Meanwhile, the Parliamentary affairs went greatly wrong in the West. Waller, who had gained the name of Conqueror by his rapid reduction of Portsmouth, Winchester, Malmesbury, and Hereford, was now defeated with an army eight thousand strong by Prince Maurice, near Bath, and by Lord Wilmot, near Devizes. His whole army was dispersed, and he hastened to London to complain of the inaction of Essex as the cause of his failure. Indeed, the army of Essex distinguished itself this summer so far only by inaction, whilst Rupert in the west laid siege to Bristol, and in three days made himself master of it, through the incapacity of Fiennes, the governor, who was tried by a council of war and sentenced to death, but pardoned by Essex with loss of his commission. It was imagined that Charles, being now reinforced by a number of French and Walloons who came with the queen, and strengthened by victory, would make a grand attempt on the capital. There was no little alarm there. Essex, who had done nothing through the summer but watch his men melt away from his standard, recommended Parliament to come to terms with the king, and the Lords were of his opinion. Many of them were ready to run off to Charles on the first opportunity. Bedford, Holland, Northumberland, and Clare, father of Denzil Holles, were strongly suspected, and soon after proved that these suspicions were not unjust. Four nobles had been appointed to raise new forces, but seeing how things were going, all declined their commissions except Lord Kimbolton, now by the death of his father become Earl of Manchester. He accepted the command of the Eastern Association, having Cromwell and three other colonels under him, and soon had a fine force in those counties. Parliament, listening to neither Essex nor the faint-hearted fears of the peers, refused to open fresh negotiations with the king. They called on the Londoners to invigorate their train-bands, and to put the City into a state of defence; and their call was zealously responded to. Ladies as well as gentlemen turned out and handled spades and pickaxes in casting up an entrenchment all round the City. Pym and St. John were sent to the army and seemed to infuse a new spirit into Essex, pronouncing him sound in the cause. Charles, if he ever thought of attacking London, seeing the spirit there, turned his attention to the West and invested Gloucester. Essex was despatched to relieve that city, and made a march much more active and efficient than was his wont. He set out on the 26th of August, and on the night of the tenth day--though he had been harassed on his way by the flying troopers of Rupert and Lord Wilmot--that is, on the 5th of September, the people of Gloucester saw his signal fires on the top of Prestbury Hill, amid the rain and darkness. The king also saw them, fired his tents in the morning, and marched away. From that hour the prospects of Charles grew gloomier.