[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1644.  April 20.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1644.  June 3.]

passed with seven thousand men between the hostile divisions, and arrived in safety at Worcester.[a] The jealousy of the commanders did not allow them to act in concert.  Essex directed his march into Dorsetshire;[b] Waller took on himself the task of pursuing the fugitive monarch.  Charles again deceived him.  He pretended to advance along the right bank of the Severn from Worcester to Shrewsbury;[c] and when Waller, to prevent him, hastened from Broomsgrove to take possession of that town, the king turned at Bewdley, retraced his steps to Oxford,[d] and, recruiting his army, beat up the enemy’s quarters in Buckinghamshire.  In two days Waller had returned to the Charwell, which separated the two armies; but an unsuccessful action at Copredy Bridge[e] checked his impetuosity, and Charles, improving the advantage to repass the river, marched to Evesham in pursuit of Essex.  Waller did not follow; his forces, by fatigue, desertion, and his late loss, had been reduced from eight thousand to four thousand men, and the committee of the two kingdoms recalled their favourite general from his tedious and unavailing pursuit.[1]

During these marches and counter-marches, in which the king had no other object than to escape from his pursuers, in the hope that some fortunate occurrence might turn the scale in his favour, he received the despatch already mentioned from the marquess of Newcastle.  The ill-fated prince instantly saw the danger which threatened him.  The fall of York would deprive him of the northern counties, and the subsequent junction of the besieging army with his opponents in the south would constitute a force

[Footnote 1:  Rushworth, v. 670-676.  Clarendon, iv. 487-493, 497-502.  Baillie, ii. 38.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1644.  June 3.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1644.  June 6.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1644.  June 15.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1644.  June 20.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1644.  June 29.]

against which it would be useless to struggle.  His only resource was in the courage and activity of Prince Rupert.  He ordered[a] that commander to collect all the force in his power, to hasten into Yorkshire, to fight the enemy, and to keep in mind that two things were necessary for the preservation of the crown,—­both the relief of the city, and the defeat of the combined army.[1]

Rupert, early in the spring, had marched from his quarters at Shrewsbury, surprised the parliamentary army before Newark,[b] and after a sharp action, compelled it[c] to capitulate.  He was now employed in Cheshire and Lancashire, where he had taken Stockport, Bolton, and Liverpool, and had raised[d] the siege of Latham House, after it had been gallantly defended during eighteen weeks by the resolution of the countess of Derby.  On the receipt of the royal command, he took with him a portion of his own men, and some regiments lately arrived from Ireland; reinforcements poured