with such zealous foresight to preserve in the midland counties the authority of the Parliament and extend its power. These preparations were entirely successful, effective in proportion to the quietness and decision with which they were carried out. The Midland, or what were called the Eastern Associated Counties, remained true to the popular cause throughout the struggle ; and from their unanimity and compact organisation, escaped comparatively the miseries of actual warfare.

Of his military activity at this time we get merely glimpses, but they are very significant and characteristic glimpses. The university of Oxford had already sent its plate to the King for his service. Cambridge was meditating a similar step when Cromwell appeared, "seized the magazine in the castle, and hindered the carrying of the plate from that university." His musketeers were over all the country, keeping a vigilant watch for the Parliamentary interests, "starting out of the corn and commanding stray youths to give an account of themselves." His uncle, Sir Oliver, had a visit from him. The old royalist had evidently been meditating help for the King in his straits, and his nephew and godson "thought it might be well to pay him a visit with a good strong party of horse." Warwick is the gossip here, as so often elsewhere; and there is a delightful piquancy in the story which he tells-such a mixture of business and dutifulness-of sternness to the cause and yet reverent affection for his unclethat we are inclined to own its truth, doubtful as is the source. "During the few hours that he was there Cromwell asked him (the uncle) his blessing, and would not keep on his hat in his presence; but at the same time he not only disarmed but plundered him, for he took away all his plate.'

On the 23d of August 1642, Charles raised the royal standard at Nottingham, in an unpropitious storm of wind which blew it down again. The Earl of Essex, at the head of the Parliamentary forces, received instructions, "by battle or otherwise, to rescue the King and his sons from these perfidious counsellors, and bring them back to Parliament." The Earl of Bedford, a grave and moderate man, like Essex, was made general of the horse; and Oliver Cromwell was named captain of the 67th troop.

The King, accompanied by his nephew, Prince Rupert, lately arrived from Germany, removed to the western counties, and set up his headquarters at Shrewsbury. Essex advanced towards him slowly, and Charles dreamed of marching upon London and finishing the war by a single bold stroke. He had even proceeded some days on his march, when Essex overtook him. on the borders of Warwickshire, and the first battle ensued in this great struggle-the battle of Edgehill, as it was called. The result was indecisive. Prince Rupert broke the Parliamentary horse and pursued them from the field; but, on the other hand, the royal infantry were dispersed, the Earl of Lindsay, commander-in-chief, severely wounded, and the King's standard taken.

Apparently it was after this battle, and the experience he derived from it, that Cromwell had that remarkable conversation with Hampden which he himself narrates,* as to the quality of the Parliamentary forces, and the need of an entirely different metal to meet the aristocratic gallantry opposed to them. "At my first going out into this engagement, I saw these men (the men of the Parliament) were beaten at every * Speech to Second Parliament. CARLYLE, ii. 526.

hand, and I desired him (Hampden) that he would make some additions to my Lord Essex's army of some new regiments, and I told him that I could be serviceable to him in bringing such men in as I thought had a spirit that would do something in the work. This is very true that I tell you; God knows I lie not. Your troops, said I, are most of them old decayed servingmen and tapsters, and such kind of fellows, and, said I, these troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will be ever able to encounter gentlemen that have honour and courage and resolution in them? Truly I did tell him, you must get men of spirit." Hampden admitted the excellence of the notion, but deemed it impracticable. Cromwell set about converting it into a fact. He had already, in truth, made a beginning with the men he had raised in his own district. Carrying out the same plan, and seeking for men of a religious spirit, potent to meet the spirit of honour opposed to them, he formed a regiment of horse, most of them freeholders and freeholders' sons, who, "upon matter of conscience," engaged in the quarrel under his guidance; and being "well armed within by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and without by good iron arms, they would as one man charge firmly and fight desperately."* "They were never beaten," he himself said, proudly, of them. And "bold as lions in fight, they were in camp temperate and strict in their behaviour." "Not a man swears but he pays his twelvepence," was the current remark of the day regarding them.

The great soldier of the Commonwealth was already apparent in the captain of the 67th regiment of horse.

* WHITELOCKE.

The energy, comprehension, and success of his movements marked him out at the first from the other Parliamentary commanders. In comparison with the respectable patriotism of Essex, the ostentation of Waller, and the vacillating intrepidity of Manchester, he was found steady, hopeful, self-possessed, victorious in whatever was intrusted to him. None of all then acting against the King-not even Hampden, nor Oliver St John-saw so clearly that "things must be much worse before they are better;" and with this calm and strong conviction, he took his measures and made his preparations accordingly. While Essex hesitated, and Parliament negotiated, he acted-and acted with a decision which never returned upon itself nor questioned its aims. This decision is the great secret of his success. However we may explain itwhether, with some, as a part of a deliberate and daring scheme of ambition, formed from the beginning, or as the expression of his honest and deeply-felt convictions regarding the state of England at the time-it is the great key to the sweeping energy with which he advanced from point to point in his great career. While the accidents of the strife removed men like Hampden on the one side and Falkland* on the other from the scene; and the pressure of unforeseen and unexplainable dangers, fast accumulating, wore out and destroyed others like Pym-more than all the others great in the senate, and capable of directing the storms of faction. Cromwell seemed to grow in proud confidence and

There is something very touching in Falkland's death, notwithstanding Mr Carlyle's sneer as to the "clean shirt." He courted and found death on the field of Newbury, "weary," as he said, of the times, and foreseeing much misery to his country. Clarendon's portrait of Falkland is one of his most perfect, and must always fascinate the historical student.

cheerful and expanding consciousness of right as the struggle went on. As Essex became more desponding, and Waller more incompetent, and Manchester more scrupulous, and the great names of Pym and Hampden remained no longer as guides amid the darkness, the rude determination and unconquerable heroism of this man made him master of every successive exigency,-and what he gained he never lost. If we could conceive Cromwell removed from the scene of struggle, and our view only rested on the divisions of the already diverging parties in the Commons, or the inconsistencies and feebleness of its generalship in the field, the chances of internal dissolution would seem far more imminent than approaching triumph to the popular cause. And Cromwell himself was still labouring under this fear when, more than a year hence, he openly accused Manchester in the House of being reluctant to conquer. The rallying but inconsistent forces of Puritanism, he felt, needed a commander to unite them; or, if this was impossible, to carry the boldest principles of the movement to triumph, and to bend the others into subordination and harmony. More obscurely, perhaps, he felt even then that he himself was that commander-that the genius of the movement was destined to culminate in him as its greatest hero.

In the early spring of 1643, Cromwell is for the first time designated colonel, and shortly afterwards (May 1643), he obtained, to use his own words, a "glorious victory." The scene of this victory is supposed to have been near to Grantham, although history has failed to give any chronicle of it save his own brief and characteristic description. Advancing, after many shots on both sides," he says, "we came on with our troops a pretty round trot, they standing firm to

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