come within forty miles of the capital, at the same time that the army, encouraged on all sides by the people, were advancing on the city, with demands for the speedy purgation of parliament of such members as were not entitled to sit there, by reason of delinquency, corruption, abuse to the state, or undue election. After some riots and disturbances had occurred, both the speakers and many of the members of the two houses, to the number of one hundred and fifteen, fled to the army for protection. Fairfax advanced to Hounslow Heath, took possession of the block-houses at Gravesend, and all the posts on that side of the river, between Gravesend and Southwark. Finding themselves wholly unable to cope with the victorious Independents, the citizens pressed for an accommodation, which was granted upon conditions, the principal being that they should desert the parliament sitting at Westminster, and the leaders of the Presbyterians. This was conceded, from necessity; and from that moment the authority of the sword became supreme. The chiefs of the opposite faction made their escape, and though the party were still formidable, from their numbers, they were never able afterwards to make any effectual stand in opposition.

Three weeks after the army had entered London, the house voted another solemn address to the king; but Charles refused to treat, this time, upon the ground that a separate negociation with the parliament would displease the army. He thought, he said, the "Proposals" were much better, and desired a personal treaty; and Cromwell and Ireton strenuously seconded his request. But by this time the darkest suspicions began to be entertained by the army of the intentions of Cromwell. To use the words of the royalist Berkely, who was an eye-witness of the scenes he describes, "The adjutators now began to change their discourses, and complained openly in their councils, both of the king, and the malignants about his majesty; and one of the first they voted from him was myself; and that since his majesty had not accepted of their "Proposals," they were not obliged any further to them; that they were obliged to consult their own safety, and the good of the kingdom, and to use such means towards both, as they should find rational; and because they met with strong opposition from Cromwell and Ireton, and most of the superior officers, and some even of the adjutators, they had many private solemn meetings in London, where they humbled themselves before the Lord, and sought his good pleasure, and desired that he would be pleased to reveal it to his saints, which they interpret those to be who are most violent, or zealous, as they call it, in the work of the Lord. These found it apparent that God had, on the one side, hardened the king's heart, and blinded his eyes, in not passing the "Proposals," whereby they were absolved from offering them any more; and on the other side, the Lord had led captivity captive, and put all things under their feet, and therefore they were bound to finish the work of the Lord, which was to alter the government according to their first design : and to this end they resolved to seize the king's person, and to take him out of Cromwell's hands."

It was no common danger which menaced Cromwell now. The chief of a revolution, suspected of treachery, never receives pardon when vanquished by his own party; and the leading men of note, on all sides, pointed to him as being in the interest of the court. He was accused, by the republicans, of having made a private bargain with the king; and the very terms of the supposed treaty were openly proclaimed. A plot is said to have been formed against his life, as a renegade to the cause of liberty, and his opponents had published the

case of the army, and "An Agreement of the People," by which latter it was declared, that the sovereignty resided wholly in the people, that parliaments should be triennial, the elective franchise extended, the representation distributed more equally, the law reformed, and an entire freedom of conscience granted to every man. Sixteen regiments declared themselves ready to fight for this form of government, and the trial and punishment of the king. On the other hand, the Presbyterians were equally ready to sacrifice Cromwell in the cause of bigotry and intolerance; and he had the mournful reflection to contend with, that no reliance could be placed upon the word of the king. He had received too many proofs of the monarch's insincerity, to sacrifice rank, influence, and most probably life, in thankless efforts for his service; though, up to this time, it rests upon the most indisputable authority, that Cromwell had exerted himself, with zeal and earnestness, to bring about a treaty of accommodation. If we may believe an impartial historian,* it was the accidental discovery of the king's treachery, in the matter of the private negociation, which sealed the fate of Charles. One day in the year 1649, when Lord Broghill was riding between Cromwell and Ireton, Cromwell declared to him, that if the late king had followed his own mind, and had trusty servants, he would have fooled them all, and further told his lordship that at one time they really intended to close with Charles. Broghill asked a question or two, to which Cromwell replied, saying, "The reason why we would once have closed with the king, was this: we found the Scots and Presbyterians began to be more powerful than we, and if they had made up matters with the king, we should have been left in the lurch; therefore we thought it best to prevent them, by offering first to come in, under any reasonable conditions." But while they were occupied with these thoughts, they were told by one of their spies, who was of the king's bedchamber, that their doom was decreed by Charles, as they might see, if they would only intercept a letter from the king to the queen, which letter was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle, and the bearer would be that night at the Blue Boar, Holborn, where he was to take horse for Dover. Upon this warning, Cromwell and Ireton, disguised as troopers, and with one trusty fellow with them, went to the inn, called for cans of beer, and continued drinking till the man with the saddle came in, when they seized the saddle, ripped up the skirts, and there found the letter, in which the king informed the queen that he was now courted by both factions, the Scotch Presbyterians and the army, and which bid fairest for him should have him; but he thought he should close with the Scots sooner than the other, etc. Upon this, Cromwell took horse, and went to Windsor, and they immediately, from that time forward, resolved the king's ruin. It is needless to inquire at what period Cromwell made his final election between what seemed the equal perils of opposing Charles, or the majority of the parliament; but a careful examination of facts would lead us to infer, that, up to the final rejection of the "Proposals," he was willing to have thrown himself in the gap of the sinking monarchy.

;

By the advice of Fairfax, a rendezvous of the army was ordered at Ware but the king was so terrified at the repeated threats of the mutinous soldiery, that he had fled to the Isle of Wight, five days previously. On the day of the rendezvous, the discontent of the agitators broke out in acts of insubordination; but Cromwell galloped into the ranks, seized the leading mutineer, and shot him on the spot. The spirit of the revolters quailed at this instance of

* Morice.

fearless severity, and the obedience rendered the ensuing moment never failed during the subsequent lifetime of the stern commander.

The idea of military revolt was abandoned as impracticable; but the men who had fought so successfully in the cause of the parliament, were not made of ductile material. In a week after the rendezvous, Cromwell and Fairfax were waited on by the chief officers, and a great number of the soldiers, and told that if they did not join the republican movement, the army were determined to accomplish their destruction. Against such reasoning there were no hopes of opposing a valid argument, and the basis of a government, without a king, was unanimously agreed to.

For several months the cause of Charles rose and fell with the varying fortunes of the two factions into which his enemies were divided. Cromwell and Ireton carried a vote in the two houses, that no further addresses or application should be made to the king, or any message received from him, without the consent of both houses, under the penalties of high treason. Cromwell, ever the first to speak out, said it was time to answer the public expectation, that they were able and resolved to govern and defend the kingdom by their own power, and teach the people they had nothing to hope from a man whose heart God had hardened in obstinacy. A committee was appointed by the army, to draw up a declaration, which ended in these words, "We do freely declare, for ourselves and the army, that we are resolved, through the grace of God, firmly to adhere to, and stand by the parliament, in the things voted concerning the king, and in what shall be further necessary for prosecution thereof, and for settling and securing the parliament and kingdom, without the king, and against him, or any other that shall hereafter partake with him." Such was the state of affairs in January, 1648.

Whilst the whole force of Cromwell's gigantic intellect was directed towards accomplishing the overthrow of the monarchy, the discussions amongst the parliamentarians broke out in acts of the most deadly warfare; and, from the depths of abasement, the party of the king suddenly started into new life and vigour. Insurrections broke out in various parts of the kingdom, and, for a time, the whole force of the republican army was employed in repressing the growing troubles. The war had again become a religious one. The majority of the parliament were still Presbyterian, and the Scots' commissioners bewailed with unaffected horror the triumph of the "Independent Schismatics," who held the damnable doctrines of universal toleration. The time seemed eminently favourable for an attempt to crush their hated allies: and if a treaty could be entered into with Charles during the absence of Cromwell in Wales, the triumph of the saints might be achieved, and a double victory gained over royalty and heresy. The parliament, therefore, voted that their former resolution, not to present any more addresses to the king, should be rescinded; and, upon condition that he would establish their form of church government to the exclusion of the church of England, punish heresy and blasphemy with death, and disband the Independent army, offered to restore him again to the throne. Despite the fears of the Presbyterians, who saw that the fall of their own party had become equally imminent, Charles refused his assent to the conditions. He contended that the sale of bishop's lands was sacrilege: insisted that episcopacy should only be suspended, and that all his friends should be admitted to composition. With the Scots' commissioners he was more compliant, agreed to take the covenant himself, and to renounce episcopacy: and having excused himself in his letters to the leading royalists, on the score that

circumstances compelled him to dissemble for a time his real sentiments, resolved to trust his fortunes to the new chances which had been so strangely offered to him.

The dream was destined to be speedily broken. Before Cromwell was supposed to have left Wales, he appeared in the north at the head of his veteran army, and, with less than nine thousand men, proceeded to give battle at Preston to the combined Scots and royalist forces, amounting to sixteen thousand. It is a strange fact, that the strength of religious animosity proved too powerful even for the instinct of self-preservation. The Scots could not forget that the troops with whom they were associated were those hated malignants and prelatists against whom they had so long contended, and whose fate in Scripture was clearly foretold by the story of the Amalekites. They allowed Cromwell, therefore, to slaughter the royalists at pleasure, and only resisted the furious attack which followed upon themselves after the overthrow of their betrayed associates. But resistance was in vain, and, after a brief struggle, the whole of the combined forces were routed, the Duke of Hamilton was taken prisoner; and Cromwell, crossing the border, entered Edinburgh without opposition, and apparently to the full satisfaction of the majority of the people.

No farther delay was vouchsafed to the enemies of the army. They demanded that "justice should be done upon the king, the chief offender, the raiser of the whole war, the traitor and wicked Ahab," and "that parliament should not ungratefully throw away so many miraculous deliverances of Almighty God, nor betray themselves and their faithful friends by deceitful treaties with an implacable enemy." Many of the principal counties voted resolutions of a similar character; and Cromwell, whose hand was always as prompt to execute as his soul to conceive, sent a party of horse to the Isle of Wight, who seized the king, and placed him in confinement at Hurst Castle. The commons voted that the army, now on its march from Scotland, should not come within forty miles of the capital, a vote which the army acknowledged by entering the city, and proceeding next day to the house, where they stationed themselves in the lobby, and arrested forty of the most active members of the Presbyterians, and committed them to safe custody; the rest of the party made their escape, and "Pride's Purge,' as it was called from the name of the officer employed on the occasion, being found most potent in its effects;-the remaining members, to the number of one hundred and fifty, met as usual next day, and gave Cromwell, who had taken his seat amongst them, their "hearty thanks for very great and eminently faithful services performed by him to this parliament and kingdom, both in this kingdom and the kingdom of Scotland; and Mr. Speaker did accordingly give him the very hearty thanks of this house.”

The storm now rolled onward with resistless violence, and Charles and Cromwell were alike incapable of controlling their destiny. Had the king but remained true to a single section of his subjects, the divisions among his foes would have enabled him to vanquish them in detail; but he had tried and abandoned all in their turn, and was now the helpless prey of the strongest. And what was there left for his conqueror but to become the acknowledged head, as he had long been the actual ruler of the country? For him there was no salvation but in success. Presbyterians and royalists were alike his deadly enemies, and for England! there was no alternative between anarchy and the sway of Cromwell. The mode by which that masterdom was finally obtained was sad, and perhaps criminal; but our sympathy must be shared between the victim and the avenger.

After one more ineffectual attempt to "accommodate " matters, it was moved in the house to proceed capitally against the king, Cromwell observing, "that if any man moved this upon design, he should think him the greatest traitor in the world; but, since providence and necessity had cast them upon it, he should pray God to bless their counsels, though he was not provided on the sudden to give them counsel." The wariness which had now engrafted itself upon his naturally fearless character is evinced in these few words, for it is idle to suppose that his mind, at least, was not made up by this time as to the part which he should take in the impending scene. In a few days afterwards an ordinance was passed, nominating an hundred and fifty commissioners for the trial of the king, whom they attainted of high treason. The charge sounded monstrous in the ears of the incredulous royalists, who had been taught to believe that treason was only possible in the case of a subject; but the men with whom they had now to deal were the discoverers as well as the propounders of principles since recognised and made worldfamous.

The commons voted that the people, under God, are the originals of all just power; that the commons, being chosen by, and representing the people, have the supreme authority of the nation; that whatsoever is enacted and declared law by the commons in parliament assembled, hath the force of law, and all the people of this nation are included thereby, although the consent and concurrence of the king and the house of peers be not had thereunto; and that, by the fundamental laws of the realm, it was treason in the King of England, for the time to come, to levy war against the parliament and people of England. Because the lords manifested a reluctance to proceed with the trial, they voted that all members of the house of commons, etc., be empowered and enjoined to sit, act, and execute in the several committees of themselves, notwithstanding, the house of peers joined not with them therein, "they ordered" that the ordinance and declaration be in the name of the commons only, "broke the great seal of England, and had another engraven with the map of England, Ireland, &c., the arms of England and Ireland, and the words, "the great seal of England" on one side, whilst, to mark the overthrow of the monarchy, they inscribed on the reverse the words, "In the first year of Freedom, by God's blessing restored."

Numerous anecdotes, resting on the doubtful authority of the surviving "king-killers," at the time of the Restoration, are told of the conduct of Cromwell during this period; but a story told of him by Sir Purbeck Temple, seems to bear the impress of truth. He tells us that, having concealed himself behind the hangings of the room in which the commissioners were met, to determine on the mode of trial, news came that the king was landed at Sir Robert Cotton's stairs, when Cromwell ran to a window which overlooked the water, to observe him as he came up the garden, and turned as white as the wall, exclaiming to his colleagues, "My masters, he is come! he is come! and now we are doing the great work that the nation will be full of; therefore I desire, let us resolve here what answer we shall give the king when he comes before us; for the first question he will ask of us will be by what authority and commission we do try him." To which none answered presently; but after a little space, Henry Marten rose up, and said, "In the name of the commons and parliament assembled, and all the good people of England." When Charles was put on his defence, it was seen how truly he had divined what would be the plea set up by the unhappy prince, when reduced to this last sad extremity.