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Title: The Journal of Joachim Hane
containing his escapes and sufferings during his employment
by Oliver Cromwell in France from November 1653 to February
1654
Author: Joachim Hane
Editor: Charles Harding Firth
Release Date: October 8, 2015 [EBook #50158]
Language: English
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_THE
JOURNAL OF JOACHIM HANE_
_CONTAINING HIS ESCAPES AND SUFFERINGS
DURING HIS EMPLOYMENT BY OLIVER
CROMWELL IN FRANCE FROM
NOVEMBER 1653 TO
FEBRUARY 1654_
_EDITED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT IN
THE LIBRARY OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD_
_BY C. H. FIRTH, M.A._
_OXFORD_
_B. H. BLACKWELL, 50 & 51 BROAD STREET_
_LONDON_
_T. FISHER UNWIN, PATERNOSTER SQUARE_
_M DCCC XCVI_
OXFORD: HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
Joachim Hane, the author of the following journal and the hero of the
adventures recorded in it, was a German engineer in the service of the
Commonwealth. During the Civil War there were many foreign soldiers in
the armies both of the King and the Parliament. Readers of Carlyle's
_Cromwell_ will remember 'Dutch Dalbier,' from whom, according to
Carlyle, 'Cromwell first of all learned the mechanical part of
soldiering'--a soldier who first served the Parliament but met his death
at St. Neots in 1648 while heading a royalist rising against it. Another
Dutchman in the Parliament's service was Vandruske, who like Dalbier
went over to the royalist cause, and ended by seeking his fortune in the
service of the Czar. A third of these foreign adventurers was Sir
Bernard Gascoyne, or Bernardino Guasconi, a Florentine, condemned to
death with Lucas and Lisle at Colchester, but spared to be rewarded by
Charles II and to be employed by him as English envoy at Vienna. There
were many others of less note in the two armies, but it was not merely
as fighting men that the services of foreign soldiers were desired and
valued. What made officers bred abroad necessary to both parties was
their knowledge of the scientific side of warfare, a subject of which
home-made royalist and parliamentary colonels knew little or nothing.
Each party found these scientifically trained soldiers indispensable as
engineers and commanders of artillery. When the king first established
his headquarters at Oxford, and proceeded to fortify the town, he
appears to have had no qualified engineer in his army. According to Wood
the first fortifications about the city 'were mostly contrived by one
Richard Rallingson, Bachelor of Arts of Queen's College,' who was
rewarded by Charles with promotion to the rank of M.A. Such amateur
engineers might be employed at a pinch, but the chief engineer in the
service of Charles I was Sir Bernard de Gomme, another Dutchman, whose
career is excellently sketched by Mr. Gordon Goodwin in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_. The plans of the castle at Liverpool and the
citadel he designed for Dublin, with his diagrams of the battles of
Newbury and Marston Moor, are now in the British Museum.
Dutch and German engineers also abounded on the parliamentary side. One
of the best known is Lieutenant-Colonel John Rosworm, who fortified
Manchester for the Parliament, helped to capture Liverpool Castle, and
wrote a narrative called _Good Service hitherto ill-rewarded_, setting
forth his difficulties in obtaining his pay. In Essex's army Philibert
Emmanuel du Boys held the post of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance,
whilst in the New Model Peter Manteau Van Dalem was Engineer-General.
The names of Cornelius and Chrystoph Van Bemmell appear in the
Parliamentary Army Lists in 1648, and in 1649 Joachim Hane begins to be
mentioned.
Fortunately, the English portion of Hane's career can be traced with
tolerable fullness. He was born at Frankfort on the Oder, and was
therefore by birth a subject of the Elector of Brandenburg. In his army,
or in some other foreign army, Hane obtained his military education.
Probably he was one of the many soldiers cast adrift by the disbanding
which followed the peace of Westphalia, and obliged thereby to seek
employment outside Germany. He appeared in England first in 1649, and
was employed by the Council of State to report on the fortifications of
Weymouth with a view to the building of a citadel there. He was also
sent to Yarmouth to consult with the governor and the officers of the
garrison on the erection of a fort[1]. In the following year Hane seems
to have accompanied Cromwell in his expedition to Scotland, and he
remained in Scotland with Monk when Cromwell marched into England. The
surrender of Stirling Castle to Monk was mainly due to Hane's skill as
an artilleryman. On August 13, says the diary of the siege, 'the
morter-pieces were planted, and Mr. Hane, the engineer, plaid with one
of the morter-pieces twice. The second shot fell into the middle of the
Castle, and did much execution. Afterwards he played with the other
great morter-piece and did execution.' On the 14th the garrison, who
were not accustomed to shells, mutinied and forced the governor to
surrender. Again, a fortnight later, at the siege of Dundee, the same
narrative records that 'Mr. Hane, the engineer, plaid the morter-piece.'
December following Hane was sent to Inverness to report on its
possibilities as a fortress, and returned with the news that it was 'not
fortifiable without a great deal of charges, nor tenable without a
greater number of men than the town can possibly provide accomodation
for.' The result was that instead of fortifying the town itself a fort
large enough to hold 2000 men was built close by it. In 1653 Hane was
again in England, though Colonel Lilburne, the Commander-in-Chief in
Scotland, was writing letter after letter to the Lord-General to demand
his return. Many officers, complained Lilburne, have been absent a long
time from their charges: 'and in particular Mr. Hane, the Engineer, of
whom wee have an exceeding great want, and I doe wonder hee should
neglect this duty soe much as hee does, his absence being the losse of
some hundreds to the State, and if wee should have any occasion to make
use of a morter-piece without Mr. Hane, there is noebody to undertake
that businesse that is fitt for itt[2].'
But the Lord-General turned a deaf ear to Lilburne's appeals. He had
chosen Hane for a business of much more difficulty than planning forts,
and of much greater danger than playing a mortar-piece. He was kept from
his professional duties in Scotland to play a part in one of the
obscurest and least known episodes of Cromwell's foreign policy. On
October 11, 1653, Hane set sail for France on his mysterious mission,
and spent the next five months in struggling with the dangers and
privations related in this journal.
At that time the relations of France with England were still strained
and unfriendly. It was still uncertain whether England would ally itself
with Spain against France, or with France against Spain. Charles II was
a pensioner at the French Court. In 1649 Louis XIV had prohibited the
introduction into France of all woollen stuffs or silks manufactured in
England, and the Republic had replied by forbidding the introduction
into England of wines, woollen stuffs, and silks from France. French
corsairs had made prey of English merchantmen, and English ships armed
with letters of reprisal had retaliated on French commerce. At the close
of 1651 war with France seemed much more probable than war with Holland.
The Dutch war had aggravated the situation still further by leading to
the confiscation of many French ships on the ground that they carried
Dutch goods or contraband of war. In September, 1652, Blake captured a
small French fleet sent to relieve and provision the garrison of
Dunkirk, and that place in consequence fell into the hands of the
Spaniards. At last, in December, 1652, Louis XIV, driven by necessity,
recognized the English republic and sent M. de Bordeaux to negotiate
with its rulers.
But in spite of this recognition the possibility of English intervention
in the civil struggles in France was not ended. In September, 1651, the
third war of the Fronde--the 'Fronde Espagnole'--began. Condé raised the
standard of revolt in Guienne, and Bordeaux became the headquarters of
the rebellion.
Not until August, 1653, was the royal authority re-established at
Bordeaux. The rebellion was prolonged by Spanish help and by the hope of
aid from England. Both Condé and the city of Bordeaux sent agents to
London to solicit English intervention, and from time to time both
Cromwell and the Council of State seemed inclined to accede to their
requests. Condé's agents offered free trade with Guienne, certain
favours towards the French Protestants, and even the cession of the
island of Oléron. The City of Bordeaux instructed its agents 'to demand
of the Commonwealth of England, as of a just and powerful State,
assistance in men, money, and ships to support the city and commons of
Bordeaux, now united with our lords the Princes; and not only to shelter
them from the oppression and cruel vengeance which is in store for
them, but also to effect their restoration to their ancient privileges,
and to enable them to breathe a freer air than they have hitherto done.
And as the said lords of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England
will probably demand of them reciprocal advantages, they will let them
first explain their pretensions, and afterwards, if necessary, they may
grant them a port in the river of Bordeaux, where their vessels may find
retirement and safety, such as Castillon, Royan, Talmont or Pauillac, or
that of Arcachon if they wish, which they may fortify at their own
expense. We may even permit them to besiege and capture Blaye, in which
our troops will help them as much as possible. They may also make a
descent upon La Rochelle and capture it if they please[3].' Besides
appealing to the desire of the English Government for commercial
advantages and territorial gains, Condé's emissary appealed to the
desire which some of the statesmen of the Republic cherished to see free
institutions established amongst their neighbours. 'What a great honour
will it be for the Commonwealth of England,' said M. de Barrière, 'after
it hath so happily and so gloriously established the precious liberty at
home to send their helping hands unto their craving neighbours for the
same, whose obligation for that shall be eternal and the acknowledgement
of it real and perfect[4].'
There was a wide belief that the foreign policy of the English Republic
was influenced by a general hostility to monarchy and a general desire
to propagate republican institutions in Europe, which found expression
in rumours of the sayings and the intentions of the heads of the
Commonwealth. The English royalists talked of a design for the ruin of
the kings and sovereigns of the earth, of which Cromwell was the author,
and predicted that he would begin with France. When he returned from
Ireland there was a rumour that he and his army would effect a landing
in France. One report which Croullé, Mazarin's agent in London, sent to
the Cardinal, represented Cromwell as saying that if he were ten years
younger, there was not a king in Europe whom he would not make to
tremble, and that as he had a better motive than the late king of
Sweden, he believed himself still capable of doing more for the good of
nations than the other ever did for his own ambition[5].' Marvell's
verses to Cromwell on his return from Ireland prophesied similar
exploits--
'As Caesar, he, ere long, to Gaul,
To Italy an Hannibal,
And to all states not free
Shall climacteric be.'
But Cromwell had been obliged to turn his arms against Scotland instead
of against France, and hardly was the Scottish war over, when all the
resources of the Commonwealth were strained to the utmost by the war
with Holland. In July, 1653, negotiations had begun, and the war seemed
nearing its close, but at the same time Bordeaux was nearing its fall.
Barrière, Condé's agent, wrote to the prince that the Republic would
come to no resolution till it saw how the treaty with the Dutch
ended[6]. It was still believed that as soon as Cromwell's hands were
free he would intervene in France. 'Our General,' said a letter from
England, 'conceives it not good for his army to be longer idle, and
therefore hath told some of his myrmidons that if he could be assured
the prince of Condé would aim at liberty really, as he calls it, he
would within this month land his army in France[7].' In October, 1653,
when Joachim Hane sailed for France, the negotiations between England
and Holland had not yet been brought to a successful conclusion. The
position of affairs had been altered by the subjugation of Guienne and
the surrender of Bordeaux, but Condé had not made his peace with Louis
XIV, and a revival of the revolt in Southern France was still a
possibility.
Before Hane the English Government had sent similar emissaries to
France, with the double object of finding out the real strength of the
opposition and entering into communication with the disaffected. Thomas
Scot, who had the management of the foreign intelligence during the
Republic as Thurloe had during the Protectorate, drew up at the
restoration a short account of his proceedings for the information of
the Government of Charles II.
'I sent one Lewis de Bourgoyne (reteined by me as a domesticke to
have helped me for the French tongue) into France, to view and
returne mee the strength of all the ports usward. Hee began at
Callis and went through all the Wash (?) to Bourdeaux, and there
staid some time to dispose that people who then favoured the Prince
of Condé's interest in contradistinction to the crowne of France,
and likeliest to have given a footing to the English had there been
occasion ministered of attempting them by land. Wee had some
correspondence with the Prince of Condé by credentialls to Monsieur
Barrière, and from Bourdeaux by some commissioners they sent over
express, who came but a few weekes before our interruption, 1653;
but that which to mee look'd most hopefull and important I was just
then beginning a correspondence with Cardinal de Retz, commonly
called the Coadjutor, Mazarine's rivall and antagonist, who
pretended to fancy and favour the Commonwealth of England, as so;
some lettres past, but not much donne beyond mutuall credence, and
that also perish'd after Bourgoine's returne from Bourdeaux. Coll.
Saxby (the old Agitator) was sent to Bourdeaux on the same errand
by Gen. Cromwell and myself upon joint advice with good summes of
money, but what harvest he made of his negociations Gen. Cromwell
or his ministers could only tell who overturn'd us and succeeded in
those concernments.'
Of Bourgoyne, beyond this mention of Scot's, nothing is known, nor is
much to be gleaned from other sources concerning this correspondence
with de Retz. A passage in the Cardinal's memoirs states that 'Vainc,
grand parlementaire et tres confident de Cromwell,' came to see him with
a letter of credence from Cromwell, and told him that his defence of
liberty and his reputation had inspired Cromwell with the desire to form
a close friendship with him. This emissary has generally been
identified rightly or wrongly with Sir Henry Vane, but the
identification is at least doubtful. Nor is it easy to fix the date at
which this interview took place. It is placed in the narrative of the
events of 1650, but is said to have occurred soon after the return of
Charles II to Paris, that is about the end of October, 1651. Of Sexby's
mission more is known. For a delicate diplomatic mission he was a very
singular agent. A Suffolk man by birth, he had served four years as a
private in Cromwell's own troop of Ironsides and in Fairfax's regiment
of horse. He became notorious in 1647 as one of the leaders of the
Agitators and as the spokesman of the extreme democratic party amongst
the soldiers. He left the army for a time, but seems to have entered it
again in 1649 and obtained commissions as captain and governor of
Portland. Then he raised a regiment of foot and served for a short time
under Cromwell in Scotland with the rank of Colonel, but in June, 1651,
he was cashiered by a court-martial. The charge which lost him his
commission was that he had detained the pay of seven or eight of the
soldiers of his old company who refused to enter his new regiment; and
though it was urged that 'as to his own intentions he did it for the
public service,' it seemed a sufficient breach of the articles of war to
secure his condemnation. His offence could scarcely have been considered
as a mere act of embezzlement or he would not have been employed again.
In a petition which Sexby presented to the Council of State in 1654, he
gives a brief account of his mission. A secret committee of the Council
of State, consisting of Cromwell, Scot, and Whitelocke, sent him to
France in 1651. He was instructed 'to give an account of the state of
that country, and the affections of the people, in order to prevent
danger and to create an interest.' He took with him four gentlemen, was
to have a salary of £1000 a year for himself and them, and stayed in
France twenty-three months[8].
Of his doings in France the petition says nothing, but a curious
illustration of his zeal for democracy has survived amongst the papers
of Mazarin and Condé--a draft of a republican constitution drawn up in
the name of the Princes of Condé and Conti and the City of Bordeaux[9].
On examination it proves to be a French translation of the _Agreement_
_of the People_ which Lilburne and the leaders of the English Levellers
had published in May, 1649. It bears the title of _L'Accord du Peuple_,
and the difference between it and its English original consists in the
introductory engagement of the subscribers not to lay down their arms
till they have obtained the liberties it defines and in the list of
grievances to be redressed. It was intended to serve as a manifesto for
the republicans of Bordeaux and Guienne, but a constitution too advanced
for England had no prospect of acceptance in France. Lenet, Condé's
confidential agent, endorsed it 'Memoires données a son Altesse de Conti
par les sieurs Saxebri et Arrondel que je n'approuve pas.' 'Saxebri,' or
'Saxebery,' evidently denotes Sexby, and 'Arrondel' is one of his
companions.
The two were back in England, as Barrière's letters prove, in the autumn
of 1653. Arrondel's return is mentioned in a letter of October 24, and
Saxebri's in one dated December 12. Both had doubtless returned before
Hane set out.
It was now Cromwell's turn to send confidential agents to inquire into
the state of France. Unlike Scot and the republican fanatics, it is
evident that he cared little for the propagation of republican
principles. What he cared about was the condition of the French
Protestants and the propagation of the Protestant religion.
To Cromwell, as to most of his party, one of the worst sins of Charles I
was that he had induced the Huguenots to revolt against Louis XIII, and
then left them to be crushed by his forces. Englishmen abroad were
accustomed to be taunted with their desertion of their co-religionists.
'I have heard,' wrote John Cook, 'fearful exclamations from the French
Protestants against the King and the late Duke of Buckingham for the
betraying of Rochelle; and some of the ministers told me ten years ago
that God would be revenged of the wicked King of England for betraying
Rochelle[10].' One of the arguments which agents of the Huguenots of
Guienne used when they appealed to Cromwell was 'that the churches of
these parts have endured a very great brunt by the deceitful promises
which have been made to them by the former supreme powers of Great
Britain[11].' To this argument Cromwell was particularly accessible. He
said that England had ruined the Protestant party in France and that
England must restore it again[12]. In the twenty-second article of the
draft-treaty which he proposed to Mazarin in July, 1654, he demanded the
right of superintending the execution of the edicts in favour of the
French Protestants and seeing that they were scrupulously observed--a
demand which naturally met with a refusal from Mazarin[13]. To obtain
information of the condition of the French Protestants and of their
political attitude Cromwell despatched to France about the close of
1653, or early in 1654, a Swiss who is often mentioned by Burnet,
namely, Jean Baptiste Stouppe. Burnet describes him as 'a Grison by
birth, then minister of the French church in the Savoy, and afterwards a
brigadier-general in the French armies: a man of intrigue but of no
virtue.' Condé, continues Burnet, had sent over 'to offer Cromwell to
turn Protestant: and if he would give him a fleet with good troops he
would make a descent on Guienne, where he did not doubt he should be
assisted by the Protestants; and that he should so distress France, as
to obtain such conditions for them and for England as Cromwell himself
should dictate. Upon this offer Cromwell sent Stouppe round all France,
to talk with their most eminent men, to see into their strength, into
their present disposition, the oppressions they lay under, and their
inclinations to trust the Prince of Condé. He went from Paris down the
Loire, then to Bordeaux, from thence to Montauban, and cross the south
of France to Lyons: he was instructed to talk to them only as a
traveller, and to assure them of Cromwell's zeal and care for them,
which he magnified everywhere. The Protestants were then very much at
their ease: for Mazarin, who thought of nothing but to enrich his
family, took care to maintain the edicts better than they had been in
any time formerly. So Stouppe returned and gave Cromwell an account of
the ease they were in, and of their resolution to be quiet. They had a
very bad opinion of the Prince of Condé, as a man who sought nothing but
his own greatness, to which they believed he was ready to sacrifice all
his friends and every cause that he espoused. This settled Cromwell in
that particular. He also found that the Cardinal had such spies on that
prince, that he knew every message that had passed between them:
therefore he would have no further correspondence with him: he said upon
that to Stouppe _stultus est, et garrulus, et venditur a suis
cardinali_[14].'
Burnet's account of Stouppe's mission seems tolerably accurate[15]. The
attitude of the French Protestants was such as he describes it to have
been. The want of secrecy with which Condé's intrigues were conducted
was a real obstacle to the negotiations. In his letters to Condé,
Barrière himself says as much, and in one dated Aug. 14, 1654, he
relates that Cromwell had complained to the Spanish Ambassador that
Bordeaux was well acquainted with all his negotiations with Condé's
agents.
But the story that Condé offered to become a Protestant can scarcely be
true. It was rather Cromwell who suggested that he should convert
himself to Protestantism as a step to the political headship of the
Huguenots. In a conversation on the affairs of the Protestants in France
the Protector, according to Barrière's report, had said: 'A! s'il y
avoit moyen que M. le Prince se fist de nostre religion, ce seroit le
plus grand bien qui peust jamais arriver a nos eglises, car pour moy je
le tiens le plus grand homme et le plus grand capitaine non seulement
de nostre siecle, mais qui aye esté depuis longtemps: et il est
malheureux d'estre enguagé avecque des gens qui ont si peu de soin de
luy tenir les choses qu'ils luy ont promis[16].' Some eighteen months
earlier Condé was reported to have spoken in somewhat similar terms of
Cromwell, drinking his health openly at Antwerp, 'as the wisest, ablest
and greatest commander in Europe[17].' But it may well be that the
reports of the views of the French Protestants which Stouppe brought
back from France changed Cromwell's views, and that a more intimate
knowledge of French politics altered his estimate of the prince's
capacity.
The history of Joachim Hane's mission is still more obscure than that of
Sexby or Stouppe. One of its objects probably was to communicate with
the French Protestants. Slingsby Bethell, the only contemporary who
mentions it, in a discussion on the policy of the Long Parliament
towards foreign Protestants says that they treated with the deputies of
Bordeaux on a plan for the ruin of popery and the advancement of the
Protestant religion. But Cromwell, 'usurping the government did not
only overthrow the design, but probably betrayed it to the French King
with the lives of some engaged in the business; for Mr. Joachim Haines
(by birth a German) general engineer to the army, and one of his own
emissaries employed in that affair, who after Cromwell and Mazarin were
agreed was pursued through France, and escaped miraculously, did believe
he was discovered by Oliver, his errand being known only to himself and
his confident[18].' Bethell's accusation against Cromwell deserves no
credit. There is no trace of this belief in Hane's narrative, or in
Hane's later conduct. Oliver and Mazarin did not agree till eighteen
months after Hane's return from France. It is simply an example of the
vague slanders which the extreme republicans circulated against the
ruler they regarded as an apostate. Ludlow tells a similar story about
Cromwell betraying Sexby to the French, probably confusing Hane and
Sexby, and echoing Bethell's charge[19].
Hane himself says nothing of the nature of his mission in his narrative.
When he was examined he stoutly denied that he was anything more than a
gentleman travelling for his pleasure; but as he justly observes 'to
speak the truth in all things did not consist with my safety at that
time' (p. 9). Amongst Thurloe's correspondence there are two letters
which may have been written by Hane[20]. Both are signed Israell
Bernhard; one is dated Paris, October 25, 1653, the other Rochelle,
November 15. Hane was at those places on the dates mentioned, and the
second letter contains a still more remarkable parallel. The writer
says, 'I intend to go two days hence to Bordeaux,' that is presumably on
November 17. Now Hane's narrative states that he went from Rochelle to
Bordeaux on November 18. It is very improbable that Thurloe had two
correspondents in France whose movements tallied so exactly with those
of Hane. In each letter the writer assumes the character of a merchant,
and begins by giving various details about the state of trade. The first
ends with a rather enigmatical reference to the proposed purchase of a
house. 'I long to heare whether your neighbour Mr. Smith still hath a
mind to buy Mr. Rob. tenement, that layeth towards you from his other
house; if he intends to build such a house upon as he talketh, he had
need of 6 or 7000 pound to begin withall, and then he may have a
habitation to spend 2000 pound a yeare in it; but I am sure he will not
perfect the building in so short a time as he was speaking to us, for he
will have but a few materialls neere hand, and there is not so much as a
hedge about the garden, but he will be forced to make new hedges round
about. I would have him take good advise before he medle with the
bargaine.' In the letter from Rochelle he says, 'All things hereabouts
are pritty quiet; the prince's party being sufficiently silenced, so
that we hope they will not rise in hast again. We are perswaded, that
the government of our towne is in surer hands than it was three yeare
ago, when we were betrayed with a corrupted governor, who kept the two
towers next the haven for the prince de Condé, and did much annoyance to
the towne from off them; the which after they were reduced, one of them
was burned downe, and the other is now repairing againe, so that we hope
we shall feare no more such bustling as formerly we have had[21].' The
passage from the first letter probably refers to some French port, to
the state of its fortifications, and to the cost of repairing them,
while the second gives important facts as to the present state of the
fortifications of Rochelle. At the moment information on that subject
was of some importance to Cromwell. About October, 1651, there had
arrived in England a person named Conan, whose object was to negotiate
for a due pecuniary consideration to the persons concerned in the
reception of an English governor into that town. He is frequently
mentioned in Barrière's letters to Condé. In a letter dated October 24,
1653, Barrière relates an interview which he had with Cromwell the
previous day. He found him, he said, well disposed to assist the prince.
'Ce à quoy j'ay trouvé plus de disposition s'a esté à l'afaire de La
Rochelle; et pour sest effect il me demanda de luy faire voir Conan, qui
présentement est avecque luy. A son retour je vous manderay ce qu'il luy
aura dit, car en me séparant de luy, il me dit que quant il auroit veu
sest homme là, il me diret ce qu'il pourroit faire.' On a later page,
after mentioning Conan's intended departure for Spain, he adds:
'Monsieur de Conan vient tout présentement de parler à Cromwel, qui l'a
fort questionné sur les moyens de faire réussir l'affaire dont il est
question, et a tesmoigné désirer avec passion qu'elle se peut exécuter;
mais pourtant luy a dit qu'il ne ce pourroit enguager à rien jusques à
ce que l'on eust des nouvelles d'Espagne, et que lorsqu'il auret de
l'argent, on fourniroit toutes les choses necessaires, luy a recommendé
de revenir le plus tost qu'il pourret, et que peut estre a son retour
les afaires auroyent changé de face et, que, sela estant, luy, Cromwel,
et tout ce qui gouverne en Angleterre estoyent entièrement portés a sela
pour le soulagement du peuple et pour le service de Son Altesse.'
A letter written on November 14 from Madrid by the Comte de Fiesque to
the Prince de Condé adds: 'La resolution est prise icy de ligue
offensive et deffensive entre l'Angleterre et l'Espagne, pour laquelle
il sera porté expressément qu'ils attaqueront ou la Guyenne, ou la
Normandie, ou qu'ils descendront a la Rochelle, selon ce qui sera jugé a
propos pour le bien du party, et cela dans le mois d'Avril
prochain[22].'
The projected league between England and Spain came to nothing, but the
existence of these schemes at the time when Hane was sent to France and
the indications afforded by Hane's letters explain the objects of his
mission.
A minister like Stouppe was an admirable choice when the main object was
to learn from Huguenot preachers and Huguenot politicians what their
views of the political situation were. If, however, Cromwell was to
intervene in France and send an army to Guienne, as he was asked to do,
he required also some trustworthy information about the Huguenot
strongholds and the coast seaports. The state of the defences of
Bordeaux and La Rochelle, and the comparative military value of the
different places which Condé's agents and the agents of Bordeaux offered
him, were questions on which the opinion of a skilled engineer would be
of the greatest value. It is probable that Hane's mission was more
military than political, and that he was rather a spy than a political
intriguer.
Whether spy or political intriguer his peril was much the same. The
tortures with which the hangman of Bordeaux threatened him were employed
impartially to extract the truth from either. One of Sexby's four
companions had been arrested on suspicion in Languedoc. 'He was put in
prison,' says Sexby, 'and after racked to make him confess with whom he
had corrispondence, but God inabled him to keep secret what he knew,
though the torture and paine he suffered cost him his life[23].' It was
only by a miracle that Hane escaped a similar fate. The story of his
escapes and his wanderings is so vivid and picturesque that it seemed
worth rescuing from entire oblivion, even though it throws little light
on the dark places of Cromwell's foreign policy.
Hane's services and sufferings were not unrewarded. Before he started
the Council of State had voted that £100 a year in Scottish lands should
be settled upon him 'to encourage him and his family to settle in this
nation.' On November 1, 1653, Mr. Moyer, on behalf of the Council, moved
Parliament to give effect to this recommendation. He reported 'that
there is one Major Hane, by birth a foreigner, who hath performed many
eminent services in the war of Scotland; hath very great skill in
fortifications and all matters relating to the profession of an
engineer, and is of very great use at this time in services of that
nature; that he is a person eminent for godliness, and of undoubted
affection to this commonwealth.' Parliament, however, in a fit of
economy, or because it knew nothing of the nature of Hane's services,
negatived the vote without a division[24]. This was merely a
postponement of his reward. On June 26, 1654, Cromwell's Council of
State voted that an ordinance for naturalizing Hane should be prepared,
and agreed to another ordinance settling lands to the value of £120 a
year upon him. Eventually the naturalization ordinance was made to date
June 26, 1654, and that conferring the lands July 27 of the same year,
and both ordinances were confirmed by Cromwell's second Parliament on
April 28, 1657[25]. Hane meantime had returned to his duties in
Scotland, where he no doubt superintended the erection of those forts at
Inverness, Leith, Ayr, and Inverlochy, which were built to bridle the
Scots. It is not improbable that the plans of those forts, which still
exist in Worcester College Library, were drawn by Hane's hand. William
Clarke, the owner of the plans in consequence of his position as
secretary to General Monk, was necessarily acquainted with Hane; and the
narrative of Hane's adventures in France was doubtless copied by Clarke
from Hane's original manuscript. The copy is dated as begun on October
14, 1657, which proves that Hane must have committed his story to
writing within a very short time after the events had occurred.
In the summer of 1657 Hane was called to a new sphere of action.
Cromwell had allied himself with France, and 6,000 English soldiers had
been despatched to Flanders. In September Turenne and Sir John Reynolds
laid siege to Mardyke, for which purpose the Protector had promised to
provide artillery and mortar-pieces. Hane was sent for from Scotland to
take part in the siege. He had just obtained leave from Monk to go to
England, on account of the dangerous illness of his wife, and Monk's
messenger overtook him at Alnwick and brought him back to Scotland.
Before he could sail however Mardyke had fallen. On September 29, 1657,
Monk wrote to congratulate Thurloe on its capture, and in the same
letter announced Hane's departure: 'You may acquaint his Highness that
Mr. Hane sett sayle from hence on Saturday morning last the wind being
very fair. Hee had his tackling fixt, and everything ready to play his
morter-piece, as soone as a platforme should be layd for it; being hee
could not gett those materialls there, which hee carried with him, wee
thought fitt to provide him heere, and wee hope hee was there on Monday
last.' He was immediately sent back to England to report to the
Protector the state of his new acquisition. Lockhart wrote on October 3
to Thurloe that in order that his Highness 'might want no informatione
that can be given him concerning that place, Mr. Hains, the ingeneer
(who hath visited the place and consithered all the defects of it), will
be with his Highnesse before these can come to your lordships hands.'
When Dunkirk fell Hane was again summoned to inspect and add to its
fortifications, but he was taken ill immediately after his arrival. On
August 11, 1658, Lockhart informed Thurloe of his death. 'Mr. Hains the
ingeneer is dead. I endeavoured all I could to cherish him, both before
and during his sicknesse; but the poor man was so desperately
mallancholly, as I could not perswade him it was possible for him to
live[26].' He had survived all his perils and borne them with a stout
heart, only to die a commonplace death and to have it attributed to lack
of resolution.
_The
Journall of Mr. Joachim Hane
his Passages in France in
the yeare 1653._
A SHORT Relacion of the severall wonderfull passages which I did meete
withall in my jorney into France.
* * * * *
When by the Lord's providence who disposeth of all the wayes and actions
of man, I had undertaken a jorney into France upon some private
occations, Anno. 1653, tending towards Rie, where being come I found a
ship ready to goe to Rouen, in Normandie, which I made use of for my
transportacion thether. Having set sayle on the 11th of the same wee
crossed the sea with a faire wind, and came upon the coast of France on
the 12th of October by day breake in the morning without any
impediment, and entred the River's mouth. Wee met with a small man of
warr, which being licenced to robb by a comission from the Scottish
King, made an attempt upon us even within the River of Seine, having noe
regaurd at all to the nation right of the King's dominions; but wee made
all the resistance wee could, changing some shotts with him for the
space of halfe an houre, till hee dispared of his enterprize, and wee
were carried upp by the floud farther into the land. Being thus free
from the pirate, wee arrived at Quillebeuf that day. There I left the
ship and went by land on horse back to Rouen, from whence after three
dayes rest I directed my course to Parris and after to Orleans, where I
tooke boate and went downe the River of Loyre to Nantes, vissiting by
the way the Citties of Bloys, Amboys, Toures, Saumeur, and Angeirs. From
Nantes I went to Rochell by land with the messager, and thus farr I had
reasonable good sucses in my intended jorney.
But when the Lord intended to carry mee through a faire tryall, wherein
I might more experimentally learne to know his power and strenght, his
knowledge and wisdome, his love and care over his children, and his
faithfullnes to all those that put their trust in him, hee suffred the
malice of sume pernicious sperits to worke upon me. The beginning
whereof happened in this manner. Being come to Rochell I went to inquire
of a marchant of whom I was to receive a sume of monny by bill of
exchange. And among the rest I mett with a companie of 6 or 7 persons,
most of them being Flemings, standing together in the publique meeting
place, where the merchants as upon the Exchang at noone and in the
evening use to come togeather. In this companie, as I was enquiring of
them for the said marchant, there was found a Scott, who whilst I was
receiving instruccion of a Fleming to find out the merchant, looked very
ernestly upon mee; and at last tooke an occacion to aske mee whether I
was not an Englishman or noe: 'for I am very confident,' said hee, 'that
I have seene you at Edinburgh or with the English army.' I replyed I had
indeed spent some time in England, where perhaps hee might have seene
mee, but for Scotland I never had beene their. He againe answered, that
yet for all that he durst lay a wager that I have seene you their,
though you deny it. And so I declyning to have any further discourse
with him we had no more words together, nor did I ever speake with him
any more after that tyme.
Now whilest I was inquireing for my marchant, and discoursing with the
Scott after the manner expressed, their was also a Frenchman in the
number of the company who was a familiar aquaintance and constant
companion of the Scotts, for all the weeke after I continued their I
never saw either of them aloane, but alwayes both of them very intimatly
conversing together. This Frenchman being but of a meane quallity, and
in the judgment of my further experience a man of a hungry condition,
after he had heard both my inquiry for the marchant and the questions
the Scott putt to me, went to the said marchant on purpose to learne
what my expeditions were with him, what sume of money I had to receive
of him as also the progresse of my journey: namely whither: when: and by
what occasions I would goe from Rochell. For being void of all suspition
of tretchery I did freely aske councell of my marchant which way I might
with most safety goe from Rochell to Burdeaux; who because he could not
retourne my money to Burdeaux by Bill of Exchange, advised me to take
the said money in gold, and goe by water from Rochell to Burdeaux by the
way of Mornack and Regan where their was no danger to be feared. The
which councell I did embrace, and went accordingly on the 18th of
November from Rochell to Burdeaux on a small hoy wherin their weere
severall other passingers: and amongst the rest this Frenchman, the
Scotts companion formerly mentioned, who undertooke the journey from
Rochell to Burdeaux on purpose to try whether either by order or by any
other action he might gett advantage against me; to which end he had
drawne three others of the passengers more to his side, that his
designes against me might be carried on with more strength and
authority. These compliants oft shewed themselves very active along the
journey; first by insinuateing themselves into my company by various
discourses, and by diveing into my affairs with all manner of subtill
questions, and afterwards by frameing and deviseing many frivolus and
groundless accusations against me; though neither of my discourse nor of
my carriage they could borrow any more matter of suspetion, then the
Frenchman formerly mentioned had instiled into them aforehand. After we
were come therefore upon the River Garonne, and got soe hye as Blaye
(which is a small towne with a cittadell where the cheife Governour of
Bourdeaux doth reside, and where all customes for importacion and
transportacion are discharged) myne adversaryes, which were now
increased to the number of foure more, went to the Governour of the
place, desiring a gaurd from him to conduct mee as a suspect'd person
to prison, the which was granted them; whereupon I was taken out of the
hoy that I came thether in, and was placed with the gaurd and myne
adversarye into a greate open boate to goe directly for Bourdeaux.
Heare I came to know those whome had a hand in myne accusacion, who
otherwise before that in all the jorney caried themselves very
courtiosly towards mee, but now began their trecherous malice against
mee openly, all their former complements and courtious usage being now
degenerated into mockings and scoffings and spightfull langage. For all
the way up to Bordeaux they used all possible endeavours to agravate to
the highest measure the affliccions of my mind by all manner of
reproches and affronts they put upon mee. They contryved as it were a
comidy, or rather a tragedie, whereby they laboured to set forth to the
life my future suffrings, introducing severall persons, whereof some
acted the hangman's part, some the condemned prisoner's, some bore other
officers parts, making the mast of the boate for a payre of gallowes,
while I perforce was the sad subject of their hopes, I was to undergoe
both in my torture and finall execucion, making continuall repetition of
such lamentable cryes and dullfull exprecions as I should use if I came
to feele the unsufferable torments of racking. And more over they would
perswade now and then that I was ingaged to them for their insolences;
for said they 'all the paynes wee take in our play are intended for your
learning.' They called upon all the people they met upon the River,
desiring them that if they had a mind to see an English saint hanging on
the gallowes they should repair to Bourdeaux within two or three days.
With such and the like pastime wee arrived at Bourdeaux about 4 of the
clock in the afternoone, where the gaurd that came with mee from Blaye
was discharged, and I carried to a greate house in the Citty, which I
tooke to be a house of entertainment because a great supper was their
prepared for my sake, though without myne order, and likwise three of
mine adversaryes being Rochellers intended to lodge their. But before we
came to the house, because they would spare no meanes to increase my
terrors they called the hangman, because our way fell out by his doore,
recomending me to his care; who very courteously received me, promissing
and engageing to me all his abillityes to be ready for my service. After
I was lodged and sufficient care taken for me in the said house, myne
accusers were very busye in provideing all necessaryes for my
examination; wherupon severall persons to the number of seaven or eight
did appeare their an houre before supper tyme, and went into a roome by
themselves to advise upon the questions they intended to put unto me.
And againe by the tyme that we had made an end of our supper the hangman
came also, with two of his servants or attendants bringing his
instruments along with him. After supper was done I was called to those
eight men that were come to try me; for they continued their ever since
they came, and supped also in a roome by themselves, but I and myne
accusers supped in another roome. And when I came in unto them they
demanded of me from whence I came, whither I intended, what my
expeditions were in Burdeaux, what my aquaintance were that I had their,
item what countryman I was and of what profession, whether I had skill
in the Lattine tongue, whether I had beene long in France? Other
frivolus questions they put to me, viz. where I had beene in such a
yeare and at such a tyme of that yeare, what my busines had beene their,
where my parents lived; and many other trifleing demands they asked me.
Myne answers to all these questions they tooke in writing, on purpose to
propound them againe to me in the midst of my tortures, where in case I
had not answered according to trueth they thought it would be
impossible (as indeed it would have falne out so, for to speake the
trueth in all things did not consist with my safety at that tyme) for me
to remember the same expressions to all those questions they had made to
me, that so having found me in severall tales they might have the
stronger grounds of their suspition against me.
Thus haveing made an end of this examination of myne they replyed, that
those answers of myne had no conformity with those informations which
upon sufficient grounds they had received conserning me; for said they,
I had endeavoured to deny my native country, affirming myselfe to be a
Germain, notwithstanding that I was an Englishman. Item that I denyed
that ever I had any relation to the English army, although they were
assured without contradiction that I was an officer of that army, and
had beene upon service with the same in Scotland. Item that I had denyed
to have any correspondence with any of the inhabitants of Burdeaux and
Rochell, whereas it was not possible that I should travaile to so far a
country without some recomendation at leastwise to some marchant; and
since I had refused to relate the trueth in these things I must of
necessity be guilty of some great designe or conspiration against their
country, the which to prevent they did hold it their duty both to their
kinge and country to bring me to a cleare confession by all possible
meanes. Wherupon they desired me to resolve unto them without fraud or
deceit these following questions. By whom I was sent thither? 2^{ly}
what myne instructions were for my expedition? 3^{ly} what
correspondency I had in Rochell and Burdeaux? 4^{thly} what charge I had
in the English army, and lastly in whose hands those 1200 livres were
which according to their well grounded information I had at my
disposeing at Burdeaux? This last query was meerly devised by my
accusers on purpose to begett in the coveteous magistrate a more earnest
desire to afflict me with the more cruell torments, which might (as it
often happeneth) cause me to confesse even such things as perhaps I was
not guilty of, and so to be willingly condemned to dye rather then to
suffer the intollerable greife and anguish of tortureing, which
neverthelesse in themselves without any further condemnation would have
prooved destructive to my life; for they myne accusers were after my
conviction to have all the meanes that I had about me for their good
service they had done in betraying of me, although in myne examination
they were never brought in to confront me for all that I earnestly
begged it.
After that I had given them answers to every one of their questions and
suffitiently argued the groundless charges they had conveined against
me, they refused to reason any longer with me, but desire me to repaire
into the other roome where I was afore, saying that I should finde
another examinator, unto whom I should be more ready to reveale the
trueth then I had beene to them. Thus I retourned into the said roome
where I found the hangman making his instruments ready for the worke,
and myne accusers; who being ravished with joy because they had brought
their designe to an expected end, continued to increase the sadness of
my spirit with many insolent and hart breaking expressions, and drinking
an health to my confusion, another to my speedy journey to the gallows.
Now the temptations of that day (which was a day of distresse and
unspeakable greife to me) came to their height; now fearfullnesse and
trembleing came upon me and horror overwhelmed me; here the sorrows of
death incompassed me and the paines of hell gott hold on me; here I was
to goe through the fire and water, and to make choyce of destruction for
myne inseperable companion. To describe the heavinesse of my spirit and
the sorrowes of my hart I was in at that instant I know not where to
begin, nor where to conclude, nor where to finde signeficant words to
make a true and propper expression of the matter; only I say they were
such as that I cannot without astonishment of heart thinke of them, nor
reflect upon them with my mind in a serious consideration without teares
of joy.
Now when I was past all humane helpe and comfort, wanting both time and
place and the use of myn understanding (which was then wholly suppressed
and stupified by hellish feares) to thinke upon any project for an
escape, I leaned myselfe out of a window, having noe other place or
conveniencie for any private meditacions, and tooke myne onely refuge to
him who is an helper to the oppressed, a protectour to the forlorne, and
a saviour of them that are without helpe, with confident perswacion that
hee was both able and wise enough to deliver mee out of the hands of
myne enemies, though they were never soe many, and though noe hope at
all apeared in my sight for my deliverance, if it seemed good in his
eyes to doe soe. But if by his eternall decree, I was to drinke this
bitter cup of affliction, my onely request to him was then, that with
his strenght hee would appeare in my weaknes, and worke a conformity
betweene mine and his owne will, that with a contented minde I might
take this cupp from his hands, and glorifie his name for his
dispensacions.
I had noe sooner withdrawne my selfe from the window, but God, who had
given eare to my crys, sent an instinct into my mind to try whether I
could gitt privatly downe the stayres whilst all the companie in the
same roome were tryumphing and rejoyceing in my mesiry. The which motion
I went immeadiatly to put into execucion, and made foure or five turnes
up and downe the roome, taking every time in my walking alsoe the lenght
of a long gallery which crossed the rome running streght out of the
doore, wherby I conteyned myself in every turne a little while out of
there sight, which afterwards caused a carelessnes in them not to looke
presently after mee when I went for good and all. At length I tooke the
oppertunity to walke downe the stayres silently, and coming downe I
found the gaurd that was apoynted to attend mee in the kitchin, making
merry with drinking liberaly upon my cost, not suspecting my coming
downe. By reason whereof I was not discovered as I passed by the kitchin
doore, but without any further let I came to the streete doore, which
was not locked yet, but onely boulted with two boults, and having
unboulted it I went out, making what hast I could to the Citty gates.
But it being late, about 10 a clocke at night, all the gates were shut.
Then I bent my course to the Citty walls, and ran about the same soe
long till I came to a place where the battlements with sume parts of the
wall were broaken downe, whereby the wall in the same place was become
six foote lower then the rest of the wall. But before I was gott soe
farr I heard the cryes in the streetes made by my persecutours, which
doubtles were sore greeved and vexed that I was gone out of their hands
without taking leave of them; therefore being senceable of that cruell
intertainment which was prepared for mee in my unfortunate quarters I
durst not goe farther about upon the walls for feare of my approaching
ennemys, but resolving to cast myselfe upon the same God who had torne
me but then out of the lyons mouth, beseeching him with all ernestnes
that he would alsoe carry mee out of the same enemies sight, and send
and assist mee in that dangerous but nessisary atempt of myne, which I
was forced to make by leaping over that wall formerly mentioned, which
was yett about 17 or 18 foote high from the ground. Thus having made
another experiment of the wonderfull mercy of God I came on the ground
on the other side of the wall without any hurt at all, save one small
spraine I perceived in my right heele, which was by strayning a vaine as
I thought. Yet was the same soone cured with the joye I was ravished
withall, because of the seasonable and unexpected deliverance. Being
without the wall I had a deepe moate or graffe to passe through yet
before I could march any further. And seeking a passage where with most
ease I might gett through I went about an houre round about on the foot
of the wall, which was on dry ground, till at length I found a place
where formerly their had beene built a water bearer crosse the graffe
but now was broken downe, only some ruins of the foundations left yet,
some above water and some under water, so that I could passe over the
water upon the said ruins wadeing not above knee deepe.
Now I counted myselfe at full liberty, and being transported even above
myselfe with unspeakable joy I retourned praise unto the Lord for his
wonderfull dealings towards me, and resolved to march some seaven or
eight leagues towards the sea side, to try whether I could meet their
with any shipping wherby I might get from thence. And as I was marching
on that night I lost my way, and was drawne by degrees into the middle
of a great morast some two English miles broad, being misled by a
supposed foot path, which had beene of use in the dry Summer tyme but
none in Winter when it was altogether unpassable. Here I was wadeing up
and downe to my middle, backwards and forwards all the rest of the
night, even to the danger of my life, not knowing whether I went because
no starrs appeared. Then I wrought myselfe through and came on dry land
againe about nyne of the clock in the morning. My strength was wholy
spent by this night's worke so that I was not able to goe any further
before I had rested myselfe some two or three houres under a hedge. In
the meane while I dryed my cloaths againe as well as I could, and made a
paire of shoes of my bootes, cutting of the leggs of them, and makeing
the feet servisable for shoes, that so I might be able to march with
more agillity then I could with boots on my feet. Then having
recollected some strength by a little rest, and refreshing my spirit
with a draught of cold water (for better accomodation I was affraid to
seeke in any house) I betooke me to my journey againe, in hopes that
night to gett to some of those little townes which lay over against
Blaye, before hue and cry after me could come thither. For their I
intended to hire a boate that should have carried me by night to some of
the shipps which were rideing over against Blaye.
At night an houre after sun set I got to Pullitor (which was one of the
little townes I aimed at), and being tyred above measure both in body
and spirit, by reason of the hard travills that I had endured both that
day and the night before, I was ready to faint for some refreshment. I
was fasting all that day, not dareing to aske releife of any body by the
way. I was forced theirfore to venture into a taverne in that towne and
aske for a pott of wine with some bread, which was brought me
accordingly, not feareing in the meane tyme that the inhabittants of
that place had goten any notice of my escape from Burdeaux. But before I
had eaten and drunke my fill a guard of the townsmen came to secure me,
haveing received a compleat discription of my person with an order to
apprehend me before I came thither. By these townes-men I was kept all
that night in the same house I first came into. In the meane while they
sent to the next garrishon, which was Blaye on the other side of the
water, giveing intemation to the Governer their of my captivity, and
desiring him to take care of my examination and tryall.
Wher upon the next morning about nyne of the clock their were sent from
thence for that purpose two officers, fouer comon soldiers with
fyerlocks, and another hangman with two servants (for as I learned
afterwards the magistrate of every place where I was apprehended was to
have all my estate I had in France), and mention being made in the hue
and cry after, that I had 1200 livers in some bodys hands in Burdeaux, I
was by their privelidges to be tryed in the same towne, or in that
jurisdiction where I was taken. The two officers tooke up their lodgeing
in the next house, but the foure soldiers and the hangman with his crue
were ordered to beare me company in the same rome where I was.
The evening or the beginning of the night being appointed for my tryal,
the hangman made all manner of preparation in the same roome before myne
eyes; and when I prayed him to be as favourable as he could to me and I
would resigne all what I had about me, he promissed me upon his faith I
should not be hanged before I was sufficiently tortured. Such and the
like comfort I received from him and all that were neare me. Now my
terrors was multeplyed againe, and my sorrows brought to the same height
they were at before, I finding myselfe forsaken of all the world, and
seing no less grounds of feare and dispaire then I did two dayes before
at Burdeaux. I heard through out the whole day no other discourse of all
that was neer me but augmentations of my greife. I laid most part of
that day upon my bed, sighing and crying unto the Lord that he would not
withdraw his presence from my fainting spirit. And truly giving over all
hopes of life I could not solicit the Lord for another deliverance, for
I thought it a vaine thing to beg for impossibillityes; therfore all the
scope of my supplication was only for spirituall comfort, for increase
of my wearyed patience, and for a joyfull resolution to take up my
crosse, and to carry it without murmouring after my Saviour. All that
weere about me tooke occation at every carriage of mine to mock and
scoffe att my calamity, in so much that when somtymes they perceived my
whispering upon the bed they would saie 'harke, hearke, he is very
earnestly preaching and praying, let us see if he can pray himselfe out
of our hands.'
The day being thus spent and the night drawing on, the hangman seeing me
in a fainting condition (because I refused to take either meat or drinke
all the day) was very fearfull that I should faint under his hands when
he should come to worke with me at night. To that end he devised this
pollisie, to perswade me to sitt downe to supper with him and the rest,
and to take some refresh of meate and drink, wherby my spirits might be
revived againe. Halfe an houre before supper tyme he came in suddenly
from the street, telling me their was an order come from the Governer of
Blaye that I should be carried from thence to Rochell the next morning,
their to be kept in custody for further examination. This designe of
his, because it semed at least wise to delay the evill expected, though
it could not altogether free me from the feares of it, tooke such effect
upon me that my hart being eased theirby in some measure of the
heaviness it was in, I rose presently from my bed; not suspecting any
deceit in the project, for it appeared very probable to me that I should
be carried to Rochell, because most of my accusers dwelled their, being
in hope in the meane tyme, if my tryall weere suspended for the present,
that God would work perhaps some meanes for my deliverance. In this
perswation I satt downe to supper betweene seaven and eight of the
clock, and fell to my meat with a good appetite.
In the midst of our supper my maister the hangman called for a cup of
wine, the which was filled and given him by his man; and as he was
putting it to his mouth, before he drunke he remembered himselfe, and
asked his man out of which pot it had beene filled (for their stood two
potts on the dresser); and when he shewed him which pot the glasse had
beene filled out of with his finger, the hangman fell to cursing, and
rebukeing the fellow for his carelessnesse, in so much that he threwe
the glasse with the wine into the fyre. Hereby I came to be sensible of
my delusion, remembering some words that weere spoken that afternoone as
I lay upon my bed; for the hangman had sett a little skellit with faire
water upon the fyre, and as in the boyleing theirof he putt somthing
into it, his wife bid him put a greater quantety of that ingredience
that the water might be the stronger; but he answered her saying, 'by no
meanes if you put in any more you will kill him altogether, this is
enough to bourne him to the hart.' These words, together with the other
passages that happened both at and after supper, were a sufficient
argument to me of their intentions: namely the hangman had prepared a
potion for mee, which was to procure unto mee greate gripings in the
belly, that soe the outward torments being added to the inward paines it
might make mee confesse the secritts of my hart. My eyes being thus
opened by the wonderfull worke of God, I refused to drinck any wine but
what I filled my selfe out of the potts which I saw others drinking out
of before me. Now the hangman saw himself frustrated in his hopes hee
perswaded mee presently after supper to goe to my rest into my bed
betymes, because the shipper with whom I was to goe to Rochell would
call mee early in the morning. But I being sufficiently convinced of his
designe could give noe eare to his perswacions, but spent my time by
walking up and downe the roome; till at lenght about 9 or 10 a clock hee
suspected my fears (for hee would faine have made mee gone to my bed
before he should have medled with meef, that soe hee needed not throw
mee downe perforce). Therefore to remove all grounds of suspition I had
of him, hee bid us all good night, and tooke his leave of all as though
he was going to his rest into the next house, where the two officers
lay, which were to bee present at my tryall; but being gone downe the
stayers, and one of the gaurds with him, unto whom hee gave order to
send him word whensoever I was gone to bed, that hee might come with the
officers to finish the worke that they had in hand with me.
In the mean time, notwithstanding his pretences, I kept walking up and
downe the roome full of feares and suspitions till eleven of the clock,
and then I layd myselfe downe upon the bed in my cloathes. I was noe
sooner layd but those that gaurded me sent a boy to the hangman, who
because it was soe late returned this answer: that the officers who were
to attend my tryall were fallen asleepe, but they would bee ready to
come with him about 3 a clocke in the morning; hee desired them
therefore to bee very vigilent and carefull of mee till then, least I
should escape there hands. The gaurd according to these instructions
used all means to keepe one another from sleeping; if one did but
slumber a little the other would presently waken him againe to my greate
greefe. All this while I lay in a hellish paine and anguish, expecting
with horror and trembling that dreadfull howre but lately mentioned
which was drawing one apace. Neverthelesse about one of the clock I felt
within my selfe (doubtlesse by the Lord's instigacion who would further
declare his wonderfull love to mee) a strong conceipt and an undeniable
perswation that I should make another escape, althow the meanes how to
perfect the same was not as yet aparent to mee. Where upon I began
againe to consult with my selfe after what manner with most probability
to accomplish my desires; and seeing, that unlesse my watchmen that were
with mee in the roome were asleepe, it would be altogether vaine to make
any attempt, I besought the Lord of all might that hee would with his
alsufficient power to cast them into a sleepe while I should indeavour
to gitt from amongst them. Thus I lay in expectacion with a watchfull
eye, I making all signes of them of sleepe, till the Lord was pleased to
answer mee graceously.
About two of the clock I found them all fast asleepe, both the fowre
souldiers which sate about mee before the fire, and the two servants of
the hangman which lay on a bed in the other end of the roome. As soone
as I perceived it, I hasted to make use of this oportunity, and took
both the sheetes of the bed, tying them togeather with the two corners,
and slitting the other corner of the sheete assunder, that with the more
conveniency I might tye it about the midle frame of the window (for the
lower end of the pertition of the windows in these parts have wooden
sutters without glassing). Having thus prepared the way, I stept out of
the window in the name of the Lord, and let myselfe downe by the sheets,
having my shooes in my mouth, till I came to the ground. Here I would
make noe long stay soe much as to put on my shoose, but betooke myselfe
presently to my heeles, and ran as hard and as long as breath would
hould out. I was not gon full muskett shott from the house, before I
heard the cry and alarem in the towne after mee. Suspecting that I was
gone towards the River to looke for shipping, they persued mee up and
downe the River side, as I could guese by the barking of the doggs in
those townes and villages which lay in the water side. But the night
being darke and I taking my course directly to the land side, I
perceived none to come after mee that way, soe I marched peaceably all
that night towards Bourdeaux againe, with an intencion to try whether I
could gitt in some evening tyme, and find out a shipper with whome I
might agree to take mee along with him beyond sea for a sume of mony.
In the morning after breake of day I lodged my selfe in a wood, and
continued there till 2 a clock in the afternoone. But being weary of
fasting, and thinking the inhabitants which lived soe farr from the
water side would not have had any notice concerning mee, I put of my
gray coate (which was mentioned in the hue and cry) and carreing it
under my arme, I ventured out of the wood, and kept on my way till
about 4 of the clock to an open village which was about 4 leagues from
Bourdeaux. There I went into a taverne, and called for a pot of wyne
with some bread to refresh my tyred body withall; the wyne was brought
to me presently, but as for the bread I was to stay for it till they had
fetched the key, which was some where in the towne. But insted of
fetching the key they went to fetch halfe a dozen troopers that were
quartered in the same towne, and some of them in the same house (for I
saw five greate sadle horses standing in the stable) for to aprehend mee
whilst I was staying for the bread. Not having forgotten yet my former
miscarriages, I mistrusted by the wispring of those that were in the
house, that there was a new plott preparing against mee, the which
suspition caused mee to pay for my wine, and soe hasten out of the
house.
As soone as I came out in the streete, I saw five of the troopers coming
downe the towne. They called to me desiring me to stay, but I taking noe
notice of their calling, went on a strong pace, yet without running,
till I came about the corner of a close; then I ran in hast behind a
hedge, where I made a version of my waye, and turned quyt back againe,
till I came to the end of the towne where I first came in. There I went
into a garden, and kreept (as I thought unknowne to any body) into the
bottome of a hedge. The troopers before I gott to this hedge, were
gotten on horse backe serching for mee with great rage. They crossed the
fields thereabouts till darke night, and having missed their ayme after
this manner, they caused all the villages within a league round about to
watch and keepe a gaurd that night, barricading with carts and ladders
the highwayes in all places where there was any considerable passage,
for the fields were all inclosed with thick and unpassible hedges. I lay
in the meane time securely in the hedge bottome, thinking that noe body
had knowne of my being there, till there came a lustie cuntry man, who
having seene mee to creepe into the hedge walked all the while I was
there in the garden, taking noe notice of mee in the hedge; and as soone
as it was darke, hee approached towards mee, and thrusting mee with a
staffe desired mee to come forth. Soe when I came forth, I besought him
to lett mee goe, and I would give him all that I had. Hee being willing
to grant my desire asked mee presently, where my goods were? I tould him
in the bottome of the hedge; for having seene mee to carry a bundle
under my arme, which was my short coate, hee thought that the richest
plunder that I had would bee in the bundle, by reason of that he bad me
goe whither I pleased, he would be no hinderance unto me. While he went
to looke for his booty I hasted away. Then I went all that night out of
one close into another, not being able to get through, the guards weere
so strictly kept upon all the high wayes.
About breake of day I betooke myselfe to a ruinous chappell wherof the
walls were only standing, the ground within in most places was
overgrowne with nettles, which weere my shelter for all that day till
the afternoone. About two of the clock, being ready to starve for cold
because of my thin cloathing, and having perceived no body all the day
to come to so sollitary a place, I went forth out of the corner in which
I had hid myselfe till then. I went into the middle of the chappill
where I had place to walke by short tournes, therby to gett some heate
into my quakeing body. As I was walking in the middle of my walking
their came a countryman with a short crooked bill in his hand; him I
prayed after many other discourses, that he would be a meanes to conduct
me to the water side, which was within a league, from thence to
transport me on the other side the River, and I would give him tenn
pistolls for his paines, if he would not betray me. This man did seme to
like my motion well, and promised me with many oaths to be faithfull to
me, desiring me not to stir from the place till at night, as soone as it
was darke, he should come to fetch me. After this fellow was gone I
began to consider within myselfe that I could looke for no reall dealing
from him, but that he intended either to deliver me into the custody of
my persecutors, or else to destroy me privately in the night, and so to
make a prey of me for his owne profitt; for if I had put myselfe after
this manner into his power, wherby all that I had in my custody became
to be at his disposeing, he could not but hope to reape a greater game
by killing me then by keeping his promise with me. Therfore not thinking
it safe for me to continue theire till night, I resolved an houre after
he was gone to seeke some other hideing place.
Thus deserting the said chappell I fell into a high way, which of
necessity I was forced to keepe, by reason of the thick hedges and deep
ditches on both sides of the way. Before I had gon far I mett with a
barricade cross the way, made with carts and ladders the night before,
but now it was without any guard. Seing this I concluded that their was
not so strict watch kept for me by day as by night, the which
emboldened me to continue my march in hopes to passe all the inclosed
feilds before night, to reach the champion country, where I could not
bee blocked up in the maner I used to bee among the hedges and ditches.
Now when I had even overcome those difficult wayes among the hedges, and
was now upon the brim of a large champion country, I sought about the
hedges for some hiding place where I might be obscured till darke night.
But before I could find a place fitt for my turne, I was discovered by a
contry man coming from the feild, who dwelled hard by where I was; who
as soone as hee gott a vew of mee hee came rounding towards mee with a
long crooked bill, and made mee to goe along with him to his house,
where I saw never another man, but fowre or five women, whereof one was
his mother, who did curse and revile mee in a most abhominable manner. A
maid was presently sent to some officers in the parish for more helpe,
for his house stood by it selfe in the field far from neighbours. In the
meane time the good man gave mee a glasse or two of wine, and a little
crust of bread, which after two dayes fasting, was some though not
considerable refreshment to mee because it was noe more. Taking noe
delight of the ayre in the house I could not have patience to sitt
downe, though much intreated, but sought to walk up and downe rather
without the dores then within. After that I had bin there about halfe an
howre, the maid that went for more helpe, returned with news, that some
more men would be there immeadiatly. Now the day and night were even
parting, darkenes increasing apace, whilst I still continued to walke,
with many intreaties that hee would dismis mee, promising him 20
pistolls for his reward, but I could not prevaile with him. At length
the ould woman came forth full of indignacion, rayling and chiding him
for walking in the darke without armes in his hands. The good sone,
taking his mother's witt for the best, willingly yeilded to her
instructions, and prayed her to stay with mee till hee went to fetch his
fowling peece; thus having resigned me to his mother's care, he went to
fetch his gun in the house. I kept in the mean time of his absence a
slow walke while the ould woman full of jealousy followed mee close at
the heeles mandring, and when I guessed what tyme her sone might be got
up the stayres, I made use of my leggs on a suddaine, and ran into a
plaine champion feild, which was on one side of the house, with all
possible speed, leaving the ould woman behind in a distracted and raging
condition, clamering and taking on as one out of witts. Before her good
sone could gitt downe to see what his mother ayled, I was out of reach
of his gun, and out of sight, making soe many crooked turnes in my
passage that they might not know where to follow mee.
Thus being at liberty again I made full account to bee at Bourdeaux
against the next morning. To which end I marched all the night, making
noe stay in any place, but in the morning when I thought my selfe to be
neere Bourdeaux, I perceived my selfe to bee two leagues directly
backward further from Bourdeaux, then I was in the evening before I made
myne escape. And finding my selfe in a wood through which I had passed
two dayes before, because it was an extraordinary thick misty night,
which was a meanes that I knew not how to deserne the east from the west
by moone or starrs whereby I might have directed my course according to
my intentions, the day being at hand I durst not venture to march
farther for feare of being discovered, but lodged my selfe in a greate
thicked of thornes, for I feared to be discovered in the wood. I lay
hiden till about two of the clock in the after noone some cattle came
neere mee, which following an ould over growne path for grasse, and
forcing through directly upon me, made me run forwards out of the
thicked, for I feared the boyes that kept the cattle would follow them
in the reare, and the thornes and bryars were soe thick and soe closely
growne togeather that it was impossible for mee to creepe through on
eather side. Soe being driven by these brute beasts out of the private
receptacle into a more perspicuus place, I fell presently into the vew
of some boyes that looked to the cattle, whereof some went presently to
make knowne that I was in the wood. Not long after the wood was besett,
and all the high wayes, by which unavoydably I was to pass whensoever I
should offer to gitt out from thence, were strongly gaurded by the
countrymen living thereabout.
Now I found myselfe as bad as taken againe; for though I could not be
easily found out and aprehended in the wood, by the many impassable
thicketts therein, yet could not I hide my selfe from hunger and cowld,
which were now my greatist enemyes following mee close whether soever I
went or turned my self. I went all the night from one end of the wood to
the other, trying all the passages round about, whether I might nott
make my way through any of them, butt the guards being soe stronge and
vigilant I wearied my self to noe purpose that whole night. In the
morning I retired myself into the thickest and most retired parte of
the wood, and continued there till evening, nott appearing to anybody
all that day, except some hounds which belong'd to the lord that lived
close to the wood side came hunting to mee, but having looked upon mee
with silence they went away. The night drawing on the gaurd about the
wood were sett as strong and as many as the night before, wherby I was
deprived of all hopes of escape; and seeing before mee in case I
continued in that condition any longer, nothing else but present and
unavoydable distruction both of health and life, because I had bin
without releefe both of meate and drinke now about the space of fowre
dayes, I thought it more expedient for mee to make myne escape by some
desperate meanes, though there were never soe little probability in
them, rather then to yeild my selfe to those of whom I could expect noe
comfort then what those cruell and most exquisit torments they had
prepared for mee accompaned with a most ignominous death would have
afforded mee. I resolved therefore to cut two bundles of bulrushes upon
which I could presume to swim over the river of Garrone which was about
two English myles from the wood. But before I came to the River I was to
pass through a greate moras about halfe a myle broad, running all along
close by the wood side, which side was not gaurded by the contrymen,
because the morast it selfe tho unknowne to mee was a sufficient gaurd
to keepe mee from running away. Thus I tooke two bundles of rushes, and
went into the said morast; which though it proved soe deepe and soe
dificult that I sunck to my midle in the quagmire, where I should have
bin past getting out againe if it had not bin for the bundles of
bulrushes which supported mee whilst I recoverd myselfe, yet could I not
be diverted from my resolution, till after I had wrought my selfe almost
through the midle of it, and soe was forced to returne from whence I
came.
Being come to the wood againe, wet to the midle and exhausted all my
strenght, I sate under a tree, examining and bewayling my mesirable and
hopeles condition. I counted my selfe reduced to that extreamity wherein
infallibly I should have perisht, being opressed with hunger within and
seeing the whole creation against me without, soe that in naturall
reason I could not see how or by what meanes I might have the least
hope, either for my restoration or for my present sustenance. I sent up
to heaven many earnist and importunate requests that the Lord would bee
pleased to shorten my mesiry or else to worke some meracle for my
dileverance and present releife. Now although I earnestly wished and
confidently expected my disolution, which I thought would have befalne
mee that night or sudenly after, in soe fainting a condition I was in
(for besides the failing of my strenght being hindred soe long from
sleep both by feare and cowld, I was not onely uncapable of my reason,
but alsoe careles and altogeather weary of my life), yet would I, I know
not by what naturall instinct, seeke to gitt some ease for my almost
senseles body, as long as occation would give way to it.
Knowing therefore that under the wood side at the end of the said morast
there stood a lord or gentlemans house which had some stabling about it,
I endeavored to repaire to one of the stables for some shelter, whereby
I might defend my selfe from the extreamity of the ayre, which was very
sharp then; and coming into the stables I went round about groaping and
feeling all along the wall for a private place to hide my selfe. At
length I met with a scaffold in the corner raised a foote and a half
from the ground, and climing upon the same I passed likewise along the
wall till I did tread with my foote upon a little bagg wrapped up in an
ould coate, the which after I had taken up and unwrapped I perceived to
be a bagg full of scrapps or crusts of bread as are used to bee gathered
of the table after meales, weiging some 4 or 5 pounds. This singular
providence of the Lord had such a reflection upon my body and sperritt,
as that whereas before I might have bin counted halfe dead, now I
received a new life againe. Now having gott both bread to sattisfie the
rage of my hunger for three or fowre dayes, and covering to defend my
selfe from the vehement cowld, I could not bee overjoyed of the sight of
this wonderfull mercy of God without which, in my conjecture, I was
absolutely to perish. This unexpected releife gave such comfort to my
drooping spirit as that I was confidently assured there by that the Lord
had thoughts of peace and not of distinction to mee, however hee
suffered mee to bee under the cloud of affliction at present, having
found such a booty. Taking away the said things theirfore I went with a
light hart to the wood againe, takeing along with me a burthen of straw
wrapped into the coate least by scattering of it I should be dogged out
againe; and when I had fetched another burthen of straw I lodged myselfe
in a private place in the wood, and pulling of my wett cloaths I wrapped
myselfe into the long coate I had found in the stable. In this manner I
made a poore shift to keepe my selfe from starving that night.
The next morning I imployed my tyme in drying my cloaths againe in the
sun, which did shine very bright all that day longe. The night
followeing I went againe round about the wood, trying the guards how I
might secretly slip by some of them, which I found to be very difficult,
till after midnight I percieved the watchmen of one post were asleepe,
or by reason of the cold altogether departed from their station, because
I heard none of them (for to be silent or stand still without acting
some apish tricks is an impossible thing for most men of that nation,
which often tended to my advantage to keepe me from falling into their
hands unawarrs in the darke); then I made bold to steale through, and
once more gott an inlargement of my restraint in which I had bin for
those 3 dayes.
Now I was free, and intended to hold my former course. I mistooke my way
againe, going too much west of Burdeaux, because of the cloudie ayre
which deprived mee of the sight of the moone and starres, soe that after
I had marched the quantity of 4 leagues, I was neverthelesse as farre as
I was the day before from Burdeaux. And as it hapned all alonge that all
my troubles were soe chaine-like linked together that the end of one
calamitie was alwayes the beginning of another, soe heere did providence
keepe the same method in exercising my patience with further
trialls[27]. For before daylight I fell in my march uppon a great
plaine-heath, which after itt was light I found to bee 4 or 5 miles
broad. Now when I was in the middle the day broake in uppon mee, wherby
I was exposed to the sight of all that mett mee; yett was I arrested by
none till I came over the plaine, then even as I was to leave the great
comon and entering into the inclosed feilds againe, my way fell thorough
a small village, wher as I passed through I saw two or three boores or
paisants standing in a doore. These men taking notice of my habit (the
discription wherof they had learned out of the hew and cry) called after
me, but I not mooved by their call kept on my pace till some of them
gott on horse back others following on foote they overtooke me before I
could hide myselfe in any convenient place. I ran for feare into a ditch
full of water, but they pulled me out from thence with great cruelty.
Having me thus at their mercy they tooke first all my money from me,
which was about eighty pistolls in gold besides what I had in silver
coyne. Suspecting that I had hidden some in the water out of which they
tooke me, setting their fowling peices often to my brest theirby to make
me confesse whether it were so or not, and when they could finde no more
money about me they fell to strip me of my cloaths, and takeing so much
as the shirt from my back they left me naked in the feilds as I came
into the world, telling me that naked I came and naked I must goe out of
the world againe. One of them presently putt on my worsted coate and
drawers, flinging away his owne drawers and wastcoate that were of thin
canvis ragged and torne. Another, which tooke away my hat, resigned unto
me his old bonit. Of these leavings I was forced to make use of to cover
my nakedness withall, though it was an habbit very unsutable for the
season, for their had beene a hard niping frost ever since my escape
from Pulliac, and continued so for two weeks together.
So parting one from another we went every one his way, they towards
their houses and I towards Burdeaux, though it had beene better for
those villands to have knocked me on the head then to have dismissed me,
for it was their duty to carry me according to order to the safe keeping
of the next magistrate, only for that they should not keepe all the
booty to themselves they let me goe whether I would without restraint.
Because I was now become a worme and no man, a scorne to all that saw
me, I thought that now no body would count me worthy of takeing,
theirfore I retourned to march openly by day. But the mallice of these
rogues that robbed me was such and so great that rather then I should
escape they would make an alarum (though it should be to their owne
hurt) by sounding the horn, wherby they tooke the alarum from one towne
to another, so that before I had martched a league hearing the alarum
behinde and before and round about me, I was forced to fall into the
bottom of a thick hedge to save myselfe from being taken againe. Their I
continued from nyne till two of the clock of the afternoone till the
cold and frost had so benumed all my members of my body that I was
uncapable of any motion, and noe more senceable of any greate and sharp
cold but onely inclyning to a fainting sleepe, soe that I was affraid if
in case I continued fowre howres longer there till I might march at
night againe, I should be past ever rising againe. Therefore when I saw
a plaine contry man not farr of from mee passing I made bold to call
him, with an intencion to promise him a good some of mony if he would
take me into his house, and keepe mee there private for fowre or five
weekes till I might git some letters of creditt from my frinds by way of
Bourdeaux. But when hee came to see mee even spechles by shaking and
quaking for cold, the owld man seeing my condition desired mee to come
home with him to his house, which was hard by in a little village
consisting not of above 12 houses. Having brought mee to his house hee
made mee presently a good fire to gitt life into my starved joynts
againe, and gave mee some bread and drinke such as his house afforded
for my refreshment.
Whilst I thus refreshed me by the fire side there came severall of the
neibours to looke upon mee in my comfortles condition, whereby some
conjecturing that I was the man conserning whom they had received the
hue and cry, presently sent for the Justice of the peace, which lived
not farr from thence. He came about five of the clocke to waite upon
mee, and was overjoyed that he had gott such a bird in his nett whose
feathers hee thought would be at least 1200 livers in his way. Having
variously discorsed with me and earnestly enquired in whose hands in
Bourdeaux I had the 1200 livers mentioned in the hue and cry, hee tooke
mee along with him into a larger house, where himselfe alsoe lying he
caused mee to bee kept by a gaurd of contrymen. The next morning,
because I could not give him a satisfactory answer to his demands
especially concerning the 1200 livers, hee sent a messenger to Bourdeaux
which was some 3 leagues from thence, for a confessor as he termed it to
bee there against the next morning for to begin the same processe againe
with mee as those at Bourdeaux and Puliack would have done, if God had
not prevented it. In the meane while the gentleman being willing to gitt
as much by my ruine as could bee went to consult with some of his frinds
that were there, how hee might gitt some of the monies that I had lost
the other day within his jurisdiction. Finding hee was not like to
compasse his ends, he began to carry himselfe more affable to mee then
before with all manner of faire promisses, namly that hee would helpe
mee to my cloathes againe and to halfe the mony which I had lost, if soe
be I could find out the men that robed mee or their houses. Wher upon,
though I was sufficiently convinced that onely his and not my profitt
was concern'd in the plott, yet being altogeather in his power, I could
not chuse but yeild myselfe to his desires, and promised to goe back the
same way I came the day before, and not returne before I had found out
the houses of those men that had robbed mee. Then he provided a gaurd
of fowre men with fowling peeces to goe along with me, and two greate
doggs with a little one which were to attend my returne, which would bee
in the night, least I should ever slip in the wood through which wee
were to march. And because my feete being very much spoyled by the frost
I indured before, I could make but small hast to follow my leaders, they
furnished mee with a lame horse, on which I might make some shift to
keepe pace with my gaurd, and yett not to run away from them neither.
In this equipage wee began our march about 2 of the clock in the
afternoone, and found the house wherein the robbers lived within an
howre and halfe after our departure. But before wee were come halfe the
way to them, least the theeves wee sought for should conceave any
suspition, and so absent themselves if from farr they should see mee
come in their companie, wee went into a farmers house that lived by the
way, and borrowing a long coate from him made of a thick white frize,
they put it about mee, therewith to disguise me. This pollisie of theirs
did exceedingly rejoyce mee, because it not onely conforted my naked
body for the present, but it spoke moreover to mee that the Lord thereby
was preparing new meanes for my deliverance, for by the helpe of this
coate I thought my selfe in a capacity to lye out of dores againe in the
field, which otherwise it was impossible for mee to doe for want of
cloathes. I began therefore to make provision for a new jorney by
filling my bosome with bread where and whensoever occation would serve
mee, for both in the farmers, and severall other houses they made my
gaurd (and me for my gaurds sake) wellcome, by setting alwaye a pott of
wine and a greate househould loafe before us, by which meanes I gott as
much bread as did serve mee two dayes after. At length when wee had
found the place where the robbers dwelt, three of my gaurds went into
the house and would not suffer mee to goe with them, but left mee in
another howse with one of the gaurd, giving to the people of the house a
strickt charge besides to looke to mee least I should make an escape.
Having dispatched their Masters arrand, and returned into the house
where they left mee, I asked them whether they would not helpe mee to my
cloathes againe according to their promisse. They replied that I should
find a man at home that would keepe me warm enough without cloathes,
meaning the hangman, which was sent for him from Burdeaux to be theire
against our retourne.
The night coming on a pace we prepared for a martch againe, and tooke
our leave from the house we were in. Comeing forth those of my guard
went two before and two behinde keepeing close to my horse heeles
because it was very darke. When we weere gott againe so far as the
farmers house where they borrowed my longe coate, they desired me to
restore the coate to the owners againe. In the meane while the farmer
himselfe came forth of the house entreating my guard to come into the
house, and being entered the men that gaurded me set themselves round
about a table while I was walking up and downe the roome with the
borrowed coate on my back still. And seeing by and by the attentions of
the men taken up with their cupps, and the doggs which were taken along
on purpose to observe my motion in the darke striving about the warmest
place in the chimney corner, I thought it to be the season for which I
had looked with great expectation ever since I gott the coate on my
backe. I made bold theirfore to step out of the roome with leasure as
though I had some private businesse to doe without, and assoone as I was
gotten out I pulled of the coate, and taking it under my arme I went in
hast to try once more my heeles, which though they weere lame before yet
now they were become as light as ever they were. I ran with all speed
towards the open plaine feild which was on one side of the house. I was
not gott halfe musket shott from the house before they came to looke for
me, and finding me to be gone, they called presently forth the doggs,
and sett them with a great and impetuous storme against the wood which
was on the other side of the house, suspecting that I had taken that
wood for my refuge rather then the open feilds. But I being gon the
cleane contrary way, and the doggs amazed and confounded with the
rageing cry of six or seaven men so that they could not take notice of
me as I ran on, the poore men lost their labours and I gott my libberty
by the assistance of God, together with a good warme coate to my back.
In the end of the game, to take all possible heed from falling into
their or any mans hands againe, I steered my coarse directly back
againe, to a wood which I knewe formerly being stripped not fair from
thence. There I intended to conceale my selfe, and not to goe from
thence till hunger should force mee, for I feared because of the
nessessity they knew that I was in, I must goe to Bourdeaux for releife,
that now they would raise for mee more then ever they did, but if it
were soe that I could be some where in secritt two or three dayes till
the heat of their fury against mee were some what cooled, then I
supposed their gaurds would bee either more careles, or altogeather
removed, that soe I might with more safety gitt throw to Bourdeaux by
night. And coming into the wood, I found in the same a Church with an
empty parson's house, and continued there, for the space of two dayes.
The first night I lodged my selfe in the oven for feare of any bodyes
coming into the house, for I knew not in the darke that I was soe far
from neighbours. But the next day when it was light, I chose for my
habitation a great come chest which stood upon leggs a foote and ½ high
from the ground, and was in all about seaven foote deepe, and there I
spent the rest of the time, as long as I stayed there, onely in the
night I went forth to squench my thurst, out of the trench that went
about the church yard. This was the best lodging that I had since I
leaped over the wall at Bourdeaux; for in the morning after I first came
in I found in a corner an owld sack full of wooll of about 15^{lb}.
weight, which being most in great fleeces was of singular use to mee in
supplying the want of cloathes, for I contryved to wrap my whole body to
the knees into itt, putting the wooll to my skin and tying my canvas
wastcoate and britches on the tope of it whereby I became as warme
although not soe fashonnably clad as ever I was.
The stoare of my provision being totaly exhausted, I was now
nessesitated to quitt this place, after I had sojorned there two dayes
and two nights. In the 3d night I undertooke to march againe towards
Bourdeaux, which was some 4 leagues from thence. Upon my march I found
the gaurds through the whole night to bee strickly kept in all the
villages, yet I made shift to pas them all by the healp of the great and
continuall noyse the watchmen continually made, which gave me allwayes
sufficient warning to goe by tims about, and soe avoyd the gaurds that
layd waite for me. Yett for all that I could not reach Bourdeaux
undiscovered, for when I came with in a league of the Citty, there was I
met in the morning about 4 of the clock in a plaine place (where two
wayes met) by a man that was one of the cheif of those that gaurded mee
when I made my last escape, and which was also the principall authour of
my borrowing my long coate. He desired mee to make hast to goe with him
to Bourdeaux, though hee had noe armes at all. At lenght his patience
being tired, and thincking infallibly I must come to Bourdeax for releif
both of meate and cloathes, hee went before, out of an intention to lay
waite for mee through others, either by the way or at the Cittie gatts.
Now I was againe possesed with a new fright, for to goe directly without
any delay into the Citty would bee my present mine, and to tarry without
in the feilds did threaten noe less, because I wanted both food and
rayment; yet counting it my best to make choyce of the lesser evill, I
resolved to keepe my selfe in the feild, soe long as I might bee able to
subsist without meate (for though I had lost my warme coate againe, yet
could I make some shift to endure the weather by reason of the wooll
where with my whole body was covered after the manner expressed). Soe
thinking it a greater happines to perrish by hunger and frost (if it had
soe pleased unto God) then to have yeilded my selfe to myne adversaryes
crueltys, I tooke up in this beleefe the bottome of an hedge for my bed
within an English myle from Bourdeaux and remained two dayes.
Again the 3^{d} day before it was light I drew neere to the towne into
the suburbs, to the end that I might with more expedition gitt to the
water side in the beginning of the next evening before it would bee toe
late; and having layin hidden in the ruines of an owld house all the day
long I went soe soone as it was darke, and came to the water side,
where the shippers are used to have their constant meetings. There I
first met with an Hollandish merchant of a shipe, unto whom I made
knowne my desire to goe along in his ship, engaging my selfe to pay unto
him the sum of 5000 livers for his reward, where and whensoever hee
should land without the kingdom of France. But this man, because I was
not able to speake plaine Hollandish without mixing some English amongst
it, tould me that I was an English rogue, and hee would rather bee a
meanes to helpe me to the gallowes then to carry mee in his ship. Thus
taking my answer from this inhuman Hollander I went to another man that
was master's mate of a great Lubeckish ship, which was ready to sett
sayle the next day. This Lubecker having received my complaints was
mooved with compacion, and tooke mee on board, where both hee and all
the men of the ship expressed greate love to mee, and put mee into
another habitt againe with ould cloathes, furnishing mee among
themselves with dublitt, britches, long coate and other nessisaryes, soe
that I looked now like a rationall man againe, whereas in my former
habitt I seemed to bee a distracted person. As for passage they doubted
not but they should prevaile with the master of the ship who did lye one
shoare that night, but came the next morning on shipboard, in the meane
time they entertayned mee with the best accomodation they had.
Being thus tenderly entertayned that night, when I wakened the next
morning, I found my feete in which I had felt noe warmnes many dayes
before, soe much swelled, and soe full of paine, after this warme
lodging, that I was not able to stand upright without greate greefe, nor
to abide my shoes upon them. Now as soone as the master came, all the
men in the shipp made intercession for mee to gitt his consent for my
passage, and my selfe promised him as much as I did the Hollander for my
transportation before mentioned; but he being of a dogged surly
disposition would give no eare to my complaints nor take to hart my
woefull mesery, pleading for the safety of his ship and goods, which by
my being their would be exposed to the danger of confiscation, in case
said he that I weere found theirin by the searchers. Yet he said if so
be that I could get so far as Blaye, and shew myselfe their on the shore
side, his men should fetch me into the ship after it had beene searched,
and so I might then goe along with him to Lubeck. Here my sorrowes were
multeplyed againe in an unspeakable manner, because as all my former
endeavours even so this project which I had taken for my last refuge was
fruitllesse. As much as my hart was refreshed the day before, when
getting on ship board I came from dispaire to some hopes of a
deliverance, so much and farr more was I now dejected, being reduced
from hope to dispaire againe. For although the maister of the ship made
some promisse to take me along with him if I could get to Blay, yet
being altogether deprived of the present use of my feet, I could not
conceive any hopes to gett thither and so to enjoy the comfort of his
promisse neither. This desperate condition of myne gave so sad a
spectacle to beholders in the ship that it fetched teares from their
eyes when they saw me tourned into the boate againe, for they looked
upon me as one that was going to a wofull and miserable end.
Now when I was carryed on the shore againe the men in the ship, who was
much greived with the maisters obstanacy, made a collection among
themselves, and fournished my pocket with a French crowne in money, and
giving me five or six dayes provision of bisket and pootered beefe they
landed me on the other side of the river, with an earnest expectation
that I should strive to the utmost of my power to get to Blaye, which
was eight leagues from thence, and their they would watch for my coming
to fetch me on ship board.
Being set on shoare about two of the clock in the afternoon, I did force
myselfe to march, though my feet raged as if they had beene full of
needles, and every step I sett was like a knife run through my heart,
yet to strive for my life I would hazzard the losse of my feete, and
have endured the greatest paine in going to Blaye then to fall into the
hands of mine enimyes againe. Thus I marched in great paine all that day
and the night following, without any obstruction because I was unknowne
of that side of the water. The next morning about tenn of the clock I
was met with a younge ougly looking country fellow, who hearing by my
tongue that I was a stranger, bore me company, till he met two men of
his aquaintance, then he together with them fell upon me, and tooke the
crowne from me, and most part of the bisket which the seamen in the ship
had bestowed on me, pretending that I was a spy left behind by the
Spanish fleet which was lately in the river, and so my cloaths being not
worth the taking they lett me goe. But within halfe an houre after upon
better consideration they made an alarum after me by sounding the horne,
which was presently taken round about, wherby I became subject to as
much persecution as I had beene on the other side of the water, for
although I had other habit yet did all the country take me for the man
that was discribed in the hue and cry the two weeks before, seing that
all that came to speake with me reviled me for an English trator. The
alarum was so great that the troopers which quartered their abouts went
the rounds on the high wayes till evening, and at night the countrymen
kept their guards as strictlie as those did on the other side of the
water.
Heere I was cast into a new despaire againe, for besides that I had lost
all hopes of getting to Blay, by reason that my feete were nott onely
very much swelled by the frost after the manner aforsaid, butt my soales
were alsoe blistred that I was now disabled for going any more, there
was moreover this block cast in my way, that I was now described and
besett with guards in a waterish and inhedged country, and had yett a
great river betweene mee and Blay to passe over, where without all doubt
I was laide waite for in case I had bin able to goe further. Being by
these meanes forced to desist from my resolution to meete the shippe att
Blay, I fell into an hedge to hide mee from the rage of the countrymen
and troopers which did every where attend mee. There I lay in a
deplorable condition, sorely oppressed with greif both of body and
minde; my feete full of raging paine were noe more able to carry mee,
myne heart broke within mee with the conceit that alwayes my later
calamities proved more desperate then the former, and the more that I
strove to gett out of my misery that still the more I should sinke the
deeper into the same. Hence I could nott butt fall into these thoughts,
that the Lord had utterly rejected mee, that hee would bee favourable
noe more, seing hee had sett mee as a marke into the which hee would
shoote all his arrowes of anger; for when I looked for a time of healing
behold my troubles increased, having bin frustrated in this attempt
which I tooke for the last remedy of myne evill, I gave it for lost in
regard I was now altogether disabled to make any further escape as I was
formerly wont to doe when I was taken. In so hopeless a condition I
spent my tyme under the said hedge that day and the night following,
making an end of my provision that the robbers had left me.
The next day continuing still in the same place, because I was not able
to goe nor knew I whether to goe, the hedge wherin I lay being very
thin, I was discovered by some boyes that kept sheep (about two of the
clock in the afternoone) their abouts, who as soone as they had seene me
ran to the villadge hard by to give notice of my being their. Wher upon
seing myselfe discovered, though before I was not able to stand on my
feet, yet did feare so far overcome me that to shun any danger as long
as possible I could make any shift to crawle a little way from thence to
hide myself in a securer place. But as I was gott a quarter of a myle
from the place where I lay in, it began to raine very hard; so seing a
great house not far of I had a desire to try whether I could finde same
shelter about the same, and coming neare it I entered into a stable one
of whose doores was opened towards the feild the other into a court
before the house. This stable being large was accomodated not only for
cattell on the one side but also for all manner of other uses, for I
found theirin a winepresse round about, their was also laid some cart
loads of faggotts of greene furrs betweene which and the presse I did
hide my selfe thinking it a great happinesse to be out of the cold winde
and raine into a dry place wherby I hoped to have a warme nights
lodging. Perceiving but little company about the house, when I came
first into the stable I lay their with great confidence, not suspecting
any body knew of my being their, yet before I had beene their halfe an
houre, the good man of the house with two of his servants came home from
the feild and received information conserning me of his son, a little
boy of some 13 or 14 yeares old, who see my coming into the stable and
watched me ever since then, wherby he knew that I was not come forth
againe. Here upon great and small come into the stable rejoyceing for to
have gotten the theife for whose sake all the townes and villages
theirabouts had been fame to keepe guard all the night past, and being
assured that I could have no other hiding place but under the furrs they
sent for two longe hay forkes to remoove them all to come att me. I, in
the meane tyme full of terror and trembling as soone as I perceived that
I was discovered, forced myselfe under the winepress which was joyned to
one side of the wall, the bed their of lay on two peices of timbre which
being some five foot one from another were no thicker then my body so
that with hard shift I could worke betwixt the bed and the ground upon
my belly to the wall. Being crept under it as farr as I could, I tooke
an old peece of wood which accidentally lay their and left it with other
small sticks in the outside under the bed theirby to prevent in them all
suspicion of my being under the presse. Now when they had remooved all
the furrs and come to the full sight of the bed of the winepress they
tooke it for granted that I could not be their, because the hollownesse
between the ground and the bed was so flat in their apprehentions that
they judged it altogether uncapable of receiving a man, theirfore they
only ran the forke into the peice of wood which I had laid out of the
mouth of the hollow, and having tourned the same they made no further
scruple of that place, but were taken with great wonder and amazment,
being confident I had beene seene going into the stable and not coming
out againe, or if I was gott out it was not by naturall meanes but by
witchcraft. Nevertheless suspecting that perhaps he might be mistaken in
watching my coming forth either into the feild or into the court (though
both the doors of the stable were so placed that from one station he
could looke them both) because it was now darke, and their were more
stables and a great deale of timber in the court where I might hide
myselfe in case I were got out of the stable, the maister of the house
sett his two men to watch in the court all the night over till the next
morning that they might make a more exact search for me.
The two watchmen walked the round in the court all the fore part of the
night, while in the meane tyme about eleaven of the clock, being weary
to lye longer in so cumbersome a posture, I gott forth from underneath
the winepress, where I had lyen now about nyne houres flatt on my belly
till all my joynts felt like dead, because being pressed close to the
ground I had no roome to turne myselfe nor to make any motion with my
body. Being gott out of this straite lodging I sheltered myselfe
betweene the cattle that stood on one side of the stable observing the
motion of the said watchmen, which having borne the labour of the day
and now walked till now about midnight began to longe for some rest,
because they could not perceive all that tyme the least signe of my
being their abouts. They blamed the boy for making such trouble with his
groundless fancies and came into the stable where I was, laying
themselves downe to sleepe hard by the doore that went into the court,
and after they had a little reasoned that I could not breake open the
doore about the court without making a great noyse they went boldly to
sleepe while I heartely prayed for their good rest. As soone as I judged
them to be fast a sleepe I passed by them into the court where I found
all the doors locked and the walls so high that by no meanes I could
gett over them. I walked an houre up and downe devising by what shift I
might get out into the feilds, at length finding no other meanes to
escape I pitched upon a doore which went into a vineyard joyning to the
house, and seeing this doore went not close to the threshold upon the
ground but lacked so much of his full length as that I could put my fist
under it, I tooke a small peice of a tree and lifted the said doore from
the hinges and after I had loosened it, being both in feare and hast, I
could not prevent the falling of it to the ground, wherby presently the
whole house tooke an alarum, but I having now before me a great hole to
get out by would make no stay to looke for the issue of that alarum but
ran a pace till I gott without the bounds of that vineyard.
Thus in the midst of my greatest trouble I received comfort againe,
though it was but such as in relation to a better condition was
comparable to dispare it selfe, for although I had drawne my foot out of
the snare yet knew not where to fix my biding but must of necessity fall
into another againe. I was become like a ship that upon a tempestuous
sea hath lost his rudder and sailes and can no more be guided by the
discretion of the steersman to any harbour of safty, but left to the
mercyless waves to be overtourned and swallowed up in the deepe, to be
cast upon the rocks of despaire. Even so was I at this instant deprived
of all hope and counsell to direct my course either to the right or left
for safety, seing nothing but signes of unavoidable destruction round
about me.
Being thus at liberty againe to seeke another hiding place I walked or
rather crawled upon my pittifull feet out of one feild into another, not
knowing nor careing which way I went, till againest day I lit on another
barne which stood by itself about a stones cast from the dwelling house.
Coming to this barne I found a little haystack piled up against a wall
the which, the weather being very ill, was a great invitation to me to
take up my lodging on the top of it, perswadeing my selfe that no body
would suspect or seeke me theire. In this confidence I made shift to get
to the top of it, and having prepared me a place wherin I might lye both
secret and warme I fell presently a sleepe, not wakeing till about nyne
of the clock. Being wakened I saw two country fellows at the barne doore
standing on purpose to watch least I should get away before those came
for whom they had sent to aprehend me. Here the comfort my last nights
escape had gotten in me was tourned into dispaire againe, although I
knew not by what meanes or after what manner I had beene discovered so
soone, only I ghesed that either some body had seene me goe into the
barne, or else the servants when they came to feed a couple of oxen
which stood in a pertition made in the corner of the barne had heard me
make some noyse in my hard sleepe. How ever it came these same fellows
thought themselves very sure of me, mocking and jearing with my
pittifull condition, and demanding of me why I would rather come to be
taken in their barne then their neighbours house which was but halfe a
mile from thence. I had bewitched their neighbours eyes, but I should
not bewitch theirs. With such and the like jeasts they passed their tyme
till the good wife of the house called them to dinner; then they went to
the dwelling house, and fetched their meat, with an intent to dine
without the doore that so they might both eate and have an eye to the
prisoner.
As soone as they were gone I raised myselfe from my couch and perceiving
in the little pertition where the oxen stood that their was a hole
broken in the wall some nyne foot from the ground for to let the light
in I hasted downe from the stack and went into the said stable and
making meanes by a long beame to get up to the hole, after I had looked
out of it, I found that it would be very narrowly overlooked by them
that stood in the doore of the dwelling house. Yet because the watchmen
that were at dinner saw a little more to that side of the doore where
they could not give so good attendance to the hole as to the barne
doore, I retourned to creep out and fell into a thicket of briers which
were under the hole, and on that side of the barne. Being gotten to the
ground I crept in the bottom of these bryers till I came at the back of
the barne, then could I goe whether I would without disturbing the
watchmen, being at their dinner. Now because it was daylight I durst not
venture far to seeke a hiding place for feare of being betrayed againe,
I was constrained to fall into a ditch under a thick hedge near the high
way that came from Burdeaux. I had not lien long their before the alarum
conserning me was made as fresh as ever it was. The troopers went too
and fro upon the high wayes, and all the travillers that passed by me
made me the cheife subject of their discourse, giving to my hearing
(because I laid on the way side) their severall judgments upon me, one
counting me a crafty fellow, another tooke me for a witch by reason that
I had beene so oft in hold and yet escaped as oft again beyond their
expectations that had me in coustody.
All these things that I heard and saw could promisse nothing else but a
finall ruine to me, neither could I since I was disapointed in my
journey to Blaye think upon any way more wherby I might conceive any
hopes of life; yet as every day brought forth new troubles, so new
troubles led me upon new devices, new devices gave me new experiences
of the wonderfull mercyes of God. Even so while I lay in the bottom of
the hedge struggleing for life, I began to have new consultations
againe; though I had hitherto beene frustrated in all my attempts, as
longe as I enjoyed breath I thought it my duty to nature to thinke upon
others. However the latter project semed to be more desperate then the
former. I resolved theirfore to retourne to Bourdeaux againe being no
further then three leagues from thence, and to apply myselfe to some
Hambrough marchants, thinking if the Lord would yet looke upon my
afflictions that he was able to incline their harts towards me, and make
them instruments of my recovery, and keepe me also out of the hands of
my enimyes which lived their, but if he intended to bring me to a wofull
end in this world I counted it as expedient for me to submit to his good
pleasure their, as in the country where not the least hope of life did
appeare to me.
To prosecute this resolution, as soone as it was darke I laboured to get
forward to Burdeaux with as much speed as I could. Finding the guards
very vigilant in all villages I made shift to pass by them with going
about where occation served, but as I came to an open market towne
within two leagues of Burdaux I met with a small river at the hither
end of the towne. Because of the low waterish grounds and deepe ditches
and thick hedges, this place was so barrocaded up with carts and ladders
and through all the night so strongly guarded that by no means it was
possible for me to get through or by it, although I spent all the whole
night in trying all manner of wayes to gett by. Against morning I went a
little back to hide myselfe in a great empty barne which stood aloane in
an inclosed feild, in hope that it would not be frequented much by day
by any people, because their was nothing in it but some rotten and
decayed straw under which I lay hid. Their I took my rest undiscovered
till about one of the clock, their came halfe a dozen children which in
their play running up and downe a top of the straw came to tread upon me
as I lay in my sleep. Herby they presently discovered me, saying that I
was the theife for whom they had watched all the last night, they would
goe to tell their fathers of my being theire. And so they being gon
their way I thought it not safe for me to stay their till the
inhabitants should come to take me with delibration, theirfore I went
forth to seeke another hiding place, but could finde none ready to my
hand, because of the ditches under the hedges were brim full of water.
In the meane while I came accidentally to see the barrecado which the
townes men had made the night before for my sake to be without any guard
(for they thought I durst not march by day in view of the people--they
kept only guard in the night tyme) I resolved to make use of this
opportunity, and to venture through the towne at noone day. Thus
comitting myselfe to the Lord I marched with confidence through the
towne whilest the people theirin least expecting my coming, because it
was about dinner tyme I did not meet many on the streets, divers men
looking over the doores, and seeing me goe fistling as though I heard
nothing, knew not what to make of me. I went in a poore seamens habbitt,
yet by that tyme I was gott through the other end of the towne they
bethought themselves better, and suspected that I was he for whose sake
they watched the last night, calling after me and desiring me to tarry,
and I refused to hearken to their call, they cryed aloud their was the
traytor we looked for the last night. But before they could be ready to
come or send after me, I being now got through the towne went backward
behind the middle of the towne, where I did hide myselfe againe whilest
some of the townes men pursued me in the way to Burdeaux.
I continued my march the next night carrying nevertheless about me and
before me the alarum all the night longe till I came to the river side,
only now being in a dry country I could shunne at pleasure all their
guards by goeing about, receiving always sufficient warning by the
singing and clamouring they used where they were. The morning following
I gott to the river side some two English miles before Burdeaux, taking
up my quarters on the bottom of a steep hill overgrowne with small wood
on purpose to overlooke all the conveniences how I might get privately
in the evening tyme into the Citty, their to put my last project in
practice. And when it was broad day light that I could see all about the
sittuation of the towne and river I found myselfe in another mistake,
wherby all my hopes were dashed with one blow as it were to peeces; for
I was perswaded all this while that their was a bridge extant over the
river into the Citty, over which I intended to have pased in the duske
of the evening when no body would have taken notice of me, but now I was
come neer the Citty I found no such thing, and counted myselfe to be in
as great a strait as ever I was, for to desire passage over the water of
any waterman I durst not venture, unlesse I would be carried by him
directly into the hands of myne enimyes againe, neither had I any money
to pay for my passage, and to be transported for charrity I could not
expect from any in that country. I was now as neare if not neerer to
despaire as the Israelites were at the Red Sea, being persecuted by
innumerable enimyes that were round about, and sorely oppressed with
hunger within, besides the pittifull condition of my feet. I gave over
all hope of life, unlesse the Lord would work further mirracles for my
deliverance as he had done formerly.
In this comfortlesse condition I kept my lodging upon the hill till
night, then I went downe into the plaine which was all along the river
side, to see whether I could get a peece of bread by begging in the
darke (for I had beene now foure dayes without) thinking that no body
would be ready to apprehend me if I fell not upon a guard. And as I came
to a house, asking but in vaine for a peece of bread for God's sake, I
perceived that they were making fire into a baking oven standing in an
out house in the garden which together with the house was incompased
with a deepe moate round about. This same sight caused me to looke to
the oven while the bread was bakeing, to that end I got into the next
vineyard and made passage into the said garden with a bundle of sticks
which lay in that vineyard, filling the moate with them being ready to
my hand. Being by this meanes gott into the garden I watched with great
longing till the bread was put into the oven, and when it had an hours
baking I made bold to step to the oven, and tooke the iron shutter downe
wherwith the mouth was stopped rearing it against the wall upon some
cloggs of wood; then I reached forth a loafe with the bread shovill, but
having got it to the mouth of the oven the iron shutter fell downe and
made a very great noyse, which so frighted me that I let the shovill
fall and run for my life. The man of the house came presently running
towards the oven, but I was gone before he could see me, and so my
designe to get bread came to nothing. Afterwards I walked about all the
night, out of one vineyeard into another on the water side, studdying
how I might get over the water. At length my deliberations came to this
result, that I intended to seek a boat some where on the river side,
wherin I might endeavour to put myselfe over the river by stealth in the
night tyme, though it semed very difficult to me, both for breadth of
the river and for the luggish and unweildiness of the boates which were
their abouts, for I could find no less then such as would carry at least
three horses at one tyme, which could not be guided by one man and
without a rudder too. Yet necessity compelling me to make use of such
occasions as I could get, I was fully resolved to prosecute this
conclusion, only as the tyde fell out I could not put it into practice
before two or three dayes were past when I might have a flowing water
about ten or eleven of the clock at night.
The maine question now in debate with me was how I should subsist so
many dayes longer without bread, for having fasted already foure dayes I
was now theirby, as also by former hardship, brought so low that to my
thinking I could not be able to goe another day. But the determination
of that query was so far above the reach of my reason that I could not
contribute the least thought towards it. Theirfore I did cast myselfe
wholy upon the Lord's providence and went against daybreake to my former
lodging upon the hill againe, the lower ground next to the river not
yeilding me as yet any convenient hiding place by reason of the watery
ditches under the hedges. Their I sat and had a faire prospect which was
very fitt to overlook the country, but not the end of my mesery. Because
it was Sunday I beheld all the inhabitants merry and joviall below,
while I was ready to faint for hunger and greife above. No earthly thing
had place in my thoughts but bread, bread, great store of which was not
far from me but to come by very hard for me. About tenn of the clock I
saw both men and women to flock very thick to the Church which was neare
an English mile from thence, the which sight gave me occation to think
that whilest the most part of men were at masse I might goe downe
without any great danger, and try the charrity of the maids and women
that were left at home to looke to the houses, if perhaps they would
take pitty on me and succour me with a peece of bread. And when I came
downe I came from one house to another to beg for releife, useing all
the arguments of perswation as ever any begger in the world did, yet
could not stir the least compassion in any of them what pittifull
expressions soever I made to them, but instead of an almes they bestowed
so many heavy curses and ill wishes upon me. Whereat neverthelesse I was
not daunted, but hunger helping me to beare all reproaches I continued
to solicite though to no purpose one house after another, till at the
length I came at a house where no body was at home, but were all at the
masse. Wherupon to try all manner of conclutions for my releife I made
bold to climbe into the window, not fearing any neighbours because all
the houses stood by themselves a great way asunder, and seing the
chimney to have some live coales in it, I doubted not but the cubbard
would also afford some bread. I broke open the window and went into the
house streight way to the cubbard, not minding anything else in the
house. Having opened the cubbard I found nothing else then a loafe of a
peck of houshold bread one quarter wherof was eaten, I borrowed the
rest, together with a pipkin full of fatt gathered both of boyled and
roaste meate holding about a pinte. Having performed what I came in for
I went out at the window againe, and being by that meanes provided by
the spetiall providence of God and theirby enabled to subsist for some
dayes till the tide would fall out later to carry on my designes to get
over the water by night.
I went now to consider of a place where I might spend this prey in rest
and safty, and knowing that all the sittuation theirabouts would not
aford me a better accomodation then the presse house joyned to the same
dwelling house where I borrowed the loafe, both being under one roofe
only distinguished by a partition wall in the midle, I went into the
same, in hopes that the people of the house when they came home would
not once suppose me to have tarried so neare the place wher I had
comitted such a fact, but that they would rather perswade themselves
that I was gon further to conceale my actions. This presse house was
very full of lumber, and their was amongst the rest a great coupe or fat
about nyne foot high and seaven foot wide. I liked this coupe so well
that I made use of it for my lodging as long as I should stay on this
side of the water, supposeing that their I should lye in no bodys way to
be discovered, because no body could get neither in nor out of the same
without a ladder. But having first made provision how to get in and out
by meanes of a long rope and longe notched peece of wood reared up
within the tubb, went into the same and fell to feed upon such cheare as
God had sent me, giving God praise both for this seasonable releife and
for so necessary and convenient lodging prepared for me, for I estemed
myselfe now to want nothing having meate within the fatt with me, and
their lay four hogsheads of small wine or burick (made with water
wherwith the grapes are washed after they are pressed over againe) in a
room which was instead of a seller under the dwelling house, but the
dore of it came into the press house. Their as often as I was dry and
nobody in the way I went to drinke my fill with a reed out of the
bung-hole opened with an iron naile which I continually carryed about
me.
I had not beene longe in the fatt before my landlord came home, who
with all the rest of his houshold was much amazed at the honesty, yet at
the boldness of the theife was offended, because he had offered to
breake open nothing but the cubbard, and carryed away nothing but the
bread, and the fat driping. When he made his complaints to his
neighbours of his ill fortune, they told him that I had been begging at
their doores, and that I was not come back againe that wayes, but if he
would finde me out he must goe forewards his house. Borrowing in the
meane tyme another loafe he went to dinner with his family which
consisted of two men besides himselfe and two women. After diner they
went all up and downe to inquire whether I had bent my course. One of
the men being wiser then the rest my foot prints were easily diserned
from other folks who all both great and small made use of wooden shooes
which having no high heeles make farre another print then other shooes
doe, and doeing after this manner they found indeed I was come into the
house, but that I was neither retourned nor gon beyond the house, so
they concluded that infallably I must be still in the presse-house
hidden under the lumber that was theirin. They began theirfore to remove
with great confidence all the lumber and empty caskes that was in the
presse house, which was so tedious a worke that it kept them busy from
two of clock till darke night, having not the least conjecture all this
while of the great fatt wherin I lay fearing and trembleing, because
they were sure that without a ladder I could not get out nor into the
same. Thus having wearyed themselves with searching for me in vaine till
evening they gave over searching, and I kept quiet possession of my tub
till Wedensday in the morning.
I came forth somtymes for drinke and motion of my body, especially in
the night tyme, but when the Lord intended to let me see another
experiment of his power and love towards me, he let it come to passe
that on Weddensday in the morning about day break I fell as I was in my
sleepe into a violent coughing, caused by some humors falling into my
throat, of which though it were for my life I was not able to refrain
myselfe, so that those that were in the dwelling house came theirby to
heare distincly wher I was and had beene ever since Sunday noon; for the
great tubb made such an eccho, that they presently called to me out of
the window of the dwelling house that looked into the pressehouse
congratulating and jearing me with my strangly conceited lodging.
Theirupon the good man of the house sent imediatly his two men to guard
the doore of the presshouse, and himselfe when it was breake of day
went to advise with his neighbours how to send to their Justice of peace
to give notice of my condition.
Now my hopes began again to faile, being falne into the hands of those
who in regard of their owne wrong they had received from me would use
their uttmost endeavours to look more narrowly to my coustody then ever
any did before, yet considering how the Lord had owned me hithertoo with
so many wonderfull deliverances I would not cast away all courage, what
grounds of dispaire soever came into my way, but perswaded myselfe
confidently that he would not have wrought so many wonderfull evasions
heretofore if he intended to destroy me in the end. Theirfore I doubted
not but that the Lord would finde some way to deliver me even from these
present feares, though the manner how was hidden from mine eyes till
noon. For then it came to passe that the watchmen which otherwise stood
constantly at the doore of the press-house had their dinner brought
them, for the eating of which they seated themselves on the ground some
what to the left hand of the doore, so that I had liberty to creep out
of the great fatt without their sight, and to passe by the doore without
their sight into the roome where the foure hogsheads of beverick before
mentioned were. Now having heretofore observed the structure of the
house, and knowing their were a paire of stairs built after the Scotch
fashon without the maine wall by which they went up into the dwelling
roome, and that underneath the staires their was a concavity fitted for
a hogstye into the which their was made a hole through the maine wall
out of the roome where the drinke lay, I went whilest the watchmen
minded their dinner to creepe through that hole, and being with much
pains (because it was both little and high from the ground) gott through
I laid close in the said hogstye till evening; not dareing to stir forth
because of the watchmen standing at the presshouse which was hard by the
front of the stairs, the doore of the hogsty being on the backe of the
same. After the watchmen had dined they went to their station againe in
the press-house, fastening the doore, and sett themselves on jeering and
mocking the theife in the tubb, not knowing the change of my quarters.
Againe evening when it became dark they drew themselves to a place not
far from the tubb. Their they made themselves merry with useing all
manner of idle talke to me as they thought in the tubb, desiring me to
content my selfe with my lodging one night longer and I should be
releived the next morning betymes. It being quite darke I went out of
the hogstye, where I had lyen since one of the clock in great feare,
because their went a foot path close by me on which much people used to
walke, and could as they came along fully see me in the hogstye, which
had no corner to hide me in but was only a square hole capable to
receive one hogg. But by providence it began to raine very hard soon
after I was got into it, and continued so till ten of the clock at
night, by reason wherof they that went by had either their faces covered
or were faine to look to their feet to keep themselves from slipping.
Then I made for the water side to looke for the boate that I had made
choyse of on Saturday night before, and having found it I ventured about
ten of the clock to goe over in it, giving myselfe to the streame which
of itselfe carried me upwards being some two miles below Burdeaux, and
with a strick wrought to make way to cross the River which their abouts
was neare an English mile broad, and by these meanes I arived safely on
the Chartrux in Burdeaux about twelve of the clock at night, discharging
the boate after my arivall by comitting it to the care of the streame
againe. Being landed I went to hide myselfe and take up my rest in the
ruins of an house in the subbearbs on the other side of the towne. In
the morning as soon as it was light I retourned to the Charterux to
inquire for some Hambrough marchants, and having found two of them
living in one house, I declared to them my straits that I was in,
desiring them in charrity to assist and helpe me till I could get
releife by letters of credit from my freinds. I durst not aquaint them
with the grounds and circumstances of my mesery upon what account I had
beene persecuted (for then they would have beene affraid to medle with
me), only I told them that I was coming with other company from Rochell
and I fell sick, wherby I was forced to stay behind for two or three
dayes, and being recovered I came along with a guide, and being halfe
the way betweene Rochell and Burdeaux I was set upon by three robbers
who tooke all that I had from me, stripping me also of my cloaths. These
gentlemen gave some credit to my complaint with much to doe, being
neverthelesse full of doubts whether or no I was not an imposture or
vagabond run away from the Spanish or French army, yet could they not
altogether withdraw their comiserations from my pittifull complaints,
especially hearing of mine acquaintance with severall men of credit in
Hambrough. Theirfore as the credit which they gave to my relation was
mixed with doubts so they recomended me to a poore drinking house, where
upon their word I had some poore entertainment mixed with sorrow. It was
such as came short of that I had in the tub before I was discovered,
only it served very narrowly to keepe body and soule together till I
gott other releife. Very loathsom and musty bread, or livers, sheep and
hoggs lights, were my best faire on flesh dayes. On fasting dayes
(videl:) Frydayes and Saturdayes I was glad to be contented with sopps
made of the said bread scalded with water and greased over with stinking
oyle.
And with all this I should have beene contented and have counted myselfe
happye might I but have enjoyed withall a kinde looke of my landlady
once a weeke, but she was such an inveterate and malicious woman,
desended as I thought of an infernall progenety, as that I never knew
the like of her. Her humour was such that she would maunder all the
weeke like a cursed dog, and if a straw crossed her the whole house
trembled at her indignation, none, not the goodman of the house himselfe
dareing to come into her presence till her fury was spent; and when she
wanted other matter of scolding my poverty was the maine subject of her
malice, because she perceived the recomendation of my freinds (the
marchants that brought me thither) to proceed from a coole affection she
respected me no better then a begger that is maintained for God's sake,
upbraiding me dayly with the poore entertainment she gave me, and
threatening oft to tourne me out of doores. So impetuous and formidable
was the carriage of this Proserpina, and made me so tame and so
aplicable that upon her command I served her for a scullion boy in all
occations, waiting upon the ghests that came to drink their to carry
their potts to the celler, and performing all manner of servile duties
all the tyme of my being their. She made me tourne the spitt, the which
preferment indeed was more agreable to my present habbit then my
stomack, nor did the action itself so much greive me as the conceit to
think I should not eat of the roast meat but take only the smell for my
paines. In this practise I continued almost a moneth, keeping constantly
within doores both for shame of my poore habbit and for feare of myne
enimies, till I got releife by a bill of Exchange from my freinds. Then
I changed my lodging, and put my selfe into another habbit againe.
I prepared for a journey to retourne by land to Roan, by the way of
Paris. Now because I had beene so frighted with that nation I feared my
journey would proove but uncomfortable to me if I should travaile
without aquaintance, I made choyce of a younge man whom I had learned to
know in my poore lodging but lately mentioned. This young man was borne
and had his parents in Roan, but had beene for many yeares in the Low
Countryes, by reason wherof he spoke good Dutch; he had beene lately
taken by an English vessell and set on shoare near the River of Garrone.
Having understood his desire to be at Rouen I promissed to beare his
charges if he would goe along with me; he was much pleased with this
offer of mine only he desired to take the consent of some of his
friends. Now this young man beyond my expectation had a kinsman in
Bourdeaux who was a familiar friend and daly aquaintance of one that was
among the number of my principall adversaries liveing in the Citty. Both
the kinsman of my chosen companion and my adversary spoke very good
English, for they had lived a longe tyme in England, and when the said
yonge man had asked his kinsman's advice about my proffers made to him,
the kinsman was very inquisitive to know my name and my condition; then
having obtained both and theirupon conferred with myne adversary, they
came to finde that I was the man which was upon the stage eight weeks
agoe (when I applyed myselfe to the Hambrough marchants their lay a
great necessity upon me to keepe the same name by which I was
persecuted, or else I could not have sent letters of credit in another
name) then they went to contrive after what manner they might renew my
troubles againe. Now what the reason was they did not areast me
presently before I went from Burdeaux I know not, only besides the
pertickular providence of God. I think it was either for feare that the
English marchants living in Burdeaux with whom they had much dealings,
would take notice of their mallice to the English nation, or else
knowing that I intended to goe to Rochell they judged it more convenient
that I should be accused and tryed where the other of my persecutors
were, especially the first and cheife author of my mesery being of that
number. They gave instruction to my comrade how he should betray me at
Rochell to the said persecutors of mine which then would take further
care of myne accusation.
In the meane tyme I was altogether ignorant of these new plotts, not
having the least suspission of my comrade that he would have played the
traytor with me till I came to Roan in Normandie. But the Lord who had
saved me out of all former troubles would anihilate even this device
against me. For when on the 16^{th} day of January I departed from
Bourdeaux with my traytor, goeing by the water so farr as Blaye we
lodged their that night, having another gentleman from Tours bound to
goe the same way with or in our company. The next morning[28] before we
sett forth we met their accidentally with three horses and a guide which
were to retourne to Poicters. This oppertunity happened very comodiously
for our tourne, seing that I and the other gentleman might gaine a days
journey in the shortness of the way to Paris, for that the gentleman
from Tours and I made choice to goe by the way of Rochell was only for
want of occation to goe the nearest way to Paris. Theirfore I and the
said gentleman, being glad of such an ocasion to shorten our journey,
compounded with the messenger from Rochell with whom we had contracted
at Bourdeaux for our passage to Rochell, giving him halfe fright rather
then to loose a dayes journey. My tretcherous companion, having laboured
as much as he could to hinder our purpose to goe by the way of Poicters,
was much discontented that by this meanes he lost all hopes of coming to
Rochell their to discharge himselfe of his dutye he owed to his cousin,
yet that he might not be wanting in any thing that he might reward me
with an ill tourne for all my kindnesse to him all the way through
France, he sent presently a letter from Blay to his cousin in Bourdeaux
to give him notice that we were not like to come at Rochell, but that we
were gone another way to Paris, desiring him to send further
instructions how he should behave himselfe in the businesse to a
certaine house in Paris, where he would call for it when he should come
thither.
Thus we marched very lovingly to Paris, I having not the least jealousy
of his perfidious dealings, I made him every way equall with me both for
entertainment and accomodation, bearing all his charges and expences by
the way coming to Paris. As soone[29] as we were got into our lodging he
went forth to looke for his directions, which were to be sent after him
by the post by his kinsman above mentioned, and their he received my
accusation subscribed both by my adversaryes at Rochell and of those
that were of my examination at Bourdeaux, together with a letter of
recomendation to a gentleman that was borne in Paris, who had a brother
that kept an inne at Rouen, this gentleman was to take care of my
examination and accusation according to the instructions he had received
from Bourdeaux in writing and from my comrade in word of mouth.
Theirfore the day following, as I and my Judas came to take horse at the
messengers house, he tooke the paines to travaile with us from Paris to
Roan their to execute his commission against me. Now by the way both he
and those that were in our company whom he had aquainted with his
designe began to put forth many merry conceits and perswations of my
future troubles, yet continuing their jeasts that I could not aply any
thing to my selfe openly, but only I entertained some suspition within
myself not taking however any notice of their apish gesticulations, but
carryed my selfe as though I had not perceived the meaning of them.
Being come to Roan this gentleman who was to mannage the businesse by
letter of attorney perswaded me to take up my lodging in his brothers
house, unto which, not to shew myselfe unwilling or any ways daunted, I
willingly consented, still hopeing that perhaps I might be deceived in
my suspisions that I had collected out of their foolish mockeryes, for I
could not imagine that my comrade unto whom I shewed so much love and
freindshippe would have rewarded me with so perfideous dealings.
Because it was darke night when we entered the citty, their could be
nothing done that night, but the next morning betymes they went about
their erand; being in the meane tyme perswaded that I knew not nor
suspected any thing of their plott against me because I carryed myselfe
with a merry countenance among them.
But the Lord, who heretofore had found out many wonderfull wayes for my
deliverance, sent here also his angell to give me warning of the bloody
devices they had contrived against me. For ther was a yonge man from
Rochell who intended to travaile by land so far as Deepe, and had beene
in our company ever since we came from Poicters. He taking to hart the
cruell entertainment that was prepared for me, was mooved with
compassion of my woefull misery that I was like to fall into. Very
suddenly theirfore when oppertunity served, in the morning he tooke me
into a private corner, and told me that I was to be examined in a
rigorus way by the hangman the next day after uppon some artickles that
my comrade had brought along with him from Bourdeaux, and that I might
give the better heed to his words he made a circumstantiall relation to
me of all what had passed at Bourdeaux with me, and what was lately
mentioned concerning this new plott, adviseing me to absent myselfe if
I loved my life and safety. Further said he, 'the reason that you are
not yet areasted is, because your comrade told them that you are quite
bare of moneys, and that you intend this day to take up some from your
marchant; they will not lay hold of you till you have taken so much as
you will that they may have the better booty, theirfore they let you goe
freely whether you will, for they all think that you suspect nothing of
their designe.'
Now I came to see the trueth of the suspition I conceived the day before
upon the roade, but being aquainted with the greediness of my
adversaryes, I made the use of it. When I had beene forth in the morning
and taken up some money of my marchant, I retourned againe to my
tretcherous comrade, at my dinner tyme imparting to him that I had beene
with my marchant to receive of him 500 livers, but he having not the
money ready in the morning desired me to come about three or foure of
the clock in the afternoon. This pollicy I used because I durst not
venture to make an escape in the day tyme for feare of being watched by
some body, but in the darke I thought I might goe any whether. The Lord
blessed my endeavour accordingly, for this excuse of myne concerning the
receiving the money was taken for a reall trueth, so that they suffered
me to goe forth againe in the afternoon, not doubting my retourn, for to
make all sure I bought in the forenoon a couple of books and some
lining, and left them on the table in my chamber in the presence of my
comrade with my pistolls and sword and other necessaryes in a little
port-mantle.
Now when night drew on that it was a little duskish I bought another
sword, a pockett pistoll, a paire of shooes, and a leather bagg the
which I filled with bread. Having made this provision I crossed the
river of Seine in a boate, I intending to goe on foot to Caen in
Normandie, which was some 28 leagues from Roan, their to look for some
English ship wherin I might be transported to England. For brevity sake
I forbeare to make any relation of the pertickulars of every day. Only
because hue and cry followed me close where ever I came I durst not come
neare any towne or house, but was constraned to keepe the open feild
twelve dayes together, or for the most part in sollitary woods, dureing
which tyme their was a most vehement frost, and the ground was all
covered with snow wherby I was often dogged as a hart by his track. For
eight dayes I could neither sit nor lye downe but where I was first
faine to bestow halfe an houres worke to cleare the snow from the
ground; and above all the rest the night after the fifth of February
proved most pernicious to my feet, for the night and day before their
was a great storme with snow and tempest, wherby the ground became so
deeply covered with snow, that as I was marching the night after, every
step I made I trode halfe and somtymes whole knee deep in the snow. By
which meanes the snow melting upon my leggs and runing downe into my
shooes, my stockins began to be frozen to my toes like as it were a cold
stone before I was awar of it; for whilest I was in motion I thought no
snow could indanger me, how wet soever my feet were, but having lost all
the feeling out of them, I did not presently pull of my stockings as
soone as I came to sit still, and that while the frost gott such an
advantage upon me that it would have cost me both my feet had I not
bouried them after the sun was up in a heape of snow, wherby the frost
was drawn out againe, yet the flesh about the great and little toe of my
left foot being past recovering I was forced to have it cut of as soone
as I had oppertunity of tyme and place.
During this progresse I had no other sustenance but what I brought out
of Roan, and what afterwards I got with great hazard of my life. The
provision that I carried out of Roan with me lasted three dayes, having
fasted after that was spent two dayes, I ventured in the duske of the
evening into a little towne called Bullie, their to buy some bread,
thinking that no body would take notice of me at such a tyme in the
evening. But as soone as I was gott into the towne, the townesmen being
informed of my coming before hand by two travillers, which on horseback
overtooke me a little before I gott to the towne, besett presently the
two passages of the towne with a gaurd, while they went to consult how
to lay hold on me in a more legall way. For the towne lyeing close to
the river and backed with very steep and unaccessable hills had but two
passages to come in and out, which being guarded though they let me goe
about the towne, yet they counted me as sure in their hands as if they
had had me in a safer coustody. Perceiveing this, as soone as I came
into the towne by the people staring and mocking me, I forgot my hunger,
and could not looke for bread, but only meanes to get out of the towne
againe. And it being now become quite darke I tourned up and downe in
the towne till I gott out of the peoples sight, makeing towards the
other passages which were a musket shott without the towne, theire to
try whether I could make some shift to steale by the guards (for I had
beene formerly a little aquainted with the place as I travailed through
it foure moneths before that tyme); but coming to the passage I found it
altogether impossible to gett by, the place being so narrow and the
guards so carefull, and while I was walking under the hills not farre
from that passage their came two men with fowling peeces on their
shouldiers from the guard upon me before I was awar of it, intending to
goe home to supper and leave me to my selfe assuring themselves that I
could not escape any whether. Then I went from one place to another
making severall endevours to get through, but I wearyed myselfe in
vaine, till about eleven of the clock at night I tooke a resolution to
try whether I could try the hills (though they were such as that I
beleeive no body since the creation had made use of that way before me).
Yet the Lord (to disapoint my enimies in their devices) carried me over
the same, after I had beene climbing from one hill to another some three
houres, and the hilt of my sword and my knife were the cheife meanes to
get over these steep places, I could take no hold with them in the
rubbish that lay upon the rocks while I crept upon my hands and knees
upwards.
The Lord having thus wonderfully delivered me even out of the trap,
after I had overcome the hills I lodged myselfe in a wood hard by. For
those hills had so exhausted me of all my strength that I was not able
to march any whether that night, but I continued their that night and
the next day. The night after I marched againe till I came in the
morning before another market towne, where once I had marched through in
the midst of the night being the third night after I came from Roan, but
I was now come hither againe accidentally by a mistake caused by the
cloudy weather (for having beene neer halfe the way to Caen, till I came
to see the impossibillity of getting through, espetially my feet being
spoiled by the frost, I was now upon my back way to Roan to seek some
English ship for my last refuge); and finding the conveniency of a small
wood neare to the said towne to conceale myselfe theirin all the day
following I remained their with an intention to goe, like as I did two
dayes before, in the duske of the evening into the said towne to buy
some bread before any body would take notice of me, not fearing in the
meane while any would be privy to my being their now.
Whether the two men that met me in the morning before day at the
townes-end, or whether a boy that saw me by chance in the wood at noon
had betrayed me I know not, but all the towne knew that I was in the
wood, setting watchmen on the top of the hill, where they knew that I
must needs come forth whensoever I left the wood unlesse I would goe
through the towne (which they did not expect), while they sent for halfe
a dozen of the Duke de Longevilles guard (which when I saw goe all in
the Duke's livery having white crosses on their backs) on purpose to
apprehend me in the wood, which might easily be affected, the wood being
little and not very thick, runing up from the valley hard by the end of
the towne to the top of the hill. Now before the guard came it was about
sun-set, theirfore not to loose any more tyme many of the townes people
great and small went with them to the top of the hill, their to begin to
search for me and so continue downwards, for on the top of the hill were
the thickest bushes, and their also was I discovered at noon by the boy;
but being then frighted with the boy I was before evening crept downe
into the valley under the banck side by the high way, and their I lay
till I heard and saw the multitude with the guard to passe by me, then
tarrying till they were all got to the top of the hill, and seing no
body to hinder me from coming into the towne, I rose and went into the
towne, buying some bread while no body was their to opose me, though all
those that saw me cryed out upon me, saying 'this is the theife they
seeke,' calling for those that were appointed to take me, and sending
after them to the top of the hill, which required above a quarter of an
houre to get up. Yet because others had undertaken the charge to
apprehend me, no body would make it his proper duty to lay hands on me,
especially seing me armed with a sword and pistoll. Being thus
fournished with bread I went out againe as free as I came in, getting
out of the other end of the towne, and having the aproaching night to
friend me I stole away under the hedges before any of the said guard or
catchpools could retourne from the hill and be ready to follow me.
After this wonderfull deliverance and releife I marched the same and the
next night till I came before Roan againe. And being within an English
mile of the towne I searched for a place to hide myselfe among the
bushes all the day longe till in the evening I might gett over the
river, and goe into the towne, their to putt into practice my intentions
before mentioned; but as I was thus busie their came by unawarrs two
travillers goeing into the Citty a little before daybreake, these
hearing a noyse among the oake bushes fell a running and cryed 'a
theife,' 'a theife in the bushes,' all the way alonge. This accident
struck me againe with such new frights that I durst not goe to the Citty
the next evening, according to my former intentions, for feare their
should be waite laid for me at my enterance into the Citty. So I
deferred my enterance for three dayes longer, although I were sure to
fast all the tyme, for my bread that I lately bought before I came so
farr was neare spent. For the said reason I lay their from Saturday
morning till Munday night[30], and then I went in the name of the Lord
into the towne, yet leaving my sword and cloake behinde me in the wood
least they should betray me at the water side.
After I gott into the Citty my first care was to refresh my selfe with
meate and drinke, and then I sought for a ship. The God of all comfort
and Father of all mercyes, intending now to put a period to my longe
continued afflictions, was pleased to prosper my endeavours, and to
direct me to a man that was both faithfull and willing to take care for
my security, granting me the use of his ship for my transportation for
the summe of fifty pounds sterling. Being got on ship board and come
againe into warme lodgeing my feet began to be altogether uselesse to
me, and full of raging paine, my frozen toes began now to rott, and were
in great danger of loosing altogether, for I had hitherto no tyme for
convenience to aply any thing to them, nor could I by what meanes soever
recover the flesh that was cutt of the bones till the begining of May
following. Because of the contrariety of windes and other impedements we
were faine to lye in the River of Sceine till the 21^{th} of March, then
we set saile and came into the Downes on the 23^{d} of the same, the
same day after I came to London againe.
Now the Lord had tourned my mourning into joy and gladnesse againe, in
granting me the sight of that day wherof I had many hundred tymes
dispaired of before. Great and unspeakable have beene the sufferings of
my body, but farr greater and even beyond all expression have beene the
sufferings of my minde. Had I had a thousand worlds in my possession I
would freely have given them all for my liberty, and made choyce besides
to live in the condition of the meanest beggar all the dayes of my life,
if I might have beene freed from those horrid feares which at severall
tymes suppressed my spirit with such a weight as if heaven and earth
had laid upon my shouldiers. My burthen was so much the heavier the
lesse hopes that I had ever to be eased of it, when I tasted and felt in
the highest degree all the greife and anguish that poverty, nakednesse,
hunger, frost, and the most tiranicall persecution that cruell enimyes
could ever inflict upon any mortall body. I could looke for ease no
where but from death it selfe, who would have beene my most welcome
friend, so it had not beene accompanied with so cruell and exquesite
torments as my enimyes threatened me withall.
But blessed and for ever blessed be the Lord, who doth great and
marvillous things without number; who disappointeth the devices of the
crafty, so that their hands cannot performe their enterprize; who
delivereth the poore from him that is too stronge for him; he woundeth
and he healeth again; he bringeth downe to the grave and raiseth up
againe; he hath not suffered my foes to rejoyce over me, nor given me as
a prey to their teeth; he hath beene my sanctuary, my refuge, and my
stronge tower from the enimye; he hath saved me from the reproach of
those that would have swallowed me up; he hath revived me in the midst
of my troubles; he hath delivered my soule from death, myne eyes from
teares, my feet from falling; he hath not dispised the affliction of
the afflicted, neither hath he hidden his face from me, but when I cryed
unto him he heard me; he hath given me my harts desire, and added a
length to my dayes. To him only belongeth all praise and thanksgiving
for evermore. Amen.
NOTES
=P. 5=, l. 20. Blaye is on the east side of the estuary of the Gironde. It
had in 1876, according to Reclus, a population of 4,500 souls.
=P. 15=, l. 9. 'Graffe,' i.e. a ditch or moat. Richard Symonds describes
Borstall house as defended by 'a pallazado without the graffe; a deepe
graffe and wide, full of water.' _Diary_, p. 231.
=P. 17=, l. 4. Pullitor, apparently the same place as Pulliac mentioned on
p. 40, i.e. Pauillac or Pauilhac, a 'chef-lieu de canton' in the
department of the Gironde, on the west side of the estuary nearer the
mouth than Blaye. It contained in 1876 a population of 4,150.
=P. 31=, l. 20. 'mandring,' i.e. maundering. Nares in his glossary defines
maunder as meaning to mutter or grumble.
=P. 53=, l. 21. 'pootered beef,' i.e. salt or spiced beef, usually termed
'powdered beef.'
=P. 54=, l. 19. 'The Spanish fleet.' A Spanish fleet entered the mouth of
the Gironde some weeks after the surrender of Bordeaux, and made several
futile attempts to sail up to that city. It left the river about the end
of October, 1653, having accomplished nothing. In Israell Bernhard's
(or rather Hane's) letter to Thurloe from Rochelle, dated November 15,
1653, he writes: 'The river of Bourdeaux is wholly cleered of the
Spanish fleet, as I did relate unto you in my last, dated the 8 of this
month; only we live in jealousies and feares lest they should return
again, to the great hindrance of all trading from these parts.'
_Thurloe_, i. 578; Chéruel, _Ministère de Mazarin_, ii. 85.
=P. 67=, l. 13. 'fistling,' possibly whistling.
_P. 70_, l. 22. 'luggish.' This word is explained in Halliwell's
glossary as an adjective meaning dull or heavy. The sense here seems to
require 'luggishness,' i.e. sluggishness or heaviness. 'Lugge,' meaning
slug or sluggard, is applied by Ascham in his _Toxophilus_ to a bow
which is 'slow of cast.'
=P. 74=, l. 18. 'burick,' compare p. 78, l. 1, 'beverick.' The word
usually employed to describe this liquor is 'beverage,' which is defined
in the _New English Dictionary_ as: 'The liquor made by pouring water
over the pressed grapes after the wine has been drawn off.'
=P. 79=, l. 19. 'strick.' This word probably means a flat piece of board.
Nares in his glossary (ed. Halliwell and Wright) explains 'strickle' as
meaning an instrument for levelling corn, &c. in the measuring, and
gives the following examples:
'The _strickler_ is a thing that goes along with the measure, which
is a straight board with a staffe fixed in the side, to draw over
corn in measuring, that it exceed not the height of the
measure.'--_Randle Holme's Acad. of Armory_, p. 337.
'A _stritchill_: a _stricke_: a long and round peece of wood like a
rolling pinne (with us it is flat), wherewith measures are made
even.'--_Nomenclator._
At a pinch such a bit of wood might serve as a paddle.
=P. 79=, l. 22. 'Chartrux.' The Quai des Chartrons?
=P. 81=, l. 19. 'progenety,' i.e. progenetrix.
=P. 91=, l. 18. 'bouried.' The reading of the MS. is 'bourned,' but the
sense seemed to require the alteration made in the text.
=P. 92=, l. 5. 'Bullie,' probably Bully, a village in the department of
Calvados, about eight or ten miles south of Caen.
=P. 98=, l. 13. The MS. reads: 'came into the Downes the 23d of the same,
the same day after I came to London againe.'
* * * * *
The punctuation of the manuscript has been altered wherever the sense
seemed to require it, and missing words occasionally supplied by the
editor.
THE END.
Oxford
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Cal. State Papers Dom._ 1649-50, pp. 418, 541.
[2] _Scotland and the Commonwealth_, pp. 2, 11, 28, 154, 157, 161.
[3] Guizot, _Cromwell and the English Commonwealth_, i. 267.
[4] _Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS._, i. 641.
[5] Guizot, _Cromwell and the English Commonwealth_, i. 212, 237.
[6] Barrière to Condé, July 4, 1653.
[7] _Thurloe Papers_, i. 320.
[8] _Cal. State Papers Dom._ 1654, p. 160.
[9] Chéruel, _La France sous le ministère de Mazarin_, i. 56; Cousin,
_Madame de Longueville pendant la Fronde_, p. 464.
[10] _King Charles his Case_, 1649.
[11] _Thurloe_, ii. 657.
[12] Barrière to Condé, Feb. 20, 1654.
[13] Chéruel, _Histoire de France sous le Ministère de Mazarin_, ii.
381; Guizot, _Cromwell and the English Commonwealth_, ii. 427, 460,
470, 496.
[14] Burnet, _Own Time_, i. 120, 133, ed. 1833.
[15] The date of Stouppe's mission is not easy to fix. M. Chéruel
first puts it in 1651, but on second thoughts assigns it to 1653
(_Ministère de Mazarin_, i. 63, ii. 81). A letter from Barrière, dated
Feb. 20, 1654, seems to refer to the sending of Stouppe, and he was
certainly at Paris early in that year.
[16] Barrière to Condé, Dec. 25, 1654.
[17] _Nicholas Papers_, ii. 14.
[18] _The Interest of Princes and States_, 1680, p. 319.
[19] Ludlow, _Memoirs_, i. 415, ed. 1894.
[20] _Thurloe Papers_, i. 553, 578.
[21] On these events see Chéruel, _Ministère de Mazarin_, i. 44-7. The
royalist sentiment in the letter is assumed.
[22] For these extracts I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. S. R.
Gardiner, who has allowed me to use the transcripts of Barrière's
correspondence with Condé, placed at his disposal by the Duc d'Aumale.
The originals of the letters are preserved at Chantilly, and the
copies quoted were made by M. Gustave Macon, the librarian and
archivist of the Duc d'Aumale.
[23] _Cal. State Papers Dom._ 1654, p. 160.
[24] _Commons Journals_, vii. 343; _Cal. State Papers Dom._ 1653-4,
p. 23. In the index to the Calendar Hane is confused with Col. James
Heane, governor of Weymouth.
[25] _Commons Journals_, vii. 524; Burton's _Parliamentary Diary_, ii.
61; _Cal. State Papers Dom._ 1654, pp. 220, 269.
[26] _Thurloe_, vi. 525, 537, 547; vii. 306, 319, 328.
[27] November 28.
[28] Jan. 17.
[29] Jan. 30.
[30] Feb. 17.
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