Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/445

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1em Gentlemen,—I am given to understand that by the late decease of Dr. Duck, his Chamber hath become vacant in the Doctors Commons “here”;—to which Dr. Dorislaus now desireth to be your tenant: who hath done service unto the Parliament from the beginning of these Wars, and hath been constantly employed by the Parliament in many weighty affairs; and especially of late, beyond the seas, with the States General of the United Provinces.

If you please to prefer him before any other, paying rent and fine to your College, I shall take it as a courtesy at your hand; whereby you will oblige, your assured friend and servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.

Whether Dorislaus got Duck’s Chamber, we shall not ask; being, some three weeks hence, employed as Advocate in the King’s Trial, and shortly after assassinated at the Hague for that work, it proved to be of no importance to Dorislaus. The loud world-whirlwind pipes as before.

Trial of Charles Stuart falls not to be described in this place; the deep meanings that lie in it cannot be so much as glanced at here. Oliver Cromwell attends in the High Court of Justice at every session except one; Fairfax sits only in the first. Ludlow, Whalley, Walton, names known to us, are also constant attendants in that High Court, during that long-memorable Month of January 1649. The King is thrice brought to the Bar; refuses to plead, comports