wed it, were exceedingly discouraged at first when they saw the
Parliament had all the means of making war in their own hands, and the
king was naked and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or money
to procure them. Not but that the king, by extraordinary application,
recovered the disorder the want of these things had thrown him into,
and supplied himself with all things needful.

But my observation was this, had his Majesty had the magazines, navy,
and forts in his own hand, the gentry, who wanted but the prospect of
something to encourage them, had come in at first, and the Parliament,
being unprovided, would have been presently reduced to reason. But
this was it that balked the gentry of Yorkshire, who went home again,
giving the king good promises, but never appeared for him, till
by raising a good army in Shropshire and Wales, he marched towards
London, and they saw there was a prospect of their being supported.

In this condition the king erected his standard at Nottingham, 22nd
August 1642, and I confess, I had very melancholy apprehensions of
the king's affairs, for the appearance to the royal standard was
but small. The affront the king had met with at Hull, had balked and
dispirited the northern gentry, and the king's affairs looked with
a very dismal aspect. We had expresses from London of the prodigious
success of the Parliament levies, how their men came in faster than
they could entertain them, and that arms were delivered out to whole
companies listed together, and the like. And all this while the
king had not got together a thousand foot, and had no arms for them
neither. When the king saw this, he immediately despatches five
several messengers, whereof one went to the Marquis of Worcester into
Wales; one went to the queen, then at Windsor; one to the Duke
of Newcastle, then Marquis of Newcastle, into the north; one into
Scotland; and one into France, where the queen soon after arrived to
raise money, and buy arms, and to get what assistance she could among
her own friends. Nor was her Majesty idle, for she sent over several
ships laden with arms and ammunition, with a fine train of artillery,
and a great many very good officers; and though one of the first fell
into the hands of the Parliament, with three hundred barrels of powder
and some arms, and one hundred and fifty gentlemen, yet most of the
gentlemen found means, one way or other, to get to us, and most of
the ships the queen freighted arri