300

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

chap. m ent had held many midnight conferences during that anxious■ jesa, - time when England was impatiently expecting the Protestantwind. * The season for action had now arrived. Lovelace,with seventy followers, well armed and mounted, quittedhis dwelling, and directed his course westward. He reachedGloucestershire without difficulty. But Beaufort, who go-verned that- county, was exerting all his great authority andinfluence in support of the crown. The militia had beencalled out. A strong party had been posted at Cirencester.When Lovelace arrived there he was informed that he couldnot be suffered to pass. It was necessary for him either torelinquish his undertaking or to fight his way through. Heresolved to force a passage; and his friends and tenants stoodgallantly by him. A sharp conflict took place. The militialost an officer and six or seven men; but at length thefollowers of Lovelace were overpowered: he was made aprisoner, and sent to Gloucester Castle.**

Co1 - Others were more fortunate. On the day on which the

cueslcf. m *

skirmish took place at Cirencester, Richard Savage, LordColchester, son and heir of the Earl Rivers, and father, bya lawless amour, of that unhappy poet whose misdeeds andmisfortunes form one of the darkest portions of literaryhistory, came with between sixty and seventy horse to Exeter.With him arrived the bold and turbulent Thomas Wharton.A few hours later came Edward Russell, son of the Earl ofBedford, and brother of the virtuous nobleman whose bloodhad been shed on the scaffold. Another arrival still moreimportant was speedily announced. Colchester, Wharton,and Russell belonged to that party which had been constantlyAiing(lon .opposed to the Court. James Bertie, Earl of Abingdon, had,on the contrary, been regarded as a supporter of arbitrarygovernment. He had been true to Janies in the days of theExclusion Bill. He had, as Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire,acted with vigour and severity against the adherents of Mon-mouth, and had lighted bonfires to celebrate the defeat ofArgyle. But dread of Popery had driven him into opposition

* Lysons, Magna Britannia Berkshire.

** London Gazette, Nov. 15 . 1688; Luttrell’s Diary.

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