moned in haste down into the west, where, together, the two generals drove back Goring, Hopton, Astley, and others, beating them at Langport, Torriugton, and other places, storming Bridgewater, and forcing them into Cornwall, where they never left them till they had reduced them altogether next spring.
Charles lying now at Oxford, In council, seeing that his army was destroyed, except the portion that was cooped up by the victorious generals in the west, and which every day was forced into less compass, advised him strongly to treat with the parliament, as his only chance. They represented that they had no funds even for subsistence, except what they seized from the country around, which exasperated the people, and made them ready to rise against them. There were some circumstances yet in his favour, and these were the jealousies and divisions of his enemies. The parliament and country were broken up into two great factions of presbyterians and independents. The presbyterians were by far the most numerous, and were zealously supported by the Scots, who were nearly all of that persuasion, and desired to see their form of religion made predominant over the whole country. They were as fiercely intolerant as the catholics, and would listen to nothing but the entire predominance of their faith and customs. But the independents, who claimed and offered liberty of conscience, and protested against any ruling church, possessed almost all the men of intellect in parliament, and the chiefs at the head of the army. Cromwell, in his letter from the field of Naseby, called for toleration of conscience, and Fairfax urged the same doctrine in all his dispatches from the west. There was, moreover, a jealousy growing as to the armies of the Scots, who had got most of the garrisons in the north of England and Ireland into their hands. These divisions opened to him a chance of treating with one party at the expense of the other, and in his usual way he made overtures to all. To the Scots he offered not only full concession of all their desires, but great advantages from the influence which their alliance with him would give. To the independents he offered the utmost toleration of religious opinion, and all the rewards of pre-eminence in the state and the army. To the presbyterians he was particularly urged by the queen to promise the predominance of their church and the like advantages. With the catholics of Ireland he was equally in treaty; but whilst his secret negotiations were going on in Ireland, the Scots endeavoured to bring theirs to a close, by applying to the queen in Paris. Three great changes had taken place, all favourable to Charles. Both the king, Louis XIII., and cardinal Richelieu, were dead. Richelieu had never forgiven Charles his attempts on Rochelle, and to raise the Huguenots into an independent power in France, nor his movements in Flanders against his designs, Mazarin, who now succeeded as the minister of Louis XIV., had no particular resentment against Charles, and though cautious in taking direct measures against the English parliament, did not oppose any of the attempts at pacification betwixt the king and his subjects. The Scots had always found Richelieu their ally, and they now applied to his successor to assist them in bringing matters to bear with Charles. In consequence of this, Montreuil was sent over to London, who conferred with the Scottish commissioners, and then conveyed to Charles their proposals. But the king, who had promised them all concessions consistent with his honour, found the very first proposition to be that episcopacy should be for ever abolished not only in Scotland, but in England, and presbytery made the established church. He had conceived that they would be satisfied with the supremacy of their faith in their own country, and he at once refused this demand. It was in vain that Montreuil pointed out to him that the Scots and the presbyterians of England were agreed upon this point, and that consequently any arrangement with the latter party must inevitably be upon the same basis. Charles declared that rather than consent to any such terms, he would agree with the independents. Montreuil replied that the Scots sought only to make him king, first having their own wishes as to religion gratified; but the independents, he was confident, contemplated nothing less than the subversion of his throne. He informed him that the queen had given to Sir Robert Murray a written promise that the king would accede to the demand of the Scots, which promise was now in the hands of the Scottish commissioners; moreover, that it was the earnest desire of both the queen, the queen-regent of France, and of the cardinal Mazarin.
Nothing, however, could shake Charles's resolution on this head, and he therefore made a direct application to parliament to treat for an accommodation. They received his offer coolly, almost contemptuously. He desired passports for his commissioners, or a safe conduct for himself, that they might treat personally; but it was bluntly refused, on the ground that he was not to be trusted, having, on all similar occasions, employed the opportunities afforded to endeavour to corrupt the fidelity of the commissioners. Not to appear, however, to reject the treaty, they sent fresh proposals to him, but so much more stringent than those at Uxbridge, that it was plain that they were rather bent on delaying than treating. The king was now in a very different position since the battle of Naseby and the fall of Bristol; and it was obviously the interest of parliament to allow Fairfax and Cromwell to put down his last remains of an army in the west, when they would have nothing to do but to inclose the king in Oxford, and compel him to submit at discretion. Montreuil, seeing this, again urged him to come to terms with the Scots, and that not a moment was to be lost. But nothing could move him to consent to their demand of a universal presbyterianism, and he again, on the 26th of January, 1646, demanded a personal interview with the parliament at Westminster. His demand, however, arrived at a most unfortunate crisis, for the discovery of his negotiations with the Irish catholics was just made: the entire correspondence was in the hands of the commons, and the whole house was in the most violent ferment of indignation. The king's letter was thrown aside and left without notice.
On October 17th, 1645, the titular archbishop of Tuam was killed in a skirmish betwixt two parties of Scotch and Irish near Sligo, and in his carriage was discovered copies of a most extraordinary negotiation, which had been going on for a long time in Ireland betwixt Charles and the catholics, for the restoration of popish predominance in that country, on condition of their sending an army to put down the parliament in England.
