efeated
the earl of Holland at Kingston, and pursuing his victory, took him
prisoner at St. Neots. Fairfax, having routed the Kentish royalists at
Maidstone, followed the broken army; and when they joined the royalists
of Essex, and threw themselves into Colchester, he laid siege to that
place, which defended itself to the last extremity. A new fleet was
manned, and sent out under the command of War wick, to oppose the
revolted ships, of which the prince had taken the command.

While the forces were employed in all quarters, the parliament regained
its liberty, and began to act with its wonted courage and spirit.
The members who had withdrawn from terror of the army, returned; and
infusing boldness into their companions, restored to the Presbyterian
party the ascendant which it had formerly lost. The eleven impeached
members were recalled, and the vote by which they were expelled
was reversed. The vote, too, of non-addresses was repealed; and
commissioners, five peers and ten commoners, were sent to Newport in
the Isle of Wight, in order to treat with the king.[*] He was allowed
to summon several of his friends and old counsellors, that he might have
their advice in this important transaction.[**] The theologians on
both sides, armed with their syllogisms and quotations, attended as
auxiliaries.[***] By them the flame had first been raised; and their
appearance was but a bad prognostic of its extinction. Any other
instruments seemed better adapted for a treaty of pacification.

When the king presented himself to this company, a great and sensible
alteration was remarked in his aspect, from what it appeared the year
before, when he resided at Hampton Court. The moment his servants had
been removed, he had laid aside all care of his person, and had allowed
his beard and hair to grow, and to hang dishevelled and neglected. His
hair was become almost entirely gray, either from the decline of years,
or from that load of sorrows under which he labored; and which, though
borne with constancy, preyed inwardly on his sensible and tender mind.
His friends beheld with compassion, and perhaps even his enemies, "that
gray and discrowned head," as he himself terms it, in a copy of
verses, which the truth of the sentiment, rather than any elegance of
expression, renders very pathetic.[****] Having in vain endeavored by
courage to defend his throne from his armed adversaries, it now behoved
him, by reasoning and persuasion, to save so