155 
Sir William Waller, who besides his other duties, had himself 
charged four times, at this critical juncture seeing that one more 
effort would decide the day, earnestly commanded and urged his 
musketeers to come from their shelter; but these willing enough, 
and who had done well enough behind the hedges and “ straw 
walls,” could not by any means be induced to go out in the open 
field again.* A 
Both sides were in fact so exhausted that gradually they both 
ceased firing and were content to stand still and look at each other, 
until night coming ‘on a renewal of the combat was impossible. 
The firing, which on the hill had commenced about mid-day, 
continued until nearly midnight, “legs and arms flying apace,” by 
which time all “ who had a mind to fight had had enough of it.” 
With the darkness and cessation there came a great silence in both 
armies ; but about one o’clock the royalist commanders, keeping 
watch at the head of their troops, detected the approach of both 
horse and foot marching without the usual sound of drum and 
trumpet, and soon they received asmart volley of small shot which 
was answered by a “similar token,” and then all was quiet again.t 
This salute produced some alarm in the royalist camp. By 
some it was supposed that under cover of the night Sir William 
Waller would try and regain his lost ground ; and this idea caused 
a “general apprehension,” as the weary remnant of the army, 
being now seated like a heavy stone on the very brow of the hill, 
by one lucky charge might have been rolled to the bottom.{ By 
others it was judged to be a last volley before retreating, and 
these proved to be right ; for finding himself in exactly the same 
plight as his enemy, when one more attack would have been 
destruction, and that it was impossible to get his men to move, 
Waller ordered lighted matches to be stuck in the wall which pro- 
tected his foot, so to deceive his foe, and then marching quietly, 
but taking his cannon with him, he retreated his whole force 
into Bath. 
® Parliament Scout, + Clar. MSS. t Clar. MSS, 
