60 THE CIVIL WAR IN DEVON. 



the king's own hand, Rich, the chancellor, replied, 

 that the warrant was insufficient, as not having the 

 broad seal attached to it. In the end, however, Sir 

 Peter was dispatched once more into the west, to 

 joiti Lord Russel, whom he found at Honiton, 

 with few attendants, and those of doubtful fealty. 

 Indeed so critical had grown his position, in absence 

 of all aid from court, that he thought at one time of 

 retreating into Dorsetshire ; but a timely loan, raised 

 for him by three wealthy merchants of Exeter, fol- 

 lowed by reinforcements from the king, put him at 

 length in a condition to meet the rebels, who had 

 advanced to meet him as far as Pennington Bridge. 

 This was soon forced, not, however, without some 

 loss, and although the royal troops received a partial 

 check, being attacked by a fresh body of Cornish 

 insurgents, while engaged in stripping the slain, the 

 rebels were at length put to flight : Lord Russel 

 deterred from advancing at once on Exeter by a false 

 alarm, raised by one Jolly his fool ^ returned to Honi- 

 ton to await further reinforcements. These presently 

 joined him, consisting of a body of horse under the 

 command of Lord Grey of Wilton, and others, and 

 three hundred foreign musqiieteers, commanded 

 by Baptiste Spinola, a noble Genoese. 



On the 3rd of August, the royal camp then lying 

 at Woodbury was attacked, but without success, by 

 the rebels of Clyst : it does, however, argue much for 

 the triumph of the king's troops in this skirmish, in 

 which a windmill, belonging to the loyalist owner of 

 Woodbury, was destroyed, — that a thanksgiving 

 sermon on the occasion, preached by Lord Russel's 

 chaplain, the celebrated Miles Coverdale, afterwards 

 bishop of this diocese, was interrupted by the report 

 of a renewed attack. Indeed, the reckless valor of 

 the insurgents, while it drew forth its meed of well- 

 deserved applause from the veteran Lord Grey, 

 kept the royal forces in continued apprehension ; 

 what they wanted in discipline, they strove to sup- 

 ply by the suddenness of their onslaught. But wh^n 



