was gone; had hastened off to Hampton Court; and there about 'twelve at night' despatched a Letter to Speaker Lenthall. The Letter, which I have some confused recollection of having, somewhere in the Pamphletary Chaos, seen in full, refuses to disclose itself at present except as a Fragment: For the Honorable William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of The manner is variously reported; and we will say little of it at present, but, That his Majesty was expected at supper, when the Commissioners and Colonel Whalley missed him; upon which they entered the Room : -they found his majesty had left his cloak behind him in the Gallery in the Private Way. He passed by the back-stairs and vault towards the Water-side. He left some Letters upon the table in his withdrawing-room of his own handwriting; whereof one was to the Commissioners of Parliament attending him, to be communicated to both Houses, and is here enclosed.' We do not give his Majesty's Letter' here enclosed:' it is that well-known one where he speaks, in very royal style, still every inch a King, Of the restraints and slights put upon him,—men's obedience to their King seeming much abated of late. So soon as they return to a just temper, "I shall instantly break through this cloud of retirement, and show myself ready to be Pater Patria,"―as I have hitherto done. The Ports are all ordered to be shut; embargo laid on ships. Read in the Commons Journals again: Saturday, 13th November. Colonel Whalley was called in; and made a particular Relation of the circumstances concerning the King's going away from Hampton Court. He did likewise deliver-in a letter directed unto him from Lieutenant-General Cromwell, concerning some rumors * Rushworth, vii., 871. and reports of some design of danger to the person and life of the King: The which was read. Ordered, That Colonel Whalley do put in writing the said Relation, and set his hand to it; and That he do leave a Copy of the said Letter from LieutenantGeneral Cromwell.* Colonel Whalley's Relation exists; and a much fuller Relation and pair of Relations concerning this Flight, and what preceded and followed it, as viewed from the Royalist side, by two parties to the business, exist;† none of which shall concern us here. Lieutenant-General Cromwell's Letter to Whalley also exists; a short insignificant note: here it is, fished from the Dust Abysses, which refuse to disclose the other. Whalley is 'Cousin Whalley,' as we may remember; Aunt Frances's and the Squire of Kerton's Son,-a Nottinghamshire man.‡ LETTER XXXI. For my beloved Cousin, Colonel Whalley, at Hampton Court: DEAR COS. WHALLEY, These.' 'Putney, November, 1647.' There are rumors abroad of some intended attempt on his Majesty's person. Therefore I pray have a care of your guards. If any such thing should be done, it would be accounted a most horrid act. * * * Yours, OLIVER CROMWELL. § See, among the Old Pamphlets, Letters to the like effect from Royalist Parties: also a letter of thanks from the King to Whalley :-ending with a desire, 'to send the black-grey bitch to the * Commons Journals, v., 358. † Berkley's Memoirs, (printed, London, 1699); Ashburnham's Narrative (printed, London, 1830);—which require to be sifted, and contrasted with each other and with third parties, by whoever is still curious on this matter; each of these Narratives being properly a Pleading, intended to clear the Writer of all blame, in the first place. See antea, p. 26, Note. § King's Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 337, § 15, p. 7. Duke of Richmond,' on the part of his Majesty: Letters from &c., Letters to &c., in great quantities.* For us here this brief notice of one Letter shall suffice: 6 Monday, 15th November, 1647. Letter from Colonel Robert Hammond, Governor of the Isle of Wight, Cowes, 13o Novembris, signifying that the King is come into the Isle of Wight.' The King, after a night and a day of riding, saw not well whither else to go. He delivered himself to Robert Hammond ;‡ came into the Isle of Wight. Robert Hammond is ordered to keep him strictly within Carisbrook Castle and the adjoining grounds, in a vigilant though altogether respectful manner. This same Monday,' when Hammond's Letter arrives in London, is the day of the mutinous Rendezvous in Corkbush Field, between Hertford and Ware ;'§ where Cromwell and the General Officers had to front the Levelling Principle, in a most dangerous manner, and trample it out or be trampled out by it on the spot. Eleven Mutineers are ordered from the ranks; tried by Court Martial on the Field: three of them condemned to be shot ;-throw dice for their life, and one is shot, there and then. The name of him is Arnald; long memorable among the Levellers. A very dangerous Review service!-Head-quarters now change to Windsor. LETTER XXXII. ROBERT HAMMOND, Governor of the Isle of Wight, who has for the present become so important to England, is a young man' of good parts and principles:' a Colonel of Foot; served formerly as Captain under Massey in Gloucester,-where, in October, 1644, he had the misfortune to kill a brother Officer, one Major Gray, in sudden duel, 'for giving him the lie ;' he was tried, but acquitted, the provocation being great. He has since risen to be Colonel, and become well known. Originally of Chertsey, Surrey; his Grandfather, and perhaps his Father, a Physician there. His Parliamentary History, xvi., 324-30. † Commons Journals, in die. Berkeley's and Ashburnham's Narratives. § Rushworth, vii.. 875. Uncle, Thomas Hammond, is now Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance; a man whom, with this Robert, we saw busy in the Army Troubles last year. The Lieutenant-General, Thomas Hammond, persists in his democratic course; patron at this time of the Adjutator speculations; sits afterwards as a King's-Judge. In strong contrast with whom is another Uncle, Dr. Henry Hammond, a pattern-flower of loyalty, one of his Majesty's favorite Chaplains. It was Uncle Thomas that first got this young Robert a Commission in the Army; but Uncle Henry had, in late months, introduced him to his Majesty at Hampton Court, as an ingenuous youth, repentant, or at least sympathetic and not without loyalty. Which circumstance, it is supposed, had turned the King's thoughts in that bewildered Flight of his, towards Colonel Robert and the Isle of Wight. Colonel Robert, it would seem, had rather disliked the high course things were sometimes threatening to take, in the Putney Council of War; and had been glad to get out of it for a quiet Governorship at a distance. But it now turns out, he has got into still deeper difficulties thereby. His 'temptation' when the King announced himself as in the neighborhood, had been great: Shall he obey the King in this crisis; conduct the King whitherward his Majesty wishes? Or be true to his trust and the Parliament ? He 'grew suddenly pale ;'-he decided as we saw. The Isle of Wight, holding so important a deposit, is put under the Derby-house Committee, old 'Committee of Both Kingdoms,' some additions being made thereto, and some exclusions. Oliver is of it, and Philip Lord Wharton, among others. Lord Wharton, a conspicuous Puritan and intimate of Oliver's; of whom we shall afterwards have occasion to say somewhat. This Committee of Derby House was, of course, in continual communication with Robert Hammond. Certain of their Letters to him had, after various fortune, come into the hands of the Honorable Mr. Yorke (Lord Hardwicke); and were lying in his house, when it and they were, in 1752, accidentally burnt. A Dr. Joseph Litherland had, by good luck, taken copies; Thomas Birch, lest fire should again intervene, printed the Collection,a very thin Octavo, London, 1764. He has given some introductory Account of Robert Hammond; copying, as we do mainly here, from Wood's Athena :* and has committed-as who does not?-several errors. His Annotations are sedulous but ineffectual. What of the Letters are from Oliver we extract with thanks. A former Letter, of which Oliver was 'the penner,' is now lost. 'Our brethren' in the following letter are the Scots, now all excluded from Derby-House Committee of Both Kingdoms. The 'Recorder' is Glyn, one of the vanished Eleven, Stapleton being another; for both of whom it has been necessary to appoint substitutes in the said Committee. For Colonel Robert Hammond, Governor of the Isle of Wight: These, for the Service of the Kingdom. Haste: Post Haste. DEAR ROBIN, 'London,' 3d January, 1647. (My Lord Wharton's, near ten at night.) Now, blessed be God, I can write and thou receive freely. I never in my life saw more deep sense, and less will to show it unchristianly, than in that which thou didst write to us when we were at Windsor, and thou in the midst of thy temptation,—which indeed, by what we understood of it, was a great one, and occasioned the greater by the Letter the General sent thee; of which thou wast not mistaken when thou didst challenge me to be the penner. How good has God been to dispose all to mercy! ! And although it was trouble for the present, yet glory has come out of it; for which we praise the Lord with thee and for thee. And truly thy carriage has been such as occasions much honor to the name of God and to religion. Go on in the strength of the Lord; and the Lord be still with thee. But, dear Robin, this business hath been, I trust, a mighty providence to this poor Kingdom and to us all. The House of Commons is very sensible of the King's dealings, and of our brethren's,‡ in this late transaction. You should do well, if you have anything that may discover juggling, to search it out, and let us know it. It may be of admirable use at this time; because we shall, I hope, instantly go upon business in relation to them, tending to prevent danger. The House of Commons has this day voted as follows; 1st, They will make no more addresses to the King; 2d, None shall apply to him without leave of the Two Houses, upon pain of being guilty of high treason; 3d, They will receive nothing from the King, nor shall any * iii., 500. † rendered. the Scots. § the Scots. |