<g>The King</g> took leave of Raglan Castle on the 15th of September,
mournfully observing to the Marquess, that by so doing he hoped “to ease
his lordship of a heavy burden.” His Majesty then thanked his noble and
devoted host for the large sums of money which had been advanced to him
in the course of his troubles. Whereupon the Marquess replied: “Sire, I
had your word for the money; but I never thought to have been so soon
repaid; for now that you have given me thanks, I have all I looked
for.”[257] Well might the royal guest have expressed his feelings on
quitting Raglan in the following lines, taken from his own
‘Collection:’--
I fall! I fall!
Whom shall I call?
Alas! can he be heard,
Who now is neither loved nor feared?
You, who were wont to kisse the ground,
Where’er my honour’d steps were found,
Come, catch me at my last rebound!
How each admires
Heaven’s twinkling fires,
When from their glorious seat
Their influence gives life and heat!
But, oh! how few there are--
Tho’ danger from that act be far--
Will stoop and catch a falling star.[258]
“Distracted with a thousand griefs, and accompanied by a few trusty and
disconsolate servants, the royal victim wandered about the country,
thankful to accept protection from any one who had fortune or
inclination to minister to his distress. And many ‘cruel days’ to use
his own words, were spent in weary marchings without food, narrow
escapes, and precipitate retreats, before he took his last farewell of
the land of Gwent.”[259]
On one occasion he was hotly pursued in his retreat through Shire
Newton, by a party of sixty Roundheads; but reaching a place called
Charleston Rock, near the New Passage, a fishing-boat was found, in
which he was safely ferried over the Severn into Gloucestershire. His
pursuers coming up in the meanwhile, but only to find their object
defeated, seized upon the remaining boats, and with drawn swords
compelled the fishermen to ferry them across. They hurried into the
boats, and, with the royal fugitive still in view, made all haste to be
once more on his traces. The poor fishermen, however, being royalists at
heart, had no sympathy with these king-hunters; but rowing lustily
towards a reef of rocks called the “English Stones,” within a gunshot of
the Gloucester shore, there hauled in their oars; and landing their
freight on the rocks, told them the water was so shallow that the boats
could go no further, and they might easily wade to the opposite bank.
And such, in fact, was quite practicable at low water; but, in the
present instance, the tide flowed so rapidly, that in making the attempt
to reach the opposite bank the whole party were drowned.
Informed of the catastrophe, Cromwell abolished the ferry, which was not
renewed until 1718, after a protracted lawsuit between the proprietor of
St. Pierre and the Duke of Beaufort’s guardians,[260] when it was named
the “_New Passage_.”
[Illustration: Armourer.]
<g>The Siege.</g>--Early the following spring a resolution was passed that the
Castle of Raglan, which had so often thrown open its gates to the King,
and still supported a garrison in his service, should be reduced without
loss of time. It was the last fortress that held out, and until its
walls were dismantled, and the garrison made prisoners, the spirit of
loyalty in Monmouth would never be thoroughly subdued. The Castle was
accordingly invested by Major-General Glenham and Sir Trevor
Williams;[261] but the latter, it has been asserted, was not very hearty
in his opposition to the King; for he had many misgivings respecting the
ultimate designs of Cromwell, who also, as it appears from existing
documents,[262] was equally suspicious of Sir Trevor. The first summons
to surrender the Castle to Parliament was received by the garrison with
indignation and defiance.
Early in June they were joined by Colonel Morgan, who, with a strong
body of men[263] from Worcester, took the command. The troops of the
garrison made divers gallant sallies, and in one of these killed a
cornet of Morgan’s, and carried off the colours. But after the surrender
of Oxford to the Parliament, Colonel Morgan had a reinforcement of two
hundred men, and being now in a position, both as regarded the works and
the efficiency of the troops, to act with vigour, he sent the following
summons:--