a fortnight return with what seems an agreement and settlement; for which Lieutenant-General Cromwell receives the thanks of the House.[1] The House votes what if conceives to be justice, ‘eight weeks of pay’ in ready-money, bonds for the rest,—and so forth. Congratulations hereupon; a Committee of Lords and Commons are ordered to go down to Saffron Walden, to see the Army disbanded.
May 28th. On arriving at Saffron Walden, they find that their notions of what is justice, and the Army’s notions, differ widely. ‘Eight weeks of pay,’ say the Army; ‘we want nearer eight times eight!’ Disturbances in several of the quarters:—at Oxford the men seize the disbanding-money as part of payment, and will not disband till they get the whole. A meeting of Adjutators, by authority of Fairfax, convenes at Bury St. Edmund’s,—a regular Parliament of soldiers, ‘each common man paying fourpence to meet the expense’; it is agreed that the Army’s quarters shall be ‘contracted,’ brought closer together; that on Friday next, 4th of June, there shall be a Rendezvous, or General Assembly of all the Soldiers, there to decide on what they will do.[2]
June 4th and 5th. The Newmarket Rendezvous, ‘on Kentford Heath,’ a little east of Newmarket, is held; a kind of Covenant is entered into, and other important things are done:—but elsewhere in the interim a thing still more important had been done. On Wednesday June 2d, Cornet Joyce,—once a London tailor, they say, evidently a very handy active man,—he and Five-hundred common troopers, a volunteer Party, not expressly commanded by anybody, but doing what they know the whole Army wishes to be done, sally out of Oxford, where things are still somewhat disturbed; proceed to Holmby House; and, after two days of talking, bring ‘the King’s Person’ off with them. To the horror and despair of the Parliament Commissioners in attendance there ; but clearly to the satisfaction of his Majesty,—who hopes, in this new shuffle-and-deal, some good card will turn-up for him;
