[Footnote 1:  His army was reduced to “four thousand or five thousand men, and these much malcontented that their general and they should be misprised, and Waller immediately prized.”—­Baillie, i. 391.  He had three thousand marching men, and three hundred sick.—­Journals, vi. 160.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1643.  July 5] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1643.  July 13]

they met the unfortunate general in triumphal procession, and the speaker of the Commons officially returned him thanks for his services to his country.[1][a]

This tone of defiance did not impose on the advocates of peace.  Waller’s force was annihilated; the grand army, lately removed to Kingston, had been so reduced by want and neglect, that Essex refused to give to it the name of an army; the queen had marched without opposition from Yorkshire to Oxford, bringing to her husband, who met her on Edge-hill, a powerful reinforcement of men, artillery, and stores[b]; and Prince Rupert, in the course of three days, had won the city and castle of Bristol, through the cowardice or incapacity of Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor.[2][c] The cause of the parliament seemed to totter on the brink of ruin; and the Lords, profiting of this moment of alarm, sent to the Commons six resolutions to form the basis of a new treaty.  They were favourably received; and after a debate, which lasted till ten at night, it was resolved by a majority of twenty-nine to take them into consideration.[3][d]

But the pacific party had to contend with men of

[Footnote 1:  Rushworth, v. 284, 285.  Clarendon, ii. 278, 290.  Journals, July 27.  May, 201—­205.  His first successes were attributed to Colonel Hurry, a Scotsman, though Waller held the nominal command—­Baillie, i. 351.  But Hurry, in discontent, passed over to the king, and was the planner of the expedition which led to the death of Hampden.—­Clarendon, ii. 264.  Baillie, i. 371.]

[Footnote 2:  Fiennes, to clear himself from the imputation of cowardice, demanded a court-martial, and Prynne and Walker, who had accused him in their publications, became the prosecutors.  He was found guilty, and condemned to lose his head, but obtained a pardon from Essex, the commander-in-chief.—­Howell, State Trials, iv. 186-293.]

[Footnote 3:  Clarendon Papers, ii. 149.  The Lords had in the last month declared their readiness to treat; but the proceedings had been suspended in consequence of a royal declaration that the houses were not free, nor their votes to be considered as the votes of parliament.—­Journals, vi. 97, 103, 108.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1643.  July 27] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1643.  July 13] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1643.  July 27] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1643.  August 5]