they deemed weak or self-interested, they constituted in turn the strength and the terror of the different parties, all successively compelled to make use of and to deceive them."

This party became the turning-point in the history, both of Charles and Cromwell. Of Cromwell, because they became suspicious of his intercourse with the king, and the frequent visits he received from the royalist agents; and these doubts were increased by the indiscretion of Charles's friends, who had whispered the king's intentions to confer on Cromwell a peerage, and to offer to Ireton the government of Ireland. John Lilburne, Crom well's old friend, threatened to use all his power and influence against him; and in the meetings among the soldiery, his ambition, treachery, and deceit, were every where spoken of. In truth, a mutiny was already begun in the army. The adjutators of eleven regiments, including that of Cromwell's, presented, Oct. 18, to the general two papers-one, "The Case of the Army", the other, The Agreement of the People", containing a statement of grievances and a new constitution, in which no mention was made of king or lords. Cromwell and Ireton opposed their demands, but the council of officers decided that no more addresses should be made to the king. The Levellers proposed to take the king out of Cromwell's hands. Cromwell was now in perplexity; the time had come when he must choose between Charles and the revolutionary party. What determined his choice is not clear. His enemies charge him with a scheme of ambition reaching far back, and that this movement in the army was of his promoting, in order to further his designs. This would be a satisfactory explanation, if it rested upon sufficient evidence, which it does not. Others account for it by the story of an intercepted letter that fell into Cromwell's hands in October, in which Charles writing to his queen said, "I shall very well know how to treat these rogues, and instead of a silken garter, I will fit them with a hempen halter". Whether from one or other of these causes, or from repeated proofs of the king's duplicity, as Lingard says, Cromwell now made his election and drew off from the king. The situation of Charles was immediately changed; his counsellors were ordered to depart, his trusty servants withdrawn, and the guards doubled. Cromwell wrote to Whalley, the officer in charge, to watch carefully the person of the king; to Charles himself he wrote, that there were wicked designs against his life.

The king under these circumstances determined on flight. On the night of the 12th of November, in company with Berkeley and Ashburnham, he crossed at Thames Ditton, and rode on till he arrived at a house of Lord Southampton's at Tichfield. Berkeley and Ashburnham, as arranged during the journey, went for

ward to the Isle of Wight, to sound Hammond the governor, a nephew of one of the royal chaplains. Hammond felt perplexed, but after reminding them that he, as a servant, was bound to obey his employers, pledged himself to act as a man of honor, which of course meant that in honor he must obey those who commissioned him. When he was taken to see the king at Tichfield, Charles saw at once the mistake that had been made, and exclaimed "What! have you brought him hither? Then I am undone". Nevertheless, the king set out for the island, and lodged at Carisbrook castle on the night of the 14th. The flight of Charles, by disconcerting the plans of the Levellers, again aroused their fierce animosity against Cromwell, whom they threatened with death for his intrigues with the king. When on the 16th some of the disaffected regiments mustered at Ware, Cromwell on their refusing to take "The Agreement of the People" from their hats, rushed into their ranks and arrested fourteen men. A drum-head courtmartial sentenced three of the soldiers to death; one only was shot in front of his regiment, the others were reserved. It was expected that this severity would have restored order, but twothirds of the army were found to be tainted. To make his peace, Cromwell acknowledged his error in having leaned to the king, and promised henceforth to stand or fall with his brother soldiers. Ireton was compelled to do the same. At a great meeting at head-quarters, Dec. 22, a general reconciliation took place, "of which the king's ruin was the condition".

7. Propositions offered to Charles by the Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners, Dec. 24, 1647. Charles, as was to be expected from his position, no sooner settled at Carisbrook, than he began to cast about him to improve his circumstances. Dr. Gough was employed to urge the Scotch commissioners no longer to require the king to confirm the Covenant; and Berkeley to remind the army of their promises; and by a message to the parliament, the king offered to make concessions. Fairfax told Berkeley that their employers alone must judge of the proposals, and an officer privately assured him that it was proposed to bring his master as a prisoner to London. In answer to a private letter, Cromwell said, "I will do my best to serve the king, but he must not expect that I shall ruin myself for his sake". Berkeley hastened back with the news, and besought his master to make his escape; this he refused to do, as he had other hopes. The parliament had just voted, Dec. 14, that four propo. sitions be presented to the king in the form of bills-that the command of the sea and land forces be in the parliament for twenty years, and longer if the safety of the kingdom should require it that the king should revoke all his proclamations im

puting to the parliament illegality and rebellion: that he should annul all patents of peerage granted since he left London: and that parliament should be empowered to adjourn from place to place at its pleasure.

The Scotch commissioners and those from the English parliament reached the king about the same time. In two days the former concluded a treaty, by which a Scotch army was to re-establish the king in his just rights; Charles undertaking to confirm Presbyterianism in England for three years, and at the end of that period, the constitution of the church to be settled by the king, in conjunction with the assembly of divines and the parliament. By further stipulations it was agreed, that the cavaliers should take arms to aid the Scots; that Ormond should head the royalists in Ireland; and that the king should escape from the island, and on the borders of Scotland await the time of action. This treaty being concluded, Charles next day, Dec. 28, gave answer to the parliamentary commissioners, absolutely rejecting the propositions. The same evening he attempted to escape, and

failed.

SECTION XXIV. THE SECOND CIVIL WAR, 1648.

1. The executive government in a Committee of Safety, Jan. 15, 1648. As soon as the parliamentary commissioners had given in a report of the result of their interview with the king, it was proposed in the Commons, that no further application be made to the king, or messages received from him, without consent of both Houses, under penalty of high treason; and that the Committee of Safety be renewed, to sit and act alone. The Scottish commissioners took the hint, and set out for Scotland. A committee was appointed, consisting of seven peers and thirteen commoners, who all sat together at Derby House, with power to suppress tumults and insurrections, and to raise such forces as they should deem necessary.

2. General inquietude of the nation, 1648. Charles soon after the passing of the above vote, put into circulation a paper calling on the people to judge, whether the conduct of the parliament did not show a determination not to come to any settlement of their dispute with the king. A vindication of their proceedings was also circulated by the parliament throughout the country, to which rejoinders were made by the royalists. Men of all classes were agitated, most were dissatisfied. And not without reason, for the safeguards of liberty and property continued suspended, and the county committees exercised an oppressive tyranny. The burden of taxation was greater though

the war was ended, and men's hearts failed them for fear. It was generally known that the parliament had lost its power, and was controlled by a set of men in the army, whose notions of government were without determinate form. A writer of the period says:" All men began in the spring, to prophecy that the summer would be a hot one in respect of wars, seeing how the counties were divided in factions, the Scots full of threats, the city of London as full of unquietness. And more sad things were feared, where least seen; rumours every day frightened the people of secret plots and treasonable meetings".

2. Rising and defeat of the royalists. Feb.-Aug. 1648. The first movement was in Pembroke, where three distinguished officers of the parliamentary army, deserting their party, raised the royal standard, and being supported by the cavaliers, soon had possession of the whole district, with the castles of Pembroke, Tenby, and Chepstow. Success brought in additions to their force, but Cromwell at the head of five regiments defeated them, and immediately recovered the forts except Pembroke castle, which was taken only after a siege of six weeks. In April, serious disturbances broke out in London, arms were seized and numerous bands assembled, shouting for "God and King Charles". The men of the neighboring counties marched into the capital, and demanded that the king should be presently restored. Blood was shed before quiet could be obtained. The city force was now put again under Skippon, who though not an Independent, was not unfriendly to them. Disturbances of a like character took place in Norwich, Canterbury, Exeter, and other places. By authority public meetings were prohibited, and the committees of each county empowered to arrest and imprison all the disaffected, and if they choose, the suspected.

In May, the men of Kent assembled in arms at Rochester, to the number of seven thousand, after having taken Sandwich and threatened Dover. Deal was particularly distinguished, and when Rainsborough the parliamentary admiral, armed his boats and approached the town in a threatening attitude, his boatswain proposed to declare for the king. This was received with acclamations, the officers put ashore, and the fleet of six sail taken over to Holland, and placed under the command of the Prince of Wales. Fairfax marched his forces into Kent, and defeated the cavaliers at Maidstone, June 1, after they had made a brave defence for six hours. Goring at the head of another body, marched to Blackheath, proposing to enter the capital, and so numerous were the king's friends there, that Skippon had some difficulty in defeating the project. The royalist leader now crossed the Thames with five thousand men, and being joined by Lord Capel

with the royalists from Herts, and Sir Charles Lucas, with others from Chelmsford, fixed his head quarters at Colchester. In the month of July, the prince of Wales appeared in the Downs with a good fleet, and landing forces at Deal, occupied for a time the castle, but unaccountably made no effort to liberate his father from Carisbrook. Colchester with no other defence than a low rampart of earth, held out till the 28th of August. Fairfax somewhat out of temper, required the officers to surrender at discretion. Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles Lucas were ordered to be shot; Goring and the others were reserved for the judgment of parliament. While Fairfax was engaged at Colchester, Lord Holland having collected five hundred horse, entered London and called on the citizens to follow him. Failing of success, he marched to Kingston, where he endeavoured to raise partisans, but he was fallen on by some gentlemen and put to flight, the Lord Francis Villiers being slain. His brother the Duke of Buckingham contrives to escape, but Holland surrendered to colonel Scrope, at St. Neot's.

In the North, the king's friends had not been idle. Berwick and Carlisle fell into the hands of the royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, but the long delay of the Scots to enter the kingdom, gave time for Lambert to arrive and hold them in check till the coming of Cromwell with reinforcements.

4. Cromwell defeats the Scots at Preston. Aug. 17, 1648. When the Scotch commissioners reached Edinburgh, the parliament voted that they would endeavour to rescue his majesty, and put the kingdom of Scotland into a state of defence. The Duke of Hamilton the king's agent, gave out that Charles would take the covenant and uphold the true presbyterian kirk. But Argyle and the old Covenanters were not satisfied with these assurances. Hamilton himself became an object of suspicion, and though the parliament had sanctioned the raising of about forty-thousand men, only one-fourth of that number was actually raised, before the rising in England was crushed. The approach of Lambert compelled the Duke to send (July 5) a part of his force to the relief of Carlisle; the others shortly followed headed by Hamilton himself. Lambert drew back, but not far, for Cromwell having put down the rising in Wales, joined his forces at Knaresborough (Aug. 7). The Scots meanwhile were moving southwards at a snail's pace, having in forty days only reached Preston. The advanced cavalry engaged on the 17th of August, and Langdale's cavaliers fought desperately for six hours, without receiving any aid from the Scotch; defeating these, Cromwell dashed against the Scotch who were hurrying across the Ribble, and won the bridge. Next day, Cromwell pursued them to