At his recommendation, he had married a daughter of the famous Hambden, who during his lifetime had been an intimate friend of Cromwell's, and whose memory was ever respected by him.

These circumstances were very unfavorable: yet, because the governor was nephew to Dr.Hammond, the king's favorite chaplain, and had acquired a good character in the army, it was thought proper to have recourse to him in the present exigence, when no other rational expedient could be thought of.

Ashburnham and Berkeley were despatched to the island.

They had orders not to inform Hammond of the place where the king was concealed, till they had first obtained a promise from him not to deliver up his majesty, though the parliament and the army should require him; but to restore him to his liberty, if he could not protect him.

This promise, it is evident, would have been a very slender security: yet, even without exacting it, Ashburnham imprudently, if not treacherously, brought Hammond to Tichfield; and the king was obliged to put himself in his hands, and to attend him to Carisbroke Castle, in the Isle of Wight where, though received with great demonstrations of respect and duty, he was in reality a prisoner.
[Illustration: 1-700-carisbrooke.jpg CARISBROKE CASTLE] Lord Clarendon[*] is positive, that the king, when he fled from Hampton Court, had no intention of going to this island; and indeed all the circumstances of that historian's narrative, which we have here followed, strongly favor this opinion.