steadily refused to countenance them, and the position was no doubt a sound one. In Lancashire negotiations were opened through the medium of Roger Nowell of Read, a royalist captain, but a relative of Colonel Shuttleworth, and it was decided to attempt a meeting of a certain number from each party at Blackburn on Thursday, October 13. Shuttleworth wrote to Holland and Egerton in Manchester asking for their co-operation, and they replied on October 10 agreeing to the meeting, but suggesting Bolton as a better place since they were not willing to leave their own Hundred. Shuttleworth replied next day to Nowell naming Bolton as the place, and offering either the following Monday or Tuesday, October 17 or 18 for the date. Nowell fixed October 18 with William Farington, and it was arranged that six leaders from each side should meet. The Parliamentarians were Shuttleworth, Starkie, Egerton, Holland, John Bradshaw and John Braddyl; the royalists Farington, Alexander Rigby of Burgh, John Fleetwood, Savile Radcliffe, and it was hoped Sir Thomas Barton and Robert Holt of Castleton. But the intended meeting never took place. Parliament somehow had news of the arrangement, and promptly put their veto upon it. On October 15 Holland wrote from Manchester that Parliament had forbidden any local attempts at pacification; Shuttleworth forwarded the letter to the royalists, and the incident closed.[73] There seems to have been one further attempt to bring about a pacification in Lancashire, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that Manchester was included in negotiations which were proceeding in Cheshire at the initiative of Lord Kilmorey and Lord Brereton. It was proposed that the troops in and near Manchester should be disbanded and the town 'secured' by the Earl of Derby. But the Parliamentarians had nothing to gain by the terms suggested, and the former failure had made them more cautious. They replied that they had done nothing consciously to provoke Lord Derby's hostility; but that if satisfactory proposals for pacification were submitted they would send them up to Parliament immediately by a special messenger.[74] Meanwhile the royalists in the county were also arming, and in spite of peace proposals all preparations were being made for a protracted struggle. After retreating a little way from Manchester Lord Derby seems to have sent some regiments to the King and made his own headquarters at Warrington. But he was reported to be in a very despondent frame of mind, "for the last Thursday (November 24) at Warrington at dinner he said he was born under an unfortunate planet and that he thought some evil constellation reigned at the time of his birth, with many such other words of passion and discontent." There was even a report about this time that his life was in danger, which is the more credible as it comes from a royalist source. He summoned a meeting of his supporters on October 10 at