, and soon after
absolutely forgot the object of a passion from which I had promised
myself such extreme happiness, and in the disappointment of which I had
experienced such inconceivable misery.

"At the expiration of the month I returned to my garrison at Exeter;
where I was no sooner arrived than I was ordered to march into the
north, to oppose a force there levied by the earls of Chester and
Northumberland. We came to York, where his majesty pardoned the heads of
the rebels, and very severely punished some who were less guilty. It was
particularly my lot to be ordered to seize a poor man who had never been
out of his house, and convey him to prison. I detested this barbarity,
yet was obliged to execute it; nay, though no reward would have bribed
me in a private capacity to have acted such a part, yet so much sanctity
is there in the commands of a monarch or general to a soldier, that
I performed it without reluctance, nor had the tears of his wife and
family any prevalence with me.

"But this, which was a very small piece of mischief in comparison with
many of my barbarities afterwards, was however, the only one which
ever gave me any uneasiness; for when the king led us afterwards into
Northumberland to revenge those people's having joined with Osborne the
Dane in his invasion, and orders were given us to commit what ravages
we could, I was forward in fulfilling them, and, among some lesser
cruelties (I remember it yet with sorrow), I ravished a woman, murdered
a little infant playing in her lap, and then burned her house. In short,
for I have no pleasure in this part of my relation, I had my share
in all the cruelties exercised on those poor wretches; which were so
grievous, that for sixty miles together, between York and Durham, not a
single house, church, or any other public or private edifice, was left
standing.

"We had pretty well devoured the country, when we were ordered to march
to the Isle of Ely, to oppose Hereward, a bold and stout soldier, who
had under him a very large body of rebels, who had the impudence to rise
against their king and conqueror (I talk now in the same style I did
then) in defense of their liberties, as they called them. These were
soon subdued; but as I happened (more to my glory than my comfort) to
be posted in that part through which Hereward cut his way, I received
a dreadful cut on the forehead, a second on the shoulder, and was run
through the body with a pike.

"I languis