aldermen that they should hunt out and deliver to him the unquestionable way, and assures the parliament that upon accused members who had taken refuge amongst them. His demand was coldly received, and after dining with one of the sheriffs he returned. His passage through the city was attended by continued cries of "Privilege! privilege of parliament!" And one Henry Walker, an ironmonger and political pamphleteer, threw into his majesty's carriage a paper bearing the words, "To your tents, O Israel!"
Scarcely had Charles reached Whitehall, when a deputation from the corporation waited on him, complaining of the Tower being put into unsafe hands, of the fortifying of Whitehall, the wounding of citizens on their way to petition parliament, of the dangerous example of the king entering the house of commons attended by armed men, and praying him to cease from the prosecution of the six members of parliament, and to remove both from Whitehall and the Tower all suspicious personages.
As Charles still persisted by proclamation in endeavouring to get possession of the five members, and as a hundred stand of arms, with gunpowder and shot, had been removed from the Tower to Whitehall, a thousand marines and boatmen signed a memorial to the committee of the commons sitting at Guildhall, offering to guard them on the appointed day to their house in Westminster. The committee accepted the offer, which was immediately followed by one from the apprentices. Seeing that the city, the seamen, and everybody were of one mind in condemning his violent invasion of the national sanctuary of the house of commons, Charles, on the 10th of January, the day previous to the meeting again of parliament, quietly withdrew with his family to Hampton Court, and the next day removed thence to Windsor. Little did Charles imagine, deplorable as was his retreat, that he would never enter his capital again till he came as a prisoner in the hands of this insulted parliament. Yet his feelings at this moment must have been melancholy in the extreme. "In this sad condition," says Clarendon, "was the king at Windsor; fallen in ten days from a height and greatness that his enemies feared, to a lowness, that his own servants durst hardly avow the waiting on him."
On the morning of the 11th, the committee of the commons, attended openly by the lord Kimbolton and the five accused members of the lower house, entered barges at the Three Cranes, and attended by thirty or forty other boats and barges, manned by their trusty guard of seamen, with cannon on board their vessels, and well armed otherwise, and with flags flying, and every sign of triumph, proceeded towards Westminster, the trained bands marching along the river bank as additional protection, and intending to stand guard round the two houses of parliament. The humbled king sent them a message from Hampton Court, in these words:—"His majesty, taking notice that some conceive it disputable whether his proceedings against the lord Kimbolton, Mr. Hollis, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and Mr. Strode, be legal and agreeable to the privileges of parliament, and being very desirous to give satisfaction to all men, in all matters that may seem to have relation to privilege, is pleased to waive his former proceedings; and all doubts by this means being settled, when the minds of men are composed, his majesty will proceed thereupon in an ill occasions he will be as careful of their privileges as of his life or his crown."
That was humble style for a king, extremely penitent compared with the forced entry of the commons' house some ten days before: but it was too late. Already there had come riding up out of Buckinghamshire four thousand horsemen, knights, gentlemen, and freeholders, each with a copy of the parliamentary protest in his hat, praying the house of lords to co-operate with the commons in defending parliament against any fresh attack on its privileges, in carrying, on the work of reform, and in bringing to punishment all evil counsellors. They also presented, through a deputation of the commons, a petition to the king in favour of their countryman and member, Mr. Hampden. Charles, impressed by this significant reminder of four thousand horsemen of the folly of his late proceeding, again assured the two houses of his having not the least intention to infringe their privileges. On their part, the commons took measures to convince him that it could not be done with impunity. They had already arrested Sir William Fleming and Sir William Killigrew and their helpers, who had sealed up the houses and papers of the six members, and they now impeached Sir Edward Herbert, the attorney-general, of high crimes and misdemeanours, by violating the privileges of parliament by presenting the accusation, and sentenced him to be rendered incapable of sitting in parliament, of pleading before it, or of holding any office in the state except that of attorney-general, which he then held; and moreover, to be imprisoned at the pleasure of the house.
On the 12th of January the house was informed that lord Digby and colonel Lunsford were at Kingston-on-Thames, where was the magazine for arms for the county of Surrey, and were collecting soldiers. They immediately ordered the train-bands to disperse these forces, and impeached Digby and Lunsford of high treason. Digby escaped abroad, but Lunsford was lodged in the Tower. The house issued orders to every part of the kingdom to the same purpose. Magistrates were to disperse any musters of soldiers, and governors of forts and fortified towns to hold them for the parliament. The keys of the Tower were taken from Sir John Byron, and a guard placed over it, under the charge of the city authorities. Colonel Goring was commanded to hold Portsmouth against any demands or forces of the king; Sir John Hotham to observe the same measures at Hull; and a committee of public safety was appointed, which was to take all necessary measures for putting the kingdom into a condition of defence. Orders were given through the Dutch ambassador that no arms or ammunition should be shipped from the Dutch ports to England or Ireland without the approbation of parliament, to which the government of Holland expressed its full consent. Both at home and abroad it was clear that parliament was now the ruling power in England. The earls of Essex and Holland were commanded to attend to their duties in parliament, though the one was lord chamberlain, and the other groom of the stole to the king, who forbade their attendance. Obeying parliament, the king dismissed them from their offices.
At this crisis Charles perpetrated another most impolitic act. The Scottish commissioners offered their mediation to settle
