[Line: 179 The particular bearer of this name of evil repute
in Parliamentary history was Alexander Rigby (1594-1650). He
had a brother, Joseph, whose politics were as bad as his own,
but who survived the Restoration, and seems to have had a
touch of the 'crank' in him. I have not yet come across his
_Drunkard's Prospective_ (1656), but it should be agreeable.]
[Line: 183 The savagery of the two-to-one victors at
Naseby--especially towards the hapless so-called 'Irishwomen'
camp followers--is beyond question, but it does not seem
proved that there was much selling of prisoners then. As for
St. Fagan's in the second Civil War the case is different, and
justifies the following note in the original: 'At St. Fagan's
in Glamorganshire, near Cardiff, the Welsh unarmed were taken
in very great numbers, and sold for twelve pence apiece
to certain merchants, who bought them for slaves to their
plantations.']
[Line: 188 aspers] A Turkish coin of the smallest value: the
120th part of a piastre or dollar.]
[Line: 201 murd'rous crew] [Grimes, now a Captain, formerly
a tinker at St. Albans, with his own hand killed four of the
prisoners, being not able for faintness to go on with the
rest, of which number Lieutenant Woodward was one. Likewise
at Thame, and at Whateley ( = Wheatley), some others were
killed.] This story is backed up by not a few similar ones
in different accounts of the time. And indeed, as King very
cogently goes on to argue, your tinker-captain is capable of
anything.]
[Line: 222 It was Sir Horace Vere (1565-1635), afterwards Lord
Vere of Tilbury, under whom Fairfax served, and whose daughter
Anne he married.]
[Line: 231 Whalley (spelt, as often with the name, Whaley in
printed original) is cleared by others, though he is said
by them as by King to have been present and to have had
some private grudge against Lisle. Lucas had not only thrown
Fairfax's troops into disorder at Marston Moor but is said
by some to have actually wounded him in the face. He had also
held Berkeley Castle against Rans- or Ra_in_sborough till
the outworks were taken, and the guns turned from them on
the Castle itself. Rainsborough, with Whalley and Ireton,
was actually present at the execution--which as a duty could
hardly be incumbent on all three, and with which they were
often reproached; and as a matter of course Rainsborough's
death shortly afterwards was counted as a 'judgement'. His
father had been an officer in the Navy, and the son commanded
both by sea and land.]
[Line: 284 Algol] A star of great but varying brightness, the
name of which--'The _ghoul_'--and its position in the head of
Medusa in the constellation Perseus, explains the text.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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