Cassell's History of England, Vol. 3 (of 8): From the Great Rebellion to the Fall of Marlborough.Anonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 3 (of 8): From the Great Rebellion to the Fall of Marlborough.
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
When the Commissioners took their leave, Charles warned the lords of
the party that in his ruin they saw their own. Though he had given up
everything at the last moment, he could not flatter himself that this
would be accepted, because he knew that the army, which held the real
power, had protested against this treaty altogether, as a violation
of the vote of non-addresses, and had no faith in his observance of
any conditions whatever. With the Commissioners Hammond also departed,
and Charles was left in the hands of Major Rolfe, a man who had been
charged with a design to take away the king's life six months before.
But Charles was not intended to remain in this man's custody; a body
of troops under Lieutenant-colonel Cobbet was already on its way to
receive the charge. The friends of the king, on learning this, once
more implored him to endeavour to escape. The Duke of Richmond, the
Earl of Lindsay, and Colonel Coke, urged him to instant flight; they
acquainted him with the watchword, and Coke told him he had a boat and
horses ready. But all their persuasions were vain; Charles would not
move. He pleaded that he had given his parole to the Parliament for
twenty days after the treaty. And this was the same man who had been
writing North and South during the whole treaty, to assure his friends
that he meant to break his word on every point of the treaty, the first
moment that he was at liberty. The real reason, we may believe, why
Charles did not attempt to escape, was, that he had no hope of it.
In all his attempts he never had escaped, and must have had a full
conviction that he never could. At five in the morning Cobbet and
his troop arrived, and the king was informed that he must arise and
accompany it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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