had already put his best friend, the brave Marquis of Montrose, to death, because he fought for the young king and would have nothing to do with the Covenant. They obliged Charles to sign it, denied him every amusement, and made him listen to long sermons upon his own sins and the sins of his father and his mother. The king was only nineteen, and but too fond of pleasure. This kind of life was so wearisome to him that he heartily rejoiced when he heard that Cromwell and his formidable army had arrived in Scotland. But the Covenanters would not allow Charles to go with them to battle. They encountered Cromwell at Dunbar, on the 3d September, 1650, and were utterly routed.

The next year, Charles persuaded the Scottish commander to march boldly into England, where he thought the country-people and the gentry would flock to his standard. His coming was so unexpected that very few men joined him. Cromwell had hastened after him from Scotland, and came up with him at Worcester. There, on the 3d September, 1651, the Scottish troops were again utterly routed with very great slaughter. Several thousand prisoners were taken; Cromwell sent them all into slavery, some to work in the African gold-mines, the rest in the West Indian plantations. Charles escaped. The parliament offered a large reward to any one who would apprehend "the son of the last man "-(that was what they called him), but no one was tempted by it, though forty-one days passed before he could reach the coast and take ship for France, and he had so many dangers and escapes that the story of them would fill a book.

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The first persons who sheltered him were five brothers, wood-cutters, named Penderell, who lived at a wild secluded spot called Boscobel, on the borders of Shropshire. But their house was so beset that they were obliged to hide him one whole day in an oak-tree, where he sat among the thick branches, and heard the soldiers going to and fro underneath, looking for him. Another time he was disguised as the servant of a lady who contrived to get him safely through a three days' journey to Bristol; but he was very near being discovered at one house where they stopped, by his awkwardness in helping the cook, who bade him assist her to get the dinner ready.

For the next nine years, Charles led a wandering life in France, Holland, or the Netherlands; sheltered by the governments of those countries when they were not afraid of Cromwell, and at other times obliged to go and seek refuge elsewhere. Mr. Hyde, afterwards made Lord Clarendon, and a few other faithful friends, accompanied him in all his wanderings, but the little court was beset with spies, who betrayed all their correspondence with their English friends, so that every attempt which the royalists made in England, on behalf of Charles, only ended in their own destruction.

After the victory of Worcester, Cromwell had returned in triumph to London, and taken up his abode with kingly state at Hampton Court palace. He had left a very clever general, named Monk, in Scotland, who reduced the people to complete subjection. Strong forts were built to keep them in awe, English judges were sent to administer the laws, and even the preachers, the most untameable set of men in

the kingdom, were forced to obey Cromwell and his general.

The conquest of Ireland had been completed by Ireton. And now almost all the natives were dispossessed of their lands, and their places filled with English settlers, the best lands being shared amongst Cromwell's soldiers. The Irish were forced to leave the country or to go and live in the wild province of Connaught. The new settlers soon rebuilt the towns, cultivated the fields, and changed the face of the country. Cromwell's youngest son, Henry, was placed over them as Governor. He was a good man, and tried to do justice to every one, and was much beloved.

In England, Cromwell was mounting with rapid steps to the highest place. The Rump tried to shake off the yoke of the army, and to act as if they were the masters of the Commonwealth. Cromwell immediately went down to the House of Commons, attended by 300 soldiers. He left them at the door, and bade them wait till he gave them the signal to enter by stamping with his foot. Then he went in, and sat down as usual. After listening to the debate for a few minutes, he jumped up, saying, "This is the time-I must do it." He poured out a torrent or reproaches on the astonished members, called them drunkards, extortioners, and all other bad names— then, stamping with his foot, he continued-" For shame! get you gone, and make way for honester men. You are no longer a parliament. I tell you, you are no longer a parliament. The Lord has done with you." By this time the House was full of armed men. Pointing to the mace, "Take away that

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bauble," said Cromwell to one of the soldiers; and driving the cowed members before him like a flock of sheep, he locked the door behind them, put the key in his pocket, and returned to the royal apartments at Whitehall.

He now summoned a parliament after a fashion of his own. Scotland was to send five members, Ireland six, and England and Wales one hundred and twenty-eight. Englishmen, in derision, called this "Barebone's Parliament," from the name of a leather-seller, called Praise-God Barbon, or Barebone, who was one of the members. It talked of doing great things,—abolishing the Universities, the Courts of Law, &c., but it was not willing to be what Cromwell intended-a mere tool in his hands. So the soldiers were again called in, and Barebone's Parliament shared the fate of the Rump.

Cromwell was now declared "Protector of the Commonwealth," and afterwards, "Lord Protector." He was solemnly enthroned in Westminster Hall, presented with the Bible, with the sword of State, with every thing but the Crown-for his army would not bear the name of king. But he had more power than any English king had possessed, and an army of thirty thousand men to keep down all resistance; and for the next five or six years, Cromwell reigned over Great Britain and Ireland, feared abroad, and obeyed, though by no means beloved, at home.

CHAPTER LX.

THE COMMONWEALTH-(continued).

DESPOTIC GOVERNMENT OF CROMWELL-GLOOM OF THE PURITANS.GLORIOUS EXPLOITS AND DEATH OF BLAKE.—DEATH OF CROMWELL, 1658.-RICHARD CROMWELL PROCLAIMED PROTECTOR: HE RESIGNS HIS OFFICE, 1659.

(From 1654 to 1659.)

THE puritan republicans who had brought England to civil war, rather than have a king to reign over them, were bitterly disappointed when they found they had only been fighting and warring to make one of their own companions a more absolute monarch than Charles the First had ever been. They made many plots against him, but Cromwell always found them out. He divided England into fourteen districts, and set over each an officer, whom he called a majorgeneral. He gave them great power, particularly in oppressing the royalists, who had been already ground down by repeated exactions, and were now required to give up the tenth part of their remaining property. The clergy, who had been persecuted and turned out of their livings, were to be brought to more utter ruin and beggary, if possible. They were forbidden to act as schoolmasters, the only means of support which remained to most of them; and all persons were forbidden to receive them into their houses as tutors or chaplains.

All these oppressions were committed in the name of religion, and by men who seldom spoke without using the language of Scripture; so that persons who knew very little about religion, and who hated the injustice and cruelty of these puritan oppressors,