fidelity of the trained bands; and
peremptory orders were despatched to Essex, to hasten with his whole force
to the protection of the capital and the parliament. That general had seen
his error; he was following the king with expedition; and his vanguard
entered the village of Keynton on the same evening on which the royalists
halted on Edgehill, only a few miles in advance. At midnight[a] Charles
held a council of war, in which it was resolved to turn upon the pursuers,
and to offer them battle. Early in the morning the royal army was seen in
position[b] on the summit of a range of hills, which gave them a decided
superiority in case of attack; but Essex, whose artillery, with one-fourth
of his men, was several miles in the rear, satisfied with having arrested
the march of the enemy, quietly posted the different corps, as they
arrived, on a rising ground in the Vale of the Red Horse, about half a mile
in front of the village. About noon the Cavaliers grew weary of inaction;
their importunity at last prevailed; and about two the king discharged a
cannon with his own hand as the signal of battle. The royalists descended
in good order to the foot of the hill, where their hopes were raised by the
treachery of Sir Faithful Fortescue, a parliamentary officer, who, firing
his pistol into the ground, ranged himself with two troops of horse under
the royal banner. Soon afterwards Prince Rupert, who commanded the cavalry
on the right, charged twenty-two troops of parliamentary horse led by Sir
James

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Oct. 22.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Oct. 23.]

Ramsay; broke them at the very onset; urged the pursuit two miles beyond
Keynton, and finding the baggage of the enemy in the village, indulged his
men for the space of an hour in the work of plunder. Had it not been for
this fatal imprudence, the royalists would probably have gained a decisive
victory.

During his absence the main bodies of infantry were engaged under their
respective leaders, the earls of Lindsey and Essex, both of whom,
dismounting, led their men into action on foot. The cool and determined
courage of the Roundheads undeceived and disconcerted the Cavaliers.
The royal horse on the left, a weak body under lord Wilmot, had sought
protection behind a regiment of pikemen; and Sir William Balfour, the
parliamentary commander, leaving a few squadrons to keep them at bay,
wheeled round on the flank of the royal infantry, broke through two
division