Chapter IX: Part 9

“Then the Lieutenant cried out, ‘This makes for us, sure enough. I do but think how finely I shall lie between the two old earles.’... The particulars hereof being brought to the Marquess, his lordship was not a little perplext between feare of having his new mistresse and loosing his old friend; which he had run himself into between jest and earnest. The time was come that the Marquess was not so much merrier than we heretofore; but we were as much merrie as he upon the return of this news. But the greatest sport of all was concerning the hopefull Lady Marchioness, who was ever and anon enquiring and asking many questions concerning the Marquess, whom she never saw. What manner of man he was? How old? Whether he went with a staff, or no? What was the reason he kept his chamber so much, and did not come abroad sometimes? What ailments he had? And how long it was since his lady died? With many other necessary questions to be asked by a young woman in her condition.

“Sport enough there was for both the garrisons of Raglan and Hereford. Nevertheless, it stood the Marquess upon to be sollicitous in the business, being sore prest between two strong passions, love and pitty. Me he sends to solicit the businesse, with instructions; whose telling me never so often, ‘that it was no laughing matter,’ could not make me forbear laughing.

“But having taken my leave, his Lordship called me back again, and with a loud and angry voice said to me, ‘Tell the Generall, that if he hang my Lieutenant, I’ll hang the centry for not giving fire upon him when he was bid.’ Whereupon I said unto his Lordship, ‘What doth he care how many you hang?’ ‘God bless us all,’ said the Marquess; ‘if he neither cares who he hangs of the King’s party, nor who other folkes hang; for aught I know he cares not an’ we were all hanged.’

“So taking my second leave of the Marquess, and then my humble leave of the Lady Elizabeth, who fearing nothing more but that I would prove too good a sollicitor for her good, I went to Hereford, and made some sport there; and so brought home the Lieutenant to his wife and daughter, who ever after was called ‘My Lady Marquess.’”

We now proceed to that part of our subject, in which the desperate fortunes of the Monarch are connected with his last visit to Raglan.

After the battle of Naseby, nothing prospered with the King. His army, it was suspected, had not displayed on that day their former valour. Though not disaffected, they were dispirited; the mass of the infantry threw down their arms and cried for quarter; and with Cromwell’s horse thundering in his rear, the King escaped to Leicester, and thence through Bewdley, in Worcestershire, to Hereford. Only five days before this ruinous defeat he had written in a letter to the Queen, that since the rebellion began, “his affairs were never in so fair and hopeful a way.” On the sixth he was a fugitive. But he had still hopes--strange as it must appear--of getting together an army in South Wales.[253] At Hereford, Prince Rupert took leave of the King, and hastened to Bristol, that he might put it into a condition to resist the victorious army that was speedily to make its appearance before it; and thence, says Lord Clarendon, “his Majesty went to Abergavenny to meet the Commissioners. As they were for the most part persons of the best quality and the largest fortunes of these counties, so they had manifested great loyalty and affection from the beginning of the war, by sending many good regiments to the army; and with their sons and brothers and nearest kindred--many of whom had lost their lives bravely in the field. They now made as large professions as ever, and seemed to believe that they should be able in a very short time to raise a good army of foot, with which the King might again look upon the enemy, and accordingly agreed what numbers should be levied upon each of the counties.” From hence, says the historian, “his Majesty went for the last time to <g>Raglan Castle</g>, the noble house of the Marquess of Worcester, which was well fortified and garrisoned by him who remained then in it.” There the King “resolved to stay till he saw the effect of the Commissioners’ mighty promises. But in a short time he found that, either by the continued successes of the Parliament armies, the particular information whereof was every day brought to them by intelligence from their friends, or the triumphs of their enemies in Monmouth or Gloucester, there was little probability of their raising an army in those parts, where all men grew less affected, or more frighted: which produced one and the same effect.”

In his progress--for it was more like a “progress” than a retreat--through Monmouthshire to Raglan, the King was greeted with every expression of loyal sympathy by his Welsh subjects. In the “_Iter Carolinum_,” printed amongst the “Somers’ Tracts,” it is recorded, “that King Charles slept at Tredegar, the seat of Sir William Morgan, in this county, on the seventeenth of July, 1645; and that he arrived at Sir Philip Morgan’s,[254] Ruperra, in Glamorganshire, on the twenty-fifth, and there remained till the twenty-ninth of the same month.” This must have been immediately before his return to Raglan Castle, in August. Entering upon a melancholy progress from house to house, among the staunch royalists of South Wales, he had thus sought relief from the gloomy reflections by which his mind was oppressed after the total defeat at Naseby.

At Raglan, however, says the historian, “the King, as on his former visit, passed days and weeks in sports and ceremonies, in hunting and audience-giving;” for every effort was employed by those around him to obliterate all recollections of the past by promises and predictions of a brilliant future. When his Majesty re-entered the gates of Raglan--which was indeed a harbour of refuge in his distress--the loyal Marquess, kneeling down, kissed his <g>Liege’s</g> hand; and then rising up saluted him with this compliment--“_Domine! non sum dignus_.” To which the King replied--“My Lord, I may very well answer you again: _I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel_. No man would trust me with so much money as you have done.” To which the Marquess replied--“I hope your Majesty will prove _a defender of the Faith_.”

By this time Lord Herbert (Earl of Glamorgan) had sailed for Ireland to raise, if possible, new forces for the King’s service, and the renewal of the war. Pleased with his zeal and loyalty, his Majesty had thus written to him from Hereford:--

“Glamorgan--I am glad to hear that you are gone to Irland, and
asseure you that as myselfe is nowais disheartned by our late
misfortune, so nether this country; for I could not have expected
more from them then they have now freely undertaken, though I had
come hither absolute victorious; which makes me hope well of the
neighbouring sheers; so that, by the grace of God, I hope shortly
to recover my late losse, with advantage, if such succours come to
me from that Kingdome which I have reason to expect; but the
circumstance of tyme is that of the greatest consequence, being
that wᶜ now is cheefliest and earnestliest recomended to you by
your most asseured, reall, constant frend,

“<g>Charles R.</g>”[255]

Among the numerous and more humble examples of loyal affection, by which the fallen Monarch was soothed during his retirement in Raglan Castle, the following is well deserving of notice:--The reverend individual, whom his own act has immortalized, was Thomas Swift,[256] incumbent of the neighbouring parish of Goodrich. Fully aware of the King’s pecuniary distress, he mortgaged his estate; and with the money thus raised he proceeded to Raglan Castle. The Governor, with whom he was personally acquainted, asked the object of his visit, and whether he could serve him; for he was equally esteemed as a zealous pastor, and a staunch royalist. “I am only come,” said he, “to give his Majesty my coat;” and, in taking it off, the Marquess pleasantly observed: “Thy coat, I fear me, is of little worth.” “Why then,” said Swift, “take my waistcoat also.” And here was the hidden treasure, for, on being ripped up, it was found to contain three hundred broad gold pieces. “And the King,” says Lord Clarendon, “received no relief that was more seasonable and acceptable than this during the war.” Mr. Swift’s zeal and activity in the royal cause exposed him to much danger and many sufferings. “He was plundered,” says Heath, “more than _thirty times_ by the Parliament’s army, and ejected from his church living. His estate was sequestered, and he himself thrown into prison.”

At Raglan the King “stayed until news came that Fairfax, after taking Leicester, had marched into the west, and defeated Goring’s troops at Lamport; at the same time that the Scottish army, on its march, had taken a small garrison between Hereford and Worcester by storm, and put all within it to the sword;” while Prince Rupert sent for all those foot, which were levied towards a new army to supply the garrison. But the expectations, which had been industriously fostered in the King’s mind of a more propitious fortune, became every day more faint. Of all the schemes that had been set afoot for retrieving his past errors, and regaining the hearts of his alienated subjects, not one was permitted to prosper. And as a fatal climax to his unhappy fortunes, “it was at Raglan Castle,” says Lord Clarendon, “that the King received the terrible information of the surrender of Bristol (September 11, 1645), which he so little apprehended, that if the evidence thereof had not been unquestionable, it could not have been believed. With what indignation and dejection of mind the King received this advertisement, needs no other description and enlargement than the setting down in the very words of it the letter which the King writ thereupon to Prince <g>Rupert</g>; which, considering the unspeakable indulgence his Majesty had ever shewed towards that Prince, is sufficient evidence how highly he was incensed by that act, which yet he took some time sadly to think of and consider, before he would allow himself to abate so much of his natural candour towards him. As soon as he received that surprising intelligence, the King removed from <g>Raglan Castle</g>.”

Raglan Castle.]

<g>The King</g> took leave of Raglan Castle on the 15th of September, mournfully observing to the Marquess, that by so doing he hoped “to ease his lordship of a heavy burden.” His Majesty then thanked his noble and devoted host for the large sums of money which had been advanced to him in the course of his troubles. Whereupon the Marquess replied: “Sire, I had your word for the money; but I never thought to have been so soon repaid; for now that you have given me thanks, I have all I looked for.”[257] Well might the royal guest have expressed his feelings on quitting Raglan in the following lines, taken from his own ‘Collection:’--

I fall! I fall!
Whom shall I call?
Alas! can he be heard,
Who now is neither loved nor feared?
You, who were wont to kisse the ground,
Where’er my honour’d steps were found,
Come, catch me at my last rebound!

How each admires
Heaven’s twinkling fires,
When from their glorious seat
Their influence gives life and heat!
But, oh! how few there are--
Tho’ danger from that act be far--
Will stoop and catch a falling star.[258]

“Distracted with a thousand griefs, and accompanied by a few trusty and disconsolate servants, the royal victim wandered about the country, thankful to accept protection from any one who had fortune or inclination to minister to his distress. And many ‘cruel days’ to use his own words, were spent in weary marchings without food, narrow escapes, and precipitate retreats, before he took his last farewell of the land of Gwent.”[259]

On one occasion he was hotly pursued in his retreat through Shire Newton, by a party of sixty Roundheads; but reaching a place called Charleston Rock, near the New Passage, a fishing-boat was found, in which he was safely ferried over the Severn into Gloucestershire. His pursuers coming up in the meanwhile, but only to find their object defeated, seized upon the remaining boats, and with drawn swords compelled the fishermen to ferry them across. They hurried into the boats, and, with the royal fugitive still in view, made all haste to be once more on his traces. The poor fishermen, however, being royalists at heart, had no sympathy with these king-hunters; but rowing lustily towards a reef of rocks called the “English Stones,” within a gunshot of the Gloucester shore, there hauled in their oars; and landing their freight on the rocks, told them the water was so shallow that the boats could go no further, and they might easily wade to the opposite bank. And such, in fact, was quite practicable at low water; but, in the present instance, the tide flowed so rapidly, that in making the attempt to reach the opposite bank the whole party were drowned.

Informed of the catastrophe, Cromwell abolished the ferry, which was not renewed until 1718, after a protracted lawsuit between the proprietor of St. Pierre and the Duke of Beaufort’s guardians,[260] when it was named the “_New Passage_.”

<g>The Siege.</g>--Early the following spring a resolution was passed that the Castle of Raglan, which had so often thrown open its gates to the King, and still supported a garrison in his service, should be reduced without loss of time. It was the last fortress that held out, and until its walls were dismantled, and the garrison made prisoners, the spirit of loyalty in Monmouth would never be thoroughly subdued. The Castle was accordingly invested by Major-General Glenham and Sir Trevor Williams;[261] but the latter, it has been asserted, was not very hearty in his opposition to the King; for he had many misgivings respecting the ultimate designs of Cromwell, who also, as it appears from existing documents,[262] was equally suspicious of Sir Trevor. The first summons to surrender the Castle to Parliament was received by the garrison with indignation and defiance.

Early in June they were joined by Colonel Morgan, who, with a strong body of men[263] from Worcester, took the command. The troops of the garrison made divers gallant sallies, and in one of these killed a cornet of Morgan’s, and carried off the colours. But after the surrender of Oxford to the Parliament, Colonel Morgan had a reinforcement of two hundred men, and being now in a position, both as regarded the works and the efficiency of the troops, to act with vigour, he sent the following summons:--

I.--COLONEL MORGAN TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--By his Excellency’s command, this is my second summons,
whereby you are required forthwith to deliver to me, for the uses
of both Houses of Parliament, the Castle of Raglan, with all
ordnance, arms, ammunition, and provisions, and all other
necessaries that belong to war, that are now in it; which if you
will be pleased to do, you may haply find mercy, as other garrisons
have had; and if you do refuse, expect but the ruin of yourself,
your family, and this poor distressed country. For I must acquaint
your lordship that his Excellency Sir Tho. Fairfax, having now
finished his work over the kingdom except this Castle, hath been
pleased to spare his forces for this work, which are now upon their
march this way with all materials fit for it; though I made no
doubt but I had of mine own strength sufficient to effect it. If
your lordship will deny to submit to this summons, and that more
blood must be spilt, your lordship may be confident that you shall
receive no favour from both Houses of Parliament. So, expecting
your answer this night by nine of the clock, I rest your lordship’s
servant,

“THO. MORGAN.

“FROM THE LEAGUER BEFORE RAGLAN,

“June 28, 1646.

“Upon the faith and honour of a soldier, this is a true copy of his
Majesty’s letter[264] to the Governors of Oxford, Lichfield,
Wallingford, and Worcester, and all other garrisons in England and
Wales; which I thought fit to present to your lordship, that you
may clearly see what possibility of relief you are like to have.”

II.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO COLONEL MORGAN.

“SIR,--I have received this day two advertisements from you; the
first I read, containing, as you would have me believe, a true
copy of his Majesty’s warrant to several garrisons upon honourable
terms to quit. But truly, Sir, it is not in the power of man to
make me think so unworthily of his Majesty, that to one, in the
opinion of the world, that hath given, himself and family, soe
great a demonstrance and testimony of his and their faith and
fidelitie towards him, that he would not please so much as name his
name, or Raglan. I entreat you, give me leave to suspend my
belief.[265]

“And for your second summons, it makes it too evident that it is
desired that I would die under a hedge like a beggar, having no
house left to put my head into, nor means left to find me bread.
Wherefore to give you _answer_, I make choice (if it soe please
God) rather to dye nobly, than to live with infamy. Which answer,
if it be not pleasing to you, I shall not think you worthy to be
styled by me your loving friend,

“H. WORCESTER.

“FROM MY HOUSE OF RAGLAN,

“June 28, 1646.”

This was followed by a third letter from Colonel Morgan:--

“MY LORD,--Since it is not in my power to make you nor your son
believe anything concerning the surrender of those garrisons, by
his Majesty’s order, that comes from me or any of our party: once
more, and the last before I send your answer to his Excellency Sir
Tho. Fairfax, I shall give your lordship way to send an officer,
with another of mine, to those lords in Oxford to whom his
Majesty’s letters were directed, for your better satisfaction. This
I do, my Lord, to prevent your utter ruin, and that of this poor
country, so much occasioned by your lordship’s obstinacy. I expect
your present answer, and rest your servant,

“THO. MORGAN.

“June 28th.”

IV.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO COLONEL MORGAN.

“SIR,--In respect of your mentioning of any respect or kindness
towards me, lest to be divulged to the world should do you any
prejudice, I have thought fit in your own letter to return you
thanks for the same. And for Sir Tho. Fairfax, if he were here
with all his army, he should receive no other from me than what you
have had. I hope I serve (though not so well as I should) a Master
that is of more might than all the armies in the world; and to his
holy will and pleasure I submit myself, and yourself to do what you
think fitting.--Your friend and servant,

“H. WORCESTER.

“FROM MY DWELLING AT RAGLAN,

“June 28.”

In the first week of August ensuing, General Fairfax arrived from Bath to hasten the siege--which was in great forwardness both for works and approaches--and then sent in another summons[266] to the Marquess:--

V.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--Being come into these parts with such a strength as I
may not doubt but, with the same good hand of Providence that hath
hitherto blessed us, in short time to reduce the garrison of Raglan
to the obedience of the Parliament, I have, in order thereto,
thought good to send your lordship this summons, hereby requiring
you to deliver up to me, for the Parliament’s use, the said
garrison and Castle of Raglan; which, as it only obstructs the
kingdom’s universal peace, the rendition may beget such terms, as
by delay or vain hopes cannot hereafter be expected.--I remain, my
Lord, your lordship’s most humble servant,

“THO. FAIRFAX.

“LEAGUER BEFORE RAGLAN,

“August 7, 1646.

“Your lordship’s speedy answer to this summons is desired.”

VI.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX.

“SIR,--Although my infirmities might justly claim privilege in so
sudden an answer; yet, because you desire it, and I am not willing
to delay your time, to your letter of summons to deliver up my
house, and the only house now in my possession to cover my head in,
these are to let you know, that if you did understand the condition
I am in, I daresay out of your judgment you will not think it a
reasonable demand. I am loth to be the author of mine own ruin on
both sides; and therefore desire leave to send to his Majesty to
know his pleasure what he will have done with his garrison. As for
my house, I presume he will command nothing; neither am I knowing
how, either by law or conscience, I should be forced out of it. To
these I desire your return, and rest your Excellency’s humble
servant,

“H. WORCESTER.

“FROM MY POOR COTTAGE AT RAGLAN,

“Aug. 7, 1646.”

VII.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--Touching your sending to his Majesty, it is that which
hath been denied to the most considerable garrisons of England,
further than an account to his Majesty of the thing done upon the
surrender; which I do else freely grant to your lordship. And for
that distinction which your lordship is pleased to make, that _it
is your house_, if it had not been formed into a _garrison_, I
should not have troubled your lordship with a summons; and were it
disgarrisoned, neither you nor your house should receive any
disquiet from me, or any that belong unto me.

“This I thought good to return to yours, and thereby to discharge
myself, before God and the world, of all extremities and sad
consequences that will ensue upon the refusal of the rendition of
your garrison upon my summons.--I remain yours,

“THO. FAIRFAX.

“August 8.”

VIII.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX.

“SIR,--I do much confide in your honour, as that being at stake,
concerning leave to send to his Majesty, and will at this time
forbear to make further motion in it; only one thing which is
extraordinary, I offer to your consideration, for the just cause,
besides my allegiance, of my reasonable request; which is, That
upon his Majesty’s promise of satisfaction, I am above 20,000
pounds out of purse; and if I should do anything displeasing unto
him, I am sure all that is lost, and no benefit to the Parliament.
If you knew how well known I was, in Henry Earl of Huntington’s
time, unto your noble grandfather at York, I am assured I should
receive that favour at your hands that safely you might afford. God
knows, if I might quietly receive my means of subsistence, and be
in security, with the Parliament’s approbation, and freed from the
malice of those gentlemen that are of the Committee within this
county, I should quietly quit myself of the garrison; for I have no
great cause to take delight in it. I have that high esteem of your
worth, nobleness, and true judgement, that knowing you will offer
nothing ignoble or unworthy for me to do, as the case stands with
me, I desire to know what conditions I may have, and I will return
you present answer. And, in the meantime, I rest your humble
servant,

“H. WORCESTER.

“August 8, 1646.”

IX.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--According to your lordship’s desire, I have returned you
conditions, such as may be fit and satisfactory to the soldiery. To
your lordship and family I have granted quiet and security from all
violence of any that belongs to me. I would persuade your lordship
not to fear any ill or disrespect from the Committee of this
county; I shall easily reconcile that party; or that they will not
do anything but as they shall receive order from the Parliament. By
this means you are at liberty to send to the Parliament; and upon a
present surrender and submission to their mercy and favour, your
lordship cannot but think to receive better terms for yourself than
if you stand it out to the last extremity; when, besides the hazard
of your person, and of those in your family, (which I do presume
are dear to you,) and the spoil of the Castle, which cannot be
avoided in extreme undertakings against it; your lordship hath no
reason to expect better than the Marquess of Winchester received,
who, in making good Basing House to the last, narrowly escaped in
his own person, lost his friends, subjected those that escaped to
great frights and hazard, his house and estate to utter ruin, and
himself to extremity of justice.

“Touching your lordship’s 20,000 pounds, your lordship hath liberty
to solicit about that by the same hands your lordship shall give an
account of the surrender to his Majesty. I desire your lordship
upon receipt of these to dismiss my trumpeter, and to return an
answer by one of your own.

“THO. FAIRFAX.”

X.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX.

“SIR,--The difficulty of resolution by the soldiers and officers
(other than I thought) causeth my request for your patience in not
giving you full answer to the conditions you sent me yesterday; but
as soon as I shall obtain it, you shall not be long without it. But
one thing, and that of moment, I desire to be satisfied in,
Whether, if any conclusion should be made, that afterwards I shall
be left to the mercy of the Parliament, for alteration at their
will and pleasures; and if it be so, I shall endeavour in vain to
study more about it. For example, in my Lord of Shrewsbury’s case,
and divers others, how conditions have been broken doth a little
affright me. I know, by your will and consent, it should never be;
but soldiers are unruly, and the Parliament unquestionable; and,
therefore, I beseech you pardon my just cause of fear, and I will
rest your humble servant,

“H. WORCESTER.

“August 11.”

XI.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--I have perused your letter of this 11th of August. As to
your scruple, wherein you desire to be satisfied, (so far as I
understand it,) I can only give you this resolution, that what I
grant I will undertake shall be made good. As to the instance you
give in my Lord of Shrewsbury’s case, the actors in that breach
(who were none of my army) have received their censure, and by this
time I believe the execution. But here, if any conclusion be made
while I stay, I dare undertake there shall be no such thing; or, if
any, there shall be reparation.

“THO. FAIRFAX.

“August 11, 1646.”

XII.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX.

“SIR,--For the better accommodation of these unhappy differences,
if you please there may be a cessation of arms and working, and to
engage your honour for the return of my commissioners to-morrow by
ten of the clock, they shall wait upon you in your Leaguer; where
they shall vindicate me from being the only obstruction of the
general peace. So, in expectation of your sudden answer, I rest
your humble servant,

“H. WORCESTER.

“August 13, 1646.”

XIII.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--Having not yet received by any of your letters a direct
answer to the conditions I sent you, I have no grounds or
consideration for such a cessation of arms and working, as in your
letter you desire; but if it be your purpose to return your answer
by commissioners, I shall, by the hour you mention, appoint
commissioners of mine own to receive the same in the Leaguer as you
desire, and engage myself for the safe return of yours, not
exceeding six commissioners and as many servants; and, in order to
this, I shall be content there be a cessation of arms and working
from nine of the clock to-morrow morning till two in the
afternoon.--Yours,

“THO. FAIRFAX.

“Uske, August 14.”

XIV.--THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER TO SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX.

“SIR,--Had I not thought you had been in the Leaguer, to the end
that the propositions from the place, in answer to yours, might
have been first presented unto you; and to avoid delays, which I
thought your side would best like of, it was resolved to send
commissioners together with our propositions; but considering it
was otherwise, I have sent you such as I am advised unto, to take
into your consideration. And because there is some addition to
yours, I would have been glad you had heard the just reasons
thereof, to the end you might not have been persuaded to slight
them without just cause. Your pleasure for the ordering of
business, I, at your leisure, expect; and, if you please, the
dismission of this messenger; and so rest your humble servant,

“H. WORCESTER.”

XV.--SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX TO THE MARQUESS OF WORCESTER.

“MY LORD,--I have perused the propositions sent out by your
commissioners, which I find such as deserve no answer. I have
offered your lordship and the rest conditions which you may yet
have, if you accept in time. If there be any thing in them obscure,
needing explanation, or wanting circumstantials, for the better
performing of the things intended therein I shall be willing to
appoint commissioners on my part to treat with yours to that
purpose upon these propositions of mine; provided you send
commissioners instructed with power to treat and conclude, and
return your resolution herein by six of the clock in the
evening.--Yours, &c.,

“THO. FAIRFAX.

“August 14, 1646.”

In the meantime the besiegers went on with their approaches toward the Castle--their main works being not above some sixty yards distant--and had planted four mortar pieces in one place, and two mortar pieces at another, each mortar piece carrying a grenade shell twelve inches diameter.

Towards the end of the siege, whilst the cannon of Fairfax was playing upon the Castle from the neighbouring height, and when casualties within the walls were of hourly occurrence, an incident occurred, which shows that in these perilous times even ladies deemed it necessary to apologise for being afraid of leaden bullets. “One evening, during the hottest period of the cannonade,” says Dr. Bayly, “there came a musket bullet in at the window of the withdrawing room, where my lord used to entertain his friends with his pleasant discourses after dinners and suppers, which, glancing upon a little marble pillar of the window, and from thence hit the Marquess upon the side of his head, and fell down flattened upon the table, which breaking the pillar in pieces, it made such a noise in the room, that his daughter-in-law, the Countess of Glamorgan, who stood in the same window, ran away as if the house had been falling down upon her head, crying out--‘O Lord! O Lord!’ But at length finding herself more afraid than hurt, she returned back again, no less excusing her--as she was pleased to call it--rudeness to her father, than acknowledging her fears to all the company. To whom the Marquess said: ‘Daughter, you had reason to run away when your father was knocked on the head.’ Then pausing some little while, and turning the flattened bullet round with his finger, he further said: ‘Gentlemen, those who had a mind to flatter me, were wont to tell me that I had a _good head_ in my younger days; but if I don’t flatter myself, I think I have a good head-piece in my old age, or else it would not have been _musket proof_.’”

Of the exemplary good order observed by the household, before the establishment of a garrison within the Castle, an eye-witness has transmitted the following testimony:--

“I have lived in Raglan Castle,” said he, “three years, and in all that time I never saw man drunk, nor heard an oath, amongst any of all his (the Marquess’s) servants; neither did I ever see a better ordered family; and that which was most wonderful unto me was, that the servants of his house, being half Papists and half Protestants, were never at variance in point of religion--which was brought about by prohibiting disputations.[267] Neither was any man the less accepted for his religion, if his _service_ were acceptable. But when the Castle was filled with officers and soldiers, he used to be more grieved to hear and witness the drunkenness that was then and there too much practised: insomuch, that when some of his chief officers had told him, how that they had fortified such and such a place so and so; and that the enemy could not come; and that there it was impossible. ‘Ay, ay,’ said my Lord; ‘but you have left the main place open and unprotected. You have no fortifications against Heaven. For there is so much swearing and drunkenness amongst you, that from thence I fear me will come our greatest enemy, and you have made no provision against _him_.’ And, indeed, he said justly; for, in truth, the royalists were grievously addicted to many vices, to which, on the contrary, the companions and followers of Cromwell were comparatively strangers.”

The importance attached by the Parliament to the reduction of Raglan Castle is shown by the following report from their commissioner:[268]--

“Your assured friend and servant, W. C.,” (as the letter is signed,) writes to the Parliament man from “Usk, August 15, 1646.--I shall now give you an account how near our approaches are made unto the Castle. That which is our maine work is about sixty yardes from theirs, and that’s the most. We have planted four mortar pieces, each of them carrying a grenado shel twelve inches diameter; and two mortar peeces planted at another place carrying shels about the like compas; soe that in case the treatye doe breake off, we are then ready to show by what extremitye they must expect to be reduced. This we are very confident, that the grenadoes will make them quit their workes and outhouses, and solely betake themselves into the Castle, which indeed will be a worke of time before we are able to undermine it, in regard we must mine down a hill[269] under a moate, and then the workes, before we can come to the Castle; yet we conceive it feasible to be done with some losse. Our engineer, Captain Hooper, a painful and honest man, proceeding, as he hath begun, with exact running trenches, which we made so secure as if they were workes against a storme, will, with God’s blessing, come within ten yards in a few dayes; and then, I believe, we shall make galleries, mines, and many batteries. The General is every day in the trenches, and yesterdaye appointed a new approache, which the engineer of this army, who is now returned from Worcester, is to carry on with all expedition. He has already broken the ground, throwne up approaches of about an hundred yardes in length and circuit, and is within sixty yards of the under part of their workes.”

The writer then proposes that the Parliament should agree to moderate terms, and accept of an honourable answer. That the plan might succeed he deems quite certain, though not without farther loss; and he adds, in terms less courteous than characteristic of the times, that “it would not be worth while to gaine this old man’s carkasse at so dear a rate.”[270]

AUG. 14.--Fairfax appointed a new approach, which the engineer, Captain Hooper, had so far proceeded in as to throw up approaches of an hundred yards in circuit, making exact running trenches (as secure as if they were works against a storm), coming within sixty yards of their works.

AUG. 15.--The Marquess sent forth his desire to treat upon the General’s propositions; whereupon the treaty was appointed at Mr. Oates’s house, (about a mile and a half from Raglan,) to begin at two of the clock that afternoon. Fairfax’s commissioners were Colonel Birch, Mr. Herbert, Quartermaster-General Grosvenor, Lieutenant-Colonel Ashfield, and Major Tulida.

By Monday the 17th of August, two days after the date of this report, the preliminaries for capitulation were finally arranged.[271]

<g>Surrender.</g>--During the blockade of Raglan, the Parliamentary General fixed his head-quarters at Kevantilla House,[272] the residence of Mr. Oates, about a mile and a half from Raglan; and there the treaty for the surrender of the Castle was finally adjusted and prepared for signature. The commission deputed for the occasion by Fairfax, were Colonel Birch, Quarter-Master Herbert, General Grosvenor, Lieutenant-Colonel Ashfield, and Major Tuliday. The meeting, as previously arranged, took place at two o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, August the fifteenth; and, on the Monday following, the document was ratified, by appending to it the signatures of the authorized commissioners. The capitulation was agreed to on the following conditions:--

<g>Article</g> the First. The garrison, ammunition, and artillery of Raglan, to be surrendered to General Fairfax on the third day after the ratification of the said treaty; namely, at ten o’clock on the morning of the Wednesday following, being the nineteenth day of August.

<g>Article</g> the Second, stipulated that all the officers, soldiers, and gentlemen of the garrison, should march out with horses and arms; colours flying; drums beating; trumpets sounding; matches lighted at both ends; bullets in their mouths; and every soldier with twelve charges of powder and ball; with permission to select any place, within ten miles of the Castle, for the purpose of delivering up their arms to the general in command; after which the soldiers were to be disbanded and set at liberty.

<g>Article</g> the Third, engaged the General’s safe conduct and protection to all the gentlemen and others who had sought refuge within the walls of Raglan Castle to their respective homes.

<g>Article</g> the Fourth, was an enlargement of the preceding article, by which three months’ protection was guaranteed to certain other gentlemen, until they should either have made their peace with Parliament, or departed the realm.

<g>Article</g> the Fifth, guaranteed the protection and care of the sick and wounded left in the Castle.

<g>Article</g> the Sixth, was an indemnity for all words and acts of the garrison during the siege of the Castle.

On Wednesday the nineteenth of August, in pursuance of these arrangements, the Castle and Garrison of Raglan were duly surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax, for the use of both Houses of Parliament. The garrison, which at first had mustered eight hundred men, was now reduced to less than half that number; and as certain of the warlike muniments were becoming so diminished as to expose them at last to the chances of seeing the Castle entered by storm, a prolonged resistance must have been attended with disastrous consequences.

“The garrison had no sooner marched out,” says an eye-witness, “than Fairfax entered the Castle, took a view of it, had some conversation with the Marquess, and then, quitting the scene of his last operation in the way of siege, proceeded to Chepstow, where he was received in triumph by the committee; and, after a brief halt in the Castle, returned to his head-quarters at Bath,”

“A conqueror; and blushing on his sword
The stains of blood, by loyal Raglan pour’d.”

Yet Fairfax, as far as lay in his power, was very exact in observing every condition to which he was a party. It is recorded to his honour, that, “far from allowing violence, he would not even permit insults, or expressions of triumph over the unfortunate Royalists.” Something of this generous bearing towards his opponents may be observed in his correspondence with the Marquess of Worcester. He is painted by historians as equally eminent for personal courage and for humanity; and though strongly infected with prejudices, or principles derived from religious and party zeal, he never seems, in the course of his public conduct, to have been diverted, by private interest or ambition, from adhering strictly to these principles. Sincere in his professions, disinterested in his views, open in his conduct, “he had formed,” says Hume,[273] “one of the most shining characters of his age, had not the extreme narrowness of his genius in everything but in _war_, and his embarrassed and confused elocution on every occasion but when he gave orders, diminished the lustre of his merit, and rendered the part which he acted, even when vested with the supreme command, but secondary and subordinate.”

With this just tribute to his merits as a man and a soldier, we take leave of the Conqueror of <g>Raglan</g>, annexing the following

<g>Anecdotes.</g>--When Fairfax, as we learn from the same authority, laid siege to Raglan Castle, and fair terms were offered to all the garrison, the Marquess only excepted, the generous old Nestor entreated his friends to accept the proposal, and allow _him_ to be the ‘Jonas.’ But this proposition, it may be readily believed, had the opposite effect, of strengthening their determination to stand by him to the last man. In thanking his officers for their devotedness, he added, in his own peculiar way, “I do not much like that way of embalming neither--to be served up to my audit as a thing newly taken out of the cost of many friends’ blood.”

In the conversation above alluded to, when Fairfax took possession of the Castle, the Marquess is said to have made a jocular request, bespeaking the General’s indulgence in favour of some pigeons that still kept possession of their ancient haunt. To which he gravely replied, that he was glad to perceive his Lordship in so ‘merrie’ a frame of mind. Whereupon the Marquess told him the following story:--

“There were two rogues once going up Holborn in a cart to be hanged; but the one being very jocund on so serious an occasion, gave offence to his companion, who, being very downcast, reproved him. ‘Tush, man,’ said the other, ‘thou art a fool; thou wentest a thieving, and never once thoughtest of what would become of thee; wherefore, being on a sudden surprised and taken, thou fallest into such a shaking fit, that I am ashamed to see thee in such a pitiful condition. Whereas I was resolved to be hanged before I fell to stealing, which is the reason I go so composedly unto my death.’ So, in my own case,” continued the Marquess, “I resolved to undergo whatsoever--even the worst--evils that you were able to lay upon me, before I took up arms for my sovereign; and, therefore, wonder not that I am so _merrie_.”

<g>The fall of Raglan</g> Garrison was a source of much triumph and congratulation to the Parliamentary forces. “There were delivered up with it,” says Rushworth, “twenty pieces of ordnance, but only three barrels of gunpowder; for within the walls they had a mill with which they could make a barrel a day. There was found, however, ‘great store of corn and malt, wine of all sorts, and beer in abundance;’ but hay and forage for their horses had been so completely exhausted, that these noble animals were almost starved to death, and ‘had like to have eaten one another for want of meat, had they not been tied with chains.’”

The captors found also great store of goods and rich furniture in the Castle, which Fairfax committed to the care and custody of Mr. Herbert, commissioner of the army, Mr. Roger Williams, and Major Tuliday, or Tulida, to be inventoried. And in case any inhabitants of the country could make a just claim to them--as having been violently taken from them, or they compelled to bring them thither--that they should have them restored.

Agreeably to the terms of surrender, as recorded in the history of the siege, there marched out of the Castle--“The Marquess of Worcester, then in the eighty-fourth year of his age; the Lord Charles, the Marquess’s sixth son, Lieutenant-Governor of the Castle under his father: [he subsequently retired to Flanders, and died a canon of Cambray;] the Countess of Glamorgan; the Lady Jones; Sir Philip Jones; Dr. Bayly, so often quoted in the preceding narrative; Commissary Gwilliam; four Colonels; eighty-two Captains; sixteen Lieutenants; six Cornets; four Ensigns; four Quartermasters; fifty-two Esquires and Gentlemen.”

It is worthy of record in this place, that, of all the forts and garrisons in the King’s interest, those of Raglan and Pendennis endured the longest sieges, and held out the last of any forts or castles in England--being bravely defended by two persons of very great age--and were at length delivered up within a day or two of each other. “<g>Raglan</g>,” says Lord Clarendon, “was maintained with extraordinary resolution and courage by the old <g>Marquess of Worcester</g> (then 85) against Fairfax himself, until it was reduced to the greatest necessity. Pendennis refused all summons; admitting no treaty till all their provisions were so far consumed that they had not victuals left for four-and-twenty hours; and then they treated, and carried themselves in the treaty with such resolution and unconcernedness, that the enemy concluded they were in no straits, and so gave them the conditions they proposed, which were as good as any garrison in England had accepted. The governor of Pendennis was <g>John Arundel</g> of Trerice, in Cornwall, an old gentleman of near fourscore years of age, who, with the assistance of his son Richard, afterwards made a baron in memory of his father’s service, and his own eminent behaviour throughout the war, maintained and defended the same to the last extremity.”[274]

Returning to the subject of Raglan, we must not overlook the following predictions, as calculated to excite no little attention in times when witchcraft, sorcery, and apparitions, were admitted as articles of popular belief.

<g>Prophecies.</g>--Of the prophetic warnings which, from time to time, and particularly during the siege, had taken possession of the vulgar mind regarding the fall of Raglan and its hereditary lords, the following passage is sufficiently characteristic:--One evening, during the progress of the siege, one of his officers was relating to the Marquess how strangely the narrator, Dr. Bayly, had escaped a shot by means of the iron bar of a window that looked out upon the leaguer. Standing, for example, in a window of the castle, there came a musket bullet and hit full against the edge of an iron bar of a chamber window, so that it parted the bullet in halves, the bar expatiating itself by degrees towards the middle; “one half of the bullet,” said he, “flew by me on the one side, and the other half on the other side; so that, by God’s providence, I had no hurt.”

“The Marquess hearing this, asked me in what chamber it was. I told him. His Lordship then said, as I remember, ‘The window was cross-barred; and you will never believe me,’ said he emphatically, ‘how safe it is to stand before the <g>Cross</g>, when you face your enemy!’”

But returning to the subject of predictions:--“Never,” says the family historian, “never was there a noble house so pulled down by _prophecies_--ushered into its ruin by predictions, and so laid hold upon by signes and tokens! I shall tell you no more,” he continues, “but what I have both read and seen long before the fall of that proud fabric, which had the honour to fall the last of any that stood upon the tearmes of honour. Now there was one old book of prophecies that was presented to the Marquess, because it so much concerned <g>Raglan</g> Castle, wherein there were these predictions: namely, That there should come an Earl that should first build a _white_ gate before the castle-house, and after that should begin to build a _red_ one; and before that red one should be finished, there should be wars over all the land.”

Now all this was fulfilled in the Marquess’s own day, who, having built the one gate and begun the other, yet by reason of the distractions of the time, was forced to discontinue the latter, which at the time of the siege remained unfinished. Some one standing by while this prophecy was mentioned, exhorted the Marquess--half in jest, half in earnest--to make haste and finish his red-gate house, because we should have no quiet until that were up.

“Hark’ye,” said the Marquess, “nobody shall ever prophesy so much money out of my purse in such times as these! Besides, the prophet does not say _until_, but _before_--‘before the red gate is up;’ and, for aught I know, if I should make haste with that building, I should hasten the war to my own sorrow; for the prophet says, ‘before the red-gate house shall be finished, there shall be wars all over the land.’ But what if I had built neither the one nor the other, how could this prophecie have concerned me?”

“Oh, my Lord,” said one of the company, “it is done; and you could not otherwise choose but to do what you did.”

“Ay; but I can choose,” said the Marquess, “whether I will _believe_ the prophet or not.”

“Another prophecie there was,” continues our authority, “that the king of the country should lose a great battle, [Naseby,] and afterwards fly to Raglan Castle for safety; that the enemy should pursue him; and that after a short time he should leave the Castle, and that the enemy should besiege and set fire to the Castle wall. All of which was literally fulfilled.”

Moreover it was said, that “an eagle should come into the park and be there slain, which should be a forerunner to the destruction of that house; which I saw literally performed; but yet executed by one that _never_ heard of the prophecie. It was furthermore foretold, that a cloud of bats should hang over the Castle before its final demolishment; this, three days before, all the Castle beheld to their no small astonishment, and it continued a quarter of an hour, about twilight, so thick that you could not, towards the middle of them, see the sky, though clear. Being shot at with hail-shot, some of them fell down, and the rest flew away.

“The Marquess being told of this, asked what those kind of creatures might signify. Some about him answered, that they were scripture emblems of ruin and desolation.[275] He then asked if they were all gone. It was told him that they were. Whereupon the Marquess asked us whether or no the enemy had begirt us round. It was answered that they had. ‘Then,’ said his Lordship, ‘I am glad of it; for then those emblems of ruin cannot fly away from us, but they must also fly over the heads of the enemy.’”

The Chaplain then proceeds, according to the superstitious belief of the times, to relate the following prediction regarding the King himself:--“The strangest prophecie of all,” he affirms, “both for signification and accomplishment, is this, which I read before I saw it in this book, and fourteen years before the war.” He then gives it in the Welsh language, and explains that _fab-anne_, as it is one word, signifies a baby, and joined to another Welsh word, should imply a crowned infant, that, on growing up to man’s estate, and ruling these realms for a season, should at last “fall by the stroke of an _axe_,” or, “he shall be slain with an axe.” We shall not detain our readers by following the Chaplain through the various arguments by which he appears to establish the truth of this singular prediction; but, referring them to the “Apophthegms,” in which it is recorded, we proceed to another portion of our history.

As soon as the Castle was fairly occupied by the new garrison, the work of demolition began. The peasantry were summoned to their aid; but on the great tower their united labours made but slight impression. So, “after battering the top with pickaxes,” they resolved to effect their purpose more expeditiously, and, transferring their implements to the foundation, succeeded in undermining it. As they proceeded, the gaps were propped up with timber, and when the personal risk became too imminent to continue the work, they set fire to the timber, and the instant the charred props gave way, down came a solid mass of the

<g>Tower of Gwent</g>, half filling the moat, where it now lies; a specimen of as firmly compacted a structure as ever was framed by the hand of man. The mortar, indeed, seems harder and more durable than the materials which it cements together. Of its massive construction the annexed woodcut, showing the staircase in the centre of the wall, and the engravings opposite, give a very clear and distinct notion.