her case both had been deceived. _They_ might suppress their
feelings; but the agitators complained aloud, and a party of soldiers,
attributing the disappointment to the intrigues of Lord Lauderdale, burst
at night into the bedchamber of that nobleman, and ordered him to rise
and depart without delay. It was in vain, that he pleaded his duty as
commissioner from the estates of Scotland, or that he solicited the favour
of a short interview with the king: he was compelled to leave his bed and
hasten back to the capital.[1]

Before this, information of the proceedings in London had induced Fairfax
to collect his forces and march towards the city. On the way he was joined
by the speakers of both houses, eight lords and fifty-eight commoners, who
in a council held at Sion House solemnly bound themselves "to live and die
with the army." Here it was understood that many royalists

[Footnote 1: Compare the narratives of Berkeley, 364, Ashburnham, ii. 92,
Ludlow, i. 174, and Huntingdon (Journals, x. 410) with the proposals of the
army in Charles's Works, 578. The insult to Lauderdale is mentioned in the
Lords' Journals, ix. 367.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. July 30.]

had joined the Presbyterians, and that a declaration had been circulated
in the name of the king, condemning all attempts to make war on the
parliament. The officers, fearing the effect of this intelligence on
the minds of the military, already exasperated by the refusal of their
proposals, conjured Charles to write a conciliatory letter to the general,
in which he should disavow any design of assisting the enemy, should
thank the army for its attention to his comfort, and should commend the
moderation of their plan of settlement in many points, though he could not
consent to it in all. The ill-fated monarch hesitated; the grace of the
measure was lost by a delay of twenty-four hours; and though the letter was
at last[a] sent, it did not arrive before the city had[b] made an offer of
submission. In such circumstances it could serve no useful purpose. It
was interpreted as an artifice to cover the king's intrigues with the
Presbyterians, instead of a demonstration of his good will to the army.[1]

To return to the city, Holles and his colleagues had resumed the ascendancy
during the secession of the Independents. The eleven members returned to
the house; the command of the militia was restored to the former committee;
and a vote was passed that the king should be