lf of a necessity which was now at last
become real, urgent, and inevitable.

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 155.

** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1263.

*** Clarendon, vol. i. p, 146. Rush. vol. iii. p. 1260. May,
p. 66. Warwick, p. 151.

By Northumberland's sickness, the command of the army had devolved on
Strafford. This nobleman possessed more vigor of mind than the king or
any of the council. He advised Charles rather to put all to hazard, than
submit to unworthy terms as were likely to be imposed upon him.

The loss sustained at Newburn, he said, was inconsiderable and though a
panic had for the time seized the army, that event was nothing strange
among new levied troops and the Scots, being in the same condition,
would no doubt be liable in their turn to a like accident. His opinion
therefore was, that the king should push forward and attack the Scots,
and bring the affair to a quick decision; and, if he were ever so
unsuccessful, nothing worse could befall him than what from his
inactivity he would certainly be exposed to.[*] To show how easy it
would be to execute this project, he ordered an assault to be made on
some quarters of the Scots, and he gained an advantage over them. No
cessation of arms had as yet been agreed to during the treaty at Rippon;
yet great clamor prevailed on account of this act of hostility. And when
it was known that the officer who conducted the attack was a Papist, a
violent outcry was raised against the king for employing that hated sect
in the murder of his Protestant subjects.[**]

It may be worthy of remark, that several mutinies had arisen among the
English troops when marching to join the army; and some officers had
been murdered merely on suspicion of their being Papists.[***] The
petition of right had abolished all martial law; and by an inconvenience
which naturally attended the plan, as yet new and unformed, of regular
and rigid liberty, it was found absolutely impossible for the generals
to govern the army by all the authority which the king could legally
confer upon them. The lawyers had declared, that martial law could not
be exercised, except in the very presence of an enemy; and because it
had been found necessary to execute a mutineer, the generals thought it
advisable, for their own safety, to apply for a pardon from the crown.
This weakness, however, was carefully concealed from the army, and Lord
Conway said, that if any lawyer were so imprudent as to disco