Upon a fair calculation of his troops in several garrisons and small
bodies dispersed about, I convinced the king, by his own accounts,
that he might have two complete armies, each of 25,000 foot, 8000
horse, and 2000 dragoons; that the Lord Goring and the Lord Hopton
might ship all their forces, and come by sea in two tides, and be
with him in a shorter time than the enemy could follow. With two such
bodies he might face the enemy, and make a day of it; but now his men
were only sacrificed, and eaten up by piecemeal in a party-war,
and spent their lives and estates to do him no service. That if the
Parliament garrisoned the towns and castles he should quit, they would
lessen their army, and not dare to see him in the field: and if they
did not, but left them open, then 'twould be no loss to him, but he
might possess them as often as he pleased.
This advice I pressed with such arguments, that the king was once
going to despatch orders for the doing it; but to be irresolute in
counsel is always the companion of a declining fortune; the king was
doubtful, and could not resolve till it was too late.
And yet, though the king's forces were very low, his Majesty was
resolved to make one adventure more, and it was a strange one; for,
with but a handful of men, he made a desperate march, almost 250 miles
in the middle of the whole kingdom, compassed about with armies and
parties innumerable, traversed the heart of his enemy's country,
entered their associated counties, where no army had ever yet come,
and in spite of all their victorious troops facing and following him,
alarmed even London itself and returned safe to Oxford.
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