The king had a gallant army of 28,000 men whereof 11,000
horse, the finest body of gentlemen that ever I saw together in my
life; their horses without comparison, and their equipages the finest
and the best in the world, and their persons Englishmen, which, I
think, is enough to say of them.
According to the resolution taken in the council of war, the army
marched westward, and sat down before Gloucester the beginning of
August. There we spent a month to the least purpose that ever army
did. Our men received frequent affronts from the desperate sallies
of an inconsiderable enemy. I cannot forbear reflecting on the
misfortunes of this siege. Our men were strangely dispirited in all
the assaults they gave upon the place; there was something looked like
disaster and mismanagement, and our men went on with an ill will and
no resolution. The king despised the place, and thinking to carry it
sword in hand, made no regular approaches, and the garrison, being
desperate, made therefore the greater slaughter. In this work our
horse, who were so numerous and so fine, had no employment. Two
thousand horse had been enough for this business, and the enemy had no
garrison or party within forty miles of us, so that we had nothing to
do but look on with infinite regret upon the losses of our foot.
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