The Council of War was assembled at once, and Monk demonstrated to the colonels the practicability of Cromwell's idea. The attack was decided on, and the first glimmer of dawn saw Monk standing beside the burn, half-pike in hand, at the head of his regiment of foot.[6] All was ready to begin, but Lambert, who was to lead the attack at the head of the horse, was away, to Cromwell's annoyance, worrying about Monk's guns with which he had suggested a feint should be made upon the Scots' left. Valuable time was lost, but at last he came, and the horse dashed across the ford followed by Monk in support. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued. For an hour the thing hung in a balance. The flower of the Scotch regiments was there, and the resistance they offered was worthy of their reputation. But regiment after regiment poured over from the Dunbar side, ever inclining to the left till the Scotch right was overlapped. All this time Monk was fighting desperately at pike's length with a regiment that would not break. But now as the rout of the out-flanked regiments exposed it to the horse it had to go with the rest, and then the day was won. Galled by the guns and small-shot from across the swollen burn, the Scots' left and centre, incapable of reaching their enemy, would stand no longer. As the beaten right fell back upon them, rolling up the line as they came, a panic ensued. Throwing down their arms they fairly ran, nor stopped till they reached Edinburgh. The fall of Edinburgh Castle ended the campaign of 1650. Monk had been appointed governor of the city, and with the duties of his office and the preparations for the next campaign he was occupied during the winter. By February, however, in the following year, he was at active work again. Tantallon Castle was his first care, and by the aid of the splendid siege-train he had organised he battered the ancient stronghold of the Douglas into submission in forty-eight hours: Blackness Castle on the Forth followed in March; and thus by the time spring had fairly begun the way was cleared for the real object of the campaign, and Monk's services were rewarded with the substantive rank in which he had been acting. Leslie during the winter had reorganised his army, and was occupying an intrenched position at Torwood, to the north of Falkirk, covering Stirling. Beyond him the government was being carried on in security at Perth. The Torwood position was far too strong for a direct attack to be risked. Every endeavour to turn it or to tempt Leslie to leave failed, and yet it was imperative that he should be dislodged.