h the public good of his people after he
could no longer uphold his violent will." But Charles was equally dead
to the moderation and to the wisdom of this great Act of Settlement. He
saw in the crisis nothing but an opportunity of balancing one party
against another; and believed that the Army had more need of his aid
than he of the Army's. "You cannot do without me--you are lost if I do
not support you," he said to Ireton as he pressed his proposals. "You
have an intention to be the arbitrator between us and the Parliament,"
Ireton quietly replied, "and we mean to be so between the Parliament and
your Majesty."

[Sidenote: Flight of the king.]

But the king's tone was soon explained. If London had been
panic-stricken at the approach of the army, its panic soon disappeared.
The great city was goaded to action by the humiliation of the
Parliament, and still more by the triumph of religious liberty which
seemed to be approaching through the negotiations of the Army with the
king. A mob of Londoners broke into the House of Commons and forced its
members to recall the eleven. The bulk of Vane's party, some fourteen
peers and a hundred commoners, fled to the army; while those who
remained at Westminster prepared for an open struggle with it and
invited Charles to return to London. But the news no sooner reached the
camp than the army was again on the march. "In two days," Cromwell said
coolly, "the city will be in our hands." On the sixth of August the
soldiers entered London in triumph and restored the fugitive members;
the eleven were once more expelled; and the army leaders resumed their
negotiations with the king. The indignation of the soldiers at his
delays and intrigues made their task hourly more difficult: but
Cromwell, who now threw his whole weight on Ireton's side, clung to the
hope of accommodation with a passionate tenacity. His mind, conservative
by tradition, and above all practical in temper, saw the political
difficulties which would follow on the abolition of Monarchy, and in
spite of the king's evasions he persisted in negotiating with him. But
Cromwell stood almost alone. The Parliament refused to accept Ireton's
proposals as a basis of peace; Charles still evaded; and the army grew
restless and suspicious. There were cries for a wide reform, for the
abolition of the House of Peers, for a new House of Commons; and the
Agitators called on the Council of Officers to discuss the question of
abolishing Ro