I Can judge no other to be the Author of that ridiculous Pamphlet, wherein I am so much mentioned, but one John Elliot; who to satisfie his unsatiable desire, hath thus mask'd himself in a dark Scene, (without name) being ashamed to own such falshood as is there set forth. I delight not to speak any thing of my own wel-doing, but to remove those base aspersions cast upon me (by inveterate enemies to me, and all those that first affected the Parliament) somewhat I shall briefly say.

[Page 2]I praise God, for though I boast not of my Parents, yet it's well known they were not such as did accompany the Relator Elliots Father from place to place for livelihood: And whosoever shall look upon former Subsi [...]i [...] Rolls, and the Subsidies granted in the be­ginning of this Parliament, shall find me an high Collector, and equal­ly charged with his Worship; who hath succeeded so well in his false Informations, that he beleeves to be credited beyond Records. The best Gentleman in the Town of Pembroke bound his Son to be my Apprentice, my dealings being in Wooll, Corn, Skins, Butter, and Tallow; and it is well known, I imployed more poor on work in making of Cloth then any man in that Country; and that I dealt in these Commodities with Merchants of B [...]istol for many thousands yeerly, and have given them full satisfaction in all things.

That for sixteen yeers together I was thought worthy to have the command of the Trained Bands of the Town of Pembroke, where­in I gained the love of those Inhabitants generally; that when the unhappy differences first began, they did unanimously joys with me (by the encouragement of some noble Gentlemen) [...]o pre­serve and fortifie the Town and Castle of Pembroke to the use of the Parliament (the Castle being my right (long before these trou­bles) as Captain Cowney can justifie when all other Towns and Counties in Wales were against the Parliament. It is also evident­ly known, how I have promoted and endeavoured the Parliaments Interest in that Country, by raising one Troop of Horse, two Troops of Dragoons, and three Foot-Companies, all armed in their Ser­vice: by fortifying severall Garisons, and furnishing them with Ordnance, Arms, Men, Victuals and Ammunition: By relieving the Protestants in Dublin and Yaughall in their extremities: By taking Irish Rebels, Priests and Papists (which the Relator Eliot terms well-affected:) By taking two of the Kings Men of War, and by assisting and encouraging the Parliaments Ships within the Harbour of Milford. For these and many other Services the House of Commons was pleased to Order I should receive Thanks.

As for the aspersion cast upon me for an irreligious Person, it is well known, my Religion to be such as is professed by the Church of England, I refer my self to divers worthy Divines and Gentlemen; whereof some of them are now Members both of the Parliament and Armie, who knew my life and conversation, and had encouragement from me for shelter, when they and my self were persecuted and prosecuted for our Religion by the said Eliot [Page 3]and other of the Kings partie, and can justifie those Aspersions cast upon me, to be altogether false, scandalous and untrue.

Whereas it is all eadged in that lying Pamphlet, that I did plunder Roger Lort, and others wel affected to the Parliament; and that I seized upon Ships and Goods of the wel-affected, (viz. Papists) ha­ving the Kings Commission) and have pursed it to my own use, be­ing no lawfull prize.

I wonder with what impudence their Solicitor Elliot, can charge me with the plundering of Col. Lorts house, it being well known to hundreds in this City, that the said Lort fortified his house against the Parliament; and I being commanded to assist Major Generall Laughorn, Col. Powell and others, to goe and besiege the said Lorts house so fortified against the Parliament, who did with the effusion of much bloud, take it upon Storm, to the use of the Parliament, and what was taken by the Souldiers in the heat of blood, cannot be imputed to our dishonour.

And for that aspersion concerning the Ships, it is likewise well known that they were the one Commissioned by the Marquesse of Ormond, and the other by Sir John Pennington to be Men of Warre against the Parliament, as by their Commissions appeareth; one of those Ships and goods, (except the Ordnance, Arms, and Ammu­nition) was by order of the Earl of Warwick sent to Dover, and the other Ship rescued by the Kings men of Warre, invited to that Harbor by the Relator Elliot, Roger Lort, and their Confederates; It cannot be made appear that I advantaged my self Six pence by those Ships, much less 6000 l. as Elliot fa [...]sly alleadgeth; nor can they make it justly appear, that ever I took the goods of any [...], though Roger Lort did plunder (or steal) the Goods of Capt. Cowney and others for their wel-affection to the Parliament, and converted them to his own use without any satisfaction to the owner.

Reader, I shall acquaint you a little further, how that Roger Lort, Sampson Lort, and John Lort, would have drawn me to their trea­cherous Confederacy in the year 1644 being shortly after their comming in to Major Generall Langhorn, inviting me to a feast, where great shew of kindness was offered by them, the conclusion was, to engage me to joyn with them against Major Generall Langhorn and his party, and they would procure me the Kings Commission to Command the Towns of Pembrook and T [...], with the Country thereabo [...]d, this was presently after the [...] given the Earl of Essex in the West, though they were then named Com­mittee-men for the Parliament.

[Page 4]The Relator Elliot, saith, That I was not put forth of my Com­mands by the Parliament, yet telleth what I did was without Com­mission. It is known to most of the well-affected in South-wales, how the Relator Elliot, Roger Lort, Sampson Lort, and their party, have prosecuted me and the rest of the Souldiery in that Countrey; Mr. Sollcitor Generall Cooke may be pleased to remember (who was then my Councell) much of the passages of that Faction; and how rigorously they did prosecute me, and did cause me to be Arrested in 2000 l. Action, and cast in prison to hinder my lawful proceedings against them; and I being afterwards freed from that unjust Arrest, without paying of Fees; which so wrought with Elliot, that he procured another Writ to be delivered to the Bailiff of Westminster, immediately on the discharge of my former troubles, he conceiving me not out of custody, thought thereby to have continued his enter­prise; and on a new Rising in Glamorganshire I was commanded to my Charge, where being come to the County of Pembrooke, the Lorts did set upon me severall times in the high-way, likewise at­tempted to have murthered me in the Church, and did with the Re­lator Eliot, combine together that no indempnity should be granted me, as by their Letters may appear. And whereas they charge me with disobeying of his Excellencies the Lord Generals Orders, it is to be proved, that (in obedience to his Excellencies Order) I was coming to the head-Quarters to give accompt of all particulars: Ro­ger Lort and his Confederates finding my inclination of an appeal to his Excellency, did send forth an Hue and Crie, and divers Warrants from the high Sheriff of the county to apprehend me, & to keep close watch and wards on all the high ways, to intercept my going to the head-Quarters; and shortly after (without any Order from the Par­ment or his Excellency) to render me more odious in the eye of all people) proclaimed me Traitor. All which considered, might well give me caution to stand upon my guard against those bloudy Rebels, who were (as aforesaid) reduced to the obedience of the Parliament.

That Roger Lort, Samson Lort, James Lewis, John Lout, and their Confederates, contrary to an order of free debate unanimously agreed upon by the Committee of Pembroke-shire, kept and maintained (up­on the publick charge) the Relator Eliot here in London these three or four yeers, to be Solicitor for them and cloak their knavery: un­der colour of which imployments, they have procured unto him ma­ny hundreds of pounds, with which he hath clad himself in fine garbs, (viz. Scarlet, gold Lace, silver and gold Buttons, &c.) although he had not a cloak to wear when he went to Oxford to be Knighted [Page 5]for betraying the Town and Castle of Tenby to the Kings party; his habit and visard being such, that the King would not afford him the title of Sir John Eliot, though he much laboured it; his monies being so short to pay the fees of Knighthood, that he returned home with his Title of Honour, called the Jeppo Gentleman.

The Relator Eliot having not wearied himself with lies in his Pamphlet, he adds one more, and such a one as he hopes will strike home to my reputation and destruction: His malice resteth not upon me onely, but upon my poor Wife and Children, making my Wife a Whore, and my Children Bastards. But Relator, be thou assured to give a good accompt (above all the rest) of this base slander. I do very well know how thou thirstest after my bloud; and if thou obtain thy longing desire to glution thy self with it, be assured that God will finde means to right my Wife and Children, whom thou and thy Confederates have so evidently wronged. Relator, thou dost not well, to charge the innocent, and let the guilty go free: Remember thy Sisters, and thy best friends of the female sort. Eliot, was it not a merry time at Carmarthen, when a Insty Cavalier courted a bonny Lass? Fie, be more modest then to beleeve that any woman went 13 months, and the honest Doctor Millard must not administer after so great a Club. Eliot, hadst thou look'd about thee when thou wentest into the County of Pembroke with thy dark Lanthorn, and wast for thy false Services feasted by thy Masters, Roger Lort and James Lewis, thou mightest have seen many Bastards, a lovely Lasse feasted, and the poor Wife starved.

The Relator makes men (if he could) beleeve, that all the old Ca­valiers and his turn-coat Friends are faithful men to the Parliament; and most shamefully denies that himself or his Confederates were Commissioners of Array, or ever for the Kings party; I doubt not but to make it evidently appear, that they were chief Agents, prime Actors and Abettors of Judge Jenkins and others; that did proclaim my self and severall Gentlemen of the County of Pembroke Traitors for acting in the Service of the Parliament.

The Relator further saith, That one of my Friends is sequestred for sitting in the Juncto at Oxford, citing Sir Hugh Owen Knight and Baronet; whom I grant, was both my friend and the States, in preservin the Parliaments Interest against the Relator Eliot and his Confederates, for which he was proclaimed Traitor, and carried prisoner to Oxfora; and if Eliot be pleased to remember his own being, and the passages there, he could tell, that Sir Hugh Owen (for [Page 6]not joyning with him and his Confederates, was sent close prisoner to Wastingford, and afterwards remanded into the County to be [...]y­ed by Commission of Oyer and Termin [...]r for his life; and upon suc­cesse of the Parliaments Forces in Pembroke-shire, carried prisoner back to Oxford: but for his sitting in the Juncto, as I do not beleeve it, so I can soy nothing to it, not finding him incerted amongst the rest that sate there, in the Book of Ordinances printed by the Au­thority of Parliament: As for his Sequestration likewise, I can say little, it being long after I was a prisoner; onely I have heard that those that formerly for his Service to the Parliament fought his life, did now sequester him; and their main Witnesse and Se­questrator was one Rees ap Rees Gerrard's Hangman, and now in­t [...]led their loving friend; who before these unhappy Differences had suffered the Pillory for false Oathes; A fit instrument for their justice, and one that they delight much in his company.

For the Mountebanks losses, the Relator speakes of himself and his Confederates, I can say little having formerly fully answered their gaines, out of their Countries ruine, and their own perticular; it is known to to the whole County where he lived, that the Port and Garbe which he now lives in, could not be maintained in the best of times by his Revenue: And that he lived these twenty years generaly hated by all the honest hearted men in that Country, as being a temporiser, and sower of Sedition, having for lucar of pettie gaines, viz. a Cockshut, betraying the trust reposed in him, by the Tennants of Nerbert, who were his neighbours, and employd him as solicitor in a sute between them and the Lord of (the Manor.