easure was very grateful to the king; and he began to entertain
hopes of protection from the Scots. He was particularly attentive to the
behavior of their preachers, on whom all depended. It was the mode of
that age to make the pulpit the scene of news; and on every great event,
the whole Scripture was ransacked by the clergy for passages applicable
to the present occasion. The first minister who preached before the king
chose these words for his text: "And behold all the men of Israel came
to the king, and said unto him, Why have our brethren, the men of Judah,
stolen thee away, and have brought the king and his household, and all
David's men with him, over Jordan? And all the men of Judah answered the
men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us; wherefore then be
ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all of the king's cost? or
hath he given us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of
Judah and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more
right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice
should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the
men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel."[*] But
the king soon found, that the happiness chiefly of the allusion had
tempted the preacher to employ this text, and that the covenanting
zealots were nowise pacified towards him. Another preacher, after
reproaching him to his face with his misgovernment, ordered this psalm
to be sung:--

"Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, Thy wicked deeds to praise?"

The king stood up, and called for that psalm which begins with these
words,

"Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray; For men would me devour."

The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once
greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm
which the former had called for.[**]

Charles had very little reason to be pleased with his situation. He not
only found himself a prisoner, very strictly guarded: all his friends
were kept at a distance; and no intercourse, either by letters or
conversation, was allowed him with any one on whom he could depend, or
who was suspected of any attachment towards him. The Scottish generals
would enter into no confidence with him; and still treated him with
distant ceremony and feigned respect. And every proposal which they made
him tended further to his abasement and to his ruin.[***]

* 2 Sam. chap. xix. ver.