English sectaries struck against the monarchial constitution of Britain,
it having been their intention to reduce the power of the King, but by
no means to abrogate the office. They fared, however, in this respect,
like rash physicians, who commence by over-physicking a patient, until
he is reduced to a state of weakness, from which cordials are afterwards
unable to recover him.

But these events were still in the womb of futurity. As yet the Scottish
Parliament held their engagement with England consistent with justice,
prudence, and piety, and their military undertaking seemed to succeed to
their very wish. The junction of the Scottish army with those of Fairfax
and Manchester, enabled the Parliamentary forces to besiege York, and to
fight the desperate action of Long-Marston Moor, in which Prince Rupert
and the Marquis of Newcastle were defeated. The Scottish auxiliaries,
indeed, had less of the glory of this victory than their countrymen
could desire. David Leslie, with their cavalry, fought bravely, and to
them, as well as to Cromwell's brigade of Independents, the honour of
the day belonged; but the old Earl of Leven, the covenanting general,
was driven out of the field by the impetuous charge of Prince Rupert,
and was thirty miles distant, in full flight towards Scotland, when he
was overtaken by the news that his party had gained a complete victory.

The absence of these auxiliary troops, upon this crusade for the
establishment of Presbyterianism in England, had considerably diminished
the power of the Convention of Estates in Scotland, and had given rise
to those agitations among the anti-covenanters, which we have noticed at
the beginning of this chapter.