connivance at popery. I bless God that in the midst of these publick
distractions I have still liberty to communicate; and may this sacrament
be my damnation, if my heart do not joyn with my lipps in this
protestation."--Rush. v. 346. _Connivance_ was an ambiguous and therefore
an ill-chosen word. He was probably sincere in the sense which _he_
attached to it, but certainly forsworn in the sense in which it would be
taken by his opponents.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. June 27]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. June 30]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. July 5]

blood had already been shed in expiation of an imaginary plot.[1]

In the meanwhile Essex, after several messages from the parliament, had
removed from Reading, and fixed his head-quarters at Tame. One night Prince
Rupert, making a long circuit, surprised Chinnor in the rear of the army,
and killed or captured the greater part of two regiments that lay in the
town.[a] In his retreat to Oxford, he was compelled to turn on his pursuers
at Chalgrove; they charged with more courage than prudence, and were
repulsed with considerable loss. It was in this action that the celebrated
Hampden received the wound of which he died. The reputation which he had
earned by his resistance to the payment of the ship-money had deservedly
placed him at the head of the popular leaders. His insinuating manner, the
modesty of his pretensions, and the belief of his integrity, gave to his
opinions an irresistible weight in the lower house; and the courage and
activity which he displayed in the army led many to lament that he did not
occupy the place held by the more tardy or more cautious earl of Essex. The
royalists exulted at his death as equal to a victory; the patriots lamented
it as a loss which could not be repaired. Both were deceived. Revolutions
are the seed-plots of talents and energy. One great leader had been
withdrawn; there was no dearth of others to supply his place.[2]

[Footnote 1: After a minute investigation, I cannot persuade myself that
Waller and his friends proceeded farther than I have mentioned. What
they might have done, had they not been interrupted, is matter of mere
conjecture. The commission of array, which their enemies sought to couple
with their design, had plainly no relation to it.]

[Footnote 2: Rushworth, v. 265, 274. Whitelock, 69, 70. Clarendon, ii. 237,
261.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. June 18]

To the Root-and-branch men the rank, no less than the inactivity of Ess