THE SIEGE OF PLYMOUTH. 283 
a trumpeter summoning the town to surrender. The trumpeter, 
who according to Symonds ‘ was abused and imprisoned,” did not 
return until the next day, and then only with the message that 
the answer should be sent by one of the Roundhead drummers. 
All we know of this answer is that it must have been in the 
negative. On the 9th of the month (Monday) the army marched 
to. Roborough, where they camped, and whence Sir John Camps- 
field, with the Queen’s regiment of horse, was sent to demonstrate 
against the stubborn town; the only result being that when 
he returned the rebel horse followed him at a less respectful 
distance than was convenient. So on the Tuesday the army 
marched upon Plymouth, with drums beating and colours flying, 
and making, no doubt, a very gallant show in the eyes of the 
expectant Roundheads as they poured down, 15,000 strong, over 
the slopes of Mannamead and Compton. But the garrison were 
not moved by the spectacle; and so the march had to be made 
under ‘mercy of the enemy’s cannon,” which played upon the 
Cavaliers as they advanced. But they too were not easily to be 
daunted. The twenty-eight great guns were brought, and planted 
under shelter of a hedge within half cannon-shot of the outworks, 
and the battle began in earnest.* 
Next day the King resorted to negociation. His head-quarters 
were then at Yeoman Heales, at Widey. During the time that 
Charles lay before Plymouth he tried every means that ingenuity 
could suggest to obtain possession of the town—force, persuasion, 
treachery, bribes, blandishments. Plymouth was proof against 
them all. It was well it should be. I do not think it is claiming 
too much for the fame of the good old town to say that if it had 
been less staunch and true—some may call it less perverse and 
stubborn—the entire complexion of the Civil War might have 
changed. The whole of the West and South of England would 
have been at the mercy of the Royalists; and if this had not 
caused the war to take a different turn, it would have beyond 
doubt greatly prolonged the struggle. But Plymouth was true; 
and while it remained loyal to liberty it absorbed the energies of a 
Royalist army. 
Charles, in his summons of surrender, set forth : 
“That God having given him a great victory, yet as his desire was to 
reduce his people by acts of grace and clemency, so he is desirous of setting 
* SyMONDS. 
