All night Cromwell rode along and among his regiments of horse, biting his lip till the blood ran down his chin.

Leslie thought to surprise Cromwell; Cromwell surprised Leslie, crossed the Broxburn on the low level, before dawn, and drove into the Scots who were all unready, the matches of their muskets being wet and unlighted.

The centre made a good stand, but a flank charge by English cavalry cut up the Scots foot, and Leslie fled with the nobles, gentry, and mounted men.

In killed, wounded, and prisoners the Scots are said to have lost 14,000 men, a manifest exaggeration.

It was an utter defeat.
"Surely," wrote Cromwell, "it is probable the Kirk has done her do." The Kirk thought not; purging must go on, "nobody must blame the Covenant." Neglect of family prayers was selected as one cause of the defeat! Strachan and Ker, two extreme whigamores of the left wing of the godly, went to raise a western force that would neither acknowledge Charles nor join Cromwell, who now took Edinburgh Castle.