CHAPTER V.

DEATH OF THE KING.

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

THE parliamentary commissioners, on their return from the Isle of Wight to London, presented the report of their journey and its results. On the 3d of January 1648, Sir Thomas Wroth rose in the House of Commons and said: "Mr Speaker, Bed"lam was appointed for madmen and Tophet (i. e. the grave or hell) for kings;* but our king

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"of late hath carried himself as if he were fit for

no place but Bedlam; I propose we lay the king "by, and settle the kingdom without him." Ireton supported the motion. "The king," said he, “by

denying the four bills has denied safety and pro"tection to his people." The parliamentary or presbyterian party strongly resisted the proposition. Cromwell had not yet spoken. In his view, Charles's bad faith had reached the point at which civil tribunals deprive a man of the management of his family; and he therefore thought that the management of the kingdom should be taken from a prince who was no longer the father but the deceiver of his people. "Mr Speaker," he said, "the king is a man of great sense, of great talents, "but so full of dissimulation, so false, that there is

no possibility of trusting him. While he is pro"testing his love for peace, he is treating under"hand with the Scottish Commissioners to plunge. "the nation into another war. It is now expected "the parliament should govern and defend the kingdom." The motion was immediately adopted by the Commons, and by the Lords after some little hesitation.

This important vote caused a great sensation, and rendered the posture of affairs daily more embarrassing. A Scots army talked of delivering the king from the hands of the sectarians; and in England three parties, in addition to the soldiers, were agitating the nation. The royalist party threatened to rise every moment with shouts of

"God and King Charles;" the great presbyterian party, with the city of London at their head, became hourly more discontented with the state of things; and a third party, the Levellers or radicals, still further increased the terror and confusion.

One day about the beginning of 1648 the army leaders met at Windsor. "The longest heads and "the strongest hearts in England were there," says an historian. And what did they there? The answer will be found in the following report which Adjutant-General Allen has transmitted to us:"We met at Windsor Castle about the beginning of "Forty-eight, and there we spent one day together "in prayer; inquiring into the causes of that sad dispensation; coming to no further result that day; "but that it was still our duty to seek. And on "the morrow we met again in the morning, where

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many spake from the Word and prayed; and the "then Lieutenant-General Cromwell did press very "earnestly on all there present to a thorough con"sideration of our actions as an army, and of our "ways, particularly as private Christians: to see if

any iniquity could be found in them, and what "it was; that if possible we might find it out, and แ so remove the cause of such sad rebukes as were

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upon us at that time. And to this end," he added, "let us consider when we could last say "that the presence of the Lord was among us, and "rebukes and judgments were not as then upon (6 us. We concluded this second day with agreeing "to meet again on the morrow.

"Which accordingly we did, and were led by "gracious hand of the Lord, to find out the very

steps by which we had departed from Him, and provoked Him to depart from us. Which we "found to be those cursed carnal conferences our "own conceited wisdom, our fears, and want of "faith had prompted us, the year before, to enter"tain with the king and his party. And on this "occasion, did the then Major Goffe make use of "that good Word, Proverbs i. 23-Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. And "the Lord so accompanied this invitation by His "Spirit, that it had a kindly effect, like a word of

His, upon most of our hearts that were then pre"sent; which begot in us a great sense, a shame "and loathing of ourselves for our iniquities, and "a justifying of the Lord as righteous in His pro"ceedings against us. He led us not only to see "our sin, but also our duty; and this so unani"mously set with weight upon each heart, that none "was able hardly to speak a word to each other for "bitter weeping, partly in the sense and shame of "our iniquities; of our unbelief, base fear of men, " and carnal consultations with our own wisdom, "and not with the Word of the Lord. "And yet we were also helped, with fear and trem

bling, to rejoice in the Lord, who no sooner "brought us to His feet but He did direct our

steps, and we were led to a clear agreement "amongst ourselves, that it was the duty of our

day, with the forces we had, to go out and fight against our potent enemies, with an humble con"fidence in the name of the Lord only.

"And we were also enabled then, after serious

secking the Lord's face, to come to a very clear "and joint resolution, that it was our duty to call "Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account "for that blood he had shed, and mischief he had "done to his utmost against the Lord's cause and "people in these poor nations."*

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

And yet, were they really in the right path? We entertain some doubt on this point. There is perhaps no case in which we see more clearly the importance of being enlightened on the true principles of christian conduct. When the leaders of

* Somer's Tracts, vi. 499-501; cited by Carlyle, i. 337-340.