and addresses," observed Colonel Lunsford, with some warmth.

"And you give credit to those manifestoes!"the penmanship of the politic Hyde, the crafty and changeable Digby, or some other prudent member of his council; signed and published to salve their own consciences, make a fair show to posterity, and delude the "traitorous parliament at Westininster, and the mongrel one at Oxford !"* My uncle desires peace,—that is, a peace through oaths and engagements at the expense of his high prerogatives, no more than his nephew or his Queen. Let his rebellious people submit, and he will show them mercy; but he has said, “that he, the King of England, will never stoop to make

* From confidential letters to the Queen, captured after the battle of Naseby, it appears that Charles, at the treaty of Oxford, secretly registered his protest in the council book that, in calling the Lords and Commons at Westminster a parliament, he did not acknowledge them as such; but looked upon them as banded traitors, to whom he owed neither forgiveness nor good faith; and that he termed his own followers of both houses assembled at Oxford, a base, mutinous, mongrel parliament."-Mackintosh.

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of himself a Duke of Venice!"* and so say I, and so will I maintain with this good sword. Let all who doubt or fear go join the malignants! We desire not the aid of those who veil their coldness in our cause under high

sounding words a worn-out, worthless breast

plate, hid under a laced cloak."

"If your highness doubts my honour, loyalty, and courage, you act wisely in throwing me aside like a worthless breast-plate: I am unfit for the company of honourable men, still more unfit to hold command. From you I received that command, into your hands I resign it. This is no time for private disputes when the enemy is before us: I serve as a volunteer in the Cornish army during the siege; that concluded, I must claim from Prince Rupert an admission of my loyalty, honour, and courage, as public as his charge, or a trial by which that charge may be proved or refuted."

* Charles's reply on receiving the propositions of the parliament, June 1642.

"Claim it now, Colonel Lunsford; or rather, I will give it unclaimed," said the prince, the more generous part of his nature triumphing, as it sometimes did, (would that such moments had been more frequent!) over the darker instincts of his character. "I cannot spare you to the marquess: in losing you, my little army would lose one of the bravest among the brave. Your honour, loyalty, and courage are beyond a doubt, and should any hereafter dare to question them, Prince Rupert will give an answer. I merely vented my own ill-humour, without considering the meaning which might be attached to my hasty words. Are you contented, or must I say more?" extending his hand, whilst his features exhibited one of those wonderful changes in expression for which they were so noted. The dark frown, befitting none but a demon, was gone, and his countenance wore for a brief space the sweetness and fascination which distinguished his beautiful mother. The most vindictive spirit must have been softened and

subdued by his kind and graceful manner. Colonel Lunsford was not vindictive, and his earnest tone showed how much he was moved as he bowed upon the hand so graciously presented.

"More than contented. I should be the veriest churl in existence, if I were not. Your highness has said far more than I deserve, but the future shall not disprove your words. I was too hasty in taking exception at a hasty speech."

"If we come to putting the pack on the right horse, Colonel Lunsford, I may have a load beyond my strength to bear, so we will e'en let the matter rest as it is," replied the prince, with a winning smile. "I cannot stand here without chafing to think how I and Maurice stood not far from hence, under the gallows there, on St. Michael's Hill, on a chill March night, my teeth chattering with the cold, my very breathing checked, that I might catch the first sound of the bell which was to call the

*

Cavaliers to the Froom gate, where Captain

Hilsdon was to have secured the guard, and Boucher, and our other friends bearing the white badge, waited our coming; but St. Nicholas, St. John, and St. Michael were silent"

"Your highness should not have counted on their aid; the saints are all against us," remarked Colonel Carey, with a laugh.

"Save St. Chad, who took Lord Brook† out

* St. Nicholas's bells were to ring for the butchers, St. John's for the sailors, St. Michael's to bring down the Cavaliers. The Royalists within the city were to be distinguished by a piece of white tape round their arms.— Seyers.

+ Lord Brook was killed by a musket shot in the eye, aimed from the battlements of Lichfield Cathedral, on the day of St. Chad, its patron, as he was superintending the erection of a battery against the Close, into which the Earl of Chesterfield and several Royalists had thrown themselves. South plainly calls his lordship's death a judgment; and Clarendon, and many of his party, said or hinted the same; whilst Baxter, and the zealous Puritans, considered him a saint. Clarendon, in his life, boasts of having forged and published a speech in Lord Brook's name, with intent to bring discredit on his lordship, from the unchristian bitterness of its sentiments and expressions. So much for