and murdered him on the floor.[2] Though the assassins were suffered to
escape, it was soon known that they were Scotsmen, most of them followers
of Montrose; and Charles, anticipating the demand of justice from the
English parliament, gave his final answer to the commissioners, that he
was, and always had been, ready to provide for the security of their
religion, the union between the kingdoms, and the internal peace and
prosperity of Scotland; but that their other demands were irreconcilable
with his conscience, his liberty, and his honour.[b] They

[Footnote 1: Clar. iii. 287-292. Baillie, ii. 333. Carte, Letters, i.
238-263. In addition to the covenant, the commissioners required the
banishment of Montrose, from which they were induced to recede, and the
limitation of the king's followers to one hundred persons.--Carte, Letters,
i. 264, 265, 266, 268, 271.]

[Footnote 2: Clarendon, iii. 293. Whitelock, 401. Journals, May 10. The
parliament settled two hundred pounds per annum on the son, and gave five
hundred pounds to each of the daughters of Dorislaus.--Ib. May 16. Two
hundred and fifty pounds was given towards his funeral.--Council Book, May
11.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 19.]

acknowledged that he was their king; it was, therefore, their duty to obey,
maintain, and defend him; and the performance of this duty he should expect
from the committee of estates, the assembly of the kirk, and the whole
nation of Scotland. They departed with this unsatisfactory answer; and
Charles, leaving the United Provinces, hastened to St. Germain in France,
to visit the queen his mother, with the intention of repairing, after a