ACCOMPLISH THE RELIEF OF YORK. 171 Newcastle had sent away when he threw himself into York with the infantry. We were now eighteen thousand effective men, whereof ten thousand horse and dragoons; so the prince, full of hopes, and his men in good heart, boldly marched directly for York. The Scots, as much surprised at the taking of Newcastle, as at the coming of their enemy, began to inquire which way they should get home if they should be beaten; and calling a council of war, they all agreed to raise the siege. The prince, who drew with him a great train of carriages charged with provision and ammunition, for the relief of the city, like a wary general, kept at a distance from the enemy, and fetching a great compass about, brings all safe into the city, and enters into York himself with all his army. No action of this whole war had gained the prince so much honour, or the king's affairs so much advantage as this, had the prince but had the power to have restrained his courage after this, and checked his fatal eagerness for fighting. Here was a siege raised, the reputation of the enemy justly stirred, a city relieved and furnished with all things necessary, in the face of an army, superior in number by near ten thousand men, and commanded by a triumvirate of Generals Leven, Fairfax, and Manchester. Had the prince but remembered the proceeding of the great duke of Parma at the relief of Paris, he would have seen the relieving the city was his business; it was the enemy's business to fight, if possible; it was his to avoid it; for having delivered the city, and put the disgrace of raising the siege upon the enemy, he had nothing farther to do, but to have waited till he had seen what course the enemy would take, and taken his farther measures from their motion. But the prince, a continual friend to precipitant counsels, would hear no advice; I entreated him not to put it to the hazard; I told him, that he ought to consider, if he lost the day, he lost the kingdom, and took the crown off from the king's head. I put him in mind that it was impossible those three generals should continue long together; and that, if they did, they would not agree long in their counsels; which would be as well for us as their separating. It was plain Manchester and Cromwell must return to the associated counties, who would not suffer them to stay, for fear the king should attempt them; that he could subsist well enough, having York city and river at his back; but the Scots would eat up the country, make themselves odious, and dwindle away to nothing, if he would but hold them at bay a little; other general officers were of the same mind; but all I could say, or they either, to a man deaf to anything but his own courage, signified nothing. He would draw out and fight, there was no persuading him to the contrary, unless a man would run the risk of being upbraided with being a coward, and afraid of the work. The enemy's army lay on a large common, called Marston-moor, doubtful what to do. Some were for fighting the prince, the Scots were against it, being uneasy at having the garrison of Newcastle at their backs; but the prince brought their councils of war to a result; for he let them know they must fight him, whether they would or no; for the prince being, as before, eighteen thousand men, and the Earl of Newcastle having joined him with eight thousand foot out of the city, were marched in quest of the enemy; had entered the moor in view of their army, and began to draw up in order of battle; but the night coming on, the armies only viewed each other at a distance for that time. We lay all night upon our arms, and with the first of the day were in order of battle; the enemy was getting ready, but part of Manchester's men were not in the field, but lay about three miles off, and made a hasty march to come up. The prince's army was exceedingly well managed; he himself commanded the left wing, the Earl of Newcastle the right wing; and the Lord Goring, as general of the foot, assisted by Major-general Porter and Sir Charles Lucas, led the main battle. I had prevailed with the prince, according to the method of the King of Sweden, to place some small bodies of musketeers in the intervals of his horse, in the left wing, but could not prevail upon the Earl of Newcastle to do it in the right; which he afterwards repented. In this posture we stood facing the enemy, expecting they would advance to us, which at last they did; and the prince began the day by saluting them with his artillery, which being placed very well, galled them terribly for a quarter of an hour; they could not shift their front, so they advanced the hastier to get within our great guns, and consequently out of their danger, which brought the fight sooner on. The enemy's army was thus ordered; Sir Thomas Fairfax had the right wing, in which was the Scots' horse, and the DISASTROUS ACTION WITH CROMWELL. 173 horse of his own and his father's army; Cromwell led the left wing, with his own and the Earl of Manchester's horse; and the three generals, Lesley, old Fairfax, and Manchester, led the main battle. The prince, with our left wing, fell on first, and, with his usual fury, broke, like a clap of thunder, into the right wing of the Scots' horse, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and as nothing could stand in his way, he broke through and through them, and entirely routed them, pursuing them quite out of the field. Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a regiment of lances, and about five hundred of his own horse, made good the ground for some time; but our musketeers, which, as I said, were placed among our horse, were such an unlooked-for sort of an article, in a fight among the horse, that those lances, which otherwise were brave fellows, were mowed down with their shot, and all was put into confusion. Sir Thomas Fairfax was wounded in the face, his brother killed, and a great slaughter was made of the Scots, to whom, I confess, we showed no favour at all. While this was doing on our left, the Lord Goring, with the main battle, charged the enemy's foot; and particularly one brigade, commanded by Major-general Porter, being mostly pikemen, not regarding the fire of the enemy, charged with that fury in a close body of pikes, that they overturned all that came in their way, and breaking into the middle of the enemy's foot, filled all with terror and confusion, insomuch that the three generals thinking all had been lost, fled, and quitted the field. But matters went not so well with that always unfortunate gentleman, the Earl of Newcastle, and our right wing of horse; for Cromwell charged the Earl of Newcastle with a powerful body of horse; and though the earl, and those about him, did what men could do, and behaved themselves with all possible gallantry, yet there was no withstanding Cromwell's horse; but, like Prince Rupert, they bore down all before them; and now the victory was wrung out of our hands by our own gross miscarriage; for the prince, as it was his custom, too eager in the chase of the enemy, was gone, and could not be heard of; the foot in the centre, the right wing of the horse being routed by Cromwell, was left, and without the guard of his horse. Cromwell having routed the Earl of Newcastle, and beaten him quite out of the field, and Sir Thomas Fairfax rallying his dispersed troops, they fall all together upon the foot. General Lord Goring, like himself, fought like a lion; but forsaken of his horse, was hemmed in on all sides, and overthrown; and an hour after this, the prince, returning too late to recover his friends, was obliged with the rest to quit the field to conquerors. This was a fatal day to the king's affairs, and the risk too much for any man in his wits to run; we lost four thousand men on the spot, three thousand prisoners, among whom was Sir Charles Lucas, Major-general Porter, Major-general Telier, and about one hundred and seventy gentlemen of quality. We lost all our baggage, twenty-five pieces of cannon, three huudred carriages, one hundred and fifty barrels of powder, and ten thousand arms. The prince got into York with the Earl of Newcastle, and a great many gentlemen, and seven or eight thousand of the men, as well horse as foot. CHAPTER XIII. OF OUR NARROW ESCAPE FROM THE BATTLE-DANGERS I HAD but very coarse treatment in this fight; for returning with the prince from the pursuit of the right wing, and finding all lost, I halted, with some other officers, to consider what to do; at first we were for making our retreat in a body, and might have done so well enough, if we had known what had happened before we saw ourselves in the middle of the enemy; for Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had got together his scattered troops, and joined by some of the left wing, knowing who we were, charged us with great fury. It was not a time to think of anything but getting away, or dying upon the spot; the prince kept on in the front, and Sir Thomas Fairfax, by this charge, cut off about three regiments SOME OF THE KING'S TROOPS MUCH PERPLEXED. 175 of us from our body, but bending his main strength at the prince, left us, as it were, behind him, in the middle of the field of battle. We took this for the only opportunity we could have to get off, and joining together, we made across the place of battle in as good order as we could, with our carabines presented. In this posture we passed by several bodies of the enemy's foot, who stood with their pikes charged to keep us off; but they had no occasion, for we had no design to meddle with them, but to get from them. Thus we made a swift march, and thought ourselves pretty secure ; but our work was not done yet, for, on a sudden, we saw ourselves under a necessity of fighting our way through a great body of Manchester's horse, who came galloping upon us over the moor. They had, as we suppose, been pursuing some of our broken troops which were fled before, and seeing us, they gave us a home charge. We received them as well as we could, but pushed to get through them, which at last we did with a considerable loss to them. However, we lost so many men, either killed or separated from us (for all could not follow the same way), that of our three regiments we could not be above four hundred horse together when we got quite clear, and these were mixt men, some of one troop and regiment, some of another. Not that I believe many of us were killed in the last attack, for we had plainly the better of the enemy; but our design being to get off, some shitted for themselves one way, and some another, in the best manner they could, and as their several fortunes guided them. Four hundred more of this body, as I afterwards understood, having broke through the enemy's body another way, kept together, and got into Pontefract Castle, and three hundred more made northward, and to Skipton, where the prince afterwards. fetched them off. These few of us that were left together, with whom I was, being now pretty clear of pursuit, halted, and began to inquire who and what we were, and what we should do; and on a short debate, I proposed we should make to the first garrison of the king's that we could recover, and that we should keep together, lest the country-people should insult us upon the roads. With this resolution we pushed on westward for Lancashire; but our misfortunes were not yet at an end: we travelled very hard, and got to a village upon the river Wharf, near Wetherby. At Wetherby there was a |