d in his infinite mercy to direct
the rest of my troopes to me; and, under the conduct of his providence,
to grant me a safe and honorable retreat to Gloucester, in despight of
the enemy, who charged me in the reare, with more loss to himself than to
me."

But the individual who figured most prominently in these parts at this
eventful period was the ardent royalist Sir John Winter. His case is
thus quaintly stated by Sanderson:--"From the pen, as secretary to the
Queen, he was put to the pike, and did his business very handsomely, for
which he found the enmity of the Parliament ever after;" so that Corbet,
one of their devoted adherents, designates him "a plague," and his house
of White Cross, near Lydney, "a den." This place he had been secretly
strengthening against attack for some time, storing it with arms and
ammunition, and collecting soldiers; but he did not openly declare
himself until the siege of Gloucester was raised, on 5th September, 1643.
During the ensuing winter, and on to the 7th of May following, Corbet
speaks of him as "referring all his industry to his own house," described
as being "in the heart of the Forest," of which, says the same writer, he
had "obtained the entire command," and from whence he succeeded in making
constant attacks upon the adjoining small Parliamentary garrisons of
Huntley and Westbury, who were treacherously sold to him by Captain
Thomas Davis, and he was thus enabled to advance almost to Gloucester.
Upon the day just named, in the year 1644, the following affray happened
at Westbury, occasioned by Colonel Massy's attempt to recover it for the
Parliament. Corbet says:--"Here the enemy held the church, and a strong
house" (understood to be Mr. Colchester's) "adjoining." "The Governor
(Colonel Massy), observing a place not flanked, fell-up that way with the
forlorne hope, and secured them from the danger of shot. The men got
stooles and ladders to the windowes, where they stood safe, cast in
granadoes, and fired them out of the church. Having gained the church,
he quickly beat them out of their workes, and possest himself of the
house, where he took about four score prisoners, slaying twenty others,
without the losse of a man."

Upon the same day a similar but more fatal encounter took place at
Littledean, a village situated under the east slopes of the Forest hills,
and as yet occupied for the King. "Here," says Corbet, "the governor's
troop of horse found the enemy stra