Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/316

296 trouble. When the battle was lost, they were left behind and unable to fly; they silenced their guns, therefore, and concealed themselves, intending to withdraw in the night. But they were discovered and surrounded; they were not offered the alternative of surrender; the place was set on fire, and they were destroyed.

In this deed of savageness closed the battle of Musselburgh, otherwise called Pinkie Cleugh or Slough; the last stricken field between Scot and Saxon before the union of the Crowns, the last and also the most piteous. A battle loses its terrors when a great cause is contended for, when it is a condition under which some interest or principle makes its way and establishes itself. But of Pinkie Cleugh the result was unmixed evil to both countries. The marriage of Mary and Edward was an object which England and Scotland ought to have equally desired. Yet England sought it by means which made it impossible, and the Scotch command more sympathy in the disaster brought upon them by their national pride than the conquerors command admiration either for their cause or for their courage. National qualities are not to be measured by single consequences, and while indignation only can be felt at the crooked tricks of Beton, but for which the union would have been peaceably effected, the spirit which rose up against the invasion of Somerset had its source in the noblest instincts of the Scottish character. The Protector had gained a great battle, and by his victory he only renewed the lease of enmity which had almost expired. The Scots forgot their own differences in a great