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CHAPTER XIII.

The King's troops occupy Bath.-Plan of the attack on Bristol.-Prince Rupert and Lord Hertford assault it on different sides.-Surrender of Bristol.-Lord Hertford appoints Sir Ralph Hopton Governor of the city.-Prince Rupert claims the appointment for himself.-The King compromises the dispute by making Prince Rupert nominal Governor, and Sir Ralph Hopton acting Lieutenant-Governor.-Sir Ralph Hopton acquiesces in this arrangement.-The King recalls Lord Hertford from his command in the West, and leaves Prince Maurice at the head of the army. The King promises to appoint Lord Hertford Groom of the Stole.-Injurious effects of his recall on the King's cause.

THE immediate consequence of Sir William Waller's defeat was the easy possession of Bath by the King's army. The garrison had been withdrawn to reinforce that of Bristol, and the victorious troops took up their quarters there till they could receive further orders from Oxford.

After full consideration of his own improved circumstances and the impaired condition of his enemies, the King resolved that the army of the West should be combined with the forces under command of Prince Rupert, and that an attempt should be made on the city of Bristol. The Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice were to appear on an appointed day with their whole strength on the Somerset side, whilst Prince Rupert, with the Oxford army, should do the same on the Gloucestershire side of the town. On the 24th of July both armies appeared according to agree

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ment. By the manner in which the horse were disposed the approaches of the city were at once closed, so that none could either come out or go in, and ships well laden with plate, money, and other valuables were seized, and all on board, who hoped to have thus escaped from the coming siege, were made prisoners.

The following day Prince Rupert visited the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice, and a general council of the principal officers of both armies was called to debate "in what manner they should proceed, by assault or approach.'

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The officers of Lord Hertford's (or, as it was more often called, the Cornish) army were of opinion that it was best to proceed by way of approach. Prince Rupert and all the officers of his army "very earnestly "desired to assault it." Prince Rupert prevailed, and it was agreed that the next morning at break of day the town should be assaulted in three places on the Somersetshire side, and in three places on the Gloucestershire side. Each party had been right in their opinions so far as regarded the sides of the river on which they were severally placed the Gloucestershire side being well fitted for that mode of attack, and the Somersetshire side being not only far more dangerous to attempt, but almost impracticable to take by

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The extraordinary courage and spirit displayed by

Ibid. Rushworth gives the 22nd of July as the date of Prince Rupert coming before Bristol, and the first assault being on Monday, the 24th :" his account, however, agrees with Lord Clarendon's in making the 26th the day on which Bristol surrendered.-Rushworth, 'Coll.,' vol. v. p. 284. a Ibid., p. 142.

Ibid.

the Cornish army showed, as Lord Clarendon says, "an immoderate disdain of danger and appetite of glory," but could not overcome all the natural disadvantages of their position; and though some of the assailants succeeded in actually mounting the wall, they were at last driven back with great slaughter, and with the loss of many valuable officers who fell in the desperate attempt.2 "On Prince Rupert's side it was assaulted "with equal courage, and almost equal loss, but with "better success. "3 Lord Grandison, the Colonel-General of the foot, was repulsed at the head of his division and dangerously wounded. Another division, headed by Colonel Bellasis, met with no better fortune; but a third, headed by Colonel Washington, succeeded in finding a weaker place, situated between the two that had been assaulted in vain, forced an entrance, and the horse quickly followed. The enemy, either from fear or by command, quitted their posts, and the Prince, reinforced by a thousand of the Cornish foot, triumphantly entered the suburbs, though not without the further loss of many gallant officers and men, who were shot from the windows. had been entered, and a more difficult task remained to be performed to get within the town itself, when, to the great relief both of generals and soldiers, the city beat a parley; two officers were immediately sent by Prince Rupert to the Governor (Colonel Fiennes) to

Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. v. p. 144.

But the suburbs only

2 Sir Nicholas Slanning, Colonel Trevannion, Sir Brutus Buck, and others are named among those who fell in this assault.

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treat. The treaty began about two o'clock in the afternoon, and before ten at night articles of surrender were agreed on and signed."

The possession of Bristol was of great importance to the King from its situation and its trade, but its reduction cost a price that made Lord Clarendon deem the words of Pyrrhus after his victory over the Romans at Asculum truly applicable to the taking of this town, "If we win another at this price we are utterly "undone." 3

It was not only in the loss of able officers and brave men that this success may be said to have been dearly purchased, but in the circumstances that accompanied and followed the surrender of the city. The Cornish army felt themselves unjustly sacrificed both to the daring spirit of Rupert, and to the more advantageous position occupied by his army; and however gallantly they conducted the assaults, it was not without murmurs

'Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 145.

For the easy surrender of Bristol the governor was afterwards held responsible by the Parliament. Rushworth says-" Colonel Fiennes, the "governor, made a large report on the 3rd of August to the House of "Commons touching this affair, but was afterwards, on the instigation "and prosecution of William Prynn and Clement Walker, called before a "council of war, for thus tamely yielding up so important a garrison; "and was, thereupon, on the 28th of December following, condemned to "die, but afterwards reprieved, and escaped with his life, but quitted his "military employment."-Rushworth, Coll.,' vol. v. p. 284.

Lord Clarendon says that, notwithstanding the pardon for life, "the in"famy of the judgment could not be taken off; by which he became unfit "to continue an officer in the army; and the shame of it persuaded him "to quit the kingdom; so that he went for some time into foreign parts, retaining still the same disaffection to the government of church and state, "and only grieved that he had a less capacity left to do hurt to either." -Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 346.

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Ibid., p. 149. See Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus,' c. 21.

at having a task imposed upon them which was all but physically impracticable, and which was determined upon against the opinion of their own officers and commanders. Nor was this the only ground of complaint that Rupert's conduct afforded both to the army with which he was co-operating and to its general. Lord Hertford naturally regarded himself as Commander-in-Chief in those counties over which he held the King's commission as Lieutenant-General; yet the treaty was actually entered into by Prince Rupert without his advice, and the articles concluded without even naming him or noticing that he was there. Another and most disgraceful circumstance followed the surrender of the city, and left a stain upon a portion of the King's army that no success could wipe out; the articles agreed on and signed were shamefully disregarded, and plunder and violence followed, for which there was no longer the plea of resistance to be urged in excuse.1 Finally a quarrel arose between

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'Nathaniel Fiennes, the unhappy governor of Bristol, holds the Princes guiltless of any share in these outrages. "I must do this right to the "Princes," he says, contrary to what I find in a printed pamphlet, that "they were so far from sitting on their horses, triumphing and rejoicing "at these disorders, that they did ride among the plunderers with their "swords, hacking and slashing them, and that Prince Rupert did excuse "it to me in a very fair way, and with expressions as if he were much "troubled at it."-Quoted in Eliot Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers,' vol. ii. p. 267, from a pamphlet in Mr. Bentley's possession.

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It is clear that, in Lord Clarendon's opinion, blame was deservedly attached to the officers in command for the manner in which they forbore to punish the offenders; and "because there was but little justice done upon the transgressors, it was believed to be done by the connivance "from the officers, and more discredited the King's forces and his cause “than was taken notice of or discovered."-Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. P. 148.

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