ude, and, while it might be
chivalrous, it could scarcely be expedient to retain his person. While
he was unwilling to accede to their conditions they were powerless to
give him any help. He was therefore handed over to the commissioners of
the English Parliament, and the Scots, on the 30th January, 1647,
returned home, having been paid, as the price of the king's surrender,
the money promised them by the English Parliament when they entered into
the struggle in 1644.

In the end of 1647 the Scots again entered into the long series of
negotiations with the king. When Charles was a prisoner at Newport, and
while he was arranging terms with the English, he entered into a secret
agreement with commissioners from Scotland. The "Engagement", as it was
called, embodied the conditions which Charles had refused at
Newcastle--the recognition of Presbytery in Scotland and its
establishment in England for three years, the king being allowed
toleration for his own form of worship. The Engagement was by no means
unanimously carried in the Scottish Parliament, and its results were
disastrous to Charles himself. It caused the English Parliament to pass
the vote of No Addresses, and the second civil war, which it helped to
provoke, had a share in bringing about his death. The Duke of Hamilton
led a small army into England, where in August 17th, 1648, it was
totally defeated by Cromwell at Preston. Meanwhile the Hamilton party
had lost power in Scotland, and when Cromwell entered Scotland, Argyll,
who had opposed the Engagement, willingly agreed to his conditions, and
accepted the aid of three English regiments. In the events of the next
six months Scotland had no part nor lot. The responsibility for the
king's death rests on the English Government alone.

The news of the execution of the king was at once followed by the fall
of Argyll and his party. The Scots had no sympathy with English
republicanism, and they were alarmed by the growth of Independency in
England. On February 5th Charles II was proclaimed King of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, and the Scots declared themselves ready to
defend his cause by blood, if only he would take the Covenant. This the
young king refused to do while he had hopes of success in Ireland.
Meanwhile three of his most loyal friends perished on the scaffold. The
English, who held the Duke of Hamilton as a prisoner, put him to death
on March 9th, 1649, and on the 22nd day of the same month the Marqu