_The Scoute Generall._--I have in my possession a small 4to. MS. of 32
pages, entitled _The Scoute Generall_, "communicating (impartially) the
martiall affaires and great occurrences of the grand councell (assembled in
the lowest House of Parliament) unto all kingdomes, by rebellion united in
a covenant," &c., which is throughout written in verse, and particularly
satirical against the Roundheads of the period (1646), and remarkable for
the following prognostication of the death of the unfortunate monarch
Charles I.:
"Roundheads bragge not, since 'tis an old decree,
In time to come from chaines wee should be free:
Traytors shall rule, Injustice then shall sway,
Subjects and nephewes shall their king betray;
And he himselfe, O most unhappy fate!
For kings' examples, kingdomes imitate:
What he maintain'd, I know it was not good,
Brought in by force, and out shall goe by blood," &c.
It occupies about thirty lines more. At the bottom of the title, and at the
conclusion of the postscript, it has merely the initials S. D. Could any of
your worthy correspondents inform me who S. D. was?
The MS. is evidently cotemporary, and, according to the introduction, was
"ordered to be forthwith published, [MDCXLVI in apostrophus form].;" and as
I cannot trace that such a production was ever issued, the answer would
confer a favour on