scarcely even to an intimate
friend, positively to determine.

Essex, discouraged by this event, dismayed by the total rout of Waller,
was further informed, that the queen, who landed at Burlington Bay, had
arrived at Oxford, and had brought from the north a reenforcement of
three thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse. Dislodging from Thame
and Aylesbury, where he had hitherto lain, he thought proper to
retreat nearer to London; and he showed to his friends his broken and
disheartened forces, which a few months before he had led into the field
in so flourishing a condition. The king, freed from this enemy, sent his
army westward under Prince Rupert; and, by their conjunction with the
Cornish troops, a formidable force, for numbers as well as reputation
and valor, was composed. That an enterprise correspondent to men's
expectations might be undertaken, the prince resolved to lay siege
to Bristol, the second town for riches and greatness in the kingdom.
Nathaniel Fiennes, son of Lord Say he himself, as well as his father, a
great parliamentary leader was governor, and commanded a garrison of two
thousand five hundred foot, and two regiments, one of horse, another
of dragoons. The fortifications not being complete or regular, it was
resolved by Prince Rupert to storm the city, and next morning, with
little other provisions suitable to such a work besides the courage of
the troops, the assault began. The Cornish in three divisions attacked
the west side, with a resolution which nothing could control; but though
the middle division had already mounted the wall, so great was the
disadvantage of the ground, and so brave the defence of the garrison,
that in the end the assailants were repulsed with a considerable loss
both of officers and soldiers. On the prince's side, the assault was
conducted with equal courage, and almost with equal loss, but with
better success. One party, led by Lord Grandison, was indeed beaten
off, and the commander himself mortally wounded: another, conducted
by Colonel Bellasis, met with a like fate: but Washington, with a less
party, finding a place in the curtain weaker than the rest, broke
in, and quickly made room for the horse to follow. By this irruption,
however, nothing but the suburbs was yet gained: the entrance into the
town was still more difficult: and by the loss already sustained, as
well as by the prospect of further danger, every one was extremely
discouraged; when, to the great jo