General Lambert, if there shall be need. I am marching Northward with the greatest part of the Army; where I shall be glad to hear from you. I rest, your very affectionate friend and servant,
I could wish you would draw-out whatever force you have; either to be in his rear or to impede his march. For I am persuaded, if he, or the greatest part of those that are with him be taken, it would make an end of the Business of Scotland.[1]
This Letter, carelessly printed in the old Newspaper, is without address; but we learn that it ‘came to my hands this present afternoon,‘ ‘at York,‘ 26th August 1648;—whither also truer rumours, truer news, as to Hamilton and his affairs, are on the road.
On Friday 25th, at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, the poor Duke of Hamilton, begirt with enemies, distracted with mutinies and internal discords, surrenders and ceases; ‘very ill, and unable to march.‘ ‘My Lord Duke and Calendar,‘ says Dalgetty, ‘fell out and were at very high words at supper, where I was,‘ the night before; each blaming the other for the misfortune and miscarriage of our affairs: a sad employment! Dalgetty himself went prisoner to Hull; lay long with Colonel Robert Overton, an acquaintance of ours there. ‘As we rode from Uttoxeter, we made a stand at the Duke’s window; and he looking out with some kind words, we took our eternal farewell of him,‘—never saw him more. He died on the scaffold for this business; being Earl of Cambridge, and an English Peer as well as Scotch—the unhappiest of men; one of those singularly able men’ who, with all their ability,‘ have never succeeded in any enterprise whatever!—
- ↑ Newspaper, Packets of Letters from Scotland and the North, no. 24 (London, printed by Robert Ibbitson in Smithfield, 29th August 1648).———See, in Appendix, No. 12, Letter of same date to Derby-House Committee, requesting supplies (Note of 1857).
