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great a distance to hear him, he addressed his remarks to those persons standing on the scaffold. When he had finished, he put on a white satin cap, and arranged his long locks under it, so that they should not be in the way of the axe. While doing this, he said to Bishop Juxon, who was at his side, "I have a good cause and a gracious God on my side." The bishop

answered: "There is but one 3 stage more, which, though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. You may 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 you hasten to -a crown of glory." "Yes," said the king; "I go from a 5 corruptible to an incorruptible crown." He then took off his cloak, and handed his George to Juxon, with the one word, "Remember." After some further preparation, he knelt, laid his head upon the block, and then held out his hands as a signal that he was ready. The axe descended, and the head was severed at a single blow.

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Charles was not a good king, but the dignity and patience which he displayed during the dreadful days of his trial, and the still more dreadful day of his execution make us half forget his faults. It may almost be said that

Nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it.

His conduct filled even his opponents with admiration. It was a warm 7 supporter of the Parliament who (in the midst of a poem in honour of Cromwell) says of Charles that

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Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right;

But bowed his 'comely head
Down as upon a bed.

The king's body was borne into Whitehall Palace, where it was exposed to public view for some days. On the night of Wednesday, February 7th, it was "privately carried to Windsor without pomp or noise."

The Duke of Richmond and three other peers had obtained permission to superintend the funeral. They caused a grave to be dug in 10 St. George's Chapel, near the vault in which Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour were buried. Thither, on the afternoon of Friday, February 9th, Charles's coffin was conveyed by officers of the Windsor garrison, the four lords bearing up the corners of the pall, and the Bishop of London following. It was laid in the ground "without any words or other ceremonies than the tears and sighs of the few beholders."

1 Melancholy, sad, gloomy. the Banqueting Hall is all that now remains of Whitehall Palace. The rest was burned down in 1698. 3 stage, the part of a journey between two stopping places. The bishop meant that the execution was the stage between earth and heaven. 4 turbulent, disturbed, violent. 5 corruptible, that may decay or perish. 6 George, a figure of St. George worn by knights of the Garter. 7 supporter, Andrew Marvell, who was at one time tutor in the family of Sir Thomas Fairfax, the parliamentary general, and afterwards Latin secretary under Cromwell. 8 vindicate, to avenge. 9 comely, handsome. 10 St. George's Chapel is really a part of Windsor Castle.

CROMWELL IN IRELAND.

A FORTNIGHT after the execution of Charles Parliament (now consisting only of some eighty members) appointed a Council of State to carry on the work of the

government. The Council was composed of forty-one persons, among them Bradshaw, Cromwell, and Fairfax. Three months later, the Commons passed a bill enacting "that the people of England, and of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, are, and shall be a 1 Commonwealth or Free State, and shall henceforth be governed without any king or House of Lords."

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The young Commonwealth did not lack enemies. Ireland (which for the last eight years had been in a very 2 distracted condition) declared for 3 Charles's son. Cromwell was sent to restore order, and soon terrified the country into quiet. Drogheda was the first place at which he encountered strong resistance. After a severe fight he succeeded in entering the town; what followed is told in his own words. 5"Divers of the enemy," he says, "retreated into the Mill Mount, a place very strong and of difficult access.

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governor and divers considerable officers being there, our men getting up to them were ordered by me to put them all to the sword. And, indeed, being in the heat of action, I forbade them to spare any that were in arms in the town, and I think that night they put to the sword about two thousand men. The next day the other two towers were summoned, in one of which was about six or seven score, but they refused to yield themselves, and we, knowing that hunger must compel them, set only good guards to secure them from running away. From one

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of the said towers they killed and wounded some of our men. When they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes. The soldiers in the other tower were all spared, as to

their lives only, and shipped likewise for the Barbadoes."

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A month later, a somewhat similar massacre took place at Wexford-this time without orders. The excuse which Cromwell gave for his pitiless slaughter of a beaten enemy was that it would "tend to prevent the 10 effusion of blood for the future;" which it did, for it made his name so terrible that town after town surrendered without striking a blow. In nine months quiet was so far restored that he was able to return to England, leaving others to complete the work. A 11 poet of the time, speaking of Cromwell's success in Ireland, says

He to the Commons' foot presents

A kingdom for his first year's rents.

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1 Commonwealth often means a state or people; here means a republic—a government without a king. Wealth, from weal, wellbeing, prosperity. 2 distracted, confused, disorderly. 3 Charles's son, afterwards King Charles II.; then a young man of nineteen. 4 Drogheda, north of Dublin, at the mouth of the River Boyne. Do not sound the g. divers, several, a number. of difficult access, hard to get to. 7 they, those in the first tower, the tower from which some of Cromwell's men had been shot. 8 the Barbadoes, in the West Indies, colonized by the English in the reign of James I. The unfortunate soldiers "shipped for the Barbadoes" would be treated as slaves. 9 Wexford, on a harbour in the south-east. 10 effusion, pouring out, shedding. 11 poet of the time, Marvell. See page 165.

CROMWELL IN SCOTLAND.

CROMWELL was much wanted at home. The Scotch had no mind to be governed by a band of English Independents, or to set up a commonwealth of their own; so, upon the execution of Charles I., they proclaimed his

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son as king, and invited the young man over from the Continent.

The great general was sent north to compel obedience to the Parliament. Before Edinburgh he found an army twice as large as his own, and so strongly entrenched

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