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LETTER XXX.

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THE immeasurable Negotiations with the King, Proposals of the Army,' Proposals of the Adjutators of the Army,' still occupying tons of printed paper, the subject of intense debatings and considerations in Westminster, in Putney Church, and in every house and hut of England, for many months past,-suddenly contract themselves for us, like a universe of gaseous vapor, into one small point: the issue of them all is failure. The Army Council, the Army Adjutators, and serious England at large, were in earnest about one thing; the King was not in earnest, except about another thing: there could be no bargain with the King.

Cromwell and the Chief Officers have for some time past ceased frequenting his Majesty at Hampton Court; such visits being looked upon askance by a party in the Army: they have left the matter to Parliament; only Colonel Whalley, with due guard, and Parliament Commissioners, keep watch 'for the security of his Majesty.' In the Army, his Majesty's real purpose becoming now apparent, there has arisen a very terrible 'Levelling Party;' a class of men demanding punishment not only of Delinquents, and Deceptive Persons who have involved this Nation in blood, but of the Chief Delinquent:' minor Delinquents getting punished, how should the Chief Delinquent go free? A class of men dreadfully in earnest ;-to whom a King's Cloak is no impenetrable screen; who within the King's Cloak discern that there is a man accountable to a God! The Chief Officers, except when officially called, keep distant: hints have fallen that his Majesty is not out of danger.-In the Commons Journals this is what we read:

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Friday, 12th November, 1647. A Letter from LieutenantGeneral Cromwell, of 11th November, twelve at night, was read; signifying the escape of the King; who went away about 9 o'clock yesterday.' *

Cromwell, we suppose, lodging in head-quarters about Putney, had been roused on Thursday Night by express That the King

* Commons Journals, v., 356.

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 Commons: These.'

'SIR,'

'Hampton Court, Twelve at night, 11th November, 1647.' withdrawn himself * *

*

* Majesty * *

at nine o'clock.

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.'

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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.

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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 untc 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.‡

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LETTER XXXI.

For my beloved Cousin, Colonel Whalley, at Hampton Court:

These.'

'Putney, November, 1647.

DEAR COS. WHALLEY,

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, smal 4to, no. 337, § 15, p. 7.

Duke of Richmond,' on the part of his Majesty: Letters from &c., Letters to &c., in great quantities.*

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For us here this brief notice

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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 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

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