just returning from the chase, to find the rest of their troops in flight. These and a body of pikemen, called "white coats," fought desperately. The cavalry, on exhausting their charges, flung their pistols at each other's heads, and then fell to with their swords. At length the victory remained with Cromwell, Rupert drew off, and Cromwell remained all night on the field. He sent messages after the fugitive generals to recall them, but Leslie was already in bed at Leeds when the news reached him, when he exclaimed, "Would to God I had died on the place!" Cromwell won wondrous renown by this action. He kept the field all night with

his troopers, who were worn out by the tremendous exertions of the day, and were in expectation every moment of a fresh attack from Rupert, who might have collected a large body of troops together to overwhelm him. But he had lost the battle by his incurable rashness, after having induced the unwilling Newcastle to risk the engagement, and he made his retreat into Lancashire, and thence into the western counties.

"Four thousand one hundred and fifty bodies of the slain were buried on the moor; the greater part of the arms, ammunition, and baggage of

the royalists fell into the hands of Cromwell, with about a hundred colours and standards, including that of Rupert himself, and the arms of the Palatinate. Newcastle evacuated York and retired to the continent, accompanied by the Lords Falconberg and Widderington, and about eighty gentlemen, who believed the royal cause was totally ruined. This bloodiest battle of the war was fought on the 2nd of July, and on the morning of the 4th the Parliamentary forces were again in muster, and sat down under the walls of York. On the 7th, being Sunday, they held a public thanksgiving for their victory, and on the 11th being ready to take the city by escalade, Glenham, the governor, came to terms, on condition that the garrison should be allowed to march out with the honours of war."

After this victory, which quite destroyed the king's power in the north, Cromwell became still more dissatisfied with those rulers who were for doing nothing vigorously, and who looked with very jealous eye on those who did. Prince Rupert had fled into Lancashire, then south into Shropshire, to recruit his forces; the Scots went northward to shun Newcastle, while the king fell on the troops of the Earl of Essex, and won a partial victory, which was more than overbalanced by falling in with Cromwell at Newbury, where, after four hours' fighting, his majesty decidedly got the worst of it. If Cromwell had been allowed to have his own way, he would have ended the war then and there; but my lord of Manchester had to be consulted, and my lord was for stopping and thinking about it, during which time of thought his majesty re-victualled Donnington Castle. Cromwell expressed his indignation, was accused of insubordination, and defended himself gallantly. Said he:

"It is now a time to speak, or for ever hold the tongue. The important occasion now is no less than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay, almost a dying condition, which the long continuance of this war hath already brought it into; so that without a more speedy, vigorous, and effectual prosecution of the war, casting off all lingering proceedings, like those of soldiers of fortune beyond sea to spin out a war, we shall make the kingdom weary of us and hate the name of a Parliament.

"For what do the enemy say? Nay, what do many say that were friends at the beginning of the Parliament? Even this, that the members of both houses have got great places and commands, and the sword into their hands; and, what by interest in Parliament, what by power in the army, will perpetually continue themselves in grandeur, and not permit

the war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it. This that I speak here to our own faces is but what others do utter abroad behind our backs. I am far from reflecting on any. I know the worth of those commanders, members of both houses, who are yet in power; but if I may speak my conscience without reflection upon any, I do conceive, if the army be not put into another method, and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people can bear the war no longer, and will enforce you to a dishonourable peace.

"But this I would recommend to your prudence-not to insist upon any complaint or oversight of any commander-in-chief upon any occasion whatsoever; for as I must acknowledge myself guilty of oversights, so I know they can rarely be avoided in military affairs. Therefore, waiving a strict inquiry into the causes of these things, let us apply ourselves to the remedy, which is most necessary. And I hope we have such true English hearts, and zealous affections towards the general weal of our mother conntry, as no members of either house will scruple to deny themselves, and their own private interests, for the public good; nor account it to be a dishonour done to them, whatever the Parliament shall resolve upon in this weighty matter."

The question of the self-denying ordinances were debated for ten days in the Commons, where it was carried at last, but the Lords threw it out. Notwithstanding which, the Commons went on re-modelling the army. Finding the Commons in earnest, the Peers came to terms, and the work of re-organization went on bravely.

The condition of the king's army at this time was anything but satisfactory. Clarendon, the royal historian, tells us :

"The king's army was united less than ever; the old general was set aside, and Prince Rupert put into the command, which was no popular change, for the other was known to be an officer of great experience, and had committed no oversights in his conduct; was willing to hear everything debated, and always concurred with the most reasonable opinion; and though he was not of many words, and was not quick in hearing, yet upon any action he was sprightly, and commanded well. The prince was rough and passionate, and loved not debate; liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed it; and was so great an enemy of Digby and Colepepper, who were only present in debates of the war with the officers, that he crossed all they proposed. The truth is, all the army had been disposed, from the first raising it, to a neglect and contempt of

the council; and the king himself had not been solicitous to preserve the respect due to it, in which he lost his own dignity.

"Goring, who was now general of the horse, was no more gracious to Prince Rupert than Wilmot had been, and had all the other's faults, and wanted his regularity, and preserving his respect with the officers. Wilmot loved debauchery, but kept it out from his business; never neglected that, and rarely miscarried in it. Goring had a much better understanding and a sharper wit, except in the very exercise of debauchery, and then the other was inspired, a much keener courage and presentness of mind in danger. Wilmot discovered it farther off, and because he could not behave himself so well in it, commonly prevented, or warily declined it, and never drank when he was within distance of an enemy. Goring was not able to resist the temptation when he was in the middle of them, nor would decline it to obtain a victory; and in one of those fits he suffered the horse to escape out of Cornwall, and the most signal misfortunes of his life in war had their rise from that uncontrollable license. Neither of them valued their professions, promises, or friendships, according to any rules of honour or integrity; but Wilmot violated them less willingly, and never but for some great benefit or convenience to himself; Goring, without scruple, out of humour, or for wit's sake, and loved no man so well but that he would cozen him, and then expose him to the public mirth for having been cozened. Therefore he had always fewer friends than the other, but more company, for no man had a wit that pleased the company better. The ambition of both was unlimited, and so equally incapable of being contented, and both unrestrained by any respect to good nature or justice, from pursuing the satisfaction thereof; yet Wilmot had more scruples from religion to startle him, and would not have attained his end by any gross or foul act of wickedness. Goring could have passed through those pleasantly, and would, without any hesitation, have broken any trust, or done any act of treachery, to have satisfied an ordinary passion or appetite; and, in truth, wanted nothing but industry-for he had wit, and courage, and understanding, and ambition uncontrolled by any fear of God or man-to have been as eminent and successful in the highest attempt in wickedness, of any man in the age he lived in or before. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he had so much excelled, that men were not ordinarily ashamed or out of countenance with being deceived but twice by him.

"The court was not much better disposed than the army; they who had no preferment were angry with those who had, and thought they had not deserved it as well as themselves. They who were envied found no satisfaction or delight in what they were envied for, being poor and necessitous, and the more sensible of their being so, by the titles they had received upon their violent importunity, so that the king was without any joy in the favours he had conferred, and yet was not the less solicited to grant more to others of the same kind, who, he foresaw, would be no better pleased than the rest; and the pleasing one man this way displeased a hundred, as his creating the Lord Colepepper at this time, and making him a baron-who, in truth, had served him with great abilities, and though he did imprudently in desiring it, did deserve it-did much dissatisfy both the court and the army, to neither of which he was in any degree gracious, but his having no ornament of education to make men more propitious to his parts of nature, and disposed many others to be very importunate to receive the same obligation."

The affair between the king and his people was rapidly approaching a crisis. While the royalists decreased in number and strength, the Commoners were rising in power, "old Ironsides not hindmost;" and 66 Captain Cromwell" had become an essential element. The armies met at

NASEBY.

Says Thomas Carlyle :-"The old hamlet of Naseby stands yet on its old hill top, very much as it did in Saxon days, on the north-western border of Northamptonshire, some seven or eight miles from MarketHarborough in Leicestershire, nearly on a line, and nearly mid-way between that town and Daventry. A peaceable old hamlet, of perhaps five hundred souls; clay cottages for labourers, but neatly thatched and swept; smith's shop, saddler's shop, beer shop, all in order; forming a kind of square, which leads off, north and south, into two long streets: the old church, with its graves, stands in the centre, the truncated spire finishing itself with a strange old ball, held up by rods; a 'hollow copper ball, which came from Boulogne in Henry the Eighth's time,' -which has, like Hudibras' breeches, 'been at the siege of Bullen.' The ground is upland, moorland, though now growing corn; was not enclosed till the last generation, and is still somewhat bare of wood. It stands nearly in the heart of England; gentle dullness, taking a turn at etymology, sometimes derives it from Navel; Navesby, quasi Navelsby, from