The king now found himself driven to the last extremity.  The threats of the army resounded in his ears; his friends conjured him to recede from his former answers; and the commissioners declared their conviction, that without full satisfaction, the two houses could not save him from the vengeance of his enemies.  To add to his alarm, Hammond, the governor of the island, had received a message from Fairfax to repair without delay to the head-quarters at Windsor.  This was followed by the arrival[c] of Colonel Eure, with orders to seize the king, and confine[d] him again in Carisbrook Castle, or, if he met with opposition, “to act as God should direct him.”  Hammond replied with firmness, that in military matters he would obey his general; but as to the royal person, he had received

[Footnote 1:  Whitelock, 343, 346, 355.  Rushworth, vii. 1298, 1311, 1331.]

[Footnote 2:  Journals of Commons, Nov. 20, 24, 30.  There were two divisions relating to this question; in the first the majority was 94 to 60, in the second 125 to 58.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1648.  Nov. 18.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1648.  Nov. 20.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1648.  Nov. 25.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1648.  Nov. 26.]

the charge from the parliament, and would not suffer the interference of any other authority.  Eure departed; but Charles could no longer conceal from himself the danger which stared him in the face; his constancy or obstinacy relented; and he agreed,[a] after a most painful struggle, and when the time was run to the last minute, to remit the compositions of his followers to the mercy of parliament; to consent to the trial of the seven individuals excepted from pardon, provided they were allowed the benefit of the ancient laws; and to suspend the functions and vest in the crown the lands of the bishops, till religion should be settled, and the support of its ministers determined by common consent of the king and the two houses.  By this last expedient it was hoped that both parties would be satisfied; the monarch, because the order was not abolished, nor its lands alienated for ever; the parliament, because neither one nor the other could be restored without its previous consent.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Clarendon Papers, 449-454.  Journals, x. 620-622.  The royalists excepted from mercy were the marquess of Newcastle, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Lord Digby, Sir Richard Grenville, Mr. Justice Jenkins, Sir Francis Dorrington, and Lord Byron.  It appears to me difficult to read the letters written by Charles during the treaty to his son the prince of Wales (Clarendon Papers, ii. 425-454), and yet believe that he acted with insincerity.  But how then, asks Mr. Laing (Hist. of Scotland, iii. 411), are we to account for his assertion to Ormond, that the treaty would come to nothing, and for his anxiety to escape manifested by his correspondence with Hopkins?—­Wagstaff’s Vindication of the Royal Martyr, 142-161. 1.  Charles knew that, besides the parliament, there was