270 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[fkriod iir. 





11 



/Jill 



defeated the enemy, and pursued them vigorously. The 

 Royalist reserve, under General Cavendish, charged the 

 Lincolners and routed them, wh(!n Cromwell, whose 

 quick decision grasped everything, turned with the three 

 troops, in reserve under Whalley, and fell upon the rear 

 of Cavendish's horsemen, and drove them oif th(5 field 

 with the loss of their leader, who was slain in the 



Marston Moor, 2nd July, 1G44, was another celebrated 

 action, and its result was decided by the cavulry. The 

 King's army was commanded by Prince Rupert and the 

 Marquis of Newcastle. The Parliamentary army was led 

 by the Earl of Manchester and Cromwell, and laced the 

 east, while their opponents faced the west. The battle 

 opened by an attack of the left wing of Manchester's army, 

 the cavalry, under Cromwell, charging the cavalry of the 

 Royalist right, under Prince Rupert. A desperate fight 

 ensued between these two celebrated generals, and the 

 fate of it was decided by Cromwell's precaution of always 

 holding a reserve in hand. This fresh body suddenly 

 falling upon the Royalists, while engaged in a hand-to- 

 hand, struggle, turned the scale, and gave the victory in 

 that part of the field entirely to the rebels, who forced 

 the right wing of the King's troops back in rear of their 

 left. 



While this had been going on in one part of the field, 

 the exact counterpart had taken j^lace on the opposite 

 wings of the contending armies. The Royalist left wing 

 had been charged by the enemy, under Sir Thomas 

 Fairfax, and were at first put into confusion.^ Lucas, 

 who commanded the Royal horse, soon restored order to 

 his forces, and made a vigorous charge upon the Par- 

 liamentary cavalry of the right, defeated them, and 

 routed also the infantry of that wing. The result was 

 that the two armies swung round on the centre to such 

 an extent, that in the evening they each occupied the 

 ground held by the other at the commencement of the 

 action.' A decisive charge of Cromwell's cavalry, which 

 he had collected from the pursuit, at last decided the 

 1 Nolan, 20. 2 n^id. 22. 3 Hume, v. 276. 



