96 Before the flame of the warre broke out in the top of the chimnies, the smoake ascended in every country; the king had sent forth commissions of array, and the parliament had given out commissions for their millitia, and sent of their members into all counties to put them in execution. Betweene these in many places there were fierce contests and disputes, allmost to blood, even at the first; for in the progresse every county had the civill warre, more or ]esse, within itsclfe. Some counties were in the beginning so wholly for the parliament, that the king's interest appear'd not in them; some so wholly for the king, that the godly, for those generally were the parliament's friends, were forc'd to forsake their habitations, and seeke other shelters: of this sort was Nottinghamshire. All the nobillity and gentry, and their dependenls, were generally for the king, the chiefe of whose names I shall summe up here, because I shall often have occasion to mention them. The greatest famely was the Earle of Newcastle's,' a lord so much once beloved in his country that, when the first expedition was against the Scotts, the gentlemen of the country sett him forth two troopes, one all of gentlemen, the other of their men, who waited on, him into the . north at their owne charges. He had indeed, through his grcate estate, his liberall hospitality, and constant residence in his country, so endear'd them to him, that no man was a greater prince then he in all that northerne quarter, till a foolish ambition of glorious slavery carried him to court, where h~ ran himselfe much in debt, to purchase neglects of the king and queene, and scorncs of the proud courtiers. Next him was the Earle of Kingston, a man of vast estate, and not )esse covetousnesse, who devided his sonns betwecne both parties, and conceal'd himselfe, till at length his fate drew him to declare himselfe absolutely on the king's side, wherein he behav'd t1 This title was at that time in the family of Cavendish, of which this line ceased with th_e nobleman here mentioned.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=