ns replied, that
they could not, upon a general charge, proceed so far.[v] The army
observed to them, that the cases of Strafford and Laud were direct
precedents for that purpose.[v*] At last, the eleven members themselves,
not to give occasion for discord, begged leave to retire from the
house; and the army, for the present, seemed satisfied with this mark of
submission.[v**]

Pretending that the parliament intended to levy war upon them, and to
involve the nation again in blood and confusion, they required that
all new levies should be stopped. The parliament complied with this
demand.[v***]

* Rush. vol. vii. p. 509.

** Rush. vol. vii. p. 567, 633, vol. viii. p. 731.

*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 570.

**** Rush. vol. vii. p. 572.

v Rush. vol. vii. p. 592.

v* Rush. vol vii. p. 594. Whitlocke, p. 259.

v** Rush. vol. vii. p. 593, 594.

v*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 572, 574.

There being no signs of resistance, the army, in order to save
appearances, removed, at the desire of the parliament to a greater
distance from London, and fixed their head quarters at Reading. They
carried the king along with them in all their marches.

That prince now found himself in a better situation than at Holdenby,
and had attained some greater degree of freedom as well as of
consideration with both parties.

All his friends had access to his presence: his correspondence with the
queen was not interrupted: his chaplains were restored to him, and he
was allowed the use of the liturgy. His children were once allowed
to visit him, and they passed a few days at Caversham, where he then
resided.[*] He had not seen the duke of Gloucester, his youngest son,
and the princess Elizabeth, since he left London, at the commencement
of the civil disorders;[**] nor the duke of York, since he went to
the Scottish army before Newark. No private man, unacquainted with the
pleasures of a court and the tumult of a camp, more passionately
loved his family, than did this good prince; and such an instance of
indulgence in the army was extremely grateful to him. Cromwell, who was
witness to the meeting of the royal family, confessed that he never
had been present at so tender a scene; and he extremely applauded the
benignity which displayed itself in the whole disposition and behavior
of Charles.

That artful politician, as well as the leaders of all parties, paid
court to the king; and fortune, notwithstanding al