to escape. They required that the king, when he met the Scottish escort, should declare that the object of his journey was Scotland (no doubt, to join Montrose), and that he should appear to submit to compulsion in allowing himself to be conducted to the quarters of Leven ". All these precautions were judged necessary, to prevent an immediate rupture with Fairfax and the independents. The plan however here laid down, was subsequently rendered abortive. CHAP. XXVII. 1646. of Oxford. The debate had continued so long, and the Escapes out uncertainty as to what should be done had been so protracted, that at length Charles found himself unable to muster such a body of horse as should be sufficient to conduct him in safety to Burton, in the midst of the various obstacles that might be opposed to his passage. This prince, who for years had traversed England in every direction, and by the rapidity of his motions had beaten up the quarters of all who had endeavoured to obstruct him, now found it necessary to escape out of Oxford with only two attendants, Ashburnham for one, who had of late engrossed his master's ear, and Hudson, a clergyman, one of whose recommendations was his intimate knowledge of the cross-roads of the circumjacent counties. He sallied forth from his garrison at the hour of midnight, April the twenty-seventh. The person XXVII. 1646. CHAP. of Charles was disguised; and he rode as servant to Ashburnham, having a portmanteau behind him on his horse. The king's council at Oxford knew of his purpose to leave the place; but none of them were acquainted with the destination he intended to pursue o. Irresoluteness of his purposes. Direction He proceeded at first, with few deviations, in the direct road for London; from Oxford to Henley, and from Henley to Brentford P. But, as he approached the towers of the capital, he began to regard the idea of entering the city, and endeavouring for a time to remain there concealed, which had been one of his projects, as savouring too much of temerity. Above all things he dreaded the idea of being placed without conditions in the hands of the present ruling party. Yet, so fully was London judged to be the object of his journey when he left Oxford, that the duke of Richmond, Charles's kinsman, with four other noblemen or gentlemen, came into Fairfax's quarters the next day, with the secret hope that they might be permitted to attend the sovereign in his precarious situation 9. Charles however, being now impressed with of his jour- the rashness of this so lately his favourite measure, struck out of the public road, and ney. • Rushworth, p. 267. Clarendon, p. 22. ℗ Rushworth, ubi supra. Journals of Commons, April. 30. of Lords, May 6. XXVII. 1646. crossed, from Brentford to Harrow, and from CHAP. Harrow to the vicinity of St. Albans. Still deviating from the public roads, he reached Market Harborough in the course of the second day of this perilous journey, where it seems he expected to encounter Montreville, or some small escort of horse that should be sent to meet him by this envoys. In this expectation he was disappointed; and, thus baffled, the king felt with double acuteness the desperateness of his condition, and was wholly at a loss what course to pursue. From Market Harborough he turned aside to Stamford, and from Stamford to Downham in Norfolk. this journey we are told he refreshed himself at several gentlemen's houses, to whom his person was known, but who made a shew of treating him as any common stranger: but this is extremely uncertain. In the quarters At Downham Charles remained from Thursday, Arrives in the last day of April, to the following Monday, of the Scots. in the same state of irresoluteness and fluctuation which had marked his residence at Ragland in the autumn before ". At length he roused himself from this indecision; and, seeming to his own apprehension to have no other choice, he made his appearance at seven in the morning on the 'Rushworth, ubi supra. 'Clarendon, ubi supra. VOL. II. L 'Ibid. " Rushworth, ubi supra. CHAP. fifth of May, at Southwel, the quarters of Montreville near Newark w. XXVII. 1646. Measures liament. The parliament was greatly disturbed by the of the par- evasion of the king. For several days it was believed that he lay concealed in, or in the neighbourhood of, London. On the fourth of May it was ordered by both houses, and the order proclaimed by sound of trumpet, that whoever should harbour or conceal the king's person, or not immediately reveal what he knew, should be proceeded against as a traitor to the commonwealth, forfeit his whole estate, and die without mercy. Two days after, letters arrived stating that the king was with the Scots' army; and the commons immediately came to a vote, desiring of the general and the Scots' commissioners in their army, that the king's person should be disposed of to such place as the parliament should appoint; and Warwick Castle was named for that purpose3. To this vote the house of lords dissented. HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. BOOK THE SECOND. From the Flight of the King in 1646, to his Death. CHAPTER I. PRACTICAL COMMENCEMENT OF A REPUBLICAN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN SECT.-CHARACTER I. 1646. Practical DURING the period of the Civil War, we may CHAP. consider that part of the island of Great Britain, called England, as being in some sort under the government of two distinct heads, the king and the parliament, accordingly as the different portions of the country adhered to the party, or were commence ment of a republican govern |