Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/367



Battle of Preston or Battle-and-Rout of Preston lasts three days; and extends over many miles of wet Lancashire country,—from ‘Langridge Chapel a little on the east of Preston,’ southward to Warrington Bridge, and northward also as far as you like to follow. A wide-spread, most confused transaction; the essence of which is, That Cromwell, descending the valley of the Ribble, with a much smaller but prompt and compact force, finds Hamilton flowing southward at Preston in very loose order; dashes-in upon him, cuts him in two, drives him north and south, into as miserable ruin as his worst enemy could wish.

There are four accounts of this Affair by eye-witnesses, still accessible: Cromwell’s account in these Two Letters; a Captain Hodgson’s rough brief recollections written afterwards; and on the other side, Sir Marmaduke Langdale’s Letter in vindication of his conduct there; and lastly the deliberate Narrative of Sir James Turner (‘alias Dugald Dalgetty,’ say some). As the Affair was so momentous, one of the most critical in all these Wars, and as the details of it are still so accessible, we will illustrate Cromwell’s own account by some excerpts from the others. Combining all which, and considering well, some image of this rude old tragedy and triumph may rise upon the reader.

Captain Hodgson, an honest-hearted pudding-headed Yorkshire Puritan, now with Lambert in the Hill Country, hovering on the left flank of Hamilton and his Scots, saw Cromwell’s face at Ripon, much to the Captain’s satisfaction. ‘The Scots,’ says he, ‘marched towards Kendal; we towards Ripon, where Oliver met us with horse and foot. We were then between Eight and Nine thousand: a fine smart Army,