e foresaw must end in defeat; but his efforts were frustrated by the
inflexibility or violence of Holles, Stapleton, and Glyn, the leaders of
the ruling party, who, though they condescended to pass[a] the ordinance of
indemnity, and to issue[b] money for the payment of the arrears of eight
weeks, procured[c] instructions for the lord general to collect the several
regiments in their respective quarters, and to disband them without delay.
Instead of obeying, he called together the council of officers, who
resolved, in answer to a petition to them from the agitators, that the
votes of parliament were not satisfactory; that the arrears of payment for
eight weeks formed but a portion of their just claim, and that no security
had been given for the discharge of the remainder; that the bill of
indemnity was a delusion, as long as the vote declaring them enemies of
the state was unrepealed; and that, instead of suffering themselves to be
disbanded in their separate quarters, the whole army ought to be drawn
together, that they might consult in common for the security of their
persons and the reparation of their characters. Orders were despatched at
the same time to secure the park of artillery at Oxford, and to seize the
sum of four thousand pounds destined for the garrison in that city. These
measures opened the eyes of their adversaries. A proposal was made in
parliament to expunge the offensive declaration from the journals, a more
comprehensive bill of indemnity was introduced, and other

[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 164. Commons', Ap. 27, 30. Whitelock, 245, 246.
Rushworth, vi. 447, 451, 457, 469, 480, 485.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. May 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. May 25.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. May 29.]

votes were suggested calculated to remove the objections of the army, when
the alarm of the Presbyterian leaders was raised to the highest pitch by
the arrival of unexpected tidings from Holmby.[1]

Soon after the appointment of the agitators, an officer had delivered to
the king a petition from the army, that he would suffer himself to be
conducted to the quarters of their general, by whom he should be restored
to his honour, crown, and dignity.[a] Charles replied, that he hoped one
day to reward them for the loyalty of their intention, but that he could
not give his consent to a measure which, must, in all probability, replunge
the nation into the horrors of a civil war. He believed that this answer
had induced the