The winter passed quietly.  The English troops were unable to stand the inclemency of the climate, and contented themselves with capturing Edinburgh Castle, and other strongholds south of the Forth.  Cromwell was compelled by ill health to return for some months to England.  Leslie’s army was strongly intrenched round Stirling.  In June Cromwell again took the field, and moved against Perth, which he captured on the 31st of July.  Charles, who had joined his army at Stirling, broke up his camp and marched toward England, the road being open to him owing to Cromwell and his army being further north at Perth.

During the time which had elapsed since the battle of Dunbar no events had happened in Harry’s life.  Remaining quietly in camp, where the troops, who had been disgusted by the conduct of the fanatics at Dunbar, were now ill disposed toward Argyll and his party, he had little fear of the machinations of the earl, who was with the king at Perth.

Argyll refused to join in the southern march, and the army with which Leslie entered England numbered only eleven thousand men.  As soon as he crossed the border, Charles was proclaimed king, and proclamations were issued calling on all loyal subjects to join him.

The people were, however, weary of civil war.  The Royalists had already suffered so heavily that they held back now, and the hatred excited, alike by the devastations of the Scotch army on its former visit to England, and by the treachery with which they had then sold the king, deterred men from joining them.  A few hundred, indeed, came to his standard; but upon the other hand, Lambert and Harrison, with a strong force, were marching against him, and Cromwell, having left six thousand men in Scotland, under Monk, was pressing hotly behind with the victors of Dunbar.  On the 22d of August Charles reached Worcester.  On the 28th Cromwell was close to the town with thirty thousand men.

“This is the end of it all, Jacob,” Harry said that night.  “They outnumber us by three to one, and even if equal, they would assuredly beat us, for the Scotch are dispirited at finding themselves so far from home, in a hostile country.  Things look desperate.  If all is lost to-morrow, do you and William Long and Mike keep close to me.  Get a horse for Mike to-night.  You and Long are already mounted.  If all is lost we must try and make our way to the seacoast, and take boat for France or Holland.  But first of all we must see to the safety of the king.  It is clear that at present England is not ready to return to the former state of things.  We must hope that some day she will weary of the Roundhead rule, and if the king can reach the Continent he must remain there till England calls him.  At present she only wants peace.  It is just nine years now since King Charles’ father set up his standard at Nottingham.  Nine years of wars and troubles!  No wonder men are aweary of it.  It is all very well for us, Jacob, who have no wives, neither families nor occupations, and are without property to lose, but I wonder not that men who have these things are chary of risking them in a cause which seems destined to failure.”