ut the
political views which actuated the leaders of the party.[1]

In the army, flushed as it was with victory, and longing for revenge,
maxims began to prevail of the most dangerous tendency in respect of the
royal captive. The politicians maintained that no treaty could be safely
made with the king, because if he were under restraint, he could not be
bound by his consent; if he were restored to liberty, he could not be
expected to make any concessions. The fanatics went still further. They had
read in the book of Numbers that "blood defileth the land, and the land
cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of
him that shed it;" and hence they inferred that it was a duty, imposed
on them by the God who had given them the victory, to call the king to a
strict account for all the blood which had been shed during the civil
war. Among these, one of the most eminent was Colonel Ludlow, a member of
parliament, who, having persuaded himself that the anger of God could be
appeased only by the death of Charles, laboured, though in vain, to make
Fairfax a convert to his opinion. He proved more successful with Ireton,
whose regiment petitioned[a] the commander-in-chief,

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 335.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 18.]

that crime might be impartially punished without any distinction of high or
low, rich or poor; that all who had contrived or abetted the late war might
receive their just deserts; and that whosoever should speak or act in
favour of Charles, before that prince had been acquitted of shedding
innocent blood, should incur the penalties of treason. The immediate object
of this paper was to try the general disposition of the army. Though it did
not openly express, it evidently contemplated the future trial of the
king, and was followed by another petition[a] from the regiment of Colonel
Ingoldsby, which, in plainer and bolder terms, demanded that the monarch
and his adherents should be brought to justice; condemned the treaty
between him and the parliament as dangerous and unjust; and required the
appointment of a council of war to discover an adequate remedy for the
national evils. Fairfax had not the courage to oppose what, in his own
judgment, he disapproved; the petitions were laid before an assembly of
officers; and the result of their deliberation was a remonstrance[b] of
enormous length, which, in a tone of menace and asperity, proclaimed the
whole plan of the refor