attle to Waller; and, give him his due, he was as forward to fight as
we. As it is easy to meet when both sides are willing to be found, Sir
William Waller met us upon Roundway Down, where we had a fair field on
both sides, and room enough to draw up our horse. In a word, there
was little ceremony to the work; the armies joined, and we charged his
horse with so much resolution, that they quickly fled, and quitted
the field; for we over-matched him in horse, and this was the entire
destruction of their army. For the infantry, which outnumbered ours
by 1500, were now at our mercy; some faint resistance they made, just
enough to give us occasion to break into their ranks with our horse,
where we gave time to our foot to defeat others that stood to their
work, upon which they began to disband, and run every way they could;
but our horse having surrounded them, we made a fearful havoc of them.

We lost not about 200 men in this action; Waller lost about 4000
killed and taken, and as many dispersed that never returned to their
colours. Those of foot that escaped got into Bristol, and Waller, with
the poor remains of his routed regiments, got to London; so that it
is plain some ran east, and some ran west, that is to say, they fled
every way they could.

My going with this detachment prevented my being at the siege of
Bristol, which Prince Rupert attacked much about the same time, and it
surrendered in three days. The Parliament questioned Colonel
Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor, and had him tried as a coward by a
court-martial, and condemned to die, but suspended the execution also,
as the king did the governor of Reading. I have often heard Prince
Rupert say, they did Colonel Fiennes wrong in that affair; and that if
the colonel would have summoned him, he would have demanded a passport
of the Parliament, and have come up and convinced the court that
Colonel Fiennes had not misbehaved himself, and that he had not a
sufficient garrison to defend a city of that extent; having not above
1200 men in the town, excepting some of Waller's runaways, most of
whom were unfit for service, and without arms; and that the citizens
in general being disaffected to him, and ready on the first occasion
to open the gates to the king's forces, it was impossible for him to
have kept the city. "And when I had farther informed them," said the
prince, "of the measures I had taken for a general assault the next
day, I am confident I should have con