und ready
admission to his presence; and, what he prized above all other concessions,
he was furnished with the opportunity of corresponding freely and safely
with the queen at Paris.[1] At the same time the two houses, at the
requisition of the Scottish commissioners, submitted[b] "the propositions"
once more to the royal consideration; but Charles replied,[c] that the plan
suggested by the army was better calculated to form the basis of a lasting
peace, and professed his readiness to treat respecting that plan with
commissioners appointed by the parliament, and others by the army.[2] The
officers applauded this answer; Cromwell in the Commons spoke in its favour
with a vehemence which excited suspicion; and, though it was ultimately
voted[d] equivalent to a refusal, a grand committee was appointed[e] "to
take the whole matter respecting the king into consideration." It had been
calculated that this attempt to amalgamate the plan of the parliament with
that of the army might be accomplished in the space of

[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 381, Appendix, xli. Rushw. vii. 795.
Memoirs of Hamiltons, 316. Herbert, 48. Ashburn. ii. 93, 95.]

[Footnote 2: Of this answer, Charles himself says to the Scottish
commissioners. "Be not startled at my answer which I gave yesterday to the
two houses; for if you truly understand it, I have put you in a right way,
where before you were wrong."--Memoirs of Hamiltons, 323.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. August 24.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Sept. 8.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. Sept. 9.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1647. Sept. 21.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1647. Sept. 22.]

twenty days; but it occupied more than two months; for there was now a
third house to consult, the council of war, which debated every clause,
and notified its resolves to the Lords and Commons, under the modest, but
expressive, name of the desires of the army.[1]

While the king sought thus to flatter the officers, he was, according to
his custom, employed in treating with the opposite party.[2] The marquess
of Ormond, and the lord Capel,[3] with the Scottish commissioners, waited
on him from London; and a resolution was[a] formed that in the next spring,
the Scots should enter England with a numerous army, and call on the
Presbyterians for their aid; that Charles, if he were at liberty, otherwise
the prince of Wales, should sanction the enterprise by his presence; and
that Ormond should resume the government of Ireland, while Capel su