Friends, though divided | Page 9

given him, and had received permission to
ride for half the day's march by his side at the head of the troop. The
trumpeter sounded the call, Sir Henry stood up in his stirrups, drew his
sword and waved it over his head, and shouted "For God and King."
Two hundred swords flashed in the air, and the answering shout came
out deep and full. Then the swords were sheathed, the horses' heads
turned, and with a jingle of sabers and accouterments the troop rode
gayly out through the gates of the park.

Upon their way north they were joined by more than one band of
Cavaliers marching in the same direction, and passed, too, several
bodies of footmen, headed by men with closely-cropped heads, and
somber figures, beside whom generally marched others whom their
attire proclaimed to be Puritan preachers, on their way to join the army
of Essex. The parties scowled at each other as they passed; but as yet
no sword had been drawn on either side, and without adventure they
arrived at Nottingham.
Having distributed his men among the houses of the town, Sir Henry
Furness rode to the castle, where his majesty had arrived the day before.
He had already the honor of the personal acquaintance of the king, for
he had in one of the early parliaments sat for Oxford. Disgusted,
however, with the spirit that prevailed among the opponents of the king,
and also by the obstinacy and unconstitutional course pursued by his
majesty, he had at the dissolution of Parliament retired to his estate, and
when the next House was summoned, declined to stand again for his
seat.
"Welcome, Sir Henry," his majesty said graciously to him, "you are
among the many who withstood me somewhat in the early days of my
reign, and perchance you were right to do so; but who have now, in my
need, rallied round me, seeing whither the purpose of these traitorous
subjects of mine leads them. You are the more welcome that you have,
as I hear, brought two hundred horsemen with you, a number larger
than any which has yet joined me. These," he said, pointing to two
young noblemen near him, "are my nephews, Rupert and Maurice, who
have come to join me."
Upon making inquiries, Sir Henry found that the prospects of the king
were far from bright. So far, the Royalists had been sadly behindhand
with their preparations. The king had arrived with scarce four hundred
men. He had left his artillery behind at York for want of carriage, and
his need in arms was even greater than in men, as the arsenals of the
kingdom had all been seized by the Parliament. Essex lay at
Northampton with ten thousand men, and had he at this time advanced,
even the most sanguine of the Royalists saw that the struggle would be

a hopeless one.
The next day, at the hour appointed, the royal standard was raised on
the Castle of Nottingham, in the midst of a great storm of wind and rain,
which before many hours had passed blew the royal standard to the
ground--an omen which those superstitiously inclined deemed of evil
augury indeed. The young noblemen and gentlemen, however, who had
gathered at Northampton, were not of a kind to be daunted by omens
and auguries, and finding that Essex did not advance and hearing news
from all parts of the country that the loyal gentlemen were gathering
their tenants fast, their hopes rose rapidly. There was, indeed, some
discontent when it was known that, by the advice of his immediate
councilors, King Charles had dispatched the Earl of Southampton with
Sir John Collpeper and Sir William Uvedale to London, with orders to
treat with the Commons. The Parliament, however, refused to enter into
any negotiations whatever until the king lowered his standard and
recalled the proclamation which he had issued. This, which would have
been a token of absolute surrender to the Parliament, the king refused to
do. He attempted a further negotiation; but this also failed.
The troops at Nottingham now amounted to eleven hundred men, of
which three hundred were infantry raised by Sir John Digby, the sheriff
of the county. The other eight hundred were horse. Upon the breaking
off of negotiations, and the advance of Essex, the king, sensible that he
was unable to resist the advance of Essex, who had now fifteen
thousand men collected under him, fell back to Derby, and thence to
Shrewsbury, being joined on his way by many nobles and gentlemen
with their armed followers. At Wellington, a town a day's march from
Shrewsbury, the king had his little army formed up, and made a solemn
declaration before them in which he promised to maintain the
Protestant religion, to observe the