1642.] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 57 



them with a body of light troops, numbering about 2000. 

 The Welsh, without taking the least advantage arising 

 from their strong position, sounded a parley, and surren 

 dered on conditions which were readily granted ; in con 

 sequence of which, 1300 foot and three troops of horse 

 were led prisoners into Gloucester, where several were 

 kept for some time under strict confinement. Rushworth 

 states, under date 19th of March, 1642-3, that Lord 

 Herbert lost 500 men killed, and above 1000 taken pri 

 soners. Lord Herbert, we find from his own account, 

 was not present on the occasion of this defeat, for in 

 reference to this disaster he says : &quot; God forgive those 

 of the King s party, who were the occasion that 1500 

 gentlemen were surprised, and I not despatched from 

 Oxford until the day after. Yet at 14 days 7 warning I 

 brought 4000 foot and 800 horse to the siege of Glou 

 cester.&quot; But Rushworth and others erroneously speak 

 of his escaping to Oxford. 87 From first to last the defeat 

 cost his Lordship, according to his own showing, 

 60,000. 90 Such was the unpromising result of his 

 earliest enterprise in his new career, offering a very 

 gloomy foreboding of the future. He had been untir 

 ing in his exertions to raise those troops throughout 

 Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, and adjacent counties, 

 in which, as also in efforts to obtain sufficient stores for 

 the garrison at Raglan, he appears to have acted with 

 extraordinary energy. || 



During the progress of operations against Gloucester, 

 Lady Harley in her correspondence with her son, on 

 the 14th of February, 1642, says : &quot; Nine days past my 

 Lord Herbert was at Hereford, where he stayed a 



87 Rushworth. *&amp;gt; Somers Tracts, vol. v. p. 312. 



Jl Unpin states that after thus relieving Gloucester, Sir William Waller took 

 first Chepstow, and afterwards Monniouth. 



