95 alsoe there were many brave men slaine and prisoners. :My lord of Essex marcht to Coventry; the king to take up his winter quarters at Oxford, from whence P1:ince Rupert flew about the countries with his body of horse, plunder'd and did many barbarous things; insomuch that ;London, growing into apprehensions of the king'~ armie, the parliament call'd back the Earle of Essex to quarter about London; and he being return'd thither, the king was advanc'd as farre as Colebrooke, where he was presented with a petition from the parliament for accommodation, to which he answer'd, with a protestation to God, how much he was griev'd for his subiects sufferings, apd, in order to peace, was willing to reside neare London, to receive their propositions, and to treate' with them. Assoone as ever the commissioners were gone, the king advanc'd with his horse and artillery towards London, and, taking the advantage of a greate mist, fell upon a broken regiment of Col. Hollis's, quartered at Brainford, and kill'd many of them, and had destroy'd them all, but that Brooke's and Hampden's regiments, by Providence, came seasonably to their rescue; and then so many forces fiockt with the general], out of London, that the king was enclos'd, and the warre had bene ended, but that I know not how three thousand of the parliament's forces were call'd away by their procurement who design'd the continuance of the warre; and so the king had a way of retreate left open, by which he gott back to Oxford, and the parliament\ generall was sent out againe' with their armie; whose proceedings I shall take up againe in their due places, so huTe as is necessarie to be reniember'd, for the story I most particularly intend. c The account Mrs. Hutchinson gives of the affair of Brentford is much mOre clear :r~.nd probable than that given by Rapin, vol. ii. p. 465. Indeed he himself seems dis-. satisfied with those varyi ng accounts he could co ll ec t of that business from Clarendon and others: but Ludlow, who was a military man and an eye-witness, gives a clear ~ccount, agreeing with that of .Mrs. Hutchinson. Q
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=