1644-1645

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ... morning a fresh attempt was more successful, and a success" third part of the town perished in the flames. Yet, in desperate case as he was, the indomitable Blake continued his resistance. Whether he knew or not that relief was at hand, the besiegers knew it, and even exaggerated the numbers of the May 11. approaching force. On the nth, just as Blake had £condfsie=ge exhausted his ammunition, the Royalists, for the w Taunton. second time, broke up the siege and moved hastily away. Outside the walls the relieving force was saddened by the spectacle of devastated fields and deserted villages. Inside was the heroic garrison under its trusty leader.1 Blake's achievement had been no useless display of chivalry. To preserve Taunton was to paralyse the royal forces in the West, and to paralyse those forces was to deprive Charles of that help without which he could hardly hope to preserve himself from desperate failure. Charles was now able to march whither he would. On May 7, three days before the fate of Taunton was decided, he May 7. rode out of Oxford with Rupert and Goring. A iSv«ms courtly astrologer predicted a splendid victory for Oxford. him, and announced the desolation which was about to fall on the rebellious city of London.2 Yet even after the accession of the forces under Rupert and Goring, the King could count in his army no more than 11,000 men, and it was only by the ablest generalship that such an army could be made available against the far superior forces amidst which it was placed. 1 Weldon to Fairfax, May II, Two Letters, E. 284, 9; A great victory, E. 284, 11; Culpepper to the King, May 11; Sir J. Digby to Digby, May 18, S.P. Dom. dvii. 70. 2 Wharton, An Astrologicaljudgment. E. 286, 31.../,'! 1645 A DIVIDED COUNCIL. 209 How l...