And so as the darkness came on the King’s troops broke into hopeless confusion and fled away towards York, and the battle was over and we had lost. Philip and Jack and I were together till the end, and fought, I think, to the last. We spoke little as we rode into York that night, for we were dead beaten and our hearts were low within us. We had ridden out in the morning confident in our cause and hopeful of victory, and our cause was now in a worse state than ever, and victory was with the Parliamentarians. We had lost thousands of men, and the field looked more like a butcher’s shambles than the peaceful fields of England. Sir William Wentworth was slain, and with him Sir William Langdale, Sir Thomas Metham, Sir William Lambton, Colonel Eury, and Colonel Slingsby. Sir Charles Lucas, general of Lord Newcastle’s horse, was a prisoner, and Generals Porter and Tilyard, with nearly three thousand rank and file, were in the hands of the enemy, who had also secured twenty-five pieces of ordnance, a hundred and thirty barrels of powder, and several thousand arms. It was a defeat signal and undoubted.
The next morning there were rumours of a strange nature in York. It was said that Lord Newcastle and his friends, dissatisfied with Prince Rupert’s conduct, had resolved to leave the country and abandon all further part in the war. Nor was this rumour unfounded, for presently the Marquis set out for Scarborough, being conducted thither by a troop of horse, and accompanied by a distinguished company of officers and gentlemen who sailed with him from that port for Hamburg. It was sixteen years ere Lord Newcastle came into the land again, and then the Commonwealth was over and Charles the Second had come to the throne. As for Prince Rupert, he too immediately summoned what force he could and marched out of York to the northward, where at twelve miles’ distance from the city he awaited the coming of Colonel Clavering and his three thousand men, and with them went away into Lancashire. In this way York was abandoned to the care of its own loyal citizens, who continued to defend it against the Parliamentary army.
Now, I knew not what to do when Philip and Jack announced their intention of following Prince Rupert, but after some thought I decided to return home. The harvest was coming on, and it behoved me to attend to my own business. So I took a regretful farewell of my two friends and rode away through the gates southward, hoping to get home without let or question of any man. But in this hope I was wrong, for I had not ridden two miles out of the city, when I was seized by a troop of Cromwell’s Ironsides, who, in spite of all my remonstrances, carried me with them to the besiegers’ camp, and there put me into safe keeping.
XXVII
Of My Meeting with General Cromwell
The troopers into whose hands I had fallen were some twelve or fourteen in number, all of them sturdy fellows of the same type that I had seen so much of on the previous day. They were well mounted on strong serviceable horses, and had evidently been into the outlying villages in pursuit of fodder, for each man had a bundle of hay hanging from his saddle, while behind them came a peasant leading a load of straw, which was guarded on either side by more troopers. “ ’Tis rather hard treatment, masters,” I said when they told me that I must go with them as a prisoner, “that you should thus arrest me who am going home to my farm twenty miles away with no other thought than of getting my harvest. Surely you do not war with peaceable folk.”
“No, marry,” said one who rode by my side, “you are right there, and it would best please us not to war with anyone. But if I mistake not, friend, you yourself were fighting yesterday at Marston field. A man of your inches is not easily lost sight of nor forgotten.”
“Yes,” chimed in another, “ ’twas you, master, that slew Job Trotter. A great blow, that clove him through chin and chine.”
“If I had not slain him he would have slain me,” I answered.
“True, true,” said an old, grayheaded trooper. “We say naught, friend, against you on that score. God knows ’tis much pity that Englishmen should be killing Englishmen at this time. However, so it is, and prisoners we must make of our enemies whenever we can, for our own sake and defence.”
“Why, sir,” I said, “I am no man’s enemy, I hope, save where there is need that I should be, and I am quite sure that if I cut one of you in two presently I should be ready to shake his hand afterward. ’Tis true I was fighting yesterday, but what then? I am loyal to the King, having never been taught any different. I hope I am not to be blamed for doing my duty.”
“Nay,” he answered, “I blame no man for doing his duty, for what is to blame in a man is not doing it.”
Conversing in this manner, we drew near to the Parliamentarian camp on the southwest side of York, which city they were still besieging, and did continue to besiege
