These reasons so prevailed that at length he withdrew Then do the Nobles and Ministers inquire into the Authors of the Kings coming and order almost a thousand Horse and two thousand Foot to be disbanded as being Malignants or that they had not at all or too late taken the Covenant without any previous signs of Repentance But Cromwell at that time knew none of these things who without any ransome sent the Prisoners whom he had taken in his own Coach to Edenburrough that by that good Office he might oblige the Kirk having not as yet lost all hopes of the Ministers or at least that he might have an occasion of getting Intelligence of the affairs of the Enemies Cromwell marches back to Dunbar where the Ships rode at Anchor that he might refresh his faint Souldiers with Provisions give them some rest and draw the Scots farther off from their Camp but being impatient of delay after a few days he marched back again and found much rejoycing and feasting at Edenburrough for the departure of the English which his sudden approach quickly put a stop to David Leslie is sent to Cromwell from the Comittee of the Kirk to acquaint him That the King stumbling at and refusing to subscribe to the Declaration offered him by the Committee of Estates and Commissioners of the Kirk concerning his former Carriage and resolution for the future is cause of just Grief and Offence in reference to the Cause of God and the Enemies and Friends thereof And therefore they do declare that they do not nor will not espouse any malignant Party or Quarrel but that they fight meerly upon their former Grounds and Principles in the cause of God and the Kingdom nor will they own the King nor his Interest farther than he owns and prosecutes the Cause of God c. Cromwell perceiving that there was no way to allure the Scots to a Battel marches towards Pentland Hills and in sight of the Army takes in Collington and Red-house both garrisoned by Souldiers that so he might draw the Scots out of their Trenches But when neither that could do he drew up his Army marches too and again about the Camp views provokes them and threatens a present attempt Nevertheless the Scots keep to their resolution sometimes indeed skirmishing with and harassing the Enemy but not daring to put it to the tryal of a Battel Until the Souldiers were enured by Skirkmishes and slight Engagements to look the Cromwellians in the Face use their Arms and lay aside all fear and that they might at length with no great labour defeat Cromwell's Forces tired out and weakned by the badness of Air Cold Hunger watching and frequent Skirmishing But because a rumour was spread abroad that the Scots kept within their Dens and lurking holes with a whole Skin not daring like Cowards to hazard a Battel that they might wipe off that Aspersion they send a splendid message to Cromwell to assure him that within a few days he should have experience of the contrary And that they might be as good as their word two days after drawing out their Forces they march to the right hand as towards Sterling and after a short march halt Cromwell that he might not seem to decline an opportunity of Fighting now by them offered advances against and follows them But when he came within Musquet-shot of the Enemy he puts Spurs to his Horse and advances that he himself might view what it was that hindered the Scots from coming on Finding a great Marish there which could not without difficulty be passed over with his great Guns which was all he could do he thunders against the Army to which the Scots on the other side return the like answer This roaring of great Guns lasted about the space of two hours with no great loss on either side and then both draw-off put an end to that kind of Mock-fight Cromwell returning to his Camp on Pentland Hills has intelligence that the Enemy was about to surprise Musselbrough and intercept the Provisions which he usually received in Boats from Dunbar Therefore they march thither in the dead of the Night and having refreshed the Army they put on board Ships fifteen hundred Men who being sick or wounded were not able to carry Arms and the rest march towards Haddington The Scots are at their heels Skirmishing with them in the Reer and flouting and jeering them nor were they sooner encamped but that they were set upon yet only to disturb and allarm them not to engage them with the whole Army Next day the Cromwellians march to Dunbar midway betwixt Berwick and Edenburrough upon the Sea shoar Lamner-moor Hills to the South being almost impassable The Scots sent a Body of Men to Cobberspath who though they were but few in number might hinder a far greater to pass over the Hills and pitch their Camp about Dunbar This being a very Rainy night the Officers rambled up and down and the private Souldiers I know not by whose Order had put out their Matches which as it usually happens when things go amiss was imputed to Treachery though there was a strong Guard kept next to the English But Cromwell having that night refreshed and cherished his Souldiers in good Lodging in the Town of Dunbar divided his Forces about break of day and sends Lambert first to charge the main Guard of the Scots he himself follows after and after a sharp dispute wherein most part being wounded many were killed he dispersed them all and follows them to the Camp where presently there was nothing but noise and confusion Men running to and again they knew not whither the groaning and sighing of dying Men shouts and joyful acclamations of the Conquerours flying and slaughter Three thousand are killed nine thousand taken Prisoners fifteen thousand Arms all the Artillery and Ammunition with above two hundred Colours fall into the hands of the Victorious The Prisoners after the wounded sick and weak and those that were of no value were set at liberty are sent to New-Castle in England where by the Governour Haselrig many of them were starved having nothing to eat but green Cabbage Leaves and Oats in a small proportion The more Robust that out-lived this Diet are condemned to the Sugar-Mills and by the English Planters are transported to the West-Indies Whilst these things were acting the Pulpits of Edenburrough resound with Prayers and promise a certain and speedy Victory and that the Feet of those who brought glad tydings were at hand But whil'st they are hourly in expectation of joyful they receive sad and sorrowful news Leslie himself arrives about ten of the Clock the same day and assures them of a total overthrow So dangerous a thing it is to pass a Judgment of God Almighty and by the line of our weak Reason to fathom the depth of unsearchable Providence For the purposes of a sincere heart are
the Booty which they thought themselves sure of whisper about that they observed the Enemies Horse feeding without the Walls and that if an old demolished Castle called Baggoâ—s-wreath about a Musquet shot from the Walls were new Fortified which might be done in a Nights time the Enemy might be hindred both from Forage and Provisions which being wanting Dublin must of necessity be surrendred within the space of a Week And therefore they earnestly desire that before they drew off they might have leave to attempt this The Counsel upon viewing the place was thought good and it was not long before the Army was drawn out and a choice made of Pioneers for the Work To whom Orders were given to repair the Castle raise it higher and cast up a Wall about it whilst the Horse and Foot were in readiness behind to defend them About Mid-night the Lord Lieutenant came thinking that the work had been almost finished but finding that it was not as yet begun by their mistaking the way having severely chid the Labourers and placed another Overseer over them he encourages them to the work then returning to the Camp he kept Watch all the rest of the Night and by break of day gave Orders that the Army should stand to their Arms and be in a readiness whilst he refresh'd himself a little in Bed But before he had been there an hour he was wakened out of sleep by the noise and firing of Shot and starting up immediately to see what the matter was Alas he found too late that the Souldiers had been negligent in keeping Watch and that in the mean time Jones had broken in into that half-repaired Castle and that the Captain of the Guard being at first onset killed all his Men were turned to a shameful flight These things succeeding so well with the Enemy their boldness as it usually happens increasing with their good Fortune not only the whole Souldiers to the number of twelve hundred Horse and four thousand Foot but a great many of the Citizens also came rushing out of the Town and fiercely charge the Kings Forces who were in disorder putting all into Confusion there being nothing but Horror Noise Slaughter and flying of Men to be heard or seen In this deplorable state of Affairs the Lord Lieutenant having with Sword in Hand Prayers and Intreaties in vain endeavoured to stop and rally the Fugitives he breaks through the thick of the Enemy crosses the River and encourages Dillo with all speed to come to the assistance of the Army and fall upon the Enemy now wearied and busie at Plunder But he finds them tho they had not as yet seen the Enemies Face seized with a panick Fear throwing away their Arms and betaking themselves to flight In this fatal Engagement the wealthy Camp is plundered and all that during the space of a whole year had been with much Labour and most diligent care gathered together is scattered in the twinkling of an Eye Three thousand Men were killed two thousand and one hundred private Souldiers an hundred and fifty Officers higher and lower taken above eight thousand Arms the Tents Warlike Engines all the Baggage and Ammunition fell all into the hands of the devouring Enemy A great Overthrow indeed and which gave an incurable wound to the Royal Cause in Ireland The Kings Souldiers taking the advice that was given them in their slight betake themselves to Drogheda The Lord Lieutenant hastens to Kilkenny that he might muster his broken Forces having upon his march summoned the strong Castle of Bellison upon pretext that Dublin was taken which surrendred There having represented to the Convention of Estates that were still sitting what loss he had sustained and having moved them for Supplies and Money he sets forward to Drogheda with three hundred Horse And that in a very opportune time for Jones had hastned thither with some Horse that by the sole presence of the Conquerour he might reduce the City now in disorder by the news of the late overthrow and confusion of the Souldiers But the coming of the Lord Lieutenant scaring away Jones the Fear and Danger were both quickly over Next he Fortifies Trim Neury Dundalk and other neighbouring places putting strong Garrisons where it was needful he views all places gives Orders and prepares for a vigorous defence being resolved to meet Cromwell if he came that way whilst his Horse relieving the places that were in danger he might in the beginning of the Spring raise a new Army But in that also his hopes were in vain For Cromwell having received the glad tydings of the Victory set Sail from Milford-Haven and that he might pursue the Point upon the discomfited Enemy and carry the Wound home to the Heart he steers his Course straight to Dublin with a Fleet of about an hundred Ships Men of War and Tenders and wholly slighting Munster arrived there in the Month of August One thousand six hundred and forty nine where having put ashore the Souldiers with the Artillery Ammunition and Baggage he makes a General-Muster of about fifteen thousand Men most of them old Souldiers for he thought it better to excel in Valour than in Number and to take along with him stout Hands and not many Heads He declares Jones Lieutenant-General Ireton Major-General and Reynolds General of the Horse assigning to every one their several Offices He orders Venables to march to Derry to the Elder Coot with a Regiment of Horse and two Regiments of Foot He himself with ten thousand Men marches streight to Drogheda having committed the care of the Fleet to Aiskew the Admiral In this Town the Lord Liuetenant had put the Flower of his Veterane Souldiers most English under the Command of Sir Arthur Aston a Gentleman Renowned in the Wars both at home and abroad but for the most part unfortunate And here Cromwell resolved to make his first Essay of the War Aston on the contrary laid his Design to tire out and break the Enemy insolent through Victory by the badness of the Weather Watching and Hunger then expose them to be harrassed and alarmed by the Lord Lieutenants Horse and the Foot that were shortly to be recruited until the Royalists being reassured and encreased in force might have the courage to provoke the Cromwellians and fight them in a pitched Battel But he flatters himself in vain for Cromwell attacks not the place by opening of Trenches slow Approaches and the other acts of a Siege But having forthwith caused a Battery to be raised on the North side of the Town and planted with Guns he so plied the place with continual Shooting that he quickly made two Breaches in the Wall and immediately Commands an Assault to be made that with Courage and Resolution they might force their entry into the place But this having been twice unsuccessfully attempted he himself with Ireton commanding the Attack with Indignation and Courage
only are bound by the Religion of Treaties and Agreements but the Scots not at all Let them pretend their League and Covenant but withal let them consider that therein Religion and the Liberty of the Subject is in the first place to be secured and that the honour and defence of the King is designed but in the second place and in order to the former since therefore these two thwart one another it is but just that that which is last and morâ— ignoble be dispenced with As to what concerns the establishment of Presbytery it was not certainly the intention of the Covenant by force of Arms to impose it upon people whether they would or not unless it could be made out by Holy Scripture and Arguments of sound reason to which they themselves were ready to subscribe Afterwards they profess in the Name of God and with bowels full of love and compassion That it would be their greatest joy if without Arms they might obtain satisfaction and security This they cause to be dispersed among the Scots that came to Market to Berwick thereby to wheedle them and create a good Opinion of themselves and stir up Factions among the People Cromwell also gives the Scots sweet words having published a Declaration and caused it by his Agents to be dispersed through Scotland Wherein he bids the honest Inhabitants through whose Countries the Army was to march to be of good courage he having no quarrel with them and not to depart from their Houses it being his intention to do injury to no man but rather to protect all He moreover puts them in mind of the modesty and good discipline of the Souldiers whereof they themselves were eye witnesses when he pursued Duke Hamilton 's men into the heart of the Kingdom telling them that from that was past they should make a Judgment of what was to come That he took to heart all the concerns of good men and that now he drew his Sword against the Authors of wrongs who had lately polluted both England and Scotland with Blood and Slaughter and who would involve them into new Miseries having admitted into their bosom the King an open favourer of wickedness But he sings to the deaf they being now sufficiently acquainted with his tricks and fallacies For the Inhabitants flying with what Goods they could carry with them betook themselves to places of more security nor was there a bit of Victuals to be found in that Country but what was brought in the Ships that waited upon the Coast About the end of June one thousand six hundred and fifty after four days march in the Enemies Country he came to Musselbrough within a few miles of Edenborrough with five thousand five hundred Horse eleven thousand Foot sixteen field pieces and all sorts of warlike Provisions In the mean time the Scots were not idle but having levied an Army under the Command of Old Leslie with much expedition part of the Forces were encamped and strongly entrenched betwixt Leeth and Edenburrough To whose assistance flocked daily Souldiers raised in all parts who had taken the Covenant and neither served under Montross nor Hamilton No respect in the mean time was had to the King who was left at St. Johnston upon pretext that he had not spent time enough in Prayers and the Works of Mortification for receiving the mold and impression of Presbytery Cromwell afterward draws up his Army in Battalia within a mile of the Scottish Camp and took the Field that he might provoke them to come to Battel But the Scots not inclining to come to an Engagement he went up to Arthurs seat near Edenburrough that he might view the Enemy and consider whether he had not best to fall into their Camp whil'st his Forces were as yet in good plight and the Scots not altogether well prepared But the Officers disswaded him from that enterprise as being full of danger if not also rash Wherefore perceiving that no good was to be done that way he marches towards Musselbrough to refresh his Souldiers leaving a Guard behind that might keep the Enemy in play if perchance they might charge him in the Reer And indeed they did so and beat and put that party to flight pursuing them until Lambert with another Body of men put a stop to their Victory though he received two wounds Many were killed in that Engagement which nevertheless was but as a prelude to the Slaughter of the night following For Straughan had undertaken with fifteen hundred Horse raised by the Clergy to have Cromwell either alive or dead For that end Prayers were poured forth in the Churches and the Ministers roaring from the Pulpits implored nay I had almost said commanded the Victory As if God Almighty had been obliged in duty by all means to assist his own Saints purged from the leaven of Malignancy and joyned to himself by Covenant against King-killing Hereticks and Sectarians In the mean time Straughan falls in suddenly and briskly upon the Cromwellians and puts their Out-Guards into Disorder but with no happy success for the Enemy coming up in Bodies one after another beat off the Black-Coat men and pursued them even to the Camp Straughan himself having been dismounted and with much ado escaping into the Town The flying and consternation was so great that the Pursuers had almost entered the Enemies Camp had not the Kings Majesty who came that morning been happily there For he causing the Cannon to be turned against the Fugitives threatned to Fire upon them if they rallied not and drew up again in order under the protection of the Guns of the Camp that so the Troops one after another might be received into the Camp His Majesty lay in his Cloaths all that night upon the ground without a wink of sleep but the Souldiers next morning being sensible from what danger he had delivered the Army and how much he had deserved at their hands had C. R. marked with a Coal or Match some upon their Hats and Caps and others on their Coats as a badge of their gratitude The Council of War was very angry at these things and the Ministers coming earnestly beg of him that he would withdraw and not expose himself to the dangers of War They pretend to be in Covenant with God as no King was and that That Life which was to be preferred before the Lives of ten thousand private Souldiers was not to be exposed to the Enemy with many things of that nature But the King obstinately refusing and judging it unworthy that he who swayed the Royal Scepter and wore the Crown should fear Wounds or shun the shedding of his Blood for his Subjects The Commanders also come and intercede with him They beseech urge and at length not obscurely threaten that if he would not he might shift for himself and if he desired not to meet with worse usage he would remove to some other place
after the Victory that the goodness of the Cause made them not doubt of distributed amongst the Purchasers and many thousand English listed themselves for the service Nevertheless such was the misery of this Nation that that which is wont to procure some short Peace at least amongst those who are at greatest variance served onely to inflame our Broils On the one hand they who were altogether given to changes buzzing I know not what fears and jealousies into the ears of those who were but too prone to make the worst of things obtain in Parliament that the War be not carried on in the name of the King nor that any Souldier who had shew'd his Loyalty to the King or had served in the Scottish Expedition should be admitted into this War And for managing the War they also prefer factious men and such as were ungrateful to the King On the other hand the King intended to lead the Army against the Rebels in person urging and insisting That he might use the right and power of War which the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom entrusted him with The King at length desiring to overcome his Competitors by courtesie and yielding if he could not by power and strength consents that the War be carried on in his own and the Parliaments name and that the Commissions should run in the name of the King and Parliament granting the Parliament the power of levying and arming the Army and of chusing the Generals and Commanders and the King reserving to himself no liberty of making Peace or pardoning the Rebels without the consent of Parliament Yet neither so did the swellings of the Parliament abate for not long after the Civil War breaking out in England the Parliament make use of an hundred thousand pound raised for the Irish War and two or three Regiments of men that were to be sent over for suppressing that Rebellion for oppressing of the King here at home Nay and they make no scruple to employ the money that was charitably collected for the relief of the poor distressed Protestants and for building of Churches in paying their own Souldiers On the other side the King's Souldiers seize the Ammunition sent by the Parliament towards Chester which so soon as they gave it out that it was designed for the War in Ireland the King commanded to be restored The Parliament that by putting indignities upon the King they might raise their own Reputation alleadging some silly slight suspicions are not ashamed to impute the Irish Rebellion to the King as the Author of it But as the truth was his Majesty retorts the crime and infamy of it with far better reasons upon the factious Members of Parliament Yet these things hinder not but that our Auxiliary forces bâ—at the Irish Rebels and put them to flight in all places kill plunder burn and destroy many thousands of the Natives and by a great slaughter revenge the murder of their Country-men But at the same time they lay all the Country waste and desolate which at length was no less prejudicial to themselves than to the Natives for the War increasing in England the Souldiers wanting Corn Ammunition Clothes Pay and indeed all things necessary and at length being unable to support their wants it is hardly to be exprest what miseries and calamities our Country-men suffered in Ireland and having long struggled with these difficulties and with all importunity but in vain begg'd assistance from the Parliament The Privy-Council of the Kingdom Commanders of the Army and the Souldiers themselves write to the King earnestly begging to be disbanded or employed in other service where they might have any Enemy but Hunger to fight with The King at length seeing the Scots were coming with assistance to the Parliament-forces being too weak to make head against the Rebellion moved on the one hand by his own necessities and on the other by the importunate Prayers of his Subjects commands a Truce to be made with the Irish for a year that in the mean time if it were possible he might make Peace upon good terms A Truce being made with the Irish and Forces being left sufficient for maintaining the Garrisons the Souldiers return from Ireland to the assistance of the King whose fortune against the Parliament at home manifestly declined But the Scots who inhabited the greatest part of Vlster supplied with Pay and Ammunition by the Parliament refuse the Truce as also some English in Connaught and Vlster who lived in good correspondence with the Scots A little after the Lord Inchiqueen who commanded the Munster-Forces having brought over some thousands of men to the Kings assistance when he thought himself not treated according to his dignity and merit flying over secretly into Ireland tampers first with those of Cork and then with all such of the Province of Munster as were on the English side and having drawn them over to the Parliament he rejects the Truce and is presently assisted by the Scottish Forces and supplied with Money Provisions and Ammunition from the Parliament Ireland being now delivered from the English Souldiers the Natives lay hold on the opportunity of recovering the whole Kingdom under the command of Owen Ro General of the Rebels and having broken the truce which they had solemnly made and arming of a sudden they had surprized and seized the Marquess of Ormond not dreaming of any such thing had he not being informed of it a little before by by-ways mays made his escape to Dublin Having afterward joyned their Forces those who were willing to keep the Truce being instigated to the contrary by the Nuncio who produced the Popes Bull they all together besiege the City of Dublin by Land whilst at the same time the Parliament-Ships shut up the Haven The Marquess being overmatched by the Forces of three Nations acquaints the King with his condition who sends him instructions that if he could not defend the City he should rather deliver it up to the Parliament than suffer it to fall into the hands of the Irish Having therefore agreed upon Articles amongst which it was one That he should have liberty to go to the King that he might give his Majesty an account of all the affairs of Ireland the Marquess returned into England and found the King at Hampton-Court environed by the Parliaments Rebel-Souldiers where being informed that he was to be apprehended by Order of Parliament he secretly withdrew into France that he might escape their Snares Not long after when the King was committed to Prison in the Isle of Wight and that the Rebels had cut off all hopes of restoring Peace and Liberty by their Vote of no more addressing to the King of which more hereafter having received new instruction he returned in quality of Lord-Lieutenant into Ireland where he endeavoured with all care to make the best Peace he could and to unite the English Scots and Irish for
an opportunity did not trifle away their time but were busie in all places running up and down exhorting and sometimes preaching to the Souldiers that they might gain their affection by whose favourable assistance they make way for themselves to be elected into the vacant places in the House of Commons For when the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Corporations were about by a free election to chuse new Burgesses in place of the dead or excluded Members with Souldiers in Arms they were forced through fear to chuse the Officers of the Army or such at least as they approved of So that in a short time many of these being admitted into the Parliament-house and the Self-denying Ordinance being laid aside all Offices and Affairs both Civil and Military were managed by the self-same persons And that popular applause and fame might not be wanting to celebrate their excellent undertakings hackney Presses and mercenary Scriblers are set a work to publish all their actions with wonderful Encomiums and Elegies which in weekly Mercuries and Peny Diaries are exposed to the perusal of the News-greedy people and every line swollen with the praises of Cromwel So soon as they perceived the Royal interest almost reduced to a pinch and the Parliament-Rebels in a manner secure of victory they bend their designs against the Presbyterians their rival Faction which though predominant in number of Voices yet began to totter and shake They endeavour to lessen their Reputation and by degrees to weaken their Force publish Libels to disgrace and ridicule the Church-Discipline enveighing against the right of Tythes and the avarice pride and severity of the Preachers Nay and that they might heap more hatred upon their heads they charge them who of their own accords too officiously hastened to bring all into confusion and disorder with the more rigid parts of Reformation that were most ungrateful to the people such as to press their Covenant with rigour upon those that refused to take it exact Fines squeeze money from the people and that they might entail infamy upon them to Posterity under colour of visiting Colledges to banish the most learned men out of the Vniversities Upon pretext of friendship they steal into all the Presbyterian Cabals that by raising scruples and delays their Consultations might turn to Smoak and themselves be exposed to publick Derision Having pretty well succeeded in this they resolve to go thorough-stitch with it by turning out of the government of Garrison-towns and Forts all those who declared for Presbytery They likewise cause all the Forces that were almost in every County though but in small numbers to be disbanded except the Army commanded by Fairfax They send the Scots home out of England by bribes or fear they draw over the leading-men amongst the Presbyterians that they would either openly own their Cause or secretly under the name and badge of Presbyterians diving into their secrets usefully and securely serve the ends of the Republicans amongst whom the two chief were Philip Skippon and Stephen Marshal the first Major-General of the Army and the other a Minister and the Oracle of the Presbyterians both cunning Knaves who under pretext of moderating and reconciling differences minded their own advantages fooled the Presbyterians and not a little promoted the affairs of the Independents The Presbyterians having made sure of Victory and which is more of the King and being as yet more numerous in both Houses are now in greater fear from their own Servants the Army in pay than heretofore from the enemy and being sollicitous how to rid themselves from that Yoke after much debate they appoint That for easing the Country of charges twelve thousand of them should be sent over into Ireland the rest to be disbanded except six thousand Horse two thousand Dragoons and six thousand Foot These to be carried over by Skippon into Ireland and those under the command of Fairfax to be divided into the several Counties of the Kingdom with intent as they said They might be in a readiness to stifle all Tumults in the bud and that they themselves being in a body together might not attempt any Innovations Many Officers and all the private Souldiers that were Sectarians smelling a far off that by that trick they would be wormed out of the power which they had got and the Military authority fall wholly into the hands of the Presbyterians put the rest of the Souldiers in fear that they were to be disbanded without their Pay or all transported into Ireland there to be consumed with labour sickness hunger and nakedness Hence the Souldiers began to mutiny object their little Reasons to the contrary and at length to break out into Sedition The Officers in the mean time pretended in shew to be angry at these things to repress and by all means resist the mutinous common Souldiers but secretly they encourage them in the business and industriously foment their fury And the Sedition succeeding according to their wishes they lay aside the Mask withdraw from London to head the Mutineers in the Camp and all together enter into a Confederacy against the Parliament amongst whom Cromwel was the chief who lately calling God to witness had professed That he was certain the Souldiers would at the first word of command throw down their Arms at the Parliaments feet and had solemnly sworn That he rather wished himself and whole Family burnt than that the Army should break out into Sedition And so they turn out of place about an hundred Captains and Officers who chose rather to be true to the Parliament than to enter into that Confederacy The private Souldiers had opportunity to begin this attempt by means of the Adjutators These by connivance of the Officers were chosen two out of every Regiment of Horse and Foot and had power from their fellow-Souldiers to keep Councils judge what was fit to be done for the common good and by Spies dispersed through all quarters and Garrisons inform the rest These Adjutators at length usurp the authority of Colonels not thinking it enough to have meetings amongst themselves but in Councils of War challenge place amongst the principal Officers nor barely concerning themselves in the interest of the private Souldiers they meddle in the ordering and government of the whole Army and not onely so but bestir themselves also in the affairs of the whole People as well of England as Ireland and in reforming the government of both the chief Officers till the Parliament was by their mutual Conspiracy ruined scarcely mustering against it These men have nothing in their mouths but the Liberty and Power of the People and professedly labour to erect a Democracy giving being birth and name to a popular Commonwealth another sort of Republick The Souldiers grown thus insolent and bold stand not in awe to seize and carry away the King out of the Parliaments custody who upon the
treacherous discovery of a certain Earl they understood was by the Captain of the Guard with full authority to be brought to London and having done so they endeavour to please him with officious and flattering promises of greater liberty and freedom and more dutiful usage pretending to lament his condition as being by the severity of the Parliament in a manner buried alive within his own Palace as in a Prison deprived of the company of his Friends and Servants Professing which to them was more than an Oath that they would never lay down their Arms until they had put the Scepter into his hands and procured better Conditions for his Friends They allow him the assistance of his Chaplains the exercise of his Religion and a free correspondence with the Queen by Messengers and Letters without any examination His Royal Children were likewise suffered to visit him that so far at least he might seem to be at home and to enioy the dearest part of his Kingdom In so much that the Camp seemed to be transformed into the Court whilst his Majesties domestick Servants return with joy to their Master and Courtiers increase daily in number And that they may seem to be serious in treating with the King about the setling of affairs they frame Propositions whereby they gave it out That things were contrived to the best for the interest of his Majesty of themselves and of the Publick to which if the King would condescend they engage on their parts immediately to restore him to the height of Royal Majesty When afterwards the King liked them not as they were proposed by their Commissioners they soften them and made as if they had almost accommodated them to the intentions of the King nay one or two of his Majesties Servants whensoever they had a mind to it were permitted to be present in their Councils of War In the mean time they publish Declarations and Remonstrances to the dishonour of the Parliament accuse them of Covetousness Selfishness Ambition Injustice Cruelty and Tyranny demand their Arrears accuse eleven able Commoners and as many Peers of the contrary Faction of High-Treason and having brought frivolous Articles against them they urge that being excluded the House they may be brought to a Tryal They desire nay command that the present Parliament be within a prefixed time dissolved foreseeing that to be the onely way whereby they might hope to gratifie the People and that a new and better Parliament should be called in place of it thereby to flatter the hopes of wretched Sufferers It is not to be denied but that they proposed many useful things that they might cajole the people wherein they never forgot sometimes obliquely and sometimes also directly to speak in favour of the King and that to this purpose That the King Queen and Royal Family be restored to their just Rights without which they cry no solid Peace can be expected Yet for the most part they play fast and loose by Conditions annexed or ambiguous words so that afterward they might easily extricate themselves from these Promises provided they had the luck to get the better of the Presbyterians But when the Parliament thought it neither honourable nor safe to comply with these military demands the Army inverting now the Cause declare for the King and People and march against the Parliament On the other hand the Parliament with the Londoners prepare for a defence and vote that the King should be invited to London the people in a manner forcing them to it who with importunate Petitions and Clamours thundred tumultuously in Westminster-hall In the mean time the Speakers of both Houses with about fifty Members partly Aristocraticks and partly Democraticks privily flie from London and betake themselves to the Camp in great consternation pretending violence offered unto them by their fellow-Members Citizens and some disbanded Souldiers and demand reparation by Arms yet all this while they left others of their own stamp behind them in the Parliament that might blow the Coals and disappoint the Councils of the rest The Citizens who like men in an Ague after a burning heat fall presently into a shaking cold were easily appeased by the fair promises of the Army That the King should be restored which was their onely desire the Parliament dissolved and publick Peace and Justice setled But the Country-people who heretofore were in a readiness to flock to the assistance of London were now equally disgusted both with the Citizens and Parliament as those who having first kindled the War were still unwilling to put out the flame and seemed to be the onely men that shut their Gates against Peace that was ready to return into the Kingdom What 's now to be done The Parliament desponds and the officious Citizens who were for the Army and Faction open the Gates and without any previous Articles tamely deliver up the City to the mercy of the Souldiers Upon this the fugitive Members are with no small pomp instantly restored to their places The accused Presbyterians flie and some as it is usual temporizing strike in with the victorious Party and the rest lose courage From that time forward the History of the Evils they had done is to be read in those they suffer Some of the Members of the House of Commons the Mayor also and many chief Citizens being committed to the Tower smart for their late fear and cowardise in abandoning the safety of their fellow-Citizens and their former obstinacy and insolence against the King Seven or eight Lords accused of Treason are cast into Prison but afterward the heat of Emulation by little and little cooling and being almost quite over the Prisoners without any Indictments brought against them are discharged from their loathsome Prisons to be an example to others not to presume hereafter to resist Nor could this satisfie them unless also to shew their strength and the continence and discipline of the Souldiers the Commanders of the Army led their men with Artillery and Ammunition as in triumph over the Citizens through the chief streets of London When the Army had now mastered the two strong Forts of the Kingdom the Parliament and the City of London being doubly victorious over their friends and enemies there remained no more to be done but how they might at their leisure settle and confirm themselves in the Power which now they had obtained The Lieutenant and Garrison of the Tower of London are chosen out of the dregs of the Citizens but such as had nobilitated themselves by being Slaves to the Faction the old Lieutenant with the accustomed Garrison being turned out for no other fault but that he favoured the Presbyterians The Commissioners who had the power of ordering the whole Army as also the Colonels Captains and other Officers are forced to turn out to make way for men of a new mould But some may think that it was overdoing that when
more willing to serve the end it was at the same time voted in the House of Commons That the Tythes and Dean and Chapters Rents should be paid to the Preachers seeming to be very sollicitous for the Cause of God and Religion when in reality they intended to cheat the Church of them and to convert them to profane use Nay the Justices of Peace are everywhere enjoyned to force the Laicks who refused to pay them They likewise hoped to stir up the people by Emissaries and Souldiers everywhere dispersed by Anabaptists Schismaticks and Hereticks who were most diligent in propagating their affairs to approve what the Parliament had done by congratulatory Addresses and to demand some severer punishment to be inflicted upon the King But it happened contrariwise for three Answers and Apologies at least came out within a short time one of which was written with the Kings own hand wherein his Majesty was most clearly acquitted from those reproachful Imputations and the Accusations retorted upon the Faction it self which was proved to be guilty of all the crimes that it maliciously and falsly fastened upon the King and that with so great evidence and perspicuity that no man durst offer so much as to mutter against it In the mean time the Ministers coldly obey their commands and some few gratulatory Addresses by the industry of Sectarians are with much ado extorted from a few Counties and signed but with the hands of some obscure and notoriously malicious Villains Now the people began to grumble and fret to accuse the Sectarians and especially the Souldiers of juggling and imposture and to curse them all Afterwards came Petitions from a great many Counties and those also which always were for the Parliament earnestly intreating that a personal Treaty might be had with the King that the Army might be paid and disbanded that assistance in the mean time should be sent over into Ireland that England might be eased from Oppressions and from contributing to the charges of an unnecessary Army which it was no longer able to bear At length it came to that that a great many of these humble Petitions signed with the hands of infinite numbers of men had almost confounded the repugnancy of the Parliament the Commanders of the Army in the several Counties and the Parliament Commissioners who for the most part did all now comply with the victorious Party in vain using all their endeavours by threats of sequestrations imprisonments banishment and death and now and then by flattery and golden promises to make them desist and be silent Nor can we pass over without a remark the changing Tides of Divine Vengeance or of Popular Inconstancy whilst the very same Parliament from which the first tumults of petitioning against the King had their rise does now complain that the dignity of the Members are endangered by an undesired confluence of Petitioners The first that led the van in petitioning were the Essex-men in numbers unusual before these times who were so many that they might have compelled those whom they came to supplicate Next came the Surrey-men who being unarmed were upon a slight occasion barbarously treated by the Souldiers near the very door of the Parliament-house being severely beaten forced to flie some killed more wounded all plundered and that by order of the House and command of the Officers nay the Rioters had the thanks of the Lower House and rewards for the fact that so the people might for the future beware of licentious petitioning which heretofore was judged a part of their Right But all they get by their Tyranny in labouring to stifle the Grievances and Complaints of the opprest people was to incense the other Counties to ply them more frequently with Petitions who seeing they could procure no remedy by complaining from Prayers and Petitions they betake themselves to Arms. The liberty of the King and People which heretofore the deluded Rabble thought to be inconsistent are again born in colours by the men of Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk York-shire and other Northern Counties South and North Wales also and at length of Surrey who were inflamed with a greater desire of vengeance many Nobles the Earl of Holland Wiot and Duke of Buckingham c. who were unluckily discovered to have entered into a Conspiracy at London joyning them too hastily The Sea-men also being carried with the same tyde of Commiseration towards the King fall off and seventeen men of War having put the Republican Admiral Rainsborough on shore come over to Prince Charles The Scots also by order of their Parliament take up Arms for delivering the King out of Prison wherein he was basely detained and make an Irruption into the Northern parts of England with a numerous army under the command of Hamilton being joyned by Sir Marmaduke Langdale with a considerable body of English But whether it was the wonted ill fortune of the King or of Hamilton himself or rather the decree and purpose of Almighty God the English first by intervals and one after another were routed and killed by the enemy for it was a matter of small difficulty for an old Army provided with Ammunition and all other necessaries of War commanded by vigilant and expert Generals and Officers to defeat and put to flight a tumultuary body of raw Country-men rather than Souldiers destitute of Arms and warlike provisions and for most part without Commanders whilst they come to engage by Parties one after another Nevertheless Colchester in Essex and Pembrooke the chief Town of that County in Wales though they were unprovided for a Siege gave the Rebels no little work to do Nor did Pontfract-Castle fall dishonourably into their hands out of which about thirty Horsemen breaking through the Forces that besieged the place pulled Rainsborough lately Admiral and now General of the Northern Army who had brought some thousands of Auxiliary Troops to make an end of the Siege out of his Bed in Duncaster a fortified Tower twelve miles distant from Pontfract and because he refused to be carried away with them as a Prisoner killed him Nay the Garrison being reduced to the utmost extremity all had free liberty to depart to their own houses except two Souldiers to whom it was permitted even by Articles either to die in the Bed of Honour fighting or to arm themselves and strive to break through the enemy Which both of them watching their opportunity got on horseback and performed almost without a wound The Scots through the unskilfulness and cowardise of their Generals or which I am not willing to suspect their treachery leading the Army in two bodies forty miles distant one from another are without any trouble routed by Cromwel who unexpectedly falling upon the main body put it to flight and all the rest into consternation many being killed and taken amongst whom was Hamilton the General The rest he pursued into Scotland where
commanding him to refrain from the execution of his power so long as the Conference and any hopes of Peace continued Whilst the Conference lasted the King that he might not still suffer so hard usage and that he might try how the Members of Parliament were affected towards him gave some very just and useful Proposals to be sent to the Parliament First he desires That he may have leave to repair forthwith to Westminster or any of his houses near London where he may treat with his Parliament at nearer distance with honour safety and freedom Which desire the Parliament having felt the pulse of the City and being encouraged under the hands of the most part and best of the Citizens promised so soon as the Propositions were granted should be allowed him Secondly the King demands That he may be restored to the possession of the Lands and Revenues of the Crown Thirdly That he may have compensation for his lawful Rights which the Parliament have thought fit to abolish To these also the Parliament willingly consent Fourthly That by an Act of Oblivion the memory of all things that had been done in time of the War might be abolished To this Proposal they did not consent but with cautions and limitations that gave liberty to the Parliamentarians to bring Actions against any almost of the Kings Party Matters being near composed beyond all mens expectation though perhaps not so as every one desired the Commissioners for Pacification full of thoughts of Peace promised the same to the King though in that they were false Prophets for they thought as well they might that the Parliament would in some measure abate in their rigid demands when the King to mollifie them had stript himself of the Government both of England and Ireland Nay the glad hopes of Concord begun to cherish the drooping minds of all people which without doubt would have followed had not factious and rebellious men who by clandestine arts had already driven us into a War now openly and with force of Arms disappointed the desired fruit of the Conference and the Peace that was ready to be concluded Now in what manner they accomplished that it will be necessary I should with all possible sincerity relate In the heat of the Conference that part of the Army which had prospered in the War and was returned home victorious commanded by Fairfax whom Ireton as a bad Genius haunted was encamped so near London that in half a days time they might march thither and suppress their unprovided Adversaries if any sudden occasion required In the mean time Fairfax Ireton and the rest of the Colonels behaved themselves very submissively in publick pretend that they will always obey the Ordinances of Parliament and that publick Peace will be to them of all men most acceptable that so being eased from the fatigues and labours of War they may mind their own affairs and after so much toil and danger at length enjoy rest and peace But privately having consulted with the Members of Parliament of their own Faction they suffer Consults to be held amongst the inferiour Officers and private Souldiers of the Army and at the instigation of their Emissaries Petitions to be framed wherein it was desired that the Treaty with the King should be broken up and all the Enemies of the Commonwealth indifferently thereby craftily glancing at the person of the King brought to condign punishment These also they caused to be printed and published that they might feel the pulse of the people Nor was it doubted but that the chief Commanders and Colonels were the Authors of those Petitions and that by their Emissaries and particularly by Hugh Peters a Renegado from and the reproach of the Ministery an impudent saucy fellow they were dispersed into all places whereby they wheadled the Souldiers who in their own nature were sufficiently prone to Booty and Innovations In the mean while the Country-people whom we mentioned before to have made some stirs being dispersed and Garrisons and Governours placed in the several Counties all the Souldiers of the Kingdom are commanded to repair to Fairfax's Camp who in great numbers many following the prevailing Party flocked together victorious and triumphant Ireton upon a rumour spread abroad amongst the people of a difference betwixt him and Fairfax lurking privately in Windsor-Castle and having called some of his Consorts of the Lower House publishes a Remonstrance with great ostentation of words and affected eloquence wherein in name of the Army by captious quirks and subtilties he argues against the Peace made with the King and the Remonstrance of his Majesty nay and desires Justice against the King himself That those Members who the year before had been impeached of High-Treason by the Army might be brought to tryal and that all who staid in Parliament heretofore when the Speakers and rest of the Members of their Faction fled to the Army should be excluded That the Souldiers Arrears should be paid out of the Kings Revenue and the Deans and Chapters Lands to be distributed for this use especially and also for other publick charges That the present Parliament should be dissolved and a better course taken for the future that the people should chuse a Representative which should have the supreme administration of the Government These and several other things of that nature he very imperiously demands The end of the Conference now approaching which the Republicans of both sorts in the Parliament endeavoured by all Arts to stave off and protract that the Army might more conveniently joyn the Commanders of the Army being informed from the Isle of Wight of the progress of affairs and of the opportunities that were proper for their turn call a Field-Council wherein all the Colonels and inferiour Officers meet and there they give themselves to fasting and prayer For we must know that these Sons of the Earth had great intimacy and correspondence with Heaven as they pretended and when they were about to act any thing contrary to the Law of Nature the Light of Reason or the Laws of God and man they used to begin the work with Prayers to Almighty God in a doubtful manner proposing the case and the matter being first discussed between the Majesty of Heaven and themselves they then by turning and winding their Prayers shape an Answer to their designes which like a divine Oracle rendered to the praying inquirers they impose upon the common Souldiers as an Article of Faith though the matter had been long before hatched in their thoughts nor durst any man gainsay it who had not a mind to have his name dasht out of the Roll of the Saints And hence it was that the people dreaded their Fasts and Prayers as ominous Prodigies The Pageantry of their Devotion being over Ireton's Remonstrance was read and applauded too by the Souldiers as if it dropt from Heaven they prefix to it the formidable title
and scornfully raze out of their Journal as an Act unworthy of Parliament New Orders in place of the former pass in this House of Commons whereby they invade the Government by Votes which before they had snatched by Arms. They first vote That all Power resides in the People Secondly That that Power belongs to the Peoples Representatives meaning themselves in the House of Commons Thirdly That the Votes of the Commons have the force of a Law without the consent of the King or House of Lords a plain Horatian Law that what the lowest Order of the People enacteth binds the whole body of them Fourthly That to take Arms and make War against the Representatives of the People or the Parliament is High-Treason Fifthly That the King himself took up Arms against the Parliament and that therefore he is guilty of all the bloud shed in this Civil War that so they might seem to excuse themselves of the Villany and ought by his own bloud to expiate it These were the Preludes to that most horrid and abominable Villany I tremble to mention it which it behoved them to bring about by degrees for trusting now to their great power which indeed was as great as they thought fit to take to themselves they had the boldness to erect a new Tribunal of most abject wretches against the King to which they give the name of the High Court of Justice thinking that its name might procure it reverence In this Mock-Court they appoint an hundred and fifty Judges that they might in number at least represent the people the most factious Sticklers of the whole Faction to whom they give power of arraigning trying judging and condemning Charles Stuart King of England In the number of these they appoint six Earls out of the House of Lords and the Judges also of the Kingdom lately chosen by themselves But the greater part consist of the Commanders of the Army who first conspired the murder of the King and the Members of the House of Commons who were the most inveterate enemies to Monarchy The rest were Rascals raked out of the Kennel of London or the Neighbourhood Amongst these some were Coblers Brewers Silversmiths and other Mechanicks the greater part were Bankrupt Spend-thrifts Debauchees and Whoremasters who nevertheless by the Disciples of the Sect were called Saints Nay there was none of them but did expect impunity for his cheating the Publick Sacriledge Bribery and other enormous Crimes or did hope to glut his Avarice with the Kings Revenue Houses Furniture or gainful places to be conferred upon him for so bold an attempt or in a word that was not drawn in and allured up to the horrid fact by the tamperings threats and promises of Cromwel Ireton and the other Commanders of the Army In the mean time there was hardly any regard had to the Lords and it was commonly believed that being now terrified by so many and so great dangers they would of their own accords absent from the House except four or five that were slaves to that Republican Faction The Rebels thought that the authority of these was sufficient to confirm any attempt whatsoever as they had already oftener than once experienced Nor indeed were their hopes altogether frustrated However when the matter came to the push their luck proved somewhat worse than they expected for a few Lords used daily to come to the House but that day when the Bill for trying the King was to be brought to the Lords House for their consent unexpectedly seventeen Lords were present who all not excepting those who favoured the Republicans not onely deny their consent but cast the Bill over the Bar as destructive and contrary to Law This inraged the Oligarchick Rebels and put them upon thoughts of revenge taking it hainously that so publick an affront and disgrace had been put upon them However at present they thought it enough to dash all the Lords out of the number of the Kings Judges By and by also the Judges of the Kingdom were struck out of that black List because being privately asked their opinions in that affair though through the interest of this Faction they had been lately by authority of Parliament raised to their places they had answered That it was against the known and received Laws and Customs of England to bring the King to a Tryal For a President of this Court who might match it in fame and reputation they pitch upon one John Bradshaw a base-born broken Pettifogger a fellow of a brazen forehead and an insolent and sawcy tongue who a little before was of no value amongst those of his own Gang. One Cooke they make Attorney-General a fellow of the same stamp poor guilty as was reported of Polygamy who had plaid a thousand tricks and cheats to get Bread and now was ready to do any villany in hopes of profit They privately consult for some days about the matter and form of the Arraignment or the manner of perpetrating the Villany where in drawing the Kings Indictment one Dorislaus a Doctor of the Laws a German who was either banished or had fled his Country took the greatest pains In the mean time all the Presbyterian Ministers of London in a manner and more out of several Counties yea and some out of the Independents also declare against the thing in their Sermons from the Pulpit in Conferences monitory Letters Petitions Protestations and publick Remonstrances They earnestly beg That contrary to so many dreadful Imprecations and Oaths contrary to publick and private Faith confirmed by Declarations and Promises contrary to the Law of Nations the Word of God and sacred Rules of Religion nay and contrary to the welfare of the State they would not defile their own hands and the Kingdom with Royal Bloud The Scots by their Commissioners protest against it The Embassadours of the States General of the Vnited Provinces if they faithfully perform'd their Masters Orders intercede Some English Noblemen to wit the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford and Earl of Lyndsey c. do what lies in their power they neither spare prayers nor money offer themselves as Hostages or if the Republicans demanded it their lives as being onely guilty if the King had offended in any thing The people whisper their rage for that was all they could now do hardly restraining their unarmed fury Our present King then Prince CHARLES used all means to assist his Father in this danger Besides the Embassadours of the States General whom he had procured to be sent he daily dispatched Agents as well from the Prince of Orange as himself and such as were Relations Kinsmen and Friends to Cromwel Ireton and the rest of the Conspirators who being warranted with full power might by prayers promises threats or what arguments they judged fit either disswade them from that unparallel'd Barbarity or at least for
be embowelled by a rascally Quack-Physician and some Surgeons of the Army most inveterate Enemies to the very name of a King his Majesties own Servants being removed who had orders carefully to enquire which was the same to them as if they had been commanded positively to affirm whether he had not the Venereal Distemper or any signs of Frigidity with a designe to take an occasion from thence of branding either himself or Posterity with Infamy But that Villany was crushed in the Egg by the presence of an honest Physician who getting to be admitted to the Dissection overawed them by his reverence and authority the same person having also reputed that by the healthfulness and vigour of his Constitution he might have outlived most men so that all who consider the humourous temper both of his body and mind are fully now satisfied of it Nay that they might strain their Malice to the highest pitch of Cruelty they make no less scruple to murder the Soul of the King and as easily damn him to the flames of Hell as they are wont to canonize all their own for Saints They make it their business also to blacken his Memory amongst men they cause his Statue that stood over the Porch of St. Paul's Church and another that was placed amongst the Statues of his Predecessors in the Royal Exchange of London to be thrown down putting these words into the empty Nich Exit Tyrannus regum ultimus most false both in the presage and crime They employ the mercenary Pen of the Son of a certain Sâ—rivener one Milton from a musty Pedant â—ampt into a new Secretary whose Talent lying in Satyrs and Libels and his Tongue being dipt in the blackest and basest venome might forge an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Image-breaking and by his livid and malicious Wit publish a Defence of the Kings Murder against Salmasius They rob the Bishop of London who was long kept a Prisoner of all the Papers which his Majesty had delivered unto him and ransaking all Clothes Trunks and Boxes they search into every corner that they might hinder any Paper written with the Royal hand from coming into the publick by which indeed they deprived mankind of many rare Monuments of Prudence and Piety Nevertheless by the extraordinary providence of Almighty God to their eternal shame and confusion and the everlasting praise of the boundless and Royal Virtue of the King a Book of MEDITATIONS or SOLLILOQVIES saw the light a posthumous work of which whosoever impartially considers the weight of matter the quaintness of stile the strength of Reasons and the ardour of Piety must in spight of Envy acknowledge that amongst Writers he deserved the Kingdom and that those ill minds that wrested from him the Civil Government must render him the dominion of Letters No King not onely of Britain alone but that ever sate upon the Throne left the World more bewailed and lamented For the news of his death being spread over England made women miscarry cast both men and women into Fits Convulsions and Melancholy nay some were so surprized that they outlived not the suddenness of the Consternation The Pulpits in all places uttered nothing but Sighs and Groans The same persons with useless grief bewailing him now he was gone who because of difference of Opinion concerning Church-government had no great kindness for him whilst he was alive The very little Children who seldom mind such things bursting out into Tears could hardly be comforted Men of all sorts and almost of all Sects enlarged in his praises comparing him to Job David and Solomon for Patience Piety and Wisdom Nor can I my self forbear in this place to hoist sail and with all the skill I have launch out into the Ocean of his Virtues though the nature of an Abridgment I am now about does lay an embargo upon my liberty I shall therefore by a few and those clouded beams give you what sight I can of that Sun He was indeed a Prince to be reckoned amongst the best of all past Ages whose great endowments of mind and greater Virtues rendered him in the opinion of all even his greatest Enemies Worthy of Government if he had not governed who by all mens confession attained to that height of perfection that he was the same in all places and at all times that the course of his Virtues was even and steddy his countenance and looks the same in the most different kinds of fortune that he had tried as if from the Torrid he had removed into the Frigid Zone without the least alteration in his temper Who pleased even the unwilling and as by a kind of Charm mitigated the hatred of many won his enemies to Friendship and turned Railings into Praises Who so excelled in Prudence and all Heroick Virtues that through Calumnies and Reproaches he shone out with greater lustre His Enemies feigned him to be a man of weak Judgment but found him to be a match if not superiour to the choicest Politicians and Divines They reviled him as cowardly and fickle without faith and of feminine inconstancy but in Battels they felt him to be valiant perceived him undaunted in Threats Dangers and Disgraces and unshaken in Prison and at Death They slandered him as a Papist but saw him in his Writings to be a Champion for the Reformed Apostolical Religion defending it not onely by his Pen but with his Bloud They who maligned him as cruel and bloud-thirsty advanced to that licentiousness of calumniating onely through the clemency of their King to which the Rebels promised themselves a too easie retreat until by the favour of fortune being transported beyond the bonds of pardon they chuse rather to deny mercy to a Prince of so much clemency than to ask it of him when he was disarmed If any thing could be objected to him it was so far from being a fault in so rare a Prince that it was the height of an unseasonable Virtue inconsistent with so vitious and corrupt an Age that is too much Lenity to the cruel Candour to the disingenuous and crafty a strict Justice and Certitude which is not commonly the Virtue of Kings a Modesty that distrusted his own Abilities and a Mind so far from pride that he was more apt to comply with the worse Counsels of others than to stick to the best of his own as if he had indeed believed the Calumnies of his Enemies to be true He was a great Example of Living but a greater of Dying Whom like slighted and unrewarded Virtue We hate whilst it 's in being and anxiously bustle for when it is gone The great Defender of the Laws being now cut off and the Government unhinged the new Vsurpers thought it time to turn all topsie-turvy and to make Laws according to their own pleasure They order CHARLES the Second by the name of CHARLES STEVART and the Duke of York wheresoever they could be found to be put
Younger Coot he easily put them to the rout so that most part of them being either killed or taken he pursues the rest as far as Drogheda in which place the Souldiers and Towns-People being put into great consternation in a Weeks time he reduced it under his own power About the same time the Lieutenant-Gederal Inchiqueen had notice given him of an Agreement betwixt Ouen-Ro-Oneal and Monck made at Dundalk whereby all necessary Provisions Powder Shot and Mony were to be furnished for the relief of Derry blockt up by the Lord Ards and Scots and that Ouen afterward should make an Inrode into Leinster and Munster that by this Stratagem he might draw off the Lord Lieutenant from the Siege of Dublin To put this in Execution Farell is Commanded out with five hundred Foot and three hundred Horse But Inchiqueen waiting for him in his return charged him routed him and obtained the Booty he intended After that having received fresh recruits of Men he besieges Dundalk which notwithstanding Moncks resistance the Souldiers delivered up after two days Siege with all the Artillery and Ammunition And being thus encouraged by the Smiles of Fortune and chusing rather to make advantage of his Victories than to enjoy them he reduced Green-Castle Neury and Trim. After which good Services he returns to the Lord Lieutenant having left Garrisons in the places he had taken better provided of Men Mony and Ammunition than before But seeing we have in this place made mention of Ouen-Ro-Oneal it is fit we relate a great Action of his before we continue the History of the Siege of Dublin The Lord Ards with the other Commanders had driven all the English Forces out of Vlster only Derry under the Command of the Elder Coot remaining which could give them any molestation It is a City seated upon Logh Foyle where it contracts it self into narrower compass and is on each side beautified with goodly Meadows and Pastures as the Water is inriched with Fishes Heretofore a Colony of English under the Conduct of Colonel Docwray was there established and many Londoners flocking thither afterwards it was called London-Derry the delightfulness of which place drew to it so vast a number of Inhabitants that it became without Controversie the chief City of Vlster Ards used all diligence to reduce this last place but not by Storm Approaches or Mines but by Building new Forts or taking those that were round it that so intercepting all Relief by Sea and Land it might at length be forced to surrender And indeed Provisions being exhausted and all other necessaries wanting they had been reduced to utmost straits had not Ouen-Ro-Oneal in the very nick of extremity and when the Garrison were at the last gasp brought them succour For he though he had been in a late overthrow sufficiently bang'd by Inchiqueen yet hastens with five thousand Foot and four hundred Horse to snatch the City out of the Jaws of the Enemy which indeed he performed very successfully and seasonably For swift-flying Fame having brought the news of his approach Ards thought it safer presently to draw off his Army than rashly to sight this Enemy that had the English in the City to assist him and leave Garrisons in Convenient places that might curb and block up the Town till upon Ouen's departure the Siege might be renewed again But Ouen with the joint assistance of the Besieged takes in all the Neighbouring Forts and restored distressed London-Derry to full liberty Now the Reader is to take notice what Reward he had from the Rump-Parliament for so important an Action He had made an Agreement in writing Signed and Sealed with Coot and Monck for relieving London-Derry in name of the Rump-Parliament which was sent into England to be Confirmed by the Members Letters were likewise sent in Favour of Ouen commending and extolling him for a Just Enemy a strict observer of his Faith a Man of Constancy and Resolution and true to his word and who if they thought it fit would be very useful to their Cause And both of them flatter him with hopes as if there were no doubt to be made of the Consent of the Rump-Parliament The Rump-Parliament trisled away time in deliberating about these Conditions until they might have intelligence of the overthrow of Ormond and of the Successes of Cromwel And then they reject Ouen-Ro-Oneal thanking Coot and Monck for their Faithfulness and good Services they had rendred to the Parliament But without longer digression let us return to Dublin and Inchiqueen who having performed Actions beyond expectation returned triumphantly to Finglass where the Lord Lieutenant had settled his Camp A Council of War being held there it was resolved to besiege Dublin but yet to try first if they could reduce it by Hunger rather than by a Storm and Assault lest that Royal City and Capital of all Ireland might be Sackt or Burnt by the enraged Souldiers and Friends and Foes be equally destroyed It was therefore thought fit to attack it on both sides and for that end the Lord Dillo being left with five hundred Horse and two thousand Foot to block up the North and farther side of the City the Lord Lieutenant himself with the rest of the Army crossing the River lies down upon the other and South side of it But whilst they are passing over to go to Rathmecus where the River being narrower afforded a more convenient place for building a Fort to hinder Importations into the Town the English Fleet comes in view with relief to the Besieged wherein were embarked Colonel Reynolds Commander of the Horse and Venables who had the Command not only of his own Foot but also of the Regiment newly raised by Monck and others They all in Health and good Plight had set Sail from Chester and with a prosperous Wind arrived at Dublin bringing with them all necessary Provisions With them also came no small number of Temporizers who presently flying over to the Royal Camp give it out for a certain that no more Men were to come to the relief of Dublin but that the whole English Army was to sail to Munster where it was clear that many of their Friends and not a few of Inchiqueens Men who loved changes would joyn with them So soon as the Lord Lieutenant heard this he forthwith designs Inchiqueen for Munster with the choicest of his Foot and almost the whole Horse with orders to oppose the Enemy incourage and confirm the Province and to beware of those whose Fidelity and Honesty was suspected He in the mean time resolved to raise the Siege and encamp his Souldiers at some distance in two or three distinct Camps where being strongly entrenched they might assist one another if occasion required watch the Enemy's motion and hinder Provisions from being conveyed into the Town But at the very instant the Commanders repining that they should be disappointed of
though Farell earnestly begg'd it they denied the use of their Boats of which they had plenty to the poor Fugitives nor would they suffer them in this danger to enter the Town nor any of them to Winter without the Walls though it was put to their option to chuse what Men and Colonels they pleas'd nor would they afford them any Pay or Money for providing Victuals and other necessaries Neither did the Wexford Expedition succeed better for Inchiqueen marching thither when he was but five Miles from the place by cross Fortune he met with Major General Nelson who had then Command in those parts Inchiqueen charged him and although he put some of his Men to flight yet he was taught by the rest that it would not be so easie a matter to subdue Wexford And Huson marching towards Arklow frightened him from proceeding farther The Souldiers in the mean time agreeing ill among themselves About the same time Cromwell received a seasonable supply both of Men and Ammunition partly from Bristol and partly from Milford Haven And so being sufficiently recruited about the latter end of February he drew out his Army and resolved to fall upon the Enemy And therefore he thought fit to divide his Forces and march different ways that he might amuse the Enemy as not knowing whither he designed He himself goes before with the light Horse-men and part of the Foot by Maltow the upper way into the County of Tipperary By another way Ireton and Reynolds with the rest of the Horse and Foot the Artillery and Ammuition march towards Carick Broghill with some Horse being left behind to scour the Country secure Munster fly too and again and watch the motions of the Enemy Ingoldsby had Orders with a Select Party to hover about Limmerick where he fell in into the Quarters of three hundred of Inchiqueens Horse with three Colonels and other Commanders and routed them two of which Colonels Broghill condemned to be shot to death Cromwell takes in Cahir Castle standing upon a high Rock in the River Suir as also the Castles of Kiltemon Foldea-Bridge Clogen and Roghill and lies down before Calan a Town of the same name with the River where Ireton and Reynolds joyn him with the other part of the Army having upon their March reduced several Castles as Arkemon Dunder Knoctovery Bullinard and others and having besieged Calan with three Camps and Raynolds having put an hundred and fifty Horse to flight in a days time they take it putting all to the Sword except Butlers Men who being summoned surrendred before a Gun was fired After that they make themselves Masters of Fethered and Thomas Town with the adjacent places And now Cromwell calls Huson from Dublin to joyn him with what supplies the Men of Wexford and the neighbouring Garrisons could afford which amounted to three thousand five hundred He having by the by taken Belsannon and Kildare comes to Lochlin which being without any difficulty reduced he crosses the Barrow and joyns Cromwell The first thing they attempt after this Conjunction making now eleven thousand Foot and about four thousand Horse was to besiege the Town of Gora which place either trusting too much to its own Strength or relying on Ormonds Regiment under the Command of Hammond was to its own misfortune so bold as to make a resistance But after that the Walls had for some time been battered the Garrison began to Mutiny and the place was instantly surrendered the Conquerour inflicting no other punishment upon them but the causing the Colonel and the Commanders to be shot to death From thence they march to Kilkenny through which runs the River Noir a pleasant place and without comparison the chief of all the In-land Towns of Ireland but withall the Spring-head of an execrable Rebellion and the Center as I may justly call it from which all the Treasons and damnable Councils against the King Country and Religion were as so many Lines drawn it was as yet the seat of the Commitee of Estates who upon the approach of the danger fled to Athlome upon the River Shannon upon the Borders of Connaght as a place more secure for their Consultations Kilkenny is divided into three parts one on the farther side of the River the other with a Castle opposite unto it and the third separated from the other two by Walls Cromwell lies down before it and according to the Custom of War summons it to surrender The Governour refusing without more delay he attaques it by force and having observed a convenient place he presently raises a Battery and from thence plays upon the Town The Governour now perceiving the danger causes forthwith two works to be cast up within the Walls with Palisadoes and Engines laid in the way to hinder an entry whilst the Souldiers in a full Body were posted behind to receive the Enemy if they attempted it The Breaches being made in the Walls the Retrenchments within appear Therefore to facilitate the Assault Ewers is commanded with a thousand Men to fetch a compass about and at the same time to attaque the other Town adjoining to this Here they come to blows but with more Resolution than Success the Besiegers being beat off with the loss of about seventy Men two Colonels and other Commanders Nevertheless Ewers gains the Town which though divided from the other yet served to straiten it and distract the Garrison Next Night another Officer is sent over the River with a Body of Men that by break of day he might break in into the other Town which he having performed with the loss of thirty Men whilst he attempted to burn down the Gate to make way into the City over the Bridge about fifty being exposed to shot fell At length the Governour perceiving himself attacqued on all hands and that there was no hopes of relief He capitulates and upon these Conditions delivers up the City into the hands of the Enemy That the Canon Arms and all the Ammunition should be delivered to Cromwell all the Citizens have leave to continue in the place or to remove any where else as they thought fit That the Officers and Souldiers should with Arms Bag and Baggage march to Athlome and that the Citizens should pay two thousand pounds to Cromwell And so in eight days time for the Siege lasted no longer Kilkenny was reduced under Subjection which for a great many years had given Laws to all the rest Next upon the Stage of War succeeds Clonmell a considerable well Peopled Town and walled round lying upon the Suir four Leagues from Waterford This place was defended by Hugh Boy-Oneal with a Garrison of two thousand Foot and an hundred Horse whose Reputation was much heightned by his Pains and Assiduity as having caused several considerable works to be made for the security of the place Hither does Cromwell now convert the stress of the War and having encamped and strongly entrenched himself he
Officers of the Army were again conjured from Hell a new and unheard-of Generation of Quakers sprung up of whom the Parliament brought before them a considerable Ring-leader that I shall now briefly discourse of James Naylor was the Man who had heretofore served under Lambert and now had the impudence to personate Jesus Christ imitating his Words Looks and Carriage And to so great madness he grew that his Boldness encreasing through the Applauses of some and the Admiration of others he would represent him in all things For mounting a Horses Colt he came riding towards the City of Bristol those of his Sect strewing the Way with Leaves and Boughs of Trees and crying Hosanna Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. But the Madness stops not here neither for the distracted Fellow affects Divine Honours as if he could raise the Dead heal the Sick and fast after the Example of Christ At length the Parliament tired out with the continued Clamours of Accusers having cited him to appear before them sentence him to be publickly Whipp'd Pilloried and committed to perpetual Imprisonment But the Parliament being dissolved this Monster of Mankind was set at liberty by an Order of the Rump-Parliament when it revived again About that time Cromwell's Life was in danger from one Sundercome a Republican It was said that he was suborned by Alonso de Cardenas formerly Embassadour in England from the King of Spain and then living in Flanders to kill him He had often taken a House fit for committing the Fact but his Hopes always failing him he got him a Blunderbuss that could discharge twelve Bullets at a time resolving with that out of an Arbor upon the side of the Rode where the Way grows narrow at Hammersmith near London to shoot Cromwell as he past in his Coach to Hampton-Court and forthwith mounting a fleet Horse make his Escape on the opposite side But because there was a necessity of having another privy to the Design when the time that he was to go drew near one Toop belonging to the Guards is engaged in the Plot. But one Assassine betrays another Toop Sundercome who that he might be the first that suffered for Treason under this Government by a new Statute is arraigned and condemned for conspiring the Death of the Protector However some few hours before the time of his designed Execution he was found dead in his Bed though his Body appeared found there being no Marks of Violence either inwardly or outwardly to be discovered Of which thing according to the diversity of Humours People might severally judge as they pleased In the mean while the fiercer Fifth-Monarchy-men and Republicans making all the Preparations they could for a sudden Insurrection against the new Monarchy in the Bud are discovered and presently seised amongst other things a Standard being taken bearing a Lion Couchant with this Inscription Quis suscitabit eum Who shall rouse him This Rising then being wholly defeated Lawson a Sea-Commander Colonel Harrison Rich and several Officers of the Army with Danvers and others who could not endure the Regal Authority of Cromwell are clapp'd up in Prison Lambert also when he perceived that all his Hopes of Succession were cut off by an Ordinance of Parliament began to tack about and strike in with the Republicans Which so soon as Cromwell had notice of he presently recalled his Commission and disbanded him appointing Fleetwood to be next to himself in Power for he thought it neither safe nor fit that he should have the Chief Command in the Army who professed himself an open Enemy to the Civil Government Cromwell in the mean time that he might by fair and gentle means draw over more of the Republicans and endear them to himself promoted many of them into the House of Lords that they might seem to share with himself in the Government but such mean Fellows of no Birth nor Merit raised out of the Dregs of the Rabble who were contemptible and ridiculous to the real Lords and Peers could neither give nor receive any Splendour or Nobility Would ye have a List of some of them Let Pride then lead the Dance a most abject Rascal who had served a Brewer and that he might now with greater security cheat the Publick he purchases a Grant for Brewing Beer for the Protector 's Family and for serving the Fleet at Sea Huson was another who not long before cobbled old Shoes in a Stall Berkstead who heretofore sold Needles Bodkins and Thimbles and would have run on an Errand any where for a little Money but who now by Cromwell was preferred to the Honourable Charge of Lieutenant of the Tower of London Cooper who had been a Haberdasher of Small-wares in Southwark Berry a Woodmonger and Whaley a broken Clothier who had removed into Scotland until the breaking out of the Wars I shall name no more of them that I may not turn the Readers Stomach In the mean time he joyns to them for Companions five or six of the Ancient Nobility and gives them place in the House of Lords who nevertheless refuse to herd with the rest and all refrain the House that they might not pollute their Blood by such a Contagion Others called out of the House of Commons to this Other House prefer their own Seats and will not be reckoned amongst those Peers The two Sons and one Son-in-Law of Cromwell are brought into this House For it is to be observed that he had lately married his two younger Daughters the eldest having formerly married to Cleypole the one to Mr. Rich Nephew to the then Earl of Warwick who lived not long after and the other to the Lord Falconberge of whom now we speak Henry Cromwell his younger Son whom he made Deputy of Ireland and Richard the elder of whom since I am to mention him in the Sequel it will be fit I speak a little at present before I leave this House of Lords That Cromwell might remove all suspicion of arrogating to himself and Family the Supreme Authority he sends his eldest Son Richard into the Country to take his Pleasure in Hunting and Hawking Where he a Man of a good Nature courteous and affable far from the Tricks of his Father receiving the Common People hospitably diverting himself with the Gentry and behaving himself civilly to all besides many good Offices that he did at Court and elsewhere not onely gained the Applause of the People but obliged a great many Persons of Note and Quality But at length his Father took him off of these Toys and by degrees inured him to Publick Business ordering him first to sit in the Committee of Trade then in the House of Commons and now at last having called him as we have just now said up to the House of Lords Besides he made him Chancellor of the University of Oxford one of his Privy-Council and a Colonel of the
been subject unto seeing for at least thirty years he had at times heavily complained of Hypochondriacal indispositions Though his Bowels were taken out and his Body filled with Spices wrapped in a fourfold Cerecloath but put first into a Coffin of Lead and then into a Wooden one yet it purged and wrought through all so that there was a neâ—ssity of interring it before the Solem◠〈…〉 â—rals But still his Character is wanting which without prejudice and waving what we before observed in the series of the History thus take He was born of honest Parents in Huntingtonshire and from a Child gave no obscure proofs of Enthusiasm For as I have had it from credible Persons when he was a Child he reported that one appeared to him in the likeness of a Man who told him that he should be a King which his School-master being acquainted with whipt him for it by his Fathers direction He laid an unsolid Foundation of Learning at Cambridge but he was soon cloy'd with Studies delighting more in Horses and in Pastimes abroad in the Fields However from one Indecent Action the Reader may conclude of the extravagance of his Youth Sir Oliver Cromwell his Uncle an honest good Gentleman far from the Humours of the Nephew after the old manner kept Christmas with Musick Dancing and the other Diversions of a chearful heart a Master of the Revels as the Custom was presiding in their Plays when my Gentleman observing a great many got together daubs over his own Boots and Gloves with Ordure and crouding in amongst the rest whilst they were a Dancing besmears the Clothes of the Master of the Revels and other Guests so that the whole House was perfumed but not with the scent of Frankincense Therefore the Master of the Revels caused him to be Horsed upon a Pole carried upon the Shoulders of some of the stronger Youths and so plunged over Head and Ears in the next Pond there to be throughly rinsed I would add a great many more of such his nasty pranks if I were not afraid to offend the Readers Modesty After the Death of his Father in his Youth he married a Gentlewoman but by his profuse and luxurious way of living in a short time he squandered away both his own and Wives Estate so that he was almost reduced to Beggary Afterward playing the Penitent he gave himself wholly over to the hearing of Sermons reading of Godly Books and Works of Mortification and having hired a Brewhouse as if he would now Brew better than he had Baked he plied the Brewing Trade and Husbandry After that by means of Sir Robert Steward some Royalists and Clergy-men he was reconciled to his Uncle who could not before endure him so that he made him his Heir But shortly after having again run out of all he resolved to go to New-England and prepares all things for that end In the mean time by the help of Sectarians he was chosen a Member of Parliament where finding fit Companions mad partly through Ambition and partly through Zeal and Religion he omitted no opportunity of fomenting Debates and raising Calumnies to the prejudice of the King inventing Tales stirring up the Embers and blowing about Sparks of Division till at length he put all into a fair Flame and Combustion The War afterwards breaking out he served as a Captain and really was so against his own King Charles the First a Prince of ever Blessed Memory But reflecting with himself on the continual Victories of the Cavaliers he told the Parliamentarians that the Rabble would never be able to fight against the King whose Army consisted of Gentlemen because of the disparity of the Cause and Motives Honour moving the one and Pay the other but if they desired to fight with equal Courage and overcome the Enemy they must look out for and raise good honest Soldiers that would fight meerly for Conscience sake or at least place such Officers of their Forces Many have often heard him glory of that Advice Having therefore obtained leave from the Parliament to raise a Regiment by Letters or Messengers he invited the Honest Men as he was pleased to call them from among all the Soldiers in the several Counties with whom he had had any acquaintance and persuaded them to take on with him Wherefore Independents Anabaptists Quakers and in a word all the Sink of Fanaticks come flocking to him so that he made up above a thousand Horse who in the beginning being unskilful either in handling their Arms or managing a Horse by Diligence and Industry became in process of time most excellent Soldiers for Cromwell used them daily to look after feed and dress their Horses and when it was needful to lie together on the ground and besides taught them to clean and keep their Arms clear and have them ready for Service to chuse the best Armour and to arm themselves to the best advantage Trained up in this kind of Military Exercise they excelled all their Fellow-Soldiers in Feats of War and obtained more Victories over their Enemy This was the beginning of the New Model as they called it These were preferred to be Commanders and Officers in most part of the Troops of the Army the places of Private Soldiers being filled up with lusty strong Fellows whom Oliver trained up and kept in very strict Discipline Afterward he was made Major-General of the Horse then Lieutenant-General and at last General till after all he raised himself to the Dignity of Protector and invaded the highest Place of Honour and Authority When he was thus mounted to the top of Preferment his first care was to break down the Steps by which he ascended lest Rivals might climb up by the same means Few have hitherto applied greater Industry than he in the Administration of the Commonwealth What is Philosophically said of others I may with probability affirm of him to wit That he had two Assistant Spirits a good and a bad and that when he knocked his Breast poured out his Prayers Sighs and Tears promising all things that were good he was acted by his good Genius but when by Lying and Fallacies he carried on his Cheats his wicked and Traiterous Designs then was he prompted by his bad Genius or Spirit He was not unworthy of Government had he not invaded it by Villany Fraud Treachery and the Blood not onely of others but of his own Prince also Next day Richard his eldest Son is by the Privy-Counsellors after mutual Consultation saluted Protector and is by a Herald proclaimed first in the conspicuous Places in London and then all over England Scotland and Ireland Nay the Officers of the Army though they hatched in their Breasts contrary Counsels which were not as yet come to maturity came to Congratulate him and under their Hand-writing promised to be true to and defend him But he was far from aspiring to it out of Ambition and
the old man so long as he hoped for a Successour out of his Family and to be adopted in the Army where his reputation was great He secretly despised Cromwel's Relations as too low and unfit for Principality thinking that he alone remained worthy to be advanced to Supremacy Which afterwards more secretly but not more justly he attempted rather than obtained The awe of Cromwel whilst alive gave some check such as it was to the dissembled madness of the Democratical Republicans But the Family of the Cromwels being ruined the British affairs were in that state that amongst the Regicides no faith love judgment nor truth was to be found The furious unsetled Colonels without sense or honesty laying aside all care of Reputation or Justice softened and fed their private hopes The Power of the Rulers was mutually suspected and the Honour of the Nation wholly slighted And the same Army of Cromwel abandoning the Family of their General perfidiously abolished the Protectordom which by perjuries they had established as a brave and memorable Constitution The Rabble also were so inclined that many desired and all accustomed to the Yoke of Bondage suffered the Rump-Parliament though of old notorious for flagitiousness and now for buoying up the aspiring Colonels In the mean time all things were carried according to the pleasure of the Rump and the dictates of Fanaticks the terrour of the present and presages of future evils But the turns of the Government were no less odious than the vices of the Parricides to those who any ways concerned themselves for the Publick In the mean time they were not free from danger whom Quality the suspicion of Loyalty to the King Wealth or eminent Parts rendred obnoxious to the Jealousies of the Rulers The old Souldiers of the King and such as were devoted to Charles the Second in the mean while who had hearts to do and suffer any thing rejoyced in secret having without the loss of reputation or degenerating from the ancient care they were sprung from endured the calamities of Adversity the long insulting and many Rapines of Robbers and all the shams of Fortune with an honest and patient Poverty Though the settlement of Cromwel in the government and the unshaken fidelity of his Adherents had so often defeated all their endeavours of restoring the King yet they carefully eyed the dissensions and distractions of the Fanaticks and the turns and revolutions of the Government And now the mutual clashings of the Rebels gave courage to the Loyal Nobility secretly to contrive the restauration of their Liberty and under pretence of a free and full Parliament the recovery of the just Rights of King CHARLES For that end they made use of the assistance of some Presbyterians an inflexible sort of men a bad presage of a certain overthrow since they are a kind of people that make use of good fortune rather for the subversion than the establishment of Kings Thus a framed Conspiracy all over England produced both glory and danger to the illustrious Undertakers Sir George Booth now Lord Delamere appeared first in the Insurrection in Cheshire He was assisted with the advice and hands by the Earls of Derby and Kilmurry Sir Thomas Middleton Major-General Egerton and many others of less note who having incited their Country-men to take up Arms and having formed an Army they put a Garrison in Chester an ancient City washed by the River Dee Booth himself in the mean time with 2000 Horse and Foot took the Field expecting the aid of all good men throughout England in so illustrious an Undertaking but with more Loyalty than Fortune At the news of so sudden an Eruption the Rump was terrified and being doubtful of their New Government startled at the present Commotions apprehensive of future and conscious of the greatness of their own Crimes they were in fear of all men And so much the more that they knew that Booth was not the sole Head of the Party but that there were many more besides him who hatched the same designes The Parricides had no other hopes of safety but in daring boldly wherefore arming with expedition the fiercest of the Sectarian Rout doubling their Guards and sending flying parties of the old Forces into all Counties and Towns they no sooner smelt out but they prevented the designes of the Royalists In the mean time Lambert is ordered with a body of Horse and Foot to march in all haste against Booth But the guilty Parricides could not think themselves secure unless they were re-enforced with Souldiers from Scotland and the Garrison of Dunkerk and with two Regiments called from Ireland commanded by Zanchie and Axtell After that Booth had in vain endeavoured to hinder their conjunction both Armies come in view one of another near Norwich but the River that runs by the Town hindred the Enemy from approaching Booth had set a strong Guard to defend the Bridge over the River and had drawn up his men beyond it but still inferiour both in number and fortune For Lambert having gained the Bridge charged Booth's Forces so warmly that the raw and unexperienced Country-Rout were not able to endure the shock of the old and expert Souldiers Lambert having put all of them to flight Chester is surrendered unto him Booth after his overthrow hunting about for a safe retreat was discovered in disguise at Newport and taken from whence being carried to London he was clapt up in the Tower His whole Estate which was pretty considerable being seized his head had likewise gone had not a greater destiny preserved him from the imminent cruelty of the Rump For the shortness of their government seems to be the cause that the punishment of Booth's Party was rather deferred than remitted The short-lived Rump in the mean time were not a little proud of the overthrow of their enemies and emboldened by this auspicious beginning of their New Government And the Cheshire-Insurrection was so convenient for Lambert's interest that he reckoned it amongst the favours of his prosperous fortune For having thereby attained which he so much desired to the pre-eminence of a General he intended to triumph not so much over Booth as over the conquered Rump and indeed the mutual confidence of the Knaves was not durable for the Rump was jealous of the Army and the Army of the Rump Lambert in the mean time who had a vast power in the Army exceeding all bounds of a private condition so wheadled the Officers and Souldiers that upon their return they drew up and signed a Petition at Derby wherein after they had alleadged many ridiculous falshood of their dutifulness towards the Rump their affection to the Publick and Liberty of the People they saucily desire the House that the Command of the Army should be put into the hands of Fleetwood and Lambert as the onely means of uniting the Forces in faithfulness and concord which
and under the command of so great a General desire the signal to march Having now confirmed the Souldiers and the Garrison of Edinburough-Castle he put the command of Berwick Leeth Air St. Johnston and other Castles and Citadels into the hands of trusty Officers He turned out in the mean time all suspected Sectarians especially the Anabaptists the Plague of Mankind whilst many of his Horse addicted to the errour or humours of the English Army of their own accord desert him and leave the Foot and the rest who were truer to their Trust He remaintained in their places many of his own Officers who had been lately casheered by the London Council of War which gained him their affection and Fleetwood and Lambert their hatred The report of this Storm coming from the North was quickly brought to London and all things made greater as it is usual at such a distance than really they were This distracted the Councils of the Rulers and put them into no little anxiety However they arm against Monk and appoint Lambert elevated by the overthrow of Booth's Party General of the War and Head of their Faction who was now to engage in another kind of a War and with anothergets General But seeing they stood much in awe of the prouess and conduct of Monk and had him in great admiration they thought fit first to essay him by Treaty Wherefore Fleetwood sent unto him Clarges nearly allied to him and Colonel Talbot who served in the Scottish Army and in great favour with the General to mediate a Peace and Reconciliation With the same purpose of Pacification Colonel Goff and Colonel Whaley followed after with Carril and Barker the great Oracles of the Independents that the Artifices of Preachers might not be wanting in laying of Snares Monk received them all civilly He had many secret Conferences with Clarges To the rest he publickly professed that he had no Quarrel with the Colonels commanding in England about Religion That his whole designe was to revenge the Indignity done to the Parliament and to proceed no farther That if they had rather take up the matter at London without bloud he was willing to allow time for Conferences The Ministers with affected flattery preached up the advantages of Peace presaging from more than one instance that the divisions of fellow-Souldiers would be pernicious to themselves and very advantageous to the publick Enemy intimating the King and indeed their Presage proved afterward to be true But the mercenary and canting Tongues of those preaching Mediators wrought no effect upon an old Souldier who was so well acquainted with their juggling tricks He civilly sends back these Agents of Peace with the same security as they came Clarges in the mean time was before gone to London with more secret Instructions And though Monk now perceived that all Agreement with the Colonels of the English Army would prove fallacious and unsafe yet all things not being as yet sufficiently ordered for securing the more remote Garrisons of Scotland he made his advantage of what was cast in his way by chance and labours for the convenience of his own affairs to protract the time of Treaty He therefore dispatches to London Wilks Knight and Cloberry as Commissioners for the Treaty from the Army in Scotland with Instructions how to delay time where for some time we 'll leave them in Wallingford-house with more complement than freedom debating with Fleetwood's Officers though I am not apt to believe that the desire of Pacification was sincere on both sides Lambert marching against Monk was already got as far as York with twelve Regiments of men he was weak in Foot but strong in Horse Here he found Morgan Major-General of Monk's Army recovering out of a fit of the Gout a man that at that time was judged inferiour to none in Military skill Lambert who was his old friend and knew him to be dear to Monk sent him into Scotland to promote the business of Peace He having followed Monk to Edinburrough in a military manner declared his business and what he was come about but preferring Monk's cause and honesty he took command under him when because of the many Commanders lately turned out and others that had deserted he was made very welcome Monk in the mean time having pretty well composed the affairs of his Army invites the Scottish Nobility to Council first at Edinburrough and then at Berwick where he discovered his designes unto them beseeching them for the sake of their Country and of himself that they would keep Scotland in peace and raise moneys to pay the Army that now was upon the march into England The Scottish Nobility very readily promised him money nay and to assist him with men and Arms in the expedition which was an accession to Monk's good fortune that when he might have made use of so great assistance from Scotland he did not stand in need of it For being a man of a sharp wit he was not willing that Scotland should come under the power of another the Inhabitans being armed nor that they accompanying him into England might render his coming ungrateful at home Trusty Officers being left to command the Garrisons of Scotland the Souldiers rightly modelled and all things in a readiness for the expedition of a sudden news is brought to Edinburrough that the Peace was confirmed but upon so hard and uneasie terms that Monk with anger in his looks severely checked the Authors of the hateful Reconciliation upon their return telling them That if the honesty of some certainly the prudence of all of them was to be suspected and committed Wilks to prison for transgressing his Commission The truth was Monk's Commissioners being by Fleetwood's Officers with a shew of honour narrowly observed and in a manner confined ignorant of the Stirs abroad and imposed upon by false reports of the diminution of Monk's Forces with more haste than judgment had clapt up an unjust Peace In the mean time Monk having had certain intelligence from Clarges a faithful man that Fleetwood was daily more and more despised at London that at York Lambert 's Army was divided and full of Faction judging a delay more convenient for himself than for the Enemy industriously protracted the Treaty Having therefore sent Letters to Fleetwood he acquainted him That the news of a Pacification was very acceptable to him but that he found some things doubtful in the Conditions and other matters not rightly transacted by his Commissioners that therefore that the agreement might be more solid all Officers being removed he desires the number of Commissioners to be increased and Newcastle as a more proper place for their meeting Fleetwood condescended more out of fear than choice but Lambert whose whole ability consisted in charging an Enemy rashly and fatally deluded to his own ruine accepted also of the delays of Treaty Lambert in
the mean time moving from York came to Newcastle and Monk leaving Berwick marched along the borders of Scotland and pitched at Caldstream an inconsiderable Village upon the River of Tweed but now famous by the Pavillion of so great a General It was for some time the Capital of the Affairs of Britain and had the splendour of a City For Veios habitante Camillo Illic Roma fuit Veii was Rome if there Camillus lived The season was very sharp the ground being covered with Snow and Lambert's Souldiers wanting provisions and money were forced to live upon what they plundered from the Villages and Country about the want of Pay being some excuse for that licentiousness Monk's Forces in the mean time being provided of all necessaries kept themselves secure within their Camp Monk's Army more considerable for valour than number consisted onely of four Regiments of Horse commanded by Johnston Morgan Knight and Cloberry brave men and Commanders consummated in War and of six Regiments of Foot under the command of Major-General Morgan another Morgan Fairfax Rhede Lidcott and Hublethorn Price and Gomble were the Chaplains Clark Secretary and Barrow Physician to the General Whilst matters were in this state in the Camps at a distance London was divided by Factions On the one hand the Republican Sectarians whose hopes were founded on mischief stood for the Rump-Parliament on the other the Souldiers in the City were for Fleetwood and the Committee of Safety but juster Grievances were to be heard amongst the frequent sighs of the good Citizens That the Rump-Parliament made up of most profligate wretches was in vain turned out if the Government must remain in the hands of the Commitee of Safety a new name for old Rogues and the Cromwels had fallen in vain if Fleetwood and Lambert must be raised to Supreme Authority Though the soft temper of the one was less feared than the imperious ambition of the other And some there were that at a distance wished well to Monk and looked upon him as a fitter Restorer of their Liberty who taking boldness from despair spared not to say That the Commonwealth was almost undone whilst sacrilegious Robbers contend about the Government that England was never in so great distress nor reduced to such extremity that having suffered the greatest evils nothing worse could befal them And so with bitter Invectives they reckon up the Imprisonments Sequestrations continual Taxes and the other severities they had been obnoxious to That they had long enough born the burden of the accursed Parliament and groaned under the Yoke of an enraged Enemy That the Power of both was abominable and their Bondage grievous That wicked Parricides laughed at their Miseries whilst they falsly call Slavery Peace Cruelty and Slaughter Discipline That since whether they be overcome or do submit they must perish how much more honourably would they perish in the embraces of their Liberty and Country That slavery is less ignominious to those who attempt their freedom and that they had already sinned enough through cowardise That they should shake off the Yoke of the Jangling Traytors and put an end to so many years bondage That the rash attempts of the daring have often been favoured by fortune That secret hopes in Monk wealth in the City the fortune of London and God their Protector were still in being That it would be glorious to themselves and Posterity to have expiated the civil Troubles wantonly begun by their Ancestors and the Royal Bloud of Charles the Martyr by restoring his Son with no other helps than the Loyalty of his own Subjects Amidst these discontented Speeches and City-tumults a vast croud of Prentices and Serving-men got together a bold sort of men accustomed to an insolent kind of City-liberty who tired out by long slavery with a licentious freedom run about in all places in a tumultuary and confused manner demanding a new and full Parliament as the onely Remedy to their Evils But Colonel Hewson formerly a Cobler being by Fleetwood sent into the City with a Party of brisk Souldiers in a moment suppressed the defenceless anger of the Rabble and the headless Multitude and used many severities against the Citizens The Grievances of the City increasing daily Wetham Governour of Portsmouth admitted into the place three Members of the late excluded Rump and Colonels in the Army to wit Hazelrigg Walton and Morley against whom Fleetwood having sent Forces they despairing of the strength of their Friends and having neither money nor credit revolted to the Enemy Nor was this all the misfortune that befel Fleetwood and the Committee of Safety for Vice-Admiral Lawson with a Fleet of Ships true to the Cause stopt the mouth of the River of Thames threatning to suffer none to escape by Sea if they did not again restore the Rump to the power of Government All things everywhere growing worse and worse the Committee of Safety was startled and Fleetwood unfit for adversity who never could bear prosperity and growing daily more contemptible and cheap neither constant in his Resolution nor resolute in his Treachery having sent a fawning Messenger to Lenthal the Speaker he prays and beseeches more slavishly than became a General that the Members being forthwith called together they would take upon them the Government and receive them into favour who confessed their errour And indeed many of the Committee of Safety though they were very desirous of retaining their Power yet consulted about the restoring of the Rump knowing very well that their Government would not be long if Lambert returned victorious from the North. And now General Fleetwood's Regiments selling their souls and bloud for Eight pence a day under Colonels of the Democratical Faction return under the power of the Rump forgetting their yesterdays-Commander who carried the empty Title of General Nor was there any publick Commodity so saleable as the Treachery of the Souldiers This was the Exit of the two months-whirlegig of Government the very names of Fleetwood and Lambert grew contemptible and Safety forsook the Committee So soon as Monk understood that the Fleet were for the Rump and that the Garrison of Portsmouth was of the same mind having speedily recalled his Commissioners he broke off the Conference and Overture of Peace with Lambert In the mean time he wrote to him That since he understood that the Parliament by their own authority had chosen Portsmouth for their Session he thought it not consonant to his trust and modesty by private Debates to constitute a private Commonwealth but rather setting aside the Quarrels of the two Armies to refer the administration of publick Affairs to their prudence and care The Reverend Rump now strikes in again in the last year of their government and probably the best for the Publick though reinstated more by the beggary than the good will of the Souldiers And this was the reason that their chief care was
for money and that the Souldiers might be paid by the spoils of the State Lambert's forces are imperiously commanded back to their Garrisons and forthwith to leave the Field upon pain of disobeying the Supreme Power and forfeiting their Duty And at the same time news was brought to Monk's Camp that the Committee of Safety was broken and the Rump again in power What could Lambert now between hawk and buzzard do he was forsaken by Fortune deluded by Fleetwood's confidence over-reached by Monk under a colour of Peace and despised by the Rump Should he return to London it was a long and difficult march and perhaps as late for the succour of his friends as dangerous to himself having such an Enemy in the rear Should he engage Monk in a Country improper for Horse the ground being covered over with Ice and Snow it would be very uncertain if not in vain since in the dead of Winter his Horse could do no feats What to do he could not tell Nor were Lambert's men truer to their Trust than Fleetwood's had been at London for so soon as they heard of the defection of the London-Regiments basely without consulting their General nay and slighting his authority they submit to the Rump Few now were to be seen at Lambert's door and fewer within nothing but silence and seldom any Guards He was no more General nor cause of the War but where he hoped for Laurel and Triumph he was fain to search a hiding place so that without any attendance he speedily and secretly betook himself to London So fallacious and uncertain a thing is Power when it is too great A certain kind of Triumviral Power now exerted it self in Britain under Monk Fleetwood and Lambert not much unlike to that Roman Triumvirat of Caesar Pompey and Crassus With almost the same gallantry Monk behaved himself in Scotland as Caesar heretofore governed in Gallia but out of their Governments Monk out-did Caesar for the Roman being come into the City offered violence to the Senate and unjustly usurped the Dictatorship The other entering London under colour of restoring the Parliament by a rare instance of Loyalty and Modesty restored the King Nor were the emulous and competing Crassus and Pompey more sollicitous in drawing in Caesar than Fleetwood and Lambert were in endeavouring to associate Monk into the Government for though they contributed their mutual assistance in overturning the Rump-Parliament yet it is certain they hardly conspired in any thing but in the fear that both of them had of Monk Fleetwood was jealous of Lambert's ambition and Lambert could not brook Fleetwood's authority the one could not admit of an Equal nor the other of a Superiour Monk therefore was courted by Letters from both as having it in his power to give the Government to what Party he pleased Nor could Fleetwood have expected better Conditions from Lambert had he prevailed against Monk which those who favoured Fleetwood in his Army perceiving avoiding all opportunity of fighting with Monk lest Lambert perchance getting the victory might turn out his Rival Fleetwood Lambert can hardly be compared to Pompey unless it be in boundless ambition and the unhappy issue thereof and Fleetwood not at all to Crassus But without doubt it was the interest of the Publick that both were undone seeing Monk getting the better restored at length Britain to it self Lambert's Forces in all places having either run away or submitted Monk divides his Army and under his own and Morgan's conduct marches streight to London a march that will be famous in all future Ages and memorable to Posterity On New-years-day having sent before the Foot he moved from Caldstream and the day after he himself followed with the Horse and took his Quarters at Wellar the next day when he was come to Morpet he received Letters from the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of London sent by the City Sword-bearer wherein they earnestly entreat him That according to the great Trust and Power he had having now found an occasion than which Providence had never offered a greater he would relieve the distressed State and call a new and full Parliament as the onely support of their tottering Country freely offering him the assistance and concurrence of the City in the affair And now on the fourth of January Monk having marched his Army over desert Mountains in deep Winter-Snow arrived at Newcastle and the day following sets forward to Durham from thence directing his march to York near Allerton he was honourably received by the Sheriff of the County Being next day come to York he was met by a multitude of Citizens and Persons of Quality and by them splendidly conducted into the City Having performed so great a march in so short a time he rested here five days either that he might let the news of his coming flie before him to London or that having allowed some time he might by his Agents of whom he had a great many in the City be early informed of the Councils of the Rump and inclinations of the Citizens Here Monk met with Fairfax a famous Souldier and his old Companion in the Wars who now following his own humour had risen in Arms against Lambert and was with no contemptible Forces but far greater reputation come over to the right side being now with more honour an Enemy than he had heretofore been General of the same Army During this stay at York Monk received into his service some Regiments of Lambert's Army having changed the Colonels and Officers and no Enemy now appearing anywhere he mustered his Army and sent back part of it under the command of Morgan into Scotland He himself with four thousand Foot and eighteen hundred Horse marches forwards towards London Such was the Army of Monk the least and yet most renowned body of men that ever marched through England which being hardly a third part in number to the enemy buoyed up the fate of tottering Britain and the fortune of Charles the Second The Army marching from hence and being come to Nottingham he was met by Clarges who came post from London a man deservedly of great interest and authority with him He secretly informed him of the designes of the Rump the strength of the City-Forces the suspicions and jealousies of the Sectarians and that the hopes of the Citizens depended wholly on him Upon his march he was met at Leicester and congratulated by Scot and Robinson Commissioners from the Rump upon pretext of doing honour to the General and civilly waiting upon him in his march but in reality as Spies to dive into his secrets and diligently to observe his words and actions Nor was Monk less circumspect but being a great concealer of his thoughts and sparing in words accommodating all his discourse to occasion and shewing the Commissioners all imaginable respect in the Army he confirmed them in the opinion of his sincerity In this long and
not now avail them That it was madness after the slaughter of so many Royalists the killing of so many Nobles and the unparallel'd Crime of the Murder of Charles the First to expect from a young banished man and exasperated by a long Exile a Pardon which God Almighty would hardly give for so many Villanies That there remained then no remedy for them but a daring boldness whilst as yet neither the Authority of the Parliament in the House nor that of Monk in both the Armies was firmly enough setled Let us therefore dare say they and re-attempt Murders Rapines Disturbances of State and all those Villanies that for twenty years past have so well succeeded with us rather than tamely and cowardly deliver up our Liberty purchased by our blouds into the power of an Enemy who will the more cruelly be revenged upon us that he hath been so often baffled and defeated by us Let us either by greater Crimes justifie the past or bury our misfortunes with our lives in the ruine of the Common-wealth Trahere omnia secum Mersa juvat gentesque suae miscere ruinae If we must sink we 'll drown the State And involve Nations in our Fate Having thus concerted a Conspiracy there wanted onely an opportune Leader but then Lambert being the person of greatest reputation amongst the Fanaticks was thought the fittest to undertake that Charge Having therefore corrupted his Keepers he made his escape out of the Tower by night then lurking privily in the City and consulting with the Ring-leaders of the Party they concluded amongst themselves O damnable madness by corrupting the English Regiments and raising Sedition in the Army to renew a Civil War And so Lambert secretly posts to Warwick the place appointed for their meeting Thither came Axtell Okey Cobbet Crede and other bloudy Traytors where being joyned by Turncoats and the disbanded Souldiers of the English Regiments whom they had allured into their Party they suddenly make up an Army and so the unhappy General is once more in command The first that gave Monk intelligence of Lambert's Insurrection was Colonel Streater who was with a Regiment of Foot quartered in Northampton The Council of State hearing of the escape of the Conspirators proclaim Lambert and his Adherents Traytors Monk in the mean time lest leaving the City of London he might bring the publick safety in danger resolved to reserve his main Force for greater occasions and to send in all haste some Horse after Lambert to crush the designe in its Infancy Richard Ingoldsbey acquitted himself like a brave man retrieving by a bold attempt the faults that being a Colonel under both the Cromwels he had formerly committed He having Orders from Monk with a body of Horse hastened to joyn Streater's Foot at Northampton and on the two and twentieth of April being Easter-day within two miles of Daventry came in sight of the Enemy in an open Country fit for a Horse-fight and no less for flight Lambert before his Forces were ripe for Action being thus unexpectedly beset for a last proof of his Valour drew up his men in order to fight leaving the rest that was not in his power to destiny and Ingoldsbey did the like both for some hours mutually expecting the charge Whilst thus they delayed to engage it was reported that Lambert made some overtures of restoring Richard Cromwel whom he knew Ingoldsbey to have been much affected to that so he might save Stakes But he disdaining to see the force of that scenical Prince plaid again they must come to blows Providence appeared in the engagement for hardly had they begun to skirmish but that many of Lambert's Horse turned to Ingoldsbey's side the rest either daunted at the desertion of their Companions or the force of the Enemy took quarters and yielded Which when the Commanders perceived they began to think of running Ingoldsbey charging then home put Lambert hard to it who far below the great fame that he had acquired in Arms his Courage sinking with his Cause and forgetting his former Reputation tamely yielded himself Prisoner With Lambert Cobbet and Crede were taken but Axtell and Okey making their escape delayed but avoided not their deserved punishments And now again Lambert forsaken of his Friends and a Prisoner became sensible of his fortune Yet this fresh madness of Rebels had it not been seasonably quelled by Ingoldsbey and Streater would have again embrewed the Nation in Bloud and Slaughter and turned all things into new Disorders The very day that Monk mustered the Militia of London Ingoldsbey brought his Prisoners to Town who were now led in triumph where they had so often triumphed by their Villanies passing disarmed through armed Souldiers And thus the Civil Wars had an end Not long before March the 17th the Long and Black Parliament dissolved themselves a Parliament infamous for such havock made in the State so many impudent and unwarrantable Undertakings and for the murder of Charles the Martyr being twice garbl'd twice turned out twice restored and at length much more happily ended than begun And now on the five and twentieth of April a new and more auspicuous Parliament assembled being made up according to the ancient English custom of Lords and Commons The Earl of Manchester was Speaker of the House of Lords and Sir Harbotle Grimstone of the Commons And this conjunction of both Houses seemed a natural Prelude to the Kings Restauration For the English accustomed to Kingly government cried that there remained no other way of remedying the publick Distempers but a submission to the rightful government of Charles the Second So was it ordered above that God and man should concur in recalling the King to his Throne And so great was the fame of the Virtues and Accomplishments of this August young Prince that though by reason of a long Exile he was by face almost unknown to all and though he had not had a lawful and hereditary Title to the Crown yet they would have courted him to accept of the Government Nor was he less desirable when compared and put into the balance with those bloudy Vsurpers Nay the compassionate sense of his adverse Fortune and tedious Exile kindled also in his Subjects an affectionate desire of recalling him to his Right And the inconsiderate mistakes of the imperious Traytors at length came to this That the Common-wealth no less desired the King than the King the Government and the languishing condition of the Publick made it as if not more necessary for the English to have a Prince than for him to have a People While these things were a doing Charles wholly intent upon the motions of England leaving Brussels a Town under the Spanish dominion came to Breda which belongs to his Nephew the Prince of Orange from whence he dispatched Sir John Greenvile with Royal Letters to both Houses of Parliament and Letters also to General Monk
make War abroad nor that the King was as yet so well seated in the Government that he could revenge the Injuries of the Dutch that it was not safe for him to trust Arms in the hands of his Subjects which afterwards they might be unwilling to lay down That the English were not now the same Enemies as the Dutch had found them to be under the Rump-Parliament that the warlike fierceness of that Nation was gone with the Sectarians and that there remained amongst them none but a company of silly Cowards That there were a great many Fanaticks in England who perhaps would fight for the Dutch against the King or at least would not fight for him against those who were for liberty of Conscience Nor was there wanting a great many of our fugitive Traytors amongst the Dutch who made these false reports to be believed The bloudy War which broke out the year following was ushered in by the taking of Ships on both sides and Alan with a Fleet of English Ships for securing the Merchant-men and anoying the Dutch in the Mediterranean fell upon the Dutch Smirna-Fleet in the Streights upon their return homewards and having killed them many men sunk some Ships Brakell the Admiral of the Fleet being slain he took and brought off four of the Enemies Ships which was the first booty and glad Omen of the War but one of them richly laden being much shattered and leaky foundered in the greedy Sea Nor was the King so wholly taken up with the thoughts of the approaching War but that he also minded other affairs and his innocent diversions he therefore on the fifteenth of April visited the famous Colledge of Physicians of London and was received very honourably by the Doctors There he saw the Marble Statue of Harvey the chief Pilot of the Blouds Circulation and heard the President Ent with equal Eloquence and Art reading upon the mysteries of Anatomy whom there he knighted There he saw the chief Physician Bates renowned in the skill of Physick and of Latine and Fraser his chief Physician since and Glisson excellent in Medicine and Philosophy and successful Micklethwait and much-esteemed Cox and Scarborough accomplished in all Natural Philophy and no less famous amongst the Muses with Wharton the Secretary of the Glandules and acute Merret besides many others eminent in the Art of Curing to whom at length were associated Willis the great Restorer of Medicine but of too short a life with Lower and Needham who have illustrated the Faculty by their Writings And now was the Royal Fleet ready to set sail divided into three Squadrons the first commanded by the Duke of York Lord High Admiral of England the second by the most Illustrious Prince Rupert and the third by the Earl of Sandwich famous in Expeditions at Sea The other Flag-Officers of the Fleet were Lawson and Alan lately returned from the Mediterranean Jordan Spragg Smith Meens and Tiddiman all famous Sea-Commanders Many persons of great Quality went Volunteers to Sea and though they had no command in the Fleet yet they thought it honourable in so just a War to try their fortune with the Duke of York The Fleet consisted of about an hundred Men of War having on board to the number of about thirty thousand Sea-men and Souldiers and on the two and twentieth of April weighed and with joyful Huzza's full Sails and flying Streamers sailed over to the Coast of Holland and came to an Anchor before the Texel the Enemy in the mean while for all their bragging not daring to come out His Royal Highness in the mean time in the Royal Fleet rode Master of the Seas and many Dutch Ships returning home in sight of the Shore fell into the hands of the English as Booties cast into their way by Providence But his Royal Highness more desirous of Fighting than Prey after he had expected almost a month the coming out of the Enemy upon their own Coast Victuals and Provisions growing scarce came back again to the English Coast giving them opportunity if they had a mind to fight to come out But now the Commanders of the Dutch Fleet moved with the disgrace of being blocked up but more at the Reproaches and Execrations of the people use all diligence to bring out their Ships The Fleet of the States General consisted of above an hundred sail of Men of War in seven divisions which were commanded by Opdam Trump Cartener Schramp Stillingwolfe Cornelius and John Evertsons Opdam in the mean time being Admiral But as the Dutch stood out to Sea a Fleet of English Merchant-men coming from Hamborough in the dark of the night by mistake fell in amongst the Enemies nor were they sensible of their Captivity till it was too late to flie for it and so they payed dear for their unhappy and prohibited Voyage The taking of the English Merchant-men was to the Enemies so joyful a presage of a future Engagement that directing their course towards England they resolved not to expect the coming of the English but not doubting of success to attack them in their own Coast His Royal Highness in the mean time was at Anchor with his Fleet near Harwich where so soon as he was advertised by his Scouts that the Enemy approached rejoycing at the long wished-for occasion of an Engagement on the first of June setting his Fleet in order with all the expedition he could he steers directly against the Dutch Next day he came in sight of the Enemies Fleet by night they were got near to one another and on the third of June with the day the Fight began The Fleet being drawn up undaunted Prince Rupert was in the Van in the Body of the Fleet was the Duke of York and the Earl of Sandwich in the Rear an expert Commander at Sea the Enemies Fleet being in order to engage them The first shot that was fired was from Prince Rupert's Squadron And both Fleets as yet fought with their great Guns at a distance The English had the wind which the Dutch on the other hand strove to gain it being westerly but whilst both Fleets strive for the wind the order of the Ships engaged changing the middle of the English Fleet came up with the front of the Enemies and Lawson who commanded the next Ship to the Admiral bearing in amongst their Fleet they came by a closer engagement to try the fate of both Nations By and by the Admirals of both Fleets by chance engaged together There was great slaughter on both sides and it was a bloudy Victory to his Royal Highness for whether by carelesness or our shot fire got into the Powder-Room and presently blew up Opdam's Ship He flying up into the Air prevented a shameful flight with his Fleet and falling again into the Sea Animam morti non redidit uni Resigned his life to several deaths The loss of the Admiral was attended with the
overthrow of his Fleet and the English redoubling their courage bore in more furiously amongst the Enemies But the Dutch Fleet wanted both strength and courage to continue the Engagement longer and with full sail run for it Now it was no more an Engagement but a Pursuit accompanied with slaughter and the usual calamities of Fugitives for four of the Enemies Ships in the haste and consternation of the flight falling foul of one another were by an English Fire-ship burnt all together Three more of their Ships being afterward in the same manner pestered together were by the next Fire-ship likewise set on fire and burnt Then were many of the Dutch Ships taken and more sunk nor was there any end of destroying and pursuing till it was dark night The Pursuit continued next day with the same vigour and the Dutch fled with the less shame that they had the Duke of York to follow them This was a famous Victory nothing short of the ancient Atchievements of the English five thousand of the Enemies being killed or taken and Opdam Cartener Stillingwolfe and Stamp the chief Commanders of the Dutch Fleet dying in the Engagement There were about eighteen Ships burnt sunk and taken Many of the Enemies swimming in the Sea after the Ships were burnt or sunk his Royal Highness who is merciful in his anger caused them to be taken up having for that purpose ordered out Boats For why should they die who hardly deserved to live It was a greater than joyful Victory to the English the flower of the Honorary Volunteers being slain Just by the Duke fell the Earls of Portland and Fulmouth the Lord Mufcarrey and a Warlike Youth the Son of the Earl of Burlington who joyfully sacrificed their lives to the Honour of their Country and to that Victory wherein they had the Duke of York for a Witness of their Valour and a Bewailer of their Destiny The valiant Earl of Malborough and Rear-Admiral Sanson died also in the Bed of Honour Lawson being wounded in the thigh six weeks after died with Honour and Reputation And though being in a dying condition he could not make use of the Triumphant Victory to which he had largely contributed yet he tasted of the pleasure of it There were not many killed nor slain and onely one Ship lost And thus his Royal Highness brought home the Royal Fleet loaded with Triumph and the Spoils of Victory And whilst the States of the Vnited Provinces were taken up in punishing the cowardise of Commanders King Charles in the mean time conferred Honours upon his deserving Officers and knighted Alan Smith Jordan Meens Tiddeman and Spragg for their brave and good services The Dutch Fleet in the mean time fighting ill having been soundly-beaten De Ruyter in his Piracies abroad had somewhat better fortune After the action at Guiny he attempted other English Islands in America From Barbadoes an Island well fortified and defended he was repulsed with disgrace From thence sailing to New-found-land and having easily mastered it he made prize of all he found there and having cruelly used the Inhabitants plundered them of all and wasted the Island he returned home Upon his return he was immediately from a Pirat advanced to be Admiral being the onely person judged worthy to succeed Opdam in the command of the Navy But for this year the Dutch were sufficiently cowed as no more to fight the Victorious English by Sea Wherefore the Duke of York who liked better to overcome than to spoil his Enemies seeing there was no hopes of any farther Engagement spent the remaining part of the year on shoar But Sandwich being made Admiral of the Royal Fleet set sail again towards the Coast of Holland and offered though in vain a second Engagement but the Enemy could not be overcome till they were found The States in the mean time after their Fleet of War was disabled and beaten off of the Sea were in no small fear and apprehension for their East India Fleet which was upon the way homeward richly laden nor was the eagerness of the English less to catch the Booty But that Fleet having intelligence that Holland was blockt up by the English and thinking it safer to shelter themselves in another Dominion put into Bergen a famous Harbour in Norway Part of the Royal Navy hastened thither and sending five Frigats into the Harbour they attacked the Dutch Ships that lay secure under the protection of the Castle and shore nor did it seem difficult to have taken them had not the English contrary to expectation found another Army to deal with the Danes firing upon them from the Castle The English greedy of the Prey were a little too rash in running themselves into the danger of a double Enemy but their Valour made amends for their boldness A sharp Dispute continued for almost six hours to the vast damage of the Goods on board the shattered and torn Ships and to no small loss on our side especially from the Castle but at length after a proof of great but unseasonable courage to prevent greater loss and slaughter the Fleet retreaâ—ed and seeing they could not enjoy the spoils of the Enemy they had the satisfaction to embezile and sink them as if they had got when the Enemy lost But amidst the Triumphs of War the Joys of the Victorious English were short and interrupted for this was a doleful year through the breaking out of a raging Plague not occasioned by an influx of the Stars nor the French Pox degenerating into a Contagion as some idle men dreamt but as it was more credibly reported by the infected Goods that were brought from Holland into England so that when the Dutch Arms could not beat us their Contagion overcame us After it had by the space of almost one whole year raged in London and swept away infinite numbers of people it spread over many other and far distant Cities and Towns of England Nor could the Contagion be stopt by any humane arts or skill of Physicians before it had carried away above two hundred thousand Souls within less than two years time neither were the days and nights long enough for the dying to expire in nor Church-yards big enough to contain the bodies of the dead though they were heaped together into Graves The King and Court leaving the desolate City removed to Oxford as yet clear from infection and seated in a wholsome Air thither also went the Judges and Courts of Justice The Nobility Gentry and rich Citizens in the mean time avoiding all confluence of people lurked everywhere in Country-houses and Villages The onely persons of great Quality that stayed in London were the Duke of Albemarle and Earl of Craven which was both a comfort and safety to the City in so great a Desolation and Mortality of the Citizens The Plague at length ceasing in London the earnest desires of the Citizens invited back
Aspersion of Cowardise they give Cromwell assurance that they would shortly fight him And march to the right hand and come to a halt He presently following finds a Marish betwixt them From thence he marches to Musselbrough to hinder its being surprised and presently after to Haddington Next day to Dunbar the Scots molesting them in their march Who encamp thereabouts About break of day Lambert first falls in upon the Scots and presently after Cromwell who obtain a great Victory Leslie himself the Messenger of the defeat renders vain the confidence of the Pulpits Edinburrough and Leeth forthwith yield to the Conquerour But the Castle inexpugnable by Scituation and Art holds out Therefore he commands works to be cast up against it From thence he pursues the remnâ—nt of the Army to Sterling but in vain and leaving that place visits the Ministers at Glasgow endeavouring to allure thâ—m to hâ—s side and by Letters tries what he could work upon Ker and Straughan After three days having taken Jedbrough he returns to Edenburrough Monck marches against Robbers Takes Roslan and the strong Castle of Tantallon As Fenwick did Hume Castle almost as strong Cromwell earnestly sets about the reduction of Edinburrough Castle And having therefore in vain essayed Mines he batters it with hâ—s Cannon Till the Governour having in vain desired a conference and liberty to write to the Council of Scotland And his Wife at length being bruised by a Granado-shell Consented to these Articles And delivers up the Castle The Scots consult what is best to be done The King slighted resolves to fly to the Highlanders who were in Arms apart And by whom he was invited And privately flies to the house of the Lord Diddop Montgomery follows him And prevails with his Majesty to return The Prince of Orange dies The Scots at length admit all to the War But not till they took the Covenant Those that resisted were by the King's means united to the rest The Ministers disagree among themselves The Remonstrance subscribed by many Who behaving themselves seditiously Ker is ordered to apprehend Straughan who presently after died Cromwell pursue Ker Who unexpectedly falls upon Lambert But unfortunately A Conspiracy discovered at London For raising an Army in Scotland to invade England All that were found guilty of this are condemned and two suffer * Love he and Gibbons were the two that suffered Another Conspiracy in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridge-shire But in vain The Welshmen with like success The King is Crowned at Scoon And sets himself wholly to the defeâ—ce of the Kingdom Dissentions are extinguished The Favourers of the Rebel-Parricides are punished The King sets up his standard And having mustered his Army encamps at Torwood The Scots celebrate the Kings-Birth-day Cromwell visits Torwood Not daring to attempt it Overton passes Forth And presently after Lambert Who obtained a Victory over the Scots Garrisons being summoned presently surrender Cromwell takes the town of St. Johnston The King in the mean time marches streight to England By Carlisle Troublesome to no man In the chief Towns he is prâ—claimed King of England c. The Parricides quaking at the news of it Harrison and Lambert wait the motions of the King and in vain oppose him at Warrington Bridge The King easily possesses himself of Worcester He kindly invites the Londoners to his assistance Who unworthily receive his Letters He demands aid of all his Subjects Many Gentlemen come But only two thousand of the Common People Why so few came in Cromwel with a vast Army Besieges Worcester The Earl of Derby with a handful of new raised Men Is defeated by Lilburn Massey is beat out of Upton which the Cromwellians possess themselves of Middleton in the night time Sallies cut upon the Enemy To his loss The King himself marches out to defend Powick-bridge Which the Enemies possess themselves of There is a sharp engagement at Perry-wood where the King behaved himself most valiantly But being over-powered by number He returns into the Town Where in vain encouraging his Men now in disorder he slips out at St. Martins Gate He exhorts the Horse to renew the Fight but they are deaf to all entreaties The Town is taken and the Fort Royal the Soulders that kept it being put to the Sword The number of the slain And Prisoners The King leaving the Scottish Horse betakes himself to By ways And at the perswasion of the Earl of Derby goes towards Boscobel When they came to the House called Whitladies He commits himself to the hiding of the Pendrels Brothers Wilmot being before sent to London Whilst the Nobles essay to overtake Lesly They are dispersed by Lilburn's men Derby and others being taken Lesly and his men became a prey to the Enemy Or what was worse to the Countrey People Massey yielding himself to a noble Lady is Câ—st into the Tower of London From whence he escapes in disguise A full account where the King lurked in England Ashenhurst's Souldiers search the Monastery A Countrey-man's Wife brings Victuals into the Wood for the King to feed upon In the Evening he comes to Richard Pendrell's House From thence intending to go into Wales That Night he goes on Foot towards the Severn Richard Pendrell being his Guide He is frightned by a Miller At Madely he is lodged in a Barn The River being strictly guarded he returns into the Wood from whence he came Early in the Morning he is by Carlos brought into Boscobel-house Having taken refreshment he climbs up upon an Oak In the Night time he is hid in a Priests-hole Pendrell the Miller being asked concerning the King Preserved his Loyalty unviolated Wilmot coming out of a Marle-pit is committed to the care of Whitgrave To visit whom the King mounted on a Millers Beast goes to Mosely Soldiers câ—me to seize Whitgrave And depart The King is again searched after in the Abbey He removes to Bently from thence to go to Bristol as the servant of Jane Lane He sets forth upon his journey accompanied with Lassels and Wilmot At Bromsgrove he falls in discourse with a Smith about himself At Stratford he passes through Soldiers without any hurt Lodges at Cirencester Then at Marsfield and the third day at Norton where he pretends himself sick And is visited by Doctor Gorge In the Buttery he discourses with a bragging fellow about the King He is discovered by the Butler A most faithful man By whose means VVilmot is introduced He sounds VVindham's mind With good success Jane counterfeits Letters as from her dying Father For a pretext of departing late at Night They go to Carew-Castle And next day to Trent where VVindam lived A report of the King's Death Elden freights a Ship at Chayermouth Peters's device whereby he provides lodgings in that place The King goes thither carrying Juliana Conisbey with him as his Bride But losing hopes of a Ship he presently departs Why the Master of the Vessel failed so foully They came to Bridport full of Soldiers Where