HIS PUBLIC CAREER. xxix 



and dealings of the party with which he was connected. He 

 must have held himself exclusively to the discharge of his pro- 

 fessional duties. In the course of these he doubtless attended 

 Charles in his third visit to Scotland in the summer of 1641, 

 when he essayed the arts of diplomacy with little better effect 

 than he had already attempted the weight of prerogative in 

 the first, and the force of arms in the second visit. 



On returning to London in the autumn of the same year, 

 Charles soon brought matters to a crisis between himself and 

 his English subjects, in the persons of their representatives, and 

 nothing soon remained for him but to unfurl his standard and 

 proclaim himself at war with his people. This was accordingly 

 done in the course of the ensuing summer. But the Parlia- 

 ment did not yet abandon a seeming care of the royal person, 

 and Harvey informs us himself, that he now attended the 

 king, not only with the consent, but by the desire, of the par- 

 liament. The battle of Edge-hill, which followed, and in 

 which the sun of fortune shone with a partial and fitful gleam 

 upon the royal arms, is especially interesting to us from our 

 Harvey having been present, though he still took no part in 

 the affair, and seems indeed to have felt very little solicitude 

 either about its progress or its issue, if the account of Aubrey 

 may be credited. " When King Charles/' says Aubrey, " by 

 reason of the tumults, left London, he (Harvey) attended him, 

 and was at the fight of Edge-hill with him ; and during the 

 fight the Prince and Duke of York were committed to his 

 care. He told me that he withdrew with them under a hedge, 

 and tooke out of his pockett a booke and read. But he had not 

 read very long before a bullet of a great gun grazed on the ground 

 neare him, which made him remove his station." 1 The act of 

 reading a book pending an important battle, the result of which 

 was greatly to influence his master's fortunes, certainly shows 

 a wonderful degree of coolness and a remarkable indifference 

 1 Lives, &c., vol. ii, p. 379. 



