about three weeks ago. The Fairfaxes too are beaten from the field; glad to get into Hull,—which Hotham the Traitor was about delivering to her Majesty, when vigilant persons laid him fast.[1] And, in the end of May, Earl Stamford was defeated in the Southwest; and now Bristol has been suddenly surrendered to Prince Rupert,—for which let Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes (says Mr. Prynne, still very zealous) be tried by Court-Martial, and if possible, shot.
In the very hours while Cromwell was storming the sandhill near Gainsborough ‘by some tracks,’ honourable gentlemen at St. Stephen’s were voting him Governor of the Isle of Ely. Ely in the heart of the Fens, a place of great military capabilities, is much troubled with ‘corrupt ministers,’ with ‘corrupt trainbands,’ and understood to be in a perilous state; wherefore they nominate Cromwell to take charge of it.[2] We understand his own Family to be still resident in Ely.
The Parliament affairs, this Summer, have taken a bad course; and, except it be in the Eastern Association, look everywhere declining. They have lost Bristol, their footing in the Southwest and in the North is mostly gone; Essex’s Army has melted away, without any action of mark all Summer, except the loss of Hampden in a skirmish. In the beginning of August the King breaks out from Oxford, very clearly superior in force; goes to settle Bristol; and might thence, it was supposed, have marched direct to London, if he had liked. He decides on taking Gloucester with him before he quit those parts. The Parliament, in much extremity,
- ↑ Of Hotham: 29th June 1643 (Rushworth, v. 275-6);—of the Fairfaxes, at Adderton Moor: 30th June (ib. 279);—of Waller: 13th July (ib. 285; Clarendon, ii. 376-9). Stratton Fight in Cornwall, defeat of Stamford by Hopton, was 16th May; Bristol is 22d July (Rushworth, v. 271, 284).
- ↑ Commons Journals, iii. 186 (of 28th July 1643); ib. 153, 167, 180, etc. to 657 (9th October 1644).
