... So having spent the
whole day about this business, I returned to my quarters; and as I took
leave of the king, he said to me, Sir, I have as good interest in the army
as you.... I called for a council of war to proceed against Joyce for this
high offence, and breach of the articles of war; but the officers, whether
for fear of the distempered soldiers, or rather (as I suspected) a secret
allowance of what was done, made all my endeavours in this ineffectual."
Somers's Tracts, v. 394. Holles asserts that the removal of the king had
been planned at the house of Cromwell, on the 30th of May (Holles, 96);
Huntingdon, that it was advised by Cromwell and Ireton.--Lords' Journals,
x. 409.]
This design of seizing the person of the king was openly avowed by the
council of the agitators, though the general belief attributed it to the
secret contrivance of Cromwell. It had been carefully concealed from the
knowledge of Fairfax, who, if he was not duped by the hypocrisy of the
lieutenant-general and his friends, carefully suppressed his suspicions,
and acted as if he believed his brother officers to be animated with the
same sentiments as himself, an earnest desire to satisfy the complaints of
the military, and at the same time to prevent a rupture between them and
the parliament.
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