down part of their army and their train of artillery towards the foot of the hills; and then Cromwell, who had always as much Scripture at command as any Presbyterian preacher, exclaimed joyously, "The Lord hath delivered them into our hands!" But there was a great dike or ditch between the two armies, "of great disadvantage to those who should first attempt to pass it;" and all that day was allowed to elapse. But at night the English marched as close to the ditch as possibly they could, each regiment having several field-pieces with it; and, as morning dawned, Cromwell resolved to attempt to force one of the passes between Dunbar and Berwick, by which he might, with the more ease, attack the enemy's position. Accordingly a brigade of three regiments of horse and two regiments of foot was thrown forward to the pass. The Scots gallantly repulsed the assailants; but Cromwell led up his own regiment, and, after a fierce dispute, which lasted nearly an hour, and in which the English infantry fought desperately with their pikes and the butt-ends of their muskets, the important pass was carried. The Scots now came down and charged with all their horse, being most of them lancers, and they charged strongly. Just at this moment a thick mist was dispersed by the risen sun, which now lighted up that field of blood, and fully revealed the two armies to each other. Cromwell shouted, "Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered." And before the sun was much higher the army of the Kirk was scattered, with the tremendous loss of 4,000 slain and 10,000 prisoners. The conqueror ordered the 107th Psalm to be sung in the field, and then marched again to Edinburgh, which threw men its gates at his approach. Glasgow followed

the example; and the whole of the south of Scotland, where the English parliament had many friends, quietly submitted. Strachan, who had destroyed Montrose, took service with Cromwell. The king fled towards the Highlands, with the intention of quitting Scotland, or at least the Covenanters, for ever; but the chiefs of that party made him stay, and prepared to crown him, at Scone, as monarch of the three kingdoms, when he was not master of the least of them.

A.D. 1651.-But while Cromwell was besieging Edinburgh Castle, disputing upon points of theology with the Presbyterian preachers, and suffering from a fit of the ague, Charles collected another army, and took up a strong position near Stirling. In vain Lambert attempted to bring him to action; the Scots remembered the lesson that had been taught them at Dunbar, and would not leave their fortified hills. Cromwell then crossed the Forth, and, after taking every town and castle that he approached, he sat down before Perth, "thereby to stop the Highlanders from sending any supplies to the king at Stirling, either of men or provisions." But Cromwell had scarcely taken possession of Perth when he learned that Charles had adopted the bold resolution of marching, in his absence, into England. And, in effect, the king left Stirling on the 31st of July, and reached Carlisle on the 6th of August. "The noise of this irruption made a terrible echo through all the nation, especially in the ears of the parliament at Westminster; but they had beforehand provided to welcome these new-come guests, and, first of all, MajorGeneral Harrison, attended by 3000 horse and dragoons, joining himself with Colonel Rich and some other great commanders, marched away to

salute them upon their entrance into England." Cromwell, too, instantly left Scotland in pursuit; but so rapid and so well-directed were the movements of the invading army, that Charles got to Worcester without molestation, and established himself there with about 16,000 effective men. As Cromwell spurred through the northern counties he encountered a band of royalists, commanded by the Earl of Derby, and cut them to pieces; and, having formed a junction with Harrison, Rich, Robert Lilburne, and Fleetwood, he arrived before Worcester on the 28th of August with a force superior to that of the king. The parliament's troops dashed across the Severn; and on the 3rd of September, the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell gained what he called his "crowning mercy" at Worcester. The royalists, after a gallant contest, were thoroughly defeated, and Charles, escaping with difficulty, fled for his life; "knowing full well that, should he be taken, he might expect no better treatment than his father had." It is said by some that he showed courage in the battle-it is certain that he showed great ingenuity and presence of mind in the flight: nevertheless, but for the devoted loyalty, the incorruptible fidelity of his partisans, he must have been taken by his pursuers. After a variety of romantic adven

This firm adherent to the royal cause was taken prisoner a few days after this by a party of the parliamentary troops as he was flying from the battle of Worcester, and was beheaded in his own town of Bolton, by sentence of what was called a High Court of Justice, composed of some military officers, on the 15th of October following. By this time the parliament, considering itself as the established government of the country, assumed the right of treating all armed opposition to its authority by any English subject as treason. The royalists, however, of course regarded such proceedings as nothing less than murdering in cold blood,"-the expression used on this occasion by Clarendon,

tures and wanderings from place to place, Charles, in the disguise of a servant, got to Shoreham, on the Sussex coast, and from thence, about the middle of October, he crossed over to France in a collier. He did not see England again until he was brought back triumphantly by General Monk.

On leaving "the Golgotha of Worcester," Cromwell hastened to lay his victorious palms at the feet of parliament. He was again met, at his approach to London, by the Speaker, by the whole parliament, by the lord mayor and aldermen, and by an immense concourse of people. The royal palace of Hampton Court was prepared for his reception; and shortly after an estate in land, worth 4000l. a-year, was voted to him. From this moment, as is generally admitted by those who have most carefully studied his character and history, Cromwell began to entertain vague notions of grasping at the supreme authority. As he had left Ireton to complete the conquest of Ireland,

The determined republican Ludlow, who became the bitter enemy of Cromwell, says :-"His pernicious intentions did not discover themselves openly till after the battle of Worcester, which, in one of his letters to the parliament, he called the crowning victory.' At the same time, when he dismissed the militia, who had most readily offered themselves to serve the Commonwealth against the Scots, he did it with anger and contempt, which was all the acknowledgment they could obtain from him for their service and affection to the public cause. In a word, so much was he elevated with that success, that Mr. Hugh Peters, as he since told me, took so much notice of it, as to say in confidence to a friend upon the road, in his return from Windsor, that Cromwell would make himself king. He now began to despise divers members of the House whom he had formerly courted, and grew most familiar with those he used to show most aversion to; endeavouring to oblige the royal party, by procuring for them more favourable conditions than consisted with the justice of the parliament to grant, under colour of quieting the spirits of many people, and keeping them from engaging in new disturbances to rescue themselves out of those fears which many who had acted for the king yet lay under; though at the same time he designed nothing, as by the success was almost manifest, but to advance himself by all manner of means, and to betray the great trust which the parliament and good people of England had reposed in him.".

so he had left Monk, who at this time enjoyed an unusual degree of his favour, to reduce the king's party in Scotland; and both these generals were successful. Scilly, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man (the last made famous by the celebrated Countess of Derby) were easily reduced; and wherever the flag of the commonwealth showed itself, whether by land or sea, it was victorious. Vane, St. John, and six others were appointed commissioners to settle the kingdom of Scotland by a union with England, or, as it was termed, to "incorporate" Scotland with the commonwealth. Though Scottish commissioners were found to act with them, the Presbyterian clergy and the mass of the nation detested alike the words "union" and "incorporation;" but among the cogent arguments of the English were a victorious army, a chain of forts, an entire command of the coasts and the trade of Scotland; and, in the end, eighteen out of thirty-one counties, and twenty-four out of fifty-six cities and boroughs, consented to the union, and sent up twenty-eight members to sit in the English parliament. Ireland also was incorporated with the commonwealth, and all signs of royalty were effaced in both those countries.

Ever since the unavenged massacre at Amboyna, the English sailors and people had borne great ill-will to the Dutch; and many recent circumstances had contributed to exasperate this feeling. The government of the United Provinces had treated the envoys of the commonwealth with marked disrespect; nor did they send any ambassadors to London till nearly three years after the execution of Charles, when, warned by the victory of Worcester, they sent over in a hurry to solicit, with great humility, the renewal of friendly negotiations. But these envoys came too late: the parliament had issued letters of marque to indemnify the country for losses sustained at the hands of Dutch vessels, and they had passed the memorable Navigation Act, which established as national law that no goods from any quarter beyond Europe should be imported into England, except by vessels belonging to England or to English colonies; and that no production of Europe should be imported except by English ships, or ships belonging to the country which furnished the production. This deadly blow was aimed at the carrying-trade of the Dutch, one of the most fruitful sources of their commercial prosperity. Nor was this all: the English parliament demanded arrears due by the Dutch for their right of fishing on the shores of England and Scotland, and also the opening of the Scheldt, with a free-trade to the flag of the commonwealth. It was, moreover, clamorously demanded by the English mariners and people, that the survivors of the Dutch that had assisted in the massacre of the English at Amboyna should be given up to justice. All these things were quite enough to produce hostilities between two proud and warlike nations; but no doubt the two facts which most contributed to the war were these-1st. The House of Orange, closely allied

by marriage to that of Stuart, had strenuously exerted itself to avenge the late king's death, and restore his son. 2ndly. The English parliament had formed the grand scheme of a republican union, proposing to incorporate the United Provinces with the English commonwealth, and with that view had opened a correspondence with the republican party in Holland, who were irritated by the despotic encroachments of the princes of Orange (who were rendering themselves as absolute, under the name of stadtholders, as were any of the kings of Europe). All the money which had enabled Charles II. to land in Scotland and invade England had been furnished by the House of Orange; and, on the other side, all the disaffection in the Low Countries, which threatened the ruin of that House, had of late looked for hope and encouragement to the English parliament; though, in effect, the republicans of the United Provinces were too wise and too national to contemplate seriously the incorporation proposed. A collision was inevitable. Van Tromp, the best of the Dutch admirals, and a devoted partisan of the House of Orange, sailed up the Channel with forty sail. Blake, who had swept the fleet of Prince Rupert from the seas, was in the Downs with only twenty sail; but the English admiral insisted that the Dutch should strike their topmasts to his flag, in acknowledgment of the old sovereignty of the nation over the narrow seas. Van Tromp of course refused, and kept his course till he came nearly alongside of the English admiral. Blake ordered a gun to be fired at Van Tromp's flag, which was done thrice; but, instead of striking his flag, Van Tromp poured a broadside into Blake. Then the action, as far as the wind and weather would permit, became general, and lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon till nightfall, when the Dutch sheered off, with the loss of two ships, one of which was taken, the other sunk. This fight, in which the commonwealth sailors displayed wonderful ardour, was fought on the 19th of May, 1652. The States General accused Blake of being the aggressor, and intimated a desire to treat amicably for the adjustment of all difficulties: but, at the same time, they continued to increase their fleet; and the Dutch seamenthen esteemed the best in the world-were eager for their revenge; and on the 19th of July the English parliament put forth an open and spirited declaration of war, affirming that they found too much cause to believe that the states of the United Provinces had an intention, by force, to usurp the known rights of England in the seas, to destroy her fleets, that were, under God, her walls and bulwarks, and thereby to expose the commonwealth to invasion. In the mean time Blake had made many prizes, both merchantmen and Dutch men-of-war; and Sir George Ayscough, the viceadmiral, had been recalled with his squadron from the West Indies. When Van Tromp again put to sea his force more than doubled the concentrated fleet of the parliament, and he talked loudly of

Then