But, above all, they were intent that Essex's army, on which their whole fortune depended, should be put in a condition of marching against the king.

They excited afresh their preachers to furious declamations against the royal cause.

They even employed the expedient of pressing, though abolished by a late law, for which they had strenuously contended.[*] And they engaged the city to send four regiments of its militia to the relief of Gloucester.

All shops, meanwhile, were ordered to be shut; and every man expected, with the utmost anxiety, the event of that important enterprise.[**] Essex, carrying with him a well-appointed army of fourteen thousand men, took the road of Bedford and Leicester: and though inferior in cavalry, yet, by the mere force of conduct and discipline, he passed over those open champaign country, and defended himself from the enemy's horse, who had advanced to meet him, and who infested him during his whole march.
As he approached to Gloucester, the king was obliged to raise the siege, and open the way for Essex to enter that city.

The necessities of the garrison were extreme.