'Truro, this 18th May, 1643.
6 o'clock, ready to march.
'Dearest Soule,
'Oh, deare Soule, prayse God everlastingly. Reade this enclosed, ring out the bells, rayse bonfyres, publish these joyfull tydings. Believe these truths, excuse my writing larger,[54] I have no tyme; wee march on to meete our victorious friends, and to seaze all the rebells left, if wee can finde such livinge. Your dutyous prayers God hass heard. Bless us accordingly, pray everlastingly, and Jane, and Betty, and all you owne. Thy owne
'Frs. Basset.'
'Pray let my cousin Harry know these joyful blessings. Send word to the ports south and north, to searche narrowly for all strangers travellinge for passage, and cause the keepinge them close and safe.
'To my dearest, dearest friend Mrs. Basset att the Mount. Speede this, haste, haste.'
The foregoing letter appears to me to be interesting, not only as showing the loving terms on which the wife and husband were, but also as indicating the tension of feeling which existed in Cornwall at this critical period in Charles's affairs. We may be sure that Francis Basset and his men pushed forward rapidly on the receipt of this good news, and that he determined not to lose the chance of being present at the next engagement when the banners of King and Parliament were again to float in defiance against each other. Accordingly we find him on the field of Braddock soon after,[55] and again, after the fight, chronicling another victory in the following impassioned terms to his wife. Notice that he was now knighted, and the change of style in which he addresses 'my lady' at 'her Tehidy:'
'Thanks to our Jesus.
'Dearest Hartt.