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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Down and out
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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