SRPER AND BROTHERS
 
 HISTORY 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 BY JACOB ABBOTT. 
 
 fa n a r a b f n a s. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN B Q U A R P..
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and forty-nine, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
 of New York. 
 
 Copyright, 1877, by JACOB ABBOTT.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE author of this series has made it his spe- 
 cial object to confine himself very strictly, even 
 in the most minute details which he records, to 
 historic truth. The narratives are not tales 
 founded upon history, but history itself, with- 
 out any embellishment or any deviations from 
 the strict truth, so far as it can now be discov- 
 ered by an attentive examination of the annals 
 written at the time when the events them- 
 selves occurred. In writing the narratives, 
 the author has endeavored to avail himself of 
 the best sources of information which this 
 country affords ; and though, of course, there 
 must be in these volumes, as in all historical 
 accounts, more or less of imperfection and er- 
 ror, there is no intentional embellishment. 
 Nothing is stated, not even the most minute 
 
 *-*x. 
 
 ; -
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 and apparently imaginary details, without what 
 was deemed good historical authority. The 
 readers, therefore, may rely upon the record 
 as the truth, and nothing but the truth, so far 
 as an honest purpose and a careful examina- 
 tion have been effectual in ascertaining it.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. INFANCY 13 
 
 ii. PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER 30 
 
 in. QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT . 52 
 
 IV. ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN 73 
 
 v. THE PRINCE'S RECEPTION AT PARIS 95 
 
 VI. NEGOTIATIONS WITH ANNE MARIA 112 
 
 VII. THE ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL 138 
 
 VIII. THE KING'S ESCAPE TO FRANCE 174 
 
 IX. THE RESTORATION 197 
 
 X. THE MARRIAGE 216 
 
 XI. CHARACTER AND REIGN 243 
 
 XII. CONCLUSION.. . 283
 
 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Page 
 THE DUTCH SQUADRON IN THE THAMES Frontlf piece. 
 
 THE PARTING AT DOVER 36 
 
 VIEW OF EXETER 55 
 
 THE LOUVRE 74 
 
 ESCAPE OF THE PRINCESS HENRIETTA 81 
 
 THE EVASION OF LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH 116 
 
 VIEW OF WORCESTER 146 
 
 THE KING AT BOSCOBEL 169 
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND 213 
 
 THE BRIDAL PARTY AT LISBON 236 
 
 CATHARINE OF BRAGANZA 240 
 
 THE BROADSTONE 261 
 
 THE MONUMENT . . . 265
 
 KING CHARLES II, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INFANCY. 
 
 Charles the First and Second. The name Charles dropped 
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND was 
 
 the son and successor of King Charles the 
 First. These two are the only kings of the name 
 of Charles that have appeared, thus far, in the 
 line of English sovereigns. Nor is it very prob- 
 able that there will soon be another. The reigns 
 of both these monarchs were stained and tar- 
 nished with many vices and crimes, and dark- 
 ened by national disasters of every kind, and 
 the name is thus connected with so many pain- 
 ful associations in the minds of men, that it 
 seems to have been dropped, by common con- 
 sent, in all branches of the royal family. 
 
 The reign of Charles i he First, as will be seen 
 by the history of his life in this series, was char- 
 acterized by a long and obstinate contest bo- 
 tween the king and the people, which brought 
 on at last a civil war, in which the king was
 
 L4 KING CHARLES II. [1030 
 
 Troubles of Charles's early life. A simile 
 
 defeated and taken prisoner, and in the end be- 
 headed on a block, before one of his own pala- 
 ces. During the last stages of this terrible con- 
 test, and before Charles waa himself taken pris- 
 oner, he was, as it were, a fugitive and an out- 
 law in his own dominions. His wife and fam- 
 ily were scattered in various foreign lands, his 
 cities and castles were in the hands of his ene- 
 mies, and his oldest son/the prince Charles, was 
 the object of special hostility. The prince in- 
 curred, therefore, a great many dangers, and 
 suffered many heavy calamities in his early 
 years. He lived to see these calamities pass 
 away, and, after they were gone, he enjoyed, so 
 far as his own personal safety and welfare were 
 concerned, a tranquil and prosperous life. The 
 storm, however, of trial and suffering which en- 
 veloped the evening of his father's days, dark- 
 ened the morning of his own. The life of Charles 
 the First was a river rising gently, from quiet 
 springs, in a scene of verdure and sunshine, and 
 flowing gradually into rugged and gloomy re- 
 gions, where at last it falls into a terrific abyss, 
 enveloped in darkness and storms. That ol 
 Charles the Second, on the other hand, rising 
 in the wild and rugged mountains where the 
 parent stream was ingulfed, commences its
 
 1630.] INFANCY. 15 
 
 Henrietta Maria. Her character and religion 
 
 course by leaping frightfully from precipice to 
 precipice, with turbid and foaming waters, but 
 emerges at last into a smooth and smiling land, 
 and flows through it prosperously to the sea. 
 
 Prince Charles's mother, the wife of Charles 
 the First, was a French princess. Her name 
 was Henrietta Maria. She was an accom- 
 plished, beautiful, and very spirited woman. 
 She was a Catholic, and the English people, 
 who were very decided in their hostility to the 
 Catholic faith, were extremely jealous of her. 
 They watched all her movements with the ut- 
 most suspicion. They were very unwilling that 
 an heir to the crown should arise in her family. 
 The animosity which they felt against her hus- 
 band the king, which was becoming every day 
 more and more bitter, seemed to be doubly in- 
 veterate and intense toward her. They publish- 
 ed pamphlets, in which they called her a daugh- 
 ter of Heth, a Canaanite, and an idolatress, and 
 expressed hopes that from such a worse than 
 pagan stock no progeny should ever spring. 
 
 Henrietta was at this time 1630 twenty- 
 one years of age, and had been married aboui. 
 four years. She had had one son, who had died 
 a few days after his birth. Of course, she did 
 not lead a \ery happy life in England. He?
 
 16 KING CHARLES II. [1630. 
 
 Religious dissensions. Birth of the prince 
 
 husband the king, like the majority of the En- 
 glish people, was a Protestant, and the differ- 
 ence was a far more important circumstance in 
 those days than it would be now ; though even 
 now a difference in religious faith, on points 
 which either party deems essential, is, in mar- 
 ried life, an obstacle to domestic happiness, 
 which comes to no termination, and admits of 
 no cure. If it were possible for reason and re- 
 flection to control the impetuous impulses of 
 youthful hearts, such differences of religious 
 faith would be regarded, where they exist, as 
 an insurmountable objection to a matrimonial 
 union. 
 
 The queen, made thus unhappy by religious 
 dissensions with her husband, and by the pub- 
 lic odium of which she was the object, lived in 
 considerable retirement and seclusion at St. 
 James's Palace, in Westminster, which is the 
 western part of London. Here her second son, 
 the subject of this history, was born, in May, 
 1 630, which was ten years after the landing of 
 the pilgrims on the Plymouth rock. The babe 
 was very far from being pretty, though he grew 
 up at last to be quite a handsome man. King 
 Charles was very much pleased at the birth of 
 liis son. He rode into London the next morn-
 
 1630.] INFANCY. 17 
 
 The king gives public thanks. The star seen at midday. 
 
 ing at the head of a long train of guards and 
 noble attendants, to the great cathedral church 
 of St. Paul's, to render thanks publicly to God 
 for the birth of his child and the safety of the 
 queen. While this procession was going through 
 the streets, all London being out to gaze upon 
 it, the attention of the vast crowd was attract- 
 ed to the appearance of a star glimmering faint- 
 ly in the sky at midday. This is an occurrence 
 not very uncommon, though it seldom, perhaps, 
 occurs when it has so many observers to wit- 
 ness it. The star was doubtless Venus, which, 
 in certain circumstances, is often bright enough 
 to be seen when the sun is above the horizon. 
 The populace of London, however, who were 
 not in those days very profound astronomers, re- 
 garded the shining of the star as a supernatu- 
 ral occurrence altogether, and as portending the 
 future greatness and glory of the prince whose 
 natal day it thus unexpectedly adorned. 
 
 Preparations were made for the baptism of 
 the young prince in July. The baptism of a 
 prince is an important affair, and there waa 
 one circumstance which gave a peculiar inter- 
 cst to that of the infant Charles. The Refor- 
 mation had not been long established in En- 
 gland, and this happened to be the first occa 
 B
 
 18 KING CHARLES II. [1630. 
 
 The baptism. The qionsora 
 
 sion on which an heir to the English crown had 
 been baptized since the Liturgy of the English 
 Church had been arranged. There is a chapel 
 connected with the palace of St. James, as is 
 usual with royal palaces in Europe, and even, 
 in fact, with the private castles and mansion? 
 of the higher nobility. The baptism took place 
 there. On such occasions it is usual for certain 
 persons to appear as sponsors, as they are called, 
 who undertake to answer for the safe and care- 
 ful instruction of the child in the principles of 
 the Christian faith. This is, of course, mainly 
 a form, the real function of the sponsors being 
 confined, as it would appear, to making mag- 
 nificent presents to their young godchild, in ac- 
 knowledgment of the distinguished honor con- 
 ferred upon them by then* designation to the 
 office which they hold. The sponsors, on this oc- 
 casion, were certain royal personages in France, 
 the relatives of the queen. They could not ap- 
 pear personally, and so they appointed proxies 
 from among the higher nobility of England, 
 who appeared at the baptism in their stead, and 
 made the presents to the child. One of these 
 proxies was a duchess, whc se gift was a jewel 
 valued at a sum in English money equal to thir- 
 ty thousand dollars.
 
 1630.J INFANCY. 19 
 
 Household of the little prince. Fees to servants and attendants 
 
 The oldest son of a king of England receives 
 the title of Prince of Wales ; and there was an 
 ancient custom of the realm, that an infant 
 prince of Wales should be under the care, in his 
 earliest years, of a Welsh nurse, so that the 
 first words which he should learn to speak might 
 be the vernacular language of his principality. 
 Such a nurse was provided for Charles. Rock- 
 ers for his cradle were appointed, and many oth- 
 er officers of his household, all the arrange- 
 ments being made in a very magnificent and 
 sumptuous manner. It is the custom in En- 
 gland to pay fees to the servants by which a 
 lady or gentleman is attended, even when a 
 guest in private dwellings ; and some idea may 
 be formed of the scale on which the pageantry 
 of this occasion was conducted, from the fact 
 that one of the lady sponsors who rode to the 
 palace in the queen's carriage, which was sent 
 for her on this occasion, paid a sum equal to 
 fifty dollars each to six running footmen who 
 attended the carriage, and a hundred dollars to 
 the coachman ; while a number of knights who 
 came on horseback and in armor to attend upon 
 the carriage, as it moved to the palace, receiv- 
 ed each a gratuity of two hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars. The state dresses on the occasion of this
 
 20 KING CHARLES II. [1630. 
 
 Portrait of the prince. The people jealous of his motter 
 
 baptism were very costly and splendid, being 
 of white satin trimmed with crimson. 
 
 The little prince was thus an object of great 
 attention at the very commencement of his days. 
 His mother had his portrait painted, and sent 
 it to her mother in France. She did not, how- 
 ever, in the letters which accompanied the pic- 
 ture, though his mother, praise the beauty of 
 her child. She said, in fact, that he was so 
 ugly that she was ashamed of him, though his 
 size and plumpness, she added, atoned for the 
 want of beauty. And then he was so comical- 
 ly serious and grave in the expression of his 
 countenance! the queen said she verily believ- 
 ed that he was wiser than herself. 
 
 As the young prince advanced in years, the 
 religious and political difficulties in the English 
 nation increased, and by the time that he had 
 arrived at an age when he could begin to re- 
 ceive impressions from the conversation and in- 
 tercourse of those around him, the Parliament 
 began to be very jealous of the influence which 
 his mother might exert. They were extreme- 
 ly anxious that he should be educated a Prot- 
 estant, and were very much afraid that hia 
 mother would contrive to initiate him secretly 
 into the ideas and practices of the Catholic faith
 
 1630.] INFANCY. 21 
 
 The crucifix and rosary. Action of Parliament 
 
 She insisted that she did not attempt to do this, 
 and perhaps she did not; but in those days it 
 was often considered right to make false pre- 
 tensions and to deceive, so far as this was nec- 
 essary to promote the cause of true religion 
 The queen did certainly make some efforts tc 
 instill Catholic principles into the minds of some 
 of her children; for she had other children after 
 the birth of Charles. She gave a daughter a 
 crucifix one day, which is a little image of Christ 
 upon the cross, made usually of ivory, or sil\Ter. 
 or gold, and also a rosary, which is a string of 
 beads, by means of which the Catholics are as- 
 sisted to count their prayers. Henrietta gave 
 hese things to her daughter secretly, and told 
 her to hide them in her pocket, and taught her 
 how to use them. The Parliament considered 
 such attempts to influence the minds of the roy- 
 al children as very heinous sins, and they made 
 such arrangements for secluding the young 
 prince Charles from his mother, and putting the 
 others under the guidance of Protestant teach- 
 ers and governors, as very much interfered with 
 Henrietta's desires to enjoy the society of hei 
 children. Since England was a Protestant 
 realm, a Catholic lady, in marrying an English 
 king, ought not to have expected, perhaps, tc
 
 22 KING CHARLES II. flb'30 
 
 The British Museum. Letter from Henrietta 
 
 have been allowed to bring up her children in 
 her own faith ; still, it must have been very hare! 
 for a mother to be forbidden to teach her own 
 children what she undoubtedly believed was the 
 only possible means of securing for them the fa- 
 vor and protection of Heaven. 
 
 There is in London a vast storehouse of books, 
 manuscripts, relics, curiosities, pictures, and 
 other memorials of by-gone days, called the 
 British Museum. Among the old records here 
 preserved are various letters written by Henri- 
 etta, and one or two by Charles, the young 
 prince, during his childhood. Here is one, for 
 instance, written by Henrietta to her child, 
 when the little prince was but eight years of 
 age, chiding him for not being willing to take 
 his medicine. He was at that time under the 
 c Large of Lord Newcastle. 
 
 "CHARLES, I am sorry that I must begin my first letter 
 with chiding you, because I hear that you will not take phis- 
 icke. I hope it was onlie for this day, and that to-morrow you 
 will do it ; for if you will not, I must come to you, and make 
 ' ycu take it ; for it is for your health. I have given order to 
 tni Lord of Newcastle to send mi word to-night whether you 
 will 01 not. Therefore I hope you will not give me the painea 
 t> goe ; and so I rest, your affectionate mother, 
 
 " HENRIETTE MARIE." 
 
 The letter was addressed 
 
 To Ml DEARE SONNE the
 
 I630.J INFANCY. 23 
 
 The difficulties of the king increase. He goes tc Scotland 
 
 The queen must have taken special pains 
 with this her first letter to her son, for, with all 
 its faults of orthography, it is very much more 
 correct than most of the epistles which she at- 
 tempted to write in English. She was very 
 imperfectly acquainted with the English lan- 
 guage, using, as she almost always did, in her 
 domestic intercourse, her own native tongue. 
 
 Time passed on, and the difficulties and con- 
 tests between King Charles and his people and 
 Parliament became more and more exciting and 
 alarming. One after another of the king's most 
 devoted and faithful ministers was arrested, 
 tried, condemned, and beheaded, notwithstand- 
 ing all the efforts which their sovereign mas- 
 ter could make to save tllem. Parties were 
 formed, and party spirit ran very high. Tu- 
 mults were continually breaking out about the 
 palaces, which threatened the personal safety 
 of the king and queen. Henrietta herself was 
 a special object of the hatred which these out- 
 breaks expressed. The king himself was half 
 distracted by the overwhelming difficulties of 
 his position. Bad as it was in England, it was 
 still worse in Scotland. There was an actual 
 rebelkon there, and the urgency of the danger 
 in that quarter was so great that Charles con
 
 24 KING CHARLES II. L 1630. 
 
 The queen goes to Oatiands. Her triala 
 
 eluded to go there, leaving the poor queen at 
 home to take care of herself and her little ones 
 as well as she could, with the few remaining 
 means of protection yet left at her disposal. 
 
 There was an ancient mansion, called Oat- 
 lands, not very far from London, where the 
 queen generally resided during the absence of 
 her husband. It was a lonely place, on low 
 and level ground, and surrounded by moats 
 filled with water, over which those who wished 
 to enter passed by draw-bridges. Henrietta 
 chose this place for her residence because she 
 thought she should be safer there from mobs 
 and violence. She kept the children all there 
 except the Prince of Wales, who was not al- 
 lowed to be wholly under her care. He, how 
 ever, often visited his mother, and she some" 
 times visited him. 
 
 During the absence of her husband, Queen 
 Henrietta was subjected to many severe and 
 heavy trials. Her communications with him 
 were often interrupted and broken. She felt a 
 very warm interest in the prosperity and sue- 
 cess of his expedition, and sometimes the tidings 
 she received fiom him encouraged her to hope 
 that all might yet be well. Here, for instance, 
 is a note which she addressed one day to an of-
 
 1641.] INFANCY. 25 
 
 Letter from the queen. Threats of Parliament 
 
 ficer who had sent her a letter from the king, 
 that had come inclosed to him. It is written 
 in a broken English, which shows how imper- 
 fectly the foreign lady had learned the language 
 of her adopted country. They who understand 
 the French language will be interested in ob- 
 serving that most of the errors which the writer 
 falls into are those which result naturally from 
 the usages of her mother tongue. 
 
 Queen Henrietta to Sir Edward Nicholas. 
 " MAISTRE NICHOLAS, I have reseaved your letter, and 
 that you send me from the king, which writes me word he 
 as been vere well reseaved in Scotland ; that both the armi 
 and the people have shewed a creat joy to see the king, and 
 such that theay say was never seen before. Fray God it may 
 continue. Your fraud, HENRIETTE MARIE R." 
 
 At one time during the king's absence in 
 Scotland the Parliament threatened to take the 
 queen's children all away from her, for fear, as 
 they said, that she would make papists of them. 
 This danger alarmed and distressed the queen 
 exceedingly. She declared that she did not in- 
 tend or desire to bring up her children in the 
 ( .-'atholic faith. She knew this was contrary to 
 the wish of the king her husband, as well as 
 of the people of England. In order to dimin- 
 ish the danger that the children would be taken
 
 26 KING CHARLES II. [1641. 
 
 The queen's alarms. Her spirited defense of her children. 
 
 away, she left Oatlands herself, and went to re- 
 side at o:her palaces, only going occasionally to 
 visit her children. Though she was thus ab- 
 sent from them in person, her heart was with 
 them all the time, and she was watching with 
 great solicitude and anxiety for any indications 
 of a design on the part of her enemies to come 
 and take them away. 
 
 At last she received intelligence that an 
 armed force was ordered to assemble one night 
 in the vicinity of Oatlands to seize her children, 
 under the pretext that the queen was herself 
 forming pians for removing them out of the 
 country and taking them to France. Henriet- 
 ta was a lady of great spirit and energy, and 
 this threatened danger to her children aroused 
 all her powers. She sent immediately to all 
 the friends about her on whom she could rely, 
 and asked them to come, armed and equipped, 
 and with as many followers as they could mus- 
 ter, to the park at Oatlands that night. There 
 were also then in and near London a number 
 of officers of the army, absent from their posts 
 yr. furlough. She sent similar orders to these 
 All obeyed the summons with eager alacrity 
 The queen mustered and armed her own house- 
 hold, too, down to the lowest servants of the
 
 INFANCY. 27 
 
 The queen's children. Their names and ag>;n 
 
 kitchen. By these means quite a little army 
 was collected in the park at Oatlands, the sep- 
 arate parties coming in, one after another, in 
 the evening and night. This guard patrolled 
 the grounds till morning, the queen herself an- 
 imating them by her presence and energy. 
 The children, whom the excited mother was 
 thus guarding, like a lioness defending her 
 young, were all the time within the mansion, 
 awaiting in infantile terror some dreadful ca- 
 lamity, they scarcely knew what, which all this 
 excitement seemed to portend. 
 
 The names and ages of the queen's children 
 at this time were as follows : 
 
 Charles, prince of Wales, the subject of this 
 story, eleven. 
 
 Mary, ten. Young as she was, she was al- 
 ready married, having been espoused a short 
 time before to William, prince of Orange, who 
 was one year older than herself. 
 
 James, duke of York, seven. He became 
 afterward King James II. 
 
 Elizabeth, six. 
 
 Henry, an infant only a few months old. 
 
 The night passed away without any attack, 
 though a considerable force assembled in the vi- 
 cinity, which was, however, soon after disband-
 
 28 KING CHARLES 11. [1641. 
 
 Preparations for escape. The king's return. 
 
 ed. The queen's fears were, nevertheless, not 
 allayed. She began to make arrangements for 
 escaping from the kingdom in case it should 
 become necessary to do so. She sent a certain 
 faithful friend and servant to Portsmouth with 
 orders to get some vessels ready, so that she 
 could fly there with her children and embark 
 at a moment's notice, if these dangers and 
 alarms should continue. 
 
 She did not, however, have occasion to avail 
 herself of these preparations. Affairs seemed 
 to take a more favorable turn. The king came 
 back from Scotland. He was received by his 
 people, on his arrival, with apparent cordiality 
 and good will. The queen was, of course, re- 
 joiced to welcome him home, and she felt re- 
 lieved and protected by his presence. The city 
 of London, which had been the main seat of 
 disaffection and hostility to the royal family, 
 began to show symptoms of returning loyalty 
 and friendly regard. In reciprocation for this, 
 the king determined on making a grand entry 
 into the city, to pay a sort of visit to the au- 
 thorities. He rode, on this occasion, in a splen- 
 did chariot of state, with the little prince by his 
 side. Queen Henrietta came next, in an open 
 carriage of her own. and the other children,,
 
 1641.] INFANCY. 29 
 
 The king's entry into London. Prospects brighten, 
 
 with other carriages, followed in the train. A 
 long cortege of guards and attendants, richly 
 dressed and magnificently mounted, preceded 
 and followed the royal family, while the streets 
 were lined with thousands of spectators, who 
 waved handkerchiefs and banners, and shouted 
 God save the king ! In the midst of this scene 
 of excitement and triumph, Henrietta rode qui- 
 etly along, her anxieties relieved, her sorrows 
 and trials ended, and her heart bounding with 
 happiness and hope. She was once more, as 
 she conceived, reunited to her husband and her 
 children, and reconciled to the people of hei 
 realm, She thought her troubles were over 
 Alas ! they had, on the contrary, scarcely bejjun.
 
 30 K/NG CHARLES II. 11642 
 
 Fallacious hopes. Tr rmbkg thicken 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 
 
 FflHE indications and promises of returning 
 -- peace and happiness which gave Prince 
 Charles's mother so much animation and hope 
 after the return of her husband from Scotland 
 were all very superficial and fallacious. The 
 real grounds of the quarrel between the king 
 and his Parliament, and of the feelings of alien- 
 ation and ill will cherished toward the queen, 
 were all, unfortunately, as deep and extensivt 
 as ever ; and the storm, which lulled treacher- 
 ously for a little time, broke forth soon after- 
 ward anew, with a frightful violence which it 
 was evident that nothing could withstand. This 
 new onset of disaster and calamity was produced 
 in such a way that Henrietta had to reproach 
 herself with being the cause of its coming. 
 
 She had often represented to the king that, 
 in her opinion, one main cause of the difficul- 
 ties he had suffered was that he did not act ef- 
 ficiently and decidedly, and like a man , in put- 
 ting down the opposition manifested against
 
 1642.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOIHER. 31 
 
 The queen's advice. The five membeia 
 
 him on the part of his subjects ; and now, soon 
 after his return from Scotland, on some new 
 spirit of disaffection showing itself in Parlia 
 ment, she urged him to act at once energetical- 
 ly and promptly against it. She proposed to 
 him to take an armed force with him, and pro- 
 ceed boldly to the halls where the Parliament 
 was assembled, and arrest the leaders of the 
 party who were opposed to him. There were 
 five of them who were specially prominent. 
 The queen believed that if these five men were 
 seized and imprisoned in the Tower, the rest 
 would be intimidated and overawed, and the 
 monarch's lost authority and power would be 
 restored again. 
 
 The king was persuaded, partly by the dic- 
 tates of his own judgment, and partly by the 
 urgency of the queen, to make the attempt. 
 The circumstances of this case, so far as the 
 action of the king was concerned in them, are 
 fully related in the history of Charles the First. 
 Here we have only to speak of the queen, who 
 was left in a state of great suspense and anxi- 
 ety in her palace at Whitehall while her hus- 
 band was gone on his dangerous mission. 
 
 The plan of the king to make Ihis irruption 
 into the great legislative assembly of the na-
 
 32 KING CHARLE? II [L642 
 
 Tk3 queen's suspense. Lady Carlisle 
 
 tion had been kept, so they supposed, a very 
 profound secret, lest the members \\hom he was. 
 going to arrest should receive warning of th<;ir 
 danger and fly. When the time arrived, the 
 king bade Henrietta farewell, saying that sho 
 might wait there an hour, and if she received 
 no ill news from him during that time, she 
 might be sure that he had been successful, and 
 that he was once more master of his kingdom. 
 The queen remained in the apartment where 
 the king had left her, looking continually at the 
 watch which she held before her, and counting 
 the minutes impatiently as the hands moved 
 slowly on. She had with her one confidential 
 friend, the Lady Carlisle, who sat with her and 
 seemed to share her solicitude, though she had 
 not been intrusted with the secret. The time 
 passed on. No ill tidings came ; and at length 
 the hour fully expired, and Henrietta, able to 
 contain herself no longer, exclaimed with exul- 
 tation, " Rejoice with me ; the hour is gone. 
 From this time my husband is master of his 
 realm. His enemies in Parliament are all ar- 
 rested before this time, and his kingdom is 
 henceforth his own." 
 
 It certainly is possible for kings and queens 
 to have faithful friends, but there are so many
 
 1842.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 33 
 
 The king's attempt fails. Storm of indignation. 
 
 motives and inducements to falsehood and 
 treachery in court, that it is not possible, gener- 
 ally, for them to distinguish false friends from 
 true. The Lady Carlisle was a confederate 
 with some of the very men whom Charles had 
 gone to arrest. On receiving this intimation 
 of their danger, she sent immediately to the 
 houses of Parliament, which were very near at 
 hand, and the obnoxious members received 
 warning in time to fly. The hour had indeed 
 elapsed, but the king had met with several un- 
 expected delays, both in his preparations for 
 going, and on his way to the House of Com- 
 mons, so that when at last he entered, the mem- 
 bers were gone. His attempt, however, un 
 successful as it was, evoked a general storm of 
 indignation and anger, producing thus ail the 
 exasperation which was to have been expected 
 from the measure, without in any degree ac- 
 complishing its end. The poor queen was over- 
 whelmed with confusion and dismay when she 
 learned the result. She had urged her husband 
 forward to an extremely dangerous and desper- 
 ate measure, and then by her thoughtless indis- 
 cretion bad completely defeated the end. A 
 universal and utterly uncontrollable excitement 
 burnt like a clap of thunder upon the country 
 C
 
 34 KING CHARLES 11. [10-12 
 
 Tumultuous proceedings. The queen's counsel 
 
 as this outrage, as they termed it, of the king 
 became known, and the queen was utterly ap- 
 palled at the extent and magnitude of the mis 
 chief she had done. 
 
 The mischief was irremediable. The spirit 
 of resentment and indignation which the king's 
 action had aroused, expressed itself in such tu- 
 multuous and riotous proceedings as to render 
 the continuance of the royal family in London 
 no longer safe. They accordingly removed up 
 the river to Hampton Court, a famous palace 
 on the Thames, not many miles from the city 
 1 1 ere they remained but a very short time. The 
 dangers which beset them were evidently in- 
 creasing. It was manifest that the king must 
 either give up what he deemed the just rights 
 and prerogatives of the crown, or prepare to 
 maintain them by war. The queen urged him 
 to choose the latter alternative. To raise the 
 means for doing this, she proposed that she should 
 herself leave the country, taking with her her 
 jewels, and such other articles of great value 
 as could be easily carried away, and by means 
 of them and her personal exertions, raise funds 
 and forces to aid her husband in the approach- 
 ing struggle. 
 
 The king yielded to the necessity which
 
 i(J42.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 37 
 
 Henrietta seta out for Holland. Dover 
 
 seemed to compel the adaption of this plan. He 
 accordingly set off to accompany Henrietta to 
 the shore. She took with her the young Prin- 
 cess Mary ; in fact, the ostensible object of her 
 journey was to convey her to her young hus- 
 band, the Prince of Orange, in Holland. In 
 such infantile marriages as theirs, it is not cus- 
 tomary, though the marriage ceremony be per- 
 formed, for the wedded pair to live together till 
 they arrive at years a little more mature. 
 
 The queen was to embark at Dover. Dovei 
 was in those days the great port of egress from 
 England to the Continent. There was, and is 
 still, a great castle on the cliffs to guard the 
 harbor and the town. These cliffs are pictur- 
 esque and high, falling off abruptly in chalky 
 precipices to the sea. Among them at ono 
 place is a sort of dell, by which there is a grad- 
 ual descent to the water. King Charles stood 
 upon the shore when Henrietta sailed away, 
 watching the ship as it receded from his view, 
 with tears in his eyes. With all the faults, 
 characteristic of her nation, which Henrietta 
 possessed, she was now his best and truest 
 friend, and when she was gone he felt that he 
 was left desolate and alone in the midst of the 
 appalling dangers by which he was environed
 
 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Preparation! for war. The queen in Holland 
 
 The king went back to Hampton Court 
 Parliament sent him a request that he would 
 come and reside nearer to the capital, and en- 
 joined upon him particularly not to remove the 
 young Prince of Wales. In the mean time 
 they began to gather together their forces, and 
 to provide munitions of war. The king did the 
 same. He sent the young prince to the west- 
 ern part of the kingdom, and retired himself to 
 the northward, to the city of York, which he 
 made his head-quarters. In a word, both par- 
 ties prepared for war. 
 
 In the mean time, Queen Henrietta was ver^ 
 successful in her attempts to obtain aid for her 
 husband in Holland. Her misfortunes awaken- 
 ed pity, with which, through her beauty, and 
 the graces of her conversation and address, there 
 was mingled a feeling analogous to love. Then, 
 besides, there was something in her spirit of 
 earnest and courageous devotion to her husband 
 in the hours of his calamity that won for her a 
 strong degree of admiration and respect. 
 
 There are no efforts which are so efficient 
 and powerful in the accomplishment of their 
 end as those which a faithful wife makes to res- 
 cue and save her husband. The heart, general- 
 ly w timid, seems to be inspired on such occa-
 
 1643 J PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 39 
 
 Henrietta raises large eums of money. The little bride. 
 
 sions with a preternatural courage, and the arm, 
 at other times so feeble and helpless, is nerved 
 with unexpected strength. Every one is ready 
 to second and help such efforts, and she who 
 makes them is surprised at her success, and 
 wonders at the extent and efficiency of the pow- 
 ers which she finds herself so unexpectedly able 
 to wield. 
 
 The queen interested all classes in Holland 
 in her plans, and by her personal credit, and tho 
 security of her diamonds and rubies, she bor- 
 'Towed large sums of money from the govern- 
 ment, from the banks, and from private mer- 
 ehants. The sums which she thus raised 
 amounted to two millions of pounds sterling, 
 equal to nearly ten millions of dollars. While 
 these negotiations were going on she remained 
 in Holland, with her little daughter, the bride, 
 under her care, whose education she was carry- 
 ing forward all the time with the help of suita- 
 ble masters ; for, though married, Mary was yet 
 a child. The little husband was going on at 
 the same time with his studies too. 
 
 Henrietta remained in Holland a year. She 
 expended a part of her money in purchasing 
 military stores and supplies for her husband, 
 and then set sail with them, and with the mon-
 
 40 KING CHARLES II [1643 
 
 Henrietta sails for England. Terrific storm, 
 
 ey not expended, to join the king. The voy- 
 age was a very extraordiirary one. A great 
 gale of wind began to blow from the northeast 
 soon after the ships left the port, which increas- 
 ed in violence for nine days, until at lenght the 
 sea was lashed to such a state of fury that the 
 company lost all hope of ever reaching the line!. 
 The queen had with her a large train of attend- 
 ants, both ladies and gentlemen; and there 
 were also in her suit a number of Catholic 
 priests, who always accompanied her as the 
 chaplains and confessors of her household. 
 These persons had all been extremely sick, and 
 had been tied into their beds on account of the 
 excessive rolling of the ship, and their own ex- 
 haustion and helplessness. The danger increas- 
 ed, until at last it became so extremely immi- 
 nent that all the self-possession of the passen- 
 gers was entirely gone. In such protracted 
 storms, the surges of the sea strike the ship 
 with terrific force, and vast volumes of water 
 fall heavily upon the decks, threatening instant 
 destruction the ship plunging awfully after 
 the shock, as if sinking to rise no more. At 
 such moments, the noble ladies who accompa- 
 nied the queen on this voyage would be over- 
 whelmed with terror, and they filled the cabins
 
 1643.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MCTHER. 43 
 
 Composure of the queen. Terror of her companion* 
 
 with their shrieks of dismay. All this time 
 the queen herself was quiet and composed. She 
 toll the ladies not to fear, for " queens of En- 
 gland were never drowned." 
 
 At one time, when the storm was at its height, 
 the whole party were entirely overwhelmed with 
 consternation and terror. Two of the ships 
 were engulfed and lost. The queen's company 
 thought that their own was sinking. They 
 came crowding into the cabin where the priests 
 were lying, sick and helpless, and began all to- 
 gether to confess their sins to them, in the Cath- 
 olic mode, eager in these their last moments, as 
 they supposed, to relieve their consciences in any 
 way from the burdens of guilt which oppressed 
 them. The queen herself did not participate 
 in these fears. She ridiculed the absurd con- 
 fessions, and rebuked the senseless panic to 
 which the terrified penitents were yielding; 
 and whenever any mitigation of the violence of 
 the gale made it possible to do any thing to di- 
 vert the minds of her company, she tried to make 
 amusement out of the odd and strange dilem- 
 mas in which they were continually placed, and 
 the ludicrous disasters and accidents which were 
 always befalling her servants and officers of 
 state, in their attempts to continue) the etiquette
 
 42 KING CHARLES II. [1643 
 
 The ships return to port The queen sails again 
 
 and ceremony proper in attendance upon a 
 queen, and from which even the violence of such 
 a storm, and the imminence of such danger, 
 could not excuse them. After a fortnight of 
 danger, terror, and distress, the ships that re- 
 mained of the little squadron succeeded in get' 
 ting back to the port from which they had sailed. 
 The queen, however, did not despair. After 
 a few days of rest and refreshment she set sail 
 again, though it was now in the dead of winter. 
 The result of this second attempt was a pros- 
 perous voyage, and the little fleet arrived in due 
 time at Burlington, on the English coast, where 
 the queen landed her money and her stores. 
 She had, however, after all, a very narrow es- 
 cape, for she was very closely pursued on her 
 voyage by an English squadron. They came 
 into port the night after she had landed, and 
 the next morning she was awakened by the 
 crashing of cannon balls and the bursting of 
 bomb-shells in the houses around her, and foundj 
 on hastily rising, that the village was under a 
 bombardment from the ships of her enemies 
 She hurried on some sort of dress, and sallied 
 forth with her attendants to escape into the 
 fields. This incident is related fully in the his- 
 tor) of her husband, Charles the First; but there
 
 1643.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 48 
 
 The story of Mike. The queen's heroism. 
 
 is one circumstance, not there detailed, which 
 illustrates very strikingly that strange combi- 
 nation of mental greatness and energy worthy 
 of a queen, with a simplicity of affections and 
 tastes which we should scarcely expect in a 
 child, that marked Henrietta's character. She 
 had a small dog. Its name was Mike. They 
 say it was an ugly little animal, too, in all eyes 
 but her own. This dog accompanied her on the 
 voyage, and landed with her on the English 
 shore. On the morning, however, when she 
 fled from her bed to escape from the balls and 
 bomb-shells of the English ships, she recollect- 
 ed, after getting a short distance from the house, 
 that Mike was left behind. She immediately 
 returned, ran up to her chamber again, seized 
 Mike, who was sleeping unconsciously upon her 
 bed, and bore the little pet away from the sceno 
 of ruin which the balls and bursting shells were 
 making, all astonished, no doubt, at so hurried 
 and violent an abduction. The party gained 
 the open fields, and seeking shelter in a dry 
 trench, which ran along the margin of a field, 
 they crouched there together till the command- 
 er of the ships was tired of firing. 
 
 The queen's destination was York, the great 
 and ancient capital of the north of England
 
 44 KING CHARLES II. [164& 
 
 The queen's march to York. Her mjrtial bearing. 
 
 York was the head-quarters of King Charles's 
 army, though he himself was not there at this 
 time. As soon as news of the queen's arrival 
 reached York, the general in command there 
 sent down to the coast a detachment of two 
 thousand men to escort the heroine, and the 
 stores and money which she had brought, to her 
 husband's capital. At the head of this force 
 she marched in triumph across the country, 
 with a long train of ordnance and baggage-wag- 
 pns loaded with supplies. There were six pieces 
 of cannon, and two hundred and fifty wagons 
 loaded with the money which she had obtained 
 in Holland. The whole country was excited 
 with enthusiasm at the spectacle. The enthu- 
 siasm was increased by the air and bearing of 
 the queen, who, proud and happy at this sue 
 cessful result of all her dangers and toils, rode 
 on horseback at the head of her army like a gon- 
 eral, spoke frankly to the soldiers, sought no 
 shelter from the sun and rain, and ate her meals, 
 like the rest of the army, in a bivouac in the 
 open field. She had been the means, hi some 
 degree, of leading the king into his difficulties, 
 by the too vigorous measures she had urged 
 him to take in the case of the attempted par- 
 liamentary arrest She seems to ha vo been de
 
 1643.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 45 
 
 Meeting of the king and queen. Their mutual affection 
 
 tcrmined to make that spirit of resolution and 
 energy in her, which caused the mischief then, 
 atone for it by its efficient usefulness now. Sho 
 stopped on her march to summon and take a 
 town, which had been hitherto in the hands of 
 her husband's enemies, adding thus the glory 
 of a conquest to the other triumphs of the day. 
 
 In fact, the queen's heart was filled with pride 
 and pleasure at this conclusion of her enterprise, 
 as is very manifest from the frequent letters 
 which she wrote to her husband at the time. 
 The king's cause revived. They gradually ap- 
 proached each other in the operations which they 
 severally conducted, until at last the king, after 
 a great and successful battle, set off at the head 
 of a large escort to come and meet his wife. 
 They met in the vale of Keynton, near Edge- 
 hill, which is on the southern borders of War- 
 wickshire, near the center of the island. The 
 meeting was, of course, one of the greatest ex- 
 citement and pleasure. Charles praised the high 
 courage and faithful affection of his devoted wife, 
 and she was filled with happiness in enjoying 
 the love and gratitude of her husband. 
 
 The pressure of outward misfortune and ca- 
 lamity has always the same strong tendency as 
 was manifest in this case to invigorate anew
 
 46 KING CHARLES 1 1. [1643. 
 
 Former dissensions. Dispute about the appointment of treasurers 
 
 all the ties of conjugal and domestic affection, 
 and thus to create the happiness which it seems 
 to the world to destroy. In the early part of 
 Charles and Henrietta's married life, while ev- 
 cry thing external went smoothly and prosper- 
 ously with them, they were very far from be- 
 ing happy. They destroyed each other's peace 
 by petty disputes and jars about things of lit- 
 tle consequence, in which they each had scarce- 
 ly any interest except a desire to carry the point 
 and triumph over the other. King Charles him- 
 self preserved a record of one of these disputes 
 The queen had received, at the time of her mar- 
 riage, certain estates, consisting of houses and 
 lands, the income of which was to be at her dis- 
 posal, and she wished to appoint certain treas- 
 urers to take charge of this property. She had 
 made out a list of these officers in consultation 
 with her mother. She gave this list to Charle? 
 one night, after he was himself in bed. He said 
 he would look at it in the morning, but that she 
 must remember that, by the marriage treaty, 
 he was to appoint those officers. She said, in 
 reply, that a part of those whom she had named 
 were English. The king said that he would 
 look at the paper in the morning, and such of 
 the English names as he approved he would
 
 1643.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 47 
 
 The queen obstinate. The kins not less sa 
 
 confirm, but that he could not appoint any 
 Frenchmen. The queen answered that she and 
 her mother had selected the men whom she had 
 named, and she would not have any body else. 
 Charles rejoined that the business was not ei- 
 ther in her power or her mother's, and if she 
 relied on such an influence to effect her wishes, 
 he would not appoint any body that she recom- 
 mended. The queen was very much hurt at 
 this, and began to be angry. She said that if 
 she could not put in whom she chose, to have 
 the care of her property, she would not have 
 any such property. He might take back her 
 houses and lands, and allow her what he pleased 
 in money in its stead. Charles replied by tell- 
 ing her to remember whom she was speaking 
 to ; that he could not be treated in that manner ; 
 and then the queen, giving way to lamentations 
 and tears, said she was wretched and miserable ; 
 every thing that she wanted was denied her, 
 and whatever she recommended was refused 
 on the very account of her recommendation. 
 Charles tried to speak, but she would not hear ; 
 she went on with her lamentations and com- 
 plaints, interrupted only by her own sobs of 
 passion and grief. 
 
 The reader may perhaps imagine that this
 
 48 KING CHARLES II. [1643 
 
 Frolicking party in the queen's apartments. The king's displeasure 
 
 must have been an extreme and unusual in- 
 stance of dissension between this royal pair ; but 
 it was not. Cases of far greater excitement 
 and violence sometimes occurred. The French 
 servants and attendants, whom the queen very 
 naturally preferred, and upon whom the king 
 was as naturally inclined to look with suspicion 
 and ill will, were a continual source of disagree- 
 ment between them. At last, one afternoon, 
 the king, happening to come into that part of the 
 palace at "Whitehall where the queen's apart- 
 ments were situated, and which was called " the 
 queen's side," found there a number of her gen- 
 tlemen and l ady attendants in a great frolic, 
 capering aud dancing in a way which the gay 
 Frenchmen probably considered nothing extra- 
 ordinary, but which King Charles regarded as 
 very irrererent and unsuitable conduct to be 
 witnessed in the presence of an English queen. 
 He was very much lispleased. He advanced 
 to Henrietta, took her by the arm, conducted 
 her sternly to his own side of the palace, brought 
 her into one of his own apartments, and locked 
 the door. He then sent an officer to direct all 
 the French servants and attendants in tho 
 queen's apartments to leave the palace imme- 
 diately, and repair to Somerset House, which
 
 1643. j PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 49 
 
 The queen's attendants expelled. Her exasperation 
 
 was not far distant, and remain there till they 
 received further orders. The officer executed 
 these commands in a very rough manner. The 
 French women shrieked and cried, and filled 
 the court-yard of the palace with their clamor ; 
 but the officer paid no regard to this noise. He 
 turned them all out of the apartments, and locked 
 the doors after them. 
 
 The queen was rendered quite frantic with 
 vexation and rage at these proceedings. She 
 flew to the windows to see and to bid fareweli 
 to her friends, and to offer them expressions of 
 her sympathy. The king pulled her away, tell- 
 ing her to be quiet and submit, for he was de- 
 termined that they should go. The queen was 
 determined that she would not submit. She 
 attempted to open the windows ; the king held 
 them down. Excited now to a perfect phrensy 
 in the struggle, she began to break out the panes 
 with her fist, while Charles exerted all his force 
 to restrain and confine her, by grasping her 
 wrists and endeavoring to force her away. 
 What a contrast between the k w and sordid 
 selfishness and jealousy evinced in such dis- 
 sensions as these, and the lofty and heroic de- 
 votedness and fidelity which this wife afterward 
 i winced for her husband in the harassing cares. 
 B
 
 50 KING CHARLES 11. F1643. 
 
 L 
 
 The contrast The queen's spirit and character. 
 
 the stormy voyages, and the martial exposures 
 and fatigues which she endured for his sake ! 
 And yet, notwithstanding this great apparent 
 contrast, and the wide difference in the estima- 
 tion which mankind form of the conduct of the 
 actor in these different scenes, still we can see 
 that it is, after all, the impulse of the same lofty 
 ind indomitable spirit which acted in both. The 
 soul itself of the queen was not altered, nor even 
 the character of her action. The change was 
 in the object and aim. In the one case she was 
 contending against the authority of a husband, 
 to gain petty and useless victories in domestic 
 strife ; in the other, the same spirit and energy 
 were expended in encountering the storms and 
 tempests of outward adversity to sustain her 
 husband and protect her children. Thus the 
 change was a change of circumstances rathei 
 than of character. 
 
 The change was, however, none the less im- 
 portant on that account in its influence on the 
 king. It restored to him the affection and sym* 
 pathy of his wife, and filled his heart with in- 
 ward happiness. It was a joyous change to 
 him, though it was produced by sufferings and 
 sorrows ; for it was the very pressure of out- 
 ward calamity that made his wife his friend
 
 L643.] PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER. 51 
 
 The king inarches to Oxfjrd. He calls a Parliament 
 
 again, and restored his domestic peace. In how 
 many thousand instances is the same effect pro- 
 duced in a still more striking manner, though 
 on a less conspicuous stage, than in the case of 
 this royal pair ! And how many thousands of 
 outwardly prosperous families there are, from 
 which domestic peace and happiness are gone, 
 and nothing but the pressure from without of 
 affliction or calamity can ever restore them ! 
 
 In consequence, in a great measure, of Heu 
 rietta's efficient help, the king's affairs greatly 
 improved, and, for a time, it seemed as if he 
 would gain an ultimate and final victory over 
 his enemies, and recover his lost dominion. He 
 advanced to Oxford, and made his head-quar- 
 ters there, and commenced the preparations for 
 once more getting possession of the palaces and 
 fortresses of London. He called together a Par- 
 liament at Oxford ; some members came, and 
 were regularly organized in the two houses of 
 Lords and Commons, while the rest remained 
 at London and continued their sittings thera 
 Thus there were two governments, two Parlia* 
 ments, and two capitals in England, and the 
 whole realm was rent and distracted by the re- 
 spective claims of these contending powers ovei 
 the allegiance of thft subjects and the govern- 
 ment of the realm.
 
 52 KING CHAHLES II. 
 
 The clouds thicken Defeat of the king's armios 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 
 
 brightening of the prospects in King 
 -"- Charles's affairs which was produced, for a 
 time, by the queen's vigorous and energetic ac- 
 tion, proved to be only a temporary gleam after 
 all. The clouds and darkness soon returned 
 again, and brooded over his horizon more gloom- 
 ily than ever. The Parliament raised and or- 
 ganized new and more powerful armies. The 
 great Republican general, Oliver Cromwell, who 
 afterward became so celebrated as the Protect- 
 or in the time of the Commonwealth, came into 
 the field, and was very successful in all his mil- 
 itary plans. Other Republican generals appear- 
 ed in all parts of the kingdom, and fought with 
 great determination and great success, driving 
 the armies of the king before them wherever 
 they moved, and reducing town after town, and 
 castle after castle, until it began to appear evi- 
 dent that the whole kingdom would soon fall 
 into their hands. 
 
 In the mean time, the family of the queen
 
 1644.J QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 53 
 
 rhc king's children. Prince Charles. 
 
 were very much separated from each other, the 
 children having been left in various places, ex- 
 posed each to different privations and dangers. 
 Two or three of them were in London in the 
 hands of their father's enemies. Mary, the 
 young bride of the Prince of Orange, was in 
 Holland. Prince Charles, the oldest son, who 
 was now about fourteen years of age, was at 
 the head of one of his father's armies in the 
 west of England. Of course, such a boy could 
 not be expected to accomplish any thing as a 
 general, or jeven to exercise any real military 
 command. He, however, had his place at the 
 head of a considerable force, and though there 
 were generals with him to conduct all the op- 
 erations, and to direct the soldiery, they were 
 nominally the lieutenants of the prince, and act- 
 ed, in all cases, in their young commander's 
 name. Their great duty was, however, after 
 all, to take care of their charge ; and the army 
 which accompanied Charles was thus rather an 
 escort and a guard, to secure his safety, than a 
 force from which any aid was to be expected in 
 the recovery of the kingdom. 
 
 The queen did every thing in her power to 
 sustain the sinking fortunes of her husband, but 
 in vain. At length, in June, 1644, she found
 
 54 KING CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 Advance of the king's enemies. The queen retires to Exeter 
 
 herself unable to continue any longer such war- 
 like and masculine exposures and toils. It be- 
 came necessary for ner to ssek some place of 
 retreat, where she could enjoy, for a time at 
 least, the quiet and repose now essential to the 
 preservation of her life. Oxford was no longer 
 a place of safety. The Parliament had ordered 
 her impeachment on account of her having 
 brought in arms and munitions of war from for- 
 eign lands, to disturb, as they said, the peace 
 of the kingdom. The Parliamentary armies 
 were advancing toward Oxford, and she was 
 threatened with being shut up and besieged 
 there. She accordingly left Oxford, and went 
 down to the sea-coast to Exeter, a strongly-for- 
 tified place, on a hill surrounded in part by oth- 
 er hills, and very near the sea. There was a 
 palace within the walls, where the queen thought 
 she could enjoy, for a time at least, the needed 
 seclusion and repose. The king accompanied 
 her for a few miles on her journey, to a place 
 called Abingdon, which is in the neighborhood 
 of Oxford, and there the unhappy pair bade each 
 other farewell, with much grief and many tears 
 They never met again. 
 
 Henrietta continued her sorrowful journey 
 alone. She reached the sea-coast in the south-
 
 1644.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 57 
 
 The queen's destitution. Birth of a daughter. 
 
 western part of England, where Exeter is sit- 
 uated, and shut herself up hi the place of her 
 retreat. She was in a state of great destitu- 
 tion, for Charles's circumstances were now so 
 reduced that he could afford her very little aid. 
 She sent across the Channel to her friends in 
 France, asking them to help her. They sent 
 immediately the supplies that she needed ar- 
 ticles of clothing, a considerable sum of money, 
 and a nurse. She retained the clothing and 
 the nurse, and a little of the money ; the rest 
 she sent to Charles. She was, however, now 
 herself tolerably provided for in her new home, 
 and here, a few weeks afterward, her sixth child 
 was born. It was a daughter. 
 
 The queen's long-continued exertions and ex- 
 posures had seriously impaired her health, and 
 she lay, feeble and low, in her sick chamber for 
 about ten days, when she learned to her dis- 
 may that one of the Parliamentary generals was- 
 advancing at the head of his army to attack the> 
 town which she had made her refuge. This 
 general's name was Essex. The queen sent a 
 messenger out to meet Essex, asking him to 
 allow her to withdraw from the town before he 
 should invest it with his armies. She said that 
 she was very weak and feeble, and unable to
 
 58 KING CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 The queen's danger. Her escape. 
 
 endure the privations and alarms which the in- 
 habitants of a besieged town have necessarily 
 to bear; and she asked his permission, there- 
 fore, to retire to Bristol, till her health should 
 be restored. Essex replied that he could not 
 give her permission to retire from Exeter ; that, 
 in fact, the object of his coming there was to 
 escort her to London, to bring her before Par- 
 liament, to answer to the charge of treason. 
 
 The queen perceived immediately that noth- 
 ing but the most prompt and resolute action 
 could enable her to escape the impending dan- 
 ger. She had but little bodily strength remain- 
 ing, but that little was stimulated and renewed 
 by the mental resolution and energy which, as 
 is usual in temperaments like hers, burned all 
 the brighter in proportion to the urgency of the 
 danger which called it into action. She rose 
 from her sick bed, and began to concert meas- 
 ures for making her escape. She confided her 
 plan to three trusty friends, one gentleman, one 
 lady, and her confessor, who, as her spiritual 
 teacher and guide, was her constant companion. 
 She disguised herself and these her attendants, 
 and succeeded in getting through the gate? 
 of Exeter without attracting any observation, 
 This was before Essex arrived She found,
 
 1644.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 59 
 
 The queen conceals herself in a hut Her sufferings 
 
 however, before she went far, that the van of 
 the army was approaching, and she had to seek 
 refuge in a hut till her enemies had passed. She 
 concealed herself among some straw, her attend- 
 ants seeking such other hiding-places as were 
 at hand. It was two days before the bodies of 
 soldiery had all passed so as to make it safe for 
 the queen to come out of her retreat. The hut 
 would seem to have been uninhabited, as the 
 accounts state that she remained all this time 
 without food, though this seems to be an almost 
 incredible degree of privation and exposure for 
 an English queen. At any rate, she remained 
 during all this time in a state of great mental 
 anxiety and alarm, for there were parties of sol- 
 diery constantly going by, with a tumult and 
 noise which kept her in continual terror. Their 
 harsh and dissonant voices, heard sometimes in 
 angry quarrels and sometimes in mirth, were 
 always frightful. In fact, for a helpless wom- 
 an in a situation like that of the queen, the 
 mood of reckless and brutal mirth in such sav- 
 igss was perhaps more to be dreaded than that 
 of their anger. 
 
 At one time the queen overheard a party of 
 these soldiers talking about her. They knew 
 that to get possession of the papist queen wa
 
 60 KING CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 The queen leaves her concealment Her exhausted condition 
 
 the object of their expedition. They spoke of 
 getting her head and carrying it tc London, say 
 ing that Parliament had offered a reward of fifty 
 thousand crowns for it, and expressed the sav- 
 age pleasure which it would give them to se 
 cure this prize, by imprecations and oaths. 
 
 They did not, however, discover their intend- 
 ed victim. After the whole army passed, tho 
 queen ventured cautiously forth from her re- 
 treat ; the little party got together again, and, 
 still retaining their disguises, moved on over 
 the road by which the soldiers had come, and 
 which was in the shocking condition that a road 
 and a country always exhibit where an army 
 has been marching. Faint and exhausted with 
 sickness, abstinence, and the effects of long-con- 
 tinued anxiety and fear, the queen had scarce- 
 ly strength to go on. She persevered, however, 
 and at length found a second refuge in a cabin 
 in a wood. She was going to Plymouth, which 
 is forty or fifty miles from Exeter, to the south- 
 west, and is the great port and naval station 
 jf the English, in that quarter of the island. 
 
 She stopped at this cabin for a little time to 
 rest, and to wait for some other friends and mem- 
 bers of her household from the palace in Exeter 
 to join her. Those friends were to wait until
 
 1G44.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 61 
 
 The dwarf Geoffrey Hudson. Change of taste. 
 
 they found that the queen succeeded in making 
 her escape, and then they were to follow, each in 
 a different way, and all assuming such disguises 
 as would most effectually help to conceal them. 
 There was one of the party whom it must have 
 oeen somewhat difficult to disguise. It was a 
 dwarf, named Geoffrey Hudson, who had been 
 a long time in the service of Henrietta as a per- 
 sonal attendant and messenger. It was the 
 fancy of queens and princesses in those days to 
 have such personages in their train. The oddi- 
 ty of the idea pleased them, and the smaller the 
 dimensions of such a servitor, the greater was 
 his value. In modern times all this is changed. 
 Tall footmen now, in the families of the great, 
 receive salaries in proportion to the number of 
 inches in their stature, and the dwarfs go to the 
 museums, to be exhibited, for a price, to the com- 
 mon wonder of mankind. 
 
 The manner in which Sir Geoffrey Hudson 
 was introduced into the service of the queen 
 was as odd as his figure. It was just after she 
 was married, and when she was about eight- 
 een years old. She had two dwarfs then al 
 ready, a gentleman and a lady, or, as they term- 
 ed it then, a cavalier and a dame, and, to carry 
 cut the whimsical idea, she had arranged a
 
 62 KING CHARLES i/. [1644 
 
 Buckingham. His manner of introducing the dwarf to tho queen 
 
 match between these two, and had them mar- 
 ried. Now there was in her court at that timo 
 a wild and thoughtless nobleman, a great friend 
 and constant companion of her husband Charles 
 the First, named Buckingham. An account 
 of his various exploits is given in our history of 
 Charles the First. Buckingham happened to 
 hear of this Geoffrey Hudson, who was then a 
 boy of seven or eight years of age, living with 
 his parents somewhere in the interior of En- 
 gland. He sent for him, and had him brought 
 secietly to his house, and made an arrangement 
 to have him enter the service of the queen, with- 
 out, however, saying any thing of his design to 
 her. He then invited the queen and her hus- 
 band to visit him at his palace ; and when the 
 time for luncheon arrived, one day, he conduct 
 ed the party into the dining saloon to partake 
 of some refreshment. There was upon the ta- 
 ble, among other viands, what appeared to be a 
 large venison pie. The company gathered 
 around the table, and a servant proceeded to 
 cut the pie, and on his breaking and raising a 
 piece of the crust, out stepped the young dwarf 
 upon the table, splendidly dressed and armed, 
 and, advancing toward the queen, he kneeled 
 fc fore her, and begged to be received into hef
 
 1644.] Q.UEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 63 
 
 Hudson's sudden and remarkable growth. His character 
 
 train. Her majesty was very much pleased 
 with the addition itself thus made to her house^ 
 hold, as well as diverted by the odd manner ir 
 which her new attendant was introduced into 
 her service. 
 
 The youthful dwarf was then only eighteen 
 inches high, and he continued so until he was 
 thirty years of age, when, to every body's sur- 
 prise, he began to grow. He grew quite rap- 
 idly, and, for a time, there was a prospect that 
 he would be entirely spoiled, as his whole val- 
 ue had consisted thus far in his littleness. He 
 attained the height of three feet and a half, and 
 there the mysterious principle of organic ex- 
 pansion, the most mysterious and inexplicable, 
 perhaps, that is exhibited in all the phenomena 
 of life, seemed to be finally exhausted, and, 
 though he lived to be nearly seventy years of 
 age, he grew no more. 
 
 Notwithstanding the bodily infirmity, what- 
 ever it may have been, which prevented his 
 growth, the dwarf possessed a considerable de- 
 gree of mental capacity and courage. He dii 
 not bear, however, very good-naturedly, the jests 
 and gibes of which he was the continual object, 
 from the unfeeling courtiers, who often took 
 pleasure in teasing him and in getting him ink
 
 64 KIHG CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 Hudson's duel with Crofts. The dwarf kills his antagonist 
 
 all sorts of absurd and ridiculous situations. 
 At last his patience was entirely exhausted, ant 1 
 he challenged one of his tormentors, whose name 
 was Crofts, to a duel. Crofts accepted the chal- 
 lenge, and, being determined to persevere in his 
 fun to the end, appeared on tbs battle-ground 
 armed only with a squirt. This raised a laugh, 
 of course, but it did not tend much to cool tho 
 injured Lilliputian's anger. He sternly insist- 
 ed on another meeting, and with real weapons. 
 Crofts had expected to have turned off the whole 
 affair in a joke, but he found this could not be 
 done ; and public opinion among the courtiers 
 around him compelled him finally to accept tho 
 challenge in earnest. The parties met on horse- 
 back, to put them more nearly on an equality. 
 They fought with pistols. Crofts was killed 
 upon the spot. 
 
 After this Hudson was treated with more re- 
 spect. He was intrusted by the queen with 
 many commissions, and sometimes business 
 was committed to him which required no little 
 capacity, judgment, and courage. He was now, 
 at the time of the queen's escape from Exeter, 
 uf his full stature, but as this was only three 
 and a half feet, he encountered great danger in 
 attempting to find his way out of the city and
 
 1(344.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 65 
 
 Hudson effects his escape Journey to Plymouth. 
 
 through the advancing columns of the army to 
 rejoin the queen. He persevered, however, and 
 reached her safely at last in the cabin in the 
 wood. The babe, not yet two weeks old, was 
 necessarily left behind. She was left in charge 
 of Lady Morton, whom the queen appointed her 
 governess. Lady Morton was young and beau- 
 tiful. She was possessed of great strength and 
 energy of character, and she devoted herself 
 with her whole soul to preserving the life and 
 securing the safety of her little charge. 
 
 The queen and her party had to traverse a 
 wild and desolate forest, many miles in extent, 
 on the way to Plymouth. The name of it was 
 Dartmoor Forest. Lonely ar it was, however, 
 the party was safer in it than in the open and 
 inhabited country, which was all disturbed and 
 in commotion, as every country necessarily is 
 in time of civil war. As the queen drew near 
 to Plymouth, she found that, for some reason, 
 it would not be safe to enter that town, and so 
 the whole party went on, continuing their jour- 
 ney farther to the westward still. 
 
 Now there is one important sea-port to the 
 westward of Plymouth which is called Fal- 
 mouth, and near it, on a high promontory jut- 
 ting into the sea, is a large and strong castle, 
 E
 
 66 KING CHARLES II. 1644.] 
 
 Henrietta arrives at Pendennis Castle. She determines to 30 to France. 
 
 called Pendennis Castle. This castle was, at 
 the time of the queen's escape, in the hands of 
 the king's friends, and she determined, accord, 
 ingly, to seek refuge there. The whole party 
 arrived here safely on the 29th of June. They 
 were all completely worn out and exhausted by 
 the fatigues, privations, and exposures of their 
 terrible journey. 
 
 The queen had determined to make her es- 
 cape as soon as possible to France. She could 
 no longer be of any service to the king in En- 
 gland ; her resources were exhausted, and her 
 personal health was so feeble that she must have 
 been a burden to his cause, and not a help, if 
 she had remained. There was a ship from Hol- 
 land in the harbor. The Prince of Orange, it 
 will be recollected, who had married the queen's 
 oldest daughter, was a prince of Holland, and 
 this vessel was under his direction. Some writ- 
 ers say it was sent to Falmouth by him to be 
 ready for his mother-in-law, in case she should 
 wish to make her escape from England. Oth- 
 ers speak of it as being there accidentally at 
 this time. However this may be, it was im- 
 mediately placed at Queen Henrietta's disposal, 
 and she determined to embark in it on the fol- 
 lowing morning. She knew very well that, as
 
 L644.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 67 
 
 The queen embarks for France. She is pursued 
 
 soon as Essex should have heard of her escape, 
 parties would be scouring the country in all di- 
 rections in pursuit of her, and that, although 
 the castle where she had found a temporary 
 refuge was strong, it was not best to incur the 
 ri sk of being shut up and besieged in it. 
 
 She accordingly embarked, with all her com- 
 pany, on board the Dutch ship on the very morn- 
 ing after her arrival, and immediately put to 
 sea. They made all sail for the coast of France, 
 intending to land at Dieppe. Dieppe is almost 
 precisely east of Falmouth, two or three hun- 
 dred miles from it, up the English Channel. 
 As it is on the other side of the Channel, it 
 would lie to the south of Falmouth, were it not 
 that both the French and English coasts trend 
 here to the northward. 
 
 Some time before they arrived at their port, 
 they perceived some ships in the offing that 
 seemed to be pursuing them. They endeavor- 
 ed to escape, but their pursuers gained rapidly 
 jpon them, and at length fired a gun as a sig- 
 nal for the queen's vessel to stop. The ball 
 came bounding over the water toward them, but 
 did no harm. Of course there was a scene of 
 universal commotion and panic on board the 
 queen's ship. Some wanted to fire back upon
 
 68 KING CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 Henrietta's courage and self-possession. Her instructions 
 
 the pursuers, some wished to stop and surrender, 
 and others shrieked and cried, and were over- 
 whelmed with uncontrollable emotions of tenor. 
 In the midst of this dreadful scene of confu- 
 sion, the queen, as was usual with her in such 
 emergencies, retained all her self-possession, and 
 though weak and helpless before, felt a fresh 
 strength and energy now, which the imminence 
 itself of the danger seemed to inspire. She was 
 excited, it is true, as well as the rest, but it 
 was, in her case, the excitement of courage and 
 resolution, and not of senseless terror and de- 
 spair. She ascended to the deck ; she took the 
 direct command of the ship ; she gave instruc- 
 tions to the pilot how to steer; and, though 
 there was a storm coming on, she ordered every 
 sail to be set, that the ship might be driven as 
 rapidly as possible through the water. She for- 
 bade the captain to fire back upon their pursu- 
 ers, fearing that such firing would occasion de- 
 lay ; and she gave distinct and positive orders 
 to the captain, that so soon as it should appear 
 that all hope of escape was gone, and that they 
 must inevitably fall into the hands of their en- 
 emies, he was to set fire to the magazine of 
 gunpowder, in order that they might all be de- 
 stroyed bv the explosion.
 
 1644.] QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 69 
 
 Hopes and fears. The queen's perilous situation 
 
 In the mean time all the ships, pursuers and 
 pursued, were rapidly nearing the French coast. 
 The fugitives were hoping to reach their port. 
 They were also hoping every moment to see 
 some friendly French ships appear in sight in 
 rescue them. To balance this double hope, 
 there was a double fear. There were their pur- 
 suers behind them, whose shots were continu- 
 ally booming over the water, threatening them 
 with destruction, and there was a storm aris- 
 ing which, with the great press of sail that they 
 were carrying, brought with it a danger, per- 
 haps, more imminent still. 
 
 It happened that these hopes and fears were 
 all realized, and nearly at the same time. A 
 shot struck the ship, producing a great shock, 
 and throwing all on board into terrible conster- 
 nation. It damaged the rigging, bringing down 
 the rent sails and broken cordage to the deck, 
 and thus stopped the vessel's way. At the 
 same moment some French vessels came in 
 sight, and, as soon as they understood the case, 
 bore down full sail to rescue the disabled ves- 
 sel. The pursuers, changing suddenly their 
 pursuit to flight, altered their course and moved 
 slowly away. The storm, however, increased, 
 ind, preventing them from making the harboi
 
 70 KING CHARLES JLI. [1644 
 
 The queen lands in France. Her exhausted condition 
 
 of Dieppe, drove them along the shore, threat- 
 ening every moment to dash them upon the 
 rooks and breakers. At length the queen's ves- 
 sel succeeded in getting into a rocky cove, 
 where they were sheltered from the winds and 
 waves, and found a chance to land. The que3n 
 ordered out the boat, and was set ashore With 
 her attendants on the rocks. She climbed over 
 them, wet as they were with the dashing spray, 
 and slippery with sea-weed. The little party, 
 drenched with the rain, and exhausted and for- 
 lorn, wandered along the shore till they came 
 to a little village of fishermen's huts. The 
 queen went into the first wretched cabin which 
 offered itself, and lay down upon the straw in 
 the corner for rest and sleep. 
 
 The tidings immediately spread all over the 
 region that the Queen of England had landed 
 on the coast, and produced, of course, universal 
 excitement. The gentry in the neighborhood 
 flocked down the next morning, in their car- 
 riages, to offer Henrietta their aid. They sup- 
 plied her wants, invited her to their houses, and 
 c-ffered her their equipages to take her wher- 
 ever she should decide to go. What she want, 
 ed was seclusion and rest. They accordingly 
 conveyed her, at her request, to the Baths of
 
 1644.J QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT. 71 
 
 The queen arrives at Paris. Her deep sorrow 
 
 Bourbon, where she remained some time, until, 
 in fact, her health and strength were in some 
 measure restored. Great personages of state 
 were sent to her here from Paris, with money 
 and all other necessary supplies, and in due 
 time she was escorted in state to the city, and 
 established in great magnificence and splendor 
 in the Louvre, which was then one of the prin- 
 cipal palaces of the capital. 
 
 Notwithstanding the outward change which 
 was thus made in the circumstances of the ex- 
 iled queen, she was very unhappy. As the ex- 
 citement of her danger and her efforts to escape 
 it passed away, her spirits sunk, her beauty 
 faded, and her countenance assumed the wan 
 and haggard expression of despair. She mourn- 
 ed over the ruin of her husband's hopes, and her 
 separation from him and from her children, with 
 perpetual tears. She called to mind continual- 
 ly the image of the little babe, not yet three 
 weeks old, whom she had left so defenseless in 
 the very midst of her enemies. She longed to 
 get some tidings of the child, and reproached 
 herself sometimes for having thus, as it were, 
 abandoned her. 
 
 The localities which were the scenes of these 
 events havo been made very famous by them,
 
 72 KING CHARLES II. [1644 
 
 Interesting localities. The queen's portrait 
 
 and traditionary tales of Queen Henrietta's res- 
 idence in Exeter, and of her romantic escape 
 from it, have been handed down there, from 
 generation to generation, to the present day. 
 They caused her portrait to be painted too, and 
 hung it up in the city hall of Exeter as a me- 
 morial of their royal visitor. The palace where 
 the little infant was born has long since passed 
 away, but the portrait hangs in the Guildhall 
 still
 
 1644.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 75 
 
 Henrietta's unhappy situation. The children 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 
 
 left the mother of Prince Charles, at 
 the close of the last chapter, in the pal- 
 ace of the Louvre in Paris. Though all her 
 wants were now supplied, and though she lived 
 in royal state in a magnificent palace on the 
 banks of the Seine, still she was disconsolate 
 and unhappy. She had, indeed, succeeded in 
 effecting her own escape from the terrible dan- 
 gers which had threatened her family in En- 
 gland, but she had left her husband and chil- 
 dren behind, and she could not really enjoy her- 
 self the shelter which she had found from the 
 storm, as long as those whom she so ardently 
 loved were still out. exposed to all its fury. She 
 had six children. Prince Charles, the oldest, 
 was in the western part of England, in camp, 
 acting nominally as the commander of an army, 
 and fighting for his father's throne. He wa? 
 now fourteen years of age. Next to him was 
 Mary, the wife of the Prince of Orange, who 
 was sa fe in Holland. She was one year young-
 
 76 KINO CHARLES II. [1644. 
 
 James a prisoner. Elizabeth and Henry 
 
 er than Charles. James, the third child, whose 
 title was now Duke of York, was about ton. 
 He had been left in Oxford when that city waa 
 surrendered, and had been taken captive there 
 by the Republican army. The general in com- 
 mand sent him to London a prisoner. It was 
 hard for such a child to be a captive, but then 
 there was one solace in his lot. By being sent 
 to London he rejoined his little sister Elizabeth 
 and his brother Henry, who had remained there 
 all the time. Henry was three years old and 
 Elizabeth was six. These children, being too 
 young, as was supposed, to attempt an escape, 
 were not very closely confined. They were in- 
 trusted to the charge of some of the nobility, 
 and lived in one of the London palaces. James 
 was a very thoughtful and considerate boy, and 
 had been enough with his father in his cam- 
 paigns to understand something of the terrible 
 dangers with which the family were surround- 
 ed. The other children were too young to 
 know or care about them, and played blind- 
 man's buff and hide and go seek in the great 
 saloons of the palace with as much infantile 
 glee as if their father and mother were as safe 
 and happy as ever. 
 
 Though they felt thus no uneasiness and
 
 1645.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 7? 
 
 The infant. Henrietta's vow 
 
 Anxiety for themselves, their exiled mother 
 mourned for them, and was oppressed by the 
 most foreboding fears for their personal safety. 
 She thought, however, still more frequently of 
 the babe, and felt a still greater solicitude for 
 her, left as she had been, at so exceedingly ten- 
 der an age, in a situation of the most extreme 
 and imminent danger. She felt somewhat 
 guilty in having yielded her reluctant consent, 
 for political reasons, to have her other children 
 educated in what she believed a false system 
 of religious faith, and she now prayed earnestly 
 to God to spare the life of this her last and dear- 
 est child, and vowed in her anguish that, if the 
 babe were ever restored to her, she would break 
 through all restrictions, and bring her up a true 
 believer. This vow she afterward earnestly 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The child, it will be recollected, was left, 
 when Henrietta escaped from Exeter, in the 
 care of the Countess of Morton, a young and 
 beautiful, and also a very intelligent and ener- 
 getic lady. The child had a visit from its fa 
 ther soon after its mother left it. King Charles, 
 as soon as he heard that Essex was advancing 
 to besiege Exeter, where he knew that the queen 
 bad sought refuge, and was, of course, exposed
 
 78 KING CHARLES II. [1646 
 
 The king and his little daughter. Lady Morton 
 
 to fall into his power, hastened with an army 
 fee her rescue. He arrived in time to prevent 
 Essex from getting possession of the place. I [e, 
 in fact, drove the besieger away from the town, 
 and entered it himself in triumph. The ;jneeu 
 was gone, but he found the child. 
 
 The king gazed upon the little stranger with 
 a mixture of joy and sorrow. He caused it to 
 be baptized, and named it Henrietta Anne. The 
 name Henrietta was from the mother; Anne 
 was the name of Henrietta's sister-in-law in 
 Paris, who had been very kind to her in all her 
 troubles. The king made ample arrangements 
 for supplying Lady Morton with money out of 
 the revenues of the town of Exeter, and, think- 
 ing that the child would be as safe in Exeter 
 as any where, left her there, and went away to 
 resume again his desperate conflicts with his 
 political foes. 
 
 Lady Morton remained for some time at Ex- 
 eter, but the king's cause every where declined. 
 His armies were conquered, his towns were 
 laken, and he was compelled at last to give 
 himself up a prisoner. Exeter, as well as aU 
 the other strongholds in the kingdom, fell into 
 the hands of the parliamentary armies. They 
 Bent Lady Morton and the little Henrietta tr
 
 1646.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 79 
 
 Lndy Morton's plan of escape. The disguises 
 
 London, and soon afterward provided them with 
 a home in the mansion at Oatlands, where the 
 queen herself and her other children had lived 
 before. It was a quiet and safe retreat, but 
 Lady Morton was very little satisfied with the 
 plan of remaining there. She wished very much 
 to get the babe back to its mother again in Paris. 
 She heard, at length, of rumors that a plan was 
 forming by the Parliament to take the child out 
 of her charge, and she then resolved to attempt 
 an escape at all hazards. 
 
 Henrietta Anne was now two years old, and 
 was beginning to talk a little. "When asked 
 what was her name, they had taught her to at- 
 tempt to reply princess, though she did not suc- 
 ceed in uttering more than the first letters of 
 the word, her answer being, in fact, prah. Lady 
 Morton conceived the idea of making her escape 
 across the country in the disguise of a beggar 
 woman, changing, at the same time, the prin- 
 cess into a boy. She was herself very tall, and 
 graceful, and beautiful, and it was hard for her 
 to make herself look old and ugly. She, how. 
 ever, made a hump for her back out of a bun- 
 dle of linen, and stooped in her gait to counter- 
 feit age. She dressed herself in soiled and rag- 
 ged clothes, disfigured her face by reversing the
 
 80 KING CHARLES II. [16-16 
 
 Disguise of the little princess. Her prattling 
 
 Contrivances with which ladies in very fashion- 
 able life are said sometimes to produce artificial 
 youth and beauty, and with the child in a bundle 
 % n her back, and a staff in her hand, she watched 
 it favorable opportunity to escape stealthily from 
 fhe palace, in the forlorn hope of walking in that 
 way undetected to Dover, a march of fifty miles, 
 through a country filled with enemies.' 
 
 Little Henrietta was to be a boy, and as people 
 on the way might ask the child its name, Lady 
 Morton was obliged to select one for her which 
 would fit, in some degree, her usual reply to 
 such a question. She chose the name Pierre, 
 which sounds, at least, as much like prali as 
 princess does. The poor child, though not old 
 enough to speak distinctly, was still old enough 
 to talk a great deal. She was very indignant 
 at the vile dress which she was compelled to 
 wear, and at being called a beggar boy. She 
 persisted in telling every body whom she met 
 that she was not a boy, nor a beggar, nor Pierre, 
 but the princess, saying it all, however, very 
 fortunately, in such an unintelligible way, that 
 it only alarmed Lady Morton, without, howev- 
 er, attracting the attention of those who heard 
 it, or giving them any information. 
 
 Contrary to every reasonable expectation
 
 IC46.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 83 
 
 The plan succeeds. The queen's joy. Prince Charles. 
 
 Lady Morton succeeded in her wild and roman- 
 tic attempt. She reached Dover in safety. She 
 made arrangements for crossing in the packet 
 boat, which then, as now, plied from Dover to 
 Calais. She landed at length safely on the 
 French coast, where she threw off her disguise, 
 resumed her natural grace and beauty, made 
 known her true name and character, and trav- 
 eled in ease and safety to Paris. The excite- 
 ment and the intoxicating joy which Henrietta 
 experienced when she got her darling child one*, 
 more in her arms, can be imagined, perhaps, even 
 by the most sedate American mother ; but <he 
 wild and frantic violence of her expressions of 
 it, none but those who are conversant with the 
 French character and French manners can 
 know. 
 
 It was not very far from the time of little 
 Henrietta's escape from her father's enemies in 
 London, though, in fact, before it, that Prince 
 Charles made his escape from the island too. 
 His father, finding that his cause was becoming 
 desperate, gave orders to those who had charge 
 of his son to retreat to the southwestern coast 
 of the island, and if the Republican armies 
 should press hard upon him there, In was tr 
 make his escape, if necessary, by sea
 
 84 KING CHARLES II. [1646 
 
 Thi prince retreats to Cornwall. Sails for Stilly. Arrives in Jersey 
 
 The southwestern part of England is a long, 
 mountainous promontory, constituting the coun- 
 ty of Cornwall. It is a wild and secluded re. 
 gion, and the range which forms it seems to 
 extend for twenty or thirty miles under the sea, 
 where it rises again to the surface, forming a 
 little group of islands, more wild and rugged 
 even than the land. These are the Scilly Isles 
 They lie secluded and solitary, and are known 
 chiefly to mankind through the ships that seek 
 shelter among them in storms. Prince Charles 
 retreated from post to post through Cornwall, 
 the danger becoming more and more imminent 
 every day, till at last it became necessary to fly 
 from the country altogether. He embarked on 
 board a vessel, and went first to the Scilly Isles. 
 
 From Scilly he sailed eastward toward the 
 coast of France. He landed first at the island 
 of Jersey, which, though it is very r.ear the 
 French coast, and is inhabited by a French 
 population, is under the English government. 
 Here the prince met with a very cordial recep- 
 tion, as the authorities were strongly attached 
 to his father's cause. Jersey is a beautiful isl- 
 and, far enough south to enjoy a genial climate, 
 where flowers bloom and fruits ripen in the 
 warm sunbeams, which are here, no longer ia
 
 1640.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 85 
 
 Prince Charles arrives at Paris. His reception. James 
 
 tercepted by the driving mists and rains which 
 sweep almost perceptibly along the hill-sides 
 and fields of England. 
 
 Prince Charles did not, however, remain long 
 in Jersey. His destination was Paris. He 
 passed, therefore, across to the main land, and 
 traveled to the capital. He was received with 
 great honors at his mother's new home, in the 
 palace of the Louvre, as a royal prince, and heir 
 apparent to the British crown. He was now 
 sixteen. The adventures which he met with 
 on his arrival will be the subject of the next 
 chapter. 
 
 James, the Duke of York, remained still in 
 London. He continued there for two years, 
 during which time his father's affairs went to- 
 tally to ruin. The unfortunate king, after his 
 armies were all defeated, and his cause was 
 finally given up by his friends, and he had sur- 
 rendered himself a prisoner to his enemies, was 
 taken from castle to castle, every where strong- 
 ly guarded and very closely confined. At length, 
 worn down with privations and sufferings, and 
 despairing of all hope of relief, he was taken to 
 London to be tried for his life. James, in the 
 mean time, with his brother, the little Duke of 
 Gloucester, and his sister Elizabeth, were kept
 
 86 KING CHARLES 11. [1640 
 
 James e cl:se prisoner. Precautions to secure him. 
 
 in St. James's Palace, as has already been stat- 
 ed, under the care of an officer to whom they 
 had been given in charge. 
 
 The queen was particularly anxious to have 
 James make his escape. He was older than 
 the others, and in case of the death of Charles, 
 would be, of course, the next heir to the crown 
 He did, in fact, live till after the close of his 
 brother's reign, and succeeded him, under tho 
 title of James the Second. His being thus in 
 the direct line of succession made his father 
 and mother very desirous of effecting his rescue, 
 while the Parliament were strongly desirous, 
 for the same reason, of keeping him safely. His 
 governor received, therefore, a special charge to 
 take the most effectual precautions to prevent 
 his escape, and, for this purpose, not to allow of 
 his having any communication whatever with 
 his parents or his absent friends. The govern- 
 or took all necessary measures to prevent such 
 intercourse, and, as an additional precaution, 
 made James promise that he would not receive 
 any letter from any person unless it came 
 through him. 
 
 James's mother, however, not knowing these 
 circumstances, wrote a letter to him, and sent 
 it by a trusty messenger, directing him to watch
 
 1648.] ESCAPE or THE CHILDREN. 87 
 
 The sarrra of tennis. James refuses the letter. 
 
 for some opportunity to deliver it unobserved. 
 Now there is a certain game of ball, called ten- 
 nis, which was formerly a favorite amusement 
 in England and on the Continent of Europe, 
 and which, in fact, continues to be played there 
 still. It requires an oblong inclosure, surround- 
 ed by high walls, against which the balls re- 
 bound. Such an inclosure is called a tennis 
 court. It was customary to build such tennis 
 courts in most of the royal palaces. There was 
 one at St. James's Palace, where the young 
 James, it seems, used sometimes to play.* 
 Strangers had the opportunity of seeing the 
 young prince in his coming and going tr and 
 from this place of amusement, and the queen's 
 messenger determined to offer him the letter 
 there. He accordingly tendered it to him 
 stealthily, as he was passing, saying, " Take 
 this ; it is from your mother." James drew 
 back, replying, "I can not take it. I have 
 promised that I will not." The messenger re- 
 oorted to the queen that he offered the letter to 
 
 * It was to such a tennis court at Versailles that the great 
 National Assembly of France adjourned when the king ex- 
 cluded them from their hall, at the commencement of the 
 great Revolution, and where they took Vhe famous oath not 
 to separate till they had established a constitution, which has 
 been so celebrated in history as the Oath of the Tennis Court
 
 SS KING CHAIILKS II. [1648 
 
 James recommended to escape. His contrivances 
 
 James, and that he refused to receive it. His 
 mother was very much displeased, and wondered 
 what such a strange refusal could mean. 
 
 Although James thus failed to receive his 
 mother's communication, he was allowed at 
 length, once or twice, to have an interview 
 with his father, and in these interviews the 
 king recommended to him to make his escape, 
 if he could, and to join his mother in France 
 James determined to obey this injunction, and 
 immediately set to work to plan his escape. 
 He was fifteen years of age, and, of course, old 
 enough to exercise some little invention. 
 
 He was accustomed, as we have already stat- 
 ed, to join the younger children in games of 
 hide and go seek. He began now to search for 
 the most recondite hiding places, where he could 
 not be found, and when he had concealed him- 
 self in such a place, he would remain there for 
 a very long time, until his playmates had given 
 up the search in despair. Then, at length, aftei 
 having been missing for half an hour, he would 
 reappear of hio own accord. He thought that 
 by thk plan he should get the children and tliL 
 attendants accustomed to his being for a long 
 time out of sight, so that, when at length he 
 should filially disappear, their attention would
 
 L648.] ESCAPE OF THE GUILD REN. 89 
 
 /aines locks up his dog. He escapes from the palace 
 
 not be seriously attracted to the circumstance 
 until he should have had time to get well set 
 aut upon his journey. 
 
 He had, like his mother, a little dog, but, un- 
 like her, he was not so strongly attached to it 
 as to be willing to endanger his life to avoid a 
 separation. When the time arrived, therefore, 
 to set out on his secret journey, he locked the 
 dog up in his room, to prevent its following him. 
 and thus increasing the probability of his being 
 recognized and brought back. He then engaged 
 his brother and sister and his other playmates 
 in the palace in a game of hide and go seek. 
 He went off ostensibly to hide, but, instead of 
 doing so, he stole out of the palace gates in com- 
 pany with a friend named Banfield, and a foot- 
 man. It was in the rear of the palace that 
 he made his exit, at a sort of postern gate, 
 which opened upon an extensive park. After 
 crossing the park, the party hurried on through 
 London, and then directed their course down 
 the River Thames toward Gravesend, a port 
 near the mouth of the river, where they intend- 
 ed to embark for Holland. They had taken 
 the precaution to disguise themselves. James 
 wore a wig, which, changing the color and ap- 
 pearance of his hair, seemed to give a totally
 
 90 KING CHARLES II [164* 
 
 James arrives in Holland. Charles's last interview with his children 
 
 new expression to his face. He substituted oth- 
 er clothes, too, for those which he was usually 
 accustomed to wear. The whole party suc- 
 ceeded thus in traversing the country without 
 letection. They reached Gravesend, embarked 
 on board a vessel there, and sailed to Holland, 
 where James joined the Prince of Orange and 
 his sister, and sent word to his mother that he 
 had arrived there in safety. 
 
 His little brother and sister were left behind. 
 They were too young to fly themselves, and 
 too old to be conveyed away, as little Henrietta 
 had been, in the arms of another. They had, 
 however, the mournful satisfaction of seeing 
 their father just before his execution, and of 
 bidding him a last farewell. The king, when 
 he was condemned to die, b-sgged to be allowed 
 to see these children. They were brought to 
 visit him in the chamber where he was con- 
 fined. His parting interview with them, and 
 the messages of affection and farewell which ho 
 sent to their brothers and sisters, and to their 
 mother, constitute one of the most affecting 
 soenes which the telescope of history brings to 
 our view, in that long and distant vista of the 
 past, which it enables us so fully to explore. 
 The little Gloucester was too young; -o under-
 
 1648.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 91 
 
 gorrow of the children. Elizabeth's account 
 
 stand the sorrows of the hour, but Elizabeth 
 felt them in all their intensity. She was twelve 
 years old. When brought to her father, she 
 burst into tears, and wept long and bitterly 
 Her little brother, sympathizing in his sister's 
 sorrow, though not comprehending its cause, 
 wept bitterly too. Elizabeth was thoughtful 
 enough to write an account of what took place 
 at this most solemn farewell as soon as it was 
 over. Her account is as follows : 
 
 " What the king- said to me on the 29th of 
 January, 1648, the last time I had the haji- 
 piness to see him. 
 
 " He told me that he was glad I was come, 
 for, though he had not time to say much, yet 
 somewhat he wished to say to me, which he 
 could not to another, and he had feared ' the 
 cruelty' was too great to permit his writing. 
 ' But, darling,' he added, ' thou wilt forget what 
 I tell thee.' Then, shedding an abundance of 
 tears, I told him that I would write down all 
 ho said to me. ' He wished me,' he said, ' not 
 to grieve and torment myself for him, for it was 
 a glorious death he should die, it being for the 
 laws and religion of the land.' He told rne what 
 books to read against popery. He said ' that
 
 92 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Elizabeth's account of her interview with her father. 
 
 he had forgiven all his enemies, and he hoped 
 God would forgive them also ;' and he com- 
 manded us, and all the rest of my brothers and 
 sisters, to forgive them too. Above all, he bade 
 me tell my mother ' that his thoughts had nev- 
 er strayed from her, and that his love for her 
 would be the same to the last ;' withal, he com- 
 manded me (and my brother) to love her and 
 be obedient to her. He desired me 'not to 
 grieve for him, for he should die a martyr, and 
 that he doubted not but God would restore the 
 throne to his son, and that then we should be 
 all happier than we could possibly have been if 
 he had lived.' 
 
 " Then taking my brother Gloucester on his 
 knee, he said, ' Dear boy, now will they cut off 
 thy father's head.' Upon which the child look- 
 ed very steadfastly upon him. ' Heed, my 
 child, what I say; they will cut off my Jiead, 
 and perhaps make thee a king: but, mark 
 what I say ! you must not be a king as long as 
 your brothers Charles and James live; there- 
 fore, I charge you, do not be made a king by 
 them ; At which the child, sighing deeply, re- 
 plied, 4 1 will be torn in pieces first.' And those 
 words, coining so unexpectedly from so young 
 a child, rejoiced my father exceedingly. And
 
 1650.] ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN. 93 
 
 Perplexity of the Parliament Decline of Elizabeth. 
 
 his majesty spoke to him of the welfare of his 
 soul, and to keep his religion, commanding him 
 to fear God, and he would provide for him ; all 
 which the young child earnestly promised to do." 
 
 After the king's death the Parliament kepi 
 these children in custody for some time, and at 
 last they became somewhat perplexed to know 
 what to do with them. It was even proposed, 
 when Cromwell's Republican government had 
 become fully established, to bind them out ap- 
 prentices, to learn some useful trade. This plan 
 was, however, not carried into effect. They 
 were held as prisoners, and sent at last to Caris- 
 brooke Castle, where their father had been con- 
 fined. Little Henry, too young to understand 
 his sorrows, grew in strength and stature, like 
 any other boy ; but Elizabeth pined and sunk 
 under the burden of her woes. She mourned in- 
 cessantly her father's cruel death, her mother's 
 and her brother's exile, and her own wearisome 
 and hopeless captivity. " Little Harry," as she 
 called him, and a Bible, which her father gave 
 her in his last interview with her, were her only 
 companions. She lingered along for two years 
 after her father's death, until at length the hec- 
 tic flush, the signal of approaching dissolution,
 
 94 KING CHARLES II. [1650. 
 
 Elizabeth's happy end. Little Henry sent tc his mother. 
 
 appeared upon her cheek, and an unnatural 
 brilliancy brightened in her eyes. They sent 
 her father's physician to see if he could save 
 her. His prescriptions did no good. One day 
 the attendants came into her apartment and 
 found her sitting in her chair, with her cheek 
 resting upon the Bible which she had been read- 
 ins, and which she had placed for a sort of pil- 
 low on the table, to rest her weary head upon 
 when her reading was done. She was motion- 
 less. They would have thought her asleep, but 
 her eyes were not closed. She was dead. The 
 poor child's sorrows and sufferings were ended 
 forever. 
 
 The stern Republicans who now held domin- 
 ion over England, men of iron as they were, 
 could not but be touched with the unhappy fate 
 of this their beautiful and innocent victim ; and 
 they so far relented from the severity of the 
 policy which they had pursued toward the ill- 
 fated family as to send the little Gloucester, 
 after his sister's death, home to his mother.
 
 1646.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 95 
 
 Situation of the royal family of France. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE PRINCE'S RECEPTION AT PARIS. 
 
 complicated a story as that of the fam- 
 ily of Charles can not be related, in all 
 its parts, in the exact order of time ; and hav- 
 ing now shown under what circumstances the 
 various members of the family made their es- 
 cape from the dangers which threatened them 
 in England, we return to follow the adventures 
 of Prince Charles during his residence on the 
 Continent, and, more particularly in this chap- 
 ter, to describe his reception by the royal fam- 
 ily of France. He was one of the first of the. 
 children that escaped, having arrived in Franco 
 in 1646. His father was not beheaded until 
 two years afterward. 
 
 In order that the reader may understand dis- 
 tinctly the situation in which Charles farsnd 
 himself on his arrival at Paris, we must first 
 iescribe the condition of the royal family of 
 France at this time. They resided sometimes 
 at Fontainebleau, a splendid palace in the midst 
 of a magnificent park about forty miles from 
 the city. Henrietta, it will bo recollected, was
 
 96 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Death of Louis XIII. Accession of Louis XIV 
 
 the sister of a king of France. This king was 
 Louis XIII. He died, however, not far from 
 the time of Queen Henrietta's arrival in the 
 country, leaving his little son Louis, then five 
 years old, heir to the crown. The little Louis 
 of course became king immediately, in name, 
 as Louis XIV., and in the later periods of his 
 life he attained to so high a degree of prosperi- 
 ty and power, that he has been, ever since his 
 day, considered one of the most renowned of all 
 the French kings. He was, of course, Prince 
 Charles's cousin. At the period of Prince 
 Charles's arrival, however, he was a mere child, 
 being then about eight years old. Of course, 
 he was too young really to exercise any of the 
 powers of the government. His mother, Anne 
 of Austria, was made regent, and authorized to 
 govern the country until the young king should 
 arrive at a suitable age to exercise his heredi- 
 tary powers in his own name. Anne of Aus- 
 tria had been always very kind to Henrietta, 
 and had always rendered her assistance when- 
 ever she had been reduced to any special ex 
 tremity of distress. It was she who had scni 
 the supplies of money and clothing to Henriet- 
 ta when she fled, sick and destitute, to Exe- 
 tar, vainly hoping to find repose and the means 
 of restoration there.
 
 1646.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 97 
 
 Gaston, duke of Orleans. Other members of the royal family 
 
 Besides King Louis XIII. , who had died, Hen- 
 rietta had another brother, whose name was 
 Gaston, duke of Orleans. The Duke of Orleans 
 had a daughter, who was styled the Duchess of 
 Montpensier, deriving the title from her moth- 
 er. She was, of course, also a cousin of Prince 
 Charles. Her father, being brother of the late 
 king, and uncle of the present one, was made 
 lieutenant general of the kingdom, having thus 
 the second place, that is, the place next to the 
 queen, in the management of the affairs of tho 
 realm. Thus the little king commenced his 
 reign by having in his court his mother as queen 
 regent, his uncle lieutenant general, and his 
 aunt, an exiled queen from a sister realm, his 
 guest. He had also in his household his broth- 
 er Philip, younger than himself, his cousin the 
 young Duchess of Montpensier, and his cousin 
 the Prince Charles. The family relationship 
 of all these individuals will be made more clear 
 by being presented in a tabular form, as follows: 
 
 ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE ix THE TIME OF Louis XI^. 
 Louis Xni. Louis XIV. 
 
 Anne of Austria. Philip, 8 yeats otct 
 
 Gaston, duke of Orleans. Duchess of Montpemler, i> 
 Duchess of Montpensier. 
 
 Henrietta Maria. Prince Charkw, 16 
 
 King Charles L 
 
 G
 
 98 KINO CHARLES II. [1646 
 
 The young king. The Palace Koyal 
 
 In the above table, the first column contains 
 the name of Henry IV., the second those of 
 three of his children, with the persons whom 
 they respectively married, and the third the four 
 grandchildren, who, as cousins, now found them- 
 selves domesticated together in the royal pala- 
 ces of France. 
 
 The young king was, as has already been 
 said, about eight years old at the time of Prince 
 Charles's arrival. The palace in which he re- 
 sided when in the city was the Palace Royal, 
 which was then, and has been ever since, one 
 of the most celebrated buildings in the world. 
 It was built at an enormous expense, during a 
 previous reign, by a powerful minister of state, 
 who was, in ecclesiastical rank, a cardinal, and 
 his mansion was named, accordingly, the Palace 
 Cardinal. It had, however, been recently taken 
 as a royal residence, and its name changed 
 to Palace Royal. Here the queen regent had 
 her grand apartments of state, every thing be- 
 ing as rich as the most lavish expenditure could 
 make it. She had one apartment, called an ora- 
 tory, a sort of closet for prayer, which was light- 
 ed by a large window, the sash of which was 
 made of silver. The interior of the room was 
 ornamented with the most costly paintings and
 
 1646.J RECEPTION AT PARIS. 99 
 
 A royal household ia miniature. Child's play on a magnificent scale. 
 
 furniture, and was enriched with a profusion of 
 silver and gold. The little king had his range of 
 apartments too, with a whole household of offi- 
 cers and attendants as little as himself. These 
 children were occupied continually with ceremo- 
 nies, and pageants, and mock military parades. 
 in which they figured in miniature arms and 
 badges of authority, and with dresses made to 
 imitate those of real monarchs and ministers of 
 yfate. Every thing was regulated with the ut- 
 most regard to etiquette and punctilio, and with- 
 out any limits or bounds to the expense. Thus, 
 though the youthful officers of the little mon- 
 arch's household exercised no real power, they 
 displayed all the forms and appearances of royal- 
 ty with more than usual pomp and splendor. It 
 was a species of child's play, it is true, but it 
 was probably the most grand and magnificent 
 child's play that the world has ever witnessed. 
 It was into this extraordinary scene that Prince 
 Charles found himself ushered on his arrival in 
 France. 
 
 At the time of the prince's arrival the court 
 happened to be residing, not at Paris, but at 
 Fontainebleau. Fontainebleau, as has already 
 bfeen stated, is about forty miles from Paris, to 
 the southward. There is a very splendid pal
 
 100 KING CHARLES II. [1646 
 
 Fontaineblcau. The young Duchess de Montpensier 
 
 ace and castle there, built originally in very an- 
 cient times. There is a town near, both the 
 castle and the town being in the midst of a vast 
 park and forest, one of the most extended and 
 magnificent royal domains in Europe. This 
 forest has been reserved as a hunting ground 
 for the French kings from a very early age. 
 It covers an area of forty thousand acres, being 
 thus many miles in extent. The royal family 
 were at this palace at the time of Prince 
 Charles's arrival, celebrating the festivities of 
 a marriage. The prince accordingly, as we 
 shall presently see, went there to join them. 
 
 There were two persons who were anticipa- 
 ting the prince's arrival in France with special 
 Interest, his mother, and his young cousin, the 
 Duchess of Montpensier. Her Christian name 
 was Anne Marie Louisa.* She was a gay, 
 frivolous, and coquetish girl, of about nineteen, 
 immensely rich, being the heiress of the vast 
 estates of her mother, who was not living. Her 
 c ather, though he was the lieutenant general of 
 
 * She is commonly called, in the annals of the day in which 
 >ho lived, Mademoiselle, as she was, par eminence, the young 
 lady of the court. Ill history she is commonly called Made- 
 m tiselle de Montpensier; we shall call her, iu this narrative, 
 simply Anne Maria, as that is, for our purpose, the most con 
 venient designation.
 
 1646,] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 101 
 
 Character of the duchess. Marriage pinna 
 
 the realm, and the former king's brother, was 
 not rich. His wife, when she died, had be- 
 queathed all her vast estates to her daughter. 
 Anne Maria was naturally haughty and vain, 
 and, as her father was accustomed to come oc- 
 casionally to her to get supplies of money, she 
 was made vainer and more self-conceited still 
 by his dependence upon her. Several matches 
 had been proposed to her, and among them the 
 Emperor of Germany had been named. He 
 was a widower. His first wife, who had been 
 A.nne Maria's aunt, had just died. As the em- 
 peror was a potentate of great importance, the 
 young belle thought she should prefer him to 
 any of the others who had been proposed, and sho 
 made no secret of this her choice. It is true 
 that he had made no proposal to her, but she 
 presumed that he would do so after a suitable 
 time had elapsed from the death of his first wife, 
 and Anne Maria was contented to wait, consid- 
 ering the lofty elevation to which she would at- 
 tain on becoming his bride. 
 
 But Queen Henrietta Maria had another 
 plan. She was very desirous to obtain Anne 
 Maria for the wife of her son Charles. There 
 were many reasons for this. The young lady 
 was a princess of the royal family of France ;
 
 102 KING CHARLES II. [1646 
 
 Qaeen Henrietta's plan for Charles and Anne Maria. 
 
 ehe possessed, too, an immense fortune, and was 
 young and beautiful withal, though not quite 
 so young as Charles himself. He was sixteen, 
 and she was about nineteen. It is true that 
 Charles was now, in some sense, a fugitive and 
 an exile, destitute of property, and without a 
 home. Still he was a prince. He was the heir 
 apparent of the kingdoms of England and Scot- 
 land. He was young and accomplished. These 
 high qualifications, somewhat exaggerated, per- 
 haps, by maternal partiality, seemed quite suf- 
 ficient to Henrietta to induce the proud duchess 
 to become the prince's bride. 
 
 All this, it must be remembered, took place 
 before the execution of King Charles the First, 
 and when, of course, the fortunes of the family 
 were not so desperate as they afterward be- 
 came. Queen Henrietta had a great many 
 conversations with Anne Maria before the prince 
 arrived, in which she praised very highly his 
 person and his accomplishments. She narrated 
 to the duchess the various extraordinary adven- 
 tures and the narrow escapes which the prince 
 had met with in the course of his wanderings 
 in England ; she told her how dutiful and kind 
 he had been to her as a son, and how efficien* 
 and courageous in his father's cause as a soidier
 
 1646.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 103 
 
 I'rince Charles goes to Paris. He proceeds to Fontainebleau. 
 
 She described his appearance and his manners, 
 and foretold how he would act, what tastes and 
 preferences he would form, and how he would 
 be regarded in the French court. The young 
 duchess listened to all this with an appearance 
 of indifference and unconcern, which was part- 
 ly real and partly only assumed. She could not 
 help feeling some curiosity to see her cousin, 
 but her head was too full of the grander desti- 
 nation of being the wife of the emperor to think 
 much of the pretensions of this wandering and 
 homeless exile. 
 
 Prince Charles, on his arrival, went first to 
 Paris, where he found his mother. There was 
 an invitation for them here to proceed to Fon- 
 tainebleau, where, as has already been stated, 
 the young king and his court were now residing. 
 They went there accordingly, and were received 
 with every mark of attention and honor. The 
 queen regent took the young king into the car- 
 riage of state, and rode some miles along the 
 avenue, through the forest, to meet the prince 
 and his mother when they were coming. They 
 were attended with the usual cortege of carria- 
 ges and horsemen, and they moved with all tho 
 etiquette and ceremony proper to be obserred 
 in the reception of royal visitors.
 
 104 KING CHARLES 1]. [1046. 
 
 Meeting in the forest The prince and the duchess. 
 
 When the carriages met in the forest, they 
 stopped, and the distinguished personages con- 
 tained in them alighted. Queen Henrietta in- 
 troduced her son to the queen regent and to 
 L<uis, the French king, and also to other per- 
 sonages of distinction who were in their train. 
 Among them was Anne Maria. The queen re- 
 gent took Henrietta and the prince into the car- 
 riage with her and the young king, and they 
 proceeded thus together back to the palace. 
 Prince Charles was somewhat embarrassed in 
 making all these new acquaintances, in circum- 
 stances, too, of so much ceremony and parade, 
 and the more so, as his knowledge of the French 
 language was imperfect. He could understand 
 it when spoken, but could not speak it well him- 
 self, and he appeared, accordingly, somewhat 
 awkward and confused. He seemed particu- 
 larly at a loss in his intercourse with Anne 
 Maria. She was a little older than himself, 
 and, being perfectly at home, both in the cere- 
 monies of the occasion and in the language of 
 the company, she felt entirely at her ease her- 
 self ; and yet, from her natural temperament 
 and character, she assumed such an air and 
 hearing as would tend to prevent the prince 
 from being so. In a word, it happened then.
 
 JL640.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 105 
 
 Anno Maria's memoirs. Her description of the prince. 
 
 as it has often happened since on similar occa- 
 sions, that the beau was afraid of the belle. 
 
 The party returned to the palace. On alight- 
 ing, the little king gave his hand to his aunt, 
 the Queen of England, while Prince Charles 
 gave his to the queen regent, and thus the two 
 matrons were gallanted into the hall. The 
 prince had a seat assigned him on the following 
 day in the queen regent's drawing-room, and was 
 thus regularly instated as an inmate of the roy- 
 al household. He remained here several days, 
 and at length the whole party returned to Paris. 
 
 Anne Maria, in after years, wrote reminis- 
 cences of her early life, which were published 
 after her death. In this journal she gives an 
 account of her introduction to the young prince, 
 and of her first acquaintance with him. It is 
 expressed as follows : 
 
 " He was only sixteen or seventeen years of 
 age, rather tall, with a fine head, black hair, a 
 dark complexion, and a tolerably agreeable 
 countenance. But he neither spoke ncr un- 
 derstood French, which was very inconvenient. 
 Nevertheless, every thing was done to amuse 
 him, and, during the three days that he re- 
 mained at Fontainebleau, there were hunts and 
 every other sport which could be commanded
 
 10(5 KING CHARLES II. [1646. 
 
 i 
 
 Return to Paris. Impressions on Charles 
 
 in that season. He paid his respects to all the 
 princesses, and I discovered immediately that 
 the Queen of England wished to persuade me 
 that he had fallen in love with me. She told 
 me that he talked of me incessantly ; that, were 
 she not to prevent it, he would be in my apart- 
 ment* at all hours ; that he found me quite to 
 his taste, and that he was in despair on account 
 of the death of the empress, for he was afraid 
 that they would seek to marry me to the em- 
 peror. I listened to all she said as became me, 
 but it did not have as much effect upon me as 
 probably she wished." 
 
 After spending a few days at Fontainebleau, 
 the whole party returned to Paris, and Queen 
 Henrietta and the prince took up their abode 
 again in the Palace Royal, or, as it is now more 
 commonly called, the Palais Royal. Charles 
 was much impressed with the pomp and splen- 
 dor of the French court, so different from the 
 rough mode of life to which he had been accus- 
 tomed in his campaigns and wanderings in En- 
 gland. The etiquette and formality, however, 
 were extreme, every thing, even the minutest 
 motions, being regulated by nice rules, which 
 
 * This means at her residence. The whole suite of rooms 
 'jccupied by a family is called, in France, their apartment
 
 1646.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. 107 
 
 Pomp and splendor. Anecdotes of the court 
 
 made social intercourse and enjoyment one per- 
 petual ceremony. But, notwithstanding all this 
 pomp and splendor, and the multitude of offi- 
 cers and attendants who were constantly on 
 service, there seems to have been, in the results 
 obtained, a strange mixture of grand parade 
 with discomfort and disorder. At one time at 
 Fontainebleau, at a great entertainment, where 
 all the princes and potentates that had been 
 drawn there by the wedding were assembled, 
 the cooks quarreled in the kitchen, and one of 
 the courses of the supper failed entirely in con- 
 sequence of their dissensions ; and at another 
 time, as a large party of visitors were passing 
 out through a suite of rooms in great state, to 
 descend a grand staircase, where some illustri- 
 ous foreigners, who were present, were to take 
 their leave, they found the apartments through 
 which they were to pass all dark. The servants 
 Had neglected or forgotten to light them. 
 
 These and similar incidents show thai there 
 may be regal luxury and state without order 
 >r comfort, as there may be regal wealth and 
 power without any substantial happiness. Not- 
 withstanding this, however, Prince Charles soon 
 became strongly interested in the modes of life 
 to which he was introduced at Pari? and at
 
 108 KING CHARLES II. [164? 
 
 Gay life of tbe prince. His attention to Aune Maria 
 
 Fontainebleau There were balls, parties, fes- 
 tivities, and excursions of pleasure without num- 
 ber, his interest in these all being heightened 
 by the presence of Anne Maria, whom he soon 
 began to regard with a strong degree of that pe- 
 culiar kind of interest which princesses and heir- 
 esses inspire. In Anno Maria's memoirs of her 
 early life, we have a vivid description of many of 
 the scenes in which both she herself and Charles 
 were such prominent actors. She wrote always 
 with great freedom, and in a very graphic man- 
 ner, so that the tale which she tells of this period 
 of her life forms a very entertaining narrative. 
 
 Anne Maria gives a very minute account of 
 what took place between herself and Charles 
 on several occasions in the course of their ac- 
 quaintance, and describes particularly various 
 balls, and parties, and excursions of pleasure on 
 which she was attended by the young prince. 
 Her vanity was obviously gratified by the inter- 
 est which Charles seemed to take in her, but 
 she was probably incapable of any feelings of 
 deep and disinterested love, and Charles made 
 no impression upon her heart. She reserved 
 herself for the emperor. 
 
 For example, they were all one night invited 
 to a grand ball by the Duchess de Choisy. This
 
 1647.] KECEPTION AT PARIS. 109 
 
 The Duchess de Choisy B ball. Anne Maria's toilet. 
 
 lady lived in a magnificent mansion, called the 
 Hotel de Choisy. Just before the time came 
 for the party of visitors to go, the Queen of En- 
 gland came over with Charles to the apartments 
 of Anne Maria. The queen came ostensibly to 
 give the last touches to the adjustment of the 
 young lady's dress, and to the arrangement of 
 her hair, but really, without doubt, in pursu- 
 ance of her policy of taking every occasion to 
 bring the young people together. 
 
 " She came," says Anne Maria, in her nar- 
 rative, " to dress me and arrange my hair her- 
 self. She came for this purpose to my apart- 
 ments, and took the utmost pains to set me off 
 to the best advantage, and the Prince of Wales 
 held the flambeau near me to light my toilet 
 the whole time. I wore black, white, and car- 
 nation ; and my jewelry was fastened by ribbons 
 of the same colors. I wore a plume of the same 
 kind ; all these had been selected and ordered 
 by my aunt Henrietta. The queen regent, who 
 knew that I was in my aunt Henrietta's hands, 
 sent for me to come and see her when I was al) 
 ready, before going to the ball. I accordingly 
 went, and this gave the prince an opportunity 
 to go at once to the Hotel de Choisy, and be 
 ready there to receive rne when I should arrive
 
 110 KING CHARLES II. [1648. 
 
 The prince's assiduities. Fete 8t the Palais Royal 
 
 I found him there at the door, ready to hand me 
 from my coach. I stopped in a chamber to re- 
 adjust my hair, and the Prince of Wales again 
 held a flambeau for me. This time, too, he 
 brought his cousin, Prince Rupert, as an inter- 
 preter between us ; for, believe it who will, 
 though he could understand every word I said to 
 him, he could not reply the least sentence to me 
 in French. When the ball was finished and we 
 retired, the prince followed me to the porter's 
 lodge of my hotel,* and lingered till I entered, 
 and then went his way. 
 
 " There was another occasion on which his 
 gallantry to me attracted a great deal of atten- 
 tion. It was at a great fete celebrated at the 
 Palais Royal. There was a play acted, with 
 scenery and music, and then a ball. It took 
 three whole days to arrange my ornaments for 
 this night. The Queen of England would dress 
 me on this occasion, also, with her own hands. 
 My robe was all figured with diamonds, with 
 
 * In all the great houses in Paris, the principal buildings of 
 the edifice stand back from the street, surrounding a court- 
 yard, which has sometimes shrubbery and flowers and a 
 fountain in the center. The entrance to this court-yard is by 
 a great gate and archway on the street, with the apartments 
 occupied by the porter, that is, the keeper of the gate, on one 
 side. The entrance to the porter's lodge is from under tin 
 archway.
 
 1648.] RECEPTION AT PARIS. Ill 
 
 Anne Maria's dress. News of the beheading of Charles I 
 
 carnation trimmings. I wore the jewels of the 
 crown of France, and, to add to them, the Queen 
 of England lent me some fine ones of her own, 
 which she had not then sold. The queen praised 
 the fine turn of my shape, my air, the beauty 
 of my complexion, and the brightness of my 
 light hair. I had a conspicuous seat in the 
 middle of the ball-room, with the young King 
 of France and the Prince of Wales at my feet 
 T did not feel the least embarrassed, for, as I had 
 an idea of marrying the emperor, I regarded the 
 Prince of Wales only as an object of pity." 
 
 Things went on in this way for a time, until 
 at last some political difficulties occurred at Par- 
 is which broke in upon the ordinary routine of 
 the royal family, and drove them, for a time, out 
 of the city. Before these troubles were over, 
 Henrietta and her son were struck down, as by 
 a blow, by the tidings, which came upon them 
 like a thunderbolt, that their husband and fa- 
 ther had been beheaded. This dreadful event 
 put a stop for a time to every thing like festive 
 pleasures. The queen left her children, her 
 palace, and all the gay circle of her friends, and 
 retired to a convent, to mourn, in .solitude and 
 undisturbed, her irreparable loss.
 
 112 KING CHARLES II. [1648 
 
 Charles becomes king. Henrietta's distress 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEGOTIATIONS WITH ANNE MARIA. 
 
 OUR Prince Charles now becomes, by th<: 
 death of his father, King Charles the Sec- 
 ond, both of England and cf Scotland. That 
 is, he becomes so in theory, according to the 
 principles of the English Constitution, though, 
 in fact, he is a fugitive and an exile still. Not- 
 withstanding his exclusion, however, from the 
 exercise of what he considered his right to reign, 
 he was acknowledged as king by all true Roy- 
 alists in England, and by all the continental 
 powers. They would not aid him to recover 
 his throne, but in the courts and royal palaces 
 which he visited he was regarded as a king, and 
 was treated, in form at least, with all the con- 
 sideration and honor which belonged to royalty. 
 Queen Henrietta was overwhelmed with grief 
 and despair when she learned the dreadful tid- 
 ings of the execution of her husband. At the 
 time when these tidings came to her, she was 
 involved, also, in many other sufferings and tri- 
 als. As was intimated in the last chapter, se-
 
 1649.1 ANNE MARIA. 113 
 
 Difficulties in Paris. flight of the royal family 
 
 rious difliculties had occurred between the roy- 
 al family of France and the government and 
 people of the city of Paris, from which a sort 
 of insurrection had resulted, and the young king 
 and his mother, together with all the principal 
 personages of the court, had been compelled to 
 fly from the city, in the night, to save their lives. 
 They went in a train of twenty or thirty car- 
 riages, by torch -light, having kept their plan a 
 profound secret until the moment of their de- 
 parture. The young king was asleep in his 
 bed until the time arrived, when they took him 
 up and put him into the carriage. Anne Maria, 
 whose rank and wealth gave her a great deal 
 <>f influence and power, took sides, in some de- 
 gree, with the Parisians in this contest, so that 
 her aunt, the queen regent, considered her as 
 an enemy rather than a friend. She, however, 
 took her with them in their flight ; but Anne 
 Maria, being very much out of humor, did all 
 she could to tease and torment the party all the 
 way. When they awoke her and informed her 
 of their proposed escape from Paris, she was, as 
 she says in her memoirs, very much delighted, 
 for she knew that the movement was very un- 
 wise, and would get her aunt, the queen regent, 
 and all their friends, into serious difficulties. 
 H
 
 114 KING CHARLES II. [1G49 
 
 Anne Maria's ill humor. Her prevarication. 
 
 She dressed herself as quick as she could, came 
 down stairs, and proceeded to enter the queen 
 regent's coach, saying that she wanted to havo 
 one or the other of certain seats naming the 
 best places as she had no idea, she said, of be- 
 ing exposed to cold, or riding uncomfortably on 
 such a night. The queen told her that those 
 seats were for herself and another lady of high 
 rank who was with her, to which Anne Maria 
 replied, " Oh, very well ; I suppose young la- 
 dies ought to give up to old people." 
 
 In the course of conversation, as they were 
 preparing to ride away, the queen asked Anne 
 Maria if she was not surprised at being called 
 up to go on such an expedition. " Oh no," said 
 she ; " my father" (that is, Gaston, the duke of 
 Orleans) " told me all about it beforehand." 
 This was not true, as she says herself in hei 
 own account of these transactions. She knew 
 nothing about the plan until she was called from 
 her bed. She said this, therefore, only to tease 
 her aunt by the false pretension that the secret 
 had been confided to her. Her aunt, however, 
 did not believe her, and said, " Then why did 
 you go to bed, if you knew what was going on ?" 
 " Oh," replied Anne Maria, "I thought it would 
 be a good plan to get some sleep, as I did not
 
 1(549] ANNE MARIA. 117 
 
 Tc;rror and confusion. Arrival of the royal family at St Germain's 
 
 Know whether I should even have a bed to li* 
 upon to-morrow night." 
 
 The party of fugitives exhibited a scene of 
 great terror and confusion, as they were as 
 sembling and crowding into their carriages, bo- 
 fore they left the court of the Palais Royal. II 
 was past midnight, in the month of January, 
 and there was no moon. Called up suddenly as 
 they were from their beds, and frightened with 
 imaginary dangers, they all pressed forward, 
 eager to go ; and so hurried was their departure, 
 that they took with them very scanty supplies, 
 even for their most ordinary wants. At length 
 they drove away. They passed rapidly out of 
 the city. They proceeded to an ancient palace 
 and castle called St. Germain's, about ten miles 
 northeast of Paris. Anne Maria amused her- 
 self with the fears, and difficulties, and priva- 
 tions which the others suffered, and she gives an 
 account of the first night they spent in the place 
 of their retreat, which, as it illustrates her tem- 
 perament and character, the reader will like, 
 perhaps, to see. 
 
 " I slept in a very handsome room, well paint 
 od, well gilded, and large, with very little fire, 
 and no windows,* which is not very agreeable 
 
 * That is, with no glass to the windows.
 
 RING CHARLES II. [1649 
 
 Inconveniences and privations of the party at St. Germain's. 
 
 in the month of January. I slept on mattress- 
 es, which were laid upon the floor, and my sis- 
 tei, who had no bed, slept with me. I was 
 obliged to sing to get her to sleep, and then hei 
 slumber did not last long, so that she disturbed 
 mine. She tossed about, felt me near her, woke 
 up, and exclaimed that she saw the beast, so I 
 was obliged to sing again to put her to sleep, 
 and in that way I passed the night. Judge 
 whether this was an agreeable situation for one 
 who had had little or no sleep the night before, 
 and who had been ill all winter with colds. 
 However, the fatigue and exposure of this ex- 
 pedition cured, me 
 
 " In a short time my father gave me his room, 
 but as nobody knew I was there. I was awoke 
 in the night by a noise. I drew back my cur- 
 tain, and was astonished to find my chamber 
 filled with men in large buff skin collars, and 
 who appeared surprised to see me, and knew 
 me as little as I did them. I had no change of 
 iinen, and when I wanted any thing washed, it 
 5 T as done in the night, while I was in bed. J 
 had no women to arrange my hair and dress me, 
 which is very inconvenient. Still I did not lose 
 my gayety, and they were in admiration .t my 
 making no complaint ; and it is true that I am
 
 1649.] ANNE MARIA. 119 
 
 Anne Maria's adventures. Her courage ani energy. 
 
 a creature that can make the most of every 
 thing, and am greatly above trifles." 
 
 To feel any commiseration for this young 
 lady, on account of the alarm which she may 
 be supposed to have experienced at seeing all 
 those strange men in her chamber, would be 
 sympathy thrown away, for her nerves were not 
 of a sensibility to be affected much by such a 
 circumstance as that. In fact, as the difficult- 
 ies between the young king's government and 
 the Parisians increased, Anne Maria played 
 quite the part of a heroine. She went back 
 and forth to Paris in her carriage, through the. 
 mob, when nobody else dared to go. She some- 
 times headed troops, and escorted ladies and 
 gentlemen when they were afraid to go alone. 
 Once she relieved a town, and once she took the 
 command of the cannon of the Bastile, and is- 
 sued her orders to fire with it upon the troops, 
 with a composure which would have done honor 
 to any veteran officer of artillery. We can not 
 go into all these things here in detail, as they 
 would lead us too far away from the subject of 
 this narrative. We only allude to them, to give 
 our readers some distinct idea of the tempera- 
 ment and character of the rich and blooming 
 beauty whom young King Charles was wishing 
 so ardently to make his bride.
 
 120 KING CHARLES II. [l(54i> 
 
 Situation of Henrietta. Her destitution and dangers, 
 
 During the time that these difficulties con- 
 tinued in Paris, Queen Henrietta's situation 
 was extremely unhappy. She was shut up in 
 the palace of the Louvre, which became now 
 her prison rather than her home. She was sep- 
 arated from the royal family ; her son, the king, 
 was generally absent in Holland or in Jersey, 
 and her palace was often surrounded by mobs ; 
 whenever she ventured out in her carriage, she 
 was threatened with violence and outrage by 
 the populace in such a manner as to make her 
 retreat as soon as possible to the protection of 
 the palace walls. Her pecuniary means, too, 
 were exhausted. She sold her jewels, from 
 time to time, as long as they lasted, and then 
 contracted debts which her creditors were con- 
 tinually pressing her to pay. Her friends at St 
 Germain's could not help her otherwise than by 
 asking her to come to them. This she at last 
 concluded to do, and she made her escape from 
 Paris, under the escort of Anne Maria, who 
 came to the city for the purpose of conducting 
 her, and who succeeded, though with infinite 
 difficulty, in securing a safe passage for Henri- 
 etta through the crowds of creditors and politi- 
 cal foes who threatened to prevent her journey. 
 These troubles were all, however, at last settled,
 
 1649.J ANNE MARIA. 121 
 
 Charles's plans for regaining his kingdom. The English exile* 
 
 and in the autumn (1649) the whole party re- 
 turned again to Paris. 
 
 In the mean time the young King Charles 
 was contriving schemes for getting possession 
 of his realm. It will be recollected that his sis- 
 tei Mary, who married the Prince of Orange, 
 was at this time residing at the Hague, a city 
 in Holland, near the sea. Charles went often 
 there. It was a sort of rendezvous for those 
 who had been obliged to leave England on ac- 
 count of their attachment to his father's for- 
 tunes, and who, now that the father was dead, 
 transferred their loyalty to the son. They felt 
 a very strong desire that Charles's plans for get- 
 ting possession of his kingdom should succeed, 
 and they were willing to do every thing in their 
 power to promote his success. It must not bo 
 supposed, however, that they were governed in 
 this by a disinterested principle of fidelity to 
 Charles himself personally, or to the justice of his 
 cause. Their own re-establishment in wealth 
 and power was at stake as well as his, and they 
 were ready to make common cause with him, 
 knowing that they could save themselves from 
 ruin only by reinstating him. 
 
 Charles had his privy council and a sort of 
 f/ourt at the Hague, and he arranged channels
 
 122 KING CHARLES II. [1049. 
 
 Charles at the Hague and at Jersey. / tine Maria 
 
 of communication, centering there, for collecting 
 intelligence from England and Scotland, and 
 through these he watched in every way for the 
 opening of an opportunity to assert his rights to 
 the British crown. He went, too, to Jersey, 
 where the authorities and the inhabitants were 
 on his side, and both there and at the Hague 
 he busied himself with plans for raising funds 
 and levying troops, and securing co-operation 
 from those of the people of England who still 
 remained loyal. Ireland was generally in his 
 favor too, and he seriously meditated an expe- 
 dition there. His mother was unwilling to have 
 him engage in these schemes. She was afraid 
 he would, sooner or later, involve himself in 
 dangers from which he could not extricate him- 
 self, and that he would end by being plunged 
 into the same pit of destruction that had in- 
 gulfed his father. 
 
 Amid all these political schemes, however. 
 Charles did not forget Anne Maria. He was 
 eager to secure her for his bride ; for her for- 
 (une, and the power and influence of her con- 
 nections, would aid him very much in recover- 
 ing his throne. Her hope of marrying the Em- 
 peror of Germany, too, was gone, for that poten- 
 tate had chosen another wife. Charles there
 
 1649.] ANNE MARIA. 
 
 Anne Maria discontented. Charles's messengei 
 
 fore continued his attentions to the young lady. 
 She would not give him any distinct and deci- 
 sive answer, but kept the subject in a state of 
 perpetual negotiation. She was, in fact, grow- 
 ing more and more discontented and unhappy 
 in disposition all the time. Her favorite plan 
 of marrying the emperor had been thwarted, in 
 part, by the difficulties which her friends her 
 father and her aunt especially had contrived 
 secretly to throw in the way, while outwardly 
 and ostensibly they appeared to be doing all in 
 their power to promote her wishes. They did 
 not wish to have her married at all, as by this 
 event the management of her vast fortune would 
 pass out of their hands. She discovered this, 
 t.heir double dealing, when it was too late, and 
 she was overwhelmed with vexation and chagrin. 
 
 Things being in this state, Charles sent a spe- 
 cial messenger, at one time, from the Hague, 
 with instructions to make a formal proposal to 
 Anne Maria, and to see if he could not bring 
 the affair to a close. The name of this messen- 
 ger was Lord Germain. 
 
 The queen regent and her father urged Anne 
 Maria now to consent to the proposal. They 
 told her that Charles's prospects were brighten- 
 ing that they themselves were going to rendei
 
 124 KING CHARLES I L. [1649 
 
 Lord Germain's proposal. Anne Maria seems to yield 
 
 him powerful protection that he had already 
 acquired several allies that there were wholo 
 provinces in England that were in his favor ; 
 and that all Ireland, which was, as it were, a 
 kingdom in itself, was on his side. Whether 
 they seriously desired that Anne Maria would 
 consent to Charles's proposals, or only urged, 
 for effect, what they knew very well she would 
 persist in refusing, it is impossible to ascertain 
 If this latter were their design, it seemed likely 
 to fail, for Anne Maria appeared to yield. She 
 was sorry, she said, that the situation of affairs 
 in Paris was not such as to allow of the French 
 government giving Charles effectual help io 
 gaining possession of the throne ; but still, not 
 withstanding that, she was ready to do wha 1 
 ever they might think best to command. 
 
 Lord Germain then said that he should pro 
 ceed directly to Holland and escort Charles tc 
 France, and he wanted Anne Maria to give him 
 a direct and positive reply ; for if she would 
 really accept his proposal, he would ccme at 
 once to court and claim her as his bride ; other- 
 wise he must proceed to Ireland, for the state 
 of his affairs demanded his presence there. But 
 if she would accept his proposal, he would im- 
 mediately come to Paris, and have tho marriage
 
 1649.] ANNE MARIA. 125 
 
 I'laii of Lord Germain. Anne Maria's objection* 
 
 ceremony performed, and then he would re- 
 main afterward some days with her, that she 
 might enjoy the honors and distinctions to which 
 ehe would become entitled as the queen con- 
 sort of a mighty realm. He would then, if she 
 iiked the plan, take her to Saint Germain's, 
 where his mother, her aunt, was then residing, 
 and establish her there while he was recover- 
 ing his kingdom ; or, if she preferred it, she 
 might take up her residence in Paris, where she 
 had been accustomed to live. 
 
 To this the young lady replied that the last- 
 mentioned plan, that is, that she should con- 
 tinue to live at Paris after being married to 
 Charles, was one that she could not think of. 
 She should feel altogether unwilling to remain 
 and enjoy the gayeties and festivities of Paris 
 while her husband was at the head of his armies, 
 exposed to all the dangers and privations of a 
 camp ; nor should she consider it right to go on 
 incurring the expenses which a lady of her rank 
 tnd position must necessarily bear in such a city, 
 while hs was perhaps embarrassed and distress- 
 ed with the difficulties of providing funds for his 
 own and his followers' necessities. She should 
 feel, in fact, bound, if she were to become his 
 wife, to ilo all in her power to assist him ; and
 
 126 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Lord Germain's replies. The subject renewed 
 
 it would end, she foresaw, in her having to dis- 
 pose of all her property, and expend the avails 
 in aiding him to recover his kingdom. This, 
 she said, she confessed alarmed her. It was a 
 great sacrifice for her to make, reared as she had 
 been in opulence and luxury. 
 
 Lord Germain replied that all this was doubt- 
 less true, but then, on the other hand, he would 
 venture to remind her that there was no other 
 suitable match for her in Europe. He then 
 went on to name the principal personages. The 
 Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain 
 were both married. Some other monarch was 
 just about to espouse a Spanish princess. Oth- 
 ers whom he named were too young ; other?, 
 again, too old ; and a certain prince whom he 
 mentioned had been married, he said, these ten 
 years, and his wife was in excellent health, so 
 that every species of hope seemed to be cut off 
 in that quarter. 
 
 This conversation leading to no decisive ie- 
 suit, Lord Germain renewed the subject aftci 
 a few days, and pressed Anne Maria for a final 
 answer. She said, now, that she had a very 
 high regard for Queen Henrietta, and, indeed, 
 a very strong affection for her ; so strong that 
 she should be willing to waive, for Henrietta's
 
 i649.J ANNE MARIA 127 
 
 Anne Maria objects to Charles's religion. The negotiation broken off 
 
 sake, all her objections to the disadvantages of 
 Charles's position ; but there was one objection 
 which she felt that she could not surmount, and 
 that was his religion. He was a Protestant, 
 while she was a Catholic. Charles must re- 
 move this difficulty himself, which, if he had 
 any regard for her, he certainly would be willing 
 to do, since she would have to make so many 
 sacrifices for him. Lord Germain, however, 
 immediately discouraged this idea. He said 
 that the position of Charles in respect to his 
 kingdom was such as to render it impossible 
 for him to change his religious faith. In fact, 
 if he were to do so, he would be compelled to 
 give up, at once, all hope of ever getting pos- 
 session of his throne. Anne Maria knew this 
 very well. The plea, however, made an excel- 
 lent excuse to defend herself with from Lord 
 Germain's importunities. She adhered to it, 
 therefore, pertinaciously ; the negotiation was 
 broken off, and Lord Germain went away. 
 
 Young adventurers like Charles, who wish 
 to marry great heiresses, have always to exer 
 cise a great deal of patience, and to submit to 
 a great many postponements and delays, even 
 though they are successful in the end ; and sov- 
 ereign princes are not exempted, any more than
 
 128 KING CHARLES II. [1649 
 
 Woman's brief power. Charles takes the subject in his own hands 
 
 other men, from this necessity. Dependent as 
 woman is during all the earlier and all the latei 
 years of her life, and subjected as she is to the 
 control, and too often, alas ! to the caprice and 
 injustice of man, there is a period brief, it is 
 true when she is herself in power ; and such 
 characters as Anne Maria like to exercise their 
 authority, while they feel that they possess it, 
 with a pretty high hand. Charles seems to 
 have felt the necessity of submitting to the in- 
 convenience of Anne Maria's capricious delays, 
 and, as long as she only continued to make ex- 
 cuses and objections instead of giving him a di- 
 rect and positive refusal, he was led to persevere. 
 Accordingly, not long after the conversations 
 which his messenger had held with the lady as 
 already described, he determined to come him- 
 self to France, and see if he could not accom- 
 plish something by his own personal exertions. 
 He accordingly advanced to Peronne, which 
 was riot far from the frontier, and sent forward 
 R courier to announce his approach. The royal 
 family concluded to go out in their carriages to 
 meet him. They were at this time at a famous 
 royal resort a few leagues from Paris, called 
 Compiegne. Charles was to dine at Cornpi- 
 e<me, and then to proceed on toward Paris. wher
 
 1649.J ANNE MARIV. 
 
 The royal family ride out to meet Charles. Remark of the queen regent 
 
 he had business to transact connected with his 
 political plans. 
 
 Anne Maria gives a minute account of tho 
 ride of the royal family to meet Charles on his 
 approach to Compiegne, and of the interview 
 with him, on her part, which attended it. She 
 dressed herself in the morning, she says, with 
 gieat care, and had her hair curlod, which she 
 seldom did except on very special occasions* 
 When she entered the carriage to go out to 
 meet the king, the queen regent, observing her 
 appearance, said archly, " How easy it is to tell 
 when young ladies expect to meet their lovers." 
 Anne Maria says that she had a great mind to 
 tell her, in reply, that it w as easy, for those who 
 had had a great deal of experience in prepar- 
 ing to meet lovers themselves. She did not, 
 however, say this, and the forbearance seems 
 to show that there was, after all, the latent ele- 
 ment of discretion and respect for superiors in 
 her character, though it showed itself so seldom 
 in action. 
 
 They rode out several miles to meet the com- 
 ing king; and when the -two parties met, they 
 all alighted, and saluted each other by the road 
 side, the ladies and gentlemen that accompa- 
 nied them standing around. Anne Maria no- 
 T
 
 130 KING CHARLES II. [1649 
 
 The meeting at Compiegne. Anne Maria's displeasure 
 
 ticed that Charles addressed the king and queen 
 regent first, and then her. After a short de- 
 lay they got into their carriages again King 
 Charles entering the carriage with their majes- 
 ties and Anne Maria and they rode together 
 thus back to Compiegne. 
 
 Anne Maria, however, does not seem to have 
 been in a mood to be pleased. She says that 
 Charles began to talk with the king Louis 
 XIV. who was now twelve years old, about 
 the dogs and horses, and the hunting customs 
 in the country of the Prince of Orange. He 
 talked on these subjects fluently enough in the 
 French language, but when afterward the queen 
 regent, who would naturally be interested in a 
 different class of topics, asked him about the 
 affairs of his own kingdom and his plans for re- 
 covering it, he excused himself by saying that 
 he did not speak French well enough to give 
 her the information. Anne Maria says she de- 
 termined from that moment not to conclude the 
 marriage, "for I conceived a very poor opinic*. 
 of him, being a king, and at his age, to have no 
 knowledge of his affairs." Such minds as Anne 
 Maria's are seldom very logical ; but such an 
 inference as this, that he was ignorant of his 
 own affairs because he declined explaining plans
 
 1650.] ANNE MARIA. 131 
 
 Charles eats no ortolans. Anne Maria's displeasure. 
 
 whose success depended on secrecy in such a 
 company as that, and in a. language with which, 
 though he could talk about dogs and horses in 
 it, he was still very imperfectly acquainted, is 
 far too great a jump from premises to conclu- 
 sion to be honestly made. It is very evident 
 that Anne Maria was not disposed to be pleased. 
 They arrived at Compiegne. As the king 
 was going on that evening, dinner was served 
 soon after they arrived. Anne Maria says he 
 ate no ortolans, a very expensive and rare dish of 
 little birds, which had been prepared expressly 
 for this dinner in honor of the royal guest,* " but 
 flung himself upon a piece of beef and a shoul- 
 der of mutton, as if there had been nothing else 
 at table. After dinner, when we were in the 
 drawing-room, the queen amused herself with 
 the other ladies and gentlemen, and left him 
 with me. He was a quarter of an hour with- 
 out speaking a word ; but I am willing to be- 
 lieve that his silence was the result of respect 
 rather than any want of passion, though on this 
 
 * The ortolan is a very small bird, which is fattened in 
 lamp-lighted rooms at great expense, because it is found to 
 be of a more delicate flavor when excluded from the day- 
 light. They come from the island of Cyprus, and have been 
 famous in every age of the world as an article of fiya! lu x 
 ury.
 
 132 KING CHARLES II. [1650 
 
 Charles's silenco. Departure lur I'ari? 
 
 occasion, I frankly confess, I could have wished 
 it less plainly exhibited. After a while, getting 
 tired of his tediousness, I called another lady 
 to my side, to see if she could not make him 
 talk. She succeeded. Presently one of the 
 gentlemen of the party came to me and said, 
 He kept looking at you all dinner time, and is 
 looking at you still. To which I replied, He 
 has plenty of time to look at me before he will 
 please me, if he does not speak. The gentle- 
 man rejoined, Oh, he has said tender things 
 enough to you, no doubt, only you don't like to 
 admit it. To which I answered, Come and 
 seat yourself by me the next time he is at my 
 side, and hear for yourself how he talks about 
 it." She says she then went and addressed 
 the king herself, asking him various questions 
 about persons who were in his suite, and that 
 he answered them all with an air of mere com- 
 mon politeness, without any gallantry at all. 
 
 Finally, the hour for the departure of Charles 
 and his party arrived, and the carriages came 
 to the door. The French king, together with 
 his mother and Anne Maria, and the usual at- 
 tendants, accompanied them some miles into 
 the forest on their way, and then, all alighting, 
 as they had done when they met in the morn.
 
 1650.] ANNE MARIA. 133 
 
 ITie farewell in the forest. Anne Maria's account of it 
 
 ing, they took leave of each other with the usu- 
 al ceremonies of such occasions. Charles, aftei 
 bidding King Louis farewell, advanced with 
 Lord Germain, who was present in his suite at 
 that time, to Anne Maria, and she gives the fol- 
 lowing rather petulant account of what passed : 
 " ' I believe,' said Charles, ' that my Lord Ger- 
 main, who speaks French better than I do, has 
 explained to you my sentiments and my inten- 
 tion. I am your very obedient servant.' I an- 
 swered that I was equally his obedient servant. 
 Germain paid me a great number of compli- 
 ments, the king standing by. After they were 
 over, the king bowed and departed." 
 
 Charles, who had been all his life living rough- 
 ly in camps, felt naturally ill at ease in the brill- 
 iant scenes of ceremony and splendor which the 
 French court presented ; and this embarrass- 
 ment was greatly increased by the haughty air 
 and manner, and the ill-concealed raillery of the 
 lady whose favorable regard he was so anxious 
 to secure. His imperfect knowledge of the lan- 
 guage, and his sense of the gloomy uncertainty 
 of his own prospects in life, tended strongly to 
 increase his distrust of himself and his timidi- 
 ty. We should have wished that he could have 
 experienced somewhat kinder treatnent from
 
 KING CHARLES 11. [Iti50 
 
 Charles's motives. A new opening for Avne Maria 
 
 the object of his regard, were it not that his 
 character, and especially his subsequent histo- 
 ry, show that he was entirely mercenary and 
 selfish himself in seeking her hand. If we can 
 ever, in any instance, pardon the caprice and 
 wanton cruelty of a coquette, it is when these 
 qualities are exercised in thwarting the designs 
 of a heartless speculator, who is endeavoring to 
 fill his coffers with money by offering in ex- 
 change for it a mere worthless counterfeit of 
 love. 
 
 Charles seems to have been totally discoui 
 aged by the result of this unfortunate dinner 
 party at Compiegne. He went to Paris, and 
 from Paris he went to St. Germain's, where he 
 remained for several months with his mother, 
 revolving in his mind his fallen fortunes, and 
 forming almost hopeless schemes for seeking to 
 restore them. In the mean time, the wife whom 
 the Emperor of Germany had married instead 
 of Anne Maria, died, and the young belle sprang 
 immediately into the excitement of a new hope 
 of attaining the great object of her ambition 
 after all. The emperor was fifty years of age, 
 and had four children, but he was the Emper- 
 or of Germany, and that made amends for all. 
 Aime Maria immediately began to lay her trains
 
 >fioO.] ANNE MARIA. 135 
 
 Anne Maria's plans. Her farewell visit 
 
 again for becoming his bride. What her plans 
 were, and how they succeeded, we shall, per- 
 haps, have occasion hereafter to describe. 
 
 Though her heart was thus set upon having 
 the empemr for her husband, she did not like, 
 in the mean time, quite to give up her younger 
 and more agreeable beau. Besides, her plans 
 of marrying the emperor might fail, and Charles 
 might succeed in recovering his kingdom. It 
 was best, therefore, not to bring the negotia- 
 tion with him to too absolute a close. When the 
 time arrived, therefore, for Charles to take his 
 departure, she thought she would just ride out 
 to St. Germain's and pay her respects to Queen 
 Henrietta, and bid the young king good-by. 
 
 Neither Queen Henrietta nor her son at- 
 tempted to renew the negotiation of his suite on 
 the occa sion of this visit. The queen told Anne 
 Maria, on the other hand, that she supposed she 
 ought to congratulate her on the death of the 
 Empress of Germany, for, though the negotia- 
 tion for her marriage with him had failed on a 
 former occasion, she had no doubt it would be 
 resumed now, and would be successful. Anne 
 Maria replied, with an air of indifference, that 
 she did not know or think any thing about it 
 The queen then said that she knew of a young
 
 136 KING CHARLES II. [1650 
 
 Henrietta's remarks. A party 
 
 man, not very far from them, who thought that 
 a king of nineteen years of age was better for 
 a husband than a man of fifty, a widower with 
 four children, even if he was an emperor. 
 " However, 5 ' said she, " we do not know what 
 turn things may take. My son may succeed 
 in recovering his kingdom, and then, perhaps, 
 if you should be in a situation to do so, you 
 may listen more favorably to his addresses." 
 
 Anne Maria was not to return directly back 
 to Paris. She was going to visit her sisters, 
 who lived at a little distance beyond. The 
 Duke of York, that is, Henrietta's son James, 
 then fourteen or fifteen years old, proposed to 
 accompany her. She consented. Charles then 
 proposed to go too. Anne Maria objected to 
 this, saying that it was not quite proper. She 
 had no objection to James's going, as he was a 
 mere youth. Queen Henrietta removed her ob- 
 jection by offering to join the party herself; so 
 they all went together. Anne Maria says that 
 Charles treated her with great politeness and 
 attention all the way, and paid her many com- 
 pliments, but made no attempt to bring up 
 again, in any way, the question of his suit. 
 She was very glad he did not, she says, for her 
 mind being now occupied with the plan of mar-
 
 1650.] ANNE MARIA. 137 
 
 The marriage broken up. Charles turns to other subjects. 
 
 rying the emperor, nothing that he could have 
 said would have done any good. 
 
 Thus the question was considered as virtually 
 settled, and King Charles, soon after, turned his 
 thoughts toward executing the plans which he 
 had been long revolving for the recovery of his 
 kingdom,
 
 138 KING CHARLES iJ. [1650. 
 
 Charles resolves on an expedition into Scotland. Hia follDwera 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE ROYAL OAK OP BOSCOBEL. 
 
 FT was in June, 1650, about eighteen months 
 -*- after the decapitation of his father, that 
 Charles was ready to set out on his expedition 
 to attempt the recovery of his rights to the En- 
 glish throne. He was but twenty years of age. 
 He took with him no army, no supplies, no re- 
 sources. He had a small number of attendants 
 and followers, personally interested themselves 
 in his success, and animated also, probably, by 
 some degree of disinterested attachment to him. 
 Ct was, however, on the whole, a desperate en- 
 terprise. Queen Henrietta, in her retirement, 
 at the Louvre, felt very anxious about the re 
 suit of it. Charles himself, too, notwithstand- 
 ing his own buoyant and sanguine tempera 
 ment, and the natural confidence and hope per- 
 taining to his years, must have felt many fore- 
 bodings. But his condition on the Continent 
 was getting every month more and more desti- 
 tute and forlorn. He was a mere guest wherev- 
 er he went, and destitute of means as he was,
 
 1650.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 
 
 Charles's three kingdoms. Public feeling in Scotland 
 
 he found himself continually sinking in public 
 consideration. Money as well as rank is very 
 essentially necessary to make a relative a wel- 
 come guest, for any long time, in aristocratic 
 circles. Charles concluded, therefore, that, all 
 things considered, it was best for him to make 
 a desperate effort to recover his kingdoms. 
 
 His kingdoms were three, England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland. Ireland was a conquered kingdom. 
 Scotland, like England, had descended to him 
 from his ancestors ; for his grandfather, James 
 VI., was king of Scotland, and being on his 
 mother s side a descendant of an English king, 
 he was, of course, one of the heirs of the English 
 crown ; and on the failure of the other heirs, he 
 succeeded to that crown, retaining still his own 
 Thus both kingdoms descended to Charles. 
 
 It was only the English kingdom that had 
 really rebelled against, and put to death King 
 Charles's father. There had been a great deal 
 of difficulty in Scotland, it is true, and the re- 
 publican spirit had spread quite extensively ID 
 that country. Still, affairs had not proceeded 
 to such extremities there. The Scotch had, in 
 some degree, joined with the English in resisting 
 Charles the First, but it was not their wish to 
 throw off the royal authority altogether. They
 
 140 KING CHARLES II. [1650. 
 
 Demands of the Scotch. Charles lands in Scotland, 
 
 abhorred episcopacy in the Church, but were 
 well enough contented with monarchy in the 
 state. Accordingly, soon after the death of the 
 father, they had opened negotiations with the 
 son, and had manifested their willingness to 
 acknowledge him as their king, on certain con- 
 ditions which they undertook to prescribe to 
 him. It is very hard for a king to hold his 
 scepter on conditions prescribed by his people. 
 Charles tried every possible means to avoid sub- 
 mitting to this necessity. He found, however, 
 that the only possible avenue of access to En- 
 gland was by first getting some sort of posses- 
 sion of Scotland ; and so, signifying his willing- 
 ness to comply with the Scotch demands, he set 
 sail from Holland with his court, moved north 
 ward with his little squadron over the waters 
 of the German Ocean, and at length made port 
 in the Frith of Cromarty, in the north of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 The Scotch government, having but little 
 faith in the royal word of such a youth as Charles 
 would not allow him to land until he had for- 
 mally signed their covenant, by which he bound 
 himself to the conditions which they had thought 
 it necessary to impose. He then landed. But 
 be found his situation very far from such as
 
 1650.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 141 
 
 Negotiations and debates. Charles crowned King of Scotland. 
 
 comported with his ideas of royal authority and 
 state. Charles was a gay, dissipated, reckless 
 young man. The men whom he had to deal 
 with were stern, sedate, and rigid religionists. 
 They were scandalized at the looseness and ir- 
 regularity of his character and manners. He 
 was vexed and tormented by what he consider- 
 ed their ascetic bigotry, by the restraints which 
 they were disposed to put upon his conduct, and 
 the limits with which they insisted on bound- 
 ing his authority. Long negotiations and de- 
 bates ensued, each party becoming more and 
 more irritated against the. other. At last, on 
 one occasion, Charles lost his patience entirely, 
 and made his escape into the mountains, in hopes 
 to raise an army there among the clans of wild 
 Highlanders, who, accustomed from infancy to 
 the most implicit obedience to their chieftains, 
 are always very loyal to their king. The Scotch 
 nobles, however, not wishing to drive him to ex- 
 tremities, sent for him to come back, and both 
 parties becoming after this somewhat more con- 
 siderate and accommodating, they at length 
 came to an agreement, and proceeding togeihei 
 to Scone, a village some miles north of Edin. 
 burgh, they crowned Charles King of Scotland 
 in a venerable abbey there, the ancient plac*
 
 142 KING CHARLES 11. [1650. 
 
 Cromwell inarches against Scotland. Cjarles invades England 
 
 of coronation for all the monarchs of the Scot- 
 tish line. 
 
 In the mean time, Cromwell, who was at the 
 head of the republican government of England, 
 knowing very well that Charles's plan would be 
 to march into England as soon as he could ma- 
 ture his arrangements for such an enterprise^ 
 determined to anticipate this design by declar- 
 ing war himself against Scotland, and marching 
 an army there. 
 
 Charles felt comparatively little interest in 
 what became of Scotland. His aim was En- 
 gland. He knew, or supposed that there was 
 a very large portion of the English people who 
 secretly favored his cause, and he believed that 
 if he could once cross the frontier, even with a 
 small army, these his secret friends would all 
 rise at once and flock to his standard. Still he 
 attempted for a time to resist Cromwell in Scot- 
 land, but without success. Cromwell penetrated 
 to the heart of the country, and actually passed 
 the army of Charles. In these circumstances, 
 Charles resolved to leave Scotland to its fate, 
 and boldly to cross the English frontier, to see 
 what he could do by raising his standard in his 
 southern kingdom. The army acceded to this 
 plan with acclamations. The kinqf accordingly
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOJJEL 143 
 
 Public feeling in England. Cavaliers and Roundheads 
 
 put his forces in motion, crossed the frontier, 
 issued his manifestoes, and sent around couriers 
 and heralds, announcing to the whole popula- 
 tion that their king had come, and summoning 
 all his subjects to arm themselves and hasten 
 to his aid. This was in the summer of 1651, 
 the year after his landing in Scotland. 
 
 It certainly was a very bold and almost des- 
 perate measure, and the reader, whether Mon- 
 archist or Republican, can hardly help wishing 
 the young adventurer success. The romantic 
 enterprise was, however, destined to fail. The 
 people of England were not yet prepared to re- 
 turn to royalty. Some few of the ancient noble 
 families and country gentlemen adhered to the 
 king's cause, but they came in to join his ranks 
 very slowly. Those who were in favor of the 
 king were called Cavaliers. The other party 
 were called Roundheads. Queen Henrietta 
 Maria had given them the name, on account 
 of their manner of wearing their hair, cut short 
 and close to their heads all around, while the 
 gay Cavaliers cultivated their locks, which hung 
 in long curls down upon their shoulders. The 
 Cavaliers, it turned out, were few, while the 
 Roundheads filled the land. 
 
 It was, however, impossible for Charles to
 
 144 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Cromwell follows Charles. Scenes of confusion and misery. 
 
 retreat, since Cromwell was behind him ; for 
 Cromwell, as soon as he found that his enemy 
 had actually gone into England, paused only 
 long enough to recover from his surprise, and 
 then made all haste to follow him. The two 
 armies thus moved down through the very heait 
 of England, carrying every where, as they went, 
 universal terror, confusion, and dismay. The 
 whole country was thrown into extreme excite- 
 ment. Every body was called upon to take 
 sides, and thousands were perplexed and unde- 
 cided which side to take. Families were di- 
 vided, brothers separated, fathers and sons were 
 ready to fight each other in their insane zeal, 
 the latter for the Parliament, the former for the 
 king. The whole country was filled with ru- 
 mors, messengers, parties of soldiers going to 
 and fro, and troops of horsemen, with robberies, 
 plunderings, murders, and other deeds of vio- 
 lence without number, and ah 1 the other ele- 
 ments of confusion and misery which arouse the 
 whole population of a country to terror and dis 
 tress, and mar the very face of nature in tim; 
 of civil war. What dreadful struggles man 
 will make to gain the pleasure of ruling his fel- 
 low-man ! 
 
 Along the frontiers of England and Wales
 
 1651.] ROVAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 147 
 
 The River Severn. Situation of Worcester. 
 
 there flows the beautiful River Severn, which 
 widens majestically at its mouth, and passes 
 by the Bristol Channel to the sea. One of the 
 largest towns upon this river is Worcester. It 
 was in those days strongly fortified. It stands 
 on the eastern side of the river, with a great 
 bridge opposite one of the gates leading across 
 the Severn in the direction toward Wales. 
 There are other bridges on the stream, both 
 above and below, and many towns and villages 
 in the vicinity, the whole presenting, at ordinary 
 times, a delightful scene of industry and peace. 
 Worcester is, perhaps, three hundred miles 
 from the frontiers of Scotland, on the way to 
 London, though somewhat to the westward of 
 the direct route. Charles's destination was the 
 capital. He pushed on, notwithstanding the 
 difficulties and disappointments which embar- 
 rassed his march, until at last, when he reached 
 the banks of the Severn, he found he could go 
 no further. His troops and his officers were 
 wearied, faint, and discouraged. His hopes had 
 not been realized, and while it was obviously 
 dangerous to stop, it seemed still more danger- 
 ous to go on. However, as the authorities of 
 Worcester were disposed to take sides with the 
 king, Charles determined to stop there for a lit-
 
 148 KING CHARLES II. [1651. 
 
 Charles proclaimed king. Skirmishes with Cromwell's forces 
 
 tie time, at all events, to refresh his army, anc 
 consider what to do. 
 
 He was received in the city with all due hon 
 urs. He was proclaimed king on the following 
 day, with great parade and loud acclamations. 
 Hfi established a camp in the neighborhood of 
 the city. He issued great proclamations, call- 
 ing upon all the people of the surrounding coun- 
 try to come and espouse his cause. He estab- 
 lished his court, organized his privy council, 
 and, in a word, perfected, on a somewhat hum- 
 ble scale it is true, all the arrangements proper 
 to the condition of a monarch in his capital. 
 He began, perhaps, in fact, to imagine himself 
 really a king. If he did so, however, the illu- 
 sion was soon dispelled. In one short week 
 Cromwell's army came on, filling all the ave- 
 nues of approach to the city, and exhibiting a 
 force far too great, apparently, either for Charles 
 to meet in battle, or to defend himself from in 
 a siege. 
 
 Charles's forces fought several preliminary 
 battles and skirmishes in resisting the attempts 
 of Cromwell's columns to get possession of the 
 bridges and fords by which they were to cross 
 the river. These contests resulted always in 
 the same way. The detachments which Charles
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 149 
 
 The irreat battle. Charles defeated. 
 
 had sent forward to defend these points were 
 one after another driven in, while Charles, with 
 his council of war around him, watched from 
 the top of the tower of a church within the city 
 this gradual and irresistible advance of his de- 
 termined enemy, with an anxiety which grad- 
 ually deepened into dismay. 
 
 The king, finding his situation now desperate, 
 determined to make one final attempt to retrieve 
 his fallen fortunes. He formed his troops in 
 array, and marched out to give the advancing 
 army battle. He put himself at the head of a 
 troop of Highlanders, and fought in person with 
 the courage and recklessness of despair. The 
 officers knew full well that it was a question 
 of victory or death ; for if they did not conquer, 
 they must die, either by wounds on the field of 
 battle, or else, if taken prisoners, by being hung 
 as traitors, or beheaded in the Tower. All 
 possibility of escape, entrapped and surrounded 
 as they were in the very heart of the country, 
 hundreds of miles from the frontiers, seemed 
 utterly hopeless. They fought, therefore, with 
 reckless and desperate fury, but all was in vain. 
 They were repulsed and driven in on all sides, 
 and the soldiers fled at length, carrying the of- 
 ficers with them, in tumult and disorder, back 
 through tbp. gates into the city.
 
 150 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Charles retreats. He attempts to rally his forces 
 
 An army flying in confusion to seek refuge 
 in a city can not shut the gates behind them 
 against their pursuers. In fact, in such a scene 
 of terror and dismay, there is no order, no obedi- 
 ence, no composure. At the gate where Charles 
 endeavored to get back into the city, he found 
 the way choked up by a heavy ammunition cart 
 which had been entangled there, one of the oxen 
 that had been drawing it being killed. The 
 throngs of men and horsemen were stopped by 
 this disaster. The king dismounted, abandoned 
 his horse, and made his way through and over 
 the obstruction as he could. When he got intc 
 the city, he found all in confusion there. His 
 men were throwing away their arms, and press- 
 ing onward in their flight. He lightened his 
 own burdens by laying aside the heaviest of his 
 armor, procured another horse, and rode up and 
 down among his men, urging and entreating 
 them to form again and face the enemy. He 
 plead the justice of his cause, their duty to be 
 faithful to their rightful sovereign, and every 
 *her argument which was capable of being ex- 
 pressed in the shouts and vociferations which, 
 in such a scene, constitute the only kind of 
 communication possible with panic-stricken 
 men ; and when he found that all was in vain
 
 1051.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBF.L. 
 
 The rout Chatles escapes from the city 
 
 he said, in despair, that he would rather they 
 would shoot him on the spot than let him live 
 to witness such an abandonment of his cause 
 by the only friends and followers that had been 
 left to him. 
 
 The powerful influence which these expostu- 
 lations would otherwise have had, was lost and 
 overborne in the torrent of confusion and terroi 
 which was spreading through all the streets of 
 the city. The army of Cromwell forced their 
 passage in, and fought their way from street to 
 street, wherever they found any remaining re- 
 sistance. Some of the king's troops were 
 hemmed up in corners, and cut to pieces. Oth- 
 ers, somewhat more fortunate, sought protec- 
 tion in towers and bastions, where they could 
 make some sort of conditions with their victo- 
 rious enemy before surrendering. Charles him- 
 self, finding that all was lost, made his escape 
 at last from the city, at six o'clock in the even- 
 ing, at the head of a troop of horse. He could 
 not, however, endure the thought of giving up 
 the contest, after all. Again and again, as ho 
 slowly retreated, he stopped to face about, and 
 to urge his men to consent to turn back again 
 and encounter the enemy. Their last halt was 
 upon a bridge half a mile from the city Here
 
 152 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Charles holds a consultation. His followers. 
 
 tlie king hold a consultation with the few re- 
 maining counselors and officers that were with 
 him, surveying, with them, the routed and fly- 
 ing bodies of men, who were now throwing away 
 their arms and dispersing in all directions, in a 
 state of hopeless disorganization and despair. 
 The king saw plainly that his cause was irre- 
 trievably ruined, and they all agreed that noth- 
 ing now remained for them but to make theii 
 escape back to Scotland, if by any possibility 
 that could now be done. 
 
 But how should they accomplish this end? 
 To follow the multitude of defeated soldiers 
 would be to share the certain capture and death 
 which awaited them, and they were themselves 
 all strangers to the country. To go on inquiring 
 all the way would only expose them to equally 
 certain discovery and capture. The first thing, 
 however, obviously was to get away from the 
 crowd. Charles and his attendants, therefore, 
 turned aside from the high road there were 
 with the king fifty or sixty officers and noble- 
 aien, all mounted men and moved along in 
 such secluded by-paths as they could find. The 
 king wished to diminish even this number of 
 followers, but he could not get any of them to 
 leave him. He complained afterward, in the
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 
 
 ITic guides. The party get lost 
 
 account which he gave of these adventures, 
 that, though they would not fight for him when 
 battle was to be riven, he could not get rid of 
 them when the time came for flight. 
 
 There was a servant of one of the gentlemen 
 in the company who pretended to know the way, 
 and he accordingly undertook to guide the par- 
 ty; but as soon as it became dark he got con- 
 fusod and lost, and did not know what to do. 
 They contrived, however, to get another guide 
 They went ten miles, attracting no particular 
 attention, for at such a time of civil war a coun- 
 try is full of parties of men, armed and un- 
 armed, going to and fro, who are allowed gen- 
 erally to move without molestation, as the in- 
 habitants are only anxious to have as little as 
 possible to say to them, that they may the soon- 
 er be gone. The royal party assumed the air 
 and manner of one of these bands as long as 
 daylight lasted, and when that was gone they 
 went more securely and at their ease. After 
 proceeding ten miles, they stopped at an ob- 
 scure inn, where they took some drink and 
 little bread, and then resumed their journey, 
 consulting with one another as they went as 
 to what it was best to do. 
 
 About ten or twelve miles further on there
 
 154 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Situation of Boscobel. Pla:es of rcfogo 
 
 was a somewhat wild and sequestered region, 
 in which there were two very secluded dwell- 
 ings, about half a mile from each other. One 
 of these residences was named Boscobel. The 
 name had been given to it by a guest of the pro- 
 prietor, at an entertainment which the latter 
 had given, from the Italian words bosco bello. 
 which mean beautiful grove. It was in or near 
 a wood, and away from all high roads, having 
 been built, probably, like many other of the 
 dwellings reared in those days, as a place of re- 
 treat. In the preceding reigns of Charles and 
 Elizabeth, the Catholics, who were called po- 
 pish recusants, on account of their refusing to 
 take an oath acknowledging the supremacy of 
 the British sovereign over the English Church, 
 had to resort to all possible modes of escape 
 from Protestant persecution. They built these 
 retreats in retired and secluded places, and 
 constructed all sorts of concealed and secure 
 hiding-places within them, in the partitions and 
 walls, where men whose lives were in danger 
 might be concealed for many days. Boscobel 
 was such a mansion. In fact, one of the king's 
 generals, the Earl of Derby, had been concealed 
 in it but a short time before. The king in- 
 quired particularly about it, and was induced 
 himself to seek refuare there.
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BCSCOSEL. 
 
 The White Ladies' Convent The Penderel* 
 
 This house belonged to a family of Giffards, 
 one of whom was in the suite of King Charles 
 at this time. There was another mansion 
 about half a mile distant. This other place 
 had been originally, in the Catholic days, a con- 
 vent, and the nuns who inhabited it dressed in 
 white. They were called , accordingly, the white 
 ladies, and the place itself received the same 
 name, which it retained after the sisters were 
 gone. Mr. Giffard recommended going to the 
 White Ladies' first. He wanted, in fact, to con- 
 trive some way to relieve the king of the en- 
 cumbrance of so large a troop before going to 
 Boscobel. 
 
 They went, accordingly, to the White Ladies'. 
 Neither of the houses was occupied at this time 
 by the proprietors, but were in charge of house- 
 keepers and servants. Among the tenants upon 
 the estate there were several brothers of the 
 name of Penderel. They were woodmen and 
 farm servants, living at different places in the 
 neighborhood, and having charge, some of them, 
 of the houses above described. One of the Pen- 
 derels was at the White Ladies'. He let the 
 fugitives in, tired, exhausted, and hungry as 
 they were, with the fatigue of marching nearly 
 all the night Thoy sent immediately for Rion-
 
 156 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Disguise of the king. Disposal of the tewela. 
 
 arc! Penderel, who lived in a farm-house near 
 by, ad for another brother, who was at BoiXJo- 
 bel. They took ths king into an inner room, 
 and immediately commenced the work of effect- 
 ually disguising him. 
 
 They gave him clothes belonging to some of 
 the servants of the family, and destroyed his 
 own. The king had about his person a watch 
 and some costly decorations, such as orders of 
 knighthood set in jewels, which would betray 
 his rank if found in his possession. These the 
 king distributed among his friends, intrusting 
 them to the charge of such as he judged most 
 likely to effect their escape. They then cut off' 
 his hair short all over, thus making him a 
 Roundhead instead of a Cavalier. They rubbed 
 soot from the fire-place over his face, to change 
 the expression of his features and complexion. 
 They gave him thus, in all respects, as nearly 
 as possible, the guise of a squalid peasant and 
 laborer of the humblest class, accustomed to 
 the privations and to the habits of poverty. 
 
 In the mean time Richard Penderel arrived. 
 Perhaps an intimation had been given him of 
 the wishes of the king to be relieved of his com- 
 pany of followers; at any rate, he urged the 
 whole retinue, as soon as he came to the house
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 157 
 
 Charles separates from his followers. His concealment 
 
 to press forward without any delay, as there 
 was a detachment of Cromwell's forces, he said, 
 at three miles' distance, who might be expected 
 at any moment to come in pursuit of them 
 Giffard brought Penderel then into the inner 
 room to which the king had retired. " This is 
 the king," said he. "I commit him to your 
 charge. Take care of him." 
 
 Richard undertook the trust. He told tha 
 king that he must immediately leave that place, 
 and he conducted him secretly, all disguised as 
 he was, out of a postern door, without making 
 known his design to any of his followers, ex- 
 cept the two or three who were in immediate 
 attendance upon him. He led him away about 
 half a mile into a wood, and, concealing him 
 there, left him alone, saying he would go and 
 see what intelligence he could obtain, and pres- 
 ently return again. The troop of followe rs, in 
 the mean time, from whom the king had beer 
 so desirous to get free, when they found that 
 h^ was gone, mounted their horses and rode 
 away, to escape the danger with which Richard 
 had threatened them. But, alas for the unhap- 
 py fugitives, they did not get far in their flight ; 
 they were overtaken, attacked, conquered, cap- 
 tured, and treated as traitors. Some were shot,
 
 158 KINO CHARLES II. [Idol. 
 
 The king's forlorn condition. The rain. 
 
 one was beheaded, and others were shut up in 
 prisons, where they pined in hopeless privation 
 and suffering for many years. There was, how- 
 ever, one of the king's followers who did not go 
 away with the rest. It was Lord Wilmot, an 
 influential nobleman, who concealed himself in 
 the vicinity, and kept near the king in all his 
 subsequent wanderings. 
 
 But we must return to the king in the wood 
 it was about sunrise when he was left there, 
 the morning after the battle. It rained. The 
 king tried in vain to find a shelter under the 
 trees of the forest. The trees themselves were 
 soon thoroughly saturated, and they received 
 the driving rain from the skies only to lee the 
 water fall in heavier drops upon the poor fugi- 
 tive's defenseless head. Richard borrowed a 
 blanket at a cottage near, thinking that it would 
 
 o / o 
 
 afford some protection, and brought it to his 
 charge. The king folded it up to make a cush- 
 ion to sit upon ; for, worn out as he was with 
 hard fighting all the day before, and hard rid- 
 ing all the night, he could not stand ; so ho 
 chose to use his blanket as a proteclion from 
 the wet ground beneath him, and to take the 
 rain upon his head as it fell. 
 
 Richard sent a peasant's wife to him present-
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BoacouEL. 159 
 
 Woman's fidelity. Weary pastime 
 
 ly with some food. Charles, who never had 
 any great respect for the female sex, was alarm- 
 (3d to find that a woman had been intrusted with 
 such a secret. " My good woman," said he, 
 " can you be faithful to a distressed Cavalier?" 
 " Yes, sir," said she ; " I will die rather than 
 betray you." Charles had, in fact, no occasion 
 to fear. Woman is, indeed, communicative and 
 confiding, and often, in unguarded hours, reveals 
 indiscreetly what it would have been better to 
 have withheld ; but in all cases where real and 
 important trusts are committed to her keeping, 
 there is no human fidelity which can be moro 
 safely relied upon than hers. 
 
 Charles remained in the wood all the day, ex- 
 posed to the pelting of the storm. There was 
 a road in sight, a sort of by-way leading across 
 the country, and the monarch beguiled the wea- 
 ry hours as well as he could by watching this 
 road from under the trees, to see if any soldiers 
 came along. There was one troop that appear- 
 ed, but it passed directly by, marching heavily 
 through the mud and rain, the men intent, ap- 
 parently, only on reaching their journey's end. 
 When night came on, Richard Penderel return- 
 ed, approaching cautiously, and, finding all safe, 
 cook the king into the house with him. They
 
 Lfc) KING CHARLES II [1651 
 
 The king's thoughts in the wood. He resolves to escape into Watea, 
 
 brought him to the fire, changed and dried his 
 clothes, and gave him supper. The homeless 
 monarch once more enjoyed the luxuries of 
 warmth and shelter. 
 
 During all the day, while he had been alone 
 in the wood, he had been revolving in his mind 
 the strange circumstances of his situation, vain- 
 ly endeavoring, for many hours, to realize what 
 seemed at first like a dreadful dream. Could 
 it be really true that he, the monarch of three 
 kingdoms, so recently at the head of a victori- 
 ous army, and surrounded by generals and of- 
 ficers of state, was now a friendless and solitary 
 fugitive, without even a place to hide his head 
 from the cold autumnal storm ? It seemed at 
 first a dream ; but it soon became a reality, 
 and he began to ponder, in every form, the 
 question what he should do. He looked east, 
 west, north, and south, but could not see, in 
 any quarter, any hope of succor, or any reason- 
 able prospect of escape. He, however, arrived 
 at the conclusion, before night came on, that it 
 would be, on the whole, the best plan for him y 
 attempt to escape into Wales. 
 
 He was very near the frontier of that crun- 
 fcry. There was no difficulty to be apprehenJ- 
 ed OD the road thither, excepting in the cross-
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 16] 
 
 Richard enters into the king's plan. They set out on their journey. 
 
 ing of the Severn, which, as has already been 
 remarked, flows from north to south not far 
 from the line of the frontier. He thought, too, 
 that if he could once succeed in getting into 
 Wales, he could find secure retreats among the 
 mountains there until he should be able to 
 make his way to some sea-port on the coast 
 trading with France, and so find his way back 
 across the Channel. He proposed this plan to 
 Richard in the evening, and asked him to ac- 
 company him as his guide. Richard readily 
 consented, and the arrangements for the jour- 
 ney were made. They adjusted the king's 
 dress again to complete his disguise, and Rich- 
 ard gave him a bill-hook a sort of woodman's 
 tool to carry in his hand. It was agreed, also, 
 that his name should be Will Jones so far as 
 there should be any necessity for designating 
 him by a name in the progress of the journey. 
 They set out at nine o'clock that same night, 
 in the darkness and rain. They wished to get 
 to Madely, a town near the river, before the 
 morning. Richard knew a Mr. Woolf there, a 
 friend of the Royalist cause, who he thought 
 would shelter them, and aid them in getting 
 across the river. They went on very well for 
 some time, until they came to a stream. 
 1,
 
 162 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 The miller and the milL The pursuit 
 
 branch of the Severn, where there was a bridge, 
 and on the other side a mill. The miller hap- 
 pened to be watching that night at his door. 
 At such times every body is on the alert, sus- 
 pecting mischief or danger in every unusual 
 sight or sound. Hearing the footsteps, he call- 
 ed out, " Who goes there?" " Neighbors," re- 
 plied Richard. The king was silent. He had 
 been previously charged by Richard not to 
 speak, except when it could not possibly be 
 avoided, as he had not the accent of the coun- 
 try. " Stop, then," said the miller, " if you be 
 neighbors." The travelers only pressed for- 
 ward the faster for this challenge. " Stop !" 
 repeated the miller, " if you be neighbors, or I 
 will knock you down ;" and he ran out in pur- 
 suit of them, armed apparently with the means 
 of executing his threat. Richard fled, the king 
 closely following him. They turned into a lane, 
 and ran a long distance, the way being in many 
 places so dark that the king, in following Rich 
 ard, was guided only by the sound of his foot- 
 steps, and the creaking of the leather dress 
 which such peasants were accustomed in those 
 days to wear. They crept along, however, as 
 silently, and yet as rapidly as possible, until at 
 length Richard turned suddenly aside, leaped
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 
 
 Arrival at Madely. Interview witU Mr. Woolf. 
 
 over a sort of gap in the hedge, and crouched 
 down in the trench on the other side. Here 
 they remained for some time, listening to as- 
 certain whether they were pursued. When 
 they found that all was still, they crept forth 
 from their hiding-places, regained the mad, and 
 went on their way. 
 
 At length they arrived at the town. Rich- 
 ard left the king concealed in an obscure cor- 
 ner of the street, while he went to the house of 
 Mr. "Woolf to see if he could obtain admission. 
 All was dark and still. He knocked till he had 
 aroused some of the family, and finally brought 
 Mr. Woolf to the door. 
 
 He told Mr. Woolf that he came to ask shel- 
 ter for a gentleman who was wishing to get 
 into Wales, and who could not safely travel by 
 day. Mr. Woolf hesitated, and began to ask 
 for further information in respect to the stran- 
 ger. Richard said that he was an officer who 
 had made his escape from the battle of Wor- 
 cester. " Then," said Mr. Woolf, " I should 
 hazard my life by concealing him, which I 
 should not be willing to do for any body, un- 
 less it were the king." Richard then told him 
 that it was his majesty. On hearing this, Mr. 
 Woolf decided at once to admit and conceal
 
 164 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Reception at Mr. Wooirs. Concealment in the barb 
 
 the travelers, and Richard went back to bring 
 the king. 
 
 When they arrived at the house, they found 
 Mr. Woolf making preparations for their recep- 
 tion. They placed the king by the fire to warm 
 and dry his clothes, and they gave him such 
 food as could be provided on so sudden an emerg- 
 ency. As the morning was now approaching, 
 it was necessary to adopt some plan of conceal- 
 ment for the day, and Mr. Woolf decided upon 
 concealing his guests in his barn. He said that 
 there were holes and hiding-places built in his 
 house, but that they had all been discovered on 
 some previous search, and, in case of any sus- 
 picion or alarm, the officers would go directly 
 to them all. He took the travelers, accordingly, 
 to the barn, and concealed them there among 
 the hay. He said that he would himself, dur- 
 ing the day, make inquiries in respect to the 
 practicability of their going on upon their jour- 
 ney, and come and report to them in the evening 
 
 Accordingly, when the evening came, Mr. 
 Woolf returned, relieved them from their con* 
 finement, and took them back again to the 
 house. His report, however, in respect to the 
 continuance of their journey 3 was very unfavor- 
 able. He thought it would be impossible, }~c
 
 1651. j ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. IGo 
 
 The king advised to return. He acceflesi 
 
 said, for them to cross the Severn. The Repub- 
 lican forces had stationed guards at all the bridg- 
 es, ferries, and fords, and at every other prac- 
 ticable place of crossing, and no one was allow- 
 ed to pass without a strict examination. The 
 country was greatly excited, too, with the in- 
 telligence of the king's escape ; rewards were 
 offered for his apprehension, and heavy penal- 
 ties denounced upon all who should harbor or 
 conceal him. Under these circumstances, Mr. 
 Woolf recommended that Charles should go 
 back to Boscobel, and conceal himself as se- 
 ourely as possible there, until some plan could 
 be devised for effecting his escape from the 
 country. 
 
 The king had no alternative but to accede to 
 this plan. He waited at Mr. Woolf 's house till 
 midnight, in order that the movement in the 
 streets of the town might have time entirely to 
 subside, and then, disappointed and discouraged 
 by the failure of his hopes, he prepared to set 
 out upon his return. Mr. Woolf made some 
 changes in his disguise, and bathed his faco 
 in a decoction of walnut leaves, which he had 
 prepared during the day, to alter his complex- 
 ion, which was naturally very dark and pecu- 
 liar, and thus exposed him to danger of discov
 
 166 KING CHARLES II. (1651. 
 
 The return journey. Fording the river. 
 
 ery. When all was ready, the two travelers 
 bade their kind host farewell, and crept forth 
 again through the silent streets, to return, by 
 the way they came, back to Boscobel. 
 
 They went on very well till they began to 
 approach the branch stream where they had met 
 with their adventure with the miller. They 
 could not cross this stream by the bridge with- 
 out going by the mill again, which they were 
 both afraid to do. The king proposed that they 
 should go a little way below, and ford the stream. 
 Richard was afraid to attempt this, as he could 
 not swim ; and as the night was dark, and the 
 current rapid, there would be imminent danger 
 of their getting beyond their depth. Charles 
 said that he could swim, and that he would, ac- 
 cordingly, go first and try the water. They 
 groped their way down, therefore, to the bank, 
 and Charles, leaving his guide upon the land, 
 waded in, and soon disappeared from view as 
 he receded from the shore. He returned, how 
 ever, after a short time, in safety, and reported 
 the passage practicable, as the water was only 
 three or four feet deep ; so, taking Richard by 
 the hand, he led him into the stream. It was 
 a dismal and dangerous undertaking, wading 
 thus through a deep and rapid current in dark-
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 16? 
 
 Arrival at Boscobel. The king's exhausted condition 
 
 ness and cold, but they succeeded in passing 
 safely over 
 
 They reached Boscobel before the morning 
 dawned, and Richard, when they arrived, left 
 the king in the wood while he went toward tho 
 huuse to reconnoiter, and see if all was safe. 
 He found within an officer of the king's army, 
 a certain Colonel Carlis, who had fled from Wor- 
 cester some time after the king had left the 
 field, and, being acquainted with the situation 
 of Boscobel, had sought refuge there ; William 
 Penderel, who had remained in charge of Bos- 
 cobel, having received and secreted him when 
 he arrived. 
 
 Richard and William brought Colonel Carlis 
 out into the wood to see the king. They found 
 him sitting upon the ground at the foot of a tree, 
 entirely exhausted. He was worn out with 
 hardship and fatigue. They took him to the 
 house. They brought him to the fire, and gave 
 him some food. The colonel drew off his maj- 
 esty's heavy peasant shoes and coarse stockings. 
 They were soaked with water and full of gravel. 
 The colonel bathed his feet, which were sadly 
 swollen and blistered, and, as there were no oth- 
 er shoes in the house which would answer fo 
 him to wear, Dame Penderel warmed and dried
 
 16S KING CHARLES 11. [1651 
 
 Colonel Carlis. The oak 
 
 those -which the colonel had taken off, by filling 
 them with hot ashes from the fire, and then put 
 them on again. 
 
 The king continued to enjoy such sort of com- 
 forts as these during the night, but when the 
 morning drew near it became necessary to look 
 out for some place of concealment. The Pen- 
 derels thought that no place within the house 
 would be safe, for there was danger every hour 
 of the arrival of a band of soldiers, who would 
 not fail to search the mansion most effectually 
 in every part. There was the wood near by, 
 which was very secluded and solitary ; but still 
 they feared that, in case of a search, the wood 
 would be explored as effectually as the dwelling. 
 Under these circumstances, Carlis was looking 
 around, perplexed and uncertain, not knowing 
 what to do, when he perceived some scattered 
 oaks standing by themselves in a field not far 
 from the house, one of which seemed to be so 
 full and dense in its foliage as to afford some 
 hope of concealment there. The tree, it seems, 
 had been headed down once or twice, and this 
 pruning had had the effect, usual in such cases, 
 of making the branches spread and grow very 
 thick and full. The colonel thought that though, 
 in making a search for fugitives, men migW
 
 1651.] ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 171 
 
 The king takes shelter in the oak. Provisions, 
 
 very naturally explore a thicket or a grove, they 
 would not probably think of examining a de- 
 tached and solitary tree ; he proposed, accord- 
 ingly, that the king and himself should climb 
 up into this spreading oak, and conceal them 
 selves for the day among its branches. 
 
 The king consented to this plan. They took 
 some provisions, therefore, as soon as the day 
 began to dawn, and something to answer the 
 purpose of a cushion, and proceeded to the tree. 
 By the help of William and Richard the king 
 and the colonel climbed up, and established 
 themselves in the top. The colonel placed the 
 cushion for the king on the best support among 
 the limbs that he could find. The bread and 
 cheese, and a small bottle of beer, which Rich- 
 ard and William had brought for their day's 
 supplies, they suspended to a branch within 
 their reach. The colonel then seated himself 
 a little above the king, in such a manner that 
 the monarch's head could rest conveniently in 
 his lap, and in as easy a position as it was possi- 
 ble, under such circumstances, to attain. Rich, 
 ard and William, then, after surveying the 
 place of retreat all around from below, in order 
 to be sure that the concealment afforded by the 
 foliage was every where complete, went away, 
 promising to keep faithful watch during the dajy,
 
 172 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Situation of the king in the oak. His suffering* 
 
 and to return in the evening. All things being 
 thus arranged in the oak, the colonel bade his 
 majesty to close his eyes and go to sleep, say- 
 ing that he would take good care that he diu 
 not fall. The king followed his directions, and 
 slept safely for many hours. 
 
 In the course of the day the king and Carlis 
 saw, by means of the openings between the 
 leaves, through which, as through loop-holes in 
 a tower, they continually reconnoitered the sur- 
 rounding fields, men passing to and fro, some 
 of whom they imagined to be soldiers searching 
 the wood. They were not, however, themselves 
 molested. They passed the day undisturbed, 
 except by the incessant anxiety and alarm which 
 they necessarily suffered, and the fatigue and 
 pain, which must have become almost intolera- 
 ble before night, from their constrained and com- 
 fortless position. Night, however, came at last, 
 and relieved them from their duress. They de- 
 scended from the tree and stole back cautiously 
 to the house, the king resolving that he could 
 not bear such hardship another day, and thai 
 they must, accordingly, find some other hiding- 
 place for him on the morrow. We can scarcely 
 be surprised at this decision. A wild beast coult! 
 hardly have endured a second day in such a lair. 
 
 Other plans of concealment for the king were
 
 IGoJ.j ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL. 173 
 
 Fame of the Royal Oak. Measures for its protection. 
 
 accordingly formed that night, and measures 
 were soon concerted, as we shall see in the next 
 chapter, to effect his escape from the country. 
 The old tree, however, which had sheltered him 
 so safely, was not forgotten. In after years, 
 when the monarch was restored to his throne, 
 and the story of his dangers and his escape was 
 made known throughout the kingdom, thousands 
 of visitors came to look upon the faithful tree 
 which had thus afforded his majesty its un- 
 conscious but effectual protection. Every one 
 took away a leaf or a sprig for a souvenir, and 
 when, at last, the proprietor found that there 
 was danger that the whole tree would be car- 
 ried away unless he interposed, he fenced it in 
 and tilled the ground around it, to defend it 
 f rom further mutilation. It has borne the name 
 of the Royal Oak from that time to the present 
 day, and has been the theme of narrators and 
 poets without number, who have celebrated its 
 praises in every conceivable form of composi- 
 tion. There is, however, probably no one of 
 them all who has done more for the wide ex- 
 tension of its fame among all the ranks and gra 
 lations of society than the unknown author of 
 the humble distich, 
 
 " The royal oak, it was the tree, 
 That snvp;l his royal mniesty."
 
 174 KINO CHARLES 11. [IGoJ 
 
 fhe king in the house of BoscobeL New place of concealment 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE KING'S ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 
 
 Y7C7HEN the king and Carlis came into the 
 * ^ house again, on the evening after their 
 wearisome day's confinement in the tree, Dame 
 Penderel had some chickens prepared for his 
 majesty's supper, which he enjoyed as a great 
 and unexpected luxury. They showed him, 
 too, the hiding hole, built in the walls, where 
 the Earl of Derby had been concealed, and 
 where they proposed that he should be lodged 
 for the night. There was room in it to lay 
 down a small straw pallet for a bed. The king 
 thought it would be very secure, and was con- 
 firmed in his determination not to go again to 
 the oak. Before his majesty retired, Carlis 
 asked him what he would like to have to eat 
 on the morrow. He said that he should like 
 some mutton. Carlis assented, and, bidding hi* 
 master good night, he left him to his repose. 
 
 There was no mutton in the house, and Rich- 
 ard and William both agreed that it would be 
 unsafe for either of them to procure any, since,
 
 .651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 175 
 
 The stolen mutton. The little gnlleiy 
 
 as they were not accustomed to purchase such 
 food, their doing so now would awaken suspi- 
 cion that they had some unusual guest to pro- 
 vide for. The colonel, accordingly, undertook 
 himself to obtain the supply. 
 
 Getting the necessary directions, therefore, 
 from Richard and William, he went to the 
 house of a farmer at some little distance a 
 tenant, he was, on the Boscobel estate and 
 groped his way to the sheep-cote. He selected 
 an animal, such as he thought suitable for his 
 purpose, and butchered it with his dagger. He, 
 then went back to the house, and sent William 
 Pcnderel to bring the plunder home. William 
 dressed a leg of the mutton, and sent it in the 
 
 O ' 
 
 morning into the room which they had assign- 
 ed to the king, near his hiding hole. The king 
 was overjoyed at the prospect of this feast. 
 He called for a carving-knife and a frying-pan. 
 He cut off some callops from the joint, and then, 
 after frying the meat with Carlis's assistance, 
 they ate it together. 
 
 The king, becoming now somewhat accus- 
 tomed to his situation, began to grow a little 
 more bold. He walked in a little gallery which 
 opened from his room. There vas a window 
 in this gallery which commanded a view of thp
 
 176 KING CHARLES I.I. [1651 
 
 The king's devotions. The arbor in the garden. 
 
 road. The king kept watch carefully at this 
 window, a? he walked to and fro, that he might 
 observe the first appearance of any enemy's ap- 
 proach. It was observed, too, that he appar- 
 ently spent some time here in exercises of de- 
 votion, imploring, probably, the protection of 
 Heaven, in this his hour of danger and distress. 
 The vows and promises which he doubtless 
 made were, however, all forgotten, as usual in 
 such cases, when safety and prosperity came 
 again. 
 
 There was a little garden, too, near the house, 
 with an eminence at the further end of it, where 
 there was an arbor, with a stone table, and seats 
 about it. It was retired, and yet, being in an 
 elevated position, it answered, like the windo\v 
 of the gallery in the house, the double purpose 
 of a hiding-place and a watch-tower. It was 
 far more comfortable, and probably much more 
 safe, than the wretched nest in the tree of the 
 day before ; for, were the king discovered in 
 the arbor, there would be some chances of es- 
 cape from detection still remaining, but to have 
 been found in the tree would have been certain 
 destruction. 
 
 In the mean time, the Penderels had had mes- 
 sengers out dMring the Saturday and Sunday,
 
 1651.] ESC-APE TO FRANCE. 177 
 
 Plan for the king's escape. Mrs. Laiie 
 
 communicating with certain known friends of 
 the king in the neighboring towns, and endeav. 
 oring to concert some plan for his escape. They 
 were successful in these consultations, and be- 
 fore Sunday night a plan was formed. It seem? 
 there was a certain Colonel Lane, whose wife 
 had obtained a pass from the authorities of the 
 Republican army to go to Bristol, on the occa- 
 sion of the sickness of a relative, and to take 
 with her a man-servant. Bristol was a hun- 
 dred miles to the southward, near the mouth 
 of the Severn. It was thought that if the king 
 should reach this place, he could, perhaps, suc- 
 ceed afterward in making his way to the south- 
 ern coast of England, and embarking there, at 
 some sea-port, for France. The plan was ac- 
 cordingly formed for Mrs. Lane to go, as she 
 had designed, on this journey, and to take the 
 king along with her in the guise of her serv- 
 ant. The arrangements were all made, and 
 the king was to be met in a wood five or six 
 miles from Boscobel, early on Monday morning, 
 by some trusty friends, who were afterward to 
 conceal him for a time in their houses, until 
 all things should be ready for the journey. 
 
 The king found, however, when the morning 
 approached, that his feet were in such a oondi 
 M
 
 178 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 A dark and stormy night. The Penderels bid the king farewell 
 
 tion that he could not walk. They according, 
 ly procured a horse belonging to one of the Pen 
 derels, and put him upon it. The brothers all 
 accompanied him as he went away . They were 
 armed with concealed weapons, intending, if 
 they were attacked by any small party, to de- 
 fend the king with their lives. They, howev- 
 er, went on without any molestation. It was 
 a dark and rainy night. Nights are seldom oth- 
 erwise in England in September. The broth- 
 ers Penderel, six of them in all, guided the king 
 along through the darkness and rain, until they 
 were within a mile or two of the appointed place 
 of meeting, where the king dismounted, for the 
 purpose of walking the rest of way, for greater 
 safety, and three of the brothers, taking the 
 horse with them, returned. The rest went on. 
 and, after delivering the king safely into the 
 hands of his friends, who were waiting at the 
 appointed place to receive him, bade his majes- 
 ty farewell, and, expressing their good wishes 
 for the safe accomplishment of his escape, they 
 returned to Boscobel. 
 
 They now altered the king's disguise in some 
 degree, to accommodate the change in his as- 
 sumed character from that of a peasant of the 
 woods to a respectable farmer's son, such as
 
 1651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCK. 179 
 
 The king's disguise. lie sets out on his journey 
 
 would be a suitable traveling attendant for an 
 English dame, and they gave him the new 
 name of William Jackson in the place of Will 
 Jones. Mrs. Lane's sister's husband was to go 
 with them a part of the way, and there was 
 another gentleman and lady also of the party, 
 so they were five in all. The horses were 
 brought to the door when all was ready, just in 
 the edge of the evening, the pretended attend- 
 ant standing respectfully by, with his hat un- 
 der his arm. He was to ride upon the same 
 horse with Mrs. Lane, the lady being seated on 
 a pillion behind him. The family assembled 
 to bid the party farewell, none, either of the 
 travelers or of the spectators, except Mrs. Lane 
 and her brother-in-law, having any idea that 
 the meek-looking William Jackson was any 
 other than what he seemed. 
 
 They traveled on day after day, meeting with 
 various adventures, and apparently with narrow 
 escapes. At one time a shoe was off from the 
 horse's foot, and the king stopped at a black- 
 smith's to have it replaced. While the smith 
 was busy at the work, the king, standing by, 
 asked him what news. "No news," said the 
 smith, " that I know of, since the grand news 
 of beating the rogues, the Scots, at Worcester.''
 
 180 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 The incident at the blacksmith's. Winding up the jar* 
 
 The king asked if any of the English officers 
 who were with the Scots had been taken since 
 the battle. " Some had been captured," the 
 smith replied, "but he could not learn that the 
 rogue Charles Stuart had been taken." The 
 king then told him that if that rogue were tak- 
 en, he deserved to be hanged more than all the 
 rest, for bringing the Scots in. "You speak 
 like an honest man," said the smith. Soon aft- 
 er, the work was done, and Charles led the horse 
 away. 
 
 At another time, when the party had stopped 
 tor the night, the king, in accordance with his 
 assumed character, went to the kitchen. They 
 were roasting some meat with a jack, a ma- 
 chine used much in those days to keep meat, 
 while roasting, in slow rotation before the fire. 
 The jack had run down. They asked the pre- 
 tended William Jackson to wind it up. In try- 
 ing to do it, he attempted to wind it the wrong 
 way. The cook, in ridiculing his awkwardness, 
 asked him what country he came from, that he 
 did not know how to wind up a jack. The king 
 meekly replied that he was the son of a poor 
 tenant of Colonel Lane's, and that they seldom 
 had meat to roast at home, and that, when they 
 had it, they did not roast it with a jack.
 
 1651 J ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 181 
 
 The king arrives at Leigh. Old Pope the butler. 
 
 The party at length arrived safely at theii 
 place of destination, which was at the house of 
 a Mrs. Norton, at a place called Leigh, about 
 three miles from Bristol. Here the whole par- 
 ty were received, and, in order to seclude the 
 king as much as possible from observation, Mrs. 
 Lane pretended that he was in very feeble 
 health, and he was, accordingly, a good deal 
 confined to his room. The disease which they 
 selected for him was an intermittent fever, 
 which came on only at intervals. This would 
 account for his being sometimes apparently pret- 
 ty well, and allowed him occasionally, when 
 tired of being shut up in his room, to come down 
 and join the other servants, and hear their con- 
 versation. 
 
 There was an old servant of the family, named 
 Pope, a butler, to whose care the pretended Will- 
 iam Jackson was specially confided. On the 
 following morning after his arrival, Charles, 
 feeling, notwithstanding his fever, a good appe- 
 tite after the fatigues of his journey, went down 
 to get his breakfast, and, while there, some men 
 ;ame in, friends of the servants, and Pope 
 brought out a luncheon of bread and ale, and 
 placed it before them. "While they were eat- 
 ing it, they began to talk about the battlo o/
 
 182 KING CHARLES II. [i651 
 
 The king is discovered. Colonel Wyndham. 
 
 Worcester, and one of the men described it so 
 accurately, that the king perceived that he must 
 have been there. On questioning him more pa t 
 ticularly, the man said that he was a soldier in 
 the king's army, and he began to describe tho 
 person and appearance of the king. Charles 
 was alarmed, and very soon rose and went away. 
 Pope, who had had, it seems, his suspicions be- 
 fore, was now confirmed in them. He went to 
 Mrs. Lane, and told her that he knew very well 
 that their stranger guest was the king. She 
 denied most positively that it was so, but she 
 immediately took measures to communicate the 
 conversation to Charles. The result of their 
 consultations, and of their inquiries about the 
 character of Pope for prudence and fidelity, was 
 to admit him to their confidence, and endeavor 
 to secure his aid. He was faithful in keeping 
 the secret, and he rendered the king afterward 
 a great deal of very efficient aid. 
 
 There was a certain Colonel Wyndham, 
 whose name has become immortalized by his 
 connection with the king's escape, who lived at 
 a place called Trent, not far from the southern 
 coast of England. After much deliberation and 
 many inquiries, it was decided that the king 
 should proceed there while arrangements should
 
 1651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 183 
 
 The king goes to Colonel Wyndham's. Wanderings of Lord Wilmot 
 
 he made for his embarkation. When this plan 
 was formed, Mrs. Lane received a pretended 
 letter from home, saying that her father was 
 taken suddenly and dangerously sick, and urg- 
 ing her immediate return. They set out ac- 
 cordingly, William having so far recovered from 
 his fever as to be able to travel again ! 
 
 During all this time, Lord Wilmot, who has 
 already been mentioned as a fellow-fugitive 
 with Charles from the battle of Worcester, had 
 followed the party of the king in his progress 
 through the country, under various disguises, 
 and by different modes of travel, keeping near 
 his royal master all the way, and obtaining 
 stolen interviews with him, from time to time, 
 for consultation. In this way each rendered 
 the other very essential aid. The two friends 
 arrived at last at Colonel Wyndham's together. 
 Mrs. Lane and her party here took leave of the 
 king, and returned northward toward her home. 
 
 Colonel Wyndham was a personal acquaint- 
 ance of the king. He had been an officer un- 
 der Charles L, in the civil wars preceding that 
 monarch's captivity and death, and Charles, 
 who, as Prince of Wales, had made a campaign, 
 as will be recollected, in the west of England, 
 before he went to France, had had frequent in-
 
 184 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Tho king's cordial reception. Plan for conveying him to Franca 
 
 tercourse with Wyndham, and had great confi 
 Jence in his fidelity. The colonel had been at 
 last shut up in a castle, and had finally surren- 
 dered on such conditions as secured his own lib- 
 erty and safety. He had, consequently, since 
 been allowed to live quietly at his own estate, 
 in Trent, though he was watched and suspect- 
 ed by the government as a known friend of the 
 king's. Charles had, of course, great confidence 
 in him. He was very cordially received into 
 his house, and very securely secreted there. 
 
 It would be dangerous for Wyndham him- 
 self to do any thing openly in respect to find- 
 ing a vessel to convey the king to France. He 
 accordingly engaged a trusty friend to go down 
 to the sea-port on the coast which was nearest 
 to his residence, and see what he could do. 
 This sea-port was Lyme, or Lyme-Regis, as it 
 is sometimes called. It was about twenty-five 
 miles from Trent, where Wyndham resided, 
 toward the southwest, and about the same dis- 
 tance to the eastward of Exeter, where Charles's 
 mother had some years before sought refuge 
 from her husband's enemies. 
 
 Colonel Wyndham's messenger went tc 
 Lyme. He found there, pretty soon, the mas- 
 ter of a small vessel, which was accustomed to
 
 lt>51.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 185 
 
 Proposal of Wyndham's messenger. The captain agrees to it 
 
 ply back and forth to one of the ports on the 
 coast of France, to carry merchandise. The 
 messenger, after making inquiries, and finding 
 that the captain, if captain he may be called, 
 was the right sort of man for such an enter- 
 prise, obtained an interview with him, and in- 
 troduced conversation by asking when he ex- 
 pected to go back to France. The captain re- 
 plied that it would probably be some time be- 
 fore he should be able to make up another car- 
 go. " How should you like to take some pas- 
 sengers ?" said the messenger. " Passengers ?" 
 inquired the captain. " Yes," rejoined the oth- 
 er ; " there are two gentlemen here who wish 
 to cross the Channel privately, and they are 
 willing to pay fifty pounds to be landed at any 
 port on the other side. Will you take them ?" 
 The captain perceived that it was a serious 
 business. There was a proclamation out, of- 
 fering a reward for the apprehension of the king, 
 or Charles Stuart as they called him, and also 
 for other of the leaders at the battle of Worces- 
 ter. All persons, too, were strictly prohibited 
 from taking any one across the Channel ; and 
 to conceal the king, or to connive in any way 
 at his escape, was death. The captain, howev- 
 er, at length agreed to the proposal, influenced
 
 ISC KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Arrangements for crossing the Channel. Prospect of success 
 
 as the colonel's messenger supposed, partly by 
 the amount of his pay, and partly by his inter- 
 est in the Royal cause. He agreed to make 
 his little vessel ready without delay. 
 
 They did not think it prudent for the king to 
 attempt to embark at Lyme, but there was, a 
 few miles to the eastward of it, along the shore, 
 a small village named Charmouth, where there 
 was a creek jutting up from the sea, and a lit- 
 tle pier, sufficient for the landing of so small a 
 vessel as the one they had engaged. It wa? 
 agreed that, on an appointed day, the king and 
 Lord Wilmot were to come down to Charmouth, 
 and take up their lodgings at the inn ; that in 
 the night the captain was to sail out of the port 
 of Lyme, in the most private manner possible, 
 and come to Charmouth ; and that the king 
 and Wilmot, who would, in the mean time, be 
 watching from the inn, when they saw the light 
 of the approaching vessel, should come down to 
 the pier and embark, and the captain then im- 
 mediately ssil away. 
 
 The messenger accordingly went back to Col 
 onel Wyndham's with intelligence of the plan 
 that he had formed, while the captain of the 
 vessel went to work as privately as possible to 
 lay in his stores and make his other prepara-
 
 1651.J ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 187 
 
 Fh<5 captain's wife. Her suspicions 
 
 iions for sea. He did this with the utmost pre- 
 caution and secrecy, and succeeded in deceiv- 
 ing every body but his wife. Wives have the 
 opportunity to perceive indications of the con- 
 cealed existence of matters of moment and 
 weight which others do not enjoy, in studying 
 the countenances of their husbands. A man can 
 easily, through the day, when surrounded by 
 the world, assume an unconcerned and careless 
 air, though oppressed with a very considerable 
 mental burden : but when he comes home at 
 night, he instinctively throws off half his dis- 
 guise, and conjugal watchfulness and solicitude 
 easily penetrate the remainder. At least it 
 was so in this case. The captain's dame per- 
 ceived that her husband was thoughtful and ab- 
 sent-minded. She watched him. She observ- 
 ed some indications that he was making prep- 
 arations for sea. She asked him what it meant. 
 He said he did not know how soon he might 
 have a cargo, and he wanted to be all ready in 
 season. His wife, however, was not satisfied 
 She watched him more closely still, and whet 
 the appointed night came on which he hat 1 
 agreed to sail, finding that it was impossible foi 
 him to elude her vigilance, he told her plain!) 
 that he was going across the Channel on private
 
 188 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Btrenutras opposition of the captain's wife. The plan fail* 
 
 business, but that he should immediately re 
 turn. 
 
 She declared positively that he should not go 
 She knew, she said, that the business was some- 
 thing which would end in ruining him and hi? 
 family, and she was determined that he should 
 not risk her safety and his own life in any such 
 desperate and treasonable plans. She locked 
 the door upon him, and when he insisted on 
 being released, she declared that if he did at- 
 tempt to go, she would immediately give warn- 
 ing to the authorities, and have him arrested 
 and confined. So the discomfited captain was 
 compelled to give up his design, and break his 
 appointment at the Charmouth pier. 
 
 In the mean time, the king and Lord Wil- 
 mot came down, as had been agreed upon, to 
 Charmouth, and put up, with many other trav- 
 elers, at the inn. There was great excitement, 
 all over that part of the country, every one talk- 
 ing about the battle of Worcester, the escape 
 of the king, and especially about an expedition 
 winch Cromwell had been organizing, which 
 was then assembling on the southern coast. 
 Its destination was the island of Jersey, which 
 had thus far adhered to the Royalist cause, and 
 which Cromwell was now intending to reduce
 
 L651.J ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 189 
 
 The fugitives in great danger. Their disappointment 
 
 to subjection to him. The bustle and move- 
 ment which all these causes combined to cre- 
 ate, made the king and Lord Wilmot very anx- 
 ious and uneasy. There were assemblies con- 
 vened in the villages which they passed through, 
 and men were haranguing the populace on the 
 victories which had been gained, and on the fu- 
 ture measures to be pursued. In one place the 
 bells were ringing, and bonfires were burning in 
 celebration of the death of the king, it being 
 rumored and believed that he had been shot. 
 
 Our two fugitives, however, arrived safely at 
 the inn, put up their horses, and began to watch 
 anxiously for the light of the approaching vessel. 
 They watched, of course, in vain. Midnight 
 came, but no vessel. They waited hour after 
 hour, till at last morning dawned, and they 
 found that all hope of accomplishing their en- 
 terprise must be abandoned. They could not 
 remain where they were, however, another day, 
 without suspicion ; so they prepared to move 
 on and seek temporary refuge in some other 
 neighboring town, while they could send one of 
 the attendants who came with them back to 
 Colonel Wyndham's, to see if he oould ascer- 
 tain the cause of the failure. One or two days 
 Were spent in inquiries, negotiations, and do-
 
 190 KING CHARLES II 
 
 Narrow escape of the fugitives. The four horse-shoes 
 
 lays. The result was, that all hope of embark- 
 ing at Lyme had to be abandoned, and it was 
 concluded that the fugitives should proceed en 
 to the eastward, along the coast, to the care of 
 another Royalist, a certain Colonel Gunter, who 
 might perhaps find means to send them away 
 from gome port in that part of the country. At 
 uny rate, they would, by this plan, escape the 
 excitements and dangers which seemed to en- 
 viron them in the neighborhood of Lyme. 
 
 It was fortunate that they went away from 
 Charmouth when they did ; by doing so they 
 narrowly escaped apprehension ; for that night, 
 while the king's horse was in the stable, a smith 
 was sent for to set a shoe upon the horse of one 
 of the other travelers. After finishing his work, 
 he began to examine the feet of the other horses 
 in the stalls, and when he came to the one which 
 the king had rode, his attention was particularly 
 attracted to the condition and appearance of tho 
 shoes, and he remarked to those who were with 
 him that that horse had come a long journey, 
 and that of the four shoes, he would warrant 
 that no two had been made in the same county. 
 This remark was quoted the next day, and 
 the mysterious circumstance, trifling as it was, 
 was sufficient, in the highly excitable state of
 
 1651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 191 
 
 The fugitives arrive at Shoreham. Colonel Gunter's plan. 
 
 the public mind, to awaken attention. People 
 came to see the horse, and to inquire for the own- 
 er, but they found that both had disappeared, 
 They immediately determined that the stranger 
 must have been the king, or at least some distin- 
 guished personage in disguise, and they sent in 
 search of the party in every direction ; but the 
 travelers had taken such effectual precautions 
 to blind all pursuit that their track could not 
 be followed. 
 
 In the mean time, the king journeyed secret- 
 ly on from the residence of one faithful adherent 
 to another, encountering many perplexities, and 
 escaping narrowly many dangers, until he came 
 at last to the neighborhood of Shoreham, a town 
 opon the coast of Sussex. Colonel Gunter had 
 provided a vessel here. It was a small vessel, 
 bound, with a load of coal, along the coast, to 
 the westward, to a port called Pool, beyond the 
 Isle of Wight. Colonel Gunter had arranged 
 it with the master to deviate from his voyage, 
 by crossing over to the coast of France, and 
 leaving his passengers there. He was then to 
 return, and proceed to his original destination. 
 Both the owner of the vessel and the master 
 who commanded it were Royalists, bat tbey 
 hsd not been told that it was the king whom
 
 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 The king recognized. The fugitives embark 
 
 they were going to convey. In tlio bargain 
 which had been made with them, the passen- 
 gers had been designated simply as two gentle- 
 men of rank who had escaped from the battle 
 of Worcester. When, however, the master of 
 the vessel saw the king, he immediately recog- 
 nized him, having seen him before in his cam- 
 paigns under his father. This, however, seem- 
 ed to make no difference in his readiness to 
 convey the passengers away. He said that he 
 was perfectly willing to risk his life to save that 
 of his sovereign, and the arrangements for the 
 embarkation proceeded. 
 
 The little vessel its burden was about sixty 
 tons was brought into a small cove at Bright- 
 
 UP O 
 
 helmstone, a few miles to the eastward from 
 Shoreham, and run upon the beach, where it 
 was left stranded when the tide went down. 
 The king and Lord Wilmot went to it by 
 night, ascended its side by a ladder, went down 
 immediately into the cabin, and concealed them - 
 selves there. When the rising tide had lifted 
 the vessel, with its precious burden, gently from 
 the sand, the master made easy sail, and coast- 
 ed along the English shore toward the Isle of 
 Wight, which was the direction of the voyage 
 which he had originally intended to make. He
 
 1651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 193 
 
 (ale of Wight. Proposal of the master of the ship. 
 
 did not wish the people at Shoreham ti observe 
 any alteration of his course, since that might 
 have awakened suspicion, and possibly invited 
 pursuit ; so they went on for a time to the west- 
 ward, which was a course that rather increased 
 than diminished their distance from their place 
 of destination. 
 
 It was seven o'clock in the morning when 
 they sailed. There was a gentle October breeze 
 from the north, which carried them slowly along 
 the shore, and in the afternoon the Isle of Wight 
 came fully into view. There were four men 
 and a boy on board the ship, constituting tne 
 crew. The master came to the king in the. 
 cabin, and proposed to him, as a measure of 
 additional security, and to prevent the possibil- 
 ity of any opposition on the part of the sailors 
 to the proposed change in their course which it 
 would now soon be necessary to make, that the 
 king and Lord Wilmot should propose the plan 
 of going to France to them, asking their inter- 
 est with the captain in obtaining his consent, as 
 it had not yet been mentioned to the captain at 
 all ; for the sailors had of course understood that 
 the voyage was only the usual coastwise trip to 
 the port of Pool, and that these strangers were 
 ordinary travelers, going on that voyage. The 
 N
 
 194 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 Plan for gaining over the sailors. Its succes* 
 
 master, therefore, thought that there would be 
 less danger of difficulty if the king were first 
 to gain the sailors over himself, by promises or 
 rewards, and then all come together to gain tha 
 captain's consent, which could then, at last, 
 with apparent reluctance, be accorded. 
 
 This plan was pursued. The two travelers 
 went to the sailors upon the forecastle, and told 
 them, with an air of honest confidence, that 
 they were not what they seemed. They were 
 merchants, they said, and were unfortunately 
 a little in debt, and under the necessity of leav- 
 ing England for a time. They had some mon- 
 ey due to them in Rouen, in France, and they 
 wanted very much to be taken across the Chan- 
 nel to Dieppe, or some port near Rouen. They 
 made known their condition to the sailors, they 
 said, because they wanted their intercession 
 with the captain to take them over, and they 
 gave the sailors a good generous present in 
 money for them to spend in drink ; not so gen- 
 erous, however, as to cast suspicion upon their 
 story of being traders in distress. 
 
 Sailors are easily persuaded by arguments 
 that are enforced by small presents of money. 
 They consented to the plan, and then the king 
 and Lord Wilmot went to express their wishes
 
 1651.] ESCAPE TO FRANCE. 195 
 
 Approach to the French coast. An alarm. 
 
 to the captain. He made many objections. It 
 would delay him on his voyage, and lead to 
 many inconveniences. The passengers, how- 
 ever, urged their request, the sailors seconding 
 them. The wind was fair, and they could eas- 
 ily run across the Channel, and then, after they 
 landed, the captain could pursue his course to 
 the place of his destination. The captain final- 
 ly consented ; the hel,m was altered, the sails 
 were trimmed, and the little vessel bore away 
 toward its new destination on the coast of 
 France. 
 
 It was now five o'clock in the afternoon. 
 The English coast soon disappeared from the 
 horizon, and the next morning, at daylight, 
 they could see the French shore. They ap- 
 proached the land at a little port called Fecamp 
 The wind, however, failed them before they got 
 quite to the land, and they had to anchor to 
 wait for a turn of the tide to help them in. In 
 this situation, they were soon very much alarm- 
 ed by the appearance of a vessel in the offing, 
 which was coming also toward the shore 
 They thought it was a Spanish privateer, and 
 its appearance brought a double apprehension. 
 There was danger that the privateer would cap- 
 ture them, France and Spain being then at
 
 196 KING CHARLES II. [1651. 
 
 i consultation. The fugitives landed safely on the Frem h shore- 
 
 War. There was danger, also, that the master 
 of their vessel, afraid himself of being captured, 
 might insist on making all haste back again to 
 the English coast; for the wind, though con- 
 trary so long as they wished to go on into their 
 harbor, was fair for taking them away. The 
 king and Lord Wilmot consulted together, and 
 came to the conclusion to go ashore in the lit- 
 tle boat. They soon made a bargain with the 
 sailors to row them, and, hastily descending the 
 vessel's side, they entered the boat, and pushed 
 off over the rolling surges of the Channel. 
 
 They were two miles from the shore, but 
 they reached it in safety. The sailors went 
 back to the vessel. The privateer turned out 
 to be a harmless trader coming into port. The 
 English vessel recrossed the Channel, and went 
 on to its original port of destination ; and Lord 
 Wilmot and the king, relieved now of all their 
 anxieties and fears, walked in their strange En 
 glish dress up into the village to the inn.
 
 1651.] THE RESTORATION. 197 
 
 interest felt in Charles's wanderings. New dango.s, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 
 A S the readers of a tale are generally In- 
 ** clined to sympathize with the hero of it, 
 both in his joys and in his sorrows, whether he 
 is deserving of sympathy or not, they who fol- 
 low the adventures of Charles in his wanderings 
 in England after the unfortunate battle of Wor- 
 cester, feel ordinarily quite a strong sensation 
 of pleasure at finding him at last safely landed 
 on the French shore. Charles himself doubt- 
 less experienced at first an overwhelming emo- 
 tion of exultation and joy at having thus saved 
 himself from the desperate dangers of his con- 
 dition in England. On cool reflection, howev- 
 er, he soon perceived that there was but little 
 cause for rejoicing in his condition and pros- 
 pects. There were dangers and sufferings 
 enough still before him, different, it is true, 
 from those in which he had been involved, but 
 still very dark and threatening in character. 
 He had now, in fact, ten years of privation, 
 poverty, and exile before him, full of troubles 
 from beginning to end.
 
 198 KING CHARLES II. [1651 
 
 The king goes to Paris. His reception there 
 
 The new series of troubles began to come 
 upon him, too, very soon. When he and his 
 companion went up to the inn, on the morning 
 of their landing, dressed as they were in the 
 guise of Englishmen of humble rank, and hav 
 ing been put ashore, too, from a vessel which 
 immediately afterward sailed away, they were 
 taken for English thieves, or fugitives from jus- 
 tice, and refused admission to the inn. They 
 sent to some gentlemen of the neighborhood, to 
 whom they made themselves known, so that 
 this difficulty was removed, their urgent wanto 
 were supplied, and they were provided with the 
 means of transportation to Paris. Of course, 
 the mother of the fugitive monarch, yet almost 
 a boy, was rejoiced to welcome him, but he re- 
 ceived no very cordial welcome from any one 
 else. Now that Charles had finally abandoned 
 England, his adherents there gave up his cause, 
 of course, as totally lost. The Republicans, 
 with Cromwell at their head, established a very 
 firm and efficient government, which the na- 
 tions of the Continent soon began to find that 
 it would be incumbent on them to respect. For 
 any foreign court to harbor a pretender to the 
 British crown, when there was an established 
 government in England based on a determina-
 
 1651.] THE RESTORATION. 199 
 
 The king renews his attentions to Anne Maria. She dismisses his suit 
 
 tion of the people to abrogate royalty altogeth- 
 er, was to incur very considerable political dan- 
 ger. Charles soon found that, under these cir- 
 cumstances, he was not likely to be long a very 
 welcome guest in the French palaces. 
 
 He remained, however, in Paris for a short 
 time, endeavoring to find some way to retrieve 
 his ruined fortunes. Anne Maria was still 
 there, and he attempted to renew his suit to 
 her. She listened to the entertaining stories 
 which he told of his dangers and escapes in En- 
 gland, and for a time, as Charles thought, en- 
 couraged his attentions. In fact, at one time 
 he really believed that the affair was all settled, 
 and began to assume that it was so in speaking 
 with her upon the subject. She, however, at 
 length undeceived him, in a conversation which 
 ended with her saying that she thought he had 
 better go back to England, and " either get his 
 head broken, or else have a crown upon it.'' 
 The fact was, that Anne Maria was now full 
 of a new scheme for being married to Louis 
 XIV. himself, who, though much younger than 
 she, had attained now to a marriageable age, 
 and she had no intention of regarding Charles 
 in any other light than as one of the ordinary 
 crowd of her admirers. She finally extinguish-
 
 200 KING CHARLES II. [1655 
 
 Charles disagrees with his mother. He goes to Holland. 
 
 ed all his hopes by coolly requesting him not to 
 visit her so frequently. 
 
 In addition to his other sources of discomfort, 
 Charles disagreed with his mother. She was a 
 very decided Catholic, and he a Protestant, 
 from policy it is true, and not principle, but he 
 was none the less rigid and inflexible on that 
 account. He and his mother disagreed in re- 
 spect to the education of the younger children. 
 They were both restricted in their means, too, 
 and subject to a thousand mortifications from 
 this cause, in the proud and haughty circle in 
 which they moved. Finally, the king decided 
 to leave Paris altogether, and try to find a more 
 comfortable refuge in Holland. 
 
 His sister and her husband, the Prince of 
 Orange, had always treated him, as well as all 
 the rest of the family, with great kindness and 
 attention ; but now, to complete the catalogue 
 of his disasters, the Prince of Orange died, the 
 power of the government passed into other hands, 
 and Mary found herself deprived of infiuenc& 
 and honor, and reduced all at once to a private 
 station. She would have been glad to continue 
 her protection to hei brother, but the new gov 
 ernment feared the power of Cromwell. Crom 
 well sent word to them that England would
 
 16d5.] THE RESTORATION. 20] 
 
 Charles retires to Cologne. Usurpation of Cromweli 
 
 consider their harboring of the fugitive as tan- 
 tamount to a declaration of war ; so they noti- 
 fied Charles that he must leave their dominions, 
 and find, if he could, some other place of retreat. 
 He went up the Rhine to the city of Cologne, 
 where it is said he found a widow woman, who 
 received him as a lodger without pay, trusting 
 to his promise to recompense her at some future 
 time. There is generally little risk in giving 
 credit to European monarchs, expelled by the 
 temporary triumph of Republicanism from their 
 native realms. They are generally pretty cer- 
 tain of being sooner or later restored to their 
 thrones. 
 
 At any rate, Charles was restored, and his 
 restoration was effected in a manner wholly un- 
 expected to all mankind. In order that the cir- 
 cumstances may be clearly understood, the read- 
 er must recall it to mind that Charles the First 
 had been deposed and beheaded by the action of 
 a Parliament, and that this Parliament was, 
 of course, at his death the depository of sover- 
 eign power in England. In a short time, how- 
 ever, the army, with Cromwell at its head, be- 
 came too strong for the Parliament. Cromwell 
 assumed the supreme power under the name 
 of thf Protector. He dissolved Parliament, and
 
 202 KING CHARLES II. [1655 
 
 Deposition of Richard Cromwell Violence of Lambert 
 
 expelled the members from their seats. He gov- 
 erned the country as protector for many years, 
 and when at length he died, his son Richard 
 Cromwell attempted to take his place. Rich- 
 ard did not, however, possess the talent and en- 
 ergy of his father, and he soon found himself 
 totally inadequate to manage the affairs of gov- 
 ernment in such stormy times. He was de- 
 posed, and the old Parliament which Cromwell 
 had broken up was restored. 
 
 There followed, then, a new contest between 
 the Parliament and the army, with an officer 
 named Lambert at the head of the latter. The 
 army proved the strongest. Lambert stationed 
 guards in the streets leading to the Parliament 
 House one day when the members were about 
 to assemble, and turned the members all back 
 as they came. When the speaker arrived in 
 his carriage, he ordered his soldiers to take hold 
 of the horses' heads and turn them round, and 
 lead them home again. Thus there was no ac- 
 tual outward violence, but the members of Par- 
 liament were intimidated, and gave up the at- 
 tempt to exercise their power, though they still 
 reserved their claim, and their party was busy 
 all over the kingdom in attempting to restore 
 them to their functions. In the mean time, the
 
 1655.] THE RESTORATION. 203 
 
 Affairs in England. No true republic th^ra, 
 
 army appointed a sort of council, which they 
 invested with supreme authority. 
 
 It does not come within the scope and design 
 of this volume to give a full account of the state 
 of public affairs during the interregnum between 
 the death of Charles I. and the Restoration of 
 the monarchy under Charles II., nor of the 
 points of controversy at issue among the vari- 
 ous parties formed. The reader, however, must 
 not suppose that, during this period, there was 
 at any time what could, with any propriety, be 
 called a republic. A true republic exists only 
 where the questions of government are fairly 
 and honorably submitted to the whole popula- 
 tion, with a universal disposition to acquiesce 
 peaceably in the decision of the majority, when 
 that is ascertained. There probably has never 
 been any such state of things as this in any 
 country of Europe since the Christian era. 
 There certainly was no such state of things in 
 England in the time of the Commonwealth. 
 There were a great many persons who wished 
 to have it so, and who called themselves Re- 
 publicans ; but their plan, if that were indeed 
 their plan, was never tried. Very likely it waa 
 not practicable to try it. At any rate, it cer- 
 tainly was not tried The sovereignty taken
 
 204 KING CHARLES II. [1655 
 
 The Parliament The army. Cromwell 
 
 from the Stuart dynasty in the person of Charles 
 I. was never vested in the people at large, tt 
 was seized forcibly by the various powers al- 
 ready existing in the state, as they found them- 
 selves, one after another, able to seize it. Tho 
 Parliament took it from Charles. The arm} 
 took it from Parliament. Then Oliver Crom- 
 well took it from the army. He found himself 
 strong enough to hold it as long as he lived, 
 and when he died he delivered it to his son 
 Richard. Richard could not hold it. The Par- 
 liament rose to a sort of supplementary exist- 
 ence, and took it from Richard, and then the 
 army took it from Parliament again. Finally, 
 General Monk appeared upon the stage in Scot- 
 land, as we shall presently see, marched down 
 through England, and, with the help of thou- 
 sands and thousands who were tired of these 
 endless changes, took it from the army and re- 
 stored it once more to the Parliament, on con- 
 dition of their placing it back again in the hands 
 of the king. Thus there was no republic at all, 
 frjin beginning to end. 
 
 Nor is it at all certain that there ought to 
 have been. The difficulties of really, truly, and 
 honestly laying the national sovereignty in the 
 Lands of the whole population of such a realm
 
 L655.] THE RESTORATION. 205 
 
 Great difficulties in the way of organizing a republic. 
 
 as England, and of so organizing the population 
 that its decisions shall actually control the legis- 
 lation of the country and the public administra- 
 tion of its affairs, are all but insuperable. The 
 English people found the tyranny and oppres- 
 sion of royalty intolerable. They arose and set 
 royalty aside. It devolved, then, on the next 
 strongest power in the state to assume the au- 
 thority thus divested ; this was the Parliament, 
 who governed, just as the king had done, by 
 the exercise of their own superior power, keep- 
 ing the mass of the community just where they 
 were before. It is true that many individuals 
 rf very low rank rose to positions of great pow- 
 jr ; but they represented only a party, and 
 the power they wielded was monarchical power 
 usurped, not Republican power fairly conferred 
 upon them. Thus, though in the time of the 
 Commonwealth there were plenty of Republi- 
 cans, there was never a republic. It has al- 
 ways been so in all European revolutions. In 
 A.merica, Legislatures and executive officers of 
 state are only agents, through whom the great 
 population itself quietly executes its will, the 
 two millions of votes in the great elections be- 
 ing the real power by which every thing is con- 
 trolled. But Cromwell, Napoleon, Lamartine,
 
 206 KING CHARLES II. [1659 
 
 Parties in England. Genera Monk 
 
 Cavaignac, and all the others, whatever formal- 
 ities of voting may have attended their induc- 
 tion into office, have always really held their 
 power by force of bayonets, not of ballots. There 
 is great danger that it will continue so in Eu- 
 rope for a long time to come. 
 
 But to return. It was in 1659 when the ai 
 my, with Lambert at its head, expelled the Par- 
 liament. All England was now divided into 
 parties, some for the Parliament, some for the 
 army, some for the king. There was a distin- 
 guished general in Scotland at this time named 
 Monk. He had been left there by Cromwell in 
 command of the military forces in that country. 
 He was a man considerably advanced in life, and 
 of great circumspection, prudence, and steadi- 
 ness of character. All parties wished to gain 
 his influence, but he kept his own counsel, and 
 declared openly for neither. 
 
 He, however, began to get together his for- 
 ces, and to make preparations to march into 
 England. People asked him what he intended 
 to do, but he would give no definite answer. 
 He was six weeks getting ready for his expedi- 
 tion, during which time many deputations were 
 sent +o him from the various parties, making 
 different propositions to him, each party being
 
 1660.] THE RESTORATION. 207 
 
 Monk marches to England The Parliament restored. 
 
 eager to obtain his adhesion to their cause. He 
 received all their deputations, heard what they 
 had to say, made no definite reply to any of 
 them, but went on quietly with his work. He 
 got the various divisions of his army at length 
 together, made provisional arrangements for the 
 government of Scotland during his absence, and 
 set out on his march. 
 
 He entered England in January, 1660, and 
 advanced toward London. The English army 
 was scattered all over the kingdom ; but Monk 
 opened negotiations with the leaders of it, and 
 also with the members of Parliament, and, with- 
 out committing himself absolutely to either par- 
 ty, he managed to have the Parliament restor- 
 ed. They assembled peaceably in London, and 
 resumed their functions. A part of the En 
 glish army was there for their protection. 
 Monk, as he approached London, sent word to 
 Parliament asking that quarters might be pro 
 vided for him and his army there. Parliament, 
 desirous of conciliating him and securing his 
 co-operation in sustaining their power, acceded 
 to this request. The other troops were remov- 
 ed ; Monk entered London in triumph, and took 
 possession of all the strong-holds thers, holding 
 them nominally under Parliamentary authority
 
 208 KING CHARLES II. [1660 
 
 Monk's adroit management. A Tew Parliament called 
 
 MonK still kept his ultimate designs pro- 
 foundly secret. No party very strongly op- 
 posed him, for no party knew whether to re- 
 gard him as an enemy or a friend. The Roy- 
 alists, however, all over the kingdom, took new 
 jourage, and a general expectation began to 
 pervade the minds of men that the monarchy 
 was to be restored. The Parliament rescinded 
 the votes which had been most decisive against 
 the house of Stuart and monarchical rule. The 
 most prominent Republicans were dismissed 
 from office under various pretexts, and men 
 known to be loyal were appointed in their place. 
 Finally, the Parliament itself was dissolved, and 
 writs were issued for the election of a new one, 
 more in accordance with the ancient forms. 
 
 When at length this new Parliament assem- 
 bled, the public mind was in a great fever of 
 excitement, there being a vague expectation 
 every where that the monarchy was to be re- 
 stored, while yet the Restoration was openly 
 spoken of by no one. The first votes which 
 were taken in the House of Commons indicated 
 a very favorable state of feeling toward monar- 
 chy ; and at length, a few days after the open- 
 ing of the session, it was announced that there 
 was a messenger at the door with a comnmni-
 
 L660.] THE BEST-ORATION. 209 
 
 Messenger from the king. The king's Declaration 
 
 cation from the king. The announcement was 
 received with the wildest acclamations of joy. 
 The messenger was immediately ordered to en- 
 ter. The communication was read, the vast as- 
 sembly listening with breathless attention. 
 
 It contained, in the first place, a letter, in 
 which the king stated that, having heard that 
 the people of England had restored the Parlia- 
 ment according to the ancient forms, he hoped 
 that now the Parliament would go on and com- 
 plete the good work which had been begun, and 
 heal the distractions of the kingdom by rein- 
 stating him as sovereign in the ancient rights 
 and prerogatives of the crown. 
 
 The second part of the king's communication, 
 and by far the most important part, was what 
 was called his Declaration, a document in which 
 he announced formally what his intentions were 
 in case he were restored to the throne. One of 
 these assurances was, that he was ready to for- 
 give and forget the past, so far as he might him- 
 self be supposed to have cause of complaint 
 against any of his subjects for the part they had 
 taken in the late transactions. He professel 
 his readiness to grant a free pardon to all, ex 
 cepting those who should be expressly excluded 
 from such pardon by the Parliament itself.
 
 KING CHARLES 11. 1 1060 
 
 Principles of the king's Declaration. General satisfaction 
 
 The Declaration also set forth that, in as- 
 much as there was prevailing throughout the 
 country a great diversity of religious opinion, 
 the king, if restored to his throne, whatever his 
 own religious views or those of his government 
 might be, would agree that his subjects should 
 be allowed full liberty of conscience in all re- 
 spects, and that nobody should be molested in 
 any way on account of his religious faith or 
 usages of worship. 
 
 And, finally, the Declaration contained a cov- 
 enant on the part of the king, that whereas 
 there had been great changes of property, aris- 
 ing from fines and confiscations for political of- 
 fenses during the period of the Revolution, he 
 would not himself disturb the existing titles to 
 property, but would leave them to be settled 
 on such principles and in such a way as Parlia- 
 ment should direct. 
 
 The letter from the king, and especially the 
 Declaration, gave the utmost satisfaction. -The 
 latter disarmed those who would otherwise have 
 opposed the return of the king, by quieting their 
 fears of being disturbed in respect to their lib- 
 erty or their property. Immediately after these 
 papers were read, they were ordered to be pub- 
 lish 3d, and were sent every where throughout
 
 1660.J THE RESTORATION. 211 
 
 Charles proclaimed kicg. Money voted. 
 
 the kingdom, awakening, wherever they went, 
 the greatest demonstrations of joy. The Par- 
 liament passed a vote that the ancient Consti- 
 tution of the kingdom, of government by king, 
 Lords, and Commons, ought to be restored, and 
 they went forth in a body into the public places 
 of the city to proclaim Charles II. king. 
 
 Parliament voted immediately a grant of fifty 
 thousand pounds, a sum equal to more than two 
 hundred thousand dollars, for the king's imme- 
 diate use, with large sums besides for the other 
 members of the family, and sent a committee 
 of noblemen to Holland to carry the money and 
 to invite the king back to his dominions. As 
 soon as tidings of these events reached the Con- 
 tinent, every body hastened to pay their court 
 to his majesty. From being neglected, desti- 
 tute, and wretched, he suddenly found himself 
 elevated to the highest pinnacle of prosperity 
 and fame. Every body offered him their aid ; 
 his court was thronged, and all were ready to 
 do him honor. The princely mother of one of 
 the young ladies who had rejected the offer of 
 his hand in the day of his adversity, sent him 
 an intimation that the offer would be accepted 
 if he would renew it now. 
 
 A fleet crossed the Channel tc receive the king
 
 212 KING CHARLES II. [1660 
 
 The king arrives in London. Monk made Duke of Albemarla 
 
 and convey him to London. His brother James, 
 the Duke of York, was placed in command of it 
 as Lord High Admiral of England. The fleet 
 sailed for Dover. General Monk went to Dover 
 to receive the king at his landing. He escorted 
 him to London, where the monarch, returning 
 from his long eyile, arrived on the twenty-ninth 
 of May, the very day when he became thirty 
 years of age. 
 
 General Monk, whose talent, skill, and con- 
 summate management had been the means of 
 effecting this great change without violence or 
 bloodshed, was rewarded by being made Duke 
 of Albemarle. This was a very great reward 
 In fact, no American imagination can conceive 
 of the images of glory and grandeur which are 
 connected in the mind of an Englishman with 
 the idea of being made a duke. A duke lives 
 in a palace ; he is surrounded by a court ; he 
 expends princely revenues ; he reigns, in fact, 
 often, so far as the pomp and pleasure of reign- 
 ing are concerned, over quite a little kingdom, 
 and is looked up to by the millions beneath his 
 grade with a reverence as great, at least, as that 
 with which the ancients looked up to their gods 
 He is deprived of nothing which pertains to pow 
 er but the mere toil, and care, and responsibility
 
 CHARLES THE SECOND.
 
 J J60.] THE RESTORATION. 
 
 Blories of a dukedom. Motives oi Monk 
 
 Df ruling, so that he has all the sweetness and 
 fragrance of sovereignty without its thorns. In 
 a word, the seat of an English duke, so far ass 
 earthly greatness and glory are concerned, is 
 undoubtedly the finest which ambition, wealth, 
 and power combined have ever succeeded in 
 carving out. for man. It is infinitely better 
 than a throne. 
 
 Some historians maintain that Monk acted on 
 a secret understanding with Charles from the 
 commencement ; that the general was to restore 
 the king, and was then to receive a dukedom for 
 his reward. Others say that he acted from a 
 simple sense of duty in all that he did, and that 
 the lofty elevation to which he was raised was 
 a very natural and suitable testimonial of the 
 royal gratitude. The reader will embrace the 
 one or the other of the two theories, according 
 to the degree of readiness or of reluctance with 
 which he believes in the existence of conscien- 
 tious principles of patriotism and loyalty among 
 the great men who rule the world
 
 210 KING CHARLES II. [16()U 
 
 Various marriage negotiations. Motivca 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 THE MARRIAGE. 
 
 "POURING the period of King Charles's days 
 -* " of adversity he made many fruitless at- 
 tempts to obtain a wife. He was rejected by 
 all the young ladies to whom he made propo- 
 sals. Marriages in that grade of society are 
 almost always mere transactions of business, 
 being governed altogether by political and pru- 
 dential considerations. In all Charles's propo- 
 sals he was aiming simply at strengthening his 
 own position by means of the wealth or family 
 influence of the bride, supposing as he did that 
 the honor of being even nominally a queen 
 would be a sufficient equivalent to the lady. 
 The ladies themselves, however, to whom he 
 addressed himself, or their friends, thought that 
 the prospect of his being really restored to his 
 throne was very remote and uncertain, and, in 
 the mean time, the empty name of queen was 
 not worth as much as a rich and powerful heir- 
 ess, by becoming his bride, would have to pay 
 for it. 
 
 After his restoration, however, all this way
 
 1660.] THE MARRIAGE. 217 
 
 Catharine of Braganza. Plans of Queen Henrietta 
 
 changed. There was no longer any difficulty. 
 He had now only to choose. In fact, one or 
 two who had refused him when he was a fugi- 
 live and an exile thought differently of the case 
 now that he was a king, and one of them, as 
 has already been said, gave him intimations, 
 through her friends, that if he were inclined 
 to renew his suit, he would be more successful. 
 Charles rejected these overtures with indignant 
 disdain. 
 
 The lady whom he ultimately married was 
 a Portuguese princess. Her father was King 
 of Portugal, but before his accession to the 
 throne his title had been the Duke of Braganza. 
 The name of his daughter was Catharine. She 
 is thus known generally in history by the name 
 of Catharine of Braganza. 
 
 It is said that the plan of this marriage orig- 
 inated with Queen Henrietta Maria, and that 
 a prominent motive with her in promoting the 
 measure was her desire to secure for Charles 
 a Catholic wife. Catharine of Braganza was a 
 Catholic. Henrietta Maria was deeply inter- 
 ested, and no doubt conscientiously so, in bring, 
 ing back her own family and their descendants, 
 and the realm of England, if possible, to the 
 ncient faith ; and this question of the mar-
 
 218 KING CHARLES II. [16GO 
 
 Henrietta's visit to England. Her joyful emotiona 
 
 riage of her son she justly considered would 
 have a very important bearing on the result. 
 
 Queen Henrietta is said to have laid her ar- 
 rangements in train for opening the negotiation 
 with the Portuguese princess, at a visit which 
 she made to England hi 1660, very soon after 
 her son's restoration. The Restoration took 
 place in May. The queen's visit to her son 
 was in October. Of course, after all the long 
 years of danger, privation, and suffering which 
 this family had endured, the widowed mother 
 felt an intense emotion of joy at finding her chil- 
 dren once more restored to what she considered 
 their just hereditary rights. Charles was on the 
 English throne. James, the Duke of York, was 
 Lord High Admiral of England, that is, the 
 commander-in-chief of the naval forces of the 
 realm ; and her other children, those who were 
 still living, were in peace and safety. Of course, 
 her heart was full of maternal pride and joy. 
 
 Her son James, the Lord High Admiral, went 
 across the Channel to Dover, with a fleet of the 
 finest ships that he could select from the whole 
 British navy, to escort his mother to England. 
 The queen was to embark at Calais.* The 
 
 * For a view of the famous Calais pier, see History of Ma 17 
 Queen of Scots, page 105.
 
 1660.] THE MARRIAGE. 
 
 The English fleet Calm on the Channel 
 
 queen came down to the port from Paris, at- 
 tended by many friends, who sympathized with 
 her in the return of her prosperity, and were 
 attracted, besides, by the grand spectacle which 
 they thought would be presented by the appear- 
 ance and maneuvers of the English ships, and 
 the ceremony of the embarkation. 
 
 The waters of the English Channel are dis- 
 turbed by almost perpetual agitations, which 
 bleak winds and rapid tides, struggling contin- 
 ually together, combine to raise ; and many a 
 traveler, who passes in comfort across the At- 
 lantic, is made miserable by the incessant rest- 
 lessness of this narrow sea. At the time, how- 
 ever, when Henrietta Maria crossed it, the wa- 
 ters for once were calm. The people who as- 
 sembled upon the pier to witness the embarka- 
 tion looked over the expanse before them, and 
 saw it lying smooth, every where, as glass, and 
 reflecting the great English ships which lay at 
 a little distance from the shore as if it were a 
 mirror. It was a bright and beautiful October 
 morning. The air seemed perfectly motionless 
 The English ships were adorned with countless 
 flags in honor of the occasion, but they all hung 
 down perfectly lifeless upon the masts and rig- 
 ging. Scarcely a ripple rolled upon the beach ;
 
 220 KING CHARLES II. [1600 
 
 Fhe queen embarks. The fleet sett sail 
 
 and so silent and still was the morning air, that 
 the voices and echoes came from vast distances 
 along the shore, and the dip of the oars of the 
 boats gliding about in the offing sent its sound 
 for miles around over the smooth surface of tho 
 sea ; and when the grand salute was fired at tho 
 embarkation of the queen, the reverberation of 
 the guns was heard distinctly, it was said, at 
 Dover, a distance of thirty miles. 
 
 Even in such a calm as this, however, un- 
 common as it is, the atmosphere is not perfect- 
 ly still. When the royal party were on board 
 the vessels and the sails were set, the fleet did 
 begin to glide, almost imperceptibly, it is true, 
 away from the shore. In the course of the day 
 they had receded several miles from the land, 
 and when the dinner hour arrived they found 
 that the lord admiral had provided a most sump- 
 tuous banquet on board. Just before the time, 
 however, for setting down to the table, the duke 
 found that it was a Catholic fast day, and that 
 neither his mother nor any of her attendants, 
 being, as they were, all Catholics, could eat any 
 thing but fish ; and, unfortunately, as all James'? 
 men were Protestants, they had not thought of 
 the fast, and they had no fish on board. They. 
 however, contrived to produce a sturgeon for the
 
 1660.] THE MARRIAGE 221 
 
 Lauding of Henrietta. Reception by Charles 
 
 queen, and they sat down to the table, the queen 
 to the dish provided for her, and the others to 
 bread and vegetables, and such other food as the 
 Catholic ritual allowed, while the duke himself 
 and his brother officers disposed, as well as they 
 could, of the more luxurious dainties which they 
 had intended for their guests. 
 
 With a fair wind, three hours is sufficient ior 
 the run from Calais to Dover. It took the Duko 
 of York two days to get his fleet across in this 
 calm. At length, however, they arrived. The 
 king was on the pier to receive his mother. Re- 
 joiced as her majesty must have been to be wel- 
 comed by her son under such circumstances, 
 she must have thought mournfully of her de- 
 parted husband at the time of her landing, for 
 it was here that he had taken leave of her some 
 years before, when the troubles of her family 
 were beginning.* Charles conducted his moth- 
 er to the castle. All the inhabitants of Dover, 
 and of the country around, had assembled to 
 witness the arrival, and they welcomed the 
 mother back to the land of her husband and her 
 sons with long and loud acclamations. 
 
 There was a great banquet at Dover Castle. 
 Here all the members of the royal family were 
 
 * For a view of Dover and the Castle, see page 36.
 
 222 KING CHARLES II. [1660 
 
 Great banquet at Dover Castle. The divine blessing 
 
 present, having been assembled for the occasion. 
 Of course, it was an occasion of great family 
 rejoicing, mingled undoubtedly, on the part of 
 the queen, with many mournful thoughts ana 
 bitter recollections. The fast was past, and 
 there was, consequently, no difficulty now about 
 partaking of ihe food that had been provided ; 
 but another difficulty arose, having the same 
 origin, viz., the question whether the divine 
 blessing should be implored upon the food by a 
 Catholic priest or an Episcopal chaplain. Nei- 
 ther party could conscientiously acquiesce in 
 the performance of the service by the other. 
 They settled the important question, or rather 
 it settled itself at last, in the following manner: 
 When the guests were ready to take their pla- 
 ces at table, the king, instead of asking his 
 mother's spiritual guide to officiate, as both 
 Christian and filial courtesy required him to 
 have done, called upon his own chaplain. The 
 chaplain said grace. Immediately afterward, 
 the Catholic priest, thinking that fidelity to his 
 6wn religious faith required him to act decided- 
 ly, repeated the service in the Catholic form, 
 ending with making the sign of the cross in a 
 very conspicuous manner over the table. The 
 gentry of Dover, who had been admitted as
 
 1660.] THE MARRIAGE. 223 
 
 Henrietta proceeds to London. Hei unhappiness 
 
 spectators of this banquet, were greatly scan- 
 dalized at this deed. They regarded the ges- 
 ture as an act of very wicked and very danger- 
 ous idolatry. 
 
 From Dover the queen proceeded with her 
 children to London. Her sons did every thing 
 in their power to honor their mother's visit; 
 they received her with great parade and pomp, 
 assigned her a sumptuous residence, and stud- 
 ied every means of amusing her, and of making 
 her visit a source of pleasure. But they did not 
 succeed. The queen was very unhappy. Ev- 
 ery place that she visited recalled to her mind 
 the memory of her husband, and awakened 
 afresh all her sorrows. She was distressed, too, 
 by some domestic troubles, which we have not 
 here time to describe. Then the religious dif- 
 ferences between herself and her children, and 
 the questions which were arising out of them 
 continually, gave her a great deal of pain ; she 
 could not but perceive, moreover, that she was 
 regarded with suspicion and dislike by the people 
 of England on account of her Catholic faith 
 Then, besides, notwithstanding her English hus- 
 band and her English children, she was her- 
 self a French woman still in character, thought, 
 feeling, and language, and she could not feei
 
 224 KING CHARLES II. [1661. 
 
 Henrietta returns to France. Catharine of Braganza 
 
 really at home north of the Channel. After re- 
 maining, therefore, a few months in London / 
 and arranging some family and business affairs 
 which required her attention, she determined 
 to return. The king accompanied her to Ports- 
 mouth, where she set sail, taking the little prin- 
 cess Henrietta with her, and went back to 
 France. Among the family affairs, however, 
 which she arranged, it is said that the marriage 
 of her son, the king, was a special object of her 
 attention, and that she secretly laid the train 
 which resulted in his espousing Catharine of 
 Braganza. 
 
 According to the accounts given in the chron- 
 icles of the times, the negotiations were opened 
 in the following manner : One day the Portu- 
 guese embassador at London came to a certain 
 high officer of the king's household, and intro- 
 duced the subject of his majesty's marriage, say- 
 ing, in the course of the conversation, that he 
 thought the Princess Catharine of Portugal 
 would be a very eligible match, and adding, 
 moreover, that he was authorized to say that, 
 with the lady, very advantageous terms could be 
 offered. Charles said he would think of it. This 
 gave the embassador sufficient encouragement 
 to induce him to take another step. He ob-
 
 1661.1 THE MARRIAGE. 225 
 
 Cathariu ! offered to Charles. Advantageous terms. 
 
 tained an audience of Charles the next day, and 
 proposed the subject directly for his considera- 
 tion. The embassador knew very well that the 
 question would turn, in Charles's mind, on the 
 pecuniary and political advantages of the match ; 
 so he stated at once what they would be. He 
 was authorized to offer, he said, the sum of five 
 hundred thousand pounds* as the princess's por- 
 tion, and to surrender to the English crown va- 
 rious foreign possessions, which had, till then, 
 belonged to the Portuguese. One of the prin- 
 cipal of these was the island of Bombay in the 
 East Indies. Another was Tangier, a port in 
 Africa. The English did not, at that time, 
 hold any East Indian territories. He likewise 
 offered to convey to the English nation the right 
 of trading with the great South American coun- 
 try of Brazil, which then pertained to the Por- 
 tuguese crown. 
 
 Charles was very much pleased with these 
 proposals. He immediately consulted his prin- 
 cipal minister of state, Lord Clarendon, the cel- 
 ebrated historian, and soon afterward called a 
 meeting of his privy council and laid the case 
 before them. Clarendon asked him if he had 
 given up all thoughts of a Protestant connec- 
 
 * Equal to two or three millions of d ollars.
 
 KING CHAULES II. [1661 
 
 Charles consults his ministers. Their opinion favorabla 
 
 tion. Charles said that he did not know where 
 to look for a Protestant wife. It was true, in 
 fact, that nearly all the royal families of Eu- 
 rope were Catholics, and royal bridegrooms must 
 always have royal brides. There were, how- 
 ever, Protestant princesses in Germany ; this 
 was suggested to his majesty, but he replied, 
 with an expression of contempt, that they were 
 all dull and foggy, and he could not possibly 
 have one of them for a wife. 
 
 The counselors then began to look at the pe- 
 cuniary and political advantages of the proposed 
 bargain. They got out their maps, and showed 
 Charles where Bombay, and Tangier, and the 
 other places offered with the lady as her dowry 
 lay. The statesmen were quite pleased with 
 the prospect of these acquisitions, and Charles 
 was particularly gratified with the money item. 
 It was twice as much, they said, as any En- 
 glish king had ever before received as the mar 
 riage portion of a bride. In a word, the prop- 
 osition was unanimously considered as in every 
 .cspect entirely satisfactory, and Charles au 
 thorized his ministers to open the negotiations 
 for the marriage immediately. All this time 
 Charles had never seen the lady, and perhaps 
 had never heard of her before. Her own indi<
 
 LG61.] THE MARRIAGE. 
 
 Charles's ideas of married life. Lady Castlemaine 
 
 vidual qualifications, whether of mind or of per- 
 son, seem to have been considered a subject not 
 worth inquiring about, at all. 
 
 Nor ought we to be at all surprised at this. 
 It was not Charles's object, in seeking a wife, tc 
 find some one whom he was to cherish and love, 
 and who was to promote his happiness by mak- 
 ing him the object of her affection in return. 
 His love, so far as such a soul is capable of love, 
 was to be gratified by other means. He had 
 always some female favorite, chosen from among 
 the ladies of his court, high in rank, though not 
 high enough to be the wedded wife of the king. 
 These attachments were not private in any 
 sense, nor was any attempt made to conceal 
 them, the king being in the habit of bestowing 
 upon the objects of them all the public atten- 
 tions, as well as the private intimacy which per- 
 tain to wedded life. The king's favorite at the 
 present time was Lady Castlemaine. She was 
 originally a Mrs. Palmer, but the king had made 
 her husband Lord Castlemaine for the purpose 
 of giving a title to the wife. Some years aft- 
 erward he made her a duchess. She was a 
 prominent lady in the court, being every where 
 received and honored as the temporary wife of 
 the king. He did not intend, in marrying th<
 
 228 KING CHARLES II. [1661 
 
 The Spanish government interferes. Its offer to Charles 
 
 Princess Catharine, to disturb this state of 
 things at all. She was to be in name his wife, 
 but he was to place his affections where he 
 pleased. She was to have her own palace, her 
 own household, and her own pleasures, and he, 
 on the other hand, was to continue to have his. 
 Notwithstanding this, however, Charles seem- 
 ed to have had some consideration for the per- 
 sonal appearance of his proposed bride, after all. 
 The Spanish government, as soon as Charles's 
 plan of espousing Catharine became known, at- 
 tempted to prevent the match, as it would great- 
 ly increase the strength and influence of Portu- 
 gal by giving to that country so powerful an 
 ally. Spain had plenty of money, but no prin- 
 cess in the royal family ; and the government 
 therefore proposed to Charles, that if he would 
 be content to take some Protestant lady for a 
 wife, they would endow her, and with a portion 
 as great as that which had been offered with 
 Catharine. They, moreover, represented to 
 Charles that Catharine was out of health, and 
 very plain and repulsive in her personal appear- 
 ance, and that, besides, it would be a great deal 
 better for him, for obvious political reasons, to 
 marry a Protestant princess. The other party 
 re] lied that Catharine was not ugly by any
 
 1661.] THE MARRIAGE. 229 
 
 Catharine's portrait. The affail coucluded. 
 
 means, and they showed Charles her portrait, 
 which, after looking at it a few minutes, he 
 said was not unhandsome. They reminded him, 
 also, that Catharine was only the third in suc- 
 cession from the crown of Portugal, so that tho 
 chance of her actually inheriting that realm 
 was not at all to be disregarded. Charles 
 thought this a very important consideration, 
 and, on the whole, decided that the affair should 
 go on ; and commissioners were sent to make 
 a formal proposal of marriage at the Portuguese 
 court. Charles wrote letters to the mother of 
 the young lady, and to the young lady herself, 
 expressing the personal interest he felt in ob- 
 taining the princess's hand. 
 
 The negotiations thus commenced went on 
 for many months, with no other obstruction than 
 the complication and intricacy which attend all 
 matrimonial arrangements where the interests 
 of kingdoms, as well as the personal happiness 
 of the wedded pair, are involved in the issue. 
 Embassadors were sent, and contracts and treat- 
 ies were drawn up, discussed, modified, and 
 finally signed. A formal announcement of the 
 proposed marriage was made to the English 
 Parliament, and addresses congratulatory were 
 voted and presented in reply. Arrangements
 
 2MO KING CHARLES II. [1661 
 
 Final arrangements. Charles's l<;tter to Catharine 
 
 were made for transferring the foreign posses- 
 sions promised to the British crown ; and, last- 
 ly, the money intended for the dower was col- 
 lected, tied up in bags, sealed, and deposited 
 safely in the strong room of the Castle at Lis- 
 bon. In fact, every thing went on prosperous- 
 ly to the end, and when all was thus finally 
 settled, Charles wrote the following letter to his 
 expected bride. 
 
 " London, 2d of July, 1661 
 
 " MY LADY AND WIFE, 
 
 "Already the embassador has set off for Lis- 
 bon ; for me the signing of the marriage has 
 been great happiness ; and there is about to be 
 dispatched at this time, after him, one of my 
 servants, charged with what would appear nec- 
 essary, whereby may be declared on my part 
 the inexpressible joy of this felicitous conclu- 
 sion, which, when received, will hasten the com- 
 ing of your majesty. 
 
 "I am going to make a short progress into 
 some of my provinces. In the mean time, while 
 I am going further from my most sovereign 
 good, yet I do not complain as to whither I go ; 
 seeking in vain tranquillity in my restlessness, 
 looking to see the beloved person of your maj- 
 esty in these realms already your ovm ; and
 
 1661.] THE MARRIAGE. 231 
 
 Address of the letter. Its hypocrisy 
 
 that with the same anxiety with which, aftei 
 my long banishment, I desired to see myself 
 within them, and my subjects desiring also tc 
 behold me among them. The presence of your 
 serenity is only wanting to unite us, under the 
 protection of God, in the health and content I 
 desire. 
 
 "The very faithful husband of her majesty, 
 whose hand he kisses. CHARLES REX." 
 
 The letter was addressed 
 
 "To the QOEEX OF GHEAT BRITAIN, my wife and lady, whom 
 God preserve." 
 
 Whoever reads this letter attentively will see 
 in it that infallible criterion of hypocrisy and 
 pretense in professions of regard, viz., extrava- 
 gant ideas feebly and incoherently expressed. 
 When the heart dictates what is said, the 
 thoughts are natural, and the language plain ; 
 but in composition like the above, we see a con- 
 tinual striving to say something for effect, which 
 the writer invents by his ingenuity as he goes 
 on, without any honest impulses from the heart 
 to guide him. He soars one minute and breaks 
 lown the next, in absurd alternations of the sub- 
 Jme and the ridiculous. How honest Charles 
 in such professions, and what was the kino
 
 232 KING CHARLES II. [1661. 
 
 Charles's doable dealing. Catharine's situation and character. 
 
 of connubial happiness which he was preparing 
 for his bride, is shown by the fact that he wan 
 oven now spending all his time with Lady Cas- 
 tlemaine ; and, to reconcile her to his marriage 
 with Catharine, he had promised her that ho 
 would make her one of the ladies of the queen's 
 bed-chamber as soon as she arrived in London, 
 which would give him constant opportunities oi 
 being in her society. 
 
 We have made very little allusion to Cath 
 arine herself, thus far, in the account of these> 
 transactions, because she has had, thus far, noth- 
 ing to do with them. Every thing has been 
 arranged for her by her mother, who was an 
 ambitious and masculine woman, and at this 
 time the queen regent of Portugal. Catharine 
 had been kept shut up, all her days, in the most 
 strict seclusion, and in the most rigorous sub- 
 jection to her mother's will. It is said that she 
 had hardly been ten times out of the palace in 
 her life, since her return to it from the convent 
 where she had been educated. The innocent 
 and simple-hearted maiden looked forward to 
 ner marriage as to a release from a tedious and 
 intolerable bondage. They had shown her King 
 Charles's picture, and had given her an account 
 of his perilous adventures and romantic
 
 1662.] THE MARRIAGE. 233 
 
 Catharine's fond anticipations. Earl of Sandwich sent for the bride 
 
 and of the courage and energy which he had 
 sometimes displayed. And that was all she 
 knew. She had her childlike ideas of love and 
 of conjugal fidelity and happiness, and believed 
 that she was going to realize them. As she 
 looked forward, therefore, to the period of her 
 departure for England, she longed impatiently 
 for the time to come, her heart bounding at ev- 
 ery thought of the happy hour with eager an- 
 ticipations of delight. 
 
 An English noble'man the Earl of Sand- 
 vrich was sent with a squadron to bring the 
 bride to England. He was received, when he 
 entered the Tagus, with great ceremony. A 
 Portuguese minister went down the river to 
 meet him in a magnificent barge. The noble- 
 man descended to the lowest step of the ladder 
 which led down the side of the ship, to receive 
 the minister. They ascended the ladder togeth- 
 er, while the ship fired a salute of twenty or 
 thirty guns. They went into the cabin, and 
 took seats there, with great ceremony. The 
 minister then rose and made an address of wel- 
 come to the English commander. Lord Sand- 
 wich replied, and there was then another thun- 
 iering salute of cannon. 
 
 All this parade and ceremony was, in this
 
 234 KING CHARLES IJ. 
 
 The money. Catharine's leave of her mother 
 
 case, as it often is, not an expression of real 
 cordiality, good- will, and good faith, but a sub- 
 stitute for them. The English commander, 
 who had been specially instructed to bring over 
 the money as well as the bride, found, to his 
 great astonishment and perplexity, that the 
 queen regent had spent a considerable portion 
 of the money which had been put away so safe- 
 ly in the bags, and she wished to pay now a 
 part of the dowry in merchandise, at such pri- 
 ces as she thought reasonable, and to have a 
 year's credit for the remainder. There was thus 
 thrown upon Lord Sandwich the very heavy 
 responsibility of deciding whether to give up the 
 object of his expedition, and go back to England 
 without the bride, or to take her without the 
 money. After very anxious hesitation and sus- 
 pense, he decided to proceed with his enterprise, 
 and the preparations were made for the prin- 
 cess's embarkation. 
 
 When the day arrived, the queen descended 
 the grand stair-case of the palace, and at the 
 foot of it took leave of her mother. Neither 
 mother nor daughter shed a tear. The prin- 
 cess was conducted through the streets, accom- 
 panied by a long cavalcade and a profession ot 
 splendid carriages, through long lines of soldiers
 
 i662.1 THE MARRIAGE. 237 
 
 Parade and ceremony. The embarkation 
 
 and under triumphal arches, and over paths 
 strewed with flowers, while bands of music, and 
 groups of dancers, at various distances along 
 the way, expressed the general congratulation 
 and joy. When they reached the pier there 
 was a splendid brigantine or barge ready to re- 
 ceive the bride and her attendants. The Earl 
 of Sandwich, and other English officers of high 
 rank belonging to the squadron, entered the 
 barge too. The water was covered with boats, 
 and the shipping in the river was crowded with 
 spectators. The barge moved on to the ship 
 which was to convey the bridal party, who as- 
 cended to the deck by means of a spacious and 
 beautiful stair constructed upon its side. Sa 
 lutes were fired by the English ships, and were 
 echoed by the Portuguese forts on the shore. 
 The princess's brother and the ladies who had 
 accompanied her on board, to take leave of her 
 there, now bade her farewell, and returned by 
 the barge to the shore, while the ships weighed 
 anchor and prepared to put to sea. 
 
 The wind was, however, contrary, and they 
 were compelled to remain that night in the riv- 
 er ; and as soon as the darkness came on, the 
 whole shore became resplendent with illumina- 
 tions at the windows in the city, and with rock-
 
 238 KING CHARLES 11, [1662. 
 
 Grand display of fire-works. Arrival at Portsmouth 
 
 ets, and fire-balls, and fire-works of every kind, 
 rising from boats upon the water, and horn, the 
 banks, and heights, and castle battlements all 
 around upon the land. This gay and splendid 
 spectacle beguiled the night, but the wind con- 
 tinued unfavorable all the next day, and con- 
 fined the squadron still to the river. Catha- 
 rine's mother sent out a messenger during the 
 day to inquire after her daughter's health and 
 welfare. The etiquette of royalty did not al- 
 low of her coming to see her child. 
 
 The fleet, which consisted of fourteen men- 
 of-war, put to sea on the second day. After a 
 long and stormy passage, the squadron arrived 
 off the Isle of Wight ; the Duke of York came 
 out to meet it there, with five other ships, and 
 they all entered the harbor of Portsmouth to- 
 gether. As soon as Catharine landed, she wrote 
 immediately to Charles to notify him of her ar- 
 rival. The news produced universal excite- 
 ment in London. The bells were rung, bon- 
 fires were made in the streets, and houses were 
 illuminated. Every body seemed full of joy 
 and pleasure except the king himself. He 
 seemed to care little about it. He was supping 
 that night with Lady Castlemaine. It was five 
 days before he set out to meet his bride, and he
 
 1662.] THE MARRIAGE. 239 
 
 Strange conduct of Charles. His interview with Catharine 
 
 supped with Lady Castlemaine the night before 
 he commenced his journey. 
 
 Some of Charles's best friends were very much 
 grieved at his pursuing such a course ; others 
 were very indignant ; but the majority of the 
 people around him at court were like himself in 
 character and manners, and were only led to 
 more open irreguJarity and vice themselves by 
 this public example of their sovereign. In tht> 
 mean time, the king moved on to Portsmouth, 
 escorted by a body of his Life Guards. He found 
 that his intended bride was confined to her bed 
 with a sort of slow fever. It was the result, 
 they said, of the roughness and discomforts of 
 the voyage, though we may certainly imagine 
 another cause. Charles went immediately to 
 the house where she was residing, and was ad- 
 mitted to visit her in her chamber, the many 
 attendants who were present at the interview 
 watching with great interest every word and 
 look on either side by which they might judge 
 of the nature of the first impression made by the 
 bride and bridegroom upon each other. Cath- 
 arine was not considered beautiful, and it was 
 natural that a degree of curiosity should be 
 manifested to learn how Charles wou'd regard 
 her.
 
 240 
 
 KING CHARLES II. [1662 
 
 Portrait of Quecu CtitLarlno. 
 
 The following representation of the queen is 
 iVo-n a picture painted during her lifetime 
 
 CATHARINE OF BKAGANZA. 
 
 There are two apparently contradictory ac- 
 counts of the impression made upon Charles l.y
 
 1662.J THE MARRIAGE. 241 
 
 Charles's opinion of Catharine. The marriage, 
 
 this his first sight of his intended bride. Charles 
 wrote a letter to Lord Clarendon, in which he 
 expressed himself very well satisfied with her. 
 He admitted that she was no beauty, but her 
 countenance was agreeable, he said, and " hei 
 conversation," he added, " as far as I can per- 
 ceive, is very good ; for she has wit enough, and 
 a very agreeable voice. You would be sur- 
 prised to see how well we are acquainted al- 
 ready. In a word, I think myself very happy, 
 and I am confident that we shall agree very 
 well together. I have not time to say any more. 
 My lord lieutenant will tell you the rest." At 
 the same time, while writing this in his official 
 communication to his minister, he said private- 
 ly to one of his companions on leaving the pres- 
 ence of his. bride, that, "upon his word, they had 
 sejit him a bat instead of a woman." 
 
 The royal couple were married the next day, 
 first very privately in the Catholic form, and 
 afterward more openly, in a great hall, and be- 
 fore a large assembly, according to the ritual 
 of the Church of England. The bride was at- 
 tired in the English style, her dress being of 
 rose color, trimmed with knots of blue ribbon. 
 These knots were, after the ceremony, detached 
 from the dress, and distributed among the com- 
 
 Q
 
 242 KING CHARLES II. [1662 
 
 Marriage presents. Journey to Londor 
 
 pany as wedding favors, every lady eagerl) 
 pressing forward to get a share. Magnificen^ 
 presents were made to the groomsmen anr' 
 bridesmaids, and the company dispersed. Th' 
 queen, still indisposed, went back to her bed 
 and her supper was served to her there, th' 
 king and other members of the household par 
 taking it with her, seated at the bedside. 
 
 A day or two afterward the royal party pro- 
 ceeded to London, in a long train composed of 
 Life Guards, carriages, horsemen, baggage wag- 
 ons, and attendants of every grade. The queen's 
 heart was full of anticipations of happiness. 
 The others, who knew what state of things she 
 was to find on her arrival there, looked forward 
 to scenes of trouble and woe.
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 243 
 
 The case of Lady Castlemaine. Catharine's splendid apartment*. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 CHARACTER AND REIGN 
 
 OOME of the traits of character for which 
 ^ King Charles II. has been most noted among 
 mankind are well illustrated by his manage- 
 ment of the affair of Lady Castlemaine, when 
 the queen arrived at her new home in Hamp- 
 ton Court. Hampton Court is a very spacious 
 and beautiful palace on the banks of the Thames, 
 some miles above London, splendidly built, and 
 very pleasantly situated at a graceful bend of 
 the river. It was magnificently fitted up and 
 furnished for Catharine's reception. Her suite 
 of apartments were supplied and adorned in the 
 most sumptuous manner. Her bed, which was 
 a present to Charles, at the time of his restora- 
 tion, from the States of Holland, was said to 
 have cost, with all the appurtenances, a sum 
 equal to between thirty and forty thousand dol- 
 lars. The hangings were an embroidery of 
 silver on crimson velvet. The other articles of 
 furniture in the apartment, the mirrors, the 
 richly inlaid cabinets, the toilet service of mass-
 
 '^44 KING CHARLES II. [1662. 
 
 Lady Castlemaine's eon. The double baptism 
 
 ive gold, the canopies, the carved chairs, the 
 curtains, the tapestries, and the paintings, cor- 
 responded in magnificence with the bed, so that 
 Catharine, when she was introduced to the 
 scene, felt that she had attained to the very 
 summit of human grandeur. 
 
 For a few weeks Catharine neither saw nor 
 heard any thing of Lady Castlemaine. She 
 was confined to her house at the time by the 
 care of an infant, born a few days after the ar- 
 rival of the queen. Her husband had the child 
 baptized soon after its birth as his son and heir ; 
 but the mother soon afterward had it baptized 
 again as the son of the king, Charles himself 
 standing sponsor on the occasion. A violent 
 quarrel followed between Lady Castlemaine and 
 her husband. She left the house, takmg with 
 her all her servants and attendants, and all the 
 plate and other valuables which she could carry 
 away. The husband, overwhelmed with wretch- 
 edness and shame, abandoned every thing, and 
 went to France, in voluntary exile. His wife 
 then came and took up her residence at Rich- 
 mond, which is not far from Hampton Court, 
 so as to be near the king. In all these proceed- 
 ings the king himself gave her his continued 
 countenance, encouragement, and aid.
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 245 
 
 Lady Castlemaine named for the household. Catharine's indignation 
 
 Although Catharine, in the confiding sim- 
 plicity of her character, had fully believed, in 
 coming to London, that Charles would be to 
 her a true and faithful husband, still she had 
 heard the name of Lady Castlemaine before she 
 left Lisbon. Her mother had once briefly al- 
 luded to the subject, and gave her a warning, 
 charging her to remember the name, and to be 
 on her guard against the lady herself, and never 
 to tolerate her in her presence on any pretext. 
 Things were in this state, when, one day, after 
 Catharine had been about six weeks in her new 
 home, Charles brought in a list of ladies whom 
 he proposed that she should make the ladies of 
 her household. Catharine took the list, and 
 there, to her surprise and indignation, she saw 
 the dreaded name of Lady Castlemaine at the 
 head of it. 
 
 Very much agitated, she began to prick out 
 the name, and to declare that she could not 
 listen to any such proposition. Charles was 
 angry, and remonstrated. She persisted, and 
 said that he must either yield to her in that 
 point, or send her back to Lisbon. Charles was 
 determined to have his way, and Catharine was 
 overwhelmed with anguish and grief. This last- 
 ed two days, when Charles made his peace with
 
 246 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Charles appears to yield the point His duplicity 
 
 his wife by solemnly promising to give up Lady 
 Castlemaine, and to have from that time for- 
 ward nothing more to do with her. 
 
 King Charles II. has always been famed for 
 his good nature. This was a specimen of it 
 He never liked to quarrel with any body, and 
 was always ready to give up his point, in ap- 
 pearance and form at least, for the sake of peace 
 and good humor. Accordingly, when he found 
 how immovably averse his wife was to having 
 Lady Castlemaine for an inmate of her family, 
 instead of declaring that she must and should 
 submit to his will, he gave up himself, and said 
 that he would think no more about it, without, 
 however, having the remotest idea of keeping 
 his word. He was only intending, since he 
 found the resistance so decided on this side of 
 the citadel, to try to find some other approach. 
 
 Accordingly, a short time after this, one even- 
 ing when the queen was holding a sort of levee 
 in a brilliant saloon, surrounded by her Portu- 
 guese ladies, and receiving English ladies, as 
 they were one after another presented to her 
 by the king, the company were astonished at 
 seeing Lady Castlemaine appear with the rest, 
 and, as she advanced, the king presented her to 
 the queen. To the surprise of every one, Cath-
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 247 
 
 Catharine's sufferings. Violent quarrel 
 
 arine received her as graciously as the rest, and 
 gave her her hand. The fact was, that Catha- 
 rine, not being familiar with the sound and pro- 
 nunciation of English words, had not understood 
 the name. One of the Portuguese ladies who 
 stood near her whispered to inquire if she knew 
 that that was Lady Castlemaine. Catharine 
 was stunned and staggered by the words as by 
 a blow. The blood gushed from her nose, she 
 fell over into the arms of her attendants in a 
 fainting fit, and was borne out of the room. 
 
 There followed, after this scene, a long and 
 dreadful quarrel. Charles accused his wife of 
 unreasonable and foolish jealousy, and of put- 
 ting a public insult upon one of the ladies of 
 his court, whom she was bound to treat with 
 civility and respect, since he chose to have it so. 
 She, on the other hand, declared that he was 
 cruel and tyrannical in making such demands 
 upon her, and that she would go back to Por- 
 tugal rather than submit to such an intolerable 
 indignity. She criminated Charles, and Charles 
 recriminated and threatened her, and for one 
 night the palace was filled with the noise and 
 uproar of the quarrel. The ladies and gentle- 
 men of the household were very glad, they said, 
 that they were not in London, where there
 
 KING CHARLES II. [1662. 
 
 Remonstrances of Charles's counselors. lie silences all opposition. 
 
 would have been so many more witnesses of 
 the scene. 
 
 Some of Charles's counselors and ministers of 
 state were disposed at first to remonstrate with 
 him for laying commands on his wife, with 
 which, as they expressed it, flesh and blood 
 could not comply. He, however, peremptorily 
 silenced all their expostulations, and required 
 them, as they valued his favor, to aid him in 
 effecting his purposes. Good-natured as he 
 was, his determination was fully aroused, and 
 he was now resolved to compel the queen to 
 submit. He wrote a letter to Lord Clarendon, 
 in which he declared his absolute and unalter- 
 able determination to make Lady Castlemaine 
 "of the queen's bed-chamber," and hoped he 
 might be miserable in this world and in the 
 world to come if he failed in the least degree 
 in what he had undertaken ; and if any one of 
 his friends attempted to thwart or impede him 
 in it in any way, he would make him repent of 
 it as long as he lived. The king concluded his 
 "fetter with asking Clarendon to show it to some 
 others concerned, that they might all under- 
 stand distinctly what they were to expect. 
 
 Of course, every body, after this, took sides 
 against the queen, and all who had access to
 
 1662.J CHARACTER AND REIGN. 249 
 
 Lady Castlemaine's character. Her influence 
 
 her urged her to comply with the wishes of the 
 king. She begged and prayed to be spared such 
 an indignity. She remonstrated, sometimes 
 ,with impetuous passion, and sometimes with 
 silent grief and bitter tears. She wanted to go 
 back again to Portugal; but this, of course, 
 could not be. The end of it was, that she was 
 worn out at last. Lady Castlemaine was ad- 
 mitted, and remained an inmate of her family 
 as long as she retained her place in the king's 
 regard. 
 
 Lady Castlemaine was a proud and imperi- 
 ous beauty, who abused the power which she 
 soon found that she possessed over the king, in 
 a manner to make her an object of hatred to 
 every one else. She interfered with every thing, 
 and had a vast influence even over the aflfairs 
 of state. The king was sometimes out of pa- 
 tience, and attempted resistance, but she soon 
 reduced him to submission. There was once 
 some question about sending a certain noble- 
 man, who was charged with some political of- 
 fenses, to the Tower. She declared that he 
 should not be sent there. The king rebuked 
 her interference, and they got into a high dis- 
 pute on the subject, the king telling her, in the 
 end, "that she was an impertinent jade, that
 
 250 KING CHARLES II. [1662 
 
 Violent quarrels. The king's frankneeg 
 
 meddled with things she had nothing to do with." 
 To which she replied " that he was a great fool, 
 that let fools have the management of his affairs, 
 and sent his faithful servants to prison." In 
 the end, the lady gained the victory, and the no- 
 bleman went free. Violent quarrels of this kind 
 were very frequent between these high-life lov- 
 ers, and they always ended in the triumph of 
 Lady Castlemaine. She used to threaten, as a 
 last resort, that if the king came to an open 
 rupture with her, she would print the letters 
 that he had written to her, and this always 
 brought him to terms. 
 
 These incidents indicate a very extraordina- 
 ry freedom and familiarity of manners on the 
 part of Charles, and he probably appears, in all 
 these transactions, to much greater disadvant- 
 age in some respects than he otherwise would 
 have done, on account of the extreme openness 
 and frankness of his character. He lived, in 
 fact, on the most free and familiar terms with 
 all around him, jesting continually with every 
 body, and taking jests, with perfect good nature, 
 from others in return. In fact, his jests, gibes, 
 and frolics kept the whole court continually in 
 a condition of frivolous gayety and fun, which 
 would have excited the astonishment of all thp
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 251 
 
 King Charles's spaniels. The king's frivolity. 
 
 serious portion of mankind, if the extreme and 
 universal dissipation and vice which prevailed 
 had not awakened a far deeper emotion. 
 
 In fact, there seemed to be no serious ele- 
 ment whatever in the monarch's character. 
 He was, for instance, very fond of dogs, and 
 cultivated a particular breed, since called King 
 Charles's spaniels, which he kept at one time 
 in great numbers, and in all stages of age and 
 condition, in his palace, and in his very bed- 
 chamber, making all the apartments around 
 very disagreeable by the effluvia. Rewards 
 were constantly offered for certain of the king's 
 dogs which had escaped. They were always 
 escaping. He was attended by these dogs 
 wherever he went, and at his meetings with his 
 council, while the gravest and most momentous 
 national interests were under discussion, he 
 would amuse himself by playing with them un- 
 der the table. He read his speeches at Parlia- 
 ment, that is, the brief messages with which 
 the sovereign usually opens the session, in a ri- 
 diculous manner, and at church, instead of at- 
 tending to the service, he would play at peep 
 with Lady Castlemaine between the curtains 
 which separated his box from that of the ladies 
 of the, household. And yet he pretended to be
 
 252 KING CHARLES II. [1662. 
 
 Charles's opinion of atheism. His occupations. 
 
 a firm believer in Christianity; and while he 
 had no objection to any extreme of vice, he dis- 
 countenanced infidelity. On one occasion, when 
 a philosophical skeptic had been enlarging for 
 some time on his objections to the Christian 
 faith, Charles replied by saying, "My lord, I 
 am a great deal older than your grace, and have 
 heard more arguments in favor of atheism than 
 you, but I have lived long enough to see that 
 there is nothing in them, and I hope your grace 
 will" 
 
 Charles spent most of his time, at some pe- 
 riods of his reign, in idle amusements, lounging 
 about his palace, playing at tennis in the ten- 
 nis court like a boy, and then weighing him- 
 self afterward to see how much he was gaining. 
 In the afternoons and evenings he would loiter 
 in the rooms of his favorites while they were 
 finishing their dressing, gamble at cards, and 
 often would get very much intoxicated at wild 
 midnight carousals. He would ramble in the 
 mall and in the parks, and feed the aquatic 
 birds upon the ponds there, day after day, with 
 all the interest and pleasure of a truant school- 
 boy. He roamed about thus in the most free 
 and careless manner, and accosted people far 
 beneath him in rank in what was considered a 
 very undignified way for a king.
 
 L662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 253 
 
 James's remonstrances. Jests 
 
 His brother James, the Duke of York, some- 
 times remonstrated with him on this subject. 
 James was, of course, so long as the queen, 
 Charles's lawful wife, had no children, the next 
 heir to the crown. He spent most of his Life in 
 the court of his brother, and they were goner- 
 ally very warm friends to each other. On one 
 of Charles's frolicking excursions, when be was 
 away far from his palace, without any suitable 
 attendants or guards, James told him that he 
 really thought his life was not safe in such ex- 
 posures. Charles replied by telling James not 
 to give himself any uneasiness. " You may de- 
 pend upon it," said he, " that nobody will ever 
 think of killing me to make you king/' 
 
 The king was not unwilling, too, to take, him- 
 self, such jests as he gave. One day, in con- 
 versation with a dissolute member of the court, 
 after they had been joking each other for some 
 time, he said, " Ah ! Shaftesbury, I verily be- 
 lieve you are the wickedest dog in my domin- 
 ions." " Yes," replied Shaftesbury, " for a sub- 
 ject, I think I am." 
 
 There was a mischievous and unmanagea 
 ble goat in one of the palace court-yards, whose 
 name was Old Rowley, and the courtiers con- 
 sidered the boast as affording so just an emblem
 
 254 KING CHARLES II. [1662 
 
 Old llowley. The epitaph. 
 
 of the character of the king, that they gave the 
 king his name. Charles, instead of resenting 
 it, entered into the jest ; and one day, as he was 
 going into the apartment of some of the ladies, 
 he heard them singing a song, in which he fig- 
 ured ridiculously as the goat. He knocked at 
 the door. They asked who was there. "Only 
 Old Rewley," said the king. 
 
 The king's repartees were some of them real- 
 y good, and he obtained in his day the reputa- 
 tion of being quite a wit, while yet all his ac- 
 tions, and the whole of his management of his 
 affairs, were so utterly unwise and so wholly 
 unworthy of his station, that every one was 
 struck with the contrast. One of the wits of 
 his court one day wrote an epitaph for him, 
 over his door, as follows : 
 
 " Here lies our sovereign lord the king, 
 Whose word no man relies on, 
 Who never said a foolish thing, 
 And never did a wise one." 
 
 When the king came and saw this inscrip- 
 tion, he stopped to read it, and said, " Yes, thai 
 is ver) true ; and the reason is, my doings aro 
 those of my ministers, while my sayings are 
 my own." 
 
 Charles had, in fact, very little to do with
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 255 
 
 Charles's building plans. Sir Christopher Wren. 
 
 the public affairs of his kingdom. He liked to 
 build palaces and ships, and he expended vast 
 sums, not very judiciously, on these plans. Sii 
 Christopher "Wren, the famous architect, plan- 
 ned one of these palaces, and Charles, when he 
 went to see it, complained that the rooms were 
 too small. Sir Christopher walked about with a 
 self-important air, looking up at the ceiling, and 
 said that he thought they were high enough. 
 Sir Christopher was very small in stature. 
 Charles accordingly squatted down as well as 
 he could, to get his head in as low a position 
 as the architect's, and walked about the room 
 in that ridiculous attitude, looking up in mim- 
 icry of Sir Christopher's manner, and then said, 
 "Oh, yes, tiow I think they are high enough." 
 These building plans, and other similar un- 
 dertakings, together with the vast amounts 
 which the king lavished upon his numerous fe- 
 male favorites, exhausted his resources, and kept 
 him in continual straits for money. He was al- 
 ways urging Parliament to make new grants, 
 and to lay more taxes, until, as he said himself, 
 he was ashamed to look his Parliament in the 
 face, he was so continually begging them for 
 supplies. The people caricatured him by the rep- 
 resentation of a poverty-stricken man, with his
 
 256 KING CHARLES II. [1662 
 
 Caricatures of the king. The thief in the palace 
 
 pockets turned inside out, and begging money 
 At another time the caricature took the form 
 )f a man led along against his will by two wom- 
 en, and threatened by a third, wearing all the 
 time a countenance expressive of helplessness 
 and distress. 
 
 The king bore all these things with the ut- 
 most good nature, satisfied, apparently, if he 
 oould only enjoy the pleasures of dissipation and 
 vice, and continue, in his palaces, a perpetual 
 round of reckless merriment and fun. Some 
 of the stories which are gravely told by the his- 
 torians of the day are scarcely credible. For 
 instance, it is said that a thief one day found 
 his way, in the guise of a gentleman, into one 
 of the royal drawing-rooms, and contrived to 
 get a gold snuff-box out of the pocket of one of 
 the noblemen there. Just as he had success- 
 fully accomplished his object, unobserved, as he 
 supposed, he looked up, and saw the king's eyes 
 fastened upon him. Knowing his majesty's 
 character, the thief had the presence of mind to 
 give him a wink, with a sly gesture enjoining 
 secrecy. The king nodded assent, and the thiof 
 went away with his prize. When the noble- 
 man missed his snuff-box, the king amused him- 
 self some time with his perplexity and surprise,
 
 1662.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 25"/ 
 
 Charles's government. The three great calamities 
 
 and then told him that it was of no use for him 
 to search for his snuff-box, for a thief had gone 
 off with it half an hour ago. " I saw him," 
 said the king, with a countenance full of fun. 
 " but I could not do any thing. The rascal 
 made me his confidant, and, of course, you know, 
 I could not betray him." 
 
 Under the government of such a sovereign, 
 it could not be expected that the public affairs 
 of the realm would have gone on very prosper- 
 ously. Still, however, they might have been 
 conducted with ordinary success by his minis- 
 ters, and perhaps they were, in fact, managed 
 as well as was usual with the governments of 
 Europe in those days. It happened, however, 
 that three great public calamities occurred, all 
 of a most marked and signal character, which 
 were, perhaps, not owing at all to causes for 
 which Charles was responsible, but which have 
 nevertheless connected such associations in 
 men's minds with this unfortunate reign, as 
 that Englishmen have since looked back upon 
 it with very little pleasure. These three ca- 
 lamities were the plague, the fire, and the 
 Dutch invasion. 
 
 There have been a great many seasons of 
 plague in London, all inconceivably dreadful; 
 R
 
 258 KING CHARLES II. [16(52 
 
 Condition of London. Filth and wretchedness. 
 
 but as King Charles's fire was first among con- 
 flagrations, so his plague was the greatest pes- 
 tilence that ever ravaged the city. London 
 was, in those days, in a condition which ex- 
 actly adapted it to be the easy prey of pestilence, 
 famine, and fire. The people were crowded to- 
 gether in vast masses, with no comforts, no 
 cleanliness, no proper organization. The enor- 
 mous vegetable and animal accumulations of 
 such a multitude, living more like brutes than 
 men, produced a continual miasma, which pre- 
 pared the constitutions of thousands for any in- 
 fection which might chance to light among them. 
 Pestilence is, in fact, the rude and dreadful rem- 
 edy which nature provides for the human mis- 
 ery which man himself can not or will not cure. 
 When the dictates of reason and conscience are 
 neglected or disobeyed, and the ills which they 
 might have averted sink the social state into a 
 condition of degradation and wretchedness so 
 great that the denser accumulations of the peo- 
 ple become vast and corrupted swarms of verm- 
 in instead of organized communities of men, then 
 plague and fever come in as the last resort half 
 remedy, half retribution devised by that mys- 
 terious principle which struggles perpetually for 
 the preservation of the human race, to thin off
 
 1665.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 259 
 
 The great plague. Scenes of horror 
 
 the excessive accumulation by destroying a por- 
 tion of the surplus in so frightful a way as to 
 drive away the rest in terror. 
 
 The great plague of London took place in 
 1665, one year before the fire. The awful 
 scenes which the whole city presented, no pen 
 can'describe. A hundred thousand persons are 
 said to have died. The houses where cases of 
 the plague existed were marked with a red 
 cross and shut up, the inmates being all fasten- 
 ed in. to live or die, at the mercy of the infec- 
 tion. Every day carts rolled through the oth- 
 erwise silent and desolate streets, men accom 
 panying them to gather up with pitchforks the 
 dead bodies which had been dragged out from 
 the dwellings, and crying " Bring out your 
 dead" as they went along.* Thousands went 
 
 * Sometimes the living were pitched into the cart by mia- 
 Jake instead of the dead. There is a piece of sculpture in 
 the Tottenham Court-road in London intended to commemo- 
 rate the following case. A Scotch piper, who had been wan- 
 dering in homeless misery about the streets, with nothing bui 
 his bagpipes and his dog, got intoxicated at last, as such men 
 always do, if they can, in times of such extreme and awful 
 janger, and laid down upon the steps of a public building and 
 went to sleep. The cart came along in the night, by torch- 
 light, and one of the men who attended it, inserting the point 
 of his fork under the poor vagabond's belt, tossed him into 
 tb< cart, bagpipes and all. The dog did all he could to de- 
 fenJ his master, but in vain. The cart went thunderin? on.
 
 260 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Dreadful effects of the plague. Mode of buying. 
 
 mad with their uncontrollable terror, and roam- 
 ed about the streets in raving delirium, killing 
 themselves, and mothers killing their children, 
 in an insane and phrensied idea of escaping by 
 that means, somehow or other, from the dread- 
 ful destroyer. 
 
 Every body whose reason remained to them 
 avoided all possible contact or communication 
 with others. Even in the country, in the ex- 
 change of commodities, a thousand contrivan- 
 ces were resorted to to avoid all personal con- 
 nection. In one place there was a stone, where 
 those who had any thing to sell placed their 
 goods and then retreated, while he who wished 
 to buy came up, and, depositing his money on 
 the stone in the place of the merchandise, took 
 what he had thus bought away. 
 
 the men walking along by its side, examining the ways for 
 new additions to their load. The piper, half awakened by 
 the shock of his precipitation into the cart, and aroused still 
 more by the joltings of the road, sat up, attempted in vain to 
 rally his bewildered faculties, looked about him, wondering 
 where he was, and then instinctively began to play. The 
 men, astonished and terrified at such sounds from a cart load- 
 ed with the dead, fled in all directions, leaving the cart in 
 the middle of the street alone. 
 
 What a mysterious and inconsistent principle is fear. Here 
 are men braving, unconcerned and at their ease, the most ab- 
 solutely appalling of all possible human dangers, and yet tee 
 rifled out of their senses at an unexpected suund.
 
 , 
 
 ,- =,<&,>,
 
 16GG.J CHARACTER AND REIGN. 263 
 
 The greet fire. Terrific scene. 
 
 The great fire took place in 1666, about a 
 year after the plague, and burned a very large 
 part of London. It commenced accidentally in 
 a baker's shop, where a great store of fagots had 
 been collected, and spread so rapidly among the 
 buildings which surrounded the spot that it was 
 soon entirely beyond control. The city of Lon- 
 don was then composed of an immense mass of 
 mean buildings, crowded densely together, with 
 very narrow streets intervening, and the wind 
 carried the names, with inconceivable rapidity, 
 far and wide. The people seemed struck uni- 
 versally with a sense of terror and despair, and 
 nothing was to be heard but shrieks, outcries, 
 and wild lamentations. The sky was one vast 
 lurid canopy, like molten brass, day and night, 
 for four days, while the whole city presented a 
 scene of indescribable and awful din ; the crack- 
 ing and thundering of the flames, the phrcn- 
 sied screams of the women and children, the 
 terrific falling of spires, towers, walls, and lofty 
 battlements, the frightful explosions of the hous- 
 es, blown up by gunpowder in the vain hopo 
 of stopping the progress of the flames, all form- 
 lid a scene of grandeur so terrific and dreadful, 
 that they who witnessed the spectacle were 
 haunted bv the recollection of it long afterward,
 
 KING CHARLES II. (16(57. 
 
 The monument. The Dutch invasion 
 
 as by a frightful dream. A tall monument 
 was built upon the spot where the baker's shop 
 stood, to commemorate the calamity. The fire 
 held, in fact, in the estimation of mankind, the 
 rank of the greatest and most terrible of all con- 
 flagrations, until the burning of Moscow, in the 
 time of Napoleon, in some degree eclipsed its 
 fame. 
 
 The Dutch invasion was the third great ca 
 iamity which signalized King Charles's unfor- 
 tunate reign. The ships of the enemy came up 
 the Thames and the Medway, which is a branch 
 of the Thames ; they took possession of a fort 
 at Sheerness, near the mouth of the river, and, 
 after seizing all the military stores, which had 
 been collected there to an enormous amount, 
 they set fire to the powder magazine, and blew 
 np the whole fortress with a terrific explosion. 
 The way was now open to them to London, un- 
 less the English could contrive some way to ar- 
 rest their progress. They attempted to do this 
 by sinking some ships in the river, and drawing 
 a strong chain across from one sunken vessel 
 to the other, and fastening the ends to the shores. 
 The Dutch, however, broke through this ob 
 struction. They seized an opportunity when the 
 tide was setting strongly up the river, and
 
 THE MONUMENT.
 
 1667 j CHARACTER AND R E i r. N. 267 
 
 The Royal Oak. Attempts to stop the Dutch 
 
 fresh wind was blowing ; their ships, impelled 
 thus by a double force, broke through the chains, 
 passed safely between the sunken ships, and 
 came on in triumph up the river, throwing the 
 city of London into universal consternation. 
 There were several English ships of war, and 
 several Dutch ships, which had been captured 
 and brought up the Thames as prizes, lying in 
 the river ; these vessels were all seized by the 
 Dutch, and burned ; one of the English ships 
 which they thus destroyed was called the Royal 
 Oak.* 
 
 Of course, there was now a universal scene 
 of confusion and terror in London. Every body 
 laid the blame of the calamity upon the king ; 
 the money which he had received for building 
 ships, and other national defenses, he had squan- 
 dered, they said, upon his guilty pleasures ; 
 then the war, which had resulted in this inva- 
 sion, was caused by the political mismanage- 
 ment of his reign. While the people, however, 
 thus loudly condemned the conduct of their mon- 
 arch, they went energetically at work to arrest 
 the progress of their invaders ; they sunk other 
 t-hips in greater numbers, and built platforms, 
 on which they raised batteries of cannon. At 
 
 * See Frontispiece.
 
 269 KING CHARLES II. [167S. 
 
 Oatee'a Popish Plot The king a philosophi 
 
 length the further progress of the enemy was 
 stopped, and the ships were finally compelled to 
 retire. 
 
 Among the other events which occurred dur 
 ing the reign of King Charles the Second, and 
 which tended to connect unfavorable associa- 
 tions with the recollection of it in the minds of 
 men, was a very extraordinary affair, which is 
 known in history by the name of Titus Gates'; 
 Popish Plot. It was the story of a plot, said to 
 have been formed by the Catholics, to put King 
 Charles to death, and place his brother James, 
 who, it will be recollected, was a Catholic, upon 
 the throne in his stead. The story of this plot 
 was told by a man named Titus Gates, and as 
 it was at first generally believed, it occasioned 
 infinite trouble and difficult 1 "' In after times, 
 however, the whole story cam te *o be regarded 
 as the fabrication of Gates, without there being 
 any foundation for it whatever ; hence the name 
 of Titus Oates's Popish Plot, by which the af- 
 fair has always since been designated in history, 
 The circumstances were these : 
 
 Among his other various accomplishments, 
 King Charles was quite a chemist and philoso- 
 pher. He had a laboratory where he amused 
 himself with experiments, having, of course,
 
 1678.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 269 
 
 Kirby Foundation of the Royal Society. 
 
 several persons associated with him, and attend- 
 ant upon him in these researches. Among these 
 was a man named Kirby. Mr. Kirby was an 
 intelligent man, of agreeable manners, and of 
 considerable scientific attainments. Charles de- 
 voted, at some periods of his life, a consider- 
 able portion of his time to these researches in 
 experimental philosophy, and he took, likewise, 
 an interest in facilitating the progress of other.? 
 in the same pursuits. There was a small so- 
 ciety of philosophers that was accustomed to 
 meet sometimes in Oxford and sometimes in 
 London. The object of this society was to pro- 
 vide apparatus and other facilities for making 
 experiments, and to communicate to each other 
 at their meetings the result of their investiga- 
 tions. The king took this society under his 
 patronage, anc 1 . made it ; as it were, his own 
 He gave it the name of THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 
 and granted it a charter, by which it was incor- 
 porated as a permanent organization, with the 
 most ample powers. This association has since 
 become one of the most celebrated learned so- 
 cieties in the world, and its establishment is one 
 of the very few transactions of King Charles's 
 reign which have beon since remembered with 
 pleasure.
 
 270 KING CHARLES II. [167S 
 
 Kirby's warning. The king's iniifferenca 
 
 But to return to Mr. Kirby. One day, when 
 the king was walking in the park with a party 
 of companions and attendants, who were sepa- 
 rated more or less from him, as was usual on 
 such occasions, Mr. Kirby came up to him, and, 
 with a mysterious and earnest air, begged the 
 king not to allow himself to be separated from 
 the company, for his life, he said, was hi dan- 
 ger. " Keep with your company, sir," said he ; 
 " your enemies have a design upon your life 
 You may be suddenly shot on this very walk." 
 Charles was not easily frightened, and he re- 
 ceived this announcement with great compos- 
 ure. He asked an explanation, however, and 
 Mr. Kirby informed him that a plot had been 
 formed by the Catholics to destroy him ; that 
 two men had been engaged to shoot him ; and, 
 to make the result doubly sure, another ai- 
 rangement had been made to poison him. The 
 queen's physician was the person, he said, who 
 was charged with this latter design. Mr. Kirby 
 said, moreover, that there was a clergyman, Dr. 
 Tong, who was fully acquainted with all tho 
 particulars of the plot, and that, if the king 
 would grant him an interview that evening, he 
 would make them all known. 
 
 The king agreed to this, and in the evening
 
 1678.] CHARACTER AND REIG^. 27} 
 
 Dr. Tong*s interview with the king. State of the public mind 
 
 Dr. Tong was introduced. He had a budget of 
 papers which he began to open and read, bui 
 Charles had not patience to hear them ; his mind 
 was full of a plan which he was contemplating 
 of going to Windsor the next day, to look at 
 some new decorations which he had ordered foi 
 several of the apartments of the palace. He did 
 not believe in the existence of any plot. It is 
 true that plots and conspiracies were very com- 
 mon in those days, but false rumors and un- 
 founded tales of plots were more common still. 
 There was so much excitement in the minds of 
 the community on the subject of the Catholic 
 and Protestant faith, and such vastly extended 
 interests depended on whether the sovereign be- 
 longed to one side or the other on this question, 
 that every thing relating to the subject was in- 
 vested with a mysterious awe, and the most 
 wonderful stories were readily circulated and 
 believed. The public mind was always partic- 
 ularly sensitive and excitable in such a case as 
 that of Charles and his brother James at the 
 time of which we are writing, where the reign- 
 ing monarch, Charles, was of one religious faith, 
 and his brother James, the next heir, was of 
 the other. The death of Charles, which might 
 at any time take place, would naturally lead tc
 
 272 KING CHARLES ] I. [1678, 
 
 Dr. Tong referred to Danby. Danby's view of the plot 
 
 a religious revolution, and this kept the whole 
 community in an exceedingly excitable and 
 feverish state. There was a great temptation 
 to form plots on the one hand, and a great eager- 
 ness to discover them on the other ; and any 
 man who could tell a story of treasonable 
 schemes, whether his tale was true or fabrica- 
 ted, became immediately a personage of great 
 importance. 
 
 Charles was well aware of these things, and 
 was accordingly disposed to pay very little at- 
 tention to Dr. Tong's papers. He said he had 
 no time to look into them, and so he referred 
 the whole case to the Lord Treasurer Danby, 
 an officer of his court, whom he requested to 
 examine into the affair. Dr. Tong, therefore, 
 laid his papers before Danby, while the king 
 went off the next day to Windsor to examine 
 the new fresco paintings and the other decora- 
 tions of the palace. 
 
 Danby was disposed to regard the story in a 
 very different light from that in which it had 
 appoareu tj the king. It is said that there 
 were some charges about to be brought forward 
 against himself for certain malpractices in his 
 office, and that he was very much pleased, ac- 
 cordingly, at the prospect of having something
 
 1678.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 273 
 
 Dr. Tang's story. Titus Dates. A second interview. 
 
 come up to attract public attention, and turn it 
 away from his own misdemeanors. He listen- 
 ed, therefore, with great interest to Dr. Tong's 
 account of the plot, and made many minute 
 and careful inquiries. Dr. Tong informed him 
 that he had himself no personal knowledge of 
 the conspiracy ; that the papers, which contain- 
 ed all the information that he was possessed of, 
 had been thrown into the hall of his house from 
 the front door, and that he did not certainly 
 know by whom, though he suspected, he said, 
 one Titus Gates, who had formerly been a Cath- 
 olic priest, and was still so far connected with 
 the Catholics as to have very favorable oppor- 
 tunities to become acquainted with their designs 
 Soon after this Dr. Tong had another inter- 
 view with the lord treasurer, and informed 
 him that his surmise had proved true ; that it 
 was Titus Gates who had drawn up the papers, 
 and that he was informed in regard to all the 
 particulars of the plot, but that he did not dare 
 to do any thing openly in revealing them, for 
 fear that the conspirators would kill him. The 
 lord treasurer communicated the result of his 
 inquiries to the king, and urged the affair upon 
 his attention as one of the utmost possible im- 
 portance The king himself, however, was 
 S
 
 274 KING CHARLES II. [1678. 
 
 The king's disbelief. Circulation of rumors 
 
 very skeptical on the subject. He laughed at 
 the lord treasurer's earnestness and anxiety. 
 The lord treasurer wished to have a meeting 
 of the council called, that the case might be laid 
 before them, but Charles refused. Nobody 
 should know any thing about it, he said, not 
 even his brother. It would only create excite- 
 ment and alarm, and perhaps put it into some- 
 body's head to murder him, though nobody at 
 present had any such design. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the king's determina- 
 tion not to give publicity to the story of the 
 plot, rumors of it gradually transpired, and be- 
 gan to excite attention. The fact that such 
 stories were in circulation soon came to the 
 knowledge of the Duke of York, and, of course, 
 immediately arrested his earnest attention. As 
 he was himself a Catholic, and the heir to the 
 crown, any suspicion of a Catholic plot formed 
 to dethrone his brother necessarily implicated 
 him. He demanded an examination into the 
 case. In a short time, vague but exaggerated 
 rumors on the subject began to circulate through 
 the community at large, which awakened, of 
 course, a very general anxiety and alarm. So 
 great was the virulence of both political and 
 religious animosities in those days, that no
 
 lb7.J CHARACTER AND REIGN. 275 
 
 Sir Edniondsbury Godfrey. The council meet 
 
 one knew to what scenes of persecution or of 
 massacre such secret conspiracies might tend 
 Gates, whose only object was to bring himself 
 into notice, and to obtain rewards for making 
 known the plot which he had pretended to dis- 
 cover, now found, to his great satisfaction, that 
 the fire which he had kindled was beginning to 
 burn. The meeting of the council was called, 
 and he was summoned to attend it. Before the 
 time arrived, however, he went to a justice of 
 the peace, and laid the evidence before him of 
 the existence of the conspiracy, and of all the 
 details respecting it which he pretended to have 
 discovered. The name of this justice was Sir 
 Edniondsbury Godfrey. A remarkable circum- 
 stance afterward occurred in respect to him, as 
 will presently be related, which greatly increas- 
 ed and extended the popular excitement in re- 
 lation to the pretended plot. 
 
 The plot, as Gates invented and detailed it, 
 was on the most magnificent scale imaginable. 
 The pope himself was at the head of it. The 
 pope, he said, had laid the subject before a so- 
 ciety of learned theologians at Rome, and they 
 had decided that in such a case as that of Eng- 
 rand, where the sovereign and a majority of the 
 people had renounced the true religion, and giv.
 
 276 KING CHARLES II [1678 
 
 Particulars of the alleged conspiracy as stated by Gates. 
 
 en themselves up to avowed and open heresy, 
 the monarch lost all title to his crown, and th 
 realms thus fallen from the faith lapsed to the 
 pope, and were to be reclaimed by him by any 
 mode which it seemed to him expedient to adopt. 
 Under these circumstances, the pope had as- 
 sumed the sovereignty over England, and had 
 commissioned the society of the Jesuits a very 
 powerful religious society, extending over most 
 of the countries of Europe to take possession 
 of the realm ; that, in the prosecution of this 
 plan, the king was to be assassinated, and that 
 a very large sum of money had been raised and 
 set apart, to be paid to any person whn would 
 kill the king; that an offer of ten thousand 
 pounds had been made to the queen's physician 
 if he would poison him. The physician had in- 
 sisted upon fifteen thousand for so great a serv- 
 ice, and this demand had finally been acceded 
 to, and five thousand had actually been paid 
 him in advance. Besides the murder of the 
 king, a general assassination of the Protestants 
 was to take place. There were twenty thou- 
 sand Catholics in London, for instance, who, ac- 
 cording to Oates's account of the plan, were to 
 rise on a preconcerted night, and each one was 
 to kill five Protestants, which it was thought
 
 1678.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 277 
 
 Gates contradicts himself. Increasing excitement 
 
 they could easily do, as the Protestants would 
 be taken wholly by surprise, and would be un- 
 armed. The revolution being thus effected, the 
 crown was to be offered to Charles's brother, the 
 Duke of York, as a gift from the pope, and, if 
 he should refuse to accept it on such conditions 
 as the pope might see fit to impose, he was him- 
 self to be immediately assassinated, and some 
 other disposal to be made of the kingdom. 
 
 Gates was examined before the council very 
 closely, and he contradicted himself so much, 
 and made so many misstatements about absent 
 persons, and the places where he pretended that 
 certain transactions had taken place, as to prove 
 the falseness of his whole story. The public, 
 however, knew little or thought little of these 
 proofs. They hated the Catholics, and were ea- 
 ger to believe and to circulate any thing which 
 tended to excite the public mind against them. 
 The most extravagant stories were accordingly 
 circulated, and most excessive and universal 
 fears prevailed, increasing continually by the 
 'nfluence of mutual action and reaction, and of 
 sympathy, until the whole country was in a 
 state of terror. A circumstance now occurred 
 which added tenfold to the excitement, and pro- 
 duced, in fact, a general consternation.
 
 278 KING CHARLES II. [1678 
 
 Mysterious death of Godfrey. The panic increase*. 
 
 This circumstance was the sudden and mys- 
 terious death of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, the 
 justice who had taken the depositions of Gates 
 in respect to the conspiracy. He had been miss- 
 ing for several days, and at length his body was 
 found in a trench, by the side of a field, in a 
 solitary place not far from London. His own 
 sword had been run into his body, and was re. 
 maining in the wound. His watch and his 
 money were safe in his pocket, showing that he 
 had not been killed by robbers. This event 
 added greatly to the excitement that prevailed. 
 The story was circulated that he had been killed 
 by the Catholics for having aided in publishing 
 the discovery of their plot. They who wished 
 to believe Oates's story found in the justice's 
 death most ample confirmation of it. The body 
 was brought forward and exhibited to the pub- 
 lic gaze in a grand procession, which moved 
 through the streets of London ; and at the fu- 
 aeral guards were stationed, one on each side 
 of the preacher, while he was delivering the fu- 
 neral discourse, to impress the people with a 
 sense of the desperate recklessness of Catholic 
 hate, by the implication that even a minister of 
 the Gospel, in the exercise of the most solemn 
 of his functions, was not safe without an effect- 
 ual guard.
 
 1678.J CHARACTER AND REIGN. 27U 
 
 New informers appear. The queen implicated 
 
 From this time the excitement and commo- 
 tion went on increasing at a very rapid rate. 
 Gates himself, of course, became immediately a 
 man of great importance ; and to maintain him 
 self in his new position, he invented continual- 
 ly new stories, each more terrible than the pre- 
 ceding. New informers, too, began to appear, 
 confirming Oates's ^atements, and adding new 
 details of their own, that they might share his 
 distinctions and rewards. These men became 
 continually more and more bold, in proportion 
 to the increasing readiness of the people to re- 
 ceive their inventions for truths. They accused 
 persons of higher and higher rank, until at last 
 they dared to implicate the queen herself in 
 their charges. They knew that, as she was a 
 Catholic, she was unpopular with the nation at 
 large, and as Charles had so many other lady 
 favorites, they concluded that he would feel no 
 interest in vindicating her from false aspersions. 
 They accordingly brought forward accusations 
 against the queen of having joined in the con- 
 spiracy, of having been privy to the plan ol' 
 murdering the king, and of having actually ar- 
 ranged and directed the assassination of the 
 justice, Sir Edmondsbury. These charges pro- 
 duced, of course, great excitement. The peo
 
 280 KING CHARLES II. 
 
 Examination of witnesses. The king defends the queen. 
 
 pie of the country were generally predisposed to 
 believe them true. There were various inves- 
 tigations of them, and long-protracted examina- 
 tions of the witnesses before the council and 
 before judicial commissions appointed to inquire 
 into and decide upon the case. These inquisi- 
 tions led to debates and disputes, to crimina- 
 tions and recriminations without number, and 
 they threw the whole court and the whole nation 
 into a state of extreme excitement, some taking 
 sides against, and some in favor of the queen. 
 Although the popular sentiment was against 
 her, every fair and candid mind, that attended 
 carefully to the evidence, decided unhesitatingly 
 in her favor. The stories of the witnesses were 
 utterly inconsistent with each other, and in 
 many of their details impossible. Still, so great 
 was the public credulity, and so eager the desire 
 to believe every thing, however absurd, which 
 would arouse and strengthen the anti-Catholic 
 feeling, that the queen found herself soon the 
 object of extreme and universal odium. 
 
 The king, however, much to his credit, refus- 
 ed all belief of these accusations against Catha- 
 rine, and strongly defended her cause. He took 
 care to have the witnesses cross examined, and 
 to have the inconsistencies in their testimony, 
 and the utter impossibility that their statement*
 
 1(578.] CHARACTER AND REIGN. 281 
 
 Disastrous consequences of the plot Gates perishes miserably. 
 
 could be true, pointed out. He believed, he 
 said, that she was entirely innocent, and that 
 the whole plan was a conspiracy to effect her 
 destruction. " They think, I suppose," said the 
 king, "that I should like a new wife, but I will 
 not suffer an innocent woman to be wronged." 
 He also told one of the ministers of state, in 
 speaking of the subject, that, considering how 
 hardly he had treated his wife, and how much 
 reason she had for just complaints against him, 
 it would be an atrocious thing for him to aban- 
 don her in such an extremity. 
 
 A volume might be filled with stories of the 
 strange and exciting incidents that grew out of 
 this pretended popish plot. Its consequences 
 extended disastrously through many years, and 
 involved a vast number of innocent persons in 
 irretrievable ruin. The true character of Gates 
 and his accomplices was, however, at length 
 fully proved, and they themselves suffered the 
 fate at last which they had brought upon others. 
 The whole affair was a disgrace to the age 
 There is no circumstance connected with il 
 which can be looked upon with any pleasure ex- 
 cept King Charles's fidelity to his injured wif< 
 in refusing to abandon her, though he no longei 
 loved her. His defense of her innocence, in 
 volving, as it did, a continuance of the rnatri
 
 2b2 KING CHARLES II. [167H 
 
 Motives of Charles in defending his wife. His general character 
 
 monial tie, which bound them together when all 
 the world supposed that he wished it sundered, 
 seems to have resulted from a conscientious 
 sense of duty, and implies certain latent traits 
 of generosity and nobleness in Charles's charac- 
 ter, which, though ordinarily overpowered and 
 nullified by the influences of folly and vice, still 
 always seem to have maintained their hold, and 
 to come out to view from time to time, in the 
 course of the gay monarch's life, whenever any 
 emergency occurred sufficient to call them into 
 action. 
 
 The reign of King Charles the Second was 
 signalized by many other untoward and disas- 
 trous events besides those which we have enu- 
 merated. There were unfortunate wars, great 
 defeats in naval battles, unlucky negotiations 
 abroad, and plots and conspiracies, dangerous 
 and disgraceful, at home. The king, however, 
 took all these things very good naturedly, and 
 allowed them to interfere very little with his 
 own personal pleasures. Whatever troubles or 
 embarrassments affected the state, he left the 
 anxiety and care which pertained to them to his 
 ministers and his council, banishing all solici- 
 tude from his own mind, and enjoying himself 
 all the time with his experiments, his ladies, his 
 dogs, and his perpetual fun.
 
 1685.] THE CONCLUSION. 283 
 
 Suddenness of Charles's death. His remorse. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 nniME rolled on, and the gay and pleasure- 
 * loving king passed through one decade aft- 
 er another of his career, until at length he came 
 to be over fifty years of age. His health was 
 firm, and his mental powers vigorous. He look- 
 ed forward to many years of strength and ac- 
 tivity yet to come, and thus, though he had 
 passed the meridian of his life, he made no prep- 
 arations to change the pursuits and habits in 
 which he had indulged himself in his early years. 
 
 He died suddenly at last, at the age of fifty- 
 four. His death was almost as sudden as that 
 of his father, though in a widely different way. 
 The circumstances of his last sickness have 
 strongly attracted the attention of mankind, on 
 account of the manner in which the dying king 
 was affected, at last, by remorse at the recol- 
 lection of his life of reckless pleasure and sin, 
 and of the acts to which this remorse led him 
 upon his dying bed. 
 
 The vices and crimes of monarchs, like those
 
 284 KING CHARLES II. [1685 
 
 Nature and origin of Charles's vices. His conscientiousness. 
 
 of other men, may be distinguished into two 
 great types, characterized by the feelings of 
 heart in which they take their origin. Some 
 of these crimes arise from the malignant pas- 
 sions of the soul, others from the irregular and 
 perverted action of the feelings of kindness and 
 affection. The errors and follies of Charles, 
 ending at last, as they did, in the most atrocious 
 sins, were of the latter class. It was in feel- 
 ings of kindness and good will toward friends 
 of his own sex that originated that spirit of fa- 
 voritism, so unworthy of a monarch, which ho 
 so often evinced ; and even his irregular and 
 unhallowed attachments of another kind seem 
 to have been not wholly selfish and sensual. 
 The course of conduct which he pursued through 
 the whole course of his life toward his female 
 companions, evinced, in many instances, a sin- 
 cere attachment to them, and an honest desire 
 to promote their welfare ; and in all the wild 
 recklessness of his life of pleasure and vice, there 
 was seen coming out continually into view the 
 influence of some conscientious sense of duty, 
 and of a desire to promote the happiness of 
 those around him, and to do justice to all. 
 These principles were, indeed, too feeble to 
 withstand the temptations by which they wera
 
 1685.1 THE CONCLUSION. 285 
 
 Feebleness of Charles's principles. Influence ol his mother. 
 
 assailed on every side ; still, they diu not cease 
 to exist, and occasions were continually occur- 
 ring when they succeeded in making their per- 
 suasions heard. In a word, King Charles's ei- 
 rors and sins, atrocious and inexcusable as they 
 were, sprang from ill-regulated and perverted 
 feelings of love and good will, and not from self- 
 ishness and hate ; from the kindly, and not from 
 the malignant propensities of the soul It is 
 very doubtful whether this is really any pallia- 
 tion of them, but, at any rate, mankind general- 
 ly regard it so, judging very leniently, as they 
 always do, the sins and crimes which have such 
 an origin. 
 
 It is probable that Charles derived whatever 
 moral principle and sensitiveness of conscience 
 that he possessed from the influence of his moth- 
 er in his early years. She was a faithful and 
 devoted Catholic ; she honestly and firmly be- 
 lieved that the rites and usages of the Catholic 
 Church were divinely ordained, and that a care- 
 ful and honest conformity to them was the only 
 ,vay to please God and to prepare for heaven. 
 She did all in her power to bring up her chil- 
 dren in this faith, and in the high moral and re- 
 tigious principles of conduct which were, in hei 
 mind, indissolublv connected with it. She de-
 
 286 KING CHARLES II. [1685. 
 
 Mary de Medici. Extent and duration of maternal influence. 
 
 rived this spirit, in her turn, from her mother, 
 Mary de Medici, who was one of the most ex 
 traordinary characters of ancient or modern 
 times. When Henrietta Maria was married 
 to Charles I. and went to England, this Mary 
 de Medici, her mother, wrote her a letter of 
 counsel and of farewell, which we recommend 
 to our readers' careful perusal. It is true, we 
 go back to the third generation from the hero 
 of this story to reach the document, but it il- 
 lustrates so well the manner in which maternal 
 influence passes down from age to age, and 
 throws so much light on the strange scenes 
 which occurred at Charles's death, and is, more- 
 over, so intrinsically excellent, that it well mer- 
 its the digression. 
 
 The queen-mother, Mary de Medici, to the young Queen of 
 England, Henrietta Maria. 
 
 "1625, June 25. 
 
 " MY DAUGHTER, You separate from me, I can not sepa 
 rate myself from you. I retain you in heart and memory 
 and would that this paper could serve for an eternal memorial 
 to you of what I am ; it would then supply my place, and 
 speak for me to yoxi, when I can no longer speak for myself 
 I give you it with my last adieu in quitting you, to impress it 
 the more on your mind, and give it to you written with uiy 
 own hand.'in order that it may be the more dear to you, and 
 that it may have more authority with you in all that regards 
 your conduct toward God, the kiug yi.ur husband, his sub- 
 jects your domestics, and yourself. I tell you here sincerely
 
 1685.J THE CONCLUSION. 28? 
 
 Letter from Mary de Medici to her daughter Henrietta Maria. 
 
 as in the last hour of our converse, all I should say to you in 
 the last hour of my existence, if you should be near me then. 
 I consider, to my great regret, that such can never be, and 
 that the separation now taking place between you and me for 
 a long time, is too probably an anticipation of that which ia 
 to be forever in this world. 
 
 " On this earth you have only God for a father; but, as he 
 is eternal, you can never lose him. It is he who sustains your 
 existence and life ; it is he who has given you to a great king ; 
 it is he who, at this time, places a crown on your brow, and 
 will establish you in England, where you ought to believe 
 that he requires your service, and there he means to effect 
 your salvation. Eemember, my child, every day of your life, 
 that he is your God, who has put you on earth intending you 
 for heaven, who has created you for himself and for his glory. 
 
 "The late king, your father, has already passed away; 
 there remains no more of him but a little dust and ashes, hid- 
 den from our eyes. One of your brothers has already been 
 taken from us even in his infancy; God withdrew him at his 
 own good pleasure. He has retained you in the world in or- 
 der to load you with his benefits ; but, as he has given you 
 the utmost felicity, it behooves you to render him the utmost 
 gratitude. It is but just that your duties are augmented in 
 proportion as the benefits and favors you receive are signal. 
 Take heed of abusing them. Think well that the grandeur, 
 goodness, and justice of God are infinite, and employ all the 
 strength of your mind in adoring his supreme puissance, in 
 loving his inviolable goodness ; and fear his rigorous equity, 
 which will make all responsible who are unworthy of his 
 benefits. 
 
 " Receive, my child, these instructions of my lips ; begin 
 nd finish every day in your oratory,* with good thoughts 
 
 * An oratory is a little closet furnished appropriately fol 
 prayer and other exercises of devotion.
 
 2-88 KING CHARLES 11. 11(585 
 
 Letter frjin Mary de Medici to her daughter Henrietta ilnria. 
 
 an I, in your prayers, ask resolution to conduct your life ac- 
 cording to the laws of God, and not according to tht Iranitiea 
 af this world, which is for all of us but a moment, in whk-b 
 we are suspended over eternity, which we shall pass eitlei 
 in the paradise of God, or in hell with the malign spirits wlio 
 work evil. 
 
 "Remember that you are daughter of the Church by bap- 
 tism, and that this is, indeed, the first and highest rank \\ hich 
 you have or ever will have, since it is this which will give you 
 entrance into heaven ; your other dignities, coming as they do 
 from the earth, will not go further than the earth ; but those 
 which you derive from heaven will ascend again to their 
 source, and carry you with them there. Render thanks to 
 heaven each day, to God who has made you a Christian ; es- 
 timate this first of benefits as it deserves, and consider all that 
 you owe to the labors and precious blood of Jesus our Savior ; 
 it ought to be paid for by our sufferings, and even by our 
 blood, if he requires it. Offer your soul and your life to him 
 who has created you by his puissance, and redeemed you by 
 his goodness and mercy. Pray to him, and pray incessantly 
 to preserve you by the inestimable gift of his grace, and that 
 it may please him that you sooner lose your life than renounce 
 him. 
 
 " You are the descendant of St. Louia. I would recall to 
 you, in this my last adieu, the same instruction that he re- 
 ceived from his mother, Queen Blanche, who said to him often 
 ' that she would rather see him die than to live so as to offend 
 God, in whom we move, and who is the end of our being ' 
 It was with such precepts that he commenced his holy ca- 
 reer ; it was this that rendered him worthy of employing his 
 life and reign for the good of the faith and the exaltation of 
 the Church. Be, after his example, firm and zealous for re- 
 ligion, which you have been taught, for the defense of which 
 he, your royal and holy ancestor, exposed his life, and died 
 faithful to him among the infidels. Never listen to, or suffer
 
 1685.] THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 The king complains of being unwell. Carousals in the palace. 
 
 to be said in your presence, aught in contradiction to your be* 
 lief in God and his only Son, your Lord and Redeemer. I 
 entreat the Holy Virgin, whose name you bear, to deign to be 
 the mother of your soul, and in honor of her who is mother 
 of our Lord and Savior, I bid you adieu again and many times. 
 
 " I now devote you to God forever and ever ; it is what I 
 desire for you from the very depth of my heart. 
 
 "Your very good and affectionate mother, MARIA. 
 
 " From Amiens, the 10th of June, 1625." 
 
 The devout sense of responsibility to Al 
 mighty God, and the spirit of submission and 
 obedience to his will, which this letter breathes, 
 descended from the grandmother to the mother, 
 and were even instilled, in some degree, into 
 the heart of the son. They remained, however, 
 latent and dormant through the long years of 
 lihe monarch's life of frivolity and sin, but they 
 revived and reasserted their dominion when the 
 end came. 
 
 The dying scene opened upon the king's vision 
 in a very abrupt and sudden manner. He had 
 been somewhat unwell during a certain day in 
 February, when he was about fifty-four years 
 of age. His illness, however, did not interrupt 
 the ordinary orgies and carousals of his palace. 
 It was Sunday. In the evening a very gay as- 
 sembly was convened in the apartments, en- 
 gaged in deep gaming, and other dissolute and 
 vicious pleasures. The king mingled in these 
 T
 
 KING CHARLES II. [1685, 
 
 The King struck with apoplexy. Mode of treatment 
 
 scenes, though he complained of being unwell. 
 His head was giddy his appetite was gone 
 his walk was unsteady. When the party broke 
 up at midnight, he went into one of the neigh- 
 boring apartments, and they prepared for him 
 some light and simple food suitable for a sick 
 man, but he could not take it. He retired to 
 his bed, but he passed a restless and uneasy 
 night. He arose, however, the next morning, 
 and attempted to dress himself, but before ho 
 finished the work he was suddenly struck by 
 that grim and terrible messenger and coadjutor 
 of death apoplexy as by a blow. Stunned 
 by the stroke, he staggered and fell. 
 
 The dreadful paroxysm of insensibility and 
 seeming death in a case of apoplexy is supposed 
 to be occasioned by a pressure of blood upon the 
 brain, and the remedy, according to the practice 
 of those days, was to bleed the patient immedi- 
 ately to relieve this pressure, and to blister or 
 cauterize the head, to excite a high external ac- 
 tion as a means of subduing the disease within. 
 It was the law of England that such violent 
 remedies could not be resorted to in the case of 
 the sovereign without authority previously ob- 
 tained from the counci", They were guilty of 
 high treason who should presume to do so. Th ia
 
 1685.] THE CONCLUSION. 29J 
 
 Severe remedies. The queen faiuts 
 
 was a case, however, which admitted of no de- 
 lay. The attendants put their own lives at 
 hazard to serve that of the king. They bled 
 him with a penknife, and heated the iron for 
 the cautery. The alarm was spread throughout 
 the palace, producing universal confusion. The 
 queen was summoned, and came as soon as pos- 
 sible to the scene. She found her husband sit- 
 ting senseless in a chair, a basin of blood by his 
 side, his countenance death-like and ghastly, 
 while some of the attendants were attempting 
 to force the locked jaws apart, that they might 
 administer a potion, and others were applying 
 a red-hot iron to the patient's head, in a des- 
 perate endeavor to arouse and bring back again 
 into action the benumbed and stupefied sensi- 
 bilities. Queen Catharine was so shocked by 
 the horrid spectacle that she sank down in a 
 fit of fainting and convulsions, and was borne 
 immediately away back to her own apartment. 
 In two hours the patient's suspended facul- 
 ties began to return. Ho looked wildly about 
 him, and asked for the queen. They sent for 
 her. She was not able to come. She was, 
 however, so far restored as to be able to send a 
 message and an apology, saying that she was 
 very glad to hear that he was better, and was
 
 292 KING CHARLES II. [16b6 
 
 The queen's message. Condition of the kin* 
 
 much concerned that she could not come to see 
 him ; she also added, that for whatever she had 
 done in the course of her life to displease him. 
 she now asked his pardon, and hoped he would 
 forgive her. The attendants communicated 
 this message to the king. " Poor lady !" said 
 Charles, " she beg my pardon ! I am sure J 
 beg hers, with all my heart." 
 
 Apoplexy fulfills the dread behest of its tei- 
 rible master Death by dealing its blow once with 
 a fatal energy, and then retiring from the field, 
 leaving the stunned and senseless patient to re- 
 cover in some degree from the first effect of the 
 stroke, but only to sink down and die at last 
 under the permanent and irretrievable injuries 
 which almost invariably follow. 
 
 Things took this course in the case of Charles 
 He revived from the stupor and insensibility 
 of the first attack, and lay afterward for several 
 days upon his bed, wandering in mind, helpless 
 in body, full of restlessness and pain, and yet 
 conscious of his condition. He saw, dimly 
 and obscurely indeed, but yet with awful cer- 
 tainty, that his ties to earth had been sudden- 
 ly sundered, and that there only remained to 
 him now a brief and troubled interval of mental 
 bewilderment and bodily distress, to last for a
 
 iG85.] THE CONCLUSION. 29o 
 
 l'<m fusion in the palace. The Duke of York. The quoen. 
 
 few more hours or days, and then he must ap- 
 pear before that dread tribunal \vhere his last 
 account was to be rendered ; and the vast work 
 of preparation for the sojemn judgment was yet 
 to be made. How was this to be done ? 
 
 Of course, the great palace of Whitehall, 
 where the royal patient was lying, was all in 
 confusion. Attendants were hurrying to and 
 fro Councils of physicians were deliberating 
 in solemn assemblies on the case, and ordain- 
 i r g prescriptions with the formality which roy- 
 al etiquette required. The courtiers were thun- 
 derstruck and confounded at the prospect of the 
 total revolution which was about to ensue, and 
 in which all their hopes and prospects might be 
 totally ruined. James, the Duke of York, see- 
 ing himself about to be suddenly summoned to 
 the throne, was full of eager interest in the pre- 
 liminary arrangements to secure his safe and 
 ready accession. He was engaged night and 
 day in selecting officers, signing documents, 
 and stationing guards. Catharine mourned in 
 her own sick chamber the approaching blow, 
 which was to separate her forever from her hus- 
 band, deprive her of her consequence and her 
 rank, and consign her, for the rest of her days, 
 to the pains and sorrows, and the dreadful sol'
 
 294 KING CHARLES II. ]ibb5. 
 
 The king's female intimates. Anxiety of the nation. 
 
 itude of heart which pertains to widowhood. 
 The king's other female intimates, too, of whom 
 there were three still remaining in his court 
 and in his palace, were distracted with real 
 grief. They may have loved him sincerely ; 
 they certainly gave every indication of true af- 
 fection for him in this his hour of extremity. 
 They could not appear at his bedside except 
 at sudden and stolen interviews, which were 
 quickly terminated by their being required to 
 withdraw ; but they hovered near with anxious 
 inquiries, or else mourned in their apartments 
 with bitter grief. Without the palace the ef- 
 fects were scarcely less decisive. The tidings 
 spread every where throughout the kingdom, 
 arresting universal attention, and awakening 
 an anxiety so widely diffused and so intense as 
 almost to amount to a terror. A Catholic mon- 
 arch was about to ascend the throne, and no 
 one knew what national calamities were im- 
 pending. 
 
 In the mean time, the dying monarch lay 
 helpless upon his bed, in the alcove of his apart- 
 ment, distressed and wretched. To look back 
 upon the past filled him with remorse, and the 
 dread futurity, now close at hand, was full of 
 images of terror and dismay. He thought of
 
 1685.J THE CONCLUSION. 295 
 
 Charles's distress of mind. His anxieties and fears. 
 
 his wife, and of the now utterly irreparable in- 
 juries which he had done her. He thought of his 
 other intimates and their numerous children, 
 a-nd of the condition in which they would be left 
 by his death. If he had been more entirely 
 sensual and selfish in his attachments, he would 
 have suffered less ; but he could not dismiss 
 these now wretched participators in his sins 
 from his mind. He could do very little now to 
 promote their future welfare, or to atone for the 
 injury which he had done them ; but his anxie- 
 ty to do so, as well as his utter helplessness in 
 accomplishing his desire, was evinced by his 
 saying, in his last charge to his brother James, 
 just before he died, that he hoped he would bo 
 kind to his children, and especially not let poor 
 Nelly starve.* 
 
 Troubled and distressed with these thoughts, 
 and still more anxious and wretched at the pros- 
 pect of his own approaching summons before the 
 bar of God, the fallen monarch lay upon his dy- 
 ing bed, earnestly desiring, but not daring to 
 ask for, the only possible relief which was now 
 left to him, the privilege of seeking refuge in 
 the religious hopes and consolations which his 
 
 * Eleanor Gwyn. She was an actress when Charles firs) 
 became acquainted with her.
 
 296 KING CHARLES II. [1685 
 
 Charles's attachment to the Catholic- faith. The Church of England, 
 
 mother, in years now long gone by. had vainly 
 attempted to teach him to love. The way of 
 salvation through the ministrations and observ- 
 ances of the Catholic service was the only way 
 of salvation that he could possibly see. It is 
 true that he had been all his life a Protestant, 
 but Protestantism was to him only a political 
 faith , it had nothing to do with moral account- 
 ability or preparation for heaven. The spirit- 
 ual views of acceptance with God by simple- 
 personal penitence and faith in the atoning sac- 
 rifice of his Son, which lie at the foundation of 
 the system of the Church of England, he never 
 conceived of. The Church of England was to 
 him a mere empty form ; it was the service of 
 the ancient Catholic faith, disrobed of its sanc- 
 tions, despoiled of its authority, and deprived 
 of all its spirit and soul. It was the mere idle 
 form of godless and heartless men of the world, 
 empty and vain. It had answered his purpose 
 as a part of the pageantry of state during his 
 life of pomp and pleasure, but it seemed a mock- 
 ery to him now, as a means of leading his wretch- 
 ed and ruined soul to a reconciliation with his 
 Maker. Every thing that was sincere, and 
 earnest, and truly devout, in the duties of pie- 
 ty were associated in his mind with the mem
 
 1685.] THE CONCLUSION. 297 
 
 Charles wishes for a prieet. Difficulties in tho way. 
 
 ory of his mother ; and as death drew nigh, he 
 longed to return to her fold, and to have a priest, 
 who was clothed with the authority to which 
 her spirit had been accustomed to bow, come 
 and be the mediator between himself and his 
 Maker, and secure and confirm the reconciliation. 
 But how could this be done? It was worse 
 than treason to aid or abet the tainting of the 
 soul of an English Protestant king with the 
 abominations of popery. The king knew this 
 very well, and was aware that if he were to 
 make his wishes known, whoever should assist 
 him in attaining the object of his desire would 
 hazard his life by the act. Knowing, too, in 
 what abhorrence the Catholic faith was held, he 
 naturally shrank from avowing his convictions ; 
 and thus deterred by the difficulties which sur- 
 rounded him, he gave himself up to despair, and 
 let the hours move silently on which were draw- 
 ing him so rapidly toward the grave. There 
 were, among the other attendants and courtiers 
 who crowded around his bedside, several high 
 dignitaries of the Church. At one time five 
 bishops were in his chamber. They proposed 
 repeatedly that the king should partake of the 
 sacrament. This was a customary rite to be 
 performed upon the dying, it being considered
 
 298 KING CHARLES II. [1685 
 
 The queen's visits. Her great distress. 
 
 the symbol and seal of a final reconciliation 
 with God and preparation for heaven. When- 
 ever the propDsal was made, the king declined 
 or evaded it. He said he was " too weak," or 
 "not now," or "there will be time enough yet;" 
 and thus day after day moved on. 
 
 In the mean time, the anxious and unhappy 
 queen had so far recovered that she came to 
 see the king, and was often at his bedside, watch- 
 ing his symptoms and mourning over his ap- 
 proaching fate. These interviews were, how- 
 ever, all public, for the large apartment in which 
 the king was lying was always full. There were 
 ladies of the court, too, who claimed the privi- 
 lege which royal etiquette accorded them of al- 
 ways accompanying the queen on these visits to 
 the bedside of her dying husband. She could 
 say nothing in private ; and then, besides, hei 
 agitation and distress were so extreme, that she 
 was incapable of any thing like calm and con- 
 siderate action. 
 
 Among the favorite intimates of the king, 
 perhaps the most prominent was the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth. The king himself had raised 
 her to that rank. She was a French girl, who 
 came over, originally, from the Continent with 
 a party of visitors from the French court. Her
 
 1685.] THE CONCLUSION. 299 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth. The French embassadoz 
 
 beauty, her wit, and her accomplishments soon 
 made her a great favorite with the king, and 
 for many years of his life she had exerted an 
 unbounded and a guilty influence over him. 
 She was a Catholic. Though not allowed to 
 come to his bedside, she remained in her apart- 
 ment overwhelmed with grief at the approach- 
 ing death of her lover, and, strange as it may 
 seem, she was earnestly desirous to obtain for 
 him the spiritual succors which, as a Catholic, 
 she considered essential to his dying in peace. 
 A-fter repeated and vain endeavors made in oth- 
 er ways to accomplish her object, she at length 
 sent for the French embassador to come to her 
 rooms from the king's chamber, and urged him 
 to do something to save the dying sinner's soul. 
 " He is in heart a Catholic," said she. " I am 
 sure he wishes to receive the Catholic sacra- 
 ments. I can not do any thing, and the Duke 
 of York is so full of business and excitement 
 that he does not think of it. But something 
 must be done." 
 
 The embassador went in pursuit of the Duke 
 of York. He took him aside, and with great 
 caution and secrecy suggested the subject. 
 " You are right," said the duke, " and there is 
 DO time to lose." The duke went to the king's
 
 800 KING CHARLES II. []f>85 
 
 I'he proposal to Charles. Ha accepts it 
 
 chamber. The English clergymen had just 
 been offering the king the sacrament once more, 
 and he had declined it again. James asked 
 them to retire from the alcove, as he wished to 
 speak privately to his majesty. They did so, 
 supposing that he wished to communicate with 
 him on some business of state. " Sire," said 
 the duke to his dying brother, " you decline the 
 sacraments of the Protestant Church, will you 
 receive those of the Catholic ?" The counte- 
 nance of the dying man evinced a faint though 
 immediate expression of returning animation 
 and pleasure at this suggestion. "Yes," said 
 he, " I would give every thing in the world to 
 see a priest." " I will bring you one," said 
 James. "Do," said the king, "for God's sake, 
 do ; but shall you not expose yourself to danger 
 by it?" "I will bring you one, though it cost 
 me my life," replied the duke. This conversa- 
 tion was held in a whisper, to prevent its being 
 overheard by the various groups in the room. 
 The duke afterward said that he had to repeat 
 his words several times to make the king com- 
 prehend them, his sense of hearing having ob- 
 viously begun to fail. 
 
 There was great difficulty in procuring * 
 priest. The French and Spanish priests abouJ
 
 1685.] THE CO.VCLUSION. 301 
 
 Father Huddleston. The disguise, 
 
 the court, who were attached to the service of 
 th J embassadors and of the queen, excused them- 
 selves on various pretexts. They were, in fact, 
 afraid of the consequences to themselves which 
 might follow from an act so strictly prohibited 
 by law At last an English priest was found. 
 His name was Huddleston. He had, at one 
 time, concealed the king in his house during 
 his adventures and wanderings after the battle 
 of Worcester. On account of this service, he 
 had been protected by the government of the 
 king, ever since that time, from the pains and 
 penalties which had driven most of the Catholic 
 priests from the kingdom. 
 
 They sent for Father Huddleston to come tc 
 the palace. He arrived about seven o'clock in 
 the evening. They disguised him with a wig 
 and cassock, which was the usual dress of a 
 clergyman of the Church of England. As the 
 illegal ceremony about to be performed required 
 the most absolute secrecy, it became necessary 
 to remove all the company from the room. The 
 duke accordingly informed them that the king 
 wished to be alone for a short period, and he 
 therefore requested that they would withdraw 
 into the ante-room. When they had done so, 
 Father Huddleston was brought in by a littio
 
 KING CHARLES II. [1685 
 
 The secret door. A solemn sceno 
 
 door near the head of the bed, which opened di- 
 rectly into the alcove where the bed was laid. 
 There was a narrow space or alley by the side 
 of the bed, within the alcove, called the ruelle /* 
 with this the private door communicated direct- 
 ly, and the party attending the priest, entering, 
 stationed themselves there, to perform in secre- 
 cy and danger the last solemn rites of Catholic 
 preparation for heaven. It was an extraordi- 
 nary scene ; the mighty monarch of a mighty 
 realm, hiding from the vigilance of his own 
 laws, that he might steal an opportunity to es- 
 cape the consequences of having violated the 
 laws of heaven. 
 
 They performed over the now helpless mon- 
 arch the rites which the Catholic Church pre- 
 scribes for the salvation of the dying sinner. 
 These rites, thpugh empty and unmeaning cer- 
 emonies to those who have no religious faith in 
 them, are full of the most profound impressive- 
 ness and solemnity for those who have. Tho 
 priest, having laid aside his Protestant disguise, 
 administered the sacrament of the mass, which 
 was, according to the Catholic views, a true and 
 
 * Ruelle is a French word, meaning little street or alley. 
 Thia way to the bed was the one so often referred to in th 
 histories of those times by the phrase " the back stain "
 
 1665.J THE CONCLUSION. 303 
 
 The confession. The pardon. TLe extreme unct> r >n. 
 
 actual re-enacting of the sacrifice of Christ, to 
 enure to the special benefit of the individual 
 soul for which it was offered. The priest then 
 received the penitent's confession of sin, ex- 
 pressed in a faint and feeble assent to the words 
 of contrition which the Church prescribes, and 
 this was followed by a pardon a true and act- 
 ual pardon, as the sinner supposed, granted and 
 declared by a commissioner fully empowered by 
 authority from heaven both to grant and declare 
 it. Then came the " extreme unction," or, in 
 other words, the last anointing, in which a little 
 consecrated oil was touched to the eyelids, the 
 lips, the ears, and the hands, as a symbol and 
 a seal of the final purification and sanctifica- 
 tion of the senses, which had been through life 
 the means and instruments of sin. The extreme 
 unction is the last rite. This being performed, 
 the dying Catholic feels that all is well. His 
 sins have been atoned for and forgiven, and he 
 has himself been purified and sanctified, soul 
 and body. The services in Charles's case oc- 
 cupied three quarters of an hour, and then the 
 doors were opened and the attendants and com- 
 pany were admitted again. 
 
 The night passed on, and though the king's 
 reind was relieved, he suffered much bodily ago-
 
 304 KING CHARLES II. [1685 
 
 Charles asks to see the sun. Ids death. 
 
 ny. In the morning, when he perceived that 
 it was light, he asked the attendants to open the 
 curtains, that he might see the sun for the last 
 time. It gave him but a momentary pleasure, 
 for he was restless and in great suffering. Some 
 pains which he endured increased so much that 
 it was decided to bleed him. The operation re- 
 lieved the suffering, but exhausted the sufferer's 
 strength so that he soon lost the power of speech, 
 and lay afterward helpless and almost insensi- 
 ble, longing for the relief which now nothing 
 but death could bring him. This continual till 
 about noon, when he ceased to breathe. 
 
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 CARL AND JOCKO; or, The Adventures of the Little 
 
 Italian Boy and his Monkey. 
 LAPSTONE ; or, the Sailor turned Shoemaker. 
 ORKNEY, THE PEACEMAKER ; or, The Various Ways of 
 
 Settling Disputes. 
 
 VOL. XI. 
 
 JUDGE JUSTIN ; or, The Little Court of Morningdale. 
 MINIGO ; or, The Fairy of Cairnstone Abbey. 
 JASPER ; or, The Spoiled Child Recovered. 
 
 VOL. XH. 
 
 uONGO ; or, Jasper's Experience in Command. 
 VIOLA and her Little Brother Arno. 
 
 LITTLE PAUL; or, How to be Patient in Sickness and 
 Pain. 
 
 Some of the Story Books are written particularly for girLe, and 
 gome for Boys, and the different Volumes are adapted to various 
 ages, so that the work forms a Complete Library of Story Books for 
 all the Children of the Family and (he Smul.-iT-Sehool.
 
 Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 ABBOTTS' ILLUSTRATED HISTORIES. 
 
 Biographical Histories. By JACOB ABBOTT and Jonx S. 
 C. ABBOTT. The Volumes of this Series are printed and 
 bound uniformly, and are embellished with numerous Engrav- 
 ings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00 per Volume. Price of the set (32 
 Vols.), $32 00. 
 
 A series of volumes containing severally fall accounts of the lives, 
 characters, and exploits of the most distinguished sovereigns, po- 
 tentates, and rulers that have been chiefly renowned among man- 
 kind, in the various ages of the world, from the earliest periods to 
 the present day. 
 
 The successive volumes of the series, though they each contain 
 the life of a single individual, and constitute thus a distinct and 
 independent work, follow each other in the main, in regular his- 
 torical order, and each one continues the general narrative of his- 
 tory down to the period at which the next volume takes np the 
 story; so that the whole series presents to the reader a connected 
 narrative of the line of general history from the present age bacS 
 to the remotest times. 
 
 CYRUS THE GREAT. 
 
 DARIUS THE GREAT. 
 
 XERXES. 
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 ROMULUS. 
 
 HANNIBAL. 
 
 PYRRHUS. 
 
 JULIUS C^ESAK. 
 
 CLEOPATRA. 
 
 NERO. 
 
 ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 BICHARD III. 
 
 MARGARET OF ANJOU 
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE. 
 
 MADAME ROLAND. 
 
 JOSEPHINE. 
 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 
 
 HORTENSE. 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 GENGHIS KHAN. 
 
 KING PHILIP. 
 
 PETER THE
 
 Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S OPINION OP ABBOTTS' HISTORIES. In 
 a conversation with the President just before his death, Mr. 
 Lincoln said: "/ want to thank you and your brother for 
 Abbotts' Series of flistories. I have not education enough to 
 appreciate the profound works of voluminous historians ; and 
 If I had, I have no time to read them. But your Series of 
 Histories gives me, in brief compass, just that knowledge of 
 past men and events wMch I need. I have read tliem toith the 
 greatest interest. To tliem I am indebted for about all the his- 
 lorical knowledge I have." 
 
 For the convenience of buyers, these popular Histories 
 Vave been divided into Six Series, as follows: 
 
 founders of Empires. 
 
 CYRUS. 
 
 DARIUS. 
 
 XERXES. 
 
 ALEXANDER. 
 
 GENGHIS KHAN. 
 
 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 IIL 
 
 Earlier 
 British Kings and Queens. 
 
 ALFRED. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 MARGARET OF ANJOU. 
 
 V. 
 
 and Heroines. 
 
 CLEOPATRA. 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE. 
 JOSEPHINE. 
 HORTENSE. 
 MADAME ROLAND. 
 
 II. 
 
 Heroes of Roman History. 
 
 ROMULUS. 
 HANNIBAL. 
 PYRRHUS. 
 JULIUS C^ESAK. 
 NERO. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Later 
 British Kings and Queen*. 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 CHARLES IL 
 
 VI. 
 
 Rulers of Later Times. 
 
 KING PHILIP. 
 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
 HENRY IV. 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
 Each Series inclosed in a neat box.
 
 Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 THE LITTLE LEARNER SERIES. 
 
 A Series for Very Young Children. Designed to Assist in 
 the Earliest Development of the Mind of a Child, while under 
 its Mother's Special Care, during the First Five or Six Years 
 of its Life. By JACOB ABBOTT. Beautifully Illustrated, 
 Complete in five small 4to Volumes, Cloth, 75 cents per Vol. 
 Price of the set, in case, $3 75. 
 
 LEARNING TO TALK; or, Entertaining and Instructive 
 Lessons in the Use of Language. 170 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING TO THINK: consisting of Easy and Enter- 
 taining Lessons, designed to Assist in the First Unfolding 
 of the Reflective and Reasoning Powers of Children. 120 
 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING TO READ : consisting of Easy and Entertain- 
 ing Lessons, designed to Assist Young Children in Study- 
 ing the Forms of the Letters, and in beginning to Read. 
 160 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING ABOUT COMMON THINGS; or, Familiar In- 
 struction for Children in Respect to the Objects around 
 them that attract their Attention and awaken their Curi 
 osity in the Earliest Years of Life. 120 Engravings, 
 
 LEARNING ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG; or, Enter, 
 taining and Instructive Lessons for Young Children in 
 Respect to their Duty. 90 Engravings.
 
 Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 KINGS AND QUEENS ; or, Life in the Palace : consisting- 
 of Historical Sketches of Josephine and Maria Louisa, 
 Louis Philippe, Ferdinand of Austria, Nicholas, Isabella II., 
 Leopold, Victoria, and Louis Napoleon. By JOHN S. C. 
 ABBOTT. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 SUMMER IX SCOTLAND: a Narrative of Observations 
 and Adventures made by the Author during a Summer 
 spent among the Glens and Highlands in Scotland. By 
 JACOB ABBOTT. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF SPANISH HISTORY. By JOHN S. a 
 ABBOTT. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 THE TEACHER. Moral Influences Employed in the In. 
 struction and Government of the Young. By JACOB AB- 
 BOTT. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 GENTLE MEASURES IN TRAINING THE YOUNG. 
 Gentle Measures in the Management and Training of the 
 Young ; or, The Principles on which a Firm Parental Au- 
 thority may be Established and Maintained without Vic- 
 lence or Anger, and the Right Development of the Moral 
 and Mental Capacities be Promoted by Methods in Har- 
 mony with the Structure and the Characteristics of the 
 Juvenile Mind. A Book for the Parents of Young Chil- 
 dren. By JACOB ABBOTT. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, 
 $1 75. 
 
 ^P~ HA.BPKB & BROTHKB will tend any of the above works by mail, 
 postage prepaid, on receipt of the price.
 
 SCIENCE 
 FOR THE YOUNG. 
 
 BY JACOB ABBOTT. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HEAT. 1 2mo, Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 LIGHT. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 WATER AND LAND. 12mo, Cloth, $ 1 50. 
 
 FORCE. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 Few men enjoy a wider or better earned popularity as a writer 
 for the young than Jacob Abbott. His series of histories, and sto- 
 ries illustrative of moral truths, have furnished amusement and 
 instruction to thousands. He has the knack of piquing and grati- 
 fying curiosity. In tbe book before us he shows his happy faculty 
 of imparting useful information through the medium of a pleasant 
 narrative, keeping alive the interest of the young reader, and fixing 
 in his memory valuable truths. Mercury, New Bedford, Mass. 
 
 Jacob Abbott is almost the only writer in the English language 
 who knows how to combine real amusement with real instruction 
 in snch a manner that the eager young readers are quite as much 
 interested in the useful knowledge he imparts as in the story which 
 ie makes so pleasant a medium of instruction. Buffalo Commer- 
 cial Advertiser. 
 
 Mr. Abbott has avoided the errors so common with writers for 
 popular effect, that of Blurring over the difficulties of the subject 
 ihrongh the desire of making it intelligible and attractive to nu- 
 lenrned readers. He never tampers with the truth of science, nor 
 attempts to dodge the solution of a knotty problem behind a cloud 
 of plausible illustrations If. Y. Tribune. 
 
 A BUOTRSU will tend any of tit* abov* v>rks by nutfl 
 postage prepaid, on receipt of the pritt.
 
 POPULAR HISTORIES 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 
 HISTORY OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 fhe History of Frederick the Second, called Frederick the 
 Great. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. Elegantly Illustrated. 
 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 The French Revolution of 1789, as Viewed in the Light of 
 Republican Institutions. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. With 
 100 Engravings. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 The History of Napoleon Bonaparte. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 With Maps, Woodcuts, and Portraits on Steel. 2 vols., 
 8 vo, Cloth, $10 00. 
 
 NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA. 
 
 Napoleon at St. Helena ; or, Interesting Anecdotes and Re- 
 markable Conversations of the Emperor during the Five 
 and a Half Years of his Captivity. Collected from the 
 Memorials of Las Casas, O'Meara, Montholon, Antom- 
 marchi, and others. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. With Il- 
 lustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 II ABI'KR & BROTHERS will send any of the above works by 
 postage prepaid, MI receipt of the price.
 
 BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 
 CHILD AT HOME. 
 
 The Child at Home ; or, The Principles of Filial Duty farail 
 iarly Illustrated. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. Woodcuts. 
 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 The duties and trials peculiar to the child are explained and il- 
 fustrated in this volume iu the same clear and attractive manner 
 in which those of the mother are set forth in the "Mother at 
 Home." These two works may be considered as forming a com- 
 plete manual of filial and maternal relations. 
 
 MOTHER AT HOME. 
 
 The Mother at Home; or, The Principles of Maternal Duty 
 familiarly Illustrated. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. Engrav- 
 ings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 This book treats of the important questions of maternal respon- 
 sibility and authority; of the difficulties which the mother will 
 experience, the errors to which she is liable, the methods and plans 
 she should adopt ; of the religions instruction which she should 
 impart, and of the results which she may reasonably hope will fol- 
 low her faithful and persevering exertions. These subjects are 
 illustrated with the felicity characteristic of all the productions of 
 the author. 
 
 PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Practical Christianity. A Treatise specially Designed for 
 Young Men. By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. IGrno, Cloth, $1 00, 
 
 It is characterized by the simplicity of style and appositeness of 
 Illustration which make a book easily read and readily understood. 
 It is designed to instruct and interest young men iu the effectual 
 truths of Christianity. It comes down to their plane of thought, 
 and, iu a genial, conversational way, strives to lead them to a life 
 of godliness. Watchman and Reflector. 
 
 It abounds in wise and practical suggestions. y. Y. Commercial 
 Advertiser. 
 
 8=S~ H&BPBR & BROTHERS witt sand any of the above works by mail, 
 postage prepaid, on receipt of the price.
 
 L 
 
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