ver the
secret to the soldiers, it would be necessary instantly to refute it,
and to hang the lawyer himself by sentence of a court martial.[****]

* Nalson, vol. ii. p. 5.

** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 159.

*** Rush. vol. iii. 1190, 1191, 1192, etc. May, p. 64.

**** Rush. vol. iii. p 1199.

An army new levied, undisciplined, frightened, seditious, ill paid,
and governed by no proper authority, was very unfit for withstanding
a victorious and high-spirited enemy, and retaining in subjection a
discontented and zealous nation.

Charles, in despair of being able to stem the torrent, at last
determined to yield to it: and as he foresaw that the great council of
the peers would advise him to call a parliament, he told them, in his
first speech, that he had already taken this resolution. He informed
them likewise, that the queen, in a letter which she had written to him,
had very earnestly recommended that measure. This good prince, who was
extremely attached to his consort, and who passionately wished to render
her popular in the nation, forgot not, amidst all his distress, the
interests of his domestic tenderness.[*]

In order to subsist both armies, (for the king was obliged, in order to
save the northern counties, to pay his enemies,) Charles wrote to the
city, desiring a loan of two hundred thousand pounds. And the peers at
York, whose authority was now much greater than that of their sovereign,
joined in the same request:[**] so low was this prince already fallen in
the eyes of his own subjects.

As many difficulties occurred in the negotiation with the Scots, it
was proposed to transfer the treaty from Rippon to London; a proposal
willingly embraced by that nation, who were now sure of treating with
advantage in a place where the king, they foresaw, would be in a manner
a prisoner, in the midst of his implacable enemies, and their determined
friends.[***]

* Clarendon, vol. 1. p. 154. Bush. vol. iii. p. 1275.

** Rush. vol. iii. p 1279.

*** Rush, vol. iii. p 1805.

CHAPTER LIV.

CHARLES I

{1640.} The causes of disgust which for above thirty years had daily
been multiplying in England, were now come to full maturity, and
threatened the kingdom with some great revolution or convulsion. The
uncertain and undefined limits of prerogative and privilege had been
eagerly disputed during that whole period; and in every controversy
between prince and people, the