map, with the
village of Kineton behind them. Essex had twelve thousand men on a
little piece of rising ground known afterwards as the "Two Battle
Farms," Battledon and Thistledon. The king was superior both in numbers
and position, with Prince Rupert and his cavalry on the right wing; Sir
Edmund Verney bore the king's standard in the centre, where his tent was
pitched, and Lord Lindsey commanded; under him was General Sir Jacob
Astley, whose prayer before the battle is famous: "O Lord, thou knowest
how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget
me.--March on, boys!" The king rode along in front of his troops in the
stately figure that is familiar in Vandyke's paintings--full armor, with
the ribbon of the Garter across his breastplate and its star on his
black velvet mantle--and made a brief speech of exhortation. The young
princes Charles and James, his sons, both of them afterwards kings of
England, were present at Edgehill, while the philosopher Hervey, who
discovered the circulation of the blood, was also in attendance, and we
are told was found in the heat of the battle sitting snugly under a
hedge reading a copy of Virgil.

[Illustration: MILL AT EDGEHILL.]

The battle did not begin till afternoon, and the mistake the king made
was in not waiting for the attack in his strong position on the brow of
the hill; but his men were impatient and in high spirits, and he
permitted them to push forward, meeting the attack halfway. Rupert's
cavalry upon encountering the Parliamentary left wing were aided by the
desertion of part of the latter's forces, which threw them into
confusion; the wing broke and fled before the troopers, who drove them
with great slaughter into the village of Kineton, and then fell to
plundering Essex's baggage-train. This caused a delay which enabled the
Parliamentary reserves to come up, and they drove Rupert back in
confusion; and when he reached the royal lines he found them in
disorder, with Sir Edmund Verney killed and the royal standard captured.
Lord Lindsey wounded and captured, and the king in personal danger: but
darkness came, and enabled the king to hold his ground, and each side
claimed a victory. The royal standard was brought back by a courageous
Cavalier, who put on a Parliamentary orange-colored scarf, rode into the
enemy's lines, and persuaded the man who had it to let him carry it. For
this bold act he was knighted by the king on the spot and given a gold
meda