tance, in dreadful expectation of the event. The king surveyed all these solemn preparations with calm composure; and as he could not expect to be heard by the people at a distance, he addressed himself to the few persons who stood around him. 13. He there justified his own innocence in the late fatal war; and observed, that he had not taken arms till after the parliament had shewn him the example. That he had no other object in his warlike preparations than to preserve that authority entire, which had been transmitted to him by his ancestors; but, though innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity of his execution in the eyes of his Maker. 14. He owned that he was justly punished for having consented to the execution of an unjust sentence upon the earl of Strafford. He forgave all his enemies, exhorted the people to return to their obedience, and acknowledge his son as his successor; and signed his attachment to the protestant religion, as professed in the church of England.-So strong was the impression his dying words made upon the few who could hear him, that colonel Tomlinson himself, to whose care he had been committed, acknowledged himself a convert. 15. While he was preparing himself for the block, bishop Juxon called out to him, "There is, Sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. It will soon carry you a great way. -It will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown of glory." 16. "I go," replied the king, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place."-"You exchange," replied the bishop, "a temporal for an eternal crown; a good exchange!" Charles, having taken off his cloak, delivered his George to the prelate, pronouncing the word, "Remember!"—Then he laid his neck on the block, and, stretching out his hands as a signal, one of the executioners severed his head from his body at a blow; while the other, holding it up, exclaimed, "This is the head of a traitor!" 17. The spectators testified their horror of the sad spectacle in sighs, tears, and lamentations; the tide of their duty and affection began to return; and each blamed himself either with active disloyalty to his king, or a passive compliance with his destroyers. 18. Charles was executed in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. He was of a middle stature, robust, and well proportioned. His visage was pleasing, but melancholy; and it is probable that the continued troubles in which he was involved might have made that impression on his countenance. As for his character, the reader will deduce it, with more precision and satisfaction to himself, from the detail of his conduct, than from any summary given of it by the historian. Questions for Examination. 1, 2. What did the king urge in his defence? 3. What was the answer of Bradshaw ? 4. What treatment did he receive from the soldiers? 5. With what patience did he bear their reproaches? and what was his remark? 7, 8. What followed the king's condemnation? 9, 10. What spot was chosen as the place of the king's execution? 12. What preparations were made for his trial? 13, 14. What did he say in his address to the people? 15, 16. What conversation passed between the king and bishop Juxon? 17. What effect had his execution on the minds of the people? 18. How long did Charles reign? Archbishop Laud. Earl of Strafford. John Hampden. Lucius Cary, lord Falkland. Harry Cary, lord Falkland. H. Montague, earl of Manchester. R. Greville, lord Brooke. Lord-keeper Littleton. Arthur, lord Capel. Lord Edward Herbert, of Cherbury. G. Stanley, earl of Derby. J. Digby, earl of Bristol. Ulicke de Burgh, marquis of Clanrickarde, and earl of St. Alban's. Henry Carey, earl of Monmouth. Mildmay Fane, earl of Westmoreland. E. Somerset, marquis of Wor cester. The Portuguese shook off the Spanish yoke, and elected John, duke of Braganza, their king. 66 THE COMMONWEALTH. SECTION I. Though cunning, bold; and though intrepid, sage."-EGERTON. 12. Unanim'ity, s. agreement in design | 13. Subordina'tion, s. the state of being or opinion, being of one mind. inferior to another. Finan'ces, s. revenues, incomes. 1. (A.D. 1649.) CROMWELL, who had secretly solicited and contrived the king's death, now began to feel wishes to which he had been hitherto a stranger. His prospects widening as he rose, his first principles of liberty were all lost in the unbounded stretch of power that lay before him. 2. Having been appointed to command the army in Ireland, he prosecuted the war in that kingdom with his usual success. He had to combat against the royalists, commanded by the duke of Ormond, and the native Irish, led on by O'Neal. But such ill-connected and barbarous troops could give very little opposition to Cromwell's more numerous forces, conducted by such a general, and emboldened by long success. He soon overran the whole country; and, after some time, all the towns revolted in his favour, and opened their gates at his approach. 3. But, in these conquests, as in all the rest of his actions, there appeared a brutal ferocity, that would tarnish the most heroic valour. In order to intimidate the natives from defending their towns, he, with a barbarous policy, put every garrison, that made any resistance, to the sword. 4. After his return to England, upon taking his seat, he received the thanks of the house, by the mouth of the speaker, for the services he had done the commonwealth in Ireland. They then proceeded to deliberate upon choosing a general for conducting the war in Scotland, where they had espoused the royal cause, and placed young Charles, the son of their late monarch, on the throne. Fairfax refusing this command upon principle, as he had all along declined opposing the presbyterians, the command necessarily devolved upon Cromwell, who boldly set forward for Scotland, at the head of an army of sixteen thousand men. A 5. The Scots, in the mean time, who had invited over their wretched king to be a prisoner, not a ruler among them, prepared to meet the invasion. A.D. 1650. battle ensued, in which they, though double the number of the English, were soon put to flight, and pursued with great slaughter, while Cromwell did not lose above forty men in all. 6. In this terrible exigence young Charles embraced a resolution worthy a prince, who was willing to hazard all for empire. Observing that the way was open to England, he resolved immediately to march into that country, where he expected to be reinforced by all the royalists in that part of the kingdom. 7. But he soon found himself disappointed in the expectation of increasing his army. The Scots, terrified at the prospect of so hazardous an enterprise, fell from him in great numbers. The English, affrighted at the name of his opponent, dreaded to join him; but his mortifications were still more increased as he arrived at Worcester, when informed that Cromwell was marching with hasty strides from Scotland, with an army increased to forty thousand men. 8. The news had scarcely arrived, when that active general himself appeared; and, falling upon the town on all sides, broke in upon the disordered royalists. The streets were strewed with slaughter; the whole Scots army were either killed or taken prisoners; and the king himself, having given many proofs of personal valour, was obliged to fly. 9. Imagination can scarcely conceive adventures more romantic, or distresses more severe, than those which attended the young king's flight from the scene of slaughter. After various escapes, and one-and-forty days' concealment, he landed safely at Feschamp, in Normandy; no less than forty men and women having, at different times, been privy to his escape1. 10. In the mean time, Cromwell, crowned with success, returned in triumph to London, where he was met by the speaker of the House, accompanied by the mayor of London, and the magistrates, in all their formalities. His first care was to take advantage of his late success, by 1 The particulars of Charles's escape, after the battle of Worcester, are truly interesting. He left the fatal scene of action, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham, the earls of Derby and Lauderdale, the lords Talbot, Wilmot, and fifty horse, and without halting, arrived at Whiteladies, twenty-five miles from Worcester, at five o'clock in the morning. There he thought it best for his safety to separate from his companions, and without intrusting them with his intentions, he went to Boscobel, a lone house in Staffordshire, inhabited by one Penderell, a farmer, whose fidelity remained unshaken, though death was denounced against all who concealed the king, and a great reward promised to any one who should betray him. Penderell, and his four brothers, having clothed the king in a garb like their own, led him into the neighbouring wood, put a bill into his hand, and employed themselves in cutting faggots with him. For better concealment he mounted upon an oak, where he sheltered himself among the branches and leaves for twenty-four hours. There he saw several soldiers passing by in search of him. This tree was afterwards called the royal oak, and for many years was regarded by the neighbourhood with great veneration. Thence he passed with imminent danger from one cottage to another, feeling all the varieties of famine, fatigue, and pain, till he reached the house of Mr. Lane, a gentleman of good reputation and fortune in Staffordshire. In this station the king remained many days in quiet and security. Thence he went to one of Mr. Lane's relations, within five miles of Bristol, where he intended to embark; but finding that no ship was to sail for a month from that place, he was obliged to go elsewhere for a passage, and escaped by a few minutes, being discovered and arrested at Lyme. Charles passed through many other adventures, assumed different disguises, in every step was exposed to imminent dangers, and received daily proofs of uncorrupted fidelity. A little bark was at last found at Brighthelmstone, (at that time a small fishing town in Sussex, but now a place of considerable magnitude and opulence,) where his majesty embarked, and safely arrived at Feschamp, in Normandy, October 22d. |