BRITAIN. 



587 



ic roy- 

 in 



and 



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 trosc. 



Montrose continued for a time to brighten the 

 royal cauac, by the delusive hopes of his tpleodid 



achievements. He had retired to Inverness from 

 laying waste Argyleshire, when Argyle recalled his 

 scattered clan to Invcrlochy, a castle at the western 

 extremity of those lakes which almost cross the High- 

 lands from east to west. The Earl of Seaforth, with 

 -'000 men, pressed Montrose on the other side ; but, 

 by a rapid movement, Montrose fell upon the cove- 

 nanters ;it Inverlochy. Argyle, seized with a panic, 

 deserted his army, and fifteen hundred of them 

 were slaughtered on the scene of battle. Montrose 

 was joined, in consequence of this victory, by seve- 

 ral new clans of the Highlanders ; and the army of 

 Lord Seaforth, consisting of raw levies, was disper- 

 sed by the terror of his name. Recrossing the 

 Highlands, he abstained, indeed, from the cold blood- 

 ed massacres which had disgraced his former cam- 

 paign ; but refusing mercy to all who did not assist 

 his cause, he pillaged and burnt their habitations 

 wherever he marched. Elgin, Cullen, Banff, and 

 Stonehaven, experienced his cruelties ; the last of 

 these places was consigned to the flames, by his or- 

 der, amidst the cries and intreaties of its inhabitants. 

 He had carried Dundee by assault, when Baillie and 

 Ury, two ofiicers of the covenanting army, who 

 had been recalled by the council of Edinburgh to 

 protect the country, approached him. He made an 

 astonishing retreat of 60 miles in one day, before 

 tlioir superior forces, who divided in pursuit of him. 

 Ury met him with 4000 men at Alderne, near In- 

 verness, where Montrose, posting one wing upon 

 strong ground, and affecting to have a central body 

 by disposing a few men among trees and bushes, 

 led on the rest of his troops to a furious charge, 

 p.nd put to flight the Covenanters, amounting to 

 twice his numbers. Baillie advancing to avenge 

 Ury's defeat, met with a similar fate at Alford, 

 and the victorious royalist was preparing to push 

 his conquests to the south of Scotland, and to dissi- 

 pate the parliament, which had been ordered to meet 

 at St Johnstons. 



By the influence of the independents, that body of 

 the English parliament and its followers, who wished 

 for an abolition of all church government, and a le- 

 velling equality of ranks in the republic, a self deny- 

 ing act was passed in the House of Commons, by 

 wnich the members of both Houses were excluded 

 from all civil and military employments, except a few 

 cilices which were specified. The pretence of this 

 act was to convince the people, that the members of 

 parliament wished to participate in none of the pro- 

 fits of government, or avail themselves of the power 

 which had been intrusted to them: the real object of its 

 contrivers, which the Presbyterians did not sufficient- 

 ly perceive or resist, was to get rid of a number of 

 officers, whose weight was a restraint upon the level- 

 ling enthusiasm of the Independents. Essex, War- 

 wick, Manchester, Denbigh, Waller, and Brereton, 

 resigned their commands, and received the thanks of 

 parliament. The command of the army was bestow- 

 ed on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man sincere, disinter- 

 ested, and able in war, but of narrow genius in every 

 thing else, and unconsciously made subservient to the 

 deep dissimulating views of Cromwell. After ob- 



taining, in concert with Sir Harry Vane and the Britaiiu 

 other leaders of the Independents, this self-denying 

 ordinance, Cromwell contrived to make Fairfax re- " 

 tain him in the command second to his own, or, in 

 effect, to give him the first influence in military af- 

 fairs. The armies, in consequence of the ordinance, 

 were modelled anew, and an exact and rigid discipline 

 was established. As the new officers were chiffly 

 Independents, in whom the spiritual and military vo- 

 cations were united, the soldiers were daily edified by 

 exhortation and prayer ; when they marched, the 

 fields resounded with psalms, and wherever tli'.-y were 

 quartered the pulpits were usurped by those military 

 rhapsodists, whose martial devotion reduced the fee- 

 ble notes of the clergy to conte^npt. The soldiers 

 were seized with the same {age for preaching and 

 praying. Little success was expected from the raw 

 officers of the new-modelled army, but their enemies 

 were disappointed. 



On opening the campaign at the approach of the Proceed- 

 summer of 1645, the king marched to relievo Ches- tags of the 

 ter, and Fairfax to relieve Taunton. The siege of hostile 

 Chester was raised on the report of the king's ap- al 

 proach; that of Taunton was continued. While 

 Fairfax was recalled by the committee of botli king- 

 doms to attack the city of Oxford, the Scottish army 

 was directed to advance, and oppose the king in the 

 north. They advanced to Rippon, and learning that 

 Prince Maurice intended to co-operate with Mon- 

 trose, they turned into Westmoreland to cover the 

 siege of Carlisle, and to prevent the danger of their 

 native country. Leicester, for the present, attracted 

 the king's arms ; that city was stormed with great 

 carnage, and given up to the most dreadful excesses 

 of the soldiery. The disaster excited such clamour, 

 that Fairfax was ordered from besieging Oxford, to 

 march against the king; and either from necessity, or 

 the impetuosity of Prince Rupert, it was resolved, on 

 the part of the royalists, to give battle without waiting 

 for some exp'ected aids. 



The battle of Naseby was fought between nearly Battle of 

 equal numbers. Prince Rupert first broke the oppo. Naseby. 

 site wing of the enemy, but pursued too far. Crom- 

 well bore down the wing of the royalists opposite to 

 his own, but widely left a d'.'tachment to pursue them, 

 and turned upon the centre, where the royal infantry 

 and Fairfax were continuing a doubtful combat. 

 When Rupert returned, the battle was irretrievable. 

 The king called out, in vain, to make but one charge 

 more, and the day was their own ; but his artillery 

 and baggage were lost, and his infantry ruined. 

 Fairfax improved the victory by uninterrupted succ 

 aes ; Leicester, Bath, Bridgewater, and other strong 

 places, fell rapidly into his hands. Prince Rupert, 

 who had thrown himself into Bristol, surrendered the 

 place while the walls were entire; after whieh, : 

 victors dividing, Cromwell reduced the Dc-viws, Win- 

 chester, and BabinghousL 1 ; and Fairfax turning west- 

 ward, captured the towns of the royalists, and sur- 

 rounded their fugitive army in Connvall. 



Tin.- king, who had fled after the fatal fit-Id, of N 

 by with the remnant of "his cavalry into Wale*, re- 

 turned with the fruitless design of joining Montros-,- 

 in Scotland ; but as every avenue to the north was 

 shut against him, his last effort was to relieve ' 



