THE ENGLISH ARMY SEIZE THE KING. 19 month of September contrary to the wishes of the independents, whose designs upon the life of the king they were apprehensive it would frustrate. Colonel Ludlow, a fanatical member of the lower house, thinking that the death of Charles was absolutely necessary to appease the anger of God, first attempted to draw over Fairfax to his opinion, but having failed, he tampered with Ireton, another commander in the parliamentary army, and having succeeded, Ireton made his regiment petition the commander-in-chief, that all who were concerned in the late rebellion, whether high or low, without any distinction, should be punished according to their just deserts, "and that whosoever should speak or act in favour of the king before he had been acquitted of shedding innocent blood, should incur the penalties of treason."* This petition, which was put forth as a mere feeler to sound the dispositions of the army, was quickly followed by a petition from another regiment couched in stronger and more intelligible language, and which demanded that the king and his advisers should be brought to justice; and condemned the treaty entered into with him as dangerous and unjust. These petitions were laid before a council of war, and the result was, that the officers assembled issued a remonstrance addressed to the House of Commons, requiring, inter alia, that "the capital and grand author of all the troubles and woes which the kingdom had endured, should be speedily brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief of which he had been guilty." The remonstrance was supported by the independents, but the presbyterians prevailed by a large majority in postponing consideration of the remonstrance till a distant day, and instructed the commissioners at Newport to bring the treaty with the king to a speedy conclusion.† Thus disappointed in their views for the time, the independents prevailed upon Fairfax to order Hammond, the governor of the Isle of Wight, to attend him at Windsor, and to send Colonel Eure with orders to seize the king at Newport, where he was conferring with the commissioners, and imprison him again in Carisbrook castle; but Hammond having declined to allow Eure to interfere without an order from the parliament, Eure left the island without attempting to fulfil his instructions. Hammond, however, afterwards left the island with the commissioners, and committed the royal person to the custody of one Major Rolfe, a person who, only six months before, had been charged with a design on the life of the king, and who had escaped trial because only one witness had attested the fact before the grand jury. The king seemed to be fully aware of the danger of his present situation, and on the morning of the twenty-eighth of November, when the commissioners left the island, he gave vent to his feelings in a strain of the most pathetic emotion, which drew tears from his attendants: " My lords," said he to the commissioners, "I believe we shall scarce ever see Lingard, vol. vi. p. 614. each other again, but God's will be done! I have made my peace with him, and shall undergo without fear whatever he may suffer men to do to me. My lords, you cannot but know, that in my fall and ruin you see your own, and that also near you. I pray God send you better friends than I have found. I am fully informed of the carriage of those who plot against me and mine; but nothing affects me so much as the feeling I have of the sufferings of my subjects, and the mischief that hangs over my three kingdoms, drawn upon them by those who, upon pretences of good, violently pursue their own interests and ends."* As soon as the commissioners and Hammond had quitted the island, Fairfax sent a troop of horse and a company of foot, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cobbett, to seize the king, who received notice of the approach of this body and of its object next morning from a person in disguise; but although advised by the duke of Richmond, the earl of Lindsay, and Colonel Coke to make his escape, which he could easily have accomplished, he declined to do so, because he considered himself bound in honour to remain twenty days after the treaty. The consequence was, that Charles was taken prisoner by Cobbett, and carried to Hurst castle The army having now got the king completely in their power, the council of officers issued a threatening declaration against the house of commons, and to support their pretensions to provide for the settlement of the kingdom and to punish the guilty, Fairfax quartered several regiments in London and the neighbourhood. This bold measure immediately brought the army and the presbyterian members of the house of commons, who were still the majority, into collision. Instead of being overawed by the army, as they had been in the year sixteen hundred and forty-six, the presbyterians protested against the seizure of the royal person, and carried by a large majority, after an animated debate which lasted, by adjournment, three days and a whole night, a resolution approving of the treaty of Newport. The firmness thus displayed by the presbyterian party was not to be endured by the army, which had now every thing in its power, and, accordingly, a resolution was taken by the officers to arrest the leading members, which was immediately carried into effect by the celebrated Colonel Pride. Many members of the presbyterian party seeing their friends thus illegally placed in confinement, retired into the country, and a "rump" only of about fifty members remained. The person who was to act the principal part in the bloody tragedy which soon followed, was on his way home from Scotland during these proceedings, and arrived in London the day after the house of commons had been finally purged by Pride. Cromwell had now obtained the complete ascendancy in the army, and he perceived that the time had arrived for carrying his design upon the life of the king into execu Appendix to Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. 128, 390. Clarendon, iii. 234. EXECUTION OF THE KING AND OF HAMILTON AND HUNTLY. 21 tion. Accordingly, after the purified house of commons had passed a vote declaring that it was high treason in the king of England, for the time being, to levy war against the parliament and kingdom of England, his majesty was brought to trial before a tribunal erected pro re nata by the house called the high court of justice, which adjudged him "as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body," a sentence which was carried into execution, in front of Whitehall, on the thirtieth of January sixteen hundred and forty-nine. The unfortunate monarch conducted himself throughout the whole of these melancholy proceedings with becoming dignity, and braved the terrors of death with the utmost fortitude and resignation.* The duke of Hamilton, who, by his incapacity, had ruined the king's affairs when on the point of being retrieved, was not destined long to survive his royal master. In violation of the articles of his capitulation, he was brought to trial, and although he pleaded that he acted under the orders of the Scottish parliament, and was not amenable to an English tribunal, he was, under the pretence that he was earl of Cambridge in England, sentenced to be beheaded. He suffered on the ninth of March. The marquis of Huntly had languished in prison since December sixteen hundred and forty-seven, and during the life of the king the Scottish parliament had not ventured to bring him to the block; but both the king and Hamilton, his favourite, being now put out of the way, they felt themselves no longer under restraint, and accordingly the parliament, on the sixteenth of March, ordained the marquis to be beheaded, at the market-cross of Edinburgh, on the twentysecond day of that month. As he lay under sentence of ecclesiastical excommunication, one of the "bloody ministers," says the author of the History of the family of Gordon, "asked him, when brought upon the scaffold, if he desired to be absolved from the sentence;" to which the marquis replied, "that as he was not accustomed to give ear to false prophets, he did not wish to be troubled by him." And there • The following stanza was written by Montrose at Brussels on hearing of the death of the king: Great, good, and just! could I but rate My griefs to thy too rigid fate, I'd weep the world to such a strain, As it would deluge once again: But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies, I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds, These verses appear set to music among "Songs for one, two, and three voices, with some short symphonies, collected out of the select poems of the incomparable Mr Cow. ley, and others, and composed by Henry Bowman, Philo-Musicus." 2d edit. printed al Oxford, 1679. Appendix to Wishart's Memoirs, p. 495. upon turning "towards the people, he told them that he was going to die for having employed some years of his life in the service of the king his master; that he was sorry he was not the first of his majesty's subjects who had suffered for his cause, so glorious in itself that it sweetened to him all the bitterness of death." He then declared that he had charity to forgive those who had voted for his death, although he could not admit that he had done any thing contrary to the laws. After throwing off his doublet, he offered up a prayer, and then embracing some friends around him, he submitted his neck, without any symptoms of emotion, to the fatal instrument. CHAPTER IL Charles 11. proclaimed king-Conduct of Argyle-Conditions offered to the king at the Hague-Rejection of these, and return of the Commissioners-Proceedings of Montrose-Descent upon Scotland resolved upon-Rising in the north under Pluscardin -Inverness taken-March of David Leslie to the north-Submission of Sir Thomas Urquhart and others-Return of Leslie to the south-Pluscardin joined by Lord Reay -Marches into Badenoch, where he is joined by Huntly-Pluscardin's men surprised and defeated at Balveny-Landing of the earl of Kinnoul in Orkney-The castle of Birsay taken Declaration of Montrose, and the Answers thereto-Arrival of Montrose in Orkney-Crosses the Pentland Frith, and lands in Caithness-Surrender of Dunbeath castle-Advance of Montrose into Sutherland-Defeated at CarbisdaleCapture of Montrose by Macleod of Assynt-Sent to Edinburgh-Generous conduct of the people of Dundee-Reception of Montrose in Edinburgh-Behaviour and execution. WHILE the dominant party in England were contemplating the erection of a commonwealth upon the ruins of the monarchy they had just overthrown, the faction in Scotland, with Argyle at its head, which had usurped the reins of government in that country, in obedience to the known wish of the nation, resolved to recognize the principle of legitimacy by acknowledging the prince of Wales as successor to the crown of Scotland. No sooner, therefore, had the intelligence of the execu tion of the king reached Edinburgh, than the usual preparations were made for proclaiming Charles the Second, a ceremony which was performed at the market-cross of Edinburgh, on the fifth day of February, with the usual formalities. This proceeding was contrary to the policy of Argyle, whose intentions were in exact accordance with those of the English Independents; but, as the melancholy fate of the king had excited a feeling of indignation in the Scottish nation, he was afraid to imitate the example of his English friends, and with his usual subtlety and flexibility, dissembled his views, and adopted other measures without changing his object. As he could not venture in the present disposition of the nation upon the bold step of excluding the son of the king from the crown, he fell upon the device of embroiling them on the subject of religion, than which the perverted ingenuity of man could not have invented one more likely to become a source of discord, and to estrange a nation, wrought up, at that time, to the highest pitch of religious enthusiasm, from the sove reign. With this view, Argyle, under the specious pretext of securing |