committed The Lords Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir John Burlace taking those Arms which they found in Dublin and arming whom they could on a sudden to defend themselves dispatched Letters to the King in Scotland and the Earl of Leicester then chosen Deputy but staying in England Money was wanting and no supplies neerer then England Owen O Conally the first discoverer of the Plot brought the first Letters to London upon receipt of which they rewarded Owen with a gift of 500.l and an annuity of two hundred pounds per annum and presently both Houses of Parliament met at a Conference and the House of Commons forthwith resolved into a Committee to consider of Irelands relief and also to provide for the safety of England for distractions began then to appear in England the Parliament every day considered of Irelands relief and presently ordered supplies of money to be borrowed of the City of London Victuals and Ammunition for that purpose But all relief could be but slow in such a sudden disease For the Rebellion encreased and spread through all the Kingdom and many Papists and ill-affected fled from Dublin into the Country to joyn with the Rebels whilest the City in their rooms was daily filled with poor spoiled Protestants who came naked and famished thither many of them being past relief and there perished in the City It were an endless thing to relate the pitiful condition of those woful people and what sad stories they there told concerning the bloody rage of those inhumane Irish Rebels and several tortures by which the unhappy English were brought to their ends But the Lords of the Councel and Lords Justices in a short time with those Arms of Dublin had armed many well-affected Gentlemen and sent many active Commanders out of the City to defend places neer against the approach of the Rebels About the middle of November were in Arms Sir Charles Coot Sir Henry Tichburn the Lord Lambert Sir Thomas Lucas Capt. Armstrong Capt. Yarner and the Earl of Ormond came to Dublin with an hundred Horse well armed At which time the Parliament of England till greater sums could be raised sent them over as a present comfort twenty thousand pounds But it was a long time before they could send over any forces to the relief of that bleeding Kingdom the first was a Regiment Commanded by Sir Simon Harcourt who arrived on the last of December 1641. While Ireland was thus miserably distressed the King returned out of Scotland into England and was entertained by the City of London with most pompous solemnity the whole multitude of Citizens distinguished by their several Companies in such costly Equipage as never before was known with Horse and Arms met the King and guarded him through the whole City to his Palace at White-hall Some condemned that costly entertainment of the City at such a sad time others hoped it might gain the Kings dubious affection to his people but it wrought a contrary effect in the King who began now to think he could never lose the love of the City whatsoever he did and was flattered by some with a hope that the City would assist him in curbing of the Parliament it self he grew therefore more disdainful toward the Parliament and to endear the City invited divers of the chief to Hampton Court where he feasted them and Knighted some But the honest Citizens perceiving that no good use was made of their dutiful expressions toward the King but that some bad people did openly say that the City were weary of the Parliament and would joyn with the King against it they framed a Petition to the Parliament wherein the contrary is professed and that they would live and die with the Parliament for the good of the Common-wealth While the King remained at Hampton Court the House of Commons presented him with a Remonstrance wherein the Grievances of the Kingdom are expressed but no fault laid upon himself in plain words but a Malignant party as they call them and evil Counsellors Irelands calamities seemed to be quite forgotten or rather that those inhumane Rebels were countenanced every body wondring that the King would not proclaim them Rebels and some honest Lords advising the King to proclaim them speedily that a better course might be taken against them they desired him to wash off that foul stain from himself by proceeding severely against those wicked villains who reported every where that they had authority from him to seize upon the Holds of the English Protestants that they were the Queens Souldiers and rise to maintain the Kings Prerogative against the Puritan Parliament in England they therefore advised him by all means to purge himself of that crime then which a greater on earth could not be But so strangely were things carried that although the Rebellion brake out upon the twenty third of October the King did not proclaim them Rebels till the first of January and then gave a strict command that no more then forty Copies of that Proclamation should be Printed and that none of them should be published till his Majesties pleasure were further signified so that a few only could take notice of it which made all men extreamly wonder when they observed the late contrary proceedings against the Scots who were in a very quick and sharp manner proclaimed and those Proclamations forthwith dispersed with as much diligence as might be thorow all the Kingdom But before this Proclamation came out the Parliament being somewhat troubled with some speeches of which they had been informed as if a Plot were contrived against them desired the King to allow them a Guard for security of their persons and that the Earl of Essex then Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold might be Commander of it But the King denied them a Guard giving them many fair promises of his care for their safety and that he would command such a Guard to wait upon them as he would be responsible for to Almighty God Three days after the Proclamation against those Irish Rebels being the fourth of January the King attended with about three hundred Armed Gentlemen came to Westminster and entring in Person into the House of Commons and seating himself in the Speakers Chair demanded five Members of that House to be delivered to him Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Pym Mr. Hamden and Mr. Strode Those five Members had by command of the House upon information of the Kings intent absented themselves Which the King finding went away after a short Speech delivered concerning them That he intended a fair Trial against them and that he was and would be as careful to maintain the Priviledges of Parliament as ever any King of England was He had the day before demanded them by his Atturney Sir Edward Herbert a Member of the House of Commons pretending a Charge of high Treason against them and with them against the Lord Mandevile a Member of the House of Lords But the Parliament did not think
settlement to the Kingdom we have expressed our real wishes that if the King would in things necessary and essential to the clearing setling and securing of those publick interests give his concurrence to put them past future disputes then his Rights should be considered and setled so far as might be consistent with those superior interests of the publick and the security thereof for future And that by an Address to the King upon things so purely essential to those publick ends it might once more come to a clear trial whether we could with the preservation of the King's person and in particular interests have a security to the other hath been our earnest desire our great expectation and our endeavour that we and others might be in a patient waiting for such an issue Now in the Parliaments last Addresses to the King we finde they have insisted onely upon some few things so essential to that interest of the Kingdom which they have hitherto engaged for as that without betraying the safety of the Kingdom and themselves and all that engaged with them in that cause without denying that which God in the issue of the war hath been such a Testimony unto they could not go lower and those things granted they have offered to treat for all the rest Thus we account that great business of a settlement to the Kingdom and security to the publick interest thereof by and with the King's Concurrence to be brought unto so clear a trial as that upon the King's denial of those things we can see no further hopes of settlement or security that way And therefore understanding that upon the consideration of that denial added to so many other the Honourable House of Commons by several Votes upon munday last have resolved not to make any further address or application to the King nor receive any from him nor to suffer either in others We do freely declare for our selves and the Army That we are resolved through the grace of God firmly to adhere with and stand by the Parliament in the things voted last munday concerning the King and in what shall be further necessary for prosecution thereof and for setling and securing of the Parliament and Kingdom without the King and against him or any other that shall hereafter partake with him Windsor Jan. 9. 1647. The Parliament also made a publick Declaration about the beginning of February for satisfaction of all men in general concerning the causes of their Votes in which besides the Kings former misdeeds related before in other Remonstrances they declare how often they had treated with him That although they were never forced to any Treaty yet no less then seven times they had applied themselves to the King with Propositions containing nothing but what was necessary to the peace and security of the Kingdom How they had offered him Propositions at Oxford afterwards at Uxbridge and then after he was quite vanquished in war at Newcastle and lastly after the departure of the Scots at Hampton Court All which hath been perpetually denied by him By such a Declaration did the Parliament endeavour to appease the unquiet mindes of people but no Arguments nor Decrees could serve to asswage their fury nor prevent the storms which were then arising Force onely was required and wise Councel to search out conspiracies and suppress the Tumults which were feared Therefore part of the Army was quartered about Westminster the Mews and other places of the City And the month before these high transactions some Lords and Commons were chosen out of both Houses to be a Committee for the safety of the Commonwealth and sate together at Derby-house in the same place where the Committee of both Kingdoms England and Scotland had sitten before To this Committee power was given to suppress Tumults and Insurrections and to that purpose to raise Forces as they saw occasion The Members of this Committee were seven Lords namely the Earls of Northumberland Kent Warwick and Manchester the-Lords Say Wharton and Roberts and thirteen of the House of Commons Mr. Perpoint Mr. Fines Sir Henry Vane Senior and Junior Sir William Armin Sir Arthur Hazlerig Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir John Evelin Lieutenant General Cromwel Mr. St. John Mr. Wallop Mr. Crew Mr. Brown The Parliament though victorious though guarded with a gallant Army no forces visibly appearing against it yet was never in more danger All men began in the Spring to prophecy that the Summer would be a hot one in respect of Wars seeing how the Countries were divided in Factions the Scots full of threats the city of London as full of unquietness And more sad things were feared where least was seen rumours every day frightning the people of secret Plots and treasonable meetings From whence every man began to foresee slaughter and war as Mariners use to foresee a rising Tempest Cum longo per multa volumina tractu Aestuat unda minax flatusque incerta futuri Turbida testantur conceptos aequora ventos The threatning waves in tracks voluminous Boil up the Seas by blasts uncertain blown Betoken many windes conception The King's Party began to swell with great hopes and look upon themselves not as vanquish'd but Conquerors nor could they forbear vaunting everywhere but talked of the Kings rising and ruine of the Parliament The same thing seemed to be the wish of those whom they called Presbyterians who were ready to sacrifice themselves and their Cause to their hatred against the Independents who wished that quite undone which themselves could not do and desired that liberty might be quite taken away by the King rather then vindicated by the Independents The King himself though set aside and confined within the Isle of Wight was more formidable this Summer then in any other when he was followed by his strongest Armies The name of King had now a further operation and pity of the Vulgar gave a greater Majesty to his Person Prince Charls also by his absence and the name of banishment was more desireable by those Vulgar people and by his Commissions which his Father privately sent him as if armed with lawful power did easily command those that were willing and by commands under his name was able to raise as will afterward appear not onely Tumults but Wars The beginning was by Tumults and in the City from whence also the following Insurrections in the neer Counties had their original and was by Apprentices and loose young people playing in More-fields upon a Sunday the ninth day of April who dispising the authority of Magistrates set upon a Captain of the trained Bands and with stones beat him out of the fields and taking away his colours with them they marched a disorderly rout gathering up many of the scum of the people as they passed to Westminster crying out as they went that they were for King Charls But they by a Troop of Horse out of the Mews were quickly scattered But running back and getting into London while other
possibility have held out long without some releif The Parliament rejoyced much at the delivery of that Town three Parliament Garrisons about that time and the foregoing year behaved themselves with such courage and constancy as might deserve to be celebrated in a larger History viz. Lime Plimouth and Taunton all which having been often besieged by Prince Maurice Greenvile Goring and other Commanders had not onely held out against those strong Enemies but much broken their Forces The things which that new Army under the conduct of Fairfax did that following year taking no rest all that sharp and bitter Winter were much to be wondred at how many strong Towns and Forts they took how many field Victories they obtained the stories of evey several moneth will declare of which because they are more acurately described by other pens I shall here onely make a short mention for within the space of one year all the Western Counties of England great Armies under the conduct of Prince Rupert Greenvile Hopton and Goring being utterly vanquished and brought to nothing were reduced to the obedience of Parliament In the moneths of August and September were taken Bath and Sherburn and Bristol it self the greatest and most wealthiest City of the whole West was by Prince Rupert surrendred to General Fairfax The Army also when it was divided by reason of the multiplicity of their work was not less successful in the parts of it Winchester and Basing taken by Cromwel the Devizes and Barclay by other Commanders Fairfax himself marching that cold December into Devonshire took Tiverton and with strange felicity stormed and took Dartmouth and afterwards drove the Kings Armies into Cornwall whom Fairfax pursuing at Torrington gave Hopton a great overthrow In the moneth of February with his Victorious Army he entred Cornwall for fear of whom Prince Charles fled into the Islands of Silly and in March following all Hoptons forces by the Command of the Conquerour Fairfax were disbanded and sent away and the whole County of Cornwall reduced to the obedience of Parliament In the following April Excester and Barnstable were surrendred to Fairfax and Bridgewater stormed but when they yeilded taken to mercy S. Michaels Mount the farthest angle of Cornwall was also surrendred to Collonel Hamond Thus Fairfax the Conquerour of the West having fitted all things for his expedition to make an end of the War is marching to besiege Oxford Woodstock was already taken by Colonel Rainsborough but in all these moneths that the General had done such great things in the West the other Commanders of Parliament were not unfortunate the Fates seeming to conspire at that side in the North and midland Counties of England about the midst of Summer Carlise was surrendered by Glenham the Governour to the Scottish Army a Garrison of Scots was put into that Town of which the English complained as being against the Covenant the Parliament also wrote to Leven to restore Carlisle to the English not that they did suspect any evil from their Brethren but that conditions might be observed and the mouths of ill-affected people stopped who were too apt to say that The Scots came into England not as friends but Freebooters From that time the Parliament ordained to have their Commissioners as the Scots had theirs at London resident in Edinburgh to be present with the Parliament of Scotland and to that purpose the Earl of Rutband the Lord Wharton and of the Commons Sir Henry Vane the Elder Sir William Armin Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Goodwin were chosen Glenham with his men after the surrender of Carlisle went to Newarke The Scottish Army about that time marched under Leven to Newark to besiege that Town but the Scottish horse staid not long there being forced to return into the North to the assistance of their distressed Countrey For the English Parliament at that time in midst of their own prosperity were notwithstanding mourners for the calamity of Scotland a great unexpected and wonderful calamity in which the frailty of humane affairs and the mutable condition of Kingdoms was set forth by a memorable example all Scotland within the space of one moneth was lost and recovered quite sunk and again emergent The man that thus plagued Scotland was the Earl of Montross one on whom the Kings hopes so much then depended that out of an earnest desire to joyn his forces to Montross the King with a body of good horse marched Northward but by the forces of Pointz Gell Rossiter and others the Kings expedition was stopped that he could not meet Montross for it had been agreed betwixt the King and Montross that at the same time he from the South should march Northward and the other from the North to meet him should come Southward that the Kings horse joyned to his foot might make a considerable Army in those parts but the Kings passage though he tryed many wayes was as beforesaid stopped Montross mindful of his promise broke out into the Southern parts of Scotland with greater success than could be hoped having scarce 4000. Highlanders and Irish A place there was neer to Kilsithe which the craggy Mountains and straitened passages had made fit for ambushes where Montross had seated himself thither the Army of the State confident of their number whilest unadvisedly they pursued the theeving Highlanders fell into the cunningly-disposed ambushes and were cut off with a miserable slaughter above five thousand were slain and none almost escaped but whom the wearied Conquerours had not strength to kill for cruel Montross spared none crying out They had no need of Prisoners This overthrow of Kilsithe at one battle had utterly ruined the State of Scotland if David Lesley about a moneth after giving an absolute overthrow to Montross had not restored it for after this so unexpected a defeat the State of Scotland had no Army for a Reserve or Force to stop the passage of the Conquerour to whom almost all their Towns presently yeilded The papists and Malignants and all neuters with those that had before dissembled their affections now joyned with him the rest were cut off all the chief Nobility of the Covenanters were forced to fly into England A publike Fast and Humiliation was kept by the English for the calamity of their brethren of Scotland General Fairfax and other of the chief Commanders wrote to Leven That they accounted the Calamity of Scotland to be their own and that if their affairs at home would permit and the Parliament would command it they would earnestly undertake that War and venture their blouds as freely for the Scots as for the English till the Enemies of the three Kingdoms were fully vanquished But Montross his cruell raign lasted not long scarce a whole moneth to vindicate Scotland David Lesley was sufficient who with his Horse coming thither at Selkirk gave Montross so total a defeat that it seemed fully to recompence Kilsithe the Victory was gotten in an hours space and as it was observed by
the happie cause which necessitated the King to call a Parliament in England whereby their just Liberties might by the blessing of God be vindicated and more ascertained for the future Great was the expectation of this English Parliament on which the hopes of the people were wholly fixed as a certain cure of all their long sufferings to which they thought the King having so much transgressed could not deny any thing or make the least opposition That was the cause for which they extremely loved the Scots as the instruments of that happiness to them who by resisting the Kings intrusions upon themselves had enforced him to this visible means of a cure for England which made the King more hate the Scots as the stoppers of his general design which hatred he could not conceal in his first Speech that he made in this Parliament in which promising all favour and concurrence to any thing that might procure the happiness of England and promising to put himself freely and wholly upon the love and affections of his English Subjects in this Parliament he inveighed against the Scots as Rebels and desired that by force of Arms they might be chased out of England but the English Parliament was of another affection towards the Scots as will appear more hereafter The Parliament shewed a great and wonderful respect to the King and in many expressions gave him humble thanks for Calling them together without any reflection upon his Person for what had passed in former misgovernment but since no cure could be made without searching wounds and that grievances must be recited they resolved so to name them as to cast the envy of them upon evil Counsel and still mention the King with all honour reverence possible as will appear to any that read the printed Speeches which at the beginning of that Session were made in the House by men of Eminency Great was the business and of various natures were the crimes which this Parliament were to examine and finde out Delinquents whom so long a misgovernment had made so Many Committees were made by the House to ease them in this business they began with matters of Religion Divers Ministers who had been of good lives and conversations conscientious in their wayes and diligent in Preaching and had by the Bishops and those in authority been molested deprived or imprisoned for not conforming to some ceremonies which were imposed on them were now by the Parliament relieved and recompensed for their sufferings Others on the Contrary that had been scandalous either for loose and wicked living or else offenders in way of superstition both which to discountenance the Puritains had been frequently preferred were censured and removed The Earl of Strafford Leiutenant of Ireland was impeached of high Treason and sent prisoner to the Tower of London and on the eighteenth day of December William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury impeached of the same crime was committed to the same custody The next day after the Archbishop was impeached Dr. Wren Bishop of Norwich was accused of many misdemeanors in matter of superstition in his Ecclesiastical Government which tending to the detriment of the Civil State he was also accused of Treason and entred into a recognizance of thirty thousand pounds to appear with three sureties bound each of them in obligations of ten thousand pounds Sir Francis Windebank Principal Secretary of State a man neerly in friendship with Laud the Archbishop who was thought to be a means of his preferment was about that time accused of extraordinary connivence toward Popish Priests or rather of favor to them and that contrary to the Laws in force against them he had bailed and released a great number a Committee was appointed to examine his offence but he conscious of the crime objected and fearing the consequence about the begining of December fled in a disguise and went into France Immediately after his flight the Lord Keeper Finch was constrained to take the same course and fled out of the Kingdom into Holland the crimes objected against him were of a various nature The first committed when he was Speaker of Parliament in the House of Commons in the fourth year of King Charles which was for that he disobeyed the House in refusing to speak when he was commanded by them 2. The second was for giving illegal and cruel judgements in the Forrest-business when he was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 3. The third was for threatning of some of the Judges at that time to give their extrajudicial opinions for Ship-mony The last was for drawing an injurious Declaration after the dissolution of the last Parliament for which Offences he was Voted by the House of Commons guilty of high Treason a Charge drawn up against him and carried up to the Lords upon the 14 of January three weeks after his flight Upon the 15 of February 1640. a Bill for the Triennial Parliament was presented to the King and by him signed which Act being of such great importance to the security of the peoples Liberties by Parliaments Take the substance thereof as followeth BE it Enacted That in case there be not a Parliament summoned by Writ under the Great Seal of England and assembled and held before the tenth day of September which shall be in the third yeer next after the last day of the last meetting and sitting in this present Parliament the beginning of the first year to be accompted from the said last day of the last meeting and sitting in Parliament and so from time to time and in all times hereafter if there shall not be a Parliament assembled and held before the tenth day of September which shall be in the third year next after the last day of the last meeting and sitting in Parliament before that time assembled and held the beginning of the first year to be accounted from the said last day of the last meeting and sitting in Parliament That then in every such case as aforesaid the Parliament shall assemble and be held in the usual place at VVestminster in such manner and by such means only as is hereafter in this present Act declared and enacted and not otherwise on the second Monday which shall be in the month of November then next ensuing And the Lord Chancellor of England the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and every Commissioner and Commissioners for the keeping of the Great Seal of England for the time being shall within six dayes after the said tenth day of September in every such third year as aforesaid in due form of Law and without any further Warrant or Direction from his Majesty His Heirs or Successors Seal issue forth and send abroad several and respective Writs to the several and respective Sheriffs of the several and respective Counties Cities and Boroughs of England and Wales and to the Constable of the Castle of Dover Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports or his Lieutenant for the time being and to the Major
disorderly fellows came into them they remained all night in a whole body filling the City with fears so that the Lord Major a man cordial to the Parliament was enforced to escape privily out of his House and flye into the Tower In the morning General Fairfax to crush this mischief in the beginning before the wound were grown incurable by the concourse of wicked men sent a part of his Army into the City who vanquishing the Seditious and driving them into Leaden Hall of whom some they carried away Prisoners with great valour and no less prudence quieted the Tumult For delivering the City from so horrid a danger thanks were given to the General both by the Parliament and the honest sober Citizens and a thousand pounds in money given as a gratuity to the Souldiers In the very Petitions also at that Malignant time nothing but sedition War was contained as appeared in those of Surrey and Kent From Surrey about three hundred came to Westminster on the twenty sixth of May bringing a Petition to the Parliament in which they did not so much entreat as command in high words That the King should presently be restored to his former dignity and come to Westminster with Honour Freedom and safety to treat personally there about all Controversies that the Army should presently be disbanded and the free people of England be governed by their known Laws and Statutes with other things of this nature Nor would these Surrey-men that brought the Petition endure any delay no not so much as till the Parliament could debate about it but being extream insolent cursing and railing openly at the Parliament they set upon the Souldiers who were their guard of whom some they hurt and one they killed Upon which a troop of Horse from the Mews and some Foot were sent to help their Fellows who soon vanquished and scattered those Country Fellows and slew some of them This was the end of that seditious Petition of Surrey At that time the Kentish-men were coming with a Petition of that nature who being in number of a good Army seemed afar off to threaten the Parliament They had been the more stirred by reason of a severe punishment of some of their Country-men who had lately raised a sedition about Canterbury against these Kentish-men the Parliament provided no smaller defence then the General Fairfax himself who with seven Regiments marched away to Black Heath neer Greenwich of whose success we shall speak afterwards The Parliament had before designed that General Fairfax should march into the North to defend those parts but nearer dangers detained him in the South For at this time scarce any part of England was quiet in every place tumults insurrections and Wars were threatned To quell all these which was wonderful one onely Army sufficed by the great blessing of God upon it Which Army as when it was conjoyned in one year Anno Dom. 1646. it quite vanquished and broke all the Kings flourishing strength and reduced the Kingdom to the obedience of Parliament so at this time with no less fortitude and felicity being divided into parts in all corners of the Kingdom it continued Victorious so that fortitude and fortune might seeme in that Army as the soul in an humane body to be all in the whole and all in every part For besides those light and soon-suppressed insurrections of Suffolke in the East and of Stamford in the mid-land part by Col. Wait and others and of Cornwal in the West by Sir Hardresse Waller more great and formidable insurrections happened in the Northern parts and in Wales In the beginning of May the North was infested by some of the Kings Commanders Sir Thomas Glenham who had before governed so many Garisons of the Kings as Carlisle York and Oxford and lost them all had now with no better success seized upon Carlisle And at the same time Sir Marmaduke Langdale of whom we spake before had seized upon Berwick and fortified it The strong Castle also of Pomfret was then taken by the Royalists who by treachery had slain the Governour thereof To manage these Wars in the North Lambert a stout Commander and Major-General of those Counties was left with some Regiments of the Fairfaxian Army But dangers of a more horrid degree seemed to threaten the Parliament in Wales not onely from ancient and formerly-vanquished Enemies but those who had before been Parliament-Commanders and had now forsaken their side and cause namely the Colonels Poyer and Powel and him that had so often so well deserved of the Parliament Laughorn himself Poyer who had hitherto kept the Town and strong Castle of Pembrook for the Parliament now strengthned by the concourse of malignant people with great animosity maintained it against them Laughorn a Commander of great esteem in those parts had raised a gallant Army under whom Colonel Powel served In a small time the Welch coming in apace to him Laughorns Army was so increased that he mustered 8000. Both Laughorn Poyer as it afterward appeared entred into this War by a Commission received from Prince Charles whose Auspicy proved no better then his Fathers Colonel Horton with a small part of the Fairfaxian Army and some other raised forces went against them with three thousand men But it pleased God the giver of all Victories that the success was not according to the number for Horton on the eighth day of May between the two Towns of Fagans and. Peterstone encountring with Laughorn totally routed and put to flight his whole Army consisting of eight thousand Horse and Foot A great slaughter was made upon the place and the number of Prisoners being three thousand equalled the number of the Victorious Army among whom were taken about an hundred and fifty Officers a great number of Colours and quantity of Arms with all their Ordnance There was scarce a more happy Victory as the condition of things then stood to the Parliament then this of Hortons for which by order of Parliament a publike thanksgiving to God was celebrated Laughorn and Powel escaping by flight got to Poyer into Pembrook Castle Cromwell himself about the beginning of May was sent into Wales with some Regiments who on the eleventh day of that moneth came to Chepstow Castle which he resolved to besiege but hastening to Pembrook he left Colonel Ewer at Chepstow who within fifteen days took that Castle and killed Kemish to whom before the place had been betrayed and Cromwel on the twentieth of May came to Pembrook Poyer relying on the strength of the place refused all conditions knowing besides that time was now pretious to the Parliament being then entangled in so many difficulties at once But Cromwel not being accustomed to despair of any thing prepared for the Siege being much furthered in his work from the Sea by the great industry of Sir George Ayscough who commanded there a squadron of the Navy Sir George Ayscough with much care and diligence from time to time