f absolutely penniless.
His estate of about 200L. per annum had been sequestrated and sold by
the government;[11] his house in Worcester had been seized and his
sickly wife turned out of doors; and his goods, stock, great shop, and
ironworks, which he himself valued at 2000L., were destroyed. He had
also lost the offices of Serjeant-at-arms, Lieutenant of Ordnance, and
Surveyor of the Mews, which he had held under the king; in a word, he
found himself reduced to a state of utter destitution.

Dudley was for some time under the necessity of living in great privacy
at Bristol; but when the king had been executed, and the royalists were
finally crushed at Worcester, Dud gradually emerged from his
concealment. He was still the sole possessor of the grand secret of
smelting iron with pit-coal, and he resolved upon one more commercial
adventure, in the hope of yet turning it to good account. He succeeded
in inducing Walter Stevens, linendraper, and John Stone, merchant, both
of Bristol, to join him as partners in an ironwork, which they
proceeded to erect near that city. The buildings were well advanced,
and nearly 700L. had been expended, when a quarrel occurred between
Dudley and his partners, which ended in the stoppage of the works, and
the concern being thrown into Chancery. Dudley alleges that the other
partners "cunningly drew him into a bond," and "did unjustly enter
staple actions in Bristol of great value against him, because he was of
the king's party;" but it would appear as if there had been some twist
or infirmity of temper in Dudley himself, which prevented him from
working harmoniously with such persons as he became associated with in
affairs of business.

In the mean time other attempts were made to smelt iron with pit-coal.
Dudley says that Cromwell and the then Parliament granted a patent to
Captain Buck for the purpose; and that Cromwell himself, Major Wildman,
and various others were partners in the patent. They erected furnaces
and works in the Forest of Dean;[12] but, though Cromwell and his
officers could fight and win battles, they could not smelt and forge
iron with pit-coal. They brought one Dagney, an Italian glass-maker,
from Bristol, to erect a new furnace for them, provided with sundry
pots of glass-house clay; but no success attended their efforts. The
partners knowing of Dudley's possession of the grand secret, invited
him to visit their works; but all they could draw from him was tha