An. 18. Car. I. 1642. } November, We have now done. What Power and Authori 'ty these Men have, or would have, we know not For ourself, we challenge none such; we look ' upon the Pressures and Inconveniences our good • Subjects bear, even by us and our Army, (which the Army first raised by them enforced us to levy in our Defence, and their Refusal of all Offers and • Defires of Treaty enforceth us to keep) with very much Sadness of Heart: We are so far from re< quiring a twentieth Part of their Estates, (though for their own visible Preservation) that, as we • have already fold or pawned our own Jewels, and • coined our own Plate, so we are willing to fell all * our own Land and Houses for their Relief; yet ' we do not doubt but our good Subjects will feri' ously confider our Condition, and their own Duties, and think our Readiness to protect them with the utmost Hazard of our Life, deserves their Rea• diness to assist us with fome Part of their Fortunes; • and whilft other Men give a twentieth Part of • their Estates, to enable them to forfeit the other nineteen, that they will extend themselves to us in a liberal and free Proportion for the Preservation of the reft; and for the Maintenance of God's true • Religion, the Laws of the Land, the Liberty of the Subject, and the Safety and very Being of Parliaments and of this Kingdom; for if all these ever were, or can be, in manifest Danger, it is now in this present Rebellion against us, Lastly, We will and require all our loving Subjects, of what Degree or Quality foever, as they will anfwer it to God, to Us, and to Pofterity, by their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy; as they would not be looked upon now, and remembered hereafter, as Betrayers of the Laws and Liberty they were born to; that they, in no Degree, submit to this wild pretended Ordinance; and that they prefume not to give any Encouragement, or Affistance, to the Army now in Rebellion against us. Which if, notwithstanding, they shall do, they must expect from us the feverest Punishment the Law can inflict, and a perpetual Infamy with all good Men." A 1642. November. A Letter from the Hague, directed to Secretary An. 18. Car. I. Nicholas, supposed to come from Col. Goring, having been taken from the Gentleman who brought it, and carried to the Parliament: It was this Day, November 26, read in both Houses, and by them ordered to be printed; and alfo to be read in all the Churches of London, and the Suburbs thereof. now Hague, Nov. 22, 1642. Tis IT long fince I had the Opportunity of wri- An intercepted ting to you; but, fince my first, have not heard Letter from Col. any thing from you at all. The Occasion of our long Goring. The Failing of the Ships, had it not been supplied by the Reputation of the King's Success at Land, had given us a dangerous Blow here; but that hath fo Supported our Credit, that the Prince of Orange hath fince played his Part, and advanced all those Sums we were to expect; of which 20,0001. is fent towards you, 20,0001. to Newcastle, and 20,000 1. at least, we bring with us; befides the great Business, which we expect this Day a final End of, which will advance 60,000l. more, in which we are ascertained of the Prince of Orange's utmost Power; fuch, nevertheless, we apprehend the Importance of the Queen's being in England, that we had gone this last Week, and expected the Coming of that after, had not an unSeasonable Compliment from your Side stopped us, till this Express sent to you. The Fleet is now ready, and this Week we certainly go, if those Counsels, or Chances, that tend to dilatory Resolutions, move not more effectually than the certain Advantages of our Expedition and Dispatch from hence; all our Affairs being now done, and no thing more to be expected. That you may know upon what Grounds we go, and what Security we expect there, and what Advantage you in the South are to derive from it, you must know we have fent over 10,000 Foot Arms besides the Garrison, near 2000 Horse Arms, and 20 Pieces of 1 1642. An. 18. Car. I. of Cannon. We bring over Waggons, and all Accommodation, to march so soon as we arrive; we carry November. very confiderable Officers from hence, and, by the Advice we receive from that Side, 8000 Men are on foot already, and fix Troops of Horse; the rest will not be long in raising after we come there. General King is designed for Lieutenant-General, and hath been with the Queen, and will be fuddenly there. From Denmark are likewise sent Arms for 10,000 Foot, and 1500 Horse, with a Train of Artillery, and every Thing proportionable, to the very Drums and Halberds. Two good Men of War come their Convoy, and in them an Ambassador to his Majesty, a Perfon of great Quality in Denmark: I hope it will be a general Care there to see him nobly treated; for the Entertainment and Neglect of the last was much complained of, and is so much resented by that King, that it had like to have frustated all our Expectations in that Court, had not Cochran very handsomely evaded it: He comes along with the Ambassador; with whom if you encounter, he will communicate some Propofitions of great Importance; which, in how much the fewer Hands they are carried, will be so much the better liked by them you are to deal with; if any Employment in this Affair may fall upon your Servant that writes to you, I know you will not be unmindful of him. We have great Apprehenfions here, by fomething intimated from my Lord of Holland, of a Treaty further entered into than we have Advertisement of, or can well approve; we have confidently believed your approaching London (if you had not made too long Stay upon the Way) would have determined that Matter; and what the Difficulties are now of that, we cannot yet understand, for if Intelligence from hence came as freely to you as to us, the King's Party there. are very confiderable, and full of that Expectation; and a Day or two's Loss of Time, by the late Example of Hull, may be judged what contrary Consequences it, may produce. We hear my Lord of Effex approaches London, but believe he will be so waited on by the King's Horse, as not 1642. November. not to let bim join with their Forces there; being now An. 18. Car. fo lame an Army, without Horse or Cannon, as the Relations you send hither make him to be. We be lieve the King's Horse now likewise so great a Body, that it will be as troublesome as unnecessary for them το fubfift together; and think so many Troops might be well spared as might be sent into Kent, to countenance a Party to be fet on Foot there; which, according to our Intelligence here, would undoubtedly be found very affectionate and confiderable; so that by sparing 500 Horse, you might poffibly add to your Army 5000 Foot, to be employed upon the River on that Side the Town. If the unhappy Interception had not come of the last Week's Letters, we had undoubtedly been with you, on the other Side, in Norfolk and Effex, within three Weeks; and, in that Condition, having all the Kingdom behind us on every Side, it will not be hard to judge whether would have been better able to fubfift, they within the Town, or the King's Army without admit my Lord of Eflex were gotten in, or that the Town had not yielded itself so soon as you had approached, you may yet certainly presume on this, that, by our being once on Foot, we shall be able to collect for you all the 400,0001. Subsidies, univerfally throughout the Kingdom; which will make the King's Army fubfift, and wear out theirs, besides the Money which we bring. What we expect from Denmark and France, are all Encouragements to make us expect no Treaties to be admitted, but upon Terms of great Advantage and Honour to his Majesty; these you are best able to judge of upon the Place. If the King have Use of them, I am confident you may expect from France (So foon as you fet Foot in Kent, and shall intimate your Defire of the same) the three Regiments of his Majesty's own Subjects there, employed under Colonel Hill, Colonel Fitz-Williams, and Colonel Bealing. Your Letters directed to Newcastle will direct our Addresses to France, for I hope we shall yet be there before you can return any in Anfwer to this. We An. 18. Car. I. We find, both in Rushworth's and Husbands's 1642. Collections, the following Account of the Manner cepted, ☑ how this Letter was intercepted and taken: November. • On Saturday Morning the Gentleman that The Manner of brought this Letter from Holland, came up to Lonits being inter- don in a Gravesend Boat, intending to land at Brentford, and therefore, for the more Expedition, shot the Bridge; which being perceived by one of the Pinnaces that lay on this Side for the Guard of the City and Parliament, and being known to be a Gravefend Boat, which always land on the other Side at Billingsgate, they called to them to know their Business; but they, not regarding their Summons, still posted away; whereupon the Men in the Ship made after them and hauled them in, examined the Gentleman, and, having fome Suspicion, searched him and found this, with fome other Letters about him; whereupon they presently carried him up to the Parliament; where, after Examination, his Letters were taken from him, and he committed to safe Custody. The King's Anfwer to the Petition of both Houses, of the 24th, Νου. 28. The King's Answer to the Parliament's last Petition to him, inclosed in a Letter to the Speaker of the House of Lords, was read in that House, as follows: W E expected such Propofitions from you, as might speedily remove and prevent the • Misery and Desolation of this Kingdom; and that, ' for the effecting thereof, (we now residing at a con' venient Place, not far from our City of London) Committees from both our Houses of Parliament ' should attend us; for you pretended, by your Mef• sage to us at Colebrooke, that those were your De' fires: Inftead thereof (and thereby let all the World ' judge of the Design of that Overture) we have only ' received your humble Petition, That we would be ' pleased to return to our Parliament with our Royal, ' not our Martial, Attendants. All our good Subjects that remember what we have so often told you and them upon this Subject |