68 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1G44. 



retarded by those who called themselves the King s 

 friends, than obstructed by his enemies.&quot; 



It is certain that Lord Herbert acquired no military 

 celebrity. He was bold, determined, and energetic 

 when acting on the defensive, but he was not remark 

 able for any adventurous or brilliant aggressive suc 

 cesses. His troops were formidable in number, well 

 paid, and abundantly supplied with every requisite 5 

 but in all his reputed sieges, in all his encounters with 

 the foe, we seek in vain for any return of the slain, the 

 wounded, the prisoners taken, the disasters surmounted 

 and inflicted, and the splendid store of spoil acquired. 

 The red hand and unpitying slaughter of war are only 

 shadowed forth to us like shapeless forms, creations of 

 the imagination rather than even faint pictures of 

 reality. His Lordship s naturally studious habits would 

 seem to have incapacitated him from entering ardently 

 into the wanton destruction of human life and the in 

 fliction of severe injuries on multitudes, regarded by 

 him more as deluded neighbours than cruel adversaries. 

 Above forty years having passed over his head in the 

 experience only of plenteous, peaceful times, and 

 scholarly pursuits, he was no longer like the pliant 

 sapling, but partook more of the stability of the sturdy 

 oak. In perfect agreement with his own noble and 

 generous spirit, he no doubt expected, as he desired, an 

 early and complete compromise of the political differ 

 ences which were then spreading their baleful contagion 

 over the land. 



Nevertheless, it is rather remarkable that operations 

 on so extensive a scale, prosecuted at a large cost by a 

 single family, should have obtained comparatively so 

 little renown in the annals of the civil war: among 

 which we search in vain for details characterising the 

 martial deeds of Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert of 

 Raglan. 



