Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/425

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1em ''Sir,— Being come hither for the reduction of this place, I thought fit to summon you to deliver your Garrison to me, for the use of the Parliament. Those gentlemen and soldiers with you may have better terms than if you should hold it to extremity. I expect your answer this day, and rest, your servant,'' OLIVER CROMWELL.

Governor Morris stiffly refuses; holds-out yet a good while,—and at last loses his head at York assizes by the business. Royalism is getting desperate; has taken to highway robbery; is assassinating, and extensively attempting to assassinate. Two weeks ago, Sunday 29th October, a Party sallied from this very Castle of Pontefract; rode into Doncaster in disguise, and there, about five in the afternoon, getting into Colonel Rainsborough’s lodging, stabbed him dead:—murder, or a very questionable kind of homicide!

As to Pontefract and Governor Morris, here are some pertinent suggestions, ‘propositions,’ the old Pamphlet calls them, sent ‘in a Letter from Lieutenant-General Cromwell and his Officers’; which are ‘read in the House,’ and straightway acted upon, to a certain extent:—had they been acted upon in full, that business might have ended sooner.

1em

My Lords and Gentlemen,—So soon as I came into these