dition, as appeared by her sorrowful look and excessive weeping; and her little brother seeing his sister weep, he took the like impression, though, by reason of his tender age, he could not have the like apprehensions. The king raised them both from off their knees; he kissed them, gave them his blessing, and setting them on his knees, admonished them concerning their duty and loyal observance to the queen their mother, the prince that was his successor, love to the Duke of York and his other relations. The king then gave them all his jewels, save the George he wore, which was cut out in an onyx with great curiosity, and set about with twenty-one fair diamonds, and the reverse set with the like number; and again kissing his children, had such pretty and pertinent answers from them both, as drew tears of joy and love from his eyes; and then, praying God Almighty to bless them, he turned about, expressing a tender and fatherly affection. Most sorrowful was this parting, the young princess shedding tears and crying lamentably, so as moved others to pity that formerly were hard-hearted; and at opening the chamber-door, the king returned hastily from the window and kissed them and blessed them." So this poor little prince and princess never saw their father again.

The next morning very early, the king called Mr. Herbert to help him to dress, and said it was like a second marriage-day, and he wished to be well dressed, for before night he hoped to be in heaven. While he was dressing, he said, 66 Death is not terrible to me! I bless God that I am prepared." Good Bishop Juxon then came and prayed with Charles, till Colonel Hacker, who had the care of the king, came to call them.

Then the king went to Whitehall, and as he went one soldier prayed "God bless him. And so he passed to the banqueting-house, in front of which a

scaffold was built. King Charles was brought out upon it; and after speaking a short time to his friends, and to good Bishop Juxon, he knelt down and laid his

K

head upon the block, and a man in a mask cut off his head with one stroke.

The bishop and Mr. Herbert then took their master's body and head, and laid them in a coffin, and buried them in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, where several kings of England had been buried before.

CHAPTER L.

THE COMMONWEALTH.-1649 to 1660.

How the Scotch chose Prince Charles to be their King; how Oliver Cromwell quieted Ireland; how the Scotch put the Marquis of Montrose to death; how Prince Charles's army was beaten by Cromwell at Worcester; how the Prince escaped to France after many dangers; how the English went to war with the Dutch, and beat them; how Cromwell turned out the parliament, and was made Protector; and how he governed wisely till his death.

As none of the people either in England, Scotland, or Ireland had expected King Charles would be put to death, you may suppose, my dear little Arthur, how angry many of them were when they heard what had happened.

In Ireland the Roman Catholics knew they should be treated worse by the Puritans than they had been by the English governors, and the English settlers expected to be no better used than the old Irish; so they all made ready to fight against the army of the English parliament, if it should be sent to Ireland.

In Scotland, those who had sold King Charles to the English parliament were so ashamed of them

selves, that they joined the other Scotch to choose Prince Charles, the son of the poor dead king, for their king; and they got an army together to defend him and his friends..

As for England, the parliament (or rather the part of it that remained after the king's death) chose a number of gentlemen to govern the kingdom, and called them a council of state; and this council began to try to settle all those things quietly that had been disturbed by the sad civil war.

But the civil war in Ireland became so violent, that the council sent Oliver Cromwell, who was the best general in England, to that country; and he soon won a good many battles, and made great part of the country submit to the English. And he put his own soldiers into the towns, to keep them. As to the Irish who would have taken young King Charles's part, and were Roman Catholics, he sent them abroad and treated many so hardly that they were glad to get out of the country. So Cromwell made Ireland quiet by force, and left General Ireton to take care of it.

While Cromwell was in Ireland a very brave Scotchman, whose name was Graham, Marquis of Montrose, had gone to Scotland with soldiers from Germany and France, partly, as he said, to punish those who had allowed Charles I. to be beheaded, and partly to try to make Prince Charles king. This brave gentleman, whose story you will love to read some day, was taken prisoner by the Scotch army. The officers behaved very ill, for they forgot his bravery, and the kindness he had always showed to everybody when he was powerful. They forgot that he thought he was doing his duty in fighting for his king, and they put him to death very cruelly. They

tied him to a cart, and dragged him disgracefully to prison. They hanged him on a tall gallows, with a book, in which his life was written, tied to his neck; then they cut off his head and stuck it up over his prison-door.

About a month after the Scotch had disgraced themselves by that cruel action, young Prince Charles, whom they called Charles II., arrived in Scotland. But he found that he was treated more like a prisoner than a king. The lords and generals of the Scotch army wanted him to be a presbyterian like them, and they made him go with the Scotch army into England, to try and force the English to agree in everything with them, and to make him king.

But Cromwell, who had returned from Ireland, collected a large army in England, with which he marched into Scotland, and, finding that Charles meant to make war in England, he followed him back again with part of the army, and left General Monk in Scotland with the rest.

Cromwell found King Charles and his army at Worcester, and there he fought and won a great battle, in which a great many Scotch noblemen were killed, as well as several English gentlemen. Charles was obliged to run away and hide himself, and for this time gave up all hopes of being really King of England.

You will like, I dare say, to hear how he contrived to escape from Cromwell, who would certainly have shut him up in prison if he had caught him.

I must tell you that the English generals had promised a great deal of money to anybody who would catch Charles and bring him to them; and they threatened to hang anybody who helped the poor young prince in any way; but there were some brave