Nor did they behave unworthy of
themselves in their first showing their faces to the enemy, as shall
be mentioned in its place.
While the king remained at Shrewsbury, his loyal friends bestirred
themselves in several parts of the kingdom. Goring had secured
Portsmouth, but being young in matters of war, and not in time
relieved, though the Marquis of Hertford was marching to relieve him,
yet he was obliged to quit the place, and shipped himself for Holland,
from whence he returned with relief for the king, and afterwards
did very good service upon all occasions, and so effectually cleared
himself of the scandal the hasty surrender of Portsmouth had brought
upon his courage.
The chief power of the king's forces lay in three places, in Cornwall,
in Yorkshire, and at Shrewsbury. In Cornwall, Sir Ralph Hopton,
afterwards Lord Hopton, Sir Bevil Grenvile, and Sir Nicholas Slanning
secured all the country, and afterwards spread themselves over
Devonshire and Somersetshire, took Exeter from the Parliament,
fortified Bridgewater and Barnstaple, and beat Sir William Waller at
the battle of Roundway Down, as I shall touch at more particularly
when I come to recite the part of my own travels that way.
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