o be altogether insensible
to the temptation, and wholly to suppress the laugh. Obliged to attend
from morning to night at prayers and sermons, they betrayed evident
symptoms of weariness or contempt. The clergy never could esteem
the king sufficiently regenerated; and by continual exhortations,
remonstrances, and reprimands, they still endeavored to bring him to a
juster sense of his spiritual duty.

The king's passion for the fair could not altogether be restrained. He
had once been observed using some familiarities with a young woman; and
a committee of ministers was appointed to reprove him for a behavior
so unbecoming a covenanted monarch. The spokesman of the committee,
one Douglas began with a severe aspect, informed the king, that great
scandal had been given to the godly, enlarged on the heinous nature of
sin, and concluded with exhorting his majesty, whenever he was disposed
to amuse himself, to be more careful for the future in shutting the
windows. This delicacy, so unusual to the place and to the character of
the man, was remarked by the king; and he never forgot the obligation.

The king, shocked at all the indignities, and perhaps still more tired
with all the formalities to which he was obliged to submit, made an
attempt to regain his liberty. General Middleton, at the head of some
royalists, being proscribed by the Covenanters, kept in the mountains,
expecting some opportunity of serving his master. The king resolved
to join this body. He secretly made his escape from Argyle, and fled
towards the Highlands. Colonel Montgomery, with a troop of horse, was
sent in pursuit of him. He overtook the king, and persuaded him to
return. The royalists being too weak to support him, Charles was the
more easily induced to comply. This incident procured him afterwards
better treatment and more authority; the Covenanters being afraid of
driving him, by their rigors, to some desperate resolution.
Argyle renewed his courtship to the king; and the king, with equal
dissimulation, pretended to repose great confidence in Argyle. He even
went so far as to drop hints of his intention to marry that nobleman's
daughter; but he had to do with a man too wise to be seduced by such
gross artifices.

As soon as the season would permit, the Scottish army was assembled
under Hamilton and Lesley; and the king was allowed to join the camp.
The forces of the western counties, notwithstanding the imminent danger
which threatened their