The Furness band were not present on that occasion, as they had been dispatched to Worcester with some other soldiers, the whole under the command of Prince Rupert, in order to watch the movements of Essex, who was advancing in that direction.  While scouring the ground around the city, they came upon a body of Parliamentary cavalry, the advance of the army of Essex.  The bands drew up at a little distance from each other, and then Prince Rupert gave the command to charge.  With the cheer of “For God and the king!” the troop rushed upon the cavalry of the Parliament with such force and fury that they broke them utterly, and killing many, drove them in confusion from the field, but small loss to themselves.

This was the first action of the civil war, the first blood drawn by Englishmen from Englishmen since the troubles in the commencement of the reign of Mary.

CHAPTER III.

A brawl at Oxford.

News in those days traveled but slowly, and England was full of conflicting rumors as to the doings of the two armies.  Every one was unsettled.  Bodies of men moving to join one or other of the parties kept the country in an uproar, and the Cavaliers, or rather the toughs of the towns calling themselves Cavaliers, brought much odium upon the royal cause by the ill-treatment of harmless citizens, and by raids on inoffensive country people.  Later on this conduct was to be reversed and the Royalists were to suffer tenfold the outrages now put upon the Puritans.  But there can be no doubt that the conduct of irresponsible ruffians at that time did much to turn the flood of public opinion in many places, where it would otherwise have remained neutral, against the crown.

To Harry the time passed but slowly.  He spent his days in Abingdon hearing the latest news, and occasionally rode over to Oxford.  This city was throughout the civil war the heart of the Royalist party, and its loss was one of the heaviest blows which befell the crown.  Here Harry found none but favorable reports current.  Enthusiasm was at its height.  The university was even more loyal than the town, and bands of lads smashed the windows of those persons who were supposed to favor the Parliament.  More than once Harry saw men pursued through the streets, pelted with stones and mud, and in some cases escaping barely with their lives.  Upon one occasion, seeing a person in black garments and of respectable appearance so treated, the boy’s indignation was aroused, for he himself, both from his conversations with his friend Herbert, and the talk with his father, was, although enthusiastically Royalist, yet inclined to view with respect those who held opposite opinions.

“Run down that alley!” he exclaimed, pushing his horse between the fugitive and his pursuers.

The man darted down the lane, and Harry placed himself at the entrance, and shouted to the rabble to abstain.