the beginning of January Byron summoned Nantwich, which was soon hard pressed. Fairfax spent his Christmas in Lincolnshire, and after the capture of Gainsborough a message from Stamford informed him that Brereton was hard pressed in Cheshire. At Manchester, which he did not reach till January 12, he collected every available man, and on the 21st marched towards Nantwich with 2500 foot and 28 troops of horse. Byron's force was about the same or perhaps a little stronger. Fairfax gained a complete victory, a large part of the contingent from Ireland being captured in Acton church. Seventy officers and about 1600 men were taken prisoners, including Monck, who was present as a volunteer, Colonel Warren, who commanded his late regiment, being also taken. 'Warren's regiment,' says Sir Robert Byron, 'though they had their beloved Colonel Monck in the head of them, was no sooner charged than they broke, and being rallied again, the next charge ran quite away.' Their hearts were not in the work, and some 800 men chiefly from this regiment afterwards took service under the Parliament. They were Englishmen and Protestants, but this was not generally believed, and nothing made the King's cause so hopeless as the imputation of having brought an army of Irish Papists into England. Lord Byron wished that reinforcements should be 'rather Irish than English' because they would have no seditious sympathies and he did not see why the King should not employ them, 'or the Turks if they would serve him.'[45] [Sidenote: Ormonde breaks with the Parliament.] [Sidenote: Monck's advice to the King.]