BOOK IV. 1658. The place ed. The governor of Dunkirk was the marquis of Leyda, who did the utmost that was possible for the preservation of the place. He made a sally surrender- during the battlek, and another of a more desperate character on the thirteenth. In this, after some success, he was repulsed, and mortally wounded; and, two days after, the garrison surrendered'. The French entered the place, but immediately, according to treaty, delivered possession to Lockhart m. Honorary embassy of the marshal duke of Crequi. Louis the Fourteenth seized upon this occasion to return the compliment paid him by Cromwel. He dispatched the marshal duke of Crequi, accompanied by Mancini, the cardinal's nephew, and a great train, to present to the protector the keys of Dunkirk". Cromwel, hearing of the design, dispatched Fleetwood, with a suitable equipage, to meet them at Dover. They resided in London from the sixteenth of June to the nineteenth P. Crequi expressed with how much pleasure his master surrendered the keys to the greatest captain on earth. And Mazarine accompa Oldmixon, ubi supra. The following is an extract from the Diary of Dr. Henry Sampson, whose name has already occurred in a note in page 214 of this volume. The fact contained in it is given on the authority of sir Thomas Rokeby, who was a judge, first of the XXXI. 1658. nied the embassy with a letter, assuring the pro- CHAP. tector that, being within view of the English shore, nothing but the illness of the king (he had the small-pox) could have hindered him from coming in person, that he might have the happiness of an interview with one of the greatest men that ever was, and whom next to his master it was his ambition to serve. Meanwhile, deprived common pleas, and next of the king's bench, after the Restoration. "The protector was in the Banqueting House to receive the duke of Crequi as ambassador from the French king. Great was the state, and the crowd: the ambassador made his speech and compliments. After which, he delivered a letter, superscribed, 'To his Most Serene Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.' The protector looks wistly upon the letter, puts it in his pocket, and turns away, without speaking a word, or opening it. The ambassador was highly vexed at this, and, as soon as he could meet with secretary Thurloe, expostulated with him for the affront and indignity offered to his master, so great a prince, asking what he thought might be the cause? Thurloe answered, He thought the protector might be displeased with the superscription of the letter. The duke said, he conceived it was agreeable to custom, and in terms the most respectful. But,' says Thurloe, 'my master expected it should have been addressed to our dear brother, Oliver.' "It is said, the ambassador writing this over to France, the king exclaimed, 'Shall I call such a fellow my brother?" To which Mazarine replied, 'Aye, call him your father if need be, if so you can get of him what you desire.' And a letter was accordingly dispatched, having the desired superscription." IV. 1658. BOOK of that gratification, he had commissioned the individual nearest to him in blood, to assure Cromwel of the veneration he entertained for his person, and how much he was resolved, to the utmost of his power, to cultivate a perpetual friendship between him and his sovereign'. Humilia tion of the power of Spain. The remainder of the campaign in Flanders was one series of conquests. The allies appear to have cooperated cordially with each other. Turenne reduced Winoxberg, Furnes, Dixmude and Ypres in rapid succession. Another of the French generals captured Gravelines and towards the end of the campaign Oudenarde and Menin fell a prey to the victor. Mazarine had a conference with Lockhart on the seventeenth of July; and, by way of securing the invaluable aid of the English land-auxiliaries and fleet, held Welwood, p. 98. Echard, p. 735. Welwood here introduces a ridiculous story of a plot discovered by Cromwel for the French retaining possession of Dunkirk in defiance of the treaty; to which Noble has added a senseless tale (received, he says, from Lockhart's family) of the ambassador coming down from an eminence with his watch in his hand, and demanding from the cardinal within an hour a peremptory order for the delivery of the place. Lockhart's own dispatch of the fourteenth [Thurloe, Vol. VII, p. 173, in which he says, "To-morrow, before five o'clock at night, his highness's forces under my command will be possessed of Dunkirk. I have a great many disputes with the cardinal; but he is still constant to his promises, and seems to be as glad to give the place to his highness, as I can be to receive it"] expressly gives the lie to this statement. XXXI. 1658. out the prospect of a new treaty similar to those CHAP. of 1657 and of the present year, and hinted something of the reducing Ostend for the behoof of the protector®. But, owing to events which speedily succeeded, this proposition came to nothing. Spain was so narrowed in power in the Low Countries by this uninterrupted succession of reverses, as to leave small prospect of her again meditating the invasion of England from that quarter. 552 IV. 1658. Embarrass finances. Character of Crom wel's ex CHAPTER XXXII. EMBARRASSMENT OF THE FINANCES.-PURPOSE BOOK IN the midst of all these successes the government was exceedingly harassed by the deficiencies of the revenue. The administration of Cromwel ment of the was eminently economical and thrifty on all ordinary occasions; but, when the interest of the public, and what he deemed the honour of the penditure. nation was concerned, he was never parsimonious. In the fitting out of his fleets and armies, he was at no time chargeable with an ignoble saving. The embassy of Fauconberg, and the reception of marshal Crequi, if they did not cost vast sums of money, may however serve as instances of the character of his expenditure. Cowley says of him, "He had the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal, as was the little inheritance of his father; and he was as noble and liberal in the spending of them "." a Discourse by way of Vision. |