that, in order to preserve an uniformity of conduct, he must, at present, forego the apology of his innocence; lest, by ratifying an authority, no better founded than that of robbers and pi rates, he should be justly branded as the be trayer, instead of being applauded as the mar tyr of the constitution.

Three times was Charles produced before the court, and as often declined its jurisdiction. On the fourth, the judges having examined some witnesses, by whom it was proved, that the king had appeared in arms against the forces com missioned by the parliament, they pronounced sentence against him.

In this last scene, Charles forgot not his cha racter, either as a man or a prince. Firm and intrepid, he maintained, in each reply, the utmost perspicuity in thought and expression; mild and equable, he rose into no passion at the unfeeling tyranny he experienced. His soul, without effort or affectation, seemed only to remain in the situation familiar to it, and to look down with contempt on all the efforts of human malice. The soldiers were brought, though with difficulty, to cry aloud for justice: "Poor souls!" said the king, " for a little money they would do as much against their commanders."

All the courts of Europe interposed, as soon as they knew what was meditated against Charles: the Scots exclaimed and protested; the queen and the prince wrote pathetic letters to parliament; but all solicitations were fruitless, with men whose resolutions were fixed and irrevocable. Richmond, Hertford, Southampton, and Lindsay represented to the commons, that as hey were the king's counsellors, they were guilty,

guilty, in the eye of the law, of every action of the prince; they exposed themselves, indeed, to danger, by this magnanimity, but they contributed nothing to their master's safety.

The people remained in silence and astonishment, and the soldiers, plied with prayers and exhortations, were wrought up to a degree of bloody fury. Three days only were allowed. the king, between his sentence and execution; and this interval was passed with great tranquillity in reading and devotion, and in conversing with the princess Elizabeth, and the duke of Gloucester, who alone of his family remained in England.

Every night the king slept sound as usual, though the noise of workmen employed in raising a scaffold, continually resounded in his ears. The morning of the fatal day, which was the 30th of January, 1649, Charles rose earlier than usual, and calling Herbert, one of his attendants, bade him employ more than usual care in dressing him, and preparing him for such a great and joyful solemnity. Juxon, bishop of London, a man endowed with the same mild and steady virtues as his master, assisted him in his devotions. As he was preparing for the block, the bishop said, "There is, sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent, is yet a very short one. Consider, it will soon carry you a great way it will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown of glory." "I go," rejoined the king, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place."

At one blow his head was severed from his

body

body by a man in a vizor, while another, in a similar disguise, held up to the spectators, the head streaming with blood, and cried aloud, "This is the head of a traitor!"

It is impossible to describe the grief, indignation, and astonishment, which took place throughout the nation, on this melancholy occasion. Each reproached himself for being a tame spectator of such a catastrophe. The

generous Fairfax, it seems, had determined to rescue him from the scaffold, with his own regiment; but his designs being suspected, he was artfully engaged by Cromwell in prayer with Harrison, till the blow was struck.

The moment before the execution, Charles had said to Juxon, in an earnest and impressive manner, Remember. The generals insisted on knowing the meaning of this word, when Juxon declared, that the unhappy king had charged him to inculcate on his son, the forgiveness of his murderers, Indeed, h last speech was replete with the same noble sentiments; and though Charles, as a king, had not been free from blemishes; as a man, few had ever filled the throne, who was entitled to more unqualified praise. He was only forty-eight years old, and was buried at Windsor.

Immediately after this tragedy, the commons passed a vote, declaring the house of peers useless and dangerous, and a like vote was passed in regard to the monarchy. It was declared high treason to proclaim or otherwise acknow. ledge Charles Stuart, commonly called the prince of Wales; and the commons ordered a new great seal to be engaved, on which that assembly was represented with the legend,

"On

"On the first year of freedom, by God's blessing restored 1648."

Soon after, the duke of Hamilton, and lord Capel, were both tried by a new high court of justice, and being condemned for treason, were executed. It should likewise be noticed, in this place, that a book called the Icon Basilike, was published a few days after the king's execution, and excited a general compassion in favour of his memory. So much was it attended to, that it ran through twelve editions in a year; and though it has been doubted whether it was a genuine production of Charles, there seems little reason to ascribe it to Dr. Ganden, the only other persons to whom it was given.

CHAP. XV.

The Commonwealth.

On the death of Charles, every person, A. D. according to his own distempered 1649. imagination, had framed the model of a republic, which he wished to impose on his fellow citizens. The levellers insisted on an equal distribution of power and property; the millenarians, or fifth monarchy men, required that government itself should be abolished, and to look only for the second coming of Christ; while the antinomians asserted, that the obliga tions of morality and natural law were suspended, and that the elect were guided by an internal principle, more perfect and divine. The royalists were inflamed with the highest

VOL. II.

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resentment

resentment against their ignoble adversaries; the presbyterians were enraged to find, that the fruits of their labours were ravished from them by the superior cunning of their associates; and the army, the chief support of the independent republican faction, were actuated by a religious frenzy, which rendered it dangerous to its very friends.

The influence and artifice of Cromwell were the only poise against these irregularities of action. Hating monarchy while a subject, despising liberty while a citizen, he was secretly pav. ing the way to his own unlimited authority.

The parliament now named a council of state, consisting of thirty-eight members, who digested all business, before it was brought into the house. Foreign powers, occupied in wars among themselves, were too wise to interfere in the domestic dissensions of this island; and the young king, poor and neglected, could only indulge hopes, without the immediate prospect of their being realized. The situation of Scotland and Ireland alone gave any present inquietude to the new republic.

Argyle and his partizans had proclaimed Charles II. in Scotland; but on condition of his strict observance of the covenant: in Ireland, the duke of Ormond, had contrived to assemble an army of sixteen thousand men, which after recovering many places from the parliament, threatened Dublin itself with a siege.

Cromwell saw that this would be the field for him to signalize himself in, and by his usual cunning, procured an appointment from the council of commander in chief in that island. He had, however, many disorders to compose