1655 Sept. 26, him. 'I am aprehensive you will not let selfe interest have any power to sway the lest part of that that lookes like honour. Pray only lay aside singularity, for to bee vertuous alone will bee interperted A vise.' Oct. 3, 1655 my selfe unsat Sir Ralph was not likely to be convinced by such feminine reasoning; but with many apologies this anxious friend returns to the charge: Though I am assured all you doe may indure the most critticall triall of judgment, yett I must confes tisfied to heare you chuse restrant, when others of your consorts prefer liberty. I ges you have not many of so high harte as your selfe left with you, you can best judge of what consiquences your refuse of grace may prove whether faitall or noe, 'tis not every enemie can cherish worth in the person opposes.' Doll Leeke Sept. 26, hopes he will not be perticular in the refusall, for Liberty is so presious (& the parsons you receve it from so indifirant whether you have it or noe) that you ought rather to court it, then to be nise in accepting, pardon me if I have said too much.' 1655 Oct. 3, 1655 Cousin Stafford's men after hay-harvest have searched the hedgerows for elms for Sir Ralph. 'I pray remember my Sweet Bryer,' he writes; 'if those that gather the setts use to come to Winslow market, it will cost nothing to bring them to Claydon, for I will appoint my man Roades to take care of it there, hee seldome misses a markett day, I thinke you told mee they were about halfe a crown or 3 shillings a thousand, which is cheape enough, & if they be to be had at soe easy a Rate, I would have 2000 gathered as soone as you please, & sent in by 500 or 1000 a weeke, till the whole 2000 were gathered. Charme them least they send ordinary Bryers, for sweet Bryers; & lett me know if I may have woodbines at the same rate.' The very sound of woodbine and sweetbriar must have made Sir Ralph long to see the last remains of summer in his garden. Sir Roger, in despair, hopes at least that he may spend Christmas with them if non bee before hand with me, as I trust they are not, especially St. James.' Wearied out at last, though not convinced, Sir Ralph felt that he would make himself too conspicuous by being the only prisoner who refused to be liberated on terms which even Sir Justinian had accepted. He therefore entered into a bond to the Lord Protector for 2,000l., together with Dr. William Denton and Mr. Thomas Leeke, Lieut.-Col. Worsley to deliver up the bond at the end of a year if it were not forfeited in the meantime. Colonel Worsley then discharged Sir Ralph the next day out of prison.' This is his own account of it :-'On Thursday with the rest of the London, crowd, I sealed a Bond soe full of Barbarous con- 1655 ditions that I am ashamed to insert them here. All the Favour that could bee obtained was to get it limited for a yeare, but tis so untowardly penned that I doubt they will continue it longer on us. The Truth is if any one person of those I use to converse with all, had thought fit to refuse it, I Oct. 8, Oct. 23, 1655 Oct. 10, 1655 Oct. 15, 1655 should have donn soe too, but . . . to bee singular in such a thing, at such a time, would have been interpreted meerly to be stubbornesse.' Cary Gardiner wrote on the anniversary of the battle of Edgehill: The fatall day to Inglond & our family,' to congratulate him 'on his inlardgment.' There is a memorandum in his own handwrit ing Forgive me,' wrote Lady Gawdy 'if I receive Sir Ralph's reply defines his position. 'Madame, you are highly charritable in cheering upp a person in my condition, & I humbly thank you for it; for though the Example of very many (farre Wiser & better men then my selfe) might somewhat excuse my signing that ugly conditioned Bond, yet your approbation gives me farre more satisfaction then all that they have done. The truth is, though I infinitely desired to bee at home, & my occasions very much require mee there, yet it was to avoyd singularity rather then any thinge else, that induced mee to seale it; and were I now to begin againe (unlesse some others would joyne with mee) possibly I might struggle long to little purpose and at last be forced to accept of the same conditions, to avoyd a greater mischeife. For those that are now in power take it very ill, and will not allow that the least of theire commands should bee disputed by any, much lesse by so inconsiderable a person as Madame, Your humblest servant, R. V.' CHAPTER VIII. THE MAJOR-GENERALS AND THE SQUIRES. 1655-1657. Though Justice against Fate complain, And plead the ancient rights in vain.—MARVELL. SIR RALPH'S satisfaction in his release from imprisonment was soon clouded over by fresh anxieties. The year 1655 had seen Cromwell's protest and Milton's sonnet on behalf of the persecuted Piedmontese ; all Europe recognised the power of the Lord Protector to defend English and Protestant interests abroad; the commercial and industrial classes at home were prosperous and, on the whole, contented; but in these triumphant days of the great Puritan's rule the little world pictured in the Verney letters was plunged in sadness. It was a world of 'poor unknown Royalist squires,' as Carlyle terms them, and of other squires, by no means Royalist, who vainly tried to remain unknown' to the MajorGenerals, Cromwell's Mastiffs,' who had fastened on their estates. The dismal words, Composition, Compurgation, Decimation, Sequestration (as uncouth and un-English in sound as in political import), |