Series 1 > Letters and papers illustrating the relations between Charles the Second and Scotland in 1650

132 CHARLES II. AND SCOTLAND IN 1650
1650.
Aug. A.
from the Church, the State and the Army shall refuse to
satisfie the desire, and clear your resolution, your Majesty will
grieve their spirits, cool their affections, and weaken their
hands. And since your Majesty refuseth to do what is neces¬
sary for the good of religion and God’s interest, they will look
to the safety and good of religion, and to their own safety and
emit a Declaration, how willing they are to hazard their lives
for your Majesties interest, if ye had been for religion: but
that being denyed, they will separate the preservation of
religion from your interest, and so to the safety of this King-
pom : and if there be a difference and separation upon those
grounds, there will never, in humane appearance, be such a con¬
junction, and your enemies (who will grant anything which
may destroy your Majesty) will win their ends.
[Indorsed] A Copy of my Letter to his
Majesty upon sending the
Declaration1 to him to be signed.
LXXXIV
THOMAS COKE2 TO CHARLES II.3
{Imperfect')
. . . The condition of this place at present is a generall dis¬
affection to the army ; but all men of quality in citty and county
are secured, the nobles, gentry and all Royall men for your
Majesty so awed with feare and so jealous one of another, that
there is no hope of stirring at present, nor is there acting either
for men or money without extreme danger. I have beene in
all Countys in these partes: from Cambridg, Huntingdon,
Essex, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, I have return of encouragement
when there shall be opportunity, as they say, but no present
preparation. Mr. Blagg is gone to Holland. Duke of Rich-
1 The Declaration was signed by Charles II. on August 16. It is printed in
Walker’s Historical Discourses, p. 171.
2 A younger son of Sir John Coke, secretary to Charles I. He was now em¬
ployed as a royalist agent in England, see No. xc.
3 Enclosed in a letter from Coke to the Prince of Orange in the Clarendon
MSS. vol. ii. No. 379. The whole of the enclosure is in cipher, and is here
printed from the interlined decipher.