The recent signs of disaffection encouraged Charles to make another effort to win over the City, and in this he was promised the support of Sir Basil Brooke. Whilst accepting the services of one who was a warm Catholic, Charles addressed a letter to the mayor and aldermen, in which he assured them of his "constancy in religion." He foolishly imagined that such an assurance would induce the City to break at once with parliament and declare for peace. The letter, as luck would have it, fell into the hands of the Committee of Safety. The plot was discovered, and full particulars of it laid before the Commons (6 Jan., 1644).(626)
The discovery led to stricter precautions being taken to prevent inhabitants of the city leaving the city to join the king at Oxford, as many ill-affected persons had already done. The number of passes was reduced, and the keys of the portcullises of the city’s gates were ordered for the future to remain in the custody of the sheriffs.(627)
In token of the City’s constancy to parliament the Common Council resolved (12 Jan.) to invite both Houses to dinner.(628) The entertainment, which took place at Merchant Taylors’ Hall (18 Jan.), was preceded by a sermon preached at Christ Church, Newgate, in favour of union. The preacher, Stephen Marshall, received the formal thanks of the City, besides a "gratification," and was desired to print his sermon. On their way from church to the banquet the Lords and Commons passed through Cheapside, where a pile of crucifixes, pictures and popish relics were in the act of being burnt on the site of the recently destroyed cross.(629) The City afterwards received the thanks of the Commons for the entertainment.
The day following the banquet the first regiments of the Scottish army crossed the Tweed, driving the royalists of the extreme north of England to take shelter in Newcastle. The mutual understanding between England and Scotland—the result of Pym’s policy—necessitated the appointment of some definite authority at Westminster which should control both armies in common. Hence it was that on the 16th February a Committee of Both Kingdoms, composed of members of parliament and commissioners sent from Scotland, was established to take the place of the Committee of Safety.