[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]

“By Him who cannot lie,
Each bright intelligence that studs the pole,
Planet, or fixed, or wild eccentric star,
With some weak mortal hath connexion strange
Of good and ill. Yea, from his natal hour
O'erlooks his fortune, culminating proud
Foreshows his glory, but with watery hue
Sanguine and dim prophetic points his wo.”

Some months clapsed, as they had both surmised,
ere Ardenne again fell into contact with his superior
officer; and, in the interval, not one, but all of
those great changes which the latter had predicted
had indeed come to pass. After much fierce contention
the self-denying ordinance, although opposed
to the utmost by Hollis, Glin, and Stapleton,
and all the leaders of the Presbyterian faction,
passed both houses; Fairfax was named chief general
of the parliament, and, by a series of intricate
manœuvres, affairs were so arranged that Cromwell,
still retaining his commission of lieutenant-general,
was not required even to resign his seat
in the commons. It was an evil omen for the royal
party that Laud, after remaining in confinement during
four whole years in the tower, was now brought
to his trial, condemned, and put to death by ordinance
of parliament, having in vain produced a
regular and ample pardon, under the king's hand
and seal. None, therefore, were surprised that,
like all former efforts at a reconciliation, the treaty
entered on at Uxbridge utterly failed in its results,
the king on one side and the commissioners on the
other exhibiting so much of haughtiness and

[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]

unaccommodating spirit, that, unless by a miracle, no
peace could have been possibly concluded. So
much time had, however, elapsed in the debates at
Westminster, and so late was it in the session ere
the ordinance became a law, that the new model of
the army was not accomplished till the spring was
far advanced; and, ere the Independents were prepared
to take the field, Charles had already gained
some trivial but encouraging successes. The town
of Leicester had been taken by assault, and miserably
sacked by the wild cavaliers, who, as their
means decreased, fell more and more into those
desperate excesses which rendered, in the end,
their very name a byword for debauchery and
license; nor this important city only, but several
other garrisons had been stormed sword in hand;
while the new-modelled army had done nothing but
suffered a repulse from Borstall House, and made
a most unprofitable demonstration against the university
of Oxford. Having received false tidings
that Fairfax had sat down in form before that city,
which might be deemed the capital of loyal principles,
the king marched hastily with some eight
thousand men, hoping to raise the siege, and force
the general to a battle ere he should be joined by
Cromwell with his cavalry; but hearing, after he
had advanced as far as Daventry, that Fairfax was
so near him as Northampton, he the same day retreated
upon Harborough, intending to fall back on
Leicester, where he might draw more infantry from
Newark to his banner, and tarry the arrival of his
northern re-enforcements.

On the thirteenth of June the army of the parliament
took up its quarters for the night about a mile
to the south of the small town of Naseby, the ironsides,
with Ardenne's regiment of horse, being a little
in advance on the right wing of the position, and

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

occupying a commanding station on a range of
gentle eminences. It was a calm and lovely evening—
so still and breathless that the smallest rural
sounds—the lowing of the cattle from the rich pastures
in the vale below—the bay of mastiffs from
the scattered granges—the hooting of the owls from
many an ivy-mantled pollard—even the breezelike
murmur of the distant river—were clearly audible,
in singular but pleasing contrast to the ruder sounds
of the nocturnal camp. The moon, in unveiled gorgeousness,
was hanging in a sky so perfectly transparent
as is but rarely witnessed under the humid
atmosphere of England, and millions of bright stars
were flashing like diamond sparks in the unclouded
firmament. Edgar had only joined that afternoon,
and, taking orders from the general in person, had
not as yet fallen in with Cromwell; but now, when
he had seen his men duly provided with their rations,
his horses picketed and well supplied with forage,
and all precautions taken needful for a night to be
passed under arms, be made his way along the lines
toward Oliver's headquarters. Some two or three
tents, rudely pitched about the centre of the ridge,
with six or eight fieldpieces in battery before them,
and the red cross on the blue field of the Covenant
drooping around its staff, from which the gentle
air had not the power to move it, readily showed
him whither to direct his footsteps; but, somewhat
to his wonder, on reaching Cromwell's tent, the
sentinel on duty there informed him that the lieutenant-general
had gone forth alone, beyond the
outposts of the army, to wrestle with the Lord in
prayer, even as holy Samuel went forth “to cry
unto the Lord his God for Israel, that he might
save them our of the hands of the Philistines.”
Anxious, however, to see him before the morning,
Edgar, inquiring of the sentinels and of the

[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]

scattered groups of soldiers who were engaged cooking
their evening meal about the watchfires, easily followed
on his track, and at last, having proceeded
some few hundred yards beyond the farthest outpost,
discerned the figure of a man kneeling upon
the open plain in the full moonlight, with both his
arms outstretched toward heaven. The clear light
glanced upon the polished iron of his morion and
breastplate; and, even more than this, the harsh
tones of the speaker, as he sent up in vehement profusion
his wild supplications—or remonstrances,
for such they were in fact—to the throne of grace,
announced to him distinctly that he had found the
object of his search. Before he reached him Oliver's
prayer was ended; and, rising from his knees,
he stood—his feet a little way apart, and planted
with colossal strength upon the mossy sod—gazing
with an air of calm enthusiasm upon the glistering
heavens.

“And thou, bright ruler of my destinies,” thus
Ardenne, to his deep astonishment, heard him exclaim,
“thou that didst smile upon my natal hour—
thou that, through every change and chance of
this my mortal course, hast given evident and never-failing
tokens both of my weal and wo—thou
that, when through long years I wallowed unregenerate
and foul in the abyss of low and soul-debasing
sin, wen dim and clouded ever with thick
darkness—thou that, in after days, when, by the
gracious mercy of that long-suffering and beneficent
Lord—who willeth not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he should turn from his wickedness
and live—my soul was touched of grace,
and mine understanding enlightened to the sinfulness
of my ways, wert seen to shoot forth scintillations
pure as the seven living lamps that burn
before the throne, which are the seven spirits of

[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]

God—thou that, before the bloodred field of Marston,
whereon the Lord vouchsafed unto the humblest
of his servants to fight the great fight and to
win the crown—even the crown of victory, conjoined
with sanguine Mars didst shine pre-eminent—
beam on! beam on, with that serene and placid
gorgeousness, which fills my soul with the high
confidence of coming triumph! Ha! who goes
there?” he shouted, in a sharp, harsh key, strangely
at variance with the wild enthusiastic accents of
his previous meditations. “Stand, ho! and give
the word!”

“The sword of Levi!” answered Edgar, promptly;
“lieutenant-general, I greet you on the eve of
battle!”

“Ha! Colonel Ardenne, by the voice,” cried
Oliver; “right glad am I now to encounter you.
I heard of your arrival, and truly I rejoiced that
we should once more ride together into the strife
of men. Surely the gentle beauty of the night
hath tempted me to wander forth and commune
here alone with mine own spirit. I do profess it
is a most fair scene; saw you the stars at any time
shine forth more gloriously?”

“It is indeed a night of most unusual beauty for
this our English climate,” Ardenne replied, somewhat
surprised at the uncommon turn the conversation
had thus taken. “I have seen many such,
however, in Italy and Spain. But I knew not that
you were so deep an admirer of nature—methought
that men had rather been the subjects of your observation.”

“It is not that, it is not that,” said Cromwell,
“although all His creations must needs be worth
man's study. But have you no belief in the connexion
of those brilliant and mysterious twinklers

[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]

with the career of men — the course of great
events?”

“In truth not I,” answered the other; “nor do
I see how such belief can be consistent with the
Christian's faith in a supreme and all-commanding
Providence.”

“But I do,” Cromwell interrupted him; “I see
not wherefore the Eternal may not divulge a portion
of our fates by means of these, the most sublime
of his creations; nor wherefore the appointed
angel, who ministers to every one of mortals unto
righteousness, may not be likewise the presiding
spirit over some one of yonder glorious worlds. I
do believe it fully—yea, I have proved it. Lo!
see you not you large clear star, there to the east
of Lucifer, and higher toward the pole, brighter
than all the planets? It shone upon my birth, and
from my boyhood upward have I known and
marked the face of that far sparkler, and ever has
it varied with the varying of my fortunes—dim
and most melancholy in my benighted days of evil,
but glorious, as you see it now, when aught of
greatness or of glory was in prospect. See how
it shoots forth jets of most pure light. No other
star doth likewise. Verily, verily, the Lord shall
work great things for us to-morrow!”

“I have heard tell of this before,” Ardenne replied—
“of this your superstition, for so I cannot
but consider it; and likewise, that you fancy how
you saw a vision years ago.”

“Fancy! fancy I saw a vision,” cried Oliver,
impatiently. “I tell you, Edgar Ardenne, as
plainly as mine eyes behold you now, I saw that
dusky form—as clearly as mine ears drink in your
doubting accents, so clearly did I feel the tones of
its immortal voice. How should I fancy such
things? I was then but a boy—a wayward,

[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]

headstrong, and most ill-conditioned schoolboy. It was
a Sabbath night, and I lay wide awake, plotting I
know not what of orchard-breaking or of henroost-robbing
for the morrow, when suddenly a strange
and thrilling fear crept over me. I knew that I
was not alone, though I saw nothing. I felt as
though a pair of mighty wings were spread above
me, chilling my very soul. I would have cried
aloud, but my voice choked within me. I would
have risen up and fled, but could not move a finger;
and yet, although I say it, I was then bolder than
my years betokened, and feared not man or devil.
It was a night of murky darkness, but suddenly a
faint and pallid light filled the whole chamber, not
emanating from one brighter point, but uniform as
daylight, though very dull and ghastly; my curtains
were drawn suddenly asunder, and a tall misty
shape stood in the opening. I tell you I did see it
perfectly and plainly, for I did not faint, though
my flesh quivered aguelike, and the cold sweat
stood in beads upon my brow, and my hair bristled,
as instinct with life. There stood it while I could
have reckoned twenty, and then a deep slow voice,
of strange and solemn harmony, rolled forth without
an effort—`Arise! arise,' it said, `thou that
shalt be the first in England!' It vanished, and
all again was darkness, but the voice was tingling
in mine ears when the next sun was high in
heaven.”

“And do you credit this?” asked Ardenne, fixing
his eyes with something of suspicion on the
face of the enthusiast. “Do you trust in this prophecy?
Does this dream actuate your waking movements?”

“And wherefore not?” said Cromwell; “the
elder Brutus, he who made Rome free, was called
the First in Rome, and Father of his Country.

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

A man may be the first, and yet not king nor tyrant.
Cannot you credit this?”

“I fear me,” Edgar answered, very gravely,
“that this vision was a spirit—the evil spirit of ambition!
Beware, I say, beware how you give heed
to it! Truly there is not much about me of the
antique Roman; but did I think—as half I doubt
even now — that this same vision were but the
working of an unholy thirst for power, which may
one day induce thee to lay violent hands upon thy
country's freedom, I have yet so much of the
Cassius in me that I would thrust this sword,
which I have buckled on to fight thy battles, into
thy very heart, ere thou shouldst live to find thy
vision truth!”

“We! wo is me, what have I said?” cried Oliver,
apparently much moved; “alack! alack! truly
the flesh is weak, but strong and sincere is the
soul. Well hast thou said, my friend, and rightly
wouldst thou do, should I be rendered subject to
the temptings of the Evil One. Wo! wo is me,
that I should be mistrusted; surely, if this heart be
not honest, then there is neither faith nor honesty
in man. But thou, Lord, knowest—thou beholdest—
yea, thou searchest the most inward thoughts of
this thy servant. Continue me, then, oh thou merciful
and mighty one, continue me thine instrument,
and shield me from the power of the Evil
One; and be thy word a lantern to my feet; and
keep me, even as I now am, thine, oh Lord, thy
servant, and thine only!” and with the words he
burst into a violent passion of tears, mingled with
sobs so choking and hysterical that Edgar was
alarmed, half for the intellect, half for the health
of the strange being in whom he felt so deep an
interest. Within five minutes, however, the ecstasy
had passed away, and, as if he had forgotten

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all that had just occurred between them, Cromwell
addressed him now in the decided although quiet
accents of command. “Soh! Colonel Ardenne,
you will join your men forthwith. Go over once
again your roll-call. See all be in right state for
carly action. One hour hence report to me your
numbers at my tent.” And with a slight but courteous
inclination, he turned his back, and walked
away toward a watchfire round which some dozen
of the ironsides were grouped. Food was before
them—ammunition-bread, steaks of beef rudely
cooked upon the embers, and a black-jack or leathern
tankard of strong ale, while several pipes of
Trinidado were sending forth their powerful fumes
above the savoury odour of the viands.

“Ho! Hezekiah Sin-despise,” said Cromwell,
addressing a grim-looking trooper—for he knew
every one of his men personally and by name,
“how fare ye here? Have the knave commissaries
dealt with ye righteously? Surely ye must
not fast, else shalt the flesh be weak upon the morrow.”

“Yea! general,” returned the independent, “'tis
very righteous truth. Wilt not thou taste thyself,
so shalt thou judge how fares the sturdy but rough-coated
private, on whom doth fall the brunt and
burden of the service?”

“Take, eat!” exclaimed another of the soldiers,
tendering to him a wooden platter heaped with
beef and bread. “Eat, drink with us to-night, as
we shall fight with thee upon the morrow.”

“Will I not?” answered Cromwell, seating himself
beside the speaker, and helping himself heartily
to the plain but wholesome food. When he
had finished eating he filled a cup of ale, and, nodding
to the troopers, quaffed it until he nearly saw
the bottom; then, with a hoarse laugh, “'Twere

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evil manners did I not share with thee, Born-again
Rumford,” he exclaimed, “since thou didst share
so courteously with me;” and, instantly suiting the
action to the word, he chucked the rinsings of the
cup full into the broad face and grizzly mustaches
of the man who had supplied him with the meat.

“Thou hast it there—thou hast it fairly, Born-again,”
shouted the soldiers, much delighted by the
practical jest of their stout leader.

“I know not truly,” Oliver continued, with a
grim smile, “whether indeed this Rumford hath
been born again, either in flesh or spirit; but this
I do know of a surety, that he is now Baptizedagain—
hey, Rumford? Hand me a pipe of Trinidado,”
he continued, turning toward another of
the military saints, who sat near grinning heart
and soul at the rough witticism. “Think ye now,
men, that freton—he is your commissary of the
horse, I trow, and sees to these your rations—
think ye that Ireton, and Desborough, and Rossiter
fare any wise more daintily than ye?”

“Ay, marry!” answered Rumford, somewhat
sulkily, “the private and the officers be not alike
in aught. Saw we not Master Zedekiah, Desborough's
secretary, bear, not five minutes since, a
right fine haunch of grease, and store of flagons of
Bourdeaux into his master's tent. Lo! there go
Rossiter, and Jepherson, and Fight-the-good-fight
Egerton, to banquet even now upon the fat things
of the earth!”

“Ha! is it so?” cried Cromwell, his eye lighting
up; “verily, then, the kid shall be preserved
from out the spoiler's jaws, and given as a feast
unto the shepherds! yea! even unto those who
watch! See here, Baptized-again; I go hence
straightway to my quarters. Enter thou in to Desborough's
pavilion, and summon them all instantly

[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

to meet me at my tent in council. When ye shall
hear three taps upon the kettledrum, then rush in,
all of ye, and fall to bravely—spare not to spoil the
haunch, nor yet to drain the flagons—I, even I
myself, will stand between ye and the fierce wrath
of your officers.”

“Cromwell! Live Cromwell!” shouted the delighted
soldiers; “now may the Lord preserve to
us valiant and trusty Cromwell!”

The object of their rude praises turned aside;
but, ere he went, another rugged jest displayed yet
farther the wild humour which at times possessed
him; for, as he passed behind the back of the tall
trooper whom he had addressed as Sin-despise, he
took the pipe out of his mouth when he had kindled
its contents by two or three quick puffs to a
red heat, and struck the bowl so sharply on the
rim of the man's corslet, that all the blazing ashes
fell down his neck, between the shirt and skin.

“Now may the Devil—” shouted the trooper,
springing to his feet.

“Ho! swearest thou? Fy! fy! for shame!”
cried Oliver. “Orderly officer, set Hezekiah Sindespise
down in thy book, five shillings for an
oath. Truly, thou shalt no more be known as
`Sin-despise,' but rather as `Overcome-by-Sin.”

Again the soldiers roared their merry approbation,
till Oliver, surveying with a mirthful aspect
the contortions of the scalded veteran, and moved
to some compassion by his rueful countenance,
drew forth his purse, and, taking out the fine, handed
it to the non-commissioned officer. “Our discipline
must be preserved,” he said, “and the foul
vice of swearing I do abhor—yea! utterly. But,
in that some share of the fault was mine, who
tempted the loud railing of this rash Rabshakeh,
verily I will pay the sum in which he standeth

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

mulcted. Tush! twist not thyself, man, to and fro,
nor grin as though it hurt thee. Methought my
ironsides were proof 'gainst fire as well as steel!”
and, without farther words, he hastened to his tent,
where he found Ardenne waiting with the list of
his returns. “When all the council shall have entered
in,” he whispered to the sentry at the door,
“strike three taps on the kettledrum, and suffer
none to come in or to go out after.” Scarce had
he spoken ere the officers made their appearance,
Desborough wearing a marked air of sullen discomposure,
and all save Ireton, whose spirit was
of a higher and a nobler mould, showing some
symptoms of vexation.

“Give you good evening, gentlemen; please you
draw nigh to the table,” Oliver exclaimed, “and
make me your reports—past doubt we shall engage
to-morrow.” And for wellnigh an hour's space
he kept them there engaged in various details of
military service, some, truly, of importance, some
trivial and almost unmeaning; when at length all
was finished, “Soh! we have done at last,” he
said; “have you supped, gentlemen? So far as
goes a crust of bread and cheese, and a good cup
of ale—campaigner's fare—I can supply you, if
you will tarry here and eat with me.”

“Thanks, worthy general,” said Rossiter; “but,
in good sooth, we were just at the sitting down
in Desborough's tent when that your summons
reached us. He hath, I know not how, wrung
forth a noble haunch of venison and store of Bourdeaux
wine from some misproud malignant here at
Naseby!”

“Soh! soh! right creature-comforts—trust Desborough
for that!” Cromwell replied; “why spoke
ye not of this beforehand? my business might have
tarried; but let me not detain you. Farewell until
the morrow.”

[figure description] Page 045.[end figure description]

“Not so, fair sir,” Desborough answered, “please
you to walk with us and share our supper.”

“Nay, I have supped already,” he replied,
“with some good fellows of Jepherson's stout regiment.
Well, since you be so pressing, I will e'en
walk down and crush one cup of wine with ye;”
and, without farther words, they all proceeded, conversing
gayly as they went, toward the tent of
Desborough. They reached it, and how strange a
scene was there—the canvass flapping on all sides
open to the air—the lamps streaming and flaring
in the night wind—the seats around the table occupied
by a dozen or so of rough-looking cuirassiers,
quaffing the rich wines, hacking the now
dismantled viands with knife and dagger—laughing,
whooping, and shouting in their joyous revelry—
while a score, at the least, of others waited till
these had finished, to fall in and take their turns.

“Now shall you see,” said Ireton, who understood
the scene at half a glance, “our stout host,
Desborough, foam like a baited bull. This is, I
warrant me, one of the general's jests—somewhat
rude; yet do the soldiers prize him all the more
for them.”

“Damnation!” muttered Desborough, in violent
though smothered fury, “but this doth pass a
joke!”

“Yea! 'tis a passing good one!” answered Oliver,
with an attempt at wit which drew a laugh
from the carousers; “but surely thou didst swear;
a fine! a fine unto our treasury; look to it, Mr.
Commissary! So, now, these excellent good fellows
have watched with their lights burning, and
their loins girded up, and they have their reward.
Art thou an hungered, Desborough? Nay, then,
our worthy Ireton will find you rations; less delicate,
perchance, than yon fat haunch that was,

[figure description] Page 046.[end figure description]

but savouring more justly of the camp, and more
proportionate to the hard messes of your fellow-soldiers
in the Lord. Fy! fy! but this was gluttony;
and the means, too, if I mistake not, won by
extortion! But enough of this! Off with ye to
your quarters, ye well-fed knaves, and snore off
this carousal; and ye, fair gentlemen, though supperless,
good rest to ye. Right bravely shall we
breakfast on the morrow, an Rupert keep his purpose.
The Lord save ye!”