famous Colonel Knight received the Salutations and Respects of the Forces in their Arms and having praised them for their dutifulness and affection proceeded forwards the people strewing Flowers and Leaves of Trees in the way and in all places offering him the choicest marks of their Honour When he was come near the City the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London welcomed him upon their knees The Mayor delivered his Majesty the Sword the Badge of his Dignity which the King graciously gave him back again and being conducted into a large and richly-adorned Pavillion was entertained at a splendid Collation From thence with a magnificent train of Persons of all quality over London-bridge he entered the City amidst such a glorious appearance of brave and great men that scarcely in any Age the triumphal Bridge of Rome ever bore a greater Pomp or victorious Tyber saw or Euphrates of old or the yet more ancient Tygris Along the Streets from London-bridge to White-hall on the one side in a continued order the Trained-bands of the City were drawn up and on the other the Companies in their Livery-gowns the houses on each side being hung with Tapistry The tops of the houses and windows were filled with vast multitudes of Spectators the People from all places flocking to this glorious and joyful Show There were no less than twenty thousand richly attired on horseback The first that led the Cavalcade were some Troops of young Gentlemen in a various most rich dress and shining Arms with Trumpets sounding before them The Sheriffs of London's men with their Spears followed after next after whom marched six hundred of the chief Citizens in Velvet-coats and Gold-chains Then followed the Kings Horse-guards led by the Lord Gerrard their Captain With the chearful musick of Drums Trumpets and Waits next advanced the Sheriffs and Aldermen of London in their Scarlet-gowns and their Horses richly deckt with Trapings their Footmen attending them shining with Gold and Silver Then followed the Kings of Arms and Heralds in their rich Coats and next to them the Lord Mayor carrying in his right hand the naked Sword and after him the Illustrious Duke of Buckingham and the renowned General Monk And now appeared Charles the Wishes of all good men and the Joys of the happy conspicuous in a triumphant Majesty On the right hand rode the Duke of York on the left the Duke of Gloucester he himself on a stately horse in the middle carrying all Triumphs and Diadems in his looks which seemed then more than humane After his Majesty came his chief Courtiers and Servants General Monk's Life-guard commanded by Sir Philip Howard and then five Regiments of Horse of Monk's Army led by Colonel Knight This Triumphal Procession was brought up by a vast body of Noblemen and Gentlemen with red Colours fringed with Gold in rich Attire shining Arms their Swords drawn and Plumes of Feather in their Hats In this order the King marched slowly through the City amidst the shouts acclamations and joyful looks of his Subjects which he triumphantly heard and beheld And now entring his Royal Palace he mounted the Throne of his Forefathers on the twenty ninth of May heretofore the day of his Birth and now of his Restauration after he had been since Worcester-fight ten years banished his Country The Members of both Houses of Parliament came to wait on his Majesty in the Banquetting-house there to express their joyful Congratulations for his Return and unfeigned Loyalty to the Government which was eloquently done by the Earl of Manchester for the House of Lords and Sir Harbotle Grimstone for the Commons The King tired out with the Fatigues of his triumphant Journey made them this short Answer I Am so disordered by my Journey and with the noise still sounding in my ears which I confess was pleasing to me because it expressed the Affections of my People as I am unfit at the present to make such a Reply as I desire yet thus much I shall say unto you That I take no greater satisfaction to my self in this my Change than that I find my heart really set to endeavour by all means for the restoring of this Nation to their Freedom and Happiness and I hope by the advice of my Parliament to assert it Of this also you may be confident That next to the honour of God from whom principally I shall ever own this Restauration to my Crown I shall study the welfare of my People and shall not onely be a true Defender of the Faith but a just Assertor of the Laws and Liberties of my Subjects The night following was consecrated to Joy The Conduits running Wine and the whole City lighted by Bonfires The loyal Citizens willing to lull asleep the memory of twenty years Calamities merrily spent the night in the noise of Trumpets Drums and Volleys of shot The providence of God Almighty never appeared more visible in humane affairs for now the Golden Age returns a Happiness too good for our times the blessed day shone forth wherein King Charles being restored to his Country restored his Country to it self and united Liberty and Monarchy two things thought incompatible under the traiterous Usurpers The honour of the Laws which makes all things firm and durable returned The splendour of the Church of England and the ancient Rites of Worship also returned Piety coming in place of Sectarian Superstition The King having tasted a little of the delights of his Return seriously set about the setling of the State entangl'd with so many Civil Dissentions and rent by Divisions and in the first place appointed a Privy-Council and disposed of the chief places of his Kingdom and Court The King makes the most Illustrious James Duke of York Lord High Admiral a Prince renowned at home and abroad and crowned with many Victories Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon was made Lord Chancellor in Eloquence not inferiour to the most famed Orators nor in Prudence to the greatest Statesmen The uncorrupted Earl of Southampton with Honour and Integrity discharged the Office of Lord High Treasurer The Illustrious charge of Steward of the Kings Houshold was conferred upon the Duke of Ormond a Peer of a steddy Judgment of the Honesty of elder times and renowned both in Peace and War The Earl of Manchester whose Loyalty had been proved was created Lord Chamberlain of the House Nicholas and Morrice two aged Knights and consummated in business were the Principal Secretaries of State Monk the Restorer formerly by the Kings Commission made General of all the British Forces is now advanced to be Master of the Horse and honoured with the Illustrious Title of Duke of Albemarle For his noble Extraction gave him a claim to the Honour of the Albemarlian Family and the bounty of the King in rewarding his good Services an Estate to support it Nor was the most Religious King less careful of the
of the Army as an Act and Deed approved by all and order it to be presented to the Parliament in the name of the Army and People of England who if they had been called to give their votes scarcely one of a thousand would have consented to it and all the rest could not but have cursed the perfidious Author of the villany with all his Adherents as the Bane and plague of mankind But the Lower House making a virtue of the necessity of the times take the courage to lay aside for some time that Remonstrance and to apply themselves to the examining and discussing of the Royal Concessions which then lay before them The Commanders of the Army taking it very ill to be thus slighted by them who ought to have thanked them for all the honour and dignity they enjoyed sent some Troops into the Isle of Wight who having seized the King removed him out of the Island and clapt him up prisoner in Hurst-Castle opposite to the Island on the main-land-side a narrow nasty and unwholsome place by reason it is incompassed by the Sea At the same time they march to London and put Garrisons into the Kings Palace and the Noblemens houses adjoyning the Palace-yard and Houses of Parliament having posted the Army in the neighbouring places about The Souldiers hoped that this beginning would put the dissenting Members into such a fear that they would hide in holes and corners which had been very usual with them and that men of their own Faction being sole Masters of the Parliament they might do what they pleased under the cloak of the Authority of Parliament which would justifie their Violence and make what Laws soever might conduce to their profit and advantage But the event answered not their expectations for most part of the Members as if at that time they had been assisted by divine inspiration not at all terrified by the muttering and anger of the Souldiers nor the clashing of Arms thinking themselves sufficiently secure by their character of Parliament-men meet to consult in a greater number than ordinary Both that day and the following the Lower House debated hotly about the Kings Concessions whilst in the mean time the Republicans of both sorts raise scruples jangle make parties and with long Speeches protract the time about Presbytery and the Covenant neither of which they liked amongst whom no man was so fierce as Sir Henry Vane who in the Isle of Wight had perswaded the King to grant no more seeing he had already yielded so many and so great Priviledges to the Parliament as he thought it neither lawful for them to expect nor take which he promised also publickly to assert This man I say inveighed bitterly against the Conditions of Peace as if under the mask of Concessions and the shew of setling Peace Danger lay hid and that his Majesty laid a Snare for subverting the publick Liberty of Parliament and People and all this that he might gain time for the whole Army to post themselves in the City At length a Vote is passed That the Kings Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace This past by the voices of two hundred hardly threescore opposing it The Lords having next day assented to it in the same terms the Parliament was adjourned for a week till that Commotion might be somewhat appeased Commissioners are forthwith sent from the House of Commons to acquaint Fairfax and the Commanders of the Army with the matter This so incensed the Oligarchick Rebels that the Speaker of the House of Commons who had already greedily swallowed down their poyson or at least temporized and turned to either side as the Faction prevailed threatned forthwith publickly in the House That they would never be suffered any more to meet in Parliament if they obstinately persisted in that opinion And indeed the day appointed for the next Session some Colonels guarded by a Regiment or two of Foot and a Regiment of Horse beset all the avenues to the House of Commons apprehend forty Members of the more resolute and wise who dissented from them debar about one hundred and fifty more from entering the House and suffer none to go in but such as they knew to be devoted to their Faction Some had slipt in undiscovered by a Note they call out under pretext of speaking with some Friend or Client at the door and though they alleadged the authority and priviledge of Parliament yet they seize and hurry them away in the very Court The captive Members being many ways tossed and abused are exposed to derision and the miseries of a long and nasty imprisonment amongst whom were many who having asserted the Parliament-Cause as Generals Governours and Colonels were thus thanked for their good services Nay and William Prynn a fierce Asserter of the Opinions he once entertained that indefatigable Author of voluminous Writings for the Parliament stuck fast in the same mire with the rest the Spectators every where admiring the inscrutable Judgments of God who suffered them to be so unworthily treated by their Slaves and Servants who themselves were the Subjects that first took up Arms against their King and audaciously laid hands on him All this was done under the honest and specious colour of purging and reforming the House Thus the Lower House is reduced to a Junto of a few men to wit the eighth part of the just number and these wholly enslaved to the Army whose Commanders coming as freely into the House as the Rumpers went into the Camp they daily conferred Notes together and it is first resolved in a Council of War what was to be proposed to be enacted in Parliament which then served under the Army and lent them Authority to palliate their Machinations Of so many hundred Members there scarcely remained forty in the House a number unfit to bear the name of the Commons of England and these not onely the least but the most part consisting of a remnant of the dregs of the House and many of them Commanders in the Army So that there remained nothing of a Parliament but the name the rest abominating such horrid wickedness and shunning their company and conversation amongst whom were some who being deluded with the sham of Conscience had espoused the Party of the Republicans Thus a few fellows about twenty of them for the most part continually dissenting blush not to usurp to themselves alone the supreme power of ordering the affairs of England of bringing the King to a tryal making and abrogating the Laws of their Country and overturning the ancient and fundamental Government of the Nation They confirm the Vote for Non Addresses which had been craftily and surreptitiously made and afterwards repealed by both Houses in full number But the other Votes for having a Conference with the King and especially that which declared the Kings Concessions to be a sufficient ground for a Peace they rescind
and France as being divided at home and many of them had the confidence openly to glory that they would break that Yoke wherewith the Kings of the Earth oppress the People Nor truly could any man have told where the fierceness of this Scourge would have ended and where that Floud would have spent it self unless the divine Majesty which hath hollowed a channel for the Sea set bounds and limits to it and said Hither shalt thou come and no further had not opposed the over-swelling pride of these Waters and commanded his Angel to sound the Retreat A Chronological INDEX FOR This First Part. Old Stile MDCXXV KIng James being dead CHARLES the First succeeds King of Great Britain He marries Henrietta Maria Sister to Louis XIII King of France MDCXXV VI VII VIII The King calls three Parliaments and little or nothing done as often dissolves them MDCXXX Prince CHARLES is born MDCXXXIII James Duke of York is born MDCXXXVII Prin Burton Bastwick having lost their ears are put in prison The Scots grow rebellious MDCXXXIX The King meets the Scots intending to invade England but having made a Pacification disbands his Army MDCXL The Stirs of the Scots occasioned the Kings calling of a Parliament at Westminster which was dissolved without any success So the Scots invade England and take Newcastle The King marches against them but having made a Truce calls a Parliament at Westminster The Parliament meets and under pretext of Reformation put all into Confusion Thomas Wentworth Earl of Strafford Deputy of Ireland and William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury are accused MDCXI The Deputy of Ireland condemned by a Law made for the purpose is beheaded The King also by Act of Parliament grants That the Parliament shall not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses William of Nassaw Son to Frederick Prince of Orange is married to Mary Daughter to K. Charles The Scots full of money return into their own Country The King follows them into Scotland The Irish conspire against the English and cruelly fall upon them The King returns to London from Scotland A Remonstrance of the Lower House offered to the King MDCXLI MDCXLII The King accuses five Commoners and one Lord of High-Treason The King goes into the House of Commons The King withdraws from London Sends a Pacificatory Letter to the Parliament Sends the Queen into Holland with her Daughter He himself goes towards York Sir John Hotham shuts the Gates of Hull against the King Vnjust Propositions of Peace are made by the Parliament to the King The Parliament raising an Army the King at length sets up his Standard at Nottingham Both Armies engage at Edge-hill and both challenge the Victory MDCXLIII A Treaty of Peace appointed at Oxford comes to nothing The Earl of Newcastle gets the better of Fairsax Commander of the Rebels in the North. In the West Waller a Commander of the Rebels is routed by the Kings Party Prince Rupert taketh Bristol Maurice his Brother takes Exeter In the mean time the King himself besieges Gloucester Essex General of the Rebels relieves Gloucester The King meets Essex upon his return and fights him at Nubury The English Rebels put to a streight call in the Scots and take the Covenant The King therefore makes a Truce with the Irish for a year MDCXLIII IV. James Marquess of Hamilton is committed to prison The Scots again enter England The King holds a Parliament at Oxford The Earl of Montross is sent Commissioner into Scotland Essex and Waller Generals of the Rebels march towards Oxford The King defeats Waller at Cropredian-bridge Then pursues Essex into the West The Scots in the mean time joyned with the English defeat the Cavaliers at Marston-moore And then take York by surrender In the West the King breaks all Essex his Forces Vpon his return he is met by Manchester at Newbury where they fight a second time Alexander Carey is beheaded MDCXLIV V. Hotham the Father and Son are beheaded William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury is beheaded Macquire an Irish Lord is hanged The Treaty of Peace at Uxbridge comes to nothing Fairfax General of the Parliament Forces defeats the King at Naseby Henceforward all by degrees fell into the hands of the Parliament MDCXLVI The King having in vain tried the English departing privately from Oxford commits himself into the hands of the Scots Fairfax takes Oxford by composition Robert Earl of Essex dies MDCXLVI VII The Scots sell the King to the English and return fraighted with Money The King is made close Prisoner in Holdenby-Castle The Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland delivers up Dublin to the English The Army take the King out of Prison And march against the Parliament The Speakers of both Houses with fifty other Members flie to the Camp The Souldiers attend the Members that fled to West-minster Vnjust Conditions of Peace are proposed to the King at Hampton-court The King makes his escape to the Isle of Wight From thence writing Pacificatory Letters they propose to him four Demands as preliminary to a Conference The King is made close Prisoner MDCXLVII VIII The Parliament votes no more Addresses to the King The Counties everywhere stir the Kentish Essex-men and some others take up Arms. The Duke of Buckingham Francis his Brother and Earl of Holland in vain take up Arms. The Fleet comes over to the Prince of Wales The Scots commanded by Duke Hamilton advance into England They are defeated by Cromwel and Hamilton taken Fairfax takes Colchester upon surrender Rainsborough a Commander of the Parliament Army killed at Duncaster A Conference appointed with the King in the Isle of Wight The Marquess of Ormond returns Lord Lieutenant into Ireland The Remonstrance of Ireton is approved in a Council of War And is presented to the Parliament in name of the Army and People of England The King is carried from the Isle of Wight to Hurst-Castle Nevertheless the Parliament votes That the Kings Concessions are a sufficient ground for a Peace Many Parliament-men are made Prisoners by the Souldiers MDCXLVIII IX The rest amongst other and unheard things vote That all Power is originally in the People Then That the King himself is to be brought to a tryal The King therefore is brought to the Bar. The King is brought a fourth time and condemned CHARLES the best of Kings by unparallel'd Villany is beheaded James Duke of Hamilton Henry Earl of Holland and the generous Arthur Lord Capel are beheaded Lastly Monarchy it felf is abolished by the Regicides The Act is proclaimed by the mock-Mayor of London
and the suspicion of a sudden Insurrection again amongst the Irish because they parted so easily with their Inheritances is laid at their door as a ruine We purposely pass by matters of less importance least what we are about by the by should swell up to too vast a bulk The Officers of the Army what by craft and what by force turning Richard out of the Supream Power and the Rump-Parliament after five years interment being raised again from the dead the eyes of all are fixed upon Henry It was thought by some that he would defend his own Authority and vindicate that of his Brother Others hoped that he would favour the Royal Cause and so make his interest with the King the Navy especially giving no obscure marks of their inclination and the Army and Kingdom of Ireland being ready enough to promote such an Enterprize Nor dare I swear that he entertain'd no such Projects But the Lord Broghill and Coot deserting him in dubious Affairs and Steel and Tomlinson old Commissioners managing and Waller and Corbet new ones continually solliciting him he at length resigns himself to the Will and Pleasure of the Rump-Parliament and returns into England there to give an account of his administration Hitherto we have dwelt in Ireland that without interruption we might give the Reader an account of the Affairs of that Kingdom Now bringing our discourse back to former years we must return to the Democratical Republicans who after the murder of the King swayed Affairs in England under the Olygarchicks These being upstarts promoted for the most part men of their own Edition to places of honour and profit Which the Londoners took so ill that the Mayor and Aldermen came and petitioned the Rump-Parliament that the cheif Citizens or that some of them at least might be again admitted into the common Council of the City These were about three hundred whom either age or wealth at least recommended But the year before the Rump-Parliament had turned a great many of them out and judged them unworthy of carrying any office in the City for no other reason but because they had signed the Petition making Peace with the King which the greater and sounder part of the Parliament were also for But that desire of the Mayor and Aldermen though they seriously alledged the want of ingenious and honest men of moderate Estates for discharging the offices of the City is rejected with contempt nor would they have any but the Riff Raff and inconsiderable rable to manage Publick Affairs as being such who measured good and evil according to the will and pleasure of their Masters Whil'st these things are carried on at London CHARLES the Second was not asleep nor did he neglect his Affairs though the Regicides carried all before them in England but moves every stone and leaves nothing unessayd that the wit and power of man could devise or execrate for resetling the undone Nations asserting the publick Liberty and the Regicide being revenged recovering his ancient Inheritance He implores the assistance of Foreign Kings and Princes who are all equally concerned according to the Supream Power they have received from God and their common duty to give Sanctuary to the oppressed but especially to Kings whom above all men living they ought to protect not only upon the account of Kindred and Cognation but also for fear of Contagion least the horrid example of Rebellion might have an influence upon their own Subjects that if perchance they should be reduced to the like streights they might likewise obtain the like help and assistance He sends Ambassadours to the Emperour and German Princes to the Grand Signior the great Duke of Moscovie the Kings of Poland Denmark and Sweden to the republick of Venice and the States General of the united Provinces He sends into Spain from whence he had the greatest expectation the Lord Edward Hide who had formerly been Lord cheif Baron of the Exchequer and was afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Clarendon whose Iuvenile and vegete wit might put life into the aged head of Cottington In France besides a particular Ambassadour the Queen Mother and Duke of York were there and the King himself to sollicite his own affairs But alass almost every where unsuccessfully the distance of place hindering the aid of some and either the want of money domestick seditions or dangers from neigbours obstructing the assistances of others None are touched with the sence or pity of the Calamities of another The Ottoman Court dealt barbarously in that for a little money they delivered up the Ambassadour Henry Hide a most accomplished Gentleman into the hands of the Rump-Parliament who being brought over into England for his unshaken Loyalty without any pretext of ancient Law he was beheaded before the Royal Exchange in London France with promises gives hope of large assistance so long as they could procure any help from the Subjects of the King of England especially from James Duke of YORK who commanding the English and Irish that served the French in Flanders had given many Noble and Illustrious proofs of his Heroick Valour and Courage Until that Blake had beaten the French Fleet under the Command of the Duke of Vendosme which came to the relief of Dunkirk at that time besieged by the Spaniards Then they sent Burdex to treat of peace at London whil'st the Regicides expected no less than a declaration of War And having afterwards entred into a strict allyance they inwardly rejoyced that the Kings Majesty was deluded and no small stop put to the fury of the Rebels The Spaniard seemed to be grieved at the Kings Murder but excused himself that it did not belong to him to determine about the controversies of England nor did he take pleasure to meddle in other Peoples Affairs out of his own Terrritories but that in the mean time he should be ready to do the King all the kindness he could within his Countries Nevertheless not long after Ascham being killed which I shall shortly relate he was the first King who Commanded his Hedge Ambassadour Don Alonso de Cardenas to Worship the rising sun of the Common-wealth wish the Parrcides all happiness intreat the continuance of Friendship and good Correspondence betwixt his Kingdomes and the New Common-wealth and promised severely to punish the Wicked Murderers of Ascham Now there are some not obscure Reasons why the great Mind of so Wise a King was by so unexpected a change that rather discovered than altered his Inclinations brought over to the contrary side For besides Ancient and Paternal enmities with Queen Elizabeth Philip himself had particular Quarrels against Charles It wounded him deep that his Sister being courted in Marriage even so far as to have had an interview and conference with her she should afterwards be slighted for a Daughter of France though a Princess of extraordinary Worth Besides the old offence
before his Eyes he forbore all farther discourse Shortly after VVilmot passing through the Town they take Horse and following the streight Rode to London they met with several Travellers in the way and amongst those one who had formerly been a Servant to CHARLES the First Therefore thinking it most convenient to turn out of the Rode they followed the next way upon the left hand and having rid a long time towards night they came to a Village called Broad-windsor Windham goes before to enquire where they were what the name of the Village was and whither the way led And by good luck he stumbled upon an Inn-keeper an old Servant of his own who had been also a Soldier in the Kings Army pleased with this good Fortune he speaks him kindly and because it grew dark he easily obtained Lodging that night for his Company However it was not long before the Constable came with forty Soldiers at his back who marching to the Sea Coast to be transported over to Jersey must be quartered there The House being pestered with them the Kings Majesty had but a very narrow Lodging yet that was not all the inconvenience For about midnight a Woman that followed the Soldiers fell into Labour Which being noised about the People of the Village flock'd together and kept a bawling and heavy rout about the keeping of the Child and Mother which continued till break of day when the Soldiers weary of the jangle hastened to their Ships During the hubbub let us look back a little to Chayremouth where the Shoeing of a Horse went near to have cost the Lord Wilmot dear by a discourse started betwixt the Smith and the Hostler The Smith asking From whence came these Gentlemen From Exeter as they say answered the Hostler To whom the Smith replied but I dare swear these last Shoes were put on in the North. All other circumstances being considered to wit that the Saddles were not taken off in the night time that though Travellers they had sat up all night and that the Servant went out of the Inn early in the morning they presently conclude that they were Persons of Quality who flying after the late Worcester fight had wandered thither and that perhaps the King was amongst them So that the Hostler hoping to make his Fortune went to consult the Minister of the place one Westley a great stickler for the Regicides what he had best to do on this occasion But neither was it fit to disturb him at his Morning Prayers nor durst the Hostler stay till they were winded out for fear of losing the Vails he expected from the Gentleman that was upon parting and therefore returning without any thing done he lets him go The Smith having blazed about the story presently came the Minister solicitously enquiring of the Inn-keeper what the Travellers were that he had lodged that night from whence they came whither they were going and what was their Business there His suspicion being encreased by the Inn-keeper's answers he runs to Butler the next Colonel for obtaining a Warrant to raise the Countrey and Soldiers for apprehending the King The Colonel refusing Captain Massey quartered hard by having gathered together as many Horse as he could in the hurry follows after on the London Rode as far as Dorchester but the King dy divine Providence having quitted the Rode he returned disappointed of his fair hopes This set all the Soldiers about a working who search all places and suspected houses especially that of Sir Hugh Windham Uncle to the Colonel where they left not a Chest nor corner unsearched and having made the whole Family Prisoners they will needs have a young Lady of extraordinary Beauty and Parts to be the King in disguise nor did they let her go till by an undoubted experiment they had found out her Sex The King's steps however are to be traced by a surer Guide For after mature deliberation it was resolved upon that he should return to his known recess at Trent and that the Lord Wilmot with Peters should hasten to Salisbury that there he might advise with John Coventry the eldest Son of the Lord Keeper Coventry by a second Marriage by what means the King might either securely pass the Seas or at least find a new retirement for it was to be feared lest staying too long in one place he might be discovered After a consultation with Coventry application is made to one Mrs. Hide a Widow who lived at a Village called Heal within a mile of Salisbury that she would look out for a lurking place and Robert Philips who had been a Colonel in the Army of CHARLES the First is sent to Southampton to freight a Vessel He returning from thence assured them that a Ship and all things necessary were in readiness for a Transportation But it fell out unluckily that the same Ship whilst the King was going to the Widows House was taken up and engaged to carry over Soldiers and Ammunition to the Isle of Jersey Philips being therefore disappointed of his hopes begs assistance of Colonel Gunter whom he met with by chance in that affair The King in the mean time came to the Widows House in the night time and goes to Supper Doctor Henchman afterward Bishop of Salisbury with other Guests sitting with him at Table After Supper he privately disclosed himself to the Widow and entreated shelter from her and though she had never seen him before but once and that seven years before in passing yet at first sight she knew him She therefore advises him early in the morning to depart towards London but having turned out of the way to come back about one of the Clock in the afternoon at what time he should by a back door be let into the House for that being a Market day at Salisbury and all her Servants and other Witnesses being gone thither by her permission she her self would let him in The thing was accordingly done For the King and Colonel Philips taking formally leave of the Mistress of the House mounted on Horseback and go to see Stonehenge but at the appointed hour returned back again here the Colonel carrying away the Horses the King is hid in a secret place which had been made in the time of the War for securing of Jewels and Goods of greatest value In the mean time by means of Colonel Gunter a Vessel was hired at Bright-helmstead in Sussex which so soon as the King knew all things being in a readiness for a departure his Majesty in good earnest takes leave of the Lady and in the night time accompanied by Colonel Philips he removed to the house of one Simmons near Portsmouth and came next day in the Evening to an Inn at Bright-helmstead where all sit down at Table together the King Gunter Wilmot Mansel a Merchant and Tetershal Master of the Vessel opposite to the King The Master of the Vessel
Army that he might shew him not onely to the People but to the Soldiers and that he might insinuate with all and as much as he could make himself Friends by Conversation And now the day was come when the whole Parliament was to meet as well the Republicans who in the beginning of the Parliament had been excluded by Cromwell for refusing to subscribe to the Condition required as the Lords or Peers who by Oliver's Writ filled the Upper House But the Reader cannot but wonder how disdainfully the Members of the Lower House looked upon those new Lords asking them with scorn By what Authority they sate to what end and for what purpose were they called hither Nay they could not refrain from ridiculing and scoffing at them nor be induced to have any thing to do or consult in common with these Men. On the contrary the Lords as they were instructed by Cromwell fawned complied wheadled and courted their Friendship leaving no means unessayed whereby they might soften and make them more gentle But they continue to be morose untractable and refractory to every thing Which Cromwell observing and especially because he understood that the Cavaliers were hatching new Designs that the King was in a readiness with I know not how many thousand Men to invade England and that the Marquess of Ormond was really in the Land secretly labouring to raise the Country for these Reasons he forthwith dissolved that fictitious and as I may say Comical Parliament It was not long before the Stirs began more clearly to appear one Corkar a Parson in Sussex who nevertheless had heretofore had a hand in killing Rainsborough at Doncaster Sir Richard Willis and many others who had served and been well rewarded by the King and had opportunity of passing to and again betwixt Cromwell and His Majesty and discovering all secret Intrigues having basely betrayed the Design A General Insurrection was designed almost all over England especially in Hull London Sussex Surrey and many other Places which the King himself with Foreign Forces commanded by Marsin intended to Head But all proved in vain the Matter as we have said having been discovered to Cromwell by treacherous and clandestine Spies The Marquess of Ormond with much ado made his Escape having by the Assistance of Doctor Quarterman procured a Boat in Sussex And now a vast number of Persons apprehended are loaded with the suspicion of guilt and therefore the High Court of Justice a true Object of Derision had it not been polluted with Blood is again appointed Lisle being President Before this Court are brought Mordant Son to the Earl of Peterborough two Stapleys Woodcock Sir Henry Slingsby Hewet Doctor of Divinity Mallory Rivers Dyke and many more Hewet is condemned for Contumacy in not acknowledging the Authority of the Court Slingsby because being formerly a Prisoner in Hull he had treated with Waters about the Delivery of Hull-Fort into the hands of the King Mordant is absolved by the Majority onely of one Voice when within a quarter of an hour after Pride came in who would certainly have voted to the contrary so near he seemed to the very Jaws of Death Woodcock defended himself so ingeniously that he came off The rest were either not found Guilty or obtained Cromwell's Pardon for accusing of others or in short were condemned of High Treason Hewet and Slingsby were both beheaded But four others were drawn hanged and quartered their Privy Members and Bowels burnt their Heads set up upon London-Bridge and their Quarters upon four Gates of the City The Common sort being safe by their Number after a long Imprisonment at length denying the Fact upon Oath are dismissed Thus they who for attempting to slay a Tyrant deserved a Triumphal Arch and highest Honours falling into the bloody Hands of their Enemies suffer a cruel and ignominious Death But that he might provide against such Stirs for the future and more securely settle his ill-got and unsafe Government besides the Soldiers of the Army he levies Troops of Horse in the several Counties which for the most part were made up of Voluntiers whom either ambition of domineering hope of Preferment prospect of Booty or at least the tediousness of an idle and lazy Life allured into the Service Of these he gave the Command to some of his Relations and fast Friends Though at present their Pay was but small Eight pound a year yet by getting into profitable Places and plundring the Cavaliers upon all occasions they were in good hopes of feathering their Nests Their Duty was to watch over the Counties to be present at Publick Fairs and other numerous Meetings to hinder private Assemblies and Concourses of People to exact the Taxes from those who were either slow or unwilling to pay them by Free-Quarters and Fines imposed upon them to seise besides suspected Persons search their Houses take from them the Arms which they might have for defending themselves against Thieves in the Night-time and in a word to suppress instantly all Stirs if any hapned in the bud Blake is again but now the last time to appear upon the Stage He being this year sent to cruise in the Atlantick Ocean had Intelligence that the Spanish Fleet richly laden with Silver and Plate had out of fear put into the Island of Tenariff resolving to keep in the Port of Sancta Cruce until Blake should be forced to return home either by the Winter Weather or the want of Victuals and Provisions Wherefore steering his Course thither he found the Harbour in shape of a Crescent defended by seven Forts lying round it and two Castles placed at the Points with seventeen Ships riding therein their Heads standing towards the Mouth of the Harbour that they might fire with greater certainty upon those that offered to enter nor could the Governour forbear to jear and slout at the English Blake therefore entring the Mouth of the Harbour with his Frigats thunders Broadsides and small Shot against the Castles till the Soldiers flying from thence he Manned his Boats with Seamen and sent them in who destroyed and burnt all the Spanish Ships that were there Which being done he made use of a favourable Wind which as it had brought him thither so carried him off again more satisfied with his Revenge than Booty But farewell to Blake who in that Expedition died of a Scurvey and Dropsie A Man deserving Praise even from an Enemy who having heretofore diligently plied his Studies took his Degree of Master of Arts in Wadham-College in Oxford and lived long a quiet and Country-life in Somersetshire till afterward the Civil War breaking out he was engaged into the Service by some Parliamentarians and defended Lime and Taunton even to a Miracle against the King Then being advanced to a Command at Sea he subdued the Isles of Silly at home after which being honoured with the Title and Place of Admiral he became famous by many Actions abroad For he
the King was very near discovered by an Hostler From thence as good luck would have it to Broad-VVindsor Where he is disquieted by Soldiers quartering there And the Country People Wilmot is in danger at Chayremouth Vpon a suspition occasioned by his Horses Shoes The Hostler consults the Minister of the place Who having seriously weighed the matter He hunts after the King tho too late Especially in Sir Hugh Windham 's house The King returns to Trent having sent VVilmot to Coventry A ship freighted at Southampton but without Success The King gâ—es to Heal. Having taken leave in the morning he returns â—ack without the knowledge of the Servants and is hid From thence he hastens to Bright-Helmstead Gunter having hired a Vessel Where at Supper he is known by the Master of the Bark Who being afraid of the Parliaments Proclamation With diffiulty undertakes the thing His Wife who smelt it out â—ncouraging him to the busâ—ness Being got on board they coast along the Shore as bound for the Isle of VVight In the Evening they arrive in Normandy The King very skilful in Navigation The Master of the Vessel being kindly dismissed arrives the same night at Pool The King having changed his Cloathes at Rouen Where by chance he found Doctor Earle He goes to Paris Whos 's safely was an illustrious Testimony of Divine Providence Cromwell having sent the Prisoners before comes to London Sterling Castle surrendered to Monck Noblemen taken by Alured Dundee was a prey to the Conquerour All Scotland in the power of the English who strengthen themselves by new Citadels And subdue Orkney and the Isles The Scots rise but in vain The administration of civil Affairs in Scotland by Judges for the most part English And a Council of State Thirty Commissioners from thence allowed to sit and Vote in the Parliament of England The Scots had what they deserved Hains subdues Jersey The Isle of Mann also takâ—n An Act of Oblivion passes But not without the instance of Cromwell The Soldiers displeased with the Rump Which with these Crimes they load As minding onely their own advantages The Objections are boldly enough answered The Soldiers reply Of whom therefore the Rump under another pretence order a great part to be disbanded The Soldiers refusing and demanding a new Representative An equal numbâ—r of both consult in common But without any Fruit. The Rumpers are divided about the manner of the Representative And about the Time Not willing to give the Power rashly out of their own hands Cromwell flying to the House and objecting to them Misdemeanours and other horrid Crimes Commands all to be gone And they delaying by the assistance of the Soldiers he expelled them the House And makes them ridiculous The People rejoycing And much applauding him They consult in the mean time what is fittest to be done The Officers advance the Godly to the Government Chosen from among the Off-scowrings of the People and out of all Sects Who having chosen a Speaker Take the Name of The Parliament of England And presently shew their madness in falling soul of the Ministers Colleges and Nobility They abolish all Courts of Justice Appoint Justices of Peace to celebrate Marriage The sounder part deliver up the Government to Cromwell who with reluctancy accepts it Lambert chiefly and by his persuasion the rest of the Officers consenting But he would be called Protector not King Cromwell swears to his own Conditions and presently chuses Counsellors out of every Sect. What were the thoughts of men in this great Revolution A War with Holland The use of it Different Opinions of the States of the United Provinces about that Matter The middle Opinion prevailing Embassadors for Pacification are sent into England In the heat of the Treaty a sharp Engagement hapned The Dutch excuse the matter But confederate with the Danes And fight again and again At length they sue for Peace Cromwell being now at the Helm A fourth Engagement most fatal to the Dutch Trump being killed And 2000 besides Cromwell claps up a Peace with the Dutch and Danes And lays a snare for the Prince of Orange Sâ—ditious Seamen Three Hansiatick Ships are stopp'd And condemned Cromwell is reconciled to the King of Portugal The Embassadors Brother Don Pantaleon Sa For a Murder committed in London Is beheaded And Gerard at the same time also for standing up for the Kings Interestâ— Vowell hanged for the same Cause The King of England uses all Endeavours to oblige the French King But being basely used He removes to Cologne His Friends in England in the mean time use all endeavours Cromwell counter-endeavours Yet by mutual Exhortations they do somewhat The matter was at length undertaken by Commâ—ssioners Very cauâ—iously The Republicans also conspiring with them And some Governours of Places But Cromwell discovering the Design easily disappoints it Some rising too soon Others cowardly And all disappointed of their Hopes Many Persons of Great Quality committed to Prison Not a few put to death Cromwell's Arts of Discovery Spies mingled amongst the Cavaliers Especially one Manning that lived at Court Who at length was justly put to death Cromwell calls a Parliament of Commoners onely Wherein he brags of his own good Deeds Which he would have the Parliament to confirm But they on the contrary nibble at the Instrument of Government The Officers and Courtiers opposing it But the Republicans urging the same But Cromwell severely checks these Debates And obliges all that would enter the House to own the Government However he left all his Labour The Republican Soldiers conspire his ruine Which he smelling out presently dissolved the Parliament He makes Peace with Sueden And France For Support of his Authority he procures Gratulatory Addresses from the Officers of the Army in Scotland Then from the Officers in England And afterwards from some Corporations He affected to be a Promoter of Justice And a rigid Censurer of Manners And a Favourer of the Clergy Whose Divisions nevertheless he foments whilst he seemed earnest in composing of them Industriously suppressing the Insolence of the Presbyterians He was ill-affected towards the Church of England tho he was accustomed to caress some few He hugged the Independents Nor was he an enemy to Fanaticks And Roman-Catholicks He creates Censurers of the Preachers out of every Sâ—ct Who basely minded their own Profit He studies to ingratiate himself with all men according to their various Humours With the Nobility The Godly Country People And also the Soldiers Always glancing at his own Profit A most cunning Diver into the Manners of Men. And most prodigious Hypocrite King Charles finds for the Duke of Glocester his Brother from France Lest the Stripling might be in danger of hâ— Religion amongst Catholicks 〈…〉 by a certain Astrologer Oneal Cromwell continually dogg'd with anxious biting Cares Thinks himself safe no where Getting into the Coach-box to exercise his Body He was very near being torn to pieces alive by Horses Of new he oppresses the
in a War with his Subjects of England they were taken and at the Kings-bench-bar tried for High-Treason Macquire being found guilty by a Jury had sentence pronounced against him according to the Laws of the Country That he should be dragged to Tyburn in a Hurdle hang'd by the neck till he be half dead his privy Members and Bowels burnt before his face his Head cut off and set upon London-bridge and his Quarters upon four Gates of the City This Sentence was punctually executed in the presence of the Sheriff of London and fifteen thousand Spectators at least Nor is it to be omitted that the Sheriff having adjured Macquire by the dreadful Tribunal of God before which shortly he was to appear and the clearing and easing of his Conscience which was then or never to be done that he would ingenuously confess whom he knew to be guilty of the same Crime though the Rope was about his neck and he half up the Ladder yet by name he acquitted King Charles from being any ways privy to it solemnly professing that he knew no English-man but one and he a Papist that had any hand in the matter Nay and being cast off the Ladder and when after he had tried what hanging was he was a little reprieved and had no small hopes given him of a pardon he still persisted in the same protestation But in the Pulpits Clubs and publick Pamphlets the Crime was charged upon King Charles nor did the Rebels blush to asperse even the sacred and innocent Majesty of the King with so heinous a guilt hoping that whilst they continued so boldly to vent their Calumnies and Slanders against him some of them at least would stick The Irish Nobility and Priests who were the chief Actors in this Tragedy were encouraged to the Villany by the late successes of the Scots who to speak in the language of Sir John Temple a Privy-Counsellor of that Kingdom who wrote the History of those Troubles having happily succeeded in their attempts obtained by their last Commotions considerable Priviledges from the King To this adde that our intestine Troubles seemed to offer fair opportunity of changes it being very rational and easie to conjecture that the English being ready to fall together by the ears at home there was no fear that they would cross over to Ireland to defend and assist their Colonies in that Kingdom Their boldness was increased by the Interregnum occasioned by the murder of Strafford and the change of the Magistrates of whom the severer and best acquainted with the State of that Kingdom were by the interest of the Irish Lords whilst they prosecuted Strafford in England either turned out of place or accused of High-Treason men who were either ignorant of the Affairs and State of Ireland or who were prone to Rebellion being put into their places Being thus in a readiness the unseasonable disbanding of an Army of eight thousand Irish who had been raised for the Scottish expedition did not a little strengthen their resolution for though the King after the pacification of the Scots lest they might occasion Stirs in Ireland had permitted the Spanish Embassadour to transport four thousand of them yet the Irish Lords put on by the Conspirators got the Parliament under pretext that the French King might take it ill earnestly to beseech that it might not be done And afterwards when the King had ordered the same number to be raised for the service of the French without any reasons alleadged they utterly rejected it Very few of the Captains and Officers of that Army dishonoured themselves by joyning in the Rebellion but the private Souldiers whose custom it is to be insolent and at length appear valiant when they are about to be dismissed from the dangers of War easily rushed into that Villany The Lords and Priests being soothed with these so many fair opportunities of fishing in troubled waters that they might weaken our Colonies divide and distract their thoughts and in the mean time incense the Natives to slaughter and rapine they cast about all ways To the English they brag That the Queen is in their Army that the King was coming with an Army to their assistance that the Scots were agreed with him and to make that the more credible amongst the slaughter of the English they spare the Scots They give out that they have the Kings Commission and act by virtue of his authority shewing indeed a counterfeit Commission to which one Plunket with the consent of many Lords and Priests at Farn-Abbey had appended the Kings Seal taken from another old Commission as appeared by the confessions of a great many afterwards That they defend the King's Cause against the Puritans Amongst their own men they divulge counterfeit Letters whereby they pretend to be informed from England That there was an Act lately past whereby all the Irish were to be forced to go to Church and assist at the Devotion of the Protestants upon pain of forfeiture for the first offence of their Chattels for the second of their Lands and Inheritances and for the third of their Lives They propose besides to the Natives the hopes of Liberty and of recovering their ancient Customs That the English Yoke is to be cast off a King to be chosen of their own Nation and the Goods and Estates of the English to be divided amongst the Natives By this hope of booty and of living at their own liberty for the future the Irish are allured to the War and being egg'd on with fury and rage they committed such horrid and heynous Crimes as hardly any Age can parallel The King foresaw the Storm a coming whilst he was in Scotland and therefore that he might prevent it whilst it was a gathering he presently dispatched Sir James Hamilton to the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy-Council of Ireland with instructions and what money he could raise of his own and from his friends on the sudden He earnestly desires the assistance of the Parliament of Scotland and acquaints the Parliament of England with it also But the one under pretext that Ireland was under the dominion of England refuse their assistance and the other takes but little notice of it The Factious tacitly rejoycing that new Troubles were arising to the King and that Kingly government being abolished alike in all the three Kingdoms they would shortly be turned into so many free Commonwealths But the Sparks breaking out into a flame and the report of the Irish barbarity being in every bodies mouth the Parliament was enraged and all were filled with an extraordinary zeal of revenging the bloud of their Country-men treacherously killed and of defending and protecting the surviving For the charges of a War in a short time three hundred thousand pound English was raised partly by benevolent Contributions and partly out of the price of the Lands and Inheritances of the Rebels which by the Parliament were sold to be
interposeth and very often whilst the Presbyterians were at the helm disturb the religious meetings of the other Sectarians by hurling of Stones amongst them The liberty of a great many being contrary to expectation restrained the Parliament settle the Presbyterian government onely for three years that in that time they might have a tryal how it would fadge This Novelty set mens humours wonderfully a working The Politicians and Lawyers were highly offended that there were as many Judicatures established as there were Parishes in England and these almost arbitrary putting the Rule into the hands of unskilful men and for the most part incapable of government and began to foresee at a distance I know not what calamities ready to spring from thence in Families Parishes Counties nay and in the whole Kingdom also Most part of the people grumble to be put again to School and to be taught the Rudiments and Principles of their Religion wherein they thought themselves already very well instructed Those that were zealous for Episcopal government and the Service-book bite the bit But none repined more than the Independants Anabaptists and the other Sects who saw their beloved liberty of Conscience in danger for which they had at first taken up Arms against the King hazarded their lives in so many battels and suffered so much labour cost watchings and danger Nevertheless the Government went bravely on in London but so and so in the other Cities and populous Towns and but very coldly in the Country so that the triennial Essay being over and no new Act made to confirm it it had much ado to keep life And thus far concerning Church-affairs which we thought fit to relate together though they happened not all at the same time Let us now return to the other arts whereby they wheadled the Scots Amongst which it was of greatest moment no less for endearing the Scots to them than for raising their power and authority amongst the Natives to sell the Bishops Lands at very easie rates so that Purchasers flocked in from all quarters who with the materials of demolished Palaces and the Timber they cut down having paid for their Purchases got large and entire Mannors almost for nothing And that once for all I may tell it they lay Excise Customs and such heavy and continual Taxes and Impositions upon the people as none of all the Kings that ever sat upon the Throne of England durst ever before that time impose and such as were not onely sufficient to defray all publick expenses but in some measure also the insatiable avarice and voraciousness of their Factors and Agents besides what they got by plundering sequestration and other ways The Scots being allured by these Morsels are tooth and nail for the interests of the Parliament The Scots the declared enemies of Episcopacy fearing the worst if the King should obtain the victory over the Parliament and being drawn in by the aforementioned baits enter into Articles of a Confederacy among which to give a colour of honesty and integrity to the rest the chief was That no hurt be attempted against his Majesties person nor prejudice done to the Rights or Heirs of the Crown an Oath being likewise taken by the Members of both Houses and all the Inhabitants of both Kingdoms being forced to do the same This they call the Solemn League and Covenant and in it promise That according to their Places and Callings they shall endeavour the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government The reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion c. That they shall also endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. That they shall mutually endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with their Consciences of their Loyalty that they have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness That they shall endeavour to discover all Incendiaries and Malignants branding with those aspersions all that favoured the Kings Party that they may be brought to publick tryal and receive condign punishment That they shall endeavour that the Kingdoms may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to Posterity shall assist and defend all those that enter into that League and Covenant and shall zealously and constantly all the days of their lives continue therein No inconsiderable Authors of entering into this Covenant were the Independents Anabaptists and Republicans and the chief and most severe in forcing it upon others who were unwilling to take the same though many of themselves purposely refrained from swearing it lest upon that account they should oblige themselves to the defence of the Kings person It is also to be observed that the clause of defending the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was by their artifices foisted in contrary to the sence and tenour of the Covenant under colour forsooth that the safety of his Majesties person was sufficiently secured by other Oaths that the repetition of the same promise would but harden the Kings mind against the Parliament and make the People scrupulous in obeying the same But in reality as appeared afterward that all obstacles being as much as might be removed they might make way for the murther of the King These things being contrived and carried on betwixt the factious Scots and English those who took that Covenant with an honest purpose as many good men did being won over by fear delusion or false hope called themselves Presbyterians other Factious of less note as Independents Anabaptists and other Fanaticks not disdaining to list themselves in the same Cause These cruelly persecute all Dissenters who will not engage in that holy Covenant though they had acted nothing before against the Parliamentary Faction though they had not refused to pay any Taxes and Impositions nay though they had freely contributed for the pay of the Parliament-forces The Parsons especially who enjoyed fat Benefices are sequestrated and deprived of their Houses Goods and Livings put into Prisons and Dungeons for many years together nay and put on board of Ships upon the Thames in the heat of Summer in order to transportation without being either accused or heard where they suffered all the incommodities of hunger watching and nastiness By the Religion of this Covenant Children were taught to persecute inform against and
rob their Parents Fathers their Children Servants their Masters Wives their Husbands so that the mutual Offices to which men are bound in society were denied to those that differed from them in opinion For these reasons many contrary to the Dictates of Conscience run into the noose of the Covenant and at length whether that they thought themselves obnoxious to the Kings Laws or really bound in conscience by their Oath they seriously espoused the Party of the Parliament Against this many learned and pious men took up the Cudgels and in several Treatises amongst which was the Judgment of the University of Oxford an unanswerable piece in Latin confuted it as contrary to the Laws both of God and man the Covenanters in the mean time making no answer but with force and the sharper Arguments of the Sword The Scots who faithfully promised the King to give him no trouble in his affairs in England having by those previous artifices cleared their way into that Kingdom with twenty thousand men come to the assistance of the Parliament But first for forms sake they send Commissioners to the King to perswade him being inclinable enough of himself to make peace with the Parliament and to offer themselves as Mediators of the Controversie but the King having rejected them as unjust and partial Judges and commanded them to mind their own affairs at home they call a Parliament against all Law in the Kings name and then declare War The King foreseeing the Storm that was like to fall upon himself and Party had provided against it as well as possibly he could The Lords and Members of the House of Commons who though they were excluded the Houses thought it their duty still to stand by the Publick came over to the Kings side and the former to the number of forty with the Lord Keeper of the great Seal and the latter above two hundred transfer the Parliament to Oxford where being called to Council before they were admitted to take Arms by the King they held a Session of Parliament by the Kings authority nothing being wanting to the power and dignity of a Parliament but Walls and the place appointed by the Kings Writ To these the King gave strictly in charge that they would do what lay in their power to avert the Storm or at least consult how they might be able to resist it This Parliament wrote to the Scots that they would not in an hostile manner invade the King and Kingdom of England nor violate the Pacification formerly made They declare it Treason to take up Arms against the King or without his consent to call a foreign Nation into the Kingdom and that therefore the Rump-Parliament sitting at Westminster were upon both accounts guilty of High-Treason They also pass an Act for raising as much money as could reasonably be expected from the exhausted Counties and Towns which still continued in obedience to the King for defraying the charges of a double War now approaching The King also by Letters earnestly dehorted the Scots from that unlawful attempt and prohibits them by Proclamation That being his Subjects and obliged by so many bonds they would not come to the assistance of Rebels But this being signed by the hands of nineteen Lords the prevailing Rebels of Scotland with matchless insolence in Subjects cause it publickly to be burnt by the common Hangman The Marquess of Hamilton is commanded to keep the Scots at home that they might not meddle in the affairs of another Kingdom who being discovered to have unfaithfully discharged that Office having under pretext of danger fled out of Scotland to the King was afterward committed to Prison The Marquess of Montross being made General and Commissioner of Scotland is dispatched thither that by giving them a diversion at home they might be kept from invading England This Commission was valiantly discharged by the Marquess having with a handful of men and those raw and undisciplined put whole Armies to flight and every-where wasted the Country However the Scots pursuing their point left not England before by the help of Fairfax they had routed no small part of the Kings Army which they had long diverted from quelling the Parliamentarians elsewhere taken Newcastle and other strong places and handed on the Victory into the more Southern parts Henceforward the Kings affairs do dayly decline and were at length totally ruin'd Victory everywhere smiling upon the Rebels The Republican Rebels having obtained many Victories began to vent their hatred and indignation against the Lords and especially after the last Newberry-Fight they grew sick of the Earl of Manchester For he in a Council of War giving his opinion and exhorting them to Peace which he judged more expedient to the State seemed not so thorough-paced and fierce upon the War as they could have desired and being therefore in a long Speech accused by Cromwel in the Lower House he defends himself in the Vpper retorting the accusation So that both Houses thought it more convenient to compose the difference betwixt them than to enter into the merits of the Cause The Kings Forces being at length scattered and broken by the Scots on the one hand and the Parliament-Rebels on the other Pay and Provisions being wanting and Factions arising betwixt the Commanders of the Army and the Lords that all things might conspire to draw down Judgments upon us His Majesty had in his mind first to come to London and trust himself in the hands of the Parliament next to cast himself into the arms of the English Army but being rejected by both and his affairs in a very doubtful condition he ventured to betake himself to the Scots the French Embassadour who then was in the Scottish Army and some Scottish Commanders having obtained from them promises of honour safety and freedom for his Majesties person This revived former Grudges betwixt the English and Scottish Rebels which had almost broken out into a War It was likewise given out that the Earl of Essex who from a General was now become a private person would joyn with the Lords and Commons that conspired for their ruine in new Articles and Resolutions with the Scots but his sudden death occasioned by lying on the ground when he was all in a sweat after hunting dissipated all those rumours Nevertheless the Rebels thought fit at publick cost to humour him with magnificent Funerals as being more for their interest to shew gratitude to a dead friend than to have him perhaps a living enemy Upon this they began to deny the Scots their Pay put a necessity upon them of exacting Money and free Quarters from the Counties where they lay expose them to hatred extenuate their merits undervalue the courage of the Nation call them mercenary Souldiers of fortune whilst they in the mean time paid them onely with Reproaches threaten to drive them out of the Kingdom by force of Arms publickly provoke
the Citizens had long ago laid aside their Arms and their resolution yet the Works and Fortifications of the City should be demolished under pretext that the Kingdom was now in Peace and then the Posts and Chains in the streets removed that the Horse might have freer passage into all the corners of the Town and no hold left to the Citizens and the women from which they might in probability kick Moreover that they might establish their Government both by Sea and Land Rainsborough the Bell-weather of the Republicans is set over the Fleet. Fairfax is appointed General of the Forces not onely in England but in Ireland also that that Country might the more speedily be succoured The Army has the thanks not onely of the Parliament and of the Ministers from the Pulpit but likewise of the honest Citizens who now entertain and feast in their houses the very men whom a little before they intended to drive from their Walls A months Pay besides as a token of kindness is appointed for the Souldiers for their good services to the Parliament It was for a long time hotly disputed to which side the Parliament should adhere whether the Acts of the Army or Parliament ought to be annulled since both of them according to the different number of Voices had by turns been resciended and being uncertain how to get out of that Labyrinth that the Parliament might not seem to be interrupted or force put upon them whereby their authority would be weakened or that they might seem to approve the right of changing sides which they had long ago condemned in the Members that followed the King They are now for both by and by again for either of the two and of a sudden again for neither However they resolve that the separation of the flying Members and their conjunction with the Army is altogether to be approved as being lawfully done for the publick good By which successes the Commanders of the Army and Ring leaders of the Faction were so puft up that they quite forgot their old Friends and fellow-Souldiers There was no more mention now of dissolving the Parliament calling a new one nor of the Promises whereby they had so often imposed upon the King and People All their care is to mind their own advantage and how to settle that Oligarchy which now they seemed to be in possession of But the Adjutators and all the popular Republicans are no less busie and sollicitous to have that Parliament dissolved and a new one under the name of a Representative by the free election of the People called with a limitation of their power and time of sitting that so they might introduce a Democraty Both Parties being out of dread of the Presbyterians equally conspire the ruine of the King and Monarchy It had been long before privately proposed amongst some to assassinate the King whilst he was in the Scottish Army that they might at the same time glut their malice and throw the odium of the fact upon the Scots Afterwards one Rolf a Shoemaker instigated by some armed himself for the Regicide That Fellow being informed that the King intended to make his escape out of a window when he was in the Isle of Wight lay in wait with a Musket several nights that he might shoot him as by accident But now several fiercely urge that he should be forthwith and secretly dispatched or at least that being condemned by a Council of War he should be beheaded But it seemed more generous and safe to the leading Rebels to protract time and manage the matter gradually by wiles and crafty fetches until being countenanced by a colour of Authority they might under a sham of satisfying publick Justice perpetrate the matchless Villany And thus they ordered it Conditions of Peace were to be proposed to the King but such as if he consented to them he himself would renounce the Crown and if he refused he would be deposed by the Votes of others and so be over and above reckoned obstinate by the people which would give them a more specious pretext for accomplishing their designe For this end it is contrived and obtained that the Parliament should again send to the King Propositions but such as were rather imperious and hard Commands than Conditions of Peace to be treated about which being granted he would pluck off his Crown with his own hands To which though the Commanders of the Army and Cromwel in the first place had given their Votes in the Parliament yet in the Camp they advised the King not to condescend to them promising that they would either obtain or command more reasonable Conditions for him and seemed to detest those as proceeding from the hautiness and severity of the Presbyterians His Majesty being deluded by that artifice makes answer to this purpose That the Propositions were such as he could not in honour and conscience consent to them being such as could not reconcile all interests nor settle a lasting Peace in the Kingdom He appeals rather to the Proposals of the Army as much more conducing to the satisfaction of all interests and a fit subject for a personal conference betwixt himself and the two Houses which he earnestly desired for which cause his Majesty would have Commissioners from the Army admitted Cromwel and the rest of the Commanders of the Army were extreamly well satisfied with this Answer as if the King himself gave greater honour to the Army than to the Parliament and therefore on their parts they promise all good Offices to his Majesty In the mean time they take all courses to incense the rest against the King pretending themselves much ashamed that they could not perform all they promised and excuse themselves sometimes because of the reverence that was due to the Parliament and sometimes again because of the peremptoriness of the Adjutators at length they began to juggle and quite fall off to give a contrary sence to their promises and to suggest apprehensions to the King as if the Adjutators and Republicans designed his Majesties death whose insolent attempts they could not moderate nor at present repress mingling with all promises that if they could cut the combs of the Adjutators and restore the lost Discipline of the Army they would without delay perform what they had undertaken With which his Majesty being moved seeing it was worse to distrust than to be deceived he privately made his escape from the Army and as sate would have it fled to the Isle of Wight the government of which as it seems probable was just before put into the hands of Colonel Hammond a dear friend to Cromwel that there he might play his part in this business To this mans protection the King commits himself running of his own accord into the Snare which the Rebels had long ago laid for him But that he might not be wanting to the
so many dangers under the protection of Almighty God they all safely arrived in the Spey The People were not a little gladded by the Kings Landing in Scotland testifying their Joys with Shouts and Acclamations and Bonefires But the Commissioners that with shew of greater Honour they might conduct him to Edinburrough put back those that in sense of Duty came to salute and honour him and beat off others with Fists and Sticks that more importunately approached He was splendidly entertained by the Magistrates of Aberdeen who for a pledge of their Love presented him with fifteen hundred Marks which he distributed amongst his indigent and almost famished Servants And that occasioned a Proclamation for securing their Money That such as thought fit to bestow any thing for the interest of the King it should only be brought into the publick Treasury The Magistrates of Dundee entertained him likewise magnificently saving that a Member of Montross was to be seen upon a Poll on the top of the Town Hall and that the Estates urged him to sign new Articles Afterwards he came to Edinburrough amidst the reiterated and joyful Acclamations of all the People and is again by the Heralds proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland The Kings Majesty is managed according to the pleasure of some Commissioners access is allowed to such as they thought fit all others being kept back His Guard is Commanded by the Lord Lorn Son to the Marquess of Argile by whom all the avenues are observed that no man might envy that splendid custody In the mean time the Presbyterian Ministers talk of nothing but Crimes now inveighing against the Sins of his Father and by and by again against the Idolatry and Heresie of his Mother and the obstinacy of both towards the Reformation the Government and Church of Christ They never rest telling him of Wars Slaughter Bloodshed of his Education and living amongst Bishops Men of no Religion and that in a saucy manner without the least sense of reverence or shame Labouring to make him a new Creature by lessons of Repentance and Humility severe rebukes and admonitions that he might carry his Cross before he put on his Crown and mount by the Valley of Bacha to the Throne of regal Authority And all these things they so absurdly and clownishly set about that their Doctrins and Instructions were more apt to make him nauseate and eternally hate their ways than to gain him to a liking or assent to their Opinions The King one evening walking in the Garden a couple of dapper Covenant Levites making up to him and very severely chid him for profaning the Lords Day by a Walk though he had heard two Sermons and been publickly at Morning and Evening Prayers that day besides other private Meditations that he was much given to The Laity also instead of a Crown of Gold shining with Jewels which they bragg'd they would Crown him with the precious Stones being secretly and by degrees pick'd out of it give him one of Feathers such as Demetrius truly said no man in his senses would stoop and take up from the ground by allowing him his Robes the Name of Majesty and Ensigns of a King with the troubles and difficulties of doing Justice though that also must be administred after their way whilst they invaded and reserved to themselves the substantial Prerogatives of making Laws and Peace and War But these things could not be so kept up from the Regicides though the Parliaments claw'd one another with mutual signs of good-will by Conferences and Messengers at least no Hostility as yet appears but that by their Friends and Emissaries in Holland and Scotland who were well paid for their pains they were informed of the whole series of the pacification And therefore they consult how they might provide before hand against a storm that haug over their heads There was an Army in readiness under the Command of Fairfax but that General was not very prone to enter into a War with the Scots who had not as yet provoked the English by any injuries they suspected him rather to have a kindness for that Nation and to be inwardly displeased at the Murder of the King and subversion of the Government They therefore recal Cromwell out of Ireland to give him the charge of the Scottish War He quickly returning home Crowned with Victories and Success in a triumphant manner entred London amidst a crowd of Attendants Friends Citizens and Members of the Rump-Parliament Guarded by a Troop of Horse and a Regiment of Foot and amongst them Fairfax himself went out two miles to meet him and congratulate his Arrival But when they were come to Tyburn the place of publick Execution where a great croud of spectators were gathered together a certain flatterer pointing with his finger to the Multitude Good God! Sir said he what a number of People come to welcome you home He smiling made answer But how many more do you think would flock together to see me hanged if that should happen There was nothing more unlikely at that time and yet there was a presage in these words which he often repeated and used in discourse The Regicides and he having consulted it is thought fit to ease the Lord Fairfax of the burden and Cromwell is declared Captain General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland who undertakes the War against the Scots having ordered Souldiers and Provisions to be sent towards Berwick The Scots instantly send Letters to the Rump-Parliament Cromwell and Haselrigg Governour of New-Castle wherein they complain that the Rump-Parliament design an Invasion of their Country and that contrary to the Vnion agreed upon betwixt both Nations and the publick Faith mutually given no War being denounced the Cause not published nor their Answers expected without giving them time to repent if they had offended in any thing But that the Scene might be continued The English Officers give an Answer The summ of which that the Genius of these times may the better appear to Posterity I shall here shortly relate And after a Preface it was to this purpose We are blamed for the Murder of the King for which we are bound rather to give God thanks and applaud the Parliament since the King was guilty of more bloodshed than the cruelty of all his Predecessours an obstinate Enemy of Reformation and of all good men who besides taught his Son to follow his footsteps Him the sounder part of the People the timorous and bad Members being secluded justly put to death God Almighty show'd them the who way at first approving it by wonderful successes and continual benedictions What is on the other hand objected that the Treaty the Law of Arms and the League and Covenant are violated by a War made before it be denounced but that Treaty is already abrogated by Hamilton at the Command of his own Parliament unless it be thought that the English
this Honourable Assembly to remedy all these Disorders shewed That the Wars with Portugal France and the Dutch do and did eat up the Assessments That swarms of Jesuits are crept in to make Divisions which were grown so wide that nothing but his Government could remedy them And let Men say what they will he could speak it with comfort before a Greater than any of them Then he shewed what he had done during his Government First his Endeavours of reforming the Laws having joyned all Parties to assist in that great Work Next his filling the Benches with the Ablest Lawyers Then his Regulation of the Court of Chancery and his Darling Ordinance for the Approbation of Ministers which hindred all that list from invading the Ministry by Men of both Persuasions Presbyterians and Independents c. And lastly his being Instrumental to call a Free Parliament which he valued and would keep it so above his Life Then he shewed the Advantage of the Peace with the Dutch Dane and Suede and the Protestant Interest which he would have them improve and intend chiefly That they were now upon the Edge of Canaan That he spoke not as their Lord but their Fellow-servant And then bad them go and chuse their Speaker Cromwell having spoken to this effect the Members without returning him Thanks as is usual went to the House Lenthall being again chosen Speaker they fall first upon the New Instrument of Government all the Clauses and Articles whereof they thorowly sift and examine The Officers of the Army who were Privy-Counsellors and all who depended on Cromwell vigorusly oppose that saying That that Instrument was to be taken for the Basis and Foundation of the Government no ways to be called in question since by the Authority thereof the Parliament met and that it would be contrary to the Dictates of Natural Reason to bring it to a Trial. Nay many and particularly Lambert threaten That if the Parliament did not approve and confirm it they themselves would call another nay a third and a fourth till it should be at length established by Publick Consent But the Republicans stood stiff to the contrary making answer That the Government was usurped by Craft and Force not procured by Right nor confirmed by the Free Votes of the People that it laid Snares for the Liberty of the Commonwealth and made way for a most grievous Tyranny One amongst the rest in the heat of the Debate was so bold as to say That since they were approaching so near to Monarchy it were better to call one of the Royal Family to the Government than that Cromwell should usurp the Scepter and Crown Cromwell being informed of these Debates comes in great rage to the Parliament and tells them to this effect That they were not called together that they might confound and turn all things again into the former Chaos but that they should build upon the Foundation and Ground-work already laid down and not to be altered That his Authority could not be called in question unless at the same time they invalidated their own Power since the present Parliament was called by him and by him had liberty to consult That he alone had the Right of setling Fundamentals upon which they had power to raise and beautifie Superstructures That he was resolved to maintain the Government and Supreme Power in a Single Person to call a Parliament once in Three years not to sit above Five months without his Consent c. That to violate or innovate these things should neither be in the Power of the Protector nor Parliament That in other things they might consult and enact as they pleased for the Publick Good But because Admonition might not be sufficient he thinks fit to apply Force Next day a Guard of Soldiers being set before the Door of the House no Man was suffered to enter unless he signed the following Recognition I shall be faithful to the Lord Protector and shall not endeavour to change the Government of a Single Person Many who could not swallow that Bit are debarred from the Privilege of Sitting Nevertheless so many Republicans took the Recognition as made the Cromwellian Faction and Republican almost equal some who underhand favoured the King joyning themselves to each Side enflaming Animosities and as much as might be setting the Parties who seriously treated these Affairs at greater variance Insomuch that after five Months continual jangling and debate Cromwell was not able to bring his Affairs to any good issue in this Parliament Nor do the Republican Spirits onely prevail in the Parliament but also in the Army For these consult and plot together how they might apprehend Cromwell and bring him before the Parliament to be accused and condemned of Treason thinking with themselves that if they could lay Hands upon him and make him Prisoner there would be a sudden change of Affairs and that his Favourers and Adherents being thereby baulked would sculk and shift for themselves The truth is the Officers of Three thousand Horse and of no inconsiderable number of Foot frequently met in Somerset-house and elsewhere about the contriving and carrying on of that Design But before the Matter came to maturity by the Treachery of Pride it came to Cromwell's Ears who by a hasty Dissolution of the Parliament prevented all those Machinations and disbanded those Officers In the mean time Cromwell having received a splendid Embassie from Sueden with equal Magnificence he concluded a Peace with that Crown and dismissed the Embassadors with hopes of a nearer Alliance He makes Peace also with France and promises to send over Assistance thither if the Affairs of England would permit him But all this while the specious Pretext of Supreme Authority was wanting to these Attempts The Parliament had denied their Collective Votes to make that up therefore it remains that the Distributive Votes of all the People be had and that the Officers break the Ice Wherefore Gratulatory Petitions or Addresses are sent by the Commanders of the several Regiments of the Army in Scotland whereby they thank the Lord Protector for having changed the Form of Publick Government to the better They pray him to go on in the discharge of that Province which by Providence he hath undertaken promising with their Lives and Fortunes to maintain and defend him in all difficulties But amongst the English Officers there was a necessity of a wheadling Pretext to wit That the Malignants and Enemies of the Country now triumphed as if the Army breaking into Discords and Divisions would presently renounce their General Cromwell That therefore a Petition of that nature must needs be framed wherein by applauding the Protector they would convince those that were of a contrary Opinion With much ado he obtained that amongst the Republicans but at length some refusing to sign it as venturing rather Cromwell's Displeasure and Revenge than by a sneaking Compliance to betray the
the King who on the first of February returned from Oxford to London where the Bonfires during the night expressed the hearty Joys of the People glad to see their Prince and that he saw the City now again in health Neighbouring Nations as yet looked at a distance upon the bloudy War betwixt the English and Dutch But Louis the French King powerful in men and money after he had for some time stood neutral thought and hoped that the Dutch and we having mutually weakened and tired our selves out in War he might have a fair opportunity to raise his power at Sea though the genius of that Nation seems not to be cut out for that profession He therefore smoothed up the Dutch with promises of assisting them with his Fleet being willing that they should have the dominion over the Seas whom he intended to conquer by Land and thereupon declared War against the English which was reciprocally proclaimed in London against the French In the same condition we stood with Denmark that the triumphs of Charles might be the larger Now besides the Dutch our Rivals at Sea the English Valour alone as yet unshaken resisted the threatning French and Denmark then alied with Holland as was equal to them all The affairs of England never succeeded better at Sea than under the auspicious conduct of his Royal Highness James Duke of York who always prefered the welfare of his Country before his own life yet he was dearer to the King and Kingdom being the second hopes of Britain than that his Princely person born to the highest Honours should be any more exposed to so mean and base an Enemy Therefore in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty six Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle were pitched upon for the command of the Royal Navy who going on board equal in Power and Concord they put to Sea with a Fleet well appointed for War but presently after Prince Rupert by Letters from the Privy-Council has orders sent him in all haste with twenty good Frigats of the Fleet and others lying at Portsmouth to stand over for the Coast of France and hinder the French Fleet from joyning the Dutch I would to God it had not been judged of such an importance to make so great an effort to hinder the coming up of an Enemy who would not have much injured us nor assisted their Friends nor was there any thing to be feared from the French Fleet after the late overthrow of the Dutch But they laying hold of the opportunity of the English Fleet being divided and never fighting but by wiles and upon the advantage of number with fourscore and five Men of War attack the Royal Navy now much diminished in number With Albemarle there were not above fifty Frigats but he being a General without fear unacquainted with flight and judging nothing too hard for his fortune despised the Enemy which so far surpassed him as if they had been inferiour to him in number so confident a thing is Courage and preferring Glory before Safety on the first of June the day being pretty far advanced he drew up his Fleet and bravely engaged the Dutch Here number strove with Valour but the Sea being rough the English could not then use their lower tire of Guns which never failed to shatter and tear their Enemies Albemarle did great actions in this Engagement and everywhere behaved himself bravely being fearless amidst the thickest dangers and bold to admiration for bearing down with his own Ship upon the Enemies main Fleet he broke quite through them furiously firing on both sides till at length having given and received great loss and being disabled in his Masts Sails and Rigging he bore off Part of the Royal Fleet defended the Duke whilst he refitted his Ship and the rest continued obstinate in the Engagement till they were parted by the night In this Engagement four Dutch Ships were burnt and a Vice-Admiral and another of a less value sunk And the Dutch took three English Ships who being separated from the rest of the Fleet were engaged at a distance The Royal Fleet in the mean time suffered most in their Rigging and Tackle but all things by the diligence of the Sea-men being repaired in the night-time next morning the second of June Albemarle having called the Commanders to a Council of War on board his own Ship spake to them to this purpose HAd we been afraid of the double number of the Enemy we should have ran for it yesterday but though we be inferiour to them in Ships in all things else we have the better on 't Number made the Dutch bold and Courage us let us reflect upon that Fortune upon that Valour which heretofore the Dutch have felt to their woful experience we have the same Enemy to deal with whom we have so often beaten and made it our custom so often to overcome Let our Adversaries find to day that though our Fleet be divided our Courage is entire and when we consider our own Glory and ancient Renown how much more honourable will it be to die not unrevenged upon the Seas than to be carried Prisoners in our own Ships as a Spectacle of Triumph to the Dutch It is less disgrace to be overcome than to flie and Death is to be preferred before Fear The Fleet thus encouraged equally despising their own safety and their too numerous Enemy and being eager to retrieve their Honour all desire an Engagement and Albemarle confident in his own Valour and in the eagerness of his Souldiers declined not the Fight so that both Fleets fell to it afresh and engaged Pell-mell The English whose courage is redoubled by danger put the Enemy hard to it though they had had a fresh supply of Ships Men and Ammunition from Holland The Royal Fleet being incompassed by so many Dutch Ships had nothing else to trust to but to fight stoutly and make way for themselves in the best manner they could till at length many of the English Ships being disabled in their Sails and Rigging stood away and left the rest to deal with and maul the Enemy The Dutch sunk one Ship of the Royal Fleet and we our selves destroyed another that could not be brought off The Dutch in the mean time had but one Vice-Admiral Ship burnt and in this days Engagement with so numerous an Enemy it was a harder thing for us to keep our selves from being beaten than it was many times heretofore to have overcome them But after that with more than humane force and courage they had asserted their own Honour and the Glory of Britain lest they might make that Engagement which the resolution of the English had rendred famous by an inconsiderate boldness to be thought rash it was next day resolved in a Council of War to send off first the disabled Ships draw up the rest that were in a condition of fighting which were not above sixteen to make head
difficulty also the Fleet under the command of the Earl of Warwick is divided but all this still without any fighting There was much skirmishing indeed on both sides by Apologies and Manifesto's but after that the King in the judgment of most men had got the better on 't at the Pen at length they come to try the matter by Armies and the Sword It was easie for the Parliament to raise an Army in London a City abounding with swarms of seditious and restless men where so many Arms so great quantity of Provision and Ammunition so much Money and so many thousand pieces of Ordnance were ready at hand Where by the publick Declarations of so many specious Causes for which it might seem even honourable to die and the plausible Motto's in their Colours they inflamed the minds of the deluded Rabble more than with the sound of the Trumpet or Drum pretending forsooth That they took Arms for the defence of the Kings Person and to remove evil Counsellors from him for maintaining the Priviledges of Parliament and the preservation of the Reformed Religion for asserting the Laws and ancient Government of England nay and for securing their Religion Lives and Estates and therefore inviting all to their assistance By which Artifices the Preachers being bewitched who were desirous of a change in the Church-government and somewhat tickled with the hopes which the Rebels had roundly promised that the Livings of the Loyal Clergy and the fat Benefices of the Bishops Deans and Chapters would fall to their share in the Dividend they sound the Trumpet to Rebellion from the Pulpit from whence they ought to have preached the Gospel of Peace The People upon this spurred on with other hopes of a future Golden Age and of the temporal reign of the Messias comes flocking from all quarters the men bringing a vast quantity of Money and Plate and the women their Wedding-Rings Thimbles and Bodkins and without any regard to their Families by a strange kind of a phrenzy casting them into the publick Stock or Treasury The men strove who should be first to list themselves in this holy War whence in a short time there was an Army of about twenty thousand men got together before the King had levied five hundred for his defence and they also having more Cannon than he had Muskets in his possession For raising Pay for their Army besides the profuse Contributions and Benevolences of the People they seize the Goods of the Nobility and Gentry whom they knew to be of the Kings Party they fall also upon the Revenues of the Bishops Prince Queen and of the King himself by way of sequestration so that the Kings Majesty was forced to complain That they had not left him enough to live on And now they thought there was no more to be done but to march and seize the person of the King who was overcome and in a manner taken in a toyl which they doubted not to promise themselves to be done within the space of a month But the Will of God was otherwise for the Juggles of the Rebels had not so blinded the understanding of the English but that most part of the Lords and Peers of the Vpper House and almost an equal number of the Lower who for Estates and Quality far exceeded the rest went over to the Kings Party Many also of those who tarried at London favoured the Royal Cause in secret and in all Counties of the Kingdom there were many Gentlemen and common people that stood for the interest of the King By the assistance of these and the Royal Authority which like the Sun in an eclipse drew together a crowd of Spectators and by a certain pity and commiseration of some men who were ashamed to behold the Head of the Kingdom depressed into such a condition as to be forced to flie from the Imperial City to York from York to Nottingham from Nottingham into Shropshire and the borders of Wales after he had wandered up and down above four months long and in vain imploring the help and assistance of his Subjects the King at length got together a kind of a small Army which afterwards increased to greater Forces the people the more readily flocking to the King because with him they thought the Government must stand or fall Many of the Nobility and Gentry also brought what Forces they could to the Kings Party amongst whom not to rob any of the Honour due to them the Loyalty and Interest of the two Marquesses of Hertford and Newcastle was eminently conspicuous of whom the first brought with him a considerable Body of Dutch and the other almost at his own charge raised no inconsiderable Army in the North the Queen also sending over Moneys and Arms which by pawning her Jewels she had raised for which dutiful office to her Husband the Rebels accuse her of Treason Whilst these Clouds overcast the Sky at home a dismal Tempest thunders from abroad upon the heads of the English which because it was of no small moment as to our affairs that I may not wholly pass by in silence the Reader must cross the Sea with me into Ireland The Irish who always bore impatiently the Yoke of the English Government out of a natural aversion heightened by the emulation of different Religions watched for an opportunity to shake off the one and to assert the other I mean the Roman Catholick Religion did now attempt the Enterprize which long before they had formed in their minds For the whole Nation of a sudden and which was strange by a clandestine and concealed Conspiracy fell upon the English scattered over Ireland who were secure and expected no such thing turn them out of house and hold and without distinction of Age or Sex without respect to Affinity or Relation barbarously butcher many thousands like so many humane Sacrifices to their Superstition And had not the Conspiracy been detected at Dublin and in other places the more cautious running to Arms had not withstood their fury the English name was in a fair way of being totally extinguished in Ireland The good luck was that the very day before the intended Insurrection the mystery of the Plot was discovered at Dublin by an Irish Footman belonging to Sir John Clotwaithie who having refused to act the part that was put upon him in the Conspiracy opened the whole Intrigue to his Master who presently informed the Privy-Council of it Though many of the Conspirators fled yet two of the chief Incendiaries and Promoters of the Rebellion who had also undertaken to surprize Dublin-Castle I mean the Lord Macquire and Macmahon were apprehended Being committed to Prison they were afterwards conveyed to London where having long suffered the incommodities of a Prison that we may at once make an end of them they made their escape but being by another Irish-man betrayed in the absence of the King who was then inevitably engaged