Cromwell saw the fatal mistake which had been committed, and in the night moved round his troops to his left, and these at daybreak fell upon the Scottish right.  The night had been wet, and the Scottish army were unprovided with tents.  Many of their matchlocks had been rendered useless.  At daybreak on the morning of the 3d of September the English, led by General Lambert, fell upon them.  The Scotch for a time stood their ground firmly; but the irregular troops, who had by their folly led the army into this plight, gave way before the English pikemen.  The preachers, who were in vast numbers, set the example of flight.  Many of the regiments of infantry fought most fiercely, but the battle was already lost.  The Scotch cavalry were broken by the charge of the Ironsides, and in less than an hour from the commencement of the fighting the rout was complete.  Three thousand Scotch were killed, and ten thousand taken prisoners.

Harry’s regiment was but slightly engaged.  It had been one of the last to march down the hill on the evening before, and Harry and Jacob foresaw the disaster which would happen.  “If I were the king,” Harry said, “I would order every one of these preachers out of camp, and would hang those who disobeyed.  Then I would march the army on to the hill again.  If they wait there the English must attack us with grievous disadvantage, or such as cannot get on board their ships must surrender.  Charles would really be king then, and could disregard the wrath of the men of the conventicles.  Cromwell will attack us to-morrow, and will defeat us; his trained troops are more than a match for these Scotchmen, who think more of their preachers than of their officers, and whose discipline is of the slackest.”

“I agree with you entirely,” Jacob said.  “But in the present mood of the army, I believe that half of them would march away if the general dismissed the preachers.”

The next day, when the fight began, Harry moved forward his regiment to the support of the Scottish right, but before he came fairly into the fray this had already given away, and Harry, seeing that the day was lost, halted his men, and fell back in good order.  Again and again the Ironsides charged them.  The leveled pikes and heavy musketry fire each time beat them off, and they marched from the field almost the only body which kept its formation.  Five thousand of the country people among the prisoners Cromwell allowed to depart to their homes.  The remainder he sent to Newcastle, where great numbers of them were starved to death by the cruelty of the governor, Sir Arthur Hazelrig.  The remainder were sent as slaves to New England.

Leslie, with the wreck of his army, fell back to Stirling, while Charles, with the Scotch authorities, went to Perth.  Here the young king, exasperated beyond endurance at the tyranny of Argyll and the fanatics, escaped from them, and with two or three friends rode fifty miles north.  He was overtaken and brought back to Perth, but the anger of the army was so hot at his treatment that the fanatics were henceforth obliged to put a curb upon themselves, and a strong king’s party, as opposed to that of the Covenant, henceforth guided his counsels.