to charge upon the enemy’s left.  We made but short work of them, and drove them headlong from the field, chasing them in great disorder for three miles, and taking much plunder in Kineton among the Parliament baggage-wagons.  Thinking that the fight was over, we then prepared to ride back.  When we came to the field we found that all was changed.  The main body of the Roundheads had pressed hotly upon ours and had driven them back.  Lord Lindsey himself, who had gone into the battle at the head of the pikemen carrying a pike himself like a common soldier, had been mortally wounded and taken prisoner, and grievous slaughter had been inflicted.  The king’s standard itself had been taken, but this had been happily recovered, for two Royalist officers, putting on orange scarfs, rode into the middle of the Roundheads, and pretending that they were sent by Essex, demanded the flag from his secretary, to whom it had been intrusted.  The scrivener gave it up, and the officers, seizing it, rode through the enemy and recovered their ranks.  There was much confusion and no little angry discussion in the camp that night, the footmen accusing the horsemen of having deserted them, and the horsemen grumbling at the foot, because they had not done their work as well as themselves.  In the morning the two armies still faced each other, neither being willing to budge a foot, although neither cared to renew the battle.  The rest of the Parliamentary forces had arrived, and they might have struck us a heavy blow had they been minded, for there was much discouragement in our ranks.  Lord Essex, however, after waiting a day and burying his dead, drew off from the field, and we, remaining there, were able to claim the victory, which, however, my son, was one of a kind which was scarce worth winning.  It was a sad sight to see so many men stretched stark and dead, and these killed, not in fighting with a foreign foe, but with other Englishmen.  It made us all mightily sad, and if at that moment Lord Essex had had full power from the Parliament to treat, methinks that the quarrel could have been settled, all being mightily sick of such kind of fighting.”

“What is going to be done now, father?” Harry asked.

“We are going to move forward toward London.  Essex is moving parallel with us, and will try to get there first.  From what we hear from our friends in the city, there are great numbers of moderate men will be glad to see the king back, and to agree to make an end of this direful business.  The zealots and preachers will of course oppose them.  But when we arrive, we trust that our countenance will enable our friends to make a good front, and to overcome the opposition of the Puritans.  We expect that in a few days we shall meet with offers to treat.  But whether or no, I hope that the king will soon be lodged again in his palace at Whitehall.”

“And do you think that there will be any fighting, sir?”

“I think not.  I sincerely hope not,” the colonel said.