insincerity of the king, once more seized upon his person, brought him a prisoner to London, carried him before a court of justice of his own erecting, and after an extraordinary trial, condemned him to die.

CHAP. LXV.

On the Death of King Charles.

WHEN Charles, after his trial, returned to Whitehall, he desired the permission of the house to see his children, and to be attended in his private devotions by doctor Juxon, late bishop of London. These requests were granted, and also three days to prepare for execution. All that remained of his family now in England, were the princess Elizabeth, and the duke of Gloucester, a child about three years of age. After many seasonable and sensible exhortations to his daughter, he took up his little son in his arms, and embracing him, "My child," said he, "they will cut off thy father's head; yes, they will cut off my head, and make thee a king. But mark what I say; thou must not be a king, as long as thy brothers Charles and James are alive. They will cut off their heads when they can take them; and thy head too will they cut off at last, and, therefore, I charge thee do not be made a king by them." The child, bursting into tears, replied, "I will be torn into pieces first."

Every night during the interval between his sentence and execution, the king slept sound as

usual, though the noise of the workman, employed in framing the scaffold, continually resounded in his ears. The fatal morning being at last arrived, he rose early; and calling one of his attendants, he bade him employ more than usual care in dressing him, and preparing him for so great and awful a solemnity.

The street before Whitehall was the place destined for his execution; for it was intended that this should increase the severity of his punishment. He was led through the Banqueting House to the scaffold adjoining to that edifice, attended by his friend and servant bishop Juxon, a man endowed with the same mild and steady virtues as his master. The scaffold, which was covered with black, was guarded by a regiment of soldiers, under the command of colonel Tomlinson; and on it were to be seen the block, the axe, and two executioners in masques. The people, in crowds, stood at a great distance, in dreadful expectation of the event.

The king surveyed all these solemn preparations with calm composure; and as he could not expect to be heard by the people at a distance, he addressed himself to the few persons who stood round him. He there justified his own innocence in the late fatal wars; and observed, that he had not taken arms till after the parliament had shewn him the example. He declared, that he had no other object in his warlike preparations, than to preserve that authority entire, which had been transmitted to him by his ancestors. But though innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity of his execution in the eyes of his

maker. He owned, that he was justly punished, for having consented to the execution of an unjust sentence upon the earl of Stafford. He forgave all his enemies, exhorted the people to return to their obedience, and acknowledged his son as his successor. He also signified his attachment to the protestant religion, as professed by the church of England. So strong was the impression his dying words made upon the few that could hear him, that colonel Tomlinson himself, to whose care he had been committed, acknowledged himself a convert.

While he was preparing himself for the block, bishop Juxon called out to him; "There is, Sir, but one stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. It will soon carry you a great way. It will carry you from earth to heaven; and there you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown of glory." "I go," replied the king, "from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can have place." "You exchange," replied the bishop, a temporal for an eternal crown; a good exchange."

Charles, having taken off his cloak, delivered his george to the prelate, pronouncing the word "Remember." Then he laid his neck on the block, and stretching out his hands as a signal, one of the executioners severed his head from the body at a blow, while the other holding it up, exclaimed, "This is the head of a traitor."

The spectators testified their horror, at that sad spectacle, in sighs, tears, and lamentations. The tide of their duty and affection began to re

turn, and each blamed himself either with active disloyalty to his king, or a passive compliance with his destroyers. The very pulpits, which used to resound with insolence and sedition, were now bedewed with tears of unfeigned repentance; and all united in their detestation of those dark hypocrites, who, to satisfy their own enmity, involved the whole nation in the guilt of treason.

Charles was executed on the thirteenth of

January, 1649, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. He was of a middling stature, robust, and well proportioned. His aspect was pleasing, but melancholy; and it is probable, that the continued troubles in which he was involved, might have made that impres4sion on his countenance. In his private charactér, he was amiable and exemplary. "He was," says lord Clarendon, "the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best christian of the age in which he lived." All his faults seem to have arisen from the error of his education; while all his virtues were the genuine offspring of his heart.

He lived at a time when the spirit of the constitution was at variance with the genius of the people; and governing by old rules and precedents, instead of accommodating himself to the changes of the times, he fell, and drew down as he sunk, the constitution in ruins around him. Many kings, before him, expired by treason, or assassination; but never, since the times of Agis the Lacedemonian, was there any other sacrificed by his subjects, with all the formalities of justice.

CHAP. LXVI.

Of Oliver Cromwell's Usurpation.

OLIVER CROMWELL was the son of a private gentleman of Huntingdon, and was born the twenty-fourth of April, 1599. Being the son of a second brother, he inherited a very small parental fortune. From accident or intrigue, he was chosen member for Cambridge in the long parliament; but he seemed at first to possess no talents for oratory, his person being ungraceful, his dress slovenly, his elocution homely, tedious, obscure, and embarrassed. He made up, however, by zeal and perseverence, what he wanted in natural powers; and being endowed with unshaken intrepidity, and much dissimulation, he rose through the gradations of preferment, to the post of lieutenant-general under Fairfax, but in reality possessing the supreme command of the whole army. After several victories, he gained the battle of Naseby; and this, with other successes, soon put an end to the war.

In 1649, Cromwell was sent general into Ireland, when, in about nine months, he subdued almost that whole kingdom, and leaving his son-in-law Ireton, to complete the conquest, returned to England.

In 1650, he was appointed general and commander in chief of all the forces of the common. wealth, and set out on his march against the Scots, who had espoused the royal cause, and