y raising the city of London. Its author
was one who by his inconstancy had deservedly earned the contempt of every
party,--the earl of Holland. He had during the contest passed from the king
to the parliament, and from the parliament to the king. His ungracious
reception by the royalists induced him to return to their opponents, by
whom he was at first treated with severity, afterwards with neglect.
Whether it were resentment or policy, he now professed himself a true
penitent, offered to redeem his past errors by future services, and
obtained from the prince of Wales a commission to raise forces. As it had
been concerted between him and Hamilton, on the 5th of July, he marched[a]
at the head of five hundred

[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, x. 455-458. Rushworth, vii. 1227, 1242.
Barwicci Vita, 66. The narrative in Burnet's Memoirs of the Hamiltons
(355-365) should be checked by that in Clarendon (iii. 150, 160). The
first was derived from Sir James Turner (Turner's Memoirs, 63), who held
a command in the Scottish army; the second from Sir Marmaduke Langdale.
According to Turner, Langdale was ignorant, or kept the Scots in ignorance,
of the arrival of Cromwell and his army; according to Langdale, he
repeatedly informed them of it, but they refused to give credit to the
information. Langdale's statement is confirmed by Dachmont, who affirmed to
Burnet, that "on fryday before Preston the duke read to Douchel and him
a letter he had from Langdale, telling how the enemy had rendesvoused at
Oatley and Oatley Park, wher Cromwell was,"--See a letter from Burnet to
Turner in App. to Turner's Memoirs, 251. Monroe also informed the duke,
probably by Dachmont, of Cromwell's arrival at Skipton.--Ibid, 249.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. July 5.]

horse, in warlike array from his house in the city, and having fixed his
quarters in the vicinity of Kingston, sent messages to the parliament and
the common council, calling on them to join with him in putting an end to
the calamities of the nation. On the second day,[a] through the negligence,
it was said, of Dalbier, his military confidant, he was surprised, and
after a short conflict, fled with a few attendants to St. Neots; there a
second action followed,[b] and the earl surrendered at discretion to his
pursuers. His misfortune excited little interest; but every heart felt
compassion for two young noblemen whom he had persuaded to engage in this
rash enterprise, the duke of Buckingham and