all good Christians and Loyall Subjects from Reformation Having now thus resolved they appointed a Rendezvouz the next day at Barham Downe some three miles distant from thence towards Maidstone Where the Lord Norwich was proclaimed Generall in the head of the Army for now being drawn together they deserved that Title so gallant a Body they were of Infantry who received him with as much cheerfulnesse expressing an unparallel'd willingnesse to serve their King and as much joy that they were so engaged to it knowing that their service was not onely for Him but the whole Kingdomes peace the recovering of their Countries Liberty and the Churches tranquility As it hath been a generall and as true an Observation in all Ages and Common-wealths that those that engage in other mens quarrels are more remisse and unspirited as knowing that they shall partake in the danger but not in the victory since another would receive the greatest and fairest fruit thereof and arrogate the Honour likewise to themselves whereas they also that take Armes for their Country may conceive better hopes that God will prosper them for that they seek not to take from others but to keep their own and that they fight not for other mens phancies but their owne defence whereby the whole benefit of victory will redound to themselves This Rendezvouz being broke up the Army Marched again into Quarters though not the same as before neither by the Quarter-master Generals laying out much I confesse contrary to the Lord Generalls sense or intentions whose advice it was that it would have been most convenient to lodg them close together or in the Field it being very faire weather at that time Although I have been informed there are some who have broach'd a most damnable Aspersion on the Earl of Norwich throwing this dirty and odious Calumny in the face of his innocent and unspotted Fame That he was the man who betrayed that service to its succeeding destruction and that he made it his designe to take that Command upon him that he might the more easily effect that designe being himself no Souldier And so impudently or else ignorantly they proceeded in this Ignoble derogation as to raise a confirmation of it from this conclusion That had it not been so he had as well paid the losse of life for his Loyall service as the Lord Capell and the Earl of Holland c. First that his owne designe steered him to that Interest is so palpably false that it was as absolute an accident as could be that brought him to Rochester as at the first of his comming and at his being in Colchester I have heard him relate my selfe being in his Journey to Sussex and taking that road to scape the Army who then lay very thick in the other and who knows not how dangerous it is to travaile amongst
reall intention to prosecute their Petition and Engagement were likely to have been dispersed in lesse time then they were in coming together Capt. Lin of that Country had once before raised a thousand men which were immediately dispers'd An order of Indempnity being read in the head of them by Colonel Farre which the Committee of the County so pressed to them that they went all quietly home And now were as active in their Indeavours for the ruine of the maine interest of that Designe as indeed it concern'd them enough for they knew the prosperity of Loyalty is destruction of Rebellion I leave them to make the Application They were so active in their Machivilian Stratagems for countermining all policy against them as that Charles Lucas being there urgently tending upon the designe and many other Gentlemen with carefull diligence for the advancement of the King and Countries Liberty it being the sole and generall end both they and we really intended and the sole reward of our actions we all aimed at and consequently prosecuted secuted all circumstantiall opportunities which we conceived conducing to it that at last though by the hazard of a Warre we might generally attaine to the happy blessing of an honourable and lasting Peace thought it their best course in that distraction to depart privately forth the Town lest some unexpected inconveniency might take hold on their persons if once it had over-whelmed the generall interest as now they began to fear would be absolutely dispairing of any good at all But some of the Country Gentlemen then got together in the Town and by chance meeting them desired Sir Charles Lucas that he would not goe away so but let the Committee doe what they would they were sensible enough how they had ruined and undone them and they would be abused no longer by them but if he would be pleased to draw them out into the Field and stay with them they would one and all engage with him and live and die in that Engagement according to the intention of their meeting together having resolved not to returne till they had performed something This suddaine change in a little time proved very violent as it is commonly scene in all things so they immediately drew into the Field and seiz'd on the Committee and were so furiously incenst against them that some of them would have kill'd them immediately had not some Gentlemen rescued them pacified the others fury and afterwards placed a Guard over them for now they were resolved that since they had actively engaged themselves they would be no more obstructed in their prosecution by those grand Opposers who they well understood would be active enough in their endeavours for the destruction of that designe if at liberty and the ruin of the Actors in it being right-becked Committee-men of the Parliaments own bringing up as appeared afterwards by Sir Tho Honywood who being at liberty and at his own house at Coxwell alwayes an Enemy to the King and Kingdome made himselfe appear so really now by raising both Horse and Foot as many as by his power he could draw together either for love or fear and made his house a Garrison to oppose the County as much in him lay in their proceedings in that designe But his party proved so inconsiderable then as it could doe but little injury The businesse comming to this height his Excellence the Lord Norwich sent his orders to Sir William Compton to march away towards Chelmsford so we marched away from Stratford with our whole Party which by this time was well recruited by many of our men that came up and divers Prentices from London who came daily in and listed themselves And about Wensday night we met the Generall at Rumford but the Enemy marching after us so obstructed our march by Alaruming us in the Reare that the whole Body could not get up till the next morning though the Enemy durst not adventure in all the march to fall on upon the Reare guard The next day being the eight of June we marched on towards Burntwood whither Sir Charles Lucas was advanced with a Party both of Horse and Foot to joyne with us And having Intelligence how the Enemy followed us with Alarums in our Reare commanded forth all the Horse that were then in the Towne to assist us so we marched up and quartered that night at Brentwood and the next day being the ninth we marched on to Chelmsford where the Lord Capell the Lord Loughborow and divers Gentlemen of quality 〈◊〉 Hartfordshire and other Counties came in to joyn also with us which gave a great encouragement to our Army There came in a Party also of Gentlemen consisting of about fifty who entering their combination in London made their Rendevouze at Hideparke corner and marching all night the night before intended to beate up a quarter of the Enemies at Epping being in their way But the Party was drawne out by chance hard by the Towne upon some other designe so they were disappointed of their Strategem but though they found them ready drawne up in order yet unexpecting any affront not thinking of any Enemy they marched up and being well Horst charged through them and the next day came up to us having lost only one Man and one Horse but the Horse being a gallant one and taken by a Country-man was recovered againe the Gentleman that lost him comming off afterwards went out with a Party and fetcht that man in and so regained him That afternoone both Parties of Kentish and Essex were drawne out to a Rendevouze in Newhall Parke neere the Towne belonging to the Duke of Buckingham which Generall meeting gave much encouragement to both Parties Where the Generall and Sir Charles Lucas joyning in consultation the Gentlemen of both Counties also that by a unity in the engagement as well as the Interest there might be greater hopes of prosperous successe At which councell it was once a generall result to have marched away Immediately and fallen upon the Party of Sir Tho Honywoods at Coxwell but upon a more serious deliberation otherwise resolved on and orders given out for the quartering in the Towne that night But this Party of Coxwell disincouraged the Country that they began now to be very slack in their apearance to joyne in relation to what they were before not only by reason of Sir Thomas Honywoods activenesse but because of the Enemies entring also into the Country with their whole Body Saturday the tenth we marched on towards Brantree but tooke Leeds house in our march belonging to the Earle of Warwick where we were like to have beene opposed by some people who were purposely placed there and upon the Quartermastergeneralls comming thither to secure it from the violence of the Soldiers refused to open their gates being about twelve or more men with Fire-armes and two Drakes saying that they were placed there for the securing that house and they would rather die then deliver it up