336

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap- the West; and at Oxford were many chiefs of the Northern• l6s ^ • insurrection.

Tho Late on Thursday, the sixth of December, he reachedHun-

reaches gerford. The little town was soon crowded with men of rankHunger- and note who came thither from opposite quarters. ThePrince was escorted by a strong body of troops. The northernLords brought with them hundreds of irregular cavalry,whose accoutrements and horsemanship moved the mirth ofmen accustomed to the splendid aspect and exact movementsof regular armies.* *•

aMtead- While the Prince lay at Hungerford a sharp encounterinc - took place between two hundred and fifty of his troops andsix hundred Irish, who were posted at Beading. The supe-rior discipline of the invaders was signally proved on thisoccasion. Though greatly outnumbered, they, at one onset,drove the King’s forces in confusion through the streets of thetown into the market-place. There the Irish attempted torally; but, being vigorously attacked in front and fired uponat the same time by the inhabitants from the windows of theneighbouring houses, they soon lost heart, and fled with theloss of their colours and of fifty men. Of the conquerors onlyfive fell. The satisfaction which-tliis news gave to the Lordsand gentlemen who had joined William was unmixed. Therewas nothing in what had happened to gall their national feel-ings. The Dutch had not beaten the English, but had as-sisted an English town to free itself from the insupportabledominion of the Irish.*

ThcEng’s On the morning of Saturday, the eighth of December,?ioners' - the King’s Commissioners reached Hungerford. The Prince’sHunger 11 body guard was drawn up to receive them with military re-ford. spect. Bentinck welcomed them, and proposed to conductthem immediately to his master. They expressed a hope thatthe Prince would favour them with a private audience; butthey were informed that he had resolved to hear them andanswer them in public. They were ushered into his bed-

* Clarendon’s Diary, Dec. 1 . 1688 .

*• History of the Desertion; Citters, Dec. ft. 1688 ; Exact Diary;Oldmixon, 160 .