fact, that Leicester was besieged and stormed with terrible slaughter
by the king, but not by the army of the Parliament. The taking of
Leicester by the king in person was attended with great cruelties.
The abbey was burnt by the cavaliers. Rupert's black flag was
hoisted on the gate which had been treacherously given up. Every
Scotchman found in the town was murdered. The mace and town seals
were carried off as plunder; and, if the account given by Thoresby
in his History of Leicester is correct, the scene of carnage was
quite enough to sicken Bunyan of a military life. He knew the mode
in which plunder taken from the bodies of the slain was divided by
the conquerors:--


'Or as the soldiers give unto
Each man the share and lot,
Which they by dint of sword have won,
From their most daring foe;
While he lies by as still as stone,
Not knowing what they do.'[34]


'The king's forces having made their batteries, stormed Leicester;
those within made stout resistance, but some of them betrayed
one of the gates; the women of the town laboured in making up the
breaches, and in great danger. The king's forces having entered
the town, had a hot encounter in the market-place; and many of them
were slain by shot out of the windows, that they gave no quarter,
but hanged some of the committee, and cut others to pieces. Some
letters say that the kennels ran down with blood; Colonel Gray the
governor, and Captain Hacker, were wounded and taken prisoners,