have made two or three insurrections; and are ready to do it every day: so that,-what with looking to them, and disposing our horse to that end, and to get us in provisions, without which we should starve, this country being so miserably exhausted and so poor, and we no money to buy victuals,-indeed, whatever may be thought, it's a mercy we have been able to keep our men together in the midst of such necessity, the sustenance of the foot for most part being but bread and water. Our guns, through the unhappy accident at Berkley, not yet come to us ;-and indeed it was a very unhappy thing they were brought thither; the wind having been always so cross, that since they were recovered from sinking, they could not 'come to us;' and this place not being to be had without fit instruments for battering, except by starving. And truly I believe the Enemy's straits do increase upon them very fast, and that within a few days an end will be put to this business;—which surely might have been before, if we had received things wherewith to have done it. But it will be done in the best time.2

I rejoice much to hear of the blessing of God upon your Excellency's endeavours. I pray God that this Nation, and those that are over us, and your Excellency and all we that are under you, 'may discern' what the mind of God may be in all this, and what our duty is. Surely it is not that the poor Godly People of this

1 Without either fit instruments for battering except by starving.' Great haste, and considerable stumbling in the grammar of this last sentence! After starving,' a mere comma; and so on.

2 God's time is the best.

Kingdom should still be made the object of wrath and anger; nor that our God would have our necks under a yoke of bondage. For these things that have lately come to pass have been the wonderful works of God; breaking the rod of the oppressor, as in the day of Midian,—not with garments much rolled in blood, but by the terror of the Lord; who will yet save His people and confound His enemies, as on that day. The Lord multiply His grace upon you, and bless you, and keep your heart upright; and then, though you be not conformable to the men of this world, nor to their wisdom, yet you shall be precious in the eyes of God, and He will be to you a horn and a shield.

My Lord, I do not know that I have had a Letter from any of your Army, of the glorious successes God has vouchsafed you. I pray pardon the complaint made. I long to 'be' with you. I take leave; and rest,

My Lord,

Your most humble and faithful servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.

'P.S.' Sir, I desire you that Colonel Lehunt may have a Commission to command a Troop of Horse, the greatest part whereof came from the Enemy to us; and that you would be pleased to send blank Commissions for his inferior officers, -with what speed may be.*

In Rushworth, under date March 24th, is announced that 'Sir W. Constable has taken care to send ordnance and am'munition from Gloucester, for the service before Pembroke.'1

* Sloane Mss. 1519, f. 90.

1 vii. 1036.

The unhappy accident at Berkley,' I believe, is the stranding of the Frigate,' or Shallop, that carried them. Guns are not to be had of due quality for battering Pembroke. In the mean time, several bodies of horse' are mentioned as deserting, or taking quarter and service on the Parliament side.1 It is over these that Lehunt is to be appointed Colonel; and to Fairfax as General-in-chief of all the Parliament's Forces raised or to be raised,' it belongs to give him and his subordinates the due commissions.

July 5th. Young Villiers Duke of Buckingham, son of the assassinated Duke; he with his Brother Francis, with the Earl of Holland, and others who will pay dear for it, started up about Kingston on Thames with another open Insurrectionary Armament; guided chiefly by Dutch Dalbier, once Cromwell's instructor, but now gone over to the other side. Fairfax and the Army being all about Colchester in busy Siege, there seemed a good opportunity here. They rode towards Reigate, these Kingston Insurgents, several hundreds strong: but a Parliament Party under Major Gibbons' drives them back; following close, comes to action with them between Nonsuch Park and Kingston,' where the poor Lord Francis, Brother of the Duke, fell mortally wounded;-drives them across the river into Hertfordshire;' into the lion's jaws. For Fairfax sent a Party out from Colchester; overtook them at St. Neot's; and captured, killed, or entirely dissipated them.2 Dutch Dalbier was hacked in pieces, 'so angry were the soldiers at him.' The Earl of Holland stood his trial afterwards; and lost his head. The Duke of Buckingham got off;-might almost as well have died with poor Brother Francis here, for any good he afterwards did. Two pretty youths, as their Vandyke Portraits in Hampton Court still testify; one of whom lived to become much uglier!

' Rushworth, Cromwelliana.

2 Rushworth, vii. 1178, 82.

July 8th. Duke Hamilton, with the actual Scotch Army, is « at Annan' on the Western Border, ready to step across to England. Not quite Forty-thousand; yet really about half that number, tolerably effective. Langdale, with a vanguard of Three-thousand Yorkshiremen, is to be guide; Monro, with a body of horse that had long served in Ulster, is to bring up the rear. The great Duke dates from Annan, 8th July, 1648.1 Poor old Annan; -never saw such an Army gathered, since the Scotch James went to wreck in Solway Moss, above a hundred years ago!2 Scotland is in a disastrous, distracted condition; overridden by a Hamilton majority in Parliament. Poor Scotland will, with exertion, deliver its 'King from the power of Sectaries;' and is dreadfully uncertain what it will do with him when delivered! Perhaps Oliver will save it the trouble.

July 11th. Oliver at last is loose from Pembroke; as the following brief Letter will witness.

LETTER LXII.

To the Honourable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the House of Commons: These.

SIR,

'Pembroke,' 11th July, 1648.

The Town and Castle of Pembroke were surrendered to me this day, being the Eleventh of July; upon the Propositions which I send you here enclosed.3 What Arms, Ammunition, Victual, Ordi

1 Rushworth, vii. 1184.

3 Given in Rushworth, vii. 1190. VOL. II.

C

2 James V. A.D. 1542.

nance or other Necessaries of War are in 'the' Town, I have not to certify you,-the Commissioners I sent-in to receive the same not being yet returned, nor like suddenly to be; and I was unwilling to defer the giving you an account of this mercy for a day.

The Persons Excepted are such as have formerly served you in a very good Cause; but, being now apostatised, I did rather make election of them, than of those who had always been for the King; -judging their iniquity double; because they have sinned against so much light, and against so many evidences of Divine Providence going along with, and prospering, a just Cause, in the management of which they themselves had a share.

I rest,

Your humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.*.

Drunken Colonel Poyer, Major-General Laughern and certain others, persons excepted,' have had to surrender at mercy; a great many more on terms: Pembroke happily is down; and the Welsh War is ended.1 Cromwell hurries northward: by Gloucester, Warwick; gets 3,000 pairs of shoes' at Leicester; leaves his prisoners at Nottingham (with Mrs. Hutchinson and her Colonel, in the Castle there); joins Lambert among the hills of Yorkshire, where his presence is much needed now.

* Copy in Tanner мss. lxii. 159: printed, correctly, in Grey on the Third Volume of Neal's Puritans (Appendix, p. 129) from another source.

1 Order, '12 July, 1648' (the day after Pembroke), for demolishing the Castle of Haverfordwest: in Appendix, No. 8.

2 At Barnard Castle, on the 27th July, his horse' joined (Rushworth, vii. 1211); he himself not till a fortnight after, at Wetherby farther south.