All men were in
expectation with regard to the issue of this extraordinary affair. The
king seemed engaged in honor to support his measure; and in order to
prevent all opposition, he had positively declared that he would support
it. The commons were obliged to persevere, not only because it was
dishonorable to be foiled, where they could plead such strong reasons,
but also because, if the king prevailed in his pretensions, an end
seemed to be put to all the legal limitations of the constitution.
It is evident, that Charles was now come to that delicate crisis which
he ought at first to have foreseen, when he embraced those desperate
counsels; and his resolutions, in such an event, ought long ago to have
been entirely fixed and determined. Besides his usual guards, he had an
army encamped at Blackheath, under the command of Mareschal Schomberg,
a foreigner; and many of the officers were of the Catholic religion.
His ally, the French king, he might expect, would second him, if
force became requisite for restraining his discontented subjects, and
supporting the measures which, by common consent, they had agreed to
pursue. But the king was startled when he approached so dangerous a
precipice as that which lay before him.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222