rge numbers of prisoners
were executed in cold blood, and sanguinary persecutions took place.

In Parliament the disputes between the Independents and Presbyterians
grew more and more bitter, the latter being strengthened by the presence
of the Scotch army in England. They were greatly in the majority in
point of numbers; but the Independents made up for their numerical
weakness by the violence of their opinions, and by the support of the
army, which was entirely officered by men of extreme views.

The king, instead of frankly dealing with the Commons, now that his
hopes in the field were gone, unhappily continued his intrigues, hoping
that an open breach would take place between the parties. On the 5th of
December he wrote to the speaker of the House of Lords, offering to send
a deputation to Westminster with propositions for the foundation of a
happy and well-grounded peace. This offer was declined, and he again
wrote, offering himself to proceed to Westminster to great in person.
The leaders of Parliament, and indeed with reason, suspected the
sincerity of the king. Papers had been found in the carriage of the
Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, who was killed in a skirmish in October,
proving that the king had concluded an alliance with the Irish rebels,
and that he had agreed, if they would land ten thousand men in England,
that popery should be re-established in Ireland, and the Protestants
brought under subjection. Letters which have since been discovered prove
that in January, 1646, while urging upon the Parliament to come to
terms, he was writing to the queen, saying that he was only deceiving
them. In his letter he said:

"Now, as to points which I expected by my treaty at London. Knowing
assuredly the great animosity which is betwixt the Independents and
Presbyterians, I had great reason to hope that one of the factions would
so address themselves to me that I might, without great difficulty,
obtain my so just ends, and, questionless, it would have given me the
fittest opportunity. For considering the Scots' treaty that would be
besides, I might have found means to put distractions among them, though
I had found none."

Such being the spirit that animated the king, there is little reason for
surprise that the negotiations came to nothing. The last hope of the
crown was destroyed when, on the 22d of March, Lord Astley, marching
from Worcester to join the king at Oxford, was defeated at Stow, in the
Wold, and the