horsemen, rode; the King remarking in the
same smiling way, that he could ride as far
at a spell as Cornet Joice, or any man there.

The King quite believed, I think, that the
army were his friends. He said as much
to Fairfax when that general, Oliver Cromwell
and Ireton, went to persuade him to return
to the custody of the Parliament. He
preferred to remain as he was, and resolved to
remain as he was. And when the army
moved nearer and nearer London to frighten
the Parliament into yielding to their demands,
they took the King with them. It was a
deploring thing that England should be at
the mercy of a great body of soldiers with
arms in their hands, but the King certainly
favoured them at this important time of his
life in reference to the more lawful power that
tried to control him. It must be added, however,
that they treated him, as yet, more respectfully
and kindly than the Parliament
had ever done. They allowed him to be
attended by his own servants, to be splendidly
entertained at various houses, and to see his
children — at Cavesham House, near Reading
— for two days. Whereas, the Parliament
had been rather hard with him, and had only
allowed him to ride out and play at bowls.

It is much to be believed that if the King
could have been trusted, even at this time,
he might have been saved. Even Oliver
Cromwell expressly said that he did believe
that no man could enjoy his possessions in
peace, unless the King had his rights. He
was not unfriendly towards the King; he
had been present when he received his
children, and had been much affected by the
pitiable nature of the scene; he saw the King
often; he frequently walked and talked with
him in the long galleries and pleasant
gardens of the Palace at Hampton Court,
whither he was now removed; and in all
this risked something of his influence with
the army. But, the King was in secret hopes
of help from the Scottish people; and the
moment he was encouraged to join them he
began to be cool to his new friends, the army,
and to tell the officers that they could not possibly
do without him. At the very time, too,
when he was promising to make Cromwell and
Ireton noblemen, if they would help him up
to his old height, he was writing to the Queen
that he meant to hang them. They both
afterwards declared that they had been
privately informed that such a letter would
be found, on a certain evening, sewn up in a
saddle, which would be taken to the Blue
Boar in Holborn to be sent to Dover; and
that they went there, disguised as common
soldiers, and sat drinking in the inn-yard until
a man came with the saddle, which they ripped
up with their knives, and therein found the
letter. I see little reason to doubt the story.
It is certain that Oliver Cromwell told one
of the King's most faithful followers that the
King could not be trusted, and that he would
not be answerable if anything amiss were
to happen to him. Still, even after that, he
kept a promise he had made to the King, by
letting him know that there was a plot with
a certain portion of the army to seize him.
I believe that, in fact he sincerely wanted
the King to escape abroad, and so to be got
rid of without more trouble or danger. That
Oliver himself had work enough with the
army is pretty plain, for some of the troops
were so mutinous against him, and against
those who acted with him at this time, that
he found it necessary to have one man shot
at the head of his regiment to overawe the
rest.

The King, when he received Oliver's
warning, made his escape from Hampton
Court, and, after some indecision and uncertainty,
went to Carisbrooke Castle in the
Isle of Wight. At first, he was pretty free
there; but, even there, he carried on a pretended
treaty with the Parliament, while he
was really treating with commissioners from
Scotland to send an army into England to
take his part. When he broke off this
treaty with the Parliament (having settled
with Scotland) and was treated as a prisoner,
his treatment was not changed too soon, for
he had plotted to escape that very night to
a ship sent by the Queen, which was lying
off the island.

He was doomed to be disappointed in his
hopes from Scotland. The agreement be
had made with the Scottish Commissioners
was not favourable enough to the religion of
that country, to please the Scottish clergy, and
they preached against it. The consequence
was, that the army raised in Scotland and
sent over, was too small to do much; and
that, although it was helped by a rising of
the Royalists in England and by good soldiers
from Ireland, it could make no head against
the Parliamentary army under such men as
Cromwell and Fairfax. The King's eldest
son, the Prince of Wales, came over from
Holland with nineteen ships (a part of the
English fleet having gone over to him) to
help his father, but nothing came of his
voyage, and he was fain to return. The most
remarkable event of this second civil war
was the cruel execution by the Parliamentary
General, of SIR CHARLES LUCAS and
SIR GEORGE LISLE, two gallant Royalist
generals, who had bravely defended Colchester
under every disadvantage of famine
and distress for nearly three months. When
Sir Charles Lucas was shot, Sir George
Lisle kissed his body, and said to the soldiers
who were to shoot him, "Come nearer, and
make sure of me." "I warrant you, Sir
George," said one of the soldiers, "we shall
hit you." "Aye?" he returned with a smile,
"but I have been nearer to you, my friends,
many a time, and you have missed me."

The Parliament, after being fearfully bullied
by the army, who demanded to have seven
members whom they disliked given up to
them, had voted that they would have