WEYMOUTH AND THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 211 



many of these being official, I see no reason to doubt their 

 general accuracy. Of the sources referred to, I would 

 particularly specify two rare Commonwealth pamphlets of 

 which I possess copies, one being a relation of the siege, &c.,* 

 by Peter Ince (before referred to), and the other a report of 

 certain examinations taken before a Council of War at 

 Weymouth, in March, 1645. f 



It appears that, as early as Christmas, 1644, Fabian Hodder, 

 a merchant and staunch Melcombe Royalist, was in secret 

 communication with Sir Lewis Dyve, then stationed at 

 Sherborne, and afterwards with Sir William Hastings, the 

 Royalist Governor of Portland Castle. This was a risky 

 business, and so the correspondence was carried on by 

 Weymouth women, they being less likely to be suspected. J 

 John Cade, an Alderman of Melcombe, who had served 

 as a Captain in the Royalist forces, and John Mills, one of 

 the Town Constables, were two other chief plotters. In 

 consequence of Hodder's appeals, Sir Lewis Dyve promised 

 that he would come with 1,500 Horse and Foot, about mid- 

 night on Sunday, the 9th February, 1644-5, to surprise 

 Melcombe, and that he would give the plotters (according 

 to the confession of one of them at the Council of War 



* " A Brief Relation of the Surprise of the Forts of Weymouth, the Siege 

 of Melcombe, the Recovery of the Forts and Raising of the Siege." By P. I., 

 Minister to the Garrison, 1644 [March 20]. King's Pamphlets, Vol. 198, No. 7. 



f " The last Speeches and Confession of Captain John Cade and John Mils, 

 Constable ; who were hanged at Waymouth for endeavouring to betray that 

 Garrison to the enemy with all the severall examinations of the Plotters and 

 the sentences denounced against them and others of the said Conspiracie. 

 By W. Sydenham, Col. ; Governor of Waymouth and Captain William Batten, 

 Vice-Admirall of the Navie and the rest of the Counsell of War at Waymouth 

 1645 " [March 27]. King's Pamphlets, Vol. 198, No. 28. 



J The bearers of Royalist messages from persons of high rank and import- 

 ance were sometimes given " tongue tokens," as a proof of the genuineness of 

 the bearers, when no written word could be risked. These tokens were 

 tiny ovals of gold, small enough to be put under the tongue in case of need, 

 with the head of Charles on one side and his initials on the other. 



