wheeled about; got in the rear of them, beat them from the work, and did some small execution upon them;—I believe killed not twelve of them but cut very many, “and put them all to flight.” We have taken about 300; many of which are poor silly creatures, whom if you please to let me send home, they promise to be very dutiful for time to come, and ‘will be hanged be; they come out again.
The ringleaders which we have, I intend to bring to you. They had taken divers of the Parliament soldiers prisoners, besides Colonel Fiennes his men; and used them most barbarously; bragging, They hoped to see my Lord Hopton, and that he is to command them. They expected from Wilts great store; and gave out they meant to raise the siege at Sherborne, when “once” they were all met. We have gotten great store of their arms, and they carried few or none home. We quarter about ten miles off, and purpose to draw our quarters near to you tomorrow. Your most humble servant,
‘On Tuesday at night, August 5th, the Lieutenant-General’ Cromwell ‘with his party returned to Sherborne,’ where the General and the rest were very busy besieging the inexpugnable Sir Lewis Dives.
‘This work,’ which the Lieutenant-General had now been upon, continues Sprigge, ‘though unhappy, was very necessary.’[2] No messenger could be sent out but he was picked-up by these Clubmen; these once dispersed, ‘a man might ride very quietly from Sherborne to Salisbury.’ The inexpugnable Sir Lewis Dives (a thrasonical person known to the readers of Evelyn), after due battering, was now soon stormed: whereupon, by Letters found on him, it became apparent how deeply Royalist this scheme of Clubmen had been; ‘Commissions for raising regiments of Clubmen’; the design to be extended over England at large, ‘yea into the Associated Counties.” However, it has now come to nothing; and the Army turns North-
