The king held at Newcastle a
conference with Alexander Henderson, which led to no definite result. In
the end the Scots offered to adopt the king's cause if he would accept
Presbyterianism. This he declined to do, and his refusal left the Scots
no choice except keeping him a prisoner or surrendering him to his
English subjects. They owed him no gratitude, and, while it might be
chivalrous, it could scarcely be expedient to retain his person. While
he was unwilling to accede to their conditions they were powerless to
give him any help. He was therefore handed over to the commissioners of
the English Parliament, and the Scots, on the 30th January, 1647,
returned home, having been paid, as the price of the king's surrender,
the money promised them by the English Parliament when they entered into
the struggle in 1644.
In the end of 1647 the Scots again entered into the long series of
negotiations with the king. When Charles was a prisoner at Newport, and
while he was arranging terms with the English, he entered into a secret
agreement with commissioners from Scotland. The "Engagement", as it was
called, embodied the conditions which Charles had refused at
Newcastle--the recognition of Presbytery in Scotland and its
establishment in England for three years, the king being allowed
toleration for his own form of worship. The Engagement was by no means
unanimously carried in the Scottish Parliament, and its results were
disastrous to Charles himself.
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