The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume I Part 34

Edward Dummer, Dryden's Hind and Panther, part II. The lines of Dryden are remarkable:

"Such were the pleasing triumphs of the sky For James's late nocturnal victory.

The fireworks which his angels made above.

The pledge of his almighty patron's love, I saw myself the lambent easy light Gild the brown horror and dispel the night.

The messenger with speed the tidings bore.

News which three labouring nations did restore; But heaven's own Nuntius was arrived before.']

[Footnote 412: It has been said by several writers, and among them by Pennant, that the district in London called Soho derived its name from the watchword of Monmouth's army at Sedgemoor. Mention of Soho Fields will be found in many books printed before the Western insurrection; for example, in Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.]

[Footnote 413: There is a warrant of James directing that forty pounds should be paid to Sergeant Weems, of Dumbarton's regiment, "for good service in the action at Sedgemoor in firing the great guns against the rebels." Historical Record of the First or Royal Regiment of Foot.]

[Footnote 414: James the Second's account of the battle of Sedgemoor in Lord Hardwicke's State Papers; Wade's Confession; Ferguson's MS.

Narrative in Eachard, iii. 768; Narrative of an Officer of the Horse Guards in Kennet, ed. 1719, iii. 432, London Gazette, July 9, 1685; Oldmixon, 703; Paschall's Narrative; Burnet, i. 643; Evelyn's Diary, July 8; Van Citters,.July 7-17; Barillon, July 9-19; Reresby's Memoirs; the Duke of Buckingham's battle of Sedgemoor, a Farce; MS. Journal of the Western Rebellion, kept by Mr. Edward Dummer, then serving in the train of artillery employed by His Majesty for the suppression of the same. The last mentioned ma.n.u.script is in the Pepysian library, and is of the greatest value, not on account of the narrative, which contains little that is remarkable, but on account of the plans, which exhibit the battle in four or five different stages.]

"The history of a battle," says the greatest of living generals, "is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance..... Just to show you how little reliance can be placed even on what are supposed the best accounts of a battle, I mention that there are some circ.u.mstances mentioned in General--'s account which did not occur as he relates them. It is impossible to say when each important occurrence took place, or in what order."--Wellington Papers, Aug. 8, and 17, 1815.---- The battle concerning which the Duke of Wellington wrote thus was that of Waterloo, fought only a few weeks before, by broad day, under his own vigilant and experienced eye.

What then must be the difficulty of compiling from twelve or thirteen narratives an account of a battle fought more than a hundred and sixty years ago in such darkness that not a man of those engaged could see fifty paces before him? The difficulty is aggravated by the circ.u.mstance that those witnesses who had the best opportunity of knowing the truth were by no means inclined to tell it. The Paper which I have placed at the head of my list of authorities was evidently drawn up with extreme partiality to Feversham. Wade was writing under the dread of the halter.

Ferguson, who was seldom scrupulous about the truth of his a.s.sertions, lied on this occasion like Bobadil or Parolles. Oldmixon, who was a boy at Bridgewater when the battle was fought, and pa.s.sed a great part of his subsequent life there, was so much under the influence of local pa.s.sions that his local information was useless to him. His desire to magnify the valour of the Somersetshire peasants, a valour which their enemies acknowledged and which did not need to be set off by exaggeration and fiction, led him to compose an absurd romance. The eulogy which Barillon, a Frenchman accustomed to despise raw levies, p.r.o.nounced on the vanquished army, is of much more value, "Son infanterie fit fort bien. On eut de la peine a les rompre, et les soldats combattoient avec les crosses de mousquet et les scies qu'ils avoient au bout de grands bastons au lieu de picques."---- Little is now to be learned by visiting the field of battle for the face of the country has been greatly changed; and the old Buss.e.x Rhine on the banks of which the great struggle took place, has long disappeared. The rhine now called by that name is of later date, and takes a different course.---- I have derived much a.s.sistance from Mr. Roberts's account of the battle. Life of Monmouth, chap. xxii. His narrative is in the main confirmed by Dummer's plans.]

[Footnote 415: I learned these things from persons living close to Sedgemoor.]

[Footnote 416: Oldmixon, 704.]

[Footnote 417: Locke's Western Rebellion Stradling's Chilton Priory.]

[Footnote 418: Locke's Western Rebellion Stradling's Chilton Priory; Oldmixon, 704.]

[Footnote 419: Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, 1691.]

[Footnote 420: Account of the manner of taking the late Duke of Monmouth, published by his Majesty's command; Gazette de France, July 18-28, 1688; Eachard, iii. 770; Burnet, i. 664, and Dartmouth's note: Van Citters, July 10-20,1688.]

[Footnote 421: The letter to the King was printed at the time by authority; that to the Queen Dowager will be found in Sir H. Ellis's Original Letters; that to Rochester in the Clarendon Correspondence.]

[Footnote 422: "On trouve," he wrote, "fort a redire icy qu'il ayt fait une chose si peu ordinaire aux Anglois." July 13-23, 1685.]

[Footnote 423: Account of the manner of taking the Duke of Monmouth; Gazette, July 16, 1685; Van Citters, July 14-24,]

[Footnote 424: Barillon was evidently much shocked. "Ill se vient," he says, "de pa.s.ser icy, une chose bien extraordinaire et fort opposee a l'usage ordinaire des autres nations" 13-23, 1685.]

[Footnote 425: Burnet. i. 644; Evelyn's Diary, July 15; Sir J.

Bramston's Memoirs; Reresby's Memoirs; James to the Prince of Orange, July 14, 1685; Barillon, July 16-26; Bucclench MS.]

[Footnote 426: James to the Prince of Orange, July 14, 1685, Dutch Despatch of the same date, Dartmouth's note on Burnet, i. 646; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, (1848) a copy of this diary, from July 1685 to Sept.

1690, is among the Mackintosh papers. To the rest I was allowed access by the kindness of the Warden of All Souls' College, where the original MS. is deposited. The delegates of the Press of the University of Oxford have since published the whole in six substantial volumes, which will, I am afraid, find little favour with readers who seek only for amus.e.m.e.nt, but which will always be useful as materials for history. (1857.)]

[Footnote 427: Buccleuch MS; Life of James the Second, ii. 37, Orig.

Mem., Van Citters, July 14-24, 1685; Gazette de France, August 1-11.]

[Footnote 428: Buccleuch MS.; Life of James the Second, ii. 37, 38, Orig. Mem., Burnet, i. 645; Tenison's account in Kennet, iii. 432, ed.

1719.]

[Footnote 429: Buccleuch MS.]

[Footnote 430: The name of Ketch was often a.s.sociated with that of Jeffreys in the lampoons of those days.

"While Jeffreys on the bench, Ketch on the gibbet sits,"

says one poet. In the year which followed Monmouth's execution Ketch was turned out of his office for insulting one of the Sheriffs, and was succeeded by a butcher named Rose. But in four months Rose himself was hanged at Tyburn, and Ketch was reinstated. Luttrell's Diary, January 20, and May 28, 1686. See a curious note by Dr. Grey, on Hudibras, part iii. canto ii. line 1534.]

[Footnote 431: Account of the execution of Monmouth, signed by the divines who attended him; Buccleuch MS; Burnet, i. 646; Van Citters, July 17-27,1685, Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, July 15; Barillon, July 19-29.]

[Footnote 432: I cannot refrain from expressing my disgust at the barbarous stupidity which has transformed this most interesting little church into the likeness of a meetinghouse in a manufacturing town.]

[Footnote 433: Observator, August 1, 1685; Gazette de France, Nov. 2, 1686; Letter from Humphrey Wanley, dated Aug. 25, 1698, in the Aubrey Collection; Voltaire, Dict. Phil. There are, in the Pepysian Collection, several ballads written after Monmouth's death which represent him as living, and predict his speedy return. I will give two specimens.

"Though this is a dismal story Of the fall of my design, Yet I'll come again in glory, If I live till eighty-nine: For I'll have a stronger army And of ammunition store."

Again;

"Then shall Monmouth in his glories Unto his English friends appear, And will stifle all such stories As are vended everywhere.

"They'll see I was not so degraded, To be taken gathering pease, Or in a c.o.c.k of hay up braided.

What strange stories now are these!"]

[Footnote 434: London Gazette, August 3, 1685; the Battle of Sedgemoor, a Farce.]

[Footnote 435: Pepys's Diary, kept at Tangier; Historical Records of the Second or Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot.]

[Footnote 436: b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes, Burnet, i. 647; Luttrell's Diary, July 15, 1685; Locke's Western Rebellion; Toulmin's History of Taunton, edited by Savage.]

[Footnote 437: Luttrell's Diary, July 15, 1685; Toulmin's Hist. of Taunton.]

[Footnote 438: Oldmixon, 705; Life and Errors of John Dunton, chap.

vii.]

[Footnote 439: The silence of Whig writers so credulous and so malevolent as Oldmixon and the compilers of the Western Martyrology would alone seem to me to settle the question. It also deserves to be remarked that the story of Rhynsault is told by Steele in the Spectator, No. 491. Surely it is hardly possible to believe that, if a crime exactly resembling that of Rhynsault had been committed within living memory in England by an officer of James the Second, Steele, who was indiscreetly and unseasonably forward to display his Whiggism, would have made no allusion to that fact. For the case of Lebon, see the Moniteur, 4 Messidor, l'an 3.]

[Footnote 440: Sunderland to Kirke, July 14 and 28, 1685. "His Majesty,"

says Sunderland, "commands me to signify to you his dislike of these proceedings, and desires you to take care that no person concerned in the rebellion be at large." It is but just to add that, in the same letter, Kirke is blamed for allowing his soldiers to live at free quarter.]

[Footnote 441: I should be very glad if I could give credit to the popular story that Ken, immediately after the battle of Sedgemoor, represented to the chiefs of the royal army the illegality of military executions. He would, I doubt not, have exerted all his influence on the side of law and of mercy, if he had been present. But there is no trustworthy evidence that he was then in the West at all. Indeed what we know about his proceedings at this time amounts very nearly to proof of an alibi. It is certain from the Journals of the House of Lords that, on the Thursday before the battle, he was at Westminster, it is equally certain that, on the Monday after the battle, he was with Monmouth in the Tower; and, in that age, a journey from London to Bridgewater and back again was no light thing.]

[Footnote 442: North's Life of Guildford, 260, 263, 273; Mackintosh's View of the Reign of James the Second, page 16, note; Letter of Jeffreys to Sunderland, Sept. 5, 1685.]

[Footnote 443: See the preamble of the Act of Parliament reversing her attainder.]

[Footnote 444: Trial of Alice Lisle in the Collection of State Trials; Act of the First of William and Mary for annulling and making void the Attainder of Alice Lisle widow; Burnet, i. 649; Caveat against the Whigs.]

[Footnote 445: b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes.]

[Footnote 446: Locke's Western Rebellion.]