broke away from Waller, marched into | pressed the frontal attack, the Royalist Dorset, and ultimately plunged into army must have been routed. But Devon and Cornwall, in the hope, he Manchester paused, and only made a gave out, of subduing the west, an demonstration of no effect; and Charles operation that has a kind of likeness at nightfall drew off his army, and, to MacMahon's fatal march to Sedan. scarcely molested, made for Oxford. The king, set free by this reckless piece Cromwell urged Manchester in vain to of folly, turned against Waller, who pursue. The second fight at Newbury fell back towards Oxford; an indecisive was a barren victory, and the campaign action at Cropredy Bridge caused Wal- had yielded little fruit. ler's army to retreat and disband, and These untoward results made a proCharles advanced westwards on the found impression on the national track of Essex, already in difficulties mind and the Houses at Westminster. with worn-out forces. The operation Cromwell was the conqueror of Marscompletely succeeded; the Parliamen-ton Moor; the defeat of the army from tary infantry, hemmed in and hopeless, lay down their arms in a nook in Cornwall, and Essex disgraced himself by deserting his men, and making his escape with the mass of his cavalry.

Ireland was due to Fairfax; and Waller, Essex, and Manchester had proved almost worthless. A strong conviction, besides, had widely spread that these noble commanders were at heart loyalMeanwhile events in the north had ists, and would never force the king to told for the king; Montrose had begun extremities; and the conduct of Essex his brilliant career; a Highland La and the language of Manchester prove Vendée threatened the Lowlands, and that this judgment was really just. the Scottish army was compelled to fall Cromwell, powerful alike in the camp back, and to separate from Manchester, and at Westminster, denounced Manwho retreated to the south. Misfor-chester in no measured words for his tune lowered once more on the Houses; pusillanimous weakness at Newbury; but the conduct of the king, as regards and a general demand, increasing in Ireland, had made reconciliation for force, began to be made that aristothe present hopeless; and every nerve cratic chiefs should be replaced by true was strained to maintain the contest. and capable men, and that the army The hosts of Essex, unwisely set free should be transformed and reorganized. by Charles, were placed again in the The moderate party in the House of field; bad chief as he was, he was given Commons, dreading the growth of a another chance; and Essex, Waller, formidable military power, resisted the and Manchester, the last with Crom- pressure as long as it dared; but it was well, were ordered to combine their overborne by the stress of opinion, in forces, and make head against the king, the main directed and controlled by now marching from the west on London. The van of the army of the Houses about twenty thousand strong, met the Royal troops, perhaps half their numbers, at Newbury, for the second time, and an action of little importance had large results. The Parliamentary forces, turning to account their superiority, made a twofold attack; and while Cromwell fell on the left of the king, trying to turn a position of great strength, a movement against his front was entrusted to Manchester. The outflanking manœuvre was successful; the village of Sheen was stormed after a fierce struggle, and had Manchester

Cromwell. Essex, Waller, and Manchester were dismissed from their posts, through the device of the Selfdenying Ordinance; and Fairfax was given the chief command of the Parliamentary forces, for his renown was great, and he had the Presbyterians with him, for the time dominant through the Solemn League and Covenant. But the master-spirit was, beyond dispute, Cromwell; and the reconstruction of the Parliamentary army was made under his supreme direction.

The "New Model," as it was called, was fashioned on the type of the renowned body of men which he had so

often led to victory. The regiments | view it with dislike; negotiations had and troops were not really disbanded, been opened with the king; but these but they were largely weeded of ineffi- had failed owing to his still extreme cient officers; and "godly men," well confidence. Meanwhile, a series of chosen, were raised from the ranks; desultory operations had occurred, though the commanders were mostly chiefly marked by dissension in the of gentle birth, "the men of honor," Royal camp, and the jealousies of the always prized by Cromwell. The Parliamentary leaders. Goring had masses formed in this way were disci- urged an advance into the west; Ruplined and trained with a care un- pert had pressed his uncle to march known before; the greatest attention northwards; the king had taken no was given to their wants; and new and decisive step; and Fairfax and Cromexcellent material was provided for well had been embarrassed by orders them. The practical and administra- and counter-orders of the suspicious tive powers of Cromwell appeared in Houses. Cromwell, however, had flitthese wise arrangements; but no incite- ted around Oxford, and beaten the ments were spared to leaven the army Royalists in some sharp skirmishes; with the fierce and unflinching Puritan and it is significant of his growing spirit, a moral power of intense efficacy. power, that he retained his seat in the The "poor ignorant men," as Cromwell House of Commons, though a general called the elements of this great force, of the reformed army, in contravention became ultimately, as I have said, a of the Self-denying Ordinance. At the mighty instrument of war; and from command of the Parliament, Fairfax the first the New Model was not to be marched in the first week of May to compared with the weak levies of Wal-relieve Taunton, an eccentric moveler and Essex. One characteristic of ment for which he was not to blame; the Puritan army was remarkable, and deserves special notice. Cromwell was superior to the mere forms of religion; his Puritanism scorned the limits of creeds; he disliked Presbyterianism and its Scottish votaries; and his practical genius, and the brotherhood of arms, made him welcome every recruit to the ranks, if he was only a "godly and a true soldier." The army he formed was composed of men who cared nothing for orthodox faiths; it was not asked to swear to the Solemn League and Covenant; it was Protestant and Puritan, but not sectarian. That it was "Independent," and belonged, for the most part, to the great body of Englishmen proud of the name, was a pregnant and significant fact; and the Puritan warriors, unconsciously to themselves, became champions of a kind of religious freedom, and advocates of large reforms in the State unheard of before in the seventeenth century.

The New Model was ready for the field towards the close of April, 1645. The Moderates in the Houses and their Scotch supporters had already begun to

but he was soon compelled to retrace
his steps, and, again obeying the
Houses, he attacked Oxford. Charles,
by this time, had marched out of the
city, intending to make his way to the
north; and he was strangely hopeful
when on the verge of ruin. Montrose
had subdued nearly half Scotland; the
Lowland Scottish army had refused to
advance across the Border to assist the
Parliament; and Charles, Rupert, and
all the Royal commanders, looked with
supreme contempt on the
"brutish
army'
" and the "distracted leaders"
they were soon to meet, as the Clair-
faits and Yorks of another age scorned
Pichegru and Hoche, and the "Jacobin
savages."

The king stormed Leicester, relieved Chester, and was in full march through the eastern counties, when Fairfax, forming a bold resolve, broke up from Oxford, and hastened in pursuit; Cromwell, in a few days, had joined hands with him; and the two chiefs, determined to act for themselves, marched, with their combined force, against the Royal army. They came up with their foes near the little town of

who returned the feeling with avowed contempt; the Constitutionalists at Westminster saw the sword of a conqueror ready to strike them down; and the Wallers and Manchesters detested warriors whose exploits were a reproach to themselves. A strong feeling prevailed against the New Model; and this was made intense by the well-known aversion of Cromwell to mere sectarian forms, by the latitudinarian turn of his mind, and by the political doctrines professed in his camp, deemed anarchic and wild by the men of routine.

Naseby, on the 14th of June, 1645; | was its titular head; the glory of and stern cheers broke from the Puritan Naseby belonged to him; and the great host as "brave Oliver rode along the Independent soldier was master of the line." Fairfax and Cromwell were in hearts of the stern and triumphant greatly superior force, probably four- Independent army. Presbyterian Scotteen thousand to eight thousand men ; | land and Parliamentary England felt but Charles and Rupert were eager to their distrust of this force increased ; fight"never were their affairs in a the Scottish generals disliked Cromwell, better state" — and the Royal army fell on its despised enemy. The valor of the Cavaliers was seen for the last time e; a furious charge of Rupert had momentary success; but the issue of the struggle was never doubtful. Cromwell and his troopers carried all before them on the right; the infantry of the New Model met a stern resistance; but a reserve, led by Cromwell, broke the centre of the king, and his army was soon a mere crowd of fugitives. Thousands of prisoners were taken, and thousands slain; the whole material of the conquered force was In this state of growing confusion captured; and the Royalist cause in the and discord, all parties began to look to field was finally lost. One of the most the king as a kind of centre on which important of the spoils seized by the to rally; and had Charles accepted the victors was the correspondence of proposals of the Scots, he probably Charles with the rebel Irish; this would have regained his crown. proved that the hated kern of Con- "he would not be a Presbyterian naught and Munster were to be brought slave ;" the Scots handed him over to over to take part against Parliamentary the Parliamentary chiefs, and then tried and Protestant England. Cromwell was in turn to negotiate with him, offering once more acclaimed as a conqueror. terms which, severe as they were, 46 Sir," he wrote to Speaker Lenthall, would have still left him the head of the "this is no other but the hand of God; to him alone belongs the glory, wherein none are to share with him."

But

monarchy. These, however, were also rejected by him; and Cromwell and the army now interfered, took him unThe Civil War dragged on a few der their control, and endeavored to months longer; but it was the mere make "a settlement" in their own inflicker of an extinguished fire. Naseby terests. This, unquestionably, was was ere long followed by Philiphaugh, against any letter of the law; but it and by the ruin of the cause of Charles should be borne in mind that the de-. in Scotland; and in the early spring of mands of Ireton, the son-in-law and 1646 the last Royalist levies had been spokesman of Cromwell, and of the offidisbanded. Cromwell took part in these cers joined with him, would have made easy efforts of the New Model to crush the king the chief of the State; and out resistance; but it is unnecessary to they embodied measures of priceless dwell on these petty triumphs. The value toleration in religion, Parliaking was now a discrowned wanderer; mentary reform, improvement of the The Cavaliers and Rupert were gone; law, in short, more than all that the but he drew sources of power from Revolution of 1688 accomplished. weakness, and he was now to play a Charles pretended to lend a willing conspicuous part in the revolutionary ear; but his real purpose was to play England of 1647-49. Cromwell was the the Parliament and the army against real chief of the New Model, if Fairfax each other, "and to extirpate both;"

ar

and he trifled with the New Model in | arena more worthy of a true soldier. order to gain time for a Royalist reac- The captivity of Charles, the threats of tion, which he thought at hand, and the army, the confusion and troubles certain to place him again on the throne. daily increasing, and the evidently deSigns of such a movement had, indeed, clining power of the Houses, brought multiplied; his party was gaining power the Royalist movement at last to a in Scotland; the Lowlands were seen head; Wales broke out into furious declaring for him; there were Royalist revolt; the Cavaliers rose in Essex stirrings in the south and the west; the and Kent, and a Scottish army, PresbyHouses and the Independents were at terian in part, but partly composed of open feud; England, he thought, the followers of Montrose, marched would turn to him, disgusted with civil across the Border, and declared for the and revolutionary strife. He threw off king. The Civil War was renewed in the mask, and escaped from the sol- May, 1648; the New Model was diers who held him as a kind of royal rayed for the field, much as the Parliahostage; and though he was soon in ment dreaded its power; and by this their hands once more, had he had the time it had become a force of terrible power he certainly would have drawn strength, completely organized, and the sword again, and renewed the Civil animated by intense religious fervor. War. This conduct, which seemed in Fairfax, still its leader, easily put down their eyes perfidy and wickedness of the the insurrection in the east and south; worst kind, made Cromwell and the but a more difficult task was devolved army his deadly foes; and, as is well on Cromwell, directed to crush the risknown, the Puritan chiefs signed the ing in Wales. Traditions of his march celebrated protest, declaring they from the Severn to Pembroke still lin"would call Charles Stuart, the man ger among the Welsh peasantry, they of blood, to account for the blood he had shed, and the mischief he had done to his utmost against the Lord's cause, and his people."

tell how castles and churches went down before him, with the fascination felt for power by the Celt.

After the fall of the great fortress of The conduct of Cromwell, at this Pembroke, Cromwell turned eastwards conjuncture, has been described as self- to join Fairfax; but that chief had seeking cunning. He was plotting fulfilled his task; and he marched against the king and the Parliament; northwards against the Scottish army and he made the army the tool of his advancing into Lancashire and scarcely lawless ambition. The charge is un- checked by Lambert, one of the chief just, and even absurd; with the con- Puritan leaders. The march, rapid, servative instincts of a man of birth, decisive, and bold, attests the excellence Cromwell dreaded the anarchy that of the New Model; and the operations menaced the State; and he sincerely that followed show that Cromwell has wished to save Charles his crown, and a real place among great commanders. to see him at the head of a new En- Having stormed Pontefract, and joined gland, controlled by a reformed Par- Lambert, Cromwell pushed forward liament and the Puritan warriors. It from Leeds, and crossed the hills that was only when he felt, as he boldly divide the shires of York and Lancaswrote, that "the king was a man of ter; and when made aware of the posigreat parts, and great understanding, tion of his foe, his resolution was at but that he was too great a dissembler, once taken. At this time, the middle that he was not to be trusted," that he of August, 1648, the Scottish army, led broke finally away from the ill-fated by the Duke of Hamilton, with an Enmonarch, whose king-craft was wreck-glish contingent under Langdale, one ing the hopes of peace, and that he of the best of the Cavalier chiefs, was resolved to adopt other means "to settle extended in long, divided columns, the country." He was ere long recalled spreading from near Preston, as far as from the intrigues of politics, to an Wigan, one body being in the rear of

I

Lancaster; and it exposed its uncovered | order, and the ancient English monflank to Cromwell, whose force, hith- archy. Charles, however, still clung to erto screened by the hills, had not been his game of kingcraft, and with a observed, and was thought to be dis- strange faith in the divinity of the tant. Cromwell burst like lightning on crown, and apparently without any the troops of Langdale, and over- fears for himself, he still played the whelmed them in a sharp encounter; army against the Parliament, and beand then, despatching a small division lieved that he would yet win through to occupy the enemy on his way from their increasing discord. Lancaster, he fell in force on Hamilton and his men, drove them, shattered and routed, from Preston to Wigan, defeating in detail their scattered fractions, and finally crushed the whole army not far from Warrington. This splendid success was achieved by a force of about ten thousand against twenty thousand men; and few efforts of the kind have been more decisive.

His dexterity and guile seemed about to triumph; but he did not understand the Puritan warriors, who had put trust in him and had been deceived. True to their protest before the late war, the chiefs of the army demanded his blood; the demand was backed by displays of armed force; and the terrified Parliament was sternly told that the "tyrant Charles Stuart must be brought to jusThese operations, it will be seen at tice." The part played by Cromwell once, bear a strong resemblance to the at this crisis is still to a great degree famous movement of Napoleon, in the unknown; there is reason to believe he campaign of 1814, against Blucher's sincerely wished to save the king and army stretched along the Marne. The to uphold the monarchy; but he was emperor's plans were more profound probably overborne by the fierce zealthan that of the untrained English chief; but Cromwell seized the occasion with the hand of genius; and the quick and terrible attack on the flank of the enemy, disseminated in widely divided parts, was pressed with equal vigor, in both instances, and in both had the same decisive effect. Cromwell, too, like Napoleon, perfectly understood how to make use of a restraining force before turning against the mass of his foes; and the glory of Preston is wholly his. A council of war urged a frontal attack; but the real chief took the true course; and Preston marks him out as a great captain. The conqueror and the army were now supreme; the Royalist risings had been put down, the invaders from Scotland had been swept away; and the sword had been thrown, in overwhelming weight, into the scale of the troubled fortunes of England. The Moderates in the Houses once more turned to the king, captive as he was and helpless; and, dreading Cromwell and his triumphant host, they negotiated with Charles, offered terms far more favorable than those of two years before, nay, entreated him to place himself at their head, and to save law,

ots, who reminded him "how Saul had spared Agag," and had been visited by divine vengeance. In this terrible situation a large majority in the Houses supported the king; they voted the acceptance of a "treaty" with him; but just as Charles thought that he had at last succeeded, the army cut through the web of craft and compromise, skilfully as it had been woven. The Moderates were driven by the troops from Westminster; and " Pride's purge,' which expelled nearly half the members, left the House of Commons a mere Rump, the instrument of the Puritan officers. Here again Cromwell's conduct is not clearly seen; but here again he probably yielded to pressure not in his power to resist, though he had little sympathy with the constitutional chiefs. Be this as it may, he took a prominent part in the trial of the king decreed by the Rump; and he set his hand to the death-warrant. Unquestionably he thought Charles a dangerous man, but the touching picture which represents him as unwilling to consent to the victim's death embodies perhaps historical truth.

This view of the acts of the great