no
mutiny obliged him to surrender it.

* Rush, vol. vii. p. 49.

** Rush, vol. vii. p. 55.

*** Rush, vol. vii p. 83.

Charles, who was forming schemes and collecting forces for the relief of
Bristol, was astonished at so unexpected an event, which was little less
fatal to his cause than the defeat at Naseby.[*] Full of indignation, he
instantly recalled all Prince Rupert's commissions, and sent him a pass
to go beyond sea.[**]

The king's affairs now went fast to ruin in all quarters. The Scots,
having made themselves masters of Carlisle, after an obstinate siege,
marched southwards, and laid siege to Hereford; but were obliged to
raise it on the king's approach: and this was the last glimpse of
success which attended his arms. Having marched to the relief of
Chester, which was anew besieged by the parliamentary forces under
Colonel Jones, Pointz attacked his rear, and forced him to give battle.
While the fight was continued with great obstinacy, and victory seemed
to incline to the royalists, Jones fell upon them from the other
side, and put them to rout, with the loss of six hundred slain and one
thousand prisoners.[***] The king, with the remains of his broken army,
fled to Newark, and thence escaped to Oxford, where he shut himself up
during the winter season.

* Clarendon, vol. vi. p. 690. Walker, p. 137.

** Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 695.

*** Rush, vii. p. 117.

The news which he received from every quarter, were no less fatal than
those events which passed where he himself was present. Fairfax and
Cromwell, after the surrender of Bristol, having divided their forces,
the former marched westwards, in order to complete the conquest of
Devonshire and Cornwall; the latter attacked the king's garrisons which
lay to the east of Bristol. The Devizes were surrendered to Cromwell;
Berkeley Castle was taken by storm; Winchester capitulated; Basing House
was entered sword in hand; and all these middle counties of England
were, in a little time, reduced to obedience under the parliament.

{1646.} The same rapid and uninterrupted success attended Fairfax. The
parliamentary forces, elated by past victories, governed by the most
rigid discipline, met with no equal opposition from troops dismayed by
repeated defeats, and corrupted by licentious manners. After beating up
the quarters of the royalists at Bovey Tracy, Fairfax sat down before
Dartmouth, and in a few days entered it by stor