I confess, I thought
here was a great deal more gallantry than discretion; for it was
plainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and putting it into
the hands of the enemy. An enemy that must fight, may always be fought
with to advantage. My old hero, the glorious Gustavus Adolphus, was as
forward to fight as any man of true valour mixed with any policy need
to be, or ought to be; but he used to say, "An enemy reduced to a
necessity of fighting is half beaten."
Tis true, we were all but young in the war; the soldiers hot and
forward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with the enemy. But
I take the more notice of it here, because the king in this acted
against his own measures; for it was the king himself had laid the
design of getting the start of Essex, and marching to London. His
friends had invited him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeply
for the omission; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, and
suffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; an error,
I say, the King of Sweden was never guilty of. For if all the officers
at a council of war were of a different opinion, yet unless their
reasons mastered his judgment, their votes never altered his measures.
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