thaw divided one part of the army from the other. That part exposed to
Fairfax, being beaten from their post, retired into the church of Acton,
and were all taken prisoners; the other retreated with precipitation.[v]

* Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 449. Whitlocke, p. 79.

** Whitlocke, p. 66.

*** Journ. 13th of February, 1645.

**** Rush. vol. vi. p. 299.

v Rush. vol. vi. p. 301.

And thus was dissipated or rendered useless that body of forces which
had been drawn from Ireland; and the parliamentary party revived in
those north-west counties of England.

The invasion from Scotland was attended with consequences of much
greater importance. The Scots, having summoned in vain the town of
Newcastle, which was fortified by the vigilance of Sir Thomas Glenham,
passed the Tyne, and faced the marquis of Newcastle, who lay at
Durham with an army of fourteen thousand men.[*] After some military
operations, in which that nobleman reduced the enemy to difficulties
for forage and provisions, he received intelligence of a great disaster
which had befallen his forces in Yorkshire. Colonel Bellasis, whom he
had left with a considerable body of troops, was totally routed at
Selby by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had returned from Cheshire with his
victorious forces.[**] Afraid of being enclosed between two armies,
Newcastle retreated; and Leven having joined Lord Fairfax, they sat down
before York, to which the army of the royalists had retired. But as the
parliamentary and Scottish forces were not numerous enough to invest
so large a town, divided by a river, they contented themselves with
incommoding it by a loose blockade; and affairs remained for some time
in suspense between these opposite armies.[***]

During this winter and spring, other parts of the kingdom had also been
infested with war. Hopton, having assembled an army of fourteen
thousand men, endeavored to break into Sussex, Kent, and the southern
association, which seemed well disposed to receive him. Waller fell upon
him at Cherington, and gave him a defeat of considerable importance. In
another quarter, siege being laid to Newark by the parliamentary forces,
Prince Rupert prepared himself for relieving a town of such consequence,
which alone preserved the communication open between the king's southern
and northern quarters.[****] With a small force, but that animated by
his active courage, he broke through the enemy, relieved the town, and
t