and Conscience the two last were not kept for he was pressed to settle Religion as they desir'd wherewith his Conscience was not satisfy'd Next his Subjects had not free access to him but Proclamations were issued out forbidding them to come to him neither was the Ceremony due to him as King suffer'd to be paid him at his entry to New-Castle And lastly his Servants were not suffer'd to wait on him And his Majesty attested Montrevil if those Conditions were not made to him who confidently affirm'd it in all their Presence and that he had the Authentick Assurances in French The Commissioners retired to think of an Answer but when they return'd they desired his Majesty would put Montrevil to it to declare what those Assurances were and who gave them but this was not done Next they said they would not treat with the King in his Presence nor admit the Interposition of any Foreign Agent between them and their Native Prince And the Commissioners of the Army resolv'd that no suspected Person should be suffer'd to wait on the King with which his Majesty was highly displeas'd and for some Days would not eat in Publick but only in his Chamber This last Passage I have from an unexceptionable Authority whose Affection to his Native Country could give Place to nothing but Truth and therefore he seems to palliate the Matter a little on their behalf that Montrevil did not declare what the Assurances were nor who gave them which yet seems not to be his Fault for that they fully resolv'd against his Presence and Interposition for the future in any such like Affairs And upon the same account he declares further on it did not appear what Grounds Montrevil had for giving the King those Assurances and must be very slight and only from single Persons not any Iunto or Iudicatory Such a secret Transaction could not be done with all the Formalities of a Solemn Treaty yet doubtless Montrevil had his Assurances from Levens with most of the other General Officers and Scotch Commissioners then before Newark which was a considerable Iunto and I humbly conceive Iudicatories have little to do in concerns of that Nature But it had been all one though never so exactly drawn up and would have been as little observ'd as the first Pacification or last promise of never drawing Sword against him more But my particular Business is to trace Ludlow who tells us The Commissioners of Parliament joyning with those who were before with the King endeavour'd to perswade him to agree to the Propositions of the Parliament but he disliking several Things in them and most of all the abolition of Episcopacy to which Interest he continu'd obstinately stedfast refused his consent upon private Encouragement from some of the Scots and English to expect more easy Terms or to be received without any at all p. 183 The Encouragement he mentions is only a Flam of his own the Scots kept too strict a Guard upon him to have any but his Enemies to converse with nay which is worse they oblig'd him to discharge all his Friends then in Arms not only here in England but Montross in Scotland and Ormond in Ireland Neither was the Abolition of Episcopacy the main Obstacle although it was hard when he alone by himself had so shamefully bafled their great Champion Henderson upon that Subject to be so violently press'd from a Truth they could so little disprove But setting aside this Fellow's Spite who would needs make this the chief obstacle the King in his brisk Answer to the whole body of their Propositions from Newcastle August 1. 46. tells them They were such as did import the greatest Alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom yet these were positively sent for his Majesty's Concurrence without allowing the Commissioners to give Reasons for their Demands or the hearing the King's Reasons against them which occasion'd his smart Reply upon their saying They had no Power to treat that saving the Honour of the Business an honest Trumpeter might have done as much To these Propositions Ludlow tells us the Scots Commissioners especially Lord Lowdon press'd the King very earnestly to comply telling him that though they were higher in some Particulars than they could wish yet if he continu'd to reject them he must not expect to be received in Scotland whither they must return and deliver him up to the Parliament in England But whatever they or the English said made no impression c. p. 184. The Truth of it is after all the Scotch Rodomantades Lowdon's in particular how much it was against the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality to Deliver and betray those that had fled to any for Succour their Brethren at Westminster knew how much there was of Iudas amongst them and having reduc'd their demand of a Million to 400000 l. agreed upon the Payment of one Moyety and the Publick Faith for the other to have the King Deliver'd to them who good Man laments that his Price should be so much above his Saviours And to clear himself from the base Reflections they made upon his Steady well grounded Resolves he declares what they call Obstinacy I know God accounts honest Constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede For you must know the Scots whilst in their Hands not only permitted but encourag'd the most Rigid of their Kirkmen to bait him at an impudent Rate as well from the Pulpit as otherwise as positively denouncing him damn'd for refusing the Covenant as 't is to be fear'd might fall to their lot for forcing it In the next Paragraph p. 186. Ludlow Commenceth a Quarrel with all the World both at Home and abroad for upon the French Embassador's coming over to endeavour a Reconciliation between King and Parliament he tells you how it was rejected they resolving to determin it themselves without the interposition of any an infallible sign of a just Cause where no body but themselves must Iudge having experienc'd that most of the Neighbouring States especially the Monarchical were at the bottom their Enemies That they were not their Friends was certain but that they should be so little their Enemies was a great Shame that so many Crown'd Heads should stand by and see a Brother Monarch Dethron'd and Murther'd at so barbarous a rate was a Sign that which is call'd Antient Honour was at a very low Ebb and the Sacro-Sancta Mrjestas left destitute of all Appeal but to the King of Kings who for ought we know may be still making Inquisition for that Blood this Son of Belial so much thirsted after and never at rest till poured forth and therefore henceforward 't is his sole Business to enveigh against all that would not go along with him and his Crew in that horrid Perpetration first he falls upon the Parliament for their frequent Overtures of Peace made to the King though he had not a Sword left wherewith to oppose them p. 187.
Admonition could move no Reasons or Perswasions prevail when the Time was so far spent that they had put an impossibility upon themselves to perform their Promise whereof they esteemed all Gracious Messages to them to be but Interruptions His Majesty upon mature Advisement dissolv'd them This is the Account the King himself gives in his Declaration of their unkind Dealing and his too just Provocation for that Act otherways would they have comply'd with him in those his urgent Necessities there should have been no Obstruction upon the Duke's Account they might have gon on with their Articles and been certainly Baffled as to that of King Iames's Death and perhaps most of the rest But I must not break off here without my promis'd Remark upon the Defence who by adding another most Impossible Story renders that aforemention'd yet more Improbable There are few will believe because he brings none That for many Reasons it was concluded King Charles had no small share in that abominable Act of Poysoning his own Father King James I. But to add and that Good Man Prince Henry his Son is such a Stretch as nothing but one by a Halter can keep pace with and they deserve to go together That Prince Henry was thought to have something of foul Play Sir W's Libel does insinuate but no Man of Sense or History ever believed a Syllable thereof and that Answer Intituled Aulicus Coquinariae clearly makes appear it was right down Libel that is absolutely false and as there was no ground to place it where Sir A's Baseness design'd so for this unthinking Blockhead to transfer it upon that poor innocent Child his Brother let the most prejudic'd Fanatick judge when told that at Henry's Death this his younger Brother was not Twelve Years Old having been all along of a weak unhealthy Constitution liv'd a Studious retir'd Life with very little Conversation but that of Books and Tutors which was indeed of great Advantage to his future Accomplishments but kept him then from making any Figure at Court or entring upon any Intrigue there which the most Active Princes of that Age have seldom been known to engage in much less to carry on such an Unnatural Enterprize Yet doubtless this is as true as the other and whoever for the Time to come relate either may the same Fate attend them as did Horace's Planus a Lying Cheat not to be believ'd when they speak Truth tho their Lives depend thereupon Nulla fides damnis verisque doloribus adsit Roger Coke hath another the prettyest Maggotty Reason to prove King Iames could not dye a Natural Death because all the five James 's his Predecessors in Scotland were carryed off otherwise I will not concern my self with what was done in Scotland but dare be the Courts Compurgator for all of that Family which have dy'd since it came into England although none have gon off without some such ill-natur'd and ill-grounded Suggestion I wish I could say as much for the Parliament or rather a Rump of it which out-did whatever hath been done in Scotland or any where else upon the Face of the whole Earth And further to provoke Divine Vengeance we have got a Generation of Villains which at this Hour dare to justify it and no Notice taken thereof Nay these eager Blood-hounds are so delighted with that sort of Game as when they cannot come at it themselves will needs have it done by others for so it was confidently mutter'd of the last which went off by Death and if God curse us with continuing this Set of Men will pass for an Authentick Story 50 or 60 Years hence it was enough at present to found it in a Whisper especially since the Physicians and amongst them Dr. L a great Confident of theirs declar'd that upon inspecting the Brain there was so clear Evidence of an Apoplexy as 't was impossible to think of any other Cause However there is nothing Extraordinary in all this besides the grosseness of the Fiction there are few Historians relate the Death of Princes without something of a real or imaginary Force But to bury them alive by Supposititious Births is altogether Modern an Advance of this present Age with how much Interest or Honour the next may Judge CHAP. XIII His Government before the Rebellion THese be the most tho' not all for all it is impossible to Enumerate and therefore let it be all the most considerable Exceptions false Clamors and frontless Cavils wherewith the wide-mouth'd Factions blackned the King and Trumpetted up Rebellion into which dismal and bloody Scene before we enter Let us take a general View of his Government during the Twelve Years Interstitium or if you will Interregnum of Parliaments for they were never quiet till Supream and then least of all where we shall find this true Father of his Country so tenderly Provident for a crooked and perverse Generation Nurtur'd them up in so much Peace and Plenty such a continued Affluence of all Things requisite to Humane Welfare as never any Nation enjoy'd a greater and very few have equall'd them therein That he Hated or had any Prejudice against Parliaments is so far from being True as if there were any Mistake it appear'd rather at First on the other Side he Caress'd them a little too much To be sure it was by his Inducement the Duke of Bucks made that Narrative relating to the Spanish Match and Treaty to both Houses of Parliament in Iames's Last whereto as occasion serv'd he gave his Attestation which so pleas'd their Popular aspiring Humour as the Duke was then the Whitest Boy and his Master the Hopefullest Prince in the World And he doubtless intended to have gon on in that Sincere plain-dealing Way represented Things as they really were and expected they should have met him half Way in all reasonable Returns But his more Experienc'd Father understood better told them both how short-liv'd such Caresses would be as they should find too soon Which immediately upon his coming to the Crown most Prophetically fell out in his first Parliament where making a small Complement of Two Subsidies they return'd to their Old Vomit Evil Counsellors Grievances and the like must be the only Subject of Debate after which they made so strict a Search as such another Set of Busy Men according to the Latin Adage would for a Knot in a Bulrush yet hereupon the Breach so gradually widned Three several Parliaments as to part at last in a final Separation Whereunto after all is say'd never Prince had greater or juster Provocation Nevertheless I cannot find in his Proclamation set out upon the last Dissolution or any where else that it was declared Criminal for the People to speak any more of Parliaments as Ludlow with his usual Impudence affirms p. 2. The King as I say'd finding the Factions so prevalent in all Elections as it was impossible to get a Parliament would either hearken to Reason or Act with Temper
much less exchange a Service which was perfect Freedom for the more than Egyption Bondage of Scotch Impositions by which means we continued nigh twenty years in a perfect state of Anarchy both Temporal and Spiritual every one doing what seem'd Right in his own Eyes and had some affinity with what that Judicious Historian observ'd of the Romans when under the like circumstances It was better to live where nothing than where all things were Lawful To be sure the sense and dismal sufferings which accrew'd thereby made us resolve upon our Old Establishments to have our Kings as at first and our Church as at the beginning which the Parliament likewise thought fit to confirm by another Act of Uniformity but what with that perverseness of spirit inseparable to such Children of Disobedience and the kind assistance of their good Friends the Papists all Ecclesiastical Discipline hath passed for a mighty Grievance ever since neither can there be a greater invasion upon the Subject's Librety than to perswade or compell men to Heaven against their Wills and thus by Tolerating all Religions we are in a very forward tendency to have none nay I cannot but further observe our Politicks seem to be at as low an Ebb as our Piety and it may be shortly look'd upon as an entrenchment upon the Liberty of a Free People to perswade or compell Commutative Iustice and Moral Honesty That the Form of Publick Prayer sent to Scotland more nearly approach'd the Roman Office than that of England is another instance of our Author's integrity whereas the most considerable difference between them was an alteration of such passages in ours as the Puritan Party had all along cavill'd at for Example the name of Priest so odious to that captious Brotherhood was changed to that of Presbyter no fewer than sixty Chapters or thereabouts taken out of the Apocrypha were reduced to two and those two to be read only on the Feast of All Staints the New Translation Authoriz'd by King Iames being us'd in the Psalms Epistles Gospels Hymns and Sentences instead of the Old Translation so much complained of in their Books and Conferences these were the most considerable Alterations besides somewhat in the Communion Office according to the first Liturgy of Edward VI's so far from Popery as it expresly declares against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation only retains one or two Rites which the Primitive Church did practise before that usurpation had got any footing in the World and therefore I admire to find in another Volume of Memoirs That the Alterations made from the English rendred it more invidious and less satisfactory but as the humour then went and ever will among that infatuated people had an Angel from Heaven brought one down and by express command of Iesus Christ enjoyn'd an Establishment the Covenant nevertheless would have had the preference Nay farther to corroborate the Violence of their prejudices they had got one Abernethy who from a Iesuit Priest turned a zealous Presbyterian to forge a Story that the Liturgy had been sent to Rome and revis'd by some Cardinals there which he had from Seignior Con who shew'd it to himself Upon this Report the Marquess Hamilton then Commissioner wrote to Con returned from Rome to London who protested he never so much as heard of a Liturgy till he came last to England and had never seen that Abernethy but once at Rome and finding him Light-headed never again took notice of him yet saith my Author who shall be nameless The story had a ready belief and welcome hearing tho' the Lightness and Weakness of the man became afterwards so visible that small account was made either of him or his story yet at this time it took wonderfully And this is the foundation of what the Defence or his fellow Pamphleteer relates of that worthy Dominican Convert Gage who might agree with the Iesuit when both about to turn Presbyterians and joyn together in some forgery which might merit their reception although their Orders are irreconcilable and will believe one another no more than an honest man of sense and understanding will believe either of them In the mean while that any Office in a Vulgar Tongue should be sent to Rome for Approbation is so inconsistent with the Policy and Cunning of that Church as none but Fanaticks and Fools could swallow and 't is said when told the Pope he laugh'd heartily at it To be sure they would not admit their Missall upon such terms especially we giving them so fair an opportunity of bringing it in upon their own To give one instance further how Artificially they Ape'd the Iesuit in all Tricks of Imposture they got a Covenanting Sister troubled either with Fits of the Mother or the Devil who in such disorderly Convulsions would foam out Raptures in defiance of the Bishop's service Book and Canons with the bitterest invectives against all such as opposed the Covenanting Iesus which their Juggling Preachers so dexterously improved as to make it a ratification from Heaven of whatever Villanies they had impos'd upon the People He goes on to tell us that the reading of the New service Book at Edenburgh was first interrupted by a poor Woman but withal so well seconded by the generallity as they who Officiated hardly escaped with their Lives This produced divers meetings of many of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry who entred into an agreement or covenant to root out Episcopacy Heresie and Superstition A very justifiable undertaking this I hope they made the Goodwife Chairwoman of the Assembly when they debated these weighty points she had as much right to do it as they besides that of Precedency and perhaps understood them as well to be sure never any Mob Convention whether of the Great Vulgar or the small presum'd to determine what is Heresie prescribe modes of Worship or rules of Discipline till Iohn Calvin's Popular Ordinences came abroad in the World which too hath been wretchedly improv'd by his admirers to the scandal of all true Religion and the Disturbance of whatever Civil Government it gets into 'T is a known Fable that when the Lyon prohibited all Horned Beasts the Fox would not come nigh the Den for fear his Ears should be brought under that Denomination if these Infallible Assertors of their own Wills shall think fit to term sound Doctrine Heresie Episcopacy a Rag of Satan and the most Innocent Decencies Superstition who dare withstand or contradict them as all Orthodox Divines the whole Kingdom thorough then found to their utter ruin and something of the like Inhumane treatment hath been lately on foot amongst them can the Pope be more Imposing or Inquisition more cruel At the same rate he continues The Clergy of England who had been the chief Advisers and Promoters of this violence prevailed with the King to cause all such as should persist in their Opposition after a certain time to be proclaimed Traytors p. 7. Still the Clergy do all which puts me
agree to a Pacification which being once signed he fell immediately to the Execution of every Article on his side forthwith disbanding a brave Army Govern'd by Colonels and other Officers of approved Valour and Experience mingled with the choicest of the English Gentry who stood as much upon his Honour as upon their own and were not a little concerned that having with great charge engaged themselves in this Expedition they should be suddenly dismiss'd not only without the Honour they aim'd at but without any acknowledgement of their Love and Loyalty Whereas had he retired only to a farther distance he had done as much as the Capitulation required and in all reasonable probability secur'd himself from the further stratagems of that Perfidious People and crush'd those practices at home which afterwards undermin'd his Peace and distroyed his Glories On the other-side the Ink was scarce dry which had written and sign'd the Articles of Accommodation before the Scotch had broken them almost in every particular for the Covenanters not only entred a Protestation against the Declaration agreed to but kept most of their Forces on foot in several Bodies and all their Officers in pay The Fortification of Leith was not demolish'd Their meetings Treatings and Consultations upon matters of State Ecclesiastical and Civil were continued contrary to all Law and Acts of Parliament Subscriptions to their Assembly at Glasco were enforc'd upon all the King's Subjects contrary to his Proclamation whilst all such persons as took Arms for the King are branded with the aspersion of Incendiaries and Traytors to God and their Country So likewise when their Assembly came to sit at Edinburgh they acted with more heats and Arbitrary insults than at Glasco and the Parliament which followed them stroke at all the Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown were resolved to casheer one of the Three and that formerly the first Estate of the Kingdom together with that of the Lords of the Articles A constitution of above 300 years standing and many other such intolerable insolencies and indignities as were never before put upon Crown'd heads and none but Covenanters could have done it now more especially considering those unparalelled condescentions which the King with too great kindness and confidence in his own Countrymen so distructively yeilded to What Ludlow adds further besides the falseness of the relation is so impudent a piece of villany as one would think he desir'd to out do if possible those his Dear Brethren he is so forward to Excuse in order whereunto by a pretty turn of Commonwealth artifice he transferrs one of the basest of those many Tricks the Covenanters so perfidiously put upon his Majesty and lays it at his Door the Story as he makes it stands thus Upon his the Kings return to London under colour that many false Copies of the said Articles were publish'd and dispers'd by the Scotts to the great dishonour of the King the said Agreement was disown'd and ordered to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman p. 8. Now the design of this is to insinuate especially amongst those of the Factious who not only believe but put their trust in Lyes that they were the really true Articles burnt under colour of being False as likewise that the King intended thereby to disown the Agreement whereas the Articles of Pacification were not any ways concern'd herein as the Title which the Scotts gave that Pamphlet expresly declare viz. Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with the Subjects of Scotland before the Nobility of England are here set down for a remembrance This paper consisted of Eight points pretended to be drawn out of Notes taken upon several Discourses with the King about the manner of his Declaration and was dispersed not only in Scotland but England to confirm their own Party and draw off more from their Loyalty and Allegiance One of these were put into the Earl of Pembrooke's hands who delivered it to the K. and upon a full Examination of the matter before the Council the English Lords who were privy to the whole transaction being present it was judged very highly scandalous to his Majesty's Person Honour and Government full of Gross mistakes perverting His Majesty's Declaration and of pernicious consequence to the Peace of the Kingdom for which the Proclamation was published All which several of the Lords Commissioners at the Treaty of Pacification particularly the Earl of Holland too much their friend then afterwards avowed at Berwick to the faces of those Scotch Lords who were believed the divulgers the Lords of the Council of Scotland being there likewise present upon the full consideration of which premises the whole Board unanimously petitioned his Majesty that this false and scandalous Paper might be publickly burnt by the Hangman And here I appeal to any Reader who hath not totally abdicated all integrity whether these two relations are not as irreconcileable as Light and Darkness as likewise whether any but one of that infernal brood could so vilainously transfer an express matter of fact which when detected the Covenanters themselves blushed at for when the King charged their Commissioners at London with so base a forgery Lowdon and the rest of them reply'd They had no Instructions to answer for that and those at home had better have said nothing than make so lame an excuse as that verbal grants made by the King might be supposed to contract the signed Articles Nay those grants too were of their own forging or perverting Ludlow having thus expressed his base endeavours to bring them off here 't is much he did not go forward and give his helping hand in justifying that Letter several of the Covenant Grandees did send to the King of France the Original whereof coming to his Majesty's own hands subscribed amongst others by Lowdon then Commissioner at London he was committed to the Tower which made the whole Covenanting pack open lowder than ever both as to a general justification of the thing considering they were threatned to be punished for their Rebellion and for Lowdon in particular he ought to have been return'd they said and uncloathed of his Commission ere his Majesty could question him as if the Law of Nations which indeed secures the Ministers of Foreign Princes and requires an appeal to their own Masters upon any affront or other misdemeanor should oblige a Sovereign Prince not to question and commit his own Subjects upon fresh discovery of more palpable Treasons though in Commission from his fellow Rebels yet nothing would satisfie them but setting him at perfect liberty and so sent home to be try'd in a legal way by the ordinary Iudicatures of the Land where the King might expect just such an Issue as of a Thief at the Old Baily from the Award of a Iury out of Newgate however in this also his Majesty humor'd their Insolencies and discharg'd Lowdon not without some private assurance of Secret Service which was perform'd vpse Covenanter But this was
attribute to a Belief and full Perswasion of the Iustice of the Undertaking whereas I cry Careat successibus opto Nevertheless it shall be acknowledged that this little Success turn'd infinitely to their advantage for having got possession of Newcastle where the King had a Magazine they extended their Quarters as far as Durham with a corner of Yorkshire after miserably harassing all places where they came those four Counties of Northumberland Cumberland Westmorland and Durham with the forementioned corner of Yorkshire far from the largest or richest in England were Sess'd at a Contribution of 850 l. per Diem which I fancy was more than Cromwell could make of their whole Kingdom when he by the Just Judgment of Heaven had brought them into the same circumstances nay which is more made an absolute Conquest And this I presume is the foundation of Ludlow's blunder which hath something of approach to truth but he abhors to come close up to it that upon the King 's calling his great Council at York they advis'd a Cessation of Arms and to Summon a Parliament which to the great trouble of the Clergy and other Incendiaries for they must be flung at he promis'd to do assuring the Scots of the payment of twenty thousand pounds a month to maintain their Army till the pleasure of the Parliament should be known p. 11. How careful is this Good man of the Parliaments pleasure and free of the Kings condescention whereas impartially speaking they had carv'd themselves the forementioned Contribution and moreover seiz'd the total of all Estates belonging to Papists Prelates Incendiaries c. in brief of all the Loyal honest Gentlemen throughout that District of their new Usurpation Afterwards indeed when the Treaty was at Rippon the English Commissioners requir'd their demands as to the Subsistence of their Army whereto they modestly return'd answer 40000 l. per. mensem should content them for the present and for their losses they would afterward give a particular estimate This so much alarm'd the Commissioners and other Lords when the demand was sent to the King at York that one noble Peer made a motion to Fortifie that City and imploy that 40000 l. to maintain his Majesty's Army rather than an Enemy's hereupon the Scotch came down to 30000 l. which they own'd to be less than the 850 l. per. diem considering they had the time past the benefit of Custome a Provision of Coals and Proportion of Forage In the end it was agreed That with a Provision of Coals and Forage they should be satisfy'd and take no more than the 850 l. per diem of the four forementioned Counties under which abominable slavery those poor people continued a whole twelvemonth for the King having by unwearied importunity been forc'd upon a Parliament and remitted the whole management of these their Dear Brethrens concerns to them they so dextrously improv'd the advantage as to keep them here at the Nations expence till they had got the same unreasonable concessions from him as the others had done made him Sacrifice his Friends debase his Prerogative and by Enacting an indissoluable Session gave them an opportunity of playing the like game without any thing more of their assistance Now then 't was thought high time to dismiss them but the greatest matter was to bring that about turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur c. they paid themselves at coming in but we must pay even for that again before they would set one step back and withall at so unreasonable arate according to their demands as all the Gold in England tho' never more plenty would not make a Bridge to carry them over Tweed To give a short Specimen there being several Demands agreed to by Treaty at Rippon wherein the Scotch were to have satisfaction the Sixth was That they desire from the Iustice and kindness of England Reparation concerning the losses which the Kingdom of Scotland hath sustain'd and the vast charges they have been put unto by reason of the late troubles According to which Article they were required now upon departure to bring in a full Account of their Charges which they enlarged to the full Sum of Five hundred and Fourteen thousand One hundred and Twenty Eight pound nine shillings c. abating the odd pence out of kindness whereto was added for what losses their Nation the Nobility and Gentry had sustain'd Two hundred and Twenty One thousand pounds and the neglect of their Fortunes Two hundred and twenty thousand pounds besides the 850 l. per. diem exhausted from the Northern Counties with other the most inexpressible Insolencies and Exactions ever any people groan'd under A surprising Sum but cunning Chapmen know that a high demand at first will oblige any Purchaser for shame to bid somewhat like a Gentleman and accordingly it happened here the whole matter being adjusted for that lusty Sum of 300000 l. part whereof was paid down and the rest secur'd by the Publick Faith of the two Houses and more punctually discharged than any here borrowed upon that Credit If any be farther Inquisitive as to the Total of the whole Expence I find a Report made in the House of Lords that amounted to one Million one hundred Thousand pounds the most chargeable remedy this Nation to that day was ever acquainted with and prov'd much worse than any Disease we then labour'd under besides that itch of Rebellion we from them contracted which hath cost a hundred times more than they carry'd off and for ought I see may be doubled before we attain a perfect cure Well now they are gone and the King followed them which Ludlow tells us the Parliament endeavour'd to disswade him from or at least to defer to a fitter opportunity he refused to hearken to them under pretence that the Affairs of that Kingdom necessarily required his presence but in truth his great business was to leave no means unattempted to take off that Nation from their Adherence to the parliament of England p. 17. 'T is probable he might hope so to be sure the Parliament feared it and had reason so to do if it had been possible to oblige such a Generation of men for he gratified them in every demand confirm'd all their Rebellious Innovations into Legal Constitutions advanc'd the leading Covenanters into the highest Places of Honour and Profit amongst whom their General Lesly was made an Earl whereupon with Hands lift up to Heaven he wished they might rot if ever he acted more against so gude a King Yet this very man within two years after led a Scotch Army to the Parliaments assistance and by the reputation of their name and number rather than any considerable Action gave such a diversion to that gude Kings Forces as nothing conduced more to his ruin And when no longer able to keep the Field he betook himself to those his Native Subjects for Protection How barbarously they use and how basely they sold him need not be here
much of their Duty and Respect and his Council at Oxford either gon to make their Peace or in such Confusion as not able to advise him the Rebel Army being just ready to Besiege that his chief Garrison he was forc'd to make a Vertue of Necessity and once more try the Sincerity of his Antient and Native Subjects the Scots CHAP. IV. Of the King in Custody of the Scots and English THE King 's being withdrawn from Oxon and not known whither gon made a mighty Disturbance amongst the Grandees at Westminster Ludlow tells us they suspected he might design to come to London to raise a Party against them publishing an Ordinance that whosoever should harbour or conceal the King's Person should be Proceeded against as a Traytor to the Common-wealth p. 176 By what Law this I beseech you The truth of it is the Expences and other Mischiefs by the War had made the City so sensible of their former Infatuations that 't was generally believ'd had the King appear'd amongst them the Rabble as well as more sensible Part of Men would have endeavour'd their utmost to set him upon his Throne but 't is easier to pull down than build up to make than retrieve Alterations as appear'd afterward when the Army so tamely rid them But in few Days they were freed from that Suspicion though not more surpris'd at his Loss than to find him in the Scotch Hands who would be sure to make the best of so good a Prise There had been no small Contrasts between them and their English Brethren before who finding the fighting Work nigh over were desirous to be quit of some of their own Forces much more of such troublesome and chargable Hirelings The Scots on the other Side as Ludlow tells us repeated their Instances for a Consideration of the Articles of Religion contained in the Covenant to give a speedy Peace to his Majesty to pay them near two hundred thousand Pounds which they pretended to be due for their Arrears and make a just Estimate of the Losses they had sustain'd by Land and Sea c. which they computed at more than the former Sum p. 174 He goes on to relate how the Parliament thought it not convenient to comply with the King's Propositions demanded an exact Account of what was due to them and requir'd that they would withdraw their Garrisons from such Places as they possest in England Some differences he saith likewise there were with the Scotch Commissioners about the King 's Concern in the Militia their intermedling with the Government of England the Education of the King's Children the disbanding the Army and an Act of Oblivion in which Matters the Parliament would not have the Scots to interpose and by degrees the Debates grew so warm as there being found in those Demands of the Scots some Expressions very much reflecting upon the Parliament the two Houses declared them to be Injurious and Scandalous and order'd them to be Burnt by the Hands of the Common Hang-Man p. 175 During these Controversies the Scotch Army continu'd in the Northern Parts upon free Quarter at an abominable rate harressing the Poor People to the utmost Extremity till after some Month's Time Matters being accommodated a little for the present upon the Advance of 30000. l. with Shooes Stockings and other Necessaries they were prevail'd upon to Besiege Newark at which Leaguer the King came to them just as Articles of Surrender were agreed upon and so the more at leisure to march off with him to Newcastle for 't is false what Ludlow affirms that the King soon after his Arrival in the Scots Quarters gave Order for the Delivery of Newark into their Hands the Articles were agreed upon before the King came thither or his Friends in the Garrison dreamt thereof however it happen'd very Opportunely for the Scots to march off with their Royal Purchase and prevent the Clamors from their Brethren at Westminster who as Ludlow tells us forthwith sent an Order to their Commissioners in the Scots Army to demand the Person of the King judging it unreasonable that the Scots being in their Pay should dispose of him otherwise than by their Order resolving further that he should be Conducted to Warwick Castle and the next Day commanded their Army to advance in Order to hinder the Conjunction of the King's Forces with the Scots p. 176 Whereof doubtless they were sore affraid 't is pity they were not hurt the Scots by that one Act might have expiated all their former Perfidy but to expect that had been to wash a Blackamore so Blessed a good was not to be thought of from those accustomed so much to the worst of Evils Rebellion and Sacriledge and therefore 't is probable it gave them some ease to hear that though Levens the Scotch General had march'd with the King to New-Castle he had by Proclamation forbidden his Forces to have any Communication with the King's Party and thereupon only order'd that the Scots should keep him for the English Parliament and so they did but must pay a round Sum of Mony before they should have him We are next to see what Entertainment the King had among the Scots who though they pretended to be much surpris'd as Ludlow tells us yet afterwards it appear'd that this Resolution had been Communicated to them before p. 116. The Truth of it is Montrevil a French Embassador or Agent in the Scotch Camp had adjusted the Matter with Levens and other General Officers who engag'd to secure him and as many of his Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to him with their Lives and Fortunes Yet in that excellent Meditation his Majesty penn'd upon this Occasion 't is own'd a forc'd Push where Necessity was his Counsellor in an Adventure upon their Loyalty who first began his Troubles for which Reason he studied to fortify his Mind so as not to offer up his Soul's Liberty or make his Conscience their Captive but no less conform his Words to his inward Dictates now than if they had been as the Words of a King ought to be amongst Loyal Subjects full of Power And Good Prince he was soon put to his Tryal for though the Committee of Estates at Edingburgh upon the first Notice of his being in their Hands sent Commissioners with great Expressions of their Duty and good Intentions protesting how dear the Preservation of his Sacred Person and his just Power and Greatness should ever be to them yet their Actions immediately spake the contrary as if all were intended with the tacit Condition of a Covenant Clog and such harsh Usage as might bring or force him thereto for within few Days the King call'd both the chief Officers of the Army and the Commissioners sent out of Scotland and in presence of Monsieur de Montrevil did Expostulate That whereas he did come to their Army upon the Assurances Monsieur Montrevil had given him that he should be safe in his Person Honor