relates them. It is impossible to say when each
important occurrence took place, or in what order."--Wellington Papers,
Aug. 8, and 17, 1815.---- The battle concerning which the Duke of
Wellington wrote thus was that of Waterloo, fought only a few weeks
before, by broad day, under his own vigilant and experienced eye.
What then must be the difficulty of compiling from twelve or thirteen
narratives an account of a battle fought more than a hundred and sixty
years ago in such darkness that not a man of those engaged could see
fifty paces before him? The difficulty is aggravated by the circumstance
that those witnesses who had the best opportunity of knowing the truth
were by no means inclined to tell it. The Paper which I have placed at
the head of my list of authorities was evidently drawn up with extreme
partiality to Feversham. Wade was writing under the dread of the halter.
Ferguson, who was seldom scrupulous about the truth of his assertions,
lied on this occasion like Bobadil or Parolles. Oldmixon, who was a boy
at Bridgewater when the battle was fought, and passed a great part of
his subsequent life there, was so much under the influence of local
passions that his local information was useless to him. His desire to
magnify the valour of the Somersetshire peasants, a valour which
their enemies acknowledged and which did not need to be set off by
exaggeration and fiction, led him to compose an absurd romance. The
eulogy which Barillon, a Frenchman accustomed to despise raw levies,
pronounced on the vanquished army, is of much more value, "Son
infanterie fit fort bien. On eut de la peine a les rompre, et les
soldats combattoient avec les crosses de mousquet et les scies qu'ils
avoient au bout de grands bastons au lieu de picques."---- Little is
now to be learned by visiting the field of battle for the face of the
country has been greatly changed; and the old Bussex Rhine on the banks
of which the great struggle took place, has long disappeared. The
rhine now called by that name is of later date, and takes a different
course.---- I have derived much assistance from Mr. Roberts's account of
the battle. Life of Monmouth, chap. xxii. His narrative is in the main
confirmed by Dummer's plans.]

[Footnote 415: I learned these things from persons living close to
Sedgemoor.]

[Footnote 416: Oldmixon, 704.]

[Footnote 417: Locke's Western Rebellion Stradling's Chilton Priory.]

[Footnote 418: Locke's Western Rebellion Strad