quality. The king and Prince Rupert with the broken troops marched by
stages to Hereford, where Prince Rupert left the king to hasten to
Bristol, that he might put that place in a state of defence.

Nothing can here be more wondered at than that the king should amuse
himself about forming a new army in counties that had been vexed and
worn out with the oppressions of his own troops, and not have
immediately repaired into the west, where he had an army already formed.
Cromwell having taken Winchester and Basing, the king sent some messages
to Parliament for peace, which were not regarded. A treaty between the
king and the Scots was set on foot by the interposition of the French,
but the parties disagreed about church government. To his son Charles,
Prince of Wales, who had retired to Scilly, the king wrote enjoining him
never to surrender on dishonourable terms.

Having now no other resource, the king placed himself under the
protection of the Scots army at Newark. But at the desire of the Scots
he ordered the surrender of Oxford and all his other garrisons. Also the
Parliament, at the Scots' request, sent propositions of peace to him,
and these proposals were promptly enforced by the Scots. The Chancellor
of Scotland told him that the Parliament, after the battles that had
been fought, had got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their
hands, that they had gained a victory over all, and had a strong army to
maintain it, so that they might do what they would with church and
state, that they desired neither him nor any of his race to reign any
longer over them, and that if he declined to yield to the propositions
made to him, all England would join against him to depose him.

With great magnanimity and resolution the king replied that they must
proceed their own way; and that though they had all forsaken him, God