on tender ground, and were ever ready to retreat or retract on the slightest contraction of his brow, fearful of awakening a burst of rage; whilst the nobles, offended by his haughtiness, showed him only the scanty courtesy which, as commander of the horse, and the King's nephew, could not be denied him with prudence or propriety.

Between the prince and the Marquess of Hertford, the leader of the Cornish army, a jealousy, as to their respective limits of command, already existed, thinly veiled on either side, though on the part of the latter, from his devoted loyalty, high honour, and the absence of ambition, it was rather the jealousy of the general than of the man. Lord Grandison had described the position of the parties and the course likely to be taken by each with admirable discrimination.

After the discussion of some minor points, the marquis proceeded to give his opinion as to the best manner of pursuing the siege of Bristol.

"It is the duty of a commander* not only to consider what plan will most probably ensure a victory, but also how that plan can be accomplished with the least loss of life. A daring attack may succeed in the field, when not accompanied by rashness; but a more circumspect mode of proceeding is safer and better when the question is the taking a fortified town, not the dispersing ill-disciplined and newly-recruited troops. Bristol contains, as we have good reason to believe, two thousand five hundred foot soldiers of good repute, and a regiment of horse, amounting to three hundred more,+ besides townsmen, who have volunteered to aid in the defence, to

* The arguments used at this council, and the events at the subsequent siege, with the exception of the personal adventures of Roland Eden and Francis Merton, are trictly historical, being taken almost word for word from he accounts of contemporary writers,-Clarendon-Fiennes -Prynne, and others.

+ The various writers do not exactly agree as to the respective numbers of the besieged and the besiegers; but they do not very materially differ, and a sort of balance has been struck between them.

the number, some of our spies assert, of several thousands, even six or eight: whilst our own forces do not exceed fourteen thousand, mostly horse, which are of less avail in a siege. The outer line is strong-the graff* in many places wide and deep, and should the outworks be forced, the governor has declared that he will defend the city walls; and, should those be taken, that he will retire into the castle, disputing every foot of ground, making the flag of truce his winding-sheet. From an assault, however desperate, if met in such a spirit, the result can only be the loss of our bravest men.'

"Never place the courage of Colonel Fiennes in the balance, my lord marquess: the feather of the veriest craven would outweigh it," observed Prince Rupert abruptly, and a little discourteously, his lip curling at the remark concerning desperate attacks, which he judged to be meant

Clarendon calls it graff; Cromwell, in his account of the second siege, moat; and modern writers ditch. The last is decidedly the most unpoetical.

as a covert rebuke.

"We have put his courage

to the test at Worcester.* Make but a breach so small that a pike can pass, and the flag of truce will come flaunting to our camp, instead of being the colonel's winding-sheet. The rapidity of victory increases its moral power; and a brilliant attack, if bravely seconded, but rarely fails."

66

Allowing that your highness has formed a correct estimate of the governor's courage, still there are other points to be considered before we can arrive at a just conclusion," interposed the gallant Sir Ralph Hopton, anxious to promote union and good will between the commanders on the opposite sides of the town,-a point on which so much depended. He sat in an easy chair, one arm in a sling, and his face still show

* Fiennes being sent by Essex to surprise Worcester, finding the gates shut (they were not locked), retired with his troops without doing any harm, and in such haste and disorder that the Royalists could not overtake them.Clarendon.

ing strong marks of the explosion at Lansdowne,* which had so nearly cost him his life. His voice was low and weak; but so highly was he estimated, both as a man and a soldier, that all listened to his opinions with respectful attention; and even Rupert, though chafing at his line of argument, answered with a politeness which he had not accorded to the marquess. "The breach must be made before even a pike can pass, and the works are so strong that in an assault, however gallant, and however successful in the end, our loss must be very great; whilst, should we be beaten off, our hopes for the summer would be destroyed, as we could not expect to raise again the drooping spirits of our men. A defeat will

"the

* On the 6th of July, the day after the engagement on Lansdowne, an ammunition waggon with eight barrels of gunpowder, which had been left by Waller in his night retreat to Bath, blew up, by which many of the Royalists were killed or injured; and Sir Ralph Hopton, soldier's darling," as he was called, so dangerously wounded, that his life was despaired of. He bore a high character for houonr, courage, and probity, and restrained his troops from all disgraceful licence.