e a new trial for a treaty, the king this spring
sent another letter, directed to the lords and commons of parliament
assembled at Westminster: but as he also mentioned in the letter the
lords and commons of parliament assembled at Oxford, and declared, that
his scope and intention was to make provision that all the members
of both houses might securely meet in a full and free assembly, the
parliament, perceiving the conclusion implied, refused all treaty upon
such terms.[*] And the king, who knew what small hopes there were of
accommodation, would not abandon the pretensions which he had assumed;
nor acknowledge the two houses, more expressly, for a free parliament.

This winter the famous Pym died; a man as much hated by one party as
respected by the other. At London, he was considered as the victim to
national liberty, who had abridged his life by incessant labors for the
interests of his country:[**] at Oxford, he was believed to have been
struck with an uncommon disease, and to have been consumed with vermin,
as a mark of divine vengeance, for his multiplied crimes and treasons.
He had been so little studious of improving his private fortune in
those civil wars, of which he had been one principal author, that the
parliament thought themselves obliged from gratitude to pay the debts
which he had contracted.[***] We now return to the military operations,
which, during the winter, were carried on with vigor in several places,
notwithstanding the severity of the season.

The forces brought from Ireland were landed at Mostyne, in North Wales;
and being put under the command of Lord Biron, they besieged and took
the Castles of Hawarden, Beeston, Acton, and Deddington House.[****]
No place in Cheshire or the neighborhood now adhered to the parliament,
except Nantwich; and to this town Biron laid siege during the depth of
winter. Sir Thomas Fairfax, alarmed at so considerable a progress of
the royalists, assembled an army of four thousand men in Yorkshire, and
having joined Sir William Brereton, was approaching to the camp of
the enemy. Biron and his soldiers, elated with successes obtained
in Ireland, had entertained the most profound contempt for the
parliamentary forces; a disposition which, if confined to the army,
may be regarded as a good presage of victory; but if it extend to the
general, is the most probable forerunner of a defeat. Fairfax suddenly
attacked the camp of the royalists. The swelling of the river by a