The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1, Thomas Babington Macaulay [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

/> 366 London Gazette, June 18, 1685; Wade's Confession, Hardwicke

Papers.


367 Lords' Journals, June 13,1685.


368 Wade's Confession; Ferguson MS.; Axe Papers, Harl. MS. 6845,

Oldmixon, 701, 702. Oldmixon, who was then a boy, lived very near

the scene of these events.


369 London Gazette, June 18, 1685; Lords' and Commons' Journals,

June 13 and 15; Dutch Despatch, 16-26.


370 Oldmixon is wrong in saying that Fenwick carried up the

bill. It was carried up, as appears from the Journals, by Lord

Ancram. See Delamere's Observations on the Attainder of the Late

Duke of Monmouth.


371 Commons' Journals of June 17, 18, and 19, 1685; Reresby's

Memoirs.


372 Commons' Journals, June 19, 29, 1685; Lord Lonsdale's

Memoirs, 8, 9, Burnet, i. 639. The bill, as amended by the

committee, will be found in Mr. Fox's historical work. Appendix

iii. If Burnet's account be correct, the offences which, by the

amended bill, were made punishable only with civil incapacities

were, by the original bill, made capital.


373 1 Jac. II. c. 7; Lords' Journals, July 2, 1685.


374 Lords' and Commons' Journals, July 2, 1685.


375 Savage's edition of Toulmin's History of Taunton.


376 Sprat's true Account; Toulmin's History of Taunton.


377 Life and Death of Joseph Alleine, 1672; Nonconformists'

Memorial.


378 Harl. MS. 7006; Oldmixon. 702; Eachard, iii. 763.


379 Wade's Confession; Goodenough's Confession, Harl. MS. 1152,

Oldmixon, 702. Ferguson's denial is quite undeserving of credit.

A copy of the proclamation is in the Harl. MS. 7006.


380 Copies of the last three proclamations are in the British

Museum; Harl. MS. 7006. The first I have never seen; but it is

mentioned by Wado.


381 Grey's Narrative; Ferguson's MS., Eachard, iii. 754.


382 Persecution Exposed, by John Whiting.


383 Harl. MS. 6845.


384 One of these weapons may still be seen in the tower.


385 Grey's Narrative; Paschall's Narrative in the Appendix to

Heywood's Vindication.


386 Oldmixon, 702.


387 North's Life of Guildford, 132. Accounts of Beaufort's

progress through Wales and the neighbouring counties are in the

London Gazettes of July 1684. Letter of Beaufort to Clarendon,

June 19, 1685.


388 Bishop Fell to Clarendon, June 20; Abingdon to Clarendon,

June 20, 25, 26, 1685; Lansdowne MS. 846.


389 Avaux, July 5-15, 6-16, 1685.


390 Van Citters, June 30,/July 10, July 3-13, 21-31,1685; Avaux

Neg. July 5-15, London Gazette, July 6.


391 Barillon, July 6-16, 1685; Scott's preface to Albion and

Albanius.


392 Abingdon to Clarendon, June 29,1685; Life of Philip Henry,

by Bates.


393 London Gazette, June 22, and June 25,1685; Wade's

Confession; Oldmixon, 703; Harl. MS. 6845.


394 Wade's Confession.


395 Wade's Confession; Oldmixon, 703; Harl. MS. 6845; Charge of

Jeffreys to the grand jury of Bristol, Sept. 21, 1685.


396 London Gazette, June 29, 1685; Wade's Confession.


397 Wade's Confession.


398 London Gazette, July 2,1685; Barillon, July 6-16; Wade's

Confession.


399 London Gazette, June 29,1685; Van Citters, June 30,/July 10,


400 Harl. MS. 6845; Wade's Confession.


401 Wade's Confession; Eachard, iii. 766.


402 Wade's Confession.


403 London Gazette, July 6, 1685; Van Citters, July 3-13,

Oldmixon, 703.


404 Wade's Confession.


405 Matt. West. Flor. Hist., A. D. 788; MS. Chronicle quoted by

Mr. Sharon Turner in the History of the Anglo-Saxons, book IV.

chap. xix; Drayton's Polyolbion, iii; Leland's Itinerary;

Oldmixon, 703. Oldmixon was then at Bridgewater, and probably saw

the Duke on the church tower. The dish mentioned in the text is

the property of Mr. Stradling, who has taken laudable pain's to

preserve the relics and traditions of the Western insurrection.


406 Oldmixon, 703.


407 Churchill to Clarendon, July 4, 1685.


408 Oldmixon, 703; Observator, Aug. 1, 1685.


409 Paschall's Narrative in Heywood's Appendix.


410 Kennet, ed. 1719, iii. 432. I am forced to believe that this

lamentable story is true. The Bishop declares that it was

communicated to him in the year 1718 by a brave officer of the

Blues, who had fought at Sedgemoor, and who had himself seen the

poor girl depart in an agony of distress.


411 Narrative of an officer of the Horse Guards in Kennet, ed.

1718, iii. 432; MS. Journal of the Western Rebellion, kept by Mr.

Edward Dummer, Dryden's Hind and Panther, part II. The lines of

Dryden are remarkable:


"Such were the pleasing triumphs of the sky


For James's late nocturnal victory.


The fireworks which his angels made above.


The pledge of his almighty patron's love,


I saw myself the lambent easy light


Gild the brown horror and dispel the night.


The messenger with speed the tidings bore.


News which three labouring nations did restore;


But heaven's own Nuntius was arrived before.'


412 It has been said by several writers, and among them by

Pennant, that the district in London called Soho derived its name

from the watchword of Monmouth's army at Sedgemoor. Mention of

Soho Fields will be found in many books printed before the

Western insurrection; for example, in Chamberlayne's State of

England, 1684.


413 There is a warrant of James directing that forty pounds

should be paid to Sergeant Weems, of Dumbarton's regiment, "for

good service in the action at Sedgemoor in firing the great guns

against the rebels." Historical Record of the First or Royal

Regiment of Foot.


414 James the Second's account of the battle of Sedgemoor in

Lord Hardwicke's State Papers; Wade's Confession; Ferguson's MS.

Narrative in Eachard, iii. 768; Narrative of an Officer of the

Horse Guards in Kennet, ed. 1719, iii. 432, London Gazette, July

9, 1685; Oldmixon, 703; Paschall's Narrative; Burnet, i. 643;

Evelyn's Diary, July 8; Van Citters, .July 7-17; Barillon, July

9-19; Reresby's Memoirs; the Duke of Buckingham's battle of

Sedgemoor, a Farce; MS. Journal of the Western Rebellion, kept by

Mr. Edward Dummer, then serving in the train of artillery

employed by His Majesty for the suppression of the same. The last

mentioned manuscript is in the Pepysian library, and is of the

greatest value, not on account of the narrative, which contains

little that is remarkable, but on account of the plans, which

exhibit the battle in four or five different stages.


"The history of a battle," says the greatest of living generals,

"is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may

recollect all the little events of which the great result is the

battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in

which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes

all the difference as to their value or importance . . . . .

Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what

are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there

are some circumstances mentioned in General-'s account which did

not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each

important occurrence took place, or in what order."-Wellington

Papers, Aug. 8, and 17, 1815.


The battle concerning which the Duke of Wellington wrote thus was

that of Waterloo, fought only a few weeks before, by broad day,

under his own vigilant and experienced eye. What then must be the

difficulty of compiling from twelve or thirteen narratives an

account of a battle fought more than a hundred and sixty years

ago in such darkness that not a man of those engaged could see

fifty paces before him? The difficulty is aggravated by the

circumstance that those witnesses who had the best opportunity of

knowing the truth were by no means inclined to tell it. The Paper

which I have placed at the head of my list of authorities was

evidently drawn up with extreme partiality to Feversham. Wade was

writing under the dread of the halter. Ferguson, who was seldom

scrupulous about the truth of his assertions, lied on this

occasion like Bobadil or Parolles. Oldmixon, who was a boy at

Bridgewater when the battle was fought, and passed a great part

of his subsequent life there, was so much under the influence of

local passions that his local information was useless to him. His

desire to magnify the valour of the Somersetshire peasants, a

valour which their enemies acknowledged and which did not need to

be set off by exaggeration and fiction, led him to compose an

absurd romance. The eulogy which Barillon, a Frenchman accustomed

to despise raw levies, pronounced on the vanquished army, is of

much more value, "Son infanterie fit fort bien. On eut de la

peine a les rompre, et les soldats combattoient avec les crosses

de mousquet et les scies qu'ils avoient au bout de grands bastons

au lieu de picques."


Little is now to be learned by visiting the field of battle for

the face of the country has been greatly changed; and the old

Bussex Rhine on the banks of which the great struggle took place,

has long disappeared. The rhine now called by that name is of

later date, and takes a different course.


I have derived much assistance from Mr. Roberts's account of the

battle. Life of Monmouth, chap. xxii. His narrative is in the

main confirmed by Dummer's plans.


415 I learned these things from persons living close to

Sedgemoor.


416 Oldmixon, 704.


417 Locke's Western Rebellion Stradling's Chilton Priory.


418 Locke's Western Rebellion Stradling's Chilton Priory;

Oldmixon, 704.


419 Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, 1691.


420 Account of the manner of taking the late Duke of Monmouth,

published by his Majesty's command; Gazette de France, July

18-28, 1688; Eachard, iii. 770; Burnet, i. 664, and Dartmouth's

note: Van Citters, July 10-20,1688.


421 The letter to the King was printed at the time by authority;

that to the Queen Dowager will be found in Sir H. Ellis's

Original Letters; that to Rochester in the Clarendon

Correspondence.


422 "On trouve," he wrote, "fort a redire icy qu'il ayt fait une

chose si peu ordinaire aux Anglois." July 13-23, 1685.


423 Account of the manner of taking the Duke of Monmouth;

Gazette, July 16, 1685; Van Citters, July 14-24,


424 Barillon was evidently much shocked. "Ill se vient," he

says, "de passer icy, une chose bien extraordinaire et fort

opposee a l'usage