prudence trust
them with a long session, till he had seen some better proofs of their
good intentions: the urgency of the occasion, and the little time
allowed for debate, were reasons which he reserved against the
malecontents in the house; and an incident had happened, which, he
believed, had now furnished him with still more cogent arguments.

The earl of Traquaire had intercepted a letter written to the king of
France by the Scottish malecontents, and had conveyed this letter to
the king. Charles, partly repenting of the large concessions made to the
Scots, partly disgusted at their fresh insolence and pretensions, seized
this opportunity of breaking with them. He had thrown into the Tower
Lord Loudon, commissioner from the Covenanters, one of the persons who
had signed the treasonable letter.[*] And he now laid the matter before
the parliament, whom he hoped to inflame by the resentment, and alarm by
the danger, of this application to a foreign power.

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 129. Rush. vol. iii. p 956. May, p.
56.

By the mouth of the lord keeper Finch, he discovered his wants, and
informed them, that he had been able to assemble his army, and to
subsist them, not by any revenue which he possessed, but by means of
a large debt of above three hundred thousand pounds, which he had
contracted, and for which he had given security upon the crown lands. He
represented, that it was necessary to grant supplies for the immediate
and urgent demands of his military armaments: that the season was
far advanced, the time precious, and none of it must be lost in
deliberation; that though his coffers were empty, they had not been
exhausted by unnecessary pomp, or sumptuous buildings, or any other kind
of magnificence: that whatever supplies had been levied on his subjects,
had been employed for their advantage and preservation; and, like vapors
rising out of the earth, and gathered into a cloud, had fallen in sweet
and refreshing showers on the same fields from which they had at first
been exhaled: that though he desired such immediate assistance as might
prevent for the time a total disorder in the government he was far from
any intention of precluding them from their right to inquire into the
state of the kingdom, and to offer his petitions for the redress of
their grievances: that as much as was possible of this season should
afterwards be allowed them for that purpose: that as he expected only
such supply at pre