return back into the said Castle, without any trouble or moles tation. Given under my hand, the 18th December 1650. OLIVER CROMWELL.* By tomorrow morning, in Mr. Wallace's House, Colonel Monk and the other Three have agreed upon handsome terms; of which, except what indicates itself in the following Proclamation, published by beat of drum the same day, we need say nothing. All was handsome, just and honourable, as the case permitted; my Lord General being extremely anxious to gain this place, and conciliate the Godly People of the Nation. By one of the conditions, the Public Registers, now deposited in the Castle, are to be accurately bundled up by authorised persons, and carried to Stirling, or whither the Authorities please; concerning which some question afterwards accidentally rises. PROCLAMATION To be proclaimed by the Marshal-general, by beat of drum, in Edinburgh and Leith WHEREAS there is an agreement of articles by treaty concluded betwixt myself and Colonel Walter Dundas, Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, which doth give free liberty to all inhabitants adjacent, and all other persons who have any goods in the said Castle, to fetch forth the same from thence : These are therefore to declare, that all such people before mentioned who have any goods in the Castle, as is before expressed, shall have free liberty between this present Thursday the 19th instant and Tuesday the 24th, To repair to the Castle, and to fetch away their goods, without let or molestation. And I do hereby further declare and require all officers and soldiers of this army, That they take strict care, that no violation be done * Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 99). [See note, p. 157.] to any person or persons fetching away their goods, and carrying them to such place or places as to them seemeth fit. And if it shall so fall out that any soldier shall be found willingly or wilfully to do anything contrary hereunto, he shall suffer death for the same. And if it shall appear that any officer shall, either through connivance or otherwise, do or suffer 'to be done' anything contrary to and against the said Proclamation, wherein it might lie in his power to prevent or hinder the same, he the said officer shall likewise suffer death. Given under my hand the 19th of December 1650. OLIVER CROMWELL.* It is now Thursday: we gain admittance to the Castle on the Tuesday following, and the Scotch forces march away,-in a somewhat confused manner, I conceive. For Governor Dundas and the other parties implicated are considered little better than traitors, at Stirling in fact, they are, openly or secretly, of the Remonstrant or Protester species; and may as well come over to Cromwell;-which at once or gradually the most of them do. What became of the Clergy, let us not enquire: Remonstrants or Resolutioners, confuse times await them! Of which here and there a glimpse may turn up as we proceed. The Lord General has now done with Scotch Treaties; the Malignants and QuasiMalignants are ranked in one definite body; and he may smite without reluctance. Here is bis Letter to the Speaker on this business. After which, we may hope, the rest of his Scotch Letters may be given in a mass; sufficiently legible without commentary of ours. *Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 99). [A curious little bit of historic irony is to be found amongst the Clarke Papers at Littlecote. On the back of a copy or draft of this proclamation, written by William Clarke in shorthand, Clarke himself (then acting as secretary to Cromwell at Edinburgh), has drafted a petition for a friend of his to King Charles II., praying for the release of her husband, as a sweet pledge of his Majesty's gracious and auspicious reign, on the happy day of his Coronation, which would engage the petitioner "ever to pray for your Majesty's long and glorious reign over us". Hist. MSS. Commissioners' Report on Mr. Leyborne-Popham's MSS., p. 81.] LETTER CLXI For the Honourable William Lenthall, Esquire, Speaker of the Parliament of England: These' SIR, Edinburgh, 24th Dec. 1650. It hath pleased God to cause the Castle of Edinburgh to be surrendered into our hands, this day about eleven o'clock. I thought fit to give you such account thereof as I could, and the shortness of time would permit. I sent a summons to the Castle upon the 12th instant; which occasioned several exchanges of returns and replies, which, for their unusualness, I also thought fit humbly to present to you.1 Indeed the mercy is very great and seasonable. I think, I need say little of the strength of the place, which, if it had not come as it did, would have cost very much blood to have attained, if at all to be attained, and did tie up your army to that inconvenience, that little or nothing could have been attempted whilst this was in design, or little fruit had of anything brought into your power by your army hitherto, without it. I must needs say, not any skill or wisdom of ours, but the good hand of God hath given you this place. I believe all Scotland hath not in it so much brass ordnance as this place. I send you here enclosed a list thereof, and of the arms and ammunition, so well as they could be taken on a sudden. Not having more at present to trouble you with, I take leave, and rest, Sir, Your most humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.* 1 We have already read them. 2 Drakes, minions, murderers, monkeys, of brass and iron,-not interesting to us, except it be 'the great iron murderer called Muckle-Meg,' already in existence, and still held in some confused remembrance in those Northern parts. *Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 99). [Now printed from the original at Welbeck. Signed only by Cromwell.] LETTERS CLXII-CLXXXI THE Lord General is now settled at Edinburgh till the season for campaigning return. Tradition still reports him as lodged, as in 1648, in that same spacious and sumptuous Earl of Murrie's House in the Cannigate;' credible enough; though Tradition does not in this instance produce any written voucher hitherto.1 The Lord General, as we shall find by and by, falls dangerously sick here; worn down by over-work and the rugged climate. The Scots lie entrenched at Stirling, diligently raising new levies; parliamenting and committee-ing diligently at Perth ;— crown their King at Scone Kirk, on the First of January,2 in token that they have now all 'complied' with him. The Lord General is virtually master of all Scotland south of the Forth ;fortifies, before long, a Garrison as far west as 'Newark,' 3 which we now call Port Glasgow, on the Clyde. How his forces had to occupy themselves, reducing detached Castles; coercing Mosstroopers; and, in detail, bringing the Country to obedience, the old Books at great length say, and the reader here shall fancy in his mind. Take the following two little traits from Whitlocke, and spread them out to the due expansion and reduplication: February 3d, 1650. Letters that Colonel Fenwick summoned 'Hume Castle to be surrendered to General Cromwell. The 'Governor answered, "I know not Cromwell; and as for my 'Castle, it is built on a rock." Whereupon Colonel Fenwick played upon him' a little 'with the great guns.' But the Governor still would not yield; nay sent a Letter couched in these singular terms: "I, William of the Wastle, So there remained nothing but opening the mortars upon this 1 Yes, in fine: Memorie of the Somervilles (Edinburgh, 1815), ii. 423, gives 'my Lady Home's Lodging,' which is known to signify that same House. (Note of 1857.) 2 Minute description of the ceremony, in Somers Tracts, vi. 117. 2 Milton State-Papers, p. 84. 4. Shand garre,' is Whitlocke's reading. William of the Wastle; which did gar him gang down,-more fool than he went up.1 We also read how Colonel Hacker and others rooted out bodies of Mosstroopers from Strength after Strength; and took much oatmeal,' which must have been very useful there. But this little Entry, a few days subsequent to that of Willie Wastle, affected us most: 'Letters that the Scots in a Village called 'Geddard rose, and armed themselves; and set upon Captain Dawson as he returned from pursuing some Mosstroopers ;— 'killed his guide and trumpet; and took Dawson and eight of 'his party, and after having given them quarter, killed them all in cold blood.'2 In which Village called Geddard,' do not some readers recognise a known place, Jeddart or Jedburgh, friendly enough to Mosstroopers; and in the transaction itself, a notable example of what is called 'Jeddart Justice,'-killing a man whom you have a pique at; killing him first, to make sure, and then judging him!—However there come Letters too, 'That the English soldiers married divers of the Scots Women; '3 which was an excellent movement on their part;-and may serve as the concluding feature here. LETTER CLXII THE Empson' of this Letter, who is now to have a Company in Hacker's regiment, was transiently visible to us once already, as 'Lieutenant Empson of my regiment,' in the Skirmish at Musselburgh, four months ago.4 Hacker is the well-known 1[Fenwick sent a despatch up to London with an account of the taking of the castle, and copies of his own and the governor's letters. The latter has the passage: "I know not Cromwell," etc., but not the old rhyme. Perhaps Fenwick purposely omitted it. It is evident that the governor was driven to surrender by his own garrison. Fenwick states that, in consequence of what the defenders had said to his men, he went up to the castle and called for the governor, "upon which the soldiers not being willing to hold it any longer," the place surrendered. Mercurius Politicus, No. 37 (E. 625, 1).] 214th February 1650 (Whitlocke, p. 464). [See Cromwell's Scotch Campaigns, p. 229 note. 3["Our English lads and Scotch lassies begin to mingle geer very orderly, so that there is scarce a day but the bagpipes are heard at a marriage; some private soldiers have married knights' and lairds' daughters, and others of them marry maid servants so that we are like to stock ourselves of a new generation Mercurius Politicus, 5-12 December (E. 619).] ... 4 Letter CXXXV. [See The Later History of the Ironsides, p. 11.] |