III. 1685. CHAPTER enemy's rear, marched boldly up a narrow lane leading to the town, and attacked a barricade, which Monmouth had caused to be made across the way, at the entrance of the town. Monmouth was no sooner apprised of this brisk attack, than he ordered a party to go out of the town by a bye-way, who coming on the rear of the grenadiers, while others of his men were engaged with their front, had nearly surrounded them, and taken their commander prisoner, but Grafton forced his way through the enemy. An engagement ensued between the insurgents and the remainder of Faversham's detachment, The Royalists who lined the hedges which flanked them. The former were victorious, and after driving the enemy from hedge to hedge, forced them at last into the open field, where they joined the rest of the King's forces, newly come up. The killed and wounded in these rencounters amounted to about forty on Faversham's side, twenty on Monmouth's; but among the latter there were several officers, and some of note, while the loss of the former, with the exception of two volunteers, Seymour and May, consisted entirely of common soldiers. repulsed. The Royalists now drew up on an eminence, about five hundred paces from the hedges, while Monmouth having placed of his four field-pieces, two at the mouth of the lane, and two upon a rising ground near it on the right, formed his army along the hedge. From these stations, a firing of artillery was begun on each side, and continued near six hours, but with little or no effect; Monmouth, according to Wade, losing but one, and the Royalists, according to the Gazette, not one man, by the whole cannonade. In these circumstances, notwithstanding the recent and convincing experience he now had, of the ability of his raw troops, to face, in certain situations at least, the more regular forces of his enemy, Monmouth was advised by some to retreat; but, upon a more general consultation, this advice was overruled, and it was determined to cut passages through the hedges and to offer battle. But, before this could be effected, the royal army, not willing again to engage among the inclosures, annoyed in the open field by the rain, which continued to fall very heavily, and disappointed, no doubt, at the little effect of their artillery, began their retreat. The little confidence which Monmouth had in his horse, perhaps the ill opinion he now entertained of their leader, forbad him to think of pursuit, and having staid till a late hour in the field, and leaving large fires burning, he set out on his march in the night, and on the twenty-eighth in the morning, reached Froome, where he put his troops in quarter and rested two days. CHAPTER III. 1685. despondency. It was here he first heard certain news of Argyle's dis- Relapses into comfiture. It was in vain to seek for any circumstance in his affairs that might mitigate the effect of the severe blow inflicted by this intelligence, and he relapsed into CHAPTER 1685. the same low spirits as at Philip's-Norton. No diversion, at least no successful diversion, had been made in his favour: there was no appearance of the horse, which had been the principal motive to allure him into that part of the country; and what was worst of all, no desertion from the King's army. It was manifest, said the Duke's more timid advisers, that the affair must terminate ill, and the only measure now to be taken, was, that the General with his officers should leave the army to shift for itself, and make severally for the most convenient sea-ports, whence they might possibly get a safe passage to the continent. To account for Monmouth's entertaining even for a moment, a thought so unworthy of him, and so inconsistent with the character for spirit he had ever maintained, a character unimpeached, even by his enemies, we must recollect the unwillingness with which he undertook this fatal expedition; that his engagement to Argyle, who was now past help, was perhaps his principal motive for embarking at that time; that it was with great reluctance he had torn himself from the arms of Lady Harriet Wentworth, with whom he had so firmly persuaded himself that he could be happy in the most obscure retirement, that he believed himself weaned from ambition, which had hitherto been the only passion of his mind. It is true, that when he once yielded to the solicitations of his friends, so far as to undertake a business of such magnitude, it was his duty, (but a duty that required a stronger mind than his to execute,) } III. 1685. to discard from his thoughts all the arguments that had CHAPTER rendered his compliance reluctant. But it is one of the great distinctions between an ordinary mind and a superior one, to be able to carry on, without relenting, a plan we have not originally approved, and especially when it appears to have turned out ill. This proposal of disbanding was a step so pusillanimous and dishonourable, that it could not be approved by any council however composed. It was condemned by all except Colonel Venner, and was particularly inveighed against by Lord Grey, who was perhaps desirous of retrieving by bold words at least, the reputation he had lost at Bridport. It is possible too, that he might be really unconscious of his deficiency in point of personal courage till the moment of danger arrived, and even forgetful of it when it was passed. Monmouth was easily persuaded to give up a plan so uncongenial to his nature, resolved, though with little hope of success, to remain with his army to take the chance of events, and at the worst to stand or fall with men whose attachment to him had laid him under indelible obligations. Bridgewater. This resolution being taken, the first plan was to pro- Return to ceed to Warminster, but on the morning of his departure, hearing, on the one hand, that the King's troops were likely to cross his march and on the other, being informed by a Quaker before known to the Duke, that there was a great club army, amounting to ten thousand : CHAPTER 1685. Battle of Sedgemore. July 5th. men, ready to join his standard in the marshes to the westward, he altered his intention, and returned to Shipton-Mallet, where he rested that night, his army being in good quarters. From Shipton-Mallet he proceeded, on the first of July, to Wells, upon information that there was in that city some carriages belonging to the King's army, and ill guarded. These he found and took, and stayed that night in the town. The following day he marched towards Bridgewater, in search of the great succour he had been taught to expect; but found, of the promised ten thousand men, only a hundred and sixty. The army lay that night in the field, and once again entered Bridgewater on the third of July. That the Duke's men were not yet completely dispirited or out of heart, appears from the circumstance of great numbers of them going from Bridgewater to see their friends at Taunton, and other places in the neighbourhood, and almost all returning the next day according to their promise. On the fifth an account was received of the King's army being considerably advanced, and Monmouth's first thought was to retreat from it immediately, and marching by Axbridge and Keynsham to Gloucester, to pursue the plan formerly rejected, of penetrating into the counties of Chester and Salop. His preparations for this march were all made, when, on the afternoon of the fifth, he learnt, more accurately than he had before done, the true situation of the royal |