“The Protestants that are now prisoners at Lancaster, and went of their own voluntary will, and not taken by force, and hired horses.
“Mr. Collham, Mr. Jones, James Hambleton, Jo. Bythell, Mr. Rob. Noterfield, his wife and children and three servants; not siding with the papists, Mr. Argent a gentleman, his daughter, and Boyes, and his maid; Mr. Barker, Mr. Floyde, a minister.
“Two of the Lord Herbert’s men who were taken in their escape after their Lordship; two poor sailors.”
Mr. Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormond,[22] and Dr. Birch,[19] following the same authority, assert that—“The Earl of Glamorgan, having embarked on board a small vessel, was near being taken by a Parliament ship, which pursued him till he took refuge in a port of Cumberland.” This, however, must refer to his second, and not to his first, attempt to set sail from Wales.
We can now understand the occasion of delay previously unaccounted for; thus, Dr. Birch, after informing us through Mr. Trevor’s letter of the 9th of April, 1645,[N] that the Earl has actually “gone into Ireland,” proceeds in the next page to quote a passage from Lord Digby’s letter, dated Dublin, 8th of May, 1645:—“Though I have no full knowledge of what Lord Herbert was to bring with him; yet by his letter to me out of Wales, I guess his missing this place (Dublin) was a great misfortune to the King’s service, even in relation to the credit I found the Irish were apt to give to his services and undertakings; and therefore if he be where he can get once more to the water’s edge, and will venture over, I am very confident the little frigate I now send to stay the return of the bearer, will land him in some safe port of Ireland.”
In consequence of this arrangement he at length arrived at Dublin about the end of July or beginning of August,[22] 1645, being a space of about six months from the time of his leaving Oxford.
An incident with which the Earl of Glamorgan was connected occurred during his stay in Wales, affords an amusing episode illustrating the prevailing superstition of the age, against which his Lordship was by no means proof. Dr. Bayly states that: “The Earl, accompanied by officers, knights, and gentlemen of high rank, all of the red letter, as they were in their journey for Ireland, quartered in the town of Carnarvon, a sea-port in North Wales, where they were entertained with discourse at their table by some of the gentlemen of the country, who informed them of the fulfilling of an old Welsh prophecy, at that very time and place.” The legend related to the building of nests in the crown on the head of King Edward I., over the gate of Carnarvon Castle, and was interpreted as significant of the times. “Dinner being ended, they all went to the castle gate.” Thereon the Earl of Glamorgan “commanded the nest to be pulled down, which was done accordingly; and being thrown down, they found the materials of the nest to be such, as wherewith never any bird did build her nest, viz. with white thorn, which, for a memorandum or rarity, every one of them stuck a thorn in his hat-band, and wore it.”[7]
But we must now, however, revert to Raglan Castle, to keep in view what had been passing there in the interim.
Footnotes
[A] Synopsis of the Peerage.