d, he ruined himself.

2. The wisdom of his nobility.

Thus when the counsel of his priests prevailed, all was fire and
fury; the Scots were rebels, and must be subdued, and the Parliament's
demands were to be rejected as exorbitant. But whenever the king's
judgment was led by the grave and steady advice of his nobility and
counsellors, he was always inclined by them to temperate his measures
between the two extremes. And had he gone on in such a temper, he had
never met with the misfortunes which afterward attended him, or had
so many thousands of his friends lost their lives and fortunes in his
service.

I am sure we that knew what it was to fight for him, and that loved
him better than any of the clergy could pretend to, have had many
a consultation how to bring over our master from so espousing their
interest, as to ruin himself for it; but 'twas in vain.

I took this interval when I sat still and only looked on, to make
these remarks, because I remember the best friends the king had were
at this time of that opinion, that 'twas an unaccountable piece
of indiscretion, to commence a quarrel with the Scots, a poor and
obstinate people, for a ceremony and book of Church discipline, at a
time when the king stood but upon indifferent terms with his people at
home.

The consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his subjects to
rebel against him; it embroiled him with his Parliament in England, to
whom he was fain to stoop in a fatal and unusual manner to get money,
all his own being spent, and so to buy off the Scots whom he could not
beat off.

I cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics of his
ministers. If they overruled this unhappy king to it, with design to
exhaust and impoverish him, they were the worst of traitors; if not,
the grossest of fools. They prompted the king to equip a fleet against
the Scots, and to put on board it 5000 land men. Had this been all,
the design had been good, that while the king had faced the army upon
the borders, these 5000, landing in the Firth of Edinburgh, might
have put that whole nation into disorder. But in order to this, they
advised the king to lay out his money in fitting out the biggest ships
he had, and the "Royal Sovereign," the biggest ship the world had ever
seen, which cost him no less than L100,000, was now built, and fitted
out for this voyage.

This was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that could be
given, and made us all belie