Our men, after the
country fashion, gave them a shout at parting, to let them see we knew
they were afraid of us.
However, this relieving of Gloucester raised the spirits as well as
the reputation of the Parliament forces, and was a great defeat to us;
and from this time things began to look with a melancholy aspect, for
the prosperous condition of the king's affairs began to decline. The
opportunities he had let slip were never to be recovered, and the
Parliament, in their former extremity, having voted an invitation
to the Scots to march to their assistance, we had now new enemies to
encounter; and, indeed, there began the ruin of his Majesty's affairs,
for the Earl of Newcastle, not able to defend himself against the
Scots on his rear, the Earl of Manchester in his front, and Sir Thomas
Fairfax on his flank, was everywhere routed and defeated, and his
forces obliged to quit the field to the enemy.
About this time it was that we first began to hear of one Oliver
Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spread
first into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed the
three kingdoms.
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