g a tone of conscious superiority, replied that they could
receive no message from a prince who had raised his standard against his
parliament, and had pronounced their general a traitor.[b] Charles (and his
condescension may be taken as a[c]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. August 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. August 27.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Sept. 4]

proof of his wish to avoid hostilities) offered to withdraw his
proclamation, provided they on their part would rescind their votes against
his adherents.[a] They refused: it was their right and their duty to
denounce, and bring to justice, the enemies of the nation.[b] He conjured
them to think of the blood that would be shed, and to remember that it
would lie at their door; they retorted the charge; he was the aggressor,
and his would be the guilt.[c] With this answer vanished every prospect
of peace; both parties appealed to the sword; and within a few weeks the
flames of civil war were lighted up in every part of the kingdom.[1]

Three-fourths of the nobility and superior gentry, led by feelings of
honour and gratitude, or by their attachment to the church, or by a
well-grounded suspicion of the designs of the leading patriots, had ranged
themselves under the royal banner. Charles felt assured of victory, when he
contemplated the birth, and wealth, and influence of those by whom he was
surrounded; but he might have discovered much to dissipate the illusion,
had he considered their habits, or been acquainted with their real, but
unavowed sentiments. They were for the most part men of pleasure, fitter to
grace a court than to endure the rigour of military discipline, devoid of
mental energy, and likely, by their indolence and debauchery, to offer
advantages to a prompt and vigilant enemy. Ambition would induce them to
aspire to office, and commands and honours, to form cabals against their
competitors, and to distract the attention of the monarch by their
importunity or their complaints. They contained among them many who
secretly disapproved of the war,

[Footnote 1: Journals, v. 327, 328, 338, 341, 358. Clarendon, ii, 8, 16.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Sept. 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Sept. 11.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Sept. 16.]

conceiving that it was undertaken for the sake of episcopacy,--an
institution in the fate of which they felt no interest, and others who
had already in affection enrolled themselves among the followers of the
parliament, though shame deterr