LETTER CCXXIII

SAME date, same parties; an afterthought, by the same Ex

press.

'To Sir William Lockhart, our Ambassador in France'

SIR,

Whitehall, 31st August, 1657.

We desire, having written to you as we have, that the design be Dunkirk rather than Gravelines; and much more that it be so; but one of them rather than fail.

We shall not be wanting, at the French charge, to send over two of our old regiments of foot, and two-thousand foot more, if need be, if Dunkirk be the design; believing that if the Army be well entrenched, and La Ferte's Foot added to it, we shall be able to give liberty to the greatest part of the French Cavalry to have an eye to the Spaniard, leaving but convenient numbers to stand by the Foot.

And because this action will probably divert the Spaniard from assisting Charles Stuart in any attempt upon us, you may be assured that, if reality may with any reason be expected from the French, we shall do all reason on our parts. But if indeed the French be so false to us as that they would not have us have any footing on that side the water, then I desire, as in our other letter to you, that all things may be prepared in order to the giving us satisfaction 'for our expense incurred,' and the drawing-off of our men.

And truly, Sir, I desire you to take boldness and freedom to yourself in your dealing with the French on these accounts.

Your loving friend,

OLIVER P.*

1 Gravelines is to belong to them; Dunkirk to us; Dunkirk will be much preferable.

* Thurloe, vi. 489. [In Thurloe's handwriting.]

This Letter naturally had its effect: indeed there goes a witty sneer in France, "The Cardinal is more afraid of Oliver than of the Devil; "-he ought indeed to fear the Devil much more, but Oliver is the palpabler Entity of the two! Mardike was

besieged straightway; girt by sea and land, and the great guns opened on the 21st day of September' next: Mardike was taken before September ended; and due delivery to our General was had of Mardike. The place was in a weak state; but by sea and land all hands were now busy fortifying and securing it.

LETTER CCXXIV

HERE has an old dim Letter lately turned up,-communicated, for new editions, by the distinguished General Montague's Descendant, which evidently relates to this operation. Resuscitated from its dim Archives, it falls with ready fitness into rank here; kindling the old dead Books into pleasant momentary light and wakefulness at this point, and sufficiently illuminating itself also thereby. A curious meeting, one of those curious meetings, of old Letterpress now forgotten with old Manuscript never known till now, such as occasionally cheer the learned mind!—Of 'Denokson,' clearly some Dutch Vauban, or war timmerman on the great scale; of him, or of 'Colonel Clerke,' whom I take to be a Sea-Colonel mainly, the reader needs no commentary ;-and is to understand withal that their hasty work was got accomplished, and Mardike put in some kind of fencible condition.

For General Montague, on board the London, before Dunkirk:

SIR,

These

Whitehall, 2d October 1657.

This bearer, Christian Denokson, I have sent to you, being a very good artist, especially in wooden works,— to view the Great Fort and the Wooden Fort, in order to the further strengthening of them.

I hope he is very able to make the Wooden Fort as strong as it is capable to be made; which I judge very desirable to be

done with all speed. I desire you will direct him in this view, and afterwards speak with him about it, that upon his return I may have a very particular account about what is fit to be done, and what timber will be necessary to be provided. I have written also to Colonel Clerke, the Governor of the Fort, about it. I pray, when he has finished his view, that you will hasten him back. I rest, affectionate friend,

Your very

OLIVER P.*

An attempt to retake Mardike, by scalado or surprisal from the Dunkirk side, was made, some three weeks hence, by Don John with a great Spanish Force, among which his Ex-Royal Highness the Duke of York, with Four English-Irish emigrant Regiments he has now got raised for him on Spanish pay, was duly conspicuous; but it did not succeed; it amounted only to a night of unspeakable tumult; to much expenditure of shot on all sides, and of life on his Royal Highness's and Don John's side,-Montague pouring death-fire on them from his ships too, and four great flaming links at the corners of Mardike Tower' warning Montague not to aim thitherward;—and the dead were carried-off in carts before sunrise.' 1

Let us add here, that Dunkirk, after gallant service shown by the Six-thousand, and brilliant fighting and victory on the sand-hills, was also got, next summer; 2 Lockhart himself now commanding there, poor Reynolds having perished at sea. Dunkirk too remained an English Garrison, much prized by England; till, in very altered times, his now Restored Majesty saw good to sell it, and the loyallest men had to make their comparisons. -On the whole we may say, this Expedition to the Netherlands was a successful one; the Six-thousand, 'immortal Six-thousand' as some call them,3 gained what they were sent for, and much glory over and above.

* Original in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich, at Hinchinbrook (February 1849). Only the Signature is Oliver's; hand, as before, 'very shaky.'

122d October (Heath's Chronicle, p. 727; Carte's Ormond, ii. 175).

2 13th June 1658, the fight; 15th June, the surrender; 24th, the delivery to Lockhart (Thurloe, vii. 155, 173, &c.). Clarendon, iii. 853-58. [See also the State Papers for this year, Domestic and Flanders.]

Sir William Temple, Memoirs, Part iii. 154 (cited by Godwin, iv. 547).

These Mardike-and-Dunkirk Letters are among the last Letters left to us of Oliver Cromwell's :-Oliver's great heroic Dayswork, and the small unheroic pious one of Oliver's Editor, is drawing to a close! But in the same hours, 31st August 1657, while Oliver wrote so to Lockhart,-let us still spare a corner for recording it,-John Lilburn, Freeborn John, or alas only the empty Case of John, was getting buried; still in a noisy manner! Noisy John, set free from many prisons, had been living about Eltham lately, in a state of Quakerism, or Quasi-Quakerism. Here is the clipping from the old Newspaper :

'Monday, 31st August 1657. Mr. John Lilburn, commonly 'known by the name of Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn, dying on Saturday at Elthain, was this morning removed thence to Lon'don; and his corpse conveyed to the House called the Mouth,' old, still extant Bull-and-Mouth Inn, 'at Aldersgate,—which is 'the usual meeting-place of the people called Quakers, to whom, 'it seems, he had lately joined in opinion. At this place, in the afternoon, there assembled a medley of people; among whom 'the Quakers were most eminent for number: and within the 'house a controversy was, Whether the ceremony of a hearse'cloth' (pall) 'should be cast over his coffin? But the major 'part, being Quakers, would not assent; so the coffin was, about 'five o'clock in the evening, brought forth into the street. At 'its coming out, there stood a man on purpose to cast a velvet 'hearse-cloth over the coffin; and he endeavoured to do it but 'the crowd of Quakers would not permit him; and having gotten 'the body upon their shoulders, they carried it away without 'farther ceremony; and the whole company conducted it into Moorfields, and thence to the new Churchyard adjoining to 'Bedlam, where it lieth interred.'1

One noisy element, then, is out of this world :—another is fast going. Frantic-Anabaptist Sexby, over here once more on Insurrectionary business, scheming out a new Invasion of the Charles-Stewart Spaniards and English-Irish Regiments, and just lifting anchor for Flanders again, was seized in the Ship Hope, ' in a mean habit, disguised like a countryman, and his face much 'altered by an overgrown beard;'-before the Ship Hope could get under weigh, about a month ago.2 Bushy-bearded Sexby,

1 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 168). [Closely following this in the newspapers and forming a curious contrast to it, is the account of Blake's stately funeral in Westminster Abbey. See Merc. Pol. (E. 505 (18, 20)).]

after due examination by his Highness, has been lodged in the Tower; where his mind falls into a very unsettled state. In October next he volunteers a confession; goes mad; and in the January following dies,1 and to his own relief and ours disappears, -poor Sexby.

Sexby, like the Stormy Petrel, indicates that new RoyalistAnabaptist Tumult is a-brewing. They are as the waves of the Sea, they cannot rest; they must stir up mire and dirt,'—it is the lot appointed them! In fact, the grand Spanish CharlesStuart Invasion is again on the anvil; and they will try it, this year, even without the Preface of Assassination. New troubles are hoped from this new Session of Parliament, which begins in January. The 'Excluded Members' are to be readmitted then ; there is to be a 'Second House:' who knows what possibilities of trouble! A new Parliament is always the signal for new Royalist attempts; even as the Moon to waves of the sea: but we hope his Highness will be prepared for them! 2—

Wednesday, 11th November 1657. This day,' say the old Newspapers, 'the most Illustrious Lady, the Lady Frances Cromwell, 'youngest Daughter of his Highness the Lord Protector, was 'married to the most noble gentleman Mr. Robert Rich, Son 'of the Lord Rich, Grandchild of the Earl of Warwick and of the 'Countess-Dowager of Devonshire; in the presence of their 'Highnesses, and of his Grandfather, and Father, and the said 'Countess, with many other persons of high honour and quality.' At Whitehall, this blessed Wednesday; all difficulties now overcome; 3—which we are glad to hear of, though our friends truly were very few!'-And on the Thursday of next week follows, at Hampton Court, the Lady Mary's own Wedding. Wedding

1 Cromwelliana, pp. 169-70.

2 [Scotland, too, was in a restless state, by reason of "rents and divisions" amongst the different religious parties. See S. P. Interregnum I. 78, p. 130.]

[Some fresh difficulties appear to have arisen so lately as the April of this year. Sir Fras. Russell (whose son was afterwards Lady Frances' second husband), writing to Henry Cromwell on April 27, in the midst of the discussions over Kingship, says, Here hath been some troubles about the business of Mr. Rich and my Lady Frances; they seem to me yet to continue, and to trouble the minds both of your father and mother more than anything else," Lansdowne MS., 822, f. 57.]

"

4 Newspapers (in Cromwelliana, p. 169). [Dugdale, writing to a friend on Nov. 14, says, "On Wednesday last was my Lord Protector's daughter married to the Earl of Warwick's grandson; Mr. Scobell, as a justice of the peace, tied the knot after a godly prayer made by one of his Highness' divines; and on Thursday was the wedding feast kept at Whitehall, where they had forty-eight violins and fifty trumpets and much mirth with frolics, besides mixt dancing (a thing hitherto counted profane) till five of the clock yesterday morning. Amongst the dancers