Though these warriors, taking the advantage of the darkness of the evening, were enabled by their resolute conduct to overcome these difficulties; yet as the royal army had already advanced onward to Horncastle, in strong and numerous detachments, they were exposed in their retreat thither to fresh and obstinate encounters. Perceiving, as they approached the town, that they had come up to another party of the royalist’s horse, they determined, after saluting them as friends, to hurry onward as if destined for some urgent duty. They had, however, scarce passed them, when flushed with the success of their stratagem, and feeling the pride and bravado of soldiers, who deemed their individual preservation as of little value to their common strength, if purchased without the blood of their enemy, they turned to the attack of the unwary royalists. “For whom are ye?” said they. “For the king.” “We are for the king and parliament.” Scarcely had these declarations been interchanged, when rushing precipitately on the unsuspecting royalists and throwing them into disorder, the assailants fled towards the town, deeming themselves secure in the quarters of their comrades, and considering their valour rewarded in the acclamations that would greet them from their friends. But Horncastle, surprized at the approach of numerous hostile forces, had been evacuated by the detachment of horse which possessed it; and the inhabitants as soon as the town was seized by the troops of the king, having secured the entrances and roads through it, by forming barriers with carts and timber; the cavalry found themselves again obliged to exert their unyielding valor in turning upon their pursuers. Desperately therefore they burst through them with the full energy of their courage, sustaining the loss of some few men, among whom was a cornet; but bringing away prisoners as the evidence of their perils and their triumph. [15a]
At this period of hurried confusion, and the setting in of the night, the Earl of Manchester reached the town. He heard the rejoicings of the troops, thus victorious in the dangers of their retreat; taunting the royalists with their shouts, as they drew off undefeated from their toils. Finding now that the place designed for the assembling of his forces was already possessed by the enemy, he hastily recalled the orders for the general rendezvous at Horncastle, and appointed Bolingbroke in its stead. Thither at night repaired the dispersed soldiery of the parliament, except three or four troops of horse, who, in the difficulties of retreating before superior forces, had been obliged to proceed by the circuit of Tattershall, and did not arrive until the next morning.
At Bolingbroke, Manchester designed to wait for the royalists; but Cromwell, actuated by prudence, urged the delaying of the battle, since the troops, upon whose prowess and exertion success depended, were wearied, and little able to sustain the ardour of the fight. [15b] The royal army were however too eager to secure the promises of a victory, to permit their adversaries to renew their strength by avoiding the contest. As soon as the morning had dawned and the silence of the surrounding country assured them that their enemies were withdrawn from near them, and were assembling together at Bolingbroke, they arrayed themselves for the encounter. Before the middle of the day they marched out, in strength about seventy-five troops of horse, and five thousand foot, to meet the soldiers of the parliament. Foreboding with certainty that this would be their determination, Manchester was constrained to the resolution of giving them battle, and immediately advanced towards them.
The spot upon which the contending armies engaged was a gently rising and broadly extended eminence, at a village called Winceby, midway between Horncastle and Bolingbroke. It commands an extensive prospect of the far stretched fen-lands of the county; whilst to the westward is seen those cliffs, on the summit of one of which magnificently rises the cathedral of Lincoln. This the royal army had contemplated as a district, which by victory was either to be restored to the authority of the king; or by defeat to afford an effectual check to the military operations in the north, and to be ensured as a further resource to the parliament. The noon was already passed when the armies came in sight of each other. The royalists trusting with confidence to their mutual ardor, rejoiced when they beheld the adverse soldiers advancing to meet them, though amid the wild chant of hymns for mercy and for victory. In the fields immediately before them they fixed the order of their battle: formed into closely compacted lines, the cavalry was placed in the advance, and covered the infantry. The left wing of this array, was commanded by the general Sir John Henderson. [16a]
The Earl of Manchester, pressed for ground in the marshalling of his forces, presented alone his cavalry to the fight; the infantry, headed by himself, being stationed so far in the rear that they were unable to second the exertions of their horsemen. [16b] The disadvantages arising from fatigue, with the closeness of ground, and inequality of numbers, were apparent to the warriors of the parliament. In the doubtful promises of the contest, their leaders sought to replenish their strength, and supply their situation by words and by actions, infusing into them an energy and martial ardour rivalling their own. Fairfax, who knew by experience that the undaunted intrepidity of a few was more efficient in its achievements than the impetuosity of those who relied for security on their numbers, pointed to his men the imposing array of his adversaries, exclaiming “Come let us fall on; I never prospered better than when I fought with my enemies three or four to one.” Cromwell, by the apparent bravery with which he was animated, promised them that examples of heroism should not be wanted, whilst life was given him to lead them. [17a]
On the other hand, the commander of the royal forces did not lose the opportunity which was afforded him of reminding his fellow soldiers that vengeance was yet due for the defeat at Gainsborough; and that now was supplied them a time to requite themselves for the blood of the illustrious brother of Newcastle. He set before them the necessity of strenuous exertions and important sacrifices, by pointing to the example of one, who exalted amidst the mighty of the land, lately fighting among them, did not hesitate to devote himself to death for the cause of his sovereign. At the moment therefore when the armies were ready to engage, the royalists raised the cry of “Cavendish! on for Cavendish!” which was as loudly answered by the enthusiastic shout of “Religion!” the zeal which animated those who proclaimed it, by inspiring them with hopes of immortality, rendered death less to be dreaded than the misfortunes of a defeat. [17b]
Scarce had the words of onset been given, when the divisions of cavalry, under the command of Cromwell and Fairfax, were led to the charge by Vermeydun, a soldier of valour, who headed the first detachment as a forlorn hope, aspiring to the honor of directing his comrades on to victory. Already the horsemen of the royalists, with a well directed precision, had vigorously poured into their ranks the second discharge of their fire arms. These did some execution among them; and Cromwell thus early had his horse shot under him. A minute had elapsed before the parties fiercely met in the close encounter, arm to arm. Cromwell for a time was compelled to grapple on foot with his enemies, entangled amid the trappings of his dying charger. Though felled to the ground as he attempted to extricate himself from this perilous situation, he rose uninjured. This singular man, bold and intrepid, animated by zeal, foremost in the fight, struggling with disasters, seemed peculiarly preserved in all his dangers to fill that situation in the page of history, where, though elevated by violence, he powerfully commands our admiration by his success, his prudence, and the daring of his genius. Sir Ingram Hopton, who at this moment had attempted to seize him, was killed. [18] Cromwell, now recovering a horse from a soldier near him, bravely led on his companions to the combat, strengthening their stern courage by the most signal proofs of his personal bravery.
Not with less valor was the conflict sustained on the part of the royalists. Sir John Henderson, the hardy veteran of former battles, firm as a rock amid the rushing of the waves, resisted every impetuous assault. His adversaries were driven back in disorder; but these men, not readily to be repulsed, returned, with a cool bravery and redoubled vigor to the attack. For half an hour, firm and undecided, continued the contest, sword against sword, and fortitude repelling courage. The resolute warriors, who sustained the furious charges of Fairfax and Cromwell, for the whole were not engaged, relinquished not a portion of their ground. At last, a division commanded by Sir William Saville wavering, though reluctant to give way, became routed and completely disordered. Yielding, they struck confusion into the other bodies of their own horse; and these again were hurled with precipitance upon the mass of their infantry. All being alike borne down in this part of the field, none were left to second the broken and disordered, in again advancing to the combat. The division of Sir John Henderson and Lord Ething alone maintained itself unyielding and unsubdued. The exulting army of the parliament, now taking advantage of the discomfiture of the other troops, and the tumult of the infantry, assailed with a desperate charge the yet unrepulsed. In vain did the royalist commander exhort his men to be resolute and undismayed; but no prudence could uphold the advantages which valor must lose. Their fortitude was giving way to despair; and the successful, elated with the promises of victory, found no equal disputants in men dismayed by the certainty of a defeat. Perplexed amid the various and ineffectual efforts of the other bodies of the royal troops, the disheartened defenders of the field yielded beneath the shock of the adverse weapons. The victorious soldiers now fiercely plunging in amidst the routed dragoons, many of whom at this time were on foot and in the most appalling confusion, saw them quickly disappearing beneath the havoc of their swords and the fury of their horses. The infantry were for the most part destroyed; for being intercepted by a body of cavalry, scarce a man survived the carnage. [19a] There was now no safety but in a dishonorable flight. The pursuit continued beyond Horncastle with unremitting fury; and along the road were strewed the horse and the rider, the dead and the dying. [19b]
The soldiers under the command of Manchester, who as yet had partaken in no respect in the glory of the blood-shed, reserved their efforts for securing the prisoners, and assisting the scarce breathing wounded of the royal army, who were scattered about the field in groups. Such partizans as had recently been embodied by the commission of array, were pitiably supplicating the mercy of their conquerors. Cursing with deep execration that little regard which had hurried them to the fight, without a feeling of interest in its issue, they cried out that the commission of array had brought them thither against their wills, and blessing the cause of liberty and religion, added “We die as true servants of the parliament as any in England, and woe be to those who were the cause that Lincoln and York became the prey of such a war.” [19c]
Though the battle was fought with determined obstinacy; yet, whilst the parties maintained their ground, the loss was comparatively small: the havoc that ensued was among the routed and the flying. There were killed but few on the side of the parliament. Those of rank who were slain of the royal forces, were Sir George Bolles, and Sir Ingram Hopton. The prisoners, about one thousand in number, were the wounded on the field, and those parties of the dispersed fugitives, who to avoid the overwhelming carnage of their pursuers, had secreted themselves amongst the rugged and winding banks of a neighbouring river: many indeed were taken whilst seeking refuge in the very waters, where some had already perished, bleeding and wearied in their armour, overcome in their inability to recover themselves from the deeper parts of the stream. The trophies which the conquerors obtained in the fight of Winceby field, were arms for fifteen hundred men, and thirty-five standards. [20a]