LETTER OF THE MONTH
Down and out
Reading about Roger Mortimer's 14thcentury escape from the Tower of London (The King of Folly, August) reminded me of another remarkable breakout from the fortress – with equally dramatic consequences. In April 1660, John Lambert, the Roundhead major general imprisoned by the new pro-royalist government, clambered down a silk rope which had been smuggled into his cell and slipped away on a boat waiting for him on the Thames.
A chambermaid wearing Lambert's nightcap took his place in his curtained bed and prevented the alarm
