_Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel 1641._
_Born 1610. Beheaded 1649._
By CLARENDON.
He was a man, in whome the malice of his enimyes could discover very
few faultes, and whome his frends could not wish better accomplished,
whome Crumwells owne character well described, and who indeede could
never have bene contented to have lived under that government, whose
memory all men loved and reverenced, though few followed his example.
He had alwayes lyved in a state of greate plenty and generall
estimation, havinge a very noble fortune of his owne by descent, and
a fayre addition to it, by his marriage with an excellent wife, a Lady
of a very worthy extraction, of greate virtue and beauty, by whome he
had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he tooke greate joy and
comfort, so that no man was more happy in all his domestique affayres,
and so much the more happy, in that he thought himselfe most blessed
in them, and yett the Kings honour was no sooner violated and his
just power invaded, then he threw all those blessings behinde him, and
havinge no other obligations to the Crowne, then those which his owne
honour and conscience suggested to him, he frankely engaged his person
and his fortune from the beginninge of the troubles, as many others
did, in all actions and enterpryzes of the greatest hazarde and
daunger, and continewed to the end, without ever makinge one false
stepp, as few others did, though he had once, by the iniquity of a
faction that then prævayled, an indignity putt upon him, that might
have excused him, for some remission of his former warmth, but it made
no other impressyon upon him, then to be quyett and contented whilst
they would lett him alone, and with the same cheerefulnesse to obey
the first summons, when he was called out, which was quickly after:
in a worde he was a man, that whoever shall after him deserve best in
that nation, shall never thinke himselfe undervalewed, when he shall
heare that his courage, virtue, and fidelity is layde in the balance
with, and compared to that of the Lord Capell.
32.