28 The LIFE of the L Is. I, forcing the Parliament. Thefe Examinations and Depofitions were publilhed by the Parliament, which did very much to perfwade abundance of People that the King did but watch white he quieted them with Promifes,to Matter themby Force, andufe them at his Pleafure. And this A&ionwas one of the greatelt Caufes of the dangerous diffidence of the King. 444 z. Another was this : When the Parliament had fit a Guard upon their ownHoufe, (which they took to be their Priviledge) the King difcharged them, and fee another Guard upon them of his choofing : which made them feem asmuch afraid, as if he had made them Prifoners, and would at fome time or other com- mand that Guard to Execute his Wrath upon them; whereupon they difmiffed them, and called for a Guardof the City Regiments. This alfo did increafe the Diffidence. 445.33 Another great Caufeof the Diffidence and War was this : The King was advifèd no longer to hand by , and fee the Parliament affront hint , and do what they lifted ; but to take a fuffrcient Company with him, and to go fhddenly. in Perfon to the Houfe, and there to demand fome of the Leading Members to be deliveredup to Juftice, and tried as Traitors: Whereupon he goeth to the Houfe of Commons with a Company of Cavaliers with Swords and Pillola , to have charged five of the Members of that Houfe, and one of the Lords Houfe, with High Treafon ; wiz. Mr. Pim, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hollic, Mr. Strowd, and Sir Ar- thur Hafelrigge , and the Lord Kimbokvn (after Earl of Manchefter and Lord Cham- berlain) of the Lords : But the Kingwas not fo fecret or fpeedy in this Action, but the Membershad noticeof it before his coming, and abfented themfelves (be- ing together at an inner Houle in Red-Lyon Court in Warlingftreet near Bread/reef in London): And fo the King and his Company laid hands on none, butwent their ways. Had the five Membersbeen there, thereh fuppofed they would have taken them away by violence. When the King was gone, this Allarm did call the Houle into fach Apprehen- fiions, as if one after another, their Liberties or Lives tnuft be affaulted by the Sword if they pleafed not the Court : So that they prefently voted it a Breach of their Priviledges, and an Effect of the King's evil Counfellors, and publitlted their Votes ; to awaken the People to refcue them, as if they werein apparent Danger. The King being difappointed, publilheth a Paper in which he chargeth the Members with Treafon, as flirting up the Apprenticesto tumultuousPetitioning, et7'e. But confeffeth his Error in violating their Priviledges. 4 46. 4. And another thing which battened the War, was, that theLord Dig- by and fome other Cavaliers, attempted at Kingfton upon Thames, to have fudden- ly got together a Body of Horfe; which the Parliament took as the beginning of a War, or an Infurreetion and Rebellion : But the Party was diflipatedbefore they could grow to any great Strength; and the Parliament voted him a Delinquent, and fent to apprehend him and bring him to Juftice, with his Partakers: But he fled into France; and when he wasthere, the Parliament intercepted force of his Letters to the King, advifing him to get away from London, to force place of Strength, where his Friends might come to him; which they took as an Advife to him tobegin aWar. Thus one thing after another blew theCoals. S 47. S. But of all the reE, there was nothing that with the People wrought fo much, as the frith Maffacree and Rebellion : The frilly Papills did by anunexpeQ_ ed Infurre&ion, rife all over Ireland at once, and feized upon almoh all the Strengths of the whole Land, and Dublin wonderfully efcaped (a Servant of Siryobn Clotworrby's difcovering the Plot) which was to have been furprifed with the reft, Otlob. 23. 1641. Twohundred thoufand Perlons they murdered, (asyou may feein the Earlof awry's Anfwer to a Petition, and in Dr. Jones's Narrative of the Examinations, and Sir Jobn Temple's Hiftory, who wasone of the refident Juhices :) Men, Women and Children were molt cruelly ufed; the Women rips up, and filthily ufed when they killed them, and the Infants ufèd like Toads or Vermin : Thoufands of thole that efcaped, came hript and almoft famifhed to Dublin, and afterwards into England to beg their Bread: Multitudes of themwere driven together into Rivers, and cah over Bridges and drowned : Many Witnef- fes twore before the Lords Juffices, that at Portdown.bridge a Vifion every Day ap- peared to the Paffengers of naked Perlons Banding up to the middle in the River, and crying out, Revenge, Revenge! In a word, fcarceany Hiftory mentioned' the like barbarous Cruelty as this was : The FrenchMaffacree murdered but Thirty, or Forty Thoufand; but Two Hundred Thoufand was aNumber which ahonilhed thofe that heard it. This
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=