"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and Thy truth's sake.
"Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? Our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.
"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.... They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."
With these words in his mind, Lieutenant-General Cromwell gave the order, near towards six of the autumn morning, for the attack.
All night the great lordly House, which had so long stood unscathed, had been silent among its courts, lights showing at the windows and above the Stewart standard floating lazily in the night breeze. There were two buildings—the Old House, which had stood, the seat of the Romanist Pawlets, for three hundred years, a fine and splendid mansion, turreted and towered after the manner of the Middle Ages, and before that the New House, built by later descendants of this magnificent family in the modern style of princely show and comfort, both surrounded by fortifications and works, a mile in circumference, and well armed with pieces of cannon.
As the sun strengthened above the autumn landscape, the steel of morion and breastplate could be discerned on the ramparts and the colour of an officer's cloak as he went from post to post giving orders: these were the only signs that the besieged were aware of the great number and near approach of the Parliamentarians.
Soon after six, the dawnlight now being steady, and the attacking parties being set in order—Dalbier near the Grange, next him Sir Hardress Waller and Montague; and on his left Colonel Pickering—the agreed-upon signal, the firing of four of the cannon, being given, the Lieutenant-General and his regiments stormed Basing House.
A quick fire was instantly returned, and the steel morions and coloured cloaks might be seen hastening hither and thither upon the walls and works, and a certain shout of defiance arose from them (it was known that they made a boast of having so often foiled the rebels as they termed them, and that they believed this bit of ground would defy them even when great cities fell), which the Puritans replied to not at all, but directed a full and incessant fire, as much as two hundred shots at a time at a given point in the wall, which, unable to withstand so fierce an attack, fell in, and allowed Sir Hardress Waller to lead his men through the breach and right on the great culverins of the Cavaliers, which were set about their court guard. They, however, with extraordinary courage and resolution, beat back the invader and recovered their cannon; but, Colonel Montague coming up, they were overpowered again by sheer numbers, and the Puritans flowed across the works to the New House, bringing with them their scaling ladders. There was another bitter and desperate struggle, the Cavaliers sallying out and only yielding the blood-stained ground inch by inch as they were driven back by the point of the pike on the nozzle of the musket.
Dalbier and Cromwell in person had now stormed at another point; the air was horrid with fire-balls, the whiz of bullets, the rank smoke of the cannon, the shrieks and cries that began to issue from the New House at the very walls of which the fight was now expending its force, like waves of the sea dashed against a great rock.
Not once, nor twice, but again and again did the stout-hearted defenders, in all their pomp of velvet and silk, plume and steel, repulse their foes; again and again the colours of my Lord Marquess, bearing his own motto, "Aymer loyaulte," and a Latin one taken from King Charles' coronation money, "Donec pax redeat terris," surged forth into the thickest of the combat, were borne back, and then struggled forward, tattered and stained with smoke.