His own troop of Life Guards, consisted of one hundred and twenty noblemen and gentlemen, whose estates amounted to above sixty thousand pounds per annum, most of whom he supplied with arms and horses. This troop he acknowledges to have raised without consulting his father, who reproving him said: “The consequence would be that the love and power he had in the country would be perspicuous, although he should have thanks from the King, yet others, though his Majesty’s well-wishers, through envy, would hate him for it.” His Lordship adds:--“which I confess I have found too true, my services having been more retarded by those who called themselves the King’s friends, than obstructed by his enemies.” It is certain that Lord Herbert acquired no military celebrity. He was bold, determined, and energetic when acting on the defensive, but he was not remarkable for any adventurous or brilliant aggressive successes. His troops were formidable in number, well paid, and abundantly supplied with every requisite; but in all his reputed sieges, in all his encounters with the foe, we seek in vain for any return of the slain, the wounded, the prisoners taken, the disasters surmounted and inflicted, and the splendid store of spoil acquired. The red hand and unpitying slaughter of war are only shadowed forth to us like shapeless forms, creations of the imagination rather than even faint pictures of reality. His Lordship’s naturally studious habits would seem to have incapacitated him from entering ardently into the wanton destruction of human life and the infliction of severe injuries on multitudes, regarded by him more as deluded neighbours than cruel adversaries. Above forty years having passed over his head in the experience only of plenteous, peaceful times, and scholarly pursuits, he was no longer like the pliant sapling, but partook more of the stability of the sturdy oak. In perfect agreement with his own noble and generous spirit, he no doubt expected, as he desired, an early and complete compromise of the political differences which were then spreading their baleful contagion over the land. Nevertheless, it is rather remarkable that operations on so extensive a scale, prosecuted at a large cost by a single family, should have obtained comparatively so little renown in the annals of the civil war: among which we search in vain for details characterising the martial deeds of Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert of Raglan. Footnotes [90] Somers’ Tracts, vol. iv. p. 459. [105] Whitelock. [95] Thomas--also Clarendon. [46] Harley. [87] Rushworth. [90] Somers’ Tracts, vol. v. p. 312. [A] Rapin states that after thus relieving Gloucester, Sir William Waller took first Chepstow, and afterwards Monmouth. [102] Washbourn. [90] Somers’ Tracts, vol v. ed. 1811, 4to. page 263. [B] Journals of the House of Commons. 18 Car. I. 1642. vol. ii. page 763. [100] Warburton. [29] Corbet. [29] Corbet. [C] From MSS. Badminton. [46] Harley.