Abingdon, Wallingford, Basing, and Reading, were all garrisoned and
fortified as outworks to defend this as the centre. And thus all
England became the theatre of blood, and war was spread into every
corner of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. I had
no command in this army. My father led his own regiment, and, old as
he was, would not leave his royal master, and my elder brother stayed
at home to support the family. As for me, I rode a volunteer in the
royal troop of guards, which may very well deserve the title of a
royal troop, for it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of the
nobility, and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and I think not
a person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. We reckoned in this
troop two and thirty lords, or who came afterwards to be such,
and eight and thirty of younger sons of the nobility, five French
noblemen, and all the rest gentlemen of very good families and
estates.
And that I may give the due to their personal valour, many of this
troop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops under their
command in the service of the king, many of them lost their lives for
him, and most of them their estates.
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