led, steeds caracoled; and here and there a petronel, or pistol, was
fired off by some one, who found his own natural talents for making a
noise inadequate to the dignity of the occasion. Boys--for, as we said
before, the rabble were with the uppermost party, as usual--halloo'd
and whooped, "Down with the Rump," and "Fie upon Oliver!" Musical
instruments, of as many different fashions as were then in use, played
all at once, and without any regard to each other's tune; and the glee
of the occasion, while it reconciled the pride of the high-born of the
party to fraternise with the general rout, derived an additional zest
from the conscious triumph, that their exultation was heard by their
neighbours, the crestfallen Roundheads.

When the loud and sonorous swell of the psalm-tune, multiplied by all
the echoes of the cliffs and ruinous halls, came full upon their ear,
as if to warn them how little they were to reckon upon the depression
of their adversaries, at first it was answered with a scornful laugh,
raised to as much height as the scoffers' lungs would permit, in order
that it might carry to the psalmodists the contempt of their auditors;
but this was a forced exertion of party spleen. There is something in
melancholy feelings more natural to an imperfect and suffering state
than in those of gaiety, and when they are brought into collision, the
former seldom fail to triumph. If a funeral-train and wedding-procession
were to meet unexpectedly, it will readily be allowed that the mirth of
the last would be speedily merged in the gloom of the others. But the
Cavaliers, moreover, had sympathies of a different kind. The psalm-tune,
which now came rolling on their ear, had been heard too often, and upon
too many occasions had preceded victory gained over the malignants, to
permit them, even in their triumph, to hear it without emotion. There
was a sort of pause, of which the party themselves seemed rather
ashamed, until the silence was broken by the stout old knight, Sir
Jasper Cranbourne, whose gallantry was so universally acknowledged, that
he could afford, if we may use such an expression, to confess emotions,
which men whose courage was in any respect liable to suspicion, would
have thought it imprudent to acknowledge.

"Adad," said the old Knight, "may I never taste claret again, if that is
not the very tune with which the prick-eared villains began their onset
at Wiggan Lane, where they trowled us down like so many n