CHA P. trived for conducting underhand, and propagating, the sedition of the army. LIX. 1647. 3d June. The king Joyce. THIS terrible court, when assembled, having first declared that they found no distempers in the army, but many grievances, under which it laboured, immediately voted the offers of the parliament unsatisfactory. Eight weeks' pay alone, they said, was promised; a small part of fifty-six weeks, which they claimed as their due: No visible security was given for the remainder: And having been declared public enemies by the commons, they might hereafter be prosecuted as such, unless the declaration were recalled. Before matters came to this height, Cromwel had posted up to London, on pretence of laying before the parliament the rising discontents of the army. THE parliament made one vigorous effort more, to try the force of their authority: They voted that all the troops which did not engage for Ireland, should instantly be disbanded in their quarters. At the same time, the counsel of the army ordered a general rendezvous of all the regiments, in order to provide for their common interests. And while they thus prepared themselves for opposition to the parliament, they struck a blow, which at once decided the victory in their favour. A PARTY of five hundred horse appeared at Holseized by denby, conducted by one Joyce, who had once been a taylor by profession; but was now advanced to the rank of cornet, and was an active agitator in the army. Without being opposed by the guard, whose affections were all on their side, Joyce came into the king's presence armed with pistols, and told him, that he must immediately go along with him. Whither? said the king. To the army, replied Joyce. By what warrant? asked the king. Joyce pointed Rush. vol. vii. p. 497. 505. Whitlocke, p. 250. LIX. pointed to the soldiers, whom he brought along; CHA P. tall, handsome, and well accoutred. Your warrant, said Charles, smiling, is written in fair characters, 1647. legible without spelling. The parliamentary commissioners came into the room: They asked Joyce, whether he had any orders from the parliament? He said, No: From the General ?. No: By what authority he came? He made the same reply as to the king: They would write, they said, to the parliament, to know their pleasure. You may do so, replied Joyce; but in the mean time the king must immedi ately go with me. Resistance was vain. The king, after protracting the time as long as he could, went into his coach; and was safely conducted to the army, who were hastening to their rendezvous at Triplo-Heath, near Cambridge. The parliament, informed of this event by their commissioners, were thrown into the utmost consternation.' FAIRFAX himself was no less surprised at the king's arrival. That bold measure, executed by Joyce, had never been communicated to the general. The orders were entirely verbal; and nobody avowed them. And while every one affected astonishment at the enterprise, Cromwel, by whose council it had been directed, arrived from London, and put an end to their deliberations. THIS artful and audacious conspirator had conducted himself in the parliament with such profound dissimulation, with such refined hypocrisy, that he had long deceived those, who, being themselves very dexterous practitioners in the same arts, should naturally have entertained the more suspicion against others. At every intelligence of disorders in the army, he was moved to the highest pitch of grief and of anger. He wept bitterly: He lamented the misfortunes of his country: He advised every violent measure for suppressing the mutiny; and by these h Whitlocke, p. 254. Warwick, p. 299. i Rush. vol. vii. p. 514, 515. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 47. LIX. 1647. CHA P. these precipitate counsels, at once seemed to evince his own sincerity, and enflamed those discontents, of which he intended to make advantage. He obtested heaven and earth, that his devoted attachment to the parliament had rendered him so odious in the army, that his life, while among them, was in the utmost danger; and he had very narrowly escaped a conspiracy formed to assassinate him. But information being brought that the most active officers and agitators were entirely his creatures, the parliamentary leaders secretly resolved, that, next day, when he should come to the house, an accusation should be entered against him, and he should be sent to the Tower.* Cromwel, who in the conduct of his desperate enterprises frequently approached to the very brink of destruction, knew how to make the requisite turn with proper dexterity and boldness. Being informed of this design, he hastened to the camp; where he was received with acclamations, and was instantly invested with the supreme command, both of general and army. FAIRFAX, having neither talents himself for cabal, nor penetration to discover the cabals of others, had given his entire confidence to Cromwel; who, by the best-coloured pretences, and by the appearance of an open sincerity and a scrupulous conscience, imposed on the easy nature of this brave and virtuous man. The council of officers and the agitators were moved altogether by Cromwel's direction, and conveyed his will to the whole army. By his profound and artful conduct, he had now attained a situation, where he could cover his enterprises from public view; and, seeming either to obey the command of his superior officer, or yield to the movements of the soldiers, could secretly pave the way for his future greatness. While the disorders of the army were yet in their infancy, he kept at a distance, k Clarendon, vol. v. p. 46, LIX. 1647. distance, lest his counterfeit aversion might throw a C HA P. damp upon them, or his secret encouragement beget suspicion in the parliament. As soon as they came to maturity, he openly joined the troops; and in the critical moment, struck that important blow of seizing the king's person, and depriving the parliament of any resource of an accommodation with him. Though one vizor fell off, another still remained to cover his natural countenance. Where delay was requisite, he would employ the most indefatigable patience: Where celerity was necessary, he flew to a decision. And by thus uniting in his person the most opposite talents, he was enabled to combine the most contrary interests in a subserviency to his secret purposes. against THE parliament, though at present defenceless, The army was possessed of many resources; and time might march easily enable them to resist that violence with which the parlia they were threatened. Without farther delibera- ment. tion, therefore, Cromwel advanced the army upon them, and arrived in a few days at St. Albans. NOTHING could be more popular than this hostility which the army commenced against the parliament. As much as that assembly was once the idol of the nation, as much was it now become the object of general hatred and aversion. THE self-denying ordinance had no longer been put in execution, than till Essex, Manchester, Waller, and the other officers of that party, had resigned their commissions: Immediately after, it was laid aside by tacit consent; and the members, sharing all offices of power and profit among them, proceeded with impunity in exercising acts of oppression on the helpless nation. Though the necessity of their situation might serve as an apology for many of their measures, the people, not accustomed to such a species of government, were not disposed to make the requisite allowances. A SMALL CHAP. 1647. A SMALL Supply of 100,000 pounds a year could never be obtained by former kings from the jealous humour of parliaments; and the English, of all nations in Europe, were the least accustomed to taxes: But this parliament, from the commencement of the war, according to some computations, had levied, in five years, above forty millions;' yet were loaded with debts and incumbrances, which, during that age, were regarded as prodigious. If these computations should be thought much exaggerated, as they probably are," the taxes and impositions were certainly far higher than in any former state of the English government; and such popular exaggerations are, at least a proof of popular discontents. BUT the disposal of this money was no less the object of general complaint against the parliament than the levying of it. The sum of 300,000 pounds they openly took, it is affirmed," and divided among their own members. The committees, to whom the management of the different branches of revenue was entrusted, never brought in their accounts, and had unlimited power of secreting whatever sums they pleased from the public treasure." These branches were needlessly multiplied, in order to render the revenue more intricate, to share the advantages among greater numbers, and to conceal the frauds of which they were, universally suspected.P THE 'Clement Walker's History of the Two Juntos, prefixed to his History of Independency, p. 8. This is an author of spirit and ingenuity; and being a zealous parliamentarian, his authority is very considerable, notwithstanding the air of satire which prevails in his writings. This computation, however, seems much too large; especially as the sequestrations, during the time of war, could not be so considerable as afterwards. m Yet the same sum precisely is assigned in another book, called Royal Treasury of England, p. 297. Clement Walker's History of Independency, p. 3. 166. • Ibid. p. 8. |