Unfortunately for the Royalists, among Rupert’s horse were some raw levies, and although his own old troops were the bravest and most brilliant cavalry then in this country, they were lacking in that virtue in which Cromwell’s “Ironsides” excelled, namely discipline; and discipline now told its tale. This cavalry contest is said to have lasted an hour. Before the end of it Cromwell had returned to the field. The issue still seemed doubtful, when Sir David Leslie’s horse came up and attacked the Royalists in the flank, which at last wavered, broke and fled, “Cromwell scattering them before him like a little dust,” says Watson with bombastic exaggeration. Anyhow, in the end, the cavalry on the right wing of the Royalist army was thoroughly routed.
On the Royalist left Goring, after defeating the enemy’s cavalry, had followed the usual custom of attacking the flank of the enemy’s infantry with his victorious horse; but he could rally only a few troops for this purpose. The greater part of Newcastle’s cavalry had galloped far out of sight in pursuit of the vanquished Scottish fugitives. Another part had cantered up the hill and was busily engaged in looting the Parliament’s wagons and stores.
But another General was adopting the same tactics on an opposite side of the field with much greater success. Cromwell, having routed the Royalist cavalry with his own, had nearly the whole of his well-disciplined horse in hand, wherewith to attack the right flank of the Royalist infantry, and that attack Newcastle’s infantry were unable to resist. They were soon in confusion, regiment after regiment was charged and dispersed, and the King’s infantry became a rabble of scattered fugitives.
But not all! And now we come to the most heroic incident in the whole battle, an incident which did great and lasting honour to the army of Newcastle. It is thus described in a book which was published only thirty-two years after it took place.[110]
[110] A Chronicle of the Late Intestine War, etc., by James Heath. London: Thomas Basset. 1676.
“There was yet standing two regiments of the Lord Newcastle’s, one called by the name of his Lambs [or Whitecoats]: these being veteran soldiers, and accustomed to fight, stood their ground, and the fury of that impression of Cromwell, which routed the whole army besides; nor did the danger nor the slaughter round them make them cast away their arms or their courage; but seeing themselves destitute of their friends, and surrounded by their enemies, they cast themselves into a ring, where though quarter was offered them, they gallantly refused it, and so manfully behaved themselves, that they slew more of the enemy in this particular fight, than they had killed of them before. At last they were cut down, not by the sword, but showers of bullets, after a long and stout resistance, leaving their enemies a sorrowful victory, both in respect of themselves whom they would have spared, as in regard of the loss of the bravest men on their own side, who fell in assaulting them. A very inconsiderable number of them were preserved, to be the living monuments of that Brigade’s loyalty and valour.”
William Lilly says, in his Diary, that the Whitecoats, “by mere valour, for one whole hour kept the troops of horse from entering amongst them at near push of pike: when the horse did enter they would have no quarter, but fought it out until there was not thirty of them living. Those whose hap it was to be beaten down upon the ground as the troopers came near them, though they could not rise for their wounds, yet were so desperate as to get either a pike or a sword, or piece of them, and to gore the troopers’ horses, as they came over them or passed by them. Captain Coventry, then a trooper under Cromwell, and an actor,”—it is curious that there should have been a “play-actor” among the troops of Cromwell—“who was the third or fourth man that entered amongst them, protested he never, in all the fights he was in, met with such resolute brave fellows, or whom he pitied so much, and said he saved two or three against their wills.”
Heath says: “Night ended the pursuit: for it was eleven o’clock before the fight ceased, else more blood had been shed.... Here were slain to the number of 8,000 and upwards in the field and flight; which at certain was divided equally between both armies: for what slaughter was made by the prince upon the Scots and Fairfax, was requited by Cromwell on the left wing as aforesaid, and the fight was furious and bloody there. It must needs be a great carnage;” and then some horrible details follow.
Newcastle remained on the field to the end. The Duchess says:—