and to place themselves under the protection of the army; and asserted that
since God had given to the officers the power, he had also made it their
duty, to

[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vii. 1344-1348, 1351. Herbert, 113, 124.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 30.]

provide for the settlement of the kingdom and the punishment of the
guilty.[a] In the pursuit of these objects, Fairfax marched several
regiments to London, and quartered them at Whitehall, York House, the Mews,
and in the skirts of the city.[1]

The reader will recollect the pusillanimous conduct of the Presbyterian
members on the approach of the army in the year 1646.[b] On the present
occasion they resolved to redeem their character. They betrayed no symptom
of fear, no disposition to retire, or to submit. Amidst the din of arms and
the menaces of the soldiers, they daily attended their duty in parliament,
declared that the seizure of the royal person had been, made without
their knowledge or consent, and proceeded to consider the tendency of the
concessions made by Charles in the treaty of Newport. This produced
the longest and most animated debate hitherto known in the history of
parliament. Vane drew a most unfavourable portrait of the king, and
represented all his promises and professions as hollow and insincere;
Fiennes became for the first time the royal apologist, and refuted the
charges brought by his fellow commissioner; and Prynne, the celebrated
adversary of Laud, seemed to forget his antipathy to the court, that he
might lash the presumption and perfidy of the army. The debate continued
by successive adjournments three days and a whole night; and on the
last division in the morning a resolution was carried by a majority of