CHAPTER V.

DEATH OF THE KING.

Parliament resolves to hold no further Communication with the King -Prayer-meeting at Windsor-Second Civil War-Royalist Insurrection-Scotch Invasion-Cromwell's Victories-Parliament again treats with the King-Charles's Treachery-Great AlternativeArmy remonstrates with Parliament-Cromwell justified by Facts -The Woodman and the Sower-Cromwell to Hammond-Truth and Error-The King at Hurst Castle-Parliament rejects the Remonstrance-Composition of the Army-The Army at London— Pride's Purge-Cromwell's Hesitation about the King-Cromwell's Religious Error-Prayers-Howe's Sermon before Cromwell-The Will of God-Death Warrant-The Execution censured-Revelation of the King's Treason-Principles of the Roman Church-Of Milton -Defence of the Right of Resistance-Charles's Children-Cromwell to his Daughter-in-law-Cromwell and Charles's Corpse-The European Powers.

THE parliamentary commissioners, on their return from the Isle of Wight to London, presented the report of their journey and its results. On the 3d of January 1648, Sir Thomas Wroth rose in the House of Commons and said: "Mr Speaker, Bedlam was appointed for madmen, and Tophet (i. e. the grave or hell) for kings;* but our king "of late hath carried himself as if he were fit for no place "but Bedlam; I propose we lay the king by, and settle "the kingdom without him." Ireton supported the motion. "The king," said he, "by denying the four bills "has denied safety and protection to his people." The parliamentary or presbyterian party strongly resisted the proposition. Cromwell had not yet spoken. In his view, Charles's bad faith had reached the point at which civil tribunals deprive a man of the management of his family; and he therefore thought that the management of the

* Isaiah xxx. 33.

kingdom should be taken from a prince who was no longer the father but the deceiver of his people. "Mr Speaker," he said, "the king is a man of great sense, of great talents, "but so full of dissimulation, so false, that there is no "possibility of trusting him. While he is protesting his "love for peace, he is treating underhand with the Scottish "Commissioners to plunge the nation into another war. "It is now expected the parliament should govern and "defend the kingdom." The motion was immediately adopted by the Commons, and by the Lords after some little hesitation.

This important vote caused a great sensation, and rendered the posture of affairs daily more embarrassing. A Scots army talked of delivering the king from the hands of the sectarians: and in England three parties, in addition to the soldiers, were agitating the nation. The royalist party threatened to rise every moment with shouts of "God and King Charles;" the great presbyterian party, with the city of London at their head, became hourly more discontented with the state of things: and a third party, the Levellers or radicals, still further increased the terror and confusion.

One day about the beginning of 1648 the army leaders met at Windsor. "The longest heads and the strongest "hearts in England were there," says an historian. And what did they there? The answer will be found in the following report which Adjutant-general Allen has transmitted to us :"We met at Windsor Castle about the "beginning of Forty-eight, and there we spent one day "together in prayer: inquiring into the causes of that sad "dispensation; coming to no further result that day but "that it was still our duty to seek. And on the morrow 66 we met again in the morning, where many spake from แ the Word and prayed; and the then Lieutenant-general "Cromwell did press very earnestly on all there present to a thorough consideration of our actions as an army, and "of our ways, particularly as private Christians: to see if any iniquity could be found in them, and what it was; "that if possible we might find it out, and so remove the 66 cause of such sad rebukes as were upon us at that time.

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"And to this end," he added, "let us consider when we "could last say that the presence of the Lord was among us, and rebukes and judgments were not as then "We concluded this second day with agreeing to meet 66 again on the morrow.

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" unto you.

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upon us.

"Which accordingly we did, and were led by a gracious "hand of the Lord, to find out the very steps by which we "had departed from Him, and provoked Him to depart "from us. Which we found to be those cursed carnal "conferences our own conceited wisdom, our fears, and "want of faith had prompted us, the year before, to enter"tain with the king and his party. And on this occasion, "did the then Major Goffe make use of that good Word, "Proverbs i. 23-Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words And the Lord so accompanied this invitation by His Spirit, that it had a kindly effect, like a word of His, upon most of our hearts that were then present; "which begot in us a great sense, a shame and loathing "of ourselves for our iniquities, and a justifying of the "Lord as righteous in His proceedings against us. "led us not only to see our sin, but also our duty: and "this so unanimously set with weight upon each heart, "that none was able hardly to speak a word to each other "for bitter weeping, partly in the sense and shame of our iniquities; of our unbelief, base fear of men, and carnal "consultations with our own wisdom, and not with the "Word of the Lord. And yet we were also helped, with fear and trembling, to rejoice in the Lord, "who no sooner brought us to His feet but He did direct 66 our steps, and we were led to a clear agreement amongst "ourselves, that it was the duty of our day, with the forces we had, to go out and fight against our potent enemies, "with an humble confidence in the name of the Lord only.

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"And we were also enabled then, after serious seeking "the Lord's face, to come to a very clear and joint resolution, that it was our duty to call Charles Stuart, "that man of blood, to an account for that blood he "had shed, and mischief he had done to his utmost

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against the Lord's cause and people in these poor "nations."*

It is a striking spectacle to witness the bold and formidable leaders of the parliamentary army assembled for three days in prayer in the palace of Windsor to seek for the guidance of the Lord. Who can entertain any doubt of their uprightness, of their true piety, and of their lively faith? Who, on contemplating their example, can help feeling humiliated as he looks sorrowfully into his own heart? Who will not acknowledge that the continual falsehoods of Charles I., and the conviction at which the champions of liberty had arrived, that this prince was betraying them, and would only be satisfied with the destruction of Protestantism, were well calculated to alarm the chiefs of the army, and lead them on to decisive measures?

And yet, were they really in the right path? We entertain some doubt on this point. There is perhaps no case in which we see more clearly the importance of being enlightened on the true principles of christian conduct. When the leaders of the army wished to know what they ought to do, they examined into what they had done when they felt happiest and nearest to God: such are not the means prescribed by Heaven. They should have asked themselves, "What does God command us in "His Word?" It is not by our feelings that He will guide us, but by his commandments. Our feelings may lead us astray. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The Word of God never misleads us. A Christian's walk is in the divine commandments: to act according to one's own sensations, one's interior illumination, is the walk of the mystic.

If the officers assembled at Windsor did not then fall into fanaticism, they were at least in a path which might lead to it; and some of them fell into it afterwards.

Meanwhile Cromwell still endeavoured to check the movement which was hurrying on towards a violent catastrophe. He strove to restrain the pretensions of the

• Somers' Tracts, vi. 499-501; cited by Carlyle, i. 337-340.

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republicans and enthusiasts. He was grieved to see power passing from the hands of moderate men, and extended to earnest and active persons of inferior condition, but who were void of experience and wisdom. He assembled one day at dinner the principal independents and presbyterians, and earnestly entreated them to suspend their quarrels and combine together. But it was without result; the minds of all were inclined to violence and war; and Oliver was at length compelled to yield.

The king and the royalists on their side were not less heated than the republicans. Charles was intriguing with England, Scotland, and Ireland. At one time, at the table of some rich gentleman, at another time, at the assizes or in the markets, the cavaliers plotted, worked upon the people,-and their exertions seemed everywhere crowned with success. A discontent, hourly becoming more general, announced itself, in the spring of 1648, among the presbyterians and the loyalists in Wales and in Kent. "The gentry are all for the king," writes a contemporary; "the common people understand nothing, and follow the gentry."

In South Wales, several officers, who had gained distinction in the parliamentary army, joined the cavaliers beneath the royal flag. In Scotland, the parliament voted a levy of 40,000 men in the king's defence. At this signal the royalists in the north of England broke out, and the chiefs of the parliamentary army in Ireland went over to the king's standard. Shortly after this event the Kentish royalists drew together in great numbers. Even in London, troops were raised for the king, and armed bands marched through the streets to join the insurgents.

At this news, Cromwell, at the head of five regiments, took his departure for Wales, where lay the principal strength of the royalists; and letters were soon after received from him, promising that in a fortnight Pembroke Castle would be in his

power.

It was not only his own person, his own and his children's lives, that Cromwell offered to his country: he was also lavish of his property; he could despise small