The Prince made haste to Exeter, where he stayed ten days, both for
refreshing his troops and for giving the country time to show its
affection. Both the clergy and magistrates of Exeter were very fearful and
very backward. The Bishop and the dean ran away. And the clergy stood off,
though they were sent for and very gently spoken to by the Prince. The
truth was, the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance had been
carried so far and preached so much that clergymen either could not all
on the sudden get out of that entanglement into which they had by long
thinking and speaking all one way involved themselves, or they were ashamed
to make so quick a turn. Yet care was taken to protect them and their
houses everywhere, so that no sort of violence or rudeness was offered to
any of them. The Prince gave me full authority to do this, and I took so
particular a care of it that we heard of no complaints. The army was kept
under such an exact discipline that everything was paid for where it
was demanded, though the soldiers were contented with such moderate
entertainment that the people generally asked but little for what they did
eat. We stayed a week at Exeter before any of the gentlemen of the country
about came in to the Prince. Every day some persons of condition came from
other parts. The first were Lord Colchester, Mr. Wharton, the eldest sons
of the Earl of Rivers, and Lord Wharton, Mr. Russel, Lord Russel's brother,
and the Earl of Abingdon.
The King came down to Salisbury, and sent his troops twenty miles farther.
Of these, three regiments of horse and dragoons were drawn on by their
officers, Lord Cornbury and Colonel Langston, on design to come over to the
Prince. Advice was sent to the Prince of this. But because these officers
were not sure of their subalterns, the Prince ordered a body of his men to
advance and assist them in case any resistance was made. They were within
twenty miles of Exeter, and within two miles of the body that the Prince
had sent to join them, when a whisper ran about among them that they were
betrayed. Lord Cornbury had not the presence of mind that so critical a
thing required. So they fell in confusion, and many rode back. Yet one
regiment came over in a body, and with them about a hundred of the other
two.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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