under Waller. Having, from discontent with his employers, thrown up his commission of colonel of horse in their army, this man came over to Oxford, and offered to Prince Rupert to lead an expedition against an exposed quarter of the enemy. Knowing Hurry to be an able officer, receiving good assurance of his sincerity in the cause he had adopted, and aware of his thorough acquaintance with the habits and condition of the army he had left, Rupert accepted his proposals, put himself at the head of a powerful body of cavaliers, and, late in the evening, marched out of Oxford, under the guidance of the renegade. At Postcombe, the expedition came unexpectedly upon a regiment of dragoons, and killed, or took them prisoners, to a man. At Chinnor, a second regiment was annihilated, and the place itself set on fire. The party then marched back upon Oxford, intending to fall in with a body of infantry, which Rupert had ordered out to meet them by the pass at Chiselhampton Bridge, the point where he would have to recross the river.

The army lay in Hampden's county, where every "dingle and bosky bourne" was familiar to him from childhood. Sagacious, and dissatisfied with his excellency's arrangements, the Buckinghamshire gentleman, now a veteran colonel, for in his year's service he had, by day, seldom quitted the saddle, or allowed his sword to rest in its scabbard,— had already perceived, and had pointed out to Essex, the exposed condition of his lines. That night he lay at Watlington, where the alarm of Rupert's irruption quickly roused him. Instantly he despatched the only trooper that attended him, to the lord-general, to recommend his moving a competent force upon the pass at Chiselhampton; and, at the same moment, a body of the parliament's horse, consisting of Sheffield and Cross's troops coming up, he volunteered to put himself at their head, and by attacking the prince's rear-guard to impede his retreat and give time for Essex to draw out his troops towards the river. Whereupon the officers and soldiers freely consented, and shewed much cheerfulness that they could have the honour to be led by so noble a captain." By this time, being joined by Colonel Dalbier and several other officers, they amounted to a body of horse not greatly inferior to Rupert's.

The prince, meantime, hastened on through Tetsworth, his rear constantly threatened by the pursuing party. On Chalgrove Field, from which a lane led down to the bridge of Chiselhampton, he fell in with his infantry. This spot, made famous that day in English history, was then, and still is, an unenclosed plain, of several hundred acres. Here, among the green corn which covered it, Rupert drew up his forces in order of battle; directing the party who guarded his prisoners and booty to move forward to the bridge. The parliamentarians now came fiercely on, in three bodies. Tired and harassed as his men were with a march of twenty miles, and frequent skirmishing, Rupert resolved, notwithstanding, to anticipate the attack. The first body which reached the ground was led by Colonel Gunter; it consisted of several troops of horse and dragoons, and bore down upon his right wing. Rupert charged; and the long rapiers of his life-guards did terrible execution. Gunter's party, though at once reinforced by the troops of Colonel Neale and General Percy, gave way and fled, leaving their commander dead upon the field. At this juncture Hampden arriving, eagerly advanced to rally the broken squadrons. Essex, too, was at hand with his main body. Hampden, relates Lord Nugent, at once

M

put himself at the head of the attack: but in the first charge he received his death-wound. He was struck in the shoulder with two carbine bullets, which, breaking the bone, entered his body, and his arm fell powerless and shattered by his side. Sheffield, who charged with him, was severely wounded, and fell into the hands of the enemy. Sir Samuel Luke was three times made prisoner. Buller, a captain under Sir Philip Stapleton, received a shot in the neck, and was also taken: in no fight, hitherto, had the parliament lost so many soldiers of name. Overwhelmed by numbers, their best officers killed or taken, their great leader and the hope of their cause retiring in a dying condition from the field, and the day absolutely lost,—the forces of the parliament gave way, and fled towards Essex's now unavailing squadrons. Rupert, though not able to pursue, made good his retreat across the river; and about noon entered Oxford, with near two hundred prisoners, seven cornets of horse, and four ensigns of foot, bringing back most of the men who had marched out with him: some officers had been taken prisoners, but none killed.

The first accounts of this eventful day, published by the parliamentarians, spoke with confidence of their great champion's recovery; "his wound was more likely to be a badge of honour than any danger of life." But these hopes were quickly dissipated. On moving from the scene of conflict, Hampden was first observed to make for the house of a relation in the neighbourhood. But Rupert's cavalry were covering the plain between. Turning his horse, therefore, he rode back in the way to Thame. When he came to a brook which divides the plain, he paused awhile; but it being impossible for him, in his wounded state, to remount, if he had alighted to turn his horse over, he suddenly summoned his strength, clapped spurs, and cleared the leap. Through such particulars the recent biographer of this eminent person naturally delights to carry his reader. But what must have been Hampden's thoughts, as he crossed the field of his youthful remembrances, staining the green blades that glittered in the sun of a bright morn of May with no ignoble blood? There he had first practised his confiding neighbours, and his admiring tenants and serving-men, in the use of those pikes which they were to level at the crown and the mitres of England; and there the avenging ball of the royalist had shivered his vigorous right arm! The cause was, to all appearance, declining :-the army weakened, and commanded by a cold and vacillating partisan; the enemy victorious, and every day gathering new strength; the parliament rapidly losing the confidence of the people; Pym, his great fellow-champion, lying on his death-bed-the most sentient nerve of Freedom, the toughest sinew in the whole body of Rebellion, shrivelling like a parched scroll! Yet, could he have looked further, and with prophetic eyes beheld NasebyCarisbrook-Whitehall defiled with the blood of a king, and the residence of an usurper, more appalling would have been that contemplation of its triumph. Where would he have discovered the laws which he had vindicated-the Liberty, at whose shrine he had sacrificed so much, besides what was his own-or even a free field for that sly but strong ambition, which, more, it may be, than he was himself aware, directed the movements of his life? In great pain, and nearly exhausted, Hampden reached Thame. The surgeons who dressed his wounds encouraged his grieving fellow-patriots and brothers-in-arms with hopes of recovery; but his own impression from the first was, that his hurt was

mortal. It was too true an one. After six days of intense suffering, Hampden breathed

his last.

The prosperous appearance of Charles's affairs, and the contrast exhibited in the depressed condition of the parliament's, became more obvious after the occurrence of this event. So reduced was Essex's army by sickness, defeat, and destitution, that he no longer deemed it safe to remain in the vicinity of his restless enemies. Yet the difficulties which surrounded the cause of the patriots had not the effect of relaxing their determined tone. When Charles, feeling himself fully prepared to meet any forces which his opponents could call into the field, once more sent a message for peace, intimating that the calamities which would follow a renewal of hostilities between the main armies would, if they obstinately refused all accommodation, be solely chargeable on them; the houses answered merely by committing the messenger to prison; and with a view to close the door against all farther attempts at negotiation, the Commons carried up to the Lords the impeachment of the queen, already mentioned. The king replied to this insult by a declaration, that the two houses at Westminster were no longer a real and free parliament; and forbade his subjects to obey their ordinances. The houses, on their side, resolve to impart legal warranty to their acts, by making a new great seal; appoint an assembly of divines to consult in affairs of religion; vote the despatch of a second embassy for advice and assistance into Scotland; and, finding much inconvenience from the "multitudes of scandalous books, pamphlets, and papers," with which the whole country swarmed, pass an ordinance to restrain "the liberty of the press!"

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CHAPTER XI.

THE ROYALISTS VICTORIOUS.

HITHERTO Essex was treated with external respect; but his popularity, both in and out of parliament, was rivalled by more active and decided, though less important, chiefs. Hampden, indeed, could no longer dispute his laurels; but Fairfax and his father in the north, and Cromwell in the east, were already more stirring names in the ears of the patriots. The favourite general of parliament and people, however, was Sir William Waller.

Waller had served abroad, and, on his return to nis own country, obtained an office under the crown. But having engaged in an indiscreet quarrel which brought him under the severe notice of the Star Chamber, and his resentment being quickened by the puritan zeal of his wife, he went over to the patriots; and was among the first who took out commissions to raise troops for the parliament. The cautious temper of Essex served as a foil to the rapidity and irregular daring of the general of the horse; and while the impatience of eager partisans sickened at the dull and indecisive movements of the grand army, they followed with exultation the meteoric flashing of the sword of Waller. successes at Portsmouth and Chichester, at the close of 1642, have been referred to already. About the same time, he recovered Winchester for the parliament. Shortly afterwards, Lord Herbert of Ragland having raised a large body of troops for the king, Waller detached himself from Essex's army, dashed through Wiltshire, and surprised and took the whole prisoners, under the walls of Gloucester. Hereford, Tewkesbury, Chepstow, Monmouth, successively received his victorious bands. From Worcester he was repulsed; but, avoiding the more numerous forces of Prince Maurice, who had been sent by the Marquess of Hertford to intercept him, he led his party safe back; and rejoined Essex, with a dazzling reputation, which was acknowledged in the quaint appellation, popularly given him of William the Conqueror.

But the conquests of Waller only interrupted the growth of the royalists' strength in the west-as the arrow cuts the air, which, behind it, closes again. The towns he had entered immediately re-opened their gates to the enemy; for he left in them no garrisons. These hasty successes, however, determined the parliament to make an attempt, by sending out an expedition under his command, to maintain their waning influence in those parts; while Essex, who was unable to obtain for his diminished forces such supplies of clothing and ammunition as would enable them once more to take the field, had yet the mortification to see an army of 8,000 men prepared, on a liberal and effective scale, for his rival.