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cruits of the parliament were mostly yeomen, farmers, and townsmen, neither so well mounted, so firm in their saddles, nor so forward at the new trade of war. On the same side, however, were not a few of the more thoughtful of the gentry and some of the high nobility, who naturally appeared at the front, though as the war went on the more capable and daring soldiers rose to command. The parliamentary infantry, the musketeers and pikemen, from the beginning were able to match the royal troops. Throughout their whole armies there was an enthusiasm much deeper than the fantastic loyalty of the Cavaliers. Their staid and sober demeanour contrasted with the swaggering and licentious ways of the soldiers of Rupert and Goring. Men learn warfare quickly under fire; every month made the Roundheads better soldiers, and strengthened the cohesion of the new regiments.

In many places there was a struggle between the holders of the royal commissions and the ordinances of the parliament. The Cavaliers broke into the houses of the Roundheads and took away their horses and arms, even their money and plate. The parliament men retaliated. It fared ill with the weakest in the locality. Both parties accused one another of pillaging and bloodguiltiness. Discipline was slack. The royalists more easily enlisted the drunkards and persons of licentious lives who affected a noisy roystering tone. Prince Rupert at once began hostilities after the fashion of the Thirty Years' War, and suffered his men to live at free quarters both on foes and friends. His camps were followed by numbers of abandoned women who gained an evil character for

stealing, and stripping the slain. Out of the court the standard of honour and morals was high in England. Many took sides with deep misgivings and regret to have to meet neighbours, friends, and relatives, whose hands they had so often clasped in kindness.

CHAPTER XII

The Battle of Edgehill. The King's Attempt to surprise London. The King retires to Oxford. Waller's Plot. Successes of the Cavaliers in the West. Sir Henry Vane sent as Ambassador to Scotland. Concludes a Treaty with the Scots. The Assembly of Divines in Westminster. The Confession of Faith. The Siege of Gloucester. City relieved by Essex. Death of Pym. The Scottish Army enters England.

THE king's forces had marched from Nottingham to Shrewsbury, where he drew many accessions from Wales and other parts. During the march there were some skirmishes and fights of outposts, and a few places taken. He challenged the town of Coventry to let his troops enter; but the townsmen, having had experience of the robberies and cruelties of the Cavaliers in divers parts of the kingdom, refused to accede to his majesty's desires. Inspirited by a successful action in which Holles' regiment overcame Digby's brigade, they made good their defence, and the king had to leave Coventry behind him. The Earl of Essex, whose force was now ready for action, parleying to get the king to return to London to his faithful parliament, allowed him time to form his raw levies. The two armies had been marching for ten days within twenty miles of each other. The royal army now approached the border of Warwickshire, the central county of England. It was determined to besiege Banbury

where the parliament had a garrison. The king was not aware that the Earl of Essex with his army was no more than eight miles off. The people of the country about were well affected for the parliament, being much under the influence of Lord Saye and Lord Brook, two of the most noted leaders of the Puritans. They would not bring provisions to the royal army, who could not even get a smith to shoe their horses. Prince Rupert, riding to reconnoitre, saw about midnight the fires of the parliamentary pickets. He ascertained that the Roundheads had their quarters at Keinton, when it was determined to occupy the ridge of Edgehill. This is a pretty steep acclivity rising from the plain, and running along in an even line for several miles. About the middle of the ridge there is a castle, now ruined, from the topmost tower of which a view of the rich country around may be obtained. The hill is not too steep for horses to ascend; but the ascent is long enough to make it fatiguing. On gaining the ridge one finds he has mounted to another plain, the hill not sinking on the other side. The front of the hill is now planted with trees. At the time of the battle it was covered by bushes. This was obviously a strong position. The royal army could advantageously defend the slope against a front attack, and there was a broken and difficult country on each side.

It was clearly the king's game here to await the assault of Essex's force, which they could neither well avoid attacking nor make attack save under great disadvantage. The royalist army had got between the parliamentary army and London, and Essex had peremptory orders to stop their advance. Nevertheless, it

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was determined in a council of war, at which the king presided, to descend the hill and give battle to the opposing force. It was the fate of the Stuarts that they

never could learn from the errors of others nor from their own. A hundred and twenty-nine years before one of Charles's ancestors had, for a foolish bravado, quitted a strong position on a hill to fight a more skilful enemy, throwing away his own life and the fortunes of his kingdom. The Earl of Essex drew up his army in front of the little town of Keinton, three miles off, and waited till the Cavaliers should descend to give battle. It was one o'clock before all the king's army had mustered on the ridge, and three o'clock before they had marched down and deployed at the foot of the hill. Few men on either side had seen a stricken field ; old soldiers in Holland and Germany were in great repute. The regiments were scarcely formed, even the companies wanted cohesion; discipline was little understood, men new to their weapons, horses which could not stand fire. Both armies, therefore, were unwieldly and difficult to form, or to get to carry out orders. The Earl of Lindsey, a brave and experienced officer, was nominally in command of the royal army; but Prince Rupert refused to take orders from him. Of course, being a prince of the blood, Rupert, a young man of twenty-three, must be privileged to bring his loud incompetence to the council of war.

General Ruthven was employed to form the line of battle, and the brave old Lord Lindsey, vexed to see his authority slighted, declared that he would go to seek death at the head of his regiment. The two armies met on October 23. The king's army, amounting to about 15,000 men, was stronger than