one.

Three years after this time he married Bridget Cromwell; having quitted his own regiment to follow the colors of her father, whose conduct and genius, as Mrs. Hutchinson tells us, had 'charmed him.' Meanwhile royalism seemed in the ascendant, upon the whole, for some considerable period. Newcastle, with an overpowering force, swept down the midland shires, so that Cromwell had to draw off towards Boston; which it is admitted he did in a most masterly manner. Such occasional retreats perfected his generalship. He was learning and deserving to conquer that haughty aristocracy, ranged for the most part with natural sympathy under the banners of an arbitrary monarch and irresponsible power. The puritans needed some such captain of exemplary renown; for in the course of a campaign or two, Hopton had thoroughly routed Sir William Waller; divisions and jealousies had weakened the strong and disheartened the patriotic; Lord Essex had vacillated, just as might have been expected; and above all John Hampden had fallen! Pym, Vane, the Solemn League and Covenant, and Oliver Cromwell, propped up their waning cause. The sword of the last proved to them that of the Lord and Gideon! Fiennes had surrendered Bristol. The Princes Rupert and Maurice led the rich conservative gentry, as they would now be called, together with Lords Hertford and Newcastle. Charles would have set down before Gloucester, had not Essex with immense reinforcements marched thither, forced him to retire, followed him through Wiltshire, and at length fought the battle of Newbury memorable for the death of four earls and Viscount Falkland: whilst Cromwell remained in Lincolnshire, performing such feats of prudence as well as valor, that he was united with Lord Manchester in the military charge of the six eastern counties, and had an additional levy of 2000 men placed under his command. It was now verging towards the close of 1643, and Sir Thomas Fairfax had joined them on the 9th of October at Boston. Manchester nominally, but Cromwell really, acted as generalissimo. Sir John Henderson, a gallant royalist, having watched his opportunity, attacked the latter near Horncastle, engaging him three to one, since, for those twenty-four hours, Lord Manchester through his own mismanagement was a day's march in the rear. Oliver however felt no fear. He addressed his faithful Ironsides with the double watchword of Truth and Peace! At the same moment he formed his position for the fight, so as to make advantageous ground supply the want of numbers; and then giving out a psalm of victory, he drew his gleaming weapon, and charged in the name of the Most High the astonished enemy. The sound of the sacred song was lost in long rolling vollies of heavy musketry and the dead shock of mingled combatants. Cromwell's favorite steed reeled from the stroke of a ball, and foundered with its

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rider; who, in disengaging himself, was cut down by Sir Ingram Hopton, so that he lay for an instant unconscious amongst the slain but once more springing up, he seized a sorry horse from one of his troopers, and rode into the midst of the mêlée with terrible, and as it turned out, with irresistible fierceness. However, it was his self-collectedness as well as his indomitable courage, that inclined the scale of success from the many to the few. The entire front of the cavaliers wavered, broke, dispersed, and fled. Immense slaughter occurred in the pursuit. Baggage, arms, colors to the number of eighteen pair, horses, and a vast multitude of prisoners rewarded the victors: so that this engagement, which sometimes is called that of Waisby Hill, encouraged the parliamentarians with brighter hopes than they had yet enjoyed; removed the Marquess of Newcastle from Kingstonupon-Hull; and made Charles the First exclaim, Would to God that some one would do me the good fortune to bring to me 'Oliver Cromwell, whether alive or dead!'

In vain did the royal supplication betray his discernment or his fears. Their object gave him no respite; for instead of withdrawing into winter quarters, the Ironsides pursued a bright train of triumph, capturing castles, raising monies, cutting off stragglers, and consolidating military organizations. Their leader now received his appointment of lieutenant-governor to the isle of Ely, which afforded him opportunities, during the severe season, from December to Marchi, of squeezing the fat chapters and colleges of his own Minster, Peterborough, and Cambridge. Within the University much need there was, then as now, of radical reformation. He therefore garrisoned the town as a preparatory measure. Lord Manchester at length obtained powers, in due form from Westminster, for couching the cataract, in this one at least of the eyes of the Church of England. That Church, since the reign of Elizabeth, was lapsing into fearful blindness. Cromwell must have meditated much on former days: but the tremendous campaign of 1644 now commenced. Twenty thousand veteran Scotchmen had crossed the Tweed to co-operate with the puritans. Various movements through the very heart of the kingdom terminated in a grand junction between Fairfax, Lord Leven, Manchester, and Cromwell, now holding commission as lieutenant-general over a division of at least 14,000 men. Newcastle and Rupert were at York; when, through the headstrong rashness of the latter, pleading as in truth he was justified in doing, a permission if not a mandate from Charles, an engagement in the neighbourhood between themselves and the allied forces of their enemies, was fatally resolved upon. On the 2nd of July, therefore, Marston Moor, eight miles from the city, beheld 46,000 subjects of one and the same sovereign drawn out in battle array against each other! War is dreadful; civil war

fare appears infernal. Within the streets and suburbs of York 6 every boom of the distant cannon would strike upon the inhabitants as the death-knell of a friend or brother. The lines of the parliamentarians had begun to form as early as ten in the morning, the royalist preparations were complete at five o'clock in "the afternoon,-it was now within a quarter of seven,-yet 'there still stood these formidable armies, each awaiting from the 'other, with a silent and awful suspense, the signal of battle.' Across a portion of the parliamentary front ran a deep drain, very wide, with the ground to the right broken and entrenched with natural fences and lanes. On the left their position was open and unprotected towards the moor. The elder Fairfax and Lord Leven, with his Scotch, kept the centre; on either wing lay the cavalry; of which the younger Fairfax commanded the right, whilst Cromwell and Manchester held the left. Rupert gazed from afar, as these thick masses formed before him. He had outstripped, through his customary haste, the glittering thousands of royalists, which occupied all day in coming into line. At the drain, he stationed four brigades of infantry, supported by Goring and his horse: his principal columns, with himself and his own cavalry, drew up in direct opposition to Sir Thomas, or as he is often called, the younger Fairfax. The elder, or Lord Fairfax, not as yet had uttered the fatal word, when a stir arose in the quarter of the Independents, part of whose infantry moved upon the drain. Rupert then opened a murderous fire from behind a ditch where his musketeers lay in comparative safety : and the conflict began in good earnest.

The parliamentarians, who had advanced, vainly attempted to form under the plunging batteries simultaneously directed against them from the rear. At that moment was seen the genius of Cromwell. With a passionate exclamation to his Ironsides, he ordered them to sweep round the ditch to their right, clear the broken ground, and fall in with himself upon the dissolute Goring. The movement occupied some time; and fearful slaughter was meanwhile suffered by Manchester's infantry: but having once emerged, these inveterate republicans stood for an instant to receive the onset of Goring's horse, and then, like a cliff tumbled from its basis by an earthquake, rolled back upon them. Nothing could withstand that astonishing charge. The cavaliers who survived offered no further resistance, but wheeled off to join Prince Rupert. Cromwell and his men next struck at the guns, and sabred the artillerymen beside them; and then, with as much leisurely order as at parade, rode towards the drain. Every place was deserted, as they advanced. One spot of ground only still held upon it, for an instant, the Marquess of Newcastle's unflinching regiment of old tenants and retainers, and was covered the instant after with an unbroken line of honorable dead. Their victory was complete, the right wing of the royalists being irrecoverably broken.

Rupert and his cavalry had meanwhile obtained as great a victory on the left. The encumbered ground on which Fairfax stood was most unfavorable to an advance. Rupert, therefore, stood keenly by till he saw the parliamentary forces stagger under the heavy charges poured upon them, as they emerged in narrow columns, through ditches and lanes; and then with his characteristic impetuosity, charged, overthrew, routed, and dispersed both foot and cavalry, with tremendous slaughter.

The subsequent meeting of the two victors decided the day. While the centres were unsteadily engaged, Cromwell, who had checked his triumphant Ironsides from their pursuit, in the very nick of time, ordered them suddenly to fall round, and wheel upon their centre to the left. Rupert had given a similar order to his conquering cavalry to wheel round on their centre to the right; and now with a shock more terrible than any of this terrible day, these desperate leaders, each supposing himself the victor, dashed each in front of a victorious foe! Cromwell received a wound in the neck, and the alarm for his safety gave an appearance of momentary unsteadiness even to his gallant followers; but they rallied with redoubled fury ; and in conjunction with an accomplished Scotch officer, who led up at the moment a brilliant attack, fairly swept Rupert off the field. It was now ten o'clock, and by the melancholy dusk, which enveloped Marston Moor, might be seen a fearful sight. Five thousand dead bodies of Englishmen lay heaped upon that fatal ground. The distinctions, which separated in life these sons of a common country, seemed trifling now! The plumed helmet embraced the strong steel cap, as they rolled on the heath together; and the loose love-lock of the careless cavalier lay drenched in the dark blood of the enthusiastic republican !'-Ib. pp. 134-137.

It proved an enormous victory. Ten thousand stand of arms, two wagons of carabines and pistols, fifteen hundred prisoners more or less distinguished, one hundred and thirty barrels of powder, besides twenty-five pieces of large ordnance, and standards without number, fell as a booty to the conquerors. Charles lost his military chest, all his tents and baggage between the Tweed and the Humber, as well as a full moiety of his entire kingdom. York afterwards surrendered; but Lord Essex in the west had less success than ever, having to surrender all his troops, and himself barely escaping by sea from Plymouth. These events led to the second battle of Newbury in October; when Cromwell would have at once closed the civil war, had not Manchester, either through cowardice or treachery, prevented him from doing so. Incensed at such a proceeding he repaired to London, and convinced his associates Vane, Ireton, the younger Ludlow, and Marten, that extensive changes were necessary, if future advantages were not to be surrendered almost as soon as obtained. Hence ensued the self-denying ordinance and a new model of the army; both which quietly set aside the puritan

aristocracy from their high places, and lowered Presbyterianism itself before the nobler genius of Independency. Thenceforward Cromwell became and remained master of the ascendant. Fairfax, indeed, was named lord general; whilst to the real soul of the drama, he acted the most convenient and secondary part imaginable. The three separate forces of Waller, Essex, and Manchester, combined into one compact body of about twenty-two thousand men; all their old dissolute and least deserving comrades being dismissed, and the conqueror of Marston Moor succeeding ultimately in getting every arrangement just managed upon his own plan. Some months, however, had passed away before all was settled, and the treaty of Uxbridge proving an utter failure, preparations for another appeal to the sword forthwith had commenced. Charles still ruled over Wales, the western, and some of the midland counties, and even here and there in the north yet within a few brief weeks he knew scarcely where to turn! The policy resolved upon by the energetic republicans was to strike at their sovereign wherever he might be found. His cruel massacre at Leicester had incensed and exasperated the realm. On the 14th of June, 1645, the fearful conflict at Naseby for ever overclouded his political fortunes.

In a fallow field, about a mile in breadth, extending towards Harborough, Oliver Cromwell had suggested to Fairfax, that they might take up a very strong position, and wait for his majesty, who would certainly, as he judged from a variety of little circumstances, there fall upon them in due order. The result illustrated his foresight; and afforded him also an opportunity, by two or three ingenious and illusive manœuvres, for completely misleading Prince Rupert. That rash nephew of Charles, having ridden forward from the royalists to reconnoitre, conceived the erroneous impression which his antagonist intended he should, and rushed back to his uncle with the news that the roundheads were retreating, and might be annihilated by a pursuit! His uncle listened, believed, and advanced immediately, not as may be supposed in the best condition. Along the ridge of a gentle eminence lay the mighty lines that were thus to be destroyed! Fairfax and Skippon commanded the main centre: Cromwell took the right wing, and Ireton the left. Their van consisted of infantry; the flanks of cavalry; whilst twenty pieces of artillery were so judiciously planted as to cover every avenue of approach. Rupert, however, at once charged Ireton, cut his way through the division, dispersed for a moment its troops, and fell upon the republican baggage in the rear, exactly when his presence was most needed in the front of the engagement. For meanwhile, though Fairfax kept his ground not very equally in the centre, Oliver and his Ironsides alone decided the day. They had been attacked with terrific fierceness; but receiving the charge un

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