Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/326

292 ''when the Commissioners and Colonel Whalley missed him; upon which they entered the Room:—they found his Majesty had left his cloak behind him in the Gallery in the Private Way. He passed, by the back stairs and vault, towards the Water-side.''

He left some Letters upon the table in his withdrawing room, of his own handwriting; whereof one was to the Commissioners of Parliament attending him, to be communicated to both Houses, “and is here enclosed.” “OLIVER CROMWELL.”

We do not give his Majesty’s Letter ‘here enclosed’: it is that well-known one where he speaks, in very royal style, still every inch a King, Of the restraints and slights put upon him, —men’s obedience to their King seeming much abated of late. So soon as they return to a just temper, ‘I shall instantly break through this cloud of retirement, and show myself ready to be Pater Patriæ,’—as I have hitherto done.

Ports are all ordered to be shut; embargo laid on ships. Read in the Commons Journals again ‘Saturday 13th Nov. Colonel Whalley was called in; and made a particular Relation of all the circumstances concerning the King’s going away from Hampton Court. He did likewise deliver-in a Letter directed unto him from Lieutenant-General Cromwell, concerning some rumours and reports of some design of danger to the person and life of the King: The which was read. Ordered, That Colonel Whalley do put in writing the said Relation, and set his hand to it; and That he do leave a Copy of the said Letter from Lieutenant-General Cromwell.’

Colonel Whalley’s Relation exists; and a much fuller Relation and pair of Relations concerning this Flight and what preceded and followed it, as viewed from the Royalist