lowed by the peers to take his seat; but was
ordered to deliver his message to the usher, and immediately to depart
the city: the commons showed little better disposition towards Colepeper
and Uvedale.[*] Both houses replied, that they could admit of no
treaty with the king till he took down his standard, and recalled
his proclamations, in which the parliament supposed themselves to
be declared traitors. The king, by a second message, denied any
such intention against the two houses; but offered to recall these
proclamations, provided the parliament agreed to recall theirs, in which
his adherents were declared traitors. They desired him, in return,
to dismiss his forces, to reside with his parliament, and to give up
delinquents to their justice; that is abandon himself and his friends to
the mercy of his enemies.[**] Both parties flattered themselves that,
by these messages and replies, they had gained the ends which they
proposed.[***] The king believed that the people were made sufficiently
sensible of the parliament's insolence and aversion to peace: the
parliament intended, by this vigor in their resolutions, to support the
vigor of their military operations.

The courage of the parliament was increased, besides their great
superiority of force, by two recent events which had happened in their
favor. Goring was governor of Portsmouth, the best fortified town in the
kingdom, and by its situation of great importance. This man seemed to
have rendered himself an implacable enemy to the king, by betraying,
probably magnifying, the secret cabals of the army; and the parliament
thought that his fidelity to them might on that account be entirely
depended on. But the same levity of mind still attended him, and the
same disregard to engagements and professions. He took underhand his
measures with the court, and declared against the parliament. But though
he had been sufficiently supplied with money, and long before knew his
danger, so small was his foresight, that he had left the place entirely
destitute of provisions, and in a few days he was obliged to surrender
to the parliamentary forces.[****]

* Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 10.

** Rush. vol. v. p. 786. Dugdale, p. 102.

*** Whitlocke, p. 59.

**** Rush, vol. v. p. 683. Whitlocke, p. 60. Clarendon, vol.
iii. p. 19.

The marquis of Hertford was a nobleman of the greatest quality and
character in the kingdom, and, equally with the king, descende