d Colonel
Cromwell speedily received the commission of lieutenant-general under that
commander.[2][c]

But to return to the general narrative, which has been interrupted to
introduce Cromwell to the reader,

[Footnote 1: Cromwell tells us of one of them, Walton, the son of Colonel
Walton, that in life he was a precious young man fit for God, and at his
death, which was caused by a wound received in battle, became a glorious
saint in heaven. To die in such a cause was to the saint a "comfort great
above his pain. Yet one thing hung upon his spirit. I asked him what
that was. He told me, that God had not suffered him to be any more the
executioner of His enemies."--Ellis, first series, iii. 299.]

[Footnote 2: See Cromwelliana, 1--7; May, 206, reprint of 1812; Lords'
Journ. iv. 149; Commons', iii. 186.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. March 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. July 28.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. August 8.]

London was preserved from danger, not by the new lines of circumvallation,
or the prowess of Waller, but through the insubordination which prevailed
among the royalists. The earl, now marquess, of Newcastle, who had
associated the northern counties in favour of the king, had defeated the
lord Fairfax, the parliamentary general, at Atherton Moor, in Yorkshire,
and retaken Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, from the army under Cromwell.
Here, however, his followers refused to accompany him any further. It was
in vain that he called upon them to join the grand army in the south, and
put an end at once to the war by the reduction of the capital. They had
been embodied for the defence of the northern counties, and could not
be induced to extend the limits of that service for which they had been
originally enrolled. Hence the king, deprived of one half of his expected
force, was compelled to adopt a new plan of operations. Turning his back on
London, he hastened towards the Severn, and invested Gloucester, the only
place of note in the midland counties which admitted the authority of
the parliament.[a] That city was defended by Colonel Massey, a brave and
determined officer, with an obstinacy equal to its importance; and Essex,
at the head of twelve thousand men, undertook to raise the siege. The
design was believed impracticable; but all the attempts of the royalists
to impede his progress were defeated;[b] and on the twenty-sixth day the
discharge of four pieces of cannon from Presbury Hills announced his
arrival to the i