But the
armies were engaged that very day at Newbury, and I came in too late.
I had not behaved myself so as to be suspected of a wilful shunning
the action; but a colonel of a regiment ought to avoid absence
from his regiment in time of fight, be the excuse never so just, as
carefully as he would a surprise in his quarters. The truth is, 'twas
an error of my own, and owing to two day's stay I made at the Bath,
where I met with some ladies who were my relations. And this is far
from being an excuse; for if the king had been a Gustavus Adolphus, I
had certainly received a check for it.
This fight was very obstinate, and could our horse have come to action
as freely as the foot, the Parliament army had suffered much more; for
we had here a much better body of horse than they, and we never failed
beating them where the weight of the work lay upon the horse.
Here the city train-bands, of which there was two regiments, and whom
we used to despise, fought very well. They lost one of their colonels,
and several officers in the action; and I heard our men say, they
behaved themselves as well as any forces the Parliament had.
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