advancing to attack, exclaimed (in Hume's felicitous language) without the help of revelations, that the Lord had delivered them into his. Some of the preachers were knocked on the head while promising the victory, and others who were not killed" had very notable marks about the head and the face, that anybody might know, they were not hurt by chance, or in the crowd, but by very good will." A terrible execution was made; Cromwell's men gave no quarter till they were weary of killing. In his letter to the parliament he acknowledged the peril in which he had been, and that the enemy had reminded him of the fate of Essex's army in Cornwall; "but," says he, "in what they were thus lifted up, the Lord was above them. The enemy having those advantages, we lay very near him, being sensible of our disadvantages, having some weakness of flesh, but yet consolation and support from the Lord himself to our poor weak faith (wherein I believe not a few among us stand), that because of their numbers, because of their advantages, because of their confidence, because of our weakness, because of our strait, we were on the mount, and on the mount the Lord would be seen." And he adds that the Lord of hosts made them as stubble to their swords.

The battle of Dunbar (3d Sept., 1650) delivered Charles from the tyranny of the presbyterians, who, he verily believed, would have imprisoned

him the next day if they had won the victory. Cromwell entered Edinburgh: the castle was surrendered to him, and he was soon master of the better part of the kingdom; but he had a severe illness, with three relapses, and was in great danger. His reply, after his recovery, to a letter of inquiry from the lord president of the council of state in England, acknowledged, with all humble thankfulness, their high favor in sending to inquire after one so unworthy as himself. "Indeed, my lord," he continues, "your service needs not me; I am a poor creature, and have been a dry bone, and am still an unprofitable servant to my Master and you. I thought I should have died of this fit of sickness, but the Lord seemeth to dispose otherwise. But truly, my lord, I desire not to live unless I may obtain mercy from the Lord, to approve my heart and life to him in more faithfulness and thankfulness, and those I serve with more profitableness and diligence." When he was well enough to take the field, and advance against the king at Stirling, a skilful movement, by which he got behind the royal army, thereby cutting it off from the fruitful country whence it drew its supplies, induced Charles to form the brave resolution of marching into England.

Cromwell had not expected this; and when he announced it to the parliament, it was with something like an apology for himself, though he said

the enemy had taken this course in desperation and fear, and out of inevitable necessity. "I do apprehend," he says, "that it will trouble some men's thoughts, and may occasion some inconveniences, of which I hope we are as deeply sensible, and have, and I trust shall be as diligent to prevent as any. And indeed this is our comfort, that in simplicity of heart as to God, we have done to the best of our judgments, knowing that if some issue were not put to this business, it would occasion another winter's war, to the ruin of your soldiery, for whom the Scots are too hard, in respect of enduring the winter difficulties of this country. We have this comfortable experiment from the Lord, that this enemy is heart-smitten by God, and whenever the Lord shall bring us up to them, we believe the Lord will make the desperateness of this counsel of theirs to appear, and the folly of it also." The alarm in London was very great. "Both the city and the country," says Mrs. Hutchinson, "were all amazed, doubtful of their own and the commonwealth's safety. Some could not hide very pale and unmanly fears, and were in such distraction of spirit as much disturbed their councils." Even Bradshaw, "stouthearted as he was," trembled for his neck. But great exertions were made by the government, its members having indeed everything at stake, and Whitelock says that no "affair could have been

managed with more diligence, courage, and prudence ; and that peradventure there was never so great a body of men, so well armed and provided, got together in so short a time, as were those sent to reinforce Cromwell." Cromwell meantime followed the royal army with his wonted confidence. Whatever his military skill may have been, he possessed in perfection two of the first requisites for a general, activity and decision; while in the king's councils he knew that there would be conflicting opinions, vacillations, delay, and imbecility. When therefore he came to Worcester, advantageous as that position was to the enemy if they had known how to profit by it, he marched directly on as to a prey; and not troubling himself with the formality of a siege, ordered his troops to fall on in all places at once. According to his own account, the loss on his side did not exceed two hundred men; yet it was, he said, a stiff business,"—" as stiff a contest for four or five hours as ever he had seen." The royal army was completely routed and dispersed ; and the victory was the more gratifying to Cromwell on account of its being achieved on the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar. In his letter to the parliament he says, "the dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts; it is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy. I am bold humbly to beg that all thoughts may tend to the promoting of his honor who hath

wrought so great salvation; and that the fatness of these continued mercies may not occasion pride and wantonness, as formerly the like hath done to a chosen nation."

The defeat of Charles at Worcester (3d Sept., 1651) is one of those events which most strikingly exemplify how much better events are disposed of by Providence than they would be if the direction were left to the choice even of the best and the wisest men. Had the victory been on the king's side, other battles must have been fought; his final success could not have been attained without a severe struggle; a second contest would have arisen among his own friends, between the members of the church and the presbyterians, which might probably have kindled another civil war ; and the puritans, and their descendants to this day, would have insisted that if the commonwealth had not been overthrown, the continuance of that free and liberal government would richly have repaid the country for all its sufferings. But by the battle of Worcester, the commonwealth's men were left absolute masters of the three kingdoms; they had full leisure to complete and perfect their own structure of government: the experiment was fairly tried; there was nothing from without to disturb the process; it went duly on from change to change, from one evil to another; anarchy in its certain consequences leading to military des