Upon the same day a party of soldiers went down to Holmby, and forcibly carried off King Charles from the Parliamentary commissioners, the troops stationed at Holmby fraternizing with their comrades.  The king, under the charge of these new guards, arrived at Royston on the 7th of June, and Fairfax and Cromwell met him there.  He asked if they had commissioned Joyce, who was at the head of the party of men who had carried him off, to remove him.  They denied that they had done so.

“I shall not believe you,” said the king, “unless you hang him.”

And his majesty had good ground for his disbelief.

Cromwell returned to London and took his place in the House, and there blamed the soldiers, protesting that he would stick to the Parliament; but the same night he went away again down to the army, and there declared to them the actions and designs of Parliament.  Commissioners came down on the 10th from the Commons; but the army formed up, and when the votes were read, refused to obey them.  The same afternoon a letter, signed by Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, and ten other officers, was sent to the city, stating that they were about to advance upon London, and declaring that if the city did not take part against them “in their just desires to resist that wicked party which would embroil us and the kingdom, neither we nor our soldiers shall give you the least offense.”  The army marched to St. Albans, and thence demanded the impeachment of eleven members of the Commons, all leading Presbyterians.  The city and Parliament were in a state of consternation.  The army advanced to Uxbridge.  It demanded a month’s pay, and received it; but it continued to advance.  On the 26th of April Parliament gave way.  The eleven members retired from the House, the Commons passed a vote approving of the proceedings of the army, and commissioners were appointed.

All this time the king was treated as honorably as he had been when at Holmby House.  He was always lodged at great houses in the neighborhood of the army—­at the Earl of Salisbury’s, at Hatfield, when the troops were at St. Albans, and at the Earl of Craven’s, at Caversham, when the army moved further back.  And at both of these places he was allowed to receive the visits of his friends, and to spend his time as he desired.

More critical times were now, however, at hand.

CHAPTER XIV.

Last attempt to rescue the king.

The king, after London had been overawed by the army, was lodged in Hampton Court.  At this time the feeling throughout England was growing stronger and stronger in favor of the re-establishment of the monarchy, It was now a year since, with the fall of Oxford, the civil war had virtually concluded, and people yearned for a settled government and a return to ancient usages and manners.  The great majority of that very Parliament which had withstood and conquered Charles