CHAPTER 1685. wards Wiltshire. 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 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, * Reference is made to Adlam's intelligence, page 252. 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. III. 1685. he might confidently offer battle to the Royal army; CHAPTER 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 suppressed. country, 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 Declaration in the market-place. Many of the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns of Westbury and 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, III. 1685. CHAPTER 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 CHAPTER 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. From this state of torpor, however, he appears to have been effectually roused, by a brisk attack that was made 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 enemy's rear, *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 lainented, 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 man at sea." Burnet, III. 83. He distinguished himself particularly in the action off Beachy-head that same year. Sir J. Dalrymple, II. 131. E III. 1685. Attacked at Philip's-Nor June 27. III. 1685. CHAPTER 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, who had lined The Royalists 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, |