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Defoe, Daniel, 1661-1731

"Memoirs of a Cavalier A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632 to the Year 1648."

He had not a garrison, or a company of soldiers in his
pay, not a stand of arms, or a barrel of powder, a musket, cannon
or mortar, not a ship of all the fleet, or money in his treasury to
procure them; whereas the Parliament had all his navy, and ordnance,
stores, magazines, arms, ammunition, and revenue in their keeping.
And this I take to be another defect of the king's counsel, and a sad
instance of the distraction of his affairs, that when he saw how all
things were going to wreck, as it was impossible but he should see it,
and 'tis plain he did see it, that he should not long enough before it
came to extremities secure the navy, magazines, and stores of war, in
the hands of his trusty servants, that would have been sure to have
preserved them for his use, at a time when he wanted them.
It cannot be supposed but the gentry of England, who generally
preserved their loyalty for their royal master, and at last heartily
showed it, were exceedingly discouraged at first when they saw the
Parliament had all the means of making war in their own hands, and the
king was naked and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or money
to procure them.


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