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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,ssss1 “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.ssss1 He made no haste to return upon the summons of the House, but sent to the King to know his pleasure.”

ssss1 Hist., vol. I, part II. book iv.

ssss1 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”.