er passing through several phases this word, in
Cromwell's mouth, with the common logic of tyranny, became simply a
synonym for personal rule.

_Smiting with iron heel_; The terrorism of the Protector's government,
and the almost universal hatred which it inspired, are powerfully painted
by Hallam. 'To govern according to law may sometimes be an usurper's
wish, but can seldom be in his power. The protector abandoned all
thought of it. . . . All illusion was now (1655) gone, as to the
pretended benefits of the civil war. It had ended in a despotism,
compared to which all the illegal practices of former kings, all that had
cost Charles his life and crown, appeared as dust in the balance.'

_The blood-path_; The trials under which Gerard and Vowel were executed
in 1654, Slingsby and Hewit in 1658, are the most flagrant instances of
Cromwell's perversion of justice, and contempt for the old liberties of
England. But they do not stand alone.

_Guile and coarseness_; 'A certain coarse good nature and affability that
covered the want of conscience, honour, and humanity: quick in passion,
but not vindictive, and averse to unnecessary crimes,' is the deliberate
summing-up of Hallam,--in the love of liberty inferior to none of our
historians, and eminent above all for courageous
impartiality,--_iustissimus unus_.

_With glory he gilt_; See _Appendix_ C.

_Success, the vulgar test_; See Matthew Arnold's finely discriminative
_Essay_ on Falkland.

MARSTON MOOR

July 2: 1644

O, summer-high that day the sun
His chariot drove o'er Marston wold:
A rippling sea of amber wheat
That floods the moorland vale with gold.

With harvest light the valley laughs,
The sheaves in mellow sunshine sleep;
--Too rathe the crop, too red the swathes
Ere night the scythe of Death shall reap!

Then thick and fast o'er all the moor
The crimson'd sabre-lightnings fly;
And thick and fast the death-bolts dash,
And thunder-peals to peals reply.

Where Evening arched her fiery dome
Went up the roar of mortal foes:--
Then o'er a deathly peace the moon
In silver silence sailing rose.

Sweet hour, when heaven is nearest home,
And children's kisses close the day!
O disaccord with nature's calm,
Unholy requiem of the fray!

White maiden Queen that sail'st above,
Thy dew-tears on the fallen fling,--
The blighted wreaths of civil strife,
The war that can no triumph bring!

--O pale with that deep pain of those
Who cannot save, ye