The
soldiers searched and rifled the houses of the inhabitants for
victuals; they had lived on horseflesh several weeks, and most of
that also was as lean as carrion, which not being well salted bred
wens; and this want of diet made the soldiers sickly, and many died
of fluxes, yet they boldly rejected all offers of surrender, unless
with safety to their offices. However, several hundreds got out,
and either passed the enemy's guards, or surrendered to them and
took passes.
7th. The townspeople became very uneasy to the soldiers, and the
mayor of the town, with the aldermen, waited upon the general,
desiring leave to send to the Lord Fairfax for leave to all the
inhabitants to come out of the town, that they might not perish, to
which the Lord Goring consented, but the Lord Fairfax refused them.
12th. The rabble got together in a vast crowd about the Lord
Goring's quarters, clamouring for a surrender, and they did this
every evening, bringing women and children, who lay howling and
crying on the ground for bread; the soldiers beat off the men, but
the women and children would not stir, bidding the soldiers kill
them, saying they had rather be shot than be starved.
16th. The general, moved by the cries and distress of the poor
inhabitants, sent out a trumpet to the Parliament-General,
demanding leave to send to the Prince, who was with a fleet of
nineteen men of war in the mouth of the Thames, offering to
surrender, if they were not relieved in twenty days.
