be disbanded. dially. He had always professed great submission to the Parliament, (who had very liberally rewarded him for his service,) and was hopeful to have begotten so great a confidence in them, that they would have been contented to entertain the Army as their Pretorian Band; and therefore was very sorry to see the House bent to license them, but durst not appear against it, because he had many illwillers in the Army, and did believe they durst not, or would not, unanimously oppose the Parliament in that particular, and therefore refused to go to the Army, tho' he was sent-for often by the mutinous party, who upon The Army refuses to that score were not a little offended with him; and at length, their discontents increasing, seeing themselves deserted by their superior officers, they thought of some means to secure themselves from their ungrateful Parlia ment, which they began now perfectly to hate; and thereupon they chose to themselves Adjutators in every regiment, and in every troop of horse, by whom they engaged themselves to be absolutely concluded. The first Kesolution these new-elected Officers took, was, not to disband, and, the next, to seize the King's Person. Cromwell staid very long in London, for one that had been the Author of that Design: however, he at last stole out of Town, and joined with the Mutineers, but did not so readily concur in the seizing the King's Person, or at least pretended not to do it; For he sent his Kinsman, Whalley, with Orders * to use all means but Force, to cause his Majesty to return to Holmby; but his Majesty absolutely refusing, Whalley marched with his Majesty towards the Army. This account I had from the most discerning of my acquaintance in London, from whence I went to the Head-Quarters at Reading, with intention (after I had delivered my Message) to desire leave to wait on his Majesty at Causum. I was no sooner arrived at Reading, but I spoke with Sir Edward Ford and Mr. John Den * This information given to Sir John Berkley, by his friends at London, was not quite exact. For it was not Lieutenant-general Cromwell, but Sir Thomas Fairfax, the General in Chief, who gave this order to Colonel Whalley. Cromwell was the person who had advised and en couraged the seizure of the King's person by Cornet Joyce. 2A4 ham, They chuse new of ficers called Adjutators, or Agitators, to manage their disputes with the Par. liament. Sir John Berkley has a conference with Cromwell and two ham. Both of them were much of the same advice with those I had discoursed with at London concerning the present power of the Adjutators, by whom the most important affairs of the Kingdom and Army were transacted. By them I learnt that his Majesty came very unwillingly from Holmby; that his Majesty would not go to the Army, tho' he were earnestly invited by the Officers; that his Majesty, against the consent of the Army, concurred with the Vote of the Parliament, to go to Richmond, where he would have been out of the Army's power, and would not be persuaded out of his resolution, till the Army forced the Parliament to recal their Vote: Then his Majesty would needs go to Windsor, much against the sense of the Army; but, because they could not persuade his Majesty, they forced him from thence by ill-usage; and that the rather, because he would not be intreated to pass by the Army in his way to Windsor: In sum, they doubted that his Majesty hearkened to some secret propositions of the Presbyterians, and bent all his thoughts to make an absolute Breach between the Army and the Parliament; which Ireton discerned, and told his Majesty plainly, "Sir, you have an intention to be the Arbitrator between "the Parliament and us, and we mean to be it between your Majesty and the Parliament. Two or three hours after my arrival, Cromwell sent an Officer to excuse him to me, that he could not wait on other great officers me till ten at night, by reason he was sitting with the of the Army. Committee of Parliament, and should not rise till then. He came then accompanied with Rainsborough, and Sir Hardress Waller. After general discourse, I told him the sum of my Instructions from the Queen and Prince; which were to assure them, that her Majesty and his Highness, were not partial to the Presbyterians, nor any way averse to them; that I should endeavour to incline his Majesty to comply with them, as far as would stand with his honour and conscience, and to dispose them to Cromwell's Declara- press his Majesty no farther. His answer was in these tion of his sincere words: "That, whatever the World might judge of King restored to the " them, they would be found no seekers of themselves, exercise of his royal farther than to have leave to live as Subjects ought to authority upon safe « do, and to preserve their consciences; and that they desire of seeing the and reasonable terms. "thought "thought no men could enjoy their Lives and Estates quietly, without the King had his Rights, which they "had declared in general terms already to the World, and would more particularly very speedily, wherein they would comprise the several Interests of the Royal, Presbyterian, and Independent Parties, as far as they "were consisting with each other;" which I understood afterwards, to be meant of the Proposals of the Army. I went the next day to the General; by Cromwell's direction, to ask his leave to see the King; which he was pleased to grant. I delivered my Letters and Instructions to his Majesty. I found that his Majesty discovered not only to me, but to every one he was pleased to converse with, a total diffidence of all the Army, except Hunting ton, and grounded it chiefly upon the Officers backwardness, to treat of receiving any favour, or advantage from his Majesty. I was of his Majesty's sense, that men whose hands were yet hot with the blood of his most faithful Subjects, ought not entirely to be trusted, but thought they ought absolutely to be well dissembled-with, whilst his Majesty was in their hands, at least, that he might the better get out of them; and, to this end, I offered several expedients; as, to suffer Peters to preach before his Majesty, of which he was very ambitious; and to converse with him, and others of the Army, with freedom; and, by all means, to endeavour to gain the good opinion of the most active Adjutators, and the like. But his Majesty concurred in none of them; which made me doubt that his Majesty valued my reasons something the worse on account of the Author of them; and therefore 1 meditated nothing so much, as to procure a pass for Mr. John Ashburnham, with whom I hoped I might prevail, and he with his Majesty; which, within few days after, I did obtain, and caused it to be delivered to his Servant. About four days after my coming to the Army, there came two General Officers from the Council of War to me, to let me know, that they had been informed that I had some wrong done me upon the Rendition of Exeter, to a great value; and that, if I would put the sum under my hand, they would see that I should have satisfaction. I gave them most hearty thanks; but withal told them, Sir John Berkley has a conference with the King. that that I came not to them upon my own business, but that of his Majesty; which as soon as they should dispatch, no man living would be more ready to receive and acknowledge this, or any other, favour from them; till then, it would no way become me to do it. This was a genero sity which those Self-denyers thought might do well in dis course and speculation; but could not understand it, when brought into practice, and therefore concluded that I was so great a Presbyterian, that I would chuse rather to loose twelve hundred pounds (which was my pretension) than to offend my Lord Roberts, a great Presbyterian, who must have made me reparation; in which opinion they were confirmed by two Letters they had lately perused, the one from Sir Marmaduke Langdale, at Antwerp, and the other from Sir William Fleetwood, at London; both affirming, that to their knowledge I was an engaged Presbyterian. I was altogether a stranger to them both, and therefore did attribute this, either to their envy that I was admitted, or grief that they were excluded from the employment, between his Majesty and the Army. However it was, upon those surmises Cromwell came to expostulate the matter plainly with me, and I replied to him in these words, That I was as much Presbyterian as Independent; that I, as well as others, was inclined to think the better of them, because they pretended to mind the King's Restoration; but bid them be assured, that as soon as I should discover they were not real, I, and, I thought, all the King's Party, would join with any that would but dissemble better than they; and concluded, that I thought nothing would separate the Crown and the King's Party. Cromwell seemed not unsatisfied with" this plain dealing, and so left me. The next day, Huntington, who was sent to me by the King, made me acquainted. with two General Officers, whom I durst not name, because they are obnoxious to the present power. With these I had often, and free Communication; and inquiring what opinion they had of the Army in general, as to a conjunction with the King, they replied, that they did believe, it was universally desired both by the Officers and Adjutators;-that, if Cromwell was not real in it, he was a great Dissembler, and so was Ireton;-that, for the present the whole whole Army was so bent upon it, that they durst not be otherwise; that, if they should ever happen to change, they should easily discover it; and, because they had been, in great part, the cause that Sir Allen Apsley was sent to me, they thought themselves obliged to give me all the light they could of things and persons; which to the last they performed, in my opinion, most sincerely. I let them know at our first meeting, that I doubted there would be three great difficulties, which would obstruct the Agreement. First, they would expect that the King should not only give them Liberty of Conscience, but alter the Esta blished Ecclesiastical Government, which his Majesty was persuaded, he could not in conscience do. The second, that they would not be contented to separate some few men from the Court, and from bearing great Offices, unless they and their Posterity were ruined, and that by the King's Act; which his Majesty could not in Honour permit. And, thirdly, that they would not be contented with a security of the Militia, during his Majestie's life; and his Majesty could not grant it farther, but infinitely to the prejudice of his Posterity. They assured me that his Majesty would be pressed in none of these particulars, and that there was a draught of Proposals, which Ireton had drawn, and which would certainly be voted by the whole Army, wherein, there was nothing tending to any such purpose; and, if his Majesty would consent to them, there would be an end of all difficulties; and they thought that, the sooner his Majesty did it, the better it would be; because there was no certainty in the temper of the Army, which they had observed to have altered more than once already. I asked whether I might not have a sight of these proposals; they answered, when I pleased. I went with them to Ireton for that purpose, and remained with him almost till morning. He permitted me to alter two of the articles, and that in most material points; and I would have done a third, which was, the excluding seven persons (that were not named) from pardon, and the admitting of our party, to sit in the next Parliament. To the first he answered, That being they had prevailed in the War, if they should not in the sight of the World make some distinction between themselves and those that were |