CHAPTER XXXIV--ENGLAND UNDER OLIVER CROMWELL
Before sunset on the memorable day on which King Charles the First wasexecuted, the House of Commons passed an act declaring it treason in anyone to proclaim the Prince of Wales--or anybody else--King of England.Soon afterwards, it declared that the House of Lords was useless anddangerous, and ought to be abolished; and directed that the late King'sstatue should be taken down from the Royal Exchange in the City and otherpublic places. Having laid hold of some famous Royalists who had escapedfrom prison, and having beheaded the DUKE OF HAMILTON, LORD HOLLAND, andLORD CAPEL, in Palace Yard (all of whom died very courageously), theythen appointed a Council of State to govern the country. It consisted offorty-one members, of whom five were peers. Bradshaw was made president.The House of Commons also re-admitted members who had opposed the King'sdeath, and made up its numbers to about a hundred and fifty.
But, it still had an army of more than forty thousand men to deal with,and a very hard task it was to manage them. Before the King's execution,the army had appointed some of its officers to remonstrate between themand the Parliament; and now the common soldiers began to take that officeupon themselves. The regiments under orders for Ireland mutinied; onetroop of horse in the city of London seized their own flag, and refusedto obey orders. For this, the ringleader was shot: which did not mendthe matter, for, both his comrades and the people made a public funeralfor him, and accompanied the body to the grave with sound of trumpets andwith a gloomy procession of persons carrying bundles of rosemary steepedin blood. Oliver was the only man to deal with such difficulties asthese, and he soon cut them short by bursting at midnight into the townof Burford, near Salisbury, where the mutineers were sheltered, takingfour hundred of them prisoners, and shooting a number of them by sentenceof court-martial. The soldiers soon found, as all men did, that Oliverwas not a man to be trifled with. And there was an end of the mutiny.
The Scottish Parliament did not know Oliver yet; so, on hearing of theKing's execution, it proclaimed the Prince of Wales King Charles theSecond, on condition of his respecting the Solemn League and Covenant.Charles was abroad at that time, and so was Montrose, from whose help hehad hopes enough to keep him holding on and off with commissioners fromScotland, just as his father might have done. These hopes were soon atan end; for, Montrose, having raised a few hundred exiles in Germany, andlanded with them in Scotland, found that the people there, instead ofjoining him, deserted the country at his approach. He was soon takenprisoner and carried to Edinburgh. There he was received with everypossible insult, and carried to prison in a cart, his officers going twoand two before him. He was sentenced by the Parliament to be hanged on agallows thirty feet high, to have his head set on a spike in Edinburgh,and his limbs distributed in other places, according to the old barbarousmanner. He said he had always acted under the Royal orders, and onlywished he had limbs enough to be distributed through Christendom, that itmight be the more widely known how loyal he had been. He went to thescaffold in a bright and brilliant dress, and made a bold end at thirty-eight years of age. The breath was scarcely out of his body when Charlesabandoned his memory, and denied that he had ever given him orders torise in his behalf. O the family failing was strong in that Charlesthen!
Oliver had been appointed by the Parliament to command the army inIreland, where he took a terrible vengeance for the sanguinary rebellion,and made tremendous havoc, particularly in the siege of Drogheda, whereno quarter was given, and where he found at least a thousand of theinhabitants shut up together in the great church: every one of whom waskilled by his soldiers, usually known as OLIVER'S IRONSIDES. There werenumbers of friars and priests among them, and Oliver gruffly wrote homein his despatch that these were 'knocked on the head' like the rest.
But, Charles having got over to Scotland where the men of the SolemnLeague and Covenant led him a prodigiously dull life and made him veryweary with long sermons and grim Sundays, the Parliament called theredoubtable Oliver home to knock the Scottish men on the head for settingup that Prince. Oliver left his son-in-law, Ireton, as general inIreland in his stead (he died there afterwards), and he imitated theexample of his father-in-law with such good will that he brought thecountry to subjection, and laid it at the feet of the Parliament. In theend, they passed an act for the settlement of Ireland, generallypardoning all the common people, but exempting from this grace such ofthe wealthier sort as had been concerned in the rebellion, or in anykilling of Protestants, or who refused to lay down their arms. Greatnumbers of Irish were got out of the country to serve under Catholicpowers abroad, and a quantity of land was declared to have been forfeitedby past offences, and was given to people who had lent money to theParliament early in the war. These were sweeping measures; but, ifOliver Cromwell had had his own way fully, and had stayed in Ireland, hewould have done more yet.
However, as I have said, the Parliament wanted Oliver for Scotland; so,home Oliver came, and was made Commander of all the Forces of theCommonwealth of England, and in three days away he went with sixteenthousand soldiers to fight the Scottish men. Now, the Scottish men,being then--as you will generally find them now--mighty cautious,reflected that the troops they had were not used to war like theIronsides, and would be beaten in an open fight. Therefore they said,'If we live quiet in our trenches in Edinburgh here, and if all thefarmers come into the town and desert the country, the Ironsides will bedriven out by iron hunger and be forced to go away.' This was, no doubt,the wisest plan; but as the Scottish clergy _would_ interfere with whatthey knew nothing about, and would perpetually preach long sermonsexhorting the soldiers to come out and fight, the soldiers got it intheir heads that they absolutely must come out and fight. Accordingly,in an evil hour for themselves, they came out of their safe position.Oliver fell upon them instantly, and killed three thousand, and took tenthousand prisoners.
To gratify the Scottish Parliament, and preserve their favour, Charleshad signed a declaration they laid before him, reproaching the memory ofhis father and mother, and representing himself as a most religiousPrince, to whom the Solemn League and Covenant was as dear as life. Hemeant no sort of truth in this, and soon afterwards galloped away onhorseback to join some tiresome Highland friends, who were alwaysflourishing dirks and broadswords. He was overtaken and induced toreturn; but this attempt, which was called 'The Start,' did him just somuch service, that they did not preach quite such long sermons at himafterwards as they had done before.
On the first of January, one thousand six hundred and fifty-one, theScottish people crowned him at Scone. He immediately took the chiefcommand of an army of twenty thousand men, and marched to Stirling. Hishopes were heightened, I dare say, by the redoubtable Oliver being ill ofan ague; but Oliver scrambled out of bed in no time, and went to workwith such energy that he got behind the Royalist army and cut it off fromall communication with Scotland. There was nothing for it then, but togo on to England; so it went on as far as Worcester, where the mayor andsome of the gentry proclaimed King Charles the Second straightway. Hisproclamation, however, was of little use to him, for very few Royalistsappeared; and, on the very same day, two people were publicly beheaded onTower Hill for espousing his cause. Up came Oliver to Worcester too, atdouble quick speed, and he and his Ironsides so laid about them in thegreat battle which was fought there, that they completely beat theScottish men, and destroyed the Royalist army; though the Scottish menfought so gallantly that it took five hours to do.
The escape of Charles after this battle of Worcester did him good servicelong afterwards, for it induced many of the generous English people totake a romantic interest in him, and to think much better of him than heever deserved. He fled in the night, with not more than sixty followers,to the house of a Catholic lady in Staffordshire. There, for his greatersafety, the whole sixty left him. He cropped his hair, stained his faceand hands brown as if they were sunburnt, put on the clothes of alabouring countryman, and went out in the morning with his axe in hishand, accompanied by four wood-cutters who were brothers, and another manwho was their brother-in-law. These good fellows made a bed for himunder a tree, as the weather was very bad; and the wife of one of thembrought him food to eat; and the old mother of the four brothers came andfell down on her knees before him in the wood, and thanked God that hersons were engaged in saving his life. At night, he came out of theforest and went on to another house which was near the river Severn, withthe intention of passing into Wales; but the place swarmed with soldiers,and the bridges were guarded, and all the boats were made fast. So,after lying in a hayloft covered over with hay, for some time, he cameout of his place, attended by COLONEL CARELESS, a Catholic gentleman whohad met him there, and with whom he lay hid, all next day, up in theshady branches of a fine old oak. It was lucky for the King that it wasSeptember-time, and that the leaves had not begun to fall, since he andthe Colonel, perched up in this tree, could catch glimpses of thesoldiers riding about below, and could hear the crash in the wood as theywent about beating the boughs.
After this, he walked and walked until his feet were all blistered; and,having been concealed all one day in a house which was searched by thetroopers while he was there, went with LORD WILMOT, another of his goodfriends, to a place called Bentley, where one MISS LANE, a Protestantlady, had obtained a pass to be allowed to ride through the guards to seea relation of hers near Bristol. Disguised as a servant, he rode in thesaddle before this young lady to the house of SIR JOHN WINTER, while LordWilmot rode there boldly, like a plain country gentleman, with dogs athis heels. It happened that Sir John Winter's butler had been servant inRichmond Palace, and knew Charles the moment he set eyes upon him; but,the butler was faithful and kept the secret. As no ship could be foundto carry him abroad, it was planned that he should go--still travellingwith Miss Lane as her servant--to another house, at Trent near Sherbornein Dorsetshire; and then Miss Lane and her cousin, MR. LASCELLES, who hadgone on horseback beside her all the way, went home. I hope Miss Lanewas going to marry that cousin, for I am sure she must have been a brave,kind girl. If I had been that cousin, I should certainly have loved MissLane.
When Charles, lonely for the loss of Miss Lane, was safe at Trent, a shipwas hired at Lyme, the master of which engaged to take two gentlemen toFrance. In the evening of the same day, the King--now riding as servantbefore another young lady--set off for a public-house at a place calledCharmouth, where the captain of the vessel was to take him on board. But,the captain's wife, being afraid of her husband getting into trouble,locked him up and would not let him sail. Then they went away toBridport; and, coming to the inn there, found the stable-yard full ofsoldiers who were on the look-out for Charles, and who talked about himwhile they drank. He had such presence of mind, that he led the horsesof his party through the yard as any other servant might have done, andsaid, 'Come out of the way, you soldiers; let us have room to pass here!'As he went along, he met a half-tipsy ostler, who rubbed his eyes andsaid to him, 'Why, I was formerly servant to Mr. Potter at Exeter, andsurely I have sometimes seen you there, young man?' He certainly had,for Charles had lodged there. His ready answer was, 'Ah, I did live withhim once; but I have no time to talk now. We'll have a pot of beertogether when I come back.'
From this dangerous place he returned to Trent, and lay there concealedseveral days. Then he escaped to Heale, near Salisbury; where, in thehouse of a widow lady, he was hidden five days, until the master of acollier lying off Shoreham in Sussex, undertook to convey a 'gentleman'to France. On the night of the fifteenth of October, accompanied by twocolonels and a merchant, the King rode to Brighton, then a little fishingvillage, to give the captain of the ship a supper before going on board;but, so many people knew him, that this captain knew him too, and notonly he, but the landlord and landlady also. Before he went away, thelandlord came behind his chair, kissed his hand, and said he hoped tolive to be a lord and to see his wife a lady; at which Charles laughed.They had had a good supper by this time, and plenty of smoking anddrinking, at which the King was a first-rate hand; so, the captainassured him that he would stand by him, and he did. It was agreed thatthe captain should pretend to sail to Deal, and that Charles shouldaddress the sailors and say he was a gentleman in debt who was runningaway from his creditors, and that he hoped they would join him inpersuading the captain to put him ashore in France. As the King actedhis part very well indeed, and gave the sailors twenty shillings todrink, they begged the captain to do what such a worthy gentleman asked.He pretended to yield to their entreaties, and the King got safe toNormandy.
Ireland being now subdued, and Scotland kept quiet by plenty of forts andsoldiers put there by Oliver, the Parliament would have gone on quietlyenough, as far as fighting with any foreign enemy went, but for gettinginto trouble with the Dutch, who in the spring of the year one thousandsix hundred and fifty-one sent a fleet into the Downs under their ADMIRALVAN TROMP, to call upon the bold English ADMIRAL BLAKE (who was therewith half as many ships as the Dutch) to strike his flag. Blake fired araging broadside instead, and beat off Van Tromp; who, in the autumn,came back again with seventy ships, and challenged the bold Blake--whostill was only half as strong--to fight him. Blake fought him all day;but, finding that the Dutch were too many for him, got quietly off atnight. What does Van Tromp upon this, but goes cruising and boastingabout the Channel, between the North Foreland and the Isle of Wight, witha great Dutch broom tied to his masthead, as a sign that he could andwould sweep the English of the sea! Within three months, Blake loweredhis tone though, and his broom too; for, he and two other boldcommanders, DEAN and MONK, fought him three whole days, took twenty-threeof his ships, shivered his broom to pieces, and settled his business.
Things were no sooner quiet again, than the army began to complain to theParliament that they were not governing the nation properly, and to hintthat they thought they could do it better themselves. Oliver, who hadnow made up his mind to be the head of the state, or nothing at all,supported them in this, and called a meeting of officers and his ownParliamentary friends, at his lodgings in Whitehall, to consider the bestway of getting rid of the Parliament. It had now lasted just as manyyears as the King's unbridled power had lasted, before it came intoexistence. The end of the deliberation was, that Oliver went down to theHouse in his usual plain black dress, with his usual grey worstedstockings, but with an unusual party of soldiers behind him. These lasthe left in the lobby, and then went in and sat down. Presently he gotup, made the Parliament a speech, told them that the Lord had done withthem, stamped his foot and said, 'You are no Parliament. Bring them in!Bring them in!' At this signal the door flew open, and the soldiersappeared. 'This is not honest,' said Sir Harry Vane, one of the members.'Sir Harry Vane!' cried Cromwell; 'O, Sir Harry Vane! The Lord deliverme from Sir Harry Vane!' Then he pointed out members one by one, andsaid this man was a drunkard, and that man a dissipated fellow, and thatman a liar, and so on. Then he caused the Speaker to be walked out ofhis chair, told the guard to clear the House, called the mace upon thetable--which is a sign that the House is sitting--'a fool's bauble,' andsaid, 'here, carry it away!' Being obeyed in all these orders, hequietly locked the door, put the key in his pocket, walked back toWhitehall again, and told his friends, who were still assembled there,what he had done.
They formed a new Council of State after this extraordinary proceeding,and got a new Parliament together in their own way: which Oliver himselfopened in a sort of sermon, and which he said was the beginning of aperfect heaven upon earth. In this Parliament there sat a well-knownleather-seller, who had taken the singular name of Praise God Barebones,and from whom it was called, for a joke, Barebones's Parliament, thoughits general name was the Little Parliament. As it soon appeared that itwas not going to put Oliver in the first place, it turned out to be notat all like the beginning of heaven upon earth, and Oliver said it reallywas not to be borne with. So he cleared off that Parliament in much thesame way as he had disposed of the other; and then the council ofofficers decided that he must be made the supreme authority of thekingdom, under the title of the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
So, on the sixteenth of December, one thousand six hundred andfifty-three, a great procession was formed at Oliver's door, and he cameout in a black velvet suit and a big pair of boots, and got into hiscoach and went down to Westminster, attended by the judges, and the lordmayor, and the aldermen, and all the other great and wonderful personagesof the country. There, in the Court of Chancery, he publicly acceptedthe office of Lord Protector. Then he was sworn, and the City sword washanded to him, and the seal was handed to him, and all the other thingswere handed to him which are usually handed to Kings and Queens on stateoccasions. When Oliver had handed them all back, he was quite made andcompletely finished off as Lord Protector; and several of the Ironsidespreached about it at great length, all the evening.