ever prosecute
his interest without his acknowledgment of the sins of his family and of
his former ways, and his promise of giving satisfaction to God's people
in both kingdoms. This protestation was printed and furtively sent to the
English camp; the officers of the army presented[d] to the committee of
estates a remonstrance and supplication expressive of their adhesion; and
the ministers maintained from their pulpits that the king was the root
of malignancy, and a hypocrite, who had taken the covenant without an
intention of keeping it. Charles, yielding to his own fears and the advice
of his friends; at the end of three days subscribed,[e] with tears, the
obnoxious instrument. If it were folly in the Scots to propose to the young
prince a declaration so repugnant to his feelings and opinions, it was
greater folly still to believe that professions of repentance extorted

[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 92. Whitelock, 469. "A declaration by the king's
majesty to his subjects of the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland."
Printed 1650.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 10.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 13.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 14.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 15.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. August 16.]

with so much violence could be sincere or satisfactory; yet his
subscription was received with expressions of joy and gratitude; both the
army and the city observed a solemn fast for the sins of the two kings, the
father and the son; and the ministers, now that the anger of Heaven had
been appeased, assured their hearers of an easy victory over a "blaspheming
general and a sectarian army."[1]

If their predictions were not verified, the fault was undoubtedly their
own. The caution and vigilance of Leslie had triumphed over the skill and
activity of "the blasphemer." Cromwell saw no alternative but victory or
retreat: of the first he had no doubt, if he could come in contact with the
enemy; the second was a perilous attempt, when the passes before him
were pre-occupied, and a more numerous force was hanging on his rear. At
Musselburg, having sent the sick on board the fleet (they suffered both
from the "disease of the country," and from fevers caused by exposure on
the Pentland hills), he ordered[a] the army to march the next morning to
Haddington, and thence to Dunbar; and the same night a meteor, which the
imagination of the beholders likened to a sword of fire, was seen to pass
over Edinburgh in a sout