9831 3069 U Brocksmouth House and the pass of the Brook there; after which it will be free to him to attack us when he will!-Lesley in fact considers, or at least the Committee of Estates and Kirk consider, that Oliver is lost; that, on the whole, he must not be left to retreat, but must be attacked and annihilated here. A vague story, due to Bishop Burnet, the watery source of many such, still circulates about the world, That it was the Kirk Committee who forced Lesley down against his will; that Oliver, at sight of it, exclaimed, "The Lord hath delivered" &c. which nobody is in the least bound to believe.2 It appears, from other quarters, that Lesley was advised or sanctioned in this attempt by the Committee of Estates and Kirk, but also that he was by no means hard to advise; that, in fact, lying on the top of Doon Hill, shelterless in such weather, was no operation to spin out beyond necessity;-and that if anybody pressed too much upon him with advice to come down and fight, it was likeliest to be Royalist Civil Dignitaries, who had plagued him with their cavillings at his cunctations, at his 'secret fellowfeeling for the Sectarians and Regicides,' ever since this War began. The poor Scotch Clergy have enough of their own to answer for in this business; let every back bear the burden that belongs to it. In a word, Lesley descends, has been descending all day, and 'shogs' himself to the right,-urged, I believe, by manifold counsel, and by the nature of the case; and, what is equally important for us, Oliver sees him, and sees through him, in this movement of his. At sight of this movement, Oliver suggests to Lambert standing by him, Does it not give us an advantage, if we, instead of him, runs to Berwick. See the plan of the battle in Mr. Firth's Oliver Cromwell, and his 1 Baillie's Letters, iii. 111. 2[Mr. Hill Burton (Hist. Scot. vii. 24, note 2) shows that Burnet is confirmed by Baillie, who states that after the "woeful rout at Dunbar" it was vehemently pressed to have Leslie laid aside, but that nothing was found against him "but the removal of the army from the hill the night before the rout, which yet was a consequence of the Committee's order, contrary to his mind, to stop the enemy's retreat (Letters and Journals, iii. 111). Burnet goes on to say that many thought that the advice was treacherously given, but he is persuaded that this was not so; "only Warriston was too hot and Leslie was too cold, and yielded too easily to their humours, which he ought not to have done." See also Cromwell's own statement in Letter CXLII., that the clergy's counsel prevailed". It is difficult to say whom Carlyle means by the "Royalist Civil Dignitaries" to whom he inclines to ascribe the advice.] VOL. II.-7 like to begin the attack? Here is the Enemy's right wing coming out to the open space, free to be attacked on any side; and the main-battle hampered in narrow sloping ground between Doon Hill and the Brook, has no room to manœuvre or assist: 2 beat this right wing where it now stands; take it in flank and front with an overpowering force,-it is driven upon its own main-battle, the whole Army is beaten? Lambert eagerly assents, "had meant to say the same thing." Monk, who comes up at the moment, likewise assents; as the other Officers do, when the case is set before them. It is the plan resolved upon for battle. The attack shall begin tomorrow before dawn. And so the soldiers stand to their arms, or lie within instant reach of their arms, all night; being upon an engagement very difficult indeed. The night is wild and wet;-2d of September means 12th by our calendar: the Harvest Moon wades deep among clouds of sleet and hail. Whoever has a heart for prayer, let him pray now, for the wrestle of death is at hand. Pray,— and withal keep his powder dry! And be ready for extremities, and quit himself like a man!—Thus they pass the night; making that Dunbar Peninsula and Brock Rivulet long memorable to me. We English have some tents; the Scots have none. The hoarse sea moans bodeful, swinging low and heavy against these whinstone bays; the sea and the tempests are abroad, all else asleep but we,-and there is One that rides on the wings of the wind. Towards three in the morning the Scotch foot, by order of a Major-General say some, extinguish their matches, all but two in a company; cower under the corn-shocks, seeking some imperfect shelter and sleep. Be wakeful, ye English; watch, and pray, and keep your powder dry. About four o'clock comes order to my puddingheaded Yorkshire friend, that his regiment must mount and march straightway; his and various other regiments march, pouring swiftly to the left to Brocksmouth House, to the Pass over the Brock. With overpowering force let us [This is probably the speech to which Burnet alludes. It would be quite natural for Oliver to ascribe the advantage to God's special working on their behalf.] 2 Hodgson. 3 Major-General Holburn' (he that escorted Cromwell into Edinburgh in 1648), says Walker, p. 180. 4[Their officers seem to have retired to their tents on the hill side. It was our own laziness," Leslie said afterwards; "I take God to witness that we might have as easily beaten them as we did James Graham at Philiphaugh, if the officers had stayed by their troops and regiments."] storm the Scots right wing there; beat that, and all is beaten. Major Hodgson riding along, heard, he says, 'a Cornet praying in the night;' a company of poor men, I think, making worship there, under the void Heaven, before battle joined: Major Hodgson, giving his charge to a brother Officer, turned aside. to listen for a minute, and worship and pray along with them; haply his last prayer on this Earth, as it might prove to be. But no: this Cornet prayed with such effusion as was wonderful; and imparted strength to my Yorkshire friend, who strengthened his men by telling them of it. And the Heavens, in their mercy, I think, have opened us a way of deliverance !-The Moon gleams out, hard and blue, riding among hail-clouds; and over St. Abb's Head, a streak of dawn is rising. And now is the hour when the attack should be, and no Lambert is yet here, he is ordering the line far to the right yet; and Oliver occasionally, in Hodgson's hearing, is impatient for him. The Scots too, on this wing, are awake; thinking to surprise us; there is their trumpet sounding, we heard it once; and Lambert, who was to lead the attack, is not here. The Lord General is impatient; - behold Lambert at last! The trumpets peal, shattering with fierce clangour Night's silence; the cannons awaken along all the Line: "The Lord of Hosts! The Lord of Hosts!" On, my brave ones, on!— The dispute 'on this right wing was hot and stiff, for three quarters of an hour.' Plenty of fire, from fieldpieces, snaphances, matchlocks, entertains the Scotch main-battle across the Brock; -poor stiffened men, roused from the corn-shocks with their matches all out! But here on the right, their horse, with lancers in the front rank,' charge desperately; drive us back across the hollow of the Rivulet;-back a little; but the Lord gives us courage, and we storm home again, horse and foot, upon them, with a shock like tornado tempests; break them, beat them, drive them all adrift. 'Some fled towards Copperspath, but most across their own foot.' Their own poor foot, whose matches were hardly well alight yet! Poor men, it was a terrible awakening for them: fieldpieces and charge of foot across the Brocksburn; and now here is their own horse in mad panic trampling them to death. Above Three-thousand killed upon the place: 'I never saw such a charge of foot and horse,' says one; nor did I. Oliver was still near to Yorkshire 1 Rushworth's Letter to the Speaker (in Parliamentary History, xix. 341). 2634664 Hodgson when the shock succeeded; Hodgson heard him say, "They run! I profess they run!" And over St. Abb's Head and the German Ocean, just then, bursts the first gleam of the level Sun upon us, 'and I heard Nol say, in the words of the Psalmist, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,"'—or in Rous's metre. Let God arise, and scattered Let all his enemies be; And let all those that do him hate Even so. The Scotch Army is shivered to utter ruin; rushes in tumultuous wreck, hither, thither; to Belhaven, or, in their distraction, even to Dunbar, the chase goes as far as Haddington; led by Hacker. 'The Lord General made a halt,' says Hodgson, 'and sang the Hundred-and-seventeenth Psalm,' till our horse could gather for the chase. Hundred-and-seventeenth Psalm, at the foot of the Doon Hill; there we uplift it, to the tune of Bangor, or some still higher score, and roll it strong and great against the sky : And now, O give ye praise unto the Lord, All nati-ons that be; For great to-us-ward ever are His truth endures forevermore : to the chase again. The prisoners are Ten-thousand, all the foot in a mass. Many Dignitaries are taken; not a few are slain; of whom see Printed Lists,-full of blunders. Provost Jaffray of Aberdeen, Member of the Scots Parliament, one of the Committee of Estates, was very nearly slain: a trooper's sword was in the air to sever him, but one cried, He is a man of consequence; he can ransom himself!—and the trooper kept him prisoner.1 The first of the Scots Quakers, by and by; and an official person much reconciled to Oliver. Ministers also of the Kirk Committee Diary of Alexander Jaffray (London, 1834;—unhappily relating almost all to the inner man of Jaffray). were slain; two Ministers I find taken, poor Carstairs of Glasgow, poor Waugh of some other place, of whom we shall transiently hear again. General David Lesley, vigorous for flight as for other things, got to Edinburgh by nine o'clock; poor old Leven, not so light of movement, did not get till two. Tragical enough. What a change since January 1644, when we marched out of this same Dunbar up to the knees in snow! It was to help and save these very men that we then marched; with the Covenant in all our hearts. We have stood by the letter of the Covenant; fought for our Covenanted Stuart King as we could; they again, they stand by the substance of it, and have trampled us and the letter of it into this ruinous state!-Yes, my poor friends; --and now be wise, be taught! The letter of your Covenant, in fact, will never rally again in this world. The spirit and substance of it, please God, will never die in this or in any world! Such is Dunbar Battle; which might also be called Dunbar Drove, for it was a frightful rout. Brought on by miscalculation; misunderstanding of the difference between substances and semblances ;-by mismanagement, and the chance of war. My Lord General's next seven Letters, all written on the morrow, will now be intelligible to the reader. First, however, take the following PROCLAMATION FORASMUCH as I understand there are several Soldiers of the Enemy's Army yet abiding in the Field, who by reason of their wounds could not march from thence : These are therefore to give notice to the Inhabitants of this Nation That they may and 'hereby' have1 free liberty to repair to the Field aforesaid, and, with their carts or 'in' any other peaceable way, to carry away the said Soldiers to such places as they shall think fit: provided they meddle not 'with,' or take |