wherein he lived. He had strong religious feelings and a hearty sympathy for the Puritans.

Cromwell served in Charles's third Parliament as member for Huntingdon. We do not know much of his life during the eleven years of misgovernment which followed the granting of the Petition of Right, but we do now and then catch a glimpse of him befriending the oppressed. In the Short Parliament, and also in the Long Parliament, he sat for Cambridge. He was a hard-working member although he did not often make a speech. He only spoke when he really had something to say, and then he attracted attention not by the beauty of his language, but by the earnestness of his manner. A member of the Long Parliament who has left some account of him, says that the first time he ever took notice of" Cromwell, he was speaking on behalf of a poor man who had been wrongfully imprisoned by the government. He was slovenly in his dress, his voice was "sharp and untunable," but his words were 66 full of 1 fervour." Another member, who had also noticed Cromwell, said to Hampden, "Who is the sloven that spoke to-day?" "The sloven you see before you," was the answer, "hath no ornament in his speech, but if we should ever come to a breach with the king (which God forbid !), that sloven, I tell you, will be the greatest man in England." The future showed how clear had been the foresight of Hampden.

At the breaking out of the war, Cromwell, like many of the other members, became a captain in the parliamentary army. He soon saw where the strength of the other side lay. "Their troops," he said to his cousin, are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and persons of quality." They knew what they were fighting about, and had their hearts in their work. "But your troops,"

he said, "are most of them old, 2 decayed serving-men, and 3 tapsters, and such kind of fellows"-persons who fought because they were paid, and thought more of the pay than the fighting. Cromwell saw plainly that parliament could not win with such soldiers. His own military ability showed itself early in the war, and he rose to higher and higher positions in the army, but whatever rank he held, he took care that his men were respectable and religious, earnest in their opposition to the king, and confident in the truth of the parliamentary motto, "God with us!" And he chose his officers as he chose his men, not for their birth, but for their zeal in the cause. "I had rather," he wrote, "have a plain russet-coated captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so indeed." Having selected his troopers with the greatest care Cromwell placed them under the strictest discipline. Drinking, swearing, gambling, were all forbidden: "not a man swears,' says a newspaper of the time, “but he pays his twelvepence."

1 Fervour, warmth, earnestness. 2 decayed serving-men, wornout servants. 3 tapster, a waiter at an inn, a barman. 4russet, a kind of dark red. Gentlemen in those days wore coats of bright colours.

MARSTON MOOR AND NASEBY.

IN July, 1644, Cromwell's "Ironsides" showed what they were capable of. Some twenty thousand men (consisting partly of a Scotch army that had been sent to help the Parliament) were laying siege to York, when word, was brought that Charles's nephew, the dashing Prince Rupert, was at hand with a large force. The Parliamentarians abandoned the siege and moved

southwards; the Royalists followed, and at 1Marston Moor a great battle was fought.

Cromwell (now lieutenant-general) commanded the left wing, which was made up of his own troopers and three regiments of the Scotch. Opposed to him, on the Royalists' right, were the men whom Rupert had so often led to victory.

The two armies stood facing one another the whole afternoon. About seven o'clock Cromwell's division advanced to begin the struggle. After a severe fight

succeeded in driving its opponents off the field. Meanwhile the Royalists' centre and left overcame the remainder of the parliamentary army, but when Cromwell returned from the chase, he attacked the victors and defeated them. Writing to his brother-inlaw, he says, "We never charged but we routed the enemy. The left wing, which I commanded, beat all the prince's horse. God made them as stubble to our swords. We charged the regiments of foot with our horse, and routed all we charged. The particulars I cannot now relate, but I believe that of twenty thousand the prince hath not four thousand left.'

By this time the Puritans had split into two parties, Presbyterians and Independents. The Presbyterians believed that the Church should be governed not by bishops but by presbyters or elders, and they disliked the Prayer-Book. They were quite as narrow-minded as Laud he wanted all men to have the same service, they wanted all men to have the same beliefs. The Independents, on the other hand, were in favour of a certain amount of religious liberty. They held that every congregation, at least every Puritan congregation, should be allowed to settle its own doctrine. Most of the members of parliament opposed to Charles were

Presbyterians; only Cromwell and a few others were Independents.

The Presbyterians did not want to beat the king too much, so the struggle was not carried on with any spirit. Cromwell told the House of Commons that if the war were not " more vigorously prosecuted," the people could bear it no longer. He persuaded Parliament to pass the Self-denying 2 Ordinance, which enacted that no member of either House should be an officer in the army. When those who were officers had

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resigned, the army was new modelled." Sir Thomas Fairfax was made general, Cromwell (who notwithstanding the Ordinance was allowed to keep his place) became the second in command, and the same care was taken in the selection and discipline of all the men as had hitherto been taken in the selection and

discipline of the Ironsides. That care was amply repaid for the "New Model" decided the war in a single battle. At Naseby, in Northamptonshire, on June 14th, 1645, the king suffered a crushing defeat. Cromwell writes "We, after three hours' fighting very doubtful, at last routed his army, killed and took about 5,000, very many officers. We took also about

guns.

We

200 carriages, all he had, and all his pursued the enemy from three miles short of 3 Harborough to nine miles beyond, even to the sight of Leicester, whither the king fled."

After ten months of roaming from place to place in the vain attempt to raise a force strong enough to oppose the "New Model," Charles saw that his cause was hopeless, and gave himself up to the Scotch. They finally handed him over to Parliament and returned to their own country.'

1 Marston Moor, about four miles from York. 2 ordinance, law. 3 Harborough, Market Harborough, on the borders of Leicestershire.

THE TRIAL OF CHARLES I.

WHILE Charles

was in captivity differences began to arise between Parliament and the army. Parliament wanted to disband the army, but the army (which was strongly Independent) had no mind to be disbanded till religious

liberty

had been secured. The soldiers got the king into their own hands, compelled eleven of the Presbyterian members to absent themselves from the House of Commons, and took possession of London. They tried

to come to terms with Charles, but he would not accept the chief condition they laid down,-1 toleration

to all Protestants.

Parliament, too, tried to come to terms with him, but