the duke in his twenty-fifth, year. Imbued with the same love of pleasure and frolic, and participating in the same keen sense of the ridiculous, we may readily imagine their looks of weariness during a ninth sermon, and their half-suppressed titters at some scene of particular absurdity. Fatigue and the love of fun could not always be disguised, and, accordingly, more than once we find them reprimanded for their unseemly levity.

Charles, however, was not only fully aware of the importance of the crisis, but was quite clever enough to act his part with success. Accordingly, notwithstanding his occasional backslidings, the Puritans appear to have been really deceived by the long faces and clever acting of the young king, and to have convinced themselves that the work of regeneration would eventually be perfected. On one occasion their eyes were very nearly being opened by an accidental circumstance, which, moreover, nearly led the king into a serious scrape. The details are thus gracefully glided over by Hume. "The king's passion for the fair," he says, "could not altogether be restrained. He had once been observed using some familiarities with a young woman, and a committee of ministers was appointed to reprove him for a behaviour so unbecoming a covenanted monarch. The spokesman of the committee, one Douglas, began with a severe aspect; informed

the king that great scandal had been given to the godly; enlarged on the heinous nature of sin, and concluded with exhorting his Majesty, whenever he was disposed to amuse himself, to be more careful for the future in shutting the windows. This delicacy, so unusual to the place and to the character of the man, was remarked by the king, and he never forgot the obligation."

According to an exaggerated account which we have seen, Charles, by his systematic "wantonness," gave deep offence to the wise and good among his Scottish subjects. Laying aside, however, some indiscretions which are not unnatural to youth, the charge appears to be totally without foundation. The fact is, that, whatever may have been his inclinations, he was much too closely watched to be a frequent transgressor. Certain it is, moreover, that, after his return to the Continent from his Scottish expedition, the king continued politely and politicly to correspond with the ministers of that church. Such of these letters as are extant, though possessing no internal interest, are at least sensible and pleasing; and as the reverend gentlemen, in all probability, took a pride in disclosing their contents to others, the royal cause was certainly not injured by the king's condescension. Charles, and those about him, In a lam

were fully alive to such manœuvres. poon of the period we find

"In Scotland, where they seem to like the lad,
If he'll be more obsequious than his dad."

The defeat of Dunbar, inasmuch as it compelled his tormentors to invest him with greater authority, is said to have been not altogether displeasing to Charles. He would only too willingly have taken his share in the dangers of the day, but having, during his previous visits to the army, made himself much too popular with the soldiery, the clergy grew jealous of his increasing influence, and forbade him the camp. The loss of the battle was attributed by the Presbyterian priesthood, in their prayers and fastings, to the anger of God at the iniquity of his father's house. At Stirling, the Sunday following, one Guthry, a minister, insisted energetically on the fact. "If his Majesty's heart," he said, "were as upright as David's, God would no more pardon the sins of his father's house for his sake than he did the sins of the house of Judah for the goodness of Holy Josiah.”

It was shortly after the defeat of Dunbar, that Charles, to his great satisfaction, was allowed to place himself at the head of his Scottish troops. Success, however, was out of the question. Cromwell was following him with a victorious army; his supplies were cut off, and he soon found himself harassed and surrounded on every side. It was in this juncture that he formed the resolution, worthy of the race from which he had sprung, of

immediately marching his troops into the heart of England. He had hoped to have been everywhere joined by the royalists, but such was the prevailing terror of the established government, that but few flocked to his standard. David Lindsay, an experienced commander, was unable to conceal his apprehensions, and, accordingly, appeared sad and melancholy during the whole march. The young king, to whom a gloomy countenance was ever unpalatable, one day inquired of the Scotchman why he looked so sad. "Gallant as this army looks," was the reply, "I know it well, and am satisfied it will not fight."

Charles has the credit of having maintained admirable discipline among his soldiers. "The king's army of Scots," says Richard Baxter, "was excellently well governed, in comparison of what his father's was wont to be. Not a soldier durst wrong any man of the worth of a penny, which much drew the affections of the people toward them." When he reached Worcester, his assembled forces amounted to no more than twelve thousand men. Of these there were about ten thousand Scotch and two thousand English. Cromwell was hastening to attack him with an efficient army of thirty thousand men.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHARLES II.

Battle of Worcester-Gallantry of Charles during the Action – His Flight-Halts at White Ladies - Disguises Himself as a Woodman - Separates from the Duke of Buckingham and His Other Attendants - His Adventures the Day after the Battle- His Journey to Madeley - Adventure with the Miller-Return to White Ladies - Charles Conceals Himself in the Oak - His Hiding-place at Boscobel- He Is Conducted by the Penderells to Moseley — Meeting with Lord Wilmot His Admirable Disguise.

THE battle of Worcester, in which Charles and Cromwell contended in person for the possession of power, was fought on the 3d of September, 1651, and lasted with various success for about four hours. So furious was the first onset of the royalists, headed by the young king in person, that even Cromwell's invincible life-guards gave way before the shock. Gallant and desperate were the charges, both of the English cavaliers and of the Scottish highlanders, but unfortunately they were unsupported by the rest of the army; Leslie, with his three thousand horse, remaining in the most unaccountable manner a passive spectator in the rear. In the meantime, the infan