forces, and the King's communication with the garrison at Oxford was interrupted.(25)

On the next day, Friday, and on Saturday, the 26th, Symond's diary records pithily "noe action "--both sides, in fact, were busied with their deadly preparations, for all men knew that their next meeting would be a stern and bloody one. The King's horse burned to avenge their recent overthrow on Marston Moor, and Skippon's infantry were resolute to win back the credit they had lost in Cornwall.

The beleaguered Cavaliers now exerted themselves to retrieve their error, by adding to the strength of their position, throwing up entrenchments and mounting extra batteries. The Earl of Manchester with his vanguard held the lower portion of the town, and Cromwell's Ironsides with some infantry who formed the right wing of the Parliamentarian army, lay still, but not inactive, upon the South side of the Kennet, near Ham Mill, and thence, "as soon as it was day,”—says Symonds,—" they put a tertia of foot over a bridge which they had made in the night.”

King Charles again led the Cavaliers in person, the young Prince of Wales accompanying him, and the Earl of Brentford acting as Lieutenant-General. The royal standard waved upon Speen moor, about a mile more northerly than its position during the previous battle, and the main body of the Cavaliers held Speenhamland and the upper town of Newbury, with their lines extending towards the Castle, while their extreme left rested a little

(25) Rex oppidum insederat, at hostibus longè numeris impar. Aditus muniverat, instructâ inter oppidum et castrum acie, Locus satis opportunus. Hic Rupertum principem et Antona Comitem expectabat. Is, mille equitibus obessam Banburiam liberaverat. Ille, ter millibus stipabatur. Hostes nec Regios ad proelium allicere relationibus poterant, nee eos aggredi sine discrimine ausi. Dividunt itaque copias, Walleroque, Balforio et Skippono in oppositam oppidi plagam ad pagum Chevely missis Castra hinc simul impetunt. Acerrime utrinque pugnatum; dum Regii, Eboracensis, Essexiani, Cornubiana cladis memores, damna pari animorum fortitudine ulcisi moliunter. Regii tandem numeris oppressi aggerem et quinque tormenta bellica deserunt, nee ideo cessatum, donec nox prælium diremit, &c., &c.-Commentaries, ut suprà pp. 100-101. Sir Roger Manley adds that the Parliamentarian general had received express instructions; "ut omni arte viam Regiis Oxoniam versus, obstruat; fortunæque potiùs cuneta permittat, quam liberum iter patiatur."

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below the present site of Donnington turnpike, and crossed the lane which intersects the meadows behind and round about Shaw House, then known as " Dolemans," occupied for the King, and fortified so strongly as to be, in military parlance, "the key to the entire position." The river Lambourn flowed along their front, Sir Bernard Astley's and Sir George Lisle's cavalry were stationed ronnd about the fields betwixt the town and Shaw, and "Doleman's” not only was well garrisoned by musketry and pikes, but had each hedge and hollow of its garden ground and pleasaunce, well lined with ambushed skirmishers and marksmen.

The early forenoon appears to have been trifled away in undecisive skirmishing. The cannon played on both sides though with small effect, the King's troops contenting themselves with maintaining their position, and the Earl of Manchester delaying the attack until some fresh recruits, whom he knew to be on their route for Newbury, should join him. About mid-day however, the battle began in earnest. Waller left Chieveley, seized Speen, and advanced across the fields towards Bagnor, where the King and Prince were posted with a guard of cavalry. He had all but captured them, when the Queen's Life Guards, with Colonel Campfield at their head, charged, broke their enemies, and drove them off the field, but in their eagerness pursued so far, that Skippon took advantage of their rashness to interpose a strong reserve of musketeers and pikemen betwixt them and his flying friends. Ere these could fully form however, Lord Goring, with the Earl of Cleveland's horse, attacked them. A sharp fight followed,-till at length, the foot gave way. Goring pursued, but Skippon once more rallied his battalion and repulsed him. Goring then charged a second time. His fierce onset staggered Skippon, who retreated steadily, while Rupert-like,-as brave and as precipitate,-Goring and Cleveland followed. The skilful Roundhead opening his lines at intervals, the Cavaliers dashed through, and found themselves within the range of a triple fire of musketry. Thus out manœuvred and retreat cut off, the baffled noblemen fought gallantly, and Goring with a few of the best mounted troopers at length regained his lines. Cleveland's horse fell or was shot under him, and the Earl was taken prisoner.

In the meantime, Manchester, with 1200 horse, and near upon 3000 infantry, advanced over the Marsh towards Doleman's. Astley and Lucas with their regiments observed the movement. They heard the psalm raised by the advancing Puritans, and spurred across the meads to meet them. A fierce onset was repelled intrepidly, each party battling with determination:-much blood was shed on both sides, and little marked advantage gained by either. The sun had set;―an October evening was closing, and the fight still raged. The Royal left wing was unbroken, if not victorious, on Speen Moor, the King's right were pressing Manchester in the open fields around Shaw House. Now then, or never, Cromwell's genius must come into play. As cool to plan, as prompt to act when he had decided, his brigade of horse stationed on the extreme right of the Parliamentarian army, below Clay Hill, but on the Southern side of the swift stream that turns Ham Mill, were formed for one of Oliver's well-timed, furious, and decisive charges. Their commander led them across the temporary bridge, re-formed, and galloping over the intervening country, dashed through the Lambourn, then dividing his command into two columns, spurred with his own around the copse that skirted Dolemans, and thence again at speed along Love Lane and towards Speen Moor. The King's escort beheld the Ironsides advancing those fierce fanatics whose backs in battle no man ever saw; chivalrous instinct bade the Life Guards interpose their squadrons, and purchase with their heart's blood a few moments respite, while Charles, attended by the Prince of Wales, fled for shelter beheath the guns of Donnington. In another instant, Oliver and his grim troopers had closed with these devoted Cavaliers, pierced their ranks, unhorsed them by sheer weight and headlong impetus, and striking mercilessly right and left, ridden down and scattered them in wild route and utter disarray.

So far as Cromwell and his Ironsides were concerned, their exploits at Newbury seemed but a repetition of that tremendous charge which won the dubious fight on Marston Moor. Not thus however, it fared meantime with the second column. Their chief had wheeled them, and they charged full down upon Doleman's avenues, but there received a check-fell into confusion-and as

they strove in vain to rally, a storm of musket bullets hailed upon them from every hedge and sunken fence amongst the fields and pleasure grounds, from every window, battlement, and parapet in the old manor house. While thus entangled, Sir John Brown attacked them with a squadron of Prince Charles's horse ;—and though Edmund Ludlow galloped to the rescue with his regiment, which suffered severely in an attempt to cover their comrades, and give them time to form again, that fated column was in a short time virtually annihilated, and fell back routed and dispersed upon their main guard. They left 500 of their best and bravest, lying dead and wounded amongst the avenues and fields of Shaw. (26)

Once again night sunk upon a bloody but indecisive field. The Earl of Clarendon, and the royal party generally, strove, as before, to claim the victory for Charles,-at most however, it was a drawn battle; what it might have been, but for the panic of the

(26) While sketching, I believe accurately, and I trust not altogether unintelligibly, this second fight at Newbury, I have not, of course, overlooked the very curious account which Edmund Ludlow gives of it in his valuable and entertaining memoirs. As the Colonel wrote however, in exile, most probably from recollection only, and certainly several years after the war had ceased, I cannot accept his statement, that the bloody contest in Shaw Avenues,-in which his regiment bore so eminent a part, and in which his gallant cousin, Cornet Gabriel Ludlow, received his death-wound,-took place on Saturday, the 26th October, 1644. The counter-statement of Richard Symonds that there was, 'noe battle," on that day, is much more probable. Such a fight as Ludlow chronicles, could not have been one of the light skirmishes (velationes) with which the Roundheads strove to entice the Cavaliers from their entrenchments.

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Such readers as put faith in that fiery and ponderous partizan, and at all times rather a romancer than an historian ;-Archdeacon Echard, may believe that Sir George Lisle thrice cleared Shaw Avenues of the Roundheads; the word at each successive onset being, "King Charles !" "The Queen!" "The Prince of Wales !" and further that Lisle swore that every member of the royal nursery should have supplied a charging word, had his foes so long resisted as to need them.

The Parliamentarian letter writer thus describes this battle :-"The King kept within the town, guarded by his artillery, but his body of horse and foot drew out into Speenfield, the midway betwixt the town and castle... ..To counterpoise our numbers with

his stratagems, he fell mainly to fortify the town, especially the Avenues, and having raised his batteries and lined the hedges, stood upon his guard."

"It was one ere the train and rear-guard came up, and near three ere we could be put into battalia............For three hours the fight was maintained with as much resoluteness on our side and desperateness on the other, as hath been seen since the commencement of these wars, we neither saw man nor party, horse nor foot, either to desert his duty or dishearten his fellow.........This victory silences their braves at Cornwall." &c.. &c.— King's Pamphlets in the British Museum Library, 102 a 36, A.D. 1644.

King and the indecision of the Earl of Manchester, it is not for me to say.

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The truth is plainly, sorrowfully told by Symonds :-"This night, after day spent an hour, his Majesty sent for his regiment “and guard, and went off the field to Donnington Castle; stayed "there half an hour, and saw the infinite shooting of muskets on "both sides and in all places, [and] his men beaten, being overpowered with horse and foot." In other words, his Majesty had seen, and all but personally felt, the charge of Oliver and his sturdy Ironsides, while he was unaware that on the fields around Shaw House, the tide of war had turned against the Parliament. "Not "confident," continues Symonds, "of the good success"-meaning, probably, the fortunes of the gallant regiments battling for him— "below Shaw-" the King marched with his regiment all night "towards Bath, and reached it by four afternoon next day. [He] "made it fifty miles sans rest; being earnestly persuaded by the "generals to do so, notwithstanding his resolution openly ex"pressed to the Lords, that he would charge with his troop, and "die with their lordships in the field."

This seems but little like the pæan of a royal victory :still more significant is the next entry in Richard Symonds's diary :

"His Majesty was accompanied this sad night with Prince Charles, the Duke of Richmond, the Earls of Lindsay and Berkshire, Lord Capel and the Earl of Newport........General Ruthyn, after he had safely brought off the army, and sent them [on] towards Wallingford, came to the King, at Bath.”

Such plain straightforward statements by the diarist Symonds, of what he heard, saw, felt, and bore a daily part in, during this campaign, more especially when corroborated by the equally explicit entries in the "ITER CAROLINUM," (27) put an end, of course,

arms.

(27) The compiler of "ITER CAROLINUM," was Sir Edward Walker, Garter King-atHis memoranda extend from 1641 to 1648, and their author styles himself, in his 4to edition, 1660, “. 'a daily attendant on his Sacred Majesty, during all the said time.' The references to Newbury in this very scarce and valuable little volume, of which there is a copy in the Grenville collection, at the British Museum Library, are as follows :—