mitted to resume their seats.
These concessions, aided by the terror which the victory at Maidstone
inspired, and by the vigilance of Skippon, who intercepted all
communication between the royalists, and the party at Blackheath, defeated
the project of Goring. That commander, having received a refusal,
crossed[b] the river, with five thousand horse, was joined by Lord Capel
with the royalists from Hertfordshire, and by Sir Charles Lucas with a body
of horse from Chelmsford, and assuming the command of the whole, fixed his
head-quarters in Colchester. The town had no other fortification than a low
rampart of earth; but, relying on his own resources and the constancy of
his followers, he resolved to defend it against the enemy, that he might
detain Fairfax and his army in the south, and keep the north open to the
advance of the Scots. This plan succeeded; Colchester was assailed and
defended with equal resolution; nor was its fate decided till the failure
of the Scottish invasion had proved the utter hopelessness of the royal
cause.[1]

It soon appeared that the restoration of the impeached and excluded
members, combined with the departure of the officers to their commands in
the army, had imparted a new tone to the proceedings in

[Footnote 1: Journals, x. 276, 278, 279, 283, 289, 297, 301, 304. Commons,
May 24, 25, June 4, 8. Whitelock, 307, 308, 309, 310. Clarendon, iii. 133,
151, 154.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. June 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. June 4.]

parliament. Holles resumed not only his seat, but his preponderance in the
lower house. The measures which his party had formerly approved were again
adopted; and a vote was passed to open a new treaty with the king, on
condition that he should previously engage to give the royal assent to
three bills, revoking all declarations against the parliament, establishing
the Presbyterian discipline for the term of three, and vesting the command
of the army and navy in certain persons during that of ten years. But among
the lords a more liberal spirit prevailed. The imprisonment of the six
peers had taught them a salutary lesson. Aware that their own privileges
would infallibly fall with the throne, they rejected the three bills of
the Commons, voted a personal treaty without any previous conditions,
and received from the common council an assurance that, if the king were
suffered to come to London, the city would guarantee both the royal person
and the two houses from insu