’Tis _jest_ to tell a people that they’re free:
_Who_ or _how many_ shall their _masters_ be
Is the sole doubt.
COWLEY.
Before the walls of Hull, in Yorkshire, King Charles was first made
sensible that the powers and the prerogatives of the crown were
already usurped by the Parliament. Sir John Hotham shut the gates of
the city, and refused to admit the small force by which the King was
attended.
The governor stood upon the wall, and the King, who had appointed him
to that office of trust, sat upon his horse beneath, and heard a
sickening protestation of loyalty to his person, while the guards, to
whom he intrusted its defence, were treated as the enemies of his
throne and kingdom. Here began that artful distinction, whereby the
Parliamentarians professed to keep garrisons and raise soldiers in
the name of the King, while they opposed his wishes and resisted his
authority.
They had already taken from the King the power of the militia; and
having compelled him to throw himself on the support of the private
gentry, the flame of civil war was soon kindled.
At the time when his Majesty was thus repulsed by Sir John Hotham, he
was surrounded by a small company of gallant gentlemen, who had formed
themselves into a body guard; and he found himself, in a province
remote from his capital, without a regiment, without money to raise
one, and without a single garrison or company of soldiers in all
England receiving his pay or acknowledging the royal orders: the navy,
the ordnance, stores, magazines, and the revenue, were in the keeping
of the Parliament. His sole dependence was on the loyalty, the
courage, and the resources of the country gentlemen of England.
The midland counties were for the most part subjected to the influence
of the Parliament, and lay too near the city of London to resist or
even dispute the commands of that powerful assembly.
This body was no sooner apprised of the conduct of Hotham, and
informed that he had been proclaimed a traitor by the King, than they
openly justified the conduct of that governor, and soon after publicly
voted “that the King intended to levy war against the Parliament.”
This declaration was followed by active preparations for war on both
sides; but the advantages for commencing it were greatly on the side
of the Parliament; and the gentry in the west, and more especially in
the northern counties, were, at first, disheartened by the evident
distraction of the King’s counsel, and the gloomy aspect of his
affairs.
Therefore, in Yorkshire, though many promises were given, few troops
were raised; and if Shropshire and Wales had not been animated by a
more lively hope, and a warmer zeal, no royal army could ever have
appeared in the field.
Meanwhile the levies for the Parliament were very successful, and men
came in as fast as they could be received and armed. In addition to
these volunteers, the rustics drawn for the militia were compelled to
join their corps, and were put under the training of such officers as
could be found.
In July, the Parliament voted the Earl of Essex their general of foot,
and appointed the Earl of Bedford the commander of their horse; and
early in August declared themselves necessitated to take arms and to
commence hostilities.
These vigorous measures inspired their partisans throughout the
kingdom with a resolute spirit, and in London not a voice was openly
lifted up for the King.
As early as the month of May, Francis Heywood had procured his
services to be accepted as captain of a troop of horse under Sir John
Balfour, and was by him immediately appointed an instructor or
sergeant-major[A] of cavalry.
[A] The titles of Sergeant-Major, and Sergeant-Major-General, at
that period, correspond with Adjutant-Major and Adjutant-General
of our times.
At such a moment, the zeal of Cuthbert Noble would not suffer him to
remain behind, while so many were taking arms for the great, and, as
he thought, holy cause, of liberty. He did not find it difficult,
through the favour of a friend, to obtain the grade of lieutenant in a
company of foot; and he set forth on a fine morning in June to join a
regiment then assembled in quarters at the town of St. Albans, in
Hertfordshire, for training.
His finances did not admit of more than a very humble
equipment,--accordingly he was mounted on a low shambling pony, across
which he had also placed the saddle bags containing his better gear,
his Bible, and two or three violent pamphlets of the day against
prelacy and the divine right of kings.
Notwithstanding the heat of his opinions, and his hearty concurrence
in the measures of the Parliament, Cuthbert, in his lonely hours, was
of that serious and solemn temper of mind, that he could not but
reflect on the step he was now taking with more than his wonted
gravity.
That his present course would be distressing to his father he well
knew; but he silenced this whisper of his better angel with the
consideration that his father was old, timid, and averse to change,
rather from early prejudices and associations than from the light of
conscience and the use of right reason.
Again, with that obliquity of mind with which men who are in fact
taking their own way wish to think it that appointed by Providence, he
ran over all the texts of Scripture then in the mouths of the
Roundheads, as justifying their appeal to arms, and silenced all the
lingering remonstrances that yet struggled in his bosom with those
inapplicable words of Holy Writ, “He that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me.”
Having thus, by forcibly wresting a quotation from Scripture, served
his immediate purpose, and given freedom and tranquillity to his
spirit, he suffered his imagination to dress out the duties of
military life in all their most sacred glory. The language of the Old
Testament, and that of the profane authors with which he was familiar,
were called up in a strange confusion to gild the prospect before
him,--and now a song of triumph from his Bible, now a quotation from
Homer, was sounding on his lips, and ere he was aware was kindling a
vain and unholy ambition:--a secret and impious persuasion of the
favour and approval of Heaven filled him with a swelling anticipation
of coming victories and high rewards. He resolved that the virtues of
the Spartan or the Roman soldier should in his person be combined with
the ardour and the holiness of the most chosen warriors of Israel.
He saw not the lean and sorry nag beneath him; he thought not of those
weary marches which he should have to make afoot, when the miserable
jade on which he was now sitting astride his saddle bags should be
stumbling along stony or miry ways in a train of baggage horses; but
he pictured out a future in which he should ride among the princes of
the people, and in marches of triumph.
From this dream of his fancy he was suddenly and very effectually
awakened by feeling the animal, which he was riding, sink under him
with an uneasy motion; and, before he could possibly prevent it, he
found the water of a considerable stream, which he was then fording,
above his knees, and his saddle bags thoroughly soaked through. The
beast had his own notions of enjoyment as well as his dreamy rider;
and, as the day was hot, the road was dusty, and his burden
sufficiently oppressive, had taken this very seasonable refreshment.
Nature suddenly asserted her power over the precise young Puritan;
and, to the scandal of all his late professions, he gave vent to his
wrath in certain violent and unseemly phrases which would not have
disgraced the most accomplished swearer among the wild Cavaliers of
that time. These oaths were but the accompaniments of sundry hard
blows with a cudgel, kickings with the heel, and jerks of the rein, by
dint of which the nag, unable to rebuke him for his injustice, was
compelled to rise and go forward. The accident was in itself
sufficiently provoking; and the irritation of Cuthbert was increased
by encountering on the bank an old beggar with a wooden leg, who,
tossing his staff pike fashion, loudly asked his alms for an old
crippled soldier done up in the wars; and, thrusting his tongue in
his cheek, eyed his foolish plight with a merry satisfaction, which he
could not conceal.
“Out upon thee!” said Cuthbert, “for an old drunken impostor:--such
fellows as you tippling bawlers of ballads are the curse of the
land;--go scrape your cracked fiddle for sots on the ale bench, and
don’t trouble honest men on their road.”
“The lie in thy throat, thou prick-eared canting Roundhead!” replied
the old soldier:--“thou foul-mouthed hypocrite! is it for thou to rate
sinners after rattling out oaths like a shameless brawler in a bear
garden? I am a cleaner spoken man than thou, blessings on him who
taught me, and more honest than to play traitor to my king:--God bless
his gracious Majesty! I wish him no better luck than that all the
Roundheads, militia, and train-bands, horse and foot, were just such a
set of raw awkward spoonies as yourself.”
While he was yet speaking, Cuthbert’s jade, as if moved by the very
spirit of mischief, shook her ears and was down in the middle of the
loose dusty road, without better warning than before; for the
attention of Cuthbert being quite taken up by his anger with the old
soldier, he was again too late to prevent it. The dust plentifully
adhered to his legs, thighs, and saddle bags. He instantly dismounted
in a rage, kicked the beast up again, drove it forward, and, turning
short round upon the old man, in a fury, said,--
“If it were not for your age and grey hairs, you insolent old
vagabond, I would rap your pate smartly with my cudgel.”
“That were easier spoken than done,” rejoined the old man, holding his
quarter staff lightly in a defensive posture.
A little dog, which accompanied the old man, perceiving by these
actions, and by the loudness of their speech, that the stranger was
quarrelling with his master, flew at Cuthbert with a sharp and angry
bark, than which perhaps nothing does more inflame the rising choler;
he, therefore, struck at the little animal furiously, and the end of
his cudgel inflicted on it a sharp stroke, which sent it howling and
yelping behind its master.
The old soldier, without a moment’s loss of time, resented this injury
by so heavy and well placed a blow on the head of Cuthbert, that his
steeple-crowned hat was knocked off; and had it not been defended
within by the strong bars of iron with which it had been recently
fitted for the wars, he would have gotten a severe bruise.
“He that touches my dog touches me,” said the old man: “I am sorry
that I did not make thee feel it.” The quarter staff of the beggar
had, by his stumbling and over-reaching himself, flown out of his
hand, and his old rabbit-skin cap had fallen upon the ground:--a fine
polished head thinly strewn with grey hairs lay bare and
exposed.--“There, you may crack it if you will now,” he added, raising
the ineffectual defence of his arm.
“I am a man,” said Cuthbert, “and not a brute: I would not strike thee
for all my hot words; but I have been beside myself with passion. May
God forgive me for my great offence against him--and do you forgive
me for the hard things I said to you, and the stroke I gave your dog.”
So speaking, he picked up the old man’s quarter staff and his cap, and
gave them into his hands; at the same time taking a piece of silver
out of his pocket, he tendered it with a look of good will--but the
soldier would not take it.
“It would do me no good,” said he: “I should have no luck with it, and
could never relish the bread or beer it bought me.”
“Then lay it out in dog’s meat, friend: thy poor cur will have
forgotten my rude blow before thou hast forgiven my uncomfortable
words:--you wo’n’t go to sleep in ill will with me, I hope.”
“No, I shan’t do that,” rejoined the aged beggar,--“the good old
parson of Cheddar taught me better than that,--and I minds what he
said as if it were yesterday--God bless him!--church and king for
ever, say I.--I wo’n’t have your money.”
Surprized and startled by this strange and unexpected mention of his
father, Cuthbert drew from the old man the whole story of his
adventure at Cheddar, and his interview with Noble.
He listened with deep emotion to the narrative, and recognised in all
the circumstances the internal evidence of its truth, from its exact
correspondence with the character of his father’s mind and heart, and
those large and tolerant notions which he had always taught and
carried out into practice.
“I know that good parson well,” said Cuthbert, “and love him like a
father.”
“Do you indeed?--then I’ll take your money, and give you hearty thanks
for it.--But I say, young master, if you knows the parson of Cheddar
so well, it’s my belief your taking the wrong road:--a man can’t serve
two masters--without you do call God and the king two; and he that
serves God first, and king the next after, must always be right, as I
have heard say from the time I was the height of this quarter staff.”
Cuthbert gave him two pieces, and walked on in a humbled and in no
satisfied frame of mind.
His poor beast, like a patient packhorse, was quietly browsing by the
road-side at no great distance, and Cuthbert drove it before him, not
caring to mount again till the sun and air had dried his wet breeches
and hose.
The pettiness of the mortification which had moved him to such
ungovernable anger was now lost in the most gloomy reflections on the
sin of having so greatly dishonoured the commandments of God by
cursing and swearing. Though naturally of a warm temper, he had never
been at all addicted to the odious use of vulgar oaths, and for awhile
he began to doubt the sincerity of his faith, and to imagine that the
whole work of religion must be entered upon as a new thing.
Again, the very strange circumstance of his father’s image being
brought before him in a manner so unexpected, by a way-side beggar,
and the lesson of charity, and the solemn monition to turn back from
the party which he had chosen, conveyed by so lowly an instrument,
perplexed his reason and staggered his resolution.
But the die was cast, the step was taken, and it was impossible for
him, even if willing, to recede without disgrace. He ran over in his
mind all the wrongs and the oppressions which had been committed in
the name and with the sanction of the King. He recalled the sufferings
of Prynne and his companions. He remembered the tyrannical imposition
of ship money; the noble resistance to that measure by Hampden, now
himself in arms; the violence towards the Scots; the articles
exhibited against the five members; and, more than all, he considered
that, if the King should conquer in the impending struggle, the
despotic rule of the crown would be established more firmly than ever;
the hateful tribunal of the Star Chamber would be again erected;
prelacy, armed with new powers, would rear its mitre on the ruins of
religious liberty; and all those abuses in church and state, which had
called forth the famous Remonstrance of the Commons, and the Petition
of Rights founded on it, would most certainly be restored.
As these considerations passed through the mind of Cuthbert, he felt
shame that he could for a moment have doubted the righteousness of the
cause in which he had embarked. What was the little incident, which
had so discomposed and ruffled him, when it was stripped naked? His
nag had lain down in the water, and he had got a wetting. He should
have laughed it off, and so he would have done but for wounded pride.
He was conscious of the poverty of his equipment, and yet more so of
his unmilitary appearance;--that the witness of his accident should
mock him, and be an old soldier to boot, was more than he could bear.
He finally resolved all that had passed into a hellish temptation of
the evil one to divert him from the path of Christian duty; and thus
comforting himself, and speaking peace to his heart, with a very
slight repentance for his plain transgression of God’s law, he
recovered his serenity. He now mounted his nag, and cheerfully pursued
his way till the fine massive tower of St. Alban’s Abbey reminded him
that he was near the place of his destination. He stopped under a
shady tree a little off the road; brushed off the marks of his foolish
misadventure; adjusted his dress; buckled the belt of his rapier more
tightly, and rode into the town with a wish that he might escape
present observation, and get soon housed. But it so chanced that in
the narrow entrance of the very first street in St. Alban’s Cuthbert
met the whole garrison marching forth to exercise. The leading rank of
musketeers, forming the advanced guard, filled the width of the street
from house to house on either side of the way; therefore he was forced
to stop, and placing his pony close to the wall that he might prove as
small an obstacle as possible, saw the whole force pass him, and
attracted the attention of them all. At any other time, and under
other circumstances, he would have gazed upon the military show with a
natural pleasure, and as it was, he looked upon them with much
curiosity; but his position was very uncomfortable; and he felt small
as they filed by with a strong and measured tread, keeping time to a
few loud drums and piercing fifes.
Several divisions of foot, composed of musketeers and pikemen in equal
proportions, and each led by a mounted officer, and with their
appointed number of captains, lieutenants, and sergeants, followed
each other in succession; but there was a great difference in their
equipment and bearing.
The three leading divisions, amounting to nearly nine hundred
effective men, were a fine sample of the very best infantry which had
as yet been formed under the orders of the Parliament. Their clothing
was of a coarse red cloth: the belts and bandaliers of those who were
armed with muskets were of buff leather; and a girdle of double buff,
eight inches broad, was worn under the skirts of the doublet. The
musketeers also wore black steeple-crowned hats, with small but strong
bars of iron fastened under the felt. In addition to their muskets and
rests, they were all provided with a good stiff tuck, not very long,
so fixed in the belt as not to swing or incommode them.
The pikemen were furnished with good pikes, eighteen feet in length,
with small steel heads, and good stiff tucks like those of the
musketeers. They had also for defensive armour iron head pieces, with
back and breast pieces of the same quality, pistol-proof, and each man
was provided with a good long buff glove for the left hand; they also
wore the broad buff girdle; the musketeers had bands about their hats
of a considerable width, finished in front with a rose of orange
cloth, but they had no feathers or plumes; and there was a steadiness
and severity in their whole aspect which commanded admiration. It was
one of the first regiments embodied, composed principally of a better
order of volunteers, and commanded by a very strict and experienced
officer. From these men Cuthbert had nothing to suffer: they were
silent in their ranks; and merely glanced at him as they passed with
looks of gloomy or proud indifference; but the regiment that followed
was a raw levy of militiamen just raised: they had arms, indeed, and
were divided already into musketeers and pikemen, like those who
preceded them; but their clothing and equipment was very incomplete,
and few of the pikemen had either back or breast pieces. Of these,
numbers had been drawn, reluctantly, from the neighbouring villages,
to supply the quota of men required by the militia act, and were
enrolled with the mockery of an oath, by which they were sworn in, to
fight “_for the King against the King_,”--a distinction which of
course the greater part of them could not understand. They only wanted
to be left alone, and suffered to follow their ploughs in peace. Most
of them had some excuse to offer in the Shire Hall, and some story to
tell why they should not go for soldiers. This man had aged parents to
support; another had a family of children; and that man had just
married a wife. Others, who were not provided with such good excuses,
feigned deafness, bad eyes, lame shoulders, weak ankle bones, fits,
rheumatic pains, or some other disqualification, to escape the irksome
duties of praying and fighting under Puritan commanders. Many kissed
their own thumbs instead of the Bible when they took their oaths of
service, meaning to desert the first opportunity that offered; still
there were numbers of idle rustics who came when they were called out,
and did as they were bid, without further question; and these, in
spite of their officers and sergeants, and Puritan comrades, contrived
their own amusements, and laughed at the grave preachments which
forbade them.
As a file of these young swains passed Cuthbert, one struck the end of
a lighted match under his pony’s tail; and to the astonishment of
Cuthbert, and the disturbance of the whole division following, the
poor animal, hitherto as lazy and patient as a laden donkey, began
kicking with such sudden activity and vigour, that the rider had some
difficulty in keeping his seat. However, though inwardly vexed,
Cuthbert stuck close to the saddle, and putting a good face on the
vexatious incident disarmed the laughter which was at first generally
excited by joining in it himself, till a humane sergeant plucked away
the burning cause of the animal’s pain and terror,--and the frightened
beast stood still, trembling and in a bath of sweat. Until this
moment Cuthbert was at a loss to know what had so alarmed his pony;
but he now alighted and made a complaint about what had been done to
an officer that was passing.
The grave personage whom he addressed said, with a sly
smile,--“Verily, friend, thy little garron was in the way, and I
counsel thee to patience in this matter:--there is no harm done, and
verily thou didst stick to thy saddle like a sergeant-major of
cavalry.”
Without waiting for any rejoinder, the officer marched on; and no
sooner had the infantry defiled, than the shrill tones of a few
trumpets announced the advance of four troops of horse. As these fine
men walked their powerful animals along the street, they cast down
looks of contempt upon poor Cuthbert and his little hack; and he could
not but feel that he had never as yet rightly conceived what were the
naked realities of soldiership. There were far more unpleasant and
painful experiences to come than the petty mortifications of this his
first contact with troops. However, he had a wise, generous, and noble
friend to instruct and arm his mind in the path on which he had
entered; and his spirit was now in its first moment of weakness and
need sustained and comforted by his appearance.
Immediately in the rear of this body of horse rode an officer
admirably mounted and equipped, and beneath his polished helmet
Cuthbert instantly recognised Francis Heywood. By this old campaigner
his position was seen and understood at a glance. He stopped, shook
hands with him heartily, and desiring him to find out his quarter at
the house of a brewer in the next street, bade him give his baggage
pony in charge to his batman, and occupy his apartment till the
exercise should be over.
This was so great a lift and recovery to the sinking spirits of
Cuthbert that he had no sooner put up his pony than he turned back and
followed the troops to the plain where they were drawn out.
It was a fine sight to the unaccustomed eye to watch the evolutions of
the musketeers and the pikemen, as the former advanced to skirmish and
cover the movements of the more solid body, and again as they rapidly
retired, and, kneeling down in front of the close array of pikemen,
awaited under the protection of their long pikes to receive the charge
of cavalry, and repulse it with a close and steady fire.
The sunbeams glittered on the steel heads of the tall pikes, and were
reflected in a blaze from the breast and back pieces and the iron head
pieces of the dragoons and the pikemen. The rolling of the drums, and
the blasts of trumpets, gave animation to the movements of the various
divisions; and as the dragoons and musketeers were furnished with a
few rounds of blank or practice cartridge in their bandaliers, the
mimic show of battle or the rehearsal of a scene of death was with the
more select divisions very complete.
The words of command were given and repeated in loud firm tones; and
there was no lack with some of these stout Puritan commanders of
oaths, peculiar, indeed, to themselves, but as earnest and as
blasphemous as those of any profane swearer in the royal army. For
instance, to the dismay of Cuthbert, he heard a voice of thunder
directed against a dull but godly lieutenant of the very regiment
which he was come to join with such a mild rebuke as, “The Lord
deliver thee to Satan, Master Whitefoot, for a blockhead: dost thou
not know thy right hand from thy left?”--“Face to the left, man,” was
the concluding roar, “and slope thy partisan.”
However, though our young Puritan lieutenant was a little astounded at
the chance of being soon subject to such rude addresses, he had good
sense enough to feel that men ought to know their right hands from
their left, and that it must be very provoking to a commanding
officer, and very perplexing and dangerous for others as well as
themselves, if they did not; but he was, nevertheless, a little
startled and shocked at so violent and sinful a misapplication of
Scripture.
However, he considered that the repulsive infirmities of the few ought
not to outweigh the solid piety and the devoted patriotism of the
great leaders of the Parliamentarian levies; and wisely resolving
always to remember his right hand from his left, he joined Francis
after the exercise of the day was over, and passed an evening in his
society with a more deep and rational delight in it than he had ever
before experienced during their previous intercourse.
Francis gave him so much sensible advice in trifles, as well as in
matters of moment, at his entrance on this new and strange course of
life, that when Cuthbert lay down to rest all his difficulties seemed
to have vanished. He had been introduced by Francis to the commander
of the regiment he was to join, and to several other officers of horse
as well as foot; and he soon discerned that there was as great a
variety of character and of manners in this host of the Lord as in
armies assuming a less presumptuous title.