CHAPTER III. THE CROWNING MERCY. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, SHAKESPEARE. IN order to make the progress of the Siege of Worcester intelligible to the reader, it will be necessary to make a brief résumé of military events. from the 28th of August, on which day the Post established by the Royalists at Upton had been carried, as before detailed. The important advantage obtained by the Parliamentarians on that occasion, compelled the Royalists to contract their quarters on the right bank of the Severn. Accordingly, the lower road between Upton and Powick was broken up and made impassable for artillery; the hedges were lined with skirmishers, and at certain detached points of natural strength, the lanes and farmhouses were stockaded; while the main force was concentrated in the neighbourhood of Powick Bridge, and the command of the post vested in Major-Generals Montgomery and Keith, two Scottish officers of considerable reputation. On the 29th the Parliamentarians, without the loss of an hour, threw up heavy batteries in front of Red Hill, and opened a smart fire on the city ; this fire was replied to with great spirit by Fort Royal, which had been hastily repaired and armed; and during the following night the Royalists made a daring sally from the city, attacking the besiegers on two points; but their intentions having been betrayed, they were received and repulsed with unexpected vigour. The right attack was for the purpose of cutting off a small post which had been established in the southern meadows, with the view of opening a communication with the right bank of the river, and was supposed to be defended by about two hundred musqueteers only; but it had been strongly reinforced, and maintained itself with little loss. While the left, which was directed to surprising the enemy's camp and creating general confusion, found itself unexpectedly in front of their whole line under arms. Notwithstanding which, Major Knox, a dashing Cavalier who led the Advance, leaping a hedge under cover of which he had crept close up to the Parliamentarians, charged the Fairfax regiment of infantry sword in hand at the head of a band of devoted gentlemen, with such spirit that it was thrown into confusion; and it seemed for a moment that an important diversion would after all be effected. A desperate hand-to-hand encounter ensued ; but the gallant leader of the Cavaliers having fallen in the mêlée, and the advantage of surprise being lost, they too were overpowered by numbers, and driven back with great loss. The bombardment of the city continued with unabated vigour for the four following days, during which the Parliamentarians were endeavouring to throw a bridge over the Severn a little above its confluence with the Tame; and, by degrees, Fort Royal and the other batteries were silenced, and the fortifications dismantled; and it became evident that a general attack was approaching. Accordingly, at five o'clock on the morning of September 3rd, which happened to be the birthday of Oliver Cromwell, and the anniversary of his great victory over the Scottish army at Dunbar, Lieut.-General Fleetwood, who had succeeded to the command of the forces at Upton-consisting of the Brigades of Colonels Deane, Ingoldsby, Goff, and Gibbons-began a movement on Powick, and gradually drove before him the skirmishers who defended the lower approaches to that point d'appui. At the same time, a strong column descended from Perry Wood, and combining with the Infantry Division which already lay in the southern meadows, prepared, under the personal command of the Commander-in-Chief himself, to cross the Severn by the bridge of boats so often alluded to, and which had at length been completed. The plan of the besiegers was now clear to professional observers; it being obviously their intention to unite with Fleetwood's brigades, and cut off the force that held Powick, and so complete the blockade of the city before risking a General Assault; but the councils of the besieged were, unfortunately for them, clogged by the very same principles on which Royalty is based, will always lean on, and must eventually rue. And although there was plenty of military talent among the Cavaliers, it happened, as is usual where hereditary claims supersede those of personal merit, that none of those possessing it had sufficient weight to be able to remedy the errors of rank and senility; for the King himself was of course then, what he proved to be in every phase of his filthy existence, a mere cipher excepting in a brothel or a ballroom; while all the higher commands were filled by the nobility and their scions, without reference to professional capacity. David Leslie, Earl of Leven, who commanded the Royal army under Charles II., had in his day seen a great deal of campaigning both in Germany and the civil wars, and was conversant with the details of military service; but he never possessed genius, was much stricken in years, and was more. over harassed by a council of war composed of noblemen and gay courtiers, among whom our quondam acquaintance, his Grace of Buckingham, held a domineering position. He therefore did not perceive till very late in the day, that this movement of the Parliamentarians placed their main position at Perry Wood in great jeopardyand that, weakened as it was by the absence of the column under Cromwell, had he at once drawn all his forces together, and struck a bold blow at that point, he might have carried their head quarters, captured their materiel, and probably raised the siege. Instead, however, of foilowing the well-known rules of the Art of War, my Lord of Leven at first hesitated what course to adopt, and then directed his attention entirely to the contest which was going on on the right bank of the Severn, being more nervous about his line of retreat than anything else. So, after the loss of much valuable time, he despatched reinforcements to General Montgomery, with orders to maintain the line of the Tame at |