and to find relief and comfort thereby to himself, the gentlemen, capteans, and the poor souldearie, whase condition was for the present maist miserabile and pitifull. I answerit this mikle in sum, that whowbeit neither our friendship, quhilk could not be great, seeing their king was friends to the graitist enemie of Christ, the Pope of Rome, and our king and we defyed him, nor zit thair cause against our nibours and special friends of England, could procure anie benifit at our hands for thair relief or comfort; nevertheless they should know by experience that we war men, and se maned to human compassion and Christainess of better religion nor they, which should kyth in the fruits and effect plan contrar to thairs; for whereas our people resorting amang tham in peaceable and lawfull affairs of merchandise, war violentlei taken and cast in prisen, their guids and gear confiscat, and their bodies committed to crewal flaming fyre for the cause of religion. They sould find nathing among us but Christian pitie and warks of mercie and almes, leaving to God to work in their hartes concerning religion as it pleased him. This being trewlie reported to him be his Frenchman, with grait reverence, he gaiff thanks, and said, he could not make answer for thair kirk and the laws and order thairof; only for himself, that thair war divers Scotchmen who knew him, and to whom he had shewn courtesei and favver at Calles, and as he supposit since of the same town of Anstruther. Sa show him, that the bailzies granted him lecince with the capteans to go to thair ludging for thair refreshment, bot to nane of their men to land, till the over lord of the town was advertised, and understand the king's majesty's mind annent them. Thus with great courtesei he departed. That night the lord, being advertised, came; and, on the morn, accompanied with a guid number of the gentlemen of the countrey round about, gaiff the said general and the capteans presence, and after the same spietches in effect as before, receavit them in his house and interteaned them humeanlie, and sufferit the souldeirs to come a land and ly all togedder, to the number of thirteen score, for the maist part young berdless men, sillie, trauchled, and hungrit, to the quhilk a day or two keall pottage and fish was giffen; for myadvyce was conform to the prophet Elizeus, Giff them bread and water. The names of the commanders ware, Jan Gomes de Medina, general of twenty hulks, Capitan Patricio, Capitan de Legaritto, Capitan de Luffera, Capitan Mauritio, and Seigneur Serrano."-Edin. Mag., Sept. 1785.

CHAPTER XII.

Arm, warriors! arm for fight; the foe at hand,
Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit
This day. Fear not his flight; so thick a cloud
He comes, and settled in his face I see
Sad resolution.

MILTON.

Oliver Cromwell.-Battle of Doonhill.

On the commonwealth of England, which now held the reins of government, receiving intelligence that the sons of Charles I. had taken refuge among the Scots, preparations were made for an inevitable war; and Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman of a good private family, who by his talents and intrigues had gained the sway of the parliament, was sent into Scotland with an army of 16,000 men.

On Friday the 26th July 1650, he marched from Cockburnspath to Dunbar, which he found the principal inhabitants had abandoned, and none between the ages of seven or seventy remained: Every thing in the shape of leaf or ear, root or branch, was removed. The murderous proceedings of the English in Ireland had inspired the people with terror; and it was believed, that it was their intention to cut off the right hands of all Scotsmen capable of bearing arms, and burn with hot irons the breasts of all women capable of bearing children.*

• Whitelock's Memorials of English Affairs, p. 452.

M

On the arrival of the English, an alarm being given that the Scots were approaching, they drew up in a field near the town. This alarm, however,

proved false; and next day the Amity and other ships arriving from Newcastle with a supply of provisions, the Protector departed to Haddington.

The command of the Scottish army in the meantime had devolved upon Leslie, an experienced officer, who had entrenched himself in a fortified camp between Edinburgh and Leith; and as it was his policy to remove from the Merse and Lothian every thing which might serve for subsistence to the invaders, Cromwell found himself straitened for want of provisions, and on the 6th August he had again to return to Dunbar; where, on the 17th, his army received a supply of tents and provisions from the ships. He now found the people in such a deplorable state from starvation, that the iron front of war was smoothed, and the commissioners were ordered to distribute pease and wheat to the value of L.240 among the inhabitants. Two days were then spent in prayers and

*

"The inhabitants of Dunbar," says Whitelock, "were in such want of provisions, that they picked the beans from the horses off the ground, and ate the sheeps' guts which were thrown away by the soldiers And many of the women of the countrymen are so sluttish, that they do not wash their linen above once a-month, nor their hands and faces above once a-year."

We scarcely think that the Englishman had time to prove the last assertion. The Scots had no doubt received the same hint that Leslie gave to the household troops of Musselburgh: "That the gude women of the town should aw come awa with their gear, and not stay to brew or bake for the English army on pain of death.”

exhortations to the army, after which they advanced to Edinburgh.

Cromwell endeavoured in vain to draw Leslie from a strong position he occupied near Arthur's seat, and having shipped his sick at Musselburgh, he retreated to Haddington, while the Scots hung on his right flank. Here" we staid," says Captain John Hodg son, "till about ten o'clock, when after prayer had been made in several regiments, we marched a poor shattered, hungry, discouraged army," to Dunbar. This place they entered on Sunday the 1st September. Cromwell drew up in a field near Dunbar “ full swamps and bogs," while the Scots flanked him on the hills on the right. Their army was computed at 27,000 men, and that of the English at 12,000.

of

Threatened with famine, he was on the eve of sending his foot and artillery by sea to England, and of breaking through the Scots party on the borders at all hazards with his cavalry, when he was spared this disgrace by the wild enthusiasm of the clergy, who, like those of Switzerland at the battle of Sempach, had joined the patriotic standard. The Scots army, instead of being under the control of its general, was regulated by a committee of these enthusiasts; and afterwards, amongst Cromwell's prisoners, we find Gallespy and Wargle, ministers. These worthies having cleared the army of

"A Scots captain taken prisoner, told the English officers, that their ministers advised them if they were taken, that they should throw away their bibles; for if the English took any with bibles, they should have no quarter."—Whitelock's Mem.

about four thousand profane persons and sabbathbreakers, believed that there remained a remnant of invincible saints. Night and day had they been wrestling with the lord in prayer; and revelations, they imagined, had been made to them, foretelling that the sectarian and heretical army, together with Cromwell, the modern Agag, should be delivered into their hands.

Leslie had encamped in an admirable position on the top of Doonhill, an eminence four or five hundred feet high, about two miles south from Dunbar; and while, from its summit, he had an excellent opportunity of observing the motions of the enemy, the gentle declivities of the Lammermoors immediately behind it, were admirably fitted to conceal and shelter the He had also taken care to possess army. himself of the pass of Pease, the only road which led from Dunbar to Berwick. But the indiscreet zeal of his pious partisans, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the general, compelled him to descend, and give battle to the enemy.†

On Monday evening, Leslie increased his right wing of horse with two-thirds of the left; and edged down towards the sea; while his infantry and artillery inclined to the right. When Cromwell observed this movement, he ordered three regiments and

* On the south-east summit of Doonhill, is the supposed remains of a Roman camp, now ploughed up; the tumuli and trenches of which are still visible. A little above Spott-moor is another camp, from which perhaps the neighbouring hill of Chesters (Ceasters) gets its name, as that term in the Anglo-Saxon signifies, a fort or castle.

"It is said that Leslie's officers were averse to fight, and proposed rather to make a bridge of gold for them to pass home; byt the clergy over-ruled it."-Whitelock's Mem.