Dr. Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham-Queen Elizabeth's Speech at Tilbury Fort. upon examination taken by the council, and by commandment delivered it to the army. The Queen the next morning rode through all the squadrons of her army, as armed Pallas, attended by noble footmen, Leicester, Essex, and Norris, then Lord Marshal, and divers other great lords, where she made an excellent oration to her army, which the next day after her departure I was commanded to redeliver to all the army together, to keep a public fast. Her words were these: "My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourself to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And, therefore, I am come amongst you as you see at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor, and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too; and think foul scorn, that Parma, or Spain, or any prince in Európe should dare to invade the borders of my realm, to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my Lieutenant-General shall be in my stead, Dr. Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham-Queen Elizabeth's Speech at Tilbury Fort. than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdoms, and of my people." * This speech of Elizabeth (as a piece of martial rhetoric) has never been surpassed. It was splendidly commemorated by Sir James Mackintosh in his defence of Peltier, when he describes the resistance which Queen Elizabeth offered to the schemes of universal domination that were attempted by Phillip II. "That wise and magnanimous Princess," says he, "placed herself in the front of the battle for the liberties of Europe. Though she had to contend at home with the fanatical faction of Phillip, which almost occupied Ireland, which divided Scotland, and was not of contemptible strength in England, she aided the oppressed inhabitants of the Netherlands in their just and glorious resistance to his tyranny; she aided Henry the Great in suppressing the abominable rebellion which anarchical principles had excited, and Spanish arms had supported in France; and after a long reign of various fortune, in which she preserved her unconquered spirit through great calamities and still greater dangers, she at length broke the strength of the enemy, and reduced his power within such limits as to be compatible with the safety of England and of all Europe. Her only effectual ally was the spirit of her people, and her policy flowed from that magnanimous nature which in the hour of peril teaches better lessons than those of cold reason. Her great heart inspired her with a higher and a nobler wisdom, which disdained to appeal to the low and sordid passions of her people, even for the protection of their low and sordid interests, because she knew, or rather she felt, that these are effeminate, creeping, cowardly, short-sighted passions which shrink from conflict even in defence of their own mean objects. In a righteous cause, she roused those generous affections of her people which alone teach boldness, constancy, and foresight, and which are, therefore, the only safe guardians of the lowest as well as highest interests of a nation. In her memorable address to her army, when the invasion of the kingdom was threatened by Spain, this woman of heroic spirit disdained to speak to them of their ease, and their commerce, and their wealth, and their safety. No; she touched another chord-she spoke of their national honor, of their dignity as Englishmen, of 'the foul scorn that Parnia or Spain should dare invade the borders of her realms;' she breathed into them those grand and powerful sentiments which exalt vulgar men into he roes, which led them into the battle of their country armed with holy and irresistible enthusiasm, which even cover with their shield all the ignoble in Oliver Cromwell to Sir Arthur Heselrig-On the eve of the Battle of Dunbar. This I thought would delight your grace, and no man hath it but myself, and such as I have given it to; and therefore I made bold to send it unto you, if you have it not already. III.-ON THE EVE OF THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR. Oliver Cromwell to Sir Arthur Heselrig. DUNBAR, 2d September, 1650. DEAR SIR: We are upon an engagement very difficult. The enemy hath blocked up our way at the Pass at Copperspath, through which we cannot get without almost a miracle. He lieth so upon the Hills that we know not how to come that way without great difficulty; and our lying here daily consumeth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination. I perceive your forces are not in a capacity for present release. Wherefore, whatever becomes of us, it will be well for you to get what forces you can get together: and the South to help what they can. The business nearly concerneth all Good People. If your forces had been in a readiness to have fallen upon the back of Copperspath, it might have occasioned supplies to have come to us. But the only wise God knows what is best. All shall work for Good. Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord though our present condition be as it is. And indeed we have much hope in the Lord; of whose mercy we have had large experience. Indeed, do you get together what forces you can against them. Send to friends in the South to help with more. Let H. Vane know what I write. I would not make it public lest danger terests that base calculation and cowardly selfishness tremble to hazard, but shrink from defending."-II. Samuel Pepys to Lady Carteret-Plague in London. should accrue thereby. You know what use to make hereof. Let me hear from you. I rest, your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.* IV.-PLAGUE IN LONDON. Samuel Pepys to Lady Carteret. WOOLWICH, Sept. 4, 1665. DEAR MADAM: Your Ladyship will not, I hope, imagire I expected to be provoked, by letters from you, to think of the duty I ought, and should long since have paid your ladyship, by mine, had it been fit for me (during my indispensable attendance alone in the city) to have ventured the affrighting you with any thing from thence. But now that, by the despatch of the fleet, I am at liberty to retire wholly to Woolwich, where I have been purging my ink horn and papers these six days, your Ladyship shall find no further cause to reproach me my silence. And in amends for what is past, let me conjure you, madam, to believe that no day hath passed since my last kissing your hands, without my most interested wishes for your health, and the uninterrupted prosperity of your Ladyship and family. I took care for the present disposal of what were enclosed in your Ladyship's to me; and in answer to that to Dagenham's, return these from my Lady Wright, who, in hers to myself, gives assurance of my Lord Hinchingbroke's being got up, and the health of the rest of her family. * Cromwell wrote this letter, in the full expectation that the morrow might terminate his victories and his life. It was the next morning, at the first charge of the cavalry, that as the clouds rolled away, and the sun shone out, "I heard Noll say," says Hodgson, "Let God arise,-let His enemies be scattered!'" A more sublime, and yet more simple war-cry than even the celebrated watchword of Napoleon from the foot of the Pyramids. Samuel Pepys to Lady Carteret-Plague in London. My Lord Sandwich has gone to sea with a noble fleet, in want of nothing but a certainty of meeting the enemy. My best Lady Sandwich, with the flock at Hinchingbroke, was by my last letters very well. The absence of the court and emptiness of the city, takes away all occasion of news, save only such melancholy stories as would rather sadden than find your Ladyship any divertisement in the hearing; I, having stayed in the city till above 7,400 died in one week, and of them, above 6,000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells; till I could walk Lumber street, and not meet twenty persons from one end to the other, and not fifty upon the Exchange; till whole families, ten and twelve together, have been swept away; till my very physician, Dr. Burnet, who undertook to secure me against any infection, having survived the month of his own house being shut up, died himself of the plague; till the nights, though much lengthened, are grown too short to conceal the burials of those that died the day before, people being thereby constrained to borrow daylight for that service; lastly, till I could find neither meat nor drink safe-the butcheries being everywhere visited, my brewer's house shut up, and my baker with his whole family dead of the plague. Yet, madam, through God's blessing, and the good humors. begot in my attendance upon our late amours,* your poor servant is in a perfect state of health, as well as resolution of employing it as your Ladyship and family shall find work for it. How Deptford stands, your Ladyship is, I doubt not, informed from nearer hands. Greenwich begins apace to be sickly; but we are, by com The marriage of Lady Carteret's son to the daughter of Lord Sandwich. |