Section 1 of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sonja. The World's Story. A History of the World in Story, Song and Art. Volume 10. England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Edited by Eva Marge Teppen. Section 1. Elizabeth, Signing the Death Warrant of Mary, Queen of Scots. By Julius Schrader, German Painter 1815-1900. Painting, Frontispiece. This scene has been described in the following words by James Anthony Froud, the English Historian. The long suspension of the sentence made it doubly difficult to enforce, but she, Elizabeth, desired Howard to tell Davison, who in Waltzingham's absence was acting as sole secretary, to come to her and to bring the warrant with him. Davison, who was walking in the park, came hastily in, and after a few words with Lord Howard, fetched the warrant from his room, placed it purposely among some other papers, and took it to his mistress.  He said he had documents for her signature, and among others, one which Lord Howard had told him that she had sent for. She glanced over his portfolio, subscribed the sheets one after another, the warrant among them, and threw it with the rest upon the floor. It seemed as if she had meant to let it pass as if by accident. But if this was her purpose, she changed her mind. She spoke particularly of it. She said she had delayed so long in order to show how unwillingly she had consented, and she asked Davison if he was not sorry to see such a paper signed. He replied that he was sorry the Queen of Scots had made it necessary, but it was better that the guilty should suffer than the innocent. She smiled, went through some other business, and then made him take the warrant to the Chancellor, get it sealed as quietly as he could, say nothing to anyone, and then send it to the persons to whom it was addressed, who were to see execution done. For herself, she desired to be troubled no further on the subject till all was over. Jamesbus, the last of the two-door monarchs, died in 1603, and was succeeded by James I of the House of Stuart, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. James was King of Scotland, and by his accession to the Throne of England, the two countries were united under one head. The Stuart Kings were firm believers in the Divine Right of Kings to rule as they chose, but unfortunately this belief was united with an incapacity for ruling wisely. James was succeeded in 1625 by his son Charles I, who began his reign by quarrelling with Parliament because it refused to grant him supplies to carry on an unpopular war with Spain. The result was that for the greater part of the first fifteen years of his reign he ruled without Parliament, raising money by various illegal taxes and forced loans. This in itself was enough to arouse the wrath of his subjects, but he made even more trouble for himself by introducing new ceremonies in the church and by attempting to establish episcopacy in Presbyterian Scotland. The last measure resulted in an uprising in Scotland, and as the King was without money he was forced to call what is known as the Long Parliament. Under the leadership of Pym and Hampton this Parliament sternly set about the task of depriving the King of the opportunity for further abuse of his power. An ill-planned attempt of the Kings to arrest the leaders of Parliament fend to a flame the popular discontent and resulted in 1642 in the outbreak of civil war. In this conflict known as the Great Rebellion the King was supported by the greater part of the episcopalian nobles and gentry and their retainers, Cavaliers as they were called. Parliament by the middle classes, the merchants and yeomanry nicknamed the round heads from the Puritan fashion of wearing the hair cut short. End of Section 2 This recording is in the public domain. Section 3 of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The World's Story, Volume 10. England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Eva March Tappin. Section 3 King James I and his goldsmith between 1603 and 1624 by Sir Walter Scott. The goldsmith to the royal household and who if fame spoke true often times acted as their banker for these professions were not as yet separated from each other was a person of too much importance to receive the slightest interruption from sentinel or porter and leaving his mule and two of his followers in the outer court. He gently knocked at a poster gate of the building and was presently admitted while the most trustee of his attendance followed him closely with the piece of plate under his arm. This man also he left behind him in an anti room where three or four pages in the royal livery but untrust and buttoned and dressed more carelessly than the place and nearness to a king's person seemed to admit were playing at dice and drafts or stretched upon benches and slumbering with half shut eyes. A corresponding gallery which opened from the anti room was occupied by two gentlemen ushers of the chamber who gave each a smile of recognition as the wealthy goldsmith entered. No word was spoken on either side but one of the ushers looked first to Harriet and then to a little door half covered by the tapestry which seemed to say as plain as a look could lies your business that way. The citizen nodded and the court attendant moving on tiptoe and with as much caution as if the floor had been paved with eggs advanced to the door opened it gently and spoke a few words in a low tone. The broad Scottish accent of King James was heard in reply admit him instantor Maxwell have you harboured say long at the court and not learn that gold and silver are ever welcome. The usher sign to Harriet to advance and the honest citizen was presently introduced into the cabinet of the sovereign. The scene of confusion amid which he found the king seated was no bad picture of the state and quality of James's own mind. There was much that was rich and costly in cabinet pictures and valuable ornaments but they were arranged in a slovenly manner covered with dust and lost half their value or at least their effect from the manner in which they were presented to the eye. The table was loaded with huge folios amongst which lay light books of jest and ribaldry and amongst notes of unmercifully long orations and essays on king craft were mangled miserable round balls and ballads by the royal apprentice as he styled himself in the art of poetry and schemes for the general pacification of Europe with a list of the names of the king's hounds and remedies against canine madness. The king's dress was a green velvet quilted so full as to be dagger proof which gave him the appearance of clumsy and ungainly protuberance while its being buttoned awry communicated to his figure an air of distortion over his green doublet he wore a sad colored nightgown out of the pocket of which peeped his hunting horn. His high crown gray hat lay on the floor covered with dust been encircled by a carcannet of large bala rubies and he wore a blue velvet nightcap in the front of which was placed the plume of a heron which had been struck down by a favorite hawk in some critical moment of the flight in remembrance of which the king wore this highly honored feather but such inconsistencies and dress and appointments were mere outward types of those which existed in the royal character rendering it a subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries and bequeathing it as a problem to future historians. He was deeply learned without possessing useful knowledge sagacious in many individual cases without having real wisdom fond of his power and desires to maintain and augmented yet willing to resign the direction of that and of himself to the most unworthy favorites. A big and bold assertor of his rights and words yet one who tamely saw them trampled on in deeds a lover of negotiations in which he was always outwitted and one who feared war where conquest might have been easy he was fond of his dignity while he was perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity capable of much public labor yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement a wit though a pedant and a scholar though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and uneducated even his timidity of temper was not uniform and there were moments of his life and those critical in which he showed the spirit of his ancestors he was laborious in trifles and a trifle where serious labor was required devout in his sentiments and yet too often profane in his language just and beneficent by nature he yet gave way to the inequities and oppression of others he was penurious respecting money which he had to give from his own hand yet inconsiderately and unboundedly the profuse of that which he did not see in a word those good qualities which displayed themselves in particular cases and occasions were not of a nature sufficiently firm and comprehensive to regulate his general conduct and showing themselves as they occasionally did only entitled James to the character bestowed in him by sully that he was the wisest fool in Christendom that the fortunes of this monarch might be as little of a piece as his character he certainly the least able of the stewards succeeded peaceably to that kingdom against the power of which his predecessors had with so much difficulty defended his native throne and lastly although his reign appeared calculated to ensure to Great Britain that lasting tranquility and internal peace which so much suited the king's disposition yet during that very reign were sown those seeds of dissension which like the teeth of the fabulous dragon have their harvest blood and universal civil war such was the monarch who saluting Harriet by the name of jingling geordie for it was his well-known custom to give nicknames to all those with whom he was on terms of familiarity inquired what new clatter traps he had brought with him to cheat his lawful and native prince out of his Silla God forbid my liege said the citizen that I should have any such disloyal purpose I did but bring a piece of plate to show to your most gracious majesty which both for the subject and for the workmanship I were loath to put into the hands of any subject until I knew your majesty's pleasure amended body mean ma let's see it Harriet though by my saw steamy service a plate was a dear bargain I have maced upon my word as a royal king to keep my aim gold and silver and future and let you geordie keep yours respecting the duke of Buckingham's plate said the goldsmith your majesty was pleased to direct that no expense should be spared and what signifies what I desired mom when a wise mom is with fools and barons he ma mean play at the chucks but you should have had mar sense and consideration then to give baby Charles and steamy their own gate they wild hay floored the very room with silver and I wonder they did not geordie Harriet bowed and said no more he knew his master too well to vindicate himself otherwise than by a distant illusion to his order and James with whom economy was only a transient and momentary twinge of conscience became immediately afterwards desires to see the piece of plate which the goldsmith proposed to exhibit and dispatch Maxwell to bring it to his presence in the meantime he demanded of the citizen went see had procured it from Italy may it please your majesty replied Harriet it has been sending to pop history said the king looking greater than his one surely not please your majesty said Harriet I were not wise to bring anything to your presence that had the mark of the beast you would be the mar beast yourself to do so said the king it is well can that I wrestle with Dagen in my youth and smote him on the ground still of his own temple a good evidence that I should be in time called however unworthy the defender of faith but here comes Maxwell bending under his burden like the golden ass of Apulias Harriet hasten to relieve the usher and to place the embossed silver for such it was and of extraordinary dimensions and a light favorable for his majesty's viewing the sculpture Saul of my body mon said the king it is a curious piece and as I think fit for a king's chamber and the subject as you say master George very adequate and the seeming being as I see the judgment of a prince and whose paths it will becomes a leaving monics to walk with emulation but whose footsteps said Max well only one of them if a subject may say so much have ever overtaken odd your tongue for a false fleeting loom said the king but with a smile on his face that showed the flattery had done its part look at the Bonnie piece of workmanship and hard your clevering tongue and whose handiwork may it be Geordie it was what serve applied to go smith by the famous foreign team Ben Benuto Janini and designed for Francis the first to France but I hope it will find a fitter master Francis of France said the king son Solomon king of the Jews to Francis of France body of me mon it would have cived Janini mad had he never done all anything else out of the gate Francis why he was a fighting fool mon a mirror fighting fool got himself to in that pavia like our own David at Durham Lang's on if they could hey send him Solomon's widow in love of peace and godliness they want hey do him a better turn but Solomon should see in other gate company than Francis of France I trust that such will be his good fortune said Harriet it is a curious and very artificial sculpture said the king in continuation but yet me thinks that carn effects or executioner there is brandishing his gully over near the king's face seeing he is within reach of his weapon I think less wisdom than Solomon's what have taught him that there was danger in edge tools and that he what have been the snake either she the shabba or stand farther back George Harriet endeavored to alleviate the objection by assuring the king that the vicinity between Solomon and the executioners was nearer in appearance than in reality and that the perspective should be allowed for gang to the deal we your perspective man said the king there cannot be a war perspective for a law for King what wishes to reign and live and die in peace and honor than to have naked sword flashing in his aim I'm accounted as brave as maced folks and yet I profess to you I could never look on a bare blade without blinking and winking but the giver it is a brave peace and what is the price of it mon the goldsmith replied by observing that it was not his own property but that of a distressed compliment will you mean to mock your excuse for asking the double of its worth I want to answer the king I can the tricks of you burrows town merchants mon I have no hopes of baffling your majesty suggest that he said Harriet the piece is really what I say and the price 150 pounds sterling if it pleases your majesty to make present payment 150 pounds man and as money witches and warlocks to raise them said the irritated monarch my soul jingling Geordie you are minded that your purse shall jingle to a Bonnie tune how am I to tell you down 150 pounds for what will not weigh as many mercs and you can that my very household servitors and the officers of my mouth are sacks mouse in a rear the goldsmith stood his ground against all this obligation being what he was well accustomed to and only answered that if his majesty liked the piece and desired to possess it the price could be easily settled it was true that the party required the money but he George Harriet would advance it on his majesty's account if such were his pleasure and wait his royal convenience for payment for that and other matters the money meanwhile lying at the ordinary usage by my honor said James and that is speaking like an honest and reasonable tradesmen we mon get another subsidy fray the Commons and that will make a compting of it away with Maxwell away with it and let it be set where Stiney and baby Charles shall see it as they return from Richmond and now that we are secret my good and old friend Jordy I do truly opine that speaking of Solomon and ourselves the whole wisdom in the country left Scotland when we took our travels to the south land here George Harriet was courteous enough to say that the wise naturally followed the wisest as stags followed their leader truth I think there is something in what thou say us said James for we ourselves and those of our court and household as thou thyself for example are allowed by the English for as self-opinion as they are to pass for reasonable good wits but the brains of those we have left behind are all a stir and run clean early Gertie like say Manny Warlocks and which is on the devil's sabbathien I'm sorry to hear this my liege said Harriet may it please your grace to say what our countrymen have done to deserve such a character they have become frantic mon clean brain craze dance of the king I cannot keep them out of the court by all the proclamations that the heralds roar themselves horse with yesterday may father gain just as we were mounted and about to ride forth in rush to a thorough Edinburgh gutter blood a ragged rascal every dead upon whose back was bidding good day to the other with a coat and hat that would have served a peace boggle and without having a reverence thrusts into our hands like a sturdy beggar some supplication about dead sewing by our gracious mother and sick like trash where at the horse fangs on end and but for our admirable sitting wherein we have been thought to excel based sovereign princess as well as subjects in Europe I promise you we would have been laid and lying on the causeway your majesty said Harriet is their common father and therefore they are the boulder to press into your presence I can I am potter patria well enough said James but one would think they had a mind to squeeze my puddings out that they may divide the inheritance foods death Geordie there is not a loon among them can deliver a supplication as it so be done in the face of majesty I would I knew the most fitting and the seeming mode to do so said Harriet we're it but to instruct our poor countrymen in better fashion by my hallowed down said the king you are a civil leased fellow Geordie and I Karenna if I fling away as much time as may teach you and first see you sir ye shall approach the presence of majesty thus shadowing your eyes with your hand to testify that you are in the presence of a vice gerent of heaven very real George that is done in a comely manner then sir ye shall kneel and make as if he would kiss the hem of our garment and latch of our shoe or such like very we enacted will we as being willing to be debonair and pleasing towards our leisure's prevent us a motion to you to rise will having a boon to ask as yet you obey not bug lighting your hand into your pouch bring forth your supplication and place it reverentially in our open palm the goldsmith who had complied with great accuracy and by the specified points of the ceremonial here completed it to James is no small astonishment by placing in his hand the petition of the lord of Glen Valach what means this to you Phouste Lune said he readening and spelling hey I've been teaching you the manual exercise that he so present your piece that are in royal body now by this light I had his leaf that he had bended a real pistolords against me and yet this hey where not soothed enter but at my own pleasure. I trust your majesty, said Harriet, as he continued to kneel, will forgive my exercising, the lesson you condescended to give me in the behalf of a friend.  If it had been something to do yourself good, there would have been some sense in it and some chance that you would not have come back on me in a hurry when a man may have a hundred friends and petitions for every aim of them. You'll gain after other. Your majesty, I trust that Harriet will judge me by former experience and will not suspect me of such presumption. I cannot, said the pluckable monarch, the world goes deft, I think, said Samuel and Senate Wimus Omnis footnote, but we are all crazy at some time into footnote. Thou art my old and faithful servant, that is the truth, and we're at any thing for thy own behoove man. Thou shalt not ask twice, but truth steiny loves me, so dearly that he cares not that any one should ask favors of me, but himself. Maxwell, for the usher, had we entered after having carried off that plate, get into the antechamber where your lang lugs, unconscious, Geordie, I think, as that thou hast been mine, ain old, fiduciary, and we're at my goldsmith, when I might say with the ethnic poet, known Mea Renadette in Domo Lacanar, footnote, no gilded ceiling glitters in my house. Horace has known Eber, Necway, Arium, Mea, Renadette in Domo Lacanar, into footnote. For faith they had pillaged my mother's old house, say that beach and bickers and treene trenches and latin platters were, while's the best at our boarding clad, we were of something to put on them without quarreling with the metal of the dishes. He mined for thou worked in mates of our comp plots, how we were feigned to send sacks of the blue banders to harry the lady of Logan houses, thou caught and pulled the yard and what an awful plain the poor, dame made against jock of milk and the thieves of Anna and Dale, while were as cyclists of the deed as I am of the sin of murder. It was the better for jock, said Harriet, for if I remember wheel, it saved him from a strapping up at Dumfries, which he had wheeled dessert for other misdeeds. I'm on, mind ye that, said the king, but he had other virtues for he was a tight huntsman. Moreover, that jock of milk and could follow to a hound till all the woods rang again, but he came to an Anna and Dale end at the last for Lord Torth, or Walt ran his lance out through him, cock, snails, man, when I think of these wild passages in my conscience, I'm not sure, but we live merrier in old holy root in these shifting days, than now when we are dwelling at heck and manger, kind and tabbit, locked to us, we had but little to care for. And if your majesty pleased to remember, said the goldsmith, the awful task we had together silver vessels and gold work enough to make some show before the Spanish ambassador, very true, said the king, now in a full tide of gossip, and I mind not the name of the right Leo Lord that helped us with every hunts, and that his native prince might have some credit in the eyes of them that had the indies at their back. I think if your majesty said the citizen, we'll cast your eye on the paper in your hand, you will recollect his name. I said the king, say ye, say, man, Lord Glenn Barlach, that was his name indeed, justice at 10x, propositive, a just man, but as obstinate as a baited bull, he stood wiles against us, that Lord Randall Alephant at Glenn Barlach, but he was a loving and a Leo subject in the main, but this sublocator, Man, Man be his son, Randall has been long gone, where king and lord must go, Geordie, as we'll as the like of you, and what does his son want with us? The settlement answered the citizen about large debt due by your majesty's treasury for money advances to your majesty in great stated emergency about the time of the raid of Ruthen. I mined the thing wheel, said king James, odds death, man, I was just out of the clutches of that master of glommas and his accomplices, and there was never any silver mar, welcome to a born prince, the mar, the shame and pity that crown king should need sicker petty some, but what need he done us for, man, like a baxter at the breaking, we ought him the silver and we'll pay him with our convenience to make it otherwise up to him, we'll ease, you know, between prince and subject, we are not in Mediata, Tyone, Fu, Jai, Man, to be arrested thus peremptorily, alas, and it please your majesty, said the goldsmith shaking his head, it is the poor young nobleman's extreme necessity, and not his will that makes him importunate, for he must have money, and that briefly to discharge a debt due to Peregrine Peterson, conservator of the privileges at Camp Vier, for his Hale hereditary, barony, and estate of Glen Barla, will be evicted in virtue of an unredeemed wadsett. How say ye, man, how say ye, exclaim the king impatiently, the carl of a conservator, the son of a low-dutch skipper, evict the all, the state, and lordship of the house of Aliphante, God's bread man, that man not be, we man suspend the diligence by writ of favor or otherwise. I doubt that may hardly be, answered the citizen, if it please your majesty, your learned counsel in the law of Scotland, advised that there is no remade, but in paying the money. Food's fish, said the king, let him keep hod by the strong hand against the carl, until we can take some order about his affairs. Alas, insisted the goldsmith, if it, like your majesty, your own pacific government, and you're doing of equal justice to all men, has made main force a kiddle line to walk by, unless just within the bounds of the highlands. We will, we will, we will, man, said the perplexed monarch, whose ideas of justice expedience and convenience became on such occasion, strangely embroiled. Just it is we should pay our debts that the young man may pay his, and we must be paid, and in wearable regis, he shall be paid. But how to come by the silver man, is a difficult chapter, ye man tried the city, Geordi, to say the truth, answered Harry, please your gracious majesty, what betricks loans and benevolences and subsidies the city is at present. Donna, tell me of what the city is, said King James, our extractor is as dry as Dean Giles's discourses on the penitentiary Psalms, ex nihilo nihil fit, it's ill taking their bricks off a wild highland man, they that come to me for silver, shall tell me how to come by it, the city ye man tried, Harry, and Donna think to be called Jingling Geordi for nothing, and in wearable regis, I will pay the lad if you get me the loan, want it, haggle on the terms, and between you and me Geordi, we will redeem the brave, all the state of Glen Barlach, but wherefore comes not the young lord to court, Harry, is he coming, is he presentable in the presence, no one can be more so, said George Harry, but I understand ye, said his majesty, I understand ye, race Augusta Domi, pure lad, and his father a right true Leo Scott's heart, though stiff in some opinions, Hark ye, Harry, let the lad have tway, hundred pounds to fit him out, and here, here, taking the carkinet of rubies from his old hat, ye have had these in pledge before, for a larger sum ye old Levite that you are, keep them engaged till ye back with silver out of the next subsidy, if it please your majesty to give me such directions in writing, said the cautious citizen, the deal is in your nicety, George, said the king, ye are as pre-sea, says a puritan informing up near, nulla fidean in the marrow of the matter, may not out king's word serve you for advancing your pitiful tway, hundred pounds, but not for detaining the crown jewels, said George Harry, and the king who, from long experience, was inured to dealing with suspicious creditors, wrote in order upon George Harry, is well-beloved goldsmith and jeweler for the sum of 200 pounds to be paid presently to Nigel Aliphant, Lord of Glen Varloch, to be imputed as so much debts to him by the crown, and authorizing the retention of a carkinet of Bala rubies with a great diamond, as described in a catalog of his majesty's jewels to remain in possession of the said George Harry, advance of the said sum, and so forth until he was lawfully contented and paid thereof. By another re-script his majesty gave the said George Harry directions to deal with some of the moneyed men upon equitable terms for a sum of money for his majesty's present use, not to be under 50,000 mercs, but as much as more as could conveniently be procured. And as he only lair, this Lord Nigel of ours, said the king, George Harry could not exactly answer this question, but believed the young Lord had studied abroad. He shall have our own advice, said the king, how to carry on his studies to maced advantage and it may be we will have him come to court and study with Stiney and Bobby Charles. And now we think on a way, a way George for the barons will be coming home presently and we would not as yet take end of this matter we have been treating an end. Prepare a pedum. Oh, Jordy, clap your mule between your health and God then with you. Thus ended the conference between the gentle king Jamie and his benevolent jeweler and goldsmith. End of section three. This recording is in the public domain. Section four of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Royal Story, Volume 10, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Eva March-Tuppin. Section four, the gunpowder plot, 1605 by David Hume. Under James I, both Catholics and Puritans were fined and imprisoned and treated in all ways with the utmost unfairness and severity. Naturally, plots were made against the king. The most notorious was the gunpowder plot, a scheme for blowing up the Parliament House with gunpowder. This was to be done on the 5th of November. That day is still known as Guy Fox's day and the old rhymes are not yet forgotten. Don't you remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot? I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot, the editor. In the spring and summer of the year 1604, the conspirators hired a house in Percy's name adjoining to that in which the Parliament was to assemble. Towards the end of that year, they began their operations, that they might be less interrupted and give less suspicion to the neighborhood they carried in store of provisions with them and never desisted from their labors. Obstinate in their purpose and confirmed by passion, by principle and by mutual exhortation, they little feared death in comparison of a disappointment. And having provided arms together with the instruments of their labor, they resolved there to perish in case of a discovery. Their perseverance advanced the work and they soon pierced the wall, though three yards in thickness, but on approaching the other side, they were somewhat startled at hearing a noise which they knew not how to account for. Upon inquiry, they found that it came from the vault below the house of Lords, that a magazine of coals had been kept there and that as the coals were selling off, the vault would be let to the highest bidder. The opportunity was immediately seized, the place hired by Percy, 36 barrels of powder lodged in it. The hole covered up with faggots and billets, the doors of the cellar boldly flung open and everybody admitted as if it contained nothing dangerous. Confident of success, they now began to look forward and to plan the remaining part of their project. The king, the queen, Prince Henry, were all expected to be present at the opening of parliament. The Duke, for reason of his tender age, would be absent and he was resolved that Percy should seize him or assassinate him. The princess Elizabeth, the child likewise, was kept at Lord Harrington's house in Warwickshire and Sir Edward Digby, where Grant being let into the conspiration gauge to assemble their friends on pretense of a hunting match and seizing that princess immediately to proclaim her queen. So transported were they with rage against their adversaries and so charmed with the prospect of revenge that they forgot all care of their own safety and trusting to the general confusion which must result from so unexpected a blow, they foresaw not that the fury of the people now unrestrained by any authority must have turned against them and would probably have satiated itself by a universal massacre of the Catholics. The day so long wished for now approached on which the parliament was appointed to assemble the dreadful secret though communicated to about 20 persons had been religiously kept during the space of near a year and a half, no remorse, no pity, no fear of punishment, no hope of reward had has yet induced anyone conspirator either to abandon the enterprise or make a discovery of it. The Holy Fury had extinguished in their breast every other motive and it was an indiscretion at last proceeding chiefly from these very bigoted prejudices and partialities which saved the nation. 10 days before the meeting of parliament, Lord Montagle, a Catholic son to Lord Morley received the following letter which had been delivered to his servant by an unknown hand. My Lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care of your preservation.  For God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time and think not slightly of this advertisement but retire yourself into your country where you may expect the event and safety for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they will receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This council is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the dangerous past as soon as you have burned the letter and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it unto whose holy protection I commend you. Montagle knew not what to make of this letter and though inclined to think it a foolish attempt to frighten and ridicule him, he judged it safest to carry it to Lord Salisbury, Secretary of State. Though Salisbury too was inclined to pay little attention to it he thought proper to lay it before the king who came to town a few days after. To the king it appeared not so light a matter and from the series earn a style of the letter he conjectured that it implied something dangerous and important, a terrible blow and yet the authors concealed a dangerous out sudden and yet so great these circumstances seemed all to denote some contrivance by gunpowder and it was thought advisable to inspect all the vaults below the houses of Parliament. This care belonged to the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain who purposely delayed the search till the day before the meeting of Parliament. He remarked those great piles of wood and faggots which lay in the vault under the upper house and he cast his eye upon fox who stood in the dark corner and passed himself for pierced sea servant. That daring and determined courage which so much distinguished this conspirator even among those heroes and villainy was fully painted in his countenance and was not passed unnoticed by the Chamberlain. Such a quantity also a fuel for the use of one who lived so little in town as pierced sea appeared a little extraordinary and upon comparing all circumstances it was resolved that a more thorough inspection should be made. About midnight Sir Thomas Nevitt, a justice of peace was sent with proper attendance and before the door of the vault finding fox who had just finished all his preparations he immediately seized him and turning over the faggots discovered the powder. The matches and everything proper for sitting fire to the train were taken in fox's pocket. Who finding his guilt now apparent and seeing no refuge but in boldness and despair expressed the utmost regret that he had lost the opportunity of firing the powder at once and of sweetening his own death by that of his enemies. Before the council he displayed the same intrepid firmness mixed even with scorn and disdain refusing to discover his accomplices and showing no concern but for the failure of the enterprise. This obstinacy lasted for two or three days but being confined to the tower left to reflect on his guilt and danger and the rock being just shown to him his courage fatigued with so long an effort and unsupported by hope or society at last failed him and he made a full discovery of all the conspirators. End of section four. This recording is in the public domain. Section five of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This is a LibreVox recording. All LibreVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibreVox.org recording by Julie Burks. The world's story volume 10, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Eva March Tappan. Section five. A Charge with Prince Rupert, 1643 by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The struggle between King Charles and his parliament broke into open warfare in 1642. In the early part of the Civil War success lay with the royalists chiefly because their soldiers were better fitted for war and their generals were of much better training and quality. The most able cavalry leader was Prince Rupert nephew of King Charles, the editor. Prince Rupert, Prince Robert or Prince Robert for by all these names was he known was the one formidable military leader on the royal side. He was not a statesman for he was hardly yet a mature man. He was not in the grandest sense a hero yet he had no quality that was not heroic. Chivalrous, brilliant, honest, generous, not disillute nor bigoted nor cruel. He was still a royalist for the love of royalty and a soldier for the love of war and in civil strife there can hardly be a more dangerous character. Through all the blunt periods of his military or civil proclamations we see the proud careless boy fighting for fighting's sake and always finding his own side the right one. He could not have much charity for the most generous opponents. He certainly had none at all for those who, as he said, printed malicious and lying pamphlets against him almost every morning in which he found himself saluted as a nest of perfidious vipers, a night flying dragon prince, a flap dragon, a caterpillar, a spider and a butterbox. He was the king's own nephew, great grandson of William the Silent and son of that Elizabeth Stuart from whom all the modern royal family of England descends. His sister was the renowned Princess Palatine, the one favorite pupil of Descartes and the chosen friend of Leibniz, Malibranch and William Penn. From early childhood he was trained to war. We find him at 14, pronounced by his tutor's fit to command an army. At 15, bearing away the palm in one of the last of the tournaments. At 16, fighting beside the young Turin in the low countries. At 19, heading the advanced guard in the army of the Prince of Orange. And at 23, we find him appearing in England, the day before the royal standard was reared and the day after the king lost Coventry. This training made him a general, not as many have supposed, a mere cavalry captain. He was one of the few men who have shown great military powers on both land and sea. He was a man of energy unbounded, industry inexhaustible and the most comprehensive and systemic forethought. It was not merely that, as Warwick said, he put that spirit into the king's army that all men seemed resolved. Not merely that, always charging at the head of his troops, he was never wounded. And that, seeing more service than any of his peers, he outlived them all. But even in these early years, before he was Generalissima, the Parliament deliberately declared the whole war to be managed by his skill, labour and industry, and his was the only name habitually printed in capitals in the Puritan newspapers. He had to create soldiers by enthusiasm and feed them by strategy, to toil for a king who feared him and against a queen who hated him, to take vast responsibilities of loan, accused of negligence if he failed, reproached with licence if he succeeded. Against him he had the wealth of London entrusted to men who were great diplomatists, though new to power and great soldiers, that they had never seen a battlefield till little life. On his side he had only unmanageable lords and penniless gentlemen who gained victories by daring and then wasted them by licence. His troops had no tents, no wagons, no military stores. They used those of the enemy. Clarendon says that the king's cause laboured under an incurable disease of want of money and that the only cure for starvation was a victory. To say therefore that Rupert's men never starved is to say that they always conquered, which at this early period was true. He was the best shot in the army and the best tennis player among the courtiers and pepsis called him the boldest attacker in England for personal courage. Seemingly without reverence or religion he yet ascribed his defeats to Satan and at the close of a letter about a marauding expedition and requested his friend Will Leg to pray for him. First in all the courtly society of the age chosen interpreter for the booing of young Prince Charles and Legrande mademoiselle and mourning in purple with the royal family for Marie de' Medici's. He could yet mingle in any conceivable company and assume any part. He penetrated the opposing camp at Dunsmore Heath as an apple seller in the hostile town of Warwick as a dealer and cabbage nets and the pamphleteers were never weary of describing his disguises. He was charged with all manner of offenses even to slain children with cannibal intent and only very carelessly disavowed such soft impeachments but no man could deny that he was perfectly true to his word. He never forgot one whom he had promised to protect and if he had promised to strip a man's goods he did it to the utmost farthing and so must his pledge of vengeance be redeemed tonight and so writing eastward with the dying sunlight behind him and the quiet children hills before through air softened by the gathering coolness of these midsummer eaves beside clover fields and hedges of wild roses and ponds white with closing water lilies and pastures sprinkled with meadow sweet like foam he muses only of the clash of sword and the sharp rattle of shot and all the passionate joys of the coming charge. The long and picturesque array winds onward crossing Chiselhampton Bridge not to be recrossed so easily avoiding fame with the church and Abbey where Lord General Essex himself is quartered unconscious of their march and the Cavaliers are soon riding beneath the bases of the wooded hills towards Postcom. Near Tetsworth the enemies first outpost they halt till evening. The horsemen dismount the flag and the foraging bag are opened the blackjack and the man should go around healths are drunk to successes past and glories future to Queen Mary's eyes and to Prince Rupert's dog. A few hours bring darkness they move on eastward through the lanes avoiding when possible the Roman highways they are sometimes fired upon by a picket that make no return for they are hurrying past the main quarters of the enemy and the silence of the summer night they stealthily ride miles and miles through a hostile country the renegade early guiding them at early dawn they see through the misty air the low Hamlet of Postcom where the beating up of the enemy's quarters is to begin a hurried word of command the infantry halt the cavalry close and sweep down like Nighthawks upon the sleeping village safe enough one would have supposed with the whole Parliamentary army lying between it and Oxford to protect it from danger yet the small party of Puritan troopers awake in their quarters with Rupert at the door it is well for them that they happen to be picked men and have promptness if not vigilance forming hastily they secure a retreat westward through the narrow street leaving but few prisoners behind them as hastily the prisoners are swept away with the stealthy troop who have other work before them and before half the startled villagers have opened their lattices the skirmish is over long before they can send a messenger up over the hills to sound the alarm bells of Stoken Church the swift gallop of the Cavaliers has reached Chenor two miles away and the goal of the foray the compact strongly built village is surrounded they form a parallel line behind the houses on each side leaping fences and ditches to their posts they break down the iron chains stretched nightly across each end of the street and line it from end to end Rupert will lag and the forlorn hope dismounting rush in upon the quarters sparing only those who surrender in five minutes the town is up the awakened troopers fight as desperately as their assailants some on foot some on horseback more and more of Rupert's men rush in they fight through the straggling street of the village from the sign of the ram at one end to that of the crown at the other and then back again the citizens join against the invaders the princesses rush from their attics hasty barricades of carts and harrows are formed in the streets long musket barrels are thrust from the windows dark groups cluster on the roofs and stones begin to rattle on the heads below together with phrases more galling than stones hurled down by women cursed dogs devilish cavaliers papus traitors in return the intruders shoot at the windows indiscriminately storm the doors fire the houses they grow more furious and spare nothing some townspeople retreat within the church doors the doors are beaten in women barricade them with woolen packs and fight over them with muskets barrel to barrel outside the troopers ride round and round the town seizing or slaying all who escape within desperate men still aim from their windows though the houses on each side are in flames melting lead pours down from the blazing roofs while the drum still beats and the flag still advances it is struck down presently tied to a broken pike staff it rises again while a chaos of armor and plumes black and orange blue and red torn laces and tossing feathers powder stains and blood stains fills the doing mourning with terror and opens the June Sunday with sin three score and more of the townspeople are slain six score are led away at the horses sides bound with ropes to be handed over to the infantry for keeping some of these prisoners even of the armed troopers are so ignorant and unwarlike as yet that they know not the meaning of the word quarter refusing it when offered and employing mercy instead others are little children for whom a heavy ransom shall yet be paid others cheaper prisoners are ransomed on the spot some plunder has also been taken but the soldiers look longingly on the larger wealth that must be left behind in the hurry of retreat treasures that otherwise no trooper of Rupert's would have spared scarlet cloth bedding saddles cutlery ironware hats shoes hops for beer and books to sell to the Oxford scholars but the daring which has given them victory now makes their danger they have been nearly twelve hours in the saddle and have fought two actions they have twenty five miles to ride with the whole force of the enemy in their path they came unseen in the darkness they must return by daylight and with the alarm already given Stoke and church bell has been peeling for hours the troop from postcomb has fallen back on Tetsworth and everywhere in the distant vignettes are hurrying from post to post the perilous retreat begins ranks are closed they ride silently many a man leads a second horse beside him and one bears in triumph the great captured Puritan standard with its five buffed Bibles on a black ground they choose their course more carefully than ever seek the by-lands and swim the rivers with their swords between their teeth at one point in their hushed progress they hear the sound of rattling wagons there was a treasure train within their reach worth twenty one thousand pounds and destined for the parliamentary camp but the thick woods of the children's have sheltered it from pursuit and they have not a moment to waste they are writing for their lives already the gathering parties of round heads are closing upon them nearer and nearer as they approach the most perilous point of the wild expedition their only return path across the churwell chiselhampton bridge Percy and O'Neill with difficulty hold the assailants in check the case grows desperate at last and Rupert stands at bay on childgrove field it is Sunday morning June eighteen sixteen forty three the early church bells are ringing all over Oxfordshire dying away in the soft air among the sunny English hills while Englishmen are drawing near one another with hatred in their hearts dying away as on that other Sunday eight months ago when Baxter preaching near Edge Hill heard the sounds of battle and disturbed the rest of his saints by exclaiming to the fight but here are no warrior preachers no bishops praying and surpluses on the one side no dark robed divines preaching on horseback on the other no king and glittering armor no tutor Harvey in peaceful meditation beneath the edge pondering on the circulation of the blood with hotter blood flowing so near him all these were to be seen at Edge Hill but not here this smaller skirmish whether turns our thoughts to sysatlantic associations its state suggests bunker hill its circumstances lexington for this also is a marauding party with the Percy among its officers brought to a stand by a half armed and an angry peasantry Rupert sends his infantry forward to secure the bridge and a sufficient body of jagoons to line the mile and a half of road between them the remainder of the troops being drawn up at the entrance of a cornfield several hundred acres in extent and lying between the villages and the hills the Puritans take a long circuit endeavoring to get to winward of their formidable enemy a point judged as important during the seventeenth century in a land fight as an enable engagement they have with them some light field pieces artillery being the only point of superiority they yet claim but these are not basilis nor falconettes nor culverns colibre clevers nor drakes tracons nor warning pieces there are the leather guns of Gustavus Aldophis made of light cast iron and bound with ropes and leather the round hedge of grains dismounted line a hedge near the cavaliers and plant their swine feathers under cover of their fire the horse advance in line matches burning as they advance one or two dash forward at risk of their lives flinging off of the orange scarves which alone distinguish them and token that they desert to the royal cause Prince Rupert falls back into the lane a little to lead the other forces into his ambush of drakes these tactics do not come naturally to him however nor does he like the practice of the time that two bodies of cavalry should ride up within pistol shot of each other and exchange of volley before they charge he rather anticipates on his style of operations the famous order of Frederick the Great being hereby forbids all officers of cavalry on pain of being broke with ignominie ever to allow themselves to be attacked in any action by the enemy but the Prussians must always attack them accordingly he restrains himself for a little while chafing beneath the delay and then a soldier or two being suddenly struck down by the fire he exclaims, yay this insolency is not to be endured the moment is come God and Queen Mary, shouts Rupert, charge in one instant that motionless mass becomes a flood of lava down in one terrible sweep it comes silence behind it and despair before no one notices the beauty of that brilliant chivalrous array all else is merged in the fury of the wild gallop spurs are deep, rains free, blades grasped, heads bent the excited horse feels the heel no more than he feels the hand the uneven ground breaks their ranks no matter, they feel that they can ride down the world Rupert first clears the hedge, he is always first then comes the captain of his lifeguard then the whole troop jumble after them and a spectator's piquant phrase the dismounted Puritan dragons break from the hedges and scatter for their lives but the cavalry bear the charge better than they have done since Worcester that is, now they stand it an instant then they did not stand it at all the prince takes them in flank and breaks them in pieces at the first encounter the very wind of the charge shatters them horse and foot, carbines and petronels swords and polaxes are mingled in one struggling mass Rupert and his men seem refreshed not exhausted by the weary night they seem incapable of fatigue they spike at the guns as they cut down the gunners and if any escape it is because many in both armies were the same red scarfs one Puritan, surrounded by the enemy shows such desperate daring that Rupert bids release him at last and sends afterwards to Essex to ask his name one Cavalier bends with a wild oath to search the pockets of a slain enemy it is his own brother O'Neill slays the standard bearer and thus restores to his company the right to bear a flag a right they had lost at Hopton Heath leg is taken prisoner and escapes Urie proves himself no coward though a renegade and is trusted to bear to Oxford the news of the victory being raised to knighthood in return for a victory of course it is nothing in England can yet resist these high-born, disillute reckless Cavaliers of Rupert's I have seen them running up walls 20 feet high said the engineer consulted by the frightened citizens of Dorchester these defences of yours may possibly keep them out half an hour darlings of triumphant aristocracy they are destined to meet with no foe that can match them until they recoil at last before they leave until they recoil at last before the plebeian pikes of the London train-bands nor can even Rupert's men claim to monopolize the courage of the king's party the brilliant show-troop of Lord Bernard Stewart comprising the young nobles having no separate command a troop which could afford to indulge in all the gorgeousness of dress since their united incomes clarend in declares of the whole Puritan Parliament led by their own desire the triumphant charge at Edge Hill and three score of their bodies were found piled on the spot where the royal standard was captured and rescued not less faithful were the Marquess of Newcastle's lambs who took their name from the white woollen clothing which they refused to have died saying that their hearts blood would die soon enough and so it did at thirty survived the battle of Marston Moor and the bodies of the rest were found in the field ranked regularly side by side in death as in life but here at Chalgrove Field no such fortitude of endurance is needed the enemy are scattered and as Rupert's cavaliers are dashing on and there are customs headlong pursuit a small but fresh force of Puritan cavalry appears behind the hedges and charges on them from the right two troops hastily gathered and in various garb they are headed by a man in middle life and of noble aspect once seen he cannot easily be forgotten but seen he will never be again and for the last time Rupert and Hampton meet face to face the foremost representative men of their respective parties they scarcely remember perhaps that there are ties and coincidences in their lives at the marriage of Rupert's mother the student Hampton was chosen to write the Oxford epithelium exalting in the prediction of some noble offspring to follow such a union Rupert is about to be made general in chief of the cavaliers Hampton is looked to by all as the future general in chief of the Puritans Rupert is the nephew of the king as an acromwell and as the former is believed to be aiming at the crown so the latter is the only possible rival of acromwell for the protectorate the eyes of all being fixed upon him as their painter patriae but in the greater qualities of manhood how far must Hampton be placed above the magnificent and gifted Rupert and a congress of natural noblemen for such do the men of the commonwealth appear he must rank foremost it is difficult to avoid exaggeration in speaking of these men men whose deeds vindicate their words and whose words are unsurpassed by Greek or Roman fame men whom even Hume can only criticize for a mysterious jargon which most of them did not use and for a vulgar hypocrisy which few of them practiced let us not underrate the self forgetting loyalty of the royalists the Duke of Newcastle laying at the king's feet seven hundred thousand pounds and the Marquis of Worcester a million but the sublimer poverty and abstinence of the parliamentary party deserve a yet loftier mead then surrendering an office of thirty thousand pounds a year to promote public economy Hutchinson refusing a peerage and a fortune as a bribe to hold Nottingham Castle a little while under the king Elliot and Pem bequeathing their families to the nation's justice having spent their all for the good cause and rising to yet higher attributes as they pass before us and the brilliant paragraphs of the courtly clarin did or the chester modern estimates of Worcester it seems like a procession of born solfrens while the more pengent effit tests of contemporary wit only familiarize but do not mar the fame of Cromwell Cleveland's Caesar and a clown William the Conqueror Waller, Young Harry Vane, Fiery Tom Fairfax and King Pem but among all these there is no peer of Hampton of him who came not from courts or camps but from the tranquil study of his de Vila from that thoughtful retirement which was for him as for his model the school of all noble virtues came to find himself at once a statesman and a soldier receiving from his contemporary no affectionate critic the triple crown of historic praise as being the most able, resolute and popular person in the kingdom who can tell how changed the destiny of England had the Earl of Bedford's first compromise with the country party succeeded and Hampton become the tutor of Prince Charles or could this fight a Chalgrove field issue differently and Hampton survived to be general instead of Essex and Protector in place of Cromwell but that may not be had Hampton's earlier councils prevailed Rupert never would have ventured on his night for Ray had his next suggestions been followed Rupert never would have returned from it those failing Hampton has come gladly followed by Gunter and his dragoons outstripping the tardy Essex to dare all and die and vain does Gunter perish beside his flag and vain does cross his horse being killed under him spring in the midst of battle on another and vain does that great spirited little Sir Samuel Luke the original of Heterbras get thrice captured and thrice escape for Hampton the hope of the nation is fatally shot through the shoulder with two carbine balls in the first charge the whole troop sees it with dismay Essex comes up as usual too late and the fight of Chalgrove field is lost end of section 5 this recording is in the public domain section 6 of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by NEMA the world's story volume 10 England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Eva March Tappen section 6 Sir Nicholas at Marston Moore 1644 by Winthrop McWorth prayed it was not until Oliver Cromwell had reorganized the army filling it with sober Puritans who fought for principle that success deserted the royalist the first decisive victory of the roundheads was at Marston Moore where the gallant Cavaliers of Prince Rupert were swept away by the stern charge of Cromwell's Ironsides the editor to horse to horse Sir Nicholas the Clarion's note is high to horse to horse Sir Nicholas the huge drum makes reply ere this hath Lucas marched with his gallant Cavaliers and the braze of Rupert's trumpets grows fainter in our ears to horse to horse Sir Nicholas white guys at the door and the vulture wets his beak or the field of Marston Moore up rose the Lady Alice for a brief and broken prayer and she brought a silken standard down the narrow turret stair oh many were the tears that those radiant eyes had shed as she worked the bright word glory in the gay glancing thread and mournful was the smile that O'er there's beauty's features ran as she said it's your lady's gift unfurl it in the van it shall flutter noble wench where the best and boldest ride through the steel plaid files is skipping and the black dragoons of bride the requiant soul of Fairfax will feel a sicklier qualm and the rebel lips of Oliver give out a louder psalm when they see my lady's Guga flaunt bravely on their wing and hear her loyal soldiers shout for God and for the king to his noon the ranks are broken along the royal line they fly the breakers of the court the bullies of the Rhine stout Langley's cheer has heard no more and Astley's helm is down and Rupert she's his rapier with a curse and with a frown and cold new castle mutters as he follows in the fight the German boar had better far have supped in York tonight the knight is all alone his steel cap cleft in twain his good buff jerk and crimson ore with many a gory stain but still he waves the standard and cries amid the route for church and king fair gentlemen spur on and fight it out and now he wards a round head spike and now he hums a stave and here he quotes a stage play and there he fells a nave good speed to thee, sir Nicholas thou hast no thought to fear good speed to thee, sir Nicholas but fearful odds are here the traitors ring thee round and with every blow and thrust down, down they cry with Belial down with him to the dust I would quote Grim old Oliver that Belial's trusty sword this day were doing battle for the saints and for the lord the lady Alice sits with her maidens in her bower the gray-haired warden watches on the castle's highest tower what news what news old Anthony the field is lost in one the ranks of war are melting as the mist beneath the sun and a wounded man speeds hither I am old and cannot see for sure I am that sturdy step my master's step should be I bring thee back the standard from his rude and rough affray as air was proof of soldier's views or theme for minstrel's lay bid Hubert fetch the silver bowl and liquor quantum suff I'll make a shift to drain it there I part with boot and buff though Guy through many agaping wounds breathing out his life and I came to thee a landless man my fond and faithful wife sweet we will fill our money bags and freight the ship for France and mourn in merry Paris for this poor realm's mischance or if the worst betide me why better axe or rope than life with one thought for a king leaders for a pope alas alas my gallant guy out on the crop-eared boar that sent me with my standard on foot from Marston Moore end of section 6 this recording is in the public domain section 7 of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the world's story volume 10 England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Evermarch Tappan section 7 the battle of Nesapey by Obadiah bind their kings in chains and their nobles with links of iron sergent in Irton's regiment 1645 by Thomas Bebbington the army of Cromwell was of remarkable caliber high wages were given to the soldiers and only those who were sober and God fearing were permitted to join its ranks oath, theft, gambling and drunkenness were unknown as McColley says the most rigid discipline was found in company with the wildest enthusiasm one peculiarity of the Puritan was his choice of given names for his children he was not satisfied with simple biblical names of one word but frequently adopted a whole phrase such as zeal of the land praise God etc the battle of Nesapey between the forces of Charles I and those of Cromwell resulted in the utter defeat of the king the royal army was nearly annihilated the man of blood was the name given by the Puritans to King Charles the editor oh, therefore come ye forth in triumph from the north with your hands and your feet and your raiment all red and therefore dust your roots and forth a joyous shout and winds beat the grapes of the wine press which he tread oh, evil was the root and bitter was the fruit and crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod for we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong who sat in the high places and slew the saints of God it was about the noon of a glorious day of June that we saw their banners dance and their caresses shine and the man of blood was there with his long essenced hair and Astley and Sir Marmaduke and Rupert of the Rhine like a servant of the Lord with his Bible and his sword the general rode along us to form us to the fight when a murmuring sound broke out and swelled into a shout among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right and hark like the roar of the billows on the shore the cry of battle rises along their charging line for God, for the cause for the church, for the laws for Charles, King of England and Rupert of the Rhine the furious German comes with his clarions and his drums his brawls of Alsatia and pages of Whitehall their bursting on our flanks grasp your pikes close your ranks for Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall they are here they rush on, we're broken, we're gone our left is born before them like stubble on the blast oh lord put forth thy might oh lord defend the right stand back to back in God's name and fight it to the last stout skippin' hath a wound the center has given ground hark hark what means the trampling of horsemen on our rear whose banner do I see boys it's he, thank God it's he boys bear up another minute brave Oliver is here their heads all stooping low they are points all in a row like a whirlwind on the trees like a deluge on the dykes our curseers have burst on the ranks of the accursed and at the shock have scattered the forest of his pikes fast fast the gallant's ride in some safe nook to hide their covered heads predestined to rot on temple bar and he, he turns he flies shame on those cruel eyes that bore to look on torture and dare not look on war ho, comrades scour the plain and ere you strip the slain first give another stab to make your search secure then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad pieces and lockets the tokens of the venton the plunder of the poor fools your doublet shone with gold and your hearts were gay and bold when you kissed your lily hands to your lemons to-day and to-morrow shall the fox from her chambers in the rocks lead forth her tawny cubs to whole about the prey where be your tongs that laid mocked at heaven and hell and fate and the fingers once were so busy with your blades your perfumed setting clothes your hatches and your oath your stage place and your sonnet your diamonds and your spades down down forever down with the miter and the crown with the beeliel of the court and the mammon of the pope there is woe in oxford halls there's wail in darnham stalls that jesuit smites his bosom the bishop rends his hoop and she of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills and tremble when she thinks on the edge of england's sword and the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear what the hand of god has wrought for the houses and the ward end of section 7 this recording is in the public domain 1797 to 1856 painting page 46 in no long time it became manifest that those political and religious zealots to whom this deed is to be ascribed had committed not only a crime but an error they had given to a prince hitherto known to his people chiefly by his faults an opportunity of displaying on a great theater before the eyes of all nations they had given to a prince an opportunity of displaying on a great theater before the eyes of all nations and all ages some qualities which irresistibly call forth the admiration and love of mankind the high spirit of a gallant gentleman the patience and makeness of a penitent Christian nay, they had so contrived their revenge that the very man whose life had been a series of attacks on the liberties of england now seemed to die a martyr in the cause of those liberties and the fact that he had never ever produced such an impression on the public mind as the captive king who retaining in that extremity all his regal dignity and confronting death with dauntless courage gave utterance to the feelings of his oppressed people manfully refused to plead before a court unknown to the law appealed from military violence to the principles of the constitution asked by what right the House of Commons had been purged of its most respectable members arrived of its legislative functions and told his weeping hearers that he was defending not only his own cause but theirs his long misgovernment his innumerable perfidities were forgotten from that day began a reaction in favor of monarchy and of the exiled House a reaction which never ceased till the throne had again been set up in all its old dignity at the beginning of the Civil War the parliamentary party was composed for the most part of men who were Presbyterians in religion and moderates in politics as the struggle progressed there were a number of political parties in the country and in the country and in the country and in the country and in the country and in the country as the struggle progressed there arose a new and radical party that was destined to rest control of the state from both royalists and Presbyterians this party or sect was known as the independence its leader was Oliver Cromwell a country gentleman who at the outbreak of the Civil War had raised a company for parliament and soon attained a commanding position by the discipline and zeal of his soldiers the iron sides as they were called and by the uniform success of his operations soon after the appointment of Cromwell as Lieutenant General in 1645 the first period of the Civil War was ended by the overwhelming defeat of the royalists at Naysby in the following year the king surrendered to the Scots and was by them delivered up to the English parliament then followed three years of treaties and intrigues between the king and parliament until the army wary of the fruitless negotiations seized the king and drove the Presbyterian members from parliament by the remaining members known as the Rump Parliament the king was accused of treason tried before a special court of justice found guilty and executed on the 30th of January 1649 all parties except the independence were united by this act against Cromwell who as commander of the army was held chiefly responsible but such was his genius and resolution that he was able to overpower and crush everything that crossed his path to make himself more absolute master of his country than any of her legitimate kings had been and to make his country more dreaded and respected than she had been during many generations under the rule of her legitimate kings for nine years Cromwell and his soldiers ruled England and at his death in 1658 Richard Cromwell his son quietly succeeded to the title of Lord Protector end of section 9 this recording is in the public domain section 10 of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales this is a LibriVox recording a LibriVox recording is in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the world's story volume 10 England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales edited by Eba March Tappan section 10 the trial and execution of King Charles I 1649 by Jacob Abbott and now a design to which at the commencement of the Civil War no man would have dared to allude and which was no less inconsistent with the solemn league and covenant than with the old law of England began to take a distinct form the austere warriors who ruled the nation had during some months meditated a fearful vengeance on the captive king when and how the scheme originated whether it spread from the general to the ranks or from the ranks to the general whether it is to be ascribed to policy using fanaticism as a tool or to fanaticism bearing down policy with headlong impulse are questions which even at this day cannot be answered with perfect confidence it seems however on the whole probable that he who seemed to lead was really forced to follow and that he sacrificed his own judgment and his own inclinations to the wishes of the army for the power which he had called into existence was a power which even he could not always control and that he might ordinarily command it was necessary that he should sometimes obey Cromwell had to determine whether he would put to hazard the attachment of his party the attachment of his army his own greatness nay his own life in an attempt which would probably have been vain to save a prince whom no engagement could bind with many struggles and misgivings and probably not without many prayers the decision was made Charles was left to his fate the military saints resolved that in defiance of the old laws of the realm and of the almost universal sentiment of the nation the king should expiate his crimes with his blood Thomas Babington Macaulay everything connected with the trial was conducted with great state and parade the number of commissioners constituting the court was 133 though only a little more than half that number attended the trial the king had been removed from Hearst castle to Windsor castle and he was now brought into the city and lodged in a house near to Westminster Hall and on the appointed day the court assembled the vast hall and all the avenues to it were thronged the whole civilized world looked on in fact in astonishment at the almost unprecedented spectacle of a king tried for his life by an assembly of his subjects the first business after the opening of the court was to call the role of the commissioners that each one might answer the first name the name of the general of the army Fairfax who was one of that number was the second upon the list when his name was called there was no answer it was called again a voice from one of the galleries replied he has too much wit to be here this produced some disorder and the officers called out to know who answered in that manner but there was no reply afterwards when the impeachment was read when the same voice rejoined no not the half of them the officers then ordered a soldier to fire into the seat from which these interruptions came this command was not obeyed but they found on investigating the case that the person who had answered thus was Fairfax's wife and they immediately removed her from the hall when the court was fully organized they commanded the sergeant at arms to bring in the prisoner the king was accordingly brought in and conducted to it chair covered with crimson velvet which had been placed for him at the bar the judges remained in their seats with their heads covered while he entered and the king took his seat keeping his head covered too he took a calm and deliberate survey of the scene looking around upon the judges and upon the armed guards by which he was embalmed and unchanging countenance at length silence was proclaimed and the president rose to introduce their proceedings he addressed the king he said that the commons of England deeply sensible of the calamities which had been brought upon England by the Civil War and of the innocent blood which had been shed and convinced that he the king had been the guilty cause of it were now determined to make inquisition blood and to bring him to trial and judgment that they had for this purpose organized this court and that he should now hear the charge brought against him which they would proceed to try an officer then arose to read the charge the king made a gesture for him to be silent he however persisted in his reading although the king once or twice attempted to interrupt him the president too ordered him to proceed the charge recited the evils and calamities which had resulted from the war and concluded by saying that the said Charles Stewart is and has been the occasional author and continueer of the said unnatural cruel and bloody wars and is there in guilty of all the treasons murders, rapines, burnings spoils, desolations damages and mischiefs to this nation acted and committed in the said wars or occasioned thereby the president then sharply rebuked the king for his interruptions to the proceedings and asked him what answer he had to make to the impeachment the king replied by demanding by what authority they pretended to call him to account for his conduct he told them that he was their king and they his subjects that they were not even the parliament they had no authority from any true parliament to sit as a court to try him that he would not betray his own dignity and rights by making any answer at all to any charges they might bring against him for that would be an acknowledgement of their authority but he was convinced that there was not one of them who did not in his heart believe that he was wholly innocent of the charges which they had brought against him these proceedings today the king was then sent back to his place of confinement and the court adjourned the next day when called upon to plead to the impeachment the king only insisted the more strenuously in denying the authority of the court and in stating his reasons for so denying it the court was determined not to hear what he had to say on this point and the president continually interrupted him while he in his turn continually interrupted the president too it was a struggle and a dispute not a trial at last on the fourth day something like testimony was produced to prove that the king had been in arms against the forces of the parliament on the fifth and sixth days the judges sat in private to come to their decision and on the following day which was Saturday January 27 they called the king again before them and opened the doors to admit of spectators that the decision might be announced there followed another scene of mutual interruptions and disorder the king insisted on longer delay he had not said what he wished to say in his defense the president told him it was now too late that he had consumed the time allotted to him in making objections to the jurisdiction of the court and now it was too late for his defense the clerk then read the sentence which ended thus for all which treasons and crimes this court death a judge that he the said Charles Stewart is a tyrant traitor murderer and public enemy and shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body when the clerk had finished the reading the president rose and said deliberately and solemnly the sentence now read and published is the act of defense judgment and resolution of the whole court and the whole court rose to express their assent the king then said to the president will you hear me a word sir president sir you are not to be heard after the sentence king am I not sir president no sir guards withdraw the prisoner king I may speak after sentence by your favor sir hold I say sir by your favor sir if I'm not permitted to speak the other parts of his broken attempts to speak were lost in the tumult and noise he was taken out of the hall one would have supposed that all who witnessed these dreadful proceedings and who now saw one who have been so lately the sovereign of a mighty empire standing friendless and alone on the brink of destruction would have relented at last and would have found their hearts yielding to emotions of pity but it seems not to have been so the animosities engendered by political strife are merciless and the crowd through which the king had to pass as he went from the hall scoffed and derided him they blew the smoke of their tobacco in his face and through their pipes at him some proceeded to worse and these but the king bore awe with quietness and resignation the king was sentenced on Saturday on the evening of that day he sent a request that the bishop of London might be allowed to assist at his devotions and that his children might be permitted to see him before he was to die there were two of his children then in England his youngest son and a daughter the other two sons had escaped to the continent granted both these requests by asking for the service as of an Episcopal clergyman Charles signified his firm determination to adhere to the very last hour of his life to the religious principles which he had been struggling for so long it is somewhat surprising that the government were willing to comply with the request it was however complied with and Charles was taken from the palace of Whitehall which is in Westminster to the palace of St. James not very far distant he was escorted by a guard through the streets at St. James's there was a small chapel where the king attended divine service the bishop of London preached a sermon on the future judgment in which he administered comfort to the mind of the unhappy prisoner so far as the sad case allowed of any comfort by the thought that all human judgments would be reviewed and all wrongs made right at the great day after the service the king spent the remainder of the day in retirement and private devotion during the afternoon of the day several of his most trusty friends among the nobility called to see him but he declined to grant them admission he said that his time was short and precious and that he wished to improve it to the utmost in preparation for the great change awaited him he hoped therefore that his friends would not be displeased if he declined seeing any persons besides his children he would do no good for them to be admitted all that they could do for him now was to pray for him the next day the children were brought to him in the room where he was confined the daughter who was called the lady Elizabeth was the oldest he directed her to tell her brother James who was the second son and now absent with Charles on the continent that he must now from the time of his father's death no longer look upon Charles as merely his older brother but as his sovereign and obey him as such and he requested her to charge them both from him to love each other and to forgive their father's enemies you will not forget this my dear child will you added the king the lady Elizabeth was still very young no said she will never forget it as long as I live he then charged her with a message to her mother the queen who was also on the continent tell her said he that I have loved her faithfully all my life and that my tender regard for her will not cease till I cease to breathe poor Elizabeth was sadly grieved at this parting interview the king tried to comfort her you must not be so afflicted for me he said it would be a very glorious death without shall die I die for the laws and liberties of this land and for maintaining the Protestant religion I forgiven all my enemies and I hope that God will forgive them the little son was by title the Duke of Gloucester he took him on his knees and said in substance my dear boy they are going to cut off your father's head the child looked up into his father's face very earnestly not comprehending so strange an assertion they are going to cut off my head repeated the king and perhaps they won't want to make you a king but you must not be king as long as your brothers Charles and James live for if you do very likely they will sometime or other cut off your head the child said with a very determined air that then they should never make him king as long as he lived the king then gave his children some other parting messages for several of his nearest relatives and friends and they were taken away in cases of capital punishment in England and America there must be after the sentences pronounced written authority to the sheriff or other proper officer to proceed to the execution of it this is called the warrant and is usually to be signed by the chief magistrate of the state in England the sovereign always signs the warrant of execution but in the case of the execution of the sovereign himself which was a case entirely unprecedented the authorities were at first a little at a loss to know what to do the commissioners who had judged the king concluded finally to sign it themselves it was expressed substantially as follows at the High Court of Justice for the trying and judging of Charles Stuart King of England January 29 1648 whereas Charles Stuart King of England has been convicted a tainted and condemned of high treason and sentence was pronounced against him by this court to be put to death by the severance of his head from his body of which sentence execution yet remaineth to be done these are therefore now to will and require you to see the said sentence executed in the open street before Whitehall upon the morrow being the 30th day of this instant month of January between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon of the said day with full effect and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant 59 of the judges signed this warrant and then it was sent to the persons appointed to carry the sentence into execution that night the king slept pretty well for about four hours though during the evening before he could hear the noise of the workmen building the platform or scaffold as it was commonly called on which the execution was to take place he awoke however long before day he called to an attendant who lay by his bedside and requested him to get up I will rise myself said he for I have a great work to do today he then requested that they would furnish him with the best dress and an extra supply of under clothing because it was a very cold morning he particularly wished to be well guarded from the cold blessed it should cause him to shiver and they would suppose that he was trembling from fear I have no fear said he death is not terrible to me I bless God that I am prepared the king had made arrangements for divine service in his room early in the morning to be conducted by the bishop of London the bishop came in he also read in the course of the service the 29th chapter of Matthew which narrates the closing scenes of our saviour's life this was in fact the regular lesson for the day according to the Episcopal ritual which assigns certain portions of scripture to every day of the year the king suppose that the bishop had purposely selected this passage and he thanked him for it as he said it seemed to him very occasion may it please your majesty said the bishop it is the proper lesson for the day the king was much affected at learning this fact as he considered it a special providence indicating that he was prepared to die and that he should be sustained in the final agony about ten o'clock Colonel Hacker who was the first one named in the warrant of execution of the three persons to whom the warrant was addressed not gently at the door to answer was returned presently he knocked again the king asked his attendant to go to the door he went and asked Colonel Hacker why he knocked he replied that he wished to see the king let him come in said the king the officer entered but with great embarrassment and trepidation he felt that he had a most awful duty to perform he informed the king that it was time to proceed very well said the king go on I will follow the king then took the bishop's arm and they went along together they found as they issued from the palace of St. James into the park through which their way led to Whitehall that lines of soldiers had been drawn up the king with the bishop on one side and the attendant before referred to whose name was Herbert on the other both uncovered walked between these lines of guards very fast so that the other scarce they kept pace with him when he arrived at Whitehall he spent some further time in devotion with the bishop and then at noon he ate a little bread and drank some light wine soon after this Colonel Hacker the officer came to the door and let them know that the hour had arrived the bishop and Hacker melted into tears as they bade their master farewell the king directed the door requested the officer to go on saying that he would follow they went through a large hall called the Banqueting Hall to a window in front through which a passage had been made for the king to his scaffold which was built up in the street before the palace as the king passed out through the window he perceived that a vast throng of spectators had assembled in the streets to witness the spectacle he had expected this and had intended to address them but he found that this was impossible as the space all around the scaffold was occupied with troops of horses and bodies of soldiers so as to keep the populace at so great a distance that they could not hear his voice he however made his speech addressing it particularly to one or two persons who were near knowing that they would put the substance of it on record and thus make it known to all mankind there was some further conversation about the preparations for the final blow the adjustment of the dress, the hair etc in which the king took an active part with great composure he then kneeled down and laid his head upon the block the executioner who wore a mask that he might not be known began to adjust the hair of the prisoner by putting it up under his cap when the king supposing that he was going to go for the sign the executioner said that he would the king spent a few minutes in prayer and then stretched out his hands which was the sign which he had arranged to give the axe descended the severed head with the blood streaming from it was held up by the assistant executioner for the gratification of the vast crowd which was gazing on the scene he said as he raised it behold the head of a traitor with black velvet and taken back through the window into the room from which the monarch had walked out in life and health but a few moments before a day or two afterward it was taken to Windsor Castle upon a hearse drawn by six horses uncovered with black velvet it was there interred in a vault in the chapel with an inscription upon lead over the coffin King Charles 1648 in of section 10 this recording is in the public domain section 11 of England, Scotland Ireland and Wales read for LibriVox.org by Aaron Grassy Cromwell in Whitehall by Julius Schrader Germany 1815 to 1900 painting page 60 from the banqueting hall of this palace Charles I was led forth to die on the scaffold that had been erected under its windows Cromwell who more than any other man in England had been responsible for the execution of the king is here represented as gazing sternly but with no one knows what thoughts at the portrait of Charles before which rest the hat gloves and riding whip of the monarch end of section 11 this recording is in the public domain section 12 of England, Scotland Ireland and Wales read for LibriVox.org by Nima a royalist description of Cromwell's men by Samuel Butler that stubborn crew of errant saints whom all men grant to be the true church militant such as to build their faith upon the holy text of piking gun beside all controversies by infallible artillery improve their doctrine orthodox with apostolic blows and knocks call fire and sword and desolation a godly, thorough reformation which always must be going on and still be doing never done as if religion were intended for nothing else but to be mended a sect whose chief devotion lies in odd, perverse antipasies and falling out with that or this and finding somewhat still amiss more peevish, cross and splinetic than dog, distract or monkey sick that with more care keep holy day the wrong than others the right way compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to still so perverse and opposite as if they worshiped god for spite the self same thing they will abhor one way and long another for free will they one way disavow another nothing else allow all piety consists therein and them and other men all sin rather than fail they will defy that which they love most tenderly quarrel with mince-pies and disparage their best and dearest friend plum porridge fat-pigging goose itself oppose and blaspheme custard through the nose end of section 12 this recording is in the public domain