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Here, Hubert, bring the silver bowl, and liquor quantum suff;

45

I'll make a shift to drain it yet, ere I part with boots and buff

Though Guy through many a gaping wound is breathing forth his life,

And I come to thee a landless man, my fond and faithful wife.

'Sweet! we will fill our money-bags, and freight a ship for France,

And mourn in merry Paris for this poor land's mischance :

50

For if the worst befall me, why better axe and rope, Than life with Lenthall for a king, and Peters for a pope!

Alas! alas! my gallant Guy!-curse on the cropeared boor

That sent me, with my standard, on foot from Marston Moor!'

W. M. PRAED.

14. Skippon, Pride. Parliamentary generals.

15. Fairfax. See Introduction to Milton's Sonnet, To the Lord General Fairfax, p. 13.

20. The bullies of the Rhine. Rupert's hired German troops. 24. The German boar. Prince Rupert, the son of Frederick, Elector Palatine; nephew of Charles I.

35. Belial. Means 'wickedness' in the Old Testament; the term is applied to Satan in the New Testament.

45. quantum suff. As much as is sufficient.

52. Lenthall. The Speaker of the Long Parliament. Peters. Cromwell's chaplain during the War.

THE BATTLE OF NASEBY

(1645)

At Naseby, Cromwell, nominally second in command, was really responsible for the victory. Rupert broke the left wing of the Parliamentary army but allowed his men to gallop off in pursuit. Cromwell's wing drove the King's cavalry before him, and then re-formed to break up his centre, now attacked both in front and rear. The Cavaliers were pursued to within two miles of Leicester. Charles lost more than half of his army in killea and prisoners, and his private correspondence, which helped afterwards to decide his fate.

[See the plan in Gardiner's Historical Atlas.]

This poem represents the enthusiasm for their cause, and the violent hatred for the Court and Church party, which animated some of the Puritans.

OH, wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north,

With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment

all red?

And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?

And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread?

5

Oh, evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit, And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod;

For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong,

Who sate in the high places, and slew the saints

of God.

It was about the noon of a glorious day of June, That we saw their banners dance, and their cuirasses

shine,

ΙΟ

And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair,

And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine.

Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword,

The general rode along us to form us to the fight, When a murmuring sound broke out, and swelled into a shout,

15

Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right.

And hark! like the roar of the billows on the shore, The cry of battle rises along their charging line! For God! for the Cause! for the Church! for the Laws!

For Charles King of England, and Rupert of the Rhine!

20

The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums,

His bravoes of Alsatia and pages of Whitehall; They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pikes, close your ranks;

For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall.

They are here! They rush on! We are broken! We are gone!

25

Our left is borne before them like stubble on the

blast.

O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the

right!

Stand back to back, in God's name, and fight it

to the last.

Stout Skippon hath a wound; the centre hath given ground.

Hark! hark! What means the trampling of horse

men on our rear?

30

Whose banner do I see, boys? 'Tis he, thank God, 'tis he, boys.

Bear up another minute: brave Oliver is here.

Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row, Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on

the dykes,

Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the

Accurst,

35

And at a shock have scattered the forest of his

pikes.

Fast, fast, the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide Their coward heads, predestined to rot on Temple

Bar.

And he he turns, he flies:-shame on those cruel

eyes

That bore to look on torture, and dare not look

on war!

40

Ho! comrades, scour the plain; and, ere ye strip the slain,

First give another stab to make your search secure; Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broadpieces and lockets,

The tokens of the wanton, the plunder of the poor.

Fools! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and bold,

45

When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans to-day;

And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in

the rocks,

Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl above the prey. 46. lemans] sweethearts.

Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven. and hell and fate,

And the fingers that once were so busy with your

blades,

50

Your perfumed satin clothes, your catches and your

oaths,

Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades?

Down, down, for ever down with the mitre and the crown,

With the Belial of the Court, and the Mammon of the Pope;

There is woe in Oxford halls; there is wail in Durham's stalls:

55

The Jesuit smites his bosom; the bishop rends

his cope.

And she of the seven hills shall mourn her children's

ills,

And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword;

And the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear

What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word.

11. the Man of Blood. Charles I.

LORD MACAULAY.

60

22. Alsatia. A notorious part of London, infested with thieves and rascals.

29. Skippon. See note on Sir Nicholas at Marston Moor, p. 8, 1. 14.

38. Temple Bar. The heads of persons guilty of treason were impaled on this gate, at the entrance to the City of London. 43. broad-pieces. Gold coins, worth twenty shillings, broader and thinner than the guinea.

52. stage-plays... diamonds... spades. The Puritans considered card-playing and the theatre immoral.

51. catches] songs.

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