chief command.[2] A rapid and unexpected improvement[b] induced him to
remain; and in July he marched with his army towards Stirling. The Scots
faced him in their intrenched camp at Torwood; he turned aside to Glasgow;
they took[c] a position at Kilsyth; he marched[d] back to Falkirk; and they
resumed their position at Torwood. While by these movements the English
general occupied the attention of his opponents, a fleet of boats had been
silently prepared and brought to the Queensferry; a body of men crossed the
frith, and fortified a hill near Inverkeithing; and Lambert immediately
followed[e] with a more numerous division. The Scots despatched Holburn
with orders to drive the enemy into the sea; he was himself charged[f]
by Lambert with a superior force, and the flight of his men gave to the
English possession of the fertile and populous county of Fife. Cromwell
hastened to transport his army to the left bank of the river, and advance
on the rear of the Scots. They retired: Perth, the seat of government, was
besieged; and in a few days[g] the colours of the commonwealth floated on
its walls.[3]

[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 229, 249, 296. Baillie, ii. 368.]

[Footnote 2: The council had sent two physicians to attend him. His answer
to Bradshaw of March 24th runs in his usual style. "Indeed, my lord, your
service needs not me. I am a poor creature, and have been a dry bone, and
am still an unprofitable servant to my master and to you."--New Parl. Hist.
iii. 1363.]

[Footnote 3: Balfour, 313. Journals, May 27. Leicester's Journal, 109.
Whitelock, 490, 494, 497, 498, 499. Heath, 392, 393. According to Balfour,
the loss on each side was "almost alyke," about eight hundred men killed;
according to Lambert, the Scots lost two thousand killed, and fourteen
hundred taken prisoners; the English had only eight men slain; "so easy did