tomb. They descended into the vault at Windsor, and breaking open the coffin known as King Charles's, they saw the body, with the separated head lying at the top. The features were easily recognisable. For a moment the light of the nineteenth century shone upon the brown eye and illuminated the auburn locks, but the action of the air mouldered them both away, and the tomb was restored to its old condition. The reason of introducing this anecdote here will be seen when we come to the strange rumours which were current about the disposal of the corpse. But malevolence and friendship might have saved themselves the inventions. The headless Charles slept in the royal cemetery of our kings, and the world went on its course with swifter steps than before.[ A.D. and LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY. sale of crown lands, by loans, 1641. Abolition of the Star Chamber and by ship-money, in dis- 1627. Charles declares war against The Duke of Buckingham's 1628. Assembling of the third Parlia- 1629. The king enforces the levying of tonnage and ship-money without the consent of Parlia ment. and High Commission. The Irish rebellion, and mas sacre of the Protestants. 1642. Civil war commences in England, arising from the contests between the King and the Commons. The battle of Edge-hill. 1643. Death of the patriot Hampden. 1644. Cromwell defeats the royal army at Marston Moor. 1645. The King's forces totally defeated at Naseby. 1647. The Scots give up the king to the English. 1649. Trial and execution of Charles I. CROMWELL (THE LORD PROTECTOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH). A.D. 1653 TO A.D. 1658. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. FRANCE.-Louis XIV. SPAIN.-Philip IV. EMPERORS OF GERMANY.-Ferdinand III.; Leopold I. § 1. State of parties. The Bible perverted to the justification of the most odious crimes. Saints and Cavaliers.§ 2. The Commonwealth proclaimed. The House of Lords declared "useless and dangerous." Publication of "Icon Basilike." Its authorship.§ 3. Vigorous measures of the Commonwealth. Cromwell's successful campaign in Ireland.-§ 4. Rebellion in Scotland in favour of Charles II. Execution of Montrose. Cromwell's campaign in Scotland. Victory of Dunbar. Charles crowned at Scone. He advances into England.-§ 5. Cromwell captures Perth, and follows Charles to Worcester. Battle of Worcester. Flight of Charles.§ 6. Cromwell's great ascendancy. He becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.-§ 7. At war with Holland. Van Tromp and De Ruyter. Blake and Monk. Severe naval contests, in which the Dutch are finally defeated, and sue for peace.-§ 8. Cromwell expels the Parliament. His vigorous administration. His first Parliament. -§ 9. The Protector's energetic measures and conciliating policy.§ 10. He inspires respect abroad as well as at home. He punishes the Duke of Tuscany and the Bey of Tunis, and captures Jamaica. -§ 11. "Humble Petition and Advice" of the Commons. A House of Lords summoned. Cromwell refuses the crown, but accepts the proposition that he should name his successor. -§ 12. Successes against Spain. The new Parliament. Apparent hopelessness of Charles's restoration. — § 13. Cromwell's overwrought mind. His sickness and death. His exalted character. § 1. LET us not value the Bible one whit the less for the dreadful use to which some of its language was turned in the political contests of the seventeenth century. Wherever there is a free Bible there will be a free people; but the sudden opening of its pages was like the opening of the prison-doors to the captives of the Inquisition. The light was too much at first, and men thrust into the glare of sunlight, staggered and wandered in mind like drunken men. Both parties desecrated the holy volume by appealing to its decision in their temporary quarrels. Kings were declared to be of divine appointment, and to be the ministers and representatives of Heaven. But the saints, on the other hand, were the people of God, red with the blood of the Canaanites, before kings were known in Israel. There was a vast amount of sincerity on both sides in this great argument; but hypocrisy soon mingled with reality. There was hypocrisy of vice as well as of virtue. Troopers, with strange names derived from Holy Writ, Boanerges Brown and Melchizedeck Smith, robbed and pillaged, on the strength of a text in the Old Testament, and the Cavaliers became as profane in language as they were dissolute in conduct, to distinguish themselves from the rabble who snuffled through the nose, and prayed with no respect for grammar. To curse, to brawl, to drink with excess, and break all the commandments, was the sign of a gentleman. They had been disappointed of a despotic king and a fiercely dominant Church, and revenged themselves by a contemptuous disregard for the decencies of life. Well pleased with the reports they heard of their new chief, who had now exchanged the shadowy title of Prince of Wales for the still more shadowy name of King of England, the boisterous youth of that time saw a bright vista before it of unlimited licence under a sovereign who already. showed a jovial selfishness and voluptuary enjoyment of the present hour, which contrasted favourably in their eyes with the stately manners and external moralities of their murdered lord. A.D. 1649.] LA.D. THE COMMONWEALTH PROCLAIMED. 589 § 2. On the day after the king's death the Commonwealth was proclaimed. The small remains of the original Long Parliament, which had met in 1641, were now ignominiously known as the Rump, and consisted of none but rigid Independents, all other sects having been carefully swept away by Pride's Purge in the preceding year. The number of members of the Lower House did not exceed a hundred, and as they very soon passed a resolution declaring the House of Lords "useless and dangerous," they openly took the whole power into their own hands, and governed through a Council of State consisting of forty-one. But their entrance on authority was not unopposed. The Scots, who hated civil. intolerance, hated religious toleration more; they would have no fellowship with a class of people who permitted liberty of worship to all sects, and even winked at the Roman Catholic ceremonial. A great army therefore quickly gathered in the north, in order to overthrow the latitudinarian council, and revenge the martyred king. Holland also gave aid and influence to the newly-recognised Charles, and a greater friend of the royal cause than armies and money, arose in the shape of a little book. How changed the times were since the last conflicts between contending Englishmen will be seen in this curious fact. A book in the Wars of the Roses would have been of no value to either side; but here a single volume, purporting to be written by the victim himself, called by the affected name of Icon Basilike, or portraiture of the king, was studied by the thousands and hundreds of thousands who had learned the art of reading, and a strange revulsion of feeling shook every heart. It was so filled with meekness and devotion, inculcated such precepts, and conveyed them. all in so telling and rhetorical a style, that men could no longer believe in the dangerous designs and dishonourable duplicity of the author. The book to our cooler judgments inay be filled with commonplace remarks; but when it came. fresh upon the public, it was the spirit breathing thro Milton tried to answer it which subdued the reader's mind. in vain. His reply fell dead upon the public ear, and Charles, who had practised deceit as a part of kingcraft all his life, was made a partaker in this final falsehood by its author, Bishop Gauden. The book was guarded from censure or suppression by the name of its reputed writer; but when better days came, and the acknowledgment was safe, the bishop confessed the imposture, and claimed the authorship of the work. The controversy has been prolonged into the present day; but the belief is now universal, that Charles had no hand in the composition. § 3. The Commonwealth was vigorous with the strength of fever. It condemned Hamilton and Capel to the block; and when it had appointed Blake admiral of the fleet, and Cromwell general of the army, all men felt that thenceforth the Channel was secure, and the troops assured of victory. Cromwell went over to Ireland, which was in open resistance to the Parliament, and assumed the office of Deputy. In less than six weeks from the day of his landing the country was at his feet. He stormed Drogheda and Wexford, giving way in both instances to the politic cruelty which sometimes produces a peace by exaggerating the horrors of war; and having pacified all the districts of the south, left Limerick and Waterford to be reduced by his son-in-law, Ireton, in the following year. § 4. Meanwhile the successful general was received with acclamations by the English. He was thanked by the Parliament and the municipality of London for his exploits against the Irish rebels; and as he had long discovered his own genius for war, he saw openings for future distinction on all sides. Foreign nations were making preparations in support of Charles. Some of the outlying dependencies of England itself, such as the Scilly Isles and Jersey, hoisted the royal flag; the Scottish armies were ready for battle against the rival sect, and on the 16th of June hailed the arrival of |