ffering pique at supposed
slights and unintentional negligence to stimulate his pride into that
rebellion which his principles condemned; and it was believed, even by
his own party, that nothing but a dread of having sinned beyond sincere
forgiveness, induced him to reject all overtures from the King. The
disorderly bands commanded by Sir William Waller were like their
general, distinguished only by greater insolence to their Prince, and
even by personal attempts on his life; but this army had been dispersed
early in the summer, and the leader had fallen into contempt. "The Earl
of Manchester was of their whole cabal the most unfit for the company he
kept, at first induced to join, what was then called, the patriotic
party by filial piety, and led step by step to countenance those
disorganizing counsels, which ravaged the country he loved with too
unskilful a tenderness:" yet, unwilling to oppress any, he used the
power his ill-acquired authority gave him, to preserve individuals from
the distress which his fatal victories occasioned. This moderation
ruined him in the eyes of his employers; and about this time there
appeared in his army that dark malignant spirit, whose subtile
machinations soon deprived him of all power of restraining the torrent,
which, when he helped to raise the flood-gates of contention, he hoped
he should always be able to direct and control. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the
Parliamentary general in the north, was, by nature, a lover of
moderation, and by education enlightened and liberal. He also strove, as
far as his influence extended, to lessen the miseries of civil war; but
that influence soon sunk under the daring preponderance of Cromwell,
whose ultimate designs he wanted penetration to discover, and whose dark
machinations he was always too late in his efforts to counteract.

Such was the state of the kingdom, when the Queen, terrified at the
apprehension of being besieged in Oxford, fled to the west of England,
and soon after to France, her native country, leaving an infant daughter
to increase the anxieties of her Royal husband, but relieving him from
the perplexities originating in the contentious faction, by whom she was
surrounded. Through the injunctions of the King, Eustace had been
prevented from accompanying his Royal mistress, and by enrolling his
name among the bands who garrisoned Oxford, he in some degree discharged
his sense of duty. Dr. Beaumont, besides, allowed him to take part in