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It had been suggested to the king that, at the head of an

army, he might negotiate with greater dignity and effect. From

Nottingham he despatched to London the earl of Southampton,

Sir John Colepepper, and William Uvedale, the bearers of a

5          proposal, that commissioners should be appointed on both sides,

with full powers to treat of an accommodation. The two houses,

assuming a tone of conscious superiority, replied that they could

receive no message from a prince who had raised his standard

against his parliament, and had pronounced their general a traitor.

10       Charles (and his condescension may be taken as a proof of his wish

to avoid hostilities) offered to withdraw his proclamation, provided

they on their part would rescind their votes against his adherents.

They refused: it was their right and their duty to denounce,

and bring to justice, the enemies of the nation. He conjured

15       them to think of the blood that would be shed, and to remember

that it would lie at their door; they retorted the charge; he was

the aggressor, and his would be the guilt. With this answer

vanished every prospect of peace; both parties appealed to the

sword; and within a few weeks the flames of civil war were lighted

20       up in every part of the kingdom.1

Three-fourths of the nobility and superior gentry, led by

feelings of honour and gratitude, or by their attachment to the

church, or by a well-grounded suspicion of the designs of the

leading patriots, had ranged themselves under the royal banner.

25       Charles felt assured of victory, when he contemplated the birth, and

wealth, and influence of those by whom he was surrounded; but he

might have discovered much to dissipate the illusion, had he

considered their habits, or been acquainted with their real, but

unavowed sentiments. They were for the most part men of pleasure,

30       fitter to grace a court than to endure the rigour of military discipline,

devoid of mental energy, and likely, by their indolence and

debauchery, to offer advantages to a prompt and vigilant enemy.

Ambition would induce them to aspire to office, and commands and

honours, to form cabals against their competitors, and to distract the

35       attention of the monarch by their importunity or their complaints.

They contained among them many who secretly disapproved of the

war, conceiving that it was undertaken for the sake of episcopacy,

–an institution in the fate of which they felt no interest, and others

who had already in affection enrolled themselves among the

40       followers of the parliament, though shame deterred them for a time

from abandoning the royal colours.2

There was another class of men on whose services the king

might rely with confidence,–the Catholics,–who, alarmed by the

fierce intolerance and the severe menaces of the parliament, saw

45       that their own safety depended on the ascendancy of the sovereign.

But Charles hesitated to avail himself of this resource. His

adversaries had allured the zealots to their party, by representing

the king as the dupe of a popish faction, which laboured to subvert

the Protestant, and to establish on its ruins the popish worship. It

50       was in vain that he called on them to name the members of this

invisible faction, that he publicly asserted his attachment to the

reformed faith, and that, to prove his orthodoxy, he ordered two

priests to be put to death at Tyburn, before his departure from the

capital, and two others at York, soon after his arrival in that city.3

55       The houses still persisted in the charge; and in all their votes and

remonstrances attributed the measures adopted by the king to the

advice and influence of the papists and their adherents.4 Aware

of the impression which such reports made on the minds of the

people, he at first refused to intrust with a commission, or even

60       to admit into the ranks, any person, who had not taken the oaths

of allegiance and supremacy; but necessity soon taught him to

accept of the services of all his subjects without distinction of

religion, and he not only granted permission to the Catholics

to carry arms in their own defence, but incorporated them among

65       his own forces.

1.    The tone of the passage is best described as

(A) judgmental and erratic

(B) detached and analytical

(C) pompous and effusive

(D) pedantic and esoteric

(E) reserved and reverent

2.    In context, which of the following is the best interpretation of the word "condescension" in line 10?

(A) Disdain

(B) Degradation

(C) Humility

(D) Acquiescence

(E) Haughtiness

3.    The speaker's choice of syntax in lines 16–17 ("he was...the guilt") places the most emphasis on which of the following words?

(A) Guilt

(B) Aggressor

(C) His

(D) Was

(E) He

4.    The subject of the passage can best be described as

(A) the precariousness of civil war

(B) the development of non-military tactics in civil war

(C) a revolt of secular followers against religious governments

(D) the difficulties facing the king at the start of the civil war

(E) the origins of a historical lapse in diplomacy

5.    In the context of the passage, which of the following words from the second paragraph does the speaker use with the least negative tone?

(A) Superior (line 21)

(B) Pleasure (line 29)

(C) Debauchery (line 32)

(D) Ambition (line 33)

(E) Aspire (line 33)

6.    In lines 33–34, the author writes that "ambition would induce them to aspire to office, and commands and honors, to form cabals against their competitors" in order to

(A) emphasize the efficacy of the gentry

(B) suggest the presence of a third faction in the civil war

(C) contrast the nobility's aspirations with their actual support

(D) highlight the disorganization of the parliament

(E) critique the military's hierarchy

7.    With which of the following statements is the speaker most likely to agree?

(A) The king's change of heart was detrimental to his war campaign and a significant cause of the difficulties he encountered.

(B) The swift ascendance of the Catholic faction was the chief reason for the king's ultimate decision to align with them.

(C) The nobility that aligned against the king served more valuably as soldiers than the majority that aligned with the king.

(D) The houses were resolute in their decision to overthrow the king before war was officially declared.

(E) The parliament followers' accusation of the king's capitulation to the papacy was a strategy to undermine important members of the Catholic faction.

8.    According to the speaker, which of the following facts would "dissipate the illusion" (line 27)?

(A) The parliament followers' persistence that the king was manipulated by the papacy

(B) The ulterior motive of the Catholic faction that pledged allegiance to the king

(C) The larger proportion of experienced soldiers on the parliament followers' side

(D) The number of nobles under the king who had secretly enlisted in the parliament's side

(E) The noble and superior gentry's value as military participants

9.    It can be assumed from footnote 2 that

(A) Sir Varney and Lord Spencer both enlisted to fight on behalf of the king

(B) Sir Varney and Lord Spencer each wrote a memoir that discussed the civil war

(C) Sir Varney and Lord Spencer held contrary perspectives on the civil war

(D) both references are extracted from letters penned by Sir Varney and Lord Spencer

(E) neither Sir Varney nor Lord Spencer had any religious affiliations

10.Which of the following best describes the primary relationship between footnotes 2, 4, and 5 and the rest of the passage?

(A) The footnotes suggest a discrepancy between the king's public discourse and his private one.

(B) The footnotes provide a historical context for particular events in the passage.

(C) The footnotes highlight the rapid succession of events described in the passage.

(D) The footnotes distinguish the speaker's personal opinion from his or her stance in the passage.

(E) The footnotes bolster statements in the passage with qualitative information.