Later in the same month Charles came home, and he had one day of pleasure and triumph, for the city of London, partly through the exertions of the Queen, gave him a royal welcome, which seemed like the beginning of better things. It was, however, but a passing gleam of hope. The presentation on December 1st of the Grand Remonstrance, with its sombre catalogue of grievances, with its acrid religious and political tone, marked another act of the tragedy. Then at the beginning of the New Year (1642) came the King's fatal attempt to arrest five members[258] of the House of Commons and one member of the House of Lords, whom he knew to have been in communication with the Scots, and whom on this ground he wished to impeach for the crime of high treason.
The House of Commons showed a disposition to resist, and on January 4th Charles went down himself to seize the offending members. He had concerted his plan overnight with his wife and with George Digby,[259] a cousin of Sir Kenelm, one of those who had rallied to the royal cause at the time of Strafford's trial, and who henceforward appears among the Queen's special friends. With morning the King's spirit quailed before the task he had undertaken, but Henrietta, whose anger was roused because she believed that these ringleaders of the Commons intended to impeach her, would allow no shrinking. "Go, poltroon, pull the ears of these rogues, or never see me again," she cried, with that touch of insolent scorn into which her husband's weakness or scruples sometimes betrayed her. As ever, Charles was unable to stand against her stronger will. He took her in his arms, assuring her that in an hour's time he would come back master of his foes; and so he left her and went to his destruction. She awaited his return in the highest spirits, thinking that now, at last, by one brilliant coup her troubles would be ended. She continually consulted her watch, as she listened eagerly for the footsteps of a messenger. At last she could contain herself no longer. Lady Carlisle, who probably gathered that some great matter was stirring, came into the Queen's private room to be greeted with an excited exclamation, "Rejoice, for now I hope the King is master in his kingdom," and to be told the very names of the intended victims. Lady Carlisle showed no surprise or annoyance. She quietly left the room and wrote a note to Pym, with the consequence that Charles, who had been delayed, entered the House of Commons to find, in his own words, "the birds flown." Henrietta, when she discovered the Countess' treachery, reproached herself most bitterly for her failure to keep silence, and confessed her fault freely to her husband, who as freely forgave it. But, culpable as she was, it is probable that her indiscretion did little harm. Her real fault she could not appreciate. It was Charles' attempt to seize the leaders of Parliament, not his failure in so doing, which precipitated the revolution.
Henceforward there was no hope of averting the revolution. Charles and Henrietta had to face the wrath of their people, and they knew that they were alone. The Pope, from whom they had hoped so much, left them to their fate, and Richelieu, though his attitude had been sometimes a little ambiguous, was the friend of their foes, and felt towards them an hostility the result of the history of the last fifteen years, which was a continual encouragement to those who were arrayed against them. It is true that many Englishmen, terrified at the extremes to which the Puritans were rushing, rallied round the King,[260] seeing in him, as he ever saw in himself, the defender of the ancient constitution; but even so the horizon was dark, and it was to grow darker to the end. "A northern King shall reign," ran the prophecy of Paul Grebner, who was in England in the great days of Elizabeth, "Charles by name, who shall take to wife Mary of the Popish religion, whereupon he shall be a most unfortunate Prince."[261]
[ [234]See particularly the dispatches of Montreuil (MS. Français, 15,995) and Salvetti (Add. MS., 27,962), and Rosetti's remark in a letter to Cardinal Barberini (August 10th, 1640) that if something were not done the Puritans would so increase "che metteranno un giorno in pericolo di distruggere la monarchia di Inghilterra!"—Roman Transcripts P.R.O.
[ [235]Mme de Motteville: Mémoires (1783), I, 244. Cf. Montglas: Mémoires (1727), t. II, p. 67. "Il [Richelieu] avoit toujours des sommes d'argent entre les mains pour distribuer à l'insu de tout le monde à gens inconnus qui faisoient ensuite des effets mervellieux qui surprenoient tout le monde: comme depuis par la guerre civile d'Angleterre dont il étoit auteur et qu'il fomentoit pour empêcher les Anglois jaloux de la prosperité de la France de traverser ses desseins."
[ [236]Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.
[ [237]MS. Français, 15,995.
[ [238]Bellièvre, the French ambassador in England, wrote, in August, 1639, of a femme de chambre of the Queen who was going to France, that she was "très bien sans l'esprit de la Reine sa maitresse."—Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.
[ [239]The following account is from a private letter written by a Catholic: "Mr. Montague and Sir Kenelme appeared, the former said little but what was barely necessary to answer their interrogations which were about superiours of orders engaged in that business and his answers were soe sparing and wary that they told him he squiborated with them and co[~m]anded him next day to attend again. The latter spake soe home and soe frankly as he left them little to saye against him but to co[~m]and his attendance the next daye: the su[~m]e of what he said was being the Scotts were declared rebells by the Kinge and Counsell his Matie actively in the field against them, that all the Nobility, Counsell, Bishops, Judges and Innes of Court having contributed voluntarily to the warre, he could make noe doubt but hee and all Catholickes were obliged to followe their examples, and this the rather because her Matie was pleased to aske parte of all that his Matie might have taken without askinge such being the condition of Catholickes in England whereof he confessed himselfe to be one."—Archives of See of Westminster.