commissioners, submitted[b] “the propositions” once more to the royal consideration; but Charles replied,[c] that the plan suggested by the army was better calculated to form the basis of a lasting peace, and professed his readiness to treat respecting that plan with commissioners appointed by the parliament, and others by the army.[2] The officers applauded this answer; Cromwell in the Commons spoke in its favour with a vehemence which excited suspicion; and, though it was ultimately voted[d] equivalent to a refusal, a grand committee was appointed[e] “to take the whole matter respecting the king into consideration.”  It had been calculated that this attempt to amalgamate the plan of the parliament with that of the army might be accomplished in the space of

[Footnote 1:  Clarendon Papers, ii. 381, Appendix, xli.  Rushw. vii. 795.  Memoirs of Hamiltons, 316.  Herbert, 48.  Ashburn. ii. 93, 95.]

[Footnote 2:  Of this answer, Charles himself says to the Scottish commissioners.  “Be not startled at my answer which I gave yesterday to the two houses; for if you truly understand it, I have put you in a right way, where before you were wrong.”—­Memoirs of Hamiltons, 323.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1647.  August 24.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1647.  Sept. 8.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1647.  Sept. 9.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1647.  Sept. 21.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1647.  Sept. 22.]

twenty days; but it occupied more than two months; for there was now a third house to consult, the council of war, which debated every clause, and notified its resolves to the Lords and Commons, under the modest, but expressive, name of the desires of the army.[1]

While the king sought thus to flatter the officers, he was, according to his custom, employed in treating with the opposite party.[2] The marquess of Ormond, and the lord Capel,[3] with the Scottish commissioners, waited on him from London; and a resolution was[a] formed that in the next spring, the Scots should enter England with a numerous army, and call on the Presbyterians for their aid; that Charles, if he were at liberty, otherwise the prince of Wales, should sanction the enterprise by his presence; and that Ormond should resume the government of Ireland, while Capel summoned to the royal standard the remains of the king’s party in England.  Such was the outline of the plan; the minor details had not been arranged, when Cromwell, either informed by his spies, or prompted by his suspicions, complained to Ashburnham of the incurable duplicity of his master, who was

[Footnote 1:  Ludlow, i. 184.  Whitelock, 269.  Huntingdon in Journals, x. 410.  Journals, v.  Sept. 22.  On the division, Cromwell was one of the tellers for the Yea, and Colonel Rainsborough, the chief of the Levellers, for the No.  It was carried by a majority of 84 to 34.—­Ibid.]

[Footnote 2:  In vindication of Charles it has been suggested that he was only playing at the same game as his opponents, amusing them as they sought to amuse him.  This, however, is very doubtful as far as it regards the superior officers, who appear to me to have treated with him in good earnest, till they were induced to break off the negotiation by repeated proofs of his duplicity, and the rapid growth of distrust and disaffection in the army.  I do not, however, give credit to Morrice’s tale of a letter from Charles to Henrietta intercepted by Cromwell and Ireton.]