beloved Cousin and Councellor
William, Marquis of Newcastle.” [113]
[113] Ellis’s Letters, Series I, vol. III, p. 303.
The Duchess says, that before leaving York Newcastle had asked Rupert “to give this true and just report of him to his Majesty, that he had behaved himself like an honest man, a Gentleman, and a Loyal subject. Which request the Prince having granted, my Lord took his leave; and being conducted by a Troop of Horse, and a Troop of Dragoons to Scarborough went to Sea, and took shipping for Hamborough; the Gentry of the Country, who also came to take their leaves of My Lord, being much troubled at his departure, and speaking very honourably of him, as surely they had no reason to the contrary.”
Quite true, in the main; but something said by Sir Hugh Cholmley in his private memoirs[114] has a bearing upon his last remark. “After the battle of Hess Moor, the Marquis of Newcastle came to Scarborough, and lodged at my house two days, till I had furnished him with a ship to go beyond sea; at his departure, he thanked me for my entertainment, and told me ‘he had some fear I should have stayed [stopped] him’; which I suppose he conceived would be some countenance to his: my answer was ‘I wish he could stay; that if he had committed an error, I knew my duty so well, I was not to call him to account, but obey, he being my general; that for my own part, though the place was in no defensible posture, I meant not to surrender till I heard from the King, or was forced to it’.” This was a broad hint to Newcastle as to Cholmley’s opinion of his conduct in flying from the country.
[114] The Memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmley. 100 copies. Privately Printed. 1870, p. 41.
In continuing her story, the Duchess says that Newcastle, when “preparing for his journey, asked his Steward How Much Money he had left? Who answer’d, That he had but 90£. My Lord not being at all startled at so small a Summ, although his present design required much more, was resolved too seek his Fortune, even with that little; ... he embarqued with his Company, and arrived in four days time to the said City, which was on the 8th of July, 1644.”
Half a dozen lords, a bishop, and a good many of his relations and friends, including his brother and two sons, sailed with Newcastle.
“But before My Lord landed at Hamborough his eldest Son Charles, Lord Mansfield, fell sick of the Small Pox, and not long after his younger Son, Henry, now Earl of Ogle, fell likewise dangerously ill of the Measels; but it pleased God that they both happily recovered.”