Rupert to surrender, he thus continued-" I wish it may be as effectual with you as it is satisfactory to myself that I do a little expostulate with you about the surrender of the city, which I confess is a way not common, and which I should not have used, but in respect to such a person and such a place. I take into consideration your Royal birth and relation to the Crown of England, your honour, courage, and the virtue of your person, and the strength of that place which you may think yourself bound and able to maintain." Then followed an argument to prove that Parliament were really fighting in the interest of the Crown, and that the King's worst enemies were the evil councillors who estranged him from his people; and then he added:

Sir, if God make this clear to you as it is to us, I doubt not but he will give you a heart to deliver this place, notwithstanding all the other considerations of honour, courage, fidelity, &c., because their consistency and use in the present business depend upon the right and wrongfulness of this that hath been said. And if, upon such conviction you should surrender it, and save the loss of blood, or hazard of spoiling such a city, it would be an occasion glorious in itself and joyfull to us, for the restoring of you to the endeared affections of the Parliament and people of England-the truest friends to your family it hath in the world."

"But if this be hid from your eyes, and that through your wilfulness, this so great, so famous, so ancient a city, and so full of people, be, by you, putting us to force the same, exposed to ruin and the extremity of war, which yet we shall in that case as much as possible endeavour to prevent, then I appeal to the righteous God

to be judge between you and us, and to requite the wrong."

"And let all England judge whether the burning of its towns, ruining its cities, and destroying its people be a good requital from a person of your family, which hath had the prayers, tears, purses, and blood of its Parliament and its people; and, if you look on either as now divided, which hath ever had the same party both in Parliaments, and amongst the people most zealous for their assistance and restitution, which you now oppose and seek to destroy, and whose constant grief hath been that their desires to serve your family have ever been hindered and made fruitless by that same party about his Majesty, whose councils you act, and whose interest you pursue in this unnatural war."

It is impossible to know whether this appeal made any impression on the mind of Rupert, but it may well have found an echo there. He had now been three years in England, and his track had been marked by ruined. cities, plundered homesteads, and desolate hearths; he had earned the bitter curses of the Roundheads, and by far seeing Cavaliers was regarded with suspicion and distrust; he had done his Sovereign no service, and secured nothing for himself. What was to be the issue of the strife? and what the advantage of protracting it? If he held the city for six months where was the army of relief by which the siege could then be raised? The King might relieve Hereford or feast at Ragland-could he collect an army wherewith to baffle Fairfax and Cromwell? and was he, Rupert, to sacrifice the lives of his brave garrison in order to protract for a few months longer a vain defence?

He must have felt the truth of the remonstrance of Fairfax. The men who had striven to uphold his Father's Throne were the Parliament and people of England; the men who had checked their enthusiasm. and thwarted their endeavours were the King and the courtiers by whom he was surrounded and led. He must have felt, too, that his own exertions had all been levelled against the friends of his house and name, and that he had thrown in his lot with the men whose assistance might have saved, but whose indifference accomplished the overthrow of his Father and his Father's

cause.

The immediate result of the summons of Fairfax was a correspondence with the Prince as to the terms on which the city should be rendered up. Such a negotiation cannot be justified. A few days earlier Rupert pledged himself to maintain Bristol against the enemy for full four months—and now, before a serious blow was struck, before an assault was even menaced, he negotiated for the betrayal of the trust he was bound as a soldier and a gentleman to perform. Neither is the matter rendered less culpable by his own declaration, for one of the statements it contains is, that at the Council of war where resistance was resolved on, the Prince made the following proposal. "His Highness made offer, that, for his own person, he would attempt to break through with his horse, with such officers as could be spared, leaving such as were requisite for the fort and castle This by all us, the Colonels of Posts and officers, was thought neither safe or honorable. In the second place he offered to put himself on the defence of the castle and fort. All the officers were clear of opinion against this; that, as regards to the nobility and gentry, and such of the town as appeared

well affected, and the horse and foot which the fort and castle could not receive, had been thereby left to the sword of the enemy; and in regard the fort and castle, in our opinions, were not tenable against their army."

The correspondence between Fairfax and the Prince was terminated by the former on the 9th September, and he resolved to carry the town by assault on the following day. At two o'clock on the morning of the 10th the assault was accordingly made; it was bravely resisted, and for three hours the Royalists held their ground. At length the weight of numbers prevailed, the Priors Hill Fort, which was the main object of attack, was carried, two of the gates were taken, and the Dragoons of Desborough galloped into the town. Rupert* still held the remainder of the forts in the outer line of defences, the whole of the inner line, the castle, and the suburb of Redcliffe; he was not pressed for provisions or ammunition, and could doubtless have held both town and castle for a considerable time. Yet four hours after the capture of Prior's Hill Fort he made overtures for surrender, and after a short negotiation terms were arranged. The garrison was to march out with the honours of war, but the fortifications were to be delivered up intact, the stores were to be handed over, the cannon, ammunition, materials of war, even the very muskets of the soldiers were to pass into the hands of the besiegers, and on such conditions the great city, which for so long had been the principal stronghold of the Crown, opened her gates to the generals and army of the Parliament.

Rupert mistook his position; it was not his province to consider the policy of the defence. Intrusted by the

* Markham's Fairfax, p. 252.

The terrible and unuspected sidings reached the astonished King. Bristol had en ret Rupert lived and was unharmed. The man who had rendered himself conspicuous by reckless courage had turned craven; the Nephew indebted to him for rank, favour, and countless benefits had betrayed him; the Councillor in whom he trusted had proved false to every promise, and deserted his Master when he might have saved the Crown.

At the side of Charles stood his evil genius. Digby, afterwards Lord Bristol, was the secret enemy of Rupert; for months he had plotted his ruin, and now the misconduct of the Prince and his own fortune, enabled him to accomplish it. He used his varied powers to persuade the King he was betrayed, and, without affording opportunity for explanation or time for argument,