he went there "because he found the army was going to break all promises with the king, and that he would have nothing to do with such perfidious actions". On 13 November 1647 Hammond learnt from Sir John Berkeley and Ashburnham that the king had fled from Hampton Court to save his life from the Levellers, and intended to put himself under Hammond's protection. Hammond said that he was undone, and between his duty to the king and his obligations to the army would be confounded. Finally, he gave a vague promise to act with honour. Ashburnham took Hammond to the king on the mainland, and the king came to the Isle of Wight. Hammond at once wrote to the parliament announcing what had happened; and called the gentlemen of the island together, requiring their co-operation for the defence of his majesty's person. Parliament then drew up a series of instructions to Hammond, ordering him to set a guard over Charles and keep him on the island; a second set of instructions came, on the occasion of the Treaty of Newport, dated 17 August 1648. He was also ordered by the commons to send up Ashburnham, Berkeley, and William Legge as prisoners, and, under protest, obeyed. Thus instead of becoming the king's protector, Hammond found himself his gaoler. His relations with the king were at first pleasant, but after the king's rejection of the 'Four Bills' tendered him by parliament at the end of December 1647, he was more closely confined, and the position of the governor became difficult. Rumours spread of angry scenes; Thomas Herbert complained that Hammond searched the king's cabinet for papers. In the king's secret correspondence in the summer of 1648, he wrote of Hammond's incivility. In May 1648 two of the gentlemen attending the king, Osborne and Dowcett, were accused of a plot to abet his escape, and were arrested. Osborne asserted that Hammond's second in command, Major Rolph, had plotted against the king's life, and that the governor was cognizant of it. He had begged to be relieved from his task. In November 1648 the breach between the army and the parliament involved Hammond. Cromwell, Ireton, and other representatives of the Council of Officers wrote, arguing that his obedience was owed to the army rather than to the parliament, and that he should take their side in the struggle. On 21 November he received