or four small men-of-war in it, and I believe thirty or forty guns.

Commissary-General Whalley marched along the sea-side in Fife, having some ships to go along the coast; and hath taken great store of great artillery, and divers ships. The enemy's affairs are in some discomposure, as we hear. Surely the Lord will blow upon them.

'I rest,'

Your most humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*

2

LETTER CLXXX

In effect, the crisis has now arrived. The Scotch King and Army, finding their supplies cut off, and their defences rendered unavailing, by this flank-movement,-break up suddenly from Stirling; march direct towards England,-for a stroke at the heart of the Commonwealth itself. Their game now is, All or nothing. A desperate kind of play. Royalists, PresbyterianRoyalists and the large miscellany of Discontented Interests may perhaps join them there ;—perhaps also not! They march by Biggar; enter England by Carlisle, on Wednesday 6th of August 1651. 'At Girthhead, in the Parish of Wamphray, in Annandale,' human Tradition, very faintly indeed, indicates

Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 107).

1[After taking Burntisland Cromwell advanced to Perth, thus placing his army between Leslie and his hoped-for reinforcements in the North. Perth surrendered on August 2nd, and the news having now come that the Scots had started for England Cromwell set off in pursuit of them. In this next letter he defends himself from expected criticism for having left the way to England open to the enemy, explaining that otherwise it would have been impossible to move him from his strong position, and that the English army would have been ruined by a lingering, costly winter's war. The letters from the newspapers, quoted in the notes above, show that this was no mere excuse after the event, but his deliberate decision, as the probable movements of the Scots had been foreseen more than a week before. No better defence of Cromwell's conduct can be found than Hamilton's bitter words on the ridiculousness of their situation, who "have quit Scotland, being scarce able to maintain it," and yet grasp at all. "I confess," he adds, "I cannot tell whether

our hopes or fears are greatest, but we have one stout argument, dispair." Cary's Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 305.]

2' Last day of July' (Bates, ii. 120).

3 Whitlocke, p. 474.

some Roman Stones or Mile-stones, by the wayside, as the place where his Sacred Majesty passed the Tuesday night;— which are not quite so venerable now as formerly.

For the Right Honourable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England: These

SIR,

Leith, 4th August 1651.

2

In pursuance of the Providence of God, and that blessing lately given to your forces in Fife, and finding that the enemy, being masters of the pass at Sterling, could not be gotten out there, without hindering his provisions at St. Johnstons, we, by general advice, thought fit to attempt St. Johnstons; knowing that that would necessitate him to quit his pass. Wherefore, leaving with Major-General Harrison about three-thousand horse and dragoons, besides those which are with Colonel Rich, Colonel Sanders, and Colonel Barton upon the borders, we marched to St. Johnstons; and lying one day before it, we had it surrendered to us; 3 during which time we had some intelligence of the enemy's marching southward, though with some contradictions, as if it had not been so. But doubting it might be true, we (leaving a garrison in St. Johnstons, and sending Lieutenant-General Monck with about five or six thousand to Stirling to reduce that place, and by it to put your affairs into a good posture in Scotland) we marched, with all possible expedition, back again; and had passed our foot and many of our horse over the Frith this day, resolving to make what speed we can up to the enemy, who, in his desperation and fear, and out of inevitable necessity, is run to try what he can do this way.

་

Nicholas Carlisle's Topographical Dict. of Scotland, § Wamphray. 22d August 1651 (Balfour, iv. 313) St. Johnston,' as we know, is Perth. 3[For Cromwell's summons to Perth, see Supplement, No. 68.]

[Many of the news letters of this date speak of the demoralization of the Scots forces. "Wheresoever our army marcheth, they find the country full of the Scots runaways. Argile is gone melancholy from Stirling, and the Lord Roxborough with many other of the Scots nobility, have left the noise and tumult of the war

I do apprehend that if he goes for England, being some few days march before us, it will trouble some men's thoughts, and may occasion some inconveniences;-of which I hope we are as deeply sensible, and have been,' and I trust shall be, as diligent to prevent, as any; and indeed this is our comfort, That in simplicity of heart as to God, we have done to the best of our judgments; knowing that if some issue were not put to this business, it would occasion another winter's war, to the ruin of your soldiery, for whom the Scots are too hard in respect of enduring the winter difficulties of this country, and been under the endless expense of the treasure of England in prosecuting this war. It may be supposed we might have kept the enemy from this, by interposing between him and England; which truly I believe we might: but how to remove him out of this place, without doing what we have done, unless we had had a commanding army on both sides of the river of Forth, is not clear to us; or how to answer the inconveniences aforementioned, we understand not.

We pray therefore that (seeing there is a possibility for the enemy to put you to some trouble) you would, with the same courage (grounded upon a confidence in God) wherein you have been supported to the great things God hath used you in hitherto, you would improve, the best you can, such forces as you have in readiness, or may on the sudden be gathered together, To give the enemy some check,1 until we shall be able to reach up to him, which we trust in the Lord we shall do our utmost endeavour in. And indeed we have this comfortable experience from the Lord, that this enemy is heart-smitten by God, and whenever the Lord shall bring us up to them, we believe the Lord will

"That

for places of safety and retiredness." Weekly Intelligencer (E. 640 (4)). which this week is most remarkable is the Scots King, with about eleven thousand, desperately abandoning Scotland and distractedly running into England" (Ibid.). "Through all the country in Scotland we find their runaways. In a word, nothing was left them but a desperate cure or a desperate ruin." George Downing to the Council (E. 640 (5)).]

[In Cromwell's hand, over "delay," erased.]

make the desperateness of this counsel of theirs to appear, and the folly of it also.1 When England was much more unsteady than now, and when a much more considerable army of theirs, unfoiled, invaded you, and we had but a weak force to make resistance at Preston,-upon deliberate advice, we chose rather to put ourselves between their army and Scotland: and how God succeeded that, is not well to be forgotten. This is not out of choice on our part, but by some kind of necessity; and, it's to be hoped, will have the like issue, together with a hopeful end of your work; in which it's good to wait upon the Lord, upon the earnest of former experiences, and hope of His presence, which only is the life of your Cause.

Major-General Harrison, with the horse and dragoons under him, and Colonel Rich and the rest in those parts, shall attend the motion of the enemy, and endeavour the keeping of them together, as also to impede his march, and will be ready to be in conjunction with what forces shall gather together for this service to whom orders have been speeded to that purpose, as this enclosed to Major-General Harrison will show. MajorGeneral Lambert, this day, marched with a very considerable body of horse, up towards the enemy's rear. With the rest of the horse, and nine regiments of foot (most of them of your old foot and horse), I am hasting up; and shall, by the Lord's help, use utmost diligence. I hope I have left a commanding force under Lieutenant-General Monck in Scotland.

This account I thought my duty to speed to you, and rest,

Your most humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*

1[Cf. Harrison's letter to Bradshaw: "The Lord hath now tempted out the enemy from his trenches, fastnesses and advantages, and we doubt not but He will very speedily discomfort them and cut this work short in righteousness." Cary's Memorials of the Civil War, ii., p. 302.]

2[In Cromwell's hand. It was originally "the Major-General."]

Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, pp. 107-8). [Now printed from the original, signed and corrected by Cromwell, Tanner MSS., liv.¡130.]

The Scots found no Presbyterian-Royalists, no Royalists Proper to speak of, nor any Discontented Interest in England disposed to join them in present circumstances. They marched, under rigorous discipline, weary and uncheered, south through Lancashire; had to dispute their old friend the Bridge of Warrington with Lambert and Harrison, who attended them with horse-troops on the left; Cromwell with the main Army steadily advancing behind. They carried the Bridge at Warrington; they summoned various Towns, but none yielded; proclaimed their King with all force of lungs and heraldry, but none cried, God bless him. Summoning Shrewsbury, with the usual negative response, they quitted the London road; bent southward towards Worcester, a City of slight Garrison and loyal Mayor; there to entrench themselves, and repose a little.

Poor Earl Derby, a distinguished Royalist Proper, had hastened over from the Isle of Man, to kiss his Majesty's hand in passing. He then raised some force in Lancashire, and was in hopes to kindle that country again, and go to Worcester in triumph but Lilburn, Colonel Robert, whom we have known here before, fell upon him at Wigan; cut his force in pieces: 1 the poor Earl had to go to Worcester in a wounded and wrecked condition. To Worcester, and, alas, to the scaffold by and by, for that business. The Scots at Worcester have a loyal Mayor, some very few adventurous loyal Gentry in the neighbourhood; and excitable Wales, perhaps again excitable, lying in the rear: but for the present, except in their own poor Fourteen-thousand right-hands 2 no outlook. And Cromwell is advancing steadily; by York, by Nottingham, by Coventry and Stratford; 'raising all the County Militias,' who muster with singular alacrity;-flowing towards Worcester like the Ocean-tide; begirdling it with 'upwards of Thirty-thousand men. '4 His Majesty's royal summons to the

1 Lilburn's two Letters, in Cary, ii. 338-45. [This was on August 25, three days after Charles reached Worcester.]

2 [Their numbers, when they entered England, were more probably about twenty thousand; see Commonwealth and Protectorate, i. 431, note; although there were not more than sixteen thousand, if so many, at Worcester fight-only about half the numbers of Cromwell's army. When the news of their starting for England reached Cromwell's army, it was believed they were only about eleven thousand. (See note on p. 214 above. Also Downing's letter there quoted). See Cromwell's Letter CLXXXIII. below.]

3 See Appendix, No 21.

4 ["Cromwell's march from Perth to Worcester and the combinations incident to it have excited the warm admiration of the military critics of our own time. The precision of his operations would be deemed remarkable even in the days of the