LETTER CXXXI HERE, of the same date, is a Letter to Mayor; and then a Letter to Richard; which concludes what we have in Ireland. For my very loving Brother, Richard Mayor, Esquire, at DEAR BROTHER, Carrick, 2d April 1650. For me to write unto you the state of our affairs here were more than indeed I have leisure well to do, and therefore I hope you do not expect it from me; seeing when I write to the Parliament I usually am (as becomes me) very particular with them, and usually from thence the knowledge thereof is spread. Only this let me say (which is the best intelligence to friends that are truly Christian): The Lord is pleased still to vouchsafe us His presence, and to prosper His own work in our hands; which to us is the more eminent because truly we are a company of poor, weak and worthless creatures. Truly our work is neither from our own brains nor from our courage and strength, but we follow the Lord who goeth before, and gather what He scattereth, that so all may appear to be from Him. The taking of the city of Kilkenny hath been one of our last works; which indeed I believe hath been a great discomposing of the enemy, it's so much in their bowels. We have taken many considerable places lately, without much loss. What can we say to these things. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can fight against the Lord and prosper? Who can resist His will? The Lord keep us in His love. I desire your prayers; your family is often in mine. I rejoice to hear how it hath pleased the Lord to deal with my daughter.1 1In a hopeful way I conclude! Richard's first child, according to Noble's registers, was not born till 3d November 1652 (Noble, i. 189); a boy, who died within three weeks. Noble's registers, as we shall soon see, are very defective. The Lord bless her, and sanctify all His dispensations to them and us. I have committed my son to you; I pray counsel him. Some letters I have lately had from him have a good savour: the Lord treasure up grace there, that out of that treasury He may bring forth good things. Sir, I desire my very entire affection my be presented to my dear sister, my Cousin Ann and the rest of my cousins, and to idle Dick Norton when you see him. Sir, I rest, Your most loving brother, OLIVER CROMWELL.* LETTER CXXXII For my beloved Son Richard Cromwell, Esquire, at Hursley in Hampshire: These DICK CROMWELL, Carrick, 2d April 1650. I take your letters kindly: I like expressions when they come plainly from the heart, and are not strained nor affected. I am persuaded it's the Lord's mercy to place you where you are: I wish you may own it and be thankful, fulfilling all relations to the glory of God. Seek the Lord and His face continually : let this be the business of your life and strength, and let all things be subservient and in order to this. You cannot find nor behold ["Noble's registers" appear to be quite accurate. He gives the date of the birth of Richard's first child-a daughter-as March 26, 1650. It is the first son (not the first child), who, he says, was born on November 3, 1652. See also note on p. 69 below.] *Harris, p. 512. [One of the Pusey letters, "No. 16," Holograph. In the Morrison Collection. To this letter Harris adds the following note, "this direction is in a woman's hand. Underneath is written in Mr. Mayor's hand these words '15 May, I wrote in behalf of Mr. Bonny of Dorset."" The direction is in an ordinary clerk's hand. It does not look at all like a woman's writing. "Bonny" is possibly correct, but the word is more probably "Berry." The letter is sealed with the Cromwell arms, and endorsed by Mayor," Ld. L[ieut.] Cromwell, 2 April 1650 from Caricke."] the face of God but in Christ; therefore labour to know God in Christ, which the Scripture makes to be the sum of all, even life eternal. Because the true knowledge is not literal or speculative, but inward, transforming the mind to it. It's uniting to, and participating of, the Divine Nature (2 Peter, i. 4): It's such a knowledge as Paul speaks of (Philippians the 3d, 8, 9, 10).1 How little of this knowledge of Christ is there among us. My weak prayers shall be for you. Take heed of an unactive vain spirit. Recreate yourself with Sir Walter Ralegh's 2 History: it's a body of History, and will add much more to your understanding than fragments of story. -Intend to understand the estate I have settled: it's your concernment to know it all, and how it stands. I have heretofore suffered much by too much trusting others. I know my Brother Maior will be helpful to you in all this. You will think (perhaps) I need not advise you to love your wife. The Lord teach you how to do it, or else it will be done ill-favouredly. Though marriage be no instituted Sacrament, yet where the undefiled bed is, and love, this union aptly resembles Christ and His Church. If you can truly love your wife, what 'love' doth Christ bear to His Church and every poor soul therein, who gave Himself for it and to it. Commend me to your wife; tell her I entirely love her, and rejoice in the goodness of the Lord to her. I wish her everyway fruitful. I thank her for her loving letter. 1 That by these ye might be partakers of the divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter i. 4). "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him,-not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death." (Philippians iii. 8. 10). These sentences,-well known to Oliver; familiar to him in their phraseology, and in their sense too; and never to be finally forgotten by the earnest-hearted of the Sons of Men,-are not quoted in the Original, but merely indicated. [Carlyle interpolated them in the letter.] 2["Raughleye," Cromwell spells the name.] 3 Old word for ' endeavour.' I have presented my love to my sister and Cousin Ann, &c. in my letter to my Brother Maior. I would not have him alter his affairs because of my debt. My purse is as his: my present thoughts are but to lodge such a sum for my two little Girls ; it's in his hand as well as anywhere. I shall not be wanting to accommodate him to his mind; I would not have him solicitous. Dick, the Lord bless you every way. I rest, Your loving Father, OLIVER CROMWELL.* In the end of this month, 'the President Frigate,' President Bradshaw Frigate, sails from Milford Haven 'to attend his Excellency's pleasure,' and bring him home if he see good to come. He has still one storm to do there first; that of Clonmel, where 'Two-thousand foot, all Ulster men,' are gathered for a last struggle;—the death-agony of this War, after which it will fairly die, and be buried. A very fierce storm, and fire-whirlwind of last agony; whereof take this solid account by an eye-witness and hand-actor; and so leave this part of our subject. The date is 10th May 1650; 'a Letter from Clonmel in Ireland :' 66 "Worthy Sir,-Yesterday," Thursday 9th May, "we stormed "Clonmel in which work both officers and soldiers did as much " and more than could be expected. We had, with our guns, "made a breach in their works; where, after an hot fight, we 'gave back a while; but presently charged up to the same "ground again. But the Enemy had made themselves exceeding strong, by double-works and traverse, which were worse to enter "than the breach; when we came up to it, they had cross-works, "and were strongly flanked from the houses within their works. "The Enemy defended themselves against us that day, until to"wards the evening, our men all the while keeping up close to 66 * Memoirs of the Protector Oliver Cromwell, by Oliver Cromwell, Esquire, a Descendant of the Family (London, 1822), i. 369. An incorrect, dull, insignificant Book; contains this Letter, and one or two others, in possession of the Cromwell Family. [But now printed from the original. This letter, holograph, as those to his own family are, almost without exception, seems to have gone through several hands. At one time it was in possession of a member of the Incorporated Law Society (see Catalogue of Autograph Letters, &c. B. M. 11903, bbb. 22.) It is now in the Morrison Collection.] Another Descendant, Thomas Cromwell Esquire's Oliver Cromwell and his Times (London, 1821), is of a vaporous, gesticulative, dull-aërial, still more insignificant character; and contains nothing that is not common elsewhere. "their breach; and many on both sides were slain." The fierce death-wrestle, in the breaches here, lasted four hours: so many hours of hot storm and continuous tug of war, "and many men were slain." "At night, the Enemy drew out, on the other "side, and marched away undiscovered to us; and the inhabitants "of Clonmel sent out for a parley. Upon which, Articles were "agreed on, before we knew the Enemy was gone. After signing "of the Conditions, we discovered the Enemy to be gone; and, very early this morning, pursued them; and fell upon their rear "of stragglers, and killed above 200,-besides those we slew in "the storm. We entered Clonmel this morning, and have "kept our Conditions with them. The place is considerable; "and very advantageous to the reducing of these parts wholly to "the Parliament of England." 1 Whitlocke has heard by other Letters, 'That they found in Clonmel the stoutest Enemy that ever was found by the army, in Ireland; and that there never was seen so hot a storm of so long continuance, and so gallantly 'defended, neither in England or Ireland.' 2 66 The Irish Commander here was Hugh O'Neil, a kinsman of Owen Roe's: vain he too, this new brave O'Neil! It is a lost Cause. It is a Cause he has not yet seen into the secret of, and cannot prosper in. Fiery fighting cannot prosper in it; no, there needs something other first, which has never yet been done! Let the O'Neil go elsewhither, with his fighting talent; here it avails nothing, and less. To the surrendered Irish Officers the Lord Lieutenant granted numerous permissions to embody regiments, and go abroad with them into any country not at war with England. Some Five-and-forty Thousand' Kurisees, or whatever name they had, went in this way to France, to Spain, and fought there far off; and their own land had peace. The Lord Lieutenant would fain have seen Waterford surrender before he went: but new Letters arrive from the Parliament; affairs in Scotland threaten to become pressing. He 1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 81). 2 Whitlocke, p. 441. [Sir Lewis Dyves, writing of the attack on Clonmel, says that O'Neale behaved "so discreetly and gallantly in defending it that Cromwell lost near upon 2,500 men before it, and had, notwithstanding, gone away without it, if they within had had store of powder." His figures are probably exaggerated, but there is no doubt that Cromwell's loss was exceedingly heavy. M'Geoghegan and Borlase give about the same numbers, Carte and Ware almost as many. See also Aphorismical Discovery, ed. Gilbert, vol. ii., p. 76. For an adequate account of this Clonmel business, see Murphy, p. 327 et seq.] |