Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/334

320 rather was led, in procession, by his partisans to the church at Scone, and there solemnly crowned. There, on his knees, he swore to maintain the covenant, to establish presbyterianism, and embrace it himself, to establish it in his other dominions as soon as he recovered them. Argyll then placed the crown on his head, and Douglas, the minister, read him a severe lecture on the calamities which had followed the apostacy of his grandfather and father, and on his being a king only by compact with his people. But the fall of the western army had weakened the rigid presbyterian party. Argyll saw his influence decline, that of the Hamiltons in the ascendant, and numbers of the old royalists pouring in to join the army. Charles's force soon displayed the singular spectacle of Leslie and Middleton in united command, and the army, swelled by the royalists, was increased to twenty thousand men. Having fortified the passes of the Forth, the king thus awaited the movements of Cromwell. But the lord-general, during the spring, was suffering so much from the ague, that he contemplated returning home. In May, however, he grew better, and advanced towards Stirling. Whilst he occupied the attention of Charles and his army by his manœuvres in that quarter, he directed Lambert to make an attempt upon Fife, which succeeded, and Cromwell, crossing the Forth, advanced to support him. The royal army quickly evacuated Perth, after a sharp action, in which about eight hundred men on each side fell, and the parliament colours were hoisted on the walls of that city.

If Cromwell's movement had been rapid and successful, he was now in his turn astonished by one as extraordinary on the part of the king. Charles saw that all the south of Scotland and a great part of England was clear of the enemy, and he at once announced his determination to march towards London. On the 31st of July his army was actually in motion, and Argyll, denouncing the enterprise as inevitably ruinous, resigned his commission, and retired to Inverary.

On discovering Charles's object, Cromwell put the forces to remain in Scotland under the command of general Monk, sent Lambert from Fife to follow the royal army with three thousand cavalry, and wrote to Harrison in Newcastle to advance and harass the flank of the king's army. He himself, on the 7th of August, commenced his march after it with ten thousand men.

Charles advanced at a rapid rate, and he had crossed the Mersey before Lambert and Harrison had formed a junction near Warrington, and attempted to draw him into a battle on Knutsford Heath. But Charles continued his hasty march till he reached Worcester, where he was received with loud acclamations by the mayor and corporation, and by a number of county gentlemen, who had been confined there on suspicious of their disaffection, but were now liberated. But such had been the sudden appearance of the king, that no expectation of it, and therefore no preparation for it, had been made by the royalists; and the bigoted ministers attending his army sternly refused all who offered to join them, whether presbyterians, episcopalian, or catholics, because they had not taken the covenant. It was in vain that Charles gave orders to the contrary, and Bent forward general Massey to receive and bring into order these volunteers; the committee of the kirk rejected them, whilst Cromwell's forces on their march were growing by continual reinforcements, especially of the county militias. Colonel Robert Lilburne met with a party of the king's forces under the earl of Derby, betwixt Chorley and Wigan, and defeated them, killing the lord Widdrington, Sir Thomas Tildesloy, and colonels Boynton, Trollope, and Throckmorton. Derby himself was wounded, but made his escape.

Charles issued a proclamation for all his male subjects betwixt the ages of sixteen and sixty to join his standard on the 26th of August; but on that day he found that the whole of his forces amounted to only twelve thousand men, whilst Cromwell, who arrived two days after, was at the head of at least thirty thousand. On the 3rd of September, the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell determined to attack the royal army. Lambert, overnight, crossed the Severn at Upton, with ten thousand men, and the next morning Cromwell and Fleetwood, with the two other divisions of the army, crossed, Cromwell, the Severn, and Fleetwood, the Team; and Charles, who had been watching their progress from the tower of the cathedral, descended and attacked Fleetwood before he had effected his passage but Cromwell was soon up to the assistance of his general, and after a stout battle, first in the meadows, and then in the streets of the town, the forces of Charles were completely beaten. Charles fought with undaunted bravery, and endeavoured to rally his soldiers for a last effort, but they flung down their weapons and surrendered. It was with difficulty that he was prevailed upon to fly, and save his life. Three thousand of the royalists were slain, and six or seven thousand made prisoners, including a considerable number of noblemen—the duke of Hamilton, but mortally wounded, the earls of Rothes, Derby, Cleveland, Kelly, and Lauderdale, lords Sinclair, Kenmure, and Grandison, and the generals Leslie, Massey, Middleton, and Montgomery. The duke of Buckingham, lord Talbot, and others, escaped with many adventures.

It was an overthrow complete, and most astonishing to both conquered and conquerors. Cromwell, in his letter to the parliament, styled it "a crowning mercy." The earl of Derby and seven others of the prisoners suffered death and traitors and rebels to the commonwealth. Derby offered the Isle of Man for his ransom, but his letter was read by Lenthall to the house too late, and he was executed at Bolton, in Lancashire.

As for Charles himself, the romance of his escape has been celebrated in many narratives. After being concealed for some days at Whiteladies and Boscobel, two solitary houses in Shropshire, and passing a day in the boughs of an oak, he made his way in various disguises, and by the assistance of different loyal friends, to Brighton, whence he passed in a collier over to Fecamp in Normandy, but this was not till the 17th of October, forty-four days after the battle of Worcester.

On the 12th of September Cromwell arrived in town; Bulstrode, Whitelock, and three other gentlemen had been sent down to meet him and conduct him to London. They met him near Aylesbury, and they all joined a hawking party by the way. At Aylesbury they passed the night.