170

JTTSTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XV.

Edmund

Ludlow-

resolved to present to the King an address requesting thatten thousand pounds might be distributed among the familieswhose sufferings had been so touchingly described. The nextday it was rumoured about the benches that Walker was in thelobby. He was called in. The Speaker, with great dignity andgrace, informed him that the House had made haste to complywith his request, commended him in high terms for havingtaken on himself to govern and defend a city betrayed by itsproper governors and defenders, and charged him to tell thosewho had fought under him that their fidelity and valour wouldalways be held in grateful remembrance by the Commons ofEngland*

About the same time the course of parliamentary businesswas diversified by another curious and interesting episode,which, like the former, sprang out of the events of the Irishwar. In the preceding spring, when every messenger fromIreland brought evil tidings, and when the authority of Jameswas acknowledged in every part of that kingdom, exceptbehind the ramparts of Londonderry and on the banks ofLough Erne, it was natural that Englishmen should rememberwith how terrible an energy the great Puritan warriors of thepreceding generation had crushed the insurrection of the Celticrace. The names of Cromw'ell, of Ireton, and of the otherchiefs of the conquering army, were in many mouths. Oneof those chiefs, Edmund Ludlow’, was still living. At twentytw’o he had served as a volunteer in the parliamentary army; atthirty he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant General. He wasnow old; but the vigour of his mind was unimpaired. His cou-rage was of the truest temper; his understanding strong, butnarrow. What he saw’ he saw clearly: but he saw not much ata glance. In an age of perfidy and levity, he had, amidst mani-

* Commons’ Journals, November 18. and 19. 1G89; and Grey’s De-bates.