Page:Life of Oliver Cromwell.pdf/13

 most unfeeling levity, protessing all the time he was acting under the special guidance of Providence, and affecting to deplore the approaching fate of the man whom he had doomed to a violent death. He laughed and smiled during the trial; and, immediately before he signed the warrant for the execution of Charles, he humorously marked the face of Harry Martin, another of the regicides, with the pen with which he was about to seal the fate of his master. Marting in a similar, vein of levity, returned the compliment. Before and, after the execution be, audaciously addressed his God with hypocritical prayers, and shed tears for his unhappy sovereign's situation and death When the tragedy was completed, he went to feast his eyes on the body of the murdered king; and put his finger to the neck, and viewing the inside of the body, observed how sound it was, and how well adapted for longevity.

Soon after this tragical occurrence, Fairfax having resigned the commanch of the army. Cromwell was appointed to succeed him, and immediately thereafter went into Scotland, at the head of 16,000 men, to oppose General Lesley, who commanded an army in that country collected by the adherents of Charles II whither this prince had been invited by the commissioners for the kingdom. The hostile armies took their ground betwixt Spott and Dunbart; the Scottish forces occupying the Doon Hill, a remarkable, eminence, and the English army a plain beneath, in front of the town. In this situation into which he had been driven by Lesley, Cromwell was precariously placed the sea prevented his farther retreat, and the Scottish army so advantageously posted, effectually hindered his advancing indeed, so complete was his dilemma, that Cromwell thought his good fortung at an end