Aug. 17,

quis of Hamilton had gathered on the Border for the invasion of England. On Thursday, August 17th, and the next two days, the battle of Preston raged upon the 1648 Ribble, ending in the complete defeat of Hamilton, whose army was in fact cut in two by Cromwell. Proceeding thence to Edinburgh, on the invitation of Covenanting Argyle, Hamilton's dearest foe, the great soldier took up his quarters at Moray House in the Canongate, whence he issued an address to the Committee of Estates, demanding the expulsion of Malignants from all public offices. Having remodelled the govern

ment of Scotland, he returned to London.

During his absence, the Presbyterians made a last effortforty days long-to make a treaty with the king. The Levellers, alarmed by these negotiations, became more eager than ever for the life of the "chief delinquent." Oliver then took two decided steps. He transferred the king from Carisbrooke

to Hurst Castle in Hampshire,* a desolate and uncom- Nov. 30. fortable place, which he left in eighteen days for St. James's, whence four days later he was taken to Windsor. This was one decided step. The other was taken on the 5th of December, when the dragoons of Rich and the pikemen of Pride, two colonels in the army, surrounded the Houses of Parliament, and the latter officer picked out the Presbyterian members, as they passed through the lobby, committing them to various places of custody. About fifty Independent members were left to constitute "the Rump," as the remnant was named. Cromwell, entering on the first day after the Purge, received the thanks of the House for his great services to the nation.

The dark mutterings then grew together, and shaped themselves into a distinct and dreadful voice crying for the blood of the king. Oftener than once, Cromwell's head had been in danger from the fierce zeal of those who considered his negotia

* Hurst Castle stood on a little rocky jut of Hampshire, opposite Wight, with the sea foaming nearly all round its base. It had only the poorest accommodation for a few

gunners.

Jan. 20, 1649

tions with Charles a sign of treachery to the national cause. He had now no course but to stand still and to let the torrent of vengeance sweep to its work of doom. The Lords having refused to take any part in the trial of the king, the small body of Independents who remained out of the purged and scattered Commons, formed a tribunal of one hundred and thirty-three commissioners, who, under the title of a "High Court of Justice," proceeded in the name of the English people to arraign the fallen monarch as a traitor and a malicious levier of war. Having chosen John Bradshaw, sergeant-at-law, to be their president. with Steel, Coke, Dorislaus, and Aske to represent, as counsel, the Commonwealth of England, the commissioners formally opened the trial on the 20th of January in Westminster Hall. The king, carried into court in a sedan-chair, sat down, without moving his hat, in a velvet seat prepared for him at the bar. Between him and the court a table stood, bearing the mace and sword placed crosswise. Haughtily he stared at the judges and the crowds that thronged the galleries; and bitter were the return looks from the benches of the commission, every member of which also wore his hat. Bradshaw spoke first, telling "Charles Stuart, King of England," for what purpose the Commons had placed him on trial at that bar. When Coke, acting as solicitorgeneral, rose to state the charge, Charles cried out, "Hold!" and tapped him on the shoulder with his cane. The gold head dropped off a trifling incident, but one which sent a superstitious chill to the heart of the king, although he let no outward sign of discomposure escape him. The reading of the charge, which laid upon the king's head all the blame and blood of the Civil War, extorted a bitter laugh from the royal prisoner. And when President Bradshaw told him that the court awaited his reply, he asked, without a trace of the painful stammer which commonly impeded his utterance, upon what lawful authority he was brought there. Bradshaw answered that the

court took their authority from the people of England, whose elected king he was. Charles denied that England was an elective kingdom, and refused submission to the court, on the ground that the Lords and the king were necessary to constitute a Parliament, without which there could be no true authority. With this the court adjourned.

On Monday the 22nd and Tuesday the 23rd the scene was renewed, the king protesting, and meeting with a bold front the charge, for which he said he cared not a rush; and Bradshaw sternly asserting the dignity of a court whose authority, he said, flowed solely from the people. At this stage of the proceedings a protest from the Parliament and Kingdom of Scotland against this treatment of the king reached the Speaker; but it availed not to stay the swift-falling axe. After two more days spent in the examination of witnesses, the death of Charles was resolved on; and on the last and seventh day (Jan. 27) Bradshaw doffed his black dress and appeared in staring scarlet, surrounded with darkbrowed men arrayed in their best as for some grim festival. Charles with quick eye caught the change, as he entered boldly with his hat on, and for the first time during the trial his spirit shook. His failing heart took in the dread meaning of the blood-coloured robe and the garnished doublets. With altered tone he demanded a conference with a joint-committee of the two Houses of Parliament; but in vain. A feeble plea from Citizen Downes, asking, "Have we hearts of stone?" was speedily overruled, and the clerk by Bradshaw's order read the sentence of death. Charles broke down completely; he stammered out a few disjointed words, and then turned away. The warrant, dated January 29th, bore nine-and-fifty names, that of John Bradshaw standing first, and that of Oliver Cromwell third. Next day at ten, Charles walked between Bishop Juxon and Colonel Tomlinson from St. James's across the park to Whitehall. A glass of wine and a piece of bread were served

Jan. 30, 1649

to him at noon, and he then passed through the banqueting-house out to the black-draped scaffold, which had been erected in front. Pikemen and carbineers formed an armed hedge around the scaffold; outside stood the mute and sorrowful people. Speaking to those within earshot, he declared that the Parliament had begun the war by claiming the command of the militia; that ill instruments had severed their affections from him; that an unjust sentence, to which he had assented, was now falling fatally on his head in just retribution (alluding to the death of Strafford); and that he died the "martyr of the people." His courage had come back, and death had lost its sting. Comforted in his last moments by Juxon, and speaking with quiet confidence of the incorruptible crown that awaited him beyond the grave, he took off his cloak, gave his George to the prelate, pronounced the word

66

Remember," and then laid his neck upon the block. He stretched out his hands as the signal; the bright axe dulled with a dreadful dimness; and the attendant headsman, masked like his comrade, lifted the bleeding head, and called out, "This is the head of a traitor!" A deep and pitiful groan, torn from the very hearts of the spectators, was the only reply.

Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrooke.

(Descended from a nephew of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, temp. Henry VIII.)

CHAPTER XIV.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

The Irish war-Campaigning in Scotland-Dunbar Drove-WorcesterKingship-The Dutch war-Long Parliament dismissed-Instrument of Government-Installation-Triers and Expurgators-Hydra-Majorgenerals-The Petition and Advice-Sea-king Blake-Dunkirk taken --Death.

ITHIN a month of the execution, a Council of State

W took the reins of power, Bradshaw acting as president

-Cromwell, St. John, Fairfax, Skippon, Haselrig, Vane, and Ludlow being also of the forty-one. John Milton was its secretary for foreign tongues. The army continued under the command of Fairfax, and under the control of Cromwell. But the fleet got a new and better head in the person of Robert Blake, colonel in the army and general at sea, whose achievements, as the greatest sailor of the age, must soon be noticed. Blake, a merchant's son of Bridgewater in Somersetshire, had already given signal proofs of courage and skill in the Civil War as governor of Taunton. Now at the ripe age of fifty-one he was entering on the most brilliant period of his life.

The Levellers in the army were not satisfied. They complained that England had only exchanged her old chains for new and stronger ones. Their leader was Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburne. Soon after the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel had been beheaded (March 9) for adherence to the royal cause, the imminent danger from that