POLITICAL HISTORY 



Charles's pursuit of Essex had been made by way of Somerset, but his 

 return, after Lostwithiel, was through Dorset. Early in August Rupert, 

 unable himself after Marston Moor and the surrender of York to leave his 

 post in the north, had sent down into the west Goring, ' that double traitor,, 

 drunken, and dissolute.' The securing of Dorset against the return of the 

 victorious Cavaliers became thus a necessity to the Parliament. Their horse, 

 under Sir William Balfour, had escaped at Lostwithiel, and Essex himself, 

 who had slipped away and gone by sea to Plymouth, had still some shreds of 

 credit with the Houses. He was assured that Manchester and Waller had 

 been ordered to march to Dorchester, to hold the ground till his own troops 

 could be re-equipped.^ Through the intervention of Prince Maurice they were 

 however unable immediately to effect the desired junction at Dorchester.^ 

 But by 12 September they had joined forces. Their first step was to 

 strengthen the port towns and ' block up Corfe Castle ' by an addition of 500 

 men to the Wareham garrison.'* ' Then to Blandford, to endeavour the 

 gathering of the Dorset and Wilts horse into a body.' Their position in 

 Shaftesbury, the quarters chosen, was sufficiently insecure. The enemy were 

 already near the county, the king expected daily, and Waller ' knew of 

 nothing to hinder them from marching to London.'* He wrote from Poole 

 (15 September), 'I have not one horse come to me out of this county to 

 mount a musketeer, so that if the King advance, all I can do is to retire, before 

 I be forced to run.' ' He and his colleague, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, had in 

 fact been misled by the lavish promises of troops made to them by the 

 frightened people. ' All the thousands we heard of . . . are now one troop 

 of horse.' * Among what troops he had disaffection was rife, and even 

 desertion to the Rovalists was in the air.'' This arose from the distress, 

 amounting to absolute want, among both officers and men, from long with- 

 holding of pay due.' A major of horse was fain to borrow sixpence of the 

 general to get his horse shod.' Waller, writing (14 November) to the 

 Committee of Both Kingdoms, begged for even a fortnight's pay for ' those 

 poor foot ... in Dorsetshire, which will be a great encouragement.' '" 



Nevertheless the Royalists were not much better off than was the 

 Parliamentary army in East Dorset, watching their advance. So late as 

 29 September, Charles had got no further than Chard, and Waller reported 

 that ' though he calls in the county, yet we cannot learn that his army 

 increases.' ^^ The king's march eastward was hindered, and his forces 

 weakened, by the necessity of leaving men behind to block up the Parlia- 

 mentary garrisons of Plymouth, Taunton, and Lyme, in order to safeguard 

 his rear.'^ On 30 September he left Chard, and at South Perrott met Rupert, 

 who undertook to bring up 4,000 men from Bristol to join the army at 

 Sherborne.^* Charles was at Sherborne from 2 October to 8 October.^* Waller 



' Lords Journ. vi, 699. ' Cal. S. P. Dom. 1644, pp. 477, 480, 482, 486. 



' Ibid. 423, 502, 506. * Ibid. 489, 542. 



' Ibid. p. 506. ^ Ibid. 502. ' Ibid. 1644-5, p. 114. 



« Ibid. 124. Mbid. "Ibid. 135. 



" Ibid. p. 542. He himself at this time made a short expedition to Bridport (which h.-<d been held con- 

 tinuously for the Parliament since the beginning of the war), ' raising the posse com.' SymoniTs Diary, 

 24 Sept. 1644 (Camd. Soc). 



" Walker, Hist. Discoursa, 80-8. 



" Walker, op. cit. 98. Digby to Rupert, 20 Oct. 1644. Add. MSS. 18781, fol. 297. 



" Walker, op. cit. 165. 



155 



