upulous delicacy. The generals, under the
name of Fairfax, (for he still allowed them to employ his name,) marched
the army to London, and placing guards in Whitehall, the Mews, St.
James's, Durham House, Covent Garden, and Palace Yard, surrounded the
parliament with their hostile armaments.

The parliament, destitute of all hopes of prevailing, retained, however,
courage to resist. They attempted, in the face of the army, to close
their treaty with the king; and, though they had formerly voted
his concessions with regard to the church and delinquents to be
unsatisfactory, they now took into consideration the final resolution
with regard to the whole.

After a violent debate of three days, it was carried, by a majority
of one hundred and twenty-nine against eighty-three, in the house of
commons, that the king's concessions were a foundation for the houses to
proceed upon in the settlement of the kingdom.

Next day, when the commons were to meet, Colonel Pride formerly a
drayman, had environed the house with two regiments; and, directed by
Lord Grey of Groby, he seized in the passage forty-one members of the
Presbyterian party, and sent them to a low room, which passed by the
appellation of "hell;" whence they were afterwards carried to several
inns. Above one hundred and sixty members more were excluded, and none
were allowed to enter but the most furious and the most determined of
the Independents; and these exceeded not the number of fifty or sixty.
This invasion of the parliament commonly passed under the name of
"Colonel Pride's Purge;" so much disposed was the nation to make merry
with the dethroning of those members who had violently arrogated the
whole authority of government, and deprived the king of his legal
prerogatives.

The subsequent proceedings of the parliament, if this diminutive
assembly deserve that honorable name, retain not the least appearance
of law, equity, or freedom. They instantly reversed the former vote, and
declared the king's concessions unsatisfactory. They determined that no
member absent at this last vote should be received till he subscribed
it, as agree able to his judgment. They renewed their former vote of
non-addresses. And they committed to prison Sir William Waller, Sir John
Clotworthy, the generals Massey, Brown, Copley, and other leaders of the
Presbyterians. These men, by their credit and authority, which was
then very high, had, at the commencement of the war, supported t