CHAFTER 1685. Bristol. all apprehensions of any material interruptions were removed, by an account of the militia having left Wells, and retreated to Bath and Bristol. From Glastonbury he went to Shipton-Mallet, where the project of an attack upon Bristol was first communicated by the Duke Design to attack to his officers. After some discussion, it was agreed that the attack should be made on the Gloucestershire side of the city, and with that view, to pass the Avon at Keynsham-bridge, a few miles from Bath. In their march from Shipton-Mallet, the troops were again harassed in their rear by a party of horse and dragoons, but lodged quietly at night at a village called Pensford. A detachment was sent early the next morning to possess itself of Keynsham, and to repair the bridge, which might probably be broken down, to prevent a passage. Upon their approach, a troop of the Gloucestershire horse militia immediately abandoned the town in great precipitation, leaving behind them two horses and one man. By break of day, the bridge, which had not been much injured, was repaired, and before noon Monmouth, having passed it with his whole army, was in full march to Bristol, which he determined to attack the ensuing night. But the weather proving rainy and bad, it was deemed expedient to return to Keynsham, a measure from which he expected to reap a double advantage; to procure dry and commodious quarters for the soldiery, and to lull the enemy, by a movement which bore the semblance of a retreat, into a false and III. 1685. CHAPTER delusive security. The event however did not answer his expectation, for the troops had scarcely taken up their quarters, when they were disturbed by two parties of horse, who entered the town at two several places. An engagement ensued, in which Monmouth lost fourteen men, and a captain of horse, though in the end the Royalists were obliged to retire, leaving three prisoners. From these the Duke had information that the King's army was near at hand, and as they said, about four thousand strong. Marches towards Wilt shire. This new state of affairs seemed to demand new councils. The projected enterprize upon Bristol was laid aside, and the question was, whether to make by forced marches for Gloucester, in order to pass the Severn at that city, and so to gain the counties of Salop and Chester where he expected to be met by many friends, or to march directly into Wiltshire, where, according to some intelligence received * [" from one Adlam,"] the day before, there was a considerable body of horse, (under whose command does not appear,) ready, by their junction, to afford him a most important and seasonable support. To the first of these plans, a decisive objection was stated. The distance by Gloucester was * Reference is made to Adlam's intelligence, page 238. It is clear therefore that Mr. Fox had intended to name him, but as he omitted to do so, the words between the inverted commas, have been inserted by the Editor. so great, that considering the slow marches to which he would be limited, by the daily attacks with which the different small bodies of the enemy's cavalry would not fail to harass his rear, he was in great danger of being overtaken by the King's forces, and might thus be driven to risk all in an engagement upon terms the most disadvantageous. On the contrary, if joined in Wiltshire by the expected aids, he might confidently offer battle to the Royal army; and provided he could bring them to an action before they were strengthened by new reinforcements, there was no unreasonable prospect of success. The latter plan was therefore adopted, and no sooner adopted than put in execution. The army was in motion without delay, and being before Bath on the morning of the twenty-sixth of June, summoned the place, rather, (as it should seem,) in sport than in earnest, as there was no hope of its surrender. After this bravado they marched on southward to Philip'sNorton, where they rested; the horse in the town, and the foot in the field. at Froome June 25. While Monmouth was making these marches, there Insurrection were not wanting in many parts of the adjacent country, suppressed. strong symptoms of the attachment of the lower orders of people to his cause, and more especially in those manufacturing towns, where the Protestant dissenters were numerous. In Froome, there had been a considerable rising headed by the constable, who posted up the Duke's De III. 1685. CHAPTER claration in the market-place. Many of the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns of Westburyand Warminster,came in throngs to the town to join the insurgents; some armed with fire-arms, but more with such rustick weapons as opportunity could supply. Such a force, if it had joined the main army, or could have been otherwise directed by any leader of judgment and authority, might have proved very serviceable; but in its present state it was a mere rabble, and upon the first appearance of the Earl of Pembroke, who entered the town with a hundred and sixty horse, and forty musqueteers, fell, as might be expected, into total confusion. The rout was complete; all the arms of the insurgents were seized; and the constable, after having been compelled to abjure his principles, and confess the enormity of his offence, was committed to prison. Monmouth's disappoint ment. This transaction took place the twenty-fifth, the day before Monmouth's arrival at Philip's-Norton, and may have, in a considerable degree, contributed to the disappointment, of which we learn from Wade, that he at this time began bitterly to complain. He was now upon the confines of Wiltshire, and near enough for the bodies of horse, upon whose favourable intentions so much reliance had been placed, to have effected a junction, if they had been so disposed; but whether that Adlam's intelligence had been originally bad, or that Pembroke's proceedings at Froome had intimidated them, no symptom of such an intention could be discovered. A desertion took place in his army, which the exaggerated accounts in the Gazette made to amount to near two thousand men. These dispiriting circumstances, added to the complete disappointment of the hopes entertained from the assumption of the royal title, produced in him a state of mind but little short of despondency. He complained that all people had deserted him, and is said to have been so dejected, as hardly to have the spirit requisite for giving the necessary orders. CHAPTER III. 1685 Philip's-Nor From this state of torpor however, he appears to have Attacked at been effectually roused, by a brisk attack that was made ton. upon him on the twenty-seventh, in the morning, by the royalists, under the command of his half-brother, the Duke of Grafton. That spirited young nobleman, (whose intrepid courage, conspicuous upon every occasion, led him in this, and many other instances, to risk a life, which he finally lost * in a better cause,) heading an advanced detachment of Lord Faversham's army, who had marched from Bath, with a view to fall on the At the siege of Cork in 1690. "In this action," (the taking of Cork by storm,)" the Duke of Grafton received a shot, of which he died in "a few days. He was the more lamented, as being the person of all King Charles's children, of whom there was the greatest hope; he was "brave, and probably would have become a great mau at sea." Burnet, III. 83. He distinguished himself particularly in the action off Beachyhead that same year. Sir J. Dalrymple, II. 131. E. |