The probable intense anxiety of his wife, which might so simply and so easily have been saved, does not appear to have occurred to him. The Duchess continues:—
“Thus being admitted into the Town, he fell upon his intended Design, and brought it to so hopeful an issue for His Majesties Service, that he wanted nothing but His Majesties further Commission and Pleasure to have secured both the Town and Magazine for His Majesties use; and to that end by a speedy Express gave His Majesty, who was then at Windsor, an account of all his Transactions therein, together with his Opinion of them, hoping His Majesty would have been pleased either to come thither in Person, which he might have done with much security, or at least have sent him a Commission and Orders how he should do His Majesty further Service.”
Unfortunately for Charles, his most intimate followers could not be trusted for secrecy, and there were spies in his train. His orders to Newcastle were betrayed to the Parliament, and, by its authority, Sir John Hotham, who lived very near Hull, was appointed its governor and ordered to seize it with the help of the Yorkshire trained bands under his command.
Newcastle had entered Hull, had proclaimed himself its governor, in the King’s name, and had found that it contained a larger quantity of munitions than the Tower of London itself; but, when Legg, on behalf of the King, and Hotham, on the part of the Parliament, brought troops to occupy the town, the Mayor—to use a very vulgar expression—uncertain as to which way the cat would jump, refused to admit the soldiers of either of them.
“Before Newcastle had been three days in Hull,” says Clarendon,[37] “the House of Peers sent for him, to attend the service of that House, which he had rarely used to do, being for the most part at Richmond attending upon the Prince of Wales, whose Governor he was.[38] He made no haste to return upon the summons of the House, but sent to the King to know his pleasure.”
[37] Hist., vol. I, part II. book iv.
[38] This, of course, refers to a past period.
As usual, Charles showed weakness. Having dispatched Newcastle in a tremendous hurry to secure his magazines at Hull against the Parliament, he now ordered him to obey the Parliament, to leave Hull and the magazines to their fate, and go to London. Newcastle, says the Duchess, “received orders from His Majesty to observe such Directions as he should receive from the Parliament then sitting: Whereupon he was summoned personally to appear at the House of Lords, and a Committee chosen to examine the Grounds and Reasons of his undertaking that Design; but my Lord shewed them his Commission, and that it was done in obedience to His Majesties Commands and so was cleared of that Action”.
Both Lords and Commons then petitioned the King to allow the magazines at Hull to be removed to the Tower of London; and when the King was slow in sending a reply, they ordered Hotham to dispatch them there at once.