acceptance of the Solemn League and Covenant, it is probable that he would have gained all Scotland to his side. This, however, would have been granting to the Scots what he had refused to the Parliament; for the support of Presbytery was the essential object of the Scottish invasion. On the other hand, it could hardly be expected that the Scottish Convention of Estates should resign the very point on which it had begun and continued the war. The Church of Scotland sent forth a solemn warning, that all engagement with the King was unlawful. The question, therefore, was, what should be done with the person of Charles.

The generous course would have been, to have suffered the King to leave the Scottish army as freely as he came there. In that case he might have embarked at Tynemouth, and found refuge in foreign countries. And even if the Scots had determined that the exigencies of the times, and the necessity of preserving the peace betwixt England and Scotland, together with their engagements with the Parliament of England, demanded that they should surrender the person of their King to that body, the honour of Scotland was intimately concerned in so conducting the transaction, that there should be no room for alleging that any selfish advantage was stipulated by the Scots as a consequence of giving him up. I am almost ashamed to write, that this honourable consideration had no weight.

The Scottish army had a long arrear of pay due to them from the English Parliament, which the latter had refused, or at least delayed, to make forthcoming. A treaty for the settlement of these arrears had been set on foot; and it had been agreed that the Scottish forces should retreat into their own country, upon payment of two hundred thousand pounds, which was one-half of the debt finally admitted. Now, it is true that these two treaties, concerning the delivery of the King's person to England, and the payment by Parliament of their pecuniary arrears to Scotland, were kept separate, for the sake of decency; but it is certain, that they not only

coincided in point of time, but bore upon and influenced each other. No man of candour will pretend to believe that the Parliament of England would ever have paid this considerable sum, unless to facilitate their obtaining possession of the King's person; and this sordid and base transaction, though the work exclusively of a mercenary army, stamped the whole nation of Scotland with infamy. In foreign countries they were upbraided with the shame of having made their unfortunate and confiding Sovereign a hostage, whose liberty or surrender was to depend on their obtaining payment of a paltry sum of arrears; and the English nation reproached them with their greed and treachery, in the popular rhyme,—

"Traitor Scot

Sold his King for a groat."

The Scottish army surrendered the person of Charles to the Commissioners for the English Parliament, on receiving security for their arrears of pay, and immediately evacuated Newcastle, and marched for their own country. I am sorry to conclude the Chapter with this mercenary and dishonourable transaction; but the limits of the work require me to bring it thus to a close.

CHAPTER XII.

The King taken Prisoner by the English Army, and placed in the Palace of Hampton Court-his Escape to the Isle of Wight, and Imprisonment in Carisbrook Castle--Treaty with the Scotch, known by the name of The Engagement-The Engagers enter England with an Army, and are Defeated-High Court of Justice appointed to try the King-the Trial -Execution of Charles I.

OUR last chapter concluded with the dishonourable transaction by which the Scottish army surrendered Charles I. into the hands of the Parliament of England, on receiving security for a sum of arrears due to them by that body.

The commissioners of Parliament, thus possessed of the King's person, conducted him as a state prisoner to Holdenby House, in Northamptonshire, which had been assigned as his temporary residence; but from which a power different from theirs was soon about to withdraw him.

The Independents, as I have said, highly resented as a tyranny over their consciences the establishment of Presbytery, however temporary, or however mitigated, in the form of a national church; and were no less displeased, that the army, whose ranks were chiefly filled with these military saints, as they called themselves, who were principally of the Independent persuasion, was, in the event of peace, which seemed close at hand, threatened either to be sent to Ireland, or disbanded. The discontent among the English soldiery became general; they saw that the use made of the victories, which their valour had mainly contributed to gain, would be to reduce and disarm them, and send out of the kingdom such regiments as might be suffered to retain their arms and mili

tary character. And besides the loss of pay, profession, and importance, the sectaries had every reason to apprehend the imposition of the Presbyterian yoke, as they termed the discipline of that church.

These mutinous dispositions were secretly encouraged by Cromwell, Ireton, and Fleetwood, officers of high rank and influence, to whom the Parliament had intrusted the charge of pacifying them. At length the army assumed the ominous appearance of a separate body in the state, whose affairs were managed by a council of superior officers, with assistance from a committee of persons, called Agitators, being two privates chosen from each company. These bold and unscrupulous men determined to gain possession of the person of the King, and to withdraw him from the power of the Parliament.

In pursuance of this resolution, Joice, originally a tailor, now a cornet, and a furious advocate for the cause of the army, on 4th June, 1647, appeared suddenly at midnight before Holdenby House. The troops employed by the Commissioners to guard the King's person, being infected, it may be supposed, with the general feeling of the army, offered no resistance. Joice, with little ceremony, intruded himself, armed with his pistols, into the King's sleeping apartment, and informed his Majesty that he must please to attend him. "Where is your commission ?" said the unfortunate King. "Yonder it is," answered the rude soldier, pointing to his troop of horse, which, by the early dawning, was seen drawn up in the court-yard of the place.-"It is written in legible characters," replied Charles; and without further remonstrance, he prepared to attend the escort.

The King was conducted to Newmarket, and from thence to the palace of Hampton Court; and though in the hands of a body which had no lawful authority or responsible character, he was at first treated with more respect, and even kindness, than he had experienced either from the Scottish army, or from the English Commissioners. The officers dis

trusted, perhaps, the security of their own power, for they offered a pacification on easy terms. They asked an equal national representation, freely chosen; stipulated that the two Houses of Parliament should enjoy the command of the militia for fourteen years; and even agreed that the order of Bishops should be re-established, but without any temporal power or coercive jurisdiction. So far the terms were more moderate than, from such men and in such a moment, the King could have expected. But on one point the council of officers was rigidly determined; they insisted, that seven of the adherents of Charles, chosen from those who had, with wisdom or with valour, best supported the sinking cause of royalty, should be declared incapable of pardon. Charles was equally resolute in resisting this point; his conscience had suffered too deeply on the occasion of Strafford's execution, to which he had yielded in the beginning of these troubles, to permit him ever to be tempted again to abandon a friend.

In the meantime the Parliament was preparing to exert its authority in opposing and checking the unconstitutional power assumed by the army; and the city of London, chiefly composed of Presbyterians, showed a general disposition to stand by the Houses of Legislature. But when that formidable army drew near to London, both Parliament and citizens became intimidated; and the former expelled from their seats the leading Presbyterian members, and suffered the Independents to dictate to the dispirited remainder what measures they judged necessary. Prudence would, at this moment, have strongly recommended to Charles an instant agreement with the army. But the Presbyterians of England had not resigned hopes; and the whole kingdom of Scotland, incensed at the triumph of the Sectaries, and the contumely offered to the Solemn League and Covenant, which had been stigmatized, in the House of Commons, as an almanack out of date, their Commissioners made, in private, liberal offers to restore the King by force of arms. In listening to these proposals, Charles flattered himself that he should be able to hold