s necessary for their
own safety; and that, if disorders had occasionally been committed by the
soldiers, the blame ought to attach to the negligence or parsimony of those
who had failed in supplying the subsidies to which they were bound by
treaty. The English commissioners remonstrated with the parliament of
Scotland, the Scottish with that of England; the charges were reciprocally
made and repelled in tones of asperity and defiance; and the occurrences
of each day seemed to announce a speedy rupture between the two nations.
Hitherto their ancient animosities had been lulled asleep by the conviction
of their mutual dependence: the removal of the common danger called them
again into activity.[1]

To a mind like that of Charles, eager to multiply experiments, and prone to
believe improbabilities, the hostile position of these parties opened a new
field for intrigue. He persuaded himself that by gaining either, he should
be enabled to destroy both.[2] He therefore tempted the Independents with
promises of ample

[Footnote 1: Journals, vii. 573, 619, 640-643, 653, 668, 689, 697, 703,
viii. 27, 97. Baillie, ii. 161, 162, 166, 171, 185, 188.]

[Footnote 2: "I am not without hope that I shall be able to draw either the
Presbyterians or Independents to side with me for extirpating the one the
other, that I shall be really king again."--Carte's Ormond, iii. 452.]

rewards and unlimited toleration; and at the same time sought to win the
Scots by professions of his willingness to accede to any terms compatible
with his honour and conscience. Their commissioners in London had already
made overtures for an accommodation to Queen Henrietta in Paris; and the
French monarch, at her suggestion, had intrusted[a] Montreuil with the
delicate office of negotiating secretly between them and their sovereign.
From Montreuil Charles understood that the Scots would afford him an asylum
in their army, and declare in his favour, if he would assent to the three
demands made of him during the treaty at Uxbridge; a proposal which both
Henrietta and the queen regent of France thought so moderate in existing
circumstances, that he would accept it with eagerness and gratitude.
But the king, in his own judgment, gave the preference to a project
of accommodation with the Independents, because they asked only for
toleration, while the Scots sought to force their own creed on the
consciences of others; nor did he seem to comprehend the important fact,