had arrived, when no algebraic formula, but only direct vision of the relations of things would suffice a man.
Colonel Overton was actually appointed Governor of Hull: there is a long Letter from the Hull people about Colonel Overton’s laying free billet upon them, a Complaint to Fairfax on the subject, next year.[1] He continued long in that capacity; zealously loyal to Cromwell and his cause,[2] till the Protectorship came on. His troubles afterwards, and confused destinies, may again concern us a little.
This Letter is written only three weeks before the King took his flight from Hampton Court. One spark illuminating (very faintly) that huge dark world, big with such results, in the Army’s quarters about Putney, and elsewhere!
The immeasurable Negotiations with the King, ‘Proposals of the Army,’ ‘Proposals of the Adjutators of the Army,’ still occupying tons of printed paper, the subject of intense debatings and considerations in Westminster, in Putney Church, and in every house and hut of England, for many months past,—suddenly contract themselves for us, like a universe of gaseous vapour, into one small point: the issue of them all is failure. The Army Council, the Army Adjutators, and serious England at large, were in earnest about one thing; the King was not in earnest, except about another thing: there could be no bargain with the King.
Cromwell and the Chief Officers have for some time past ceased frequenting his Majesty or Hampton Court; such visits being looked upon askance by a party in the Army: they have left the matter to Parliament; only Colonel Whalley, with
- ↑ 4th March 1647-8 (Rushworth, vii. 1020).
- ↑ Sir James Turner’s Memoirs. Milton State-Papers (London, 1743), pp. 10, 24, 161,—where the Editor calls him Colonel Richard Overton; his name was Robert: ‘Richard Overton’ is a ‘Leveller,’ unconnected with him; ‘Colonel Richard Overton’ is a non-existence.
