surprise and capture of Monmouth by the parliamentary army, at the head of a small party of volunteers, he scaled a redoubt, passed the ditch, put the guard to death, dashed sword in hand into the place, retook it, and made the garrison prisoners. This brave and daring achievement established his reputation for courage and enterprise.

A short time after he was sent into Ireland, to negotiate for bringing over a large body of Irish to the royal cause, but not succeeding, his conduct was artfully misrepresented by those envious of his fame. Popular feeling thus setting against him, Worcester considered it prudent to seek safety from its virulence by coming over to France. To fill up the cup of his misfortunes, Ragland Castle, the home of his childhood, was besieged; and after being defended by his father with the courage of an old Roman, it surrendered at last upon honorable conditions; these however were perfidiously broken, and the venerable old man survived the catastrophe but a few months. The ruin of the family now seemed complete, the seat of its splendor was destroyed, its majestic woods were consigned to the axe, its domain alienated, and its chief an exile.

During the ascendancy of parliament Worcester resided abroad. When again in an unfortunate hour accepting a commission from the heir to the throne, (afterwards Charles II.,) he proceeded to London for the purpose of procuring private intelligence and supplies of money, of which his master stood in the greatest need. He was, however, speedily discovered and committed a close prisoner to the Tower, where he remained in captivity several years. While in confinement, his time was beguiled by those mechanical amusements which ever formed his greatest source of happiness. Here, according to tradition, his attention was first drawn to the amazing force of steam, by observing the rising of the lid of a vessel employed in cooking in his chamber, and from this circumstance he projected that wonderful machine which has thrown around his name so bright a radiance.

The return of the king from France, and his ascendancy to the throne; gave Worcester once more a home, but now in his old age he was doomed to feel all the miseries of hope deferred. The ear of the king was closed by the intrigues of enemies, or by ingratitude; and the man who had spent the fortune of a prince in the cause, was left, in its final triumph, nearly in a state of poverty, oppressed with debt and without resources. On his enlargement from prison, neither the ruin of his own fortune nor the increasing infirmities of age had any effect in damping the ardor of his enthusiasm,-when other minds would have sunk under the neglect

and distress of his situation, his appeared to grow more elastic as trouble increased.

In the year 1655, Worcester wrote his famous Century (hundred) of Inventions. This work contained but little more than a mere definition of what the inventions were destined to perform. His object in committing them to writing appears to have been for the purpose of reference, when he should be in a situation to carry them out; hence the descriptions, although well enough for his own purpose, are in general too indefinite for comprehension. The novelty of the greater number of the hundred propositions or descriptions of which this volume consists, and the wonderful nature of others, cast an air of improbability over the whole: the author was charged with describing many things which he wished were invented, rather than machines which he had actually constructed. But these charges are scarcely worth noticing, as they are brought by literary men, who from their pursuits are incapable of judging of the feasibility of mechanical projects. Yet this collection of descriptions bears internal marks of being in many cases what it professes, drawn up from actual trials of machines in existence. On an attentive examination of the general scope of his inventions, the greater number will appear to have been suggested by the wants of his accidental situation, and a small portion by those of his station. To a statesman employed in highly confidential negotiations, the secrecy of his correspondence would be of the greatest importance, to a traveller the security of his locks, a soldier is mainly interested in his arms, at times in scaling a fortification, or transmitting intelligence in the dark, and the projector of a water company could not fail of laying his ingenuity under contribution in devising a mode of raising water above its own level. These classes comprises the greater part of his inventions, and if he did not carry them all into execution, it does not seem to have been so much his fault, as that of the age in which he lived; but the doubt is greatly lessened by considering his perseverance and his means. For thirty-five years he employed an ingenious mechanic under his own eye, whose time was doubtless spent on the inventions described in the Century. In the machine for raising water by steam, it would be almost impossible to describe effects so clearly as he has done, without actually looking at a machine in operation. His description (although very obscure) is contained in the sixtyeighth proposition, in connection with the ninty-ninth and one hun. dredth of the "Century," and evidently proves that to him belongs the honor of inventing the first steam engine.

A few years before his death he succeeded in procuring an act of parliament to be passed enabling himself and heirs, for ninety