Middleton, who was eighty years old, fled to Chirk Castle; and,
after a defence of a few days, capitulated,[b] on condition that he should
have two months to make his peace with the parliament.[1]
The news of this disaster reached the duke of York at Boulogne, fortunately
on the very evening on which he was to have embarked with his men. Charles
received it at Rochelle, whither he had been compelled to proceed in search
of a vessel to convey him to Wales. Abandoning the hopeless project, he
instantly continued his journey to the congress at Fuentarabia, with the
delusive expectation that, on the conclusion of peace between the two
crowns, he should obtain a supply of money, and perhaps still more
substantial aid, from a personal interview with the ministers, Cardinal
Mazarin and Don Louis de Haro.[2] Montague, who had but recently become a
proselyte to the royal cause,
[Footnote 1: Clar. Hist. iii. 672-675. Clar. Pap. iii. 673, 674. Ludlow,
ii. 223. Whitelock, 683. Carte's Letters, 194, 202. Lambert's Letter,
printed for Thomas Neucombe, 1659.]
[Footnote 2: Both promised to aid him secretly, but not in such manner as
to give offence to the ruling party in England.--Clar. Pap. iii. 642.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August.
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