The Doom of Cowardice

TO THE READER.

R Eader, I presume the following pages need no Apology, for their seasonablenes in times of War, or necessity in an Age of Timidity and Treachery. All men of valor will protest and join forces with me against Cowards; all persons of honor & sincerity, against Traitors, and Deceivers, (the only enemies here encountered;) especially in a public War, undertaken, managed for no other end, but the defense of Religion, Laws, Liberties, Justice, and bringing Delinquents, Traitors to their native Country, unto condign punishments ; In such a sacred warfare as this;

Nulla fides, pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur, is not only a Paradox, but a Prodigy, yea an inexpiable impiety: which ought to admit no other Centurions, or Soldiers, but such as Cornelius is recorded to be, Acts 10.1.2. A devout man, and one who feared God with all his house; which gave much Alms to the people (instead of plundering them) and prayed to God always ; Or in one word, such as that royal magnanimous General and Captain of God's Host, King David, was; A man after God's own heart, who shall fulfill all his will. To such Martial men as these (and I would to God all our Armies were wholly composed of no other) I know these lines will be very acceptable ; no ways displeasing. If any grow offended at them, I fear their indignation ariseth only from, or will be an evidence of thei • guilt in some particulars here arraigned, condemned by the Law o • Arms. If any complain of overmuch Brevity, let them know, that shor • Discourses are ever most suitable for men, for times of action. Soldiers who act much, can read but little. This induced me to present thee with a Manual only, in such a subject, which I could have amplified into a Volume: Dictum sapienti sat est. A few good presidents, are sufficient to inform, reform many persons, and abuses: which if these, through God's blessings, shall effect, I have the accomplishment o • my desire.

THE DOOME OF COWARDIZE and TREACHERY.

I T was one part of that excellent Military Discipline which God himself pr • scribed unto his own people when they went out to battle against their Enemies, that the Officers, should speak thus unto the people, (in nature of a public Proclamation:) Deut. 20.18. What man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? let him go & return unto his house • , le • t his brethren's hearts faint (by his flight or Cowardize) as well as his heart. In pursuance whereof; valiant Gideon having assembled an Army of thirty two thousand men, to fight against the Midianites, God commanded him, to go and proclaim in the Ears of the people, saying; whosoeever is fear • full and afraid, l • t him return and depart early from Mount Gilead (where they were assembled:) whereupon there returned of the people twenty two thousand, and there remained only ten thousand ; more then two parts of three, being pusillanimous Cowards; and therefore altogether unfit for martial affairs, better dismissed then retained in such a service. The like Proclamation, according to this Law, we find made by that heroic General of the Jews, Judas Maccabaeus. Cowardly, and timorous persons are no fit Soldiers to be employed in any temporal or spiritual Militia ; and therefore by God's own directions are • o be cashiered out of both. It is therefore the duty of every person, who takes upon him the profession of a Soldier, but more especially, the Office of a Governor or Commander, seriously to examine his own heart and spirit, wh • there he hath sufficient c • urage, valor, resolution (as well as skill or prudence) to execute, discharge, such a most generous calling, before he undertake it, that known speech of Chabrias being an experimental verity, That an Army of harts with a Lyon for their Leader, is more terrible then an Army of Lions with an heart for their Commander ; the Cowardice of the General being o • t times the overthrow of the most valorous Army, and the timorousness, or covetousness of the Governor, the loss of the strongest City or Castle, to the intolerable damage of those States or Princes who employ them in such military services.

Hence in all ages, cowardly, mercenary treacherous Soldiers and Governors, who through • ear or covetousness be • ray their trusts, have undergone most exemplary censures and punishments of an high strain • , as well for their ••• illanimity as treachery, fit to be publicly known in these times of War, for the terror of such Delinquents, and better encouragement of all men of Arms, valorously and faithfully to discharge the trusts they have taken upon them; even for fear of legal executions, where the advancement of their own honor and reputation, and public safety will not engage them faithfully to discharge their duties.

Not to trouble you with any foreign Histories, Laws or Customs of this nature, I shall present you only with some few domestic precedents; to which the industrious perusers of our Records and Annalls, may accumulate many more.

By the Laws of King Edward the Confessor, he who flieth from his Lord or fellow Soldier for fear of War, or death, in the conduct of the Horetock (or Captain) in any expedition by Sea or Land; let him lose all that is his, and his very life, and the Lord may lay hands on the land which he had formerly given to him. And he who shall be slain in War before his Lord, be it in the Land, or elsewhere, let his reliefes be pardoned, and his heirs enjoy his Monie and Land without any diminution, and divide it among themselves.

By the Statutes of 18. H. 6. c. 19.7. H. 7. c. 1.3. H. 8. c. 5.2. E. 6. c. 2.4. & 5. Phil. Mary c. 2.3.5. Eliz. c. 15. It is made no less then felony and death for any Soldiers, to depart from their Captains, without their license under hand; for which many Soldiers have been condemned & executed, a • you may read in Sir Edward Cooks, 6. Rep. f. 27. in the case of Soldiers. And before these Statutes Thomas Earl of Lancaster was proclaimed a Traitor by the whole Army in the .12. Yeare of King Edward the second, for departing in discontent from the Ar • ie, at the Siege of Berwick, by means whereof it was not taken, and the Siege raised. If then deserter • and forsakers only of their Captains and Military Service are punishable with death, then much more such Cowards and Fugitives, who like the Children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turn their backs and fly in the day of battle ; or refuse to stand in the gap, to make up the breach and repulse the Enemy.

For presidents of proceedings and judgments against Cowardly Soldiers, and Governous of Forts, take these ensuing instead of many. Henry de Essex, standard-bearer to the Kings of England by right of inheritance, was accused of high Treason in the second year, of King Henry the second by Robert de Montford his near kinsman, & vanquished by him in a Duel • at Reading, for his Cowardlie abandoning and throwing down the Standard Royal i • Northwales in the Battle against Prince Owen amidst the mountains, & flying when fiercely assaulted by the Welsh, whereby the Kings Army was endangered to be Routed: whereupon though his life was pardoned, yet his lands were seised into the Kings hand, and he shor • e and shut up a Monk in the Abbie of Reading, where he died :

From this memorable Record, I shall only observe these few particulars.

• First, that the surrender of Towns or Castles to the enemy, through cowardi • e or treachery, is properly examinable, and tryable only in Parliament, it being a detriment to the whole Kingdom, and so sit to be determined by the represe • tative body of the Kingdom.
• Secondly, That the cowardly delivering up of any Town or Castle by the Governor thereof to the enemy, is a capital offense, deserving death; and likewise the loss of it through his neglig • nce or default.
• Thirdly, That every Governor who takes upon him the custody of any Fort o • Town, is obliged in point of trust and duty, under pain of death, to defend it to the utmost extremity.
• Fourthly, That the concurrent a • s • nt of a Council of War or soldiers, to render up a Town to the enemy before utmost extremity, for the saving of the house • , lives, and goods of the soldiers or inhabitant • , is no excuse at all to justify or extenuate such a Governors dishonorable surrender and offense.
• Fifthly, That those who are accused of such an unworthy surrender of any Town or Castl •• ought to be apprehended and kept in saf • c • stody till their trials be past; and not suffered to go at large.
• Si • tly, That a Governors giving timely notice of the enemies approach, of the weakness of the Garrison, his suing for timely aid, and repulsing of the enemy for a season, will no ways excuse his surr • nder of a Town or Castle, unless he hold it out to the uttermost extremity, or surr • nder it by the consent of those who entrusted him with the custody thereof.
• Seventhly, That the violent battery of the walls, or draining of the dikes of any Castle or City, or any breaches made in them by the enemy (though extraordinary powerful) are no sufficient ca • ses or excuses for any Governor to surrender them upon composition to the enemy, whiles there is sufficient Victuals, Men, or Amu • ition, to defe • d them; and that they must in no wise be surr • ndred without consent of those who put in the Governor, till the greatest part of the Soldiers be sl • ine, the Victuals or Ammunition quite spent, and all hopes of relief dispaired of utterly, upon good grounds, Which is clear by the case of Weston, who made a better defense of the Castle of Outhr • wicke with 38 men only, against more th •• 800 • enemies (who bes •• ged, ass • ulted, battered it for six days together, with nine great Cannons, and other Engynes) and pleaded far more in the d • fence of his surrender of it, then many now can do for surrendering of Towns and Castles of far greater importance then this Castle was, in a shorter time then he did; when furnished with • arisons of many h • ndr • ds, and sufficient Victuals and Amunition, and that before any battery or assault made against the walls thereof: and yet for all this was Weston in full Parliament adjudged to death for it, though he sold the Vict •• ll and Prisoners to the enemy, and paid his soldiers wages, and other debts of the Castle with the money. When some of late have surrendered Victuals, Arms, Colours, Cannons, Prisoners, and all Magezines whatsoever to the enemy before they were nece ••• tated or enforced to it, to the Kingdom • unspeakable loss prejudice, and th • enemies infinite advantage.

In the Parliament Rol • of 7 R. 2. Num. 17. I find this case in Parliament in these term.

In the same Parliament of 7 R. • . Num. 22. The Bishop of Norwich general of the Forces sent over into Flaunders, having 4 Articles exhibited against him in this Parliament, touching that expedition, and the surrendering of Graveling to the enemy; to which he had given some former answer, (see Num. 15.17, 20, 21.) upon his second Arraignment had this proceeding.

Upon this Judgment the Temporalties of this Bishop were immediately seised into the Kings hands, and detained in them a long time for this his surrender of Graveling, a • Walsingham, Holinshed, Grafton, Speed, Trussel, in their Histories, and Godwin (in the life of this Bishop) attest, who had lost his life, had he been a Lay-man, only for the surrender of Burburgh and Graveling, which were manfully defended against a great power of the French, till aid was sent for into England, and Letters received from the King; but the aid not coming so speedily as was expected to him, he compounded with the French to rase Graveling to the ground, and to depart whether he would with his bag, baggage, and men. And yet for all this he was thus censured in Parliament, because he held not ou • the Town to the uttermost, though the enemy gained it not, and himself had formerly won it from them.

In this very Parliament of 7. R. 2. as I read in Walsingham, and in Holinshed, Speed, Grafton, Trussell, out of him, news came from the Northern parts, that the Castle of Berwicke was taken by the Scots, whose custody Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, then possessed by ancient right: the Scots, for money, fraudulently getting entrance into the said Castle by one who had the custody of it at the second hand, under the Earl. Hereupon by Duke John's procurement (as was reported) the said Earl on the fourth of December, for the loss of the said Royal Castle, by the Judgment of the Lord's and of the King then present in the said Parliament, had a sentence of condemnation publicly pronounced against him, notwithstanding that the said Earl had been summoned to the said Parliament by the Kings Writ, and would rather have tarried at home for the defense of his Country. But the execution of the said sentence was soon after released by the King, and the Earl by his indulgence restored to his life and possessions, which he was adjudged to lose. Whereupon he posted into the North, and calling his Forces and friends together, strongly besieged the said Castle, and in few days took it by composition, he giving the besieged their lives, moveables, and two thousand marks to surrender i • . And thus he was taught to keep his Forts more wisely for the future, and to commit the custody of them to more trusty and valiant persons.

The Lord Wentworth Governor of Calleys, delivering up that Town to the French, (after they had taken the Castle by force, made a breach in the Town walls, and slain above fourscore of the Garrison at one assault when they took the Castle, together with Sir Anthony Ager Marshall of the Town, and his son and heir) and that upon dishonorable terms, not without some suspicion of treachery, he was thereupon endicted in Queen Mary's days for his cowardly and treacherous surrender of this Town, contrary to his trust; and after that was arraigned at Westminster in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, the Marquess of Northampton bei • g his Judge, and Lord chief Steward of England for that day. But that noble man so nobly defended himself, that he was acquitted by his Peers, and wan a most honorable opinion for his many and faithful former •• rvices, otherwise he had lost his life.

Anno 27. H. 6. Caen being besieged by the French, the Duke of Sommerset Governor of Normandy then in it, being more pitious then hardy, moved with the dolour and love of his wife and children, called a Council of war, and would have surrendered it to the enemy upon composition: But Sir David Hall being Captain of the Town under the Duke of York, owner of the Town by the Kings gift, would not consent thereto without the Duke of Yorkes assent, (though the Duke alleged he was the Kings Deputy there, representing his person, and might do what he pleased, according to his discretion) it being committed to his immediately trust.

To give you some few Domesticke Examples of the punishment of treacherous surrenders of Fo • ts, and penalties inflicted for the same.

Anno 1312. being the twelfth year of Ed. the 2. his reign, Peter Spalding, to whom this King had entrusted the Town of Berwicke, treacherously sold and betrayed the same of the Scots for money. But Spalding, after the Treason done, had the reward of a Traitor; Robert King of Scots, to whom he sold and betrayed the Town, putting him to death, to save the King o • England the labor of hanging him for this Treason.

Sir John Annesley Knight, in the Parliament of 50 E. 3. (commonly styled, The good Parliament ) had accused Thomas Katrington Esquire of Treason, for selling and delivering up the Castle of S. Savior (built by the Lord John Chaundos within the Isle of Constantine ) to the French, for an instimable sum of money, when as he wanted neither means of defense, nor victuals: which Castle, had it not been thus traitorously alienated, had descended to the said Sir John in right of his wife, being next heir to the Lord Chaundos, offering to make good this accusation, and try it out by Duel; whereupon the said Thomas Katrington was then apprehended and imprisoned, but soon after by means of the Duke of Lancast • r and the Lord Latimer, (who then did what they pleased) released, being formerly their instrument and creature in peace and war, in all just and unjust, in true and false things; neither could the said Sir John obtain the effect of his suit till the Parliament of 3. Rich. 2. Anno 1380. some men affi • ming, That it was against the Laws of the Realm for any man of the Realm to fight such a duel for such a cause; Many who feared the like tax and • ccusation, did most of all hinder this trial: but at last, in this Parliament, the ancientest and truth-speaking Knights of the Realm being assembled, it was resolved, that for a foreign cause, such as the present was, which arose not within the limits of the Kingdom, and for the possession of transmarine things, it was lawful for any man to fight a duel, if the cause were before certified to the Constable and Marshall of the Realm, and the duel accepted by the parties in their presence. Where • pon a day of battle, and Lists were appointed them in the Court at Westminster, where this duel being solemnly fought on the seventh of June between these two Champions, in the presence of the King, Nobles, and an infinite multitude of people; the traitorous Esquire wa • vanquished by the Knight, to the joy the of common people, and to the grief of Traitors: the Esquire, who fainted in the place, died the next morning, to save the hangman a labor, else he should have been ex • cuted, as the Navarrois was in 7. Rich • 2. when vanquished in a like Duel before the King and Lord's in Parliament, by John Walsh Esquire, (whom he falsely accused of Treason, done beyond the Seas, against the King and Kingdom, upon the like occasion) though the Queen and many others interceded to save his life.

In the Parliament Rolls of 7. Rich. 2. num. 24. I find this Record. Item, Sir William de Elmham, Sir Thomas Tryvet, Sir Henry de Ferriers, and Sir William d • Farndon, Knights, and Robert Fitz-Ralph Esquire, who by the said charge formerly given in Parliament, had been with the Chancellor, and acknowledged and confessed to him, How that they had received certain sums of Frankes of gold of the French, in lawful and due manner, and not otherwise. To which they said,

In the Parliament of 28 Henry 6. Rot. 50, 51, 52. the Commons preferred divers Articles of high Treason to the King and Lord's against the Duke of Suffolk, a • ong others these ensuing; That he being Ambassador for the King of England to Charles, calling himself, French King, promised to Reynor King of Sicily, and to Charles Dangers his brother, enemies to the King, the release of Angeou, with the deliverance of the County of Maine, and the City of Mault or Mauns; which promise after his return he caused to be performed, to the Kings disinheritance and loss irrecoverable, and to the strengthening of his enemies, and feeblishment of the Duchy of Normandy. To the which Article he answered, That his Commission was, to conclude and do all things according to his discretion for the obtaining of a Peace, and because without delivery of those Countries, he perceived the Truce could not be obtained, he agreed to the release and deliverance of them.

Item, the said Duke within this your Realm, hath untruly counseled you to grant fro you without due consideration the Castle of Mawlyon de Sooll, and full many divers other great Lordships, Seigh • uries, Places, Offices, Profits, Revenues, Casualties, and Commodities within your said Duchy of Guyan, whereby your power there to support your Wars and Arms, and to pay the wages of your great Counselors, Captains, and Soldiers hath been so enfeebled, that your people of the same Duchy, neither your land there, might in no wise be defended.

Item, the said Duke of Suffolk without deliberation and advise of Your Counsel, hath caused Your Highness to grant to divers persons, many Captains Offices, Towns, Lordships, Places, Interesses, Profits and Revenues within Your Realm of France and Duchie of Normandy, to such persons as were not to You profitable, nor able, nor convenient to have or Governe any of the premises, nor ever had deserved to obtain of Your Grace any such grant; which hath been done by him for his great avail and lucre, and hath been one of the greatest means of the loss of the said Realm of France, and Dutchey of Normandy.

The Duke upon these Articles was committed to the Tower for one months space, to pacify the people, and then released by the Queens means, who entirely loved him: whereupon the Commons were so far from being pacified, that they were more enraged; openly denouncing, that it was a shame to all the whole Realm to see such a person, guilty of so many misdeeds, either to rule about a Prince, or to be had in honor, or suffered to go unpunished; Upon this the Commons rising up in divers places of the Realm in Companies under Captain Blewbeard, the Commons in Parliament earnestly beseeched the King, that such a person as assented to the release of Angeou, and deliverance of France, &c. might be extremely punished and tormented; and to be privy to this Fact, they accused as principal the said Duke of Suffolk, with John Bishop of Sal • bury, Sir James Fines, Lord Say, and others. Whereupon, the King plainly seeing, that neither glo •• ing would save, nor dissimulation appease the continual clam • r of the importunate Commons against the Queens Darling and his complices; to begin a shore pacification of so long a broile, first, he sequestered the Lord Say, being Treasurer of England, from his Office, (who for the same offense was after committed to the Tower, and after that beheaded by Jack Cade, and the kentish mutineers at the standard in Cheape-side, who carried his Head about the streets of London fixed on a p • le, &c. ) And then by his own authority, assembling all his Lord's Spiritual and Temporal together, on the 17 day of March, in a Chamber over the cloisters at Westminster, he arraigned and banished the said Duke for five years, against the Lord's and Commons consent, who would have capitally proceeded against him; meaning by this exile, to appease the present furious rage of the people, and that pacified, to recall him to his old estate, as the Queens chief friend and counselor. But fortune would not that he should so escape; for when he was shipped in Suffolk, intending to be transported into France, he was encountered by a Sip of War, appertaining to the Duke of Exceter, of which the Constable of the Tower of London was Captain, who entering the D • kes Ship with small • ight, brought him to Dover rode, and there on the side of a Cock-boat cut off his head, as a Traitor, and there left his body and head upon the Sands. S •• h was the end of these two ill Counselors, only for advising this weak King himself thus dishonorably and Cowardly to surrender up these Towns, Forts, and Territories in France, to his Enemies, to purchase an unhappy peace, to the Kings and Kindomes i • reparable great damage, dishonor, weakening, and the Enemies extraordinary advantage, strengthening and encouragement.

To these I shall subjoin one presi • ent more, of a different nature, necessary to be known and considered of by all Captains and Commanders, who defraud Soldiers of their wages, or the republiks, to enrich themselves.

In the fifty one year of King Edward the third, Sir John Minsterworth Knight was arraigned of Treason at the Guild-hall in London, before the Lord Major and other the Kings Justices, for that he had received great sums of Money of the King to have paid his Soldiers withal, and did it not, but kept the said sums of Money to his own use, and then fled to the French King, whereupon he conspired against his natural Prince and Sovereigne Lord ; of the which Treason he was found guilty; and therefore had judgment, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, which was executed accordingly. Indeed the Statutes of 18. Henry 6. c. 18.7. H. 7. c. 1.3. H. 8. c. 5: &. 2. E. 6. c. 2. Prescribe a milder penalty, a • Fining, Imprisonment, Cashiering, forfeiting of all Goods and Chattels, to Captains and Commanders, who shall abate their Soldiers Wages, or defraud them of their pay; or receive more pay for Soldiers then are actually in service under their Commandes (the Case some say of too many Captains now in these times,) but anciently this was, and in rigor of Law, still is, no less then a capital offense; which should make all Commanders honest, faithful in this kind; for fear of capital Censures, if convicted of such an injurious fraudulent Crime.

I shall close up these ancient Laws and Presidents, with some others of very late Edition.

Hi • Excellency the Earl of Essex, Lord General of the Parliaments Forces, in his Laws and Ordinances of War, established, for the better conduct of his Army, Printed at London September, 1642. Hath published • his Law in Print concerning the yield • ng up of any Town, &c.

WHOSOEVER yieldeth up ANY TOWNE, FORT, MAGAZINE VICTVALL, ARMES, AMVNITION, or that MENTIONETH, any such thing BVT UPON EXTREMITY, and that to the Governor, or in Council SHALL BE EXECVTED AS A TRAITOR.

This Law is very punctual, and penal; yea so plain • , that it need • no explanation; only it may be doubted, what may be called extremity. For this I shall refer you, to the forecited Cases of Weston, Gomeneys, Cressingh • m, Elmham, and the Bishop of Norwich: and to that incompaable late Martial Prince, the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, his Military Laws, touching the Surrender of Towns, where he reduceth extremity to these three heads.

• First, if the Garrison be reduced to an utter extremity of all eatable things whatsoever (be it Skins or Hides;) so as they have no kind of Food whereby to subsist, but must necessarily perish by Famine, if they yield not.
• Secondly, If there be no hope at all left them in such a Case, of any succor and relief.
• Thirdly, If without Parlying at that very instant, both the Forts, Men, and Arms must of necessi • y fall forthwith into the hands and power of the Besiegers.

If the Governor of a Town or Fort, can prove by pregnant Testimonies, that he was really reduced to all these extremities, then he is to be acquitted upon his trial; but if he fail in the real proof of any of these three, then he is to be condemned and executed as a Traitor, by this Kings Martial Laws. And whether all the Towns, Castles, Forts, late in the Parliaments possession, and since by the Governors thereof surrendered to the enemies hands by composition, without the Parliaments and his Excellencies previous consent • or privities, have been first reduced to all, or any of these extremities before they were yielded up, I refer to their most vigilant, just, and honorable Examination, whom it most concerns dilig • ntly to inquire thereinto, for their own and the whole Kingdoms future security: and severely to punish all timorous and treacherous Governors, who out of Cowardize or Avarice, have betrayed their Trusts, and in them the Parliament and whole Kingdom (as much as in them lay) as well as the particular Towns and Forts committed to their custody.

Upon this very Law and the Common Law of the Realm, Master Tomkins and Master Challenor were lately arraigned, condemned, and executed by Martial Law in London (and some others their confederates, arraigned and condemned, though not executed) in June and July last, for endeavoring to seize upon the Lord Major and Committee of the Militia for London, with some Members of the Parliament House, and to surprise the Tower of London, the Cities Bulwarks, Forts, Magazines, Gates, and other places of importan • e in the City, and to let in the Kings Forces to surprise the same: though they brought not this plot to such maturity as to put, or endeavor presently to put it into execution.

Yea, by color of the same Law, Colonel Thomas Essex, late Governor of Bristol, was suddenly apprehended and sent up prisoner to London, by Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, who succeeded him in the Government of that City and the Castle thereof; (upon some jealousies and presumptions only, That the said Colonel Essex would have surrendered the said City and Castle into the Kings • ands, had his Forces come th • re, and that before they were fully fortified ) though he never actually attempted any such surrender. (The case of Sir John Hotham for Hull too.)

And not long after divers Citizens of Bristol were apprehended, imprisoned, and put to their several fines and ransomes, and two of them (namely Yeomans and Butcher ) arraigned, condemned, and executed by martial Law in the streets of Bristol by Colonel Fiennes, only for conspiring to deliver up the said City and Castle to Prince Rupert and the Kings Forces, when they came first before it, though they effected not their design; and that before the City or Castle were completely fortified.

And yet (I know not by what ill fate, or accident) that Noble City and Castle (which even in William Rufus his reign was styled, Castrum Fortissimum, A MOST STRONG CASTLE) the Metropolis, Magazine, chief Mart and Bulwark • of the Wester •• parts, of infinite importance to • he Parliament and kingdom, (as this Colonel himself attesteth in his printed Relation, ) after it was strongly • ortified, victualed for three months s • ege or more, furnished with 55 piece of Cannon mounted in it, besides Murderers, and smaller pieces; manned with near two thousand Foot soldiers, and 300 Horse, or more; stored with no less then 60 Barrels of Powder in the Castle only when surrendered, (10 more then Gloucester had when it began to be besieged) besides what was in the Forts and City, Match sufficient, 500 Cannon shot or more, 50 great Granadoes (never one of them used;) and furnished with all manner of necessaries for a long brave defense and leaguer: was in less then • our days siege, and the loss only of seven or eight Garrison soldiers, with the death well-nigh of one thousand of th • enemies, before any out Forts were taken, or the Town or Castle-walls battered or assaulted; (upon a breach made only in the Line of Communication, and the entery of a small party of the enemies, not 200, (which might at first have been all easily cut off, into the out-skirts of one corner of the City,) were most unexpectedly surrendered up to the enemy by the said Governor, with all the Cannon, Arms, Ammunition, Victuals, Magazines, Colours, and Prisoners therein, (without the privity or consent of the Parliament or his Excellency) to the great astonishment and discouragement of the Parliaments party, the inestimable detriment, i • reparable loss of the whole Kingdom; the extraordinary strengthening, enriching, advantage of the enemies, and of the Irish and Welsh Rebels both by Land and Sea: The Narration and Articles of which surrender, which I need not particularly relate, with the consequences thereof, I shall here forbear to mention, since already published in print by Colonel Fiennes himself, in his Relation to the House of Commons, and L • tter to his Excellency: In Master Clement Walker his Answer to that Relation, The Tragedy of the Kings Armies fidelity since their entering into Bristol. The Relation of the siege of Gloucester, and other printed Mercuries ; the rather, because the more full examination of that unhappy action is referred by the Commons, upon the said Colonels motion, to a public trial before a general Council of war, in such a public convenient place, (in London or Westminster, as is conceived, where the Commons may be present) as his Excellency shall think fittest, for such a general cause of importance, to the whole Kingdom.

For other particulars formerly touched, his Excellency hath published these ensuing Laws.

• NO man shall abandon his Colours, or fly away in any Battle, upon pain of death.
• If a Pike-man throw away his Pike, or a Musketeer his Musket, or Bandalier, he or they shall be punished with death.
• Whosoever in skirmish shall fling away his Powder out of his Bandaliers, that he may the sooner come off, shall be put to death.
• A Regiment or Company of Horse or Foot, that chargeth the enemy, and retreats before they come to hand-strokes, shall answer it before a Council of War; and if the fault be found in the Officers, they shall be banished the Campe: if in the Soldiers, then every tenth man shall be punished at discr • tion, and the rest serve for Pioners and Scavengers, till a worthy exploit take off that blot.
• No Captain of a Troope shall present at the Master any but real Troopers, such as are bound by their pay to follow the Troope upon pain of cashiering without mercy. And if any Victualler, Feebooter, Enterloper or Soldier whatsoever, of any other Troope or Company shall present himself or his Horse in the Muster, to mislead the Muster-master, and to betray the service, the same shall be punished with death,
• No Muster-master shall wittingly let any pass in the muster, but such as are really of the Troope or Company presented, upon pain of death, &c.
• Any Officers that shall presume to defraud the Soldiers of their pay, or any part of it, shall be cashiered.

These few Presidents seriously considered, and Military Laws duly executed, will be a ready way to make our Captains and Soldiers courageous, our Officers incorrupt, our Governors trusty, our Towns and Forts secure against our enemies fiercest assaults, and finest underhand devices. I read in Henry Huntingdon, that all the Soldiers of Prince Robert, upon the magnanimous Oration of the Consul of Chester, holding up their hands, with a terrible shout abjured flight, and setting presently on the enemy, routed them utterly, and took King Stephen prisoner. I hope these Pages may produce the like effect, and work this generous resolution in all our Commanders, Governors, Soldiers; Hîc igitur vel vincendum, vel occumbendum, spes fugae nulla. I shall close all with the speech of this Consul. Necesse est ut ad probitatem confugiat, cui non potest esse aliud diffugium.