ed the countenance of the
royalists, he had employed these advantages to the enslaving of the
parliament; and afterwards thought of nothing but the establishment of
his own unlimited authority, with which he esteemed the restoration, and
even life, of the king altogether incompatible. This opinion, so much
warranted by the boundless ambition and profound dissimulation of his
character, meets with ready belief; though it is more agreeable to the
narrowness of human views, and the darkness of futurity, to suppose that
this daring usurper was guided by events, and did not as yet foresee,
with any assurance, that unparalleled greatness which he afterwards
attained. Many writers of that age have asserted,[**] [17]that he
really intended to make a private bargain with the king; a measure
which carried the most plausible appearance both for his safety and
advancement; but that he found insuperable difficulties in reconciling
to it the wild humors of the army.

* Rush. vol. viii. p. 810.

** See note Q, at the end of the volume.

The horror and antipathy of these fanatics had for many years been
artfully fomented against Charles; and though their principles were,
on all occasions, easily warped and eluded by private interest, yet
was some coloring requisite, and a flat contradiction to all former
professions and tenets could not safely be proposed to them. It is
certain, at least, that Cromwell made use of this reason why he admitted
rarely of visits from the king's friends, and showed less favor than
formerly to the royal cause. The agitators, he said, had rendered him
odious to the army, and had represented him as a traitor, who, for the
sake of private interest, was ready to betray the cause of God to the
great enemy of piety and religion. Desperate projects, too, he asserted
to be secretly formed for the murder of the king; and he pretended much
to dread lest all his authority, and that of the commanding officers,
would not be able to restrain these enthusiasts from their bloody
purposes.[*]

Intelligence being daily brought to the king of menaces thrown out by
the agitators, he began to think of retiring from Hampton Court, and of
putting himself in some place of safety. The guards were doubled upon
him; the promiscuous concourse of people restrained; a more jealous care
exerted in attending his person; all under color of protecting him
from danger, but really with a view of making him uneasy in his present