d
the well-known energy and inflexibility of his character.[1] It was not,
however, before the year 1642 that he took his place among the leaders of
the party. Having been appointed one of the committees for the county
of Cambridge and the isle of Ely, he hastened down to Cambridge, took
possession of the magazine, distributed the arms among the burgesses, and
prevented the colleges from sending their plate to the king at Oxford.[a]
From the town he transferred his services to the district committed to his
charge. No individual of suspicious or dangerous principles, no secret plan
or association of the royalists, could elude his vigilance and activity. At
the head of a military force he was everywhere present, making inquiries,
inflicting punishments, levying weekly the weekly assessments, impressing
men, horses, and stores, and exercising with relentless severity all those
repressive and vindictive powers with which the recent ordinances had armed
the committees. His exertions were duly appreciated. When the parliament
selected officers to command the seventy-five troops of horse, of sixty men
each, in the new army under the earl of Essex,[b] farmer Cromwell received
the

[Footnote 1: Warwick, 247]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. August. 15.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Sept. 14.]

commission of captain; within six months afterwards, he was raised to the
higher rank of colonel, with permission to levy for himself a regiment of
one thousand horse out of the trained bands in the Eastern association.[a]
To the sentiment of honour, which animated the Cavaliers in the field, he
resolved to oppose the energy which is inspired by religious enthusiasm.
Into the ranks of his _Ironsides_--their usual designation--he admitted no
one who was not a freeholder, or the son of a freeholder, and at the same
time a man fearing God, a known professor of godliness, and one who would
make it his duty and his pride to execute justice on the enemies of
God.[1] Nor was he disappointed. The soldiers of the Lord of Hosts proved
themselves a match for the soldiers of the earthly monarch. At their head
the colonel, by his activity and daring, added new laurels to those which
he had previously won; and parliament, as a proof of confidence, appointed
him military governor of a very important post, the isle of Ely.[b] Lord
Grey of Werke held at that time the command of the army in the Eastern
association; but Grey was superseded by the earl of Manchester, an