and after the defeating of the enemies fleet to land our men betwixt the town and Puntal without setting down any more particular directions for the execution thereof I then told my Lord of Essex that mine was a floaty ship and well appointed for that service that therefore if his Lordship pleased I was desirous to put in before his Lordship and the other ships of greater burthen to which his Lordship answered suddenly that in any case I should not go in before him With this I and the rest of the officers went to our ships to prepare our selves I took my company of souldiers out of the boats into my ship for their more safety and better strengthening of my ship And because we anchored more to the North of the fleet more a stern and to the Leeward of the fleet as the wind then blew then any other ship I thought to recover these disadvantages by a speedier loosing of my anchor then the rest And therefore not attending the Generalls signall and warning so soon as the tide began to favour my purpose I fell to weighing my anchor But the wind was so great and the billow so high that the Cap-stain being too strong for my men cast them against the ships side and spoiled many of them so that after many attempts to wind up the anchor I was forced to cut Cable in the haulse When I was under sail I plied onely to windward lying off and on from the mouth of the Bay to the sea which lyeth near hand East and West by that means gathering nearer to the fleet The Lord Thomas Howard Vice-admirall of the fleet with some few other ships set sail also beating off and on before the mouth of the Bay but the Generall and the most of the fleet kept their anchors still The tide being far spent loth to be driven again to the Leeward of the fleet and to endanger another Cable and perchance the ship it self upon that shore which was flat and near and the benefit of entering the Bay with the first which was not the least consideration I resolved to put into the mouth of the Bay as near the enemies fleet as I could without engaging fight and there to cast anchor by them which I did accordingly so as they made a shot or two at me but since I made no answer they left shooting I was no sooner come to anchor but the Generalls set sail and the rest of the fleet and bare directly toward me where they also anchored It was now late e're the flag of Council was showen in my Lord Admiralls ship whither my Lord of Essex and the rest of the officers repaired and there it was resolved the next morning with the tide to enter the Bay and board the Spanish ships if they abode it and ships of ours were appointed to begin this service some to keep the chanell and midst of the Bay and others more floaty to bear nearer the town to intercept the shipping that should retire that way and hinder the Gallies from beating of the flanks of our great ships I was not allotted with my ship to any special service or attendance my desire was great having till that time been a stranger to actions at sea to appear willing to embrace the occasions that offered themselves and therefore wound my ship up to her anchor to be the more ready to set sail in the morning with the beginning of the flood The Spanish ships set sail and made to the bottome of the Bay rather driving then sailing our ships following as fast as they could As the Spanish ships loosed from their anchors and made from us their Gallies seventeen in number under the favour of the town made towards us ranged in good order My ship as before said was floaty and stored with good Ordnance and proper for that service which made me hasten towards them without staying for any company And indeed my readinesse was such by reason of my riding with my anchor a pike that no other ship could come near me by a great distance so as I entered fight with them alone making still toward them upon one board and so galled them with my Ordnance which was Cannon and demi-Cannon that they gave back keeping still in order and in fight with me drawing as near the town as they could and with purpose as I thought as our ships thrust further into the Bay to have fallen upon our smaller ships in the tayl of the whole fleet and having made a hand with them so to have put to the sea-ward of us the better to annoy us and save themselves from being locked up Wherein to prevent them I made toward the shore still sounding with our leads till the Ordnance of the town might reach me and I the shore with mine in so much as I put them from under the town and took certain ships which rode there at anchor forsaken of their men and followed them continuing fight till they came under the fort of the Puntal where thwart the bottome of the Bay which was not broad lay their four great ships with a prettie distance betwixt them and by spreading the breadth of the Chanell came to an anchor and were now in hot fight of Ordnance with our fleet I was nearer Puntal and the shore of Calis by much then any ship of the fleet and further advanced into the Bay so that now growing within shot of the fort which lay on my right hand and in like distance to the Gallions on the left hand and having the Gallies a head me betwixt them both was plied with shot on all sides very roundly yet I resolved to go on knowing I had good seconds and that many hands would make light work But my company either wiser or more affraid then my self on a sudden unlookt for of me let fall the anchor and by no means would be commanded or intreated to weigh it again In the mean time Sir Walter Raleigh came upon my left side with his ship and very little a head me cast his anchor as did also the Generalls and as many of the fleet as the Chanell would bear so as the shooting of Ordnance was great and they held us good talk by reason their ships lay thwart with their broad sides towards us and most of us right a head that we could use but our chasing pieces I sent my boat aboard Sir Walter Raleigh to fasten an haulse to winde my ship which was loosed soon after my boat was put off About me the Gallions let slip Cable in the haulse and with their top sails wended and drew towards the shore on the left hand of the Bay and the Indian fleet with the rest of the shipping did the like more within the Bay It was no following of them with our great ships and therefore I went aboard my Lord of Essex whose ship lay towards that side of the Chanell to see what further order would be given At
me any more service he said no but to do as I saw cause willing us the Chiefs that stood about him to advise him in what part of the army he should be personally whereunto we all answered that for many reasons he was to keep in the rereward of all which he yielded unto So I went to the vanguard and after I had viewed the readinesse and order of the severall troops the enemy now appearing at hand I the better to discover their proceedings and for the readier direction upon all occasions as also with my presence to encourage our men in the abiding of the first brunt took my place in the top of the foremost hill before mentioned where I resolved to abide the issue of that dayes service as wel because the advantages of the ground we had chosen were to stand upon the defence as also for that in that uneven ground to stirre from place to place as is usuall and necessary in the execution and performance of the office of a Captain where the countrey is open and plain I should not onely have lost the view of the enemy upon whose motions in such cases our counsels of execution depend but of my troops and they of me which must needs have caused many unreasonable and confused commandments The enemies forelorn-hope of harquebuziers having gotten the tops of the hills and places of most advantage on the other side of this bottom before mentioned began from thence to shoot at us whilest their vanguard approached which now growing near at hand five hundred Spanish pikes and shot mingled without ensignes or precise order gave upon the place where my self was and very obstinately for the space of a great half-hour laboured to enter and force it favoured with more store of shot from the tops of their hills the grosse of their vanguard standing in some covert from the shot with me on the other side of the bottom In the mean time the vanguard of their horse advanced along the green way so often mentioned betwixt the low-inland and the Downs towards our horse that stood more backward against the flank of our battel Our two pieces of Ordnance were discharged from the top of the hill to good effect and well plyed and when they came nearer and thwart our right flank the five hundred Frison-muskettiers who as I have before said were onely destined to bestow their shot that way did their part and so galled them that upon the first proffer of a charge which our horsmen made they were put to a disordered retreat even to their troops of foot our horsmen following them in the tail who were fain there to give them over At the same instant I gave order that a hundred men should be sent from the foremost troop of foot I had layed as aforesaid in the Downs to have given upon the left flank of the enemy if he attempted to passe by us upon the sands and as covertly as they could to approach and give upon the right flank of those that were in fight with me When they were come up and at hands with the enemy I sent from the hill where I was by a hollow descent some sixty men to charge them in front which amazed the enemy and put them to run our men chasing and killing them till they had passed the bottom and came to the grosse of their vanguard from which were disbanded anew the like number as before who followed our men and seized on some heights that were in the bottom somewhat near us covering their pikes under the shadow of the hills and playing with the shot from the tops upon our disbanded and skirmishing men I sent to drive them from thence being loth they should gain ground upon us one of the same troops from whence I had drawn the hundred men before mentioned with order onely to make that place good This was a bloudy morsell that we strave for for whilest our men and theirs were not covered with the hanging of the hills as they advanced or were chased they lay open to the shot not onely of those that were possessed of those little hills but of the other higher which poured in greater tempests upon them so as the souldiers that I sent hasted as for their safety to get the side of the hill and the enemy for like respect abode their coming with resolution so as in an instant as the hill was round and mountable the men came to handy-blows upon the whole semicircle of it with much slaughter on both sides till in the end the enemy was forced to retire In the mean time the battel of the enemies foot were come up to the grosse of the vanguard which as it had taken the right hand of the Downs so the battel with some distance betwixt them though even in front having been well welcomed with our shot from the tops of the hills stayed in as good covert as the place would afford sending fresh men to beat ours from those grounds of advantage in the bottom so as ours beginning to give back I sent a new supply to make good the place in this bottom sometimes getting and sometimes losing ground The fight was still maintained with new supplies on both sides wherein I persevered though with losse of men because the advantage the ground gave me to beat as well upon their grosse as their loose fighting men made the losse farre greater on their side my design being to engage their whole force upon my handfull of men which I employed sparingly and by piece-meal so to spend and waste the enemy that they should not be able to abide the sight of our other troops when they advanced The horsmen of their battel and ours encountered but somewhat more advanced toward the enemy our men having gotten courage with the first successe so as our fore-mentioned Frison-muskettiers could not so well favour them but our horsmen being put to retreat the enemy in the pursuit being saluted by them were stopped and drew back Their rereward now come up even with the other two bodies for so I term them because their ensignes remained together though most of the men were drawn from them and in fight and the ensignes barely attended advanced on the left hand of the battel and spreading the breadth of the Downs they were to my troop rather on the corner of the right flank then a front and our battel and rereward upon which they directly fronted a musket-shot behinde my troop toward which it seemed they intended to advance First we gave as much to them as we could spare from our hills but when they began to open upon my Frison-muskettiers which as before is said could onely bestow their shot on our rigthtflank and till that time had done no service but against their horse they were exceedingly galled so as they staid suddenly and amazed or ashamed to go back seeing none to chase them in a bottom of some small covert bestowed themselves
charge and who were Competitours to succeed me he plainly said that he had given my Lord Sidney his promise to procure him a Regiment in the States service I answered that the command of the Nation belonged to me by Commission that there was as little reason for my Lord to be under my authority as for me to yield my authority to him that in respect of his Government he was as uncapable of that charge as my self By this again I found his Lordships care to hold me back notwithstanding my Lord Sidney had soon made an end of his suit But my Lord Gray stuck longer to it and was earnester insomuch as there passed speeches in heat betwixt him and me and yet in the end such was the favour of the Prince that I enjoyed both the one and the other charge In the same year one thousand five hundred ninety seven about the latter end of September I passed into the Low-countreys took and gave the oaths that are usuall betwixt those of Holland the Governour and Townsmen of the Briell and so was established in that Government The action at TVRNHOVLT THat winter one thousand five hundred ninety and seven the enemy lying at Turnhoult an open village with four thousand foot and six hundred horse one day amongst other speeches I said to Mounsieur Barnevelt that they did but tempt us to beat them which it seemeth he marked for shortly after the States resolved to make an attempt on them and gave order to the Count Maurice to that end to gather his forces together which at one instant shipped from their severall garrisons arrived with great secresie at Gertrudenberg in all to the number of six thousand foot and one thousand horse whereof some two hundred came from Flushing with Sr Robert Sidney which troop because he desired should march with the rest of the English in the love and respect I professed and truly bare to him I made offer to him to command one of the two troops the English forces were then divided into which he refused not THE ACTION NEAR TVRNHOVLT The night was very cold insomuch as the Count Maurice himself going up and down the quarter with straw and such other blazing stuff made fires in some places with his own hands by the corps-du-guard Sir Robert Sidney and I got us into a barn thronged with souldiers to rest because there was no sleeping by the Count Maurice who was disposed to watch whence I was also called to attend him In the morning we set forward and by break of day came within a faulcon-shot of Turnhoult where the troops were put in battel whence sending some light horse towards the town to discover word was brought that the enemy had caused his baggage to march all night and that now the rereward of their troops were going out of the town whereupon the Count Maurice caused our vanguard to advance to the town with which he marched By that time we were come to the town the enemy was clear gone out of it and some musket-shot off on the way to Herentalls beyond a narrow bridge over which one man could onely go in front they made a stand with some of their men and galled our scouts which followed on the track The Count Maurice made a halt half way betwixt the bridge and the town where I offered to beat the enemy from this passage if he would give me some men alleadging that this was onely a shew of the enemy to amuse us whilest he withdrew the body of his forces and therefore this required a speedy execution Hereupon he appointed me two hundred muskettiers of his own guard and the other Dutch companies with Officers to receive my commandments saying that he would second me according as occasion should serve with which I went directly towards this bridge near which I found the Count Hollock who that journey commanded the horse He told me of an easier passage over that water and offered me guides but the distance agreed not with the necessity of the haste and therefore I excused my self of altering my way which he took in very ill part insomuch as not long after he wrote unto me a letter of expostulation as if I had failed in the acknowledgment of his authority which he pretended by an ancient Commission to be Lieutenant-Generall of Holland and consequently of all the forces which I answered in good and fitting terms to his contentment And so placing my men in the best places of advantage to command the bridge I made them play at the enemy who soon forsook the bridge being so narrow as afore-said and of a good length I durst not adventure at the first to passe my men over it the rather for that the countrey on the other side was very thick of wood but after a little pause I thrust over some few foot and by a foard adjoyning though very deep and difficult I sent some few horse to discover vvhat the enemy did and causing mine own horse to be led through the said foard went my self over the bridge from which some half a harquebush-shot I found a small fort of pretty defence abandoned into which I put my footmen which were first passed and sent for the rest to come with all diligence In the mean time taking my horse I rode with some few officers and others after the enemy whom we soon espied some whiles marching otherwhile standing as if they had met with some impediment before them which we thought was caused by the number of their carriages The way they marched was through a lane of good breadth hemmed in with thick underwoods on both sides fit as I thought to cover the smalnesse of the number of my men Whereupon as also on the opinion the enemy might justly conceive that the rest of our troops followed at hand I took the boldnesse and assurance to follow them with those two hundred muskettiers which I put into the skirts of the vvood So as betvvixt them and the high-vvay in vvhich the enemy marched there vvas a vvell-grovvn hedge My self vvith about some fifteen or sixteen horsmen of mine ovvn follovvers and servants kept the high-vvay advancing tovvards the enemy giving in the mean time the Count Maurice advise vvhat I savv vvhat I did and vvhat an assured victory he had in his hands if he vvould advance the troops I vvas not gone tvvo musket-shot from this fort but some choice men of the enemy whom they had appointed to make the retreat discharged on us and our men again ansvvered them and pressing upon them put them nearer to their hindermost body of pikes under the favour of vvhich they and such as from time to time vvere sent to refresh them maintained skirmish vvith us When they marched I follovved vvhen they stood I stayed and standing or marching I kept within reach for the most part of their body of pikes so as I slew and galled many of them and in this manner held them play
at the least four hours till I came to an open heath which was from the bridge about some five or six English miles sending in the mean time messenger upon messenger to the Count Maurice and the Count Hollock for more troops And it pleased Sir Robert Sidney himself who also came up to me and looked on the enemy when he saw the fair occasion to ride back to procure more forces But all this while none came not so much as any principal officer of the armie to see what I did On the left hand of this heath which is little lesse then three miles over were woods and inclosed fields coasting the way the enemy was to take in distance some musket-shot and a half Along these I caused my muskettiers to advance and as they could from the skirts of the heath to play upon the enemy which was more to shew them and our men that were behinde by hearing the shot that we had not forsaken the enemy then for any great hurt we could do them My self with some thirty or fourty horse that were come up to me to see the sport following them aloof off The enemy seeing no grosse troop to follow them began to take heart put themselves into order in four battalions their horsmen on their wings advancing their way easily When we had in this manner passed half the heath our horsmen in sixteen troops for they were so many began to appear behinde us at the entry of the heath not the way we had passed but more to the right hand coasting the skirts of the heath a good round pace This sight made the enemy mend his pace and gave us more courage to follow them so as now we omitted no endeavour which might hinder their way falling again into skirmish with them For they fearing more those that they saw afar off then us that followed them at their heels being a contemptible number to them that might see us and tell us mended still their pace I therefore sent messengers to those horsmen for of our footmen there was no help to be expected to tell them that if they came not with all speed possible the enemy would get into the streight and fast countrey in which there could be no good done on them They were not above two musket-shot from the mouth of the streight when the Count Maurice with six companies of horse came near unto us that followed the enemie in the tail The other horsmen because they fetched a greater compasse and came more upon the front and right flank of the enemie were further off I sent to the Count to desire him to give me those horsmen And in the mean time to give the enemie some stay I made a round proffer to charge the rereward under the countenance of that second with those horse and foot I had which took good effect for they knowing no other but that all the troops were also ready to charge made a stand and seeing our horsmen on the right wing to grow somewhat near put themselves into a stronger order My messenger returning from the Count Maurice told me he would speak with me to whom I made haste and as the time required in few words having delivered my minde he gave me three companies of horse to use as I should see cause with which I went on the spur for the enemie was now marching again and was come even into the entry of the streight The other horsmen with the Count Hollock seeing me go to charge did the like also so that much about one instant he charged on the right corner of their front and on their right flank and I with my troops on the rereward and left flank so roundly that their shot after the first volley shifted for themselves for their pikes being ranged in four battels stood one in the tail of another not well ordered as in that case they should have been to succour their shot and abide the charge of the horsmen and so charged their pikes not breaking through them at the first push as it was anciently used by the men of arms with their barded horses but as the long pistols delivered at hand had made the ranks thinne so thereupon the rest of the horse got within them so as indeed it was a victory obtained without fight For till they were utterly broken and scattered which was after a short time few or none died by handy-strokes The footmen defeated our horsmen disordered as they had been in the charge and execution followed the chase of their horsmen and baggage which took the way of Herentalls I foresaw that the enemies horse that had with-drawn themselves in good order and untouched of us at the beginning of the fight would soon put to rout those disordered men and therefore made all the haste that I could to the mouth of the streight there to stay them Where finding the Count Hollock I told him he should do well to suffer no more to passe so riding forward on the other end of the streight where it opened on a champain I overtook Sir Nicholas Parker who commanded the three companies of English horse under me who had some thirty souldiers with the three Cornets with these I stayed on a green plot just in the mouth of the streight having on either hand a roade washy way with purpose to gather unto me those that came after me and relieve our men if the enemie chased them I had no sooner placed the troop but I might see our men come back as fast and as disordered as they went out passing the streight on either hand of me not to be stayed for any intreaty The most of our men passed and the enemy approaching Sir Nicholas Parker asked me what I meant to do I told him attend the enemy with our troop there Then saith he you must be gone with the rest and so almost with the latest the enemy being upon us I followed his counsel and so all of us great and small were chased through the streight again where our troops gathering head and our foot appearing we held good and the enemy without any further attempt made his retreat There were taken between fourty and fifty ensignes and slain and taken of the enemy near three thousand and their Generall Signieur de Ballancy and Count de Warras died on the place THE BATTEL AT NEVPORT A.D. 1600. The Battel at NEWPORT IN the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred the enemies forces being weak and in mutinies and his affairs in disorder the States resolved to make an offensive warre in Flanders as the fittest place to annoy the enemy most and to secure their own State if they could recover the Coast-towns which was the scope of their enterprise As this action was of great importance so were the meetings and consultations about it many To which though unworthy my self was called where amongst other things the facility of the execution coming in question it was
sending out some skirmishers along the Southermost part of the Downs against which some loose men were sent from our bodies but our muskettiers that shot standing and without fear from their rests galled them most The horsmen of the rereward shewed themselves on both sides and some little bickering there was and so they retired out of the footmens reach This was a strange and unusuall fight for whereas most commonly in battels the successe of the foot dependeth upon that of the horse here it was clean contrary for so long as the foot held good the horse could not be beaten out of the field though as it fell out they might be chased to them All this while the fight continued without intermission hotter and hotter betwixt the other two troops of the enemies and me both of us sending fresh supplies as occasion required to sustain the fight Insomuch as the whole troops of the English were engaged to a hand-fight in the foresaid bottom saving those few that were placed on the hills and on the enemies part also few were idle And now I saw was the time to give the enemy a deadly blow his grosses being disbanded as well in occupying places of height and advantage to annoy us as by those that were sent to dispute the places in question For their onely strength now consisted in their loose men which any few horse charging on a sudden in that bottom would have put to flight and being followed pesle-mesle with our foot would never have had means to have rallied gathered themselves together again On the other side I knew that without further succours their numbers would weary and eat us up in the end I therefore at once sent to the Frison-footmen of the vanguard to advance and to the Count Maurice to tell him how things stood and to desire him to send me part of the horse of the battel and because I saw the enemy presse gain upon our men more and more I sent again messenger upon messenger In the mean time to give our men the more courage I went into the bottom amongst them where riding up and down I was in their eyes both doing the office of a Captain and souldier and with much adoe we entertained the fight though the enemy encroached and got upon us At my first coming I got one shot through my leg and a quarter of an hour after another through the same thigh which I then neither complained nor bragged of nor so much as thought of any Chirurgeon for I knew if I left the place my men would instantly quail I therefore chose not having been used to have my troops foiled to try the uttermost rather then to shew them the way to flee hoping still for the coming of the Frisons and the horse I sent for But their haste was so small that my men overlaid with number forsook the place notwithstanding my best endeavour to stay them hasting along the sands towards our Cannon the enemy following them hard I was forced seeing them all going to go for company with the last uneasily and unwillingly God knows and in the way my horse fell dead under me and upon me that I could not stirre I had neither Officer Gentleman nor servant about me to give me help Sir Robert Drury by chance came and a Gentleman being a servant of his called Higham drew me from under the horse and set me up behinde his Master which help came very seasonably for the enemy being near at hand when I fell by this means I was saved out of their clutches Thus I rode to the Ordnance where I found my brother Horace and the most of the officers that were living with some three hundred foot I made them stand from before the Ordnance and willed the Cannoniers to discharge upon the enemy that now swarmed upon the sands and at the same instant my own companie of horse and Captain Balls coming thither I willed them to go to the charge and my brother with the foot to advance and second them home This small number of horse and foot made an exceeding great change on a sudden for the enemy in hope of victory followed hard and being upon the sands where horse might serve upon them were soon routed most cut in pieces they rest saving themselves by flight as they could in the downs our men both horse and foot followed them Their battels where their ensignes remained began to stirre and rouse themselves rather for defence then to revenge their followes for they advanced not Our men from the top of the hills who had kept their places from the beginning having by this means a fair mark plyed them with shot our English souldiers on all hands with new courage resorted to the fight and finding these battels very small thin by reason of the men they had sent to supply the fight especially of shot which in these uneven places were of most service pelted them with our shot and pressing upon them made them recuile The Count Maurice seeing things on these termes caused the battel to advance and his horsmen to make a proffer upon the enemies upon which sight without attending any strokes the enemy routed and was chased out of the field In this last charge I followed not for seeing the successe upon the sands and knowing that my directions in the prosecution of the victory would be executed I could easily judge that the work of that day was at an end And therefore began to care and provide for my self who all this while having been undressed the bloud leaking from me at four holes together with a dangerous disease that had long held me had made me extream weak and faint The enemy lost above one hundred and twenty ensignes most of his foot slain not many of his horse lost On our side in a manner the whole losse fell upon English of which near eight hundred were hurt and slain eight Captains slain the rest all but two hurt and most of my inferiour Officers hurt and slain In the rest of the army there was no losse at all to speak of especially amongst the foot I dare not take the whole honour of the victory to the poor English troop of one thousand six hundred men but leave it to be judged by those that may give their censure with lesse suspition of partiality I will onely affirm that they left nothing for the rest of the army to do but to follow the chase and that it hath not been heard of that by so small a number in a ground so indifferent whereof the onely advantage was the choice and use of the same without help of spade or other instrument or engine of fortifying so great and so victorious an army as the Archdukes had been so long wrastled withall and so far spent Yet this victory had been as assured with lesse losse and touch of reproach if to give ground to a stronger may be subject to a disgracefull imputation
had the succours of horse or the foot I called for come sooner to us wherein I will charge and accuse none but the messengers of their slacknesse An Account of the last charge at NEWPORT-battel by Sir John Ogle Sr. IOHN OGLE Lieutenant Colonel to Sr. Francis Vere In this retreat of ours there wanted no perswasions as well by Sir Francis Vere himself as some others to move our men to stand and turn for we saw a kinde of faintnesse and irresolution even in those that pursued us nearest And it is certain if we may call any thing certain whose effects we have not yet seen that if then we had turned and stood we had prevented that storm of fortune wherein we were after threatned at least we had saved many of our mens lives But such apprehensions of fear and amazement had laid hold of their spirits as no perswasion of reason could for that time get any place with them Sir Francis Vere with his troop formerly mentioned took his way towards the Cannons along the sands where he by his Chirurgeon they by their fellows might hope for succour I being faint and weary through heat and much stirring took some few with me and crossed into the downs there awhile to rest me till I should see how the succeeding events would teach me to dispose of my self either by direction or adventure I was no sooner come thither but I met with Captain Fairfax and young Mr. Gilbert who soon after was slain near unto us there we consulted what we should do but the time and place affording no long deliberation taught us to resolve that the best expedient for our safety was to endeavour the speedie increase of our little number which we had with us I think they were thirty men having brought which to a reasonable competency our further purpose was to give a charge when we should finde it most expedient that so with our honours we might put an end to those uncertainties the fortune of that day had to our judgements then thrown upon us It was not very long ere that our little body was multiplied to better then an hundred men for the loose and scattered begun of themselves without labour to rally unto us so much prevails union even in a little body for whilest to it the broken and disbanded ones do willingly offer themselves for safetie and protection they themselves by adding of strength to that body not onely increase the number thereof but do give and take the greater security to themselves and others We were all this while within lesse then musket-shot of a grosse of the enemy which stood in a hollow or bottom within the downs the hills about it giving good shelter against the drops of our shot for the showers of them as also of the enemies were spent and fallen before but neither were they so high nor so steep that they could forbid entry and commodions passage of charging either to our horse or foot This grosse had not many wanting of two thousand men in it and spying as it should seem our little handfull which at the first they might peradventure neglect or contemn in regard it was so small a number now begin to gather some bulk and strength thought it not unfit to prevent a further growth and to this end sent out an hundred and fifty men with colours closely and as covertly as they could along the skirt of the downs next the inland and South-ward with purpose to charge on the flank or back of us which they might very conveniently do as we then stood These men were advanced very nigh us ere we descried them when lo just upon the time of their discovery and our men ready to fall upon them comes Sir Horace Vere on horsback from the strand it should seem from the pursuit of the enemy whom the horse had scattered mentioned by his brother Sir Francis Vere and with a troop of some two hundred men marched along the downs towards us In this troop there were with him Captain Sutton his own Lieutenant-Colonell Lowel that commanded Sir Francis Vere's foot-company and some Lieutenants Morgan also came to us about the time that Fairfax and I joyned unto him and these were the officers that were afoot in the last charge The disbanded troops of the enemy seeing us strengthened with such supplies thought it their fittest course to hasten them the same way they came forth towards us Captain Fairfax and I would have charged but Sir Horace Vere willed us to joyne our troops with his and said we should go together and give one a good charge for all upon that great troop which we saw stood firm before us We had now with us our troops being joyned about some five ensignes amongst which was mine own which after was lost in the charge but recovered again by my officer The vigilant judicious eie of Prince Maurice his Excellency was it should seem upon our actions and motions all this while for as I have been enformed he seeing us make head said to those that stood about him Voyez Voyez Les Anglois qui tournent a la charge and thereupon gave present order to Dubois then Commissary-generall for the Cavallierie to advance some of the horse to be ready to attend and fortifie the events that might happen upon this growing charge This I have not of knowledge but from such hands as it were ill beseeming me or any man to question the credit of one of that ranke qualitie and reputation Our troop now the disbanded troop of the enemies marched both towards this grosse almost with equal pace saving that their haste was a little greater according to the proportion of their danger if they had fallen into our clutches being then much too strong for them ere they recovered the shelter of their own grosse yet such haste they could not make but that we were with them before they had wholly cast themselves into their friends arms who opening to receive them facilitated not a little of our charge the passage who then fell in pesle-mesle together amongst them Much about this time came in the horse namely the troops of Vere Cecill and Ball who rushing in with violence amongst them so confounded and amazed tâ—em that they were presently broken and disjoynted which being done the slaughter was great to them on their side as the execution easie to us on ours This rupture also of theirs was not a little furthered by the Archdukes own troop of Harquebusiers which having advanced somewhat before this grosse on the skirt which lay betwixt the inland and the higher downs was so encountered by Cecil and his troop who had as then received order by Dubois from his Excellency to charge that they were forced with confusion to seek succour amongst their foot Cecil following them in close at their backs Vere and Ball as I take it charged at the front by us having crossed into the downs from the sands and