Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/270

236 House. And what the soldiers left, the fire took hold on; which made more than ordinary haste; leaving nothing but bare walls and chimneys in less than twenty hours;—being occasioned by the neglect of the Enemy in quenching a fireball of ours at first.’—What a scene!

‘We know not how to give a just account of the number of persons that were within. For we have not quite Three-hundred prisoners; and it may be have found a Hundred slain,—whose bodies, some being covered with rubbish, came not at once to our view. Only, riding to the House on Tuesday night, we heard divers crying in vaults for quarter; but our men could neither come to them, nor they to us. Amongst those that we saw slain, one of their officers lying on the ground, seeming so exceeding tall, was measured; and from his great-toe to his crown was 9 feet in length’ (sic).

‘The Marquis being pressed, by Mr. Peters arguing with him,’ which was not very chivalrous in Mr. Peters, broke out and said, “That if the King had no more ground in England but Basing House, he would adventure as he did, and so maintain it to the uttermost”;—meaning with these Papists; comforting himself in this disaster, “That Basing House was called Loyalty.” But he was soon silenced in the question concerning the King and Parliament; and could only hope “that the King might have a day again.”—And thus the Lord was pleased in a few hours to show us what mortal seed all earthly glory grows upon; and how just and righteous the ways of God are, who takes sinners in their own snares, and lifteth up the hands of His despised people.

‘This is now the Twentieth garrison that hath been taken-in, this Summer, by this Army;—and, I believe most of them the answers of the prayers, and trophies of the faith, of some of God’s servants. ‘The Commander of this Brigade,’ Lieutenant-General Cromwell, ‘had spent much time with God in prayer the night before the storm;—and seldom fights without some Text of Scripture to support him. This time he rested upon that blessed word of God written in the