Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/275

Rh surrendered himself in Cornwall. On the 22d of the same month, Sir Jacob Astley, another distinguished Royalist General, the last of them all,—coming towards Oxford with some small force he had gathered,—was beaten and captured at Stow among the Wolds of Gloucestershire: surrendering himself, the brave veteran said, or is reported to have said, ‘You have now done your work, and may go to play,—unless you will fall out among yourselves.’

On Monday night, towards twelve of the clock, 27th April 1646, the King in disguise rode out of Oxford, somewhat uncertain whitherward,—at length towards Newark and the Scots Army. On the Wednesday before, Oliver Cromwell had returned to his place in Parliament. Many detached Castles and Towns still held out, Ragland Castle even till the next August; scattered fires of an expiring conflagration, that need to be extinguished with effort and in detail. Of all which victorious sieges, with their elaborate treaties and moving accidents, the theme of every tongue during that old Summer, let the following one brief glimpse, notable on private grounds, suffice us at present.

Oxford, the Royalist metropolis, a place full of Royalist dignitaries and of almost inexpugnable strength, had it not been so disheartened from without,—was besieged by Fairfax himself in the first days of May. There was but little fighting, there was much negotiating, tedious consulting of Parliament and King; the treaty did not end in surrender till Saturday 20th June. And now, dated on the Monday before, at Holton, a country Parish in those parts, there is this still legible in the old Church Register,—intimately interesting to some friends of ours! ‘, Commissary-General to Sir Thomas Fairfax, and, Daughter to Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General of the Horse to the said Sir Thomas Fairfax,—were married, by Mr. Dell, in the