orable for the fall of John Hampden, who died of his wounds on June 24. In the north the royalist spirit enabled the Earl of Newcastle to keep the upper hand against the parliamentary general, Lord Fairfax, who was completely routed at Atherton Moor, near Bradford. But the chief scene of action was in the west, where an indecisive battle at Lansdown, near Bath, July 5, was followed by a complete victory gained by the royalists, near Devizes, over Sir William Waller, July 13, who surrendered Bristol to Prince Rupert, July 27. The king now formed the siege of Gloucester, Aug. 10, but raised it on the approach of Essex, who on his part retired to avoid an engagement; but at Newbury in Berkshire he found the king before him, and a battle, in which both sides displayed desperate valor, was closed by night, Sept. 20. Here died the devoted Falkland, who, since the outbreak of the war, had fallen into deep dejection, and kept reiterating the cry of "Peace! peace!" Both armies, exhausted by this battle, retired into winter quarters. Falkland's cry for "Peace" had been uttered also in London, and a conspiracy to force the parliament to accept terms had been formed by the poet Edmund Waller, himself a member. But the leaders were still resolute. They formed with the Scots the "Solemn League and Covenant," which the parliament subscribed themselves, and ordered to be signed by all under their authority. This celebrated instrument bound the subscribers to extirpate popery and prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and profaneness; to maintain the rights and privileges of parliaments, together with the king's authority; and it pledged them to mutual defence. The Scots received a subsidy of £100,000, and prepared to enter England, in January, 1644, with an army of 40,000 men, under the Earl of Leven. The king, on the other hand, had already sought aid from Ireland, where the Marquis of Ormond was now at the head of 50,000 men. Concluding an armistice with the Irish, Sept. 15, 1643, he sent over a large force, who landed at Mostyn in North Wales, but were routed by Fairfax at Nantwich, Jan. 25, 1644. Fairfax united his victorious army with the Scots, and formed the siege of York, whither Lord Newcastle had retired. Prince Rupert advanced to its relief with 20,000 men. Fairfax and Leven raised the siege, and the armies met at Marston Moor, July 2. Cromwell, at the head of his "Ironsides," broke as his troops were called from their armor, the right wing of Rupert's army, under the prince himself; while the royalists had the like success on the other wing. The victorious bands, finding themselves face to face as they returned from the pursuit, renewed the combat, which ended in the complete defeat of the king's forces, and established the military reputation of Cromwell. York surrendered to Fairfax, the Scots took Newcastle, and the authority of the parliament was supreme in the north, October, 1644. In May, 1645, Charles marched from Oxford, relieved Chester, May 15, and seized Leicester, May 31. On the news of these successes, Fairfax, who had laid siege to Oxford in the king's absence, marched northwards, while Charles turned back to relieve Oxford. The armies met at Naseby, near Market Harborough, in a fiercely-contested battle. Charles displayed great ability and courage; but by the rashness of Rupert, and the skill and courage of Fairfax and Cromwell, this last great battle was lost and the cause of the king was ruined, June 14, 1645. Charles shut himself up in Oxford, from whence he escaped in disguise, and threw himself into the hands of the Scots, who delivered him to the parliamentary commissioners for £400,000. The Independents, armed with a show of constitutional authority, entered London, Cromwell at the head of the army. Charles was brought to Hampton Court, and sealed his fate by escaping, and taking refuge at Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight. From this stronghold he attempted to escape through a window (still shown), but stuck fast between the bars. The Scots made an effort to restore Charles, and the "Whiggamore Raid came off, named from the cry "Whig" (get on), used by the Scottish carters to their horses; and this strange nickname is still the title of the great party of progress. opposite name of Tory, which came into use later, was the native name for the Irish banditti. 99 The The king was seized at Newport by order of the council of the army, and imprisoned in Hurst Castle, while the army advanced to London. Even then, it was proposed to proclaim the officers traitors; and the parliament, though shrinking from such extremes, had the courage to adopt the concessions of the king, as a sufficient basis for a treaty, by a majority of one hundred and twenty-nine against eighty-three, Dec. 5, 1648. The next day Ireton prepared for action, and on the 7th Colonel Pride surrounded the house with two regiments, seized fifty-two members, and shut out one hundred and sixty others. This process was called "Colonel Pride's Purge." The remnant of fifty or sixty members (nicknamed the "Rump "), who were all of the Independent party, reversed the recent vote. Cromwell reached London during the night of the 7th, and declared that "he had not been acquainted with this design, yet since it was done he was glad of it, and would endeavor to maintain it." His All was now prepared for the closing act. The king was brought to trial. Bradshaw sat as president. The king, when marched in, sat down in the chair prepared for him, still wearing his hat, and none of the members uncovered for him. demeanor was that of stern contempt. He spoke firmly against the jurisdiction of the court, which adjourned. On that and the following days the same scene was repeated. The king asked for a conference with the parliament, which was refused. After a speech from Bradshaw to the king, enumerating all his offences, the clerk read the sentence, that his head should be severed from his body. The Scots protested against the proceedings; the Dutch interceded in his behalf; the Prince of Wales sent a blank sheet of paper, subscribed it with his name and sealed it with his arms, on which his father's judges might write what conditions they pleased as the price of his life. All in vain. There were only two clear days between the sentence and its execution. They were spent by Charles in devotion, and in taking leave of his third son, Prince Henry, and his daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. The death warrant was signed on Jan. 29, and the open street before Whitehall was named as the place of execution. At ten o'clock on the morning of the 30th, Charles walked across the Park from St. James's to Whitehall, where he spent about three hours in prayer, and then received the sacrament. Between two and three o'clock he was led out on to the scaffold, which was erected in front of the central window of the banqueting-hall. When Charles stepped out of the window upon the scaffold, he found it so surrounded with soldiers that he could not expect to be heard by any of the people. He addressed his discourse to the few persons who were about him; justified his own innocence in the late fatal wars, though he acknowledged the equity of his execution in the eyes of his Maker; and observed that an unjust sentence, which he had suffered to take effect, was now punished by an unjust sentence upon himself. When he was preparing himself for the block, Bishop Juxon, who had been allowed to attend him, called to him, "There is, sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. Consider, 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." "I go," replied the king, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place." At one blow his head was severed from his body. A man in a vizor performed the office of executioner; another, in a like disguise, held up to the spectators the head streaming with blood, and cried aloud, "This is the head of a traitor!" Jan. 30, 1649. Charles died in the forty-ninth year of his age and the twenty-fourth of his reign; and was buried at Windsor, Feb. 8. Nearly two centuries later, his coffin was opened in presence of George IV., and the features still showed that melancholy which is seen in the portraits by Vandyke. THE COMMONWEALTH. Charles I. was about one hour dead when proclamation was made in London, that whoever should proclaim a new king, without the authority of parliament, should be deemed a traitor. On Feb. 6 the commons-as they are likely to do one of these days-voted the House of Lords "useless and dangerous," and it sat no more till the Restoration, May 29, 1660. They adopted a new Great Seal, reopened the courts of law, and committed the executive government to a council of State, consisting of thirty-eight persons, Milton being Latin Secretary. The government of Ireland had been delivered up by the Marquis of Ormond to the parliament in 1646. After the king's death, Ormond was recalled by the Irish Catholics, and took nearly all the fortresses, except Dublin, Belfast, and Londonderry. Cromwell was now appointed general-in-chief and lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He left London on July 10, and reached Dublin on Aug. 18; stormed Drogheda Sept. 12, and Wexford Oct. 9: and, by putting their garrisons to the sword, intimidated the other fortresses into surrender, and struck terror alike into the native Irish and the royalist English. The conquest was finished by a short campaign in the following spring; more than 40,000 Irish were permitted to take service in the armies of France and Spain; and Cromwell turned his attention to Scotland, the triumph of the Independents and the execution of the king having entirely alienated the Scots, who now proclaimed Charles II. at Edinburgh. At Dunbar, Cromwell's army was opposed by Lesly, and wasted daily by sickness. At length the imprudent zeal of the preachers drove Lesly to try a battle. Cromwell saw his opportunity, and exclaiming, "The Lord hath delivered them into my hands," gained a complete victory. 4,000 Scots were killed, 10,000 taken prisoners, Edinburgh surrendered, and the "brewer's brat," as Cromwell was called by the Cavaliers, owing to his being the son of a Huntingdon brewer, became master of all the country south of the Forth. Meanwhile Charles endeavored to escape from the Covenanters in the Highlands; but he was brought back to Perth, and crowned at Scone, Jan. 1, 1651. Cromwell took the field, and Charles resolved upon a rapid march through England. Starting from Stirling on July 31, he advanced through Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Shropshire, and stopped to rest his army at Worcester, Aug. 22. But few joined his standard. The parliament proclaimed him and his adherents traitors, and sent new forces to join Cromwell, who had followed in rapid pursuit, leaving Monk to guard Scotland with 6,000 men. He reached Worcester on Aug. 28, and, after storming the forts, he fell upon Charles's army in the city, on the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar, Sept. 3. The Scots were slain or taken prisoners almost to a man. Charles escaped, and found shelter in a lone house, called Boscobel, through the noble loyalty of the farmer, Penderell, and his four brothers. On the approach of a party of soldiers, Charles took refuge with a companion in a large oak-tree, standing in an open space on the edge of the wood; and, to use his own words, "while we were in this tree, we see soldiers going up and down in the thickest of the wood, searching for persons escaped; we seeing them now. and then peeping out of the wood." This "Royal Oak" was long an object of veneration, and the descendants of the Penderells to this hour receive a pension for their loyalty. Other hairbreadth escapes followed; and, after trying successively at Bristol, Bridport, and Southampton, Charles at length embarked at Shoreham, Oct. 15, and landed at Fécamp in Normandy, Oct. 17. Cromweli returned to London, Oct. 12, and took up his residence in great state at Hampton Court. While Cromwell conquered Ireland and the Scots, Blake and other admirals had established the power of the Commonwealth on the seas. General Monk, afterward to make such a figure in the Restoration, completed the subjugation of Scotland, and Ireton that of Ireland. Galway, the last stronghold of the Catholics, was surrendered, July 10, 1651. The final settlement of both kingdoms was intrusted to parliamentary commissioners. The relations between Holland and England became interesting. The death of the Prince of Orange, the son-in-law of Charles I., 1650, seemed to open the way for the two republics, but the royalist refugees at the Hague insulted the English commissioners; the envoys of the Provinces, who came over to renew the negotiations after the battle of Worcester, met with a cold reception; and the parliament aimed a heavy blow at Dutch commerce by the celebrated Navigation Act, forbidding the importation of goods in foreign vessels, except those of the country that produced them. Mutual animosity led to open hostilities. Van Tromp, the Dutch admiral, forced the English admiral Blake to retreat up the Thames, whence he followed him, carrying a broom at his mast-head, as a sign that he had swept the seas of the English. Blake, however, beat his Dutch opponent later on, who was killed off Texel. Meanwhile a new revolution had been effected in England. From the conclusion of the Irish and Scotch wars, a permanent government had become necessary. Parliament, by a small majority, on Feb. 2, 1652, passed an act of amnesty, and reduced the army to 25,000. Cromwell resolved to wrest the government from them. After the army had sent up an imperious petition, Cromwell led three hundred soldiers down to the House, ordered them "to take away that bauble" (the mace), drove out the |