[b] The main body with
their leader took possession of the market-place; while small detachments
brought away the horses from the several inns, liberated the prisoners in
the gaol, and surprised the sheriff and the two judges in their beds. At
first Wagstaff gave orders that these three should be immediately hanged;
for they were traitors acting under the authority of the usurper; then,
pretending to relent, he discharged the judges on their parole, but
detained the sheriff a prisoners because he had refused to proclaim Charles
Stuart. At two in the afternoon he left Salisbury, but not before he had
learned to doubt of the result. Scarcely a man had joined him of the crowd
of gentlemen and yeomen whom the assizes had collected in the town; and the
Hampshire royalists, about two hundred and fifty horse, had not arrived
according to their promise. From Salisbury the insurgents marched through
Dorsetshire into the county of Devon. Their hopes grew fainter every hour;
the further they proceeded, their number diminished; and, on the evening
of the third day,[c] they reached Southmolton in a state of exhaustion
and despondency. At that moment, Captain Crook, who had followed them for
several hours, charged into the town with a troop of cavalry.
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