He himself disappeared in the night-time, attended only
by Sir Edward Hales; and made the best of his way to a ship which waited
for him near the mouth of the river. As if this measure had not been
the most grateful to his enemies of any that he could adopt, he had
carefully concealed his intention from all the world; and nothing could
equal the surprise which seized the city, the court, and the kingdom,
upon the discovery of this strange event. Men beheld, all of a sudden,
the reins of government thrown up by the hand which held them; and saw
none who had any right, or even pretension, to take possession of them.
The more effectually to involve every thing in confusion, the king
appointed not any one who should, in his absence, exercise any part
of the administration; he threw the great seal into the river; and he
recalled all those writs which had been issued for the election of
the new parliament. It is often supposed, that the sole motive which
impelled him to this sudden desertion, was his reluctance to meet a free
parliament and his resolution not to submit to those terms which his
subjects would deem requisite for the security of their liberties and
their religion. But it must be considered, that his subjects had first
deserted him, and entirely lost his confidence; that he might reasonably
be supposed to entertain fears for his liberty, if not for his life; and
that the conditions would not probably be moderate, which the nation,
sensible of his inflexible temper, enraged with the violation of their
laws and the danger of their religion, and foreseeing his resentment on
account of their past resistance, would, in his present circumstances
exact from him.
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