OF MY COMING BACK TO OXFORD.
Coming back to Oxford about the beginning of the month September, I
found all things in a very disheartened condition. For, indeed, little
now remained to the King. The strong city of Bristol the Prince Rupert
had surrendered to the Lord General, having but a few days before
affirmed in a letter to the King that he could hold the place for four
months unless he should be constrained otherwise by mutiny in the
garrison. The King, indeed, was ill-served by this same Prince, of
whom it may be said that he was over bold where he needed to be
cautious, and that where boldness was most required he showed no small
lack of constancy. About the same time also there came news of the
defeat of my Lord Montrose, at Philiphaugh. From him the King had
hoped great things; and, indeed he had had for a time singular great
success; but his army was such that success was no less fatal to it
than defeat, the savage people from the Highlands, who were its
mainstay, retiring, after their custom, to the mountains, where they
dwelt, when they had gathered a sufficiency of plunder. As for the
King himself, he was then at Newark, to which place he had fled, with
but a small following, from Chester, where, seeking to relieve the
city from siege, he had been defeated with great loss. But about the
beginning of November (for it was, I remember about the day of our
_Gaudeamus_--that is to say, the first day of November) he came back
to Oxford, and there tarried for the rest of the winter.
And now it was needful to prepare all things for the worst. First,
then, because it could not be hoped but that the city of Oxford would
be soon besieged (a thing which, though many times threatened, had
never yet been done), it seemed good to make perfect the
fortifications. There came forth, therefore, a proclamation from his
Majesty's Privy Council that all the inhabitants of Oxford, being
above the age of sixteen, should upon four several days, named
therein, work upon the fortifications behind Christ Church (at which
place their defect was greatest). And it was ordered that if any
person from age, or infirmity, or other occupation, should fail so to
work, he should either find one suitable person to labour in his
stead, or should pay a contribution of one shilling for the day; and
for each servant the householder employing him was to pay the sum of
sixpence. Having but few shillings in my purse, and being curious
withal to see the matter, which was indeed a new thing in England, I
elected to work rather than to pay. And, indeed it was a strange sight
to see the multitude gathered together. Some came for very zeal, as if
they could not be content but they must show how zealous they were for
the King, and some for meanness or poverty came rather to labour with
their own hands than to pay. So far as I could see there was but
little work done, and this from lack of skill in part, and in part
from want of heart. I verily believe that a hundred stout fellows
paid, not by the hours of their working, but by the work that they
should do, had accomplished much more than the mixed multitude
gathered together that day.
[Illustration: _The Gateway of Christ Church, Oxford._]
The fortifications, however, be they as strong as they might, could
defend the city but for a short time only, and, indeed, had their
chief use in this, that the garrison and inhabitants, being safe from
sudden assault, might through them obtain for themselves better terms
of surrender. It was necessary, therefore, to provide, so far as might
be possible, against the time when the city should be surrendered into
the hands of our enemies. Of this provision one chief matter was the
hiding away of such things as were apt to suffer damage from their
hatred or ignorance. Now there had come from time to time grievous
reports of the cruel damage done by the soldiers of the Parliament in
various cathedrals and churches throughout the realm wherever they had
fallen into their power. Especially had they shown themselves zealous
against what in their fanatic language they were wont to call
idolatry, not only breaking down statues that they espied on walls or
on tombs, but also figures, whether of Christ or of holy men that were
painted on windows. And it was known that they were especially zealous
against such figures or images when they savoured of Popery, as ran
the phrase which was greatly in favour in these times. Such things
then it seemed expedient to hide. Therefore at Christ Church, in the
Cathedral, the Dean, than whom there was no one more stiff for the
King, had a certain window, which is especially prized in that
Society, put away in a safe place, and another set up in its place. On
this window was represented Dr. Robert King, last Abbot of Oseney and
first Bishop of Oxford, in his bishop's robes, having a mitre on his
head and holding a crosier in his right hand. 'Twas most handsomely
painted with colours, so fine and so harmoniously blended as no man in
these days seems to have the wit to do. I hope that it may remain
hidden so long as these present hardships may endure, and be found
when they shall have passed away, as I do not doubt that they will. At
Magdalen College, also, the painted glass of the great eastern window
in the chapel was taken out of its place, and put away in like manner,
for the safe restoration of which I here set down the same hope.
[Illustration: _The last Abbot of Oseney._]
On the fourteenth day of March in the year following (that is to say,
the year 1646) an army of Sir Ralph Hopton, that still held out for
the King in Cornwall (and 'twas in the West that his Majesty's cause
was ever the strongest, whereas it was weakest in the East)
surrendered itself, being reduced to such straits as left no hope of
escape, much less of victory. This was heard in Oxford, by a messenger
from the general of the enemy, who was so courteous as to give us the
news, not the less readily perhaps, that it was not like to be
welcome. On the very same day, that is the twenty-second day of March
(for the matter in Cornwall, having befallen on the fourteenth, had
taken so long to travel to us) came tidings of a great misfortune that
had befallen his Majesty nearer at hand. For Sir Jacob Astley, coming
from Worcester to Oxford with about three thousand men, mostly horse,
that he had gathered, was fallen upon by one Colonel Morgan at
Stow-on-the-Wold, and routed, being himself taken prisoner. This we
heard from one of Sir Jacob's own riders, who escaped, or, I should
rather suppose, was suffered to escape, that he might bring the ill
news to the King. And, indeed, 'twas the very last stroke that overset
the tottering edifice of his fortunes, as was sufficiently evident
from what the good knight, being taken to the aforesaid Colonel
Morgan, is reported to have said: "Now you have done your work, and
may go to play, unless you choose to fall out among yourselves." Of
this same valiant soldier is told another thing which seems to me well
worthy to be here set down, that at the battle of Edgehill, before he
charged, he made this prayer: "O Lord! Thou knowest how busy I must be
this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me." And having said so
much, he rose from his knees, and cried with a cheerful voice, "March
on, boys."
And now, a siege being imminent, the King departed from Oxford. Of his
going but very few knew beforehand, but I heard afterwards from one
that was present that he went at midnight on the twenty-seventh day of
April, being disguised as a servant, even to having his hair cut in
Puritan fashion, and riding with a portmanteau behind him. He had but
two companions, Dr. Hudson, that was a parson, but not less a soldier,
and a certain Master Ashburnham, whose servant he feigned himself to
be. And if few knew of his purpose of going, the place whither he
should go he knew not himself. At the first he rode towards London, to
which, indeed, he approached so near that he came as far as
Harrow-on-the-Hill being minded, it was said, to enter the City and
throw himself on the mercy of the Parliament. But, departing from this
purpose, if, indeed, he ever entertained it, he rode northward to
Newark, where the Scots' army lay, hoping that they might protect him,
of which hope he was, indeed, grievously disappointed, the Scots
giving him up to his enemies. 'Twas said that they sold him; and it is
certain that at the time of his being surrendered, it was agreed that
the Scots should have four hundred thousand pounds, being, as they
said, arrears of their wages, paid to them. Yet, as they came into
England to make war, together with the Parliament, against the King,
this charge, methinks, is too harsh, for being by profession enemies,
why should they behave to him as friends? Nevertheless it had been
more seemly if no mention had been made at the time of the wages.
And now at Oxford the end came nearer and nearer. We made a dam at St.
Clement's Bridge (which is by Magdalen College), and so laid the
country that is to the south side of the city under water. But
elsewhere the lines of the enemy were drawn all about us. This was the
beginning of May. Of fighting there was but little; on this, being, as
I conceived, bound by my oath, I did not so much as look. But I could
not choose but hear the cannonading which went forward with but little
rest. Our men would fire, it was said, so many as two hundred shots in
the day, doing, however, but small damage, so that it seemed as if
they had it in their mind to spend their powder rather than to do
execution. And I take it that they suffered more damage than they
gave, the enemy having more marks, and these also more manifest, at
which to make his aim. About the ending of the month of May comes an
order from the King that the city should be surrendered.
Meanwhile I, as I have said, turned away not only my hands, but also,
as far as it was possible, my eyes and my thoughts from war,
conceiving that I should so acknowledge the great kindness of my Lord
Fairfax. Here, therefore, I may not unfittingly set down somewhat
about the thing with which I now concerned myself. Before my going to
join company with my father before the battle at Naseby, being about
to finish my second year of residing, I performed my first exercises,
that is to say, I answered, as the Academical phrase has it, _in
parviso_, and so became, to use again the somewhat barbarous dialect,
_sophista generalis_, the visible signs and tokens of which honour was
the putting into my hands of a book of Aristotle, and round my neck,
by one of the bedels, when I had duly finished my answering, of a
little hood of some common black stuff, which same hood, as might be
concluded from its look, had done the like service for many before me.
As I am speaking of this matter I may anticipate the time somewhat in
this place, and relate how I afterwards answered for my degree, which
by great fortune I was able to do before that I was constrained to
leave Oxford. The questions on which I disputed were in part ethical,
and in part philosophical. And here, for the edifying of my readers, I
will set them forth, being two of each sort. First, then, came the
philosophical.
1. _Whether there can be administered by the art of the physician an
universal remedy?_
2. _Whether the moon can be inhabited? And whether, it being granted
that it has inhabitants, these have a popular or a despotic
constitution?_
After these came the ethical questions, in which were included
political.
1. _Whether the die be a lawful means of acquiring property?_
2. _Whether a multitude of scholars be profitable to a commonwealth?_
But this was not done till after the time of which I have been now
speaking, when I was near upon completing my fourth academical year.