Town of Cambridge so his first care was to settle that place for the Parliament although he met with great Obstacles therein and the Reason likewise was very harsh it being the Month of January the very heart of the Winter Now you are to note that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were the first of all the Towns in England which declared themselves for the King and the last which acknowledged the new established Authority by reason they were filled with persons designed to possess those Church Goods which were in the Kings Donation besides which the Parliament detesting their Commissions was resolved to reduce and reform them His late Highness having notice that all the Colledges were making a Stock and Assembly of all their Plate and of what ready monies they had to send it unto the King all which amounted unto a very considerabe Sum went suddenly to Cambridge and seized all that Treasure just as it was ready to be sent away unto Oxford And as he was upon this Expedition he signallized himself far more by another Action Sir Thomas Comes who was newly made Sheriff of Hertford Shire had received Orders from the King to publish a Proclamation by which the County of Kent and all its Adherents were proclaimed Traytors His late Highness surprised him in the very Action on a Market-day in the Town of St. Albons and having seized the said Knight he sent him up to the Parliament And not long afterwards he very oportunely assembled all the Forces of the County of Cambridge exhorted the Neighbouring Counties of Suffolk Norfolk and Essex to send him their Aydes to oppose the Lord Capell who was to have been seconded by Prince Rupert and should have seized Cambridge and thereby have impeded the association of the united Counties about London which were the only Bulwark and Defence of that great City wherein the Sinews of War did consist and by whose resolutions and proceedings the rest of the Kingdome was then governed His Highness diligence and vigilancy at that time brake the Neck of that Design and forced the Lord Capell and Prince Rupert to direct their Thoughts another way In the beginning of the Month of March next ensuing his late Highness having compleated a Regiment of Horse to the full number of a thousand Men marched with great diligence into the County of Suffolk on the advice which he had received of a great Confederacy which was there hatching between the Nobility of the Kings Party who were assembled in a considerable Town called Lowerstost whom he so unsuspectedly surprised as that he became Master of the place without the fiering of one Gun He took Prisoners Sir Thomas Barker Sir John Pettas his Brother Mr. Knevet Catlines Hammond Cory Turrill Preston and above twenty other Persons of Note He likewise there took severall parcels of Armes and Ammunition and other War-like Equipages sufficient to have armed a considerable Party and had not his Highness made use of his accustomed Prudence and his usuall Activity in this Conjuncture he had met with a great deal of difficulty on this account and the whole County had run a danger to have been lost severall persons of Quality and divers Noble men hourly flocking to that Randezvous This Service was most seasonably rendred to the Parliament and the Kings Party both in Suffolk and Norfolk were thereby totally disheartned and diâ—…ncouraged The Spring being advanced and the Season permitting the framing of greater Designs and taking of longer Marches his Highness having well setled the Peace and Tranquillity of the associated Counties which as we have sayd served as a Bulwark to the Parliament his Mind and his Valour requiring a space of Ground as vast as its Activity he raised a Body of an Army and that a very considerable one being composed of such zealous persons as had already been charmed with his Conduct and being attracted by his Reputation did voluntarily come in unto him to serve with and under him in the Cause of Religion He thus Marched into Lincolnshire with a Resolution to assist those Forces which lay about Newark one of the strongest places which held out as then for the King into which the greatest part of the Gentry of Lincolnshire had retired themselves and where there was a good Garison commanded by Officers who had served their Apprentiships in the Military Art beyond the Seas so that they fetcht in vast Contributions out of the Neighbouring Counties and made Inroads to the very Gates of Lincoln And his Highness being now at the Head of a Regiment of Horse in his passage through Huntingtonshire was willing to deliver his Native Country from those Disorders which two contrary Parties do usually cause and commit being in one Shire he therefore disarmed all those who were not affectioned to the Parliament by which means he so enlarged and augmented his Troops that he had gotten two thousand Men together and before he came neer Newark he received another re inforcement of Horse which was sent him by Captain Hotham as also some other Troops which were sent him from Lincoln insomuch that he thus framed a sufficient considerable Body of an Army for that time He no sooner was come nigh to Newark but that he signallized himself by an Action which was the more glorious by how much the less it was expected nor foreseen Captain Wray having so inconsideratly placed himself with his Lincolne Horse too nigh Newark was in the Night set upon by the Garrison which made a great Sally and surrounded and took all his Men the Alarm comming hot to his late Highness Quarters he forthwith repaired to the place where the Fight was it being then about ten of the Clock in the Night relieved the said Captain Wray and took three whole Companies of the Enemy killed the rest on the place and made good his Retreat by Favour of the dark Night After which having blocked up the place he received those Sallies which were made by the Besieged with so much Courage and Vigilancy as that he alwaies came off with advantage sometimes forcing the Enemies into their very Works and sometimes cutting them in pieces insomuch that he never returned unto the Camp but he was laden either with Prisoners Spoyles or Colours and that he might neglect no occasion for to give a testimony of his Prudence and Activity he also scouted abroad into the Country with his Horse and neer unto Grantham he defeated a strong Party which came forth of Newark with a handful of Men onely since which the World did take notice that there was somewhat more then ordinary in the person of his late Highness And not long after he also defeated part of the Lord of Newcastles Army which came to relieve Newark setting upon them in their Quarters betwixt Grantham and Newark where he took one hundred Horses forty Prisoners and killed severall on the place And should I particularlize all his late Highness's memorable Actions
some Ships Goods and Merchandises which the Pyrats of those parts had despoiled their Merchants of Which answer though in some measure it satisfied the Parliament yet not so farre as to trust too much therein to the Hollanders and whereby the Parliament was obliged to give order for the suddain reducing of that Island to their obedience Generall Blake being re-inforced by a Squadron of Ships commanded by Sir George Askue which was designed for the reduceing of the Cariba Islands made sail towards Scilly where immediately they set ashoar 300. Sea-men besides the Land-men the Sea-men gave the first onset with a great deal of courage and resolution and the Land-men did second them very well insomuch that they speedily became Masters of the Isles of Tresco and Bryers where they took 150 Prisoners after they had once slain a score of them They found in the place two good Frigats one of 18 Guns and the other of 32. and immediately possessed the best Haven of all these Islands whence the Enemies fled unto St. Maries the strongest of all those Islands but which held not long out afterwards and so they were all reduced It is unnecessary to lose time in the disating upon the strength and conveniencies of those Islands since all what art and nature could possibly allotte unto them is there to be found and so need but look into the Mappes to judge by their very situation of what concernment they are unto England Meanwhile it is worthy admiration that so difficult a Conquest should be attained in so little a space of time with the losse of so few men onely And whereas the Royallists did continue to make good Cornet Castle in the Isle of Guernsey and on a false advise that there were but forty men in the place eighteen of which were also said to be incapable of doing service a resolution was taken to set upon the said Castle and to carry it by surprisall but when the attempt was made there were found to be in the place threescore good men who when the Scaleing Ladders were applyed to the walls and the assault given to the place defended themselves resolutely and endammaged the Assailants in such a manner with Stones and Timber which they cast down upon them as also by their Canon which flanked the wall charged with Case-shot as that they killed divers of the Assailants and constrayned the rest to retire and the greatest dysaster that hapned was that a Vessel or two in which the men retired were sunk by the Canon from the Castle And however this attempt did not succeed yet the English did like couragious men and deserved no lesse prayse then if they had carryed the place About which time one Brown-Bushell was beheaded at London a famous Royallist both by Sea and Land for having deserted the Parliaments Forces and having since committed several Murders and mischievous actions But it is time to return into Scotland and to see in what posture both Armies are there The English who would not remain idle only to keep their Men in action besieged Blackness a considerable place and whence their quarters were continually allarum'd by the Mosse-Troopers who retreated and sheltred themselves in that place Colonel Monk commanded in chief in this Expedition who with but a handfull of men causing a Battery to be raised and having given them some few volleys of Cannon constrained them to yield On the other side all the several dissenting parties amongst the Scots notwithstanding their differences quarrels jealousies and their terrible excommunications did unite themselves altogether by their common interest wherein they concurred to re-establish their King whereunto they were encouraged by severall under hand practises which were carried on here in England and chiefly in Lancashire which was generally to have risen in Arms One of the chief Agents interessed in this businesse by name Mr. Thomas Cook was taken at London who discovered part of the design and more was known by Letters which were found in a Vessel sailing from the Mount of Scotland to the Isle of Man which belonged to the Earl of Darby and who anon will appear more visibly in this businesse as also Mr. Birkenhead was taken being charged with severall Orders and Instructions by which the most hidden and intricate secrets of this conspiracy were discovered These proceedings obliged the Parliament to order a party both of Horse and Foot under the command of Major General Harrison to march towards the North as well to dissipate such raisings as should chance to happen there as to oppose the Enemy should they make an irruption by the way of Carlisle Meanwhile several persons of note were impeached and tryed for having a hand in this Conspiracy The names of the chief are as followeth viz. Mr. Christopher Love Major Alford Major Addams Colonel Barton Mr. Blackmore Mr. Case and Mr. Cauton Doctor Drake Mr. Drake Captain Farre Mr. Gibbons Mr. Haviland and Mr. Jenkins Major Huntington Mr. Jackwell Mr. Jackeson Mr. Walton Mr. Robinson Captain Massey Captain Potter Lieutenant Colonels Jackeson Sowton and Vaughan and several others Two of which number were only put to death being found more guilty then the rest to wit Mr. Love and Mr. Gibbons who were both beheaded on Tower-hill And a false report being spread in the principality of Wales that Generall Cromwell was defeated in Scotland and that the Royallists Army was entring England a party began to form it self in those parts but as the cause of the same rising was false so the effect thereof did soon vanish Now the English being resolved to terminate the warre of Scotland caused Vessels to be built to passe over the River and to enter into Fife which began to allarum the Enemies who were on the other side of the water as also those in Brunts-Island Nor were the Scots idle neither but incommodated those quarters of the English which were the most advanced which they effected with the greater advantage being versed and known in the wayes and advances and by this means they slew several English Souldiers as they went out to forrage and to get in Provisions whereby the English were constrained to quit their Out-quarters and having thus ingrossed their Army by the said Garrisons they advanced towards Fife and to that end made their Magazine at Blacknesse but not finding wherewithall in the Countrey to feed their Horse they retarded their March for some few dayes By which time the Scots having compleated their Levies found themselves to be 15000 Foot and 6000 Horse with which Force they marched toward a place called Torwood on this side Sterling whereby they were faced by the English Army but would not ingage in a Battail keeping themselves within their Bogges and other inaccessable places whereupon the English resolved to passe over part of their Army on the other side of the River and Colonel Overton being thereunto ordered did on the 6th of July 1651. passe at
Require you being of the persons nominated personally to be and appear at the Councel-Chamber commonly called or known by the name of the Councel-Chamber at White-Hall within the City of Westminster upon the fourth day of July next ensuing the date hereof then and there to take upon you the said trust to which you are hereby called and appointed to serve as a member for the County of 〈◊〉 and hereof you are not to fail Given under my hand and seal the day of 〈◊〉 July 1653. subscribed Oliver Cromwel And in conformity to this Convocation the nominated for every County did accordingly meet on the fourth of July in the Councel Chamber where the Lord General Cromwel being accompanied with the greatest part of the Officers of the Army delivered himself to the laid members in an excellent Speech in which his Prudence Valour and Piety were at once manifested but chiefly his passionate tenderness for the good of the Commonwealth in General and for the peace and tranquillity of each member in particular so that we may justly attribute unto him the qualities both of a Caesar and of a Moses by reason of his elegant Speech which he prosecuted in this manner By recounting the many wonderful Mercies of God towards this Nation and the continued Series of Providence by which he had appeared in carrying on his Cause and bringing Affairs to that present glorious condition wherein they were He likewise manifested the progress of Affairs since the famous Victory at Worcester as also the actings of the Army thereupon After divers applications to the Parliament and much waiting upon them with the Grounds and necessities of their dissolving the last Parliament which he declared to be for the preservation of this Cause and the Interest of all honest men who had been engaged therein In like manner he set forth the clearness of the Call given to the Members then present to take upon them the Supreme Authority and from the Scriptures exhorted them to their duties and encouraged them therein He further desired them that a tenderness might be used towards all conscientious persons of what Judgement soever Which said Speech was pronounced with such a grate tone and in such excellent manner as it sufficiently manifested that as he himself was throughly perswaded thereof the Spirit of God acted in and by him he had adorned it with no other eloquent phrase save that of Holy Writ The rest was a masculine and convincing stile the comeliness whereof consisted in its plainness without any Rhethorical or Artificial words but single and pure such as proceeded from our Saviours Ministers the which begat the peace tranquillity and glory of all men The Lord Generals Speech being ended he produced an Instrument under his own Hand and Seal whereby he did with the Advice of his Officers devolve and intrust the Supreme Authority and Government of this Common-wealth into the Hands of the persons there met in the manner aforesaid who or any Forty of them were to be held and acknowledged the Supreme Authority of this Nation unto whom all persons within the same and the Territories thereunto belonging were to yield obedience and subjection That they were to sit no longer then the third of November 1654. And that three moneths before their dissolution they were to make choice of other persons to succeed them and whose Powers and Sitting should not exceed twelve Moneths time at the end of which they were likewise to take care for a succession in the Government Which said Instrument having been thus delivered unto them by the Lord General he did again exhort them to take the Business to heart and to set nothing before their eyes save the Glory of God and the Good of Publick Weal promising them that on his part he would neither spare his Goods Life nor his Rest to answer that great Mercy of God which he had shown them in making choice of them to follow those tracks which the Divine Providence had set before them for their good and for the glory and tranquility of these Nations Finally he recommended them to the Almighties protection and so together with his Officers withdrew leaving them to take their places in the former Parliament House and to act accordingly who forthwith named their Speaker and took their places meeting in the House and sitting in due form Upon this change of Government John Lilburne the chief of the Levellers of whom mention was formerly made and who had been banished the Land upon an Act of the foregoing Parliament thought to be protected by this and cast himself upon the Lord General who being unwilling to interpose matters of that nature left him to the Law whence he alwayes freed himself by a most strong fatality of Fortune And whilest this new Parliament is settling it self in England let us look a while back into Scotland and Ireland and see how things have prospered there since we left them Now although the English were possessed of the best strong places and Forteresses of all Scotland and of all the Castles and Forts of value in the Low-lands yet however the High-landers who perceived their inaccessible Fortresses did make continual excursions on the Low-lands being a people hardy and laborious faring hardly used to the cold and rigorousness of those Climates as swift and nimble as Stags and however they have more Valour then Conduct and more Temerity then Discipline yet some of them chose to be commanded by Glencarne Athol the Lord Seafort and others who framing several small Bodies of them would unexpectedly fall in upon and surprize the Inhabitants and English Souldiery without either giving or taking quarter spoiling and murthering all that came in their way and when the English would make shew to charge them and to pursue them in case they found themselves to be the weaker they then betook themselves to their heels with such swiftness and sheltering themselves in such unaccessible Rocks and Holds that it was impossible to pursue or light upon them by which advantages they were emboldned to commit several outrages murthers and had like to have surprized an English Ship which came to an anchor at Leevis Island some of which ships company going on shore to get in fresh water and provisions were detained by the Lord Seafort who also sent a ridiculous Summons to the said ship for its surrender freighted with threats and detestations of the English Government although the said ship the Fortune bearing more sails then their threats could fill laughed at their temerity and got off at will Moreover the state of Affairs in Ireland were much about the same predicament for the English having reduced all the strong Holds of that Countrey and having shipt away all those who had born Arms in the last Wars to be transported into Spain France Flanders and other parts whither themselves would go those onely excepted who during the first Rebellion had a hand in the murthering
Prayers even with Tears to spare such men whose ill fortune had designed them to suffer when as this grand Heroe being transported as it were and even ravished to see his own Image so lively described in those lovely and charming Features of that winning Sex could refuse her nothing insomuch that when his Clemency and Justice did balance the pardon of a poor Criminal this most charming Advocate knew so skilfully to disarm him that his Sword falling out of his hands his arms onely served to lift her up from those knees on which she had cast her self to wipe off her tears and to imbrace her So likewise it is believed that this illustrious Princess precipitated death did not a little contribute to his late Highnesses sickning all whose noble parts were found to be very sound and whole onely his Heart which sorrow had seized and dryed up Nor did he long out-live her since it was impossible he should survive the love of so generous a dispencer of his Clemency and Generosity For brevity I shall make choice of one of the Ambassadours of this Commonwealth to denote the splendor of the glorious Ministers of this generous Prince he being in such a place where he hath more occasion then any of the rest to give far ampler marks of the most Heroical Vertue which acquires more glory to the victorious then the victory it self and which is the most assured Character of a true Christian his Excellency the Lord Lockhart Ambassador in the Court of France General of his Highness Forces in Flanders and Governour of the Town of Dunkirk who is espoused to that most renowned Lady one of his late Highness's Neeces In both which noble Personages we may behold at once shining forth those two happy and glorious Talents which most of all render persons of their Birth and Quality recommendable and famous His person seems onely to have been sent into France to charm the whole Nation and to attract and accumulate graces and did he not expose himself to so many dangers and hazards in the Wars men might easily believe that after he had long born Arms in Holland in France and ten years space for the late King of England that he onely ranged himself on the victorious sides to save the Kings Party and to re-instate them in their Lands and Goods Wherefore the Generosity Courtesie and Affability of his late Highness did so superabound as that no one person ever departed from his presence unsatisfied for he received the Petitions of all men he heard their Grievances and his charitable memory was so retentive as that he never forgot their requests but made it his chief object to bear them in minde and most tenderly to provide for them He esteemed those he had overcome and took a delight to pardon them and to make them sharers of his good Fortune provided that they would give over to make themselves unfortunate by their obstinacy He was used to say that Hearts were as well to be overcome as Fortresses and that the one were no more to be demolished then the other because they had belonged to other Masters insomuch that he esteemed it a great Conquest to have gained a gallant Man to his party And as for those who have been put to death in his time they may be said to have been their own Judges and their own executioners And however Politicians hold that in the changing of a Government all things ought likewise to be changed if possible even the very Religion it self were men prophane enough to meddle therewith and that Cruelty ought wholly to banish Clemency yet all men know that as to the point of Religion he did leave things as he found them and that he saved more lives by thousands then obstinacy and despair did cause to perish Nay he did even wish when he came to have a more absolute power towards the latter end of his dayes that those which had been put to death were yet alive protesting solemnly that if he could not change their hearts he would have changed their Dooms and convert their deaths into a banishment which is easily to be believed by the goodness which he hath exercised towards the children of such as were put to death even those who were his most implacable enemies leaving them in possession both of their Goods and Titles and whose losses he hath recompensed by such civillities as doth evidence he learned not his Politicks in Machiavils School who teacheth that the children and all the Generation were to be exterminated together with their Fathers so that many men wished that his Highnesses power had been as absolute ten years since as it was some years before his death So likewise those Alliances which he made and those Wars which he undertook had all of them motives of Generosity and were founded on Equity and Reason if so be we consider the very first whereinto he onely stept by the degree of a Captain and which may be termed a necessary evil and an inevitable one begotten by the remissness of the Political Body and by the corruption of the Clergy I do finde that two high injustices were the primitive causes thereof the first was the usurpations of the Saxons Danes and Normanns the second was the peaceful humor and dispositions of King James and the idleness and sloathfulness of the Nobility who constrained their younger brethren to serve them or to learn Trades by taking away from them the means to subsist by the way of Arms which is a priviledge more then legitimate due by the elder brother to the younger and by Princes to such Martial Spirits as live in their Dominions if the Saxons and other Usurpers or Conquerors of England did by force of Arms become Masters of the Countrey and did cast out the right Possessours thereof and by success of time falling from a Forreign Injustice into a Domestick Injustice they reduced their younger Brothers to Mecannick professions At present they demand that they may be permitted to expose their bloods and their lives for the preservation of their Brethrens That the exercise of Arms may be abolished in so Populous and Warlike a State that the banished glory which formerly with so much Pomp reigned in England may be restored again And as for the War which his late Highness declared against Spain that is so generous that a man may averre that glory was the onely motive thereof and that thereby he espoused the Interest of all the people which were oppressed and of all the Princes which the Ambition of Spain had despoyled of their States and Territories And the two most unfortunate people of the earth were the first objects of his Generosity and those which were the most of all abandoned were the first that felt the effects of that Arm which stretched it self forth to their assistance To wit the poor Indians those wretched slaves who behold no other faces save those of their tormentors and who were made