Ten days later (21 Aug.) the Committee of the Militia of the city declared
its intention of sending a force under the command of Essex to assist in
raising the siege of Gloucester, and at once ordered every shop to be
closed and all business suspended until Gloucester should be relieved. The
regiments to be sent were to be chosen by lot. These consisted of two
regiments of the trained bands, two of the auxiliaries, and a regiment of
horse; and with them were despatched eleven pieces of cannon and three
"drakes."(618)

(M280)

After reviewing his forces on Hounslow Heath in the presence of a large
number of members of both Houses, Essex set out on his march (26 Aug.).
The troops suffered great privation from lack of food and water by the
way. "Such straits and hardships," wrote a sergeant in one of the London
regiments, "our citizens formerly knew not; yet the Lord that called us to
do the work enabled us to undergo such hardships as He brought us
to."(619) By the 5th September every obstacle had been overcome and Essex
appeared before Gloucester, only to see, however, the blazing huts of the
royalist army already in full retreat. Three days later he entered the
city amid the enthusiastic rejoicings of the inhabitants, who, but for his
timely arrival, would have been at the mercy of the enemy. The relief of
Gloucester, to which the Londoners contributed so much, "proved to be the
turning point of the war."(620)

(M281)

If the Londoners fairly claimed some credit for the part they had taken
towards the relief of Gloucester, still more credit was due to them for
the bold stand they made a fortnight later (20 Sept.), at Newbury, against
repeated charges of Rupert's far-famed cavalry. Again and again did
Rupert's horse dash down upon the serried pikes of the London trained
bands, but never once did it succeed in breaking their ranks, whilst many
a royalist saddle was emptied by the city's musketeers, whose training in
the Artillery Garden and Finsbury Fields now served them in good stead.
Whilst the enemy's cannon was committing fearful havoc in the ranks of the
Londoners they still stood their ground "like so many stakes," and drew
admiration even from their enemies for their display of courage. "They
behaved themselves to wonder," writes the royalist historian of the civil
war, and "were, in truth, the preservation of that army that day."(621)
Notwithstanding, however, all their efforts, the day was undecided.
Neithe