The part that Oliver Cromwell played in the struggle has not unnaturally been the cause of much comment. Carlyle[q101] characteristically cuts the Gordian knot with the statement, "Captain Cromwell _was_ present, and did his duty, let angry Denzil say what he will."[6] Denzil Hollis's[o226] charge that Cromwell purposely absented himself from the field may be fairly set aside on the ground of malice, his enmity being openly shown, and moreover it meets contradiction in Cromwell's own statement:[Q249] "At my first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were beaten at every hand. I did indeed." Neither can Dugdale's[C] account of Cromwell's hurried descent from a church steeple by means of the bell rope, when he saw the Parliamentarian disaster, be received in the face of the letter written by Captain Nathaniel Fiennes,[PB] which ends thus: "These persons underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute. The Lord Generall's Regiment--Sir Philip Stapleton, Captain Draper, Serjeant Major Gunter, Lord Brookes, Captain Sheffield, Captain Temple, Captain Cromwell; Sir William Belfore's Regiment--Sir William Belfore, Serjeant Major Hurrey, Lord Grey, Captain Nathaniell Fiennes, Sir Arthur Hasilrigge, Captain Longe." It is equally curious that Captain Oliver Cromwell, of Troop Sixty-Seven,[q100] was at Edge Hill in the place he invariably occupied during the civil war, viz., with the victorious wing, and that the history of the fluctuations of the fight should be repeated in so many of the great battles, Naseby and Marston Moor to wit. A most true and Exact RELATION OF BOTH THE BATTELS FOUGHT BY HIS EXCELLENCY and his Forces against the bloudy Cavelliers. The one on the 23 of _October_ last near _Keynton_ below _Edge_-Hill in _Warwickshire_, the other at _Worcester_ by Colonell _Brown_, Captain _Nathaniel_, and _John Fiennes_, and Colonell _Sands_ and some others. Wherein the particulars of each Battel is punctually set down at large for the full satisfaction of all people, with the Names of the Commanders and Regiments that valiently stood it out. Also the number and Names of the Chief Commanders that were slain on both sides: All which is here faithfully set down without favour or partiality to either Army. Written by a worthy Captain Master _Nathaniel Fiennes_, And commanded to be Printed. London, Printed for Joseph Hunscott Novem. 9. 1642. Mr. _Nathaniel Fiennes_ his Letter to his Father. MY LORD,