ct to conceit, and doth so vie
Performance with the soul, that you would swear
The act and apprehension both lodg'd there?
Just so mov'd he: like shot his active hand
Drew blood, ere well the foe could understand.
But here I lost him."

This appears to me pretty conclusive evidence; against it, however, must
be set the passage on the Civil War in the autobiographical poem _Ad
Posteros_ (vol. ii., p. 51).

Vixi, divisos cum fregerat haeresis Anglos
Inter Tysiphonas presbyteri et populi.
His primum miseris per amoena furentibus arva
Prostravit sanctam vilis avena rosam.
Turbarunt fontes, et fusis pax perit undis,
Moestaque coelestes obruit umbra dies.
Duret ut integritas tamen, et pia gloria, partem
Me nullam in tanta strage fuisse, scias;
Credidimus nempe insonti vocem esse cruori,
Et vires quae post funera flere docent.
Hinc castae, fidaeque pati me more parentis
Commonui, et lachrimis fata levare meis;
Hinc nusquam horrendis violavi sacra procellis,
Nec mihi mens unquam, nec manus atra fuit.

The natural interpretation of this certainly is that Vaughan took no
share in the disturbances of his time, except to grieve over them in
retirement. Yet, in the first place, the lines may have been written
before he took up arms in 1645, and, in the second, they may only mean
that he had no share in _bringing about_ the troubles of England, or in
shedding _innocent_ blood. Similarly when elsewhere, as in _Abel's
Blood_ (vol. i. p. 254), and in the prayer to be quoted below, he
expresses horror of blood-guiltiness, this need not necessarily be taken
as extending to the man who fights in a righteous cause.

Miss Morgan, I may add, suggests that Vaughan was at Rowton Heath, not
as a combatant, but as a physician. The description which he gives of
the battle reads like that of a man who saw it from some commanding
point of view, but was not himself engaged. I think it not improbable
that Vaughan was one of the garrison of Beeston Castle, which is
described to me as "a sort of grand stand for the battle-field." Beeston
Castle was invested by the Parliamentarians in the course of September
1645. On the approach of Charles the troops were drawn off on 19th
September to Chester.[14] Charles no doubt took the opportunity to
strengthen the garrison. After Rowton Heath Beeston Castle was again
besieged, and on November 16th it surrendered. The