their hats the motto, "The people's freedom and the soldier's rights."

At once Cromwell galloped up to the ranks. "Take that paper from your hats," he cried to them. "Never, till justice has been done," was the defiant reply. "The man of action was equal to the occasion. Dashing resolutely into their midst, he ordered eleven of the ringleaders to be seized and tried by court-martial on the spot. Three of the eleven were condemned to death, and of these one was chosen by lot and immediately shot.

Order and discipline were thus restored; but the soldiers firmly told the lieutenant-general that they were determined to bring the king to trial, and that no severity would turn them from their purpose. The leaders of the army were gradually coming to adopt the views of the men, and ceased to regard any compromise with the king as possible.

Charles remained at Carisbrooke for a full year. He was, in every respect, most courteously treated; and, being at a distance from his most violent enemies, his spirits revived and he endeavoured to treat as before with the various parties.

When informed of the suppression of the mutiny of the Levellers, he sought to re-open negotiations with the officers. The time had gone by for that. The stern reply was that "the army has no answer to give to the proposals of His Majesty." One cannot help feeling in reading of this doomed king's sad career how completely he forgot the counsel of our great dramatist :

"Hope at the prow, but prudence at the helm ;

Caution to wisely watch, and take command
When it is timely fools are cautious too

:

When 'tis too late, and prudent when 'tis vain."

Next, Parliament approached the king with four bills, which they presented as an ultimatum. Charles, however, entered into a secret treaty with the Scots and rejected the proposals of the Houses. In indignation, Parliament passed a resolution branding as a traitor every one who either received any message from the king or made application to him.

Second Civil War. There immediately set in a strong reaction in favour of the king, which led to a renewal of the war. The Scots had agreed to send an army of 40,000 men, under the Duke of Hamilton, to assist in restoring him to the throne; and the news from Scotland at once roused into activity all the slumbering Royalist feeling in England.

But for the presence of a strong force, London, too, would have welcomed the return of Charles with acclamation. Even as it was, the apprentices surprised the guards; and having seized a large quantity of arms, paraded the streets with cries of "God and King Charles," and for forty hours held command of the city. The fleet in the Downs,2 from jealousy of the army, also declared for the king, and were prepared to give him active support whenever an opportunity arose. Wales was already in general revolt, while the men of Kent and Essex gathered in arms on Blackheath.3

Leaving Fairfax to hold London and to deal with the southern rising, Cromwell marched rapidly to the west. He had quelled the Welsh insurrection in time to defeat a force of cavaliers under Langdale, and immediately to fall upon the Scotch army at Preston before tidings reached it that he was in the field.

The battle lasted three days, the Scots slowly retreat

ing and making a stand wherever possible, until they broke up in such utter disorder that, but for the fact that the horse of Cromwell were all 'beaten out,' scarcely one would have escaped either death or capture.

Cromwell pushed on rapidly towards Edinburgh, but before he arrived, his purpose had been accomplished by a rising of the Scottish Covenanters, who established the Earl of Argyle in power. Cromwell was received with the warmest welcome, and was entertained at a

COLONEL PRIDE EXCLUDING THE MEMBERS FROM THE COMMONS.

great banquet in the Castle; but meantime events were happening in London which demanded his speedy

return.

The King once more in the hands of the Army. -While the army was thus engaged in the field, the Parliament seized the opportunity of once more making proposals to the king.5

contested every point.

torious before an agreement had been reached, and it was then too late.

It was well known what the spirit of the stern soldiery was. Even before they had set out to quell the recent risings, they had declared that settlement with the king was for ever impossible, and had resolved to call Charles to "account for the blood shed in the civil war." Their leaders now resolved to act.

A troop of horse was sent to bring Charles from Newport to the solitary fortress of Hurst Castle, on the Hampshire coast. There the unhappy monarch remained for a fortnight, confined in a room "so dark that at mid-day torches were required to light it."

Meanwhile, the army marched to London and quartered itself in Whitehall and the neighbouring suburbs. On the day after the Commons had accepted the terms of the king, Colonel Pride stationed himself at the door of the Commons with a written list of certain members' names in his hand, who as they arrived were forcibly removed to the Queen's Court. The process, afterwards known as Pride's Purge, was twice repeated; and in this way two hundred Presbyterians who were disposed to be lenient towards the king were forcibly excluded from the deliberations of the House. There was thus left a skeleton Parliament of about fifty or sixty Independent members, known as the Rump, and all power was now in the hands of the army.

1. Ware, 2 miles west of Hertford.

2. The Downs, a large anchorage between the Kentish coast and the Goodwin Sands.

3. Blackheath, in Kent, near Greenwich.

6

4. Covenanters, also called Whiggamores, from
which the term Whig was derived.

5. Known as the Treaty of Newport.
6. They were re-admitted in 1660.

HE King removed to Windsor.-In the middle of a cold December night, Charles was awakened in his cheerless cell at Hurst by a great noise in the courtyard.

"What is that?" he asked his faithful servant Herbert, who hurried in.

"It is Colonel Harrison, sire," was the reply.

The tears started into the deserted monarch's eyes. "Do not think I am afraid, Herbert," he said, “but this man is the same Harrison who threatened to assassinate me, and this would be indeed a fitting place for such a deed. Go ask if that be his purpose.'

When Herbert quickly returned to tell the king he was to be conducted to Windsor, he was very joyful.

"Ah!" cried he, "that is better. They are becoming gentler and more just. I have spent many happy