i. 41.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. May 23.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 27.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. June 1.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. June 2.]
numerous party; the common council wavered; and the parliament possessed no
armed force to support its authority. The leaders saw that they had but one
resource, to win by conciliation. The aldermen imprisoned at the request of
the army were set[a] at liberty; the impeachment against the six lords was
discharged; and the excluded members were permitted to resume their seats.
These concessions, aided by the terror which the victory at Maidstone
inspired, and by the vigilance of Skippon, who intercepted all
communication between the royalists, and the party at Blackheath, defeated
the project of Goring. That commander, having received a refusal,
crossed[b] the river, with five thousand horse, was joined by Lord Capel
with the royalists from Hertfordshire, and by Sir Charles Lucas with a body
of horse from Chelmsford, and assuming the command of the whole, fixed his
head-quarters in Colchester. The town had no other fortification than a low
rampart of earth; but, relying on his own resources and the constancy of
his followers, he resolved to defend it against the enemy, that he might
detain Fairfax and his army in the south, and keep the north open to the
advance of the Scots.
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