city, they came upon a body of Parliamentary cavalry, the advance of the
army of Essex. The bands drew up at a little distance from each other,
and then Prince Rupert gave the command to charge. With the cheer of
"For God and the king!" the troop rushed upon the cavalry of the
Parliament with such force and fury that they broke them utterly, and
killing many, drove them in confusion from the field, but small loss to
themselves.

This was the first action of the civil war, the first blood drawn by
Englishmen from Englishmen since the troubles in the commencement of the
reign of Mary.




CHAPTER III.

A BRAWL AT OXFORD.


News in those days traveled but slowly, and England was full of
conflicting rumors as to the doings of the two armies. Every one was
unsettled. Bodies of men moving to join one or other of the parties kept
the country in an uproar, and the Cavaliers, or rather the toughs of the
towns calling themselves Cavaliers, brought much odium upon the royal
cause by the ill-treatment of harmless citizens, and by raids on
inoffensive country people. Later on this conduct was to be reversed and
the Royalists were to suffer tenfold the outrages now put upon the
Puritans. But there can be no doubt that the conduct of irresponsible
ruffians at that time did much to turn the flood of public opinion in