Note 138 — Chapter VII · Prince Rupert in Lancashire.

Derby to Rupert, Chester, March 7, 1643‑4: "I have received many advertisements from my wife of her great distress and imminent danger, unless she be relieved by your Highness, on whom she doth more rely than any other whatever, and all of us consider well she hath chief reason so to do" ("Rupert MSS.," Add. MSS. 18980, fol. 81). Derby's information was that there were only 50 men each in the towns of Liverpool and Warrington, the garrisons having been withdrawn to the siege of Lathom.

Sir John Byron to Rupert, Apr. 7, describes Lathom as in danger of being lost: "The constant intelligence from that county every day is that if your Highness only appear there, the greatest part of the rebels' forces will desert them and join you, and that county being once reduced, all this part of England will presently be clear." "Rupert MSS.," fol. 137; "Clarendon" (Macray), Vol. 3, p. 339 (book 8, par. 17).