At his advancing so far as Bridgnorth, Sir William Brereton fled up
into Lancashire; the Scots brigades who were with him retreated into
the north, while yet the king was above forty miles from them, and all
things lay open for conquest. The new generals, Fairfax and Cromwell,
lay about Oxford, preparing as if they would besiege it, and gave
the king's army so much leisure, that his Majesty might have been at
Newcastle before they could have been half way to him. But Heaven,
when the ruin of a person or party is determined, always so infatuates
their counsels as to make them instrumental to it themselves.
The king let slip this great opportunity, as some thought, intending
to break into the associated counties of Northampton, Cambridge,
Norfolk, where he had some interests forming. What the design was,
we knew not, but the king turns eastward, and marches into
Leicestershire, and having treated the country but very indifferently,
as having deserved no better of us, laid siege to Leicester.
This was but a short siege; for the king, resolving not to lose time,
fell on with his great guns, and having beaten down their works, our
foot entered, after a vigorous resistance, and took the town by storm.
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