160 A Century of Science 



affairs, and thus gave to the operations of the par- 

 liamentary army that unity which they had hitherto 

 lacked. 



The firstfruits of Vane's diplomacy were Mar- 

 ston Moor and Naseby, and it would be unreason- 

 able to find fault with Mr. Hosmer for pausing to 

 describe those battles. They are brilliant episodes 

 in his narrative. We have nowhere seen the two 

 battles more lucidly explained. The author has 

 been himself a soldier, and has looked at the 

 ground with a military eye. One quite envies 

 him the pleasant journey, as on his tricycle he 

 follows the route of the Ironsides over the smooth 

 roads and smiling fields of Merry England. His 

 pages are redolent of the mellow cheer and fra- 

 grance of the summer day under that mild north- 

 ern sun. One catches, with the author, the spirit 

 of the deadly fight, and realizes, as Naseby spire 

 fades away in the distance, the gravity of the crisis 

 and the completeness of the victory. Said stout 

 old Sir Jacob Astley, when the Roundheads took 

 him captive a few months afterward, " Gentlemen, 

 ye may now sit down and play, for you have done 

 all your work, if you fall not out among your- 

 selves." 



They were already falling out among them- 

 selves ; how seriously, Dunbar and Worcester were 



