"On the first year of freedom, by God's bles<ing restored 1648."

Soon after, the duke of Hamilton, and lord Capel, were both tried by a new high court of ustice, and being condemned for treason, were executed. It should likewise be noticed, in this place, that a book called the Icon Basilike, was published a few days after the king's execution, and excited a general compassion in favour of his memory. So much was it attended to, that tran through twelve editions in a year; and though it has been doubted whether it was a genuine production of Charles, there seems litde reason to ascribe it to Dr. Ganden, the only other persons to whom it was given.

CHAP. XV.

The Commonwealth.

ON the death of Charles, every person, A. D. according to his own distempered 1649. imagination, had framed the model of a republic, which he wished to impose on his fellow citizens. The levellers insisted on an equal distribution of power and property; the millenarians, or fifth monarchy men, required that government itself should be abolished, and to look only for the second coming of Christ; while the antinómians asserted, that the obliga tions of morality and natural law were suspended, and that the elect. were guided by an internal principle, more perfect and divine.

The royalists were inflamed with the highest

resentment

resentment against their ignoble adversaries; the presbyterians were enraged to find, that the fruits of their labours were ravished from them by the superior cunning of their associates; and the army, the chief support of the independent republican faction, were actuated by a religious frenzy, which rendered it dangerous to its very friends.

The influence and artifice of Cromwell were the only poise against these irregularities of action. Hating monarchy while a subject, despising liberty while a citizen, he was secretly paving the way to his own unlimited authority.

The parliament now named a council of state, consisting of thirty-eight members, who digested all business, before it was brought into the house. Foreign powers, occupied in wars among themselves, were too wise to interfere in the domestic dissensions of this island; and the young king, poor and neglected, could only indulge hopes, without the immediate prospect of their being realized. The situation of Scotland and Ireland alone gave any present inquietude to the new republic.

Argyle and his partizans had proclaimed Charles II. in Scotland; but on condition of his strict observance of the covenant: in Ireland, the duke of Ormond had contrived to assemble an army of sixteen thousand men, which after recovering many places from the parliament, threatened Dublin itself with a siege.

Cromwell saw that this would be the field for him to signalize himself in, and by his usual cunning, procured an appointment from the council of commander in chief in that island. He had, however, many disorders to compose

in England, before he set out, particularly in the army; but, with his usual felicity, he settled affairs sufficiently to allow him to set out.

On his arrival at Dublin, he hastened to Tredah, where Ormond had planted a strong gar rison; but Cromwell, who knew the importance of dispatch, took the town, sword in hand, and made a cruel slaughter of the garrison. One person alone escaped, to be the messenger of this universal havoc and destruction.

Cromwell pretended to retaliate, by this severe execution, the inhumanity of the Irish massacre; and certainly his barbarous policy had the desired effect. Every town before which he presented himself, now opened its gates; and the English had nothing to fear, except from fatigue, and the advanced season. Fluxes and contagious disorders carried off numbers of them; and had not the English gar risons of Cork, Kinsale and other important places, deserted to him, he would have found it difficult to maintain his ground.

The desertion of the English, however, put an end to Ormond's authority: he left the island, and delegated his power to Clanricarde, who found affairs too desperate to admit any remedy. Above forty thousand Irish passed into foreign. service, and left the parliamentary general at liberty to complete his conquest.

Meanwhile Charles, being informed A. D. that the Scottish parliament had pro- 1650. claimed him king, was prevailed on, though reluctantly, to submit to the hard conditions tacked to his receival of the crown. comply with these, he was chiefly induced on account of the fate of Montrose, who, with all

To

the circumstances of rage and contumely, ha been put to death by his zealous countrymen.

When informed that, by pa.t of his sentence, his head was to be cut off and affixed to the prison, and his legs and arms to be stuck up in the four chief towns of the kingdom: "For my part," replied he, "I am much prouder to have my head affixed to the place where it is sentenced to stand, than to have my picture hung in the king's bed-chamber. So far from being concerned that my quarters are to be sent to four cities of the kingdom, I wish I had limbs enough to be dispersed into all the cities of Christendom, there to remain as testimonies in favour of the cause for which I suffer." This sentiment, the very same evening, he threw into verse. The poem still remains; a monument of his heroic spirit, and no despicable proof of his poetic genius. With the same constancy he met the stroke of the executioner, in the thirty-eighth year of his age.

Charles, in consequence of his agreement to take the covenant, and submit to other hard conditions, arrived under convoy of seven Duch ships of war in the Frith of Cromarty. Before he was permitted to land, he was obliged to sign the covenant, and as he passed through Aberdeen, the quarters of Montrose were al lowed to hang over the gate by which he entered. He soon found himself considered as a pageant of state; and as his facility in yielding to every demand gave some doubts of his sincerity, it was proposed he should pass through a public humiliation, instead of being crowned as he expected.

From this disgrace, Charles was saved by the

advance

advance of the English army under Cromwell, who leaving Ireton in Ireland, had been invested with the principal command in Scotland, which Fairfax had declined from motives of feeling.

Leslie, who commanded the Scottish army, having entrenched himself between Edinburgh and Leith, avoided every artifice of Cromwell to bring him to a battle. The latter at last was reduced to such extremities, that he had even embraced the resolution of sending off his foot and artillery by sea, and of breaking through at all hazards, with his cavalry; but the madness of the Scottish ecclesiastics, preserved him from this dishonour.

These enthusiasts had not only enjoined Charles to withdraw from the army, but they had purged it of four thousand malignants, as they were called, though the best soldiers among them; and on the faith of visions, forced their general, in spite of all his remonstrances, to descend from an advantageous station he had occupied near Dunbar, with a view of attacking the English in their retreat. Cromwell seeing his enemy in motion, foretold without revelations, "that the Lord had delivered them into his hands." He gave orders for an immediate attack; and such was the effect of discipline, that though the Scots were double in number, they were soon put to flight, and pursued with great slaughter. About three thousand were slain, and nine thousand taken prisoners. The approach of winter suspended hostilities for the present. The defeat of the Scots was not displeasing to Charles, as it rendered them more submissive to his authority; yet still the protesters kept aloof from the malignants.

Y 3

Charles,