souldieres eyther to disband or mutiny, or plunder, and then yo fault thereof wil be laied to my charge. God send ye Kinge mor monnie to go throw with his great worck in hande, and me free from blame and imputation."

Astley was, at different times, made Governor of various Royal Garrisons, and after the defeat of Naseby he was appointed Lieutenant General of the Royal forces in the West and on the Welsh Marshes.

At Worcester, many months after Rupert had surrendered Bristol, he collected a force of 3,000 men, with which he determined to join the King at Oxford, but his letters were intercepted and Sir Wm. Brereton and Colonel Morgan met him with an overwhelming force at Stow in the Wold, where, says Whitelocke, "after a sore conflict on both sides, Sir Jacob Astley was totally routed, himself taken prisoner, and 1,500 more horse and men, all their carriages, arms, and baggage taken. Morgan's word was "God be our guide," Astley's word was 'Patrick and George." ** Sir Jacob Astley, after he was prisoner, told some of the Parliament Officers, Now you have done your work, and may go play, unless you fall out among yourselves.'"

And so it was-for there was now no army in the field to battle for the Crown-the high spirit of the Cavaliers was broken; there was discord in their councils and indecision in their Court. Henceforth the banner of the King might float for a brief period over an isolated castle, or a remote town, but the struggle was virtually over, and the defeat of Astley was the immediate forerunner of the final overthrow. In a letter of 6th June, 1646, the King, writing to him, says "the greatest of my

misfortunes is that I cannot reward so gallant and loyal a subject as I ought and would.”

He had, indeed, created him Baron Astley of Reading, (a title selected from the circumstance that he was descended from Thomas Baron de Astley, who was slain at the battle of Evesham in the reign of Henry III.) but beyond that empty honour he had nothing to bestow; a fugitive in his own land, a wanderer among his own people, he was soon to become the captive of his enemies, and the victim of his most relentless foes.

Astley remained some months a prisoner, and then was amnestied by the Parliament. He never drew the sword again, but was gathered to his fathers at a ripe old age, leaving behind him a name honoured by men of both parties, and a reputation which calumny itself never ventured to asperse.

Henry Hastings, Lord Loughborough, was a man of a widely different stamp. A son of the Earl of Huntingdon, he had all the advantages which rank and wealth conferred in those days on a great family. He enjoyed some popularity in his own neighbourhood, and among his own retainers, and his character was fertile in resources, enterprising, and undaunted.

He appears to have combined in a singular degree loyalty to the King with regard for his own interests; and the feud between the houses of Huntingdon and Stamford was carried on by him very effectually when he took up arms for the Crown. He fortified his father's house at Ashby de la Zouche, and in a short time raised a force sufficient to enable him to hold in check Lord Grey, the eldest son of the Earl of Stamford-the "King's service,"

says Clarendon, "being the more advanced there, by the notable animosities between the two families of Huntingdon and Stamford, between whom the County was divided passionately enough, without any other quarrel.”

Clarendon notices his acts on three or four occasions; but Hastings does not figure in the stately portrait gallery the great historian has limned. We must gather our estimate of him from his acts, from the appreciation of his contemporaries, and from the letters which, written hastily and on the impulse of the moment, tell much of his disposition, h's temper, and his aims.

The silence of Clarendon is unfortunate. A man in the position of Hastings, and taking an energetic part in the war, was the natural object of more than a passing comment. Yet beyond admitting his activity, and the local importance of his adhesion to the Royal cause, there is hardly a word about him in the History of the Rebellion.

66

Warburton, however, regards him as deserving all admiration, and thus expresses himself of his favourite hero. Hastings was neither poor nor personally injured, it is true. He entered on the war with all the energy of a man who finds himself unexpectedly called. upon to exert his peculiar talent; he was the model of a partizan leader; he kept the whole country round his father's stronghold at Ashby de la Zouche in awe. He possessed no scruples; he bore a blue banner blazoned with a furnace, and the candid motto, "Qui ignis conflatoris "-well suited to his fiery and destructive career. The Parliamentary Journals call him "that notable thief and robber."

E

We confess very reluctantly to have come to the conclusion that the Parliamentary was the more correct estimate of Hastings; and, although we find in Warburton and elsewhere evidences of his audacity and zeal, he appears to have deserved the opprobrium he earned and failed to redeem his character by any striking deed of successful daring.

One of the acts of this determined partizan leader was to enter Leicester on 22nd June, 1642, "with banners displayed and matches burning, and to read the King's Commission of Array." The Sheriff immediately read the Parliamentary decree against this Commission, and two messengers from the Parliament endeavoured, though without success, to capture Hastings. The scene is thus described by the messengers :-" Then the Cavaliers and the rest of the soldiers joining with the rude multitude, and about 24 parsons in canonicals, wellhorsed, rode all towards the town with loud exclamations, 'A King! a King!' and others, 'For a King! for a King!' in a strange and unheard of manner, Captain Worsley giving the word of command to the soldiers,— 'Make ready, make ready; which, as they were proceeding to do, a sudden and extraordinary abundance of rain hindered the soldiers from firing * Then they followed Master Sheriff Chambers and Stanforth, crying out, 'At the cap! at the cap!' which was at that time on Chambers' head, and Master Hastings gave fire at Chambers with one of his petronels, but the same did not discharge."

*

Whitelocke's Memorials take the form of a diary, chronicling each day the events which were known in London; and in this work Hastings is constantly men

tioned, e. g.—The last entry for February, 1643-4, is, "Sir John Gell routed a party of the King's horse under Colonel Hastings, took 120 horse, many prisoners and their arms." Ten days later Whitelocke records that "the Clergy and others being summoned to Leicester to take the covenant, and very many of them coming in, Colonel Hastings with 400 of the King's horse roamed about the country, and took about 100 prisoners of those that were going to take the covenant, and drove the rest home again. Upon this, about 200 horse were sent from Leicester, who unexpectedly fell into the quarters of Hastings, rescued all the prisoners, dispersed his troops, took 50 of them prisoners, and 140 horse and arms.' According to the same historion an unusual misadventure befel him in the following October. "A party of Colonel Hastings his men came into Lougborough on the Lord's day, rode into church in sermon time, and would have taken the preacher away out of the pulpit, but the women rescued him, and proved then more valiant than their husbands, or Hastings his men."

It would be easy to multiply instances; but these which we have selected will suffice-they tell of a man whose energy was unrestrained by prudence, and whose enterprises were seldom illuminated by success.

Within three days after the defeat at Naseby, Hastings surrendered Leicester to Fairfax, an act which apparently displeased the King, for Whitelocke states on the following 13th August that "at Lichfield the King confined Colonel Hastings for delivering up of Leicester."

Lichfield had been captured by Rupert in April, 1643, after a gallant defence, and Colonel Henry Bagot