Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/215

 behind in the Hilsden neighbourhood; to whom there is a Letter, here first producible to modern readers, and connected therewith a tale otherwise known.

Letter Twentieth, which exists as a Copy, on old dim paper, in the Kimbolton Archives, addressed on the back of the sheet, with all reverence, To the Earl of Manchester, and forms a very opaque puzzle in that condition,—turns out, after due study, to have been a Copy by that Crawford of a Letter addressed to himself: Copy hastily written off, along with other hasty confused sheets still extant beside it, for the Earl of Manchester’s use, on a certain Parliamentary occasion, which will by and by concern us too for a moment.

A ‘Lieutenant-Colonel,’ Packer I dimly apprehend is the name of him, has on this Hilsden-and-Gloucester expedition given offence to Major-General Crawford; who again, in a somewhat prompt way, has had Packer laid under arrest, under suspension at Cambridge; in which state Packer still painfully continues. And may, seemingly, continue: for here has my Lord of Manchester just come down with a Parliamentary Commission ‘to reform the University,’ a thing of immense noise and moment, and ‘is employed in regard of many occasions’; is, in fact, precisely in these hours, issuing his Summonses to the Heads of Houses; and cannot spare an instant for Packer and his pleadings. Crawford is still in Buckinghamshire; nevertheless the shortest way for Packer will be to go to Crawford, and take this admonitory Letter from his superior in command

Cambridge, 10th March “1643.” Sir,—The complaints you preferred to my Lord against your Lieutenant-Colonel, both by Mr. Lee and your own Letters, have