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was in the rights in both respects, both of his Majestie's and his lordship's; and that if his Majestie had called him to councel, I do verilie believe his lordship would have been desired to be excused; but yet he did expect he should have been called. Whereupon the King said, 'I pray tell my Lord of Worcester, that I did not forbear that respect unto him out of any disestimation I had either of his wisedome or loyaltie; but out of some reasons I had to myself, which indeed reflected as much upon my lord as they did on me. For had he used to have come to the councel board, it would have been said that I took no other councel but what was conveighed to me by Jesuites, by his lordship's meanes and I pray tell him that that was the true cause.' I told his Majestie that I would, and that I thought it an easie matter to cause him to believe no less; but withal I intimated to his Majestie that I knew the Marquess had an earnest desire to have some private conference with his Majestie this night; which, if granted, it might conduce very much to his Majestie's behoof. The King said, 'How can that be?' I told his Majestie that my lord had contrived it before his coming to the castle, and told his Majestie of the privacie of the conveighance. Thereat his Majestie smiled and said, 'I know my lord's drift well enough: either he means to chide me, or else to convert me to his religion.' Whereupon I told his Majestie, I doubted not but that his Majestie was temptation-proof as well as he was correction-free; and that he might returne the same man he went, having made a profitable exchange of gold and silver for words and sleep."*

It seems to have been thought necessary to make a great state secret of this conference; and, in order that the company might not observe any communication going on between the King and the Marquess, who, doubtless, knew his guests, he hastily made answer-" I will tell you what you shall do, so that you shall not need to fear any such thing. Go unto the yeoman of the wine cellar, and bid him leave the keys of the wine cellar with you, and all that and all that you find in your way, invite them down unto the cellar, and shew them the keys, and I warrant you, you shall sweep the room of them if there were a hundred; and when you have done leave them there."

This ruse appears to have been so

❤ Thus the King had his money, and the poor Marquess was indulged with the royal conversation, which Dr. Bayly worked up into the "Certamen Religiosum," a duodecimo of 232 pages.—Certamen Religiosum, p. 2-11, Lond. 1649.

In variety of wines, and the copious use of them, the wealthier classes of England in this age were not a whit behind their ancestors. The arrival of the Danish King and his courtiers in the reign of James, had greatly increased the national thirst; insomuch

that it was observed, "The Danes have again conquered England!" In the reign of Charles the First the Cavaliers were as little famed for temperance as the Courtiers of King James. The English followed also, very scrupulously, the Danish custom of drinking healths; and foreigners were astonished to find that when a company amounted to some twenty or thirty, it was still expected that every guest should drink the health of each in rotation. Such festivals, of course inflamed the love of quarrel. Toasts were given which

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successful, that after Bayly published his book, some of those who had been in Raglan denied that ever there had been private conversations between the King and the Marquess. But Bayly's good faith seems to have been unjustly suspected; and he replies to the objectors with humour and severity in his Preface to the "Apophthegms."

The Marquis having "lain down, the Chaplain found him asleep when he went to let him know the time to meet the King was come. He expressed much annoyance and fear on account of what had been arranged; but after taking a pipe of tobacco and a little glassful of aqua mirabilis, he recovered his spirits." Shortly after the King's departure from Raglan, an adventure occurred which placed the venerable Marquess in a novel and rather ludicrous position. It was this:

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"There was a certain great man in the King's army,* between whom and the house of Raglan," says Bayly, "there was at that time animosity. The Marquess of Worcester had heard that this party should cast a dubious saying, as the case then stood, viz., 'That he intended to take Raglan in his way;' and was so far as good as his word, as that he marched into the parke, and there drew up his men, and fac'd the Castle. Whereupon the line was manned, and command was given that none should be suffered to come near the line, nor within such a distance; which command was so observed, that some of the officers of the army approaching within the place prohibited, the centry bid stand. They did not. The centry called upon them again to stand. They refused. The Lieutenant called upon the centry to give fire. The centry, preferring the knowledge of his friends to his duty to his officer, did not give fire; but swore he would give fire if they did not stand. Whereupon one of them told him that it was such a Generall, and wonder'd that the officer would bid the souldier give fire upon him. The Generall forthwith coming to the drawbridge, desired to speak with the Lord Charles; whom he no sooner saluted, but required satisfaction for the affront. He was desired to come into the Castle, and told that the matter should be examined before him, and if any affront were given, he should receive satisfaction. Whereupon, being come within the Castle, the Lieutenant was sent for; who told the Generall, that though he knew him to be the Generall, yet, as a souldier, he was not to take any notice of him, until such times as he had declared himself, which when he did, he respected him accordingly. Furthermore telling him, that he had been

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an old souldier, and that he had in other parts seen rewards given unto souldiers who stood centry, for firing upon their generall, having the like occasions; but never knew it a fault before. All this would not serve turn. The Generall said he was affronted, and must have satisfaction, requiring my lord to call a councell of warre, and to do him justice; and so took his leave and went his way. The Marquess of Worcester, sleeping upon his bed all this while, and not dreaming of any of all this that had happened in the interim, hearing the whole relation, he asked all his officers, 'Whether or no the Lieutenant had offended?' They all answered, 'No;' and commended him for what he had done. Then said the Marquess, 'This is but a pretence-they have a mind to quarrel with us. If ye should call a councell of warre, and acquit him, that is what they desire, and thence they would ground their quarrel; and if ye should inflict any punishment upon him to give them satisfaction, that were basenesse and injustice; therefore I will have it thus: Send a guard with him to the Generall of such souldiers as are able to witness the truth; and let him try him at his councell of warre, and see what law he hath for it, and so we shall break the neck of the quarrell.'

"And so,' said the Lieutenant, 'I shall hang by the neck for my labour !' Whereat the Marquis replyed, 'What friends hast thou in the garrison?' The Lieutenant made answer, 'I have a wife and a daughter.' Then said the Marquis with some vehemence, 'I protest unto thee, if they hang thee, I'll marry thy wife and provide for thy daughter.' The Lieutenant replied, ‘I had rather you would marry my daughter, and provide for me.' 'I protest,' said the Marquess, 'so I will; I will marry thy daughter, and I will provide for thee an honourable grave; but thou shalt be hanged first.' 'My Lord,' said the Lieutenant, shall I bespeak my grave?' 'Thou shalt,' said the Marquess. 'Then,' said the Lieutenant, I will be laid in the vault in Raglan Church between your father and your grandfather; and I pray God I may be hanged before I see you again.' And so saying he flung out of the roome, leaving my Lord in the merriest veine that ever I saw him in; who, remembering himself, sent him five pieces to beare his charges.

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"The Lieutenant being brought to the Generall at Monmouth, the Generall dismissed him of his guard, and sent him to Hereford with an oath at his heeles, that he would hang him if there were no more men in England.

"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

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as much merrie as he the return of this news. upon 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.

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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.* At Hereford, Prince Rupert took leave of the King, and hastened to

*Nothing can be more wondered at than that the King should amuse himself about forming a new army

in counties which had been already vexed and worn by his own troops, and the licence of those governors

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 Raglan Castle, 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,* 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

whom he had put over them; and not have immediately repaired into the west, where he had an army already formed, and a people generally well devoted to his service; whither all his broken troops, and General Gerrard, might have transported themselves, before Fairfax could have given them any interruption.Clarendon.

The branch of the Morgan family here mentioned, like that of Worcester, were devoted to the

royal cause, and on all occasions evinced that unshrinking loyalty which added lustre to their descent. In the halls of Tredegar, as in Raglan Castle, Charles found an asylum-the only asylum, perhaps, that could then be a sure guarantee for his personal safety. The Morgan family was descended from the ancient princes of South Wales, and as much distinguished by its hospitality as its antiquity.

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