The Parliament questioned Colonel
Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor, and had him tried as a coward by a
court-martial, and condemned to die, but suspended the execution also,
as the king did the governor of Reading. I have often heard Prince
Rupert say, they did Colonel Fiennes wrong in that affair; and that if
the colonel would have summoned him, he would have demanded a passport
of the Parliament, and have come up and convinced the court that
Colonel Fiennes had not misbehaved himself, and that he had not a
sufficient garrison to defend a city of that extent; having not above
1200 men in the town, excepting some of Waller's runaways, most of
whom were unfit for service, and without arms; and that the citizens
in general being disaffected to him, and ready on the first occasion
to open the gates to the king's forces, it was impossible for him to
have kept the city. "And when I had farther informed them," said the
prince, "of the measures I had taken for a general assault the next
day, I am confident I should have convinced them that I had taken the
city by storm, if he had not surrendered."
The king's affairs were now in a very good posture, and three armies
in the north, west, and in the centre, counted in the musters about
70,000 men besides small garrisons and parties abroad.
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