sectary. And what is this but to deny Christians their liberty, and assume the infallible chair? What doth he, whom we would not be likened unto, do more than this?"

Such is the intellectual and theological side of Cromwell, on his second memorable visit to Scotland. The military side is not less impressive. Of all his military achievements, that of his retreat to Dunbar, and subsequent battle, is perhaps the greatest, if for no other reason than because, for the first time in the course of his conquering career, we see him in straits through which he cannot get "almost without a miracle." "The enemy hath blocked up our way," he writes,* "and our lying here daily consumeth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination." But the force of his genius rises with the occasion. "Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord, though our present condition be as it is. . . . Whatever become of us, it will be well for you to get what forces you can together." Nowhere does he seem more the hero. No scene in all his life is at once more striking and simple in its grandeur-the half-famished troops, lying weary and exhausted with their fruitless marches in search of an enemy that had refused to fight them, but had hung in their retreat, with a harassing tenacity, on their rear; their turning to bay in the narrow corner ("the pass at Copperspath") in which they were hemmed, with the hills before them covered by the enemy, and the sea behind; the night of storm and "hail clouds;" the quiet magnanimity of his letter to Haselrig; the eagerness with which he watched the Scottish troops descend from their vantage-ground;

* Letter to Sir A. Haselrig at Newcastle, dated "Dunbar, 2d September 1650."

the prayer and the pealing watchword-" The Lord of Hosts"-as it rang through the English ranks in the morning; the terrible charge upon the half-sleeping and drenched Scotch; and the cry which Hodgson heard burst from him as they first wavered and fled, "They run! I profess they run!"

The Scotch, after their defeat at Dunbar, rallied at Stirling; but their councils were divided, and their strength effectually broken. Some of them, irrespective of the Covenant, were disposed to embrace the Royal cause. Others, in zeal for the Covenant, distrusted the King and his special adherents. There were, in fact, three parties: a right, left, and middlea Royal, Religious, and Royalist-religious, or official party- Malignants, Whigs or Remonstrants, and "Resolutioners"-so called from their having carried through the Parliament and Assembly a set of resolutions for the admission of Malignants to fight in the general cause of covenanted Royalty. It was a great satisfaction to Cromwell that, the genuine Covenanters or Whigs having been dispersed in the west by Major Whalley, he was left to fight it out with the two other parties, for whom he had comparatively little respect. His visits to Linlithgow and Glasgow, where Mr Zachary Boyd "railed on his soldiers to their very face in the High Church; "* his correspondence with the heads of the Remonstrant party; his siege of Edinburgh Castle and its surrender, fill up the events of the year. Then follow, his somewhat serious illness during the winter in his old lodging, the "Earl of Murrie's house in the Canigate;" his second visit to Glasgow; his church-going, and personal conferences with the clergy, who hesitated not in his presence to

* BAILLIE, iii. 119.

"give a fair testimony against the Sectaries; "* renewed operations hither and thither in the spring (1651) near to Stirling, and across to Burntisland; the breaking of the Royalist army from Stirling, and its march into England; his march in pursuit, and the great and decisive victory of Worcester on the 3d of September, the anniversary of the day of Dunbar.

The battle of Worcester was, as he wrote, his "crowning mercy;" "as stiff a contest for four or five hours as ever I have seen." The Scots fought with desperate bravery, but their efforts were of no avail. The star of Cromwell was in the ascendant. The passion of a great strength which had never been broken in battle, was upon him, and carried him resistlessly to victory. Carlyle says grandly, "The small Scotch army, begirdled with overpowering force, and cut off from help or reasonable hope, storms forth in fiery pulses, horse and foot; charges now on this side of the river, and now on that; can on no side prevail; Cromwell recoils a little, but only to rally and return irresistible; the small Scotch army is on every side driven in again; its fiery pulsings are but the struggle of death; agonies as of a lion coiled in the folds of a boa." +

Cromwell returned in triumph to London after an absence of fifteen months, during which he had more securely established his power over the army, and enhanced his fame by two great battles. It is not to be supposed that he and the other chiefs of the army would be more deferential to the "Rump" of a Parliament (little more than a hundred members) still sitting in Westminster, than they had been to the same assembly when in comparative strength and consideration. On its part the Parliament was sufficiently + CARLYLE, ii. 142.

* BAILLIE, 165.

deferential, four of its most dignified members having been commissioned to meet the conqueror at Aylesbury with congratulations, and to accompany him as he entered London amid the obeisance of Lord President and Council, Sheriffs, and Mayors, and the shouting of the multitude. "In the midst of all," Whitelocke says, "Cromwell carried himself with much affability." Afterwards, indeed, his bearing was criticised. His chaplain, Hugh Peters, told Ludlow that he discerned in his master on the occasion, a certain inward elevation and excitement of conscious greatness, as if he already saw within his grasp the crown and sovereignty of England-so much so, that he (the chaplain) had said to himself, "This man will be king of England yet." Beyond all doubt, Cromwell returned from his great successes in Ireland and Scotland, if not a changed man, yet with far higher and clearer aims for himself and his country. It was impossible that he should not feel how the reins of power had been gathered into his hand, and that if the nation was to be settled after its long and exhausting conflicts, he must himself undertake the settlement of it. It is vain for any to talk of unprincipled craft and ambition at this stage of his career. Circumstances had made him first the hero, and now the virtual sovereign of his country.

*

Still, for nearly two years, he remained without any special assumption of sovereignty, while Parliament was engaged in endless debates and negotiations as to its dissolution, and the arrangements for a new representative. Such debates had commenced from the time of the King's execution, but gone to sleep during the Scottish campaign. Cromwell's return brought As Guizot even in his latest biography does.

them to life again, and by a majority the "Rump" agreed to its dissolution three years hence.

Many conferences were held in the mean time, at Cromwell's house at Whitehall, with the chiefs of the army and divers of the Parliamentary leaders, as to the order of government; some, especially the lawyers, arguing in favour of a limited monarchy under the King's son-others, with almost all the officers of the army, declaring in favour of a republic. While these negotiations were proceeding in London, and the soldiers of the Commonwealth were resting from their stern struggles, and enjoying the excitement of political discussion and petitioning, its sailors, under Blake and Dean, were achieving glorious triumphs over the Dutch,* and establishing its supremacy on the seas and throughout Europe. The "Rump" calmly took the triumphant course of events as its own, and seemed less disinclined than before to resign its position and influence. The army became impatient, and petitioned more vehemently; conferences increased at the Lord General's house. Parliament at length resolved on instant dissolution-a whole year earlier than it had first intended; but the bill by which the members of the "Rump" proposed to carry their resolution into effect, was clogged with such conditions as should secure their own return to the new Parliament, and their effectual influence over its composition.+ Such a proposal deeply incensed Cromwell and the army, and he determined to prevent its passing.

The act by which he accomplished this was one of the most questionable, if also one of the most scenic and daring in the upward course of his ambition. Its external features stamped themselves vividly on the + GUIZOT's Cromwell, 348, vol. i.

* March 1653.