The
fight was very sharp for the time, and near 700 men, on both sides,
were killed; but Sir William would not put it to a general engagement,
so the prince drew off, contenting himself to have insulted him in his
quarters.
We now had received orders from the king to join him; but I
representing to the prince the condition of my regiment, which was
now 100 men, and that, being within twenty-five miles of my father's
house, I might soon recruit it, my father having got some men together
already, I desired leave to lie at Shrewsbury for a month, to make up
my men. Accordingly, having obtained his leave, I marched to Wrexham,
where in two days' time I got twenty men, and so on to Shrewsbury. I
had not been here above ten days, but I received an express to come
away with what recruits I had got together, Prince Rupert having
positive orders to meet the king by a certain day. I had not mounted
100 men, though I had listed above 200, when these orders came; but
leaving my father to complete them for me, I marched with those I had
and came to Oxford.
The king, after the rout of the Parliament forces in the west, was
marched back, took Barnstaple, Plympton, Launceston, Tiverton, and
several other places, and left Plymouth besieged by Sir Richard
Grenvile, met with Sir William Waller at Shaftesbury, and again at
Andover, and boxed him at both places, and marched for Newbury.
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