“I hope the supplies your Lordship labours for with so much diligence will yet come seasonably for the relief of Chester, notwithstanding the rumours raised here of the taking of it; but of this and the rest of the 10,000 men I can say no more than I lately have done, in a letter commended to Mr. Browne’s conveyance.” And in a letter of the 26th of March, he observes:-- “By intercepted letters of the 16th (Feb.) of this month out of the North, I find it confirmed that Chester held out, and was not delivered on the second, as was confidently written hither out of North Wales by some that desired it should not be relieved; but it will infallibly be lost if the succours be not speedily sent.” And also writes desiring to be informed when the shipping and men will be in readiness. Again the Earl addressed the Lord Lieutenant on the 24th:--[J] “MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, “I am now setting foot in stirrup for Waterford, having made an embargo of all the shipping there, at Wexford, and all other places of that coast, towards the exportation of six thousand men, and have likewise sent an express to St. Ives and Falmouth for shipping, either to convoy or to help to transport these men. And if your Excellency please to inform yourself what may be done to forward this business out of Dublin, I shall not fail to see performed any agreement your Excellency shall make, whose zeal to the service I know to be such as that it were vanity in me to recommend it unto you. I will, therefore, only desire to know your Excellency’s pleasure as soon as may be, and as it is my part, so it is my affection always to obey you, and ever to remain, “Your Excellency’s, &c. “GLAMORGAN. “Kilkenny, the 24th Feb. 1645.” These letters seem at variance with the statement made by Dr. Birch and others, that “the Earl left Oxford, in March, 1644–5, in company with Sir Brian O’Neile and some Romish Priests, and went to Wales;”[K][22] unless we suppose he went to Ireland in December or January, and returned to England sometime in February or March, which, although not impossible, yet was a matter not so easily accomplished in those times and under existing circumstances. It is possible, however, that his own private, and the urgency of public affairs, might induce his setting out early to arrange the one, and to settle preliminaries in the other; for this latter purpose he would certainly require his commissions of the 6th and 12th of January, 1644–5. Then in March, 1644–5, being returned from Ireland, he waits on his Majesty at Oxford, and receives from him his Warrant of the 12th of March, and on the 1st of April his extraordinary and ever-memorable patent; than which nothing could possibly show more convincingly his Majesty’s surpassing confidence in the newly-created Earl, and his determination to “answer for his judgment.”