and discipline
his forces.[b] In February, leaving the Hague, and trusting to her good
fortune, she had eluded the vigilance of Batten, the parliamentary
admiral, and landed in safety in the port of Burlington, on the coast of
Yorkshire.[c] Batten, enraged at his disappointment, anchored on the second
night, with four ships and a pinnace, in the road, and discharged above
one hundred shot at the houses on the quay, in one of which the queen was
lodged.[d] Alarmed at the danger, she quitted her bed, and, "bare foot and
bare leg," sought shelter till daylight behind the nearest hill. No action
of the war was more bitterly condemned by the gallantry of the Cavaliers
than this unmanly attack on a defenceless female, the wife of the
sovereign. The earl of Newcastle hastened to Burlington, and escorted her
with his army to York. To have pursued her journey to Oxford would have
been to throw herself into the arms of her opponents. She remained
four months in Yorkshire, winning the hearts of the inhabitants by her
affability, and quickening their loyalty by her words and example.[1]

During the late treaty every effort had been made to recruit the
parliamentary army; at its expiration, Hampden, who commanded a regiment,
proposed to besiege the king within the city of Oxford. But the ardour of
the patriots was constantly checked by the caution of the officers who
formed the council of war. Essex invested Reading; at the expiration of ten
days[e]

[Footnote 1: Mercurius Belgic. Feb. 24. Michrochronicon, Feb. 24, 1642-3.
Clarendon, ii. 143. According to Rushworth, Batten fired at boats which
were landing ammunition on the quay.]

[Sidenote a: CHAP.I.A.D. 1643]
[Sidenote b: 1643 Feb. 16.]
[Sidenote c: 1643 Feb. 22.]
[Sidenote d: 1643 Feb. 24.]
[Sidenote e: 1643 April 27.]

it capitulated; and Hampden renewed his proposal. But the hardships of the
siege had already broken the health of the soldiers; and mortality and
desertion daily thinned their numbers, Essex found himself compelled to
remain six weeks in his new quarters at Reading.

If the fall of that town impaired the reputation of the royalists, it added
to their strength by the arrival of the four thousand men who had formed
the garrison. But the want of ammunition condemned the king to the same
inactivity to which sickness had reduced his adversaries. Henrietta
endeavoured to supply this deficiency. In May a plentiful convoy [a]
arrived from York; and Charles, befor