Friends, though divided: A Tale of the Civil WarHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
Friends, though divided: A Tale of the Civil War
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Juvenile fiction
"I as nearly as possible caught Cromwell," Colonel Macleod said, riding
up to Harry. "We got confused among the tents and ropes, or should have
had him. We entered his tent, but the bird had flown. We cut down some
scores of his infantry, and spiked four guns, I have not lost twenty
men, and his cavalry must have lost at least a hundred from your fire,
besides the damage I did at their camp."
Obtaining a stock of supplies sufficient for some days from the ships at
Dunbar, Cromwell advanced to Musselburgh, within striking distance of
Edinburgh. Leslie had strongly posted his army in intrenched lines
extending from Edinburgh to Leith, a distance of two miles. Colonel
Macleod with his detachment rejoined the army on the same day that
Cromwell reached Musselburgh. Upon the day after the arrival of the
English there was a sharp cavalry fight, and Cromwell would fain have
tempted the Scotch army to engage beyond their lines. But Leslie was
not to be drawn. He knew that if he could maintain himself in his
intrenchments the English must fall back, as they had the sea behind
them and on their right, Edinburgh in front of them, and a devastated
country on their left. At the urgent request of Cromwell the Parliament
strained every nerve to send up provisions by ships, and so enabled him
to remain before Edinburgh for a month.
A few days after his arrival Harry received orders to take a hundred and
fifty men of his regiment, and to post himself at Kirkglen, which
blocked a road by which it was thought Cromwell might send foraging
parties westward. Harry asked that a detachment of cavalry might
accompany him, but the request was refused. Kirkglen stood fifteen miles
south of Edinburgh, and somewhat to its west. Harry left Jacob to
command the main body of the regiment, and took with him the companies
of Donald Leslie and Hugh Grahame, in the latter of which William Long
was lieutenant. They sallied out from the western side of the camp at
daybreak.
"I like not this expedition, Colonel Furness," Donald Leslie said. "The
refusal to send cavalry with us is strange. Methinks I see the finger of
that crafty fox Argyll in the pie. His faithfulness to the cause is more
and more doubted, though none dare wag a tongue against him, and if it
be true that he is in communication with Cromwell, we shall have the
Roundheads, horse and foot, down upon us."
"There is a castle there, is there not," Harry asked, "which we might
occupy?"
"Assuredly there is," Leslie replied. "It is the hold of Alan Campbell,
a cousin of the man you pinked. It is that which adds to my suspicion.
You will see, unless I am greatly mistaken, that he will not admit us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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