nd my religion, of which I
hope you will have a care of both. But in my opinion, religion should
be the last thing upon which you should treat; for if you do agree upon
strictness against the Catholics, it would discourage them to serve you;
and if afterwards there should be no peace, you could never expect succours
either from Ireland, or any other Catholic prince, for they would believe
you would abandon them after you have served yourself" (p. 142, 143).]

into honourable exile, by appointing them[a] to give their attendance on
his queen during her residence in France.[1]

In the last summer the first use which he had made of each successive
advantage, was to renew[b] the offer of opening a negotiation for peace. It
convinced the army of the pacific disposition of their sovereign, and it
threw on the parliament, even among their own adherents, the blame of
continuing the war. At length,[c] after the third message, the houses gave
a tardy and reluctant consent; but it was not before they had received from
Scotland the propositions formerly voted as the only basis of a lasting
reconciliation, had approved of the amendments suggested by their allies,
and had filled up the blanks with the specification of the acts of
parliament to be passed, and with the names of the royalists to be excepted
from the amnesty. It was plain to every intelligent man in either army that
to lay such a foundation of peace was in reality to proclaim perpetual
hostilities.[2] But the king, by the advice of his council, consented to
make it the subject of a treaty, for two ends; to discover whether it was
the resolution of the houses to adhere without any modification to these
high pretensions; and to make the experiment, whether it were not possible
to gain one of the two factions, the Presbyterians or the Independents, or
at least to widen

[Footnote 1: See the letters in Charles's Works, 142-148. "I may fairly
expect to be chidden by thee for having suffered thee to be vexed by them
(Wilmot being already there, Percy on his way, and Sussex within a few
days of taking his journey), but that I know thou carest not for a little
trouble to free me from great inconvenience."--Ibid. 150.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, vii. 53. The very authors of the propositions did
not expect that the king would ever submit to them.--Baillie, ii. 8, 43,
73.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. July 4.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Sept. 5.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Nov. 23.] the br