Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/431

 sadder and two wiser men. For Colonel Owen, at all events, there is clearly no outlook, at present, but sitting reflective in the strong-room of Nottingham Castle, whither his bad Genius has led him. May escape beheading on this occasion; but very narrowly. He ‘was taken with Sir Marmaduke in their flight together’: one of the confused Welshmen discomfited in June and July last, who had fled to join Hamilton, and be worse discomfited a second time. The House some days ago had voted that ‘Sir John Owen,‘ our ‘Colonel Owen,‘ should get off with ‘banishment’; likewise that Lord Capel, the Earl of Holland, and other capital Delinquents should be ‘banished;‘ and even that James Earl of Cambridge (James Duke of Hamilton) should be ‘ 100,000l.‘ Such votes are not unlikely to produce ‘a sense amongst the Officers,‘ who had to grapple with these men, as with devouring dragons lately, life to life. Such votes—will need to be rescinded. Such, and some others! For indeed the Presbyterian Party has rallied in the House during the late high blaze of Royalism; and got a Treaty set on foot as we saw, and even got the Eleven brought back again.—

Jenner and Ashe are old stagers, having entered Parliament at the beginning. They are frequently seen in public business; assiduous subalterns. Ashe sat afterwards in Oliver’s Parliaments. Of this Ashe I will remember another thing: once, some years ago, when the House was about thanking some Monthly-fast Preacher, Ashe said pertinently, ‘What is the use of thanking a Preacher who spoke so low that nobody could hear him?‘

Colonel Humphrey Mathews, we are glad to discover, was one of the persons taken in Pembroke Castle by Oliver himself in July last: brought along with him, on the march towards Preston, and left, as the other Welsh Prisoners were,