Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/311

1547.] hiding in a cave, stopped the opening, threw in fire, and smothered them. The march was short. Soon after the Protector had passed Prestonpans, famous also in Stuart history, he came in sight of the whole Scottish army, encamped on the slopes of Musselburgh, the English vessels lying in the Forth just out of gunshot of their tents.

In numbers the Scots almost doubled the English. The following morning Clinton sent boats on shore to communicate. Fifteen hundred Scotch cavalry and a few hundred pikemen came out to cut off the landing party, and provoke a skirmish. Sir Ralph Bulmer and Lord Grey, with some companies of Italians in the English service, dashed forward to engage them, and after a sharp scuffle of three hours, the Scots were driven back. In these bloody combats neither party cared to encumber themselves with prisoners, except where there was a likelihood of ransom, and thirteen hundred bodies were left dead upon the ground. The Duke, when the skirmish was ended, rode forward to examine the enemy's position. The sea was on their left, on their right a deep impracticable marsh. Between the two armies ran the Esk, low and half dry after the summer heat, but with high steep banks, and passable for horse or cannon only by a bridge, distant something less than a quarter of a mile from the mouth. Across the bridge, from camp to camp, there ran a road thirty feet wide, enclosed between turf hedges, along which Somerset advanced with his escort. The Scots fired upon him, and killed