vinced them that I had taken the
city by storm, if he had not surrendered."

The king's affairs were now in a very good posture, and three armies
in the north, west, and in the centre, counted in the musters about
70,000 men besides small garrisons and parties abroad. Several of the
lords, and more of the commons, began to fall off from the Parliament,
and make their peace with the king; and the affairs of the Parliament
began to look very ill. The city of London was their inexhaustible
support and magazine, both for men, money, and all things necessary;
and whenever their army was out of order, the clergy of their party
in but one Sunday or two, would preach the young citizens out of their
shops, the labourers from their masters, into the army, and recruit
them on a sudden. And all this was still owing to the omission I first
observed, of not marching to London, when it might have been so easily
effected.

We had now another, or a fairer opportunity, than before, but as ill
use was made of it. The king, as I have observed, was in a very good
posture; he had three large armies roving at large over the kingdom.
The Cornish army, victorious and numerous, had beaten Waller, secured
and fortified Exeter, which the queen had made her residence, and
was there delivered of a daughter, the Princess Henrietta Maria,
afterwards Duchess of Orleans, and mother of the Duchess Dowager of
Savoy, commonly known in the French style by the title of Madam Royal.
They had secured Salisbury, Sherborne Castle, Weymouth, Winchester,
and Basing-house, and commanded the whole country, except Bridgewater
and Taunton, Plymouth and Lynn; all which places they held blocked
up. The king was also entirely master of all Wales, Monmouthshire,
Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire,
Berkshire, and all the towns from Windsor up the Thames to
Cirencester, except Reading and Henley; and of the whole Severn,
except Gloucester.

The Earl of Newcastle had garrisons in every strong place in the
north, from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Boston in Lincolnshire, and
Newark-upon-Trent, Hull only excepted, whither the Lord Fairfax and
his son Sir Thomas were retreated, their troops being routed and
broken, Sir Thomas Fairfax his baggage, with his lady and servants
taken prisoners, and himself hardly scaping.

And now a great council of war was held in the king's quarters, what
enterprise to go upon; and it happened to be the very same day whe