In the meantime, his Majesty was assailed by reports of various kinds that his life was in danger, and informed that if he wished to escape the hand of an assassin, he must forthwith leave Hampton Court. Being perplexed by the counsels of his secret enemies, and by the zeal of his injudicious friends, he knew not what expedient to adopt. Some advised him to go to London and make his appearance in the House of Lords; others recommended his immediate departure from the kingdom; while a third party suggested an immediate and unconditional compliance with the views of the Presbyterians in Scotland as well as in England. “At last," says Ludlow, "he resolved to go to the isle of Wight, being, as is most probable, recommended thither by Cromwell, who, as well as the King, had a good opinion of Colonel Hammond, the governor

there.'

* Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 215.

Containing an Account of the Principal Occurrences which took place from the time that the King arrived in the Isle of Wight, to the period of his Execution in January 1649.

THE vigorous measures adopted by Fairfax and Cromwell at the general rendezvous of the army, placed the power of the commonwealth entirely in their hands. The Parliament, after the retreat of the eleven members, had shown a disposition to submit to their military guides, and even to promote their views; and every thing would have hastened to a confirmed despotism under the mixed oligarchy of the sword and the gown, had not the people, whose interests had ceased to be remembered by either party, revived for a moment to a sense of the danger with which they were threatened. They had seen the war come to an end without bestowing upon them any of the advantages which they had been led to expect. A sum of money, large beyond all precedent, was raised annually upon the property and labour of the nation; an army exceeding forty thousand men was kept up to overawe the populace, whose battles they pretended to fight; while hundreds of officers,

originally poor and of the meanest professions, were now in the enjoyment of great wealth, and some of them not a little disposed to trample on the rights of their less fortunate brethren.*

The King having rejected the four proposals, or bills, as they were called, which were sent to him as the basis of a treaty, Cromwell and Ireton laboured to stimulate the Commons to the most violent resolutions. The latter, professing to speak the sense of the army, under the appellation of Many Thousand Godly Men, who had hazarded their lives in defence of the Parliament, asserted that the King, by declining the bills, had refused safety and protection to his people. He reminded the members, that their obedience to the sovereign was but a reciprocal duty for his attention to their interests; and that as he had failed on his part, they were freed from all obligations to allegiance, and must settle the nation without consulting any longer so misguided a prince. Cromwell, in like manner, after giving a flattering character of the army, whose valour and godliness he extolled in the highest degree, recommended that the Parliament should now guide and defend the kingdom by their own power, and not accustom the people any longer to expect safety and government from an obstinate man whose heart God had hardened. "Teach

Mrs Hutchinson, speaking of Major-General Harrison, says, that he "who was but a meane man's sonne, and of a meane education, and no estate before the warre, had gathered an estate of L.2000 a-yeare, besides engrossing grate offices, and maintained his coach and family at a heighth as if they had been borne to principallity." Vol. ii. p. 175.

them not," said he, "by your neglecting your own safety, and that of the kingdom, in which theirs too is involved, to imagine themselves betrayed and their interests abandoned to the rage of an irreconcilable enemy, whom for your sake they have dared to provoke. Beware,” (and at these words he laid his hand on his sword,) “beware, lest despair cause them to seek safety by some other means than by adhering to you, who know not how to consult your own safety."

No sooner, then, was it resolved by the two Houses, that no more addresses should be made to the King, and that no correspondence leading to a settlement of affairs should be renewed, than a general ferment agitated the public mind. Every one suspected that it was the intention of those who had assumed the direction of affairs, to abolish entirely the monarchical government, and to introduce in its place a military despotism. The great majority of the nation, accordingly, began to wish for the restoration of the sovereign. Much diversity of opinion prevailed, indeed, with respect to the conditions; but all agreed, that what Charles had so often demanded, a personal treaty, ought to be granted, as the most likely means to reconcile opposite inte rests and to lead to a satisfactory arrangement.

Scarcely a day passed which was not marked by some occurrence indicative of the popular feeling. An alarming tumult in the city, in which the apprentices forced the guard, and ventured to engage the military under the command of the General, was quickly followed by similar

Lingard, vol. i. p. 406.`

disturbances in Norwich, Canterbury, Exeter, and several other places. These were, indeed, soon suppressed by the vigilance of Fairfax and of the county committees; but the cry of "God and the King!" shouted by the rioters on these occasions, sufficiently proved that the sentiment in favour of royalty was every hour gaining strength. At the same time, petitions from different public bodies poured into the two Houses, all concurring in the same prayer, that the army should be disbanded, and the King brought back to his capital. Cromwell and his friends, aware that it would not be in their power to control the city while their forces were employed in the field, withdrew their opposition in the Lower Chamber so far, as to permit the Presbyterian party to carry a vote, that no change should be made in the fundamental government of the realm by King, Lords, and Commons: and on this ground the citizens declared themselves engaged to live and to die with the Parliament.*

Nor were these demonstrations in favour of the King confined to tumults and popular uproars. The men of Kent, under Hales and Goring, flew to arms, and engaged the troops commanded by Fairfax and Major-General Skipton. They were indeed defeated, but the resolution with which they fought at Maidstone endangered for a moment the ascendency of the republicans. The Welsh, at the same time, who throughout the whole war had been friendly to the royal cause, once more assembled under the banners of their chiefs; and Colonel Poyer,

* Lingard, vol. x. p. 212.