[535] Lives, 380.
[536] Baillie's Letters, ii. 157.
[537] The religious feelings of the two armies are thus stated by an eyewitness:—"Consider the height of difference of spirits; in their army the cream of all the Papists in England, and in ours, a collection out of all the corners of England and Scotland of such as had the greatest antipathy to Popery and tyranny."—Sanford, 597. He gives a careful account of the battle.
For the state of feeling in general after the victory, see Baillie, ii. 201, et seq.
[538] I adopt some of the words quoted by Sanford.
[539] There was one of the Royalist soldiers at Marston Moor wounded in the shoulder by a musket ball, who afterwards became Archbishop Dolbon, of York, 1683-1686. The following incident is interesting:—"Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Trappes, married Charles Towneley, of Towneley, in Lancashire, Esquire, who was killed at the battle of Marston Moor. During the engagement she was with her father at Knaresborough, where she heard of her husband's fate, and came upon the field the next morning in order to search for his body, while the attendants of the camp were stripping and burying the dead. Here she was accosted by a general officer, to whom she told her melancholy story. He heard her with great tenderness, but earnestly desired her to leave a place where, besides the distress of witnessing such a scene, she might probably be insulted. She complied, and he called a trooper, who took her encroup. On her way to Knaresborough she enquired of the man the name of the officer to whose civility she had been indebted, and learned that it was Lieutenant-General Cromwell."—Sanford, 610.
[540] See Lightfoot's Journal, September 9, 1644.
[541] Here we may mention that it is probable that John Bunyan was at that time in the Royalist army, and that while he was fighting for the King the incident occurred so often related of his post being occupied by a comrade who could handle a musket better than he could do, and who, on account of his superior skill and bravery, unfortunately received a fatal carbine shot which otherwise might have killed our matchless dreamer. Nobody can say what the world lost by that poor fellow's death, but everybody knows what the world gained by John Bunyan's preservation.
[542] For a full account of the battle of Naseby see England's Recovery, by Joshua Sprigg, 1647. It is he who reports the complaints we have noticed. See p. 6 of his interesting narrative.
[543] There is an interesting letter by Cromwell, dated July 10, 1645, giving an account of the Naseby fight, reprinted in Sanford, p. 625, from pamphlets in Lincoln College, Oxford. As the letter is not in Carlyle (2nd edition), I give the following extract:—"Thus you see what the Lord hath wrought for us. Can any creature ascribe anything to itself? Now can we give all the glory to God, and desire all may do so, for it is all due unto Him. Thus you have Long Sutton mercy added to Naseby mercy; and to see this, is it not to see the face of God? You have heard of Naseby; it was a happy victory. As in this, so in that, God was pleased to use His servants; and if men will be malicious, and swell with envy, we know who hath said—'If they will not see, yet they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at his people.' I can say this of Naseby, that when I saw the enemy draw up, and march in gallant order towards us, and we a company of poor ignorant men, to seek how to order our battle, the general having commanded me to order all the horse. I could not (riding alone about my business) but smile out to God in praises, in assurance of victory, because God would, by things that are not, bring to nought things that are, of which I had great assurance, and God did it. Oh, that men would therefore praise the Lord, and declare the wonders that He doth for the children of men!"