They fell
in with us, just as people were going to bed, and having beaten the
out-guards, were gotten into the middle of the town before our men
could get on horseback. Sir Nicholas Crisp, hearing the alarm, gets
up, and with some of his clothes on, and some off, comes into my
chamber. "We are all undone," says he, "the Roundheads are upon us."
We had but little time to consult, but being in one of the principal
inns in the town, we presently ordered the gates of the inn to be
shut, and sent to all the inns where our men were quartered to do the
like, with orders, if they had any back-doors, or ways to get out, to
come to us. By this means, however, we got so much time as to get on
horseback, and so many of our men came to us by back ways, that we had
near 300 horse in the yards and places behind the house. And now we
began to think of breaking out by a lane which led from the back side
of the inn, but a new accident determined us another, though a worse
way.
The enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards of the
inns, Colonel Spencer, the other colonel, whose regiment of horse lay
also in the town, had got on horseback before us, and engaged with
the enemy, but being overpowered, retreated fighting, and sends to Sir
Nicholas Crisp for help.
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