would not consent. He re-collected all his fortitude, and sent for Hammond, who repeated his professions of regard, and seemed to believe the army would take no step to his prejudice. Charles submitted to his fate, accompanied the colonel to the Isle of Wight, and was lodged in Carisbrook Castle, where, though received with great demonstrations of respect and duty, he was in reality a prisoner.

A treaty was shortly afterwards entered into between the King and the Parliament, but the terms proposed to him were such as he could not, either in honor or conscience, accepi; and when the negotiation was broken off, Hammond, by orders from the army, removed all his servants, cut off his correspondence with his friends, and shut him up in close confincment. The King afterwards showed to Sir Philip Warwick a decripid old man, who, he said, was employed to kindle his fire, and was the best company he enjoyed during the several months that this rigorous confinement lasted. No amusement was allowed him, nor society, which might relieve his anxious thoughts: To be speedily poisoned or assassinated was the only prospect which he had every moment before his eyes: for he entertained no apprehension of a judicial sentence and execution; an event of which no history hitherto furnished an example. Meanwhile, the Parliament was very industrious in publishing, from time to time, the intelligence which they received from Hammond; how cheerful the King was, how pleased with every thing that approached him, how satisfied in his present condition: The great source whence the King derived consolation amidst all his calamities, was undoubtedly religion; a principle which, in him, seems to have contained nothing fierce or gloomy, nothing which enraged him against his adversaries, or terrified him with the dismal prospect of futurity. While every thing round him bore a hostile aspect; while friends, family, relations, whom he passionately loved, were placed at a distance, and unable to serve him, he reposed himself with confidence in the arms of that Being who pene,

trates and sustains all nature, and whose severities, if received with piety and resignation, he regarded as the surest pledges of unexhausted favor.

A final attempt at an accommodation between Charles and the Parliament was made at Newport, in the autumn of 1648; but, like former attempts, failed through the unbending obstinacy of the Puritan leaders. The King yielded to all their demands, except what concerned the abolition of episcopacy, and the giving up of his friends. These were conditions to which he thought himself bound in honor and conscience not to consent; and his firmness in these points, however creditable to his character, proved in the event fatal to him.

When the Parliament was negotiating with the King, Cromwell, and the other leaders of the army, were employed in quelling various dangerous insurrections in different parts of the kingdom; and their usual success having attended their arms, they now returned to London, flushed with victory, and determined no longer to observe any terms with their adversaries. Their first step was to exclude from the Parliament all those members whom they thought unfriendly to their cause. When the Commons were to meet, Colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, surrounded the house with two regiments, and seized in the passage forty-one members of the Presbyterian party, and sent them to a low room, which passed by the appellation of hell, whence they were afterwards carried to several inns. About 160 members more were excluded, and none were allowed to enter but the most furious and most determined of the Independents. This invasion of the Parliament commonly passed under the name of Colonel Pride's Purge, so much disposed was the nation to make merry with the dethroning of those members who had arrogated the whole authority of government, and deprived the King of his regal prerogatives.

One of the first acts of this remnant of the House of Commons, was the appointment of a committee to draw up a for

mal accusation or impeachment of the King. Charles was now removed from the Isle of Wight to Windsor, and every thing announced to him that the period of his life was now fast approaching: but, notwithstanding all the preparations which were making, and the intelligence which he received, he could not, even yet, believe, that his enemies really meant to conclude their violences, by a public trial and execution. A private assassination he every moment looked for; and, though Harrison assured him that his apprehensions were entirely groundless, it was by that catastrophe, so frequent with dethroned princes, that he expected to terminate his life. In appearance, as well as in reality, the King was now dethroned. All the exterior symbols of sovereignty were withdrawn, and his attendants had orders to serve him without ceremony. At first, he was shocked with instances of rudeness and familiarity, to which he had been so little accustomed. Nothing so contemptible as a despised Prince! was the reflection which they suggested to him. But he soon reconciled his mind to this, as he had done to his other calamities.

All the circumstances of the trial were now adjusted, and the high court of justice fully constituted. It consisted of 133 persons, as named by the Commons; but there scarcely ever sat above 70: so difficult was it, notwithstanding the blindness of prejudice, and the allurements of interest, to engage men of any character or name in that criminal measure. Cromwell, Ireton, Harrison, and the chief officers of the army, most of them of mean birth, were members, together with some of the Lower House and some citizens of London. The twelve judges were at first appointed of the number; but, as they had affirmed, that it was contrary to all ideas of English law to try the King for treason, by whose authority all accusations for treason must necessarily be conducted, their names, as well as those of some peers, were afterwards struck out. Bradshaw, a lawyer, was chosen president. Coke was ap

pointed solicitor for the people of England. Dorislaus, Steele, and Aske, were named assistants. The court sat in Westminster-hall.

"The pomp, the dignity, the ceremony of this transaction," says Hume, "corresponded to the greatest conception that is suggested in the annals of human kind. The delegates of a great people, sitting in judgment upon their supreme magistrate, and trying him for his misgovernment and breach of trust." The solicitor, in the name of the Commons, represented, that Charles Stuart, being admitted King of England, and entrusted with a limited power; yet, nevertheless, from a wicked design, to erect an unlimited and tyrannical government, had traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present Parliament, and the people whom they represented, and was therefore impeached as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and implacable enemy to the commonwealth. After the charge was finished, the president directed his discourse to the King, and told him, that the court expected his answer.

The King, though long detained a prisoner, and now produced as a criminal, sustained, by his magnanimous courage, the majesty of a monarch. With great temper and dignity he declined the authority of the court, and refused to submit himself to their jurisdiction. Three times was Charles produced before the court, and as often declined their jurisdiction. On the fourth, the judges having examined some witnesses, by whom it was proved that the King had appeared in arms against the forces commissioned by the Parliament, they pronounced sentence against him. The King seemed very anxious at this time to be admitted to a conference with the two houses; and, it was supposed, that he intended to resign the crown to his son; but the court refused, and considered the request as nothing but a delay of justice,

It is confessed, even by his enemies, that the King's behaviour, during this last scene of life, does honor to his me

mory; and that, in all appearance, before his judges he never forgot his part, either as a prince or as a man. Firm and in. trepid, he maintained, in each reply, the utmost perspicuity and justness both of thought and expression. Mild and equable, he rose into no passion at that unusual authority which was assumed over him. His soul, without effort or af fectation, seemed only to remain in the situation familiar to it, and to look down with contempt on all the efforts of human malignity and iniquity. The soldiers, instigated by their superiors, though with difficulty, cried aloud for justice: Poor souls, said the King to one of his attendants, for a little money they would do as much against one of their commanders. Some of them were permitted to go to the utmost length of brutal violence, and to spit in his face as he was conducted along the passage to the court. To excite a sentiment of piety was the only effect which this inhuman insult was able to produce upon him.

The people, though under the rod of lawless unlimited power, could not forbear, with the most ardent prayers, pouring forth their wishes for his preservation; and, in his present distress, they avowed him, by their generous tears, for their monarch, whom, in their misguided fury, they had before so violently rejected. The King was softened at this moving scene, and expressed his gratitude for their dutiful affection. One soldier too, seized by contagious sympathy, demanded from heaven a blessing on oppressed and fallen majesty. His officer overheard the prayer, and beat him to the ground in the King's presence. The punishment, methinks, exceeds the offence. This was the reflection which Charles formed on that occasion.

Three days were allowed the King between his sentence and his execution. This interval he passed in great tranquillity, chiefly in reading and devotion. All his family that remained in England were allowed access to him. It consisted only of