wrote their names on the parchment rolls, containing the words of the Covenant. [Sidenote: 1643, September.] On the 20th of September, being the Wednesday before the Monday on which the Covenant was sworn, a battle was fought at Newbury; and the particulars of this action must have reached the Assembly before they held up their hands to heaven; perchance some held them up all the more firmly in consequence of what they had just been told respecting the persistent valour of the army. For all along the valley, more than half a mile in length, Essex's men, wearing fern and broom in their hats, had fought from four o'clock in the morning until ten at night. After a struggle, hand to hand, in the darkness, the King's forces stood in order on the further side of the Green, and Essex expected a fresh engagement next day; but the enemy retreated in the night, and consequently the Parliament claimed the victory. One fell in that engagement, whose death, with its never to be forgotten touches of sadness, deeply affected some who faced him in battle, after sitting beside him in council. Lord Falkland, on rising that morning, had put on a clean shirt, saying he would not be found in foul linen amongst the slain; and when his friends attempted to dissuade him from fighting, replied, "I am weary of the times, and foresee much misery to my country, and believe I shall be out of it before night." And so he was.[370] [Sidenote: _Treaty with the Scotch._] [Sidenote: 1643, November.] The Covenant prepared in Scotland having been adopted in England, the two countries entered into a treaty on the 29th of November, 1643. The first of the Articles declared, that the Covenant now to be sworn throughout both kingdoms was "a most noble near tie and conjunction between them against the papist and prelatical faction, and for pursuance of the ends expressed in the said Covenant." The Scotch agreed to levy and send an army of 18,000 foot, 2,000 horse, and 1,000 dragoons, to be ready at some general rendezvous near the borders of England; and the English promised that the charges so incurred should be refunded when peace was settled, with Scotch consent. The money was to be raised out of the forfeited estates of papists, prelatists, malignants, and their adherents; and £100,000 was to be paid at Leith or Edinburgh with all convenient speed, half of the sum being conveyed at once by the bearers of the treaty.[371] English solicitude respecting this compact oozes out in the quaint old diurnals of that day. "The Covenant," say they, "will doubtless give more life to the preparations of their brethren, if they be not already on their march into this kingdom, which we have good grounds to surmise they be; but no letters as yet come to confirm the same." A communication from the north is joyfully quoted, to the effect that the artillery, ammunition, arms, and men were all in readiness; and it is added, "upon the first