re;
Fiennes became for the first time the royal apologist, and refuted the
charges brought by his fellow commissioner; and Prynne, the celebrated
adversary of Laud, seemed to forget his antipathy to the court, that he
might lash the presumption and perfidy of the army. The debate continued
by successive adjournments three days and a whole night; and on the
last division in the morning a resolution was carried by a majority of
thirty-six, that the offers of the sovereign furnished a sufficient ground
for the future settlement of the kingdom.[2][c]

[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vii. 1341, 1350. Whitelock, 358.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 1, 2, 3, 5. Clarendon Papers, ii. App, xlviii.
Cobbett, Parl. Hist. 1152. In some of the previous divisions, the house
consisted of two hundred and forty members; but several seem to have
retired during the night; at the conclusion there were only two hundred and
twelve.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Dec. 5]

But the victors were not suffered to enjoy their triumph. The next day
Skippon discharged the guards of the two houses, and their place was
supplied by a regiment of horse and another of foot from the[a] army.
Colonel Pride, while Fairfax, the commander-in-chief, was purposely
employed in a conference with some of the members, stationed himself in the
lobby: in his hand he held a list of names, while the Lord Grey stood
by his side to point out the persons of the members; and two-and-fifty
Presbyterians, the most distinguished of the party by their talents or
influence, were taken into custody and conducted to different places of
confinement. Many of those who passed the ordeal on this, met with a
similar treatment on the following day; numbers embraced the opportunity
to retire into the country; and the house was found, after repeated
purifications, to consist of about fifty individuals, who, in the quaint
language of the time, were afterwards dignified with the honourable
appellation of the "Rump."[1]

Whether it were through policy or accident, Cromwell was not present to
take any share in these extraordinary proceedings. After his victory at
Preston he had marched in pursuit of Monroe, and had besieged the important
town of Berwick. But his real views were not confined to England. The
defeat of the Scottish royalists had raised the hopes of their opponents
in their own country. In the western shires the curse of Meroz had been
denounced from

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