[576] Journal of the Swedish Embassy, 1653-4.
[577] Neal, iii. 330.
[578] This is the account in Ashburnham's Narrative, ii. 72. Rushworth says the King came to Brentford and Harrow, and then went to St. Albans, vi. 267. Ashburnham's is, no doubt, the correct story.
Hacket tells the following story in the Life of Archbishop Williams: "His Majesty, unwilling to stay to the last in a city begirt, by the persuasion of Mons. Mountrevile, went privily out of Oxford, and put himself into the hands of his native countrymen and subjects at Newcastle. 'What,' says Mr. Archbishop, when he heard of it, 'be advised by a stranger, and trust the Scots; then all is lost.' It was a journey not imparted to above ten persons to know it, begun upon sudden resolution against that rule of Tacitus: 'Bona consilia morâ valescere.'"—Memorial of Williams, ii. 222.
[579] There is an important memorandum for Lord Balcarras "anent the King's coming to the Scots' army," in Baillie's Letters and Journals, ii. 514. Appendix.
[580] Charles I. in 1646. Letters published by the Camden Society.
[581] Neal, iii. 336-347.
[582] Rushworth, vi. 319.
[583] Rushworth, vi. 309.
[584] Mercurius Civicus, Oct. 8-15, 1646.