1654.
It is not easy to explain the motives2 that prompted Cromwell to make an enemy of Spain. He was eagerly courted by both French and Spaniards, and it was open to him to choose whichever he pleased for his allies. The probability is that he was still swayed by the old religious hatred3 of the days of Elizabeth, and, like her, looked to fill his empty treasury4 with the spoils of the Indies. He did not perceive that the religious wars of Europe were virtually ended, and that nations were tending already to their old friendships and antagonisms5 as they existed before the Reformation. Be that as it may, he was hardly firm in the saddle as Protector when he began to frame a great design against the Spanish possessions in the New World. His chief advisers6 were one Colonel Thomas Modyford of Barbados, who had his own reasons for wishing to ingratiate himself with the Protector, and Thomas Gage8, a renegade priest, who had lived long in the Antilles and on the Spanish Main and had written a book on the subject. The most fitting base of operations was obviously Barbados, which, from its position to windward of the whole Caribbean Archipelago, possessed9 a strategic importance which it has only lost since the introduction of steam-vessels. It lay ready to Cromwell's[259] hand, having been an English possession since 1628, and was, if Modyford were to be believed, ready to give active assistance in the enterprise. There remained the question whether the expedition should be directed against an Island or against the Main. Gage was for the latter course, and named the Orinoco as the objective: Modyford recommended Cuba or Hispaniola,[185] and Modyford's opinion prevailed.
Gradually the design matured itself, and presently assumed gigantic proportions. A footing once established on one of the Spanish Islands to leeward10, there was to be a general contest with the Spaniards for the whole of the South Atlantic. Two fleets were to be employed, one in seconding the army's operations on the Islands and making raids upon the Main, the other in cruising off the Spanish coast so as to interrupt both plate-fleets from the west and reinforcements from the east. Lastly, not England only, but New England was to play a part in the great campaign. Supplies would be one principal difficulty, but these could be furnished from English America, and not only supplies but settlers, who, trained to self-defence by Indian warfare11, should be capable of holding the territory wrested13 from Spain. Thus the English from both sides of the Atlantic were to close in upon the Spanish dominions14 in the New World, and turn Nova Hispania into Nova Britannia. There was no lack of breadth and boldness in the design.
All through the latter half of 1654 mysterious preparations went forward with great activity in the English dockyards, and France, Spain, and Holland each trembled lest they might be turned against herself. But the existing organisation15 in England was unequal to the effort. To equip two fleets of forty and of twenty-five ships for a long and distant cruise was a heavy task in itself; but to add to this the transport of six thousand men over three thousand miles of ocean for an expedition to the tropics was to tax the resources of the naval16 and[260] military departments to excess. The burden of the duty fell upon John Desborough, major-general and commissioner17 of the Admiralty, who was not equal to thinking out the details of such an enterprise nor disposed to give himself much trouble about them. His difficulties were increased by the rascality18 of contractors19, and by the composition of the expeditionary force. By a gigantic error, which has not yet been unlearned, Cromwell, instead of sending complete regiments20 under their own officers, made up new corps22, partly of drafts selected by various colonels and probably containing the men of whom they were most anxious to be rid, and partly of recruits drawn23 from the most restless and worthless of the nation. He returned in fact to the old system that had so often been found wanting in the days of Elizabeth, of James, and of Charles.
The distribution of command was also faulty. The military commander-in-chief was Robert Venables, who had made a reputation as a hunter of Tories in Ireland; the Admiral joined with him was William Penn, who is unjustly remembered rather as the father of a not wholly admirable Quaker than as one of the ablest and bravest naval officers of his day. But as if two commanders were not already sufficient, there were joined with them three civil commissioners24, one Gregory Butler, an officer who had served in the Civil War, Edward Winslow, a civilian25 and an official, and the Governor of Barbados, Daniel Searle. There was of course nothing new in the presence of civil commissioners on the staff, and a general's instructions since the days of Henry the Eighth had usually bound him to act by the advice of his Council of War only; but it is abundantly evident that Winslow was employed not only as a commissioner, but as a spy on his colleagues, or on some one of them whose loyalty26 was suspected. It is strange that so sensible a man as Cromwell should have made such a mistake as this. Monk27 was the man whom he had wished to send, could he have spared him from Scotland; but failing Monk, Penn and Venables were both of[261] them men who had shown ability in their previous service.
With immense difficulty the expedition was got to sea at the end of December 1654, just two months too late. Even so it sailed without a portion of its stores, which Desborough promised faithfully to send after it without delay. The fleet reached Barbados after a good passage on the 29th of January 1655; and then the troubles began. From too blind faith in the promises of Thomas Modyford, the Protector had trusted to Barbados in great part to equip his army, and to help it on its way. Barbados, from its Governor downwards29, refused to move a finger. It had no desire to denude30 itself of arms or of men, and so far from assisting the English threw every possible obstruction31 in their way. The planter upon whom Venables had been instructed chiefly to depend was found to be entirely32 under the thumb of his wife. She was averse33 to the expedition; and the commissioners, observing her, as they said, to be very powerful and young, abandoned all hope of co-operation from that quarter. Every day too brought fresh evidence of the rotten composition of the force at large, which was without order, without coherency, and without discipline. Unfortunately Venables was not the man to set such failings right. He showed indeed some spasmodic energy, called the Barbadian planters a company of geese, improvised34 rude pikes of branches of the cabbage-palm, organised a regiment21 of negroes and a naval brigade, and after several weeks' stay sailed at last for St. Domingo. On the way he picked up a regiment of colonial volunteers which had been collected by Gregory Butler at St. Kitts, and on the 13th of April the expedition was in sight of St. Domingo.
1655.
The naval officers were for running in at once and taking the town by a sudden attack. Winslow, the civilian, objected: the soldiers, he said, would plunder35 the town, and he wanted all spoil for the English treasury. This order against plunder raised something like a mutiny among the troops; but eventually a new plan was chosen,[262] which was probably based on the precedent36 of Drake in 1586. Venables with three thousand five hundred men sailed to a landing-place thirty miles west of the town, and there disembarked; leaving fifteen hundred more men under a Colonel Buller to land to the eastward38 of it and march on it from that side. Buller, however, finding it impracticable to obey his instructions, after two days' delay also landed to the westward39 of the town, though but ten miles from it, at a point called Drake's landing. Elated by a trifling40 success against a handful of Spaniards who had opposed his disembarkation, he laid aside all thought of co-operation with Venables and pushed on hastily into the jungle to take St. Domingo by himself. No sooner was he gone, past call or view, when up came Venables to the identical spot where Buller had landed. He had for two days pursued a terrible march of thirty miles through jungle-paths, in the sultry steam of the tropical forest. The men's water-bottles had been left behind in England, and they were choked with thirst; they had torn the fruit from the trees as they passed and had dropped down by scores with dysentery. Hundreds had fallen out, sick and dead, and the column was not only weakened but demoralised.
Next day Venables effected a junction41 with Buller, and the force, though heartless and spiritless, made shift to creep up to a detached fort which covered the approach to the town. On the way it fell into an ambuscade, and though it beat off the enemy, it lost in the action the only guide who knew where water was to be found, and was compelled to retire ten miles to Drake's landing. There it remained for a week, eating bad food from some scoundrelly contractor's stores, drinking water that was poisoned by a copper42 mine, and soaked night after night by pouring tropical rain. Dysentery raged with fearful violence, and Venables himself did not escape the plague. Unfortunately, instead of sharing the hardship with his men in camp, he went on board ship to be nursed by Mrs. Venables, who[263] had accompanied him on the voyage. Thus arose open murmurs43 and scandalous tales, which cost him the confidence of the army.
Nevertheless after six days' rest he again advanced by the same line to the fort from which he had been forced to retreat. To prevent repetition of mishaps44 from ambuscades he gave strict orders that the advanced guard should throw out flanking parties on each side of the jungle-path. The injunction was disobeyed. The advanced guard walked straight into an ambuscade, two officers fell dead, the third, Adjutant-General Jackson, who was in command, turned and ran; the advanced guard fled headlong back on to the support; the support tumbled back on to the main body, and there, wedged tight in the narrow pass, the English were mown down like grass by the guns of the fort and the lances of the Spanish cavalry45. At last an old colonel contrived46 to rally a few men in the rear, and advancing with them through the jungle fell upon the flank of the Spaniards and beat them back. He paid for his bravery with his life, but he assured the retreat of the rest of the force, which crept back beaten and crest-fallen to the ships, leaving several colours and three hundred dead men behind it.
Venables and his men were now thoroughly47 cowed by failure and disease. Penn in vain offered to take the town with his sailors, but Venables and Winslow would not hear of it. All ranks in the fleet now abused the army for rogues48, and the worst feeling grew up between the two services. Finally, on the 7th of May, the expedition sailed away in shame to Jamaica. Arrived there, Penn, openly saying that he would not trust the army, led the way himself at the head of the boats of the fleet; and after a trifling resistance the Island was surrendered by capitulation. Then fleet and army began to fight in earnest, officers as well as men; and at last, after the commissioners in command had spent six weeks in incessant49 quarrelling, Venables and Penn sailed home, leaving the troops and a part of the squadron behind them.
[264]
1656.
Cromwell's disappointment and chagrin50 over the failure of his great enterprise were extreme. Both the returned commanders were forthwith sent to the Tower, and though presently released, remained throughout the whole of the Protectorate in disgrace. Still Jamaica had been won and must be held. The command after Venables' departure had devolved on Richard Fortescue, a colonel of the New Model, who, without concealing51 his infinite contempt for those who had gone home, set himself cheerfully to turn the new possession to account. To him Cromwell wrote letters of encouragement and thanks, with promise of speedy reinforcement. But now a new enemy appeared in Jamaica, one that has laid low many tens of thousands of red-coats, the yellow fever. In October 1655 the first reinforcements arrived, under command of Major Sedgwicke. He had hardly set foot on the island before Fortescue succumbed52, and he could only report that the army was sadly thinned and that hardly a man of the survivors53 was fit for duty. Then the recruits began to fall down fast, and in a few days the men were dying at the rate of twenty a day. Sedgwicke was completely unnerved; he gave himself up for lost, and in nine months followed Fortescue to the grave. Fresh reinforcements, including all the vagabondage of Scotland, were hurried across the Atlantic to meet the same fate. Colonel Brayne, who had served with Monk in Scotland, arrived to succeed Sedgwicke in December 1656. He lasted ten months, surviving even so two thirds of the men that he brought with him, and then went the way of Sedgwicke and Fortescue. Finally a Colonel D'Oyley, who had sailed with the original expedition, took over the command, and being a healthy, energetic man, soon reduced things to such order that when in May 1658 the Spaniards attempted to recapture the island, he met and repulsed54 them with brilliant success. Thus at length was firmly established the English possession of Jamaica.
So ended the first great military expedition of the English to the tropics, the first of many attempts, nearly[265] all of them disastrous56, to wrest12 from Spain her Empire in the West. I have dwelt upon it at some length, for it is the opening chapter of a long and melancholy57 story, whereof one recitation will almost serve for the whole. We have still to go with Wentworth to Carthagena and with Albemarle to Havanna; we shall accompany Abercromby and Moore to St. Vincent and St. Lucia, and other less noted58 officers to Demarara and Surinam; we shall even see Wellington himself drawing up a plan for operations on the Orinoco: but in spite of a hundred experiences and a thousand warnings we shall find the mistakes of Oliver Cromwell eternally repeated, and though we may never again have to tell so disgraceful a story as that of the repulse55 from St. Domingo, yet we shall seldom fail to encounter such mournful complaints as were made by Fortescue, Sedgwicke, and Brayne, of regiments decimated as soon as disembarked, and annihilated59 before the firing of a shot. We have now well-nigh learned how to conduct a tropical expedition, and life in the tropics is a thing familiar to tens of thousands of Englishmen; but it is worth while to give a thought to these poor soldiers of the Commonwealth60. They were the first Englishmen who went to the tropics, not like Drake's crews as fellow-adventurers, but simply as hired fighting men. Yet the traditions of Drake's golden voyages were strong upon them, and they landed, big with expectations of endless gold told up in bags.[186] We can picture their joy at coming ashore61, bronzed healthy Englishmen, and their open-mouthed wonder at all that they saw; and then after a few hours the first cases of sickness, the puzzled surgeons with busy lancets, the first death and the first grave; the instant spread of fever on the turning of the virgin62 soil, and then a hideous63 iteration of ghastly symptoms, and, sundown after sundown, the row of silent forms and shrouded64 faces. Englishmen had faced such terrors in the flooded leaguers of Flanders, but it was hard to find them in a fruitful and pleasant land, where the sun shone brighter[266] and the forest grew greener than in England, the loved England that lay so far away over the glorious mocking blue of the tropic sea.[187]
1655,
Sept. 9.
1657,
March.
The aggressive attack on St. Domingo at once decided65 the hostility66 of Spain towards the Commonwealth, and drove her to take Cromwell's most formidable enemy, Charles Stuart, to her heart. The Protector, on his side, hastened to make treaty of peace and friendship with France, which he presently expanded into an offensive and defensive67 alliance. Mazarin, who had to encounter not only Spain but Condé, was only too glad to welcome the English to his side. By the terms of the treaty it was agreed that the French should provide twenty thousand men, and the English six thousand men, as well as a fleet, for the coming campaign against the Spaniards in Flanders. Of the English six thousand half were to be paid by France, but the whole were to be commanded by English officers, and reckoned to be the Lord Protector's forces. The plan of campaign was the reduction of the three coast-towns of Mardyck, Dunkirk, and Gravelines, of which the two first were to be made over to England and the third retained by France. Cromwell's great object was to secure a naval station from which he could check any attempted invasion of England by Charles Stuart from Spanish Flanders, and he was therefore urgent that Dunkirk should be first attacked. Turenne disliked this design, and even threatened to throw up his command if it should be insisted on. To beleaguer68 Dunkirk without first securing Nieuport, Furnes, and Bergues would, he said, be to be besieged69 while conducting a siege. But Cromwell had made up his mind that the thing should be done, and, as shall soon be seen, it was done.
1657.
Throughout the spring of 1657 therefore preparations for the expedition kept both military and naval[267] departments busily employed, for the fleet was not only to supply the army but to second its operations. The six thousand men, though for the most part old soldiers, were made up of drafts and of new recruits, and were distributed into six regiments. Turenne would gladly have preferred complete corps from the standing70 Army, but in the existing menace of invasion Cromwell was indisposed to spare them. Nevertheless the new regiments were in perfect order and discipline when they embarked37 on the 1st of May from Dover for Boulogne. The general in command was Sir John Reynolds, whom we saw lately in Ireland; the major-general was Thomas Morgan, Monk's right-hand man in the Highland71 war, an impetuous little dragoon known by the name of the "little colonel,"[188] and justly reputed to be one of the best officers in the British Isles72.
The arrival of the six thousand English foot, all dressed in new red-coats, created a great sensation in France. They were cried up for the best men that ever were seen in the French service; they took precedence of the whole French army, even of the famous Picardie, excepting the Swiss and Scottish body-guards; and they were welcomed by emissaries from the King and Mazarin and inspected by the royal family. It is significant of the difference between the French and English even in their civil wars that the six thousand were amazed to see all the villagers fly from their houses at their approach. They were told that the French soldiery were dreaded73 as much by their countrymen as by their enemies; and yet Reynolds admitted that the discipline of the French troops was good, for France. "But we," he added proudly, "can lie in a town four days without a single complaint." One thing alone went amiss with the English: they quarrelled with the French ammunition-bread, and clamoured loudly for beef and beer.
By the ill-faith of Mazarin, Reynolds' force instead of marching to Dunkirk was moved inland, and found[268] itself engaged at the siege of St. Venant. Here it gave the Spaniards a taste of its quality. It seems that the English, who were never very happy in handling the spade, were working in some confusion at the advanced trenches74 when Count Schomberg, a man whom readers should bear in mind, and a few more foreign officers came up and began to pass criticisms. Morgan, wincing75 under their remarks, impatiently called for a party of fifty men to come to him; whereupon every English soldier in the trenches, incontinently jumped up and without further ado assaulted the town, captured three redoubts, and forced the Spaniards to capitulate. Such blundering gallantry had distinguished76 the nation since Cocherel, and was to be repeated on a grander scale at Minden. But Cromwell was not the man to allow his regiments to be wasted in such operations as these. Dismissing all of Mazarin's excuses as "parcels of words for children," he insisted that the true business of the campaign should be taken in hand at once. In September, therefore, Turenne moved slowly up to the coast; and Cromwell to give him encouragement sent him a reinforcement of two thousand men. Mardyck was easily taken on the 29th of September; but there Turenne stopped. Lockhart, the English ambassador, in vain offered him five of the old regiments of the standing Army if he would proceed at once to the siege of Dunkirk;[189] the great General would not move; and with the capture of Mardyck the campaign of 1657 came to an end.
1657-1658.
The English undertook to garrison77 Mardyck and the town of Bourbourg close to it, and while engaged in this duty incurred78 the strong censure79 of Turenne. They kept, he complained, very bad guards, and seemed unable to stand the work of watching; and the failing, it seems, was no new one, for Monk expressed no surprise at hearing of it. Nevertheless, when on one night in October the Spaniards attempted to surprise Mardyck with five thousand men, they found this unwatchful garrison formidable enough and were repulsed[269] with heavy loss. The truth was that the condition of things in the town was what would now be thought appalling80. The winter was unusually severe and the troops very imperfectly protected against it. Pestilence81 had broken out among them and men were dying at the rate of ten or twelve a day: once indeed the death-roll within twenty-four hours ran as high as fifty. Reynolds protested in vain, and at last in December he sailed for England to represent matters in person to the Protector. He was cast away on the Goodwin Sands and never seen again. By the time when the season opened for active operations the English had lost since their disembarkation their General and not far from five thousand men.
1658.
Lockhart, who took over the command after Reynolds' death, found the remnant of the army in a very bad state. Discipline was decidedly lax; and the French complained bitterly of the insolence82 of their allies. This of course was no new thing. So far back as 1603, in the wars of Dutch Independence, a dispute about some firewood had set an English and a French regiment fighting; and the quarrel had ended in the flight of the French to their ships, leaving their Colonel and sixteen of their comrades dead behind them.[190] The English now, probably on some equally trivial occasion, fell at variance83 with the French guards and killed several of them; nor could all the frenzy84 of French indignation avail to obtain the least redress85. Lockhart attributed this insubordinate spirit to the dearth86 of chaplains; but the true explanation was that over eighty of the officers, disliking the tedium87 of winter-quarters, had absented themselves, as was customary, from their regiments. When they returned, and four thousand fresh troops with them, Morgan seems to have had little difficulty in restoring discipline.
March.
May 16 27 .
May 23
June 2.
Morgan opened the campaign before the arrival of Lockhart by the capture of two small redoubts that lay on the road to Dunkirk; but it was not till the 4th of[270] May that Turenne broke up his quarters at Amiens, and after a very difficult march to Dunkirk, on the 27th invested the town. A brilliant repulse of a Spanish sortie by the English put him in good humour with his allies, and he was fain to confess that they had done right well.[191] He was to appreciate them still higher within a week; for on the 2nd of June the Spanish army, fifteen thousand strong, under Don John of Austria, Condé, the Marquis Caracena, and James, Duke of York, drew down to within a mile of his headquarters, with the evident design of forcing the besiegers' lines.
We must pause for a moment over the composition of the motley Spanish host, for there is a part of it under James, Duke of York, with which we are nearly concerned. Five regiments in all, amounting to some two thousand men, were entrusted88 to the Duke's command. Three of these, James's own, Lord Ormonde's, and Lord Bristol's, were Irish, the relics89 of the loyal party that had been scattered90 by Cromwell; one, Middleton's, was Scotch91, and represented fragments of the force that had been broken up by Monk; and one, which readers must not omit to mark, was English, made up of refugees mostly of gentle birth. It comprehended the last shreds92 of old English royalism, and was called the King's Regiment of Guards.
Nor must we omit to throw a passing glance at the army of Turenne. First and foremost there were the six regiments sent out by Cromwell. Then there was a regiment with which we parted last after the battle of Verneuil, the Scottish body-guard of the kings of France. Next, there was a regiment which we saw pass from the Swedish to the French service in 1635, Regiment Douglas, some time the Scots Brigade of King Gustavus Adolphus. It had passed through many campaigns and absorbed other corps of British within the past twenty years, and could now add the names of Rocroi, Lens and Fribourg to its records; but here it was, newly[271] recruited from Scotland by the Protector's permission, marching side by side with the red-coats, though quite unconscious how soon it was destined93 to take its place among them, to fight the battle of Dunkirk Dunes94. Lastly, an Irish regiment, known by the name of Dillon, and made up of men who had fled from the wrath95 of Cromwell, completed the strange representation of the united Commonwealth.[192]
It was evening of the 2nd of June before Turenne could satisfy himself that the whole of the Spanish army was present before him, but no sooner was he assured of it than he resolved to fight on the morrow. The English were still at Mardyck, and the orders reached Lockhart so late and came as such a surprise that the marshal politely intimated his wish to give reasons for his determination. "I take the reasons for granted," answered Lockhart, "it will be time to hear them when the battle is over." At ten o'clock the English marched off, Lockhart, who was suffering agonies from stone, driving in his carriage at their head, and at daybreak reached Turenne's headquarters. The next three hours were spent in drawing up the line of battle, which was of the mathematical precise type that prevailed in those days. In the first line there were thirteen troops of cavalry on the right wing, as many on the left, and eleven battalions96 of infantry98 in the centre; in the second line there were ten troops on the right, nine on the left, and seven battalions in the centre. Five troops of horse were posted midway between the two lines of infantry, and four more were held in reserve. The whole force was reckoned at six thousand horse and nine thousand foot, of which latter the English contingent99 made more than half. The place assigned to the red-coats was the left centre, which, if not the post of honour, was assuredly the post of danger.
May 24
June 3.
Don John's line of battle was widely different. He[272] had taken up a strong position among the sand hills, facing west, his right resting on the beach, his left on the Bruges Canal; and the whole of his infantry was drawn up in his first line. A sand hill higher than the rest on his right was regarded as the key of the position, and was strongly held, as the place of honour, by four Spanish regiments. Next to them on their left stood the five regiments under the Duke of York, with one battalion97 in reserve, and the line was continued by battalions of Germans and Walloons. The Spanish horse was massed behind the foot in columns according as the sand hills permitted; and the whole force numbered between fourteen and fifteen thousand men.
To face page 272
DUNKIRK DUNES
May 24th June 3rd 1658
Notwithstanding that they had marched all night, and in spite of Turenne's orders that the line should dress by the right, the English outstrode the French in the advance and began the action alone. The position occupied by the Spaniards in their front was so strong, that Lockhart by his own confession100 despaired of carrying it. Lieutenant-Colonel Fenwick however, who commanded Lockhart's regiment, undertook the task without the General's instructions. Covered by a cloud of skirmishers he advanced steadily101 with his pikes to the foot of the sand hill, and while the musketeers wheeling right and left maintained a steady fire, he calmly halted the pikes to let the men take breath. Then with a joyful103 shout they swarmed104 up the treacherous105 sand and went straight at the Spaniards. Fenwick fell at once, mortally wounded by a musket102 shot; his major, Hinton, took his place, and was also shot down. Officer after officer fell, but the men were not to be checked, and though the Spaniards, backed by a company of the English guards, fought hard and well, they were fairly swept off the sand hill, and retired106 in confusion, leaving nine out of thirteen captains dead on the ground. James, Duke of York, tried to save the rout107 by charging Lockhart's victorious108 regiment with his single troop of horse, but he was beaten back, and though at a second attempt he succeeded in breaking[273] into its flank he met with so sturdy a resistance from every isolated109 man as convinced him that his effort was hopeless. Meanwhile the rest of the English regiments advanced quickly in support; the French horse on the left wing came up likewise, and the rout of the Spanish right was complete.
With the uncovering of its right flank the whole of Don John's line wavered, and few regiments, except those under the immediate110 direction of Condé, far away on the left, showed more than a feeble resistance to the advancing French. Very soon the whole force—Spaniards, Walloons and Germans, Scots and Irish—were in full retreat, and a single small corps of perhaps three hundred men stood isolated and alone in the position among the sand hills. A French officer rode forward and summoned the little party to surrender. "We were posted here by the Duke of York," was the answer, "and mean to hold our ground as long as we can." The Frenchman explained that resistance was hopeless. "We are not accustomed to believe our enemies," was the reply. "Then look for yourself," rejoined the Frenchman; and leading the commander to the top of a sand hill he showed him the retreating army of Spain. Thereupon the solitary111 regiment laid down its arms: it was the English King's Royal Regiment of Guards.[193]
The losses of the victorious English were very severe. In Lockhart's regiment but six out of the whole number of officers and sergeants112 had escaped unhurt; and the honours of the day were admitted by all to lie with the red-coats. The action led to the speedy fall of Dunkirk; and Lockhart, being reinforced by two regiments from England, was able to detach four to continue the campaign under the command of Morgan. Bergues, Dixmuyde, and Oudenarde fell in quick succession, and little opposition113 was encountered until the siege of Ypres, where the English delivered so daring and brilliant an assault that Turenne, overcome[274] with admiration114, embraced their leader, Morgan, and called him one of the bravest captains of the time. The capture of Ypres was the last exploit of the six thousand—the immortal115 six thousand, as they were styled in the admiring pamphlets of the day. After an advance almost to the walls of Brussels, the campaign came to an end; Morgan returned to England to receive knighthood, and the English retired to Dunkirk to spend another winter in cold and misery116 and want, and worst of all in deep uncertainty117 for the future.[194]
1659,
April 21.
For even while Morgan was watching the Spanish garrison march out of Ypres, the soldier who had made the English Army was lying speechless and unconscious at St. James's, worn out with many campaigns and with the work of keeping the peace in England. Before tattoo118 sounded on the 3rd of September 1658, Oliver Cromwell was dead, and no man could say who should come after him. Richard Cromwell, his son, held two trump-cards in his hand—Henry Cromwell and the army in Ireland, George Monk and his army in Scotland. He was afraid to play either, and yielded up his power to a clique119 of his father's old officers—Fleetwood, Desborough, and others—who brought back the Rump of the Long Parliament to reign1 in his stead. Henry Cromwell resigned his command, and the power of the Cromwells was gone. The Rump now took over Cromwell's body-guard for its own protection, and to make the Army thoroughly subservient120 decided that all officers should be approved by itself, and all commissions signed by the Speaker. So large was the military establishment that this work of revising the list of officers was never completed. George Monk, however, accepted the Speaker's commission without a word.
October 17.
It was not in the nature of things that the English[275] generals should long submit to the junto121 of politicians which it had set over England. In a very short time the leaders of the Army for the second time cleared away the Rump, and took the supreme122 power into their own hands; but herein they overlooked the existence of the ablest soldier left in Great Britain. Monk was ready enough to take his orders from Oliver Cromwell, but not from such small men as Lambert and Desborough. No sooner did the news of the new departure reach him at Dalkeith than with amazing rapidity he secured every garrison in Scotland, seized the bridge over the Tweed at Berwick, purged123 his troops of all officers disloyal to the Parliament, and gave orders for his whole force to concentrate at Edinburgh. Morgan, with the glories of Flanders still fresh on him, presently came to help him in the reorganisation of his army, and by the middle of November he began to move slowly south. Negotiations124 with the English leaders had been in progress ever since Monk first took decided action, and, though fully28 aware that they must come to nothing, he was not sorry to gain a little time in order to establish discipline thoroughly in the force under his command. By the end of November he had fixed125 his headquarters at Berwick.
There, at one o'clock on the morning of the 7th of December, he was surprised by the news that, in spite of much peaceful profession, the English general Lambert had besieged Chillingham Castle and had marched within twenty miles of the Border. One hour sufficed for Monk to write the necessary orders for the movement of the troops, and at two o'clock he was in the saddle and away to inspect the fords of the Tweed. The night was stormy and pitch dark, and the roads were sheets of ice, but on he galloped126, despite the entreaties127 of his staff, through wind and sleet128, up hill and down, at dangerous speed. "It was God's infinite mercy that we had not our necks broke," wrote one who was an unwilling129 partaker of that ride.[195] By eleven[276] o'clock the inspection130 was over and headquarters were fixed at Coldstream. A regiment of foot had already arrived there to guard the ford7 before the General came, and had cleared away every scrap131 of provisions. His staff-officers dispersed132 to find food where they could, but George Monk put a quid of tobacco into his cheek and sat down contented133 with a good morning's work. He had occupied every pass from Berwick to Kelso, and had so thought out every detail that he could concentrate his whole force at any given point in four hours. The bulk of his troops under Morgan were stationed on the exposed flank at Kelso; he himself was in the centre at Coldstream. Lambert might attack his front or turn his flank if he dared.
1660.
For three weeks Monk's army lay in this position, four regiments of horse and six of foot,[196] waiting for the moment to advance. The cold was intense, and the quarters in the little village of Coldstream were very strait. The General occupied a hovel wherein he had hardly space to turn round, and the men suffered greatly from privation and hard weather, but Monk's spirit kept them all in cheerfulness, and those who had shared his hardships never ceased to boast themselves to be Coldstreamers. At last, on the 31st of December, came the news that the army which had deposed134 the Rump was up in mutiny; and at daybreak of the 1st of January 1660 Monk's army crossed the Tweed in two brigades and began its memorable135 march to the south. All day they tramped knee-deep through the snow, full fifteen miles to Wooler, while the advanced-guard of horse by a marvellous march actually covered the fifty miles to Morpeth. At York they were met by Fairfax, who had roused himself at such a crisis for a last turn of military duty, and picking up deserters on every side from Lambert's regiments they increased their strength at every march. On the 31st of January Monk received at St. Albans the Parliament's[277] confirmation136 of his commission as General, and three days later he occupied London. His own regiment of foot was quartered for the first time in and about St. James's.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the intricate movements in the political world during the three following months; it must suffice to say that Monk was finally obliged to coerce137 the Rump as all other soldiers had coerced138 it. In spite of all engagements to dissolve itself without delay, this pretentious139 little assembly still clung, notwithstanding its unpopularity, to power; but a letter from the General was sufficient to bring it to reason without a file of musketeers. Such a letter arrived on the 6th of April; and though the House resolved not to read it until it had gratified its vanity by a little further debating, yet it decided after opening it to make the question of dissolution its very next business. Before evening it had ceased to exist. One last desperate attempt of Desborough and Lambert to divide the Army was suppressed with Monk's habitual140 promptitude, and on the 1st of May the General, sitting as member for his native county in a new House of Commons, moved that the King should be invited to England. Three weeks later Monk's life-guard and five regiments of horse escorted the restored monarch141 into London; and the work of the New Model Army was done.
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1
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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antagonisms
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| 对抗，敌对( antagonism的名词复数 ) | |
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6
advisers
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| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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gage
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| n.标准尺寸，规格；量规，量表 [=gauge] | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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wrest
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| n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲 | |
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wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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contractors
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| n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 ) | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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denude
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| v.剥夺；使赤裸 | |
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obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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33
averse
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| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
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34
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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35
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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36
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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37
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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38
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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39
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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40
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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41
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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42
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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43
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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44
mishaps
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| n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
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45
cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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46
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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47
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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48
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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49
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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50
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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51
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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52
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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53
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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54
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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55
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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56
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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57
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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58
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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59
annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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60
commonwealth
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| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
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61
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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62
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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63
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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64
shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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65
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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66
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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67
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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68
beleaguer
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| v.使困扰，使烦恼，围攻 | |
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69
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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71
highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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72
isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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73
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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74
trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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75
wincing
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的现在分词 ) | |
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76
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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77
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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78
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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79
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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80
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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81
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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82
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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83
variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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84
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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85
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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86
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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87
tedium
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| n.单调；烦闷 | |
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88
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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90
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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91
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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92
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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93
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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94
dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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95
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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96
battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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99
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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100
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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101
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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102
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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103
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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104
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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105
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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106
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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107
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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108
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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109
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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110
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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111
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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112
sergeants
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| 警官( sergeant的名词复数 )； （美国警察）警佐； （英国警察）巡佐； 陆军（或空军）中士 | |
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113
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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114
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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115
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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116
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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117
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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118
tattoo
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| n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于 | |
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119
clique
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| n.朋党派系，小集团 | |
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120
subservient
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| adj.卑屈的，阿谀的 | |
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junto
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| n.秘密结社；私党 | |
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122
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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123
purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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124
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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126
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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127
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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128
sleet
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| n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹 | |
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129
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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130
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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131
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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133
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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134
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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135
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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137
coerce
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| v.强迫，压制 | |
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138
coerced
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| v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配 | |
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139
pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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140
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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141
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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