heir opinion, was forgot,
and instead of halting and posting ourselves to advantage till the
enemy came up, we were ordered to march back and meet them.

Nay, so eager was the prince for fighting, that when, from the top of
Edgehill, the enemy's army was descried in the bottom between them
and the village of Kineton, and that the enemy had bid us defiance,
by discharging three cannons, we accepted the challenge, and answering
with two shots from our army, we must needs forsake the advantages
of the hills, which they must have mounted under the command of our
cannon, and march down to them into the plain. I confess, I thought
here was a great deal more gallantry than discretion; for it was
plainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and putting it into
the hands of the enemy. An enemy that must fight, may always be fought
with to advantage. My old hero, the glorious Gustavus Adolphus, was as
forward to fight as any man of true valour mixed with any policy need
to be, or ought to be; but he used to say, "An enemy reduced to a
necessity of fighting is half beaten."

Tis true, we were all but young in the war; the soldiers hot and
forward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with the enemy. But
I take the more notice of it here, because the king in this acted
against his own measures; for it was the king himself had laid the
design of getting the start of Essex, and marching to London. His
friends had invited him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeply
for the omission; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, and
suffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; an error,
I say, the King of Sweden was never guilty of. For if all the officers
at a council of war were of a different opinion, yet unless their
reasons mastered his judgment, their votes never altered his measures.
But this was the error of our good, but unfortunate master, three
times in this war, and particularly in two of the greatest battles of
the time, viz., this of Edgehill, and that of Naseby.

The resolution for fighting being published in the army, gave an
universal joy to the soldiers, who expressed an extraordinary ardour
for fighting. I remember my father talking with me about it, asked
me what I thought of the approaching battle. I told him I thought the
king had done very well; for at that time I did not consult the extent
of the design, and had a mighty mind, like other rash people, to see
it brought to a day, whic