t to the Lords,
with a suggestion that they should be communicated to the citizens in
a common hall. But the Lords required to see the remainder; twenty-two
additional papers were accordingly produced; but it was at the same time
acknowledged that others were still kept back, because they had not yet
been deciphered. By an order of the Commons the papers were afterwards
printed with a preface contrasting certain passages in them with the king's
former protestations.--Journals, June 23, 26, 30, July 3, 7; Lords', vii.
467, 469. Charles himself acknowledges that the publication, as far as it
went, was genuine (Evelyn's Memoirs, App. 101); but he also maintains that
other papers, which would have served to explain doubtful passages, had
been purposely suppressed.--Clarendon Papers, ii. 187. See Baillie, ii.
136.]

After this disastrous battle, the campaign presented little more than the
last and feeble struggles of an expiring party. Among the royalists hardly
a man could be found who did not pronounce the cause to be desperate; and,
if any made a show of resistance, it was more through the hope of procuring
conditions for themselves, than of benefiting the interests of their
sovereign. Charles himself bore his misfortunes with an air of magnanimity,
which was characterized as obstinacy by the desponding minds of his
followers. As a statesman he acknowledged the hopelessness of his cause; as
a Christian he professed to believe that God would never allow rebellion
to prosper; but, let whatever happen, he at least would act as honour and
conscience called on him to act; his name should not descend to posterity
as the name of a king who had abandoned the cause of God, injured the
rights of his successors, and sacrificed the interests of his faithful
and devoted adherents. From Leicester he retreated[a] to Hereford; from
Hereford to Ragland Castle, the seat of the loyal marquess of Worcester;
and thence to Cardiff, that he might more readily communicate with Prince
Rupert at Bristol. Each day brought him a repetition of the most melancholy
intelligence. Leicester had surrendered almost at the[b] first summons; the
forces under Goring, the only body of royalists deserving the name of an
army, were defeated by Fairfax at Lamport; Bridgewater, hitherto[c] deemed
an impregnable fortress, capitulated after a[d]

[Transcriber's Note: No footnote 1 in the text]

[Footnote 1: Rushworth vi. 132. Clarendon, ii. 630.]

[Sidenote a: