offered him horses and a
boat. But the king objected, that he was bound in honour to remain twenty
days after the treaty, nor would he admit of the distinction which
they suggested, that his parole was given not to the army, but to the
parliament. It was in vain that they argued and entreated: Charles, with
his characteristic obstinacy,[a] retired to rest about midnight; and in a
short time Lieutenant-Colonel Cobbett arrived with a troop of horse and a
company of foot. Boreman refused to admit him into Carisbrook. But Rolfe
offered him aid at Newport; at five the king was awakened by a message that
he must prepare to depart; and about noon he was safely lodged in Hurst
Castle, situate on a solitary rock, and connected by a narrow causeway, two
miles in length, with the opposite coast of Hampshire.[1]

The same day the council of officers published a menacing declaration
against the House of Commons. It charged the majority with apostasy
from their former principles, and appealed from their authority to "the
extraordinary judgment of God and of all good people;" called on the
faithful members to protest against the past conduct of their colleagues,
and to place themselves under the protection of the army; and asserted that
since God had given to the officers the power, he had also made it their
duty, to

[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vii. 1344-1348, 1351. Herbert, 113, 124.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 30.]

provide for the settlement of the kingdom and the punishment of the
guilty.[a] In the pursuit of these objects, Fairfax marched several
regiments to London, and quartered them at Whitehall, York House, the Mews,
and in the skirts of the city.[1]

The reader will recollect the pusillanimous conduct of the Presbyterian
members on the approach of the army in the year 1646.[b] On the present
occasion they resolved to redeem their character. They betrayed no symptom
of fear, no disposition to retire, or to submit. Amidst the din of arms and
the menaces of the soldiers, they daily attended their duty in parliament,
declared that the seizure of the royal person had been, made without
their knowledge or consent, and proceeded to consider the tendency of the
concessions made by Charles in the treaty of Newport. This produced
the longest and most animated debate hitherto known in the history of
parliament. Vane drew a most unfavourable portrait of the king, and
represented all his promises and professions as hollow and insince