CHAP. XII.] CAVALRY IN OUR CIVIL WARS. 



271 



fjitc of the day, and gave to tlie rebels a most important 

 victory. 



Naseby, fought on the 14th June, 1G45, was somewhat 

 .similar in its eharucter to Marston Moor, l)Ut was still 

 more like the battle; of Nordlingen, which will be referred 

 to substHjuently. Again, Ruj)i!rt on the right wing, by a 

 charge of cavalry, defeated the Parliamentary left, and 

 drove it oft", pursuing with mad impetuosity to a great 

 distance. Cromwell, at the same time, had chargcid the 

 Royalist left, under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and rout(;d 

 it. Unlike Rupert, however, his calm judgment never 

 left him for an instant, even in the hot excitement of a 

 cavalry charge, lie soon rallied his men, re-formed them, 

 and led them into action, where he at onee fell upon the 

 flank and rear of the exposed infantry of the King's left 

 wing, then engaged in a desperate struggle with the 

 rebel foot. Rupert, in wild pursuit, his horsemen blown 

 and scattered, did not return till the day was lost, and 

 with it the King's crown. The difterence in the conduct 

 of the two cavalry officers conveys a great lesson as to 

 the duties of a commander of horse, and is another proof 

 of the necessity of combining caution with energy and 

 impetuosity. Cromwell was as imi3etuous as the fiery 

 Rupert, but his impetuosity was always directed with 

 judgment, and while no one could surpass him in the 

 tremendous vehemence with which he forced his way 

 into the hostile ranks, neither could anyone surpass him 

 in quick decision, and in the cool deliberation with 

 which he could check himself while in full career, and, if 

 necessary, assume a defensive policy. 



It is said that a few of the officers who served in the 

 Civil War in England had served in Germany, and had 

 charged under the great Gustavus and the gallant 

 Pappenheim on many a hard-fought field. If so, the 

 experience and the accounts of that war must have had 

 their influence upon the hard-riding English country 

 gentlemen and yeomen who formed the horsemen of the 

 time, and whose native vigour would make them apt 

 imitators of any system of warfare that required daring, 

 energy, and downright hard blows. 



