pon, I threw myself off my horse, and running in with him, stabbed my fork into his horse's belly. The horse being wounded, staggered a while, and then fell, and the booby had not the sense to get down in time, but fell with him; upon which, giving him a knock or two with my fork, I secured him.

The other, by this time, had furnished himself with a great stick out of a hedge; and, before I was disengaged from the last fellow, gave me two such blows, that if they had been upon my head, instead of my shoulder, I had ended the fight and my life together.

It was time to look about me now, for this was a madman; I defended myself with my fork, but it would not do; at last, in short, I was forced to pistol him, and getting on horseback again, with all the speed I could make, got away to the wood

to our men.

If my two fellow spies had not been behind, I had never known what was the meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripple had all the particulars; for he being behind us, as I have already observed, when he came up to the first fellow who began the fray, he found him beginning to come to himself; so he got off, and pretending to help him, he put him up upon his breech, and being a very facetious fellow, said, "Well, and what's the matter now?"

"Ah, wae's me," replied the clown, "I is killed."

"Not quite, mon," said Cripple, smiling. "Oh that's a fau thief," meaning me, and thus they parleyed.

Cripple then got him upon his feet, and gave him a dram of his aqua-vitæ bottle, and made much of him, in order to know what was the occasion of the quarrel. Our disguised woman seemingly pitied the fellow too, and they set him up again upon his horse, and then told him that fellow, still meaning me, was got upon one of his brother's horses, who lived at Wetherby.

They, to humour him, said the cavaliers stole him; but it was like such rogues; and thus they jogged on until they came to the place where the other two lay.

The first fellow they assisted as they had done the other, and gave him a dram out of the leather bottle; but the last fellow was past their care; so they came away: for when they understood that it was my horse they claimed, they began to be afraid that their own horses might be known too, and then they had been in a worse condition than myself, and must have been forced to have done them some mischief to have got away.

I had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was any occasion; but their stay was not long, for the troopers seeing them at a little distance coming towards us, they presently re

turned.

I had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had enough of staying in the wood; for other intelligences agreed with ours, and all concurred in this, that it was time to be going. However, this use we made of it, that while the country thought us so strong, we were in the less danger of being attacked, though in the more of being observed; but all this while we heard nothing of our friends till the next day; when we

heard Prince Rupert, with about a thousand horse, was at Skipton, and from thence marched away to Westmoreland.

We concluded now we had two or three days good; for since messengers were sent to York for a party to suppress us, we must have at least two days' march of them, and therefore all concluded we were to make the best of our way: early in the morning, therefore, we decamped from those dull quarters; and as we marched through a village, we found the people very civil to us, and the women cried out, "God bless them, it is a pity that the Roundheads should make such work with brave men," and the like. Finding we were among our friends, we resolved to halt a little, and refresh ourselves; and, indeed, the people were very kind to us, gave us victuals and drink, and took care of our horses.

It happened to be my lot to stop at a house where the good woman took a great deal of pains to provide for us; but I observed her husband walked about with a cap upon his head, and very much out of order. I took no great notice of it, being very sleepy, and having asked my landlady to let me have a bed, I laid down and slept. When I awaked I found my landlord on another bed in the same room, groaning very heavily.

When I came down stairs, I found Cripple talking with the landlady; he was now out of his disguise, but we called him Cripple still; and the other, who put on the woman's clothes, we called Goody Thompson. As soon as Cripple saw me, he called me out.

"Do you know the man of the house you are

quartered in?"

No, not I; pray, why do you ask?" No, so I believe; nor they you; if they i his wife would not have made you a posset, and got you a white loaf."

"I do not understand you. What do you

mean?"

"Have you seen the man?"

man's sick, and groaned so heavily that I could "Seen him? yes, and heard him too; the not lay upon the bed any longer for him."

Why, he's the man that you knocked down yesterday with your fork, and I have had all the story out yonder at the next door."

I confess it grieved me to have been forced to treat a person so roughly who was one of our friends, but to make some amends, we contrived to give the poor man his brother's horse; and my Cripple told him a formal story, that he be lieved the horse was taken away from the fellow by some of our men; and, if he knew him again, if it was his friend's horse, he should have

him.

The man cane down upon the news, and caused six or seven horses which were taken a the same time to be shown him; he immediately chose the right; so I gave him the horse, und we pretended a great deal of sorrow for the many hurt, and that we had knocked the fellow on the head as well as taken away the horse.

The man was so overjoyed at the revenge b thought was taken on the fellow, that we hear him groan no more.

We ventured to stay all day at this town, the next night, and got guides to lead us

Blackstone Edge, a ridge of mountains which part this side of Yorkshire from Lacashire.

Early in the morning we marched, and kept our scouts very carefully out every way, who brought us no news for this day; we kept on all night, and made our horses do penance for the little rest they had; and the next morning we passed the hills, and got into Lancashire, to a town called Littlebury; and from thence to Rochdale, a little market town.

And now we thought ourselves safe as to the pursuit of the enemies from the side of York; our design was to get to Bolton; but all the county was full of the enemy in flying parties, and how to get there we knew not.

At length we resolved to send a messenger to Bolton; but he came back and told us he had, with lurking and hiding, tried all the ways that he thought possible, but to no purpose, for he could not get into the town. We sent another, and he never returned; and, some time after, we understood he was taken by the enemy. At last one got into the town, who brought us word they were tired out with constant alarms, had been straitly blocked up, and every day expected a siege; and therefore advised us either to go northward, where Prince Rupert and Lord Goring ranged at liberty; or to get over Warrington bridge, and so secure our retreat to Chester.

This double direction divided our opinions; I was for getting into Chester to recruit myself with horses and with money, both which I wanted, and to get refreshment, which we all stood in need of; but the major part of our men were for the north. First, they said, there was their general; and it was their duty to the cause, > avd the king's interest obliged us to go where we could do best service; and there were their friends, and every man might hear some news of his own regiment, for we belonged to several; besides, all the towns to the left of us were possessed by Sir William Brereton; Warrington, in Lancashire, and Northwich, in Cheshire, garrisoned by the enemy, and a strong party at Manchester; so that it was very likely we should be beaten and dispersed before we could get to Chester.

These reasons, and especially the last, determined us for the north, and we had resolved to march the next morning, when other intelligence brought us to more speedy resolutions. We kept our scouts continually abroad to bring us intelligence of the enemy, whom we expected on our backs, and also to keep an eye upon the country; for, as we lived upon them something at large, they were ready enough to do us any ill turn that lay in their power.

The first messenger that arrived was from our friends at Bolton, with information that they were preparing at Manchester to attack us: one of our parties had been as far as Stockport, on the edge of Cheshire, and was pursued by a party of the enemy, but got off by the help of the night.

Thus, all things looking black to the south, we had resolved to march northward in the morning, when one of our scouts, from the side of Manchester, assured us, Sir Thomas Middleton, with some of the parliament forces and the coun. try troops, making above twelve hundred men,

were on their march to attack us, and would certainly beat up our quarters that night.

Upon this advice we resolved to be gone; and getting all things in readiness, we began to march about two hours before night; and having got a trusty fellow for our guide, a fellow that we found was a friend to our side, he put a project into my head, which saved us all for that time; and that was, to give out in the village that we were marched back to Yorkshire, resolving to get into Pontefract Castle.

Accordingly he conducted us out of the town the same way we came in; and taking a boy with him, he sent the boy back just at night, and bade him say he saw us go up the hills at Blackstone Edge; and it happened very well, for this party were so sure of us that they had placed four hundred men on the road to the northward to intercept our retreat, and had left no way for us, as they thought, to escape, but back again.

About ten o'clock at night they assaulted our quarters, but finding we were gone, and being informed which way, they followed upon the spur; and travelling all night, being moon-light, they found themselves the next morning about fifteen miles east just out of their way; for we had, by the help of our guide, turned short at the foot of the hills; and, through blind, untrodden paths, and, with difficulty enough, by noon the next day, had reached almost twenty-five miles north near a town called Clithero.

Here we halted in the open field, and sent out people to see how things were in the country. This part of the country, almost impassable, and surrounded with hills, was indifferently quiet, and we got some refreshment for ourselves, but very little horse-meat, and so went on; but we had not marched far before we found ourselves discovered; and the four hundred horse sent to lie in wait for us as before, having understood which way we went, followed us hard; and by letters to some of their friends at Preston, we found we were beset again.

Our guide began now to be out of his knowledge, and our scouts brought us word the enemy's horse was posted before us, and we knew they were in our rear.

In this exigence we resolved to divide our small body, and so amusing them, at least one might get off if the other miscarried. I took about eighty horse with me, among which were all that I had of our own regiment, amounting to about thirty-two, and took the hills towards Yorkshire.

Here we met with such impassable hills, vast moors, rocks, and stony ways, as lamed all our horses and tired all our men; and sometimes I thought we should never be able to get over them, for our horses failing, and jack boots being but indifferent things to travel in, we might be starved before we should find any road or towns, for guide we had none, but a boy, who knew but little, and would cry when we asked him any questions.

I believe neither men nor horses ever passed in some places where we went; and for twenty hours we saw not a town nor a house, excepting sometimes from the top of the mountains at a vast distance.

I am persuaded we might have encamped here

if we had had provisions, till the war had been over, and have met with no disturbance; and I have often wondered since how we got into such horrible places as much as how we got out of them.

That which was worse to us than all the rest was, that we knew not where we were going, nor what part of the country we should come into when we came out of those desolate crags.

At last, after a terrible fatigue, we began to see the western parts of Yorkshire, some few villages, and the country at a distance looked a little like England; for I thought before, it looked like Old Brennus Hill, which the Grisons called the Grandfather of the Alps. We got some relief in the villages, which, indeed, many of us had 30 much need of, that they were hardly able to sit their horses, and others were forced to help || them off, they were so faint.

I never felt so much of the power of hunger in my life; for having not eaten in thirty hours, I was as ravenous as a hound; and if I had had a piece of horse flesh, I believe I should not have had patience to have stayed dressing it, but have fallen upon it raw, and have eaten it as greedily as a Tartar.

However, I ate very cautiously, having often seen the danger of men's eating heartily after long fasting. Our next care was to inquire our way. Halifax, they told us, was on our right, there we durst not think of going; General Skippon was before us, and there we knew not how it was; for a body of three thousand horse, sent out by the enemy in pursuit of Prince Rupert, had been there but two days before, and the country people could not tell us whether they were gone or not; and Manchester's horse, which were sent out after our party, were then at Halifax in quest of us, and afterwards marched into Cheshire.

In this distress we would have hired a guide, but none of the country people would go with us; for the Roundheads would hang them, they said, when they came there. Upon this I called a fellow to me. "Harke, friend, dost thee know the way so as to bring us into Westmoreland, and not keep the great road from York ?"

66

Ay, merry, I ken the ways weel enou." "And you would go and guide us, but that you are afraid the Roundheads will hang you."

"Indeed would I, measter, with all my heart." "Why, then, thou hadst as well be hanged by a Roundhead as a Cavalier; for if thou will not go, I'll hang thee instantly."

"Na, and ye serve me soa, Ise ene gan with ye; for I care not for hanging; and ye'l get me a horse, Ise gang and be one of you, for I'll nere come heame more."

This pleased us still better, and we mounted the fellow; for three of our men died that night with the extreme fatigue of the last service.

Next morning, when our new trooper was mounted and clothed, we hardly knew him; and this fellow led us by such ways, such wildernesses, and yet with such prudence, keeping the hills to the left, that we might have the villages to refresh ourselves, that, without him, we had certainly either perished in those mountains, or fallen into the enemy's hands.

We passed the great road from York so criti

cally as to time, that from one of the hills he showed us a part of the enemy's horse who were then marching into Westmoreland.

We lay still that day, finding we were not dis covered by them; and our guide proved the best scout that we could have had; for he would go out ten miles at a time, and bring us in all the news of the country: here he brought us word that York was surrendered upon articles, and that Newcasle, which had been surprised by the king's party, was besieged by another army Scots advanced to help their brethren.

Along the edges of those vast mountains we passed, with the help of our guide, till we came into the forest of Swale; and finding ourselves perfectly concealed, for no soldier had ever bee here all the war, nor perhaps would not, if it ha lasted seven years; we thought we wanted a few days' rest, at least for our horses; so we resolved to halt, and while we did so, we made some disguises, and sent out some spies into the country; but as here were no great towns, D no post roads, we got very little intelligence.

We rested four days, and then marched again; and indeed having no great stock of money about us, and not very free of that we had, four days was enough for those poor places to be able to maintain us.

We thought ourselves pretty secure now; but our chief care was how to get over those ter rible mountains; for having passed the great road that leads from York to Lancaster, the crags, the further northward we looked, appeared still the worse, and our business was all on the other side.

Our guide told us he would bring us out; if we would have patience, which we were obliged to, and kept on this slow march till he brough us to Stanhope, in the county of Durham; when some of Lord Goring's horse, and two regimeza of foot, had their quarters: this was ninetem days from the battle of Marstonmoor.

Prince Rupert, who was then at Kendal Westmoreland, and who had given me over as lost, when he had news of our arrival, sent an express to me to meet him at Appleby. I went thither accordingly, and gave him an account of our journey; and there I heard the short history of the other part of our men, whom we parted from in Lancashire.

They made the best of their way north; they had two resolute gentlemen who commanded : and being so closely pursued by the enemy, tha finding themselves under the necessity of figh ing, they halted, and faced about, expecting the charge.

The boldness of the action made the officer who led the enemy's horse, which it seems were the county horse only, afraid of them; which they perceiving, taking the advantage of fears, bravely advanced, and charged them; ace though they were above two hundred horse they routed them, killed about thirty or forty got some horses and some money, and puste on their march night and day; but coming nest Lancaster, they were so waylaid add pursued that they agreed to separate, and shift every man for himself.

Many of them fell into the enemy's hands some were killed attempting to pass through the

about Winchester, having lately beaten Sir Ralph Hopton. Upon all these considerations, the Earl of Essex marched westward.

The forces in the west being too weak to oppose him, everything gave way to him, and all people expected he would besiege Exeter, where the queen was newly lying-in, and sent a trumpet to desire he would forbear the city until she could be removed; which he did, and passed on westward, took Tiverton, Bideford, Barnstaple, Launceston, relieved Plymouth, drove Sir Richard Grenvill up into Cornwall, and followed him thither, but left Prince Maurice behind him with four thousand men about Barnstaple and Exeter.

The king, in the meantime, marched from Oxford to Worcester, with Waller at his heels. At Edgehill his majesty turned upon Waller, and gave him a brush to put him in mind of the place; the king went on to Worcester, sent three hundred horse to relieve Durley Castle, besieged by the Earl of Denbigh, and sending part of his forces to Bristol, returned to Oxford.

Meantime the prince formed a very good army, and the Lord Goring, with ten thousand men, showed himself on the borders of Scotland, to try if that might not cause the Scots to recall their forces; and I am persuaded had he entered Scotland, the parliament of Scotland would have recalled the Earl of Calender, for they had but five thousand men left in arms to send against him; but he was loath to venture.

However, this effect it had, that it called the Scots northward again, and found them work there for the rest of the summer, to reduce the several towns in the bishopric of Durham.

I found with the prince the poor remains of my regiment, which, when joined with those that had been with me, could not all make up three troops, and but two captains, three lieutenants, and one cornet; the rest were dispersed, killed, or taken prisoners.

However, with those, which we still called a regiment, I joined the prince, and after having done all we could on that side, the Scots being returned from York, the prince returned through Lancashire to Chester.

The enemy often appeared and alarmed us, and once fell on one of our parties, and killed us about a hundred men; but we were too many for them to pretend to fight us, so we came to Bolton, beat the troops of the enemy near Warrington, where I got a cut with a halberd in my face, and arrived at Chester the beginning of August.

The parliament, upon their great success in the north, thinking the king's forces quite broken, had sent General Essex into the west, where the king's army was commanded by Prince Maurice, Prince Rupert's elder brother, but not very strong; and the king being, as they supposed, by the absence of Prince Rupert, weakened so much that he might be checked by Sir William Waller, who, with four thousand five hundred foot, and one thousand five hundred horse, was at that time

waylaid the king at Cropedy bridge; the king attacked Middleton at the bridge; Waller's men were posted with some cannon to guard a pass; Middleton put a regiment of the king's foot to the rout, and pursued them: Waller's men, willing to come in for the plunder, a thing their general had often used them to, quitted their post at the pass, and their great guns, to have part in the victory.

The king, coming in seasonably to the relief of his men, routed Middleton, and at the same time sent a party round, who clapt in between Sir William Waller's men and their great guns, and secured the pass and the cannon too.

The king took three colonels, besides other officers, and about three hundred men, prisoners, with eight great guns, nineteen carriages of ammunition, and killed about two hundred men.

Waller lost his reputation in this fight, and was exceedingly slighted ever after, even by his own party; but especially by such as were of Essex's party, between whom and Waller there had been jealousies and misunderstandings for some time.

The king, about eight thousand strong, marched on to Bristol, where Sir William Hopton joined him; and from thence he followed Essex into Cornwall; Essex still following Grenvill, the king came to Exeter, and joining with Prince Maurice, resolved to pursue Essex; and now the Earl of Essex began to see his mistake, being cooped up between two seas, the king's army in his rear, the country his enemy, and Sir Richard Grenvill in his van.

The king, who always took the best measures when left to his own counsel, wisely refused to engage, though superior in number, and much stronger in horse. Essex often drew out to fight; but the king, fortified, took the passes and bridges, planted cannon, and secured the country to keep off provisions, and continually straitened their quarters, but would not fight.

Now Essex sends away to the parliament for help, and they write to Waller, Middleton, and Manchester, to follow and come up with the king in his rear; but some were too far off, and could