The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 5
Of Captain Nelson I know nothing; seem to see an uncertain shadow of him turn up again, after years of industrious fighting under Irish Inchiquin and others, still a mere Captain, still terribly in arrear even as to pay.[1] ‘It’s pity a Gentleman of his affections should be discouraged!’ ‘The Deputy Lieutenants,‘ Suffolk Committee, could be named, if there were room.[2] The ‘business for Norfolk’ we guess to be, as usual, Delinquents,—symptoms of delinquent Royalists getting to a head.
To my honoured friends the Deputy Lieutenants for the County of Suffolk
Gentlemen,—I am sorry I should so often trouble you about the business of money: it’s no pleasant subject to be too frequent upon. But such is Captain Nelson’s occasion, for want thereof, that he hath not wherewith to satisfy for the billet of his soldiers; and so this Business for Norfolk, so hopeful to set all right there, may fail. Truly he hath borrowed from me, else he could not have paid to discharge this Town at his departure.
It’s pity a Gentleman of his affections should be discouraged! Wherefore I earnestly beseech you to consider him and the Cause. It’s honourable that you do so.—What you can help him to, be pleased to send into Norfolk; he hath not wherewith to pay a Troop one day, as he tells me. Let your return be speedy,—to Norwich. Gentlemen, command your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.
“P.S.” I hope to serve you in my return: with your conjunction, we shall quickly put an end to these businesses, the Lord assisting.[3]
By certain official docketings on this same Letter, it appears that Captain Nelson did receive his 100l.; touched it promptly on the morrow, ‘11th March;—I say received: Joun Netson.” How the Norfolk businesses proceeded, and what end they came to in Suffolk itself, we shall now see.