[Footnote 1:  Clarendon, ii. 504.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D.. 1644.  June 25.]

of Exeter, where the queen a few days before[a] had been delivered of a daughter.  That princess, weary of the dangers to which she was exposed in England, repaired to Falmouth, put to sea[b] with a squadron of ten Dutch or Flemish vessels, and, escaping the keen pursuit of the English fleet from Torbay, reached[c] in safety the harbour of Brest.[1]

Essex, regardless of the royalists who assembled in the rear of his army, pursued[d] his march into Cornwall.  To most men his conduct was inexplicable.  Many suspected that he sought to revenge himself on the parliament by betraying his forces into the hands of the enemy.  At Lestwithiel he received[e] two letters, one, in which he was solicited by the king to unite with him in compelling his enemies to consent to a peace, which while it ascertained the legal rights of the throne, might secure the religion and liberties of the people; another from eighty-four of the principal officers in the royal army, who pledged themselves to draw the sword against the sovereign himself, if he should ever swerve from the principles which he had avowed in his letter.  Both were disappointed.  Essex sent the letters to the two houses, and coldly replied that his business was to fight, that of the parliament to negotiate.

[Footnote 1:  I doubt whether Essex had any claim to that generosity of character which is attributed to him by historians.  The queen had been delivered of a princess, Henrietta Maria, at Exeter, and sent to him for a passport to go to Bath or Bristol for the recovery of her health.  He refused, but insultingly offered to attend her himself, if she would go to London, where she had been already impeached of high treason.—­Rushworth, v. 684.  I observe that even before the war, when the king had written to the queen to intimate his wish to Essex, as lord chamberlain, to prepare the palace for his reception, she desired Nicholas to do it adding, “their lordships are to great princes to receave anye direction from me.”—­Evelyn’s Mem. ii.  App. 78.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1644.  June 16.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1644.  July 14.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1644.  July 15.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1644.  June 26.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1644.  August 6.]

But he now found himself in a most critical situation, cut off from all intercourse with London, and enclosed between the sea and the combined forces of the king, Prince Maurice, and Sir Richard Grenville.[a] His cavalry, unable to obtain subsistence, burst in the night, though not without loss, through the lines of the enemy.  But each day the royalists won some of his posts; their artillery commanded the small haven of Foy, through which, alone he could obtain provisions; and his men, dismayed by a succession of disasters, refused to stand to their colours.  In this emergency Essex, with two other officers, escaped from the beach in a boat to Plymouth; and