unlawful," shall, on a refusal to
renounce his errors, "be commanded to prison." It was plain that the
Presbyterians counted on the king's success to resume their policy of
conformity, and had Charles been free, or the New Model disbanded, their
hopes would probably have been realized.

[Sidenote: The Scotch Invasion.]

But Charles was still safe at Carisbrook; and the New Model was facing
fiercely the danger which surrounded it. The wanton renewal of the war
at a moment when all tended to peace swept from the mind of Fairfax and
Cromwell, as from that of the army at large, every thought of
reconciliation with the king. Soldiers and generals were at last bound
together again in a stern resolve. On the eve of their march against the
revolt all gathered in a solemn prayer-meeting, and came "to a very
clear and joint resolution, 'That it was our duty, if ever the Lord
brought us back again in peace, to call Charles Stuart, that man of
blood, to account for the blood he has shed and mischief he has done to
his utmost against the Lord's cause and people in this poor nation.'"
The stern resolve was followed by vigorous action. In a few days Fairfax
had trampled down the Kentish insurgents, and had prisoned those of the
eastern counties within the walls of Colchester, while Cromwell drove
the Welsh insurgents within those of Pembroke. Both towns however held
stubbornly out; and though a rising under Lord Holland in the
neighbourhood of London was easily put down, there was no force left to
stem the inroad of the Scots, who poured over the Border at the opening
of July some twenty thousand strong. Luckily the surrender of Pembroke
at this critical moment set Cromwell free. Pushing rapidly northward
with five thousand men, he called in a force under Lambert which had
been gallantly hanging on the Scottish flank, and pushed over the
Yorkshire hills into the valley of the Ribble, where the Duke of
Hamilton, reinforced by three thousand Royalists of the North, had
advanced as far as Preston. With an army which now numbered ten thousand
men, Cromwell poured down on the flank of the Duke's straggling line of
march, attacked the Scots on the seventeenth of August as they retired
behind the Ribble, passed the river with them, cut their rearguard to
pieces at Wigan, forced the defile at Warrington, where the flying enemy
made a last and desperate stand, and drove their foot to surrender,
while Lambert hunted down Hamilton and the horse