thrown upon the king; such
as, even in their famous remonstrance, they thought proper to omit, as
incredible and extravagant: the poisoning of his father, the betraying
of Rochelle, the contriving of the Irish massacre.[***] By blasting his
fame, had that injury been in their power, they formed a very proper
prelude to the executing of violence on his person.

No sooner had the king refused his assent to the four bills, than
Hammond, by orders from the army, removed all his servants, cut off his
correspondence with his friends, and shut him up in close confinement.
The king afterwards showed to Sir Philip Warwick a decrepit old man,
who, he said, was employed to kindle his fire, and was the best
company he enjoyed during several months that this rigorous confinement
lasted.[****]

* Cl. Walker, p. 70.

** Rush. vol. viii. p. 965, 967.

*** Rush. vol. viii. p. 998. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 93.

**** Warwick, p. 329.

No amusement was allowed him, nor society, which might relieve his
anxious thoughts: to be speedily poisoned or assassinated was the only
prospect which he had every moment before his eyes; for he entertained
no apprehension of a judicial sentence and execution; an event of which
no history hitherto furnished an example. Meanwhile, the parliament
was very industrious in publishing, from time to time, the intelligence
which they received from Hammond; how cheerful the king was, how
pleased with every one that approached him, how satisfied in his present
condition:[*] as if the view of such benignity and constancy had not
been more proper to inflame than allay the general compassion of the
people.

* Rush, vol. viii. p. 989.

The great source whence the king derived consolation amidst all his
calamities, was undoubtedly religion; a principle which, in him, seems
to have contained nothing fierce or gloomy, nothing which enraged him
against his adversaries, or terrified him with the dismal prospect of
futurity. While every thing around him bore a hostile aspect; while
friends, family, relations, whom he passionately loved, were placed at a
distance, and unable to serve him, he reposed himself with confidence in
the arms of that Being who penetrates and sustains all nature, and whose
severities, if received with piety and resignation, he regarded as the
surest pledges of unexhausted favor.

The parliament and army, meanwhile, enjoyed not in tranquillity that
power which they had