sion written in my life; a company of handsome, proper gentlemen, as I have seen a great while. But what if I should refuse to go with you? I hope you would not force me. I am your king; you ought not to lay violent hands on your king. I acknowledge none to be above me here but God." He then demanded again whither they proposed to conduct him. Oxford and Cambridge were named, to both of which places Charles objected. Newmarket was next named, and to that he consented. So the first day they rode to Hinchinbrook, and the next to Childersley, near Newmarket.
The news of these proceedings of the army carried consternation into the two houses of parliament, and into the city, where the presbyterian party was in full strength, they ordered the immediate arrest of Cromwell, which they had been intending some time, but they were informed that he left town the very same morning that Joyce appeared at Holmby—a significant fact—and was seen riding away with only one attendant. He reached the headquarters of the army with his horse all in a foam. The house voted to sit all the next day, though it were Sunday, and have Mr. Marshall to pray for them. Rumour declared that the army was on its march, and would be there the next day at noon. The house ordered the committee of safety to sit up all night, taking measures for the protection of the city; the train-bands to be called out, and all the lines of communication guarded. The next day the shops were all shut, the town in indescribable confusion, and terror in every face, as though the army was already there. The parliament wrote to Fairfax, commanding that the army should not infringe the order of the two houses, by coming within twenty-five miles of London, and that the king should be returned to the care of the commissioners who attended him at Holmby, and colonel Rossitor's regiment be the guard of his person. Fairfax replied that the army had reached St. Albans before he received their conmmand, but it should proceed no further; that he had sent colonel Whalley with his regiment to meet his majesty on his way from Holmby, and offered to return him thither, but that he preferred the air of Newmarket, and that all care should be taken of his person.
In fact, Charles was delighted with the change. He had escaped from the harsh keeping and the strict regimen of the presbyterians, whom he detested, and felt himself, as it were, a king again at the head of an army: the dissensions now rushing on so hotly betwixt his enemies, wonderfully encouraging his hopes of making friends of the more liberal party. He was in a condition of comparatively greater freedom and respect in the army than he had been at Holmby: a larger number of troops and much superior officers. He was relieved from the presence of Mr. Agitator Joyce. All restraint being taken off from persons resorting to him, he saw every day the faces of many that were grateful to him. No sooner did he ask for the attendance of his own chaplains, than those he named, Drs. Sheldon, Morley, Sandereon, and Hammond, were sent for, and performed the service regularly, no one being forbidden to attend. The king was left to his leisure and his friends, only removing with the army as it moved, and in all places he was as well provided for and accommodated, as he had been in any progress. The best gentlemen, Clarendon admits, of the several counties through which he passed, daily resorted to him without distinction. He was attended by some of his old trusty servants in the places nearest his person. On hearing of his present condition, the queen sent Sir John Berkeley from Paris, and his old groom of the chambers, who had been living at Rouen, to be with him again, and they were freely admitted by Cromwell and Ireton. "Many good officers," says Clarendon, "who had served his majesty faithfully, were civilly received by the officers of the army, and lived quietly in their quarters, which they could not do anywhere else, which raised a great reputation to the army throughout England, and as much reproach upon parliament." This was raised still more by the army's address to parliament, desiring that "care might be taken for settling the king's rights, according to the several professions they had made in their declarations; and that the royal party might be treated with more candour and less rigour." Even the most devoted of royalists, Sir Philip Warwick, says, "The deep and bloody-hearted independents all this while used the king very civilly, admitting several of his servants and some of his chaplains to attend him, and officiate by the service-book."
The commons ordered all officers to attend their regiments, and sent down commissioners to acquaint the army of the votes of the two houses. The army gave the commissioners such a reception as no commissioners had ever witnessed before. Twenty-one thousand men had assembled to a rendezvous on Triploe Heath, near Royston, and the general and the commissioners rode to each regiment, to acquaint them with the parliamentary votes as to their instalment of pay, their disbanding, and their not approaching within twenty-five miles of London. The answer was sent up in shouts of "Justice! justice!" A petition also from the well-affected people of Essex was delivered on the field to the general in presence of the commissioners, against the disbanding, declaring "that the commonwealth had many enemies, who watched for such an opportunity to destroy the good people." A memorial was, moreover, drawn up and signed by the general and all the chief officers, to the lord mayor and corporation of London, warning them against false representations of the intentions of the army, for that the war being at an and, all that they desired and prayed for was, that the peace of the kingdom should be settled according to the declarations of parliament before the army was called out, and that being done, the army should be paid before disbanding.
So far from pacifying the parliament, these proceedings alarmed it infinitely more, and it issued an order that the army should not come within forty-five miles of the capital. On its part, the army collected addresses from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and all the surrounding counties, praying the purgation of the house from all such members as were disqualified from sitting there by corruption, delinquency, abuse of the state, or undue election; and on the 16th of June, from its headquarters, St. Albans, the army formally impeached of high treason eleven of the most active presbyterian members—Hollis, Waller, Clotworthy, Stapleton, Lewis, Slaynard, Massey, Harley, Long, Glynne, and Nichols. This impeachment was presented to the house by
