11. =The King's Flight to the Scots. 1646.=--In the beginning of =1646= the Civil War virtually came to an end. On March 14, Charles's army in the West surrendered to Fairfax in Cornwall, and in the same month the last force which held the field for him was overthrown at Stow-on-the-Wold. Many fortresses still held out, but, as there was no chance of relief, their capture was only a question of time; and though the last of them--Harlech Castle--did not surrender till =1647=, there was absolutely no doubt what the result would be. Charles, now again at Oxford, had but to choose to whom he would surrender. He chose to give himself up to the Scots, whose army was at the time besieging Newark. He seems to have calculated that they would replace him on the throne without insisting on very rigorous conditions, thinking that they would rather restore him to power than allow the English army, formidable as it was, to have undisputed authority in England, and possibly to crush the independence of Scotland. The Scots, on the other hand, seem to have thought that, when Charles was once in their power, he must, for his safety's sake, agree to establish Presbyterianism in England, by which means the party which would of necessity lean for support on themselves would have the mastery in England. On May 5, =1646=, Charles rode in to the quarters of the Scottish army at Southwell, a few miles from Newark. [Illustration: A citizen. A citizen's wife. Ordinary civil costume _temp._ Charles I.: from Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England', 1646.]