though with some For fear of offending Hesitation To your renowned self wherein you may Read your own self as I may truly say For 't is a noble subject fit for none But Martial Spirits and for them alone Whereof your kind acceptance Sir will be A favour and encouragement to me May Heaven protect and always on You smile And make you ev'n a Moses to this Isle As it hath already hath begun to do Who â—onours God God will him honour too May all your Foes before you fall and fly And Romish rags be bury'd totally May God direct and guide you Night and day For which no doubt good Protestants shall pray And so shall I my self among the rest In which and all things else I 'll do my best To serve and honour Your Majesty according to my power Tho. Plunket April the 10 th 1689. AN Advertisement TO THE READER I Think it necessary in this place to give the World a short Account of some things relating to my self to avoid surmises and sinister Constructions having now and not till now found a fit opportunity after my Forty five years Obscurity to satisfie Enquirers by giving them the reasons of my so long and voluntary Exile wherein I shall be as brief as possible The Name and Family of the Plunkets are not Irish Originally but descended from the Romans but have been in Ireland almost a thousand years My Father was of the House of Dunsaney in East-Meath and brought up in the Romish Religion until towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when about the age of fourteen years he came off from Popery and became a zealous Protestant and so continued till death and because he was the first of our Name that turn'd Protestant he was therefore extreamly hated by many great Papists and all their Clergy so that they waited an opportunity to do him some mischief one way or other and at last they found one for a little before the Rebellion in 1641 he fell sick and in that his sickness a Popish Physician poison'd him fearing as being a man of a great spirit he might as he would have done by his repute and interest in the Country obstruct their designs thereabouts And the said Physitian confess'd upon his Death-bed that he poison'd him for no other cause but his being a Protestant and that he was put upon it by others And at the beginning of the Rebellion the Papists Plunder'd and burnt our House whereby nine Orphans of us were expos'd to great hardships and miseries as well as many thousands more My Grandfather had an Estate left him by the Lord Dunsaney whose second Son he was but betwixt him and my Father partly by Gaming but mostly by engaging for others all the Estate was gone As soon as I heard being then at Dublin what bloody work the Papists made in the Country by murthering the Protestants I resolved to oppose and fight against them to the utmost of my power and presently Listed my self in Sir Charles Coot's Regiment then sixteen years of Age and continued in the Wars until the Cessation made with the Rebels by the King's Order whereupon about 8000. that fought successfully against the Rebels were sent for by the King to fight for him in England after which they never had success but were always worsted After my Father's death I found I was not only very much slighted and neglected by my Protestant Kindred but hated and threatned by my Popish Kindred for fighting against them c. as I was by other young Rebels therefore to be no longer vext and griev'd with the unkindness of the one and to avoid the danger of the other whose malice I had but too much cause to fear I resolved upon a voluntary Banishment for at least twenty years if I lived so long and away came I with the Army in Colonel Gibson's Regiment in November 1643. Which Army at the Siege of Nantwich were routed by Fairfax the January following where Colonel Monk since Duke of Albemarle with many others were taken and sent up to the Parliament And while I was in those parts a Report being spread abroad which was too true that the King had many thousands of Papists in his Armies and that in one of them were 6000. This as it very much offended me so it begat some thoughts in me of going to the Parliaments side being also informed that they allow'd no Papists in their Army which was true But while I was musing what to do some other Regiments came out of Ireland for the King among which were many of my former Threatners this rais'd in me a firm resolution to List my self in the Parliaments Army which I did soon after and to escape the bloody intentions of those Threatners above said and other such in time to come as also to perplex my most unkind Kindred with a twenty or thirty years silence in which time I vow'd they should neither see me nor hear from me I changed my own name and went by the name of Clark and have hitherto and was in many Fights and Skirmishes in the North of England and at the great Battel on Marston-Moor in July 1644. And when Sir T. Fairfax aforesaid was made General of that Victorious Army call'd the New Model 1645. I Listed my self in his own Regiment of Foot wherein I continued fifteen years during which time divers Officers because they knew not who I was concluded me to be of some base obscure beggarly Parentage for which I have been scorned and traduced by them and others all along and when I saw what great Changes and Alterations were in hand in the beginning of the Year 1660. in reference to things and persons tending to a total subversion of that Interest and Cause which I had so zealously owned and engaged in from first to last I could not in judgment and conscience recede from them or any my former principles by complying either to keep or get a place as many Officers did whereby I should have bespattered my Reputation more dear to me than my life and incurr'd that to me odious name of a Time-server whereupon I threw up my Commission and broke my Sword losing all my Arreers and much Money lent my Company and so retired from all publick matters ever since For it shall never be said That a Plunket was false or guilty of any base unworthy treacherous Action for me from which I have by the Grace of God kept my self clear at all times especially these 29. years last past wherein I have suffered many hard things for my integrity being forced through the malice of Neighbours Mayors Informers c. to change my Dwellings fifteen times in twenty years And as I lost all in Ireland for being a Protestant so I lost all again in England for being a Dissenter But I am still semper idem and resolve to be whilest I live come what will of it And though many hundreds dead and alive know what
THE CHARACTER OF A Good Commander Together with a SHORT COMMENDATION Of the Famous ARTILLERY More properly MILITARY Company of London ALSO A Brief ENCOMIUM on the Great Duke and worthy Prince Elector of Brandenbourg LASTLY PLAIN DEALING with TREACHEROVS DEALERS Whereunto is Annexed The General Exercise of the Prince of Orange's Army By Captain THO. PLVNKET Licensed March the 4 th 1689. London Printed for William Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-Street 1689. TO His most Excellent MAJESTY WILLIAM III. By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the True Faith. WHat greater Good than timely preservation From Fire and Sword Destruction Devastation c. Can come to any Countrey great or small Which I suppose will be confest of all That Heav'n hath pitch'd on You truth to advance And work for us such great Deliverance You that kick at this Providence the same Providence may kick you out of all if you don't mend your manners None but blind Papists will or dare deny Or blinder Protestants for such we spy You came Sir in the very nick of time Even when our Foes were in the very prime Yea when they wanted nothing but the word From Hell and bloody France to draw the Sword To Kill Burn Massacre c. just then you come For which we praise the Great JEHOVAH's Name For which to thank you all good Men are bound For which You shall for ever be renown'd For all the Protestants throughout the World Had into woful miseries been hurl'd If Britain had been lost and all subverted But such a Curse your comming hath averted Also preserv'd our Lives and Liberties And freed us from a Thousand Tyrannies Yet shall you meet with vile ingratitude Rubs Censures Cavils and base blanditude c. Yea and from Stars of the first Magnitude To Christ the King of Kings be all the praise That did your worthy noble Highness raise To do for him so great so good a work As great work as conquering the Turk The Lâ—…d preserve You from the hands of those That to his Kingdom are the greatest Foes He bless and guide you still to do such things As may Record you 'mong the best of Kings I have heard this when I was a boy above Fifty years ago Some have foretold of a Ninth Henry which Should do great things for England poor and rich And for the true Religion very much And that he should e'er Ninety two appear And put the brats of Babylon in fear That at his Fame they would be very sad And fly in haste which would make good men glad I may with Reason and good reason to Conclude it can be no Man else but you Sith the event hath answer'd the prediction Attended also with Heavens Benediction The God of wonders worketh wonders still And with those wonders all the World doth fill Mira sunt Opera Dei. He looks down from his high and lofty Throne And laughs at such as cry The day 's our own By Babes and Children often he befools Great Dons and Doctors of the learned Schools He tosseth Kings and Kingdoms to and fro And maugre all their might can lay them low Some he lifts up and some throws down the Hill The Reasons are absconded in his will. Stat pro ratione voluntas He doth astonish mighty Kings and States And casteth at his feet the prime Magnates He taketh crafty Counsellors in their Own Nets and trampleth Judges in the mire Plotters and such as bloody mischief hatch He doth them in their own devices catch He makes them fall into the pit they made For others because Murder is their trade Inciderunt in foveam quam fecerunt He can discover all their subtil tricks And quite befool them in their politicks He breaks the power of such as Tyrannize And brings to nought the wisdom of the Wise He makes the guilty flee when none pursue And in his time will pay them all their due He breaks and scatters Armies when he please And crusheth Kings and Counsellors with ease Their Chancellors he can infatuate And cause them to mistake the Rules of State Yea make them in stone-doublets see their Fate Their close Cabals he quickly can uncover And all their curst contrivances discover Their deeds of darkness he can bring to light And turn their Day into a lasting Night These matters to Your Highness are no news And which are owned by the very Jews But they are too too serious and sublime For the debauched Bullies of the time The celsitude of any Theam is gall To such as are at Flora's wanton call But my Muse scorns to humour such as of Aethereal strains can make a jeer and scoff Or tread the Mazes where such Satyrs range As caâ—â—heir honour for dishonour change Or please such curious quaint sly wanton Wits As can be hot cold bad and good by fits One thing Great Sir I cannot supersede Of which in History all Men may read Which ignorant or envious people have Labour'd to hide for such love to deprave And that is spite of malice spleen and gall Here to record what should be known to all Viz. That the seven Provinces are owing to Your most renowned Ancestors and You For that high Grandeur which they now possess And other benefits even to excess Whose noble actions fill the Trump't of Fame While Nero's fume and fret to hear the same To rank You with the Worthies of this Age Will envy put into a furious rage But where the Truth is said and nothing more There 's the less need to fear that chafed boar A restless passion 's full of jealousies Envy is restless Of Fears and Cares it seems all ears and eyes 'T is always listning for one tale or other To undervalue ev'n his only Brother But noble Souls slight what depravers say So virtue while it suffers wins the day Virtus dum patitur vincit Your Highness in few Weeks hath done such things As have astonish'd all European Kings Who could of such Catastrophe's Divine When Philadelphia did with sorrow pine And Sion trampled underfoot by Swine O what stupendious changes have we seen Of late have such in England ever been God hath made you the happy instrument To introduce this healing Parliament By your wise conduct we have Halcion days Since you have Crown'd the Protestants with Bays Viz. Great Victories and without blood-shed too This shews us what almightiness can do Some have the Laurel won by blood and strage But you in peace have climb'd the British Stage The Sun of Providence here shall not set Till it do that which done it hath not yet The Wheel within the Wheel still goeth round Ezek. 1.16 Turks False Protestants Atheists Popes and Papists to confound Mean time illustrious Prince be pleased to Accept this Mite which I present to You. Of Your good Nature much I have been told Which did encourage me to make so bold As to adventure on the Dedication Of this small book
Worth conjoin'd Makes a true Gentleman the rest are Coin'd With such as these an Army should be led ' Specially if i' th' true Religion bred This good Commander which I now describe Is one of that most honourable Tribe He graceth his Employment For 't is not The place that makes Men honourable but 'T is Men that make the place so yet I vow 'T is something hard to find such Persons now To the disgrace black infamy and shame Of such that impudently take the name Of Gentlemen sith their base deeds attest They are as far from such as East from West Then mend your manners live more vertuously Banish all baseness and obscenity Many more Reasons have I to dehort From putting any of the vulgar sort Proud Monsieur Th'other-day or any such Into Command let them be Poor or Rich. Except them as on trial have been found Assiduous Steady Trusty True and Sound Woful experience makes me thus to write But of this matter I 'll no more Endite This true description and character Or property of this brave Man of War And most accomplisht Gentleman whose worth Even his very Enemies sets forth Methinks should raise a vertuous emulation In every generous Spirit in this Nation To imitate him and of him to learn Such things as would them very much adorn But Gentlemen and others are of late Grown so debauched loose degenerate And so bewitched to a vicious brood That few of them will ever come to good Nay they count him an Ass and very Fool That loves or leads his life in Vertues School Therefore to court them to it is but vain For with all Vice their Souls are dy'd in grain But now I think it 's time to make an end And bid Farewell to this my noble friend Only let me tell you when Death is nigh That he hath nothing else to do but die For Death and he so well are reconcil'd That if he chance to meet him in the Field He bids him welcom be it cut or shot If Heaven shall please such measure to allot When like a Cedar he falls to the ground And like a Roman Caesar dies renown'd Whose Worth and Vertues him immortalize And lifts his Commendations to the Skies And in the Book of Honour writes his Name Which ' spite of envy fills the Trump't of Fame Whose Mirmydons with great solemnity Carry him to the Grave where he must ly Which is the bed of Honour and the best Repository wherein he must rest Until his mortal Body rise again Be immortal made and so remain Who needs no carved Tombstone for ostent For his renown's a living Monument Vivit post funera Virtus A LITTLE TOUCH Of the Renowned ARTILLERY Or rather MILITARY Company of London BUT now methinks I hear some question why I Nothing said of the ARTILLERY Nor the Train'd-Bands of London sith they are For exercising Arms without compare At least are so reputed therefore they Of England are the University And nursery for War. But truly Sirs Our heats and fewds and persecuting stirs And other things dis-jointed so my Wits That what I writ before was all by fits Besides I thought they might offended be Should they but find a Venial fault in me Moreover many ly upon the catch And slily for their Neighbours halting watch Therefore I 'll supersede what might be writ My Muse be'ng turn'd old Cato's Proselite However I presume or think I may Without offending them now briefly say A few words of and to them not that I Pretend to any skill and mastery In exercising or in handling Arms Th' ignorance of which attracteth Harms Yet to the skilful they are pleasing Charms Although my Genius carries me oft-times To things that may in me be counted crimes That is to manage many Companies Conjoin'd or parted to fight Enemies By long experience taught yet for all this The best Commander in the World may miss What he would have and that is Victory Which to no Mortal is entail'd say I No 't is the Lord of Hosts that giveth still The day to whom he please and when he will. Artillery-men in many things excel And Train'd-Band Officers do very well In the Theorick part of War they are Proficients in which no pains they spare Or shall I Theoretick-practick write it For both of these amongst them seem united Especially in their several firings when All things are practis'd except killing Men. Give them but Ball and they can do so too Unto their enemies I 'll warrant you In handling Arms thus much I can discern Viz. The Grecian Gods might somewhat of them learn. King Priamus with all his Warlike Sons Would were they here admire these Mirmydons And wish they had been with them to anoy The sturdy Greeks when they besieged Troy. The Spartan Sparks in armour gilt with Gold Pace with these Sons of Thunder could not hold Nor with their Counter-march be able to Ran-counter against what these Men can do The Pyrrhick Dance the Belgick Cavalry Could not out-vy this brave Artillery ' Specially upon a General Day When they appear in Arms and brave Array When divers sorts of firings may be seen And things that nev'r before in use have been Only they seem to want the Spanish Gate ' Cause it would make them to march more in State. Also the Turks erected countenance Which Terrour strikes in Foes when they advance This to observe as often as they meet And march about ' specially in the street However none can take offence at me For writing what I formerly did see But some object that many things are done In exercising which Men ought to shun Because so needless useless dangerous Distracting too being so numerous Therefore in Wars they never can be us'd Hold hold Sir But who ever Gold refus'd When it came freely though his Purse be full From many Dishes you may pick and cull A Dinner yet not burst your belly Sir Except you lay it on with switch and spur Store is no sore you know for 't will not crack Your Pericranium nor yet your back Except you carry all at once Therefore Throw this lazy Objection out the door Because methinks it smells of prejudice And malice to that noble exercise For knowledge is no burthen I am sure But ignorance and envy can endure Nothing that 's gallant brave or honourable Tho' to the publick ne'er so profitable Just like the Dog that in the Manger lay That would himself eat neither Oats or Hay Nor suffer them that would What slaves are these Whose humours none but fools would seek to please I've for the same c. been hated too by those That to all noble things were secret foes All in Commission too However I Have them out-liv'd and all their enmity Artillery-men learn War in peace you know Therefore the fitter in the Wars to go The Roman Majesty and Magnitude The Persian Bravery and altitude Would not disdain to make a stand and view The Martial motions