j^>3 
 
^HE BisHOis Committed to the Tower.— An Episode in the Kevolution of 1688, [See 
 
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 )K OF 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES 
 
 OF 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 A BOOK OF 
 
 Wi^moxnhU gavjs ^nA ^otuhU gui^wts. 
 
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 > 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 JVITJI NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 W. H. STELLE & COMPANY, 
 
 697 BROADWAY 
 
COPYRIGHI , l5S3. 
 
 By H. C. SAKDIFER. 
 
 32 103. 
 
-?js 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 HE popular narratives embodied in this volume are brief but 
 
 complete descriptions of the most important events in the history 
 
 of our own and other countries in later times. No hard and fast 
 
 line has been followed in the arrangement of these sketches, which 
 
 are of uniform length and of a most catholic character. 
 
 The Epochs of History include many stirring scenes and peace- 
 ful records. The successes of arms, the records of political events, the 
 triumphs of industry in the lives of warriors and statesmen of modern 
 times, will be found faithfully recorded and picturesquely treated. Each 
 event has been treated completely in connection with its causes and its 
 consequences, the long succession of word-pictures being studied from 
 separate standpoints, until the best combination of the collected series has 
 been attained. 
 
 Thus it will be perceived that the Editor has not arrived at producing 
 a volume of history of any particular period, nor has he followed any 
 sequence of events, while each episode will be found linked with its pre- 
 decessors and followers by an almost imperceptible thread of narrative, 
 which completes the value of the collection. From Free Trade to the 
 Temperance Movement — from the Forty-five to the struggle in the Crimea 
 — from the Elizabethan Age to the era of Penny Newspapers and the 
 
ii PREFACE. 
 
 Penny Post, the various events of European and American history will 
 be easily traced amid the varied episodes narrated in this volume. 
 
 The usefulness of such a work as this can scarcely be over-estimated 
 as a book of reference and a historical record of most of the great events 
 in the history of the civilized world in later times. Written in a cheerful 
 narrative form, with careful references to recognized authorities, and without 
 any of the dry character of mere historical compilation, the Epochs and 
 Episodes which follow will, in their collected form, no doubt find favour 
 with the public. 
 
 The illustrations and portraits have been carefully selected, so as to 
 add to the attraction and usefulness of the volume. 
 
 The Editor. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION . . • i 
 
 A Field-Night in the Commons— Important Question — 
 Rumoured change of Policy— Repeated Surprises— 
 A Lion in the Path— Protection in Englaiid — The Corn 
 Laws and their Introduction— Remonstrances of the 
 People ; How Received — Protection to British Sailors 
 and Shipping: How it Worked— Scarcity and its 
 Effects — First Efforts against the Corn Laws — Esta- 
 blishment of the Anti-Corn-Law League— The Free 
 Traders in and out of Parliament— The Penny Post 
 an Auxiliary- to Free Trade — A Pair of Friends — 
 Richard Cobden and his Career — IMr. John Bright — 
 The Melbourne Government : Its Apathy and its Fall — 
 Erection of the Free Trade Hall in iNIanchester — In- 
 dications of Change — The Queen's Speech of 1841 and 
 its Forecast — Sir Robert Peel — Lord George Bentinck 
 and the " Stable jNIind " — Peel's Reservation of 
 Freedom of Action concerning the Corn Laws — Lord 
 John Russell— Enlarged Operations of the League ; 
 The first Free Trade Bazaar ; Its Brilliant Success — 
 Deputations of Free Traders to Parliament ; — The 
 Question pressed upon the House of Commons — Cob- 
 den's Appeal to the Prime Minister — Dismay of the 
 Protectionists — The Heat of the Battle — Zeal and 
 Activity of the League— Important Recruits to the 
 Free Trade Ranks — The Condition of the British 
 Labourer — Remedies Proposed — Mr. Bright's De- 
 scription of the Peasant's Lot — The Irish Famine — 
 Triumph of Free Trade — Famine forcing Peel's Hand 
 • — Summary and Conclusion. " 
 
 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 
 
 The Crusaders in Sight of Jerusalem— Cruelties In- 
 flicted on Pilgrims to the Holy Land— Appeal of 
 Peter the Hermit — Europe Roused to a Crusade — 
 Capture of Antioch and Massacre by the Crusaders — 
 Siege and Storming of Jerusalem — Horrible Slaughter 
 by Godfrey of Bouillon and his Followers — Wor- 
 shipping in the Church of the Sepulchre — The Latin 
 Kingdom — Origin of the Hospitallers and Templars — 
 The Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon — Insti- 
 tution of the Order of the Knights Templars, and 
 Rules drawn up by Bernard — Visit of the First Grand 
 Master to England — Rapid development and Enor- 
 mous Possessions of the Order — Battles in Palestine — 
 Noureddin and Saladin — The Last Crusade — The 
 Siege of Acre — Persecutions in England and France 
 — Tortures and Executions — Heroic Conduct of the 
 Knights — Horrible Accusations — Suppression of the 
 Order and Confiscation of the Possessions. 
 
 INDIA'S AGONY 
 
 A Terrible Example — The "Company's" India; Con- 
 quest and Misrule — Shaking the Pagoda-tree — 
 Mutinies of the Last Century — A Danger Disre- 
 garded — Sir Charles Napier's Opinion — A Policy of 
 Annexation — The First Outbreak — The Greased 
 Cartridges — Meerut — Delhi and the Great Mogul — 
 Spread of the Mutiny — Prompt Action of Lord Can- 
 ning — The Two Lawrences and Outram — Mean Meer 
 — General Anson — Successive Commander.s — Delhi 
 Retaken — Hodson and the Family of the Mogul — 
 Nana Sahib of Bithoor — Cawnpore — The Massacre 
 on the Ganges — The Turn of the Tide — Vengeance 
 of Nana Sahib — Struggle in Oudh — Havelock and 
 Outram — Lucknow — Sir Colin Campbell — Slaughter 
 of the Rebels — " Lucknow" Kavanagh — Final Throes 
 of the Mutiny — Bareilly — Transfer of India to the 
 English Government — End of theEast India Company. 
 
 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND ... 49 
 
 A Typical Life — A Cambridge Fellow — Black Joan— Re- 
 sult of a Supper Party— An Aged Martyr— Origin of 
 the Revolution- Langland and the Lollards — Burning 
 of Cobham— Printing Press— Dean Colet— The New 
 Learning — The Christian Brethren— Squire Tracy's 
 Will— Passion and Pope— Wolsey's Fall and Prophecy 
 — Its Progress— Henry's Divorce — A Married Priest as 
 Archbishop— Sir Thomas More— England governed 
 by a Blacksmith's Son— A Memorable Parliament — 
 Head of the English Church— The Black Book— Fall 
 of the IMonasteries— Captain Cobbler — Pilgrimage of 
 Grace— John Frith, the Genuine Martyr— The First 
 English Confessions of Faith— English Bible in the 
 Churches — Whip of Six Strings — Martyrdom of 
 Lambert and Anne Askevv' — Progress of Edward's 
 Reign— Book of Common Prayer— Catholic Reaction 
 —The Inquisition— Sir John Cheke— Ihe Martyrs- 
 Rogers, Hooper, Latimer, etc. — Smithfield — Protes- 
 tant Recovery — Cecil and Parker— Catholic Attempts 
 — The I'hirty-nine Articles. 
 
 OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE 65 
 
 The Stuarts at St. Germains and in Italy— The "Old 
 Pretender " in Italy — His Matrimonial Difficulties — 
 "My Dear Clementina "—The so-called Prince of 
 Wales and Duke of York — Their Love of Music- 
 Prince Charles Edward at the Siege of Gaeta— French 
 Encouragement to an Expedition — Collection of a 
 Force at Dunkirk — The Condition of the Scottish 
 Highlands — Paying for Peace — The Clan Act- 
 Jacobite Agents — Departure of the Prince for France, 
 and Narrow Escape— In Hiding at Gravelines — The 
 Expedition to Scotland— Reception by the Highlan- 
 ders — Personal Influence — "Bonnie Prince Charlie" 
 —At Athol, Linlithgow, and Holyrood— The Battle 
 of Prestonpans — Over the Border — To Derby and 
 Back Again — Fatal Culloden — The " Butcher Cum- 
 berland " — A Fugitive — Flora Macdonald— liscape to 
 France — Incognito Visits to England — Death at 
 Florence. 
 
 •WILKES AND LIBERTY 
 
 A Great Diplomatist and an Important Meeting — John 
 Wilkes, the Best-abused Public Man of his Time- 
 State of Affairs at the Death of George II.— The New 
 King ; His Ideas of Royal Prerogative— A King's 
 Favourite ; A Singular Prime Minister — A Lesson to 
 Royalty— The Minister and his Novel Policy — A 
 Government Press — The Biitou and the Auditor — 
 Wilkes and his Early Career ; The Medmenham 
 Uonks- The North Briton; The Famous Forty-fifth 
 Num.ber— General Warrant— Wilkes committed to 
 the Tower— Liberation of Wilkes; His First Triumph 
 -Churchill— Lord Temple— Successful Actions — 
 Personal Animosity of the King; Prosecution for a 
 Profligate Book — Culprit and Accusers— '_' Jemmy 
 Twitcher"- A Duel— Expulsion from Parliament — 
 Public Agitation — Rockingham Administration — 
 Middlesex Elections- Wilkes a Popular Hero— Perse- 
 cution and its Consequences— Important Question- 
 Freedom of Election— Release of Wilkes— His Return 
 and Triumphs— His Last Years— Conclusion. 
 
 THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE . . 
 
 An Important Day— The President's Ride through Paris 
 —A Delusion Dispelled— At the Elyse'e— Who was 
 responsible for the CouJ> d' Etat'i—'Vhe Strasburg 
 Enterprise— The Bologne Expedition and its Conse- 
 quences—Escape from Ham— Residence in London ; 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Return to Paris in 1848 — Louis Napoleon, President 
 — The Oath — " The Nephew of his Uncle " — Bidding 
 for Popularity — De Morn}-, Maupas, Persigny, Fleury, 
 St. Arnaud — Preparations for Striking the Blow ; the 
 Army — The Proclamation of December 2nd — Seizure 
 of Political Chiefs — The Army in Paris — Forcible 
 Closing of the Assembly— Arrest of Members — Closing 
 of the High Court of Justice — The Assembly carried 
 away Captive — State of Paris ; Discouragement ; 
 Committee of Resistance — Failure of the Struggle — 
 Proceedings of the Government — The Cavalry Charge 
 — The Massacre on the Boulevards — Details — Slaugh- 
 ter of Non-Combatants — Success of the Coup d' Etat 
 — Plebiscite — Testimony of an Impartial Witness — 
 Public Feeling in England. 
 
 METHODISM 
 
 Great Movements and Reaction — England under 
 George II. — Pioneers of the Revival — The Holy Club 
 at O.xford— George Whitfield's Early Daj^s— Whit- 
 field becomes a Preacher — Whitfield in London — The 
 Countess of Huntingdon — The Wesleys — The Wes- 
 leys become Itinerants — Spread of Methodism, Lay 
 Preachers, Provincial Mobs — Illustrious Allies — 
 Ireland, Scotland, Wales — Methodist Denominations 
 -^General Results — Conclusion. 
 
 FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL .... 
 
 Russia in 1852 — The Emperor Nicholas ; His Power 
 and Prosperity — The Czar and Sir Hamilton Seymour 
 — Taking an Observation — Montenegro — The Czar's 
 Protectorate — Mentschikoff's Mission — War between 
 Russia and Turkey — Anglo-French Alliance for the 
 Protection of the Porte — Omar Pasha and Oltenitza 
 — Sinope — Commencement of the Crimean War — The 
 Allied Forces and their Commanders : Raglan, St. 
 Arnaud, Dundas, Lyons — Defeat of Russians on the 
 Danube — Silistria and Giurgevo — The English, 
 French, and Turkish Armies at Gallipoli and Varna 
 ■ — Invasion of the Crimea — Landing at Eupatoria — 
 March towards Sebastopol — The Battle of the Alma 
 — March upon Balaclava — First Attack on Sebastopol 
 — Battle of Balaclava — Charge of the Light Brigade — 
 Newspaper Correspondents — Mr. Russell of "The 
 Times" — Battle of Inkermann — Soldiership and 
 Generalship — A Terrible Winter — An unexpected 
 Event — The Baltic Fleet — Bomarsund and Hango — 
 The Black Sea Fleet — Yenikale — Operations of 1855 
 — The iSth of June — Renewed Efforts, and Fall of 
 Sebastopol — Conclusion. 
 
 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 145 
 
 How the Bubble Rose — The South Sea Company — The 
 Bait held out — John Law in France — The Mississippi 
 Scheme — E.xcitement in Paris — Excesses and Specu- 
 lations — Failure of the Mississippi Scheme — Fate of 
 Law — Reverses — Plan to Pay the English National 
 Debt — The Bank and the South Sea Company — ■ 
 Passing of the Bill — The Race for Wealth — A Cloud 
 of Bubbles — The South Sea Scheme in cxcelsis — The 
 Beginning of the End — Fraud — A Falling off — Ruin 
 and Retribution — Nemesis. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" CRY . 161 
 
 A Vast Meeting in St. George's Fields — Lord George 
 Gordon — Other " Trojans " — Catholic Relief Bill, 
 1778 — The London Protestant Association — Coach- 
 maker's Hall— The Mob in Palace Yard ; Their 
 Behaviour — Peers and Bishops Assaulted — Scenes in 
 the Commons — Goi'don Threatened — Friday Night — 
 Chapels Attacked — Saturday's Grim Repose — Proba- 
 ble Influence of the Weather—Sunday — Riot in 
 Moorfields — Monday — Three Divisions of the Mob 
 — Savile House Gutted — Edmund Burke the States- 
 man — Tuesday — Scenes at the House — "Jemmy 
 Twitcher " — Burning of Newgate — Richard Hyde 
 and Barnaby Rud.Lje — BLirning of Mansfield's House 
 — Clerkenwell Prison — Black Wednesday— Flight of 
 Catholics — Dr. Johnson's Stroll — Langdale's Dis- 
 tillery I'nnied — The Prisons Fired— Attacks on the 
 Bank — London under Martial Law— Edward Dennis 
 alias Jack Ketch — Thursday — After the Carnival — 
 Trial of Lord George Gordon. 
 
 SCOTLAND'S SORROW 177 
 
 A Troublous Period — King David and Edward Balliol 
 — The Douglas Family — Accession of the Stuarts ; 
 Chevy Chase — James I., the Royal Poet — James II. ; 
 A Turbulent Vassal— James III.; Archibald Bell-the- 
 Cat— James IV. ; Happy Auspices Unfulfilled— The 
 Barton Family — A Gallant Fight — Causes of Quarrel 
 between England and Scotland — Vigorous Measures 
 of the Scottish King — A Mediajval Story — Hov/ 
 James IV. prepared for War — Obstinacy of the 
 King; The War Continued — The Opponent of 
 James — Position of the Armies — Letter of Surrey to 
 King James— The Plan of the Battle— The Battle of 
 Floclden — The Decisive Moment ; Death of the 
 King — Disastrous Nature of the Defeat — Alexander 
 Stewart, Archbishop of St. Andrews ; Scotland's Day 
 of Sorrow — Conclusion. 
 
 THE PENNY NEWSPAPER . . . . : 
 
 The Most Wonderful Pennyworth in the World — How 
 did our Ancestors Exist when Newspapers were Few? 
 — London News in the Country Parts — The Father of 
 English Journalism — Nathaniel Butter Laughed at 
 by Ben Jonson and Fletcher — Royalist and Parlia- 
 mentary "Mercuries" — Origin of the Z<?«ifi7« Gazette 
 — Addison Reproving Newsmongery — An Unintended 
 Prediction — Present Number of Local Papers — Im- 
 position of a Stamp Duty— The Oldest Existing 
 Journals— Birth and Growth of the Tijttcs—A. Taxed 
 and Dear Press — A Time of Poverty and Discontent 
 — Defying and Evading the Law — Carpenter and 
 Hetherington — Prosecutions and Imprisonments — 
 "Pelhara" to the Rescue — A Suggestion of Cheap 
 Postage— Parliamentary Work — Mr. Ewart, Mr. Mil- 
 ner, Mr. Gibson, and the Select Committee — Resolute 
 Attacks on " the Ta.xes on Knowledge " — Opposition 
 to the Publication of the Stamp Returns — Chambers' 
 Historical Newspaper, and Dickens's Household 
 Narrative — The Railway Mania and Mushroom 
 Journalism — Total Abolition of the Imposts — First 
 Appearance of the Daily Telegraph — The Penny and 
 Halfpenny Pre.ss. 
 
 FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO .... 
 
 Napoleon I. becomes Ruler of Elba — Description of the 
 Island — A great King and a Small Empire — Activity 
 and Prosperity in the Island — The Emperor's Plans 
 of Improvement — Want of Good Faith towards him — 
 His Pension — Errors of the Bourbon Government in 
 France — Demands of the Emigres — Priestcraft and 
 Intolerance — The Emperor's Return to France — 
 Flight of the Imperial Eagle to Paris and the Tuil- 
 eries — The Government and the Army — Attachment 
 of the Troops to Napoleon — Flight of the Bourbons — 
 Plan of the Campaign of 1815 — The Duke of Wel- 
 lington and Marshal Blucher — Active Operations — 
 The Historical Ball at Brussels — Battles of Ligny and 
 and Quatre Bras— Retreat and New Position South 
 of Waterloo — The Great Battle — Incidents of the Day 
 — A Defensive Position — The Issue of the Conflict — 
 End of the Vanquished Conqueror's Career. 
 
 SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY . . . . , 
 
 Introduction — Britons, English, Picts, Scots. — Scotland, 
 Edinburgh— A Glance at the early Scottish Kings — 
 The English Connection begins — Want of Unity of 
 Races in Scotland — Wars with England, Battle of the 
 Standard — The King of Scotland becomes the King 
 of England's Vassal — Progress in Wealth — A Heavy 
 Trouble begins — The Trouble Thickens — England the 
 Arbitrator — Humiliation — Scotland Arises, but is 
 Trampled down — Wallace to the Rescue — Still Un- 
 conquered— Robert Bruce— King Edward's Vow of 
 Vengeance — The Avenger laid low — Adventures of 
 the Fugitives, etc. — Brighter Days begin — King 
 Edward II. — Frivolity takes the place of Fierceness 
 — The Siege of Stirling Castle— A Battle imminent- 
 Site of ihe Hatlle— The B.attle— Flight of King Ed- 
 ward — Braces Nobleness in Triumph— Results of the 
 Battle. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE PENNY POST -241 
 
 The Old Posts and Posting— Ancient Carriers— His- 
 torical Sketch of the Penny Post of London— 1 he 
 Postboy considered— Dangers of "Riders" — The 
 Cross-Post instituted— Ralph Allen— Mr. Palmer and 
 Mail Coaches— The Old Mail to Bath — Rowland 
 Hill : His Investigations ; His Pamphlet upon Postal 
 Reform— Up-hill Work— Suggestions for Reform- 
 Reception of Mr. Hill's Scheme— Parliamentary Op- 
 position-Efforts in Hill's favour— Evidence on behalf 
 of the Scheme produced— Results of the Committee s 
 Enquiry— The Postal Reform Bill Passed— Guarded 
 Proceedings— The Grand Result— Sir Rowland HiU 
 — Post Office Work— Some Curious Facts — The 
 Parcel Post — Conclusion. 
 
 PAGE 
 Giraldus Cambrensis and his Opinion of Women — A 
 Papal Bull — Flight of King Dermot to England— 
 Strongbow and other Soldiers of Fortune — Siege of 
 We.xford — A Kingly Cannibal — Normans and Natives 
 — Massacre and Marriage — King Roderic and the 
 Invaders — Strongbow, King of Lemster — King Henry 
 interferes— A Royal Visit — "More Irish than the 
 Irish" — Appeal to the Bruces of Scotland — The 
 Statutes of Kilkenny — Poyning's Law and " the 
 Pale" — Rule of the Tudors — Terrible Condition of 
 the Native Irish — Absenteeism— Projects for Reform- 
 ing the Irish Church — A Reign of Terror— The Plan- 
 tation of Ulster — The Irish Society of London — The 
 Curse of Cromwell— Boy ne Water and the Siege of 
 Limerick— The Treaty of Limerick— A Policy of 
 Oppression. 
 
 HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY • ■ 257 
 
 A Momentous Question — English Liberty in the Olden 
 Time — The Parliament and its Power— Henry IV. 
 and Parliamentary Privileges— Tudors and Stuarts : 
 Their Attitude towards the Parliament and People- 
 Henry VIII. and the Contributions— Queen Eliza- 
 beth : Her Dependence on the People— James L— A 
 New State of Things— Charles I. working out his 
 Father's Theory- -John Hampden, Member for 
 Wendover — The Despotic Period — An Arbitrary 
 Government — The "Thorough" and Ship Money 
 — The Trial of the Question— The Collapse of 
 "Thorough"— The Short Parliament— The Long 
 Parliament — Breaking out of the Civil War— Death 
 of Hampden — Conclusion. 
 
 FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY . . 273 
 
 A Memorial of a Great Event — India under Aurungzebe 
 and hi:% Successors — The East India Companies and 
 their Rivalries — The Dutch in India ; their Arrogance 
 — England and France in the Carnatic — Dupleix and 
 his Schemes of Dominion — Robert Clive — The De- 
 fence of Arcot — Supremacy of the British in Hindostan 
 — Suraj-ud-Dowlah and the English in Calcutta — 
 Capture of Calcutta — The Massacre of the Black Hole 
 — Mr. Holwell's Account of the Transaction — The 
 Expedition from Madras ; Victory and Revenge — 
 The Conspiracy to dethrone the Suba ; Omichund 
 and his Treachery — " Diamond cut Diamond ; " 
 Clive's Device — Opinions of Mill and Macaulay on 
 his Conduct — The War against the Nabob ; Clive in 
 Command — Question of risking a General Engage- 
 ment — The Battle of Plassey and its Consequences — 
 Meer Jafifier, Ruler of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar — 
 Pecuniary Transactions of Clive with Meer Jaffier — 
 Further Victories — Rewards and Honours ; Return 
 of Clive to England — The Company's Rule in India ; 
 Grievances and Calamities- " Ringing the Changes 
 on Soubahs" — Meer Cossim and his Successors — 
 Further Proceedings of the Company — Clive's Third 
 Visit to India — How he applied the Remedy — The 
 Result — Conclusion. 
 
 CffiSARISM IN ROME : 
 
 A Roman Holiday — The Ides of March — Regal Rome — 
 Republican Rome — The Commencement of a Memo- 
 rable Epoch — The Oppressions of the Aristocracy — 
 Cato the Censor — Tiberius Gracchus and his Law for 
 the Amelioration of the Condition of the People — Caius 
 Gracchus — The Story of Jugurtha — Mariiis, Sulla, 
 and the Social War — The Mithridatic War and the 
 First Civil War — The Roman Reign of Terror- 
 Julius Caesar— The Second Civil War — The Catiline 
 Conspiracy — The Greatest Crisis in the History of 
 Rome — The First Triumvirate — The Contest between 
 Caisar and Pompey — Cffisar crosses the Rubicon — 
 The Beginning of the End — Caesar's Laws and Policy 
 — The Second Triumvirate — Proscriptions and Assas- 
 sinations—Augustus Emperor — Influence of Cxsarism 
 on the World. 
 
 STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT . . 
 
 The Land of Continual War — The Holy Angel's Com- 
 munication and St. Bridget — The Native Kings of 
 Ireland — Hungry Looks from England — Henry the 
 Second's Scheme, and Appeal to the Pope — The Irish 
 Church — King Dermot and the Lady Devorgoil — 
 
 FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES . . . 
 
 The Missouri Compromise — John Brown — The Breach 
 I — Mutterings of the Storm — Fort Sumter — Bull Run 
 I — Progress of the War — Numerous Battles— The 
 ! Trent Affair- Campaign of 1862— Capture of New 
 
 Orleans — The Merriinac and the l\Io7iitoi The 
 
 Struggle at Shiloh— Fighting in 1863 and 1S64— On 
 the Chickahominy — Lee in Virginia — Great Losses^ 
 Conclusion of the Civil War. 
 
 THE REFORM BILL OF 1832 .... 
 
 Popular Expression of National Feeling — John Gilpin 
 and his Runaway Horse " Reform"— Political Cele- 
 brities of 1831— Early Reform of the Representation 
 — The Long Parliament — Cromwell — Clarendon's 
 Opinion — Motion for Reform in 1745— The Elder Pitt 
 on Reform — Rotten Boroughs and Pocket Boroughs ; 
 Seats held as Family Property— The Younger Pitt ; 
 his Efforts for Reform— Opposition of Burke and 
 Others — The Friends of the People and Charles Grey 
 — Their Petition in 1793 — Hard Facts temperately put 
 — The French Revolution and its Effects— Long Delay 
 of Reform Measures— After the War ; Reform Agita- 
 tion ; its Supporters and Opponents — Government 
 Coercion — The Peterloo Massacre — Lord John 
 Russell's Reform Proposition in i8ig — Lord Castle- 
 reagh — George Canning — The Wellington Adminis- 
 tration; Catholic Emancipation; Changes — Sir Robert 
 Peel and his Influence — A New Reign and a New 
 Ministry; New Prospects of Reform -— Lord _ John 
 Russell introduces the Bill ; its Provisions, Disfran- 
 chisement, Enfranchisement, and Redistribution — 
 Various Speeches — Second Reading and Explanations 
 — Dissolution and General Election — Reintroduction 
 of the Reform Bill— Battle Royal — The Bill passes the 
 Commons — Debate in the Lords — The Bill rejected — 
 General Excitement — Birmingham Meeting — Bristol 
 Riots — The Bill again in the Commons — Battle in the 
 Lords — Resignation of the Ministry — Return of Lord 
 Grey — The Bill passed — Conclusion. 
 
 THE ELIZABETHAN AGE 3S3 
 
 Death of Queen Mary — Proclamation in London — 
 Elizabeth, at Hatfield, receives the Intelligence of her 
 Accession to the Crown — Political and Doctrinal 
 Protestantism — I'he Learned Ladies of the Time — 
 "Now all the Youth of England are afire" — The 
 Maritime Supremacy and Wealth of Spain — Condition 
 of England— A poor Aristocracy and a Moneyed 
 Middle Class — An Impoverished E.xchequer and De- 
 based Coinage — Cecil and Gresham to the Rescue — 
 Ecclesiastical Changes — Papal Bishops lose their Sees 
 — Social Condition of the People — Rogues, Vaga- 
 bonds, and Sturdy Beggars— The Gallows in " Merrie 
 England" — Mercantile P2nterprise — Maritime Adven- 
 tures — Drake sails round the World, and brings home 
 Treasure— Seeking a North-West Passage— Trade 
 with India— Shattering the Great Armada— Splendid 
 Literary Development— Shakespeare the Mirror "of 
 the Age and Body of the Time." 
 
 THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY 3^9 
 
 European Affairs — Maria Theresa — Frederick the 
 Second of Prussia— The Beginning of the War of 
 Succession—Battle of MoUwitz — Affairs in England 
 — State of Europe— Progress of the War— The British 
 Cabinet— The King in Germany— Battle of Dettingen 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 —Defeat of the French— Incidents of the Battle- 
 Marshal Saxe and the Invasion of England— The 
 Campaign of 1744 — The English Alliance — The 
 Campaign in Flanders — The Siege of Tournai — Battle 
 of Fontenoy— British Bravery— The French Repulsed 
 —English Hard Pressed— Defection of the Dutch 
 Troops— The Result— Foreign Opinions of the Fight 
 at Fontenoy — Conclusion. 
 
 THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NORE 385 
 
 A Woman's Love— Digging up the Body of a Mutineer 
 —The Panics of 1797— The Glory of the English 
 Fleet— First Unheeded Murmurs of the Tars— Black 
 Dick, the Sailor's Friend— Outbreak at Spithead— 
 The Yard Ropes— Splendid Temper of the Mutineers 
 —Their Tale of Woe— The Jolly Tar a Centurjr Ago 
 — The Sweets of Liberty— The Press-gang — The 
 Admiralty at Portsmouth — Dangerous Higgling of 
 the Commissioners — The Bloody f lag hoisted — The 
 Settlement— Fresh Outbreak at St. Helen's— Another 
 Blunder— The First Bloodshed — Triumph of the Sea- 
 men and the Sailor's Friend — The Rising at the Nore 
 — Frolics of the Delegates— Proposal of the Mutineers 
 — Escape of the Clyde — Blockade of the Thames^ 
 Piracy of the Mutineers— Some more Barbarities — 
 Hanging Pitt — Parker's Washerwoman — Break up of 
 the Mutiny— Terrific Scenes in the Fleet— The Last 
 of "President" Parker. 
 
 BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY . .401 
 
 The Barons and their Dependents — Royalty and the 
 Barons- -The early Charter of William and Henry I. 
 — Constitutions of Clarendon — The Assize of North- 
 ampton — King John and the Barons — The Conference 
 at St. Albans— The INleeting in the Temple— The 
 Tryst at Runymede — Magna Charta — Its Clauses 
 explained — Rage of John — The Confirmations of the 
 Charter — Parliamentary Influence — Petition of Right 
 — Charles and the Parliament — The Revolution — 
 William and Mary— Bill of Rights— Declaration of 
 Rights— The Act of Settlement — Modern Measures 
 — 'The Chartists — The Kennington Scare — Conclusion. 
 
 PLAGUE AND FIRE 
 
 The Seeds of Death— The First "Victims— Former 
 Plagues — The Portent of the Blazing Star-— Spread of 
 the Plague during May — The Prescription of the 
 College of Physicians — The Quacks — Increase of 
 Mortality during June — Multitudes leave the Town 
 — The Lord Mayor's Regulations — The Dreadful 
 Days of July— The Plague Pits — The Horrors of 
 August — The Death-fires of September — The Pest- 
 houses — Abatement of the Plague — The Number of 
 Deaths— What was the Plague?— Fire I Fire I— No 
 Water to be Obtained — Efforts to Preserve Property 
 — A Walk through the Ruins — The Rebuilding of the 
 City. 
 
 THE SICILIAN VESPERS 
 
 National Outbreaks and their Effects — The " Roman 
 Empire" of the Cermans — Italy in the Middle Ages— 
 Her Municipal Institutions — The Hohenstauffen Em- 
 perors and the Popes — (nielphsand Ghibelines — Sicily 
 under the Saracen and the Norman Rule — Frederick 
 Barbaro.ssa and his Successors — Policy of the Popes 
 — Supremacy of Rome — Manfred the Suabian Hero ; 
 and Conradin the Last of the Hohenstauffen — Papal 
 design to establish a King in Sicily — Charles of Anjou 
 and Manfred — Battle of Benevento — Conradin's im- 
 va.sion of Italy — Tagliacozzo — Death of Conradin — 
 Vengeance of Charles of Anjou — Feudal Oppressions 
 Condition of Sicily and Apulia — Peter of Aragon and 
 John of Procida — The Massacre of March 31st, 1282 
 —Its Results — Conclusion. 
 
 FROM TORBAY TO ST. JAMES'S .449 
 
 Torbay — An ICventful Week-James's Early Designs — 
 His First Parliament Revenge on Titus Oates — The 
 Insurrections in the North .-md West ; The Battle of 
 Scdgemoor— The " Bloody Assizes"- Persecution of 
 the Nonconformists— The Dispensing Power — J'rial 
 of Sir Edward Hales — James coerces the Universities 
 
 —The First Declaration of Indulgence— The Child of 
 Prayer— The Second Declaration of Indulgence — The 
 Prayer of the Prelates — The Trial of the Seven 
 Bishops — For Parliament and Protestantism — 
 William enters Exeter; Marches on Salisbury — 
 Defections from James— The King escapes, is cap- 
 tured, and again flies — William enters St. James's 
 Palace — Conclusion. 
 
 A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY . . . .465 
 
 Battle of Killiecrankie — The Chief of Glencoe— Fall of 
 Dundee — King James's Gift of Brandy — Tarbat and 
 Dalrymple — The Burning Questions of Scotland — 
 Estimate of Highland Loyalty — Treachery of the 
 Aborigines — Letters of Fire and Sword — Projected 
 Massacre by James VI. — Tarbat's Golden Bait — The 
 Earl of Breadalbane — A Pious Colonel — Loses his 
 Patience — Castle of Achallader — A Strange Armistice 
 Glencoe's Quarrel — Brutalities of his Clan — Friends 
 of Rob Roy — Dalrymple's Objects in "rooting out" 
 the Thieves — The Roj'al Indemnity — Dalrj'mple's 
 '' Mauling Scheme" — Maclan of Glencoe takes the 
 Oath — Military Preparations — Dalrymple's Letters — 
 The Campbells in Glencoe — Merry-makings in the 
 Glen — Orders of the Officers — Maclan Slain — Details 
 of the Massacre. 
 
 THE VENGEANCE OF '89 481 
 
 The Mud-Town — The Merovingian Kings — the Carlo- 
 vingians — The Capets — Paris under the Capets — The 
 House of Valois — Troubles in the Jacquerie — Foun- 
 dation of the Bastille — Growth of the Bastille — The 
 Bourbon Kings — The Bastille and the Absolute 
 Monarchy — A Poet's Indignant Denunciation — An 
 Escape from the Bastille — The Beginning of the 
 Revolution — "To Arms!" — "To the Bastille!" — 
 Taken — The Sequel. 
 
 LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS . . . -497 
 
 A Great Inheritance and an Unworthy Heir — CharlesV. , 
 his Work and his Abdication — The Great Inheritance 
 of Philip II. — Power and Importance of Spain in the 
 i6th Century — The Netherlands, and how Charles 
 and Philip ruled there — The Harshness of Charles V. 
 in the Netherlands tempered by Policy — The Great 
 Cities — Ghent and its Power — " Roland," the Bell of 
 Ghent — Character of Philip II. — His System of Rule 
 by Terror and Coercion — The Inquisition ; its Estab- 
 lishment in Spain, and Development under Philip II. 
 — William of Orange Nassau, the Liberator of his 
 Country — Lamorel, Count Egmont — Margaret of 
 Parma, the Regent of Flanders — Cardinal Granvella 
 and his Influence — How William of Orange incurred 
 the Hatred of Philip II. — Discontent in the Nether- 
 lands — The Compromise and its Object — How the 
 Great Petition was Presented to Margaret of Parma 
 — "Long Live the Beggars! Vivent les Gueux !" — 
 The Protestant Preachers and the Image Breakers 
 — King Philip and his Councillors — Alva — The Storm 
 bursts forth at last. 
 
 GUY FAWKES 513 
 
 A Scene in the Tower— Guy Fawkes— His Examina- 
 tion and Hearing- The King's Questions— English 
 Catholics— Origin of the Plot— The Family of Fawkes 
 — Meeting in St. Clement's Danes— Vinegar House — 
 The Mine— The Conspirators— Frank Tresham— The 
 Warning— Check by the King— Checkmate— The 
 Springing of the Mine— Arrest of Guy Fawkes— Run 
 to Earth— The Executions— Search for the Priests- 
 End of the Jesuits— Garnet's last Efforts— Conclusion. 
 
 HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND . . . .529 
 A Night of Suspense— England's Hour of Trial— The 
 Growth of the Bitter Feelings between England and 
 Spain— The Policy of the Vatican—" Singeing the 
 King of Spain's Beard"— Drake's Expeditions at 
 Cadiz and Corunna— Playing at Peace-making— Hand 
 in Hand for England— I'he Spanish Scheme— The 
 First Day's Fighting— The Fight off Portland; 
 Plucking the Feathers of the Spaniards one by one— 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Correspondence between Medina Sidonia and Parma 
 — The Fire-Ships — The Action off Gravelines — The 
 Flight through the Straits — Home round the Orkneys ! 
 — I'he Western Storms — The Return to Spain. 
 
 BIBLE AND SWORD 
 
 The Mad, Roaring Time — A happy Martyr — Nicodemus 
 — The Cabbage-woman's Stool — The Covenants of 
 1638 and 1643- Prince Charles swallows them — Char- 
 acter of Archbishop Sharp — The Drunken Act — Sandy 
 Peden's Farewell — Tricks on the new Curates — The 
 greatest Drunkard of his Age — Lauderdale's shock 
 Head— The Scots jNIile Act— A Martial Student of 
 Quevedo — Spotting the Absentees — Four " Honest 
 Men " — Turner in his Nightgown — Turning a Turner 
 — The Fight at RuUion Green — The Torture of the 
 Boots — Ephraim Macbriar at the Scaffold — The 
 " Honest" Hangman of Irvine — The Forty Dumb 
 Dogs — Cruelties of Dalziel — Act against Conventicles 
 — The Highland Savages brought down —Appearance 
 of "Bloody Clavers"— Magus Moor — Defeat of 
 Claverhouse at Drumclog — His Horse pitchforked — 
 Bothwell Bridge — A dreadful Shipwreck — The Came- 
 ronians — Given over to Satan — The Killing Time — 
 Execution of Women — The Wigtown Female Martyrs 
 — The True Story of John Brown — Graham's own 
 Confession. 
 
 DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN 
 
 . 561 
 
 An Impressive Warning — Cabul and its Rulers — Rus- 
 sian Influence in Persia — General Apprehensions — 
 Dost Mahomed, Khan of Cabul — Various Opinions 
 concerning him — Lord Auckland, Governor-General 
 of India ; His Policy — The Meeting with Shah Soojah 
 — Rungeet Singh, the Ally of the English — 'I'he Army 
 of the Indus — Shah Soojah restored to his Throne — 
 The Entry into Candahar — Mistaken Notions of Shah 
 Soojah's Popularity — The Advance to Ghuznee — Its 
 Fall— Flight of Dost Mahomed — The Great Douran- 
 nee Order distributed at Cabul — Gallant Struggles of 
 Dost Mahomed — Battle of Purwan Durrah — Cabul 
 in Insurrection- Dost Mahomed in India — Assassina- 
 tion of Sir Alexander Burnes and his Brother — From 
 Bad to Worse — The English Army beleaguered at 
 Cabul — Consequences of the Insurrection — Akbar 
 Khan and his Doings — Murderof Sir W. Macnaghten 
 — Pitiable State cf the Army — The Retreat from Cabul 
 — The Khyber Pass — Lord Auckland and Lord Ellen- 
 borough — Revenge — The Advance into Afghanistan 
 — Conclusion. 
 
 THE MEN OF THE "MAYFLOWER" . .577 
 
 The Departure from Delfthaven— AVho were the Puritans 
 —Rise of the Party under Henry VIII., Mary, and 
 Elizabeth— Commencement of the Puritan Exodus— 
 ■ Departure from England— The Voyage— Landing at 
 Cape Cod — The First Sunday on Shore — "Welcome, 
 Englishmen !"— The Colonists' First Summer— More 
 Emigrants arrive— Disagreements with the Merchants 
 —Continued Emigration of the Puritans— The Dor- 
 chester Adventurers— Adoption of a Confession of 
 Faith— Civil Laws passed— Roger Williams, one of 
 the Noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers— Intolerance of 
 the Puritans— Laws against Witchcraft— Progress of 
 the Colonies. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF SCIO • • 593 
 
 The Centuries ofTurkish Despotism— Origin and Fierce 
 Tempeiof the Revolution— The Force of Wealth and 
 Education— Secret Societies— Invasion of Hypsilantes 
 —The Sacred Battalion— Noble End of the Patriot 
 Georgaki— The Flag hoisted in the Morea— A Fight- 
 ing Bishop— " Death to the Turks ! "—Bloodshed at 
 Patras— Massacres by Greeks— Dreadful Scenes in 
 
 Constantinople — Execution of the Patriarch A 
 
 Canopy of Vultures— The " Hares" of the /Egean — 
 First Cruise of the Greek Fleet— Timid Scio— Indi- 
 vidual Sacrifice and National Aspiration Why Scio 
 
 did not rise The Island overrun — The Harems and 
 
 their Mastic — Despatch of a Turkish Force The 
 
 Chiote Peasant and the Samians — Wretched Rivalry 
 of the Patriots— The Vengeance of the Turk — " Fire 
 
 Sword, Slavery"— Flight of the Samians— Dreadful 
 Massacres, Ruin, and Universal Plunder by Asiatic 
 Hordes— Slaughter of the Monks— The Slaves and 
 Fugitives— Sailing of the Greek Fleet— The Ven- 
 geance of Kanaris — The Fire-ships — Fate of two 
 thousand Turks — Navarino and the Independence of 
 Greece. 
 
 JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 609 
 
 Introduction—" Corruptio optimis pessima"— The Pea- 
 sants' War — Rise of the Anabaptists — Luther's return 
 to Wittenberg — Principles of the Anabaptists— John 
 of Leyden— Arrival of Mattys and Bockelson in 
 Miinster— Anabaptism triumphant — The City Be- 
 leaguered—A Glimpse of City Life— John of Leyden 
 Supreme— He is made King— The Progress of the 
 Siege — A Failure — The King in Danger — Overthrow 
 — The Execution — Retrospect. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT . 623 
 
 How Duke Alva superseded Margaret of Parma — Ar- 
 rival of Alva in Brussels— General Apprehension of 
 Evil — The Treacherous Calm — Arrest of Counts Eg- 
 mont and Horn — Escape of Hoogstraten— Trial and 
 Condemnation of the I'wo Counts — Egmont's Last 
 Letter to the King — The Execution in the Market- 
 place at Brussels — How Duke Alva ruled in the 
 Netherlands— The Reign of Terror— The Council of 
 Blood— Vargas and His Colleagues— Atrocities and 
 Oppression — Departure of Margaret of Parma— Wil- 
 liam of Orange, the Champion of Religious Liberty 
 — His Defeat by Alva — The Duke's Insolence and 
 Pride— The Statue — Taxation and Resistance — 
 The Resignation of Alva— Renewal of the Contest— 
 Beggarsof the Sea— Alva's Successors— The Struggle 
 and the Triumph— Death of William the Silent- 
 Conclusion. 
 
 THE REIGN OF TERROR 641 
 
 A History crowded into Two Years— From the loth of 
 August, 1792, to the 9th of Thermidor, 1794— What 
 followed the taking of the Bastille — Triumph of the 
 Populace ; the Mob at Versailles— The King, the 
 Queen, and the Veto— The National Assembly— Al- 
 terations L'l the Laws— The Enemies of the Revolu- 
 tion ; the King's Flight— The Cordeliers and the 
 Jacobm Clubs— Detection and Ruin— Drouet and 
 Varennes — The King's Return— Foreign Powers; 
 The Beginning of a Long War— The Oath to the 
 Constitution— Meeting of the Legislative Assembly- 
 Events to the 10th of August— The Fall of the 
 Monarchy— The 20th of June, 1792.— The Mob at 
 the Tuileries— Down with the Veto — The Duke of 
 Brunswick and his Manifesto — The Insurrection of 
 the loth of August — Downfall of the Monarchy — 
 The National Convention — France a Republic ; 
 Transition to the Reign of Terror— The September 
 Massacres— Trial and Execution of the King— The 
 Fall of the Girondists— Dumouriez— The Terror at 
 its height. 
 
 GALLANT KING HARRY 657 
 
 The Cause of the War— The Condition of France in 
 1415— Henry's Preparations for War — More Attempts 
 at Diplomacy — Traitors in Henry's Camp — Discovery 
 and Punishment of the Conspirators — The Fleet sets 
 Sail — The Siege of Harfleur — Gallant Defence of the 
 French — Negotiations for the Surrender of the Town 
 — The Fall of Harfleur and Ceremony of giving up 
 the Keys — Continuance of the Campaign — The Pre- 
 parations of the French for a great Battle — The De- 
 fence of the Somme — Henry finally crosses the River 
 — The Sight of the French on the Plains of Agincourt 
 — The Night before the Battle — The Disposition of 
 the opposing Forces — The Attack of the Archers — 
 The Brilliant Charge of the Constable of France — 
 Defeat of the First Division of the French — Forward 
 Movement of the English— Defeat of the Second 
 Division and Flight of the Third Division of the 
 French — Incidents of the Battle — Henry's Return to 
 England. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT ... .673 
 "Adam's Ale " and Noah's Wine — Temperance of the 
 Ancients — Old Testament Temperance — Temperance 
 of Early Christians — Temperance in Later Ages — 
 Spirits and Anti-Liquor Legislation — Anti-Spirit 
 Movement, 1S29-32 — Development of "Teetotalism," 
 1832-35 — Joseph Livesey's Teaching — The Rechabite 
 Order, 1835 — Abstinent Temperance League, 1835-37 
 — Ireland and Father Mathew, 183S-40 — Teetotal 
 Life Insurance, 184c — Organization and Work, 
 1841-49 — A Decade of Organization, 1850-60 — Sun- 
 day Closing Association, 1861-63 — Permissive Bill and 
 Local Option, from .864 — Temperance Public-houses, 
 1867 — Establishment of Good Templary, 1868-72 — 
 Medical Temperance Movement, from 1873 — 
 Denominational Movements, 1873-80 — Auxiliary 
 ^Movements and Special Work, 1880-82 — Conclusion. 
 
 THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS . 689 
 
 Flight of the Royal Family — A Gay Scene on the 
 Thames — The People's Kings — Incompatibilitj^ of 
 Temper between Charles and England — The Long 
 Parliament — The Earl of Strafford sacrificed — The 
 Queen threatened — Charles's Scottish Trip — King 
 Pym — A Plague-rag in the House — Dreadful Mas- 
 sacre in Ulster — What about the Army ? — Peep at 
 the Inside of the House of Commons in 1641 — Some 
 of the Leaders — The Grand Remonstrance — Eleven 
 Years without a Parliament — The Policy of 
 "Thorough" — Pillory and other Iniquities — What 
 the Long Parliament had done already — The Great 
 Debate — Bloodshed imminent between the Parties — 
 What Mr. Oliver Cromwell had resolved on — Citizens 
 fired on at Westminster — The Whitehall Guard — The 
 Bishops sent to the Tower — The New Year opens, 
 1642 — Impeachment of Pym and other Members — 
 Their Chambers Sealed — The Action of the Houses 
 — The Lord ]\Iayor gone to Bed — King marches into 
 the Commons — The Birds Flown — Raising of the 
 Royal Standard. 
 
 THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR . . . .705 
 
 Marat and Charlotte Corday — The Murder of Marat — 
 The Effects of Marat's Death — The Law of the Sus- 
 pected — The Fate of the Captive Queen — Progress of 
 the "Terror" — How the Convention carried on the 
 War — " Death to the Traitors ! " — " Woe to the Cities 
 of the Vanquished ! " — The Republic on the Battle- 
 field — The Fall of the Hcbertists — Danton and his 
 Followers ; Their Struggle and their Extinction — The 
 Darkest Period before the Dawn — The Ninth of Ther- 
 midor — The End of the Terror and of the Terrorists. 
 
 RIZZIO AND DARNLEY 721 
 
 Return of Queen Mary from France— Weakness of the 
 Scottish Sovereigns— Her First Mass — Sketch of 
 Darnley's Early Life and Character — He kisses her 
 Hand at Wemj'ss Castle— Unpopularity of the Marri- 
 age — Flight of Murray and Other Nobles — The 
 Career and Character of Rizzio — The Parties engaged 
 in Plotting — The Judas Kiss — Murder of Rizzio — 
 After the Murder— Darnley's Betrayal of the Bond— 
 A Strange Supper and Talk— Midnight Flight of the 
 Royal Couple — Darnley's Brutality — Queen's Con- 
 tempt for Him — Rise of Bothwell — Some of His Ad- 
 ventures — Mary's Visit to the Hermitage — Getting 
 Rid of Darnley — The Croaking of the Raven — 
 Darnley's Murder — The Queen's Complicity — Both- 
 well's Sham Acquittal and Marriage with the Queen 
 — His Flight from Scotland and Death in Draxholm 
 Castle— His Fate. 
 
 MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE . . . . ; 
 
 The Sea of Pitchy Darkness — Former Discoveries — Fer- 
 nando Magalhaens — His Services declined at Lisbon 
 — Arrival at the Spanish Court — Agreement with 
 the King — The Expedition Sets Sail — The Brazils — 
 The Patagonians — Mutiny at San Julian — The Straits 
 Discovered — The Pacific Entered — The Ladrone Is- 
 lands — Disputes with the Islanders — Continuation of 
 the Voyage — Manners and Customs of the Natives — 
 Baptism and Conversion of the People — The Dispute 
 at Malan — Death of Magellan — The Expedition Con- 
 tinued — Arrival and Reception at Borneo — The Voy- 
 age Home — Run into danger at Cape Verde Islands 
 — Escape and Arrival in Spain — Conclusion. 
 
 •WYATT'S INSURRECTION 753 
 
 The National Dislike to the Spanish Marriage — An In- 
 surrection proposed — Arrival of the Spanish Embassy 
 — The Insurrectionists' Final Meeting — The Leaders 
 Depart to Arouse the Country — Courtenay Fails to 
 Meet the Carews — Their Discomfiture — Wyatt Raises 
 his Standard of Rebellion and seizes the Ships in the 
 Medway — Suffolk seeks refuge in a Hollow Tree ; 
 is Finally Captured — W^'att's Fatal Delay — Marches 
 to Deptford — Mary Addresses the Citizens of London 
 in the Guildhall — Wyatt finds the Gates of London 
 Bridge closed against him — Four Days of Armed 
 Suspense — Marches to Kingston — Enters London — Is 
 Defeated and Imprisoned — Mary's Vengeance — 
 Wyatt is Executed— Philip comes at last, and the 
 Marriage is Solemnized. 
 
Sir Robert Peel explaining His Free Trade Policy in the House of Commons. 
 
 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE. 
 
 " I suspect that there are very few workmen or women who know how much they have gained by the change of policy- 
 of this country that took place under the Government of Sir Robert Peel in the year 1846." — Mr. Bright at Rochdale, i88i- 
 
 A Field-Night in the Commons— Important Question— Rumoured Change of Policy— Repeated Surprises— A Lion iia. 
 the Path — Protection in England — The Corn Laws and their Introduction — Remonstrances of the People ; How 
 Received — Protection to British Sailors and Shipping ; How it Worked — Scarcity and its Effects — First Efforts against, 
 the Corn Laws— Establishment of the Anti-Corn-Law League— The Free Traders in and out of Parliament— The 
 Penny Post an Auxiliary to Free Trade— A Pair of Friends— Richard Cobden and his Career— Mr. John Bright — 
 The Melbourne Government ; Its Apathy and its Fall— Erection of the Free Trade Hall in Manchester— Indications- 
 of Change — The Queen's Speech of 1841 and its Forecast— Sir Robert Peel— Lord George Bcntinck and the " Stable 
 Mind "—Peel's Reservation of Freedom of Action concerning the Com Laws— Lord John Russell- Enlarged Operations 
 of the League ; the First Free Trade Bazaar; Its Brilliant Success— Deputations of Free Traders to Parliament ; The 
 Question pressed upon the House of Commons — Cobden's Appeal to the Prinie Minister — Dismay of the Protectionists 
 — The Heat of the Battle— Zeal and Activity of the League— Important Recruits to the Free Trade Ranks— The C9n- 
 dition of the British Labourer — Remedies Proposed — Mr. Bright's Description of the Peasant's Lot — The Irish Famine 
 — Triumph of Free Trade — Famine forcing Peel's Hand — Summary and Conclusion. 
 
 A Field-Ntght m the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 MONG tlie sights that a stranger in 
 London or a provincial visitor deems 
 himself fortunate to be privileged to 
 witness, may be ranked as first in importance 
 what is known as a field-day, or, more properly 
 speaking, a field-night, in the House of Com- 
 mons ; and the eagerness to view such a 
 
 spectacle is increased by the fact that, like 
 an eruption of Mount Vesuvius or Etna, it 
 cannot be arranged for beforehand, but the 
 visitor must trust to fortune, and thank the 
 propitious Fates if they should find hint 
 standing-room in Strangers' or Speaker's 
 Gallery at such a fortunate moment ; for he- 
 can then hardly fail to see and hear men and 
 things that will give him food for reflection 
 for many a day to come. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Especially to be envied was the stranger 
 who, by diplomacy or any other open or 
 occult art, had been able to provide himself 
 with the "open sesame" to the Strangers' 
 Gallery, and, so provided, had succeeded in 
 effecting an entrance to the House of Com- 
 
 I mons, on the evening of the 22nd of January, 
 1846/ For that was a field-night such as 
 
 , had not been beheld since the struggle over 
 
 j the first Reform Bill fourteen years before ; 
 
 i and the House itself, hke the outside public, 
 was on the tiptoe of expectation. It was not 
 only that this was the first night of a new 
 session, the Queen ha.ving that day — as was, 
 indeed, Her Majesty's custom in that earlier 
 period of her reign — opened Parliament in 
 person. There were rumours in the air of 
 an impending surprise, of an announcement 
 to be made, from a high and influential 
 quarter, that should thrill one section of the 
 community with triumphant joy, while it 
 paralysed another with indignant wonder ; 
 and every seat in the House was taken, and 
 even the standing-room was thickly occupied 
 by honourable members, while the Speaker's 
 and the Strangers' Gallery were filled to over- 
 flowing ; and the one question that had 
 l)een passed from mouth to mouth, during 
 hours of expectancy, was, " What will he do ? " 
 It was asked concerning the great statesman. 
 Sir Robert Peel, First Lord of the Treasury, 
 and consequently Prime Minister of the 
 Tory Government then in power. 
 
 An Important Question ; A Change of 
 Policy Rumoured. 
 About six weeks previously, on the 4th of 
 December, the Times had suddenly come 
 out with the announcement that at the 
 meeting of Parliament the Prime Minister 
 would propose the repeal of the Corn Laws ; 
 and to the chorus of indignant denial set up 
 by the Conservative, or as it was called the 
 Tory press, had most expHcitly reiterated 
 the statement on the 6th. "We adhere to 
 our original announcement," wrote the lead- 
 ing journal, " that Parliament will meet early 
 ia January, and that a Repeal of the Corn 
 i Laws will be proposed in one House by Sir 
 \ Robert Peel, and in the other by the Duke 
 •of Wellington." The very rumour of such 
 a contingency had been enough to make 
 : each particular hair on the country gentle- 
 men's heads " to stand on end, like quills upon 
 the fretful porcupine,'' and to bring about a 
 split in the Cabinet, that had occasioned the 
 PriiTie Minister to go down to Windsor and 
 tender his resignation, which had, indeed, 
 "been accepted, and Lord John Russell, whom 
 the irony of fate often put up as an opponent 
 to the great Sir Robert, had been commis- 
 sioned to form a Ministry. But here, as on 
 various other occasions, before and after- 
 wards, Lord John had verified the assertion 
 
 of the facetious Mr. Ptmch by proving too 
 small for the place ; and failed signally to 
 bring together a Cabinet that would act with 
 him ; the point of difference being that 
 "burning question," the repeal or retention 
 of the Corn Laws. And as in the nursery 
 rhyme the little dog laughed to see such 
 sport, did the great organization that had 
 been working incessantly for years to convert 
 the country from the principles of Protection 
 to those of Free Trade, watch the conflict 
 between the statesmen, seeing in the strife 
 the foreshadowing of its own ultimate 
 triumph. It was the very crisis of a long 
 and bitterly waged fight. 
 
 So Sir Robert had returned to power, 
 summoned back to his post by the com- 
 mand of the Queen, and feeling, he de- 
 clared, "like a man restored to life after 
 his funeral service had been preached ; " — 
 and a note of warning had been struck, 
 much calculated to flutter the Volscians in 
 the Protectionist camp, by a paragraph in 
 Her Majesty's speech that seemed to indi- 
 cate a turn of the tide in the direction of 
 Free Trade. " I have had great satisfaction," 
 so the words run, " in giving my assent to the 
 measures which you have presented to me 
 from time to time calculated to extend com- 
 merce and to stimulate domestic skill and 
 industry, by the repeal of prohibitive, and 
 the relaxation of protective, duties. I recom- 
 mend you to take into your early consideration 
 whether the principle on which you have 
 acted may not with advantage be yet more 
 extensively applied." This sounded ominous, 
 and had a flavour about it exceedingly dis- 
 tasteful to the country party ; but still they 
 kept up their spirits, while the formal business 
 of proposing and seconding the address to 
 the Crown, thanking Her Majesty for her 
 gracious speech, was got through ; and then, 
 amid breathless silence, and somewhat con- 
 trary to the routine that on most occasions 
 he was scrupulously exact in maintaining, 
 the Prime Minister rose like a tower from 
 his seat at Mr. Speaker's right hand, and the 
 House listened in hushed expectation for the 
 words that should verify the rumours that 
 had been flying about so long, or set them 
 at rest at once and for all, as the country 
 gentlemen hoped, by a categorical denial. 
 
 Such were the anticipations of that import- 
 ant moment ; one of those that seem to 
 entertain the concentrated interest of years, 
 and are remembered ever after. 
 
 An Unmitigated Surprise ; Triumph 
 AND Discomfiture of Opposite Parties. 
 On this occasion the measured and some- 
 what old-fashioned oratory of the veteran chief 
 was certainly not shortened. The speech was 
 long and exhaustive, and bristling with figures 
 and statistics ; but it was enough to convince 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 even the most incredulous among the party 
 who had looked upon Peel as the strong 
 bulwark of Protection, that beneath the 
 shadow of that fortress they could seek shelter 
 no more. For he made it abundantly clear, 
 even to their reluctant perception, that his 
 opinions had undergone a change, gradual, 
 but complete in its development, under the 
 influence of the arguments that had been 
 perseveringly brought before him ; and with 
 lengthening faces they listened to an exposi- 
 tion in favour of Free Trade from the eloquent 
 lips of him whom they had deemed their 
 champion against that, to them, utterly per- 
 nicious doctrine ; and they gazed at each 
 other with blank astonishment and dismay. 
 They might almost have been pictured mur- 
 muring to each other in the words of Lord 
 Salisbury to Falconbridge in Shakespeare's 
 King John : " What think you ? You have 
 beheld — or have you read or heard ? or could 
 you think ? or do you almost think, although 
 you see that you do see? Could thought, 
 without this object, form such another ? " and 
 so they sat disconsolate. 
 
 Another Surprise ; A Lion in the 
 Path. 
 The surprises of that eventful evening were 
 not yet exhausted. When Lord John Russell 
 had spoken a few words on his own account, 
 there sprang up an honourable member, and, 
 to the astonishment of the House, and the 
 covert delight of many of the Tory repre- 
 sentatives, began a speech bristling with 
 sarcasm as a porcupine with quills, and full 
 of the strongest invective against the Prime 
 Minister. When Addison's Mr. Spectator 
 paid that memorable visit to the Assizes with 
 Sir Roger de Coverley, and the good knight 
 made the famous oration that was to give him 
 an appearance in the eyes of his guest and of 
 the county, the country people were noticed 
 by that acute observer to be penetrated with 
 admiration that Sir Roger was not afraid " to 
 speak before the judge." A similar feeling of 
 admiration seems to have seized the country 
 gentlemen on that January night for the 
 member of their party who was not afraid to 
 attack the Premier, for whom they still felt a 
 lingering awe and admiration. No such feel- 
 ^ ing hampered the vituperative oratory of Mr. 
 j Benjamin Disraeli, member for the county of 
 ' Bucks. He had been nine years in Parlia- 
 ) ment, had offered his services to more than 
 f one party, and had been persistently cold- 
 shouldered ; and now his opportunity was 
 come, and, like a clever man, he took the tide 
 at the flood, and it led him on to fortune ; 
 for, reversing the order of Shakespeare's 
 metaphor, until then the voyage of his Parlia- 
 mentary life had to a certain extent been 
 " bound in shallows and in miseries." He 
 thundered against what he called the Prime 
 
 Minister's inconsistency, and roundly accused 
 him of having betrayed his followers. " I am 
 not one of the converts," he cried ; " I am 
 perhaps a member of a fallen party " (he had 
 begun his parliamentary career as a Radical). 
 ''To the opinions I have expressed in this 
 House in favour of Protection I still adhere. 
 They sent me to this House, and if I had 
 relinquished them, I should have relinquished 
 my seat also." He drew a striking picture of 
 the trust his party had reposed in Peel, and 
 the pride and joy they had felt in seeing him 
 raised to power in 1841. "Well do we re- 
 member," he cried, "on this side of the 
 House — not, perhaps, without a blush — the 
 efforts we made to raise him to the bench 
 where he now sits. Who does not remember 
 the sacred cause of Protection, for which 
 sovereigns were thwarted, Parliament dis- 
 solved, and a nation taken in?" His per- 
 sonal sarcasm against the Premier was most 
 galling; and he made a great hit when he 
 likened him to a man who got up behind a 
 carriage and then affected to be " a great 
 whip"; — and accused him of watching the 
 atmosphere and trimming his sails according 
 to the quarter from which the wind blew. 
 The great statesman whom he attacked is de- 
 scribed as sitting first in bewildered astonish- 
 ment, and afterwards striving, not altogether 
 successfully, to maintain his composure under 
 an attack as unexpected as it was tremendous. 
 The languid House woke up into fierce ex- 
 citement ; and when at last the sitting was 
 adjourned, the two sides in the great struggle 
 had each learned a notable truth, — the Free 
 Traders that they had gained to their side the 
 most astute and powerful of their opponents ; 
 the Protectionists, that they had found a tre- 
 mendous Parliamentary gladiator to fight for 
 them with a weapon more keen and trenchant 
 than had ever been wielded in their cause 
 during all the years the fray had lasted. 
 We have now to describe — of necessity with 
 brevity — the nature and progress of this 
 battle of Free Trade against Protection. 
 
 How the System of Protection was 
 Established in England. 
 The principle of Protection, or the guard- 
 ing of a certain interest from interference, by 
 restricting foreign competition, is found in 
 the policy of various nations from early 
 times. In England the system may be 
 looked upon as the outcome and the legiti- 
 mate successor of those monopolies against 
 which we find Parliament protesting, with a 
 certain measure of success, so early as 
 the days of Queen Elizabeth. The patent 
 granted to the favourite Essex for the sale 
 of sweet wine from Portugal, and withdrawn, 
 by the way, by his angry mistress when he 
 fell under her displeasure, on the ground that 
 " an unruly horse must be stinted of his pro- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 vender," was simply an illustration of Protec- 
 tion in its crudest form ; the sacrifice of the 
 general interest to the profit of the one. 
 Protection differed from monopoly in that 
 it substituted for the favoured individual a 
 favoured class. 
 
 More than two hundred years ago, when 
 Colbert, the famous French minister whose 
 name is so closely connected with the silk 
 manufacture of Lyons, asked the French 
 merchants what he could do to advance the 
 interests of commerce, their judicious reply 
 was : " Laissez-nous faire," — " Let us manage 
 for ourselves," — and in this ansv/er was in- 
 volved the principle of Free Trade, which 
 allows full scope to the industry and energies 
 of all, repudiating the interference which 
 would put a stop to competition, and has 
 been generally found to foster idleness and 
 apathy. In the last century there were men 
 who took the side of Free Trade or unrestricted 
 competition and commei-cial interchange 
 between nations, against the opinion that 
 could only see the present advantage to the 
 producer in receiving a higher price for what 
 he had to sell. David Hume, among the 
 subjects of his admirable Essays, discussed 
 that of Free Trade. Adam Smith, in his " En- 
 quiry into the Origin and Causes of the Wealth 
 of Nations," brought a truly philosophic mind 
 to bear upon the question ; and practical 
 Benjamin Franklin spoke out very plainly 
 and sensibly on the maxin of " not governing 
 too much." " It were to be wished," he says, 
 " that commerce was as free between all the 
 nations of the world as it is between the 
 several counties of England ; so would all, 
 by mutual communication, obtain more en- 
 joyments. Those counties do not ruin one 
 another by trade ; neither would the nations. 
 No nation was ' ever ruined by trade, even 
 seeming the most disadvantageous. Wher- 
 ever desirable superfluities are imported, 
 industry is excited ; and, therefore, plenty is 
 produced. Were only necessaries permitted 
 to be purchased, men would work no more 
 than is necessary for that purpose." 
 
 The Corn Lav/s, and their Intro- 
 duction. 
 
 It was on the article of corn, as the pro- 
 duct most affecting the interests of the com- 
 munity at large, that the question between 
 Protection and Free Trade was actually fought 
 cut ; but the principle applies equally to all 
 interchangeable articles. 
 
 When in 1814 the Empire of the great 
 Napoleon was overthrown, and his vindictive 
 continental system, that had aimed at ruin- 
 ing Great Britain by closing Europe against 
 her, came to a sudden end, a complete rever- 
 sal of industrial and commercial relations 
 ensued. The ports of Europe were thrown 
 open to the commerce of Britain, while hers 
 
 were for a time in like manner opened to the 
 produce of foreign lands. It was soon found 
 that in many respects England had what is 
 familiarly termed "the pull" of her Continen- 
 tal competitors. Her excellent machinery 
 and processes of manufacture enabled her to 
 leave Continental nations far behind, in the 
 production of articles of hardware, etc.; and 
 thus a cry arose, first in France, and after- 
 wards in North and South Germany, and 
 the other European nations, for the establish- 
 ment of safeguards for native industries, 
 though it has been well observed that the 
 term " native industry " can only be properly 
 applied to those branches for whose cultiva- 
 tion the country is peculiarly fitted, and 
 should not be made to include those that 
 must be kept from withering by artificial aid. 
 Thus a system of protection became generally 
 adopted abroad ; the importation of British 
 manufactures being seriously checked by 
 high, and in some cases almost prohibitive, 
 duties, on the plausible principle of the en- 
 couragement of home industry. This was 
 the more grievous for England, as her 
 manufacturers had lost the market, that had 
 been kept in an inflated condition, for certain 
 articles, by the requirements of the war. 
 Peace brought witli it a cessation of a 
 demand that had kept thousands employed ; 
 and many factories could no longer fincl 
 work for their hands. The Continental 
 nations, on the other hand, while closing 
 their ports against English manufactures, 
 were very ready to find in England a market 
 for their agricultural produce, and con- 
 sequently glutted the English markets with 
 cargoes of foreign corn, until the English 
 farmers cried out in dismay that they were 
 being ruined, and would no longer be able to 
 pay the rents demanded by their landlords, 
 unless they were protected against this -influx 
 of foreign corn. The Legislature, the Upper 
 House being composed exclusively, and the 
 Lower very generally, of landed proprietors, 
 took the alarm ; and in 181 5, a new Corn 
 Law was passed that practically stopped the 
 importation of grain from abroad, by the 
 imposition of an enormous customs duty. 
 Until home grown corn had reached the 
 price of Soj. per quarter, there could be no 
 supply from beyond seas ; for till that figure 
 had been touched, the ports were closed. 
 
 Thus, although plentiful and abundant 
 supplies might be ready for the relief of 
 want, legislation forbade those supplies to be 
 brought to the homes where they would have 
 been welcome. 
 
 The Remonstrances of the People, 
 
 and how they were received. 
 
 Naturally this artificial raising of the price 
 
 of the nation's food excited great discontent. 
 
 First there were earnest petitions from the 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 manufacturing districts, which were uni- 
 formly disregarded; then there were riots, for 
 which men were hanged. The starving 
 labourers turned out in desperation, and 
 burned ricks and barns ; in some instances 
 the military had to be called out to disperse 
 the mobs. Those were the days of repression 
 and harshness. The expression of popular 
 discontent was treated as a crime ; and the 
 infamous proceedings in St. Peter's Fields, 
 Manchester, the " Peterloo massacre," in 
 which an unarmed meeting, containing a 
 large contingent of women and children, was 
 driven asunder by a charge of cavalry, with 
 a result of six persons killed and some 
 seventy wounded, was an instance of the 
 spirit in which popular remonstrance was met. 
 The distress in the country was meanwhile 
 great. It would be well for those who talk 
 and write of the decline of national prosperity 
 in England within the last half century to 
 refer to authentic accounts of the period 
 immediately succeeding the great war, and 
 previous to the passing of the Reform Bill of 
 1832. Wages were low, and the price of 
 bread was high. Employment was fluctuat- 
 ing, and the majority of the labouring popula- 
 tion had to eke out their starvation pay with 
 a parish dole. One of their poets well 
 described their condition, when he wrote, — • 
 •' A blessed prospect : 
 To slave while there is strength — in age 
 
 the workhouse, 
 A parish shell at last, and the little bell 
 Tolled hastily for a pauper's funeral ! " 
 In general, while the farmers, influenced by 
 the landlords, and naturally anxious to obtain 
 a good market for their produce, were Pro- 
 tectionists, the manufacturers, who found 
 foreign markets closed against them by the 
 Protective system, and chafed at the restric- 
 tion it put upon their industry, were Free 
 Traders ; and thus it may be said that to a 
 great extent the representatives of agricul- 
 ture and trade were arrayed against each 
 ■other. The artizans in the towns were keenly 
 alive to the causes that rendered the food of 
 their families dear and scarce ; as for the 
 labourers, they were generally conscious only 
 of a vague feeling of hunger and misery. It 
 was natural, therefore, that the great centres 
 of manufacturing industry like Manchester, 
 should be the places whence the first practical 
 complaint and remonstrance against the ex- 
 isting state of things proceeded ; for these 
 towns, while they wanted cheap ibod, had no 
 interest in raising, or keeping up, the price 
 of corn. 
 
 Protection to British Sailors and 
 Shipping; How the System Worked. 
 Another remarkable development of Pro- 
 tective doctrines was found in the system of 
 the Navigation Laws, which restricted the 
 carrying of British produce to British ships, 
 
 and insisted that three-fourths of the crew of 
 a British vessel should be Englishmen. The 
 Americans and Continental nations were not 
 slow to adopt the same policy ; and conse- 
 quently ships were continually returning in 
 ballast after delivering their cargoes, and two 
 voyages were made for one profit. It seems 
 almost incredible that the voice of the 
 people and of common sense was not more 
 loudly heard during the period after the great 
 war ; but in those days of dear books and 
 scanty instruction the opinion of the nation 
 was little heard in Parliament ; nor could 
 it, indeed, be considered as in any way 
 adequately represented. One great evil of 
 the system that kept foreign wheat out, until 
 the home market had risen to 80^. per quarter, 
 was found in the extraordinary fluctuations to 
 which it gave rise. The price of wheat at 
 the commencement of 181 7 was a 104^'. per 
 quarter ; by the middle of the year it had risen 
 to 1 1 2s. 6d. per quarter, which brought the 
 price of the quartern loaf to is. loci. Naturally 
 at such prices foreign wheat began to pour 
 in ; but those were the days of slow postage, 
 long passages, and no telegraphs ; so that by 
 the time the great supply arrived, and the 
 market was thoroughly glutted with foreign 
 wheat, a bountiful harvest brought down the 
 price with a run, to the consternation of 
 the farmer, who, in 1821, for instance, saw 
 wheat go down to below 39^. per quarter, and 
 wondered how on earth he was to pay his 
 rent out of such prices. So that, under the 
 system pursued, when the labourer and 
 artizan enjoyed a cheap loaf, and could satisfy 
 their children's hunger, the farmer was groan- 
 ing and lamenting that low prices would be 
 his ruin : and that he would never be able to 
 raise the rent he had bound himself to his 
 landlord to pay. 
 
 In 1 822, a slight alteration in the Com Laws 
 was made by Lord Liverpool, who fixed 
 yos. instead of Zos. as the price at which 
 English corn must stand before foreign com 
 was let into the market. It never had any 
 practical effect. During the six years it re- 
 mained in operation, no foreign wheat came 
 into the market, for the English article never 
 touched the stipulated price of yos. The 
 Government of the Duke of Wellington, who 
 became Prime Minister after the death of 
 Canning in 1827, included Mr. Huskisson 
 and Sir Robert Peel ; and an epoch was 
 marked in the history of the Corn Laws by the 
 introduction of the sliding scale, — an inge- 
 nious contrivance for regulating the duty on 
 foreign corn according to the price of home 
 grown produce ; the duty on foreign corn to 
 be highest when the price for English corn 
 was lowest, to give the Bi-itish farmer the 
 priority of sale. Thus when English wheat 
 was selling for less than 62s. per c|uarter, the 
 duty on foreign wheat was to be 25^'. ^d. ; as 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 English wheat rose shilling by shilling in 
 price, the duty on foreign wheat was to 'de- 
 crease in the same ratio : thus the price was 
 always kept up, to the detriment of the com- 
 munity and for the benefit, not so much of 
 the farmers, whose rents were calculated on 
 the basis of high prices for corn, as of the 
 landlords, the owners of the soil. 
 
 Scarcity and its Effects ; First 
 Efforts against the Corn Laws. 
 
 It will be easily understood that the 
 grievance connected with the high price of 
 corn kept increasing as the population aug- 
 mented, and the productive power of the 
 land remained the same. While harvests 
 were tolerably abundant, the question re- 
 mained in abeyance; but in 1836, when trade 
 was in a depressed state, and the harvest 
 failed, — when the price of wheat rose simulta- 
 neously with the fall of wages and scarcity of 
 work — considerable agitation was felt, and the 
 Corn Laws became again the objects of violent 
 and adverse criticism. It was a well-known 
 saying of Napoleon's, that most political re- 
 volutions have had their origin in famine. 
 That great revolution in political economy 
 that ended in substituting the principle of 
 Free Trade for a system of Protection, cer- 
 tainly had its source in the feeling of the 
 inconvenience of having the price of bread 
 high, at a time when wages were low and 
 work was scarce. 
 
 The first practical sign of an attempt to 
 get partially rid of the Corn Laws was seen in 
 the proposal of Mr. Clay in the House of 
 Commons to substitute for the sliding scale 
 a fixed duty on grain oiios. per quarter. The 
 proposal met with scanty support, and was 
 negatived on division by 223 votes to 89; 
 so unpromising seemed the prospect of im- 
 pressing any change in this direction on 
 a House in which, as a rule, the members 
 cared a great deal more for the interests of 
 land than for those of labour. But a move- 
 ment began in London outside the House of 
 Commons, and a kind of anti-corn-law asso- 
 ciation was formed, the precursor of the far 
 more vigorous organization that, after passing 
 through many vicissitudes, succeeded infixing 
 the eyes of the nation upon the cause it repre- 
 sented, and in carrying that cause trium- 
 phantly through. 
 
 At this time of day, when Free Trade 
 principles have become firmly rooted in 
 England, it is hardly possible to appreciate 
 the amount of difficulty encountered by those 
 who first attempted to storm the Protectionist 
 stronghold in England. 
 
 Formation of the Anti-Corn-Law 
 
 League ; Its Leaders. 
 It was in 1838, not long after the accession 
 of Queen Victoria, that the great and wide- 
 
 spread commercial distress in Lancashire, 
 particularly in the town of Bolton-le-Moors, 
 where thirty out of fifty factories had closed 
 their doors, and five thousand workmen were 
 without employment and without bread, led 
 to the formation of the great association at 
 Manchester, known as the Anti-Corn-Law 
 League ; with the avowed object of procuring 
 an entire repeal of the duty on corn, and 
 thus securing cheap bread for the English 
 people. The immediate occasion was an 
 animated speech of Dr., afterwards Sir John, 
 Bowring, who, at a meeting in Manchester, 
 through which town he happened to be 
 passing, spoke with forcible and incisive 
 eloquence against the Corn Laws, their princi- 
 ple, and their lamentable effects, as seen in 
 the destitution around. The time for agita- 
 tion had come ; and the committee of the 
 newly formed association could not have had 
 a better text to comment on than the anomaly 
 of an artificial barrier erected against the 
 supply of food to a population who were 
 starving. In October 1838, the first lists of 
 the Provisional Committee of the new associ- 
 ation were published ; and in the first and 
 second respectively appear the names of 
 John Bright and Richard Cobden. Soon after, 
 an executive committee was appointed of 
 twelve gentlemen, six of whom remained in 
 office throughout the whole seven years 
 during which the League continued its labours. 
 Among their number we read the names of 
 Richard Cobden, the most illustrious of the 
 members; of Archibald Prentice, to whose 
 energetic action the formation of the League 
 in the first instance was in a great measure 
 due ; and of Mr. George Wilson, whose 
 enlightened views on political economy, elo- 
 quently and lucidly put forth, had a great 
 share in ensuring its success. The Man- 
 chester Chamber of Commerce joined heartily 
 in the objects proposed by the League ; and 
 a determination to sending a petition to Par- 
 liament praying for the abolition of the Corn 
 Laws was adopted and carried out. It had 
 no immediate effect ; for the President of the 
 Chamber, Mr. Wood, overawed by the temper 
 of the House, in speaking of the state of 
 commerce and manufacture throughout the 
 country, blunderingly described it as very 
 prosperous ; which gave Sir Robert Peel and 
 the Tories an opportunity of using the very 
 obvious argument — " Then why agitate for 
 change, if things go so well with you ? " and 
 Lord Melbourne, who was at the head of the 
 Ministry, had an occasion of applying his 
 favourite maxim of quieta non movere, or, 
 as he famiharly and tersely put it, " Look 
 here, can't you leave it alone ? " 
 
 The Voice of the Free Traders Raised 
 in and out of Parliament. 
 When Mr. Villiers, one of the most brilliant 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 and useful recruits of the League at its out- 
 set, in pursuance of a resolution arrived at 
 in one of the Association's earliest meetings, 
 proposed in his place in Parliament that 
 certain witnesses should be heard at the bar 
 of the House in reference to the petition 
 against the operation of the Corn Laws, the 
 motion was negatived by more than two to 
 one. It was evident that the League, if it 
 wished to prosper, must look, in the first in- 
 stance, for support outside the walls of Parlia- 
 ment, and must seek to move that august 
 assembly, if it were to be moved at all, by 
 pressure exercised from without. 
 
 To that task the members devoted them- 
 selves with an earnestness and thoroughness 
 that were well calculated to ensure success. So 
 soon as the Anti-Corn- Law Association had 
 formed itself into a League, a system was 
 
 as he had already in the field ; Daniel 
 O'Connell, the great Irish agitator, who from 
 the first gave the League his free and hearty 
 support ; and Mr. Joseph Hume, who had 
 the reputation throughout the country of 
 being a sound economist, and who, within 
 the walls of Parliament was the bete noire 
 of Chancellors of the Exchequer, and of aU 
 such as wanted to conjure money out of 
 the pockets of the British nation, in the 
 shape of taxes and imposts of any kind. 
 Meanwhile the action of Mr. Villiers in 
 Parliament was alike energetic and valu- 
 able. 
 
 True to Mr. Cobden's idea that the nation, 
 required to be instructed in the principles of 
 Free Trade, the League, with admirable 
 astuteness, made use of the services of 
 enthusiastic and eloquent speakers, to de- 
 
 Statue of Sir Robert Peel at Leeds. 
 
 thoroughly organised for establishing similar 
 associations in various important commercial 
 and manufacturing centres, that gradually 
 the whole natioi; might be drawn into co- 
 operation with the central body, who had 
 their office in Newall's Buildings, Market 
 Street, Manchester. There the delegates 
 from great towns met, and the programme 
 to be carried out was discussed. The great 
 force furnished by a powerful organisation 
 was used to the best advantage ; and the 
 result, in gradually converting the country 
 to the principles of Free Trade, was marvel- 
 lous. Soon the chiefs of this great and 
 peaceful crusade could boast of many emi- 
 nent men attracted to their banners, and 
 induced to co-operate heartily in their cause: 
 Sir de Lacy Evans, the gallant officer, who 
 was making for himself a name in politics 
 
 liver lectures in various parts of the country^ 
 explaining what Protection and Free Trade 
 respectively meant, and pointing out the 
 tendency of each. Such lectures were de- 
 livered by hundreds, — by Mr. Poulton and 
 others, and by Mr. Cobden, who was the 
 leadmg spirit of the movement. Deputations 
 waited upon the members of the Ministry, 
 who, though they received their unwelcome 
 visitors with cold official dignity, and did 
 not even vouchsafe to send away the dele- 
 gates with "the chamehon's diet, promise 
 crammed," yet became aware perforce that 
 this Corn Law question was assuming an 
 unpleasantly prominent character, and would 
 ultimately have to be taken in hand in some 
 way or other ; and that the longer that duty 
 was delayed, the more unpleasant it was 
 likely to become. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Penny Post an Auxiliary to 
 Free Trade. 
 
 One event of the greatest moment to the 
 League was contributing to spread its doctrines 
 J, and opinions far and wide, and to promote 
 i a national interchange of thought and 
 I opinions in the country ; — the estabhsh- 
 ment, in 1839, of the system of uniform 
 '" penny postage throughout the kingdom. 
 The proposed innovation, hke nearly every 
 proposed reform, had been pitilessly sneered 
 at ; and even so good a Liberal as Sydney 
 Smith, of the Edinburgh Review and 
 ^'Peter Plymley," had pooh-poohed it as 
 "nonsensical"; while Sir Robert Peel had 
 honoured the scheme with active and per- 
 sistent opposition. It was established, 
 nevertheless, with what results of benefit to 
 the world it is needless to say, though at one 
 time it actually cost the originator his place' 
 at the Post Office ; and a year or two after, 
 the facetious Mi: Punch was caricaturing 
 the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, in the 
 character of " Britannia presenting Rowland 
 Hill with the sack." The new postal system 
 came just in time to be of vital use to the 
 League, one of whose chief methods of pro- 
 paganda was by thousands upon thousands 
 of tracts and pamphlets, for whose distribu- 
 tion and circulation far and wide the penny 
 post offered a ready and effectual means. 
 The movement had its poets, too ; witness 
 the works of Ebenezer Elliott, the " Corn-law 
 Rhymer," who, with various others, con- 
 tributed not a little by his lyric efforts to the 
 popularity of the cause of Free Trade. 
 
 The first period of the great activity of the 
 League was also that of the Chartist agitation, 
 ■which was especially fierce and fiery in 1840 
 and 1841. It might havebeen supposed that 
 the Chartists would be ready to work 
 cordially with the Free Traders, and to hail 
 them as fellow-labourers in the cause of the 
 people. But it was not so. The demagogues 
 were annoyed at the thoroughly peaceful 
 manner in which the League carried on its 
 ■work, and angrily denounced the Free Trade 
 movement as an insidious and treacherous 
 thing, — a political red-herring trailed across 
 the track of the people's rights, to divert the 
 .. staunch hounds of democracy from the true 
 ' line of the chase, and set them off on a 
 : false issue, in which it was designed to betray 
 the cause of the working man, and play into 
 the hands of the middle classes. 
 
 A Pair of Friends ; Richard Cobden 
 AND His Career. 
 Thus the Free Trade cause not only met 
 with no encouragement, but actually en- 
 countered fierce opposition, at the hands of 
 the Chartists, who frequently interrupted the 
 proceedings of public meetings with their 
 
 outcries and invectives ; notably at Warring- 
 ton, where it needed all the excellent temper 
 and persuasive eloquence of Richard Cobden 
 to restore order, and prevent an appeal to 
 physical force. 
 
 That distinguished man and great states- 
 man may be considered, even more than his 
 friend and colleague, Mr. John Bright, as the 
 very heart and soul of the Free Trade move- 
 ment. The two men were bound together 
 by community of feeling on this subject and 
 by the hearty respect each of them enter- 
 tained for the character of the other, in a 
 friendship so close and cordial, that the 
 two names are always associated together, 
 and we speak of " Cobden and Bright " as of 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, or Damon and 
 Pythias. Both came into Parliament at the 
 same time, and were labourers in the same 
 great work, and rejoiced in the same triumph. 
 But the career of Mr. Bright was destined to 
 be longer than that of his friend and colleague, 
 and is associated with various great questions, 
 while Cobden's name is connected with the 
 cause of Free Trade and the commercial 
 intercourse of nations as the be-all and the 
 end-all of his political life. The son of a 
 Sussex yeoman, he had lost his father early, 
 and had been removed from school at fifteen 
 to enter a house of business. He had 
 travelled and had taken note of various sorts 
 and conditions of people ; and it has been 
 said of him that the objects that interested 
 him most, and called forth the energies of his 
 acute and inquiring mind, were not ruins, or 
 the beauties of scenery or the treasures of art, 
 but men. With a small borrowed capital of 
 ;i^5oo he had commenced business for him- 
 self ; and but for the question of Free Trade 
 and Protection, it might never have been his 
 fate " the applause of listening senates to 
 command." For his nature was singularly 
 retiring and modest ; no man was ever 
 less inclined to put himself forward indi- 
 vidually, or to bid for public support or 
 notoriety ; and but that the great question 
 called him forward, and demanded the 
 exercise of his high ability, he might have 
 continued to the end of his life unknown and 
 unappreciated, — simply a partner in a Man- 
 chester cotton print firm. But when he had 
 once embarked in the cause, his value was 
 too marked to be open to any doubt ; and 
 his friends and colleagues acted with sound 
 policy when they relieved him from the cares 
 of a business he could not have continued 
 with advantage while his time and energies 
 were given to the strife, and by procuring 
 him the means to enter Parliament secured 
 the whole of his time and energy for its 
 success. As an orator his great point was 
 persuasiveness. His language was admirably 
 plain and lucid, good Saxon English, with no 
 attempt at ornament or flourish of style. 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 What most impressed the hearer in his 
 speeches was his evident earnestness and 
 sincerity, his deep and thorough behef in the 
 cause he was advocating. Mr. Justin 
 McCarthy, in his " History of our own Times," 
 has admirably described the kind of power 
 by which he achieved his most brilhant 
 victories: — "If oratory were a business and 
 not an art, — that is, if its test were its success 
 rather than its form,— then it might be con- 
 tended reasonably enough that Mr. Cobden 
 was one of the greatest orators England had 
 ever known. Nothing could exceed the 
 persuasiveness of his style. His manner 
 was simple, sweet, and earnest. It was 
 persuasive, but it had not the kind of 
 persuasiveness that is only a better sort of 
 plausibility. It persuaded by convincing. It 
 was transparently sin- 
 cere. The light of its 
 convictions shone all 
 through it. It aimed at 
 the reason and the 
 judgment of the listener, 
 and seemed to be con- 
 vincing him to his own 
 interest against his 
 prejudices. . . . He 
 illustrated every argu- 
 ment 'by something 
 drawn from his per- 
 sonal observation or 
 from reading, and his 
 illustrations were al- 
 ways striking, appro- 
 priate, and interesting. 
 , . . Many strong oppo- 
 nents of Mr. Cobden's 
 opinions confessed, even 
 during his lifetime, that 
 they sometimes found 
 with dismay their most 
 cherished opinions 
 crumbling away be- 
 neath his flow of easy 
 argument. . . So long 
 as the controversy could be settled after this 
 fashion, — ' I will show you that in such a 
 course you are acting injuriously to your 
 own interests,' or, ' You are doing what a 
 fair and just man ought not to do,' — so long 
 as argument of that kind could sway the con- 
 duct of men, there was no one who could 
 convince as Cobden could." 
 
 Mr. Bright, his Eloquence and 
 
 Persistency. 
 Mr. Bright, on the other hand, had 
 undoubtedly greater gifts as an orator. 
 Throughout his long parliamentary career 
 there was never any danger of his speaking 
 to empty benches. His full and rich voice, 
 his commanding presence, his power of 
 pathos, irony, and invective, that wonderful 
 
 The Rt. Hon. John Bright 
 
 sympathetic gift of enchaining the attention 
 and stirring the hearts of multitudes that so 
 few possess, were his in the fullest measure ; 
 and he would have been what he was, the 
 Tribune of the people, the fearless denouncer 
 of what appeared to him to be erroneous or 
 wrong, the upholder of what he felt to be 
 just and true, sternly and uncompromisingly, 
 in the face of discouragement and opposition, 
 even if the Free Trade question had never 
 arisen in his time. 
 
 The Melbourne Government ; Its 
 
 Apathy and its Fall. 
 It has been said that thfe Melbourne 
 ministry opposed a kind of passive resistance 
 to the persistent efforts of the League to 
 obtain a trial of their scheme. The Premier 
 was true to his "let it 
 alone " principle, ac- 
 knowledging that there 
 might be miuch truth 
 in what the Leaguers 
 said, and that in 
 principle they were 
 undoubtedly right, but 
 that nations did not 
 always see their true 
 interests, and that it 
 would be injudicious 
 for England to be the 
 first to give way on 
 such a subject ; that 
 would not be the way to 
 commence negotiations 
 for reciprocal advan- 
 tages. This was dis- 
 couraging enough ; and 
 other tokens, such as 
 the defeat, by a majority 
 of much more than 
 a hundred, of Mr. 
 Villiers's motion "That 
 this House resolve it- 
 self into a Committee 
 of the whole House, 
 to take into consideration the Act of George 
 IV. regulating the importation of foreign 
 corn," showed that whatever the League had 
 done with the nation, the process of " in- 
 structing " the House of Commons was not 
 yet very far advanced. But the association 
 went on indefatigably with the work. The 
 great banquets held at Manchester in a tem- 
 porary building, where afterwards the Free 
 Trade Hall was erected, on the very spot in 
 St. Peter's Fields where the infamous Peterloo 
 massacre had taken place in 1819, were en- 
 tirely successful ; and the campaign was 
 carried on bravely with lectures and the dis- 
 tribution of pamphlets, and with public 
 meetings all over the country, where the 
 chiefs of the movement spoke with indefati- 
 gable zeal and persuaded many. Meanwhile 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Melbourne Ministry, with its inert and 
 careless chief, was falling into disgrace with 
 the nation ; and at length, in the middle of 
 1 84 1, a. vote of want of confidence, moved by 
 Sir Robert Peel, was just barely carried 
 against the Government, who had no alterna- 
 tive but to resign or dissolve Parliament. 
 They chose the latter alternative ; and a 
 i large majority for Peel was the result of the 
 \ General Election; for the Melbourne Govern- 
 \ nient, and the Whigs generally, had lost many 
 friends, and gained none. When the new 
 Parliament met, the Queen's speech con- 
 tained a distinct reference to the principles 
 of Free Trade as against Protection, but 
 couched in ambiguous language. Several 
 utterances were significant of a change, as 
 the froth on the wave shows the turn of the 
 tide. 
 
 Indications of Change ; The Queen's 
 Speech and its Forecast. 
 Protection was now evidently no longer 
 implicitly believed in, as a panacea for the 
 nation's ills. In reference to various duties 
 levied on imports, the Sovereign was made 
 to say to the House of Commons : " It will 
 be for you to consider whether some of these 
 duties are not so trifling in amount as to be 
 unproductive to revenue while they are vexa- 
 tious to commerce." (This had long been 
 an argument of the Free Traders, who had 
 declared that, in many instances, the expenses 
 of collection on the one hand, and the costly 
 machinery maintained with very partial 
 success against smuggling on the other, 
 swallowed up more than the amount of the 
 imposts maintained at the cost of so much 
 obloquy.) " You may further examine whe- 
 ther the principle of Protection, upon which 
 others of those duties are founded, be not 
 carried to an extent injurious alike to the 
 income of the State and the interests of the 
 people." It was not the extent to which the 
 principle was carried, but the principle, the 
 thing itself, against which the Free Traders 
 protested as an injustice. " Her Majesty is 
 desirous that you should consider the laws 
 which regulate the trade in corn. It will be for 
 you to determine whether these laws do not 
 aggravate the natural fluctuation of supply," 
 etc. Of this there could be very little ques- 
 tion, even among the staunchest of Protect- 
 I ionists. The faint indications of a tendency 
 ' to do something else with the Corn Laws than 
 " let them alone " was not sufficient to save 
 the Ministry, who were left in a doleful mino- 
 rity in a division on an amendment to the 
 Address, and accordingly had no choice left 
 but to resign. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel; His Opinions and 
 Reservation. 
 The country gentlemen and squires who 
 
 put their trust in Sir Robert Peel, who now 
 became Prime Minister, were not well skilled 
 at discerning the signs of the times, or they 
 would have recognised the fact that their 
 trusted chief was not what they would have 
 termed "sound" and "staunch" on the 
 subject of Protection ; not what poor Lord 
 George Bentinck, who about this time gave 
 up to politics and the leadership of a party 
 a portion of the time he had devoted to 
 Newmarket and Epsom, would have termed 
 " a man of a stable mind." At a later period 
 they united in accusing the great statesman 
 of "tergiversation." It was a good sounding 
 word, — like Corporal Bardolph's famous "ac- 
 commodation," a "soldier-like word, and a 
 word of exceeding good command," — and 
 none the less welcome to the country gentle- 
 men, perhaps, from the fact that many of 
 them did not quite understand its meaning. 
 It is well, therefore, to remember that upon 
 taking office Sir Robert distinctly declined 
 to pledge himself to the maintenance of the 
 Corn Laws, and plainly stipulated for full 
 freedom of private judgment on that mo- 
 mentous question. " If you ask me," he 
 publicly said, on the subject of the corn 
 duties, " whether I bind myself to the main- 
 tenance of the existing law in its detail, or 
 if you say that this is the condition on which 
 the agricultural interest give me their support, 
 I say that on that condition I will not accept 
 their support. ... If I exercise power, it 
 shall be upon my conception, perhaps im- 
 perfect, perhaps mistaken, but my sincere 
 conception of public duty. That power I 
 will not hold unless I can hold it consistently 
 with the mainten.ance of my own opinions." 
 Surely there could not be much plainer speak- 
 ing than this, or language that more distinctly 
 stipulated for freedom of opinion and action. 
 But the country party had got into their 
 heads that Peel would be a thick and thin 
 supporter of the Corn Laws. " The wish was 
 father to the thought;" and thus when Sir 
 Robert made use, in 1846, of the right he 
 had distinctly reserved to himself in 1841, 
 they chose to consider themselves injured 
 and deceived men, and cheered to the echo 
 the vituperative speeches in which Mr. 
 Benjamin Disraeli accused the Premier of 
 want of consistency, when Sir Robert had 
 only consistently exercised the right he had 
 claimed five years before. 
 
 It would seem that already at this time the 
 great statesman had some misgivings as to 
 the principle of Protection ; and his cha- 
 racter, though cautious, deliberate, and some- 
 what cold, had nothing of that bigotiy about 
 it which forbids men to advance beyond a 
 certain point, and pledges them irrevocably 
 to one set of opinions. Even Earl Russell, 
 j or as he was then called, " Lord John," did 
 not escape the reproach of at times advocat- 
 10 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 ing a policy of stagnation, and what many- 
 called anything but a masterly " inactivity " ; 
 and the epithet, " Finality John," bestowed 
 upon him at one portion of his public career, 
 had anything but a complimentary meaning. 
 
 Enlarged Operations of the League ; 
 The First Free Trade Bazaar. 
 
 At any rate, the years 1841 and 1842 were 
 not a time wherein even Lord John could 
 have consistently counselled his followers to 
 "rest and be thankful." The harvest of 
 1841 was a bad one ; trade was deplorably 
 bad ; great numbers were in receipt of 
 parochial relief in London, Nottingham, 
 Leeds, and other important industrial centres. 
 
 in public favour, holding meetings, distribut- 
 ing pamphlets,bringing together delegates from 
 various parts of the country, and enlisting a 
 large and influential contingent of the clergy 
 in the cause. Then also a new and most 
 successful means for raising the necessary 
 funds for carrying on the agitation was dis- 
 covered. The first "Free Trade bazaar"' 
 was held, under the superintendence of a 
 committee of ladies, with Mrs. Cobden for 
 their president, in the theatre at Manchester, 
 It was a huge '*' fancy fair," to which articles 
 were contributed from the most various 
 quarters. Financially it was a great success, 
 bringing little short of ;^ 10,000 into the 
 coffers of the association ; and it was still 
 more important from the publicity it gave to 
 
 ESS IN Liverpool ; The Home of Science and Art. 
 
 "We've got no work to do,' was the cry 
 among the Spitalfields weavers, the operatives 
 of Nottingham, and the artizans in the 
 manufacturing districts generally. Protec- 
 tive duties, as the indefatigable workeus of 
 the League did not fail to point out, bad not 
 succeeded in providing a sufficient market 
 for English goods ; and on the other hand, a 
 tax of more than 24$'. per quarter made 
 bread dear, while labour was so cheap. 
 
 All this could not fail to strengthen the 
 hands of the League. No time is so pro- 
 pitious for convincing people of the injustice 
 of a policy or principle as that during which 
 they are suffering actual privation and want 
 under its operation ; and during this time 
 the League accordingly made steady progress 
 
 the operations of the League by drawing 
 attention to its labours. 
 
 Liverpool was at that time one of the most 
 active centres of the League. 
 
 Deputation to London ; The Subject 
 OF the Corn Laws pressed on Par- 
 liament. 
 
 As the association increased in popularity, 
 and found itself making converts to its prin- 
 ciples all over the country, it took a bolder 
 and more decided tone, declaring its deter- 
 mination to refuse all compromise in this 
 important matter. Just as in 1831 and 1832 
 the advocates of Parliamentary Reform had 
 announced their resolution to accept only 
 " the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Bill," the opponents of the Corn Laws now 
 declared for "abohtion, total abolition, and 
 nothing short of abohtion." A large depu- 
 tation of some 500 delegates came up_ to 
 London to press their views upon the Premier, 
 who, however, declined to receive them ; 
 whereupon they marched in a body to Palace 
 Yard, to the door of the House of Commons, 
 and amid the cheers of the people, raised 
 cries of " Labour and bread!" "No Corn 
 Law!" " No sliding scale !" Cobden pubhcly 
 asked, in the House, why there should be a 
 sliding scale for corn, when there was no 
 shding scale for wages ? " What I supplicate 
 for, on the part of the starving people," he said, 
 ^'is that they, and not you, shall be the judges 
 of when corn is wanted. By what right do 
 yoti pretend to gauge the appetites and 
 measure the wants of millions of people ? " 
 Sir Robert Peel himself saw that the pro- 
 tective tariff had been screwed up, not only 
 to " the sticking point," but to the point a^. 
 which the string was more than likely to snap 
 and gave a very practical proof of his 
 opinion by the introduction of direct instead 
 of indirect taxation ; reviving Pitt's Income 
 Tax, which he succeeded in carrying in spite 
 of Lord John's opposition. It is a significant 
 fact, by the way, that the Whig leader at a 
 later period not only adopted his opponent's 
 measure, but endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to 
 elaborate it and derive an increased portion 
 of the Government resources from the In- 
 come Tax. The aristocratic party saw with 
 dismay that the popular discontent against 
 the Corn Laws was increasing, and would 
 presently, "like a bold flood, o'erbear." They 
 saw with dismay that now deputations were 
 no longer left out in the cold by the 
 Government ministersy but were received at 
 least with official courtsey, and dismissed with 
 a vague promise that something' should 
 be done for the relief of the general distress ; 
 and with admirable prudence the League 
 continued to work on strictly peaceful and 
 legal lines, basing its hopes of ultimate suc- 
 cess on the certainty of in time " instructing " 
 its Disponents into acquiesceace. The ques- 
 tion of the Corn Laws was kept persistently 
 before the eyes of the public as a subject of 
 paramount importance ; and though the 
 Ministers were still strong enough to com- 
 mand large majorities when the abolition of 
 the taxes on corn was brought before the 
 Legislature and pressed to a division, they 
 could not get away from the subject, which 
 was ever present, like the skeleton at an 
 Egyptian feast. Cobden appealed directly 
 to the Prime Minister, in whom his astuteness 
 had already recognised a secret leaning to- 
 wards the principles of Free Trade. " Would 
 the right honourable baronet," he asked, " re- 
 sist the appeals that had been made to him, 
 or would he rather cherish the true interests 
 
 of the country, and not allow himself to be 
 dragged down by a section of the aristocracy? 
 Lie must take sides, and that instantly ; and 
 should he by so doing displease his political 
 supporters, there was an answer ready. He 
 might say that he found the country in dis- 
 tress, and he gave it prosperity ; that he 
 found the people stai'ving, and he gave them_ 
 food ; that he found the large capitalists of 
 the country paralysed, and he made them 
 prosperous." 
 
 Dismay of the Protectionists ; The 
 Heat of the Battle. 
 
 The dismayed country party still clung 
 to Peel like drowning sailors to a life buoy. 
 He was their great hope, the one pilot to 
 whom they trusted to weather the storm that 
 was rising around them ; and the most em- 
 barrassing circumstance of all was that the 
 great advancing host could not be kept out 
 by ramparts mounted with cannon and 
 bristling with bayonets. There was not, as 
 in the Chartist movement, anything about it 
 that could be met by the reading of the Riot 
 Act, and by an order to disperse, accentuated 
 by a charge of cavalry to follow. A rising 
 mob or a gathering of rick -burners might be 
 encountered by calling out the military ; but 
 you could not send the soldiers into a Free 
 Trade bazaar, and overthrow the tables as if 
 they were barricades. 
 
 One proof of the increasing hold of the 
 League on public opinion was soon after 
 given in a most satisfactory and practical 
 form. The organisation required the sinews 
 of war for carrying on its operations. A sum 
 of ;!^5o,ooo was raised by subscriptions with- 
 out any difficulty ; and this was in a time of 
 general distress. 
 
 But tlie Parliamentary battle had as yet 
 scarcely begun. The compact phalanx of 
 country gentlemen who stood together shoulder 
 to shoulder to keep out the pernicious Free 
 Trade doctrines, gave the Government enor- 
 mous majorities in the division lobbies ; and 
 though Mr. Villiers persisted in bringing 
 forward his annual motion for the abolition 
 of the Corn Laws, he seemed to have as 
 little chance of carrying it as ever. The 
 Tory papers raved and howled against the 
 Free Traders and all their works. Cobden, 
 the most peaceable and kindly, if one of the 
 most outspoken of men, was described as 
 having risen in his place "to hurl at the 
 heads of the Parliamentary landowners of 
 England these calumnies and taunts which 
 constitute the staple of his addresses to 
 farmers." 
 
 He was fiercely denounced as a Manchester 
 money-grubber, under whose blows the land- 
 owners of England, the representatives by 
 blood of the Norman chivalry, the representa- 
 tives by election of the industrial interests of 
 
 12 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 the Empire, ignominiously quailed and shrank. 
 The basest and most selhsh motives were 
 attributed to the Manchester school ; and 
 above all, the readers of the Protectionist 
 newspapers were entreated to remember that 
 the squire was the father and patron of the 
 agricultural community. Codlin the squire 
 was the friend, not Short the manufacturer ; 
 and the endeavour to procure cheap bread 
 for the working man was merely a cloak 
 under which the Free Traders were concealing 
 their nefarious design to ruin the country 
 gentlemen of England, to overthrow the land- 
 marks of the constitution (this was a very 
 favourite phrase), and to pull down the fabric 
 raised by " the wisdom of our ancestors." 
 
 Important Recruits to the Free 
 Trade Ranks. 
 
 But the inexorable logic of facts was stronger 
 than the ravings of the Morning Post, or of 
 the now long defunct Morning Herald, 
 whose hysterical ejaculations were redoubled 
 when the League, encouraged by the ready 
 
 colleagues. The advocates of Free Trade 
 could now boast the adhesion of such men 
 as Mr. Pattison, the Liberal member for the 
 city of London ; Mr. Jones Loyd, afterwards 
 Lord Overstone, the great banker ; and Earl 
 FitzWilliam, a great landowner. Moreover, 
 the meetings in Covent Garden Theatre were 
 fully and accurately reported in the London 
 press, whose notices, copied into the provincial 
 papers, gave its opinions a circulation far wider 
 than could be achieved by any distribution of 
 pamphlets, or even by the publication of the 
 Economist. " The enemy increaseth every 
 day," was the rueful conviction that gradually 
 forced itself upon the minds of the Protec- 
 tionists. And the ^100,000 was obtained for 
 the General Purposes Fund as promptly and 
 easily as the ^50,000 had been collected the 
 year before. Truly, 1843 was a memorable 
 epoch for the Anti-Corn-Law League, which 
 may then be said to have attained its majority. 
 During the next year the work was steadily 
 and energetically carried on. Trade im- 
 proved, and a good harvest brought down 
 
 The Covent Garden Theatre of the League Meetings. 
 
 response given to its appeal for money, re- 
 solved now to raise ^100,000 for the expenses 
 of the next year, and to widen and enlarge 
 its lines of proceeding, adding to the pam- 
 phlet it was distributing a newspaper, in which 
 the objects and arguments of the League were 
 to be definitely set forth. Great meetings 
 had already been held in Drury Lane Theatre, 
 in which the Free Trade doctrines, hopes, and 
 prospects had been explained to overflowing 
 and enthusiastic houses. The proprietors 
 had stepped in to prevent the lessee from 
 opening the house to the League ; but the 
 other great theatre, Covent Garden, was at 
 that time very much in the condition of the 
 halls of Balclutha, so far as desolation was 
 concerned ; and the programme of the Anti- 
 Corn-Law League included the taking of that 
 house for thirty meetings. This was done ; 
 and the effect was beyond the most sanguine 
 expectations of the committee. The speeches 
 were delivered by JMr.Cobden, Mr.Bright,who 
 was now also in Parliament, and by many 
 inflnential and eloquent men among their 
 
 the price of bread. But here the difficulty 
 inseparable from the Corn Laws again made 
 itself felt. If corn was cheap, what was toi 
 become of the farmers ? How were they to 
 pay their rents ? The most obvious device was 
 to take it out of the labourers, whose wages 
 were accordingly reduced in many districts 
 to starvation point ; and the wretched men 
 in too many cases sought refuge from their 
 misery in acts of violence and incendiarism. 
 Leech's celebrated cartoon, " the home of the 
 rick-burner," published in Piinch at this time, 
 made a profound impression. The pitiable 
 serf is represented sitting brooding in sullen 
 misery before his empty grate ; his wretched 
 children crouching in a corner ; while the 
 corpse of his wife, killed by starvation and 
 misery, lies stretched out gaunt and stiff upon 
 the floor ; and the thoughts that are passing 
 through the man's mind are indicated by the 
 mocking demon who offers him a torch, the 
 means of vengeance. But there was a better 
 hope looming in the distance than the pros- 
 pect of a wild revenge. Even the labourer 
 
 13 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 had awoke to the consciousness that men 
 were working to procure for him and his wife 
 and children the inestimable boon of cheap 
 food : the gospel of Free Trade was being 
 preached to the poor, and they heard it 
 gladly. 
 
 The Condition of the British Labourer 
 — The Iniquity of the Corn Laws. 
 This was forcibly illustrated by some 
 remarks of Mr. Bright at one of the great 
 meetings in Covent Garden Theatre. 
 
 After commenting on the extraordinary 
 statement of an opponent, a landed pro- 
 prietor with an income of ^8,000, who had 
 advanced the astounding declaration that 
 were he to come again into the world, and 
 had to choose the particular class or rank in 
 society to which he would belong, he would 
 select that of an agricultural labourer, Mr. 
 Bright proceeded : " Now, what is the con- 
 dition of this agricultural labourer, for whom 
 they tell us that Protection is necessary ? He 
 lives in a parish, whose owner, it may be, 
 has deeply mortgaged it. The estate is let 
 to farmers without capital, whose land grows 
 almost as much rushes as wheat. The bad 
 cultivation of the land provides scarcely any 
 employment for the labourers, who become 
 more and more numerous in the parish ; the 
 competition which there is among these 
 labourers for the little employment to be had 
 bringing down the wages to the very lowest 
 point at which their lives can be kept in them. 
 They are heart-broken, spirit-broken, des- 
 pairing men. They have been accustomed 
 to this from their youth, and they see nothing 
 in the future which affords a single ray -of 
 hope. We have attended meetings in those 
 districts, and have been received with the 
 utmost enthusiasm by those round-frocked 
 labourers. They would have carried us from 
 the carriage which we had travelled in to the 
 hustings ; and if a silly squire or a foolish 
 farmer attempted any disturbance or im- 
 proper interference, these round-frocked men 
 were all around us in an instant, ready to 
 defend us ; and I have seen them hustle away 
 many a powerful man from the field in which 
 the meeting was being held. . . . But the 
 crowning offence of the system of legislation 
 , under which we have been living is, that a 
 * law has been enacted under which it is alto- 
 j gether unavoidable that these industrious 
 \ and deserving men should be brought down 
 ; to so helpless and despairing a condition. 
 By withdrawing the stimulus of competition, 
 the law prevents the good cultivation of the 
 land of our country, and therefore diminishes 
 the supply of food which we might derive 
 from it. It prevents at the same time the 
 mportation of foreign food from abroad, and 
 it also prevents the growth of supplies abroad, 
 so that when we are forced to go there for 
 
 them, they are not to be found. The law is, 
 in fact, a law of the most malignantly in- 
 genious character. It is fenced about in every 
 possible way. The most demoniacal ingenuity 
 could not have invented a scheme more calcu- 
 lated to bring millions of the working classes 
 of this country to a state of pauperism, suffer- 
 ing, discontent, and insubordination, than 
 the Corn Laws which we are opposing." The 
 speaker then reminded his hearers of the 
 national struggle made two centuries before 
 by the English nation, when a despotic and 
 treacherous monarch assumed to himself the 
 right to levy taxes without the consent of 
 Parhament and the people ; and indignantly 
 asked if, when their ancestors refused to be 
 the bondmen of a king, they would consent 
 to be the born thralls of an aristocracy, or 
 whether they would not by a manly and 
 united expression of public opinion put an 
 end at once and for ever to that giant wrong ? 
 
 Futile Remedies ; The Hour of 
 Triumph at Last. 
 
 The Protectionist cause was made worse 
 by the remedies for agricultural famine pro- 
 posed in high quarters. The Duke of 
 Norfolk suggested curry-powder ; a reverend 
 Dean considered that swedes and mangold 
 wurzel would make excellent food for the 
 labourer. On the whole, the people thought un- 
 taxed bread would be better than either. At 
 last an event occurred which, as the writer 
 of the " History of our Own Times " has ably 
 expressed it, " forced Peel's hand." In 1845, 
 the potato disease brought famine upon Ire- 
 land, and it became absolutely necessary to 
 open the ports to foreign corn ; and then the 
 League saw that the maintenance of the Corn 
 Laws was henceforth impossible. Sir Robert 
 Peel, unable to get his Cabinet to acquiesce 
 in what he considered the necessity for im- 
 mediate action, resigned on the 9th of 
 December ; and Lord John Russell being 
 sent for to form an administration, failed, as 
 he had done before. Then Sir Robert re- 
 turned to power, by the Queen's command ; 
 and the impressive scene took place which 
 has been described in the opening paragraph. 
 In spite of the vituperation and invective 
 lavished upon him by those who in their 
 bitter disappointment accused him of having 
 betrayed their confidence, the Prime Minister 
 carried a budget, with the total repeal of the 
 Corn Laws as its chief feature; and with the 
 triumphant passage of that budget through 
 Parliament, the reason for which the Anti- 
 Corn- Law League had been called into being 
 ceased to exist ; and at a meeting at Manchester 
 on the 2nd of July, 1846, it was proposed by 
 Mr. Cobden to wind up the affairs of the 
 association, which was accordingly done, its 
 work having been triumphantly brought to a 
 close. 
 
 14 
 
FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 During all his long and distinguished 
 career as a statesman, Sir Robert Peel had 
 never done a grander thing than the abolition 
 of the Corn Laws; and his action in this 
 matter was the more honourable as it was a 
 distinct vindication of the rights of conscience 
 against political'expediency. Sir Robert was 
 far too experienced a politician not to know 
 thoroughly the price he might be called upon 
 to pay for his action in this matter ; how 
 many friends he would alienate, and to what 
 an amount of misconstruction and reproach 
 he would lay himself open. He could, in- 
 deed, hardly have anticipated the concen- 
 trated malignity with which Mr. Disraeli 
 pursued him to the end of the Session ; or 
 the extent to which that honourable member's 
 tirades would be cheered by delighted country 
 gentlemen, wondering that one small head 
 could carry all he knew in the way of epi- 
 grammatic invective ; but that he expected 
 to be heavily censured, he openly stated in 
 his memorable speech, when the great mea- 
 sure that set corn free was passed. 
 
 It was a grand speech, and worthy of the 
 occasion on which it was delivered. The 
 generous sentiments it expressed came with 
 double force from the lips of a man whose 
 oratory was generally somewhat cold and 
 unimpassioned, more calculated to convince 
 the reason than to rouse enthusiasm. The 
 noble tribute paid to one of the chiefs of the 
 Anti-Com-Law League certainly displays no 
 tokens of the self-glorification and pique with 
 which the late Lord Beaconsfield charged it. 
 On the contrary, it reads like the utterance 
 of a great man, raised above all party con- 
 siderations by the importance and solemnity 
 of the moment. 
 
 " The name which ought to be, and which 
 will be, associated with the success of these 
 measures," said Peel, "is the name of the 
 man who, acting, I believe, from pure and 
 disinterested motives, has advocated their 
 cause with untiring energy, and with appeals 
 to reason, enforced by an eloquence the more 
 to be admired because it is unaffected and 
 unadorned, — the name of Richard Cobden." 
 And, then, as though conscious that he was 
 standing almost at the close of his political 
 career, and that his tenure of power would 
 cease and determine with the passing of the 
 great measure with which his memory would 
 be always identified for good or for evil, he 
 expressed that lofty and generous hope that 
 since has been so fully realised. " It may 
 be," said the great statesman, "that I shall 
 leave a name sometimes remembered with 
 expressions of goodwill in those places which 
 are the abode of men whose lot it is to labour 
 and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of 
 their brow, — a name remembered with expres- 
 sions of goodwill when they shall recreate 
 their exhausted strength with abundant and 
 
 15 
 
 untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no 
 longer leavened with a sense of injustice." 
 
 Better words could not have been spoken 
 to be associated with the memory of a great 
 national benefit. And they were spoken in 
 good season ; for the price paid by Peel for 
 the passing of the measure was nothing less 
 than the Premiership itself. He had judged 
 quite rightly when he said that he should be 
 exposed to heavy censure for what he had 
 done, especially by the monopolists whose 
 interest lay in the maintenance of protection. 
 By a coalition of some of his former par- 
 tisans with his avowed opponents during the 
 sarne Session, he was defeated by a majority 
 of more than seventy on the question of the 
 Coercion Bill, and went out of office, to be 
 succeeded by Lord John Russell. The re- 
 mainder of his career was passed in the cold 
 shade of Opposition ; and less than four 
 years afterwards a lamentable accident de- 
 prived him of life ; and the country had to 
 bewail the loss of an upright, talented, and 
 indefatigable public servant. 
 
 Summary and Conclusion, 
 More than a generation has gone by since 
 the day when the triumph of Free Trade was 
 assured in England. The time, therefore, 
 has been amply sufficient to test the merits 
 of the system ; and the soundness of the 
 policy on which it is based has stood the 
 ordeal of experience, and the inexorable trial 
 of facts and figures. 
 
 The majority of those who took a leading 
 part in the struggle have passed away in 
 the course of nature ; but some of them yet 
 remain ; and the foremost of the survivors, 
 Mr. Bright, has taken the opportunity, on 
 the occasion of a well-deserved public cele- 
 bration of the seventieth anniversary of his 
 birthday, to give a summary of the work of 
 the great movement with which he was so 
 brilliantly connected ; and no one surely has 
 a greater right to speak with authority on 
 such a subject. A few extracts from his 
 remarks will elucidate what Free Trade has 
 done for the country. 
 
 Mr. Bright recalled what the League had 
 done. He said : " Now, forty years ago — I 
 must look round the room and see how many 
 men there are who can recollect things forty 
 years ago — the landed interest, as it was 
 called, comprising, I suppose, land owners 
 and tenant farmers, doubted all that we 
 recommended, feared all that we proposed 
 to do, and they were distinctly of opinion 
 that our principles and our plans were 
 wholly hostile, if not destructive, to their 
 interests. That was the view when we 
 began the agitation. But in 1846 the change 
 was not very considerable, when the agita- 
 tion came to a close, for at that time no 
 doubt the bulk of the landed proprietors and 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of the tenant farmers of England were 
 opposed to the repeal of the Corn Laws, 
 which Sir Robert Peel carried ; because out 
 of the whole of his great majority in the 
 House of Commons, I think he only took 
 about eighty votes, which, added to the 
 votes of the Liberal party, enabled him to 
 carry that Bill through Parliament. We 
 had not converted them, therefore, in 1846 ; 
 we merely vanquished them. We had 
 created so much opinion among the various 
 classes of the country that, aided by the 
 terrible catastrophe of the Irish famine, the 
 land proprietors and the tenant farmers had 
 to succumb. The Corn Law was repealed, 
 and the landed interest was thrown upon its 
 own resources, and was exposed to the com- 
 petition which until now it has met, I believe, 
 without any very great suffering." 
 
 With regard to the idea that Protection 
 could ever again become the policy of the 
 country, the speaker quoted the words 
 recently uttered at a meeting of the East 
 Lothian farmers, by Mr. Harper, the 
 president on the occasion, who said : " Now, 
 gentlemen, I may say at once that no relief 
 can ever be expected from the imposition of 
 a duty on grain or cattle, or by trying to 
 raise up by any unnatural process the price 
 of those articles to the people of this coun- 
 try. The policy of Free Trade in these 
 matters is irrevocably settled. The idea of 
 taxing the whole community for the benefit 
 of a class would not now be tolerated, and 
 the Government or Parliament that could 
 succeed in doing so, must be prepared for 
 a revolution which would be at once short, 
 sharp, and decisive." 
 
 The enormous increase in the prosperity of 
 the country is strikingly given in the com- 
 parison drawn between the England of 1840, 
 and the country at the present day. The 
 orator said : " In the year 1840 the country 
 v\^as suffering a good deal from bad harvests. 
 The people were suffering because their 
 bread was twice as dear as it ought to have 
 been. The farmers did not complain, for 
 they were selling what they produced at 
 twice as much as it was really worth. The 
 exports from this country to foreign countries 
 at that time of all the produce of Great 
 Britain and Ireland was ^51,000,000. I 
 Avon't pretend to explain to you what fifty- 
 one millions mean, because I don't know 
 really myself. It is so big a sum that you 
 can't measure it or imagine it. You can 
 only talk about it. What are the exports 
 
 now? Instead of being fifty-one millons 
 they amount to close upon, if not quite, two 
 hundred millions sterling, so that the whole 
 trade of the country, so far as its foreign 
 trade goes, has increased fourfold within 
 that time. And, as a matter of course, the 
 home trade must have enormously increased 
 at the same time, because so great an 
 increase of foreign trade has brought such 
 great wealth to the country that the home 
 trade has increased during that time in 
 quite as great proportion as the foreign trade 
 has done. 
 
 " There is another point, which is one of 
 extraordinary interest, and it shows, I think, 
 that no class in this country suffered so 
 much by the ancient policy of protection as 
 the working classes, and that no other class 
 in this country has gained so much as they 
 have gained during the last forty years by 
 the adoption of the new policy. Now, I tell 
 you that in these days it was the commonest 
 thing in the world for country gentlemen, 
 members of the House of Peers, and feeble- 
 minded folk of that day to say that nothing 
 could be done except by way of emigration. 
 They did not say that if you brought more 
 loaves into the country more people could be 
 fed. That is what we said. They said No ; 
 the people are too numerous ; there is no 
 employment for them ; they ought to emi- 
 grate, and what the Government should da 
 should be to establish colonies abroad and 
 take the people abroad. 
 
 "Well, a good many people have emi- 
 grated from that time to this, but what does 
 the census say of the actual state of the , 
 population ? It says that in 1840 the inhabi- 
 tants of Great Britain were 18,330,000, Just 
 bear that in mind. In 1879 the population 
 of Great Britain was estimated at 28,792,000 
 — that is, that the increase is nearly 
 10,000,000. The people did not go abroad, 
 but stayed at home, and the law was altered 
 so that bread could come here, and a great 
 many other things could come here, and 
 trade extended, and the people have added 
 more than ten millions to the population in 
 forty years, and there has been a continual 
 demand for labour ; and I have no doubt 
 that some of these people who forty years 
 ago wanted a general system of emigration 
 have got now some other nostrum or some 
 other scheme equally absurd and equally im- 
 possible to apply to your condition." 
 
 H.W. D. 
 
 16 
 
Trial of the Templars in London. 
 
 THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS KNIGHTS. 
 
 The Crusaders in Sight of Jerusalem — Cruelties Inflicted on Pilgrims to the Holy Land— Appeal of Peter the Hermit — 
 Europe Roused to a Crusade — Capture of Antioch and Massacre by the Crusaders — Siege and Storming of Jerusalem 
 — Horrible Slaughter by Godfrey of Bouillon and his Followers — Worshipping in the Church of the Sepulchre — The 
 Latin Kingdom — Origin of the Hospitallers and Templars — The Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon — Institutioro 
 of the Order of the Knights Templars, and Rules drawn up by Bernard — Visit of the First Grand Master to England 
 — Rapid Development and Enormous Possessions of the Order — Battles in Palestine — Noureddin and Saladin — The: 
 Last Crusade — The Siege of Acre— Persecutions in England and France — Tortures and Executions — Heroic ConducS- 
 of the Knights — Horrible Accusations — Suppression of the Order and Confiscation of the Possessions. 
 
 Jerusalem the Golden. 
 
 1 N the glow of a July morning, 1099, the 
 advanced guard of the first army of 
 the Crusaders looked upon Jerusalem. 
 At their feet was the deep, dry ravine, through 
 which the brook Kedron had ceased to flow, 
 dried up by the heat of the sun. Before them 
 were the massive walls and towers of " the 
 city set upon a hill," and rising above them 
 the dome of the mosque of Omar, reai-ed by 
 infidel hands on the site of the magnificent 
 Temple of Solomon. In that bright light of 
 dawn, the sun, rising beyond the Mount of 
 Olives, made the city beautiful. The minarets 
 of the mosque gleamed in the early sunlight ; 
 the flat-roofed houses became picturesque 
 
 with light and shade ; and the cornfields aKc?' 
 fig-trees on the slopes beyond the gates^,. 
 where the Divine One had walked and talked 
 a thousand years before, wore the beauty of 
 the older time. It was "Jerusalem the 
 Golden," Jerusalem the Sacred, of which 
 dim and uncertain pictures had been pre- 
 sented by pilgrims who had returned to. 
 Europe from the far East — which priests and 
 preachers had tried to see through the haze- 
 of legend. 
 
 Those who had first reached the eminence- 
 were speedily followed by others. Fatigue 
 and suffering — and the warriors and pilgrims. 
 had endured enough of each — were forgotten 
 now that the goal was reached. Armed 
 knights, with battered armour, frayed plumes, 
 
 17 c 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and dented shields, urged their weary steeds 
 to a last effort ; footmen, more lightly armed, 
 pressed forward eagerly ; and pilgrims, a 
 motley host, old men, weak women, children 
 even, toiled up the steep ascent and over 
 the rocky ground till they reached the ridges 
 and looked upon the city where David had 
 reigned, and where the Divine Son of David 
 •had taught and prayed and died. 
 
 Then warriors and pilgrims, noble and 
 toseborn, — Godfrey of Bouillon, Count Ray- 
 mond of Thoulouse, Robert of Normandy 
 i(the Conqueror's eldest son), Robert of 
 Flanders, Tancred, forty thousand knights 
 and men-at-arms, — fell upon their knees, and 
 '''poured out their tears on the consecrated 
 rsoil." Then rose the chant of the monks and 
 priests above the subdued sobbings of sup- 
 |Dressed emotion, and the strain floated on 
 the air to the towers and mosques where 
 Saracen sentries watched, and the Moslems 
 sprayed with their faces turned to Mecca. 
 
 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land. 
 Four years earlier. Western Europe was 
 ■ablaze with anger and enthusiasm ; for 
 intelligence had arrived that pilgrims to the 
 shrines so sacred to Christendom had been 
 -cruelly maltreated. For three centuries, 
 ■although the Mahometan Ahassides and 
 Fatimites had held the city, they had freely 
 permitted Christians to visit Jerusalem, and 
 ihad even with a stately courtesy set apart 
 aiearly one-fourth of the city, including the 
 Church of the Resurrection, the Holy 
 Sepulchre, and the great Latin convent, as a 
 Christian quarter. There is a record, that 
 in one year, 1064, seven thousand pilgrims, 
 ■old and young, men and women and chil- 
 •dren, had visited Jerusalem, to pray at the 
 ■Sepulchre and weep at Calvary. A year later, 
 dSerce Turcomans, Mahometans in creed, but 
 'very different from the cultured Arabians they 
 vdisplaced, had captured the sacred city, and 
 anassacic I a large number of the inhabitants. 
 The Chr stians were cruelly oppres-ed ; those 
 who escaped with life were robbed and 
 insulted ; their worship was ridiculed and 
 interrupted, and the priests of the Church 
 of the Sepulchre dragged by the hair of their 
 head to dungeons, and there left to die. 
 Pilgrims as they arrived, all unknowing of 
 "1 M-hat had happened, were plundered, im- 
 ) prisoned, and ill-treated. Some, indeed, were 
 sillowed to visit the shrine of the Sepulchre 
 if they could pay broad pieces of gold for the 
 •privilci^e ; if they could not, they were driven 
 irom the city to starve in the wilderness. 
 A few leached the coast and contrived to 
 'ireturn to Europe, in some instances many 
 ■years after they had set out on the pilgrimage, 
 iielped by the charity of ship-masters and 
 the people of the countries through which 
 •■they made their way. 
 
 18 
 
 Peter the Hermit. 
 
 Among those who had made the journey 
 and witnessed the cruelties to which thf 
 Christians were subjected in Jerusalem, was 
 one of those remarkable men who have now 
 and again made their mark on history, and 1 
 been raised by their marvellous power oi 
 exciting popular enthusiasm to leadership. 
 A man of gentle birth, a native of Amiens, 
 educated in Paris and in Italy, Peter — 
 known to all time as Peter the Hermit, no 
 other surname or title is on record— had been 
 a soldier, but retired from the army, married, 
 and had children. His wile died ; and 
 sorrow, it may be, quickening natural inclina- 
 tion for a Hfe of religious contemplation and 
 work, he became a monk, and afterwards a 
 hermit. After a time he quitted his retreat, 
 and, perhaps alone, living on such alms as 
 were seldom refused to "holy men," perhaps 
 in the company of a pilgrim band, to whom 
 he was the spiritual guide and leader, he 
 passed through southern Europe, and ci'ossed 
 the seas of the Levant to Syria ; then, by 
 the way of many a scene of sacred story, he 
 reached Jerusalem, only to find how Chris- 
 tians were maltreated. His soul, once 
 tranquil and devout, was fired with indigna- 
 tion and a new-born zeal to avenge the 
 insult to his Master. Small in body, mean 
 in aspect, this energetic man, roused to 
 heioic ardour and almost superhuman 
 strength, regardless of all dangers and all 
 sufferings, holding his life as nothing in 
 comparison with the work he had to do, 
 returned to the Western world, made his way 
 to Rome, and there, at the feet of Pope 
 Urban II., told his terrible story. It was 
 listened to ; and the Pope authorized him to 
 appeal to Christendom to form an armed 
 confederation to rescue Sion from the spoiler, 
 and the sacred Calvary from the cruel and 
 insulting infidel. Thus sanctioned, Peter 
 traversed Italy and crossed the Alps. In 
 the market-places of towns, by the roadside, 
 wherever he could collect an audience, the 
 Hermit — no longer a fitting name, for he was 
 a powerful leader, not a lonely recluse — told 
 how Christian men and women, holy priests 
 and pious pilgrims, were tortured and slain 
 by the cruel followers of the accursed false 
 Prophet. No detail, we may be sure, was 
 spared, no incident of horror toned down. 
 Tien, with the fervour born of an enthusiasm 
 which from continuous dwelling on one 
 subject had become almost frantic in its 
 excitement, and eloquence, with which he 
 was so strangely gifted, he called upon all to 
 aid in the great work. The noble summoned 
 his retainers, the workman left his anvil and 
 bench, the burghers of the busy towns took 
 down their swords from their resting-place 
 and girded themselves for warfare j women 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 wept hysterically, and beat their breasts 
 in sympathetic anguish when the powerful 
 appeal was made. A Frenchman by birth, 
 an Italian by traiqing, a wanderer in many 
 countries, Peter spoke to all in their native 
 language or patois ; and, riding on an ass 
 and holding aloft a cross, was followed by a 
 mighty host shouting to be led to Jerusalem. 
 Where was the holy city they knew not, how j 
 many leagues of land and water miist be 
 crossed they knew not, but they knew that 
 those who worshipped Christ were being 
 martyred by those who worshipped " Ma- 
 hound," and they asked to know no more. 
 Peter's preaching, says Milman, "appealed 
 to every passion,— to valour and shame, to 
 indignation and pity, to the pride of the 
 warrior, to the compassion of the man, the 
 religion of the Christian, to the love of the 
 brethren, to the hatred of the unbeliever, 
 aggravated by his insulting tyranny, to 
 reverence for the Redeemer and the saints, 
 to the desire of expiating sin, to the hope of 
 eternal life." 
 
 In France especially was indignation 
 mingled with enthusiasm. A council of the 
 Church was held at Clermont, at which 
 Pope Urban himself was present, and de- 
 livered a harangue well calculated to fan the 
 flame. All Western Christendom was aroused, 
 and an enormous host, scarcely to be called 
 an army, so rude and undisciplined were the 
 men, assembled from aU parts of Europe. 
 Peter himself took the command of one por- 
 tion ; the other had a far abler leader, in a 
 mihtary sense, known as Walter the Penniless, 
 probably one of those daring, experienced 
 soldiers of fortune who abounded in that age. 
 Peter, however, was the ruling spirit. He led 
 the host through Hungary ; and the Hunga- 
 rians were found to be ready to oppose them. 
 Probably, in his zeal, the Hermit had over- 
 looked the necessity of providing food for the 
 half-savage legions who followed him ; and 
 they provided it in rough and ready fashion 
 for themselves. The people of the countries 
 south of the Danube objected to the invasion 
 of the pilgrims as they might have objected 
 to a cloud of locusts, and fighting ensued. 
 Peter's followers were defeated at Semlin, 
 but continued their disorderly march, and at 
 length reached Constantinople, the capital of 
 , the Eastern Empire. The Emperor Alexis, 
 ! not disposed to " welcome the coming," 
 ; deemed it expedient to " speed the parting, 
 J guests." He gave Peter and his host (con- 
 siderably diminished in number by deser- 
 tions, death in battle, starvation, and sickness) 
 supplies to help them on their way. They 
 crossed the Bosphorus, and near Nice, or 
 Nicaea (famous as the seat of two great 
 Councils of the Church), the modern Isnek, 
 they were encountered fey a Mahometan 
 army under Sultan Solyman, and terribly 
 
 defeated. The remnant wandered on, a 
 mere rabble of enthusiasts, daily diminishing 
 in number from disease, starvation, and the 
 attacks of predatory bands. Peter himself 
 and a few hundreds only of the many thousands 
 who followed him in Italy and Germany, 
 knelt with the army of the Crusaders and 
 returned thanks for having lived to see 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The First Crusade. 
 
 That army, in the ranks of which might be 
 found the ablest warriors, the most renowned 
 nobles of Western Europe, was an outcome 
 of the same enthusiasm which had so wonder- 
 fully helped the Hermit ; but it was an enthu- 
 siasm acting by means of military organization, 
 and directed by statesmen and experienced 
 leaders. Six bodies were collected and 
 equipped, and led by some of the most dis- 
 tinguished warriors of the time,— Godfrey of 
 Bouillon, Duke of Lorraine ; Hugh, Count 
 of Vermandois, brother of King Philip of 
 France ; Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of 
 William the Conqueror; Count Robert of 
 Flanders ; Bohemund, Prince of Tarentum, 
 son of the more famous Guiscard ; and Count 
 Raymond of Toulouse. The place of rendez- 
 vous for the allied armies, the first Crusaders 
 (so named for wearing a red cross on the 
 right shoulder), was Constantinople. Cross- 
 ing into Asia Minor, they captured, on the 
 24th of June, 1097, Nice, the capital of Sultan 
 Solyman ; and then marched, experiencing 
 little opposition, to Antioch, which they be- 
 sieged and captured after a weary siege of 
 seven months. The valiant Crusaders had 
 little more respect for the quality of mercy 
 than had the grimmest of the Mahometans 
 they encountered ; and when they entered 
 the town as conquerors, they celebrated their 
 victory, and revenged themselves for the toil 
 of the long siege, by slaughtering the inhabi- 
 tants without regard to age or sex. 
 
 They were scarcely satiated with their horrid 
 work, the last shrieks of the dying had scarcely 
 died away into silence, when the Crusaders 
 found that they were themselves besieged, for 
 a relieving force of 200,000 Mahometans, 
 sent by the Sultan of Persia, arrived. Soon 
 the Crusaders were in desperate straits. 
 Food was scanty, the most loathsome sub- 
 stances were consumed, and disease broke out, 
 arising from the foul state of the city, in 
 which dead bodies lay in heaps putrefying in 
 the furnace-like heat of a Syrian summer. 
 Thousands of the more fainthearted escaped 
 over the walls in the darkness of night, 
 eluded the enemy, and months afterwards 
 appeared in the great cities of Europe in rags 
 and misery, — how they found their way thither 
 they could scarcely tell, — and told how sorely 
 the Cru saders, the flower of European chivalry, 
 
 19 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 were beset by the " malignant and turbaned 
 Turks." 
 
 The knights! and men who remained in 
 Antioch were made of sterner stuff, and more 
 worthily showed " the mettle of their pasture." 
 They could but die, and better to fall, if it 
 must be so, overpowered by numbers in the 
 open field, than to die like cowards behind 
 the walls of the beleagured city. They 
 sallied out; and with longsword, axe, and 
 mace, they dashed at the Mahometan hosts, 
 drove them with great slaughter from the 
 ground, raised their proud war-cry, '■'' Deus 
 vult" " God wills it," as they trampled on 
 the dead and dying warriors of the Crescent, 
 and pursued the flying remnant of the enemy 
 till the weary and starving steeds could no 
 longer bear the steel-clad knights. 
 
 Advance to Jerusalem. 
 
 The way to Jerusalem was now open to the 
 Christian army. The Crusaders marched for 
 three hundred miles from Antioch to Jaffa, 
 keeping near the coast for the convenience of 
 obtaining supplies from the Italian trading 
 vessels which touched at the ports. The 
 strongholds were deserted by the Mahometan 
 emirs, who fled at the approach of the in- 
 vaders. From Jaffa they crossed in an 
 easterly direction to Jerusalem. " With 
 devout and awful curiosity," we read, "the 
 rude warriors of Europe now traversed a 
 region filled with places which hourly recalled 
 some sacred association, and at length the 
 Holy City burst upon their enraptured gaze." 
 
 So came it that twenty thousand Cru- 
 saders, with the wretched remnant of the 
 Hermit's legions, and a camp following of pil- 
 grims and others, knelt on the ridges near the 
 Mount of Olives, and prayed and wept on 
 that July day, in the last year of the eleventh 
 century. 
 
 All the leaders of the six divisions of the 
 great Crusade army were not there ; Bohemund 
 of Tarentum had quitted the expedition, but 
 his most famous follower, the Tancred of the 
 Itahan poets, remained. The acknowledged 
 leader was Godfrey of Bouillon. He had 
 achieved a martial renown which few knights 
 could rival ; had taken part in the wars 
 waged by the great Emperor Henry IV., in 
 Germany and in Italy, and had slain the 
 usurper, Rudolph of Swabia, with his own 
 hand, in the decisive fight at Wolksheim. 
 When the Crusade was proclaimed, Godfrey 
 was one of the first to answer to the call. To 
 raise money for the equipment of his contin- 
 gent to the army, he mortgaged the duchy 
 of Bouillon to the Bishop of Liege. 
 
 No time was lost in beginning the attack 
 on Jerusalem ; but the Crusaders soon found 
 that a sudden capture was impossible, so 
 strong was the position, and so well prepared 
 and resolute the Moslem garrison. In vain 
 
 the knights and their followers endeavoured 
 to force the gates and climb to the lofty ram- 
 parts. They were beaten down by showers 
 of missiles from the walls, on which the Ma- 
 hometans displayed the cross, the symbol of 
 the Christian faith, defiled with filth. Mad- 
 dened by the insult, the Crusaders again 
 rushed to the assault, only to leave heaps of 
 dead in the ravine at the foot of the wall. 
 It was evident to the leaders that proper 
 appliances for a siege must be constructed ; 
 but no timber could be obtained near the 
 spot, and detachments of the force were sent 
 to the beautiful wooded valley of Shechem^ 
 thirty miles distant, to procure material for 
 the movable towers and battering rams. 
 The large trees were dragged by main force 
 to the camp, and, with the help of a number 
 of Genoese sailors, collected from the vessels 
 lying off the coast, the necessary engines were 
 constructed. 
 
 While this work was going on, the sufferings 
 of the besiegers and followers of the camp 
 were intense. The scorching sun had dried 
 up the brooks, and the garrison had filled up 
 the wells beyond the walls. A maddening 
 thirst was felt by all. Parties were sent off 
 to procure water, if possible, from distant 
 springs ; and when small quantities were 
 brought to the camp, a draught was purchased 
 by a piece of gold. The poor wretches who 
 had nothing to give eagerly licked up the 
 morning dews, or dug holes in the ground 
 that they might press their parched lips 
 against the moist earth. The Genoese 
 sailors, aided by the labour of the men- 
 at-arms, worked well, and forty days after 
 the arrival of the Crusaders, all was ready for 
 the grand assault. 
 
 The Siege and Slaughter. 
 Day after day they had witnessed on the 
 wall the defiled sign of salvation ; day after 
 day they had heard the Moslems' shouts of 
 defiance and jeers at their faith ; and they 
 were excited to an inexpressible fury. A huge 
 tower on wheels, propelled by the force of a 
 hundred or more strong arms, bore Godfrey, 
 Robert of Normandy, and their companions- 
 in-arms to the walls. At another part, the 
 Count of Thoulouse led the attack. The 
 garrison hurled heavy missiles, and poured 
 out Greek fire on the devoted assailants. The 
 war-shout of the soldiers of the Cross was 
 answered by the wild cries of the savage 
 Turcoman believers in the Prophet. Godfrey's 
 tower almost touched the ramparts, a bridge 
 was thrown across, and the brave leader and 
 his band leapt upon the walls', A short, sharp 
 struggle, and the footing was secure. The 
 Moslem warriors fell in heaps beneath the 
 blows of the axe and longsword ; and in a 
 few moments after Godfrey had rushed across 
 the frail bridge, his banner, planted by his 
 
 20 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 own hands, swayed in the wind on the eastern 
 rampart of Jerusalem. 
 
 On the other side, Count Raymond of 
 Thoulouse had been equally successful in 
 his attack. The walls were gained, the gates 
 forced or thrown open from the inside, and 
 the Crusaders pressed into the city. Further 
 resistance was impossible; Jerusalem was 
 won, and the banner of the Cross was raised, 
 with a shout of triumph, on the battlements 
 where for forty days the sacred symbol had 
 been mocked at by the infidels. 
 
 Then began the terrible work of the 
 avenger. The white banner of the Cross 
 floated above ; but the soldiers of the Cross 
 were red-handed and red-hearted, — the blood 
 that bespattered their armour was not only that 
 of the Moslem warriors they had slain on the 
 ramparts, but of the panic-stricken citizens, 
 the old and young, the mother and child, 
 they slaughtered in the streets. The Via 
 Dolorosa, with its sacred memories of agonies, 
 was again a way of weeping ; and shrieks of 
 terror, dying groans, and the shouted curses 
 of the maddened conquerors, mingled in the 
 narrow streets that led to the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre. There was a wild rush of 
 fugitives to the Mosque of Omar, on Mount 
 Moriah, the site of the temple of Solomon, 
 where they hoped to find safety. But the 
 assailants followed ; the mounted knights 
 {for by this time their horses had been 
 brought in through the gates) dashed among 
 the affrighted crowd, trampling down and 
 slaying indiscriminately. Into the broad area 
 surrounding the mosque, the sacred enclosure, 
 fled the trembling crowd, pursued by the 
 horsemen, shouting '■^ Deus vult I '''' and at 
 every shout a victim fell. One of the chief 
 actors in this terrible massacre boasted in a 
 letter to the Pope that they rode up to their 
 horses' knees in the blood of the infidels, and 
 that within the precincts of the mosque ten 
 thousand fugitives were slain. Altogether, if 
 we may believe the most moderate of the 
 chroniclers of this terrible day, quite twenty 
 thousand were massacred — an almost incre- 
 dible number, considering the limited size of 
 the city ; but, making allowance for exaggera- 
 tion, the besetting sin of mediaeval (and, in- 
 deed, of many other) narrators, it is but too 
 probable that nearly all the inhabitants were 
 massacred. In Tasso's "Jerusalem De- 
 livered " (Fairfax's Translation) we read :— 
 
 " The victors' ire destroyed the faithless crew, 
 From street to street, and chased from gate to gate, 
 But of the sacked town the image true 
 Who can describe, or paint the woful state ? 
 Or with fit words this spectacle express 
 Who can? or tell the city's great distress? 
 
 " Blood, murder, death, each street, house, church, 
 defiled, — 
 There heaps of slain appear, there mountains high, 
 
 There underneath th' unburied hills up-piled 
 Of bodies dead, the living buried lie ; 
 There the sad mother with her tender child 
 Doth tear her tresses loose, complain, and fly." 
 
 That is a picture sketched by a poet who de- 
 voted his genius to the glorification of Godfrey, 
 Tancred, and the rest of the Crusaders, and, 
 in imitationof the older epics, in which super- 
 natural assistance generally figured, repre- 
 sented the Archangel Michael as fighting 
 with them. 
 
 As the evening of that memorable day 
 drew near, the new masters of the sacred 
 city, satiated with blood, thought that the 
 time was come for devotion. To quote 
 an able recent writer, " Duke Godfrey, after 
 himself staining the example of heroic cou- 
 rage with merciless slaughter, threw aside his 
 reeking sword, washed his bloody hands, 
 exchanged his armour for a white linen tunic, 
 and, with bare head and bare feet, repaired 
 in pious humiliation to the Church of the 
 Sepulchre, and the whole host in turn, dis- 
 carding their arms and purifying their persons 
 from the signs of recent slaughter, moved in 
 procession to the hill of Calvary." Then 
 they marched out of the city, and prostrated 
 themselves on the slopes of the Mount of 
 Olives, while Peter the Hermit uttered a 
 terrible thanksgiving, and preached about 
 the triumph of the Cross. 
 
 The work was not accomplished. There 
 were yet some fugitives who had secreted 
 themselves, some Jews who had sought safety 
 in the synagogues, and listened, fear-stricken, 
 behind the barred doors to the shouts and 
 wails without. On the following morning 
 the slaughter was renewed. Women with 
 infants at the breast, and orphaned children, 
 were dragged from their hiding-places, and 
 pitilessly butchered, except a few whom the 
 Count of Thoulouse reserved as slaves. The 
 synagogues were burned, the Jews within 
 perishing in the flames, and pillage went hand 
 in hand with slaughter. 
 
 The Latin Kingdom. 
 Eight days afterwards, Godfrey of Bouillon 
 was selected bythe leaders King of Jerusalem; 
 and so was founded that Latin kingdom, which 
 at first comprising little more than the city 
 of Jerusalem, was gradually extended by con- 
 quest until it included nearly the whole of 
 Palestine. A language resembling Norman- 
 French was established — there were few left 
 to speak in the tongue with which the 
 slaughtered thousands cried for mercy; laws 
 (known as "the assize of Jerusalem") in ac- 
 cordance with the feudal spirit of the time 
 were drawn up, and Jerusalem became a 
 patriarchate of the Church, and Bethlehem 
 a bishopric. It is said that Godfirey declined 
 to use the royal style, although it was gene- 
 rally accorded by others, but preferred to call 
 
 21 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 himself "Defender and Guardian of the Holy 
 City." He refused to be crowned; for he 
 would not "wear a crown of gold where the 
 Saviour had worn a crown of thorns." He 
 died (it was suspected from the action of 
 ■poison) in July iioo, aged 42, and was 
 buried on Mount Calvary. 
 
 These events have been dwelt on, for they 
 were the prelude to that remarkable episode 
 of history, the rise and fall of the Knights 
 , Templars, whose history is now to be 
 sketched. 
 
 Helping the Pilgrims. 
 When tardily— for in those days news 
 I travelled slowly — the princes and people of 
 Europe were informed of the capture of 
 I Jerusalem, the desire to make the pilgrim- 
 age, checked for a time by the report of the 
 danger to be encountered, revived with in- 
 creased enthusiasm. Crowds of pilgrims, of 
 both sexes, including many children, dragged 
 their weary limbs across Europe, from Eng- 
 land, France, Germany, and Italy, to the 
 ports where they could obtain a passage to 
 the Syrian coast. They hoped to find the 
 j.road to the holy city open, and knew little 
 lof the dangers which awaited them. At 
 Jerusalem, indeed, the Christians were mas- 
 ters ; but in the highways and byeways of 
 Palestine lurked Mussulman robbers, in- 
 flamed by a spirit of revenge, and greedy of 
 'even such wretched plunder as the poor pil- 
 'grims could yield. Bedouins, too, those sons 
 I of the desert, whose hand was and is " against 
 I every man," attacked the caravans of pilgrims, 
 1 and left them naked to perish. 
 
 The Brotherhood of St. John. 
 About fifty years before the capture of 
 'Jerusalem by Godfrey, some Italian merchants 
 who traded in the East, pitying the condition 
 ' of the poor pilgrims who were permitted by 
 the Egyptian caliphs to reside in the city, 
 founded a hospital for their reception and 
 entertainment, which was placed under the 
 care of monks of the Order of St. Benedict. 
 Another hospital was afterwards erected, and 
 dedicated to St. John the Compassionate, who 
 had been patriarch of Alexandria ; and the 
 brethren who ministered there adopted a 
 peculiar oi'ganization, and wore as a distinc- 
 tive dress, black mantles with a white cross 
 on the breast. When the Turcoman tribes 
 ] obtained possession of Jerusalem, the good 
 J brothers had no home there, and then they 
 assumed a new character, and joining the 
 Crusaders, fought bravely in their ranks, 
 taking part in the capture of the city. It is 
 probable they partially resumed their occu- 
 pation as entertainers of the poor pilgrims ; 
 and their example appears to have stimulated 
 at a later period, about eighteen years after 
 the siege, two French Knights, who had also. 
 
 shared in the great campaign, to undertake 
 the duty of protecting pilgrims from the pre- 
 datory Moslems and Bedouins. 
 
 Origin of the Templars. 
 
 Hugues de Payens, or Paganes, and Geof- 
 froi de St. Omer, were the two, and seven 
 other French Knights united with them in 
 the duty. It has been stated, but not on 
 certain authority, that they had all been at 
 one time members of the fraternity of St. 
 John. They voluntarily made vows of poverty, 
 obedience, and chastity, and added an en- 
 gagement to fight against the infidels. Their 
 poverty was symbolized by a device repre- 
 senting two knights riding on one horse; 
 and a legend has thence arisen that Payens 
 and St. Omer were really so poor that they 
 could only own one horse between them. If 
 that were the case, the animal must have 
 been a steed of amazing powers, for certainly 
 one armed knight was ordinarily a sufficient 
 load. Adopting the name of the Poor Soldiers 
 of the Holy City, the Knights made a solemn 
 compact between themselves to aid one 
 another in clearing the highway of robbers 
 and in protecting and assisting pilgrims. 
 
 For six or seven years these knights un- 
 aided discharged their appointed task bravely. 
 Many a Turk and Bedouin bit the dust before 
 them ; and many pilgrims reached Jerusalem 
 in safety, blessing the Poor Soldiers. Then 
 other knights joined them, and they assumed 
 the importance of a regularly constituted 
 body, with De Payens as Master. In 1118, 
 Baldwin, the successor of Godfrey as King of 
 Jerusalem, granted them a residence within 
 the sacred enclosure of the Temple, on 
 Mount Moriah, and in place of their former 
 designation, they now claimed the name of 
 the Knighthood of the Temple of Solomon. 
 Increasing rapidly in number, they added to 
 their duties the defence of Jerusalem, of the 
 Eastern Church, and of all the holy places ; 
 and De Payens, the chief of the religious 
 and warlike society, was styled Master of 
 the Temple — z. title which has remained from 
 that day to this, and is now borne by the 
 eminent clergyman who resides in the Temple, 
 Fleet Street, and preaches in the old church. 
 
 Rules of the Order. 
 Baldwin, estimating the value of this new 
 society, to which many of the most renowned 
 knights in Jerusalem were attaching them- 
 selves, desired to obtain ecclesiastical sanc- 
 tion and control for what might prove a too 
 powerful organization if quite independent. 
 The most conspicuous individual figure in 
 the Western Church at that time was 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, the saintly ascetic 
 afterwards canonized ; and to him Baldwin 
 sent two of the Knights of the Temple, 
 asking him to intercede with the Pope for 
 
 22 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 the purpose of obtaining a confirmation of 
 the establishment of the new Order, and rules 
 for its guidance. Bernard appears to have 
 at once interested himself in the matter, for 
 shortly afterwards De Payens, St. Omer, and 
 four others went to Rome, where they were 
 treated with much honour, and invited by Pope 
 Honorius to attend the Council at Troyes, 
 in 1128. The result of the visit was that 
 Bernard was entrusted by the Pope with the 
 task of framing rules in accordance with 
 which the Order was to be regularly con- 
 stituted. 
 
 These rules were lengthy, and included a 
 large number of details ; but the most im- 
 portant regulations may be briefly sum- 
 marized. Self-mortification, fasting, and 
 prayer, were enjoined on the members of the 
 Order, as well as regular devotional exer- 
 cises. They were to attend matins, vespers, 
 and all the services of the Church, in order 
 that, "being refreshed and satisfied with 
 heavenly food, and stablished with heavenly 
 precepts, after the consummation of the 
 Divine mysteries, none might be afraid of 
 the fight, but be prepared for the crown." 
 Silence was to be observed in the refectory 
 and domitory, except it should be absolutely 
 necessary to speak. The professed Knights, 
 both in winter and summer, were to wear, if 
 they could be procured, white garments, 
 " that those who have cast behind them a 
 dark life may know that they are to com- 
 mend themselves to the Creator by a pure 
 and white life." No gold or silver, '' the 
 mark of private wealth," was to be seen on 
 bridle, breastplate, or spear, nor should any 
 brother buy such ornaments. If they were 
 bestowed on them, the gold or silver was to 
 be so coloured that " its splendour and 
 beauty may not impart to the wearer an 
 appearance of arrogance beyond his fellows." 
 They were not to communicate with relations 
 without permission of the Master, not to 
 listen to idle or licentious talk, not to follow 
 " the sport of catching one bird with another, 
 not to shoot with the bow in the woods, nor 
 halloo nor talk to a dog, nor spur a horse to 
 catch game." There might be married 
 brothers, if they and their wives promised 
 solemnly to bequeath their property to the 
 Order ; but they must not appear in the white 
 mantles worn by the other Knights. The 
 celibate members (that is, nearly all, married 
 Knights being rare exceptions) must not kiss 
 " widow nor virgin, nor mother, nor sister, 
 nor aunt, nor any other woman," and the 
 wisdom of this rule was thus enforced, — " Let 
 the Knighthood of Christ shun feminine 
 kisses, through which men have very often 
 been drawn into danger, so that each, witli a 
 pure conscience and secure life, may be able 
 <-o walk everlastingly in the sight of God." 
 
 The social status of the Knights was to be 
 
 preserved ; they ought to have lands, andJ 
 men, and husbandmen, because they were 
 Knights. But, Knights as they were, . they- 
 must submit to punishment by the lawful 
 heads of the Order ; the Master, however^^. 
 being advised to take heed that, in adminis- 
 tering punishment, the sinner be not encou- 
 raged by easy lenity, nor hardened in iniquit>^ 
 by immoderate severity. "If any offending- 
 member will not be amended by godly ad- 
 monition and earnest reasoning, but will gO' 
 on more and more lifting himself up with 
 pride, then let him be cast out ; for it is 
 necessary that the dying sheep should be 
 removed from the society of the faithful 
 brothers." Bernard finally thus encouraged 
 the members of the Order : " Under Divine 
 Providence, we do believe, this new kind of 
 religion was introduced by you in the holy 
 places, that is to say, the union of warfare 
 with religion, so that religion, being armed, 
 maketh her way by the sword, and smiteth 
 the enemy without sin." 
 
 The White and Red Cross Knights. 
 The members of the Order of St. John, the 
 brothers who had the charge of the hospital 
 for the pilgrims, had before this obtained the 
 sanction of Pope Calixtus (the predecessor 
 of Honorius) for remodelling the Order, and 
 thenceforth appear in history as the Knights 
 Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John of 
 Jerusalem, a great association rivalling and 
 surviving the Knights Templars. The Hos- 
 pitallers wore black mantles with white 
 crosses, and Pope Honorius assigned to the- 
 Templars white mantles as their peculiar 
 dress. A few years later, Pope Eugenius 
 III. ordered that they should wear a red 
 cross on the left breast. The red cross was 
 also displayed on their banner, which was 
 formed of cloth striped black and white,, 
 whence it was named Beauseant, an old 
 French term applied to a horse marked with 
 those colours. From this arose the war-cry,. 
 " Beauseant !" raised when the conflict raged 
 fiercely by the Red Cross Knights. 
 
 The Priory in London. 
 In 1128, De Payens visited London, and 
 was warmly welcomed by Henry I. and the 
 leading nobles. In pursuance of the plant 
 proposed by the heads of the Order to esta- 
 blish branches (to use a modern term) in the 
 principal cities of Europe, the Grand Master 
 obtained permission to found a Priory of the. 
 Temple in the road leading to the Old Bourne, 
 the stream which ran into the Fleet river. 
 Southampton Buildings, in Holborn, now 
 covers the site of the old priory. The journey 
 was extended to Scotland ; and in both 
 countries De Payens was " well received by 
 all good men," and received large donations 
 of gold and silver for the benefit of the.- 
 
 23 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Order, The chivalric and religious spirit of 
 the age, which so curiously combined a spirit 
 of adventure with a spirit of devotion, and 
 was ready to derive as great pleasure from kill- 
 ing the Saracens as from saving the Sepulchre, 
 seems to have been fascinated by the idea of a 
 body of gallant Knights binding themselves 
 by vows to support the faith by the force of 
 arms. The Norman romances, founded on 
 
 De Payens left England, "there went with him 
 and after him," says the writer of the events, 
 "so great a number as never before since 
 the days of Pope Urban," that is, since the 
 departure of the first Crusaders,. Grants 
 of land as well as of money were made, and 
 priors and sub-priors were appointed to 
 manage the estates of the Order and transmit 
 the money to Jerusalem. 
 
 Peter the Hermit's Call to a Crusadh. 
 
 the Arthurian legends, the traditionary ex- 
 ploits of doughty champions, who rode 
 hither and thither in search of adventures, 
 rescuing captives, helping the helpless, and 
 slaying oppressors, had prepared the popular 
 mind to welcome the existence of an Order 
 the semi-religious character of which de- 
 manded reverence, while the brilliant prowess 
 of the Knights extorted admiration. When 
 
 Gifts to the Order. 
 
 Not only were enormous gifts and bequests 
 made, but wealthy and enthusiastic persons 
 appeared to suppose that a pecuUar sanctity 
 attached to the fraternity, and many distin- 
 guished persons on their death-beds took the 
 vows, that they might be buried in the habit of 
 the Order, and so partake of the blessings 
 
 24 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 believed to be bestowed on the souls of 
 Templars. Sovereign princes and nobles of 
 scarcely inferior rank enrolled themselves 
 as members of the fraternity, and bequeathed 
 vast estates, even entire territories, to the 
 Master and brethren of the Temple. Bernard, 
 whose personal influence was greater than that 
 of any other man in Christendom, already 
 regarded as a saint, whose canonization after 
 
 by donations of land and money. On his 
 return to Jerusalem he was received with 
 great honour, and for five or six years after- 
 wards, until his death in 1136, continued to 
 hold the office of Grand Master, and to be 
 the leading spirit of the Knights of the 
 Temple. His successor was Robert the 
 Burgundian (son-in-law of William de Cur- 
 bellio, Archbishop of Canterbury), who held 
 
 Doing Battle with the Infidels. 
 
 death was a certainty, issued from his cell at 
 Clairvaux a famous discourse on " The New 
 Chivalry,'' and congratulated Jerusalem on 
 the appearance of the Soldiers ot Christ, in 
 the words with which Isaiah prophesied good 
 things for the holy city. 
 
 Not only in England, but in nearly all the 
 Christian countries of Europe, De Payens 
 established priories of the Order, supported 
 
 the office nearly ten years, and was followed 
 by Everard des Barres, Prior of the Order 
 in France, and the period of his rule was 
 destined to be marked by great events. 
 
 NOUREDDIN THE SARACEN. 
 
 The Saracen Sultan of Egypt and Syria, 
 the famous Zenghis, or Emod-el-Deen, "pillar 
 of religion," and his son, the even more 
 
 25 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 famous Nour-ed-Deen, "light of religion," 
 known in popular history as Noureddin, 
 brave warriors animated by that fanatical zeal 
 for propagating their creed by the sword which 
 had subdued the north of Africa and the south- 
 western peninsula of Europe to the sway of 
 the Crescent, determined to attack and, if pos- 
 ' sible, destroy the Latin Kingdom in Palestine. 
 ■ In 1 144 and the following year, Noureddin 
 , had made himself master of important po- 
 ' sitions in Mesopotamia and of the city of 
 Aleppo, and pursuing his victorious course, 
 defeated and killed Raymond, Prince of 
 Antioch, in 1149, and threatened the very 
 existence of the Christian power in Palestine. 
 " The Latin Kingdom shook to its founda- 
 tion," says one historian. 
 
 The Second Crusade. 
 
 On the reception in Europe of the intelli- 
 gence of the successes of the Saracen prince, 
 Bernard exerted all his eloquence and influ- 
 ence to arouse the Christian Powers to anew 
 Crusade. The Emperor Conrad IL and 
 Louis VII. of France responded to the call. 
 A chapter of the Order of the Templars was 
 convened at Paris, where they were received 
 by Pope Eugenius III., the King of France, 
 and an assembly of the most distinguished 
 princes, prelates, and nobles from all parts 
 of Christendom. A second Crusade was re- 
 solved on, a large army collected, the pro- 
 tecting rear-guard composed of Knights 
 Templars. Having reached Jerusalem the 
 immense force was reorganised, and then a 
 march was made to Damascus, occupied by 
 Noureddin and his brother Saif-eddin, "sword 
 of the faith." The old city, the scene of so 
 many sieges from the days of the Assyrians 
 downwards, was once more surrounded by a 
 hostile force. The Crusaders were attacked 
 and defeated with tremendous slaughter by 
 the Saracens. 
 
 Shortly afterwards Des Barres resigned 
 his high office — humiliated, perhaps, at the 
 defeat of the Christian army — and retired 
 to the monastery of Clairvaux, over which 
 Bernard ruled. The new Grand Master 
 was Bernard de Ti^emelay, a member of a 
 very distinguished family of Burgundy, and 
 he soon had an opportunity of displaying his 
 abilities as a military leader. The infidels 
 f had advanced, trampling down all opposition, 
 1 to the very walls of Jerusalem. The banner 
 of the Crescent waved on the Mount of 
 Olives ; the gardens and villages, so sacred 
 in the eyes of Christian men, visited and wept 
 over by legions of Christian pilgrims, were 
 trampled down and occupied by the fierce 
 legions of the power which the faithful re- 
 garded as Antichrist. If anything could have 
 added to the religious zeal of the warriors of 
 the Temple, if anything could have nerved 
 their arms to strike a blow, it was the sight 
 
 1 of the Paynim hosts near the Garden of 
 Gethsemane and the humble homes of Be- 
 thany. Under cover of the night the Templars 
 and their allies passed through the gates of 
 Jerusalem, crossed the ravine, and attacked 
 
 i the Saracen camp. The Moslems flew to 
 arms, but in the confusion which prevailed 
 were no match for the avenging Knights. 
 They were mercilessly slaughtered; five 
 thousand, it is said, were left dead round and 
 about the camp, and the disorderly host of 
 refugees, a few hours before so insolent and 
 defiant, fled in terror beyond the Jordan. 
 
 The great patron of the Order, Bernard of 
 Clairvaux, died in 11 53. On his deathbed 
 he wrote a letter, commending the Templars 
 to the spiritual care of the patriarch of 
 Antioch, and another letter to one of the 
 Knights, Andrd de Montbard, expressing his 
 affectionate solicitude for the Order and 
 asking their prayers. 
 
 The Saracens, though defeated, were not 
 subdued, as the Templars soon found to 
 their . cost. Noureddin and his followers 
 were as brave and as fanatical in their faith 
 as the Knights were. The Mahometan 
 leader was an ascetic as well as a warrior, 
 renouncing the temptations of the world, 
 fasting and praying, and devoted all his 
 energies to the task of recovering Jerusalem 
 from the Christians. That was the sole 
 object for which he lived, and no disaster 
 could lessen his enthusiasm and belief in the 
 promise of the Prophet, " The sword is the 
 key of heaven and of hell ; a drop of blood 
 shed in the cause of God, a night spent in 
 arms, is of more avail than two months of 
 fasting and prayer. Whoever falls in battle, 
 his sins are forgiven him." 
 
 Defeats of the Templars. 
 
 The Templars were equally eager for the 
 contest, and desired to complete the victory 
 on the slopes of the Mount of Olives by 
 driving the infidels from the land they pol- 
 luted by their presence. The Saracens were 
 strongly posted at Ascalon ; and that town 
 was attacked by the Knights. But disaster 
 awaited them. A breach in the walls was 
 made, and through it the gallant Master, 
 Bernard de Tremelay, with a band of Knights, 
 entered the town. They were surrounded by 
 overpowering numbers, and fell fighting as 
 Templars always fought. Not one was left 
 alive, and their dead bodies were exposed in 
 triumph on the walls. 
 
 About three years afterwards another disas- 
 ter occurred. The new Master, Bertrand de 
 Blanguefort, a Knight of Guienne, and a large 
 body of the Knights, accompanied by King 
 Baldwin of Jerusalem, were drawn into an 
 ambuscade near the Lake of Tiberias. Three 
 hundred Templars were slain, and the Grand 
 Master and nearly ninety others taken pri- 
 
 26 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 soners. The defeat was partially avenged by 
 a night attack made by a small body of the 
 Knights on the camp of Noureddin, that 
 renowned leader only escaping death or cap- 
 tivity by flying, half-naked and unarmed, from 
 the field of battle. The Grand Master soon 
 afterwards regained his liberty by the media- 
 tion of Manuel Commenus, Emperor of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 Conflicts with Saladin. 
 
 The most renowned leader of the forces 
 of the Sultan of Egypt, the Saladin of 
 romance — the Salah-ed-deen ("integrity of 
 religion") of Arabic history — attacked the 
 fortified city of Gaza, belonging to the 
 Templars, about 1174. The Knights were 
 at a disadvantage in respect of number, 
 but resolute as ever. They fasted and 
 prayed, and then made an unexpected 
 sally on Saladin's camp, with such success 
 that the Saracens broke up in disorder, and 
 hastily retreated into Egypt. A year after- 
 wards, Saladin, who, on the death of Noured- 
 din, had become Sultan of Egypt and Syria, 
 invaded Palestine with 60,000 men. There 
 was a great battle before Ascalon. The Temp- 
 lars attacked the enemy's lines with such 
 vigour that the Saracens were scattered, and 
 the great leader himself with difficulty escaped. 
 
 In 1 176 the mihtary Orders erected a 
 strong fort near the Jordan, at the northern 
 limit of the Latin Kingdom. There they 
 were attacked by Saladin, and in a hard- 
 fought battle, the Templars, the Hospi- 
 tallers, and the Christian warriors were 
 disastrously routed. The Grand Master of 
 the Templars fell alive into the hands of the 
 enemy ; the others retreated behind the fortifi- 
 cations, to which Saladin then set fire. Some 
 of the Knights were burned, others dashed 
 to pieces by leaping from the rocks. Some 
 were captured and sawn in two, and others 
 sent in chains to Aleppo as captives, unless 
 ransomed. 
 
 Influence and Wealth of the Order. 
 
 While these events were taking place in 
 far-off Palestine, the Order was rising to 
 colossal dimensions in Europe. The priory 
 in London had become too small for the 
 requirements of the establishment, and an- 
 other site was chosen, on the banks of the 
 Thames. A round church — we may visit it 
 to-day if we will — on the model of the Church 
 of the Holy Sepulchre, was consecrated, in 
 II 8 5, by Heraclius, the patriarch of Jerusalem. 
 The quadrangular portion of the edifice was 
 not added till more than fifty years after- 
 wards (1240). 
 
 About the time of the consecration of this 
 church, Geoffrey, the Superior of the Order 
 in England, caused an inquisition to be made 
 of the possessions of the Templars in this 
 
 country ; and from that and other materials 
 we may form some estimate of the wealth 
 and influence of the Order. Mr. Addison, 
 the modern historian of the Templars, tells 
 us that " the number of manors, farms, 
 churches, advowsons, demesne lands, villages, 
 hamlets, wind-mills and water-mills, rent of 
 assize, right of common and free manors, and 
 the amount of all kinds of property possessed 
 by the Templars in England at the period of 
 the taking of this inquisition are astonishing. 
 Upon the great estates belonging to the 
 Order, prioral houses had been erected, 
 wherein dwelt the procurators or stewards 
 charged with the management of the manors 
 and farms in their neighbourhood, and with 
 the collection of the rents. These prioral 
 houses became regular monastic establish- 
 ments, inhabited chiefly by sick and aged 
 Templars, who retired to them to spend the 
 remainder of their days, after a long period 
 of honourable service against the infidels in 
 Palestine. They were cells to the principal 
 house at London. There were also under 
 these certain smaller administrations esta- 
 blished for the management of the farms, 
 consisting of a Knight Templar, to whom 
 were associated some serving brothers of the 
 Order, and a priest, who acted as almoner. 
 The commissions or mandates directed by the 
 Master of the Temple to the officers at the 
 head of these establishments were called pre- 
 cepts, from the commencement of them, 
 Prcecepimus tibi (we enjoin, or direct, you, 
 etc.) The Knights to whom they were 
 addressed were styled Prceceptores Templi, 
 or Preceptors of the Temple, and the district 
 administered by them Prcsceptoria, or pre- 
 ceptories." At that time there were three 
 hundred Knights and serving brothers in- 
 numerable in the Temple house on Mount 
 Moriah. The wealth of the Order exceeded 
 that of sovereign princes. They had three 
 great Eastern provinces — Palestine (the 
 ruling province), Antioch, and Tripoli^forts, 
 and fortified cities. In Sicily they had many 
 houses, large estates, and many important 
 privileges and immunities. Throughout 
 Italy there were numerous preceptories of 
 the Order, and extensive convents. The arms 
 of the Order are still to be seen at Perugia 
 and Bologna. In Portugal they were also 
 wealthy and powerful, and greatly distin- • 
 guished themselves in fighting against the .> 
 Moors. In Aragon, the Balearic Isles, in 
 Germany and Hungary, they were wealthy , 
 and powerful, and in Greece they possessed 
 lands and establishments, the chief house of 
 this province being at Constantinople. " The 
 preceptories and houses of the Temple in 
 France were so numerous that it would be a 
 wearisomeandendlesstaskto repeat the names 
 of them." The chief house of the Order for 
 France, and .ilso for Holland and the Nether- 
 
 27 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 lands, was the Temple at Paris, an extensive 
 and magnificent structure, surrounded by 
 a wall and a ditch. It was ornamented 
 with a great tower, flanked by four smaller 
 towers, erected by brother Herbert, almoner 
 to the King of France, and was one of the 
 strongest edifices in the kingdom. The 
 visitor to Paris may now walk along the Rue 
 de Temple, the Boulevard du Temple, the 
 Faubourg du Temple, the name of the great 
 Order being preserved there, as it is in 
 London, and in the prefix to the name of 
 many places in England, as Temple Rothley 
 in Leicestershire, Temple Cowley in Oxford- 
 shire, and others. 
 
 Matthew Paris tells us that in his time (about 
 1240) the Templars possessed nine thousand 
 manors in Christendom, besides a large 
 revenue and immense riches arising from the 
 constant charitable bequests and donations 
 of sums of money from pious persons. The 
 annual income of the Order in Europe has 
 been roughly estimated at six millions 
 sterling. Besides this amount of wealth —an 
 amazing amount, indeed, if we compare the 
 value of money seven centuries ago with 
 what it is at the present time — they had in 
 this country extraordinary legal privileges 
 and immunities, granted not only by the 
 Kings, but by the Popes. Sir Edward Coke, 
 in his " Institute of the Laws of England," 
 says, " The Templars did so overspread 
 throughout Christendom, and so exceedingly 
 increased in possessions,revenues, and wealth, 
 and specially in England, as you will wonder 
 to read in approved histories, and withal 
 obtained so great and large privileges, 
 liberties, and immunities for themselves, their 
 tenants and farmers, etc., as no other Order 
 had the like." 
 
 The Grand Master of the Temple ranked 
 in Europe as a sovereign prince, and had 
 precedence of all ambassadors and peers in 
 the general councils of the Church. He was 
 elected to his high office by the chapter of 
 the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which was com- 
 posed of all the Knights of the East and of 
 the West who could manage to attend. 
 
 Richard Cceur de Lion. 
 
 In 1190, a third Crusade was arranged. 
 The leaders were the three greatest secular 
 potentates of Europe, — Frederick Barbarossa, 
 Emperor of Germany, Philip II. of France, 
 and Richard I. of England, the Coeur-de- 
 Lion of romance, the Achilles of the battles 
 of the Cross. In the two years' campaign 
 against the Saracens, led by the renowned 
 Saladin, the Templars and the two other 
 great military Orders, the Hospitallers and 
 the Teutonic Knights (organised in this 
 Crusade, in imitation of the older Orders), 
 highly distinguished themselves. 
 
 So great was the reputation of the Templars 
 
 28 
 
 throughout Europe, that when, in 11 92, 
 Richard desired to return to England pri- 
 vately, he adopted, presumably with the 
 consent of the Grand Master, the habit of 
 the Order, and reached Europe in a vessel 
 belonging to the fraternity. 
 
 It was while wearing that dress that he 
 was captured by the emissaries of the 
 Emperor of Austria, and lost to the view of 
 Christendom until, if legend may be accepted 
 for history, he was discovered by the minstrel 
 Blondin. The ship in which Coeur-de-Lion 
 had embarked was wrecked on the coast of 
 I stria, and the King was forced to make his 
 way as he could, with one or two attendants, 
 to his own country, and in the course of his 
 wanderings reached the dominion of his 
 personal enemy, Leopold, Duke of Austria. 
 That treacherous potentate, jealous alike of 
 the ascendency and personal prowess of the 
 English King, had some intimation of his 
 movements, but failed to obtain an exact 
 clue. 
 
 Travelling as a poor Templar, and lodging 
 and faring in the humblest manner, Richard 
 escaped recognition until he reached a little 
 village near Vienna, One of his attendants, 
 a young page, having been sent to purchase 
 provisions, was seen by one of Leopold's 
 followers who had returned from the Crusade. 
 The lad was recognized and questioned ; but 
 as he refused to give satisfactory answers, he 
 was cruelly tortured, and in his agony told 
 where he had left his master. Duke Leopold 
 immediately sent a band of soldiers to the 
 inn, and they searched the place, examining 
 every inmate, but could find none of whom 
 they could say, as Queen Elinor did, in 
 Shakespeare's King John, " He hath a trick 
 of Cceur-de-Lion's face." The host was 
 questioned and threatened; "There is no one 
 here," he protested, "like him whom you 
 seek, unless it be the Templar in the kitchen, 
 turning the fowls which are roasting for 
 dinner." Into the kitchen rushed the 
 emissaries of Leopold, and there found 
 seated a man of mighty thews and sinews, 
 quietly engaged in turning the spit. The 
 Austrian officer, who had served in the 
 Crusades, knew him at once, and exclaimed, 
 " It is he ! seize him." To seize Coeur-de- 
 Lion was not an easy exploit. Springing to 
 his feet, Richard, writes Bernard le Tresorier, 
 " did battle for his liberty right valiantly, but 
 was overpowered by numbers." 
 
 A Mogul Invasion. 
 For the next fifty years or thereabouts, 
 the martial history of the Templars is the 
 story of the Crusades. They shared in 
 most of the victories and vicissitudes of the 
 soldiers of the Cross, growing in reputation 
 abroad and in wealth at home. Long before 
 1230, Richard had died, and so had the most 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 chivalrous of the Saracens, Saladin, as 
 poHshed and graceful, but as keen and cruel, 
 as his own scimitar. At the date named, a 
 truce of ten years had been arranged, the 
 Emperor Frederick II. had obtained posses- 
 sion of Jerusalem, and the arms of the 
 , warriors of the Temple might have rusted 
 ' had not a new enemy appeared on the field. 
 
 In 1242, the Moguls, or Mongols, that race 
 of Scythian descent who, under Genghis or 
 Zenghis Khan, had made themselves masters 
 of the best part of Central Asia, made their 
 appearance in Syria. They were of the same 
 stock as those Turcomans whose oppression 
 of the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem and 
 the pilgrims had roused Europe to the 
 adventure of the first Crusade. The barbaric 
 Moguls were led by Barbacan, a Kharizmian 
 chief, who had a force of twenty thousand 
 horsemen. Jerusalem was not in a condition 
 to sustain a siege, and the Templars and the 
 other military Orders quitted it, without leav- 
 ing, it would seem, — and their conduct is 
 inexphcable, — any protection against the cruel 
 foe. The Kharizmian warriors entered Jeru- 
 salem, and indiscriminately massacred the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Alliance with the Saracens. 
 
 Christian and Mahometan sanctuaries 
 were alike outraged and pillaged, sepulchres 
 even were violated, and the remains of the 
 dead rifled and searched for hidden orna- 
 ments and treasure. The Christian Knights 
 had learned in the interval of peace to live in 
 something like friendship with the Saracens, 
 once their deadliest foes, and now both made 
 common cause against the fierce invaders. 
 The Knights of Jerusalem united their forces 
 ■with the Moslems of Damascus and Aleppo ; 
 and, urged by the appeal of the Patriarch, 
 hurried rashly into the field. The event 
 proved that they had miscalculated their own 
 strength and undervalued the prowess of the 
 foe, for they were defeated with terrible 
 slaughter. The Grand Masters of the Tem- 
 plars and the Hospitallers were killed, and 
 only thirty-three Templars, twenty-six Hos- 
 pitallers, and three Teutonic Knights of all 
 those engaged, survived the conflict. 
 
 Tiberias, Ascalon, and other strong places, 
 fell into the hands of the enemy; and the 
 remnant of the Christian chivalry took refuge 
 in Acre, that memorable town which, fifty 
 years before, Coeur-de-Lion had captured, 
 after a two years' siege, at a cost of more 
 than three hundred thousand men. Then 
 the Saracen Sultan of Egypt came to the 
 rescue. The barbarians were defeated ; Bar- 
 bacan, their leader, was killed, and the rem- 
 nant of the horde driven back to the eastern 
 deserts whence they came. 
 
 Another Crusade. 
 With the end of the common danger came 
 
 the end of the alliance. To the Christian 
 princes and ecclesiastics of Europe, the Sultan 
 of Egypt, although he had expelled the Moguls, 
 was nearly as objectionable in the capacity of 
 master of Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulchre 
 was still in the custody of infidels; and in 
 1248, at a great council at Lyons, presided 
 over by Pope Innocent IV., the seventh 
 Crusade was arranged, the most prominent 
 command being taken by Louis IX. (St. Louis) 
 of France, The army reached Lower Egypt, 
 and at the suggestion of the Count d'Artois, 
 brother of the French King, a brave but rash 
 and inexperienced warrior, made an attack 
 on Mansourah, the capital. The assault was 
 repulsed with terrible loss to the Crusaders. 
 The King of France himself was taken pri- 
 soner, the Grand Master of the Templars 
 was killed, and thirty thousand of the Christian 
 force were either slain in the heat of battle, or 
 afterwards massacred in cold blood. 
 
 Deadly Quarrel with the Knights 
 
 Hospitallers. 
 A few years afterwards, the jealousy which 
 had been long smouldering between the two 
 great Orders broke out into open flame. 
 Templars and Hospitallers alike believed 
 themselves to be too renowned and powerful 
 to brook a rival. Each Order could claim as 
 i members princes and nobles of the highest 
 rank ; each could boast of a long record of 
 great achievements ; each was enormously 
 wealthy ; and each was proud, arrogant, and 
 defiant. Quarrels broke out in the seaports 
 of Palestine, each Order claiming exclusive 
 privileges and quarters ; words were followed 
 by blows, and even the sanctity of churches 
 was violated by sanguinary struggles within 
 the edifices. At length it was resolved to 
 test the rival pretensions by an appeal to the 
 ordeal of battle. The Masters of the two 
 great Orders arranged, therefore, a formal 
 engagement. The red cross and the white 
 cross mingled in the fray. Knights renowned 
 throughout Christendom for valour, who had 
 fought side by side against the Moslems, now 
 turned their lances against each other. The 
 Templars fought with the valour which always 
 distinguished the Order ; but the Hospitallers 
 prevailed, and scarcely one of the Red Cross 
 Knights escaped with life on that fatal day. 
 
 Invasion of the Mamelukes. 
 The excitement among the members of the 
 Order at home was intense. From the pre- 
 ceptories and houses of the Temple of all 
 parts of Europe, Knights departed to fill the 
 places of those struck down by the grim war- 
 riors of St. John. A war of extermination would 
 have been the result, but, fortunately for the 
 peace of Christendom — for who could say to 
 what principalities and powers the feud might 
 have extended? — the Mamelukes, under Bon- 
 29 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 docdar, a renowned chieftain, invaded Pales- 
 tine, and changed the state of affairs. The 
 reinforced Templars and the victorious Hos- 
 pitallers forgot their quarrel, and united against 
 the infidel, setting a noble example of heroism 
 to their allies, and indulging in rivalry only 
 to the extent of bravely competing for the 
 honour of bearing the banner of the Cross 
 triumphantly into the ranks of the warriors 
 of the Crescent. 
 
 Apostacy or Death? 
 In one of the battles, ninety Templars fell 
 by treachery into the hands of Bibar, the 
 great Mameluke chief. They had capitulated 
 in accordance with a promise of honourable 
 treatment ; but no sooner had they quitted 
 their stronghold, than they were surrounded 
 and secured. Bibar offered the Knights so 
 treacherously captured the choice of Islamism 
 or death. To a man they chose the latter, 
 and were at once slaughtered, meeting death 
 as brave men should. Flushed with victory, 
 the Mamelukes besieged and took Antioch, 
 putting to the sword many thousands of the 
 Christian inhabitants of that large city, and 
 •capturing, it is said, as many as a hundred 
 thousand more, to be sold into slavery. 
 
 Siege of Acre and End of the 
 Crusades. 
 
 The eighth and last Crusade, under the 
 leadership of Louis of France and Prince 
 Edward of Engb.nd, was undertaken in 1270. 
 One of the most prominent events was the 
 .siege of Acre by the Mahometans. The city 
 was the last refuge of the Christians, and 
 •was in a state of great internal confusion. 
 Europeans of many nations were crowded 
 there, and there were seventeen independent 
 tribunals, and, of necessity, divided counsels 
 among the leaders. When the besieging 
 army appeared in sight, most of those who 
 could contrive to escape fled from the city, 
 which was left with a garrison of about twelve 
 thousand men, nearly all belonging to the 
 military Orders. The siege lasted thirty-three 
 days, and then a breach was made, through 
 which the Moslems poured into the city. 
 Lusignan, who held the title of the King of 
 Jerusalem, basely fled. Tl;e Hospitallers, 
 led by their Grand Master, cut their way 
 through the beleaguring host, and reached 
 the coast. The Templars maintained the 
 defence, Pierre de Beaujeau, the Grand Master, 
 being killed by a poisoned arrow. The courage 
 displayed by the Knights daunted the other- 
 wise successful foe, and they were offered, 
 and accepted, an honourable passage from 
 the city. Directly they had quitted the for- 
 tress, however, they were attacked, and many 
 were slain. The brave remnant cut their 
 way through, and ultimately reached Cyprus. 
 
 That gallant band were the last of the 
 
 Crusaders, and theirs was the last effort for 
 the defence of Palestine. 
 
 The Templars in England. 
 
 In England, the Templars were at the 
 summit of wealth and prosperity. In the 
 reign of Henry III., Queen Berangeria, widow f'' 
 of Coeur-de-Lion, was unable to obtain pay- 
 ment of her annuity promised by King John, ^ 
 who had pleaded "the greatness of his adver- 
 sity by reason of the wickedness of his mag- 
 nates and barons," and who, indeed, would 
 as soon have defrauded his sister-in-law as 
 any other person. Berangeria appealed to 
 the Pope to help her to obtain the amount 
 due, ^4,000. The Templars took up her 
 cause, and became guarantees for the pay- 
 ment of the money. When Henry III. died, 
 and was buried in the old coffin which had 
 originally contained the corpse of Edward 
 the Confessor, in Westminster Abbey, the 
 Knights Templars, with the consent of the 
 widowed Queen Eleanor, undertook the care 
 and expense of the funeral, which was very 
 magnificent, and raised a superb monument 
 to his memory, inlaid with precious stones 
 brought from the Holy Land by his son 
 Edward. 
 
 The wars in Palestine were ended ; the 
 special work of the Templars was no longer 
 to be performed. The temple was in the 
 hands of Mahometans, and Moslem eyes gazed 
 irreverently on the Church of the Sepulchre. 
 The Knights were in Europe potentates 
 even amongst princes, lords of vast estates, 
 masters of untold wealth. Their possessions 
 excited the envy of kings ; their power and 
 military prestige aroused fear and jealousy. 
 Kings wanted money, the Templars had it. 
 These were two propositions in the great 
 logic of events ; the conclusion was soon 
 supplied, and the syllogism completed. 
 Edward I., who had fought by the side of the 
 Knights in Palestine, began by seizing the 
 funds which the Templars had collected for 
 the use of their brethren in Cyprus, but, on 
 the interposition of the Pope,refunded it. On 
 his return from the campaign in Wales, being 
 pressed for money, he sent to the Temple in 
 London, and caused the coffers to be broken 
 open, and ;^ 10,000 to be taken away. His 
 son, Edward II., sent his too ready companion 
 and favourite. Piers Gaveston, to repeat the 
 act of spoliation, and ^50,000, gold, jewels, \ 
 and silver, were taken. 1 
 
 Persecution in France. ^ 
 
 The King of France, Philip, was also in 
 want of money — a common want of kings in 
 those times. He began by confiscating the 
 property of the Jews — an action rather meri- 
 torious than otherwise, according to the 
 prevailing code of morals ; but on attempt- 
 ing to extend the operation to his Christian 
 
 30 
 
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 
 
 subjects, and to pay his debts in base coin, 
 while exacting good money in all payments 
 of taxes by his subjects, there was aery about 
 " cruel injustice," and a riot broke out in 
 Paris ; the King himself being threatened by 
 a mob which gathered around his palace. He 
 believed, or affected to believe, that the 
 Templars had fermented the outbreak, and he 
 made that supposition the excuse for a course 
 of action, which perhaps he would not have 
 had the courage to adopt more openly, for 
 among the Templars (who then numbered 
 about fifteen thousand) were members of 
 some of the most powerful families of France. 
 
 Horrible Charges and Torture. 
 
 Philip had acquired almost unbounded 
 influence at Rome. The Pope was a French 
 cardinal, and many of the cardinals were also 
 of French birth. In 1307, the King summoned 
 the Grand Master from Cyprus, and he 
 arrived in Paris, in company with sixty 
 Knights. Philip secretly sent letters to all the 
 governors of the provinces in France, accusing 
 the Templars of profanity, infidelity, and the 
 most horrible crimes which a depraved 
 imagination could conceive. The only autho- 
 rity he adduced was the statement of an 
 apostate Templar named De Flore stan. On 
 the night of the 13th of October, every 
 Templar in France was arrested. Monks 
 were appointed to preach against them in the 
 public places, exciting the popular anger by 
 accusing the Knights of worshipping idols ; 
 burning the bodies of their dead brethren, 
 making a powder from their ashes and ad- 
 ministering it to the young Knights ; of roast- 
 ing infants and anointing the idols with the 
 fat ; of celebrating hidden rites and mysteries, 
 and perpetrating abominable debaucheries. 
 
 After suffering an imprisonment of twelve 
 days, the Knights were delivered over to the 
 tender mercies of the Dominican monks, the 
 most accomplished torturers of the time. A 
 hundred and forty Templars were put to the 
 torture, their feet roasted before slow fires 
 till the flesh dropped off, and submitted to 
 other cruelties too horrible and disgusting 
 to be described in detail. In their agony 
 anany made so-called confessions, really dic- 
 tated by the Dominicans — confessions after- 
 wards retracted by some of the braver spirits. 
 
 Edward II. and the Pope. 
 Edward of England was not unwilling to 
 iTvail himself of the Templars' wealth, but 
 felt or feigned indignation at the cruelties 
 perpetrated by his brother of France. He 
 addressed letters to the Kings of Portugal, 
 Castile, Aragon, and Sicily, asking them not 
 to punish the Templars unless their guiJt was 
 legally proved ; and also to the Pope, ex- 
 pressing his disbelief in the horrible accusa- 
 tions. The Pope, however, had anticipated 
 
 him by forwarding a bull requiring the King to 
 seize the persons of all the Templars in his 
 dominions. Edward II. was one of the 
 weakest of men, and abjectly complied. 
 
 On the 8th of January, 1308, the English 
 Templars were suddenly arrested in all parts 
 of the Kingdom. William de la More, the 
 Master of the Temple in London, and all his 
 Knights, were committed to close castody m 
 Canterbury Castle, but, on the intervention 
 of the Bishop of Durham, admitted to bail. 
 The King began with great promptitude to 
 apply the property of the Order to his own 
 use ; but the Pope (who held very decided 
 views of his own on the matter) wrote to him 
 to the effect that his conduct in doing so 
 " affords us no slight cause of affliction," and 
 that fit and proper persons would be sent to 
 England to take possession of the property 
 and to make an inquisition concerning " the 
 execrable excesses" the members of the 
 Order were said to have committed. 
 
 The Charges against the English 
 Templars. 
 
 In September 1309, the Pope's inquisitors 
 arrived ; they were Dieudonn^, abbot of 
 Lagny, and Sicard de Vaury, canon of Nar- 
 bonne and chaplain to the Pope. The Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, in obedience to Papal 
 instructions, made public a bull, in which the 
 Pope declared himself perfectly convinced of 
 the guilt of the Templars, and threatening 
 with excommunication all persons who should 
 give " assistance, counsel, or kindness," to 
 the members of the Order. That being the 
 decision arrived at, of course the so-called 
 trial of the accused was a mere absurdity. 
 The tribunal, consisting of the Pope's inqui- 
 sitors and the Bishop of London, assembled 
 in the episcopal palace on the 20th of October, 
 a year and eight months after the Templars 
 had been arrested. Torture had been ap- 
 plied, and confessions, as they were called, 
 extorted. The Master and some of his asso- 
 ciates were brought from the Tower, and 
 eighty-seven articles of indictment were ex- 
 hibited. Among other charges were those of 
 spitting on the cross, and offering even greater 
 indignities to the sacred symbol ; of denying 
 that Christ was very God ; of worship- 
 ping a cat ; of claiming for the Master the 
 power of forgiving sins ; of worshipping an 
 idol with three faces ; and of habitually 
 practising abominations which cannot be de- 
 scribed. Sittings of the inquisitors were also 
 held at Lincoln and York. 
 
 The witnesses were nearly all monks, Car- 
 melites, Augustinians, and Minorites, aided 
 by a few serving-men and apostates who had 
 been expelled from the Order for miscon- 
 duct. There was scarcely any direct evidence ; 
 but the readiness with which the witnesses 
 deposed to matters they had " heard of," or 
 
 31 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 " suspected * to have occurred, was remarka- 
 ble. It is quite possible that the Templars 
 had secret rites of initiation, some vague know- 
 ledge of which had reached the outer world, 
 and so made a shadowy basis for the charges. 
 Indeed, M. Michelet, the French historian, 
 ventures to say, " The forms of reception into 
 the Order were borrowed from the whimsical 
 dramatic rites, the mysteries which the 
 ancient Church did not dread to connect 
 with the most sacred doctrines and objects. 
 The candidate for admission was presented in 
 the character of a sinner, a bad Christian, a 
 renegade. In imitation of St. Peter, he de- 
 nied Christ ; the denial was pantomimically 
 represented by spitting on the cross. The 
 Order undertook to restore this renegade — 
 to lift him to a height as great as the depth 
 to which he had fallen." Worn out by tor- 
 ture, many of the Templars confessed all 
 kinds of crimes, and some were permitted to 
 make public recantation of their offences in 
 St. Paul's and at York, and then reconciled 
 to the Church. The Master, William de la 
 More, died of a broken heart in a dungeon of 
 the Tower of London, and others died in 
 prison, where they languished loaded with 
 chains. 
 
 On the suppression of the Order, many of 
 the Knights who had confessed the error of 
 their ways were received into different monas- 
 teries, living on small pensions doled out to 
 them. The first Knights of the Order had 
 made a vow of poverty; their successors now 
 gradually realised it. 
 
 Horrible Cruelties in France, and 
 Abolition of the Order. 
 
 While these events were transpiring in Eng- 
 land, the proceedings against the Templars 
 in France were of a most sanguinary character. 
 Edward of England, instigated by the Pope, 
 was contented with a moderate amount of 
 torture and robbery; Philip of France, whose 
 creature Pope Clement V. was, determined 
 that the Knights should be extirpated. Fifty- 
 four members of the Order were burned in an 
 open place at Paris, and many others at 
 various places ; and so revolting in its cruelty 
 was the persecution, that the corpse of a 
 dead Templar of renown was dragged from 
 its grave and burned. 
 
 The Pope abolished the Order by a bull 
 drawn up in a private consistory, and the 
 survivors of the famous Templars were left 
 to the mercies of the King. Edward of Eng- 
 land offered no protection. He had joined 
 in the spoliation, and had, moreover, married 
 Isabella the Fair, the daughter of Philip, who 
 was gifted with a fine dowry from the wealth 
 of the Templars. 
 
 Heroic Conduct of the Grand Master. 
 On the 1 8th of March, 1313, Jacques de 
 
 Molay, the Grand Master, and others who 
 had been prisoners for more than five years, 
 appeared, loaded with chains, on a public 
 scaffold, erected before the great church of 
 Notre Dame, in Paris, and the citizens were 
 summoned to hear their confessions. The 
 papal legate called upon them to renew in 
 the hearing of the people the avowals they 
 had previously made of their guilt. De 
 Molay, raising his fettered arms, advanced 
 to the edge of the scaffold, and in a loud 
 voice declared that to say that which was 
 untrue was a crime in the sight of God and 
 man. He added, " I do confess my guilt, 
 which consists in having, to my shame and 
 dishonour, suffered myself, through the pain 
 of torture and the fear of death, to give 
 utterance to falsehoods, imputing scandalous 
 sins and iniquities to an illustrious Order 
 which hath nobly served the cause of Chris- 
 tianity. I disdain to seek a wretched and 
 disgraceful existence by engrafting another 
 lie on the original falsehood." 
 
 He was forcibly interrupted, and taken, 
 back to prison, whence he and the Grand 
 Preceptor, who also declared his innocence, 
 were taken that same day, by the order of 
 the King, and slowly burned to death over 
 a charcoal fire on a little island of the Seine, 
 near the spot where now stands the statue 
 of Henry IV. A legend, long believed, asserts 
 that De Molay, with his last breath, cited 
 the Pope to appear within forty days, and 
 the King within a year, before the judgment- 
 seat of God. It is a fact that the Pope died 
 within the period mentioned of an attack of 
 dysentery, and that the church in which the 
 coffin was deposited was burnt down, and the 
 body of Clement almost entirely consumed ; 
 and that shortly afterwards Philip died of a 
 lingering and painful disease. 
 
 A Scramble for the Possessions. 
 In England, the King quarrelled with the 
 Pope about the property of the Order, which 
 was eagerly scrambled for by the Court 
 favourites ; but ultimately, yielding to papal 
 pressure, conferred it upon the Knights of St. 
 John, who, however, did not obtain it for 
 some time, and then only on payment of 
 exorbitant fees. The great house, with its 
 church, by the river-side was afterwards 
 granted to students of law ; and when 
 Henry Vlll. abolished the Order of the 
 Hospitallers, the lawyers became tenants of 
 the Crown. The nine cross-legged effigies ^ 
 ' in the round church do not represent Knights- 
 j Templars, but distinguished Crusaders buried 
 there. There is good reason to suppose that 
 j only one monumental effigy of a Templar 
 exists, and that represents John, Count de 
 Dreux, buried in the church of St. Yvod de 
 Braine, near Soissons, in France. 
 
 G. R. E. 
 
 32 
 
The Meeting of Sir James Outram and General Havelock. 
 
 INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE SEPOY MUTINY OF 1857. 
 
 " Where ev'ry prospect pleases, and only man is vile." — Heber. 
 
 A Terrible E.xample — The "Company's" India; Conquest and Misrule — Shaking the Pagoda-tree — Mutinies of the Last 
 Century — A Danger Disregarded — Sir Charles Napier's Opinion — A Policy of Annexation — The First Outbreak— 
 The Greased Cartridges — Meerut — Delhi and the Great Mogul— Spread of the Mutiny — Prompt Action of Lord 
 Canning — The Two Lawrences and Outram — Meean Meer — General Anson — Successive Commanders — Delhi Re- 
 taken — Hodson and the Family of the Mogul — Nana Sahib of Bithoor — Cawnpore — The Massacre on the Ganges^ 
 The Turn of the Tide — Vengeance of Nana Sahib — Struggle in Oudh — Havelock and Outram— Lucknow — Sir Colin 
 Campbell — Slaughter of the Rebels — "Lucknow" Kavanagh— Final Throes of the Mutiny — Bareilly — Transfer of 
 India to the English Government — End of the East India Company. 
 
 A Terrible Example. 
 
 HE time is 
 close upon five 
 o'clock on the 
 afternoon of 
 the 13th of 
 October, 1857; 
 the place is the 
 general parade 
 ground of Fort 
 George, at 
 Bombay. 
 
 Since noon 
 it has been 
 known in the 
 Government 
 
 Offices that there is to be a military exe- 
 cution; and the first rumours have been 
 corroborated by the circulation, through- 
 out the island of Bombay, of a garrison 
 order that has come like a shock upon the 
 whole community. For this is no ordinary 
 military execution ; the fatal paper announces 
 that recourse is to be had to a proceeding 
 so unusual that only a few white-beai-ded 
 men can remember that similar scenes were 
 enacted in their youth. For the garrison 
 order sets forth that Drill Havildar Syed 
 Hoossein, of the Marine Battalion Native 
 Infantry, and Private Mungul Guddrea, of 
 the loth Regiment N.I., having been pro- 
 nounced guilty at an European general court- 
 martial of having on the night of the 3rd ot 
 
 33 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the same month attended a seditious meet- 
 ing, and there made use of highly seditious 
 language, evincing a traitorous disposition 
 towards the Government, tending to promote 
 rebellion agai-nst the State, and to subvert 
 the authority of the British Government, the 
 said Syed Hoossein and Mungul Guddrea 
 are to suffer death by being blown away from 
 the muzzle of a cannon. 
 
 As the time for the terrible spectacle ap- 
 proaches, hundreds of Europeans are seen 
 wending their way to the parade ground ; 
 while from the alleys and lanes of the Black 
 town thousands upon thousands of the dark- 
 skinned population come pouring forth. The 
 stranger is at once struck by the feature that 
 impresses every new-comer in India, — the 
 immense contrast between the swarming 
 masses of natives and the mere handful of 
 the resolute, inflexible, dominant race by 
 whom they are held in subjection. The 
 neighbouring city, whose inhabitants are 
 pouring forth to the esplanade, numbers 
 eight hundred thousand inhabitants ; and 
 the proportion of Europeans is exceedingly 
 small, — for the sway of the East India Com- 
 pany is not yet a thing of the past on this 
 October afternoon in 1857; and the system 
 which discourages by every means the esta- 
 blishment of "uncovenanted" Europeans 
 and interlopers is, with various other extra- 
 ordinary rules and customs of " Company 
 Bahadoor,'' still in full operation. The pre- 
 vailing expression on the dark faces is one 
 of apathy and indifference ; but who shall 
 tell what volcanic fires of rage and hatred 
 may be smouldering in the bosoms of those 
 undemonstrative men, and how suddenly the 
 flames may burst forth, and the stolid mask 
 may be rent and blown away into atoms, 
 like the bodies of the unhappy traitors, the 
 hour of whose doom has come suddenly upon 
 them ? 
 
 And now the troops in garrison come 
 marching out to take up the positions marked 
 out for them on the parade ground. They 
 are drawn up on the parade so as to form 
 three sides of a hollow square ; but the com- 
 ponent parts of these sides are very different. 
 The base consists of about five hundred men 
 of the 95th Regiment, and the same number 
 of sailors in the Company's service ; while at 
 the sides are drawn up three Sepoy regiments, 
 the loth Native Infantry, to which the con- 
 demned culprit, Mungul Guddrea belonged, 
 being one of them. 
 
 All this was regular enough, and according 
 to routine, that the whole garrison should be 
 summoned to witness so important an act 
 as a military execution. But now came a 
 startling and unusual detail. Besides the 
 two guns pointed forward from the base line, 
 and intended for the execution of the two cri- 
 minals, six others were accurately planted in 
 
 the square, three being turned against each 
 of the two opposite sides. These were served 
 by men of the Royal Artillery, who stood by 
 them, lighted match in hand. They were 
 loaded to the muzzle with grape and canister^ 
 and pointed full against the Sepoy regiments. 
 At the same time the 95th Queen's Regiment 
 and the Company's sailors loaded their 
 Enfields, ready at a moment's notice to 
 fire into the Sepoy ranks ; and then, amid 
 a death-like silence, the two culprits were 
 marched forward. The artillery men stripped 
 them of their regimental jackets, bound them 
 to the guns. Then, after an instant of terrible 
 suspense, the word " fire " was given. A 
 thunderous explosion shook the ground ; and, 
 amid thick wreaths of smoke, a horrible 
 shov/er of crimson morsels came down like 
 a red hail, — the remnants of the two unhappy 
 culprits blown out of the world. 
 
 And all this while the Sepoys stood in their 
 ranks, and moved not hand or foot. In silence 
 they looked on while their comrades were 
 blown to fragments ; in silence they marched 
 back to their quarters when the sweepers had 
 collected, with brooms and baskets, the relics 
 of the two culprits, and the tragedy was played 
 out. And yet there was not an European pre- 
 sent who did not breathe more freely, and feel 
 that a crisis of supreme danger was past, when 
 the dusky, sullen forces disappeared under 
 the archways leading to the barracks, and the. 
 grim order of the day had been successfully 
 carried out. 
 
 For the crime for which such swift and 
 exemplary punishment had descended upon 
 those two guilty men had been nothing less 
 than an organised conspiracy, the fourth 
 within a few months, to seize the island of 
 Bombay, and murder every European, with- 
 out distinction of age or sex ; and this dia- 
 bolical scheme was planned at the time 
 when India was passing through the great 
 agony of the mutiny that was destined to 
 mark on the page of history, in letters of 
 blood, the centenary of British rule in the 
 peninsula of India. 
 
 The story of that mutiny, of the tremen- 
 dous struggle it entailed, and of the manner 
 in which British valour and endurance at 
 last triumphed over the enormous perils and 
 difficulties of " India's agony," we here pur- 
 pose briefly to tell. 
 
 The Company's India ; Conquest and 
 Misrule. 
 The whole history of our Anglo-Indian 
 Empire is full of surprises, and in many re- 
 spects reads like a wild romance rather than 
 like sober reality. The unexampled spectacle 
 of a company of merchants, a trading cor- 
 poration, converted within a few years into 
 the rulers of a hundred millions of human 
 beings, with almost irresponsible power, tc 
 
 34 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 rule justly or tyrannically as their own in- 
 clination or interests prompted, was in itself 
 sufficiently startling ; but the wonder was 
 greatly increased by the manner in which 
 the Company was permitted, year after year, 
 to exercise the utterly anomalous and ex- 
 ceptional authority with which it was in- 
 vested. " It's such a long way off," is in 
 many instances equal to " It happened such 
 a long time ago ;" and India has always 
 ■ been looked upon, oddly enough, as beyond 
 the ordinary ken, and exempt from ordinary 
 rules. One of the most graphic of our 
 writers on India, Dr. Russell, has remarked 
 on the indifference manifested in England on 
 the abuse of power thousands of miles away ; 
 how, in spite of the marvellous eloquence 
 of Burke and his colleagues, the accusations 
 against Warren Hastings, though of the 
 gravest kind, were received with indifference 
 by the people because the acts referred to 
 were perpetrated in such a far country ; 
 whereas, had they been done in the Channel 
 Islands, in Ireland, or in Scotland, the in- 
 teUigence would have been received with a 
 general burst of indignation. " To-night I 
 hear," says the same writer, — it is in 1858, — ■ 
 "that the menagerie of the King of Oude, 
 as much his private property as his watch 
 or turban, . were sold under discreditable 
 circumstances, and his jewels seized and 
 impounded, though we had no more claim 
 on them than on the Crown diamonds of 
 Russia. Do the English people care for 
 those things ? Do they know them .'' The 
 hundred millions of Hindostan know them 
 well, and care for them too." How deeply 
 the natives of India cared, the events of 
 1857 and 1858 sufficiently testified. 
 
 " Shaking the Pagoda-tree" ; Native 
 
 Hatred to Foreign Rule. 
 . With "all its glories, conquests, triumphs, 
 spoils," the government of the East India 
 Company in India was tainted from the very 
 first with mighty vices ; and these became 
 more flagrant as time gave to the various 
 abuses the impunity and even the authority 
 •derived from prescription. For generation 
 after generation, the great aim and object of 
 the servants of the Company, from the high 
 civil and military functionaries downwards, 
 was to squeeze as large as possible a fortune 
 out of the country as quickly as might be, 
 and to turn their backs upon it for ever, so 
 soon as that object had been attained, and 
 the last golden harvest had been shaken 
 down from the pagoda tree. With perfect 
 truth has it been said that if the native rulers 
 chastised the people with whips, the European 
 masters chastised them with scorpions, and 
 that the subjugated race found the little 
 finger of the Company thicker than the 
 loins of the worst and most dissolute of 
 
 their native princes. Hindoos and Ma" 
 hometans were sufficiently acute to submit 
 to the inevitable, and to crouch beneath 
 a despotism upheld by the sword, wielded 
 in the hands of masters whom they never 
 met in the field without a .certainty of defeat 
 and of swift and terrible punishment. But 
 none but the wilfully blind could assert or 
 even affect to believe that the English rute 
 in India was popular among the inhabitants, 
 and that anything but the conviction of the 
 uselessness of resistance induced them to 
 remain quiet under it, or to refrain from 
 attempts to pull it down. Whenever the 
 English arms received even a temporary 
 check, the excitement and restlessness among 
 the natives, their eager expectation of de- 
 liverance from the foreign yoke, became 
 unmistakable ; and to those capable of dis- 
 cerning the signs of the times, the likelihood 
 of a tremendous outbreak sooner or later, 
 must have now and then been present, like 
 the skeleton at the Egyptian feast. And, 
 indeed, tlie most pressing and terrible form 
 in which danger to the foreign rule could 
 offer itself, had been brought before them 
 more than once, though at long intervals, 
 and the lesson had passed unheeded. There 
 had repeatedly been great and formidable 
 mihtary mutinies. 
 
 Mutinies in India during the Last 
 
 Century. 
 Already in Clive's time, when the Company 
 had not long emerged from the position of a 
 trading corporation holding certain lands 
 for which rent was paid to the native govern- 
 ments, there were occasional outbreaks of 
 insubordination in the army, that threatened 
 to overthrow the newly erected power. One 
 of the most formidable of these occurred 
 during Clive's third visit to India, v.'hen the 
 conqueror of Plassy came to Calcutta as 
 governor, with the avowed intention of 
 putting down the great and growing evils 
 that had taken root in the administration, 
 " or perishing in the attempt." The Sepoys 
 were at that time in such a state of chronic 
 insubordination that they are described as 
 being only kept in check by wholesale execu- 
 tions. But it was among the European 
 officers that the mutiny broke out. Indig- 
 nant at some restrictive regulations intro- 
 duced by the Governor, they refused 
 obedience ; and a great number of theni 
 struck against him, resigning their commis- 
 sions on the same day. Clive put them 
 down with an energy and decision that 
 astonisl'ied them into rapid and abject sub- 
 mission ; but an evil example had been set, 
 which was followed by the native troops. 
 On various occasions outbreaks occurred, 
 which should have served as warnings to the 
 authorities, but passed unheeded. 
 
 35 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 A DANGER Disregarded, and a Lesson 
 Left Unread. 
 
 One of the most dangerous of these was 
 the rising at Vellore, in the Madras Presi- 
 dency, in 1856; where two Sepoy battaUons 
 attacked the European soldiers, murdering 
 113 of them, and were themselves attacked 
 with a loss of 800 of their number by the 
 19th Dragoons, under Colonel Gillespie. 
 Other outbreaks had been planned by the 
 native soldiery ; and the European officers 
 and officials, who by their energy and fore- 
 sight prevented these attempts from being 
 carried out, received scant thanks and no 
 reward for their services ; on the contrary 
 they were stigmatised as alarmists, and the 
 government completely failed to realise the 
 gravity and extent of the danger, or to note 
 the significant fact that the immediate causes 
 of the disaffection were to be found in 
 regulations concerning dress, accoutrements, 
 shaving, the wearing of marks of caste, and 
 other matters that had to do with the religious 
 feelings and prejudices of the native sol- 
 diery. 
 
 In 1824, at the breaking out of the Bur- 
 mese war, insubordination, carried, indeed, 
 to an outrageous extent on parade, again 
 appeared ; various regiments declaring that 
 to cross the " Black water " would be a 
 violation of the precepts of their religion. 
 On one occasion it became absolutely neces- 
 sary to open with a fire of artillery upon the 
 insurgents. In 1844, there was a mutiny of 
 Bengal regiments at Ferozepore, who refused 
 to march to occupy the conquered territory 
 of Scinde, unless increased allowances were 
 granted to them. In 1849 ^'^^ 185O5 there 
 were again mutinies among the 13th, 22nd, 
 and 66th Bengal Native Infantry. Conces- 
 sion and remonstrance in some instances, 
 firmness and severity in others, got over the 
 difficulties for the time ; but still the authori- 
 ties refused to read the lesson that stared 
 them in the face, or to remember that the 
 pitcher goes to the well until it is broken. 
 Each time the difficulty was for the moment 
 averted, they treated it as permanently over- 
 come ; like the debtor who, on signing a bill 
 at three months for a liability he was unable 
 to meet, rejoicingly rubbed his hands, declar- 
 ing that '■that matter was settled." 
 
 Sir Charles Napier's Opinion; Changed 
 Feeling of the Sepoys. 
 
 One far-seeing and sagacious man there 
 was who read the signs of the times aright, 
 and lifted up his voice in warning persis- 
 tently, honestly, and vainly ; this was the 
 conqueror of Scinde, the gallant and good 
 Sir Charles Napier. That strenuous and 
 experienced officer was utterly astounded at 
 the state in which he found the Sepoy regi- 
 
 36 
 
 ments, and at the want of discipline and 
 subordination everywhere apparent. He 
 roundly asserted that India was in danger, 
 and declared that swift, combined, and 
 energetic action was necessary, if the whole 
 country were not to be lost to British rule. 
 But his outspoken frankness drew upon hirf , 
 the censure of the viceroy. Lord Dalhousie, | 
 and a lamentable conflict ensued between, j 
 the Governor-General and the Commander- | 
 in-Chief, until the latter threw up his office 
 in well-grounded anger and disgust. With the 
 volcano of disaffection rumbling beneath 
 them, the authorities pursued the path of 
 false security until it led them to ruin. 
 
 The feeling of the Sepoys towards the 
 English had greatly changed since those 
 days when, during the defence of Arcot, the 
 native soldiers came to Clive, who was in 
 command, not to complain of the privations 
 they were suffering, but to propose that all 
 the rice should be given to the European 
 portion of the garrison, while they, who 
 required less nourishment, would content 
 themselves with the thin gruel that was 
 strained from the boiled grain. The Sepoy ' 
 of a hundred years later was a proud, 
 stubborn, and obstinate being, exceedingly 
 tenacious of what he considered his rights, 
 and above all things punctilious on ques- 
 tions affecting his caste. The mutiny at 
 Vellore had been in a great measure due to 
 a rumour that, the Sepoys were to be com- 
 pelled " to wear the leather stock, supposed 
 to have been manufactured from the hide of 
 the contaminating hog, and to don the garb 
 of infidels who daily indulged in the blasphe- 
 mous and revolting practice of devouring the 
 flesh of their holy cow." Among the causes 
 of the great mutiny of 1857, religious fanati- 
 cism was certainly the chief; and it is 
 astonishing that this danger should have 
 been so long disregarded. 
 
 A Policy of Annexation. 
 Lord Dalhousie's policy in India was one 
 of annexation, and under his rule an immense 
 amount of territory was added to the British 
 possessions in India. That the transfer of 
 authority from native princes to the English 
 was in many respects of advantage to the 
 native population is undeniable ; but it was 
 difficult to persuade men to look with com- 
 placency upon new masters, especially where 
 those masters were of a foreign race, and were 
 known to entertain a feeling of contempt for 
 " niggers," under which contemptuous epithet 
 they included every class of the dark-skinned 
 race from the Brahmin to the Pariah. " These 
 are boys, but they are going out to govern 
 India, to be wigless judges, sediles, and pro- 
 consuls," writes the astute Dr. Russell in his 
 journal on his passage to Madras, astonished 
 at hearing the "nigger" spoken of generi- 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 cally in terms of the, most uncompromising 
 scorn, by a couple of beardless " grift's," over 
 their cards and brandy pawnee. 
 
 That a keen, quick-witted race like the 
 Hindoos should not be thoroughly aware of 
 all this, is incredible. The same acute ob- 
 server has left on record the impression made 
 upon him by the aspect of the natives as he 
 travelled through Bengal from Calcutta to- 
 wards Lucknow ; nor did he for a moment 
 misinterpret the true meaning of the cringing 
 salaams wherewith, as an Englishman, he 
 was greeted, or mistake the nature of the 
 homage "which the faint heart would fain 
 deny but dare not.'' Mr. Trevelyan, in his 
 " Cawnpore," has given, in graphic language, 
 his idea of the opinion of the natives con- 
 cerning the English. " We should not," he 
 writes, " be far wrong if we are content to 
 allow that we are regarded by the natives of 
 Hindostan as a species of quaint and some- 
 what objectionable demons, with a rare apti- 
 tude for fighting and administration. Foul and 
 degraded in our habits, though with reference 
 to those habits not to lae judged by the same 
 standard as ordinary men ; not altogether 
 malevolent, but entirely wayward and unac- 
 countable, — a race of demidevils, neither quite 
 human nor quite supernatural ; not wholly 
 bad, yet far from perfectly good ; who have 
 been settled down in the country by the will 
 of fate." This queer creed needed but little 
 to transform it into active hatred ; and far 
 more than that little was supplied by the 
 increased estrangement between the Sepoys 
 and the white officers, consequent upon the 
 greater communication kept up with Europe, 
 that led the latter, " instead of identifying 
 themselves with those under them, to seek 
 for interests, pleasures, and society in impor- 
 tations from home." 
 
 Such was the state of feeling at the be- 
 ginning of the eventful year 1857, the year 
 that shook the English power in India more 
 rudely than it had ever been shaken, since the 
 time of Warren Hastings and Hyder Ali, 
 
 The Mysterious Cakes. 
 There had long been a tradition, repeated 
 with bated breath in many an Indian hut, 
 that the dominion of the infidels in India 
 should last no more than a century ; and in 
 1857, the centenary of Clive's victory at 
 Plassey, whereby the government of Bengal 
 had been wrested from Surajah Dowlah and 
 bestowed on Meer Jaffier, the puppet set up 
 by the East India Company, the time was 
 considered as accomplished. For many 
 months of 1856 a strange kind of secret Free- 
 masonry was noticed among the various 
 stations. From village to village small cakes 
 of bread, called chuputties, were carried to 
 the head man of each place, who received 
 orders to forward similar tokens to the next 
 
 village. But although this went on under the 
 very eyes of the British functionaries, no notice 
 was taken of it. Some, indeed, considered 
 that these mysterious chuputties were merely 
 distributed as a charm against impending 
 calamity; but the very fact that they were 
 not sent to any territory governed by native 
 princes, but only circulated in villages undef 
 British rule, should have awakened the autho' 
 rities to a sense of the danger. Amid all the 
 doubt that still hangs over this eventful period, 
 and amid the contraiy statements of various 
 witnesses and writers, one thing may be con- 
 sidered abundantly proved, namely, that there 
 existed throughout India a vast conspiracy — 
 a conspiracy in which Hindoo and Mussul- 
 man, forgetting their ancient feuds, were 
 acting in concert, and that its object was 
 utterly to subvert the rule of the foreign 
 masters of Hindostan. 
 
 Discontent op the Army. 
 It was in the army that the universal dis- 
 content first broke into a flame. In the five 
 years of Lord Dalhousie's rule as Governor- 
 General, Nagpore, Suttara, Berar Jhansi, 
 and Oude had been annexed ; and it was 
 the avowed wish of that statesman, to whom 
 India is indebted for many benefits in the way 
 of cheap postage, telegraphy, railways, and 
 increased facilities for commerce, to take all 
 power of government out of native hands, 
 that the English might be all in all in the 
 peninsula. "We are lords paramount of 
 India," he declared, " and our policy is to 
 acquire as direct a dominion over the 
 territories in the possession of the native 
 princes, as we already hold over the other 
 half of India." These annexations, necessary 
 and justifiable no doubt in some cases, 
 excited deep and bitter emotions in the 
 breasts of the natives, and especially of mem- 
 bers of the annexed states serving in the 
 army. Hatred of foreign domination seems 
 an inextinguishable principle inhuman nature, 
 and the dissolute tyranny of their own rulers 
 seemed to these men preferable to the juster 
 rule imposed on them by strangers. 
 
 The First Outbreak ; The Greased 
 Cartridges ; Meerut. 
 
 And now the belief in the invincibility of 
 the Enghsh had been rudely shaken. Such 
 disasters as the defeat of Gough at Chillian- 
 wallah lingered in the memory of men only 
 too ready to rejoice in any check received by 
 their masters ; and the story of the disasters 
 and blunders of the Crimean War, then just 
 concluded, — a story narrated with wonderful 
 frankness by English newspaper correspon- 
 dents, — had increased the impression that the 
 star of Britain was waning. " I am struck 
 by the scowling, hostile look of the people," 
 writes Dr. Russell shortly after this time; 
 
 37 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 "the bunniahs bow with their necks and 
 salaam with their hands, but not with their 
 eyes." In the army, the treatment of native 
 officers, who were tabooed by the Enghsh, 
 and to whom only the lowest grades were 
 open after long service, made them more 
 likely to side with their men than with the 
 white officers ; and their influence could 
 rather be counted on to widen than to heal 
 any misunderstanding that might arise. 
 
 The immediate cause Of the breaking out 
 of the mutiny was the well-known incident of 
 the greased cartridges. The introduction 
 of the Enfield rifle into the army had brought 
 with it an altei^ation in the cartridge, which, 
 it must be remembered, was at that time 
 bitten open before use, and not twisted or 
 torn with the fingers. A rumour, spreading 
 with the marvellous rapidity with which such 
 things spread among an ignorant and fana- 
 tical race, was borne abroad far and wide 
 among the Sepoys, that animal fat, and 
 especially hog's lard and cow's fat, had been 
 used in lubricating these cartridges, and that 
 their introduction was a trick to deprive the 
 natives of high caste of their standing, and 
 degrade all to a common level, by making 
 them take the accursed thing in their mouths, 
 and thus " break their caste." And they were 
 furious. 
 
 Efforts made by a proclamation of the 
 
 ■ Governor-General, declaring the absence of 
 any such material from the cartridges, 
 
 iand by the withdrawal of the cartridges 
 i them selves from circulation, failed to allay 
 the ferment. At Dumdum, Barrackpore, 
 
 • and other places, acts of such mutinous insu- 
 ibordination occurred, that executions and 
 Uhe disbanding of various regiments had to 
 , be resorted to, to restore even the appearance 
 ] of order ; and the repeated refusals of the 
 ] troops to receive the cartridges served out to 
 1 them, and in which the lubrication did in 
 \ some instances contain cow's fat, at last 
 ,' awakened the apprehension of the authorities ; 
 
 ■ but the measures to suppress the discontent 
 
 • were taken too late. 
 
 On the 23rd of April, 1857, the 3rd Bengal 
 Cavalry being drawn up on parade at Meerut, 
 for instruction in platoon exercise, eighty- 
 five troopers refused to receive the ammunition 
 served out to them. They were arrested, 
 tried by court-martial, and sentenced to ten 
 years' imprisonment. On the 9th of May the 
 i sentence was read out in the presence of the 
 1 whole garrison, Europeans and native regi- 
 "^ments, and the eighty-five prisoners were 
 
 • loaded with chains in the presence of their 
 
 • comrades, and in spite of their tears and pro- 
 ' testations of many old soldiers among them, 
 
 ■ were marched off to a jail two miles distant. 
 On parade the native regiments, overawed 
 by the presence of a battalion of the 60th 
 
 , Rifles, the Carbineers, and men of the Royal 
 
 Artillery, had moved neither hand nor foot, 
 but here the prisoners were left entirely in 
 the custody of their countrymen. A rescue 
 was accordingly planned, and speedily 
 effected. The next day a number of the 3rd 
 Bengal Cavalry rode over to the jail, broke 
 into the cells, and released the prisoners, 
 whose manacles were struck off by smiths 
 brought with them by the rioters. Hereupon 
 the two native infantry regiments at once 
 rose in rebellion, seized their arms, killed 
 Colonel Finnis, who thus became the first 
 victim of the mutiny, and massacred a 
 number of the English inhabitants of Meerut, 
 being joined in this outbreak by the rabble 
 and scum of the city. The English portion 
 of the garrison, under General Hewett and 
 Brigadier Wilson, opened upon the mutineers 
 with a fire of artillery and musketry ; where- 
 upon the latter at once broke and fled, leaving 
 the English masters of the field. 
 
 Delhi and the Great Mogul; The 
 Hidden and Unsuspected Danger. 
 And now came the event that converted a 
 local, though dangerous, outbreak into a 
 national revolt, that shook the English 
 Empire in India to its very foundations, and 
 brought the ruling people face to face with 
 dangers such as might have appalled the iron 
 heart of Clive himself. Driven from their 
 cantonments, the insurgents betook them- 
 selves in headlong haste to Delhi, situate on 
 the Ganges and the Jumna, some forty miles 
 away. 
 
 This great city had for centuries been 
 the capital of India, the metropolis of that 
 mighty Mogul Empire which had retained 
 amid a rapid internal decay the outward 
 semblance of strength and prosperity, even 
 under the sway of the degenerate successors 
 of Aurungzebe, the last really great emperor 
 of the house of Timour. At Delhi, in the 
 precincts of the palace, there lived, in a con- 
 dition of degraded and impotent dependence, 
 an old man between eighty and ninety years 
 of age, in receipt of a pension from the East 
 India Company, and keeping up with his 
 sons and grandsons the semblance and 
 shadow of a royal state. This man was the 
 Mogul, the descendant of Aurungzebe, whose 
 power had long since departed, but who, in 
 the eyes of many of the natives, was still the 
 rightful ruler of Hindostan. A quarter of a 
 century before, Macaulay, writing of the 
 foundation of the British Empire in India, 
 had mentioned how "there was still a 
 Mogul,"apensioner of the Company, who was 
 allowed to play at holding courts and receiv- 
 ing petitions within the confines of the 
 palace of Delhi, where he might boast of 
 possessing some of the outward attributes of 
 royalty, but who had less power to help or to 
 harm than the youngest official in the Com- 
 
 38 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 pany's service. The brilliant essayist little 
 dreamt what mighty power for harm was 
 destined to be placed in the hands of the 
 effete old man. 
 
 The mutineers, who by an unaccount- 
 able fatality were allowed to proceed to 
 Delhi unpursued, at once made their way to 
 the palace, and rattled the old king out ot 
 his repose. They thronged with shouts and 
 clamours round his palace ; they insisted 
 that he should accept their homage and 
 services ; they proclaimed him Emperor of 
 India, and set upon the battlements of the 
 palace of Delhi the standard of a national 
 revolutionary war, whose object was to be 
 nothing less than the restoration of the royal 
 house of Tamerlane. Not a soul of the 
 accursed race of Feringhees, " who proposed 
 to destroy caste, and to rob the natives of 
 India of their religion," was to remain alive. 
 A cause and a cry and a king had all been 
 found at once. Here was the result ot 
 allowing the mutineers of Meerut to betake 
 themselves unpursued to Delhi : a military 
 riot turned into a national revolt. 
 
 The Spread of the Mutiny ; Massacre 
 AT Delhi. 
 
 Two centuries and a half before, that pro- 
 found historian and philosopher, Lord 
 Bacon, had remarked : '• The causes and 
 motives for sedition are innovations in relig- 
 ion, taxes, alterations of laws and customs, 
 breaking of privileges, general oppression, 
 advancement ofunworthy persons, strangers, 
 deaths, disbanded soldiers, factions grown 
 desperate, and whatever in offending people 
 joineth and knitteth them in a common 
 cause." Wonderfully close is the application 
 of those words of wisdom to the events ot 
 1857. Every one of the "causes of sedition" 
 enumerated by the great Lord Chancellor, 
 was at work in India in that year ; and the 
 result was "to knit men together in a com- 
 mon cause " to an extent undreamt of and 
 unparalleled in India until then. 
 
 For the great city of Delhi made common 
 cause, promptly and decidedly, with the 
 mutineers. The regiments in garrison then 
 rose against their officers, many of whom were 
 at once put to death. The English bungalows 
 in the neighbourhood of Delhi were looted 
 and fired, a rabble of Hindoo gipsies, de- 
 lighted at the opportunity for mischief and 
 plunder, lying in wait on the roads to kill the 
 Europeans as they fled from their burning 
 homes. In the town itself a massacre of the 
 white residents began ; hundreds fell and the 
 rest of the white population — merchants, 
 officers, and officials, clergymen, and traders, 
 men, women, and children — fled from the 
 revolted city, many perishing by the way 
 before they reached Meerut and other havens 
 of refuge. The heroic resolution of Lieu- 
 
 tenant Willoughby and a few brave com- 
 panions, who, by firing a magazine, deprived 
 the rebels of at least a part of the great 
 stores of war material piled up in Delhi, 
 was of immense importance in this moment 
 of supreme danger ; but for the time all was 
 lost in Delhi. About fifty prisoners, men, 
 women, and children, were kept for five days 
 in an underground apartment of the palace, 
 and then ruthlessly slaughtered. 
 
 Prompt Measures of Lord Canning; 
 
 The Two Lawrences and Outraim. 
 
 When the news of the calamities in the 
 North-West Provinces reached Calcutta, the 
 feeling was one of mingled rage and alarm. 
 It was a most unfortunate moment for such 
 an outbreak ; lor the proportion of native 
 troops in the Company's service was out of all 
 calculation greater than that of the English 
 soldiers, on whom reliance could be placed — 
 being 200,000 Sepoys as against 38,000 
 Europeans, the Bengal forces being composed 
 of 118,000 natives and 22,000 Europeans. 
 Moreover, the Eui'opean troops were mostly 
 posted either on the Afghan or the Pegu 
 frontier ; and the 1,200 miles between Calcutta 
 and the Sutlej was occupied almost entirely 
 by the native army. The action of Lord 
 Canning, the Governor-General, was prompt 
 and vigorous. With admirable decision, and 
 an assumption of responsibility worthy of a 
 Wellington or a Nelson, he at once wrote to 
 Lord Elgin and Lord Ashburnham, and pre- 
 vailed on them to call back the troops des- 
 tined for the China expedition to the rescue 
 of India. One very fortunate circumstance 
 must be chronicled, in a time when almost 
 all the chances seemed against the English 
 in India. A war in which we had been in- 
 volved with Persia had just been brought to 
 a conclusion ; and the expeditionary force, 
 under Sir James Outram, having inflicted a 
 crushing defeat on the Persians before it was 
 known that the peace for which the latter 
 sued had been signed at Paris, his army and 
 his services were available for combating the 
 dangers in India. 
 
 Every man whose fidelity could be relied 
 on — every musket and bayonet that could be 
 made available for the service — was urgently 
 required ; for the insurrection spread like a 
 bush fire in Australia, or a conflagration on an 
 American prairie. At Indur and at Azimghur, 
 at Jelanpore and Allahabad, there were fierce 
 and dangerous outbreaks, the example of 
 Meerut and Delhi being followed ; and there 
 seemed an immediate prospect of the in- 
 surrection spreading over the whole of 
 northern India, and that it would soon 
 embrace the Bombay and Madras Pre- 
 sidencies. 
 
 To the great good fortune of the British 
 rule >" India, never in such imminent peril 
 
 39 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 as at that awful moment, Lord Canning proved 
 equal to the occasion. That statesman, a son 
 of the great George Canning, shared with his 
 illustrious father the disadvantage of being 
 misunderstood during his hfe, and had but 
 scant justice done to his memory after his 
 death. Because he refused to acquiesce in 
 the frantic demand for indiscriminate ven- 
 geance upon all the "nigger" soldiery, and 
 heard and weighed dispassionately every 
 piece of intelhgence brought to him, re- 
 serving to himself the right of forming his 
 own judgment and acting upon it, he was 
 somewhat sneeringly dubbed, " Clemency 
 Canning," and twitted by newspapers for 
 having had more regard for the revolted 
 Sepoys than for his massacred countrymen 
 and their wives and children ; but when the 
 excitement and the frenzy for vengeance had 
 given place to more moderate counsels, the 
 man who during the crisis had never lost his 
 head was reluctantly acknowledged by many 
 of his former opponents to have been in the 
 right. He at once saw the necessity of re- 
 capturing Delhi at all hazards, well knowing 
 the moral effect the fall of the head- quarters 
 and chief centre of the rebellion would have 
 upon the insurgents ; and accordingly took 
 measures for the siege. One very fortunate 
 circumstance was the presence in the newly 
 annexed Punjaub of two of the most splendid 
 soldiers and administrators who ever wielded 
 power in India — the brothers Sir John and 
 Sir Henry Lawrence, the former destined to 
 become Viceroy of the country he helped to 
 save, the latter to die a soldier's death _ in 
 the performance of his duty. By unflinching 
 firmness he stamped out the rebellion in the 
 Punjaub before it had taken firm hold. By 
 the holding of the Punjaub by the Queen's 
 troops, the mutiny was not only prevented 
 from spreading to the Bombay Presidency, 
 but was, as it were, shut in by definite barriers, 
 until two avenging armies from opposite 
 quarters came to crush it out. 
 
 Judicious Measures at Meean Meer; 
 
 General Anson and his Command. 
 
 The story of the disarming of the native 
 regiments at Meean Meer, who were on the 
 eve of a rebellious outbreak, will give an idea 
 of the union of astuteness and firmness with 
 which the Lawrences and other officers, civil 
 and military, met the danger that had so 
 suddenly come upon them. \ historian of 
 our own day has thus summarised one of 
 the most important events of a year of sur- 
 prises : — " A parade was ordered for day- 
 break at Meean Meer (in the Punjaub), and 
 on the parade ground an order was given 
 for a military movement which brought the 
 heads of four columns of the native troops in 
 front of twelve guns charged with grape, the 
 t!\rtillery-men, with their port-fires lighted, and 
 
 the soldiers of one of the Queen's regiments 
 standing behind with loaded muskets. A 
 command was given to the Sepoys to pile 
 arms. They had immediate death before 
 them if they disobeyed. They stood literally 
 at the cannons' mouth. They piled their 
 arms, which were borne away at once in 
 carts by European soldiers, and all chances 
 of a rebellious movement were over in that 
 province, and the Punjaub was saved." At 
 Mooltan the native troops were disarmed in 
 similar fashion. And not only was the Pun- 
 jaub preserved to British rule by having a. 
 statesman and a hero at its head, but became 
 a basis of operations against the rebels in 
 the revolted provinces, and a means for 
 isolating the disaffected districts. 
 
 At the head of the forces who marched to. 
 the siege of Delhi was General Anson, the 
 Commander-in-Chief. This General had no 
 opportunity of trying conclusions with the 
 rebels, for he fell a victim to cholera — one 
 of the foes with whom the armies had to 
 contend during that terrible year — on the 
 27th of May. Not unnaturally impatient for 
 the recapture of Delhi, on which such mighty 
 issues depended, the British public, and 
 especially a portion of the press, were inclined 
 to do scant justice to him. Those were the 
 days of family influence and political jobbery, 
 and the appointment of General Anson was 
 severely criticised. The leading journal de- 
 scribed the Commander-in-Chief as a holiday 
 soldier, who had never seen service either in 
 peace or in war, and as one whom a shame- 
 less job had sent at one step from Tattersall's 
 and Newmarket to the command of an army 
 in one of the Presidencies. When a vacancy 
 occurred in the chief command of 300,000' 
 men, the authorities at home at once re- 
 cognised the claims of family and personal 
 acquaintance in the disposal of the post. 
 
 Successive Commanders ; the Re-taking 
 OF Delhi. 
 
 General Anson appears to have done his 
 best. Be that as it may, he died on the 
 march ; and shortly afterwards his successor. 
 Sir Henry Barnard, followed him, his mind 
 giving way under the strain suddenly put 
 upon him ; his very anxiety to fulfil his task 
 hastened his end. He died of cholera early 
 in July, after an illness of only six or seven 
 hours, — so swiftly does that dread disease 
 claim its victims in the burning climate of 
 India. Captain, afterwards General, KnollySy 
 Sir Hope Grant's aide-de-camp, who has left 
 us a graphic account of the events of that 
 time, tells us that, like General Anson,, 
 Barnard suffered little pain, " and had wasted 
 away at the last, quite unconscious." After 
 he was taken ill, his mind wandered, and he 
 continually repeated, "Tell Grant to take 
 
 40 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 4.1 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 out all the cavalry. Tell Reed I have sent 
 up the 6oth to support him." General Reed, 
 who succeeded to the command, suffered so 
 much from ill health that he had to return to 
 the Punjaub; and to Brigadier- General Wil- 
 son, an energetic, sound-headed officer, who 
 knew his work, was allotted the task of taking 
 Delhi from the rebels. He accomplished it 
 with great gallantry, but not without the loss 
 of many brave officers and men, Brigadier 
 Nicholson being among the slain. It was 
 not until the middle of September that he 
 was so far reinforced by the arrival of Sikhs 
 and Goorkas that an assault of the enormous 
 place, with its immense stretch of walls and 
 its large host of desperate Sepoy defenders, 
 fighting with ropes round their necks, became 
 possible. The scenes at the taking of Delhi 
 were appalling ; the shrieking, yelling Sepoys, 
 knowing they had no mercy to expect from 
 their assailants, fought from street to street 
 and from house to house. They numbered 
 at least 30,000, while the attacking force could 
 not muster 7,000. No quarter was given, and 
 the unhappy city was deluged with blood. 
 To such a pitch of fury were the besiegers 
 worked up by the massacres that had taken 
 place, of peaceful citizens, women, and chil- 
 dren, that many were with difficulty deterred 
 from laying Delhi even with the dust, as an 
 expiatory offering to murdered innocence. 
 
 Captain Hodson, of "Hodson's Horse," 
 AND THE Princes of Delhi. 
 
 One event so tragic in character as to 
 stand prominently forth even in those days of 
 horror, was numbered among the deplorable 
 incidents of the war, when the first fury of 
 vindictive passion had subsided. Captain 
 Hodson, the commander of an irregular body 
 of cavalry known as " Hodson's horse," 
 undertook the capture of the King of Delhi 
 and his family. The wretched old potentate, 
 the last of the Moguls, who at nearly ninety 
 years of age had been set up as a puppet, to 
 give the rebellion a name and a character, 
 had taken refuge with some followers in a 
 place known as the Hummayoon's tomb, about 
 five miles from Delhi. Thither Captain 
 Hodson rode out, with a party of his Sowars, 
 or horsemen ; and imperatively ordering the 
 natives in the courtyard to lay down their 
 arms, a command which they, presuming 
 from his confident manner that a considera- 
 ble force was at hand, sulkily obeyed, he 
 sent a message to the king, desiring him to 
 surrender, and promising that his life should 
 be spared. Accordingly the last of the 
 Moguls came forth, and was at once placed 
 in a small bullock waggon and conveyed to 
 the town, where he was securely lodged as a 
 prisoner in the palace. He remained in 
 close captivity until his death. So far there 
 
 was nothing to be objected to in a daring 
 and well-timed exploit that had delivered 
 into the power of the British a feeble old 
 man who, as a puppet in the hands of rebel 
 chiefs, might be made dangerous. But 
 Captain Hodson's next exploit was of a more 
 ambitious kind. Next day, hearing that 
 several relatives of the Mogul were still in 
 the tombs, he rode forth again, and by means 
 of the treacherous native he had employed 
 to communicate with the king, two younger 
 sons of the Mogul and a grandson, the Shah- 
 zada, or heir-apparent, were induced to come 
 forth and surrender themselves uncondition- 
 ally. It is idle to assert that they did not 
 do this on an implied supposition that their 
 lives, too, would be spared. The remainder 
 of the narrative may be given as Hodson 
 himself told it to Sir Hope Grant, who 
 entered it in his journal within a few hours. 
 After long persusaion from the man sent to 
 them, the princes came forth, and were at 
 once driven away in a bullock gharry, or 
 small covered coach, Hodson following them. 
 When within a couple of miles of Delhi, 
 "where no one could interfere," this officer 
 in the British service halted the gharry, 
 called forth the captives, and after reproach- 
 ing them with their guilt, which they strenu- 
 ously denied, declaring that they had had no 
 hand in the massacre at Delhi, he constituted 
 himself judge, jury, and executioner, by 
 shooting them dead one after another ; and 
 this when they were not men captured in 
 fight, but who had surrendered certainly with 
 the idea that they were to be delivered into 
 the hands of the British, to be protected at 
 least until they could suffer lawful censure 
 for such faults as could be proved upon 
 them. The brave officer who took down this 
 narrative from the lips of Sir Hope Grant, 
 deplores this slaying of the princes as a " sad 
 act that was most uncalled for ; " yet there 
 were many in England who at that time 
 were ready to laud it as a piece of good 
 service. So much can war and passion blunt 
 the feelings of justice and humanity. The 
 unhappy King is described by an officer who 
 visited him in his prison as an old man, 
 said by one of his servants to be ninety years 
 of age, short in stature, slight, very fair for a 
 native, and with.a high-bred, delicate-looking 
 cast of features. All the dignity of the great 
 Mogul had departed. "It might have been 
 supposed that death would have been prefe- 
 rable to such humiliation," says the writer ; 
 " but it is wonderful how we all cling to the 
 shreds of life. When I saw the poor old 
 man, he was seated on a wretched charpoy, 
 or native bed, with his legs crossed before 
 him, and swinging his body backwards and 
 forwards with an unconscious, dreamy look." 
 It appears almost absurd to tax such a wreck 
 with the atrocities of Delhi. 
 
 42 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 Nana Sahib of Bithoor ; The Darkest 
 Scene of the Tragedy. 
 
 We now come to the most ghastly of all 
 the tragic events of the mutiny, — a crime that 
 stands out in its exceptional atrocity even 
 among the sanguinary events of the terrible 
 chronicle of India in the fatal year 1857. 
 The whole page of Indian history of that 
 time is stained with blood ; but the story of 
 Cawnpore and Nana Sahib shows a black- 
 ness of crime and treachery that marks it as 
 infinitely more horrible than even the massa- 
 cre of the Black Hole at Calcutta. The 
 whole transaction is an illustration of the old 
 axiom that "injured men will turn and hate;" 
 and Oriental hatred is of the deadly, long- 
 enduring, sullen kind, unmitigated by any 
 touch of Christian feeling or pity ; lying in 
 wait for years, if need be, but finding an 
 opportunity to satiate itself in the blood of 
 an enemy at last. 
 
 The great and important military station 
 •of Cawnpore, situated about fifty miles from 
 Lucknow, on the high road to Oude, and 
 numbering about 1,000 European and Eur- 
 asian inhabitants to a native population of 
 some 60,000, was occupied at the breaking 
 out of the mutiny by a garrison chiefly of 
 native soldiers, with 300 English officers and 
 soldiers, under the command of a veteran 
 general, Sir Hugh Wheeler. A few miles 
 higher up the river Ganges is situated the 
 small town of Bithoor ; and Bithoor had 
 been appointed years before as the residence 
 of the Peishwa of Poonah, Bagee Rao, whose 
 territory had been annexed by the East 
 India Company, and to whom a consider- 
 able pension had been awarded on his 
 deprivation. Bagee Rao, the last of a 
 powerful Mahratta house, had adopted as 
 his son and heir, Seereck Dhoordoo Punth, 
 who afterwards gained a tragic celebrity as 
 the Nana Sahib of Bithoor ; and on the 
 death of Bagee Rao, the adopted son ex- 
 pected, according to Oriental usage, that the 
 pension accorded to the Peishwa would be 
 continued to him. But the Company and 
 Lord Dalhousie could sometimes be econo- 
 mical in the wrong place ; and the pension was 
 cut off at Bagee Rao's death. Nana Sahib, 
 aghast at such a decrease in his revenues, 
 though he was still a wealthy man, in 1854 
 sent as an agent to London, to advocate his 
 claim, a young Mahometan, originally of low 
 birth, a certain Azimoolah Khan, who became 
 a kind of "lion" for a season in London, 
 like Rammun Loll in Thackeray's " New- 
 comes," who, according to the description of 
 that acute observer, Barnes Newcome, had 
 some of the elite of the ladies of Vanity Fair 
 " snuggling up to his indiarubber face." 
 Azimoolah Khan returned to his master un- 
 successful so far as his mission was con- 
 
 cerned ; but it was the time of the Crimean 
 war and its disasters, and he brought back 
 highly coloured stories of the calamities the 
 English were enduring, and of the alleged 
 decline of their influence and power ; and 
 appears to have inflamed the black heart of 
 Nana Sahib with the hope of gratifying at 
 once his ambition and his revenge. Mean- 
 while, however, he maintained an outward 
 appearance of friendliness to the English, to 
 whom, indeed, he often displayed an ostenta- 
 tious and splendid hospitality ; and when the 
 mutiny spread from Meerut to Cawnpore, 
 and poor Sir Hugh Wheeler was in dire 
 straits and waited in vain for reinforcements, 
 while Sir Henry Lawrence, who_, straining 
 every nerve to hold his own against the 
 rebels at Lucknow, could not spare him a 
 single man. Sir Hugh turned for assistance 
 to his good neighbour the Rajah of Bithoor ; 
 for he had been obliged to take refuge with 
 the Europeans in an old military hospital 
 whose defences were in as bad a state as 
 those of Arcot a century before, when Clive 
 and his handful of troops undertook the 
 defence of the place against the 10,000 
 assailants brought against him by Rajah 
 Sahib. The Nana responded to the appeal ; 
 but on his arrival the mutineers pressed him 
 to make common cause with them ; and 
 whatever may have been his intentions on 
 his arrival, he acceded to their proposal, and 
 ranged himself on the side of the foe, who 
 swarm.ed round the wretched mud-wall be- 
 hind which were huddled, in the direst dis- 
 tress, about a thousand persons, men, women, 
 and children ; the number of combatants 
 being under four hundred. 
 
 The Massacre on the Ganges. 
 Even in this extremity the high courage 
 and skill of the dominant race asserted itself 
 in an unmistakable manner. An attempt to 
 storm the place failed ; and an urgent mes- 
 sage was sent to Sir Henry Lawrence, who, 
 however, could do nothing. Exposed to 
 every hardship, straitened for provisions, 
 and only able to procure water at the direst 
 peril, the heroic garrison still held out, 
 though its numbers were wofuUy thinned ; 
 and when a renewed assault by a large body 
 of Oudh mutineers upon the entrenchments 
 was repulsed. Nana Sahib's heart began to 
 fail him, and he understood that if reinforce- 
 ments arrived, he was a ruined man. 
 Accordingly he entered into negociations 
 with the beleagured garrison, promising quar- 
 ter to all " who had not been implicated in 
 the actions of Lord Dalhousie ; " and it was 
 arranged that the garrison should evacuate 
 the place, and be conveyed in the great 
 thatched boats used on the Ganges to 
 Allahabad, it being stipulated that the boats 
 should be adequately provisioned for the 
 
 43 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 journey. There was rejoicing among the 
 poor survivors of that dismal siege, at the 
 prospect of rehef from the horrors that had 
 so long environed them ; the women and 
 children especially were glad to get away 
 >^ from Cawnpore on any terms : and a long 
 •' procession moved down towards the boats, 
 « carefully leading or carrying the numerous 
 ,; sick and wounded. But at a given signal, the 
 r blowing of a bugle, the native rowers set fire 
 ''- to the thatched roofs of the boats, and then 
 sprang overboard and made for the shore ; 
 while from the banks of the river a shower 
 of bullets poured upon the unhappy passen- 
 gers . The greater number were killed then 
 and there ; Tantia Topee, the lieutenant of 
 Nana Sahib, superintending the work. The 
 women and children who survived the mur- 
 derous fire of musketry were relanded, and 
 marched back, a melancholy, dismal train, to 
 Cawnpore ; the men whom the bullets had 
 spared were put to death at once ; with the 
 exception of four who, after incredible hard- 
 ships and dangers, managed to effect their 
 escape to the English forces. The women 
 and children, 125 in number, were confined 
 in a small building, afterwards distinguished 
 by a sinister celebrity as the yellow house, 
 where they had hardly room to move. A 
 fifth of their number were soon dead of 
 cholera or dysentery ; the rest remained from 
 day to day with the fear of death on them. 
 
 The Turn of the Tide ; The Vengeance 
 OF A Baffled Tiger. 
 
 Meanwhile Nana Sahib began to realise 
 that the mutiny had failed. The defeat of 
 the Oudh men, in spite of the favourable 
 circumstances under which their assault was 
 made, was a heavy blow and surprise to him ; 
 and with every fiendish propensity in his 
 black heart intensified by the prospect of 
 approaching retribution, — for he knew the 
 British, under Havelock, were advancing 
 victoriously towards the rebellious city, — he 
 seems to have determined, at least, to enjoy 
 the satisfaction of a complete revenge. 
 
 Accordingly it was announced to the 
 captives that their doom was death. The 
 manner in which that doom was inflicted has 
 no parallel for horrors, except perhaps in the 
 massacre of September 1792, in the days of 
 the great French Revolution. Five men 
 were sent one evening to the house where 
 the unhappy prisoners were immured. Two 
 of them were butchers by trade, two Hindoo 
 peasants, and the fifth wore the Nana's uni- 
 form. These wretches slaughtered the English 
 women and children, as they would have 
 slaughtered cattle ; one of them appearing at 
 the door twice, to exchange his broken sword 
 for a new weapon. When the last shriek 
 from within the building had died away, and 
 all was still in the charnel house, the 
 
 executors of the Nana's orders emerged 
 from the horrible scene of the atrocity, lock- 
 ing the door behind them. Next day the 
 bodies of the murdered victims were flung 
 into a dry well, where they were found, a 
 ghastly heap, when Cawnpore was taken by j 
 the English force." When the house of the f 
 massacre itself was entered, its floor and its 
 walls told with terrible plainness of the scene k 
 they had witnessed. The plaster of the walls ';,\ 
 was scored and seamed with sword slashes x 
 low down and in the corners, as if the poor 
 women had crouched down in their mortal 
 fright, vdth some wild hope of escaping the 
 blows. The floor was strewn with scraps of 
 dresses, women's faded, ragged finery, frilling, 
 underclothing, broken combs, shoes, and 
 tresses of hair. Among the most sorrowful 
 of these mementos were a quantity of broken 
 toys, stained with blood. But one part of 
 the hideous story, as at first circulated among 
 the horror-stricken English, is happily un- 
 true. An inscription, in which some unhappy 
 captive is represented as calling upon her 
 countrymen for revenge for unutterable 
 wrong inflicted upon the prisoners, was 
 shown to be a forgery, written up long after- 
 wards, probably to stimulate still further 
 the thirst for vengeance that these things 
 naturally excited. What became of the 
 fiendish Rajah of Bithoor was never known. 
 When Cawnpore was taken by the English 
 he fled first to Bithoor and then in the 
 direction of Nepaul ; and though more than 
 once the memory of these things was revived 
 by a rumour of his capture, the rumour 
 always proved untrue, and in this world the 
 fate of Nana Sahib will probably always 
 remain a mystery. 
 
 The Struggle in Oudh ; Sir Henry 
 
 Lawrence, " who endeavoured to do 
 
 HIS Duty." 
 
 In Oudh, Sir Henry Lawrence, the 
 Governor, struggled against the mutineers 
 with equal valour and judgment. The over- 
 whelming numbers against him compelled 
 him to retreat to the Residency at Lucknow, 
 which he fortified to the utmost of his power, 
 as a tower of refuge for the Europeans of the 
 district. In this stronghold he was quickly 
 besieged ; and after a few weeks of heroic 
 struggle, he was mortally wounded by the 
 explosion of a shell. " Here lies Henry 
 Lawrence, who tried to do his duty," was 
 the epitaph the grand, simple-hearted soldiers 
 desired to have erected over his tomb. 
 With him died one of the noblest men who 
 ever drew the sword for the defence of the 
 English in India. 
 
 Meanwhile, great efforts were being made 
 to relieve Lucknow. General Havelock was 
 marching to raise the siege, and in a series 
 of engagements with the rebels, beat them 
 
 44 
 
INDIA'S AGONY. 
 
 time after time under circumstances of such 
 disadvantage as plainly showed that the 
 days when the English in India had ceased 
 to reckon the number of the foe had not 
 passed away. Indeed, in the time of the 
 mutiny, a general thought himself well off 
 if the odds against him were not more than 
 four or five to one. 
 
 Henry Havelock— A Christian Hero : 
 His Exploits and Services. 
 Among the great and remarkable names 
 of that memorable year, none shines with 
 
 gayer spirits, especially as his strong cha- 
 racter influenced many around him, and 
 " Havelock's saints" and their camp-services 
 became a noted feature in the army. It 
 was quickly found, however, that as with 
 Cromwell's pikemen and troopers two cen- 
 turies before, so with Havelock's " saints," 
 piety in no way interfered with military 
 efficiency. If they feared God, "they un- 
 doubtedly also kept their powder dry," and 
 fought their way through hordes of rebels 
 with a determined persistency and a splendid 
 valour that aroused the admiration even of 
 
 ll!|i'r ■' 
 
 Mr. Ka\ 
 
 THROUGH THE REBEL ArMY AT LUCKNOW. 
 
 a purer lustre than that of Henry Havelock. 
 A quiet, modest man, and without the ad- 
 vantage of influential connections, he was 
 little known beyond his immediate circle, 
 though his career had been long and 
 honourable, dating from before the Burmese 
 war of 1824. A grave, studious character, 
 he had been known already in his boyish 
 days at the Charterhouse School as " Old 
 Phlos," or philosopher, while his serious 
 and religious turn of mind — he belonged to 
 the Baptist community — had drawn a good 
 deal of attention, and occasionally a little 
 satire upon him, among the wilder and 
 
 far-off Europe ; and among his countrymen 
 in England the name of Havelock became 
 a household word during that troublous 
 autumn. 
 
 Sir James Outram had been appointed 
 Chief Commissioner in Oudh, and hastened 
 to join his force to Havelock's little army. 
 With splendid generosity he declined to take 
 the position of commander, to which his 
 seniority and his official rank entitled him, 
 and declared he would appear merely in his 
 civil capacity as Commissioner, and would 
 place himself and his men at Havelock's 
 disposal, for that the general who had made 
 
 45 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 such gallant and strenuous efforts to relieve j 
 Lucknow should have the honour of com- 
 pleting the work. It was indeed a tremendous 
 march from Calcutta to Lucknow, through 
 a country swarming with enemies, in the 
 burning summer heat. After a short rest at 
 Allahabad, Havelock had pushed on with 
 about 1,400 men, and his brilliant victory 
 over the rebels at Futtipoor formed an epoch 
 in the great achievements of the year. On 
 the 13th of July, Havelock and his men were 
 before Cawnpore ; and here it was that 
 Nana Sahib came out against him with his 
 whole force, only to be completely defeated, 
 and vanish into the darkness from which he 
 never afterwards emerged. A tremendous 
 vengeance was wreaked on the Sepoys and 
 on Cawnpore for the murder of the English 
 women and children. The sight of the 
 terrible well, and ghastly relics found in the 
 prison-house, had for a time driven all feel- 
 ings of mercy from the hearts of the British ; 
 and public opinion in England, as exhibited 
 in the press, was all on the side of revenge, 
 and no quarter to the enemy ; until at length 
 Mr. Disraeli asked in Parliament whether 
 the standard of morality of Nana Sahib was 
 to be chosen for imitation by Englishmen in 
 India. 
 
 Vengeance on the Sepoys ; Wholesale 
 Slaughter and Executions. 
 What kind of retribution was exercised on 
 the rebels who fell into the hands of the 
 avengers of blood is shown by the report of 
 the English General Cooper, at a period 
 shortly subsequent to that of which we are 
 writing. The General tells a plain, unvarnished 
 tale of the fate of the rebel Sepoys v/ho fell 
 into his hands ; — how he had them bound 
 together in batches of ten, and thus shot 
 down on the place of execution, where firing 
 parties awaited their arrival, — how, when 
 about 150 had been shot, one of the oldest 
 executioners of the prison fainted away, over- 
 come by the horrible din, the yells, shrieks, 
 and frantic struggles of the captives, as mad- 
 dened with rage and terror they were dragged 
 lo the place of execution, and a pause had 
 pen'orce to be made in the proceedings, — 
 now, the work of death being presently re- 
 sumed, and when 237 corpses lay stretched 
 upon the plain, it was reported that the 
 prisoners refused to quit their prison, where- 
 upon orders were given to burst open the 
 door ; and then it was found that the 
 tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta had 
 been repeated, and forty-five corpses of suffo- 
 cated men were dragged from the loathsome 
 dungeon, — how the corpses of the suffocated 
 men, and of those who had been shot, were 
 flung by the sweepers into a common pit, — 
 how forty fugitive Sepoys, captured on the 
 road to Lahore, were blown away from the 
 
 muzzles of cannons at one time, in the pre- 
 sence of disaffected native regiments,— and 
 how 500 were thus speedily despatched. It 
 it a gruesome report, that of General Cooper, 
 and hardly seems to belong to civilization 
 and the nineteenth century. 
 
 Help in Need ; Arrival of Sir Colin 
 
 Campbell ; Outram and Havelock at 
 
 Lucknow. 
 
 With an energy taxed to the utmost by the 
 consciousness that the lives of the garrison 
 of Lucknow depended upon speedy succour, 
 and that a second Cawnpore massacre would 
 but too probably be the termination of the de- 
 fence unless they arrived in time, Havelock 
 and his men pressed on, in spite of hardship, 
 want, and disease, towards the gates of 
 Lucknow. After beating the enemy in nine 
 battles, Havelock at length reached Luck- 
 now towards the end of September. But 
 even with the reinforcement of Outram, the 
 army amounted only to 5,600 men ; while 
 the enemy numbered 50,000. It was not 
 without heavy loss that they fought their way 
 through the rebels into the citadel, where 
 they were received by their countrymen with 
 transports of joy and thankfulness. 
 
 But Havelock's force, combined with that 
 of Colonel Inglis, on whom the defence of 
 Lucknow had devolved after Sir Henry Law- 
 rence's death, was too feeble to transport the 
 sick and wounded, with the women and 
 children, to Cawnpore, as had been intended. 
 In the hard fighting between the 19th and the 
 25th of September, 535 men had been lost — 
 more than a fifth of the whole army ; all that 
 could be done, therefore, was to reinforce the 
 exhausted garrison, and wait until fresh help 
 should come ; the enemy meanwhile resum- 
 ing the siege with renewed vigour, swarming 
 in their thousands around the beleagured 
 city, and harassing the besieged day and 
 night ; while scarcity of provisions increased 
 their woes by the imminent prospect of 
 famine. Help was sorely needed, and it was 
 coming in the most effectual shape. General 
 Sir Colin Campbell, the Hero of the Alma, 
 was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 
 troops in India, and ordered to proceed at 
 once from London to the seat of his com- 
 mand. On the very next day the stout old 
 soldier was already on his way to the East. 
 Napoleon's officers were accustomed to say 
 that they could scent the Emperor's approach 
 in the air, and the same might almost be 
 said of Sir Colin Campbell. His arrival gave 
 fresh courage to the sorely tried troops ; and 
 from the day of his landing in India with his 
 gallant little army, it was seen that the fate 
 of the mutiny was sealed. Sir Colin reached 
 Lucknow on the 14th of November, and re- 
 lieved the little garrison of Alum Bagh, a 
 cluster of buildings with an enclosed garden 
 
 46 
 
INDIA'S AGONY, 
 
 to the south of Lucknow, where Havelock on 
 his arrival at Lucknow had established 400 
 men with his sick and wounded, not anticipa- 
 ting that he himself would be shut up within 
 the city. Sir Colin's force now numbered 
 some 5,000 men. and he was compelled to 
 act with caution. He knew, moreover, the 
 effect a check to his troops might have upon 
 the rebels, who were becoming demoralised 
 at the steady and resistless advance of the 
 scanty bands of avengers who came upon 
 them like fate, not to be turned back ; and 
 he could not therefore afford to make any 
 mistake that might weaken this impression. 
 Accordingly, when Outram and Havelock had 
 been set free, and the enemy dislodged, he 
 removed the women and the sick and 
 wounded to the Dilkoosha, a palace about 
 five miles from the Residency, which, like the 
 Alum Bagh, he had taken before entering 
 Lucknow. Thereupon he established his 
 troops at the Alum Bagh, for a time evacu- 
 ating Lucknow. 
 
 And here, a few days afterwards, the 
 illustrious career of Havelock came to a 
 close. Worn out by the incessant toils of 
 the last months, by bodily and mental labour, 
 and by care and sleepless nights, the old 
 hero was attacked by dysentery at the Alum 
 Bagh, and died quietly and calmly in the 
 consciousness of duty well fulfilled, and a life 
 work nobly accomplished. The news of his 
 achievements had reached England, and ex- 
 cited a glow of pride and sympathy in every 
 breast. The Clubs rang with his praises, 
 and the Queen acknowledged his services by 
 apension, a baronetcy, and the K.C.B. But 
 on the day when the baronetcy was conferred 
 in London, the hero was already sleeping in a 
 soldier's grave, in the garden of the Alum 
 Ba^h, beneath a tree, on which the single 
 letter "H." sufficed to show where Havelock 
 was laid. A general outburst of regret arose 
 in London at the news of his death. Even 
 Punch, the jester of the press, recorded in 
 some noble lines the loss England had sus- 
 tained, telling how — 
 
 '' He is gone : Heaven's will is best ; 
 Indian turf o'erlies his breast. 
 Ghoule in black, nor fool in gold, 
 Laid him in that hallowed mould ; 
 Borne unto a soldier's rest 
 By the bravest and the best," etc. 
 
 The Exploit of Mr. Kavan^gh of Luck- 
 now ; Heroism among the Civilians. 
 
 In connection with the defence of Lucknow, 
 as with all the episodes of that troublous 
 time, many individual deeds of daring and 
 heroism are recorded ; but none surpasses 
 the achievement of a civil functionary, Mr. 
 Kavanagh, who, disguised as a native, made 
 his way from Lucknow through the lines 
 of the beleaguring rebel army, to carry in- 
 
 telligence to Sir Colin Campbell of the state 
 of things within the Residency. " How he 
 could ever have made himselflook like a native 
 I know not," says Dr. Russell, the Times 
 correspondent, who met Kavanagh afterwards 
 at Lucknow. " He is a square-shouldered, 
 large-limbed, muscular man, a good deal over 
 the middle height, with decided European 
 features ; a large head, covered with hair of— 
 a reddish auburn, shall 1 say? moustaches 
 and beard still lighter ; and features and eyes 
 such as no native that ever I saw possessed. 
 He has made himself famous by an act of 
 remarkable courage— not in the heat of battle 
 or in a moment of impulse or excitement, but 
 performed after deliberation, and sustained 
 continuously through a long trial." The 
 achievement was certainly a wonderful one ; 
 for if any sharp-witted Hindoo or Mussul- 
 man had got an inkling of the nationality of 
 the stranger, his death would have been 
 speedy and certain. 
 
 The Final Throes of the Mutiny? 
 
 Restoration of Order ; The End of 
 
 the East India Company. 
 
 Leaving Sir James Outram in command at 
 Alum Bagh, with orders to watch the rebels 
 in Lucknow, Sir Colin Campbell advanced to 
 the relief of General Windham at Cawnpore. 
 Sir Colin was censured in some quarters for 
 evacuating Lucknow, and many spoke of the 
 moral effect that would have been produced 
 had he held that place at all hazards ; but as 
 the Tz'wz^j judiciously observed: "The Com- 
 mander-in-Chief had to consider the whole 
 plan of the campaign, as well as the circum- 
 stances at Lucknow, and he was compelled 
 also to take into consideration the political 
 objects of the Government." And the sequel 
 showed how true had been the judgment of 
 the gallant chief, and how fairly he earned 
 the peerage that was at this time awarded 
 him. During the time he waited at Cawnpore, 
 the reinforcements that had been despatched 
 from Calcutta and elsewhere had time to 
 come forward, so that operations could be 
 undertaken on a large scale and with a view 
 to a result as a whole. The " moral effect " 
 produced by the 'arrival of new troops in 
 discouraging the rebels, and in impressing 
 upon them the fact that their resistance was 
 useless, was of far greater importance than 
 the holding of a place that the Commander 
 could retake at any time. The year 185S 
 began under favourable auspices. The neck 
 of the mutiny had been broken, and there 
 was full confidence that Sir Colin Campbell, 
 or as he must now be called, Lord Clyde, 
 would successfully terminate his task. New 
 reinforcements arrived at the Upper Ganges, 
 from the Punjaub and Calcutta. Sir Hugh 
 Rose took Kalperand Jhansi from the rebels, 
 upon whom a terrible vengeance was inflicted. 
 
 47 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 On the 19th of June he recaptured Gwahor, 
 and the last hope of the insurgents was gone. 
 Meanwhile, on the 5th of March, 1858, 
 Lucknow finally fell into the hands of the 
 English, under Lord Clyde. The slaughter 
 of the rebels was great, and the plunder 
 found in the city immense. The English 
 soldiers rushed to and fro, offering jewels 
 of enormous size and great value to who- 
 soever would purchase them for a few 
 gold pieces. Dr. Russell, who was present 
 at the capture, relates how an excited Irish- 
 man offered him a splendid necklace for a 
 hundred rupees, which, alas ! the Tunes 
 correspondent had not in his pocket ; and 
 the soldier, though he reduced his demand 
 to two mohurs and a bottle of rum, would 
 not hear of sending to the camp for the 
 money, and would entertain nothing but 
 "ready-money" offers, on the reasonable 
 ground that he himself might be dead with 
 a bullet through his heart before evening. 
 The necklace, it seems, fell into the hands 
 of an officer, who sold it to a jeweller for 
 £7,Soo. On May 5th, in the battle of Bareilly, 
 another victory was scored for Lord Clyde ; 
 and after that time the resistance was merely 
 sporadic, though in many instances the in- 
 surgents, who expected no mercy, fought 
 desperately. Among the most determined of 
 those who braved the EngUsh in the open 
 field was the Ranee of Jhansi, who fought 
 like a Boadicea at the head of her troops, 
 
 and everywhere showed remarkable heroism. 
 Tantia Topee, Nana Sahib's villainous lieu- 
 tenant, was hunted down, captured, and 
 most justly hanged. A proclamation was 
 issued by the Governor- General granting an 
 amnesty to those rebels who had not taken 
 immediate part in the murder of British 
 subjects, and who returned to their allegiance 
 by January, 1859. At the same time it was 
 announced to the people of India that Queen 
 Victoria had thought fit, by the advice of her 
 Parliament, to annul the charter of the East 
 India Company, and that henceforth Hindo- 
 stan would be governed as a direct possession 
 of the British Crown, with a Viceroy in place 
 of a Governor-General. This change had 
 been brought about by the India Bill of 
 August 2nd, 1858. 
 
 Thus ended the rule of the East India 
 Company as the governing power in India, — 
 a dominion unexampled in the history of 
 the world. In many respects that rule had 
 been faulty, and in some even criminal. It is 
 impossible to look without shame upon some 
 pages in the history even of such men as 
 Clive and Warren Hastings ; but on the 
 other hand there had been numberless in- 
 stances of the truest valour, the loftiest 
 heroism, and the wisest statesmanship ; and 
 at no time had these appeared more con- 
 spicuously than in the period of India's 
 agony, in the great Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 
 "The Well at Caunj)ore 
 
 48 
 
Ridley and Latimer at the Place of Execution. 
 
 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND 
 
 THE STORY OF ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 A Typical Life— A Cambridge Fellow— Black Joan — Result of a Supper Party— An Aged Martyr — Origin of the 
 Revolution — Langland and the Lollards — Burning of Cobham — Printing Press — Dean Colet — The New Learning — 
 The Christian Brethren — Squire Tracy's Will— Passion and Pope -Wolsey's Fall and Prophecy — Its Progress — 
 Henry's Divorce — A Married Priest as Archbishop — Sir Thomas More — England Governed by a Blacksmith's Son— 
 A Memorable Parliament — Head of the English Church — The Black Book — Fall of the Monasteries — Captain 
 Cobbler — Pilgrimage of Grace — John Frith, the Genuine Martyr — The First English Confessions of Faith — English 
 Bible in the Churches — Whip of Six Strings — Martyrdom of Lambert and Anne Askew — Progress of Edward's Reign 
 — Book of Common Prayer — Catholic Reaction— The Inquisition— Sir John Cheke — The Martyrs — Rogers, Hooper, 
 Latimer, etc. — Smithfield— Protestant Recovery— Cecil and Parker— Catholic Attempts — ^The Thirty-nine Articles. 
 
 Black Joan. 
 
 |OUBTLESS, had he been alive, the 
 Squire of Aslacton, in the famous 
 hunting county of Notts, would have 
 been sadly vexed on hearing that his son 
 Thomas, who held a fellowship in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, had plunged into 
 marriage with Black Joan, a niece of the 
 landlady of the "Dolphin Inn," where he 
 had probably been accustomed to "take 
 his ease." It was a very foolish action 
 of the law student, Thomas Cranmer, for 
 he was compelled to resign his fellowship, 
 
 and had thenceforth to depend upon the 
 slender and precarious income derived from 
 his thankless labours as a college tutor. But 
 follies and accidents go to make up a great 
 many of the greatest chapters in the volume 
 of history. Had he remained a fellow and a 
 bachelor, his name might have floated un- 
 noticed down the stream of time, only turning 
 up, like thousands of others, as a microscopic 
 object before the eyes of some grubbing anti- 
 quary. As it happened, the young wife died 
 within a year in giving birth to her first child ; 
 and in the deep and sanctified sorrow of his 
 loss, Thomas Cranmer threw away ambition. 
 
 49 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 entering the priesthood when nearly forty 
 years of age. 
 
 He was by no means one of the lights of 
 the University in those its palmy days of 
 European fame, and his twenty-five years 
 of residence passed away in a monotonous 
 lowliness. Although inspired by the leaven 
 of the New Learning, he could not boast of 
 intimacy with the famous Erasmus, who lived 
 close by. This is disappointing, for we should 
 have liiced to graft upon our English apostle 
 the poetry of a close friendship with the Dutch 
 humourist, who did so much by the thrusts 
 of his bright rapier to kill the Papal power. 
 We need not doubt, however, that Thomas 
 Cranmer had a copy of the New Testament 
 of Erasmus, double-columned for the Greek 
 original and Erasmus' Latin version, and that 
 he had well thumbed the bold and brilliant 
 preface which said, " I wish that even the 
 weakest woman should read the Gospels, 
 should read the Epistles of Paul ; and I wish 
 that they were translated into all languages, 
 so that they might be read and understood 
 not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by 
 Turks and Saracens. I long that the hus- 
 bandman should sing portions of them to 
 himself as he follows the plough, that the 
 weaver should hum them to the tune of his 
 shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with 
 their stories the tedium of his journey." It 
 is perhaps as true of Cranmer as of the 
 Wittenberg Reformer, that Erasmus laid the 
 Ggg, and Cranmer hatched it. 
 
 A Supper Party. 
 He was now forty-four years of age (1528), 
 when the plague, or sweating-sickness, which 
 flourished like a vigorous toadstool on medi- 
 aeval dirt, proceeded to decimate the students 
 by the banks of the sluggish Cam. Cranmer 
 fled with his two kinsmen and pupils, settling 
 down at Romeland, near Waltham Abbey, 
 the residence of their father, Mr. Cressey. 
 Close by, at Tytynhanger, King Henry had 
 taken up his sanitary refuge. One evening 
 the obscure and timid tutor had the honour 
 of supping at Mr. Cressey's in the company 
 of two great statesmen and churchmen, — Dr. 
 Gardiner, in after days his opponent and a 
 notorious persecutor, and Dr. Fox, Lord High 
 Almoner. Henry and his statesmen were in 
 the heart and worry of a huge trouble, spring- 
 ing out of the King's determination to sever 
 his marriage to Catharine of Arragon, — a de- 
 ) termination that arose partly from his blinding 
 ' passion for a sprightly maid of honour at the 
 Court, partly from a superstition that the 
 marriage had brought the curse of Heaven 
 upon the fruits of the nuptial bed. The pro- 
 posed "divorce" naturally formed the heavy 
 subject of conversation at the supper table. 
 The tutor was enlisted in the warm debate, 
 and with his clear legal mind he expressed 
 
 his private opinion in a manner that left a 
 strong impression of his power upon the 
 puzzled statesmen. 
 
 "If the marriage of Henry with Katharine," is 
 the burden of his statement as given by Dean Hook, 
 " was a marriage contrary to the divine law, it was, 
 in point of fact, no marriage at all. ... If there 
 were no marriage at all, then the King was a 
 bachelor ; if the King were a'bachelor, he might marry 
 whom and when he pleased, without any reference 
 to Rome, provided it were not within the forbidden 
 degrees. The fact might be decided by the ordinary 
 ecclesiastical courts of the National Church. Let 
 then the canonists and universities declare that for a 
 man to marry his deceased brother's wife is contrary 
 to the divine law, let the evidence be produced 
 before the ecclesiastical court that Katharine had 
 been married to the King's brother, and the King's 
 cause would be gained." 
 
 While Thomas Cranmer, who had the 
 peaceful instincts of a Saxon gentleman, was 
 hunting or hawking — his favourite pastimes 
 through life — and doing his little duty to his 
 pupils in the retreat of Essex, thinking himself 
 forgotten, and never dreaming of any big 
 results from his pot-luck conversation at the 
 pleasant supper party, his suggestion was 
 reported to the King, who, with keen sagacity, 
 called for the presence of the hidden genius. 
 "Who is this Dr. Cranmer?" he exclaimed, | 
 "where is he? Is he still at Waltham? \ 
 Marry, I will speak to him ; let him be sent 
 for out of hand. This man, I trow, has got 
 the right sow by the ear." 
 
 The Aged Martyr. 
 
 Twenty-eight most memorable years have 
 sunk into the womb of time ; the Bible has 
 been translated, the English liturgy has been 
 read in the churches of the land ; the mass 
 has been doomed and abolished, monks and 
 popery have been robbed and crushed ; 
 Thomas Cranmer has risen to be primate of 
 the English Church ; " bloody Mary " has 
 ascended her father's throne, is undoing all 
 her father's work, and sending the best men 
 among the five millions of England to the 
 scaffold and the fire. In the pelting rain a 
 venerable priest, with long white beard, clad 
 in a black and tattered gown, and wearing 
 an old square cap on his bald but noble head, 
 is walking from his prison to St. Mary's 
 Church through the streets of Oxford, behind 
 the magistrates of the learned city. Thou- p- 
 sands have their eyes fixed upon his worn li, 
 and fated form, and armed soldiers guard || I 
 the streets and watch the crowds. The step \ 
 of the old man is firm. The very image of 
 sorrow, the tears of a child roll down his 
 fatherly face, as he sits in church and 
 hears the preacher denounce him as an 
 heresiarch, and with a touch of ribald 
 humour declares that his life should go as a 
 makeweight to that of three others, so as to 
 balance the death of Bishop Fisher, the 
 
 S<^ 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Catholic martyr of King Henry's reign. We 
 look at him again, as he rises from the plat- 
 form before the pulpit, denies the truth of 
 the six recantations he had made of the 
 Protestant faith, while shouts are heard from 
 the astounded audience, " Traitor, dissembler, 
 liar ! " — others weep for joy at the grace and 
 courage of his last hour. And now he walks 
 with smiling face and steady step towards the 
 scaffold ; he strips off his tattered garments 
 till nothing is left upon him but a long white 
 shirt ; crowds press forward to press the 
 hand that had waved many a benediction 
 and done so many kindly deeds ; that right 
 hand which had sinned is held steadily over 
 the crackling flames, except when in a 
 moment of awful agony it is raised to wipe 
 the sweat from his heavenly brow ; steady as 
 a rock stands his frame, and with the peace 
 of an angel his spirit passes to the throne of 
 Eternal Justice, while the last brave words 
 are left behind him to spread through the 
 crowd and England, and to live for ever as 
 a sad and noble monument to the first Pro- 
 testant Archbishop of the English Church, — a 
 sad and noble sermon to England for ever : 
 " Oh ! this unworthy hand ! " 
 
 Langland and the Lollards. 
 
 More than a hundred years before the 
 birth of Cranmer, a gaunt, crazy-looking 
 clerk from Shropshire, who sang for a 
 pittance at the gorgeous funerals of London, 
 had his "vision of Piers Plowman" by a 
 burnside among the Malvern Hills. It was 
 a biting satire on the priests and nobles, the 
 friars who " preached the people for profit of 
 their bellies," the jesters, the gluttonous 
 beggars, and other "children of Judas," who 
 preyed upon the poor toilers, such as the 
 farmer who had only two green cheeses, a 
 few curds and cream, a loaf of beans and 
 bran for his children, a cow and a calf, and 
 a cart mare, some parsley and kail, but " no 
 salt bacon, nor no cockneys [lean chickens], 
 by Christ, to make coUops." 
 
 But at that time there also went 
 through England the mightier voice of 
 John de Wycliffe, a keen, bold, and stubborn 
 Yorkshireman, the greatest contemporary of 
 Geoffrey Chaucer. The persecuted Master 
 (n Balliol College, Oxford, and priest of 
 Luiierworth, hurled forth terrible denuncia- 
 tions against the corruptions of the time, 
 lucidly denied the Popish doctrine of the 
 Eucharist, called for the return of the Church 
 to the poverty of its Divine Founder, and 
 sent forth his Poor Priests in russet garb to 
 plant his heresies over the whole field of 
 England. For rough times he used rough 
 words ; his sentences were fired with a sage 
 fury. Against the magic virtue of monastic 
 robes he declared that " Pilate might have 
 been damned in Christ's clothes ;" he in- 
 
 veighed against prelates that were "dead 
 to the world and the vanity thereof," 
 for riding with fourscore horses harnessed 
 with silver and gold, and against " Rome 
 runners," who drained the wealth of England 
 by a perpetual stream of unjust appeals. 
 The year of his death was 1384 ; the birth of 
 Thomas Cranmer took place just one hun- 
 dred years later. He left behind him an 
 English version of the Bible, a multitude of 
 vehement tracts, and a vast rebellious host 
 of Lollards. 
 
 From Cobham to Colet. 
 
 The Lollards are commonly supposed to 
 have been stamped out by the brutal perse- 
 cution of Henry IV., when Lord Cobham 
 was hung alive in chains and murdered by a 
 slow fire kindled under his feet (141 7). Cer- 
 tainly the fierce organized communism of 
 the Peasants was broken up, because the 
 wrong of serfage — unpaid slavery — was 
 gradually abolished ; but the religious root 
 remained, with fibres struck deep and wide 
 throughout the nation. It had its martyrs 
 during the whole century of time, from the 
 days of Badbie till those of bluff King Hal ; 
 the furious tracts of Wycliffe were spread 
 abroad in manuscript ; and when the printing 
 press came they were the first leaves of 
 " heresy " that flew across the land. It was 
 a living force at the dawn of Henry's reign. ; 
 In 1510, Colet, the great Humanist, had 
 founded St. Paul's School with the wealth of 
 his father, a Lord Mayor of London ; but the 
 old fossil bishops looked askance at his ' 
 " temple of idolatry," and More jested to his 1 
 friend on its resemblance to the woodeti 
 horse filled with armed Greeks for the 
 destruction of barbarian Troy. When ; 
 preaching at this time before Convocation, 
 Ijy invitation of Archbishop Warham, the 
 friend and patron of Erasmus, he sorely 
 wounded his reverend hearers by declaring 
 that their wicked and worldly life was a worse 
 heresy than that of the two Lollards who had 
 recently been burned by the Bishop of London . 
 He was luckier than Cobham ; though driven 
 into retirement, he died peacefully in 1519. 
 
 Lollardism lay subdued till a royal des- 
 potism emerged from the Wars of the Roses, 
 and stood above the ruins of the old baron- 
 age, which had thrust itself into the move- 
 ment, not to help the poor, but to grasp the 
 booty of the rotten- Church, — a welcome 
 despotism, a cat (to use the homely mediaeval 
 adage) that would keep down the rats which 
 preyed upon the mice ; and till there crept 
 forth the printing press, established by 
 WiUiam Caxton, who by some peculiar 
 chance was born in the very year in which 
 John Badbie, who denied the Popish dogma 
 of the Eucharist, was burned to death, in the 
 presence of the Prince of Wales, in 141 1. 
 
 51 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 WolSey's Dream and Tyndale's 
 Tracts. 
 
 The English Reformation sprang from no 
 grand moral or intellectual impulse of the 
 self-willed and sensual King Henry VIII. 
 He lived and died professing to be the best 
 of Catholics. The clergy of those times, 
 says the great French humourist, came "from 
 the other world, — part from a marvellous 
 country called Breadless-Day, and part from 
 another called Too-Many-Of-Them." The 
 Church was the common bosom into which 
 were thrown the younger sons and dowerless 
 ■daughters of the great. Children were born 
 with a mitre on their head. Such was the 
 destination of Henry, the second son of the 
 first Tudor sovereign ; he was to ^ become 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, a second A Becket, 
 certainly a cardinal, and probably a pope. 
 He was a friend of the New Learning that 
 liad sailed from Greece after the Turkish 
 capture of Constantinople, and crossing the 
 Alps from Italy had raised in England a 
 Colet, a Linacre, a Fisher, and a More. 
 
 All his children were educated to the 
 liighest standard ; and it is well known 
 that Queen Elizabeth was one of the most 
 learned and accomplished women of her 
 time. But it was not within his wildest 
 ; dream to depart from the old Faith, and to 
 separate himself from Rome. Had he not — 
 in part against Sir Thomas More's protest as 
 to its dangerous cringing — written a book in 
 reply to the "Babylonian Captivity" of 
 ' Luther, and received as guerdon from the 
 ' Pope the title " Defender of the Faith," so 
 that he stood forth in Europe on a pious level 
 with the sovereigns of France and Spain, 
 •who wore the dignities of " Most Christian " 
 and " Catholic " Kings ? 
 
 Neither the able, passionate, and ambitious 
 Henry, nor the calm and noble More, nor 
 the learned and unscrupulous Wolsey, had 
 any thought of creating a religious disruption. 
 Their drift was towards culture, and Wolsey 
 actually founded Cardinal (now Christchurch) 
 College, in Oxford, with the spoils of monas- 
 teries. The masses of the people, on the 
 other hand, were being fast leavened by a 
 stronger ferment, by the firstfruits of the 
 printing press, circulated by the " Christian 
 Brethren," a secret society, composed of 
 monks like Bayfield, " printers, booksellers, 
 pedlers, wandering clerks, broken merchants, 
 and other adventurers," who defied the man- 
 dates of Wolsey and his government. They 
 sowed broadcast, especially in London and 
 ithe seaport towns, the tracts of Wyclifife, his 
 disciple Huss, Luther, and Zwingle, and the 
 ferocious onslaughts of "runagate friars" like 
 the noble erelong martyr William Tyndale, 
 ^ho propagated such heresies as that " we 
 are damned of nature, and so conceived and 
 
 born as a serpent is a serpent, and a toad a 
 toad," etc., that " Christ in all His deeds did 
 not deserve heaven ; " and such alarming 
 socialism, then perhaps politically dangerous, 
 as that " among Christian men love maketh 
 all things common." A more decided action 
 was taken by Henry in 1529 for the suppres- 
 sion of these often scurrilous sheets, Warham, 
 More, Tunstall, Gardiner, and Latimer (what 
 a conglomerate !) being appointed with others 
 to report upon the books deserving of stern 
 condemnation. As result, the King pro- 
 claimed that his most learned men had ad- 
 vised the imprudence of a translation of the 
 Scriptures, as only tending to an increase of 
 error, but he held out the hope that, if the 
 people behaved well by departing from their 
 perverse and seditious opinions and the cor- 
 rupt translations were exterminated, the Holy 
 Scriptures — if his Grace so pleased — "should 
 be by great, learned, and Catholic persons 
 translated into the English tongue." 
 
 To Henry this proclamation was perhaps 
 a joke, for the merry King laughed in private 
 at the scandalously clever " Book of Beggars ;" 
 while within six months of the "unanimous" 
 report of the Commission, the eloquent and 
 earnest Latimer, who himself indulged in the 
 reproved versions, urged the King with jest 
 and plea to provide a translation of the Scrip- 
 tures, and charged the mischief of the con- 
 demned books to the sloth, ignorance, and 
 " Banbury glosses"of the priests. The bishops 
 and clergy, however, did not let the procla- 
 mation fall as a dead letter, although the hunt 
 had to be paid for out of their own purses. 
 Among those who suffered a cruel death was 
 Richard Bayfield, a former monk at Bury 
 St. Edmunds, " taken at his bookbinder's in 
 Mark Lane, and finally burnt at Smithfield 
 in November, 1531." Even the dead were 
 not allowed to sleep in peace. The most 
 shameless spectacle in this clerical tragi- 
 comedy of persecution was that of raising 
 the body of a Gloucestershire squire named 
 Tracy, which had lain for two years in the 
 grave, and burning it at the stake. This 
 indecent act was the wretched outcome of a 
 verdict by Convocation that his will contained 
 heresy, paid no flattery, and left no money 
 to the Church ; but in spite of the sacred 
 shield that covered the enormity, the natior. 
 was shocked, and the dignitary who had per- 
 petrated it was fined by the King in the 
 goodly sum of three hundred pounds. 
 
 Passion and Pope. 
 Already, in 1527, Henry had commenced 
 his manoeuvres for a divorce from his " true 
 and loyal wife," who had loved him almost 
 to superstition for eighteen years. Wolsey, 
 who was eager for the divorce, in order to 
 bind Henry to France by another marriage, 
 had the same idea with Pope Clement, that 
 
 52 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the passion for the maid of honour was only 
 a transient humour, and that the cure for 
 this affliction lay in its degradation into an 
 illicit amour. But Wolsey had only raised 
 a despotic monster that was destined to smite 
 himself, and crown his last days with disgrace 
 and sorrow. When Henry first announced 
 to the Cardinal his intention of marrying 
 Anne Boleyn, Wolsey fell upon his knees 
 with horror ; but his earnest pleadings not 
 only broke in vain upon the firm determina- 
 tion of the King, but fell back upon himself 
 in the complete ruin of his influence. The 
 Pope, in fear that Henry should turn Pro- 
 testant if he did not give way to his demand 
 for a divorce, in fear of the strong Imperial 
 army if he should do so, was at last driven 
 so far in his hesitating game as to appoint 
 Wolsey and another cardinal as his repre- 
 sentatives to hear the case in England. 
 When they had failed to coax the noble and 
 fond wife into a nunnery, and were convinced 
 that nothing but death would " divorce her 
 from her dignities," they opened their court 
 at Blackfiriars after six months of delay. She 
 flung herself at the feet of her lord, who twice 
 tried vainly to raise her up. In broken 
 English she addressed him with a pathos 
 that stirs the heart even at this far distance, 
 in language that has been drawn out and 
 weakened in its force by Shakespeare. 
 
 " Sire," said the kneeling daughter of the 
 mighty King of Spain, " I beseech you to 
 pity me, a woman and a stranger, without 
 an assured friend and without an indifferent 
 counsellor. I take God to witness that I have 
 always been to you a true and loyal wife, that 
 I have made it my constant duty to seek your 
 pleasure, that I have loved all whom you 
 loved, whether I have reason or not, whether 
 they are friends or foes. I have been your 
 wife for years, I have brought you many 
 children. God knows that when I came to 
 your bed I was a virgin, and I put it to your 
 own conscience to say whether it was not so. 
 If there be any offence which can be alleged 
 against me, I consent to depart with infamy ; 
 if not, then I pray you to do me justice." 
 
 The puzzled cardinals threw back the 
 burden of decision upon the Pope. Wolsey's 
 stupendous efforts for peace had failed ; his 
 years of mighty toil for raising Henry to 
 the pedestal of a despot were forgotten in 
 view of the witching face and tempting coy- 
 ness of Anne Boleyn. The courts which he 
 had held as legate, with Henry's own consent, 
 were now denounced by the despot as trea- 
 sonable to his own supremacy ; and Wolsey, 
 who had been his most loyal slave, was shorn 
 of his dignities. The maid of honour won 
 from her royal lover a promise that he would 
 see Wolsey's face no more. The Cardinal's 
 cheeks rapidly became hollow with sadness. 
 The King sent him the present of a ring as a 
 
 little consolation. Within a year the great 
 old statesman, the most loyal of Englishmen 
 the foremost man in Europe, was conducted 
 on a charge of treason, towards the Tower 
 of London. By the way he died, teUing the 
 monks of Leicester that he had come to lay 
 his bones among them. The words uttered 
 on his deathbed are historic. " He is a 
 prince," said he of the idol of brass, gold, 
 and clay that he had raised, "of a most 
 royal courage : sooner than miss any part 
 of his will, he will endanger one half of his 
 kingdom ; and I do assure you I have often 
 kneeled before him, sometimes for three hours 
 together, ,to persuade him from his appetite, 
 and could not prevail. . . . Had I but served 
 God as diligently as I have served the King, 
 He would not have given me over in my grey 
 hairs." 
 
 Wolsey had discerned, with the prophetic 
 vision of a true statesman, that England 
 stood upon the brink of a popular revolution. 
 By the study of comparative politics, he heard 
 in the rebellious murmurs against the riches 
 of Churchmen the voice of the re-awakened 
 corpse of Lollard socialism ; he knew that 
 religious change was but the herald of a 
 wider revolution, that the sickle of popular 
 freedom would not pause at cutting down the 
 ridge of ecclesiastical power, but would sweep 
 mercilessly over the whole field of despotisin 
 and injustice. " Say furthermore," said the 
 dying statesman, " that I request his Grace,, 
 in God's name, that he have a vigilant eye to 
 depress this new pernicious sect of Lutherans. 
 ... In the history of King Richard the 
 Second, which lived in that same time of 
 Wickliffe's seditious opinions, did not the 
 Commons, I pray you, rise against the king; 
 and the nobles of the realm of England ; 
 whereof some they apprehended, whom they 
 without mercy or justice put to death ? and 
 did they not fall to spoiling and robbery, to 
 the intent they might bring all things in 
 common ? " Our trades-unions and our Land 
 Bills are the historic proofs of the far-reaching 
 vision of the Tudor statesman. 
 
 Meanwhile the sparkling maid of honour 
 carried matters at Court with a high hand. 
 She and her family were ennobled and en- 
 riched. In November (1529) the Queen was 
 privileged to dine with her long-estranged 
 husband. She complained of her cruel sepa- 
 ration from his bed and board ; to which he 
 surlily replied that she was not his wife, and 
 left the room suddenly in deep dejection. | 
 Clever, selfish Anne, sitting by his side at 
 supper, rallied him with the following delicate 
 reproach : — 
 
 "Did I not tell you that whenever you 
 disputed with the Queen she was sure to 
 have the upper hand .? I see that some fine 
 morning you will succumb to her reasoning, 
 and that you will cast me off. I have been 
 
 53 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 waiting long, and might in the meanwhile 
 have contracted some advantageous marriage, 
 out of which I might have had issue, which 
 is the greatest consolation in the world ; but 
 alas ! farewell to my time and youth, spent to 
 no purpose at all ! " 
 
 In this deplorable selfishness and dextrous 
 self-control we see the true mother of Eliza- 
 beth, "The Maiden Queen." Protestants 
 
 ; or Cathohcs, none of us can well bow to the 
 
 \ eulogy of Gray, that — 
 
 ' ' Love could teach a monarch to be wise, 
 And gospel light first dawned from BuUen's eyes."' 
 
 Cranmer as a Tool, 
 
 The reluctant tutor of the Cressey boys was 
 brought down from Waltham and installed 
 in the splendid library of Boleyn's father, in 
 i Derham Place (the modern Adelphi), over- 
 looking the ceaseless traffic of the Thames. 
 i.There he composed a book on the King's love 
 .business. Henry's bribery and Cranmer's 
 ■clear and earnest eloquence obtained a de- 
 cision of the universities that the marriage 
 was void ab initio; but the matrons of 
 .England were not to be conquered by spe- 
 cious arguments that only lay like gossamer 
 over the heartless passion of a monster. 
 I Then Cranmer had a roving commission- 
 first to the Pope, who deferred the hearing of 
 the plea, but made him " Grand Penitentiary 
 ^ of England," a sop to Cerberus ; and then to 
 i Italy, France, the Princes of Germany, and 
 finally to the Emperor. But the right and the 
 truth remained with the women of England, 
 with gentlemen whose hearts were touched 
 with any spirit ofchivalry, and with old Luther, 
 who declared that " separation after so many 
 years of cohabitation would be an enormity 
 greater than any marriage could have been, 
 however improper that marriage might have 
 been in the first instance." And once again 
 Thomas Cranmer did a most foolish thing, 
 for on the way he not only talked with the 
 learned Osiander, but, unambitious Catholic 
 priest that he was, made love to Osiander's 
 niece, married her, and sent her across the 
 sea to England to make a home for her and 
 him and the children that were to be. Strange 
 days those were : wife she was, and wife she 
 might be privately to him, but in the cere- 
 . . monies of the outer world she could be looked 
 ' upon in Catholic England as only the con- 
 cubine of Cranmer. In 1533, Henry secretly 
 \ married Anne Boleyn ; Catharine's doom was 
 } sealed by the Act for the restraint of Appeals, 
 which severed England cleanly from the 
 Pope ; and to crown all, Thomas Cranmer, 
 a married priest, was placed on the throne 
 of Canterbury, to the scandal of all Catholic 
 Christendom. For be it remembered the 
 English Church was still thoroughly Catholic. 
 This great man, this " quivering mass of 
 
 indecision," was simply the honest tool of 
 Henry's iniquity ; he was raised to the lofti- 
 est pinnacle of ecclesiastical power that the 
 semblance of loftiest authority might be 
 thrown over the divorce of Catharine. Acting 
 on an im.perious mandate of Henry, he held 
 an ecclesiastical court (May 1533), at which 
 the Queen did not appear ; but the case went 
 on, Cranmer piously hoping that " her absence 
 might be made up for to the full by the Divine 
 presence ; " and on the first day of the leafy 
 month of June, Anne Boleyn was crowned 
 with gorgeous splendour. 
 
 There is no apology for Henry's crinie ; 
 he knew that there was no valid reason why 
 Catharine should not have become his wife. 
 All this was wretched enough as motive of a 
 Protestant revolution, and we shall now de- 
 scend into the plain to find the constitutional 
 steps and the righteousness of the religious 
 change. 
 
 A Memorable Parliament; More and 
 Cromwell. 
 
 In 1529 there opened "the most memo- " 
 rable Parliament that ever sat. It was 
 the assembly," says Canon Dixon, "which 
 transformed old England — the England of • 
 Chaucer and Lydgate — into modern England. \ 
 ... A full generation at least of the fiercest 
 hacking and hewing followed, ere the ancient 
 system was spread upon the ground." 
 
 The robes of Lord Chancellor never clothed 
 a greater spirit than that of him who now 
 succeeded Wolsey. This was Sir Thomas 
 More, whose wisdom, wit, and gentleness 
 have been household words for almost four 
 hundred years. His " Utopia " was the first 
 great book issued from the press by a living 
 Englishman ; his name was the foremost 
 among the thinkers of Europe. The friend 
 of Erasmus, he had furnished the King 
 with wisdom and wit for twenty years, and 
 on many a starry night the merry More had 
 walked the palace leads with the gay King 
 Hal. But although a Humanist, he was yet 
 a Catholic. His open nature, the very mirror 
 of nobility, made him unfit to play the base 
 game Henry had settled down to fight. The 
 Cardinal was to him "a great scabbed 
 wether;" and in his romance of "Utopia," 
 the kingdom of Nowhere, to which the world 
 is still only advancing, our English Socrates 
 struck at the new despotism which rose from 
 Wolsey's hands, by announcing that in his 
 happy, far-off land a sovereign was " re- 
 movable on suspicion of a design to enslave 
 his people." He imprisoned heretics with 
 mild severity ; and understanding that the 
 pen was mightier than the prison and the 
 sword, he met Barnes and Tyndale with 
 their own weapons sharpened by his inimi- 
 table ridicule ; but he was not the man who 
 could now stand at the helm of the State. 
 
 54 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Alarmed at the pace of Parliament, he soon 
 resigned his office, and retired with spotless 
 honour into poverty and study in his Chelsea 
 home, to jeer at heretics, and soon, too, to 
 lay his venerable head upon the block — yes, 
 even he, of whom the sorrowing Erasmus 
 wrote when he heard of the terrible iniquity, 
 that be was " a soul purer than snow." Let 
 there be no mistake, however, as to the fact 
 that this noblest and wittiest of Englishmen 
 died for the Catholic Church, — for that Church 
 where even the doctrine of Justification by 
 Faith was not a heresy, but not for the 
 " Roman Catholic Church " which arose with 
 its narrowness and its Inquisition from the 
 fiery debates of the Council of Trent and the 
 triumph of the Society of Jesus (1545-55). 
 
 And now Thomas Cromwell, the political 
 Reformer, our English Robespierre, com- 
 menced the Reign of Terror. This son of 
 a Putney blacksmith, by his own confession 
 a " ruffian " in youth, who had roamed abroad 
 as an adventurer, and by turns had been 
 soldier, cook, clerk, and money-lender, stepped 
 to the front to fight the battle of Henry with 
 the Church and heretics. He never halted in 
 his course ; relentless as Fate itself, he struck 
 down all opposition with the brawny arm of a 
 political blacksmith and the delicate deftness 
 of a State cook. Like his master, Wolsey, the 
 student of Machiavelli sought to make Henry 
 supreme in Church and State, mowing down 
 all obstacles with an iron hand and an iron 
 heart, fearless of Pope, fearless of every 
 human being, possessed, in spite of his 
 genial aspect, of that Titanic energy and 
 will which might have served for the original 
 of Massinger's mighty lines, — 
 
 " I'll make a bridge arched with the bones of men, 
 But I wiU reach my aims." 
 
 And the knives of assassins glanced aside 
 when aimed at his charmed life. Like 
 Wolsey, he only fell before the frown of his 
 despot idol. Then his head went to the 
 block amid a harvest of rejoicing. Protestants 
 and Papists shouted at the fall of Jaganatha. 
 England, said Cromwell to the King, before 
 whom he had at last been privileged to kneel, 
 and who had heard of him as the fittest 
 man in broad England to do his work, — 
 " England is a monster with two heads. Let 
 the King strike off one, the Pontiff, and stand 
 alone supreme." 
 
 Beginning of the Deluge. 
 
 The very first act of this memorable Par- 
 liament struck a blow at the Spiritual Courts 
 by fixing reasonable charges for wills and 
 funeral fees ; and one member of the Com- 
 mons retorted to the argument from usage, 
 that it was also the usage of thieves to rob 
 on Shooter's Hill, and that the greedy priests 
 took the dead man's only cow from his 
 
 beggared orphans. This was followed by 
 the Act against Plurality and Non-residence, 
 " the first outburst of the noble indignation 
 of the English laity against corruption, ra- 
 pacity, and fraud," which aimed at the 
 wealth and sloth of priests who, fattening 
 on a dozen benefices, lounged about the 
 Court, who held farms, owned tanneries, 
 and dealt in wool, suffering their poor 
 parishioners " to lack refreshing to the peril 
 of their souls." For pretended insubordina- 
 tion to the Crown (Statutes of Provisions and 
 Prsemunire), the clergy were subjected to a 
 penalty which drew a sum' of money nearly 
 equal to two millions of our day ints the purse 
 of the royal gambler ; and after a determined 
 conflict they" were forced to acknowledge 
 him — an ancient right of English sovereigng 
 — as Supreme Head of the Church. The 
 Commons charged the bishops with a Ions 
 catalogue of sins ; among others with reckless 
 persecution of heretics, who were increasing 
 through " frantic seditious books contrary to 
 the very true Catholic and Christian faith." 
 The freedom of the clergy from civil trial was 
 limited. In order to bully the Pope into 
 consent to Henry's divorce, a secret Act was 
 passed, abolishing the first fruits of all bene- 
 fices paid to the Apostolic See ; and the Papal 
 power was finally cut off by the Act for Re- 
 straint of Appeals. The Church, through its 
 bishops, was then called upon to give a formal 
 renunciation of the Pope, binding itself never 
 to speak of him as Pope or Universal Bishop, 
 but simply as Bishop of Rome or Brother 
 (1535). The first great wave of the deluge 
 was the passing of the Act of Succession, in 
 consequence of which the Franciscan monks 
 and Carthusians were cmshed, some of their 
 pious and peaceful members sent to martyr- 
 dom, and two of the brightest luminaries of 
 the time. Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas 
 More, despatched upon the scaffold. Tough 
 old Fisher, by a strange irony just exalted to 
 the dignity of a cardinal, refused to take the 
 oath that Anne was Henry's lawful wife, 
 although he was ready to acknowledge her 
 children as lawful successors to the throne, 
 and perished by the axe in the bright summer 
 sunshine which beat on Tower Hill (June 
 1535) > liis long, lean body lay all day naked 
 on the scaffold, and people thronged to 
 London Bridge to see his head, which, " by 
 a miracle," looked fresher every day. ^A^he^ 
 it had been thrown into the river, its place 
 was taken by the still nobler one of More, 
 the gentle father who had given his children 
 " kisses enough but stripes hardly ever." On 
 the eve of the fatal blow he raised his head 
 for an instant from the block to move his 
 beard aside. With " a touch of the old sad 
 irony" he was heard to mutter, "Pity that 
 should be cut that has never committed 
 treason." A shudder ran through Europe 
 
 55 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 at the deed, to which the condemnation of 
 Socrates is the only parallel in history. 
 
 The Monasteries Dissolved. 
 When the Commons authorized the King 
 (1534) to have the title of Supreme Head of 
 the Church of England, they armed him with 
 authority "to visit and reform errors, heresies, 
 contempts, and offences," in consequence of 
 ■which Cromwell, as his " Vicar-General," at 
 once proceeded to the ruin of the monasteries, 
 and the acquisition of ample funds for the 
 wasteful pockets of his despot lord. The 
 " visitation " carried out by his unscrupulous 
 agents, of whom Layton was the liveliest, was 
 
 of terrible enormities called forth from some 
 members the cry of " Down with them ! * yet 
 the Bill which conferred upon the King all 
 religious houses witli a revenue less than 
 ^200 a year, was only complied with by the 
 Commons after Henry had threatened that 
 he would have some of their heads if they did 
 not pass it. Three hundred and seventy 
 monasteries fell by this single blow ; 10,000 
 persons were thrown upon the world ; weep- 
 ing nuns returned to the homes of their 
 mothers, and honest labourers betook them- 
 selves in hundreds to the trade of beggars, 
 or even worse, of highwaymen. Although 
 many were glad to escape from the bars of 
 
 The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 indeed a visitation in a double sense. The 
 leaves of the great scholastic hair-splitter, 
 Duns Scotus, were soon seen blowing about 
 the quadrangles of Oxford, and his portly 
 tomes, which had been supposed to reveal the 
 deepest mysteries of the Faith, were put to the 
 most ignoble andunnameable uses. The notes 
 which were taken of the morals and moneys 
 of the monks and nuns throughout the whole 
 breadth of England, were laid in four months 
 before Parliament, in the form of a " Black 
 Book," which set forth by innumerable 
 instances that the "hooded hypocrites"— 
 monks and nuns alike — were as abominably 
 vile as the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah. Although the reading of this Doomsd ay 
 
 56 
 
 the monastic cage, yet it was a sad spectacle 
 that of monks and nuns, whose bounty had 
 fed the poor, themselves reduced to beggary 
 or the penury of a pitiable pension. How 
 did Henry consume his immense spoils ? We 
 can well imagine, when we know that the 
 tuneful bells of a London steeple fell at a. 
 single throw of the dice. 
 
 Catholic Reaction, 
 Catholic England shuddered, and the throne 
 shook. At Louth, in Lincolnshire, the com- 
 missioners of the "base-born" Cromwell 
 were placed in the stocks ; a vast multitude 
 rose under a shoemaker, nicknamed Captain 
 Cobbler, one of whose associates was Dr. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAJMJ. 
 
 Mackerel, an abbot, who marched forth in A more formidable rebellion burst forth m 
 
 full armour ; and one of the commissioners the northern counties, at the head of which 
 was murdered. Henry issued his thunderous \ stood Robert Aske, a country gentleman. 
 
 Burning a Protestakt Marytr. 
 
 voice, and the "rude commons of a most 
 brute and beastly shire" dwindled away in 
 a fortnight. 
 
 with a following of 30,000 men, over whom 
 floated a banner on which was worked the 
 Five Wounds of Christ. Perhaps Henry 
 
 57 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 would have been driven from the throne had 
 the Pilgrimage of Grace found a more am- 
 bitious leader ; but from the moment it com- 
 jnenced negotiations with the petty force of 
 Henry, and Aske and others retired to their 
 homes with a fair promise and a feigned par- 
 don, the Catholic reaction was doomed, only 
 to be opened in the reign of Mary. Cromwell 
 struck them as only he knew how. Many of 
 the northern rebels, even honest Aske, with 
 others from among the Lincoln rebels, were 
 sent to the scaffold, the stake, and the worse 
 starvation of the Newgate den. Abbots and 
 nobles swung upon the gallows ; butchers 
 and priests were mercilessly hanged ; Lady 
 Bulmer was burned alive in Smithfield. It 
 remained for one of the Pilgrims, Lord Darcy, 
 who perished on Tower Hill, to fulminate a 
 prophecy against the ruthless maker of these 
 tragedies : " Thou, Cromwell, art the very 
 special and chief causer of all this releellion 
 and mischief. . . . but though thou shouldest 
 procure all the noblemen's heads within the 
 realm to be stricken off, yet I trust that there 
 shall one head remain that shall strike off thy 
 head." 
 
 By-and-by the empty Treasury was refilled 
 by the dissolution of the larger monasteries. 
 Yet although the greater part went to the 
 greedy courtiers and the gambling table, some 
 was righteously spent on ships and forts and 
 new cathedrals. 
 
 John Frith the Martyr. 
 So far as Government was concerned, the 
 Reformation in England — as the German 
 Protestants alleged — was purely political ; 
 and when it served his purpose, Cromwell, 
 whose own leanings were in favour of the new 
 faith, encouraged the heretics or hanged 
 them. Chief among those who fought with 
 sharp tongue and sharp pen in the early days 
 of the great struggle shine forth the names 
 of Tyndale, who from beyond the sea shot his 
 rankling arrows against the clergy ; Latimer, 
 the bold and honest and fervid, but coarse 
 and indiscreet, who for a short time held 
 a bishopric, had joined the early Cam- 
 bridge Gospellers in their war with Popish 
 mummeries, and had seen his comrade 
 Bilney sent to martyrdom ; and the youthful 
 Frith, "the most genuine martyr of the 
 English Reformation." A pupil of Gardiner 
 at Cambridge, a favourite of Wolsey because 
 of his brilliant promise, he had fallen at 
 Oxford into the evil way of studying the 
 forbidden Lutheran books. For this crime 
 he and others lay for months in a nasty 
 cellar where the salt fish of the college was 
 stored, with little food but that for their sub- 
 sistence. Three of them died in the impure 
 den. On his release, Frith made his way to 
 London, formed a dangerous intimacy with 
 Tyndale, and after many strange adventures 
 
 58 
 
 in Flanders and England, was betrayed by 
 one of his associates among the Christian 
 Brethren, and thrown into the Tower. He 
 had published a work on Purgatory, which 
 taught (said More) " in a few leaves, shortly, 
 all the poison that Wickliffe, CEcolampadius, 
 Huskin, Tyndale, and Zwinglius have taught 
 in all their books before." In prison he 
 courted death by issuing a powerful attack 
 on the Romish dogma of the Eucharist, 
 which may claim to be "the beginning, in 
 this age, of the terrific controversy on the 
 nature of the Presence in the Sacrament, 
 which was already convulsing the Continent, 
 and was destined to fill all Europe with 
 blood and flame for a century to come." 
 This youth of twenty-five stood unmoved 
 before the King, clergy, and laymen who 
 met at Lambeth to convert or condemn him; 
 he had all the moral stubbornness of his great 
 antagonist. Sir Thomas More, and was un- 
 touched by the gentle persuasions of Cranmer 
 or the friendship of Gardiner. Yet he was no 
 bigot : he did not even maintain that a belief 
 in Purgatory and the Real Presence laid a 
 man under the "jeopardy of damnation." 
 He perished at the stake, showing the most 
 unshaken patience while a London parson 
 attacked him with vile ribaldry, and the wind, 
 sweeping the flames from him, prolonged his 
 sufferings ; and by his side there fell a hum- 
 bler martyr, a simple London tailor, who had 
 no better reply to the puzzling questions of 
 those who condemned him, than that " he 
 thoughtas Frith thought." This was in (1533). 
 
 First Confessions : Engish Bible 
 
 IN Church. 
 In July 1535, Bishop Fox produced and 
 read a tiny book in Convocation, which was 
 listened to and thereafter signed by Cromwell 
 as Vicar- General, Cranmer as Archbishop, 
 and the clergy at large. This little treasure 
 was the first-born of modern Uniformity. It 
 was the "Ten Articles," our first English 
 Confession of Faith ; no minute and tedious 
 document like those of Germany and Scot- 
 land, but a true literary bud of Henry's 
 compromising policy, a rebuke and a com- 
 fort at once to Catholics and heretics ; 
 containing the Protestant Melancthon's 
 definition of Justification, and while it re- 
 tained a multitude of ceremonies, yet ex- 
 plaining them as " things good and laudable, 
 to put us in remembrance . . . but none of 
 these . . . have power to remit sin, but only 
 to stir and lift up our minds unto God, by 
 whom only our sins are forgiven." No ser- 
 mons, however, were to be preached for three 
 months until the Articles were divulged, so 
 that seditious persons might be prevented 
 from expounding them "according to their 
 fantastic appetite." At the close of this 
 period of "secret silence," the clergy received 
 
THE REFORM A TION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 orders from Cromwell to recite the Creed, 
 the Paternoster, and the Ten Command- 
 ments in their sermons, till the whole was 
 learned by their young parishioners. Two 
 years, later, while the plague was raging at 
 the very gate of Lambeth Palace and sweep- 
 ing its victims to the other world, the second 
 English Confession (" Institution of a Chris- 
 ' tiaii Man"), commonly known as the Bishops' 
 i Book, was prepared ; and several years after 
 ' (1543), the third Confession, or King's Book, 
 appeared, the last of Henry's reign. A later 
 step towards uniformity (1545) abolished the 
 Latin and English litanies in use, substi- 
 tuting an English translation of a Latin litany. 
 In 1536, an order was issued commanding 
 " every parson and proprietary of any parish 
 church within the realm to place the entire 
 Bible in the choir, both in Latin and English," 
 the translation referred to being that of Miles 
 Coverdale, the fellow-labourer of Tyndale and 
 a former friend of Cromwell. " Matthew's 
 Bible," a composite of Tyndale and Cover- 
 dale, received Cromwell's license in the fol- 
 lowing year, at the suggestion of the primate, 
 a compliment which gave Cranmer more 
 delight than if he had received " a thousand 
 pound." 
 
 But the year 1538 presented one of the 
 bravest sights ever witnessed in England, 
 certainly the most attractive of all this 
 terrible period of struggle and terror and 
 debate, when an injunction came down to 
 all the clergy to provide within a certain 
 period one book of the whole Bible, of the 
 largest volume in England, and to set it up 
 in some convenient place in the churches, 
 where the parishioners could most easily 
 reach it. The previous command had fallen 
 as a dead letter. It was no idle offer and 
 order now. Crowds of unlearned men and 
 women thronged the churches hour after hour, 
 listening with rapture to the accents of those 
 who had sufficient learning to spell out the 
 words of the Great Bible ; and aged persons, 
 who had longed for the blessed day, set 
 themselves with diligence to learn to read, 
 content to do the tasks of children, so that 
 they might learn in their own heart and 
 conscience the very truth of God before 
 they were called away from the troubles of 
 earth to meet Him face to face. And good 
 old Cranmer, with whom this was a life-long 
 hope, bargained with the printers that they 
 should charge no more than ten shillings, 
 and should state " in the end of their Bibles 
 the price thereof, to the end the King's liege 
 people shall not henceforth be deceived of 
 their price." Cranmer's Bible continued in 
 use till 1568. 
 
 Whip with Six Strings. 
 Unfortunately the Protestants, thus given 
 an inch, began to take an ell, and Henry's 
 
 policy of moderation and compromise fell 
 with terrible severity upon the triumph he 
 had actually placed within their hands. 
 
 "Fresh orders," says Mr. Green, "were given to 
 fling all relics from their reliquaries, and to level 
 every shrine with the ground. The bones of St. 
 Thomas of Canterbury were torn from the stately 
 shrine . . . and his name erased from the service 
 booki as that of a traitor. The introduction of 
 , rtae English Bible into churches gave a new opening 
 for the zeal of the Protestants. In spite of Royal 
 injunctions that it should be read decently and with- 
 out comment, the young zealots of the party prided 
 themselves on shouting it out to a circle of excited 
 hearers during the service, and accompanied their 
 reading with violent expositions. ... A fiery 
 outburst of popular discussion compensated for 
 the silence of the pulpits. The new Scriptures, in 
 Henry's bitter words of complaint, were ' disputed 
 rhymed, sung, and jangled, in every tavern and ale- 
 house. ' . . . Above all, the Sacrament of the Mass, 
 the centre of the Catholic system of faith and 
 worship, and which still remained sacred to the bulk 
 of Englishmen, was attacked with a scurrility and 
 profaneness which passes belief. The doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation, which was as yet recognised by 
 law, was held up to scorn in ballads and mystery 
 plays. In one church a Protestant lawyer raised 
 a dog in his hands when the priest elevated the host. 
 The most sacred words of the old worship, the words 
 of consecration, 'Hoc est corpus,' were travestied 
 into a nickname for jugglery, as ' Hocus-pocus.' " 
 
 Then (1539) came the "Bloody Statute," 
 or "Whip with Six Strings," as the Puritans 
 termed it, in sorrowful allusion to the Six 
 Articles of which it was composed, sentencing 
 to the flames and forfeiture any persons who 
 by word or writing defended the Protestant 
 doctrines openly : in fact, it showed so decided 
 a reaction towards an extreme Catholic posi- 
 tion that Cranmer and five bishops strenuously 
 opposed the passing of the Act. Hundreds 
 of Protestants were thrown into prison ; 
 Latimer was also imprisoned and deprived 
 of his see ; the primate himself trembled 
 with fear, and was only saved from the 
 bitter assault of his enemies through the 
 personal friendship of the King, in whose 
 heart the attempt upon Cranmer "roused 
 the best passion of which it was capable." 
 In fact, however, it was only a political move, 
 not meant to be put in force except as a 
 measure of intimidation against the extreme 
 party of reform ; it was indeed passed almost 
 alongside of that which appropriated the 
 revenues of the larger monasteries. This 
 seeming outbreak of Cromwell's wrath against 
 the Protestants was only temporary ; the 
 prisons were soon emptied of their booty, the 
 " Word was powerfully preached, and books 
 of every kind safely exposed for sale." 
 
 In this " killing time," two noble examples 
 of heroic death stand forth in brilliant relief. 
 The first was William Lambert, the friend of 
 the martyred Frith and Tyndale. Returning 
 from the Continent to his native country, he 
 settled in London as a teacher in a humble 
 way, and was latterly engaged in trade. 
 
 59 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Having indulged in the expression of his 
 opinions in a manner that was considered 
 dangerous to the peace of the pubhc, he was 
 apprehended at the instigation of a Lutheran 
 preacher. Refusing to save his hfe by sub- 
 scribing to the dogma of Transubstantiation, 
 as Cranmer and Latimer advised him, he 
 appealed to the King; and, accordingly, a 
 gorgeous display of royal luxury and theo- 
 logical skill took place in the palace of 
 Whitehall, the King (if we may credit Foxe, 
 whose authority is most questionable in this 
 matter) showing much higher capacity for 
 bullying than for controversy. As night fell 
 over the scene, and the torches were being 
 lit, the wearied despot exclaimed, " Art thou 
 not yet satisfied ? Wilt thou live or die 1 
 What sayest thou?" Lambert's submission 
 to the royal clemency was promptly met with 
 the emphatic sentence : 
 "Then die you must ; 
 for a patron of heretics 
 I will never be." On 
 the morning of his exe- 
 cution, says the "Book 
 of Martyrs," " Lam- 
 bert being admonished 
 that the hour of his 
 death was at hand, he 
 was greatly comforted 
 and cheered ; and being 
 brought out of the 
 chamber into the hall, 
 he saluted the gentle- 
 men, and sat down to 
 breakfast with them, 
 showing no manner or 
 sign of fear. When the 
 breakfast was ended, he 
 was carried straightway 
 to the place of execu- 
 tion. ... Of all who 
 have been burned and 
 offered up at Smith- 
 field, there was yet none 
 so cruelly and piteously handled as he ; yet 
 in the midst of his torments, lifting up his 
 mangled and burning hands, he cried to the 
 people : ' None but Christ, none but Christ ! '" 
 It is possible that Henry, in all his zeal to 
 prove himself a splendid Catholic, was far 
 from anxious to have a flood of determined 
 Protestants streaming towards him for judg- 
 ment. The infamous " Whip '' failed in its 
 purpose "to abolish diversity of opinions;" 
 and about a year before his death, the 
 Supreme Head of the Church addressed the 
 Parliament in the true spirit of moderation 
 and compromise, urging them to greater 
 charity, and to cease from the dangerous 
 freeness with which they bandied about 
 mutual accusations of heresy and Popery. 
 Henry must have known how perilous to 
 the peace of the State, which still rocked 
 
 John Foxe the Martyrologist. 
 
 uncertain on the troubled waters, was the 
 execution of women, even though they were 
 assharp-tongued as Anne Askew, — a clever 
 lady who had separated from her husband 
 because of her religious creed, and who 
 boldly declared in Newgate that "her God 
 will not be eaten with teeth." Not that 
 Henry troubled himself about religion in 
 itself, or took pleasure in the slaughter of 
 his subjects— that was left for the reign of 
 his eldest daughter; but he must have 
 learned and thought of the sympathy that 
 gathered round a woman who was tortured 
 into lameness, and was borne in a chair to 
 Smithfield ; and it may have crossed his 
 fancy that the spectacle of the vast crowd 
 v/hich pressed against the rails within which 
 the fagots blazed around her, would live for 
 ever as a scandal to his reign so long as 
 one spark of chivalry 
 lived in the hearts of 
 Englishmen. 
 
 Protector Somerset : 
 His Weakness. 
 
 Great but mild re- 
 forms had been crad- 
 ling in the calm mind 
 of Cranmer, before he 
 was summoned to the 
 death-bed of the King 
 whom he had served 
 with humility for almost 
 twenty years, who had 
 regarded him with a 
 veneration that almost 
 verged on friendship, 
 who had been influ- 
 enced by the candour 
 and truthfulness of his 
 nature, and who had 
 felt in the support of 
 his honest primate "the 
 touch of greatness which 
 was all there was to 
 give an ideal character to a sordid revolu- 
 tion." The dying despot pressed the hand of 
 the aged priest, gave him one last look with 
 his glazed eye, and passed away from the 
 mighty troubles of his heart and country. 
 
 The sickle of progress was now to take 
 a wider sweep. Henry's power, but not his 
 policy, was seized by the maternal uncle of 
 the young King, Edward VI., an impetuous 
 Protestant, whose religious tendencies, how- 
 ever, did not prevent him from enriching him- 
 self with the spoils of the monasteries, from 
 converting the famous Abbey of Glastonbury 
 into a factory for worsted thread, from blow- 
 ing up one cliurch in London, and with its 
 stones erecting upon the site of another the 
 magnificent palace still known to us as 
 Somerset House. The bones of the dead 
 who lay in St. Paul's Churchyard were used 
 
 60 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 as manure, and Westminster Abbey, though 
 fortunately saved, had also been doomed to 
 destruction. The spirit of compromise which 
 guided the policy of Henry, and of his 
 daughter Elizabeth in after years, was now 
 changed into the spirit of faction ; and the 
 worship of the people, of whom by far the 
 greater portion still clung with veneration to 
 the ancient Church, was treated with a con- 
 tempt which culminated in serious rebellion. 
 Had the Government been clean-handed, — 
 had it gained the confidence of the toiling 
 masses by scrupulous integrity, the danger 
 would have been lessened ; but the enclosure 
 of lands for rearing sheep was a measure of 
 dire injury to the labouring people who had 
 found employment in ploughing and sowing ; 
 while the dissolution of colleges and chantries 
 (chapels, etc., where masses were said for 
 the repose of souls), put forth on the pretence 
 that they were the cause of " a great part of 
 superstition and error in Christian religion," 
 served only to glut the greedy appetites of 
 courtiers with the name of God upon their 
 lips. Nor was this all : the suppression of 
 one see, and the seizure of half the revenue 
 of every other, although supposed to be done 
 for "godly uses," were nothing more than 
 acts of spoliation perpetrated by a weak 
 Government, so as to gain support from un- 
 just and unscrupulous magnates. But we 
 must not ignore that England had still some 
 true and fearless preachers of righteousness, 
 such as Ridley and Latimer, who told these 
 robbers in high places that they should blush 
 for very shame at their iniquity, and demanded 
 that they should restore what they had stolen 
 by trickery or violence. 
 
 The Real Progress ; Common Prayer. 
 A cordial friendship could not possibly 
 exist between the noble primate and the 
 plundering Somerset, much less between 
 him and Somerset's successor, Northumber- 
 land, who was simply a rabid hypocrite, and 
 who, Cranmer himself declared, had com- 
 passed his destruction. Amid the roar of 
 discontent from the masses, and the sacri- 
 legious pretensions of the nobles, real Chris- 
 tian courage was doubly needed by men of 
 candour, truth, and nobleness, like Latimer 
 , and Cranmer ; but the movement was 
 ^ steadily and faithfully maintained by these 
 !| and other spiritual chiefs, who were soon 
 to find their reward in the blaze of fagots 
 i and the crown of martyrdom. In the main, 
 however, the reforms of the Church were 
 carried on in deference to the cautious 
 gentleness of Cranmer and his friends : and 
 the imprudent conduct of many preachers, 
 the tumultuous manner in which images and 
 pictures were removed and defaced, the 
 abominable sacrilege of patrons in present- 
 ing livings to their gamekeepers, and pocket- 
 
 ing the stipends, — these scandals must not be 
 charged on the souls of Cranmer and the old 
 and tried Reformers, but on the blinking im- 
 potence of the Government. Wooden tables 
 were placed in the centre of the churches, as 
 a substitute for the stately altars of stone to 
 which the eyes of the people had been accus- 
 tomed. But great reforms took place in 
 spite of the heartlessness by which the leaders 
 were environed, although they were far 
 indeed from satisfying the demand of Calvin. 
 Anabaptists, it is true, were still burned, 
 even under Cranmer's notice, for instance, 
 poor Joan Bocher, the Maid of Kent, who 
 reviled the preacher at her death ; but the 
 Whip of the Six Strings and other persecuting 
 Acts were instantly repealed. Cranmer, 
 after long doubt about the Real Presence, and 
 much earnest talk with Ridley, mingled with 
 the pastime of the chase, had at last renounced 
 the Popish doctrine. A Great Bible was 
 ordered to be provided within three months 
 in every church, and also, as a compromise 
 (a pleasant memory of Henry's time and 
 Cranmer's early days of humble tutorship), 
 the " Paraphrase of the Gospels " by one 
 who had lived and died a Catholic, the 
 strange but great Erasmus. Portions of the 
 English Bible were to be read regularly at 
 the services, and the "Book of Homilies" — 
 a series of twelve sermons edited by Cran- 
 mer — was to be used where there was no 
 preacher. After a "thorough sifting," the 
 celibacy of the clergy was abandoned, and 
 the loving primate could at last bring back 
 from Germany his dear wife and children ; 
 the Book of Common Prayer, although it 
 was assailed by Catholics, and on the other 
 hand by Calvin and the English Calvinists, 
 was welcomed with impatient joy by thou- 
 sands ; and finally (1552) a second Prayer 
 Book appeared, with further reforms, such as 
 the excision of prayers for the dead. Our 
 present liturgy, formally established in 1662, 
 is substantially the same as that which 
 issued from the pens of our old Reformers. 
 
 The following year produced the Forty-two 
 Articles, afterwards slightly altered into the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, which need no intro- 
 duction to any of our readers, for they still 
 form the broad, moderate, compromising 
 Confession of the English Church. The 
 middle party of England, the lineal repre- 
 sentatives of Henry's policy, now stood upon 
 the modern platform of English orthodoxy. 
 
 But we must read with sorrow in the 
 canons of the Reformatio Legum Ecclesi- 
 asticarum, happily prepared too late to 
 receive the sanction of the boy-king, that 
 even these men of moderation had not yet 
 learned in their hearts St. Paul's last and 
 greatest doctrine, charity, freedom of religious 
 thought, but deemed it right to curse and 
 punish all who held " heretical " opinions, 
 
 61 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and to send the opponents of the doctrine of 
 the Trinity to the lambent mercy of the 
 flames. 
 
 A Prince's Death-bed. 
 
 The young King lay dying of consumption. 
 With one exception the whole Council had 
 consented to the signature of Edward's will, 
 when the old primate, who had sworn to the 
 succession of Mary, according to the testa- 
 ment of Henry, was summoned to the bed- 
 side of his godson. " I cannot set my hand," 
 said he to the intimidated judges and the 
 crafty Northumberland, when they requested 
 him to sign the document by which the young 
 sovereign willed away the crown from his 
 sisters, — " I cannot set my hand to this 
 instrument without committing perjury, for I 
 have sworn to the succession of the Lady 
 Mary." 
 
 He was summoned again into the royal 
 presence. "The dying boy, pale and cada- 
 verous, lay before him, — the royal boy, his 
 godson, whom he had loved as his own 
 child, — the son of his benefactor and friend, 
 whom he had crowned and faithfully served, 
 there he lay on his death-bed, too ill to argue, 
 but resolute, determined, regarding this his 
 last act as an act of duty to his God, his 
 country, and himself" In Cranmer's eyes 
 his godson was a saint ; and when almost the 
 last breath of Henry's only boy was spent in 
 urging upon him the justice of an act which 
 his own conscience refused to look at in this 
 light, what could he do in the presence of 
 that death-like face, under the touch of that 
 fervid prayer of an eye bright with the last 
 flame of life, but in pitying love put forth his 
 hand and sign the fatal deed ? 
 
 Was the Reformation, then, firmly and 
 finally fixed in England by this "device"? 
 Alas ! no fault of Cranmer's, but the 
 religious progress of these last years had only 
 come commended by tyranny, spoliation, and 
 bloodshed, by spiritual wickedness in high 
 places ; and worse than that, soldiers from 
 Germany and Italy had been hired to stamp 
 out the discontent of Englishmen. Had 
 Edward lived, and succeeded in maintaining 
 his seat upon the throne of England, the 
 Calvinism of Oliver Cromwell would have 
 been thrust on England a century before the 
 great Revolution by his determined will. It 
 was not to be so. Our Reformation was 
 destined to be as English as ourselves, — a 
 plain and steady growth out of the free and 
 freedom-giving hearts of England. How 
 could the work of Edward's reign be other 
 than abortive, since Cecil himself declared 
 that " the greater part of the people is not in 
 favour of defending this cause, but of aiding 
 its adversaries, the greater part of the nobles 
 who absent themselves from Court, all the 
 bishops save three or four, almost all the 
 
 judges and lawyers, almost all the justices of 
 the peace, the priests who can move their 
 flocks any way, for the whole of the 
 commonalty is in such a state of irritation 
 that it will easily follow any stir towards 
 change " .'' 
 
 MARY; CATHOLIC REACTION. 
 
 A once kindly woman ascended the throne 
 with an embittered heart ; a narrow spirit, 
 quite incompetent to grasp the struggle of 
 her age. Her condemnation is written in 
 that last sentence of the great Elizabethan 
 statesman, in the frantic cheers and mirth 
 which welcomed her, and in the terrible con- 
 tempt with which the Te Deicin was sung 
 upon her death. There is no excuse for her 
 but that she was a persecuted woman ; and if 
 that be any apology, John Knox's " Monstrous 
 Blast" is amply justified ; her reign was 
 simply a blunder and a scandal, and no 
 Englishman can read its annals without a 
 thrill of horror and a blush of shame. 
 
 It is unnecessary that we should track out 
 one by one the steps which hurried England 
 backward, not only from the religious position 
 she had aspired to in the reign of young 
 " Josiah," but beyond the memorable Parlia- 
 ment of 1529, into the arms of the Papacy, 
 and into the profession of Roman Catholic 
 sectarianism. Brutality marked from first 
 to last the reign of the " heaven-sent dove," 
 and its spirit is completely defined by the 
 logic with which the vulgar and im- 
 moral prolocutor. Dr. Weston, wound up 
 the discussion of Convocation in October 
 1553, on that awful topic, Transubstantiation : 
 " Ye are well enough already ; ye have the 
 word, and ive the sword." This seems a 
 very strange expression, when we compare 
 it with the hope entertained by Cranmer 
 and other Reformers, that although some 
 of the more recent measures of progress 
 should be annulled, yet the independence of 
 the English Church would be maintained, 
 and the spread of gospel truth be still possible 
 to earnest and honest men ; and more 
 especially when we view it in the light of a 
 speech delivered by the Queen a few weeks 
 after her accession, declaring that " she 
 meaned graciously not to compel or strain 
 other men's consciences, otherwise than God 
 should, as she trusted, put in their hearts a 
 persuasion of the truth, through the opening 
 of His Word unto them." 
 
 This promise of liberty soon showed itself 
 in the terror of a savage despotism. The 
 only points which Mary did not succeed in 
 winning from the votes of Parliament were 
 the abolition of her title of Supreme Head of 
 the Church, and the restoration of the lands 
 and houses of which the monasteries had been 
 robbed ; and these points were held to by the 
 determination of the nobles that, let religion 
 
 62 
 
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 swing from side to side with every storm that 
 blew, they at least would never part, for the 
 best or worst doctrine in Christendom, with 
 their riches and estates. The Bible and 
 Book of Common Prayer were abolished; 
 the Statute of Heretics was revived; Cardinal 
 Pole returned to England in a Catholic 
 triumph, and both Houses of Parliament 
 bent upon the knee before him and received 
 the absolution of the Pope ; a Bill for the 
 reconciliation of England to the Holy See 
 swept away every reform of Cranmer under 
 her father's and her brother's reign ; married 
 priests were placed in the dilemma of re- 
 nouncing their wives or their livings ; and 
 now, instead of the milder persecution of 
 More and Cranmer in the reign of Henry, 
 which only asked for silence, and did not 
 seek for victims, the very spirit of the Spanish 
 Inquisition found a home in this freedom- 
 loving England. Persecution ceased to be 
 political, and became the offspring of reli- 
 gious fanaticism. When Thomas Cranmer, 
 the old friend of King Henry, the author of 
 all the moderate reforms of the last twenty 
 years, the noblest and most truthful of priests, 
 the venerable representative of all that was 
 best or safest in the Church of England, the 
 man whose figure was known in every country 
 parish as that which had its place with those 
 of Cromwell and the mighty King on the 
 frontispiece of the English Bible, — when he 
 fell at the stake in Oxford, the hearts of 
 thousands were embittered by the iniquity, 
 and on every hand humble men and women, 
 and even children, were eager to win the 
 crown of martyrdom. When the trial of their 
 faith came, the Protestants were divided into 
 five classes : those like Cranmer, Ridley, and 
 Latimer, who felt it their duty to God and to 
 the nation to stand on English ground, and 
 meekly suffer the consequences of the work 
 they had chiefly promoted ; the exiles ; the 
 political Reformers, such as Cecil, who could 
 " bide their time ; " the zealots, who rushed 
 furiously upon the officers who carried out 
 the commands of their superiors, and often 
 hindered the Christian cause by ribaldry and 
 violence ; lastly, those avaricious and un- 
 scrupulous statesmen, — the Arundels, the 
 Russells,the Pembrokes, — who had no certain 
 creed but their own interest. It is to these 
 last, and to the "bloody Mary," more than to 
 the learned Gardiner and the vulgar Bonner, 
 that we must charge the abominable wrongs 
 and murders of this the blackest period of 
 English history. 
 
 Sir John Cheke. 
 One of the saddest stories is that of the 
 learned tutor of Queen Elizabeth, the brother- 
 in-law of the more renowned Cecil. Having 
 obtained his release by the sacrifice of all his 
 landed property, he received permission 
 
 63 
 
 to travel for a few years. He was tempted 
 to Rome because of its classical associations,, 
 but far from its religious atmosphere exerting 
 any influence upon his faith, he wrote tc^ 
 Cecil, on his way homeward, to " take heed 
 how he did in the least warp or strain his 
 conscience by any compliance for his worldly 
 security." Fine advice in the fair weather of 
 exile ! Soon after penning this epistle, he was 
 seized by King Philip's orders, between 
 Brussels and Antwerp, when on his way to 
 England, bound hand and foot, thrown into 
 a cart, conveyed across the Channel in a sail- 
 ing vessel, and sent to the Tower. He had 
 either to comply or burn. It was not suffi- 
 cient that the timid man of learning should 
 subscribe his assent to the doctrine of the 
 Real Presence and the whole list of Romish 
 articles, but with that refined spirit of cruelty 
 which demanded not only profession but 
 evidence of siticerity, he was compelled to 
 pronounce two recantations, one before the 
 Queen, and one before the Cardinal. Even 
 after he had undergone several acts of 
 penance, he was not yet released ; and when 
 this mercy was granted, it was only to set 
 him on the bench with Bonner to assist at 
 the trial of the martyrs. His heart was 
 broken, and in a few months he died in the 
 hospitable home of an old friend, " a prey to 
 shame, remorse, and melancholy." 
 
 Rogers, Ridley, Latimer, Etc. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary, even for the 
 youngest, that we should recite the many 
 and monotonous stories of the Marian 
 martyrs, for are they not a.l written in that 
 famous book by John Foxe, himself an exile,, 
 entitled " The Book of Martyrs"? There we 
 read how good John Rogers, known as the 
 proto-martyr, was lodged in Newgate among 
 thieves, how on the way to Smithfield he met 
 his wife and eleven children,—" one sucking 
 on her breast," — and yet died constantly and 
 cheerfully, unmoved by this " sorrowful sight 
 of his own flesh and blood ; " how Miles 
 Coverdale, to whom England owed a trans- 
 lation of the Bible, was begged from the jaws 
 of the lions by the King of Denmark ; how 
 good Rowland Taylor knelt in the dark morn- 
 ing with his wife and children on the unlit 
 streets of London, walked to the quiet Suffolk 
 parish where he had often preached with 
 faith and fervour, saying at the stake, " I am 
 even at home," and gently replying to a wretch 
 who threw a faggot at his face, " O friend, I 
 have harm enough, what needed that ? " 
 
 One of the first among the men who fell 
 when the persecution began in deadly earnest 
 in 1555, was the Puritanic bishop, John 
 Hooper, taunted by two opponents on the 
 bishops' bench as "hypocrite" and "beast." 
 The latter he was not, although a married 
 priest, like the sage Cranmer, for he was 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 " spare of diet, sparer of words, and sparest 
 of time/' and his life was " so pure and good 
 that no kind of slander could fasten any fault 
 upon him." He was condemned to execution 
 for having a wife and rejecting the Romish 
 doctrine of the Real Presence. 
 
 At Oxford there perished, within sight of 
 Cranmer, who rushed to the housetop to catch 
 a glimpse of his beloved fellow-labourers, the 
 two bishops, meek Ridley and vehement 
 Latimer. " Be of good comfort, Master 
 Ridley," cried Latimer, as the flames scorched 
 his aged frame ; " play the man ; we shall 
 this day light such a candle, by God's grace, 
 in England, as I trust shall never be put 
 out." 
 
 The light was not extinguished. From 
 bishops the Inquisition descended to humbler 
 victims, — to men like the old lame painter, 
 Hugh Laverock, of Barking, who when he 
 was chained, cast away his crutch, exclaiming 
 to the blind martyr beside him, " My Lord of 
 London is our good physician ; he will heal 
 «s both shortly ; " to women like those of 
 Guernsey, one of whom gave birth to an 
 infant at the stake, which was tossed into the 
 flames, and like brave Mrs. Cicely Ormes, of 
 Norwich, who kissed the stake with the words, 
 ^' Welcome the sweet Cross of Christ," and 
 perished waving her arms till the sinews were 
 stiffened with the flames. 
 
 Cambridge and Canterbury, Lewes and 
 Lichfield, Rochester and Stratford-le-Bow, 
 and many other spots, have their hallowed ' 
 memories of the heroic men, women, and 
 children who gladly laid their lives down at 
 the stake for what they held to be the truth 
 of God ; but there is no place more sadly 
 dear in England than the market-square of 
 Smithfield, London. We forget the horse- 
 fair and the noisy mirth and "ruffian" duels 
 of the days of Shakespeare, and think only of 
 the grim tragedies enacted opposite the en- 
 trance to the church of St. Bartholomew, 
 where some strong oak posts and martyrs' 
 bones were discovered a little over thirty 
 years ago. It was there that Bayfield and 
 Baynham fell ; that the noble Frith smiled 
 at the brutal parson who declared he was no 
 more worth praying for than a dog ; that 
 John Lambert raised his mangled hands and 
 shouted to the people "None but Christ!" 
 In that often mirthful mart, Barnes, Rogers, 
 the Scottish exile Rough — group after group 
 of plain, "godly, and innocent" men and 
 women from the fields of Islington and other 
 places — were sacrificed like cattle to the 
 insane fanaticism of the " Bloody Mary" and 
 the cowardly submission of Gardiner, Bonner, 
 and other weak-kneed priests. It is true 
 
 the Protestants of London hanged a cat in 
 Cheapside "apparelled like a priest to say 
 mass," that they decapitated the image of 
 A Becket in that same thoroughfare, and 
 that Marian exiles like Bale sent provoking 
 slanders from their Continental bowers of 
 peace ; but no plea on earth will suffice to 
 wipe away the horror of Mary's hand, or 
 lessen our indignation against her monstrous 
 instruments — such as that Dr. Stover, who 
 boasted in the first parliament of Good Queen 
 Bess : " I wish that I had done more than I 
 did .... I threw a faggot in the face of an 
 earwig at Uxbridge as he was singing a 
 psalm, and set a bushel of thorns under his 
 feet." 
 
 The Recovery. 
 
 This wholesale butchery carried in itself the 
 death of the policy of Mary. The fierceness 
 of its barbarism begot universal hate ; the 
 exiles of Geneva and Frankfort boldly re- 
 turned to defy the flames ; and when Mary 
 died, it was no wonder that the passion of the 
 people kicked priests in the kennels of Lon- 
 don, and made her death a subject of triumph. 
 In the Maiden Queen, who had not herself 
 escaped from the heart-searching tyranny of 
 Mary, the people found a sovereign abso- 
 lutely untouched by the religious passion of 
 Edward and her sister, eager in the truly 
 English spirit of her father to raise the love 
 of country above the persecuting zeal of 
 creeds. She restored the royal supremacy, 
 and the hateful Statutes of Heresy were 
 abolished. The first Parliament of Elizabeth 
 (1559) may be regarded as having really 
 closed the door for ever against the hope of 
 establishing the supremacy of Rome on Eng- 
 lish soil, and this result was greatly due to 
 the moderation of its enactments and the 
 temperate prudence with which the Act of 
 Uniformity was carried out. 
 
 Gradually the work of reconciliation pro- 
 gressed until the peace and unity of Eng- 
 land was firmly established ; not, indeed, 
 without much serious rebellion among the 
 Catholics, not without a bold attack from 
 Rome by the Bull of Deposition, not without 
 a vigorous repression of the Jesuit priests 
 who crossed from the Continent and laboured 
 hard and boldly to create a Catholic re- 
 action. But before this last attempt the 
 work of the Reformation was practically 
 accompHshed. The Bible had been again 
 set free ; and in the reign of Good Queen 
 Bess, in the year of our Lord 1563, the 
 Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England 
 were established by Convocation. 
 
 M. M. 
 
 64 
 
' Bonnie Prince Charlie." 
 
 OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE: 
 
 THE STORY OF CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 
 
 The Stuarts at St. Germains and in Italy — The "Old Pretender" in Italy— His Matrimonial Difficulties — "My Dear 
 Clementina" — The so-called Prince of Wales and Duke of York— Their Love of Music — Prince Charles Edward at the 
 Siege of Gaeta — French Encouragement to an Expedition — Collection of a Force at Dunkirk — The Condition of the 
 Scottish Highlands — Paying for Peace — The Clan Act — Jacohite Agents — Departure of the Prince for France, and 
 Narrow Escape— In Hiding at Gravelines — The Expedition to Scotland — Reception by the Highlanders— Personal 
 
 Influence — "Bonnie Prince Charlie" — At Athol, Linlithgow, and Holyrood — The Battle of Prestonpans Over the 
 
 Border — To Derby and Back Again — Fatal CuUoden — The " Butcher Cumberland" — A Fugitive — Flora Macdon 
 — Escape to France — Incognito Visits to England — Death at Florence. 
 
 Macdonald 
 
 The Exiled Stuarts. 
 
 E have heard of a year they call 
 the Forty-five, young gentleman, 
 when the Southron heads made 
 their last acquaintance with Scottish clay- 
 mores," said Pate Maxwell, better known as 
 Pate-in-Peril, Laird of Summertrees,to young 
 Alan Fairford, in Scott's " Redgauntlet." 
 It was, indeed, a memorable year, — a great 
 chapter in that record of the Stuart race in 
 
 65 
 
 which History and Romance appear to be twin 
 sisters. 
 
 Since the memorable flight of James II. in 
 December 1688, no Stuart had, in England,, 
 been permitted to wear the " round and top of 
 sovereignty." James made a desperate effort 
 to retrieve his fortunes in Ireland, was de- 
 feated at the battle of the Boyne, and after- 
 wards, by gracious permission of Louis XIV. 
 of France, the Grand Monarque, held a little 
 court of his own at St. Germains, where he 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 died on Sept. i6th, 1701. When he quitted 
 England, his son, James Francis Edward was 
 about six months old. History and romance 
 know that son as the Chevalier de St. George 
 and as the Old Pretender, and his son, James 
 Philip Louis Casimir Thomas Silvester Maria 
 'Charles Edward, as Prince Charles Edward 
 (he laid aside the heavy load of the six pre- 
 ceding names), the Young Pretender, "Bonnie 
 Prince Charlie." There had been desperate 
 ifighting on behalf of the Old Pretender in 
 Scotland in 171 5, and an abortive attempt to 
 excite an insurrection in that country by the 
 Duke of Ormond in 1719 ; and afterwards 
 there were intrigues and private missions, 
 spies and multitudinous correspondence, 
 double traitors working for each side, Hano- 
 verian and Jacobite, swearing fidelity to each 
 and deceiving both. Men of brilhant talents 
 and high position like BolingbrokeandAtter- 
 bury, who had sworn allegiance to the new 
 dynasty, reconciled it with their conscience 
 to correspond with the Stuart exiles, and 
 afterwards to take refuge at their court. 
 
 The Old Pretender. 
 Believing in his divine right to the crown 
 of Britain, the son of James W. waited with 
 patience for the time to come when the 
 English should be weary of the Hanoverians, 
 and ready to welcome the Stuart as their 
 rightful king. He knev/ that his uncle 
 Charles had been recalled after long exile, 
 that there had been a great reaction in the 
 public mind then, and he hoped, indeed con- 
 fidently expected, that a second restoration 
 was fore-ordained. He possessed many of 
 the Stuart characteristics, but not of the 
 worst sort. Had he been king de facto, as 
 he believed himself to be dejicre^ he might 
 probably have more nearly resembled his 
 grandfather Charles I., than his own father 
 or his profligatebutgenial-mannereduncle the 
 second Charles. He lived fora time at Urbino, 
 and afterwards at Rome, in the Palazzo Muti 
 (now the Palazzo Savorelli), in the Piazza di 
 Sant' Apostoli, keeping up a little court, and 
 assuming the style of James 111., King of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. President de 
 Brosses (the French historian and antiquary), 
 writing in 1740, in Eltalie il y a Cent Ans, 
 describes James as tall and thin, with quite 
 the air of the Stuart family, and very like his 
 flllegitimate elder brother, James Fitzjames, 
 Duke of Berwick, whose mother was Arabella 
 Churchill, sister of the great Duke of Marl- 
 borough. One point of difference between 
 (the brothers is rather unkindly noticed by 
 De Brosses — they were much alike, " except 
 (that the Marshal's countenance was sad and 
 severe, while that of the Pretender was sad 
 and silly." This may be explained by the 
 consciousness that he was playing a part, 
 and found it difficult to reconcile his actual 
 
 surroundings with the assumption of regal 
 state. He was, we are told, graceful and 
 noble, with dignified manners, very devout, 
 and of moderate talents ; " when he sits 
 down to dinner, his two sons, before taking 
 their places, go and kneel before him and ask 
 his blessing. To them he usually speaks in 
 English ; to others, in Italian or French." 
 
 The household in the Palazzo Muti was 
 dull and decorous, but unhappy. James, with 
 Stuart weakness andobstinacy,hadbeen ruled 
 by favourites. At first the Earl of Mar, who 
 had led the expedition of 171 5, was pre- 
 dominant ; but the English Ministers found 
 means to gain him over, and he deserted his 
 master. Then came Colonel John Hay, 
 elevated by James to the phantom dignities 
 of Earl of Inverness and Seci-etary of State, 
 and his wife and her brother, James Murray. 
 It has been insinuated (with perhaps but 
 little reason) that the influence of the 
 Countess of Inverness was based on more 
 than political considerations ; and it is certain 
 that the ascendency of this family was so 
 objectionable to James's wife, Maria Cle- 
 mentina, a daughter of the family of Sobieski, 
 that in 1725, seven years after their marriage, 
 she left her husband and retired to the Con- 
 vent of St. Cecilia at Rome. There are state- 
 ments in existence as to the causes of the 
 separation, according to which the wife 
 accused her husband of infidelity, and he 
 retorted by charging her with ill-temper. The 
 marriage had been one of inclination, and 
 there is a letter extant, written shortly after 
 Clementina (the first name was disused) had 
 left him, in which there is a curious outburst 
 of natural affection, disturbing the formal 
 style which James had thought it his duty con- 
 sistently with regal dignity to assume. At 
 the commencement he addresses his wife as 
 " Madam," and he proceeds to say that he 
 is " aware from experience that you are 
 so prejudiced against whatever originates 
 with me as not to listen tome patiently." He 
 reminds her that " we have often experi- 
 enced anxieties and difficulties, but these I 
 should always have endured with greater equa- 
 nimity had I not observed them to be oc- 
 casioned less by the vivacity of your disposition 
 than by your overreadiness to listen to petty 
 complaints and insinuations, and to fancy 
 yourself hurt in the persons of those who 
 have retailed them ; and you cannot but 
 recollect with what patience I have for two 
 years submitted to your sullen humours, and 
 h-ow, when you scarcely would speak to me 
 or look at me, I had recourse only to silence.'' 
 He assures her that she had at all times 
 possessed his undivided affection, and went on 
 in a formal strain, with abundant " Madams," 
 to complain of her conduct in endeavour- 
 ing to intimidate him to dismiss an " able, 
 faithful, and laborious minister ;" but in the 
 
 66 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 2ast paragraph his dignity breaks down, he 
 addresses her as " my dear Clementina," 
 and conjures her not to " resist the last 
 efforts of my tenderness, which only awaits 
 your return to rekindle, never again to relax 
 or cease." 
 
 The Young Princes at Rome. 
 The titular Queen seems to have preferred 
 the "Madam" to the more affectionate style 
 of address, and persisted in her determina- 
 tion to remain in the convent ; and for about 
 forty years (he died in 1766), James led a 
 solitary and saddened life. There were two 
 children of this ill-assorted union, — Charles 
 Edward, styled Prince of Wales by his 
 father and his father's friends, born December 
 31st, 1720; and Henry Benedict, born March 
 5th, 1725 (shortly before the separation of 
 his parents), who became the Cardinal York 
 of later history, and the last survivor of the 
 direct line of the royal house of Stuart. Of 
 these two young men De Brosses says, in 
 the work already quoted, " The elder is 
 called the Prince of Wales, the younger the 
 Duke of York. Both have a family look. 
 They are amiable and graceful in their 
 manners, both showing but a moderate un- 
 derstanding, and less cultivated than princes 
 should have been at their age. They are both 
 passionately fond of music, and understand 
 it well ; the eldest plays the violoncello with 
 much skill, the youngest sings Italian airs 
 in very good taste. Once a week they 
 give an excellent concert, which is the best 
 music in Rome. I hear from those who 
 know them both thoroughly, that the eldest is 
 much beloved by his friends ; that he has a 
 kind heart and a high courage ; that he 
 feels warmly for his family and misfortunes, 
 and that if some day he does not retrieve 
 them, it will not be for want of intrepidity. 
 They tell me that, having been taken, when 
 quite a stripling, to the siege of Gaeta by 
 the Spaniards, one day during the voyage 
 his hat blew off into the sea. The people 
 round him wished to recover it ; but ' No ! ' 
 cried he, ' do not take that trouble ; I will 
 some day go the same way my hat has gone, 
 if things remain as they are.'" He was at 
 that time but fourteen years of age, — old 
 enough to be well acquainted with the his- 
 tory and expectations of his family, and to 
 desire above all things to be the means of 
 restoring its fortunes. As the Jesuit Giulio 
 Cordara— a priest of noble birth and high 
 attainments, who wrote a narrative of the 
 expedition of 1745 — informs us, the young 
 Prince " was reared from his infancy never 
 to forego the desire or hope of recovering 
 the crown, and even in early youth it was 
 his aim to discipline to every kingly art 
 those talents and regal endowments with 
 which nature had furnished him." As a 
 
 67 
 
 boy he studied the theory of the military 
 art, took deliglit in athletic and other manly 
 exercises, as a preparation for a military hfe, 
 and " urgently besought his father not to 
 keep him lounging at home, but to send him 
 where he could learn the art of war, as it 
 surely was the duty of one born and bred in 
 the expectancy of a crown to be a soldier 
 ere he became a king, since that was the 
 only path that could lead him to substantial 
 sovereignty." According to some accounts 
 he seems to have been troubled with very 
 little education, except such as would fit him 
 for a military career. Sir Thomas Sheridan, 
 an Irish Roman Catholic, usually styled the 
 Chevalier Sheridan, was nominally his tutor ; 
 but either he was very neglectful or Charles 
 Edward was a very careless pupil, so far, 
 at least, as the English language was con- 
 cerned ; for the Young Pretender astonished 
 his Scottish friends of later times by spelling 
 " sword " without the " w," and writing his 
 father's Christian name " Gems." It is only 
 fair, however, to say that Cordara, probably 
 a very partial witness, credits him with a 
 good knowledge of the Italian, Latin, English, 
 and French languages, and a considei'able 
 acquaintance with ancient and modern his- 
 tory. His military taste was gratified by 
 the permission to accompany to the siege of 
 Gaeta iiis uncle, the Duke of Berwick, com- 
 mander of the Spanish army, one of the 
 most famous generals of the age, and in that 
 respect worthy of his relationship to his 
 mother's brother, the great Marlborough. 
 The impetuous youth was delighted by the 
 opportunity of witnessing the operations of 
 actual war. " He flew to the lines," says 
 Cordara, " and there so entirely devoted 
 himself to the duties of a soldier, that, 
 though but a novice in his fifteenth year, he 
 set an example to the most steady ofScers and 
 experienced veterans. Amid heat and dust, 
 he galloped about the camp', reconnoitred 
 the trenches, mines, and outworks, or, rush- 
 ing where the shot fell thickest, was the 
 foremost with voice and example to repel the 
 enemy's saUies. Although all this somewhat 
 disconcerted the Duke, to whom the youth's 
 safety had been especially committed, and 
 who blamed him for so rashly exposing him- 
 self, he could not refrain from admiring such 
 gallantry, and holding it up as an example to 
 others." 
 
 The Young Pretender. 
 As the young Prince approached the 
 years of manhood his character developed, 
 and his martial tastes ripened. A great 
 stake was to be played, no less than a crown 
 and he knew that the task of winning it, if it 
 were to be won, must devolve on him. His 
 father, cold, pedantic, and unadventurous, 
 and over fifty years of age, was little likely to 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 expose his own person to the chances of 
 war, and Charles felt instinctively that the 
 enthusiasm of Scotland and the less excita- 
 ble partisanship of England, must be roused 
 by an individual appeal. " Come on," not "go 
 on," were the words to reach the hearts of 
 the people of both countries. The time, too, 
 was becoming propitious for an adventure. 
 France and England were at war. Old 
 Cardinal Fleury, the French minister, who 
 had long endeavoured to maintain peace, 
 died, in the ninetieth year of his age, in 
 January 1743, and his successors were 
 Count d'Argenson and Cardinal Tencin, both 
 disposed to active measures. Tencin owed 
 his Cardinal's hat to the influence of the 
 Stuarts, and was devoted to their cause. 
 George II. was pledged to support the 
 Queen of Hungary, and was preparing to 
 lead in person an allied army of English, 
 Hanoverian, and Hessian troops across the 
 Rhine against France. The French minis- 
 ters conceived that an active revival of the 
 Stuart claims would embarrass England, and 
 that if a descent were made on Scotland, or if 
 any part of the English coast were threatened, 
 a diversion might be effected which would 
 materially affect the position of affairs on the 
 Continent ; for King George would be little 
 likely to withdraw an army from England 
 when his crown was threatened. 
 
 Preparations for an Expedition. 
 
 Early in 1743, Tencin privately communi- 
 cated with James Stuart at Rome, urging 
 that Prince Charles should set out at once 
 for France, so as to be ready to take the 
 command of the intended expedition when it 
 should be prepared ; but James decided that 
 his son's journey should be deferred till the 
 preparations were completed, as otherwise 
 the British Government would be put upon 
 its guard, and. preparations be made for 
 defence. The battle of Dettingen, fought on 
 the i6th of June, 1743, in which George II. 
 defeated the French under Marshal Nouailles 
 and the Duke de Gramont, — a victory 
 now best remembered as the occasion of 
 Handel's magnificent Dettingen Te Deum, — 
 hastened the preparations for aiding the 
 Stuarts. A force of 15,000 veteran troops 
 was assembled at Dunkirk, intended to be 
 placed under the command of Marshal Saxe, 
 an illegitimate son of the late Frederick 
 Augustus, King of Poland, by the Countess 
 Von Konigsmark, and at that time the most 
 skilful and successful general in the French 
 service. Transport ships were collected in 
 the Channel, and eighteen sail of the line 
 were got ready at Rochefort and Brest to act 
 as convoys. On the 23rd of December the 
 Old Pretender at Rome received information 
 that the expedition was in readiness, and 
 
 signed a proclamation to the British people, 
 to be issued immediately on the landing of 
 the troops on the British shore, and a com- 
 mission appointing his son Prince Regent, 
 with full power, in the absence of James 
 himself. 
 
 The State of the Highlands. 
 It may be well, at this point of the narra- 
 
 • tive, to glance at the position of affairs in this 
 country, the state of which may be supposed 
 to have encouraged the Jacobites to make 
 another attempt to restore the Stuarts. Their 
 expectations of success were mainly based on 
 the loyalty to the old ideas of the Lowland 
 gentry and Highland chiefs of Scotland. In 
 17 1 5 there had been no lack of followers of 
 the Stuart standard, or of brave gentlemen 
 ready to risk property and life for the old 
 cause. But the Highlanders were themselves 
 divided. The chiefs had their private 
 jealousies and quarrels, which not unfre- 
 quently were considered of greater importance 
 than any national object. When one Mac 
 was affronted by another Mac, or fancied he 
 was thought more or less of, the private 
 quarrel must be adjusted to the satisfaction 
 of the chiefs, dhuniwassels, and all the men 
 of the rival clans, even if the " king over the 
 water " had to wait awhile. In England the 
 Stuarts had many friends open and concealed. 
 The Hanoverian kings had certainly not 
 made themselves attractive or popular. The 
 first would not take the trouble to learn to 
 speak the English language, was coarse and 
 brutal in his manner, and took little trouble 
 to conceal his dislike for the people he had 
 been called on to rule ; but he was a consti- 
 tutional king, and fairly observed his engage- 
 ments, however surly he might be. The 
 second George was a strutting, fussy, plucky 
 little man, a stout soldier at Dettingen, and 
 ruled by his wife, who did not ask too many 
 questions about Lady Yarmouth or Lady 
 Suffolk, and by Sir Robert Walpole and 
 other ministers. The shrewd and witty Earl 
 of Chesterfield is credited by Horace Walpole 
 with the suggestion, " If we have a mind 
 effectually to prevent the Pretender from ever 
 obtaining this crown, we should make him 
 Elector of Hanover, for the people of England 
 will never fetch another king from thence." 
 The great majority of the English, however, 
 were fairly satisfied with things as they were, 
 and not disposed to risk a civil war for the 
 sake of placing, probably, another James II. 
 on the throne. There were old people who 
 could well remember the great western assize 
 and the terror inspired by Jeffreys, the faith- 
 lessness of the last Stuart king, and the 
 shouts which greeted the arrival of William 
 of Orange. There was a stronger disposition 
 to support King Log in possession than 
 King Stork in exile with bad family antece- 
 
 6S 
 
OUT IN TH'E FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 dents. The Hanoverians were little liked 
 but the Stuarts less. 
 
 Still less disposed were the mercantile and 
 industrious classes to see a rabble of half- 
 naked barbarians (for such the Highlanders 
 were popularly supposed to be) acting as the 
 escort of the Pretender to the throne-room 
 at St. James's. The Lowland Scotch were 
 not liked in England, and the country beyond 
 the Forth was to most Englishmen an unknown 
 land. A writer in an early number of the 
 Quarterly Review, easily identified as Walter 
 Scott, tells us that, " In England the know- 
 ledge of the very existence of the Highlanders 
 was, prior to 1745, faint and forgotten, and not 
 even the recollections of the civil wars which 
 they had undertaken in the years 1689, 1715, 
 
 government by appeals to many motives of 
 action ; and some of the chiefs of inferior 
 power had been dextrously dealt with, as 
 Breadalbane and Stair, and afterwards Wal- 
 pole, knew how to deal with simple natures 
 whom it was advisable to keep quiet. Some of 
 the chiefs had been partially educated in 
 France, had become acquainted with the ways 
 of the world, and a liking for political intrigue 
 was as natural to them as physical courage. 
 The exiled Stuarts could promise titles and 
 high offices to their adherents, and those 
 promises attracted some, but English ministers 
 could do more than promise, and were ready 
 with hard cash. WiUiam HI. entrusted the 
 Earl of Breadalbane with ^20,000 to be dis- 
 tributed among the Highland chiefs. It was 
 
 Preston Tower, near the Field of Prestonpans. 
 
 and 17 19, had made much impression on the 
 British public. Tlie more intelligent, when 
 they thought of them by any chance, con- 
 sidered them as complete barbarians ; and the 
 mass of the people cared no more about them 
 than the merchants of New York about the 
 Indians who dwelt beyond the Alleghany 
 Mountains." 
 
 Statesmen and officials, of course, knew 
 more about the real condition of the High- 
 land men, their warlike propensities, their 
 organization, their clan quarrels, their in- 
 domitable courage, their loyalty to old 
 traditions, and at the same time their weak- 
 ness. The chiefs were proud, but many of 
 them were poor. The very great men, the 
 dukes and earls of Highland race, had been 
 mostly attracted to the support of the existing 
 
 not an easy task to satisfy all. Some asked for 
 more ; and, says Scott in the QHarterly3x\\z\Q. 
 already quoted, " It has always been supposed 
 that the atrocity well-known by the name of 
 the massacre of Glencoe, was devised and 
 executed to gratify at once an ancient 
 quarrel, to silence an intractable chief who 
 had been clamorous about the division of the 
 peace-offering, and to serve as a measure of 
 intimidation to all others." Breadalbane's 
 plan was to take the money, do with it what 
 he would, and answer no questions. The 
 English minister asked him to account for 
 the expenditure, and he curtly answered, " My 
 lord, the money is spent, the Highlands are 
 quiet, and this is the only way of accounting 
 between friends." 
 
 So well had the work of pacification, by 
 
 69 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 means chiefly of a judicious distribution of 
 hard cash, been performed, that when, in 
 17 14, the Elector of Hanover was proclaimed 
 King of Great Britain as George I., more 
 than a hundred " chief heritors and heads 
 of clans " in the Highlands prepared, after 
 much deliberation, an address to the King, 
 which, however, by some court intrigue was 
 prevented from being delivered to him ; and 
 that fact so irritated many of the chiefs who 
 had signed the document, that a year after- 
 wards they took part in the rising of 17 15. 
 This address, we are assured, expressed 
 "the joy of our hearts at Your Majesty's 
 happy accession to the Crown of Great 
 Britain. . . . Your Majesty's princely virtues 
 and the happy prospect we have in your 
 royal family of an uninterrupted succession 
 of kings to sway the British sceptre, must 
 extinguish those divisions and contests which 
 in former times too much prevailed, and unite 
 all who have the happiness to live under your 
 Majestyinto a firm olaedience and loyalty. . . . 
 Pardon us, great Sir, to implore your royal 
 protection against any who labour to mis- 
 represent us, and who rather use their endea- 
 vours to create misunderstandings than to 
 engage the hearts of subjects to that loyalty 
 and cheerful obedience which we owe and 
 are happy to testify towards Your Majesty, . . 
 Our mountains, though undervalued by some, 
 ai-e nevertheless acknowledged to have at all 
 times been fruitful in providing hardy and 
 gallant men, and such, we hope, shall never 
 be wanting amongst us, who shall be ready 
 to undergo all dangers in defence of Your 
 Majesty and your royal posterity's only 
 right to the crown of Great Britain." 
 
 These were fair words ; but within twelve 
 months the Highlands were in a blaze of 
 rebellion. 
 
 The Highland Clans. 
 
 Then other means were tried, and the 
 loyalty of clansmen to their chiefs tampered 
 with. Devotion to the head of the clan, the 
 hereditary chief, was almost a sacred senti- 
 ment. The great clans, or septs, mostly traced 
 their origin to some renowned warrior, whose 
 character and achievements were in the course 
 of ages magnified to stupendous proportions 
 by an enthusiastic and imaginative people, 
 having Httle intercourse with the outer world. 
 The names of these almost mythical heroes, 
 whose praises were chanted by bards, their 
 exploits growing in picturesqueness and mag- 
 nitude with the record of every generation, 
 were adopted with additions by the chiefs of 
 the clans ; the Highland title of the Argyle 
 family, for instance, the heads of the Camp- 
 bells, being MacCallum More, "the son of 
 the great Colin." The chief of a clan was, 
 in virtue of his regular descent, looked upon 
 as a father with veneration and in a spirit of 
 
 almost blind obedience. "The clansman, 
 who scrupled to save his chief's life at the 
 expense of his own was regarded as a coward 
 who fled from his father's side in the hour of 
 peril. A word would call the Highlandman 
 from his cabin and his little patch of land 
 on the hill-side, or the tacksman (tenant 
 farmer) from his holding, to the side of his 
 chief, and neither danger nor death could 
 daunt him. In a few hours a chief, or even 
 petty chieftain, the head of a branch of the 
 main sept, if excited by a political sentiment, 
 or offended because some other " Highland 
 gentleman" had cocked his bonnet a little 
 higher, could assemble a band of bare-legged 
 warriors who feared nothing and hesitated 
 at nothing. Scott scarcely exaggerated 
 when he made a host of armed men spring 
 from the ground in reply to the whistle of 
 RoderickDhu. This spirit of ready obedience, 
 this power of rapidly collecting bands of fierce 
 marauders, constituted the real danger of the 
 Highlands to the English authority. Half- 
 savage hordes of desperate men would appear 
 no one exactly knew whence, and if defeated 
 would scatter no one knew whither, and 
 pursuit was hopeless. 
 
 The Clan Act of 171 5 endeavoured to break 
 this bond of feudal union by providing that 
 whenever a vassal took part in a rebellion 
 his property was to devolve on his liege lord, 
 provided the liege lord himself remained quiet; 
 and, on the other hand, that a loyal vassal 
 was to receive the freehold of his lands from 
 a rebellious lord. When, in 1744, the English 
 Government had an inkling of the prepara- 
 tions going on abroad, the Highlanders were 
 ordered to deliver up their arms to General 
 Wade, the English commander in Scotland. 
 The disaffected clans came forward with a 
 numberof rusty firelocks and other unservice- 
 able weapons, having carefully hidden those 
 likely to be useful, and the well-aftected gave 
 up all, so that when the war broke out in 
 1745 the latter were defenceless and the 
 former well armed. Another Act of Parlia- 
 ment relieved vassals from personal atten- 
 dance on their chief when summoned for 
 purposes of sport, battle, or garrisoning their 
 houses ; this duty being substituted by the 
 payment of a money rent. Few of the chiefs 
 objected to receive the rent ; but when they 
 wanted the men summoned them as before; 
 and tlie men " did come when they did call 
 them," so firmly fixed in their minds was 
 the traditionary duty of obedience. A more 
 practical measure on the part of the English 
 authorities was the construction, with great 
 labour and expense, of military roads over 
 the Grampians and through the Highlands, 
 known as Wade's roads. 
 
 Some of the chiefs were as treacherous as 
 they were influential. One whose name is 
 familiar to all readers of the history of the 
 
 70 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 times, Simon, Lord Lovat, is perhaps an 
 extreme specimen of the class. Eai'ly in hfe 
 he was accused not only of high treason, but 
 of a terrible outrage perpetrated on an elderly 
 woman, daughter of the Duke of Athol, and 
 mother of a young lady whose hand Lovat 
 had sought in marriage. He absconded ; 
 and after skulking for some time in the 
 hiding-places of the Highlands, contrived to 
 reach St. Germains. Thence he was sent 
 to England to prepare the Jacobites for a 
 rising ; but he played false, and was conse- 
 quently taken into favour by the English 
 government, on whose behalf he headed his 
 clan in the outbreak of 171 5, and afterwards 
 was entrusted with the command of one 
 division of the force raised to preserve order 
 in the Highlands, known as the Black Watch, 
 the origin of the famous Forty-second Regi- 
 ment. He was an old man in 1744, but had 
 found it convenient again to change his 
 principles, and he maintained his callous 
 effrontery when he stood on the scaffold on 
 Tower Hill. 
 
 Jacobite Agents. 
 
 There were agents of the Stuarts, of many 
 kinds and in many disguises, employed in 
 England and Scotland to obtain information 
 respecting the inclinations and means of the 
 Jacobites, to forward confidential reports to 
 head-quarters, and act generally as mediums 
 of communication with adherents of the 
 cause. One of these was Allan Cameron, 
 who, after having been so employed in the 
 Highlands, had the boldness to proceed to 
 Edinburgh, to communicate with the Duke 
 of Hamilton, Mr. Lockhart, and other agents 
 of James in the south of Scotland. Cameron 
 remained some time in Edinburgh, and al- 
 though suspected, visited the taverns and other 
 places of public resort. He possessed a pecu- 
 liar talent, highly appreciated in those days, 
 being able to outdrink all he met with, and 
 never quitting a tavern till all his boon com- 
 panions were dead drunk, so that " he was 
 safe going home." From the information he 
 obtained he was able to assure James at 
 Rome that his friends had not fallen off in 
 zeal, and that the people were ripe for another 
 attempt ; but it should be made with a 
 foreign force, which ought to land in Eng- 
 land, and as near London as possible. 
 Nothing more could be expected from the 
 people of Scotland than a diversion to pre- 
 vent the troops stationed there being called 
 to England, or to intercept them if they 
 marched. To assist them in doing so, a 
 small body of foreign troops would be useful, 
 and they would be quickly joined by the 
 clans. 
 
 The Old Pretender was not very willing 
 that the expedition should be undertaken. 
 He had almost outgrown ambition, and was 
 
 tolerably happy at Rome. His little state, 
 his visits to card-parties, his formal dinner- 
 parties, were agreeable to him, and he had 
 arrived at a time of life when danger ap- 
 pears more dangerous, and peace and quiet- 
 ness more acceptable, than when the hot 
 blood of youth courses through the veins. 
 Besides, he had learned not to trust too 
 implicitly to the influence of his name on 
 the turbulent chiefs of the Highlands, or of 
 the traditions of his family on the spirit of the 
 landed gentry ef England ; and had enjoyed 
 some experience of the character of his 
 selfish and profligate " dear ally," Louis XV. 
 of France. After some hesitation he weakly 
 released himself from the difficulty by throwing 
 the responsibility upon his son, and Charles 
 Edward was delighted to accept it. 
 
 Departure of Charles Edward from 
 Rome. 
 
 Two English gentlemen, agents of the 
 Jacobite party, had reached Rome, one to 
 arrange the plan of action, the other provided 
 with false passports to facilitate the move- 
 ments of the young Prince. One of these 
 gentlemen was sent back to France to inform 
 Louis of the speedy arrival of Charles Edward^ 
 the other to prepare for the journey through 
 Genoese territory. On the 9th of January, 
 1744, a great hunting party in the Pontine 
 Marshes was announced. The two young 
 Princes, both distinguished for their love of 
 sport, arranged to meet their friends at 
 Caserta, about thirty miles from Rome, and 
 provisions and material for a fifteen days' 
 ^//^zj'j'^ were forwarded to that place, with many 
 huntsmen and servants. Very early in the 
 morning the Prince arose, and ordered his 
 carriage to be got ready, and rode in it through 
 the gate of San Giovanni, when he professed 
 a sudden desire to mount a horse which his 
 servant had brought with him, and to ride 
 by the Albano road to Cisterna, whither the 
 cari'iage was to proceed, saying in a laughing 
 manner to Sheridan, who remained in it, 
 "Let us see who will arrive there first." 
 Away rode the Prince, accompanied by his 
 first equerry, Chevalier Stafford, and a Scotch 
 servant, both in the secret, and both eminently 
 trustworthy. As soon as they were out of 
 sight, Stafford was dismissed, and Charles 
 Edward and his groom retraced their steps, 
 skirted the walls of the city under cover of 
 the darkness, and took the road to Florence. 
 Shortly after the other party had arrived at 
 Caserta, Stafford joined them, and told them 
 that the Prince had fallen from his horse, 
 and being slightly bruised, would rest for two 
 or three days at Abano. The Duke of York 
 and Sheridan acted their parts well ; the 
 latter protested against leaving the Prince, 
 and declared he would ride back and take 
 
 7' 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 care of him, roundly abusing Stafford for 
 coming away. But the simulated anger soon 
 cooled when he was told with admirable 
 gravity that nothing serious need be appre- 
 hended from so slight an accident, and that 
 to make a fuss about it might greatly alarm 
 JCing James. 
 
 Meanwhile the Prince had reached the 
 Villa Farnese at Caprarola, the residence of 
 iCardinalAcquaviva,the Spanish ambassador, 
 who was in the secret, and there he was dis- 
 .guised as a courier in the Cardinal's service, 
 and then by travelling day and night he 
 .reached the Genoese territory. The farce 
 was admirably kept up by Stafford, Sheridan, 
 and the Duke of York. Stafford returned to 
 Albano, and transmitted fictitious messages 
 
 A Narrow Escape. 
 
 Charles Edward, who had joined the Eng- 
 lish agent sent in advance, reached Genoa 
 (a distance of about 330 miles) at noon on 
 the fifth day, having ridden about eighty 
 miles a day, no slight feat of endurance, not 
 having changed his dress or slept since he 
 quitted Rome, nor eaten more than a few 
 eggs hastily swallowed by the way Having 
 rested for three or four hours, he started in 
 a hired carriage for Savona, where he hoped 
 to find a small vessel to carry him to Antibes, 
 in France, which was impossible to reach by 
 land, the Liguarian passes being strongly 
 guarded by the King of Sardinia, who was in 
 alliance with England, and the coast being 
 
 Carlisle Castle. 
 
 as to the state of the Prince's health, and the 
 ^'hunt proceeded. Means were taken to inter- 
 ■ cept letters which might allude to the Prince's 
 ..absence; the fishermen of Fogliano (the place 
 1 to which the hunting party had moved) were 
 5'bribed to say nothing about it when they 
 .attended the market at Rome ; and presents 
 of game were sent to various persons in the 
 -Prince's name. When the Prince was fairly 
 ■on his way, and beyond the reach of inter- 
 ference, his departure was made known, and, 
 we are told, "great was the bustle, infinite 
 the surprise, endless the speculations of the 
 R onian public ; but a warm interest in his suc- 
 cess, fervent wishes and devout prayers, were 
 the veiling tribute of all classes to one whom 
 they regarded as the pride and ornament of 
 the city." 
 
 watched by a British fleet under Admiral 
 Matthews. A great storm prevented the 
 arrival of the little vessel, and nothing was 
 left for the Prince but to make his way to 
 the little seaside village, Finale, to which the 
 boat belonged. Having accomplished this, 
 he went on board, and succeeded in passing 
 Villafranca, where the British fleet was 
 lying ; but as he was crossing the bay from 
 Monaco to Antibes, his little vessel was 
 observed from the mast-head of one of the 
 ships, and an armed cutter was despatched 
 in pursuit. We find the remainder of the 
 adventure so well told that we quote the 
 words :—'■'■ The chase was continued into the 
 port of Antibes, which they reached together, 
 the English insisting that if the Finale boat 
 were admitted, they also should be, on pretext 
 
 72 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 of victualling. To get rid of the dilemma, 
 the commandant ordered both off, saying 
 that he could not give pratique to any boat 
 from the Italian coast. Thus repulsed into 
 the very jaws of the enemy, Charles with 
 difficulty obtained that the English should 
 start first, and when they were gone, dis- 
 covered himself to the harbour-master, who, 
 with many apologies, took him out of the 
 Finale boat ere he sent it off again for 
 Monaco, whither it was hotly pursued by the 
 English cutter. It was not before dusk that 
 Charles ventured to leave the harbour, and 
 after a few hours' halt, he hurried to Avignon 
 by land, whence, after a long consultation 
 with the Duke of Ormond, he resumed his 
 route to Paris." 
 
 made for the great expedition. The French 
 Admiral, Roquefeuille, assumed the command 
 of the united Rochefort and Brest squadrons, 
 and sailed up the British Channel, with the 
 view of ascertaining whether it would be safe 
 for the transport ships to venture on the 
 passage. With fifteen ships of the line, and 
 five frigates, he reached the Isle of Wight, and 
 actually came within view of Spithead, where, 
 strange to say, they was not an English ship 
 lying at the time. Roquefeuille immediately 
 sent a swift little vessel to Dunkirk, advising 
 Marshal Saxe to embark his troops at once. 
 Seven thousand men went on board; the 
 Prince hurried from Gravelines, and he and 
 Saxe embarked together. Roquefeuille sailed 
 round the south coast of England to 
 
 Tkf. Earl of Exeter's House, Derbv, where Chari.ks Euward Lodged. 
 
 The Expedition in the Channel. 
 
 The French capital was reached on the 
 20th of January, and the Prince naturally 
 expected that he would receive a cordial 
 welcome. Louis XV., however, did not 
 find it convenient openly to adopt his cause, 
 and refused to see him. Lord Elcho, 
 Drummond of Bochaldy, and other Scotch 
 refugees, warmly received him, and after 
 living in concealment for a short time, the 
 Prince departed quietly with Drummond for 
 Gravelines, from the downs of which he for the 
 first time gained a glimpse of the white cliffs 
 of England. There he assumed the name of 
 the Chevalier Douglas, and remained un- 
 recognised. He vvas soon joined by the 
 exiled Earl Marshal, and the preparations were 
 
 Dun^ieness, in Kent, where he cast anchor; 
 and no sooner had he done so than the 
 English Channel fleet, of the whereabouts of 
 which he had had no knowledge, appeared in 
 sight. The English Admiral, Sir John 
 Norris, who had been in the Downs for the 
 purpose of adding some ships from the 
 Medway to his fleet, was a good sailor and 
 brave man, but too slow and methodical for 
 great enterprises. He anchored within a 
 short distance of the French fleet, thinking 
 that, from, the state of the tide and the ap- 
 proach of night, it would be better to defer 
 the attack until the morning. The French 
 Admiral possessed a full share of the prudence 
 which Fal staff considered to be "the better part 
 of valour," and not caring to encounter a force 
 greatly superior to his own, slipped his cables. 
 
 73 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and — while Norris was enjoying his supper 
 and grog, or sleeping to recruit his strength 
 for the business of the morrow — bore away 
 to the French coast. When the morrow 
 cam-e there were the waves and the white 
 cliffs only to be seen ; the French fleet had 
 departed as mysteriously as the "Flying 
 Dutchman" of the sailor's legend. A stiff 
 breeze, which favoured Roquefeuille, drove 
 back the transports ; some of the ships were 
 sunk, others got on the coast among rocks 
 and sandbanks, and those fortunate enough 
 to get back to Dunkirk, suffered considerably 
 in masts and rigging. The Prince returned, 
 disappointed but not discouraged, to Grave- 
 lines. The French Ministers found better 
 employment for Saxe, their best general, in 
 Flanders, and the troops were recalled. 
 
 The "Chevalier Douglas." 
 There was nothing to be done but to wait 
 for another chance, " Chevalier Douglas " 
 wrote from Gravelines to his father at Rome. 
 " Nobody knows where I am, or what is be- 
 come of me, so that I am entirely buried as 
 to the public, and cannot but say that it is a 
 very great constraint upon me, for I am 
 obliged very often not to stir out of my room 
 for fear of somebody noticing my face. I 
 very often think that you would laugh very 
 heartily if you saw me going about with a 
 single servant, buying fish and other things, 
 and squabbling for a penny more or less. 
 Eveiybody is wondering where the Prince is ; 
 some put him in one place, some in another, 
 but nobody knows where he is really, and 
 sometimes he is told news of himself face to 
 face, which is very diverting." He was chafing 
 with impatience, and offered to join the 
 French army in Flanders, and fight against 
 the English ; but Louis would not permit 
 him, and Earl Marshal sagaciously reminded 
 him that the worst means he could adopt to 
 ingratiate himself with the English people 
 would be fighting against them side by side 
 with the French. That was an obvious truth, 
 but the Prince would not see it, and com- 
 plained bitterly to his father of the restraint 
 placed on him. He shortly afterwards re- 
 turned to Paris, in obedience to the wish of 
 Louis, and lived for about a year in conceal- 
 ment in a small house some distance from 
 the capital. 
 
 Departure from Franxe. 
 His friends in Scotland and England were 
 not idle. There was a secret association, 
 having head-quarters at Edinburgh, of Scotch 
 Jacobites of rank and influence. Lord James 
 Drummond (commonly called Duke of 
 Perth) ; his uncle. Lord John Drummond ; 
 Lord Traquair ; Sir James Campbell, of 
 Auchinbreck ; John Stuart, brother to Lord 
 Traquair ; Cameron of Lochiel ; and as able 
 
 and daring as any, if far less reputable, old 
 Simon, Lord Lovat. English sympathisers^ 
 too, were watching opportunity. The oppor- 
 tunity came. The English got the worst of 
 the fight at Fontenoy, near Tournay, in. 
 Flanders, on the 30th of April, 1745, and the 
 French had gained other, if small, successes. 
 Charles Edward hastened to Paris, hoping 
 to obtain funds ; but although the Ministers 
 were quite willing to countenance his 
 schemes, cash was not forthcoming. A 
 diversion in Scotland might be favourable 
 to French plans, but would not be worth any 
 great sacrifices. The Prince was told by his 
 Scotch friends that it would be useless for 
 him to attempt the adventure unless he could 
 bring with him 6,000 good troops, 10,000. 
 stands of arms, and some money. He replied 
 that come he would ; he had no troops, but 
 he could borrow about ^13,000, and that he 
 would send to Rome for his jewels and pawn 
 them. " For our object," he said, — and 
 perhaps he thought some value attached to 
 the resolve,—" I would even pawn my shirt. " 
 To his father he wrote, " Your Majesty can- 
 not disapprove a son's following the example 
 of his father. Let what will happen, the 
 stroke is struck ; and I have taken a firm 
 resolution to conquer or die." He asked for 
 help from Spain, but with no result. Then 
 he left Paris, where he had ceased to assume 
 any incognito, and took up his residence at 
 the Chateau de Navarre, near Evreux, the 
 seat of one of his warmest friends, the young 
 Duke de Bouillon. His great object was ta 
 obtain a vessel, which the French govern- 
 ment declined to furnish him with ; and he 
 was fortunate enough to meet with two 
 persons, named Rutledge and Walsh, of 
 Irish extraction and the sons of refugees, 
 who had added to the more legitimate 
 occupation of trading as West Indian mer- 
 chants the lucrative business of privateering. 
 By their aid a passage was arranged. 
 Rutledge had obtained from the French 
 Court the grant of a man-of-war, the 
 Elizabeth, to cruise on the coast of Scotland ; 
 and on board that vessel the Prince placed 
 all the war material he had been able to. 
 accumulate, — 1,500 fusils, eighteen broad- 
 swords, twenty small field pieces, and some 
 powder, ball, and flints. This armament 
 was small indeed for the purpose — that pur- 
 pose being no less than the conquest of a 
 powerful kingdom; but it was "his all." 
 His friend Walsh provided a fast-sailing 
 brig, the Dojitelle, carrying eighteen guns,, 
 which went round to the mouth of the Loire ; 
 and there, on the 2nd of July, received the 
 Prince, who wore the dress of a student of 
 the Scotch College at Paris, and allowed his 
 beard to grow, the better to conceal his 
 identity from the crew, who were led to 
 believe that they were about to engage in an 
 
 1 
 
 74 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 ordinary privateering expedition. All the 
 money Charles Edward possessed amounted 
 to about ^3,000. 
 
 A Naval Combat. 
 The two ships sailed together from Belle 
 Isle ; and in a very short time the Prince 
 was prostrated by sea-sickness. He believed 
 he could rule Britannia, but was little 
 qualified to rule the waves. They had been 
 at sea about four days, when they en- 
 countered an English vessel of fifty-eight 
 guns, the Lion, commanded by Captain 
 Brett, who, in true EngHsh fashion, did not 
 stay to reckon odds, but at once attacked 
 the French ships. The Danielle left the 
 Elisabeth to do the fighting, and made sail 
 for Scotland. For about six hours the two ships 
 pounded away at each other, and then both 
 were so disabled that the fight ceased, 
 leaving victory an open question. The 
 French commander judged that the best 
 course he could adopt was to return to 
 France, and so he did as speedily as the 
 shattered condition of his ship would permit, 
 taking with him, however, the guns, the 
 dozen and a half broadswords, the field 
 pieces and ammunition provided for the 
 expedition. 
 
 "The Seven Men of Moidart." 
 The Doutelle did not proceed unquestioned. 
 Two days after she had quitted her com- 
 panion and champion, she was pursued by 
 an English ship of superior force, but was 
 saved by her quicker sailing, and reached the 
 Hebrides, casting anchor off the little island 
 of Erisca, between Barra and South Uist. 
 An eagle hovered over the ship (eagles were 
 no novelty in western Scotland and the 
 isles), and the Marquis of TuUibardine, one 
 of the seven personal friends who accom- 
 panied the Prince, exclaimed, " Here is the 
 king of birds come to welcome your Royal 
 Highness to old Scotland ! " The seven 
 faithful adherents were TuUibardine (who 
 would have been Duke of Athol, but for the 
 bar of attainder consequent on his taking 
 part in the rising of 1715, and was generally 
 known by that title in the Highlands) ; Sir 
 Thomas Sheridan ; Sir John Macdonald, an 
 officer in the Spanish service ; Buchanan, 
 who had been employed by Cardinal Tencin 
 in the secret negotiation with the Pretender's 
 family at Rome ; Eneas Macdonald, a banker 
 of Paris, and brother of Kinloch of Moidart, 
 a local chief; an English gentleman named 
 Francis Strickland ; and Kelly, a nonjuring 
 clergyman, who had been mixed up in the 
 plots in which Bishop Atterbury engaged. 
 This little band were afterwards widely 
 known as "the seven men of Moidart." 
 
 The Prince went on shore on the rocky 
 island Erisca, assuming in the presence of the 
 tacksman, or agent, the character of an Irish 
 
 priest, and sent a message to MacDonald of 
 Boudale, uncle of the MacDonald of Clan- 
 ronald, the lord of the little group of islands. 
 The shrewd old Scotchman at once declared 
 that it was nothing short of madness for the 
 Prince to persevere in the expedition, being 
 so entirely unprovided, and flatly told him 
 that Sir Alexander MacDonald and Mac- 
 Leod, of MacLeod, twoleadingmenofthelsle 
 of Skye, and on whose assistance the Prince 
 had depended, had both declared they would 
 not join him unless he brought with him a 
 body of regular troops. Nothing discouraged, 
 Charles Edward crossed to the mainland, 
 and the Doutelle came to anchor in the bay 
 of Lochnanaugh, between Moidart and 
 Arisaig. MacDonald of Clanronald, and a 
 kinsman, MacDonald of Kinloch Moidart, 
 waited on him, and while professing their 
 loyalty, endeavoured to impress on him a 
 sense of the imprudence he was committing. 
 The Prince noticed that a younger brother 
 of Kinloch Moidart was listening eagerly to 
 what passed, and exhibiting traces of emotion 
 and nervous excitement, and with ready tact 
 addressed himself to him : " You, at least, 
 will assist me ? " The young man answered 
 with eagerness, " I will, I will ; though no 
 other man in the Highlands should draw a 
 sword, I am ready to die for you!" His 
 words sounded the first note of that marvellous 
 outburst of enthusiasm and devotion which 
 has scarcely a parallel in history. The other 
 MacDonalds forgot the prudent counsel, and 
 excitedly vowedthatthey wouid take up arms 
 instantly and endeavor to engage every man 
 who wore the tartan to do the same. 
 
 The Young Chevalier in Scotland. 
 The Prince remained on board th.Q Doutelle 
 for three days ; and then, on the 25th of July, 
 he set his foot for the first time on the main- 
 land of Scotland. The Skye chiefs still held 
 back; but the Glengarries and others hurried 
 to the shore to greet him. Rapidly indeed, 
 the enthusiastic feeling spread ; and very many 
 years afterwards a word about the Prince 
 would lighten the eyes and loose the tongues 
 of Highlanders and Lowlanders alike. It 
 must have been nearly fifty years afterwards 
 when Caroline, Baroness Nairne, one of the 
 most charming of Scotch poetesses, caught up 
 the strain, and sang, — 
 
 " The news from Moidart cam' yestreen, 
 Will soon gar mony ferlic, 
 For ships of war have just come in, 
 
 And lanr'^id royal Charlie. 
 Come thro .lie heather, around him gather, 
 
 Ye'r a' the weleomer early ; 
 Around him cling wi' a' your kin, 
 For wha'U be king but Charlie ? 
 Come thro' the heather, around him gather, 
 Come Ronald, come Donald, come a' 
 
 thegether. 
 And crown your rightfu', lawfu' king 1 
 For wha'll be king but Cnarlie ?" 
 
 75 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Letters and messengers were despatched 
 in every direction to summon the chiefs to 
 meet the Prince, who took up his quarters at 
 Borodale, a farm-house belonging to young 
 Clanronald. Cameron, of Lochiel, — " the 
 gentle Lochiel," the Bayard of the Highlands, 
 — the Lochiel who, according to Campbell, 
 was bidden by the wizard to " beware of the 
 day when the foeman shouldmeet him in battle 
 array," — was one of those who responded to 
 the call, and, like others, at first considered 
 the entei'prise most rash and ill-advised ; 
 but the Prince was resolute, and his gallant 
 bearing and handsome mien exercised an 
 almost magnetic influence. Lochiel, whom 
 he had been taught to consider one of his 
 firmest friends, might if he chose stay at 
 home, and " learn from the newspapers the 
 fate of his Prince ; " but," said Charles 
 Edward, " in a few days, with the few friends 
 I have, I will erect the royal standard, and 
 proclaim to the people of Great Britain that 
 Charles Stuart is come over to claim the 
 crown of his ancestors, or perish in the 
 attempt." Lochiel was mastered, his chival- 
 rous nature responded to the brave words, and 
 he exclaimed, " No ! I will share the fate of 
 my prince, and so shall every man over 
 whom nature or fortune hath given me any 
 power ! " The Prince then invited all who 
 had gathered around him to a feast. The 
 food was neither very rich nor very abundant, 
 little more than frugal farm-house fare ; but 
 it was enjoyed as if the occasion were a 
 veritable symposium. Men, women, and 
 children, we are told, crowded round the 
 place to catch a glimpse of the Prince, and 
 the chiefs drank cups of wine to the Gaelic 
 toast, DeocJis laint ati Reogh I " God save 
 the King!" 
 
 "Charlie is My Darling." 
 Doubtless some of the extraordinary per- 
 sonal influence exercised by the Prince was 
 due to his charm of manner and striking ap- 
 pearance. Physical qualities were always 
 highly appreciated by the Highlanders. " The 
 Young Chevalier " was tall and well-formed, 
 athletic and active. Manly amusements had 
 developed his frame. He was a good shot, 
 dextrous at martial exercises, a good fencer 
 and dancer, and a walker of exceptional 
 powers. The Highland chiefs found in him 
 a leader who could march over the mountains 
 and moorlands with a step as elastic as their 
 own, and whose high bearing gave a warrant 
 of the manly courage so de?r to the race. 
 His features were strikingly handsome, his 
 face oval, and his complexion ruddy. He 
 did not, as the fashion was, wear a wig ; but 
 his fair hair fell in curls about his neck. 
 Added to these graces of body was a fine 
 courtesy of manner, dignified, but yet familiar 
 and kindly, which won all hearts. The 
 
 Highland bards compared him to one of the 
 Ossianic heroes ; the chiefs pronounced him 
 to be "a pretty man," giving the Highland 
 meaning of strong and active to the epithet ; 
 the women, young and old, fell in love with M 
 him. Who originated the verse, — fl| 
 
 "Oh ! Charlie is my darling, 
 My darling, my darling. 
 Oh ! Charlie is my darling, 
 The Young Chevalier," 
 
 will never perhaps be known ; but the verse 
 rang in Scotch ears for half-a-century or 
 more, and was the refrain of verses by 
 several poets. Burns supplied a version which 
 he picked up somewhere — if he wrote it it 
 does not appear in his collected works ; the 
 Baroness Nairne, the Ettrick Shepherd, and 
 Captain Charles Gray, wrote verses full of 
 life and enthusiasm on the old theme. 
 
 News of the arrival of the Prince soon 
 reached the English authorities. Two com- 
 panies of infantry were sent to reinforce the 
 garrison at Fort William, but were attacked 
 by a party of the Glengarry Highlanders and 
 others, and taken prisoners. The general 
 rendezvous of the clans who hurried to join 
 the Prince was at Glenfinnan, a narrow 
 valley between lofty mountains. There, in a 
 shepherd's hut, the Prince awaited his friends. 
 On the 19th of August, Lochiel arrived with 
 about 600 followers, fine men, well armed ; a 
 standard made of white, blue, and red silk 
 (" the red, white, and blue," is not, it will be 
 seen, averymodern combination) was unfurled 
 by Tullibardine; and a manifesto from James 
 and his commission of regency were read. 
 Then Charles addressed the chiefs, and the 
 clansmen, who probably did not understand 
 a word he said, but could understand the 
 expression of his face and his gestures, shouted 
 and threw up their bonnets. A marble 
 column now marks the spot where the stan- 
 dard was raised. Before the day closed, Mac- 
 Donald of Keppoch arrived with 300 men, 
 and a detachment of the MacLeods followed ; 
 and on the morrow the little but gradually 
 increasing force moved southward. Before 
 a couple of days had elapsed, the Prince was 
 at the head of about 1,600 men, all ready to 
 respond with Highland vigour to the question, 
 " Wha wad na fecht for Charlie ? " 
 
 English Preparations. 
 When the news reached London, Ministers 
 took measures to meet the danger, which did 
 not seem to be very alarming. As a first 
 step a reward of ^30,000 was offered for the 
 Prince's apprehension ; but they hesitated, 
 as the King was in Hanover, to send more 
 troops to Scotland, although Sir John Cope, 
 the English commander there, asked for re- 
 inforcements. Cope concentrated his forces 
 near Stirling ; and then the Marquis of 
 Tweeddale, Secretary of State for Scotland, 
 
 76 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 and the Lords of the Regency, ordered him to 
 march into the Highlands. With about 1,500 
 infantry and four field-pieces, Cope set out 
 from Stirling for Crieff, intending to reach 
 Fort Augustus, one of the three forts built to 
 curb the Highlands. He left his cavalry, 
 the dragoons commanded by Gardiner and 
 Hamilton, behind, the country to be traversed 
 being almost inpracticable to horsemen. The 
 General thought that he would be joined by a 
 considerable force of loyal subjects at Crieff, 
 but none appeared. He received information 
 that the Prince's forces intended to oppose 
 him at Corryarrak, an immense mountain, 
 
 Highlanders would have pursued, but the 
 cooler leaders saw the advantage that had 
 been gained. Cope had gone northwards, 
 and the road to Stirling and Edinburgh 
 was open. Highlanders continued to join 
 the Prince's standard — not the less eagerly, 
 some said, because there was now a prospect 
 of a profitable raid on the Lowlands. Blair 
 Castle was reached on the 30th of August, 
 and the Whig Duke having fled, Tullibardine 
 took possession as rightful owner, and grandly 
 feasted the Prince and his friends. James 
 Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, — one of those 
 who inherited the poetic traditions of the 
 
 Flora Macdonald. 
 
 traversed by a steep and extremely difficult 
 military road, between him and Fort Augustus. 
 His most experienced officers warned him of 
 the danger of attempting to cross the moun- 
 tain, when even a very small force of High- 
 landers could bar his way and inflict great 
 damage ; and the astute President Duncan 
 Forbes advised him, from his knowledge of 
 the locality, that disaster awaited him. Cope 
 was either amazingly obstinate or afraid to dis- 
 obey Tweeddale's orders. At Dalwhinnie the 
 Highlanders were seen on the hills, and then 
 Cope, realizing the difficulties of his situation, 
 abandoned the zig-zag military road, and 
 directed his march towards Inverness. The 
 
 Jacobite times — has commemorated the 
 gathering at Athol in memorable verses : — 
 ' ' Cam' ye by Athol, lad wi' the philabcg, 
 
 Down by the Tummel or banks of the Garry, 
 Saw ye our lads wi' their bonnets and white cockades, 
 
 Leaving their mountains to follow Prince Charlie? 
 Follow thee ? follow thee ? who wadna follow thee ? 
 
 Long hast thou loved and trusted us fairly ! 
 Charlie, Charlie, wha wadna follow thee. 
 
 King of the Highland hearts, bonnie Prince 
 Charlie? " 
 
 On the 4th of September the Prince arrived 
 at Perth. His money was spent. It is stated 
 that he had only one Lonis-d'or left ; but he 
 gaily remarked he would soon get more. 
 Armed parties were sent through Angus and 
 
 77 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Fife, and having proclaimed King James, the 
 English public money was seized and taxes 
 levied. The city of Perth gave ^500 ; and 
 some ardent adherents in Edinburgh and 
 other places advanced money, to be repaid 
 when the " King should come to his own 
 again." A ball was given to the ladies in a 
 large old mansionbelongingto Lord Stormont, 
 and there the handsome young Prince showed 
 that he could dance admirably, and the 
 " bonnie Charlie" was bonnier than ever. 
 James Drummond, known to the Jacobites 
 as the Duke of Perth, joined the Chevalier, 
 and so did a much more important adherent, 
 Lord George Murray, a brother of Tulli- 
 bardine, who had "been out" in 1715, — a 
 soldier of great experience and ability, who, 
 although he had been pardoned by the 
 English Government and allowed to live 
 peaceably on his estates, could not resist the 
 call to support "the cause;" but who soon 
 quarrelled with Sheridan and others, for 
 whom he expressed, with little reserve, great 
 contempt. A printing press was set up at 
 Perth, and a burlescfue reward of ^30 offered 
 for " the apprehension of the Elector of 
 Hanover." 
 
 On the nth of September the Highland 
 army left Perth, and on the next day pushed 
 on to Dunblane, and thence to the Firth of 
 Forth, which they prepared to cross at Frew, 
 where the river is fordable at low water. About 
 eight miles above Stirling, Gardiner's dra- 
 goons were on the opposite bank ; but at the 
 sight of the Highlanders they retreated to- 
 wards Leith. The river was crossed, Stirling 
 Castle passed,the famous field of Bannockburn 
 traversed, and Falkirk reached, the Prince 
 passing the night at Callendar, the seat of 
 the Earl of Kilmarnock. Lord George 
 Murray, with a thousand Highlanders made 
 a rapid march to Linlithgow, hoping to 
 come up with the dragoons, but the valiant 
 horsemen preferred to hurry away when they 
 heaid John Highlandman was coming. 
 
 At Linlithgow and Edinburgh. 
 On the evening of Sunday the TJth of 
 September, the Prince took up his quarters 
 in the old royal palace so intimately associ- 
 ated with his ancestors of the kingly house 
 of Stuart, within sixteen miles of Edinburgh, 
 where a panic reigned. Volunteers were 
 enrolled, mostly tradesmen and young 
 students, animated by the best intentions, but 
 extremely deficient in military knowledge. 
 Some efforts were hurriedlymade tostrengthen 
 the walls, and application was made to 
 General Guest, the commandant at the Castle, 
 for assistance ; but the garrison was small, and 
 he could not spare a man. The Highlanders 
 were the " bogies " of the peaceful Edinboro' 
 folk, and the most terrible consequences were 
 predicted to follow should they enter the 
 
 town. The Prince sent a messenger to the 
 city to tell the people that, if they admitted 
 him peaceably all would be well, but other- 
 wise, they must make up their minds for the 
 worst. At Colt's Bridge, on the road to 
 Corstorphine, now almost a suburb of Edin- 
 burgh, Gardiner had posted a detachment of 
 dragoons, but they retreated, at first leisurely, 
 but afterwards with great rapidity, and the 
 " canter of Colt's Bridge" was for long after- 
 wards a popular jocular reference. Very ex- 
 aggerated estimates of the Prince's force were 
 made, and the Provost resolved to send a de- 
 putation which could only bring back a reply 
 that the Prince demanded to be received into 
 the city as the representative of his father the 
 lawful king, and that he would only wait a few 
 hours for their answer. A second' deputation 
 was sent, but the Prince would not see the 
 messenger, who returned in a desponding 
 state. Some of the Highlanders reached 
 Edinburgh before them, and when the old 
 gate of the Netherbow was opened to allow 
 their coach to pass, Lochiel and 800 High- 
 landers rushed in. 
 
 Edinburgh was won, and the officials were 
 compelled to proclaim, in high state, with 
 heralds in their showy dresses, King James, 
 at the Market Cross, to read the commission 
 from James, and the manifesto of the young 
 Prince. Chiefly through the exertions of 
 Lochiel, the Highlanders were kept from 
 plundering, and even, it is said, from drinking 
 whisky. In the evening Holyrood was lighted 
 up, and in the long gallery, adorned with 
 that wonderful collection of manufactured 
 portraits of a hundred Scottish kings (the 
 hundred a very unhistorical number), " each 
 and every one painted with a nose like the 
 knocker of a door,'' according to Scott, the 
 Prince gave a ball, well attended, for there 
 was a strong latent element of Jacobitism in 
 the old city, and the ladies were delighted 
 with the gracious manners and graceful 
 dancing of the young Chevalier. 
 
 Cope had landed with his troops, artillery, 
 and stores, at Dunbar, and on the 19th of 
 September, started for Edinburgh, moving 
 slowly along the main road, and encountering 
 no opposition. He and his officers appear to 
 have thought that the Pretender's forces would 
 advance and meet them ; but the High- 
 landers liked to fight in their own fashion. 
 While Cope was advancing in regular military 
 order, the Highlanders were making their 
 way over the hills ; and when the English 
 general had reached Prestonpans, near Seaton, 
 and about ten miles from Edinburgh, the 
 hostile forces came in sight of each other. 
 The Prince had been joined by the Earl of 
 Kellie, Lord Balmerino, Sir Stewart Threip- 
 land. Sir David Murray, and some other 
 Lowland gentlemen. More Highlanders had 
 arrived in hot haste ; and Sir Walter Scott 
 
 78 
 
OUT IN THE FORTY-FIVE. 
 
 relates how one of the chiefs, Grant of Glen- 
 moriston, rushed into the Prince's presence 
 at Holyrood with unceremonious speed, 
 without having attended to the duties of his 
 toilet. The Prince, who was disposed to 
 insist a little on etiquette in a royal palace, 
 received him kindly, but not without a hint 
 that a previous interview with the barber 
 would have been advantageous. " It is not 
 beardless boys," answered the displeased 
 chief, " who are to do your Royal Highness's 
 turn." 
 
 The Battle of Prestonpans. 
 Between the Prince's army and Cope's was 
 a swamp, which did not appear to be passable, 
 and for the remainder of the day both sides 
 were inactive. But in the night, Robert 
 Anderson, a Jacobite livinginthe neighbour- 
 hood, undertook to show a way by which 
 the morass could be crossed. The passage 
 was accomplished before daylight ; and then 
 followed the battle of Prestonpans, the defeat 
 of Cope, and the death of the pious and brave 
 Colonel Gardiner. The fight was short, but 
 the victory was complete. The dragoons 
 displayed their customary talent at running 
 away. The infantry, appalled by the tremendous 
 onslaught of the Highlanders with their clay- 
 mores, surrendered by hundreds ; eighty officers 
 were taken prisoners, and the tents, baggage, 
 and military chests fell into the hands of the 
 Prince's troops, whose loss was very slight. 
 The Prince remained on the field till mid-day, 
 giving orders for the relief of the wounded on 
 both sides, and slept that night at Pinkie 
 House. He found ^1,500 in Cope's military 
 chest ; and as his troops had shown con- 
 siderable alacrity in obtaining money, pro- 
 visions, stores, and arms, from the towns- 
 people and others, he was fairly well provided. 
 The castle held out, and the commandant. 
 Guest, even fired into the town, and did 
 some damage. On his return from Pinkie, 
 the Prince made a triumphant entry into 
 Edinburgh, Highlanders firing into the air to 
 show their joy ; and night after night there 
 were gay doings at Holyrood. 
 
 Parliament met on the i8th of October, 
 and there was, of course, great excitement in 
 England. The merchants of London sub- 
 scribed large sums for the equipment of 
 troops, and regiments were raised in various 
 parts of the country. Dutch and Danish 
 troops came over, and the Duke of Cumber- 
 land (" the butcher," as he was afterwards 
 called) arrived from Flanders to take the 
 chief command. On his part, the Prince 
 issued proclamations denouncing the English 
 " pretended Parliament," and declaring that 
 the Act of Union was abolished. A French 
 ship arrived with money, experienced officers, 
 about 5,000 stands of arms, and M. de 
 Boyer, who brought letters of congratulation 
 
 from Louis XV. The Prince formed a 
 regular Council of State ; he was joined by 
 other Highland chiefs, a.nd by the end of 
 October was at the head of nearly 6,000 men, 
 tolerably well appointed. 
 
 White Cockades over the Border. 
 On the 1st of November began the march 
 to England. Nearly a thousand more High- 
 landers joined the standard, and the army 
 was divided into two columns — the first, with 
 the baggage, artillery, etc., to move upon 
 Carlisle ; the second, headed by Charles 
 himself, to enter England by way of North- 
 umberland, and meet General Wade, the 
 English commander, who was posted at 
 Newcastle. Many Highlanders deserted 
 before the border was reached, but the 
 greater number were faithful and enthu- 
 siastic. Fifty years afterwards, the "screed" 
 of the bagpipes seems to have rung in the 
 ears of Baroness Nairne, who caught the 
 tone of the wild music, and Avrote as if she 
 had seen the white cockades on the march, 
 and the gallant Charlie himself with all his 
 brave surrounding : — 
 
 " Wi' a hundred pipers, an a', an a,' 
 Wi' a hundred pipers, an a', an a,' 
 We'll up, and we'll gi'e them a blaw, a blaw, 
 Wi' a hundred pipers, an a', an a'. 
 
 " It is ower the border, awa', awa', 
 It is ower the border, awa', awa'. 
 Oh, we'll on, an' we'll march to Carlisle Ha ! 
 Wi' its getts, its castel, an' a', an a'. 
 
 " Oh, wha is the foremaist o' a', an' a' ? 
 Who is it first follows the blaw, the blaw ? — 
 Bonnie Charlie, the King o' us a', an" a', 
 Wi' his hundred pipers, an' a', an' a'." 
 
 The border was crossed, Carlisle was taken 
 with little difficulty, and the Prince entered 
 in triumph, but received rather a cold wel- 
 come. Already dissensions and jealousies 
 were breaking out in his army, and there 
 were divided counsels. Some of the leaders 
 advocated a direct march southwards, in 
 assurance that the Lancashire men would 
 join the standard ; others thought that 
 General Wade should be attacked at New- 
 castle ; and not a few advised a return to 
 Scotland, as there were no signs of assistance 
 from France. The last course would be 
 attended with difficulties. Edinburgh had 
 been reinforced ; the Highland Whigs were 
 mustering their forces ; Glasgow, Paisley, 
 Dumfries, Dundee, and other great towns 
 declared for King George. Marshal Wade 
 had collected a strong force and was march- 
 ing against Carlisle, and the Duke of Cumber- 
 land was at Lichfield, Liverpool and Chester 
 were arming, and the former town furnished 
 a very important addition to Cumberland's 
 forces. 
 
 Back Again ! 
 
 79 
 
 It is not necessary to relate all the move- 
 ments of the Princes' divided, quarrelsome 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and partially despondent army. Preston, 
 Wigan, and Manchester were reached, and at 
 Derby the southward march was ended. The 
 leaders saw that the expedition had failed, 
 and a retreat was decided on. Cumberland 
 was advancing with a large army, including 
 many veterans of Dettingen and Fontenoy, 
 and Marshal Wade was on the move. The 
 retreat began with some appearance of order, 
 but soon assumed the character of a disas- 
 trous flight. The Highlanders robbed vil- 
 lages and farmhouses, and there were many 
 small fights between them and the country 
 people. Major-General Oglethorpe, with a 
 detachment of Wade's army, harassed the 
 fugitives ; and Cumberland was in full pur- 
 suit. On the 2oth of December, the Prince, 
 with a fragment of his army, a mere rabble, 
 crossed tlie Esk and was once more in 
 Scotland. 
 
 Then followed the light at Falkirk,— the 
 Prince's troops having been strengthened and 
 probably re-organized, — in which General 
 Hawley, the English commander, was shame- 
 fully defeated— " ran away," say the Jacobite 
 song writers and anecdotists ; the retreat 
 from Stirling, and at length the culminating 
 disaster. The resolute, pitiless Cumberland 
 was on the trail ; and at Drummossie Moor, 
 better known as CuUoden, near Inverness, on 
 the i6th of April, struck a blow which ended 
 the rebellion. Of the friends of Charles there 
 perished on that terrible day, either in action 
 or in the pell-mell retreat, nearly 2,500. The 
 fugitives were hunted down like wild beasts, 
 the wounded were massacred in cold blood, 
 women and children were killed, and for three 
 months there was a "war of extermination." 
 
 The Young Chevalier a Fugitive. 
 
 Charles Edward himself, no more a gallant 
 Prince at the head of an enthusiastic army, 
 but a miserable fugitive, wandered for five 
 months, trusting to the fidelity of his friends 
 for concealment and safety. He hid for 
 some time amid the little islands of the 
 Hebrides, at times almost starved, and 
 suffering terrible privations ; and when 
 English ships appeared off the islands, and 
 English soldiers landed to search for the 
 fugitive, he escaped, disguised in woman's 
 clothes, with the aid of a brave young lady. 
 Flora Macdonald, whose name lives in legend 
 and song. He reached Skye in safety, but 
 the generous Flora was captured and taken 
 prisoner to London. The Prince reached 
 the mainland, was hidden for a time in a 
 cave on the great mountain of Corado, 
 between Kintail and Glenmoriston, protected 
 by Highland " sheep-lifters," thieves by pro- 
 fession, but not one unfaithful to his trust. 
 
 Escape to France. 
 At length, on the 13th of September, 
 
 Charles Edward left the cave, having received 
 a message to the effect that two French 
 frigates were off the coast. Several of his old 
 friends had also been communicated with ; 
 and on the 20th of the month, he, with 
 Lochiel, and about a hundred others, em- 
 barked at Lochnanaugh, the very spot where 
 fourteen months before he had landed so full 
 of ambition and hope. He reached Paris 
 and was well received ; but the cause of the 
 Stuarts had received its deathblow. Some 
 of his adherents were beheaded on Tower 
 Hill, others of meaner sort were hanged. 
 Feeble attempts to revive the Stuart cause 
 were made from time to time, but the gallant 
 young Chevalier soon became almost a 
 legendary hero. Stuart selfishness, Stuart 
 duplicity, Stuart profligacy, developed in his 
 character. His friends fell away. English 
 gentlemen would not risk their lives for a 
 man who would not dismiss a mistress who 
 had intimate relations with the Court of King 
 George. It is believed that he more than 
 once visited London secretly ; indeed, Dr. 
 King, a warm adherent of the Stuarts, has 
 left it on record that he met him in private at 
 the house of a lady of rank. Some writers 
 have averred that he was present at the 
 coronation of George III. ; and the King 
 himself was able to inform his Ministers, 
 some years afterwards, that the young Pre- 
 tender was in London. " Leave him to 
 himself," added the monarch, " and when he 
 tires he will go back again." 
 
 " Let us," wrote Scott in the Quarterly, 
 "be just to the memory of the unfortunate. 
 Without courage, he had never made the 
 attempt ; without address and military talent, 
 he had never kept together his own desultory 
 bands, or discomfited the more experienced 
 soldiers of his enemy ; and finally, without 
 patience, resolution, and fortitude, he could 
 never have supported his cause so long under 
 successive disappointments, or fallen at last 
 with honour, by an accumulated and over- 
 whelming pressure." The story of Charles 
 Edward has almost created a literature. The 
 Jacobite songs, unsurpassed for fire and en- 
 thusiasm, form a volume in themselves ; and 
 to "The Forty-five," we owe the Waverley 
 Novels. 
 
 There died at Florence, on the 31st of 
 January, 1788, in his 68th year, a bloated, 
 brutal, profligate man, an habitual drunkard, 
 who had beaten and ill-treated his young 
 wife, a Princess of Stolberg Guendern, and 
 who seemed capable only of exhibiting affec- 
 tion for one person, his illegitimate daughter, 
 whom he styled Duchess of Albany. That 
 unhappy man, who attracted no friends, a 
 reprobate and a sot, was the last Stuart who 
 chiimed the throne of England — " Bonnie 
 Prince Charlie." 
 
 G. R. E. 
 
 %o 
 
Old London Bridge in the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 WILKES AND LIBERTY 
 
 THE STORY OF A POPULAR VICTORY. 
 
 A Great Diplomatist and an Important Meeting— John Wilkes, the Best-abused Public Man of his Time— State of Affairs 
 at the Death of George II. — The New King; His Ideas of Royal Prerogative— A King's Favourite; A Singular 
 Prime Minister— A Lesson to Royalty— The Minister and his Novel Policy— A Government Press— The Briton and 
 the Auditor^-^Wk&'i and his Early Career; The Medmenham Monks— TA^ North Briton; The Famous Forty-fifth 
 Number— General Warrant— Wilkes Committed to the Tower— Liberation of Wilkes; His First Triumph— Churchill 
 — Lord Temple— Successful Actions— Personal Animosity of the King; Prosecution for a Profligate Book— Culprit 
 and Accusers— "Jemmy Twitcher"— A Duel— Expulsion from Parliament— Public Agitation — Rockingham Ad- 
 ministration—Middlesex Elections — Wilkes a Popular Hero— Persecution and its Consequences— Important Questiori. 
 —Freedom of Election- Release of Wilkes— His Return and Triumphs— His Last Years— Conclusion. 
 
 A Great Diplomatist and an Important 
 Meeting. 
 jHAT fussiest and most indefatigable 
 of men in the managing of small 
 affairs, Tames Boswell, Esq., of 
 Auchinleck, devotes a number of 
 pages of his " Life of Johnson" to the relation 
 of a piece of diplomacy on which the good- 
 natured follower of " My illustrious friend " 
 evidently prided himself not a little, and the 
 success of which he seems to regard as the 
 Machiavellian triumph of his life. Boswell, 
 who ran after every one who was famous or 
 even notorious, and was equally proud of 
 being "the friend" of Paoli and ''the friend'' I 
 of Johnson, had conceived the idea that the | 
 Doctor, monarchist and high churchman as 
 he was, and given to declare in thunderous i 
 tones, " The Crown has not power enough, 
 sir," might yet be induced to find some- 
 thing congenial in the man who was, or at 
 least had been, considered the chief dema- 
 
 8i 
 
 gogue of his time, and the most formidable 
 opponent of the Crown, — Mr. John Wilkes, or- 
 as the Doctor was accustomed less cere- 
 moniously to dub him, "Jack Wilkes." He 
 according devised a notable scheme to 
 bring the two men together. First, by in- 
 sinuating a doubt whether Johnson would 
 not be offended at being asked to meet 
 people he disliked at the table of a friend, he 
 artfully entrapped the Doctor into a boister- 
 ous declaration that a man had a right to 
 invite anyone he pleased to his table, and 
 that he, Johnson, would never question that 
 right or call his host to account for using it ; 
 then he went off and proposed to Mr. Dilly, 
 the bookseller of the Poultry, that he should 
 ask Johnson and Wilkes to dinner on the 
 same day. " Dr. Johnson would never for- 
 give me," cried the startled bibliopole. But 
 Boswell persevered, and magnanimously 
 offered to take all the consequences on him- 
 self. He conveyed a respectful invitation 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HIS 7 OR Y. 
 
 from Mr. Dilly to the sage, who complacently 
 replied : " Sir, I am obliged to Mr. Dilly. I 
 will wait upon him." But when the day 
 came, Johnson had forgotten all about Dilly 
 and his dinner, and Boswell calling for him, 
 found him literally in the clouds, for he was 
 vigorously dusting his books ; and on being 
 reminded of his engagement, replied doubt- 
 fully that he had promised to dine at home 
 with blind Mrs. Williams. But Boswell was 
 not to be put off. He boldly promised to 
 win over the lady to consent ; and by 
 piteously pleading the disgrace he should 
 suffer if the chief guest did not put in an 
 appearance at Mr. Dilly's dinner, he softened 
 Mrs. WiUiams into yielding ; whereupon the 
 sage, not ill-pleased, perhaps, with the change 
 in the day's programme, roared out to Frank 
 Barber for a clean shirt, and was presently 
 carried off by Boswell, who describes his 
 own elation as equal to that of a fortune- 
 hunter who had secured an heiress to make 
 a trip with him to Gretna Green. 
 
 He then tells how disturbed Johnson was 
 when, on arriving at Mr. Dilly's, he found 
 that a certain gentleman in lace "was no 
 other than Mr. Wilkes ; " and how he was 
 fain to take up a book and pretend to read, to 
 hide his discomfiture ; but, mindful probably 
 of his own words a few days before, said 
 nothing ; how the announcement of dinner 
 came as a welcome relief to the awkwardness 
 of the situation ; how the artful Mr. Wilkes, 
 boldly taking his seat near Johnson, was 
 assiduously bent on attacking him through 
 one of the Doctor's weak points, his appre- 
 ciation of his dinner ; perseveringly pressing 
 upon him an especially good dish of veal 
 with a dash of lemon or orange — until the 
 sage, who had intended to wrap himself up 
 in " surly virtue," was induced to respond 
 with, " Sir, sir, you are very obliging, sir ; " 
 and the ice having been once broken, they 
 got on remarkably well together, and sepa- 
 rated mutually pleased with each other, 
 to the delight and triumph of diplomatic 
 Boswell. 
 
 John Wilkes, the Best- abused Public 
 Man of his Time. 
 The person who managed to conquer the 
 sage of Bolt Court was certainly during a 
 part of his career, and even to some extent 
 after his death, the best-abused man in 
 England. Macaulay, while acknowledging 
 the illegality and foolishness of the persecu- 
 tion to which he was subjected at the hands 
 of George III. and His Majesty's Ministers, 
 yet speaks of him as "that worthless 
 demagogue, Wilkes." Lord Brougham has 
 treated him with no more courtesy or con- 
 sideration ; and Earl Russell has cast the 
 heaviest of stones at his memory. The 
 terrible caricature by Hogarth, in which he 
 
 is depicted in squinting hideousness, has 
 dwelt in men's memory, and has caused him 
 to be set down as a monster whose external 
 ugliness was a true indication of his mind ; 
 and very few have been disposed to give him 
 any credit for the real and meritorious ser- 
 vice he did to the nation at large, in standing 
 up for personal freedom and the liberty of 
 the press at a time when both were seriously 
 jeopardised. The homely proverb concern- 
 ing giving a dog a bad name and hanging 
 him, never had a truer illustration than in 
 the case of this man, whose strange fate it 
 was to be successively a borough member, 
 High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and colonel 
 of militia, a prisoner in the Tower, an out- 
 law, a prisoner again, alderman of the ward 
 of Farringdon-without, Lord Mayor of 
 London, sheriff, knight of the shire for 
 Middlesex, and chamberlain of the City, 
 Time, that effaces many prejudices, and puts 
 forward men and things in their true colours 
 at last, has done something towards award- 
 ing justice to Wilkes ; and it may not be 
 uninteresting to our readers, if we put before 
 them briefly the facts that rendered the ex- 
 member for Aylesbury for a series of years 
 one of the most conspicuous men in the 
 country ; his name being so much in every- 
 body's mouth, that Horace Walpole records 
 how a member of a mercantile firm inadver- 
 tently began a business letter with the 
 extraordinary exordium, "We take the Wilkes 
 and liberty of informing you," etc., instead of 
 the usual opening sentence. 
 
 State of Affairs at the End of the 
 Reign of George 11. 
 
 The reign of George II. closed in a blaze 
 of triumph in England. William Pitt, " the 
 Great Commoner," as the people affection- 
 ately called him, who had won the foremost 
 place in the councils of his country without 
 the aid of high birth or strong family connec- 
 tion, was at the height of his power and popu- 
 larity. The armies and fleets of England 
 had been everywhere successful, and the 
 misfortunes and tragic death of poor Byng 
 had been forgotten, effaced in the glorious 
 successes of army and navy in Canada, and 
 on the French coast, and in distant India. 
 " May our commanders have the eye of a 
 Hawke and the heart of a Wolfe T'' was a 
 favourite toast, in punning allusion to the 
 names of two of the greatest leaders. The 
 nation was more than content, and cheerfully 
 paid even the annual subsidy for the army 
 of the great Frederick of Prussia, who was 
 then in the very midst of the gigantic struggle 
 of the " Seven Years' War.'' Prosperous in 
 commerce, and successful in war, with an 
 old king who wisely " let well alone," and left 
 the popular ministry to do its best, all went 
 well till the death of George II. placed his 
 
 82 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 grandson on the throne, and a new epoch 
 began in the history of England. 
 
 For the first time since the Revolution of 
 1688, royal prerogative began to assert itself 
 against popular liberty in England. With 
 the exception of Queen Anne, who, though at 
 heart a Tory, was compelled by her position 
 to govern chiefly with a Whig Ministry and 
 on Whig principles, every monarch in England 
 since 1688 had been a foreigner, and as such 
 compelled scrupulously to keep within the 
 strict limits traced by the the Constitution 
 and the Declaration of Rights. The first and 
 second Georges had preferred Hanover to 
 
 The New King and his Ideas of Royal 
 Prerogative. 
 
 But when George III. came to the throne, 
 his position was very different. He was 
 able to announce to the nation immedi- 
 ately after his accession that "he gloried 
 in the name of a Briton," and to point to 
 the fact that he had been born and bred in 
 England. Since his father's death, nine years 
 before, he had been brought up in almost 
 entire seclusion, under the care of his mother, 
 the Princess Dowager of Wales, who has 
 been credited, rightly or wrongly, with instil. 
 
 William Hogarth, one of the Detractors of Wilkes. 
 
 England, got away when they could from 
 St. James's to Herrenhausen, and let things 
 take their course. The sarcastic mock epitaph 
 written on the second George, that represents 
 the monarch as saying, — 
 
 " I neither had manners, nor morals, nor wit, 
 I was not much missed when I died in a fit," — 
 
 had some truth in its scurrility ; for the first 
 two Georges never had any great hold upon 
 the respect or affection of their English 
 subjects. They had been accepted to avoid 
 the dismal alternative of a son of James II. ; 
 and they fully understood the state of affairs 
 in England. 
 
 ling into her son those aspirations towards 
 arbitrary power which he began to display 
 almost from the day of his accession. His 
 hostility towards the Ministry began to mani- 
 fest itself from the very first ; and one by one 
 the members of that Ministry were compelled 
 to resign their positions, the great Commoner 
 himself forming no exception ; though in his 
 case his fall was softened by expressions of 
 appreciation on the part of the young king 
 for the great things he had done, and by 
 substantial marks of the royal favour, such 
 at the bestowal of a peerage on the wife of 
 the retiring minister. The Duke of New- 
 castle, the nominal head of the administra- 
 
 ^l 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tion, clung to office with the tenacity of servile, 
 all-enduring ambition, — a persistence that re- 
 calls Dickens's picture of one of the Barnacle 
 family "sticking to a post." He endured 
 mortification and humiliation of various kinds 
 from which the haughty spirit of Pitt would 
 have instinctively shrunk, allowed himself to 
 be insultingly reminded of the days " when 
 he had the power " to promote a supporter, 
 and to the great detriment of his self-respect 
 put off the evil day of resignation to the very 
 last, — with no result, however, but that of 
 lengthening out his mortification and grief; 
 he had to acknowledge at last that the game 
 was lost, and to retire from a position that 
 even to the most meek-spirited of men would 
 have been unendurable. 
 
 For the King had determined that none but 
 his own " friends," men raised by his favour 
 to power and dependent upon his good-will for 
 the continuance of their offices, should hold 
 great places in the Government. He was the 
 resolved to emancipate himself from the 
 thraldom in which he considered his grand- 
 father and great grandfather to have been 
 held ; and especially put forward a favourite 
 of his own for the position of First Lord of the 
 Treasury. 
 
 A King's Favourite ; An Unusual 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 This favourite was John, Earl of Bute, a 
 Scottish nobleman, who had been groom of 
 the stole in the service of Frederick, Prince 
 of Wales, and had continued to occupy a 
 high place in the confidence, indeed, scandal 
 said, the highest place in the affection, of the 
 Princess Dowager after her husband's death. 
 Lord Waldegrave, in his "Memoirs," has placed 
 on record the sarcasm quoted by Macaulay, 
 in which the Prince pronounced his opinon 
 that Bute was the very man to be minister at 
 some German Court, where there was no 
 business to transact ; — hardly the man, one 
 would think, to take the foremost place in an 
 English government. And yet to the fore- 
 most place was Bute promoted ; for, on the 
 fall of Newcastle, he was made Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 The appointment seemed at first like a 
 jest, and a very sorry one ; and the public, in 
 its amazement, could scarcely believe the 
 news to be true. Of experience in parlia- 
 mentary life, Bute had actually none. He 
 delivered his maiden speech from the Trea- 
 sury bench as Prime Minister, acquitting him- 
 self, indeed, with more dignity and self-pos- 
 session than his hearers had expected, though 
 his utterances were marred by the pomposity 
 which Lord Waldegrave describes as 
 characteristic of him on every occasion 
 important or unimportant ; and a wit, amused 
 by the long theatrical pauses he made in his 
 sentences, called out, " Minute guns !" The 
 
 84 
 
 amazement was soon converted to indigna- 
 tion by the system adopted, in deference to 
 his master's wishes, by the new Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 George IIL had already given undoubted 
 proofs of that hatred of the Whigs which 
 continued to be his prevailing characteristic 
 so long as life and reason remained to him. 
 A system of persecution began, which after a 
 time extended to all of that party — from the 
 Duke of Devonshire, to whom the King sent 
 so insulting a message by a page, that the 
 indignant nobleman tore off the golden key 
 he wore as chamberlain, and flung it on the 
 ground, down to the custom-house officers, 
 messengers, and housekeepers who had been 
 appointed by his predecessors. It was 
 wittily observ^ed that Bute turned out every- 
 body who owed his place to the Whigs, 
 except the King. It quickly became mani- 
 fest that High Tory principles were indispen- 
 sable for the securing of court favour and 
 patronage ; and when it appeared that, in 
 addition to this qualification, unbounded 
 servihty was required, and that Scottish 
 extraction was almost as necessary, the 
 public indignation against the Minister 
 became intense, and Bute could hardly appear 
 in the streets for fear of insult or even 
 personal injury. 
 
 A Lesson to Royalty ; The Minister 
 AND HIS Novel Policy. 
 One instance is particularly recorded, in 
 which George III. received an unmistakable 
 indication of the direction public opinion 
 was taking. Not long after the dismissal of 
 Pitt, the King, who had recently married, 
 came with the Queen to dine with the city 
 magnates at Guildhall. The people took 
 this opportunity to give the Court apiece of 
 its mind in the shape of a tremendous 
 ovation to Pitt, the fallen minister ; while 
 Bute was hooted as his carriage passed 
 through the streets, and the King and Queen 
 were almost unnoticed. The policy of the 
 Prime Minister, too, was not calculated to 
 win confidence and good-will. He hastened 
 to undo, with most injudicious promptitude, 
 all that his predecessors in office had done. 
 The subsidy paid to the King of Prussia was 
 suddenly withdrawn, and Frederick was aban- 
 doned to his fate, in the very midst of his 
 struggle with Austria and the Powers in league 
 with her. Peace was to be made with France 
 and Spain, though Canada wonfromtheformer, 
 and Havannah and the Philippines wrested 
 from the latter, Power, had made the war a 
 most popular one in England ; but these '\ 
 successes had been gained under a Whig 
 administration, and the war was a part of the 
 Whig policy, and consequently distasteful at 
 court. Pitt had declared that while he was 
 in power England should never make a treaty 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 of Utrecht, that is, a peace in \rhich an 
 ally should be abandoned, as the Archduke, 
 or rather the Emperor, Charles had been 
 abandoned in 1713 ; but the King was 
 determined to carry out this peace, in which 
 some of the most valuable acquisitions of the 
 British crown were given up. Henry Fox, 
 the able and unscrupulous, was induced to 
 lend his powerful aid towards this object. 
 Sixty thousand pounds was spent in bribing 
 members of the House of Commons ; and in 
 spite of the strenuous opposition of Pitt, who 
 though suffering ci-uelly from gout, came 
 down to the House, and spoke long and 
 vehemently against the peace, the measure 
 was carried by a large majority ; and great 
 was the triumph of the King, the Prime 
 Minister, and the Princess Dowager of Wales. 
 The popular excitement and ferment caused 
 by these events is amusingly illustrated in a 
 passage from a letter by 
 Mrs. Scott, a sister of 
 Mrs. Montagu, quoted 
 by Mr. Rae in his 
 ■*' Lives of the Opposi- 
 tion Leaders under 
 George HI." "If you 
 order a mason to build 
 an oven," this lady 
 writes, " he immediately 
 inquires about the pro- 
 gress of the peace, and 
 descants on the prelimi- 
 naries. A carpenter, 
 instead of putting up a 
 cupboard, talks of the 
 Princess Dowager, of 
 Lord Treasurers, and of 
 Secretaries of State. 
 Neglected lie the trowel 
 and the chisel, the 
 
 mortar dries, and the John Wilkes. 
 
 glue hardens,"— here the 
 lady becomes poetical, — " while the persons 
 who should use them are busy with disserta- 
 tions on the Government." 
 
 A Government Press; The "Briton" 
 AND THE "Auditor." 
 
 Since the death of Queen Anne, the various 
 Ministeries had cared little for the support of 
 writers in the public press ; the ascendency 
 of the Whigs for a long series of years had 
 been too complete to render such assistance 
 necessary ; and as Lord Macaulay observes, 
 Walpole would have considered as wasted 
 any part of the fund of corruption turned 
 aside from the direct business of buying votes 
 to the payment of pamphleteers. But Bute 
 was fain to call in assistance of this kind ; 
 and Dr. Tobias Smollett, the author of 
 *' Roderick Random" and other coarse and 
 clever novels, and Murphy, the dramatist, 
 
 85 
 
 were called in to uphold the views and pro- 
 ceedings of the Government in the Briton 
 and the Auditor; and if thoroughness ol 
 assertion and vehemence are to be considered 
 as merits, both these gentlemen earned their 
 money well. They had certainly a difficult 
 task to perform ; for, added to Bute's personal 
 unpopularity, the Ministry had to bear the 
 odium of the vagaries of Sir Francis Dash- 
 wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who 
 imposed the detested Cider Tax, and who, 
 Horace Walpole tells us, " with the familiarity 
 and phrase of a fish-wife, introduced the 
 humours of Wapping behind the veil of the 
 Treasury." With a Prime Minister who 
 could not spell, and a Finance Minister who 
 could not cast up a column of figures, the 
 country was strangely served ; and, indeed, 
 Sir Francis was conscious of his deficiencies, 
 and declared, with a ludicrous assumption of 
 distress, that he would 
 be pointed at by the 
 street-boys as the worst 
 Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer that ever was. 
 
 Thus the Briton and 
 the Auditor had to bol- 
 ster up a very bad case ; 
 and to add to their diffi- 
 culties they had not even 
 the ground to them- 
 selves. For presently 
 there appeared on the 
 field an opponent, under 
 the title of the North 
 Briton, a paper written 
 with considerable ability 
 and still greater impu- 
 dence,— confident, volu- 
 ble in assertion, amus- 
 ing and smart in style, 
 and putting unpleasant 
 truths concerning the 
 Government in the plainest language, and 
 heaping merciless ridicule upon the Ministry 
 and all its works. The audacious new-comer 
 also took a step in advance of its predecessors 
 by scorning the half-concealment of initials, 
 and printing every name, from that of the King 
 downwards, in full. And great was the wrath 
 of the King and the Ministry at the audacity 
 of this graceless North Briton, whose course 
 they endeavoured in vain to stop by threaten- 
 ing an action for libel, which threat the pro- 
 prietor turned into a convenient advertisement 
 by informing his readers of it; whereupon 
 the circulation of the paper increased at this 
 practical proof of the annoyance it was causing 
 to the Government. 
 
 Wilkes and his early Career; The 
 
 Medmenham Monks. 
 
 The proprietor who contrived so deeply to 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 interest his readers, and to exasperate the 
 Ministry, was John Wilkes, Member of 
 Parhament for Aylesbury. He was born in 
 1727, the second son of Israel Wilkes, a 
 wealthy distiller of London ; and having from 
 an early age shown considerable ability, had 
 been well educated ; beginning his course at 
 a school at Hertford, then being removed to 
 Aylesbury, and completing his studies at the 
 university of Leyden, in Holland. After 
 travelling some time on the Continent, he 
 returned to England ; and at the persuasions 
 of his father, who seems to have had a con- 
 siderable care for the main chance, he 
 married, at the age of twenty-two, a Miss 
 Mead, a young lady who had a fortune, and 
 was his senior by more than ten years. 
 Wilkes himself afterwards spoke of this 
 union as "a sacrifice to Plutus, not to Venus." 
 A daughter was born to him, of whom he 
 appears to have been devotedly fond, main- 
 taining a correspondence with her to the 
 end of his life : she survived him five years. 
 
 His marriage, as might have been expected, 
 was not a happy one. It was a profligate age, 
 and the young man was rather disposed to go 
 in advance of the evil fashion of the day, than 
 to lag behind it. After a short residence 
 in the house of his wife's mother, in Red Lion 
 Court, in London, he took up his abode with 
 Mrs. Wilkes in Great George Street, West- 
 minster, and there shocked his wife and the 
 proprietors by becoming the associate of 
 about as "fast" a set of demireps as even 
 London could produce in those days when 
 hard drinking, gambling, and the vices 
 generally were considered desirable and even 
 essential qualifications for a man of fashion. 
 Among his chosen companions was Sir 
 Francis Dashwood, before mentioned, the 
 founder of a delectable society of so-called 
 " Monks of St. Francis," at Medmenham, 
 near Marlow on the Thames, an old Cistercian 
 abbey, which he restored for the purpose ; 
 and where a chosen company of profligates 
 of fashion made blackguards of themselves 
 to their hearts' content, singing blasphemous 
 songs, and practising wickedness generally, 
 on a scale that excited the envy of less daring 
 spirits who longed in vain to be admitted to 
 the orgies of the " Hellfire Club," and to join 
 in the parody of religious rites and observ- 
 ances which formed one of the chief attrac- 
 tions at its feasts. Other members of this 
 precious fraternity were Lord Sandwich, after- 
 , wards First Lord of the Admiralty, and Mr. 
 Thomas Potter, son of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, a Member for Aylesbury, and 
 soon afterwards Vice-Treasurer for Ireland. 
 These companions, it may be supposed, were 
 not to the taste of Mrs. Wilkes ; and before 
 er husband joined the Medmenham brother- 
 hood, the ill-assorted couple had already 
 agreed to part, — the best thing under the cir- 
 
 cumstances ; and thenceforth their lives were 
 separated. 
 
 The " North Briton " ; The Famous 
 Forty-fifth Number. 
 
 Wilkes endeavoured to find an opening 
 for a parliamentary career ; and after an un- 
 successful attempt at Berwick-on-Tweed, in 
 1754, he succeeded in getting elected as 
 Member for Aylesbury, in 1757. He must 
 have been looked upon as a person of some 
 consideration in the county of Buckingham, 
 for he became high sheriff, and when the 
 Bucks regiment of militia was formed, he was 
 appointed lieutenant-colonel. He was also 
 a Fellow of the Royal Society. He declared 
 himself an admirer and supporter of William 
 Pitt, the great Commoner ; and soon made 
 himself conspicuous by hostility to the 
 favourite. Lord Bute, — a sentiment in which 
 the great majority of Englishmen very heartily 
 joined. 
 
 When the North Briton had reached its 
 forty-fourth number, not without bringing 
 considerable danger to author, publisher, and 
 printer, he suspended the issue of it for a 
 time, intending to bring it out in volumes as 
 a complete work. Just at that time, to the 
 great surprise of the public, the news had 
 been suddenly spread abroad that the Prime 
 Minister had resigned. Various conjectures 
 were naturally made as to the reason for this 
 totally unexpected and apparently inex- 
 plicable step. The retiring minister himself 
 alleged the wantof support from his colleagues. 
 The theory put forward by Lord Macaulay, 
 in his essay on the " Earl of Chatham," 
 probably comes near the truth. He suggests 
 that Bute, who had not gone through the 
 regular parliamentary routine that hardens a 
 politician, and enables him to bear with 
 equanimity the obloquy that follows the foot- 
 steps of an unpopular statesman, — coming 
 late into the turmoil of political strife, 
 probably considered the sweets of office an 
 inadequate compensation for its disagreeables 
 and restraints, and was glad to get rid of 
 the responsibility he had unwisely assumed. 
 It has been thought also that the King was 
 disappointed in him, and gave him but little 
 support, and that the popular idea of the in- 
 fluence he possessed over George III. was 
 much exaggerated. Be this as it may, it 
 is certain that he retired ; and his successor 
 in office was George Grenville, the brother- 
 in-law of Lord Temple and of William Pitt. 
 It was on the occasion of the speech from the 
 throne in the middle of April, 1763, that the 
 famous forty-fifth number of the North Briton 
 appeared ; and in this number the writer 
 denounced the Ministers as having put into 
 the mouth of their royal master words that 
 were not true and were calculated to mislead 
 the public. Compared with many of the 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 utterances in earlier issues of the North 
 Briton, the strongest passages in the 
 famous No. 45 are not especially objection- 
 able. The writer vents his sarcasm on the 
 Ministers, whom he represents as duping 
 the King ; but had not George III. been 
 spoilt by the crawling flatter}' of the mean- 
 spirited sycophants known as " The King's 
 friends " ? it is difficult to understand what 
 he could have seen in the words to awaken 
 the burning and long enduring hatred 
 cherished towards the writer, and the per- 
 sistent malignity with which he endeavoured 
 to ruin him. The words selected for prose- 
 cution were these : — " The King's speech has 
 always been considered by the legislature and 
 by the public at large as the speech of the 
 Minister. It has regularly, at the beginning 
 of every session of Parliament, been referred 
 by both Houses to the consideration of a 
 committee, and has been generally canvassed 
 with the utmost freedom when the Minister 
 of the Crown has been obnoxious to the 
 nation." The following passages contained 
 the framework of the offence : — " This week 
 has given the public the most abandoned 
 instance of ministerial effrontery ever at- 
 tempted to be imposed on mankind. The 
 Minister's speech of last Tuesday is not to be 
 paralleled in the annals of this country. I 
 am in doubt whether the imposition is greater 
 on the Sovereign or on the nation. Every 
 friend of his country must lament that a 
 prince of so many great and amiable qualities, 
 whom England truly reveres, can be brought 
 to give the sanction of his sacred name to 
 the most odious measures, and to the most 
 unjustifiable public declarations from a throne 
 ever renowned for truth, honour, and unsullied 
 virtue." 
 
 The General Warrant ; Committal of 
 Wilkes to the Tower. 
 Upon this measures were taken to arrest 
 the obnoxious pamphleteer, who it was 
 thought had now laid himself open to an 
 indictment ; and the King gave orders that 
 the law officers of the Crown should be 
 desired to give an opinion on the case. 
 They returned a reply in due course, charac- 
 terising the offending No. 45 as a most 
 infamous and seditious libel, " tending to 
 inflame the minds and alienate the affections 
 of the people from His Majesty, and to excite 
 them to traitorous insurrections against the 
 government," and that the offence committed 
 was one punishable in due course of law 
 as a misdemeanour. They were quite clear, 
 evidently, that John Wilkes had '• laid himself 
 open to an indictment." 
 
 But His Majesty's servants were a little too 
 i hasty in their method of proceeding. "Above 
 I all things, no zeal," was the injunction given 
 I by the astute Talleyrand to a subordinate ; 
 
 87 
 
 and it would have been well had a similar 
 caution been given to His Majesty's Secre- 
 taries of State in the matter of Wilkes and 
 and his paper. A httle indiscreet zeal 
 involved them in very awkward conse- 
 quences. Lord Halifax hastily issued a 
 general warrant for the apprehension of " the 
 authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious 
 and treasonable paper, entitled the North 
 Briton, No. 45, to search for them and their 
 papers, and bring them before him for ex- 
 amination. Upon this, Kearsley and Balfe, 
 the printer and publisher of the incriminated 
 number, were apprehended by a king's 
 messenger ; and being examined before 
 Lord Halifax and his fellow secretary. Lord 
 Egremont, gave up the name of Mr. Wilkes 
 and Charles Churchill as the authors of th-e 
 North Briton generally. This Churchill was 
 the clergyman, known by his dramatic satire, 
 " The Rosciad," and by political satires, 
 " London," etc., in the style of Juvenal, — a 
 talented, disreputable cleric, who did little 
 honour to his cloth. The manuscript of 
 No. 45 of the North Briton was found 
 among th^ papers of the printer Kearsley ; 
 and Wilkes was apprehended near his house 
 in Great George Street, protesting against 
 the proceedings, claiming his privilege as a 
 Member of Parliament, and yielding only to 
 superior force. Being brought at once before 
 Lord Halifax and Egremont, he assumed a 
 very firm, determined tone ; protested once 
 more against his forcible apprehension, 
 declined to answer any questions whatever ; 
 refused to state whether he was the author 
 of No. 45 or not ; professed the greatest 
 loyalty and attachment to the throne ; but 
 avowed his detestation of the Ministry ; and 
 declared that he would bring the matter 
 before Parliament from his place in the 
 House of Commons on the first day of the 
 coming session ; whereupon he was com- 
 mitted to the Tower. 
 
 Liberation of Wilkes ; His First 
 Triumph. 
 
 It is difficult to understand how the 
 Secretaries of State could have seen their 
 way to so strong a measure upon what they 
 had then before them, except on the assump- 
 tion that they wished to please the King, and 
 trusted that His Majesty's influence would 
 bear them harmless in any steps they might 
 take for gratifying his known wishes in this 
 matter. Wilkes is said to have told them 
 plainly that they were doing more than they 
 could justify in arresting him ; and the sequel 
 proved that he was right. The paper they 
 relied on as seditious cei'tainly imputed de- 
 ception to tfce ministers of the King, but 
 could hardly be said to go beyond the legal 
 bounds of criticism, however much it might 
 sin against politeness and urbanity. Various 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 reported speeches of Pitt contain passages 
 quite as strong as, or even stronger than, 
 those for which the writer was here called 
 forcibly to his answer ; for instance, the 
 celebrated answer to the sneer of Horace 
 Walpole, in which, after sarcastically apolo- 
 gizing for "the atrocious crime of being a 
 young man," which he declares he will not 
 attempt either to paUiate or to justify, the 
 orator proceeds to make charges of pro- 
 fligacy and dishonesty against his opponents ; 
 and at a later period, in the House of Lords, 
 
 was searched for evidence against him ; his 
 desk and drawers were broken open, and his 
 private papers, letters, and memoranda 
 carried away, to furnish proof that he was 
 the author of the libel for which he was in 
 custody. These proceedings naturally ex- 
 cited profound indignation ; and even mode- 
 rate men, who had little liking for the Mem- 
 ber for Aylesbury, were disposed to adopt 
 the words of honest Dogberry, and pronounce 
 the seizure to be " flat burglary as ever was 
 committed." 
 
 The Tower of London from the Thames. 
 
 in his celebrated speech against the conduct 
 of the war with America and against the 
 employment of the Red Indians in the 
 struggle, he used language stronger than any 
 expressions that can be found in No. 45, 
 and plainly accused the King's Ministers 
 of dishonesty, declaring that the smooth- 
 ness of flattery cannot avail them in " this 
 rugged and awful crisis," and that the 
 Crown must be instructed in the language of 
 truth. 
 
 The issuing of the general warrant was a 
 blunder ; but the Secretaries now followed it 
 up by a greater one. The house of Wilkes 
 
 Meanwhile Wilkes was detained in the 
 Tower ; being kept, as he declared, in solitary 
 confinement during part of the time. He 
 applied to the Court of Common Pleas for 
 a writ of Habeas Corpus, which was ob- 
 tained and served upon the messengers of 
 the Secretary of State ; but he was no longer 
 in their custody, and accordingly they could 
 not produce him before the Court. When 
 on the 6th of May the case was argued 
 before the Court, the prisoner's claim to 
 immunity from arrest, as a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, was at once admitted, and he was set 
 free 
 
 88 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 Churchill ; Lord Temple's Support of 
 Wilkes ; Successful Actions. 
 
 There is no doubt that he made the most 
 of the opportunity affoi'ded him by the inju- 
 dicious haste of his enemies, and took full 
 advantage of the position they had given 
 him as the champion of liberty and the 
 hero of the hour. He made a speech, setting 
 forth the somewhat trite proposition, that 
 liberty was the precious birthright of an 
 Englishman. His speech was evidently 
 an oration ad captandum vtilgiis, and as 
 such was a success. The great crowd in the 
 streets around Westminster Hall testified 
 their approval of him " with shouts and 
 clamours." His enemies had foolishly shown 
 a spiteful disposition, and the crowd rejoiced 
 greatly in their discomfiture. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Churchill would have 
 been arrested at the same time with Wilkes, 
 but that he consulted his safety by leaving 
 town. His career was a melancholy record 
 of talents misdirected and wasted oppor- 
 tunities. With undoubted genius and an 
 energetic spirit, he was entirely incapable of 
 self-control ; his excesses scandalised ever 
 that free-living age ; and his ill-spent life 
 came to a premature end in a foreign town, 
 when, by his own fault, he became an exile 
 from his country. 
 
 Lord Temple, the brother-in-law of the 
 great William Pitt and of the Prime Minis- 
 ter, George Grenville, with the latter of 
 whom he was on bad terms, was a restless, 
 busy, and, according to various accounts of 
 him, a mischievous politician. He is de- 
 scribed as having led the great Commoner 
 himself into various indiscretions. An 
 eminent writer compares him to a mole, 
 declaring that where a heap of dirt was 
 found thrown up, it might be taken as 
 a sign that he had been at work under- 
 ground. Whatever may have been his 
 motive, — the desire to annoy Grenville, the 
 idea that the Member for Aylesbury was 
 an ill-used man, the pleasure of thwarting 
 the King, or the mere love of mischief, — 
 certain it is that he openly aided Wilkes at 
 this juncture with his countenance and with 
 his purse ; — the latter kind of help was 
 particularly useful, as the Government spent 
 money freely in the endeavour to procure a 
 triumph for the King. Wilkes brought 
 actions against those who had been engaged 
 in executing the general warrant, and against 
 Lord Halifax for issuing it. He commenced 
 operations by writing to the two Secretaries 
 of State, informing them that his hoicse had 
 beeji 7-obbed while he was a prisoner in the 
 Tower ; and that their Lordships had been 
 designated to him as being in possession of 
 the stolen goods ; the restoration of which 
 he peremptorily demanded. The indig- 
 
 nation of the King, when these very extraor- 
 dinary and somewhat insolent letters were 
 put before him, may be imagined. They 
 were at once sent, like No. 45 of the North 
 Briton, to the law advisers of the Crown, 
 "by the express command of His Majesty," 
 to ascertain whether they did not contain 
 matter laying the writer open to prosecution 
 and punishment ; and now the King's 
 Ministers seem to have become aware of 
 the fact that " the dog Wilkes," as Johnson 
 called him, was an ugly dog to tackle. The 
 expenses for the defendants in the various 
 actions brought by Wilkes were, by the King's 
 command, defrayed by the Crown, to the 
 extent, as was afterwards elicited from Lord 
 North, of ;!^ioo,ooo ; but the irrepressible 
 plaintiff gained his point, and obtained 
 ^ 1,000 damages from Mr. Wood the sheriff, 
 for the carrying off of his papers. This was 
 at the end of 1763. At a later period, in 
 1769, a much larger sum, ;^4,ooo, was 
 awarded to him as damages against Lord 
 Halifax. As a Treasury minute had pro- 
 vided " that all expenses incurred, or to be 
 incurred, in consequence of actions brought 
 against the Earl of Halifax, one of His 
 Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, the 
 Under-Secretary, and messengers, and the so- 
 licitor of this office, for proceedings incurred 
 by them in executing the business of their 
 respective offices, against the publishers of 
 several scandalous and seditious libels, 
 should be defrayed by the Crown," the 
 zealous Secretary of State and his subor- 
 dinates were none the worse for the verdicts 
 against them. 
 
 Personal Animosity of the King ; Pro- 
 secution FOR A Profligate Book. 
 While these proceedings were still pending, 
 the King took away from Wilkes his office 
 of colonel of the Bucks militia, and from 
 Lord Temple the lord-lieutenancy of 
 Buckinghamshire. It was an unhappy trait 
 in the character of George III., that he was 
 accustomed to show personal animosity in 
 this way against many who asserted their 
 independence, or did anything which he 
 could not reconcile with the idea of complete 
 subservience to himself; as, for instance, 
 when he struck the names of Charles James 
 Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan off the 
 roll of the Privy Council, because at a meet- 
 ing at the Crowtt and Anchor they had drunk 
 the toast, " Our Sovereign — the Majesty of 
 the People ; " and notably when he wrote to 
 Mr. Grenville concerning that brave, honest 
 soldier General Conway, whose only offence 
 was a conscientious vote in the matter of 
 general warrants, that "he could not trust 
 his army in the hands of a man who voted 
 against him." No wonder that the party 
 known as the " King's friends," knowing 
 
 89 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 what was required of them, became notorious 
 for thorough-going sycophancy. 
 
 Though Wilkes had gained a signal victory 
 in the matter of the general warrants, and 
 Chief Justice Pratt, in discharging him from 
 custody, had boldly declared that upon the 
 maturest consideration he considered such 
 instruments illegal, and that if they were 
 maintained it would be as "a rod for the 
 chastisement of the people," earning great 
 credit with the nation for his noble impar- 
 tiality, the Member for Aylesbury did not 
 come off so well in the House of Commons. 
 There the King and the Ministry were strong 
 enough to command a majority; and by a 
 vote passed on the i6th of November the 
 famous No. 45 was declared to be a scanda- 
 lous and seditious libel, 
 and was ordered to be 
 burnt by the common 
 hangman. The resolution 
 pronounced that the paper 
 contained " expressions 
 of the most unexampled 
 insolence and contumely 
 towards His Majesty the 
 grosse?t aspersions upon 
 both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, and the most au- 
 dacious defiance of the 
 authority of the v/hole 
 Legislature," with a great 
 deal more to the same 
 effect. It was an in- 
 stance of what a late 
 great novelist, in writing 
 of a criticism on a little 
 book he had published, 
 once happily designated 
 as "thunder and small 
 beer,"— a great deal of 
 sound and fury wasted 
 upon a very insignificant 
 subject. The people 
 showed their apprecia- 
 tion of the whole proceeding by vehemently 
 cheering Wilkes on every opportunity, and 
 making a riot when the hangman attempted 
 to bum the obnoxious number; a mob ga- 
 thered, and amid derisive yells and laughter, 
 committed to the flames a jack boot (a pun- 
 ning symbol on the name of the late Prime 
 Minister) and a petticoat, as indicative of 
 the occult influence of the Princess Dowager 
 of Wales. If the Government had wished to 
 render Wilkes thoroughly popular, no better 
 means could have been adopted. 
 
 Baffled in one direction, the Government 
 determined to ruin Wilkes in another. The 
 difficulty of finding a printer willing to risk 
 his liberty, and perhaps run the chance of the 
 pillory by reprinting the North Briton, had 
 induced Wilkes to establish a printing press 
 in his own house; and at this press was 
 
 Admiral Hawke. 
 
 privately printed a portion of a scurrilous 
 and immoral poem. This work was a parody 
 on Pope's " Essay on Man," and was entitled 
 an " Essay on Woman." It was the kind 
 of production whose wit would have been 
 appreciated by the precious fraternity at 
 Medmenham. The printing was never* com- 
 pleted, much less was the work ever published. 
 But the Ministry, over-eager to demolish the 
 man of the North Briton, here found matter 
 for a fresh accusation. Some of the sheets 
 of the poem were stolen by one Curry, the 
 printer ; and at the instigation of the Ministry, 
 the same individual afterwards abstracted a 
 complete copy, which was deposited in the 
 hands of a Secretary of State, Lord Sandwich. 
 This nobleman was as notorious for profligacy 
 as Sir Francis Dashwood 
 himself, or as Lord March, 
 afterwards Duke of 
 Oueensberry (the notori- 
 o'us "Old O.," who at a 
 great age was pointed at 
 as one of the wickedest 
 old men in London) . This 
 exemplary person took an 
 active part in getting the 
 copy of the poem, which 
 was to form the basis of 
 a new indictment against 
 Wilkes ; for some notes 
 which formed part of the 
 parody were represented 
 as being by Warburton, 
 Bishop of Gloucester, the 
 friend of Pope; and the 
 use of the Bishop's name 
 in this manner was said to 
 be a breach of privilege. 
 
 Culprit and Accus- 
 ers ; "Jemmy Twit- 
 cher"; a Duel. 
 The whole proceeding 
 
 was glaringly inconsis- 
 tent. Never had a queerer set of defenders 
 stood up in the cause of morality. Warburton, 
 himself a scurrilous man, had used the name 
 of the illustrious scholar Bentley in an intro- 
 duction and notes to Pope's "Dunciad," in 
 exactly the manner in which his own was 
 used in the "Essay on Woman;" with this 
 notable difference, that while the latter book 
 was kept strictly private, the "Dunciad" had 
 been circulated far and wide. As Lord 
 Macaulay observes, "Pope had given his 
 ribaldry to the world," which cannot be said 
 of Wilkes. But Lord Sandwich read the 
 poem surreptitiously obtained to the House 
 of Lords, who declared its publication to be 
 a breach of privilege, and that Wilkes was 
 the author. Of this latter allegation there 
 was no valid evidence brought forward ; and, 
 indeed, in our own time, Mr. Dilke and Mr. W. 
 
 90 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY 
 
 F. Rae, the authors of the "Life of Wilkes," 
 have shown that the author was not Wilkes 
 but Mr. Potter, son of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. "The evidence," says Mr. Rae, 
 "is overwhelming." Lord North introduced 
 the subject into the House of Commons, and 
 it was soon understood that the King took 
 the strongest personal interest in the proceed- 
 ings, and that every influence would be set 
 to work to reverse by conviction in this 
 second case the defeat the Government had 
 notoriously sustained in the first. 
 
 What the public thought of the prosecution, 
 and of the sincerity of those by whom it was 
 promoted, was shown by an incident at a 
 London theatre. The " Beggar's Opera," that 
 St. Giles's Lampoon, as Byron called it, was 
 being performed. In one scene, Captain 
 Macheath the highwayman, laid by the heels 
 in Newgate, expresses his astonishment that 
 
 a fellow robber should 
 
 have turned against him. 
 " That Jemmy Twitcher 
 should peach, I own sur- 
 prises me," he says. By 
 a kind of sudden inspir- 
 ation the whole audience 
 applied the situation to 
 that of Sandwich and 
 Wilkes ; and the house 
 shook with a tremend- 
 ous roar of laughter from 
 boxes, pit, and gallery. 
 From that day '' Jemmy 
 Twitcher" became the 
 acknowledged nickname 
 of Lord Sandwich. 
 
 The question had not 
 yet been decided in 
 the House of Commons, 
 when a Mr. Martin, 
 whom Wilkes had treated 
 somewhat roughly in the North Briton, 
 provoked a duel with the proprietor of that 
 publication by publicly denouncing him as a 
 malignant and infamous scoundrel, and one 
 who stabbed in the dark. In the encounter 
 Wilkes was dangerously,it was at first thought 
 fatally, wounded ; and on his partial recovery 
 proceeded to France to complete the cure. 
 To his constituents at Aylesbury he wrote an 
 explanation, in which he seems to state his 
 case fairly enough. After pointing out the 
 distinction between the private opinions 
 which every man is entitled to hold, and the 
 public utterances which might give offence, 
 he proceeds to the pith of the matter. " The 
 fact is," he says, " that after the affair of the 
 North Briton, the Government bribed one of 
 my servants to steal a part of the ' Essay on 
 Woman ' and the other pieces out of my 
 house. Not quite a fourth part of the volume 
 had been printed at my own private press. 
 The work had been discontinued for several 
 
 General Wolfe, 
 
 months before I had the least knowledge of 
 the theft. Of that fourth part only twelve 
 copies were worked off, and I never gave one 
 of those copies to any friend. In this in- 
 famous manner did Government get possession 
 of this new subject of accusation ; and, except 
 in the case of Algernon Sidney, of this new 
 species of crime." 
 
 Expulsion from Parliament; Public 
 Agitation. 
 During his absence. Parliament took up 
 the affair of Wilkes. He was unable to 
 return on account of a relapse, and duly 
 sent medical certificates of the fact ; but 
 the House proceeded to try the question in 
 his absence ; and on the 19th of January, 
 1764, he was expelled from the Commons, as 
 the author of a scandalous and seditious libel, 
 and a month afterwards was tried and found 
 
 ... guilty on similar terms 
 
 I in the Court of King's 
 Bench in his absence, 
 and outlawed for non- 
 appearance. Sentence 
 was deferred, as the 
 prisoner was not pre- 
 sent; but from the known 
 subserviency of Lord 
 Chief Justice Mansfield 
 to the King, Wilkes 
 knew that no mercy 
 would be shown him, 
 and accordingly deter- 
 mined to remain abroad. 
 He undertook a journey 
 into Italy ; and those 
 friends who still re- 
 mained faithful to him 
 in his adversity, among 
 whom may be mentioned 
 two very different men, 
 Lord Temple and Sir Joshua Reynolds, con- 
 sidered he had exercised a very sound discre- 
 tion ; and as his pecuniary affairs were in a 
 bad state, he received substantial assistance 
 from them, without which he would have 
 starved. It seemed that the Court party had 
 completely gained their object. 
 
 But the public mind had been deeply 
 stirred on the subject of general warrants ; 
 and it was felt that so long as the use of such 
 weapons was allowed, no man's liberty was 
 safe, and that what Pratt had designated 
 as a rod for the chastisement of Englishmen 
 might fall on the shoulders of any one who 
 offended the Court. A member ot the House, 
 Sir William Meredith, moved a resolution 
 that general warrants were illegal, and in 
 spite of the violent opposition of the Court 
 party, found such strong support, that the 
 Ministry, anticipating a defeat, were glad to 
 get the question postponed for four months, 
 to gain time, and even in this they barely 
 
 9^ 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 succeeded. Soon after, George Grenville, 
 whom the King never liked, and whose long 
 harangues and prosy lectures were an abomi- 
 nation to him, went out of office, and was 
 succeeded by the Marquis of Rockingham. 
 
 The Rockingham Administration ; The 
 Middlesex Elections. 
 Under the new administration, the ques- 
 tion of the legality of general warrants was 
 brought forward again, and those instru- 
 ments, and all acts done on the strength 
 of them, were declared invalid. But the 
 Marquis of Rockingham did not remain long 
 in office. The compact phalanx of the 
 King's friends broke up his Ministry, and 
 any hopes Wilkes may have cherished from 
 the change of government failed. Pitt, now 
 Earl of Chatham, came into power, with the 
 Duke of Grafton, who succeeded on the 
 retirement of his chief, who lost his popu- 
 larity from the day when he ceased to be 
 " the great Commoner." The Ministers 
 would now have been glad to get a pardon 
 for Wilkes from the King; but George III, 
 was inexorable, and could not bear to hear 
 the subject named. After vainly petitioning 
 the King, Wilkes astonished and amazed his 
 enemies, on the dissolution of Parliament, 
 by offering himself as a candidate for the 
 City of London, and was welcomed so 
 warmly that it appeared as if he would be 
 returned. Though he did not succeed in 
 this, nearly 1,250 votes were recorded in his 
 favour ; and encouraged by this proof of his 
 continued popularity, he immediately came 
 forward as a candidate for the county of 
 Middlesex. Supported by the influence of 
 the Vicar of Brentford, Parson Home, after- 
 wards widely known as Home Tooke, and 
 backed by the Duke of Portland and Lord 
 Temple, Wilkes was returned by a great 
 majority, polling nearly 1,300 votes, while 
 the next candidate had only 827. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the public, and the 
 excitement for "Wilkes and Liberty," now 
 reached a higher point than ever. The 
 significance of the election was fully under- 
 stood, and the general rejoicing was quite as 
 much due to the discomfiture of the King as 
 to the triumph of the candidate. The 
 Ministers would have been only too glad to 
 have buried the whole affair of No. 45 and 
 the disgraceful prosecutions in oblivion, and 
 knew that the general attention would be 
 drawn away from Wilkes as soon as he 
 received a pardon. But the King would not 
 listen to reason, and insisted that Wilkes 
 should be expelled from Parliament. He 
 was the more determined on this point, from 
 the fact that the man he pursued with such 
 pertinacity of haired had succeeded in 
 obtaining from Lord Mansfield a reversal 
 of the decree of outlawry. He then sur- 
 
 rendered to the Court of King's Bench to 
 receive sentence for the libels in the North 
 Briton and the poem ; maintaining with 
 regard to the latter work that it could not 
 properly be held to have ever been published 
 at all. 
 
 Wilkes a Popular Hero ; Persecution 
 AND ITS Consequences. 
 
 The sentence certainly did not err on the 
 side of lenity. A fine of j^ 1,000, and im- 
 prisonment of a year and eight months, and 
 security for good behaviour for seven years 
 afterwards, constituted a heavy penalty for 
 the offences of which he had been convicted. 
 
 The mob of London took his part as 
 before, would have rescued him from cus- 
 tody, and made a riot on the occasion of the 
 meeting of Parliament. The soldiers were 
 called out, fired upon the people, and by 
 mistake bayoneted a man who had taken no 
 part in the disturbance. The King took the 
 opportunity of thanking the soldiers in a 
 general order for their conduct during the 
 riot, and promising them ample protection 
 "in case any disagreeable circumstances 
 should happen in the execution of their 
 duty," — such a disagreeable circumstance, 
 for instance, as the killing of innocent 
 men. 
 
 It appears that three weeks before that 
 loth of May, on which the military had acted 
 with such fatal efficiency, an official letter 
 had been written by Lord Weymouth, a 
 Secretary of State, to the chairman of the 
 quarter sessions at Lambeth, stating that the 
 soldiers would be in readiness to quell an 
 expected riot, and indicating that he should 
 make use of them. Wilkes procured a copy 
 of this letter some months afterwards, and 
 had it inserted in a London newspaper, with 
 a strong introductory sentence, declaring 
 that the letter showed how long beforehand 
 the " horrid massacre in St. George's Fields 
 had been planned," and " how long a heUish 
 project can be brooded over by some infernal 
 spirits without a moment's remorse." Here 
 was libel No. 3, a manifest strengthening 
 of the hands of the Court party. Summoned 
 to the bar of the House of Commons, the 
 undaunted and indomitable prisoner declared 
 that whenever a Secretary of State should 
 dare to write such a letter, he would dare to 
 write such prefatory remarks, and to appeal 
 to the nation. Thereupon it was moved 
 that he should be expelled the House, and 
 the second expulsion of Wilkes accordingly 
 took place, by a majority of 219 to 137 votes, 
 on February 3rd, 1769. 
 
 The natural sequel to this proceeding was 
 to declare the election of Wilkes for Middle- 
 sex null and void ; for having been expelled 
 from the House, the Ministry argued that he 
 was "ineligible for being elected a member 
 
 92 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 to serve in the present Parliament." Here 
 was another question on which the outside 
 public could join issue with the Court, and 
 the temper of the Middlesex electors was 
 shown by the immediate re-election of Wilkes. 
 This election, which was unopposed, was 
 immediately declared null and void ; and 
 now three candidates came forward, — Colonel 
 Luttrell, who was oacked by all the influence 
 of the Government and the Court ; Mr. 
 Sergeant Whittaker ; and Captain Roache. 
 
 An Important Question; Freedom of 
 Election. 
 The quarrel had now assumed very diffe- 
 rent proportions. It affected the parliament- 
 ary privileges of the whole nation, and it was 
 felt that in his endeavour to crush an oppo- 
 nent he hated the King had struck a blow at 
 the Constitution. Many who had cared very 
 little as to the rights of the case with regard 
 to No. 45 of the North Briton, or whether 
 
 The Mansion House. 
 
 But it was impossible to get a majority for 
 Colonel Luttrell, and Mr. Roache polled 
 no votes at all. Wilkes obtained nearly four 
 times as many voices. In the face of all this 
 the House of Commons, with its majority 
 subservient to the King, though it allowed a 
 deputation of Middlesex freeholders to be 
 heard at the bar in support of the election of 
 Wilkes, declared " Henry Lawes Luttrell, Esq., 
 duly elected to serve in the present Parlia- 
 ment for the county of Middlesex." 
 
 the disreputable poem had been really " pub- 
 lished " or not, looked upon this open attempt 
 to interfere with the constitutional right of 
 electors to choose their representatives as a 
 matter deeply affecting the welfare of the 
 whole state ; and the cry of " Wilkes and 
 Liberty ! " had now an altogether new signifi- 
 cance. With a sagacity that did him honour, 
 the great Lord Chatham protested against 
 the question being argued on the narrow 
 ground of the personal character of an indi- 
 
 93 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 vidual. To him it mattered little, lie said, 
 whether those who lauded John Wilkes as a 
 patriot, or those who denounced him as a 
 profligate incendiary, were in the right ; what 
 he contended for was the upholding of the 
 civil rights of Enghsh subjects, which he 
 contended should be measured by no power 
 whatever, "or by any other rule than the 
 fixed laws of the land." At a later period he 
 finely declared that he considered this Mid- 
 dlesex business " the alarm bell of liberty," 
 which he intended to ring incessantly in the 
 ears of the , people. Colonel Luttrell, he 
 contended, with incontrovertible truth, was 
 no representative of the people, but a mere 
 nominee of a faction inimical to the Consti- 
 tution. The whole principle of freedom of 
 election, one of the great stipulations of the 
 Declaration of Rights, was violated in this 
 glaring attempt to thrust upon the electors of 
 Middlesex a man who was not their repre- 
 sentative, not having been chosen by a 
 majority of them. Sir George Savile went 
 farther still, openly declaring from his place 
 in Parliament that the House of Commons, 
 by passing an illegal vote, had betrayed their 
 country, and professing himself ready to 
 stand by his words, and to endure any punish- 
 ment that might be inflicted on him for utter- 
 ing them. 
 
 Release of Wilkes ; Popular Rejoicings 
 AND Civic Honours. 
 
 The natural consequence of all this was 
 that the country clamoured for the dissolu- 
 tion of this Parliament, that had proved 
 false to its trust, and wrested law and 
 justice to please the King. The city of 
 London stood forth foremost among the 
 remonstrants against the proceedings of the 
 majority in the House of Commons ; and 
 then it was that Lord Mayor Beckford spoke 
 those words to George III. that were after- 
 wards inscribed upon a monument raised in 
 his honour by the citizens of London, in 
 which he boldly warned the angry monarch 
 that the men who were alienating the 
 affections of his loyal subjects from him 
 by the course they were urging him to 
 take, were not his true friends, but, on the 
 contrary, enemies alike to His Majesty, 
 the Royal Family, and the British Consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Meanwhile the prisoner in the King's 
 Bench had the great advantage that all this 
 struggle for the maintenance of popular 
 rights and privileges was identified with his 
 name. "Wilkes" and "liberty" were still 
 coupled together, the more firmly as the 
 importance of the issues involved became 
 deeper ; and his popularity increased in 
 proportion to the iniquitous injustice with 
 which, not only he, but every man who 
 voted for him, was treated. Of the public 
 
 sympathy he received very substantial proofs 
 in the shape of large supplies of money 
 during his imprisonment ; and one sum 
 significantly subscribed by one of the Ameri- 
 can colonies, where discontent was fast 
 gravitating towards rebellion, amounted to 
 no less than ^1,500. The ward of Farring- 
 don-without elected him alderman ; and 
 when his sentence expired in 1770, his 
 fortunes were far more promising than in 
 the days when he had only the rabble to 
 shout for him, — the many-headed monster who 
 might applaud him one week, and hoot him 
 the next. In several towns the houses were 
 illuminated in honour of his release, and his 
 debts were paid by a society calling itself by 
 the significant name of " Supporters of the 
 Bill of Rights." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's Opinion of "Jack 
 Wilkes." 
 
 Dr. Johnson, in 1770, wrote a pamphlet, 
 " The False Alarm," vehemently upholding 
 the action of the Ministry in declaring 
 Colonel Luttrell duly elected as member for 
 Middlesex, in spite of the repeated majorities 
 obtained by Wilkes. He maintained that 
 the apprehensions of the country were un- 
 founded. But even Boswell thinks him 
 wrong ; for that arch-admirer says : " That 
 it endeavoured to infuse a narcotic indif- 
 ference as to pubhc concerns into the minds 
 of the people, and that it broke out some- 
 times into an extreme coarseness of con- 
 temptuous abuse, is but too evident." 
 
 At a later period he considerably modified 
 his opinion concerning Wilkes, as is seen in 
 his letter, in 1780, on the celebrated, "No 
 Popery " note of Lord George Gordon ; for 
 writing of the attack of the rabble on the 
 Bank of England, and the fact that they 
 acted, like other thieves, with no great 
 resolution, the Doctor gives a little gruff 
 praise. He says: "Jack Wilkes headed 
 the party that drove them away. It is 
 agreed that if they had seized the Bank on 
 Tuesday, at the height of the panic, when 
 no resistance had been prepared, they might 
 have carried irrecoverably away whatever 
 they found ; " and then the Doctor becomes 
 slightly sarcastic ; " Jack," he says, " who 
 was always zealous for order and decency, 
 declares that if he be trusted with power, he 
 will not leave a rioter alive." In spite of 
 their former antagonism, Johnson seems to 
 have had, in his great, rough, honest heart, 
 something resembhng a liking for Wilkes, if 
 only for his indomitable energy and his 
 fascinating wit. " Did we not hear so much 
 said of Jack Wilkes," he remarked, "we 
 should think more highly of his conversation. 
 Jack has a great variety of talk. Jack is a 
 scholar, and Jack has the manners of a 
 gentleman. But after hearing his name 
 
 94 
 
WILKES AND LIBERTY. 
 
 sounded from pole to pole, as the phoenix of 
 convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his 
 company. He has always been at me j but 
 I would do Jack a kindness, rather than not. 
 The contest is now over." 
 
 Wilkes in the Sunshine. 
 From that time the career of Wilkes may 
 be considered a prosperous one. As an 
 alderman he was energetic and efficient, and 
 won the confidence of many who had before 
 been opposed to him. He soon gave proof 
 that the old spirit of opposition was as 
 strong within him as ever by his conduct in 
 the matter of the disputed right to publish a 
 parliamentary report. The House of Com- 
 mons had long shown itself very sensitive 
 with regard to any publication of its proceed- 
 ings out of doors. And 
 
 indeed, in those days of 
 unblushing bargain and 
 sale, it was sometimes wo- 
 fally inconvenient to mem- 
 bers to have too much 
 known out of doors con- 
 cerning speeches, pledges, 
 and measures. The House, 
 finding that its doings 
 were being reported to the 
 public by the newspapers 
 passed a resolution declar- 
 ing the writing, printing, 
 and publishing of any ac- 
 count of its proceedings a 
 breach of privilege, and 
 threatening to proceed 
 with the utmost severity 
 against all offenders. The 
 newspapers continuing 
 to publish reports, in spite 
 of this threat, the Speaker 
 sent the deputy Sergeant- 
 at arms into the city to 
 execute a warrant issued 
 against a persistent offender, Mr. Miller, 
 of the Evening Post. Mr. Wilkes, acting 
 in conjunction with the Lord Mayor and 
 one of his colleagues, caused the officer 
 himself to be arrested ; and so sturdily main- 
 tained the rights alike of the city and of the 
 newspaper press, that he obtained a victory 
 over the Court for both. And when summoned 
 to appear at the bar of the House to answer 
 for his audacity, he boldly replied that not 
 having been summoned as a member to 
 attend in his place he should disregard the 
 document altogether ; and though the sum- 
 mons was twice repeated, he remained firm to 
 his resolution, and no steps were taken to 
 compel his appearance. From that time the 
 right of reporting the proceedings in parha- 
 ment was assumed as a foregone conclusion, 
 nor was it ever called in question. " As for 
 Wilkes, he is below the notice of the House," 
 
 Charles James Fox. 
 
 wrote the King ; but His Majesty deigned to 
 bestow very particular notice on the contest 
 that arose some-time later, when Wilkes, 
 having served the office of sheriff, was put in 
 nomination for the dignity of chief magistrate 
 of the city ; and even exerted his influence 
 to the utmost to prevent the return of his old 
 enemy. 
 
 At first Wilkes was baffled, and '-A was 
 thought that the Court had scored a victory 
 against him at last ; but the civic Antseus 
 rose up again stronger from each successive 
 fall ; and at length, in 1774, attained the 
 dignity of Lord Mayor of London. " Thus," 
 writes sententious Horace Walpole, "after so 
 much persecution by the Court, after so many 
 attempts on his life, after a long imprison- 
 ment in a gaol, after all his own crimes and 
 indiscretions, did this ex- 
 traordinary man of more 
 extraordinary fortunes at- 
 tain the highest office in 
 so grave and important a 
 city as the capital of Eng- 
 land. Always reviving, the 
 more opposed and op- 
 pressed, and unable to 
 shock Fortune, and make 
 her laugh at him, who 
 laughed at everybody and 
 everything. . . . All the 
 power of the Crown, all 
 the malice of the Scots, 
 all the abilities of Lord 
 Mansfield, all the violence 
 of Alderman Townshend, 
 all the want of policy and 
 parts in the opposition, 
 all the treachery of his own 
 friends, could not demolish 
 him. He equally baffled 
 the King and Parson 
 Home, though both neg- 
 lected no latitude to com- 
 pass his ruin. It is in this tenth year of his 
 war on the Court that he gained so signal a 
 victory." Horace Walpole, though an un- 
 doubted fribble, was a keen and vigilant ob- 
 server ; and this declaration of his comes 
 very near the truth of the matter. 
 
 A far greater triumph, however, was in store 
 for him, when after being elected for 
 Middlesex for the fifth time he took his seat 
 unopposed in the House from which he had 
 been twice expelled. Never was there a 
 greater instance of the triumph of persever- 
 ance. Even George the Third had become 
 awake to the fact that nothing was to be 
 gained by any further persecution of the 
 indomitable " demagogue," and that it would 
 be far best to leave him to himself. In fact 
 His Majesty had predicted the impending 
 ruin of Wilkes so often, and the prediction 
 had so often failed of accomplishment, 
 
 
 95 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 that he had become somewhat tired of the 
 subject. 
 
 The epithet "demagogue," indeed, had 
 been so persistently applied to him through- 
 out his career, and, as has been noticed, was 
 repeated long after his death by Macaulay 
 and others, that it was taken for granted he 
 must be a man who thirsted to subvert all 
 existing institutions, and overturn those 
 "landmarks" and "safeguards" of the con- 
 stitution, of which at times we hear so much. 
 But in real fact the reverse seems to have 
 been the case. The struggle with which his 
 name has become inseparably connected 
 arose out of an endeavour not to overturn 
 but to uphold those constitutional principles 
 which were being unscrupulously assailed; 
 and that even grave judges, while they might 
 dislike him personally, could not deny that 
 the course he was taking had the sanction of 
 both law and justice. 
 
 One of his best traits was certainly his 
 placable temper, and his readiness to forget 
 old grievances. " Stop, you old fool ! That's 
 
 over long ago ! " was his blunt reproof to an 
 enthusiastic old market woman of Covent 
 Garden, who tried to revive the old cry in 
 his later days. Directly the cause he stood 
 up for was gained, all the acrimony that had 
 been imported into the contest was by him 
 cast away. 
 
 It should not be forgotten, moreover, by 
 " readers " in the British Museum that he 
 was the first to advocate the establishment 
 of that admirable institution the reading-room. 
 Speaking of the Vatican and of the Paris 
 Library in his place in Parliament, he said : 
 " They are both open at stated times with 
 every proper accommodation, to all strangers. 
 London has no large public library .... 
 I wish, Sir, a sum were allowed by Parlia- 
 ment for the purchase of the most valuable 
 editions of the best authors, and an act 
 passed to oblige every printer, under a certain 
 penalty, to send a copy bound of every publi- 
 cation he made to the British Museum." 
 
 He died, a prosperous man, in the year 
 1799. 
 
 Lheapside in 1750. 
 
 96 
 
Place de la Concorde, Paris. 
 
 THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A 
 THRONE: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE COUP D'ETAT OF THE 2ND DECEMBER, 1851. 
 
 An Important Day — The President's Ride through Paris — A Dehision Dispelled — At the Elysee — Who was responsible for 
 the Coup d' Etat^ — The Strasburg Enterprise — The Boulogne Expedition and its Consequences — Escape from Ham 
 — Residence in London: Return to Paris in 1S48 — Louis Napoleon President — The Oath — "The Nephew of his 
 "Uncle" — Bidding for Popularity — De Morny, Maupas, Persigny, Fleury, St. Arnaud — Preparations for Striking the 
 Blow ; the Army — The Proclamation of December 2nQ — Seizure of Political Chiefs — The Army in Paris — Forcible 
 Closing of the Assembly — Arrest of Members — Closing of the High Court of Justice — The Assembly Carried Away 
 Captive — State of Paris ; Discouragement ; Committee of Resistance — Failure of the Struggle— Proceedings of the 
 Government — The Cavalry Charge — The Massacre on the Boulevards — Details — Slaughter of Non-Combatants — 
 Success of the CouJ> d'Eiai — Plebiscite — Testimony of an Impartial Witness — Public Feeling in England. 
 
 An Important Day. 
 
 HE 2nd of December is as memorable 
 a date in the history of P>ance, as the 
 14th of October, which witnessed, at 
 an interval of more than half a century, the 
 disasters of Hochkirchen and Jena, is fateful 
 in the annals of the Prussian monarchy. It 
 was on a 2nd of December that the great 
 Napoleon was crowned in the cathedral of 
 Notre Dame by Pope Pius VII. as Emperor 
 
 of the French; it was on a 2nd of December 
 that he shattered the power of Austria, and 
 crippled Prussia, by the tremendous victory 
 he gained at Austerlitz. It was on the 2nd of 
 December, again, that the first act of the drama 
 was played out, which led to the establishment 
 of that second French Empire, destined to 
 expire in a sea of blood, after running its fever- 
 ish and fitful course ; one of those memorable 
 series of events in which the superficial ob- 
 server sees only the fortune of war, while the 
 
 97 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tlioughtful student claims to recognise the 
 truth, that no more in modern times than at 
 earlier epochs of the world's history can men 
 gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ; 
 and that while "things bad begun make 
 strong themselves by ill," the day of retribu- 
 tion will surely come upon the evil-doer, that, 
 as the homely old German proverb has it, — 
 "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they 
 
 grind exceeding small ; 
 Though with patience He stands waiting, with 
 
 exactness grinds He all." 
 
 On that 2nd of December, 1851, there sat in 
 an inner chamber of the palace of the Elysee 
 at Paris a man who knew that he was at the 
 very crisis of his fate, as surely as any criminal 
 who sits in the dock waiting until the twelve 
 men shall reappear who are to pronounce the 
 " guilty " or " not guilty " that will restore 
 him to liberty or consign him to the scaffold. 
 It was the third time in a life of little more 
 than forty years that Louis Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, then President of the French Republic, 
 had conspired to overthrow the government 
 of his country. Good fortune, the associa- 
 tions connected in every Frenchman's mind 
 with the great name he bore, and an almost 
 inexplicable lenity on the part of the autho- 
 rities whose captive he became, had enabled 
 him to escape almost unpunished on the 
 first occasion, and had spared his life on the 
 second ; but this time the game was evidently 
 one of life or death. In case of failure the 
 conspirator and his accomplices would have 
 to reckon not with an offended government 
 but with an outraged and exasperated nation; 
 and therefore it was above all things necessary 
 to screw the courage to the sticking point 
 " that this day the enterprise might thrive." 
 
 The President's Ride through Paris 
 Streets. 
 For a blow had just been struck at the 
 liberties of France, and the nation had been 
 insulted in the persons of its representatives, 
 in a way no king since the days of Louis 
 XIV. would have ventured upon. What 
 this blow was, ho\v it was struck, and how it 
 was followed up, we shall have presently to 
 relate. In the course of the day the President 
 had ridden abroad through the streets of 
 Paris, attended by a numerous staff, and 
 accompanied by his uncle, Prince Jerome 
 Bonaparte, the only survivor of the three 
 puppet kings set up, in the insolence of 
 ambition, by the Great Napoleon, on three 
 European thrones. Old Jerome, ex-King of 
 Westphalia, though he gave his nephew the 
 countenance of his presence on that memo- 
 rable ride through streets lined with troops, 
 behind whom peered forth faces scowling 
 with angry surprise, gravely disapproved of 
 the course the President was taking ; and. 
 
 indeed, two days later, he wrote him a manly 
 letter, reminding him that there was no guar- 
 antee for liberty if an assembly did not con- 
 tribute to the constitution of the republic, — 
 that the army was acting in a high-handed 
 manner, — and that what a government could 
 not do when it was beaten, it was bound to 
 do when it was victorious ; conjuring him, in 
 conclusion, in the name of the great founder 
 of their house, and by their common horror 
 of civil war, to listen to the experience of an 
 aged inan, and to remember that France, 
 Europe, and posterity would pass their judg- 
 ment upon the President's actions, 
 
 A Delusion Dispelled ; The President 
 AT the Elysee, 
 The ride through the Paris streets must 
 have dispelled one delusion, at least, which 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was supposed 
 to entertain. It furnished abundant proof 
 that there was no enthusiasm for the Presi- 
 dent among the Parisians, and that they were 
 disposed to look upon him with a kind of 
 contemptuous surprise ; that they were not 
 at all anxious to accept him as the repre- 
 sentativeand successor of the Great Napoleon, 
 or to hail him as Emperor. For the third 
 time he had presented himself for their 
 suffrages in that character, and for the third 
 time he had encountered looks of scorn, 
 disdain, or at best indifference. The theatri- 
 cal scene of the progress of a hero through 
 his capital had been attempted, and had 
 fallen wofuUy flat. The expected acclama- 
 tions had been conspicuously absent ; and so 
 it was that the chief actor in the farce so 
 soon to be turned into a tragedy rode home 
 and ensconced himself gloomily in the apart- 
 ments of his official residence, while the blood 
 of thousands was soon poured out like water 
 in the streets of Paris, and a gallant nation's 
 liberty was trampled beneath the heels of a 
 ruthless soldiery, Mr, Kinglake, in his 
 masterly "History of the War in the Crimea," 
 describes him as returning from this ride, 
 and " going in out of sight," " Thenceforth," 
 he says, " for the most part he remained close 
 shut up in the Elysee. There, in an inner 
 room, still decked in red trousers, but with 
 his back to the daylight, they say he sat bent 
 over a fireplace for hours and hours together, 
 resting his elbows on his knees, and burying 
 his face in his hands." Victor Hugo, himself 
 an eye-witness and an actor in the scenes which 
 followed, says : " Louis Bonaparte had not 
 quitted the Elysee. He remained in a cabi- 
 net on the groundfloor, next to that splendid 
 gilded saloon in which, in 181 5, he had been 
 present, as a child, at the second abdication 
 of Napoleon, He was there alone ; the 
 order had been given to admit no one to his 
 presence. From time to time the door was 
 partly opened, and the grey head of his aide- 
 
 Q<S 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 de-camp, General Roguet, appeared. General 
 Roguet alone had the permission to open this 
 door and to enter. He brought news, more 
 and more disquieting, and frequently ter- 
 minating with the words: 'It does not go,' 
 or ' It goes badly.' When he had finished 
 his report, Louis Bonaparte, sitting leaning 
 on his elbows at a table before a large fire, 
 half turned his head in his arm-chair, and 
 with the most phlegmatic tone of voice, 
 without apparent emotion, invariably repeated 
 these words : ' Let them execute my orders.' " 
 Hugo declares that General Roguet himself 
 related, as an honourable testimony to his 
 master's imperturbable composure, that when 
 he informed the Prince how the barricades 
 in the streets were increasing in number, 
 how the troops were being hissed, and cries 
 of " Down with the Dictator ! " were every- 
 where heard, with other still more disquieting 
 details, the President, half rising from his 
 arm-chair, and looking fixedly at his officer, 
 answered calmly, " Well, tell St. Arnaud to 
 execute my orders." 
 
 Who was Responsible for the Coup 
 d'etat .? 
 It is only fair, at the outset, and before tell- 
 ing the story of the events of the 2nd of 
 December and the subsequent days, to say 
 that there is a reasonable doubt as to the 
 extent of the President's knowledge of what 
 was actually going on in Paris during that 
 period of horror. Mr. Kinglake is of opinion 
 that he was not kept accurately informed of 
 the extent to which " his orders " were being 
 executed; that the men associated with him 
 in the enterprise, whose fortune, whose future, 
 whose very lives perhaps depended upon the 
 success of the coup d'etat, kept from him the 
 naked truth, and only allowed such reports 
 to reach him as would impress upon him the 
 vital necessity of carrying out to the bitter 
 end the enterprise they had begun. At the 
 time of the coup d'etat there was but one 
 sentiment in England concerning it, — a feeling 
 of profound horror at the scenes enacted, and 
 of grave reprobation of the whole scheme. 
 The i)ational feeling concerning the Presi- 
 dent's method of maintaining order was em- 
 bodied in John Leech's clever sketch, entitled, 
 " France is Tranquil," wherein France was 
 represented crouching in abject terror, bound 
 and gagged ; — with a French infantry soldier 
 standing over her, with his bayonet at her 
 throat. In later times there arose a disposi- 
 tion to condone much of what passed during 
 those memorable days, or to forget it in 
 glorifying the success and prosperity of " our 
 faithful ally ;" though Tennyson, in some well- 
 known lines, written some years afterwards, 
 declared, — 
 
 '•' 'Tis true we have a faithful ally, 
 But only the devil knows what he meaas." 
 
 It is not here the purpose to attempt to 
 indicate how much criminality attaches to 
 the man for whom the coup d'etat was carried 
 into effect. The design is simply to tell the 
 story of that terrible event, stating the facts 
 as they have been given, not only by those 
 in whom they excited horror, but by friends 
 and partisans of Louis Napoleon, such as 
 M. Granier de Cassagnac and Captain Mau- 
 duit, who have left records of these things, 
 and can certainly not be supposed to have 
 exaggerated them to their master's disadvan- 
 tage. 
 
 Louis Napoleon's First Appearance ; 
 The Strasburg Enterprise. 
 
 Up to the memorable year of revolution, 
 1848, the career and the reputation of Charles 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte had been the 
 reverse of brilliant ; and people were accus- 
 tomed to speak of his enterprises with a smile 
 of contemptuous pity, and to consider him as 
 a visionary, closely akin to a madman. Such 
 was the language we find used concerning 
 him, for instance, in the Greville Memoirs ; 
 and " I believe he is mad," was the opinion 
 openly expressed of him by more than one 
 public man. It was afterwards said that his 
 contemporaries made two grand mistakes 
 with regard to Louis Napoleon : the first 
 when they set him down as an idiot ; the 
 second, when they ranked him as a statesman. 
 He was the son of Louis Bonaparte, the 
 brother whom Napoleon placed on the throne 
 of Holland, and of Hortense de Beauharnais, 
 daughter of the Empress Josephine, joined in 
 an uncongenial marriage with Louis by the 
 imperious mandate of the autocrat. In his 
 youth he had taken part in the risings in 
 Italy connected with the secret society of the 
 Carbonari, — disturbances in which his elder 
 brother lost his life in 1851. 
 
 It was in 1836 that the first great enterprise 
 of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte occurred. On 
 Sunday the 30th of October in that year, he 
 made his memorable attempt to excite a 
 revolt in the garrison of Strasburg, with a 
 view of restoring the Napoleonic Empire in 
 France. A colonel of artillery named Vaudrey 
 had been gained over and induced to join 
 in the conspiracy. Vaudrey persuaded the 
 soldiers under his command that there had 
 been a revolution in Paris, that the Empire 
 had been proclaimed, and Louis Philippe 
 deposed ; and presented the Prince to them 
 as the second Napoleon. The affair went so 
 far that Voirol, the general commanding the 
 garrison, and the Prefect of Strasburg were 
 actually made prisoners by detachments of 
 artillery-men ; and the Prince, who was attired 
 in a costume copied from the garb of the 
 victor of Marengo and Austerlitz, — whom he 
 did not in the least resemble in face, — was 
 introduced, with his "statf," to the men of 
 
 9Q 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the 46th regiment, who gazed in astonishment 
 and doubt on this whimsical caricature of 
 a great man trying to persuade them to 
 renounce their allegiance to King Louis 
 Philippe. 
 
 But now appeared on the scene Talandier, 
 colonel of the 46th, irate, indignant, and reso- 
 lute. He roundly denounced the pretender 
 and his scheme, and caused the batch of 
 conspirators to be then and there deprived of 
 the decorations they wore. One account 
 says that he tore off Louis Napoleon's grand 
 cordon of the Legion, and likewise the 
 Prince's epaulettes, with his own hand, 
 trampling them under his feet, and, as the 
 official report declares, " in a moment L. N. 
 Bonaparte and the wretches who accom- 
 panied him were arrested. Thus ignobly 
 ended the first attempt to revive the Em- 
 pire in France. King Louis Philippe good- 
 naturedly pardoned the conspirator, from 
 whom he apprehended no great danger to 
 the July monarchy ; and even provided him 
 with a i&'fi thousand francs wherewith to 
 embark for America. 
 
 Louis Napoleon's Second Enterprise ; 
 The Boulogne Expedition. 
 
 After a short residence in the New World, 
 Prince Louis Napoleon found his way back 
 to the Old, taking up his residence in Eng- 
 land ; and it was from London that his second 
 expedition started, to subvert the throne of 
 the king who had treated him with such 
 good-natured clemency and indulgence. The 
 lines of the second enterprise were laid down 
 similarly to those of the first. Again it was 
 a garrison — that of Boulogne this time — that 
 was to be won over, and the rest was to be 
 left to fortune and to the feeling that was 
 known to exist in favour of the " Napoleonic 
 legend," — a feeling that had been greatly in- 
 creased by recent events ; for it was in 1840 
 that the corpse of the Great Napoleon was 
 brought home by the Prince de Joinville, a 
 son of Louis PhiHppe, from its solitary grave 
 beneath the willow tree near Longwood, to 
 rest, according to the wish expressed in the 
 great Conqueror's will, " on the banks of the 
 Seine, in the midst of the French people he 
 had loved so well." l^he Prince and some 
 fifty confederates hired a steamer wherein to 
 cross the Channel, taking with them a tame 
 eagle, trained to alight on the Prince's 
 shoulder, a flag surm.ounted by a gilt eagle, 
 and other " properties," and a sum of money 
 for distribution among the wavering soldiery, 
 who might be induced to declare for the second 
 Empire and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 The farce of 1836 at Strasburg was re- 
 enacted almost scene for scene in 1840 at 
 Boulogne. Again the garrison gazed be- 
 wildered at the ludicrous and theatrical dis- 
 play of a set of adventurers ; again a prompt 
 
 arrest was made of the chief conspirator and 
 his partisans : but this time the matter was 
 taken more seriously. A soldier had been 
 shot in the scuffle when the prisoner was 
 captured, and for a time the life of Louis 
 Napoleon was in considerable danger. But 
 at his trial he had the advantage of the 
 advocacy of one of the astutest lawyers in 
 France, Maitre Berryer, who caused him to 
 take advantage, by a masterly piece of clap- 
 trap, of the recently aroused feeling in favour 
 of the Empire and its glories. He was made 
 to declare that he represented in France a 
 memory and a defeat and an aspiration ; 
 and again he escaped the full penalty of high 
 treason, being condemned, however, to lifelong 
 imprisonment in the fortress of Ham. Here, 
 in enforced seclusion, he passed the next five 
 years, occupying himself chiefly with literary 
 labours. He wrote a work on artillery ; 
 another entitled " Napoleonic Ideas ;" a third, 
 in which he developed a scheme for that 
 very desirable object, the extinction of pau- 
 perism, etc. 
 
 The Escape from Ham ; London ; 
 Return to Paris in 1848. 
 
 The world had well-nigh forgotten that 
 such a man existed, when in 1845 he con- 
 trived, with the help of his friend Dr. Con- 
 neau, to escape very cleverly from his place 
 of durance ; for he was a first-rate schemer 
 where he was not brought face to face with 
 a danger that required the exercise of sudden 
 and quick-witted resolution. Whatever had 
 been deliberately planned he could carry out 
 with stolid persistency. While some repairs 
 were going on at the fortress, he marched out 
 of the gates in the disguise of a workman — 
 carrying a plank on his shoulder further to 
 deceive the sentries — and made his way once 
 more to England, where he resided until the 
 revolution of 1848 once more made it possible 
 for him to return to France. In English 
 society his reputation did not stand high. 
 He was what his own countrymen would 
 have described as '■'' crible de dettesj" and his 
 name, frequently appearing on stamped paper, 
 was considered as the reverse of " sufficient" 
 among the Shylocks of the discount market. 
 He was kindly received by what was known 
 as the Gore House clique at Kensington ; the 
 brilliant Count d'Orsay and Lady Blessing- 
 ton welcoming as a friend the sombre, silent 
 man, who is described as sitting at their 
 assemblies quiet and self-contained, pro- 
 foundly believing in himself and his destiny, 
 looked upon as a harmless visionary, whose 
 political chance was over and gone — but 
 always patiently waiting. When London 
 was threatened with a Chartist outbreak in 
 April 1848, he caused himself to be enrolled 
 as a special constable, and paraded the 
 streets, it is said, with a policeman's trun- 
 
 i 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 cheon, in the cause of order. The first offer 
 of his services to Lamartine, to whom he 
 wrote during that areiable patriot's three 
 months' tenure of power, was dechned po- 
 litely but decidedly. Nevertheless he re- 
 turned to France, and was actually able, by 
 the mere weight attaching to the name he 
 bore, not only to put himself in nomination 
 as a candidate for the ofSce of President of 
 the French Republic, but actually to carry 
 the election by an immense majority of votes, 
 against the stern republican and able com- 
 mander General Cavaignac ; — whose firmness 
 and decision had probably saved Paris from 
 pillage and France from anarchy by the 
 resolute repression of the dreadful rising of 
 the " red" faction in June ; — when the collapse 
 of the impracticable scheme of Louis Blanc 
 and his colleagues, 
 displayed in the com- 
 pulsory closing of the 
 " Ateliers nationaux," 
 had roused the fury of 
 the most dangerous 
 classes in Paris against 
 the government, and 
 when worthy Arch- 
 bishop Affre found a 
 martyr's death on the 
 barricades in his noble 
 endeavour to mediate 
 between the enraged 
 combatants. And thus 
 it happened that the 
 impecunious refugee of 
 the beginning of the 
 wonderful year 1848, 
 before the close of that 
 year was sitting in the 
 President's chair in the 
 National Assembly in 
 Paris, the acknow- 
 ledged head of a great 
 
 republic, invested with 
 
 a constitutional autho- 
 rity that was to last for four years, and to 
 cease and determine, according to the law, 
 in the year 1852. 
 
 Louis Napoleon Chosen President ; 
 The Terms of the Oath. 
 A distinguished Frenchman has said that 
 unless people make up their minds to forget 
 a great many things, " sans de grands onblis,^^ 
 life would be impossible. Nevertheless it is 
 at times not only salutary but necessary to 
 look back and remember, — to show that 
 pledges solemnly given on assuming an office 
 are not to be cast aside so soon as their ful- 
 filment becomes inconvenient to the man 
 who has given them. Therefore it is well to 
 point out what was the nature of the oath 
 taken by Lov.is Napoleon, when on the 20tli 
 of December, 1848, the National Assembly, 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 in consequence of the majority of votes ob- 
 tained over the other candidates, solemnly 
 proclaimed him " President of the Republic 
 from this present day, until the second Sunday 
 in May, 1852." 
 
 The various articles of the Constitution 
 the President, raising his right hand, as he 
 faced ih^ Assembly, swore to maintain. '•' In 
 the presence of God," he said, " and before 
 the French people represented by the Na- 
 tional Assembly, I swear to remain faithful 
 to the Social and Democratic Republic, one 
 and indivisible, and to fulfil all the duties 
 imposed on me by the Constitution." Then 
 the President of the Assembly, standing up, 
 read out the various articles of the Constitu- 
 tion, and Citizen Charles Louis Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, raising his right hand, solemnly 
 repeated his oath. 
 Among these articles the 
 most important were 
 Art. 36 and 37, which 
 declared the inviola- 
 bility of the representa- 
 tives of the people. 
 ''They may not be 
 arrested on a criminal 
 charge," so the words 
 ran, " except in flag- 
 rante delictii, nor pro- 
 secuted until the As- 
 sembly has authorised 
 the prosecution." Art. 
 68 declared that any 
 measure by Avhich the 
 President of the Repub- 
 lic should dissolve the 
 National Assembly, or 
 prorogue it, or put an 
 obstacle in the way of 
 the fulfilment of any of 
 its mandates, constituted 
 thecrime of high treason; 
 
 that such an act would 
 
 at once deprive him of 
 his authorltv, and would cause the executive 
 power to pass into the hands of the National 
 Assembly ; that the Judges of the High Court 
 would thereupon be compelled, under penalty 
 of forfeiting their offices, to immediately 
 assemble to try the President and his accom- 
 plices ; and that the nomination of Ministers 
 would rest with them." 
 
 "The Nephew of his Uncle." 
 How the President fulfilled the obligations 
 of the oath he had taken, was shown to the 
 world in the events of the 2nd December, 
 1 85 1, and the following days. It soon be- 
 came abundantly manifest that the President 
 was bent on especially cultivating the good 
 will of two classes in the community, — the 
 clerical and the military. The interference of 
 the French in Rome for the re-establishment 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of the Papal Government, and the mainte- 
 nance of a force in the capital for the up- 
 holding of the power of Pius IX., secured 
 him the support of the Church, Herein he 
 may be said to have followed the lead of 
 the great founder of his house, who, until he 
 became utterly intoxicated with pride and 
 arrogance, recognised the importance of a 
 good understanding with Pius VII. ; and be- 
 sides restoring public worship in France, con- 
 cluded a concordat with Rome, and prevailed 
 on the Holy Father to crown him at Notre 
 Dame. 
 
 Still more strongly marked was the favour 
 shown to the army. The President studiously 
 kept up and in every way strengthened the 
 remembrance of the revived Napoleonic 
 legend, continually appearing in the character 
 of "the nephew of his uncle." The peculi- 
 arities of his august relative, indeed, as to 
 costume, etc., he imitated in the earlier part 
 of his career with a closeness that bordered 
 ■on the ludicrous, and exposed him to no little 
 ridicule. 
 
 When he made a practice of riding through 
 Paris in Napoleonic style, even the Paris 
 " gamins " were far two sharp-witted not to be 
 struck at once with the difference between 
 the nephew and the uncle, between the hero 
 of a hundred fights and the holder of half-a- 
 score of reviews. The nickname, " Sou- 
 louque " was freely applied to the President, 
 from the name of the black potentate of 
 Haiti, who, making himself emperor under 
 the name of Faustin I., presented in his ap- 
 pearance and court arrangements a ludicrous 
 caricature of the great Corsican, In a spirited 
 poem that appeared in the London Ptinch, 
 the situation was happily hit off in the follow- 
 ing lines, referring to one of these rides 
 through Paris : — 
 ' ' As the return from Elba to Boulogne's unlucky do, — 
 
 As the sawdust strife of Astley's to the real Water- 
 loo, — 
 
 So is the Bonaparte of words to the Bonaparte of 
 deeds ; 
 
 He who rides there, to him who sleeps within the 
 InvaMdes." 
 
 Bidding for Popularity. 
 As the time drew near when his term of office 
 would expire, the President naturally strove 
 to obtain increased popularity with a view to 
 re-election. He was always an open-handed 
 man, and careless in questions of expendi- 
 ture. A progress through the provinces of 
 France, while it furthered his political views, 
 depleted his purse ; and he found his official 
 salary entirely inadequate to cover his ex- 
 penditure. An application to the Assembly 
 for an increased allowance was refused ; and 
 the facetious Charivari, the Pimch of Paris, 
 made very merry over the embarrassments 
 of the chief officer of the state, to whom it 
 
 applied the fable of the " Grasshopper and 
 the ant," with a most expressive illustration 
 of Louis Napoleon in the character of " La 
 Cigale." Up to the 2nd of December, 185 1, 
 there was much laughter at the expense of 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte ; but after that 
 period ridicule gave way to far graver feelings. 
 In the Assembly there were a number of 
 the members, including some of the most 
 distinguished of the people's representatives, 
 bitterly hostile to the President, distrusting 
 his policy and disliking him personally, and 
 resolved, accordingly, to oppose, and, if pos- 
 sible, to prevent, his re-election. According 
 to one of the articles of the Constitution of 
 1848, the President could not be re-elected 
 except by a vote of three-fourths of the 
 Assembly ; and, therefore, though Louis 
 Napoleon might have commanded a majority, 
 this law would still have been enough to lose 
 him his post. He had in vain sought to 
 attach to his interest the ablest m.en in the 
 Assembly and the most respectable generals 
 in the army. They did not believe in him 
 or in his schemes ; too much of ridicule hung 
 about him — for these were the days in 
 which his ability was still underrated — to 
 induce them to join their fortunes to his by 
 giving him their aid in altering the Con- 
 stitution in a peaceable manner. Failing 
 this, he associated himself with men of doubt- 
 ful fortunes, and in some cases of more than 
 doubtful character ; and there is no question 
 that by these he was urged forward when, if 
 left to himself, he would have paused, as he 
 did at Strasburg and Boulogne, before the 
 transaction had passed from the ridiculous 
 stage, and become a national concern, deeply 
 affecting the welfare of the whole country. 
 
 The President's Associates ; De 
 MoRNY, Maupas, Persigny, Etc. 
 
 Among these associates of the President, 
 the most astute and not the least resolute 
 was De Morny, a bold speculator on the 
 Bourse, and a man equally qualified as a 
 politician and a financier to make the most 
 of an opportunity as it offered, and hardly 
 likely to let a chance go past him, or to lose 
 a prospect of advancement for want cf prompt 
 and vigorous action. He afterwards became 
 famous, among other things, for the astuteness 
 with which, as ambassador to the Russian 
 Court, he turned to his own advantage the 
 custom that allows an envoy to bring in 
 his horses, carriages, and other valuable 
 movables to that country duty free. He 
 entered Russia with a great train of vehicles, 
 heavily laden with the silks and velvets 
 and gay apparel of Western Europe ; and 
 a few days afterwards had a great sale, at 
 which he disposed of his impedimenta, 
 horses, carriages, sets of harness, and all 
 at a considerable advantage. He was far 
 
 102 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 from being a scrupulous man. De Maupas, 
 who had been recently appointed Prefect of 
 Police, after having been implicated in a dis- 
 graceful transaction as Prefect of the Haute 
 Garonne, was another of the intimates and 
 instruments of the President at the close of 
 185 1. A third was Monsieur de Persigny, 
 who afterwards became Ambassador of 
 France at the Court of St. James's. He 
 was an old associate of Louis Napoleon, 
 and had taken part in the notable attempt 
 at Boulogne in iS/p. The most resolute of 
 the men engaged in the transactions of the 
 2nd of December was Major Fleury, a man 
 
 Preparations for Striking the Blow ; 
 The Army. 
 
 On the night of the ist of December the 
 saloons of the Elysee were brilliant as usual 
 with a number of guests assembled at the 
 President's reception. Ministers, diplomatists, 
 and many other guests were present, and 
 everything went on as usual ; but the 
 President spoke to General Vieyra, Chief 
 of the Staff of the National Guard, whom 
 he had recently appointed to that post, and 
 who undertook to keep the National Guard 
 from acting, — a sufficient indication that some 
 
 French Infantry of ihk Like in 1851. 
 
 who, after dissipating the fortune left him 
 by his father, a tradesman, had enlisted as 
 a private soldier in the army, gained his 
 epaulets, and had become aide-de-camp to 
 the Pi-esident. He was the hand, as Morny 
 was in a great measure the brain, of the 
 dark conspiracy then formed against the 
 state. Last in the category of the intimates 
 of the Elysee comes Jacques Arnaud le Roy, 
 more generally known as General, afterwards 
 Marshal St. Arnaud, who became commander 
 of the French army in the Crimean war, and 
 died soon after the battle of the Alma. St. 
 Arnaud, at the time of the coup d'etat, had 
 recently been made Minister of War. 
 
 important design was to be carried out by 
 the President, in which it was desirable the 
 Parisians should not interfere. De Morny 
 was at the theatre that night ; but after the 
 guests had departed from the Elystfe, a secret 
 meeting was held there of the President and 
 his confederates. 
 
 During the last few days preparations had 
 been quietly made for the blow that was to be 
 struck that night. Marshal Magnan had been 
 informed that he might shortly have to act 
 against the Parisians, and had announced 
 himself as ready — stipulating only that he 
 should not be called upon until the moment 
 came for mounting on horseback ; and that 
 
 103 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 for whatever he did he should have a guaran- 
 tee, in the form of an order from the Minister 
 of War, General St. Arnaud. 
 
 The army was in a dangerous and savage 
 temper. Several times during the last few 
 years, and notably in 1830 and 1848, the 
 troops had come in contact with the people, 
 and had had the worst of the contest. A 
 late motion, too, in the National Assembly, 
 by which that body endeavoured to get part 
 of the control over the army into its own 
 hands, had been a further cause of anger, 
 though the measure had not passed. The 
 feeling among the soldiers against the 
 civilians of Paris was very bitter, as was 
 sufficiently indicated by the nickname of 
 " Bedouins," from the Arabs in Africa, they 
 bestowed upon them, thus designating them 
 as enemies. Such was the disposition of the 
 troops brought to Paris ; whose generals, 
 to the number of twenty, had been informed 
 a few days before at a meeting to which they 
 were summoned, that they might be called 
 on to "act" in Paris; whereupon they solemnly 
 embraced, in token of readiness to fulfil the 
 duty required of them. 
 
 The Proclamations of December 2ND. 
 
 Thus, then, having made sure of the co- 
 operation of the army, the President launched 
 the bolt he had artfully prepared to shatter 
 the liberties of France, and pull down the 
 Constitution which less than three years 
 before he had solemnly sworn to defend. 
 From the midnight conference at the 
 Elys^e, Colonel Beville, an aide-de-camp 
 of the President, was despatched with a 
 packet of papers to the state printing- 
 office, the director of which institution, M. 
 St. George, had been bought over by Louis 
 Napoleon. A large body of gendarmerie 
 had been quietly collected, at dead of night, 
 without exciting suspicion or remark, and 
 had surrounded the state printing-office ; 
 not one of the compositors assembled there 
 as usual being allowed to quit the building. 
 The papers brought by Colonel Beville con- 
 tained some proclamations, of so startling a 
 nature that it was not safe to let even one of 
 the printers know their contents. Accordingly, 
 the papers were cut up into small portions ; 
 and compositors, closely guarded by a gen- 
 darme on each side, set up these fragments, 
 which separately had no sense, but were 
 pieced together afterwards, and emerged 
 from the printing-office in the form of various 
 addresses to the nation. 
 
 The principal of these proclamations de- 
 clared that the National Assembly was 
 dissolved ; that universal suffrage was re- 
 established, and the law of the 31st of May 
 abrogated; and that a state ot siege was 
 established in the whole first military division, 
 including Paris and twelve departments 
 
 surrounding it ; that the Council of State 
 was dissolved ; and that the Minister of the 
 Interior was entrusted with the carrying out 
 of the decree. It was dated from the Palace 
 of the Elys^e, December 2nd, 1851, and 
 signed Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 The President moreover declared that 
 the Assembly was hatching conspiracies 
 against him, and that it was his duty to 
 baffle these conspiracies and uphold the 
 Republic. 
 
 The proclamation to the army was 
 atrocious ; for it contained words especially 
 calculated to stir up the ferocity of the 
 military against the civil population, and 
 reads simply as a direct incentive to violence. 
 The following words, especially, hardly admit 
 of more than one construction : " In 1830, as 
 in 1848, they (the people) treated you as 
 conquered men. After having disavowed 
 your heroic disinterestedness, they disdained 
 to consult your sympathies and your wishes, 
 although you are the elite of the nation. To- 
 day, in this solemn moment, I desire that 
 the army will make its voice heard." And 
 the army made its voice heard accord- 
 ingly, in fusillade and massacre of unarmed 
 citizens, — men, women, and children. 
 
 The Minister of the Interior who was 
 entrusted with the carrying out of the Presi- 
 dent's decree was De Morny, who was now 
 appointed to the Home Office ; the ministers 
 who took no part in the conspiracy being 
 dismissed. 
 
 Seizure of the Leading Politicians ; 
 The Army in Paris. 
 When the day dawned, the Parisians, as 
 they turned out into the streets on their 
 various business, read these proclamations 
 in stupefied astonishment ; but presently a 
 rumour spread, of a measure taken by the 
 conspirators of the Ely see, that threw all 
 others into the shade by its audacity and its 
 utter and wanton disregard of all law. In 
 that fatal night Maupas had suddenly sum- 
 moned a number of Commissaires of Police, 
 to whom separate instructions were given, 
 and who, accordingly, accompanied by police 
 agents, proceeded in the early morning to 
 arrest in their beds the most prominent 
 members of the Assembly. These were con- 
 veyed to various prisons, the majority of 
 them being removed in the cellular vans used 
 for the transport of ordinary thieveS and law- 
 breakers. Some were lodged in Mazas 
 prison, others in the fortress of Vincennes. 
 Amongst those seized and carried off into 
 captivity were some of the foremost generals 
 and statesmen in France : General Cavaignac, 
 who had saved Paris in the insurrection of 
 June 1848 ; Generals Changarnier, Bedeau, 
 and Lamoriciere, Colonel Charras, with such 
 statesmen as Thiers, Roger du Nord, Baze, 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 Miot, and others, to the number of almost I the confidence of the nation by maintaining 
 eighty, nearly a score of them being members i the Constitution to which I have sworn;" and 
 of the Assembly and therefore, according to | again in his second mes-nge, on the 12th 
 
 the Constitution which was trampled under- 
 foot, inviolable, — concerning which the Pre- 
 sident had written in his first message to 
 the Assembly less than two years before 
 ("December 31st, 1849) : "I will be worthy of 
 
 November, 1850, only a year before: "If 
 the Constitution involves faults and dangers, 
 you are all free to make them known in the 
 face of the country ; I alone, bound by my 
 oath, will keep myself within the strict 
 
 105 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 limits it traces out to me." Again, speaking 
 on a public occasion, at the opening of a 
 railway, he had alluded to the events that 
 led to his incarceration in the fortress of 
 Ham, and had unreservedly taken blame to 
 himself for his hare-brained Boulogne enter- 
 prise, saying : " To-day, when by the election 
 of the whole of France I have become the 
 legitimate chief of this great nation, I cannot 
 glorify myself on an imprisonment caused by 
 an attack upon an established government." 
 And over and over again he had declared, 
 that in view of the terrible evils inseparable 
 from even the most justifiable of revolutions, 
 he could hardly understand the audacity of 
 the man who could take upon himself the 
 terrible responsibility of a change. Every- 
 where, and on all occasions, he had paraded 
 his respect for the Constitution, and the para- 
 mount duty imposed on the chief of the state 
 of maintaining the order of things as by law 
 established. No wonder, then, that the 
 people stood bewildered and indignant before 
 this extraordinary commentary on those 
 reiterated assurances of good faith. 
 
 The troops assembled in Paiis were set in 
 motion early in the morning, in expectation of 
 the excitement these things might be expected 
 to cause. As five o'clock sounded from the 
 cupola of the Invalides, the troops in barracks 
 there were aroused, and ordered quietly to 
 take their arms. At the same hour the 
 various regiments in different parts of the 
 capital received the same order. The object 
 of this early movement was twofold, — partly 
 the troops would be required to overawe 
 Paris, and enforce the decree closing the 
 Assembly ; partly, in case things went wrong, 
 to provide for the safety of the plotters at the 
 Elys^e. The latter duty was assigned 
 especially to the cavalry, of whom a division 
 under General Korte, and a brigade under 
 Reybell, with an infantry brigade under 
 General Canrobert, were stationed near 
 the palace. Other infantry brigades were 
 posted at various points, such as the Place 
 de la Concorde, the Ouai d'Orsay, and the 
 Tuileries Gardens, under Generals Cotte, 
 Forey, and Dulac. Somewhat later another 
 eventuality was provided for. Three travelling 
 carriages were kept in readiness, with horses 
 harnessed, and postillions in waiting, ready 
 to start at a moment's notice from the court- 
 yard of the Elys^e. For a betrayed city, 
 especially such a city as Paris, has been 
 known to rise in fury against its betrayers ; 
 and sudden flight might be necessary, after 
 all. 
 
 Forcible Closing of the Assembly ; 
 Arrest of Members. 
 
 The projectors of the coup d''etat evidently 
 counted for success in a great measure upon 
 the bewilderment of the Parisians, who would 
 
 be very imperfectly aware of the real state of 
 affairs ; the newspapers, which would have 
 informed them, being promptly seized and 
 stopped. Another hope was in the unpopu- 
 larity of the Assembly ; for the workmen of 
 Paris looked somewhat suspiciously upon re- 
 presentatives paid for service at the rate of 
 a pound sterling a day ; and were as likely 
 to take part against as with " les vignt-cinq 
 yra?/;^^," if properly manipulated, and especially 
 if dazzled with anything like a Napoleonic 
 spectacle ; and thus it was that the famous 
 ride through Paris was undertaken, to which 
 allusion has been made ; and which in itself 
 fell as flat as the Strasburg and Boulogne 
 attempts. 
 
 A point of great importance was the 
 closing of the Assembly ; for this could hardly 
 be expected to go off without opposition on 
 the part of the ejected members. At this 
 parody of the i8th of Brumaire the President 
 took care not to be present, warned, perhaps, 
 by his experiences of the parodies of the return 
 from Elba. The space outside the Hall of 
 the National Assembly was occupied by 
 several regiments of troops. From an early 
 hour the deputies began to arrive ; in high 
 indignation at the arrests that had been made, 
 and anxious that a sitting should commence 
 at once. But this was exactly the thing that 
 Dupin, the president, appeared anxious to 
 avoid. In the morning, when one of the 
 deputies had come to him with the astound- 
 ing news, and had conjured him immediately 
 to summon the representatives at their 
 houses, he had replied that he could not see 
 the urgency of the case ; and now, when an 
 impatient deputy asked him why the Assembly 
 was not yet convoked, seeing what things 
 were being perpetrated, he replied with a 
 shrug of the shoulders that there was nothing 
 to be done. There was no mistaking the 
 purport of this answer. M. Dupin was 
 thoroughly frightened, and would do nothing. 
 His colleagues understood him, " That's 
 enough,'' was the observation of M de 
 Ressdgnier ; and Eugene Sue added : " It's 
 too much." By eight o'clock a formidable 
 force had invested the legislative palace, all 
 the avenues of approach being guarded, and 
 the doors closed. But a little entrance, called 
 the Porte Noire, in the Rue de Bourgogne, 
 had been left open by accident or design 
 until twelve o'clock, though the street was 
 crowded with troops ; and various representa- 
 tives managed to pass through it into the 
 Hall of Assembly. In the great avenue of the 
 Champs Elysdes several cavalry regiments 
 were posted. 
 
 It has been well said, that for once the 
 Assembly was thoroughly unanimous in the 
 feeling of profound indignation and contempt 
 at the unworthy statetrick played by Louis 
 Napoleon and his accomplices. The num- 
 
 io6 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 ber of armed men who were gradually- 
 invading the interior, as they had already 
 occupied the precincts of the palace, increased 
 every minute ; and the deputies ielt sure that 
 the nefarious game was being played against 
 the republic, while they were wasting time, 
 and that not a moment was to be lost. They 
 sought Dupin, their " official man," whose 
 presence was necessary to give full legal 
 force to their deliberations ; but that prudent 
 personage Avas nowhere to be found. He 
 had consulted his own safety, and had dis- 
 played the better part of valour by creeping 
 away at the first opportunity ; and while 
 conjecture was still busy as to the cause of 
 his absence the door of the room opened, and 
 an officer in uniform entered, and summoned 
 the deputies to leave their own hall. 
 
 His demand was met with a shout of in- 
 dignant refusal ; and he retired. But presently 
 a company of the " gendarmerie mobile," led 
 on by a captain with his sword drawn, ap- 
 peared in the hall to which the sixty repre- 
 sentatives present had betaken themselves. 
 The resolute protest made by the deputies at 
 this lawless intrusion seemed to stagger the 
 soldiers for a moment ; but the commanding 
 officer, after announcing to the deputies that 
 he had orders to desire them to withdraw, 
 and, in case of their refusal, to expel them, 
 proceeded, on the arrival of a fresh detach- 
 ment, to put this order in force in the most 
 literal manner, turning the representatives of 
 the people out of their hall by violence, with 
 brutal roughness and blows. Twelve of them, 
 who were most energetic in their protests, 
 were carried away prisoners. The rest were 
 pushed into the street through the different 
 doors. 
 
 Closing of the High Court of Justice. 
 
 Meanwhile a commissary of police had 
 been despatched with a detachment of 
 thirty-five municipal guards to the High Court 
 of Justice, which was dispersed in the same 
 unceremonious fashion, the judges being 
 threatened with arrest if they hesitated to 
 obey. And, yielding to the peremptory sum- 
 mons, the court broke up, after passing a 
 decree of impeachment to be served upon the 
 President of the Republic. 
 
 The members of the Assembly, driven from 
 their hall, betook themselves to the mayor- 
 alty of the loth arrondissement. There, 
 amid a passionate storm of indignation, 
 under the leadership of the famous advocate 
 Berryer, they decreed the deposition of the 
 President, Louis Napoleon ; and by a second 
 decree pronounced every one guilty of a 
 crime who had interfered with the inviola- 
 bility of the Assembly, and peremptorily 
 demanded that the imprisoned members 
 should be set at liberty. While this was 
 
 going on, a battalion of Chasseurs de Vincen- 
 nes had been quietly marched into the 
 garden of the mayoralty. Again the deputies 
 were ordered to disperse. They refused, 
 declaring they would yield only to physical 
 force ; whereupon they were marched off, to 
 the number of more than two hundred, as 
 prisoners, between the Chasseurs de Vincen- 
 nes. It is a significant fact that the courtyard 
 of the mayoralty was afterwards found strewn 
 with broken wine bottles ; and there is 
 abundant evidence that on this occasion, as 
 well as during the more tragic scenes that 
 followed, the soldiers were under the influence 
 of drink ; many of them being in a stupidly 
 heavy condition, others fierce and brutal, and 
 nearly all incapable of listening to reasoning, 
 or of anything but a stolid obedience to any 
 one who wore an epaulet. 
 
 The Assembly Carried Away Captive. 
 
 As the members of the Assembly emerged 
 in the courtyard as prisoners, the National 
 Guards on duty presented arms, and cried : 
 " Long live the Assembly ! Long live the 
 representatives of the people ! " They were 
 at once disarmed by the Chasseurs de Vin- 
 cennes. And then the march of the French 
 Parliament, led captive through the streets 
 of Paris, began. It is said that the first 
 intention of those who ordered their arrest 
 had been to lodge the representatives in the 
 prison of Mazas ; but if so, the order was 
 countermanded ; and, indeed, it would have 
 been a venturesome thing to parade 'such a 
 sight in broad daylight, in the eyes of the 
 numerous and excitable inhabitants of the 
 streets between the mayoralty of the loth 
 arrondissement and Mazas. The barracks 
 of the Quay D'Orsay presented a convenient 
 domicile for lodging the captives ; and thither, 
 accordingly, the procession took its way, 
 reaching its destination at about half-past 
 three in the afternoon. 
 
 On their way they had encountered sym- 
 pathizing glances, and here and there had 
 iDcen saluted with encouraging cries ; but the 
 general aspect of the spectators was one of 
 blank astonishment as they thus saw the 
 representatives of French liberty marched off 
 in the custody of soldiers. The French are 
 accustomed to act in masses, under leaders 
 in whom they have confidence, and whom, at 
 a crisis, they implicitly obey ; and the sinister 
 ingenuity of the plotters of the coup d'etat 
 had taken care that the accredited leaders of 
 the people, those to whom the nation could 
 have turned with faith and strong belief at a 
 time when its liberties were invaded, — men 
 like Cavaignac, Thiers, and others, — should 
 be safely under lock and key, before the 
 great blow against the liberty and honour of 
 France was struck. 
 
 107 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Prisoners and the Cellular Vans ; 
 Mazas and Vincennes. 
 
 When the prisoners had been safely de- 
 posited in the barrack square, they were left 
 to themselves for a time, and walked to and 
 fro, discussing the situation. Community of 
 misfortune is a great peacemaker ; and the 
 members of the " right " and " left," bitter 
 opponents until then, fraternised and ex- 
 changed opinions with great cordiality. The 
 number of the prisoners had been increased 
 during their march by several members who 
 joined them voluntarily ; and they now met 
 those who had been taken prisoners in the 
 'morning, so that they amounted to more than 
 two hundred and thirty. They had among 
 them the illustrious writer De Tocqueville, 
 Thouret, Casimir, Perier, Berryer the advo- 
 cate, Sainte-Beuve, and many other men of 
 high standing and reputation. They put the 
 best face possible on their position, jested with 
 one another on the strange fortune that had 
 brought them together as prisoners, managed 
 to procure a dinner by a general subscription 
 from the neighbouring Cafe D'Orsay, and 
 prepared to sleep in the large comfortless 
 laarrack-rooms on the upper storey. But a 
 further indignity was in store for them. At 
 ten o'clock that night there came rolling into 
 the courtyard a prisoner's van, surrounded by 
 an escort of gaolers, carrying torches. A 
 squadron of lancers then entered the court, 
 and drew up in line. Other similar vehicles 
 arrived at a later hour ; and in these cellular 
 vans, and in a supplementary omnibus, the 
 representatives of the people were driven 
 away in batches ; some to Vincennes, others 
 to Mazas, and the rest to Mont Valerien. 
 A more cynically insulting proceeding it 
 would be difficult to imagine. At Mazas, 
 especially, the imprisoned representatives 
 were treated like the robbers among whom 
 they were incarcerated ; threatened and 
 browbeaten by the gaolers, and fed on the 
 nauseous prison diet that they could scarcely 
 swallow. 
 
 State of Paris ; Discouragement ; 
 
 Committee of Resistance. 
 It might be supposed th.'at here was pro- 
 vocation enough to urge a far less inflamma- 
 ble population than that of Paris to insurrec- 
 tion ; but the Parisians were not in a 
 humour, or, indeed, in a condition, to win 
 their cause by fighting. The ablest and 
 fiercest barricade men had perished in the 
 tremendous struggle of June 1848, or had 
 been transported, or, at any rate, disarmed, 
 after the defeat of that formidable rising ; 
 and those who remained were unable to act 
 for want of leaders ; for among the arrests 
 made on the night of the ist December had 
 been included Barbes and the chief democratic 
 
 and socialist leaders. Moreover, there had 
 been a widespread terror of the "spectre 
 rouge," among the more respectable of the 
 lower and the whole of the middle class, 
 community, who were rather inclined, in spite 
 of the indignation awakened by the pro- 
 ceedings of the President and his accomplices^ 
 rather to bear those ills they had than fly to 
 others that they knew not of; especially as the 
 very extravagance of illegality in the acts 
 committed by the knot of conspirators at the 
 Elysee seemed a guarantee that such a power 
 could not last long. Some kind of armed 
 opposition, however, was organised. The 
 celebrated Victor Hugo, Baudin, Schoelcher, 
 Duval, Malardier, and other members of the 
 constituent Assembly who had escaped 
 imprisonment, formed themselves into a 
 committee of resistance, and attempted to 
 bring about a rising in the Faubourg St. 
 Antoine ; but they found the people, though 
 favourably inclined to their cause, not ripe 
 for resistance. A barricade was indeed con- 
 structed in the Rue St. Marguerite, but it was 
 slight and weak, and utterly inadequate to 
 stand against an attack by regular troops. 
 Baudin made a heroic but hopeless attempt 
 to influence the soldiery by moral force and 
 the sense of right. With six other deputies, 
 all wearing scarves to show that they were 
 members of the Assembly, he advanced to 
 meet the approaching column of infantry, 
 waving in his hand a copy of the book of the 
 Constitution of 1848 ; and began to harangue 
 the soldiers on the duty of obeying the law. 
 For a moment they were staggered by his 
 extreme boldness and heroic contempt of 
 danger ; but presently, at a word or sign from 
 the officer in command, the soldiers fired a 
 volley, and Baudin fell dead. They then 
 charged right through the row of deputies, 
 who were thrown down, and the barricade 
 was taken within a few minutes. 
 
 Failure of the Struggle. 
 Proclamations were issued by the com- 
 mittee of resistance, declaring Louis Napoleon 
 a traitor, outlawing him, and calling on all 
 good citizens to support the law. Barricades 
 were erected in the streets between the 
 Boulevard and the Hotel de Viile ; but they 
 were not the old solid constructions of paving- 
 stones of former days, for in many instances 
 the streets had been lately macadamized ; 
 and overturned carriages, omnibuses, rail- 
 ings, and hoardings, and a quantity of flimsy 
 material were necessarily used. The number 
 of men to defend these barricades, and the 
 supply of guns and ammunition among the 
 insurgents was also limited ; the troops had 
 no difficulty in carrying the barricades when- 
 ever they chose to charge. The absence of 
 their leaders also damped the spirits of the 
 insurgents. It was a puny insurrection com- 
 
 108 
 
 i 
 
IHROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 pared with that of June 1848, andinthe Fau- 
 bourg St. Antoine it simply died out for 
 want of support. The number of troops in 
 and about Paris amounted, according to the 
 tabular statement of Mauduit, a partisan of 
 Louis Napoleon, to 48,000. The insurrec- 
 tion was confined to one quarter of the city, 
 upon which troops could easily converge 
 from various points. During part of the 3rd 
 of December, and the morning of the 4th, 
 the troops maintained an almost passive 
 attitude. The men who erected the barri- 
 cades were too weak in number to occupy 
 the houses around, and thus lost one of the 
 strongest points of street fighting. After a 
 truce the troops withdrew, and made no effort 
 to hold the barricades they had taken, or to 
 prevent their reconstruction. This seem- 
 ingly unaccountable conduct loses its strange- 
 ness when looked at in the light of the 
 horrible event of the afternoon of the 4th of 
 December, and can only be explained as 
 part of a settled plan to deal with the up- 
 holders of the republic, and, indeed, with the 
 Parisians generally, in a new and unheard of 
 fashion. It is impossible to avoid the sus- 
 picion that the massacre with which the day's 
 proceedings terminated was premeditated. 
 
 Proceedings of the Government; Dis- 
 content MET BY A Cavalry Charge. 
 
 From the early morning notices had been 
 placarded by order of the government, setting 
 forth that any one found with arms in his hands, 
 upon, around, or in the neighbourhood of a 
 barricade, would at once be shot; that any one 
 found attempting to reconstruct a barricade 
 would be instantly shot. Another placard 
 declared that all groups or crowds of citizens, 
 of whatever nature they might be, would be 
 dispersed at once by force, witlioiit siunmoiis. 
 
 The barricade fighting, it has been said, 
 v/as confined to one quarter of Paris : the 
 Boulevards were free ; and at about one 
 o'clock on the 4th of December they were 
 suddenly occupied throughout their entire 
 length by cavalry and infantry ; almost an 
 entire division, consisting of the five brigades 
 of Cotte, Bourgon, Canrobert, Dulac, and 
 Reibell, being present, to the number of 
 16,400 men, extending from the Rue de la 
 Paris to the Faubourg Poissonicre. Each 
 brigade was accompanied by its battery of 
 artillery. A great crowd on the sidewalks 
 and at the windows gazed with astonishment 
 upon this enormous concourse of the military. 
 According to one witness, the men were 
 talking and laughing ; several, including an 
 old officer used to their ways and appearance, 
 declared that they were intoxicated. 
 
 The people were dissatisfied with the aspect 
 of things ; and, indeed, it is considered that 
 the President and his companions at the 
 Elys^e were seriously disconcerted at the 
 
 isolation in which they were left. It seemed 
 to dawn on the Parisians that their position 
 was humiliating. Cries were raised of "W 
 bas Louis Bonaparte / Vive la Rcpicbliqiie I " 
 and even the insulting words, " A bds 
 Soulouque /" were heard. An officer is re- 
 ported to have remarked, " Ceci va toiiriier ct 
 la charciilerie " (This will turn to butcher's 
 work). What was the temper of the troops 
 and their officers will be seen in the following 
 incident, whose occurrence has been vouched 
 for by Captain Mauduit, the apologist of the 
 eou/> ifetat, who complacently adds that 
 " a good number of them remained on the 
 field ; it was the affair of an instant." 
 
 This affair of an instant was the follow- 
 ing: — When the first regiment of Lancers, 
 under the command of Colonel Rochefort, 
 came on the scene, a number of the inhabi- 
 tants of the quarter,— -merchants, artists, 
 journalists, men and women, some of the 
 latter leading young children by the hand, — 
 covered the asphalte of the Boulevard. As 
 the regiment went by, cries were raised of 
 " Vive la Constitution / Vive la loi / Vive 
 la Repnblique J " and at this entirely legal 
 cry from the crowd — the narrator tells us, 
 and he is confirmed by Captain Mauduit — 
 the Colonel rode into the middle of the 
 group, across the chairs placed on the pave- 
 ment ; the lancers followed him, and men, 
 women, and children were sabred indis- 
 criminately. Such was Captain Mauduit's 
 " affair of an instant," — a sinister token of the 
 greater calamity that was immediately to 
 happen. 
 
 The Massacre on thk Boulevards. 
 
 Near the Gymnase the.itre a little barri- 
 cade, formed chiefly of planks and scenery 
 taken from the theatre, and occupied by 
 some twenty men, had been erected. The 
 head of the column of troops was turned 
 towards this little barricade. The vast 
 mass of troops stretched away westward 
 along the Boulevard to the Madeleine ; and 
 on the southern pavement a great crowd had 
 assembled, a very ordinary crowd of men, 
 women, and children, looking at the military 
 spectacle, and many of them no doubt won- 
 dering what so imposing a display of forces 
 could mean ; for though a few languid shots 
 were exchanged with the barricade at the 
 Gymnase, all along the western line there 
 was no sign of an enemy against whom the 
 troops could have to contend. Accordingly 
 not only was the Boulevard itself covered 
 with spectators, but all the windows of the 
 houses were crowded with heads, looking 
 down at the strange spectacle. 
 
 Suddenly, at a little after three o'clock, a 
 shot was fiyed near the corner of the Rue du 
 Sentier. Some witnesses declare it came 
 from a soldier, who fired straight up into the 
 
 109 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 air, aivd that it was a signal ; others affirm 
 that it was a pistol shot from one of the 
 houses. Be this as it may, so much is 
 certain, that at the firing of this shot the 
 whole line of soldiers along the entire length 
 of the Boulevard faced towards the south, — 
 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, — and com- 
 menced firing furiously upon the unarmed 
 crowd who thronged the pavement; "and i 
 
 4th of December stands alone, even in the 
 history of Parisian revolutions. 
 
 A horrible fury of drunkenness and slaugh- 
 ter seemed to have taken possession of the 
 soldiers. They fired and loaded and fired 
 again on the crowd that fled in wild terror ; 
 they pointed their guns at the windows, and 
 fired into the houses killing numbers within 
 the rooms, — people who had never even gone 
 
 C\I DU \L OB JNOII C JJ^ n, i:* VI IS 
 
 thus," says a contemporary account, " sud- 
 denly, without a motive, without sitmnioHs, 
 as the atrocious placards of the morning had 
 announced, from the Gymnase to the Chinese 
 baths, along the whole length of the richest, 
 and liveliest, and most joyous boulevard of 
 Paris, a butchery began.'' In its utter want 
 of cause, its fierce brutality, and its prolonga- 
 tion, where not a shadow of resistance was to 
 be overcome, this Boulevard massacre of the 
 
 out from their homes ; as is attested by the 
 evidence of an English officer who, with his 
 wife, narrowly escaped death in this manner. 
 Among the heaps of dead were found young- 
 men with cigars in their mouths and light 
 walking canes in their hands, ladies in velvet 
 dresses, clerks carrying business letters, 
 checiues, and bills. A passer-by, who rushed 
 with about fifty others into a wineshop for 
 refuge when the firing first began, states 
 
THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO A THRONE. 
 
 some particulars concerning his companions 
 in misfortune, which will give an idea of the 
 kind of crowd upon which the troops con- 
 tinued to pour a hail of bullets for half an 
 hour, until the last wretch who failed to gain 
 a harbour of refuge had ceased to move or 
 groan. There were v^^omen among the horri- 
 fied group in the wineshop, two of whom 
 had just been purchasing provisions for their 
 dinner ; a little clerk despatched on an 
 errand by his master ; some speculators from 
 the Exchange and other men of business ; 
 some workmen, hardly any of them in their 
 working blouses. One of those poor fellows 
 was almost mad with grief; he had been 
 returning with his wife to dine with his family 
 at the Faubourg Montmartre, when at the 
 first discharge both he and his wife fell. The 
 husband contrived to pick himself up, and was 
 dragged by pitying hands into the wineshop ; 
 but the poor wife was killed. The despair 
 of the husband was terrible, and he could 
 hardly be withheld from rushing out into the 
 hail of bullets in the street in search of her. 
 He was afterwards arrested and transported 
 to Cayenne for uttering threats against the 
 President. 
 
 Details of the Massacre ; Slaughter 
 of non-combatants. 
 Various witnesses have given particulars 
 as to the extent and duration of the massacre. 
 The testimony of all of them coincides in 
 certain particulars, namely, as to the entirely 
 unexpected nature of the attack, the long 
 extent of the line of boulevards on which 
 it was effected, and its completely indiscri- 
 minate nature. " Words cannot give an 
 adequate idea of such an act of barbarism," 
 says an eye-witness ; and he goes on to tell 
 how he saw shots fired "by thousands" on 
 inoffensive people, without the slightest 
 necessity. Another describes the doubtful 
 shot as having been fired in the air, as 
 might be seen by the smoke rising perpen- 
 dicularly ; whereupon, as on a given signal, 
 the firing and the bayonet charges on the 
 people commenced. One man, who took 
 refuge in a gateway in the Rue Taitbout, 
 and who saw a woman shot dead within ten 
 paces of him, declares emphatically that 
 there were neither insurgents nor barricades 
 to be seen, — nothing, he says, but " hunters 
 and flying game." Another witness uses 
 almost the same term, declaring that the 
 soldiers lay in wait for passing citizens at 
 the corners of the streets, like sportsmen 
 stalking game, and fired at the wounded 
 who raised themselves on their hands and 
 knees and attempted to crawl away. The 
 soldiers fired down gratings into the cellars 
 where the inhabitants of many houses had 
 taken refuge. Until nightfall the cannonade 
 and the fire of musketry continued. Some 
 
 houses, like the Sallandronze warehouse, 
 were completely gutted. The men could 
 no longer be restrained by their officers, who, 
 in some instances, sought in vain to mode- 
 rate their rage ; they seemed drunk with 
 fury and cruelty. Some of them made bets 
 with their comrades that they would hit a 
 certain man or woman flying across an open 
 place. A roar of laughter arose each time 
 one of these horrible wagers was won. One 
 woman was found dead with a loaf of bread 
 under her arm. A printer's boy dragged 
 himself into an entry to die, with the proof- 
 sheet he was carrying still grasped in his 
 hand. A poor streetseller of lemonade, with 
 his tin fountain on his back ; an errand boy 
 of thirteen deliberately put up and shot, in 
 spite of his childish appeal for mercy ; an 
 old white-haired man, with an umbrella in 
 his hand, were among the " enemies " shot 
 down by the soldiery. The lesson given to 
 them had borne good fruit, — they were 
 quite ready to revenge the insults of 1830 
 and 1848; and, among other achievements, 
 signalised themselves by entering a dozen 
 houses of the " Bedouins," under pretext that 
 that there had been shots fired from the 
 windows, and bayoneting every one of the 
 inmates. 
 
 The soldiers killed for the sake of killing. 
 One who saw the dead removed for burial, 
 declared that they lay in heaps — men, women, 
 and children ; blouses and broad-cloth mixed 
 in indescribable confusion ; heads, arms, and 
 legs all mingled together. The streets were 
 literally running with blood ; and each of the 
 young trees, round which hollows had been 
 dug to retain the water, stood in a gory pool. 
 
 That night the troops bivouacked on the 
 Boulevards, by the light of huge watch fires. 
 There is good evidence, also, that distributions 
 of money, generally at the rate of ten francs 
 per man, were made to the troops in acknow- 
 ledgment of their exertions. '"' The officers 
 were breaking open rouleaux of Louis like 
 sticks of chocolate," says an eye-witness. 
 There were drinking and carousing and 
 singing of songs among the bivouacs, — while 
 mournful women were searching with lanterns 
 among the heaps of corpses for lost husbands, 
 brothers, and sons. 
 
 The Success of the Coup d'etat ; The 
 Plebiscite. 
 With the massacre, the success of the coup 
 d'etat was secured. Paris was petrified with 
 horror at first ; then the feeling seemed that 
 of a frightened child, mingled with a strange 
 puerile curiosity. The city was full of bearers 
 carrying away corpses from the hospitals and 
 the places to which they had been taken 
 when the blood-stained streets were cleared 
 of the heaps of dead ; and yet the people 
 were out again, looking with greedy curiosity 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 at the traces of the carnage, — standing in 
 gaping groups in front of houses shattered by 
 cannon balls, — putting their fingers in the 
 pools of blood, — pointing out to each other the 
 traces which showed where wounded wretches 
 had dragged themselves along the pavement 
 in search of some corner where they might 
 sink down and die in peace. The committee 
 of defence made some spasmodic efforts on 
 the morning of the 5th to keep up the resist- 
 ance, but it was useless ; a barricade or two 
 was still defended for a time by a few indo- 
 mitable workmen ; but Paris would not rise, — 
 it was cowed by the atrocities that had been 
 committed. The men of the Elysee had 
 their way ; and Louis Napoleon could make 
 his preparations at leisure for the farce called 
 a '''"plebiscite" which was to raise him 
 permanently to the supreme power by " the 
 will of the French nation," — a nation to whose 
 provinces De Morny had sent despatches 
 announcing that the National Assembly had 
 been dissolved amid general division, — before 
 the policemen commissioned to ai-rest the 
 members had fulfilled their sorry task. 
 
 Testimony of an Impartial Witness ; 
 Public Feeling in England. 
 A gentleman, who has since won for him- 
 self an eminent position in literature, Mr. 
 George Augustus Sala, then a young man, 
 happened to ai'rive in Paris just at the time 
 when the coii-p detat was in full operation. 
 He came upon it quite unexpectedly, and 
 gave a powerful and graphic account of 
 what he saw and heard in Charles Dickens's 
 Household Words, under the expressive 
 heading, " Liberty, Eonality, Fraternity, and 
 Musketry." His account was written, it must 
 be remembered, while the impression produced 
 by these scenes was still fresh in his memory, 
 for the occurrences described were not a 
 fortnight old. He walked through Paris on 
 the day after the massacre, and this is what 
 he says about it : — " With the merits or de- 
 merits of the struggle I have nothing to do. 
 But I saw the horrible brutality and ferocity 
 of this ruthless soldiery. I saw them burst- 
 ing into shops to search for arms or fugitives, 
 dragging the inmates forth like sheep from 
 a slaughter-house, smashing the furniture 
 and windows. I saw them, when making a 
 passage for a convoy of prisoners, or a 
 
 waggonful of wounded, strike wantonly at 
 the bystanders with the butt ends of their 
 muskets, and thrust at them with their 
 bayonets. ... So much for what I saw. I 
 know, as far as a man can know from trust- 
 worthy persons, from eye-witnesses, from 
 patent and notorious report, that the military, 
 who are now the sole and supreme masters 
 of that unhappy city and country, have been 
 perpetrating most frightful barbarities since 
 the riots were over. I know that from the 
 Thursday I arrived to the Thursday I left 
 Paris they were daily shooting their prisoners 
 in cold blood. ... I know that in the Champ 
 de Mars one hundred and fifty-six men were 
 executed ; and I heard one horrible story (so 
 horrible that I can scarcely credit it) that a 
 batch of prisoners were tied together with 
 ropes, like a faggot of wood, and that the 
 struggling mass was fired into until not a 
 limb moved nor a groan was uttered. I 
 know — and my informant was a clerk in the 
 office of the Ministry of War — that the official 
 return of insurgents killed was two thonsmid 
 and seven, and of soldiers fifteen. Rather 
 long odds !" 
 
 In England the news of these things 
 created a profound sensation ; the feeling 
 was everywhere one of indignation and horror, 
 and the English newspapers spoke out in 
 such frank fashion that they were promptly 
 prohibited in France. The Queen wrote 
 immediately to the Prime Mmister, Lord 
 John Russell, to desire that nothing might 
 be said by the Government that could by 
 any means be made to assume an appearance 
 of approval of the coup d'etat ; and Lord 
 Palmerston, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 who had indiscreetly used some phrases that 
 were interpreted by the French ambassador. 
 Count Walewski, as expressions of concur- 
 rence in the course adopted by the President, 
 and by him reported to the French Minister, 
 M. Turgot, was dismissed from his post. At 
 a later period England acknowledged in the 
 Emperor of the French a faithful and friendly 
 ally; but the means by Avhich he attained to 
 power were never forgotten, and especially 
 came back to remembrance after that fatal 
 day of Sedan, where, amid a scene of slaughter, 
 he lost the throne to which he had mounted 
 by bloodshed and wrong, 
 
 H. W, D. 
 
The Birthplace of John Wesley. 
 
 METHODISM. 
 
 THE STORY OF A GREAT REVIVAL. 
 
 ■Great Movements and Reaction^England under George II. — Pioneers of the Revival — The Holy Club at Oxford — George 
 Whitefield's Early Days — Whitefield becomes a Preacher — Whitefield in London — The Countess of Huntingdon — 
 The Wesleys — The Wesleys become Itinerants — Spread of Methodism, Lay Preachers, Provincial lilobs — Illustrious 
 Allies — Ireland, Scotland, Wales — Methodist Denominations^General Results — Conclusion. 
 
 Great Movements and Reaction. 
 |T is giving expression to a truism to 
 say, that many of those popular 
 movements which have redounded 
 in blessing to mankind, have come 
 as reactions against what could no longer be 
 passively endured ; the tide having marked 
 its lowest ebb would not remain stationary, 
 but rather began to return towards those 
 high-water marks which had been frequently 
 touched in other days. This was so at the 
 dawn of the Reformation ; the cup of papal 
 iniquity was full ; and having in the printing- 
 press an engine of new power to work with, 
 one true man, as it were, had it in his power 
 literally to chase a thousand enemies of the 
 right, and so to set in motion the inevitable 
 reaction against priestcraft and tyranny. It 
 was so at the Revolution of 1688 ; the 
 dreary and forbidding political outlook was 
 at once the darkest hour of night and the 
 hour before the dawn. By a beneficent 
 law, evils are thus made to bring their 
 own correctives, while in the end the re- 
 presentatives of wrong and of oppression, 
 against their personal will and design, de- 
 feat their ov.'n purposes. There is, of course, 
 considerable danger incurred when the 
 
 leaders in a national movement are themselves 
 too low down in the mire, or are too blinded 
 by class prejudices, to see clearly in what the 
 cure for grievances consists, and thus to 
 realize what a suffering people really require 
 for their elevation. Thfe risks and penalties 
 referred to were painfully exemplified during 
 the course of that French Revolution which 
 alarmed and threatened Europe in the very 
 days when our own more favoured country 
 was beginning to taste of the grateful fruits 
 resulting from the seed-sowing of the Metho- 
 dist pioneers. France passed through an 
 ordeal of blood and fire such as might have 
 fallen to the lot of England, had not a 
 determined band of religious and moral 
 reformers been raised up to draw into the 
 fold of the Church those classes of the people 
 who were becoming dangerous to the State, 
 in proportion to their ignorance and lawless- 
 ness in daily life. 
 
 England under George II. 
 
 The triumph of the Protestant Succession 
 was really ensured in 1688, as the outcome 
 of the Revolution ; but nevertheless the 
 enemies of Popery manifested joy both 
 unfeigned and deep, when, about a quarter of 
 
 13 I 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 a century later, the heir of the House of 
 Brunswick quietly took possession of the 
 crown. The friends of order and of true reli- 
 gion regarded this transition as one of those 
 bloodless revolutions which reveal the hand 
 of God in history, and no right-minded 
 person will be prepared to challenge their 
 conclusion. It is true that the roseal pro- 
 mises of better days which had seemed to 
 tinge the horizon of the Revolution had not 
 been fulfilled ; but there was at least an augury 
 of good in the bare fact that the machinations 
 of the enemy were defeated. Though neither 
 George I. nor his successor was a pattern of 
 Christian propriety, they were both repre- 
 sentatives of those principles of civil and 
 religious liberty which were dear to the 
 English people, and beneath the ascendency 
 of which true progress can alone be made. 
 
 Still, as years passed by, it was found that 
 the mere profession of Protestanism and 
 nothing else was not more promising than 
 trusting for fruit to a sapless and dead tree. 
 The Reformation, hailed in England as a 
 mighty deliverance, soon struck its roots deep 
 in the national affection, and the history of 
 the early and later Puritans is in itself the 
 history of a great revival following close upon 
 the receding darkness of Popery. When, 
 however, the Puritans passed away, they left 
 no successors ; and the earlier years of the 
 eighteenth century were a time of religious 
 deadness, of moral and political corruption 
 such as could not easily be paralleled in the 
 annals of our country. In the fourth decade 
 of the century, under George II., progress 
 was indeed made, but it was a progress from 
 bad to worse ; the reaping was not worthy of 
 the seed-sowing. 
 
 In the palace, during two reigns, there had 
 been domestic strife, the King and heir- 
 apparent presenting a sorry example to the 
 people by quarrelling with one another ; and 
 while politicians, from the chief minister 
 downwards, were commonly unscrupulous as 
 regarded the means they used for accomplish- 
 ing their purposes, the upper classes lived for 
 themselves alone, indulging in sports as 
 everyday pastimes which were less civilized 
 than characteristic of the times. With the 
 main roads too badly kept to admit of travel- 
 ling with pleasure or even with safety, few 
 persons knew much about the country beyond 
 their own immediate locality ; but while those 
 who ventured on a journey risked inconve- 
 niences arising from accident and highway- 
 men, those who remained behind lived in 
 dread of the foot-pads and burglars- who 
 swrirmed in the towns. Left to themselves, 
 without day or Sunday schools, and without 
 any effort being made by pastor or mission- 
 ary to ameliorate their sadly degraded lot, 
 the common people were then, in a sense we 
 can hardly understand, the dangerous classes. 
 
 Drinking and debauchery had risen to such 
 a height in 1 736, that the Justices of Middle- 
 sex petitioned Parliament to exercise its 
 authority in checking the evil. In and about 
 London there were 20,000 gin-shops, and 
 day after day the newspapers recorded the 
 fate of persons who had died suddenly from'' 
 over-drinking. Parliament passed a repres- 
 sive measure, but the disease lay too deep 
 for surface treatment ; and thus the mob 
 hooted their defiance at Government in the 
 streets, subjected informers to a mud-bath 
 in the gutters, and drank gin, as before, under 
 fancy names. Then systematic smuggling 
 was not only largely carried on, but was 
 condoned by the public ; and the fate of 
 Porteous, at Edinburgh, was not only a 
 specimen of popular lynching, it was an 
 example of how an organized lawless mob 
 could revenge itself on the Legislature. 
 Daily becoming more estranged from mora- 
 lity and religion, the common people showed 
 in other pastimes than drinking the down- 
 ward tendency of human nature when parted 
 from the influence of the Gospel. Savage 
 sports, such as would have found favour in a 
 heathen amphitheatre, were chiefly in re- 
 quest, — pugilistic combats, dog- and cock- 
 fights, bull-baiting and rat-worrying ; while 
 on secluded and dangerous parts of the coast 
 demon-like wreckers allured ships to de- 
 struction for the sake of booty. The children 
 of the poor, both in town and country, were 
 born to a heritage of humiliation ; even 
 the commonplace things of civilization, now 
 the birthright of all who exemplify soberness 
 and industry, were beyond their reach. The 
 picture drawn by Raikes, about a genera- 
 tion later, of the noise and ribaldry with 
 which the children of Gloucester filled the 
 streets of that town during the Sunday hours, 
 was no exaggeration. Gloucester was a very 
 typical case ; what occurred there was similar 
 to what happened in every town throughout 
 England in the reign of George II. The 
 churches and chapels were as ill-attended 
 as the prisons were crowded ; and on all 
 hands there were longings for deliverance 
 from the dominion of sin. 
 
 The literature of any period is undoubtedly 
 a mirror which correctly reflects the people's 
 moral and religious life. The early part of 
 the eighteenth century was something more 
 than the Augustan age of English letters ; it 
 represents the opening of a new epoch, when 
 newspapers and periodicals began to exercise 
 that influence on the popular mind which 
 has now grown into one of the most potent 
 forces of our modern civilization. When, 
 however, we come to look into the moral 
 character of the writings chiefly in vogue, 
 we find little reason for satisfaction. We 
 retain admiration for the galaxy of brilliant 
 stars such a'sAddison and Steele, Goldsmith, 
 
 114 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 and Johnson, who sought to wean people 
 from the sensual and degrading ; but these 
 were hardly able to counteract the corrupt 
 influence of Dryden and Congreve among 
 poets, of Swift and Sterne in the Church, nor 
 of the infidels Shaftesbury, Hobbs, and 
 Bolingbroke, Gibbon and Hume, among 
 philosophers and historians living and dead, 
 whose books were widely circulated. The 
 reaction against Puritanism was complete ; 
 the era was one of moral and religious dead- 
 ness without parallel since the Reformation. 
 
 Pioneers of the Revival. 
 
 Dark as the general outlook was, however, 
 the picture had its light as well as shade, and 
 here and there, scattered widely apart over the 
 country, there were found hard-working, 
 conscientious pastors, who lived faithful to 
 their trust amid the general declension. 
 Goldsmith, in the course of his many 
 wanderings and romantic adventures, must 
 have encountered a few such, or even his 
 inventive genius would hardly have supplied 
 materials for the charming portrayal of Dr. 
 Primrose in " The Vicar of Wakefield." To 
 pass from fiction to fact, we have in a private 
 letter of 1754, a picture of a Lancashire 
 clergyman at home, which will in some 
 measure help us to understand the times. 
 " I found him sitting at the head of a long 
 square table," remarks the anonymous 
 correspondent, "such as is commonly used 
 in this country by the lower class of people, 
 dressed in a coarse blue firock trimmed with 
 coarse horn buttons ; a checked shirt, a 
 leathern strap about his neck for a stock, a 
 coarse apron, and a thick pair of great heavy 
 wooden-soled shoes, plated with iron to 
 preserve them, with a child upon his knee 
 eating his breakfast." In regard to himself 
 this good man confessed that he was situated 
 greatly to his satisfaction, while his people 
 not only lived in "happy ignorance of the 
 vices and follies of the age," but were, as he 
 believed and hoped, really sincere Christians. 
 
 Among the names of those who were more 
 widely known appear Watts and Doddridge, 
 both of whom, after some exercise of caution, 
 — they were entertaining a pet scheme of 
 comprehension, — became steadfast friends 
 of the Revival. The best hymns of both 
 these worthies are still as greatly prized as 
 ever; and although the first was incapacitated 
 by constitutional weakness from becoming 
 a travelling propagandist, the other turned 
 his college at Northampton into a centre of 
 evangelical influence. In one of his letters 
 to the Bishop of London, Doddridge intimates 
 that nearly aU the villages around North- 
 ampton had some building licensed for 
 religious services ; and the Doctors method 
 was not only to preach himself when oppor- 
 tunities offered, but to furnish students and 
 
 others with sermons, which were preached 
 far and wide over the county. Then besides 
 these there was the godly rector of Epworth 
 himself, who was a blessing to his own im- 
 mediate district. 
 
 In a more humble way there were some 
 few who imitated this procedure throughout 
 the kingdom ; they belonged to all ranks of 
 life, so that the clear shining of the light, 
 sometimes found in hall or cottage, seemed 
 to be the more grateful on account of its 
 rarity. There were also in the country at 
 this time a large number of Huguenots, the 
 families of those who had fled from France to 
 escape the discipline of Louis the Fourteenth's 
 dragoons, and these were a gain in more 
 senses than one. Then, as a compact body 
 zealous in the Gospel cause, the Society of 
 Friends was perhaps then even stronger in 
 England than at present. Facts like these 
 should not be overlooked ; for they are not 
 only a silver lining to the sombre shade of 
 the preceding section, they show that the 
 active leaders of the Methodist Revival had, 
 in spite of the forbidding general outlook, 
 something more than a foundation of sand to 
 build upon when they inaugurated their great 
 movement. 
 
 The Holy Club at Oxford. 
 The general condition of society at the two 
 great universities when George II. succeeded 
 to the throne very naturally partook of the 
 character of the age. Each college was a 
 rendezvous for young men of various social ; 
 grades and aspirations, some students being ' 
 as poor as Johnson and Whitefield, while ' 
 others, as the scions of noble houses, were 
 more desirous of the prestige which a name 
 for learning would give than of any solid 
 advantages arising from knowledge itself. 
 Numbers, it is to be feared, knew much more 
 about gaming and loose practices than of 
 science, theology, or Christian morality, and 
 were more thoroughly versed in the specious 
 wit of Voltaire and Bolingbroke than in the 
 inspired aphorisms of David and St. Paul. 
 A virtuous, plodding youth, amid such sur- 
 roundings was at once shunned and perse- 
 cuted as a speckled bird ; for with the ma- 
 jority the maintenance of wine-parties at 
 night, and a constantly diversified round of 
 sports by day, was a far more serious life 
 business than reading for examinations. To 
 a few observant people the spectacle was sad, 
 if not actually alarming ; for it seemed as if 
 religion had failed even in her most favoured 
 seats. Others were content to look on with 
 more equanimity ; for though the universities 
 were not schools of morality and religion, 
 they were what they had been and would 
 continue to be, so that young men must go 
 through the ordeal others had passed through 
 before them, and take their chance. To such, 
 
 "5 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Church of England was a good old insti- 
 tution, worthy of respect and'even affection ; 
 but they very effectively wedded her to the 
 world by preaching against the indiscretion 
 of being righteous overmuch. 
 
 In such an age it was hardly to be expected 
 that the reaction against the prevailing god- 
 lessness and indifference would set in at 
 Oxford ; but so it came to pass : in a quietly 
 unobtrusive manner the great university 
 became the cradle of the new Reformation. 
 "In November 1729," says John Wesley, 
 " four young gentlemen of Oxford, — Mr. John 
 Wesley, Fellow of Lincoln College ; Mr. 
 Charles Wesley, Student of Christchurch ; 
 Mr. Morgan, Commoner of Christchurch ; 
 and Mr. Kirkham, of Merton College, — beean 
 
 men of extraordinary parts ; but they have 
 the misfortune to be taken by all who have 
 ever been in their company for madmen and 
 fools." Such language found its echo in the 
 popular sentiment, although there were not 
 wanting more impartial champions to take 
 the other side. The authorities themselves 
 were wisely tolerant of the new religious 
 order which had arisen,— a fact the more 
 remarkable and commendable since about 
 forty years later, half-a-dozen students of 
 Edmund-hall, in Oxford, were expelled '•' for 
 holding Methodistical tenets, and taking 
 upon them to pray, read, and expound the 
 Scriptures, and sing hymns in a private house." 
 The truth is that the members of this so- 
 called Holy Club were simply a coterie of 
 
 y:!i 
 
 
 • The Holy Club. 
 
 to spend some evenings in a week together 
 in reading, chiefly the Greek Testament." 
 This little company was augmented from 
 time to time by other sympathetic souls ; 
 and soon not only luxurious Oxford, but the 
 whole of the judicious world outside, which 
 prided itself in maintaining a seemly religious 
 moderation, professed to be scandalized by a 
 new departure from the old moorings. The 
 -school of supposed fanatics were called Bible- 
 moths, or the Holy Club, and by others, on 
 account of their regular habits, Methodists. 
 
 The innovation in a place like Oxford was 
 so unique and surprising, that people far and 
 near asked who and what the enthusiasts were; 
 and the reply which came from one influential 
 London newspaper was that, " Among their 
 own party they pass for religious persons and 
 
 116 
 
 earnest young men who resolved to turn aside 
 from the folly and dissipation of the age, 
 while they strictly adhered to the discipline 
 of the Established Church. An hour in the 
 morning, and another hour on retiring for the 
 night, they gave to private prayer ; they took 
 the communion weekly at Christchurch ; they 
 strove after every Christian grace ; fasted on 
 Wednesdays and Fridays; and missed no 
 opportunities of attending prayers and ser- 
 mons. It was easy to call them enthusiasts, 
 — and at the outset there probably was a 
 mixture of Pharisaism in their profession, — 
 but it was harder to gainsay their extra- 
 ordinary self-denial in pursuing daily rounds 
 of charity, such as more easy-going Christians 
 had neglected. In those days the prisons of 
 England were so notoriously bad, that per- 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 sons whose nerves were equal to witnessing 
 revolting scenes were not exempt from risk 
 of fever when they invaded the precincts of 
 a common prison ; but fears likely to deter 
 weaker people weighed lighter than feathers 
 with the members of the Holy Club. On a 
 certain day during the summer of 1730, 
 William Morgan called at the castle to see 
 a malefactor who was to be hanged for killing 
 his wife, when, to quote John Wesley's words, 
 " from the talk he had with one of the debtors, 
 he verily believed it would do much good if 
 any one would be at the pains of now and 
 then speaking with them." Cordially falling 
 in with this new idea, John and Charles 
 Wesley next turned attention to the prisoners, 
 whether poor debtors or criminals; and 
 once fanned, the flame of their charity soon 
 extended to other classes. While the com- 
 mon beggars encountered in daily walks were 
 not overlooked, they began to teach the 
 children of indigent cottagers, and even 
 extended their solicitude to paupers in the 
 workhouse. 
 
 The names of some who early joined this 
 singular fraternity are now forgotten, but one 
 or two besides the brothers Wesley and George 
 Whitefield are still remembered. Robert 
 Kirkham was attracted from a life of jollity, 
 and it is said that his fair and gifted sister 
 Betsy was nearly becoming the wife of the 
 founder of Methodism. Charles Morgan 
 relinquished libertine ways to join the club ; 
 and his unfortunate brother William, who 
 lost his reason, was falsely pointed at as a 
 victim of enthusiasm. John Clayton, who 
 till the last remained a strict and formal 
 Churchman, was complicated in the rising on 
 behalf of the Stuarts in 1745. Benjamin 
 Ingham ultimately joined the Moravians, and 
 married Lady Margaret, sister-in-law of the 
 Countess of Huntingdon. John Gambold 
 also joined the Moravians, thus becoming 
 associated with the erratic Zinzendorf. Better 
 known than any of these was James Hervey, 
 who after leaving Oxford and getting clear 
 of the Pharisaic notions he had imbibed at 
 the University, served for three years as 
 curate at Bideford, thence removing to 
 Weston Flavel to serve in the church under 
 his father, whom he finally succeeded. 
 
 Though his soul was lodged in one of the 
 most fragile of bodies, Hervey was next to 
 the Wesleys the most popular author of 
 the Revival ; and even as a preacher in his 
 two Northamptonshire parishes he did very 
 effective service ; he was regarded as a clear- 
 shining star in the surrounding darkness, and 
 his flock looked up to him with reverent 
 affection. At this time of day his laboured 
 grandiloquent style is not what would take 
 hold of the educated classes ; but for more 
 than one generation his " Meditations " and 
 kindred works were among the best read 
 
 religious books in England. In private life 
 he was among the most amiable of men, and 
 notwithstanding the physical weakness \Vhich 
 afflicted him, one of the most hard-working 
 of pastors of that dead age in which his lot 
 was cast. There can be no doubt that the 
 influence of his pen in the great cause of 
 Methodism was as extensive as it was bene- 
 ficent. One of the most singular of his private 
 letters was one he addressed to the once 
 famous master of the ceremonies who reigned 
 at Bath with sovereign sway over the fashion- 
 able world. Alluding to a case of too late 
 repentance which had come beneath his 
 own notice, Hervey proceeded to draw a 
 comparison. " I remembered you, sir," wrote 
 the curate in that pointed style of which he 
 was a master ; " for I discerned too near an 
 agreement and correspondence between the 
 deceased and yourself. ' They are alike,' 
 said I, * in their ways, and what shall hinder 
 them from being alike in their end ? ' " What 
 may have been the influence of this warning 
 on a hardened gamester and man of the 
 world like Beau Nash cannot be told ; but 
 the autocrat of fashion paid the writer the 
 high compliment of never during life parting 
 with the letter. 
 
 Such were the members of the Holy Club, 
 some of whom never renounced the strait- 
 laced sacerdotalism of early days, while 
 others advanced to the very front rank among 
 English teachers and reformers of the people. 
 Many old enemies, as time went on, modified 
 or abandoned deep-rooted prejudices. Even 
 Dr. Johnson, who was reared in a Jacobitical 
 home, acknowledged that the Methodists had 
 done some good; they had spread religious im- 
 pressions among the vulgar part of mankind." 
 In his last days the distinguished lexicogra- 
 pher, by accepting the truth as preached by 
 Whitefield, became a Methodist himself;, 
 and that gratifying fact is perhaps the best 
 commentary on the above gracious conces- 
 sion, 
 
 George Whitefield's Early Days. 
 
 As the first of those innovators who adopted 
 the practice of open-air preaching, Whitefield 
 occupies the most conspicuous position in the 
 van of the Methodist Revival. Several years 
 the junior of the brothers Wesley, he like 
 them belonged to a clerical family, although 
 at the time of his birth George's parents were 
 the humble proprietors of the Bell Inn at 
 Gloucester. Losing his father in infancy, he 
 grew up to assist one of the best of mothers in 
 the public-house, and according to his own 
 account, Whitefield's early days were marked 
 by quite the average amount of sinful folly. 
 It may be that, as has frequently occurred 
 in many similar instances, the shady part of 
 the picture is overcoloured, for he was only 
 seventeen when he entered Pembroke College 
 
 117 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 as a servitor, and he appears to have speedily 
 joined the brotherhood known as the Holy 
 Club, meanwhile outstripping all the other 
 members in the vigorous strictness with 
 which he observed the rules. As a boy in 
 his mother's bar, Whitefield had borne him- 
 self very much as other boys would have 
 done in that situation ; he could laugh and 
 joke, he was as fond of outdoor sports as he 
 was of reading plays, and occasionally ap- 
 propriated to his own use cash from the 
 common till. Now all was changed ; White- 
 field was a humble penitent, who in any 
 passing difficulty sought counsel of John or 
 Charles Wesley ; and. what with nocturnal 
 vigils and prolonged fastings at holy seasons, 
 he reduced his constitution until, at one time, 
 he was so starved that he appeared to be on 
 the verge of the grave. When in 1735, before 
 he came of age, Whitefield attained to clearer 
 views of Scriptural truth, all this Pharisaic 
 self-righteous method of securing salva- 
 tion was relinquished for ever. Three years 
 later his friends and preceptors, the brothers 
 Wesley, attained to similar liberty ; and all 
 three were destined to take an apostolic part 
 in the coming Methodist Revival. They 
 Jiecessarily ceased to be legalists, endeavour- 
 ing to save themselves, before they could 
 render any service by instructing the ignorant 
 crowds around them. 
 
 From a very early age Whitefield was 
 impressed with the idea that he would one 
 •day preach sermons, and that he would do 
 so in a more artistic method than " Old 
 Cole," a Nonconformist worthy then labour- 
 ing in Gloucester, who was not remarkable 
 for any exceptional oratorical or literary 
 powers. When the subject had been men- 
 tioned to Mrs. Whitefield, the widow usually 
 repelled the idea as presumptuous ; but both 
 quickly and surely the path of duty was now 
 opening. After leaving the University at the 
 still early age of twenty-one, he continued 
 those Christian practices of visiting the poor 
 in their own cottages, and of carrying the 
 Gospel to wretched prisoners in the gaols, 
 and did so with much more comfort to him- 
 self than he had ever before experienced. 
 Conscious in a degree of the gifts he in- 
 herited, while he was at the same time a 
 pattern of humility, Whitefield applied to 
 Benson, bishop of Gloucester, for ordination, 
 and that prelate handsomely yielded what 
 was required of him. At a later period the 
 Bishop professed to regret this action, and 
 consequently received the gentle rebuke of 
 Lady Huntingdon. " Mark my words," the 
 Countess said with some vehemence, " when 
 you are on your dying bed that will be one 
 of the few ordinations you will reflect upon 
 with complacence." This turned out to be 
 the case ; for in his last days Benson sent 
 Whitefield a present of ten guineas, and 
 
 requested the great preacher to remember 
 his old friend in prayer. 
 
 Whitefield Becomes a Preacher. 
 
 Whitefield preached his first sermon, im- 
 mediately after he was ordained, in the church 
 of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, before a 
 crowded congregation of old and young, 
 who had known him as a tapster at the Bell 
 Tavern. "The sight at first a little awed 
 me," he afterwards wrote, "but I was com- 
 forted with a heartfelt sense of the Divine 
 presence, and soon found the unspeakable 
 advantage of having been accustomed to 
 public speaking when a boy at school, and 
 of exhorting and teaching the prisoners and 
 poor people at their private houses whilst at 
 the university. By these means I was kept 
 from being daunted overmuch. As I pro- 
 ceeded I perceived the fire kindled, till at 
 last, though so young, and amidst a crowd 
 who knew me in my childish days, I trust I 
 was enabled to speak with some degree of 
 Divine authority. A few mocked, but most 
 for the present seemed struck ; and I have 
 since heard that a complaint has been made 
 to the Bishop that I drove fifteen mad. The 
 worthy prelate, as I am informed, wished 
 that the madness might not be forgotten 
 before next Sunday." 
 
 Now that the die was cast there was neither 
 any desire or possibility of going back; and 
 specially endowed both by grace and nature 
 for his peculiar work, Whitefield had the 
 talent as well as the temper necessary for 
 taking the lead in a new and great movement. 
 There must have been something startlingly 
 original in his whole method of preaching to 
 account for the efiect his sermons at once 
 produced, the more so because doctrines 
 were proclaimed which were virtually new to 
 the popular mind. The fifteen he was reputed 
 to have sent mad at Gloucester were typical 
 of thousands of others who were to become 
 similarly affected. At Bristol, in 1737, the 
 whole population, from the mayor downwards, 
 seems to have been carried away by the 
 irresistible eloquence of the young itinerant. 
 People seemed to realize that an apostle had 
 been raised up to awaken a sleeping age with 
 trumpet-tongue, and to call men from sin and 
 folly to a more reasonable service. 
 
 At first it seemed as if the young evangelist 
 was about to take England by storm, and to 
 become the most popular man in the country 
 among all classes. The Earl and Countess 
 of Huntingdon were already among his stead- 
 fast friends ; and this pious couple brought 
 into the Methodist camp such of their aristo- 
 cratic friends as were willing to be impressed. 
 Many great people were lastingly reformed, 
 while the letters they wrote still rank among 
 the curiosities. of the Revival. " God knows 
 we all need mending, and none more than 
 
 I 
 
 Ii3 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 myself," was the truthful confession of the 
 dignified Duchess of Marlborough. Lady 
 Hinchinbroke also wrote in a strain of deeper 
 penitence ; and the Duchess of Queensbury 
 was for a time among Whitefield's regular 
 hearers. Even the Duchess of Buckingham, 
 a natural daughter of James II., and the 
 divorced wife of the Earl of Anglesey, 
 went to hear, though she returned home 
 shocked at having been told that her heart 
 was " as sinful as the common wretches that 
 crawl on the earth." Though this was "highly 
 offensive and insulting" to one of her lady- 
 ship's temperament, her candid confession 
 testified to the power of Whitefield's searching 
 words. 
 
 This unwonted commotion occasioned by 
 the action of a clergyman not much over 
 twenty years of age, awakened the opposition 
 of several ecclesiastical dignitaries, who soon 
 won the sympathy of large numbers of the 
 inferior clergy and the common people, so 
 that a tide of persecution had now to be 
 encountered by the great preacher. White- 
 field was threatened with excommunication 
 by the Chancellor of the Bristol diocese ; but 
 the Chancellor soon learned to exercise a 
 wiser discretion, finding that his anger did 
 not prevent people coming distances of twenty 
 miles to hear their favourite minister, who 
 now began to gather immense audiences in 
 the open air, when, with few exceptions, the 
 churches of London and the provinces were 
 closed against him. Whitefield discovered 
 that although he had been enabled to make 
 a fair start, his enemies were both strong and 
 determined ; but with characteristic courage 
 he resolved not to yield. " Blessed be God, 
 all things happen for the furtherance of the 
 Gospel," he wrote in March 1739. "I ^^^^ 
 preach to ten times more people than I should 
 if I had been confined to the churches." Per- 
 secution drove him to revive the primitive 
 practice of open-air preaching, and the fields, 
 the market-cross, the village green, served 
 the purpose of such a man far better than 
 the limited area of even the largest churches. 
 He had already paid one visit to America; 
 and what was the nature of his daily work at 
 this time may be gathered from the letters of 
 contemporaries who shared his labours and 
 joys. " Being thrust out of the synagogues, 
 our brother has settled a lecture or exposition 
 at Newgate every morning," wrote William 
 Seward from Bristol at this time ; " the place 
 being more convenient than Oxford Castle 
 chapel. He generally expounds to one, two, 
 or three societies every night ; and has 
 preached seven or eight times on a mount 
 about two miles from Bristol, where have been 
 from 1,500 to 15,000 hearers. ... At one 
 place, the church not being big enough, he 
 preached from the cross. He preaches once 
 a week on the steps of a workhouse, with 
 
 a hall behind and a court-yard almost fuU 
 before. He has preached in two other 
 parts of Kingswood, among the colliers, and 
 thousands come, — horsemen, coaches,chaises, 
 etc. . . . You may be sure we are set up for 
 being stark mad." It was now no uncommon 
 thing for 20,000 persons to collect around 
 the preacher, numbers climbing into trees or 
 sitting in the hedges. The colliers referred 
 to were those of Kingswood, a class described 
 in Wesley's journal as "a people famous, 
 from the beginning hitherto, for neither fear- 
 ing God nor regarding man ; so ignorant of 
 the things of God that they seemed but one 
 remove from the beasts that perish." With 
 tears furrowing their begrimed cheeks, these 
 people now reverently said Amen to the 
 preacher's message, and contributed to the 
 fund for erecting a day-school for their 
 children. One puerile critic, after referring 
 to the meagre countenance, lank hair, and 
 puritanical bearing of the evangelists, pre- 
 dicted "a prodigious rise in the price of 
 coals about the city of Bristol " if five or six 
 thousand colliers at one time were thus to 
 be detained from their work. The answer 
 was drawn from the New Testament — The 
 colliers will enter into the Kingdom of God 
 before you. 
 
 Whitefield in London. 
 " Let not the adversaries say I have thrust 
 myself out of their synagogues," exclaimed 
 the young evangelist. " No, they have thrust 
 me out ; and since the self-righteous men of 
 this generation count themselves unworthy, 
 I go out into the highways and hedges, and 
 compel harlots, publicans, and sinners to 
 come in, that my Master's house may be 
 filled." He had already entered on this 
 course in the provinces, and on his return to 
 London in the spring of 1739, he at once 
 attracted an unparalleled following. Invited 
 by the vicar to preach at Islington, — the only 
 church now open to him in London, — he was 
 challenged by the churchwarden, and re- 
 moved to the churchyard, where, as a news- 
 paper reported, the crowd did " a vast deal 
 of damage to the tombs and gravestones." 
 In proportion to, his success the newspapers 
 increased in wrath ; but their petty outbursts 
 served only to increase the crowds. At Ken- 
 nington-common, on May 2nd, he preached 
 to ten thousand ; on the evening following 
 the audience was both more numerous and 
 more attentive ; and on the 5th, the numbers 
 had increased to twenty thousand. What took 
 place on the Sabbath, however, was still 
 more wonderful, the assemblies having been 
 drawn together before church time in the 
 morning, and when there was no indoor 
 service in the evening. " Such a sight I 
 never saw before," wrote the preacher, refer- 
 ring to his work on Sunday evening, May 
 
 119 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 6th ; " I believe there were no less than fifty 
 thousand people, near fourscore coaches, 
 besides great numbers of horses. There 
 was an awful silence among the people." 
 Collections were made at these services for 
 the orphans of Georgia ; and hence we are 
 further told that "it would have delighted any 
 one to see with what eagerness and cheerful- 
 ness the people came up both sides of the 
 eminence on which I stood, and afterwards 
 to the coach doors, to throw in their mites." 
 The crowds increased to sixty thousand, and 
 over £Zo, nearly half of the amount in half- 
 pence, would be collected on a single Sabbath. 
 We hear of persons fainting in the crowd, 
 and on one occasion a genteelly dressed man 
 dropped down dead. Some idea of the 
 popular excitement may be inferred from the 
 fact, that during 1739 there were forty-nine 
 separate publications issued respecting the 
 Methodist controversy. 
 
 Somewhat rougher, and more in keeping 
 with the character of the times, was White- 
 field's experience at Moor fields during Easter, 
 1742. " Moorfields," he remarked, " is a 
 spacious place, given, as I have been told, 
 by one Madam Moore, for all sorts of people 
 to divert themselves in. For many years 
 past, from one end to the other, booths of all 
 kinds have been erected for mountebanks, 
 players, puppet-shows, and such like." At 
 six in the morning the evangelist ventured 
 into the midst of 10,000 people, who were 
 waiting, he tells us, "not for me, but for 
 Satan's instruments to amuse them." Mount- 
 ing his field pulpit he preached from the 
 words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in 
 the wilderness," etc. In regard to the ribald 
 crowd, it is said " they gazed, they listened, 
 they wept." 
 
 At noon, when the number of people was 
 increased about threefold, the experiment 
 was repeated ; and anticipating that he 
 would have "to fight with beasts at Ephesus," 
 the preacher this time selected for his text, 
 "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." His 
 calculations were correct ; '• For," adds he, 
 " I was honoured with having stones, dirt, 
 rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown 
 at me whilst engaged in calling them from 
 their favourite but lying vanities." 
 
 In no wise daunted, Whitefield announces 
 that he will preach again at six, when there 
 were "thousands and thousands more than 
 before, still more deeply engaged in their 
 unhappy diversions." The powerful voice of 
 the young preacher at once attracted the 
 people ; but showmen and merry-andrews, 
 who saw their customers drawn off, were 
 visibly enraged. One man unsuccessfully 
 tried to strike the intruder with a large whip ; 
 then a recruiting- sergeant was hired to march 
 through the throng with a drum and band ; 
 and all eJse failing, a mob banded together to 
 
 overthrow the pulpit. All was of no avail^ 
 however. Whitefield retired from the conflict 
 more than conqueror ; for the awakened of 
 that day became the foundation of the church 
 at the Tabernacle in Moorfields. About a 
 thousand notes were received from persons 
 anxious to turn into a better way of life. He 
 also preached with similar results in other 
 parts of the suburbs, such as Charles-square, 
 Hoxton, and Marylebone-fields. 
 
 In time the spacious tabernacles at Totten- 
 ham-court-road and Moorfields testified to 
 the permanent hold Whitefield had obtained 
 on the London population, while as chaplain 
 to the Countess of Huntingdon he was asso- 
 ciated with congregations at Bath and Tun- 
 bridge. Did space allow, extended reference 
 might be made to equally effective work 
 accomplished in America, which continent 
 Whitefield visited seven times — in Scotland, 
 in Wales, while even Ireland did not altogether 
 miss sharing in the reformation. The awaken- 
 ing of drowsy ministers alone in New England 
 was a permanent benefit to the Church and 
 the country. The scenes in Scotland, and 
 the widespread impressions produced, showed 
 that the preacher's message was quite as 
 cordially accepted by people who had no 
 sympathy with his notions of Church order. 
 In Wales one tour surpassed the preceding 
 one in success. Being no sectary, he had no' 
 wish to found a separate society ; but as the 
 work grew upon his hands he almost neces- 
 sarily accepted the aid of assistant preachers,, 
 and in this manner originated the Countess 
 of Huntingdon's Connexion. 
 
 The Countess of Huntingdon. 
 
 Though intimately associated with White- 
 field, and accepting Whitefield's tenets as. 
 her own, the influence of this devoted woman 
 was really given to the Methodist Revival as 
 a whole. Born in 1707, — the memorable 
 year in which Scotland was united with 
 England, — she survived until 1791 ; and forty- 
 five years out of that extended period 
 she lived in widowhood. Her father was 
 Washington, second Earl Ferrers, and at 
 the age of twenty-one he gave Selina in 
 marriage to Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon, 
 by whom her Ladyship had four sons and 
 three daughters. During their happy wedded 
 life, the Earl and Countess had done their 
 part in countenancing the Methodists ; but 
 after the Earl's sudden death from apoplexy 
 in 1746, Lady Huntingdon devoted her 
 fortune and energies more exclusively to 
 religion and philanthropy. 
 
 While Wesley was the evangelist of the 
 poor, Whitefield, in Lady Huntingdon's man- 
 sion at Chelsea, preached to the first people 
 in the land ; and it was there that Chesterfield 
 confessed to the accomplished orator, " Sir, I 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 will not tell you what I shall tell others how 
 I approve you." Many striking things might 
 be told respecting the aristocratic hearers 
 there drawn together, many of whom gave 
 their influence to the new movement. The 
 Countess relinquished her carriage, sold her 
 jewels, devoting from first to last ^100,000 
 to the common cause, and leaving at her 
 death sixty-four chapels, and a college for the 
 education of ministers, which still survives at 
 Cheshunt. In every available way, until her 
 resources were . 
 exhausted and 
 aid had to be 
 asked from 
 others, the 
 Countess pro- 
 moted the com- 
 mon cause. 
 " She purchased 
 theatres, halls, 
 and dilapidated 
 chapels in Lon- 
 don, Bristol, 
 and Dublin, and 
 fitted them up 
 for public wor- 
 ship," says the 
 accomplished 
 historian, Dr. 
 Stevens. " New 
 chapels were 
 also erected by 
 her aid in many 
 
 places in Eng- 
 land, Wales, 
 
 and Ireland. 
 
 Distinguished 
 
 Calvinistic 
 
 clergymen, 
 
 churchmen as 
 
 well as Dissen- 
 ters, co-operated 
 
 with her plans, 
 
 and were more 
 
 or less under 
 
 her direction. 
 
 Romaine, Venn, 
 
 Mad an, Ber- 
 
 ridge, Toplady, 
 
 Shirley, P'letch- 
 
 er, Benson, 
 
 and a host of ^thers, shared 
 
 cent labours." ~' 
 
 out 
 
 Thb Rev. George Whitefield. 
 
 her benefi- 
 The kingdom was marked 
 into different districts, and preachers 
 were sent out in every direction to proclaim 
 the Gospel in all accessible places. Bound 
 by strong sympathies to the Established 
 Church, the Countess was no more a Dis- 
 senter than Whitefield or the Wesleys, 
 necessity rather than inclination leading her 
 to take advantage of the Toleration Act in 
 1779. The School of the Prophets she set up 
 among the mountains of Wales was hardly 
 
 121 
 
 less romantic in its origin than in natural 
 surroundings. There stood at Trevecca a 
 castle^ whose now half ruinous walls had been, 
 beatfte by the storms of five hundred winters; 
 and .wi'ith the assistance of some richer 
 friends, this quondam stronghold was fitted 
 up as a college. The founder conferred 
 with Wesley, and when he approved, she also 
 asked the advice of Fletcher, the godly vicar 
 of Madeley, whose labours among a debased 
 population constitute one of the romances 
 of Methodism. 
 Fletcher not 
 only prayed, 
 he dreamed 
 about the pro- 
 posed enter- 
 prise, and in his 
 vision a young 
 collier, well 
 known to him, 
 appeared asking 
 for admission to 
 the institution. 
 Strange in itself, 
 the dream was 
 still stranger in 
 its fulfilment; 
 for Glazebrook 
 the collier, and 
 Fletcher the 
 vicar, became 
 the first student 
 and the first 
 president of 
 Trevecca. 
 
 The Wesleys. 
 
 Space will not 
 allow of com- 
 plete details 
 being given of 
 the history of 
 this distinguish- 
 ed family ; but 
 as the facts are 
 tolerably well 
 known to the 
 majority of well- 
 informed read- 
 ers, the omis- 
 sion will not 
 interfere with the progress of the narrative. 
 Without betraying in youth any very extra- 
 ordinary precocity, the brothers Wesley were 
 reared in one of those godly and cultivated 
 homes whence great men might be expected 
 to come forth ; and when the straitened 
 means of the parents are taken into account, 
 remarkable care was bestowed upon their 
 education. Born in the period of the later 
 Puritans, Samuel Wesley the elder retained 
 the sympathies of his order, although he had 
 through conviction relinquished Nonconform- 
 
hPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ity to enter the Established Church. Pass- 
 ing his early days among Dissenters, Daniel 
 Defoe was one of his schoolfellows : ^nd 
 introduced to the family of Dr. An>P-^>ley 
 by his brother-in-law Dunton the book? ller, 
 he married Susannah, the fair and accom- 
 plished daughter of that divine, whose 
 family, according to Dr. Manton, numbered 
 " either two dozen or a quarter of a hundred." 
 Determined to secure a university education, 
 Samuel Wesley walked to Oxford in 1683, 
 with a trifle over two pounds in his pocket ; 
 and although he received only five shillings 
 in as many years from friends, he left college 
 with honour, and with the degree of B.A. 
 attached to his name. Susannah Annesley 
 was in every way worthy of a man of this 
 calibre and resolution. Her husband made a 
 supremely happy choice, and became besides 
 associated with a woman who has become a 
 greater favourite with one class of biogra- 
 phers than any other untitled heroine 
 of modern times. As learned as Queen 
 Elizabeth, she was still the model house- 
 wife ; and was at once a competent teacher 
 and judicious disciplinarian. 
 
 In his childhood, John Wesley is said to 
 have shown some ambition ; and until he 
 was nearly eleven years of age, or until he 
 entered the Charterhouse School, his educa- 
 tion, as was also that of his brothers and 
 sisters, was conducted by Mrs. Wesley her- 
 self. For children of John's tender age, life 
 at a pubUc school was then a trying ordeal ; 
 but although in this instance all the average 
 pains and penalties had to be endured, and 
 though some vices were learned, the scholar 
 never neglected his father's wise directions 
 to preserve health by taking sufficient exer- 
 cise ; and the observance of this habit 
 throughout life will largely account for the 
 vigour of John Wesley's constitution holding 
 out until the extreme verge of a green old 
 age. Notwithstanding some drawbacks in- 
 cident to poverty and the low moral tone of 
 the times, life at Oxford some few years 
 later was a pleasanter experience. " Fruit is 
 so very cheap that apples may be had almost 
 for fetching, and other things are both plenti- 
 ful and good," he writes to his mother in 
 I724- Then follows a picture of the univer- 
 sity city as it was in the reign of George I. : — 
 " We have, indeed, something bad as well as 
 good, for a great many rogues are about the 
 town, insomuch that it is exceedingly unsafe 
 to be out late at night. A gentleman of my 
 acquaintance, standing at the door of a 
 coftee-house about seven in the evening, had 
 no sooner turned about, but his cap and wig 
 were snatched off his head, and though he 
 followed the thief a great distance, he was 
 unable to recover them. I am pretty safe 
 from such gentlemen ; for unless they carried 
 me away, carcass and all, they would have 
 
 but a poor purchase." And yet men of this 
 calibre, who afterwards constituted the Holy 
 Club, were those who set a princely example 
 of liberality to the self-indulgent and the 
 indifferent. The rule was to live a frugal life, 
 and to give away the surplus. " One of them 
 had thirty pounds a year," remarks Wesley, 
 when referring to the subject at a later date ; 
 " he lived on twenty-eight, and gave away 
 forty shillings." Eventually that same man 
 saw his income increase fourfold ; but still 
 he spent no more on himself, while the poor 
 were gainers by ninety-two pounds a year. 
 Though this was the discipline self-imposed 
 at the university, the brothers had as yet 
 advanced no farther than the self-righteous- 
 ness of sacerdotalism. The rector of Epworth 
 died ; and on the dispersion of the family, 
 John and Charles Wesley emigrated to 
 Georgia, whence, however, they soon returned 
 to commence with more enlightenment the 
 great mission of their lives. 
 
 The Wesleys become Itinerants. 
 
 Whitefield having inaugurated the work of 
 revival by preaching in the open air, the 
 Wesleys, in 1739, followed in the path of in- 
 novation ; and that year is now regarded as 
 the one in which Methodism was founded. 
 Strongly attached to the Established Church, 
 they would gladly have availed themselves of 
 its pulpits ; and not until those pulpits were 
 closed against them did the Wesleys, as 
 Whitefied had done before them, take to 
 fields and commons. The clergy by their 
 opposition really advanced the cause they 
 desired to retard ; for if the efforts of the 
 evangelists had been confined to the narrow 
 limits of the churches, their influence over 
 the population would have been correspond- 
 ingly curtailed. 
 
 As a preacher or as an orator, John 
 Wesley was a marked contrast to Whitefield, 
 taking care to be punctiliously correct in both 
 language and action, while Whitefield did 
 not distain to indulge in those " little impro- 
 prieties," which, though sufficiently harmless, 
 sometimes provoked a smile. We read o 
 the latter preaching " like a lion," vehement 
 in his earnestness, and so exhausting every 
 resource in one sermon, that at the close he 
 would retire from the scene sick, fainting, and 
 depressed. But though Wesley sought to 
 impress the people in a quieter way, the effects 
 of the sermons he now began to preach t.» 
 out-door audiences were really miraculous' 
 He had taken in hand the colliers' school 
 at Kingswood, and while attracting vast 
 congregations in the vicinity of Bristol, num- 
 bers of hearers "dropped on every side as 
 thunderstruck." It does not devolve upon 
 us to account for these phenomena, but as 
 historical facts they are no less interesting 
 than extraordinary to common readers. To 
 
 122 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 borrow the words of Dr. Stevens : " A tra- 
 veller at one time was passing, but on pausing 
 a moment to hear the preacher was directly 
 smitten to the earth, and lay there apparently 
 without life. A Quaker who was admonish- 
 ing the bystanders against these strange 
 scenes as affectation and hypocrisy, was 
 himself struck down as by an unseen hand, 
 while the words of reproach were yet upon 
 his lips. A weaver, a great disliker of Dis- 
 senters, fearing that the new excitement 
 would alienate his neighbours from the 
 Church, went about zealously among them 
 to prove that it was the work of Satan, and 
 would endanger their souls. A new convert 
 lent him one of Wesley's sermons ; while 
 reading it at home he suddenly turned pale, 
 fell to the floor, and roared so mightily that 
 the people ran into the house from the streets, 
 and found him sweating, weeping, and 
 screaming in anguish. He recovered his 
 self-possession, and arose rejoicing in God." 
 While the preachers endeavoured to repress 
 rather than encourage excitement, large num- 
 bers were similarly affected. We cannot 
 wonder that decorous bishops and clergymen, 
 who had never in their lives been guilty of 
 any pulpit impropriety, were too prejudiced 
 to stay to inquire into the cause of such 
 manifestations. Naturally brave and magna- 
 nimous, the brothers Wesley were at the 
 outset nervously timid in regard to ecclesias- 
 tical irregularities, but all things tended to 
 their encouragement. There had been a 
 time when Whitefield, in his spiritual afflic- 
 tion, had looked to his friends for counsel 
 as to superiors in the faith ; but now it was 
 Whitefield who led the way, and it was his 
 contagious courage that emboldened the 
 Wesleys to overcome one prejudice after 
 another which education and early associa- 
 tions had implanted in their minds. At one 
 time, while London and Bristol were being 
 stirred to their depths by the two greatest 
 of the evangelists, Charles Wesley was 
 threatened with pains and penalties for pursu- 
 ing a similar course in Essex. What course 
 Charles would have adopted had he been 
 left to himself is uncertain ; but, advised by 
 WTiitefield, he replied to the Archbishop by 
 preaching to ten thousand people in Moor- 
 lields. 
 
 But while bands of converts were being 
 reclaimed in the open-air, the need of pro- 
 \iding suitable meeting-houses for the new 
 congregations became urgent ; and thus 
 liristol and London saw the two first Metho- 
 <iist chapels rise into existence. Some of 
 Wesley's earliest successes had been won at 
 Bristol ; but the head-quarters of Methodism 
 u'ere established in London, — in Moorfields, 
 where still greater triumphs had been 
 achieved. In that open suburb there stood 
 a forsaken government factory, called the 
 
 Foundery, — a place formerly used for casting 
 cannon, and which had been associated with 
 at least one deplorable catastrophe in conse- 
 quence of the molten metal coming in con- 
 tact with water. Having stood in a ruinous 
 condition for twenty years, the Methodists 
 purchased the lease for ^115. Conveniently 
 repaired, but not beautified, this spot became 
 sacred on account of its many memorable 
 associations. Thither crowds were attracted 
 by the earnest eloquence of Wesley himself. 
 There, at 5 a.m., and at 9 p.m., the bell 
 called members of the Society to united 
 prayer. The chapel had its dispensary for 
 the poor, — the first charity of the kind esta- 
 blished in London ; there was a home for 
 widows and orphans ; and, not least, a loan 
 society, by means of which many a deserving 
 young beginner in life was enabled to firmly 
 set his foot on the first round of the social 
 ladder. Nor should it be forgotten that 
 Charles Wesley stood in the pulpit at the 
 Foundery on the morning of March 9th, 1750, 
 when London was shaken to its foundations 
 by the severest earthquake the city has ever 
 known ; and that while his auditors were 
 turning pale with terror, the poet of Metho- 
 dism, with reassuring tact and unshaken 
 courage, relinquished the text he had chosen, 
 and preached from another — " Therefore will 
 not we fear though the earth be removed, and 
 the hills be earned into the midst of the sea; 
 for the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of 
 Jacob is our refuge." 
 
 Spread of Methodism ;. Lay Preachers; 
 Provincial Mobs. 
 
 Though John Wesley had admirable ad- 
 ministrative powers, he did not sit down, as 
 some master architects might have done, 
 deliberately to plan the fabric he reared and 
 left in a flourishing condition. When the 
 work grew faster than was at first supposed 
 to be possible, the only alternative was to 
 follow the lead of providence, even though 
 innovations had to be adopted clashing with 
 those notions of ecclesiastical propriety 
 which, at the outset, the Wesleys had enter- 
 tained. Reasonable and earnest men could 
 not have done otherwise. Self-seekers might 
 have adopted an opposite course ; but in 
 this case that was done which promised best 
 for the cause. 
 
 Making London the base of their opera- 
 tions, the preachers extended their efforts 
 northward to Newcastle, and in the opposite 
 direction as far as the Land's End. Wesley 
 surprises us by the rapidity of his move- 
 ments, especially when we take into con- 
 sideration the dangerous state of the English 
 roads in those times. Like a master general, 
 moreover, he had his own plan of attack 
 skilfully arranged beforehand, and from first 
 to last he proved more than a match for 
 
 123 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the most determined enemy. It was Wes- 
 ley's custom to avoid threatening the vicious 
 multitude, trying thus to frighten them out 
 of their sins ; he sought rather to draw them 
 by those gentle and forcible invitations 
 abounding in the Bible, which are always 
 the most effective arrows in the preacher's 
 quiver. It is impossible in our limited space 
 to follow the evangelists from place to place 
 in their wonderful itinerancy ; but a part is a 
 very fair sam- 
 p 1 e of the 
 whole ; as re- 
 garded moral 
 degradation 
 one town was 
 very like ano- 
 ther, and so 
 continued un- 
 til the people 
 were won to 
 better ways 
 
 Take as an 
 example the 
 case ofNew- 
 castle-on-Tyne 
 the surpassing 
 degradation of 
 which extend- 
 ed from aged 
 sinners to in- 
 fants, who lisp- 
 ed blasphemies 
 when learning 
 to talk. Tak- 
 ing their stand 
 in one of the 
 worst districts, 
 Wesley and a 
 friend opened 
 their first out- 
 door service by 
 singing the 
 hundredth 
 psalm, and the 
 congregations 
 sp eedily in- 
 creased from 
 units to hund- 
 reds, from 
 hundreds to 
 thousands, and 
 
 finally to multitudes greater even than those 
 which had been witnessed in London. What 
 was more, the hearts of the people were won; 
 and in this Kingswood of the north, as Wesley 
 called it, he was hailed as a deliverer. In 
 other places a harsher experience had to be 
 endured, the clergy, in not a few instances, 
 goading the people on to mob the Methodists. 
 Thus at Epworth, Wesley gave the people 
 the Gospel, which they never received from 
 the drunken vicar who had succeeded his 
 father. During the progress from one town 
 
 to another the riots were frequently veiy 
 formidable ; but the violence of the ungodly 
 served only to stimulate the preacher's zeal, 
 for riot and insult were really the expres- 
 sion of the people's need. Sometimes the 
 preachers were pelted with stones and filth as 
 they stood amidst the surging throng, the 
 windows of their lodgings would be smashed ; 
 and to such a height did the tumult rise in 
 1744 at Walsall, Darlaston, and other places, 
 
 that the coun- 
 try from town 
 to village was 
 in a state very 
 much resemb- 
 ling civil war. 
 The chapels 
 were not safe 
 from destruc- 
 tion, while the 
 lay preachers 
 were some of 
 them imprison- 
 ed or impres- 
 s ed for the 
 army. Pulpits 
 rang with de- 
 nunciations of 
 the enthusiasts, 
 and the press 
 sent forth its 
 showers of 
 pamphlets ; 
 but an answer 
 to all was 
 found in the 
 fact that new 
 societies in all 
 parts were 
 rapidly spring- 
 ing into exist- 
 en ce, an d 
 wherever this 
 was the case 
 the morals of 
 the people were 
 improved. It 
 was about the 
 year 1750 that 
 Wesley him- 
 self remarked 
 that from Lon- 
 
 JoHN Wesley and Dr. Johnson. 
 
 don to Newcastle in the north, and to Bristol 
 in the west, the work of revival was pro- 
 gressing. The battle with the mob was for 
 the most part confined to the first decade 
 of the aggression. At all events it was so 
 with the more prominent leaders of the move- 
 ment. 
 
 Almost immediately after opening the, 
 crusade, the leaders of Methodism realizec 
 that battles cannot altogether be fought andl 
 won by generals and superior officers, and! 
 on this account were appointed those layj 
 
 124 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 circuit preachers without whose assistance 
 the triumphs achieved would not have been 
 won. 
 
 At the head of this honourable band we 
 place John Nelson, the Yorkshire mason, who 
 was one of the earliest converts, having 
 listened to Wesley's first sermon in Moor- 
 fields. Of a powerful build, and ever show- 
 ing indomitable courage, he went through a 
 course of hard and successful service, such 
 as makes his life read like a romance. In 
 point of time Thomas Maxfield comes before 
 Nelson, thus taking the distinction of having 
 been the first lay preacher of Methodism. 
 Thomas Lee and Christopher Hopper were 
 men of similar metal, who forsook ease and 
 accepted suffering as their common lot for the 
 sake of the cause which lay nearest their hearts. 
 The original circuits were immense tracts of 
 country, more than broad enough to tax the 
 strength of a horseman ; and yet the majority 
 of the early preachers appear to have been 
 obliged, by reason of poverty, to travel on 
 foot. John Jane, one of the number, who 
 once arrived at Holyhead with only a penny 
 in his pocket, actually died of fatigue ; and 
 others would have shared his fate if their 
 physical strength had not equalled their 
 devotion. The preachers, with many followers, 
 were even found in the army on service on 
 the Continent during the wars of George II. 
 At the battle of Fontenoy, fought on May 
 Day, 1745, a comparatively large number 
 of Methodists were killed, including four 
 preachers. 
 
 Illustrious Allies. 
 
 Though unable, in a brief article, to give 
 details of their interesting lives, we will just 
 mention the chief, at least, of a number of 
 eminent men who in its earlier stages as- 
 sisted the Methodist revival. 
 
 Vincent Perronet, vicar of Sboreham, was 
 from the first Wesley's friend and counsellor ; 
 he used his pen in favour of the move- 
 ment, and two of his sons became itinerant 
 preachers. 
 
 William Grimshaw, the curate of Haworth, 
 in Yorkshire, was as remarkable for the 
 depravity of his youth as for that conquering 
 zeal of his after life which enabled him to 
 reform the then half civilized inhabitants of 
 his wild district. In addition to the duties 
 of his parish, with its four hamlets, in which 
 he regularly preached, Grimshaw took charge 
 of two enormous circuits in three counties, 
 and in various ways, both extraordinary and 
 eccentric, he advanced the reformation of 
 the people. He sometimes held as many as 
 thirty meetings a week ; and while he loved 
 nothing better than to royally entertain Wes- 
 ley and Whitefield, and collect the scattered 
 population to their services, his house was 
 
 constantly crowded with more humble itine- 
 rants out on preaching rounds. 
 
 John Berridge, vicar of Everton, was similar 
 in temperament and energy to Grimshaw, and 
 in conjunction with his neighbour, Hicks 
 vicar of Wrestlingworth, the preaching of 
 Berridge produced results about as gratifying 
 as those which attended the Yorkshire evan- 
 gelist. Making Everton his base, he was 
 constantly in the saddle, and preaching about 
 a dozen times a week, he aroused the country 
 people to take an interest in the Gospel within 
 a radius of a hundred miles. We hear of 
 four thousand persons having been awakened 
 in one year ; and Berridge was equally alive 
 with earnestness whether he preached on a 
 village green or whether he addressed a 
 throng of 10,000 persons in a university 
 town. 
 
 A man of like devotion was John Fletcher, 
 of Madeley, whose name from his times to 
 our own has been a household word in Eng- 
 land. Of Fletcher it is said, " He led a life 
 of severe abstinence, that he might feed the 
 hungry ; he clothed himself in cheap attire 
 that he might clothe the naked ; he some- 
 times unfurnished his house that he might 
 supply suff'ering families with necessary ar- 
 ticles." He rejected a richer living with 
 lighter work, in order to reclaim the debased 
 mining population of Madeley ; and though 
 coming of a noble Swiss family, he spoke 
 English with such singular correctness that 
 the force of his eloquence soon conquered 
 the persecution which at first was awakened 
 by his Methodistical innovations. How he 
 preached incessantly in villages and hamlets 
 for ten miles round his parish, visited the 
 people in their homes, and sometimes gathered 
 a congregation with a bell in his hand, are 
 familiar facts. According to Venn, — no mean 
 judge, — Fletcher was more than a luminary — 
 " He was a sun." 
 
 No less effective than the labours of the 
 above in their respective spheres was the 
 work of Henry Venn in his parish of Hud- 
 dersfield, — a man called by Whitefield " a son 
 of thunder." His success entitles Venn to 
 rank among the princes of the movement, 
 and among his converts were more than a 
 dozen youths who afterwards became regular 
 preachers. He was also an acceptable writer, 
 his " Complete Duty of Man " having been 
 prepared expressly to correct what is erro- 
 neous in the more popular and anonymous 
 work bearing a similar title. 
 
 More highly connected, and thoroughly 
 trained for the legal profession, Martin Madan 
 was the life of a coterie which met regularly 
 at a rendezvous in London, according to 
 the custom of the times. An accomplished 
 mimic, Madan was commissioned to hear 
 Wesley ; but the text announced, " Prepare 
 to meet thy God!" so startled the young 
 
 I2S 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 lawyer that he retired from the scene an 
 altered man, to enter the Church and identify 
 himself with the Revival. 
 
 Nor should we overlook Thompson, of St. 
 Dennis, in Cornwall, who early cast in his 
 lot with the Methodists; and who, when 
 threatened with the loss of his gown by 
 Lavington, Bishop of Exeter, himself stripped 
 the garment from his back with the remark, 
 "I can preach the Gospel without a gown." 
 
 These and many others who ought to be 
 remembered were mighty in their day, and 
 their influence still lives in the descendants 
 of the first con- 
 verts. Those who 
 desire to acquaint 
 themselves with 
 the whole story, 
 with all its sin- 
 gularly interest- 
 ing details, should 
 consult the " His- 
 tory of Metho- 
 dism," by Dr. 
 Abel Stevens, a 
 convenient and 
 illustrated edition 
 of which scholar- 
 ly work is issued 
 at the London 
 Wesleyan Con- 
 ference Office in 
 three volumes. 
 
 Ireland, Scot- 
 land, Wales. 
 Considering the 
 character of the 
 country and the 
 nature of the 
 formidable ob- 
 stacles which had 
 to be overcome, 
 the success of 
 Methodism in Ire- 
 land was not the 
 least remarkable 
 feature of the 
 great movement. 
 Wesley himself crossed the Channel more 
 than forty times, and he was ably seconded 
 in his endeavours by the apostolic preaching 
 zeal of Thomas Coke and Thomas Walsh. 
 Of course, in this green island, as elsewhere, 
 the fury of the mob had to be encountered, 
 and the passions of the people were stimu- 
 lated by Romish prejudice as well as by 
 native ignorance. In spite of all, however, 
 the fruits of the Revival were soon manifest. 
 England sent preachers to itinerate through 
 Ireland, while our own country and the 
 world generally benefited by the work of 
 Irishmen who rose to eminence in their 
 profession. The most illustrious of these was 
 
 Adam Clarke the commentator ; but tiiere 
 were many others whom want of space pre- 
 cludes our naming. Before the death of 
 Wesley, fifteen circuits had been marked out, 
 each having on an average about two 
 preachers, while the members showed a total 
 of 6,000. The work was greatly retarded by 
 the rebellion at the close of the century ; and 
 as Dr. Stevens remarks, " the horrors perpe- 
 trated in the name of liberty by this outbreak 
 of commingled popery and infidelity can 
 never be fully recorded." Nevertheless, 
 fifteen years after this dark cloud had passed, 
 the circuits had 
 greatly multipli- 
 ed, and the num- 
 bers had in- 
 creased to nearly 
 30,000. 
 
 In Scotland the 
 conditions were 
 entirely different ; 
 the people were 
 intensely Pro- 
 testant; they 
 understood aU 
 about the funda- 
 mentals of Chris- 
 tianity, and were 
 quite willing to 
 listen to what the 
 preachers had to 
 say. The scenes 
 at Cambaslang 
 m 1742, under 
 the preaching of 
 Whitefield, when 
 an immense con- 
 course remained 
 on the ground all 
 night, and when, 
 on another occa- 
 sion, 20,000 peo- 
 ple partook of 
 the Lord's Sup- 
 per, were perhaps 
 more extraordi- 
 nary than any 
 other passages 
 even in the singular experience of the great 
 evangelist. Scotland did not accept Metho- 
 dism as an ecclesiastical system because 
 she had already one of her own which she 
 preferred ; but the revival none the less did 
 mighty things for the country, the results of 
 which remain until this day. 
 
 As regards Wales it is not too much to say 
 that in the Principality Methodism effected a 
 complete transformation. The morals of the 
 people were entirely corrupted, and religion 
 had degenerated into superstition when the 
 reformers commenced their work ; and then, 
 contrary to expectation, no other field yielded 
 a richer harvest. Griffith Jones and Howell 
 
 126 
 
METHODISM. 
 
 Harris, both of whom were devoted to the 
 Estabhshed Church, prepared the way : the 
 first by organizing bands of tutors who tra- 
 versed the country for the purpose of teach- 
 ing the poor to read ; the second by preach- 
 ing and gathering the people into Christian 
 Societies. When these efforts were followed 
 up by the awakening calls of Wesley and 
 Whitefield, the whole country was soon 
 aroused, and though there was opposition, as 
 in other places, the reformation which ensued 
 became the greatest mir- 
 acle in Welsh history. 
 Though the leaders never 
 intended the movement to 
 become a Nonconformist 
 one, it took this turn. In 
 other words, between two 
 and three thousand cha- 
 pels have been erected in 
 Wales since the days of 
 George II. The work of 
 the first preachers was 
 continued with wonderful 
 power and success by 
 Christmas Evans and his 
 illustrious contempor- 
 aries, who, speaking the 
 language of the people, 
 wielded an influence by 
 the power of God which 
 entitles them to rank 
 among the apostles of 
 Wales. 
 
 Methodist Denomina- 
 tions. 
 Since the first leaders 
 passed away, the original 
 family of Methodism has 
 divided into several sects ; 
 but as a healthy tree puts 
 forth new branches, ail of 
 which are dependent on 
 the same roots, so the 
 multiplying of denomina- 
 tions may not mean trea- 
 son to cardinal Christian 
 truth. From the first the 
 Calvinists, by following 
 Whitefield, and the Ar- 
 minians, by adhering to Wesley, formed 
 two companies. The New Connexion of 
 Wesleyans, founded in 1797, represents the 
 first secession from the latter body after the 
 death of the founder. The United Free 
 Gospel Church dates from 1806, and has no 
 paid ministry. The Primitive Methodists 
 go back to 1 8 10, and differ from others by 
 giving more authority to laymen, and by 
 allowing female preaching. Very similar in 
 constitution are the Bible Christians, who 
 date from 181 5. The Primitive Methodists 
 
 Mrs. 
 
 of Ireland come a year later, and they con- 
 
 sider their own ministers to rank equal in 
 authority with those of the Estabhshed 
 Church. The Protestant Methodists, first 
 organized in 1828, object to instrumental 
 music m public services. The Reformed 
 Connexion dates from 1849. The United 
 States Methodist Episcopal Church was 
 formed during the life of Wesley in 1784. 
 Another division, founded in the Southern 
 States of America in 1846, was a protest 
 against slavery. The American Wesleyan 
 Methodist Church, found- 
 ed in 1843, was reared on 
 a similar basis ; while the 
 Methodist Protestant 
 Community has no bis- 
 hops, not holding with 
 vi episcopal authority. The 
 ' United Brethren in Christ, 
 organized in 1800, are 
 similar in doctrine and 
 government to the Metho- 
 dist Episcopalians ; and 
 this is also true of the 
 Evangelical Association, 
 formed in the same year. 
 The last of the train 
 we believe to be the 
 Free Methodist Church, 
 founded in i860, which 
 discountenances extra- 
 vagance in dress, choirs, 
 pew-rents, and read ser- 
 mons. Besides the above, 
 there are two or three 
 Methodist communi- 
 ties wholly composed of 
 coloured people. 
 
 In Great Britain and 
 Ireland at the present mo- 
 ment the Methodist bodies 
 have upwards of 5,000 
 ministers, and nearly a 
 million members ; while 
 in the United States the 
 ministers exceed 17,000 
 and the members are 
 nearly 2,600,000. In 
 addition to this there are 
 large numbers in the Eng- 
 lish colonies and other parts of the world, to 
 say nothing of the evangelists who are at work 
 in every mission field. The total membership 
 is not far short of 5,000,000 ; the congrega- 
 tions of each Sabbath probably reach four or 
 five times that number, and there are between 
 four and five millions in the Sunday-schools. 
 
 C. Wesley's Monument in Bunhill 
 Fields. 
 
 General Results ; Conclusion. 
 
 But in estimating the results direct and 
 
 indirect which have come of the Methodist 
 
 revival, we shall probably find by careful 
 
 inquiry that the latter have exceeded the 
 
 127 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 former. Just as in the first instance the need 
 was national, the good results have extended 
 to all evangelical denominations. It was 
 not in harmony with the principles of the 
 Established Church when a portion of her 
 bishops and clergy opposed the revival ; and 
 in the end that Church has been an enormous 
 gainer by the movement. Then in what 
 degree a nonconformist community could 
 become benefited was well shown in the 
 instance of Samuel Deacon, a farm labourer 
 converted under the preaching of David 
 Taylor, a servant of the Countess of Hunting- 
 don. Deacon, as a General Baptist, became 
 a powerful preacher in the Midlands, and 
 not only was a widely extended region per- 
 vaded by his Methodism, an entire 
 denomination was resuscitated. In what 
 degree other bodies were influenced in a 
 similar way cannot always be traced ; but, 
 nevertheless, in liberal measure the blessing 
 descended upon every section of the Church. 
 Then that manifestation of missionary zeal 
 which characterized the Church at the close 
 of the old and the opening of the new 
 century, was one of the fruits of this great 
 awakening. Raikes inaugurating the great 
 Sunday-school cause at Gloucester, Carey 
 superintending the Mission-press at Seram- 
 pore, Martin turning from ease and popularity 
 at home to die on foreign soil, were all 
 Methodists of the truest metal, who would 
 have accounted the best things that earth 
 can give only a poor recompense. The same 
 may be said of the founders of those Bible, 
 tract, and missionary societies which have 
 
 diffused blessings broadcast, impressing on 
 men the fact of their common brotherhood, 
 and by bringing what would have been the 
 dangerous classes into the fold of the Church, 
 preserved us from social and political evils 
 such as have heavily afflicted sister kingdoms. 
 Many of the great societies in question owed 
 their origin to Methodist influence, and 
 certainly it has been the Methodistical spirit 
 which, through the blessing of God, has 
 contributed to their prosperity till the present 
 day. 
 
 Thus the fathers sowed the seed in an era 
 of spiritual darkness, the reigns of George II. 
 and George III. ; and we are reaping the 
 fruits of their labours in this enlightened 
 Victorian age, — an age quite unexampled 
 for the social, political, and scientific progress 
 which has been made. When things were 
 swiftly progressing from bad to worse, 
 Methodism was the divinely appointed means 
 by which the tide was turned ; and since 
 those memorable old times of awakening, 
 the nation has been steadily improving and 
 going from good to better, until England is 
 now at once the envy and wonder of the 
 world. While enjoying our happy lot, let us 
 never be unmindful of the debt we owe to those 
 who have gone before. Though a favoured 
 race, we could not possibly have reached our 
 present prosperity if Methodism had not 
 renovated society, when in days of declension 
 the best attributes of national character were 
 threatened with extinction by bold unbelief 
 and licentious license. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
The Baltic Fleet in the Crimean War ; The Last of England's Wooden Walls 
 
 FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL 
 
 THE STORY OF THE CRIMEAN WAR OF 1854-1856. 
 
 " Should the guards of royal England, in their trenches gaily singing 
 Of the valour and the glories of the British grenadiers, 
 While their comrades' shouts of victory through the smoky air are ringing, 
 Be told that hearts at home are trembling with unworthy fears?" 
 
 Russia in 1852 — The Emperor Nicholas ; HLs Power and Prosperity — The Czar and Sir Hamilton Seymour — Taking 
 an Observation — Montenegro — The Czar's Protectorate — Mentschikoff's Mission — War between Russia and 
 Turkey — Anglo-French Alliance for the Protection of the Porte — Omar Pasha and Oltenitza — Sinope— Commence- 
 ment of the Crimean War — The Allied Forces and their Commanders : Raglan, St. Arnaud, Dundas, Lyons — Defeat 
 of Russians on the Danube — Silistria and Giurgevo — The English, French, and Turkish Armies at Gallipoli and 
 Varna — Invasion of the Crimea — Landing at Eupatoria — March towards Sebastopol — The Battle of the Alma — 
 March upon Balaclava — First Attack on Sebastopol — Battle of Balaclava — Charge of the Light Brigade — Newspaper 
 Correspondents^Mr. Russell of " The Times " — Battle of Inkermann — Soldiership and Generalship — A Terrible 
 Winter — An Unexpected Event — The Baltic Fleet — Bomarsund and Hango — The Black Sea Fleet — Yenikale — Opera- 
 tions of 1855 — The i8th of June — Renewed Efforts, and Fall of Sebastopol^Conclusion. 
 
 Russia in 1852. 
 N the middle of the present century 
 there was one, and one only, among 
 the great continental Powers, with 
 whose government was associated the idea 
 of strength, permanence, and stability; and 
 
 that power was Russia. All t>he other thrones 
 had been rudely shaken by the great storms 
 of 1848, the year of revolutions, and of the 
 troublous period that immediately followed. 
 France had seen the Orleans dynasty driven 
 from the throne, and the hastily-constructed. 
 
 129 
 
•POCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ill-starred second republic succeeded by a 
 second Napoleonic empire. In Austria the 
 half-imbecile Emperor Ferdinand had been 
 forced to resign the sceptre he nominally 
 swayed, into the hands of his youthful nephew, 
 Francis Joseph. The throne of Frederick 
 William the Fourth of Prussia had been 
 almost overset, and the humiliated king had 
 been compelled to stand bareheaded on the 
 balcony of his palace at Berlin, while the 
 corpses of insurgents, killed by the soldiers 
 in a street fight, were borne past in pro- 
 cession, the insolent cry of " Miitze ab 
 Schurke " (Take your cap off, you scoundrel) 
 rudely admonishing him to pay due reverence 
 to the dead. Pope Pius IX., driven from 
 Rome, had only been reinstated by the help 
 of French bayonets ; and throughout the 
 German States democracy had triumphed for 
 awhile, though only to be afterwards put down 
 by an overwhelming force. 
 
 But from all these convulsions Russia had 
 been free. The storm of 1848 had not shaken 
 her throne ; and even Poland, generally eager 
 to snatch any opportunity that gave a chance 
 of a rising for freedom, had remained passive, 
 in silent submission to the will of the autocrat 
 by whom she was governed. So far from 
 being herself menaced, Russia had been able 
 to give help to a neighbouring government 
 in the day of peril ; and it was by Russian 
 troops that the formidable revolt of Hungary 
 had been put down, and Austria had been 
 enabled to re-establish her shattered authority. 
 Everywhere the great Northern Power was 
 regarded as the chief representative and 
 upholder of despotic rule ; and from the 
 commencement of the reign of the monarch 
 who then held her destinies in his hand, her 
 power, during more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, had been looked upon as continually on 
 the increase. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas. 
 That Russia was regarded as the great 
 despotic power was due in no small degree 
 to the character of the monarch by whom 
 she was governed. The Czar, Nicholas I., 
 the son of that Alexander I. who had been 
 the ally of England in the old war, was the 
 very personification of an autocrat. He was 
 lofty of stature, and had a countenance of 
 singular beauty, of a proud and military type. 
 At the commencement of his reign he had 
 given proof of remarkable personal courage, 
 putting down a threatened outbreak among 
 the Moujiks, or peasants, by the mere force 
 of his energetic command and his undaunted 
 bearing in a moment of peril. He possessed 
 the strong will common to nearly all the 
 Romanoffs, and a large measure of the talent 
 by which many of them were distinguished. 
 Relentless and stern he had often shown 
 himself, especially in the case of Poland ; as 
 
 evidenced in his reception of a deputation 
 from that unhappy country, who came soon 
 after his accession, in the hope of obtaining 
 from the new monarch some mitigation of 
 the hard laws under which the land was 
 groaning. " Above all things, gentlemen, 
 no illusions ! " was the Czar's unpromising 
 reply to the suppliants. '' Poland is mine, 
 and I will drive her," was his expression 
 on another occasion ; and he fully carried 
 out his threat. At the same time he was 
 possessed of a charm of manner which 
 enabled him, when he chose to exert it, 
 completely to mask his intentions under the 
 appearance of perfect frankness — a faculty 
 in which he resembled the great Frederick 
 of Prussia. He had a great love for military 
 organization, with a ceaseless and restless 
 activity, and a tendency personally to super- 
 intend and arrange details, in which again 
 we trace an analogy to the Prussian hero. 
 His ideal of manly work and sagacity is 
 said to have been the Duke of Wellington ; 
 and as the author of "The Invasion of the 
 Crimea " pertinently remarks, the ruler who 
 set up for himself such a model should have 
 had some truth in him. 
 
 To his other qualifications for rule, 
 Nicholas added the very useful one of being, 
 to some extent, a travelled man. He had 
 seen men and nations beyond the confines of 
 his own vast realm. Notably he had, in 
 1844, paid a visit to England; a visit that 
 was destined to have very important effects 
 on his mind, and to help, at least, in implant- 
 ing an error that at length proved fatal to 
 him. Among the various sights exhibited to 
 the Imperial visitor and to the King of 
 Saxony, who was the guest of Queen Victoria 
 and Prince Albert at the same time, was a 
 review at Woolwich. At that time the 
 numbers of most of the English regiments 
 were far below their normal strength ; and the 
 Emperor, who was accustomed to review 
 enormous masses of men, while admiring the 
 appearance, discipline, and efficiency of 
 English soldiers, was evidently surprised that 
 there were so few of them, and went away 
 with most erroneous notions as to the military 
 might of England, and the number of men 
 she could put into the field on an emergency. 
 He came to look upon England as simply a 
 great naval power, and fancied she would not 
 interfere in any military enterprise in which 
 her own territories were not attacked. The 
 day was to come when he should be sternly 
 and fatally undeceived. 
 
 Policy of Russia ; State of the various 
 Governments at the Beginning of 
 1853- 
 
 An old Muscovite proverb describes the 
 Russian as sitting by the shore and waiting 
 for the tide. Like most national proverbs 
 
 130 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 it contains a great truth. ' It illustrates the 
 unwearied patience and perseverance with 
 which men of that nationality will prepare 
 the way for a design, until the propitious 
 moment has come for putting it in execution, 
 with a good chance of success. 
 
 And as with the Russian in private life, so 
 with the government of the Czar. There 
 had been for very many years a scheme of 
 national policy steadily kept in view, though 
 it might seem to be abandoned. According 
 to some authorities it dated so far back as 
 the time of Peter the Great ; and at one time, 
 indeed, a document was published in various 
 English journals, purporting to be a will of 
 the great founder of modern Russia, in which 
 the pursuance of that policy was distinctly 
 left as a charge to his successors. The asser- 
 tion was not literally true. The document 
 was not a will of Czar Peter; but the line of 
 conduct it advocated was that which ha:d 
 been carried out by his successors, and 
 especially by that great ruler and bad woman, 
 — far-seeing and ruthless, politic and profli- 
 gate, — Catherine II., the mother of the mad 
 Emperor Paul. Its purport and direction 
 were to drive the Turk out of Europe, to in- 
 crease the territory of Russia towards the 
 south, and to establish a direct influence over 
 the principalities on the Danube. It was a 
 great and far-stretching design, and one that 
 involved the necessity of a long waiting on 
 the shore, and a close watching of the signs 
 that should tell of the favourable rising of the 
 tide,— that tide which Czar Nicholas hoped 
 might be taken at the flood, — to lead on to 
 fortune. 
 
 At the beginning of 1853 the favourable 
 moment seemed, in the eyes of Nicholas, at 
 length to have arrived, — the moment at which 
 the various governments, fully occupied with 
 their own affairs, or hampered by recent events 
 and their consequences, would have neither 
 the inclination nor the power to interfere with 
 the designs of the Czar. France, he con- 
 sidered, would have sufficient to do at home 
 in suppressing the wide-spread discontents 
 that had arisen from the cmcp d'etat of the 
 2nd of December, 185 1. The brand-new 
 French Empire of Napoleon III., which he 
 was inclined to regard with contempt, could 
 not be sufficiently established to warrant its 
 chief in engaging in foreign war. Austria 
 the Czar could count upon as an ally ; for 
 had he not marched his legions to her rescue 
 in her extreme need, and reconquered for her 
 the revolted province of Hungary ? Prussia 
 was bound by close ties alike of political and 
 of family alliance to his dynasty, and would 
 certainly undertake nothing against him, 
 even if she did not co-operate actively in his 
 designs. 
 
 Consequently there remained, according to 
 the calculation of the Emperor Nicholas, only 
 
 one power with which he would have to 
 reckon, and that power was England. How 
 the Czar proposed to deal with Great Britain 
 in this matter, we shall now see. 
 
 The Emperor and Sir Hamilton Sey- 
 mour ; Taking an Observation, 
 
 It was at a party at the palace of the 
 Grand Duchess Helen, on the 9th of January, 
 1853, that a remarkable conversation took 
 place between the Emperor Nicholas and the 
 English Ambassador Sir Hamilton Seymour, 
 — the first of various conversations which 
 threw a startling light upon the state of affairs 
 and the designs of the Russian autocrat. Sir 
 Hamilton was said to be a favourite with the 
 Emperor, of whose qualities he had expressed 
 a high opinion. On this occasion Nicholas 
 declared very openly and strongly the neces- 
 sity that existed for a perfect understanding 
 between England and France, and requested 
 that his words might be conveyed to Lord 
 John Russell. "When we are agreed," he 
 added, " I am quite without anxiety as to the 
 rest of Europe ; it is immaterial what the 
 others may think or do." When Sir Hamil- 
 ton hinted that considerable anxiety existed 
 in Her Majesty's Government with regard to 
 Turkey, the Czar spoke of that country as in 
 an utterly disorganised state, and falling to 
 pieces from weakness ; adding that neither 
 Russia nor England ought to take any de- 
 cisive action in the matter without the cog- 
 nisance and approval of the other power. 
 Then he added these remarkable words, which 
 became proverbial, as descriptive of Turkey 
 and her affairs : " We have on our hands a 
 sick man — a very sick man ; it will be, I tell 
 you frankly, a great misfortune, if one of 
 these days he should slip away from us, espe- 
 cially before all necessary arrangements were 
 made. However, this is not the time to 
 speak to you on that matter." 
 
 The Emperor found time a few days after- 
 wards to renew the subject, and plainly gave 
 the ambassador to understand that in the ap- 
 proaching dissolution of Turkey he expected 
 England to put no obstacle in the way of his 
 plans ; while for his part he saw no reason 
 why Egypt should not be made a British 
 dependency — and, if the British Government 
 chose to have it so, the island of Candia also. 
 To the great disappointment of the Emperor, 
 Sir Hamilton Seymour distinctly declined 
 the proposed arrangement, and plainly de- 
 clared that England would consider the main- 
 tenance of the Turkish Empire as essential 
 to the peace of Europe. The English Cabinet 
 saw that such a protectorate as the Emperor 
 wished to establish in the Principalities, and 
 the possession of Constantinople by Russia, 
 either directly or indirectly, would be most 
 injurious to the interests of all the remaining 
 states ; and Nicholas apparently gave up the 
 
 131 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 scheme. But he could not but feel bitterly- 
 mortified at the issue of his overtures, and 
 determined to attain his object in another 
 way. 
 
 There were among the subjects of the 
 Ottoman Empirealarge number of Christians, 
 the great majority of whom belonged to the 
 Greek Church, of which the Czar was con- 
 sidered the head. More than one treaty 
 with the Porte gave to the Emperor of Russia 
 
 not always able to prevent or to punish. 
 Nicholas now demanded of the Turkish 
 Government extended powers and a com- 
 plete recognition of his right to intervene in 
 the affairs of the Porte, as protector of all 
 Turkish subjects who professed the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 The meaning of this demand was well under- 
 stood alike in Turkey and by the Western 
 Powers. If granted, not the Sultan but the 
 
 The Sultan Abdul Medjid. 
 
 a kind of vague and indefinite right to act as 
 protector of the interests of the Greek Church 
 in the Turkish dominions. Not that the 
 Turkish Government could be accused of 
 exercising a persecuting sway over its Chris- 
 tian subjects ; for the Moslems, looking upon 
 their own faith as the only true one, extended 
 a kind of contemptuous tolerance to all other 
 creeds, making no distinction between them ; 
 though occasional outbreaks of fanaticism 
 might occur, and lead to deeds of violence, 
 which the weak government of the Sultan was 
 
 Russian Czar would in reality be the master 
 of those millions of Christians in the East,, 
 and a great step would have been taken 
 towards the dismembering of the Turkish 
 empire, and the establishment of Russian 
 rule. 
 
 Montenegro ; . The Czar's Protecto- 
 rate ; Mentschikoff's Mission, 
 At the same time disturbances broke out 
 in another quarter. The Montenegrins, or 
 inhabitants of the " Black Mountains," a tur- 
 
 132 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 bulent people belonging to the Greek Church, 
 tributaries of the Turks, but under the direct 
 influence of Russia, were incited, after a visit 
 paid by their prince, Danilo, to Russia at the 
 beginning of 1853, to revolt against their 
 Moslem masters, and to demand that their 
 religious affairs should be transferred from 
 the supervision of the Patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople to that of the Russians ; and began 
 making predatory incursions into Turkey. 
 The Porte promptly despatched against them 
 an able commander, Omar Pasha, — for the 
 Montenegrin revolt seemed a preliminary to 
 a general rising of the Slavic Christians 
 against the Moslem ; and the Montenegrin 
 land was quickly filled with rapine and blood- 
 shed. But here Austria intervened, with even 
 more than her usual diplomatic skill. 
 
 Seeing the use Russia might make of this 
 Montenegrin quarrel, the Government in 
 Vienna despatched Prince Leiningen to the 
 Sultan with a peremptory demand for the 
 withdrawal of the Turkish troops and the 
 cessation of the Montenegrin war, before that 
 ardent Protector, the Czar, could interfere 
 in defence of the Christians. The Suitan 
 yielded to the envoy's request ; the Turkish 
 troops were withdrawn ; and Austria had 
 the satisfaction of having deprived the Czar 
 of a very pretty quarrel against Turkey ; 
 while at the same time the attention of the 
 Western Powers had been drawn in a very 
 marked manner to the proceedings of Russia. 
 
 The homely adage that "two can generally 
 play at a game," was now exemplified. 
 Napoleon III., the French Emperor, who 
 had been treated with something very like 
 scorn by the Russian Emperor, and who, 
 moreover, owed much of his position and 
 power to the support of the Romish clergy, 
 that he was anxious to propitiate, came 
 forward with a demand based upon a treaty 
 as old as the time of King Francis I., that 
 Christians belonging to the Latin Church 
 should have equal privileges with those of 
 the Greek communion, in pilgrimages to the 
 holy places. This raised the ire of the 
 imperious autocrat of Russia, who forthwith 
 despatched to Constantinople Prince Ment- 
 schikoff, a rough, peremptory soldier, who 
 immediately began to bully the weak Sultan 
 Abdul Medjid in approved Russian fashion ; 
 refusing to consult with Fuad Pasha, the 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, demanding an 
 immediate audience of the Sultan himself, 
 and bringing forward his demand for a 
 protectorate over all Greek Christians for 
 his master in the most offensive form, to the 
 disgust of the Cabinets of Europe, who saw 
 in his barrack-room bearing an illustration 
 of the great Napoleon's pithy saying, "Scratch 
 the Russian, and you come upon the Tartar." 
 
 A direct refusal was the natural result; for 
 to grant such demands would have been to 
 
 admit the Czar as joint ruler of Turkey with 
 the Sultan. 
 
 War between Russia and Turkey ; 
 
 The Anglo-French Alliance for 
 
 THE Protection of the Porte. 
 
 Prince Mentschikoff quitted Constanti- 
 nople breathing threatenings and slaughter 
 against the Porte ; and the Czar, when he 
 heard of the failure of the embassy, deter- 
 mined to follow up the step already taken 
 by another of still graver significance. He 
 at once commanded that two Russian armies 
 should cross the Pruth, the frontier river 
 between his dominions and the Danubian 
 principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, 
 which were tributary to Turkey, — to occupy 
 these territories with 80,000 men as a 
 "material guarantee" until the Porte should 
 accede to his demands. " This is war," 
 said Count Orloff gravely, when his imperial 
 master told him what he had done ; but the 
 Czar still thought that nothing in the way of 
 war against him could be begun without 
 England's co-operation ; and that England, 
 though she might threaten, would not pro- 
 ceed to extremities. 
 
 Religious faith and religious fanaticism 
 had always been strong traits in the 
 Russian character; and Nicholas was far 
 too astute a ruler not to take advantage of 
 this to the fullest extent. In a manifesto 
 issued to the Russian people, it was set 
 forth that the Sultan was doing injury and 
 wrong to the religion all good subjects of 
 the Czar were bound to defend. " We are 
 ready, even now, to arrest the movement 
 of our armies," said this document, " if the 
 Ottoman Porte will bind itself solemnly to 
 observe the inviolability of the Orthodox 
 Church. But if blindness and obstinacy 
 decide for the contrary, then, caUing God 
 to our aid, we shall leave the decision of 
 the struggle to Him, and in full confidence 
 in His omnipotent right hand, we shall 
 march forward for the Orthodox Church, 
 But though these proceedings excited general 
 disapproval in Europe, and the action of 
 the Emperor of Russia was universally con- 
 demned, the various Cabinets were ar.xious 
 to-avoid war, and ready to "build a golden 
 bridge" for the retreat of Nicholas from his 
 aggressive position. By the advice of Lord 
 Stratford de RedcHffe, the English ambas- 
 sador at Constantinople, the Sultan forbore 
 to look upon the occupation of the princi- 
 palities as an act of war, as he might justi- 
 fiably have done; and the representatives 
 of England, France, Austria, and Prussia 
 addressed a collective note to the Czar, 
 pressing him to moderate his claims. He 
 still refused to listen to these moderate 
 counsels ; while Turkey took heart in view 
 of the fact that the united public opinion of 
 
 133 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Europe was with her and against her oppo- 
 nent. The expedient of enlisting rehgious 
 enthusiasm in the strife was put into practice 
 in Turkey, as in Russia ; the Turks were 
 taught to consider the pretensions of the 
 Northern Power as an attack aimed at their 
 creed ; and on the 4th of October, 1853, war 
 was declared by the Porte against Russia. 
 Meanwhile a change was brought about in 
 the attitude of the great powers of Europe. 
 England and France were associated in an 
 alliance which might well fill the Emperor 
 of Russia with surprise and indignation ; for, 
 thoroughly impressed as he was with the 
 importance of dynastic right and privilege, 
 he was the last man to believe that England, 
 the most persistent and implacable enemy of 
 Napoleon I., would unite with the nephew 
 of her great foe against the son and suc- 
 cessor of Alexander of Russia, the friend and 
 ally who had been so intimately associated 
 with her in putting Napoleon down. The 
 separate understanding between the English 
 Government and the second French Empire 
 took him by surprise. Prussia, on the other 
 hand, justified his calculations by her non- 
 interference. Frederick William IV., a man 
 of cultivated intellect, was proverbially given 
 to halting between two opinions. He was a 
 very different man from his younger brother 
 and successor, the Emperor of North 
 Germany ; nor was there at that time a 
 Bismark or a Moltke to guide the counsels 
 of Prussia, Austria — though the friendly 
 feeling between her and Russia was quite 
 dissolved — seemed only inclined to resist the 
 Czar's encroachments so far as they regarded 
 her own interests; and these interests were 
 sufficiently guarded when the seat of war 
 was transferred — as it was soon destined to 
 be- — from the Principalities to Russian and 
 Turkish soil. Thus England and France 
 were left to sign a treaty with the Porte, on 
 the 27th of November, 1853, in which they 
 undertook to uphold the cause of Turkey by 
 armed intervention if Russia continued deaf 
 to remonstrance. 
 
 This step was popular in both countries. 
 In France, the army, by means of which 
 Louis Napoleon the President had become 
 Napoleon III. the Emperor, was well pleased 
 to see a prospect of war in which promotions 
 and titles and wealth were to be gained ; 
 and in England a feeling of general and 
 profound anger had been excited by the 
 duplicity of the Czar, whose professions of 
 religious zeal were denounced as thorough 
 hypocrisy, and to whom the worst of motives 
 were attributed. 
 
 Omar Pasha and Oltenitza ; Sinope ; 
 
 Commencement OF the Crimean War. 
 
 Another circumstance had also contributed 
 not a little to render the Anglo-French alli- 
 
 ance for the defence of Turkey popular in 
 England. The Turks, under Omar Pasha, 
 had gained a brilliant victory on the 4th of 
 November, at Oltenitza, on the Danube, over 
 a Russian army superior in number ; and it 
 is a natural impulse to be willing to help 
 those who have shown their ability to strike 
 a blow for themselves. Still negotiations 
 with the Russian Government went on, even 
 after the English and French fleets had been 
 despatched to the Bosphorus, — an act against 
 which the Czar violently protested ; but early 
 in December came news that a Turkish 
 squadron had been attacked by a Russian 
 fleet in the harbour of Sinope, on the south 
 shore of the Black Sea, and utterly destroyed, 
 after heroic resistance, in which all the crews 
 perished, with the exception of some 400 men. 
 
 This attack was violently denounced at the 
 time in England as a treacherous massacre, 
 because negotiations for a settlement of the 
 Eastern question were still going on between 
 the Western Powers and Russia. But Mr. 
 Kinglake and other writers have shown that 
 Russia, when she was at war with Turkey, 
 cannot be blamed for choosing her own time 
 and place to attack the enemy, and could 
 hardly be expected to leave the Turkish fleet 
 alone until the English and French should 
 come to reinforce it, and render the numbers 
 on both sides equal. It was felt, however, 
 that Sinope took away almost the last hope 
 that peace between Russia and the Western 
 Powers might still be maintained. 
 
 Public opinion in England was now in 
 favour of war ; and the general feeling with 
 regard to the Czar and his policy was 
 thoroughly in accordance with the words 
 published by the Times in its summary 
 issued on the last day of 1853. "A year 
 ago," says the writer, "the Emperor of 
 Russia enjoyed among the powers of Europe 
 a well-earned character for honesty, straight- 
 forwardness, and moderation. Who could 
 have supposed that within a few months all 
 this could have been so utterly forgotten, and 
 every consideration of honour and justice 
 sacrificed to an empty and profitless ambi- 
 tion? With vast domains to civilise and 
 retain, with a boundless field for the exercise 
 of enlightened benevolence, and a prospect of 
 power and pre-eminence by developing the 
 arts of peace over Europe and Asia, far more 
 certain and far more glorious than any 
 military triumph, this mighty potentate has 
 deliberately turned from good to evil, and 
 preferred the acquisition, by fraud and vio- 
 lence, of two or three desolated provinces to 
 the welfare and advancement of the seventh 
 part of the inhabited globe over which he 
 reigns. From the provocation which Prince 
 Menschikoff was instructed to throw out, 
 under the mask of an ambassador, to the late 
 murderous attack upon Sinope, the policy 
 
 134 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 of the Czar has been one and uniform. To 
 bully the weak, to cajole the strong, to seize 
 by force, or to circumvent by fraud, are now- 
 recognised as the uniform tactics of the once 
 great upholder of order and treaties, and 
 arbiter of the disputes of Europe." For 
 thirty-eight years there had been no great 
 European war; but the year 1854 dawned 
 upon the world " dark with the presage of 
 impending battle." 
 
 That presage was speedily fulfilled ; indeed, 
 there is little doubt that the year 1853 would 
 not have passed away without hostilities, but 
 for the fact that the Earl of Aberdeen, one of 
 the most pacific of Prime Ministers, was at 
 the head of affairs. But now Lord Palmer- 
 ston, the friend of the 
 Emperor Napoleon III., 
 who had been compelled 
 to resign his office in the 
 Cabinet for expressions 
 that were interpreted as 
 approving the coup d'etat, 
 joined the Ministry ; and 
 this was a sign that affairs 
 would be more vigorously 
 conducted. The country 
 had long been drifting 
 towards war, and the idea 
 of a contest with Russia 
 was far from unpopular. 
 The oft-repeated taunt 
 that the English were "a 
 nation of shopkeepers," 
 that England had "joined 
 the Peace Society," and 
 that Britannia had ex- 
 changed the empire of 
 the sea for the manage- 
 ment of countless cotton 
 mills and cloth factories, 
 had offended the national 
 pride ; and a general 
 feeling of almost joyous 
 alacrity was experienced 
 when on the 27th of March, i854,the announce- 
 ment was made by the heralds in their official 
 costume, from the steps of the Royal Ex- 
 change, London, that England, in alliance 
 with France, had declared war against 
 Russia. 
 
 Some who heard that announcement made, 
 might remember to have read how a great 
 statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, had bitterly 
 exclaimed, when the Londoners set the 
 church bells ringing a century before on the 
 announcement of a popular but unjust war : 
 " They are ringing the bells now ; they'll be 
 wringing their hands by-and-by." The 
 Crimean war cannot be stigmatised as unjust ; 
 but few who were present, when its com- 
 mencement was proclaimed, anticipated in 
 how many of the homes of Britain there 
 would be wringing of hands and wailing. 
 
 Omar Pasha. 
 
 before the struggle should have run its not 
 very protracted course. 
 
 The Allied Forces and their Com- 
 manders; Raglan, St. Arnaud, 
 DuNDAS, Lyons. 
 
 The commander to whom the honour of Eng- 
 land was to be entrusted in the combat against 
 the great Northern Power was in many re- 
 spects judiciously selected. Lord Raglan, 
 better known to many of his friends by his 
 earlier name of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, had 
 been the old and trusted friend and companion 
 of the great Duke of Wellington, under whom 
 he had served in war and in peace. He had 
 been present at the great day of Waterloo, on 
 which occasion he lost 
 his right arm ; afterwards 
 he had been the Duke's 
 military secretary ; and 
 after the death of Colonel 
 Gurwood, had completed 
 the task of editing that 
 marvellous series of de- 
 spatches, luminous in 
 every page wi",h the saga- 
 city and soldiership of the 
 great chief. A strict dis- 
 ciplinarian, he was never- 
 theless distinguished by 
 a kindly charm of manner 
 that attracted all who ap- 
 proached him ; and was 
 indefatigable in the dis- 
 charge of duty. The one 
 misgiving that occurred 
 to those who knew him, 
 ■)n hearing of his ap- 
 pointment, was whether 
 he still possessed the 
 physical strength and 
 endurance necessary for 
 his arduous office. 
 
 The French comman- 
 der, in concert with 
 whom he was to act, was Marshal St. Arnaud, 
 an officer who had seen much service in 
 Algeria, but who owed his position chiefly to 
 the fact of having been one of the chief actors 
 in the coup d'etat of December 1851. One 
 circumstance at least rendered the appoint- 
 ment of Marshal St. Arnaud a matter of sur- 
 prise to many. His health was utterly 
 shattered by a painful disease under which 
 he had laboured for years ; and it was hardly 
 probable that he would long survive. 
 
 The fleet to be sent to the Baltic was 
 under the command of Sir Charles Napier, a 
 cousin of the famous generals, the hero of 
 Scinde, and the chronicler of the Peninsular 
 War. Admiral Napier was a frank, brave 
 sailor of the old bluff school of " sea-dogs." 
 He has been likened to Smollett's Commodore 
 Trunnion. The rough-and-ready fashion in 
 
 135 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 which he announced the war to his crew, 
 was the subject of good-humoured comment 
 at the time. " My lads," said the genial old 
 admiral to his assembled ship's company, 
 " war has been declared ; we are to fight the 
 Russians. Sharpen your cutlasses, lads, and 
 the day is ours." He seemed to have little 
 idea of the nature of the work in hand, or of 
 how little the sharpening of cutlasses would 
 avail against the fortresses with which the 
 Russians had guarded their coasts. 
 
 Admiral Dundas and Sir Edmund Lyons, 
 afterwards Lord Lyons, who commanded in 
 the Black Sea, were men of very different 
 mould ; Lyons, especially, was one in whom 
 there was something of the genius and energy 
 of Nelson ; like him, too, he was adored by 
 his men. The conditions of the combat, 
 however, as will be seen, were unfavourable 
 to naval operations. 
 
 Defeat of Russia on the Danube ; 
 silistria and glurgevo ; the eng- 
 LISH French, and Turkish Armies 
 AT Gallipoli and Varna. 
 The Russian attempt to invade Turkey 
 from the north proved a failure. The Mus- 
 covite General Paskievitch was obliged, after 
 the loss of many of his men, to abandon his 
 attempt to capture Silistria, on the Danube, 
 and to lead back the remains of his army 
 across the Pruth. The defence of Silistria 
 by a Turkish force, under two Indian officers, 
 Captain Butler and Lieutenant Nasmyth, 
 was the first brilliant episode of the war. 
 At Giurgevo the Russians also suffered a 
 disastrous defeat. That the Turks could 
 fight bravely when well commanded was 
 shown by the heroic resistance they made at 
 Silistria, and their devotion to the brave 
 young Englishmen who led them. " It was 
 impossible," wrote the successor of Lieutenant 
 Nasmyth, quoted by Kinglake, "not to ad- 
 mire the cool indifference of the Turks to 
 danger. Three men were shot in the space 
 of five minutes while throwing up earth for 
 the new parapet, at which only two men 
 could work at a time, so as to be at all pro- 
 tected ; and they were succeeded by the 
 nearest bystander, who took the spade from 
 the dying man's hands, and set to work as 
 calmly as if he were going to cut a ditch by 
 the roadside." An army of 20,000 English- 
 men, under Lord Raglan, and another of 
 about double the number under Marshal 
 St. Arnaud, started for the East. The joint 
 disembarkation of the armies was effected at 
 Gallipoli, on the shore of the Dardanelles, 
 and from the first it appeared that a good 
 understanding would be maintained between 
 the men of the two nations, as also between 
 the officers. Lord Raglan, indeed, met with 
 some difficulty from the encroaching spirit 
 manifested by the French Marshal, who en- 
 
 deavoured to obtain for himself the command 
 of the Turkish army, which would have 
 placed the English commander at a great 
 disadvantage. But by united firmness and 
 good temper on the part of Lord Raglan and 
 Lord Stratford the difficulty was overcome, 
 and the ambitious Frenchman was kept in 
 check. Another difficulty now occurred. Lord 
 Raglan wished to move the troops to Varna; but 
 St. Arnaud declined, and proposed a scheme 
 of his own for occupying Roumelia, in the 
 rear of the Balkan ; but again", on the firm 
 objection of Lord Raglan, he yielded ; and to 
 Varna, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, 
 the Anglo-French force was accordingly 
 moved ; and here, it is said, they could at 
 times actually hear the firing at Silistria, 
 where Paskievitch was wildly sacrificing his 
 men in the vain attempt to drive the garrison 
 to surrender. 
 
 Varna was remembered long afterwards by 
 soldiers and sailors alike for the misfortunes 
 that befell the expedition in that ill-omened 
 place. A tremendous fire that caused the 
 destruction of a great quantity of warlike 
 stores, and even threatened the stock of 
 powder, occurred thereon the loth of August; 
 and presently the terrible plague of modern 
 times, cholera, that ravaged Europe in 1854,. 
 made its appearance in the English and 
 French armies. The site for the encamp- 
 ment at Varna had been badly chosen, and 
 soon proved to be wretchedly unhealthy. 
 The men were seized by hundreds with the 
 dire disease, and perished with alarming 
 rapidity. On board the ships, too, the pesti- 
 lence raged ; and one ship, the Britannia^ 
 lost 105 men in a few weeks. Moreover, 
 Marshal St. Arnaud had marched three 
 divisions of his force into the pestilential 
 regions of the Dobrudscha, at the mouth of 
 the Danube, and the loss of 10,000 men by 
 disease was the result of this measure. 
 
 Invasion of the Crimea ; The Land- 
 ing AT EUPATORIA. 
 Meanwhile the news of the defence of 
 Silistria and of the discomfiture of Paskie- 
 vitch, had kindled alike in France and 
 England a desire to achieve something great, 
 and to inflict a decisive blow on the pride 
 and ambition of Russia. In the Crimea, the 
 ancient Tauric Chersonesus, a territory ac- 
 quired by Russia in the time of Catherine II., 
 had been built the mighty stronghold of 
 Sebastopol, the great depot of warlike stores 
 for Russia in the Black Sea, and the haven 
 where her fleet could lie sheltered in safety. 
 The invasion of the Crimea and the reduc- 
 tion of Sebastopol was the scheme that now 
 recommended itself to the governments of 
 France and England ; instructions were ac- 
 cordingly sent out to the commanders, and 
 excellent arrangements being made for the 
 
 136 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 transport of the troops. The two armies, 
 wofuUy thinned, alas! by the deaths of 
 thousands of brave men from disease, were 
 successfully carried across the Black Sea, and 
 
 which was effected in admirable order ; only 
 some Cossacks were seen, who quickly 
 vanished ; and the capture of a convoy of 
 cattle was the first advantage gained. But 
 
 The Exploit of Captain Bell at the Alma. 
 
 landed on the 17th of September at Eupa- 
 toria, on the west coast, about thirty miles 
 north of the great fortress, and near the 
 banks of the river Alma. 
 
 No enemy appeared to oppose the landing, 
 
 here again difficulties had been thrown in the 
 way by St. Arnaud, who seems to have been in 
 continual fear of compromising his dignity 
 by acting under Lord Raglan's direction. He 
 though<^ the safety of the whole expedition 
 
 m 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was endangered by any separation of the 
 English and French forces, seeing that the 
 Russians had a large and powerful fleet under 
 the guns of Sebastopol, ready at any moment to 
 swoop down upon the invaders. St. Arnaud 
 had sailed awaj^ with the French forces apart 
 from the English ; but at length, after incur- 
 ring the risk of spoiling the whole plan by his 
 waywardness, he came back, as if ashamed 
 of his petulance, and the fleets proceeded in 
 company, as they should have done at first. 
 It is only fair to say that something of this 
 waywardness in the Marshal must be 
 ascribed to the effects of the disease which 
 was bringing him to his grave. He had but 
 a few days of life left in him when he landed 
 in the Crimea. 
 
 March towards Sebastopol; The 
 Battle of the Alma. 
 
 The numbers of the expedition are given as 
 about 30,000 French, 7,000 Turks, and 27,000 
 English, including 1,000 cavalry, an arm of 
 which the French were destitute. The land- 
 ing had been began on the 14th of September, 
 and was finished within five days. The 
 march of the armies was directed towards 
 Sebastopol. But the Russians, though they 
 had allowed the disembarkation to take place 
 unopposed, were prepared to dispute the 
 advance of the allied forces, and had chosen 
 their own ground with considerable skill. 
 Southward of Eupatoria, where the invaders 
 landed, and consequently across the route to 
 Sebastopol, ran the river Alma ; and on the 
 further side of this river Prince Mentschikoff, 
 the Governor of the Crimea, had advantage- 
 ously posted his force of 30,000 men on the 
 heights, strengthening his position by batteries 
 of cannon and by a great redoubt. 
 
 On the 19th there was some skirmishing 
 with advanced bodies of Russian cavalry and 
 Cossacks. The great struggle took place on 
 the 20th. Mentschikoff appears to have 
 thought concerning the invaders, as Cromwell 
 expressed himself with regard to Leslie and 
 his men at Dunbar, that " the Lord had de- 
 livered them into his hands." He is said to 
 have boasted that he could, if necessary, 
 maintain his position for three weeks ; and 
 that the Alma would be to the Third Napo- 
 leon and his allies what the Berezina had 
 been to the First. 
 
 He little knew the men with whom he had 
 to deal. English and French were alike 
 filled with warlike ardour ; though, as testi- 
 fied by the lists of killed and wounded, the 
 former bore the burden and heat of the day. 
 The river was crossed in the face of the 
 astonished Russian army. The English 
 advancing in line, attacked and broke the 
 dense columns of their foes ; and after a 
 stubborn fight of three hours, the great re- 
 doubt was '■aken and maintained, the English 
 
 flag being planted on it by a brave lad. 
 Ensign Anstruther, who perished in the 
 attempt. Among the men who especially 
 distinguished themselves by their gallantry 
 were the Highland regiments under the com- 
 mand of Sir Colin Campbell, — the 79th and 
 93rd, and the 42nd, the famous " Black 
 Watch." The brief, soldier-like address of 
 Sir Colin to his brigade on this occasion is 
 eminently characteristic of the man who 
 afterwards had so large a share in saving 
 India in the time of the great mutiny. " Now, 
 men," said the noble-hearted chief, " you are 
 going into action. Remember this. Whoever 
 is wounded, — I don't care v/hat his rank is, — 
 whoever is wounded, must lie where he falls 
 till the bandsmen come to attend to him. No 
 soldier must go carrying off wounded men. 
 If any soldier does such a thing, his name 
 shall be stuck up in his parish church. Don't 
 be in a hurry about firing. Your officers will 
 tell you when it is time to open fire. Be 
 steady. Keep silence. Fire low. Now, 
 men, the army will watch us ; make me proud 
 of the Highland Brigade ! " 
 
 Various deeds of individual courage 
 achieved on this day have been recorded. 
 Among the most important is the brilliant 
 feat of Captain Bell, of the 23rd regiment, 
 who, when the Russian artillerymen had 
 limbered up, and were carrying off their 
 pieces from the great redoubt, overtook the 
 driver hastening away with a gun, and 
 holding his revolver, which happened to 
 be empty, to the man's head, threatened 
 him with instant death if he did not halt. 
 The terrified Russian slipped out of his 
 saddle and made off; whereupon Captain 
 Bell turned the horse's head towards the 
 English line, and the gun became the prize 
 of the British arrny. 
 
 The Zouaves distinguished themselves by 
 the dash and spirit they infused into their 
 fighting ; but the French army, it has been 
 generally allowed, was not skilfully handled 
 on that day. Marshal St. Arnaud was 
 wretchedly ill ; and, indeed, only outlived 
 the fight a few days, dying on board the 
 ship that was to convey him to Constan- 
 tinople. 
 
 After the Alma; March upon 
 Balaclava, 
 The fruits of the victory were chiefly found 
 in the moral effect it created. But it is certain 
 that it was not followed up with sufficient 
 energy. The beaten enemy was allowed to 
 rally too soon, and, indeed, was surprised at 
 not finding itself pursued. One reason of 
 this was in the want of cavalry, another in 
 the reluctance of Lord Raglan to press his 
 men too severely so early in the campaign. 
 Subsequent revelations render it certain that 
 had the allies pushed on at once to Sebas- 
 
 138 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 topol, they might have taken the city by a 
 coup de main. But the delay of a few days 
 will sometimes alter the entire aspect of a 
 campaign. In this case it enabled General 
 Mentschikoff, in conjunction with Todleben, 
 the most distinguished engineer of the war, 
 to put the city into a state of defence, and 
 gave the allied army almost a year's hard 
 work, involving the loss of thousands of lives. 
 
 It has been said by the author of the 
 " History of our own Times" that this battle 
 was a kind of heroic scramble ; and that in 
 a scramble some men are more fortunate 
 than others. On this day one commander 
 was certainly peculiarly unfortunate, namely, 
 Prince Napoleon, whose division became so 
 hopelessly entangled and clubbed in the 
 advance as to be shut out from the conflict, — 
 a circumstance which helped to fix upon its 
 leader the imputa:tion most damaging to the 
 character of a soldier. The reputation of 
 the son of Jerome, King of Westphalia, re- 
 ceived a blow on that day from which it 
 never recovered. 
 
 The allies meanwhile marched southward ; 
 and the appearance of Sebastopol, with its 
 strong defences, — which had been increased 
 by the throwing-up of new earthworks, while 
 seven ships had been sunk across the entrance 
 of the harbour to secure it from an attack by 
 the fleet, — made them resolve to besiege the 
 city in regular form. Accordingly they esta- 
 blished themselves in camps to the south of 
 the place, where they could co-operate with 
 the fleets, — the English at Balaclava, the 
 French at Kauriesh, — and the communica- 
 tion by sea would enable them to receive 
 reinforcements, supplies of stores, and ammu- 
 nition, and all requisites for the siege without 
 continual molestation from the enemy. 
 
 First attack on Sebastopol ; Battle 
 OF Balaclava ; Charge of the Light 
 Brigade. 
 
 The 17th of October, 1854, will always be 
 remembered as a dark day of misfortune and 
 failure in the annals of this war. It had 
 been determined to attack Sebastopol by sea, 
 and to bring all the great resources of the 
 EngUsh and French fleets into play. But in 
 an evil hour Admiral Dundas allowed him- 
 self to be overruled by the French Admiral 
 Hamelin as to the position from which the 
 ships were to commence the attack. Against 
 his better judgment he gave way, and the 
 result was dire failure; the French fire being 
 silenced early in the day, and the English 
 being only just able to maintain theirs 
 throughout the fight, while Fort Constantine 
 defied all their efforts to extinguish its re- 
 sistance ; though the Agamemnojt and the 
 few ships that could be brought to a point 
 whence their fire was effective behaved 
 gloriously. 
 
 On the 25th of October, a few days later, 
 was fought the celebrated battle of Balaclava. 
 The army of the Russians, strengthened by 
 reinforcements, and encouraged by the issue 
 of the operations on the 17th, — which had 
 convinced the allies that Sebastopol was not 
 to be taken " as King Hal took Teroneune, 
 when he just laid his hand on it and it was 
 done," — made a spirited attack upon the 
 English and French forces in the hope of 
 cutting them off from Balaclava. The Czar's 
 soldiers fought gallantly, as, indeed, they 
 always did throughout the war ; but they 
 lost the day, being everywhere beaten back ; 
 and the battle was considered virtually over 
 when the incident happened that immorta- 
 lised the name of Balaclava in the annals of 
 British heroism, — the famous charge of the 
 Light Brigade. " There came an order that 
 someone had blundered," sings Tennyson in 
 his spirited poem on the Balaclava charge. 
 It appears that Lord Raglan wished to retake 
 a battery that had been taken from some 
 Turks earlier in the day, — for the Turkish 
 contingent in the Crimea were men of a very 
 different stamp from the heroic defenders of 
 Silistria, — and accordingly he sent an order 
 to Lord Lucan, who was in command of the 
 cavalry, ordering a charge upon this battery. 
 To Lord Cardigan, whose duty it was to head 
 the charge, an order was brought from Lord 
 Lucan by a distinguished cavalry officer, 
 Captain Nolan ; and by a lamentable mis- 
 take, which Nolan alone Avould have cleared 
 up. Lord Cardigan was made to believe 
 that the order referred not to the battery 
 taken from the Turks, but to the strong 
 position "half a league onward," where 
 the Russian cannon were posted, at the 
 opposite end of a long valley at a distance 
 of more than a mile. Though naturally 
 amazed at receiving an order that seemed 
 dictated by madness. Lord Cardigan felt 
 himself bound in honour to obey it. As he 
 would have to lead the charge, hesitation or 
 inquiry might be open to an ugly interpre- 
 tation. Accordingly, with the philosophical 
 observation, " Then here goes the last of the 
 Cardigans," he gave the order to mount, and 
 the Light Brigade started on its fatal task. 
 
 The number of men who rode in that 
 charge consisted of 130 of the 13th Light 
 Dragoons, 145 of the 17th Lancers, 118 of 
 the 4th Light Dragoons, 104 of the 8th 
 Hussars, and no of the nth Hussars, 
 making a total of 607 ; and of these only 
 198, less than a third, came back into camp. 
 
 So soon as the brigade was in motion. 
 Captain Nolan, who had carried the order, 
 seems to have seen the misunderstanding. 
 He galloped towards Lord Cardigan, pro- 
 bably to set it right ; but at that moment a 
 round shot struck him full in the chest ; he 
 remained erect in the saddle for a few mo- 
 
 139 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ments, while his horse galloped onward, and 
 then fell to the ground a dead man. Mean- 
 while the Russian batteries on the heights on 
 either side of the valley plied the brigade 
 with grape and canister shot as the English 
 troopers rode past. " Cannon to left of them, 
 cannon to right of them, cannon in front of 
 them, volleyed and thundered." But still 
 they rode on, their ranks continually thinned 
 by the shot that came plunging in among 
 them. Through the iron trail they reached 
 the batteries they deemed themselves ordered 
 to take. It has been rightly described as 
 light cavalry charging an army in position. 
 The batteries were silenced, those of the 
 gunners who did not find safety in flight being 
 sabred at their guns ; and then the sur- 
 vivors of that gallant but wholly unneces- 
 sary exploit turned round 
 and rode back to their 
 own army, having once 
 more to run the gauntlet 
 of the flanking batteries as 
 they passed. " Long shall 
 the tale be told, how they 
 rode onward ! " It was a 
 piece of heroism worthy 
 of the comrades of Leo- 
 nidas at Thermopylae. The 
 brave men had no choice 
 but to obey orders. But 
 the reflection will always 
 remain that their lives were 
 needlessly sacrificed. The 
 comment of the French 
 general, who declared the 
 whole affair " very mag- 
 nificent but not war," was 
 perhaps the best criticism 
 on the Balaclava charge. 
 
 Newspaper Corres- 
 pondents : Mr. Rus- 
 sell OF THE " Times " ; 
 Outspoken Criticism 
 Thus on the 25th of October the Russian 
 ariuy that endeavoured to relieve Sebastopol 
 was driven back ; on the following day a 
 great sortie from the city was repulsed ; and 
 the siege went on in regular form. And here 
 for the first time was introduced an element 
 that has since become a feature of every great 
 war, but which would have considerably 
 startled the great Duke, and would probably 
 have excited in him disgust and indignation. 
 The public at home, who took the keenest 
 interest in every detail of the strife, were kept 
 accurately informed of the course of events by 
 theletters of correspondents despatched by the 
 newspaper proprietors to the seat of war. 
 Among these gentlemen, Mr. William 
 Howard Russell, the representative of the 
 Tijnes, was facile princeps j and his graphic 
 and faithful narrative was interspersed 
 
 William Howard Russell. 
 
 with outspoken and not always favourable 
 criticism, for which there was more than 
 need. 
 
 The war had been undertaken, as it were, 
 in the dark. The old routine of the com- 
 missariat department, the medical arrange- 
 ments, the arrangements for the supply of 
 war material and stores, everything, in fact, 
 except the fighting, belonged to a past age, 
 and was entirely inadequate to the needs of 
 the time. Close upon the tidings of the 
 Alma victory, which were received with an 
 outburst of delight, the more vehement and 
 hearty because they gave a triumphant re- 
 futation to the " nation of shopkeepers " 
 theory, came news of a very different kind, — 
 stories of entirely preventible and unnecessary 
 want and hardship suffered by our brave 
 troops, — of lamentably 
 defective hospital arrange- 
 ments, and an unaccount 
 able absence of the medi- 
 cal and surgical appliances 
 and of those comforts for 
 the sick which the com- 
 monest forethought and 
 care ought to have provi- 
 ded. It was reported how 
 a large consignment of 
 saddles for the cavalry had 
 been despatched to one 
 port, while the correspond- 
 ing bridles were consigned 
 to another; how a large 
 shipment of boots, anxi- 
 ously awaited for the 
 soldiers, who were almost 
 barefoot, were found, on 
 their arrival, to be all for 
 the left foot ; how a large 
 cargo of coffee had been 
 sent out without any appli- 
 ances for roasting the 
 beans^ which were served 
 out raw to the troops ; 
 and how, in fact, the commissariat and other 
 departments had broken down lamentably, — 
 and how, through the ignorance and neglect 
 of responsible persons, far more men were 
 being sacrificed in hospital and in camp than 
 fell beneath the fire of the enemy. 
 
 These things aroused in England a feeling 
 of profound grief and anger ; and much of 
 this anger displayed itself against the Govern- 
 ment. Lord Aberdeen was known to have 
 been opposed to the war from the beginning; 
 and rightly or wrongly was suspected of 
 pursuing it with a languor that was ominous 
 of failure. By the beginning of the next year 
 it was generally known that military and 
 official red-tapeism and incapacity were, like 
 devouring monsters, destroying our soldiers ; 
 that, as the Times forcibly expressed it, 
 " Balaclava was a cemetery, and Scutari a 
 
 140 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 pest-house;" and Mr. Roebuck gave notice 
 in Parliament for a committee of investiga- 
 tion. The Ministry " of all the talents," as 
 it was called, opposed this application ; and 
 on a division the Governm.ent sustained such 
 a defeat that resignation followed as a matter 
 of course, and Lord Palmerston, who was 
 known to be heart and soul against the 
 Russians, came into power, thus gaining a 
 great triumph over Lord John Russell, who 
 had dismissed him from the Cabinet on the 
 coup d'etat question just three years before. 
 
 The Battle of Inkermann ; Soldier- 
 ship AND Generalship. 
 
 But in the meantime a great battle — one 
 of those soldiers' battles on which the country 
 looks with especial pride, as proofs that the 
 fighting power of the race has not decreased 
 with the increase of ease and the conveniences 
 of life in every class — had been won outside 
 the walls of Sebastopol. On the 8th of 
 November an unusual stir had been noticed 
 by the men in the trenches to be going on 
 within the beleagured city. There was much 
 drumming and trumpeting among the be- 
 sieged ; and at times the shouts of men and 
 the Russian "hourra" were heard. This 
 seemed to portend some design in progress. 
 
 Those who had judged thus were right. 
 Early on the morning of the 9th, an outpost 
 sentry at the quarries of Inkermann, at the 
 extremity of the English camp, heard what 
 seemed to be the footsteps of a number of 
 men approaching through the gloom. He 
 fired his musket, and rushed to alarm the 
 camp. It was an attack in force by an army 
 of 50,000 Russians, under General Liprandi ; 
 and for hours there were only about 8,000 
 men, consisting of the Guards and three line 
 regiments, to oppose the whole weight of the 
 Russian onset. And on this occasion the 
 Muscovites fought with a more grim per- 
 sistency than ever. They had been inflamed 
 to fury by the impassioned addresses of their 
 officers, and by copious draughts of fiery 
 spirit. Thus the struggle on the plateau of 
 Inkermann was tremendous. As Wellington 
 said of Waterloo, " it was a battle of giants." 
 Of strategy and generalship there was simply 
 none. The whole affair was a surprise. The 
 soldiers saw the dark masses of their foes 
 before them, and simply " went for " the 
 long grey great-coats and black helmets, 
 bringing down their foes as they best could, 
 with bayonet thrusts, with clubbed muskets, 
 and even with big stones seized up in the 
 quarries and hurled at the advancing 
 columns. 
 
 The terrible inequality of the battle was at 
 length ended by the arrival of a large body 
 of French troops under General Bosquet; 
 and the Russian anriy retired sullenly 
 within the precincts of the beleagured city. 
 
 having lost, it is said, 12,000 men. The 
 English loss was estimated at 2,600, with 
 nearly 150 officers ; that of the French about 
 1,700. Inkermann was emphatically the 
 great hand-to-hand struggle of the war, 
 beginning before daylight, and lasting until 
 the short November day was closing in. 
 The Times' chronicler sums it up in a few- 
 words, as "the memorable battle of Inker- 
 mann, with its surprise, so little honourable 
 to our general and the officers of his staff ; 
 its combats so glorious to our soldiers ; and 
 its results so fatal to the enemy and so 
 memorable to us." It was a tremendous 
 lesson to the foe as to what the British 
 soldier can do, when he has to fight for his 
 life against overwhelming odds. 
 
 The Terrible Winter of 1854-55, 
 The news of the splendid fight of Inker- 
 mann restored the courage of those weaker 
 brethren at home who had begun to despond, 
 and it seemed ungrateful to doubt for a 
 moment the issue of a struggle in which we 
 had such noble champions. But the diffi- 
 culties of the army were only beginning ; 
 through the winter that began soon after, 
 every form of want and suffering became 
 familiar to our troops. " The army has been 
 suffering in patience and in silence the most 
 fatal and unnecessary misery," was the asser- 
 tion of the leading journal, and the fact was 
 too patent to be contradicted. 
 
 The winter of 1854 was one of unusual 
 severity, and was ushered in on the shores of 
 the Crimea by such a tempest as even the 
 stormy Euxine in the roughest season of the 
 year could seldom show. This storm made 
 havoc of the camp, carrying away the men's 
 tents, throwing down the wooden buildings in 
 which large quantities of stores had been piled 
 up ; and on the waters it spread destruction 
 far and wide among the transports and store- 
 ships, many of which were sunk, some of them 
 with their crews as well as their costly freight. 
 The winter came upon the soldiers while 
 they were still without warm clothing, nourish- 
 ing food, medical stores, and general neces- 
 saries ; and the most lamentable part of the 
 business was, that this want and misery re- 
 sulted mainly from mismanagement. Bala- 
 clava, the seaport, is eight miles from the 
 camp ; and while the fine weather lasted a 
 road should have been made. This had been 
 neglected, and had now become impossible ; 
 and thus, while the ships in harbour were 
 laden with stores, the camp was starving. 
 " Within eight miles of them are clothes, 
 food, materials for house building, fuel, 
 and many other comforts," said Russell's 
 account ; " but the soldiers have been in rags, 
 have been placed on half-rations, have been 
 reduced to burrow in the ground for shelter, 
 and driven to the utmost extremity to obtain 
 
 \\\ 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 firewood from a surface of land saturated 
 with rain. There have been guns and am- 
 munition in abundance at Balaclava, while 
 the siege has been interrupted for want of 
 guns and ammunition." Indeed, during the 
 winter months the siege became little more 
 than a blockade ; but still the men were 
 patient and uncomplaining, and showed an 
 admirable disposition, in which their officers 
 set them a good example of making the best 
 of very untoward circumstances. One very 
 healthy symptom was noticed among all this 
 dismal category of inefficiency and blunder- 
 ing. When it became patent that the military 
 departments at home and the general system 
 had hopelessly broken down, there was no 
 disposition to hide or to excuse any of the 
 blunders. On the contrary, open discussion, 
 outspoken criticism, and in many cases un- 
 qualified censure became the order of the day. 
 In France, where, on the other hand, the 
 only news that might be published from the 
 seat of war was officially communicated by 
 the Government, and every newspaper editor 
 and proprietor lived in dread of the terrible 
 " three warnings " or avertissemenls, after 
 which his paper was liable to be suppressed, 
 the condition of the French army, its be- 
 haviour, and every particular concerning it, 
 were described in the most hopeful fashion ; 
 and, indeed, the Continent wondered at the 
 revelations of incompetency and want of 
 system voluntarily avowed in England. But 
 there was another side to all this. Errors 
 once frankly avowed in the face of the whole 
 nation were sure to be quickly corrected ; 
 and it was not likely now that the country 
 knew the truth that the mistakes of that fatal 
 winter would be repeated. 
 
 An Unexpected Event; Continuance 
 OF THE War. 
 At the beginning of March 1855, a piece of 
 news was flashed across Europe that took the 
 nations by surprise and gave rise to various 
 conjectures regarding the further prosecution 
 of the war. The Emperor Nicholas was 
 dead. That restless, ambitious man, who had 
 spilt the blood of his subjects hke water, and 
 had deemed a seventh part of the world too 
 small an empire to suffice him, had passed 
 away from the scene of his labours and his 
 crimes, before it was even generally known 
 that he was sick. The immediate and osten- 
 sible cause of his death was congestion of 
 the lungs, brought on by an attack of influ- 
 enza. But to say that the autocrat of all the 
 Russias died of a broken heart would be not 
 far from the truth. For more than a quarter 
 of a century his policy had been a prepara- 
 tion for the great game he had at last played 
 and lost. Incessant anxiety, strenuous ex- 
 ertion, and bitter disappointment had all 
 contributed to break down that colossal 
 
 frame ; and the news of another baffled 
 attempt of his army is said to have finished 
 the ruin that overwork and hidden despaii 
 had begun. Never had a ruler so completely 
 sown the wind to reap the whirlwind. 
 
 It was at first expected that his successor, 
 Alexander II., would gladly seize this oppor- 
 tunity to put an end to a war for which he 
 was not responsible. But not even a Russian 
 autocrat is so entirely despotic that he can 
 afford to slight the wishes and outrage the 
 feelings of the great mass of his subjects. 
 Russia had been deeply humiliated by the 
 defeat during the war, to which, moreover, 
 something of a religious character had been 
 imparted by the manifesto of the Czar. There 
 were strong hopes that the fall of Sebastopol 
 might be averted ; and in view of the doubt- 
 ful state in which affairs then stood, the new 
 Czar could not without risking his throne 
 accede to a peace in which he would have 
 to yield points of importance. Accordingly, 
 with the spring active operations were re- 
 sumed, and the prospect of a termination to 
 the war seemed as remote as ever. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas seems to have 
 cherished a hope that the siege of Sebastopol 
 would be abandoned at the setting in of 
 the Russian winter. He had been accus- 
 tomed to say that Russia had two generals 
 on whom she could rely, — General January 
 and General February ; and the disappoint- 
 ment of this hope was finely illustrated at the 
 time by the genius of John Leech the artist, 
 who in a cartoon in Punch, entitled, "General 
 Fevrier turned traitor," represented Death in 
 the Russian uniform laying his icy hand, not 
 on the foes of the Czar, but on the Emperor 
 himself. General February had turned his 
 weapons against the monarch who claimed 
 him as an ally. 
 
 Affairs assumed a better aspect with re- 
 gard to the army as the winter passed away. 
 Strenuous exertions were made to remedy 
 the evils that had caused the collapse, and 
 gradually such improvements were made 
 that operations could be resumed with vigour. 
 Among the reforms carried out, none were 
 more important than the improvements in 
 hospital management, and in the important 
 science of nursing the sick. These improve- 
 ments are due in a great measure to the 
 energy and self-devotion of Miss Florence 
 Nightingale, a lady who had made all 
 questions connected with nursing in hospi- 
 tals a subject of study for many years, and 
 had gained practical experience of the work- 
 ing of various institutions at home and 
 abroad. Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Secretary 
 for War, induced Miss Nightingale to proceed 
 to the East with some ladies qualified and 
 willing to act under her directions, and a 
 staff of reliable and skilful nurses. The 
 hospital at Scutari soon assumed a very 
 
 142 
 
FROM ALMA TO SEBASTOPOL. 
 
 different appearance, dirt and confusion dis- 
 appeared, and for the first time it was fully 
 recognised that sanitary hygiene and thought- 
 fiil care and tending of the sick have at least 
 as much to do with the chances of recovery 
 as medical skill. It is hardly possible to 
 overestimate the value of the work done by 
 Miss Nightingale and her devoted band of 
 gentle English ladies during the Crimean 
 
 The Baltic Fleet; Bomarsund; Hango ; 
 
 The Black Sea Fleet; The Straits 
 
 OF Yenikale. 
 
 The naval operations of the war had, on the 
 whole, until now, occasioned disappointment, 
 though that disappointment seems to have 
 been based partly on a somewhat vague esti- 
 mate of what the ships were really expected to 
 effect, and upon the glorious traditions of 
 such fights as Camperdown, the Nile, and 
 Trafalgar. A repetition of such triumphs 
 was not to be hoped for in the present war, 
 because the Russian fleets would never, 
 either in the Baltic or in the Black Sea, run 
 the hazard of a general engagement. In the 
 one case the ships took refuge in the harbour 
 of Sebastopol ; in the other they were safely 
 ensconced behind the batteries of Cronstadt. 
 The " Thrasonical brag " of Admiral Napier 
 had accordingly little relevance to the actual 
 state of affairs. The one great thing that must 
 have cast lustre on his name would have been 
 an attack on the Russian fleet, and its capture 
 or destruction in spite of the fortifications of 
 Cronstadt. There were different opinions as 
 to the feasibility of such a scheme ; but at 
 any rate Sir Charles did not attempt it. 
 Afterwards, as Member of Parliament for 
 Southwark, he made a violent onslaught on 
 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James 
 Graham, on whom he laid the blame that 
 , not more had been done. Sir James was not 
 slow to retort, and hinted at incapacity in the 
 commander as the reason why the Baltic 
 fleet, reviewed before its departure by the 
 Oueen in person, and furnished with every 
 appliance of modern warfare, had brought 
 home so few trophies. The country, perhaps 
 unreasonably impatient, seemed inclined to 
 divide the blame equally between both ; and 
 there was much laughter at Punc/i's clever 
 picture of " The great mud-flinging match be- 
 tween Charlie Pot and Jamie Kettle." 
 
 Yet the naval operations in the north were 
 not without their value. The destruction of 
 Bomarsund, a stronghold intended to be for 
 the Baltic what Sebastopol was for the Black 
 Sea, put an end to a menacing danger ; and 
 the injury inflicted on the enemy by the 
 capture of merchant ships and the stop- 
 page of his maritime trade, suggested many 
 i useful scruples as to the peril of provoking a 
 dangerous enemy. 
 
 An incident that called forth a shout of 
 execration was the so-called massacre of 
 Hango Head, where a boat's crew rowing 
 ashore under a flag of truce was treacherously 
 fired upon by Russian soldiers, and some of 
 its occupants killed, in defiance of the laws 
 of civilized warfare. Far more important, 
 however, were the operations of the Black 
 Sea fleet. The first attempt at bombarding 
 Sebastopol from the sea was, as we have 
 seen, a failure ; and the action of the Russians 
 in sinking ships at the mouth of the harbour 
 between Forts Paul and Constantine, pre- 
 cluded all chance of a stand-up fight, such as 
 took place when the French and Spanish men 
 of war came sailing out of Cadiz Bay in 
 1805 ; but the sailors, formed into a naval 
 brigade, had done very valuable service on 
 shore ; and the fleet itself, by forcing the 
 Straits of Yenikale, between the Black Sea 
 and the Sea of Azov, by the subsequent 
 taking of Kertch, and the destruction of an 
 immense amount of stores considered by the 
 enemy to be in complete safety, had been of 
 great and signal use. 
 
 Another ally had also joined the Western 
 Confederacy. This was the King of Sardinia, 
 who, acting under the advice of Count 
 Cavour, proceeded to establish a claim on 
 the consideration and gratitude of the English 
 and French nations by sending a force to 
 co-operate in the great work then in hand. 
 The Piedmontese soldiery were fortunate in 
 having an opportunity of proving their 
 gallantry, when their position at Traktir 
 Bridge, on the Tchernaya, was fiercely 
 attacked by the enemy, in a desperate 
 attempt to raise the siege, on August i6th ; 
 and the gallantry with which they behaved 
 greatly raised the nation and the cause they 
 represented in the opinion of Europe, and 
 gained for the kingdom of Sardinia a place 
 at the council-board of European sovereigns 
 when the articles of peace came to be dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 Operations of 1855 ; The j8th of June ; 
 Renewed Efforts ; Fall of Sebas- 
 topol. 
 
 Early in 1855 Lord John Russell was 
 despatched on a mission to Vienna, to en- 
 deavour to bring about a peace on condi- 
 tions that should guarantee the integrity 
 of Turkey, and limit the pretentions and 
 check the ambition of Russia. The negotia- 
 tion failed entirely ; and Lord John Russell 
 himself was very severely criticised and 
 driven from office, on the ground that he 
 had advocated at Vienna a policy he after- 
 wards denounced in the House of Commons. 
 His reputation as a statesman suffered great 
 damage ; for the English are rather disposed 
 at all times to forgive injudicious counsel 
 
 143 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 manfully persisted in than a weak halting 
 between two opinions. 
 
 The visit of the Emperor and Empress of 
 the French to London, where they were 
 received with the most cordial hospitality by 
 the Queen and the Prince Consort, seemed a 
 token that the Anglo-French alliance was in 
 a healthy condition, and the cotip d'etat for- 
 gotten. 
 
 At the beginning of June the allies thought 
 the time was at hand for striking a decisive 
 blow, and putting an end to the tremendous 
 labours of the protracted siege. On the 7th 
 of that month an important outwork, the 
 Mamelon, and another important post, were 
 captured ; and arrangements were made for 
 a general attack on the i8th, a day con- 
 sidered to be of good omen, for it was the 
 fortieth anniversary of Waterloo. But the 
 attempt, though followed up with the most 
 self-sacrificing gallantry, was repulsed by 
 the stubborn foe ; and the shock of this 
 misfortune, acting on a frame weakened by 
 long and strenuous exertions and by sleep- 
 less anxiety, brought on an illness which 
 carried oft Lord Raglan with terrible sudden- 
 ness. 
 
 The regret at the loss of a brave and 
 devoted chief was increased by the unhappy 
 favouritism that was allowed to prevail in 
 the choice of his successor. General Simp- 
 son, who now became Commander-in-Chief 
 in the Crimea, had not a single qualification, 
 except seniority, for the important post 
 assigned to him. And, indeed, one of the 
 greatest advantages gained through the 
 Crimean war was the conviction forced 
 upon England that family influence and 
 wealth and military traditions must no longer 
 be allowed to bar the way to merit ; that the 
 system of " taking care of Dowb " (an 
 expression borrowed from a telegram that 
 was sent to head- quarters at the same time 
 with the intelUgence of General Simpson's 
 appointment to the command, and meant 
 that an officer named Dowbiggin was to 
 have something done for him) was a per- 
 nicious one, unworthy of a great nation. 
 
 The disastrous effect of the appointment 
 of General Simpson was quickly seen when 
 the question of a new attack upon Sebastopol 
 came to be discussed ^ After the death of 
 Marshal St. Arnaud the command of the 
 French army had devolved upon General 
 Canrobert, who, feeling himself unequal to 
 
 its responsibilities, had resigned it in favour 
 of General Pelissier, a veteran whose skill 
 had been proved in Algeria, where his 
 Imputation for humanity, however, had 
 suffered grave injury by the suffocation ol 
 some hundreds of Arabs in the caves ot 
 Dahra. The Mamelon, held by the French, 
 was but a few yards from the important 
 Malakoff tower, a most important position. 
 On the other hand, the Rifle pits, the posi- 
 tion gained by the English, was a long 
 distance from the Redan battery, which it 
 was their task to take, and during the whole 
 way the attacking force would be exposed to 
 a withering fire. It was felt that General 
 Simpson erred gravely in thus allowing an 
 almost impossible task to be allotted to his 
 army, while the French had only to attack 
 a point within fifteen yards of their trenches. 
 The result was as might have been antici- 
 pated. The French succeeded in their attack 
 on the Malakoff, over whose tower the tri- 
 color was soon waving. The English attacked 
 the Redan most gallantly, succeeded in 
 mounting the parapet, but could not esta- 
 blish themselves in the place, for the sup- 
 ports urgently required to back up their 
 attack were not sent. General Simpson 
 would attempt nothing more that day, alleging 
 that the trenches were too crowded ; but in 
 spite of wretched generalship, the task of the 
 allied armies at Sebastopol was done. The 
 bombardment of the last few days had 
 terribly shattered the place , and Prince 
 Gortchakoff, conscious that it was no longer 
 tenable, moved his army from the south to 
 the north side in the night on a bridge of 
 boats, leaving the city a heap of ruins. 
 
 With the taking of Sebastopol the war 
 
 virtually ended, although the Treaty of Paris, 
 
 by which it was definitely closed, was not 
 
 signed until the 30th of March, 1856. The 
 
 chief stipulations were : That the integrity ot . 
 
 the Turkish Empire should be acknowledged ; 
 
 the navigation of the Danube thrown open ; 
 
 the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia 
 
 were to be placed under the protection of 
 
 the Western Powers ; but the article that 
 
 j chiefly hurt the pride of Russia, — a clause, 
 
 I indeed, from which she has contrived at a 
 
 i later period to shake herself free, — declared 
 
 ; that the Black Sea should be neutralised, its 
 
 navigation being open to the merchant ships 
 
 of all nations, but to the armed fleets of none. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 Tti'y 
 
The Old South Sea House, Threadneedle Street, London. 
 
 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 THE STORY OF A SPECULATIVE MANIA. 
 
 " See Britain sunk in Lucre's foetid charms, 
 
 And France revenged of Anne and Edward's arms." 
 
 How the Bubble Rose — The South Sea Company — The Bait held out — John Law in France — The Mississippi Scheme — 
 Excitement in Paris — Excesses and Speculations — Failure of tiie Mississippi Scheme — Fate of Law — Reverses — Plan 
 to Pay the English National Debt — The Bank and the South Sea Company — Passing of the Bill — The Race for 
 Wealth — A Cloud of Bubbles — The South Sea Scheme in excelsis — The Beginning of the End— Fraud — A Falling 
 Off — Ruin and Retribution — Nemesis. 
 
 them, 
 
 How THE Bubble Rose. 
 
 E will here place two instances of 
 public credulity together ; although 
 the circumstances of each are difte- 
 rent, yet there is a similarity between 
 
 inasmuch as the subscribers to the 
 
 " Mississippi Scheme " and the " South Sea 
 Bubble " were all and severally actuated by 
 the same idea — love of gold, a desire to make 
 money. 
 
 " Gold," we are told in the opera of 
 Roberto ilDiavolo, "is a chimera." Perhaps ; 
 at any rate it has a great many followers, 
 and if, like a " Will-o'-the-Wisp," the desired 
 property escape the grasp of the pursuer, 
 he will never believe he was in error. The 
 " luck " was against him — neither his common 
 sense nor his own action was at fault ; his 
 greed did not lead him to plunge madly into 
 speculation. No ; he was tempted. Yet 
 our first parents could and did plead so much. 
 The serpent beguiled them ; the Golden Calf 
 has wondrous power of attraction too. 
 
 145 
 
 The notorious South Sea Company had its 
 origin in the fertile brain of Harley, Earl of 
 Oxford. The Ministry (Whigs) had been 
 overthrown, and a large deficit appeared 
 likely in the public accounts, — for the credit of 
 the nation was not of the best in 171 1. There 
 had been many troubles in the latter period 
 of Anne's reign. Harley himself had been 
 stabbed by Guiscard ; a few weeks after 
 his re-appearance he was created Earl of 
 Oxford. The Government and Court had 
 fallen into a most degraded state at this time. 
 Bribery and corruption, intrigues and ma- 
 noeuvres of all kinds were rife, and when 
 occasionally some good action appeared it 
 was brought about by base and unworthy 
 means. Such was the state of things when 
 Harley proposed to put public credit right by 
 providing for the Army and Navy expenses, 
 and for the floating National Debt of ten 
 millions. 
 
 A Company was formed, and the merch- 
 ants who composed it agreed to take all the 
 responsibility if the Government would gua- 
 
 l 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 rantee them 6 per cent. This arrangement 
 was agreed to ; and in order to secure them- 
 selves certain permanent duties were imposed. 
 The duties upon silks, tobacco, wines, and 
 certain other articles were appropriated to 
 pay off the guaranteed interest, and then the 
 South Sea Company became an accomplished 
 fact. Harley dangled the bait of riches from 
 Spanish seas in the eyes of the creditors. 
 People had heard of the riches of the territo- 
 ries beyond the sea, and every one fancied that 
 when the Company had obtained the mono- 
 poly of trading thither the gains would be 
 enormous. So they would have been, no 
 doubt, had the Company possessed the desired 
 permission. However, the Company was in- 
 corporated ; it was entitled by Act of Parlia- 
 ment as "The Governor and Company of 
 Merchants of Great Britain trading to the 
 South Seas and other parts of America." 
 
 But the English Minister had reckoned 
 without Philip of Spain. By the Peace of 
 Utrecht, negociated under Lord Bolingbroke, 
 the Assiefito, or privilege to supply the 
 Spaniards in South America with negro slaves 
 from Africa, had been ceded to England in- 
 stead of remaining with France; but Philip did 
 not see the use of extending trading permis- 
 sion to his rivals. The contract was limited 
 to the despatch of one vessel a year with a 
 cargo of goods, and this privilege with the 
 Assiento was handed over to the South Sea 
 Company by the Government. The King of 
 Spain likewise imposed hard conditions upon 
 the concession, and Oxford and his party 
 were greatly incensed and disappointed at 
 the turn of affairs. Nevertheless, the public 
 supported the South Sea Company, although 
 the first cargo could not sail till 1717 ; but 
 after all nothing came of the arrangement, for 
 England and Spain fell out (in 17 18), and the 
 South Sea Company's factories were sup- 
 pressed and their agents cast into prison. 
 Things looked serious when Parliament met 
 in 17 1 7, and King George pointedly referred 
 to the state of public finance in his speech, 
 and recommended that some decisive mea- 
 sures should be adopted to reduce or extin- 
 guish the National Debt. The Bank of 
 England and the South Sea Company each 
 came forward as the most entirely disinter- 
 ested saviour of their country, and made 
 certain proposals to Parliament. The latter 
 Company offered to accept a reduction of 
 interest to 5 per cent, if their capital of ten 
 millions were increased to twelve. " The 
 House debated for some time, and finally 
 three Acts were passed called the South Sea 
 Act, the Bank Act, and the General Fund 
 Act. By the first the proposals of the South 
 Sea Company were accepted, and that body 
 held itself ready to advance the sum of two 
 millions towards discharging principal and 
 interest of the debt due by the State. By the 
 
 second Act the Bank received a lower rate of 
 interest for the sum of ^1,775,027 \z,s. due to 
 it by the State, and agreed to deliver up to 
 her cancelled as many Exchequer Bills as 
 amounted to two millions sterling, and to 
 accept of an annuity of ^100,000, being after 
 the rate of 5 per cent., the whole redeem- 
 able at one year's notice. They were further 
 required to be ready to advance in case of 
 need a sum not exceeding ^2,500,000 upon 
 the same terms of 5 per cent, interest, 
 redeemable by Parliament. The General 
 Fund Act recited the various deficiencies 
 which were to be made good by the aids 
 derived from the foregoing sources."* 
 
 John Law in France. 
 
 It was just about this time that Law was 
 reaping the fruits of his Mississippi scheme 
 in France. The Rue Ouincampoix was the 
 meeting-place for all classes of society. John 
 Law had the control of all the State finances, 
 and had created the Royal Bank of France. 
 Favoured by the Regent, notes were manu- 
 factured, and the whole country was inun- 
 dated with a paper currency, and, notwith- 
 standing the opposition of the Parliament, 
 Law prospered. In 17 19 a grant was made 
 to the Mississippi Company of the exclusive 
 privilege of trading to India, China, and the 
 South Seas, and to all the French possessions. 
 New shares were created, and such a brilliant 
 prospect was held before the public, that the 
 applications for these new shares numbered 
 six times the amount of the issue. The Rue 
 Ouincampoix was daily and nightly besieged 
 by applicants. No one could drive up, for 
 the people blocked every approach. The 
 grand dames had to come on foot ; courtesy 
 was put aside ; ladies were elbowed by mer- 
 chants, servants, and Churchmen. There was 
 no respect of persons. The thirst for gold 
 had seized upon all alike ; and as in the desert 
 men will fight for a drop of water, so in the 
 Rue Quincampoix they jostled and fought 
 for the approach to a Scotch adventurer. 
 Buying and selling was the order of the day. 
 Jewels, title-deeds, private papers, even con- 
 tracts were carried to the Bank premises 
 to be changed into scrip. Anything that 
 would fetch money was carried there, and 
 from six in the morning until nine at night, 
 the pressure and struggling of the maddened 
 crowd almost exceeded belief. Soldiers were 
 employed to clear the street, thieves came 
 boldly forward and robbed many a grande 
 dame of all she had in the world. 
 
 Law, of course, was all-powerful, and the 
 most extraordinary tales are related of the 
 manner in which high-born ladies schemed 
 and plotted for an introduction. One told 
 her coachman to upset the carriage when 
 
 * Mackay 
 
 146 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 he perceived Mi'. Law approaching, and for 
 many days the opportunity did not occur. 
 At length the desired occasion arose ; the 
 coachman acted faithfully, the carriage was 
 injured, Law came to the lady's assistance, 
 and ushered her into his house. Once there 
 the lady confessed the stratagem, and became 
 a subscriber to the Mississippi Stock. On 
 another occasion a lady raised an alarm of 
 fire, and caused Law and the other guests 
 to hurry away from table. The alarmist, 
 however, "went for" the financier, who, 
 seeing the danger (of the interview), and 
 perceiving the plan, hurried away in an 
 opposite direction. The state of things in 
 Paris can hardly be realized now. Many 
 servants, and amongst them even Law's own 
 coachman, made large sums of money by 
 gambling. Thousands of new shares were 
 created, and hundreds of thousands could 
 have been disposed of " There was paper 
 enough afloat to build a church as high as 
 Notre Dame," said the people. Payments in 
 specie were forbidden if above the value often 
 louis, and before very long all cash circu- 
 lation had virtually come to an end, and 
 any one who was suspected of retaining sums 
 of money was denounced by friends or ac- 
 quaintance or servants. A son actually laid 
 information against his father, and it is a 
 significant commentary upon the low state 
 of public morality to relate that public in- 
 dignation was aroused against the Regent 
 because, instead of rewarding the miserable 
 informer, the Due d'Orleans caused him to 
 be arrested. 
 
 One day the Due was himself called upon 
 by the President Vernon, who said that he had 
 come to lay information against a man who 
 was keeping back five hundred thousand 
 livres. The Regent was very indignant, but 
 justly rebuked the President. "Ah!" he 
 said, " you are descending to a sorry trade in 
 informing me of such a thing." The Presi- 
 dent smiled grimly as he answered, " I 
 denounce myself only; the money is mine — 
 at my house ; if my money is for the King's 
 service it no longer belongs to anybody, and 
 I prefer gold to the Controller's notes." 
 
 But though there was a certain farcical side 
 to the assumption of the many beggars so 
 suddenly put upon horseback, and although 
 suddenly enriched tradesmen and artificers 
 gave themselves airs, the losses of others 
 were the cause of great crimes. The Count 
 d'Horn and a friend actually murdered a 
 broker for his money. The crowd demanded 
 vengeance, and it was satisfied. Notwith- 
 standing the appeals and interest made for 
 the young man — notwithstanding his youth 
 and good looks and all his pride of race — he 
 suffered. Philip of Orleans, although con- 
 nected by ties of kindred with the assassin, 
 permitted the law to take its course, and 
 
 made no efibrt to save the homicide. He 
 and his accomplice were broken on the wheel 
 in the Place de Greve ; a terrible punishment 
 and a warning. 
 
 Until the opening of the year 1720 the tide 
 of extravagance continued to flow in Paris. 
 No one seemed to heed the warning that 
 paper money alone must ere long ruin the 
 public credit, and bring destruction and ruin 
 upon speculators, and even lead France to 
 bankruptcy. Now and then some specula- 
 tor would carefully take his notes to the Bank 
 and get cash for them, then investing the 
 proceeds in diamonds, send his wealth away 
 in safe keeping, or remit it to England till 
 the bubble had burst. For there were not 
 wanting signs that the great financier's 
 scheme was beginning to collapse. An 
 application was made by the Prince of Conte 
 for some Indian stock, and Law, who con- 
 sidered himself a far greater person, declined 
 to oblige 'the Prince. The latter was very 
 indignant, and at once demanded the value 
 of his shares in specie. Three carts were 
 sent to the Bank, and the money was carried 
 awayjn open day. This gave the people a 
 hint, and many brokers acted upon it ; but 
 the " many headed " populace declined to 
 sell, and blamed the Prince of Conte for his 
 ill-judged call. De Conte was personally 
 unpopular, while Law was then in high 
 favour. Had he not enriched Paris, given an 
 impulse to trade, and made hundreds of 
 fortunes ? Law applied to the Regent com- 
 plaining of DeConte's action, and so influenced 
 Orleans that he peremptorily desired the 
 Prince to refund two-thirds of his money to 
 the Bank, and De Conte was compelled to 
 comply. But the stone had been taken from 
 the foundation, and could not be replaced in 
 its former position. The Bank began to feel 
 the want of support, and as smaller deposits 
 were reclaimed day by day, soon a feeling of 
 distrast crept in, and the public, as liable to 
 panic as to the hope of gain, began to feel 
 uneasy. Specie was becoming scarce, 
 money was being sent out of the country, 
 and notwithstanding an edict published 
 which declared coin to be 10 per cent, below 
 the value of paper, the latter did not obtain 
 any accession of confidence. 
 
 The natural consequences now began to 
 show themselves. People retained what 
 little gold they possessed, paper was not 
 sufficient to keep trade going, and a desperate 
 expedient was at length resorted to by Law. 
 He prevailed upon the Regent to forbid 
 specie payments. This was the most un- 
 popular edict that could have been promul- 
 gated. People were denounced if tliey were 
 seen with even a golden "louis," and the whole 
 country was speedily ripe for revolution. The 
 value of paper money was entirely destroyed, 
 and no one was permitted to purchase any 
 
 147 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 precious stones or to retain more than ;^20 
 sterling (five hundred Hvres) in his posses- 
 sion in specie. Things could not exist 
 long, and a bold stroke was commanded. 
 Shares in the Bank and the paper notes were 
 declared to be only one-half their full value. 
 This was a rough-and-ready mode of equalis- 
 ing matters, as it had been ascertained that 
 there was twice as much paper in the country 
 as there was coin. 
 
 Failure of the Mississippi Scheme. 
 
 The Parliament declined to pass the sug- 
 gested edict and to reduce the value of the 
 currency, and the notes were accordingly 
 declared of full value again. On that edict 
 being promulgated, the Bank stopped pay- 
 ment ; then Law was dismissed, and most 
 terrible scenes were enacted. People rushed 
 to the Bank demanding specie, and were 
 refused payment. Cries and curses with 
 scenes of violence prevailed. The cashiers 
 through the iron gratings could only endeavour 
 to appease the multitude, and fortunate it 
 was for the Bank officials that they were 
 protected by the gratings. Still the con- 
 sternation and fury of the people increased, 
 A man fell and was at once trampled to death. 
 Ere long two others equally unfortunate 
 succumbed, and a cry of horror arose from 
 the crowd as the three dead bodies were 
 carried to the Palais Royal to be exhibited 
 to the Regent as his handiwork. 
 
 Meanwhile Law had presented himself at 
 the Palace, and had been denied admittance. 
 He hastened home, and barely escaped the 
 vengeance of the populace. His hotel was 
 attacked, and his family assailed in the streets. 
 A guard was despatched to preserve the 
 house from attack, but even the sturdy Swiss 
 found their protection unavailing, and Law 
 was removed to the Regent's apartments 
 under arrest to save him from the vengeance 
 of the people. Neither the Regent nor the 
 King's name could quell the popular excitement 
 so long as the author of it was vcv the country 
 and a Director of the Royal Bank. It is 
 related that he even persuaded the Regent 
 that the finances could be restored, and laid 
 many plans before the Due with that object. 
 The Regent seemed to believe the financier, 
 and even took him to the opera to show his 
 confidence in him. But when the audience 
 perceived the Scotchman in the Royal box 
 they testified their indignation in no measured 
 terms, and Law thought it more prudent to 
 withdraw. He retired before the performance 
 came to a close, and hurried away to Fresnes 
 to find the ex-Chancellor, D'Aguesseau, who 
 had been formerly dismissed for opposing 
 the Mississippi scheme. His aid was now 
 sought, and people had great faith in his 
 honesty of purpose and in his capability for 
 restoring the public credit. But even his 
 
 148 
 
 influence was not sufficiently great, and 
 disorder still reigned. 
 
 D'Aguesseau was brought to Paris, and 
 the unpopular edicts concerning the posses- 
 sion of money were immediately rescinded. 
 Any one could keep what money he pleased. 
 Thus a feeling of security was established, 
 and a project was set on foot to dispose of 
 the discredited notes. Twenty-five millions 
 of new notes were made at 2k, per cent., 
 the revenues of the city of Paris being 
 pledged for their redemption ; the Bank's 
 paper was called in and burned in front 
 of the Hotel de Ville, to the great delight 
 of the spectators and holders of new notes. 
 The Bank was then opened again, and coin 
 was provided to pay off the notes when 
 tendered. 
 
 The market for rates of bonds was in the 
 Place Vendome, and there men and women 
 fought and struggled to obtain the money. 
 Silver and copper was paid away by the 
 Bank, and had to be carried somehow, incon- 
 venient though it was. 
 
 " On the 9th of July the multitiade was so dense 
 and clamorous that the guards stationed at the 
 entrance of the Mazarin Gardens closed the gate and 
 refused to admit any more. Ths crowd became in- 
 censed, and flung stones through the railings upon 
 the soldiers. The latter threatened to fire upon the 
 people. At that instant one of them was hit by a 
 stone, and taking up his piece he fired into the crowd. 
 One man fell dead, and another was severely wounded. 
 It was every instant expected that a general attack 
 would have been made upon the Bank '' (Mackay). 
 
 The progress of the popular measures is ex- 
 pressed in the following rhyme, translated by 
 the writer from a French ballad sung in the 
 streets about this time, and quoted in "Scenes 
 Historiques." 
 
 "Monday shares I had obtained — 
 Tuesday millions I had gained : 
 Wednesday furniture I bought — 
 Thursday I a carriage sought : 
 Friday eve I gave a ball. 
 And next day was in hospital !" 
 
 This is but a sample of the many epigrams 
 and ballads which were sung at the time. 
 Of course also numerous caricatures were 
 printed and eagerly purchased. In all ot 
 these Law, or '*Lass" as he was called in 
 French, was subjected to torment and oblo- 
 quy in various ways. And so Paris amused 
 herself while bleeding from many national 
 wounds inflicted. Law wisely kept indoors, 
 or when he did leave his apartments it was 
 in a closed carriage or surrounded by a guard 
 of soldiers. In October the whole of the 
 Mississippi Company's privileges were with- 
 drawn, and as a consequence the share- 
 holders were called upon to pay up the full 
 value of their holdings. This they declined 
 to do, and many attempted to escape ; some 
 succeeded, but the majority of the would-be 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 travellers were arrested, and the most strin- 
 gent application of the law was directed to 
 be imposed upon them. 
 
 Law a Fugitive. 
 The author of all the prosperity and its 
 terrible reaction speedily discovered that 
 France was not the land in which he could 
 any longer dwell in safety. .His life even was 
 not secure from day to day, and he requested 
 permission to retire to the country. The 
 Regent assented, and even offered Law 
 money to leave the country. This the latter 
 refused, and departed to Venice. Law said 
 at that last trying interview with the Regent, 
 " I confess I have committed many faults. I 
 committed them because I am a man, and 
 all men are liable to error ; but I declare to 
 you most solemnly that none of them pro- 
 ceeded from wicked or dishonest motives, 
 
 Louis XIV., who rejected it. Law went into 
 Italy and studied his monetary schemes, fully 
 believing in them himself. Circumstances 
 favoured him, and the confusion which reigned 
 in France gave him the opening he had long 
 desired. He presented himself to the Regent 
 and was favourably received. The Due 
 d'Orleans disliked trouble, business was a 
 worry and a care. Law put his schemes 
 before him and would save him all the trouble 
 of financing, and finally a bank under the 
 title of Law's Bank was established. This 
 was the first round of the ladder, and the 
 Scotchman stepped boldly upon it. He paid 
 notes on demand and in current coin — that is, 
 in the coin current at the time the issue was 
 made. At that time specie deteriorated in 
 some cases very suddenly, and therefore when 
 Law paid full value, no matter what the 
 market value was, his fame as a public 
 
 Statesmen of the " Bubble" Period. 
 
 and that nothing of the kind will be found in 
 the whole course of my conduct." 
 
 Many people have condemned Law as 
 a knave and as a man who took good care 
 of himself and raised a fortune upon the 
 ruins of other people's wealth. He has been 
 called hard names, and an adventurer he 
 doubtless was, — a gambler certainly. From 
 his youth up he had been vain and ambitious 
 and a favourite with woman-kind. Chronicles 
 tell us that he was at one time named " Beau 
 Law " by women, and sneered at by men as 
 " Jessamy John." He was a most successful 
 gambler, and in the favour of ladies of all 
 classes Law made the most decided ad- 
 vances or they were made to him. In con- 
 sequence of one of these affairs he was 
 challenged to a duel, and shot his adversary 
 dead. Law was thereupon arrested, but 
 managing to escape, he hastened to France, 
 where he proposed a financial scheme to 
 
 benefactor rose high. His notes superseded 
 coin, and were valued more highly ; the 
 country felt they had a man of genius to 
 guide them. Prosperity again peeped in, 
 and commerce held up its head. The Regent 
 was delighted, and favoured Law in every 
 way. Then the great Mississippi Scheme 
 was broached. Its rise and progress and 
 its fall we have sketched. 
 
 John Law fled from France, and left it, as 
 has been declared, " almost a beggar." He 
 certainly possessed no property out of France 
 except what personal effects and jewels he 
 took with him. Everything he had possessed 
 was confiscated, and nothing would have 
 pleased the people more than his arrest and 
 execution. To say that he was not desirous 
 of wealth and power would be absurd. He 
 was ambitious, and brought his undoubted 
 financial talent to bear upon the confused state 
 of things in France. He found a remedy 
 
 149 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 but he was too sanguine, and fell, as he 
 thought, a victim to the enmity of the people. 
 Whatever may be advanced against him, it 
 must be confessed that he seems to have 
 believed in the success of his plans ; and it is 
 certain that he died in poverty and obscurity. 
 He was the cause of no advantages that he 
 did not share, it is true ; but when the reaction 
 set in he willingly went with the tide, and 
 did not seek to enrich himself at the expense 
 of those who have been called his victims. 
 
 He seems to have entertained some hope 
 that after all he might be recalled to France 
 to heal the financial troubles of that country, 
 but when the Regent died all such hope, if he 
 seriously relied upon it, was taken away. 
 He passed some time in England after the 
 breaking of the South Sea Bubble, but 
 finally retired to Venice, where, in the year 
 1729, he died in poverty. The following 
 epitaph was written upon him : " Here lies 
 the celebrated Scot, an unequalled financier, 
 who by his rules of Algebra crippled France." 
 The original was written in verse, and in 
 French, thus : — 
 
 " Ci git cet Ecossais celebre 
 Ce calculateur sans egal 
 Qui, par les regies d'Algebre 
 A mis la France a I'hopital." 
 
 Now we may pass from the Mississippi 
 Scheme to English affairs. 
 
 A Plan to Pay the National Debt. 
 
 It was while John Law was holding his 
 Court in Paris, and his clients were struggling 
 who should be first in applying for shares in 
 the great scheme, that the managers and 
 directors of the South Sea Company were 
 engaged in making themselves secure, and 
 began to solicit parliamentary influence on 
 their side. Their project was nothing less 
 than the payment of the National Debt of 
 England, and we will see how they prospered. 
 
 The King had returned from the Continent 
 at the end of the year preceding, November 
 17 19, and had opened Parliament ; and the 
 Bill for limiting the Peerage was one of the 
 first that received the Royal assent. It was 
 during this session, in January 1720, that the 
 House in Committee undertook the consi- 
 deration of the public debts. The South Sea 
 Company conceived the notion that they 
 could pay off the national liabilities by an 
 extended trade. Sir John Blunt, a financier 
 modelled upon Law's pattern, who was Chair- 
 man and one of the influential minds in the 
 directorate of the South Sea Company, pro- 
 posed and argued in favour of the scheme 
 for consolidating the funds, and endeavoured 
 to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 to that view. Sir John Blunt's proposal 
 included the extinction of the irredeemable 
 annuities which had been granted during the 
 reign of Queen Anne for periods of ninety- 
 
 nine years, and the entire extinction of the 
 National Debt within a period of twenty-six 
 years, provided that the funds were so massed 
 and that certain commercial privileges were 
 bestowed upon the Company. The State 
 debts amounted in all to ^30,981,712, and 
 this great sum was to be cleared off in the 
 time specified, interest at 5 per cent, being 
 paid to the Company until Midsummer 1727. 
 After that date it was proposed that the 
 State should have the option of redemption, 
 when interest would be reduced to 4 per cent. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Aislabie) 
 opened the debate in the House of Commons 
 in February 1720, and in a powerful speech 
 in favour of the proposal, he contended that 
 the suggestion of the South Sea Company 
 ought to be entertained by the House. He 
 said that if the proposal were carried through 
 prosperity would rapidly follow and the 
 nation would be free. Mr, Secretary Craggs 
 followed on the same side, and assumed that 
 the proposal would be immediately welcomed 
 by all in the House. However, this confi- 
 dence was not at once responded to. Mem- 
 bers had evidently not made up their minds 
 to the great advantages pointed out in the 
 Chancellor's speech. The Government had 
 done its best to introduce the subject in 
 rosy colours, but quite fifteen minutes elapsed 
 before any one continued or rather took up 
 the subject. At last Mr. Broderick, the 
 Member for Stockbridge, rose, and while 
 expressing his confidence in the proposal, 
 and though willing to assist the Ministry in 
 bringing the country to its former position — 
 a position which could not be assumed until 
 the National Debt was discharged — yet he 
 thought some advantage would be gained by 
 throwing open the subject to competition, so 
 to speak. There were other great financial 
 establishments besides the South Sea Com- 
 pany. The nation was entitled to make the 
 best bargain it could, and he ended by pro- 
 posing that other corporations should be 
 invited to tender, as it were, for the accom- 
 plishment of the much-desired end. 
 
 The Government, or rather its Ministers, 
 had scarcelyexpected this. They had counted 
 upon the acceptance of their proposition, and 
 had committed themselves to the South Sea 
 Company through the Chairman, Sir John 
 Blunt. They were quite unprepared with 
 any alternative scheme, and had no opposi- 
 tion to offer to the not unreasonable pro- 
 posal. Finding themselves in a corner, they 
 lost temper, and showed fight, talking at 
 random. With assumed virtuous indigna- 
 tion, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 denounced the alternative suggestion as un- 
 dignified, as putting the nation up to auction, 
 and that no haggling details should be per- 
 mitted to interfere with such a spirited 
 arrangement, that it should be carried on 
 
 ISO 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 with that spirit, etc. A remark that it was 
 that spirit which had nearly ruined the nation 
 did not tend to improve the temper of the 
 Ministers, and the insistence by Sir Joseph 
 Jekyll that the matter should be approached 
 without heat and not hurriedly, brought up 
 Aislabie to explain, but he was only laughed 
 at. Mr. Walpole then proceeded to argue 
 in favour of the amendment which had been 
 suggested, and strongly recommended that 
 the proposals of other corporations or capi- 
 talists should be received. 
 
 A wrangle ensued with the Ministers, who 
 declared Walpole had now put forward a 
 far less practicable scheme, but the member 
 proved his opponent wrong in figures and in 
 facts. The result was that the Chairman of 
 Committee vacated his place, and the House 
 resuming, agreed to Mr. Broderick's amend- 
 ment to receive all proposals that might be 
 sent in. The Bank of England had a good 
 deal of support in the House, and a plan 
 which promised such advantages to the Com- 
 pany undertaking it was not to be thrown 
 aside by them, or to be handed over without 
 a struggle to a financing company of untried 
 capabilities while the Bank stood aside. An 
 old public servant was not to be thrust out 
 by a new comer, however brilliant his pro- 
 mises. So the Ministerial proposal was post- 
 poned for five days to give time for tenders 
 and applications to be made. 
 
 The South Sea Scheme. 
 
 Bidding became very brisk. The South Sea 
 Company agreed to incorporate ^30,000,000 
 of debt into their stock, and the sum of 
 ^3,500,000 into the exchequer on the terms 
 already referred to. The Bank suggested a 
 three-years' purchase, which, when compared 
 with their opponents' proposition, showed an 
 advance of ^2,000,000 sterling. The South 
 Sea Company, however, held a meeting, and 
 decided to outbid the Bank of England at 
 any cost. They accordingly made a second 
 proposal, offering not only ^500,000 more, 
 but also four-and-a-half years' purchase upon 
 all the annuities they should take into their 
 capital stock, which, had the whole been 
 taken in, would have amounted to .£3,567,500; 
 thus their whole offer was equal to ;£7,567,5oo. 
 Besides all this they offered to circulate 
 ;i^ 1,000,000 in exchequer bills gratis, and to 
 pay 3 per cent, interest for that ^^ 1,000,000, 
 as also one year's purchase upon such an- 
 nuities as should happen not to come into 
 the Company's capital before March ist, 
 1721.* 
 
 This extravagant offer quite put the Bank 
 in the shade ; and, although that corporation 
 came forward again and endeavoured to re- 
 trieve itself, the South Sea Company's scheme 
 
 * Northonek's "London." 
 
 was accepted, and the preparation of the Bill 
 was proceeded with. While this was being 
 done, the Company actually endeavoured to 
 absorb the East India Company and even 
 the Exchequer ; and, like Aaron's rod, to 
 swallow up all the rest. But this bold stroke 
 fortunately was opposed, and though it was 
 never seriously believed by the public, even 
 the very possibility of the Company being 
 in a position to make such an offer, sent up 
 the stock to 126 per cent, at the Christmas 
 1 7 19.* It was at one time suggested that 
 the Bank and the Company should divide 
 the transaction between them ; but Sir John 
 Blunt is reported to have said, " We will 
 never divide the child," — referring, of course, 
 to the "judgment of Solomon." 
 
 The discussion in the House followed, and 
 Walpole opposed the measure vehemently. 
 More sharp-sighted than the rest, or more 
 honest than his opponents, he perceived the 
 ultimate determination of all these schemes. 
 He foresaw the South Sea Company masters 
 of the finances of the country, and that gam- 
 bling on 'Change, already rife, would only be 
 increased by such impossible terms as were 
 promised fulfilment. If such business were 
 encouraged, every one would hasten to 
 enrich himself to the neglect of his solid 
 business, and a spirit of gambling would 
 arise to ruin them. So he proposed a limi- 
 tation of the stock, that the premium should 
 cease at a certain figure, and he endeavoured 
 to introduce a clause, as the Bill was going 
 through the House, to the effect that the 
 South Sea Directors should be compelled to 
 fix the number of years' purchase they would 
 grant to the annuitants. But this suggestion 
 was negatived, Walpole's warnings were dis- 
 regarded, and the Bill passed the Commons 
 on the 2nd of April, by a majority of 117 — 
 172 to 55. No delay was experienced in the 
 Lords. On the 4th the Upper House carried 
 it, notwithstanding some strong condemna- 
 tion, comparing it to the "Trojan horse" 
 which contained the hostile troops of Greece 
 at the siege of Troy. "It was ushered in 
 with pomp and acclamation, but contrived 
 for treachery and destruction." The King 
 assented to the measure in a few days, and 
 then Walpole published his veto in a pam- 
 phlet ; but, Cassandra-like, his prophecies 
 were unheeded. Yet, notwithstanding his 
 condemnation of the Ministry, Walpole was 
 on the eve of accepting office under them. 
 On the 4th of June he was named Paymaster- 
 General, after he had succeeded in recon- 
 ciling the King and the Prince of Wales. 
 
 While the debate was proceeding in the 
 House the Directors of the South Sea Com- 
 pany were not idle. They set various rumours 
 in circulation, and did all in their power to 
 
 * See Anderson's " History of Commerce," vol. ii. 
 
 151 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 increase the price of their stock, and suc- 
 ceeded. Spain was to grant the English 
 every facility for trade. Silver and gold were 
 to be as drugs in the market, and 300 or 
 400 per cent, was stated to be the ad- 
 vantage awaiting the successful or indeed 
 any speculator with the Company. Such 
 baits took. The greedy public swallowed 
 hundreds of pounds like so many oysters. 
 There was no limit to the credulity of the 
 people, and any warning from the Lords was 
 looked upon as was the cry of the poor 
 fanatic who called out against Jerusalem 
 before its destruction, or of " Solomon Eagle" 
 in the story of " Old St. Paul's." As soon as 
 the royal assent to the Bill became known 
 London went mad. Change Alley became a 
 centre for the greatest gambling that perhaps 
 even London has ever witnessed. The Royal 
 Exchange was then no more. It had played 
 itself out in fire, the bells chiming " There is 
 no luck about the house" as it was being 
 consumed ; and the South Sea House was 
 the centre of the mercantile interests at 
 that time. The old " South Sea House," in 
 Threadneedle Street, is now " New South Sea 
 Chambers," but in those days it was a very 
 important and " handsome brick and stone " 
 edifice. In Lamb's " Elia " that charming 
 essayist mentions the building, and moralizes 
 upon it. 
 
 " Reader," he says, "in thy passage from the Bank, 
 didst thou never observe a melancholy-looking, hand- 
 some brick and stone edifice to the left, where Thread- 
 needle Street abuts upon Bishopsgate ? I daresay thou 
 hast often admired its magnificent portals, ever gaping 
 wide and disclosing to view a grave court with cloisters 
 and pillars, with few or no traces of goers-in or comers- 
 out,— a desolation something like Balchutha's. This 
 was once a house of trade, a centre of busy interests. 
 The throng of merchants was here — the quick pulse 
 of gain — and here some forms of business are still 
 kept up, though the soul has long since fled. Peace 
 to the manes of the Bubble ! Silence and destitution 
 are upon thy walls, proud home for a memorial ! 
 Situated as thou art, in the very heart of stirring and 
 living commerce, amid the fret and fever of specu- 
 lation, with the Bank and the 'Change and the India 
 House about thee, in the hey-day of present pros- 
 perity, with their important faces insulting thee, as it 
 were, their poor neighbour out of business. To the 
 idle and merely contemplative — to such as me — old 
 house, there is a charm in thy quiet, a cessation, a 
 coolness from business and indolence almost cloistral, 
 which is delightful. With what reverence have I 
 paced thy great bare rooms at eventide ! They speak 
 of the past, — the shade of some dead accountant, 
 with visionary pen in ear, v/ould float by me, stiff as in 
 life ! " 
 
 Every one hastened into the city to buy 
 South Sea stock, and the excitement was a 
 rival to that which had existed in Paris the 
 year before. The nation became intoxicated 
 with the increasing thirst for gold, and though 
 for a day or two after the Royal assent had 
 been given to the Bill the stock fell a little, 
 perhaps purposely, to let the Directors bring 
 in their friends on easy terms, in a short time 
 
 it rose. Five days after, on the 12th April, 
 the rate of subscription was ^300 per cent, 
 and at this two millions were rapidly sub- 
 scribed. Then it rose to ^340, and allot- 
 ments sold for double the instalments paid 
 up. The struggle for scrip was tremendous 
 on 'Change. 
 
 " There stars and garters did appear 
 Among the meaner rabble, 
 To buy and sell and see and hear 
 The Jews and Gentiles squabble. 
 " The greatest ladies thither came 
 And plied in chariots daily, 
 Or pawned their jewels for a sum 
 To venture in the Alley ! " 
 
 A journalist of the time has placed on record 
 the following : — 
 
 ' ' Our South Sea equipages increase daily. The 
 city ladies buy South Sea jewels, hire South Sea 
 maids, take new coimtry South Sea houses ; the 
 gentlemen set up South Sea coaches and buy South 
 Sea estates. They neither examine the situation, the 
 nature or quality of the soil, or price of the purchase, 
 only the annual rent and tithe ; for the rest they 
 take all by the lump, and pay forty or fifty years' 
 purchase.'' 
 
 But the Directors were by no means satis- 
 fied with their venture even then. In order 
 to keep their promises they were obliged to 
 exaggerate everything, and by playing upon 
 public credulity endeavour to meet their 
 engagements. They gave out that the next 
 dividend would be 10 per cent., and those 
 who had not invested were thus tempted, 
 while those who had plunged, sought to add 
 to their holdings and to reap thereby more 
 profit. The plan succeeded well enough. A 
 million sterling was quickly netted, and a 
 premium of 400 per cent, was put into the 
 pockets of the Company, and the stock rose 
 by degrees and by official artifice finally to 
 1,000 per cent. 
 
 More Bubbles are Blown. 
 The term "bubbles," which so aptly de- 
 scribes the character of these undertakings, 
 was invented by the public about this time, 
 when so many spurious schemes were set on 
 foot to beguile investors. When Parliament 
 had been prorogued, the Ministry had for- 
 bidden all formation of new companies, and 
 had issued a royal proclamation to that effect, 
 inveighing against any raising of stocks or 
 shares without legal authority. But in the 
 then existing state of the public mind such a 
 prohibition was useless. Every day fresh 
 and, in many cases, ridiculous proposals met 
 with ready acceptance. No doubt many of 
 the associations professed worthy objects, not 
 so much because they were for public benefit 
 as for their own — that is, the benefit of the 
 promoters. This is still the idea in Stock 
 Exchange circles. The trail of the serpent 
 is over them all. The onlv business was 
 
 152 
 
THE SOUTH SEA miEBLE. 
 
 The South Sea Bubble Excitement; A Scene in Change Alley. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 done in gambling. To quote a financial 
 authority of the period, we may add : " The 
 South Sea stock must be allowed the honour 
 to be the gold table, the better sort of these 
 bubbles the silver tables, and the lower sort 
 the farthing tables for the footmen." 
 
 The extraordinary purposes for which these 
 bubbles were originated would astonish all 
 who are not acquainted with them had we 
 space to give them in detail. Yet they were 
 received in good faith, and money was eagerly 
 subscribed. We have seen a list of no less 
 than eighty-six such schemes. In Anderson's 
 "History of Commerce" full information 
 will be found upon all these topics, and the 
 absurdity of some of them is apparent. We 
 take a few at random : — 
 
 " To make salt-water fresh. 
 To make oil from flower seeds. 
 For extracting silver out of lead. 
 For importing jack-asses from Spain, in order to 
 
 obtain a finer breed of mules. 
 For the fattening of hogs. 
 For the supplying the town of Deal with fresh 
 
 water. 
 For a wheel for perpetual motion. 
 For assuring of seamen's wages. 
 For furnishing the city of London with hay and 
 
 straw. " 
 
 One very adventurous and ingenious person 
 actually put' forth a Company entitled "A 
 Company for carrying on an undertaking of 
 great advantage, but nobody to know what 
 it is." The ingenious gentleman referred to 
 opened a small office one morning, stating 
 in his prospectus that he required ;^5oo,ooo 
 in 5,000 shares of ^loo ; ^'2 to be paid on 
 application, the interest to be ^100 per share 
 per annum. Even on these terms so many 
 subscribers came in that in a few hours the 
 adventurer had netted ^2,000, and wisely or 
 unwisely decamped the same night. There 
 is no reason to doubt that had he required 
 ^5 per share on application, he would have 
 obtained it as easily. He was a minnow 
 amongst the South Sea Tritons. Even the 
 Prince of Wales was infected with the pre- 
 vailing epidemic, and lent his name to a 
 Company against the remonstrances of his 
 advisers. Mr. Secretary Craggs, himself 
 deeply involved in the scheme, writes to 
 Earl Stanhope : — 
 
 "Though the Speaker and Walpole wrote to dis- 
 suade the Prince from his being governor of this 
 Copper Company — though they told him he would 
 be prosecuted and mentioned in Parhament, and 
 cry'd in the Alley upon the foot of Onslow's insur- 
 ance, Chetwynde's Bubble, Prince of Wales' Bubble, 
 etc.,— he has already got ^^40,000 by it." 
 
 Again, writing to Pulteney, he says : — . 
 
 " It is impossible to tell you what a rage prevails 
 here for South Sea subscriptions at any price. The 
 crowd of those that possess the redeemable annuities 
 is so great that the Bank, who are obliged to take 
 them in, has been forced to set tables in the streets." 
 
 We need scarcely dwell longer upon the 
 scene. Every one can picture the wild ex- 
 citement. Verses and caricatures became 
 common. We have already noticed the fact 
 that the name " South Sea " was applied to 
 many articles just as "Pickwick" gave his 
 name to a cigar, and Taglioni to wearing 
 apparel, as things were in Duvernay's day 
 a la cachiica, and later still named after the 
 polka. Epigram and satire poured upon the 
 bubbles, which burst almost as soon as they 
 were blown, and worst of all incurred the 
 opposition of the great South Sea Company 
 itself. " That bubble was then full blown,'' 
 as Mr, Mackay remarks ; and Prior says, 
 " I am lost in the South Sea ! The roaring 
 of the waves and the madness of the people 
 are justly put together." Sir Isaac Newton 
 was asked when the bubble would break, and 
 replied that, "with all his calculations, he 
 had never learned to calculate the madness 
 of the people." 
 
 The Beginning of the End. 
 
 The opposition of the South Sea Directors 
 to the smaller fry was imfortunate for their 
 own scheme. Like the rod of the patriarch, 
 they wished to swallow up all the others ; 
 and by directing public attention to the ab- 
 surdities and shortcomings of others, they 
 let some light in upon themselves. Under 
 such circumstances a little rift will speedily 
 be enlarged ; a tiny aperture in an embank- 
 ment of a reservoir will soon let the water 
 forth. This pin-hole let a stream of light 
 and truth in upon the South Sea Bubble, the 
 breath of suspicion was too strong — it broke 
 it ! In August 1720 the mania had reached 
 its culminating point ; the stock stood at 
 1,000. But when it became publicly known 
 that Sir John Blunt, the good Methodist 
 Chairman, who was apparently piety itself, 
 had taken advantage of the public confidence 
 and quietly sold out at an enormous pre- 
 mium, taking with him many of the Directors, 
 then the duped or self-duped investors began 
 to think there was something wrong. The 
 Directors were soon accused of partiality, 
 and the stock began to decline with alarm- 
 ing steadiness. 
 
 Such a state of things could not be allowed 
 to continue, and the Directors were deter- 
 mined to put a stop to such a tendency if 
 they could. A meeting was called, those 
 interested — and who was not ? — sought ad- 
 mittance, the Directors mustered in force, 
 and the Deputy-Governor was put in the 
 chair. Mr, Craggs made a speech, and while 
 advocating union, thanked the Directors for 
 their conduct of affairs ; and a Mr. Broderick 
 declared that the South Sea Corporation had 
 brought peace on earth, and made all people 
 I happy Self-congratulation was the order of 
 
 154 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 the day ; but all the votes of confidence 
 passedfailed to assure the pubhc, now aroused 
 to a sense of danger. Scarcely had the 
 glorious prospects and wondrous goodness 
 in past days been sounded, than the stock of 
 this beneficent Company fell deeper and 
 deeper still to 640, and in twenty-four hours 
 had gone down another 100 per cent., and so 
 on till it stood at 400. 
 
 It is worth remarking that when the Com- 
 pany had been at its highest state of pros- 
 perity the Directors had proposed to merge 
 the East India stock and the Bank of 
 England in their undertaking. The stocks 
 of those corporations rose respectively up to 
 445 and 260. Thus, says a writer, the value of 
 these advanced stocks and that of the South 
 Sea Company equalled five hundred millions 
 sterling, five times the current coin of all 
 Europe, and double the value of all the land 
 in England. Fabulous riches v\^ere promised 
 to stock-holders, and enormous rates of 
 interest were held out to investors. The 
 profits were to be obtained from the exclusive 
 trade and the difference in the interest paid 
 the differences in the price of stock ; the 
 premiums being enormous, etc. These fabu- 
 lous profits are thus touched upon in a 
 contemporary ballad — 
 
 " What need have we of Indian wealth, 
 Or commerce with our neighbours ? 
 Our constitution is in health, 
 And riches crown our labours. 
 
 " Our South Sea ships have golden shrouds, 
 They bring in wealth, 'tis granted, 
 And lodge their treasure in the clouds 
 To hide it till it's wanted." 
 
 Even then the first symptoms of decay were 
 to be noted, and when the shares had touched 
 1000 per cent, the expected reaction set in, 
 and "beggars no longer rode on horse- 
 back." 
 
 The following extract from a letter from 
 Mr. Broderick to Chancellor Middleton will 
 show the pitch to which events had risen in 
 September 1720. Speaking of the arrogance 
 of the Directors of the South Sea Company 
 he says : — 
 
 "Wee made them kings, and they deal with 
 everybody as such ; those whoe submit and subscribe 
 are at their mercy, those whoe doe nott are to be 
 opprest in such manner as shall make what is due to 
 them of little use, . . . while the gaine obtained by 
 fraud and villanous practices is to turn to their ad- 
 vantage. I foresaw this from the beginning, and 
 have as many witnesses of itt as persons as 1 con- 
 verst with, but I owne I thought they would have 
 carried on the cheat somewhat longer. Various are 
 the conjectures why they suffered the cloud to break 
 soe early. . . . Thousands of families will be reduced 
 to beggary ; what the consequences of that will bee 
 time will shew. I know what I thought from the 
 beginning, and feare itt is very near at hand. The 
 consternation is inexpressible, the rage beyond ex- 
 pression, and the case so desperate that I doe nott 
 
 see any plan or scheme so much as thought of pre- 
 venting the blow, soe that I can't pretend to guess att 
 what is next to be done.' ' 
 
 Again he writes, a few days after : — 
 
 ' ' A great many goldsmiths are already gone off, 
 
 and more will daily. I question whether one-third, 
 
 nay one-fourth can stand itt." 
 
 Mr. Broderick was right. Nothing that the 
 Directors could do was able to place the 
 Company up to their former position. As the 
 Chancellor D'Aguesseau had been recalled 
 from his retirement at Fresnes to put the 
 French finances right, so Walpole was re- 
 called from Houghton to steer the ship of 
 State safely out of the South Sea shoals. 
 His advice, which had been scorned and 
 derided in the day ofprosperitybymany, was 
 now eagerly sought. His clear head and busi- 
 ness talents were reckoned upon to pull the 
 dupes out of danger. He was implored to come 
 and make terms with the Bank, and endeavour 
 to induce that corporation to take up a por- 
 tion of the South Sea bonds and circulate 
 them. 
 
 But the Bank did not appear to enter into 
 the negotiation even when Walpole came up 
 in response to the public request. They 
 feared, not unnaturally, that they would be 
 drawn into the vortex with the sinking Com- 
 pany, and overwhelmed with it. Still they 
 found they had no alternative. As the 
 National Institution they must endeavour to 
 save the nation from the effects of its folly, 
 and after a conference with a numerous and 
 influential assembly of merchants the Bank- 
 agreed to circulate a certain amount of the 
 South Sea bonds. 
 
 Next day the dying Company held a large 
 meeting to consider the proposal of their 
 great rival, and authorized any arrangement 
 with the Bank which the Directors thought 
 right to make. It is needless to say that the 
 public anxiety was very great, and general 
 consternation was only slightly abated by the 
 report of these negotiations. 
 
 The Bank Directors sat to receive the news 
 of the result of the Company's meeting, but 
 were informed that no decision had been 
 arrived at. At last it was decided to meet 
 the South Sea Company half way, and 
 to endeavour to make some arrangement for 
 supporting the public credit. An account 
 was opened for a subscription of three 
 millions at 5 per cent, interest and ^15 
 deposit, and it was at first eagerly responded 
 to. But just then the news of John Law's 
 flight and disastrous ending came to England, 
 and panic again set in. The French edict 
 declaring Law's paper money worthless, 
 aggravated the distress ; Hope spread her 
 wings, and the South Sea stock fell faster and 
 faster. A run set in, and the Bank even was- 
 in a quandary. Bankers and others were in 
 difficulties ; they could not stem the current. 
 
 155 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Many were " broke " and fled, and the Sword- 
 Blade Company had to suspend payment. 
 This panic set in on the 28th of September. 
 Fortunately the next day was kept as a 
 holiday in the city, and the Bank of England 
 was able in the interval to make arrange- 
 ments for its own protection. The South 
 Sea Company was abandoned to its fate, the 
 suggested plan was never carried out, for the 
 Bank declined to pursue the scheme. South 
 Sea stock fell to 135 and even lower. But 
 on that Michaelmas Day it reached 175, — 25 
 per cent, discount! The tactics of the Direc- 
 tors had proved abortive. Their offers of 50 
 per cent, dividend had failed to secure a re 
 sponse. The ruin came quickly when the Bank 
 withdrew its support, and the Company, 
 which had a narrow escape of being legalized 
 upon the ist of April, died on the eve of the 
 great " goose" anniversary. 
 
 So many had suffered that it is no easy 
 matter to enumerate the professions of those 
 who were ruined. Clergymen and laity, lords 
 and ladies, were all included. Even Gay the 
 poet, who had had some hundreds given 
 him by Craggs the younger, lost his invest- 
 ment, which had, when he declined to sell it, 
 risen to the value of ^20,000. Although 
 his friends urged him to part with his 
 stock, which, be it remembered, had cost 
 him nothing, he declined. He was begged 
 by Fenton to sell a portion of it, so as to 
 " ensure him a clean shirt and a shoulder of 
 mutton every day ;" but the poet, dreaming of 
 splendour in the future, persisted in retaining 
 his stock, and the result was disastrous. Gay 
 was greatly affected by the calamity, says 
 Johnson in the " Lives of the Poets," and 
 sank so lov/ that his life was endangered. 
 
 •This was a loss, and many thousands had 
 a like fate. But Ministers, including Walpole, 
 who had so persistently abused the South 
 Sea scheme, and yet who were not above 
 dabbling in its stock, "got out" without any 
 loss, and in most cases with immense profits. 
 The people heaped indignant words upon all 
 connected with the Company, and the " very 
 name of a South Sea man grew absolutely 
 abominable in every country." From the 
 Prince of Wales downwards, epithets were 
 heaped upon all connected with it ; but all 
 this time the people, the ordinary stock- 
 holders, who had lost, did not seem to think 
 themselves to blame in the least. They dis- 
 charged their attacks upon those above them, 
 and no one will deny that the Ministry and 
 the Directors of the Company were greatly 
 to blame ; but the British pubhc was angry 
 because they lost, not because the trans- 
 actions were questionable. Had they all 
 come out gainers — though such a thing was 
 impossible — there would have been no uproar, 
 no matter what commercial sins the South 
 Sea Company had been guilty of Swift has 
 
 left on record his impressions of the time in 
 the following verses : — 
 
 ' ' There is a gulf where thousands fell, 
 Here all the bold adventurers came ; 
 A narrow sound, tho' deep as hell — 
 Change Alley is the dreadful name. 
 " Subscribers here by thousands float, 
 And jostle one another down ; 
 Each paddhng in his leaky boat, 
 And here they fish for gold, and drown. 
 " Now buried in the depths below, 
 Now mounted up to heaven again, 
 They reel and stagger to and fro, 
 
 At their wits' end, like drunken men." 
 
 The King had been hastily summoned from 
 Hanover, and he arrived in England in 
 November. Just a year before he had opened 
 Parliament, and had put before the House the 
 question of the public debts ; now he had to 
 arrange or sanction a means of securing the 
 nation from bankruptcy. Parliament was 
 summoned for the 8th of December, and 
 meantime people thought nothing was too 
 bad for the authors of the South Sea scheme. 
 
 The Results of the Gambling. 
 
 There were but very few righteous to be 
 found in the city. It is stated by those who 
 took pains to enumerate the numbers of the 
 highest class in England who did Jtot plunge • 
 into the South Sea Bubble, that Lord Stanhope 
 with the Dukes of Argyll and Roxburgh were 
 the only three. Lord Townsend was generally 
 considered guiltless, while Walpole, Sunder- 
 land, the Duke of Portland, and others made 
 and lost immense sums. Several noblemen 
 were actually reduced to beg colonial appoint- 
 ments. But it was rumoured, and not with- 
 out foundation, that the King and his Ministers 
 — particularly the latter — had made large 
 profits. It is undeniable that bribes of 
 immense amount were distributed in stock 
 by the pious Sir John Blunt and his more 
 worldly associates to ensure the Parliamentary 
 success of the scheme. Walpole, however, at 
 the King's request, undertook to manage the 
 business, and devoted himself to it with 
 success, as will be seen. 
 
 When the King opened Parliament he 
 recommended prudence and care in dealing 
 with the great question before the House, 
 and it was necessary to find a remedy for the 
 great evil which had fallen upon the country 
 in as pacific a spirit as possible. Notwith- 
 standing the common sense of this advice, 
 the debate which ensued was very acrimonious 
 and bitter against the Directors of the South 
 Sea Company. Walpole had spent much 
 time in maturing his proposal, and had suc- 
 ceeded in gaining the consent of the East 
 India Company and the Bank of England to 
 engraft some portion of the dishonoured stock 
 of the " Bubble " on theirs. But the general 
 feeling in the Commons was revenge, and 
 members apparently cared more for the hu- 
 
 156 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 miliation of Stanhope and his colleague 
 Sunderland than for all the schemes for the 
 restoration of the public credit. 
 
 The Scene in the Commons. 
 
 Pulteney moved the address that memo- 
 rable day, and assured His Majesty that the 
 House would approach the subject with all 
 care and due temper, and proceed to apply 
 such remedies as would restore confidence 
 and credit. An amendment was suggested 
 that the address should state, " as far as was 
 consistent with the honour of Parliament, the 
 interest of the nation, and the principles of 
 justice." This amendment of Shippen's was 
 seconded, and a violent debate followed. The 
 Ministers came in for a share of invective, 
 and the Directors of the defaulting Company 
 of course got no quarter. Sir J. Jekyll hinted 
 that some who were not Directors were equally 
 or almost as criminal, and hoped they would be 
 punished. Lord Molesworth was very bitter 
 and excited. He declared that the Directors 
 were truly the parricides of the country ; that 
 as such they should be judged, and, following 
 the Roman precedent, — which decreed the 
 sewing up of parricides in sacks and casting 
 them into the Tiber, — he advocated the like 
 judgment upon the authors of the South Sea 
 scheme, and that they should be thrown into 
 the Thames. In the Parliamentary history 
 of the time these very vehement opinions, 
 shared by many members, will be found in I 
 full. 
 
 Mr. Walpole endeavoured to allay the 
 storm. His idea was to restore the con- 
 fidence of the nation before any measm-es 
 were taken to punish the offenders. If 
 London were set on fire, he urged, we should 
 not waste time in endeavouring to inquire 
 after the incendiaries ; we would first en- a 
 deavour to extinguish the flames. " Public 
 credit had received a dangerous wound, and 
 lay bleeding, and they ought to apply a 
 speedy remedy to it. For my part, I never 
 approved the South Sea scheme ; but since 
 it cannot be undone, it is the duty of all 
 good men to assist in retrieving the mischief. 
 With this view I have already bestowed some 
 thought upon a proposal to restore public 
 credit, which in proper time I will submit to 
 the wisdom of Parliament." The result was 
 the amendment was negatived ; but next day 
 a most revengeful clause was added and 
 carried. On the 12th of December the 
 Directors were ordered to lay a full account 
 of all their proceedings before the House ; 
 and Sir Richard Steele declared that Eng- 
 land — a nation of greater weight and credit 
 than any other in Europe — had been reduced 
 to distress by a few " cyphering cits " — a 
 species of men of equal capacity — the faculty 
 of cheating alone excepted — with the animals 
 which had saved the Roman Capitol ! This 
 
 pleasant little hit was duly appreciated. Mr. 
 Walpole objected to the Directors being 
 thus called up before the House ; but the 
 motion was carried, and the Directors were 
 called upon to account for their proceedings. 
 
 This was on the 12th. On the 14th com- 
 plaint was made of the slow progress made. 
 Next day some documents were forthcoming, 
 and four days afterwards a Select Committee 
 was moved. On the 21st December Walpole 
 introduced his remedy, which proposed to 
 "engraft nine millions of South Sea stock 
 into the Bank of England and a similar sum 
 into the East India Company on certain 
 conditions." The remaining twenty millions 
 were left to the South Sea Directors to 
 account for. A Bill was brought in, and 
 after some opposition was carried, the 
 Directors and all concei-ned in the Company 
 being at the same time prevented from 
 quitting the country. .The Act likewise 
 forbade any transfer, documentary or other- 
 wise, of their estates or other property. 
 These Bills were quickly carried, and the 
 irrepressible Jacobite, Shippen, determined 
 to have a fling at Craggs, the Secretary of 
 State, and, while admitting that it was a 
 good move to restrain the Directors of the 
 Company, said there were other men in high 
 places who were no less guilty ! As he gazed 
 sternly at Mr. Secretary Craggs at the time, 
 that gentleman rose and declared he was 
 willing to give satisfaction to any man if 
 such a remark were intended for him ! A 
 tremendous uproar ensued — Lord Moles- 
 worth joining in the defiance — until Mr. 
 Secretary Craggs condescended to explain 
 that he meant only verbal or documentary 
 "satisfaction" ; and eventually a Committee 
 of thirteen was appointed. The Directors 
 begged to be heard in their own defence, 
 but that was denied them, and the Select 
 Committee proceeded to examine the books 
 and papers of the Company. This body was 
 known as the Committee of Secrecy. 
 
 When these arrangements were perfected, 
 a great excitement was caused by the in- 
 telligence that Knight, the cashier or 
 treasurer of the South Sea Company, had 
 fled, carrying with him some very important 
 documents. He had managed to escape in 
 disguise, and reached Calais in safety. No 
 such commotion had been caused in London 
 for years. The doors of the House were 
 ordered to be locked, and the keys laid 
 upon the table, and if an enemy were at 
 the gates of the city a greater alarm could 
 scarcely have been excited. The House at 
 once voted a petition to the King, to command 
 the arrest of the fugitive, and to ofter a reward 
 for his apprehension. No time was lost, and 
 the same evening the royal proclamation was 
 issued, and the sum of ;^2,ooo was offered 
 for the arrest of Knight. 
 
 157 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 In the House the excitement did not 
 speedily subside. General Ross, one of the 
 Committee, said that " a train of the deepest 
 villainy and fraud that hell ever contrived to 
 ruin a nation" had been discovered. Four 
 members — Directors of the defunct Company 
 — were immediately expelled the House, and 
 summarily arrested, and all their papers were 
 seized. Messengers were sent to the Con- 
 tinent to request the arrest of Knight if he 
 could be found. The "good" Sir John 
 Blunt was summoned to answer for his 
 deeds, but declined to criminate himself upon 
 the ground that he had already answered the 
 questions put by the Committee of Secrecy. 
 He could not be induced to remember any- 
 thing, and was ultimately desired to with- 
 draw. And now arose a very painful 
 debate, which had serious consequences. 
 The young Duke of Wharton, already noto- 
 rious as the leader of the Hell-fire Club, — a 
 young man of brilliant talents and unrivalled 
 profligacy, — rose in the House, and made a 
 most scathing attack upon Earl Stanhope. 
 The latter, with much indignation and excite- 
 ment, denied the charges made against him. 
 The Duke had compared the Earl to Sejanus, 
 whohadsowndissensionin the Imperialfamily, 
 and made the Emperor hateful to his subjects. 
 Such an attack was too great, and the Earl, 
 with much warmth, retorted, reminding the 
 Duke of Brutus, who had sacrificed his worth- 
 less son. The Earl was terribly angry, and 
 was led from the House suffering from a 
 determination of blood to the head. Next 
 day he died ! He was a great loss to the 
 nation, and it is stated that the King regretted 
 him very deeply and sincerely. As for the 
 young Duke, he was much affected, and 
 seldom spoke in the House again. He re- 
 sumed his wild courses, and finally degene- 
 rated to such a level that he was attainted for 
 treason in after life. 
 
 Nemesis. 
 We now have arrived at the last act of the 
 drama, — or tragedy it might be called, for 
 ruined people became desperate, and at least 
 one death is attributable to the South Sea 
 Company. The Secret Committee presented 
 their report to the House of Commons on 
 the 1 6th of February, 1721, at the same time 
 premising that the greatest difficulties had 
 been put in their way. Certainly the Report 
 was calculated to astonish all but those who 
 had been behind the scenes. The manner in 
 which the books of the Company had been 
 kept was, to say the least, curious. No 
 cashier or book-keeper, no manager, could 
 have been ignorant of the nature of the 
 entries unless he was aware of the utter 
 falsity of the whole business. In these days 
 we occasionally hear of "cooked" accounts, 
 of manipulation of moneys and false entries, 
 
 but any modern swindling in these respects — 
 at least any that comes to light, for are we 
 not improving in everything, even in fraud ? — 
 have not shown the barefaced contempt for 
 the public that the South Sea Company dis- 
 played. False and fictitious entries were 
 plenty. In many cases large sums of money 
 had been entered to the credit of blanks ! 
 The names were known but not entered, so 
 no claim could be made against the indi- 
 viduals in the event of collapse. Leaves 
 were wanting, books and documents were 
 missing, erasures and alterations were fre- 
 quent. Entries of fictitious allotments had 
 been made to facilitate the Bill in the first 
 instance, and entries of sales at absurd and 
 entirely false and imaginary prices, showed 
 by what means the Company had been 
 floated in the first instance. These were 
 some of the facts and transactions brought 
 to light. 
 
 The Committee had, however, by strict 
 cross-examination, unearthed these facts. 
 The officials were rigidly questioned. It was 
 discovered that the Directors held stock for 
 imaginary purchasers, and had actually dis- 
 posed of scrip to the amount of one million 
 two hundred thousand pounds, to be held for 
 intending purchasers. But these people 
 never appeared, and had made no deposits 
 on account, nor given any other security. 
 The reason of this was apparent. If the 
 scheme succeeded the people thus interested 
 would claim their holdings, for it was quite 
 understood that certain blanks represented 
 certain grand personages. If, on the con- 
 trary, the Company came to a sudden end, 
 these persons had nothing to fear. It was a 
 case of " Heads I win, tails you lose" ! The 
 manipulation of this amount of stock had 
 been placed in the hands of the "good" Sir 
 John Blunt, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Chester, Mr. 
 Holditch, and the wily cashier Knight, who 
 had been apprehended near Liege by the 
 British Minister at Brussels, and placed for 
 safety in the castle at Antwerp. We may 
 add that negotiations for his surrender were 
 proceeding, when the object of so much soli- 
 citude escaped from custody, and put an end 
 to the controversy. 
 
 But the Committee found plenty to occupy 
 them in London. Of the sums placed to the 
 credit of certain persons to induce them to 
 carry the Bill through Parhament, we find 
 the following amount of stock : — 
 
 To the Earl of Sunderland, at the request 
 
 of Mr Craggs . . . . . ^^50,000 
 
 To the Duchess of Kendal (mistress of 
 
 George I.) 10,000 
 
 To the Countess of Platin (a lady of equal 
 
 standing) 10,000 
 
 To the two nieces of the Countess . . 10,000 
 To Mr. Craggs (senior) .... 30,000 
 To Mr. Charles Stanhope, Secretary to 
 
 the Treasury 10,000 
 
 158 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 This gentleman had also received the further 
 sum of £z%o,ooo in "differences" through 
 the Brokers, in whose books his name had 
 been altered to Stangape. It also came out 
 that Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, had had dealings in South Sea 
 stock to the aggregate amount of ^754,450, 
 and had advised certain subscriptions with- 
 out any legal reason, and in defiance of 
 warrant. " That on the third subscription 
 Aislabie's list amounted to ^70,000, Sunder- 
 land's to ;£i6o,ooo, Craggs' to ^659,000, and 
 Stanhope's to ^47,000, and that in the 
 pawned stock which had been sold, there 
 was by means of Mr. Knight a deficiency of 
 ;^4oo,ooo.* After 
 this sensational 
 report there were 
 several others 
 issued, but 
 through the 
 absence of 
 documents, and 
 particularly of 
 one of the 
 chief offenders, 
 Knight, the 
 Committee were 
 unable to clear 
 matters up as 
 fully as was 
 desirable. 
 
 The Fate of the 
 Directors. 
 
 The report 
 was laid before 
 the House, and 
 even as it was 
 being read to 
 the indignant 
 and revengeful 
 members assem- 
 bled, secretary 
 James Craggs, 
 one of the most 
 
 implicatedin- George i. 
 
 dividuals, died 
 of small-pox, and 
 celerated his end. 
 
 anxiety no doubt ac- 
 The father of the de- 
 ceased Minister, who held the appointment 
 of Postmaster-General, was so affected by 
 the disclosures that he took poison. Mean-. 
 while a Bill passed through Parliament for 
 the relief of those who had suffered, and the 
 Directors were condemned to make good, as 
 far as their means went, the loss occasioned 
 to the public. No doubt this was just in a 
 certain sense ; but there must have been many 
 individuals not connected with the Company, 
 except as brokers and "jobbers," who made 
 large fortunes, but were never called upon to 
 
 Pictorial History of England.' 
 
 make good the losses incurred. Punishment 
 to be deterrent should fall ahke upon all the 
 parties concerned. The public were deluded, 
 it is true, but they were also warned fully and 
 repeatedly that the Company was not all that 
 fancy painted it. It was right that the 
 swindle should be exposed, the swindlers 
 punished, and their gains taken from them. 
 Still we doubt whether they should have 
 been prosecuted and made to disburse the 
 estates and money they had possessed before 
 the South Sea scheme was initiated. 
 
 But the losers of course thought otherwise, 
 and Mr. Charles Stanhope was first brought 
 to the bar of public opinion. He pleaded 
 
 non-responsi- 
 bihty, and threw 
 the blame upon 
 his brokers and 
 Mr. Knight. He 
 had paid for his 
 stock, and as to 
 that unfortunate 
 change of name 
 in the broker's 
 books he was 
 quite ignorant of 
 it. It was pretty 
 evident that the 
 name in the 
 books had been 
 altered from 
 Stanhope, and 
 things would 
 have gone very 
 badly with Mr. 
 Stanhope had 
 not his relatives 
 made all the in- 
 terest possible. 
 By the exertions 
 made, and in 
 consideration 
 for his lately 
 deceased uncle. 
 Lord Stanhope, 
 who, it will be 
 remembered, 
 had died after his passage of arms with the 
 Duke of Wharton, the accused was acquitted 
 by a narrow majority of three. There could 
 be no moral doubt ofhisliabiHty, and popular 
 discontent ran very high. The mob was very 
 indignant, and riots were anticipated. 
 
 The most important criminal was next 
 arraigned. Mr. Aislabie, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, a prominent statesmen, was ac- 
 cused of encouraging the South Sea Company 
 in its extravagant and illegal proceedings for 
 his own benefit, and had conspired with 
 others to that end. His guilt was patent. 
 No one cared to defend him. After a debate 
 in which he found little favour, he was de- 
 clared guilty, and ordered to be expelled the 
 
 159 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 House of Commons. He was at once com- 
 mitted to the Tower and ordered to render 
 an account of his estate, so that it might be 
 appHed for the benefit of the sufferers. There 
 was no excuse for him. A person in such an 
 important office should have been above 
 using the influence he possessed for the ruin 
 or deception of the pubhc whose financial 
 position he should have secured. The general 
 satisfaction with which the late Chancellor's 
 sentence was received indicated pretty plainly 
 in what direction the feelings of the multitude 
 were tending. Bonfires were lighted on Tower 
 Hill, and the populace danced round the 
 flames like so many demons rejoicing over 
 the condemnation of a soul. The delightful 
 intelligence that Sir G. Coswell, the head of 
 the firm of brokers Coswell, Tamon, and Co., 
 had also been expelled the House and sent to 
 the Tower, was the signal ■ for renewed accla- 
 mation and rejoicing. 
 
 The Earl of Sunderland's was the next case 
 examined, but there was no direct evidence 
 to compromise him. He was declared to 
 have been rather a dupe than a knave, a tool 
 of the Directors,* and it was stated that he 
 lost large sums in the Company. He was 
 acquitted by a majority of sixty-one, but the 
 people refused to believe in his innocence. 
 Scenes similar to those which had greeted 
 the Stanhope judgment took place, and all 
 London was in a ferment. Mr. Craggs died 
 at this time, as already mentioned, and, some 
 say, by poison. 
 
 But although the public mind and the 
 Commons House had dealt rigorously with 
 some of the delinquents in high places, the 
 verdicts and sentences pronounced upon them 
 fell far short of the decisions promulgated 
 against the Directors of the South Sea Com- 
 pany. Nothing was too bad for them ; while 
 the Court favourites who had prospered, the 
 grand ladies and the favourites of the King, 
 were permitted to retain all they had grasped, 
 the Directors were trampled ruthlessly 
 underfoot. These "monsters of pride and 
 covetousness," the " Cannibals of Change 
 Alley," these traitors to their country, were 
 persecuted, not prosecuted. Legal forms 
 were not strictly followed. Their estates 
 were confiscated, and many of them were 
 reduced to far greater straits than they had 
 ever been, and made poorer than when they 
 had begun. " Several of the Directors," says 
 Macpherson, " were so far innocent as to be 
 found poorer at the breaking up of the scheme 
 
 * Mr. Broderick to Lord Middleton. 
 
 than when it began." No distinction was 
 made — all were adjudged to be equally guilty, 
 and a general confiscation took place. A list 
 is on record of the sums allowed. 
 
 In an old H istory of London we find the 
 particulars. Out of his fortune, stated to be 
 ^183,000, Sir John Blunt, the Chairman, 
 obtained only ^5,000. In such proportions 
 were the awards made — Sir John Fellows got 
 ^10,000, Sir John Lambert ^5,000, out of 
 fortunes estimated at ^243,000 and £jopoo 
 respectively ; Gibbon, the grandfather of the 
 historian, was likewise allowed ^10,000 out 
 of ^106,000 — such was the violence of the 
 proceedings and the arbitrary manner in 
 which the cases were treated. 
 
 The Earl of Sunderland resigned the 
 Premiership, and was quickly succeeded by 
 Walpole,onthe 2nd April, 1721, one year from 
 the passing of the South Sea Bill ; and for 
 more than twenty years this great statesman 
 retained his long-desired position at the 
 head of affairs. But the nation now looked 
 to him to restore public credit, and his first 
 care was directed to that object. In the 
 address to the monarch the evils and the 
 remedy were pointed out, and the resolutions 
 to re-establish credit which had already 
 passed the House were incorporated in a 
 Bill. The whole stock of the South Sea 
 Company was put down as ^37,800,000. 
 When the reading of the Bill was proceeding 
 the proprietors of the redeemable funds 
 claimed that they should not be condemned 
 to lose a penny, and an uproar was excited 
 so great that constables had to interfere. 
 The Riot Act was read, and many individuals 
 arrested, who cried out, " You first pick our 
 pockets and then send us to gaol for com- 
 plaining." The result of Walpole's measure 
 was that the proprietors obtained a dividend 
 of something over 33 per cent. The charge 
 has been brought against Walpole that he 
 concluded a collusive bargain with the 
 Bank of England, and made a good thing 
 out of the transaction ; but the accusation 
 was never supported. 
 
 So the great and extraordinary excitement 
 ended. Thousands were ruined, and a few 
 were enriched. Subsequent panics seemed 
 to show that the public had by no means lost 
 its craving for riches. But into these specu- 
 lations it is not our purpose to enter. We 
 have stated facts as we have collected them, 
 and we close our paper wishing 
 " Peace to the Manes of the Bubble." 
 
 H. F. 
 
 160 
 
CORNHILL AND LOMBARD STREET IN THE EIGHTEENTH CeNTURY. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" 
 
 CRY: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE GORDON RIOTS. 
 
 *' Toleration is a late ripe fruit in the best climates."— BuRKE. 
 
 A Vast Meeting in St. George s Fields-Lord George Gordon-Other " Trojans "-Catholic Relief Bill, 1778-The London 
 Protestant Association-Coachmaker s Hall-The Mob in Palace Yard ; Their Behaviour-Peers and Bishops 
 Assaulted-Scenes in the Commons-Gordon Threatened- Friday Night-Chapels Attacked-Saturday's Grim 
 Repose-Probable Influence of the Weather-Sunday-Riot in Moorftelds-Monday-Three Divisions of the 
 Mob-Savile House Gutted-Edniund Burke the Statesman-Tuesday-Scenes at the House-" Jemmy Twitcher" 
 W l'' w^^° .'"'^^''v^"?."'''/^'^ P^-'"'' ^">'^ Barnaby Rudge-Burning of Mansfield's House-Clerkenwell Prison- 
 Black Wednesday-Fhght of Catholics-Dr. Johnson's Stroll-Langdale's Distillery Burned-The Prisons Fired- 
 Attacks on the Bank— London under Martial Law— Edward Dennis alias Jack Ketch-Thursday-After the 
 Carnival — I rial of Lord George Gordon. ^ 
 
 Protestant Mob ; Saint George's 
 Fields. 
 HE threatening aspect of the sky on 
 the 1st day of June, 1780, bursting 
 forth into loud thunder claps and 
 bright hghtning flashes in the evening, 
 augured badly for the weather of the next day, 
 and thousands in the squares and purlieus 
 
 16 
 
 of London, looking out of their windows 
 into the night, or cosily sheltered in the ale- 
 houses from the north-east wind, had reason 
 to fear that Lord George would not have so 
 large a muster of patriots on the morrow as 
 his "glorious cause" deserved. But in the 
 night the strong wind fell to a soft whisper 
 from the south-east, and the sun rose in the 
 I M 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 heavens as he ought to do in the heart of 
 summer, beating bright and hot on the roof- 
 tops and on the great dome of St. Paul's 
 cathedral. The city and its suburbs were 
 astir betimes; and in the early morning groups 
 of men and lads, with a sprinkling of women, 
 in holiday costume, from the rope factories 
 of Wapping, from riotous, silk-weaving 
 Spitalfields, from golden Clerkenwell, from 
 boisterous Moorfields, from dingy courts and 
 alleys, might be seen streaming over London 
 Bridge, through the toll-gates of Blackfriars, 
 and over the Bridge of Westminster. By 
 the hour of ten a vast sea of human heads, 
 the hat on each adorned with a blue cockade, 
 covered the large space of open ground 
 known as St. George's Fields, on the Surrey 
 side of the river Thames. This was the spot 
 where the holidayers from the lowest ranks 
 of London were accustomed to revel in the 
 " Dog and Duck" gardens, the haunt of the 
 vilest scum of Southwark and the city ; and 
 not a man, woman, or child that day but 
 remembered or heard of the massacre that 
 had taken place there twelve years before, 
 when John Wilkes, now chamberlain of 
 this same metropolis, was led before the 
 King's Bench upon a charge of treason. 
 
 The sight impresses us with the vastness 
 of London, now grown so huge that the 
 "breed of chairs" had almost died out, and 
 old men shook their heads in melancholy 
 surprise as they looked on squares and streets 
 of brick, where in their early days they had 
 seen cows feeding peacefully. But why this 
 huge assemblage, reaching perhaps to the 
 number of one hundred thousand souls ? Is 
 it only some festal day ? Or is it that London, 
 the beating heart of England, has been 
 driven into fever heat by the ruinous waste 
 of money in battling with the fleets of France 
 and Spain, or maddened by the sacrifice of 
 millions of pounds and thousands of brave 
 Britons beyond the broad Atlantic, or is 
 eager to express its sympathy with the 
 citizens of England's great American colony 
 in their determined struggle for indepen- 
 dence ? 
 
 No : there is no spirit at work so patriotic 
 and so noble. The air is rent with shouts of 
 " No Popery ! " and banners, with the same 
 inscription are floating languidly over the 
 heads of the assembled thousands, who 
 parade the Fields and marshal into four 
 divisions, — the London, the Westminster, the 
 Southwark, and the Scotch, — waiting impati- 
 ently for the arrival of the hero of the day. 
 From portions of the vast host there rises the 
 melody of sacred songs, while across the 
 Fields there also shrieks the wild and stirring 
 music of the Scottish bagpipe. At eleven 
 o'clock, just one hour after the time fixed for 
 meeting, the news spreads like wildfire from 
 end to end of the expectant host that Lord 
 
 George Gordon, the young champion of the 
 Protestants, has reached the ground. 
 
 This important idol of the hour is a man 
 of nearly thirty, of feminine appearance, with 
 the air and manners of a Methodist, a sinister 
 cast in his eyes that betokened either knave 
 or madman, and long lank hair falling on his 
 shoulders. He has already given orders to 
 the various divisions as to the line of march, 
 and is making his last speech on the spot 
 where, according to tradition, now stands 
 the great Catholic cathedral of St. George, 
 when a gentleman, who was one of his 
 supporters, drives up furiously, leaps from 
 a carriage, and hurries with difficulty to the 
 ring, anxiously informing the hero that the 
 keeper of the Guildhall of Westminster 
 dreaded the outbreak of a riot if more than 
 thirty or forty persons marched to the House 
 of Commons with his Lordship with the 
 Protestant petition. The hero calmed him 
 with the pleasant news that he meant to go 
 alone, and that the glorious petition was to 
 follow him to the lobby of the House, there 
 to wait till he received it and laid it before 
 his honourable fellow-members. In a fainting 
 condition his Lordship enters a coach by the 
 favour of its lady owner ; and as a knot of 
 forty men press around, eager to accompany 
 their leader, he calls out, " No, by no means ; 
 I shall be greatly obliged to you, gentlemen, 
 if you will go back." 
 
 Meanwhile sober Thomas Evans drove to 
 the other end of the field, where the crowds 
 stood in marching order, six in a row, with 
 their faces turned towards the city. He 
 asked what they meant to do. " To march 
 to the city ! " was the answer ; but they 
 assured him of their determination to make 
 no riot. When the quiet citizens at home 
 looked out from the windows or from the 
 roofs as these miles of human beings tramped 
 in perfect order and " great decorum " along 
 their respective routes over the three bridges, 
 there were few or none who dreamed that in 
 a few days flames and smoke would be 
 darting and rolling upwards on every hand 
 into the sky that hung so bright above, — the 
 Government of the mightiest nation of the 
 world be shaken into helpless terror, — and 
 the metropolis itself be threatened with as 
 complete a destruction as when the Plague 
 had raged a century before. 
 
 " What ! " wrote Samuel Romilly, then a 
 student of Gray's Inn, "summon 40,000 
 fanatics to meet together, and expect them 
 to be orderly ! What is it but to invite 
 hungry wretches to a banquet, and at the 
 same time enjoin them not to eat?" And 
 what, pray, is the meaning of those hand- 
 bills that have been circulated industriously 
 through the crowds, stating that as it was 
 suspected that Papists intended to mingle 
 in disguise among them for the purpose of 
 
 162 
 
WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" CRY. 
 
 raising riots, the Protestants should not 
 return their violence or insults, but calmly- 
 hand them over to the constables ? Did not 
 the wearing of a badge tend to intimidation 
 and disorder ? What do those thousands of 
 well-dressed tradesmen, lingering in the 
 Fields after the vaster multitudes have 
 marched away, know or care about the Pro- 
 testant religion ? Their idea was a sweeping 
 one, — that " a stop was to be put to public 
 preaching and public teaching ! " It is 
 significant, too, that a little after the hour 
 of noon a group of drunken men, not only 
 furnished with the blue cockade as an emblem 
 of determined Protestantism, but armed with 
 great bludgeons, is seen standing on London 
 Bridge, one of the inebriates brandishing 
 his club and swearing that it was " all their 
 association." 
 
 Catholic Relief Bill of 1778. 
 England had been weighted with heavy- 
 sorrows during the past few years ; the 
 country had been throwing away millions 
 on millions in a struggle with her own 
 American daughter, — millions that had more 
 wisely been tossed into the maw of the 
 Atlantic ; and George III. and his drowsy 
 undertakers were butting their heads against 
 the gates of Gaza to the tune of the sarcastic 
 eloquence of an Opposition that embraced 
 some of the most conspicuous orators of 
 our country, — Burke and Fox, Dunning and 
 Savile. It was a battle of demigods. The 
 cause of popular rights was taking mighty 
 strides ; England was stirred with a trumpet 
 blast calling for annual parliaments and 
 universal suffrage. In the midst of these 
 terrible alarms a bill was introduced into 
 the Commons by a sound Protestant and 
 noble statesman, Sir George Savile, towards 
 the close of the session, in May 1778, and 
 hurried through both Houses with pleasant 
 compliments, not so much as a comfit 
 or comfort to Catholics, as an honest 
 clearance of a scandal from the statute- 
 book of England. It was accounted a very 
 little thing. The "relief" simply consisted 
 in sweeping away enactments then totally 
 unnecessary or "at all times a disgrace 
 to humanity," — statutes of the reign of 
 William III., which forbade a Romish 
 priest from officiating or teaching under 
 pain of treason ; gave to the nearest Pro- 
 testant heir the right of seizing the posses- 
 sions of his father and brother and other 
 Catholic kinsmen during their lifetime ; and 
 prevented Papists from acquiring property 
 in England. " The lowest and basest of 
 mankind," the informing constable, could 
 compel an English magistrate to inflict on 
 priests all the shameful penalties of this 
 "wicked and absurd" bill, which had 
 originated in the worst days of political 
 
 faction, and found a place in our code of 
 laws, not from any malice against Catholics 
 themselves, but merely as a shuttlecock in 
 the struggle of political parties. Unhappily 
 these Draconic statutes were not suffered 
 to lie dead. Every person of that com- 
 munion was obliged to fly from the face 
 of day ; the clergy skulked in the garrets 
 of private houses, or sheltered themselves 
 under the wing of foreign ministers. " The 
 whole body of the CathoHcs," said Burke, 
 "condemned to beggary and to ignorance 
 in their native land, have been obliged to 
 learn the principles of letters from the charity 
 of your enemies." 
 
 What the cause of Protestant intolerance 
 lacked in numbers within the walls of St. 
 Stephen's was made up for by the persistence 
 of Lord George Gordon, a scion of the " Mad 
 Gordons " of Huntly, who sat as member for 
 the pocket borough of Ludgershall, and was 
 the most perfect bore ever privileged to assist 
 in the legislature of Great Britain. In spite 
 of the fact that he was only the laughing- 
 stock of members, who jested about his 
 uniting Popery and small beer, and even told 
 him (it may be read in Hansard) he had " a 
 twist in his head, a certain whirligig which 
 ran away with him, if anything relative to 
 religion was mentioned," he was elected 
 President of the London Protestant Associa- 
 tion, which now awoke from its lethargic 
 state. Never was there made a more foolish 
 choice. 
 
 The Protestant Association ; Meeting 
 
 IN COACHMAKERS' HALL. 
 
 Zealous meetings were held at St. Margaret's 
 Hill, at Greenwood's Rooms, at the "Old 
 Crown and Rolls " in Chancery Lane, and 
 the " London Tavern;" a furious "appeal" 
 was put forth, stamped with the very spirit of 
 Popery, parading the terrible consequences 
 that would follow from the opulence of 
 Catholics, and defining toleration with the 
 absurdest bigotry as the "allowing every 
 man to profess his own faith if not evidently 
 repugnant to the Holy Scriptures " ! Finally, 
 advertisements and handbills summoned " all 
 the true Protestants of Great Britain and of 
 civil and religious liberty" to rally round 
 " the glorious cause " before it was too late, 
 and invited those of London and its environs 
 to sign the Protestant Petition which lay at 
 the chairman's house in Welbeck Street 
 every morning till twelve o'clock. 
 
 By these means no less than 40,000 signa- 
 tures were placed on the immense volume of 
 parchment, but they included no " more than 
 one archdeacon, reprobated in this by all his 
 brethren, and a few, veiy few, of the inferior 
 clergy ; " while the rest, to quote a pamphlet 
 aitn grano sails, were " taken from the dregs 
 of the populace . . . from the fanatic followers 
 
 163 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of Wesley and others like him, and from the 
 scum of the Scotch fanatics, whom that nation 
 has thrown out in such numbers upon this 
 country. Nay, the very women and children 
 have been called in to swell the number of 
 deluded wretches, who could not even write 
 their names, and who, consequently, must 
 have been ignorant of the purport or meaning 
 of the instrument they were prevailed on to 
 sign with their marks." 
 
 The match now only needed to be put to the 
 big gun. On the evening of May 29th, 1780, 
 a meeting was held in Coachmaker's Hall, 
 where Lord George launched forth into an 
 harangue of the most fiery nature, and was 
 received with rapturous cheers. If they 
 meant to spend their time in mock debate, 
 they might get another leader ; the Scotch 
 had succeeded by 
 their firmness and 
 unanimity ; he rallied 
 his timid supporters 
 with being opposed to 
 " going up with the 
 petition." From all 
 parts of the hall there 
 rose the shout of "No, 
 my lord ! " He him- 
 self would go to the 
 gallows for the cause ; 
 but unless 20,000 men 
 met him at S t. George's 
 Fields on the follow- 
 ing Friday to support 
 him by their presence, 
 he declared his deter- 
 mination not to pre- 
 sent the petition to 
 the House. It was 
 suggested by some 
 moderate adherents of 
 the Association that 
 the people might take 
 to drinking so early in 
 the day ; but the chair- 
 man haughtily protested that the Associators 
 were " not a drunken people." 
 
 The Mob in Palace Yard. 
 
 By the hour of half-past two on Friday 
 the 2nd of June the several divisions from St. 
 George's Fields had crossed the Thames, 
 and the large opening between the Parlia- 
 ment House and Westminster, all the avenues 
 of the House and the adjoining streets, 
 swarmed with " blue cockades." Cries of 
 "No Popery!" "A Repeal!" were franti- 
 cally shouted from thousands of lusty lungs. 
 
 The crowd, eager as they might be to have 
 a peep at the interior of the House of Lords 
 and the splendid tapestry representing the 
 defeat of the Armada, were diligently repulsed 
 from the door by the Black Rod. Not the 
 Commons, but the Peers, who as yet had no 
 
 more to do with the petition than the man in 
 the moon, were the special target for the 
 hisses, groans, and assaults of the mob. As 
 the coaches passed, blue banners waved from 
 the tops of houses in Whitehall to guide the 
 cheers, or groans and kicks, of the crowd 
 below. Neither age, nor service, nor sacred 
 dress shielded any one from the fury of the 
 surging mass. 
 
 Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of England, 
 who had been almost murdered in the Wilkes 
 riots, had his carriage windows broken, the 
 panels beaten in, his robes torn, his wig dis- 
 hevelled, his face pelted with mud, and was 
 only rescued, it is said, by the Archbishop of 
 York, who rushed down the stairs and gal- 
 lantly carried him off " in Abraham's bosom," 
 Lord Stormont, after drifting for half an hour 
 in the clutches of the 
 
 Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. 
 
 mob, appeared in the 
 solemn assembly to 
 tell howthe miscreants 
 had leaped on the 
 wheels and box of his 
 carriage, broken it in 
 pieces, and taken "the 
 most impudent liber- 
 ties " with his person. 
 Although there were 
 constantly new arri- 
 vals, each in worse 
 plight than his prede- 
 cessors, the House 
 was thin, owing to the 
 fact that some of the 
 peers, such as Lord 
 Sandwich, thinking 
 discretion the better 
 part of valour, had 
 returned home till the 
 tempest was over. 
 The bolder spirits who 
 ventured into the rag- 
 ingthrong met with the 
 most disgraceful treat- 
 ment, some however escaping with no greater 
 loss than that of wig and bag. The Duke of 
 Northumberland, accompanied by a gentle- 
 man dressed in black, who was yelled at as 
 his Jesuit confessor, was forced from his 
 carriage, and after emerging from the jostle 
 of the " pious ragamuffins," found his watch 
 and snufi"-box gone. Lord Bathurst, the 
 venerable President of the Council, after 
 being pushed about rudely and kicked in the 
 legs, was pulled in by the attendants of the 
 House from the clutches of the miscreants. 
 The Bishop of Rochester, at first mistaken for 
 the Archbishop of York, suffered the severe 
 indignities intended for that worthy gentle- 
 man. The Bishop of Lichfield also made his 
 appearance with his gown in tatters. But 
 worse than all these misfortunes was the de- 
 termined outrage on the Bishop of Lincoln, 
 
 164 
 
WHAT CAME OF A ''NO POPERY'' CRY. 
 
 brother of Lord Chancellor Thurlow. When 
 his carriage was stopped, the bishop stormed 
 at the insult ; whereupon the fanatics pulled 
 him out, struck him in the face with his wig, 
 and throttled him till the blood spouted from 
 his lips. The wheels were torn trom his 
 carriage ; he was rescued in a fainting state, 
 and hastily conducted into an attorney's 
 house near by, in Palace Yard, pursued by 
 the infuriated mob. 
 
 The House of Peers, during the whole 
 period of its existence and in the stormiest 
 days of political excitement, probably never 
 exhibited such a pitably grotesque appear- 
 ance as in the first few hours of these sense- 
 less riots. " Some of their Lordships with 
 their hair about their shoulders ; others 
 smutted with dirt ; 
 most of them as pale 
 as the ghost in Ham- 
 let, and all of them 
 standing up in their 
 several places and 
 speaking at the same 
 time." Mansfield 
 trembled on the wool- 
 sack like an aspen 
 leaf. The blame 
 was thrown, and just- 
 ly, upon a Ministry 
 that truckled to the 
 rioters of Scotland 
 by " scandalous and 
 cowardly conces- 
 sions," and now suf- 
 fered a wild rabble to 
 act at large in the 
 freedom of their own 
 will without any civil 
 or military power to 
 confront them. It 
 appears that an order 
 for the preservation 
 of the peace, placed 
 in the hands of North 
 by the Cabinet, in consequence of the boast 
 of Gordon on the previous day that he would 
 bring his legions with him, was simply for- 
 gotten by the drowsy Premier. 
 
 Mansfield now empowered the justices, two 
 of whom were present and were summoned 
 to the bar, to disperse the mob if possible, 
 but only a hundred constables could be 
 found. For the space of four hours the doors 
 were locked, but in the uproar, which waxed 
 louder and louder, all transaction of business 
 was futile, save that which decided upon an 
 adjournment till the following day. The 
 peers who had commenced the day with the 
 courage of Roman senators, now departed in 
 pusillanimous haste, on the principle oisauve 
 qui pent, leaving the venerable Mansfield in 
 the House alone. The Earl remained for 
 two hours in his private room, meditating 
 
 General Conway. 
 
 165 
 
 over a cup of tea on the folly of the " mad 
 Gordon," the bigotry of his fellow Scotsmen, 
 and the pig-headed ignorance of the most 
 ignorant of all mobs, that of London scum ; 
 and thereafter the great and wise Chief 
 Justice drove away in peace to his mansion 
 in Bloomsbury Square. 
 
 Scenes in the Commons ; Gordon Talks 
 TO THE Mob. 
 Lord George was followed to the doors of 
 Parliament by the small Westminster column, 
 which had the honour of bearing the immense 
 roll of parchment, almost as much as one 
 stout Protestant could carry on his head, and 
 the triumphant bundle was in the first in- 
 stance deposited in the lobby. There it had 
 a sufficient body- 
 guard, for the blue 
 cockades closely 
 blocked the passage 
 up to the very door, 
 incessantly assailing 
 the ears of the House 
 by chiming the name 
 of Lord George Gor- 
 don, and shouting 
 with all their might 
 " A repeal, A repeal ! 
 No Popery, No 
 Popery ! " The at- 
 tacks on members, 
 however, were com- 
 paratively slight. 
 "All their religion," 
 said Horace Wal- 
 pole, in his cynical 
 humour, " consisted 
 in outrage and plun- 
 der ; for. . . General 
 Grant, Mr. Macken- 
 zie, and others had 
 their pockets picked 
 of their watches and 
 snuff-boxes." The 
 worst mishap was that of Mr. Wellbore 
 Ellis, who was pursued into the Guildhall, 
 the windows of which were then broken and 
 the doors forced, the gallant member finally 
 escaping from the window by a ladder, after 
 a stout defence with broomsticks by the 
 keeper and the constables. No members, it 
 is said, were allowed to pass through the 
 lobby without repeating the cry of " No 
 Popery," accepting a blue cockade, and 
 promising to vote for the repeal. To Gibbon, 
 the historian, who sat as member for Lis- 
 keard, and held the pleasant sinecure of a 
 Lord Commissioner of Trade, it was " the 
 old story of religion," and the tumultuous 
 crowds appeared to him as " forty thousand 
 Puritans, such as they might be in the time 
 of Cromwell, started out of (heir graves." 
 When the Speaker had taken his seat upon 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the gilt chair with the mace before him, and 
 the clerks were placed in order at the table, 
 it could hardly be expected that Lord North, 
 the easy, corpulent Premier, dressed as usual 
 with powdered wig and in his court robes, 
 over which lay the blue ribbon of the Order 
 of the Garter, and the other members who 
 had courageously attended, should sit in 
 silence upon the morocco cushions, and lean 
 peacefully on the low backs of the benches. 
 " It would be impossible," says a contem- 
 porary record, " to describe the astonishment, 
 sense of degradation, horror, and dismay 
 which prevailed." On that memorable day 
 two attempts were made to force the door, 
 which was locked for four hours. 
 
 When "some degree of order"was obtained, 
 the Protestant champion, seconded by Mr. 
 Alderman Bull, was permitted by the House 
 to introduce the petition, signed, as he de- 
 clared, by nearly 120,000 Protestant subjects, 
 " praying the repeal of the Act of last session 
 in favour of the Catholics." The gigantic 
 document then made its appearance in its 
 own impressive person in that august as- 
 sembly. His Lordship moved that it be 
 taken into immediate consideration, and was 
 again supported by his henchman of true 
 British name. During the progress of a most 
 violent debate, in which it was contested that 
 this motion was contrary to all established 
 forms of procedure, the foolish "Jack of 
 Leyden " kept up a constant fire of inter- 
 course with his adherents in the lobby, in- 
 decently running every minute to the door 
 or windows and bawling to the populace. 
 He certainly, wittingly or unwittingly, " did 
 everything in his power to promote a massa- 
 cre," by holding out some of the most con- 
 spicuous statesmen "as obnoxious persons 
 and enemies to a lawless and desperate 
 banditti." He shouted at the door or from 
 the gallery that overlooked the lobby : — " I 
 shall come out and let you know what is 
 going on in the House ! " When the crowd 
 pressed violently on the doorkeeper, who 
 exclaimed, " For God's sake, gentlemen, keep 
 from the door," he simply said, " Pray, gentle- 
 men, make what room you can ; your cause 
 is good, and you have nothing to fear." He 
 denounced Burke to them. In another of his 
 irritating confidences he marked out the 
 Speaker as having uttered the slander that 
 they had all come there under pretence of 
 religion ; again he told them that " Mr. Rous 
 has just moved that the civil power be sent 
 for," cheering them with the counsel, " But 
 don't you mind ; keep yourselves cool ; be 
 steady." Within the House he actually in- 
 sulted the Premier with a threat that he could 
 have him torn to pieces, and pointed him out 
 for the indignation of the populace by shout- 
 ing, " Lord North calls you a mob." " Gentle- 
 men," said the reckless orator in his insinuating 
 
 conversational style, standing within the walls 
 of St. Stephen's, the sacred and time-honoured 
 seat of England's prudent legislature,—" gen- 
 tlemen, the alarm has gone forth for ten miles 
 round the city. You have got a very good 
 prince, who, as soon as he shall hear the 
 alarm has seized such a number of men, will 
 no doubt send down private orders to his 
 ministers to enforce the prayer of your 
 petition. The Scotch had no redress till 
 they pulled down the mass-houses, and why 
 should they be better off than you ? " 
 
 Expostulations were addressed in vain to 
 such a maniac. When General Grant came 
 behind him and endeavoured to pull him back 
 into the House, exclaiming, "For God's sake. 
 Lord George, do not lead these poor people 
 into danger," he only made that forcible 
 appeal the basis of another maddening sally : 
 " You see in this effort to persuade me from 
 my duty, before your eyes, an instance of the 
 difficulties I have to encounter from such 
 wise men of the world as my honourable 
 friend behind my back." 
 
 Some of the hotter members even talked 
 of marching out, sword in hand, and cutting 
 a passage through the mob. " My Lord 
 George," said a kinsman of that hopeless 
 person, holding a sword pointed at the agita- 
 tor, " do you intend to bring your rascally 
 adherents into the House of Commons ? If 
 you do, the first man of them that enters, I 
 will plunge my sword, not into his, but into 
 your body." General Conway sat down beside 
 him and told him firmly : " My Lord, I am 
 a military man, and 1 shall think it my duty 
 to protect the freedom of debate by my sword ; 
 you see, my Lord, the members of this House 
 are this day all in arms. Do not imagine 
 that we will be overpowered or intimidated 
 by a rude, unprincipled rabble. There is 
 only one entry into the House of Commons, 
 and that is a narrow one. Reflect that men 
 of honour may defend this pass." Colonel 
 Holroyd told Lord George that the fittest 
 place for him was Bedlam, took his seat 
 beside him, and followed him about, prevent- 
 ing any more appeals to the fury of the crowd. 
 
 The Military Called. 
 The tumultuous mob grew wilder as the 
 hot afternoon passed away. At last, when 
 the venerable assembly which represented the 
 people of Great Britain had been befooled 
 by a crazy scion of a family known as the 
 " Mad Gordons," and had fumed for half the 
 day in an idle and irresolute passion, with its 
 doors locked against an unarmed mob, the 
 justices of the peace were empowered to call 
 out the whole force of the country to quell 
 the riot. A party of foot guards and horse 
 arrived, the latter under the direction of 
 Justice Addington. He was stormed with 
 hisses, but portions of the crowd were not yet 
 
 166 
 
WHAT CAME OF. A ''NO POPERY" CRY. 
 
 laeyond being amenable to courtesy and good 
 order, especially on such high pressure; for on 
 assuring them of his peaceable intentions and 
 his willingness to dismiss the soldiers if they 
 would give their word of honour to disperse, 
 the tide turned in his favour. The cavalry 
 Tode away from Palace Yard, three cheers for 
 the magistrate rang through the air, and six 
 hundred of the more sober " Protestants " 
 retired from the shadow of St. Stephen's, let 
 lis hope to riot no more, but take other 
 means for securing "the peace of Jerusalem." 
 The lobby cleared, the division took place, 
 with the result that 192 voted for considering 
 the petition on the following Tuesday, and 
 only six for Gordon's motion. The hero of 
 the day walked from the walls of Parliament 
 still a free citizen. If Ministers or members 
 went away contented to " fret at whist or sit 
 aside to sneer and whisper scandal,"and enter- 
 tained the pleasant thought that the tempest 
 of " pious ragamuffins " had spent its fury, 
 they were sadly mistaken, " for already," to 
 use the words of Gibbon, " the scum had 
 boiled up to the surface in the huge cauldron 
 of London." There were already tokens of 
 the coming storm. About six or seven a 
 coach was stopped in Palace Yard by a set 
 of boys and pickpockets, "not the least like 
 the Protestant Association." Lord George 
 •drove away on that memorable evening in the 
 carriage of Sir James Lowther, biddmg the 
 remnant of the mob, who asked if the Bill 
 was to be repealed, to " go home, be quiet, 
 make no riot nor noise ; " but before he had 
 reached his residence in Welbeck Street at 
 ;a quarter to eleven, the storm raised by his 
 foolish bravado had already burst into flames. 
 
 Friday Night ; Romish Chapels 
 Attacked. 
 Although the law of England forbade the 
 adherents of the Catholic faich from having 
 chapels of their own, it was their custom to 
 attend the services in those which existed for 
 the private use of foreign ambassadors. At 
 that time there stood, as there stands still, 
 close to the gloomy archway that leads from 
 Duke Street into Lincoln's Inn Fields, a 
 Popish chapel, which is regarded with reve- 
 rence by Catholics as their oldest religious 
 house in London. It was attached to the 
 residence of the Sardinian ambassador. As 
 the chief centre of Popish worship in London, 
 it was the first target for the fury of the popu- 
 lace. Hardly had the tumult died away at 
 Westminster, when several hundred rioters, 
 •emboldened by the shade of night, made 
 their way to that rich fortress of Popery, 
 forced an entrance, demolished the altars, 
 tossed the ornaments, books, benches, and 
 velvet cushions into the street, and set the 
 heap alight. Rushing into the chapel with 
 t)urning brands, they set fire to the interior. 
 
 167 
 
 Poor Madame Cordon, wife of the Sardinian 
 Minister, then in a most delicate condition, 
 was found in such a state of terror and weak- 
 ness that she could scarcely stand, and was 
 only rescued by the gallant efforts of a gentle- 
 man who dragged her to his residence in the 
 Fields close by. The firemen came upon the 
 scene with their toy-squirt engines, but were 
 compelled to stand at ease. The high-con- 
 stable arrived near midnight. Dashing into the 
 midst of the crowd, he seized one of the most 
 conspicuous by the collar, but amid cries of 
 " Knock him on the head ! " the prisoner was 
 rescued ; he then hastened to the barracks at 
 Somerset House, and returned with one 
 hundred men armed with bayonets. By the 
 efforts of the firemen the flames were pre- 
 vented from spreading further than the chapel; 
 but, with the exception of two silver lamps, 
 which, by the way, were stolen, all the valu- 
 ables perished, including a painting which 
 was said to have cost the sum of ^2,500. 
 Thirteen rioters were taken to the Savoy 
 prison to be brought up at Bow Street in the 
 morning, — among the number an apprentice 
 glazier, a footman, a printer, a couple of 
 carpenters, a tailor with the appropriate 
 name of Isaac Hemmaway, and a journey- 
 man coachmaker from Long Acre, who was 
 seriously wounded in the stomach by a 
 soldier's bayonet while escaping from the 
 chapel. On Saturday an immense crowd 
 assembled in Covent Garden to see the rioters 
 brought up for examination. An attempt was 
 made to rescue them from the military escort 
 in Little Duke Street, spurred on by a bare- 
 headed waiter from the "Blue Posts," in 
 Covent Garden. Several of the prisoners 
 acknowledged they were Roman Catholics ! 
 
 While the rioters were busy at the Sardinian 
 chapel, another party found its way to War- 
 wick Street, Golden Square, where stood 
 another mass-house, under the wing of old 
 Count Haslang,"a prince of smugglers aswell 
 as Bavarian Minister," whose residence was 
 stored with "great quantities of 'run' tea and 
 contraband goods." The rioters did not, how- 
 ever, accomplish much damage before the 
 arrival of the military. 
 
 Saturday's Grim Repose ; Sunday Riot 
 IN Moorfields. 
 
 On Saturday the House of Lords passed a 
 motion for an address to the King, calling 
 for the punishment of the perpetrators and 
 abettors of the outrages, and throughout the 
 city the conviction reigned that the bour- 
 rasque was over. Whether the lull was due 
 to the unpleasant dullness and dampness of 
 the morning it would not be safe to say ; yet 
 we imagine that atmospheric conditions had 
 something to do with the progress of the 
 Gordon riots. With the exception of the first 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 day, Friday, London suffered during the 
 whole period from an attack of wintry 
 weather. 
 
 The impression of sober people that the 
 mob had finally dispersed was soon to be 
 sadly shattered. The quiet of Saturday was 
 only the grim repose of the sweeping whirl- 
 wind. On Sunday afternoon, while a cold 
 wind blew from the north-east, an immense 
 rabble of several thousands gathered suddenly 
 as if by magic in the district of Moorfields, 
 then chiefly tenanted by dealers in old furni- 
 ture, and adorned with such buildings as the 
 madhouses of Old Bethlehem and St. Luke, 
 and emphatically the centre of dissent, by 
 the possession of Whitfield's huge brick 
 tabernacle. They marched with the now 
 famihar shouts of " No Papists ! " " Root out 
 Popery !" to anew mass-house inRopemaker's 
 Alley. The riot lasted all night, and was 
 continued on the following day. During this 
 time they " gutted " the chapel and the houses 
 of several Catholic families, leaving only the 
 bare walls standing, and made a huge con- 
 flagration of books, crucifixes, images, relics, 
 altars, pulpits, pews, benches, beds, and 
 blankets, in an open part of the district ; and 
 not content with pulling down the house of 
 the Catholic teacher, they rushed in thousands 
 to the school in Hoxton. The Guards arrived 
 on the scene before the hour of ten on Sun- 
 day night, but they simply "watched the mob 
 with decent temper." A child fell out of its 
 mother's arms and was trampled to death by 
 the surging crowd ; and the brutal attack of 
 Moorfields hastened the death of the much re- 
 spected priest, Richard Dillon, who had lived 
 in the district for six-and-thirty years. His 
 house was made a total wreck, his books and 
 furniture were committed to the flames ; not 
 even a bed was left him on which to rest, and 
 this barbarous treatment gave a fatal shock to 
 his health and spirits. 
 
 Monday's Work : Savile House Gutted; 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
 The rioters were at work early on Monday 
 morning, having now tasted the sweets of 
 lawlessness and plunder ; and their energies 
 were kindled by a shameless report, — which 
 Walpole suggests was spread by the insinu- 
 ation of "Saint George Gordon," — that the 
 Papists had burned a Presbyterian chapel on 
 the preceding night. 
 
 Three of the rioters of Saturday were that 
 morning remanded to Newgate ; and on its 
 return the military escort was pelted by 
 the mob. One irate son of Mars levelled his 
 gun, but it was knocked up by his command- 
 ing officer — an act of humanity which did not 
 serve to appease the rioters, who compelled 
 the soldiers to retreat in haste. "When 
 grace, robbery, and mischief make an alli- 
 ance," wrote the cynical gossip of Strawberry 
 
 Hill, "they do not like to give over;" and 
 now the rioters were not prepared to obey 
 the resolution circulated in the morning by 
 the Protestant Association, requesting all 
 true Protestants to show their best interest 
 by a legal and peaceable deportment, and 
 they were ready to defy the proclamation of 
 the Government, offering a reward of ^500- 
 for the discovery of persons concerned in the 
 destruction of the Sardinian and Bavarian 
 chapels. 
 
 They divided into three parties, — one 
 marching in triumph to Wapping ; a second 
 marched to Nightingale Lane, in East Smith- 
 field. Both of these destroyed the Catholic 
 chapels in their respective routes, plundered 
 houses, and threatened to extirpate the entire 
 sect; but the chief honour or dishonour of 
 the day belongs to the third party, which 
 bore in triumph the relics of the Moorfields 
 tragedy, and presented itself most worship- 
 fully before the residence of " the Apostle " 
 in Welbeck Street. After performing this 
 act of devotion, the rioters proceeded ta 
 wreak their vengeance on the houses of the 
 high constable and a coachmaker in Little 
 Queen Street, the two chief witnesses against 
 their comrades now safely locked in Newgate. 
 These acts of petty spite were totally eclipsed 
 by the attack aimed at the great Liberal 
 statesman, Sir George Savile, whose claims 
 upon the gratitude of the masses were can- 
 celled by the fact that he was author of 
 the obnoxious bill. Savile House, which 
 stood in the fashionable square known as 
 Leicester Fields, was stripped of its valu- 
 able furniture, books, and pictures by the 
 ferocious band of rioters, who then formed a 
 huge bonfire in the square, and tore out the 
 iron rails in front to serve as weapons. The 
 mob dispersed on the arrival of the Horse 
 Guards. This blow struck terror into the 
 fashionable world. On the west side of the 
 Fields stood the large and handsome mansion 
 of Sir Joshua Reynolds, frequentedbyjohnsony 
 Boswell, and all the luminaries of the stage 
 and literature, and haunted by the fairest 
 and highest ladies of the land, who pined tO' 
 be immortalized by the skilful brush of the 
 great artist. The painter struck his pen 
 through all his appointments till the rioting 
 had ceased. The blow might well give 
 further alarm, for in " Petty France," and 
 other slums around the Fields and in Soho, 
 the inhabitants were chiefly foreign Catholics. 
 
 Edmund Burke had heard about nine 
 o'clock in the evening that his house was to 
 undergo the vengeance of the mob when 
 Savile's had been disposed of; and he has- 
 tened home, instantly removing all papers of 
 importance. Government had been apprized 
 of the design, and a force of sixteen soldiers 
 was sent, without his desire or knowledge, 
 to take possession of his "little tenement."' 
 
 168 
 
WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" CRY, 
 
 In this way the residence of the great cham- 
 pion of Cathohc emancipation was saved ; but 
 Burke himself, thinking that the soldiers 
 mightbe better employed during thespreading 
 tumult than in guarding his " paltry remains," 
 carried off his wife, books, and furniture to a 
 safe shelter, and boldly mingled with the 
 blue cockades. 
 
 Tuesday near and in the Commons. 
 
 A new era of the riots has commenced. 
 " We are now come," wrote the author of that 
 racy play, The Road to Ruin, "to that period 
 of desolation and destruction, when every 
 
 ing days, had taught the necessity of sterner 
 measures ; and at half-past one, when prodi- 
 gious crowds began to muster, parties of 
 horse grenadiers and light horse were 
 stationed near the House, completely guard- 
 ing the narrow pass between the Commons 
 and Old Palace Yard ; and the approaches to 
 the Commons were lined with foot guards 
 with fixed bayonets, forming an avenue, 
 through which members might safely reach 
 the chamber. Still this was a work of no 
 small difficulty. Members who lay under 
 conviction of no great pohtical sin procured 
 an " open sesame," through the army of Pro- 
 
 The Riots of 1780 ; Sacking the Houses of Catholics. 
 
 man began to tremble, not only for the safety 
 of the city, but for the constitution, for the 
 kingdom, for pi-operty, liberty, and life, for 
 everything that is dear to society or to 
 Englishmen." Fires were needed, though it 
 was the 6th of June, in the grates of London 
 citizens, and we cannot wonder that the blue 
 cockades, who rushed again in thousands 
 towards Westminster to learn the fate of 
 their petition, should have chafed under the 
 chill inclemency of Nature. The Tower, 
 St. James's, St. George's Fields, and other 
 public places were guarded by troops. All 
 the military were on duty. The riot of 
 Friday, and the criminal doings of succeed- 
 
 testants, by having their names chalked on 
 their carriage-panels along with the glorious 
 words "No Popery." Fearless Edmund 
 Burke mingled in the crowds of rioters, whom 
 he found " rather dissolute and unruly than 
 very ill-disposed," boldly avowed his part in 
 the detested bill, declared that he had always 
 been the advocate of the people, and took no 
 umbrage at the cries of fanatics who reviled 
 him as a Jesuit in disguise, nicknamed him 
 " Neddy St. Omer's," and caricatured him as 
 a monk stirring up the fires of Smithfield. 
 
 The mob, not intimidated but rendered 
 more ferocious by the display of martial 
 power, paraded the streets with flying colours 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and to the strains of music. The intolerant 
 temper of the crowd was worked upon by the 
 distribution of a handbill entitled, " True 
 Protestants, no Turncoats;" and perhaps the 
 thought of blood was stirred by allusions to 
 Bloody Mary and the existing horrors of the 
 Spanish Inquisition. By three o'clock wea- 
 pons were to be seen in the shape of bludgeons 
 <3f peeled oak ; but the temper of the military 
 was simply splendid, and the only outburst 
 of anything like military spleen occurred in 
 the wounding of one man by a soldier who 
 had himself been struck by a huge billet of 
 wood. 
 
 The single brutal sally of the day was 
 bestowed on Lord Sandwich alias "Jemmy 
 Twitcher." At three o'clock Burke's unfortu- 
 nate butt was descried at the corner of Bridge 
 Street. The crowd would not permit him to 
 advance further in spite of his determination 
 and the attendant party of six light horse ; 
 his horses' bridles were seized ; a shower 
 of stones fell, the windows of his chariot 
 were smashed, the horsemen fled, leaving 
 him to the tender mercy of his assailants, 
 and leaping from his carriage he took refuge 
 in a coffee house. Justice Hyde, who was 
 parading on horseback, rushed up to the 
 rescue, and found his Lordship with a gash 
 on the side of his head, a determined fellow 
 standing over him with a bludgeon, threaten- 
 ing that if he did not murder him now he 
 would do so " before he had done with him." 
 Sandwich refused the offer of a large escort 
 to clear the way for him to the House of 
 Peers, and driving back with all imaginable 
 speed to the Admiralty, he penned an epistle 
 to Lord Mansfield, who acted as chairman of 
 the Lords during Thurlow's illness. Speeches 
 full of indignation were made, and the Lords 
 adjourned till Thursday. 
 
 Two hundred members of the Commons 
 had braved the storm. Catiline himself 
 appeared, and took his seat calmly with a 
 blue cockade in his hat, — a circumstance to 
 which the future Earl of Carnarvon called 
 attention, declaring that he would not vote 
 while a member sat flaunting the ensign of 
 riot in their faces, and threatened to move 
 across the room and tear it out. After a 
 show of resistance, his Lordship was deprived 
 of his sacred token ; but even when several 
 members had delivered the most bitter 
 invectives against the conduct of the " Pro- 
 testant " bigots, and Burke had uttered his 
 lamentation over the deplorable state to 
 which Parliament was reduced, with a blud- 
 geoned mob waiting for them in the street, 
 and soldiers with fixed bayonets at their 
 doors to support the freedom of debate, he 
 had still the courage or foolhardiness to step 
 away for the purpose of haranging the mob, 
 — an intention, however, which the violent 
 hands of members prevented him from 
 
 accomplishing. The Housespeedlyadjourned 
 till Thursday, as the Lords had done, after 
 passing resolutions anent the riots, and 
 agreeing to consider the great Protestant 
 petition when the tumults had subsided. 
 
 The Burning of Newgate. 
 
 There was a strange stillness at Palace 
 Yard at six o'clock, ominous as the dead 
 calm that hangs over the earth before the 
 bursting of a tempest. When the Apostle 
 emerged from the House, after braying with, 
 his trumpet to no purpose, he drove away 
 with one of his supporters. Sir Philip Clerke, 
 who asked the protection of his Lordship in 
 the crowd. At the corner of Bridge Street 
 he informed the Associators of the talk and 
 work of the Commons, and advised them to 
 depart home in quietness. Instead of showing 
 meek obedience, they unyoked the horses 
 from his carriage, and dragged it through 
 the crowded thoroughfares, througli Temple 
 Bar and the City, as far as the residence of 
 Alderman Bull in Leadenhall Street, refusing 
 to listen to the appeals of the honourable 
 baronet, who desired to be let out at White- 
 hall. By this time the fury of the populace 
 was in its final and wildest shape; and his 
 Lordship, as he irove along and bowed his 
 foolish head, beheld an immense host be- 
 sieging Newgate prison. 
 
 Conspicuous among the rioters in Palace 
 Yard was a sailor named James Jackson, 
 who carried a flag of dirty blue with a red' 
 cross. Determined on revenge against the , 
 magistrate who had read the Riot Act, he^- 
 raised the cry, "To the house of Justice 
 Hyde — ahoy ! " and when an hour had 
 passed in the complete destruction of that 
 building, the sailor shouted again, "Ahoy 
 for Newgate ! " Meanwhile the house of 
 Mr. Rous, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, had been 
 utterly demolished. 
 
 It was after six o'clock when the hoarse 
 cry, " Ahoy for Newgate ! " was raised. 
 The mob rushed along after three flags — one 
 of which was that of Jackson ; the second 
 of green silk, with a Protestant motto ; the 
 third, the unfortunate flag of the Protestant 
 Association. On the fatal march an in- 
 flammatory handbill, with the terrible title 
 of " England in Blood," was distributed 
 among the crowd. After passing through 
 Long Acre, picking up by the way the 
 spokes of cart wheels, mattocks, and crow- 
 bars, they swept down Holborn to the 
 famous prison, the governor of which at 
 that time was Mr. Akerman, the " esteemed 
 friend " of Boswell, who has commended him 
 to all generations for his " intrepid firmness, 
 tenderness, and liberal charity." In that 
 sink of filth and iniquity there lay the four 
 rioters of Saturday, a host of wild male- 
 factors and pitiful debtors, and at least four 
 
 170 
 
WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY'' CRY. 
 
 <;ondemned felons who were to be " turned 
 off" on Thursday by Jack Ketch, — John Spar- 
 row, who had robbed a man in the Green Park 
 of a silver watch and three shillings ; John 
 Early, who had robbed a man in Stepney 
 Fields of a guinea, seven shillings, and some 
 halfpence ; John Carr, who had robbed a 
 gentleman near Kensington Gravel-Pits of 
 money and a silver-headed cane ; James 
 Purse, sentenced to death for an outrage ; 
 and probably three others, of whom one 
 had' stolen a cow, the second committed 
 a highway robbery, and the third the 
 same crime, with the additional brutality of 
 ■chopping off two of the fingers of his victim. 
 The keeper of Newgate was not unaware of 
 the intended attack; for during that after- 
 noon, while engaged in the prudent process 
 of packing up his plate for removal, he 
 received a visit from a friend of one of the 
 prisoners, who left him with a curse and 
 the cheering remark that "he should be the 
 one hung presently." At seven o'clock the 
 vast crowd, armed with bludgeons and 
 spokes of cart-wheels, and following in perfect 
 order a small party of thirty men, who 
 marched three abreast, and were provided 
 with iron crowbars, mattocks, and chisels, 
 lialted at the door of the keeper's house, 
 which had been locked, chained, and bolted. 
 They demanded the release of their im- 
 prisoned comrades. The ringleader, who 
 bore the appearance of the " well-dressed, 
 respectable person " of our modern police 
 news, knocked and rang three times, and 
 'having received no answer, ran down the 
 steps, and bowing to the crowd, pointed to 
 the door like a stage spectre, and vanished. 
 Incited by a group of " well-dressed " persons 
 standing in the Old Bailey, the menial band 
 proceeded to active service in three detach- 
 ments — one of which attacked the governor's 
 house, a second the debtors' door, and a 
 third the main entrance to the prison. The 
 windows of the house were instantly shattered 
 by a shower of bludgeons ; two men — one of 
 whom was a young lunatic Quaker — drove 
 a scaffold pole through the parlour shutters ; 
 a lad, who was attired, like Hyde, in a sailor's 
 jacket, mounted on a man's shoulders, and 
 with head as hard as a negro's or a nether 
 millstone, battered in the broken shutters; 
 and then at last the mad Quaker and a 
 chimney-sweeper's boy scrambled into the 
 house amid the cheers of the frantic crowd. 
 The work now reached its climax and reward. 
 The pictures, worth ;^2,ooo, and the furniture 
 of the cultured and tasteful governor were 
 flung from the windows by the furious lunatic, 
 and immediately the sparks from the pile 
 and the building flew over the heads of the 
 m\d spectators. In vain did the tenants of 
 adjoining houses plead their innocence, and 
 pray for mercy on their homes ; for what 
 
 recked Thomas Haycock, a frantic waiter 
 from the St. Alban's tavern, as he shouted 
 to the mob that they were supported by 
 noblemen and members of Parliament, or 
 the negro servant with the appropriate name 
 of Benjamin Bowsey, as he urged his com- 
 rades eagerly to go ahead with the work of 
 destruction ? The store of wines and liquors, 
 said to be worth the handsome sum of ^500, 
 was broken into, brought up in pails and 
 hats, adding to the joy, the energy, and fury 
 of the frantic crowd. 
 
 At the prison gate stood Francis Mockford, 
 a waiter, with a blue cockade, holding up the 
 main key and shouting to the turnkeys with 
 an oath to open to him, and an uproarious 
 tripeman, " well known to the police," swore 
 that " he would have the gates down, curse 
 him, he would have the gates down." In- 
 stantly pickaxes and sledgehammers fell 
 upon the great gate in the Old Bailey, under 
 the fierce direction of the bludgeoned tripe- 
 man, to whom a servant of Akerman shouted 
 through the hatch, " George the tripeman, I 
 shall mark you in particular." Another 
 negro, of the good old English name of 
 Glover, battered at the gate with a gun 
 barrel, and thrust it at the faces of the 
 turnkeys through the grating, while another 
 demon tried to split the door with a hatchet. 
 These were but feeble blows against the huge 
 and massive gate, and efforts were now made 
 to fire it by piling up the furniture from the 
 keeper's house, while within the heroic turn- 
 keys pushed down the blazing heap with 
 broomsticks, and dashed water against the 
 gates to prevent the melting of the lead that 
 soldei'ed and secured the strong hinges- 
 determined but baffled work, for the fiendish 
 fire was fast shooting from the red-hot house 
 into the fire-lodge and chapel, and one after 
 another the wards were struck by the flames. 
 The prisoners escaped, or were dragged out 
 through the sea of flame by the legs, arms, 
 and hair. Thus fell unfinished Newgate, a 
 loss to the nation of ^140,000 — no part fit 
 for further use, even a year later, but the grim 
 condemned cells, nine feet by six, with their 
 naked and impenetrable walls, the sight of 
 which brought tears in those old hardened 
 days even to the eyes of the lightest-hearted 
 and most hardened felon. 
 
 For a fiercely graphic picture of the storm- 
 ing of Newgate, we cannot do better than 
 refer our readers to that which has been 
 drawn by the inimitable pen of Charles 
 Dickens in " Barnaby Rudge," contenting 
 ourselves with the descriptions bequeathed 
 to us by two distinguished writers of the 
 time. " Upon the keepers refusing to release 
 their comrades, the rioters began," says 
 Holcroft, " some to break the windows, some 
 to batter the doors and entrances into the 
 cells with pick-axes and sledge-hammei"s, 
 
 171 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 others with ladders to climb the vast walls, 
 while others collected fire-brands and what- 
 ever combustibles they could find, and flung 
 them into his dwelling-house. What contri- 
 buted more than anything to the spread of 
 the flames was the great quantity of house- 
 hold furniture, which they threw out of the 
 windows, piled up against the doors, and set 
 fire to ; the force of which presently commu- 
 nicated to the chapel, and from this, by the 
 assistance of the mob, all through the prison. 
 A party of constables, nearly to the amount 
 of one hundred, came to the assistance of the 
 keeper ; these the mob made a lane for and 
 suffered to pass till they were entirely sur- 
 rounded, when they attacked them with great 
 fury, broke their staves and converted them 
 into brands, which they hurled about where- 
 ever the fire, which was 
 spreading very fast, had 
 not caught." 
 
 A still more vivid pic- 
 ture is given by George 
 Crabbe, the young poet, 
 who had come up to 
 London to find employ- 
 ment more suited to his 
 tastes than that of apo- 
 thecary in a little country 
 town. He informs us 
 that at half-past seven 
 "the engines came, but 
 were only suffered to pre- 
 serve the private houses 
 
 near the prison By 
 
 eight o'clock Akernian's 
 house was in flames. I 
 went close to it, and 
 never saw anything so 
 dreadful. The prison 
 was a remarkably strong 
 building ; but, deter- 
 mined to force it, they 
 broke the gates with crows and other instru- 
 ments, and climbed up the outside of the cell 
 part, which joins the two great wings of the 
 building, where the felons were confined ; 
 and I stood where I plainly saw their opera- 
 tions. They broke the roof, tore away the 
 rafters, and having got ladders, they de- 
 scended. Not Orpheus himself had more 
 courage or better luck. Flames all around 
 them, and a body of soldiers expected, they 
 defied and laughed at all opposition. The 
 prisoners escaped. I stood and saw about 
 twelve women and eight men ascend from 
 their confinement to the open air, and they 
 were conducted through the street in their 
 chains. . . . You have no conception of the 
 frenzy of the multitude. This being done, and 
 Akerman's house now a mere shell of brick- 
 work, they kept a store of flame there for other 
 purposes. It became red-hot, and the doors 
 and windows appeared like the entrance to 
 
 so many volcanoes. With some difficulty 
 they then fired the debtors' prison, broke the 
 doors, and they too all made their escape. 
 . . . About ten or twelve of the mob getting to 
 the top of the debtors' prison vi^hilst it was 
 burning, to halloo, they appeared rolled 
 in black smoke mixed with sudden bursts of 
 fire — like Milton's infernals, who were as 
 familiar with flame as with each other." 
 
 The Protestant Association forsooth ! 
 Negroes and madmen, drunken sailors and 
 waiters, were the demoniacs let loose by the 
 vanity and recklessness of the pious debau- 
 chee. Lord George Gordon. Poor crazy 
 Dick Hyde, some four-and-twenty hours 
 after he had shone so nobly at the siege of 
 Newgate, entered the house of a humble 
 woman near Covent Garden, wearing an old 
 grey overcoat, and a flap- 
 ped hat covered with wet 
 paint. She offered to 
 dry it for him, but he 
 resented her officious 
 kindness : " No ! you're 
 a fool. My hat is blue, 
 it is the colour of the 
 heavens. I would no£ 
 have it dried for the 
 world." Does not this 
 incident strikingly re- 
 mind us of Barnaby 
 Rudge ? 
 
 Other Deeds of 
 Tuesday. 
 
 The mob and felons 
 were masters of the city. 
 Lawless bands spread 
 like a lightning cancer 
 over the metropolis, de- 
 fying or possibly hob- 
 nobbing with the soldiers 
 that were being disposed 
 in the different quarters of London and 
 Westminster supposed to be most in 
 danger, and heeding nothing the orders given 
 at eleven o'clock to the trained bands — the 
 same as that in which John Gilpin held the 
 dignity of captain— to beat immediately to 
 arms and command every housekeeper to be 
 ready to march out at sound of drum. But 
 scarcely had the iron fetters been struck from 
 the Newgate felons when the Bow Street 
 office and the adjoining house of the blind 
 magistrate. Sir John Fielding, half-brother of 
 the author of " Tom Jones," were attacked 
 and gutted. All through the night the work 
 of villainy went on. The poor magistrates at 
 Hicks's Hall fled precipitatelyfrom that famous 
 session-house with their effects. Panic- 
 stricken citizens bowed to the demand of the 
 mob that lights should be placed in their 
 windows to celebrate the destruction of New- 
 gate — while these wretches were busy bi'eak- 
 
 JOHNSON. 
 
 172 
 
WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" CRY. 
 
 ing open the doors of the new prison at 
 Clerkenwell and setting the gaol-birds free ; 
 regaHng themselves with good old ale at the 
 ruins of the " Ship " in l3uke Street, where 
 mass was said on Sunday after the destruc- 
 tion of the Sardinian chapel ; wreaking 
 further vengeance on the representatives of 
 order by burning the house ot Justice Cox, in 
 Great Queen Street, and a second house of 
 Justice Hyde, in IsHngton ; far and wide, 
 alike in fashionable and obscure streets, sack- 
 ing and consecrating to the flames the posses- 
 sions of CathoHcs, in Park Lane (Lord Petre's 
 house), in Bunhill Row, in Moorfields, in 
 Golden Lane, in Devonshire Street, and in 
 the Little Turnstile, Holborn. 
 
 Burning of Mansfield's House ; A 
 Female Fiend. 
 Towards midnight 
 the venerable Earl of 
 Mansfield was sitting in 
 his mansion in Blooms- 
 bury Square, when a de- 
 tachment of Guards arrived 
 "to take possession of his 
 doomed house. The grand 
 old judge of seventy-five, 
 and enlightened friend of 
 toleration, who had de- 
 fended the afifirmation of 
 Quakers, who had knock- 
 ed the Corporation of Lon- 
 don into " a cocked hat " 
 for their persecution of a 
 dissenter, who had de- 
 nounced the prosecution 
 of a priest as being " as 
 bad a persecution as that 
 of Procrustes," was afraid 
 that the sight of red coats 
 might exasperate the mob, 
 and they were stationed 
 in a church at a little dis- 
 tance. Half an hour had 
 passed — distant yells were 
 heard — a vast crowd of 
 human fiends swept round the corner of the 
 square with torches and other combustibles 
 towards his own mansion— still he did not 
 stir until he heard a battering at the outer 
 door. Then the old man fled with his 
 Countess, leaving behind his pictures and the 
 irrecoverable labours of a long and devoted 
 life, the great library founded when he was a 
 boy at Perth, the cherished records of a wide 
 and noble friendship, books with marginal 
 notes by the very hands of Pope and Boling- 
 broke, letters that should have proved im- 
 perishable memorials of his times, wise books 
 written by his own hand to be given to the 
 world when he himself had passed away. 
 Universal suffrage ! And yet that crowd, 
 which counted among its leading spirits " an 
 
 Edmund Burkk:, 
 
 handsome young woman about eighteen," 
 named Letitia Holland, 
 
 " A bruising pugilistic woman, 
 Such as I own I entertain a dread of, " 
 
 forbade pilfering, with the disinterested prin- 
 ciple of a Parisian mob, one old ragged bigot 
 even tossing into the burning pile a piece of 
 silver plate and heap of gold, swearing that 
 it would not go in payment of masses. The 
 soldiers were beaten back ; they were rein- 
 forced ; the Riot Act was read ; a few fired, 
 four men and one woman fell, and others were 
 wounded. The rioters promised to disperse 
 and allow the engines to play upon the funeral 
 pile of Mansfield's wealth and wisdom, if the 
 soldiers retired ; the latter did so, only to see 
 the mansion of the Chief Justice of England 
 reduced to ashes. 
 
 ''See then — the Vandals of 
 our isle, 
 Sworn foes to sense and law, 
 Have burned to dust a 
 nobler pile 
 Than ever Roman saw ! " 
 
 Poetry and faiths aside, 
 the weather was cold and 
 the times were bad, so 
 that poor folks and felons 
 were in mood to enjoy a 
 bonfire, a rich wine-cellar, 
 and a blow at the highest 
 representative of English 
 law! 
 
 Black Wednesday ; 
 Prisons on Fire ; 
 FuiMus ; Martial 
 Law. 
 
 The mob, with an " in- 
 fernal humanity," sent 
 round notices to the keep- 
 ers of the prisons and 
 to several Catholics, in- 
 forming them of their pur- 
 posed time of call. The 
 city, from king to servant maid, was filled with 
 fear. " A universal terror had seized the 
 minds of all ; they looked at one another, 
 and waited with a resigned consternation for 
 the events which were to follow." Only a 
 iitw, like Gibbon, a " known Protestant," had 
 no fear as to themselves. The wildest 
 rumours were afloat : that insurgents had 
 risen in Bristol and elsewhere ; that 2)^poo 
 colliers were on their way to London ; thai 
 70,000 Scots were coming to "eat us, and 
 hang us, or drown us ; " that the lions were 
 to be let loose from the Tower and the 
 lunatics from Bedlam ; that the dwellings ot 
 Ministers, of every bishop, of every Catholic 
 of every justice, the Bank, the Arsenal ;i 
 Woolwich — in short, every building in or neii 
 
 ^73 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 London that represented the wealth, the 
 strength, and the law of England, were 
 doomed to destruction. Catholics and others 
 removed th z goods, and fled into the country 
 or waited in horror for the approach of even- 
 ing. Five guineas would not obtain the 
 service of a chaise for a ten miles' drive ; 
 ladies and gentlemen sent away their jewels 
 and fled from their mansions ; the beautiful 
 Duchess of Devonshire, whose house was 
 strongly garrisoned like those of Savile and 
 Rockingham, was content to lie on the sofa 
 in Lord Clement's drawing-room ; even the 
 amiable Bishop Newton trembled for the 
 labours of his life, and sheltered himself 
 among the peaceful shades of Kew. To 
 complete the comedy, every shop from Ty- 
 burn to Whitechapel was closed that after- 
 noon ; on almost every house there hung a 
 bit of blue rag ; "No Popery I'' was scrawled 
 on doors and shutters ; and " the very Jews in 
 Houndsditch and Duke's Place were so in- 
 timidated that they followed the general ex- 
 ample, and unintentionally gave an air of 
 ridicule to what they understood in a very 
 serious light, by writing on the shutters — 
 " This house a true Protestant." A mob of 
 several thousands took a trip into the country 
 to regale themselves with the wines of Mans- 
 field's house at Caen Wood ; the gates of the 
 Fleet Prison were thrown open and the 
 prisoners occupied the day in removing their 
 effects, the rioters deferring the demolition of 
 that infamous den till evening, in answer to 
 the wishes of the criminals and debtors. In 
 the very streets of the capital of England 
 might be seen the most novel specimens of 
 highway robbery — for example, a man on 
 horseback stopping passengers and refusing 
 to accept anything but gold ; and at broad 
 noon three boys marching along Holborn, 
 armed with iron bars that had been wrenched 
 from the railing of Mansfield's house, huzza- 
 ing and shouting the cry of the Protestant 
 Association, andextortingmoneyatevery shop. 
 Portly old Samuel Johnson (even he was told 
 by his friends that he was in danger) took a 
 stroll past Newgate gaol, reflecting on " the 
 cowardice of a commercial place " as he saw 
 a hundred " Protestants " plundering the 
 Sessions House of the Old Bailey, " at leisure, 
 in full security, without sentinels, without 
 trepidation, as men lawfully employed in full 
 day." From " What-was- London," Richard 
 Burke wrote a letter to a friend, in which he 
 said : — 
 
 " If one could in decency laugh, must not one laugh 
 to see what I saw, — a single boy of fifteen at most in 
 Queen Street, mounted on a pent-house, demolishing 
 a house with great zeaL but nuich at his ease, and 
 throwing the pieces to two boys still younger, who 
 burnt them for their amusement, no one daring to 
 obstruct them ? Children are plundering at noonday 
 the city of London ! . . . Fiiimns." 
 
 At last the " Gordian knot," as the 
 punsters of those times talked, was cut by 
 the Solicitor-General, who gave it as his 
 opinion, in a Tory Cabinet Council held that 
 afternoon, at which the Whig Lord Rocking- 
 ham appeared in a state of undress and with 
 dishevelled hair, that a riototis assembly 
 could be dispersed by the military withoitt 
 waiting for forms or the reading of the Riot 
 Act. " Then so let it be done," said the 
 excited King ; and the military massacre was 
 placed in the hands of Lord Amherst, the 
 conqueror of Canada, who carried out his 
 work with such stern severity that he was 
 represented in caricature as slaughtering 
 geese, and uttering the lovely distich — 
 
 " If I had power, 
 I'd kill twenty in an hour." 
 
 Wednesday Night ; Langdale's Dis- 
 TiLLERV ; The Prisons Fired. 
 
 At nine o'clock on the evening of that 
 terrible day, a young gentleman drove away 
 with three companions in a hackney coach, 
 not to the play or the fashionable gardens of 
 Ranelagh, — though these were in full swing 
 as if the city were in perfect peace, — but to 
 look upon the fearful sight of burning London, 
 which he described in after years as worse 
 than the Great Fire, because men had at 
 that time only to contend with the devouring 
 element ; worse than the Parisian outrages 
 even under Robespierre and Bonaparte, 
 although the former converted the metropolis 
 of sunny France into a charnel-house. 
 Leaving the coach at Bloomsbury, he saw in 
 Holborn an appalling picture of devastation, 
 where Langdale's house and distilleries were 
 wrapped in smoke and flame, in front of 
 which was an immense multitude of men and 
 women, some with infants in their arms ; the 
 liquor running in the kennels and middle of 
 the street, and lifted in pailfuls to the mouths 
 of the besotted mob ; so little riot or pillage 
 for all this, that he could not easily conceive 
 " who worked this enormous mischief," until 
 he saw distinctly at the windows men who, 
 while the floors and rooms were on fire, calmly 
 tore down the furniture, and threw it into the 
 street or tossed it into the flames. At last 
 the Horse Guards arrived and dispersed the 
 crowd. Walking down towards Fleet Mar- 
 ket, he beheld an indescribable spectacle 
 from the declivity of the hill beside St. 
 Andrew's church. From the other house 
 and store of Langdale, near the north end of 
 the market, a pinnacle of flame shot upwards 
 like a volcano, and by the brilliancy of the 
 illumination the church seemed to be scorched 
 and the hands of the clock were as distinctly 
 visible as at noonday, — a sight that " would 
 have inspired the beholder with admiration 
 if it had been possible to separate the object 
 
 174 
 
WHAT CAME OF A "NO POPERY" CRY. 
 
 from its causes and its consequences." The 
 air was calm and the sky unclouded and serene, 
 except where it was obscured by the volcanoes 
 of smoke, that from time to time produced a 
 temporary darkness. No guards were to be 
 seen, and at St. Andrew's churchyard " a 
 watchman, with a lanthorn in his hand, 
 passed us, calling the hour, as if in a time of 
 profound tranquillity ! " Walking down 
 through narrow lanes, Wraxall reached the 
 centre of Fleet Market, and beheld the sparks 
 from the newly fired prison filling the air and 
 falling in showers on every side ; he heard 
 the discharge of platoons towards St. George's 
 Fields across the river, and saw the " sub- 
 lime sight'^' of King's Bench prison completely 
 wrapt in flames. Had he been present, he 
 might also have seen four men drinking and 
 smoking unconcernedly on its roof until the 
 flames beneath compelled them to leap down 
 into the blankets held out by their comrades, 
 and a chimney-sweep of sixteen, who had 
 forty guineas in his pocket, shot upon the 
 roof like a dog. At Blackfriars Bridge, which 
 was held by the military, numbers of the 
 rioters were shot down and tossed into the 
 river. The prisons were destroyed. The 
 new gaol of Surrey was saved by the deter- 
 mination of its keeper, who, like the heroic 
 locksmith in " Barnaby Rudge," pointed his 
 blunderbuss, declaring that " as many as 
 would might enter the prison, but none 
 should return alive." 
 
 A General View; Dennis the 
 Hangman. 
 
 Many pages would be needed to give any- 
 thing like an adequate picture of the fires 
 and the carnage of that night, of the poor 
 women who died of fright, and the drunkards 
 who perished in the burning ruins. There 
 was no sleep for the King or the humblest 
 of citizens. " Let those who were not 
 spectators of it, judge what the inhabitants 
 felt when they beheld at the same instant 
 the flames ascending and rolling in clouds 
 from the King's Bench and Fleet prisons, 
 from New Bridewell, from the toll-gates on 
 Blackfriars Bridge, from houses in every 
 quarter of the town. . . . Six-and-thirty fires, 
 all blazing at one time, and in different 
 quarters of the city, were to be seen from one 
 spot. During the whole night, men, women, 
 and children, were running up and down with 
 such goods and effects as they wished most 
 to preserve. The tremendous roar of the 
 authors of these horrible scenes was heard at 
 one instant, and at the next the dreadful 
 reports of soldiers' muskets, firing in platoons, 
 and from different quarters ; in short, every- 
 thing served to impress the mind with ideas 
 of universal anarchy and approaching deso- 
 lation." Two attempts were made upon the 
 Bank in the course of the evening : the first 
 
 of them led by a brewer's servant on horse- 
 back, who had decorated his steed with the 
 chains of Newgate ; but these attacks were 
 repulsed, by no power of Lord George 
 Gordon, who appeared upon the scene, but 
 by the determined efforts of the m.ilitary and 
 John Wilkes, who, if he had had his will, 
 would not have left a rioter alive. The 
 inhabitants of Westminster were in con- 
 sternation lest an attempt should be made 
 to destroy the Houses of Parliament ; many 
 persons in the vicinity removed their more 
 valuable goods ; and an official of the 
 Commons prudently carried off to a secure 
 refuge all the journals and other books of 
 the House. 
 
 The distillery of Langdale, and the once 
 famous inn of " Simon the Tanner," in the 
 district of Bermondsey, were not the only 
 establishments of that kmd which were 
 attacked by the appetite or fury of the 
 rioters. The well-known firm of Barclay, 
 Perkins, and Co., was then represented by 
 Mr. Thrale, the husband of Samuel Johnson's 
 clever female friend. " Mrs. Thrale's house 
 and stock," wrote the Doctor to his gossip 
 Boswell, " were in great danger. The mob 
 was pacified at their first invasion with about 
 fifty pounds in drink and meat, and at their 
 second were driven away by the soldiers." 
 
 Among the houses consumed on the night 
 of Black Wednesday was that of Mr. Bovis, 
 a Papist, who kept a chandler's shop in the 
 New Turnstile, Holborn. There, one of the 
 most active among the fiends was no less 
 distinguished a person than Edward Dennis, 
 alias Jack Ketch, common hangman, who- 
 was condemned to death on the third day of 
 July for assisting in pulling down the house 
 of Mr. Bovis, notwithstanding the defence 
 made by that amiable person that he was 
 forced to do so, the mob swearing that if he 
 did not lend a hand in burning the goods 
 they would roast him alive ! Poor Jack ! 
 the cool, bungling hangman, who had 
 "turned off" so many to the delight of 
 George Selwyn and the huge London that 
 feasted on those monstrous tragedies ; who, 
 when the Rev. Mr Hackman dropped the 
 handkerchief under the cart in April 1779, ran 
 to pick it up, keeping " the poor wretch some 
 moments in that horrid state" — he himself 
 sentenced to death ! Dickens has thought 
 fit to make Ketch move about, unknown as a 
 free agent — an absurdity in itself, in speaking: 
 of days when the hangman was a most 
 notorious figure, and quite against the fact. 
 He was detained in prison apart from other 
 criminals because of the horrid odour in 
 which he was held by them ; on trial re- 
 commended to mercy, and respited, probably 
 for future service, till the hanging season was 
 over, thereafter, it might be, to be " turned 
 off" himself. 
 
 175 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 After Carnival; Gordon's Acquittal. 
 
 " After Carnival Lent ever follows." 
 Thursday dawned. Although the run upon 
 the Bank was less by many thousands than 
 on the preceding days, the shops were still 
 closed from Tyburn to Whitechapel. Ten 
 thousand soldiers from various counties were 
 encamped in Hyde Park ; in all the wards 
 the people formed themselves into bands to 
 patrol the city ; the students and members 
 of the several Inns of Court shouldered mus- 
 kets for their own defence ; even the Pro- 
 testant Associators attacked the drunken 
 rioters at the King's Bench Prison, near 
 the spot where they had assembled on the 
 preceding Friday in the highest hope and 
 fervour. Felons were hunted to their holes, 
 or picked up as they stood gazing at the cells 
 from which they had so strangely escaped ; 
 and drunken people were found in scores 
 asleep on the streets or in the smoking ruins 
 of demolished buildings. Lord Amherst's 
 report stated that less than 300 were killed 
 and died in the hospitals ; but doubtless many 
 were not accounted for, having been carried 
 off by their friends, or tossed into the Thames, 
 or burned in the blazing houses. Rockets 
 were discharged on Thursday evening to 
 inform London that all was quiet. 
 
 The foolish originator of these terrible 
 tragedies was conducted to the Tower under 
 the strongest guard that ever in England 
 accompanied a prisoner of state, was tried 
 before Lord Mansfield on the 5th of 
 February, 1 781, but was finally acquitted, 
 after a brilliant defence by Erskine. During 
 the trial he maintained a show of religious 
 enthusiasm. He had a quarto Bible before 
 
 him all the time the proceedings lasted, and 
 professed great indignation at not being 
 permitted to read some chapters from the 
 prophecies of Zechariah. Fisher, the Secre- 
 tary of the Protestant Association, who 
 had burned the books of the Society, was 
 examined in the Tower and discharged. Of 
 the one hundred and thirty-five persons 
 who were brought to trial at the Old Bailey 
 and St. Margaret's Hill, the greater part 
 were mere " apprentices, women, a black girl, 
 and two or three escaped convicts;" and 
 Horace Walpole was of opinion that "half 
 a dozen schoolmasters might have quashed 
 the insurrection." The future fortune of 
 Lord George Gordon was eminently pitiful, — ■ 
 a tragi-comedy of the strangest character. 
 " Few individuals," said one of his contem- 
 poraries, " occupied a more conspicuous or a 
 more unfortunate place in the annals of their 
 country under the reign of George the Third. 
 He will rank in history with Wat Tyler and 
 Jack Cade, the incendiaries of the Planta- 
 genet times, or with Kett, so memorable 
 under Edward the Sixth." After his release, 
 he attempted for a time to keep his pro- 
 gramme before the nation and the govern- 
 ment ; he appeared in the autumn of that 
 year as a candidate for an accidental vacancy 
 in the representation of London, but did not 
 go to the poll ; he was finally converted to 
 Judaism, even undergoing the rite of circum- 
 cision, and died in Newgate prison on the 
 1st day of November, 1793, while under 
 sentence for a libel on Marie Antoinette and 
 a noble member of the French Ministry. 
 His remains were interred in an obscure 
 burial-ground attached to a chapel of ease, 
 on the east side of Hampstead Road, London. 
 
 M. M. 
 
 Medal Struck in Honour of Chief Justice Mansfield. 
 
 r76 
 
HoLYROOD Palace ; The Chapel. 
 
 SCOTLAND'S SORROW: 
 
 THE STORY O^F FLODDEN FIELD. 
 
 "Tradition, legend, tune, and song 
 Shall many an age that wail prolong : 
 Still from the sire the son shall hear 
 Of the stern strife and carnage drear 
 
 Of Flodden's fatal field, 
 "Where shivered was fair Scotland's spear 
 And broken was her shield." 
 
 A Troublous Period— King David and Edward Balliol— The Douglas Family— Accession of the Stuarts ; Chevy Chase- 
 James I., the Royal Poet— James II. ; A Turbulent Vassal— James III. ; Archibald Bell-the-Cat— James IV. ; 
 Happy Auspices Unfulfilled— The Barton Family— A Gallant Fight— Causes of Quarrel between England and Scot 
 land— Vigorous Measures of the Scottish King— A Mediaeval Story— How James IV. prepared for War- Obstinacy 
 of the King ; The War continued— The Opponent of James— Position of the Armies— Letter of Surrey to King 
 James— The Plan of the Battle— The Battle of Flodden— The Decisive Moment ; Death of the King— Disastrous 
 Nature of the Defeat— Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St. Andrew's ; Scotland's Day of Sorrow— Conclusion. 
 
 A Troublous Period. 
 HE battle of Bannockburn had se- 
 cured the independence of Scotland, 
 and had exalted Scottish patriotism 
 to its highest pitch. Never had the nation 
 stood so high in her own eyes, or in those 
 of the world, as during the reign of Robert 
 Bruce. There v/ere fresh conflicts with the 
 English, and still victory declared on the 
 side of the Scots. By the Treaty of North- 
 ampton, in 1328, King Edward IH. re- 
 
 nounced all pretensions to the sovereignty 
 of Scotland, and gave his sister Joanna to 
 Bruce's son to wife. Next year King Robert 
 died. He was the greatest king Scotland 
 ever had. But on his death fresh troubles 
 began, which again brought Scotland into 
 utter misery. The first cause was one which 
 recurred again and again in the course of the 
 next few years — the minority of the sovereign 
 who succeeded. Bruce's son, David, was only 
 four years old on his father's death. 
 
 177 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY, 
 
 But this evil was aggravated by others. 
 The two great divisions of the country, the 
 Highlands and Lowlands, were inhabited by 
 two different races : the Highlanders were 
 Kelts; the Lowlanders, English in race and 
 manners. The Scottish Parliament consisted 
 not of two chambers, as ours, but of one, com- 
 prising the peers or great nobility, specially 
 summoned by the King, bishops and mitred 
 abbots, smaller barons, elected by the smaller 
 vassals, and answering pretty closely to our 
 county members, and "commissioners" ap- 
 pointed by the borough towns. A measure 
 passed in Parliament became law by the 
 king touching it with his sceptre. But, un- 
 fortunately, the great barons in the Highlands, 
 and also in the mountains on the English 
 border, had acquired a power within their 
 own domains which made them almost inde- 
 pendent of the King's authority. They exer- 
 cised the right of judging and punishing 
 crimes; and they defended themselves against 
 encroachments of their neighbours to such 
 an extent that very frequently there were 
 wars going on between them ; and feuds were 
 begotten, not only deadly in themselves, but 
 hereditary. Not only so, but they were con- 
 tinually at war with th.e Lowlanders, from a 
 conviction that the latter had no business 
 in the country. Had Robert Bruce lived 
 longer, he might probably have done much 
 to bring peace to the country; but to have a 
 child of four years old on the throne in 
 troublous times was sure to increase evils. 
 
 King David and Edward Balliol ; The 
 Douglas Family. 
 
 Randolph, Earl of Murray, an able but 
 relentless man, was the first regent ; but he 
 died in 1332, and was succeeded by the Earl 
 of Mar, nephew to King Robert. The country 
 was not only in difficulties through internal 
 discords, but also through an English in- 
 vasion. Edward Balliol, son of him whom 
 Edward L had made King, took advantage 
 of King David's minority, and made claim 
 to the throne. He was joined by a party of 
 English barons, entered Scotland, and de- 
 feated and slew the regent. Then, in order 
 to establish himself, he acknowledged Ed- 
 ward in. as his liege lord. The Scottish 
 nobility were furious at this, and rose in de- 
 fence of their independence ; but Edward II L 
 met and totally defeated them at the battle 
 of Halidon Hill (July 19th, 1333). No hope 
 appeared on any side. Only four castles and 
 a small tower acknowledged the sovereignty 
 of David. 
 
 Yet in spite of these terrible adversities ; 
 in spite, too, of the skill and courage of 
 Edward III., the Scots were delivered by 
 means of their indomitable love of independ- 
 ence. They could not bring large armies 
 into the field, but they could harass and 
 
 worry their enemies. They knew the country, 
 and they had the good-will of the natives ; 
 and day by day they would surprise castles, 
 cut off convoys of provisions, destroy scat- 
 tered bodies of men. In all these things they 
 were now under the leadership of Sir William 
 Douglas, commonly known as the Knight of 
 Liddesdale, a member of a family second to 
 none in the roll of its brave deeds in Scottish 
 history. He was favoured by Edward III. 
 becoming involved in his great French war, 
 and his culminating achievement was the 
 capture of Edinburgh Castle. This rendered 
 Balliol's cause hopeless, and King David 
 returned to Scotland. But again internal 
 quarrels began. The Scots, weakened by 
 these, yet boastful of their former victories, 
 invaded England, and were defeited by an 
 English army at Neville's Cross, near Durham, 
 October 17th, 1346. King David was made 
 a prisoner, and was shut up in the Tower of 
 London for eleven years. But though the 
 English overran the Lowlands, it became 
 more and more evident that a permanent 
 conquest was impossible. King David died 
 at Edinburgh Castle in 1371, and in him 
 the male line of Bruce was extinct. 
 
 Accession of the Stuarts; Chevy 
 Chase. 
 
 But Robert Bruce's daughter, Marjory, 
 had married Walter, the hereditary Lord 
 High Steward of Scotland; and so deeply 
 were the Scottish people attached to the 
 family of Bruce, that they now offered the 
 vacant throne to the son of this Marjory. 
 His name was Robert Stewart, — the name 
 being derived from the office whigh his fathers 
 had so long held. This, then, was the acces- 
 sion of the house of Stewart, or Stuart, as] it 
 is often spelt. It reigned over Scotland until 
 1688, after which the male line went into 
 exile, as readers of history know. But a 
 descendant by the female line reigns happily 
 over both England and Scotland to this day. 
 
 In the reign of Robert Stuart was fought 
 the battle of Otterburn, so well known to us 
 through the grand old ballad of Chevy Chase. 
 The leader on the Scottish side was William, 
 Earl of Douglas, who possessed almost a 
 sovereign authority in Southern Scotland. 
 He invaded England, and laid waste the 
 country round Newcastle, but was encoun- 
 tered by Percy, Earl of Northumberland, the 
 greatest man in those parts ; and the result 
 was that the English were defeated, Nor- 
 thumberland's sons being made captive ; but 
 Douglas was killed. 
 
 In 1390, Robert II. was succeeded by his 
 son, Robert III. The feuds between the 
 Highland clans still continued, to the great 
 misery of the country. One of these feuds, 
 the memorable combat between the Clan 
 Chattern and Clan Kay, has been made famous 
 
 178 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW 
 
 by Sir Walter Scott's beautiful novel, " The 
 Fair Maid of Perth." Another event of this 
 reign has also become a standard passage in 
 English literature. A fresh border feud led 
 to the battle of Homildon Hill, between Earl 
 Douglas and Hotspur, the son of the Earl of 
 Northumberland. And all readers of Shak- 
 speare will remember what glorious use the 
 great dramatist has made of it in his play of 
 Henry IV. Another trouble of this reign 
 arose out of quarrels in the royal family. 
 The King was weak of body, and somewhat 
 infirm of purpose. His brother, the Duke of 
 Albany, who would be the next heir if King 
 Robert's children were out of the way, sowed 
 dissensions between the King and the Duke 
 of Rothesay, the heir apparent; and the un- 
 happy prince was seized by Albany, shut up 
 in a fortress, and starved to death. The 
 King suspected, but did not know as a cer- 
 tainty, that his son had perished through 
 Albany's intrigues. He had only one son 
 left, named James, and he determined to send 
 him to France to be out of Albany's way; 
 but an English vessel captured him, and he 
 was kept close prisoner by King Henry IV. 
 for eighteen years. Soon after his capture, 
 poor old King Robert died broken-hearted 
 (April 4th, 1406). 
 
 James I., The Royal Poet. 
 James I., who thus became a king while in 
 captivity,was the greatest of the Stewart kings. 
 He was the greatest king of his time in 
 Europe. Henry IV. had no right to make 
 him prisoner, but he took great care to give 
 him an excellent education. He was beauti- 
 ful in face and form, and excelled all his 
 nobles in martial sports and athletic exercises. 
 His poem, called " The King's Ouhair," i.e., 
 the king's little book, is a love-poem in 
 honour of his wife, the Lady Joan Beaufort, 
 daughter of the Duke of Somerset. He 
 may be regarded as the first Scottish 
 poet, as Chaucer the first English. Dur- 
 ing his English captivity, the Scottish 
 feuds continued ; Albany was regent so long 
 as he lived, then his son took his place. But 
 all was so miserable, that the Scots exerted 
 themselves to get back their King. They 
 offered a considerable ransom ; the English 
 were glad to accept it, for James, in his cap- 
 tivity, had wooed the fair Joan of Somerset, 
 great grand-daughter of King Edward III. It 
 was hoped that this alliance would dispose King 
 James to peace with England. He came, in 
 his thirty-fourth year, back to his distracted 
 home, and was crowned, with his Queen, 
 May 2 1 St, 1424. He forthwith assembled his 
 Parliament, and made excellent laws ; but 
 he soon found out that what was needed was 
 not laws, but the enforcement of obedience 
 to them. To this, then, he devoted himself. 
 Terrible disorders need terrible remedies, 
 
 and he began his course of stern justice by 
 condemning the late regent and his sons to 
 death for murders and cruelties during his 
 captivity. He laboured hard and wisely ; 
 Parliaments were regularly convened, and 
 the country was rapidly falling into such 
 order as had never been known before. But 
 his severity could not fail to raise up enemies 
 against him ; and on the 20th of Feb'-^'iary, 
 1437, at the monastery of the Black briars 
 in Perth, whilst the King was enjoying the 
 society of the fair Queen, whose voice had 
 captivated him on the slopes of Windsor, a 
 band of conspirators, headed by one Robert 
 Graham, whom he had banished for violence 
 and fraud, rushed into the room and mur- 
 dered him. Poor Queen Joan fled to Edin- 
 burgh with her little son, and so effectually 
 roused the loyal Scots by her courage and 
 indignation, that within a month the traitors 
 had all been tortured to death. 
 
 James II. ; A Turbulent Vassal. 
 Again was the unhappy kingdom thrown 
 into the troubles and discords of a regency. 
 Two regents were appointed, the one to guard 
 the King's person, the other to administer the 
 kingdom; but theyfell to quarrelling with each 
 other, and had, moreover, to contend with 
 one more powerful than either, — Archibald, 
 the great Earl of Douglas, lord of the whole 
 south of Scotland, and also Duke of Touraine, 
 in France. They contrived to murder him 
 treacherously, but only increased thereby 
 the power of his family. When the King 
 came to man's estate, he tried to conciliate 
 William, Earl Douglas, by making him Lieu- 
 tenant-General of Scotland ; but nought 
 would content the proud noble but indepen- 
 dent sovereignty; and he not only did acts in 
 defiance of the King's commands, but entered 
 into an alliance with the Earls of Crawford 
 and Ross, who possessed almost royal au- 
 thority in the east and north, to defend each 
 other in every quarrel against every man, the 
 King included. So arose a long civil war, 
 which ended in the downfall of the great 
 house of Douglas, and tranquillity again 
 seemed to settle upon Scotland. But when, 
 in 1460, King James determined to retake 
 Roxburgh Castle from the English, into whose 
 hands it had fallen, and laid siege to it, he 
 was killed by the bursting of a cannon. 
 
 James III. ; Archibald Bell-the-Cat. 
 
 James III., who reigned from 1460 to 1488, 
 ruined his own peace and that of his king- 
 dom by giving himself to unworthy and 
 unprincipled favourites. Moreover, his nobles 
 despised him because he was a coward. They 
 held a secret council to consult how to meet 
 the evil, and one of them told the fable of the 
 mice who resolved to affix a bell to the cat's 
 neck, but could not carry out the resolve be- 
 
 179 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 cause no mouse could be found to do the 
 duty. But in reply, Archibald, Earl of Angus, 
 sprung up, exclaiming, " I will bell the cat ! " 
 and " Bell-ihe-Cat" he was called from that 
 day to the end of his life. 
 
 He was as good as his word ; for on that 
 very day the lords, under his leadership, seized 
 the whole body of parasites and hanged 
 therfi. For a while the lesson seemed to 
 have profited the King ; but before long he 
 had returned to his former follies, to which 
 he added an insatiate thirst for money. He 
 would do nothing, whether as favour or as 
 right, without a gratuity, and he thus accu- 
 mulated a vast hoard of coin, plate, and 
 jewels. A fresh league was formed, headed 
 by Angus Bell-the-Cat ; the King heard of 
 it, and fled to the north, leaving his son in 
 safe custody at Stirling Castle. But the 
 leaguers bribed the governors to commit the 
 prince to them ; and at length battle was 
 joined at a stream called Sauchieburn, only 
 a mile from the field of Bannockburn. It 
 was the iSthof June, 1488. On the King's 
 side were 10,000 Highlanders, 10,000 men 
 from the western counties, and the burghers 
 of various towns. On the other side were 
 the men of the East Borders and of East 
 Lothian, and those of Liddesdale and 
 Annandale. In the centre were tlie rebel 
 lords, bearing with them the young Prince 
 James, and displaying the broad banner of 
 Scotland. What followed is well told in 
 Kinloch's charming little " History of Scot- 
 land": — "The first shower of arrows had 
 barely whizzed through the air, and the long 
 spears of Annandale had just begun their 
 bloody work on the royal army, when the 
 King lost heart. He was mounted on a fiery 
 steed, which he could not manage (it had 
 been presented to him by Lord Lindsay 
 before the battle) ; the clamour of war dis- 
 mayed his unaccustomed ears ; he saw his 
 own banner unfurled against him ; he knew 
 that his own boy was in the enemy's camp ; 
 and the remembrance of an old prophecy, 
 that a lion should be devoured by its own 
 whelps, gnawed his heart. It was too much 
 for James III., and, turning his horse's head, 
 he galloped from the field." 
 
 Death of James III. 
 As he rode down the brae to cross the 
 Bannockburn, a woman, who had come to 
 a spring for water, startled at the sudden 
 appearance of a man in full armour, suddenly 
 dropped her pitcher ; and his startled horse 
 flinging him to the ground, he fainted away. 
 A miller and his wife carried him to the 
 corner of their mill ; and with returning con- 
 sciousness he asked for a confessor, mur- 
 muring in the bitterness of his soul, " I was 
 your king this morning." The woman 
 immediately ran out into the road, and cried 
 
 loudly for a priest for the king. The cry 
 was soon heard, and a man hurrying up 
 announced, " I am a priest; where is the 
 King ? " She led him into the mill ; and 
 kneeling down by his sovereign, the man 
 inquired, with a concerned face, if he thought 
 he might survive by the aid of surgery. " I 
 believe that I might ; but," added the dying 
 man, " let me make my confession and have 
 the Eucharist." The stranger bowed his 
 head, and gave earnest attention to the gasp- 
 ing story of sin and suffering. When he had 
 heard all he cared to know, he bent yet closer 
 to the King, and, drawing a dagger from the 
 folds of his dress, stabbed him to death. 
 
 One who visited it two years ago writes : — 
 " The scene is absolutely unchanged. The 
 bridle road is narrow, and descends the steep 
 hill-side to the murmuring shallow stream of 
 the Bannock, here called the Bloody-ford, 
 from a tradition that it ran red with blood 
 on the battle-day of Bruce. The mill is 
 passed a few paces before arriving at the 
 stream. It is not now a mill, but the old 
 mill-lade and dam remain, though dry. It 
 is a cottage with a ground-floor only, a 
 thatched roof, and with picturesque stepped 
 gables, as is so common in Scotland. The 
 stone walls are immensely thick, and no 
 other house is within immediate sight of it. 
 The spring is on the face of the hill, a few 
 paces above the mill, and with only the 
 bridle-road between the two. Any one coming 
 down the road finds himself suddenly close 
 to the spring round a turn of the road, 
 having been, till then, invisible and unheard, 
 owing to the height of the banks between 
 which the road runs. It was curious that a 
 damsel was actually drawing water at the 
 spring as I came upon it. One hand rested 
 on the large flagstone which covers the recess 
 of the spring ; the other was raising the 
 pitcher from the sparkling water, which 
 filled the bason and trickled over the margin 
 of the little pool. Looking suddenly up at 
 the sound of my steps, and seeing a gigantic 
 Englishman before her, she made a motion 
 as though to drop the pitcher. It was exactly 
 the old coincidence. A horse starting here, 
 at a noise at the well, must swerve round 
 and spring up the bank, to avoid dashing 
 his shoulder against the mill wall. A man 
 in heavy armour could not possibly have 
 kept his seat ; and the fall from this height 
 in armour would be fearful. I never saw a 
 scene which brought a historical tragedy so 
 vividly before my mind as this. It is as yet 
 untouched in all its details." 
 
 James IV. ; Happy Auspices unful- 
 filled. 
 
 So perished James III., in the flower of his 
 life, for he was but thirty-six years old. It 
 was a sad augury for the son who now suc- 
 
 180 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW. 
 
 ceeded him, and the catastrophe of whose 
 own hfe is the main subject of the present 
 paper. The remonstrances of the clergy, — 
 if he had not already discovered the truth 
 for himself, — taught him that he had com- 
 mitted a wicked action, and, among other 
 tokens of repentance, he wore an iron girdle 
 under his clothes, and added a fresh link 
 every year. 
 
 His administration of Government was 
 wise, and his authority over his nobles great. 
 Scotland enjoyed unwonted prosperity, and 
 Henry VII., who had become King of Eng- 
 land, sought to make lasting peace between 
 the two countries. He gave his daughter 
 Margaret to James to wife. They were mar- 
 ried at " St. Lambert's Church on Lammer- 
 anoor," in June 1502. In the treaty of mar- 
 
 They had refused to make any amend ; there- 
 fore the King of Scotland authorized the 
 family of Barton to make reprisals, and 
 capture any Portuguese vessels they might 
 meet with. Thereupon Andrew Barton, a 
 daring seaman, cruized about in the English 
 Channel with two strong ships, and stopped 
 not only Portuguese vessels, but English 
 vessels going to Portugal. King Henry, 
 therefore, fitted out two vessels, under the 
 command of Lord Thomas Howard, son of 
 the Earl of Surrey, who chose out first — 
 
 "The ablest gunner in all the realm, 
 Good Peter Simon was his name," 
 
 and a skilful Yorkshire bowman, named 
 William Hustler,* and with these and many 
 "pikes, and guns, and bowmen bold," he 
 
 Old Windsor Castle, the Place of Captivity of James I. 
 
 riage all mention of English claim over Scot- 
 land was carefully omitted. 
 
 So far well. But the accession of Henry 
 VIII. to the English throne was the beginning 
 of fresh ill feeling. There were several causes 
 for this. The two brothers-in-law were 
 personally jealous of each other. The French 
 king flattered and courted the Scottish. 
 
 Then James was anxious to make a strong 
 fleet and to extend his commerce, as he had 
 numerous good harbours, and that was, more 
 than any age before, a time of sea enterprise. 
 And so he gathered a royal navy of sixteen 
 ships. 
 
 The Barton Family; A Gallant 
 
 Fight. 
 Now it so happened that a Scottish sea- 
 man, named John Barton, had some thirty 
 years before been captured by the Portuguese. 
 
 sailed out at Thames' mouth. After three days' 
 sail he fell in with a merchant who had been 
 robbed by Barton, and who was now called 
 upon by Lord Howard to direct him to the 
 pirates' whereabouts. The merchant demurred, 
 he was such a terrible foe to meet : — 
 
 " He is brass within and steel without. 
 With beams on his topcastle strong ; 
 And eighteen pieces of ordnance stout 
 He carries on each side along. 
 "And he hath a pinnace richly dight, 
 St. Andrew's cross that is his guide ; 
 His pinnace beareth nine score men, 
 And fifteen cannons on each side." 
 
 Nothing daunted. Lord Howard insisted on 
 the merchant guiding him ; and next morning 
 they came in sight of Sir Andrew Barton. 
 The grand old ballad from which we have 
 
 * Erroneously called " Horlsey " in the old ballad. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 quoted then goes on to describe the fight. 
 Barton had heavy beams hung at the end of 
 his yards, to throw down upon any ship that 
 attempted to board him. One sailor after 
 another mounted to do so, as the English 
 ship drew alongside, but the unfailing skill 
 
 fell mortally wounded. The pirate ship was. 
 boarded, and carried off in triumph. 
 
 '' Lord Howard then a letter wrote, 
 And sealed it with seal and ring ; 
 ' Such a noble prize have I brought your grace,, 
 As never did subject to a king. 
 
 Percy and Douglas at the Battle of Chevy Chase. 
 
 of Hustler brought them down. At length f 
 Sir Andrew himself mounted. Hustler had 
 but two arrows left. The first struck the 
 pirate on the breast, but bounded back from 
 his armour of proof. He had reached his 
 beam, and was already moving it when 
 Hustler, spying a spot left exposed under 
 his arm, sent an arrow through it, and he 
 
 " 'Sir Andrew's ship I bring with me, 
 
 A braver ship was never none, . 
 
 Now hath your grace two ships of war 
 Before in England was but one." " 
 
 Causes of Quarrel between England- 
 "and Scotland. 
 
 James IV. was very angry at the confisca- 
 
 182 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW 
 
 tion of the vessels, and this was one cause of 
 ill-feeHng between the kings. Others super- 
 vened. Some English borderers had killed 
 King James's Warden of the Marshes, and 
 James declared that King Henry was protect- 
 ing the murderers from justice. One of these 
 was named Heron. The English Govern- 
 ment sentenced him to death, and believed 
 that the sentence was executed. But a heap 
 of stones only had been buried in the coffin. 
 We shall hear of Heron again. 
 
 Whilst things were thus ready for an ex- 
 plosion, King Henry invaded France in July 
 1 5 13, and laid siege to Terouenne, or Tirwan, 
 as it is called in the old ballads. 
 
 Now let us quote some stanzas of an ancient 
 verse chronicle : — 
 
 " Before King Henry crossed the seas. 
 And o'er to France he did transfleet, 
 Lest that the Scots should him disease* 
 He constituted captains meet. 
 
 " For he perusing, in presence, 
 
 Of English kings, their barons bold, 
 He saw how Scots in their absence, 
 What damage they had done of old. 
 
 " He for the Earl of Surrey sent, 
 
 And Regent of the north him made ; 
 And bade him, if the Scots were bent. 
 The northern borders to invade ; 
 
 " That he should raise a royal band 
 In Bishoprick t and in Yorkshire, 
 In Westmoreland and Cumberland, 
 In Cheshire, and in Lancashire. 
 
 " ' And if thou need Northumberland,' 
 
 Quoth he, ' there be strong men and stout, 
 That will not stick, if need doth stand. 
 To fight on horseback or on foot. 
 
 " 'There is the doughty Dacres old. 
 Warden of the West March is he : 
 There are the sons of Kendal bold, 
 Who fierce will fight and never flee. 
 
 " 'There is Sir Edward Stanley stout, 
 Who martial skill doth never lack, 
 From Latliom House his line came out, 
 Whose blood will never turn their back. 
 
 " 'AH Lancashire will live and die 
 With him, so also will Cheshire ; 
 For through his father's loyalty 
 This kingdom first came to my sire. 
 
 " ' Lord Clifford too, a lusty troop 
 
 Will there conduct, — a captain wise ; 
 And with the lusty knight, Lord Scroop, 
 The power of Richm^ndshire will rise. 
 
 " ' The wardens all take heed you warn 
 To harken what the Scots forecast ; 
 If they the signs of war discern, 
 
 Bid them the beacons fire full fast." " 
 
 The ballad goes on to tell how Lord Surrey + 
 
 * Disturb, harass. 
 
 t Durham. 
 
 t He had been knighted for his bravery at the 
 battle of Barnet ; had fought for King Richard III. 
 at Bosworth ; had been sent to the Tower by Henry 
 
 accepted the trust, marched northward, and 
 set his watches, to prevent the surprise which 
 Henry rightly anticipated his brother-in-law 
 would attempt. Then it goes on to describe 
 the proceedings of the Scottish King when 
 he knew that King Henry had "fared forth" 
 to France. 
 
 " King James his courage 'gan to increase, 
 And of his council craved to know 
 If he had better live in peace, 
 Or fight against his brother-in-law. 
 
 ' ' ' Alas ! ' said he, ' my heart is sore, 
 And care constraineth me to weep. 
 That ever I to England swore 
 Or league or love a day to keep, 
 
 " ' Had I not entered in that bond, 
 
 I sware now, by this burnished blade, 
 England and Scotland both one land 
 And kingdom one I could have made.' 
 
 ' ' Then stood there up a baron stout, 
 A lusty laird of Douglas blood : 
 ' My liege, ' quoth he, ' have thou no doubt. 
 But mark my words 'with mirthful mood. 
 
 " ' The league is broke, have thou no dread* 
 Believe me, liege, my words are true ; 
 What was the English admiral's deed. 
 When Andrew Barton bold he slew ? 
 
 ' ' • Your ships and armour too he took ; 
 And since their king did nothing fear 
 To send his aid against the Duke 
 Of Gelders, your own cousin dear. 
 
 " ' Hath not the bastard Heron slain 
 Your warden with his spiteful spear? 
 The league and peace are therefore vain ; 
 My liege, you nothing have to fear.' 
 
 " Then manful Maxwell answered soon, 
 
 ' My liege, the league is broke by right. 
 
 For the English king ought not to have gone 
 
 Against your friends in France to fight. 
 
 " ' What greater kindness coiild you show 
 Unto your friend, the King of France, 
 Than in English blood your blade to imbrue. 
 Against their land to lift your lance ? 
 
 '' ' You see what damage to you was done 
 By English kings in time of old ; 
 
 Your border biuned, and Berwick town 
 Still by strong hand they from you hold. 
 
 " 'Wherefore, more time let's not consume. 
 But fiercely fight that land again.' 
 
 "And then stood up haughty Lord Hume, 
 Of Scotland the chief chamberlain. 
 
 " ' My liege,' quoth he, ' in all your life 
 More lucky fate could never fall ; 
 For now that land, with little grief. 
 Unto your crown you conquer shall. 
 
 " ' King Henry, you shall understand. 
 Is gone to France with all his peers ; 
 At home is left none in the land 
 
 But joltheaded monks and bursten friars. 
 
 VII., but, at the end of three years, having received 
 proof of his high integrity, Henry raised him to 
 dignity and honour at his court, and he was chosen 
 to convey fair Margaret to Scotland to marry 
 James IV. 
 
 183 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OE HISTORY. 
 
 " ' There's not a lord left in England, 
 But all are gone beyond the sea ; 
 Both knight and baron, with his band, 
 With ordnance and artillery." " 
 
 Then King James put questions as to who 
 had gone with King Henry, and heard the 
 hst of great lords — Percy of Northumberland, 
 Talbot, Buckingham, Cobham, and a hundred 
 others. 
 
 ' ' The King then asked his lords all round 
 If war or peace they did prefer. 
 They cried, and made the hall resound, 
 ' Let peace go back, and let's have war.' " 
 
 Vigorous Measures of the Scottish 
 King. 
 
 And thus was James led to send his sum- 
 mons to Henry to desist from attacking the 
 French king ; and the minstrel tells how 
 Henry received the embassage, and bade the 
 messenger take back his defiance, whilst, 
 according to custom, he gave him a hand- 
 some present.* But the defiance never was 
 conveyed to James, for before the messenger 
 returned he had begun the war. He did not 
 do so, however, without urgent remonstrances 
 and entreaties against it from wiser heads 
 than his own. Anne of Brittany, the Queen 
 of France, urged him on, working on his 
 romantic and chivalrous feelings, while his 
 own queen, Margaret, prayed and supplicated 
 him to refrain. She bade him remember 
 that she had but one son, and that an infant, 
 and that he was running a senseless risk, and 
 making discord where there might be peace. 
 His angry reply was that she was the King 
 of England's sister, and her advice, therefore, 
 unpatriotic. 
 
 A Medieval Story. 
 Strange warnings came to him, probably 
 got up by friends who saw his folly and de- 
 sired to reach him through his superstitions. 
 Thus, as he was attending mass in Linlith- 
 gow church, on the anniversary of his father's 
 death, a figure appeared to him, habited Uke 
 one of the saints in the windows, professing 
 to be sent by the Blessed Virgin Mary, and 
 warning him both against war and against 
 his personal vices. Then the apparition 
 vanished, but the King, and those to whom 
 
 King James's letter and King Henry's reply are 
 both in existence, dated July i6th and August 12th 
 respectively. James dwells at great length on the 
 Heron business, and many other small grievances, 
 but there is a want of reality about the whole letter. 
 It gives the impression of a man who wants to 
 quarrel. Henry retorts that Scotland has given many 
 injuries to England, that he knows him not as a 
 competent judge in so high a matter as the invasion 
 of an enemy, and concludes as follows : — "And as ye 
 do with us and our realme, so shall it be remembered 
 and acquitted hereafter by the help of our Lorde, 
 and our patronne Saint George. " 
 
 184 
 
 he told it, believed that the mysterious visitor 
 was the apostle St. John. Another day, 
 somewhat later, when 100,000 men were 
 already gathered for the war, a voice was 
 heard at midnight from the Market Cross of 
 Edinburgh, while the King was sleeping at 
 Holyrood, citing the King to death within 
 forty days. But nothing moved him ; and he 
 commenced badly enough. Let the minstrel 
 once more take up the tale. 
 
 How James IV. prepared for War. 
 
 "Then every lord and knight each where. 
 And barons bold in musters met ; 
 Each man made haste to mend his gear, 
 And some their rusty pikes did whet. 
 
 " Some made their battle-axes bright. 
 Some from their bills did rub the rust, 
 Some made long pikes and lances light, 
 Some pike-forks for to join and thrust. 
 
 ' ' Some did a spear for weapon wield. 
 Some did their lusty geldings try, 
 Some all with gold did gild their shield. 
 Some did with divers colours dye. 
 
 " The tillmen tough their teams could take. 
 And to hard harness them conflate ; 
 One of a share can shortly make 
 A sallat for to save his pate. 
 
 "Dame Ceres did unserved remain, 
 The fertile fields did lie untilled ; 
 Outrageous Mars so sore did reign 
 That Scotland was with fury filled. 
 
 " Whereof the King, in heart full fain. 
 His men had all things ready made, 
 Did then command his chamberlain 
 In England for to make a raid. 
 
 " The chamberlain. Lord Home, in haste. 
 Who border-warden was also, 
 Within the English borders brast [burst] 
 With full eight thousand men and moe. 
 
 "They entered in Northumberland 
 
 With banners bravely blazed and borne. 
 And finding none who could withstand, 
 They straight destroyed the hay and com. 
 
 " And spoiled and harried all abroad, 
 
 And on each side in booties brought ; 
 
 Some coursers got, some weldings good, 
 
 And droves of kine and cattle caught. 
 
 '' And stately halls and houses gay, 
 
 And buildings brave, they boldly burned ; 
 And with a mighty spoil and prey, 
 
 Toward Scotland they then straight returned. 
 
 " Sir William Bulmer, being told 
 
 Of this great road and wild array, 
 Did straight forecast all means he could, 
 The Scots in their return to stay. 
 
 "Two hundred men himself did lead, 
 
 To him there came the borderers stout, 
 And divers gentlemen, with speed. 
 Repaired to him with all their rout. 
 
 " They were not' all a thousand m.en. 
 
 But kno\\ ing where the Scots would come, 
 The borderers jest this course did ken, 
 And hid them in a field of broom. 
 
 " The Scots came scouring homewards fast. 
 And proudly pricked forth with their prey ; 
 Thinking their perils all were past. 
 They straggling ran clear out of 'ray. 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW. 
 
 ' ' The Englishmen burst forth apace, 
 
 And skirmished with the Scots anon ; 
 There was fierce fighting, face to faoe, 
 And many a one was made to groan. 
 
 ''There men might see spears fly in speels. 
 
 And tall men tumbling on the soil, 
 
 And many a horse turned up his heels ; 
 
 Outrageous Mars kept each a coil. 
 
 "The Scots their strength did long extend, 
 And broken ranks did still renew ; 
 But the English archers in the end 
 With arrowshot full sore them slew. 
 
 "The English spears, on the other side. 
 Among the Scots did fiercely fling. 
 And through their ranks did rattling ride. 
 And chased them through moss, mire, and ling. 
 
 "Six hundred Scots lay slain on ground, 
 Five hundred prisoners and more ; 
 Of Englishmen, slain in that stound. 
 The number was not past three score. 
 
 " In August month this broil befel. 
 
 The day still black with Scottish blood, 
 As diverse old men yet dp tell; 
 
 The Scots it call ' The de%-ilish road.' " 
 
 Obstinacy of the King ; The War 
 Continued. 
 
 The warning of this most unauspicious 
 beginning of the war was lost upon King 
 James, though it was echoed from the hps of 
 some of his best counsellors. He assembled 
 a great army, placed himself at the head, and 
 entered England, near the castle of Twisell, 
 August 22nd, 151 3. Again he gathered great 
 spoil, and took many border fortresses. The 
 same ballad chronicle that we Rave been 
 quoting states that he was baulked at the 
 castle of Norham, until a traitorous soldier, 
 who had dwelt in it for thirty years, offered 
 to show him a secret entrance for a rich 
 bribe. James took advantage of the offer, 
 captured the castle, and then hanged the 
 traitor. 
 
 The acquisition of the castle of Ford cost 
 him dear. He had taken the owner of it 
 prisoner in Scotland, and now the beautiful 
 lady of the castle set herself to amuse and 
 delay him, like another Judith. He began a 
 course of dalliance and folly, as also, it is 
 said, did his son Alexander Stewart (of whom 
 more hereafter) with her daughter, and twenty 
 days were spent here in folly and worse, while 
 the provisions which had been brought from 
 Scotland for the soldiers were being eaten 
 up. At the end of that time she slipped away 
 to the Earl of Surrey to inform him that his 
 time was now come. 
 
 The Opponent of James. 
 Meanwhile the Earl, having sent round 
 his summons to all the northern shires to 
 meet him on the ist of September at New- 
 castle, hastened through Durham, where, 
 having stayed to hear mass devoutly, and 
 invoke the aid of St. Cuthbert, he arrived 
 
 at Newcastle on the last day of August, and 
 found himself at the head of 26,000 men. 
 The ballad gives a glowing account of the 
 gathering, — of the anxieties of wives and chil- 
 dren as they saw the men going forth in 
 martial array, — of the many masses said on 
 "hallowed stones," — of the anxiety caused by 
 a great storm, which, it was feared, would 
 destroy the fleet of Surrey's son, the Lord 
 High Admiral, which was on its way to New- 
 castle, — of the safe arrival of this fleet, and the 
 cries of joy. 
 
 ' ' Who, when the Earl of Surrey saw, 
 He thanked God with heart so mild, 
 And hands for joy to heaven did throw, — 
 His son was saved from waters wild. 
 
 "A merry meeting there was seen, 
 
 For first they kissed and then embraced ; 
 For joy the tears fell from their een. 
 All forepast fears were then effaced." 
 
 While the English forces were thus drawing 
 to a head, the Scotch were rapidly becoming 
 disorganized. Their provisions, as we have 
 seen, ran short, and others went home to put 
 their booty in safety. 
 
 Surrey, feeling his own strength, sent a 
 cartel of defiance to the Scottish King. James 
 was desirous of accepting it at once, but his 
 lords endeavoured to dissuade him. Surrey, 
 they said, was like a gambler, who offered to 
 stake acrooked halfpenny against arose noble. 
 James angrily replied that on his return home 
 he would hang anybody who should play the 
 coward. Angus Bell-the-Cat, now a very old 
 man, still urged caution ; the irritated King 
 scornfully replied that if he were afraid he 
 might go home. He should have spared the 
 old earl such an undeserved taunt. The old 
 man burst into tears and retired ; but his two 
 sons remained, and perished in the battle. 
 The King declared that he would accept 
 Surrey's challenge. 
 
 Position of the Armies. 
 
 The two armies had now approached within 
 five miles of each other. With the large 
 scale Ordnance Map before us, we can follow 
 all the movements with precision. The Earl 
 of Surrey was at Wooler. Close by runs a 
 stream called the Till — a stream of continuous 
 doublings and windings, flowing northwards 
 to join the Tweed, and along the east side 
 of it for a couple of miles runs a plain called 
 the Millfield. The Scotch were on Flodden 
 Hill, an eminence surmounting, and in part 
 surrounding, the north-west side of the Mill- 
 field. The whole district consists now entirely 
 of enclosed fields with a few plantations; it was 
 then an open flat, covered with broom. On 
 the side where Flodden Hill overlooks the 
 Millfield it is steep in descent. This part is 
 called Flodden Edge. Along the level crest 
 of it lay the Scottish army. Lord Surrey 
 
 i8s 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 beheld with so much misgiving the strength 
 of the position that he sent a message to 
 King James, inviting him to come down into 
 the open Millfield and fight him, assuring 
 him that this would be the more honourable 
 and chivalrous course for him to take. 
 
 Letter of Surrey to King James. 
 
 The original document, or a duplicate of 
 it in Surrey's own hand, is preserved in the 
 State Paper Office. As I do not know 
 whether it has ever been printed, I subjoin it. 
 
 "Right high and mighty prynce. So it is that 
 
 accomplysshing of yr honrble pmysse ye woU dispose 
 yorselfe for yr parte Hke as I shall doo for myn to be 
 to morrow with yor hoste in yor side of the playne of 
 Mylfeld. In hkewise as I shall w' the king my 
 souverayne lord subgitts on my side of the saide 
 playne redy to give you bataille betweene xii of the 
 clock and iii in the aftnoone upon sufficient warning 
 by you to be given by viii or ix in the morning by the- 
 said present. And like as I and other noble men my 
 companye bynd us by this and our writing w' our" 
 hande to keepe the same tyme for thentent above- 
 said. It may like yor grace by your honrable act 
 subscribed with yor hand to bynd yor grace for the 
 accomplyshing of this our desire. Trustyng that ye 
 woU depeche our said pseunt Imedyatly for the long 
 delay of so honorable a jorney we think shuld sounde 
 
 King Henry VIII. from a Portrait by Holbein. 
 
 lately I sent unto you Rougecross pi.rsuivant-at- 
 armes, and by him advertized yr grace that I and 
 my soveraign lords subjectts wod come to represse 
 and resiste yr invasyons of this the kyng my said 
 soveraign lords Realme. And for that entent I 
 offered to geve you bataill on this ffrydaye next 
 comyng. Whrofe my message yr grace tok pleasr 
 to hear as I am informed and by your herald Hay ye 
 made aunswer that ye were right joyous of my desire 
 and wold not fayle to acccmplishe the same and to 
 abide me there wher ye wod at the tyme of my 
 message unto your grace. Albeit it hath pleased you 
 to chaunge yor sayd promyse and putte yorself into 
 a ground more lyke a fortresse or a camp than upon 
 any indifferent \i.e. impartial] grounde for bataill. 
 Wherlor finding the day appoynted soo nygh ap- 
 fTOchyng I nov/ desire of yor grace that for the 
 
 to yr dishonour. Written in the feld in Wolleshaugh 
 this vii day of Scptembre at v of the clok in the aftre- 
 none. 
 
 "T. Surrey." 
 [and 14 others.] 
 
 But the King was hardly so foolish as 
 Surrey must have thought him. He returned 
 for answer that such a message did not be- 
 come an earl to send to a king. 
 
 The Plan of the Battle. 
 
 Surrey now felt himself in a serious strait. 
 His men were running short of food. The 
 chronicler Hall declares that for two days 
 186 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW. 
 
 they had fasted from everything but 
 water. 
 
 Whilst Surrey was dehberating, a man in 
 disguise came to offer his help, provided he 
 were forgiven certain past transgressions. 
 The promise was given, and he then revealed 
 himself as Heron, whom we have already 
 seen as sentenced to death for border war- 
 fare, and as having escaped. Surrey had 
 thought him dead till now, but readily wel- 
 comed him, and placed himself under his 
 guidance, and executed a daring plan. On 
 " a foul and windy day he marched north- 
 
 quarry. Surrey was now northward of the 
 Scots, 
 
 Next morning Surrey turned and passed the 
 Till by Twisell castle, near the junction of the 
 river with the Tweed. In so doing he placed 
 himself in a position of great danger, for the 
 passage was a very difficult one, and his 
 army might probably have been destroyed 
 before they had taken up their position across 
 the stream. It was thus that Wallace had 
 won the battle of Stirling. But King James 
 refused. He thought more of displaying his 
 personal prowess than of saving his country, 
 
 Relics from the Battle of FLonDEN — Pennons and Weapons. 
 
 ward, past the Scottish lines which lay on 
 his left, taking care to keep out of reach of 
 their artillery, and on the evening of the 8th 
 of September, he rested at Barmoor Wood, 
 about two miles distant from the Scots, but 
 hidden from them by a low hill. His march, 
 indeed, had been seen by King James from 
 a spot which is still called " The King's 
 Chair," a heap of rocks in the middle of 
 Flodden edge, on which the King sat, obsti- 
 nately refusing all suggestions to attack them 
 while in movement. The spot is now marked 
 by a clump of firs, but has been greatly 
 altered by the opening of a large stone 
 
 and he wanted a stand-up fight. He scorn- 
 fully refused the advice of his lords ; and when 
 the commander of his artillery asked for leave 
 to cannonade the English while crossing, he 
 only got a threat to hang him if he fired a 
 single shot. 
 
 We have seen an act of grace done by 
 Surrey. Here is one recorded of King James 
 on the morning of the battle. The young 
 Earl of Caithness had incurred outlawry for 
 revenging an ancient feud. He came now to 
 the King, accompanied by three hundred men, 
 and submitted himself to his mercy. The 
 delighted monarch granted him an immunity, 
 
 187 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and, because no other parchment could be 
 procured, the skins were cut from a drum- 
 head. The document is still preserved by 
 the family. The earl and his gallant band 
 perished to a man on the fatal field. 
 
 His crossing thus made good, Surrey took 
 up his position on Brankstone Moor, between 
 Scotland and King James's army. Then the 
 latter was stricken with a sudden terror lest 
 Surrey should enter Scotland without check, 
 and lay it waste. King James therefore gave 
 orders to set fire to the camp huts, and, under 
 cover of the smoke, he descended the hill 
 which slopes gently on that side, and marched 
 up the opposite hill of Brankstone, on the 
 side of which Surrey's army was posted. In 
 this movement he was a good deal harassed 
 by the English artillery, which opened fire 
 upon him as he advanced. It was posted 
 between the divisions of the English army. 
 
 The Battle of Flodden. 
 
 At four o'clock in the afternoon of Tues- 
 day, September 9th, 1513, the furious onset 
 began, after a deadly discharge of arrows 
 as the two armies neared each other. 
 There were no tactics in the battle, no 
 blunders. It was sheer hard fighting. First 
 the left wing of the Scots, commanded by 
 the Earl of Huntly and Lord Home, attacked 
 and repulsed the right wing of the English 
 under Sir Edmund Howard, the general's 
 second son. But a strong body of horse in 
 reserve, under Lord Dacre, rushed to the 
 rescue, and succeeded. Not only so, but 
 they carried havoc into the midst of Home's 
 men, who were chiefly rough borderers, and 
 who, thinking that the victory was already 
 gained, had begun to disperse in search of 
 pillage. In the centre a desperate contest 
 was carried on between James and Surrey, 
 the King, forgetting that the duties of a com- 
 mander were different from those of a knight, 
 placing himself in the front of his spearmen, 
 and surrounded by his nobles, who, though 
 they grieved at his rashness, would not desert 
 him. For a while his valour carried all before 
 it, and the English centre was broken ; but by 
 this time Lord Dacre, having been successful 
 on his side, charged the Scottish centre in 
 flank until it reeled again. The Earl of 
 Bothwell, however, came up with the Scottish 
 reserve, -and restored the day here. 
 
 On the Scottish right were the Highlanders 
 and Isle men, under the Earls of Lennox and 
 Argyll. These, galled by the showers of 
 English arrows, and unable to reach the 
 enemy with their usual weapons, the broad- 
 sword and axe, resorted to their usual method 
 of fighting, — a method which had many a time 
 been successful in former days, but was 
 worse than useless in conjunction with Low- 
 land spearmen. Their method was to rush 
 rapidly on the foe, and retreat immediately 
 
 if successful. This they did now, in spite of 
 all entreaties. The shock to the English 
 lines was terrible for a moment, but the pike- 
 men stood their ground, and the spent force, 
 unable to recover itself, became altogether 
 disorganized and routed, and fell back among 
 the Lowlanders and threw them also into 
 confusion. 
 
 The Decisive Moment ; Death of 
 THE King. 
 
 Yet, in spite of this disaster on the right, 
 the centre still held its ground desperately. 
 The ground was become slippery and soft 
 with blood, and the Scotsmen pulled off their 
 shoes for a firmer footing. Suddenly Sir 
 Edward Stanley, who had been in command 
 of the English pikemen, who had so effectually 
 withstood the Highland onslaught, called back 
 his men from pursuing them, and turned on 
 the rear of the Scottish centre. This move- 
 ment was decisive. Engaged in front by 
 Surrey, in flank by Dacre, in rear by Stanley, 
 the King's battle even yet fought bravely 
 against these fearful odds, and James con- 
 tinued by voice and gesture to animate his 
 men. He was endeavouring to fight his way 
 to the English commander, in hope of a 
 personal combat, when he fell, pierced with 
 an arrow and mortally wounded with a bill.* 
 The Scottish nobles, with fierce loyalty, threw 
 themselves around his body and fought des- 
 perately, until darkness put an end to the 
 conflict. 
 
 So fierce was the passion, so resolute the 
 Scots who were left alive, that SiuTey dared 
 not move all night. He held his men to- 
 gether, and waited for the morning. When 
 it dawned, the Scottish artillery was seen 
 standing deserted bytheside of Flodden hill, t 
 The men had disappeared. The result of 
 the battle was doubtful no longer. A body 
 of Scots, indeed, appeared on the hill, ap- 
 parently about to charge down, but a dis- 
 charge of English ordnance dispersed them. 
 
 There can be no question that one great 
 cause of the English victory was owing to 
 the skill and courage of the archers. Surrey, 
 who was made Duke of Norfolk in reward of 
 his victory, had an augmentation made to 
 his arms, viz., on the bend, the Red Lion of 
 
 * An old letter, describing the finding of the body, 
 says : " He had received many wounds, most of them 
 mortal. He was wounded in divers places with 
 arrows, his neck was opened to the middle, and his 
 left hand almost cut off, so that it scarcely hung to 
 his arm." 
 
 t There were twenty-two large brass cannon, and 
 in particular seven of a very wide bore, all of the same 
 size and make, called the seven sisters. These last 
 were sent to Berwick ; the rest were long preserved 
 in the border fortress of Etall. There is a long and 
 very curious MS. description of them all preserved in 
 the Herald's College, London. 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW. 
 
 Scotland pierced through the mouth with an 
 arrow. Let us hear the minstrel-chronicler 
 once more : — 
 
 " The Englishmen then feathered flights 
 Set out anon from sounding bow, 
 Which wounded many warlike wights, 
 And many a man to ground did throw. 
 
 •' The grey goose wing did work such grief, 
 
 And did the Scots so scour and skait [scatter], 
 For in their battle, to be brief, 
 They rattling flew as rank as hail. 
 
 " One from his leg the lance did pull, 
 
 One through his stomach sore was stickt ; 
 Some bleeding bellowed. like a bull ; 
 Some through nose and mouth were prickt. 
 
 " But yet the Scots still stout did stand. 
 Till arrow-shot at length was done ; 
 Then plied apace they strokes of hand 
 As they to closest battle run. 
 
 ' Then spears and pikes to work were put. 
 And blows with bills most dour were dealt, 
 And many a cap of steel through cut. 
 And swinging strokes made many swelt." 
 
 Disastrous Nature of the Defeat. 
 
 This is the most disastrous battle in Scot- 
 tish history, not in its ultimate results, but in 
 its immediate loss. There was not, it is said, 
 a noble family in Scotland that did not own 
 a grave on Brankstone Moor. Twelve earls 
 lay dead, lords, knights, and gentlemen with- 
 out numiaer.* Hall the Chronicler says : " Of 
 the Scottes they slewe twelfe thousande, at 
 the leaste, of the best gentlemen and flower 
 of Scotlande ; and of the Englysh syde were 
 slayne and taken not fifteene hundred men, 
 as it appeared by the bok of wages when the 
 souldiers were payed." Holinshed inclines 
 to think the Scottish loss less than this, and 
 the English greater. 
 
 Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of 
 St. Andrew's ; Scotland's Day of 
 Sorrow. 
 
 One of those who fell claims special men- 
 tion — Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of 
 St. Andrew's. He was the natural son of 
 James IV. and Margaret Boyd, and was but 
 eighteen years old. His father, intending 
 hini for high office in the Church, had taken 
 great pains with his education, and sent him 
 abroad. At Padua he studied under the 
 great Erasmus, who declared him his best 
 scholar. Pope Juhus II., to oblige the King, 
 had appointed him to the Archbishopric when 
 he was but fifteen, and on his return to Scot- 
 land, in 1 510, his father also made him Chan- 
 cellor of the Kingdom, and he also received 
 
 * In 1783, a gold ring was found on the field, with 
 the crest of the Campbells upon it. In all probability 
 it belonged to the slain Earl of Argyll. 
 
 two rich abbeys. He did not live, as we see, 
 to perform any of his sacred functions. 
 
 One Andrew Pitcairn was killed with all 
 his seven sons, but his wife gave birth to a 
 posthumous son, and through him the family 
 still exists, and possesses a charter stating 
 the facts, signed by King James V. 
 
 How Scotland mourned for her calamity — 
 not, indeed, despairingly, but with a pride in 
 the devotedness of her sons, and for their 
 fortitude under the calamity — is shown by all 
 the literature of the period, both in prose and 
 verse. She was proud of her dead King, 
 proud of those who had given up themselves 
 to die with him. And yet James IV. was 
 anything but a model king. His bravery 
 and chivalry none can doubt ; he was good- 
 natured and generous, contrasting altogether 
 with his avaricious father ; he excelled in 
 athletics, and loved tournaments and joust- 
 ing ; was fond of riding forth unknown, and 
 lodging in poor men's houses, " that he might 
 bear the common bruit of himself" But he 
 was reckless and self-willed, and a shameful 
 libertine, glorying in his shame, and parading 
 his mistresses in splendour before the world. 
 
 Let us turn to a brighter page ; — how the 
 people of Edinburgh waited in breathless 
 anxiety to hear the news of their King's 
 enterprise ; how they watched the beacon 
 fires on the hills, and trembled as the signals 
 given by them appeared to speak of disaster ; 
 how at length a solitary horseman, Randolph 
 Murray, appeared, and with tears and a few 
 broken words uttered the sad tale, — all this 
 is told in Aytoun's splendid lay, " Edinburgh 
 after Flodden." And the same poem tells 
 how the people wasted no time in unavailing 
 regrets, but gave themselves first to prayer, 
 then to defence. We shall not quote any 
 lines from a ballad of which the reader will 
 rejoice to read every word if he has not yet 
 done so, but the proclamation is so curious, 
 and so brave and wise, that we quote it at 
 length : — 
 
 ' ' X day of September. We do yee to witt ; for sa 
 rneikell [forasmnc/i] as tliair is ane great rumber 
 \ru!noiu-\ now laitlie rysin within this toun, toucheng 
 our Soverane Lord and liis army of the quilk wc 
 understand thair is cumin na veritie as yet, quhairfore 
 we charge straitlieand command in our said Soverane 
 Lord the Kingis name and the presidents for the 
 provest and baillies within this burch \^boivtigh'\, that 
 all maner of persunis, nyhbours within the samen, 
 have reddy their fensabill gcir [anus of defence\ and 
 wapponis for weir, and compeir theirwith to the 
 said presidents at jowiiig [loning\ of the comoun 
 bell for the keeping and defcns of the toun agains 
 thame that wald invade the samyn. 
 
 " And also chairgis that all women and specially 
 vagabounds that thai pass to thair labours, and be 
 not sene upon the gait [street^ claraourand and cry- 
 and under the pane of banesing of their persons but 
 favor \ou pain of banishing them bodily without 
 respect of persons'\ ; and that the other \\omen of gude 
 [7vomen of the better sort} pass to the kirk and pray 
 quhane tyme requires [at the stated hours} for our 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Soverane Lord and his army, and nyebouris being 
 thairat {townsmen who are zu/tk the artny'\, and hold 
 them at thair privie labors off the gait \_keep at their 
 private occupations out of the street'] within their 
 houses as affairs \_as becometh'\." 
 
 The putter forth of this gallant proclama- 
 tion deserves to have his name preserved. 
 It was " George of Towris." 
 
 the British Museum, in which he commends 
 the King for his desire to give the corpse 
 Christian burial, and announces that he has 
 commissioned the Bishop of London to take 
 off all censures, give absolution, and duly 
 bury in sacred ground. Why it was not 
 done we cannot say ; but Stow says that after 
 the dissolution of the monastery of Shene, the 
 
 Death of Sir Andrew Barton. 
 
 The body of King James was found on the 
 field quite naked, was sent to Berwick-on- 
 Tweed, embalmed, enclosed in lead, and sent 
 to London. At the monastery of Shene, in 
 Surrey, it lay long unburied. A papal inter- 
 dict had been issued, forbidding him to go to 
 war ; it had not reached him, but practically 
 it made him excommunicate. A letter of 
 Pope Leo X. to King Henry is preserved in 
 
 body was found in a lumber room in its lead 
 coffin ; that a workman in brutal wantonness 
 hewed off" the head, and that Lancelot Young, 
 glazier to Queen Elizabeth, at length carried 
 it off and caused itto be buried in St. Michael's, 
 Wood Street. 
 
 Scotland, in this hourof her supreme agony, 
 found herself once more with an infant king. 
 James V. was but seventeen months old 
 190 
 
SCOTLAND'S SORROW. 
 
 when he was crowned, twelve days after his 
 father's death. Queen Margaret was ap- 
 pointed Regent, but her Parhament consisted 
 now almost entirely of clergy, its other 
 members lay buried beneath Brankstone 
 Field. Probably with the hope of securing 
 protection and help, she married the grand- 
 son of Angus Bell-the-Cat, only eleven months 
 
 But there was one person to whom above 
 all others the restoration of peace was due, 
 namely, Queen Catharine of Arragon. In 
 true womanly spirit, she lost no time in send- 
 ing an emissary of love and tenderness to 
 her bereaved sister-in-law. It was one of 
 her chaplains, who appears to have exercised 
 his office with discretion and gentleness. This 
 
 The Prayer before the Battle. 
 
 after King James's death, to the unutterable 
 disgust of the Scottish people. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The English showed forbearance after their 
 victory. They could not forget that Scotland 
 was now ruled by a princess of their own 
 Jiation, a sister of their English King. 
 
 produced the following interesting letter, now 
 in the Record Office. It is copied from the 
 original manuscript, and now for the first 
 time printed. The reader will see that poor 
 Queen Margaret has acquired the Scottish 
 peculiarities of spelling. 
 
 " Richt excelleunt, richt hie and mihty princess, 
 oure riclit dere and best-belovit sister We recommend 
 
 191 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 us unto you in oure maist hertie wise, and have 
 ressavit youre letter the vi daye of this moneth 
 written at Windsore the xviii daye of October ; and 
 be thankful! of ye same. We persave you richt sory 
 of ye adversitie laitlie happynit to us ye cause yarof 
 was unshowen or unknawin at all times unto us. We 
 als consider youre luving and hertie mind towart us 
 and the grete compatience ye have for oure sake, as 
 youre wellbelovit in God frere Bonaventure Provin- 
 ciall of ye freres observant has shewin on youre behalfe 
 with fullwise and substantious consolationes, quharof 
 wee give you oure hertlie thanke, and grete comfort 
 it is to us toknaw of oure brother and youre prosperous 
 gude helth, in quhom oure speciall traisl is abou all 
 next God ; Praying you dearest sister to have us in 
 remembrance towart Our brother yat for oure sake 
 oure derest brother's kindness may be knawin to our 
 lieges and Realm, lik as we have shawin at gude . . . 
 to ye said religious fader of quhais message comfort 
 
 and minde shewin unto us yis time, we a richt glade 
 as knawis God. Quha richt excellent, richt hie and 
 mihty princes, maist dere and bestbelovit sister the 
 Trinity hav in keeping. 
 
 " Given under our signte, at oure toun of Perth, 
 ye xi day of November. " 
 
 Angry feeling gradually died away. There 
 remained unbroken the tie of blood. The 
 young Scottish King was the grandson of a 
 King of England ; and thus, though a mighty 
 shock was coming on both nations in the 
 great religious struggle which was now just 
 about to break out over Europe, the founda- 
 tion was already laid of the happy union of 
 the two nations. 
 
 W. B. 
 
 The "Henry Grace .\ Dieu," Built in 1513, Two Years after Flooden. 
 
 192 
 
" Paper ! Paper 
 
 THE PENNY NEWSPAPER, 
 
 THE STORY OF THE CHEAP PRESS. 
 
 The Most Wonderful Pennyworth in the World — How did our Ancestors Exist when Newspapers were Few ? — London News 
 in the Country Parts — I'he Father of English Journalism — Nathaniel Butter Laughed at by Ben Jonson and Fletcher 
 — Royalist and Parliamentary " Mercuries" — Origin of the London Gazette — Addison Reproving Newsmongery — 
 An Unintended Prediction — Present Number of Local Papers — Imposition of a Stamp Duty — The Oldest Existing 
 Journals — Birth and Growth of the Times — A Taxed and Dear Press — A Time of Poverty and Discontent— Defying 
 and Evading the Law — Carpenter and Hetherington — Prosecutions and Imprisonments — " Pelham " to the Rescue — 
 A Suggestion of Cheap Postage —Parliamentary Work — Mr. Ewart, I\Ir. Milner, Mr. Gibson, and the Select Com- 
 mittee — Resolute Attacks on "the Taxes on Knowledge "— Opposition to the Publication of the Stamp Returns — 
 Chambers' Historical Newspaper, and Dickens's Hnusekold Narrative — The Railway Mania and Mushroom Jour- 
 nalism — Total Abolition of the Imposts — First Appearance of the Daily Telegraph — The Penny and Halfpenny Press. 
 
 HE most wonderful pennyworth the 
 whole world affords is a Penny News- 
 paper. With a sheet of paper 
 measuring about 3 ft. 4 in. by 4't. 2 in. (and 
 sometimes half as large aj^ain when adver- 
 tisements are plentiful), closely printed on 
 both sides, the British reader is in possession 
 of a chart of the habitable world, a record of 
 its thoughts and actions, a picture in little of 
 the workings of the great life which, crystal- 
 lized in humanity, is to him the most imme- 
 diately interesting item of the greater life of 
 the universe. He could not, if he would, be 
 an alien to his fellow-man. From every quarter 
 
 of the world, throbbing through the waves, 
 pulsing through the air, borne through the 
 darkness of the night as well as the sunshine 
 of the day by swift messengers of iron, pant- 
 ing and crashing on iron roads, comes the 
 voice of the world, a voice telling of joys and 
 woes, triumphs and defeats, the plans of 
 statesmen and projects of inventors, the 
 mighty roar of the busy world, with its heroism 
 ancl wisdom, its follies and its crimes, the 
 " still, sad music of humanity." The news- 
 paper is the focus in which are concentrated 
 the rays of the moving world. No product 
 of human ingenuity, no aggregate of skilled 
 
 193 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 labour, no marvellously contrived machinery, 
 no accumulation of wealth, can produce any 
 other pennyworth so rich, so exhaustive, so 
 sympathetic and so powerful as the modern 
 newspaper. 
 
 The cheap press is a growth of our own 
 time, indeed, of the last quarter of a century. 
 Before 1853, when the advertisement duty 
 was repealed, and partially so until the 
 penny stamp was discontinued, and till 1861, 
 when the manufacture of paper was relieved 
 from the excise duty, the newspaper was a 
 giant in fetters. Noa^ it is free and strong. 
 
 The Days of our Grandfathers. 
 
 We may be disposed sometimes to wonder 
 how the good folks who preceded us man- 
 aged to live and be tolerably happy without 
 possessing some things which seem to us 
 almost essentials of life. They travelled 
 slowly, they knew very little of what was 
 going on in the world beyond the little circles 
 in which they lived, made their wills before 
 starting on a fifty miles journey (in the course 
 of which they rested for a night, perhaps two 
 nights, on the road), thought town streets 
 well lighted by a few dismal oil lamps, and 
 were well content that by-roads should not be 
 lighted at all, waiting for moonlight nights if 
 they wanted to be out late. A few sleepy old 
 watchmen toddled about the streets of the 
 great towns ; and if wayfarers were molested 
 by Mohocks or other roysterers, beaten, 
 robbed, or even burked, the moral was 
 obvious, — " Keep early hours, and you will 
 come to no harm." An enterprising youth 
 went out to India, and spent the better part 
 of a year getting to Calcutta or Madras, 
 and nearly another year passed before the 
 old folks at home could hear of his arrival. 
 There were newspapers, indeed, but the 
 editors possessed no greater facilities for ob- 
 taining news rapidly than did the public 
 generally ; and when they did publish news, 
 the price of the journal was so high that even 
 rich people limited their patronage of the 
 press, and poor people could only get a 
 glimpse at a newspaper now and then. In 
 the early years of this present century the 
 papers were so small that only a very little 
 news could be given, even if more could have 
 been obtained ; and as we know that the 
 world was very busy then, and may fairly 
 suppose there were accidents and offences, 
 and no lack of the material which newspapers 
 now collect as their daily food — for human 
 nature is very much the same in all ages — • 
 the conclusion seems inevitable, that people 
 knew very little about each other, and that 
 dwellers in one country had very indistinct 
 perceptions of the character of dwellers 
 in other countries. We know now an im- 
 mense deal more about the campaigns of 
 Napoleon than Londoners did at the time he 
 
 was defeating armies in Germany or penetrat- 
 ing to fatal Moscow ; but then the knowledge 
 was long coming, and, we now know, not very 
 exact. If great newspapers with all modern 
 appliances had been contemporaneous with 
 Napoleon I., there would have been vigor- 
 ously graphic accounts of the battle of Leipsic^ 
 or a dozen different descriptions of the burn- 
 ing of Moscow, by special correspondents, 
 published in London the morning after the 
 event. But our good forefathers lived and 
 died knowing nothing of the railway or the 
 electric telegraph ; and if they had seen a 
 modern double Times with supplement extra,, 
 would have been as much startled as the in- 
 mates of the castle of Otranto were by the 
 spectacle of the stupendously big helmet. 
 
 Slow Work with Newspapers. 
 
 If v/e go back a little farther, say to the 
 first half of the last century, fifty years or so 
 before the Times was an infant Hercules, 
 strangling snakes in its cradle, the condition 
 of England, nearly newspaperless, would 
 seem to us, living in bright journalistic light, 
 almost deplorable. Not even " a squire or 
 knight of the shire," living in Devonshire, 
 Yorkshire, or Northumberland, was likely to 
 know for a week or two what was doing in 
 London, and news received in London from 
 Devonshire, Yorkshire, or Northumberland 
 was almost as scarce as news from Merv is 
 now-a-days. 
 
 Scott scarcely exaggerated the difficulty 
 with which news penetrated into remote- 
 parts of the country, when he described the 
 process by which Sir Everard Waverley and 
 his neighbours became acquainted with the 
 doings in London : — " A weekly post brought 
 in those days to Waverley Honour a fFi?^/t/K 
 Intelligencer., which, after it had gratified 
 Sir Everard's curiosity, his sister's, and that 
 of his aged butler, was regularly transferred 
 from the Hall to the Rectory, from the 
 Rectory to Squire Stubbs' at the Grange^ 
 from the Squire to the Baronet's steward, at 
 his neat white house on the heath, from the 
 steward to the bailiff, and from him through 
 a huge circle of honest dames and gaffers, by 
 whose hard and horny hands it was generally 
 worn to pieces in about a month after the 
 arrival." 
 
 The Father of English Journalism. 
 Looking back still another hundred years,, 
 we see the very first streak of the dawn of 
 newspaper light. There was long cherished 
 a belief that a newspaper was published in 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth, and enthusiastic 
 collectors possessed a few copies of the 
 English Mercurie, the first dated July 23, 
 1588, and announcing the destruction of the 
 great Armada. Even so acute an antiquary 
 as George Chalmers, and for a time even 
 
 194 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 Isaac Disraeli, were deceived ; but so recently 
 as 1839 Mr. Watts, of the'British Museum, 
 proved to demonstration that the copies of 
 the il-/^;r//r/^ were clever forgeries. The first 
 English newspaper was the Weekely Newes, 
 published in London, in 1622, by one 
 Nathaniel Butter, a stationer who had 
 failed in business, and who as early as 161 1 
 had given himself to the collection of news, 
 which he transmitted in manuscript to per- 
 sons who were willing to pay for the luxury. 
 These missives were known as "news-letters," 
 and the name was adopted and still survives 
 in some Irish journals, as the Belfast News 
 Letter and the Wicklow News Lette?: 
 Until a few years ago, Simnde7-s' News 
 Letter was one of the best known of the 
 Dublin newspapers. It was a bold venture 
 of Nathaniel Butter to start a printed news- 
 sheet, and possibly he had a very faint idea 
 indeed of the miportant results destined to 
 result from his act. Of course the wits of 
 the time made merry over the little strip of 
 paper — it was scarcely more — which appeared 
 once a w'eek from Butter's lumbering press ; 
 but then professional wits are generally ready 
 enough to make merry over anything from 
 which they think they can extract comic 
 "copy" ; and, besides, the name of the pro- 
 jector was tempting. In 1625, Ben Jonson 
 produced at the Globe Theatre, Bankside, a 
 satirical comedy, The Staple of News, in which 
 he indulged in a fling at Butter and his 
 associate, a well-known character about town, 
 commonly known as "The Captain," who 
 having been for years an oracle and gossip 
 in Paul's Walk in the old cathedral, took 
 to collecting such news as he could get for 
 the benefit of the Weekely Newes. Jonson, 
 in one of the scenes of the comedy, intro- 
 duces a countrywoman, who tells the news- 
 monger — 
 
 ■' I would have, Sir, 
 A groat's worth of news, I care not what, 
 To carry down this Saturday to our Vicar." 
 
 The great man at the desk replies contemptu- 
 ously, " Oh ! you are a butter-woman ; ask 
 Nathaniel, the clerk, there." In Fletcher's 
 Fair Maid of tlie Inn, one of the characters, 
 referring to the probability of the appearance 
 of an apparition, says, " It shall be the ghost 
 of some lying stationer ; a spirit that shall 
 look as if butter would not melt in his mouth, 
 a new RIercurius Gallo Belgicics." Poor 
 Butter ! his name was made the subject of 
 quips and quibbles in his lifetime, and per- 
 haps the Butter was sometimes pinched for 
 bread. Should he not have a memorial as 
 the father of English journalism ? 
 
 Royalist and Parliamentary 
 " Mercqries." 
 Other collectors of news followed the lead 
 of Nathaniel Butter, and various newspapers, 
 
 or rather news-pamphlets, appeared in the 
 reign of Charles I. and during the Common- 
 wealth period. A writer in the Quarterly 
 Review says : — " Those who have wandered 
 in the vaults of the British Museum, and 
 contemplated the vast collection of political 
 pamphlets and the countless Mercuries which 
 sprang full armed, on either side of that 
 quarrel, from the strong and earnest brains 
 which wrought in that great political trouble, 
 will not hesitate to discover amidst the 
 hubbub of the Rebellion the first throes of the 
 pen of England as a political power." In 
 these small sheets thei'e was little space for 
 anything but brief news of fights and victories, 
 and a few fierce polemical and political 
 utterances ; and advertisements, in any mode, 
 were as yet almost unknown. People made 
 known their wants or announced their wares 
 by means of the common crier, with his loud 
 voice and .louder bell. But in January, 1652, 
 a poetical genius, who wished to celebrate 
 the achievements of Cromwell in Ireland, 
 inserted a notice in the Parliamentary paper, 
 Mercurius Politicus, of the publication of 
 " An Heroick Poem," entitled " Irenodia 
 Gratulatoria, being a congratulatory panegy- 
 rick for my Lord General's late return, 
 summing up his successes in an exquisite 
 manner." After that other advertisements 
 appeared, some of them strange enough to 
 us who live under very different social con- 
 ditions. 
 
 While the great plague was raging in Lon- 
 don in 1665 the Court reinoved to Oxford, 
 and there was published The Oxford Gazette, 
 for the purpose mainly of making Court and 
 official announcements. When the King and 
 the Ministers and Court officials returned to 
 the metropolis, the name of the paper was 
 changed to The London Gazette, which still 
 survives, known by name to everybody, but 
 scarcely ever seen by the general public. 
 
 Sir Roger L'Estrange, who had been 
 appointed Censor of the Press after the Res- 
 toration — an office which would seem to imply 
 that the swarm of little newspapers threatened 
 to be troublesome to the King and his friends 
 — began the Public Intelligencer in 1665, 
 and the Odservator m 1679. In 16S8, the 
 year in which Stuart James fled from Eng- 
 land, and his daughter Mary and her husband 
 William of Orange reigned in his stead, 
 appeared the Orange Intelligencer, published 
 twice a week, and consisting of a single leaf 
 of paper about twice the size of the page now 
 before our' reader's eyes. The first number of 
 the Universal Intelligencer, which appeared 
 about the same time, had two advertisements. 
 
 Addison on Newsmongers. 
 The eagerness for news, like the green-eyed 
 monster Jealousy, described by Shakspeare, 
 grew by what it fed on, and afforded 
 
 195 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 matter for amusement to the graceful wits 
 and social censors of the Augustan age, as it 
 had done for the coarser and more robust 
 satirists of Ben Jonson's time. In No. 
 452 of the Spectator (itself, by the way, a 
 successor under the same editor, Richard 
 Steele, of the Tatler, which intermixed a little 
 news with essays on morals and manners), 
 Addison, heading the paper with a sage quo- 
 tation from Pliny, to the effect that " human 
 nature is fond of novelty," amuses himself 
 by joking in his mild manner about the 
 absorbing appetite for hearing and reading 
 news displayed by the good folks of his day : 
 " There is no humour in my countrymen 
 which I am more inclined to wonder at than 
 their general thirst after news." He suggests 
 that the reading of history would be quite as 
 exciting and much more satisfactory than the 
 eager perusal of newspapers. "A honest 
 tradesman, who languishes a whole summer 
 in expectation of a battle, and perhaps is 
 baulked at last, may here meet with half a 
 dozen in a day. He may read the news of a 
 whole campaign in less time than he now 
 bestows upon the productions ofa single post. 
 Fights, conquests, and revolutions lie thick 
 together. The reader's curiosity is raised and 
 satisfied every moment, and his passions 
 disappointed or gratified, without being de- 
 tained in a state of uncertainty from day to 
 day, or lying at the mercy of sea and wind. 
 In short, the mind is not here kept in a 
 perpetualgape after knowledge, nor punished 
 with that eternal thirst which is the portion 
 of all our modern newsmongers and coffee- 
 house politicians." 
 
 The late Mr. Cobden was probably not so 
 well read in Enghsh literature as is his friend 
 Mr. Bright, and perhaps was unacquainted 
 with this Spectator paper, or had forgotten it, 
 when hemade his famous comparison between 
 the educational value of the modern news- 
 paper press and the literature of antiquity, 
 and complained that while a large number of 
 our young men knew all about the position 
 of the cities of Greece, and the battles in 
 which the Spartans and Athenians took part, 
 they knew verylittle of contemporary matters, 
 and could scarcely tell where, for instance, 
 Chicago was situated, or what was done 
 there. If by a spirit of prophecy Addison 
 could have known of Cobden's utterance, it 
 is hkely that he might have smiled serenely, 
 but not at all likely that he would have altered 
 a single word of the following passage : — 
 " All matters of fact which a man did not 
 know before are news to him ; and I do not 
 see how any haberdasher in Cheapside is 
 more concerned in the present quarrels of the 
 Cantons [17 12] than he was in that of the 
 League. At least, I believe everyone will allow 
 me, it is of more importance to an English- 
 man to know the history of his ancestors than 
 
 those of his contemporaries who live upon 
 the banks of the Danube or the Boristhenes." 
 
 Satirical Suggestion of Local 
 Newspapers. 
 The placid Spectator then quotes a letter 
 from an imaginary correspondent, "a projector 
 who is willing to turn a penny by this remark- 
 able curiosity of his countrymen," and who 
 suggests the establishment of a local news- 
 paper '' which shall comprehend in it all the 
 most remarkable occurrences in every little 
 town, village, and hamlet that lie within ten 
 miles of London, or, in other words, within the 
 verge of the penny post. Such a means of 
 obtaining information will, I doubt not, be 
 very acceptable to many of those public- 
 spirited readers who take more delight in 
 acquainting themselves with other people's 
 business than their own." The intelligence 
 to be furnished by such a paper is indicated 
 by specimens : — " By my last advices from 
 Knightsbridge, I hear that a horse was 
 clapped into the pound on the 3rd instant, 
 and that he was not released when the letters 
 came away." " By a fisherman which lately 
 touched at Hammersmith there is advice 
 from Putney that a certain person well known 
 in that place is like to lose his election for 
 church warden ; but this being boat news, we 
 cannot give credit to it." 
 
 Addison had many gifts, but not the gift 
 of the spirit of prophecy. Perhaps he 
 imagined his suggestion of local or parochial 
 newspapers was as unlikely to be realized as 
 was another suggestion which appeared also 
 in the Spectator, that two persons on opposite 
 sides of the globe might be able to communi- 
 cate almost instantaneously with each other. 
 Yet both these wonders have come to pass. 
 We send telegraphic messages to the anti- 
 podes, and there are more than fifty local 
 newspapers, confining themselves exclusively 
 to the news of the neighbourhood in which 
 they appear, published in the immediate 
 vicinity of the metropolis. The city of 
 London alone keeps two special newspapers 
 well supplied with intelligence and advertise- 
 ments mostly of purely local interest. How 
 Addison would have smiled placidly, how 
 Steele would have roared with laughter, how 
 happily might Pope have turned an epigram, 
 or Arbuthnot have launched a witticism, if 
 anybody had seriously proposed an Acton, 
 CJiiswick, and Turnham G)'een Gazette, yet 
 such a publication has existed for more than 
 a dozen years, and appears likely to exist for 
 many years more ; and one metropolitan 
 parish alone, St. Pancras, is represented by 
 two local newspapers. We may learn a 
 lesson from the pleasant "chaff" of Addison: 
 How many of the propositions which appear 
 comical or Utopian to us may be very prac- 
 tical realities to the next generation. 
 196 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 Imposition of a Stamp Duty. 
 
 In the year that Addison wrote the Spec- 
 tator from which we have quoted (1712), by 
 an Act of Parliament (10 Anne, c. 19), a 
 stamp duty of one penny was imposed for a 
 period of thirty-two years. Ten years before, 
 the first daily paper had appeared, the Daily 
 Co7crant, the first number of which was 
 pubhshed on the nth of March, 1702, by 
 E. Mallet, at Fleet-bridge, the locality which 
 has since been the cradle of nearly all the 
 most influential London newspapers. At 
 first it consisted of one page only, with a 
 blank at the back. In those days, it would 
 seem, there were no enterprising advertising 
 agents to " farm " that page. 
 
 Venerable Newspapers. 
 
 Five newspapers established before the 
 year 1700 in Great Britain, are still alive : — 
 the London Gazette (1665), Cotcrse of the 
 Exchange (1697), Berrow^s Worcester Jour- 
 nal (1690), Stamjord Merctiry (1695), and 
 the Edinburgh Gazette (1690) ; and seventy- 
 four existing newspapers were first published 
 in the last century, the oldest being the 
 Edinburgh Courant (1705), the Notting- 
 ham yournal (1710), and the Diddin Gazette 
 (171 1). Several of the London dailies which 
 have reached to our days were established in 
 the last century — the Morning Post in 1722 ; 
 the Morning Chronicle (extinct in 1862) in 
 1769 ; the Public Ledger in 1759 ; the Morn- 
 ing Herald (amalgamated with the Standard 
 in 1869), and the Morning Advertiser in 
 1794. In 1769, and for two years afterwards, 
 a daily newspaper, the Pjiblic Advertiser, 
 which had lingered for many years in com- 
 parative obscurity, flashed into notoriety, and 
 its issues were eagerly looked for, with fear 
 and trembling by some, the reason being that 
 the powerful and mysterious letters signed 
 "Junius" appeared in its columns. 
 
 In 1753 it was computed that the aggregate 
 number of newspapers annually sold in Eng- 
 land, on an average of three years, amounted 
 to 7,411,757; in i76oit had risen to 9,464,790; 
 and in 1767 to 11,300,980. In 1758, Johnson 
 wrote in the Idler, " Journals are daily multi- 
 plied without increase of knowledge. The 
 most eager peruser of news is tired before he 
 has completed his labours." 
 
 Birth and Growth of the " Times." 
 
 On the 13th of January, 1785, the first 
 number of the London Daily Universal 
 Register was published. Three years after- 
 wards the proprietor changed its title and 
 plan. John Walter was an acute and far- 
 seeing man, a little over sanguine, perhaps, 
 as to the advantage to be gained by the use 
 of Lord Stanhope's " logographic " types, that 
 is, with words and frequent combinations of 
 
 letters, as affixes and prefixes, cast in one 
 piece, and so presumably saving time in 
 setting up, an advantage by no means 
 realized. On New Year's Day, January 
 1788, the I^ondon Daily Universal Register 
 did not appear, but in its place there burst 
 upon the world the Tinies, or Daily Universal 
 Register, printed logographically, price three- 
 pence. The imprint announced that it was 
 printed for J. Walter, at the Logographic 
 Press, Printing-house Square, near Apothe- 
 caries' Hall, Blackfriars, and the addresses 
 of persons of whom the newspaper could be 
 obtained were given — among them, confec- 
 tioners, watchmakers, and silk-dyers. The 
 Times so issued was a great advance on 
 previous efforts in journahsm. It consisted 
 of four pages, each with four columns, and 
 had sixty-three advertisements (including 
 naval and official announcements). Poetry 
 appeared in the paper, and there was a fair 
 admixture of what might now be described 
 as paragraphs of society gossip. How since 
 then the Tifnes has grown, what influence 
 it has exerted, how may writers of high 
 political rank and consummate ability have 
 contributed to its columns, what have been 
 its achievements in obtaining early and 
 ample news — a recital of all this would form a 
 deeply interesting chapter of modern English 
 history. On the 28th of November, 1814, 
 the paper was printed on a steam printing 
 machine, made by Konig, the first ever used ; 
 and the latest machine now used for pro- 
 ducing many of the largest newspapers was 
 invented in the Times' office, and bears the 
 name of the Walter Press. 
 
 A Taxed and Dear Press. 
 In the first quarter of the present century, 
 about a hundred newspapers came into 
 existence in the United Kingdom ; but they 
 had to struggle against heavy imposts. In 
 1776 the stamp duty had been raised to \\d. 
 for every sheet ; in 1789 had been increased 
 to 2d. ; in 1794 another halfpenny was added ; 
 a penny more in 1797 ; and in 181 5, for every 
 sheet issued, a fourpenny stamp was imposed ; 
 and that rate continued until 1836, when it 
 was reduced to \d. on the sheet and \d. on 
 the supplement. In addition to the stamp, 
 the paper duty, 3^^. per pound for printing 
 paper, was levied ; and on every advertise- 
 ment which appeared, no matter of what 
 length, a duty of y. 6d. was imposed. The 
 publisher of a newspaper was liable to very 
 heavy penalties if he issued an unstamped 
 copy, and was compelled, in London, to send 
 every sheet of paper to Somerset House to 
 be stamped before being printed on ; and in 
 the country, to certain local branches of the 
 Stamp Office. All the expenses of cartage, 
 etc., and the paper duty had to be considered 
 in fixing the price at which the public could 
 
 197 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 obtain the newspaper, and every advertiser 
 had to pay y. 6d. beyond the price at which 
 the pubhsher would have been glad to insert 
 the announcement, to meet the duty on 
 advertisements. Advertisers were therefore 
 few, and the publisher of a newspaper was 
 compelled to depend almost entirely on the 
 sale of the paper for support, the price being 
 •consequently high. Newspapers now selling 
 for twopence or a penny a copy then charged 
 sevenpence or eightpence, and it was not 
 particularly easy to make fortunes even on 
 those terms. 
 
 A Time of Poverty and Discontent. 
 The working and poorer classes could 
 rarely afford to purchase nev/spapers for them- 
 selves. One copy was circulated among the 
 customers of a public-house, or was clubbed 
 for by a dozen readers, and was handed from 
 hand to hand until worn to a rag. The 
 period between the close of the great war in 
 1815 and the introduction of the Reform Bill 
 in 1 83 1 was a transition period of almost 
 unexampled importance in the annals of this 
 country. The poorer classes suffered terribly ; 
 food was dear, wages low ; there were thou- 
 sands on thousands of unemployed, and the 
 introduction of machinery caused a panic, 
 unfounded, indeed, but terrible in its results. 
 Radicalism began to assume form, and con- 
 sistency. The assertion of abstract rights, 
 the denunciation of the aristocracy, which 
 had been so conspicuous for a few years after 
 the French Revolution, had been for a time 
 in abeyance during the struggle against 
 Napoleon and the outburst of national feel- 
 ing against the French. Enthusiasts and 
 doctrinaires still talked and wrote ; but the 
 master passion of the people was hatred of 
 the French — a fire fanned into almost uncon- 
 trollable excitement by a victory at Trafalgar, 
 or another achievement in the Peninsula by 
 the Great Duke. Peace was signed, the war 
 fever subsided, and the working classes at 
 home were easily persuaded that the upper 
 classes were their natural enemies, that manu- 
 facturers and users of machinery were deadly 
 tyrants, and that the Congress of Vienna 
 was the first step towards a practical reasser- 
 tion of the claim of princes and statesmen 
 to do as they liked, quite independently of 
 the wishes of the people. Riots broke out, 
 machinery was destroyed by " Luddites," 
 who professed to be led by a mythical Cap- 
 tain Ludd (as unreal a personage as the 
 Captain Rock of Ireland, or the Rebecca of 
 Wales) ; and Luddites, when caught, were 
 mercilessly hanged. Radical leaders with 
 considerable oratorical powers, Radical 
 writers ready with the pen, inflamed the 
 popular mind. Meetings were held and 
 suppressed by force. At St Peter's Field, 
 long afterwards known as Peterloo, the 
 
 site on which now stands the Free Trade 
 Hall of Manchester, a meeting summoned 
 by Henry Hunt to prepare a petition for the 
 reform of Parliament was suppressed by 
 military force, six persons being killed and 
 many wounded. In the same year the 
 famous, or infamous (some persons prefer 
 the latter epithet). Six Acts, better known 
 as the Gagging Acts, were passed for the 
 purpose of suppressing seditious meetings. 
 
 Suffering and writhing under what it v/as 
 not unnatural to consider as oppression, 
 hundreds and thousands of the working and 
 lower middle classes cultivated this Radical- 
 ism, and nursed their wrath. Resistance 
 to political authority, if it dared not be open, 
 was not the less sullen and resolute ; and 
 with dislike to political authority was allied 
 dislike and distrust of religious teaching. 
 Freedom, it came to be thought (as it was 
 thought in the revolutionary times in France), 
 could only be achieved by a subversion of 
 all institutions, and with the institutions 
 must go the faiths on which they were 
 based. Stronger and stronger grew these 
 volcanic forces, more alarming the indica- 
 tions of a possible earthquake. The Reform 
 riots were an ominous muttering, and the 
 concession on the part of King and Lords 
 was none too early. The popular leaders 
 naturally desired an outlet in the news- 
 paper press for the advocacy of their 
 opinions ; but the press was so heavily 
 weighted that the influence of even the 
 most democratic journals was comparatively 
 feeble ; and the law which rendered the pub- 
 lishers of newspapers liable to imprisonment 
 and fine for articles offensive to the Crown 
 or the Government was an additional check 
 of no slight povven A free press was 
 demanded, but a free press was exactly 
 what the Ministers of the day were not 
 disposed to concede. 
 
 Defying and Evading the Law. 
 A few active spirits on the popular side 
 resolved to evade, or even defy, the law. The 
 people, in the language of a writei' of the 
 time, were "hungry and thirsty for news and 
 political controversy." Weekly pamphlets 
 appeared with digests of general news and 
 political information, and sold for twopence 
 
 I a copy. They were eagerly bought, for a 
 regular newspaper could not be procured for 
 less than sevenpence. In 1830, Mr. William 
 Carpenter, a journalist, a clear and forcible 
 writer, possessed of considerable political 
 information and an ardent Radical, dis- 
 covered, as he sup[)osed, a mode by which he 
 could produce an equivalent to a newspaper, 
 and yet evade the law. The result proved 
 
 ! that he was more ingenious than successful. 
 
 I He issued a prospectus of a puWication 
 
 I entitled Political Letter, and headed the 
 
 98 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 .•announcement with the title, " Liberty of the 
 Press Asserted." After adverting to and 
 denouncing the Acts of Parliament by which 
 the publication of newspapers was regulated, 
 Mr. Carpenter proceeded to say that he had 
 -discovered a method of evading them. He 
 intended to bring out his publication at 
 irregular periods, and in such a form that the 
 numbers would be apparently unconnected 
 with each other. It was astonishing, he 
 remarked, that persons connected with the 
 newspaper trade had not already discovered 
 so obvious a mode of evading the law. His 
 publication would assume the form of a 
 ""Political Letter," addressed to a friend or 
 enemy, as the case inight be, and containing 
 a comprehensive digest of important events 
 and passing occurrences, with original obser- 
 vations by himself The price of each 
 ^' Political Letter " was to be fourpence ; and 
 as no newspaper which paid the stamp duty 
 -could be brought out at that price, he 
 reckoned on a circulation extensive in pro- 
 portion to the cheapness of the paper. 
 Being a practical man, v/ith an eye to busi- 
 ness, Mr. Carpenter reminded advertisers 
 that his publication afforded them a capital 
 opportunity of appealing to the purchasing 
 public. In the first number, " A Letter to the 
 Duke of Wellington," Mr. Carpenter said : 
 ■"' Believing that your Grace is often greatly 
 misled as to what is going forward in the 
 world, I have resolved to avail myself of this 
 correspondence to lay before you a faithful 
 chronicle of passing events, from which I 
 am sure your Grace will not fail to derive 
 materials for serious reflection, and for the 
 framing, also, of some public measure of 
 importance." Then follows a summary of 
 intelligence from France, Belgium, and other 
 places. In the next number, "A Monitory 
 Letter to Sir Robert Peel," that statesman is 
 treated to reports of a parish meeting in St. 
 Pancras, of a political bancjuet at Birming- 
 ham, and of stack-burning and other out- 
 arages in Kent, besides the official summary 
 of the state of the revenue, a considerable 
 amount of foreign intelligence, doings in the 
 •corn, hay, and meat markets, and in the 
 money market, preceded by the announce- 
 ment, " The following information, Sir Robert, 
 will be useful to you." 
 
 A Success and a Prosecution. 
 
 The first " Political Letter " appeared in 
 an octavo form, but was so successful that a 
 larger page was adopted, with woodcut 
 caricatures and devices as headings, very 
 much in the style of George Cruikshank's 
 illustrations to the pamphlets and political 
 skits published by William Hone, but 
 exhibiting far less humour and finish, and 
 probably by Robert Cruikshank, George's 
 brother and far-oif imitator. The circula- 
 
 tion, about S,ooo for the first " Letter," made 
 a jump to 19,000, and ultimately reached 
 63,000, a prodigious number for those days. 
 Of course the Government determined to 
 take action in the matter ; but the Duke of 
 Wellington's administration went out of 
 office in November 1830, and Earl Grey's 
 ministry, which followed, had for a time 
 other matters to think about. At length, 
 however, on the 14th of May, 1831, Mr. 
 William Carpenter appeared in the Court of 
 Exchequer on an information filed by the 
 Attorney-General (Sir Thomas Denman, 
 subsequently Lord Chief Justice), at the 
 instance of the Commissioners of the Stamp 
 Duties. The information contained twelve 
 counts, in some of which the defendant was 
 charged with having published and exposed 
 for sale a certain weekly newspaper without 
 having previously made and deposited in the 
 office of the Commissioners the affidavit 
 required in such cases by the 38th George 
 III., c. 78. For every insta.nce of publication 
 without such affidavit the defendant became 
 liable to a penalty of ^100. In other counts 
 the defendant was charged with " having on 
 divers days " published a weekly newspaper, 
 without having paid the duty of fourpence 
 imposed upon every number of every such 
 paper, by the 55th of the same King ; and 
 for every omission in the payment of the 
 duty he had incurred a penalty of £10. The 
 publication was charged to have taken place 
 upon the 9th of October, 1830, and on six- 
 teen other subsequent days, and the descrip- 
 tion of the paper was varied by calling it 
 " a paper answering the purposes of a 
 newspaper, and containing news, intel- 
 ligence, or occurrences." The Attorney- 
 General contended that the publication was 
 a newspaper according to the definition 
 given of a newspaper in the Act 60, George 
 III., cap. 9 : — "All pamphlets and papers 
 containing any public news, intelligence, or 
 occurrences, or any remarks or observations 
 thereon, or upon any matter in Church and 
 State, printed in any part of the United 
 Kingdom, for sale, and published periodi- 
 cally, or in parts or numbers, at intervals 
 not exceeding twenty-six days between the 
 publication of any two such pamphlets or 
 papers, parts or numbers, where any of the 
 said pamphlets or papers, parts or numbers 
 respectively, shall not exceed two sheets, or 
 shall be published for a less sum than six- 
 pence exclusive of the duty, shall be deemed 
 and taken to be newspapers, within the true 
 intent and meaning of the several statutes." 
 Mr. Carpenter addressed the jury for six 
 hours ; but the Lord Chief Baron (Lord Lynd- 
 hurst) said, in summing up, that he was most 
 clearly of opinion that the paper was a news- 
 paper, and the jury returned a verdict for 
 the Crown. The Attorney-General pressed 
 
 199 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 for only one penalty for each class of 
 offences, amounting to only ^120 ; but the 
 defendant was of course liable for the amount 
 of the stamp duty on the whole of his pub- 
 lication. 
 
 Yielding to the necessities of the case, Mr. 
 Carpenter took out a stamp, so converting 
 his publication into a regular newspaper, and 
 charged sevenpence a copy. The result was 
 an immediate fall of the circulation to five 
 hundred, and very soon afterwards the 
 " Letters " died. The former purchasers not 
 only objected to the increased price, but the 
 publication was no longer a defiance of the 
 law, and was therefore uninteresting. 
 
 impressed at Somerset House on news- 
 papers; but in the centre was the repre- 
 sentation of a printing-press, with " Liberty 
 of the Press " marked on the sheet just lifted 
 from the types ; and above and below it, in 
 the places filled in the real stamp by the 
 amount of the duty, the phrase, " Knowledge 
 is power." In the prehminary announce- 
 ment on the first page, there was an 
 abundance of italics, capitals, and dashes, 
 then considered essential to vigorous 
 political writing, and so plentifully em- 
 ployed by Cobbett and others. A short 
 specimen may be enough for more modern 
 readers : — 
 
 The Walter Press. 
 
 William Hetherington in the Field. 
 Another and more doughty champion, 
 with a clearer perception of the popular 
 taste, then appeared in the field. William 
 Hetherington, a bookseller and newsvendor 
 in the neighbourhood of Holborn, published 
 on the 9th of July, 1831, the first number, 
 price one penny, of the Poor Man's Guar- 
 dian, announcing it to be " established 
 contrary to law, to try the power of 
 might against right." It consisted of eight 
 pages, about the size of the well-known 
 Family Herald of later days. In the upper 
 corner of the first page appeared a device 
 j-esembling in size and shape the stamp then 
 
 " We buckle on our armour of patience and per- 
 severance—we draw forth our sword of reason, and 
 we brave the whole host of tyranny. Defiance is our 
 only remedy ; — we cannot be a slave in all : we 
 submit to much— for it is impossible to be wholly 
 consistent — but we will try, step by step, the power 
 of RIGHT against might, and we will begin by pro- 
 tecting and upholding this grand bulwark and 
 defence of all our rights— this key to all our liberties 
 
 — THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS — the press, ioo, of 
 
 the IGNORANT and the POOR ! We have taken upon 
 ourselves its protection, and we will never abandon 
 our post ; we will die rather . . . ' THE POOR MAN'S 
 guardian' will contain 'news, intelligence, and 
 occurrences^ and ' remarks and observations thereon^ 
 and ' iipon matters in. Church a?id State, leading, 
 decidedly, to excite hatred and contempt of the Govern- 
 ment and Constitution of the tyramiy of this country, 
 as BY LAW established, ' and also ' to vilify the abuses 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 of religion'' . . . despite the 'laws' or the will and 
 pleasure of auy tyiant or a7i.y body of tyrants, what- 
 soever, anything hereinbefore, or any-where-else, 
 contained to the contrary, notwithstanding." 
 
 This comical and audacious paraphrase of 
 the technical language of the Act of Parlia- 
 ment he was so deliberately violating was 
 rather a neat specimen of Mr. Hetherington's 
 vein of humour. The first number contained 
 reports of Mr. Hetherington's appeal to the 
 Middlesex Sessions against a conviction 
 obtained by the Corhmissioner of StnmDs 
 at Bow Street 
 Police Court ; 
 of the trial of 
 Cobbett for 
 publishing an 
 article in his 
 "Register;" 
 and articles on \ 
 the trial of i 
 the Rev. R. 
 Taylor for 
 b 1 a s p h e my, 
 and the pro- 
 ceedings in 
 Parliament, 
 with abun- 
 dance of 
 italics and 
 capitals, inter- 
 iections of 
 "Oh! oh!" 
 and "Ha! 
 ha !" and an 
 amount of 
 strong lan- 
 guage and 
 full-flavoured 
 e p i t h e t s 
 rather trying to 
 the nerves of 
 readers accus- 
 tomed to the 
 more elegant 
 and certainly 
 not less vigor- 
 ous journalism 
 of the present 
 day. 
 
 Many Prosecutions and Punishments. 
 
 Between 1831 and 1835, about seven 
 hundred prosecutions for selling unstamped 
 newspapers were instituted, and nearly rive 
 hundred persons suffered rine or imprison- 
 ment. Some of the offenders were mere 
 sellers, whose political opinions were nil ; 
 others, like Hetherington, were men of con- 
 siderable ability, who fought for a cause as 
 well as for the means of establishing a pro- 
 fitable trade in cheap newspapers. One of 
 these men was John Cleave, a dealer in 
 newspapers and periodicals, who was after- 
 
 wards a prominent, able, and temperate 
 member of the Chartists' Convention which 
 met in the large room of the Dr. Johnson 
 Tavern in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, a year or 
 two before the abortive demonstration on 
 Kensington Common, in which Chartist 
 agitation ended so ignominiously. 
 
 One of the projects for evading the stamp 
 duty was the production of a "Political 
 Handkerchief," on which items of news and 
 comments should be printed, which would, 
 the suggestor argued, " answer all the ends 
 
 of a weekly 
 j ournal." 
 We wonder 
 whether 
 Dickens was 
 thinking oi 
 this when he 
 made Old 
 Weller talk 
 about send- 
 ing "moral 
 pockethand- 
 kerchers to 
 the young 
 niggers." 
 
 There was 
 unquestiona- 
 bly a wide- 
 spread sym- 
 pathy with 
 the persis- 
 tent attempts 
 to obtain a 
 cheap press. 
 Politicians of 
 the " a d - 
 vanced " or- 
 der desired 
 an extended 
 means of ap- 
 pealing to 
 the masses of 
 the people ; 
 and men of 
 literary tastes 
 o b j e c t e d in 
 the abstract to 
 the " taxes on 
 knowledge," as the imposts began to be 
 called. A Parliamentary champion of great 
 popularity as an author and no mean 
 powers as an orator soon appeared upon 
 the scene. 
 
 " PELHAM " TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 On the 14th of June, 1832, the author of 
 "Pelham," Mr.Edward Lytton Bulwer,moved 
 in the House of Commons these four resolu- 
 tions : — '' I, That all taxes which impede the 
 diffusion of knowledge are injurious to the 
 best interests of the people ; 2, That it is pecu- 
 liarly expedient at the present time to repeal 
 
 Mr. Kwart .moving the Repeal of the Advertisement Duty. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the stamp duty on newspapers ; 3, That it is 
 also peculiarly expedient to repeal or to 
 reduce the duty on advertisements ; 4, That 
 it is expedient, in order to meet the present 
 state of the revenue, to appoint a select com- 
 mittee to consider the propriety of establish- 
 ing a cheap postage on newspapers and other 
 publications." In his speech he remarked, 
 " A newspaper was in truth almost the only 
 publication (rehgious ones excepted) that the 
 poorer classes were ever tempted to read ; 
 and above all, it was the only one in which 
 they could learn those laws for the trans- 
 gression of which ignorance was no excuse. 
 A newspaper, then, was among the most 
 popular and effectual modes of instructing 
 the people." The speaker then proceeded to 
 describe the existing taxes on newspapers, — • 
 a duty of threepence per pound weight on 
 the paper, or about a farthing a sheet ; a 
 duty of fourpence on every copy of a weekly 
 paper, with a discount of twenty per cent^ for 
 a daily paper, and a tax of 3^-. 6d. upon 
 every advertisement. Comparing the results 
 of an untaxed press in America with a taxed 
 press in this country, he showed that in the 
 British Islands there was only one paper a 
 week for every thirty-six of the population, 
 while in Pennsylvania there was a newspaper 
 to every fourth inhabitant. The cause of 
 this discrepancy was that in one country the 
 newspaper sold for less than a fourth of 
 what it sold for in the other. In one year 
 twelve of the daily papers in New York had 
 published 1,456,416 advertisements ; but in 
 the same year the 400 papers of Great 
 Britain had published 1,020,000 advertise- 
 ments. In America, advertisements could 
 be inserted at a low rate ; in this country, in 
 consequence of the duty levied by Govern- 
 ment, the price was high, "the charge for 
 the insertion of an advertisement of twenty 
 lines in a London paper, if published every 
 day throughout the year, would' amount at 
 the year's end to ^202 16s. In New York, 
 the same advertisement for the same period 
 would be ^6 18^. 8rf." 
 
 It was scarcely fair, however, for Mr. 
 Bulvver to attribute all this "preposterous 
 disparity "' to the advertisement duty, which 
 on the 313 insertions in the London daily 
 paper amounted only to ^54 15^., the 
 remainder of the total being charged by the 
 proprietors of the paper ; and, after all, the 
 balance of the charge (^148 \s. od.), after 
 deducting the duty, was a matter for the 
 consideration of the advertiser himself, for if 
 he had not derived an advantage from paying 
 tt, he would have ceased to do so ; and that 
 advantage probably was greatly in excess of 
 that experienced by the New York advertiser 
 who paid only a little less than £7 in the 
 course of the year. 
 
 Cheap Postage Suggested. 
 
 To compensate in some measure for the 
 removal of the stamp and advertisement 
 duties, Mr. Bulwer suggested a cheap 
 postage for printed matter, that all news- 
 papers, poems, pamphlets, tracts, circulars, 
 printed publications of whatever descrip- 
 tion and weighing less than two ounces, 
 should circulate, through the medium of 
 the General Post, at the rate of one penny ; if 
 through the twopenny or threepenny post, at a 
 halfpenny. He would also propose that all 
 works under five ounces should circulate 
 through the same channels, and at a low and 
 graduated charge. Bulwer has many claims 
 on the admiration of his countrymen ; but, 
 perhaps, few persons know how nearly he 
 approached the proposition for establishing 
 cheap postage. In the course of his speech 
 he asked, " What could be so monstrous a 
 principle as that any tax should be requisite 
 for a man to publish his opinions 1 A tax on 
 opinion is a persecution of opinion ; it is a 
 persecution of poverty also. If we say that 
 no one shall declare his sentiments without 
 paying a certain sum, and if, not being able 
 to afford that sum, he yet does publish his 
 sentiments, and is fined (that is, in conse- 
 quence of his poverty, cast into prison) for 
 the offence, you punish him not for the badness 
 of his opinions, but you punish him, that, being 
 poor, he yet dares to express opinions at all. 
 We have been monopolizing the distribution 
 of other blessings, let us, at least, leave 
 opinion untaxed, unfettered, the property of 
 all men. ... Is it not time to consider 
 whether the printer and his types may not 
 provide better for the peace and honour of a 
 free state than the jailer and the hangman ? — 
 whether, in one word, cheap knowledge may 
 not be a better political agent than costly 
 punishment ? " 
 
 Lord Althorp, on the part of the Govern- 
 ment', thinking that it was not a fitting time for 
 discussing the subject, which required a con- 
 siderable amount of preliminary inquiry, and 
 involved financial considerations, moved the 
 previous question. Mr. O'Connell, in a brief 
 and temperate speech, supported the reso- 
 lution ; and after some debate, Mr. Bulvver, 
 yielding to what he perceived to be the 
 general feeling of the House, withdrew his 
 motion, announcing, however, that he would 
 reintroduce it at some future time. 
 
 Vested Interests. 
 
 The proprietors of the existing newspapers 
 were by no means anxious for a i-eduction of 
 the duties, Avhich would bring a host of 
 rivals into the field. Readers were daily 
 increasing, and their only choice lay among 
 the journals de facto. The stamp, advertise- 
 ments and paper duties were paid by the 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 publit, not by the owners of the newspapers, 
 who, perhaps, however, would not have 
 objected to a shght reduction of the adver- 
 tisement duty sufficient to attract more 
 advertisers, but not to encourage new ventures 
 in journahsm. The London daily papers 
 were the Times, steadily rising in circulation 
 and influence ; the Morning Chronicle, a 
 formidable rival ; the Morning Post, beloved 
 of the fashionable world ; the Morning 
 Herald, champion of the Tories and the 
 clergy (sometimes disrespectfully styled " my 
 grandmother"), and \!a.& Morning Advei'tiser, 
 the publicans' paper. There were three 
 -evening papers, the Standard, Tory, under 
 the editorship of Dr. Giffard, a slashing 
 writer ; the Courier, a very ably conducted 
 journal, and enterprising in the matter of 
 foreign news ; and the Globe, a Whig organ. 
 The leading weeklies were, for the agricultu- 
 rally minded country gentlemen. Bell's IVeekly 
 Messenger J the Observer, credited with 
 extraordinary means of obtaining political 
 and official information ; BelV s Life in 
 Eondon, the oracle without a rival of all who 
 were interested in horse-racing, pugilism, 
 ratting, pedestrianism, yachting, and angling ; 
 the Sunday Times, started by the once ardent 
 Radical, Daniel Whittle Harvey, Member for 
 Finsbury, and afterwards Commissioner of 
 the City Police ; and, last and biggest, the 
 Weekly Dispatch, Radical to the backbone. 
 The last-named newspaper had attained an 
 enormous circulation for those times, by its 
 vigorous denunciation of the Police and the 
 new Poor Laws ; the audacious and often 
 outrageously outspoken letters signed " Pubh- 
 cola," written by Daniel Williams, and letters 
 of a different kind, signed " Censorius," by a 
 writer named Whittle, who attacked com- 
 mon informers and tricks of trade generally. 
 This great Radical paper, of course, had, 
 in the abstract, the greatest desire to advo- 
 cate popular liberties, but could scarcely 
 be expected to approve of the conduct of 
 Hetherington, when he started an unstamped 
 Eondon Dispatch, imitating the tone as well 
 as the title of the original, and selling it for 
 less than a third of the price. The provincial 
 newspapers, many of which are now so able 
 and influential, rivalling the leading metro- 
 politan organs, were little known beyond their 
 own localities, and did not possess London 
 offices and agents in Fleet Street as they do 
 now. At this time there were about3oo news- 
 papers in existence in the United Kmgdom. 
 
 Reduction of the Duties. 
 In 7833, the advertisement duty was 
 reduced to is. 6d. ; and in 1836, the stamp 
 duty was lowered to id. In that year, we 
 hnd from an official return, 36,000,000 stamps 
 were impressed. The opposition to " the 
 taxes on knowledge " — a phrase by that time 
 
 in general use — grew in activity. An asso- 
 ciation was formed, with an active secretary, 
 Mr. Collet, and no exertions were spared 
 to interest the people in the subject, and 
 urge upon Parliament the necessity of 
 repealing the taxation. That such a remis- 
 sion was right in principle few denied ; 
 and it was only because they could not see 
 their way to sparing the money that one 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer after another 
 turned a deaf ear to the appeal. Newspaper 
 proprietors saw that it must come, and 
 "resigned themselves to the inevitable," 
 doing their best in the meanwhile to " make 
 hay while the sun shone." The Times was 
 a colossal property, priding itself on being 
 one of the institutions of the country, and 
 could afford to smile at the idea of competi- 
 tion ; the Dispatch yielded a profit of about 
 ^20,000 a year to the proprietors, and, with 
 an enormous capital at command, hoped to 
 be able to hold its own. There was, in those 
 days, no Renter to supply telegraphic in- 
 formation (the telegraph, like Guy Fawkes 
 in the once popular comic song, " warn't 
 aborn till arter that ") to all comers at a 
 fixed rental, and intelligence of important 
 events could only be obtained at a great 
 outlay, by relays of post-horses, mounted 
 messengers, and, as railways became avail- 
 able, by special engines, costing large sums 
 of money. No doubt if the imposts were 
 removed, many new journals would be 
 started ; but something more than ambition 
 and enterprise would be required, and the 
 wealthy occupiers of the position knew by 
 experience — an experience very amply con- 
 firmed in later years— that although some 
 large fortunes could be made, many more 
 could be lost in newspaper speculations. 
 
 Publication of the Stai\ip Returns. 
 One incident of the stamp duty was 
 objectionable to some newspaper proprietors, 
 — the annual publication of the number of 
 stamps issued, specifying the number required 
 by each newspaper. As a stamp on every 
 copy was compulsory, of course the circula- 
 tion of each journal was made known, and 
 advertisers were able to judge of the advan- 
 tages offered. The great newspapers were 
 pleased with this, because their superiority in 
 circulation was officially announced ; but the 
 others objected to their comparative poverty 
 being made known. So great, on the whole, 
 was the objection to this return, that it was 
 discontinued in 1837 ; but when a committee 
 (the proceedings of which will presently be 
 referred to) was appointed in 1851, it called 
 for the omitted returns, and they were pub- 
 lished as an appendix to the report. Early 
 in the session of 1853, Mr. Brotherton 
 moved for a continuation of the return, but 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Glad- 
 
 203 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 stone) refused to assent to the motion, on 
 the ground that it would be an unjustifi- 
 able interference with the private business 
 of the proprietors of newspapers, and the 
 Government objected to publish private 
 information respecting any classes of persons 
 en"-aged in business— "the returns of income 
 might as well be made public." Mr. Brother- 
 ton withdrew the motion. 
 
 Mr. Ewart's Motion. 
 The Parhamentary advocates of the remis- 
 sion of the taxes were not idle. On the yth of 
 
 May, 1850, Mr. 
 
 Ewart intro- 
 duced a resolu- 
 tion for the re- 
 peal of the ad- 
 vert! sement 
 
 duty, described 
 
 by him as " a 
 
 tax which 
 
 pressed upon 
 
 literature to such 
 
 a degree that 
 
 Mr. M'CuUoch 
 
 did not hesitate 
 
 to characterize 
 
 it as amongst 
 
 the heaviest 
 
 burdens in the 
 
 way of taxation 
 
 that impeded the 
 
 production of 
 
 literary works 
 
 It was a tax on 
 
 the poor, for the 
 
 humble authoi 
 
 of a sixpenn\ 
 
 pamphlet. the 
 
 distressed 
 
 needlewoman on 
 
 her appeal foi 
 employment, 
 paid as heav} 
 a tax as the 
 wealthier capi 
 talist upon the 
 amount of a 
 vast estate foi 
 sale." Previous 
 to the reduc- 
 tion of the duty in 1833, the number of 
 advertisements in newspapers averaged 
 700,000 or 800,000 a year ; but after the 
 reduction they gradually increased until 
 they reached about 2,000,000 annually ; and, 
 argued Mr. Ewart, that increase was un- 
 doubtedly due to the reduction of the duty 
 from 3J. 6^. to \s. 6d. Mr. Milner Gibson 
 seconded the resolution. Sir Charles Wood, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, opposed 
 the motion on the part of the Government. 
 " It was utterly impossible," he said, " that 
 
 the financial credit of the country could be 
 sustained if all the sources of pubHc income 
 were frittered away," — a discovery certainly 
 very creditable to the astuteness of the 
 Chancellor. On a division, the resolution 
 was supported by 39 votes ; but there were 
 208 against it. Among those who voted in the 
 minority were Hume, Cobden, and Bright. 
 
 A Rich Harvest of Advertisements; 
 The Railway Mania. 
 A striking proof of the pecuniary value of 
 advertisements to newspaper proprietors was 
 
 afforded at the 
 
 time of the great 
 railway mania of 
 1845, when so 
 many schemes 
 were launched, 
 when draughts- 
 m e n were 
 worked to death 
 m preparing 
 plans to be de- 
 posited at the 
 Board of Trade, 
 when extem- 
 porised sur- 
 veyors and 
 levellers 
 cropped up by 
 the thousand, 
 and when the 
 newspapers pub- 
 lished sixteen or 
 even twenty-four 
 extra pages of 
 advertisements, 
 the prospectuses 
 of new lines 
 possible or im- 
 possible. Dozens 
 of newspapers 
 assuming rail- 
 way titles were 
 started for the 
 sake of the ad- 
 ver tisements, 
 and for a few 
 weeks went on 
 merrily. One 
 daily paper, 
 even, the Iro^t Times, was launched by 
 a clever journalist, Thomas Littleton Holt, 
 who had gained a large experience as a 
 projector of periodicals, and for a time it 
 was a flourishing concern. When the adver- 
 tisements disappeared, when " stags " ceased 
 to gamble around the Stock Exchange, and 
 "scrip" was no more the absorbing subject 
 of everybody's talk, the papers vanished as 
 suddenly as they had appeared, and the 
 ingenious projectors were left to seek new 
 resources in " fresh fields and pastures new. 
 
 MiLNER Gibson opposing the Taxes on Knowledge 
 
 204 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 Report of a Parliamentary Committee. 
 
 On the 7th of April, 185 1, a Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons was 
 appointed to inquire into the present state 
 and condition of newspaper stamps. The 
 members were — Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. 
 Tufnell, Mr. Ker Seymer, Mr. Rich, Mr. 
 Stafford, Mr. Cobden, Mr. G. A. Hamilton, 
 Sir Joseph Walmsley, Sir T. F. Lewis, Mr. 
 Chichester Fortescue, Colonel Mure, Mr. 
 Shafto Adair, Mr. Ewart, Mr. Sotheran, and 
 Sir W. Molesworth. A considerable number 
 of witnesses, among them several proprietors 
 and managers of important newspapers, were 
 examined ; and on the conclusion of their 
 labours the Committee reported to the 
 House; and there can be little doubt that 
 the report considerably influenced Parlia- 
 mentary opinion. In the last paragraphs 
 the Committee said : — 
 
 " The established newspapers, particularly 
 the London daily press, collect the valuable 
 information which they report to the public 
 at a very great expense, and publish it at a 
 very costly celerity. It has been stated, that 
 if the newspaper duty were abolished, there 
 would be a great temptation to the numerous 
 halfpenny and penny pubhcations which 
 would then spring up to pirate the public 
 intelligence collected at so much cost 
 and exertion. It has been proposed that 
 some short privilege of copyright should 
 therefore be conferred. In conclusion, your 
 Committee consider it their duty to direct 
 attention to the objections and abuses 
 incident to the present system of newspaper 
 stamps, arising from the difficulty of defin- 
 ing and determining the meaning of the 
 term ' news,' and the inequalities which 
 exist in the application of the Newspaper 
 Stamp Act, and the anomalies and evasions 
 that it occasions in postal arrangements ; to 
 the unfair competition to which stamped 
 newspapers are exposed with unstamped 
 publications ; to the limitation imposed by 
 the stamp upon the circulation of the best 
 newspapers, and to the impediment which it 
 throws in the way of the diffusion of useful 
 knowledge regarding current and recent 
 events among the poorer classes, which 
 species of knowledge, relating to subjects 
 which most obviously interest them, call out 
 the intelligence by awakening the curiosity 
 of those classes. How far it may be expedi- 
 ent that this tax should be maintained as a 
 source of revenue, either in its present or any 
 modified form, your Committee do not feel 
 themselves called upon to state ; other con- 
 siderations not within their province would 
 anter into that question. But, apart from 
 financial considerations, they do not consider 
 that news is of itself a desii'able subject of 
 taxation." 
 
 Effect of the Stamp on Supplements. 
 
 In the next session (April 22nd, 1852), Mr. 
 Milner Gibson, who had on the former 
 occasion supported Mr. Ewart, took the lead 
 in opposing the taxes on knowledge by pro- 
 posing resolutions on the subject. He 
 asserted, on the authority of Mr. Mowbray 
 Morris, manager of the Times, that the 
 effect of the stamp duty on the supplements 
 (one halfpenny) was to render it necessary 
 for the managers to prevent the circulation 
 going beyond a certain amount ; for when 
 the fund for the advertisements in supple- 
 ments was exhausted, then, as far as the 
 supplement was concerned, profit ended and 
 loss began, so that the circulation must be 
 stopped. " Thus," continued Mr. Gibson, 
 " the effect of the stamp is first to lessen the 
 circulation of the leading paper to half what 
 it might be, and also to effect all the other 
 papers by causing a declining circulation, 
 and, what was worse than all, to prevent the 
 working classes from having any newspaper 
 at all." 
 
 The resolution affecting the paper duty — 
 " That such financial arrangements ought to 
 be made as will enable Parliament to dis- 
 pense with the duty on paper"— was first 
 debated. Mr. Disraeli, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, opposed the resolution, not on 
 principle, but because " we must consider 
 the ability which we have to relieve the 
 industry of the country, and which is the 
 wisest direction in which we can move, so as 
 to redress any wrong or to effect any good." 
 On the resumption of the debate a fortnight 
 afterwards, Rlr. Cowan, Member for Edin- 
 burgh, and a paper manufacturer, supported 
 the resolution, and Mr. Gladstone spoke at 
 some length, to the effect that he objected to 
 support an abstract resolution which might 
 embarrass the Government in its financial 
 plans, but he should be heartily glad when 
 the time came that the duty might be 
 repealed. Mr. Hume spoke strongly in 
 favour of the resolution, reminding the 
 House that the question was not that they 
 should immediately repeal the paper duty, 
 but that financial arrangements ought to be 
 made which would enable Parliament to dis- 
 pense with that duty ; and, with regard to 
 the results of its removal, he said that he 
 knew of persons who were at that moment 
 ready to embark ^20,000 in a daily news- 
 paper to be sold for a halfpenny. The three 
 resolutions were lost by majorities of 88, 99, 
 and 65. 
 
 Dickens's " Household Narrative." 
 A new interest was imparted to the ques- 
 tion in the following December. Mr. Charles 
 Dickens had started a monthly summary 
 of news, entitled the Household Narrative, 
 
 205 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 similar in size and general appearance to 
 his popular HotiseJiold Words. The idea 
 was not original, for nearly twenty years 
 before, at the time when Carpenter and 
 Hetherington were endeavouring to establish 
 unstampednewspapers,thebrothers Chambers 
 of Edinburgh started Chainber^ Historical 
 Newspaper, to be published on the ist of 
 every month, at the price of threehalfpence. 
 The first number, of sixteen pages folio, ap- 
 peared on Friday, November 2nd, 1832. The 
 publication not only called itself a news- 
 paper, but actually was one, containing 
 foreign, colonial and home news, " latest 
 news of the month," prices of the public funds, 
 lists of bankrupts, etc., etc., and social and 
 political leaders. At the end of three years 
 it was discontinued. 
 
 Although sanctioned by this precedent, the 
 Stanip Office authorities considered the 
 Household Narrative\.o be a newspaper within 
 the meaning of the Act, although published 
 at intervals of more than twenty-six days, 
 and therefore liable to stamp duty. An 
 information was filed against Messrs. Brad- 
 bury and Evans, the publishers ; and three 
 of the four judges of the Court of Exchequer 
 were of opinion that the publication was 
 liable to the duty, but Mr. Baron Parke 
 held that it was not liable. An appeal to 
 the Court of Exchequer Chamber would 
 have been made, but Lord Derby's ministry 
 went out of office on the 17th of Decem- 
 ber, and was succeeded by the ministry 
 formed by the Earl of Aberdeen. Mr. 
 Gladstone, the new Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer, thought it right to adhere to the 
 opinion of the majority of the Court; and being 
 extremely anxious, for the sake of literature, 
 to prevent the litigation likely to occur, in 
 order to settle the question definitely, the 
 Attorney-General, Sir Alexander Cockburn, 
 obtained leave to bring in a Bill to amend 
 the law, and give a substantive definition of 
 a newspaper which would exclude from the 
 operation of the stamp duty the publication 
 in question, and other publications of a like 
 nature containing news, but not published at 
 intervals of less that twenty-six days. On 
 the second reading of the Bill, the Attorney- 
 General pointed out that, under the existing 
 definition, a paper sold for more than six- 
 pence was not liable to the duty. The object 
 was to establish the law and make it uniform 
 with regard to all classes of newspapers, 
 whether large or small. The Bill was read a 
 second time without a division, and receiving 
 no opposition in the Lords^ became law. 
 
 Success of Mr. Milner Gibson. 
 
 The early part of the session of 1853 was 
 marked by another effort on the part of Mr. 
 Milner Gibson, who, on the 14th of April, a 
 
 few days before the time fixed for the intro- 
 duction of the Budget, again submitted his 
 three resolutions, and notwithstanding the 
 protest of Mr. Gladstone against abstract 
 resolutions on financial matters before th© 
 introduction of the ministerial scheme, carried 
 that which referred to the advertisement 
 duty by a majority of 31, the number being 
 200 to 169. The resolution respecting the 
 newspaper stamp was lost by 98 to 280. 
 
 It was almost compulsory on Mr. Glad- 
 stone to include a reduction, if not abolition^ 
 of the advertisement duty in his Budget. A 
 resolution passed by a considerable majority 
 of the House must not be shghted even by 
 the most powerful of ministers. The Budget 
 was introduced four days after the discus- 
 sions on Mr. Gibson's resolutions ; and Mr. 
 Gladstone proposed to discontinue the stamps 
 on newspaper supplements, and to reduce the 
 advertisement duty to sixpence. He was 
 evidently annoyed at the interference by 
 resolution with his carefully prepared scheme. 
 In the previous debate he had said that if 
 the House undertook to settle the ways and 
 means by resolutions introduced by private 
 members, the office of Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer might as well be abolished. 
 
 When, on the ist of July, the resolution for 
 reducing the advertisement duty to sixpence 
 was formally put to the Committee, Mr. 
 Milner Gibson moved as an amendment 
 " that all duties now chargeable on advertise- 
 ments be repealed in accordance with a 
 resolution of the House on the 14th of April 
 last." Mr. Cobden supported the amend- 
 ment, which, however, was rejected by a 
 majority of 12 ; 97 voting for it, and 
 109 against. Mr. Crawford then moved, 
 that instead of the figure 6, a cipher (o) should 
 be inserted. On a division the Government 
 was beaten by a majority of five ; and when 
 the amended resolution was put as a substan- 
 tive motion it was carried by 70 against 
 60. The mode of procedure appeared 
 unusual, and Mr. Hume, who certainly was 
 in favour of the remission of the duty, asked 
 the Speaker if the House were in order in 
 carrying a resolution so worded. The 
 Speaker decided that the amendment was 
 strictly in order ; and so, to the unconcealed 
 annoyance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,, 
 the duty on advertisements passed into the 
 limbo of dead imposts, and was seen no 
 more. 
 
 Abolition of the Newspaper Stamp. 
 One great step in advance had been made, 
 but much more remained to be achieved. 
 In 1854, the indomitable Mr. Milner Gibsork 
 succeeded in carrying a resolution in favour 
 of discontinuing the stamp ; and in the 
 following session an Act (18 and 19 Vic. cap. 
 27) was passed, by which the stamp on 
 206 
 
THE PENNY NEWSPAPER. 
 
 newspapers, as such, was abolished, except 
 that it would be employed henceforth for 
 postal purposes only. 
 
 In introducing the Bill, tfie Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 
 acknowledged that the subject had become 
 "not simply a question whether we shall 
 retain, or shall not retain, a revenue of 
 _;;^20o,ooo, but it is whether we shall enter on 
 a crusade against a large portion of the 
 existing newspaper press for the sake of 
 enforcing a law which can only be enforced 
 by the verdicts of juries, which are sometimes 
 doubtful in their result." The second read- 
 ing of the Bill was carried in the Commons 
 by a majority of 54, and in the Lords no 
 division took place. 
 
 The public received the benefit of the 
 reduction, paying a penny less for a news- 
 paper ; and of course the circulation of the 
 journals increased considerably, and many 
 new ones were started, many of them, how- 
 ever, doomed to an early death. That was 
 a wonderful year for newspapers, the incidents 
 of the war in the Crimea being of painful 
 and absorbing interest. 
 
 The Rise of Reuter. 
 
 The time was at hand, however, when the 
 practical monopoly enjoyed by the wealthy 
 newspapers was to receive a shock. Mr. 
 Reuter, an industrious purveyor of commer- 
 cial and monetary intelligence for the Con- 
 tinent, was perfecting arrangements des- 
 tined almost to revolutionize the machinery 
 by which newspapers obtained intelligence. 
 On New Year's Day, 1859, the Emperor of 
 the French, at the diplomatic levee, addressed 
 some ominous words to the Austrian ambas- 
 sador, rightly taken as a prelude to a declara- 
 tion of war. An agent of Mr. Reuter flashed 
 the words across the Channel, and the 
 Times published them, before they were 
 known even to the Ministers themselves. 
 The readers at first disbelieved, then doubted, 
 then becameaware that Mr. Reuter was indeed 
 a wonderful personage, whose unknown agents 
 possessed marvellous means of procuring 
 intelligence. Very soon it appeared that 
 he had means of obtaining authoritative 
 news from almost every part of the habitable 
 globe. He established an office, and for an 
 annual subscription any newspaper could 
 receive copies of all the telegrams which 
 arrived at any hour of the day or night. The 
 small papers paid the subscription, and were 
 at once on an equality with the Times, 
 Standa7-d, or Daily N'ezas ; the provincial 
 papers published at Manchester, Leeds, 
 Edinburgh, Glasgow, and almost everywhere 
 else, had preciselythe same intelligence which 
 the metropolitan newspapers could supply, 
 and at the same time, having received it by 
 
 telegraph from Renter's oftice in London. 
 From the office in Moorgate Street an active 
 brigade of lads were perpetually carrying the 
 orange-colouredenvelopes, containing "mani- 
 fold,"ormore familiarly " flimsy,"copiesof the 
 telegrams received. The success of the plan 
 was complete, and the unfailing authenticity 
 of the telegraphic intelligence supplied by 
 Reuter inspired the public with confidence. 
 It is not too much to say, that an absolute 
 contradiction of news furnished by his agents 
 is almost unknown. In another way, not 
 only Reuter's system, but the use of the 
 submarine and other telegraphs generally, 
 greatly affected newspapers. Not only were 
 they all nearly on a level as to the receipt of 
 intelligence, but the brief telegraphic infor- 
 mation "discounted" the interest of the 
 detailed narrative. Formerly the result and 
 the details came together ; now theelaborated 
 story had the freshness taken off it by the 
 few words passed through the wire, and' was 
 perused at leisure almost as stale news. 
 Times had changed, and newspapers changed 
 with them. 
 
 Battle of the Paper Duty. 
 But the paper duty remained. At length 
 Mr. Gladstone succeeded in removing the 
 burden ; and the mode by which he did sO' 
 marks a memorable episode in Parliamentary 
 history. The great Budget of i860, that 
 famous modification and rearrangement of 
 so many imposts, included a proposition for 
 totally abolishing the excise duty on paper. 
 The remissionwasintendednotonlyas a relief 
 to the book and newspaper trade — not only 
 as the removal of the last remaining of the 
 taxes on knowledge, but was applicable to 
 many other trades and manuflictures in which 
 paper could be advantageously employed. 
 Mr. Gladstone said he had received com- 
 munications from the representatives of sixty- 
 nine trades in which paper could be made 
 use of if the duty did not stand in the 
 way. He proposed that the duty should be 
 abolished afterthe istof July. Theimmediate 
 loss to the revenue would be ^1,100,000; 
 but so much less labour would be required 
 in the Inland Revenue establishment that a 
 yearly saving of ^20,000 would be eft'ected. 
 
 j The Chancellor also proposed to get rid of 
 the impressed stamp on newspapers for 
 postal purposes. 
 
 There was considerable opposition in the 
 House of Commons to the abolition of the 
 paper duty ; and divisions were taken at 
 every stage, the majorities in favour of the 
 resolution being less and less. The Bill 
 founded on the resolution passed, however ; 
 but when it reached the House of Lords, 
 Lord Monteagle moved its rejection, and 
 found a powerful supporter in Lord Lyndhurst, 
 who, although in his eighty-ninth year, made 
 
 207 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 occasional displays in the House which 
 showed that " e'en in their ashes lived the 
 wonted fires." He emphatically declared 
 that the House of Peers had a right to refuse 
 assent to propositions for repealing taxation ; 
 and that in the existing state of European 
 politics it would be most unwise to reduce 
 the revenue which might be called on to 
 meet great emergencies. The cheap press 
 was not popular with many members of the 
 House, who thought that to cheapen paper 
 would be to offer facilities for disseminating 
 dangerous, if not absolutely revolutionary 
 doctrines. The foreboding of the aged 
 Lyndhurst, combined with this dislike, caused 
 the Bill to be rejected by a majority of 80. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, was 
 not the man to accept this rebuff quietly. 
 He at once obtained the appointment of a 
 Committee of the House of Commons to 
 inquire into the practice of each House with 
 regard to Bills imposing or repealing taxes. 
 The Committee met, examined witnesses, and 
 carefully inquired into precedents, and came 
 to the conclusion that the Lords had a con- 
 stitutional right to reject a Bill imposing a tax. 
 One member of the Committee, no less a 
 person than Mr. Bright, dissented from the 
 conclusion, and drew up a report of his own, 
 in which he denied that the Lords had a 
 right to reimpose a tax which the Commons 
 had repealed, because if they did so, the 
 Commons would not have absolute control 
 over the taxation of the country. Palmerston 
 appears to have accepted Mr. Bright's view, 
 for on the presentation of the Committee's 
 report, he proposed and carried a series of 
 resolutions, re-affirming the claim of the 
 Commons to " a rightful control over taxation 
 and supply." Mr. Gladstone, always nervously 
 sensitive to a " snub," protested against " the 
 gigantic innovation ; " but Lord Palmerston 
 took the matter more easily. Mr. Gladstone 
 would have liked to fight the matter out at 
 once, had time permitted ; but it was absolutely 
 necessary to settle the finances for the year, 
 and he contented himself with carrying a 
 resolution for removing, in accordance with 
 the provisions of the commercial treaty with 
 France, so much of the Customs duty on im- 
 ported paper as exceeded the Excise duty 
 on paper made in this country. He had 
 another arrow in his quiver. 
 
 Gladstone's Tactics. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1861, the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer came forward with another 
 Budget, and announced that he estimated a 
 surplus of nearly ^^2,000,000, and among 
 other remission of taxation proposed to 
 repeal the paper duty. 
 
 After considerable opposition the resolu- 
 tion was carried, and then Mr. Gladstone 
 announced that he intended to include all the 
 resolutions in one Bill, and in that form the 
 Bill went up to the House of Lords, where it 
 passed without a division, their Lordships 
 apparently not desiring to continue the 
 fight. 
 
 The Penny Press a Triumphant 
 Fact. 
 
 The Newspaper Press was at length free 
 from special imposts. One by one the adver- 
 tisement duty, the stamp duty, and the paper 
 duty had disappeared ; and the effect was a 
 general lowering of price to the public and the 
 appearance of many new journals. Most 
 of the weeklies, Lloyd's, Reynolds's, the 
 Weekly Times, among them, reduced their 
 price to one penny. The Dispatch held out 
 till 1869, then came down to twopence, and 
 in 1 87 1 accepted its fate and fell to the 
 inevitable penny. On Friday, January 29th, 
 1855, appeared the first number of the Daily 
 Telegj-aph and Courier, price twopence. 
 It consisted of four full-sized pages and 
 twenty-four columns. In an announce- 
 ment as the leading article the editor said, 
 "We have resolved that the advertising 
 columns of the Telegraph and Courier shall 
 in no instance exceed the first page;" but 
 occasional supplements of advertisements 
 were promised. On Monday, the 20th of 
 August, the words " and Courier " appeared 
 in very small type under the chief head- 
 ing, and a few weeks afterwards vanished 
 altogether. At that time the paper had less 
 than three columns of advertisements, all 
 told. On the 17th of September, the Daily 
 Telegraph lowered its price to one penny. 
 In due time, the Standard (formerly an 
 evening paper), having become amalgamated 
 with the old Morning Herald, retained the 
 former title, and was published at one penny. 
 In the autumn of 1881, the aristocratic and 
 fashionable Morning Post descended to the 
 plebeian penny. The Pall Mall Gazette, and 
 its young opponent, the St. Jame^s Gazette, 
 reduced their charge from twopence to a 
 penny at the opening of 1882. Of the 2,080, 
 or thereabouts, newspapers now in existence 
 in the United Kingdom, about 1,190 have 
 been started subsequently to 1861, when the 
 paper duty, the last shackle of the Press 
 giant was struck off ; and about 1,160 of all 
 the newspapers published belong to the ranks 
 of the Penny Press, with a lively family 
 (the Echo being eldest) of nearly forty little 
 brothers at "only one half-penny each." 
 
 G. R. E. 
 
 208 
 
Castle at Porto Ferrajo, Napoleon's Residence at Elba. 
 
 FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO 
 
 THE STORY OF THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 "The desolator desolate ! — the victor overthrown ! 
 The arbiter of others' fate a suppHant for his own ! " 
 
 Napoleon I. becomes Ruler of Elba — Description of the Island — A great King and a small Empire — Activity and Pros- 
 perity in the Island — The Emperor's Plans of Improvement — Want of Good Faith towards him — His Pension — Errors 
 of the Bourbon Government in France — Demands of the Emigres — Priestcraft and Intolerance — The Emperor's 
 Return to France — Flight of the Imperial Eagle to Paris and the Tuileries— The Government and the Army — 
 Attachment of the Troops to Napoleon — Flight of the Bourbons — Plan of the Campaign of 1813 — The Duke of 
 Wellington and Marshal Bliicher — Active Operations — The Historical Ball at Brussels — Battles of Ligny and Quatre 
 Bras — Retreat and New Position South of Waterloo — The Great Battle — Incidents of the Day — A Defensive Posi- 
 tion — The Issue of the Conflict — End of the Vanquished Conqueror's Career. 
 
 Napoleon L becomes Ruler of Elba. 
 
 p^^OWEVER various may be the opin- 
 
 EWk j ions expressed by historians and 
 .hrJ biographers on the character and 
 actions of the great founder of the 
 imperial house of the Bonapartes, — whether 
 we find that unscrupulous leader of many 
 legions covered with fulsome laudation, and 
 represented as a little lower than the angels, 
 as in the Lives written by Hazlett and Abbott 
 — or represented in the light of a " Scamp 
 Jupiter," a successful trickster, destitute of 
 human feeling and of honest principle as 
 he was full of genius and mental resource, 
 as he is represented in the " Representa- 
 tive Men " of Emerson, and in Sir Walter 
 Scott's somewhat long-winded book, — on 
 one point at least his puffers and detractors 
 
 are fully agreed, namely, as to the consum- 
 mate ability, energy, and courage with which 
 he fought out the struggle to the bitter end 
 in 1 8 14. Surrounded on every side by over- 
 whelming numbers of elated foes, his own 
 troops harassed by fatigue, and rapidly 
 melting away in the series of desperate 
 battles crowded together in the space of a 
 few weeks ; compelled to make one small 
 army do the work of four or five ; and with 
 the net closing round him, in spite of the 
 furious bounds of the hunted lion, the 
 achievements of the short campaign of 1814 
 excited the highest admiration for the mili- 
 tary quahties of Napoleon, even among those 
 who hated him most ; and even to the last 
 suggested the advisableness of making a 
 compromise with the man who proved him- 
 209 P 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 self capable, under the most unfavourable 
 conditions, of inflicting so much damage 
 upon all who ventured to take the field 
 against him. Thus at the Congress, opened 
 at Chatillon earl> in the year, an opportunity 
 was offered to the "vanquished victor" to 
 end the contest by an arrangement that 
 would have still left him at the head of the 
 French nation, though with greatly curtailed 
 power and territories. But " double or quits 
 — all or nothing," was the game at which 
 Napoleon loved to play ; and a slight gleam 
 of success was sufficient to rekindle in him 
 all the arrogance of ambition. He had fought 
 five battles in as many days, and had been 
 victorious in each — at Champaubert, Mont- 
 mirail. Chateau Thierry, and Vauchamps ; 
 and his sanguine temper and untiring ac- 
 tivity prevented him from seeing that no 
 amount of temporary success could do more 
 than retard by a few weeks his ultimate fall 
 in the face of the tremendous forces arrayed 
 against him. He let the last chance of 
 accommodation with his enemies pass away, 
 by his evident chicanery to gain time at 
 Chatillon; and thus the allies were compelled 
 to take the resolution they successfully carried 
 out, namely, that of marching on Paris, and 
 compelling the capital to surrender before 
 the Emperor, with his exhausted and worn- 
 out army, which was daily being lessened by 
 desertion, could arrive to its rescue ; and on 
 the 31st of March, Paris capitulated. 
 
 Napoleon had penetrated the design of 
 his enemies ; and after beating back more 
 than one of their armies towards the frontier, 
 had suddenly turned from the pursuit, and 
 hastened with forced marches towards Paris. 
 But it was too late. Before he reached 
 Fontainebleau, the sound of distant can- 
 nonading warned him of what was going on 
 ' around the capital ; and at Fontainebleau 
 itself the fatal news reached him that 
 Marmont and Mortier had given up the 
 contest, and then he knew that the game of 
 ambition was over. For a few days he 
 lingered with the wreck of his army at 
 Fontainebleau, undecided what course to 
 take, and drinking the cup of humiliation to 
 the very dregs. For the imperious Master 
 of Europe had made but few friends, even 
 in the days of his success. His best and 
 truest counsellor had been lost to him on 
 that fatal day, when Duroc, mortally wounded, 
 clasped his hand, and uttered those emphatic 
 words of warning which for a time shook 
 even the conqueror's iron soul, and robbed 
 him for a few hours of his self-possession. 
 To his marshals he had been liberal of titles 
 and rewards ; but they were conscious of 
 being only tools in his hands ; and in the 
 mind of nearly every one of them rankled the 
 remembrance of harsh or imjust words and 
 scornful treatment, from the man in whom 
 
 gigantic intellect was found joined to utter 
 coldness of heart, whose aspirations were 
 " pent within the circle of a sword-sweep," 
 and who was beloved only by those too far 
 removed from him by their humble position 
 to know anything of his personal character. 
 Even those whom he had accounted his 
 friends, and had distinguished by marks of 
 especial favour, — Oudinot, Berthier, Ney, — 
 deserted him when their interest and his 
 fortunes diverged. There are few pages in 
 history more pathetically illustrative of the 
 depth to which human greatness can fall, 
 than are furnished by the events of those 
 few days at Fontainebleau, when the fate of 
 the fallen Emperor was to be decided by the 
 kings on whose necks he had had his foot 
 only a few short years before. 
 
 The Abdiel of the Empire, "among the 
 faithless faithful only found," was brave, 
 true-hearted Marshal Macdonald, whose 
 Scottish descent was nobly apparent in the 
 honour with which he clung to the chief 
 whom fortune had so completely deserted. 
 The cold heart of Napoleon, wrung with an 
 anguish that even made him attempt self- 
 destruction, was touched at Macdonald's 
 fidelity ; and in a few pathetic words he 
 acknowledged that he had given this true 
 and gallant gentlemen too much reason for 
 dissatisfaction, and expressed his sense of 
 the noble revenge the Marshal was taking. 
 
 For it was Macdonald who acted as the 
 intermediary between the fallen Emperor at 
 Fontainebleau and his triumphant foes in 
 the capital ; and it was greatly owing to his 
 exertions that a shadow of sovereignty was 
 still left to the fallen ruler of miUions. 
 
 It was arranged that Napoleon — who had 
 at first vainly endeavoured to preserve his 
 dynasty, by offering to abdicate in favour of 
 his little son, the King of Rome, and had 
 afterwards signed an unconditional abdica- 
 tion of the French throne — should receive, 
 for himself and his descendants, the 
 sovereignty of the little island of Elba, the 
 Ilva of the ancients, situated a few miles 
 from the coast of Tuscany ; and he was to 
 retain the title of emperor. Elba had come 
 into the possession of France in 1802. It 
 certainly seems a strange oversight that the 
 discrowned Caesar should have been per- 
 mitted to take up his residence at a point 
 within an easy distance of the French coast ; 
 and can only be explained on the assump- 
 tion that his power was considered to be 
 over and gone — completely a thing of the 
 past. 
 
 As regards its physical features and 
 capabilities, Elba is, in many respects, a 
 favoured spot. The high mountains, of 
 which it is chiefly composed, contain an 
 abundance of mineral wealth; copper, iron, 
 lead, and even gold and silver, being 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 reckoned among its products, besides quar- 
 ries of slate, marble, and granite. The 
 tunny fishery is the chief source of support 
 to the inhabitants next to the iron mines, 
 for which Elba was famous even in ancient 
 times. In some parts the land is well 
 adapted for agriculture ; and a great variety 
 of wild flowering plants, here as elsewhere 
 in beauteous Italy, " own the kindred soil, 
 nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil." 
 Altogether, it was far from an undesirable 
 domain of which Napoleon took possession 
 on the 4th of May, 1814, having arrived 
 there, on a British ship, on the 3rd, — the day 
 on which the restored Bourbon king, 
 Louis XVIII., made his entry into Paris. 
 
 A Great King and a Small Empire. 
 
 During his journey southward through 
 France, before embarking on the British 
 ship of war that was to convey him to his 
 ■new home, the Emperor had practical 
 experience of the mutability of popular 
 favour. As Coriolanus was '"'by the voice 
 of slaves whooped out of Rome," so was 
 Napoleon followed by the execrations of the 
 populacejwho had worshipped him in the day 
 of his success ; he had at last been com- 
 pelled, for safety, to travel in disguise. In 
 Porto Ferrajo, the capital of Elba, he was 
 received, on the contrar}', with every sign 
 of welcome and rejoicing ; the inhabitants 
 shrewdly considering that the residence of 
 so distinguished a man among them as 
 their ruler, could not fail to draw many 
 visitors to the island, and to bring increased 
 prosperity. In this conjecture they were 
 perfectly right. "Never," says Bussey, "was 
 Elba so busy or so prosperous as during the 
 abode, among its sea-beaten rocks, of ' the 
 Emperor ' ; never did its ships traverse seas 
 infested with Moorish pirates with so much 
 impunity, as v.'hile they were protected by 
 the golden bees of Napoleon." 
 
 The Emperor himself seemed pleased with 
 his reception, and soon manifested much of 
 his old energy and activity. Within a few 
 days he had made a tour of inspection 
 through the whole island, examining, ques- 
 tioning, and planning, as was his wont. " It 
 must be confessed that my empire is very 
 small," he observed with a smile, when he 
 found how soon his territory was traversed ; 
 and, indeed, his new subjects were only about 
 twelve thousand in all. It was not in his 
 nature to be without projects, or without 
 finding work to do. He immediately set 
 about improving his little principality. New 
 roads were laid out, new fortifications begun, 
 new buildings for salt works and for the 
 tunny fishing were commenced, as well as a 
 handsome house for the Emperor's sister, 
 the beautiful Pauline, Princess Borghese, 
 who was soon to join him, with his mother. 
 
 the venerable Madame Letitia. It seemed 
 as though he had thoroughly adapted him- 
 self to his altered fortunes, and was content 
 to end his career as the ruler of this little 
 sea-girt empire. 
 
 Soon afterwards. General Cambronne 
 arrived, with about four hundred soldiers of 
 the old Guard, who had volunteered to serve 
 the " Little Corporal " under these changed 
 circumstances. Colonel Sir Neil Campbell 
 also came, as British Commissioner; which 
 shows that the British Government, at least, 
 did not feel quite secure as to Napoleon's 
 intentions, and accordingly considered it 
 advisable to have a confidential agent on the 
 spot, to keep a vigilant eye upon his pro- 
 ceedings. In his " Life of Napoleon," Sir 
 Walter Scott speaks of Elba, during the Na- 
 poleon year, as resembling a huge barrack, 
 "filled with military, gens-d'armes, refugees 
 of all descriptions, expectants, dependents, 
 domestics, and adventurers." In truth, a 
 somewhat dangerous and explosive compound 
 of elements, and one that might easily, if 
 incautiously handled, burst into a flame. 
 
 Among the visitors admitted to an inter- 
 view by the Emperor was Lord John Russell, 
 destined afterwards to do many notable 
 things as a British statesman. To him 
 Napoleon expressed some amount of doubt 
 as to what the Duke of Wellington would 
 do, now that the contest was over ; and 
 could hardly be made to believe that the 
 illustrious warrior, his task as a military 
 leader being finished, would simply take his 
 place as a British peer in the civil councils 
 of his country. The Emperor could hardly 
 conceive the idea of a distinguished career 
 or exalted usefulness apart from the " pomp 
 and circumstance of glorious war." 
 
 It was obviously the interest, no less than 
 the duty, of the restored government of 
 France to be scrupulous in fulfilling the 
 conditions of its treaty with the exiled Em- 
 peror, that he, on his part, might have no 
 pretext for breaking his share of the compact, 
 or endeavouring to disturb the new state of 
 things. But the fatality that attended all 
 the proceedings of the first ministers of 
 Louis XVIII. seems to have betrayed them 
 here into a fatal blunder, the consequences 
 of which were disastrous in the extreme. 
 On his abdicating the throne, the allies had 
 covenanted to pay Napoleon a yearly pen- 
 sion of six millions of francs ; and this sum 
 was to form an item in the " grand livre," or 
 national budget of France, and was to be 
 paid in advance to the ruler of Elba. With 
 a parsimony equally unjust and shortsighted, 
 the French Government withheld this pen- 
 sion ; and when Lord Castlereagh — who,, 
 though by no means a very sagacious min- 
 ister, yet had sufficient sense toj see the 
 danger of the proceeding — addressed the 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Government of Louis XVIII. on the subject, 
 he was told in reply that the conduct of 
 Napoleon, in recruiting soldiers in Corsica 
 for his guard, had been equivocal, but that 
 some means would be taken to afford him 
 " some help," — a subterfuge unworthy of the 
 administration of a great country. 
 
 Meanwhile Napoleon was in real and 
 serious pecuniary embarrassment. The 
 revenues of his island empire being incon- 
 siderable, he depended chiefly upon the 
 pension so unrighteously withheld ; and had 
 the mortification of finding himself obliged 
 to stop the improvements and works he had 
 taken in hand, and to quarter his guards 
 upon the inhabitants, who were unable to 
 pay taxes. His earnest remonstrances to the 
 French Government were entirely unheeded ; 
 and to one who has for years had at his dis- 
 posal the resources of a great kingdom, this 
 embarrassment was as novel as it was galling. 
 
 Thus, not unnaturally, the suspicion arose 
 in his mind that the sovereignty of Elba had 
 not been given to him in good faith, but 
 merely as a temporary measure, until the 
 allies should consider it safe to dispose of 
 him in another quarter. And as to his 
 ultimate destination a dark foreboding had 
 taken possession of him. The island of 
 St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, long held 
 by the East India Company chiefly for the 
 supply of fresh water it afforded to their 
 ships, was purchased by the British Govern- 
 ment ; and Napoleon was haunted by the 
 apprehension that to this far-off island of 
 St. Helena he was in due time to be trans- 
 ferred. And so in the capital, Porto Ferrajo, 
 whose name he had changed to Cosmopoli, 
 Napoleon sat meditating on these things, 
 and maturing a resolution that was soon to 
 startle all Europe. 
 
 The Bourbon Government and its 
 Errors. 
 When Talleyrand, the most versatile, clear- 
 headed, and unscrupulous of political intrigu- 
 ers, declared that the Bourbons " had 
 learned nothing and forgotten nothing " in 
 exile, he might with equal justice have ex- 
 tended his bitter epigram to the adherents 
 and followers of that self-deluded race. With 
 the Restoration there came thronging back to 
 France an infinite number of emigres — 
 people whose royalism was far more intense 
 than that of the King their master, and who 
 were utterly unable to appreciate the change 
 that a most eventful quarter of a century 
 could not fail to make in the sentiments and 
 ideas of an active and quickwitted nation. All 
 that these people could understand was the 
 bare fact that the good cause had triumphed, 
 that the usurper had been cast down from 
 his high estate, and that the King was to 
 enjoy his own again ; and to their minds the 
 
 reinstatement of the King involved as a 
 necessary consequence that they themselves 
 were to be restored to the positions they had 
 held before the Revolution had sent them 
 flying for dear life, to the protection of 
 foreign lands. King Louis XVIII., a fat, 
 good-natured gentleman enough, would have 
 been content to take the goods the gods had 
 provided him, and to content all parties, so 
 far as it was practicable. Like Charles II., 
 he had not the slightest wish to " go on his 
 travels again ; " and like a later chief magis- 
 trate of France, "y'jK suis^ et fy reste" was 
 j the motto he felt inclined to adopt ; and he 
 had been content to acknowledge the altered 
 spirit of the time by the concession of im- 
 portant privileges to the French people, — 
 such as the " Charte," which guaranteed 
 to them a certain amount of constitutional 
 freedom ; the abolition of the consolidated 
 taxes, which were looked on as a great 
 national grievance ; and that most important 
 element in a popular government, the freedom 
 of the press. The words of the King him- 
 self, repeated from mouth to mouth with 
 great satisfaction, in which Louis XVIII. 
 declared that there was nothing changed by 
 his return, that there was only one French- 
 man more in France, were taken as a royal 
 promise that existing rights should be 
 preserved. 
 
 But the King did not keep his word ; pro- 
 bably the influences around him were too 
 strong to allow him. The returned emigres 
 looked upon France as their exclusive pro- 
 perty, whicii they now demanded to have 
 restored to them, in the condition in which 
 they had left it more than twenty years before. 
 In the good old times of marquises and 
 feudal lords of the manor, none but men of 
 noble birth could be officers in the army. 
 Consequently the returned exiles claimed 
 to be put in the places of the veterans of 
 Austerlitz, Wagram and Smolensk, who were 
 dismissed accordingly, or compelled to retire 
 on utterly insufficient pensions to make room 
 for commanders who had never seen a shot 
 fired in anger. Bdranger the poet made 
 terrible fun of these untried warriors, and 
 contributed not a little to spread abroad the 
 disgust excited by their usurpation. In the 
 public offices, too, officials, against whom 
 nothing could be urged except that they had 
 received their appointments under the Re- 
 public or the Empire, were turned away, to 
 make room for the " supporters " of the 
 restored dynasty. A censorship of the press 
 was established, as rigid as ever that of 
 Napoleon had been ; estates purchased in 
 open market under the Republic and Empire 
 were handed back to the former possessors, 
 who, by the law passed under a government 
 of acknowledged legality, had been declared 
 to have forfeited them years before ; and the 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 sense of the people was continually outraged 
 by the denunciation of every political act 
 done since the overthrow of the monarchy 
 as wicked and heinous. The power of the 
 priests was also restored, under the patron- 
 age of the King's brother, the Comte d'Artois, 
 afterwards Charles X., who in his bigotry and 
 his inability to temper zeal with discretion, 
 as well as in his ultimate fate, furnishes a 
 parallel to the English James II. ; like whom, 
 indeed, he was fated, after a few years of 
 misrule, to end his life in exile. The Jesuits, 
 the most obnoxious of all the ecclesiastical 
 orders, come flocking back to France ; and 
 
 discontent that should ripen into a harvest 
 of hate. 
 
 The extent to which the illiberal spirit of 
 the Government was carried, appeared in 
 the case of Mademoiselle de Raucourt, an 
 actress of the Theatre Francais, which 
 excited intense indignation in Paris, and 
 almost provoked a riot. At the age of 
 sixty Mademoiselle de Raucourt died ; and 
 the obsolete law, which pronounced those 
 of her profession excommunicate, and there- 
 fore denied them the rites of the Church in 
 burial, was actually revived in her case. 
 The scandal was the greater as the woman's 
 
 Meeting of the Emi'eror and Marshal Ney. 
 
 for a time their influence was paramount in 
 every department ; and the Legion of Honour, 
 the coveted prize that had inspired many a 
 deed of daring and self-devoted courage 
 during the period that had just closed so 
 mournfully, was systematically degraded by 
 being scattered broadcast among the lowest 
 and most despicable of the spies and intriguers 
 who did the dirty work of the Government. 
 It seemed as though the partisans of Louis 
 were bent on showing the old feeling of con- 
 tempt for the " canaille," in its most offensive 
 form, upon every occasion. Never did men 
 work more industriously to sow among the 
 nation they came to govern the seeds of a 
 
 reputation was without a stain. When the 
 corpse was refused admission into the 
 church of St. Brigue, the people were roused 
 to fury. An immediate application to the 
 King to order the interment was met by a 
 refusal, on the ground that His Majesty 
 could not interfere in a matter that con- 
 cerned the ecclesiastical authorities alone. 
 But the populace persisted, and the fellow 
 actors and actresses of Mademoiselle Rau- 
 court declared, in a second application to 
 the King, that unkss the rites of the Church 
 were accorded to their dead sister, they 
 would go over in a body to the Protestant 
 faith ; whereupon His Majesty gave way. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 What would have been said in England if 
 Christian burial had been denied to Mrs. 
 Siddons on the score of her profession ? 
 
 The Emperor's Return from Elba to 
 France. 
 
 It had been arranged by the Treaty of 
 Paris, that two months after the signing of 
 that document a Congress should meet in 
 Vienna, to discuss various matters of para- 
 mount importance to the Governments of | 
 Europe, and especially to readjust the 
 frontiers of the various nations ; on the 
 general principle of rewarding, with an 
 increase of territory and other advantages, 
 those Powers who had been prominent in 
 the struggle against Napoleon, and punish- 
 ing by curtailment and restrictions those 
 unfortunate rulers, who, like the King of 
 Saxony, had thrown in their lot with the 
 fallen Emperor. Various circumstances 
 delayed the meeting, and the Congress 
 did not assemble until the ist of November. 
 
 It was a most brilliant gathering. All the 
 Powers of Europe were represented by their 
 most distinguished public men. The astute 
 Metternich was present on behalf of Austria. 
 The interests of Russia were placed in the 
 experienced hands of Nerselrode, with Rasu- 
 mowsky. Capo d'l stria, and Stockelberg as 
 his coadjutors ; Lord Castlereagh, and Wel- 
 lington, lately raised to the rank of a duke, 
 with a grant of ^400,000 to maintain the 
 dignity of his exalted position, watched over 
 the interests of the British Empire ; while 
 Talleyrand and Dalberg were the deputies of 
 the restored Government of France ; Prince 
 Hardenberg, and Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
 the brother of the great traveller and scien- 
 tific author, were present for Prussia ; while 
 Freiherr von Stein, who had done so much 
 for the regeneration of Germany, and was 
 especially known as the trusted friend and 
 adviser of the Emperor Alexander, was there 
 to give to the deliberations of the council the 
 weight of his sagacity and experience, though 
 not as the officially accredited representative 
 of any separate State. The whole affair was 
 a strange incongruous mixture of diplomacy 
 and fiddling, of grave diplomatic conferences 
 and balls and masquerades ; feasting and 
 statesmanship, intrigue and "bon-ton" fri- 
 volity. Vienna was crowded with wealthy 
 strangers, princes and their retinues, Hunga- 
 rian and Bohemian magnates blazing with 
 gold and jewels. 
 
 Factions and cliques were soon formed 
 among this motley assembly; and it was not 
 long before serious differences threatened to 
 arise. Indeed, the great Powers who had 
 united to put down the power of the French 
 Emperor were ready to go to war with each 
 other for the division of the spoil ; when 
 suddenly, at the beginning of March 181 5, 
 
 the intelligence came like a thunderclap upon' 
 them that Napoleon had broken loose from 
 Elba, and had landed in France. Rough old! 
 Bliicher burst into the room of the English 
 envoy, with the blunt inquiry, whether the 
 British Government had or had not a 
 squadron on the Mediterranean coast of 
 France ? It seemed incredible that such 
 an enterprise could have been carried into 
 effect unchecked. 
 
 The Flight of the Imperial Eagle 
 TO Paris. 
 
 The startling news was true. Napoleon^ 
 dissatisfied and alarmed at his situation in 
 Elba, had at the same time been kept accu- 
 rately informed by friends, among whom 
 were Fouch^, his former Minister of Police,. 
 Davoust, Maret, Carnot, and othei's, of the 
 course of events in France ; and as the 
 popular discontent increased, hints were 
 given that a remedy would presently be found 
 for the evils complained of Among the army 
 especially, which was deeply offended at 
 finding itself, after years of favour and 
 supremacy under Napoleon, slighted and 
 undervalued by the Bourbon Government, 
 this expectation was raised and kept alive. 
 The violet was chosen as a sort of mysterious 
 emblem, and worn by tl^e secret partisans of 
 the exiled Caesar ; among whom it was whis- 
 pered that when the spring brought back 
 the violets, Pere Violette also would come 
 again ; and the Father Violet in question- 
 was Napoleon. 
 
 Among the little army he had gathered 
 i-ound him in Porto Ferrajo, or as he called 
 it, Cosmopoli, Napoleon had suffered some 
 idea of his intended enterprise to get abroad, 
 so that more enthusiasm than astonishment 
 was aroused when, on the 26th of February,, 
 the announcement was made to the seven or 
 eight hundred men of whom the force con- 
 sisted, that their chief was about to embark 
 for France. The men, among whom were 
 four hundred of the Old Guard, were de- 
 lighted at the prospect of seeing their 
 country again, and raised the old shout of 
 " Vive r Eiiipcreur ! " with unanimous hearti- 
 ness. The embarkation at once began ;: 
 on the evening of the same day the expe- 
 dition sailed from the island m six vessels, 
 of which the brig Inco7istant, that carried 
 Cresar and his fortunes, was the chief. 
 
 The armament arrived safely at Cannes, 
 near Frejus, and Napoleon at once began 
 that famous march towards Paris, which has 
 been somewhat magniloquently, but not 
 inaptly, described in one of his own procla- 
 mations by the expression that " the Imperial 
 eagle should fiy from steeple to steeple- 
 through France, until he alighted on the 
 towers of Notre Uame." During the passage 
 to France, several of those proclamations 
 :i4 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 had been prepared by which Napoleon knew 
 so well how to work upon the passions of the 
 more vainglorious of the French nation. 
 Soberminded men talked of the stilted lan- 
 guage and exaggerated fustian of his an- 
 nouncements to the army ; but he well knew 
 the people he was addressing. He now 
 declared that in his retreat he had heard 
 the voice of the French nation calling him 
 back ; he reminded the French of the vic- 
 tories he had been gaining in the short 
 campaign of 1814, and attributed the blame 
 of the capitulation of Paris to Marmont and 
 Augereau ; had he been better seconded, he 
 would have driven the allies out of France. 
 These proclamations were distributed as he 
 moved on with his followers with great 
 speed towards Grenoble. Everywhere his 
 advent was hailed with enthusiasm by the 
 people, whom he roused against the restored 
 dynasty by reminding them of the bitter fact 
 that the Bourbons had been reseated on the 
 throne of France by the power of foreign 
 bayonets. "When Charles VII. re-entered 
 Paris," so ran the text of one of these pro- 
 clamations, " and overthrew the ephemeral 
 throne of Henry V., he won his sceptre by 
 the valour of his followers, and did not hold 
 it by the permission of a Prince Regent." 
 A paragraph in one of his proclamations to 
 the army of France reads like a paraphrase, 
 or rather a parody, of Shakespeare's speech 
 of Henry V. to his troops before the battle 
 of Agincourt : " Soldiers, come and range 
 yourselves under the banners of your chief. 
 His existence is identified with yours ; his 
 rights are yours, and those of the people ; 
 his interest, his honour, his glory, are your 
 interest, honour, and glory." Then came 
 the sentence about the eagle and Notre 
 Dame. " Then you will be able to show 
 your scars with honour," the proclamation 
 continued ; " then you may boast of what 
 you have done. You will be the liberators 
 of the country. In your old age, surrounded 
 and honoured by your fellow-citizens, they 
 will listen with respect while you recount 
 your high deeds ; while you exclaim with 
 pride, ' And I also was one of that grand 
 army which twice entered within the walls of 
 Vienna, of Rome, of Berlin, of Madrid, of 
 Lisbon, of jNIoscow, and which delivered 
 Paris from the stain imprinted upon it by 
 treason and the presence of the enemy. 
 Honour to those brave soldiers, the glory of 
 their country ! and eternal infamy to the 
 French criminals, in whatever rank they 
 were born, who for twenty-five years fought 
 beside foreigners, tearing the bosom of their 
 country I " The allusion to the " foreigners " 
 and their partisans was a subtle appeal to 
 the national pride. It was brilliantly suc- 
 cessful, and it seemed likely that the Im- 
 perial eagle's return to its former nest at the 
 
 Tuileries would be hailed with acclamation. 
 Whether it would be suffered to establish 
 itself there once more was another and a very 
 doubtful question. 
 
 The Government and the Army. 
 
 The news of the landing of Napoleon was 
 received by the Government in Paris at first 
 with blank bewilderment, and then with 
 scornful incredulity. It was represented to 
 the King that this last attempt of the usurper 
 would be as short-lived as it was desperate. 
 In the official journal, Bonaparte was repre- 
 sented as wandering among the mountains, 
 deserted by his few followers, and certain to 
 be speedily arrested. The marshals who 
 had abandoned his cause the year before to 
 worship the rising sun of the Bourbons were 
 particularly emphatic in their demonstrations 
 of loyalty to their new master. Marshal 
 Soult, the wily " Monsieur Renard" of the sol- 
 diery, issued a fiery proclamation, in which 
 he contrasted the well-grounded claims of 
 the legitimate monarch with the frantic 
 lunacy of an adventurer who desired to 
 plunge France into civil war. Massena 
 wrote from the south, setting forth the cer- 
 tainty of Bonaparte's speedy capture ; and 
 Ney, before joining a large force with which 
 he was to march southward, promised Louis 
 XVIII. that he would bring back the dis- 
 turber of Europe as a prisoner in an iron 
 cage. 
 
 But the heart of the French army turned, 
 not unnaturally, towards the chief whose 
 name was associated with twenty years of 
 unexampled conquest and glory. Soon after 
 his landing. Napoleon was encountered at 
 Vizille by a line regiment despatched 
 against him. Trusting in the power his 
 presence always exercised over French 
 soldiers, Napoleon advanced alone to meet 
 his opponents, who at sight of him became 
 instantly converted into friends and parti- 
 sans. They raised the old shout of " Vive 
 V EmpcreiirP and went over to him in a body. 
 At Grenoble, the people forced open the 
 gates, and declared for Napoleon. Colonel 
 Labedoyere and the 4th line regiment did 
 the same thmg; and it appeared that the 
 soldiers had tricoloured cockades concealed 
 in their shakos and in the regimental diums, 
 ready to be displayed when the time came. 
 A great force, sent out under the Comte 
 d'Artois, Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, 
 and Marshal Macdonald, likewise went over 
 in a body to Napoleon. Ney, at Lons-le- 
 Saulnier, also deserted his new master's 
 cause, to join the man with whom all his 
 own glory was identified. It is supposed 
 that the brave, weak man was sincere when 
 he made the promise to Louis XVIII. about 
 the iron cage ; but that the sight of his old 
 master was simply too much for him, and he 
 
 215 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 at once resumed the old habit of obedience 
 to the guiding spirit, whose behests he had 
 been accustomed to obey. 
 
 Thereupon the Bourbon Government fled, 
 the King getting across the frontier with all 
 speed, and betaking himself to Ghent, from 
 which safe retreat he watched the progress 
 of events. He was at best a negative, 
 apathetic man, the representative of a system 
 that had become effete and superannuated. 
 
 The Congress of Vienna, however, had 
 been roused into activity by the gravity of 
 the crisis. All questions of dispute were put 
 aside for the time, in the presence of the 
 great and pressing danger. The Duke of 
 Wellington emphatically reminded Talley- 
 rand that he considered himself the soldier 
 of the King. It was at once determined that 
 the Powers must stand together, to maintain 
 the restored Government in France. It 
 was resolved that Napoleon Bonaparte, by 
 appearing again in France in arms, had put 
 himself beyond the pale of society, and 
 drawn upon himself the public vengeance 
 {vindique publique). The four great Powers, 
 England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, 
 entered into a fresh compact against 
 Napoleon, each Government binding itself 
 to put 150,000 soldiers into the field, or to 
 furnish an equivalent in money for each 
 man short of the minimum number ; and 
 the other states of Europe were invited to 
 join the coalition ; an appeal to which they 
 responded,— with the exception of Sweden, 
 where Bernadotta was discontented at not 
 having received the French crown, and 
 Portugal, which, exhausted by the long 
 Peninsular struggle, required repose. There- 
 upon the Congress broke up ; for the 
 question of redistribution of power and 
 rectification of frontier was necessarily post- 
 poned in the presence of the more pressing 
 danger. Meanwhile Napoleon had reached 
 Paris, and on the 4th of April was once 
 more at the head of the Government. Con- 
 scious of the desperate nature of the game 
 he was playing, he endeavoured to conciliate 
 goodwill by a profession of moderation ; 
 acknowledging the errors into which, in his 
 former rule, he had been betrayed, and pro- 
 mising that the French should enjoy consti- 
 tutional freedom under his renewed sway. 
 He also made overtures for peace to the 
 various Governments ; but his letters were 
 either returned or left unanswered ; and he 
 soon understood, that as to the army he 
 owed his return to France, to the army also 
 he must look for the establishment of his 
 authority. And he made active preparations 
 for the struggle he saw to be inevitable. 
 
 The Plan of the Campaign of 1815. 
 Napoleon was soon convinced that his 
 promises of moderation, of reigning as a 
 
 * constitutional monarch, and of abstaining 
 from war, would have no effect upon the 
 allies, who were determined to look upon 
 him as an enemy, with whom no compact 
 could be made. Accordingly he nerved 
 himself for a task whose difficulties he well 
 comprehended ; for he would shortly have 
 Europe in arms for his opponent. 
 
 The crisis seemed to have given him 
 back all his former activity. He toiled in- 
 cessantly to bring the army, which, under the 
 Bourbon system, had been diminished until 
 it numbered only 90,000 available men, into 
 an effective state, and to increase its numbers 
 by offering inducements to volunteers and 
 veterans to join the standards : to have 
 resorted to the conscription would have 
 deprived his cause of all its popularity. 
 
 On the 1st of June the Parisians were 
 treated to an imposing spectacle, when, in 
 the assembly of the Champ de Mai, the lately 
 returned ruler, in the midst of an immense 
 crowd, took the oath of adherence to the 
 Constitution, declaring that his aspirations, 
 his glory, and his happiness had always been 
 indissolubly bound up with the welfare of 
 France. The ceremony ended with a dis- 
 tribution of eagles to the various branches of 
 the army, and a general march-past before 
 the Emperor's throne, amid all the pomp of 
 martial music and acclamation. 
 
 The situation was exceedingly serious, as 
 the Emperor well knew. Europe was arming 
 to prevent his re-establishment on the throne 
 of France ; and he calculated that the levies 
 would amount to a milHon of men. By 
 great exertions Napoleon had been enabled 
 to raise the French army to about half 
 that number ; but only 217,000 were armed, 
 equipped, and in a condition for taking the 
 field immediately. They were divided into 
 seven great corps, and placed respectively 
 under the command of Ney, Reille, Van- 
 damme, Gerard, Rapp, Loban, and Suchet. 
 The cavalry were placed under the command 
 of Excelmans, Killerman, Grouchy, Pagot, 
 and Michaud. Massena was appointed 
 governor of the important fortress of Metz ; 
 Davoust became Minister of War, and Mar- 
 shal Soult, the astute Monsieur Renard, 
 Major- General of the army. 
 
 To attack his enemies in detail, and en- 
 deavour to dispose of the armies of one 
 nation before another should be ready to 
 oppose him, was the plan the Emperor re- 
 solved, after mature consideration, to adopt ; 
 and, indeed, it is doubtful if he could have 
 done better. England and Prussia, with 
 large contingents of Dutch, Belgian, Hano- 
 verian, and Brunswick troops were already 
 in the field. If he could obtain a victory 
 over these by attacking them separately, 
 before Russia and Austria, with Bavaria and 
 the rest of his enemies, were ready, the 
 
 16 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 resolution of the allies not to treat with him 
 would probably be shaken, especially as the 
 Opposition in England would dislike the 
 prospect of a protracted and expensive war, 
 and he might secure a peace on favourable 
 terms. Moreover he was aware that the 
 recent union of Belgium with Holland was 
 exceedingly unpopular with the former 
 nation, the Belgians looking upon themselves 
 as annexed to the Dutch in the manner of a 
 dependent province ; and it was considered 
 that they would much rather be joined to 
 
 to the selection of the leader to be sent to 
 cope with him. The Duke of Wellington, 
 the hero of the long Peninsular struggle, was 
 the one man to whom this vitally important 
 duty was naturally to be entrusted. The 
 Duke had from the first expressed himself 
 ready to undertake any position in which he 
 could be useful. Accordingly he accepted 
 the command of the army ; and by the be- 
 ginning of April 1815, he had established 
 his headquarters at Brussels. His advice as 
 to the plan of operations was to act in concert 
 
 Napoleon on the Evening of Waterloo. 
 
 France than to Holland. The Emperor might 
 therefore hope to see them come over to his 
 side at the first opportunity. Accordingly the 
 French army was put in motion towards the 
 Belgian frontier; and Napoleon, quitting Paris 
 at daybreak on the 12th of June, proceeded 
 to Avesnes to place himself at their head. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington and Mar- 
 shal Blucher. 
 From the moment when it became known 
 in England that Napoleon and his army 
 must be encountered, there was no doubt as 
 
 with Prussia and Austria, bringing such a 
 force into the field as should make the con- 
 test short, sharp, and decisive. " The war 
 would linger on," he said, " and end to our 
 disadvantage," if anything were attempted 
 with a small force. His experience in the 
 Peninsula had fully taught him that lesson. 
 Consequently great exertions were made to 
 provide the Duke with as numerous and 
 efficient an army as could be brought together 
 on so short a notice. 
 
 The conjuncture was not favourable. Many 
 of the splendid soldiers of the Peninsular 
 
 217 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 war, troops thoroughly seasoned and disci- 
 pHned, with whom, to use the phrase of their 
 illustrious chief, a commander " might go 
 anywhere and do anything," had been dis- 
 banded and dismissed to their homes with 
 small gratuities or pensions. Another portion 
 of the British forces had net yet returned from 
 America, having been engaged there in the 
 foolish andpreventible war in which the nation 
 had been involved by the Ministry. Many of 
 the regiments had been filled up at the last 
 moment with raw recruits, or with volunteers 
 from the militia. Indeed, such was the want 
 of time, that many were despatched to the 
 seat of war in the militia jackets they wore 
 when they were drafted into the line. They 
 were not exactly the kind of force the Duke 
 would have chosen to command against the 
 greatest captain of the age ; but " their 
 hearts were in the trim," and the youngest 
 stripling soldier upheld the honour of his 
 country manfully during that short but event- 
 ful campaign. 
 
 Combined operations, for the purpose of 
 striking a great blow, formed the plan of the 
 Duke ; while Napoleon on the other hand, 
 was determined to force on a contest at the 
 earliest moment, and attacking each of the 
 allies separately, to crush them one by one. 
 
 The Duke was certainly fortunate in his 
 officers. Picton, Ponsonby, Lord Uxbridge, 
 better known afterwards as the Marquis of 
 Anglesea, Lord Saltoun, Lord Fitzroy 
 Somerset, with Clinton, Colville, Alten, Sir 
 Alexander Gordon, and a number of other 
 distinguished names brighten the roll of the 
 campaign of 1815. Men and officers alike 
 were full of zeal. 
 
 The number of the army under the Duke 
 of Wellington in Belgium amounted to 78,500 
 men. The British, Hanoverian, and Belgian 
 troops formed about two-thirds of this force ; 
 the rest were Germans, chiefly from Bruns- 
 wick and Nassau. Among the infantry were 
 the 42nd and 92nd Highlanders, and the 
 33rd Regiment, in which the Duke had begun 
 his career in the army. The Horse Guards 
 Blue and the Life Guards, with some regi- 
 ments of heavy dragoons, and fourteen 
 regiments of light dragoons, made up the 
 cavalry force. 
 
 Bliicher, the brave old field-marshal, 
 " Marschall Vorwarts," or " Forward," as 
 his soldiers called him, from his eagerness 
 to ad^vance, was in command of the Prussian 
 forces, numbering in all some 130,000 men; 
 but of these only about 80,000 were available 
 for iinmediate service. When the Duke 
 received intelligence of Napoleon's march 
 upon Flanders, he made preparations for 
 effecting a junction with Bliicher so soon as 
 it should become apparent in what direction 
 Napoleon's attack would be made. Bliicher 
 had the courage of a lion, and an amount of 
 
 energy marvellous in a man of seventy. But 
 he was a veteran whose first period of service 
 dated from the times of the great Frederick 
 and the Seven Years' War, and his method 
 was obsolete. Napoleon looked upon him 
 as merely a brave " sabreur," and Napo- 
 leon's estimate of a military leader was 
 generally correct. 
 
 Napoleon's plan, which Lamartine desig- 
 nates rightly as " the only one suited to the 
 exigencies of the time, the natural genius of 
 the Emperor and his troops, and, finally, to 
 the genius of impetuosity and despair," was 
 to concentrate his army on the Sambre, to 
 advance to Charleroi as speedily as possible, 
 andfall upon the Prussians at the point of junc- 
 tion of their army with that of the EngHsh ; 
 then, having driven them back upon Luxem- 
 burg, to attack the English in turn, and hurl 
 them back towards the coast. This would 
 leave him the command of Belgium ; and he 
 would then be free to turn his forces against 
 the two fresh armies that Avere advancing" 
 against him on the Upper and Lower Rhine,, 
 and who were tc be vanquished like the rest. 
 It was a desperate scheme, which could only 
 have succeeded by a marvellous union of 
 genius and good fortune. 
 
 Active Operations ; Historical Ball. 
 
 Among the English quartered in and 
 around Brussels, there was in general but 
 a vague idea of the nature of the work in 
 which they were engaged, and of its tremend- 
 ous possibilities. The prevailing impression 
 at first was, that Bonaparte was to be crushed 
 without a struggle ; and the old delusion 
 concerning a military promenade to Paris 
 was revived. The Belgian capital had never 
 been so bright and joyous, so full of gay- 
 company, as during the month of May and 
 the first half of June 181 5. There were 
 fetes and entertainments of all kinds in 
 abundance ; there was a sound of revelry 
 by night throughout the Belgian capital, long 
 before that memorable ball given by the 
 Duchess of Richmond, which subsequent 
 events have made matter of history. The 
 more experienced among the officers, how- 
 ever, especially those who had seen service 
 in Spain, were of the opinion which Thack- 
 eray, in Vanity Fair, puts into the mouth 
 of the plucky Irish colonel, that some of the 
 dancers would soon be dancing to a tune 
 they little expected. During all this time, 
 however, the Duke himself, while preserving; • 
 his usual imperturbable aspect, and even 
 taking part in the gaieties that were going 
 on, was vigilantly watching the course of 
 events, and preparing for the encounter. 
 
 When the Emperor joined his army, he at 
 once proceeded to stimulate the zeal of his 
 troops, and to awaken their thirst for glory^ 
 by those speeches that seem so bombastic 
 
 218 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 and inflated when read in cold blood, but 
 which had frequently such a wonderful effect 
 when spoken in the presence of an excited 
 and eager soldiery. On the 14th of June, the 
 anniversary of the great victories of Marengo 
 and Friedland, he delivered one of these 
 speeches, reminding his hearers that " these 
 Prussians, now so insolent," had been beaten 
 at Jena, JN'Iontmirail, and elsewhere by 
 French armies much inferior to them in 
 number. He roused the hatred of his 
 hearers against the English by allusions 
 to the EngHsh "prison-ships," in which a 
 number of their countrymen had perished ; 
 represented the Belgians, Hanoverians, and 
 other nations as unwilling allies of his 
 enemies, who would be glad to quit the 
 alliance to which they were only bound by 
 fear of the vengeance of the great Powers, 
 whose princes were the foes of justice and of 
 the rights of nations. " Soldiers ! we have 
 forced marches to make," said the Emperor, 
 in concluding his address, " we have clangers 
 to encounter ; but let us be constant, and 
 the victory will be ours. The rights, the 
 honour, and the happiness of our country 
 will be reconquered. For every one who has 
 a heart, the moment has now come for victory 
 or death." 
 
 It was on the 15th of June that Napoleon 
 at daybreak marched from Beaumont to- 
 wards the Sambre, the passage of which 
 river was speedily effected. He then at- 
 tacked and took the fortress of Charleroi, 
 which was occupied by the Prussian General 
 Ziethen. He divided his army into two 
 parts ; himself advancing with the main 
 body towards Fleurus against the Prussians, 
 while Marshal Ney was ordered, with a 
 body of 40,000 men, to move. on towards 
 Fleurus, and so to Ouatre Bras. The name 
 Ouatre Bras applies to the four roads 
 leading respectively to Charleroi, Namur, 
 Nivelles, and Brussels, that hereintersect each 
 other. The object of Ney's movement was 
 to operate against the English, and prevent 
 their junction with the Prussians, whom 
 Napoleon meant to attack without delay. 
 
 The Duke, in his head-quarters at Brussels, 
 had received early intelligence that the French 
 army was now in motion, and of the general 
 disposal of the two bodies. He at once gave 
 orders that everything should be in readiness 
 for marching out of Brussels at a moment's 
 notice ; but, like Nelson at Copenhagen, he 
 evidently thought it would not do to be 
 in a hurry ; and accordingly everything was 
 done with a quietness and deliberation which 
 in some quarters has been misrepresented as 
 evidence of ignorance or indifference. The 
 Duke knew perfectly what he was about, and 
 understood the necessity of avoiding any- 
 thing that would cause a panic in the capital. 
 Therefore everything seemed outwardly to 
 
 go on as usual ; and when the Duchess of 
 Richmond, who had invited a large and 
 brilliant company, including many officers of 
 the English army, to a great ball for the 
 evening of the 15th, inquired whether the 
 entertainment should not be put off, the 
 Duke requested that it should proceed, as 
 though nothing unusual had happened. 
 
 This is the ball described by Byron in the 
 immortal verses in which the poet portrays 
 the cannon's opening roar as mingling with 
 the sounds of revelry. Something must be 
 allowed in the way of latitude to a poet 
 describing a tragic scene. There was no 
 sound of cannon to interrupt the festivities 
 at the Duchess's brilliant party ; but certain 
 it is that, while the dance was proceeding in 
 the festive halls, the bugles were blowing in 
 the streets and squares of Brussels ; and by 
 the Duke's command the men were being: 
 rapidly and quietly mustered^ and marched 
 out of the city, in perfect order, on their way 
 to that field whence so many of them were 
 never to return. The necessary orders had 
 all been given, and the general officers had 
 been instructed to attend the ball, and to 
 take an opportunity of retiring separately 
 and quietly, to join their various corps, that 
 anything like alarm or confusion might 
 be avoided. It is related that the brother 
 of the Duchess, the Duke of Gordon, in 
 command of the 92nd (the Gordon) High- 
 landers, had, at his sister's request, ordered 
 various non-commissioned officers and pri- 
 vates of the regiment to be in attendance, as 
 the Duchess wished them to show her foreign 
 guests hovN? the national Scotch dances were 
 performed by men to the manner born. 
 Before twenty-four hours were over, the 
 dance of life was over for many of the gal- 
 lant fellows who had good-humouredly con- 
 tributed to the amusement of the Duchess's 
 guests. 
 
 The Duke himself stayed to occupy the 
 place of honour at the supper-table, and to 
 return thanks, when General Alava proposed 
 his health, and that of the army he com- 
 manded. Then, with a quiet bow and smile 
 to the assembled guests, he quitted the ball- 
 room, to devote himself to the tremendous 
 task before him ; and within ther next three 
 days the fate of France and of Europe for 
 many a year was decided. 
 
 With all the care that had been taken to 
 avoid undue excitement, it was a sad break- 
 ing up, tliat of the briniantytV6' of her Grace 
 of Richmond at one in the morning of the 
 1 6th of June. Byron's description of the 
 hurrying to and fro, of the distress and tears^ 
 of the " cheeks all pale that but an hour ago 
 blushed at the praise of their own loveli- 
 ness," is true enough, if his inti-oduction of 
 the cannon, and of the effect of the sound 
 on "Brunswick's fated chieftain," is imagina- 
 
 219 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tive. Very many parted there to meet no 
 more in this world ; so sudden had been the 
 summons, that many of the officers marched 
 to join their regiments in festive attire of silk 
 stockings and pumps. As a writer on these 
 events has observed, it was a rough transi- 
 tion from the delights of the ball-room to 
 the stern realities of the battle-field, but 
 illustrative of the vicissitudes that form part 
 of the life of the soldier, whose philosophy 
 must be always that of Wolfe's favourite 
 song,— 
 
 ' ' Why soldiers, then, 
 
 Should we be melancholy, then, 
 
 Whose trade it is to die ? " 
 
 The manner in which the march from 
 Brussels was effected was admirable in its 
 evidence of cool self-possession and perfect 
 management. It was not till long after the 
 Waterloo year that the absurd story that 
 the Duke had been "surprised" on that 
 occasion began to gain currency ; and it 
 was copied into at least one history whose 
 author ought to have known better. The 
 Duke simply waited, in perfect readiness to 
 move, until he could feel sure in what direc- 
 tion the attack of the enemy would be made ; 
 and then he led forth his army to repel that 
 attack in the most efficient way. 
 
 LiGNY AND OUATRE BRAS. 
 
 To the strains of martial music the various 
 regiments marched from the Place Royale 
 of Brussels, not without much lamentation 
 and many tears from the populace, especially 
 the fairer portion, as well as from their own 
 friends and compatriots; for the British army, 
 notably the Highlanders, had become ex- 
 ceedingly popular during a few weeks' stay 
 in Brussels. Eight infantry regiments, form- 
 ing the fifth division, under the heroic Picton, 
 and divided into two brigades, under Sir 
 James Kempe and Sir Denis Pack, with the 
 Duke of Brunswick's corps and some Nassau 
 troops, moved upon Ouatre Bras. They 
 numbered 15,000 men in all, and had neither 
 infantry nor cavalry to support them. On 
 the other side Marshal Ney was marching 
 towards Quatre Bras with all speed. 
 
 Napoleon, whose game depended on 
 promptitude, had pressed forward with such 
 speed as considerably to harass his troops. 
 He came in sight of the Prussians about 
 noon on the i6th, and found their army 
 about 80,000 strong, including 9,000 cavalry, 
 and with 250 guns, occupying the heights of 
 Bry, from Sombreff to St. Amand, with the 
 rivulet and village of Ligny in front of them. 
 The Duke of Wellington, having ridden 
 across the country to Bry, had an interview 
 with the old Field-Marshal ; and having by 
 personal observation convinced himself that 
 the threatened attack of Napoleon on the 
 Prussians would be a real one, and concerted 
 
 measures for co-operation with his ally, he 
 rode off towards Quatre Bras, where Picton's 
 division had by this time arrived. 
 
 At about three in the afternoon. Napoleon 
 began the battle against the Prussians by a 
 tremendous cannonade, under cover of which 
 his infantry and cavalry advanced to the 
 attack with great gallantry and determina- 
 tion. The Prussians replied with equal 
 bravery. Every house and barn in Ligny 
 and the neighbouring hamlets became a 
 fortress ; for six hours a deadly strife was 
 waged ; and so great was the exasperation 
 on both sides, that no quarter was given. 
 The French were burning to avenge the 
 insults of the invasion of their territory in 
 1 8 14, and the defeat of Leipsic, in the 
 previous year ; while the Prussians still 
 remembered with unappeased hatred the 
 terrible disaster of Jena, the subsequent 
 occupation of their capital, and the purloined 
 sword of Frederick the Great. After waver- 
 ing for a long time, victory at last favoured 
 the French. The intrepid Bliicher, whose 
 seventy-three years had not robbed him of 
 his energy, encouraged his men throughout 
 the day with untiring zeal. But his horse 
 was killed under him, and entangled him in 
 its fall ; a charge of the enemy's cavalry 
 swept past the old leader as he lay bruised 
 and helpless on the ground, and passed him 
 again presently in full career. It was only 
 owing to the drizzling rain that had begun to 
 fall, and the descending shades of evening, 
 that he escaped being recognised and made 
 prisoner by the enemy. His aide-de-camp. 
 Von Nostitz, remained by him until some 
 of his own soldiers, missing their leader, 
 made a desperate charge and carried him 
 off ; but when he had been borne from the 
 field, the battle was lost ; and the advancing 
 French drove the Prussians back in the 
 direction of Wavre and Gembloux. 
 
 Thus the first object of Napoleon had 
 been, as he supposed, completely gained. 
 The Prussians were in retreat, and the next 
 thing was to prevent their rallying and 
 forming a junction with the English. For 
 this purpose. Marshal Grouchy was ordered 
 by the Emperor to pursue the Prussians to a 
 sufficient distance to render their reappear- 
 ance on the field of battle impossible, and 
 then to return with his 35,000 men and assist 
 in the operations against Wellington. This 
 task Grouchy failed to fulfil ; and to his 
 shortcomings, which were suspected to be 
 the result of deliberate treachery, Napoleon 
 afterwards persisted in attributing, in a 
 great measure, the tremendous disaster that 
 brought ruin upon the French army two 
 days later. Grouchy, on his part, published 
 a defence, in which he retorts the blame 
 upon the Emperor. Whether he did his 
 best, and merely blundered, or treacherously 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 betrayed the cause he had taken up, will 
 always remain a doubtful point. Certain it 
 is, that several of the French generals had 
 become conscious of the desperate nature of 
 Napoleon's enterprise ; and that one at 
 least, General Bourmont, with two colonels, 
 went over to Bliicher just before the battle 
 of Ligny began, mounting the white cockade 
 in lieu of the tricolour. The brave old Field- 
 Marshal was far more disgusted at the 
 treachery than pleased at the acquisition of 
 these notable allies. " It's all the same what 
 symbol the fellows set up," he grumbled, 
 " rascals are rascals always." 
 While Napoleon was gaining the victory, 
 
 who wore the death's head and cross-bones 
 on their caps, as a token at once of mourn- 
 ing and of vengeance for their Duke, mortally 
 wounded at Jena, — charged gallantly, and 
 repeatedly made a diversion in favour of their 
 allies, it was a most anxious time. 
 
 Many of the soldiers in Picton's division 
 were young recruits, whose very impetuosity 
 might bring disaster. But they behaved 
 nobly, and showed themselves thoroughly 
 amenable to command. At their great chiefs 
 orders they formed squares, standing four 
 deep, the leading files kneeling to receive the 
 enemy's charge, and with the musket resting 
 against the knee forming a double chevaiix-de- 
 
 The Gateway at Hougoumont. 
 
 destined to be his last, the British army ard 
 its German allies were enduring a hard 
 fight at another point. On the morning 
 ot the 1 6th, Marshal Ney, with some 
 40,000 troops, attacked the Belgian con- 
 tingent, under the Prince of Orange and 
 General Perponcher, whom he compelled to 
 fall back upon the cross-road of Ouatre 
 Bras. The battle was about to conclude, 
 with entire discomfiture of his opponents by 
 the fiery Marshal, when Picton's division, 
 arriving from Brussels, appeared on the 
 scene ; and the Duke and his staff likewise 
 arrived. The British cavalry and artillery 
 had not yet come up ; and though the 
 " Black Brunswickers," — a body of hussars 
 
 fi'ise of bayonets, over which the rear ranks 
 fired at the advancing foe. Over and over 
 again the heavy cavalry of the enemy, the 
 formidable cuirassiers, came thundering 
 against these squares, and strove to break 
 them, but in vain. The horses could not be 
 brought to face the glittering bayonets, and 
 invariably drew off to the right and left when 
 they came close to the living ramparts. It 
 was here that, in heading a most gallant and 
 spirited charge of his black horsemen, their 
 young leader, the "Brunswick's fated chief- 
 tain " of Byron, met a hero's death. 
 
 Among the regiments, who all acquitted 
 themselves well, the 42nd and 92r,d High- 
 landers may be singled out for especial praise ; 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the 92nd especiaHy distinguishing itself by a 
 tremendous charge against the French at 
 seven in the evening, when the battle had 
 been maintained with great fury for five hours. 
 This charge cost the regiment its gallant 
 leader, Colonel Cameron, who, with three 
 other officers, was struck down. 
 
 The 28th Regiment, known as the " Slash- 
 ers," and the Royal Scots, led to the charge by 
 Sir Thomas Picton in person, also excited 
 -admiration by their daring and endurance, 
 •conspicuous even among that gallant body, 
 ■where " groom fought like noble, squire 
 like knight, as fearlessly and well ; " and 
 fresh spirit was infused into the hearts of all, 
 when the Guards, under Sir Peregrine Mait- 
 land, appeared upon the scene. Ney made 
 the most frantic efforts to secure the victory 
 he saw slipping from his hands, as the long 
 midsummer day drew towards a close ; but 
 the British ranks, wofully thinned by shot 
 and shell, still stood imperturbable, and were 
 not to be driven off. When night approached, 
 the French marshal sent for a reserve corps 
 he had kept back for a final effort ; but found, 
 to bis mortification and disgust, that it had 
 been removed by Napoleon, who had called 
 it up to his own aid against the Prussians at 
 Ligny. When the fight had raged ten hours, 
 the exhausted assailants were called off, and 
 the battle of Quatre Bras was as surely a 
 victory for the British, with their allies of 
 Hanover and Brunswick, as Ligny was a 
 triumph for Napoleon. 
 
 But it was a victory dearly purchased by 
 the loss of 2,251 men and officers in the 
 British army alone ; and the losses among 
 the foreign troops would bring up the list of 
 killed, \vounded, and missing to more than 
 double the number ; 5,000 is the general esti- 
 mate, and the carnage among the French 
 had been even greater. The Highlanders 
 had suffered terribly, having been for some 
 hours prominently engaged. It is recorded 
 how the piper of the 92nd, at ten o'clock that 
 night, " played up " to collect his comrades. 
 ■" Long and loud blew Cameron," says the 
 account ; " but although the hills and valleys 
 echoed the hoarse murmurs of his favourite 
 instrument, his ultimate efforts could not pro- 
 duce above one-half of those whom his music 
 had cheered on their march to the field of 
 battle." 
 
 Retreat, and a new Position south 
 OF Waterloo. 
 The Duke of Wellington passed the night 
 after Quatre Bras on the field of battte by a 
 fire made for him by some men of the 92nd. 
 It had been his intention to attack Ney next 
 morning in the position at Frasnes, to which 
 the Marshal had retired ; but the disastrous 
 news of the discomfiture of the Prussians at 
 Ligny, and their consequent retreat, necessi- 
 
 tated a change in his plans ; for now Napoleon 
 would be at liberty to act with his whole 
 force against him. Accordingly, in the morn- 
 ing of the 17th, the order was given for the 
 army to fall back, to take up a new position 
 nearer to Brussels. The retreat was effected in 
 perfect order by the three roads leading to 
 the new position ; and military authorities 
 have agreed that the movement, executed 
 in the face of an advancing enemy, was a 
 masterpiece of skill. The cavalry, under 
 Lord Uxbridge, most gallantly covered the 
 retreat, a service of great danger and difficulty ; 
 for so soon as Ney found that the British 
 army was falling back, he launched his heavy 
 cavalry against the covering force ; and the 
 day was signalised by furious charges and 
 counter-charges of the horsemen of the two 
 armies ; the most splendid and effective 
 being that of the Life Guards. " Its rapid 
 rush down into the enemy's mass," says a 
 chronicler of these events, Captain Siborne, 
 " was as terrific in appearance as it was de- 
 structive in its effects ; for although the French 
 met the attack with firmness, they were 
 utterly unable to hold their ground for a 
 single moment." The charge in question is 
 further described as having rendered the 
 enemy far more cautious in his pursuit. The 
 Duke had been strongly reinforced, and the 
 artillery and rocket brigade did good work 
 in keeping back the pursuers. 
 
 The work on the i6th and 17th had been 
 very heavy for the army that took up its 
 position on the field of Waterloo, the centre 
 laeing in front of Mont St. Jean, on the 
 evening of the latter day. First there had 
 been the march of twenty miles from Brus- 
 sels ; then the harassing and protracted 
 fighting at Ouatre Bras ; and lastly, the 
 retreat, pursued by an eager and untiring 
 foe. The weather also on the two days had 
 been excessively hot ; but now a tremendous 
 thunderstorm cooled the air, though it satu- 
 rated the ground and converted the roads 
 into deep mud. During the night the rain 
 at intervals fell in torrents, so that the 
 bivouac on the field of Waterloo was far 
 from a desirable one. 
 
 During the day the Duke had found means 
 to communicate with Bliicher, to whom he 
 announced his intention of offering battle to 
 the French, from his position, on the fol- 
 lowing day, if Bliicher would support him 
 with two Prussian army corps. Gallant old 
 " Vorwarts " sent back word in reply that he 
 would come, not with two corps, but with 
 the whole Prussian army ; and in the face of 
 great difficulties he kept his word. On re- 
 ceiving this answer, Wellington proceeded to 
 make the best dispositions in his power for 
 strengthening himself for the morrow's fight. 
 The centre of his position was three hundred 
 yards in advance of the farm of Mont St. 
 
 122 
 
FROM ELBA TO WATERLOO. 
 
 Jean, and three-quarters of a mile south of 
 the village of Waterloo, — a long, straggling, 
 double row of houses on the road leading 
 southward from Brussels to Charleroi. On 
 a row of heights across this road the British 
 anny was drawn up, the reserves and a part 
 ■of the force being posted in the declivities 
 between the undulations, to hide them from 
 the view of the enemy. The farmhouse, or 
 rather chateau, known as the Chateau Gou- 
 mont or Hougoumont, on the right of the 
 Duke's position, was immediately strength- 
 •ei:ed, as far as practicable, by piercing the 
 walls for musketry, and other means ; for the 
 Duke saw at once the great importance of 
 •occupying it, and the danger of having his line 
 pierced if it were taken by the enemy. To 
 the north-east of Hougoumont another 
 farmhouse, known as La Haye Sainte, was 
 likewise occupied. Some companies of the 
 
 on raw carrots or turnips, dragged out of the 
 soddened ground. 
 
 Napoleon exhibited exultation on finding 
 the British army drawn up opposite him on 
 the following morning. ^^ Ah, je les Hens 
 enfi7i, ces Anglais ! " is his recorded ex- 
 pression. Still he was in no hurry to begin 
 the contest, and let hour after hour go by 
 unemployed. It is conjectured that he 
 was awaiting the return of Grouchy, con- 
 sidering the Prussians as hopelessly beaten 
 and scattered. Others have thought he 
 waited till the ground, saturated by the 
 rains, should be more practicable for artil- 
 lery. Be that as it may, it was not until 
 nearly noon that he gave the signal for attack, 
 and the famous battle of Waterloo began. 
 
 The Great Battle and its Issue. 
 On the part of the English, Waterloo may 
 
 Monuments on the Field of Waterloo. 
 
 •Guards and Brunswick troops were stationed 
 at Hougoumont, while La Haye Sainte was 
 entrusted to a part of the German Legion. 
 The forest of Soignies, supposed to be the 
 " forest of Arden " of Shakespeare, iii the 
 I'ear of the Duke's position, offered a con- 
 venient and safe retreat in case of repulse ; 
 for a pursuing foe would hardly venture into 
 its depths. 
 
 The French, following close upon the 
 heels of their foes, took position on the 
 ■opposite heights ; the space between the two 
 armies forming a shallow valley about three 
 quarters of a mile in breadth. The French 
 underwent the same discomforts in their 
 bivouac as those suffered by their foes ; and 
 are said to have been far worse off in the 
 matter of commissariat, for the speed with 
 which they had marched had not enabled 
 the waggons to keep up with the advance, 
 and many a poor soldier supped that night 
 
 be described as a battle of endurance. A 
 series of tremendous onslaughts were made 
 by the French, and these were successively 
 beaten back by the steady and stubborn 
 valour of their foes. The quaint remark 
 made by the Duke himself cluring its pro- 
 gress, as he rode past a regiment in the 
 thick of the fight, well describes its nature : 
 " Hard pounding, gentlemen," said the im- 
 perturbable chief; "let us see who can 
 pound longest." In a letter to a friend 
 he described "our battle of the i8th" as a 
 strife of giants. " Never did I see such a 
 pounding match," he wrote. " Both parties 
 were what in boxers' language would be 
 called gluttons." And again, " Bonaparte 
 did not manoeuvre at all. He simply ad- 
 vanced in the old fashion, in columns of 
 attack, and was beaten off in the old 
 fashion." 
 
 The unaccountable delay of Napoleon, 
 
 223 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 who had everything to gain by promptitude, 
 caused the battle not to begin until about 
 noon ; when the French Emperor sent six 
 battahons of infantry, under his brother 
 Jerome, to attack the British position at 
 Hougoumont, which was defended by the 
 Guards and by the Brunswick troops. In 
 a short time the battle became general along 
 the whole extent of the lines. 
 
 The French never fought better. Their 
 attacks were most vigorous, and were re- 
 newed again and again with equal fierceness 
 and determination. 
 
 Especially about Hougoumont and La 
 Haye Sainte did the conflict rage, through 
 the long June afternoon and evening, with 
 unexampled fury. The Coldstream Guards 
 defended the former important point, which 
 was considered the key to the English position, 
 in a way that gained them immortal honour, 
 under their brave leaders. Lord Saltoun, 
 Colonel Macdonnell, and Sir John Byng. 
 "Your Grace need not fear for Hougoumont, 
 for Saltoun is there," was the answer of an 
 aide-de-camp despatched to see how things 
 were going at this important point. The old 
 gateway at Hougoumont still bears traces of 
 the conflict of that day on its smoke-blackened 
 and bullet-scarred beams. The court-yard 
 was held against the assailants with the most 
 stubborn determination, and all the efforts of 
 the French to get possession of Hougoumont 
 were vain. 
 
 At La Haye Sainte they were more success- 
 ful. The unfortunate failure of the defenders' 
 ammunition enablc'd them to take the place ; 
 from whence they advanced with great de- 
 termination against the allied position, but 
 only to be driven back with great loss ; for 
 Picton's division, with its gallant leader at 
 its head, charged them, and hurled them 
 back discomfited ; gaining this success, 
 however, at the price of the life of the brave 
 Picton himself, who fell struck by a musket- 
 ball in the temple while leading his men to 
 the attack. 
 
 The union brigade of cavalry, consisting 
 of the Royal Dragoons, the Enniskillen 
 Dragoons, and the Scots Greys, under the 
 command of the Earl of Uxbridge, signalised 
 itself by a tremendous charge, in which 3,000 
 of the enemy and two eagles were captured. 
 Here it was that the gallant Sir WiUiam 
 Ponsonby fell. 
 
 The advance of the French cuirassiers 
 against the British centre was beaten back 
 in a similar manner by the Life Guards and 
 Blues, under Lord Edward Somerset. The 
 fire of the artillery on both sides was tremen- 
 dously heavy during the whole day. The 
 defensive position in which the English were 
 so long kept was naturally most harassing ; 
 for thousands were struck down by the 
 
 enemy's artillery fire as they stood in theii 
 ranks. Thus, as the Duke passed in front 
 of the regiments, he was frequently received 
 with urgent cries, begging him to allow his 
 men to charge ; but his invariable reply was, 
 " Not yet, my men, not yet." 
 
 It was at four o'clock that a more combined 
 effort than they had yet attempted was made 
 by the French cavalry to sweep the British 
 infantry from their position. But the English 
 formed into squares, and, as at Quatre Bras, 
 the French cavalry found these impregnable, 
 and after the most gallant exertions and the 
 heaviest losses were compelled to retire. 
 Napoleon, meanwhile, had been watching 
 with surprise and disquietude the stubborn 
 resistance of foes, who, according to his idea, 
 had been beaten, though they did not seem 
 to know it, and who ought to have retired 
 from the field hours before. On this point, 
 however, Soult, who knew the quality ol 
 these troops, undeceived his master, assur- 
 ing him that the British would stand until 
 they were cut to pieces, but would not give 
 way. How the long day ended has been 
 told a hundred times. The Prussians had 
 gallantly striven to redeem their leader's 
 pledge of coming to the support of the 
 English ; and through roads in which their 
 gun carriages sometimes sank axle deep in 
 the mire, were struggling onward to the 
 scene of strife, while Grouchy still came 
 not. 
 
 The evening had come when Napoleon 
 made his last effort by sending forward the 
 Imperial Guard, which he had kept in re- 
 serve. The " deliberate and sedate " valour 
 of the English, never more confident and 
 steady than towards the close of a hotly- 
 contested day, was here brilliantly displayed. 
 The long thin lines that had stood all day 
 on those heights were ready as ever for the 
 combat, when their leader, profiting by the 
 confusion caused among the foe by the 
 tremendous artillery fire, and the volleys 
 of musketry poured into Ney's advancing 
 columns, gave the long-wished-for word for 
 the whole line to advance ; and when the 
 British came pouring down from the heights 
 they had occupied all day, spite of shot 
 and shell sabre and bayonet, and then 
 Napoleon, aghast amid the rout of his 
 legions, declared that his men were in inex- 
 tricable confusion, and that the battle was 
 over : "//j- sont ineles ensemble — c'est fini ! " 
 and with the wreck of his army he turned 
 and fled. 
 
 From Elba to Waterloo, the Hundred 
 Days, had been a period of short but intoxi- 
 cating triumph ; from Waterloo to St. 
 Helena was the next and the last stage in 
 the life journey of the vanquished conqueror 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 224 
 
An Ancient Scottish Feudal Castle. 
 
 SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN. 
 
 " Stories to read are delitable, 
 Suppose that they be nought but fable ; 
 Then should stories that soothfast [true] were. 
 And that were told in good manere 
 Have double pleasure in the telling. 
 * * * * » 
 
 I tell of Robert of Scotland, 
 That hardy was of heart and hand ; 
 That of his praise and chivalry 
 In far-off lands renown'd was he." 
 
 Barbour's " Bntce.'* 
 
 Introduchon— Bntons, English, Picts, Scots— Scotland, Edinburgh— A Glance at the early Scottish Kings— The English 
 Connection begins— Want of Unity of Races in Scotland— Wars with England, Battle of the Standard— The King of 
 Scotland becomes the King of England's Vassal— Progress in Wealth— A Heavy Trouble begins— The Trouble 
 Thickens- England the Arbitrator— Humiliation-Scotland Arises, but is Trampled down— Wallace to the Rescue- 
 Still Unconquered— Robert Bruce— King Edward's Vow of Vengeance— The Avenger laid low— Adventures of the 
 Fugitives, etc.— Brighter Days begin— King Edward XL— Frivolity takes the place of Fierceness— The Siege of 
 Stirling Castle— A Battle imminent— Site of the Battle— The Battle-Flight of King Edward— Bruce's Nobleness in 
 Tnumph— Results of the Battle. 
 
 Introductory ; Britons, English, 
 PiCTS, Scots. 
 ]LL readers of history know that the 
 island which we call Great Britain 
 contains the three portions, England, 
 Scotland, and Wales, and that it once con- 
 tained a Celtic population, most commonly 
 known by the name of " Britons." This 
 island of Britain was conquered by the 
 
 Romans, and held in subjection nearly five 
 hundred years. Then there came into the 
 southern part a new race of Teutons, or 
 Germans, and these are generally named the 
 " English." For more than five hundred 
 years the English settlers were divided into 
 seven kingdoms, then they were joined in 
 one (a.d. 814). 
 
 It is the purpose of the present narrative 
 225 Q 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 to trace the growth of the nation inhabiting 
 the northern part of the island. I suppose 
 our first memory of its history is that the 
 Britons, when their Roman conquerors left 
 them, weakened by their long subjection, 
 found themselves greatly harassed by "the 
 Picts and Scots." The reader might easily 
 imagine to himself that he knew who the 
 Scots were, but was not so clear about the 
 Picts, and yet might be mistaken on the 
 first head. The Picts were really the whole 
 inhabitants of Northern Britain, except the 
 south-west portion of it, comprising the 
 modern counties of Argyll and Dumbarton, 
 and the isles of Arran, I slay, and Jura. Here 
 the Scots had settled themselves, a colony 
 whose native home was Ireland. This must 
 be remembered to begin with when we study 
 the history of our sister nation of the north. 
 
 Scotland ; Edinburgh. 
 
 In the middle of the ninth century the 
 Scots overcame the Picts, and so all the 
 country north of the Firths of Forth and 
 Clyde came to be called Scotland, after the 
 conquerors (a.d. 843). The land south of 
 this had varying fortunes ; sometimes it was 
 a separate kingdom, sometimes it was subject 
 to the King of Northumberland. In 617, the 
 latter kingdom had become for the time the 
 most powerful in the Saxon heptarchy, and 
 its king, Edwin, carried his conquests as far 
 as the Forth, and founded a city, named 
 after him, Edwin'sburgh — Edinburgh. From 
 that time the country south of the Forth, 
 known by the name of Lothian, was really 
 English in blood. The Scottish kings, how- 
 ever, pushed southward by invasions of the 
 Scandinavians in the north, pressed within 
 the English border, until about the beginning 
 of the eleventh century Lothian was given to 
 them to be held, not as part of Scotland, 
 but as an English earldom ; they acknow- 
 ledging the supremacy of the English king 
 over this territory. There was another portion 
 of which we have not spoken. Strathclyde 
 was the name of the district which now 
 comprises Cumberland and the south-west 
 counties of Scotland. It had been con- 
 quered by the English, but was granted to 
 the Scottish crown as an appanage. Thus 
 it will be seen that the Scottish kings held 
 three separate dominions on three different 
 ' tenures ; the first of which, the kingdom of 
 Scotland, was quite independent of England, 
 but not the other two. 
 
 A Glance at the Early Scottish 
 Kings. 
 
 Meanwhile Scotland had become con- 
 verted to the Christian faith, and the history 
 of the conversion of the north forms a beau- 
 tiful chapter in the records of missionary 
 enterprise, though it is no part of our present 
 
 subject. Nor can we speak of the earliest 
 kings of Scotland ; but in 1004 we note the 
 accession of Duncan. There is a tradition 
 that his succession was secured by the 
 murder of one, who had a better claim ; if 
 so, judgment followed the deed. The mur- 
 dered man's sister, Gruach, married the 
 Chief of Moray, Macbeth ; and he revenged 
 the deed by murdering Duncan in a smith's 
 hut. Shakspeare's magnificent tragedy, 
 therefore, has some truth in it, but more 
 fiction. Macbeth ruled wisely and well, but 
 Duncan's father got up a rebellion in favour 
 of the dead king's sons, Malcolm and Donald. 
 They were assisted by Siward, Earl of Nor- 
 thumberland, and after a long struggle, Mac- 
 beth was defeated and slain. The new king, 
 Malcolm, is brought into close connection with 
 English history by his marriage, and from 
 this time, more than ever, the manners and 
 language of the Scottish Court are English, 
 and not Celtic. To see how this marriage 
 came about we must turn to England for a 
 little. 
 
 An English Connection Begins. 
 
 The Danish conquests had wrought great 
 woe to England for the time being, though 
 good in the end came out of them. 
 
 When Edmund Ironside was murdered in 
 1016, his two sons fell into the power of Cnut. 
 They were sent first to Sweden, then to Hun- 
 gary ; and in this latter country, which was ruled 
 by a good king, they were well and happily 
 nurtured. One died there ; the other, after 
 some years, was invited to England by his 
 cousin, Edward the Confessor. Two years 
 afterwards he also died, leaving a son and 
 two daughters ; the son, Edgar, being the 
 youngest, apparently only six years old. But 
 though he was the lineal descendant of Alfred 
 the Great, the Confessor made no reference to 
 him in his will. Not only his youth but his 
 foreign connexion, probably barred him from 
 the succession in Edward's eyes, who be- 
 queathed the crown to Harold. How William 
 the Norman fought Harold, and slew him, and 
 became King of England, we need not pause 
 to tell. The little Edgar was presented ta 
 him ; William took him up in his arms and 
 kissed him, promised to be his friend, and 
 kept his word. But the friends of the three 
 children, apparently dreading some treachery,, 
 resolved on sending them back to their mother's 
 relations in Hungary, They were driven by 
 storm on the Scottish coast, and were brought 
 to King Malcolm. He remembered his own 
 obligations to the old English court, became 
 their partizan, and encouraged two disaffected 
 English lords to revolt against the Conqueror. 
 This was in 1071. The rebellion was quelled ; 
 then William marched to the north, cossed 
 the Forth, and was met by Malcolm, who- 
 swore solemn fealty for Lothian and Cum- 
 
 226 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 berland, thereby admitting William's royalty. 
 This trouble was at an end then. Next year 
 Malcolm married Edgar's beautiful sister, 
 Margaret ; the other sister went into a convent. 
 Queen Margaret thus found herself the 
 chief lady in a court which was little better 
 than a horde of untamed, savage warriors. 
 By her gentleness she civilized them ; and to 
 her, more than to any one, we must attribute 
 the nobler and better vie w of life and its duties 
 which grew up in the northern court. King 
 Malcolm was slain in 1093, and his good 
 Margaret only survived him a few days. 
 Then heavy troubles fell upon Scotland for 
 five years, after which Malcolm's son Edgar 
 succeeded, and reigned prosperously. When 
 the Red King was slain in the New Forest, 
 his eldest brother, Robert, was in Italy, and 
 Henry Beauclerc, the Conqueror's youngest 
 son, seized the crown. He strengthened his 
 position both with the Scots and the English 
 by his marriage with Malcolm's daughter 
 Edith. The Scots were pleased for the 
 honour done to them, and the English be- 
 cause Edith was connected with their 
 ancient dynasty. Her name was changed, 
 however, to Matilda or Maude, to please the 
 Normans, who disliked Saxon names. 
 
 Want of Unity of Races in Scotland. 
 
 As the Scottish kings came more and more 
 to attach themselves to English customs, and 
 to look upon Lothian as their richest pos- 
 session, they alienated the dwellers in the old 
 Pict country in a great degree from them. 
 There was in fact the same sort of antipathy 
 which we see between England and Wales 
 later on, and between England and Ireland 
 now, z'.^., the antipathy between Teutonic and 
 Celtic blood. Many troubles arose out of 
 this during the " English period," as it is 
 sometimes called, which began with the 
 marriage of Malcolm and Margaret. Thus 
 in the reign of Edgar (1097-1107) the King 
 of Norway invaded the northern part of the 
 country, and the " lords of the Isles " declared 
 in his favour. In the next reign the men of 
 Moray rose again ; but the King, Alexander I., 
 put them down with such vigour as to win 
 for himself the surname of "The Fierce." 
 The next king was David I., who by his- 
 marriage with the heiress thereof became 
 English Earl of Huntingdon. But when he 
 went to take possession of his new fief, the 
 Moray men again rose, and on their defeat, 
 Moray was divided among the Norman 
 knights who had helped King David. 
 
 Wars with England ; Battle op the 
 Standard. 
 
 When Stephen was made King of England, 
 David took up the cause of his niece Matilda ; 
 and his armies, comprising Scots from the 
 north, Northmen from the Orkneys, Teutons 
 
 from Lothian, committed great ravages in the 
 northern counties. The English barons, 
 though themselves torn with contentions 
 between Stephen and Maude, were indignant 
 at the doings of the Scottish king, and made 
 common cause against him, and met him at 
 Northallerton, in a battle known as the Battle 
 of the Standard. The English were drawn 
 up round a standard, which consisted of the 
 consecrated host, elevated on a ship's mast, 
 with banners of saints floating around it. 
 One main cause of the Scottish defeat on 
 this day occurred again and again in after 
 years, and was in great measure the cause of 
 the disaster at Flodden, namely the different 
 mode of fighting adopted by the men of 
 Lothian from that of the northern Highlands. 
 The former were well-armed, well-disciplined 
 men, who would stand their ground ; the latter 
 were wont to rush with terrific force on the 
 enemy, in the hope of breaking their ranks ; 
 but if they failed in this, they retreated in 
 order to make a fresh attempt. Unfortunately 
 for both themselves and their allies, this 
 retreat too often had the effect of throwing 
 the latter into confusion. In the present case 
 the English arrows drove back the Highland 
 men, and the battle was lost. David, how- 
 ever, still continued to fight until his death at 
 Carlisle in 11 53. After him came in succes- 
 sion his two sons, Malcolm IV. and William 
 the Lion. The latter, aiding the rebellious 
 sons of Henry II. against their father, was 
 by him surprised and captured at Alnwick, 
 and sent a prisoner to Falaisein Normandy, 
 I174. There King Henry gave him his 
 freedom on condition of signing a treaty that 
 he would hold the whole kingdom of Scotland 
 on the same terms that he and his predeces- 
 sors had hitherto held Lothian, that is, as a 
 vassal of the King of England. 
 
 The King of Scotland becomes the 
 King of England's Vassal. 
 
 Next year, in accordance with this treaty, 
 the King of Scots, with his nobles, did homage 
 to the King of England in York Minster. 
 This treaty held good until Henry's death. 
 Then Richard I., being in want of money, 
 released King William from his bond on the 
 payment of 10,000 marks, retaining, however, 
 on the old footing the suzerainty of Lothian. 
 And in accordance with this, on the accession 
 of King John, William did homage for Lothian, 
 as was the manner before the Treaty of 
 Falaise. These points are all-important to 
 note, as much turns upon them in the great 
 after struggle. 
 
 Progress in Wealth. 
 
 Meanwhile the progress of commerce and 
 
 the growth of free towns had greatly increased, 
 
 and the increase of William's power is 
 
 shown by his being able to hold his court at 
 
 227 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 such far-off places as Nairn and Inverness ; 
 and although there was one of the usual 
 risings in Moray at the accession of his 
 successor Alexander II. (1214), it was put 
 down more easily than had ever been the 
 case before. Alexander III. (1249- 1266) 
 married Margaret, daughter of Henry III. 
 He went up to Westminster to do homage to 
 Edward I. for his English fiefs, as his fore- 
 fathers had done. Edward claimed the 
 
 death of her grandfather Alexander, for his 
 only son died a year or two before him. 
 
 The Trouble Thickens. 
 
 King Alexander had been killed by falling 
 from his horse over a cliff. The suddenness 
 of the event had contributed to the confusion 
 which followed it. Six regents were appointed 
 to govern on behalf of the three-years- old 
 queen ; three of them being chosen from the 
 
 King Robert Bruce. 
 
 overlordship of all, but it was not admitted, 
 nor did he then attempt to enforce it. But 
 now fresh troubles were to arise, and to pro- 
 duce most important results. 
 
 A Heavy Trouble. 
 
 In 1281, King Alexander's daughter Mar- 
 garet married the heir to the throne of Nor- 
 wa>y. She only lived two years after this, 
 leaving an infant daughter. This daughter 
 became heiress to the Scottish crown on the 
 
 land north of theForth, and three from Lothian 
 and Galloway. The incident shows how 
 much the different portions of the country 
 still held aloof from each other. The regents 
 had not long to hold their office, for on her 
 way to Scotland the "Maid of Norway" died. 
 As she was the last lineal descendant of 
 William the Lion, her successor had to be 
 sought from the descendants of his brother 
 David, Earl of Huntingdon. There were 
 many claimants, but the real contest lay be- 
 
 228 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 tween three. David had left three daughters. 
 John Balliol, Lord of Galloway, was grand- 
 son of the eldest ; Robert Bruce, Lord of 
 Annandale, a Norman by descent on the 
 father's side, was son of the second ; and 
 John Hastings, Lord of Abergavenny, son of 
 the third. The latter, too, had clearly no 
 right, unless the country were regarded as a 
 fief of the English crown, and not an inde- 
 pendent kingdom. In that case, indeed, the 
 fief was divisible among the representatives 
 of the three heiresses ; but in the case of an 
 independent kingdom, the choice was be- 
 tween Balliol and Bruce. According to our 
 present ideas, Balliol's right would be in- 
 contestible. 
 
 England the Arbitrator ; 
 Humiliation. 
 
 All Scotland looked to Edward L to settle 
 the difficulty, for by universal consent he was 
 overlord over Lothian, though the rest was 
 matter of dispute. He opened a Parliament 
 at Norham, in 1291, to settle the question, 
 and began by claiming overlordship of the 
 whole country. The Scots were taken by 
 surprise. The lords and many of the claim- 
 ants were fain to yield. They saw no practi- 
 cal evil likely to ensue, for they were mostly 
 Normans themselves, and allied in many 
 ways with the English nation. The Com- 
 mons, indeed, refused to admit Edward's 
 claim, but they were feeble and unable to 
 act. He carried his point, therefore, and 
 was acknowledged as overlord of Scotland, 
 and the fortresses were handed over to him 
 as a pledge of this till he should make his 
 award. He decided, and rightly, according 
 to the principles of modern law, in favour of 
 Balliol, as the representative of the eldest 
 daughter. The award was accepted, and 
 Balliol did homage to Edward for his king- 
 dom. 
 
 Scotland arises, but is trampled 
 
 DOWN. 
 
 But the wound thus caused rankled in 
 many a breast, and before long Balliol re- 
 fused to admit the right of the English king 
 to hear appeals against his legal decisions. 
 To this step he was urged not so much 
 by the Scots as by Philip the Fair, King of 
 France, who was jealous of the great and un- 
 precedented power of the English monarch, 
 and hoped, by kindling strife between the 
 two nations of Great Britain, to gain an 
 opportunity to seize the Enghsh possessions 
 in France. A war of England against both 
 nations was the consequence, but we have to 
 follow only the northern. The first result 
 of it was the destruction of Berwick-upon- 
 Tweed. It had been the greatest merchant 
 city of the north ; it never became a great 
 town again. Edward then marched north- 
 
 wards, Bruce joined his standard, the great 
 towns opened their gates, Balliol himself 
 surrendered, and was sent to an English 
 prison. The submission was complete. Ed- 
 ward carried away the sacred coronation 
 stone from Scone, and placed it in West- 
 minster Abbey, before the shrine of Edward 
 the Confessor, underneath a stately chair, 
 which has been used as the coronation chair 
 of English monarchs to this day. 
 
 A Hero Appears ; Sir William 
 Wallace. 
 
 But a very few months saw all his schemes 
 undone. One cause of anger to the Scots 
 was that they saw English clerics and barons 
 intruded into Scottish lands ; another was 
 that the strict administration of justice spoiled 
 the doings of freebooters and cattle-lifters — ■ 
 just and unjust alike clamoured against the 
 English usurpation. An outlaw knight, Sir 
 William Wallace, called the people to fight 
 for their national freedom and birthright, 
 and the response was enthusiastic. In Sep- 
 tember 1297, Wallace, with the army thus 
 called together, met the English, under John 
 de Warrenne, near Stirling. The English 
 were crossing the Forth by the only availa- 
 ble bridge, and half of them had got over 
 when Wallace fell on them and cut them to 
 pieces ; the remainder of the English army 
 fled over the border. Then Edward himself 
 took the field. He came with an immense 
 host, and met Wallace, July 22nd, at the battle 
 of Falkirk. The struggle was fierce and 
 bloody, and ended with an utter rout of the 
 Scots. 
 
 And still Scotland was unconquered. Her 
 national life had been roused by Wallace's 
 patriotism. Edward was hard put to it for 
 supplies, and the French war also was so 
 dangerous to him that he had to withdraw 
 homewards. In 1304 he came again, again 
 was acknowledged as overlord by the nobles, 
 proceeded to make arrangements for better 
 administration of justice in Scotland, and 
 once more returned to London, carrying 
 Wallace with him as a prisoner, he having 
 been betrayed during the King's visit. There 
 seems too much reason to believe that he 
 had gratified his hatred to the English by 
 horrible cruelties ever since the Falkirk de- 
 feat ; but Edward's conduct towards one whom 
 the Scots loved was unwise. Wallace was 
 tried as a traitor in Westminster Hall, and 
 hanged. His head was stuck on a pole on 
 London Bridge, and the four quarters of his 
 body were sent to be hung up in four Scottish 
 towns. The resentment of the Scots was 
 bitter and lasting. 
 
 Still Unconquered ; Robert Bruce. 
 
 Hardly was the sentence executed when 
 they again rose in arms, headed by Robert 
 
 229 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Bruce, the grandson of the original competitor 
 with Balliol. His father and grandfather 
 had been partizans of the English crown in 
 the war with BaUiol ; but now that Balliol 
 was withdrawn, and Scotland seemed alto- 
 gether at the mercy of the conquerer, Bruce 
 revived his grandfather's claim to the crown. 
 Comyn, one of the Scottish nobles to whom 
 he had communicated his views, disclosed 
 them to the Englishjwhereupon Bruce stabbed 
 him to death in a church in Dumfries, and 
 then, feeling that there was no longer any 
 possibility of temporizing, he went to Scone 
 and had himself crowned king. It seemed 
 a desperate step ; for King Edward, half- 
 maddened with fury, once more marched to- 
 wards Scotland, vowing terrible vengeance. 
 
 King Edward's Vow of Vengeance. 
 
 He would " execute vengeance for the con- 
 tempt done by Bruce to God and the Church, 
 after which he would never more bear arms 
 against Christians, but would finish his days 
 in warring against the infidels in the Holy 
 Land." His son Edward also, — whom with 
 three hundred other youths he knighted at 
 starting for the war, — vowed never to tarry 
 two nights in one place till he arrived in 
 Scotland. King Edward was now old, 
 however, and could move but slowly. 
 Having reached Lanercrost, in Cumberland, 
 he determined to rest there ; but he sent 
 justices to Berwick to try all prisoners, 
 especially those that were accused of com- 
 plicity in the death of Comyn ; and all 
 against whom a conviction could be obtained 
 were ruthlessly hanged and quartered. The 
 Countess of Buchan, who had put the crown 
 on Bruce's head, was sentenced to be shut 
 up in a wooden cage on the top of one of the 
 towers of Berwick Castle, and Bruce's sister 
 an like manner on Roxburgh. But this com- 
 bination of the sword of justice with that 
 of war, the execration of the Church,* the 
 
 * The Cardinal of Spain came to Lanercrost just 
 at this time with a message from the Pope respect- 
 ing the marriage of the Prince of Wales with Isabel of 
 France, and was induced to gratify Edward by joining 
 the English bishops in cursing Bruce. ' ' He put on his 
 vestments with the other bishops who were present,'' 
 says the chronicler Hemingford, "and with lighted 
 candles and the ringing of bells, they terribly cursed 
 Bruce and his fellow malefactors." In Sir Walter 
 Scott's poem, "The Lord of the Isles," the Abbot 
 of Icolmkill, addressing Bruce, thus vividly paints 
 the terrors of excommunication : — 
 
 ' ' And thou, 
 Unhappy ! what hast thou to plead, 
 Why, I denoimce not on thy deed 
 That awful doom which canons tell 
 Shuts Paradise and opens hell ? 
 Anathema, of power so dread, 
 It blends the living with the dead, 
 Bids each good angel soar away, 
 And every ill one claim his prey ; 
 
 piercing domestic wounds, — all were unable 
 to break the courage of Bruce and his people. 
 On the contrary, the spirit of insatiable 
 revenge was kindled afresh every day by the 
 sight of the cruelties inflicted with the forms 
 of law, and the people determined to spend 
 the last drop of blood before yielding. The 
 English King, more in desperation, perhaps, 
 than in the effort of a great mind, and in 
 order to confute a report of his death which 
 had gone abroad, set out once more for 
 Scotland. But his race was run. On the 
 first two days he advanced only at the rate 
 of two miles a day. On the third he rested. 
 On the fourth he reached the village of 
 Burgh-on-the-Sands. He was carried — un- 
 able to walk and hardly to speak — into a 
 house. Next day the end came. 
 
 The Avenger laid low. 
 
 Barbour, the Scotch poet, tells — let us hope 
 his tale is not true — that the King knew 
 himself dying, and was making his arrange- 
 ments for his kingdom when the tidings 
 reached him that some prisoners had just 
 been taken. Thereupon he " grinned," and, 
 to the horror of the bystanders, ordered them 
 to be all hanged and quartered. 
 
 " Wonder there was of sic saying. 
 That he that unto death was near 
 Should answer upon such manere, 
 Withouten pity and mercy. 
 How might he trust on Him to cry 
 That rightuisely doth doom all thing. 
 To have mercie for his crying 
 On one that through his felony 
 At sic a point had no mercy ? " 
 
 So writes the stern poet. The cruel sentence 
 was executed, and was followed the same day 
 by the King's death. It was July 30th, 1307. 
 
 Adventures of the Fugitive King. 
 
 The Earl of Pembroke took up the cam- 
 paign as English general on King Edward's 
 death, and led an army across the border. 
 He found himself unresisted ; Bruce had 
 
 Expels thee from the Church's care. 
 
 And deafens Heaven against thy prayer, 
 
 Arms every hand against thy life. 
 
 Bans all who aid thee in the strife ; 
 
 Nay, each whose succour, cold and scant. 
 
 With meanest alms relieves thy want ; 
 
 Hunts thee when hving, and when dead. 
 
 Dwells on thy yet devoted head. 
 
 Rends honour's scutcheon from thy hearse, 
 
 Stills o'er thy bier the holy verse. 
 
 And spurns thy corpse from hallowed ground, 
 
 Flung like vile carrion to the hound : 
 
 Such is the dire and desperate doom 
 
 For sacrilege, decreed by Rome ; 
 
 And such the well deserved meed 
 
 Of thine unhallowed, ruthless deed." 
 
 It is noticeable that, in spite of repeated bulls, the 
 native Scottish clergy, throughout the whole struggle 
 that followed, took no heed of this excommunica- 
 tion, but continued to perform their functions. 
 
 2'^0 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 fled for his life. After rnost distressing hard- 
 ships he crossed the Frith of Clyde to Cantire, 
 and thence, diffident of his safety, he sought 
 it in the small and almost deserted Isle of 
 Rauchrin [Rathlin], in the wild Atlantic. 
 His adventures are among the foremost in 
 the records of Scottish heroism. They have 
 found a chronicler in the poet we have just 
 referred to, John Barbour, Archdeacon of 
 Aberdeen. Some of them are very likely 
 legendary, but they one and all indicate the 
 conviction of a high and noble character, 
 raised up by God to be the deliverer of a 
 nation. By way of specimen, we will quote 
 one story from him, modernizing only suffi- 
 ciently to make the language intelligible to 
 the general reader. This story belongs to a 
 period following soon after his coronation : — 
 
 " To the King Robert again go we 
 That in Rauchrj'ne with his menye [following] 
 Lay till winter near was gone. 
 And of that isle his meat has ta'en. 
 James of Douglas was angry 
 That longer they should idle lie ; 
 And to Sir Robert Boyd said he, 
 ■* The poore folk of this country 
 Are charged upon great manere 
 Of us that idle ly thus here. 
 And I here say that in Arran, 
 In a strong castle built of stone, 
 Are English men that with strong hand 
 Do hold the lordship of the land. 
 Thither go we ; it well may fall 
 That harm them in some thing we shall.' 
 Sir Robert said, ' I grant there till [agree thereto] 
 To lie here more were little skill ; 
 Therefore to Arran pass will we. 
 For I know right well the countre6 ; 
 Also the castle right know f. 
 Vv''e shall come there so privily, 
 That they shall have perceiving, 
 Nor yet witting of our coming. 
 And we shall near ambushed be 
 Where we their outcome plain may see. 
 So shall it on no manner fall 
 But scathe them in some wise we shall. ' 
 With that they armed them anon. 
 And of the King their leave have ta'en, 
 And went them forth straight on their way. 
 Into Cantire soon come are they : 
 Thus rowing always by the land 
 Till that the night was near on hand ; 
 To Arran then they went their way, 
 And safely there arrived they. 
 And in a glen their galley drew. 
 And soon they made it fast enough : 
 Their tackle, oars, and eke their steer [helm] 
 They hide all on the same manere, 
 And held their way on through the night, 
 So that before the dawn of light 
 They were ambushed the castle near, . 
 All armed upon their best manere ; 
 And though they wet were, and weary. 
 And through long fasting all hungry. 
 They thought to hold them all privy 
 Till that they well their point might see. 
 Sir John of Hastings at that tide. 
 With many knights of mickle pride, 
 And squires, and also yeomanry. 
 In truth a goodly company. 
 Was in the castle of Brathwike. 
 And ofttimes, when it would him tide [please], 
 
 He went a hunting with his men, 
 And so the land abandoned then. 
 None durst refuse to do his will. 
 And he was in the castle still 
 The time that James, lord of Douglas, 
 As I have told, ambushed was." 
 
 A convoy, with the victaile and clothing, 
 coming in three boats, is captured by Douglas 
 and his men. Some are slain, and the rest 
 raise a cry of terror. 
 
 " When they that in the castle were 
 Did hear the folks so cry and roar. 
 They issued forth then to the fight ; 
 But when the Douglas saw that sight, 
 His men to him he 'gan to rally, 
 And forth to meet them he did sally. 
 And when they of the castle saw 
 Him coming on them without awe, 
 And how they fled without debate, 
 And so were followed to the gate 
 And smitten down, as they in passed ; 
 The gate they straightway barred fast, 
 That they might come at them no more. 
 Therefore they left them each one there. 
 And turned to the sea again, 
 Where lay the men that they had slain. 
 And when they that were in the boats 
 Saw how they came, and how they smote 
 So grievously their company, 
 In haste they put themselves to sea. 
 And rowed away with all their might. 
 But soon the wind, as in despite, 
 Against them made the breakers rise. 
 That they could wield [master] the sea no wise ; 
 And as they durst not come to land 
 They tossed about, a helpless band. 
 That of the three boats sunk were two. 
 When Douglas saw that it was so, 
 He seized the arms, the clothes , the food. 
 The wine, and everything of good 
 That he found there, and went his way. 
 Right glad and joyful of his prey." 
 
 Our next story must be in plain prose. It 
 is one of the best-known stories of King 
 Robert Bruce. Tidings came to him in 
 Rauchrin of the execution of his brother by 
 King Edward, and of skirmishes in which 
 his followers were defeated, till he was quite 
 in despair. One morning he lay upon his 
 bed, sick at heart, and deliberating within 
 himself whether any good purpose was to be 
 served by his making further attempts on 
 behalf of his country. Would it not be 
 better to betake himself to the Holy Land, 
 and fight against unbelievers ? For then he 
 might also make his peace with the Church, 
 which had been broken by the murder of 
 Comyn. But then, on the other hand, the 
 inner voice of conscience told him that what- 
 ever the popular religion of the time might 
 think, it was a plainer duty which lay before 
 him to fight to the death for the restoration 
 of the freedom of the country that he loved 
 so dearly than to slink away to a land far 
 off. Here indeed he might fail, but it 
 would be cowardly, yea wicked, to leave his 
 country deserted because the achievement of 
 her liberty was the harder task. 
 
 231 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Thus he ruminated ; and as he did so, he 
 looked up to the roof of his chamber, and 
 saw a sight which engrossed his attention. A 
 spider, hanging at the end of a long thread 
 of its own spinning, was endeavouring, as its 
 custom is, to swing itself from one beam to 
 another, for the purpose of fixing the line 
 on which to stretch its web. Six times, as 
 Bruce counted, it failed. He bethought 
 himself that he had fought six unsuccessful 
 battles against the English, and waited for 
 the omen of the seventh attempt. By that 
 he would be guided, and he looked on with 
 eagerness. The attempt was renewed. The 
 spider gathered all the force it could muster, 
 and swung itself again. It was successful ! 
 
 The reader who shall visit Westminster 
 Abbey will see the incident depicted on one 
 of the stained glass windows of Henry the 
 Seventh's Chapel, — a memorial of one who 
 was descended from the brave Bruce, and 
 whose last years were spent in a manner 
 worthy of her ancestor's name, in working 
 bravely and zealously on behalf of the poor 
 of Westminster, — Lady Augusta Stanley. 
 
 Brighter Days Begin. 
 
 King Robert accepted the omen, and went 
 forth from Rauchrin island full of courage 
 and joyous hope. First he crossed to Arran. 
 Inquiring if there were any strong men 
 there, a woman answered that a strong body 
 of men had lately come thither and slain the 
 English warden, and that they were dwelling 
 at "a stalwart place" hard by. 
 
 " ' Dame,' said the King, ' would thou me wiss 
 To that place where their dwelling is ; 
 I shall reward thee but lesing [without lying], 
 For they are all of my dwelling ; 
 And I right gladly would them see, 
 And so, trow I, they would see me." 
 'Yes,' said she, ' Sir, I will blithlie 
 Go with you and your company, 
 Till that I show you their repair.' 
 ' That is enough, my sister fair. 
 Now go we forward,' said the King. 
 Then went they forth without letting [hindrance], 
 Following her as she them led ; 
 Till at the last she showed a shed 
 To the King, in a woody glen, 
 And said, ' Sir, here I saw the men 
 That ye speir [ask] after make lodging ; 
 Here, trow I, is their repairing.' 
 The King then blew his horn on high, 
 And made the men that were him by 
 Hold themselves still and all privie. 
 And soon again his horn blew he. 
 Then James of Douglas heard him blow, 
 And in a moment 'gan him know, 
 And said, ' Of truth, yon is the King ; 
 I know long time since his blowing.' 
 A second time King Robert blew, 
 And then Sir Robert Boyd it knew, 
 And said, ' Yon is the King, no dread. 
 Go we foith to him with all speed." 
 So to the King they all did hie, 
 And kndl to him all courteously ; 
 
 And blithely welcomed they the King, 
 Who joyful was of their meeting. 
 He kissed them , and kindly speired 
 How each and all of late had fared. 
 They told but [without] leaving everything, 
 Then praised they God for this meeting." 
 
 King Robert's next step was to cross to 
 the mainland of Scotland. He knew that 
 he would be near his birthplace, and there- 
 fore likely to find friends there. He sent 
 a trusted servant over first to reconnoitre ; 
 and if he saw good hope of support, he was 
 to light a beacon fire. The messenger saw 
 no such hope, for the English seemed strong ; 
 but, by accident, some one unknown to him 
 happened to light a fire, which Bruce took 
 for his sign, and crossed. When he found 
 out the mistake, however, he resolved to 
 stand his ground. 
 
 Little by little men gathered to him ; he 
 won many successes, and many of his fol- 
 lowers did brave deeds of arms. Still, as 
 we have already seen, so long as Edward L 
 lived, Bruce could only carry on desultory 
 warfare and harass the enemy. He could 
 not set up a court. But the English were 
 afraid to venture into the open country, as 
 they had formerly done. They lay still in 
 their garrisons and waited for fresh help 
 from the King of England. 
 
 Douglas's Larder. 
 
 One ghastly story of those days we must 
 chronicle. Douglas— the same whom we 
 have seen with King Robert at Rauchryne — 
 found to his disgust the English in possession 
 of his castle, which they had stored with 
 corn and wine and cattle to help the English 
 army when it came. He fell upon it sud- 
 denly, on Palm Sunday, whilst the garrison 
 were at church, slew or imprisoned the 
 soldiers within the church, and then, as he 
 knew he would not be able to hold it against 
 the forces which would be sent against him, 
 he resolved to render it uninhabitable and 
 the provisions useless. He was, moreover, 
 infuriated by the murder of a favourite 
 servant. So he caused all the barrels of 
 meal and wheat and malt, and all the hogs- 
 heads of wine and ale, to be staved in, and 
 the contents to be mingled together in a 
 great heap. With this he mingled the flesh 
 of the cattle which he had slain ; and then, 
 horrible to tell, he slew his prisoners, and 
 flung their dead bodies into the hideous 
 heap, the name of which has come down in 
 history as Douglas's Larder. Then he flung 
 dead horses into the well to poison the water, 
 set fire to the castle, and went away. 
 
 But let us leave King Robert for a while 
 with his brave though too often cruel heroes, 
 and cast a look on the English Court under 
 its new monarch. 
 
 232 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 King Edward II. ; Frivolity takes the 
 Place of Fierceness.- 
 
 The weak and dissolute youth who had 
 succeeded Edward I. seemed to ihink that 
 he should not be really king unless he con- 
 temned and counteracted his dead father's 
 will. Having received at Roxburgh the 
 fealty of such of the Scots as were disaffected 
 to Bruce, he returned to Carlisle and thence 
 to London. Hither he recalled Gaveston. 
 
 r 
 
 formidable union of nobles and prelates had 
 been formed, that Edward was obliged to 
 send Gaveston out of England, and he there- 
 fore made him lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 The news came that Robert Bruce had 
 overcome his enemies in Western Scotland ; 
 but as these victories were at a distance from 
 the English border, no uneasiness was felt at 
 the English court. Moreover, although in 
 the early part of 1308 Edward had married 
 Isabel of France, her father, Philip, jealous 
 
 A Battle with the Archers. 
 
 a companion in vice, whom his father had 
 banished. He talked much of what he in- 
 tended to do in Scotland, and issued orders 
 of preparation for carrying on the war ; * 
 but all other concerns were put aside for 
 idle and base pleasures with the favourite, 
 whose rapacity and insolence still further 
 embittered the hatred of the English nobility 
 towards him. At midsummer 1308, such a 
 
 * E.g., there was one order for "three thousand 
 salmon to be barrelled " for provisions. 
 
 always of English power, was inclined to 
 ■favour Scottish independence ; and as the 
 Pope was now his absolute tool, Philip used 
 him also to favour Bruce. The two com- 
 bined to persuade Edward to make a truce 
 with Robert to last from the beginning of 
 1309 till All Saints' Day in that year. The 
 respite from danger which this seemed to 
 offer induced the wretched King to recall 
 Gaveston from Ireland, and the two com- 
 panions in evil met at Chester in June of 
 that year. Perhaps the fury in England at 
 
 233 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 such shamelessness induced the Scots to 
 break the truce. At any rate they did so, 
 and preparations were renewed in England 
 for fighting. 
 
 The campaign opened with evil auguries 
 for the English King. The nobility were 
 angry and shocked at the abuses and crimes 
 of the King and Gaveston ; and when Par- 
 liament met in the beginning of 1 310, they 
 were able to carry a measure empowering 
 twenty-one persons, prelates, earls, and 
 barons, to ordain, i.e., set in order, every 
 reformation which they saw necessary in the 
 royal household. 
 
 The Scots were now active and confident. 
 The first English measure was the sending a 
 fleet to the relief of Perth, which Bruce was 
 besieging; and the maritime towns of England 
 were requested to fit out ships, each accord- 
 ing to its ability, amounting in all to forty, 
 for transporting a body of troops from 
 Ireland, who were coming to the King's 
 aid. In the beginning of August Edward 
 came to Northampton, whence he issued 
 summonses to his military tenants to be at 
 Berwick, with the service that each owed 
 him, on the day of the Virgin's nativity 
 (Sept. 8th). 
 
 In September he entered Scotland, and on 
 the 20th was at Roxburgh. He had left a 
 disaffected country behind him, some of the 
 greatest of his barons having refused to 
 follow him so long as Gaveston was in his 
 company. He led his army as far as the 
 Friths of Forth and Clyde, destroying and 
 ravaging the lands of the Scots, while they, 
 without hazarding a general engagement, 
 made sudden and fierce attacks from their 
 woods, caves, and morasses. 
 
 In one of these attacks three hundred 
 English and Welshmen were cut off. Scar- 
 city of provisions and severity of weather 
 forced Edward in the beginning of November 
 to retire to Berwick, where he spent the 
 remainder of the season in the company of 
 the Queen and nobles. In Scotland the 
 dearth was so terrible that many were obliged 
 to feed on the flesh of horses and other 
 carrion. 
 
 From Berwick Edward sent Gaveston as 
 Commander-in-Chief into Scotland, in order 
 that he might have the opportunity of win- 
 ning military glory. He is said to have 
 acquitted himself with courage and ability, 
 for he led his army across the Firth of Forth, 
 and endeavoured to bring the Scots to a 
 battle. They, however, eluded him by re- 
 tiring into mountains and behind morasses. 
 
 The English Parliament, however, refused 
 any compromise. The Ordainers ordered 
 Gaveston into perpetual exile ; the Parlia- 
 ment ratified this, and the favourite passed 
 over into Flanders. 
 
 Bruce saw the advantage he possessed in 
 
 fighting against an incapable king. Entering 
 England by the Solway Firth, he ravaged the 
 parts adjacent; then returning, he captured 
 the strong fortress of Dumbarton, and early 
 in 1 3 12 he took Perth, executing all Scotsmen 
 who had opposed him, but treating the 
 English with consideration. 
 
 And in the face of all this, the miserable 
 King could not conquer his infatuation for 
 Gaveston, brought him back from Flanders, 
 reversed all the proceedings against him, and 
 took him in his company to Newcastle, on 
 his way to Scotland. But the barons had a 
 leader in the Earl of Lancaster, the King's 
 cousin, who was not only very able and 
 courageous, but the richest man in the country. 
 They declared at once that they would enforce 
 the Ordinances by arms. Edward, accord- 
 ing to the Monk of Malmesbury, secretly 
 went to Bruce to beg for an asylum for 
 Gaveston, until the storm was blown over, 
 offering to confirm the Scottish crown to 
 him. But Bruce replied that he could have 
 no confidence in the promises of a man who 
 had violated his solemn oath to his own 
 lieges. There was no help here, then. 
 Gaveston fled to Tyneniouth, thence to 
 Scarborough. In the castle there he was 
 besieged ; was presently captured; and on 
 Blacklow Hill, near Kenilworth, he was put 
 to death as a traitor, July ist, 131 2. 
 
 In August, Bruce, having taken and de- 
 stroyed many other castles, entered England 
 again, burnt Hexham and a great part of the 
 city of Durham. Next year, while the inha- 
 bitants of Roxburgh were holding festival on 
 Shrove Tuesday, Sir James Douglas took 
 Roxburgh ; but a greater achievement was 
 won by Randolph, the King's nephew, who, 
 on the 14th of March, took Edinburgh Castle. 
 , He, with thirty men, clambered up the face 
 of the tremendous rock on which the fortress 
 is built in the thick darkness of night, planted 
 a ladder against the wall, and threw himself 
 into it. 
 
 In the midst of all this, the English King 
 and Queen went to France for six weeks. 
 They were not happy together, and seemed, 
 to have gone there to endeavour to come, by 
 Philip's help, to a better understanding. 
 Bruce was not idle. He had given a pledge 
 to the French King not to invade England, 
 and kept it, but he reduced the Isle of Man 
 to submission, and placed it under the 
 government of his nephew Randolph. He 
 also spent much time in training his men to 
 fight on foot, v.'hich proved of the greatest 
 use to him in his great battle next year. 
 
 On King Edward's return, he immediately 
 called on the Parliament for money for the 
 Scottish war. It was granted. Parliament 
 showing itself willing to befriend him now 
 that Gaveston was out of the way. But 
 when he set out on the march, the Earl of 
 
 234 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 Lancaster still refused to accompany him, as 
 did some other influential lords, in conse- 
 quence of his refusal to ratify some other 
 Ordinances. 
 
 The Siege of Stirling Castle ; 
 
 A Battle Imminent. 
 
 Edward Bruce, King Robert's brother. 
 
 that he would deliver the castle up to the 
 Scottish King by a given day, if the English 
 King should prove himself unable to relieve 
 him. The relief of this castle was the object 
 on which King Edward was now bent. 
 Robert Bruce, animated by his past suc- 
 cesses, and confident in the valour of his 
 troops, resolved to risk a battle. He was 
 
 Olu Ldi uukoh 
 
 emulous of the glory of Douglas and 
 Randolph, had laid siege to Stirling Castle, 
 but it was a fortress of extraordinary strength, 
 and the English governor. Sir Philip Mow- 
 bray, was able to hold out against him ; but 
 as the siege continued, Mowbray promised 
 
 wise as well as bold, and used every precau- 
 tion where so much was at stake. He knew 
 that his army was far inferior to the English 
 in point of numbers, and especially in 
 cavalry. And he knew also that the ground 
 in front of Stirling was most commodious 
 
 235 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 for himself, considering these circumstances. 
 Here, then, he determined to await the 
 English army. 
 
 About the i8th of June, 1 3 14, King 
 Edward set out with an army of about 
 100,000 men, 40,000 of them, according to 
 Barbour, were horse, and of these, 3,000 " in 
 complete plate and may]," who were to be 
 placed in front of the battle. There were 
 52,000 archers. Such an army had never 
 marched out of England before. They were 
 divided into ten bodies of 10,000 each, 
 " The whole country round shone with arms 
 and ensigns." The Earls of Gloucester and 
 Hereford led the van. As the army could 
 draw no supplies from a country not only 
 desolated by war but purposely stripped of 
 everything which might help the invaders, 
 multitudes of carriages moved with the 
 army,* conveying not only provisions and 
 baggage, but also articles of luxury and 
 splendour, which soon afforded a rich spoil 
 to the conquerors. 
 
 The Site of the Battle. 
 
 The village of Bannockburn lies about 
 three miles south-east of Stirling. The 
 writer of these lines visited it just ten years 
 ago. The Bannock flows through the middle 
 of the village, its waters but little tainted 
 with the forges of the nailers. Low hills lie 
 on the north, here and there covered with 
 woods, and on the south, on the other side of 
 the carse (valley), you see a bold barrier of 
 downs. This was the spot which King 
 Robert chose on which to stand his ground. 
 His rendezvous was the Torwood, on the 
 high road between Falkirk and Stirling, 
 whither, on Saturday, June 22nd, 30,000 men 
 had assembled. These he led to Bannock- 
 burn on the evening of that day. For he 
 knew that the English, to reach the castle, 
 must either come here, or through a morass. 
 
 But let the minstrel chronicler, Barbour, 
 take up the tale awhile. He had probably 
 his information from old men who had been 
 eye-witnesses of the battle. 
 
 " The worthy king when he has seen 
 His host assemble all bedene [as bidden], 
 And saw them wilful [full of good will] to fulfil 
 His pleasure, with good heart and will ; 
 And to maintain well their franchise. 
 He was rejoiced many wise. 
 Then straightway called his council he, 
 And spoke them thus : ' Lords, now ye see 
 That Englishmen with mickle might 
 Have all prepared them for the fight. 
 For they yon castle would rescue. 
 Therefore 'tis good we settle now 
 How we may let [hinder] them of this aim. 
 
 * Malmesbury says, ' ' The multitude of carriages, 
 if extended in a line, would have occupied sixty 
 leagues." 
 
 Now let us their way close to them. 
 
 That they pass not with our consent ; 
 
 We have with us, them to prevent. 
 
 E'en thirty thousand men and more ; 
 
 Now make we straight battaLons four, 
 
 And place ourselves in such manere. 
 
 That when our friends have comen here, 
 
 We to the New Park* hold our way, 
 
 For that gait certes pass must they. 
 
 But if they will belowt us go. 
 
 And on the marshes passing so. 
 
 We shall be at advantage there. 
 
 And judge we it right speedful [prosperous] war 
 
 To go on foot unto this fight, 
 
 Clothed all as one in armour light ; 
 
 We risk us if on horse we fight, 
 
 Since all our foes are men of might. 
 
 And better horsed are they than we, 
 
 And we shall in great peril be. 
 
 And if we fight on foot, perfay [in faith], 
 
 Advantage we shall have, I say. 
 
 For in the Park, among the trees, 
 
 The horsemen cumbered be always. 
 
 The ditches, too, that are there down 
 
 Shall put them in confusion.' 
 
 They all consented to that saw [saying]. 
 
 And so within a little thraw [short time] 
 
 Their four battalions ordered they." 
 
 He forthwith proceeded to arrange his 
 order of battle. Randolph was appointed 
 commander of the van, Edward Bruce of the 
 right wing, Sir James Douglas of the left. 
 In the rear of the left was the King, ready 
 to direct the whole, and to supply assistance 
 where it should be needed. J Each man 
 was clothed in a light armour, which a 
 sword could not easily penetrate. Each had 
 an axe at his side, and a lance in his hand. 
 On their right flowed the Burn, and in front 
 of them was a formidable marsh, most 
 difficult for heavy-armed horsemen to tra- 
 verse. There was one dry spot of firm 
 ground in. the midst of it, and here Bruce 
 had caused pits to be dug, covered over 
 with branches of trees and grass. 
 
 The minstrel's graphic touch shows us in 
 a moment the character of these " pits." 
 
 " In the plain field, then, by the way 
 Where it behoved that pass must they 
 The Englishmen, if that they would 
 Through New Park to the castle hold. 
 He caused that many pots be made, 
 A man's knee deep, a foot round braid [broad], 
 So close that they might likened be 
 To honey-comb that's made by bee." 
 
 These pits, or "pots,'' as the poet calls 
 them, had sharp stakes inserted in them, and 
 
 * This was the name which the site of this battle 
 then bore. 
 
 Along the lowest part of the carse or valley. 
 
 J His position was displayed to the whole host by 
 his "standard pole," z.e., a strong pole, sometimes 
 fixed upon wheels, in the present case upon a great 
 stone, and on the top of it was a framed banner. Thus, 
 in case of difficulty, every one knew where he was. 
 The stone, called the Bore Stone, is still in its place 
 on the field. Tourists having begun to break it up, 
 the owner of the land has protected it with a grating. 
 
 236 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 were, of course, certain to throw down and 
 damage horses that trod in them. 
 
 Next, King Robert detached his nephew 
 Randolph to watch the lower road, through 
 the carse. The event proved afterwards 
 how wise was this precaution. Then, finally, 
 he disposed of his gillies, or camp-followers. 
 He sent them with all the carriages, baggage, 
 and provisions, over a hill in the rear, which 
 to this day is called Gillies Hill. 
 
 which Bruce had spoken, was all but im- 
 passable, but that by artificial means they 
 might make it otherwise. So they filled 
 up the pools in the morass, and threw bridges 
 across the streams. Eight hundred picked 
 men, fully armed and mounted, " yearning to 
 do chivalry," as Barbour expresses it, were 
 put under the command of Lord Clifford, 
 with instructions to avoid the New Park, 
 and to pass under St. Ninian's church on the 
 
 Combat of the Infantry. 
 
 The morning of Sunday the 23rd was 
 spent in fasting, in prayers, and confession. 
 In the evening the van of the English came 
 in sight, and two good auguries had been 
 seen ere set of sun. 
 
 The first was this : The " vaward," or ad- 
 vanced guard of the English, under Clifford 
 and Hereford, after an examination of the 
 ground, formed a plan, which, if it had been 
 successful, might have changed the whole 
 fate of the kingdom. They saw that the 
 ground through the carse, the " below " of 
 
 east side. The attempt was so far successful 
 that Clifford had reached the low ground 
 beyond the church before he was observed, 
 although Randolph had been told off to 
 watch this side. " Nephew," said Bruce, 
 when he saw it, " a rose of your chaplet has 
 fallen." 
 
 With 500 spearmen Randolph hurried to 
 intercept Clifford and his party ; and the 
 action that ensued was a rehearsal, on a 
 small scale, of the event of the morrow. The 
 compact infantry, with their axes and daggers, 
 
 237 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 were set upon by the mail-clad horsemen. 
 They threw themselves into a square, and 
 received the furious onslaught, and were not 
 broken. Again and again the fierce cavalry 
 rushed on the devoted square to crush it, 
 hurling missiles among them. The pro- 
 truding spears of the footmen were a match 
 for the lances, and ever as a horse fell, axe 
 and dagger did the rest. 
 
 Douglas saw Randolph thus beset, and 
 besought leave to go to his assistance. " No," 
 said King Robert, " you shall not stir one 
 foot. I will not break my order for him." 
 But as Douglas pressed, Bruce, evidently 
 anxious for his nephew and favourite general, 
 gave his assent. " Go," he said, " but speed 
 thee soon back." ' As Douglas drew near, he 
 saw that Randolph was gaining the advan- 
 tage, and that the English were giving way. 
 With true generosity towards one who was 
 regarded as his rival, he reined in his men, 
 that he might not diminish the praise which 
 he saw that Randolph would win. His hopes 
 were fulfilled, the enemy fled headlong, and 
 found their way into the English encamp- 
 ment. Barbour tells — wonderful if true — that 
 on the side of the Scots there was but one 
 man killed. 
 
 The other event of that evening was this : 
 By some misunderstanding, as it would seem, 
 the English van pressed onwards without 
 observing that the rest of the army was not 
 following. Bruce, expecting a general at- 
 tack, made ready. He was himself mounted 
 on a "little palfrey," his weapon an axe ; on 
 his helmet he had a purple bonnet, and on 
 that a crown. Sir Henry de Bohun, a brave 
 knight, Hereford's cousin, recognized the 
 King by this crown, and rushed at him. 
 Bruce, judging that flight back into his lines 
 might discourage his men, and confident in 
 his own strength, awaited his antagonist. 
 As the two men spurred to the encounter, 
 Bohun m.issed the King, who stood up in his 
 stirrups as he passed, and dealt his antagonist 
 such a blow with his axe that the knight's 
 head was cleft in twain, and he dropped to 
 the earth a dead man. The Scots, as they 
 witnessed the deed, set up a shout of triumph, 
 whilst the English fled back in dismay. 
 
 The Battle. 
 
 Sunday morning, June 24th, 1312, has 
 dawned. The Scottish army, all on foot, 
 except 500 men, of whom we shall hear pre- 
 sently, began by hearing mass, and vowing 
 that if they could not conquer they would 
 die as martyrs to their country's freedom. 
 
 Meanwhile the English army had come 
 within reach. They had all caught sight of 
 their enemy late on Midsummer eve. They 
 knew nothing of the Scottish position, 
 and for fear of an attack in the night, were 
 obliged to remain sleepless under arms. 
 
 This was hard work after the toilsome march 
 from Berwick. Next day the English com- 
 manders counselled a day's rest ;• it was a 
 high festival, St. John the Baptist's Day, and 
 the men would be the better for some re- 
 freshment. The King, however, hearkened to 
 the young and more favoured, and resolved 
 on giving battle. 
 
 As the two armies stood confronting one 
 another in battle array, a bareheaded priest 
 passed along the Scottish hues, holding aloft 
 a crucifix, and on the moment every knee 
 was bowed in adoration. King Edward 
 beholding the sight afar off, cried out in 
 exultation, " Yonder folk kneel to ask 
 mercy." " They ask mercy, indeed, sire, 
 but not of you. For their sins they cry to 
 God ; but these men will win or die ; neither 
 will they flee for fear of death." 
 
 The catastrophe is soon told, for, indeed, 
 the narrative is very simple and easy to 
 follow. The English archers, who so often 
 determined the victory on the side of their 
 countrymen, advanced to the front and 
 opened the battle. But Bruce, wary as well 
 as bold, had prepared for this. The 500 
 horsemen, under the Marshal, Sir Robert 
 Keith, suddenly rushed at them in flank, and 
 so slew or dispersed them that from that 
 moment none of them attempted to draw a 
 bow. They fell back among the squadron 
 of horsemen, who in vain attempted, even 
 with blows, to rally them. The treacherous 
 pits were at the foot of the long slope down 
 which the English rushed to reach the Scots, 
 who were drawn up on the other side. The 
 Earl of Gloucester, attacked by Douglas, 
 and irritated to see his men wavering, rushed 
 into the thickest of the fight, and was beaten 
 down from his horse. He had 500 knights 
 around him, whom WiUiam Malmesbury 
 curses* for not rescuing him. "Twenty,," he 
 says, " might have done it." No doubt ; 
 but probably it was their great number 
 which made them so helpless. Pellmell 
 they went down at the "honey-combed" pits, 
 horse over man in terrible rout, " banners 
 and pennons torn and befouled," and all 
 amidst a hideous noise, as an eye-witness 
 declares, of "blows and snapping lances, 
 and battle cries and groans, and the screams 
 of wounded horses. "t 
 
 To the right rear of the Scots, as we have 
 already mentioned, the cainp-foUowers were 
 drawn up behind a hill. As Bruce's eagle 
 t-ye saw the English terror-stricken at their 
 first failure, he caused these gillies to march 
 in battle array along the crest of their hill, 
 with bits of linen tied to poles to look like 
 banners. The English soldiers opposite to 
 them took them for reinforcements, and the 
 
 238 
 
 * " Confundat eos Dominus." 
 •)• * Chronicle of Lanercost." 
 
SCOTLAND'S GREAT VICTORY. 
 
 sight completed the demoralization of the 
 Enghsh ranks. 
 
 In this horrible moment of confusion and 
 terror, the claymores of the Highlanders were 
 seen flashing in the air as they rushed furiously, 
 like the Greeks at Marathon, against the 
 great, now unwieldy host. 
 
 King Edward turned his horse and fled, 
 and the sight of this was the signal for the 
 universal rout and dissipation of the English 
 host. Hundreds had never drawn a sword 
 nor struck a blow. Numbers were drowned 
 in the Bannockburn* and in the Forth ; num- 
 bers, too, were slain and made prisoners ; and 
 there would have been many more, but that 
 the Scots, instead of pursuing, fell to plunder- 
 
 King of Scots. Edward, therefore, accom- 
 panied by a strong body of horse, turned 
 his face towards Berwick. Douglas pursued 
 after him, but with such a small body of men 
 that he could only harass him and seize those 
 who fell off from his company. The King, 
 however, found himself hospitably received 
 in the Castle of Dunbar, whose lord was still 
 on the side of Edward, though in the year 
 following he went over to the side of Bruce, 
 and thereby forfeited his English fiefs, 
 which were given to Percy, Earl of Northum- 
 berland. The Earl of Dunbar sent the King 
 to Bamlough Castle ; and on the third day 
 after the battle he reached Berwick. Thence 
 he issued a proclamation, setting forth that 
 
 Dl'N'uar Castle. 
 
 ing the baggage and stores of their enemies. 
 Only two Scottish knights are said to have 
 been slain, William Viport and Walter Ross. 
 Of the English, 30,000 are said to have 
 perished. 
 
 Flight of King Edward. 
 
 When Edward fled from the field he made 
 his way first to Stirling Castle, the fortress 
 which he had come to relieve. But the go- 
 vernor refused to give him entrance. He had 
 promised, he said, that if he were not relieved 
 by a certain day he would surrender to the 
 
 * Barbour says that the channel of the Bannock 
 was so choked up with the bodies of men and horses 
 that men could go over dryshod. 
 
 he had lost his privy seal, and warning his 
 subjects not to regard any order that should 
 appear under it. Soon afterwards he retired 
 to York, where he resided for several months, 
 miserable enough. Lancaster and other 
 haughty barons visited him here, not to con- 
 sole him, but to exact advantage of his abject 
 condition. The rest of his miserable reign 
 shall trouble us no more. 
 
 Bruce's Nokleness in Triumph. 
 
 The Scottish king showed great moderation 
 in his success. He treated his prisoners 
 with humanity, and had the slain decently 
 buried. King Edward's brother-in-law he 
 released without ransom, and by him he sent 
 back the lost privy seal. 
 
 239 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The war dragged on for years, but always 
 with one result, namely, that the Scots retained 
 the advantage they had won. 
 
 Results of the Battle. 
 
 It only remains for us to sum up the results 
 in a few words. Bannockburn, let it be re- 
 membered, is at the northern point of what 
 had been the Roman dominion. It was also 
 the boundary between the Celtic Highlands 
 and the Lowlands, which, as we have already 
 seen, were really as much inhabited by a 
 Saxon population as England itself. Here, 
 then, on this Midsummer day 1 314, the Saxons 
 of the Lowlands fought beside the Celtic 
 people whose name they had taken, and to 
 whose kingdom they had elected to belong. 
 They had thusunmistakably declared that they 
 chose to share the poverty of the half-civilized 
 Celts, with their independence to boot, rather 
 than become members of the wealthy and 
 prosperous southern kingdom from which 
 they had come, and from which they had 
 been severed. This was one result. 
 
 Another was the proof of the great principle 
 which Wallace had laid down, that footmen, 
 well managed, were able to prevail over 
 mounted men-at-arms, hitherto deemed in- 
 vincible. A few years before the Flemings 
 had won their inclependence at the battle of 
 Courtrai, and the following year (November 
 15th, 13 1 5) the Swiss overthrew their oppres- 
 sors at Morgarten. A few men, bound together 
 by the love of their native soil, were stronger 
 
 than a great mass of feudal retainers fighting 
 merely at the bidding of their lords. 
 
 And in conclusion, there is this fact to be 
 remembered, that Bruce was by descent a 
 Norman peer. But he had thrown in his lot 
 with the people whose home had become his 
 own, and we therefore, without scruple, call 
 him a Scot, He would desire no prouder 
 name. He ruled his people justly, wisely, 
 and bravely until his death, June 7th, 1329. 
 His brave companion, Douglas, had his heart 
 enclosed in a silver case, and started with it 
 to Spain, where the Saracens were oppressing 
 the Christian kingdom. Here he was slain, 
 bravely fighting for the King of Castile. The 
 heart was found under his corpse, showing 
 that his last act was to defend it. It was 
 brought back to Scotland, and buried under 
 the high altar of Melrose Abbey. King 
 Robert's body was buried in the church of 
 Dunfermline, and a marble stone was laid 
 upon it. Unhappily the church in the course 
 of years became ruinous, and the stone was 
 broken to pieces. But in the lifetime of Sir 
 Walter Scott, when the church was being 
 repaired, the fragments of the broken stone 
 were discovered, and buried beneath it was 
 the skeleton of the King. With the tears of 
 hundreds who flocked thither, and with all 
 imaginable respect and veneration, they once 
 more laid to rest the restorer of the Scottish 
 monarchy and nation. 
 
 W. B. 
 
 Stirling Castle. 
 
 240 
 
Arrival of the Mail at the General Post Office. 
 
 THE PENNY POST: 
 
 THE STORY OF A GREAT REFORM. 
 
 " Every morning, true as the clock, 
 Somebody hears the postman's knock.' 
 
 Modern Ballad. 
 
 " Sir Rowland Hill will always be remembered with gratitude, not only in this country but throughout the world.' 
 Poshnaster-GeneraV s Report, iSSo. 
 
 The Old Posts and Posting — Ancient Carriers — Historical Sketch of the Penny Post of London — The Postboy considered — 
 Dangers of " Riders "—The Cross-Post instituted— Ralph Allen— Mr. Palmer and Mail Coaches— The Old Mail to 
 Bath— Rowland Hill: His Investigations; His Pamphlet upon Postal Reform — Up-hill Work — Suggestions for 
 Reform -Reception of Mr. Hill's Scheme— Parliamentary Opposition — Efforts in Hill's favour — Evidence on behalf 
 of the Scheme produced- -Results of the Committee's Enquiry— The Postal Reform Bill Passed — Guarded Proceedings 
 — The Grand Result— Sir Rowland Hill— Post Office Work— Some Curious Facts— The Parcel Post— Conclusion. 
 
 The Old Posting Days. 
 N these days of rapid transmission of 
 thought, by letter, telegraph, and 
 telephone, it is difficult to conceive 
 the state of postal communication five-and- 
 forty years ago ; much less can we imagine 
 the time when an important letter — even a 
 State despatch — was moi-e than three days 
 and three nights on the way up "from the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury at Croydon to the 
 Secretary of State at Waltham Cross"! We 
 who write to the Twtes if the postman is late ; 
 or if the service is not, when we expect it 
 might be, arranged, can hardly bring our 
 minds to grasp the fact that a coach and six 
 horses, aided by the state, was obliged to 
 relinquish the carriage of the mails between 
 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow and back (about 
 eighty miles) in the specified time of six days, 
 because the contractors found the work too 
 arduous !* One hundred years ago, or there- 
 abouts, the first mail coach appeared in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Of the history of the Post, and of its more 
 modern development, the Post Office, we 
 need not say much ; but a few interesting 
 facts concerning the progress of this mode of 
 communication will be doubtless acceptable. 
 In days of old, posts, or relays of men, were 
 placed at certain intervals, and carried letters 
 or despatches from one station to the other. 
 
 * Household Words, Part I. 
 
 241 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 In remote antiquity, birds and dogs were em- 
 ployed to carry messages ; and it is related 
 that Cyrus the Persian instituted communi- 
 cations in his expedition to Scythia, 500 years 
 B.C. Amongst the Romans, Augustus was 
 the first to establish relays ; and at the con- 
 quest of Peru by Pizarro in 1532, relays of 
 men were established from Cusco to Quito. 
 
 The "posts" of ancient times, however, 
 ■were never employed to forward private 
 correspondence. The first real letter-post 
 was established in the thirteenth century, 
 between the Hanse towns. Camden mentions 
 the " Mastir of the Postes " as being in ex- 
 istence in England in 15 81 ; while previously 
 and subsequently the "postes "were only the 
 horse relays for carrying despatches. A post 
 forthe carriageof lettersbetweenEngland and 
 the Continent appears to have been arranged 
 by certain merchants in the fifteenth century ; 
 but in 1635, a certain Witherings "was au- 
 thorized to run a post between London and 
 Edinburgh, to go thither and back again in 
 six days." Postal lines were laid down, and 
 these horse-posts carried letters for the public, 
 and the Government monopoly was esta- 
 blished. Certain charges were made accord- 
 ing to the distance the letter was carried, 
 varying from twopence for less than eighty 
 miles, to sixpence in England, and eight- 
 pence to a town in Scotland. All the posts, 
 except those for the Universities and for the 
 Cinque Ports, were under the Government 
 control in the time of Charles II. 
 
 A " Penny Post " was not a new idea when 
 Mr. Rowland Hill proposed its adoption in 
 England. We read, that " in 1685 a penny 
 post was set up for the conveyance of letters 
 and parcels between London and its suburbs." 
 This idea was a speculation by Robert 
 Murray, and it succeeded so well that the 
 Duke of York made a complaint that his 
 rights as Receiver of Postal Revenues was 
 being infringed by private speculation, and 
 the scheme was swallowed up by the Crown. 
 This was the germ of the " London District" 
 Post, afterwards known as the " Twopenny " 
 Post in our own days. A penny postal rate 
 ■was established in Edinburgh, nearly a 
 hundred years afterwards, by Williamson ; 
 but here again the all-absorbing Government 
 came in and took his scheme under their 
 
 Historical Resume of the London 
 Penny Post. 
 
 It appears from documentary evidence 
 that the establishment of a letter post origi- 
 nated in the brain of a private person about 
 the end of Cromwell's protectorate. This 
 gentleman was named William Dockwra; 
 and in 1683 the Penny Post was taken 
 possession of by the Government, in con- 
 sequence of the supposed interference of the 
 
 individual with the rights of the Postmaster- 
 General. 
 
 After the Revolution, however, a pension 
 was granted to Mr. William Dockwra on 
 account of his misfortunes, and for the in- 
 vention of the Penny Post. He was after- 
 wards nominated Comptroller of the Depart- 
 ment. A doggerel rhyme was written by 
 him, as was supposed ; see " Poems on 
 State Affairs":— 
 
 " Hail mighty Dockwra, son of Art, 
 With Flavia, Middleton, or Swart ! 
 In the foremost rank of fame 
 Thou shalt fix thy lasting name ; 
 Nor new invention Fa.te thee hurt 
 To be damned and beggar'd for't." 
 
 Subsequently to this, viz. in 1708, an attempt 
 was made by Mr. Percy to institute a Half- 
 penny Post, in direct opposition to the 
 Government monopoly. But the Crown 
 proved too strong for him, and he was very 
 soon suppressed. Mr. Dockwra afterwards 
 got into farther trouble, and in consequence 
 of mismanagement he was removed from the 
 Post Office. Parcels were conveyed as late 
 as 1765, when it was enacted that no packet 
 exceeding four ounces in weight should be 
 carried by the Penny Post unless it had 
 passed, or was intended to pass, through the 
 General Post. 
 
 Originally the postage was paid in advance, 
 and was so till 1794. The delivery of these 
 letters " was limited to the cities of London, 
 Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, 
 and the respective suburbs thereof." But 
 this limited mail did not suit the inhabitants 
 around the city. They agreed voluntarily to 
 pay an extra penny on receipt of their letters ; 
 and this penny was for the benefit of the 
 letter-carriers, in consideration of the in- 
 creased distance they had to travel. After a 
 time, however, the exigencies of the Depart- 
 ment compelled it to absorb the extra fee in 
 the revenue, and this was legalized in 1727. 
 
 Queen Anne, 9 cap. 10, authorized a penny 
 rate on all letters ".passing or repassing by 
 the carriage called the Penny Post, esta- 
 blisliedand settledwithinthe cities of London 
 and Westminster, and borough of South- 
 wark, and parts adjacent, and to be received 
 and delivered within ten English miles distant 
 from the General Letter-office in London." 
 
 In 1794 this limit was overstepped, and an 
 additional penny was again imposed on 
 letters coming from beyond the circle to 
 London and Westminster ; pre-payment 
 optional. But in 1801 a very important 
 change was made, when an additional penny 
 was put upon all letters delivered by the 
 penny post. In 1805, the postage tax be- 
 yond the boundary was increased to three- 
 pence, and newspapers had to pay one penny. 
 The limits of the twopenny post were ex- 
 
 242 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 tended in 1831 to a distance of three miles 
 from the General Post Office, and letters for 
 the Foreign or General Posts were exempted 
 from the twopenny rate if posted within the 
 three mile radius. In 1833, the limits of the 
 Threepenny Post were extended to a distance 
 not exceeding twelve miles from the Post 
 Office. Newspapers were permitted to go 
 free in August 1836. The London District 
 Post continued a separate establishment from 
 what was termed the General Post till 1854. 
 
 The various improvements in the postal 
 affairs of the United Kingdomwent on slowly. 
 The Post was regarded as a fair aim byhigh- 
 vvaymeri, and in 1700 these robberies became 
 so general on the Border, that the respective 
 Parliaments of England and Scotland found 
 it expedient to draw the line in a very de- 
 termined manner, and they made Post Office 
 robberies punishable with "death and confis- 
 cation." The Irish Post Office did not enter 
 upon its duties till after the Scotch had 
 learnt the value of correspondence. But so 
 far back as the reign of the " Martyr King," 
 "packets" carried the letters between Milford 
 and Waterford, and from Dublin to Chester. 
 
 The sanctity of correspondence has long 
 been recognized, and in Queen Anne's reign 
 it was enacted that no official should open a 
 letter without special warrant. There have 
 been cases in which the Post Office in late 
 years has found it necessary to open and 
 detain correspondence for political reasons ; 
 but it is evident such a privilege should be 
 very sparingly and cautiously exercised. 
 Riding Post was the usual means of com- 
 munication, and the postboy was quite a 
 feature in domestic history. 
 
 The Postboy Considered, 
 
 The postboy as an institution has passed 
 away, and yet for more than a century these 
 riding-boys had been familiar in literature to 
 every one, and their tenacity of life, and the 
 mysterious manner in which, presumably, 
 they departed from it, were remarked by Mr. 
 Samuel Weller, whose uncontradicted tes- 
 timony to the similarity between the endu- 
 rance of donkeys and postboys must be 
 accepted as historical. That these remarks 
 are by no means irrelevant to the subject in 
 hand will be seen when we examine Mr. 
 Palmer's scheme for the amelioration of the 
 Posts, a reform leading up, like Ralph Akin's, 
 slowly but surely to the crowning triumph of 
 the Penny Post in the United Kingdom. 
 
 The postboy of the period had been made 
 the theme of poets and romances. He was 
 the object of much attention, not only from 
 the peaceful and industrious, but from the 
 ill-disposed section of the community. Cow- 
 per's lines give us a picture of the typical 
 postboy, but we fear the original was not 
 
 altogether the interesting individual he ap- 
 pears in the following extract : — 
 
 " He comes the herald of a noisy world, 
 With spattered boots, strapped waist and frozen 
 
 locks, 
 News from all nations lumbering at his back, 
 True to his charge the close packed load behind. 
 Yet careless what he brings — his one concern 
 Is to conduct it to the nearest inn, 
 And having dropped th' expectant bag, pass on. 
 He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch ! 
 Cold and yet cheerful ; messenger of grief 
 Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, — 
 To him indifferent whether grief or joy." 
 
 These postboys rode as they pleased, and 
 generally conducted themselves in a very 
 independent manner. Their official rate of 
 progression was fixed at irve miles an hour 
 — not a very tremendous pace to keep up on 
 horseback. Their own lazy habits were also 
 at times encouraged by the gentry, for we 
 read that certain gentlemen " do give much 
 money to the riders, whereby they be very sub- 
 ject to get in liquor, which stops the males" 
 — whether the riders or their charge is not 
 specified ; a pun was probably intended by 
 the writer of the sentence. 
 
 When the utter inefficiency of the service 
 is taken into consideration, and the dangerous 
 condition of the roads is regarded, the won- 
 der is that more postboys were not " missed." 
 Highway robbery was a profession, and many 
 instances could be related of carriages being 
 stopped, even in Hyde Park in broad day- 
 light, and the occupants told to " deliver." 
 To be upset in a mud-hole was no uncommon 
 incident even for royalty in those " good old 
 days"; and if any reader wishes to satisfy 
 himself respecting the state of our British 
 highways in the time of the second George, 
 he may turn to the pages of Arthur Young's 
 " Tour in the North of England," wherein he 
 will gain much curious information respecting 
 the " vile cut-up lanes " and " execrable " roads 
 so forcibly denounced by the traveller. " I 
 would most seriously caution all travellers 
 who may propose to travel this terrible 
 country to avoid it as they would the devil," 
 is his scathing condemnation of the district 
 between Wigan and Warrington. On such 
 roads the postboys had to ride with the mails. 
 
 These " postboys" had, no doubt, many 
 dangers to encounter ; and if the number of 
 letters carried were not large, — as will be seen 
 by the following advertisement of the period 
 they were not, — the thieves were more nume- 
 ous than at present. This is the announce- 
 ment issued exactly one hundred and three 
 years ago (the italics are ours) : — 
 
 " General Post Office, Feb. 22, 1779. 
 
 " The Postboy carrying the mail which 
 was despatched from this Office last Friday 
 night, was robbed by two foot-pads, with 
 crapes over their faces, on Saturday night, 
 
 243 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY, 
 
 at ten o'clock, at the bottom of Hack Lane, 
 near Long Compton, between Eustone and 
 Shipstone in Oxfordshire, of the whole Mail, 
 containing the following bags." 
 
 Here follows a list of thirty-four towns, 
 some of large size, such as Liverpool, 
 Worcester, Manchester, as well as the 
 Irish Mail, all borne by a small boy, who 
 was robbed by " two small-sized men," on 
 a " dark, foggy night." A reward of ^200 
 was offered for the apprehension of the 
 men, over and above the usual reward paid 
 for the capture of highwaymen. 
 
 The above will give readers some idea of 
 the amount of correspondence which was 
 carried on in 1 799, when one boy was sufficient 
 to carry the letters for so many places, in the 
 transmission of which the locomotives and 
 many carriages of many lines, with an army 
 of sorters, are now engaged upon, attended 
 by a crowd of mail-carts and postmen for 
 delivery of the correspondence of Liverpool 
 alone. 
 
 The Cross Post Instituted. 
 
 The system of Cross-posts in England was 
 suggested to the Treasury by Ralph Allen in 
 17 19. He had been engaged in the postal 
 service at Bath ; and the delays, whereby the 
 letters had to be carried first to the metropolis 
 and again sent down to their country destina- 
 tion, appeared to him ridiculous. He pro- 
 posed to farm a certain portion of the country, 
 and to pay six thousand pounds per annum 
 for the privilege. His contract included the 
 roads between Exeter and Chester, and 
 Bristol and Oxford, and all the towns lying 
 between those places, and to deliver letters 
 three times a week ! This arrangement was 
 shelved for a time, owing to Mr. Craggs 
 having been so deeply implicated in the 
 South Sea Bubble with his colleagues. But 
 when a new Postmaster-General was ap- 
 pointed, the contract was ratified. 
 
 For seven years the scheme worked well, 
 and the contracts were renewed and added 
 to ; thus when Mr. Allen died, he left a good 
 fortune to his family, and a legacy to Pitt, 
 Earl Chatham, as well as the results of his 
 good work and honest reputation. The 
 character of Squire AUworthy of Fielding is 
 drawn from Ralph Allen, who was celebrated 
 by Pope— 
 
 "Let humble Allen with an awkward shame, 
 Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame ! " 
 
 The results of Allen's endeavours were very 
 beneficial, and the Post Office prospered. 
 Fifteen years later, in 1793, the great and 
 important Mail Coach era was initiated by 
 Mr. John Palmer, who ranks almost with 
 Rowland Hill in the list of Post Office re- 
 formers. 
 
 Palmer's Mail Coaches.- 
 
 Coaches were not absolutely new inventions 
 in Palmer's time. Before he made his pro- 
 posal, certain " flying machines on steel 
 springs " had beaten the fast Manchester 
 stage, and Palmer fancied that the Govern- 
 ment and private letters might be carried 
 at an equally rapid rate. The private pas- 
 senger coaches, he perceived, were really 
 preferred by the population for the trans- 
 mission of letters, and people did not hesitate 
 to pay a considerable fee for the carriage, as 
 a parcel, of the letters they feared to entrust 
 to the unpunctual "postboy." Even the 
 highwayman then scorned the game of mail 
 stealing as scarce worth the candle in his 
 lanthorn ; and the coaches carried the 
 business correspondence of the community, 
 while the revenue suffered in proportion. 
 
 Palmer proposed to carry all the mails by 
 coach, and to supply every such coach with 
 a " guard," who was really to be an armed 
 man, capable of attack and defence. But 
 Post Office opposition bore down upon the 
 reformer. " Red tape " had already tied 
 the hands of officials, and " let ill alone " was 
 the motto of the Postmaster-General. One 
 curious reason adduced against the improve- 
 ment was that m.urder would be added to 
 robbery ! The argument used was that 
 whereas the postboys were only robbed, 
 being quite defenceless, the "guards," who 
 resisted the highwaymen, would be killed ! 
 It did not, apparently, occur to the Govern- 
 ment to try to put down the highwaymen ; 
 perhapSjlike modern statesmen, theyregarded 
 " force as no remedy," and acted on that 
 ridiculous maxim. There was, however, a 
 regular tariff for injuries, ranging from ;^4 
 for the sight of one eye, to ^14 for the loss 
 of both pupils ; so, perhaps, such recognition 
 of claims was thought sufficient. Another 
 objection made to Palmer was that the 
 Department " did not see why the mail 
 should be the swiftest conveyance " ! The 
 clear-sighted lessee (for Palmer was the 
 manager of Bath and Bristol theatres) sug- 
 gested another improvement — viz., that when 
 the mails were carried by coaches, ail of 
 them should leave London, at a specified 
 hour, together. His plans were pronounced 
 "impossible.'' It was regarded as an "im- 
 possibility " to bring letters from " London to 
 Bath, or vice versa, in sixteen or eighteen 
 hours." The run is now made in about two 
 hours by the " Iron Horse." 
 
 Pitt, however, did not agree with Mr. 
 Hodgson, the objector, so the trial was 
 made, and the essay was inaugurated in the 
 London and Bristol coach in 1 784, less than 
 one hundred years ago. On the 8th of 
 August the coach left London, and accom- 
 plished the distance to Bath in fourteen 
 
 244 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 hours. The up journey was done in sixteen. 
 Mr. Palmer was appointed Comptroller- 
 General, with a salary and a commission on 
 profits ; and notwithstanding the late increase 
 in postage, the letters began to multiply ex- 
 ceedingly. The official rate of speed rose 
 
 His per centage claim was ignored for many 
 years, but at last he was voted ^50,000 as 
 compensation. The mail coach system ra- 
 pidly developed, and in 1836 it was quite a 
 popular sight to see the coaches start, — a 
 sight familiar, no doubt, to many who read 
 
 Rowland Hill. 
 
 from six to ten miles an hour, and a mail- 
 coach medal was struck and dedicated to 
 Mr. Palmer. But although the success of 
 the scheme was patent, the Post Office 
 people endeavoured to impede it. Palmer 
 lost temper, became indiscreet, and was sus- 
 pended, and dismissed with ^3,000 a year. 
 
 these lines. On the average, twenty-seven 
 coaches left the Post Office, the passengers 
 all in their places. The starting of the early 
 coach is graphically described by Dickens in 
 his "Sketches by Boz":— "The coach is 
 out, the horses are in, and the guard and 
 two or three porters are stowing the luggage 
 
 245 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 [ 
 
 away, and running up the steps of the booking 
 office and down the steps of the booking 
 office with breathless rapidity. The inside 
 passengers are ah-eady in their dens, and the 
 outsides, with the exception of yourself, are 
 pacing up and down the pavement to keep 
 themselves warm .... every member of the 
 party with a large stiff shawl over his chin, 
 looking exactly as if he were playing a set of 
 Pan's pipes. 'Take off the cloths. Bob,' 
 says the coachman, who now appears for 
 the first time, in a rough blue great-coat, of 
 which the buttons behind are so far apart 
 that you can't see both at the same time. 
 ' Now, gen'l'men,' says the guard, with the 
 waybill in his hand ; ' five minutes behind 
 time already.' Up jumps the passengers. 
 . . . . ' All right ! ' sings out the guard at 
 last, jumping up as the coach starts, and 
 blowing his horn. ' Let 'em go, Harry ; give 
 'em their heads,' cries the coachman, and off 
 we start." 
 
 In 1836 a new era of Post Office manage- 
 ment was inaugurated ; the stamp duty on 
 newspapers was reduced to one penny, and 
 the work incrgased. At that time there were 
 fifty-four four-horse mails in England, besides 
 those in Scotland and Ireland, and nearly as 
 many pair-horse coaches. Before this period 
 Mr. Macadam had so greatly improved the 
 roads that coaching was pleasant and rapid, 
 and the position of coachman was one of 
 great responsibility and importance — to the 
 driver himself in no less degree than to his 
 passengers. The guard, also clad in the 
 royal livery, was by no means a vulgar 
 fraction in the sum total, and waxed very 
 punctillious and even overbearing at times, 
 but honest and trustworthy to a very high 
 degree, and the onerous duties imposed upon 
 him he performed with a punctuality and 
 accuracy beyond all praise, in all weathers, 
 " over hill, over dale, through flood," amid 
 storm and tempest bravely doing his duty. 
 The records of the mail-carrying of those 
 days are fascinating reading ; the adventures 
 and escapes, and romantic incidents of the 
 old coaching days and the mail service 
 would fill volumes. The annual procession, 
 on the King's birthday, of all the coaches 
 was a fine sight, and one not likely to be 
 forgotten by any young man who witnessed 
 it. Horses, harness, coaches, were all turned 
 out in admirable style. The year 1837 came 
 in while the Post Office was under conside- 
 ration, and the great practical reformer was 
 at the door ! 
 
 Mr. Rowland Hill. 
 
 About twelve years after the institution of 
 mail coaches there was born at Kidder- 
 minster, on the 3rd of December, 1795, a 
 boy, who was christened Rowland by his 
 parents, the Hills. Mr. Hill was a school- 
 
 master, and young Rowland — one of a family- 
 of sons — appeared delicate, but was very 
 studious. He displayed a decided taste for 
 mechanics, natural philosophy, and drawing. 
 He became a teacher in his father's school, 
 and improved its arrangements very mate- 
 rially. He became a member of a Society 
 for the Diffusion of Knowledge, and patented 
 a cylinder printing machine, the principle of 
 which was afterwards adopted. 
 
 In 1838 we find Mr. Rowland Hill much 
 interested in the colonization of South Aus- 
 tralia, and he was appointed Secretary to the 
 Royal Commissioners for Emigration. In 
 this capacity he no doubt had daily brought 
 mider his notice the arrangements made 
 for communication with the colony, and the- 
 hopeless time spent in the transmission of 
 letters, the high postal charges to emigrants 
 and their poor relatives, who could ill afford 
 to pay them. Pondering the question of the 
 reform of the Post Office, Mr. Hill put himself 
 in communication with a Mr. Wallace, a 
 member of Parliament, who had frequently 
 moved for returns and reports of the system 
 employed by the Government. Hill obtained 
 what information he could from Lord Lich- 
 field, the Postmaster-General, who supplied 
 all the assistance in his power, and Rowland 
 Hill began to "make himself acquainted 
 with the subject." It was quite time to stir 
 in the matter, for the cost of a letter was very 
 great, — much greater than in the days of 
 Queen Anne, — and the result was that all 
 kinds of conveyances were resorted to, and 
 all kinds of subterfuges adopted to evade the 
 tax. It was then quite a matter of conside- 
 ration whether a letter could be sent and 
 should be sent . Many most ingenious stra- 
 tagems were employed to evade the pay- 
 ment by the recipients on delivery. Some- 
 times a mark upon the envelope told the 
 receiver that all was well, and the letter was 
 handed back to the postboy, with the 
 remark that the addressee could not afford 
 to pay. 
 
 In the year 1837, Mr. Hill's pamphlet upon 
 " Postal Reform " appeared. It developed a 
 plan by which letters might be carried through 
 the post from one end of the kingdom to the 
 other at the uniform rate of one penny the 
 half-ounce, without any ultimate loss to the 
 revenue. Looking back with the experience 
 of years and the knowledge of facts to direct 
 us, we are apt to wonder why the Post Office 
 authorities and the Government ever opposed 
 such a measure. But in those days they did not, 
 any more than at present, spontaneously use 
 the best means for the public advantage. 
 Monopolists never do. A cheap telegraphic 
 rate is now as desirable as a penny postage 
 was, and the adoption of the telephone would 
 be a great public boon ; but the Post Office 
 will not move without the great and most 
 
 246 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 desirable pressure of public opinion now any 
 more than they would in 1837. Companies 
 or governments, whose existence depends 
 upon the favour of the people whom they serve, 
 and for whose benefit they are permitted to 
 exist, should not forget that they do exist 
 more or less on sufferance, and it is for their 
 own benefit to suit public convenience, of 
 which, as in the case of water, gas, and rail- 
 way companies, they are apt to be very 
 oblivious. 
 
 Up-hill Work. 
 
 But in his pamphlet the shortcomings, if 
 any then existed in the Post Office, were 
 not Mr. Hill's aim. In fact we believe the 
 management of the Department had met Avith 
 general approbation, and much of the success 
 it enjoyed was attributed to the " fortunate 
 provision of the law, which excluded all its 
 efficient officers from the House of Commons, 
 and even from voting at elections," thus 
 keeping them independent of party influence. 
 Notwithstanding the high rates of postage, 
 the revenue of the Department had scarcely 
 increased during twenty years, although the 
 population, the means of knowledge, with 
 trade and commerce, had immensely in- 
 creased. Rowland Hill had foresight to 
 perceive that a cheap rate would bring in 
 more custom even if an immediate loss re- 
 sulted while the system was developing. His 
 anticipations he lived to see fully realized, 
 and even far surpassed. 
 
 Sir Francis Freeling was succeeded in the 
 Post Office by Colonel Maberly, and he pro- 
 posed to the Ministiy to obviate the incon- 
 venient charges by distance on letters. These 
 charges were so framed that, although the 
 distance from a place where the letter was 
 posted to the place where it was delivered 
 might be only ten miles in a direct route, the 
 recipient had to pay charges upon the dis- 
 tance to London, and the distance from 
 London to its destination ; so that if the 
 first town were twenty miles from the metro- 
 pohs, and the destination of the letter fifteen 
 miles in another direction, the postage 
 charged was twenty plies fifteen miles. But 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer declined to 
 remit these charges, though he afterwards 
 assented to Mr. Hill's suggestion. 
 
 Mr. Hill's pamphlet made a great sensa- 
 tion. Though only privately printed at first, 
 it soon was issued to the public, and seized 
 upon ever}-one much as the famous " Battle 
 of Dorking " did in later years. The scheme 
 was for " sweeping away the financial and 
 account branches of the Post Office, and 
 reducing its duties to the more mechanical 
 functions of receiving, conveying, and de- 
 livering letters ofwhich the postage should be 
 collected by anticipation, at the stamp office, 
 by means of a stamp to be affixed to the 
 
 letter, and which, at the uniform rate of one 
 penny, was to convey it free of any other 
 charge to every part of the kingdom, and all 
 this without any permanent loss, nay, with 
 a probable future advantage, to the revenue." 
 Mr. Hill's propositions were as follows : — 
 
 (i) A large reduction in the rates of 
 postage. 
 
 (2) Increased speed in the delivery of 
 letters. 
 
 (3) More frequent opportunities for their 
 despatch. 
 
 (4) Simplification in the operations of the 
 Post Office with the object of economy iii 
 the management. 
 
 Popular Evasions. 
 
 These suggestions were at once approved 
 by the masses, but the Government treated 
 the reform with coldness. Mr. Hill brought 
 forth batteries of argument, illustrating the 
 losses incurred under the system by fraud 
 and stratagem. One or two instances are 
 worth quoting ; one in particular, in which 
 Coleridge the poet was an actor, is a good 
 illustration. 
 
 When the poet was visiting the Lake 
 District, he happened to be at the door of 
 an inn when the postman appeared with a 
 letter for the barmaid. She took it, and 
 turned it round and round, and then inquired 
 what there was to pay upon it. The man 
 demanded a shilling for the letter, which 
 sum the girl, apparently much disappointed, 
 declined to pay, saying she could not afford 
 it. Coleridge at once very kindly offered 
 her the money ; and after considerable hesi- 
 tation upon her side, she accepted it, and 
 obtained the valuable missive. When the 
 postman had disappeared, the young woman 
 confessed to the poet that there was nothing 
 written in the letter. She and her brother 
 had made an arrangement, and composed a 
 series of signs by which they could com- 
 municate upon the envelopes without going 
 to the expense of writing, or rather of paying 
 for letters. "We are so poor," she said, 
 " that we have invented this manner of cor- 
 responding and 'franking' our letters." 
 
 Franking letters was the privilege of the 
 Government and members of the legislature, 
 and by means of their signature the letter 
 was carried free. A certain number of 
 "franks" were allowed, and thousands were 
 forged, while newspapers were carried free ; 
 so the revenue did not benefit very largely 
 at that time. Another instance of the prac- 
 tices resorted to to evade the obnoxious post- 
 age rate is related by Rowland Hill. He says, 
 — " Some years ago, when it was the practice 
 to write the name of a member of Parliament 
 for the purpose of franking a newspaper, a 
 friend of mine, previous to starting upon a 
 tour in Scotland, arranged with his family 
 
 247 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 a plan of informing them of his progress and 
 state of health without putting them to the 
 expense of postage. It was managed thus: 
 he carried with him a number of old news- 
 papers, one of which he put into the post 
 daily. The postmark with the date showed 
 his progress, and the state of his health was 
 evinced by his selection of the name from a 
 list previously agreed upon, with which the 
 newspaper was ' franked.' ' Sir Francis Bur- 
 dett,' I recollect, denoted vigorous health."* 
 The scheme proposed by Rowland Hill, as 
 we have said, met with approval on all sides. 
 Even the Quarterly Review of the period 
 condescends to allow that it was pleased. 
 " We ourselves were dazzled by the brilliancy 
 of a theory supported, as at first sight it 
 appeared to be, by a sober and candid state- 
 ment of financial and statistical details," 
 writes the reviewer. We will now examine 
 more minutely the propositions made, and 
 the benefits that have resulted from Mr. 
 Hill's scheme of Post Office Reform. 
 
 Mr. Hill's Pamphlet. 
 
 In his preface to the second edition of his 
 work on "Post Office Reform," Mr. Hill 
 acknowledged the cordial reception his plan 
 had met with, and reverted to an objection 
 which had been made to it by an anonymous 
 writer, who said that if the Penny Post system 
 ever became established, the letters would 
 increase in number so enormously that their 
 distribution would be rendered impossible. 
 " The objector," writes the author, " so far 
 outruns my expectations as to convert that 
 which I consider a matter of gratulation into 
 a subject for apprehension ;" and "the Post 
 Office must necessarily be considered in a 
 defective state unless it is capable of distri- 
 buting all the letters which the people of this 
 country can have any motive for writing, at 
 least in ordinary seasons, and under ordinary 
 circumstances." 
 
 Mr. Hill's first argument was that the 
 revenue of the Post Office was rather dimi- 
 nishing, whereas if it had kept pace with the 
 increase of the population, it ought to have 
 increased by ;^5o7,7oo per annum, but in 
 reality the loss was even greater. This was 
 attributed to the heavy tax on letters, and 
 to the excessive charges for managing the 
 department, while the actual cost of carrying 
 the letters was very small compared with the 
 charge for such conveyance. Mr. Hill argued 
 that the reduction of postage or other taxation 
 did not imply necessarily any loss of revenue, 
 rather the contrary. He estimated clearly 
 enough —indeed, very accurately, considering 
 the difficulties he had to contend against — 
 
 * This tale seems very doubtful, but we accept 
 it as related ; extensive forgery must have been 
 practised. 
 
 the number of letters in the year, and the 
 cost of their transmission. By close calcu- 
 lation he found that the sum paid per letter 
 averaged 6\d. The expenses of the manage- 
 ment of the department were then measured, 
 and found to be about one-half of the revenue, 
 the actual cost being ;^696, 569. He proved 
 that if the revenue of the Post Office had 
 increased in proportion as the Stage Coach 
 Duties, that the actual gain would have been 
 ;i^2 ,000,000, instead of ^500,000. 
 
 Accepting the cost of transit as inevitable, 
 and taking the number of letters and news- 
 papers to be 126,000,000, the average apparent 
 cost of the primary distribution of newspapers, 
 letters, etc., within the United Kingdom is 
 for each Tinrth of a penny, of which the ex- 
 pense of transit is one-third, or innrth of a 
 penny ; and the cost of receipt, delivery, etc., 
 two-thirds, or rinrth of a penny. Mr. Hill 
 proved that the actual cost of transit incurred 
 upon a letter sent from London to Edinburgh 
 (400 miles), was not more than -^th part of 
 a penny ; and therefore, if the proper charge 
 (exclusive of tax) for a letter in London itself 
 were twopence, then the proper charge (ex- 
 clusive of tax) upon a letter received in 
 London, but delivered in Edinburgh, would 
 be twopence plus i^th. part of a penny. The 
 additional charge of the ^\th of a penny would 
 amply repay the cost of transit. " If, there- 
 fore," said this practical reformer, "the charge 
 for postage be made proportionate to the 
 whole expense incurred in the receipt, transit, 
 and delivery of the letter, and in the collection 
 of its postage, it must be made uniformly the 
 same from every post town to every other 
 post town in the United Kingdom, unless it 
 can be shown how we are to collect so small 
 a sum as i^^th part of a penny." Mr. Hill 
 contended that the charge ought to be the 
 same for every packet of moderate weight, 
 without reference to the number of its 
 enclosures. 
 
 This statement, and Mr. Hill's views gene- 
 rally, were supported by Mr. Ashurst, who 
 showed how the mail to Edinburgh cost for 
 each journey, with its newspapers, letters, and 
 " franks," ^5. The letters only paid, while 
 the "franks" and papers, weighing y?/?^<?» 
 ti7nes the weight of the paying letters, went 
 free. The letters, therefore, paid not only 
 for themselves, but for a weight in addition 
 fifteen times heavier than themselves, and 
 yet gave the Government ;^i, 500,000 revenue. 
 The anomalous charges were further proved 
 in the case of a light mail, which, nearer 
 London, was charged less per letter, although 
 it actually cost the department fifty times as 
 much to deliver as the Edinburgh mails did. 
 
 The reformer went on to show how the 
 high postage rates prevented correspondence, 
 what advantages were taken to elude the tax, 
 as already related, the illicit distribution of 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 letters carried on openly ; and he then pro- 
 ceeded to attack the complicated system of 
 accounts, while the examination of each letter 
 before a candle to see its contents exposed 
 the officials to temptation and induced fraud. 
 The loss of time entailed by compelling the 
 postmen to collect the money on delivery, 
 and the extensive system of checking the 
 accounts could, Mr. Hill showed, be done 
 away with, and a tremendous saving at once 
 effected by a simple stamp to be obtained 
 from the Stamp Office, and stuck upon every 
 letter, which would be prepaid ; while by the 
 adoption of slits and boxes in the doors, the 
 letter-carriers would be enabled to carry out 
 the various deliveries in a much shorter 
 time. Thus all the complicated machinery of 
 Tnoney collection and checks would be done 
 away with at one stroke. He concluded his 
 able pamphlet with a strong appeal : " I 
 earnestly hope that a reform will take place 
 at once, thorough and complete ; the more 
 rigidly the subject is investigated, the more 
 I feel assured will the practicability of the 
 measures here proposed be made manifest." 
 The following is the summary of the conclu- 
 sions arrived at. 
 
 Summary of the Proposed Reforms. 
 (i) That the present cost of primary dis- 
 tribution is for the most part the result of 
 complex arrangements at the Post Office. 
 
 (2) That these complex arrangements would 
 be avoided if postage were charged without 
 regard to distance, at a uniform rate (which 
 is shown to be the only fair rate with reference 
 to the expenses incurred), and were collected 
 in advance. 
 
 (3) That the postage might be collected in 
 advance if reduced to the rate proposed — viz., 
 one penny for each packet not exceeding half 
 an ounce in weight, with an additional penny 
 for each additional half ounce. 
 
 (4) That owing to the great simplicity of 
 the arrangements which might be adopted 
 under these conditions, theprtsent establish- 
 ment of the Post Office, with a slight addition, 
 would suffice for a four-fold increase of 
 business. 
 
 (5) That the increase of business would 
 lead to greatly increased facilities of com- 
 munication, as for example, two departures 
 and two arrivals of the London mail each day. 
 
 (6) That these increased facilities, with 
 these greatly reduced charges, would have 
 the effect of increasing the number of charge- 
 able letters in all probability five and a quarter 
 fold, which increase, the number of " franks" 
 and newspapers continuing as at present, 
 would produce the four-fold increase of 
 business, for which, as has been shown, the 
 present establishment of the Post Office, with 
 a slight addition, would suffice. 
 
 (7) That the necessary cost of primary 
 
 distribution is not the present actual cost, 
 viz., -iVuth of a penny, but only ^Vh of a 
 penny, the difference, viz., f-^ of a penny, 
 arising from the employment of the Post 
 Office in levying an excessive tax, and from 
 the consequent expensiveness of arrangements 
 and restriction of correspondence. 
 
 (8) That in consequence of the great 
 reduction in the necessary cost of primary 
 distribution, which would be effected by the 
 proposed arrangements, the proposed low 
 rate of postage would yield a profit or tax of 
 200 percent, on such necessary cost of primary 
 distribution, which, after paying for the dis- 
 tribution of franks and newspapers, would 
 afford a probable net revenue of ;^i, 278,000 
 per annum. 
 
 (9) That the secondary distribution of 
 letters ought to be untaxed, and the small 
 unavoidable expense in each instance defrayed 
 by the inhabitants of the district for whose 
 benefit it is established ; also that it may be 
 so managed so as not in any degree to inter- 
 fere with the simplicity of the arrangement 
 proposed for effectingthe primary distribution. 
 
 Reception of Mr. Hill's Proposal. 
 
 A Commission of Inquiry into the working 
 of the Post Office was actually sitting when 
 Mr. Hill's pamphlet appeared. This com- 
 mission was charged with an " Inquiry into 
 the management of the Post Office Depart- 
 ment." The three commissioners — Lords 
 Seymour and Duncannon, with Mr. Labou- 
 chere — had concluded one portion of their 
 investigations, and were about to enter upon 
 the consideration of the London Twopenny 
 Post, when the reforming suggestions of 
 Rowland Hill were promulgated, and he was 
 summoned to appear before the Commis- 
 sioners, by whom his statements were com- 
 pared with the officials examined, who were 
 all unfavourable to the change. Mr. Wallace 
 proposed a Select Committee upon the 
 question in May, but was obliged to with- 
 draw the motion. Many curious reasons 
 were given before the Select Committee why 
 the penny postage should not be adopted. 
 One was because it would entail such an 
 enormous amount of extra work upon the 
 department, already at its wit's end to do its 
 work within a reasonable time. The officers 
 all declared it impossible that the rate could 
 be adopted. A critical review of the evidence 
 led a writer to inquire what the public would 
 think, if when Messrs. Chaplin, Home, or 
 Pickford found that the pubhc were anxious 
 to pay them a reasonable rate, and increase 
 their business, and consequently their profits, 
 the carriers were to say, " No thank you, we 
 do not want any more money, we would 
 rather-let our business stagnate or diminish"? 
 What would be thought of a firm who ex- 
 pressed themselves in such terms .? and yet 
 
 249 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Post Office officials actually did oppose 
 all extension of the system on such grounds. 
 Furthermore, the penny stamp was objected 
 to because it would encourage " duns "to send 
 applications for their money at shorter inter- 
 vals. The tradesmen, it was feared, would 
 write more importunate letters for a penny 
 than they would for twopence ; so a great 
 and needed reform was to be quashed because 
 a few dishonest or unwilling people ought not 
 to be reminded of their debts and liabilities. 
 As a writer remarked, " We suppose the Post 
 Office has accurately gauged the present 
 charge as the correct one for dunning cor- 
 respondence," or words to that effect. It will 
 scarcely be credited that sensible men — men 
 who were doing the Government business as 
 carriers, could be so utterly oblivious of the 
 very reason for their existence, viz., the de- 
 velopment of the trade and commerce of the 
 country vis a vis with the public convenience 
 and requirements. To this day the spirit of 
 monopoly and obstruction keeps guard at the 
 portals of St. Martin's le Grand, as instanced 
 even now in the matter of the telephone 
 companies, and it is no exaggeration to say 
 that if the introduction of the telephone into 
 London had depended upon the Post Office 
 authorities, that useful and simple mode of 
 communication would still be a stranger in 
 the land.* 
 
 Government Parliamentary Opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 Lord Lichfield, speaking in the House of 
 Lords on the 15th of June, 1837, against the 
 adoption of Mr. Hill's proposals, said, " It 
 appeared from the official returns, that under 
 the system adopted by the Post Office Depart- 
 ment, the revenue had been considerably 
 increased. That revenue was now produced 
 by 170,000,000 of letters, that were annually 
 circulated in England, and if the reduction 
 for which some individuals called were 
 acceded to, it would require the enormous 
 number of 416,000,000 of letters annually to 
 produce the same amount of revenue.t With 
 respect to the plan set forth by Mr. Hill, of 
 all the wild and visio7iary schemes lie had 
 ever heard or read of, it teas the most extra- 
 ordinary f and he concluded by trusting that 
 the progress of the Government " Bills for 
 the consolidation of the Post Office would not 
 be opposed." Lord Ashburton was still of 
 opinion that the rates of postage ought to be 
 diminished, and said that the noble Earl, 
 "like all Postmasters-General, seemed to 
 look more to the increase of the revenue 
 than to the general convenience of the public." 
 
 * The Times, January, 1882. 
 
 t The number now, besides post cards, is about 
 1,130,000,000, or say, forty-six per head of population, 
 per annum. 
 
 The Duke of Richmond afterwards presented 
 an important petition from the inhabitants of 
 Elgin, and favoured the proposal, but the Earl 
 of Lichfield, while declaring that no man re- 
 gretted more than he that Mr. Hill's plan 
 could not be followed without materially 
 affecting the revenue, promised to have it 
 examined to see whether any portion could 
 be recommended, but he still adhered to his 
 former opinion, and said that " it was all very 
 well to talk of public accommodation, and 
 to argue that in consequence of the low rate 
 of postage an immense number of additional 
 letters would be written, but it was madness 
 to suppose that the correspondence of the 
 country could possibly be increased to such 
 an amount and extent as he had described." 
 He did not think a uniform rate could be 
 effected, because he thought people living 
 at a short distance would object to pay 
 the same as people farther off ! The Earl 
 apparently forgot that travelling was daily 
 becoming more general, and railways more 
 universal, so that a Londoner any day might 
 reap equal benefit with the dwellers in Edin- 
 burgh, or Glasgow, or Dublin, when called to 
 those towns by business or pleasure. 
 
 Lord Brougham, on the contrary, strongly 
 supported the new proposals, and declared 
 " that nothing he had heard had in the least 
 degree shaken his opinions as to the utility 
 and feasibility of Mr. Hill's plan." 
 
 Mr. Wallace, in the House of Commons, 
 succeeded in obtaining a Select Committee 
 to inquire into the present rates and mode of 
 charging postage, with a view to such reduc- 
 tion as may be made withozit injury to the 
 revenue, particularly with reference to the 
 pamphlet published by Mr. Rowland Hill. 
 The Committee, nominated by the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, sat for sixty-three days. 
 The only complaint that the Quarterly Re- 
 view had to make was that the Committee 
 was " so very select," it being composed of 
 Government supporters, with only two excep- 
 tions. The members of this Committee 
 examined the secretary and officers of the 
 Post Office, as well as a number of inde- 
 pendent witnesses. We read that the autho- 
 rities, though objecting to the penny rate, 
 "were very properly invited to send for 
 examination whatever witnesses they chose 
 to select, and several were examined who 
 entertained more or less the same objection 
 to the plan as their chiefs.* 
 
 Those gentlemen who were employed in 
 the Post Office gave some extraordinary 
 reasons for the non-adoption of the reforms. 
 We have already mentioned a few, and need 
 not repeat them ; it will be seen how greatly 
 opposed the officials were to all reform of 
 the Post Office Department. 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixx. 
 
 250 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 Efforts in Favour of Postal Reform. 
 
 In the February following the great Mer- 
 cantile Committee was formed, with Mr. 
 Bates, of Baring's, at the head, to obtain 
 evidence to lay before the Parliamentary 
 Committee. The members of this assem- 
 blage of merchants included some of the 
 greatest names, and embraced men of all 
 shades of political opinion, — " men who had 
 nothing in common, except that they stood 
 at the head of their class for wealth, intelli- 
 gence, and respectability." But the Quarterly 
 Review, in its continued opposition, fancied 
 that the evidence collected was not " wholly 
 unbiassed." " When we are told," says the 
 reviewer, "that some of the houses who were 
 most active for this Post Office reform now 
 pay such to us almost incredible sums as 
 ^6,000,^8,000, ^10,000, or even ^11,000 a 
 year in postage, we cannot receive their 
 testimony in favour of a uniform penny rate 
 as altogether disinterested. In some busi- 
 nesses the postage is specifically charged 
 against the correspondent .... but there 
 is another class, to which we are informed 
 that the most zealous members of the agi- 
 tating committee and many of the most de- 
 cided witnesses belong, namely, those with 
 whom it is not usual to make direct charges 
 against their correspondents for postage, and 
 for whom, of course, the reduction of the 
 taxation would be nearly, if not altogether, 
 clear gain .... so that if a firm pays ^ 1 1 ,000 
 per annum in postage, and repays itself by 
 its general profits, it is clear that the adoption 
 of Mr. Hill's plan would put something like 
 ^10,000 per annum clear into their pockets, 
 and to make up that amount the people 
 of England must be taxed to exactly the 
 amount that shall be conveyed by this reform 
 into the private purses of Messrs. This or 
 ThatP 
 
 This reasoning was fallacious, for the peti- 
 tions from so many societies and independent 
 sources, from clergy and dissenters alike, con- 
 clusively proved that the merchants of London 
 had not moved for their own advantage. In 
 the session of 1838, three hundred and twenty 
 petitions were presented to the House of 
 Commons in favour of penny postage, and 
 in 1839, iT^o less than two thousand and seven 
 were received. The suggestions of some 
 witnesses are thus ridiculed by the writer in 
 the Quarterly. He says : — 
 
 " One person contemplates the sending of 
 parcels of patent medicines, another a box 
 of pills ; one ingenious witness exhibited to 
 the Committee a parcel of two pills and two 
 plasters, which under Mr. Hill's plan, may 
 be transmitted through the Post Office. This 
 clever person forgot that unless the penny 
 envelope could be made large enough to 
 transmit a doctor also, to judge whether the 
 
 medicines were proper for the case, it would 
 be more prudent in the patient to send for 
 his own country apothecary." 
 
 And again — 
 
 " Another desires to send samples of agri- 
 cultural seeds, and, for example, clover, which 
 would greatly, he says, benefit agriculture ; 
 but of course, if clover is so indulgently treated, 
 wheat, beans, and the most valuable of all, 
 potatoes, could not be rejected." 
 
 One witness desired to send grafts of trees, 
 and another suggested that samples of goods 
 might be conveyed through the post. The 
 public were beginning to wake up to the boon 
 Mr. Hill wished to confer upon them, and 
 these suggestions the reviewer treats thus : — 
 
 "We know not what he may deal in ; we 
 hope not in iron ware or woollen, for we 
 presume the Comfnittee has not yet arrived 
 to such a pitch of Post Office reform as to 
 contemplate sending samples of nails or 
 blankets by the post ; and why in strict and 
 equal justice should the manufacturers of 
 hardware or broadcloth, why even glass or 
 china-makers, or the importers of wine or 
 fruits, or Mr. Warburton himself, the timber- 
 merchant, be excluded from an advantage — 
 so great an advantage, we are told — as is to 
 be given to other traders 1 If the principle 
 be once admitted, where are we to draw the 
 line. Weight alone will not do it, for at one 
 penny per half-ounce the conveyance would 
 be still so cheap for long distances, that many 
 bulky articles might be intruded on the Post 
 Office."_ 
 
 If this writer lived for a few years after 
 1840, he must have seen " many" and curious 
 articles consigned through the post, and have 
 wondered ! 
 
 We need not go into greater detail con- 
 cerning the examination of witnesses on 
 these points. The great object of the Govern- 
 ment was to avoid any loss of revenue, and 
 Mr. Hill strove to show that an increase of 
 thousands of letters would be immediately 
 sent through the Post Office — millions had 
 been habitually smuggled. It was quite 
 possible to convey with the existing machinery 
 of stage coaches twenty times the amount of 
 correspondence. Merchants and manufac- 
 turers came forward to prove that people had 
 transmitted an enormous number of letters 
 illegally. The extent to which letter smug- 
 gling was carried on was quite out of all 
 official experience. One person naively con- 
 fessed that he was not caught till he had sent 
 twenty thousand circulars, etc., otherwise than 
 through the post. He constantly sent letters 
 by carriers, and the existence of a regular 
 private penny delivery of correspondence was 
 mentioned in Birmingham and other places. 
 The most extraordinary devices were habitu- 
 ally adopted to evade the payment of the 
 unpopular tax, some of which we have already 
 
 251 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 mentioned. A newspaper opined that it was 
 even fortunate that such practices had ob- 
 tained, else the trade of the country would 
 have suffered in consequence of the check 
 put upon correspondence by the action of 
 the Post Office. 
 
 Even under these encumbrances, and con- 
 fronted by such independent testimony, the 
 objectors to the Reform brought forward a 
 series of arguments. Nothing could stop 
 smuggling, people would do so whatever the 
 rate. The poor would never write, they 
 were not disposed to do so. The revenue 
 will not recover itself for forty or fifty years. 
 However desirable the reform was, it was 
 pronounced perfectly impracticable ; and as 
 a convincing argument against the scheme, 
 the authorities declared that the public would 
 certainly object to pay the postage penny in 
 advance ! 
 
 In reply to these arguments, it was shown 
 to the Committee what thousands, nay mil- 
 lions, of letters were never written at all 
 because of the prohibitory rates. The poor 
 could not afford to set aside such a large 
 portion — a relatively large portion — of their 
 weekly wage to send a letter. And yet the 
 necessity of hearing from relatives and friends 
 was and is as great amongst the poor as the 
 rich. Such a necessity cannot be denied, and 
 yet how many cases of individual hardship 
 are recorded ! We could give a number of 
 examples. We will give one or two, to bring 
 before our readers of the present generation 
 a view of the hardships endured in these 
 cases by the poor, — a hardship to which not 
 even the poorest writer need now be subjected, 
 and for which — and it is no small blessing — 
 he is indebted to Rowland Hill and the Penny 
 Post. 
 
 Evidence in Committee. 
 
 We learn from the evidence given before 
 the Committee by Mr. Davidson, how a poor 
 man was unaware of the death of a relative 
 for six or eight months after he died, in con- 
 sequence of neither family being able to 
 afford postage to inquire or to write par- 
 ticulars. Another sad case was related by 
 a deputy-lieutenant for Somersetshire. A 
 pauper in the district, receiving only half-a- 
 crown a week, could not take up a letter, 
 that is, pay the charges due upon it, for want 
 of means. After a time, a lady hearing of 
 the circumstances, gave her a shilling to 
 obtain the letter ; but by that time it had 
 been returned to London, and she never 
 could obtain it. Who knows what may have 
 been in that one letter, perhaps the only one 
 she had been sent — to tell her news of the 
 return of a loved relative — son or daughter, 
 erring and repentant husband mayhap, from 
 far over the sea. The letter was returned 
 
 and destroyed, and the opportunity was lost. 
 What news might not have been in that 
 letter ! 
 
 The postmaster of Banwell testified that 
 he often had trusted people in consequence 
 of the inability of their friends to raise a 
 sufficient sum for the postage. One woman 
 offered a spoon in pledge until the money 
 was paid ; the spoon was not taken, but the 
 woman was trusted, and the letter proved to 
 be of much importance. Her husband had 
 been imprisoned for debt ! " She was very 
 badly off, and had six children." " I am 
 quite sure," says the witness, "that if the 
 postage of letters were lowered to a penny, 
 ten times the number would be written by 
 all classes of people." 
 
 We can get at the daily rate of wages 
 incidently from this evidence. " Sixpence," 
 says Mr. Brewin, "is a third of a poor man's 
 daily income. If a gentleman, whose fortune 
 is ;^i,ooo, a year, or three pounds a day, had 
 to pay one-third of his daily income, that is, 
 a sovereign for a letter, how often would he 
 write letters of friendship." "But," says a 
 critic on the opposite side, " why confine this 
 philanthropic principle to so slight and rare 
 an instance in a labourer's life as a letter?" 
 Why, indeed, but what made the incident 
 rare ? The action of the Post Office, — the 
 want of perception to see what Mr. Hill laid 
 down before it, — that same short-sighted- 
 ness was the cause. The arguments were 
 continued, and in the same strain as the 
 above objection, and by way of supporting his 
 argument, the writer of the opposing scheme 
 "brilliantly" goes on to remark that the 
 man of ^i,ooo a year would grumble equally 
 if you charged him in proportion for his beer, 
 his yard of cloth, and his leather, and would 
 cause the repeal of all taxes if it were to be 
 equally applied. It ought to have been 
 apparent to such an opinionated " wiseacre," 
 that such taxation would either lead to a 
 repeal of the high duties, or labourers would 
 go barefoot and starve, and thus the heavy 
 rates levied would soon be lowered. 
 
 The perusal of the evidence taken before 
 the Committee is amusing and interesting 
 even now. The light of experience shows us 
 the weak places in the arguments of those 
 who would have had the Government retain 
 such anomalous taxes, which were keeping 
 back the national developments of industry 
 and trade. The experience of history gene- 
 rally goes to prove that the more communi- 
 cation and correspondence is encouraged, the 
 greater is the progress of civilization. Given 
 a country in which the population is annually 
 increasing rapidly, the means of correspond- 
 ence amongst the people must also be 
 increased it it is to improve. In nations, 
 just as in the cases of individuals, there is no 
 "standing still." 
 
 252 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 Results of the Committee's Inquiry. 
 
 The Committee, after long and careful 
 deliberation, came to the conclusion that 
 the following principles should be adopted : — 
 
 (i) Uniformity of charge and reduction 
 of the rate. 
 
 (2) Prepayment by stamps. 
 
 (3) The adoption of a penny rate would, 
 after a time, involve no loss upon the 
 revenue. 
 
 But they would not take the responsibility 
 of recommending any plan entailing a loss of 
 revenue, even if only temporary, and they 
 accordingly restricted themselves to a two- 
 penny rate. 
 
 In the meantime, the Committee we have 
 ilready mentioned as sitting upon the ques- 
 
 for uniform penny postage was surely per- 
 meating the minds of all classes of society, 
 and it only wanted the influence of Parlia- 
 ment to complete the scheme recommended. 
 The adoption of stamped covers was advo- 
 cated by Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Pressly, 
 and a peculiar paper was suggested to pre- 
 vent forgery. We still have the stamped 
 envelope, and its use was very general not 
 many years ago. The covers were like 
 wrappers, and coloured green and primrose- 
 yellow for the twopenny and penny rates 
 respectively. 
 
 The New Scheme. 
 The new scheme was submitted to Parlia- 
 ment, and in the debates of 1839 will be 
 found the propositions made by the Chan- 
 
 General Post Office — New Buildings. 
 
 tion of Post Office management, had termi- 
 nated their labours and had sent in their 
 report. They also decided for Mr. Hill's 
 suggested plan, so far as the postal service 
 had come under their consideration. Their 
 decision was as follows : — " We propose that 
 the distinction as to rates and districts, 
 which now applies to letters delivered in the 
 twopenny and threepenny post, shall not in 
 any way aifect correspondence transmitted 
 under stamped covers ; and that any letter 
 not exceeding half an ounce, shall be con- 
 veyed free within the metropolis, and the 
 district to which town and country deliveries 
 extend, if enclosed in an envelope bearing a 
 penny stamp." 
 
 This last sentence is of great significance, 
 and shows distinctly that Mr. Hill's proposal 
 
 cellor of the Exchequer. Referring to the 
 Committee, which had recommended a two- 
 penny rate, the Chancellor said : " From 
 the best consideration I have been able to 
 give to the subject, comparing one propo- 
 sition with the other" (/.<?., the penny with 
 the twopenny rate), " and, above all, con- 
 sidering the evidence taken before the Com- 
 mittee, I find the whole of the evidence, the 
 whole of the authorities, conclusively bearing 
 in favour of a penny postage in preference 
 to a twopenn)' postage. ... I ask the Com- 
 mittee simply to affirm the adoption of a 
 uniform penny postage, and the taxation of 
 that postage by weight." The speaker con- 
 cluded by moving, " That it is expedient to 
 reduce the postage on letters to one uniform 
 rate of a penny postage, according to a 
 
 253 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 certain amount of weight to be determined ; 
 That the Parliamentary privilege of franking 
 be abolished ; and That official franking be 
 strictly limited, the House pledging itself to 
 make good any deficiency that may occur 
 in the revenue from such reduction of the 
 postage." 
 
 On the 29th of July the Bill was read a 
 third time, and passed ; and by way of pre- 
 paring the public for the great benefit for 
 which they had been agitating in and out of 
 Parliament for months, — in papers, in poli- 
 tical " squibs," and by petitions,— the Lords 
 of the Treasury, on the 12th of November, 
 issued a Minute, reducing the postage to one 
 universal fourpenny rate. It need scarcely 
 be said that such an enactment met little 
 approval. Asking for bread, the Government 
 gave the public a stone, which it was inclined 
 to fling back in the faces of " my Lords." An 
 explanation was made that such a gentle 
 letting-down was all for the public's sake, 
 for fear they should be too ready to write 
 letters and worry the office, or for some 
 equally brilliant reason. At last, on the loth 
 of January, 1840, the great reform was com- 
 pleted. The following notice was issued : — 
 
 " Post Office Regulations, 
 
 " yaiiuary yth, 1840. 
 "On and after the loth JaJiuary, a letter 
 not exceeding Half an Ounce in Weight 
 may be sent from any part of the United 
 .Kingdom to any other part for One Penny, 
 if paid when posted ; or for Twopence if 
 paid when delivered." 
 
 Then follow certain instructions and rates 
 with limitations of weight. The Penny Post 
 wag at length an accomplished fact ! 
 
 The Result. 
 
 Mr. Hill was given an appointment in the 
 Post Office in order to assist in carrying out the 
 penny postage scheme ; but when the Tories 
 came into office ini84i, the reformer was given 
 the " cold shoulder," and after three years' 
 service Mr. Hill was politely "retired," as 
 he could do nothing more for the department 
 which he had reformed and reconstructed, 
 and to whom the public will ever be indebted. 
 But with the public he met with full appre- 
 ciation. The jealousy of the Post Office 
 found expression in a pamphlet, that was 
 supposed to have been written by an official, 
 and in it the views of the Department, we 
 may suppose, were embodied. Mr. Hill is 
 "pooh-poohed," his work decried, and the 
 " Office" declared to be under no " obligation " 
 to carry public correspondence, while the 
 quackery of 'penny postage is declared to have 
 had its day. Such was the spirit of the 
 British Post officials in the year of grace 1844 
 — not forty years ago ; and some say that 
 
 "the trail of the serpent is over them all" 
 to this day ! 
 
 But in 1846, when a more liberal Govern- 
 ment came in, the Whigs re-appointed Mr. 
 Hill; and in i854he was nominated Secretary 
 to the Post Office. In i860, Mr. Hill was 
 knighted, and in March 1864, Sir Rowland 
 Hill retired, and passed, " not into obscurity, 
 but into deserved repose." He was permitted 
 to retire on his full salary of £,if)Oo a year, 
 and subsequently, at the Queen's suggestion, 
 a grant of ^20,000 was made to him — one 
 voice, that of a Mr. Williams, being alone 
 raised against this tardy but well-deserved 
 tribute to the benefactor of his country. Sir 
 RowlandHill lived several years happily, and 
 in 1880, greatly to the grief of all the civilized 
 world, he died at the age of eighty-five, leaving 
 behind him a deathless name as a legacy 
 to posterity. 
 
 It w,ould be beyond our province, and cer- 
 tainly it would extend far beyond our allotted 
 space, did we endeavour to follow the im- 
 provements and the benefits that have so 
 rapidly accrued since the introduction of 
 the Penny Post. From every direction 
 came testimony of the happy results of the 
 system. Letters increased to fabulous 
 amounts up to hundreds of millions, and 
 Sir Rowland lived long enough to see the 
 full measure of his hopes rewarded. The 
 testimony of all peoples and languages united 
 in praise of the great Post Office Reform, 
 carried out in spite of the Post Office. The 
 utilization ofthe railways for conveyance, and 
 the gradual disappearance of the coaches, are 
 matters which concern us not here. Many 
 reforms were subsequently carried out by 
 Mr. Hill, and many more advantages have 
 annually been given to the public by his 
 successors. The General Post Office now is 
 a gigantic machine, with an enormous busi- 
 ness, throwing out its arms in all directions, 
 doing our postal, and banking, and funding 
 business, investing our savings, we hope 
 soon to carry our parcels, and give us cheap 
 telegrams, sending our flying messages over 
 the earth, and distributing our many hundred 
 millions of papers and letters and post cards 
 with an accuracy and despatch unparalleled. 
 
 Post Office Work. 
 
 The human machinery for sorting and 
 stamping at the Post Office is of a very com- 
 plete description. When one sees thousands 
 of letters cast upon the floor to be " sorted," 
 the task appears to the uniniated as hopeless 
 as the cleansing of the Augean stable ; but 
 willing hands quickly pick up and place the 
 letters upon the sorting and stamping tables, 
 with the addresses " right side up." Then 
 the sorters and stampers set to work, and in 
 a marvellously short space of time thousands 
 of letters are stamped and sorted. The men 
 
 254 
 
THE PENNY POST. 
 
 can tell almost by instinct those which are 
 over the regulation "penny" weight, and 
 such letters (possibly love-letters) are cast 
 aside for weighing, the sorter proceeding at 
 the same time to pick up another billet-doux 
 with as much nonchalance as if he had never 
 Tcnown the tender passion, and was not 
 anxious to meet his affianced when the day's 
 ■duty was done. 
 
 Valentine's Day, as well as Easter and 
 Christmastide, bring a tremendous accession 
 of force to the Post Office. Last Christmas, 
 one thousand extra sorters were put on at St. 
 Martin's-le-Grand; and the excess of corre- 
 spondence at that office alone amounted to 
 many millions of letters. The actual number 
 in excess at Christmas 1880 was nine 
 millions, and the excess weight of registered 
 letters three and a half tons ! When these 
 facts are known, we may excuse occasional 
 lapses on the part of the Post Office, which, 
 under Mr. Fawcett, is rapidly developing its 
 resources. 
 
 We are all familiar with the travelling 
 Post Office. The sorting van of the Royal 
 Mail, which is a conspicuous carriage in the 
 night and early morning trains, wliich travel- 
 lers enter so neat and wakeful, and emerge 
 from so sleepy-looking and dishevelled. As 
 the train speeds along, the clerks are busy 
 distributing the letters with marvellous pre- 
 cision into their proper pigeon-holes, and the 
 canvas bags are continually being made up 
 for delivery as the train rushes by. Other 
 bags are hanging from a lever near the station ; 
 a net is extended from the van ; a spring is 
 touched, the bags from the train are dropped 
 out, and the bags from the town are dropped 
 in simultaneously; the net is taken into the 
 Post Office van, and the passengers are un- 
 aware that the operation has been performed, 
 for the speed was scarcely slackened. 
 
 The stamp sheet-perforating machine, 
 originally made by Mr. Archer, did away 
 with the troublesome old method of cutting 
 the sheets with a pair of scissors ; and the 
 later regulation, by which penny stamps 
 serve for Postal or Inland Revenue purposes, 
 as a great boon. The latest development of 
 the Post Office, viz., the institution of the 
 Parcels Post, is likely to become a most 
 useful arrangement, as far as the public is 
 concerned. Whether the existing carriers 
 will appreciate the action of the Postmaster- 
 ■General is another matter. 
 
 Some Curious Facts. 
 
 The want of care on the part of the public 
 in posting letters forms a text for much re- 
 monstrance every year from the Department. 
 It is to ordinary minds surprising that 
 valuables, such as gold watches and many 
 articles of jewellery, should be found in open 
 
 packets in the Post Office, and that annually 
 thousands of letters containing bank-notes, 
 coin, cheques, bills, etc., should be posted 
 without any address. Why frogs, lizards, 
 and " such small deer," with marline-spikes 
 and other sharp instruments, are forwarded 
 through the Post Office is a mystery, but a 
 fact. Snakes have also been found posted. 
 Let us quote the Report for 1881 : "Over 
 5,300,000 letters were dealt with in the 
 Return Letter Office, 475,000 of which it was 
 found impossible to deliver or return. One 
 contained a bank-note for £,100, still un- 
 claimed, and attached to the seal of another 
 was a sovereign, which was returned to the 
 owner, who had forgotten to remove it. In 
 addition to the letters, about 500,000 post- 
 cards, 4,000,000 book packets, and 400,000 
 newspapers found their way to the same 
 office. More than 27,000 letters (an increase 
 of 3,000 over last year) were posted without 
 any address whatever, 5,000 furnished no 
 clue to the name of the sender, and 1,340 
 contained articles of value to the amount of 
 nearly ^5,000. The use of too fragile covers 
 occasioned the escape of some 30,000 articles, 
 and no doubt entailed much disappointment. 
 The habit of transmitting animal and perish- 
 able matter, such as fish, sausages, birds to 
 be stuffed, clotted cream, fruit, yeast, salads, 
 jellies, live kittens, and dead rats still pre- 
 vails ; and it is necessary to appeal to the 
 public to discontinue a practice so injurious 
 to the health of the officers in one branch of 
 the Department, and to repeat the warning 
 that such forbidden articles will be stopped. 
 The number of letters delivered in the United 
 Kingdom during the twelve months of 1881 
 was 1,176,423,600, showing an inci'ease of 
 4'3 per cent. ; the number of post-cards, 
 122,884,000, an increase of 7*4 per cent. ; 
 the number of book packets and circulars, 
 248,881,600, an increase of i6"3 per cent. ; 
 and the number of newspapers, 133,796,100, 
 an increase of 2"5 per cent. There is again 
 a marked increase in registered letters, the 
 number recorded being 10,034,546, against 
 8,739,191 of the previous year, or an increase 
 of I4"8 per cent." 
 
 We may have wondered, as we read the 
 foregoing pages, at the tardy steps by which 
 the greatly needed reform was arrived at. 
 We have seen, that at one time it was 
 deemed impossible to transmit mails from 
 Bath to London in eighteen hours. What 
 would our officials of that day have said to 
 the " Flying Dutchman," the " Wild Irish- 
 man," and the "Flying Scotchman"! 
 Twenty years ago the mail was, on one 
 momentous occasion, sent from Cork to 
 Euston Sc^uare in thirteen hours, the rate of 
 speed being 34^ miles per hour all through, 
 including transfer stoppages and necessary 
 delays. The speed on the North Western 
 
 25s 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Railway being at the average rate of 52.3 
 miles per hour ! 
 
 There are many curious addresses to be 
 noted as one passes through the Post Office, 
 or reads the reports. Such an address as 
 the following must have puzzled the "bUnd" 
 men, who are supposed to decipher all 
 mysterious and puzzling and " blind '' (ill- 
 written) addresses. For instance — 
 
 Ash Bedels in Such, 
 
 for John Horsell Grinder, 
 in the County of Lestysheer. 
 
 Here is another pleasant address for the 
 Post Office to decipher — 
 
 W. Stratton, 
 
 co7ninonly 
 
 Ceald Teapot, 
 
 Wielin. 
 
 Why Mr. Stratton, of Welwyn, was called a 
 " tea-pot," we can only conjecture ; perhaps 
 he had prominent features, or was a total 
 abstainer from more exciting beverages than 
 tea. 
 
 Mr. Dick, 
 
 Bishop Cans, 
 
 ner the Wises [DEVIZES]. 
 
 is another instance of curious geographical 
 complexity. But what can we expect when 
 Her Most Gracious Majesty is addressed as 
 — " Miss Oueene Victoria, of England," and 
 as " Mrs. Prince Albert, Balmory Castle," 
 or in more childish form — 
 
 Keen Vic Tory at 
 
 Winer Castle. 
 
 With which unique specimen we conclude 
 our extracts. 
 
 The Parcel Post; Conclusion. 
 
 We have not space available to do more 
 than enumerate the various propositions 
 lately set forth by the Postmaster-General, 
 for the carriage of parcels ; but we must 
 mention this, the latest development of the 
 Department. The idea was broached forty 
 years ago by Sir Rowland Hill ; but when the 
 Lords of the Treasury disowned him, or 
 "retired" him, as they officially termed it, he 
 was unable to carry out his idea. His sub- 
 sequent endeavours were put aside because 
 his suggestion might interfere with the Rail- 
 way Companies' business. It is this railway 
 opposition which, in conjunction with exist- 
 ing carrying interests, has already proved 
 detrimental to at least one beneficial 
 parcel-carrying scheme. Let us hope that 
 Parliament will pass a measure to prevent 
 the people being taxed for the benefit of a 
 minority of their number. 
 
 Under the suggested system it will be 
 possible — we hope it will — "to forward a 
 packet of from four to six pounds weight 
 with the same ease and certainty as an 
 ordinary letter." The reduction upon the 
 carriage of goods will thus benefit sellers 
 and buyers alike. The former will be able 
 to dispense with many carts and horses, the 
 latter will — it may be expected — reap the 
 benefit of the cheaper conveyance. Why 
 the railway " bogy " should alarm the Post 
 Office, we do not know. There are mail 
 trains now, why not parcel trains as well — 
 for a consideration ? 
 
 The Post Office is the admiration of many, 
 but we wonder how far would the commerce 
 and prosperity of England have developed, 
 and how far the wondrous interchange of 
 thought would have progressed during these 
 later years, if they had depended upon the 
 initiative of the omniverous department now 
 in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and not upon the 
 energy and foresight of Rowland Hill and 
 his propositions for a uniform PENNY POST, 
 which we have so briefly endeavoured to lay 
 before our readers ! 
 
 H. F. 
 
 256 
 
Arrest of Puritans about to leave England. 
 
 HAMPDEN ANDSHIPMONEY: 
 
 THE STORY OF A STRUGGLE FOR ENGLISH LIBERTY. 
 
 " A day, an hour of virtuous liberty 
 Is worth a whole eternity in bondage." — Addison. 
 
 A Momentous Question— English Liberty in the Olden Time— The Parliament and its Power— Henry IV. and Parliamen- 
 tary Privileges— Tudors and Stuarts : Their Attitude towards the Parliament and People -HenryVI II. and the Contri- 
 butions—Queen Elizabeth : Her Dependence on the People— James I.— A New State of Things— Charles I. working 
 out his Father's Theory— John Hampden Member for Wendover— The Despotic Period— An Arbitrary Government— 
 The "Thorough " and Ship Money— The Trial of the Question— The Collapse of "Thorough "—The Short Parliament 
 — The Long Parliament — Breaking out of the Civil War — Death of Hampden — Conclusion. 
 
 A Momentous Question. 
 
 WO centuries and a half ago, in 
 
 the year 1636, there was tried 
 
 in the Court of Exchequer a most 
 
 remarkable and momentous cause, 
 
 cause in which the insignificance of 
 
 the demand made against the defendant 
 seemed strangely out of proportion to the 
 elaborate nature of the proceedings, the 
 imposing array of judges on the bench, and 
 protracted arguments carried on through a 
 series of days. For the sum in dispute was 
 
 257 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 no more than twenty shillings, levied as a 
 tax on part of the estate of a wealthy coun- 
 try gentleman, to whom, as a mere matter 
 of money, the petty sum could have been of 
 no appreciable importance ; but behind the 
 demand there stood the question of the 
 liberties of England, and the destiny of the 
 British people for ages to come : and there- 
 fore the famous ship-money trial, whose 
 causes, progress, and consequences we pro- 
 pose briefly to put before our readers, may 
 be fitly included among the Epochs of 
 History. "A httle snow, tumbled about, 
 anon becomes a mountain," says Pandulph 
 the legate in Shakespeare's King John; 
 an action at law brought for the recovery of 
 twenty shillings may have, and this case 
 did have, the effect of opening the eyes of a 
 nation to its position, and to the nature of 
 the demands made upon it by a government, 
 to the peril of its freedom and of its very 
 existence as a monarchy, in which others 
 besides the King have a voice in the great 
 questions of the state. 
 
 It was emphatically what may be called a 
 " test " case, on which hung great and vitally 
 important issues. The precise question, as 
 stated by Mr. Hallam in his " Constitutional 
 History," was "whether the king had a right, 
 on his own allegation of public danger, to 
 require an inland county to furnish ships, 
 or a prescribed sum of money by way of 
 commutation, for the defence of the king- 
 dom?" — This question involved the greater 
 and wider one of the extent and nature of 
 the King's authority generally. If he could 
 levy ship-money, there was no doubt of his 
 being an absolute monarch, with supreme 
 and uncontrolled authority over the posses- 
 sions of his subjects. 
 
 British Liberty in the Days of Old. 
 
 When men are bent upon increasing their 
 own power, and in their endeavours in that 
 direction seek to encroach upon, or even to 
 overturn, the rights and privileges of others, 
 they usually deprecate very loudly and 
 earnestly anything like interference with or 
 criticisms of their proceedings. " Meddle 
 with no state matters," was one of " the 
 twelve good rules the Royal Martyr drew." 
 " Leave princes' affaires undescanted on, and 
 tend to such matters as stand thee upon," 
 wrote cunning old Tusser, in his "Points of 
 Husbandry" — a circumlocutory form of the 
 good old precept, "Mind your own business." 
 During a long period of his reign, the senti- 
 ment of Charles I. and of his leading 
 advisers towards the people he governed 
 was similar to that expressed b}' Caius 
 Marcus in Shakespeare's play : " Hang 
 'em ! They say ! They'll sit by the fire, and 
 presume to know what's done in the Capitol 
 . . . making parties strong, and feebling 
 
 such as stand not in their liking, below their 
 cobbled shoes ! " In the case of Strafford, 
 the words would even apply, when the 
 doughty Roman patrician goes on to 
 declare, that but for the misplaced lenity of 
 the nobility, he would " make a quarry of 
 thousands of these quartered slaves ! " and 
 this disposition was abundantly manifested 
 in the notable scheme known as the 
 " Thorough." But happily for themselves 
 and their descendants, the English people 
 were not disposed to yield up their liberties, 
 while they could fight for them. Like the 
 Swiss, who rose against the tyranny of 
 Austria at the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, their maxim was, " Rather choose 
 death, than life in slavery ; " and on this 
 point there was but one feeling north and 
 south of the Tweed. " Freedom is a nobyl 
 thing, freedom makes man to have lykyng," 
 the old Scottish poet had sung, and the 
 hearts of his countrymen echoed the senti- 
 ment. 
 
 The idea of freedom was no new thing 
 with the British nation. It had grown with 
 the growth of the people, and strengthened 
 with their strength throughout many cen- 
 turies. Sir John Fortescue, an English 
 judge who lived as early as the time of 
 Henry IV., already wrote learnedly and 
 eloquently of the English Constitution, and 
 of the privileges enjoyed by the people in 
 comparison with continental nations. Old 
 Froissart, the chronicler, accustomed to con- 
 tinental ideas of government, gives it as his 
 opinion that the English are the proudest and 
 most seli-asserting people he had ever met 
 with ; and Philip de Comines, the chronicler 
 of the courts of Charles the Bold of Bur- 
 gundy and of the astute and unscrupulous 
 tyrant, Louis XI. of France, frankly expresses 
 his admiration of the tranquillity and peace 
 assured to the English by their form of 
 government; adding an emphatic denunci- 
 ation of those who ad(vocate war. The 
 English people had been admitted to a 
 greater share in their own affairs than their 
 continental neighbours, simply because the 
 government needed them more. Feudalism 
 was introduced much later, as the form of 
 rule, in England than on the Continent; and 
 being forced upon an altogether reluctant 
 people, was altered and modified much 
 earlier. Henry I., the son of the Conqueror, 
 anxious to strengthen his usurped power by 
 a hold upon the Saxon population, gave 
 charters to various towns ; and the worth- 
 less John, his great-grandson, was compelled 
 to sign that Great Charter which secured the 
 English nation from the excesses of arbitrary 
 government by solemnly confirming to every 
 man the right of enjoying his possessions, 
 by declaring the monarch had no right 
 arbitrarily to tax his subjects, and by main- 
 
 58 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 taining the right of every accused person to 
 a fair trial by a jury of his peers. The 
 repeated confirmation of this charter during 
 the reign of the weak son and successor of 
 John, is a sufficient proof of the value 
 attached to the Magna Charter by the 
 English nation ; and the nation was right ; 
 for within the stipulations of that great "palla- 
 dium" of English liberty the chief conditions 
 that constitute a free people are to be found. 
 
 The Parliament and its Power. 
 
 Already under the son and successor of 
 the king who had granted the Magna Charta, 
 the English parliament, with burgesses and 
 knights of the shire, took the place of the old 
 council of nobles and prelates. And from 
 the time of its establishment the power and 
 importance of parliament began rapidly to 
 grow. The warlike character of the reigns 
 of the Edwards made those kings anxious to 
 obtain supplies of money for the carrying on 
 of the long contests they waged ; and the par- 
 liament won the exceedingly valuable right of 
 voting the supplies, and thus obtained the 
 control of the national purse. From the 
 time when that great assembly could regulate 
 or check the action of the king by granting 
 or withholding the money, without which 
 war was impossible, the chief means for 
 maintaining a popular government had been 
 ensured. Through the troublous times that 
 ensued, parliamentary power continued to 
 maintain itself and to increase. The inse- 
 cure tenure on which the representatives of 
 the rival houses held the throne during the 
 period when " long years of havoc urged their 
 destined course, and through the kindred 
 squadrons mowed their way," in the struggle 
 between York and Lancaster, rendered the 
 help of the people important to the ruler. 
 
 Long before this struggle began, indeed, 
 Henry IV., the first king of the House of 
 Lancaster, had considered it necessary to 
 procure the solemn sanction of parliament 
 to the transfer of the crown from the unhappy 
 Richard to himself In his reign also, that 
 most important measure was passed which 
 secured the personal safety of the people's 
 representatives, by pronouncing that no mem- 
 ber of either House should be put in peril, 
 prosecuted, or imprisoned for words spoken 
 within the walls of parliament in his capacity 
 of legislator. This right of free debar e and 
 expression of opinion was thoroughly in the 
 spirit of the English people ; who have always 
 valued outspoken frankness, even where the 
 bounds of decoruin were passed, and whose 
 favourite ballads celebrate the bluntness of 
 speech of handicraftsmen and churls in their 
 intercourse with kings. It was the infringe- 
 ment of this ancient right on the part of 
 Charles I. that called forth those indignant 
 cries of " Privilege, privilege ! " amid which 
 
 that ill-advised king retired baffled from the 
 House on that fatal 5th of January, on which 
 he committed the greatest political blunder 
 of his reign. 
 
 The institution of regular journals of the 
 House of Commons, in which the proceedings 
 of the assembly were entered, to form a record 
 of its work from day to day and froin year to 
 year, forms another important landmark in 
 the history of parliament and its progress, by 
 giving to the proceedings of the assembly all 
 the weight and importance derived from pre- 
 cedent. 
 
 Under the Tudors, a high-spirited race of 
 kings, sufficiently inclined to tyrannise over 
 their subjects, exceedingly tenacious of their 
 own authority, and jealous of that of the 
 nobles, the English parliament had some- 
 times a hard struggle to maintain its position. 
 Now and then the sovereign's hand of iron 
 made itself felt, without the velvet glove. 
 Thus, on one occasion, when rough King 
 Henry VIII. found the Commons hesitating 
 to pass a measure on which he had set his 
 heart, he at once summoned to his presence 
 the legislator who was said to be foremost in 
 the opposition. " Ho, man," cried the King, 
 " they will not pass my bill ? " — and as the 
 honourable member knelt humbly before 
 him, he laid his royal hand upon the bowed 
 head — " See that my bill be passed to- 
 morrow, or I will have this head of thine ; " 
 and the measure was carried without loss of 
 time. 
 
 Tudors and Stuarts, with Respect 
 TO Parliament. 
 
 But although the Tudor monarchs seemed 
 to rule despotically in England, and to 
 dominate all classes alike by their imperi- 
 ous will, the reality, here as elsewhere, 
 differed greatly from the appearance. Every 
 sign of outward homage and subserviency 
 was paid to them, and the language of 
 exaggerated worship was used in addressing 
 these haughty rulers by " many a baron 
 bold, and gorgeous dames, and statesmen 
 old, in bearded majesty," who surrounded 
 their thrones. It has been observed by 
 Macaulay, that Louis XIV. would have 
 blushed to receive from Boileau or Moli^re 
 such adulation as Elizabeth not only 
 accepted, but looked for ; and that " a 
 modern Englishman can hardly understand 
 how the people can have had any real 
 security for good government under kings 
 who levied benevolences, and chid the 
 House of Commons as they would have 
 chid a pack of dogs." It does not follow, 
 however, that because a nation allows its 
 rulers the forms of despotism, it must needs 
 surrender its real and essential liberties and 
 privileges. A man may, in epistolary corre- 
 spondence, sign himself the " obedient ser- 
 
 259 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 vant" of another against whom he is 
 maintaining an action at law ; and similarly 
 the English people, while paying every 
 possible outward homage to their rulers, 
 insisted on the maintenance of a popular 
 government. 
 
 When Henry VIII. attempted to exact "a 
 trembling contribution," in the shape of a 
 forced loan, he at once received an unplea- 
 sant reminder of the tenure on which the 
 Kings of England held their authority ; for 
 there was an insurrection in Suffolk. If the 
 King could compel his subjects at will to 
 contribute to his necessities, they declared 
 there would be an end of English liberty, — 
 "Then were it worse than the taxes of 
 France, and England should be bond and 
 not free." The King, to do him justice, 
 seems to have appreciated the situation 
 with the sagacity that formed a prominent 
 characteristic of the Tudors. He did not 
 wait until the local insurrection widened into 
 general rebellion, but made concessions at 
 once, while there was time to retrace his 
 steps. On this occasion, as on others, he 
 acted up to the spirit of the words aptly put 
 into his mouth in Shakespeare's great 
 historical play : " We must not wrest our 
 subjects from the law, and stick them in our 
 will." The arbitrary power of a monarch 
 was not, in England, to supersede the 
 regulations laid down, and solemnly ratified, 
 during the course of centuries, for the well- 
 being of the whole nation ; and thus it has 
 been remarked by the same historian, that 
 the Tudors, while in many instances they 
 were tyrants at Whitehall, were obliged to 
 rule justly, as regarded the country at large. 
 The nobles, whose order had never recovered 
 the crushing blows inflicted on it by the 
 Wars of the Roses, were powerless in the 
 hands of the King, — who could work his 
 will on any titled subject sufficiently unfortu- 
 nate to awaken his jealousy and suspicion, — 
 but the King, in his turn, having no standing 
 army with which to enforce his will upon the 
 people, in case of a general opposition, was 
 dependent upon the affection and loyalty of 
 the faithful commons for the maintenance 
 of his throne and dignity, being entirely 
 without the means of putting down any 
 formidable rising, in which popular opinion 
 sided with the insurgents. " They were 
 under the same restraints with regard to 
 their people under which a military despot 
 is placed with regard to his army. They 
 would have found it as dangerous to grind 
 their subjects with cruel taxation, as Nero 
 would have found it to leave his Praetorians 
 unpaid. Those who immediately surrounded 
 the regal person, and engaged in the hazard- 
 ous game of ambition, were exposed to the 
 most fearful dangers. Buckingharn, Crom- 
 well, Surrey, Seymour of Sudely, Somerset, 
 
 Northumberland, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, 
 perished on the scaffold ; but in general 
 the country gentleman hunted, and the 
 merchant traded in peace. Even Henry, as 
 cruel as Domitian, but far more politic, 
 contrived, while reeking with the blood of 
 the Lamise, to be a favourite with the 
 cobblers." 
 
 This dependence of the sovereigns of Eng- 
 land upon the good-will of the people was 
 especially understood by the last and incom- 
 parably the greatest of the Tudor sovereigns, 
 the haughty, energetic, great-souled Queen 
 Elizabeth. When the great peril came that 
 threatened to deprive her of the crown she 
 wore so nobly, she rode forth to place herself 
 at the head of her people and encounter it. 
 " Let tyrants fear ! " said the undaunted 
 Queen. And to the army assembled at Til- 
 bury she went on to declare that though 
 some who were anxious for her safety had 
 warned her of the danger of trusting herself 
 among a great body of men, yet she never 
 wished to see the day when she should dis- 
 trust her faithful subjects. Therefore had 
 she come forth, thinking foul scorn that 
 Spain, or Parma, or any other prince, should 
 invade the borders of her realm ; for though 
 she had the body of a weak woman, she had 
 the heart of a king — and of a king of England, 
 too — and, therefore, full of confidence in the 
 loyalty and affection of her people, she ap- 
 pealed to them for safety, and had come to 
 live, and, if need were, to die among them. 
 
 This was the way to touch the hearts of a 
 nation like the English, and the response 
 was a splendid one. The great towns, with 
 London at their head, showed themselves 
 ready to provide more than the proportion 
 demanded of them for the general defence ; 
 and the story of the Spanish Armada and its 
 discomfiture forms one of the grandest pages 
 in the annals of our history. Again it is told, 
 that towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, 
 the increase of monopolies had become a 
 serious grievance. It formed the subject of 
 the deliberations of parliament, and at length 
 a remonstrance was presented to the Queen 
 on the subject. Elizabeth not only granted 
 the relief prayed by her faithful Commons, 
 but granted it with a queenly readiness and 
 grace that moved them to enthusiastic grati- 
 tude — thanking them for calling her attention 
 to the abuse, and thoroughly showing that 
 she considered her interests as identical with 
 those of the people she governed. 
 
 James I.; A New State of Things. 
 
 Very different were the principles and the 
 practice of the Stuart who succeeded her as 
 King of England. James I. has been aptly 
 described as presenting to the world the exact 
 model of what a king ought not to be. 
 Obstinate without true resolution, timid and 
 
 260 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 cowardly without the caution that should 
 have prevented him from allowing himself to 
 be over-reached alike by France and Spain, 
 the pedantic, self-sufficient professor of the 
 science of kingcraft seemed to toil for many 
 years to bring himself and the country he 
 had been called to govern into contempt ; 
 and certainly gave the nation abundant rea- 
 son to regret the disappearance of that bright 
 occidental star, Queen Elizabeth, for whom 
 the adulation of the courtly translators of the 
 
 happy grandson fled from the capital of the 
 country that would endure him no longer — 
 seem by their method of proceeding to have 
 totally misconceived the spirit of the nation 
 they governed, and the spirit of the times in 
 which they lived. They perverted the laws 
 their people held in honour ; they treated dis- 
 tinguished men with contumely and harsh- 
 ness. " What man but my father would keep 
 such a bird in a cage?" was Prince Henry's 
 indignant comment on James's conduct to- 
 
 QuEEN Elizabeth at Tilbury Fort. 
 
 Bible represented him as so brilliant and 
 efficient a substitute. The Tudors, from 
 the first of them, the cold-hearted, politic 
 Henry VII., down to the fiery Queen Bess, 
 had thoroughly understood the temper of the 
 people they ruled. The Stuarts, on the other 
 hand — from the day when James VI., on his 
 progress southward in 1603, astonished and 
 disgusted the nation by hanging the cut-purse 
 without trial at Newark, until the miserable 
 hour, eighty-five years later, when his un- 
 
 wards Raleigh. James especially was always 
 blundering. He lavished caresses, honours, 
 and rewards upon unworthy favourites ; he put 
 up for sale the peerages and titles of honour 
 that had been the reward of distinguished 
 statesmanship and valour ; and while he 
 did all this, and much more, to exasperate 
 the nation, he arrogated to himself an amount 
 of power the strongest and wisest of his 
 Tudor predecessors would never have ven- 
 t'.ired to claim. He bullied his parliaments. 
 
 261 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Thus one of his speeches in particular is 
 noted as having given especial offence by its 
 absurdly arrogant tone. "He made another 
 speech to both the Houses," says a corre- 
 spondent of Sir Ralph Winwood, "but so 
 little to their satisfaction that I hear it bred 
 generally much discomfort to see our mon- 
 archical power and royal prerogative strained 
 so high, and made so transcendent every way, 
 that if the practice should follow the profes- 
 sions, we are not likely to leave to our suc- 
 cessors that freedom we received from our 
 forefathers, nor make account of anything 
 we have longer than they list who govern." 
 Again, we find the King concluding a letter 
 to one of his ministers with the words : " And 
 so farewell from my wilderness, which I had 
 rather live in (as God shall judge me), like 
 a hermit in this forest, than be a king over 
 such a people as this pack of Puritans are 
 that overrules the Lower House." 
 
 Fortunately, however, the fear indicated 
 in the letter of Sir Ralph Winwood's corre- 
 pondent was not realised. The practice did not 
 follow the professions. James could threaten 
 and bluster, and declare that the wrath of a 
 king was as the roaring of a lion ; but he could 
 not face the opposition excited by his pre- 
 tensions ; and his practice was invariably 
 to make concessions after sufficient delay to 
 deprive them of all grace and dignity, and 
 to show that they were simply the result of 
 fear. 
 
 On their part, the Commons, at the very 
 beginning of James's reign, respectfully but 
 firmly gave the King to understand that the 
 kingly authority in England was co-existent 
 with the rights of the nobility and the people, 
 as represented in the Lords and Commons 
 Houses of Parliament. The words used by 
 the Commons admit of no misinterpretation. 
 "Your Majesty would be misinformed if any 
 man should deliver that theKings of England 
 have any absolute power in themselves, either 
 to alter religion, which God defend should be 
 in the power of any mortal man whatsoever, 
 or to make any laws concerning the same, 
 otherwise than as in temporal causes, by 
 consent of Parliament. We have, and shall 
 at all times by our oaths acknowledge, that 
 Your Majesty is sovereign lord and supreme 
 governor in both." " Such," says Hallam, 
 "was the voice of the English Commons in 
 1604, at the commencement of that great 
 conflict for their liberties which is measured 
 by the line of the house of Stuart." In a 
 word, James declared that he was an absolute 
 monarch, holding his office by "right divine," 
 and answerable to heaven alone for the man- 
 ner in which he ruled. The popular party, 
 in and out of parliament, declared that the 
 King's authority was limited and defined, and 
 that he was bound to maintain the consti-' 
 tution of the kingdom he governed, and to 
 
 respect the rights and privileges of the people 
 as by law established. 
 
 Charles L as the Worker-out of his 
 Father's Theory. 
 
 Thus the whole system of James was based 
 on the idea that the people must unhesita- 
 tingly submit to the ruling power, as repre- 
 sented in the sole authority of the king. As 
 a natural consequence, his utmost wrath was 
 excited by any deviation from the " passive 
 obedience " and " non-resistance," which he 
 held to be the only justifiable attitude of 
 the nation towards the government. The 
 bishops upheld this view, and preached this 
 " passive obedience and non-resistance; " and 
 the King favoured them accordingly, while 
 he abhorred and detested the Nonconformists, 
 whose consciences would not allow them to 
 accept the King any more than the Pope as 
 the head of the Church. The notorious pro- 
 fligacy of the court, the bribery and venality, 
 the drunkenness that extended even to the 
 ladies, and the despicable personal character 
 of the King himself, served to render his 
 pretensions ridiculous as well as odious. 
 The absurd extent to which these pretensions 
 were carried is illustrated in a speech made 
 in the Star Chamber in 16 16, and recorded 
 in the King's " Works." The impiety of the 
 assumption is as glaring as its absurdity. 
 " It is atheism and blasphemy," says the 
 contemptible pedant, " to dispute what God 
 can do ; good Christians content themselves 
 with His will revealed in His word ; so it is 
 presumption and high contempt in a subject 
 to dispute what a king can do, or say that a 
 king cannot do this or that." 
 
 With discontent at home, and maladminis- 
 tration abroad, with utter collapse of the 
 boasted kingcraft, and woeful sacrifice of 
 the nation's honour, the reign of James L 
 ran its ignoble course. In 1625 the King 
 died ; and from the day when the sceptre 
 passed from his hand to that of his son 
 Charles, the long-delayed strife between 
 royal prerogative and the liberties of Eng- 
 land may be said to have definitely com- 
 menced. For now, instead of the ungainly, 
 slobbering, shuffling creature who had so 
 long disgraced the royal throne of England, 
 there sat on that dignified seat one who was 
 at once a scholar and a gentleman — blame- 
 less in all the relations of private life, and 
 excellent in artistic refinement and taste. 
 And this rendered the position of the country 
 far more critical with regard to the great 
 question of its liberties and their preservation. 
 James I. would never have had the resolution 
 to push the quarrel against his parliament to 
 extremity, and against such men as Pym and 
 Sir John Eliot; James I. would never have had 
 the persuasive powerto bring over Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth to his side. 
 
 262 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 The first period of Charles's reign, from 
 1625 to 1629, is taken up with his quarrel 
 with the three parliaments he successively 
 called, and successively dismissed. Briefly 
 stated, the cause of quarrel amounted to 
 this: That the Commons endeavoured to 
 use their power of granting or withholding 
 supplies in order to compel the King to 
 grant redress of abuses, to restrain him 
 from continuing an unpopular and unpro- 
 fitable war, and to induce him to dismiss 
 his worthless favourite, the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham. To emancipate himself from par- 
 liamentary interference was the King's great 
 wish; and he at once entered on a course 
 of menace and defiance. 
 
 The first parliament endeavoured to obtain 
 a redress of grievances by granting money 
 very sparingly to the King ; Charles dis- 
 missed it, and convoked another. The 
 second parliament was less inclined than 
 the first to be tractable in the sense desired 
 by the King. It impeached Buckingham ; 
 whereupon the King made a threatening 
 speech, bidding the Commons remember 
 " that parliaments were altogether in his 
 power for their calling, sitting, and disso- 
 lution ; therefore, as he found the fruits of 
 them good or evil, they were to continue to 
 be or not to be." This amounted to nothing 
 less than a threat of entirely abolishing 
 parliamentary government in England. 
 
 In the embarrassment caused by the re- 
 luctance of the first parliaments to supply 
 his needs (the two subsidies they had voted 
 him having amounted to only ^^140,000), 
 the King had resorted to various ways of 
 raising money, not warranted by law. He 
 had sent commissions into the counties to 
 raise money by means of loans to which 
 all the proprietors of estates were expected, 
 according to his means, to contribute, each 
 being assessed at a certain sum. Many 
 who refused to subscribe to this forced loan 
 were committed to prison ; and in the 
 houses of others, soldiers were billeted to 
 enforce obedience. The King raised money 
 by customs duties on goods, known as 
 tonnage and poundage ; and further coercion 
 was exercised by the substitution of martial 
 law, in the trial of various accusations, for 
 the ordinary courts of England. But all 
 this did not sufficiently supply the King's 
 necessities ; for Charles was now engaged 
 in a war with France. Accordingly, a third 
 parliament was summoned, which met early 
 in the year 1628 ; and answered to the 
 designation of a contemporary writer, who 
 calls it "a great ruffling parliament," meaning 
 one likely to oppose, to menace, and to 
 insult, a bold and inflexible determination, 
 and not to be hectored into submission. 
 
 This third parliament it was, that in 1628, 
 a year made memorable by its doings, 
 
 laid before the King the celebrated " Peti- 
 tion of Right," in which the illegality of His 
 Majesty's arbitrary proceedings was set 
 forth, and the rights and privileges of Eng- 
 lishmen were declared in no half-hearted 
 terms. At the same time there was a 
 disposition to effect a compromise with the 
 King, who could point to precedents in the 
 government of former monarchs in support 
 of some of the proceedings denounced as 
 illegal ; though on the other side it was 
 contended that these instances were excep- 
 tional, and only proved the existence of 
 tyranny in former times, forming no justi- 
 fication for its renewal. The King, however 
 assented to the Petition of Right, and bound 
 himself to abstain from the raising money 
 by tonnage and poundage, from allowing 
 courts martial to supersede the law courts, 
 from billeting soldiers in private houses, — 
 and made other concessions, as the price 
 of which concessions large sums of money 
 were voted to him. Another cause of strife 
 between Charles and his subjects was 
 removed by the death of the arrogant and 
 worthless Buckingham, who fell, struck by 
 the knife of the gloomy fanatic Felton, 
 while preparing, at Portsmouth, to lead a 
 second army, as he had led a first, probably 
 to dire and ignominious discomfiture. 
 
 Scarcely had the Parliament been pro- 
 rogued, in the summer of 1628, before the 
 illegal practices denounced in the Petition 
 of Right were resumed, — the billeting of 
 soldiers on the nation, the exaction of 
 tonnage and poundage, etc. When the 
 Parliament met, in 1629, after the proro- 
 gation, the Commons proceeded to adju- 
 dicate on the question of tonnage and 
 poundage, denouncing the illegality of that 
 impost in the strongest terms. A resolution 
 was proposed to the effect that those who 
 paid that iniquitous tax were traitors to their 
 country ; and when the Speaker, dismayed 
 at the audacity of the Commons, declared 
 that he had received His Majesty's orders 
 to put no such resolution to the vote, a 
 scene of violent indignation and uproar 
 ensued. The Speaker, attempting to put 
 an end to the sitting by leaving the chair, 
 was forcibly held down in his place while 
 the resolution was put, and triumphantly 
 carried. The next day Charles angrily 
 dissolved this, his third parliament, and, 
 as on former occasions, marked his sense 
 of its proceedings by committing the most 
 prominent members to prison. The chief 
 of them. Sir John Eliot, after various un- 
 successful applications to the throne for 
 release, or, at least, for a mitigation of the 
 rigours of his captivity, died a prisoner in 
 the Tower of London ; and a petition by 
 his sons for the body of their father, that it 
 might be buried on his own estate, was 
 
 63 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 refused by Charles; who, carrying his enmity 
 beyond the Hfe of his victim, ordered that 
 the remains of Sir John EHot should be 
 interred in the place where he had died. 
 
 John Hampden, Esquire, of Hampden, 
 IN Buckinghamshire. 
 
 In each of the three parliaments that had 
 been summoned and dissolved within the 
 space of four years, there had sat as member 
 for the borough of Wendover, a Buckingham- 
 shire esquire, then little known, but destined 
 to leave one of the most illustrious names in 
 the annals of English history. From Lord 
 Nugent's valuable " Memorials of Hampden," 
 we learn some particulars of the family. 
 The Hampdens 
 had been settled, 
 from before the 
 Norman conquest, 
 on an estate of the 
 same name, be- 
 stowed by Edward 
 the Confessor on 
 Baldwin de 
 Hampden, whom 
 Lord Macaulay 
 conjectures to 
 have been one of 
 the Norman 
 favourites brought 
 to England by the 
 last of our Saxon 
 kings. The family 
 had maintained it- 
 self in opulence 
 and honour ; and 
 one of its repre- 
 sentatives, Griffith 
 Hampden, high 
 sheriff of Bucking- 
 hamshire, had 
 royallyentertained 
 Queen Elizabeth 
 in his ancestral 
 home. 
 
 The John Hampden of Charles's time was 
 the grandson of Griffith. He enjoyed a good 
 education, first at Thame Grammar School, 
 afterwards at Magdalen College, Oxford, 
 and, finally, at the Temple in London, where 
 he studied law. He was born in 1594 ; and 
 already, in 1619, in James's time, we find him 
 sitting in the House of Commons as represen- 
 tative of the Cornish borough of Grampound. 
 
 It is recorded that the mother of Hamp- 
 den (his father had died in 1597) was 
 desirous that her son, as the head of so old 
 and distinguished a family, should have a 
 higher rank than that of a country esquire. 
 But in James the First's reign, peerages and 
 baronetcies were shamelessly bought and 
 sold. " It was only to ask, to pay, and 
 to have ; '' and Hampden best consulted 
 
 Charles I. 
 
 his own dignity and self-respect by remain- 
 ing as he was. 
 
 He had won the distinction of attracting 
 the notice and enmity of Charles I. When 
 required to pay his share towards a forced 
 loan to the King he refused ; declaring that 
 he would be as willing to contribute as 
 another man, but that he feared to infringe 
 Magna Charta, which document, he declared, 
 ought to be read twice a year in every market 
 town in England, that Englishmen might 
 be reminded of the rights and privileges it 
 behoved them to guard. The exact words 
 recorded are, '' He feared to draw upon him- 
 self that curse in Magna Charta, which he 
 wished were read twice a year against those 
 
 who infringe it." 
 
 This procured 
 him the distinction 
 of being singled 
 out as a warning 
 example of the 
 King's displea- 
 sure. He was 
 committed to pri- 
 son on the disso- 
 lution of the second 
 parliament o f 
 Charles I. to the 
 Gateh ou seat 
 Westminster, and 
 afterwards to a 
 Hampshire gaol, 
 but was released, 
 and again chosen 
 for Wendover, 
 when the King's 
 necessities made 
 him call his third 
 parliament. 
 
 Sir John Eliot, 
 who was sent by 
 the King to die 
 in the Tower, 
 was a valu ed 
 friend of Hamp- 
 den, the modesty of whose character ap- 
 pears in a very pleasing light, in the corre- 
 spondence he kept up with the illustrious 
 prisoner, who consulted him on a treatise on 
 government he was writing to beguile his 
 imprisonment. Hampden was a Puritan in 
 belief and in morals ; but there was about 
 him nothing of that "sourness" and self-asser- 
 tion generally attributed to those of his creed 
 by their opponents, and which furnished such 
 copious matter to the satirical pens, of which 
 the sharpest was wielded by Samuel Butler. 
 
 Clarendon has borne emphatic testimony to 
 his refinement and grace of manner. "He was 
 of that rare affability and temper in debate," 
 says the author of the " History of the Great 
 Rebellion," and of that seeming humility and 
 submission of judgment, as if he brought no 
 
 264 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIP MONEY. 
 
 opinion of his own with him, but a desire of 
 information and instruction. Yet he had so 
 subtle a way of interrogating, and, under 
 cover of doubts, insinuating his objections, 
 that he infused his own opinions into those 
 from whom he pretended to learn and receive 
 them." The letter in which he imparts to his 
 imprisoned friend the criticism on the manu- 
 script Sir John had submitted to his revision, 
 is full of this graceful modesty. 
 
 Despotic Period ; An Arbitrary Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Hampden was not one of the men singled 
 out for punishment on the abrupt dissolution 
 of King Charles's 
 third parliament. 
 He retired to his 
 paternal estate in 
 B uckingham- 
 shire, and for 
 some years occu- 
 pied himself with 
 the duties that 
 devolved on him 
 as a landed pro- 
 prietor. Of pub- 
 lic duties there 
 were none left for 
 him to fulfil. Par- 
 liamentary go- 
 vernment was at 
 an end for the 
 time in England; 
 and had been suc- 
 ceeded by the 
 unhappy and 
 shameful period 
 of despotic and 
 irresponsible rule. 
 The jurisdiction 
 of the ordinary 
 tribunals was su- 
 perseded, and 
 their judgments 
 overridden by the 
 Star Chamber, 
 the Courtof High Commission, and the North- 
 ern Council. The bigoted and narrow-minded 
 Archbishop Laud, whom Lord Macaulay 
 designates as a lower kind of St. Dominic or 
 Torquemada, raged against the Puritans, on 
 whom were plentifully inflicted those pillory- 
 ings, ear croppings, scourgings, long imprison- 
 ments, numerous fines, and the host of 
 iniquities which, under the name of " cruel 
 and unusual punishments," were emphatically 
 condemned by a later generation in the Bill 
 of Rights. The tuning of the pulpits, as 
 Laud called the issuing of injunctions to the 
 clergy to preach passive obedience and non- 
 resistance to their flocks, proceeded most 
 energetically ; and a man of consummate 
 ability and equal unscrupulousness was found 
 
 John Hampden. 
 
 265 
 
 to initiate a system by which the voice of the 
 English people should be silenced, and the 
 liberties of the nation definitely and irretrieva- 
 bly ruined. 
 
 This man was Sir Thomas Wentworth, 
 formerly a prominent member of the parlia- 
 mentary opposition, and the trusted friend of 
 Pym, HoUis, Hampden, and the rest of the 
 patriotic leaders. But he had been detached 
 from his party, and won over by the blandish- 
 ments and persuasions of the King during the 
 interval of the prorogation, and hated his 
 former associates with all the rancour of a 
 renegade. No two men could have been 
 more unlike than Wentworth, who was 
 created Earl ot 
 S traff ord and 
 afterwards Vice- 
 roy of Ireland for 
 his partisanship 
 of the King, and 
 Laud, who was 
 made Archbishop 
 of Canterbury for 
 a similar reason. 
 Strafford was a 
 manof command- 
 ing intellect, of 
 inflexible resolu- 
 tion, and ever- 
 ready resource, 
 " with Atlantean 
 shoulders, fit to 
 bear the weight of 
 empires " ; and 
 of him it might 
 further be said, 
 as of the great 
 fallen angel, " On 
 his brow delibe- 
 ration sat, and 
 princely care, — 
 majestic though 
 in ruin." Laud, 
 zealous and busy, 
 fussily anxious 
 for power and 
 supremacy, had the puniest of intellects, 
 and was saturated with a drivelling super- 
 stition. But the two men understood each 
 other completely. 
 
 The "Thorough," and Ship-Money. 
 
 The scheme by which the two chief ad- 
 visers of the King proposed governing Eng- 
 land has become extensively known under 
 the name of " Thorough " ; a name taken 
 from an expression frequently used in their 
 correspondence. It well expresses the 
 length to which Laud and Strafford were 
 prepared to go, and the complete change 
 they proposed to introduce into the system 
 of government in England. "For the State," 
 the Archbishop writes to his colleague, " in- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 deed, my Lord, I am for Thorough ; but I 
 see that both thick and thin stays somebody 
 where I conceive it should not ; and it is 
 impossible to go Thorough alone." And in 
 another letter he says, "As for my marginal 
 note, I see you deciphered it well ; and I see 
 you make use of it, too ; do so still, thorough 
 and thorough. Oh that I were where I might 
 go so to ! But I am shackled between delays 
 and uncertainties." 
 
 The notable scheme of the two conspirators 
 against their country's liberties was indeed 
 most thoroughly subversive of the rights of 
 the English people. It may be briefly sum- 
 med up as follows : Perfect and uncontrolled 
 authority for the ruler in all matters pertaining 
 to Church and to State, with compulsory uni- 
 formity of worship for all the King's subjects ; 
 taxation at the King's sole will and pleasure 
 for the maintenance of despotic rule ; and a 
 standing army wherewith to enforce obedience 
 and to quell any sign of ill-humour or tendency 
 to resistance on the part of the governed. 
 
 Money was indeed necessary, nay, indis- 
 pensable, for carrying out such a scheme. 
 The former devices, tonnage and poundage, 
 etc., were put into requisition ; and at length 
 a new source of supply was suggested by the 
 ingenuity of Noy, Charles's Attorney-General, 
 and Finch, the Lord Chief Justice. Writs were 
 issued in the King's name for levying a tax 
 for equipping ships for the King's service ; 
 and these writs were addressed not, as in 
 former days, to the maritime towns in time 
 of war, but scattered through the length and 
 breadth of the land in time of peace, — a start- 
 ling innovation. 
 
 Whitelock, in his " Memorials," thus de- 
 scribes this transaction, in his record for the 
 year 1635 : "The Privy Council wrote letters 
 to every high sheriff of England, directing 
 them for the taxing and levying of the ship 
 money ; and yet, with great care and equality, 
 much beyond what was observed in following 
 taxes. But the^ guilding {sic) of this illegal 
 pill would not cause it to be swallowed down; 
 but many people, especially the knowing 
 gentry, expressed great discontent at this 
 new assessment and burthen as an imposition 
 against law and the rights of the subject." 
 
 Then it was that Hampden came forth 
 from his retirement, and stood up as the 
 champion of his country's rights against 
 venal judges, unscrupulous ministers, and 
 a tyrant king. 
 
 The account of the famous ship-money 
 controversy, as given byWhitelock, sufficiently 
 shows the pressure put upon the judges, and 
 the means by which the court could, in cases 
 of importance, procure a judgment in accord- 
 ance with its wishes, however contrary to 
 the dictates of liberty and justice. The 
 events are thus briefly chronicled in the 
 " Memorials." 
 
 Mr. John Hampden, a gentleman of an 
 ancient family in Buckinghamshire, and of 
 a great estate and parts, denied the payment 
 of ship-money as an illegal tax. He often 
 advised in this great business with Holborn, 
 Saint John, Whitelock, and others of his 
 friends and counsel. Several other gentle- 
 men refused the payment of this tax of ship- 
 money; whereupon the King was advised 
 by the Lord Chief Justice Finch and others 
 to require the opinion of his judges, which 
 he did, stating the case in a letter to them. 
 After much solicitation by the Chief Justice 
 Finch, promising preferment to some, and 
 highly threatening others whom he found 
 doubting, he got from them, in answer to 
 the King's letter and case, their opinions 
 in these words : — 
 
 "We are of opinion that when the good 
 and safety of the kingdom in general is con- 
 cerned, and the whole kingdom in danger, 
 Your Majesty may, by writ under the great 
 seal of England, command all your subjects 
 of this your kingdom, at their charges, to 
 provide and furnish such number of ships, 
 with men, victual, and ammunition, and for 
 such time as Your Majesty shall think fit, for 
 the defence and safeguard of the kingdom, 
 from such peril and danger. And that by 
 law Your Majesty may compel the doing 
 thereof in case of refusal or refractoriness. 
 And we are also of opinion that in such case 
 Your Majesty is the sole judge, both of the 
 dangers and when and how the same is to 
 be prevented and avoided." 
 
 This opinion, signed by Davenport, Den- 
 ham, Hutton, Jones, Croke, Trever, Bram- 
 ston, Finch, Vernon, Berkley, Crawley, and 
 Weston, was, we are told, "enrolled in all 
 the Courts of Westminster, and much 
 distasted many gentlemen of the country, 
 and of their own profession, as a thing 
 extra-judicial, ufmsual, and of very ill con- 
 sequence in this great business, or in any 
 other." 
 
 How THE Great Ship-money Trial 
 
 WAS CONDUCTED. 
 The trial in which Hampden stood up as 
 the champion of the rights of Englishmen 
 against the encroachments of the king, 
 shows abundant proofs, among other points, 
 of the servility of the judges in those days, 
 and of their subservience to the King. 
 It is difficult, at the present day, to conceive 
 the amount of cringing meanness displayed 
 by several of the men whose high office it 
 was to expound the law of England, and who 
 should be ready, as described in Dryden's 
 magnificent sketch of Shaftesbury, to show 
 themselves prompt on every occasion, 
 
 " Unbribed, unbought, the wretched to redress, 
 Swift of despatch, and easy of access." 
 
 266 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 In this case, as Hallam pertinently 
 observes, the Ministers had been anxious 
 to gain over to their side the interpreters of 
 the law, and had insisted that the judges 
 should, during their circuits, declare it to be 
 the duty of every loyal subject to show his 
 zeal for his King's service by immediate 
 compliance with the ship-money writs. An 
 " opinion " of the judges, given by royal 
 command, and unanimously subscribed to 
 by all the twelve, declared that, " when the 
 good and safety of the kingdom in general is 
 concerned, and the whole kingdom in dan- 
 ger, His Majesty might, by writ under the 
 great seal, command all his subjects, at their 
 charge, to provide and furnish such number 
 of ships, with men, munition, and victuals, 
 and for such time as he should think fit, for 
 the defence and safeguard of the kingdom ; 
 and thiit by law he might compel the doing 
 thereof, in case of refusal or refractoriness ; 
 and that he was the sole judge, both of the 
 danger, and when and how the same was to 
 be prevented and avoided." An opinion of 
 this kind, given by the judges of the land, 
 and publicly made known to the nation, 
 might have been supposed a sufficient 
 deterrent to any man from raising the 
 question before a tribunal whose views had 
 been thus unequivocally expressed ; and 
 thus we are the more inclined to admire the 
 resolution of the man who, under such cir- 
 cumstances, was content to incur expense, 
 anxiety, and personal peril, by solemnly 
 bringing up the great national question for 
 adjudication. 
 
 The law was with overwhelming force on 
 the side of Hampden. The whole spirit and 
 practice of English legislation for centuries 
 had been in the direction of confirming the 
 power of Parliament to control the taxation 
 of the kingdom ; and no one could fail to see 
 that, by extending the writs for ship-money 
 to the inland counties, the King was over- 
 stepping all the bounds observed even by the 
 most imperious of his ancestors, and was 
 turning what his own party acknowledged 
 to have been only an exceptional and urgent 
 expedient into a regular source of supply. 
 In the grave, saturnine Oliver St. John, who 
 conducted his case, Hampden had a man 
 of undoubted talent, whose heart was 
 thoroughly in the cause, and who, therefore, 
 did not fail to give full force to every point 
 in favour of his client's cause, and that of 
 English liberty. 
 
 The arguments for and against the levy- 
 ing of ship-money, are briefly and clearly 
 summed up in Dr. Lingard's History. 
 The Attorney- General and Solicitor-General 
 alleged in behalf of the Crown, that already 
 under the Anglo-Saxon Kings, the tax called 
 " Danegelt " had been annually levied, for 
 the maintenance of a naval force ; that 
 
 requisitions had been issued over and over 
 again by various English kings, pressing 
 ships into the service, and calling upon the 
 maritime counties to furnish and equip them ; 
 that the claim was reasonable, and in fur- 
 therance of the public service ; and that 
 occasions would arise when prompt action 
 was necessary ; and that if the King could 
 not, on such occasions, call upon his subjects 
 for immediate aid, the country, while waiting 
 for the assembling of a Parliament, would 
 suffer incalculable injury from delay. Thus 
 the general good and the public service were 
 ingeniously placed by Mr. Attorney and Mr. 
 Solicitor in the forefront of the battle ; and 
 these, it was declared, would be promoted 
 by acknowledging the royal prerogative in 
 its utmost extent. 
 
 In opposition to these arguments it was 
 contended by Hampden's counsel, " That no 
 argument could be founded on the imperfect 
 hints in our ancient writers respecting the 
 Danegelt, or the naval armament of the 
 Anglo-Saxon Kings ; that out of the multi- 
 tude of precedents adduced, not one bore 
 any resemblance to the present writs, which 
 first ordered the inhabitants of the inland 
 counties to fit out ships, and then to pay 
 money in lieu of those ships ; that no urgent 
 necessity could be pleaded, for the writs had 
 been issued six months before the ships were 
 wanted, and consequently there was suffi- 
 cient time to assemble and consult the 
 Parliament ; that these writs (and this, the 
 concluding argument, was the strongest) 
 were in opposition to the Statutes and 
 Petition of Right, which provided that no 
 tax should be levied on the subject without 
 the consent of Parliament ; nor was it a 
 valid objection that the King could still 
 levy an aid on the knighthood of his son, 
 and the marriage of his eldest daughter, for 
 these cases were expressly excepted in 
 Magna Charta, and virtually in the preced- 
 ing statutes." The illegality of unparlia- 
 mentary taxation was indeed so notorious 
 that no forensic eloquence could suffice 
 to make even an apparently good case for 
 it. 
 
 Divine Right and Royal Prerogative. 
 
 Accordingly, Banks, the Attorney- General, 
 thought it advisable to rest his case on a 
 basis of " divine right of kings," and " royal 
 prerogative.'' He laid down an astonishing 
 proposition, which, if conceded, would simply 
 place the property of every Englishman at 
 the uncontrolled disposal of the king. He 
 boldly contended that royal authority was 
 unlimited, except by the will of the monarch 
 himself Kingly authority with him meant 
 absolute authority. " This power is innate in 
 the person of an absolute king, and in the 
 267 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 person of the kings of England. All magis- 
 tracy, it is of nature ; and obedience and 
 subjection, it is of nature. This power is not 
 any ways derived from the people, but 
 reserved unto the king when positive laws 
 first began. For the King of England, he is 
 an absolute monarch ; nothing can be given 
 to an absolute prince but what is inherent 
 in his person. He can do no wrong. He is 
 the sole judge, and we ought not to question 
 him. Where the law trusts, we ought not to 
 distrust. The Acts of Parliament contain no 
 express words to take away so high a prero- 
 gative, and the king's prerogative, even in 
 lesser matters, is always saved wherever 
 express words do not restrain it." 
 
 This argument at least acknowledged 
 some kind of power in parliament "by 
 express words " to interfere with the king's 
 will ; but some of the judges even went 
 further, and considered that the king was not 
 bound by any law. Berkley, one of them, 
 declared that the law was an old and trusty 
 servant of the king's, and that he had never 
 heard that lex was rex, " but it is most 
 common and most true that 7'ex is /ex." 
 Vernon, another judge, unhesitatingly gave 
 his opinion that the king might dispense 
 with any law in cases of necessity ; and 
 Finch, with whom much of the responsibility 
 of the ship-money measures rested, declared, 
 " They are void Acts of Parliament to bind 
 the king not to command the subjects, their 
 person, and goods, and I say their money, 
 too ; for no Acts of Parliament make any diffe- 
 rence." Absolute government could go no 
 farther than this. 
 
 In spite of all the pressure that could be 
 brought to bear on behalf of the Government, — 
 and it was very considerable, for at that time 
 the judges held their appointments not for 
 life or " during good behaviour," but at the 
 pleasure of the king, who could at once 
 remove from their offices those who offended 
 him, — the Court gained only the smallest 
 possible majority, seven of the judges giving 
 their opinions in favour of the King, and five 
 for Hampden. One of the latter, Croke, is 
 said to have wavered, and to have been 
 admonished of his duty by his wife, who 
 exhorted him not to let personal considera- 
 tions for her welfare or that of his children 
 stand in the way of his honest and impartial 
 judgment in this great matter. 
 
 The cause was no less than six months 
 before the court ; and this, as has been 
 remarked by various writers, was doubtless of 
 great service to Hampden, and proportionately 
 injurious to his opponents ; for it gave every 
 man full time to make himself acquainted 
 with the merits and the paramount importance 
 of the case. It was well understood that this 
 was no temporary impost, intended to meet 
 a necessity of the moment, but, as Clarendon 
 
 himself, writing on the King's side, declares, 
 " for a spring and magazine that should have 
 no bottom, and for an everlasting supply of 
 all occasions." 
 
 That Hampden would be beaten was, 
 considering the nature of the tribunal before 
 which his action was tried, a foregone 
 conclusion. That his opponents should have 
 only the narrowest possible majority could not 
 be reckoned otherwise than as a triumph of 
 the popular cause. The irritation occasioned 
 in the mind of the nation by these proceedings 
 did not pass away ; and among the party of 
 whom Hampden was now looked upon as 
 the acknowledged chief, the trial with its issue 
 was kept, as Whitelock expresses it, " a/ia 
 inente repostum" even as the well-remember- 
 ing Juno kept in her heart that " Jtidicium 
 Paridis,'^ for which she was determined to 
 exact so heavy an expiation. 
 
 Hampden's Popularity; A Scheme of 
 Emigration ; Its Defeat. 
 
 Concerning the popularity gained by the 
 great Buckinghamshire esquire by the ship- 
 money trial, we have the emphatic testimony 
 of Clarendon, whom Lord Macaulay quotes in 
 his Essay on Lord Nugent's " Memorials." 
 The eloquent historian of the civil war, in 
 general no favourable witness for the opposi- 
 tion leaders, says : " Till this time he was 
 rather of reputation in his own county than 
 of public discourse or fame in the kingdom ; 
 but then he grew the argument of all tongues, 
 every man inquiring who and what he was 
 that durst, at his own charge, support the 
 liberty and prosperity of the kingdom." Nor 
 can Clarendon withhold a word of praise for 
 the admirable temper and moderation dis- 
 played by Hampden throughout this trying 
 time. He seems, indeed, to have been 
 singularly happy in freedom from the angry 
 passions that defaced the character even of 
 good and earnest men, in those times of 
 iniquity and wrong. Clarendon tells us " his 
 carriage throughout that agitation was with 
 that rare temper and modesty, that they who 
 watched him narrowly, to find some advantage 
 against his person, to make him less resolute 
 in his cause, were compelled to give him a 
 just testimony." 
 
 Laud and Strafford were exceedingly 
 angry at the popularity of Hampden, and 
 the open way in which the people's appre- 
 ciation of him was exhibited. Laud's narrow 
 mind revolted against the free expression 
 of opinion, in speech or in writing. Hence 
 his acrimony against those whpm he 
 called libellers, and his cruel rancour against 
 Prynne, Bastwick, Barton, and others, who 
 at this time were suffering mutilation and 
 imprisonment. He considers that the men 
 whose ears have been cut off by the hang- 
 man, and who have been sent to languish in 
 
 268 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 distant dungeons, have been too leniently 
 treated ; that the Government has not been 
 nearly sharp and determined enough. 
 Writing to Strafford, he says : " A little 
 more quickness in the Government would 
 cure this itch of libelling. But what can 
 you think of Thorough, when there shall 
 be such slips in business of consequence? 
 What say you to it, that Prynne and his 
 fellows should be suffered to talk what 
 they pleased while they stood in the pillor}'-, 
 and win acclamations from the people?" 
 What can we think of Thorough, indeed ? — 
 simply, that Thorough was in a bad way, 
 when the spirit of the nation began to be 
 alive to its nature and its probable con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Strafford was equally indignant and 
 alarmed ; and in his correspondence with 
 Laud on the occasion, his malignant 
 hatred against the Puritans breaks forth : 
 " Mr. Hampden is a great brother," he 
 writes (the name brother was generally 
 given to the Puritans), " and the very genius 
 of that people leads them always to oppose, 
 as well civilly as ecclesiastically, all that 
 ever authority ordained for them ; but in 
 good faith, were they right served, they 
 should be whipt home into their right wits ; 
 and much beholden should they be to any 
 one that would thoroughly take pains with 
 them in that kind." Again he wishes 
 that " Mr. H., and others to his likeness, 
 were well whipt into their right senses ; and,'' 
 he adds, " if the rod be so used that it smart 
 not, I am the more sorry." 
 
 The legal triumph of the Court party, such 
 as it was, inflamed the Government of 
 Charles to greater acts of tyranny. "Those 
 whom the gods wish to ruin they first 
 deprive of reason," said the philosopher 
 of old ; and certainly the recklessness of 
 misrule in 1637 seems compatible only 
 with moral insanity on the part of those 
 who governed the country. The Star 
 Chamber was more arbitrary than ever, 
 ably seconded by that of High Commission 
 and the Northern Court ; and the persecu- 
 tion against the Puritans was more and 
 more unrelenting. Under these circum- 
 stances Hampden, whose liberty was no 
 longer safe in England, resolved to emigrate 
 to America, where many of the brethren had 
 found a freedom denied them in their own 
 land ; and he was to be accompanied by his 
 kinsman Oliver Cromwell. But the ships 
 which were to convey the cousins, with a 
 number of other Puritans, to America, were 
 prevented from sailing ; and Hampden was 
 compelled to remain in England. He re- 
 mained, to do greater service to his country 
 than even in the matter of the ship-money. 
 
 The order that stopped the departure of 
 Hampden was procured by Laud, who com- 
 
 plained of men " running to New England.'' 
 He little knew what he was preparing for 
 himself by keeping in Old England such men 
 as Hampden and Cromwell. 
 
 How " Thorough " came to an End 
 IN England. 
 
 After the enforced abandonment of his 
 emigration scheme, Hampden withdrew 
 again, for a time, into the background ; 
 for never was there a man less likely to 
 put himself forward, except where duty 
 demanded it. But the years 1638 and 1639 
 were full of events fraught with tremendous 
 consequences to the Government of Charles 
 and his Ministers, and to the future destiny 
 of England. The disaffection of the Puritans 
 in England was increased by the publi- 
 cation of the " Book of Sports ; " which, 
 by officially permitting, or rather enjoining, 
 amusements on Sundays, deeply offended 
 the feelings and opinions of that influential 
 sect. Then came the ill-advised attempt 
 to enforce the use of the Liturgy in Scotland ; 
 and Clarendon tells how, " on the Sunday 
 morning appointed for the work," when the 
 Dean began to read the service in the 
 church of St. Giles, Edinburgh, "a shower 
 of stones and sticks and cudgels" came 
 flying at that functionary's head ; and how 
 the rioters, on being turned out of the 
 church, the doors of which were shut, 
 "continued their barbarous noise" in the 
 churchyard, breaking the windows, and 
 endeavouring to force the doors, " so that 
 it was not possible for any to follow their 
 devotions." The signing of the Covenant, 
 the rebellion in Scotland, and the esta- 
 blishment there of a Provisional Govern- 
 ment, were the next steps ; and the army 
 of Charles proved utterly unable to quell the 
 formidable rising. 
 
 A hasty and ill-arranged pacification, as 
 ill kept as it had been ill made, was followed 
 by a second campaign, in which the failure 
 of the royal troops was most ignominious ; 
 and Laud, and even the resolute Strafford, 
 stood aghast at the ruin that threatened 
 their master. The financial condition of 
 the Government, too, was deplorable. The 
 revenues of the year had been anticipated, 
 and spent, and there was no method 
 available for rising a new and a prompt 
 supply. It was impossible to carry out 
 " Thorough" to its logical conclusion without 
 a strong standing army to put down rebel- 
 lion ; and this task the standing army had 
 failed to accomplish. Thus the "Thorough" 
 system, or rather the attempt to establish it, 
 had proved a failure ; and the King was 
 obliged to have recourse to the expedient 
 he would gladly have avoided — the calling 
 of a parliament ; and, accordingly, after an 
 interval of more than ten years, the writs for 
 
 269 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the assembling of the Lords and Commons 
 were issued, at the beginning of 1640. 
 
 The "Short Parliament" and its 
 Fate. 
 
 From the day when parhamentay govern- 
 ment was once more re-established in Eng- 
 land, until the sad hour that saw the country 
 deprived of his services when she needed 
 them most, the life of Hampden forms part 
 of the history of England. He was chosen 
 to represent his native county, Buckingham- 
 shire, and at once came to London to enter 
 upon his duties. He was now in close inti- 
 macy and companionship with Pym, who 
 divided with him the care and labour of 
 leading the popular party in the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 The Parliament met in April 1640 ; and 
 the first question to be brought under its con- 
 sideration was that of ship-money. The 
 King, whose necessities were pressing, offered 
 to give up the prerogative of levying this tax, 
 in consideration of twelve subsidies ; and here 
 at once arose an occasion of diflerence. For 
 the King had already surrendered the right 
 (if he ever possessed it) on a former occasion, 
 receiving five subsidies as the price of the 
 concession ; and had afterwards resumed the 
 alleged right so soon as it suited him to take 
 back his words. The Commons were willing 
 to grant supplies, but not exactly in the form 
 demanded by His Majesty. As Macaulay 
 observes, they could hardly be expected to 
 purchase over again what they had already 
 bought and paid for. 
 
 They were not allowed time for deliberating, 
 nor for discussing the question. So soon as 
 he found there was to be a debate, Charles 
 angrily dissolved the parliament, to the sorrow 
 and indignation of the country, and to the 
 surprise and bewilderment of the King's own 
 friends, who, like Clarendon, could not 
 imagine in what way the Commons had 
 offended him. Clarendon himself describes 
 the House as very loyal and anxious to serve 
 His Majesty. " It could never be hoped," 
 he says, " that more sober and dispassionate 
 men would ever meet together in that place, 
 or fewer who brought ill purposes with them." 
 But the fact of their questioning the legality 
 of ship-money, his favourite impost, seems to 
 have been enough to set the King against 
 the Commons. 
 
 And so this emphatically short parliament 
 separated after a session of only a few days. 
 
 The Long Parliament and its Doings ; 
 A Great Opportunity. 
 
 Again the system of despotism was tried 
 in England. Ship-money was exacted more 
 rigorously than ever, and the assessments 
 were to a larger amount. Forced loans and 
 other similar expedients were also brought 
 
 into action ; and it seemed as though the 
 government were ready to brave any amount 
 of unpopularity in the frantic endeavour to 
 obtain "the sinews of war" for combating 
 the Scots. All was in vain. The army 
 raised by the King would not face the enemy. 
 The flight of the troops has been attributed 
 to disaffection rather than to cowardice. Be 
 that as it may, they ran away ; and the Scot- 
 tish army advanced into England. There 
 was no resource but to call a parliament; 
 and accordingly that celebrated assembly, 
 known as the Long Parliament, met in the 
 beginning of November 1640, under circum- 
 stances that gave to it a power no previous 
 House of Commons had possessed. 
 
 And the members v/ere conscious of their 
 power, and determined to use it without stint. 
 Clarendon tells us how " the same men who, 
 six months before, were observed to be of 
 very moderate tempers, and to wish that 
 gentle remedies might be applied, talked 
 now in another dialect, both of kings and 
 other persons ; and said that they must now 
 be of another temper than they were the last 
 parliament." Hampden again sat for Buck- 
 inghamshire. He had been elected both for 
 the county and for his old borough of Wen- 
 dover. 
 
 And now, more than ever, were all eyes 
 turned on John Hampden, the patriot. 
 Clarendon describes him as being generally 
 considered, at this period, as pater patrics, 
 the pilot who was to guide the ship of the 
 state through the perils and quicksands that 
 surrounded it, and to whose unswerving in- 
 tegrity, unerring sagacity, and tried rectitude 
 of conduct, followers and opponents alike 
 paid ungrudging testimony. His rare talent 
 for parliamentary debate, his power of sway- 
 ing to his will a large and turbulent assem- 
 blage, the convincing strength of his logic, 
 are seen everywhere during that eventful 
 session, in which the parliament, alike deter- 
 mined and indignant, pulled down so much 
 that had long formed part of the government 
 of the country, the Star Chamber, the High 
 Commission, the Northern Court ; besides 
 executing vengeance on Strafford and Laud, 
 and calling to account the timid and venal 
 judges who, by their judgments in the great 
 ship-money case, had virtually surrendered 
 the property of eveiy man in England into 
 the hands of the sovereign. Everywhere the 
 presence of the great statesman is felt, every- 
 where his voice is heard, advising, admon- 
 ishing, pleading for justice, and advocating 
 moderation in the hour of triumph. Claren- 
 don's opinion of his talents and character is 
 pronounced in no doubtful terms. " Of an 
 industry and vigilance not to be tired out or 
 wearied by the most laborious, and of parts 
 not to be imposed upon by the most subtle and 
 sharp." " His reputation of honesty was uni- 
 
 270 
 
HAMPDEN AND SHIPMONEY. 
 
 Hampden mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field. 
 
 271 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 versal, and his affections seemed so publicly- 
 guided that no corrupt or private ends could 
 bind them." Such, with a high appreciation 
 of his statesmanship, is Clarendon's opinion 
 of the character of Hampden. 
 
 It was a great opportunity that which now- 
 presented itself to the Long Parliament ; and 
 to Hampden is greatly due the credit of the 
 fact that on the whole the opportunity was 
 well used for the honour and advantage of 
 the country. 
 
 How THE Country drifted into the 
 Civil War ; Conclusion. 
 
 During the first session of the Long Par- 
 liament, there was general unanimity among 
 the members in the Commons as to the 
 necessity of sweeping away abuses, and taking 
 vengeance on evil doers. But when the 
 Houses met again, after the recess, there was 
 .considerable difference of opinion ; a reaction 
 had set in in favour of the King, with whom 
 many sympathized in his humiliation and 
 helplessness ; and stormy debates took place 
 in the House, in which the wisdom and 
 moderation of the great popular leader were 
 more than ever called into request. This 
 was especially the case in the debate whether 
 the Grand Remonstrance — a document in 
 which all the misrule of his reign was set 
 forth— should be presented to the King or 
 not. One of the members emphatically de- 
 clares that but for the restraining influence 
 of Hampden they would have been sheath- 
 ing their swords in each other's bosoms. 
 
 At one time it was in contemplation to 
 form a Ministry from among the chief mem- 
 bers of the House, and the office of tutor to 
 the Prince of Wales was to have been en- 
 trusted to Hampden ; but on the death of 
 the Earl of Bedford, the negotiation fell 
 through. 
 
 The last chance of the re-establishment of 
 confidence between the King and his Parlia- 
 ment was lost when, on the 5th of January, 
 1642, Charles came down to the House of 
 Parliament with an armed force, to arrest 
 the great patriot and four of his colleagues 
 in the Commons, on a charge of high treason. 
 This flagrant violation of law and justice 
 filled up the measure of the unhappy monarch's 
 errors. It astounded and bewildered his 
 friends, and lost him many waverers who 
 
 were ready to turn to him, but now felt con- 
 vinced that no, compact worthy of the name 
 could be made with the ruler who could take 
 such a step. And so Charles quitted London ; 
 and in a few months the royal standard was 
 raised at Nottingham, and the Civil War 
 began. Of that great struggle Hampden 
 only saw the commencement. ]^o greater 
 calamity could have befallen the Parlia- 
 mentary party than the loss of the one man 
 in whose patriotism there was not the smallest 
 leaven of self-seeking ; whose thoughts and 
 hopes and aspirations from the commence- 
 ment were for his country. From the be- 
 ginning of the war, Hampden seemed to 
 have recognised it as one in which it was 
 necessary not only to draw the sword, but to 
 throw away the scabbard. He deprecated 
 the negligence which left the marauding 
 cavalry of the Royalists to range through the 
 country at will ; and it was in an attempt to 
 remedy errors of this kind, committed by the 
 languid Essex, that a life, invaluable to his 
 country and her cause, was sacrificed. In a 
 skirmish on Chalgrove field, against the 
 cavalry of Rupert, he was severely and, as it 
 proved, mortally wounded ; and rode slowly 
 out of the field to die. His last words and 
 his last thoughts were for the country he had 
 loved so well, and served so faithfully. " He 
 was buried," says Lord Macaulay, "in the 
 parish church of Hampden. His soldiers, 
 bare-headed, with reversed arms and muffled 
 drums and colours, escorted his body to the 
 grave, singing, as they marched, that lofty 
 and melancholy psalm, in which the fragility 
 of human life is contrasted with the immuta- 
 bility of Him to whom a thousand years are 
 as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch 
 in the night." And long afterwards, when he 
 was Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell 
 spoke to those around him of the days when 
 the great struggle began. " I had a very 
 worthy friend then," said the Protector, — we 
 may imagine with a touch of pathos in his 
 voice, — " and he was a very noble person, 
 and I know his memory is very grateful to 
 all, — Mr. John Hampden." And so, after a 
 lapse of two centuries and a half, the name 
 of John Hampden is still grateful, and re- 
 presents all that is good and noble, in the 
 affectionate remembrance of the nation, 
 in whose name he dared to stand up alone 
 and undaunted for liberty. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 272 
 
Calcutta. 
 
 FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO 
 PLASSEY. 
 
 THE STORY OF ENGLAND'S SUPREMACY IN BENGAL. 
 
 A Memorial of a Great Event — India under Aurungzebe and his Successors — The East India Companies and their Rivalries 
 — The Dutch in India ; their Arrogance — England and France in the Carnatic — Dupleix and his Schemes of Dominion 
 — Robert Clive — The Defence of Arcot — Supremacy of the British in Hindostan — Suraj-ud-Dowlah and the English 
 in Calcutta — Capture of Calcutta — The Massacre of the Black Hole — Mr. Holwell's Account of the Transaction — The 
 Expedition from Madras ; Victory and Revenge — The Conspiracy to dethrone the Suba ; Omichund and his 
 Treachery — " Diamond cut Diamond" : Clive's Device — Opinions of Mill and Macaulay on his Conduct — The War 
 against the Nabob; Clive in Command — Question of risking a General Engagement — The Battle of Plassey and its 
 Consequences — Meer Jafifier Ruler of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar — Pecuniary Transactions of Clive with Meer Jaffier — 
 Further Victories — Rewards and Honours ; Return of Clive to England — The Company's Rule in India ; Grievances 
 and Calamities — ' ' Ringing the Changes on Soubahs "— Meer Cossim and his Successors — Further Proceedings of the 
 Company — Clive's Third Visit to India — How he applied the Remedy — The Result — Conclusion. 
 
 A Memorial of a Great Event. 
 MONO the monuments that attract 
 the attention of the stranger in 
 Calcutta, there is one especially to 
 which a dark and mournful, and at 
 the same time a proud interest is attached ; 
 for while, on the one hand, it bears record of 
 a great and terrible calamity and outrage, it 
 
 marks, on the other, the vengeance exacted 
 for wrongs perpetrated against British sub- 
 jects, long before the days of Lord Palmer- 
 ston and his famous doctrine of " Civis 
 Romanus sum." The monument in ques- 
 tion, which makes no claim to architectural 
 or decorative beauty, marks the site of the 
 prison chamber where, in 1756, was com- 
 273 T 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 mitted " that great crime memorable for its 
 singular atrocity, memorable for the tre- 
 mendous retribution by which it was 
 followed," — generally known as the Mas- 
 sacre of the Black Hole. Here it was, 
 the spectator reads, that in one burning 
 night of a Bengal summer a hundred and 
 twenty-three out of a hundred and forty-six 
 English people were done to death by the 
 cruelty of their guards ; and from the atrocity 
 then accomplished arose the train of events 
 which ended in making the Enghsh masters 
 ofHindostan. 
 
 For with the massacre of the Black Hole 
 of Calcutta is intimately associated the 
 great victory of Plassey, with all its momen- 
 tous consequences. Seldom in history has a 
 great and important series of events, involv- 
 ing consequences of no less magnitude than 
 the transfer of a vast empire, been accom- 
 plished within so short a space of time as in 
 that memorable epoch in the annals of India. 
 In 1756 was the massacre of the Black 
 Hole, In the next year the English were 
 virtually masters of Bengal, Orissa, and 
 Bahar, and had the undoubted supremacy 
 over the various European powers located in 
 India. 
 
 India under Aurungzebe and his 
 Successors. 
 
 Early in the sixteenth century a great 
 conqueror, a descendant of Timur Beg or 
 Timur the Lame, came marching through 
 the mountain passes which separate the 
 Afghan territories from Hindostan ; and suc- 
 ceeded, after a series of sanguinary combats, 
 in establishing himself, by the decisive battle 
 of Panipat, near Delhi, in 1526, as the ruler 
 of India. This conqueror was Baber, the 
 first of the Great Moguls ; and at Delhi 
 he established his throne, from which his 
 descendants continued for centuries to sway 
 the destinies of the mighty realm that ex- 
 tended from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin. 
 The empire of the Moguls was remarkable 
 for its splendour and magnificence. Roe, 
 Bernier, and various travellers tell of the 
 glories of Delhi ; of Agra, the second city 
 in the empire, and of the various rich and 
 fertile provinces whose wealth was poured 
 into the treasury of the great Moguls. 
 About a hundred and thirty years after the 
 commencement of the Mogul rule, Aurang 
 Zib, the " ornament of the throne," generally 
 known as Aurungzebe, began his long reign 
 of half a century. He was the craftiest and 
 most astute ruler of his race ; and when he 
 at length died, at the age of eighty-nine, the 
 empire he governed appeared outwardly 
 vigorous, and retained the semblance of 
 prosperity ; he had considerably widened 
 the borders of the country that obeyed his 
 mandates. In reality, however, the seeds of 
 
 decay were already in the empire, though 
 hidden by Aurungzebe's energy and ability. 
 He was no sooner dead than the disorgani- 
 zation of the state began to show itself in 
 the most lamentable form ; and throughout 
 the first half of the eighteenth century the 
 once proud supremacy of the Moguls existed 
 only in name. 
 
 As in various countries, in mediaeval and 
 earlier times, the weakness of the chief 
 government led to the establishment of 
 separate authorities, only nominally sub- 
 servient to the central power. The rulers of 
 the various parts of India, still calling them- 
 selves vassals to the Great Mogul, became 
 virtually independent ; the various Nizams, 
 Nabobs, Rajahs, and others, doing what 
 seemed right in their own eyes, without 
 reference to the sluggish ruler at Delhi. The 
 land was full of violence and bloodshed, 
 various foreign invaders, Persians, Afghans, 
 and numerous fierce tribes, contending with 
 the natives for the mastery ; and in certain 
 districts irregular governments were set up 
 by freebooting chiefs, who held their ill- 
 gotten power in spite of all efforts to over- 
 throw them. Among these, the most noted 
 for courage and ferocity were the Mahrattas, 
 who not only levied contributions, or as 
 Lord Macaulay designates it, "black-mail," 
 upon the sovereign himself at Delhi, but 
 extended their depredations to Calcutta 
 itself, so that it became necessary to erect 
 fortifications, and to dig the celebrated 
 Mahratta ditch, in the hope of ensuring 
 safety against them. 
 
 The East India Companies, and their 
 Rivalries. 
 
 Since the period when the discovery of the 
 maritime route to India opened a new way 
 for commerce between the western nations 
 and the opulent East, various nations had 
 endeavoured to engross to themselves, as far 
 as possible, the great advantages accruing 
 from the trade with India. At the end of 
 Elizabeth's reign the East India Company 
 had been formed; and during the seventeenth 
 century it had continued to grow in import- 
 ance and wealth. In the reign of William III., 
 great dissentions had occurred, in conse- 
 quence of the formation of a new company, 
 which was alleged to have infringed the 
 rights of the older institution ; but the two 
 rivals very sensibly effected an amalgama- 
 tion, and after 1708 appeared as one, under 
 the name of the United East India Company. 
 This corporation possessed a very valuable 
 monopoly of the trade to India; and one of 
 the chief duties of its agents and servants 
 consisted in keeping a vigilant eye upon all 
 private traders who attempted to infringe 
 the right granted to the Company by its 
 
 274 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 charter, which was three times renewed 
 during the course of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The second East India Company, and one 
 that prospered greatly during the latter part 
 of the seventeenth century, when it more than 
 competed with the English corporation, was 
 that of Holland. 
 
 That the Dutch were at one time very 
 formidable rivals to the English East India 
 Company, and took every opportunity to 
 increase their power, is abundantly mani- 
 fest. In Pepys's Diary, under date of the 
 15th of February, 1663-64, we find the 
 following entry : "This afternoon Sir Thomas 
 Chamberlin come to the office to me, and 
 shewed me several letters from the East 
 Indys, shewing the height that the Dutch 
 are come to there, shewing scorn to aU the 
 English, even in our only factory there of 
 Surat, beating several men, and hanging 
 the English standard St. George under the 
 Dutch flag in scorn \ saying that whatever 
 their masters do or say at home, they will 
 do what they list, and be masters of all the 
 world there ; and have so proclaimed them- 
 selves Sovereigns of all the South Seas ; 
 which certainly our King cannot endure if 
 the Parliament will give him money." 
 
 Things had been very different under 
 grim old Oliver, who would have demanded 
 most signal reparation for such an insult to 
 the British flag. The " Standard Saint 
 George," and the interests of the country it 
 represented, were not likely to suffer in his 
 hands. Under the same month, Mr. Pepys 
 relates how he and his acquaintance Mr. 
 Cutler, being on the Exchange, in London : 
 "by-and-by joyned with us Sir John Bankes, 
 who told us several passages of the East 
 India Company ; and how, in every case, 
 where there was due to him and alderman 
 Mico ^64,000 for injury done to them in the 
 East Indys, Oliver, presently after the peace, 
 they delaying to pay them the money, sent 
 them word, that if they did not pay them by 
 such a day, he would grant letters of mark 
 to those merchants against them ; by which 
 they were so fearful of him, they did pre- 
 sently pay the money every farthing." This 
 was completely in the Protector's style of 
 dealing with those who inflicted injury on 
 the country he governed and made respected 
 throughout the world. 
 
 England and France in the Carnatic. 
 
 But the power of Holland was greatly 
 diminished, and her influence became com- 
 paratively insignificant, in the eighteenth 
 century ; while in India the power of France 
 rose rapidly, and for a time threatened to 
 exceed, if not to extinguish, all other foreign 
 influences in that country. The astute and 
 
 energetic Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, 
 the chief French settlement in that rich pro- 
 vince of the Deccan known as the Carnatic, 
 took advantage of the rivalry of two com- 
 petitors for the throne of the Deccan, and for 
 the governorship of the Carnatic, to make the 
 influence of France predominant in India. 
 The opportunity for interference occurred on 
 the death of the Nizam al Mulk, ruler of the 
 Deccan, in 1748. The scheme of Dupleix 
 was " to make a nabob of the Carnatic, to 
 make a viceroy of the Deccan, to rule under 
 their names the whole of southern India." 
 The English, as was their wont, took the 
 opposite side, and supported the claims of 
 the candidates against whom the French 
 were fighting; but Dupleix succeeded in 
 seating his protege, Mirzapha Jung, on the 
 throne of the Deccan, and was rewarded by 
 the grateful puppet king with such exu- 
 berance of honour, that for a time he became 
 the greatest man in southern India — a kind 
 of Mayor of the Palace to this Eastern slug- 
 gard king — and his scheme seemed to have 
 completely succeeded. 
 
 But there had been shipped to India, a 
 io-w years previously, as a writer in the 
 Company's service, "to make a fortune, or 
 to die of a fever at Madras," a very hot- 
 headed, obstinate, and apparently imprac- 
 ticable youth, named Robert Clive. Beyond 
 personal courage and audacity of the most 
 reckless kind, he had given no token of any 
 unusual quahfications, until circumstances 
 gave him the opportunity of appearing in a 
 military character, when he at once astonished 
 the whole community by the judgment and 
 skill he displayed. " Born a soldier," was 
 the verdict pronounced on him by Major 
 Lawrence, who was considered the most 
 efficient officer in India. It was Robert 
 CUve who, by the wonderful defence of 
 Arcot, the capital, of the Carnatic, against 
 the great army of Rajah Sahib, the opponent 
 of the English, turned the tide which had 
 till then flowed persistently in favour of the 
 French. He had shown, on this occasion, 
 the best qualities of a leader — ^judgment, 
 perseverance, vigilance, and that rare faculty 
 of inspiring his followers with attachment 
 and confidence, which is one of the truest 
 signs of the military genius. No materials 
 were so hopeless, but Robert Clive would 
 convert them into a fighting force ; no pro- 
 ject so desperate, but he would undertake it, 
 and carry it to a successful issue. 
 
 Dupleix made great and persistent efforts 
 to regain the ground he and his nation were 
 rapidly losing ; but under Clive " his genius 
 was rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was 
 by Caesar." He had caused a city to be built, 
 and named it Dupleix Fatihabad, " the city 
 of the victory of Dupleix" ; but Clive caused 
 it to be destroyed. He urgently represented 
 
 27s 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 to the Government at home the necessity of 
 supporting him in the great struggle he was 
 waging ; but his appeals were disregarded ; 
 and worst of all, he was himself no soldier, 
 and was opposed to a military genius whom 
 Frederick of Prussia would not have been 
 ashamed to own as a brother. He retired at 
 length to France, having spent time, energy, 
 and fortune in vain ; and the supremacy of 
 the French in India was at an end. Clive, 
 on the other hand, after consolidating the 
 advantages he had gained, went back to 
 England with flying colours, to be received 
 with welcome and honour by the East India 
 Company's directors in Leadenhall Street, 
 and by the public ; especially by the holders 
 of East India 
 stock, who nick- 
 named him "Gene- 
 ral Clive," and pro- 
 phesied that he 
 would do still 
 greater things in 
 the future. 
 
 Until this time 
 the English had 
 been looked upon 
 in the Carnatic 
 as no more than a 
 trading company, 
 possessing certain 
 factories, with forts 
 for the protection 
 of their warehouses 
 and settlements — 
 such as Fort St. 
 George at Madras, 
 Fort William at 
 Calcutta, Fort St. 
 David, subordi- 
 nate to Fort St. 
 George,and others. 
 But now they had 
 assumed another 
 character. Having 
 been compelled by 
 the force of events 
 to make good 
 their position against the French and against 
 native opponents, they were obliged to 
 retain the military position they had taken 
 up; and thus began the dominion of the Eng- 
 lish in Hindostan. When Clive, after a stay 
 of less than two years in England, during 
 which time he endeavoured unsuccessfully 
 to get into Parliament, but succeeded in 
 spending the fortune he had brought home, 
 applied again to the Company for employ- 
 ment, he was sent out in the honourable 
 position of Governor of Fort St. David ; 
 and a colonel's commission was bestowed 
 upon him by the Government at home. 
 He had thoroughly established his reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 Lord Clive. 
 
 suraj-ud-dowlah, and the english in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 Thus Clive, after he had, in conjunction 
 with a brave English naval officer, Admiral 
 Watson, utterly defeated a renowned pirate 
 chief, Angria, and destroyed Gheriah, his 
 stronghold, proceeded to take possession of 
 his government of Fort St. David. Very 
 important events were happening in north- 
 eastern India. The richest part of that great 
 country comprised those regions through 
 which flowed the fertilising stream of the 
 Ganges, the holy river that turned the wilder- 
 ness into a garden, and called forth the most 
 exuberant growth of vegetation beneath the 
 burning Indian 
 sun. Lord Ma- 
 caulay quotes the 
 Spanish proverb, 
 that in Andalusia 
 the earth is water, 
 and the men wo- 
 men, and applies 
 the saying to the 
 valley of the lower 
 Ganges, where the 
 heavy, humid at- 
 mosphere, the 
 " constant vapour- 
 bath," in which 
 the Bengalee lives, 
 engenders languid 
 and sedentary ha- 
 bits, very different 
 from those of the 
 inhabitants of the 
 hilly countries, 
 such as Rohilcund, 
 for instance. The 
 Bengalee is keen- 
 witted, intriguing, 
 and pertinacious, 
 but is described 
 as ordinarily of 
 sedentary habits, 
 and rather crafty 
 than physically 
 brave, excepting with that passive courage 
 that displays itself in stoical endurance of the 
 inevitable. 
 
 Like the other great divisions of India, 
 Bengal, with the provinces of Orissa and 
 Bahar, was governed by a ruler, nominally a 
 vassal of the Mogul Emperor at Delhi, but 
 in reality independent. He was generally 
 spoken of by the Company's servants by his 
 title of the Suba. 
 
 In 1756, after the death of the Suba Ali- 
 verdy Khan, Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the grandson 
 of that powerful ruler, succeeded to his 
 dominions. He was only nineteen years of 
 age, ignorant, faithless, and debauched ; of 
 violent temper, and weak understanding ; one 
 
 276 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 of those wretched Cahgulas or Charles the 
 Ninths to whom the irony of fate seems 
 occasionally to entrust power, as if to show 
 how completely it may be abused. The fame 
 of the English and of their progress in 
 Madras can hardly have failed to reach 
 Moorshedabad, the ancient capital of Bengal, 
 where the Suba held his state ; for within a 
 very few years the Company, from being 
 merely traders, paying rent for the very 
 ground on which they had built forts to 
 protect their depots of goods, had developed 
 into soldiers and diplomatists, and had shown 
 themselves strong enough to take up a 
 commanding position. Nor is it to be sup- 
 posed that the French, who had seen their 
 supremacy overthrown in the Carnatic, would 
 fail to use what influence they possessed in 
 Bengal in stimulating the distrust and jea- 
 lousy of the Suba, whose envy and rapacity 
 had been aroused by the report of the wealth 
 in the warehouses of the East India Company 
 at Calcutta. The desire of plunder seems to 
 have been the crowning motive that induced 
 him suddenly to commence a war against the 
 foreign merchant community. 
 
 Capture of Calcutta ; the Massacre 
 OF THE Black Hole. 
 
 When it became known in the English 
 settlement that the Suba was marching with 
 a great army against Calcutta, the consterna- 
 tion was great. Fort William was not in a 
 state to sustain a long siege by a considerable 
 force ; the number of the English was small, 
 and there was no Clive or Lawrence among 
 them to direct their movements. Deserted 
 by the governor and by the military com- 
 mandant, who provided with indecent haste 
 for their own safety, the defenders of Calcutta 
 were soon obliged to yield to the great force 
 brought against them, and surrender them- 
 selves prisoners of war. As the Suba pro- 
 mised them their lives, they were in no appre- 
 hension of anything worse than imprisonment 
 for a limited period, until the terms for their 
 liberation should be arranged. 
 
 Then it was that the cruel piece of villainy 
 was perpetrated that ultimately cost Suraj- 
 ud-Dowlah his throne and his life. Lord 
 Macaulay, in his eloquent and vivid account 
 of the transaction, describes the prison of the 
 garrison, in which the captives were confined, 
 as " known by \\\& fearful name of the Black 
 Hole;" though to the mind of a soldier the 
 name merely implies the '' lock-up," or prison 
 room, to which Private Thomas Atkins is 
 marched if the picket should find him brawl- 
 ing in the streets, or absent from barracks 
 without leave. That the atrocity was deli- 
 berately planned for the murder of the pri- 
 soners cannot be doubted. They were driven, 
 a hundred and forty-six in number, into a 
 
 prison room, twenty feet square, on one of the 
 hottest nights of a Bengal summer, and the 
 door was locked and barred behind them. 
 They quickly began to suffocate for want of 
 air, and the scene became horrible in the 
 extreme. " They cried for mercy," writes 
 Lord Macaulay, recounting the sufferings of 
 the unhappy captives. " They strove to burst 
 the door, and Holwell" (the highest in rank of 
 the Company's servants among the prisoners), 
 " who, even in that extremity, retained some 
 presence of mind, offered large bribes to the 
 gaolers. But the answer was that nothing 
 could be done without the Nabob's orders ; 
 that the Nabob was asleep, and that he would 
 be angry if any one woke him. Then the 
 prisoners went mad with despair. They 
 trampled each other down, fought for the 
 places at the windows, fought for the pittance 
 of water with which the cruel mercy of the 
 gaolers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed , 
 blasphemed, implored the guards to firj 
 among them. The gaolers meanwhile held 
 lights to the bars, and shouted with laughter 
 at the frantic struggles of their victims. At 
 length the tumult died away in low gasp- 
 ings and meanings." When the door was 
 opened in the morning, only twenty-three 
 survivors of that fearful night came forth 
 from the cell which a hundred and forty- 
 six had entered only a few hours before. 
 The rest had been stifled, or crushed to 
 death in the frantic struggle to get at the 
 windows, or airholes, where alone was a 
 chance for life. 
 
 The responsibility for the massacre is cast 
 by Lord Macaulay, indirectly at least, upon 
 Suraj-ud-Dowlah — who, he says, showed no 
 mercy to the survivors, and inflicted no punish- 
 ment upon the perpetrators. But it is a 
 question whether the Nabob knew anything 
 of the atrocious affair until the crime had 
 been completed ; nor would it probably have 
 been safe to punish his savage soldiers for 
 cruelties perpetrated upon the enemy in time 
 of war. Even in our own times, during the 
 Indian mutiny of 1857-8, we read, in the 
 diary of Dr. Russell, of tortures, such as 
 roasting over a slow fire, inflicted by some 
 native troops in our service upon rebel Sepoys 
 they captured, without notice being taken of 
 it ; and the Nabob was in a great measure 
 dependent upon his army for the maintenance 
 of his authority. 
 
 Mr. Holwell himself has left a plain, 
 straightforward record of his sufferings on 
 that night of horror, during which he managed 
 to secure a position at a grated window, which 
 enabled him to breathe. He attributes the 
 massacre to a feeling of revenge among the 
 janissaries of the Suba,who were angry because 
 some of their number had been killed in the 
 defence of the fort. He describes how at his 
 entreaty an old janissary went twice to try 
 
 ^n 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and procure the removal of half the prisoners 
 to another prison ; and on the second occa- 
 sion "he told us," says Mr. Holweil, with 
 what appeared to be real compassion in his 
 looks, "that it was impossible; theSubawas 
 asleep, and nobody dared to wake him." The 
 water, also, seems to have been given in 
 something like a tardy access of pity, rather 
 than from a desire to mock the agonies of 
 the captives. 
 
 The Expedition from Madras ; Victory 
 AND Revenge. 
 
 In due course, the news of the capture of 
 Calcutta, and of the massacre of the Black 
 Hole, reached Madras, and was received with 
 mingled horror and indignation. It was 
 readily understood that vengeance must be 
 exacted at all risks ; for the influence of 
 the English in India was gone for ever if 
 such acts remained unpunished. An expe- 
 dition was at once despatched to the Hoog- 
 ley ; Clive being placed in command of the 
 troops, among whom were nine hundred 
 Englishmen, while Admiral Watson con- 
 ducted the naval operations. 
 
 In a very short time Calcutta was retaken, 
 and Budgebudge and Hoogley had also fallen 
 into the power of the victors. Suraj-ud-Dowlah, 
 who until then had no idea of the power of 
 the English, was astounded and bewildered 
 at the rapid success of his enemies. He 
 hastened to offer terms of peace, promising 
 compensation to those who had suffered by 
 his seizure of Calcutta, and generally showing 
 a pacific disposition — which however, did 
 not last long. 
 
 The fact seems to have been that the Suba's 
 hatred of the English was undiminished ; or 
 rather, it was increased by the necessity of 
 conciliating them, and by the startling and 
 unpleasant evidences he received of their 
 power. Naturally under such circumstances 
 the idea occurred to him to set up the influence 
 of the French to counteract that of the Eng- 
 lish ; not altogether an unstatesmanlike idea, 
 if he had had the judgment and persistence 
 to carry it out. But he could never pursue a 
 line of policy; for every new danger appalled 
 him, and he lost the confidence of his own 
 subjects, while his opponents became con- 
 vinced that no treaty would bind him, and 
 that while he sat on the throne of Bengal 
 there was no prospect of permanent peace. 
 Accordingly, when Suraj-ud-Dovvlah opened 
 negociations with the French at Chanderna- 
 gore, and with Bussy — the most efficient 
 French official in India — an expedition was 
 at once organized against Chandernagore by 
 Clive and Watson, and its brilliant success 
 put an end to the Nabob's hopes in that direc- 
 tion. He is described by Lord Macaulay as 
 behaving on this occasion "with all the faith- 
 lessness of an Indian statesman, and all the 
 
 levity of a boy whose mind had been en- 
 feebled by power and self-indulgence." But 
 he was destined to meet with cunning and 
 duplicity far beyond his own. 
 
 The Conspiracy to dethrone the Suba; 
 Omichund and his Treachery. 
 
 It was now that theEnghsh began to work 
 out in Bengal a system, the example forwhich 
 had been set in the Deccan, some years 
 before, by Dupleix, in his dealings with 
 Mirzapha Jung and that potentate's succes- 
 sor, — the system, namely, of consolidating 
 their rule and authority by governing through 
 some puppet prince whom they should set 
 up. Now began the practice of placing on the 
 throne nabobs who should be compelled to 
 defer in all things to the power to which they 
 owed their elevation— a policy which in one 
 notable instance led to a greater atrocity even 
 than that of the Black Hole — the massacre of 
 Patna. Writing some years later on this 
 system, in his " Seasonable Hint and Per- 
 swasive to the Court of Directors of the East 
 India Company," Mr. Holweil strongly de- 
 precates this system, and advocates its being 
 superseded by a direct authority to be ob- 
 tained by the English from the Great Mogul 
 himself. " Let us have done with this ringing J 
 changes upon Soubahs," he says: "there's -S 
 no end to it ; let us boldly dare to be Soubah 
 ourselves. Our own terms have been more 
 than once off"ered to us by the Emperor : why 
 should we longer hesitate to accept them 1 
 We have not scrupled to seize and possess 
 part of his territory with violence ; surely it 
 would be more conscientious, and more con- 
 sistent with the laws of nature and nations, 
 to hold the whole of these provinces under 
 him by his own appointment ; " and Mr. 
 Holweil has also a just appreciation of the 
 real position of the phantom who still bore 
 the title of a great potentate, and was called 
 the Great Mogul, while the attributes which 
 once accompanied that title had long passed 
 away. " That this would readily be assented 
 to on his part." he adds, " if a proper overture 
 came from us, is not to be doubted ; the con- 
 sideration of his own great and obvious ad- 
 vantages, and the necessities of his situation, 
 would leave him no room for choice." This 
 was good advice, and to some extent it was 
 ultimately followed ; but not until the system 
 of "ringing the changes on Soubahs" had 
 been pursued for some time, and occasionally 
 with tragic consequences. 
 
 Among his own subjects, no less than 
 among the English, the baseness, cmelty, 
 and dissoluteness ef Suraj-ud-Dowlah had 
 excited enmity and contempt. A plot was 
 accordingly formed among some of the lead- 
 ing natives to deprive him of his throne ; and 
 in this plot the English heartily joined. Mr. 
 
 >78 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 Watts, a leading servant of the East India 
 Company, on whom had devolved the dan- 
 gerous and unpleasant task of negociating 
 with the despot, and who therefore knew the 
 Nabob's character thoroughly, was the chief 
 agent in the matter on behalf of the English; 
 and the co-operation of Clive and Admiral 
 Watson was likewise heartily given. It was 
 proposed to set up Meer Jaffier, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of Suraj-ud-Dowlah's army, 
 as the successor of that worthless ruler ; and 
 the negociations and arrangements were 
 carried on with great energy and with equal 
 secrecy; for if Suraj-ud-Dowlah had sus- 
 pected what was going on, the lives of the 
 native conspirators and of their English allies, 
 which were at his mercy, would probably 
 have been sacrificed in the first outburst of 
 his fury and alarm. 
 
 "Diamond cut Diamond "- 
 Device. 
 
 -Clive's 
 
 This danger was appreciated, and cun- 
 ningly turned to his own advantage, by a man 
 whose name has been ominously linked with 
 that of Clive by the transactions which ensued 
 — the rich Bengalee, Omichund. This cun- 
 ning and unscrupulous man had been em- 
 ployed in the secret negociations carried on 
 between the English and the leading natives, 
 — ^Roy Dullub, the minister of finance, the 
 great banker Jugget Seyt, and others, — for 
 the deposition of Suraj-ud-Dowlah ; and when 
 everything was progressing favourably, he 
 suddenly astounded the conspirators by 
 making a demand for three hundred thousand 
 pounds, in addition to the sum he was to 
 receive as compensation for the losses he had 
 incurred by the taking of Calcutta, as the 
 price of his silence ; threatening in case of 
 refusal to reveal the whole plot to the Nabob. 
 In the perplexity occasioned in the council 
 by this astonishing demand, which the wily 
 Bengalee well knew he could enforce by the 
 advantages he derived from his power to ruin 
 the conspiracy and its promoters, Clive came 
 forward with a piece of advice equally astound- 
 ing. It was simply to fight Omichund with 
 his own weapons of fraud ; to promise him 
 whatever he required, and thus to secure his 
 silence ; and when the danger should have 
 passed, to repudiate his claim altogether, and 
 give him neither compensation for his losses 
 nor the reward for his silence. As Omichund 
 had insisted that his claims should be em- 
 bodied in the treaty to be drawn up and 
 signed by the chiefs of the council, and by 
 which their proceedings would be regulated, 
 Clive thereupon caused two treaties to be 
 drawn up, one on red paper, the other on 
 white, and only on the former of these was 
 the clause inserted concerning the sum to be 
 paid to Omichund. The device resembled 
 the nefarious expedient by which, in 1634, 
 
 the chiefs of Wallenstein's army were cheated 
 by a substituted document into giving their 
 written promise of support to that daring 
 adventurer. But Clive's device was even 
 more unscrupulous than that of Terzky and 
 lUo. Admiral Watson, who seems to have 
 disapproved of this method of meeting fraud 
 by fraud, declined to put his name to the red 
 treaty; whereupon Clive forged the Admiral's 
 signature. 
 
 Mr. Mill, the historian of India, who looks 
 upon Clive as a great, but a bad man, " to 
 whom deception, when it suited his purpose, 
 never cost a pang," naturally condemns this 
 transaction in unqualified terms ; and with 
 right, for it was not only a crime in itself, but 
 proved a precedent for the deplorable system 
 of admitting fraud and treachery as accredited 
 weapons in dealing with the natives of India. 
 " The name of Cassius honours this corruption, 
 and chastisement does therefore hide his 
 head." The great name of Clive, the con- 
 queror of India, could subsequently be 
 cited in defence of the deception by which 
 the chiefs orf the Company— "predestinated 
 criminals," as Burke indignantly calls them — 
 drew down upon the Carnatic the terrible 
 vengeance of Hyder Ali, the tiger of Mysore. 
 Sir John Malcolm, whose life of Lord Clive 
 is written throughout in an undeviating style 
 of panegyric, considers that the treachery of 
 Omichund fully justified reprisals in kind 
 on the part of the English ; while Lord 
 Macaulay, who differs from both the writers 
 before mentioned in his estimate of Clive — to 
 whom, however, on various occasions, he is 
 more than lenient — condemns the transaction; 
 though in a later part of his valuable essay 
 on Clive, he lays down the somewhat singular 
 proposition, that if on weighing the good and 
 the bad deeds of a great public man, the good 
 are found on the whole to preponderate, the 
 verdict of history should be one, not only of 
 acquittal, but of approval: a standard of judg- 
 ment which would give a very wide range to 
 an unscrupulous statesman or ruler. 
 
 He accounts for Chve's proceedings on 
 this occasion on the conventional principle 
 which makes people measure their conduct to 
 different sets of people by various standards ; 
 just as it has been cited, in defenceof Charles I., 
 that he never broke his word to a gentleman. 
 "The truth seems to have been," says Ma- 
 caulay, " that he considered oriental politics 
 as a game at which nothing was unfair. 
 Accordingly this man, in the other parts of 
 his life an honourable English gentleman 
 and a soldier, was no sooner matched against 
 an Indian intriguer, than he became himself 
 an Indian intriguer, and descended without 
 scruple to falsehood, to hypocritical caresses, 
 to the substitution of documents, and to the 
 counterfeiting of hands." 
 
 179 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The War against the Nabob ; Clive 
 IN Command. 
 
 The danger that arose from Omichund's 
 treachery once averted, it was comparatively 
 easy to persuade Suraj-ud-Dowlah that the 
 English desired to keep on good terms with 
 him. Clive speaks of a " soothing letter " he 
 wrote to the Nabob, while at the same time 
 he was exhorting Meer Jaffier to be prepared 
 to declare against his master, and to join the 
 English with his troops. When all was pre- 
 pared, he suddenly astonished the Nabob by 
 a peremptory letter, setting forth the griev- 
 ances of which the English had to complain ; 
 and its whole tone was that of a declaration 
 
 Audacity had always been, and continued 
 to the last day of his life to be, a leading 
 feature in Clive's character. His was the 
 courage that " mounteth with occasion," and 
 he set the example, gloriously followed by his 
 successors in after days, of ceasing to count 
 the number of the foe, where a great advant- 
 age was to be won or a great peril to be 
 averted. On this occasion even his fearless 
 strength of mind was taxed to the utmost. 
 The forces the Nabob could bring against 
 him amounted to sixty thousand men ; his 
 own army, if Meer Jaffier failed to join him, 
 would not exceed three thousand, though a 
 third part of them were English — including 
 the men of the 39th regiment, the first regular 
 
 The Captives in the "Black Hole." 
 
 or at least a menace of war. As such Suraj- 
 udDowlah regarded it, and accordingly 
 replie by preparing for immediate strife. 
 From Moorshedabad, the capital, he marched 
 with his forces to Plassey, while Clive 
 advanced to Cossimbuzar, a commercial 
 settlement of the English. Until now all had 
 gone well with the conspirators ; but a new 
 and formidable danger appeared, and one 
 that it required all Clive's firmness to en- 
 counter. Meer Jaffier's heart failed him ; 
 and when he was to have led over his division 
 of the army to the English, he remained 
 inactive, and could not be induced, either 
 by persuasion or remonstrance, to take the 
 decisive step. His indecision threatened to 
 ruin everything. 
 
 corps employed in fighting the battles of their 
 country in India. 
 
 A council of war— the only one, Clive used 
 afterwards to declare, he ever summoned in 
 his life — was called to decide the question 
 whether they should give battle to the Nabob. 
 For a time Clive acquiesced in the general 
 opinion that the risk would be too great ; but 
 afterwards, on thinking over the question 
 alone when the council had broken up, he 
 resolved to venture everything on a battle, 
 and gave orders to advance ; for he had 
 determined to encounter the Nabob next 
 day. Lord Macaulay, indeed, considers that 
 success or ruin was the only possible issue of 
 his enterprise. " Before him lay a river," he 
 says, " over which it was easy to advance, but 
 
 280 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 over which, if things went ill, not one of his 
 little band woald ever return." This river 
 was the Bhaghrutti, a branch of the Ganges. 
 That defeat would have been most disastrous 
 there is no doubt — but that Clive, one of the 
 ablest of soldiers, fertile in resource, and 
 noted for presence of mind in the hour of 
 danger, would not have been able to save 
 a man of his army, is difficult to believe. 
 Certain it is, however, that the great leader 
 never more fully justified the title the natives 
 had bestowed on him, of Sabat Jung, " the 
 daring in war," than when he made up his 
 mind to risk the struggle from which dates the 
 supremacy of the British nation in Bengal. 
 
 The Battle 
 OF Plassey, 
 AND ITS Con- 
 sequences. 
 It was on the 
 23rd of June, 
 1757, that the 
 famous battle of 
 Plassey was 
 fought. The vic- 
 tory was com- 
 plete, and the 
 results of the 
 highest import- 
 ance ; but so far 
 as the struggle 
 itself is con- 
 cerned, it cannot 
 rank with such 
 fields as Assaye 
 orArgaum. The 
 disproportion of 
 forces was in- 
 deed great ; but 
 much of the Na- 
 bob's army was 
 a rabble, — his 
 artillery was of 
 the clumsiest 
 kind, huge guns, 
 tugged by long 
 teams of oxen, 
 with an elephant pushing behind each piece, — 
 and worse than all there was disaffection and 
 discouragement throughout the host. Meer 
 Jaffier did not indeed lead his division 
 against his master ; but he remained inactive, 
 and drew off his men so soon as the fortune 
 of the day was decided. 
 
 This it did not take long to do. The 
 Nabob was seized v/ith terror from an early 
 period of the battle, when he found that 
 the artillery of the English was doing exe- 
 cution among his troops, being excellently 
 served, while his own was effecting nothing. 
 Confusion, arising as much from disaffection 
 as from fear, quickly spread through the 
 ranks of his wavering army ; and Clive was 
 
 Monument on the Site of the Black Hole. 
 
 not slow to see and to profit by the half- 
 heartedness of his foes. Urged by some of 
 his followers, whose counsel was doubtless 
 dictated by treachery, to consult his personal 
 safety, Suraj-ud-Dowlah himself set the ex- 
 ample of retreat ; and his flight from the 
 field was followed by the complete rout of 
 his army. The English had the advantage 
 from the first ; the fact that of the victors 
 only twenty-two were killed and about fifty 
 w^ounded, while only five hundred of the 
 Nabob's army were slain, sufficiently proves 
 that Plassey was rather a well planned than 
 a hotly contested battle ; but the forces of 
 Suraj-ud-Dowlah were as completely routed 
 as the French 
 army at Water- 
 loo. 
 
 If it was the 
 purpose of the 
 English to put 
 a roi faineant 
 on the throne of 
 Bengal, they 
 had certainly 
 found what they 
 wanted in Meer 
 Jaffier. Never 
 was a man more 
 given to let " I 
 dare not " wait 
 upon " I would," 
 — and his con- 
 sciousness of 
 having deserved 
 ill at the hands 
 of his allies was 
 betrayed in the 
 evident fear he 
 evinced when 
 he came to offer 
 his apologies 
 and congratula- 
 tions to Clive 
 on the following 
 morning. But 
 Clive affected to 
 believe his ex- 
 cuses, and reHeved his mind by showing 
 that the programme was to be cbrried 
 out, and that Meer Jaffier was to haVe his 
 reward, though he had certainly not borne 
 the burden and heat of the day. Meer 
 Jaffier, in pursuance of Clive's advice, at 
 once marched to Moorshedabad, to be there 
 installed as Nabob of Bengal, Orissa, and 
 Bahar ; and the victor of Plassey, with a 
 retinue of five hundred soldiers, arrived in 
 the capital shortly afterwards. Thereupon 
 Meer Jaffier was solemnly inducted into his 
 new office, Clive taking the chief share in 
 the ceremony, himself leading the new ruler 
 to the throne prepared for him, and present- 
 ing him with the offering of gold usually 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 brought forward on such occasions in the 
 East. 
 
 A few days later a less magnificent but not 
 less important meeting of the actors in the 
 late revolution was held ; for the terms of 
 the treaty entered into between Meer Jaffier 
 and his fellow-conspirators were now to be 
 fulfilled. When the white treaty had 
 been read, Clive — in whose behaviour to 
 Omichund there had till now been nothing 
 to make the treacherous Bengalee think he 
 was out of favour — caused Omichund to be 
 suddenly informed that a deception had been 
 played upon him, that " the red treaty was a 
 trick." The effect of the sudden overthrow 
 of his confident expectations was such as to 
 utterly unhinge the mmd of the man whose 
 hopes were thus shattered at a blow. Omi- 
 chund sank into a state of iinbecility, and 
 died in a few months. 
 
 Clive's Transactions with Meer 
 Jaffier. 
 
 And now we come to proceedings oa the 
 part of the victor of Plassey which were 
 made the theme first of public comment and 
 afterwards of parliamentary investigation 
 years later, and which, no less than his du- 
 plicity and dissimulation towards Omichund 
 and others, have left a dark spot on Clive's 
 memory. After vengeance had been executed 
 on Suraj-ud-Dowlah — that wretched man 
 having fallen into the hands of Meer Jaffier 
 was, in spite of his frantic tears and entrea- 
 ties, put to death by the order of the savage 
 Meeran, the son of the new Nabob — Meer 
 Jaffier made it his next care to reward the 
 man to whom he owed his elevation. The 
 treasury of Moorshedabad, with all its gor- 
 geous store of gold and jewels, was at his 
 disposal, and he might take what he chose. 
 " There were piled up," says Lord Macaulay, 
 " after the usage of Indian princes, immense 
 masses of coin, among which might not sel- 
 dom be detected the florins and byzants with 
 which, before any European ship had turned 
 the Cape of Good Hope, the Venetians pur- 
 chased the stuffs and spices of the East. Clive 
 walked between heaps of gold and silver, 
 crowned with rubies and diamonds." He 
 certainly availed himself of the opportunity 
 thus afforded him of acquiring sudden 
 wealth. Between two and three hundred 
 thousand pounds were given to him at 
 once by Meer Jaffier, who at a later 
 period likewise bestowed on him for life 
 the rent the Company paid for the ground 
 on which their factories at Calcutta stood ; 
 and his fortune, measured by the standard of 
 those times, may be considered as colossal, 
 " His whole annual income," says Lord Mac- 
 aulay, " in the opinion of Sir John Malcolm, 
 who is desirous of stating it as low as pos- 
 sible, exceeded forty thousand pounds ; and 
 
 incomes of forty thousand pounds at the 
 time of the accession of George III. were 
 at least as rare as incomes of a hundred 
 thousand pounds now." This remark was 
 made by Lord Macaulay forty years ago; the 
 disproportion between the average of incomes 
 in 1 760 as compared with that of the present 
 day would appear still greater. There is no 
 doubt that Sir John Malcolm considerably 
 understated the income of Clive, which must 
 have been nearer fifty than forty thousand a 
 year. 
 
 The standard of public morality in those 
 times was low, and many things were con- 
 tinually done which would excite horror at 
 the present day. What would be thought, 
 for instance, of a minister who took a com- 
 mission upon sums voted as subsidies to foreign 
 powers 1 And yet William Pitt, the great com- 
 moner, was looked upon as quixotic in his 
 purity because he refused to accept " these 
 ignominious vails." The Duke of Newcastle 
 is described as receiving at his levee in his 
 great house in Lincoln's Inn Fields direct 
 applications for money on various pretences 
 from his supporters in Parliament ; and, 
 nearly thirty years later, royalty itself did not 
 disdain to accept some valuable diamonds 
 and " a richly-carved ivory bed" from Warren 
 Hastings, while that great satrap had the 
 gravest of accusations hanging over him ; 
 and a satirical poet "described, with gay 
 malevolence, the gorgeous appearance of 
 Mrs. Hastings at St. James's, the galaxy of 
 jewels, torn from Indian begums, which 
 adorned her headdress, her necklace gleam- 
 ing with future votes, and the depending 
 questions that shone upon her ears." Pitt, 
 indeed, kept proudly aloof from the work of 
 bribery, corruption, and rapacity ; but, in 
 general, opportunities of making money in 
 every way short of direct embezzlement were 
 seized without much scruple ; and this should 
 be remembered in excuse of Clive's doings, 
 though it cannot form a justification for 
 them. "By God, Mr. Chairman!" was his 
 exclamation when, many years afterwards, 
 these transactions were investigated by a Par- 
 liamentary committee — "at this moment T 
 stand astonished at my own moderation ; " 
 and certainly, had he so chosen, he might 
 have taken twice or three times as much as 
 he did from the treasury at Moorshedabad, 
 and no man would have ventured to say him 
 nay. 
 
 Nevertheless, the conduct of Clive in this 
 matter had an evil influence ; for every rapa- 
 cious adventurer could point to his example 
 as a kind of warrant for his own wrong-doing. 
 By accepting a splendid fortune from Meer 
 Jafifier, he was virtually acting as though he 
 had been himself a potentate — and not a ser- 
 vant of the State, simply using a force with 
 whose command he was entrusted for the 
 
 282 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 benefit of that State, and not for himself 
 The principle laid down, some years after- 
 wards, by the Parliamentary committee above 
 mentioned, that condemned the appropriation 
 by a private person of the results of conquests 
 made by the arms of the State, was a per- 
 fectly sound one. 
 
 Further Victories ; Rewards and 
 
 Honours ; Return of Clive to 
 
 England. 
 
 "Some are born great," says the ambi- 
 tious steward in Shakespeare's play ; " some 
 achieve greatness, and some have greatness 
 thrust upon them." Meer Jaffier appears to 
 have belonged to the last of these classes. 
 He had been put forward when the great 
 revolution was planned, that snatched the 
 rule of Bengal from the worthless hands of 
 Suraj-ud-Dowlah ; but, as has been seen, he 
 looked back alter putting his hand to the 
 plough, and in his half-hearted way despaired 
 of the success of the enterprise while every- 
 thing was going well ; and now that he had 
 been as it were pushed up into a great posi- 
 tion, he showed himself destitute of the 
 qualities necessary to maintain it. 
 
 His constancy was soon put to the test by 
 a threatening danger, and at once gave way 
 under the trial. A son of the Great Mogul 
 conceived the project of taking from Meer 
 Jaffier by force of arms the great principalities 
 of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar; declaring him 
 to be a mere usurper, sustained in a wrongful 
 possession by the arms of strangers. Shah 
 Alum, the prince in question, accordingly got 
 together a large army, consisting of Afghans, 
 Mahrattas, and other warlike adventurers, 
 and invaded Meer Jaffier's territories with 
 the intention of conquering them for himself; 
 and other neighbouring princes were watch- 
 ing the enterprise with a view of claiming a 
 share of the spoil. Meer Jaffier was for 
 treating the invaders as Ethelred the Un- 
 ready treated the Danes, when he bribed them 
 to leave him in peace ; but Clive, with excel- 
 lent judgment, foresaw the effect of such 
 a measure, and strenuously counselled the 
 Nabob against it. His words, as quoted by 
 Loi'd Macaulay, are full of strong good sense. 
 " If you do this," he wrote to Meer Jaffier, 
 " you will have the Nabob of Oude, the 
 Mahrattas, and many more, come from all 
 parts of the confines of your country, who 
 will bully you out of money till you have 
 none left in your treasury. I beg your Ex- 
 cellency will rely on the fidelity of the English 
 and of those troops who are attached to you." 
 Here he had struck the right note. The 
 scrupulous carrying out of engagements once 
 undertaken, the exact fulfilment of every 
 pledge and promise given, was the surest 
 foundation upon which to erect the fabric of 
 British power in India. Had he always 
 
 remembered this, such a stain as that left by 
 the "red treaty" would never have darkened 
 his fame. 
 
 With regard to Meer Jaffier, he thoroughly 
 redeemed his pledge, taking the field with 
 such vigour against the troops of Shah Alum 
 that the formidable invasion melted away in 
 a short time ; to the delight of the weak 
 Nabob, whose satisfaction at the discomfiture 
 of his enemies seems, however, to have been 
 lessened by the sense of his own entire de- 
 pendence upon the English for maintenance 
 in his authority. The French also began to 
 stir in the Carnatic, and made an attempt 
 to regain something of their old ascendency 
 there. Clive despatched an expedition against 
 them under Forde, an officer who justified 
 his choice by such brilliant and rapid suc- 
 cesses as entirely annulled any hope of a 
 revival of the French influence of the days 
 of Dupleix. 
 
 Another and a more formidable attempt 
 was made by the Dutch, whose colonial 
 policy during the last century, though they 
 were a minor power, was much more practi- 
 cal than that of the French, who combined 
 neglect of their interests abroad with mis- 
 government at home. Roused to action by 
 the growing power of the English, and un- 
 easy for their own interests in Bengal, where 
 they held Chinsurah, the colonial government 
 at Java despatched a formidable armament 
 of seven large vessels to the Hoogley as an 
 expedition against the English ; and in this 
 proceeding they were secretly encouraged by 
 the countenance of Meer Jaffier himself, 
 who was not disinclined to play off the 
 Dutch power as a counterpoise to the para- 
 mount influence of the mighty nation who 
 had set him up, and might one day, as with 
 sufficiently correct judgment he foresaw, pull 
 him down. True to his usual policy, Clive 
 at once took the Dutch bull by the horns. 
 He promptly attacked the armament, before 
 it could get to Chinsurah, completely routed 
 it, and then besieged Chinsurah itself Dis- 
 mayed at the utter failure of their enterprise, 
 the Dutch thought it best to capitulate ; 
 and obtained peace only on such terms as 
 entirely put an end to their existence as 
 anything more than a trading corporation in 
 Bengal. 
 
 Clive's name was now known and honoured 
 throughout the British empire ; and his great 
 victories were looked on as having added one 
 of the brightest pages to the glories that 
 rendered illustrious the administration of 
 William Pitt, and the closing years of the 
 reign of George II. The Great Commoner 
 himself had the highest opinion of the mili- 
 tary genius of Clive, who was looked upon as 
 the natural successor of the hero of Quebec 
 in tlie respect and regard of the nation. 
 Accordingly, when Clive returned to England 
 
 283 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 he was raised to the peerage of Ireland, by 
 the title of Baron of Plassey, and was received 
 with the highest distinction. He entered 
 Parliament ; and his enormous wealth, in 
 those days of the purchase of pocket boroughs, 
 as well as his position with regard to the 
 East India Company, gave him great in- 
 fluence, and rendered the rival parties, then 
 tolerably equally balanced, anxious to cul- 
 tivate his goodwill. He was in the very 
 zenith of his prosperity. 
 
 The Company's Rule in India ; Griev- 
 ances AND Calamities. 
 
 "A trading and a fighting company is a 
 two-headed monster in nature that cannot 
 exist long ; as the expence and experience 
 of the latter must exceed, confound, and 
 
 which we might have held fast, if bounds 
 had been set to our progress, which upon the 
 ' present system ' we now see is utterly 
 impossible, therefore a total change in our 
 politics becomes indispensably necessary." 
 
 Holwell's strictures were fully warranted 
 by the abuses that prevailed in India in the 
 period after Clive's second return to Europe. 
 The enormous wealth of the conqueror of 
 Plassey, and of several others, such as Pigot, 
 who had become suddenly enriched by their 
 connection with that country, produced an 
 unhealthy excitement, which has been justly 
 compared to that which prevailed during the 
 time of the South Sea Bubble. The one 
 great idea of the servants and agents of the 
 Company was to make speedy fortunes. 
 The court of the Company itself, in which 
 
 The Taj Mahal, Agra. 
 
 destroy every profit or advantage gained by 
 the former." Thus writes the judicious 
 Holwell, at the period immediately after 
 Clive's great victories and return to England ; 
 and the occasion of his remarks was the 
 mismanagement of which the Company was 
 guilty, when it undertook the government 
 of the territories it had conquered ; which 
 territories, moreover, it sought to enlarge as 
 opportunity offered. " New temporary vic- 
 tories," continues Holwell, " stimulate and 
 push us on to grasp at new acquisitions of 
 territory ; these call for a large increase of 
 mihtary force to defend them ; and thus we 
 shall go on, grasping and expending, until 
 we cram our hands too full, and they become 
 cramped and numbed ; and we shall be 
 obliged to quit and relinquish even that part 
 
 every proprietor of stock to the amount of 
 ^500 had a vote at the general meetings, 
 was ill-informed and inefficient as a govern- 
 ment. Very exaggerated ideas prevailed as 
 to the wealth and resources of India ; and 
 thus was developed the nefarious system of 
 extortion and wrong which attained its cul- 
 minating point at a later period, in the high 
 crimes and misdemeanours of Hastings, 
 the first governor-general, that aroused the 
 generous indignation of Edmund Burke. In 
 a military point of view the English com- 
 pletely held their own, even extending their 
 dominions, under captains like Sir Eyre 
 Coote, the victor of Pollilore, worthy suc- 
 cessors of Clive. Resistance to the authority 
 of the English seemed hopeless, and the 
 warlike prowess of the nation was more 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 widely acknowledged in India, and more 
 thoroughly dreaded than ever ; but the 
 administration of affairs was deplorable, 
 and the peoples of India groaned under 
 the harsh rule of tyrants whose yoke, un- 
 like that of their native oppressors, it was 
 impossible to shake off. 
 
 One of the great sources of wrong was 
 attributable to the short-sighted policy by 
 which the servants of the Company, from the 
 high officials and functionaries to the junior 
 and subordinate members, were systemati- 
 cally underpaid, and allowed to recoup them- 
 selves by irregular gains and extortions, at 
 which the Company connived, but by which 
 it was in the end the loser. The counsel of 
 Sir Thomas Roe, quoted by Macaulay, shows 
 that so early as the reign of James I. this 
 abuse had already excited attention. " Ab- 
 solutely prohibit the private trade," wrote 
 Sir Thomas, " for your business will be better 
 done. I know this is harsh : men profess 
 they come not for bare wages. But you will 
 take away this plea if you give great wages 
 to their content ; and then you know what 
 you part from." The private trade, however, 
 not only continued, but increased until it 
 became a nuisance and a scandal ; for abuses 
 of various kinds were introduced into it. 
 
 According to the Company's treaties with 
 Meer Jaffier and others, goods under the 
 Company's Hag were exempted from paying 
 duties ; but it was expressly stipulated that 
 this privilege should not apply to merchan- 
 dise in which the Company's servants dealt 
 on their own account, which was not to be 
 considered as protected by the Company's 
 flag. But the latter, who increased greatly 
 in number when India became known as the 
 country where fortunes were to be accumu- 
 lated with unexampled rapidity, were not 
 scrupulous in regarding the articles of the 
 treaty ; and as the factories increased in 
 number, they employed a number of agents, 
 natives and foreigners, who were even less 
 scrupulous than themselves, and acted in 
 direct defiance of the local custom-houses 
 and of the laws of the country they pillaged. 
 " They forced the natives to buy dear and 
 to sell cheap," and plundered in every 
 direction, to get together in the shortest 
 possible time the means of returning to 
 England, purchasing estates and setting up 
 as private gentlemen in rivalry to the old 
 county families, who looked upon them with 
 covert or open dislike and contempt. Gold- 
 smith, in his " Deserted Village,'' speaks of 
 " The wealth of climes where savage nations 
 roam, pillaged from slaves to purchase slaves 
 at home ; '' and the proceedings of these 
 newly enriched Indian officials, who were 
 nicknamed nabobs, and who are described 
 as " raising the price of everything in their 
 neighbourhoods — from fresh eggs to rotten 
 
 boroughs," made them unpopular in propor- 
 tion as they were envied. It was not 
 likely men would do much to benefit a 
 country regarding which their chief aim was 
 to get as much out of it as quickly as they 
 could, and then to quit it for ever. 
 
 "Ringing the Changes on Soubahs." 
 When the arrangement was first made, by 
 which Meer Jaffier was to become ruler of 
 Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar, large promises 
 had been exacted from him, with regard to 
 the sums he would pay in return for his 
 elevation. These promises he had en- 
 deavoured to redeem; and, as has been seen, 
 he behaved to Clive especially, whom he 
 looked upon as the chief and main cause of 
 his success, with princely liberality ; while 
 the merchants and agents of the Company 
 were compensated largely for the losses 
 they had sustained through the proceedings 
 of the late nabob, and the services of the 
 ministers of the council who had managed 
 the late insurrection, and of all who had 
 furthered its completion, were considered in 
 the most liberal manner. But the new ruler 
 had been unable to fulfil all his engage- 
 ments ; the treasury at Moorshedabad was 
 not rich enough to answer all the demands 
 made upon it, and Meer Jaffier had been 
 obliged to pay partly in cash and partly in 
 promises. 
 
 The wars, too, in which he had been en- 
 gaged since his accession, against Shah 
 Alum and others who disputed his authority, 
 had greatly increased his embarrassments ; 
 for in these wars he had been compelled to 
 invoke, and to pay heavily for the assistance 
 of the English. His affairs had thus become 
 seriously embarrassed ; and in proportion as 
 his ability to pay grew less, the dissatisfac- 
 tion of those increased who had set him up 
 with the expectation that he would prove to 
 them a perennial fountain of wealth. So 
 long as the controlling hand of Clive re- 
 mained present, to regulate, restrain, and 
 punish, some sort of moderation and justice 
 was preserved ; but when that valiant and 
 astute commander had departed for England, 
 with the enormous fortune he had so rapidly 
 acquired, all semblance of scruple was cast 
 aside, and the rapacity of those who were 
 in reality the masters of the Nabob knew no 
 bounds. As with ancient Pistol, " the word 
 was pitch and pay." 
 
 Meer Jaffier was extremely discomposed 
 and uneasy at his situation ; and his creditors 
 showed him little consideration. Not an 
 ounce of their pound of flesh would they ^ 
 abate ; and when it became evident that 
 Meer Jaffier's ability to meet their demands 
 was exhausted, they determined to depose 
 him as they had deposed his predecessor ; 
 and they set about the work without delay. 
 
 285 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Their method of proceeding was similar 
 to that employed on the former occasion. 
 When Clive dropped the mask he had so 
 long worn with regard to Suraj-ud-Dowlah, 
 and had determined to pull down that 
 hard and wretched prince, he had pro- 
 posed to the Nabob to refer the disputes 
 between him and the Company to the arbitra- 
 tion of Meer Jaffier, whom he had secretly 
 arranged to set up in the Nabob's place. In 
 like manner Mr. Vansittart, to whom the 
 chief authority descended on Clive's depar- 
 ture, arranged with his colleagues to find a 
 successor for Meer Jaffier. They fixed upon 
 Meer Cossim, the son-in-law of the Nabob, 
 with whom they entered into negociations ; 
 and who, dazzled with the prospect of the 
 great title and position held out to him, was 
 as liberal as could be desired in promises of 
 reward for their assistance. Thereupon, 
 after filling Meer Jaffier's palace with their 
 troops, they declared to him that it would be 
 necessary to put his affairs into the hands 
 of Meer Cossim, with a view to the liquida- 
 tion of his debts ; but Meer Jaffier refused 
 the insidious demand, with more spirit than 
 was to be expected from him. If the Com- 
 pany chose to take from him all his authority, 
 he declared they might take away the title of 
 king with it, and he would live as a private 
 man in Calcutta. They took him at his 
 word ; they chose to look upon the out- 
 spoken declaration as a resignation of his 
 power, which they hastily accepted. Meer 
 Jaffier, the roi faineant, ceased for a time to 
 bear even nominal sway ; and his son-in-law, 
 Meer Cossim, reigned in his stead. 
 
 In the case of Suraj-ud-Dowlah there had 
 been valid reasons (or the deposition of the 
 Nabob, in the well-known hatred and malice 
 he bore towards the English, in his fre- 
 quently expressed intention to drive them 
 out of India, and evident hollowness of the 
 treaty hastily patched up with them after 
 their signal revenge for the massacre of the 
 Black Hole. They might with justice allege 
 that with such a man there was no possi- 
 bility of permanent peace, and that the 
 removal of Suraj-ud-Dowlah was necessary 
 for the safety of the Company, though 
 nothing can excuse the treachery of Clive 
 and his confederates on that occasion. But 
 with regard to Meer Jaffier no such defence 
 could be made, for he was their creature, 
 utterly dependent upon them ; and from 
 him they had no danger to fear. " The 
 dethronement of Meer Jaffier," says a writer 
 who has briefly recorded these events, " was 
 effected with only one view — namely, that 
 the parties bringing it about might pocket 
 the sums which Meer Cossim promised as 
 the reward of their interference." Thus the 
 " ringing of changes on Soubahs " was con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Meer Cossim and his Successors; the 
 Company's Further Proceedings, 
 
 In Meer Cossim the Company had to deal 
 with a man very different in character from 
 his weak predecessor. He was by no means 
 content to be a m.ere puppet in the hands of 
 the men who had set him up. He was highly 
 indignant when he found that while the Com- 
 pany exacted large sums and great immunities 
 from him, in return for his elevation to the 
 throne of Bengal, its agents, claiming freedom 
 from transit and other duties for their private 
 ventures under the Company's flag, entered 
 into a trade competition against his heavily- 
 taxed subjects; in which the latter had no 
 chance, and were being ruined to enrich 
 strangers, while he himself was the greatest 
 sufferer, in his revenue, by this system of 
 plunder. 
 
 Accordingly he protested and remonstrated 
 in the strongest terms with the authorities at 
 Calcutta, who turned a deaf ear to his com- 
 plaints ; for the Company's servants were all 
 interested, from the greatest to the least, in 
 the maintenance of the system he denounced, 
 upon which their profits and their fortunes 
 depended. They were confirmed in their 
 contemptuous indifference to remonstrance 
 by the fact that they were undoubtedly the 
 stronger party. The British soldiers and the 
 Sepoys in the Company's service everywhere 
 maintained their supremacy against any force 
 a native ruler could bring against them ; and 
 no European nation could now hold its own 
 as their rivals in India. As Dupleix had 
 failed in his efforts to maintain himself, so 
 did Lally Tollendal fail, even more igno- 
 miniously ; and Bussy, the last hope of the 
 French nation, was at length captured. They 
 maintained by the sword, with undaunted 
 valour and resolution, what they had gained 
 by the sword — confident that the Court of 
 Directors in Leadenhall Street, a-nd still more 
 the Court of Proprietors, which could have 
 its way where it chose, as every share of;^5oo 
 conferred a vote, would judge them by success 
 alone — a success to be measured by the 
 amount of the dividends paid. And the 
 military nature of their supremacy served to 
 increase the confusion and disorder ; for the 
 army, fully conscious of its paramount im- 
 portance, insisted on sharing to an unex- 
 ampled degree in the spoils of war, and fre- 
 quent mutinies occurred where the donatives 
 were considered insufficient. The state of 
 things was well described by Holwell in his 
 "Seasonable Hint and Perswasive to the 
 Court of Directors," in which he insists on 
 the necessity of change. 
 
 Fortunately for the maintenance of the 
 British power and the re-establishment of 
 British credit in India, this change was at 
 a later period effected; but not until the 
 
FROM THE BLACK HOLE TO PLASSEY. 
 
 country had experienced some of the worst 
 effects of misrule. 
 
 Finding his remonstrances utterly un- 
 heeded, Meer Cossim took the extreme mea- 
 sure of repealing the transit duties altogether, 
 to put his subjects on an equal footing with 
 the strangers ; thus drawing upon himself 
 the enmity of the authorities in Bengal, and 
 armed resistance from Mr. Ellis, the Com- 
 pany's agent at Patna. A war was quickly 
 Idndled, in which the English had their usual 
 success. No native army could stand against 
 them, and Meer Cossim quickly found his 
 empire melting away. He was driven from 
 one position to another. The Nabob Vizier 
 
 shaking the dust off his feet and betaking 
 himself to the dominions of his ally, the 
 Nabob of Oude, for refuge ; and the Com- 
 pany once more ruled supreme in the name 
 of Meer Jaffier, the nominee. 
 
 That feeble prince did not long survive his 
 second elevation ; he died soon afterwards. 
 His savage and cruel son Meeran was already 
 dead ; but an illegitimate son, utterly weak 
 and imbecile, of the deceased Nabob, was 
 set upon the vacant throne; and the extortion 
 and oppression of the foreign rulers went on 
 with a- wider range than ever, and more en- 
 tirely without let orhindrance. The directors 
 at home became seriously alarmed; for while 
 
 Festival at Benares ; Washing in the Holy River Ganges. 
 
 of Oude took his part ; whereupon the Com- 
 pany declared war against that potentate also, 
 and even against the Mogul himself 
 
 Meer Jaffier was now living, according to 
 his declared intention, as a private person. 
 The Company made proposals to him as 
 difficult, or rather as impossible of fulfilment, 
 as the former conditions. He acquiesced in 
 everything, promised to do all his patrons 
 demanded, and was once more set up on the 
 throne of Bengal. Meer Cossim had in his 
 power about one hundred and thirty prisoners 
 at Patna, including Mr. Ellis, who was greatly 
 responsible for the commencement of the 
 war. After fighting till all was lost, the fierce 
 native perpetrated the terrible massacre of 
 Patna, putting to death all his captives before 
 
 their agents were enriching themselves by this 
 irresponsible tyranny, the interests of the 
 Company were suffering seriously, and the 
 dividends fell off Pressing injunctions and 
 commands sent out from England were dis- 
 regarded ; and in those days, long before the 
 time of the telegraph, or even of the overland 
 route — when the time for sending a despatch 
 to India and receiving an answer sometimes 
 extended to a year and a half — it was impos- 
 sible to govern the East Indian possessions 
 by orders received from home. At length 
 general attention in England was called to 
 the state of affairs in India; and the Company 
 saw that if a remedy were not applied by their 
 own council, the British Government would 
 take that duty upon itself, — and consequently 
 
 287 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 determined to send out Lord Clive, with full 
 powers to put an end to the abuses that 
 threatened the very existence of the British 
 rule in India. 
 
 How Clive applied the Remedy ; The 
 Result. 
 
 It was on the 23rd of May, 1765, that Lord 
 Clive landed in Calcutta on his third and last 
 journey to India. He came with the fixed 
 determination, as he himself expressed it in 
 a letter to a friend, to restore the lost honour 
 and credit of the British name in India, to 
 put a stop to the great and increasing evils 
 existing there, or to perish in the attempt ; 
 and he carried out his intentions to the fullest 
 extent during the eighteen eventful months 
 of his residence in Calcutta. 
 
 His difficulties began immediately on his 
 arrival. In the council he appeared " like an 
 eagle in a dovecote, fluttering the Volscians." 
 When he explained the scope and extent 
 of the thorough reforms he contemplated, — 
 reforms that would arrest, in their very source, 
 the irregular and excessive gains of the 
 Company's servants and agents, — the mem- 
 bers at the board sat aghast ; and " all the 
 faces grew long and pale" when he put down, 
 with a few haughty and vigorous words, the 
 attempted remonstrance of the one member 
 who dared to protest. 
 
 After putting an end to the foolish war 
 with the Nabob of Oude, with whom he 
 entered into alliance, he carried out the 
 policy advocated by Holwell and other en- 
 lightened Indian statesmen. " Let us be our 
 own Soubah," wrote Holwell ; and this is 
 what Clive effected. He obtained from the 
 Great Mogul, in return for a pension secured 
 to that weak potentate, the nomination of the 
 Company to the office of Duan, or finance 
 ministers of Bengal. They procured the right 
 of collecting the revenues of the three pro- 
 vinces — Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar — together 
 with the monopolies of salt, betel, etc. ; and 
 thus their authority as the acknowledged 
 masters of Northern India received the 
 sanction of the highest native authority — the 
 imperial throne at Delhi. Any attempt to 
 evade the transit duties on merchandise now 
 became a fraud on the Company itself, for 
 which all offenders in the service were to be 
 visited with instant dismissal ; and thus the 
 " private trade," the fruitful source of many 
 abuses, was put down. In the army, also, the 
 power of the stern inflexible Governor was 
 soon felt. The officers were soon made 
 
 aware that they must consider themselves the 
 servants of the State, and must be ready to 
 march at the first summons, and implicitly 
 to obey any orders given to them ; moreover, 
 the acceptance of presents from native princes 
 was rigidly prohibited. All such gifts were 
 to be handed over at once to the treasury of 
 the Government. These innovations pro- 
 duced a profound impression in a mutinous 
 army, fully av/are of its importance, and 
 accustomed to have its own way. The officers 
 murmured loudly, and presently proceeded 
 to organise what may be termed a military 
 " strike." A large number resigned their 
 commissions on the same day, feeling con- 
 vinced that Clive would make any concessions 
 rather than leave the army without leaders. 
 But he put down the movement with a stern 
 hand. The ringleaders in the mutiny were 
 cashiered. The others were allowed to return 
 to their duty after earnestly professing their 
 regret. Clive had sent for officers from 
 Madras, and had taken other steps to show 
 that he was master of the situation, and that 
 no man was indispensable to him. 
 
 At the same time he found a remedy for 
 the grievance which had been a frequent 
 cause of extortion and misrule. The salaries 
 of the Company's servants were rearranged 
 on a scale sufficiently liberal to allow of the 
 officials living up to their position, and yet in 
 time accumulating fortunes. The revenue 
 derived from the tax on salt was devoted to 
 the payment of salaries. The result of these 
 reforms was the removal, at least for a time, 
 of the reproach of rapine and extortion that 
 defaces the pages of the chronicle of British 
 conquest and supremacy in India ; and 
 just principles of rule took the place of the 
 previous misgovernment. 
 
 When Clive sailed for England for the 
 third time, the conqueror of Plassey had 
 gained a far harder victory than that over 
 Suraj-ud-Dowlah ; but he had also raised up 
 many implacable enemies, who accused him 
 of having marred their fortunes after he had 
 made his own, and persistently pointed out 
 the incongruity between Clive's earlier accep- 
 tance of presents by himself, and his later 
 denouncing of their receipt by others. And 
 this consciousness it was that preyed upon 
 his mind amid all his wealth and prosperity, 
 and combined with other causes to produce 
 such exquisite misery that existence became 
 unendurable to him, and the victor of Plassey 
 in his fiftieth year put an end to his own life. 
 
 H. W. D 
 
 288 
 
Death of ToMPFy (see /a^e 301). 
 
 C^SARISM IN ROME: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 A Roman Holiday — The Ides of March — Regai Rome — Republican Rome — The Commencement of a Memorable Epoch 
 
 The Oppressions of the Aristocracy — Cato the Censor — Tiberius Gracchus and his Law for the Amelioration of the 
 Condition of the People — Caius Gracchus — The Story of Jugurtha — Marius, Sulla, and the Social War — The 
 Mithridatic War and the First Civil War — The Roman Reign of Terror — Julius Csesar — The Second Civil War — The 
 Catiline Conspiracy — The Greatest Crisis in the History of Rome — The First Triumvirate — The Contest between 
 Caesar and Pompey — Cassar crosses the Rubicon — The Beginning of the End — Caesar's Laws and Policy — The Second 
 Triumvirate — Proscriptions and Assassinations — Augustus Emperor — Influence of Ceesarism on the World. 
 
 A Roman Holiday. 
 |T is a day of high festival in ancient 
 Rome, and crowds of her noblest 
 citizens, clad in their gayest-coloured 
 togas, throng her classic streets. 
 
 They pass the bridge so grandly kept by 
 stout Horatius in the brave days of old ; they 
 cross the Forum, where once the blood of 
 poor Virginia cried aloud for vengeance on 
 the '' Wicked Ten " ; they gaze anew, with 
 feelings of swelling pride, at their famous 
 Capitol, and then with a burst of acclamation 
 they hasten to the Lupercal, on the Palatine 
 Hill, where, in a chair of gold, which gleams 
 like a meteor in the brilliant sunshine of the 
 
 southern sky, they behold great Caesar him- 
 self, clad in a triumphal robe, presiding over 
 the mystic ceremonies of the day. A smile 
 of triumph passes over his stern face as he 
 acknowledges their warm welcome, yet even, 
 then he hears a soothsayer cry, " Beware 
 the ides of March ; Cassar, beware the ides, 
 of March." Caesar angrily bids him be-- 
 gone, and again the people shout aloud, and. 
 the priests advance and the ceremonies, 
 begin. 
 
 For it is the feast of the Lupercalia,, 
 when those ancient rites are celebrated, 
 which tradition says have been handed down 
 from the times of Romulus himself — those: 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ancient rites which propitiate the great god 
 Lupercus, and cause him to give a fruitful 
 year. The solemn priests — the Luperci — offer 
 up the wonted sacrifices, and then cut the 
 skins of the slaughtered animals into strips and 
 twist them into thongs, with much ceremony. 
 Some they hand to the magistrates, and re- 
 taining others themselves they then run 
 through the city, striking on the hand all 
 those who wish the god to bless them. 
 
 But what is this? — Mark Antony, the 
 consul, who, according to custom, should run 
 with the rest, approaches Csesar, and before 
 all the people offers him a diadem wreathed 
 with laurel. The astounded populace look 
 on in sullen silence. They well know the 
 meaning of that strange sight. It means 
 that Ccesar wishes to be king, and has caused 
 Antony to offer him the crown. 
 
 The politic Csesar, well understanding 
 their silence, refuses the proffered jewel, 
 whereupon the people greet him with their 
 accustomed plaudits. Now, they know not 
 what to think. Perhaps, after all, Caesar is 
 loyal to the Republic. 
 
 Again the officious Antony offers the 
 diadem, and again there is deep silence. 
 Again does Cassar refuse. Once more is the 
 farce repeated, and then the Dictator orders 
 the diadem to be consecrated in the Capitol, 
 and the people turn away. 
 
 After the Feast. 
 
 But that night there were some men who 
 cared for their country who slept with 
 troubled rest. True they had seen " how on 
 the Lupercal " Cassar had thrice refused the 
 kingly crown, but what a pass had things 
 come to in Rome when the consul dared to 
 offer a diadem to one of her citizens ! "No 
 more kings in Rome " had been the people's 
 cry ever since false Tarquin had been driven 
 hence. 
 
 Their feelings of unrest were not quieted 
 when during the next few days Caesar's 
 statues were found adorned with diadems, 
 but then Flavins and Marcellus, two stout 
 tribunes, tore off the crowns, and committed 
 to prison some of those unwise persons who 
 had saluted Caesar as king, so the people 
 followed them with cheerful acclamations. 
 
 Then Caesar, highly indignant at their be- 
 haviour, deposed the tribunes, and so the 
 war went on, and there were several who 
 whispered as the Dictator passed by, " Beware 
 the ides of March." Did not the soothsayer 
 at the feast say " Beware the ides of March"? 
 
 The Ides of March. 
 One month after the feast of the Luper- 
 calia(which was held on the 15th of February), 
 Csesar started from his home for the senate 
 house. He was lighthearted and gay — not- 
 withstanding that Calphurnia, his wife, had 
 
 had troubled dreams and presages of evil, 
 and had implored him not to go out to-day, — 
 for had not a certain soothsayer been warning 
 him for some time past of a terrible evil 
 that should befall him on the 15th ? — the ides 
 of March, — and now the day had come, but no 
 ill had befallen him. And as he made his 
 way to the senate, he called the false prophet 
 and spoke laughingly to him. " The ides of 
 March are come, but no harm has befallen 
 me " ; to which the soothsayer softly said, 
 " Yes, the ides of March are come, but not 
 goner 
 
 This was the day that the majority of the 
 senators were to meet at Csesar's summons 
 prepared to offer him the crown and honour 
 him by the title of king. The great object 
 for which he had been working all his life 
 was now near completion ! 
 
 When he entered the house the assembled 
 senate rose to do him honour. Then the 
 accomplices of Brutus — the descendant of 
 that Brutus who long time since had been 
 foremost in expelling the evil Tarquin, the 
 last king of Rome — crowded round him 
 asking for the recall of his brother. Caesar 
 refused, and as their importunities grew 
 they clustered round him, and finally at a 
 sign from one of their number, Cimber, drew 
 their swords and struck at him ; and pierced 
 by three-and-twenty wounds great Caesar fell. 
 
 They murdered him because he aimed at 
 despotic power and the destruction of the 
 Republic, but though he died the system 
 he created lived. Not even the desperate 
 deed of his murder could save the moribund 
 State. The Republic had fallen, and though 
 a triumvirate was established, which for a 
 short time endeavoured to rule Rome, Csesar's 
 nephew, Augustus, very quickly succeeded to 
 the place and power of the murdered dictator, 
 and Ceesarism was fully established. How it 
 came to pass that these momentous events 
 transpired, we have now to tell. 
 
 Regal Rome. 
 
 In order to understand the introduction 
 and triumph of Caesarism it will be necessary 
 to give a slight historical sketch of Roman 
 institutions from the foundation of the city. 
 
 Rome, which was established by Romulus 
 753 years before Christ, was for 243 years 
 ruled by kings, whose power, however, was 
 tempered by the senate. This body was 
 instituted by Romulus, and consisted origi- 
 nally of a hundred of the most experienced of 
 the citizens, who from their age were known 
 as "The Fathers," and from their office, 
 "The Senators." This senate became, says 
 Mommsen, the most powerful governing 
 board the world has ever seen. Romulus 
 also divided the peaple into two classes, the 
 Patricians, or nobles, and the Plebeians, or 
 common people. This distinction remained 
 
 290 
 
C^SARISM IN ROME. 
 
 for many centuries, and was the cause of 
 much internal discord. 
 
 It came to pass, hawever, that certain 
 iings grossly abused their position and their 
 power. The oppressions and cruelties of 
 Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last 
 Idng, at length became insupportable, and 
 all sections of the state anxiously looked for 
 some revolution which should overturn the 
 king, who disregarded both liberty and law. 
 
 The revolution came. While Tarquinius 
 Superbus was besieging the city of Ardea, 
 Sextus Tarquinius, his son, grossly insulted 
 Lucretia, the wife of a Roman noble, Colla- 
 tinus. She summoned her husband and 
 father, and in their presence stabbed herself, 
 after commanding them to revenge her death 
 and disgrace upon the house of Tarquin. 
 Lucius Junius Brutus, whose father and 
 brother had been slaughtered by Tarquin, 
 'ivho had himself escaped only by feigning 
 idiotcy, was present at this sad scene, and 
 plucking the fatal weapon from the wound, 
 he swore to exterminate the Tarquins, and 
 prevent them or any others from ever reign- 
 ing in Rome. This example was followed 
 by all present, and under his leadership the 
 people rose, expelled the Tarquins, and es- 
 tablished the aristocratical commonwealth, 
 known as the Roman Republic. 
 
 Republican Rome. 
 
 At first the Republic appears to have dif- 
 fered but slightly from the Monarchy. The 
 senate and the various other departments of 
 government continued, but instead of the 
 kings, two magistrates, called consuls, were 
 chosen annually from among the patricians. 
 The consuls were invested with great powers. 
 They commanded the armies, and had the 
 power of assembling or dissolving the senate. 
 They wore robes fringed with purple, and 
 were preceded by twelve men called lictors, 
 bearing bundles of rods bound together with 
 an axe in the middle, known diS fasces. When 
 presiding at assemblies of the people they 
 sat in ivory chairs, — called the curule chairs, 
 — and carried ivory rods in their hands. In 
 those days the Romans were accustomed 
 to designate their years by the annual office 
 of their consul. The first consuls were 
 Lucius Junius Brutus and Collatinus, the 
 husband of Lucretia. 
 
 The progress of the Republicwas grievously 
 hindered by internal discord. The govern- 
 ment was vested in an irresponsible clique 
 of nobles, from whom the consuls and the 
 senate were elected, and under whom the 
 plebeians were cruelly and bitterly oppressed. 
 
 For fully a hundred years did the struggle 
 continue, until at last it ended by the removal 
 of the political and social disabilities under 
 which the plebeians had suffered, and the 
 passing of a law by which they were declared 
 
 to be on a level with the patricians. Consuls 
 were elected from their ranks, and for the 
 first time marriages between all classes were 
 considered legal and binding. 
 
 The Roman Republic had now approached 
 perfection. It was no longer an irresponsible 
 oligarchy, but out of an exclusive aristocracy 
 and an oppressed serfdom had grown a 
 moderate democracy in which all had equal 
 rights. Each class exerted its influence and 
 counterbalanced the other. It was this con- 
 stitution which lasted so many years, and 
 enabled Rome to prosecute successfully the 
 terrible Punic and Macedonian wars, and to 
 make herself the Mistress of the World. 
 We have now to see how this magnificent 
 Republic fell. 
 
 The Commencement of a Memorable 
 Epoch. 
 
 The Roman historian, Sallust, regards the 
 destruction of Carthage as the commence- 
 ment of that memorable epoch, which ended 
 in the ruin of the Republic. 
 
 With the enormous extension of power 
 which this fatal success opened up, the 
 national character suffered a fatal deteriora- 
 tion. Coupled with this, also, was the growth 
 of a new aristocracy, more wealthy and more 
 unscrupulous than that against which the 
 plebeians had struggled during the earlyyears 
 of the Republic. 
 
 The traditions of free self-government 
 which had enabled their fathers to mould 
 such a mighty state were forgotten ; men 
 looked only to their own selfish interests and 
 self-aggrandizement; the aristocrats bound 
 down the commons with bands of iron rule, 
 and secured for themselves the honours and 
 emoluments which accrued from great 
 national dominion and great national expen- 
 diture. 
 
 The stern integrity of life, the frugality, 
 the temperance and rectitude which in former 
 days marked the Roman citizen, began to 
 disappear, and the love of luxury and vice 
 became prominent. The old Roman " virtue " 
 was undermined. 
 
 Still further, the long wars had turned good 
 citizens into useless soldiers, — useless for 
 everything but fighting, — and thousands re- 
 turned home without employment to spend in 
 idle sensuality their ill-gotten gains. After the 
 licentiousness of their camp life and the base 
 delights ofpillage and rapine, it was impossible 
 to settle down to hard toil. Hence arose that 
 hon'ible slave system, — the most terrible curse 
 of ancient Rome, — the curse that finally aided 
 to bring about the downfall of its greatness. 
 Conquered people were made to till the soil 
 for their masters. At least 50,000 captives 
 were sent home from Carthage, while 1 50,000 
 Epirotes were sold after the conquest of 
 Epirus. The rule seems to have been that 
 
 291 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 when a captive taken in war was preserved 
 instead of being slain, — hence the name serviis, 
 — he could be made to work for his captor's 
 benefit. There was little or no restriction on 
 the master's power of punishing his slave or 
 even of putting him to death, and the horrible 
 atrocities perpetrated on the miserable victims 
 of the slave system of republican Rome are 
 far beyond description. Mommsen says that 
 " compared with the sufferings of the Roman 
 slaves, the sum of all negro suffering is but 
 a drop." . 
 
 But the blood and tears of the poor slaves 
 called down terrible evils upon the Republic, 
 and oppression and cruelty brought their ter- 
 rible retribution, as they always will. 
 
 In the year 134 B.C. the Roman world was 
 suddenly thrilled with the news of a horrible 
 social outbreak in Sicily. The fury of the 
 revolt for a time made all opposition useless ; 
 the slaves overran the island like demons let 
 loose, and oneafteranother the Roman forces 
 sent to quell the insurrections were cut to 
 pieces. But the slaves were without organiza- 
 tion, and when they had somewhat slaked 
 their thirst for revenge, their paroxysms of 
 ferocity were over, their power had spent 
 itself, and two years later the consul, Publius 
 Rupilius, was able to announce that he 
 had restored " order." 
 
 CoxTiNUED Oppressions. 
 
 After this outbreak, the " new nobles " con- 
 tinued to oppress the people — both slaves and 
 freemen — even more than before. They 
 regarded intellect, virtue, and manners as 
 nothing ; wealth, power, and material pro- 
 sperity were everything. They cared for 
 nothing but to add farm to farm, and many 
 a poor burgess went to the wall in the un- 
 equal struggle. The riches of the rich in- 
 creased, as likewise did the poverty of the 
 poor. The political power gradually passed 
 more and more into the hands of this wealthy 
 aristocracy, until there came about the most 
 unhappy state of things that can befall any 
 state — a corrupt and wealthy governing class, 
 a selfish, unscrupulous, and arrogant aristo- 
 cracy, and a poverty-stricken lower class, who, 
 struggle as they may, can find no means of 
 improving their position. The pride, wealth, 
 influence, and cruelty of this new order were 
 a thousand times worse than the haughty 
 arrogance of the old patricians ; while, added 
 to their nepotism and selfishness was their 
 gross immorality, and last, but not least, 
 their never-ceasing quarrels among them- 
 selves for place and power. The former oli- 
 garchy ended in the establishment of a free 
 Republic ; the latter ended in the fall of all 
 free institutions, and the establishment of 
 Cassarism — government by brute force. 
 
 Cato, the Censor. 
 
 The degeneracy of the age did not pass 
 without rebuke. Doubtless there were many 
 wise Romans who saw the inevitable end to 
 which these national evils would lead, but 
 among them Cato, the censor, stands out 
 prominently. With remarkable sternness he 
 pointed out the demoralized state of the 
 people, and as far as in him lay, endeavoured 
 to stem the tide of iniquity which iiooded' 
 the streets of the cit)^ But while Rome 
 chose to pursue apolicy of fierce and unscru- 
 pulous conquest, and to hold foreign nations 
 in subjection by the brute force of an immoral 
 soldiery-^while the nation chose to exalt 
 this gross materialism as its rule of life, it 
 was impossible to expect or cause the people 
 to adopt simple, temperate, and virtuous 
 habits. 
 
 Tiberius Gracchus, and his Law for 
 THE Amelioration of the Condition 
 OF THE People. 
 
 Desperate — one might almost say revolu- 
 tionary — attempts to prevent the social ruini 
 of the state were made by Tiberius and Caius 
 Gracchus, two brothers, sons of the celebrated 
 Cornelia, daughter of Scipio, who had de- 
 stroyed Carthage. They were of distinguished 
 eloquence and great accomplishments. 
 
 Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune of the people^ 
 seeing the misery of the poor, and of the 
 subject inhabitants of the provinces, and 
 seeing also the overbearing wealth of the 
 rich (whose estates were, as we have stated, 
 cultivated by slaves instead of by free and 
 manly citizens, who had, therefore, but little 
 means of obtaining a livelihood), proposed a 
 law founded on the old Agrarian law, prohi- 
 biting the acquisition of an exorbitant 
 quantity of land, and providing for the 
 distribution of the remainder among the 
 poor. As may be imagined, the most violenJ 
 commotion followed, and we may regard this 
 as the first blow struck in that internecine 
 strife which led at length to the fall of the 
 Republic — the first bitter fruits of those evils 
 to which we have alluded. 
 
 Long and fierce were the debates which 
 ensued, and at length the senate resorted 
 to unwarrantable means to counteract his 
 influence. The senate, — composed of aristo- 
 crats, — whose excessive power the proposed 
 law would limit, persuaded Octavius, another 
 of the tribunes, to interpose his official veto 
 on the motion of Tiberius — for according to 
 the constitution of Rome at that period, if 
 any tribune (they were ten in number) vetoed 
 a proposal of one of his colleagues, it was at 
 once lost without further discussion. 
 
 Tiberius was enraged at this unexpected 
 opposition, and forgetting in his intense 
 earnestness the formality of law, he proposed 
 
 292 
 
CJESARISM IN ROME. 
 
 the deposition of his colleague. The people 
 •agreed, with acLiamation, and Octavius was 
 deposed from office. Tiberius Gracchus, 
 Caius Gracchus, and Claudius, were ap- 
 pointed triumvirs for carrying this proposed 
 iaw into effect with all its intricate provisions. 
 
 But this success was only the commence- 
 ment of his difficulties. The senate were so 
 enraged that they stopped at nothing to 
 thwart his schemes, and when the time came 
 round for his re-election — for the tribunes 
 were elected annually — every effort was made 
 to prevent his success. As it appeared likely 
 he would triumph they resolved on his death. 
 They accused him of endeavouring to acquire 
 supreme power, "i/^ intends to wear the 
 diadejn," they shrieked ; " the tyrant must be 
 slain to save the State." 
 
 The consul, however, refused to listen to 
 their violent proposals, and thereupon a 
 senator named Nascia exclaiming, " As 
 the consul refuses to protect the Common- 
 wealth, follow me," summoned his followers 
 and colleagues, and rushed to the Capitol, 
 where Tiberius was then addressing his 
 followers. A terrible riot ensued, in which 
 Tiberius and more than three hundred of 
 his partizans were slain, and their bodies 
 thrown into the Tiber. 
 
 The nobles followed up this success with 
 great ferocity. The partizans of Tiberius 
 were banished and slain without trial, some 
 of them suffering the most terrible deaths — 
 ■one, Caius Vallun, being confined in a vessel 
 with snakes and vipers, until the venomous 
 reptiles stung him to death. 
 
 Caius Gracchus. 
 
 But though the nobles had crushed free 
 speech for the time being, they had not 
 succeeded in deterring the people from the 
 projects Tiberius had promulgated. The 
 internecine strife between the oligarchy and 
 the democracy, which was to continue for 
 many years, had begun, and the brother of 
 Tiberius, Caius Gracchus, now came forward 
 as the people's champion. The opportunity 
 which enabled him to do this was the claim 
 of the conquered Italians to be admitted as 
 citizens of the Roman Republic, and to obtain, 
 at least, some share in the privileges of their 
 rulers. 
 
 Caius was a far abler man than his brother, 
 and endeavoured to procure the same results 
 for ivhich Tiberius had struggled, — the esta- 
 blishment of a contented and prosperous 
 middle class, as the conservators of society 
 and the state, and as a check upon the corrupt 
 aristocrats, — but in a less sudden and abrupt 
 manner. 
 
 With keen foresight, moreover, he saw that 
 'the Republic would continue divided against 
 itself — and therefore contain the elements of 
 weakness — so Ion": as the Romans and Ita- 
 
 hans were hostile to each other, and the rich 
 clique of nobles endeavoured to absorb all 
 the emoluments of that vast empire. He 
 aimed, therefore, not only to improve the 
 condition of the poorer classes, but to recon- 
 struct the constitution. He aimed to weld 
 the dissimilar bodies firmly into one nation, 
 and thus to consolidate the strength of the 
 Republic. Unfortunately his counsels did 
 not prevail, and the terrible struggle was 
 prolonged until great Csesar came diwd/orced 
 the union by causing all to bow to his dicta- 
 torship. 
 
 By reason of his great talents Caius exerted 
 for a time considerable authority ; but what 
 was one against so many } The nobles 
 continued in their arbitrary course. The 
 wretched Italians were oppressed in every 
 possible way. On the slightest pretext a 
 young noble would order the death of any 
 person he chose ; and when a Roman 
 governor entered any city the inhabitants 
 were denied the commonest privileges of 
 life ; as for instance, they were not allowed to 
 wash themselves in the public baths, so that 
 the building might be sacred to the use of 
 the officer. 
 
 Caius Gracchus struggled against these 
 enormities in vain. He was continuously 
 and grossly insulted ; and on one occasion 
 when one of his partisans struck to the ground 
 a lictor who had affronted him, the senate 
 declared that he was heading a revolution, 
 and proclaimed the state in danger. A price 
 was set on his head, and Opimius, his great 
 opponent, who had hastily been proclaimed 
 dictator, promised to pay its weight in 
 gold. Thereupon a slave found opportunity 
 to assassinate him, and extracting the brains 
 from the great man's skull filled it with lead, 
 and so obtained a huge reward. 
 
 Cornelia retired in grief to the country, and 
 her only consolation was to tell to admiring 
 visitors the story of her great father, Scipio 
 Africanus, or her sons — the Gracchi. " The 
 grand-children of Scipio were my sons," 
 she would say ; " they gave their lives 
 for the noblest end — the happiness of the 
 people." Calmly and loftily she bore her 
 sufferings, and many distinguished persons 
 visited her in her retirement. In after days 
 statues were raised to her sons, and a monu- 
 ment was set up to herself in the city, and 
 underneath were placed these words only : 
 "To Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi." 
 
 The Story of Jugurtha. 
 
 The nobles exulted over their victory with 
 insolent triumph. Three thousand of the 
 partizans of Caius Gracchus were slain, and 
 the bodies thrown into the Tiber ; then the 
 senate set to work to undo all the good that 
 had been accomplished. 
 
 The incidents in the story of Jugurtha, 
 
 293 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 which followed shortly after the deaths of 
 the Gracchi, bring into full light the corrup- 
 tion of the statesmen who now governed the 
 affairs of Rome. 
 
 Jugurtha, the natural son of Massinissa, 
 king of Numidia, was a bold, politic, and 
 unscrupulous man. He saw that the love of 
 gold was the mainspring of the Republic, and 
 that every senator had his price. Thereupon 
 he bribed the senate to oust his half-brother 
 from the throne of Numidia. The fiat of the 
 senate was of course law, and by purchasing 
 the support of the senate, a commission was 
 sent to Africa, which divided Numidia be- 
 tween him and his brother Adherbal, Not 
 long after its departure, however, he invaded 
 his brother's territory, conquered him, and put 
 him to a shameful death. This caused great 
 irritation at Rome, and war was commenced 
 against him. For five years, however, by 
 means of bribes and intrigues and battles, 
 he managed to hold his own. It is said that 
 he exclaimed of Rome, " Oh, venal city, thou 
 art destined to perish whenever any one shall 
 be found who will purchase thee." 
 
 Several generals were sent against Jugurtha, 
 but by reason of bribes he kept them at bay, 
 until Marius, a brave and famous com- 
 mander, was entrusted with the mission. 
 He, being above bribery, soon reduced the 
 Numidian usurper to the last extremity. 
 Jugurtha was brought to Rome in chains, and 
 thrown into a subterranean dungeon, where 
 his gaolers stripped off his clothes, and even 
 tore off his ears for the earrings to satisfy 
 their greed of gain. No food was given him, 
 and he was starved to death. 
 
 Marius ; Sulla; The Social War. 
 
 The war with Jugurtha brought into pro- 
 minence two Roman generals, Marius and 
 Sulla, whose personal rivalry for some time 
 becomes the principal line of Rome's history. 
 The wars with the Cimbrians and Teutons, 
 which followed the Jugurthine war, and in 
 which Marius was successfully engaged, led 
 to his repeated elections as consul, while Sulla, 
 who at one time was his lieutenant, and 
 now aspired to be his rival, dogged his 
 steps in every direction, always waiting to 
 step in and take any advantages that Marius 
 might throw in his way. Marius obtained 
 great popularity by admitting to the army 
 men of a lower class than had previously 
 been employed in its ranks. 
 
 No sooner, however, were these wars 
 with the Cimbri and Teutons concluded, 
 than the franchise having again been re- 
 fused to the Italians, news arrived in Rome 
 that civil war was raging in her provinces. 
 The more immediate cause was the assassi- 
 nation of Drusus, " the Gracchus of the 
 aristocracy," who had endeavoured to ar- 
 range a compromise between the arrogance 
 
 of the rich and the claims of the poor. 
 This circumstance seemed to reveal to the 
 subject Italians that no help was to be ob- 
 tained, and that their only refuge was in 
 rebellion, and very speedily they had risen in 
 furious revolt. The slaves of Sicily took 
 advantage of this opportunity, and again rosey, 
 and the whole peninsula was in arms, and 
 scenes of the most atrocious cruelty were- 
 perpetrated on both sides. 
 
 With great promptitude Marius, Sulla, and 
 Pompeius Strabo, were sent to quell the insur- 
 rections, and by their superior generalship 
 this was finally accomplished after two years' 
 hard fighting. It is said that no less than 
 300,000 men perished in the great struggle, 
 and although " order " among the insurgents 
 was restored by main force, yet they were 
 virtually triumphant, for in the year 89 B.C. 
 the Roman franchise and citizenship was. 
 given to the Italians. It is said that this 
 event exercised the greatest influence upon 
 the old republican constitution, and made 
 Ceesarism a political necessity. However 
 this may be, it was clearly impossible to< 
 refuse the franchise after the social war. 
 Even the most arrogant of patricians could 
 not but see that the presence of so many 
 oppressed thousands with absolutely no 
 voice in the constitution, would be a con- 
 stant source of peril, and they would be 
 ready to follow any chief who would promise 
 them anything. It is moreover an abso- 
 lute fact that the reactionary laws of Sulla, 
 which we shall presently mention, were far 
 more disastrous to the Republic. The 
 granting of the franchise, connected as it was 
 with so many irritating restrictions, was but 
 opening the safety valve a very little way,, 
 and not far enough. 
 
 The Mithridatic War, and the First 
 Civil War. 
 
 The excessive jealousy that had long ex- 
 isted between Marius and Sulla kindled into- 
 the direst hatred when the latter was elected 
 consul in 88 B.C., and received the command 
 of the Roman legions in the war against 
 Mithridates, Kingof Pontus. This remarkable 
 man had during the social war supported the 
 insurgents, defied the Republic, overrun the 
 province of Asia Minor, and massacred 
 Roman colonists and traders it was said to 
 the number of 80,000. 
 
 It is very possible that if the Mithridatic 
 war had broken out before the social war,. 
 Marius would have had the command, but 
 during that war Sulla had by some means 
 managed to win the chief glory, whether it 
 was his by right or not, and he had lately 
 strengthened his position by divorcing his 
 third wife, in order to marry Cecilia, daughter 
 of Metellus, one of the old senatorial 
 nobles. The people well understood what 
 
 294 
 
C^SARISM IN ROME. 
 
 this marriage meant — that it was for political 
 purposes alone, and it was celebrated by 
 lampoons far more witty than complimen- 
 tary. 
 
 Sulla was steeped to the lips in the gross 
 debauchery of the time, and his lax morals 
 shocked even the sensualists of the day. 
 His countenance was disfigured with terrible 
 eruptions, and with jest it was compared to a 
 " mulberry sprinkled with meal." His man- 
 ners were haughty and morose. He was 
 selfish and ambitious. His object was to rule 
 Rome at the head of a dominant aristocracy, 
 and the power he possessed as a success- 
 ful, almost invincible general, reconciled the 
 nobles to him, especially as he was known to 
 be so fanatically devoted to the aggrandize- 
 ment of their order. 
 
 It is not a matter of much wonder, therefore, 
 that the Senate appointed Sulla to the leader- 
 ship. 
 
 Marius, disgusted, discontented, and 
 alarmed for his popularity, commenced to stir 
 up a revolution. He found the materials only 
 too ready to his hand. The new citizens of 
 Latium and Italy, already mortified at finding 
 the inefficiency of their votes, and that though 
 the promised privileges had been given with 
 one hand they were taken back with the other, 
 were again ripe for revolt. Marius conceived 
 the idea of turning their discontent to his own 
 advantage. He proposed to repair the in- 
 justice of the senate, and give them all they 
 wanted. Obtaining the assistance of Sul- 
 picius Galba, a tribune of great eloquence, a 
 revolt was put into execution, which for the 
 time prevailed. The consul remaining in 
 Rome was attacked with a band of armed 
 men, the senate was dissolved, and a new 
 senate created which recalled Sulla, and ap- 
 pointed Marius chief of the army. 
 
 Sulla returned, but accompanied _by his 
 army, with the avowed determination of over- 
 turning the new government. Marius sent 
 two prjetor^ to meet him and command him 
 to desist, but they were stripped of their 
 togas, their fasces broken, and they were 
 ordered to return to him who sent them. 
 Such violence betokened that worse was to 
 follow. The citizens in alarm sent ambassa- 
 dors to meet him, and promised to do full 
 justice between the rival commanders, and 
 it is said that the "mulberry face " himself 
 faltered in the execution of his daring design; 
 but being warned in a dream — wherein a 
 Roman deity appeared and placed a thunder- 
 bolt in his hand and commanded him to 
 launch it at his enemies — he advanced. 
 
 As he entered the city, stones and tiles were 
 flung at his troops from the house-tops, but 
 seizing a torch he threatened to burn the 
 city to the ground if any opposition were 
 offered. 
 
 Marius and his chief partizans fled, and 
 
 a price was set upon their heads. Sulla 
 reigned supreme. 
 
 The various romantic adventures which 
 befell Marius — the greatest Roman general of 
 the time — are related with much sympathy by 
 Plutarch, but are too lengthy to be repeated 
 here. He first wished to direct his steps 
 to Africa, the scene of his great exploits, 
 where his influence was still powerful, but 
 becoming shipwrecked, he was discovered. 
 But none of the " barbarians " would slay 
 him — him whom they regarded as the cham- 
 pion of Italy. At last a Cimbrian slave was 
 sent with a sword to dispatch him. Turning 
 his eyes full upon the messenger the old 
 man said, " Slave ! dare you kill Caius 
 Marius "i " Whereupon the man threw down 
 his sword, rushed from the place exclaiming, 
 " I cannot kill Caius Marius." Ultimately 
 he escaped to Africa, where among the ruins 
 of Carthage he meditated his return to 
 power. 
 
 Meantime Sulla was vigorously prosecuting 
 the war in the East against Mithridates, and 
 the partizans of Marius again made headway 
 under the leadership of Cinna. He raised 
 levies in lower Italy, and at the same time 
 Marius reappeared in Etruria. Both chiefs 
 approached Rome from opposite quarters. On 
 this occasion, after a sanguinary struggle they 
 were successful, and although seventy years 
 of age, Marius was a seventh time elected 
 consul, and prepared to lead an army to the 
 East to supplant Sulla. At this crisis, how- ' 
 ever, he died. 
 
 Cinna succeeded to his place and power, 
 but not for long. Flaccus, whom he sent to 
 supersede Sulla, was murdered, and the army 
 who had accompanied him was united to the 
 ambitious and powerful leader. With the 
 combined forces Sulla conquered Mithridates, 
 and then led his forces a second time against 
 Rome. The Italian legion summoned to 
 oppose him could not stand against his great 
 military talents and veteran soldiers, and at 
 Sacriportus, and also at the CoUine Gate they 
 were cut to pieces. For the second time 
 Sulla had conquered Rome. The nobility 
 received Sulla with mingled feelings of exul- 
 tation, fear, and admiration, but even they 
 were horror-stricken at the deluge of blood 
 which he caused to be shed. On the morning 
 after the battle at the Colline Gate 8,000 
 prisoners were killed. When the affrighted 
 senators asked him what meant the outcries 
 they heard without their place of assembly, 
 he replied coolly — - 
 
 " It is only some rascals whom I have com- 
 manded to be chastised." 
 
 The Roman Reign of Terror. 
 Day followed day, and the bloody massacre 
 continued. It was a Roman Reign of Terror, 
 far surpassing in horror, in unbridled savagery 
 
 295 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 and licentiousness the horrors of the great 
 French Revolution which followed it after 
 many centuries. Many a private grudge 
 was gratified, and many a private vengeance 
 wreaked under guise of the political neces- 
 sity. Marius Gratidian, a young relation of 
 the great Marius, was murdered with the 
 most revolting torture, and his bloody head 
 was placed on Sulla's banquet table. The 
 corpse of the great Marius was taken from 
 its sepulchre and thrown into the Tiber. 
 This was a greater outrage than ever before 
 had been attempted in the contests of the 
 Romans. The desecration of funeral rites 
 was in their eyes a terrible impiety. 
 
 This authorised system of murder continued 
 for several months, and the favourites of Sulla 
 made a lucrative trade out of selling the right 
 to proscribe persons, as the individuals who 
 thus proscribed another obtained his posses- 
 sions ; so one man was killed for his baths, 
 another for his farm, and so forth. It is re- 
 corded that one unfortunate man, when one 
 day examining the proscription-lists for idle 
 curiosity, saw with surprise and alarm his 
 own name placed thereon. "My Alban farm 
 has killed me !" he exclaimed in horror, and 
 even then his murderers smote him. 
 
 Sulla heaped favour upon his partizans. To 
 Catiline, a man of as great debauchery as 
 himself, he gave excessive wealth. Crassus 
 also now laid the foundation of that enormous 
 wealth which afterwards earned him the 
 questionable renown of being the richest of 
 Romans. 
 
 Caius Julius C^sar. 
 
 Among the witnesses of these terrible 
 doings there was one young man who laid 
 up their teachings in his heart, and made his 
 life-plans accordingly. Caius Julius Ccesar, 
 destined to become the greatest leader of the 
 Roman people, and to reduce this terrible 
 chaos to something like order, was a young 
 man of eighteen when Sulla's Reign of Terror 
 was proceeding. Being connected by blood 
 with the great Marius, he only very narrowly 
 escaped death. Caesar's young wife was a 
 relative of Marius, and Sulla desired Cajsar 
 to repudiate her. This he stoutly refused to 
 do. 
 
 It was determined to assassinate him, when 
 suddenly he thwarted the plot by fleeing to 
 the Sabine Hills. Assassins followed him, 
 while many friends pleaded with Sulla that 
 his life should be spared. At length the 
 dictator, with prophetic fervour, exclaimed, 
 " I spare him ; but, take care, that trifling boy 
 will be more dangerous than many Marius's." 
 
 Caesar escaped to the East, where he joined 
 in the siege of Mytilene. 
 
 Sulla was now lord of all, and the triumph 
 of the nobles was complete. He was the 
 dictator of Rome, and Rome was the mistress 
 
 2q6 
 
 of the world. With trembling awe the people 
 awaited the announcement of his will. Such 
 a spectacle as this would not be lost upon 
 such a man as Caesar, who had already shown 
 such abilities as to cause Sulla to speak of 
 him as he had done. Already in that young 
 man's mind there had grown up the idea of 
 the course he meant to pursue. Humanly 
 speaking, we might say that without Sulla 
 Julius Ccesar could not have accomplished 
 what he did. 
 
 Sulla proceeded to re-establish the supre- 
 macy of the nobles, and on this ground he 
 applied for an unlimited dictatorship. 
 
 His aim was to repeal all the popular mea- 
 sures of the preceding half century, and to 
 lay Rome and the world prostrate at the feet 
 of an irresponsible clique of nobles of which 
 he was chief The utter prostration of the 
 party of Marius enabled him to carry this 
 into effect, and the reactionary system of 
 Sulla has been called the greatest disaster in 
 the history of Rome. Having effected what 
 he called "reform," his love of luxury induced 
 him to retire into private life— where, sur- 
 rounded by buffoons and dancing girls, he 
 indulged to the last in sensual excesses. 
 
 About a year afterwards, 78 B.C., he died, 
 it is said, of a loathsome disease, caused by 
 his long life of debauchery, which bred vermin 
 in his body, which no medicine or ablution 
 could purge away. 
 
 The Second Civil War. 
 
 With the death of Sulla the last stage in 
 the fall of the Republic began. By a violent 
 effort Sulla hadrestoredthe government to the 
 hands of the nobility, — i.e.^ a group of a 
 few hundred families, — but within ten years 
 their incapacity to rule was plainly seen. It 
 was impossible to restrict to so small a number 
 the government, the honours, and emoluments 
 of the world. Lepidus, one of the consuls 
 who succeeded Sulla, was annoyed that he 
 had not received higher rewards from his 
 old chief, and attempted to repeal his laws. He 
 proclaimed the restoration of the powers 
 of the people's tribunes which Sulla had 
 curtailed, and revived the popular party 
 which the dictator had beaten to the ground. 
 He incited the miserable population of 
 Etruria to rise against the faction from 
 which they had suffered such intolerable 
 wrong. The Senate appointed Catullus to 
 lead an army to quell the revolt, which was 
 soon done. Lepidus escaped to Sardinia, 
 where he died shortly afterwards. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Lepidus was 
 solely actuated by patriotic motives in thus 
 attempting to revive the popular party, and 
 redress the people's wrongs. His antece- 
 dents, his character, and actions all point 
 to the fact that he hoped to attain to the 
 power and position that Sulla had wielded, 
 
CA£SARISM IN ROME. 
 
 and he simply used the democracy for that 
 purpose. 
 
 And thenceforth that principle seems to 
 have been the dominant one of Roman 
 history. It is a record of the desperate 
 attempts of desperate men from among the 
 nobihty to obtain a dictatorship. 
 
 The senatorial party now placed themselves 
 under the leadership of their natural chiefs, 
 —Catullus, Lucullus, Servilius, Lentulus, etc., 
 
 of Marius — recovering their strength, he 
 Ihrtw himself manfully into their cause, and 
 insisted that the trophies of Marius which 
 had been displaced by his successful rival 
 should be reinstated. 
 
 Very clearly his commanding mind saw 
 how things were tending in Rome ; he saw 
 the mistaken violence of Sulla; he saw 
 how impossible it was that a small clique 
 of nobles — themselves split up into rival 
 
 Mark Antony's Oration over Cesar's Corpse [page 302). 
 
 — men of ancient lineage, but poor abilities, 
 who by their dense stupidity, selfishness, and 
 utter carelessness of the claims of the many 
 millions subject to the sway of Rome, helped 
 to fan the smoulderingdiscontentof the people 
 mto the flames of civil war. 
 
 It was now that the unequalled genius of 
 Julius Caesar began to show itseff. After 
 serving abroad for some time he returned to 
 Rome, and finding his friends — the followers 
 
 factions — could govern, and, imbued with the 
 traditions of Marius and Cinna, he aspired 
 to rule Rome at the head of the democracy. 
 His great rival was Pompey, then the 
 greatest man in the Roman Republic, who 
 was now in the East, where his conquests 
 had been extended so far that he might 
 almost consider himself the rival of Alexander. 
 Pompey had been one of Sulla's generals. 
 At his command he had put away his wife, 
 
 297 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 who was related to Marius, and had married 
 as Sulla dictated. Caesar knew well the kind 
 of man with whom he had to deal. But Pom- 
 pey was now absent from Rome, and Ci^sar 
 pushed himself forward into the very front 
 rank of the popular party, and struck dismay 
 into the hearts of the nobles by calling to 
 account the instruments of Sulla's cruelties. 
 Everything was prospering with him, when 
 suddenly the Catiline conspiracy was dis- 
 covered, and the courage with which the 
 senate, led by Cicero, defeated it, gave them 
 a renewed lease of power. 
 
 The Catiline Conspiracy. 
 
 Sergius Catilina, one of the base creatures 
 upon whom Sulla had lavished great favours, 
 having failed to be elected to the consulship, 
 formed a conspiracy among a number of 
 discontented youths, who having lost their 
 wealth and position by reason of their own 
 excesses or of civil strife, were ripe for 
 any wild enterprise. We may suppose that 
 their aims were personal rather than political ; 
 they longed to get rid of the load of debts 
 which weighed them down ; they yearned to 
 divide the public offices and emoluments 
 among themselves ; they looked for support 
 to the cut-throats of Aie city ; they expected 
 the assistance of old disbanded soldiers, who 
 having squandered their spoils were ready to 
 participate in any enterprise which promised 
 more; and, further, some of them would not 
 have refused to take advantage of a slave 
 insurrection. 
 
 Meanwhile, Catiline, who placed himself at 
 the head of this movement, and endeavoured 
 to organize it, paced the streets with blood- 
 shot eyes and pallid visage, revolving the 
 most dreadful schemes of plunder and revo- 
 lution. But Fulvia, the mistress of Crassus, 
 one of Catihne's confederates, betrayed the 
 plot to Cicero, — the"upstart orator," — who by 
 the force of his genius had won his way into 
 the senate. The nobles, knowing his great 
 abilities, and determining to play on his 
 vanity for their own ends, had allowed him 
 to be elected consul. He had suspected the 
 conspiracy for a long time, and by his instruc- 
 tions Fulvia obtained from her paramour all 
 the particulars of the plot. 
 
 He was obliged to proceed with the greatest 
 circumspection, for the plot included scions 
 of the noblest houses ; but in the meantime 
 the conspiracy grew. Magazines of arms had 
 been collected, various bodies of insurgents 
 were arrayed to march against the city from 
 different points at a given signal, and arrange- 
 ments had been made to fire it in a hundred 
 places. 
 
 The Greatest Crisis in the History 
 OF Rome. 
 Cicero was equal to the occasion. Certain 
 
 troops arriving from the East were sent 
 against various insurrectionary movements in 
 the neighbourhood, and the great orator 
 summoning the senators, of whom Catiline 
 was one, denounced him before them all 
 in the famous speech, which is known as 
 " Cice^'d's First Oration against Catiline "y of 
 which these areafewof the opening sentences, 
 *" How long then, oh, Catilina, how long will 
 you abuse our patience ? What ! are you 
 quite unmoved by the guard which keeps 
 night-watch on the Palatine, by the patrols 
 of the city ? . . . Think you that all your 
 schemes are not open to us as the day ? . . . 
 The senate knows them, the consul sees 
 them, and the man still lives ! Lives, do I 
 say? — Aye, lives, and comes here into the 
 midst of us to join in our counsels, and to 
 mark us one by one for murder. And yet 
 we, into whose hands has been placed the 
 sword of Scipio, of Opimius, of Ahala, still 
 suffer it to sleep in its scabbard ! . . . Yes, 
 I still wait, I still delay ; for I wish you not 
 to* perish till you cease to find a citizen so 
 perverse as to excuse or defend you. Then, 
 and not till then, the sword shall descend 
 upon you. Meantime, live as you now live, 
 tracked by enemies and surrounded by sol- 
 diers. . . . Renounce, then, your designs, 
 for they are discovered and frustrated. . . . 
 I track your deeds, I follow your steps, I 
 know your very thoughts. ... I know the 
 men you mean to murder me. ... I exhort 
 you to go from this city. Go where your 
 armed ruffians await you. . . . Make war 
 against your country. You have determined 
 to do this ; the day is fixed, and every 
 arrangement made." . . . Then turning to 
 the senate Cicero explained the meaning of 
 this harangue. 
 
 This speech completely turned the tide of 
 affairs, and roused the senate to the deepest 
 indignation. Catiline essayed to speak, but 
 finally he fled precipitately, frightened by 
 the shouts of execration which greeted him. 
 But as he fled he shouted, " I will hide the 
 burning of my own house in the wreck of the 
 city." He left Rome, and placed himself at 
 the head of his insurgents, and died in battle 
 against the troops sent by the senate to quell 
 his insurrection. 
 
 Cicero, dazzled by the splendour of his 
 success, and excited by the flatteries of the 
 nobles he had saved, lent himself to acts 
 of cruelty against many persons who were 
 only supposed to have been connected with 
 the conspiracy. These presumed asso- 
 ciates were strangled in prison without trial, 
 and once more the arbitrary power of the 
 irresponsible chque of nobles was supreme. 
 But he was never forgiven the assumption of 
 superiority he took up, and it was not the 
 
 * Merivale. 
 
 298 
 
CJLSARISM IN ROME. 
 
 senate alone that was irritated at his remark, 
 " I am the Saviour of Rome; I am the Father 
 of my country." 
 
 But what a terrible satire upon the 
 triumphs of Pompey in the East, was the 
 state of things in Rome which the con- 
 spiracy revealed. Had it succeeded, the 
 city would have been at the mercy of a set 
 of aristocratic young bravos and cut-throats ; 
 like a foul ulcer upon fair flesh, it revealed the 
 corruption which lay within, hidden beneath 
 the showy pomps of Roman conquests. 
 
 The First Triumvirate. 
 
 But though the sharp suppression of the 
 conspiracy gave a longer lease of power to 
 the senate, it was but for a short time, and 
 the next feature to notice is the paralysis of 
 the power of the senate— that board of govern- 
 ment which for so many years had been the 
 mightiest power in the world. Rent by 
 wretched jealousies, and torn by contention 
 as to who should obtain the highest magis- 
 tracy, it did nothing but feebly squabble or 
 attempt to frustrate the purposes of men 
 whom it disliked. 
 
 Meantime, Caesar, whose schemes had been 
 somewhat thwarted by the conspiracy, forced 
 himself again to the front. While the nobles 
 had been contending among themselves, he ; 
 obtained the preetorship, the second rank in 
 the scale of office, and in the year 60 B.C. he 
 went forth to gain his first laurels as com- 
 mander in the war with Spain. 
 
 Pompey, returning from his arduous 
 struggles in the East, found that his popu- 
 larity had considerably waned with the senate. 
 They refused to accord him the honour 
 of a triumph, or to ratify his treaties and 
 political arrangements in the East. Further, 
 they were jealous, and afraid of his power 
 with his large army. He could get no satis- 
 faction until he had formed a coalition with 
 Crassus and Caesar, — when he returned 
 from Spain to sue for the consulship. This 
 coalition is known as the First Triumvirate, 
 and the immediate result of the compact was, 
 that secretly supported by the influence of 
 Pompey and the g'old of Crassus, and borne 
 on the tide of his own popularity, Caesar 
 was elected consul by loud acclamations. Pie 
 soon marked his accession to power by pro- 
 posing and passing certain popular laws, 
 which tended to increase the supply and lower 
 the price of corn, and to limit the excessive 
 accjuirement of land by the nobles. It was in 
 vain that Bibulus, his colleague, endeavoured 
 to oppose these laws. Ceesar was successful in 
 every respect ; and when his year of office had 
 expired, and he had carried his war against 
 the senate to the utmost limits of the law, he 
 caused Pompey and Crassus to be appointed 
 consuls in his stead, and himself to be de- 
 
 puted dictator for five years of the western 
 army, and pro-consul of Gaul. 
 
 In this distant country he was beyond the 
 reach of the enmity of the nobles, but yet 
 could keep himself informed of all that trans- 
 pired within the city. As a dictator of the 
 army he was compelled by the laws to keep 
 without the gates of Rome while retaining 
 his command, and therefore every rainy sea- 
 son he repaired to Lucca, the nearest point 
 on the frontier, there to consult with his friends 
 on the measures likely to lead to the bene- 
 fit of himself and his party ; among other 
 things it was arranged that Pompey should 
 be appointed pro-consul of Africa and Spain, 
 and Crassus dictator in Syria, and that 
 Cesar's command should be extended for 
 another five years after the expiration of his 
 first term of office. 
 
 But the bands which had held together 
 this political union between Ceesar, Pompey, 
 and Crassus were being gradually loosened. 
 Ccesar had married his daughter Julia to 
 Pompey — although he was older than Csesar 
 himself — in order to cement the union, and 
 that he might work on the selfish old man 
 through his wife ; but in the year 54 B.C. she 
 died, and Csesar lost a great part of his 
 influence over him. The senate, too, began 
 to play off one against the other, and to 
 take advantage of his absence to flatter 
 Pompey. On the occurrence of a scarcity in 
 the city they conferred upon him extraordi- 
 nary power to preserve the people from 
 famine. Crassus failed in Syria, and the 
 Parthians, against whom he led his army, 
 obtained a decisive victory over the Romans 
 at the terrible battle of Charrhte. Crassus 
 was slain, and the remnant of his army 
 brought back by the ablest of his lieutenants. 
 
 The Contest between C^sar and 
 Pompey. 
 
 This breaking, by death, of the triple league 
 between the three great pro-consuls was an 
 opportunity for the senate, and they saw it. 
 They recommenced their overtures to Pom- 
 pey, — who still remained in Rome, and 
 governed his provinces by means of lieu- 
 tenants, — and granted him the distinction of 
 a dictatorship over Rome itself for six months. 
 
 Pompey, too, was now terribly jealous of 
 his great colleague. Caesar was not the 
 dissipated spendthrift he had once imagined 
 him to be, and instead of being the prop to 
 his power, Pompey found that he had be- 
 come a serious rival, and the most successful 
 and popular of public men. 
 
 Ccesar had indeed achieved remarkable 
 and brilliant success. The rebellious Gauls 
 had been tamed into complete submission, 
 and were now the most contented and valu- 
 able of the Roman allies. The barbarians 
 of Britain had also been brought under the 
 
 299 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 sway of the Republic, and before his second 
 term of office as dictator had expired, he had 
 most successfully accomplished the task that 
 he had undertaken. He determined therefore 
 to return to Rome, and apply for the consul- 
 ship a second time, as he was now quite 
 justified in doing. 
 
 The senate, with Pompey at their head, — 
 for he had now quite thrown in his lot with 
 the nobles, — endeavoured by all means in 
 their power to prevent his return, and at last 
 they boldly commanded him to relinquish his 
 dictatorship of the army. He retorted that 
 Pompey,- — who at that time held command 
 of all the troops in Spain,— while still residing 
 in Rome, should also give up command of 
 his army. But this Pompey stoutly refused 
 to do, although the opposition he offered to 
 Caesar was in direct contravention of their 
 preconcerted plans, for before the death of 
 Crassus it had been arranged by the triumvi- 
 rate that Cccsar should be consul again in 
 48 B.C. 
 
 This last action of Pompey's made it clear 
 to Cassar that he must regard Pompey as an 
 enemy. He knew, moreover, how cordially 
 the senate hated him, and how strong was 
 the opposition arrayed against him, and that 
 £0 show himself in Rome without his army 
 would be but to court assassination. Still 
 further, he saw how incapable the senate 
 were of government. A selfish, careless, cor- 
 rupt, and worn-out body, their only idea of 
 I'uling was to crush the people beneath a 
 grinding tyranny, which must eventually 
 cause the commons to rise in rebellion, and 
 open the city to the inroads of rough bar- 
 barians, as had previously been the case. He 
 saw that the conquests ofthe city had become 
 so large, that there was imminent danger of 
 the genuine Roman race being overcome by 
 its alien subjects ; and that by reason of 
 internecine strife there was a great risk ofthe 
 gigantic commonwealth breaking up into 
 numerous states by reason of its own weight. 
 He therefore conceived the grand idea of 
 crushing all rival factions, of fusing all sepa- 
 rate interests, and of moulding the mighty 
 mass of alien subjects into one people, 
 obedient to the sway of one man, and that 
 man — himself The people were powerless 
 to govern themselves, the aristocrats were too 
 corrupt and divided. The only strength in 
 Rome was the army, and of the best part of 
 that army Ceesar was dictator. It was indeed 
 Aut CcFsar, ant inilhis — Either Caesar, or 
 Nothing. 
 
 CiESAR Crosses the Rubicon. 
 Csesar moved slowly towards Italy at the 
 head of his exultant and well-trained army. 
 His soldiers regarded him almost as a god, 
 and he knew that he could rely upon them to 
 any extent. It was clear that no union could 
 
 now exist between the Senate led by Pompey 
 and himself, and that civil war was imminent. 
 
 Warily he waited for some circumstance 
 which should give him the advantage and 
 afford him some show of legality, and a brief 
 pause ensued in the stern march of events. It 
 was but the calm before the storm. 
 
 One night two tribunes ofthe people, who 
 had protested in vain against the terrible 
 oppressions of the senate, alarmed for their 
 own safety, fled from Rome with the news that 
 the laws proposed on behalf of the popular 
 party had been contemptuously rejected 
 (January ist, 49 B.C.), and that Cassar was to 
 be compelled to resign his office. 
 
 Then Csesar struck — sharply and well. 
 With lightning-like speed he crossed the 
 Rubicon,- — the small stream forming the fron- 
 tier ov^erwhich a dictator might not legally pass 
 with his army, — and marched towards Rome. 
 The senate and Pompey were dismayed, 
 and fled, vainly protesting. Csesar knew 
 now that hesitation would be fatal, and it is 
 said that as his horse stepped out of the 
 stream on to the soil of Italy, he exclaimed, 
 J act a est a lea, The die is cast. Either 
 the shadowy senate, or Cccsar, must reign. 
 
 The dictator was careful to assume the 
 appearance of legality, and he proclaimed 
 that he entered Italy with his army to vindi- 
 cate the law. On his way to Rome he 
 garrisoned city after city, and rendered the 
 whole population subject to himself This 
 was not difficult for him to accomplish, for on 
 every hand the people rose to welcome him 
 as their deliverer from the oppression of the 
 cruel aristocracy which had ground them 
 down so long. 
 
 Then when he had secured the provinces 
 he turned his steps to the Tiber city, where a 
 joyful people received him with acclamations. 
 
 From the remnant of the nobles who re- 
 mained in Rome he summoned a senate; he 
 seized the treasures of the State, and with 
 politic clemency proclaimed an amnesty to 
 all nobles who would unite with him, and 
 denounced the fallen government as traitors 
 and rebels. 
 
 The Beginning of the End. 
 
 But Pompey, although fallen, was not 
 beaten, and he was now collecting a large 
 army from his veteran soldiers in the East, 
 who had enabled him to win such magnificent 
 victories in Greece and Asia. Still further, 
 Spain was garrisoned with his troops, and by 
 his command they marched against Gaul. 
 
 Ccesar, therefore, swiftly crossed the 
 Pyrenees, and attacked Pompey's lieutenants 
 in Spain. Obtaining several signal victories 
 over them he quickly returned to Rome, and 
 announced himself guardian of the state 
 against all enemies. Joyfully the people 
 granted him the dictatorship of the state 
 
 300 
 
C.SSARISM IN ROME. 
 
 as well as of the army, and he prepared to 
 finally crush his great rival. 
 
 Pompey had now collected together a large 
 army in Epirus, and had taken up a strong 
 position on the coast. Caesar therefore 
 gathered all his forces for a final struggle. 
 His weakness lay in want of ships. Pompey 
 had still command of the sea and a superior 
 fleet, and in the first engagement Caesar was 
 repulsed with loss. He then boldly dashed 
 into Thessaly in the very centre of the enemy's 
 country, hoping to draw Pompey from his 
 strong position. 
 
 In this he was successful. The followers 
 of Pompey elated with their success against 
 the great Caesar insisted on their leader 
 following him. The old general, the hero of 
 a hundred fights, hesitated, but the tempta- 
 tion was too strong; he panted to crush like 
 a nutshell this upstart Caesar, this former 
 "tool" of his, as he had fondly and foolishly 
 hoped he was. His forces doubled those of 
 Caesar, why not venture ? So he yielded. 
 The armies met on the plains of Pharsalia, 
 and a long and sanguinary struggle ensued, 
 which ended in the complete rout of Pom- 
 pey's army. The old general fled to Lesbos, 
 and the members of the senate with him 
 were either scattered or slain, and its power 
 as a governing body was completely broken. 
 
 Pompey finding that he was pursued by 
 Csesar escaped from Lesbos, thence to 
 Cyprus, and finally to Egypt. He was trea- 
 cherously murdered by Lucius Septimius as 
 he was landing from a boat to the Egyptian 
 shore, and his head was sent to Caesar in 
 triumph. It is stated that his assassination 
 was ordered by Ptolemy, the young King of 
 Egypt, who hoped thereby to obtain favour 
 with the all-conquering Cassar. In this he 
 was mistaken; the dictator shed tears when 
 the ghastly gift was brought him. He erected 
 a temple to the memory of his great rival, and 
 punished his murderers. 
 
 Although the form of government was still 
 a Republic, the spirit had departed, and every- 
 thing depended on the will of Cssar. After 
 settling various disputes and rebellions in the 
 East, and remaining in Egypt fascinated by 
 the charms of Cleopatra, he returned to 
 Rome, where the people eagerly welcomed 
 him, and again made him dictator. The 
 greater number of the nobles made their 
 submission, and Csesar treated them with 
 great clemency. A remnant fled to Africa, 
 and under the indomitable Cato still stood 
 out for the oligarchy at Utica. Had they 
 possessed means, money, and wisdom, they 
 might have greatly embarrassed Cassar when 
 he was engaged in quelling disturbances 
 in the East. But they allowed the opportu- 
 nity to slip, and Csesar continued his conquer- 
 ing course. 
 
 At the [battle of Thapsus, B.C. 46, Cato's 
 
 troops were completely overthrown, and the 
 rout of the senatorial party was complete. 
 Cato, recommending his followers to yield to 
 the clemency of the dictator, escaped the 
 field of battle, only to throw himself on his 
 sword. 
 
 All Caesar's opponents being now over- 
 thrown he returned once more to Rome, to 
 find himself the undisputed dictator of the 
 world. True, all the old forms of government 
 were to be continued, yet those forms were 
 subject to his will. He was made consul for 
 five years, dictator for one year, and after- 
 wards for life, tribune of the people, and 
 empowered to make peace or war at his will. 
 He was also declared imperator, or com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army, and his word 
 was law. 
 
 The founders of the constitution had pro- 
 vided for the creation of a dictator — i.e., an 
 autocratic ruler — in times of peril, but they 
 never seemed to have thought that there 
 might come a time when the dictator would 
 be consul, praetor, and tribune at the 
 same time, and roll into one person all 
 the offices and dignities of the state ; yet 
 this was now the case, and this initial mis- 
 take in the Republican constitution of allow- 
 ing a dictator to be at any time appointed,, 
 completed its ruin. Ctesar was not therefore 
 roughly violating any law of the state in what 
 he had done, and we must not regard him as 
 an ambitious autocrat riding rough-shod over 
 the liberties of the people. He drove away a 
 cruel oligarchy which was more oppressive 
 and tyrannical than any king, and, according 
 to the law, accepted a dictatorship granted 
 him by the people. The difference was that 
 /lis dictatorship was now for life, and in 
 Rome itself, whereas others had been for a 
 term only, and had expired when, with their 
 army, they returned to Rome. The title he 
 took, " Imperator," which was now impressed 
 on the coinage of the time, intimated as 
 much, and it also signified the rule of the 
 sword, which was now indeed the dominant 
 power in Rome. The Republic had ruled 
 others by the sword, and it was now ruled by 
 the sword itself. 
 
 CESAR'S Laws and Policy. 
 The dictator consolidated his power by 
 wise laws. He suffered no unjust punish- 
 ments, briberies, or confiscations, and the 
 populace soon felt the benefit of his mild and 
 equable rule. He also built temples and 
 restored cities; he codified the laws of the 
 Republic, and projected a complete survey 
 of Italy and the provinces; while last, but not 
 least, he rectified the calendar which has 
 lasted to our own day, with but a few trifling 
 alterations, and is now used all over Europe. 
 His object was to mould the whole of the 
 conquered peoples into one empire of uniform 
 
 301 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 laws and customs, therefore he opened the 
 senate to chiefs from Gaul and Africa. Cleo- 
 patra, the beautiful Egyptian princess, was 
 given a Roman palace, and it was said that 
 he intended to marry her. He conferred the 
 citizenship on the whole of the Cisalpine 
 population, and men of strange manners and 
 uncouth mien now mingled largely with the 
 genuine Romans in the Roman streets. 
 
 Unfortunately he now suffered his vanity to 
 overrule his reason, and allowed his better 
 judgment to be warped by the flatteries of 
 his friends. He permitted himself to be 
 worshipped as a divinity, and favoured the 
 designs of his flatterers who wished to crown 
 him king. 
 
 So it came to pass that Rome became filled 
 with rumours that Caesar desired the diadem, 
 and not satisfied with being dictator for life 
 wished to be crowned king — a name hateful 
 beyond all others to Roman ears. And so it 
 happened that at the feast of the Lupercalia, 
 Antony thrice offered him the diadem, and 
 the scene was enacted which we have en- 
 deavoured to describe at the opening of this 
 paper. But there were discontented repub- 
 licans who looked with suspicion on Cesar's 
 proceedings, and they hatched the conspiracy, 
 the members of which stabbed the dictator 
 in the senate house. It is said that only one 
 of their number, Brutus, acted from really 
 pure and disinterested motives. 
 
 When the deed was done, and Rome was for 
 the time without a leader, Cicero — who had 
 accepted the supremacy of the dictator with 
 the resignation of a wise philosopher, because 
 he saw that it was futile to fight against the 
 inevitable — joined the band of pseudo-patriots 
 and repaired to the Capitol, whither they went 
 to justify their crime to the people. 
 
 If they had truly been the patriots that 
 they styled themselves, and had listened to 
 his advice, new life might have been breathed 
 into the forms of the Republic, and at this 
 crisis the empire which Csesar had esta- 
 blished might have been overturned in its 
 infancy. But they were led away by this 
 skilful cajolery of Mark Antony, who ob- 
 tained permission to celebrate Csesar's obse- 
 quies in public, and on the day of the funeral 
 delivered such a soul-stirring oration, that 
 the populace were entirely swayed over to the 
 side of Ceesarism, and had not the conspira- 
 tors fled, there in great reason to believe that 
 not one would have been left alive. 
 
 The Second Triumvirate. 
 The period following the murder of Caesar 
 was occupied with the intrigues of Antony 
 and " young Octavius," the nephew of Caesar, 
 who had been adopted by the dictator as his 
 son. He was at this time only a young man 
 of nineteen, but he made friends with Cicero, 
 even as Antony had cajoled the other con- 
 
 spirators, and made a bold bid for the place 
 and power of his kinsman. 
 
 Popular feeling was so strong against the 
 conspirators that most of them found it 
 advisable to escape from the city, and Brutus 
 and Cassius, the two principal members, re- 
 tired to Syria. The field, therefore, was far 
 more open for the machinations of Octa\'ius 
 than might at first be supposed. Moreover, 
 he was great Caesar's heir, and he demanded 
 the restitution of his inheritance from Antony, 
 who had in the meantime possessed himself 
 of it. 
 
 Antony collected some troops together 
 and retired to the Cisalpine, while the senate, 
 impelled by the philippics of Cicero, sent out 
 an army under two consuls to crush him. 
 Octavius also led an army ostensibly against 
 Antony and in support of the senate, but 
 really to watch events. In the battle which 
 ensued Antony was routed, but the consuls 
 were slain. Thereupon Octavius swiftly 
 united himself to Antony, and these two 
 again made a coalition with the third division 
 of Caesar's troops under Lepidus, and the 
 three leaders agreed to share the government 
 between them. 
 
 This compact is known as "The Second 
 Triumvii-ate," and thus it came to pass that 
 after Caesar s death Caesar's government was 
 carried on by his friend and co-consul Mark 
 Antony, his nephew Octavius, and his lieu- 
 tenant Lepidus, backed up by his army. The 
 senate and the citizens were alike ignored. 
 
 Proscriptions and Assassinations; 
 The Plains of Philippi. 
 
 The firstfruits of this triumvirate were the 
 slaughter of some thousands of persons — 
 senators and citizens — whom the triumvirs 
 thought likely to thwart their plans. As- 
 sassins were hired to carry out these edicts 
 of execution, and again the streets of Rome 
 ran blood" Among others the noble orator 
 and eloquent patriot, Cicero, who was indeed 
 one of the fathers of his country, and had 
 saved her in the time of the Catiline con- 
 spiracy, put off his escape until too late, and 
 was treacherously slain. And as he fell, so 
 fell other patriots. 
 
 Having waded to their chairs of state 
 through a sea of blood, the triumvirs now 
 bethought them of the conspirators who had 
 fled to Syria. During the time which had 
 elapsed since the death of Caesar, Brutus and 
 Cassius had collected a formidable force in 
 the East, and as the troops of the triumvirs 
 drew near it seemed doubtful how the day 
 would go. 
 
 Brutus, it is said, was much disturbed in 
 mind, and afflicted with doubts as to the 
 wisdom and justifiability of his action in the 
 murder of Caesar. He was anxious either to 
 
 302 
 
CyESARISM IN ROME. 
 
 gain a great triumph and free Rome from 
 the usurpers, or to be' himself slain. 
 
 The two armies met on the plains of Phi- 
 iippi, and the legions under the command 
 of Cassius having suffered defeat, he threw 
 himself on his sword rather than yield himself 
 up as a prisoner. Brutus had been more 
 successful, but finding himself now sole com- 
 mander he drew off his forces. The trium- 
 virs, were, however, but badly off for food, 
 and if Brutus had been content to wait his 
 opportunity his opponents might have been 
 forced by famine to retreat ; but some twenty 
 days later he offered battle and suffered a 
 signal defeat, which he rendered irrecover- 
 able by killing himself. His followers were 
 now completely broken, and although some 
 escaped and joined themselves to Sextus, son 
 of Pompey, the republican party never made 
 another effort. The plains of Philippi wit- 
 nessed their last wild stand. 
 
 The Fall of the Triumvirate ; 
 Augustus Emperor. 
 
 After the battle of Philippi, Octavius retired 
 to Rome, where he governed the city and 
 Italian provinces with a degree of wisdom and 
 self-control that gained him great favour. 
 Antony, according to arrangement, governed 
 the East, while Lepidus held command of 
 Gaul. 
 
 The fascinating and wily Cleopatra, Queen 
 of Egypt, remembering how successful she 
 had been with the great Caesar, now set to 
 work to ingratiate herself with Caesar's eastern 
 successor ; and so successful was she, that 
 before long she had him completely in her 
 toils. He took up his abode on the banks of 
 the Nile, and neglecting the affairs of state, 
 yielded himself up entirely to a life of easy 
 indulgence. 
 
 His long-announced expedition against the 
 Parthians ended in disaster, and great dis- 
 gust at his worthless rule began to spread 
 amongst his followers. Reports reached Rome 
 that Roman rule in the East was becoming 
 weakened, that Antony had masqued as an 
 Egyptian god, and last, but not least, that he 
 was preparing a terrible attack on the Tiber 
 city itself, with intent to rule as its king, and 
 make his mistress Cleopatra its queen. 
 
 This was Octavius' opportunity, and he 
 took it. Coming forward as the saviour of 
 the state, he led a magnificent army across 
 the Adriatic to vindicate the rule of Rome. 
 Antony had not been idle, and had collected 
 many troops and ships, and if Cleopatra 
 had not acted treacherously the issue of the 
 struggle would have been very doubtful. 
 But when the first battle was fought between 
 the opposing fleets off the promontory of 
 Actium, she, fearing that Octavius would gain 
 the day, suddenly gave her own ships the 
 signal of retreat, and with them retired to 
 
 Alexandria. Antony, forgetful alike of honour 
 and of the danger of defeat, fled after her, 
 leaving his ships and soldiers to their fate. The 
 ships were for the most part destroyed, but 
 his soldiers, disgusted with the conduct of 
 their leader, surrendered en masse to the 
 conquering Octavius. The whole military 
 force was now in the hands of Octavius, who 
 pushed on promptly for Alexandria. 
 
 The treacherous Cleopatra opened the gates 
 of her city to the young Roman without a 
 blow, and Antony, in a paroxysm of rage, 
 threatened to kill her. She shut herself up 
 in a tower, and sent word that she should slay 
 herself, and that before he received the mes- 
 sage she would be dead. The besotted Roman 
 then accused himself of causing her death ; 
 and seeing now that his rival was completely 
 his conqueror, and that his mistress was dead, 
 he resolved, too, to quit the world. Stabbing 
 himself he besought her attendants to carry 
 his body and place it beside hers. They 
 did so, and the artful Cleopatra witnessed his 
 death in her chamber. Having thus got quit 
 of the old love she endeavoured to be " on 
 with the new " ; and brought all her power of 
 blandishment to bear on the young Octavius. 
 She had ensnared Caesar and Antony ; this 
 young man would prove an easy conquest ; 
 she might yet save her own kingdom, and 
 indeed, rule the world from the Capitol of 
 Rome. But when in her presence the youth- 
 ful conqueror resolutely turned his eyes from 
 her ; and not only did he demand her rich 
 kingdom of Egypt, but also declared his 
 intention of exhibiting her as his captive to 
 the citizens of Rome when he celebrated 
 his triumphal entry into the imperial city. 
 
 To this the haughty Cleopatra offered in- 
 dignantly a scornful refusal, but in vain ; and 
 rather than yield she determined to die. She 
 was guarded day and night, for the young 
 Octavius counted greatlyupon herappearance 
 in his triumph; but she contrived to get an 
 asp conveyed to her in a basket of fruit, and 
 caused the poisonous reptile to sting her arm, 
 and thus perished. 
 
 The entire control of the army and of the 
 Roman Empire had now passed into the 
 hands of Octavius ; for Lepidus, who had held 
 command of Gaul, had rashly committed an 
 act of hostility against the governor of Rome 
 who thereupon had promptly marched an army 
 against him and defeated him. When, there- 
 fore, Octavius returned to Rome, and had 
 entered the city at the head of his army, he 
 evaded the law, — which provided that every 
 dictator should disband his forces and resign 
 his title on his return home, — and remained 
 the commander-in-chief even as his uncle the 
 great Csesar had done. Thenceforward he 
 set himself to consolidate the empire as his 
 uncle had left it. He acted, however, with 
 great prudence and circumspection, and as- 
 
 303 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 cended to absolute autocratic rule slowly and 
 by degrees. He resolutely refused to have 
 aught to do with titles of" king " or " dicta- 
 tor," and invented a new title for himself, 
 " Augustus," " the most sacred one " ; and 
 as Augustus Csesar he is known to this day. 
 
 His reign was a brilliant one. As his 
 uncle had done, he devoted himself to the 
 consolidation and improvement of the em- 
 pire, to a just administration of the laws, 
 and to a binding together of the subject 
 peoples into one common nationality. He 
 spent large sums on the embellishment of 
 Rome, and so beautified the city that the 
 proverb arose, " Augustus found Rome brick 
 and left it marble." On every side he raised 
 a fabric of material prosperity, and, cheated 
 by this, the stubborn Romans forgot their 
 ancient freedom. 
 
 Henceforth their history was continued 
 under the reigns of sixty Caesars, who for 
 the most part were voluptuous loungers or 
 wretched despots. Only a few exhibited any 
 approach to the wisdom and genius of the 
 great man, — the foremost man of all the world, 
 — as Shakespeare calls him, who moulded 
 that mighty mass of jarring discords into 
 one empire. Crushed under the iron heel of 
 an absolute despotism, the sighs and cries of 
 the people for freedom were lost amid the 
 intrigues of autocrats and stifled by the over- 
 whelming force of an omnipotent army. But 
 the cruelties which once the nobles had visited 
 on the people were now visited on them- 
 selves. The Emperor, as chief of the army, 
 caused every one to be subservient to his 
 will, and Csesarism — government by brute 
 force — reigned supreme. 
 
 Influence of C^sarism on the 
 
 World. 
 Thus closed that memorable epoch — an 
 epoch of a hundred years — when the Republic 
 of Rome fell into fragments, and the empire 
 
 rose on its ruins. It fell because of its inter- 
 nal corruption and faulty construction : it was 
 no longer a Republic as we understand the 
 word, but an aristocratic commonwealth — a 
 discordant oligarchy in which absolute power 
 was usurped by a few ; and the people gladly 
 welcomed the rest afforded by the wise sway 
 of a moderate and discreet man of command- 
 ing genius, after a century of misrule by a 
 clique of wicked nobles — a century of inter- 
 necine strife and sanguinary struggles, in 
 which they were always sacrificed to the 
 selfish amis of opposing parties. 
 
 Of all periods of long-past history, this 
 epoch is one of the most important and in- 
 structive, for it has influenced the character 
 of European civilization even to the present 
 day. Forgetful of the pecuhar circumstances 
 of the time, and forgetful also of the trans- 
 cendent genius of Caesar, there have been 
 men who have been misled by his success, 
 and endeavoured to walk in his steps. Even 
 now there are some among us, as well as 
 on the Continent, who point admiringly to 
 the triumph of Cassarism, and proclaim it the 
 form of government which is wisest and best. 
 But when it is shorn of its splendours, 
 Ccesarism is seen to be simply the govern- 
 ment of a mighty mass of people by brute 
 force, directed by the commanding genius of 
 one man, and that man the dictator of the 
 democracy rather than the nominee of proud 
 patricians, or the hereditary ruler of a reign- 
 ing house. And however necessary such a 
 government may have been in the epoch 
 which we have attempted to describe, the 
 true lesson to be learned therefrom is that, 
 in free self-government alone, where each 
 estate in the realm exerts its own legitimate 
 power and influence, is that happiness of the 
 people to be found which affords the best 
 safeguard of a prosperous and well-established 
 state. 
 
 F. M. H. 
 
 304 
 
The English Hoof on Irish Soil. 
 
 STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT 
 
 THE STORY OF THE CONQUEST OF IRELAND. 
 
 The Land of Continual War — The Holy Angel's Communication and St. Bridget— The Native Kings of Ireland— Hungry 
 Looks from England— Henry the Se:ond's Scheme, and Appeal to the Pope— The Irish Church- Kin^^ Dermot and 
 the Lady Devorgoil— Giraldiis Cambrensis and his Opinion of Women— A Papal Bull— Flight of King Dermot to 
 England— Strongbow and other Soldiers of Fortune— Siege of Wexford — A Kingly Cannibal— Normans and Natives 
 — Massacre and Marriage— King Roderic and the Invaders — Strongbow King of Leinster — King Henry interferes^ 
 A Royal Visit — "More Irish than the Irish "—Appeal to the Bruces of Scotland— The Statutes of Kilkenny — 
 Poyning's Law and " the Pale" — Rule of the Tudors— Terrible Condition of the Native Irish— Absenteeism— Pro- 
 jects for Reforming the Irish Church— A Reign of Terror— The Plantation of Ulster— The Irish Society of London — 
 The Curse of Cromwell— Boyne Water and the Siege of Limerick — The Treaty of Limerick — A Policy of Oppression. 
 
 The Land of Strife. 
 |N abojk entitled De Salute Popitli^ 
 the author of v/hich, an Irishman, 
 who styled himself " Panderus," 
 lived in the early part of the six- 
 teenth centurv, it is related that the good 
 
 St. Brigetta, or Bridget, was told by " her 
 holy angel," that there was a land in the west 
 part of the world where most souls were lost, 
 "for there is most continual war, root of hate 
 and envy, and of vices contrary to charity, 
 and without charity the souls cannot be 
 
 305 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 saved." The opinion of the author of the I 
 book was that Ireland was the land that the i 
 angel meant, " for there is no land in the | 
 world of so continual war ; nor of so great j 
 shedding of Christian blood ; nor of so great I 
 robbery, spoiling, preying, and burning ; nor ; 
 of so great wrongful extortion continually, as \ 
 Ireland." 1 
 
 When these words were written, Ireland 
 had been for more than three centuries 
 nominally subject to the kings of England, 
 the dominant landholders were of English 
 descent, and the common law of England 
 was presumably the law of the Green Island. 
 Mr. Froude, referring to the passage quoted 
 above, says, with apparent justice, " The 
 Pander's satire upon the English enterprise 
 is a heavy one." 
 
 Augustin Thierry, the historian of the 
 Norman Conquest in England, traced by the 
 aid of extensive knowledge, and with a strong 
 sympathy, the story of the Norman-English 
 conquest of Ireland. He says, " The con- 
 quest of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans is 
 perhaps the only one that, after the first 
 disasters which all conquests necessarily 
 entail, has not, in the slow and imperceptible 
 progress of events, been succeeded by a 
 gradual amelioration in the social condition 
 of the conquered people. . . . The sad and 
 singular fate which weighs alike upon the old 
 and the new inhabitants of the isle of Erin, 
 has for its cause the vicinity of England, and 
 the influence which its government has con- 
 tinually exercised, since the conquest, over 
 the internal affairs of that country." 
 
 The Native Kings of Ireland. 
 
 Ireland, like England, had struggled 
 bravely, and in the end successfully, against 
 the invasions of the Scandinavian sea-kings, 
 before the Norsemen, the Normans of his- 
 tory, established a sovereignty in England. 
 There was friendship between some of the 
 famous Saxon leaders and the Irish princes. 
 When the sons of the great Earl Godwin 
 unsuccessfully rebelled against Edward the 
 Confessor, Harold, the second son, took 
 refuge in Ireland, with his brother-in-law, 
 Donough, King of Munster, who had married 
 Driella, sister of Harold. This Donough 
 was the son of Brian Boru, the warrior king 
 celebrated in song and history in connection 
 with the defeat of the Danes at Clontarf ; 
 and after the death of Malachy, who wore, 
 as Tom Moore reminds us, " the collar of 
 gold," and was the last crowned King of 
 Ireland, Donough assumed the title and 
 claimed to exercise the power of Ard-righ, 
 or King of all Ireland, having, in accordance 
 with a policy not limited to those days, 
 brought about the murder of his brother, 
 Teigue, who had a superior claim. 
 
 The island was then divided into five 
 
 306 
 
 kingdoms — Ulster, Leinster, Meath, Con- 
 naught, and Munster. The Ard-righ, or 
 chief monarch, possessed the central district 
 of Meath, and usually resided at a place 
 which has served as the rallying-point of 
 Irish nationality even in our own times — 
 Tara, or the hill of Teamhair, where, in the 
 great hall of the palace of King Cormac, the 
 semi-legendary monarch of the fourth cen- 
 tury, a hundred and fifty warriors stood in 
 the King's presence when he feasted, and a 
 hundred and fifty cupbearers handed the 
 guests cups of silver and gold ; and where,, 
 too, bards of marvellous poetic powers played 
 on "the harp which once in Tara's halls its 
 soul of music shed." For twenty years after 
 the death of Malachy, the kingdom of Meath 
 was governed by two " wise men," Cuan 
 O'Lochlann, a poet, and Corcran Cleiveach^ 
 described as an anchoret, probably an eccle- 
 siastic of ascetic life. King Donough of 
 Munster had a formidable rival, as a claim- 
 ant to the supreme kingship, in Dermod 
 Mac Mael-nambo, King of Leinster, the 
 northern portion of the island. The former 
 was successful ; but Turlough O'Brien, the 
 son of the murdered Teigue, avenged his- 
 father's death by attacking and defeating: 
 Donough, who went on a pilgrimage to 
 Rome to do penance for the fratricide he 
 had committed, and there he died. Nine 
 years afterwards the King of Leinster was 
 killed in battle, and Turlough was recognized 
 as King of Ireland. 
 
 Two years after the death of Donough,. 
 his brother-in-law, Harold, was defeated at 
 Hastings, and the Norman William was 
 King of England. How the great conquest 
 was achieved and followed up we all know. 
 The Saxons were subdued, Norman soldiers 
 of fortune became powerful barons, castles 
 were erected to overawe the common people, 
 and the land of England was parcelled out 
 among the followers of the powerful William 
 and his immediate successor on the throne. 
 
 Hungry Looks from England. 
 
 It is hardly to be supposed that Ireland, 
 so near to England, peopled by a balf-savage 
 race, and known to be suffering from internal 
 dissensions, caused by the contests of the 
 petty kings for supremacy, would be over- 
 looked by the ambitious earls and barons, 
 accustomed to win wealth and honours by 
 the sword, or by the Enghsh monarch, 
 trained to believe in the right of conquest. 
 
 Henry the Second, son of the Empress 
 Maud and Geoffrey of Anjou, and great- 
 grandson of the Conqueror, had been only 
 two years on the throne, when he attempted 
 to put into execution a scheme which had 
 probably been long cherished. As a Christian 
 King he felt bound to obtain the sanction of 
 the Pope, as head of Christendom ; and 
 
STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 Popes, in their political relations, were 
 amenable to reason, especially if arguments 
 were accompanied by other inducements. 
 Pope Adrian IV., Nicholas Breakspeare, an 
 Englishman by birth, attained the tiara in 
 the same year that Henry ascended the 
 English throne, and there had been a great 
 interchange of complimentary messages. 
 The project for annexing Ireland to England 
 was favoured by the papal conclave as a 
 means of obtaining greater control over the 
 Irish Church. The influence of Rome in 
 ecclesiastical matters had been gradually 
 developing, several of the bishops having pro- 
 fessed unreserved obedience ; lout the clergy 
 generally, and with them the greater portion 
 of the people, animated by a love of national 
 independence, had exhibited a spirit of 
 passive resistance to the extension of papal 
 influence. Eighty years before, an Irish 
 bishop, Patricius, who had been chosen by 
 the clergy and the people, and confirmed in 
 his office by the king of his province and 
 the Ard-righ, or supreme king, had visited 
 England for the purpose of being consecrated 
 at Canterbury, in obedience to a law of the 
 Roman Church, which required that every 
 bishop should receive consecration from an 
 archbishop decorated with the pallium ; and 
 following up this demonstration of submis- 
 sion, several Irish bishops accepted the title 
 of pontifical legate in Hibernia. 
 
 The Irish Church. 
 In mi, St. Celsus, Archbishop of Armagh, 
 and Maelmure (the servant of Mary), Arch- 
 bishop of Cashel, fifty bishops, three hundred 
 priests, and three thousand members of 
 religious orders, attended a synod convened 
 in Westmeath, for the purpose of reorganiz- 
 ing ecclesiastical matters and enforcing 
 discipline among the clergy and laity. The 
 number of the bishops was reduced to 
 twenty-four, and other regulations were 
 agreed to. St. Malachy, who succeeded 
 Celsus as Archbishop of Armagh, had, while 
 Bishop of Down and Connor, made a 
 pilgrimage to Rome, and received from 
 Innocent II. the appointment of apostolical 
 legate ; but his request that the Irish arch- 
 bishops might receive the pallium (the vest- 
 ment made of the wool of lambs, blessed by 
 the Pope on the festival of St. Agnes, and 
 rendered more sacred by being deposited on 
 the tomb of St. Peter during the eve of his 
 festival), and so be pontifically recognized 
 in their high office, was refused until the 
 pallium was formally asked for by the 
 prelates themselves. In 1148, Malachy con- 
 vened a great synod, at which, as legate of 
 the Holy See, he presided, and at which it 
 was decided that he should make another 
 attempt to obtain the coveted palliums. 
 Pope Eugene III. was then visiting the 
 
 abbey of Clairvaux, in France, wliere St. 
 Bernard had established the famous order 
 of Bernardine monks. But the Pope had 
 quitted Clairvaux before the arrival of 
 Malachy, who, a few days afterwards, was 
 attacked by a mortal sickness, died, and was 
 buried in the abbey. The Pope, however, 
 consented to confer the palliums, and in 1151 
 sent Cardinal Papirius with them to Ireland, 
 and in the following year they were con- 
 ferred at the Council of Kells, at Avhich also 
 it was decided that the clergy should be 
 entitled to tithes. The laity probably cared 
 little for the palliums, and, it would seem, 
 objected to the tithes, for they were not 
 enforced until after the conquest by the 
 English. 
 
 King Dermot and the Lady 
 Devorgoil. 
 
 In 1 157, Christianus, Bishop of Lismore, 
 and the Pope's legate, held a synod attended 
 by a large number of bishops, and Murtough 
 O'Loughlin, King of Ireland. One of the 
 objects of the meeting was the excommunica- 
 tion of Donough O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, 
 who is described by the historians of the time 
 as being " the common pest of the country." 
 He had obtained possession of the lands o£ 
 Tiernan O'Ruac, or O'Rourke, Prince of 
 Brefni, who had married his sister, Devorgoil,. 
 or Devorgilla, and being on terms of friend- 
 ship with Diarmid (Dermot) MacMurrough, 
 King of Leinster, a man ready to commit 
 any crime to promote his own interests or - 
 pleasures, assisted him in a project, the 
 execution of which was, as we shall see, the 
 immediate cause of the English invasion. 
 The two kings, united in their enmity to- 
 wards O'Ruac, planned the abduction of 
 Devorgoil (Donough's sister, be it remem- 
 bered) by MacMurrough ; and she, worthy 
 of her relationship, was a willing accomplice, 
 and not only left her husband, but took with 
 her in her flight the cattle which had formed 
 her dowry. She afterwards returned, and. 
 passed forty years in religious seclusion, 
 contrition, and penance, devoting her wealth 
 to works of charity, and building churches 
 and convents. Gerald Barry, better known 
 to us by the Latinized form of his name, 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, (that is Gerald the 
 Welshman,) says of Devorgoil, who has 
 been made the subject of many a ballad and 
 legend, " By her own procurement and en- 
 ticings she became, and would needs be, a 
 prey to the preyer ; " adding (we must re- 
 member the good chronicler was a celibate 
 monk, and probably not without prejudices 
 against the " wily sex "), " Such is the 
 variable and fickle nature of a woman, by 
 whom all mischiefs in the world (for the 
 most part) do happen and come." 
 
 The papal hold on the Irish ecclesiastics 
 
 307 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was increasing, but as yet the temporal 
 power of the Pope was very imperfectly 
 recognized. The kings were practically 
 pagans, whatever their occasional profes- 
 sions might be, and kings and people alike 
 objected to the interference in temporal 
 matters of the Pope. They had their own 
 laws, administered by their own Brehons, or 
 judges — laws described by Spenser as "a 
 rule of right unwritten, but delivered by 
 tradition one to another, in which oftentimes 
 there appeared great show of equity in deter- 
 mining the right between party and party, 
 but in many things repugnant quite both to 
 God's laws and man's." These laws, origi- 
 nally framed at the instigation of St. Patrick, 
 and therefore, it may be supposed, not quite 
 "repugnant to the laws of God and man," 
 for the good saint was a scholar too, helped 
 to preserve a spirit of national independence 
 which the papal conclave and the Irish eccle- 
 siastics perhaps found inconvenient ; and as 
 the Papacy has never strongly objected to 
 avail itself of the temporal arm, Adrian was 
 probably the less unwilling to sanction the 
 designs of Henry of England. 
 
 Papal Sanction of the Invasion of 
 Ireland, 
 
 The bull asked for was issued ; and, after 
 the formal greeting and benediction^ proceeds 
 in these terms : — 
 
 " Thou hast communicated unto us, our 
 very dear son in Jesus Christ, that thou 
 wouldst enter the island of Hibernia, to sub- 
 ject that land to obedience to laws, to extir- 
 pate the seeds of vice, and also to procure 
 the payment there to the blessed apostle 
 Peter of the annual tribute of a penny for 
 each house. Granting to thee thy laudable 
 .and pious desire the favour which it merits, 
 we hold it acceptable that, for the extension 
 of the limits of the holy Church, the propa- 
 gation of the Christian religion, the correction 
 of morals, and the sowing the seeds of 
 wirtue, thou make thy entrance into that 
 island, and there execute at thy discretion 
 .whatever thou shalt think proper for the 
 thonour of God and the salvation of souls." 
 The bull of course concluded with an exhor- 
 tation to consider the interests of the Church, 
 ,and of the religion and morals of the people, 
 . and so to order matters generally that " thou 
 shalt become worthy of obtaining in heaven 
 a reward everlasting, and upon earth a name 
 ilkistrious and glorious in all ages." 
 
 The bull has been described as a " a sort 
 of decent envelope for a political compact, 
 . entirely similar to that of William the Bastard 
 with Pope Alexander II. for the invasion of 
 England." Henry was willing enough to 
 .avail himself of it ; but his quarrels with his 
 brother Geoffrey of Anjou, the rivalry of the 
 ■King of France, and the troubles arising 
 
 from the murder of A'Becket, for a time 
 hindered the execution of the project. Be- 
 sides, although it was easy enough to plan 
 an invasion, it was less easy to find an excuse, 
 however bad, for attempting it. The King 
 must depend upon his barons for military 
 aid ; and those powerful personages were 
 not very ready to obey a king or a pope 
 either, unless they saw their way to some 
 advantage for themselves. 
 
 The results of the abduction of Devorgoil 
 by Dermot MacMurrough offered an oppor- 
 tunity for English interference. That un- 
 principled and cruel King of Leinster, 
 familiar with acts of treachery and sacrilege, 
 had made himself odious by such acts as 
 forcibly carrying away the abbess of Kildare, 
 and putting out the eyes of eighteen men of 
 noble rank, and of many others too ignoble, 
 perhaps, for compassion. He treated the 
 unhappy Devorgoil with great harshness 
 while she remained with him ; and after he 
 had been compelled to give her up, it is not 
 surprising that an alliance was formed against 
 him, that he was excommunicated by the 
 Church, and driven from his dominions. 
 Giraldus Cambrensis gives a vivid sketch of 
 Dermot, who may, perhaps, be regarded as a 
 typical prince of those ferocious and unscru- 
 pulous days : " MacMurrough was a tall 
 man of stature, and of a large and great 
 body ; a valiant and bold warrior in his 
 nation ; and by reason of his continual hal- 
 looing and crying, his voice was hoarse ; he 
 rather chose and desired to be feared than 
 to be loved ; a great oppressor of his nobility, 
 but a great advancer of the poor and weak." 
 
 King Dermot Flies to England. 
 
 MacMurrough sought refuge in England 
 in 1168, hoping to find the King at Bristol, 
 and to ask his assistance in recovering his 
 kingdom. But Henry was in Aquitaine, and 
 thither went Dermot MacMurrough, who 
 contrived to obtain the King's promise of 
 help, on condition that he should pay a 
 vassal's homage to the English crown. Henry 
 himself had no men or money to spare, but 
 he knew that some of the warlike barons at 
 home would be willing to avail themselves 
 of his permission to assist MacMurrough, if 
 they could by doing so advantage themselves. 
 The King wrote a letter to "all his liege men, 
 English, Norman, Welsh, and Scotch, and 
 to all the nations under his dominion." In 
 this document, intended for circulation 
 among the nobles, he said : " As soon as the 
 present letter shall come to your hands, 
 know that Dermot, Prince of Leinster, has 
 been received into the bosom of our grace 
 and benevolence: wherefore, whosoever within 
 our territories shall be willing to lend aid 
 towards this prince as our faithful and liege 
 subject, let such person know that we do 
 
 308 
 
STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 hereby grant to him for said purpose our 
 licencQ and favour." 
 
 So, for the sake of imposing the tax of 
 Peter's pence, the Pope readily sanctioned 
 the invasion by an English king of a country 
 to which he had not the shadow of a claim ; 
 and with no better excuse than that of restor- 
 ing a king who had being driven from his 
 dominions as a punishment for his atrocious 
 crimes, Anglo-Norman warriors carried 
 fire and sword into Ireland, and laid the 
 foundation of that political supremacy which 
 for more than seven hundred years has been 
 the fruitful source of war, crime, secret con- 
 spiracy, and open rebellion, and an undying 
 animosity of creed and race. 
 
 Soldiers of Fortune. 
 
 MacMurrough returned to Bristol (then 
 known as Bristow), the spot where he had 
 landed when he fled from Ireland. There 
 were adventurers and soldiers of fortune, 
 waifs and strays of the sword,— pirates and 
 brigands in reality, though they would have 
 disdained the name, — to be met with, who 
 would readily have taken service under 
 even Avorse men than MacMurrough, if pay 
 and plunder were assured ; but he desired 
 the aid of influential and practised leaders, 
 who could bring a large body of trained and 
 well-equipped men-at-arms into the field. 
 He knew the men he would have to encounter, 
 and was too shrewd to suppose that he could 
 recover Leinster with the assistance of a 
 small and disorderly rabble of adventurers, 
 any one of whom would be quite ready to 
 desert him, and take arms on the other side, 
 if the other side offered a better prospect of 
 " loot." 
 
 More valuable allies were at hand, and to 
 them MacMurrough appealed. Some of the 
 Norman nobles who had been invited to 
 England to take part in the contests between 
 William Rufus and his successor Henry I., 
 and their brother Robert of Normandy, had 
 been rewarded for their services by grants of 
 confiscated estates ; and others were paid by 
 permission to harry the Welsh and possess 
 themselves of such territory as they could 
 conquer. Foremost among these leaders, 
 distinguished by valour and proficiency in 
 military exercises, was Gislebert, or Gilbert 
 de Clare, younger brother of Richard, Earl 
 of Hertford, and created Earl of Pembroke 
 in 1 138. He had under his command a 
 trained body of soldiery, Normans and 
 Brabangons chiefly (the latter esteemed the 
 best infantry in Europe), but with some of 
 English birth in the ranks. By the last- 
 named he was known as Strongbow, an 
 epithet descriptive of his skill in archery, 
 and by that name his son was also known. 
 Availing himself of the permission to attack 
 the Welsh, he undertook an expedition by 
 
 sea, and landed on the western coast of 
 Pembroke. The Cambrian people were 
 unable to repel the invaders, and most of 
 them fled to the mountains ; those who 
 attempted resistance were ruthlessly slaugh- 
 tered. An extensive tract of country was 
 soon taken possession of, and the conquerors 
 shared the towns, houses, and domains 
 among them. Strong forts to secure them 
 against reprisals were erected ; and the 
 Norman and Flemish captains became 
 wealthy landowners. Their descendants 
 were the aristocracy and county gentlemen 
 of Pembrokeshire ; and the English soldiers, 
 who, being fewer in number, obtained fewer 
 of the prizes of conquest, were the ancestors 
 of the small farmers and traders who for 
 centuries after preserved their English habits 
 and language in a district surrounded by 
 Welshmen, and known as " Little England 
 beyond Wales." 
 
 Richard de Clare, " Strongbow the 
 Second." 
 
 Other Norman leaders followed the ex- 
 ample of Strongbow, and established them- 
 selves by the right of the strong arm in Wales. 
 Irish traders who had visited the Welsh ports 
 were struck with surprise at the sight of 
 the massive armour of the soldiers and the 
 powerful Flemish horses ; and on their return 
 told wonderful stories of the strength and 
 skill of the Avarriors they had seen. Mac- 
 Murrough, who had known them by reputa- 
 tion, now applied to them for aid, addressing 
 himself to the most powerful — the second 
 Strongbow, Richard de Clare, who had in 
 1 149 succeeded his father as Earl of Pem- 
 broke, and was sometimes styled also Earl 
 of Chepstow, or Strighul, from a castle 
 belonging to his family in the neighbour- 
 hood of that town. Thierry says of these 
 Norman and Flemish adventurers : " In 
 settling on the domains which they had so re- 
 cently usurped, these men had not laid aside 
 their old idle and dissipated manners for 
 habits of order and quiet ; they consumed in 
 gaming and debauchery the revenues of their 
 lands, exhausting instead of ameliorating 
 them, counting on fresh expeditions rather 
 than upon domestic economy to repair their 
 fortunes at some future day. They retained 
 the spirit and the character of soldiers of 
 fortune, ever disposed to try the chances of 
 war abroad, whether on their own account or 
 in the pay of another." 
 
 Strongbow (by that name he is better 
 known in history than as the Earl of Pem- 
 broke) listened favourably to the proposals 
 of MacMurrough. Others were ready to 
 join in the adventure, among them Robert 
 Fitz-Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald, said 
 to be sons of Nesta, a beautiful but frail 
 Welsh princess, who had been the mistress 
 
 309 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of Henry I., but afterwards married Gerald, 
 lord of Carew, governor of Pembroke Castle. 
 Maurice Fitz-Gerald was, as the name in- 
 dicates, her son by this lawful marriage ; 
 Fitz-Stephen was her son by Stephen de 
 Marisco, or Maurice, constable of the castle 
 of Cardigan. MacMurrough promised these 
 young knights the city of Wexford, and two 
 " cantreds " of land — a cantred being equiva- 
 lent to the English " hundred," or that 
 number of homesteads. Strongbow himself 
 was to succeed MacMurrough as King of 
 Leinster, and to marry his daughter Eva. 
 These inducements were sufficient to procure 
 the hearty co-operation of Strongbow and 
 his friends, who looked forward to those 
 opportunities which conquest offers in addi- 
 tion to the stipulated rewards ; and an ex- 
 pedition was at once planned. Knights, 
 esquires, and archers to the number of four 
 hundred, led by Robert Fitz-Stephen, who 
 was accompanied by other able warriors, 
 embarked, and directed their course to the 
 Irish coast. Fitz-Stephen landed at Bannow, 
 near Waterford, in May 1169; and a day 
 afterwards Maurice de Prendergast, with a 
 second and smaller detachment of invaders, 
 disembarked a few miles farther north, near 
 Wexford. 
 
 Siege of Wexford. 
 nVTacMurrough, who had reached Ireland 
 'shortly before, remained in concealment, 
 -according to some authorities, in the Augus- 
 "tinian monastery at Ferns, founded by him- 
 self in one of his virtuous or politic moods. 
 He was, however, rash enough to come out 
 of his concealment before the arrival of his 
 friends, and with a small force made an 
 •;attempt to regain his kingdom. King 
 Roderic and O'Ruarc easily subdued him, 
 and, more merciful than might have been 
 expected, considering the temper of the 
 times, allowed him to retain ten cantreds of 
 his former territory on condition of his hold- 
 ing the land as the immediate vassal of 
 -Hoderic. MacMurrough was willing enough 
 to save his life on the easy terms of pro- 
 mising to accept the conditions. Keeping 
 his promise, however, was quite another 
 matter. Directly he heard of the arrival of 
 Fitz-Stephen and his other alhes, he joined 
 them with about five hundred followers, 
 'whom he had contrived to collect ; and the 
 ^united force laid siege to Wexford, a town 
 founded by the Danes, and included in the 
 kingdom of Leinster. The inhabitants of 
 the town — hardy, seafaring folk — would have 
 resisted, and thrown up intrenchments ; but 
 the ecclesiastics of the town advised terms 
 of capitulation, which were agreed to, and by 
 that course the townspeople were probably 
 spared from massacre, for the Normans and 
 Flemings would no doubt have stormed the 
 
 town, and mercy to the captured had no 
 place in their military creed. 
 
 A Kingly Cannibal, 
 An excursion was then made into the dis- 
 trict of Ossory, the prince of which was an 
 old opponent of MacMurrough, — a not un- 
 natural result perhaps of the fact that some 
 years before that ferocious King had cap- 
 tured the prince's eldest son and put out 
 his eyes. The Ossorians at first defied their 
 assailants, being secure in their bogs and 
 woods ; but having imprudently ventured 
 into open ground were cut to pieces. Three 
 hundred bleeding heads were brought to 
 MacMurrough, who, we are told, " turning 
 every one of them, one by one, to know 
 them, did then for jo.y hold up both his 
 hands, and with a loud voice thanked God 
 most highly." The sequel of the story, how- 
 ever, scarcely increases an appreciation of 
 MacMurrough's devout temper of mind. 
 "Among these there was the head of one 
 whom especially and above all the rest he 
 mortally hated ; and he, taking up that by 
 the hair, with his teeth most horribly and 
 cruelly bit away his nose and lips." After 
 this the whole district was subdued, with 
 much ''murdering, spoiling, burning, and 
 laying waste," and at last the prince sued for 
 peace, and acknowledged himself the vassal 
 of the cannibal monster MacMurrough. 
 
 Normans and Natives. 
 
 At first the Irish princes took little notice 
 of the new comers — " set nothing by the 
 Flemings," say the native annalists ; but 
 they soon discovered the importance of the 
 invasion. MacMurrough was in a short 
 time at the head of five thousand men, in- 
 cluding his allies, whose mail armour, long 
 lances, crossbows, and powerful horses 
 (protected by armour), were regarded with 
 something like terror by the half-clad and 
 poorly-armed natives. Giraldus Cambrensis, 
 who visited Ireland shortly after the landing 
 of Strongbow — if, indeed, he did not, as 
 some writers on Irish history suppose, ac- 
 company the expedition — and whose narra- 
 tive is the best we possess, tells us that the 
 most formidable weapons of the inhabitants 
 of Erin were small steel axes, long slender 
 javelins, and short and very sharp arrows. 
 The Normans, preserved by their armour 
 from injury by these weapons, closed with 
 the natives ; and while the shock of the 
 heavy chargers overturned the small horses 
 of the Irish, they attacked with their heavy 
 lances and their broadswords the men who 
 had no defensive arms but light wooden 
 shields and long tresses of horsehair " glibs," 
 matted and hanging down on each side of 
 the head. In some cases these glibs were 
 formed of the men's own hair, allowed to 
 
STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 grow, and forming a mass sufficiently thick 
 to offer resistance to ordinary blows. 
 
 Chief after chief submitted, and then the 
 Irish King, Roderic, awoke to the peril of 
 the situation. He summoned the princes to 
 meet at Tara, and collected an army, with 
 which he marched to Dublin. MacMurrough, 
 in some alarm, retreated to Ferns, whither 
 lie was followed by Roderic ; but jealousies 
 and dissensions occurred among the Irish 
 ■chiefs, as is usually the case in hastily 
 -organized forces, when the supreme autho- 
 rity is weak. The Ulster men returned to 
 their homes ; others were, half-hearted in the 
 ■cause ; and Roderic, an indolent and un- 
 warlike man, agreed to acknowledge Mac- 
 Murrough's authority. A private promise, it 
 has been affirmed, was made that the foreign 
 allies should be dismissed, and no more 
 ■foreigners brought into the country. It is 
 most likely that the restored King of Leinster 
 had no intention to keep to this arrange- 
 ment, and it may be taken as certain that 
 Strongbow and his associates would not have 
 -acceded to it. They had been brought into 
 the country to please MacMurrough, and 
 they would stay in it to please themselves, 
 whether he liked it or not. 
 
 Another contingent under Maurice Fitz- 
 Gerald arrived, and King Dermot (we may 
 give him that title now), thus strengthened, 
 advanced to Dublin, the inhabitants of 
 •which, after a brief defence, sued for peace. 
 Donald O'Brien, who had married a daughter 
 of Dermot, having rebelled against Roderic, 
 joined his father-in-law ; and soon afterwards 
 Strongbow, for whom the King had been 
 'waiting impatiently, arrived. The Earl of 
 Pembroke, who was not in great favour at 
 the English court, had prudently resolved to 
 visit Normandy and ask the permission of 
 Henry II. before starting for Ireland, think- 
 ing that the English King might make it the 
 -excuse for seizing his estates. The royal 
 Teply, we are told, "was so carefully worded 
 that the King could declare afterwards he 
 either had or had not given the permission, 
 whichever version of the interview might 
 eventually prove most convenient to the 
 royal interests." Strongbow thought it his 
 interest to understand that permission had 
 been granted ; but did not reach Ireland 
 until several months after Fitz-Stephen. On 
 the eve of his departure he received a 
 peremptory order from Henry, forbidding 
 him to leave England, but he paid no atten- 
 tion to it. He landed at Dundonnell, near 
 Waterford. His uncle, Hervey de Mont- 
 marisco, had preceded him, and had cap- 
 tured seventy of the principal citizens of 
 Waterford, who were cruelly murdered by 
 his followers, who first broke their limbs and 
 then hurled them from a precipice into the 
 sea. 
 
 A Red-Handed Marriage. 
 
 Strongbow lost no time, but on the day 
 after his arrival besieged Waterford. The 
 citizens displayed great bravery ; but the 
 assailants made a breach in the walls, 
 poured in, and a frightful massacre ensued : 
 " They entered into the city, and killed the 
 people in the streets without pity or mercy, 
 leaving them lying in great heaps ; and then, 
 with bloody hands, they obtained a bloody 
 victory." In the midst of the slaughter 
 Dermot arrived ; and at his request Strong- 
 bow's soldiers suspended the carnage, — not 
 because the King was merciful, but because 
 he wished to strengthen the bond between 
 himself and his powerful ally, by at once 
 celebrating the marriage between Strongbow 
 and Eva which had been arranged. The 
 ceremony was performed in Waterford the 
 day after the massacre, and the King rode 
 by the side of his daughter through the 
 streets, cumbered with mangled corpses, and 
 the bleeding bodies of men, women, and 
 children, dying of their wounds. 
 
 Then the King, his ruthless son-in-law, 
 the bride gained by slaughter, and the blood- 
 stained mercenaries, proceeded northward 
 to return to Dublin. But Roderic had al- 
 ready repented of the treaty he had weakly 
 assented to, and began to realize the im- 
 portance of the arrival of the English troops 
 on Irish soil. He collected a large army- 
 near Clondalkin, about five miles to the 
 south-west of DulDlin ; and the townsmen, en- 
 couraged by his presence, prepared to renew 
 the defence of the city. But the energetic 
 English made forced marches over the Wex- 
 ford hills, and reached Dubhn before they 
 were expected. The citizens were struck 
 with panic, and sent their archbishop, a man 
 of eminent piety, afterwards canonized, 
 Laurence O' Toole (or Lorcan O'Tuahal), the 
 first prelate of Dubhn of Irish origin, to 
 endeavour to negotiate terms of peace. He 
 repaired to the camp of Dermot, but the 
 English soldiers had no mind to await the 
 result, and, led by Raymond, known as "le 
 Gros," and Miles de Cogan, forced their way 
 into ihe city, and another merciless butchery 
 was perpetrated. This Raymond, notable 
 alike for corpulency and cruelty, was the 
 nephew of Fitz-Gerald, being the son of 
 William, Lord of Cavan, his elder brother. 
 
 Only His Son ! 
 King Roderic, fearing an encounter with 
 such formidable foes, retreated to Meath, and 
 united his forces with those of O'Ruac, the 
 husband of Devorgoil. He sent messengers 
 to Dermot, demanding the fulfilment of the 
 agreement, made at Ferns, for the dismissal 
 of the English contingent, and threatening, 
 in the event of the non-compliance of Dermot, 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Captive Citizens at Watekford. 
 
 31: 
 
STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 to put to death his son Cormac, who had 
 been left as hostage. Dermot valued Strong- 
 bow and his allies far more than he did his 
 own son, and, it is said, "laughed at the 
 threat." Roderic was as good as his word, 
 and the young prince was killed at Athlone. 
 The Ard-righ Roderic then returned into 
 Connaught, his path being followed for some 
 distance by Strongbow, who burned and 
 plundered as he went. 
 
 Monte Marisco two districts on the coast 
 between Wexford and Waterford, and to all 
 the rest possessions proportioned to their 
 rank and military talent. The rumour of 
 these successes attracted other adventurers, 
 who responded to the invitation to take arms 
 under Dermot, and soon there was an influx 
 of " adventurers and vagabonds of Norman, 
 of French, and even of English race." They 
 were warmly received, and presented with 
 
 " The Curse of Cromwell." 
 
 Re-established as King of Leinster by the 
 aid of his indomitable mercenaries, Dermot 
 was profuse in his rewards. No doubt 
 liberality was in this case better policy than 
 faithlessness and treachery, to which he was 
 more accustomed, for his allies were quite 
 able and wilHng to reward themselves. He 
 gave to Fitz-StepLen and Fitz-Gerald the 
 government and all the revenues of the town 
 of Wexford and its suburbs ; to Hervey de 
 
 lands and money. One of them was, pre- 
 vious to his arrival, so impoverished that 
 he was nicknamed Raymond le Pauvre (the 
 poor). He accepted the designation as his 
 surname, which in course of time was modi- 
 fied into Power, the name of a powerful and 
 wealthy family which exists to the present 
 day, the descendants of the fortune-seeking 
 Richard 
 
 313 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Death of Dermot ; Strongbow King 
 OF Leinster. 
 
 Dermot MacMurrough died miserably of 
 a loathsome malady, at Ferns, in 1171. The 
 native Irish princes had confed-erated against 
 him, and, formerly denounced for his private 
 crimes, he was afterwards regarded as a 
 national enemy, who had brought a horde 
 •of powerful foreigners into the country. The 
 Irish believed that they had incurred Divine 
 wrath, and that the Anglo-Norman invasion 
 had been permitted as a just punishment. 
 They thought to appease the anger of God 
 by liberating all men of English race who 
 had been made slaves in Ireland, after being 
 ■carried off by pirates or bought for money, 
 and effect was given to the resolution by a 
 council of the chiefs and bishops of the 
 country. Strongbow, immediately after the 
 death of Dermot, proclaimed himself King 
 of Leinster, and found himself face to face 
 with many difficulties. The Irish subjects 
 of the late King deserted him ; Dublin was 
 attacked by a Scandinavian fleet, commanded 
 by Hosculf, who had been driven out of the 
 city, and escaped with difficulty, when it was 
 attacked by the Anglo-Norman forces. The 
 Danes were repulsed, their leaders captured, 
 and Hosculf put to death. The Irish princes, 
 exhorted by the ardent and patriotic arch- 
 bishop O'Toole, united their forces, invited 
 assistance from the Isle of Man, and so 
 pressed Strongbow that he retreated to 
 Dublin, which was blockaded by his oppo- 
 nents, and the garrison and inhabitants re- 
 duced to extremities from want of food. It 
 seemed as if the object aimed at, the sub- 
 mission and expulsion of the foreigners, 
 would be allowed. Strongbow offered to 
 capitulate, if permitted to hold the kingdom 
 of Leinster as the vassal of Roderic ; but the 
 Irish King would accept nothing short of the 
 surrender of Dublin, Wexford, and Water- 
 ford, and the immediate departure of the 
 invaders from the country. 
 
 The King of England Interferes. 
 
 Another difficulty was experienced by 
 Strongbow. Henry II. of England saw with 
 feelings of alarm and jealousy that private 
 adventure was likely to achieve a conquest 
 which he had reserved for himself So long 
 as Dermot lived, the English king had re- 
 garded Strongbow and his adherents as 
 mercenaries, \vhose successes might help 
 further to disorganize Ireland, and so for- 
 ward his own views. But the adventurers 
 were now masters of the situation. Strong- 
 bow was a king, and was every day adding 
 to his strength by inviting desperate soldiers 
 of fortune to the newly conquered country. 
 Were Henry now to invade Ireland, he 
 would probably have to encounter the able 
 
 warriors who had been his own subjects ; 
 and so critical were his own relations with 
 the powerful and turbulent nobles of England, 
 who despised him for his weakness in connec- 
 tion with the murder of Becket and his sub- 
 sequent abject penitence, that he could not 
 hope to be able to equip an army fit to cope 
 with the legions of Strongbow, should he 
 prove defiant. Henry published a proclama- 
 tion, ordering all his liege men in Ireland to 
 return immediately to England, on pain of 
 the forfeiture of all their lands and chattels, 
 and of perpetual banishment. He forbade 
 any reinforcements to be sent to Ireland, or 
 any ship from any part of the English or 
 Irish dominions to touch on the Irish coast 
 on any pretext whatever. 
 
 Strongbow, shut up at the time in Dublin, 
 and opposed by the confederation of the 
 Irish princes, could not defy the English 
 King, but was resolved not to obey him. 
 He tried concihation, and sent Raymond le 
 Gros to England with the offer to the King 
 of all the lands he had acquired in Ireland. 
 He probably hoped that this course would 
 save his English estates ; but Henry took 
 no notice of the offer. At this juncture 
 intelligence reached Dublin that Fitz-Stephen 
 was closely besieged in Wexford. A crisis 
 was imminent, and Strongbow resolved to 
 make an attempt to cut through the foes who 
 surrounded him. The attempt was unex- 
 pected by the Irish, who fled in disorder, 
 Roderick himself narrowly escaping capture. 
 Before Strongbow could reach Wexford it 
 had capitulated ; and when he approached 
 the town was set fire to, and the inhabitants 
 took refuge in a stockaded island. 
 
 A Royal Visit. 
 Affairs in England had an unfavourable 
 appearance ; and Strongbow thought it well, 
 at last, to obey the royal mandate to return. 
 With some difficulty he obtained an interview 
 with the King, and, by the offer of all the 
 lands he had won in Ireland, obtained not 
 only the royal sanction to his proceedings, 
 but security for his own Welsh estates. A 
 royal visit to Ireland was then resolved on ; 
 and on the i8th of October, 1171, the King 
 landed at Croch, or Crook, in the county of 
 Waterford, in company with Strongbow and 
 many other lords. Four hundred ships 
 carried five hundred knights and four thou- 
 sand men-at-arms. The Irish princes at 
 first thought the English King was merely 
 making a visit of state, to enforce justice 
 among his own subjects ; but they were soon 
 undeceived, finding that Henry's purpose 
 was to claim supreme dominion. Enfeebled 
 by internal dissensions, many of the Irish 
 chiefs were not unwilling at first to accept 
 him as a chief monarch who would exercise 
 a nominal authority similar to that of the 
 
 314 
 
STRONGBOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 native Ard-righs, but not interfere with 
 individual rights. Macarthy of Desmond, 
 Donnell O'Brien, King of Thomond, and 
 •other princes, did homage to Henry, and 
 swore fealty. Roderic, the chief monarch, 
 received the English ambassador sent to him 
 with respect, but the northern princes held 
 aloof. Henry held a great court in Dublin ; 
 and, representing that he had come to 
 redress grievances (as yet he did not assume 
 the title of King of Ireland), summoned an 
 ecclesiastical synod — at which, however, very 
 little was effected, the ecclesiastics caring 
 little for his authority, and recognizing the 
 Pope as their head in temporal as well as 
 spiritual matters. The King held a royal 
 court of justice at Lismore, to arrange for 
 the government of the English colony. The 
 military leaders already in the country, and 
 those who had accompanied the King, had 
 their own views as to the right of the native 
 Irish to their own property, whatever pro- 
 fessions it might be politic to make at the 
 time ; and the King gratified them by putting 
 the chief men in positions which they were 
 not likely to fail to improve. Strongbow 
 was appointed Earl Marshal ; Hugh de 
 Lacy, one of the new arrivals, Lord Con- 
 stable and Governor of Bristol, and De 
 Wellesley (a famous name in our own times), 
 royal standard-bearer. De Lacy is generally 
 considered as the first Viceroy of Ireland, 
 and he was installed in the Norman fashion, 
 with the sword and cap of maintenance as 
 the insignia of his dignity. To assist him to 
 support his new position, Henry conferred 
 on him the territory of East Meath, without 
 , taking the trouble to ascertain whether the 
 real owner, Tiernan O'Ruac, was willing to 
 part with it. He naturally protested, and 
 De Lacy proposed a conference at the hill of 
 Tara. The parties, each attended by armed 
 men, met ; but a dispute ensued, O'Ruac 
 was. killed and mutilated, and his head 
 having been exposed over the gate of Dublin, 
 was afterwards sent as a present to King 
 Henry. Strongbow attacked O'Dempsey, 
 whose estates he wished to possess, at 
 Offaley ; and Raymond le Gros made great 
 acquisitions, not only of land, but of cattle 
 and other spoil. 
 
 We cannot, within the limits imposed upon 
 us, relate all the raids made by the English 
 soldiery, who were not always successful, and 
 indeed at the battle of Thurles, in 1 1 74, sus- 
 tained so serious a reverse that the encouraged 
 native chieftains openly revolted, and the 
 English might have been reduced to extremity, 
 if Raymond le Gros, who had gone to England, 
 had not returned with a strong force, and 
 changed the situation. 
 
 Henry now having made his peace with 
 the Holy See, and obtained pardon for his 
 .■share in the murder of A'Becket, produced 
 
 the bull he had received more than twenty 
 years before from Pope Adrian, and sum- 
 moned a synod of the clergy at Waterford, 
 where the document was read. The successes 
 of the English increased, and Roderic sent 
 to Henry ambassadors, who were received at 
 Windsor at Michaelmas, 1175. The result 
 was a treaty by which Henry was acknow- 
 ledged as a supreme feudal sovereign, to 
 whom Roderic paid homage ; and Henry 
 bound himself to secure the sovereignty of 
 Ireland to Roderic, excepting only Dublin, 
 Meath, Leinster, Waterford, and Dungarvan. 
 Miss Cusack, one of the latest and most 
 careful of Irish historians, says, " Had Ire- 
 land been governed with ordinary justice, 
 the arrangement might have been advan- 
 tageous to both countries. Roderic was 
 still a king, both nominally and ipso facto. He 
 had power to judge and depose the petty 
 kings, and they were to pay their tribute to 
 him for the English monarch. Any of the 
 Irish who fled fi-om the territories of the 
 English barons were to return ; but the 
 King of Connaught might compel his own 
 subjects to remain in his own land. Thus 
 the English simply possessed a colony in 
 Ireland ; and this colony in a few years 
 became still more limited, while throughout 
 the rest of the country the Irish language, 
 laws, and usage prevailed as they had hitherto 
 done." 
 
 Prince John King of Ireland. 
 The English nobles and military leaders, 
 however, were irrepressible. They laid claim 
 to lands belonging to Irish princes and 
 chiefs, and many sanguinary contests ensued. 
 Henry II., at a council held at Oxford in 
 1 177, solemnly conferred the title of King ot 
 Ireland on his youngest son, John, then only 
 eleven years old, and proceeded, in his name, 
 to make new grants of territory to the English. 
 Sir John Davies, Speaker of the first Irish 
 Parliament, and author of " Discovery of the 
 True Reason why Ireland has never been 
 Subdued," tells us that " all Ireland was by 
 Henry II. cantonized among ten of the Eng- 
 lish nation ; and though they did not gain 
 possession of one-third of the kingdom, yet 
 in title they were owners and lords of all, as 
 nothing was left to be granted to the natives." 
 
 " More Irish than the Irish." 
 In 1205 the earldom of Ulster was granted 
 to Hugh de Lacy, and that is the earliest 
 instance of the creation of an Anglo-Norman 
 dignity in Ireland. In the course of the 
 next century there occurred the remarkable 
 historical phenomenon of a conquering race 
 voluntarily assimilating themselves to the 
 conquered. The English colonists became 
 more and more estranged from their mother- 
 country, more and more Irish in their habits 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and sympathies, even altering their names so 
 as to get rid of Norman pecuharities. The 
 De Burghs became Bourkes, or Burkes ; the 
 Geraldines of Munster merged their family 
 name in that of Desmond, and a younger 
 branch of the family named themselves 
 M'Shehy. Edmund Spenser, the poet, only 
 in the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
 says, " The MacMahons in the north were 
 anciently English— to wit, descended from 
 the Fitz-Ursulas, which was a noble family 
 in England ; likewise the MacSweenies, now 
 in Ulster, were recently the Veres in England, 
 but they themselves, for hatred of England, 
 so disregard their names." In truth there 
 was very little national feeling among the 
 English colonists. They were descended 
 from adventurers whose estates had been 
 achieved by their swords, and, whether of 
 Norman, French, or Flemish descent, were 
 very much disposed to make a nationahty 
 wherever they could find an estate. For 
 English authority they cared little ; and when 
 fresh bands of colonists were sent out, in the 
 hope of correcting this tendency to assimilate 
 with the Irish, the new comers, or at least 
 their children, soon followed the example of 
 their predecessors. Mr. Froude says, " Ire- 
 land was a theatre for a universal scramble 
 of selfishness, and the invaders caught the 
 national contagion, and became, as the phrase 
 went, ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores (more Irish 
 than the Irish)." The children of English 
 parents were frequently entrusted to Irish 
 foster-mothers ; and the native minstrels, 
 harpers, and chroniclers ingratiated them- 
 selves with the English nobles by praising 
 their warlike achievements, and so, says the 
 author of a letter to Thomas Cromwell, 
 included in the State papers, " procuring a 
 talent of Irish disposition and conversation 
 in them." 
 
 At the close of the thirteenth century, the 
 English possessions in Ireland consisttfd of 
 ten counties— Dublin, Louth, Kildare, Water- 
 ford, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, 
 Roscommon, and part of Connaught ; and 
 the " Liberties" of Connaught and Ulster; 
 Meath, Wexford, Carlow, and Kilkenny ; 
 Thomond and Desmond. The powerful 
 nobles who owned these " liberties" and 
 were paramount in the counties, exercised 
 almost regal authority, created barons and 
 knights, administered iheir own laws in their 
 own fashion, established courts for criminal 
 and civil cases, appointed their own judges 
 and sheriffs ; and '• although they builded 
 castles and made freeholds, yet there were 
 no tenures or services reserved to the crown, 
 but the lords drew all the respect and de- 
 pendence of the common people unto them- 
 selves." They plundered their Irish neigh- 
 bours, and of course inspired a feeling of 
 open hostiHty. Districts outside the English 
 
 possessions were known as "marches," and 
 were occupied by native septs, who made 
 Avhat reprisals they could, and in time acquired 
 a taste for this predatory warfare, as in 
 Scotland the Highland caterans enjoyed 
 harrying the Lowland landholders. 
 
 Quarrels of the Great Families. 
 
 The great families quarrelled desperately 
 atnong themselves. The historian Mac- 
 Geoghan, in a note to the " Annals of 
 Clonmacnois," observes that " there reigned 
 more dissensions, strifes, wars, and debates 
 between the Englishmen themselves, in the 
 beginning of the conquest of this kingdom, 
 than between the Irishmen, as by perusing 
 the wars between the Lords of Meath, John 
 Courcy, Earl of Ulster, WiUiam Marshal^ 
 and the English of Meath and Munster, 
 MacGerald (Fitz-Gerald), the Burke, Butler, 
 and Cogan, may appear." The grandson of 
 Strongbow, Richard Earl of Pembroke, was 
 treacherously killed while attending a con- 
 ference to which he was invited by Geoffrey 
 de Marisco, who had been appointed Viceroy. 
 As to the Irish princes, all means were 
 considered fair by which they could be 
 ensnared and killed. Thomas de Clare 
 obtained from Edward I. the grant of the 
 territory of Thomond, the fact that it was 
 the property of the O'Briens not being taken 
 into account. De Clare at first professed 
 great friendship, and the too credulous Irish- 
 man listened to him; "'they swore to each 
 other all the oaths in Munster, on bells and 
 relics, to be true to each other for ever." 
 Very soon afterwards, De Clare, having got 
 O'Brien into his hands, had him dragged to 
 death between horses. It is gratifying to 
 know that the murderous De Clare did not 
 obtain the coveted kingdom, but was slain 
 by some of the O'Briens, The O'Connors, 
 chiefs of Offaly, and twenty-four other 
 followers, were massacred by Peter de 
 Bermingham, who had invited them to a 
 banquet. 
 
 Titles were assumed by, or conferred on, 
 the powerful nobles : Hugh de Lacy became 
 Earl of Ulster; Richard de Burgo Earl of 
 Connaught ; the Fitz-Geralds were Earls of 
 Desmond ; and the Butlers, who derived 
 their name from an ancestor who accom- 
 panied Henry I. to Ireland as chief butler, 
 were Earls of Ormond. Strong castles were 
 erected at Dublin, Athlone, Roscommon, and 
 Randoun, for the purpose of keeping down 
 the natives, who were taxed to support the 
 garrisons. 
 
 An Appeal to the Bruges of Scot- 
 land. 
 The Irish princes looked to the Bruces of 
 Scotland as their allies and perhaps their 
 deUverers from the oppressions of the Eng- 
 316 
 
STRONGBOIV AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 lish. In 1 31 5, after the Scotch, under Robert 
 Bruce, had achieved such a victory at Ban- 
 nockburn, Edward Bruce landed in Ireland 
 with a force of six thousand men, and was at 
 once joined by a strong Irish contingent. 
 For a time it seemed that the enterprise 
 would be successful, and Robert Bruce was 
 proclaimed King of Ireland. Desirous to 
 obtain the papal sanction for their proceed- 
 ings, Donneil O'Neill, King of Ulster, and 
 other princes wrote to the Pope on the part 
 of the nation, explaining why they were 
 anxious to transfer the kingdom to Bruce. 
 They told the Pope he had been deceived by 
 false representations ; spoke of " the sad 
 remains of a kingdom which has groaned so 
 long beneath the tyranny of English kings, 
 of their ministers and barons, some of the 
 latter, although born on the island, exercising 
 the same extortions, rapine, and cruelties as 
 their ancestors inflicted. The people had 
 been obliged to take refuge, like beasts, in 
 the mountains, and even there were not safe. 
 There was only law for the English, none for 
 the Irish ; and any Englishman could, as 
 often happened, kill an Irishman of any rank, 
 and seize his property. The Church had 
 been despoiled of its lands and possessions 
 by sacrilegious Englishmen." A few years 
 later Pope John wrote to Edward III. to the 
 effect that the object of Pope Adrian's bull 
 had been entirely neglected, and that the 
 " most unheard-of miseries and persecutions 
 had been inflicted on the Irish." 
 
 When Bruce appeared to be gaining ground, 
 the De Lacys actually took side with him, so 
 little of national feeling did they possess, and 
 so ready were they to secure their own in- 
 terests by attaching themselves to the win- 
 ning party. Some of the Irish quarrelled 
 among themselves, in the old fashion, and 
 when one chief marched with his followers 
 to join Bruce, another Irish chief made a 
 raid on his territories. Dublin, in which a 
 large number of Bristol folk had settled, held 
 out so stoutly that Bruce relinquished the 
 attempt to take it ; and then came the great 
 battle near Dundalk, in which Edward Bruce 
 was slain. Bermingham, the English com- 
 mander, obtained the earldom of Louth, and 
 the manor of Ardee, in return for Bruce's 
 head, which was salted and sent to the King, 
 Edward II. John de Lacy, and Sir Robert 
 de Coulragh, who had sided with Bruce, were 
 taken prisoners, and punished by being 
 starved to death in prison. The English 
 barons themselves perpetrated frightful cruel- 
 ties in their quarrels between themselves and 
 with the Irish. A new Viceroy, Sir Anthony 
 de Lacy, was sent from England, and he 
 hanged Sir William Bermingham and his 
 son in the keep of Dublin Castle ; the Earl 
 of Ulster starved to death Walter de Burgo 
 a<t Innishowen, for which he was stabbed by 
 
 Sir Richard Mandeville, De Burgo's brother- 
 in-law. The Earl's death was avenged by the 
 slaughter of three hundred of the followers 
 of his murderer. A band of English and 
 Irish attacked MacNamara, a minister, and 
 burnt a church in which were two priests 
 and a hundred and eighty persons, not one 
 of whom escaped. Fitz-Nicholas, an Eng- 
 lishman, killed the heir of the MacCarthy 
 More as he sat on the bench beside the judge 
 at the assize court, Tralee, and no notice was 
 taken of the crime. 
 
 The Statutes of Kilkenny. 
 
 We could easily fill pages with records of 
 these enormities, but these instances suffice 
 to show the disorganized condition of the 
 country. In 1360, the third son of King 
 Edward III., Lionel, afterwards Duke of 
 Clarence, was appointed Viceroy, and in 1367 
 he summoned a Parliament at Kilkenny, by 
 which the famous Statutes of Kilkenny were 
 enacted, the object being to make the line 
 of demarcation between England and Ire- 
 land more distinct, and to prevent the 
 assim.ilation in manners and customs which, 
 except in the remote mountain districts, 
 was, as we have shown, so prevalent. The 
 statute made it high treason for an English 
 colonist to intermarry with the Irish, to stand 
 godfather to an Irish child, or to entrust 
 an infant to a native nurse. Any man of 
 English race taking an Irish name, or using 
 the Irish language, apparel, or customs, 
 should forfeit all his lands. The English 
 were not to make ^var upon the natives 
 without the permission of the Government. 
 The Irish were not to be permitted to pasture 
 on land belonging to the Enghsh, nor to be 
 admitted to ecclesiastical benefices or reli- 
 gious houses, nor entertained as minstrels. 
 The clause about making war remained a 
 dead letter, for when the English were dis- 
 posed to make war there was no authority 
 strong enough to prevent them. At any 
 rate, there was plenty of fighting, as the 
 annals show, between the Irish, as the 
 settlers had begun to call themselves, and 
 '•'the wild Irish," as they styled the natives. 
 It was necessary also to avoid pressing the 
 clause about the use of the Irish language, 
 for a large number of the colonists could 
 speak no other. 
 
 Poyning's Law and "the Pale." 
 In 1494, the Viceroy, Sir Edward Poyning, 
 a man of considerable ability, who had been 
 sent over by Henry VII., summoned a Par- 
 liament at Drogheda, at which the famous 
 statute, known in history as Poyning's Law, 
 was enacted. It provided that henceforth no 
 Parliament should be held in Ireland until 
 the chief governor and council had first cer- 
 tified to the King, under the great seal, the 
 
 Z^l 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 reason for its being summoned, and obtained 
 permission to hold it. The general object of 
 the Act was nominally to reduce the people 
 to " whole and perfect obedience," and to 
 abolish "the many damnable customs and 
 uses " practised by the English lords and 
 gentlemen. 
 
 The part of Ireland occupied by descend- 
 ants of the English settlers and the new 
 arrivals was known as the Pale — the word 
 being taken from one of the enactments of 
 Poyning's Parliament, which required all the 
 colonists to "pale in," or enclose, the portion 
 of the country possessed by the English. 
 At this time, the English Pale, which at one 
 time had comprised the " four shires," Dublin, 
 Kildare, Meath, and Louth, had been greatly 
 diminished, and formed a narrow strip about 
 fifty miles long and twenty broad, and that 
 was the only part in any sense English ; for 
 beyond it the common law of England had 
 no authority, the King's writ was not re- 
 spected, and the country was divided among 
 independent chiefs, who levied tribute on the 
 inhabitants of the Pale as payment for a 
 nominal protection of their rights, and as a 
 compensation for abstaining from the plunder 
 of their farms. Their law was " strength and 
 the Brehon traditions " (the old native law). 
 As for the great ennobled families, they were 
 not in the Pale, and were a law to them- 
 selves. 
 
 Rule of the Tudors. 
 When Henry VIII. came to the throne, in 
 1509, he appears to have been honestly 
 desirous to ameliorate the condition of Ire- 
 land. When a boy he had been appointed 
 Viceroy of Ireland, with the Earl of Kildare 
 for his deputy — the same audacious noble- 
 man who had been summoned to England 
 by Henry VII. to answer a charge of high 
 treason, having encouraged the pretender, 
 Perkin Warbeck, but so ingratiated himself 
 with the King that he was married to a rich 
 wife and sent back practically to rule Ireland 
 — and in 151 5 an elaborate report on the 
 state of Ireland was prepared by royal com- 
 mand. The document has been recently 
 published in the " State Papers." The 
 author of the paper says, "There be sixty 
 regions in Ireland, inhabited with the King's 
 Irish enemies, some regions as big as a shire, 
 some more, some less, where reigneth more 
 than sixty chief captains, whereof some calleth 
 themselves kings, some king's peers, in their 
 language, some princes, some dukes, that 
 liveth only by the sword, and obeyeth to no 
 other temporal person, save only to him that 
 is strong. And every one of the said cap- 
 tains maketh war and peace for himself, and 
 holdeth by the sword, and hath imperial 
 jurisdiction, and obeyeth no other person, 
 English or Irish, except only such persons 
 
 as may subdue him by the sword. Also in 
 every of the said regions there be divers 
 petty captains, and every of them maketh 
 war and peace for himself, without licence of 
 the chief captain. And there be more than 
 thirty of the English noble folk that follow 
 the same Irish order and keepeth the same 
 rule." 
 
 Terrible Condition of the Native 
 Irish. 
 
 The condition of the poor native Irish^ 
 ruled by so many masters, perpetually quar- 
 relling and fighting among themselves, or 
 with the English colonists, is described by 
 the writer of the State paper — an English- 
 man, be it remembered. Labour was treated 
 as disgraceful ; the strongest and fiercest of 
 the peasant class were picked out by the 
 chiefs and trained to fight, and the weaker 
 men were driven to the fields like beasts of 
 burden, wretchedly fed and few in number^ 
 "supposed to be the most wretched speci- 
 mens of human nature which could be found 
 upon the globe." The author of the State 
 paper of 1 5 1 5 asks, " What common folk in. 
 all the world is so poor, so feeble, so evil 
 beseen in town and field, so bestial, so greatly 
 oppressed and trodden under foot, fares so 
 evil, with so great misery, and with so 
 wretched life, as the common folk of Ireland? 
 What pity is here, what truth is to report 
 there is no tongue that can tell, no person 
 that can write. It passeth far the orators 
 and muses all to show the order of the nobles, 
 and how cruel they entreateth the poor com- 
 mon people. What danger it is to the King 
 against God to suffer his land, whereof he 
 bears the charge and the cure temporal, to 
 be in the said misorder so long without 
 remedy! It v/ere more honour to surrender 
 his claim thereto, and to make no longer 
 prosecution thereof, than to suffer his poor 
 subjects always to be so oppressed, and all 
 the nobles of the land to be at war within 
 themselves, always shedding of Christian 
 blood without remedy. The herd must render 
 account for his fold, and the King for his." 
 
 This was bold speaking, but perhaps none 
 the less on that account acceptable to the 
 clear-headed and energetic young King, who 
 seems to have thought that the Irish problem, 
 as perplexing then as now, might be solved 
 by wise government and the exercise of jus- 
 tice. He was not, probably, of opinion that 
 the animosity and opposition of the Irish 
 chiefs was absolutely insurmountable, al- 
 though the writer of the report hac^ arrived 
 at the conclusion, "If the King were as wise 
 as Solomon the Sage, he should never sub- 
 due the wild Irish to his obedience without 
 dread of the sword and of the might and 
 strength of his power. As long as they may 
 
 318 
 
STRONG BOW AND KING DERMOT. 
 
 resist and save their lives, they will not obey 
 the Kins^." 
 
 Projects for Reforming the Irish 
 Church. 
 
 When Henry VIII. had effected the Re- 
 formation in this country, he saw no reason 
 why the Irish Church should not be as Pro- 
 testant as the English. The Irish ecclesi- 
 astics, however, and the Irish people too — 
 both the Anglo-Irish and the "wild Irish" 
 — had their own opinions on the matter. 
 Dr. Browne, a convert to Protestantism, 
 formerly an Augustinian friar, was appointed 
 Archbishop of Dublin, and made known the 
 contents of a letter sent to him by Thomas 
 Cromwell, in the King's name. This official 
 document announced "the royal will and 
 pleasure of his Majesty, that his subjects in 
 Ireland, even as those in England, should 
 obey his coinmands in spiritual matters as in 
 temporal, and renounce their allegiance to 
 the see of Rome." But Dr. Browne soon 
 found, to use his own phrase, that "the 
 common people of this isle are more zealous 
 in their blindness than the saints and mar- 
 tyrs were in truth." The Archbishop of 
 Armagh was a formidable opponent, " laying 
 a curse on the people whosoever should own 
 his Highness's supremacy, saying that the 
 isle — as it is in the Irish chronicles, insula 
 sacra — belongs to none but the Bishop of 
 Rome, and that it was the Bishop of Rome 
 who gave it to the King's ancestors." 
 
 A Parliament was summoned in 1536, and 
 several bills were introduced. One declared 
 the King to be supreme head of the Church 
 in Ireland ; another prohibited appeals to 
 Rome ; another ordered first-fruits and 
 twentieth parts to be paid to the King ; and 
 another abolished the authority of the Pope. 
 To the Parliament, however, the ecclesiastics 
 were entitled to send proctors, and these 
 proctors so vehemently opposed the pro- 
 positions that the bills could never have 
 become Acts if a ready expedient had not 
 been discovered, and that was not allowing 
 the proctors to vote. So, as far as Parlia- 
 ment could do it, the King was supreme, 
 and the Anglo-Irish nobles and gentlemen 
 — or many of thein — made no objection to 
 the supremacy, for they scented, not very far 
 off, a confiscation of Church property. Very 
 soon the Church lands were sold to the 
 highest bidder, or bestowed as a reward on 
 favourites and powerful persons who had 
 curried favour with the King or his deputy. 
 In 1 541 a Parliament held in Dublin con- 
 ferred the title of King of Ireland on Henry. 
 
 In the short reign of Edward VI. efforts 
 to establish the royal supremacy were con- 
 tinued, but so far as the majority of the 
 clergy and the mass of the people were 
 concerned, with little success. On Easter 
 
 Sunday, 1551, the liturgy was read fur the 
 first time in Christ Church Cathedral, 
 Dublin ; and almost immediately afterwards 
 the primacy of all Ireland was annexed to 
 the see of Dublin by Act of Parliament. The 
 Reformers had obviously reason on their 
 side when they objected to the service of the 
 Church being conducted in Latin, which was 
 not " understanded of the people " ; but they 
 scarcely mended matters by insisting on the 
 use of the English language, almost equally 
 unintelligible to the great bulk of the Celtic 
 and Anglo-Irish population. When Mary, 
 a Catholic, became Oueen, there was another 
 reverse. Archbishop Browne, and Bishops 
 Staples of Meath, Lancaster of Kildare, and 
 Travers of Leighlin, were removed, and two 
 others fled beyond the seas. When the 
 news of Edward's death reached Ireland^ 
 bells were rung, and processions of Roman 
 Catholics paraded the streets of Kilkenny, 
 chanting and flinging about incense and holy 
 water. Five years afterwards Mary was in 
 her grave, and once more the sovereign and 
 government were Protestant. 
 
 Persecutions of the Catholics; 
 A Reign of Terror. 
 
 Very soon began the persecutions. Abbots 
 and priests were put to death — hanged and 
 quartered — for saying the mass ; monks, 
 friars, and lay brothers were slaughtered — 
 one at the altar of his own church ; and 
 others died from the effects of imprisonment 
 and torture in Dublin Castle. Loftus, the 
 Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, advised 
 that the Anglo-Irish nobles should be 
 " sharply dealt with," and fined "in a good 
 round sum," because they were Catholics. 
 Sir John Perrot, one of the military com- 
 manders, killed fifty persons, and arranged 
 their heads as a trophy in the public square 
 of Kilmallock ; and he advised the Queen 
 that " friars, monks, Jesuits, priests, nuns, 
 and such-like vermin, who openly upheld the 
 Papacy, should be executed by martial law." 
 If we may beheve Miss Cusack—and that 
 able writer, although influenced perhaps in 
 her opinions by her attachment to Roman 
 Catholicism, appears to have been very 
 careful to have good authority for her state- 
 ments of facts — " the officers of the troops 
 sent to put down Popery seem to have 
 rivalled each other in acts of cruelty. One 
 is said to have tied his victim to a maypole, 
 and then punched out his eyes with his 
 thumbs. Others amused themselves with 
 flinging up infants into the air, and catching 
 them on the points of their swords. Francis 
 Crosby, the deputy of Leix, used to hang 
 men, women, and children on an immense 
 tree which grew before his door, without any 
 crime being imputed to them except their 
 faith, and then to watch with delight how the 
 
 319 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 unhappy infants hung by the long hair of 
 their martyred mothers." 
 
 The Plantation of Ulster. 
 Our limits will not permit us to trace step 
 by step the history of Ireland during the 
 remainder of the reign of Ehzabeth. Shane 
 O'Neill, the Irish chief who claimed to be 
 King of Ulster, defied the English, and 
 gained some successes. Then he was in- 
 duced to visit the English court, cajoled with 
 fair promises, and ultimately murdered at 
 Carrickfergus, where he had been invited to a 
 feast, and his head was impaled on the wall 
 of Dublin Castle. An obsequious and tongue- 
 tied Irish Parliament, assembled in 1569, 
 formally annexed Tyrone, Shane O'Neill's 
 possessions, to the English throne, and then 
 began what was known as the " plantation 
 of Ulster." Large districts conferred on 
 favourites were described as " divers parts 
 and parcels of her Highness's earldom of 
 Ulster that lay waste, or else was inhabited 
 ivith a wicked, barbarous, and uncivil people." 
 What might become of these people under 
 the rule of their new masters seems not to 
 have troubled the Queen or her councillors. 
 
 A Revolt. 
 
 Charles I., involved in troubles with his 
 Parliament, and on the brink of civil war, had 
 little leisure for Irish affairs, and the time was 
 considered favourable for an attempt on the 
 part of the Irish CathoUcs to throw off the 
 Protestant yoke. For a time the revolt, 
 headed by George Moore, an Anglo-Irish- 
 man, bore an exclusively religious character, 
 and met with little success ; but soon Phelim 
 O'Connor, with a large body of native Irish, 
 joined the movement, and then the insurrec- 
 tion became truly formidable. 
 
 Hatred of the Protestants was allied to 
 hatred of the English and Scotch settlers, 
 Protestant or not. The Presbyterians^ and 
 colonists of Ulster and the western provinces 
 were ruthlessly attacked ; nearly forty thou- 
 sand massacred. The English Parliament, 
 ready enough to believe evil of Charles, and 
 suspicious of his supposed tenderness to the 
 doctrines of Romanism, so hateful to the 
 Independents and Presbyterians, accused 
 him of having encouraged the outbreak. 
 He warmly defended himself against the 
 charge, and to prove his sincerity sent into 
 Ireland all the troops that could be made 
 available. The English army showed no 
 mercy — even those who laid down their arms 
 were not spared ; and their severity renewed 
 the ardour of the Irish,— the English were 
 beaten, a large portion of Ulster was 
 
 recovered, and the Scotch settlers driven 
 out. A native council of administration was 
 established, composed of bishops, chiefs of 
 the old Irish tribes, lords of Anglo-Norman 
 descent, and deputies chosen in each pro- 
 vince by the Irish population. 
 
 When the great Parliamentary war in 
 England broke out, the national assembly 
 of Ireland entered into private negotiations 
 with each party, offering support to that 
 which should to the greatest extent recognize 
 the independence of Ireland. The Parlia- 
 mentarians would "have none of them," 
 hating Papists more perhaps than they hated 
 the King. The remnants of the national party 
 were disposed, after the execution of Charles I., 
 to enter into negotiations with the victorious 
 Parhamentarians ; but the Protestants and 
 Presbyterians united under the leadership 
 of the Duke of Ormond, and proclaimed 
 Charles II. as king. 
 
 The Curse of Cromwell. 
 
 Then came "the curse of Cromwell." The 
 great Oliver, with the titles of Lord Lieu- 
 tenant and Commander-in-Chief, and his 
 Ironsides, were despatched to Ireland. If, in 
 the language of the Psalmist, they went with 
 " the high praises of God in their mouth," 
 of a verity the quotation may be completed 
 by saying they had "a two-edged sword in 
 their hand." At Drogheda, which Crom- 
 well's army captured, more than three thou- 
 sand of the garrison and townspeople were 
 massacred ; and at Wexford and in other 
 places the same merciless spirit was ex- 
 hibited wherever the terrible Cromwell 
 appeared. 
 
 On the 26th of September, 1653, all the 
 property of the Irish people was declared 
 to belong to the English, and Parliament 
 assigned Connaught for the habitation of the 
 Irish natives, "whither they must transplant, 
 with their wives and daughters and children, 
 before the i8th of May following, under the 
 penalty of death if found on this side of the 
 Shannon after that day." Any man, woman, 
 or child who had disobeyed the order, no 
 matter from what cause, could be instantly 
 executed in any way, by any of the soldiers 
 or " adventurers " to whom land had been 
 allotted, without trial. 
 
 Ireland was conquered, but not subdued. 
 The work of Strongbow and his allies was 
 completed, so far as the strong hand of power 
 could complete it. The fire of resistance 
 was smothered for a time, but later history 
 shows how dangerous has been, and is, the 
 smouldering of the embers. 
 
 G. R. E. 
 
 320 
 
BuRNSiDES Landing. 
 
 FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES, 
 
 A STORY OF SECESSION. 
 
 • John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave- 
 His soul is marching on ! " 
 
 The Missouri Compromise— John Brown— The Breach— Mutterings of the Storm— Fort Sumter— Bull Run— Progress of 
 the War— Numerous Battles— The Trent Affair— Campaign of 1S62— Capture of New Orleans— The Merriviac and 
 the Monitor— 'Y\i& Struggle at Shiloh— Fighting in 1S63 and 1864— On the Chickahominy— Lee in Virginia— Great 
 Losses — Conclusion of the Civil War. 
 
 The Missouri Compromise. 
 
 In the year 1820, when Missouri was 
 admitted into the American Union, 
 
 it was especially enacted that the 
 
 limits of slavery were to be observed, and it 
 was determined that slavery should cease at 
 a line drawn below the new state. But this 
 suggestion did not meet with approval, and 
 a concihatory proposition was brought forward 
 which enacted that Missouri should be ex- 
 
 cepted from the prohibition placed upon 
 " the territory ceded by France to the 
 United States under the name of Louisiana." 
 This exception in favour of the new state 
 was termed the Missouri Compromise^ and 
 laid down the rule that any future states 
 should not be slave-holding territory. Thus 
 reluctantly, a slave-holding state was ad- 
 mitted ; and this objection to its admission 
 as such denoted that a very important change 
 
 321 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was taking place in the feelings of the House 
 of Representatives at Washington. 
 
 Only a few years before, when Louisiana 
 and Mississippi had been respectively ad- 
 mitted into the Union, no objection had been 
 made to the propagation of slavery ; and 
 just a year previously, when Alabama became 
 one in the Federation, no question was raised 
 as to slave-holding. So a change had come 
 o'er the spirit of the North which was 
 eventually to rise up and crush out the 
 accursed system. Yet the abolition had not 
 been very rapid in the Union, but it had 
 been progressive and steady. The general 
 feeling was opposed to slavery in the Union 
 from the very commencement of its existence 
 as a nation ; but it must be admitted that the 
 South had at any rate an excuse for not 
 immediately complying with the abolitionists' 
 demand. We must in fairness remember 
 that climate, custom, social life, and the 
 necessity for cotton all demanded labour, 
 and made slavery much more profitable in 
 the South than it could be in the North. 
 So when the new state was admitted a calm 
 reigned for a time. But what was to happen 
 when other new states applied for leave to 
 join the Union ? 
 
 The Kansas-Nebraska Question. 
 
 The Abolition Question slumbered until 
 1831, when William Lloyd Garrison estab- 
 lished the Liberator in Boston. Afterwards 
 numerous anti-slavery societies were formed, 
 and the more Northern portion of the Union 
 drifted into opposition with the South upon 
 this question. The result was that in 1854 
 Mr. Douglas as a slave state sympathizer 
 carried the Nebraska bill, and the Kansas- 
 Nebraska struggle marks another important 
 way-station upon the road to war and se- 
 cession. In Kansas the fight commenced 
 between immigrants from the free North 
 and the upholders of bondage in the slave 
 South. Murder, assassination and conflict 
 were rife; and in the midst of this most 
 deplorable struggle Mr. Buchanan, a decided 
 advocate of slavery, was chosen President. 
 He was willing to admit Kansas, therefore, as 
 a slave state ; but the immigrants were in the 
 majority, and it eventually became free. The 
 Missouri Compromise had been repealed by 
 Mr. Douglas's Nebraska Bill, but the passers 
 of it turned against Buchanan in the Senate, 
 and voted against the Kansas Bill the Pre- 
 sident sought to introduce. 
 
 The South was defeated on this question, 
 and, as Dr. Draper writes, "There can be no 
 doubt that the South, in bending herself to 
 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 committed a mistake. ... In permitting the 
 abandonment of that concession she grasped 
 at the shadow of equality with the North 
 and lost the substance ; from that moment 
 
 the anti-slavery party had her at their 
 mercy." At any rate, there can be little doubt 
 that "the Kansas-Nebraskastruggle marks an 
 epoch in the great controversy between the 
 North and the South. It closes the period of 
 parHamentary debate between them and 
 introduces one of violence and open war." 
 
 John Brown's Raid. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan's tenure of office was draw- 
 ing to a close in 1859. In March i860 a 
 new President would be appointed, and the 
 election fight was proceeding with much 
 animosity. There were four pairs of candi- 
 dates, and a decided anti-slavery President 
 was anticipated and nominated in the person 
 of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 But prior to the election a memorable 
 incident occurred in Virginia. Amongst the 
 most warlike and bigoted of the anti-slavery 
 immigrants into Kansas was one John Brown 
 —a regular type of Puritan — who left his 
 home for the avowed object of fighting for 
 the abolition of slavery in Kansas. He had 
 four sons, and at the head of a small body of 
 determined men he fought the Missourians 
 and sustained their attacks with remarkable 
 bravery and success. At Ossawattomie he 
 greatly distinguished himself, and after 
 various fortune he returned from the east to 
 carry out his abolitionist ideas personally 
 and by force of arms. He was a most 
 zealous partisan, of stern and unbending 
 character and of Puritan piety. 
 
 He determined to carry his men and pro- 
 jects boldly into Virginia, the very hotbed 
 of slavery ; and he did so. In December 1858 
 he crossed the Missouri and liberated some 
 slaves, whom he subsequently conveyed in 
 safety into Canada ; but returned to Virginia, 
 where under the pretext of farming he set 
 about maturing his preparations. He col- 
 lected about twenty men and managed to 
 secure arms and ammunition in abundance 
 without causing any suspicion in his neigh- 
 bourhood. His idea was to capture the 
 stores at Harper's Ferry, and on Sunday 
 night, i6th October 1859, John Brown made 
 his attack upon the arsenal. 
 
 The party entered the village without 
 molestation, and at once put out all the lamps 
 and captured the watchmen on guard. The 
 great storehouse was soon in their possession, 
 having been acquired with scarce a struggle, 
 for the watch were overpowered without 
 difficulty. The surprise of the Virginians 
 may be imagined when, on going to their 
 work at the arsenal, they were made prisoners, 
 and at least sixty people were thus seized. 
 But the enterprise was hopeless. No acces- 
 sion of force came to the intrepid abolitionist. 
 A few negroes joined him, but only by threats. 
 Up till midday John Brown was master of 
 Harper's Ferry ; but the militia very quickly 
 
 322 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 surrounded the arsenal and the insurgents 
 were caught in a trap. It is difficult to see 
 v/hat other termination to the affair the 
 leader could himself have anticipated. 
 
 The siege did not last long : volley after 
 volley thinned the little circle of zealots inside, 
 while the attacking party also suffered. One 
 of Brown's sons was shot dead, and another 
 mortally wounded. The leader himself be- 
 haved with extraordinary courage and coolness , 
 but they availed him nothing. General 
 Robert Lee came down on the i8th and 
 battered in the door — Brown was taken 
 fighting, and bayoneted as he lay on the 
 ground. He and three others of his party 
 only were left alive. He was soon put on 
 his trial, and on the 30th of November he 
 was sentenced to be hanged at Charleston. 
 He died on the 2nd of December, as he 
 had lived, calm and defiant, and apparently 
 in no way concerned with the event. He 
 was a man whom Oliver Cromwell would 
 have made a general of — and the South made 
 him a martyr. The well-known song " Old 
 John Brown" became afterwards a "marching 
 chorus " in the Northern armies ; and the 
 almost solemn influence of the refrain — 
 " Glory, glory, hallelujah !" — nobody who has 
 heard it sung by native sympathizers will 
 •easily forget. 
 
 The Confederate States. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln was elected President 
 things came to a climax in the South. It 
 was known that the new nominee was a stern 
 anti-slavery man, and this conviction deter- 
 mined the Legislature of South Carolina to 
 call a Convention; and the Governor in his 
 message to the electors had said that in the 
 event of Mr. Lincoln's election to the Presi- 
 dency the only alternative was " secession." 
 " If," he continued, "in the exercise of 
 arbitrary power, and forgetful of the lessons of 
 history, the Government of the United States 
 should attempt coercion, it will become our 
 solemn duty to meet force by force." 
 
 This was plain speaking. But Mr. Lincoln 
 was elected by the North, for no Southern 
 state voted for him ; so the North won ! 
 The Southern people thus regarded their 
 "political equality" as departed. They were 
 very sore, and the results of the irritation 
 very soon appeared upon the surface. South 
 Carolina, a representative state as much as 
 Massachusetts in the North, seceded from 
 the Union on the 20th December, i860, and 
 Francis W. Pickens was elected Governor. 
 On that day the assembled Convention met 
 at Charleston, and the Union was declared 
 dissolved. A declaration of independence 
 . was drawn up at the same time. 
 
 This declaration was received with great 
 joy in Charleston, and the whole population 
 
 kept holiday. Business was suspended and 
 bells were set ringing ; dance music and the 
 " Marseillaise " were mingled by the bands, 
 and a red-silk standard was made for the 
 Independent State. Ministers were elected, 
 and every step that could be taken was 
 attempted to cast off the Union ; the news- 
 papers in the city going so far as to publish 
 news from the Northern States as " Foreign 
 Intelligence." 
 
 The result of this action was very quickly 
 apparent. One after another, in rapid suc- 
 cession of secession, came Mississippi, 
 Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas; 
 then Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and 
 North Carolina followed suit. Kentucky, as 
 Lincoln's state, declined, and the border 
 states at first remained neutral. The se- 
 ceding states declared themselves of the 
 Confederacy on the dates understated, the 
 borderers being obliged to come in. 
 
 South Carolina, seceded 20th December, i860. 
 
 i85i. 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Alabama . . . 
 
 Florida . . . 
 
 Georgia . . . 
 
 Louisiana . . 
 
 Texas . . . . 
 
 Virginia . . . 
 
 Arkansas . . . 
 
 Tennessee . . 
 North Carolina , 
 
 9th January, i£ 
 
 nth 
 i2th 
 19th 
 28th 
 
 ist February, , 
 17th April, , 
 
 6th May, 
 
 8th ,, 
 
 20th 
 
 The western part of Virginia declined to 
 secede, and was admitted subsequently as a 
 new state in the LTnion under the name of 
 West Virginia. On February 4th, i86r, a 
 Congress was assembled from the then 
 seceded states, and at Montgomery, in 
 Alabama, a constitution was proposed and 
 discussed. 
 
 Meantime the Southern representatives 
 had quitted their places in the Legislature at 
 Washington, and things looked extremely 
 threatening. In the North the feehng was 
 equally strong ; and yet all this time Mr. 
 Buchanan, who was still President — for his 
 term did not expire until March although 
 Lincoln was then elected — rather favoured, or 
 at all events did not check, the preparations 
 of the Unionists. When the Congress above 
 referred to had finished their sitting, they 
 promulgated the constitution of the Con- 
 federate States of America, and Jefferson 
 Davis, who had been the representative of 
 Mississippi, was chosen unanimously as the 
 President of the Confederacy, and Alexander 
 H. Stephens as the Vice-President. 
 
 Mr. Davis, in his inaugural address, 
 appeared confident that the South would 
 find aUies and supporters in England and in 
 the border states. " England will recognize 
 us," he declared, " and we have a glorious 
 future before us, The grass wjjl grow in the 
 Northern cities where the pavements have 
 
 323 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 been worn off with the feet of commerce. . . . 
 We are now determined to maintain our 
 position, and make all who oppose us smell 
 Southern powder and feel Southern steel." 
 Brave words, uttered possibly in haste, and 
 no doubt repented of at leisure a few years 
 afterwards in " durance vile." 
 
 There was a quiet, unassuming manner 
 about Jefferson Davis in after years, a 
 retiring disposition, apparently, when we 
 last conversed with him, which covered the 
 energy he undoubtedly possessed. He was 
 a mah of singular purity of mind and morals, 
 unselfish, temperate, and courteous in his 
 bearing to all. He had a command of 
 language not always perceptible in educated 
 Englishmen or Americans, with some scholar- 
 ship, and expressed his 
 sentiments clearly and 
 firmly. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was 
 a rougher diamond, a 
 man brought up literally 
 as a hewer of wood and 
 drawer of water ; a right- 
 thinking, determined 
 American of spotless in- 
 tegrity. His character- 
 istics do not need to be 
 enlarged upon here. His 
 assassination, which was 
 lamented by all civilized 
 people, and caused an im- 
 mense sensation, need not 
 be noticed in this place. 
 
 Attempts at Com- 
 promise. 
 
 The North had scarcely 
 believed that the South 
 meant fighting, and the 
 South on its part had 
 some idea that it would 
 obtain all it wanted by 
 moral force. But when 
 Anderson fortified himself in Fort Sumter, 
 the people of Charleston felt very indignant, 
 and Mr. Floyd, the Northern War Secretary, 
 had previously requested Mr. Buchanan to 
 withdraw all the troops from Charleston, a 
 move which the President declined to make. 
 General Cass had also resigned the Secretary 
 of State's portfolio because Mr. Buchanan 
 would not reinforce the troops; and now Mr. 
 Floyd resigned because he would not with- 
 draw them. Floyd had been busy trans- 
 ferring arms from the North to the South 
 while War Secretary, and the Confederates 
 rewarded his treason by making him a 
 major-general in their army when he 
 retired southwards. 
 
 A commission was sent up to Washington, 
 and taunted the President with his want of 
 decision. He declined to receive the members, 
 
 AbrahajiI Lincoln. 
 
 except as distinguished citizens, and would 
 not recognize their ambassadorial character. 
 These gentlemen endeavoured to cast all the 
 blame upon the President ; and quitting 
 Washington, shook the dust from their feet, 
 while intimating that on the head of Mr. 
 Buchanan the evil must rest. He declined 
 to read their closing communication; and 
 continued in dread of treason and death 
 until his term had expired. 
 
 Meanwhile the seceded states were seizing 
 stores and munitions and arsenals through- 
 out the South. The President sent his 
 address to Congress on January 9th, refer- 
 ring to the fact that in several states which 
 had not yet seceded the forts, arsenals and' 
 magazines of the United States had been 
 seized, and in conclusion 
 he advocated a peaceful 
 termination to the dis- 
 pute. Just previously the 
 Confederate Carolinians 
 had seized the custom- 
 house, post-office, and 
 arsenal at Charleston, as 
 well as Forts Pinckney 
 and Moultrie, when Major 
 Anderson withdrew his 
 little Federal garrisonfrom 
 the latter post to Fort 
 Sumter. This was the 
 first adverse move ; and 
 well might Buchanan, in 
 his address above men- 
 tioned, characterize it as 
 " the most serious step 
 that had been taken since 
 the commencement oi 
 the troubles." 
 
 On that same 9th of 
 January, the date of the 
 President's speech, the 
 first shot was fired in 
 the war. The " ball wa& 
 opened " in the South r 
 the Union was dissolved, not to be cemented 
 again save with blood and with the corpses 
 of thousands of men of one and the same 
 race. 
 
 A vessel sent by the Federals with troops 
 to reinforce the little garrison of Fort 
 Sumter was fired on as she was entering 
 the Charleston harbour. The commander 
 of the ship, deprecating hostilities, pru- 
 dently withdrew without returning the fire. 
 An attempt was made to capture her, but 
 she escaped. Thus the Civil War in America 
 was commenced. Batteries were constructed,, 
 and the whole South became a busy hive of 
 preparation for hostilities. Reprisals already 
 took place. Arms for the South were seized 
 in New York, and Northern vessels at New 
 Orleans were detained. Virginia declared 
 that it would forcibly repel any advance of 
 
 324 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 ■Northern troops southwards. The Presi- 
 dent's ministry had practically deserted him, 
 and war was advocated. The light-hearted- 
 ness with which the South entered upon the 
 greatest contest of modern times is remark- 
 able. The hauling down of the American 
 flag at Fort Sumter was the occasion for a 
 kind of fete or picnic ; and we read that the 
 demand of the President of the United 
 States for 75,000 soldiers was received with 
 " derisive laughter " ! This merriment was 
 soon turned into mourning, and the joyous 
 cheers were succeeded by the cries of the 
 wounded and dying. 
 
 The Muttering of the Storm. 
 
 On the 4th March, 1 861, Abraham Lincoln 
 assumed the government of the United 
 States. A native of Kentucky, he had come 
 up to assume his responsi- 
 bilities through a hostile 
 country, and was therefore 
 compelled to adopt a dis- 
 guise and to travel as 
 quickly as possible for fear 
 ■of assassination. He 
 reached Washington in 
 safety, and delivered his 
 address boldly. He de- 
 clared he did not intend 
 to interfere in any way 
 with slavery in -states 
 where it already existed. 
 ■"In your hands, my dis- 
 satisfied fellow-country- 
 men," he said, "and not 
 in mine, is the momentous 
 issue of civil .war. The 
 Government will not as- 
 sail you. You can have 
 210 conflict without being 
 yourselves the aggressors; 
 you have no oath regis- 
 tered in heaven to destroy 
 the Government, while I 
 shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, 
 protect, and defend ' it." 
 
 After Lincoln's inauguration commis- 
 sioners arrived from South Carolina to urge 
 that secession might be peacefully arranged, 
 and wishing to open negotiations with that 
 •object. But the President declined to listen 
 to them, contending that they had no locies 
 standi. These peaceable commissioners then 
 declared that any attempt to reinforce Fort 
 5umter, or to provision it, would be regarded 
 by the Confederate States as a declaration 
 ©f war ; and when the news came to Lincoln, 
 as it shortly did, that he could not relieve 
 Fort Sumter with a less force than 20,000 
 men, he hesitated. But his hand was forced. 
 His cabinet and thepeopleoutsidedecided him, 
 and it was determined that an attempt should 
 be made to reinforce and provision the place. 
 
 Stonewall Jackson, 
 
 The United States frigate Powhatan, 
 which was up at New York, was made ready 
 for this purpose, and further preparations 
 were made. Two small steamers and several 
 transports and vessels of war were got 
 ready. But from various circumstances, in- 
 cluding the effects of a tempest, the expedition 
 failed. This was in April. News of the 
 approaching departure of the ships was con- 
 veyed to South Carolina, and this was inter- 
 preted as a declaration of hostilities by the 
 Confederates, and they resolved to anticipate 
 matters. 
 
 The Storm Breaks over Sumter. 
 Jefferson Davis immediately directed 
 General Beauregard to summon Major Ander- 
 son to surrender Fort Sumter. This position 
 occupies the centre of the entrance to 
 Charleston harbour. Be- 
 hind it at some little dis- 
 tance are Forts Ripley 
 and Pinckney. Forts 
 Moultrie, on Sullivan's 
 Island, and Johnston, on 
 James's Island, command 
 Sumter, Morris Island and 
 its batteries lying south 
 and dominating the 
 channel. 
 
 Major Anderson de- 
 clined to surrender, and 
 Beauregard made prepa- 
 rations for his attack. 
 Anderson had no supplies, 
 nor had he sufficient am- 
 munition to sustain a 
 siege. At daybreak a 
 notice was sent to him 
 that in an hour the Con- 
 federates would open fire, 
 and Beauregard kept his 
 word. But no reply came 
 from Major Anderson 
 until 7 o'clock on Friday, 
 April 1 2th, which day marks the actual 
 commencement of hostilities ; and after 
 sustaining a bombardment for two days, 
 and doing all he could to reply eff"ectiv»ely, 
 Beauregard's terms were accepted, and the 
 stars and stripes descended from the fort. 
 Yet, with all the expenditure of shot and 
 shell, with battered walls and fired gates, 
 and the magazine in flames, not one man 
 had been killed upon either side. 
 
 Anderson and his men marched out with 
 the honours of war, while the Sunday sanctity 
 was invaded by firing of guns, the playing of 
 bands, the cheers of the ladies at the fall of 
 the stars and stripes, and the elevation of 
 the Palmetto flag amid universal rejoicing. 
 " The glorious little state of South Carolina 
 had " humbled the flag of the United States ; 
 and "defeated their twenty millions." The 
 
 325 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY, 
 
 bloodless nature of the victory gave rise to 
 adverse criticism. People didn't v/ant to 
 play at war. " Give us blood ! No half 
 measures ! Why, an American battle is 
 not so dangerous as an American steam- 
 boat ! " So after a practical siege of three 
 months Sumter surrendered : it might have 
 been reinforced with ease. 
 
 The very day after the surrender, President 
 Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 
 seventy-five thousand men (militia) for three 
 months' service, and the greatest enthusiasm 
 was aroused in the Northern States ; an 
 enthusiasm more striking in consequence of 
 the almost surprised and solemn silence with 
 which the surrender of Sumter had been 
 received. 
 
 The North is Aroused. 
 
 It had not been an easy matter to con- 
 vince the people of the Northern States that 
 the Secessionists meant mischief. But when 
 they heard, as they did now, that an attack 
 was about to be made upon Washington, 
 public feeling and patriotism rose to fever 
 heat. " The moment blood is shed Virginia 
 will make common cause with her sisters of 
 the South," was a cry which now came true. 
 The state had given in her adhesion to 
 secession, and she had a great deal to do. 
 There were several worthy objects for her 
 enterprise. Washington City and the Ar- 
 moury, with Fort Monroe, were three very 
 important points. 
 
 Massachusetts was the first in the field, 
 and the sixth regiment marched out from 
 Boston the centre of an ovation. Four 
 corps were soon ready, and the 6th was 
 ordered to Baltimore, where it came into 
 collision with a Secessionist party ; and there 
 they learnt the news that the Virginians had 
 taken the Armoury at Harper's Ferry. They 
 forced their way to the railway in order to 
 reach Washington, and had much difficulty 
 in doing so. At last they fired on the people, 
 and the first blood was drawn. This affair 
 took place on the anniversary of the battle of 
 Lexington, which inaugurated the War of 
 Independence in 1775. 
 
 The regiment proceeded to Washington 
 just in time. Meanwhile the Marylanders 
 were protesting against troops being sent 
 through the state, and when they found their 
 remonstrances unheeded, the people, incited 
 by King " Cotton," destroyed bridges and did 
 all and everything in their power to prevent 
 the Republican militia from reaching the 
 capital. General Butler found the bridges 
 across the Susquehanna had been burned, 
 so he took a steamer and carried his division 
 by sea to Annapolis, and then proceeded by 
 train to Washington, which had been forti- 
 fied. But "Maryland, my Maryland," 
 though strongly urged by the poet to " spurn 
 
 the Northern scum," remained a member of 
 the Federal States, for Butler was in Balti- 
 more and kept her down. 
 
 The naval yard at Norfolk had been cap- 
 tured by the Virginians, and now the Presi- 
 dent made every effort to beat back the 
 torrent which was descending upon the 
 North. Bounties were liberally offered to 
 recruits, and levies were called for. On the 
 19th of April, and again on the 27th, the 
 blockade of the Southern ports was declared ; 
 and this error in Northern strategy virtually 
 gave the South the position of a belligerent 
 power, for a blockade means a recognition 
 of the state blockaded — a simple closing of 
 the ports, or rather a proclamation to that 
 effect, would have placed the Southern States 
 in the position of rebels only. 
 
 The Northern States sent in supplies, and 
 by several succeeding acts of Congress many 
 thousands of men, up to one hundred thou- 
 sand, were sanctioned to serve for periods 
 of from six months to three years. On the 
 24th of May, 1861, the army took up its 
 positions, and McClellan entered Virginia 
 in the west, and ere long kept full command 
 of it. 
 
 The Battle of Bull Run. 
 
 This was the first important engagement 
 in the long series of sanguinary encounters, 
 which lasted for as nearly as possible four 
 years. This battle was fought on 21st July,, 
 1 86 1, and the last Confederate force surren- 
 dered on 26th May, 1865 ; the last fight was 
 between Col. Barrett and General Slaughter^ 
 in which the latter (the Confederate) was 
 victorious. 
 
 Bull Run is a small stream near Manassas 
 Junction, in Virginia, and here General 
 McDowell was met by Beauregard, the Con- 
 federate commander. 
 
 There were two battles at Bull Run — the 
 first was on the 21st July, the second a 
 little more than a month later. We will 
 attempt to describe them. The Confederates 
 were encamped at Manassas about 20,ooO' 
 strong, and the Federal forces near Washing- 
 ton amounted to about twice that number^ 
 McDowell took with him 35,000 men, mostly 
 volunteers, and advanced against Beauregard,, 
 who was thereupon assisted by General 
 Johnston from Winchester. 
 
 Early upon the 21st of July the opposing 
 forces came within touch of each other, and 
 making allowances for sick and non-effectives 
 the armies were then nearly equal. About 
 ten o'clock General Burnside commenced 
 the engagement, and, with assistance from 
 Tyler and Sherman, drove the Confederates 
 back. About twelve o'clock Burnside had 
 exhausted his ammunition, and had to retire ; 
 and the Union army had succeeded in out- 
 flanking the Confederates, and were driving 
 
 326 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 them before them, so that when the Southern 
 commanders, Johnston and Beauregard, 
 came up, the field was apparently lost for 
 them, as with the exception of a small 
 reserve of five regiments, their force ap- 
 peared in full retreat up the slope of the 
 hill from the plateau round which a small 
 brook circled. On the east of this plateau 
 was a pine-wood, and in these pines the 
 small Confederate reserve was posted. Bee 
 (the Confederate) had reached the edge of 
 the plateau with his broken division, and 
 met General T. Jackson posted in the pine- 
 wood, and unharmed. 
 
 " They are beating us back," cried Bee, as 
 his force retired upon his friends. Jackson's 
 answer is historical : "Well, sir, we must 
 give them the bayonet," he replied, but did 
 not move an inch. Bee seeing that the 
 reserve was steady, encouraged his men 
 with the cry that Jackson was standing like 
 a stone wall. " Rally behind the Virginians.^' 
 The men took the idea, and Stone-'wall 
 Jackson was instantly adopted by the sol- 
 diers. The general never lost the soubriquet 
 thus bestowed upon him. 
 
 This rally made a very considerable dif- 
 ference to the Unionists. They swept up 
 the slope gallantly, but were received by a 
 withering volley from Jackson's men, who 
 kept up a fatal if intermittent fire from amid 
 the pine-trees. Just then Beauregard and 
 Johnston rallied the retreating troops ; the 
 Union attack had been delayed too long. 
 Had McDowell's generals carried out his 
 programme earlier, they would have gained 
 the day. The Confederates had concentrated 
 their forces, and the guns were ordered up to 
 dislodge them. But the Confederates stood 
 firm on their slope, and their cavalry quite 
 upset a New York regiment ; still the Union- 
 ists had the best of it at four o'clock, and 
 McDowell commanded a general advance 
 upon the centre. The crisis had come. 
 
 The advance Avas made ; the lost ground 
 was recovered ; the cannon was playing with 
 terrible effect as the charge was made —when 
 suddenly the whole of the Northern right 
 was crumpled up and driven in by a flank 
 attack. Elzey's brigade, which had heard 
 the firing, came up by rail, and, 1700 strong, 
 threw itself with all the impetuosity of fresh 
 troops upon the weary Northern battalions. 
 A yell of despair seemed to go up ; panic 
 succeeded ; and in a few minutes McDowell 
 was hurled over the edge of the plateau, and 
 down the slopes he had so hardly gained. 
 In fifteen minutes all was over ; the rout — 
 for it was nothing less — was complete. 
 
 The conduct of the troops once out of 
 hand was utterly unworthy of them. They 
 hastened away panic-stricken to the fords 
 and bridge. Sauve qui peut was the idea ; 
 and though the general, like Napoleon at 
 
 Waterloo, endeavoured to cover the retreat 
 with his picked troops, some eight hundred 
 strong, he could do little. The victors did 
 not pursue far ; indeed, it was unnecessary, 
 the flight was too rapid ; and so the news was 
 carried to Washington, and all was conster- 
 nation. Those who had come out in car- 
 riages or on horseback to see the battle 
 were carried back amid the panic-stricken 
 soldiery. The Times contained an account 
 of the panic, and Dr. Russell's life was in 
 danger in consequence. 
 
 [The second battle of Bull Run or Manas- 
 sas was also gained by the Confederates, 
 very nearly upon the same ground as the 
 preceding one. In the latter Jackson and 
 Longstreet defeated Pope, and the Union 
 army was again thrown back upon Washing- 
 ton. There was a good deal more manoeu- 
 vering in this engagement ; and but for Col. 
 Warren, who threw his brigade into the gap, 
 and for a while tried to stem the tide of 
 Confederate troops, the capital might have 
 been captured. As it was, the Union force 
 was withdrawn within the lines, and General 
 Pope was, at his own request, relieved of his 
 command.] 
 
 This was a great disaster for the North, 
 which gained no important advantage that 
 year. But, on the other hand, it would ap- 
 pear that the Confederates were blinded by 
 success, and began to make that greatest of 
 all mistakes in battle, in argument, or in any 
 controversy, — they despised their adversary : 
 so when they wet'e repulsed the moral effect 
 was the greater. 
 
 The Progress of the War. 
 
 We have devoted a little more space to 
 this engagement than we can afford to its 
 successors, which come rapidly before us. 
 It is not possible to detail all the battles, 
 and a short summary of the principal events 
 which took place must suffice. 
 
 After the Confederates had driven out their 
 opponents. General McCIellan was appointed 
 to the command of the " Army of the 
 Potomac,'' and his endeavours to organize 
 his men and bring the levies into something 
 like order and discipline occupied him some 
 months. It must be rem.embered here were 
 no trained soldiers, as in European armies. 
 All, or nearly all, had to be learnt by generals 
 as well as soldiers ; and it is marvellous to 
 notice how quickly the American nation 
 acquiesced in the discipline and privations 
 inseparable from campaigning, which in 
 their case fell upon them with double seve- 
 rity. 
 
 Col. Butler and Commodore Stringham 
 took Forts Hatteras and Clark, on the coast 
 of North Carolina ; and in October General 
 Sherman and Commodore du Pont attacked 
 Port Royal, South Carolina, and captured 
 
 327 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 two forts, and secured possession of the 
 harbour. The North sent instructions to 
 Mr. Adams to represent to the British 
 Government that the South could not be 
 recognized as belligerents ; but ere the in- 
 structions arrived England, and soon after- 
 wards France, had recognized the Confede- 
 rate nation. 
 
 Meanwhile the Confederate States were 
 not idle. They were forming armies and 
 despatching them against their Northern 
 brethren. Missouri sent a contingent, Texas 
 and Arkansas were not behindhand either. 
 A battle was soon fought in the first-named 
 state between Lyon (Federal) and McColluch, 
 at Wilson's Creek, Springfield. General 
 Lyon was killed, the losses being very equal, 
 amounting to over a thousand men on each 
 side. The Federals retreated to Rolla, but 
 General Fremont subsequently retrieved 
 Northern fortunes, though only to be again 
 driven back, — and thus with varying success 
 the conflict proceeded in Missouri. The 
 defence of Lexington, in September, when 
 Colonel Mulligan, attacked by a much 
 superior force, only surrendered when his 
 men had been fighting for three days with- 
 out water, is one of the most remarkable 
 incidents of this period of the war. 
 
 We may now glance northwards. In 
 October the Federal forces began to assert 
 themselves. By degrees their enemies re- 
 treated, and on the 21st General Stone's 
 troops, or rather a portion of them, crossed 
 the Potomac at Ball's Bluff. This was a 
 disastrous move. General Evans imme- 
 diately fell upon them ; and after a brave 
 struggle, in which more than half the Union 
 force was put hors de combat, the Federals 
 retreated, leaving quite a thousand men, 
 with Colonel Baker, on the field. It was 
 about this time that General McClellan was 
 appointed commander-in-chief of the Federal 
 forces, in room of General Scott retired. 
 
 The Trent Affair. 
 We now come to a page of our history 
 which will perhaps be read with more 
 interest than the mere details of the battles 
 and skirmishing, marching and counter- 
 marching of that disastrous conflict. There 
 was a strong feeling in favour of the South 
 underlying popular opinion in England ; and 
 this sympathy, though by no means univer- 
 sal in the United Kingdom, had, in addition 
 to the fact of our recognizing the Confederates 
 as belligerents, made England unpopular in 
 the Federal States ; and when the news of 
 the battle of Bull Run reached England 
 there was certainly a feeling here that the 
 North was pretty well " played out." No one 
 then properly estimated the tremendous re- 
 cuperating energy of the Federals, — any more 
 than the Northern ladies or civilians would 
 
 credit that the ill-clothed, almost barefooted, 
 and quite miserable-looking men who came 
 as prisoners from the battle-field of Shiloh, 
 were the magnificent Southern material 
 which had given General Grant all he could 
 do to overcome. 
 
 There was a great deal of irritation ; and 
 newspapers "slung ink" at each other across 
 the " herring-pond " with more directness 
 than good taste. The North was regarded 
 as behaving in a bullying and dictatorial 
 manner, and the Americans complained of 
 our neutrality. " The head and front of our 
 offending," says a writer of the period, " is 
 that we formed a just estimate . . . The 
 seceders are a match for them." In October 
 1 86 1, national feeling found a vent which 
 nearly resulted in a breach of the peace 
 between England and America. 
 
 The American war-sloop San yacinto was 
 at Havana, when the commander, Captain 
 Wilkes, heard that two Southern commis- 
 sioners were about to proceed to Europe as 
 ambassadors to France and England. These 
 gentlemen had managed to elude the block- 
 ade, and finding the English mail steamer 
 Trent at Havana, determined to take pas- 
 sage in her to England, as they had a perfect 
 right to do. 
 
 But apparently the bold Captain Wilkes 
 thought otherwise. He made up his mind 
 to intercept these " rebel " ambassadors, as 
 he considered them, and accordingly in a 
 very high-handed manner he ran out into the 
 channel, and when the steamer appeared he 
 fired a shell across her bows, his order to 
 "heave to "having properly been disregarded 
 by the English captain of the Trent. The 
 incident created a sensation on board, as 
 may be imagined. 
 
 The Trent had sailed from Havana on 
 the 7th ; " and on the 8th," says an eye-wit- 
 ness, " we observed a large steamer ahead, 
 and on a nearer approach we found she was 
 ' hove-to,' awaiting us. . . . As soon as we 
 were well within range we had the first 
 intimation of her nationality and intentions 
 by a round shot being fired across our 
 bows and by her showing American colours." 
 All the ports were open, and the crew at 
 quarters. A boat soon pushed off from the 
 San yacinto, and the lieutenant demanded 
 that Messrs. Slidell, Mason, and two others 
 should be handed over to him. Mr. Slidell 
 appealed to the British flag ; and the lieute- 
 nant said his orders were to take them by 
 force if necessary. Captain Williams, R.N., 
 as representing the Queen, violently pro- 
 tested, while all this time the San yacinto 
 was lying with shotted guns, and her marines 
 had occupied the deck. Resistance was of 
 course useless. Miss SHdell endeavoured to 
 defend her father but the American lieute- 
 nant ordered his men to advance upon her 
 
 328 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 with fixed bayonets as she stood before the 
 cabin door. Mr. Shdell then gave himself 
 up, and the brave Americans, who confessed 
 that they would not have attempted the act 
 had the Trent been a man-of-war or armed, 
 tock their prisoners on board their vessel and 
 carried the envoys to Boston and to prison. 
 The circumstances are detailed in the news- 
 papers of 28th Nov., 1861, at some length. 
 
 Captain Wilkes's high-banded proceeding 
 met with great favour in the North amongst 
 the people and the ministry. But the Presi- 
 dent was quite aware of its illegality and 
 error. "Wilkes meant well," said Lincoln, 
 *' but it will never answer. . . We shall have 
 
 ports were hurried over the ocean laden with 
 supplies and stores for the troops ; and the 
 loyal Canadians also responded to the move- 
 ment with an alacrity only second to our own. 
 However, the storm subsided. Lord Lyons 
 had orders to leave Washington within seven 
 days, if reparation and the release of the 
 captured ambassadors were not carried out 
 in full. The Americans gave way. Wilkes 
 had been advanced to a hero's place for 
 firing shot and shell at an unarmed trader, 
 and a great deal of " high falutin' " bombast 
 was indulged in by those who feted the bold 
 captain of the San Jacinto on his return. 
 But the determination of the "Britisher" 
 
 City of Boston, U.S.A. 
 
 to give these men up and apologize for what 
 "we have done." 
 
 The indignation aroused in England when 
 the news arrived has found no parallel in 
 later times— not even after the Boers' defeat 
 of our troops at Majuba. Lord John Russell 
 did not wait for any explanation; prepara- 
 tions were immediately commenced. War 
 with America appeared inevitable. The 
 Guards and many other corps were de- 
 spatched to Canada. The dockyards re- 
 sounded with the din of ship-building and 
 repairing. The Warrior, Black Prince, and 
 many other first-class vessels of war were 
 made ready for sea, and great enthusiasm 
 prevailed. Our fleet already afloat was 
 ordered up from the West Indies, and trans- 
 
 could not be ignored, and so the wisest and 
 the only honest course was pursued, and 
 carried out as Lincoln had foretold. "We 
 are asked," said Mr. Seward, " to do to the 
 British nation what we have always insisted 
 all nations ought to do to us." The English 
 demands were thus acceded to. 
 
 On the 18th of November, Mr. Davis in 
 his Message to his Congress at Richmond, 
 Va., congratulated his adherents upon the 
 "succession of glorious victories they had 
 achieved, and at their having checked the 
 wicked invasion which greed of gain and 
 lust of power brought upon " Southern soil. 
 He also commented upon the capture of 
 Messrs. Slidell and Mason, which no doubt 
 raised hopes of English assistance in Southern 
 
 329 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 minds. At the same time the Confederates 
 made up their minds " to continue the struggle 
 in humble dependence upon Providence, to 
 whose rule we confidently submit. For the 
 rest we depend upon ourselves." 
 
 No doubt the South had the best of the 
 conflict at the close of 1861. The North had 
 intended to invade Southern territory, and 
 had been repulsed : no ground had been 
 won, and hundreds of lives had been lost. 
 But the Confederate numbers were no match 
 for the Northern legions : the discrepancy 
 was too great. But at the close of 1861 our 
 great national misfortune in the death of the 
 Prince Consort almost entirely put aside for 
 awhile the interest in American affairs. Our 
 differences upon the War Question were 
 swallowed up in the consideration of the 
 sorrow we experienced at the loss of the 
 Prince whose life-aims were peace and the 
 arts of peace. 
 
 The Campaigns of 1862. 
 
 The inactivity of General McClellan and 
 his army of the Potomac was giving rise to 
 impatience, and the daily intelligence of " all 
 quiet on the Potomac " was not appreciated. 
 So on the 22nd of February a general move- 
 ment of the forces was ordered by the Presi- 
 dent, and the Potomac army was particularly 
 mentioned as destined for service. The 
 distrust which the General's inactivity had 
 occasioned was spreading in a very ominous 
 manner. But the Missisippi campaign was 
 to begin with the year, and on the 30th 
 of January a move was made. The first 
 engagement was not favourable to the Con- 
 federates' cause, for a body of their forces 
 was defeated at Mill Springs, in Kentucky, 
 and in the next month General Burnside 
 took an island occupied by their men on the 
 Carolina coast. At this time also General 
 Grant came to the fore on the Tennessee and 
 Cumberland rivers. Grant's army was at 
 Cairo, and Buell was at Louisville (Ky.) ; 
 and on the 30th of January Grant moved 
 out, although the country was much inun- 
 dated, and wet weather gave every assurance 
 of still greater floods. A small fleet of gun- 
 boats made the attack on Fort Henry, under 
 the command of Foote. Grant commanded 
 the land forces, but when the fort surren- 
 dered, it was found that Heiman with the 
 bulk of the Confederates had retreated, and 
 General Tilghman with a few men had 
 remained to work the guns and cover his 
 lieutenant's retreat. 
 
 The fort surrendered, and then Grant and 
 the allied naval force moved upon Fort 
 Donnelson. At first the attack was repulsed, 
 but the Confederates fearing the place would 
 not hold out, and Floyd, the late Northern 
 Secretary, being cowardly in command, it 
 was determined to evacuate the fort. The 
 
 sally was made before daybreak, and was at 
 first successful'; but Grant came up, and 
 rallying his whole line, drove the Confederates 
 into their works again. Floyd ran away with 
 his brigade, and the remainder of the force 
 under Pillow surrendered. Jefferson Davis, 
 who was just then appointed permanent 
 President of the Confederacy, relieved Floyd 
 and Pillow from their respective commands. 
 Nashville fell immediately, but the affair at 
 Mill Springs already referred to put a better 
 colour upon the fortunes of the Union. 
 
 Thus the Southern star was temporarily 
 obscured ; and victory followed the Northern 
 army still, for General Pope took an island 
 in the Mississippi river, and, as will be 
 seen, tried to capture Vicksburg, but could 
 not succeed in his laudable design. The 
 Federal fleet had proceeded down the river, 
 and notwithstanding gunboats and batteries,, 
 took possession of Memphis on the 9th of 
 June, and captured the Confederate fleet 
 there, after a warm engagement of gun- 
 boats. Then Commodore Davis, leaving Foote 
 wounded, sailed down the Mississippi, and 
 made his attempt upon Vicksburg. But 
 meantime Grant was advancing ; and while 
 he was encamped near Pittsburg Landing, he 
 was attacked by Johnston and Beauregard, 
 who had come forth from Corinth, intending 
 to crumble up Grant and roll his men back 
 before Halleck could arrive to his assistance. 
 This was in April. 
 
 The Great Struggle at Shiloh. 
 
 • Close to Shiloh church, a place whose 
 very name indicates Christianity and peace,, 
 one of the biggest battles of the Civil War 
 was destined to be fought, and between two 
 streams or creeks, tributaries of the Tennessee 
 river, on a plateau about one hundred feet 
 above the level of the surrounding country, 
 the engagement took place. The attack by 
 the Confederates was doubtless intended as 
 a surprise ; for the Southern generals relied 
 upon obtaining more accurate information 
 concerning their enemy's movements. But 
 Ulysses Grant was fairly well aware of the 
 intended attack and prepared for it. 
 
 To complete the fitness of things, and to 
 coincide with the associations, Sunday was 
 chosen for the attack. In the dim morning 
 light, on April the 6th, Hardee came quickly 
 down through the thin mist ; in silence he 
 crossed the ravine, and drove in Grant's 
 videttes and the outposts in a few minutes, 
 and the Confederates fell heavily on Generals 
 Sherman and Prentiss. The latter officer 
 was pushed back, but Sherman held his 
 ground most tenaciously. Not less obstinate, 
 however, was the Confederates' attack. Little 
 by little they pounded their way through the 
 Federal forces, driving a wedge, as it were. 
 
 330 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 through the National lines, and capturing 
 Sherman's camp. Notwithstanding Grant's 
 exertions he could not succour the division, 
 and had not Sherman determined to hold 
 the ground, the day would have been irre- 
 trievably lost. As it was, the Confederates 
 managed to drive the Unionists nearly into 
 the river ; and their position was almost 
 untenable, as fugitives were pouring away 
 from the main body, five camps had been 
 captured, and although very dearly purchased 
 the victory of Johnston seemed complete, 
 when he was killed by a rifle bullet. 
 
 Beauregard was in another part of the field, 
 and when at last he got his men together — 
 for they had been much weakened at the loss 
 of their general — a bold push was made 
 for the Pittsburg Landing. The Union army 
 was apparently broken up. Hundreds, deaf 
 to the entreaties of their officers, ran away 
 and hid themselves. The remains of Grant's 
 army hurried to the river and waited for the 
 next day. The South had substantially 
 gained an important victory, and had cap- 
 tured guns, flags, stores, and prisoners in 
 abundance. But Grant could not be driven 
 from the ravine. 
 
 Night brought counsel and much needed 
 assistance. The Confederates bivouacked 
 upon the field they had so bravely won ; and 
 while they slept Buell and Thomas came up 
 with Grant, and brought 30,000 fresh troops 
 to his assistance. Even the dark hours were 
 not silent. Grant's gunboats shelled the 
 woods, with the effect of setting them on fire 
 and burning out the wounded who had taken 
 refuge there. 
 
 Next morning Grant assumed the offen- 
 sive. His men had recovered when the 
 reinforcements arrived, and he made his 
 advance skilfully. Beauregard had about 
 20,000 men to resist him, but was obliged 
 to fall back as the enemy's artillery 
 advanced upon his flanks. An artillery 
 duel ensued, and the Southern army retired 
 slowly into Corinth " step by step, from 
 tree to tree," disputing every yard, but 
 always retiring. When the Confederates 
 reached their lines they kept the enemy at 
 bay ; Halleck, who had chief command, 
 coming along very cautiously feeling his way. 
 At length he made for Corinth, and found 
 that Beauregard had disappeared completely ; 
 he had broken up his camp : he 
 
 " Folded his tents like the Arabs, 
 And as silently stole away ! " 
 
 There is no doubt that Grant narrowly 
 escaped total defeat; and the ability displayed 
 by the Confederate generals is fully acknow- 
 ledged by the writers of Northern proclivities 
 whom we have consulted. About twenty 
 thousand men were killed and wounded in 
 the two days' battle, — a fearful "butcher's 
 
 bill " for the consideration of these brothers 
 arrayed against each other. 
 
 The Capture of New Orleans. 
 
 While these sanguinary conflicts were 
 taking place Admiral Farragut with General 
 Butler was making ready for a final attack 
 upon New Orleans, at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. Farragut and Captain Porter 
 came in and bombarded the forts while 
 Butler made ready to advance. But the forts 
 held out, so Farragut — "the Salamander," 
 as he was named — determined to go through 
 the fire and take the city. The effect of 
 the bombardment was very great ; hundreds 
 of shells were thrown into the forts, which 
 were almost disabled, while the fish in the 
 river floated stunned and dead upon its 
 surface. 
 
 Nevertheless the forts did not surrender, 
 and Farragut then executed his bold move. 
 Early in the morning of the 24th of April he 
 hung out his signal for departure, and sailed 
 and steamed boldly up the river, broke the 
 chain, and made his fiery way through the 
 rams, gunboats, and steamers of the Con- 
 federates. The sight is described as awfully 
 grand. Shot, shell, grape, and canister were 
 all poured upon the Union ships ; many 
 rams, and an iron-clad on which the Con- 
 federates depended, fire-ships, and a hail of 
 iron from the batteries, fell upon the ships 
 still steadily advancing. Admiral Farragut, 
 leading, brushed aside the swarm of small 
 boats, which set his ship on fire and hulled 
 her repeatedly. But they were unable to 
 stop the determined Salamander in his 
 course. Eight and nine-inch shells came 
 crashing through the Confederate vessels 
 with irresistible force, grape and canister 
 drove the gunners from the batteries. Some 
 Federal ships were put out of action or blown 
 up, but the majority made their way slowly — 
 fighting, sinking and destroying, up to New 
 Orleans, where, in a furious thunderstorm, 
 the roar of earthly artillery was hushed. 
 
 The town was taken by surprise, and the 
 citizens burned ships, coal and cotton indis- 
 criminately as the conquerors approached. 
 The place was in a tumult ; and General 
 Butler remarked, with that intelligent hu- 
 manity which afterwards so distinguished 
 him : " If they will not see the stars on our 
 flag they shall feel the stripes ! " How well 
 he acted up to his generous words the sequel 
 will show. He quickly earned his title ot 
 " Butler the Beast " ; for his government of 
 New Orleans under martial law was one 
 continued outrage to women and men ; and 
 although his Government would have de- 
 fended him, " they were constrained," says a 
 Northern advocate, " to send a commissioner 
 to investigate his transactions" — in sugar and 
 cotton for his own profit. He was subse- 
 
 331 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 quently superseded by General Banks. By 
 the Southern President he was declared an 
 outlaw, and he and his officers were held up 
 to public execration, to be treated as robbers 
 and common enemies of mankind. Farragut 
 sailed up the Mississippi, captured Baton 
 Rouge and bombarded Vicksburg, and then 
 came down again. 
 
 The Merrimac and The Monitor. 
 
 We must go back a little to describe other 
 events which took place simultaneously with 
 these exciting scenes in the South. In 
 January General Burnside sailed from Hamp- 
 ton roads, and later captured New Berne, 
 and many engagements took place. The 
 chief incident, and the one which created a 
 great sensation at the time, was the encounter 
 between the Virginia (xhQ Merrii7tac) and the 
 Monitor. This incident was more particu- 
 larly interesting to the English, as it was the 
 first engagement in which two iron-clad 
 vessels had met. 
 
 The Virginia^ which had been so named 
 after her raising and repairing, had been the 
 Merrimac, but she was got up and plated 
 with railroad iron. Thus defended, she 
 attacked the Cumberland and Congress 
 steam frigates, and sank them both in a 
 very short time ; she also attacked and 
 partially disabled other vessels, with but 
 trifling loss to her crew, and no injury to 
 herself. Next day, intending to clear up 
 all outstanding engagements, the iron-clad 
 began as before, but was checked by the 
 appearance of the turret-ship Monitor upon 
 the scene. The latter arrived from New 
 York, and interposed between the Virginia 
 and her intended prey, the Minnesota. _ 
 
 The Virginia, secure in her shell, did not 
 permit herself to be scared by the new 
 comer. She " went for " her intended victim , 
 while the Monitor went steaming round and 
 played upon the invulnerable sides of her 
 active foe. The Confederate ram then ran 
 away, and was followed by the Monitor. 
 This was what the Virginia had counted on, 
 and turning she attempted to "ram" her 
 antagonist. But she had a different material 
 to deal with, and no impression was made. 
 Shots were exchanged without much damage 
 being occasioned, except that the eyes of the 
 commander of the Monitor Avere injured by 
 some cement struck from the turret of his 
 ship, and the Virginia lost ten men. The 
 bow of the Virginia was injured after her 
 attempt to ram her foe, and so she sheered 
 off and ran for Norfolk, leaving the battle in 
 favour of the Monitor. The Merrimac was 
 afterwards destroyed by the Confederates, 
 and the Monitor foundered off Cape Hat- 
 teras. But the days of " wooden walls" were 
 numbered. 
 
 The Campaign in the East. 
 
 In the month of April, 1862, General 
 McClellan, who had the command of the 
 army of the Potomac, commenced a move- 
 ment upon Richmond, Va., the headquarters 
 of the Confederates. It was quite time for 
 him to do something. Nearly a year before 
 he had been appointed to the command of 
 the army of the Potomac, and by the end of 
 that year his force had been increased to 
 134,000 men with 200 guns ; and afterwards 
 this enormous and inactive force numbered 
 nearly 200,000 men fit for duty — but idle in 
 camp. McClellan had a comparatively small 
 Confederate force in his front, but at length 
 he found out that it had disappeared. His 
 inaction had created something like a panic 
 at Washington, for he had always some 
 excuse born of the seasons or the weather 
 for his inactivity. He had had unlimited 
 credit, and he disappointed public expecta- 
 tion. 
 
 When this giant army did begin to move 
 and stretch its mighty arms, the Confede- 
 rate forces disappeared, as we have said. 
 McClellan addressed his soldiers at length, 
 and excused his past inaction in the following 
 way : — 
 
 "I have held you till now inactive that 
 you might give a death-blow to the rebellion. 
 Formidable artillery you now have had 
 created, and the Potomac army is now a 
 real army, magnificent in mate'riel, admirable 
 in discipline and construction, and excel- 
 lently well armed and equipped. The mo- 
 ment for action has arrived. I know I can 
 trust in you to save the country. The period 
 for inaction is past. I will bring you now 
 face to face with the rebels, and only pray 
 that God may defend the right !" 
 
 On the 9th of March, therefore, the Federal 
 general, with his army, which had been "face 
 to face with the rebels" in their entrench- 
 ments for many months already, proceeded 
 to " save the country." There was no doubt 
 about the "reality" of the Potomac army. _ A 
 grand total of 222,000 men had been halting 
 before a Confederate force of 50,000, not so 
 " excellently armed and equipped," as the 
 sequel proved, for when the grand army 
 moved down to "verify the evacuation" of 
 the Confederate army— not to fight it, ap- 
 parently, but " to give the troops a few days' 
 experience in bivouac and on the march," 
 — when these magnificent soldiers came up 
 to the deserted Confederate lines they found 
 logs of wood cut to resemble guns had been 
 planted upon petty earthworks ; and the great 
 army of the Potomac had been kept at bay 
 for months by a few " Quakers " ! 
 
 After considerable pressure had been 
 applied by the President, McClellan's force 
 was divided, and he with about 100,000 men 
 
 332 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 proceeded to Fort Monroe. At that time 
 the Merrimac was in existence, and frightened 
 his flotilla, so the Federals had to land at 
 the head of York river. In May McClellan 
 began to make his dispositions for the cap- 
 ture of Richmond. On his right was the 
 Pamunkey, a tributary of the New York 
 river, and the Chickahominy crossed the 
 peninsula on the left. Fortress Montroe is 
 at the extremity of the promontory opposite 
 Norfolk, at the mouth of the James river. 
 
 Before McClellan there was now a Con- 
 federate force of about ii,ooo men all told ; 
 and yet with all his fine army the Federal 
 general made no attempt at an assault. He 
 did simply nothing, betraying a masterly 
 inactivity once more, until the Southern 
 troops quietly withdrew, and then a column 
 was " sent in pursuit." 
 
 On the Chickahominy. 
 
 From Williamsburg, where the Federals 
 had been checked by Magruder's small force, 
 up to Richmond is stated to be fifty miles ; 
 and on the 8th of May the Federals com- 
 menced to cover that distance. 
 
 On the 23rd McClellan's army was close 
 to Richmond, and a battle ensued at Han- 
 over Court House, while severe encounters 
 took place at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, in 
 which the Confedei'ates were prevented from 
 driving McClellan back and lost severely in 
 the attempt. The Federal chief, however, 
 did not make any attempt to clinch the blow 
 he had dealt, and the armies retained sub- 
 stantially the same positions they had for- 
 merly occupied. Again General McClellan's 
 army was doomed to inaction. It did nothing ! 
 It speaks volumes for the patience of the 
 President that he did not interfere at this 
 juncture. Within a few miles of Richmond, 
 the National army might have easily entered 
 it after the fight of Seven Pines, but they 
 preferred to remain inactive. 
 
 Robert Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson now 
 came upon the field, and General Stuart had 
 captured the Union supplies at West Point. 
 When McClellan heard that Jackson Avas 
 coming, he telegraphed for more men, though 
 his own force was more than double Jack- 
 son's. 
 
 McClellan now made his dispositions, not 
 for an advance, but for a retreat ! Lee 
 determined to turn his adversary's right, and 
 pushed Hill on the 26th of June to Mechanics- 
 ville with that intention. Hill crossed the 
 Chickahominy and attacked Porter, who 
 retired to a stronger position and resisted 
 further attack that day. Gaine's Mill was 
 reached, and there Porter was reinforced. 
 Longstreet and Hill and Jackson assailed 
 the Federal position most gallantly, and were 
 bravely met. The reserves were brought up, 
 and the Confederate attack became general ; 
 
 the slaughter was terrible, and the Southern 
 troops carried the wood. But here they 
 were encountered by fresh reinforcements, 
 and the Confederates were obliged to halt. 
 The Northerners were only just saved from a 
 general rout. 
 
 As it was, however, the retreat was con- 
 tinued, and at Malvern Hill a most desperate 
 battle was fought, the losses being frightful 
 on both sides. The Confederates had charged 
 upon the Federal guns and sabred the gun- 
 ners at Frazier's Farm, and at Malvern their 
 energy was sustained. The Federals occu- 
 pied a strong and well-fortified position. 
 Attack after attack upon the hill was 
 defeated with enormous loss to the Con- 
 federates. They could not pass the tempest 
 of fire and lead. Shot and shell mowed 
 them down in the open like grass. At night- 
 fall they rested beneath the batteries, and 
 were not molested during the storm and 
 rain that closed the day. 
 
 Next morning the defences were silent, 
 and the Confederates rather in confusion, for 
 they had suffered terribly ; but their enemy 
 had retreated before them again, — a move- 
 ment characterized by General Kearny, a 
 Northern commander, as due to "cowardice 
 or treason." Had the Confederates made a 
 determined pursuit they would have com- 
 pleted the destruction of McClellan, for his 
 condition is reported by friendly critics as 
 desperate. " Nothing but a heavy rain, 
 which prevented the enemy from bringing up 
 their artillery, saved the army from destruc- 
 tion," 
 
 Bragg in Tennessee. 
 
 While these events were taking place in 
 the North, the campaign in Tennessee had 
 been carried on in a very energetic manner. 
 After the battle at Pittsburg Landing, Halleck 
 took chief command, and Buell was moved 
 forward, threatening Chattanooga. Bragg, 
 the Confederate, however, arrived there 
 before Buell, and he started boldly north- 
 wards, encountering General Manson with 
 his advance-guard under Kirby-Smith, and 
 routing him at Richmond (Kentucky), and 
 Lexington was entered. Bragg tried to 
 persuade that state to join the South, and a 
 governor was temporarily appointed by him. 
 Buell, however, was reinforced and occupied 
 Louisville; and then Bragg retired, and battle 
 was given at Percyvilie, where he inflicted 
 great loss upon his enemy, and then con- 
 tinued his retreat, and eventually escaped 
 with an enormous quantity of supplies, but 
 with no definite success. He was directed 
 to go out again and oppose Rosencrans, who 
 had superseded Buell. 
 
 Grant had been, with Rosencrans, successful 
 in Western Tennessee, and the latternow came 
 to try conclusions with Bragg. The armies 
 
 TiZ^ 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 met at Murfreesboro', and a tremendous 
 battle ensued. After a very narrow escape 
 from defeat, the Northern" generalship gained 
 the day, and after two days' fighting Bragg 
 retreated. The losses on both sides during 
 this campaign were very great. It is said 
 that the Confederates lost 14,700 men and 
 the Federals 12,000 — in fact, about one-fourth 
 of all the forces engaged. After such con- 
 flicts the Southern armies were quite unable 
 to prosecute their design of crossing the 
 Ohio, and the idea was consequently aban- 
 doned. 
 
 These operations came to an end about 
 the end of the year. The great engagements 
 at Murfreesboro' were commenced on the 
 31st of December, 1862 ; and after a rest for 
 New Year's Day 1863, the conflict was re- 
 newed on the 2nd of January, with the general 
 results already recorded. Nearly all the 
 other affairs of that winter and the following 
 spring were merely raids undertaken by 
 cavalry ; but Grant was checked in his 
 movement against Vicksburg by Van Dorn 
 at Holly Springs. 
 
 Lee in Virginia. 
 
 We must briefly notice the march of events 
 in Virginia, where General Lee advanced 
 with the object of seizing Philadelphia. 
 Pope came to stem the Southern's advance, 
 and encountered Lee at Cedar Mountain, 
 where a very sanguinary affair took place on 
 the 9th of August, 1862, in which the Con- 
 federates under Jackson • beat the enemy 
 under Banks. By a rapid retreat and flank 
 march Jackson then got between Pope and 
 the capital, while Stuart with his cavalry was 
 again to the fore, and captured Pope's bag- 
 gage as he had McClellan's. Pope now fell 
 back upon the Potomac, and on the 29th 
 and 30th August the second battle of Bull 
 Run was fought, which ended in the defeat 
 of the Federal forces. He appears to have 
 been crippled by McClellan, who would send 
 neither forage, guns, nor ammunition. In- 
 deed, it is difficult to see why McClellan was 
 continued in his command, when he declared 
 that " Pope should be left to get out of his 
 scrape as he best could ! " 
 
 So the Confederates advanced, and while 
 Bragg, as already related, was endeavouring 
 to annex Kentucky, Lee was trying to induce 
 Maryland to join the Southern cause. But 
 in this endeavour he was unsuccessful, and 
 McClellan in the chief command was desired 
 to attack Lee and stop his march on Wash- 
 ington. Lee made for Harper's Ferry, and 
 sent a portion of his force under Jackson 
 to take the place, which he did. Meantime 
 McClellan was hammering at Lee, who 
 wished Jackson to have time to perform his 
 exploit ; and that done he rejoined Lee again 
 as soon as he could. McClellan determined 
 
 to conquer the divided force, and attacked 
 Lee in position at Antietam, where, however, 
 Jackson had united with his commander. 
 
 For ten days the Federals threw them- 
 selves upon the Confederates, but could not 
 conquer them, and the battle wavered till 
 at last McClellan relinquished his attempt, 
 having lost nearly 13,000 men. Lee's army 
 was about half the Federal strength at first, 
 and, though reinforced, it never equalled 
 McClellan's. He lost at least as many as 
 his adversary. But owing to McClellan's 
 tardiness he crossed the Potomac unmolested, 
 and Lincoln, disgusted, turned McClellan 
 from his com.mand and appointed Burnside. 
 
 General Burnside marched by the Rappa- 
 hannock, and made his way to Fredericks- 
 burg on the north bank, while Lee proceeded 
 on the south side. The opponents arrived 
 near the town, and so arranged matters that 
 whichever made the attempt to enter would 
 be immediately attacked by the other. Guns 
 were placed in commanding positions, and 
 the armies waited. Lee was strongly in- 
 trenched, with Jackson and Longstreet at his 
 flanks. 
 
 It was at the close of the year, in Decem- 
 ber, that the great battle was fought. The 
 day broke in fog, and Longstreet himself 
 came up close to the Federals, and actually 
 heard their orders given. The attack was 
 made as anticipated. On the 13th Burnside 
 made the assault, and was fearfully repulsed 
 at every point. His men were swept away 
 by companies, and when he retreated across 
 the river, on the 15th, he left nearly 14,000 
 men behind him. This was the closing 
 event of the year in the North. The 
 balance of gain rested with the Confederates. 
 
 The Struggle in 1863. 
 
 The President issued his proclamation for 
 the emancipation of the slaves on the ist 
 January, 1863, and a bill for arming negroes 
 was passed on the 2nd February. At the 
 end of January Burnside surrendered his 
 command of the Potomac army, and was 
 succeeded by Hooker, who crossed the 
 Rappahannock, and in May fought the 
 bloody battle of Chancellorsville, where he 
 defeated Lee; and here Jackson was mortally 
 wounded by his own troops. This cele- 
 brated general made a flank movement, and 
 came upon General Howard's division un- 
 perceived. The game he "flushed" in the 
 wood were the only scouts they had, and the 
 Unionists were not prepared. Jackson fell 
 upon them with two corps, and when dark- 
 ness set in he went forward to reconnoitre. 
 He was riding back with his staff, when 
 Hill's regiment fired at them, mistaking them 
 for the Federal horse. The Federals replied 
 from the lines, and charged even over Jack- 
 
 334 
 
FEDERALS AND CONFEDERATES. 
 
 son, who lay wounded. He was brought in, 
 but died on the loth. 
 
 Next day, Sunday, May 3rd, the battle was 
 resumed, when Chancellorsville was cap- 
 tured by the Confederates, and Lee pressing 
 on, forced Hooker back. The latter retreated 
 rapidly, and these affairs after the Chancel- 
 lorsville engagement culminated in disaster. 
 Up to this time success had attended nearly 
 all the Confederate operations, and the 
 attempts of the Federals had been failures. 
 Galveston had been captured by the former, 
 and the Charleston attack had been aban- 
 doned by the latter. The success of the 
 South was marked both by land and sea. 
 Vicksburg held out, and Bragg was unsub- 
 dued. It only remains for. us to give the 
 outlines of the several engagements which 
 took place during the year 1863, for the sad 
 tale of war is only a repetition. We have 
 seen in the foregoing pages how brothers in 
 arms against each other can fight, and need 
 not pursue the mournful detail of wounds 
 and death. Let us therefore summarize the 
 remaining events. 
 
 In the middle of June the Confederates 
 crossed the Potomac, led by Lee ; and 
 crossing Maryland, invaded Pennsylvania, 
 General Hooker resigned his command to 
 Meade, who advanced to meet the Confede- 
 rates at Gettysburg, on the ist, 2nd, and 
 3rd July, and defeated them. Lee retreated 
 across the river followed by Meade, who took 
 up a strong position at Gettysburg, where 
 he was attacked by Lee against the advice 
 of Longstreet. The first day's encounter was 
 in favour of the Confederates ; but owing to 
 imperfect information, Lee threw his force 
 against the concentrated Federal army, and 
 was beaten. His loss reached the fearful 
 total of 36,000 hors de combat^ while the 
 defenders lost 23,000 men. Lee's own de- 
 cision was the cause of this butcheiy, and 
 the Confederates retreated to the Rappahan- 
 nock. In his two invasions Lee is said to 
 have lost 90,000 men. 
 
 In the South, meanwhile, a circle of fire 
 had surrounded Charleston, and the combat 
 raged around the forts. General Gillmore 
 and Admiral Dahlgreen made strenuous 
 efforts to reduce the defences, but without 
 complete success. It was at this time that 
 the " Laird rams," which were launched in 
 England, gave such offence, and in conse- 
 quence of representations they were stopped at 
 Liverpool. Confederate or English blockade- 
 runners had become veiy numerous, and 
 great excitement was caused in America. 
 Several were captured. The Confederates, 
 however, built iron-clads for themselves; and 
 of these " No. 290," or as she was afterwards 
 called the Alabama, is the one most likely 
 to be remembered by English people, not 
 only in consequence of her daring career, 
 
 and her destruction in the Channel by the 
 Kearsarge^ but because of the Alabama 
 Claims paid into the American Treasury. 
 That most dishonest demand bears its own 
 condemnation ; for at this moment more than 
 one million sterling is lying in the New York 
 banks in the utter inability of the American 
 Government to find out any claimants even 
 to the fifth degree. 
 
 Grant had been busy at Vicksburg ; and 
 he had defeated Pemberton and completely 
 invested the city, while Porter came up by 
 water. The place surrendered, after enduring 
 terrible privations, on the 3rd of July — a 
 day, both in the North and South, disastrous 
 to the Confederate arms. The barbarity of 
 the Northern commanders in firing at the 
 hospitals in Vicksburg has been loudly con- 
 demned. Indecisive operations were carried 
 on in Tennessee, where the Confederate 
 commander afterwards surrendered to Burn- 
 side ; though this was ' atoned for by the 
 victory of Bragg over Rosencrans at Chicka- 
 manga, and the Federals found themselves 
 in a very unpleasant position. 
 
 A battle, lasting two days, was fought at 
 Look-out Mountain by Grant against Bragg 
 in November 1863. But the Federals could 
 make no head against General Hardee, who 
 repulsed them with terrific slaughter, not- 
 withstanding Sherman's gallantry. But next 
 day Grant broke the line, with his masses of 
 troops two miles in length, and Bragg then 
 retreated. Hardee superseded him in his 
 command. General Steele's expedition 
 against Little Rock was the only other event 
 we can notice here. 
 
 The Campaigns of 1864. 
 
 Until April of this year both parties re- 
 mained inactive in the field ; but in April 
 the Confederates seized Fort Pillow, and 
 Plymouth, and in May General Grant was 
 nominated commander-in-chief of the Federal 
 armies, and on the 3rcl of that month he moved 
 upon Richmond, Va. Lee came forth to 
 meet him, and after two days' fighting the 
 result was a drawn battle. In the Battles 
 of the Wilderness, at North Anna, and Cold 
 Harbour, several very sanguinary engage- 
 ments were fought for six days, the losses 
 being enormous. Grant decided to " fight it 
 out on this line if it takes all summer." The 
 losses for several days were counted at 
 10,000 on each side per diem. 
 
 On the 1st June an attempt was made, 
 but Lee repulsed his foes at Cold Harbour. 
 Grant here lost 7000 men in one half-hour 
 of assault, and though orders were issued to 
 resume the attack the soldiers declined to 
 stir. And now Grant made a movement. 
 He quitted the Chickahominy base of opera- 
 tions, crossed the James river, and "went 
 for" Petersburg. Here his first attack was 
 
 335 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 defeated, and he concluded to besiege the 
 place. His losses during the five weeks had 
 been awful. Fifty-four thousand men were 
 killed and wounded, besides his generals' 
 losses ; while Lee had left more than 30,000 
 dead and wounded on the fields of battle. 
 
 When Grant advanced upon Richmond, 
 General Sherman took the Mississippi com- 
 mand with about 100,000 men, while Johnston, 
 his opponent, had scarcely more than half 
 that number. Sherman forced his adversary 
 back upon Atlanta, where Hood took com- 
 mand of the Confederates, but, after a great 
 deal of fighting, was compelled to evacuate 
 the city. Then came the celebrated " march 
 through Georgia" (an episode of the war 
 celebrated in prose and verse) by Sherman, 
 who occupied Savannah, and the Confede- 
 rates were driven from Nashville soon after- 
 wards by Thomas, and the year ended 
 disastrously for the Southern arms. 
 
 The End of the Civil War. 
 
 When 1865 came into the world it was 
 perceived that the South was in a bad way. 
 It had made a mighty effort ; but not- 
 withstanding devotion and bravery, numbers 
 were telling against it. The North was 
 drawing a cordon of men around the South, 
 and slaying the few thousands who remained 
 as they appeared. Sherman began his 
 homeward march on the ist February, and 
 notwithstanding the efforts of his opponents 
 he made his way through all obstacles, and 
 passing through Columbia, defeated the Con- 
 federates in one or two battles, and entered 
 Goldsboro'. General Hardee, outflanked, 
 had surrendered Charleston to the Federals 
 when Columbia fell, and Johnston was driven 
 back. Mobile was occupied, and in Ala- 
 bama the Confederates surrendered. Rich- 
 mond had already surrendered to Grant, and 
 on the 9th April the terms had been agreed 
 upon at Appomattox Court House. Thus in 
 every direction the Federal arms were vic- 
 torious and the Confederacy was conquered. 
 Tlie last battle was on the 13th of May, in 
 
 Texas ; and the Confederate army across the 
 Mississippi surrendered on May 26th. 
 
 Measures were immediately taken to dis- 
 band the Union troops, who, on the ist 
 January, 1865, had amounted to more than a 
 million of men. The entire force numbered 
 2,688,523 men ; and although all these were 
 not employed, we may assume that nearly 
 two millions of Federal troops were engaged 
 in the war, and that certainly 300,000 died 
 on the field, or from wounds or sickness. 
 The Southern losses must have been nearly 
 as many. 
 
 On the assassination of Lincoln, and the 
 capture of the assassin, we need not dwell 
 here. The sad event is referred to be- 
 cause it was stated in proclamation that 
 Davis had instigated the crime. President 
 Lincoln was shot in the theatre on the 14th 
 April, 1865; and on the 2nd May Davis was 
 denounced, a reward being offered for his 
 capture. Of course the accusation was totally 
 unfounded ; but on the loth May Jefferson 
 Davis was captured while attempting to escape, 
 at Irwinville, Ga. He was imprisoned in 
 Fort Monroe, and subsequently brought to 
 trial and imprisoned for three years. 
 
 And so the War of Secession ended by 
 the subjection of the armies of the slave 
 states, which were thenceforward free. The 
 United States are now a Nation, having learnt 
 a bitter lesson. In May, 1865, provisional 
 governors were appointed by Johnson, the 
 President, and slavery was abolished, and 
 reconstruction was entered upon. The 
 enormous national debt is being rapidly 
 swept away, and the United States are now 
 a really united Republic. A great deal of 
 feeling no doubt existed for some time after 
 the war had ceased ; but the Americans 
 must, as a people, regard the result with 
 satisfaction. A nation of free men, it would 
 have been a blot upon their humanity to 
 tolerate slavery ; and they must all rejoice 
 that the blot has been removed, even though 
 it has been unhappily cut out with the 
 sword, and steeped in the blood of brothers 
 and friends. 
 
 336 
 
/' 
 
 
 >- 1 . 
 
 f '' _fr- 
 
 I" 
 
 I 
 'I ' 
 
 ;'tji"- <• * "- ', ^ , a-;-?' - j^:"^- .-^i' 'iC-:--' ^ 
 
 
 'Ihe Bristol Riots (J'aje 351 ) 
 
 THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 THE STORY OF A GREAT NATIONAL VICTORY. 
 
 " It will soon again be necessary to reform, that we may preserve, to save the fundamental principles of the 
 Constitution by aJlerations in the subordinate parts. It will then be possible, as it was possible two hundred years ago, 
 to protect vested rights, to secure every useful institution, every institution endeared by antiquity and noble associations, 
 
 and at the same time to introduce into the system improvements harmonizing with the original plan." — Lord Macazday 
 
 in 1828. 
 
 Popular Expression of National Feeling — John Gilpin and his Runaway Horse "Reform" — Political Celebrities of 1831— 
 Early Reform of the Representation — The Long Parliament — Cromwell — Clarendon's Opinion — Motion for Reform in 
 1745 — The Elder Pitt on Reform — Rotten Boroughs and Pocket Boroughs ; Seats held as Family Property — The 
 Younger Pitt ; his Efforts for Reform— Opposition of Burke and Others — The Friends of the People and Charles Grey 
 — Their Petition in 1793 — Hard Facts temperately put — The French Revolution and its Effects — Long Delayof Reform 
 Measures— After the War — Reform agitation ; its Supporters and Opponents — Government Coercion — The Peterloo 
 Massacre — Lord John Russell's Reform Proposition in 1819 — Lord Castlereagh— George Canning — The Wellington 
 Administration ; Catholic Emancipation ; Changes — Sir Robert Peel and his Influence— A New Reign and a New 
 Ministry ; New Prospects of Reform — Lord John Russell introduces the Bill ; its Provisions, Disfranchisement, 
 Enfranchisement, and Redistribution — Various Speeches — Second Reading and Explanations- Dissolution and General 
 Election — Reintroduction of the Reform Bill — Battle Royal — The Bill passes the Commons — Debate in the Lords^ 
 The Bill rejected— General Excitement — Birmingham Meeting — Bristol Riots — The Bill again in the Commons — 
 Battle in the Lords — Resignation of the Ministry — Return of Lord Grey — -The Bill passed — Conclusion. 
 
 Popular Expression of National 
 Feeling. 
 10 WARDS the end of 1831, when 
 popular feeling throughout Eng- 
 land had risen to a pitch of 
 excitement unknown for many 
 years, and all minds seemed engrossed 
 with one burning question, there appeared 
 
 in the windows of the print-shops a some- 
 what remarkable political caricature. It 
 was from the facile hand of the elder Doyle, 
 the H. B., whose sketches were the pre- 
 decessors of the cartoons of Punch, and 
 occasioned much laughter from the humour 
 and accuracy with which it portrayed the 
 situation of the moment. It was entitled 
 
 337 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 "John Gilpin," and represents in the cha- 
 racter of that well-known citizen of credit 
 and renown, his most gracious Majesty- 
 King William the Fourth. That somewhat 
 unskilful rider is mounted on the horse 
 "Reform," an animal not originally belong- 
 ing to him, and with whose habits and 
 temper he is quite unacquainted. In a rash 
 moment he has determined to make this 
 fiery steed his hobby; and in spite of all 
 his cries of "fair, and softly," and defying 
 curb and rein, the trot at which the good 
 horse started has become a gallop ; and 
 " Reform " has fairly taken the bit between 
 its teeth and run away with its rider. John 
 Bull, the keeper of the turnpike, has thrown 
 the gate wide open for the headlong career 
 of the horse "Reform," and seems mightily 
 amused at the predicament of the rider, for 
 whom he seems to anticipate no worse 
 disaster than a thorough shaking and a 
 fright, which will teach him caution for the 
 future. That careful soul. Mistress Gilpin, 
 with a face unaccountably like that of his 
 grace the Duke of Wellington, surrounded 
 by a party of friends, in whom the political 
 student will recognise the leading Tories of 
 the day, is peering out anxiously from the 
 window of the Bell Inn, where she expects 
 her lord and master to join her. But the 
 royal John Gilpin involuntarily pursues his 
 wild career towards the residence of the 
 owner of "Reform," an aristocratic person- 
 age of great experience, named Charles, 
 second Earl Grey, to whom he will presently 
 be able to say with undoubted truth and 
 accuracy, " I came, because your horse 
 would come." The historical bottles that 
 dangle at his waist are seen, by the in- 
 scriptions thereon, to be filled respectively 
 with "Rotunda Pop" — the gas-charged 
 beverage dispensed most liberally by pur- 
 veyors at the Rotunda in the Blackfriars 
 Road ; and with Birmingham froth, of 
 which a certain orator, Hunt, may be cited 
 as the most popular manufacturer at a 
 noted shop known as the Birmingham 
 Political Union. Four persons, two on 
 horseback and two on foot, have joined in 
 the chase, and are riding merrily at John's 
 heels. They are among those who, in the 
 original ballad, expressed their approval of 
 the whole proceeding by crying out " Well 
 done!" as loud as they could bawl. One 
 of them has the long face and aquiline nose 
 of Sir Francis Burdett; while in another, 
 with his portly form and strong, square face, 
 we recognise in a moment the redoubtable 
 liberator, the great Daniel O'Connell him- 
 self; while the remaining two are evidently 
 Mr. Hume and Sir John Cam Hobhouse. 
 
 To make the picture complete, there are 
 the geese scattered in terror by John Gilpin 
 when he threw the slush about. These 
 
 respectable birds are hissing with out- 
 stretched necks, in a paroxysm of mingled 
 anger and consternation, as the galloping, 
 reckless "Reform" threatens them with 
 sudden extinction ; but — oh ! wicked wag of 
 a caricaturist, oh ! derider of hereditary 
 dignities, and vilifier of the powers that be 
 — the head of each terrified goose is sur- 
 mounted by a coronet, and H. B. has. 
 evidently intended a reference to the alarm 
 felt by the House of Peers. Above the- 
 turnpike gate sits a gloomy bird immove- 
 able as Edgar Poe's raven. The raven him- 
 self is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance, 
 not of Duncan, but of democracy, under the 
 battlements of the British constitution; and 
 indeed, there was at that period a certain 
 learned and literary Croker, not uncon- 
 nected with the Admiralty, who lifted up 
 his parable against change and progress in 
 a monotonously lugubrious manner. And 
 to complete the shockingly profane allegory 
 — in the corner lies overthrown and discon- 
 solate an old orange woman, whose stall 
 has suffered dire wreck in the headlong- 
 career of "Reform," who must have " can- 
 noned " against her; and the venerable 
 dame has the features of that Tory of Tories, 
 the man of many doubts, certainly neither 
 "swift of despatch " nor "easy of access," 
 the Ex-Chancellor Eldon. 
 
 The caricature completely hit the taste of 
 the town, and was appreciated accordingly. 
 It exactly represented the attitude taken up 
 by the various parties with regard to Reform 
 — the speed at which one party was hurrying- 
 on, voluntarily or involuntarily, the appre- 
 hensions of another set of legislators, the 
 ignominious overturn of a third. To under- 
 stand the position of affairs at the crisis 
 that preceded the passing of the Reform 
 Bill of 1832, and to appreciate the manner 
 in which that remarkable measure, after a 
 voyage unparalleled in its dangers and 
 vicissitudes, at last arrived safely in the 
 harbour of royal appro uation, we must 
 glance at the earlier stages of the question 
 as they had presented themselves to former 
 Parliaments. 
 
 Early Reform of the Representa- 
 tion ; The Long Parliament ; Crom- 
 well. 
 
 It was a remark of the great Napoleon 
 that hunger was to be found at the bottom 
 of the majority of political revolutions ; and, 
 as in most of the observations of that selfish 
 genius, there is much truth in the saying — 
 which may, moreover, be applied to many 
 bloodless revolutions and political changes. 
 The reason is not far to seek. When men 
 are tolerably prosperous, their minds are 
 occupied with improving or enjoying that 
 pro'sperity. It is in times of dearth, dis- 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 tress, and pressure, on the other hand, that 
 they naturally turn to discuss the causes of 
 the great social differences and apparent 
 anomalies, and dissatisfaction with the 
 existing state of things induces them to 
 agitate for an alteration and a readjustment 
 of the positions of the various classes, with 
 the very natural object of bettering their 
 own condition and obtaining for themselves 
 a fairer share of the necessaries, and even 
 the comforts of life. Again, when a great 
 change has come, or a great event has 
 occurred to shake the foundations of 
 authority, the opportunity has been taken 
 for altering the details of the constitution in 
 the direction of the admission of a greater 
 number of persons to power. For a period 
 of change or of danger is naturally one in 
 which it becomes desirable to secure the 
 goodwill of the bulk of the community, 
 which is best done by the offer of political 
 influence. 
 
 Accordingly, long before the great con- 
 test that was fought out in the first year of 
 the reign of William IV., the question of 
 the better representation of the English 
 people in Parliament by an adjustment and 
 redistribution of seats, which should bring 
 about an equitable proportion between the 
 number of members accorded to any part 
 of the country and the number of the con- 
 stituents and the magnitude of the interests 
 they represented, had seriously engaged 
 the attention of the government. Thus we 
 find that more than two centuries ago the 
 Long Parliament, that remarkable assembly 
 destined to endure such strange vicissitudes 
 of fortune, and to touch the heights and 
 depths of honour and disgrace, had its 
 attention called to the anomalies that even 
 then existed in the representation of the 
 nation in the House of Commons, and made 
 some practical changes in consequence of 
 a measure that may be looked upon as the 
 very first of Reform Bills — giving represen- 
 tatives to Halifax, Manchester, and Leeds, 
 that were becoming important, and taking 
 away the members from places which had 
 fallen into decay in the course of time — 
 while the number of members for London 
 and the counties was increased, and the 
 right of franchise was bestowed upon all 
 owners of land. We are told by Clarendon, 
 too, how Cromwell, when he summoned the 
 Protectorate Parliament, "though he did not 
 observe the old course in sending writs out 
 to all the little boroughs throughout England 
 which used to send burgesses (in which 
 there is so great an inequality that some 
 single counties send more members to 
 Parliament than six other counties do), he 
 seemed to take a more equal way, by ap- 
 pointing more knights for every shire to be 
 chosen, and fewer burgesses, whereby the 
 
 number was much lessened; and yet, the 
 people being left to their own election, it was 
 not thought an ill temperament, and was 
 then generally looked upon as an alteration 
 fit to be more warrantably made, and in a 
 better time." Here we have a distinct and 
 real reform; in speaking of which, Mr. 
 Molesworth, in his exhaustive "History of 
 the Reform Bill of 1832," refers us to White- 
 lock's Diary, from which he extracts the 
 words: "Wednesday, Dec. 6: Debates about 
 disfranchisement of certain boroughs, and 
 transfer of their franchise to other places," 
 and the approving tone of Clarendon's 
 remarks seems to indicate that this "altera- 
 tion fit to be made" was considered the 
 natural and national means of curing an 
 evil that had grown up in the course of time 
 in the increment of some places and the 
 decay of others. 
 
 The projects of Cromwell were not likely 
 to be carried out by the sucessors to his 
 power, who were not ashamed to tumble 
 his corpse out of its grave to satiate their 
 sorry vengeance. Nor was the earlier Hano- 
 verian period, when bribery and corruption 
 were reduced to a science, likely to be pro- 
 pitious to measures of reform. It was not 
 until 1745 that we find the subject revived 
 in the House of Commons. In that year. 
 Sir Francis Dashwood, in proposing an 
 amendment to the Address on the calling 
 together of Parliament, proposed a measure 
 of Reform as a means of securing the affec- 
 tions of the people to the throne. " It 
 should be our speedy care to frame such 
 bills as may effectually secure to His 
 Majesty's subjects their undoubted right 
 to be freely and fairly represented in Par- 
 liament, frequently chosen, and exempted 
 from undue influence of any kind," said 
 Sir Francis, who was indeed a sanguine 
 man if he hoped that any such measure 
 could be carried out in such an age. 
 
 His motion, indeed, was negatived with- 
 out a division, being strenuously opposed 
 by the elder Pitt, who declared the time — 
 when rebellion was abroad in the land— to 
 be utterly unfitted for the consideration of 
 such questions. " Shall we employ our- 
 selves," he inquired, " in framing bills to 
 guard our liberties from corruption when we 
 are in danger of losing them and everything 
 that is dear to us by the force of arms ? 
 Would not this be like a man's amusing 
 himself ■^ith making regulations to prevent 
 his serN^ants from cheating him at the very 
 time that thieves were breaking into his 
 house ? ' ' Certainly the year of the '45 
 was an unpropitious time for measures of 
 home policy ; and that the great commoner 
 was not unaware of the anomalies in the 
 Parliamentary system which left many 
 thousands of people unrepresented, while 
 
 339 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 boroughs were maintained that represented 
 no one but the owners, is shown by the 
 tenor of his speech on the American Stamp 
 Act, in which, speaking of these boroughs, 
 he used the remarkable words: "This is 
 what is called the rotten part of the Con- 
 stitution. It cannot continue a century. 
 If it does not drop, it must be amputated." 
 The "great commoner" was right. The 
 decayed limb of the constitution was 
 amputated just sixty-six years after he 
 uttered the prediction. 
 
 Rotten Boroughs and Pocket 
 Boroughs; Seats Held as Family 
 Property. 
 
 There was good and sufficient ground 
 for Pitt's denunciation of the " rotten 
 part of the Constitution," and he himself 
 had only to cite his own method of entrance 
 into Parliament as an instance that the 
 House of Commons was not an assembly 
 that adequately represented the people of 
 England. His grandfather. Governor Pitt, 
 of Madras, had made a large fortune in 
 India at a time when the Pagoda tree 
 yielded its golden fruit abundantly to any 
 official of the East India Company who 
 would be at the trouble to shake it. Among 
 the valuable results of his Indian career 
 was the celebrated gem known as the Pitt 
 diamond, and purchased by the Regent of 
 France. On his return to Europe, we 
 are told, he "bought estates and rotten 
 boroughs ; and two of these peculiar pieces 
 of property, in the shape of the seats for Old 
 .Sarum and Oakhampton, descended in due 
 time to his eldest grandson, Thomas, the 
 ■elder brother of William Pitt. At the 
 general election of 1734, Thomas Pitt being 
 returned both for Oakhampton and Old 
 Sarum, transferred the seat for the latter 
 "borough to his younger brother William ; 
 and as the nominee to a "family seat" 
 did Pitt first make his appearance on the 
 benches at Westminster. In the same 
 way Burke entered Parliament as the 
 nominee of Lord Rockingham for one of 
 his lordship's seats ; and Pitt himself, 
 with all his popularity with the nation, was 
 unable to establish a permanent ministry, 
 until, by his coalition with the Duke of 
 Newcastle, his former antagonist, he had 
 brought to his side the tremendous borough 
 influence the Duke had been enabled to 
 array against him. 
 
 Among the accusations brought against 
 the unpopular Anglo-Indians, or "nabobs" 
 of the last century, not the least significant 
 arose from the propensity to employ part of 
 their quickly-acquired wealth in the pur- 
 chase of Parliamentary as well as of landed 
 property. " They raised the price of every- 
 thing in their neighbourhoods, from fresh 
 
 340 
 
 eggs to rotten boroughs." In some of the 
 places which returned a member, or even 
 two members, to Parliament, there were 
 only a few persons who had the suffrage, 
 and these were entirely in the hands of the 
 great landed proprietors, giving their votes 
 as unhesitatingly as they paid their rent. 
 In others, there were absolutely no voters 
 at all. In Cornwall, especially, there were a 
 number of wretched boroughs, such as St. 
 Michael's and Grampound, in which purity 
 of election was not even affected. In others, 
 such as Sutton, in Surrey, there was abso- 
 lutely no constituency left. The consequence 
 of this was that the majority of the members 
 of the House of Commons were returned by 
 an absurdly small number of electors ; while 
 great and populous towns, contributing in a 
 large measure to the wealth and prosperity 
 of the nation by their manufacture, trade, 
 and commerce, were shut out altogether 
 from all share in the representation. 
 
 The second William Pitt, in the earlier 
 part of his career, made several efforts to 
 procure a certain measure of Parliamentary 
 reform. In 1782 he moved for a select 
 committee ; and in a full house the motion 
 was lost by only twenty votes. In the next 
 year he made an attempt to get a bill 
 passed for disfranchising boroughs con- 
 victed of notorious bribery; and in 1785 
 brought forward a scheme for purchasing 
 from a certain number of small boroughs 
 (or rather from their proprietors) their right 
 of returning- members, and bestowing the 
 seats thus bought upon important towns. 
 This scheme failed ; and soon afterwards 
 the excesses of the French Revolution 
 frightened the Parliamentary leaders from 
 any renewal of the attempt. Burke, in par- 
 ticular, once the ardent friend of "taxation 
 and representation," was uncompromising 
 in his opposition to any change in the 
 constitution ; and strenuous and vehement 
 in all his political views and actions, went 
 far beyond the Tories themselves in de- 
 nouncing all innovation as fraught with 
 danger to the very existence of the British 
 monarchy. 
 
 The Friends of the People, and 
 Charles Grey; their Petition. 
 
 While the French Revolution, with its 
 tremendous changes, its crimes, and its 
 audacity, inspired the ruling classes with 
 hatred and fear, it produced a very different 
 effect upon the community at large, among 
 whom it excited hope of gain to be achieved, 
 and great alterations to be won by persist- 
 ency, firmness, and union. Accordingly 
 there was formed the powerful association 
 that took the name of the "Friends of the 
 People," and had for its great object the 
 achievement of Parliamentaiy Reform ; and 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 the society was fortunate in numbering 
 among- its friends a statesman, who, at the 
 early age of twenty-three years, had been 
 looked upon as one of the leaders of the 
 Whig or Liberal party, and had been as- 
 sociated with such giants as Fox and Burke, 
 and the brilliant Sheridan, and the astute 
 Windham in managing the impeachment 
 of Warren Hastings. This was Mr., after- 
 wards Earl Grey, who continued, from the 
 beginning of his long political career to its 
 glorious close, to make Parliamentary Re- 
 form one of the main objects of his per- 
 severing and well-considered exertions. 
 
 In 1793 Mr. Grey presented to the House 
 of Commons a petition " signed only by the 
 members of the society of the Friends of 
 the People, associated for the purpose of 
 obtaining a Parliamentary Reform." In this 
 document the state of the representation, 
 and the grievances arising therefrorn, are 
 very fully and temperately set forth. 
 "Though the terms in which your peti- 
 tioners state their grievance may be looked 
 upon as strong," says the document, "yet 
 your honourable House is entreated to be- 
 lieve that no expression is made use of for 
 purpose of offence," — and, indeed, the tone 
 of the whole is earnest, quiet, and manly. 
 
 The chief points of which the petitioners 
 complain are these : — That the number of 
 representatives assigned to different coun- 
 ties was grossly disproportionate to their 
 comparative extent, population, and trade ; 
 that the elective franchise was distributed 
 in such a partial manner, and in many in- 
 stances the electors were so few, that the 
 majority of the House was absolutely chosen 
 by fewer than fifteen thousand electors, the 
 greater number of the people being ex- 
 cluded from the right of voting ; and that 
 this right, where possessed, was regulated 
 by no uniform or rational principle. 
 
 The petition then called attention, in 
 verification of its complaints, to the fact 
 that Rutland and Yorlcshire, the smallest 
 and the largest county in England, had the 
 same amount of representation, and that 
 Cornwall had so many borough members 
 as to outnumber Yorkshire, Rutland, and 
 Middlesex together in the representation ; 
 while Cornwall and Wiltshire sent more 
 borough members to Parliament than York- 
 shire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Middle- 
 sex, Worcestershire, and Somersetshire 
 taken together. To substantiate the case 
 concerning the restricted number of elec- 
 tors, it was shown in thirty-five boroughs the 
 elections were a mere matter of form, and 
 that for these thirty-five boroughs, where 
 the right of free voting was practically non- 
 existent, seventy members were returned ; 
 that ninety members were returned, in ad- 
 dition, by forty-six places having fewer 
 
 than fifty voters in each ; thirty-seven more 
 members by nineteen places with fewer than 
 a hundred voters each ; fifty-two members 
 by places with fewer than two hundred 
 voters each ; and twenty more members by 
 counties in Scotland with fewer than a hun- 
 dred electors ; and ten more for counties 
 with fewer than two hundred and fifty elec- 
 tors in each ; fifteen Scottish districts of 
 boroughs, in addition, none of them con- 
 taining a hundred and twenty-five voters, 
 sent a member each to Parliament ; and 
 after this fashion two hundred and ninety- 
 four members, forming a majority of the 
 entire House of Commons, as it was then 
 constituted, were chosen, and "enabled to 
 decide all questions in the name of the 
 whole people of England and Scotland." 
 Many other grievances were pointed out ; 
 such, for instance, as the anomaly that 
 prevented Protestant Dissenters from voting 
 (by the action of the Test Act), while they 
 could still have seats in Parliament, and 
 thus might sit in the House of Commons 
 as representatives of the very places where 
 they were not eligible as electors. 
 
 The case put forward in the petition was 
 an exceedingly strong one, and the peti- 
 tioners offered to prove every part of it. 
 But by this time Mr. Pitt had taken up a 
 position hostile to reform ; and after a long 
 discussion the question was put aside, 
 though supported by Fox, Sheridan, Francis, 
 and other influential men ; nor, though Mr. 
 Grey brought it forward again in 1795 and 
 1797, was he enabled to make way with it. 
 The time of the great war with France was 
 no convenient season for discussing ques- 
 tions of reform. 
 
 After the War ; Reform Agitation ; 
 ITS Supporters and Opponents, 
 
 In 1815, after Waterloo, the great struggle 
 was ended, and with the return of peace 
 came events that speedily turned men's 
 minds once more in the direction of the 
 reform of the representation. The landed 
 proprietors had profited by the war, through 
 the monopoly it put into their hands for the 
 supply of agricultural produce. Rents had 
 consequently risen to the great advantage 
 of the landlords, while the farmers found 
 high prices exceedingly satisfactory to 
 themselves. When the peace put an end 
 to all this, an attempt was made to con- 
 tinue the period of advantage to the landed 
 interest by the system of Protection to the 
 agricultural interest by a high duty on 
 foreign corn, thus favouring the landed 
 interest at the expense of the community 
 generally. 
 
 This was sufficient to revive the Reform 
 question. The manufacturing prosperity of 
 Birmingham and various other towns had 
 
 341 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 been injured by the cessation of the demand 
 for different articles of manufacture. Bread 
 was dear, and work scarce, and the artisans 
 and miners were intelligent enough to 
 see where they were at a disadvantage. 
 Various Reform associations came into 
 being. The miners of Bilston threatened 
 to come up to London and lay their case 
 before the Prince Regent, each man sleep- 
 ing in his blanket as they bivouacked by 
 the way — whence they obtained the name 
 of Blanketeers. Popular agitators were not 
 wanting to fan the flame of popular discon- 
 tent ; and a large section of the press lent 
 its aid by putting forward, not always 
 temperately, but generally with force and 
 eloquence, the grievances of partial repre- 
 sentation and non- 
 representation, and 
 insisting on the neces- 
 sity of a speedy and 
 complete remedy. 
 
 The Government 
 adopted a policy of 
 coercion and repres- 
 sion — sharp ening 
 the sword of the law 
 against libellers and 
 .malcontents gener-ally, 
 and seeking to inter- 
 fere with the rights of 
 public meeting and 
 
 ■ discussion. One pub- 
 lic agitator, known as 
 "Orator Hunt," was 
 
 ■ especially obnoxious to 
 -Tthem ; and it was in ar- 
 resting Hunt at a great 
 Reform meeting held 
 in St. Peter's Field, 
 Manchester, that was 
 perpetrated the cruel 
 and stupid blunder 
 known as the Peterloo 
 Massacre. A body of 
 yeomanry displayed their zeal in the cause 
 ►of order by charging repeatedly upon an un- 
 armed mob of men, women, and children, 
 
 "^killing some, and wounding between three 
 -and four hundred. Inquiry into this affair, 
 indignantly demanded by a large number, 
 -was refused by the Government, who en- 
 '..dorsed the action of the stupid yokels with 
 .emphatic approval. A bitter feeling was 
 thus engendered, that widened the breach 
 between the agricultural and manufacturing 
 classes, and the determination to have Re- 
 form increased throughout the country. 
 
 There seemed no great hope of change for 
 the better so long as George TV. remained 
 on the throne. That monarch had durmg 
 his earlier days leaned towards the Whigs, 
 from among whom he chose his friends. 
 But from the day when he became Regent 
 
 Duke of Wellington, 
 
 he had, with indecent haste, cut himself 
 adrift from his former associates, and had 
 maintained in office the Tories he found 
 there. It was thus under very depressing 
 circumstances that Lord John Russell, in 
 i8ig, introduced into the House of Commons 
 the question fof Reform. Lord Castlereagh 
 got rid of the question for a time by a 
 half-promise that the Government would 
 one day take up the matter, and thus 
 for some years Reform was successfully 
 shelved. 
 
 George Canning, who on many questions 
 was far in advance of his colleagues, 
 especially ridiculed the fears loudly ex- 
 pressed by the Tory majority of that day, 
 that every change must necessarily weaken, 
 if not destroy, the 
 foundations of the 
 monarchy. He once 
 happily compared the 
 British constitution to 
 Mother Hubbard's 
 dog, who, after being 
 considered dead, was 
 found laughing when 
 his mistress came back 
 with his coffin from the 
 undertaker's. But he 
 had a strong prejudice 
 against Reform ; and 
 indeed, his tenure of 
 power, too quickly 
 closedby his lamented 
 death, wastoo shortfor 
 any attempt in that di- 
 rection . For a time his 
 colleagues maintained 
 themselves in power 
 under Lord Goderich, 
 to be then succeeded 
 by a far stronger ad- 
 ministration — that of 
 the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, and his friend 
 and adviser, Sir Robert Peel, both of 
 them uncompromising opponents of Re- 
 form. 
 
 The Wellington Administration; 
 Catholic Emancipation; Changes. 
 
 It may be doubted whether his political 
 career, on the whole, increased the great 
 Duke's reputation; unmatched in the field, 
 he was frequently at a disadvantage in the 
 cabinet. His military career had given 
 something of acerbity to a character 
 imperious by nature. The Duke was, by 
 habit and temperament, as he was by 
 birth, an aristocrat, and loved to concen- 
 trate all power and influence in the hands 
 of the higher class. He had snubbed 
 
 342 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 Canning in a way equally ungracious and 
 unfair, refusing to co-operate with him, and 
 contributing, it is said, not a little to the 
 embarrassments and cares that are sup- 
 posed to have shortened that statesman's 
 life. After declaring that he should be mad 
 to think of being Prime Minister, he within 
 ;a short period accepted that office at the 
 request of the King, and expected to find 
 subordinates rather than colleagues in the 
 ■other members of the cabinet, from whom 
 he expected the deference and obedience 
 which he had been accustomed to receive 
 from his generals in the old Peninsular days. 
 Thus he promptly got rid of Mr. Huskisson, 
 .a man of great ability and reputation, whom 
 .he had taken over from the Canning ad- 
 ministration, because 
 Huskisson chose to 
 vote independently, in 
 accordance with a 
 pledge previouslygiven 
 ■on the question of the 
 •disposal of the seats 
 taken from East Ret- 
 ford, disfranchised for 
 flagrant corruption. 
 
 He astonished the 
 nation and alienated 
 some of the high Tory 
 party soon afterwards 
 by his conduct on the 
 great question of the 
 admission of the Ro- 
 man Catholics to Par- 
 liament. Daniel 
 O'Connell had made 
 ''■' Catholic emancipa- 
 tion ' ' the lever with 
 which he proposed to 
 move the Parliamen- 
 tary world ; and had 
 Tnade use of his won- 
 derful abilities as an 
 agitator with such 
 «ffect, that it became manifest to the Duke 
 that concession on this subject or rebellion 
 in Ireland were the alternatives he had to 
 face. The good sense of the Duke made 
 liim choose what he considered the lesser 
 evil ; and he determined to carry a measure 
 for Catholic emancipation, winning a re- 
 luctant consent from the King, who, it is 
 said, never entirely forgave him for giving 
 way to popular feeling in this matter. 
 Among those of the Duke's side who were 
 scandalised in this matter was Sir Charles 
 Wetherell, the Attorney-General, who re- 
 fused to draw the Bill for the Catholic 
 •emancipation, and was accordingly dis- 
 missed from his office. Indeed, the violence 
 of his language on the occasion, when he 
 •declared publicly, " he would not defile 
 pen or waste paper by such an act of folly, 
 
 Lord Brougham, 
 
 and so forfeit his character for sense and 
 honesty," precluded his being retained as 
 Attorney-General in the Wellington cabinet. 
 Great was the indignation of the Tories, 
 and of the greater number of the clerical 
 supporters of the Duke, churchmen and 
 dissenters alike, at this act of Catholic 
 emancipation. Peel thought it right to 
 resign his seat for Oxford ; and on pre- 
 senting himself for re-election was beaten 
 by a true-blue Tory and honest country 
 gentleman, Sir Robert Inglis, to whom he 
 was, to revive Canning's famous compari- 
 son, " like London to Paddington, or Pitt to 
 Addington." 
 
 A New Reign and a New Ministry; 
 New Prospect of 
 Reform. 
 
 Catholic emancipa- 
 tion was carried in 
 1829. It had cost the 
 ministry many sup- 
 porters amongst the 
 Tories, and had but 
 half conciliated the 
 Whigs, who wanted 
 not only concessions, 
 but participation in 
 office. There was also 
 great distress in the 
 country, great dearth 
 of food, and want of 
 employment. At the 
 beginning of 1830, the 
 King's speech made 
 no allusion, or only in 
 a cursory manner, to 
 theprevailingdistress; I 
 and again the question 
 of Reform came to the 
 front. Lord John Rus- 
 sell and the Marquis 
 of Blandford brought 
 forward motions on the 
 subject. It was evidently one of those 
 coming events that cast their shadows 
 before. There was no hope, however, that 
 the King, who had consented to Catholic 
 emancipation with extreme reluctance, 1 
 would consent to any further measure likely 
 to decrease his power. But in June of that ' 
 same year he died, somewhat suddenly, ; 
 and his next surviving brother, the Duke ' 
 of Clarence, became King William the 
 Fourth. 
 
 The new King had not the dislike to 
 the Whigs and their measures that had 
 characterised George IV., nor was he so , 
 entirely opposed to change. A general 
 election was approaching, and various signs 
 showed that Reform would be a leading 
 topic at the hustings. The July revolution 
 in France, resulting in the overthrow of the 
 
 343 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 foolish and reactionary Charles X., also ex- 
 cited the public mind. As for the Duke, be 
 declared his sentiments with perfect frank- 
 ness. The trumpet gave no uncertain sound, 
 andmenprepared them for the battle accord- 
 ingly. Earl Grey had made some remarks 
 on the necessity of Reform. The Duke de- 
 clared that he saw no necessity for any 
 measure of the kind ; that the country had 
 never been better governed than it was 
 then ; and — what was undeniable — that the 
 representation of the people contained a 
 large body of the property of the country, 
 in which the landed interests had a prepon- 
 derating influence. " Under these circum- 
 stances," said the sturdy Duke, " I am not 
 prepared to bring forward any measure of 
 the description alluded to by the noble lord. 
 I am not only not prepared to bring forward 
 any measure of this nature, but I will at 
 once declare that as far as I am concerned, 
 as long as I hold any station in the govern- 
 ment of the country, I shall always feel 
 it my duty to resist such a measure when 
 proposed by others." This declaration was 
 the death blow of the ministry. 
 
 The unpopularity of the ministry was 
 increased when they spread what was 
 declared to be a groundless alarm, by which 
 the funds were seriously affected. The new 
 King was to have dined with the Lord Mayor 
 at Guildhall, but was induced at the last 
 moment to defer his visit on the representa- 
 tion that an attack might be made upon 
 him by the crowd. This was stigmatised 
 as an attempt on the part of the ministry to 
 involve the King, whom the nation regarded 
 with affection, in their own unpopularity ; 
 and when, soon afterwards, Mr. Brougham, 
 then perhaps the most influential of all the 
 party pledged to Reform, announced his 
 intention of bringing forward a sweeping 
 measure, the Wellington government re- 
 signed ; whereupon William IV. entrusted 
 Earl Grey with the task of forming a 
 ministry, and it was felt that the time for 
 a great struggle on the Reform question had 
 come. 
 
 Lord John Russell Introduces the 
 Bill. 
 
 It was necessary to find some place in 
 the new arrangement for Mr. Brougham, if 
 his support of any Reform measure but one 
 introduced by himself was to be counted on. 
 His lucrative practice and great personal 
 power rendered it most unlikely that he would 
 accept any subordinate appointment ; ac- 
 cordingly, on the suggestion of the King him- 
 self, the Lord Chancellorship was offered to 
 and accepted by him. He was raised to 
 the peerage as Lord Brougham and Vaux. 
 Lord Althorp became Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, Lord Durham, Lord Privy Seal, 
 
 Lord Melbourne, Secretary of 5tate for the 
 Home Department, and Lord John Russell 
 (without a seat in the cabinet) Paymaster 
 of the Forces, while Sir James Grahami 
 became First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 Some disappointment was felt that the 
 new cabinet did not at once introduce- 
 measures of retrenchment in view of the 
 prevailing distress ; but their predecessors, 
 had been sufficiently economical, and the 
 King was exceedingly jealous of any 
 interference with his prerogatives in the 
 matter of the civil list. He was propitiated 
 by very liberal arrangements, including an 
 annuity of ^100,000 a year to the Queen, if 
 she survived him. The task of preparing- 
 the great measure of the session, the Reforrrt 
 Bill, was entrusted to a committee, including- 
 Lord John Russell, Lord Durham, and Sir 
 James Graham. 
 
 It was on the ist of March, 1831, that 
 Lord John Russell brought up the Bill with 
 which his reputation was to be identified ;; 
 and from that day until the 5th of June, it 
 was the occasion of as hot a wordy strife 
 as had ever been waged within the walls, 
 of the House of Commons. All the promi- 
 nent men of the House had their say — orh 
 the side of Reform, Lord John Russell^ 
 Joseph Plume, Daniel O'Connell, and many 
 others ; on that of its opponents, Sir Charles- 
 Wetherell, Sir Robert Inglis, Sir Robert 
 Peel, and their followers. 
 
 Lord John Russell was a man peculiarly- 
 fitted for the onerous duty he had under- 
 taken. As a member of the ducal house of 
 Bedford, he could safely be trusted not to^ 
 bring forward anything revolutionary or 
 subversive of the rights of property ; while 
 on the other hand his reputation as a culti- 
 vated man, with a mind enlarged by foreign^ 
 travel as well as by study, was a guarantee- 
 against the narrowness that can see only 
 the advantage and interests of a single 
 class. He began his speech in a tone of 
 studied moderation, declaring that the 
 ministry wished to produce a Bill satisfac- 
 tory to all moderate men, neither agreeing- 
 with the bigotry of those who would reject 
 all reform, nor with the fanaticism of men 
 wedded to one plan, and one plan onl)^ — - 
 hoping to amend abuses on the one hand^^ 
 and to avoid convulsion on the other. He; 
 painted with considerable strength and 
 humour the astonishment of a foreigner, 
 anxious to understand the English systemi 
 of representation, who should be taken to. 
 see a ruined mound and a stone wall, and a. 
 park containing no houses, and told that 
 each of these — the mound, the park, and 
 the wall — returned two members to Parlia- 
 ment ; and the still greater surprise of the 
 stranger, on finding that great opulent 
 manufacturing and commercial towns sent 
 
 344 
 
345 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 no representatives at all ; his greatest 
 astonishment of all on witnessing- the un- 
 blushing bribery, the money openly given 
 and received as the price of votes, that 
 formed a part of many a popular election. 
 His plan was to disfranchise sixty-two 
 boroughs, in each of which the number of 
 inhabitants was less than 2,000 ; to reduce 
 forty-seven other boroughs, where the in- 
 habitants numbered less than 4,000, to one 
 member each ; and to take from Weymouth 
 two of its four members. Thus 168 mem- 
 bers would be deprived of seats. The right 
 of voting was very complicated, including 
 burgage holders, capital burgesses, free- 
 men, potwallopers, and various other 
 voters holding by strange and obscure 
 tenures. Of these complicated rights the 
 Bill proposed to get rid, and to give the 
 vote to householders, rated at ^10 per 
 annum and upwards, copyholders to the 
 value of ;^io a year to have a vote for the 
 county ; and under certain restrictions, 
 holders of leases for twenty-one years and 
 upwards of the value of ;^5o to have the 
 same right. Seven large towns, including- 
 Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, were to 
 send two members each to Parliament. 
 Twenty towns, including Blackburn, Halifax, 
 Gateshead, Brighton, Kidderminster, and 
 Huddersfield, were to send one member 
 •each. Eight new members were to be given 
 to the metropolis to sit as representative of 
 the Lower Hamlets, Holborn, Finsbury, 
 and Lambeth. The counties were also to 
 receive additional members. There were 
 to be two representatives for each of the 
 ridings of Yorkshire, and two additional 
 members for each of twenty-six counties, 
 including Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, 
 Leicester, Lincoln, Wilts, etc., in each of 
 which the population exceeded 150,000. 
 The Bill also contained provisions for lessen- 
 ing the ruinous expense of elections — a very 
 necessary point ; for in Yorkshire, at that 
 time, the expense of bringing voters to the poll 
 at an election amounted to nearly ;^i5o,ooo ; 
 and in Devonshire many of the voters had 
 to travel forty miles from home to record 
 their suffrages — no small hardship in those 
 pre-railway days. In Scotland, every £\o 
 copyholder was to have the suffrage, and 
 •every ten-year leaseholder for ;^5o; the 
 representation of counties and boroughs 
 was there, and in Ireland also, to be read- 
 justed ; and in the latter country all ^10 
 householders or landholders were to have a 
 vote. 
 
 The numbers of the constituencies in some 
 of the English boroughs were ludicrously 
 small, and the places themselves were so 
 entirely under the influence of a proprietor 
 that an election in one of them was a mere 
 form. Bewdley had thirteen voters ; Droit- 
 
 wich twelve ; Launceston fifteen ; Marl- 
 bofough twenty-one ; Buckingham thirteen ; 
 Sutton, in Surrey, five ; Bramber twenty. 
 Many others had so small a number, that 
 the bribing of a whole constituency at a 
 given price per vote became a very simple 
 matter. 
 
 Lord John Russell sat down amid loud 
 cheers, after warmly recommending the 
 Bill to the consideration of the House, as 
 fraught with good effects, and conducing 
 alike to the moral and the political improve- 
 ment of the country. 
 
 Speeches For and Against the Bill ; 
 The Two Sides of the Question. 
 
 It would seem that Lord John's Bill did 
 not contemplate ariy great or sweeping 
 change in the constitution, but rather 
 sought to clear the ship of the state of the 
 barnacles that obstructed its progress ; 
 nevertheless, the first gentleman who rose 
 to oppose it pronounced it ^^ Revoluiion ; a 
 revolution that will overturn all the natural 
 influence of rank and property." This 
 alarmist was Sir Robert Inglis, the member 
 for Oxford, who had replaced Sir Robert 
 Peel in that ancient constituency. The gist 
 of his argument was, that a member of 
 Parliament does not represent a consti- 
 tuency, but has to consider the affairs of 
 the country and the good of the Church. 
 He utterly denied that representation had 
 ever been founded on the basis of taxation 
 and population, and declared openly that 
 most of the small boroughs which it was 
 sought to disfranchise had been called into 
 existence to please favourites ; for instance. 
 Old and New Sarum, by Edward I., and 
 Newport, Isle of Wight, by Queen Elizabeth. 
 He also urged the argument that Lord 
 Chatham, Mr. Burke, Mr. Canning, Mr. 
 Fox, and many other eminent men had first 
 entered Parliament by being put in, by the 
 possessors, for such boroughs as Old 
 Sarum, Wendover, and Appleby. He 
 declared that the House, as it existed, 
 represented all interests and admitted all 
 talents. 
 
 Lord Althorp's speech in favour of 
 the Bill was not distinguished by any 
 special merit, either in manner or matter, 
 and, indeed, his lordship shone much more 
 as a thoroughly honest and dependable 
 working member than in any position where 
 readiness and brilliancy were required. 
 Mr. Hume, the member who always had 
 an eye to economy, and habitually vexed 
 the soul of the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 when the yearly estimates appeared, wel- 
 comed the Bill cordially, as likely to give 
 large satisfaction to all true reformers. He 
 called it a manly measure. "Orator" 
 Hunt gave the measure a very cold wel- 
 
 346 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 come, as a tardy instalment of incomplete 
 justice ; declaring that everything- he had 
 heard said in the house had been said by 
 Lancashire weavers twenty years before. 
 He waxed indignant at the supercilious 
 Whiggism that designated the toiling mil- 
 lions as "the rabble," and told the house 
 that at Ilchester (where, as he observed 
 with a touch of humour, he had been in 
 prison for two years and six months), the 
 voters made it a point to get into debt to 
 the amount of £2,^^ before each election, 
 knowing that those debts would be liqui- 
 dated for them. "Is that the class of 
 men," he asked, "which the House is told 
 represents the property of the country?" 
 He was very hard on Sir Robert Inglis' 
 *' revolution," and sarcastically asked 
 ■whether rotten boroughs were a part of the 
 constitution ? And in spite of all efforts to 
 interrupt and put him down, the indomit- 
 able orator insisted in making the house 
 listen to the miserable story of the Man- 
 chester massacre, and reminded honourable 
 members that the imprisonment of thirty 
 months, about which they made so merry, 
 had been suffered by him for advocating the 
 cause of Reform which they had now met 
 together to discuss. 
 
 Sir Charles Wetherell was somewhat 
 heavily facetious against the Bill, describing 
 himself as making his last dying speech for 
 condemned Boroughbridge, comparing Al- 
 thorpe and Co. to Cromwell, Fairfax, 
 Lilburne and Co., declaring that the scheme 
 "now to be carried out had been introduced 
 by the regicides. In allusion to "Colonel 
 Pride's purge," in the days of Cromwell, 
 he proposed to call the proposed Reform 
 measure "Russell's purge," and the joke 
 was hugely relished % honourable gentle- 
 men at least on one side of the house, who 
 received it with vociferous laughter and 
 cheers. Sir Charles found the principle of 
 the Bill "republican at the basis," and 
 ^finished with a renewed reference to arbi- 
 trary violence, Cromwell and Pride's purge. 
 A sensible speech of Lord Palmerston's 
 must have contrasted somewhat oddly with 
 Sir Charles Wetherell' s impassioned de- 
 clamation. It pointed out that concession 
 was necessary ; and that with increase of 
 delay would come enforced increase of 
 concession, and advised honourable gentle- 
 men to submit to the inevitable with as 
 gooda grace as possible. The otherprincipal 
 speakers were Sir Robert Peel, gravely 
 and sententiously opposed to the Bill, 
 and Mr. Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby, 
 " the Rupert of debate," who spoke strongly 
 and trenchantly in its favour, and pointedly 
 asked whether such men as Lord John 
 Russell, Earl Grey, and Lord Althorp, had 
 not a stake in the country, or whether they 
 
 could have any object in advocating revo- 
 lutionary or subversive changes. Mr. 
 O'Connell showed the same power of mov- 
 ing and influencing large audiences that 
 he already had exhibited in his own country. 
 He asked those gentlemen who persisted 
 that this old system had worked well, 
 whether they thought the agricultural popu- 
 lation would be very ready to give testimony 
 in its favour, — whether such a fact was 
 reflected from the incendiary fires which 
 lately blazed through the counties, and 
 whether such would be the statement we 
 should receive if we inquired from the un- 
 fortunate men who fill our gaols, on 
 account of the late disturbances in the 
 country ? He made a great impression. 
 
 After more than seventy members had 
 spoken, the number of orators for and 
 against Reform being nearly equal, leave 
 was given to bring in the Bill, which was 
 formally read for the first time on the 14th 
 of March. 
 
 Troubles and Difficulties; Opposi- 
 tion Tactics. 
 
 The Bill was now fairly launched ; and 
 the length}'' debates and exhaustive speeches 
 that had preceded the first reading had at 
 least one advantage, — the attention of the 
 country was thoroughly called to the sub- 
 ject, and the Reform Bill was the one topic of 
 discussion throughout the three kingdoms. 
 The whole community was divided into 
 two hostile camps of reformers and anti- 
 reformers. The Tories looked upon the 
 measure with mingled hatred and terror, 
 and lugubriously dated the ruin of England 
 from the day when it should become law ; 
 the Whigs regarded it with complacency, 
 as a timely concession to public necessity, 
 by which they would avoid a worse thing 
 that might come upon them ; while the 
 Radicals, though they thought the measure 
 did not go far enough — for it gave them 
 neither the ballot nor triennial Parliaments — 
 were yet glad to welcome it on the principle 
 of being thankful for small mercies. 
 
 The opponents of the Bill were many and 
 powerful, and, naturally enough, comprised 
 those classes who were advantageously 
 placed in the existing state of things, and 
 accordinglyrecoiled from the idea of change. 
 The great landowners saw their territorial 
 influence threatened, and opposed the Bill 
 tooth and nail. The nobility detected in it, 
 moreover, a dangerous levelHng tendency, 
 calculated to injure those time-honoured 
 institutions under which the labouring 
 communit}^ felt " the kindly pressure of the 
 social chain " ; the clergy, almost to a man, 
 opposed the measure with tongue and pen, 
 and with an intemperate vehemence that 
 recoiled upon themselves ; even the great 
 
 347 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 middle class engaged in commerce, and 
 the more opulent shopkeepers and trades- 
 men were opposed to it, as calculated to 
 upset established landmarks, and thus to 
 injure trade ; while the Army, the Navy, the 
 legal profession, and the Universities were 
 generally enrolled among its uncom- 
 promising foes. 
 
 But against all this opposition was to be 
 set the enthusiastic support of the mass of 
 the people, who, thoroughly impressed with 
 the idea that they were being wronged 
 under the existing system, were determined 
 to have their rights, and declared that they 
 would be satisfied with nothing less than 
 "the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but 
 the Bill"; and seeing they had thus the 
 public opinion of the country with them, 
 ministers took heart, and were more hopeful 
 of the prospect of ultimate success. 
 
 A large section of the press also took up 
 the cause of Reform with unmistakable 
 warmth and zeal, headed by the Times, 
 whose comments, indeed, far more out- 
 spoken than courtly, induced Sir Robert 
 Inglis at this time to complain to the House, 
 and at a later period caused the publishers 
 to be summoned to the bar of the Commons, 
 and reprimanded after having been kept 
 for a short time in the custody of the ser- 
 geant-at-arms. Public meetings and peti- 
 tions in abundance testified to the absorbing 
 interest of the public in the question. 
 
 When the Bill came on for second read- 
 ing, the member for Cornwall, Sir R. Vyvyan, 
 endeavoured to get rid of it by the usual 
 course of moving that it should be read that 
 day six months. In an exceedingly full 
 house a division was taken, which resulted 
 in 302 votes in favour of the second reading, 
 and 301 against it — a majority of one for 
 the ministers. This placed the Bill in a 
 very critical position, and put its opponents 
 in high spirits ; for they saw a good pro- 
 spect of weakening- it to such a degree in 
 committee as to render it practically ineffec- 
 tive ; and accordingly they cheered vehe- 
 mently. The Bill was committed to the 14th 
 of April, and a couple of days before that 
 date Lord John Russell came forward with 
 some conciliatory proposals, declaring that 
 Buckingham and several other towns had 
 proved their populations to have been 
 wrongly estimated in the returns of 1821, 
 which had been taken as the basis for 
 disfranchisement and reduction, and that 
 these boroughs and any other boroughs or 
 counties that could prove themselves to 
 have been inserted under a misapprehension 
 in schedules A and B should, on proving 
 their case, be reinstated. Shortly after- 
 wards. Sir George Gascoigne proposed that 
 the number of seats in the House should 
 not be diminished, and this was carried by 
 
 a majority of eight, ministers being thus 
 defeated and put in a minority. 
 
 A Bold Stroke ; Earl Grey, the 
 Chancellor, and the King; Dis- 
 solution. 
 
 It now became clear that the present 
 House of Commons would not pass the 
 Reform Bill, and the opposition hoped (if the 
 ministry resigned) the subject could be 
 shelved for a period, and that in gaining 
 time they would gain everything ; or they 
 might perhaps introduce a measure of their 
 own, which should contain just enough 
 concession to appease popular clamour 
 without the disfranchisement and redistri- 
 bution insisted on by Lord John. On the 
 other hand, there remained the alternative 
 of dissolving Parliament and appealing to 
 the country. 
 
 But this alternative it was not supposed 
 that the ministry would adopt. There 
 were various weighty reasons against it. 
 The Parliament had only existed for a year, 
 and had therefore six years to run before it 
 would legally expire. The King would be 
 naturally reluctant to dissolve a Parliament 
 that had treated him exceptionally well in 
 ' financial matters ; and the amount of 
 pressing business before the -House ap- 
 peared in itself to be an argument against 
 dissolution at such a moment. But the 
 ministry saw that to let in their opponents 
 at that moment would be not only to throw 
 away all they had gained throughout the 
 session, but to put themselves in the cold 
 shade of opposition, and they acted with 
 equal decision and promptness. A cabinet 
 council was at once held, and it was resolved 
 that Earl Grey and Lord Brougham, the 
 Chancellor, should at once request the King 
 to dissolve Parliament. The two lords 
 waited upon His Majesty accordingly. 
 
 The King was exceedingly disturbed at 
 their proposal, and vehemently objected to 
 it, urging that he could not be expected to 
 dismiss a Parliament so recently chosen, 
 and one, moreover, that had dealt so 
 liberally with him in the matter of the 
 civil list, and of the Queen's income, in 
 case she survived him. To this, the 
 ministers, while allowing full weight to 
 the King's argument, replied that the pre- 
 sent Parliament could not continue to sit 
 without grave peril to His Majesty's crown. 
 King William saw that their contention was 
 reasonable, and felt reluctant to part with 
 his ministers ; but he urged that it would be 
 impracticable to comply with their desire that 
 he should prorogue Parliament that very- 
 day with a view to its immediate dissolution. 
 Nothing was ready. Who was to carry the 
 sword and the cap of maintenance ? To 
 this the Chancellor, who, bolder and less 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1832. 
 
 courtly than his aristocratic colleague, 
 seems to have been chief spokesman on the 
 occasion, replied that, foreseeing the neces- 
 sity for immediate action, the officers of 
 state had been summoned to hold them- 
 selves in readiness. But the Life Guards, 
 who were to escort him ? the King urged. 
 He had given no orders to call them out, 
 and it was now too late. But again the 
 imperturbable Chancellor was prepared. In 
 the most deprecatory and submissive of 
 tones he informed the King that his col- 
 league and he must throw themselves on 
 His Majesty's indulgence, but that in view 
 of the great crisis and imminent danger 
 to which the throne was exposed, they had 
 taken upon themselves to give the necessary 
 orders, and that the Life Guards were ready 
 for dut)^ 
 
 The King's face flushed red with indig- 
 nation, for no one but himself had the 
 right to call out the guards. " Why, this is 
 treason, my lords — high treason ! " he hotly 
 exclaimed ; "and you, my Lord Chancellor, 
 ought to know it." 
 
 But again the Chancellor returned to his 
 point, declaring that nothing but the ur- 
 gency and magnitude of the peril to the 
 King's throne would have induced the 
 ministry to take such a step ; and William 
 IV., who would have been sorry to part 
 with his ministers at such a moment, 
 quickly recovered his composure, and even 
 his good humour ; and, finding it necessary 
 to yield, did so with a good grace, and at 
 once prepared to proceed to the House for 
 the prorogation. 
 
 Great was the wrath of the opposition in 
 both Houses in finding itself thus out- 
 manoeuvred. In the House of Lords the 
 indignation expressed against the ministers 
 was so vehement that an eyewitness de- 
 scribes himself as apprehensive that the 
 peers would actually come to blows. Lord 
 Londonderry especially distinguished him- 
 self by violence of speech and gesture, 
 declaiming against the profligacy of 
 ministers with a vehemence which did 
 far more harm to his own side than to 
 his opponents, whose game he was uncon- 
 sciously playing. In the Commons, the 
 dignified Sir Robert Peel, usually sedate, 
 ■calm, and imperturbable, for once com- 
 pletely lost his temper, and passionately 
 ■denounced the conduct of the ministry. But 
 to the undisguised glee of the other side of 
 the House, the sound of the park guns an- 
 nounced that the King had set out ; and pre- 
 sently the announcement of His Majesty's 
 arrival and the summon that the Commons 
 should attend at the bar of the Lords' house 
 to hear the prorogation produced frantic 
 cheers that drowned the indignant accents 
 of the great Tory leader. 
 
 The King's speech was very brief; merely 
 announcing that the prorogation was to be 
 followed by an immediate dissolution, that 
 the King might take the sense of the nation 
 on the state of affairs, with a view of con- 
 cluding matters in a manner that should 
 uphold at once the dignity and prerogatives 
 of the crown and the just rights and 
 liberties of the people. The dissolution 
 followed in due course next day. 
 
 A New Parliament ; The Conflict 
 Renewed ; Progress of the Bill. 
 
 A general illumination testified to the joy 
 felt by the citizens of London at the disso- 
 lution. The crowd was vociferous in its 
 demonstrations of delight, and proceeded 
 to wreak its indignation upon the chief 
 opponents of the Bill, especially upon the 
 Duke of Wellington and Mr. Baring, by 
 breaking their windows. Whereupon the 
 brave old Duke caused iron shutters to be 
 put up over the windows on the side of 
 Apsley House facing Hyde Park, and it 
 was characteristic of him that those shutters 
 were never taken down till the day of his 
 death, twenty-one years afterwards. Great 
 eiforts were made in the general election 
 that followed to return members who would 
 uphold Reform, and the one question asked 
 of candidates at the hustings \vas whether 
 they would support the Bill or not. In 
 June the new Parliament met, and the 
 Reform Bill was immediately brought for- 
 ward. There was no doubt as to the effect 
 of the dissolution in promoting the cause of 
 the Reformers, for on the motion for the 
 second reading of the Bill the division list 
 showed, instead of the bare majority oi one 
 (and that one vote, too, given by the Hon. 
 Mr. Calcraft, a seceder from the Tory camp) 
 a triumphant majority of 136. 
 
 The only hope of the opposition was now 
 in delay. If they could get to the end of 
 the session without passing' the Bill, some 
 new subject of interest might arise in the 
 recess, or something might occur to turn 
 popular excitement in a new direction ; and 
 all their efforts were consequently turned 
 towards gaining time. French histor}^ in 
 Richelieu's time, had its "day of dupes." 
 The Reform Bill, in 1831, could show its 
 " night of divisions," during which, by con- 
 tinual motions for adjournment, when it 
 was moved that the Speaker do leave the 
 chair, and the house go into committee on 
 the Bill, the opponents contrived to keep 
 the house going through a series of di- 
 visions until seven o'clock in the morning. 
 Amendment after amendment was pro- 
 posed, while it was fully evident that not 
 one of them would be carried. Never had 
 honourable members been more intoxicated 
 
 34? 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 with the exuberance of their ov/n verbosity 
 than during this memorable session. The 
 calculation made by the S;pectator news- 
 paper gave some curious statistics of the 
 speeches in committee in fifteen days' de- 
 bate between July 12th and 27th. Am^ong 
 the leading opponents of Reform, it appeared 
 that " Sugden had spoken eighteen times, 
 Praed twenty-two times, Pelham twenty- 
 eight times, Peel fifty-eight times, Croker 
 fifty-seven times, and Wetherell fifty-eight 
 times." But Lord Althorp declared that 
 the ministry would keep Parliament sitting 
 till December, or, if necessary, till De- 
 cember twelvemonths, rather than abandon 
 the Bill at the dictation of the obstructives, 
 ■ — an announcement which considerably 
 vexed the souls of honourable gentlemen 
 who had special associations connected 
 with the 1 2th of August and the ist of 
 September. 
 
 Both those days, however, passed away, 
 and the House was still hard at work ; 
 honourable members were obliged to give 
 the grouse and the partridges a respite in 
 1 83 1. At last, on the 22nd of September, 
 the last of the interminable divisions on the 
 Bill was taken ; and it passed the Com- 
 mons, in a house in which 584 members 
 voted, by a majority of 106, and was sent 
 up to the Lords. 
 
 The Bill in the Lords ; Debated and 
 Rejected; Popular Excitement. 
 
 Having been steered safely past the Scylla 
 of the Commons, the Bill had now to en- 
 counter the dangers of Charybdis in the 
 Lords ; and these dangers were the greater 
 in propo-rtion to the privileges of the here- 
 ditary legislators, and their influence in the 
 House of Commons, by the presence of 
 nominees and scions of their own families, 
 were seriously diminished by its provisions. 
 The contest, accordingly, was carried on 
 with an acrimony and vehemence almost 
 unprecedented in that dignified assembly. 
 Earl Grey was more than once assailed 
 with invective that amounted to personal 
 insult. Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter, at a 
 later stage, especially distinguished himself 
 by the vehemence . of his denunciation of 
 the Bill and everything connected with it, 
 declaring that he and his colleagues had 
 been vilified and insulted within the last 
 year, " and that, too, by men of the highest 
 station in His Majesty's councils." This 
 ebullition called forth a stem rebuke from 
 Lord Grey, who characterised the bishop's 
 assertion as the most unprovoked, the most 
 intemperate, and the most unfounded in- 
 sinuation he had ever heard from any 
 member of that House, and indignantly in- 
 quired whether any words he had spoken 
 could justly bear such a construction. He 
 
 declared that the Bill, so far from being 
 revolutionary and subversive of the best 
 principles of the constitution, was eminently 
 calculated to uphold that constitution, by 
 clearing it of the blemishes that had been, 
 and still were, its disgrace. "Was it pos- 
 sible," he asked, "that the boroughs called 
 nomination boroughs could be permitted 
 any longer to exist ? Would the people, 
 when they saw the corrupt practices un- 
 blushingly carried on at every election, and 
 turning from such sights, read the lessons 
 of their youth, where they found such prac- 
 tices stigmatised as illegal and inconsistent 
 with the people's rights, be persuaded that 
 the privileges which they saw a few in- 
 dividuals converting into a means of per- 
 sonal profit were privileges conferred for 
 the benefit of the nation ?" This gangrene 
 of our representative system, he declared, 
 bade defiance to all remedies but that ot 
 excision. 
 
 Numerous petitions to the House also 
 showed the widespread and general 
 anxiety that prevailed out of doors on 
 the question ; and it was hoped the Peers 
 would see, that, where they must necessarily 
 give way sooner or later, it would be better 
 to make the sacrifice gracefully while there 
 was still, at least, an appearance of option. 
 But they failed to recognise the gravity of 
 the position ; and on October 8th threw out 
 the Bill in a House in which 278 pears were 
 present, and 79 sent proxies (making a total 
 of 357 votes) by a majority of 41 ; — and thus 
 for the second time Reform was thrust forth 
 by the House of Lords. 
 
 The excitement throughout the country 
 was tremendous. In some few towns, 
 doomed by the Bill to political extinction, 
 and now, as they thought, rescued from that 
 fate by its rejection, there was rejoicing and 
 congratulation, but the general feeling was 
 one of intense anger and disappointment; 
 and with a corresponding exasperation 
 against the House that was considered to 
 have deliberately set itself against the opinion 
 of the general community, and to have de- 
 fied the plainly-expressed will of the people 
 of England. There were many who spoke 
 openly of the necessity of abolishing the 
 House of Lords; and at Nottingham, Derby, 
 and various other places, there were serious 
 riots. Nottingham Castle, belonging to the 
 Duke of Newcastle, a highly unpopular 
 opponent of the Reform Bill, was fired; and 
 in various places it was necessary to call 
 out the military. The leading reformers, 
 on the other hand, strenuously advised the 
 people to be calm and patient under this 
 temporary disappointment, in the full con- 
 sciousness that the cause must speedily 
 triumph. " I tell them that Reform is only 
 delayed for a short period," cried Lord 
 
 350 
 
THE REFORM BILL OF 1S32. 
 
 Brougham ; "I tell them that the Bill will 
 pass — that the Bill must pass — that a Bill 
 founded on exactly similar principles, and 
 equally extensive and efficient with the Bill 
 which has been thrown out, shall in a very 
 short period become part and parcel of the 
 law of the land." 
 
 In a more humourous vein, but with equal 
 effect, Sydney Smith, an ardent Liberal, 
 allayed the fears of thepeople by his speeches 
 in the west country. It was at Taunton 
 that he introduced the story of Mrs. 
 Partington, that, from the aptness of the 
 illustrations it furnished, has become pro- 
 verbial. Speaking of the resistance of the 
 House of Lords and their endeavour to stem 
 the tide of the popular will, the worthy 
 Canon of St. Paul's told his delighted 
 audience how, in the winter of 1824, a great 
 flood set in upon the little Devonshire town 
 of Sidmouth, and the tide threatened to 
 overwhelm the whole place. " In the midst 
 of this sublime storm, Dame Partington, 
 who lived upon the beach, was seen at the 
 door of her house with mop and pattens, 
 trundling her mop, and squeezing out the 
 sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the 
 Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused, 
 Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need 
 not tell you that the contest was unequal. 
 The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. 
 She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but 
 she should nothave meddled with a tempest." 
 And so he exhorted his audience to take 
 heart and bide their time, for the Atlantic 
 Ocean of the British people's will would 
 certainly be too strong for the mop of the 
 Mrs. Partington of the House of Lords. 
 
 Bristol Riots; The Third Bill; The 
 Lords Again ; Resignation and its 
 Consequences. 
 
 The gravest public event of that stormy 
 autumn was the great riot at Bristol. Sir 
 Charles Wetherell, who was Recorder of 
 that city, had become especially obnoxious 
 by his violent tirades against the Reform 
 Bill ; and on his going down to Bristol to 
 hold the gaol delivery there, the whole place 
 was in an uproar. Sir Charles had been 
 strongly urged not to present himself at 
 Bristol at this crisis ; but he disregarded 
 the warning, believing, most erroneously, 
 that a reaction against Reform had set in, 
 and that he had nothing to fear. The 
 measures taken by the magistrates for pre- 
 serving order were half-hearted and vacil- 
 lating. Colonel Brereton, who commanded 
 the military force, was good-natured and 
 unwilling to act ; and an incendiary mob for 
 a time got the upper hand of the authorities. 
 Since the time of the Gordon riots there 
 had not been so dangerous an outbreak; and 
 
 it was not put down until great damage had 
 been done and many lives lost. 
 
 The House met again on the 6th of 
 December, and once more Reform was the 
 subject taken in hand. Some alterations 
 had been made by the ministers in their 
 second Bill, but its main provisions re- 
 appeared in the third measure which was 
 now brought before the House. Of its 
 acceptance in the Commons there could be 
 no doubt. When the House reassembled 
 after the Christmas holidays, it was steadily 
 pushed forward, and was carried by a tri- 
 umphant majority of 116 on the 23rd of 
 March, 1832. Once more it went up to the 
 peers, and once again, "What will the 
 Lords do?" became the question of the 
 day. By this time many of the Peers had 
 become doubtful of the consequences of 
 further opposition ; and some leading men 
 among them, such as Lords Harrowby and 
 Whamcliffe, recommended that the Bill 
 should be allowed to pass the second read- 
 ing, as there would be still an opportunity 
 to alter its most objectionable features in 
 committee. There was the more reason for 
 this, as it was announced that in case of 
 another adverse majority, a large creation 
 of new Peers would take place, to counter- 
 balance the non-contents. The second 
 reading of the Bill was accordingly carried, 
 but only by the narrow majority of g; and 
 the fate of the measure was felt to be once 
 more in jeopardy. 
 
 The apprehensions of its well-wishers 
 were well founded. A motion was brought 
 forward that the enfranchising clauses of 
 the Bill should be taken before those of 
 disfranchisement. This was opposed by 
 the ministers, who were left in a minority 
 of thirty-five, and at once gave in their 
 resignations, and the King's acceptance of 
 that resignation was announced to the House 
 on the 9th of May. 
 
 The Ministry Recalled ; The Final 
 Triumph ; Conclusion. 
 For many years the affairs of the nation 
 had not been at such a dead lock. The 
 Whig ministry had resigned ; a Tory minis- 
 try must come in. By Lord Lyndhurst's 
 advice the King sent for the Duke of 
 Wellington. But the Duke's opposition 
 to Reform had been veiy uncompromising 
 from the beginning, and it was manifestly 
 impossible that any ministry could stand 
 that did not pledge itself at once to bring 
 forward a measure for Reform. Could the 
 Duke bring forward such a measure ? — 
 Hardly, after the line he had consistently 
 taken, and after his speech declaring that 
 from the day of the passing of such a 
 measure he should date the downfall of 
 the constitution ; and Sir Robert Peel 
 
 351 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Duke's trusty confederate and adviser, 
 whom the Duke advised the King to send 
 for, when he himself declined the impossible 
 task of forming a government, had shown 
 himself as uncompromising an opponent of 
 Reform as Wellington himself. By this 
 time the vacillating conduct of the King 
 had caused the loss of all his popularity. 
 He was mercilessly caricatured in the 
 character of "Billy Barlow"; while on 
 ■Queen Adelaide ribald songs were made 
 and sung, Her Majesty being represented 
 as "a nasty German frow," and as the 
 imperious DollaloUa of the burlesque of 
 Tom Thumb, in which the King was made 
 to figure as the weak monarch Arthur, 
 powerless under his imperious wife's in- 
 fluence. Even on the omnibuses — then a 
 new invention just introduced in London — 
 the names "William IV." and "Adelaide" 
 were painted out. There was a run on the 
 Bank of England. " Go for gold, and stop 
 ^the Duke," was the advice posted on anony- 
 mous placards. There was a general threat 
 of "No Reform, no taxes"; and Lord 
 Milton set the example of resistance in 
 this direction by directing the tax-gatherer 
 to call again, and plainly intimating that 
 his payment would be dependent on the 
 course of public events. Evidently there 
 was nothing to be done but to recall Lord 
 Grey and his ministry. 
 
 The King received his advisers with a 
 ■constrained air ; and it was remarked that 
 he kept them standing during the inter\dew. 
 
 But they had now the game in their hands 
 at last, and stipulated that the King should 
 give m writing his consent to the creation 
 of new Peers if the resistance in the House 
 of Lords were renewed. With a very bad 
 grace His Majesty wrote the following 
 memorandum, and handed it to Lord 
 Brougham : — 
 
 " The King grants permission to Earl Grey 
 and to his Chancellor, Lord Brougham, to 
 create such a number of Peers as will be 
 sufficient to ensure the passing of the Re- 
 form Bill, — first calling Peers' eldest sons. 
 "(Signed), 
 
 "William R. 
 "Windsor, Afay ijth, 1832." 
 
 An intimation from the King was at the 
 same time sent round to the chief Lords in 
 opposition, "declaring that all difficulties 
 would be obviated if a sufficient number of 
 Peers would drop further opposition to the 
 Reform Bill." This was tantamount to a 
 command. Accordingly the Duke of 
 Wellington left the House of Peers without 
 voting, and did not come back until the 
 measure had passed. A number of his fol- 
 lowers adopted the same course. The King's 
 circular was caricatured by H. B. as "the 
 modest request "; but it produced its effect. 
 With many bitter complaints the Peers 
 acquiesced in the inevitable, and the Reform 
 Bill was carried, receiving the Royal assent 
 in Tune 1832. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 352 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 THE STORY OF A GREAT TIME. 
 
 " It was a time when men were being lifted into nobleness by the new moral energy which seemed suddenly to pulse 
 through the whole people, when honour and enthusiasm took colours of poetic beauty and religion became a chivalry." 
 
 Green's " History of the English People." 
 
 "This era has always appeared to us by far the brightest in the history of English literature, or, indeed, of human 
 intellect and capacity." Edinhirgh Review. 
 
 Death of Queen Mary — Proclamation in London — Elizabeth, at Hatfield, receives the Intelligence of her Accession to 
 the Crown — Political and Doctrinal Protestantism — The Learned Ladies of the Time — " Now all the Youth of 
 England are afire " — The Maritime Supremacy and Wealth of Spain — Condition of England — A Poor Aristocracy 
 and a Moneyed Middle Class — An Impoverished E.xchequer and Debased Coinage— Cecil and Gresham to the Rescue 
 — Ecclesiastical Changes — Papal Bishops lose their Sees — Social Condition of the People— Rogues, Vagabonds, 
 and Sturdy Beggars — The Gallows in " JMerry England" — Mercantile Enterprise — Maritime Adventures— Drake 
 sails round the World, and brings home Treasure — Seeking a North-West Passage — Trade with India — Shattering 
 the Great Armada— Splendid Literary Development— Shakspeare the Mirror " of the Age and Body of the 
 Time." 
 
 The Oueen Dead. 
 HE gloom of a November morning, 
 the 17th of the month, in the year of 
 grace 1558, was brooding over the 
 royal "house at St. James's," when the 
 darker shadow of death shut out all that re- 
 mained of life and the outer world to Queen 
 Mary of England. Weak, sickly, affection- 
 ate and kindly by nature, the victim of a 
 terrible bigotry, a neglected, motherless wife, 
 with an understanding warped into subtle- 
 ness and moral crookedness by the domi- 
 nation of more potent wills, Mary Tudor, the 
 " Lady Mary" of the two previous reigns, the 
 
 " Bloody Mary " of popular history, was no 
 more ; and, as yet wanting a few months of 
 completing her forty-fourth year, and having 
 reigned about five and a-half years, her 
 troubled, wearied life, with its sadness and 
 its turmoils, was succeeded — after what soul 
 struggles, what remembrances, and what 
 prayers, we know not — by the silence of 
 death. Before another day had dawned, 
 Cardinal Reginald Pole, also of the blood of 
 English royalty, the last Papal legate to this 
 country, the last Roman Catholic head of 
 the Anglican Church, was "among those 
 who have been"; and with the death of Mary 
 
 353 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Tudor and Reginald Pole began a new and 
 the greatest era of English history. 
 
 The Queen is Dead ! Long Live the 
 * Queen ! 
 
 Mary died between five and six o'clock 
 in the morning, and several hours elapsed 
 before the event was known beyond the im- 
 mediate precincts of St. James's ; but shortly 
 before noon Archbishop Heath, of York, the 
 Lord Chancellor, went down to the House of 
 Lords, and summoning the Speaker and the 
 faithful Commons to the bar, announced, 
 in due form, that " God had called to his 
 mercy the late sovereign lady Queen Mary 
 — a heavy and grievous woe, but relieved by 
 the blessing God had left them in a true, 
 loyal, and right inheritress to the crown— 
 the Lady Elizabeth, second daughter to the 
 late sovereign lord of noble memory. King 
 Henry VIII., and sister unto the late said 
 Queen." From nobles on the benches, from 
 Commons at the bar, rose a shout, "God 
 save Queen Elizabeth, and long and happily 
 may she reign !" Then the Duke of Norfolk, 
 hereditary Earl Marshal of England, the 
 Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Shrews- 
 bury, and the Earl of Bedford, accompanied 
 by the troop of gorgeously clad heralds, 
 appeared on horseback in front of the great 
 door of Westminster Hall, in Old Palace 
 Yard, and proclaimed with all due forms that 
 Mary was dead and that her sister Elizabeth 
 •was Queen of England. 
 
 From Palace Yard they rode to Charing 
 Cross, and thence eastward along the Strand 
 into the City, where, at Cheapside Cross, and 
 again at the Tower, the proclamations were 
 made. There was an outburst of long sup- 
 pressed feeling. No expression of grief for 
 the Queen that was lost, no tears prompted 
 by the thought that she who, but a few hours 
 before, had been the sovereign of England, 
 was now a pallid corpse ; but a sense of 
 relief from an incubus that had pressed 
 heavily on the free spirit and the vital 
 energy of the nation. The red fires of Smith- 
 field had scarcely cooled, the echoes of the 
 shrieks in the torture chamber of the Tower 
 had scarcely died away, the whispered prayers 
 of those who in secret hiding-places had 
 appealed to heaven for strength and deliver- 
 ance, still lived in the memories of sympa- 
 thetic believers ; and in the prouder and 
 stronger natures of the English citizens there 
 was the remembrance of foreign domination, 
 of foreign wars, of insulted and disgraced 
 nationality. In the picturesque language of 
 Mr. Froude, "The bells which six years before 
 had rung in triumph for Mary's accession now 
 pealed as merrily for her death. The voices 
 which had shouted themselves hoarse in 
 execrations on Northumberland were now as 
 loud in ecstasy that the miserable reign was 
 
 at an end. Through the November day 
 steeple answered steeple ; the streets were 
 spread with tables, and as the twilight closed 
 blazed as before with bonfires. The black 
 dominion of priests and priestcraft had rolled 
 away like night before the coming of the 
 dawn. Elizabeth, the people's idol, dear to 
 them from her sister's hatred, the morning star 
 of England's hope, was Queen." 
 
 Elizabeth was living quietly at the royal 
 manor-house at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, 
 where, as a child, she and her young brother 
 Edward had been chiefly brought up. In 
 the stately mansion which for about three 
 centuries has been the home of the Cecils, 
 the apartments where the royal children 
 dwelt are still shown, and in the gardens the 
 paths along which they rambled, the lawns on 
 which they played, are still associated with 
 the memory of the younger children of " the 
 great Harry." It was at Hatfield the Lady 
 Elizabeth generally resided during the reign 
 of Mary, studying Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, 
 playing on the virginals, dancing with her 
 few lady attendants. She knew well enough 
 that if she outlived her feeble-bodied, morbid- 
 minded sister, the great majority of English- 
 men would welcome her as successor to the 
 throne ; but she knew also that her life was 
 not " worth a pin's fee," if she stood in the 
 way of Mary's fanaticism or Philip's ambi- 
 tion, supposing he had the courage to defy 
 the national feeling of England by striking a 
 blow at the nation's favourite. Sometimes 
 she had been invited to share in procession 
 and pageant, and had been once taken to 
 London as a state prisoner, knowing pro- 
 bably that the warrant for her committal to 
 the Tower and execution had been prepared, 
 but that at the last moment the fear of con- 
 sequences had prevailed, and her sister Mary 
 had refused to affix the royal sign-manual. 
 
 Elizabeth Regina. 
 Twenty-five years of age, large-brained, in- 
 heriting no little of the temper and the strong 
 will of her father, and some of the subtlety 
 and insincerity of her rnother, Elizabeth 
 added to these qualities a little womanly 
 vanity mingled with occasional tenderness, 
 easily changing into jealousy and animosity 
 if the vanity were ungratified or the tender- 
 ness misplaced. In after life she showed 
 that she could be sometimes prodigally 
 generous and sometimes pitifully mean ; but 
 such were inconsistencies that grew with age, 
 and were but little apparent in the tall, 
 graceful, clear- eyed, yellow-haired princess 
 who, under the trees at Hatfield, received the 
 announcement from Cecil and other kneeling 
 courtiers that she was Queen of England. 
 She had waited with brave patience for such 
 a message, which she guessed would come in 
 due time, and she bore the new honour with 
 
 354 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 modest dignity. Kneeling down, she ex- 
 claimed, in the words of the Latin Psalter 
 then in use, A Domini factum est istiid, et 
 est mirabile oculis nostris I " It is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes ! " — a 
 text afterwards stamped on the gold coin 
 issued in her reign. 
 
 She assumed her exalted position with 
 dignity and a fitting confidence in herself. 
 It may be well believed that she was not 
 ignorant of, nor unsympathising with, the 
 national temper ; and she had many personal 
 qualities fitting her to become the leader of 
 the English people. It was a time when a 
 fierce and merciless ecclesiastical, rather 
 than religious, war had been waged, when 
 each of the great parties had in turns pro- 
 duced persecutions and martyrs, and when 
 the fight was less on behalf of doctrines than 
 of the right of Englishmen to be free from 
 Papal or other foreign dictation. The Pro- 
 testantism, for which so many had suffered 
 conscientiously and for truth's sake, was with 
 the great mass of the people rather political 
 than doctrinal. The London merchant, the 
 country gentleman, much more the ordinary 
 unlettered townsman or yeoman, was little 
 competent to argue about sacramentarian 
 questions, or discuss texts not one word of 
 which he could read in the Vulgate, probably 
 not in the Bishops' translation ; but he was 
 willing to attend church, listen respectfully to 
 the services, and understand as much as he 
 conveniently could of the sermon, and only 
 desired to be let alone. It did not seem to 
 him right, however agreeable it might be to 
 ecclesiastical dignitaries, that the Pope of 
 Rome or his legates should not only tell him 
 what to believe, and imprison, torture, or 
 burn him if he failed to have very definite 
 views on subjects about which scholars were 
 quarreUing, and had been quarrelling for a 
 thousand years, but should also claim the 
 right to enjoy or dispose of all the good 
 things of the Church. The political and 
 ecclesiastical changes of the previous quarter 
 of a century had left the plain, practical 
 minds of the mass of the English people in 
 a somewhat hazy condition. They thought 
 that King Henry had acted as an English 
 king should act, in defying the Pope ; but 
 they were not quite so sure that the suppres- 
 sion of the religious houses was an unmixed 
 boon. The stately abbeys, the fertile pastures 
 where the monks had dwelt and enjoyed 
 themselves, not by any means in an exclu- 
 sively spiritual manner, had passed into the 
 ownership of court favourites or wealthy 
 upstarts of the middle classes, and although 
 Mary had made an attempt to restore some 
 of them to the original owners, it had not 
 been possible, except in a very few instances, 
 to reunite the scattered communities, and 
 the complications and foreign troubles which 
 
 marked her brief reign had not materially 
 altered the state of tihe case. Possibly, it 
 was felt, the monks were lazy, irreligious, or 
 even profligate — but they fed the poor; and 
 even if worthless vagrants sometimes received 
 good meals which they did not earn, they 
 were less likely to be mischievous than when 
 hungry. The nuns, too, were kindly women, 
 who looked after the sick, and were ready 
 with many little helps and comforts. Now 
 the abbey and convent gates were closed, 
 the beggars were hungry and clamoured for 
 bread from door to door. The country roads 
 were infested by mendicants who robbed as 
 well as begged. The farmer or trader was 
 waylaid and maltreated on market-days, the 
 goodwife lost the linen she spread out to dry 
 on common or hedgerow. The average Eng- 
 lishman did not like to be told that he must 
 say his prayers in any particular fashion, or 
 forfeit his hope of salvation, besides incurring 
 the chance of being handed over to the 
 tender mercies of some Tony Fire-the- Fagot ; 
 but, if allowed to do as he liked in the matter, 
 would probably not have troubled himself 
 to change the old forms of worship which 
 had contented his father and grandfather, or 
 made any serious objection to the vicar pray- 
 ing in Latin, or duly bowing at the proper 
 times. 
 
 Difficult doctrines, subtle hairsplittings, 
 did not much trouble his practical Christi- 
 anity (so far as he understood what Christi- 
 anity meant) ; but to be ordered, under 
 penalties, to do what otherwise he was quite 
 willing to do, aroused the independent spirit 
 of the Englishman. Queen Mary had re- 
 presented a spirit of intolerance which had 
 become intolerable. Her young sister, at 
 Hatfield, was the rising star which it was 
 hoped and believed would be the harbinger 
 of a beneficent change. 
 
 The Queen's Protestantism. 
 " Elizabeth herself," says Mr. Froude 
 (whose " History " sheds so much light on 
 this eventful period), "had been educated in 
 a confused Protestantism, which had evaded 
 doctrinal difficulties and had confined itself 
 chiefly to anathemas of Rome. She would 
 have been contented to accept the formulas 
 which had been left by her father, with an 
 English ritual and the common service of 
 the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. But 
 the sacramentarian tendencies of English 
 Protestant theology had destroyed Henry's 
 standing-ground as a position which the 
 Reformers could be brought to accept. It 
 was to deny transubstantiation that the mar- 
 tyrs had died. It was in the name and in 
 defence of the mass that Mary and Pole had 
 exercised their savage despotism. Elizabeth 
 had borne her share of persecution ; she 
 resisted with the whole force of her soul the 
 
 355 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 indignities to which she had been exposed, 
 and she sympathised with those who had 
 suffered at her side. She was the idol of the 
 young, the restless, the enthusiastic. Her 
 name had been identified with freedom, and 
 she detested more sincerely than any theo- 
 logian living the perversity which treated 
 opinion as a crime. In her speculative 
 theories she was nearer to Rome than to 
 Calvinism. In her vital convictions she re- 
 presented the free, proud spirit of the Eng- 
 lish laity, who would endure no dictation 
 from priests of either persuasion, and so far 
 as lay in them would permit no clergy any 
 more to fetter the thoughts and paralyze the 
 energies of England." 
 
 Learned Ladies and Adventurous 
 Spirits. 
 
 In another respect Elizabeth was a repre- 
 sentative of the spirit of the time. The long 
 and bitter ecclesiastical controversies had 
 unconsciously aided the revival of learning 
 and literature. Familiarity with the classical 
 languages had extended from the clergy to 
 the laity, and what is somewhat pedantically 
 described as '' polite literature " was also ad- 
 vancing its limits. The growing intercourse 
 with foreign nations improved the national 
 taste in art and litei"ature. The hard theolo- 
 gical fighting had evoked a vitality and intel- 
 lectual energy which had snapped asunder 
 the bonds imposed by the subtleties of the 
 schoolmenand prepared the way for a new 
 and more robust philosophy, as well as a 
 new and more robust theology. There was a 
 quickened spirit of inquiry, an eagerness on 
 the part of the more cultured classes to be- 
 come acquainted with the thoughtful and 
 imaginative literature of the quick-witted 
 nations of southern Europe. Scholarship 
 became fashionable, not only with the lords, 
 but with the ladies of the time. The daugh- 
 ters of the nobility sought the aid, as in- 
 structors, of erudite men like Roger Ascham, 
 and the acquirements of some of the young 
 women of that age were remarkable. Lady 
 Jane Grey studying Greek with Ascham, in 
 preference to sharing in the pleasures of a 
 holiday, is a familiar picture. Even Queen 
 Mary, feeble in health, not remarkable for 
 great intellectual gifts, read and wrote Latin 
 fluently, had some acquaintance with Greek, 
 and spoke with ease in French, Spanish, 
 and Italian. Elizabeth, blessed with good 
 health and possessing great mental activity, 
 added Hebrew to other linguistic acquire- 
 ments, was a fairly good musician, and 
 eagerly mastered so much of foreign and 
 English literature as found its way to the 
 secluded chambers of Hatfield. 
 
 As yet, perhaps, she had less sympathy, 
 because less acquaintance, with one of the 
 most potent influences in the struggling 
 
 energy of the time. A shorter period than 
 the threescore-and-ten years to which men 
 might expect to live had elapsed since 
 Christopher Columbus had revealed the 
 existence of a new world, since the visions of 
 golden cities and other Dorados had dazzled 
 the eyes of Europe. The subjugation of 
 Mexico by Cortez, the conquest of the Peru- 
 vian Incas by Pizarro, were scarcely old 
 stories ; and there were in England many 
 adventurous spirits, still in the enjoyment 
 of lusty manhood, who in their youth had 
 thrilled with an ardent desire to share the 
 perils of the Atlantic seas and set foot on the 
 almost fairyland of the New World; to fol- 
 low De Soto in his search for the fountain of 
 eternal youth ; to look, as Hernando Cortez 
 had looked, upon the waves of the Pacific 
 which had washed the shores of far Cathay, 
 and which Maghaelan had reached through 
 the strait which now bears his name. Portu- 
 guese navigators were familiar with the route 
 to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and Portuguese merchants were storing the 
 warehouses with the gold and silver, the pre- 
 cious stones, the silks and sumptuous fabrics, 
 of the East. Only two years before, an Eng- 
 lish adventurer had visited the Gold Coast of 
 Western Africa, and having discovered that 
 the negroes whom he met with were " a 
 people of beastly living, without God, law, 
 religion, or commonwealth," was convinced 
 that he, as a civiHzed and superior being, was 
 justified in capturing five of these dusky 
 heathens, and bringing to England, for the 
 purpose of selling them as slaves. The 
 English mind, however, had not as yet ex- 
 panded sufficiently to appreciate man- catch- 
 ing as a profitable commercial transaction, 
 and as no buyers could be found, the cap- 
 tives were sent back in another vessel. It 
 was reserved for John Hawkins, a few years 
 later, to establish the slave-trade as an 
 adventure in which English merchants 
 could profitably (and therefore, of course, 
 conscientiously) engage. At that time the 
 English people did not want foreign slaves 
 for their own use. There were labourers 
 enough, and to spare, at home ; and, indeed, 
 a sort of slavery, by which sturdy vagrants 
 were made to work and practically sold to 
 the highest bidders, was a familiar institution. 
 But the ship which brought over the five 
 slaves, and other ships, too, which had 
 visited the Gold Coast, brought home ru- 
 mours of wealth in gold, ivory, and other 
 matters, which almost rivalled the glowing 
 accounts from the western world. 
 
 The Maritime Supremacy and Wealth 
 
 OF Spain. 
 
 The discovery of America had made 
 
 Spain the wealthiest nation of the world. 
 
 The broad ocean was traversed by her 
 
 3S6 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 ships laden with almost fabulous wealth ; 
 her young noblemen and gallant gentlemen 
 were adventurers gathering: riches and re- 
 nown in the islands to which the name of 
 West Indies had been given, or in the aurife- 
 rous lands once reigned over by Montezuma 
 or governed by the Incas of Peru. Spain 
 was the queen of the seas, and Spain was 
 hated by England. Philip of Spain had 
 been king consort — the encourager, if not 
 the prompter, of Mary's bigotry and cruelty ; 
 and Philip had already begun the persecu- 
 tion, afterwards so terrible, of the Dutch 
 Protestants. In an age in which so many 
 elements were active, we may expect to find 
 mixed motives. The English generally, from 
 their own experience, were disgusted with 
 persecution, and they consequently disliked 
 Philip. Spain was a foreign power which had 
 unduly influenced English affairs, and was 
 therefore offensive to English patriotism. 
 Spain was also the greatest maritime power 
 of the day, and enjoyed apparently illimit- 
 able wealth, a share of which would have 
 greatly gratified the English nobility and 
 merchants ; and that fact appealed strongly 
 to another phase of patriotism. Thousands 
 of brave young Englishmen, younger sons, 
 and others of adventurous spirit and little 
 wealth, would be delighted to share in 
 voyages of discovery and conquest, to meet 
 the richly freighted Spanish galleons on the 
 high seas and teach the heretics a wholesome 
 lesson in morals by capturing their golden 
 freights. There is a law of heredity in national 
 instincts, which, in peoples as in individuals, 
 may be long dormant, but appears at last, 
 even stronger after centuries of slumber. 
 Englishmen are the descendants of sea- 
 rovers, Scandinavian bersekers, Norman ad- 
 venturers — it might be beneath the dignity of 
 history to say pirates. The people of the 
 inland towns might, in those times of difficult 
 communication, when few except nobles, 
 men-at-arms, and chapmen wandered ten 
 miles from their homes, have retained but 
 little of the nature of their maritime fore- 
 fathers ; but around the coast were hardy 
 fishermen and navigators, to whom sea life 
 was a second nature, and who would be 
 ready enough to enter on any adventure. 
 This revival of the national maritime spirit 
 was one of the most remarkable develop- 
 ments of this remarkable time, and imparted 
 a marvellous energy not only to the adven- 
 turous, but also to the intellectual and moral 
 characteristics of the age. 
 
 If, as we have said, Elizabeth in her youth 
 had not much^sympathy with this adventurous 
 spirit, she no doubt shared in the dislike to 
 Spain, and to Philip, who was an uncomfort- 
 able brother-in-law ; and she was astute 
 enough to see that, as Spain grew, England 
 would become less and less influential. If 
 
 not a very ardent doctrinal Protestant, she 
 was a very decided political Protestant, and 
 nationally ambitious besides ; therefore little 
 disposed to acquiesce in a Catholic monarch 
 dominating the destinies of Europe. She 
 inherited the temper of her father, and her 
 father had no disposition to be second to any 
 potentate, be he Pope or be he Emperor. 
 
 Condition of England. 
 
 The regency of Somerset, the wretched 
 and ignoble reign of Mary, had reduced 
 England to a miserable condition, financially 
 and socially. The crown revenues were sadly 
 deficient, half of the amount having been 
 sacrificed to reimburse the Catholic clergy 
 for the loss they had sustained by the confis- 
 cation of the abbey lands. Philip had in- 
 fluenced Mary to engage in an expensive and 
 disastrous war with France ; and she had 
 extorted subsidies from her wealthier subjects 
 only to encounter shame and defeat. At the 
 time when the country was impoverished, and 
 smarting under a feeling of national disgrace, 
 she had allowed Philip to take ;^6o,ooo from 
 the Treasury, and had presented him with 
 the valuable crown jewels. The country 
 generally was in a dissatisfied condition, in 
 a strange state of transition. The nobility, 
 with few exceptions, were no longer feudal 
 chiefs, but were impoverished and compara- 
 tively weak. Many men of high rank, many 
 of the young men of the oldfamilies, struggHng 
 against the oppression of the new order of 
 things, had becoine entangled in conspi- 
 racies, had perished on the scaffold, or had 
 sought safety in voluntary exile. The mili- 
 tary spirit of the yeomen and peasantry had 
 decayed, and they were no longer familiar 
 with the use of arms. The fortresses through- 
 out the country were dismantled or un- 
 garrisoned ; some in ruins. There was no 
 fleet worthy of the name. Mary Stuart, the 
 Scotch princess, had married the Dauphin of 
 France, and assumed the title of Queen of 
 England, with, as many thought, a better 
 legal title to the throne than Elizabeth her- 
 self — for Mary was the lineal descendant of 
 Henry the Seventh of England, of unques- 
 tioned legitimacy, while Elizabeth was the 
 daughter of Anne Boleyn, whose marriage 
 with Henry the Eighth had been accepted as 
 lawful or unlawful according as personal or 
 political convenience dictated. 
 
 An address to the Council, preserved 
 among the " Domestic Papers," thus describes 
 the position of the country in the latter days 
 of Oueen Mary : — 
 
 " The Queen poor, the realm exhausted, 
 the nobility poor and decayed ; good captains 
 and soldiers wanting ; the people out of 
 order ; justice not executed ; all things dear; 
 excesses in meat, diet, and apparel ; division 
 among ourselves ; war with France ; the 
 
 357 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 French king bestriding the realm, having 
 one foot in Calais and the other in Scotland ; 
 steadfast enemies, but no steadfast friends." 
 
 The general bitterness and distrust en- 
 gendered by the persecutions in the name 
 of religion, was felt throughout the land. 
 The sufferings to which the Protestants had 
 been exposed might, the Catholics had some 
 reason to fear, induce a reaction, and inspire a 
 feeling of revenge when their hour of triumph 
 came ; and the fires of Smithfield and Oxford 
 might be re-lighted, with believers in the mass 
 and the temporal power of the Papacy at the 
 stake, in place of Protestant martyrs. In- 
 tolerance and persecution were the common 
 weapons of both theological parties, and it 
 was not unreasonably' feared that Elizabeth 
 and the bishops nominated by her would be 
 as ready to put down heresy by strong means 
 as their predecessors had been. 
 
 Besides this smouldering apprehension of 
 theological animosity, there was a powerful 
 social animosity at work. The nobility were 
 declining in wealth and influence. The middle 
 classes were rising into importance. Merchants 
 and other commoners had become possessed 
 of vast estates by the dissolution of the 
 monasteries. The old aristocratic spirit was 
 bitter against the mushroom gentility, the 
 sudden rise into social importance, of the 
 townsmen and traders. The writer of a 
 letter addressed to Sir William Cecil, and 
 preserved among the " Domestic Manu- 
 scripts," suggested that "the wealth of the 
 meaner sort must be cured by keeping them 
 in awe through the severity of justice, and 
 by providing, as it were, some sewers or 
 channels to draw and suck from them their 
 money by subtle and indirect means." The 
 same writer, having proposed this practical 
 method of dealing with the wealthy parvenus, 
 proceeded to indicate how the nobles might 
 be benefited at the expense of the Church. 
 In this regard, he probably expressed a 
 very general feeling ; for the experience of 
 the last few years had not greatly increased 
 the respect of the laity for ecclesiastical dig- 
 nitaries. He suggested that " it might not 
 be amiss to take from the bishops the titles 
 of lords, and their places in parliament ; to 
 allow the archbishops a thousand pounds and 
 the bishops a thousand marks [one-third less] 
 yearly, and to give their temporal lands and 
 stately houses to noblemen having need of the 
 same." Evidently there was little love lost 
 between the prelates and the " old nobility." 
 
 Sir William Cecil (the great Lord Burleigh 
 of after times) was unquestionably the ablest 
 statesman of the time, and Elizabeth, who 
 well knew his value, acted wisely in at once 
 entrusting him with the office of secretary 
 and direction of political affairs. He at once 
 grappled with the financial difficulties of the 
 situation. On the day following that on 
 
 which Cecil had announced to Elizabeth 
 that she was Queen of England, Sir Thomas 
 Gresham, the leading merchant of London, 
 and the most clear-headed man of the time 
 in commercial and monetary matters, ac- 
 companied him to Hatfield, and received in- 
 structions to set out immediately for Antwerp, 
 for the pui-pose of at once raising a loan 
 to pay the enormous interest on some of the 
 bonds held by Flemish Jews, and to defray 
 pressing demands. 
 
 One of the first efforts of Cecil, who en- 
 joyed the most perfect confidence of the 
 Queen, was to put the coinage into a more 
 satisfactory condition. It had been abomi- 
 nably depreciated, and private mints had been 
 established for the issue of base coin. This 
 was remedied by calling in the old coin and 
 substituting for it new and genuine money. 
 Of course this necessary proceeding involved 
 a money loss, but it was well compensated 
 by the greater security of all commercial 
 transactions. 
 
 Royal Entry into London, 
 Six days after her accession, the young 
 Queen set out from Hatfield, " with a joyous 
 escort of more than a thousand persons," on 
 her way to London. At Highgate she was met 
 by the bishops, who, kneeling, acknowledged 
 their allegiance, not, perhaps, without some 
 doubts as to the probability of the tenure of 
 their sees. She was in a gracious humour, 
 and permitted each bishop to kiss her hand, 
 except Bonner, Bishop of London, " whom," 
 says Stow, " she omitted for sundry severities 
 in the time of his authority." He perhaps 
 remembered the slight when he afterwards re- 
 fused to take the oath of supremacy — a refusal 
 for which he was deprived of his bishopric, 
 and remitted to the Marshalsea prison, whei'e 
 he died miserably. At the foot of High- 
 gate hill the young Queen was met by 
 the Lord Mayor and aldermen and chief 
 citizens of London, and conducted by them 
 in great state, through Islington and Clerken- 
 well, to Lord North's mansion, the Charter 
 House, adjacent to Smithfield. After a 
 week's residence there, she entered the city 
 at Cripplegate, and rode ia state along by 
 the city wall to the Tower, where she re- 
 mained another week, and then went by 
 water to Somerset House. One of her first 
 acts as Queen was significant. The Arch- 
 bishop of York ceased to be Lord Chancellor, 
 and Sir Nicholas Bacon, the famous father 
 of a more famous son, and brother-in-law of 
 Cecil, was appointed Lord Keeper. Since 
 that time no ecclesiastic has held the high 
 position of " Keeper of the Sovereign's 
 conscience." 
 
 N o man could say with certainty that the 
 accession of Elizabeth would produce any 
 important change in the ecclesiastical con- 
 
 358 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 dition of the country. The majority of the 
 peers were CathoUcs, and of course the 
 bishops and beneficed clergy belonged to 
 the Romish Church. Elizabeth herself, and 
 Cecil, her chief adviser, had hitherto avoided 
 any direct opposition to that Church, and 
 the new Queen retained thirteen avowed and 
 devout Catholics in her Privy Council. As 
 intimated already, her Protestantism was 
 less doctrinal than political, and at present, 
 at least, she did not choose to assume the 
 character of a doctrinal Reformer. What 
 she did intend to do in regard of the national 
 Church was manifest a year or two after- 
 wards, when she was more firmly settled 
 on the throne. The London mob, however, 
 jumped to the conclusion that the tables 
 were about to be turned, and assaulted priests 
 in the open streets ; while Protestant divines 
 emerged from their hiding-places, and began, 
 without waiting for official permission, to 
 read the services in English. 
 
 The Spanish ambassador, noting the 
 workings of the popular feeling, wrote to 
 Philip that an insurrection was imminent, 
 and that his best course would be to invade 
 the country at once, to prevent it falling into 
 the hands of France — that country being 
 willing, he supposed, to support the claims 
 of Mary, wife of the Dauphin, to the throne 
 of England. " The realm," wrote the am- 
 bassador, " is in such a state that we could 
 best negotiate sword in hand." Philip, 
 accustomed to tortuous courses, declined to 
 adopt this advice, and trusted to the effect of 
 bribes, promises, and persuasions. He hit 
 upon a plan of his own ; and when Elizabeth 
 formally notified to him the death of his 
 wife Mary, and her accession to the throne, 
 he replied by offering to marry Elizabeth, 
 his sister-in-law, thinking, perhaps, she 
 would be unable to resist so splendid an offer, 
 and by that means he might obtain even a 
 stronger hold on England than he had en- 
 joyed in the reign of Mary. He little under- 
 stood either England or England's new 
 Queen. She was too independent in spirit 
 to be made a political tool, and too womanly 
 to receive the advances of her sister's 
 widower. Queen Mary was interred in 
 Westminster Abbey, with all the solemn 
 funeral rites of the Romish Church, and the 
 celebration of a mass of requiem ; but the 
 day afterwards (Christmas Day) Elizabeth 
 withdrew from the service in the private 
 chapel before the elevation of the host. She 
 did not forbid the Catholic celebration, but 
 declined to be present at it. 
 
 Changes in the Church, 
 
 Before a year had elapsed, " the English 
 Church was lost for ever to the Papists." 
 Probably the Queen was a little influenced 
 in her action by the language of Pope Paul 
 
 IV., who, when the ambassador at Rome 
 officially notified to him the death of Mary 
 and the accession of her sister, replied that 
 " he looked upon Elizabeth as illegitimate, 
 and that she ought, therefore, to lay down 
 the government, and wait for his decision as 
 to whether she was lawful Queen." Of all 
 women in the world, Elizabeth was the last 
 to bow to such a dictum as this ; and of all 
 people in the world, the Enghsh were the 
 last to accept a Papal allotment of the 
 crown. The change must have come in 
 course of time, but there can be little doubt 
 that it was precipitated by the language of 
 the Pope. In the first session of Parliament, 
 held immediately after Elizabeth's corona- 
 tion, the Lords and Commons enacted that 
 the Queen, notwithstanding her sex, was the 
 supreme head of the English Church ; that 
 the laws made concerning religion in King 
 Edward's time should be re-established in 
 full force; and that his Book of Common 
 Prayer in the mother-tongue should be 
 restored, and used to the exclusion of all 
 others in all places of worship. The Liturgy, 
 however, received certain modifications, 
 which made it less objectionable to the 
 Catholics, even if it failed to satisfy enthu- 
 siastic Protestants. The Pope was deposed 
 from the headship of the Church, but the 
 prayer for deliverance from him " and all his 
 detestable enormities " was struck out. The 
 words used in administering the Sacrament 
 were so altered that the recipient could take 
 it whether he believed in the real presence 
 or not, and the rubric directed against the 
 doctrine was struck out. 
 
 Doctrinally, there was certainly a con- 
 siderable compromise; but politically, the 
 Queen and her advisers were decidedly un- 
 compromising. Her faithful subjects were 
 quite welcome to say of the sacramental 
 bread, as she herself is traditionally reported 
 to have said — 
 
 ' ' Christ's was the hand that brake it, 
 Christ's was the word that spake it, 
 And what that word did make it 
 That I beheve and take it," 
 
 but they must admit, whether they liked 
 it or not, that she, Elizabeth, Queen of 
 England, was head of the Church. On the 
 15th of May, the bishops, deans, and other 
 Church dignitaries were summoned before 
 the Queen and Privy Council, and ad- 
 monished to conform to the new statute. 
 Heath, Archbishop of York (the see of 
 Canterbury was vacant), had the courage 
 to remind the Queen of her promise " not to 
 change the religion which she found by law 
 established," and said that his conscience 
 would not suffer him to obey her present 
 commands. The other bishops concurred.and 
 it was evident that a crisis was approaching. 
 
 359 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 One after another, the bishops refused to 
 take the oath of supremacy ; one only, 
 Bishop Kitchen, of Llandaff, who had been 
 Papist and Protestant, and Papist again, 
 
 were deprived, and many Church dignitaries 
 also suffered the loss of their position in the 
 Church ; but the great body of the clergy 
 complied, and the vacant bishoprics were 
 
 Attacking a Spanish Treasure Ship. 
 
 and was now willmg to be Protestant once i filled up chiefly from the ranks ot eminent 
 more, complied, and was rewarded by being Protestant divines who had fled the country 
 allowed to retam his bishopric. The others | to avoid the Marian persecutions, Matthew 
 
 360 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 Parker, who in early life had been chaplain 
 to Anne Boleyn, being appointed Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. 
 
 The Clergy at Home. 
 The work of Church reformation by no 
 means ended with the establishment of 
 royal supremacy and the deprivation of 
 those prelates and priests who declined to 
 accept it. Personally, the clergy needed re- 
 formation quite as much as the system. In 
 the reign just ended, the prelates had cared 
 more for doc- 
 trine than for 
 discipline ; and 
 the new comers 
 into sees and 
 benefices were 
 mostly deter- 
 mined to make 
 the best of their 
 opportunities. 
 Within two 
 years after the 
 Church of Eng- 
 land was put 
 on the new 
 basis, we are 
 told, the pre- 
 lates were gran- 
 ting long leases 
 (for a consider- 
 ation) of the 
 estates in which 
 they had but 
 life interests, 
 "caring nothing 
 for the future." 
 The Queen, it 
 was known, ob- 
 jected to a mar- 
 ried clergy, al- 
 though she did 
 not press the 
 legal enforce- 
 ment of celi- 
 bacy. Many 
 priests who had 
 wives in the 
 background in 
 Mary's reign 
 
 now brought them forward ; and many of the 
 new incumbents and dignitaries had wives 
 and families. The Oueen had a right, or 
 assumed a right, to interfere in the colleges 
 and cathedrals, and cleared out the wives 
 and little ones, declaring that the rooms 
 intended for students were not to be sacri- 
 ficed to women and children. The ladies, 
 indeed, carried matters with a very high 
 hand before the Queen interfered. We read 
 that the singing men of the cathedral choirs 
 were made to act as private servants to 
 the clergy, and that the cathedral plate was 
 
 Francis Drake, 
 
 transferred to private sideboards ; " the 
 organ pipes were melted into kitchen dishes, 
 the frames being made into bedsteads ; and 
 the copes and vestments, valuable for their 
 golden embroidery, were cut up into gowns 
 for the wives of the clergy. The said wives 
 did call and take all things belonging to the 
 Church and corporation as their own." The 
 national Church was indeed in a bad con- 
 dition. In some dioceses at least a third of 
 the parishes had no clergymen ; and of 
 course the children were unbaptized, there 
 
 were no ser- 
 yices, no ad- 
 ministration of 
 the Sacrament, 
 and the dead 
 went unblessed 
 to the grave. 
 Some of these 
 vacancies, es- 
 pecially in the 
 northern and 
 western coun- 
 ties,werecaused 
 by the refusal 
 of the occu- 
 pants to take 
 the oath of al- 
 legiance. The 
 buildings fell 
 into decay, and 
 the Queen was 
 moved to ad- 
 dress an indig- 
 nant remon- 
 strance toArch- 
 bishop Parker 
 on the "no 
 small offence 
 and scandal of 
 the neglected 
 condition of the 
 churches." The 
 personal chan- 
 ges caused by 
 the new settle- 
 ment of the 
 Church are de- 
 scribed by Bur- 
 nett, who says 
 thatot nine thousand four hundred beneficed 
 persons in England,all who chose to resign their 
 benefices rather than comply with the new order 
 of things were, beside the fourteen bishops 
 and three bishops-elect, only six abbots, twelve 
 deans, twelve archdeacons, fifteen heads of 
 colleges, fifty prebendaries, and eighty rectors. 
 This statement confirms the view taken, 
 that doctrinal matters were far less in dispute 
 than ecclesiastical supremacy. There was 
 no national dishke to a national church. As 
 Mr. Green remarks, in his " History of the 
 English People," " The most advanced Re- 
 
 361 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 formers did not dream of contending for a 
 right to stand apart from the national religion. 
 What they wanted was to make that national 
 religion their own." 
 
 Eliza,beth and her advisers having resolved 
 to supersede the Roman Catholic as the 
 State religion, resolved also to do their best 
 to banish it from the country. The Tudors 
 had little of the spirit of toleration in their 
 composition ; and, having decided that mass 
 should not be celebrated in the national 
 churches, proceeded to forbid it also in 
 private chapels. Some of the practices of 
 the Romish Church were not objectionable 
 to the Queen ; and when on one occasion 
 Dean Nowell, a hot Reformer, was preach- 
 ing before her, and began to vehemently 
 denounce the use of images, she shouted 
 from the royal closet, " Stick to your text. 
 Master Dean ; leave that alone." But she 
 would be independent of the Pope, just as 
 she would be independent of Philip of Spain, 
 and the Parliament shared the feeling. There 
 was, in fact, a strong national reaction, and 
 little difficulty was experienced in passing 
 the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. By 
 the former an oath was imposed acknow- 
 ledging " the Queen's highness to be the 
 only supreme governor of this realm, as well 
 in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things or 
 causes as temporal." Members of the Roman 
 Church who believed in the supremacy in 
 spiritual matters of the Pope, of course 
 could not conscientiously take this oath, and 
 they suffered accordingly deprivation of civil 
 rights, and in some cases were subjected to 
 charges of treason. Elizabeth instructed the 
 ecclesiastical visitors of the dioceses to deny 
 that she meant to '' challenge authority and 
 power of ministry of divine service in the 
 Church ; " but that the true meaning of the 
 Act of Supremacy was that she intended to 
 "have the sovereignty and rule over all 
 manner of persons born within her realm, 
 dominions, and countries, of what estate, 
 either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they 
 be, so as no other foreign power shall or 
 ought to have any superiority over them." 
 This vigorous protest against foreign inter- 
 ference was quite in accordance with the pre- 
 vailing temper of the people; and scrupulous 
 adherents of the Papacy being in the minority, 
 they were, with considerable cheerfulness, 
 left to their fate. 
 
 Similarly, the Act of Uniformity met with 
 general acceptance on account of its political 
 significance. It interdicted the celebration 
 of Catholic rites, even in private, and the use 
 of any liturgy except that of the Church of 
 England, under pain of forfeiting goods and 
 chattels and imprisonment (for life for a 
 third offence). The service was conducted 
 in the English language ; and as, therefore, 
 there could be no excuse for not listening to 
 
 it, everybody was ordered to attend church 
 on Sundays and holidays, or to pay a fine of 
 one shiUing for every non-attendance. The 
 Protestant clergy, having been themselves 
 persecuted, were quite ready to be perse- 
 cutors in their turn, and the common people 
 who had shouted with delight when Protes- 
 tants were burned in Smithfield would have 
 been equally pleased to see behevers in 
 the Papacy at the stake. The Queen and 
 Cecil were not disposed to revive the terrible 
 spirit of the times just passed ; but there was 
 nevertheless, at the instigation of some of the 
 clergy, influencing the agents of the govern- 
 ment, "a persecution, not fiery, hot and 
 bloody, like that of the late reign, but petty, 
 minute, destructive of individual liberty, 
 household independence, domestic peace, 
 and too often of property." It was a stormy 
 and volcanic time, and the national energies 
 were in a disturbed condition, and assumed 
 divers contorted forms ; but the real meaning 
 of " Protestantism against Papacy " was 
 " England against the world." 
 
 Political Reforms. 
 
 While the nation was thus the subject ot 
 very important changes in spiritual and eccle- 
 siastical matters, it was also moving forward 
 towards a new political and constitutional 
 condition. An alteration took place in the 
 representation of boroughs, hitherto limited 
 exclusively to burghers of the towns repre- 
 sented. Now others were allowed to be 
 representatives, the result being that men 
 of wealth and connected with the nobility 
 and county families sat in the House of 
 Commons as representatives of boroughs, 
 and their attitude towards the crown was 
 bolder and more independent than that 
 which the previous representatives had dared, 
 or indeed had been disposed, to assume. 
 
 The new Parliament soon contrived to 
 intimate to the Queen that it was not disposed 
 to be a mere instrument of the royal will and 
 pleasure ; and she, finding the position she 
 had at first assumed to be untenable, with- 
 drew from it with consummate tact, and 
 "protested she did not mean to prejudice 
 any part of the liberties of the House." 
 
 Social State of the People. 
 It is difficult to picture the social condition 
 of the lower strata of the people in the Ehza- 
 bethan times. When the young Queen came 
 to the throne the population of the whole 
 realm was about 5,000,000, or but httle more 
 than the inhabitants of the "Greater 
 London " of the Registrar-General of the 
 present day. Wealth was concentrated in 
 comparatively few hands ; the townsmen lived 
 generally as few labourers would like to live 
 now ; the poor were miserably poor indeed. 
 We can be easily deceived by figures ; and 
 
 362 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 when we read that an ox could be bought for 
 about fifty shiUings, a wether sheep for three 
 or four shillings, a milch cow for five-and- 
 thirty shillings, and a pound of butter for 
 fourpence, we might be disposed to think 
 that the workman or country labourer must 
 have been poor indeed if he could not feed 
 well. But a master mason could only earn 
 a shilling a day, a common labourer four- 
 pence, and a hedger or ditcher from four- 
 pence to sixpence. Wheat was about fifty 
 shiUings a quarter, and in some years of 
 scarcity roSe to more than a hundred shil- 
 lings. From these facts we may guess that 
 meat, even at the low prices quoted, did not 
 very frequently adorn the poor man's table ; 
 and what kind of bread he ate we are left to 
 conjecture. 
 
 The land was literally overrun with beg- 
 gars. One of the first public measures of 
 Elizabeth's reign gave authority to the 
 justices in session to assess persons for the 
 relief of the poor, and if they refused or 
 neglected to pay to commit them to prison. 
 The Poor Law was growing into shape, but 
 was yet a long way from maturity. Eliza- 
 beth had been ten years on the throne when 
 the preamble of an Act of Parliament averred 
 that " all the parts of England and Wales 
 be presently with rogues, vagabonds, and 
 sturdy beggars exceedingly pestered." Some 
 of the provisions of an Act passed in the 
 reign of Edward VI., but subsequently re- 
 pealed, were revived, and beggars " who were 
 vagabonds " were whipped, burnt through 
 the gristle of the right ear with a hot iron, and 
 virtually made slaves by being apportioned 
 to some employer to work without wages for 
 a year, to be imprisoned if they ran away once, 
 treated as felons for a second offence of the 
 kind, and very summarily hanged if they ran 
 away a third time. The really helpless poor 
 were to some extent taken care of at the ex- 
 pense of the ratepayers ; but for the " rogues, 
 vagabonds, and sturdy beggars " there was 
 no mercy. The line of demarcation between 
 vagabondage and actual crime was not very 
 distinctly marked by the local magistracy, 
 whose chief object seems to have been to 
 make as short work as possible in dealing 
 with the prowhng gangs. One historian of 
 the period says that the magistrates of 
 Somersetshire captured a gang of a hundred 
 at one stroke, hanged fifty at once, and then 
 complained to the Council of the necessity of 
 waiting till the assizes before they could hang 
 the remaining fifty. Why, having gone so 
 far, they should have had any scruples, is not 
 stated, 
 
 Scarcely a year passed without two or 
 three hundred malefactors being hanged. 
 In some districts the magistrates and county 
 gentlemen who attended the sessions were 
 intimidated by the threats of the sturdy 
 
 beggars and other rogues ; but generally the 
 authorities were ready enough to try the 
 effect of the gallows in improving the morals 
 of the community. They had precedent for 
 the experiment, for in the course of the thirty- 
 eight years' reign of Henry VIII. 72,000 
 persons had being hanged for the offence ot 
 being thieves or vagabonds. So, at least, 
 says Harrison, the historian ; and with nearly 
 two thousand miserable wretches to dispose 
 of every year the hangmen must have had a 
 busy time. The Elizabethan officers of 
 justice did not act on quite such a colossal 
 scale in disposing of offenders ; but they were 
 active enough. To quote a modern writer, 
 " the ' merry England ' of the days of Eliza- 
 beth was in some respects rather a terrible 
 country to live in ; and the courtly and 
 literary splendour which makes the sunny 
 foreground of the picture it has spread before 
 the imagination of all of us is set off, when the 
 whole is uncovered, by no small force of con- 
 trast in the black barbaric gloom of the other 
 parts." 
 
 Mercantile Enterprise. 
 
 Let us pass from the shadows into the light. 
 After the accession of Elizabeth there was a 
 rapid increase in foreign trade. A taste for 
 luxuries developed in the upper classes of 
 society, side by side with the taste for Htera- 
 ture and art ; and in the suddenly enriched 
 middle and mercantile classes, with the 
 increase of wealth the daily strengthening 
 spirit of adventure and enterprise aided the 
 more sordid commercial spirit. The credit 
 of England with foreign merchants and 
 capitalists was re-established, thanks to Cecil, 
 Gresham, and others ; and the merchants of 
 England began that competition in trading- 
 enterprise destined to eclipse the commercial 
 glories of Antwerp and Venice. From India, 
 Persia, and Turkey, were imported carpets, 
 velvets, damasks, cloth of gold, silk, perfumes, 
 and spices. English ships visited the ports 
 of Russia and the Baltic states, and brought 
 back flax, furs, tallow, iron and steel, ropes, 
 cables, and masts for ships. Home-staying 
 capitalists started factories, and encouraged 
 handicrafts, the manufacture of woollen 
 fabrics especially receiving a great impulse ; 
 and a foreign demand for English goods 
 grew with the growth of the foreign trade. 
 It is an evidence of the increasing luxury of 
 the time that in 1559, the year after the 
 accession of Elizabeth, foreign wine to the 
 value of ^64,000 was entered at the port of 
 London — an enormous quantity, the retail 
 price being only on the average sevenpence 
 a gallon ! 
 
 Rovers of the Seas. 
 There wasavery vigorous element in Enghsh 
 society, an element destined to take part in 
 
 363 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 some of the most remarkable achievements of 
 that remarkable time — young men of good 
 abilities, and belonging to good families, 
 resolute and ambitious, with ambition made 
 more active by want of money. They met 
 with bold seamen who had seen the wonders 
 of the New World, who had handled the gold 
 and silver and precious stones, tasted its 
 luscious fruits, and heard its legends — men 
 who had seen the richly freighted galleons 
 sail into the Spanish ports, and men, too, who 
 were not disposed to diminish the effect of 
 their narratives by keeping too scrupulously 
 on the safe side of literal truth. With such 
 adventurous mariners young Walter Raleigh 
 talked, when as a boy he watched the waves 
 beating on the desert coast. With such men 
 a hundred others, older and ready to take 
 part in any daring venture, held converse at 
 London, Bristol, and Falmouth. There were 
 already " rovers of the seas," young men of 
 family driven to what was really little better 
 than piracy by the persecutions and political 
 changes which had deprived them of their 
 heritages ; and they found in the new attitude 
 of England towards foreign powers, in the 
 imminence of a contest with Spain, new 
 opportunities. Some of them had, during 
 the war with France, received commissions ; 
 and on return of peace they had been formally 
 censuredfor their misdeedSjbut not punished; 
 for there was no regular navy, and the 
 services of the daring, able seamen, who not 
 unfrequently boarded a foreign vessel in the 
 British Channel, and whose respect for inter- 
 national law was extremely slight, might 
 be again needed. Among these bold spirits 
 were representatives of the Carews, Kilh- 
 grews, Tremaynes, Throgmortons, Cob- 
 hams, and other families of repute. On 
 Elizabeth's accession some had become 
 servants of the Crown ; one of the most 
 famous. Sir Edward Horsey, was appointed 
 governor of the Isle of Wight, and Harry 
 Killigrew, of a Cornish family, was employed 
 as a confidential agent of the Court. Leaders 
 cast in this mould soon found followers 
 among the fishermen of the coast, hardy 
 fellows whose trade decHned when the 
 Catholics, who ordered much fish to be eaten, 
 were displaced by Protestants who did not 
 observe fast days. They were willing enough 
 to follow the fortunes of the dashing young 
 fellows who had contrived to raise funds for 
 fitting out a ship or two, and ventured into the 
 broad Atlantic to look out for Spanish ships 
 with treasure on board. Sometimes a rich 
 prize was made ; but sometimes the EngUsh 
 rovers got the worst of the encounter, and 
 were taken prisoners to Spain, where such 
 of them as had the courage to stand by their 
 Protestantism were handed over to the 
 Inquisition and burnt as heretics. 
 A writer in the Edinbtirs[h Review de- 
 
 scribes the adventurous spirit which charac- 
 terized the age : " Maritime expedition and 
 colonization were the favourite undertakings 
 and projects of the more enterprising and 
 active speculators of that stirring period. 
 The ocean and the New World attracted all 
 their actions and thoughts. The more daring 
 and adventurous fitted out cruisers to inter- 
 cept the Spanish ships on their return with 
 rich cargoes from the colonies ; while those 
 who aimed at plantations and the extension 
 of commerce looked to the northern parts of 
 America as the appropriate field of their 
 nobler exertions." 
 
 Maritime Adventures. 
 
 The expedition to the coast of Africa 
 by William Hawkins has been already 
 mentioned. Hawkins was accompanied on 
 that voyage by his son, the more famous 
 John, whose memory bears the disgrace of 
 the first systematic slave trading by an 
 Englishman. In 1562, four years after the 
 accession of Elizabeth, John Hawkins and 
 Thomas Hampton fitted out three vessels, 
 and with a hundred men sailed for Sierra 
 Leone, where they collected three hundred 
 negroes (readily enough sold by the native 
 chiefs, who probably failed to see why they 
 should be more scrupulous about dealing in 
 human flesh than were the clever white men 
 who offered tempting prices for the dusky 
 cargo), and took them to St. Domingo, where 
 they were sold as slaves. King Philip, how- 
 ever, would not sanction thelransaction. It 
 is only charitable to suppose that humanity 
 had as much to do with this determination 
 as desire to annoy an Englishman ; but the 
 negroes were retained, although the hides 
 which Hawkins had purchased with the price 
 of the slaves, and sent to Cadiz, were con- 
 fiscated when they reached that port. 
 
 The seamen of that, day were not easily 
 discouraged, and Hawkins was in some re- 
 spects a typical man. A second expedition 
 was fitted out ; and Elizabeth actually gave 
 the leader one of the best ships in the ser- 
 vice to be employed in the trade. The name 
 of this ship was the Jesics ; but we have no 
 record that any of the ardent religionists 
 about the Court, any of the zealous Protes- 
 tants or eloquent preachers, noticed the unfit- 
 ness of the name. It may be that the Queen 
 resented the action of Philip, whom she no 
 doubt heartily detested ; but it is quite cer- 
 tain that she more than once condescended to 
 take a share in what might prove a profitable 
 venture — and, after all, they were only black 
 heathens who were to be stolen. In those days 
 men and women of culture were rather hard- 
 hearted. Not only did the Queen thus aid 
 Hawkins, but she gave another ship to Davis 
 Carlet, bound on a similar expedition. Haw- 
 kins captured or purchased from Portuguese 
 
 364 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 traders about four hundred slaves, — not, how- 
 ever, without escaping many dangers, as, with 
 an edifying piety he acknowledged, by " the 
 aid of Almighty God, who never suffers His 
 elect to perish." 
 
 Achievements of Drake. 
 
 The great sailor of the age was Francis 
 Drake, a kinsman of Hawkins. He was the 
 eldest of the twelve sons of Edward Drake, 
 a sailor, and was born in 1545, near Tavis- 
 tock, in Devonshire. Hawkins noticed the 
 ability and spirit of the lad, and took him to 
 sea with him. At eighteen he was purser of 
 a ship, and at twenty-two captain of a vessel 
 named the Jiidith. He behaved gallantly in 
 an action at St. John d'Ulloa in the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and returned to England, as he him- 
 self said, " with a great reputation, and with- 
 out a groat " — not an uncommon condition 
 with the bold, reckless adventurers of the 
 time. His ship's company included a chap- 
 lain, who probably fitted his divinity to the 
 latitudes in which he chanced to be cruising, 
 and he had advised Drake on a question of 
 casuistry. " The case," he said, " is clear : the 
 King of Spain's subjects have undone Mr. 
 Drake, and therefore Mr. Drake is at liberty 
 to take the best satisfaction he can on the 
 subjects of the King of Spain." This doctrine, 
 we are told, " how rudely soever preached, 
 was very taking in England." In 1570 Drake 
 sailed on his first expedition, with two ships, 
 the Dragon and the Swan, landed on the 
 Isthmus of Darien, which he crossed, and 
 then returned to England with a good booty. 
 In the following year he made a less success- 
 ful voyage in the Swan alone. He started 
 on a third expedition from Plymouth on the 
 24th of March, 1572 — himself in the Pascha, 
 of seventy tons ; and his brother in the Swan, 
 only twenty-five tons. With such small 
 vessels did the knights-errant of the ocean 
 seek adventures in those days of daring. 
 The crew consisted of seventy-five men and 
 boys. In July he reached the Mexican 
 coast, and attacked the town of N ombre de 
 Dios, near which were rich silver mines. 
 The town was taken by storm ; but Drake 
 himself was dangerously wounded, and the 
 adventurers were afterwards compelled to 
 retreat to their ships, having obtained very 
 little booty. The town of Venta Cruz was next 
 attacked and captured, and a small amount 
 of plunder obtained, but more from a train of 
 fifty mules laden with plate which Drake's 
 followers met on the way. They carried off 
 as much as they could, and buried the rest. 
 In these exploits they were assisted by some 
 of the native Indians, who hated the Spanish 
 with a very intelligible hatred, and as yet 
 believed in the superior virtues of the English 
 rovers. The chief, or prince, of the Indians 
 gave Drake four large wedges of gold in 
 
 exchange for a cutlass. With a seaman's 
 generosity Drake gave this treasure to the 
 common stock, saying " he thought it but 
 just that such as bore the charge of so un- 
 certain a voyage on his credit should share 
 to the utmost in the advantages that voyage 
 produced." On the 9th of August, 1573, the 
 weather-beaten sails of the returning ships 
 were seen from Plymouth Hoe, and Drake 
 and his comrades received the congratulations 
 of the townsmen on the success of their ven- 
 ture — which some unromantic persons might 
 describe as of a piratical character. 
 
 Drake's restless energy would not allow 
 him to repose. While awaiting opportunity 
 for making another sea venture, he served 
 as a soldier in Ireland, where there was 
 plenty of fighting, and where, too, there was 
 occasionally a little "loot," as it is called 
 now-a-days. There he so distinguished him- 
 self that on his return Sir Christopher Hatton 
 introduced him to the Queen. He was soon 
 afterwards at the head of a fleet of five small 
 vessels (the largest only of eighty tons), with 
 164 men; and in December, 1577, started from 
 Falmouth to achieve the great adventure of 
 his career. He sailed through the Straits of 
 Maghaelan into the Pacific, plundered with 
 patriotic (and perhaps a little private) zeal 
 the Spanish towns on the coasts of Chili and 
 Peru, and then sailing westward touched at 
 the East Indies and returned home by way 
 of the Cape of Good Hope. He was the 
 first Englishman who had sailed round the 
 world ; and it is no wonder that when he 
 reached Deptford Elizabeth warmly wel- 
 comed the bold seaman who had rivalled the 
 greatest achievements of the vaunted Spanish 
 navigators. She visited his ship, the Golden 
 Hind, at Deptford, and knighted Drake, 
 who was henceforth in great favour. In 
 1585-6 he was busy in the West Indies, doing 
 all the damage he could to Spanish ships 
 and Spanish towns ; and a year afterwards 
 commanded thirty ships in an expedition to 
 Cadiz. It was known that Philip was pre- 
 paring a great fleet for the invasion of 
 England, and Drake's orders were to attack 
 and destroy as many ships as he could. 
 With amazing daring he entered Cadiz 
 roads, passed the batteries, and in one day, 
 the 19th of April, 1587, burned a hundred 
 vessels and possessed himself of an immense 
 booty ; and having quitted the roads before 
 the Spaniards had recovered from their 
 panic, sailed along the coast burning and 
 plundering. Then he steered for the Azores, 
 looking out for homeward-bound treasure- 
 ships, and encountered and captured an 
 enormous " carrack," the richest prize ever 
 taken at sea. This he brought in triumph 
 to Plymouth, and the heads of his country- 
 men were nearly turned b}' the arrival of 
 booty worth about a million sterling. 
 
 365 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Seeking a North-West Passage. 
 
 But Francis Drake, although the most 
 brilhantly successful seaman of his time, had 
 rivals in the spirit of adventure. The pos- 
 sibility of a north-western passage to the 
 Indies was even then suggested. In July, 
 1576, Martin Frobisher left England with two 
 small vessels (the largest only of twenty-five 
 tons) and a pinnace, reached the coast of 
 Greenland, and made an unsuccessful ex- 
 ploration of a strait which he supposed would 
 afford the desired passage. He returned to 
 England and prepared another expedition. 
 The coast of Greenland was again reached, 
 but few discoveries were made, except of 
 stones which " sparkle and glister in the sun 
 like gold," and the horn of a "sea-unicorn," 
 into which some spiders being put imme- 
 diately died, and that was, according to some 
 very astute axiom, a sure proof of " great store 
 of gold." Two women (Esquimaux probably) 
 were also captured, one of whom was so ugly 
 that the sailors suspected her to be the devil, 
 and would not be convinced to the contrary 
 until they had stripped off her boots of skins, 
 to see whether she had a cloven foot. In the 
 following year the Queen sent Frobisher on 
 a third voyage, to take possession of the land 
 he had discovered ; and 120 persons accom- 
 panied him, intending to establish a colony ; 
 but the ice barred the passage, and the ex- 
 pedition returned, with no other gain than a 
 large quantity of the "glistering stones," 
 which were generally believed to indicate the 
 presence of gold, but were most probably 
 pieces of the beautiful iridescent spar found 
 abundantly in Labrador. England was 
 hungering for gold, and no simple country 
 lad ever tramped to London with greater 
 belief in the existence of the golden pavement 
 than that with which the adventurers of the 
 Ehzabethan age dared the perils of the sea 
 in search of Dorados in the western world. 
 
 In 1585, John Davis, of Sandridge, in 
 Devonshire, with two ships, reached the 
 coast of Greenland, which he called " the 
 land of desolation ; " then steering to the 
 north-west, he saw a high mountain, "glit- 
 tering like gold " (gold again !), to which he 
 gave the name Mount Raleigh. For sixty 
 leagues Davis sailed up a strait (now known 
 as Cumberland Inlet), but was compelled to 
 return. He made two other voyages subse- 
 quently, but with small practical result. His 
 name is still preserved in Davis Straits. 
 
 Then there were the expeditions to the 
 American coast by Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
 (ending so pathetically), and by captains sent 
 out by Walter Raleigh ; the discovery and 
 settlement of Virginia ; and afterwards 
 Raleigh's own voyage to Guiana, and attempt 
 to reach "the golden land," and his marvellous 
 narrative, so grandly told, of the beauties 
 
 and natural wealth of the country. About 
 the same time, too, Thomas Candish, or 
 Cavendish, emulating the achievement of 
 Drake, passed through the Maghaelan Strait 
 and attacked the Spanish towns on the South 
 American coast. He sailed round the world, 
 and returned with abundance of wealth, and 
 was knighted by the Queen ; but soon spent 
 his money, undertook another voyage, met 
 with no success, and died broken-hearted on 
 his way home. 
 
 Rise of the East India Company. 
 
 While daring men of adventurous minds 
 were turning their thoughts to the western 
 world, India, the " Cathay," that powerful 
 magnet of attraction to the merchants of 
 Europe, was the bright particular star to 
 which the more sober-minded wealth-seekers 
 turned their eyes. The Turkey company sent 
 expeditions through Syria to Bagdad, and 
 down the Tigris to the Persian Gulf, whence 
 India was reached ; and other expeditions 
 made their way by sea round the Cape of 
 Good Hope. Agents were despatched to the 
 court of the Great Mogul ; associations of 
 merchants were formed in London for the 
 purpose of establishing a trade with India, 
 and towards the close of her reign Elizabeth 
 granted a charter of incorporation to " the 
 governor and company of the merchants of 
 London trading with the East Indies." 
 What the East India Company grew to, we 
 all know, and we all know, too, that Queen 
 Victoria is now Empress of India ; but the 
 seeds of that greatness were sown in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Shattering the Great Armada. 
 
 The time came at last for the supreme 
 trial of strength between England, a few years 
 before so weak, and Spain, claiming to be the 
 mistress of the world, but already toppling 
 on the pinnacle of greatness. We need not 
 repeat the familiar story of the great Armada. 
 The world never saw — unless perhaps when 
 the Persians under Xerxes invaded little 
 Greece — so great an array as the gigantic 
 fleet which, under the command of the Duke 
 of Medina-Sidonia, set sail for England in 
 1588. All England was afire with excite- 
 ment and patriotism when the great news 
 came. The nation breathed with a new life. 
 Elizabeth marshalled the troops on land, 
 ready to repel the invaders, covered her 
 golden locks with a steel helmet, enclosed 
 her spare figure in an iron corslet, and having 
 dubbed as knight " the bold lady of Cheshire, 
 Lady Mary Cholmondeley," mounted a 
 charger and made a brave speech to the 
 army gathered at Tilbury. " I am come 
 amongst you," she said, "not for my recrea- 
 tion and disport, but being resolved in the 
 midst of the heat of the battle to live or die 
 
 366 
 
THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 
 
 amongst you all. I know I have the body 
 of a weak, feeble woman, but I have the 
 heart and stomach of a King, and of a 
 King of England too ! " There spoke the 
 spirit of England by the mouth of England's 
 Oueen. Howard of Effingham, Raleigh, 
 Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and many other 
 heroes of the sea, encountered the great 
 Armada in the Channel, and scattered it. 
 A violent storm completed the work of de- 
 struction ; the naval supremacy of Spain was 
 destroyed for ever, and England gained the 
 title, so proudly worn for three centuries, of 
 "mistress of the seas." 
 
 Splendid Literary Development. 
 Contemporaneously with this marvellous 
 development of the power of England in its 
 external aspects, there was an intellectual 
 development even more remarkable. The 
 last thirty years of the sixteenth century in 
 this country were made illustrious by the 
 birth and growth of an imaginative literature 
 of almost unrivalled splendour. Thomas 
 Campbell — and there could scarcely be found 
 a more competent critic — says, in the intro- 
 duction to his " Specimens of the British 
 Poets " :— 
 
 " In the reign of Elizabeth, the English 
 mind put forth its energies in every direction, 
 exalted by a purer religion and enlarged by 
 new views of truth. This was an age of 
 loyalty, adventure, and generous emulation. 
 The chivalrous character was softened by 
 intellectual pursuits, while the genius of 
 chivalry itself still lingered, as if unwilling to 
 depart, and paid his last homage to a warlike 
 and female reign. A degree of romantic 
 fancy remained in the manners and supersti- 
 tion of the people ; and allegory might be said 
 to parade the streets in their public pageants 
 and festivities. Quaint and pedantic as 
 these allegorical exhibitions might often be, 
 they were nevertheless more expressive of 
 erudition, ingenuity, and moral meaning than 
 they had been in former times. The philo- 
 sophy of the highest minds still partook of a 
 visionary character. A political spirit infused 
 itself into the practical heroism of the age ; 
 and some of the worthies of that period seem 
 less like ordinary men than like beings 
 called forth out of fiction, and arrayed in the 
 brightness of dreams. They had high thoughts 
 seated in a heart of courtesy. The life of 
 Sir Philip Sidney is poetry put into action." 
 
 The acquaintance with the French and 
 Italian languages, possessed by most of the 
 cultured class, and the attention given to the 
 study of the classic authors of Greece and 
 Rome, improved the taste and stimulated 
 the imagination of those who possessed 
 poetic sympathy. A few years before Eliza- 
 beth ascended the throne. Sir Thomas Wyatt 
 and the Earl of Surrey had produced many 
 
 charming poems, inspired by genuine senti- 
 ment ; and to the latter is due the introduc- 
 tion of blank verse into English literature. 
 Puttenham, the author of the " Art of English 
 Poesy," published in 1589, says, "In the 
 latter end of King Henry VIII.'s reign sprang 
 up a new company of courtly makers [poets], 
 of whom Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder and 
 Henry Earl of Surrey were the two chieftains, 
 who, having travelled into Italy, and there 
 tasted the sweet and stately measures and 
 style of the Italian poetry, as novices newly 
 crept out of the schools of Dante, Ariosto, 
 and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude 
 and homely manner of poesy." 
 
 It has been said of Sir Philip Sidney, that 
 he " trod from his cradle to his grave amid 
 incense and flowers, and died in a dream of 
 joy." His verses are graceful and animated ; 
 his prose more poetical than most poetry. 
 One critic has declared that " Sidney's is a 
 wonderful style, always flexible, harmonious, 
 and luminous, and on fit occasions rising to 
 great stateliness and splendour ; while a 
 breath of beauty and noble feeling lives in 
 and exhales from the whole of his great work 
 like the fragrance from a garden of flowers." 
 His "great work" is "The Countess of 
 Pembroke's Arcadia," inscribed to his sister. 
 A greater poet than Sidney was his friend 
 Edmund Spenser, " the poets' poet," as he 
 has been styled. Some of Spenser's earlier 
 poems are exquisite. He wrote from the 
 impulses of a passionate, loving heart, when 
 he addressed "the widow's daughter of the 
 glen," Rosalind, probably Rose Daniel, a 
 sister of another poet ; and when he married 
 Miss Nagle, an Irish girl, he wrote the 
 " Epithalamium," of which Hallam says, " I 
 do not know any other nuptial song, ancient 
 or modern, of equal beauty. It is an intoxi- 
 cation of extasy, ardent, noble, and pure." 
 Spenser was the friend of Raleigh (the " Colin 
 Clout" of his poems), with whom he became 
 acquainted in Ireland, and by him was intro 
 duced to friends of kindred tastes. His 
 great poem, " The Fairy Queen," the first 
 three books of which appeared in 1 590 and 
 the remainder six years afterwards, is beyond 
 question one of the great poems of the world. 
 It is an allegory, but so interspersed with 
 incident that it rivals in personal interest 
 the great epic romances of Italy ; and the 
 grace and beauty of the language, and the 
 command of a difficult metre, are no less 
 admirable than the mingled delicacy and 
 vigour of description, and the exquisite fancy 
 and imaginative power which pervade it. 
 It is a succession of pictures, a continuous 
 strain of music ; and eye and ear are alike 
 gratified, the one by the chivalrous and lovely 
 figures which fill the scene, the other by the 
 melody, so flexible and so sweet, so spirited 
 and so tender, which accompanies the pa- 
 
 367 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 geant, or seems to float in the air above 
 " heavenly Una and her milk-white lamb." 
 
 Of lesser poets there were many : Walter 
 Raleigh, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, 
 Thomas Sackville, and others ; but the poetic 
 development was preparing to assume, as we 
 shall presently show, another form — the dra- 
 matic, and in that form to achieve its highest 
 triumph. Prose began to emulate poetry in dig- 
 nity and sonorous beauty, and the writings of 
 the historians and thinkers of the time exhibit 
 a considerable advance on the rugged, if 
 vigorous productions of their immediate pre- 
 decessors. The period is marked by the 
 appearance of the first portion of Hooker's 
 " Ecclesiastical Pohty ; " and we are told by 
 a critic of great ability that " Hooker's style 
 is almost without a rival for its sustained 
 dignity of march ; but that which makes it 
 most remarkable is its union of all this 
 learned gravity and correctness with a flow 
 of genuine, racy English, as untinctured with 
 pedantry of any kind as anything that came 
 from the pen of the most familiar and care- 
 less of popular writers." This characteristic, 
 indeed, arising from the consciousness of 
 strength, and the ease of manner ensuing 
 from that knowledge, marks all the best 
 productions of the time. There was, indeed, 
 a great outbreak of affectation, the " sestheti- 
 cism " of the time, the high priest of which 
 was John Lyly, a man of genius, with a 
 crotchet, who has been ridiculed by Shake- 
 speare in Love's Labour Lost, and by 
 Scott in " The Monastery ; " but the affecta- 
 tion, popular for a time, soon wore away. 
 The spirit of the age was too earnest for such 
 trifling to affect it permanently. Towards 
 the latter part of the period George Chapman 
 produced a portion of his noble translation 
 of Homer, the perusal of which made John 
 Keats (who should have lived in the Eliza- 
 bethan, not the Georgian age) feel as he 
 imagined Cortez felt when, "silent upon a 
 peak in Darien,"he first gazed on the Pacific. 
 Philosophy was in the throes of a new birth ; 
 but as yet Francis Bacon was only a law 
 student of brilliant promise, and his great 
 achievements in recasting the philosophical 
 method were reserved for the next reign. 
 
 Shakspeare the Symbol of the Age. 
 
 The most remarkable literary feature of 
 this illustrious time was the springing into 
 existence, by a bound as it were, of the 
 Enghsh drama. In twenty years after Eliza- 
 beth's accession forty-six regular tragedies 
 had been produced, and young men of genius 
 were devoting themselves to dramatic poetry. 
 There were Peele and Greene, and many 
 others; and Marlowe, who except one, the 
 greatest of all poets, was the most powerful 
 dramatic poet of the time. Then Shakspeare 
 appeared on the scene, and the triumph was 
 
 complete. His consummate genius — his in- 
 stinctive mastery of the expression of all 
 human emotions — his creative power, which 
 never mistook words for realities, rhetoric for 
 passion or grief — his imagination, fancy, wit, 
 and humour, mark him out as the unique 
 figure not only of the Elizabethan age, but of 
 all ages and all countries. Universal as he 
 is in his sympathies, he is in a special sense 
 the microcosm of the Elizabethan time. It 
 was an age of adventure, and the brave spirit 
 of the time echoes in his chivalrous lines. 
 It was an age when new worlds were opening 
 to the vision of men, and from the "still 
 vexed Bermoothes" came the inspiration 
 which took shape in the enchanted isle 
 where dwelt Prospero and Miranda. It was 
 an age when the national spirit was evoked, 
 when chains had been broken, and England 
 stood free before the world ; and the historic 
 plays are the very embodiment of the heroic 
 English spirit. Harry of Agincourt exclaims, 
 as in effect Elizabeth exclaimed at Tilbury, 
 " Our hearts are in the trim ; " Falconbridge 
 echoed the national outburst when the shadow 
 of the Armada darkened the waves of the 
 Channel, in saying " Come the three corners 
 of the world in arm^s, and we shall shock 
 them ;" and the words of John, "No Italian 
 priest shall tithe or toll in my dominions," 
 was the key-note of the Reformation. The 
 intense nationality which animated English- 
 men finds expression in old John of Gaunt's 
 descriptive epithets: — 
 
 ' ' This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle . . . 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea . . . 
 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this 
 England ! " 
 
 It was a time when the passionate and pic- 
 turesque romances and legends of southern 
 Europe were acclimatized in England, and 
 we have the loves of " Juliet and her Romeo," 
 and the grim figure of Shylock. It was a 
 time when the dim legends and antique 
 chronicles of our own land were coming into 
 the light, and there are Lear and Imogen 
 and Macbeth. It was a time when classic 
 literature and biography were studied ; and 
 in Shakspeare's pages Achilles and Hector, 
 Andromache and Cassandra, Brutus and 
 Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, live 
 again, not as antique statues, but informed 
 with the life which creative genius can alone 
 impart. 
 
 Ben Jonson, rising into fame as Elizabeth's 
 yellow hair turned grey, has paid Shakspeare 
 the magnificent compliment that " he was 
 not for an age, but for all time." This is 
 true in one sense ; but in another sense he 
 was for one age, and that the most illustrious 
 period in our national annals — " the spacious 
 times of great Elizabeth." 
 
 G. R. E 
 
 368 
 
Frederick the Cheat. 
 
 THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 AND WHAT LED TO IT. 
 
 European Affairs— Maria Theresa- Frederick the Second of Prussia-The Beginning of the War of Succession- Battle of 
 Mollwitz— AfiTairs in England-State of Europe-Progress of the War— I'he British Cabinet— The King in Cermany 
 ~-ru r- D.ettmgen- Defeat of the French— Incidents of the Battle— Marshal Saxe and the Invasion of England 
 — 1 he Campaign ot 1744— 1 he English Alliance-The Campaign in Flanders— The Siege of Tournai- Battle of 
 l-ontenoy- British Bravery-lhe French Repulsed-English Hard Pressed-Defection of the Dutch 'Irocr.— 
 I he Kesult— foreign Opinions of the Fight at Foiitenoy— Conclusion 
 
 Affairs in Europe. 
 N the 20th October, 1740, the 
 Emperor Charles the Sixth died, 
 leaving as the successor to his 
 crown his daughter, Maria Theresa. 
 The Emperor had died in the hope and 
 
 369 
 
 behef that he had made the succession sure. 
 He had endeavoured by all means in his 
 power to arrange that his daughter should 
 peacefully succeed, and had managed to ob- 
 tain the agreement (termed the Pragmatic 
 Sanction) to her undisturbed succession, by 
 
 B B 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OE HISTORY. 
 
 parting with various slices of territory to the 
 reigning houses. 
 
 Maria Theresa had married Stephen of 
 Lorraine, but neither he nor his ministers 
 were very resolute in Government. We have 
 testimony to their irresolution and despair 
 in emergencies. But no sooner had the 
 Emperor died, than all the watch-dogs to 
 which he had cast bones, in the shape of 
 territory, forgot the bones, and came to fight 
 over his possessions. They forgot all about 
 the Pragmatic Sanction, and feeling assured 
 that in this instance might was right, they 
 pounced upon the poor little princess en 
 masse. Frederick the Great annexed Silesia, 
 Charles Albert was elected emperor, while 
 Spain followed the example of France, 
 although the latter was free to move, having 
 made no promises. Prussia made the first 
 stir. The old king was dead, and Frederick 
 the Second had succeeded. 
 
 Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, sent 
 advices to the crowned heads informing them 
 of the death of the Emperor ; and when the 
 Elector of Bavaria received the news he 
 declared that it was impossible to acknow- 
 ledge her as Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, 
 "because of his pretensions to the Emperor's 
 succession, which he was resolved to make 
 good." He confirmed this opinion in inter- 
 views with the Ambassadors at his Court, 
 and claimed the throne, in consequence of 
 the will of Ferdinand, whose Austrian estates 
 had been left to his daughter, failing male 
 issue, and he, the Elector, was descended 
 from that daughter. 
 
 Prussia and Saxony, however, promised 
 to maintain the Pragmatic Sanction, also, if 
 necessary, to send troops, and France was 
 particularly energetic ; but on the 14th of 
 December, having meanwhile kept up the 
 greatest protestations of friendship, Frederick 
 of Prussia marched nearly 30,000 men into 
 Silesia with speed. 
 
 The Beginning of the War. 
 
 So quietly were the measures of the young 
 King taken, that his sudden departure for 
 the army one evening from a masked 
 ball excited considerable surprise. He had 
 arranged with the French Ambassador to 
 play the game. " I am going," said the King, 
 "to play your game, I think, but if I throw 
 doublets we will share the stakes" (Voltaire). 
 Frederick the Great declared that he must 
 protect Silesia "in the preservation and 
 prosperity whereof we have the more inte- 
 rested ourselves, as it serves for a defence 
 and bulwark to our territories in the empire" ; 
 and he proceeded to explain in his manifesto 
 that he only took Silesia and carried war 
 into it, for fear of somebody else doing the 
 same thing so near his own dominions ! 
 
 "We have no intention," he says, "of 
 
 disobliging Her Majesty of Hungary, with 
 whom we evidently desire to maintain a 
 strict friendship, and to contribute to her 
 real interest and preservation"; and he 
 concluded by warning the Silesians that if 
 any trouble arose they would only have 
 themselves to thank for it. No opposition 
 was made by the people, and so quickly was 
 the seizure made that there were not wanting 
 people who declared that the whole arrange- 
 ment had been concocted between the King 
 of Prussia and Maria Theresa herself. 
 
 Such a sudden step as this naturally 
 astonished the other nations of Europe, yet 
 Austria was not a power to be defied with 
 impunity. Frederick, however, was diplo- 
 matic. He sent to Maria Theresa to tell her 
 what he intended to do, and suggested that 
 she should quietly cede to him Lower Silesia. 
 If she would consent he would assist her 
 He named his price, but the Queen declined, 
 and declared she would never make any 
 terms with him; and when the hypocritical 
 manifesto was published, as above quoted, it 
 only added fuel to the flame of the Queen's 
 wrath. The Prussian Minister quittedVienna, 
 and on the 22nd of December Frederick 
 entered Breslau without bloodshed. 
 
 But at Otmachan a more spirited resist- 
 ance was offered, and the drummer who was 
 beating the parley was shot dead. An attack 
 was immediately made upon the place, and in 
 twenty-four hours it surrendered. In one or 
 two other places the Austrians made a stout 
 resistance, and at the town of Neiss they 
 obliged the Prussians to retire and com- 
 mence a siege. Frederick then left the 
 command of his army to Marshal Schwerin, 
 and returned to Berlin to hurry up more 
 troops. A good deal of desultory fighting 
 went on, and the Prussian forces were greatly 
 strengthened in Silesia; and in King 
 George's speech at the opening of Parliament 
 in London in April 1741, the war then going 
 on was alluded to, with other incidents, " as 
 events that require the utmost care and at- 
 tention, as they may involve all Europe in 
 a bloody war. The Queen of Hungary has 
 already demanded the 12,000 men expressly 
 stipulated by treaty, and thereupon I have 
 demanded of the King of Denmark and the 
 King of Sweden, as Landgraves of Hesse 
 Cassel, their respective bodies of 6,000 men 
 each." Both Houses assured His Majesty 
 that they would assist him in defending such 
 a righteous cause as that of the Queen of 
 Hungary. So England was already pre- 
 paring for the struggle, and determined to 
 uphold her treaties. 
 
 The Battle of Mollwitz. 
 Maria Theresa was now thoroughly roused 
 to action. She appealed to her people, and 
 collected a small army, about 20,000 men. 
 
 370 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 At the head of this force she placed Marshal 
 Neuperg, who had just been released from 
 prison. He advanced to Neiss, where the 
 Prussian army was still occu pied, and taking 
 Grotkau on his way, fell in with the enemy 
 at MoUwitz, and a severe battle ensued. 
 The Prussians took the Austrians somewhat 
 by surprise, for the snow was deep; but not- 
 withstanding this advantage the Austrians 
 at first succeeded in driving back their an- 
 tagonists, and the Prussian troops took to 
 flight, carrying with them Frederick, then 
 not the Great, as he was the first to fly. 
 
 It is related of him in this battle that when 
 his baggage was captured by the Austrian 
 cavalry he mounted his horse and saying to his 
 companions, " Farewell, gentlemen, I am 
 better mounted than any of you"; he rode 
 away leaving his friends to be captured by 
 the Austrian hussars. This fact is vouched 
 for by one of those thus left by the King to 
 the British Ambassador, Things would 
 have gone badly with the army but for the 
 steady bravery of the Prussian infantry. 
 The engagement lasted four hours, and the 
 Austrians had almost assured themselves of 
 victory when the infantry changed the for- 
 tunes of the fight. Marshal Schwerin held 
 his ground, and the Austrians were obliged 
 to retire with a loss of 5,000 men, although 
 the Prussians lost nearly as many. 
 
 Very little can be said for the King of 
 Prussia, and he himself confessed that he 
 and the Austrians had been trying who could 
 make most mistakes ; but there is no doubt 
 that Frederick had a lesson he never forgot. 
 After this engagement the Austrians crossed 
 the river, and fortified themselves opposite, 
 while the Prussians pushed on to Brieg, 
 and after a short investment the famous 
 Piccolomini was obliged to capitulate. 
 
 It was about this time that George II. 
 proceeded to Hanover against the advice of 
 VValpole, who had a good deal to contend 
 against there just then. England had already 
 given her adhesion to the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 and troops and money had been voted. But 
 some idea got into the heads of the com- 
 munity that the King was mainly interested 
 in defending Maria Theresa, because he was 
 afraid of his own Hanoverian possessions, 
 Hanover never had been very popular in 
 England ; the evident German tendencies 
 of the Sovereign Electors " stank in the 
 nostrils " of the English people, and Pulteney 
 even declared in the House that England 
 ought not and could not go to war to preserve 
 Hanoverian territory. But Walpole replied, 
 explaining that England was bound to pro- 
 tect Maria Theresa by treaty, and in support 
 of the balance of power in Europe to repress 
 the ambition of the French,and to preserve the 
 national independence. However, the subsidy 
 to the Queen of Hungary was voted to the 
 
 I amount of ^300,000 ; and though the vote 
 
 I had been taken without a division. Lord 
 
 j Carteret took care to inform the Court at 
 
 I Vienna that Walpole had been compelled to 
 
 I bring in the measure against his wishes, and" 
 
 so the young Queen took a decided dislike 
 
 to the Minister, and declined his advice 
 
 when subsequently it was proffered. 
 
 The Plot Thickens. 
 
 It was while things were in this condition 
 that Parliament was prorogued, and new 
 writs were issued. The King came over to 
 Hanover as aforesaid, and got into a state of 
 alarm concerning his Electorate. The de- 
 feat of the Austrians had been more disastrous 
 politically, perhaps, than actually in the field 
 of battle. No sooner were the successes of 
 the King of Prussia announced than a horde 
 of vultures made ready to swoop upon the 
 carcase of Austria so soon as Frederick had 
 killed the empire. But like those birds, the 
 Powers did not wait for the death of the 
 victim. Austria was down, and apparently 
 helpless in the dust, and so the vultures came 
 round clamouring for a share of the prey. 
 
 Spain, Sardinia, and Poland came, and 
 France, seeing the great success of the 
 Prussians, thought an alliance with' the young 
 king would be very advantageous. Frederick 
 had already hinted to the French ambas- 
 sador (as related above) that he would give 
 him a share in the spoils, and Marshal de 
 Belleisle was dispatched to conclude a treaty 
 upon the following terms : — 
 
 (i) The Elector of Bavaria was to be 
 raised to the imperial dignity. 
 
 (2) The dominions of the Queen of Hun- 
 
 gary were to be divided. 
 
 (3) The King of Prussia was to obtain 
 
 Silesia, renouncing the Duchies of 
 Julius and Berg, and to vote for 
 the Elector of Bavaria as the 
 Emperor Charles VII, 
 
 (4) France was to send tw^o armies into 
 
 the Empire to help Bavaria and 
 defeat the English, and to keep all 
 they could get for themselves — the 
 Netherlands if possible. 
 
 These were very nice terms indeed, and — 
 to employ the words used in England sub- 
 sequently — " sure never was poor princess in 
 worse plight than Her Majesty of Hungary"! 
 The French emissary appeared, determined 
 to despoil her of everything, and judging from 
 history he seems to have even exceeded his 
 instructions. "He seemed," says Frederick 
 himself, " as if he thought that all the terri- 
 tories of the Queen of Hungary were already 
 on sale to the highest bidder." Walpole was 
 most desirous to come to terms, and tried all 
 his resources of diplomacy in Prussia and 
 
 571 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Austria, before he would consent to armed 
 intervention. He attempted an appeal to 
 the feelings of the King of Prussia, and failed. 
 The King would have his bond. On the 
 other hand, Maria Theresa was advised to 
 relinquish a little to save the larger portion 
 of her dominions, but she would not hear of 
 the Prussian claim; and even when she con- 
 sented partly, she expressed a hope that her 
 enemy would refuse her terms. He did. 
 
 But while Walpole, through the ambas- 
 sadors, was thus negotiating, or attempting 
 to negotiate. King George was in a most 
 terrible fright concerning his Electorate of 
 Hanover. The aUiance of the French filled 
 him with fear ; it would never do to have 
 Hanover annexed. So we read that he sent 
 an envoy to arrange a neutrality treaty for a 
 year. Frederick himself relates this as a 
 fact. So Hanover was neutral, while Saxony 
 gave up the Pragmatic Sanction without 
 much pressure ; for while Walpole and King 
 George had been talking, Frederick and 
 France had concluded the treaty above 
 mentioned. 
 
 No time had been lost in France. Cardinal 
 Henry was quite put on the shelf; hints 
 were thrown out to the Jacobites to worry 
 England ; and Marshal Maillebois advanced 
 upon Hanover, where he induced King George 
 to stipulate for neutrality, and another army 
 marched into Bavaria, where they subdued 
 Lintz, and pushed forward to Vienna, where 
 Maria Theresa then was, and in a condition 
 quite unfit to travel. But her enemies gave 
 her no choice. She had to fly into Hungary 
 with her infant child, and daily expecting 
 another. Her husband and his brother 
 remained to defend the capital. 
 
 In England, meantime, popular opinion 
 had declared itself very firmly against the 
 King's action respecting the treaty of Han- 
 over. It was freely denounced, and when 
 the King returned he was not in the best of 
 tempers at what he had agreed to. At the 
 opening of Parliament in Detember, he ex- 
 pressed a hope that the Continental powers 
 would see the error of their ways in attack- 
 ing the (2ueen of Hungary, The war with 
 Spain had not been fortunate, and there was 
 much discontent manifested on this account 
 beside. 
 
 The Progress of the War. 
 Meanwhile the allies had been making 
 way. They had driven the Queen away 
 from Vienna, but did not attack the city, they 
 marched into Bohemia and attacked Prague ; 
 and yet with all their undaunted sagacity, 
 the oppressors of the unfortunate young 
 Queen had permitted her to escape, which 
 was an error, for her personal popularity in 
 Hungary was very great. Putting aside her 
 personal charms,— and she is described by 
 
 contemporary chroniclers as very beautiful 
 and winning as well as dignified, — she had 
 much tact, and acquiesced in Hungarian 
 customs to please her subjects. She reaped 
 her reward. 
 
 When she arrived at Presburg she, carry- 
 ing her little son in her arms, addressed 
 the assembled " magnates " in Latin in ai 
 most effective and affecting manner. They 
 could not resist her appeals. She pushed 
 the words home, and drove them into their 
 hearts with the address — "The kingdom of 
 Hungary, our person, our children, our crown 
 are at stake. Forsaken by all, we seek 
 shelter only in the fidelity, the arms, the 
 hereditary valour of the renowned Hun- 
 garian States ! " Was it in human nature to 
 resist this, emphasized by a Queen — a beauti- 
 ful, pleading, unhappy woman, holding up 
 her child for protection? — No. All present 
 clashed their swords and shouted enthusi- 
 astically, " Our lives and our blood for your 
 Majesty. We will die for our King — Maria 
 Theresa ! " 
 
 The enthusiasm did not end there. Once 
 determined, no time was lost. The " fiery 
 cross " was sent through the land, and all flew 
 to arms for their beautiful Queen. Never 
 had monarch such a following : rich and 
 poor, town and village aroused themselves and 
 each other to succour the distressed woman, 
 and to avenge the Sovereign. Far and wide 
 went the call to arms ; from near and far 
 came the answer ever the same, in old 
 Magyar tones, and with all the chivalrous 
 accent of the race, "We will die for our 
 Queen ! " 
 
 But they were too late to help Prague. 
 Notwithstanding the welcome English sub- 
 sidy, which reached them, — an immense boon 
 to the impoverished country, — the troops 
 did not reach Prague before it had fallen, 
 and the Bohemians, with the French, had 
 elected the Elector of Bavaria Emperor. He 
 was subsequently crowned as Charles VII. 
 Success had also attended the Prussian 
 arms. Breslau was occupied without loss ; 
 and at last, after some negotiations not 
 altogether free from the suspicion of men- 
 dacity, Lower Silesia was abandoned to 
 Frederick the Great, who gave his word of 
 honour that he would not " attempt any more 
 against her Hungarian Majesty." 
 
 So the Austrians remained satisfied, and 
 the allies were astonished at the withdrawal 
 of the Prussians. But, remarks the Royal 
 historian of his own times, "this temptation 
 was too great to be resisted, the enemy being 
 willing to rest satisfied with a verbal com- 
 munication which would acquire provinces 
 to Prussia and winter quarters for her army 
 fatigued with eleven months of military 
 labour." " Put not your trust in princes " 
 has been more than once quoted against the 
 
 372 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 373 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY, 
 
 anointed of the people ; but seldom has a 
 more barefaced instance of duplicity been 
 confessed by its author. Frederick returned 
 to Berlin, indeed ; but left secret instructions 
 to Schwerin to advance at the proper time, 
 and these instructions the marshal carried 
 out with care. He waited until December 
 and its snowstorms had sent the Austrian 
 army under shelter, and then he made a dash 
 upon Moldavia before the enemy could in 
 any way ward off the attack. Olmutz fell ; 
 but the Austrians pulled themselves together 
 at last, and, in revenge, swooped down upon 
 the French armies and obliged them to re- 
 treat, thus invading Bohemia, and causing 
 the retirement of the Bavarians from Prague. 
 
 The New English Cabinet. 
 
 The year 1742 saw the retirement of Wal- 
 pole and a truce concluded between Prussia 
 and Austria. Frederick the Great had put 
 himself at the head of the armies of Saxony 
 and Prussia ; but the contest was evidently 
 not relished by the former State. Saxony 
 was very lukewarm in the business, and the 
 King let them go, winning a victory at 
 Chotwitz in May, and thereby impressing 
 the Austrians very much. This defeat in- 
 duced the Queen to proffer terms ; and aided 
 by England, which had been endeavouring 
 to cause the enemies to arrange a truce, the 
 treaty was signed. The Queen agreed to 
 cede Upper and Lower Silesia, the province 
 of Glatz, and a district of Moravia ; Frede- 
 rick, on his part, engaging to remain neutral 
 during that war, and to recall his troops 
 within a fortnight. 
 
 Frederick had been rather suspicious con- 
 cerning his allies, the French, and now by 
 this treaty he compelled them to retire from 
 the contest also ; but they had penetrated 
 so far that it was a matter of some difficulty 
 for them to retreat. They had to suffer im- 
 mense loss in the retrograde movement they 
 were thus compelled to make ; but Marshal 
 Belleisle was equal to the task. He managed 
 to withdraw his men — or, more correctly, a 
 portion of them — for out of the 3 5, 000 who 
 had marched into Austrian territory only 
 8,000 remained. The other army still sup- 
 ported the Elector of Bavaria, or the 
 Emperor, as he preferred to be styled. This 
 retreat of Belleisle's was extolled by French 
 historians ; but, as a matter of_ fact, the 
 people turned it into a jest, and ridiculed it 
 as heartily as did Frederick the Great. 
 
 In November 1742, the English Cabinet, 
 with Lord Carteret as Secretary of State for 
 Foreign Affairs, formed what was termed the 
 "Drunken Administration "; for the Secretary 
 himself was seldom sober. He seems to 
 have had his wits about him occasionally, 
 at any rate, combined with a desire to 
 serve number one (and the King) for his 
 
 sake. George was very anxious to come 
 forth as a commander ; and his Minister, 
 although previously opposed to the trans- 
 mission of soldiers to the Continent, now 
 agreed to it. So troops had been sent during 
 the recess ; and Hessian infantry had been 
 enrolled to reinforce this British contingent. 
 In the King's speech, on the i6th November, 
 he announced that he had caused the soldiers 
 to be sent, and defended the increase of the 
 British force in the low countries as a 
 necessary step. The 16,000 of the Electoral 
 troops had been despatched with the Hes- 
 sians in British pay to support the House of 
 Austria. These proceedings met with the 
 approval of both houses, and the necessary 
 vote was passed for the expenses in Decem- 
 ber. Notwithstanding this agreement by 
 the Ministry the people did not, as a body, 
 approve of these measures ; and the Oppo- 
 sition took advantage of the excitement 
 against the employment of mercenaries to 
 annoy the Ministry. But the money was 
 voted, and in April 1743, Parliament having 
 been prorogued, the King and his son, the 
 Duke of Cumberland, crossed over to Han- 
 over. 
 
 Things in Germany now began to look as 
 if they were coming to a climax. The French 
 seemed scarcely to have appreciated the 
 fact that the British were in earnest. But 
 when it was discovered that the Earl of Stair 
 was advancing, they took steps to intercept 
 him, sent 10,000 men across the Rhine, and 
 proceeded to raise an additional army of 
 40,000 to oppose the advance. 
 
 The King and his son set sail from Green- 
 wich, and made little progress owing to a 
 contrary wind, so they put back to Sheerness, 
 where they remained until the ist of May. 
 The wind then being favourable they pro- 
 ceeded, and reached Hanover as speedily as 
 possible, while more troops were forwarded 
 to Flanders to support those who had been 
 advancing under Lord Stair's command in 
 Germany. Meanwhile the Austrians had 
 been by no means idle or unsuccessful. 
 Although the French had driven them once 
 from Bavaria, the Austrians about this time 
 repaid the debt, and advancing to Braunau 
 drove their enemies out, and the Due de 
 Broglie retired to the Rhine, while the Due 
 de Noailles kept Lord Stair in view. 
 
 But the English and their Austrian allies 
 did not appear in any hurry. They did not 
 reach the Rhine till May, and took up a 
 position near Frankfort to await the Hano- 
 verians and Hessians. The Emperor had 
 retired to Frankfort after the defeat of the 
 French army in Bavaria, and so far there 
 was no reason why Lord Stair could not 
 have seized him. It is a question whether it 
 was worth invading a free town for such a 
 doubtful advantage. The Dutch had by this 
 
 574 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 time passed the resolution to support the 
 British with 20,000 men, which were "to 
 encamp between Namur and Maestriche." 
 
 The Battle of Dettingen. 
 
 Lord Stair had about 40,000 troops at 
 his disposal, and De Noailles, who came 
 up on the opposite side of the river Main, 
 had about 60,000 men under him. It is 
 remarkable that all this time no declaration 
 of war had been made by either France or 
 England. On the 9th of June, Lord Stair, 
 who had apparently made a mistake in 
 moving from his position, passed up beside 
 the Main, and on the i6th of June (N. S.) 
 the King left Hanover and reached Aschaf- 
 fenberg on the 19th. He was closely followed 
 by the Duke of Cumberland and the English 
 Prime Minister, de facto, Lord Carteret. Here 
 the army remained encamped, and the King, 
 who was in no way deficient in personal cour- 
 age, determined to lead the battle. Meantime 
 he inspected the troops, and on the 22nd of 
 June, the anniversary of his succession, he 
 received a royal and loyal salute from the 
 army. 
 
 The French General, De Noailles, made 
 such good use of his opportunities that the 
 British were completely cut off from their 
 supplies. The enemy had occupied a very 
 strong position, and commanded the fords 
 while in possession of the forts. Thus it 
 happened that things looked very serious 
 when the King made his inspection. The 
 English position was between the river and 
 a wood, and completely cut off from their base 
 of action. There was very little to eat, and 
 forage for the horses was getting very low, 
 so under the circumstances it appeared to 
 the French commander that he had only to 
 wait, — well supplied as he was, — and the 
 British, with their allies, would fall into his 
 hands. 
 
 The English army was encamped along 
 the river, and the French position was 
 almost exactly opposite, their right supported 
 by Great Ostein, and the left by Stockstadt, 
 and as the French could not cross and attack, 
 they determined to starve them out. The 
 allies could not remain in such a perilous 
 position, and so they made ready to depart. 
 Voltaire says that there was no alternative, 
 as the horses must have been killed had the 
 army remained two days longer. The French 
 commander perceived the intention, and was 
 ready to defeat it. He got his men ready in 
 the eai-ly morning. He pursued the allies, 
 and changing front soon reached a position 
 behind them, and sent a strong force across 
 the river with orders to occupy the village 
 of Dettingen, through which the retreating 
 army had to pass on their way to Hanau. 
 
 This march was begun at daybreak, 
 and in many instances the officers of the 
 
 opposed armies conversed across the stream ; 
 for, says a combatant, " Many of us went 
 down to the brink of the river and reviewed 
 their troops as they passed ; many of their 
 officers conversed with ours." The French 
 crossed the river, and a French account says 
 that instead of occupying the village of 
 Dettingen as directed, when the allies began 
 to form, the troops posted themselves in the 
 narrow pass, believing that they had to do 
 with only a " strong rear-guard beyond it." 
 
 The French artillery began to play upon 
 the allies as soon as they could, and sent 
 their cavalry across. King George had taken 
 the post of danger in the rear, believing that 
 the French would attack there ; but when the 
 leading files found themselves actually en- 
 gaged, the King changed his position, and 
 came to the van of the army. When this 
 movement of the French was perceived, and 
 it was found impossible to advance just then, 
 the King called a halt, and drew up his troops 
 in battle array. A cannonade had been 
 carried on by both, but now the enemy's 
 foot had appeared in front between Dettingen 
 and Klein Welsheim towards the hills, so 
 that they were upon the right flank of the 
 British, and about a mile away. 
 
 When the allies perceived that the French 
 were actually in force, and crossing the river 
 at Sehginstadt, they drew up facing the wood. 
 The position the allies had quitted at Aschaf- 
 fenberg had meanwhile been seized by the 
 French, the river was to the left of them, and 
 Grammont occupied the village close by ; the 
 hills were to the right, and the enemy again 
 in front. So the position of the little army 
 was by no means a pleasant one. It did not 
 appear to Noailles that his enemy could 
 possibly escape from the trap. 
 
 The King made his dispositions immedi- 
 ately. He commanded the infantry to shelter 
 in the wood from the cannonade, and covered 
 them, the left was advanced to the river. 
 These dispositions naturally took up a great 
 deal of time, and from eight o'clock in the 
 morning until midday the French guns kept 
 pounding away at the allies within a few 
 hundred yards, just across the river. By 
 noon, however, all the arrangements were 
 made, and then the French advanced, the 
 English also moving forward to engage them. 
 Generals Clayton and Sommerfelt, with the 
 Duke of Cumberland, marched at the head 
 of the first line of foot. The King himself 
 was at the head of the second line, and the 
 battle was suspended to give him time to 
 come up, as he was very desirous to join 
 in it. 
 
 The English lines halted after a while to 
 take breath, and then resumed their rapid 
 advance. The King's horse took fright as 
 soon as the firing began in earnest, and run- 
 ning away almost carried him into the enemy's 
 
 375 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 lines. But the King managed to pull up, and 
 the Due d'Aremburg remonstrated with His 
 Majesty for running such a risk, and en- 
 countering so great danger, for a battery of 
 cannon was then playing upon him, but the 
 shot flew overhead. " Don't tell me of 
 danger," replied George ; " I'll be even with 
 them." However he dismounted from his still 
 uneasy horse, and took up his post on foot at 
 the head of his men ; and when the French 
 advanced on the right flank through the wood 
 the King himself ordered up the Hanover- 
 ian troops, drew them up in line of battle, 
 and then ordered six cannon which were 
 close by to give the French a few rounds. 
 He stood by the guns while his orders were 
 obeyed, and noticed how the shot tore 
 through the advancing columns, doing great 
 execution. He then resumed his place at 
 the head of the infantry, and told them on 
 no account to fire till the enemy came close. 
 The French were then within a short dis- 
 tance, and at one hundred yards opened fire 
 vigorously, the "bullets flying as thick as 
 hail" says an officer. Then the King 
 flourished his sword, and said " Now, BOYS ; 
 
 NOW FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND, FIRE ; 
 AND BEHAVE BRAVE, AND THE FRENCH WILL 
 
 SOON RUN." These stirring commands were 
 well obeyed, and the allies advanced firing as 
 they charged upon the enemy. The French 
 could not stand the onset, and it would 
 probably have succeeded had not the Due 
 de Grammont left the shelter of the village, 
 and poured down upon the left flank. But 
 even here fortune favoured the British, be- 
 cause the French cannon which had kept up 
 such a disastrous fire for so long, was stopped 
 when the French rode into the open range. 
 
 Incidents of the Fight. 
 
 The Black Musketeers then charged, but 
 were repulsed by the English, and a standard 
 was taken. Then the British and Austrian 
 cavalry, passing through the infantry, fell 
 upon the household troops of France, and at 
 first some allied regiments were repulsed. 
 But they speedily recovered themselves, and 
 then a French Grenadier regiment gave way, 
 while the King, behaving most gallantly, 
 rallied the whole Hne of the allies, the Duke 
 of Cumberland admirably seconding him with 
 other commanders, and the French were 
 pushed back. 
 
 De Noailles, who was watching the fight 
 from the opposite side of the river, was 
 horror-struck when he perceived his men 
 driven back. Again and again the struggle 
 was renewed, but the sohd infantry of the 
 allies defeated all attempts to break its 
 ranks, and advanced steadily, rolling back 
 the enemy as they advanced. Hanoverians 
 and British were equally brave. It is stated 
 that but for the King and the Duke of 
 
 Cumberland the result might have been 
 different. They led the stout infantry to 
 victory, and had narrow escapes. The Duke 
 was twice wounded, and once very nearly 
 killed by some Austrians who mistook hini 
 for a French officer. 
 
 There are a great many letters before us 
 written by some of the officers present, some 
 of which testify to the personal bravery of 
 the King, and describe many interesting 
 incidents. There were reports that the 
 " Blues " turned tail, and an officer in the 
 Fusihers describes their retiring through the 
 'regiment. But again an officer of the Blues 
 denies this, but confesses that their impetu- 
 ous charge carried them too far, and they had 
 to retreat in disorder when the French came 
 in upon the infantry, who "tore them to 
 pieces " with their close fire. " What pre- 
 served us," says an officer, "was our keeping 
 close order, and advancing near the enemy 
 ere we fired." A dreadful slaughter of the 
 French ensued. The following account is 
 from a Dutch source : — 
 
 "The battle began about ten, between 
 28,000 French and about 18,000 British and 
 Austrian troops. It lasted with great ob- 
 stinacy for better than four hours, during 
 which time the French were continually 
 reinforced. They had once disordered the 
 English troops ; and the Household (troops) 
 of France, which composed the front of the 
 army, endeavouring to make the best of this 
 advantage made a motion to the right, which 
 exposed them to a covert battery of Hano- 
 verian artillery, which did prodigious execu- 
 tion. In the meantime the Due d'Aremberg 
 caused the Austrians to advance, and close 
 the opening which had been made. This 
 entirely changed the scene, and the French 
 finding it quite impossible to gain their point, 
 began to retire towards the bridges." In 
 fact, the retreat became a rout; the French 
 were cut down as they retired, and hundreds 
 were drowned in the Main. 
 
 The King remained upon the battle-field 
 until ten o'clock at night, and it was estimated 
 that not less than 6,000 of the French were 
 left upon the field. The alhes lost about 
 half as many, and the superior commanders 
 are by some writers much praised; but the 
 King and his son undoubtedly bore off the 
 palm. Torrents of rain fell that night, and 
 the allies had no food nor tents after all 
 their exertions. The army did not pursue 
 the French, but quitted the field, leaving the 
 wounded to the mercy of the enemy — a confi- 
 dence which was not misplaced, as De 
 Noailles treated them with the greatest 
 kindness and humanity. But this in no way 
 exonerated the English commanders, and 
 they were greatly blamed for their neglect. 
 
 Lord Stair was decidedly of opinion that 
 the enemy ought to have been pursued, and 
 
 376 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 more than once asserted the necessity for so 
 doing. But the King over-ruled the general, 
 for the army was in great want of provisions, 
 and a portion of the French troops were 
 quite fresh. It is related by Voltaire, that 
 he afterwards met Lord Stair in Holland, 
 and asked the Scotchman what his opinion 
 was concerning the battle of Dettingen. " I 
 think," replied the general, " that the French 
 made one great mistake, and the English 
 made two. Your error was in n®t standing 
 still ; our first fault was getting ourselves 
 into such a dangerous position ; our second 
 in not pursuing your army after the victory." 
 
 Results of the Battle.- 
 Saxe. 
 
 -Marshal 
 
 The immediate results of the battle of 
 Dettingen were beneficial to Maria Theresa, 
 for she had also been victorious, and the 
 French were driven into their own country. 
 Under these circumstances the Elector of 
 Bavaria had no choice but to submit, and he 
 accordingly humbled himself and signed a 
 treaty of neutrality ; but his territory had 
 meantime been overrun by the Queen, and 
 she occupied it until such time as seemed to 
 her convenient to retire. This she did until 
 peace was signed, and King George was 
 appointed the mediator at Hanau. Unfor- 
 tunately these trumpeted arrangements came 
 to nothing after all ; firstly, because Maria 
 Theresa Victrix was not altogether moderate 
 in her demands; and though, perhaps, she 
 might have been induced to forego some- 
 what of her request, the Elector of Bavaria 
 could not get on at all unless he was paid 
 English money ; and under these circum- 
 stances Carteret, who was acting as Prime 
 Minister, advised His Majesty not to consent 
 to the arrangement, which fell through. 
 
 After a time spent in these fruitless nego- 
 tiations, a grand invasion of France was 
 talked about ; but autumn drew in, and the 
 usual rains commenced, so it was determined 
 that no further hostilities need be under- 
 taken that year, and that the troops must 
 go into their winter quarters. When this 
 was decided great dissatisfaction was evinced 
 by Lords Stair and Marlborough, who were 
 present in a subordinate capacity, and 
 many other British officers. The result was 
 that a great many resigned their commis- 
 sions, while the King only remained long 
 enough to sign a treaty at Worms with 
 Austria and Sardinia, by which the latter, for 
 a territorial consideration, agreed to provide 
 45,000 men for the assistance of the Queen 
 of Hungary, and consented to receive an 
 annual subsidy from England. 
 
 It is no part of our object to give an 
 account of the Pretender and his son, but in 
 1744 the French openly espoused his cause, 
 and an army was embarked for England 
 
 under the command of Marshal Saxe. This 
 celebrated officer deserves a few lines, for he 
 is intimately connected with the events we 
 have to chronicle. The French, in the 
 matter of the young Pretender, were very 
 chary of committing themselves unless they 
 could positively see their way to success. 
 But when England supported Austria, 
 France made up her mind to maintain the 
 Scotch, — although, be it remembered, that all 
 this time no declaration of war had been 
 published by either France or England. It 
 was arranged that 15,000 men should be 
 sent, 3,000 to Scotland, and the remainder 
 should invade London under the command 
 of Marshal Saxe. 
 
 This successful general was a natural son 
 of Frederick, King of Poland. His mother 
 was the Countess Maria of Konigsmark, and 
 sister of the Count who had caused Thynne 
 to be assassinated in London. He was born 
 in 1696, and when quite a youth joined the 
 allied armies under Marlborough and Eugene, 
 and studied war in a very practical manner. 
 He subsequently served in Sweden, and was 
 present at the capture of Srraslund. After 
 the treaty of Utrecht he went to France, and 
 declining the command of the Saxon army 
 he threw in with the French then on the 
 Rhine, and distinguished himself at Dettin- 
 gen and Philipsburg. In 1744 he was 
 created a Marshal of France, and prepared 
 for the invasion of England at Dunkirk. 
 
 Towards the end of February all was in 
 readiness, and the French fleet came up to 
 the Isle of Wight, and cast anchor off 
 Dungeness to wait the arrival of the troops. 
 Sir John Norris, with the channel fleet, 
 coming up, but not attacking, the French 
 Admiral slipped away during the night 
 before a strong breeze, which increased con- 
 siderably, and fell upon }*Iarshal Saxe as he 
 attempted to weather it near Dunkirk. The 
 flotilla was destroyed, and many ships were 
 entirely lost with all on board. So the 
 demonstration in favour of the young Pre- 
 tender came to nothing then, except so far 
 as it was the cause of war being formally 
 declared by France and England, for this 
 perhaps unnecessary formality had been 
 dispensed with during the fighting on the 
 Main and the descent on the sea coast. 
 
 The Campaign of 1744. 
 We must give a sketch of the incidents of 
 the war carried on in 1744, so as to lead us 
 up to the great encounter in Flanders, which 
 resulted so unfortunately for the allies. It 
 was already May when Louis proceeded to 
 take the field. He and George II. had been 
 indulging in a little mutual recrimination, in 
 which the French monarch accused the King 
 of England of having been the cause of all 
 the wars by his support of Maria Theresa. 
 
 377 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 while George retorted by casting the Pragma- 
 tic Sanction in the teeth of his royal brother, 
 and accused him of aiding and abetting 
 Spain and the Pretender in their attacks 
 upon England. Thus having made up their 
 minds to declare open hostihties, there was 
 no want of reasons. 
 
 Marshal Saxe was appointed to the com- 
 mand of the French army in Flanders, and 
 it amounted to 80,000 men. To this well- 
 equipped and well-commanded force the 
 allies could only answer with about 50,000 of 
 all nations interested — viz., English, Flemish, 
 Austrians, and Dutch ; and so Louis XV. 
 had every opportunity to indulge in war made 
 easy ; for many towns, which, remarks a 
 historian, seem specially ordained to be 
 taken and retaken in war, were captured 
 without much trouble or loss. So it was 
 not until the Austrians, in July, dashed into 
 Alsace and drove the French army back that 
 any real fighting was put before the King as 
 a bonne boiiche. 
 
 Louis determined to witness the campaign, 
 and hurried into Alsace, but sickness over- 
 took him, partly in consequence of fatigue, 
 partly because he had eaten too much. The 
 King made preparations for the end of his 
 life's journey, turned away the lady who just 
 then happened to be in favour, and gave 
 himself up to the consolations of religion 
 and the exclusive society of his priests to see 
 how they could prepare him for his inter- 
 view with the grim agent who was coming 
 to demand an account of the monarch's 
 stewardship. And thus, casting up his ac- 
 counts, the King " lay between life and death 
 for many weeks." 
 
 The Austrians were, however, more alarmed 
 at the storm which suddenly burst upon them 
 from a clear sky, so to speak. Frederick the 
 Great, who had made peaceful arrangements, 
 and who ought to have adhered to his treaties, 
 suddenly ignored all his engagements, and 
 with an army of 60,000 men marched into 
 Bohemia and Moravia. Prague capitulated, 
 and assisted by the French and the lately 
 very impecunious Elector of Bavaria, the 
 Austrians were worsted. These successes 
 brought Charles of Lorraine, who had been 
 successful against the French, into Bohemia, 
 and aided by the patriotic Hungarians, 
 Frederick of Prussia soon found he had 
 ventured into a hornets' nest. In vain he 
 appealed to his allies. The Austrians and 
 Hungarians showed him no quarter, and his 
 friends began to make excuse. The result 
 may be imagined. 
 
 After some fighting and several consider- 
 ably harassing skirmishes and night attacks, 
 Frederick found himself in no pleasant 
 position, and retreated, blundering into 
 wonderful errors in every direction. It is 
 extraordinary how he managed to misdirect 
 
 his troops, and, as he himself confesses, he 
 committed more mistakes in this most disas- 
 trous campaign than ever he had before. 
 His general, Einsiedel, was compelled to 
 evacuate Prague and abandon his guns, 
 returning into Silesia with a loss of 5,000 
 men. Frederick hastened to his capital to 
 recruit his army, which were then safe in 
 winter quarters. 
 
 Things did not look well for Frederick of 
 Prussia just then, nor for his allies. The 
 French sent him a mission, consisting of the 
 Marquis of Belleisle, a bitter partisan against 
 England, and his brother. It so fell out 
 that these gentlemen endeavoured to make 
 their way through Hanover, and were arrested 
 and sent prisoners to England, where they 
 arrived on the 13th of February, 1745, and 
 landed at Harwich. Here for some days 
 they were detained, and then were carried to 
 Windsor, via Greenwich. Their arrest gave 
 rise to much comment, and was considered 
 a violation of the rights of Germany. They 
 refused to give their parole as required, but 
 after being detained for some months they 
 were released.* 
 
 On the death of the Duchess of Marl- 
 borough Lord Carteret became Earl Gran- 
 ville, and continued high in favour of the 
 King because he supported the Hanove- 
 rian measures ; and to such a pitch did 
 Granville's pride carry him, and so openly 
 expressed he his disdain, that the Pelham 
 faction threatened to resign. Granville had 
 told them that matters could not remain as 
 they were. " I will not," he said, "submit 
 to be overruled and outvoted upon every 
 point by four to one. If you will take the 
 Government upon you, you may ; but if you 
 cannot, or will not, there must be some 
 direction, and I will not do it."t 
 
 These disputes brought things to a climax, 
 and it became a question of choice between 
 Granville and his opponents. Pelham had 
 the Commons at his back, and the King was 
 dreadfully perplexed. His adviser (the Earl 
 of Oxford), however, suggested the King's 
 course; he gave in, and Granville resigned 
 in favour of the Earl of Harrington. But it 
 is worth noting that scarcely had Granville 
 been ousted from office when his opponents 
 began to pursue very much the same course, 
 and Hanover was still protected. 
 
 The Flanders Campaign. 
 
 When King George replied to the address 
 
 of his faithful Commons in February 1745; 
 
 he made the following remarks : " I have, in 
 
 coniunction with the Queen of Hungary and 
 
 * For details and general treatment of the case see 
 Pamphlets and Gentleman s Magazine, etc., for 1745. 
 t Coxe's Walpole. 
 
 378 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 the States General, concluded a treaty with 
 the King of Poland, which I will order to be 
 laid before you." This was the Quadruple 
 Alliance, and now the European States were 
 banded together against each other in the 
 manner set forth below. 
 
 France comes first as the power wishing 
 to demolish the House of Austria, and the 
 conquest of Flanders for the Emperor nomi- 
 nally, but really for her own ends, in con- 
 sideration for the expenditure of blood and 
 treasure she had undergone. 
 
 Spain wanted to carry matters with a high 
 hand, and to obtain power in Italy. 
 
 The Emperor Charles (whose days were 
 numbered) wished to fix himself more firmly 
 upon his tottering throne, and to grasp his 
 dominions with an ever-extending arm. 
 
 The King of Prussia wanted more territory, 
 and other smaller States were awaiting their 
 turn, or anxious to strike a blow for a friend. 
 
 On the other hand, we find an array of 
 power to meet this combination. In the 
 first place we have, — 
 
 Great Britain, anxious to keep France 
 within bounds at sea, and, if possible, on land ; 
 and with England Hanover, of course, was 
 united. 
 
 Hungary, led by its valiant Queen, who had 
 everything at stake in the contest, was cling- 
 ing to England and her own Hungarian 
 subjects, as much from gratitude as from a 
 sense of assistance. 
 
 The Dutch, who would fight for their 
 hearths and homes, and, if stirred up, would 
 feel inclined to take the field with England. 
 The Elector of Saxony, as King of Poland, 
 who was bent upon consolidation and his 
 allies. Even Sardinia and Russia were ready 
 to play a part with Britain, the former be- 
 cause of the Treaty of Worms, the latter by 
 virtue of her promises. Thus there were all 
 the elements of " a very pretty quarrel " as it 
 stood. 
 
 When the Emperor died in January 1745, 
 the state of affairs was in no way improved. 
 He died at Munich, and his successor resigned 
 all claims to the Austrian succession, and 
 promised to assist the Duke of Lorraine. 
 There was now really no excuse for proceed- 
 ing with war. But theAustrians and French 
 still continued to skirmish, and in these 
 encounters both sides appeared to claim the 
 advantage. On the Rhine the French were 
 in retreat before the Duke of Aremberg, and 
 the States General preparing for the inevit- 
 able campaign, appointed Prince Waldeck 
 to the command of their army in Flanders. 
 
 About the beginning of March the Aus- 
 trians advanced across the Inn at Passau 
 and other places. They attacked the enemy, 
 the Bavarians, and gained some successes. 
 The French on the lower Rhine continued 
 their retreat, but being reinforced recrossed 
 
 the Main, at which the allies retreated, and 
 the French also passed the Rhine in the 
 beginning of March, and took " Mentz." 
 The Hungarians had held their own against 
 the Prussians, and the Austrians were gene- 
 rally successful. 
 
 Meanwhile the French were making rapid 
 preparations, and on the ist April Marshal 
 Saxe was appointed to the command of 
 the army in Flanders. On the 5th, the 
 Duke of Cumberland set out for the same 
 destination, and arrived at Helvetsluys next 
 day. The French army under Marshal 
 Saxe lost no time in advancing, who made 
 up his mind to invest Tournai. The Duke 
 of Cumberland proceeded to the Hague, and 
 he arrived at Brussels on the loth. After 
 some time spent in drilling, the army 
 advanced on the 19th to Halle and Tubise, 
 and subsequently proceeded to Leuse. 
 
 The English army consisted of about 
 28,000 men, and with the Dutch troops the 
 whole force at the disposition of the Duke 
 did not exceed 50,000. The French had 
 76,000 men under Marshal Saxe, and he was 
 thus enabled to invest Tournai, and yet spare 
 an army to meet the English and their allies. 
 Tournai is supposed to be a very ancient 
 town, and it is certain that Caesar occupied 
 it. Henry VIII. took it from the French, 
 and erected the citadel. It was afterwards 
 restored to them, but taken and held by the 
 Spaniards till 1667, when Louis XIV. got 
 possession of it. He made improvements in 
 the fortifications. In June 1709, Marlborough 
 invested the town, and it surrendered, while 
 the enormous French army within fighting 
 distance was afraid to come to its relief. 
 Lille and Tournai were called by Louis XIV. 
 the eyes of France, of so great importance 
 were they considered. We now come to the 
 memorable battle before Tournai, in which 
 Marshal Saxe defeated the aUies. 
 
 The Battle of Fontenoy. 
 
 The French, bent on invading Tournai,. 
 opened their trenches on the 30th of April, 
 1745, 3.nd worked with skill and rapidity. 
 There were only 9,000 Dutch troops in 
 the town, and the French assured them- 
 selves of victory, particularly as the allied 
 commanders were rather divided in their 
 councils, and perfect accord did not reign 
 concerning the chief command, which the 
 Duke of Cumberland nominally possessed, 
 but he was under the control of the Austrian 
 Marshal Konigsegg, and obliged to defer to 
 the suggestions of the Prince of Waldeck. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that upon the 
 propriety of raising the siege of Tournai there 
 was no question. The allied generals were 
 all of that opinion, and it was determined to 
 attempt the rehef of the town notwithstanding 
 the superior numbers and advantageous posi- 
 
 379 
 
38? 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 tion of the French army. The alhes there- 
 fore advanced, and encamped at Bougnies, 
 within a measurable distance of the French 
 outposts. 
 
 When Marshal Saxe had heard of the 
 arrival of the allies at Linze he had no doubt 
 as to their intentions, and so the troops 
 which had passed the Scheldt were ordered 
 to recross. The bad state of the weather 
 prevented the allies from advancing on the 
 9th May ; but on the loth they made a 
 movement by the left, and the Marshal took 
 up his position with his right near Antrain, 
 and the left on the road to Mons, near Notre 
 Dame aux Bois.* 
 
 The English generals proceeded to inspect 
 the enemy's posiiion, and Avere enabled to 
 ascertain the disposition of the army which 
 was separated from their own by underwood 
 and hedges. The village of Fontenoy was in 
 their front, the wood of Barre was on the 
 left. Every precaution was taken by the 
 French; and the army, of which some 
 15,000 had been left to cover Tournai, 
 was enthusiastic at the arrival of the King 
 and the Dauphin, who had come from Paris 
 to be witnesses of the battle, and as they 
 hoped, — and as the event proved, — of the 
 defeat of the allies. On the loth an attack 
 was made by the English. " Six battalions 
 and twelve squadrons, with 500 pioneers 
 and guns, were commanded from each wing 
 for this service." The allies marched confi- 
 dently forward, and without much difficulty 
 drove in the French outposts to the very 
 top of the hilly ground in front of their camp, 
 where they halted, so as to cover the arrange- 
 ments Saxe was making for the morrow. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland and the other 
 commanders then proceeded to an inspection 
 of the ground, for the battle had still to be 
 fought. The troops bivouacked on the ground 
 they had won, and orders were issued for the 
 final engagement to take place at daybreak 
 on the nth. The French troops remained 
 in their tents, the King of France returned 
 to Calonne, and Marshal Saxe passed the 
 night in his carriage with his army around 
 him. 
 
 His Royal Highness, says the official 
 account of the action, commanded that the 
 army should march at two in the morning ; 
 and having ascertained that there was an 
 unoccupied fort near the village of Vezon, 
 he dispatched General Ingoldsby to attack 
 that village, while Prince Waldeck advanced 
 upon the village of Fontenoy. General 
 Campbell was commanded to cover the 
 right wing, but owing to his wound this 
 order was not carried out, and General 
 Ligonier attempted it under an artillery fire. 
 
 All was now apparently ready for the 
 
 * Lettres et Meraoiies des Marechal de Saxe. 
 
 advance, and it was begun. The Duke, with 
 the English and Hanoverians, went boldly 
 forward to Fontenoy; but General Ingoldsby, 
 who had been commanded to carry the 
 redoubt in the wood, did not even make 
 the attempt, and despite repeated orders 
 despatched by his superiors, he continued to- 
 hang back, and lacked the courage apparently 
 to make a dash at the fort ; there can be- 
 little doubt he would have succeeded had 
 he made a bold push for it. 
 
 Meanwhile upon the French side the King 
 was in the field, and a brisk cannonade was 
 kept up and as briskly answered. One long 
 line of infantry extended from Fontenoy to 
 Rancecroix supported by guns. It was by 
 the very first shot of the cannonade that the 
 Due de Grammont had his thighs shot away, 
 and he died almost immediately. 
 
 The English lines were now in position, 
 the cavalry regiments in squadron behind 
 them, and seeing that all was ready the 
 Duke of Cumberland gave the order to ad- 
 vance, while Prince Waldeck made his attack 
 upon the village of Fontenoy. Inglodsby, 
 as already mentioned, came upon the wood 
 which was tenanted by a body of skirmishers^ 
 and feeling nervous at the idea sent a mes- 
 sage to the Duke for orders, notwithstanding 
 his instructions to attack. This delay was 
 unpardonable, and caused disaster. 
 
 The Dutch at first advanced bravely and 
 attacked Fontenoy, assailed, as they pro- 
 ceeded, by a terrible cannonade, which smote 
 them fearfully, and compelled them to retire. 
 The English and Hanoverians still advanced 
 however within thirty paces of the enemy, 
 and obliged the French to retreat within their 
 lines. But unfortunately the left wing did 
 not succeed so well, and as Ingoldsby had 
 disobeyed orders and turned tail, the troops 
 had no support, and being exposed to a cross 
 fire as well as the file firing in front they 
 were obliged to retire in their turn. There 
 is no doubt that the Duke ought to have 
 retreated, '■' for his sole way to the enemy led 
 between Fontenoy and the batteries of the 
 wood of Barre, to the flank of which he was 
 exposed." He proceeded however, as already 
 related, and his troops uniting " pressed 
 boldly on into a phalanx, which nobody 
 seetned able to stop. Meeting the French 
 guards, the well-known compliment passed, 
 each bidding the other fire first. But the 
 rolling fire of the English, imitated from the 
 Prussians, prostrated i-ank after rank, and the 
 French guards were routed. No regiment 
 seemed able to stand before the advancing 
 column, and preparations were made for 
 retreat, and for the safety of the King, — the 
 latter, however, would not budge."* 
 
 Had this gallant attack been supported we 
 
 * Crowe's History of France. 
 
 381 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 should not have had to deplore the loss of 
 the battle. The English were mowed down 
 by the batteries, and compelled to fall back. 
 They were rallied, however, and again formed. 
 Again they advanced ; but the Dutch being 
 quite paralysed and no assistance forth- 
 coming, the attack failed, owing to the 
 gallantry of the French charge, and particu- 
 larly to an Irish regiment, which was fight- 
 ing in the enemy's ranks. But although 
 beaten, the English column retired in good 
 order, and returned to its former position, 
 sadly diminished in numbers. The French 
 cavalry endeavoured to break the retreating 
 troops, but without success. 
 
 The Dutch had run away, and did not 
 appear again in the field. It is related that 
 one of their commanders rode away to Ath, 
 and wrote a letter to the States General 
 informing them that the allies had been cut 
 to pieces, and that he, only by his valour, 
 had succeeded in bringing off his men in 
 safety. When the Duke perceived that his 
 orders were not carried out, and that his 
 allies were mere spectators of the engage- 
 ment, he decided to retreat, and the army, 
 protected by its cavalry, withdrew in good 
 order. The French did not attempt a pur- 
 suit, and there is no doubt they suffered 
 severely. 
 
 Foreign Opinion of Fontenoy. 
 
 The testimony of the French to the gal- 
 lantry of the British advance is conclusive. 
 Voltaire speaks highly of the conduct of the 
 English in his impartial account of the 
 battle, and extracts from correspondence of 
 French officers engaged, leave no room for 
 doubt. " The enemy attacked in two 
 columns," says a French writer, an eye- 
 witness. " The English, in particular, did 
 wonders, and fought like furies. Towards 
 eleven o'clock, some places ia our line were 
 broken, and the allies had passed the village 
 of Fontenoy, between two redoubts of which, 
 however, they did not make themselves 
 master." ..." The sutlers and valets of 
 the army," he continues, " took to their heels, 
 and carried the alarm to the bridge on the 
 upper Schelt. But all things were put in 
 order again ; the allies were quickly repulsed, 
 and abandoned to us the field of battle in 
 disorder at one in the afternoon. 
 
 "We did not think it proper to pursue 
 them," they said, " for fear they should form 
 again behind the wood." This little sentence 
 proves the stubborn fighting qualities of the 
 British brigade, which so gloriously dis- 
 tinguished itself at Fontenoy. The French 
 estimate of the loss of the allies is 3,000 
 killed on the spot and 4,000 wounded. Large 
 though these figures are, they are nothing in 
 comparison with the holocausts of brave men 
 who fell in the terrible War of Secession in 
 
 the United States. On the French side they 
 confess to have lost 1,200 men killed on the 
 spot, and 2,000 wounded. 
 
 " I never knew," writes another French 
 officer, " in thirty years' service, either a 
 brisker or a more obstinate engagement — no, 
 not in Italy, where we had to do with Count 
 Merci, who, you know, was reputed the most 
 desperate officer of his time, and the general 
 who spared men least. Not to hide the 
 truth our men were thrice obliged to give 
 way, and nothing but the extreme calmness 
 and good conduct of Marshal Saxe could 
 have brought them to the charge the last 
 time, which was about two o'clock, and then 
 the allies in their turn gave way. Our 
 victory may be said to be complete, but it 
 cannot be denied that as the allies behaved 
 extremely well in the action, more especially 
 the English, so they made a soldierly retreat, 
 which. was much favoured by an adjacent 
 wood." — " In short, we gained the victory, 
 but may I never see such another," sums 
 up a third writer. 
 
 We could multiply instances and incidents, 
 but it would not add anything to the lament- 
 able fact that the allies were beaten ; though, 
 but for the disaffections of the Dutch, and 
 the inactivity of Ingoldsby, who subsequently 
 printed an elaborate excuse for his conduct, 
 they would have soon tui-ned it into a victory. 
 Horace Walpole was right in his estimate 
 that the French were only not beat, and the 
 Hon. Philip Yorke in his letter to Walpole, 
 ascribes the victory not to the bravery of the 
 French troops, but to their advantageous 
 situation, and " the number of their batteries ' 
 from which they had a hundred pieces of 
 cannon playing upon us without intermis- 
 sion." The estimate of the French losses in 
 the Gazette is put down at from 5,000 to 
 10,000 killed and wounded. 
 
 After the Battle. 
 
 An inquiry was set on foot in England 
 when the unwelcome news arrived, and the 
 disappointment at the result was very general 
 in the country ; and it was " of the highest 
 importance to the country" that an investi- 
 gation should be made into the causes which 
 led to the disaster. The inquiry began by 
 ascribing the failure of our arms to the cour- 
 age and the conduct of our enemies. " I 
 know," continues the author of one pamphlet, 
 " there are some who think it so absolutely 
 an impossibility for a Fi'ench army to beat 
 an English one, that, if they cannot find a 
 miracle to account for it, they are ready to lay 
 a load of infamy upon somebody or other." 
 
 The paper from which we have quoted the 
 above lines then proceeds to investigate the 
 dispositions and arrangements of the French, 
 dwelling upon the admirable way in which 
 the Marshal had placed his men and posted 
 
 38: 
 
THE FIGHT AT FONTENOY. 
 
 his guns, and declaring it was not so much 
 he business of the French to gain a com- 
 plete victory as to prevent us from approach- 
 ing Tournai. The "inquiry" is, in fact, an 
 elaborate eulogium upon the army of the 
 great Marshal Saxe. 
 
 But historians tell us how grandly the 
 British and Hanoverians plunged into the lire 
 from the well-served range of guns opposed 
 to them. Dragging cannon with them over 
 ground in which cavalry was useless, the 
 English troops "marched steadily upon a 
 position which the best marshals of France 
 ■deemed impregnable," defended as it was by 
 the corps d'elite of the French army. We 
 have already followed the Duke of Cumber- 
 land in his bold advance which bore down all 
 before it. Not even the report of the failure 
 of the attack they had counted on damped 
 their ardour ; even though they felt them- 
 selves abandoned by their supports, they 
 pressed on, and the finest troops of France 
 failed to check them. 
 
 Marshal Konigsegg had actually congratu- 
 lated the Duke upon his victory, and, as 
 related. Marshal Saxe counselled retreat, 
 which was partly cut off. But the French 
 King declined to move, and cheered his 
 troops. " If," says Voltaire in his " Siecle de 
 Louis XV.," " if the Dutch had now put 
 themselves in movement, there would have 
 been no resource — nay, no retreat for the 
 French army ; nor, in all probability, for the 
 King and his. son." Fontenoy has been 
 ■described as a defeat of the British arms ; it 
 was practically a victory till the indefensible 
 conduct of the Dutch troops necessitated a 
 retreat of the small English column opposed 
 to 60,000 men of France. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland was the last to 
 leave the field, as the column broken, indeed, 
 but terrible in its fall, carried with it many a 
 life, while it retreated slowly with face to the 
 foe. The cavalry distinguished itself greatly, 
 and thus the whole army, accompanied by 
 the dastardly Dutch, and the incompetent 
 Ingoldsby, fell back upon Ath. The victory 
 was due to the King for his bravery, and to 
 the marshal for his keen sight and excellent 
 strategy, ailing though he was, and suffering. 
 It was with great difficulty that the British 
 troops were prevented from "faUing foul" of 
 the Dutch, and had no enemy been near there 
 is reason to suppose that our inactive allies 
 would have suffered very considerably. But 
 Dutch cowardice and desertion did not end 
 with the battle. Hertsall, a Dutch engineer, 
 betrayed Tournai to the French, and it 
 surrendered in a fortnight. Ghent, Bruges, 
 Oudenarde, and other places followed ; and 
 at Ostend a Dutch ofScer was again sus- 
 pected of turning traitor. So altogether the 
 English had no need to be proud of these 
 allies, who in the first place did not bring 
 
 into the field half the men they had agreed 
 to produce when the time for action arrived. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 There are some English authorities, eye- 
 witnesses, whose opinions lead us to a con- 
 clusion respecting the battle ; we append 
 some of them. 
 
 " I won't describe the cause of our failure,'' 
 says Lieutenant Forbes, in " The CoUoden 
 Papers," " although I know it ; but sure 
 never troops behaved with more intrepi- 
 dity than the English, nor never have troops 
 suffered so much. In short, there was but 
 one way of marching into the ground where 
 we were to form our line, which was through 
 the village of Vezon. The opening would 
 not allow above fourteen or twenty abreast, 
 and from thence to the French batteries a 
 rising ground like a glacis, and they at half- 
 cannon shot distance. General Campbell, 
 with twelve squadrons, was ordered through 
 the defile first, as a corps to cover the mouth 
 of the opening whilst the infantry marched 
 in, which, as they marched from the right, 
 formed as soon as they went in ; so one 
 regiment covered another till they formed all 
 the way to the left. You may believe this took 
 up a great deal of time, in which the French 
 batteries played incessantly on the twelve 
 squadrons and on the troops as they formed ; 
 but as it is impossible to describe a thing 
 unless you had the plan before you, I shall 
 only say we formed with all the regularity in 
 the world, and we marched up towards the 
 enemy, who were all along upon the height 
 with their different batteries, the whole length 
 of which ran a hollow way that they had 
 made a very good entrenchment. Off we 
 beat them out of this hollow way, and gained 
 the height, whence we had the first view of 
 their bodies at about two hundred paces 
 distance, an immense number of them and 
 numberless cannon still playing upon us. 
 
 " Here we dressed our lines, and began to 
 march towards them, when pop they went 
 into another entrenchment, extremely well 
 provided and flanked with batteries of cannon. 
 Nevertheless, on we went, drove them from 
 that, which was the first small shot we had 
 an opportunity to make use of from the 
 beginning, which was now near six hours." 
 
 Respecting the conduct of the Dutch alHes, 
 there cannot unfortunately be two opinions. 
 Foreign critics, as well as English eye-wit- 
 nesses, animadvert in strong terms upon their 
 behaviour, and a letter from an officer who 
 was with the brigade of Highlanders when 
 they were sent to the support of their allies, 
 Colonel Munro, says himself: " We were to 
 support the Dutch, who in their usual way 
 were very dilatory." The Highlanders had 
 actually got within musket shot of the 
 batteries of Fontenoy, he adds, "when we 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 received their full fires from batteries and 
 small arms, which killed us forty men and 
 one ensign. Our regiment being in some 
 disorder, I wanted to draw them up in rear 
 of the Dutch, which their general would 
 scarce allow of; but at last I did it, and soon 
 marched again to the front. In half an hour 
 after the Dutch gave way." 
 
 After this unfortunate retirement, it ap- 
 peared to the officer commanding the division 
 quite useless to attempt to stem the opposing 
 torrent of 5,000 troops supported by their 
 guns. This brigade was then withdrawn to 
 assist the Hanoverians. Phihp Yorke, who 
 wrote an account of the battle to the elder 
 Walpole, declared angrily that " it was mon- 
 strous for the Dutch not to have brought 
 even half the quota which they had agreed 
 into the field. When the battle was fought," 
 he continues, "the whole Confederate army, 
 according to the best accounts I have 
 seen, consisted of 46 battalions and 73 
 squadrons, making in all 33,000 effective 
 men." The French army, it appears from 
 the same authorities, consisted of 102 bat- 
 talions and 149 squadrons, making 60,000 
 i-nen — " a terrible disproportion, seeing how 
 advantageously they were posted and lined 
 with so many batteries." 
 
 There were many different accounts of 
 the action promulgated ; but it would appear 
 that for some reason or other many were 
 suppressed in Flanders — perhaps because 
 the allies did not like the aspersions cast 
 upon them. Be this as it may, we think the 
 allies were far outnumbered, and in a most 
 exposed situation, while the subsequent sur- 
 render of the towns (as already mentioned) 
 
 certainly gave some colour to the expressions 
 used by the English, that the Dutch had 
 behaved very badly. It was said that Prince 
 Waldeck pushed the English in this " despe- 
 rate attempt." But on the other hand it was 
 necessary to raise the siege of Tournai. 
 
 At any rate, whatever the reason of the 
 defeat, we cannot altogether blame the Dutch 
 for it. General Ingoldsby was in some 
 measure responsible. He had distinct orders 
 to advance, but he lost time in sending for 
 instructions when he had only to go on. 
 The British and Hanoverian troops also 
 were kept too closely together, and on these 
 compact masses the enemy's artillery did 
 great execution ; and when the time came for 
 the British cavalry to charge, they did not 
 do much, owing, it is said, to the nature of 
 the ground. If personal bravery could have 
 won the day, the English troops would have 
 remained the victors. 
 
 This success so emboldened Frederick the 
 Great, that he declined any' negotiations of 
 peace with Austria, and attacked them 
 furiously at Hohen Friedburg, where he 
 showed the true abilities of a general. The 
 loss of the Austrians in this battle was very 
 great. But we cannot here follow the for- 
 tunes of Maria Theresa, although they had 
 brought her prominently within the scope of 
 the events which led directly to the war in 
 Flanders and the fight at Fontenoy. 
 
 We need not here pursue the fortunes of 
 Maria Theresa. Our task is finished at 
 Fontenoy — a story of a defeat, it is true ; 
 but a defeat carrying with it all the prestige 
 of victory for the British arms. 
 
 Maestrilht. 
 
 384 
 
Admiral Duncan addressing the Mutineers. 
 
 THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND 
 
 THE NORE. 
 
 A Woman's Love— Digging up the Body of a Mutineer— The Panics of 1797 — The Glory of the English Fleet — First unheeded 
 Murmurs of the Tars— Black Dick, the Sailor's Friend— Outbreak at Spithead — The Yard-ropes— Splendid Temper of 
 the Mutineers — Their Tale of Woe — The Jolly Tar a Century ago — The Sweets of Liberty — The Press-gang — The 
 Admiralty at Portsmouth— Dangerous higgling of the Commissioners — The Bloody Flag hoisted — The Settlement — 
 Fresh Outbreak at St. Helen's— Another Blunder— The first Bloodshed— Triumph of the Seamen and the Sailor's 
 Friend— The Rising at the Nore— Frolics of the Delegates— Proposals of the Mutineers— Escape of the Clyde — 
 Blockade of the Thames— Piracy of the Mutineers— Some more Barbarities— Hanging Pitt — Parker's Washerwoman — 
 Break up of the Mutiny— Terrific Scenes in the Fleet— The Last of " President " Parker. 
 
 A Woman's Love ; At the Scaffold and 
 THE Grave. 
 N the twenty-ninth day of June, 1797, 
 a middle-aged woman, evidently 
 suffering from some great sorrow, 
 and clad in a black silk gown, a scarf mode- 
 cloak, a purple shawl, a black bonnet, and a 
 deep gauze veil, might have been seen wait- 
 ing with a companion at the palace of St. 
 James, in the great city of London. Every 
 minute has a weight of agony, and the sound 
 of the bells as they strike the slowly passing 
 hours seem to her like a death-knell. She 
 is only a sailor's wife and a poor woman, but, 
 fired with a passionate love, and a determina- 
 
 385 
 
 tion such as possessed the heart of Jeanie 
 Deans, she has succeeded, like that heroine 
 of romance, in making her way from Scotland 
 to the metropolis of England, in order to see 
 her husband, and save him, if possible, from 
 the sentence of a felon and a dishonourable 
 grave. 
 
 Three days before he had been condemned 
 to death by court-martial ; and she had a 
 petition drawn up in her name, which the 
 Earl of Morton, her fellow-countryman, had 
 promised to present to Queen Charlotte, 
 praying her gracious Majesty to use her 
 influence on behalf of her husband — on the 
 ground that he was insane, that he had on 
 
 cc 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 that account, at a former time, been dismissed 
 from his position in the navy, and that his 
 sister was actually in confinement as labour- 
 ing under the same disease. This prayer of the 
 loving wife has been presented by her noble 
 Scottish patron, and as she waits anxiously 
 for an answer from the Queen, she talks to 
 the pitiful bystanders of her sorrows, and 
 assures the attendants in the guard-chamber 
 that she would give a thousand guineas if 
 she could save her husband's life. At 
 last, wearied and hopeless of success, she 
 hears the hour of five struck ; the wife of King 
 George has not deigned to notice her petition, 
 and she drives away with her companion so 
 that she may be able to reach Sheerness 
 and see her husband for the last time, before 
 his execution on the following morning. 
 
 It was close on midnight when the Roches- 
 ter coach arrived at its destination, carrying 
 among its other passengers the forlorn wife 
 of Richard Parker, the notorious mutineer, 
 whose name had been in the mouth of every 
 man, woman, and child in that district of 
 Kent during the past few weeks. In spite of 
 this odium, however, she immediately suc- 
 ceeded in finding a boatman who was going 
 up to Sheerness in the morning with garden 
 vegetables, and who agreed to take her with 
 him. At the early hour of seven she reached 
 the side of the Sandwich, the vessel on which 
 her husband was to suffer at the yard-arm ; 
 but the stern sentinels, heedless of her 
 anxious request to see him, ordered her off, 
 and even threatened to fire in case of dis- 
 obedience. When this first boatman had 
 taken her back to Sheerness on the pretext 
 that as the yellow flag had not been hoisted 
 no execution would take place that day, she 
 engaged a second. As this boat was rowed 
 up she discerned the fatal flag ; again she 
 begged to see her husband ; but in spite of her 
 intense pleading, she v/as once more ordered 
 off, and taken back on shore. She hired a 
 third boat, and this time, as she approached, 
 she saw the fatal procession of her husband, 
 with his hands bound, from the quarter-deck 
 to the forecastle. " My dear husband ! " she 
 exclaimed with a loud shriek, as she fainted 
 away ; recovering again, she beheld him 
 mount the platform on the cathead and the 
 dark-robed chaplain leave his side ; but from 
 that moment a pall fell upc^n her sight, and 
 she " saw nothing but the sea, which appeared 
 covered with blood." An hour had passed 
 away before she reached the ship in a fourth 
 boat, in time to see her husband's lifeless 
 body lowered from the yard-arm. It was 
 immediately placed in a shell already pre- 
 pared for its reception, and exactly at mid- 
 day it was interred in the Naval Burying 
 Ground at Sheerness, amid the deep silence 
 of a large company of the comrades of the 
 unhappy man. 
 
 It was in vain that the sailor's widow made 
 an earnest and immediate appeal to one of 
 the vice-admirals for the disposal of her hus- 
 band's body ; and she formed a resolution for 
 securing it, by means that have perhaps no 
 parallel even in the wildest of romances. 
 When darkness had stolen down upon the 
 quiet waters of the Thames, and silence 
 reigned over the harbour of Sheerness, this 
 faithful wife, accompanied by three other 
 women, clambered over the high gateway of 
 the graveyard, and by their aid dug up with 
 her hands the rude coffin in which her hus- 
 band's dishonoured body was enclosed. But 
 how, after this first portion of the strange 
 undertaking had been accomplished, was the 
 dismal freight to be carried off unseen? 
 Whatever means were adopted, — and one 
 story of the time gives an account, which, 
 though perhaps true, reads like a ghastly 
 fable, — certain it is that the shell which 
 encased the remains of Richard Parker was 
 safely lodged in a room hired by his widow 
 in the Hoop and Horseshoe public-house^ 
 Little Tower Hill ; that immense crowds 
 gathered there on the two succeeding days i^ 
 that the weeping woman was led before the 
 magistrates in Lambert Street police-court ; 
 and that the public authorities,' in fear of 
 tumults, had the body buried secretly and 
 finally, shortly after midnight, in the vault of 
 Whitechapel church. 
 
 This last scene in the tragic episode of the 
 mutinies at Spithead and the Nore may 
 fitly serve as an introduction to a narrative 
 of the strange events of the spring of the 
 year 1797, when the seamen of the British 
 navy rose in rebellion against the cruelties^, 
 tyranny, and neglect to which they were sub- 
 jected, and in the course of their determined! 
 stand imperilled the naval supremacy, and 
 perhaps the independence, of their country 
 
 The Shadow of the Sword ; Panics 
 OF 1797. 
 Never during her whole history was the 
 greatness of England so completely staked 
 upon the solid fibre of her " wooden walls "■ 
 as in the closing years of the eighteenth 
 century. The glorious spring of the French 
 Revolution was like a mother that devours 
 her own children. Paris, the mother of 
 freedom, had become the fierce metropolis. 
 The "far-famed tree" of liberty, of which 
 the peasant bard of Ayrshire had sung exult- 
 ingly, had yielded such monstrous fruit as 
 Marat, Danton, Robespierre. And now the 
 whole of Europe trembled, bled, and crouched 
 before Napoleon's invincibles. The first 
 months of the year 1797 beheld the sacred 
 Head of the Roman Church "taking the 
 trouble" to bow before his "dear son," 
 ceding to the French Republic the sum of 
 thirty million livres in specie and diamonds. 
 
 386 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPIT HE AD AND THE NO RE. 
 
 and yielding up for ever Avignon and other 
 fair and fertile provinces ; boastful Venice, 
 whose republic had stood for many cen- 
 turies, furiously butchered Frenchmen in the 
 hospitals, and was crushed out of political 
 existence ; and the Emperor of Germany was 
 driven in the early days of April to sue for 
 peace from the great general who had chased 
 his armies out of Italy, and was striking 
 blow after blow on the triumphant march to 
 Vienna. 
 
 England stood alone at last as the unbend- 
 ing and unbroken foe of France, her ambition, 
 her allies, and her legions. Never was it so 
 true as then that she was mistress of the 
 seas ; the maritime traffic of the world was 
 in her hands ; she had swept the trading 
 craft of France and Holland from every 
 corner of the main ; 
 and amid the deep 
 convulsions of Europe, 
 the insurance of British 
 vessels sailing to India 
 and "far Cathay" actu- 
 ally sank from fifteen 
 guineas to one half of that 
 amount. At last the point 
 of the lance was held out 
 towards our "impregna- 
 ble " shores. Ireland was 
 filled with discontent and 
 insurrection, panting like 
 a wild bird that is caged 
 in view of the green fields. 
 A French expedition of 
 25,000 men, under Hoche, 
 had attempted in De- 
 cember 1796 to land on 
 the reckless isle of Erin, 
 but had gone back to 
 Brest to wait for better 
 winds and better luck ; 
 and in the month of Feb- 
 ruary, a band of 1200 
 men, picked veterans and ragged scoundrels, 
 provided with seventy cart-loads of powder and 
 balls, scrambled on shore among the rocks 
 of Pembrokeshire, began to steal clothes, 
 and marched into the country. Our fleet 
 was to be decimated by the united war-ships 
 of the triumvirate of France, Spain, and 
 Holland, and a great army was to "march 
 to the capital of that mighty nation, seize 
 the immense heaps of gold in the Bank 
 of London, the prodigious wealth contained 
 in their shops, their warehouses, and 
 their magazines, the riches contained in their 
 gilded palaces and their stately mansions," 
 etc., etc. 
 
 The fear of French invasion created a 
 panic throughout England in the last ten 
 days of February. Millions of solid British 
 gold had been spent in lending sinews to the 
 feeble arm of Austria. Farmers flew to their 
 
 Admiral Lord Howe, 
 
 country banks and emptied them of specie. 
 These again hastened to devour the reserve 
 of the Bank of England. The heads of that 
 great national institution v/ere at their wits' 
 end. Payment in specie was suspended. 
 The country, exclaimed Fox, was in the 
 gulf of bankruptcy. The governors of the 
 Bank immediately assured the nation that it 
 was in "the most affluent and flourishing 
 condition." 
 
 Britain had little need of domestic trou- 
 bles. She required her whole strength. Her 
 reliance and her boast were in her " wooden 
 walls." Not to travel back to the distant 
 times of Alfred, or to those of Richard of the 
 Lion Heart, whose strong-fisted men had 
 boarded the impregnable Dj-omunda, the 
 floating castle of Saladin, or to those of 
 Wil lough by, Drake, 
 Howard, Essex, Raleigh; 
 not to speak of the more 
 recent achievements of 
 the dauntless dare-devil 
 Benbow,of Sir Cloudesley 
 Shovel,and of Rooke, who 
 in the year 1704 hosted 
 the British colours on the 
 Rock of Gibraltar, where 
 ihey are flying to this 
 hour — had we not still 
 with us, in the chief com- 
 mand of our brave and 
 loyal tars, Earl Howe, the 
 hero of the " First of 
 June," when the French 
 were thrashed in the Bay 
 of Biscay ; and had not 
 Jervis and Commodore 
 Nelson, on the 14th day 
 of February in this very 
 year, thrown a bright 
 gleam of sunshine into 
 " the wild and darkening 
 forest that threatened to 
 close around us," by smiting the Spanish fleet 
 off Cape St. Vincent, fifteen sail of the line 
 against twenty-seven? Neither merchant 
 nor statesman permitted himself for one 
 moment to dream that the great wave of 
 the righteous power of manhood which had 
 swept over France would touch the decks 
 of our wooden walls, and that the mariners 
 who guard our native seas would be found 
 swerving in the years of storm and license. 
 
 Black Dick, the Sailor's Friend; 
 Unheeded Murmurs. 
 
 Richard, Earl Howe, had grown old and 
 worn in the service of his country. The 
 veteran admiral, now half a decade beyon-d 
 the allotted span of threescore years and ten, 
 suffered from the gout in his feet and ankles, 
 and had gone down to take the waters at 
 
 387 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Bath in the autumn of 1796. During the 
 whole winter he was confined to his room, 
 and was not able to throw aside his crutches 
 till the end of March. No name, in his own 
 special line, was more respected by the 
 nation or more trusted by the seamen of the 
 navy. To these last the tall and serious 
 admiral was familiarly known as " Black 
 Dick," from a mezzotint portrait that used to 
 hang in his cabin, the sight of which, when 
 first presented to the noble tar, threw him 
 into a state of ludicrous amazement. They 
 also called him the " sailor's friend ; " and 
 rightly, for beneath that dark, serious, and 
 haughty countenance there lay a heart which 
 was not only firm as an oak, and never knew 
 what fear was, — to use his own words,— but 
 which was at the same time humane and 
 tender as a true tar's. Was there a sailor in 
 the whole fleet who did not know how, after 
 the famous "first of June," a deputation of 
 petty officers and seamen came aft to thank 
 him for leading them to victory, and how he 
 replied with faltering voice and tear-filled 
 -eyes : " It is you, my brave lads, it is you, 
 not I, that have conquered"? There were 
 .stories, too, of his benign condescension, — 
 how he was accustomed to go below when a 
 bloody action was over, sitting by the cradles 
 of.the poor wounded fellows, talking cheerily 
 to them ; and how the sick were nursed with 
 his live stock and wines. 
 
 In the last days of February and the open- 
 ing days of March, the old admiral was dis- 
 turbed by the receipt of anonymous petitions 
 from four vessels of the Channel Fleet at 
 Spithead. One of these complainants had 
 been his own flag-ship, the Qiieen Charlotte^ 
 which was for ever famous, because of the 
 glorious victory of the ist of June, 1794, 
 when her 900 men and 100 guns had dealt 
 death and havoc among the French. So 
 dear was her cabin to him, that the library at 
 his mansion near St. Alban's was fitted up 
 .as a facsimile of his ocean home. The sea- 
 men in these petitions simply asked him to 
 request the Board of Admiralty to extend to 
 them, whose payment was the petty sum of 
 ^\d. per day, the same munificence that the 
 army had received. 
 
 The earl saw that three of the petitions 
 were written in the same hand. This seemed 
 to him suspicious. But as these petitions of 
 the brave tars dropped in day after day, 
 doubtless his memory recalled the serious 
 murmurs of bygone years. He would remem- 
 ber that in the House of Lords he had 
 declared that his own flag-ship was very 
 filthy, and that many of the vessels were in a 
 wretched state ; how, among the several 
 mutinies of 1783, the crews at Portsmouth, 
 on a report that the ships just returned were 
 to be refitted and unjustly sent to sea again, 
 had confined their officers and had rushed 
 
 down with lighted matches ready to fire on 
 the appearance of any attack from without, 
 and that he had hastened on board the Janus, 
 ending the mutiny by a timely and just 
 concession ; how, for this same complaint, 
 three men had been hanged in that year on 
 the yard-arm of the Raisonnable j how eight 
 men had been sentenced to death on the 
 Cidloden at the close of 1794, and that he 
 had cast the blame of this discontent upon 
 the captains, who were accustomed to regale 
 themselves on shore, while the toiling tars 
 were kept on board like prisoners. 
 
 But the old ways were too inveterately 
 ingrained in Howe. There was no hurry. He 
 intended to take the petitions in his pocket 
 to Earl Spencer, the First Lord of the Admi- 
 ralty, when he went up to town from the 
 waters at Bath ; and in the meantime he 
 wrote to two of the chief officers of the 
 Channel Fleet, whose inquiries ended in a 
 report that there was no perceptible dis- 
 affection, and that the smoke was simply 
 manufactured by some evilly-disposed person, 
 in order to throw scandal on the government 
 of William Pitt. Whatever discontent there 
 might be would instantly blow off when the 
 ships stood out to sea, and the patriotic tars 
 were brought face to face with the mortal 
 foes of England. He and his correspondents 
 were mistaken. They forgot the homely 
 proverb that "a stitch in time saves nine." 
 Unseen, the neglected embers were nursed 
 into a flame, which broke forth weeks after 
 into a series of mutinies that threatened the 
 ruin of the country. 
 
 Outbreak of the Spithead Mutiny. 
 Thus neglected by their friend, the crews 
 carried on a secret correspondence, and 
 formed a sullen resolution that not an anchor 
 should be lifted until their complaints were 
 attended to and their grievances redressed. 
 The officers remained in strange ignorance 
 of the " conspiracy," and the Admiralty had 
 no knowledge of its existence until the 12th 
 of April, when orders were at once tele- 
 graphed to Admiral Bridport, the commander 
 of the fleet, to put out to sea. On Saturday 
 the 15th he gave the signal to weigh anchor 
 and proceed to St. Helen's. Three cheers 
 instantly rose from the crew of the Queen 
 Charlotte; and instead of mustering obediently 
 round the handspikes of the capstan, the 
 sailors ran up the shrouds. As if by magical 
 contagion, every other crew in the roadstead 
 echoed the cheers of the flag-ship, and simi- 
 larly manned the fore-shrouds. Not a single 
 anchor in the fleet was lifted. The officers 
 spent their threats and eloquence in vain. 
 The marines were disarmed and the maga- 
 zines seized. Within a few minutes the 
 authority of the officers was at an end, and 
 the common seamen were masters of the fleet. 
 
 388 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NORE. 
 
 It remained to be seen wliether the seamen 
 were able to hold down the combatant they 
 had surprised and stunned ; in other words, 
 whether they possessed sufficient determina- 
 tion, cohesion, and administrative capacity. 
 Two " delegates " — that " dangerous " word 
 which had been employed in 1794 by the 
 rebels of the Cullodeii — were appointed by 
 each of the sixteen ships. On the following 
 day, which was Easter Sunday, these thirty- 
 two deputies assembled to deliberate in the 
 favourite cabin of Lord Howe ; and on Easter 
 Monday they went through the ceremony of 
 swearing every sailor upon the Bible, the 
 ropes which were run out at the yard-arm of 
 each ship hinting grimly to any unwilling tar 
 the terrible penalty of disobedience. A list 
 of rules prepared by the committee enjoined, 
 under severe penalty, the greatest attention 
 to the orders of the officers ; that every ship 
 should give three cheers both morning and 
 evening ; that no private communication 
 should be held with the shore ; that no ship 
 should lift its anchor until the demands 
 of the fleet were satisfied ; that no woman 
 should be permitted on shore, but as many 
 might come in as pleased ; and that any 
 person found drunk or attempting to bring 
 liquor into the ship should be rigorously 
 punished. These laws were enforced with 
 unrelenting severity ; for instance, a sailor 
 who had dared to smuggle a pint of spirits 
 on board was flogged unmercifully with a 
 thief-cat ; and on one occasion the Royal 
 William, having declined to join in the 
 general cheering of the fleet, was peremptorily 
 warned that she would be fired into if she 
 repeated this act of disobedience. Even the 
 sick seamen who lay in Haslar Hospital 
 (opposite Portsmouth) were infected with 
 the spirit of enthusiasm, tacked their hand- 
 kerchiefs into a flag, and added their daily 
 cheers to those on board the fleet. The 
 officers whose cruelty had rendered them 
 obnoxious, in spite of all their fears, received 
 no greater injury than that of being sent 
 ashore by the mutineers ; and the terrific 
 yard-ropes were called on to perform no 
 sterner duties than that of ducking any 
 sailors who were found guilty of petty mis- 
 demeanourSj^a more amusing and less brutal 
 punishment than the lash, from which many 
 of the honest tars had suffered for similar 
 offences. Altogether the conduct of these 
 half-enslaved seamen deserves the eulogy of 
 Earl Stanhope, that " perhaps no men raised 
 to power by a successful mutiny ever showed 
 so much temper and moderation." 
 
 Petitions of the Seamen ; A Tale of 
 Long Suffering, State Neglect, and 
 Robbery. 
 
 On the 1 8th of April, two petitions, dis- 
 tinguished by a most respectful and loyal 
 
 tone, were prepared and signed by the thirty- 
 two delegates of the mutinous fleet, in order 
 to make plain to the authorities and the 
 nation the wrongs ©f sailors, and the only 
 terms under which they could be expected 
 to remain in the service of their country. 
 One of these, addressed to the House of 
 Commons, set forth their disappointment 
 and surprise at the neglect of Howe, in 
 whom they had expected to find an advocate, 
 as under his command they had often made 
 the British flag ride triumphant over that of 
 their enemies ; asked for an increase of the 
 Greenwich pensions from seven to thirteen 
 pounds per annum, and for an increase of 
 their own pay sufficient to enable them and 
 their families to live in the same comfortable 
 manner as seamen and marines did in the 
 time of Charles II. ; for, strange to tell, as 
 is pointed out in this address, their wages 
 were still as low as they had been fixed by 
 Act of Parliament more than a century 
 before, "when the necessaries of life and 
 slops of every denomination were at least 
 thirty per cent, cheaper." 
 
 The address to the Admiralty is more 
 emphatic, and presents a fuller tale of wrongs, 
 and yet does not even mention the hardships 
 of impressment and flogging, which formed 
 the leading articles of indictment among 
 non-seafaring people and parliamentary 
 philanthropists. In addition to the insuffi- 
 ciency of pay, the demands therein set forth 
 are as follows : — 
 
 "First, That our provisions be raised to the weight 
 of sixteen ounces to the pound, and of a better 
 quality ; and that our measures may be the same as 
 those used in the commercial trade of the country. 
 
 ' ' Secondly, . . . There should be no flour served 
 while we are in harbour, in any port whatever, under 
 the command of the British flag ; and also, that there 
 might be granted a sufficient quantity of vegetables 
 of such kind as may be the most plentiful in the ports 
 to which we go ; which we grievously complain and 
 lay under the want of. 
 
 "Thirdly, . . . To look into the state of the sick 
 on board H.M. ships, that they may be better 
 attended to, and that . . . such necessaries as are 
 allowed for them in time of sickness ... be not on 
 any account embezzled. 
 
 ' ' Foui'thly, . . . That we may in somewise have 
 grant and opportunity to taste the sweets of liberty 
 on shore, when in any harbour, and when we have 
 completed the duty of our ship . . . ; which is a 
 natural request, and congenial to the heart of man, 
 and certainly to us, that you make the boast of being 
 the guardians of the land. 
 
 " Fifthly, That if any man is wounded in action, his 
 pay be continued until he is cured and discharged ; 
 and if any ship has any real grievances to complain 
 of, we hope your Lordships will readily redress them, 
 as far as in your power, to prevent any disturbances." 
 
 In the preamble and the epilogue of this 
 wail from the sea, care was taken to speak 
 with deference, moderation, and patriotism, 
 so that no pitiable excuse might be given to 
 a dense-hearted and close-fisted government 
 
 389 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 to cover a refusal of these demands with 
 charges of disrespect, disloyalty, laziness, 
 cowardice, and revolutionary ideas ; and the 
 nation at large gave its fullest sympathy to 
 the demands of the brave, ill-treated, and 
 half-paid tars, — demands or "requests" so 
 modestly put forth by the thousands of men 
 whom the rulers of England, as the petition 
 sarcastically puts it, " make the boast of 
 being the guardians of the land." Not only 
 would they " suffer double the hardships we 
 have hitherto experienced before we would 
 suffer the crown of England to be in the 
 least imposed upon by that of any other 
 Power in the world," but it was also — these 
 are the closing words — "unanimously agreed 
 by the fleet, that from this day no grievances 
 shall be received, in order to convince the 
 nation at large that we know when to cease 
 to ask as well as to begin, and that we ask 
 nothing but what is moderate and may be 
 granted without detriment to the nation or 
 injury to the service." 
 
 Our Jolly Tars a Century ago. 
 There is nothing fabulous or magnified in 
 all this tale of woe ; it is not the cry of 
 peevish discontent, but a manly-spoken 
 claim for justice. The lines of the "jolly 
 tars " who manned our wooden walls and 
 -won our victories, and slashed right and left 
 the fleets of the world, were in nowise fallen 
 :in pleasant places. There is nothing over- 
 drawn for comic effect in the terrible and 
 ; scathing exposure of naval life made in 
 the career of that rollicking scapegrace, 
 " Roderick Randon " ; in fact, we have there 
 irevealed a mere sample of the enormities 
 'endured by poor Tom Bovvhng so late even 
 as the year of grace 1797. The immorality, 
 anortality, disease, cursings, floggings, and 
 desertions, cannot be inspected closely by a 
 modern reader without a feeling of wonder, 
 horror, and disgust. A man-of-war was not, 
 as now, one of the healthiest places to 
 inhabit in the world ; the food, the cruelty, 
 the restrictions were so shocking that suffi- 
 cient volunteers could not be had to man 
 lOur fleet. The men were at the mercy of 
 ;tyrant officers like Captain Oakum, and an 
 : impressed seaman of this very time has left 
 on record that there was " starting and 
 rflogging all day long," and that on the very 
 first night he spent on board he saw seven 
 ■men flogged because they were not smart 
 'enough ; the purser was simply a robber by 
 prescription, making;^!, 000 a year online-of- 
 battle ships, although he had no pay from 
 Government, for he was privileged to retain 
 an eighth of all provisions for the seamen, 
 on the score of waste or leakage ; and every- 
 thing doled out was of the worst description. 
 The ration for meat was one pound per day, 
 but rarely did more than one-third reach the 
 
 hands of the tar; the salt beef and pork 
 were sometimes mixed up by contractors 
 with salted horse, and were often flavourless 
 and polished like a cornelian, after having 
 become indurated with salt in voyaging over 
 and over the seas for years ; cheese, butter, 
 breakfast cocoa, water, all were often in the 
 last stage of rottenness. Of these things 
 Roderick Random speaketh truly : " We 
 had languished five weeks on the allowance 
 of a purser's quart per diem for each man, 
 in the torrid zone, where the sun was verti- 
 cal, and the expense of bodily fluid so great 
 that a gallon of liquor could scarce supply 
 the waste of twenty-four hours. . . Our pro- 
 vision consisted of putrid salt beef, to which 
 the sailors gave the name of "Irish horse" ; 
 salt pork of New England, which, though 
 neither flesh nor fish, savoured of both ; 
 bread from the same country, every biscuit 
 whereof, like a piece of clockwork, moved by 
 its own internal impulse, occasioned by the 
 myriads of insects that dwelt within it ; and 
 butter served out by the gill, that tasted like 
 train oil, thickened with salt." But as "a 
 sorrow's crown of sorrow " lies in remember- 
 ing happier things, two-and-a-half gills of 
 new rum were daily administered to the tars in 
 order to preserve them from that unpleasant 
 state of mind. Add to all this the fearful 
 ravages of disease, the horrid condition of 
 the unfortunate sick (that too has been 
 described by Smollett), the embezzlement of 
 their medicines and necessaries, the abomi- 
 nable associates with whom the true tar was 
 forced to mingle, and to lay the copestone 
 of hardship, the fact that he was absolutely 
 lorded over by " a petty monarch, whose 
 slightest caprice was indisputable law," with 
 no appeal from any wrong save to a " code 
 of jurisdiction so severe that every line 
 appears to have been traced in blood, and 
 every other penalty is a shameful death." 
 
 What of the "sweets of liberty" when in 
 port ? Men who should have gained their 
 freedom from the service in three years were 
 drafted from ship to ship and sent away into 
 distant service, as if they were no freemen, 
 but prisoners and slaves, at the pleasure ot 
 His Majesty's commanders ; and as the sea- 
 men were only allowed a few hours on shore, 
 it was impossible for them, in most instances, 
 to pay even a flying visit to their homes, their 
 mothers, their wives, their children. The 
 picture of a man-of-war in port during the 
 great war is too degraded for a modern pen 
 to trace ; hundreds of the vilest women 
 flocked on board whenever she arrived, and 
 made the ship a den of pollution, on which 
 no decent wife, or mother, or sister could set 
 her foot. This immorality was not without 
 an effect in spreading the mutinous spirit 
 which existed at the Nore. An admiral then 
 commanding a fleet on a foreign station 
 
 390 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NO RE. 
 
 found that a large number of the letters 
 addressed to his sailors were from this class 
 at the British ports, and urged them in the 
 strongest terms to join the mutineers. To 
 attempt to go on shore without leave was a 
 terrible crime. A sailor who had been 
 pressed into the service, after many years' 
 absence, touched at his native port, but no 
 ■women were allowed on board, and even his 
 aged mother and sister, although they came 
 a.longside, did not obtain the privilege. In 
 the darkness he swam ashore, remained at 
 liome for a few hours, and returned early in 
 the morning. He was discovered, however, 
 by the captain, tried by court-martial, and 
 •sentenced to a severe punishment with that 
 sovereign remedy, the cat-o'-nine-tails. 
 
 One-half of the seamen during the great 
 war were captured by that odious institution, 
 the press-gang, which had its head-quarters 
 at the "Royal Naval Rendezvous," on Tower 
 Hill, London. In the adjacent public-houses, 
 as one writer has described it, there might be 
 seen alluring pictures of Jack dancing horn- 
 pipes on deck with a lieutenant, or hob- 
 nobbing over his grog with an admiral, 
 or slaying half-a-dozen Frenchmen before 
 breakfast, or lighting his pipe on shore with 
 Bank of England notes. When genuine 
 volunteers became scarce and deserters 
 many, there was no scruple about accepting 
 the garbage of society, such as dishonest 
 clerks and excisemen of damaged reputation. 
 In the urgency of the great war. the very 
 gaols were emptied, and thieves and mur- 
 derers were thrown into the drag-net of the 
 siavy ; and all these means being insuffi- 
 cient, the country pressed everybody she 
 could lay hands on. We are told that 
 apprentices showed their indentures in vain ; 
 people would come home from China or 
 Honolulu, and fall into the clutches of 
 the press-gang five minutes after they set 
 their foot on shore ; bags of money would 
 l)e found on posts on Tower Hill, left by 
 persons who had been kidnapped unawares ; 
 anen would leave public-houses for a moment 
 to see what kind of a night it was and never 
 be heard of again. These are only a few of the 
 •evil ways by which our navy was recruited, 
 and of the dreadful hardships endured by the 
 brave mariners of England, who toiled and 
 bled for the munificent figure of ninepence 
 three farthings a day ; but they will serve to 
 interline the modest and moderate complaints 
 presented to the consideration and acceptance 
 of the Government of England. The terrible 
 articles of war are still read constantly upon 
 our men-of-war, but the seamen, better edu- 
 cated, better paid, better fed, self-reliant, 
 sober, and little given to violence, regard 
 them only as a bogie ; and although some 
 rough-and-ready officers of the old school 
 look upon the times of our wooden walls as 
 
 the golden age of the navy, there are few 
 indeed who will not respect the man-of-war's 
 man of to-day as a vast improvement on the 
 drunken, rollicking tar of a hundred years 
 ago. 
 
 Visit of the Admiralty to Portsmouth. 
 
 Those petitions, with the genuine signa- 
 tures of Val Joyce, Jack Morris, Pat Glynn, 
 Joe Green, Bill Potts, and twenty-seven other 
 British seamen, delegates of the Channel 
 Fleet, looked like the first rush of a lurid 
 storm. The already terrified metropolis was 
 panic-stricken as by the sudden shock of an 
 earthquake. The mutiny of the English 
 mariners, of whose bravery and unstained 
 loyalty every Englishman was justly proud, 
 and on whose sometimes wayward follies on 
 shore he looked with fond indulgence, was 
 the theme of anxious conversation at every 
 fireside, every street corner, every tavern. It 
 was feared that the Channel might become 
 an opeji pathway for the ships and privateers 
 of France; and, indeed, in' Paris it was almost 
 believed that England would sink from being 
 queen of the ocean waves into a feeble and 
 dependent power, without a voice in the 
 councils of Europe. The rumour even flew 
 through London that the seamen had refused 
 to advance to meet the enemy. 
 
 My Lord Bridport and other great men 
 who thought they held in their hands the key 
 of Europe's freedom and of England's great- 
 ness might not now quietly lay the complaints 
 aside, and, hands in pockets, denounce the 
 whole affair as a scandal got up by ill-disposed 
 persons against the Government of William 
 Pitt. A Cabinet Council was summoned in 
 hot haste on the 17th, and it was there and 
 then determined that Spencer and two 
 Junior Lords of the Admiralty should hie to 
 Portsmouth ; the idea being indulged that the 
 appearance of those great officials would at 
 once act as a magical sedative on the fevered 
 spirits of the simple-minded men. On their 
 arrival, a consultation was held on shore 
 with the best admirals, and an immediate 
 answer to the petition was despatched 
 through Lord Bridport, directing him to take 
 the speediest method of communicating to 
 the fleet that they would recommend His 
 Majesty to propose to Parliament an increase 
 of wages, that wounded seamen would enjoy 
 full pay until cured, or until, if completely 
 invalided, they should be received into 
 Greenwich Hospital, or retire with a pension. 
 Finally, with a strong "puff'" of the courage, 
 loyalty, and "spirit which always so eminently 
 distinguished British seamen," they desired 
 them to return at once to duty, as it might 
 be necessary for the fleet to put immediately 
 to sea in order to meet the enemy of the 
 country. 
 
 This was too meagre a sop for Cerberus to 
 
 391 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 swallow. The increase offered by my Lords 
 was 4J-. per month to petty officers and able 
 seamen; 3^. per month to ordinary seamen; 
 and IS. per month to landsmen. But there 
 was not a word as to the quantity of pro- 
 visions of which the pursers robbed them ; not 
 a word as to the quality of the abominable 
 dog's meat doled out to these patriot martyrs 
 whose life was worse than a dog's ; not a 
 word as to the fresh vegetables in port ; not 
 a word as to the treatment of the sick and 
 wounded, so scathingly exposed in the 
 familiar tale of "Roderick Random"; not 
 a word as to the sweets of liberty on shore. 
 Is it to be wondered at that, in their reply 
 of the 19th April, these points should be 
 insisted on again by the delegates, who had 
 not yet succumbed to the magical presence 
 of the Lords ; that they should insist still on 
 the redress of the grievances of particular 
 ships, in other words, the removal of ob- 
 noxious officers ; and that they should now, 
 remembering the fate of the men of the 
 Culloden, who had been hanged by the neck 
 two years before in spite of an assurance of 
 pardon, express their determination not to 
 lift an anchor until an Act of Indemnity 
 was passed ? They also, with a tone of 
 conscious strength far different from their 
 meek first petition, offered some " remarks " 
 for the "consideration" of the Board, viz., 
 IS. per day for able seamen, and a propor- 
 tionate increase to the others ; a similar 
 increase for marines when on board ; the 
 augmentation of the Greenwich pensions to 
 ^10, towards which the sailors would give 
 one shilling per month ; and that this in- 
 crease should be extended to the seamen of 
 the East India Company, most of whom 
 were obtained from the navy ; for " we have 
 seen them," said they, "with our own eyes, 
 after sickness or other accident has disabled 
 them, without any hope of relief or support, 
 but from their former service in the navy." 
 
 Scene on the "Charlotte"; The Red 
 Flag hoisted. 
 Although a message of the following day 
 yielded to the seamen their demands as to 
 increase of pay and provisions and the full 
 allowance to the wounded, the foolhardy 
 Lords closed their gift with an ungracious 
 thj-eaf, that every company which did not 
 return to duty within an hour would be 
 answerable for "the dreadful consequences 
 which will necessarily attend their continuing 
 to transgress the rules of the service, in open 
 violation of the laws of their country." The 
 foot of the determined tars was not to be 
 raised by leverage like this; and on the 
 morning of Friday the 21st, Admirals 
 Gardner, Colpoys, and Cole, went off to 
 hold a conference with the delegates of the 
 fleet, Lord Spencer not being permitted to 
 
 go, as it was urged that he was too tempting 
 a prize to be placed in the hands of the 
 mutineers. The upshot was disastrous. 
 Although the flag-officers were received on 
 board the Charlotte with all due honours^ 
 and found the delegates respectful in language 
 and demeanour, yet these last were deter- 
 mined to accept no terms except by Act of 
 Parliament, or rest on any promise unless 
 given under the King's signature, Gardner,, 
 who was a thorough and a popular seaman^ 
 but of a very nervous temperament, which 
 caused him many a sleepless night, although 
 it never suffered him to lack coolness and 
 courage in presence of a foe, unfortunately 
 lost his temper in the debate. He denounced 
 the seamen as cowards, " a set of skulking 
 fellows who knew the French were ready for 
 sea;" and seizing one of the delegates by the 
 collar, he swore that they should all be 
 hanged, along with every fifth man in the 
 fleet. The crew made a furious rush towards 
 the quarter-deck, and the choleric admiral 
 might have gone overboard, had he not 
 succeeded in extricating himself from the 
 grip of his assailants. Jumping into the 
 hammock nettings of the ship, and placing 
 his neck in the noose of a " yard-rope," he 
 called out, " If you will return to your duty^ 
 you may hang me at the yard-arm !" This 
 heroic speech instantly stopped the onset of 
 the sailors, and at once changed their indig- 
 nation into cheers for the brave and really 
 beloved officer. 
 
 Negotiations, however, were broken off:, 
 Bridport struck his flag upon the Charlotte f 
 the delegates assembled on the Royal George^, 
 in answer to the blood-red flag of war which 
 was now hoisted ; watches were set and the 
 guns shotted ; the officers were made pri- 
 soners ; and on that evening Spencer re- 
 turned in ha-ste to town with the dreadful 
 news. 
 
 The peop'e on shore were alarmed at the 
 sight of the " bloody flag," the signal of a. 
 challenge ti' :ombat, which called up in their 
 imagination a host of hideous fears ; but the 
 good-hearted tars were themselves soon 
 struck wiih repentance for the unhappy 
 extreme of disrespect to which they had 
 been dri/^en, and on the following day the 
 delegates, whose storm of indignation had 
 by this time fallen into a gentle breeze, 
 penned a humble letter to Bridport, their 
 commander, in which they affectionately 
 termed him their "father and friend." They 
 also addressed a letter of gratitude to the 
 Admiralty for an order, which Bridport read 
 to them that morning, in which some of their 
 demands were granted ; but they still insisted 
 on an Act of Parliament and other unyielded 
 items ; and so little, with all their tender- 
 ness, was their determination moved, that 
 in the evening particular orders were issued 
 
 39: 
 
THE MUTINIES AT S PITHEAD AND THE NORE. 
 
 The Outbreak of the Mutinv at Spithead— The Sailors refusing to put to Sea. 
 
 393 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 that on the next morning, which was Sunday, 
 ever>' sailor should appear on the rigging with 
 clean clothes and give the three customary 
 cheers. Accordingly, the shouts sounded 
 more lustily than ever on that April morning, 
 and the flag of defiance still streamed from 
 the Royal George. 
 
 But the fight was won. No sooner had 
 Lord Spencer reached the city than a meet- 
 ing of the Cabinet was held ; he hurried off 
 to Windsor, and on the forenoon of that 
 same Sunday Lord Bridport and other 
 officers stepped on board the Royal George, 
 ihanded a copy of the royal pardon to the 
 captain of each vessel, and exhibited the 
 original proclamation to the suspicious dele- 
 I gates on the Charlotte; the commander's 
 'flag was once more hoisted, the terrible red 
 flag fell, three hearty cheers arose from every 
 icrew, and every man at Spithead declared 
 liis readiness to perform the commands of 
 his superiors. On Monday afternoon choleric 
 old Gardner dropped down to St. Helen's 
 ,with the first division of the fleet. The 
 agreement did not come one moment too 
 soon, for the Plymouth squadron also 
 mutinied at this juncture, and a week 
 ,elapsed before they learned from men whom 
 they had despatched in a cutter to Spithead 
 that the demands of the seamen were finally 
 settled, and that the cry of "All's well!" 
 might once more be shouted as truly as of 
 old. 
 
 The Mutiny at St. Helen's ; One 
 More Blunder. 
 
 Bis dat qui cito dat. The niggardly in- 
 difference and left-handed generosity with 
 which the seamen of the Channel had been 
 treated left them in a suspicious and explo- 
 sive mood, which the slightest spark would 
 start off again into a more desperate rebellion. 
 Several of the crews, indeed, hesitated to move 
 from Spithead because their demand for the 
 removal of certain officers had been refused ; 
 nor had the rest of the fleet gained absolute 
 confidence in the temper of the Government. 
 Apart from the delay — necessary, it was 
 alleged, for the preparation of estimates — in 
 presenting a Bill to the Commons for increase 
 of the seamen's pay, no step could be more 
 imprudent than that taken by the Admiralty 
 on the 1st of May. An order, of the most 
 provoking character alike to officers and 
 seamen, was issued to all the commanders 
 of the navy, declaring that it had "become 
 highly necessary that the strictest attention 
 should be paid by all officers . . . not only 
 to their own conduct, but to the conduct of 
 those who may be under their orders ; " it 
 even condescended to intimate that choice 
 pieces of beef, or select casks of wine or 
 spirits, should not be taken for the officers 
 from the stock of the ship's company, etc., — 
 
 good enough advice, indeed ! — and captains 
 and commanders were to " see that the arms 
 and ammunition belonging to the marines be 
 constantly kept in good order and fit for 
 immediate service, as well in harbour as at 
 sea ; " as if the brave British tars, who had 
 crowned the history of England with centuries 
 of glory, were no better than the herds of 
 Egyptian slaves who in old times dragged 
 the obelisks and vast stones of the pyramids, 
 to be flogged and shot down like brute beasts ! 
 There was very soon a favourable chance 
 for showing the wisdom of this precious 
 missive. Handbills went round the ships, 
 warning the crews of the unwillingness of 
 the House of Lords to stand to the promises 
 by which the tars had been beguiled ; and 
 these, coupled with the threats of bayonets 
 and guns, bore fruit on Sunday the yth of 
 May. On Bridport's giving orders to weigh 
 anchor, the old cheers which prefaced mutiny 
 were heard again, the " yard-ropes " were 
 once more rove, delegates were again elected, 
 and the officers stripped of their command. 
 
 The First Bloodshed ; A Sad 
 Procession. 
 The delegates, more determined than 
 before, proceeded to invite the whole Channel 
 Fleet to anchor at St. Helen's : a frigate was 
 despatched to the mutinous ships at Ply- 
 mouth ; the squadron at Torbay was also to 
 be summoned ; and orders were sent for the 
 London and the Marlborough, which were 
 still lying at Spithead. When the delegates 
 approached the former of these two vessels. 
 Sir John Colpoys, vice-admiral, whose blue 
 flag was flying on that ship, ordered the 
 officers and marines to arms. It was in vain 
 that the crew, after some hesitation, came aft 
 and requested the admission of the delegates ; 
 a sailor proceeded to unlash one of the guns 
 and point it towards the quarter-deck ; Lieu- 
 tenant Bover threatened to shoot him if he 
 did not desist ; and when the sailor refused 
 to obey, the officer killed him on the spot 
 with a pistol. The sailors ran for their arms, 
 and the officers were overpowered. Bover 
 was hurried towards the fatal yard-arm by 
 the indignant comrades of the murdered man, 
 and was only saved by the intercession of the 
 admiral, who declared that the act was done 
 by his own order. Several seamen, however, 
 were slain and wounded in the desperate 
 scuffle, and their wrathful companions im- 
 prisoned Colpoys and the other officers ; the 
 bloody flag was hoisted in the place of the 
 blue bunting of the admiral ; and with the 
 dead and wounded the London and the 
 Marlborough sailed down to St. Helen's 
 with their tragic tale. Still the hearts of the 
 tars were loyal to old England, and when 
 some persons were heard talking of surren- 
 dering their vessel to the French, she was 
 
 394 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NORE. 
 
 threatened with destruction by the delegates, 
 and guard-boats were stationed round her 
 night and day. 
 
 On the next Tuesday, Portsmouth wit- 
 nessed the melancholy procession which 
 followed the bodies of three men who had 
 perished by what a coroner's jury had pro- 
 nounced "justifiable homicide." They were 
 ■conveyed from Haslar Hospital in the 
 Londotis launch with the colours half-mast 
 liigh ; they were landed at the Commons 
 Hard, now " neither the most cleanly nor 
 the most moral spot in the world ; " guns had 
 been planted as if to defend the garrison from 
 a siege. But all was peaceful. Before the 
 first coffin there were borne two colours, and 
 one before each of the others, half-struck ; 
 behind walked fifty of the dead men's ship- 
 Tnates, two by two ; nearly the same number 
 of women followed, dressed in black, and 
 six other women on either side of the coffins. 
 Amid the silent and immense crowds the 
 mournful procession wended its way through 
 Portsea aAd other villages, until the remains 
 of the first three victims of the year of mu- 
 tinies were laid in their last resting-place in 
 the churchyard of Kingston. 
 
 Arrival of the Sailors' Friend. 
 
 The very elements seemed to be in wild 
 sympathy with men's uncertain minds. A 
 fierce storm swept over the ships at St. Helen's 
 and in the Channel. In London there were 
 •dark fears as to Colpoys and his rash sup- 
 porters. The seamen deliberated, quite re- 
 spectfully, as to whether the admiral should 
 be put to death on the spot. In a work of 
 great rarity we read a story that may in part 
 account for his escape, and which at the 
 same time displays the finer spirit of the 
 British tar. " A man was heard to call him 
 
 a ' rascal,' or some such words. 
 
 Notwithstanding the furious irritation which 
 at that moment agitated the whole crew, the 
 habit of respect and regard for a beloved 
 commander prevailed so far as to turn part 
 of their resentment against the person who 
 dared to use such language to their admiral, 
 who was uncommonly regarded, and they 
 threatened to punish or throw the offender 
 overboard." 
 
 Meanwhile aristocratic London and the 
 British Parliament had other great and grave 
 affairs to talk of besides the woes of sailors. 
 There was "marrying and giving in mar- 
 riage," as in the days of Noah. In answer 
 to the King's message of the 3rd of May, a 
 bridal gift of ^80,000 was granted to his 
 eldest daughter on the 4th ; and on that 
 same day a loan of _;^2,ooo,ooo to perfidious 
 Austria was agreed to, while the business of 
 the poor seamen was deferred for considera- 
 tion to the 8th. There was need for haste 
 when that day came. Pitt rose to move his 
 
 resolution in a state of great agitation ; and 
 on that same evening a Cabinet Council 
 decided on sending the resohition by express 
 to the fleet. On the following day the Bill 
 passed through both Houses at a single 
 sitting. 
 
 In spite of the triumphant news, the em- 
 bittered sailors read with rancorous pleasure 
 the fierce attacks of Fox, Sheridan, and 
 Whitbread. There had been wild and ran- 
 dom cries afloat among the panic-stricken 
 citizens of the metropolis, such as that the 
 king himself should visit the rebellious fleet ; 
 but wise men found the true magician of 
 the waves in the venerable Richard Howe. 
 When the sailors heard that Black Dick was 
 coming among them at last ; when they saw 
 their feeble and crippled hero carried from 
 a barge on board the Royal George on Wed- 
 nesday afternoon ; when they listened to the 
 reasonings and chidings of the Napoleon of 
 the British navy, who had led many of them 
 in many a deadly action, and had wept out 
 words of gratitude with all his big heart 
 before their eyes after the glorious engage- 
 ment of the 1st of June, — then the mutiny 
 was simply doomed. He carried with him 
 authority, carte blanche, for the final settle- 
 ment. It was supremely touching to see the 
 worn veteran doing his last service to the 
 country he had served so well and so long, 
 day after day moving from ship to ship, and 
 listening with the patience of a true friend 
 to the tales of wrong poured eagerly into his 
 ear by the seamen's deputies. The other 
 crews refused all intercourse with two ships 
 that defiantly nailed the red colours to the 
 mast-head until they finally surrendered ; 
 they begged forgiveness of Gardner, and 
 with three hearty cheers welcomed him 
 again on his own quarter-deck ; and they 
 yielded to the skilful suggestion of Black Dick 
 that they should formally express contrition 
 to him for their conduct, and ask his good 
 offices. Lastly, each company, by his ad- 
 vice, presented its separate petition to him 
 for the removal of certain officers ; and these 
 in their turn resigned connexion with those 
 that entertained for them so little respect. 
 By such prudent means the wise old admiral 
 granted all demands to the seamen, veiling 
 " the dangerous concession so skilfully that 
 it assumed the form of a gracious indulgence 
 rather than a yielding to mutinous dicta- 
 tion." The tars were "jolly" once more, 
 and they subjected the "sailors' friend" on 
 Sunday and Monday to a true ovation. It 
 was a story to be told over and over, how 
 Val Joyce, one of the delegates, a Belfast 
 tobacconist who had been sent into the 
 service on a charge of treason, was invited 
 on Sunday into the governor's mansion, and 
 joined the old admiral over a glass of wine ! 
 The pardon arrived that evening, and early 
 
 395 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 on Monday morning the delegates landed 
 at Portsmouth, marched up to the governor's 
 to the strains of " Rule, Britannia," and par- 
 took of some refreshment. At eight their 
 venerable chief embarked amid the cheers 
 of the boats' crews, attired in their best 
 clothes, and with a salute of ordnance. 
 Several ships were visited, and the fervent 
 thanks of the seamen received by him ; and 
 the Spithead mutineers crowned their return 
 to allegiance by bearing him that evening 
 on their shoulders to the residence of the 
 governor. This was Howe's last great ser- 
 vice, which no other man in all England could 
 have done so well ; and yet there were 
 people so unwise and ungrateful as to de- 
 clare that Black Dick was in his dotage. 
 
 The Spreading of the Weed ; The 
 Outbreak at the Nore. 
 
 Although the weed had now been cleanly 
 rooted out at Portsmouth and Plymouth, the 
 hesitating, languid, and ungenerous action 
 of the authorities had given ample time for 
 the planting of dangerous seeds in other 
 portions of the navy. They cropped up in 
 turn at the Nore, at Yarmouth, on the coast 
 of Spain, and even at the Cape of Good 
 Hope. Handbills were being circulated 
 that served to stir the embers of discontent ; 
 and these were written, it was alleged, not 
 in the language of seamen, but in the style 
 of the circulating library. Then why not 
 keep the car rolling, and trample down 
 every wrong from which the seamen suf- 
 fered.'' On the I2th of May, 1797, before 
 Richard Howe had wound up his Ports- 
 mouth triumph, there arose a more ferocious 
 mutiny ; indeed, says Earl Stanhope, " no 
 crisis so alarming, or nearly so alarming, has 
 ever been known in England since the 
 Revolution of 1688." 
 
 The sailors of the fleet lying at the mouth 
 of the Medway had partaken of breakfast 
 that morning as usual, and at half-past nine 
 those on board the Sandwich, which carried 
 the flag of Admiral Buckner, received orders 
 to clear the hawse. At that moment a num- 
 ber of the captains were holding a court- 
 martial on board the hiflexible. The command 
 of Lieutenant Justice on the Sandwich was 
 answered by three cheers from the crew ; the 
 yard-ropes of this famous ninety-gun ship 
 were rove by the sailors, and the forecastle 
 guns were brought aft to the quarter-deck. 
 Cheers were heard all round, and the whole 
 fleet was instantly in possession of the several 
 crews. Delegates were chosen, a committee 
 was selected from their number, and at the 
 head of all was placed a "president." The 
 person appointed to this equivocal honour 
 was Richard Parker, a man of thirty-five, 
 and a native of the town of Exeter, who had 
 served in the navy during previous years, 
 
 and had several times been discharged for 
 bad conduct or for lunacy. He had received 
 a better education than the great mass of his 
 comrades, and in the position of a super- 
 numerary on the Sandwich- -?i. class of idle 
 seamen from whom the petty officers of the 
 fleet were chiefly drafted, and of whom there 
 were a large number under the command of 
 Buckner — he enjoyed sufficient leisure to 
 speculate on the great possibilities of dis- 
 turbance or reform awakened by the Spit- 
 head mutiny. It has been supposed, on no 
 sure ground, however, that he and others in 
 the fleet were filled with the revolutionary 
 ideas that had swept over the Continent, and 
 found expression even in the " corresponding 
 societies " of steady-going England. 
 
 Not only was the Spithead token of defi- 
 ance, in the shape of the bloody flag, hoisted 
 by these new mutineers, but from the first a 
 more reckless spirit revealed itself in every 
 action : in the fact that for days they made no 
 statement of their grievances ; in the fact that 
 on the morning after the outbreak the Inflexi- 
 ble, while passing down to the Nore with the 
 red flag flying, fired in the St. Fiorenzo until 
 her crew raised the cheer, which they had 
 refused on the previous evening ; and in the 
 fact that on that same day the crew of the 
 Chajnpion, on reaching the destination at the 
 Little Nore to which their captain had been 
 ordered, seized the command and proceeded 
 with the vessel to the Great Nore, declaring 
 that that was their destination by order of 
 the president and delegates. On the 14th, 
 four delegates were despatched to Ports- 
 mouth to consult with their " brethren " ; and 
 one of these, who deserted by the way, made 
 a mysterious confession to his captain that 
 Parker held communication with a " man in 
 black," and received "plenty of money" for 
 the leaders of the mutiny. It may just be 
 mentioned that this proved a fruitless mission, 
 in spite of the inforrrlation given by the 
 president to Admiral Buckner, that a little 
 bird had whispered in his ear that the Spit- 
 head fleet would join him. 
 
 Deliberations and Frolics of the 
 Delegates. 
 
 Every day the inhabitants of Sheerness 
 witnessed a formidable line of boats, with 
 that of the president at its head, moving from 
 the ships to the shore, to the strains of 
 " Rule, Britannia," " God save the King," 
 " Britons, strike home," or other patriotic 
 songs ; this was followed by a procession on 
 shore, when a large number of the seamen, 
 armed with pistols and cutlasses, walked in 
 peaceful order behind the red ensign of the 
 "sailors' cause." It was in Sheerness that 
 the delegates held their conferences, the 
 " Royal Arch " and " Chequers " public- 
 houses being the favourite seats of this new 
 
 396 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NORE. 
 
 naval legislature ; and there, when the serious 
 deliberations of the day were over, they were 
 accustomed to enjoy a "grand dinner," and 
 quaff the pint of beer provided for them out 
 of a fund collected from the ships' companies. 
 These visits occasioned deep alarm among 
 the peaceable people of Sheerness, who 
 expected every day to be subjected to the 
 horrors of a siege ; and many of the inhabi- 
 tants, principally women and children, fled 
 with their movables to Chatham and other 
 places, among the former being the wife of 
 the master of the dockyard, who escaped 
 with three hundred pounds in gold concealed 
 about her person. On one occasion, the dele- 
 gates paid a visit to the sick seamen in their 
 quarters, and used such menacing language 
 that the surgeon fled in terror of his life, 
 while his assistant took the more desperate 
 course of cutting his own throat. The 
 obnoxious boatswain of the Proserpine was 
 seized on shore, carried off to the fleet, and 
 there condemned to death. As the rope 
 was being placed round his neck to run him 
 up to the yard-arm, he succeeded in whisper- 
 ing in the ear of one who was beside him 
 that any offence he might have committed 
 was done in obedience to the superior ofticers. 
 The grim judges — if after all the affair was 
 anything more than a practical joke — were 
 moved by this appeal to mitigate the penalty 
 of death into one of harmless ridicule. His 
 hands were tied behind his back ; a large 
 mop was fastened on each shoulder, and a 
 rope around his neck ; he was then placed 
 with these shackles and decorations in a 
 boat, and rowed through the fleet in manner 
 of a guy, to the sound of the " Rogue's 
 March " beat upon a drum ; thereafter he 
 was landed at Sheerness, and finally set 
 free, after having been marched through the 
 dockyard and garrison under a guard of 
 mutineers. 
 
 Proposals of the Mutineers ; Fresh 
 Blunders and High Jinks. 
 
 After eight days of this huge and danger- 
 ous and insane folly. Admiral Buckner 
 arrived on board the Sandwich with a pro- 
 clamation of pardon, granted on the same 
 terms as had been accepted by the Spithead 
 seamen, — terms which Parker and the other 
 delegates had previously assured him would 
 completely satisfy their wishes. The brave 
 commander was not even welcomed with the 
 customary honours of his rank. He saw that 
 his officers were deprived of their side-arms, 
 and had no command on board. Parker, 
 who had been on shore engaged in a pro- 
 cession, at last arrived, and handed him the 
 list of articles, eight in number: (i) Asking 
 the same indulgence for the Nore seamen as 
 had been granted to the men at Portsmouth ; 
 
 (2) greater liberty for every man, so that he 
 might be able to visit his friends ; (3) pay- 
 ment of all arrears of wages down to six 
 months before the ships proceeded to sea ; 
 (4) no dismissed officers to be re-employed 
 in the same ship without consent of the ship's 
 company ; (5) newly pressed men to receive 
 two months' advance to furnish them with 
 necessaries; (6) indemnification of deserters; 
 (7) a more equal distribution of the prize- 
 money ; (8) a mitigation of the articles of war. 
 
 Whatever the justice of these claims — the 
 first had really been granted in the Ports- 
 mouth settlement, and the others (if we 
 except the sixth, which is destructive of all 
 order) are perfectly capable of defence — the 
 tone of dictation which inspires their expres- 
 sion, and especially the closing paragraph, is 
 indefensible, and forms an unpleasing con- 
 trast to the moderate and courteous requests 
 of the Spithead men. Buckner saw that his 
 authority upon the fleet was gone ; the sea- 
 men paid no heed to his remonstrance 
 against those " disgraceful ropes called yard- 
 ropes" being always kept hanging; and 
 among other insolent talk and conduct 
 Parker prevented one man from answering a 
 question put to him by the admiral, with the 
 remark, " Hold your tongue ; if you don't, 
 I'll take care of you." 
 
 It would be tedious and fruitless here to 
 track out at length the lingering steps of the 
 Admiralty, which had in the Spithead crisis 
 committed the same blunder and had also 
 condemned itself by want of tact, — a blunder 
 of which Parker and his associates were too 
 late in seeking to grasp the advantage, for 
 had they at once stood down the river be- 
 yond the difficulties of the buoys and beacons, 
 the mutiny of the Nore would not merely 
 have convulsed England, but might have 
 weakened the foundations of her empire. As 
 it happened, the Board at first (23rd May) 
 distinctly refused the terms of the mutineers, 
 and expressed their determination not to 
 visit Sheerness; and two days later again 
 transmitted their reply. The reckless assur- 
 ance of the mutineers was not lessened one 
 iota by these unyielding missives, and it was 
 bolstered up by the belief that the same 
 spirit of rebellion was stirring in the army. 
 On the very day on which the Board's reply 
 first reached the fleet, Parker and several 
 other delegates forced themselves into the 
 presence of Admiral Buckner, in Sheerness, 
 formally demanding the liberation of two 
 drunken marines ; the foolish president 
 taunted him with being no longer admiral ol 
 the fleet, as his flag was now struck, and that 
 he (Parker) had now the power in his own 
 hands. Captain Cunningham, of the Clyde 
 on hearing this insult, was "about to seal the 
 fate of Parker," but was held back by a 
 brother officer; and in the end the intoxicated 
 
 397 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 men were allowed to be carried off to the 
 fleet, as it was " a small matter" ! In further 
 defiance, a strong party rowed into Sheerness 
 harbour, seized a number of gun-boats, 
 scaled the guns, and threatened to fire on 
 the garrison. On the morning of the 25th, 
 every ship in the fleet proceeded to the Nore, 
 bearing on the mast-head the bloody flag, 
 and every man and virago wore a red ribbon 
 in the hat or cap. At this juncture, Parker 
 at last took notice of the letters of the Admi- 
 ralty, stating that the mutineers would make 
 no " accommodation " until the Lords Com- 
 missioners appeared in person at the Nore, 
 and redressed their grievances. Far from 
 being alarmed by the firm front and the 
 commands and threats of the Admiralty, 
 they had now taken a step, the aim of which 
 was to blockade the commerce of the metro- 
 polis by stretching a line of armed " wooden 
 walls " across the pathway of the Thames ; 
 they had already despatched seventeen de- 
 puties to enlist Duncan's fleet at Yarmouth 
 in the " sailors' cause " ; and on Saturday a 
 cutter proceeded up the river to Long Reach, 
 to bring down the turbulent Lancaster, the 
 Agincourt, and the Naiad to the station at 
 the Nore. 
 
 Parker and the Admiralty; Escape 
 OF THE " Clyde." 
 
 In spite of all their protestation, Spencer 
 and two other Lords of the Admiralty 
 flattered the obstinacy of the mutineers by 
 paying a short visit to Sheerness ; held an 
 interview with their leaders, Spencer actually 
 submitting to hear from the lips of Parker, 
 who acted as spokesman for his twelve 
 disciples, the insulting remark — " Go and 
 consult the ringleaders of your gang!" My 
 Lords thereupon returned to town, empty- 
 handed as they came, leaving the men "to 
 become temperate at their leisure," — the 
 sarcastic expression used in a letter of Earl 
 Howe, the peacemaker of Spithead, who 
 attributes the " seeming reasonable discon- 
 tents " to the incompetence of the persons 
 who had the immediate superintendence of 
 the seamen, to the delays in the Admiralty 
 courts, and the chicanery of practitioners and 
 prize-agents. 
 
 The proclamation of the royal pardon was 
 sent to the fleet, but was suffered to be read 
 on only seven of the ships. Two of these, 
 the Clyde and St. Fiorenzo, instantly and 
 unanimously hauled down the bloody flag, 
 hoisting the white one in its place, amid three 
 rounds of deafening cheers. On other ships 
 a determined struggle was carried on be- 
 tween the parties of resistance and sub- 
 mission ; the captains made strenuous efforts 
 to support the latter ; alternately the red and 
 white colours were hoisted and lowered ; but 
 in the end the former triumphed. The guns 
 
 of the ruthless Inflexible, the coryphseus of 
 the mutiny, were pointed at the loyal Clyde, 
 which once more hoisted the bloody flag out 
 of respect for this strong pressure. But the 
 two submissive ships, which the Inflexible 
 offered to go alongside with the object of 
 taking vengeance on the officers and every ' 
 tenth man, were determined on escape from 
 the clutches of the mutinous vessels. A 
 little after midnight, on the 30th, the Clyde 
 drifted in dead silence up the river with the 
 flood-tide, and at sunrise came off Garrison 
 Point, near Sheerness, greeted by volleys of 
 cheers from the soldiers on the shore. 
 Shortly after midday, the St. Fiorenzo took 
 the opposite course, and ran through the 
 mutinous fleet under fire, with only a slight 
 damage to her rigging ; but down the river 
 she encountered another danger, in the shape 
 of a number of vessels from the North Sea 
 Fleet on their way to join the "brethren" 
 at the Nore. As she still prudently and 
 fortunately kept the bloody flag flying at 
 her masthead, the new recruits gave her an 
 ovation of mutinous cheers, amid which she 
 sped on her way to the harbour of Harwichy 
 in order to convey to the Continent the 
 book-hunting Prince of Wiirtemberg and 
 his happy English bride. 
 
 Arrival of the North Sea Fleet? 
 Blockade of the Thames. 
 
 This defection, but for the accession of 
 fresh blood from Yarmouth, would probably 
 have ended the odious mutiny. Parker had 
 learned at last that the soldiers were against 
 him. A band of mutineers had met a 
 regiment on its arrival at Sheerness gar- 
 rison, and one of them, relying on the 
 sympathy of the privates, had thrust a red 
 flag in the face of the commanding officer ; 
 but as his insult was not received as he had 
 anticipated, he was compelled to fly for his 
 life, seeking safety in a haystack, from which 
 he was ignominiously dragged and carried 
 off to prison. At the same time that the 
 daily arrivals of vessels from the North Sea 
 Fleet lent a new courage to the mutineers, 
 their departure from the command of Ad- 
 miral Duncan was a serious peril to the 
 shores of England. It was with a sad heart 
 that the brave old Scotsman, in a few months 
 to become the hero of Camperdown, awoke 
 one morning to find that his whole arma- 
 ment had forsaken him, his own flagship 
 and another vessel being all that were now 
 left him to proceed with to the Texel and hold 
 the Dutch fleet at bay. He summoned his 
 crew on deck, made a touching speech that 
 melted every one of his " brave lads " into 
 tears, in the spirit of true British heroism 
 proceeded to the Texel, and day after day 
 made a show of signalling as if to vessels in 
 the offing, so as to keep the Dutch squadron 
 
 398 
 
THE MUTINIES AT SPITHEAD AND THE NORE. 
 
 under the delusion that the rest of the fleet 
 was near. Fortunately for England, this 
 ruse was thoroughly successful. 
 
 Conferences, indeed, were still held on 
 shore between the delegates and the autho- 
 rities, but Parker was now daring enough to 
 defy the royal proclamation, which presented 
 the alternative of the articles or uncon- 
 ditional submission, and to denounce it to 
 the Admiral as "foolish and irritating to 
 honest men ; " he and his fellow ringleaders, 
 knowing that for them at least there was 
 no place for repentance, decided on dying 
 " game." The commerce of the Thames and 
 the Medway was now completely blocked ; 
 on either hand of the fleet there was a 
 perfect forest of masts, among other vessels 
 detained at Gravesend by order of the 
 Government being the ships of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company, which usually sailed in May; 
 the metropolis itself trembled in fear of a 
 siege. Fishing-boats, however, were per- 
 mitted to ply upon the idle waters of the 
 Thames, and a few merchantmen were 
 allowed to pass upwards by virtue of an 
 order signed by " Richard Parker, Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 The wrath of the British lion was at last 
 roused. The city and the parliament rose 
 in giant anger and strength. On the 3rd 
 of June an Act of Parliament declared any 
 person liable to the penalty of death who 
 should endeavour to seduce sailors or soldiers 
 from their duty ; and three days later a still 
 more drastic Act forbade every species of 
 intercourse with mutinous vessels. The 
 Commissioners of the Admiralty instantly 
 declared the Sandwich and her comrades in 
 a state of mutiny. There could be no mercy 
 but by their will to any one of the thousands 
 of mutineers. 
 
 The rebels passed in turn from signs of 
 loyalty to deeds of barbarous defiance. 
 They lowered the bloody flag, hoisted the 
 royal flag, and fired a salute of twenty-one 
 guns on the 4th'*of June, the King's birth- 
 day. After a mock trial for " conspiracy," 
 they lashed severely a number of mates and 
 other officers on the Monmouth, also shaving 
 the head of one offender. They ducked 
 officers, with several souses, from the yard- 
 arm ; they tarred and feathered them, and 
 thus rowed them through the fleet, — bar- 
 barities which, recited by the officers when 
 set on shore, hastened the day of retribution. 
 In sore straits for fresh provisions, the 
 mutineers were forced into acts of piracy. 
 Not content with rifling the stores of two 
 store-ships, the Grampus and Serapis, they 
 stole the flour of trading vessels ; seized the 
 salmon of Scottish smacks (in one case 
 Parker gave the master an order on the 
 Admiralty !) ; half-murdered the master of a 
 Dutch scoot and his two sons for daring to 
 
 beg a few shillings from the robber-" admiral " 
 to keep them from starving in London ; and 
 tried their hand at sheep-stealing and cattle- 
 lifting on the Isle of Sheppy. The very 
 surgeons had deserted them. Fifty or sixty ^ 
 sick whom they sent to the Spanker, a' 
 hospital ship, were ordered back by the 
 Admiral, and these poor fellows carried back 
 in their repentant bosoms copies of the 
 latest royal proclamation. This helped to 
 burst the Parker bubble. 
 
 The treasure-chest had been removed to 
 Chatham from timid Sheerness. Strong 
 forces of the military were summoned to 
 London, and stationed down the river ; the 
 naval officers of the East India Company 
 who were at home tendered their services \ 
 the companies of London sent down volun- 
 teers ; vessels were rapidly manned by 
 Government, under the direction of Sir 
 Erasmus Gower; the Medway and Sheer- 
 ness harbours were closed by booms and 
 chains ; batteries were planted to command 
 the rebels, and furnaces were heated to make 
 the balls red-hot for action ; finally, to hinder 
 all escape, the buoys and beacons at the 
 mouth of the Thames were removed. The 
 question was now — starvation or surrender? 
 
 They tried their last mad mission upon 
 the 6th. They sent up Lord Northesk with 
 their stern ultimatum, to be answered in 
 fifty-four hours ; if unanswered, " something 
 would happen that would astonish the 
 nation," — they would put to sea. The reply 
 was, — unconditional submission. 
 
 Hanging Pitt ; Parker's Washer- 
 woman. 
 
 Captain Brenton, of the Agamemnojt, one 
 of four vessels of Duncan's fleet, that arrived 
 upon the 6th of June, describes a freak 
 which caused no small alarm on shore. "At 
 sunrise I was awoke by the report of great 
 guns and musketry, and saw what I supposed 
 to be officers and men hanging at the yard- 
 arms of some of the ships. They were run 
 up in the smoke of the guns, in the manner 
 usually practised at naval executions. While 
 hanging, ■ volleys of musketry were fired at 
 them ; and we concluded we were very soon 
 to share the same fate ; nor was it till two 
 or three hours afterwards that we were 
 undeceived, and informed that the figures 
 suspended were only effigies meant to re- 
 present the Right Hon. William Pitt and 
 Dundas, whom they familiarly termed " Billy 
 Pitt," and considered their greatest enemy." 
 
 The Serapis had cut itself free from the 
 mutinous leash upon the 6th, suffering some 
 damage from the guns. Two days later a 
 captain arrived at the fleet with copies of 
 the Acts, and the royal proclamation. The 
 "admiral" read them to the crews, but 
 omitted all mention of a pardon. In this 
 
 399 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 procession he made some strange speeches. 
 The King had called them rebels. " I say 
 we are honest men ; I and my brother 
 delegates are all united and acting in 
 the cause of Immxnity ; and while life 
 animates the heart of Dick Parker, he will 
 be true to the cause." In answer to the 
 charge of peculating the money contributed 
 by the seamen to the delegates, he said: "That 
 is false ; I owe my washerwoman eigbteen- 
 pence, and I have not even money to pay 
 her ; " whereupon a disrespectful tar ex- 
 claimed, "Why then, you're a precious 
 admiral indeed ! " 
 
 Break-up of the Mutiny ; Seizure and 
 Sentence of the President. 
 The charm was broken. There arose a 
 dearth of water and fresh provisions ; the 
 tyranny and the curses of Parker were like 
 the scourges of Rehoboam ; the fact of his 
 treacherous concealment of the pardon 
 leaked out and spread like wildfire. _ The 
 terror increased to madness when it was 
 known that the merchants of London would 
 never admit a mutineer into their service. 
 On the 9th, a lieutenant of the Leopard 
 unmasked the battery on her main deck; 
 sailors ran aloft and loosed the top-sails ; her 
 cables were cut, and away she floated up the 
 Thames to Gravesend amid a rain of fire. A 
 terrific struggle took place on board between 
 the loyalists and rebels, during which a 
 lieutenant received a mortal wound. The 
 Repulse followed on the same day, ran 
 aground, and lay for an hour and a half 
 under the fire of the whole fleet ; she escaped 
 after terrible mutilation. When she had 
 almost reached Gravesend, some of the 
 mutineers formed a plot to blow her up, but 
 this was discovered in time, and the dis- 
 affected were thrown in irons. 
 
 On that morning Parker gave the signal 
 to put out to sea. The fore top-sail of the 
 Sandwich was loosed, a gun was fired, every 
 ship answered ; but not one obeyed, for in 
 spite of their mutiny the crews remembered 
 still that they were Britons. The cries of 
 the famishing and thirsty women and chil- 
 dren were pitiful. A vote of want of confi- 
 dence was passed against the rebel president, 
 whose charm was at last broken ; the crews 
 were broken up into parties of " Republicans" 
 and " Loyahsts " ; flags of truce passed con- 
 stantly from the Nore to the Sheerness ; but 
 
 the mutineers, although otherwise casting 
 themselves upon the royal clemency, gallantly 
 refused to surrender the ringleaders, and in- 
 sisted on a general pardon. Utter despair 
 had roused the crews to madness, and on the 
 evening of Monday the 12th of June, the 
 union flag rose and fell by turns on every 
 ship ; signals of distress were displayed, and 
 during all that night and morning horrid 
 scenes of violence and bloodshed occurred 
 among the crews, in one case the struggling 
 parties firing at each other, the guns being 
 placed in opposite parts of the ship. Two 
 men — one of whom was a Scotsman with the 
 heroic narjie of V/iUiam Wallace — committed 
 suicide in order to escape the ignominy of a 
 public execution ; and, according to the cus- 
 tom of the time, they were buried in a cross- 
 road, " with a stake in their inside." It was 
 expected that Parker would attempt to 
 escape, and a proclamation offered a reward 
 oi £^00 for his apprehension. 
 
 By Wednesday afternoon almost every 
 vessel had hoisted the white flag in token of 
 surrender; and on the following day (15th 
 June) the dishonoured Sandwich herself 
 floated into port within gunshot of the Sheer- 
 ness battery. The flag of her true admiral 
 was at once hoisted ; Dick Parker, whilom 
 "president " and "' admiral," was fast pinioned 
 and landed at the Commissioner's Stairs, 
 amid the hisses of the crowd. Altogether 
 some 300 prisoners were made by the military 
 in the surrendered ships, but of these only 
 twenty-three underwent the punishment of 
 death. Parker, the arch-rebel, was lodged 
 for a few hours in the " black hole " under 
 the chapel of Sheerness garrison, was then 
 conveyed to Maidstone, and after a three 
 days' trial by court-martial on board the 
 Neptune, during which he made an able and 
 cool defence of his conduct, was sentenced 
 to be hanged by the neck till he was dead. 
 A gift of five pounds sent to him by his 
 brother was received with the pleasant re- 
 mark that he would " have roast goose before 
 he died." At half-past nine, on the last day 
 of the leafy month of June, his body hung 
 lifeless on the yard-arm of the Sandwich; 
 and in the short space of seven minutes, so 
 bright was the atmosphere, the Admiralty 
 learned by telegraphic signals that the most 
 notorious and dangerous of English mutineers 
 was dead. 
 
 M. M. 
 
 400 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY; 
 
 FROM KING JOHN TO QUEEN VICTORIA. 
 
 The Barons and their Dependents— Royalty and the Barons— The early Charter of William and Henry I.— Constitutions 
 of Clarendon — The Assize of Northampton — King John and the Barons — The Conference at St. Albans — The 
 Meeting in the Temple— The Tryst at Runymede — Magna Charta — Its Clauses explained— Rage of John — The 
 Confirmations of the Charter— Parliamentary Influence— Petition of Right— Charles and the Parliament— The 
 Revolution— William and Mary— Bill of Rights— Declaration of Rights— The Act of Settlement— Modern Measures 
 — The Chartists — The Kennington Scare — Conclusion. 
 
 The Feudal System. 
 HEN the eleventh century was draw- 
 ing to a close the Feudal System 
 was fully developed on the Continent ; 
 and though it is not necessary to do more 
 than refer to it, we must brieiiy consider the 
 relations of the barons and their vassals, to 
 arrive at the state of things which led to the 
 demands for Magna Charta. William, with 
 his Norman knights, had conquered the inde- 
 pendent Saxons, and accordingly found it 
 very necessary to maintain their feudal 
 
 401 
 
 organization, and to exercise a certain autho- 
 rity upon the serfs who were within their 
 jurisdiction. The castle dominated the vil- 
 lage, and the baron reigned over the "villeins," 
 or tillers of the soil. 
 
 In the castle he had built dwelt the Nor- 
 man baron with his family ; and here he 
 passed his time when not out upon any 
 warlike expedition. The people surrounding 
 the castle were kept in a state of vassalage 
 and degradation, and looked back with regret 
 to the mild and beneficent laws of Edward 
 
 DD 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Confessor, in whose days they were an 
 independent and prosperous community. 
 This spirit of independence had not been 
 crushed by the Norman Conquest ; and when 
 William, in 1070, was recalled to England by 
 urgent messages in consequence of the dis- 
 affection of the people, he promulgated a 
 Charter, or body of laws, " being the same 
 which his predecessor and cousin observed 
 before him," to conciliate his subjects. 
 
 This instrument, the confirmation of the 
 laws of Edward the Confessor, formed the 
 first stepping-stone to the Great Charter 
 wrung from John Lackland in the pastures 
 of Runymede. 
 
 But after a time each individual baron 
 sought to enrich himself by robbery and 
 spoliation. The barons thus became more and 
 more isolated in their "fiefs"; and the Norman 
 kings took every advantage of these circum- 
 stances to aggrandize themselves at the ex- 
 pense of the individual baron,when practicable. 
 Encroachments by royalty soon became 
 distasteful to these paramount lords, and they 
 found it desirable to band themselves together 
 to resist the too great power wielded by the 
 king ; and in these conditions they at one 
 time found factious assistance in Stephen 
 the usurper, and in others who aspired to 
 wield the British sceptre and to wear the 
 English crown. We find from history that 
 William II., Henry I,, and Stephen all and 
 each had to obtain the goodwill and assist- 
 ance of the great feudal lords, who were able 
 to enforce their demands respecting their 
 privileges and liberties. 
 
 Again, if we peruse the history of Eng- 
 land during the reign of Richard I., we shall 
 see how the various factions arose in Eng- 
 land while the regency of John was con- 
 tinued. His never-ceasing intrigue gave rise 
 to many such divisions, and even before that 
 time the regency appointed by Richard had 
 been the cause of strife. A struggle for power 
 arose between Pudsey, the Chief Justiciary, 
 Bishop of Durham, and Longchanip, Bishop 
 of Ely, so another regency was decided 
 upon, the three additional justiciaries 
 being Hugh Bardolf, William Briwere, and 
 Longchamp. The lastnamed soon assumed 
 chief authority ; and when after a time Prince 
 John gave himself all the airs of an heir- 
 apparent, his adherents and those of Long- 
 champ came into collision; and a disadvan- 
 tageous treaty was concluded, by which 
 John gained virtual possession of several 
 royal castles, to be delivered finally to him 
 should Richard die. The Regent was soon 
 obliged to yield altogether, and he then fled 
 from England. But the barons had had a 
 taste of the sweets of power, and fancied 
 themselves entitled to a share in the govern- 
 ment ; while " Longbeard " stirred up the 
 populace to a dangerous pitch. 
 
 Things were so when John mounted the 
 throne. The conflict between the races had 
 in a great measure died out. The barons 
 and the king's adherents were the opposing 
 factions. John was not a sovereign to forego 
 any of his privileges or rights, unless abso- 
 lutely forced to do so ; and the barons, 
 believing that they too had certain privileges, 
 wished to compel the recognition of them. 
 John's barons would not assist him against 
 France, and he was universally detested for 
 his conduct and crimes. To add to his 
 unpopularity he managed to quarrel with the 
 Pope, and one consequence of this was the 
 interdict, which filled England with "lamen- 
 tation, and mourning, and woe." 
 
 The Earlier Charters. 
 
 It may be accepted as a fact, that the 
 charter by which William of Normandy 
 agreed to follow the laws of Edward the 
 Confessor, was the first one granted by the 
 Normans. Henry I. also granted a charter, 
 in which he promised to redress all the 
 grievances of the former reigns, and one 
 clause distinctly renews the laws of the 
 Confessor, " with those emendations with 
 which my father amended them with the 
 advice of the barons." This charter of 
 Henry I. was a very important one, although 
 the various enactments were never carefully 
 observed by the King. Its provisions were 
 as follows, and it served as a basis for the 
 Great Charter wrung from the pusillanimous 
 John. 
 
 When Henry I. came to the throne, his first 
 act on the very day of his accession was to 
 inform his subjects that they would surely 
 derive great benefits from his rule. This 
 was very politic on his part, as his weak 
 claim to the throne required something to 
 support it, and by uniting the interests of the 
 people with his own, he secured the kingdom. 
 His charter ran thus : — 
 
 (i) To the Church : That on the death of 
 an archbishop, bishop, or abbot, he would 
 neither sell, nor let to farm, nor accept any- 
 thing from the possessions of the Church nor 
 its tenants during the vacancy of the see or 
 benefice. 
 
 (2) He granted to all his barons and 
 vassals in chief the remission of various 
 exactions to which they had been subjected, 
 and declared that they should equally relieve 
 their tenants. The king's license for his 
 vassals' weddings was still retained, but with- 
 out fee, and should not be refused unless the 
 intended husband were an enemy. Widows 
 were not to be married without their free 
 consent, lyiothers of children had the ward- 
 ship and custody of them and their lands. 
 
 The right of a vassal to bequeath pro- 
 perty by will was admitted, and fines for 
 offences were not to be levied as the king 
 
 402 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 might desire, but according to the nature of 
 the offence. 
 
 (3) Generally to the nation the King 
 granted the laws of Edward the Confessor, 
 as altered by William I. He agreed to levy 
 no " moneyage " which had not been paid in 
 the Sa3ton king's time, and vendors and 
 coiners of light money were to be severely 
 punished. All military tenants were exempted 
 from land taxes and burthens ; all fines due 
 and pecuniary mulcts for murder before his 
 accession were remitted. Henry also ordered 
 the fullest reparation to be made for all his 
 brother's former injustice. 
 
 Such were the chief provisions of the 
 charter of Henry I., which gave general satis- 
 faction, except in the matter of the preserva- 
 tion of the hunting forests, which the King 
 determined 'to retain for his own use and 
 indulgence. The marriage of Henry with 
 Matilda of Scotland crowned the edifice of 
 concession. 
 
 But the barons did not approve of these 
 concessions of the King and of the clauses 
 directed against their irresponsibility. When 
 Robert of Normandy landed to claim the 
 English crown they held aloof; but the 
 people thronged to the King's standard, and 
 presented so formidable an array that the 
 Normans feared to attack. When peace had 
 been concluded, Henry revenged himself on 
 his barons, and despoiled many of them, 
 seizing all their possessions. By these and 
 other means Henry gained the goodwill of the 
 people, while he crushed the feudal barons 
 and raised up another class of knights upon 
 whom the ancient barons looked in scorn. 
 
 Stephen and Henry II. confirmed the 
 "" Scholar's " charter, and we find that the 
 usurper particularly favoured the Church, to 
 which he owed his exaltation; but Henry II., 
 while transacting all the chief business of the 
 nation with the help of a legislative council, 
 took care to retain his own authority. The 
 Constitutions of Clarendon (sixteen in all) 
 were the outcome of the controversy between 
 Becket and the King respecting the treatment 
 •of offending clerics, and the latter made great 
 complaint of the extortions of the Ecclesias- 
 tical Courts. The Constitutions " concern 
 questions of advowson and presentation to 
 churches in the King's gift, the trial of clerks, 
 the security to be taken of the excommu- 
 nicated, the trial of laymen for spiritual 
 offences, the excommunication of tenants in 
 chief, the license of the clergy to go abroad, 
 ecclesiastical appeals, which were not to go 
 farther than the archbishop without the 
 consent of the king, questions of title to 
 ecclesiastical estates, baronial duties of 
 prelates, the election to bishoprics, the right 
 of the king to the goods of felons deposited 
 under the protection of the Church." These 
 provisions led to the exile of Becket. The 
 
 Assize of Clarendon, which has been regarded 
 as a re-enactment of the " Constitutions," was 
 afterwards arranged. 
 
 The Assize contained twenty-two articles 
 respecting the presentment of criminals and 
 the mode of trial by jury. "Twelve lawful 
 men from each hundred, and four from each 
 township, were sworn to present those who 
 were known as criminals within their district 
 for trial by ordeal." Another article enacted 
 that " no stranger might abide in any place 
 save a borough, and only there for a single 
 night, unless sureties were given for his good 
 behaviour." 
 
 The Assize of Northampton, issued in 1 176, 
 was intended as a code of instructions for 
 the itinerant justices, as the Assize of Claren- 
 don had been. It referred to the infliction 
 of punishments on felons and rebels, and the 
 demolishment of certain forfeited strong- 
 holds. The country was divided into six 
 circuits for the purpose. 
 
 These various charters or enactments were 
 all very important, not only to the English 
 constitution, but as the beginning of the legal 
 forms and usages now so beneficial. Judicial 
 and financial progress was steadily made, 
 for Henry II. was certainly a legislator of 
 much talent, and one of the greatest politi- 
 cians of the time. 
 
 King John and the Barons. 
 
 We have already briefly noticed the steps 
 by which John made himself so thoroughly 
 obnoxious to the English people, who had, 
 during the preceding reign, acknowledged 
 the law of the land. All classes, from the 
 barons downwards, had become accustomed 
 to regard the law, instead of the dictates of 
 the King, who was so long absent ; and thus 
 a respect for the constitutional enactments 
 superseded the doctrine of might. Normans 
 and English were already becoming an 
 united people when John ascended the 
 British throne. 
 
 Lord Chatham once said that the " Bible 
 of the EngHsh Constitution" might be 
 summed up in Magna Charta, the Petition 
 of Right, and the Bill of Rights, and it is 
 with the first of these three chapters that we 
 have now to do. " The Great Charter," says 
 Stubbs in his Constitutional History, "is 
 the first great public act of the nation after 
 it has realized its own identity, the consum- 
 mation of the work for which, unconsciously, 
 kings, prelates, and lawyers have been 
 labouring for a century. . . . It is in one 
 view the summing up of a period of national 
 life ; in another, the starting-point of a new 
 and not less eventful period than that which 
 it closes." 
 
 John's manners and scandalous irregulari- 
 ties in every way had completely disgusted 
 the English people; and when he surrendered 
 
 403 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 himself as the vassal of the Pope, public 
 opinion condemned him, althougti he was 
 certainly supported by some of the barons. 
 The King was a vassal, and when the barons 
 failed to gain their demands from him, they 
 appealed to the Pope, on the ground that 
 had it not been for their influence, the King 
 would never have consented to become 
 Innocent's vassal. They refused to go 
 abroad when summoned by the King, for 
 he hadmade himself so thoroughly despicable 
 and despotic that they dechned his authority. 
 
 The northern barons openly defied the 
 King ; and these were the families who had, 
 as already remarked, been raised up to 
 baronial dignity by Henry. They were not 
 all Normans ; many were English, and 
 men who had close sympathies with their 
 adherents, not feudal lords who cared only 
 for their own aggrandizement. " They had 
 been trained under the eye of Glanville and 
 Richard de Lucy, and had been uniformly 
 faithful to the King against the greater 
 feudatories. . . . They were the forefathers of 
 the great north-country party which fought 
 the battle of the constitution during the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." * 
 
 John had ascended the English throne 
 monarch of a mighty empire. Within a 
 few years he had been stripped of all his 
 foreign possessions, and Normandy was lost, 
 and then he was obliged to turn all his 
 attention to his limited realm. So with the 
 barons, who "gradually came to regard 
 England as their country, and Englishmen 
 as their countrymen. The two races, so long 
 hostile, soon found they had common in- 
 terests and common enemies. The great- 
 grandsons of those who had fought under 
 William, and the great-grandsons of those 
 who had fought under Harold, began to 
 draw near each other in friendship, and 
 the first pledge of reconciliation was the 
 (Jreat Charter." t 
 
 Conference of the Barons. 
 
 While John was sailing to Jersey, the 
 barons, under the presidency of FitzPeter 
 the Justiciary, met at St. Alban's on the 4th 
 of August, 12 1 3. This meeting had for its 
 object an inquiry into the amount due to the 
 plundered spiritual lords, and was attended 
 by representatives from the townships as 
 well as by the prelates. The discussion of 
 the compensation, however, was not the 
 only one introduced ; indeed, it was only 
 the ostensible cause of the council or con- 
 ference. FitzPeter and Archbishop Langton 
 took a speedy occasion to put before the 
 assembly the results of the misrule to which 
 they had been subjected. 
 
 Stubbs. 
 
 f Macaulay. 
 
 The resolutions at which the conference 
 arrived were soon put forth by the Justiciary 
 as a royal proclamation, by which the 
 charter of Henry I. was ordered to be 
 obeyed ; and pronounced capital punish- 
 ment upon those who should exceed their 
 duty, "whether sheriff's, foresters, or officers 
 of the king." Here we have Henry's charter 
 brought forward as the basis of English 
 liberties; and the composition of the council, 
 containing as it did the representatives of 
 the people, seems to point to that occasion 
 as the first recorded instance of a national 
 assembl}-. If any ignorance existed in the 
 minds of individuals as to the specific con- 
 ditions of Henry's charter, Langton quickly 
 supplied the information. 
 
 On the 25th of August another council 
 was summoned at St. Paul's in London ; and 
 on this occasion the charter of Henry I. was 
 actually produced, and comments were made 
 upon it. The enthusiasm of the barons was 
 aroused, and an oath was administered to 
 them by which they agreed to die, if neces- 
 sary, in defence of their liberties. John had 
 meantime arrived in England ; and hearing 
 what had occurred at St. Alban's, he swore 
 to punish the "traitors." He advanced to 
 Northampton with his usual headlong im- 
 petuosity ; but there the Archbishop over- 
 took him, and begged him to reconsider his 
 determination, and to proceed in a more 
 judicial fashion. This was in September 
 1213. 
 
 In October the Justiciary laid the claims 
 of the barons before the King ; and soon 
 afterwards was taken ill and died. " Now," 
 exclaimed John, "I am for the first time 
 king and lord of England," — a most un- 
 gracious speech ; for had it not been for 
 FitzPeter, the violence of the people would 
 have broken out against the King, who was 
 only shielded by his trusty justiciary. The 
 Pope finally was appealed to, and he sup- 
 ported John his vassal, and nothing of any 
 great importance succeeded during the re- 
 mainder of the year 12 13, except the fore- 
 shadowing of parliament by the assembling 
 by the King's writ of the council at Oxford. 
 In 1 2 14, John went abroad. The barons as- 
 sembled at Bury St. Edmunds under pretext 
 of pilgrimage ; and there they entered into 
 a league, and made a solemn oath that if the 
 King would not relieve their grievances, they 
 would withdraw their fealty and allegiance, 
 and make war upon him until by sealed 
 charter he should confirm the privileges 
 they sought,* — the laws and liberties of the 
 people. 
 
 * " Ipsi ei guerram tamdiu moverent ut ab ejus 
 fidelitate se subtraherent donee eis per cartam 
 sigillo suo munitam confirmarcnt omnia qasg pete- 
 bant." — Paris. 
 
 404 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 Holingshed calls this a '■ cloked pilgrim- 
 age/'' in which, "at the abbey of Burie, they 
 uttered their complaint of the King's tyran- 
 nical manners." "The chief cause that 
 moved the lords to this conspiracy," con- 
 tinues our old chronicler, " rose by reason 
 the King demanded scutage of them that 
 refused to go with him to Poictou ; and they, 
 on the other hand, maintained that they 
 were not bound to pay it. . . . Finally, it was 
 determined that shortly after Christmas they 
 should go to the King, and require of him 
 that they might have those laws restored 
 which he had promised to them." 
 
 The King did not return until October, 
 when he concluded an ignominious peace 
 with Philip of France. At Christmas-time 
 he went to Worcester, but eventually hur- 
 ried to London, and shut himself up in the 
 Temple, where, on the 6th of January, on the 
 Feast of the Epiphany, the barons assembled 
 to present to him their demands. The King 
 at first attempted to "ride the high horse," 
 and endeavoured to insist upon the barons 
 withdrawing their claims, and one or two 
 even consented. But the majority decidedly 
 refused ; and then John temporized, pro- 
 mising to give an answer at Easter ; and he 
 used this interval to the greatest advantage 
 in endeavouring to explode the conspiracy 
 by concessions, and to break up the con- 
 federation of the barons. " You must grant 
 me time till Easter, that with due delibera- 
 tion I may be able to do justice to myself, 
 and satisfy the dignity of the crown." 
 
 Many of the barons knew quite well from 
 experience the use which the perfidious and 
 crafty King would make of the time allotted 
 to him ; but when Langton and the Earl of 
 Pembroke consented to be surety that the 
 King would redeem his promises, the barons 
 agreed to the respite, and retired until the 
 great festival time should call them forth 
 again. The King immediately cast about to 
 revenge himself, and adopted a measure 
 which he believed would serve his turn. His 
 first efforts were directed to the conciliation 
 of the Church, in whose favour he at once 
 renounced certain privileges, one of which he 
 had formerly strongly insisted upon, viz., the 
 election of bishops and abbots. By this 
 concession he fancied he could win the 
 clergy to his side ; and then he turned to the 
 populace. 
 
 If he could only succeed in gaining the 
 people and the clergy, the barons would have 
 no chance with him, so the subtle monarch 
 ordered his sheriff to assemble the freemen, 
 and tender them a new oath of allegiance ; 
 and then as a checkmate he complained to 
 the Pope of the conduct of his vassals the 
 barons, who also sent a messenger to Inno- 
 cent ; but the Pope soon made it evident in 
 his reply to Archbishop Langton that he 
 
 considered John was right ; and Innocent 
 hoped by these means to stifle the agitation. 
 But the thunders ofthe Church were unnoticed 
 under the circumstances. Langton took no 
 heed of the Pope's letter; and then John^ 
 putting himself under the protection of the 
 Cross, fancied his person and possessions 
 were secure under its shadow. 
 
 Easter arrived, and the barons assembled 
 in great array at Stamford. The King was 
 at Oxford. From Stamiford the malcontents 
 marched to Brackley, near the University 
 city, where they met a deputation from King 
 John, Langton being at the head of it. 
 The barons at once handed to the deputa- 
 tion the parchment containing the details of 
 the privileges they desired. " These are our 
 claims," they said, "and if they are not 
 instantly granted our arms shall do us 
 justice." 
 
 Langton with the others withdrew, and put 
 the proposal of the barons before the King. 
 John flew into a terrible rage when he had 
 perused the conditions, and swore his favourite 
 oath that he would not grant them. " And why 
 do not they demand my crown also?" he 'cried 
 in a fury. " I will not grant them liberties 
 which will make me a slave." But he imme- 
 diately endeavoured to win the opposite side 
 by vague concessions and evasive offers, 
 while Pandulph, the legate or nuncio, wished 
 the barons to be excommunicated eii masse. 
 But this friendly suggestion Cardinal Lang- 
 ton declined to carry out ; and the barons 
 appealed to arms, proclaiming themselves 
 " the army of God and ofthe Holy Church." 
 They disclaimed all allegiance to the King 
 at Wallingford, and were absolved from their 
 allegiance. 
 
 Robert FitzWalter was chosen as their 
 commander, and the discontented bands 
 marched to attack Northampton castle. 
 Robert FitzWalter was a very powerful noble, 
 and lord of Baynard's castle. His daughter 
 had been wooed dishonourably by the King, 
 whose advances the maiden, called Maude the 
 Fair, had contemptuously repelled. When 
 the lady died — which she did soon after her 
 refusal of the King's attentions — there were 
 not wanting reports to the effect that John 
 had caused her to be poisoned for the rejec- 
 tion of his suit. Under such circumstances 
 did the King stir up the wrath and indigna- 
 tion of the nobles. His despotism and lust 
 were unbridled. Yet with all this he had " a 
 strange gift of attracting friends and of win- 
 ning the love of women." 
 
 The barons met with no success at Nor- 
 thampton, and after a vain attempt to subdue 
 the castle they quitted it for Bedford, where 
 the governor was one of their own order. 
 Here they were received; and as they were in 
 consultation, a deputation was received from 
 ' London. The malconients immediately set 
 
 403 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 out ; and continuing their march all through 
 the summer night, the barons reached 
 London early on the morning of Sunday the 
 24th of May, when they found the gates open 
 and a majority of the inhabitants at church. 
 Everything had gone well. The barons 
 entered London by Aldgate unmolested and 
 quite unknown to the royalists. The incomers 
 at once took possession of the gates before 
 the Court in the Tower were aware of their 
 coming ; and when they had full possession 
 of the city they began to massacre the Jews. 
 John was in the Tower of London and greatly 
 
 chosen by the barons not because it was so 
 convenient for the King at Windsor, but 
 because it was an usual place for conferences 
 to be holden. The spot is now familiar to 
 all who travel on the Thames, and Magna 
 Charta Island is an extremely picturesque 
 bit of scenery viewed from the Berkshire 
 shore. On that day, the 15th of June, 121 5, 
 it wore a very different aspect. From 
 Windsor came the King with his sadly re- 
 duced retinue across the royal park to the 
 Thames bank, and opposite could be per- 
 ceived a great crowd of knights in chain 
 
 Magna Charta Island. 
 
 alarmed. The Earl of Pembroke offered to 
 go as mediator, and the King sent a message 
 saying he was prepared to grant all their 
 demands. Let them appoint a time and 
 place for a conference. 
 
 The nobles went, and Fitz Walter's reply 
 was concise and to the point : " We appoint 
 the 15th of June and for the place Runy- 
 mede." 
 
 The Tryst at Runymede. 
 Runymede * on the Thames was the spot 
 
 * The Runing or Running Mede, as some say. 
 Races were once held there, and meetings were 
 
 armour, accompanied by pages bearing their 
 shields. Mitred bishops and holy abbots, 
 crowned king and regal state mingled with 
 helm and spear and shield to keep the tryst 
 at Runymede on the 15th of June. 
 
 Beyond the intervening trees stood Windsor 
 Castle on its height, while Cooper Hill rose 
 close by, and the chalk downs of Bucks in the 
 distance over the forest. Boats and barges, 
 citizens and soldiers, men, women, and 
 children, came out from Staines and London 
 to behold the sisjht — a memorable one indeed 
 
 frequently appointed at the spot, hence the Anglo- 
 Saxon Rune-Mead. 
 
 406 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY, 
 
 — which was to be seen on the Rune-Mead or 
 Council Meadow, bounded by the silver i 
 Thames. 
 
 "Here was that Charter sealed, wherein the Crown I 
 All marks of arbitrary power laid down ; i 
 
 Tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear, 
 The happier style of king and subject bear ; 
 Happy when both to the same centre move. 
 When kings give Uberty and subjects love." 
 
 Tuesday in Whitsun week, the 9th of June, 
 had been the day originally suggested by the 
 King for the meeting with the barons. He 
 came up fromOdiham to Merton for the pur- 
 pose, and granted " sure conduct " to the re- 
 bellious vassals. But circumstances deferred 
 the assembly until the following Monday, the 
 15th, when John had proceeded to Windsor. 
 This was "Trinity Monday;" and on that 
 day the barons with their attendants, and 
 accompanied by a numerous concourse of 
 citizens, arrived at the Council Meadow. 
 
 The opposing bands encamped separately ; 
 and, according to Sir William Blackstone, the 
 conference lasted several days. The con- 
 trast between the retinue of the King and 
 the numbers of his enemies must have been 
 sufficient to prove to John that his despotic 
 power had come to an end. These were no 
 mere suppliants ; they had come to demand 
 concessions, and were, moreover, in a position 
 to enforce their demands. On one bank of 
 the Thames the small array of force — about 
 seventy adherents — surrounded the King. 
 In the meadows opposite, on the Surrey side, 
 were the armed host of the disaffected. 
 Between them lay a small island or islet, 
 which was destined to be known for all time 
 as the Magna Charta eyot. 
 
 Preliminaries were entered into, and the 
 serious business of the hour was gradually 
 led up to by unmeaning discussion. The 
 King knew he had no escape ; the barons, 
 with the populace, were equally aware of it ; 
 and after some fencing the articles were 
 drawn up, to be afterwards embodied in the 
 form of a charter. To these articles the 
 King affixed his signature, the Royal Seal ; 
 and Magna Charta, the Great Charter of 
 English liberties, was an accomplished fact. 
 
 During all the transactions the wily 
 monarch had fully borne out his character 
 for dissimulation. His manner, always good, 
 was studiously polite and even cheerful. He 
 conversed freely with the barons ; he made 
 voluntary promises, and agreed to the pro- 
 mulgation of the articles with apparent good- 
 will and readiness. But when he returned { 
 to Windsor and the assembly had dissolved, • 
 when the deed had been done, and only the j 
 remembrance of his unlimited power re- i 
 mained to him, he behaved like a madman. 
 His rage is described as awful. He cursed 
 the day he was born, rolled about wildly, 
 
 gnashed his teeth, tore sticks in his mouth, 
 and really appeared for the time possessed 
 with an evil spirit. 
 
 But his few friends begged him to keep 
 quiet, and rather to seek his revenge than to 
 indulge in such useless passions. He took 
 their advice, and sent to secure mercenaries 
 and the interposition of the Pope. The 
 barons left Runymede triumphantly, and 
 proceeded to Stamford, where they learnt 
 that the King had eluded the restoration of 
 their lands, and after some interviews and 
 protestations war was declared between the 
 King and his barons. 
 
 The Great Charter. 
 
 The original of Magna Charta, though in 
 a mutilated condition, is still in existence in 
 the National Museum. It will be sufficient 
 for us to comment upon the principal clauses, 
 with passing reference to the state of things 
 at the time which gave rise to the articles in 
 the charter, and which called so loudly for 
 remedy. The privileges were granted by the 
 King on the understanding that he thereby 
 secured the adherence of all estates in the 
 realm. The articles were "written upon 
 parchment," says Sir William Blackstone in 
 his introductory preface to the Charters, "ten 
 inches and three quarters broad, and twenty- 
 one and a half in length, including the 
 fold for receiving the label." The King's 
 seal is affixed. There was also an agree- 
 ment delivering the custody of the city and 
 Tower of London to the barons till the charter 
 was carried into execution. The Great 
 Charter contains sixty-three clauses in ad- 
 dition to the preamble, and its first clause 
 declares the freedom of the EngHsh Church, 
 
 We can now examine, by the help of the 
 various ancient and modern authorities at 
 hand, the amount of the liberties granted by 
 the Charter, and those, for convenience' sake, 
 may be divided into four separate groups or 
 classes : — 
 
 (i) We have, in the first place, certain 
 privileges granted to the clergy and the 
 Church. 
 
 (2) Secondly, there are concessions made 
 to the barons and other nobles " who held of 
 the King, in capites 
 
 C3) We have the clauses more directly 
 applying to the citizens, merchants, and 
 others in the cities and towns of the king- 
 dom, for the encouragement and benefit of 
 trade. 
 
 (4) The liberties of the freedmen. 
 
 In the above summary the lower classes, 
 such as the serfs and vassals of the lords, are 
 not distinctly mentioned, and it does not 
 appear that the barons and their friends 
 troubled themselves much concerning the 
 poor "villeins " who were not free, as against 
 
 407 
 
EPOCHS AAD EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the lords, though so regarded amongst their 
 own peers. 
 
 Lee us look at the first group of clauses, 
 which, as will be readily surmised, were 
 supervised by Archbishop Langton and his 
 ecclesiastical friends, upon whose prede- 
 cessors — or some of them — the Constitutions 
 of Clarendon had pressed very heavily, and 
 with whom they had become a byword and 
 a reproach. But we do not find very much in 
 the Great Charter concerning the Church. 
 " The first article declares the Church shall 
 be free, and have her rights entire, and her 
 liberties unhurt;" and by this the clergy were 
 free to choose their superiors, bishops 
 and abbots. The twenty-second article also 
 is favourable to the Church, respecting 
 "amercement," which shall not be according 
 to the quantity of his ecclesiastical benefice, 
 but according to his lay tenement ; in other 
 words, he shall be treated as a layman, and 
 being without lay property, is practically 
 exempted. The forty-second article permitted 
 free travel of the clergy, a privilege withdrawn 
 by the Constitutions of Clarendon, for the 
 clause allowed "anyone except prisoners, 
 outlaws, or enemies, to leave the kingdom 
 and return to it, by land or by water." 
 
 The greater portion of the advantages were 
 gained by the barons. The clergy, having 
 made themselves much feared, and having 
 gained much influence, did not want so much 
 redress as the nobles at feud with the King. 
 So we find many articles devoted to their 
 interests in the Charter. Though the Church 
 took precedence, we perceive the barons well 
 up in the second article, by which the heir, 
 if of age, shall pay only the "ancient relief" 
 ("from the King's wardship) ; and this clause 
 requires some little explanation. 
 
 When an heir was a minor, the King acted 
 as his guardian, and we may not doubt 
 made great profit of him during the minority; 
 and even after he had thus plundered the 
 estate, the King demanded a sum as a relief, 
 and this was very uncertain and arbitrary. 
 Article II. of the Charter fixed the sums 
 formerly paid — for an earl or baron, ^loo; 
 for a knight, loos. ; and so on in proportion. 
 But Article III. declared "a minor who is in 
 ward shall have his inheritance free." Often 
 besides the robbery of funds, the estates were 
 neglected, and in many cases went to "rack and 
 ruin" because they were not kept up during 
 the minority ; and Articles IV. and V. refer 
 to this abuse and provide for its removal. 
 The disposal of the heirs in marriage, unless 
 they paid to get off, was also a great hardship 
 at that time and formerly. So the barons 
 took care to insert a clause in their Charter 
 to protect themselves according to Henry the 
 First's Charter, referring to the marriage of 
 heiresses. They accordingly provided in 
 Article VI. that "heirs shall be married 
 
 without disparagement, their near blood rela- 
 tions having notice beforehand." 
 
 In those "good old times," heiresses as 
 well as widows were greatly oppressed, and 
 many cases could be quoted in which ladies 
 were obliged to pay for their money and 
 marriage. The Countess of Warwick and 
 the Countess of Chester are two instances in 
 which Maud and Lucia respectively paid 
 seven hundred marks (^7,000) and five 
 hundred marks (^5,000) to be permitted to 
 marry whom they pleased, and not within a 
 fixed time. The barons took care of the 
 widows in the seventh and eighth articles of 
 Magna Charta, by which " they were to receive 
 their inheritance freely, and not be forced to 
 re-marry" in any station of life. This applied 
 to feudal lords as well as to the king. 
 
 By the twelfth and fifteenth articles the 
 levying of scutage or aids were specially 
 limited to the ransoming of the king's 
 person, making his eldest son a knight, and 
 once for marrying his eldest daughter ; and 
 the king shall not empower mesne lords to 
 exact other than the ordinary aids to ransom 
 the lord's person, to knight his eldest son, 
 and once to marry his eldest daughter ; and 
 these of reasonalale amount." There were 
 also some general clauses respecting the 
 military vassals of the Crown, who were 
 relieved from certain exactions hitherto levied 
 upon them, and the Feudal System was 
 modified. 
 
 We now come to the third series of articles, 
 those affecting the merchants and laity. We 
 find in the thirteenth article of the Charter 
 that "the city of London shall have all its 
 ancient liberties and its free customs, as well 
 by land as by water. Besides we will and 
 grant that all other cities, and towns, and 
 burghs, and seaports, shall have all their 
 liberties and free customs." The twenty-third 
 and thirty-third clauses deal with the ques- 
 tions of bridge-building and of weirs, as 
 regards the freedom of navigation ; and the 
 Londoners had the decision of the weights 
 and measures put into their hands by Article 
 XXXV., while another clause made it illegal 
 for Christians to lend money on usury. So 
 money-lending fell into Jewish hands, though 
 it was enacted that no Jew should be paid 
 interest during the debtor's minority. 
 
 Merchants, whether of native extraction or 
 of foreign growth, were permitted to come 
 and go ; and Article XLl. put the case very 
 clearly. Previously foreign merchants had 
 been much distressed by fines and personal 
 restrictions, and their goods liable to be 
 seized during war. But the trade influence 
 of England was now making itself felt ; the 
 nation of shopkeepers was born, and cried. 
 So the barons, albeit careless of merchants, 
 could not evade the Londoners' demand. 
 " All merchants shall be safe and secure in 
 
 408 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 coming into England and going out of 
 England, and staying and travelling through 
 England, as well by land as by water, to 
 buy and to sell without any unjust exactions, 
 according to ancient rights and customs, 
 except in time of war," when reciprocal 
 courtesy would be extended according to 
 the treatment received by British traders in 
 other countries. 
 
 In other articles, the King resigned his 
 arbitrary power, and it was enacted that " no 
 freedman be apprehended or outlawed or in 
 any other way destroyed, nor will we go upon 
 him, except by legal judgment of his peers, 
 or by the law of the land." This was a very 
 important clause, and it was supplemented 
 by another, viz., "To no man will we sell, 
 to no man will we deny or delay right or 
 justice." The proper appointment of com- 
 petent legal officers was also provided for, 
 and provision was also made for further 
 protection of life by the limitation of the 
 power of inflicting capital punishment. The 
 Courts of Common Pleas were to be sta- 
 tionary. 
 
 Fines were limited according to the degree 
 of the offence, and "not above measure;" 
 and certain personal property could not be 
 amerced. The property of the people was 
 defended from unjust exaction, nor were any 
 animals to be taken by a bailiff without the 
 owner's consent. There are many other 
 clauses, but we have enumerated the chief. 
 The sixtieth article is significant, viz. : — 
 
 " But all these aforesaid customs and liber- 
 ties which we have granted in our kingdom, 
 to be held by our tenants, as far as concerns 
 us, all our clergy and laity shall observe 
 towards their tenants as far as concerns 
 them." 
 
 This clause was probably inserted by John 
 himself. 
 
 Twenty-five barons were elected to enforce 
 the charter, and if the King refused to do 
 justice as required by any four of their num- 
 ber, the barons were empowered to make 
 war against the King and his possessions, 
 saving his wife and children. 
 
 The Welsh and Scotch were also granted 
 certain concessions; but the twelfth, thir- 
 teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth articles were 
 perhaps the most important of all, containing 
 as they do the clear definition of taxation. 
 These refer to the scutage or aid already 
 mentioned, and the liberty accorded to the 
 cities. The fourteenth clause declares a 
 Common Council is to be assembled for the 
 purpose of assessing a scutage or aid ; and 
 when the members so assembled shall decide, 
 they may be accepted as acting for the whole 
 body summoned. This is really the germ of 
 parliamentary voting of supplies. The fif- 
 teenth article has been already mentioned. 
 
 The Forest clauses of the Charter were after- 
 
 wards enlarged and embodied in a separate 
 instrument called the Carta de Foresta. As 
 we have said, great precautions were taken 
 by the barons to bind the crafty King to his 
 deed. The Tower of London was handed 
 over to the barons, and all mercenaries were 
 dismissed ; but the King managed to evade 
 all the safeguards of the lords, and a very 
 long and severe struggle ushered in the true 
 enjoyment of the Great Charter. 
 
 Henry III. renewed Magna Charta and 
 the subsequent Forest Charter, a grant of a 
 fifteenth of all movables being demanded as 
 the King's price for the Act ; and in its altered 
 — very slightly altered — form, Edward I. con- 
 firmed Magna Charta ; and so, for a con- 
 sideration, which the people were always 
 ready to pay, it was confirmed many times 
 by successive Kings to Henry VI., no less 
 than fourteen times by Edward III., and 
 frequently by Henry III., Richard II., and 
 Henry IV.,* — thirty-seven times in all. 
 
 The Petition of Right. 
 
 It is impossible within the limits at our 
 disposal to trace the rise and history of the 
 Parliamentary government of England. Our 
 business is with the Charters only, but, 
 as we all remember, the successive assem- 
 blies had been in constant conflict with the 
 monarchs of England at various times, and 
 many checks had been put upon the royal 
 authority. In Hallam, the student will find 
 the results of the measures and the Acts 
 passed in despite of the King's remonstrances, 
 and will, from the following extract, be able 
 to judge how the subject was gaining in the 
 struggle. The writer of the Constitutional 
 History thus briefly sums up the facts, and 
 shows the power of Parliament : — 
 
 " The King could levy no sort of new tax 
 upon the people except by grant of the par- 
 liament, consisting as well of bishops and 
 mitred abbots, or lords spiritual, and of 
 hereditary peers, or temporal lords, who sat 
 and voted in the same chamber, as of repre- 
 sentatives from each county, and from the 
 burgesses of many towns and less conside- 
 rable places forming the Lower or Commons' 
 House. 
 
 " The previous assent and authority of the 
 same assembly were necessary for every 
 new law, whether of a general or temporary 
 nature. No man could be committed to 
 prison but by a legal warrant specifying his 
 offence, and by a usuage nearly tantamount 
 to constitutional right, he must be speedily 
 brought to trial by means of regular sessions 
 of gaol-delivery. The fact of guilt or inno- 
 cence in a criminal charge was determined in 
 a public court, and in the county where the 
 
 * See also ' ' Constitutional History ' 
 Langmeed). 
 
 (Taswell- 
 
 4TO 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 offence was alleged to have occurred, by a 
 jury of twelve men, from whose unanimous 
 verdict no appeal could be made. 
 
 " Civil rights, so far as they depended on 
 questions of fact, were subject to tiie same 
 decision. 
 
 " The officers and servants of the Crown 
 violating the personal liberty or other right 
 of the subject, might be sued in an action for 
 damages to be assessed by a jury, or in some 
 cases were liable to criminal process ; nor 
 could they plead any warrant or command 
 in their justification, nor even the direct 
 order of the King. The King's Ministers 
 were liable to be impeached by the Com- 
 mons for misgovernment, and the general 
 privileges of the nation were far more secure 
 than those of private men, though there was 
 little effective restraint upon the Government 
 except in the matters of levying money and 
 enacting laws." 
 
 James I. could not agree with his parlia- 
 ment from the very outset. He had strong 
 notions concerning the divine rights of kings, 
 and many conflicts arose; the Commons 
 insisted upon their full rights and drew up a 
 protest of them which was entitled, "A form 
 of apology and satisfaction," in which they 
 claimed as rights the privileges they enjoyed, 
 and that " they cannot be withheld, denied, 
 or impaired." The protest is long, and will 
 be found in extenso in parUamentary history. 
 The Commons asked nothing but that to 
 which they were entitled; but still, as a 
 writer remarks, they managed to show that 
 " the King, the Council, the House of Lords, 
 the Bishops, and Puritans, were no less 
 emphatically in the wrong." 
 
 So the King and Commons remained, if 
 not at " daggers drawn," at any rate on the 
 defensive till his death ; and Charles I, came 
 to the throne imbued with all the divine- 
 right ideas of his father, in March 1625. He 
 was in want of money, and threatened the 
 Commons if they did not grant it. " I wish 
 you would hasten my supply, or else it will 
 be worse for yourselves," was scarcely the 
 tone to adopt with the House which was 
 more than ever determined to stand upon its 
 rights. 
 
 We now come to the commencement of 
 that period of English historj- which culmi- 
 nated in Charles's death and parliamentary 
 sovereignty. The King's reply called forth 
 an answer from the Commons, and though 
 they granted him the subsidies, they in set 
 terms asserted their rights and privileges 
 in the matter of supply, and in the case of 
 Buckingham's impeachment as well. In fact, 
 while granting the King's request as to 
 money, they reminded him sharply that he 
 could not do as he pleased. 
 
 We need not trace the fortunes of Bucking- 
 ham, nor the injudicious conduct of the King 
 
 in forcing loans and putting in prison those 
 who refused to lend. War was forced upon 
 France; and when Charles opened parliament 
 in 1627, he used very threatening language 
 towards the House; but it was not at all 
 alarmed. " We have come together," said 
 Wentworth, " firmly determined to vindicate 
 our ancient vital liberties, by reinforcing our 
 ancient laws made by our ancestors ; " and a 
 Committee set forth their grievances respect- 
 ing " liberty of the subject in person and 
 estate." These were in chief : — 
 (i) The forced loans. 
 
 (2) Arbitrary imprisonment. 
 
 (3) Billeting of soldiers on private persons. 
 
 (4) Infliction of punishment by martial 
 
 law. 
 
 The Commons also passed four important 
 resolutions without a dissenting voice : — 
 
 (i) That no free man ought to be restrained 
 or imprisoned unless some lawful cause of 
 such restraint or imprisonment be expressed. 
 
 (2) That the writ of Habeas Corpus ought 
 to be granted to every man imprisoned or 
 restrained, though it be at the command of 
 the King or of the Privy Council, if he pay 
 for the same. 
 
 (3) That when the return expresses no 
 cause of commitment or restraint, the party 
 ought to be delivered or bailed. 
 
 (4) That it is the ancient and undoubted 
 right of every free man that he hath a full 
 and absolute property in his goods and 
 estate, and that no tax, loan, or benevolence 
 ought to be levied by the king or his ministers 
 without common consent by Act of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 These resolutions were discussed between 
 the King and Parliament, and the arbitrary 
 clauses were argued by counsel on both 
 sides for several days. The King pledged 
 his royal word not to arrest any person 
 without good cause. But this offer was not 
 accepted by Sir E. Coke. He took his stand 
 upon the letter of the law and Magna Charta. 
 "The King," said he, "must speak by record 
 and in particulars, and not in general. Let 
 us put up a Petition of Right ; not that I 
 distrust the King, but I cannot take his trust 
 save in a parliamentary way." 
 
 The House of Commons then set them- 
 selves to draw up the Petition of Right in 
 spite of the amendments or additions pro- 
 posed by the House of Lords. In the Par- 
 liamentary History (vol. ii.) the speeches will 
 be found in full. The Lords wished to in- 
 clude the terms, "sovereign power." "We 
 humbly present this petition," they said, 
 " not only with a care of preserving our own 
 liberties, but with due regard to leave entire 
 the sovereign power wherewith Your Majesty 
 is trusted for the protection, safety, and hap- 
 piness of your people." But the Commons 
 would have no such terms. "'Sovereign 
 
 4.11 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 power ' is no parliamentary word," said Sir 
 Edward Coke. "What is 'sovereign power'?" 
 asked Mr. Alford. "Bodin saith it is free 
 from any conditions. . . Let us give that to 
 the King- which the law allows him, and no 
 more." " I know how to add sovereign to 
 to the King's person," said Pym, "but not 
 to his power. We cannot leave to him a 
 ^ sovereign power,' for we were never pos- 
 sessed of it." Sir E. Coke declared that 
 Magna Charta would not admit of such a 
 term : " Magna Charta is such a fellow he 
 will have no sovereign. I wonder this 
 sovereign was not in Magna Charta or in the 
 confirmations of it." 
 
 The conditions of the Petition of Right 
 are as follows. After enumerating the various 
 Acts by which certain abuses were forbidden 
 by the statute of King Edward I., it is 
 stated by the petition as follows — 
 
 " Nevertheless against the tenor of the 
 said statutes and other the good lawes and 
 statutes of your realme to that end pro- 
 vided." 
 
 The articles declare that — 
 
 (i) Freedmen had been compelled to lend 
 money to the King, and upon their refusal so 
 to do had been constrained to become 
 bound and make appearance, and otherwise 
 variously molested with imprisonment. 
 
 (2) Several persons had been imprisoned, 
 and when brought before the court by Writ 
 of Habeas, yet were returned back to several 
 prisons without being charged with anything 
 to which they might make answer according 
 to law. 
 
 (3) That in divers counties of the realme 
 soldiers and mariners have been billeted in 
 the houses of the inhabitants against their 
 wishes, to the great grievance and vexation 
 of the people. 
 
 (4) That divers commissioners have been 
 appointed with authority to proceed within 
 the land according to martial law, and punish 
 offences which ought to have been punished 
 by the civil courts, while some offenders have 
 escaped the courts on the pretext that they 
 were only amenable to martial law. 
 
 The Petition of Right therefore protested 
 against such irregular proceedings, and re- 
 quested that they might never become 
 established precedents, being contrary to 
 the rights and liberties of the subject, and 
 the laws and statutes of nations. 
 
 The King, instead of contenting himself 
 with the usual assent, returned a reply to the 
 Petition, — assenting, indeed, but in a some- 
 what equivocal way: "The Kingwilleth that 
 right be done according to the laws and 
 customs of the realm, and the statutes be 
 put into due execution that his subjects may 
 liave no cause to complain of any wrong or 
 oppression contrary to their just rights and 
 liberties, to the preservation whereof he 
 
 holds himself as well obliged as of his 
 prerogative." 
 
 This answer did not content the Commons. 
 Mr. Rushworth relates that when, on the 
 3rd of June, it was read to the House, " it 
 seemed too scant," and the faithful Commons 
 were much affected. " We must now speak, 
 or for ever after hold our peace," said Sir N. 
 Rich. " For us to be silent when King and 
 kingdom are in this calamity is not fit." 
 The House then resolved itself into a Com- 
 mittee to consider what is fit to be done for 
 the safety of the kingdom, and that "no man 
 go out upon pain of being sent to the Tower." 
 The Speaker, however, was permitted to 
 leave ; and he immediately hastened to the 
 King, and returned just as the Duke of 
 Buckingham's reputation was being severely 
 discussed, with a message adjourning the 
 House until the following day. 
 
 At the next meeting the Commons united 
 with the Lords, and desired a more definite 
 answer from the King, who when they ad- 
 dressed him, replied, "That he would please 
 to give a clean and satisfactory answer in 
 full parliament to the Petition." Charles 
 came at four o'clock to the House of Lords ; 
 and in compliance with the request of the 
 House, stated his wiUingness to pleasure 
 them in words as in substance. The former 
 answer was cut out, and the wished-for reply, 
 " Soit droit fait comme il est desire," was 
 given to the Petition. The Commons there- 
 upon "gave a great and joyful applause;" 
 and, to prove their gratitude, granted five 
 subsidies to the King. By this assent as to 
 a Bill, the Petition of Right became virtually 
 an Act of Parliament ; and thus " the second 
 great compact between the Crown and the 
 nation" was ratified. 
 
 The Revolution. 
 
 On the morning of December i8th, 1688, 
 James 1 1., surrounded by the boats contain- 
 ing the soldiers of the Prince of Orange, 
 quitted Whitehall stairs for Rochester. 
 William of Orange was loudly greeted as 
 he entered London ; and soon afterwards the 
 most influential people, and many former 
 members of the House of Commons of 
 Charles XL, sent up a petition to His 
 Majesty to summon a Convention Parlia- 
 ment. This assembly met on the 22nd 
 January, 1688-9 ; and on the 28th the House 
 passed several resolutions of an important 
 character. These were — 
 
 (i) Resolved that King James XL, having 
 endeavoured to subvert the constitution of 
 the kingdom by breaking the original con- 
 tract between king and people, and by the 
 advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons 
 having violated the fundamental laws, and 
 having withdrawn himself out of this king- 
 
 412 
 
BRFTISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY 
 
 dom, has abdicated the government, and 
 that the throne is thereby vacant. 
 
 And next day a further resolution was 
 carried, viz, : — 
 
 (2) That it hath been found by experience 
 inconsistent with the safety and welfare of 
 this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a 
 popish prince. 
 
 These two resolutions were not accepted 
 entirely by the Lords ; and though they 
 agreed to the second, the former was modi- 
 fied. They proposed an amendment to the 
 word "abdicated," and a long debate ensued 
 in the Commons. A regency was suggested 
 during the life of James to administer the 
 government ; but William of Orange had 
 come over to be a king, and gave the House 
 to understand, and plainly, too, that nothing 
 short of tliat dignity would he receive. If 
 the Estates offered him the crown he would 
 accept it ; and he thought it reasonable that 
 the Lady Anne and her posterity might be 
 preferred in the succession to any children 
 whom he might have by any other wife than 
 the Princess Mary.* 
 
 The question was then referred to the 
 House of Lords, and a conference with the 
 Commons arranged that the Prince and 
 Princess of Orange should be declared King 
 and Queen of England. But the conditions 
 were not yet settled ; and " the Commons 
 wisely determined to postpone all reforms 
 till the ancient constitution of the kingdom 
 should have been restored in all its parts." 
 The Act by which the succession was settled 
 was decided " to set forth, in the most dis- 
 tinct and solemn manner, the fundamental 
 principles of the constitution," in order that 
 the deed might be equally binding and 
 advantageous to the rights of the king and 
 people respectively. 
 
 This instrument quickly embodied the 
 clauses desired, and was termed the "Decla- 
 ration of Rights." 
 
 The Declaration of Rights. 
 
 At about ten o'clock, a.m., on the 13th of 
 February, the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, with the members, proceeded in 
 state to Whitehall, where the Marquis of 
 Halifax and the Lords awaited them. The 
 Prince and Princess of Orange entered the 
 banqueting-house, and then the Marquis, as 
 Speaker of the Lords, acquainted their Royal 
 Highnesses that Parliament had agreed upon 
 a Declaration, and the document was read, 
 after permission had been granted.f 
 
 The Declaration of Rights is too long to 
 quote /;/ extenso. It commenced by showing 
 how James II. had endeavoured to extirpate 
 
 * See Burnet's and Macaulay's Histories. 
 t Parliamentary Plistory, vol. ii. 
 
 the Protestant religion, and his arbitrary 
 manner of suspending the laws and levying- 
 taxes. Excessive fines and bails, and many 
 other illegal practices and punishments had 
 been carried out, and the Lords and Commons 
 had therefore determined to assert them- 
 selves and their claims to the liberty of their 
 ancestors ; and they declared — 
 
 (i) That the pretended power of suspend- 
 ing of laws, or the execution of laws by regal 
 authority without the consent of Parliament, 
 is illegal. 
 
 (2) That levying of money for or to the 
 use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, 
 without grant of Parliament, for longer time, 
 or in any other manner in which the same is 
 or shall be granted, is illegal. 
 
 (3) That the raising or keeping of a stand- 
 ing army within the kingdom in time of 
 peace, unless it be with the consent of Par- 
 liament, is against law. 
 
 (4) That Protestant subjects may have 
 arms for defence suitable to their condition, 
 according to law. 
 
 (5) That elections of Members of Parlia- 
 ment ought to be free. 
 
 (6) That freedom of speech and debates, 
 or proceedings in parliament, ought not to 
 be impeached or questioned out of parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 (7) No excessive fines or bail ought to be 
 imposed or required, nor cruel or unusual 
 punishments inflicted. 
 
 (8) That jurors ought to be duly empan- 
 nelled and returned, and jurors who pass 
 judgment upon men in trials of high treason 
 ought to be freeholders, with other enact- 
 ments of less importance. 
 
 The Declaration concluded with a resolu- 
 tion that William and Mary, Prince and 
 Princess of Orange, be declared King and 
 Ou?en of England, France, and Ireland, and 
 the dominions thereto belonging, for their 
 lives and for the survivor of them, the King 
 to possess sole administrative power, and 
 after the death of both, failing heirs of the 
 Queen's body, the crown to descend to Anne,, 
 Princess of Denmark, and the heirs of her 
 body, and in default thereof to the heirs ot 
 the body of William of Orange. 
 
 Respecting this instrument. Lord Macaulay 
 says : " It finally decided the great question 
 whether the popular element which had ever 
 since the age of FitzWalter and Simon de 
 Montfort been found in the English polity 
 should be destroyed by the monarchical 
 element, or should be suffered to develop 
 itself freely, and to become dominant. The 
 Declaration of Rights, though it made nothing 
 law which had not been law before, con- 
 tained the germ of every good law which 
 has been passed during more than a century 
 and a half, — of every good law which may 
 hereafter, in the course of ages, be found 
 
 413 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 necessary to promote the public weal and 
 to satisfy the demands of public opinion." 
 
 In October 1689, the Declaration of Rights 
 was embodied in an Act of Parliament called 
 the "Bill of Rights." This Bill has been 
 termed " The third great Charter of English 
 liberty, the coping-stone of the constitutional 
 building." * 
 
 On the 1 6th of December, 1689, the Speaker 
 made a speech to the King when presenting 
 the Bill of Rights, when WiUiam attended 
 in the House of Peers to give his consent to 
 the "Land Tax Bill" and "The Bill of 
 Rights and Succession." The Houses have, 
 said the Speaker, "agreed upon a Bill for 
 declaring of their rights and liberties which 
 were so notoriously violated in the late reign, 
 humbly desiring Your Majesty to give life 
 to it by the royal assent, so that it may 
 remain not only as a security to them from 
 the like attempts hereafter, but be a lasting 
 monument to all posterity of what they owe 
 to Your Majesty for their deliverance." 
 
 Thus we can perceive how the Parliament 
 insisted upon and obtained its rights. The 
 doctrines of James I., which had been in- 
 culcated in his successor, the " divine rights 
 of kings," were all swept away. Everything 
 was then centred in the Parliament. Supplies 
 and all control of expenditure were in the 
 hands of the people's representatives ; and it 
 was only by the will of the people, as ex- 
 pressed in the Bill of Rights, that William 
 and Mary, and Anne of Denmark, became 
 sovereigns of England ; and similarly our 
 own rulers depend upon the Acts of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 We have so far traced the history of the 
 great constitutional charters, the three land- 
 marks, so to speak, by which all legislative 
 courses have been directed in subsequent 
 years. The base had been established by 
 Magna Charta, and the subsequent renewals 
 of that structure, with legislative additions 
 and mouldings, became in time the real 
 pillar of the English law. Since the Bill of 
 Rights we have had the Act of Settlement, 
 which is characterized by Hallam in his 
 Constitutional History as "the seal of our 
 constitutional laws, the complement of the 
 Revolution itself and the Bill of Rights, and 
 the last great statute which restrains the 
 power of the Crown." 
 
 The Act of Settlement. 
 
 The Act of Settlement is " an Act for the 
 further limitation of the Crown and better 
 securing the rights and liberties of the sub- 
 ject," and exists still. It commences by 
 lamenting the death of Queen Mary and her 
 
 * Stubbs. 
 
 son, the Duke of Gloucester, and goes on to 
 declare that the most excellent Princess 
 Sophia, the daughter of James I., be there- 
 by declared to be the next in succession in 
 the Protestant line after His Majesty and the 
 Princess Anne of Denmark ; and in default 
 of issue, the crown to go to and "continue to 
 the said Princess Sophia, and the heirs of 
 her body, being Protestants." 
 
 By Section 3, for the "further security of 
 our religion, laws, and liberties," it is enacted 
 that the sovereign shall be in communion 
 with the Church of England. That if the 
 future sovereign be not a native of England 
 the nation will not be obliged to go to war 
 for the defence of any territory not belong- 
 ing to the crown of England without the 
 consent of Parliament. No sovereign shall 
 leave the United Kingdom without the con- 
 sent of Parliament (this was afterwards re- 
 pealed). The Privy Council underwent 
 change, and practically a Cabinet Council was 
 substituted for it, for all resolutions respecting 
 the well-governing of the kingdom were 
 ordered to be taken by " such of the Privy 
 Council as shall advise and consent to the 
 same." The appointments as privy councillors 
 were limited to natives of the United King- 
 dom or of English parents, and so ehgible for 
 parliament or any office of trust. No person 
 holding office of profit under the King was 
 to be capable of serving in the House of 
 Commons. No pardon under the Great Seal 
 could be pleadable to an impeachment by 
 the Commons in parliament. 
 
 Some of these provisions were afterwards 
 repealed, such as the prohibition of travel of 
 the sovereign without consent of parliament, 
 the non-eligibility of members to hold offices 
 of profit, and the Cabinet Council clause ; 
 but the lastnamed Council revived again 
 as the " Ministry " ; and during the long 
 absences of the first Georges really governed 
 the kingdom, as a " Ministry," or executive 
 committee of Lords and Commons, does now ; 
 such members of it as are Cabinet Councillors 
 being the real promoters of the business of 
 the country and the Government. 
 
 The result of the Act of Settlement and 
 Bill of Rights may be summed up in a few 
 words. Practically these measures took the 
 power from the sovereign and gave it to 
 parliament. The necessity for voting annual 
 supplies, and renewing the Mutiny Act, and 
 passing the estimates generally, gives the 
 Commons supreme control. The real power 
 is in their hands, and parliament, by the voice 
 of the electors, is supreme. This power 
 became gradually understood; and as time 
 passed, the people wanted a voice in the 
 administration. The sovereign's influence 
 was once very great (witness George III.), but 
 since his death it has declined to a certain 
 extent, and is seldom exercised. 
 
 414 
 
BRITISH CHARTERS OF LIBERTY. 
 
 Modern Measures. 
 
 We must pass hastily over the Reform Bills 
 of 1 832 and 1837, which were scarcely charters, 
 but the advantages gained by the people in 
 more extended suffrage by the former, led up 
 to riotous consequences, and the demand for 
 a People's Charter, the provisions of which 
 were not altogether new. They had been 
 brought before Parliament in 1780. The 
 Lords were at first opposed to the Reform 
 Bill, but it was eventually carried. The 
 "working" classes, as they are termed, that 
 is the artizans, got little benefit by it, though 
 the middle classes were represented. Dis- 
 appointment not unnaturally ensued, and the 
 lower classes wished to insist upon more 
 reform. They became Chartists. Chartism, 
 says Mr. McCarthy, " may be said to have 
 sprung definitively into existence in conse- 
 quence of the formal declaration of the 
 leaders of the Liberal party in parliament 
 that they did not intend to push reform any 
 farther." The working man fancied he had 
 been thrust out into the cold, and was deter- 
 mined to let his influence be felt. 
 
 A People's Charter was accordingly drawn 
 up according to O'Connell's advice. But the 
 question had been tried in the House imme- 
 diately parliament met. An amendment was 
 moved to the Address in favour of the Ballot, 
 but only twenty voted for it, and the Govern- 
 ment declined to proceed farther upon the 
 path of reform. It was not long before the 
 measure took definite shape, and the Charter 
 was supported by thousands who objected to 
 physical force, and by hundreds of thousands 
 who believed in it. 
 
 The Chartists' Riots. 
 
 The Chartists, as they called themselves, 
 demanded more power and a more potent 
 voice in the affairs of state under the guise 
 of the Peoples' Charter. The points enu- 
 merated in the Charter were six in liumber, 
 viz. : — (i) Universal Suffrage, (2) Vote by 
 Ballot, (3) Annual Parliaments, (4) Payment 
 of Members, (5) Abolition of Property quali- 
 fication, and (6) Equal Electoral Districts. 
 
 After the Reform Act of 1 832 had passed, 
 the disturbance was initiated, and first 
 showed symptoms of terrorism in 1838, 
 when the Welsh Chartists, after some seasons 
 of depression and indifferent harvests, felt 
 the hard hand of famine. When work got 
 scarcer and food dearer, the unreflecting 
 portion of the community, ascribing all their 
 troubles to the Government, began to agitate 
 for a more equal share in the administration. 
 Some six Members of Parliament, and an 
 equal number of " working-men," as they 
 called themselves, met and drew up the 
 Charter. 
 
 The result, when promulgated, was re- 
 ceived with acclamation everywhere, and 
 the popular opinion, already red-hot, was 
 diligently fanned with fiery orations by plat- 
 form windbags ; and as a consequence of 
 this, "brute force" was threatened to back 
 up the demands of the people. Then the 
 Chartist riots commenced, but were put down 
 at once, and the leaders imprisoned. A Con- 
 vention — termed "National" — was elected, 
 and Birmingham, as thehot-bed of Radicalism, 
 was chosen as the scene of the first meeting 
 in May 1839. The suggestions put forth to 
 the people were sufficiently subversive. Uni- 
 versal cessation from labour was one of the 
 means whereby the Government was to be 
 coerced ; exclusive dealing and a run on the 
 savings banks v.'ere other ways by which the 
 Chartists hoped to gain their ends. Their 
 arrangements led them, however, into a 
 riot, the military being called out ; and ex- 
 cesses subsequently were frequently com- 
 mitted. The petition presented to the House 
 of Commons was not favourably received ; 
 and the year 1839 closed with rioting in 
 Wales, Newport being particularly distin- 
 guished in this way. 
 
 The flame of discontent smouldered still. 
 In 1842 more riots occurred in various dis- 
 tricts, and a Joseph Sturge came to the 
 front, but did not succeed in uniting the 
 people in a " Suffrage Union," as he hoped 
 to do. The climax of Chartism occurred in 
 184S, when measures were taken by the 
 Duke of Wellington to act with vigour on 
 the least sign of violence on the part of the 
 mob. The circumstances of that time must 
 be fresh in the minds of nearly all readers. 
 The enrolment of special constables and the 
 military preparations were on a most exten- 
 sive scale. The great Chartist meeting was 
 on Kennington Common, and^thousands were 
 to march to Westminster and demand their 
 rights. They didn't ! 
 
 There was considerable danger imminent, 
 and those in London at the time will remem- 
 ber the excitement that pervaded all classes. 
 Some two hundred thousand constables had 
 been sworn in; and John Leech, in the pages 
 of Punch, made merry at the expense of 
 some of these " specials " when danger was 
 over. The principles of the Chartist were 
 that, as an individual, he had an equal right 
 to vote and to partake in the administration 
 of the law, and as he paid taxes he had a 
 right to representation in parliament. These 
 were what may be termed the moderate 
 section ; others went far beyond this, and 
 desired to initiate an entirely new state of 
 things ; in fact, tended to Communism. No 
 doubt these latter doctrines had weight with 
 uneducated people, but a very slight examina- 
 tion showed that the claims could not be 
 recognised in the form proposed. 
 
 41S 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Kennington Scare. 
 
 When Louis Philippe had been deposed 
 and revolution was stalking over the Con- 
 tinent, the Chartists, with Fergus O'Connor at 
 their head, imagined that it was a good time 
 to intimidate the Government. The Conven- 
 tion sat in London, and wanted to resort to 
 force. The people must be represented ; and 
 finally these unruly spirits, though probably 
 many acted in good faith and sincere con- 
 viction, declared that a Republic or a Charter 
 must be granted, and parhament ought to 
 be petitioned. 
 
 A monster meeting was convened, and the 
 huge procession was to be organized upon 
 Kennington Common. The Government was 
 to be overawed, and the legislature coerced 
 by this display of force. On April loth the 
 people assembled, though the meeting had 
 been proclaimed unlawful ; and fortunately 
 Fergus O'Connor had restricted the carriage 
 of arms else the result might have been 
 different. This resolve disgusted the "brute 
 force " section, and numbers left the meeting 
 or never united with it. About twenty-five 
 thousand people came, about half were 
 spectators ; and after some speeches the pro- 
 cession was abandoned. The preparations 
 
 everywhere in London, though scarcely any 
 soldiers were visible, had been so complete 
 that any attempt at violence would have 
 been at once severely checked. 
 
 This effort v/as an utter failure. The 
 petition was signed by thousands, including 
 hundreds of fictitious and assumed names ; 
 ridicule fell heavily upon the " People's 
 Charter," and it collapsed. This was the 
 last of it. Since then the wage-earning 
 classes have greatly benefited by ballot 
 voting, and there is no farther need for any 
 such monster meetings. 
 
 What may be yet in store for England we 
 cannot say. Radicalism is rearing up its 
 head, decrying the House of Lords, and 
 attempting to browbeat an institution as old 
 as the Commons. It was not by setting 
 classes at variance that the liberties of the 
 people (not merely those of the artizans, 
 who are not the " people" any more than the 
 merchants or the aristocracy, but of all 
 classes) were secured. Those who object to 
 the existence of the Lords and their descen- 
 dants will do well to remember that it 
 was by the barons of England that Magna 
 Charta — the first great charter of liberty- 
 was obtained. 
 
 H. F. 
 
 — ._ -i"^^^^ 
 
 RUiNYMEDE. 
 
 416 
 
" Bring out your Dead ! Being out your Dead !" 
 
 PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE GREAT PESTILENCE OF 1665, AND OF THE' 
 FIRE OF LONDON IN 1666. 
 
 The Seeds of Death — The first Victims — Former Plagues — The Portent of the Blazing Star — Spread of the Plagile during | 
 May — The Prescription of the College of Physicians — The Quacks — Increase of Mortality during June — Multitudes 
 leave the Town — The Lord Mayor's Regulations — The Dreadful Days of July — The Plague Pits — The Horrors of 
 August — The Death-fires of September — The Pest-houses — Abatement of the Plague — The Number of Deaths — What 
 was the Plague ? — Fire ! Fire ! — No Water to be Obtained — Efforts to preserve Property — A Walk through the Ruins 
 — The Rebuilding of the City. 
 
 The Seeds of Death. 
 
 N the dreary gloom of a December 
 
 day, in the year 1664, there was 
 
 brought to the house of a well-to-do 
 
 tradesman in Drury Lane a large 
 
 parcel of merchandize from the East ; and 
 
 shortly afterwards, we may imagine, there was 
 gathered together in one of the low-ceiled, 
 high-wainscoted rooms of the picturesque old 
 house, a little party of persons to inspect the 
 fine fabrics just imported. Loud would be the 
 exclamations of delight as the sumptuous. 
 417 EE 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 stuffs were spread before their gaze ; and 
 with the pleasure of children engaged with 
 a new toy, coupled with the keenness of 
 business men on the look-out for a good bar- 
 gain, they doubtless turned over and handled 
 with joyful eagerness the new goods just come 
 from the far-off East. 
 
 The firelight flickered on the low-pitched, 
 smoke-blackened ceiling, and the short 
 winter day waned into night, but still they 
 lingered over the goods ; yet had they known 
 what terrible danger lurked in the folds 
 of those seemingly harmless materials, they 
 would not only have shrunk back from them 
 in terror and alarm, but would instantly 
 have consigned them to the flames. For 
 even as in the tiny seed lies hidden the 
 promise of the stately oak or the lovely 
 flower, so in these goods lay hidden the 
 virulent contagion, the veritable seeds of 
 death, which before long would burst forth 
 into widespread pestilence. The death-cart 
 rolling on its awful rounds, the hundreds 
 of plague-stricken dwellings, the noisome 
 plague-pits and pest-houses, the unparalleled 
 dreariness and desolation of that fearful 
 plague time, and the horrible deaths of a 
 hundred thousand human beings, were the 
 outcome of the contagion hidden in those 
 infected goods. Those goods brought the 
 plague to London; and in that picturesque 
 old house in Drury Lane the Great Plague 
 of 1665 was born. 
 
 The First Victims. 
 No suspicion seems to have been enter- 
 tained that these goods carried contagion, 
 although they had come from the Levant by 
 way of the Netherlands, where the plague was 
 .at that time raging frightfully ; for, according 
 to an Order in Council then in force, all 
 ships coming from Holland were quaran- 
 tined for thirty days ; but very shortly after 
 the parcel was opened, two Frenchmen who 
 lived in the house began to show signs of 
 feverishness and ill-health. A shivering not 
 caused by the winter's cold shook their 
 shuddering frames, a horrible nausea seized 
 them, headache, swellings in various parts 
 of the body, and low, muttering delirium suc- 
 ceeded ; then, in a short time, the dreaded and 
 unmistakable plague-spots appeared on their 
 bodies, and death supervened. This was on 
 the 20th of December, and these two men 
 were held to be the first victims of the 
 Great Plague.* 
 
 * These are the generally accepted facts ; but Mr. 
 P. W. Brayley, F.S.A., points out that they are not 
 strictly accurate, as ' ' there were six persons died of 
 the plague in 1664, as appears from the General Bill for 
 that year;' 'and he also states that London had not been 
 quite free for some years. Dr. Hodges, who practised 
 in London during the time of the Plague, says in his 
 ' 'Letter to a Person of Quality on the Rise, Progress, 
 
 The frightened family did all in their 
 power to conceal the circumstance, but to 
 no purpose. The news got abroad ; and the 
 authorities sent surgeons and physicians to 
 make official inquiry ; and they, finding on 
 the bodies the fatal spots which were so 
 characteristic of the plague that they were 
 known as " tokens," sent in their report that 
 the two men had indeed died of the dreaded 
 disease, and the fact was so stated in the 
 published Bills of Mortality. It does not 
 appear, however, that many precautions were 
 taken ; and although the cold weather was 
 unfavourable for the spread of the disease, 
 yet other houses in the vicinity became in- 
 fected ; and not long afterwards, another 
 Frenchman, who had resided in the same 
 house, but who, for fear of infection, had 
 removed to Bearbinder Lane, in the City, fell 
 sick in the same way, and died also. 
 
 Then, indeed, people's hearts began to 
 fail them for fear, especially as the recorded 
 number of the deaths in certain parishes, 
 and especially in St. Giles', began to rise, 
 and it was thought that many persons died 
 of the plague whose deaths were publicly 
 referred to other causes. And so in the time 
 of the shameless sin and licentious luxury of 
 the court of the " merrie monarch " fell this 
 terrible pestilence into the city, like a bolt from 
 out the blue of a summer sky, and the people 
 were aroused from their selfish pleasures by a 
 heart-shaking dread of this dire disease. 
 
 Former Plagues. 
 
 The people had good reason to dread this 
 frightful scourge, for they remembered the 
 terrors of the plague in previous times, and 
 the terrible ravages then occurring on the Con- 
 tinent. London had frequently been visited 
 
 Symptoms, and Cure of the Plague": — "After 
 the most strict and serious inquiry by undoubted 
 testimonies, I find that this pest was communicated 
 to us from the Netherlands, by way of contagion ; 
 and if the most probable relations deceive me not, 
 it came from Smyrna to Holland in a parcel of 
 infected goods." And a writer in Northouck's London 
 ( ''-773 ) says that in the year 1663, shocking 
 ravages were made in Amsterdam by the plague, so 
 much so that measures were taken to prevent its 
 spread into England. But in vain, for at the close 
 of the year 1664, it was brought over to London in 
 some Levant goods that came from Holland. These 
 goods were carried to a house in Long Acre, near 
 Drury Lane, or in the upper part of Drury Lane, where 
 they were first op>ened. Here two Frenchmen died. 
 The disorder communicated itself to other houses in 
 the neighbourhood, and infected the parish officers 
 who were employed about the dead. Another 
 Frenchman who lived near the infected houses 
 removed into Bearbinder Lane, City, and died there. 
 Again, De Foe in his "History of the Plague," 
 says : "The first person that died of the plague was 
 on December 20th, or thereabouts, 1664, and in or 
 about Long Acre ; the infection was generally said 
 to be from a parcel of silks imported from Holland, 
 and opened in that house," 
 
 418 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 by pestilence. The narrowness of the streets, 
 the closeness of the houses, built as they 
 then were with the upper stories projecting 
 over the lower, and the crowding together of 
 the people, all rendered the inhabitants very 
 liable to infectious diseases ; and the re- 
 currence at irregular intervals of these terrible 
 pestilences is one of the most remarkable 
 facts of history. Frequently— indeed nearly 
 always — they took their rise in the crowded, 
 'heated, filthy cities of the Levant and Asia, and 
 spreading westward into Europe, they slew 
 tens of thousands in their onward march. 
 
 One of the most notable of these epidemics 
 was the " Black Death" of 1348-9, which, 
 rising in Asia, strode rapidly westward, and 
 raged fearfully for many months in all 
 •countries of Europe. Great Britain and 
 Ireland suffered severely, and it is said that 
 m London alone two hundred persons were 
 buried daily in the Charterhouse. The best 
 •description of the ravages of this pestilence 
 in Italy is to be found in the introduction to 
 the Decameron of Boccaccio. 
 
 The next great time of plague was in the 
 closing years of the fifteenth century, from 
 1485 to 1500, when at intervals the disease 
 "known as the "Sweating Sickness" carried 
 off thousands. According to the old his- 
 torian Stow, this pestilence was so dreadful 
 in London that Henry VII. removed his 
 court to Calais. Again in 1506, and once 
 more in 1517, the "Sweating Sickness" 
 ravaged the land, so much so that, according 
 to the same writer, half the inhabitants died 
 in all the capital towns of England, and 
 Oxford was quite depopulated. This disease 
 Avas so fatal that it caused death in three 
 liours. In addition to these, there were 
 numerous other occasions when fearful and 
 fatal epidemics prevailed. 
 
 But terrible as these diseases were, and wide- 
 spread as were their ravages, they sink into 
 comparative insignificance when placed be- 
 side the fearful plague which raged in London 
 in 1665. So surpassingly dreadful were the 
 scenes of this awful sickness, and so enor- 
 mous was the mortality, that it is fittingly 
 known as the Great Plague. Doubtless 
 also greater prominence has been given to 
 this visitation by reason of Daniel Defoe's 
 celebrated narrative. Although v.'ritten many 
 years after the occurrences took place, it has 
 yet been elaborated with so much care, and 
 contains -so many truthful details, evidently 
 compiled either from the accounts of eye-wit- 
 nesses, or from records to which the writer 
 had access, that it leaves a remarkably 
 graphic picture in the reader's mind. No 
 other similar narrative, except that of 
 Thucydides, which gives an account of the 
 Plague at Athens, 430 B.C., can be compared 
 to Defoe's, and the two may fitly be ranked 
 together. It is written as if by an eye- 
 
 witness, a saddler of Whitechapel ; and 
 many of the circumstances he records may 
 be traced to publications to which Defoe had 
 access. ] 
 
 It cannot be decided whether this plague 
 was of precisely the same character as those 
 which had before swept thousands into one 
 common grave. Indeed, differences of opinion 
 still exist as to its precise nature, and the 
 means of its communication from one person 
 to another. 
 
 The Portent of the Blazing Star. 
 
 During the month of February 1665, but 
 few deaths seem to have occurred; and the 
 severe frost which had bound the land in its 
 icy fetters * still continuing, the ravages of 
 the frightful pestilence were still further 
 delayed. But with the advent of April warm, 
 dry weather set in, and the Bills of Mortality 
 rose very high. Then, indeed, terrible appre- 
 hensions arose among the people; and the 
 news quickly spread that, especially in St. 
 Giles's parish, the pestilence was in several 
 streets, and many families were all 
 sick together with it. Then the knowing 
 ones began to point out that the Blazing- 
 Star, or comet which a short time before 
 had passed over the city, had certainly fore- 
 told this visitation ; and that as the star was 
 faint and dull, it prognosticated a severe 
 and heavy judgment of God, like the plague; 
 also that the new one which was appear- 
 ing (April 1665)! being swift and bright 
 in appearance, it foretold that the pestilence 
 would slay quickly, like a fiery furnace ; 
 although after the Great Fire of London the 
 wise folk and astrologers held that it had fore- 
 told that great calamity. 
 
 There were other signs and symptoms 
 and supernatural appearances, portending, 
 according to the numerous wizards and 
 astrologers of that day, many evils. Some 
 averred that they saw an angel in the upper 
 air brandishing a fiery sword over the city ; 
 while others maintained that they saw a 
 ghost walk about the streets and point from 
 the houses to the churchyards : but there is . 
 no need to burden our pages with these 
 details, except to point out that they in- 
 creased the panic of the people. It was 
 not until the 26th of April, 1665, when 
 the number of deaths was already becoming 
 frightful, that any official effort seems to have 
 
 * December 2,nd, 1664, "It was now exceeding cold, 
 and a hard, long, frosty season." January /s,th, 
 1665, "Excessive sharp frost and snow." — Evelyn's 
 Diary. February 6th, 1665, "One of the coldest 
 days, all say, they ever felt in England." — Pepys' . 
 Diary. 'y 
 
 t Both comets are mentioned in "Pepys" Diary," and, 
 also in the first volume of " Philosophical Transac- , 
 tions." The first appeared in December 1664, and the' 
 second in April 1665. 
 
 419 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 been made to stop the progress of the dire 
 disease. But on tlaat day appeared an Order 
 in Council directing certain precautions to be 
 taken ; as for instance, houses known to have 
 the plague were to be shut up, and all com- 
 munication with the outer world was to be 
 stopped. 
 
 Spread of the Plague during May ; 
 The Prescription of the College of 
 Physicians. 
 
 But still the infection spread, until, in the 
 middle of May, the weather becoming very 
 hot, its ravages increased with frightful 
 rapidity, and the plague began to be the talk 
 of the town. Thus Pepys in his Diary, under 
 date May 24th, says, " To the coffee-house, 
 where all the news is of the Dutch being gone 
 out, and of the plague growing upon us in 
 this town, and of the remedies against it ; 
 some saying one thing and some another." 
 
 Some of these remedies seem to us of these 
 later days ridiculous in the extreme, and 
 suggest that many of the so-called specifics 
 could not be other than utterly valueless. 
 Thus, on the 13th of May, a Privy Council 
 was held at Whitehall, under the auspices of 
 which the College of Physicians formulated 
 a code of directions for curing the plague 
 and preventing infection. One ol these direc- 
 tions was as follows : — 
 
 "Pull off the feathers from the tails of 
 living cocks, hens, pigeons, or chickens ; and 
 holding their bills, hold them hard to the 
 botch or swelling, and so keep them at that 
 part till they die, and by this means draw out 
 the poison. It is good also to apply a cupping- 
 glass, or embers in a dish with a handful of 
 sorrel upon the embers." 
 
 If this were all that the concentrated wisdom 
 of the whole College of Physicians could do 
 for the poor plague-stricken people, no wonder 
 that the pestilence raged so fiercely in the hot, 
 close, and filthy streets of old London, during 
 the sweltering heat of that burning summer. 
 But, indeed, they knew no certain remedy; and 
 it was as though the people were sheep without 
 a shepherd, and without any protection what- 
 ever against the disease, and the plague swept 
 them away by wholesale into one common 
 grave. The pestilence seemed to be utterly 
 unknown to the doctors, past their art and 
 comprehension. Indeed, many of them 
 speedily fled to the country.* 
 
 There were, however, here and there some 
 
 * ' ' Physicians could not be blamed for retiring; the 
 disease was not subject to tlieir art. Many learned 
 physicians retired, not so much for their own preser- 
 vation as for the service of those they attended: those 
 who stayed, the plague put to their nonplus, in such 
 strange and changeable shapes did the chameleon- 
 like sickness appear." — ^De Quincey's Translation of 
 Dr. Hodges' Loimologia, 
 
 who remained, who seem to have had a fairly 
 adequate idea of treating the distemper ; and 
 it is on record that several cures were effected. 
 Among these physicians may be mentioned 
 the celebrated Sydenham ; and also Dr^ 
 Hodges, author of " Loimologia," who seem 
 to have practised with some success ; and 
 Mr. William Boghurst, whose manuscripts 
 are still preserved in the British Museum. 
 This writer frankly says that at first he knew 
 not what to recommend, thus : — "At first I 
 was much baffled in giving judgment, yet 
 afterwards, by use and long observation of 
 the particulars, I arrived at a greater skill ; 
 for I rendered myself familiar with the 
 disease, knowing that the means to do any- 
 good must be not to be fearful : wherefore I 
 commonly dressed forty sores in a day, held 
 the pulse of patients sweating in their beds 
 half a quarter of an hour together .... held 
 them up in their beds to keep them from 
 strangling and choaking, half an hour together 
 commonly, and suffered their breathing in. 
 my face several times when they were dying ;. 
 ate and drank with them, especially those 
 that had sores ; sat down by their bedsides, 
 and upon their beds, discoursing with them 
 an hour together. If I had time, I stayed by 
 them to see them die, and see the manner of 
 their death, and closed up their mouth and 
 eyes ; for they died with their mouth and eyes- 
 very much open and staring. Then if people 
 had nobody to help them (for help was scarce 
 at such a time and place), I helped to lay 
 them forth out of the bed and afterwards intcv. 
 the coffin ; and last of all, accompanied them 
 to the ground." 
 
 There were several other physicians who^ 
 like those already mentioned, nobly remained 
 at the post of duty, and did what in them 
 lay to combat the fell disease, but as a rule 
 the doctors of that day seem to have been 
 completely helpless before their noisome foe ;. 
 nor is this to be altogether wondered at,. 
 when the strange and surpassingly dreadful 
 character of the complaint is remembered. 
 It defied all medicine ; nothing seemed ta 
 touch it ; and the very physicians themselves 
 were seized and slain by it, even with their 
 medicines in their mouths. 
 
 The Quacks. 
 
 But there are always fools who rush in. 
 " where angels fear to tread ;" and there are 
 always rogues to prey upon the ignorance 
 and credulity of their fellows, especially in. 
 times of danger ; and so in those early days. 
 of the plague, when the fears of the people 
 were yet young, and the terrible destruction 
 and desolation which would ensue were yet 
 entirely unsuspected, there were crowds of 
 quack doctors, wizards, witches, and fortune 
 tellers, who added greatly to the popular 
 
 420 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 panic by enlarging upon the terrors of the 
 plague, in order that the people might be 
 the more easily fleeced of their money. 
 Without doubt these quacks greatly helped 
 the spread of the disease, for not only did 
 the poor panic-stricken people succumb the 
 more easily, because of the fright they were 
 in ; but the filthy compounds prescribed by 
 the quacks seem to have literally poisoned 
 their bodies and prepared them for the 
 plague. 
 
 The art of advertising flourished exceed- 
 ingly in those days, for innumerable doorposts 
 and street corners were plastered all over 
 with bills of advertisements of antidotes, such 
 as, "Incomparable Drinks, Anti-Pestilen- 
 tial Pills, Universal Remedies, Never Failing 
 Preservatives, True Plague Waters," etc., etc. 
 Pepys in his Diary refers to one of these, 
 thus : " My Lady Carteret did this day give 
 me a bottle oi Plague Water;" and in No. 38 
 of the Newes (for May i8th), we find the 
 following quack advertisement, which may 
 be taken as a sample of many others : — 
 
 " Constantine Rhodocanaceis, Grecian, 
 "hath, at a small price, that admirable pre- 
 servative against the plague, wherewith 
 Hippocrates, the Prince of all Physicians, 
 preserved the whole land of Greece, etc., etc. 
 To be had in London, next door to the Three 
 Kings' Inn, in Southampton Buildings, near 
 the King's Gate, on Holborne." 
 
 And our old friends the College of Physi- 
 cians issued the following as The Plagne- 
 'ivater of Mathins, or Aqua Epideniica : — 
 
 " Take the roots of Tormentil, Angelica, 
 Peony, Zedoarie, Liquorish Elecampane, of 
 •each half an ounce; the leaves of Sage, Scor- 
 ■dium Celandine, Rue, Rosemary, Wormwood, 
 Ros Solis, Mugwort, Burnet, Dragons, Scabi- 
 ous, Agrimony, Baum, Cardnus, Betony, 
 Gentery the less, Marygold's leaves and 
 "flowers, of each one handful. Let them all 
 te cut, bruised, and infused three days in 
 eight pints of White W^ine, in the month of 
 May, and distilled." 
 
 Now, we do not pretend to any knowledge 
 ■of true remedies for the plague, and this may 
 have been a scientific combination of proved 
 remedies, but to our untutored imagination 
 it seems that no person, even in the most 
 Tobust health, could drink any of this pre- 
 cious mess without becoming smitten at least 
 with nausea and sore sickness, to say nothing 
 •of a worse complaint. 
 
 The Continued Increase of the Plague 
 DURING June ; Multitudes leave the 
 Town. 
 
 Thus, amid terror and tribulation, and the 
 clamour of many voices, passed the hot and 
 •sunny days of that mournful month of May. 
 And with the advent of June the trouble 
 increased. The weather became still hotter ; 
 
 the plague spread with frightful rapidity. 
 People began to leave town in large numbers, 
 and all the great thoroughfares out of the 
 city were thronged day after day with 
 vehicles of every description, — coaches and 
 carriages containing folks of the richer sort 
 appeared side by side with carts and 
 waggons conveying persons of the humbler 
 classes. There were multitudes on horseback, 
 and many wayfarers on foot. 
 
 And all day throngs besieged the Lord 
 Mayor's door, pressing for passes and certifi- 
 cates of health, for the fear of the plague 
 had spread throughout the country, and no 
 person now could lodge at any inn, or indeed 
 as much as pass through a town, without a 
 clean bill of health. London was indeed 
 one great scene of uproar and confusion 
 which contrasts strangely with the dreari- 
 ness and desolation which were to follow. 
 Some of these circumstances are thus noticed 
 by Pepys, in his Diary, who makes this entry 
 on June 7th : — " The hottest day that ever I 
 felt in my life ;" and again on June 21st, "I 
 find all the town going out of town; the 
 coaches and carriages being all full of people 
 going into the country." And yet again on 
 June 29th, " To Whitehall, where the court 
 was full of waggons and people ready to go 
 out of town. This end of the town every 
 day grows very bad of the plague. The 
 Mortality Bill is come to 267, which is about 
 ninety more than the last . . . Home; calling 
 at Somerset House, where all were packing 
 up too." 
 
 Up to this time the pestilence had been 
 confined chiefly to the west end of the town, 
 — the parish of St. Giles, where it first 
 appeared, and the neighbourhood around, — 
 but now it spread eastward and southward. 
 The heat continued very great, and the poor 
 people, finding that neither physician nor 
 quack could avail aught, ran about the 
 streets crying, " Lord have mercy upon tcs, 
 what shall we do f " 
 
 The Lord Mayor's Regulations. 
 It was at this time, when panic had suc- 
 ceeded to terror, and it was clear beyond all 
 possibility of doubt that the plague had taken 
 strong hold on the town, that the Lord Mayor 
 and Aldermen bestirred themselves as to 
 the proper means to be taken for stopping 
 the spread of the pestilence. As we have 
 stated, regulations had been in force in St. 
 Giles's since the end of April, and Defoe 
 thinks that had these precautions been early 
 followed in other parts of the metropolis the 
 plague might have been stayed, or at all 
 events deprived of half its terrors ; — for he 
 says, "The Justices of Peace for Middlesex, 
 by direction of the Secretary of State, had 
 begun to shut up houses in the parishes of 
 St. Giles - in - the - Fields, St. Martin, St. 
 
 J.21 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 Clement Danes, etc. ; and it was with good 
 success, for in several streets where the 
 plague broke out, upon strict guarding the 
 houses that were infected, and taking care to 
 bury those that died immediately after they 
 were known to be dead, the plague ceased 
 in those streets. It was also observed that the 
 plague decreased sooner in those parishes 
 than it did in the parishes of Bishopsgate, 
 Shoreditch, Aldgate, Whitechapel, Stepney, 
 and others, the early care taken in that 
 manner being a great means to the putting 
 a check to it." But it was not until the 
 latter end of June that the regulations of the 
 Lord Mayor were published. They were to 
 come in force on and from the ist of July, 
 and are very lengthy and explicit. They 
 provided for the appointment of examiners 
 for every parish ; watchmen — one for the day 
 and one for the night — for every infected 
 house, to prevent both ingress and egress ; 
 searchers to make due search and true report 
 of the various cases of infection ; surgeons 
 and nursekeepers. There were also orders 
 concerning the regulations of infected houses 
 and for the treatment of persons sick of the 
 plague. Notice was to be given to the 
 examiners of health of every person taken 
 ill within two hours of the first appearance 
 of any sign of illness, and as soon as the 
 examiner, searcher, or chirurgeon (surgeon) 
 found that any person was sick of the plague, 
 the house was to be shut up, and a large 
 red cross, a foot long, placed on the middle 
 of the door, and the words, " Lord have 
 MERCY UPON us," to be set close over the 
 cross, and to continue there until the lawful 
 opening of the house, which would not occur 
 until all fear of infection therefrom was ab- 
 solutely removed. There were also regu- 
 lations for the burial of the dead, — that 
 carts for the conveyance of the corpses were 
 to perambulate the streets, accompanied by 
 a bellman, and that funerals should only 
 take place before sun-rising or after sun- 
 setting, with the privity of the churchwardens 
 or constables, and not otherwise, and that 
 no corpse dead of the plague should be buried 
 in or remain in any church. 
 
 The principal and most stringent regula- 
 tion was the shutting up of houses at the 
 least fear of infection, and this rule was 
 stoutly resisted by many of the people. 
 Complaints were daily made to the Lord 
 Mayor that the searchers, etc., had shut up 
 houses unnecessarily, and from malicious 
 motives, and also that in many instances 
 there were several perfectly sound and 
 healthy people who, being shut up with the 
 one infected, perished in the miserable and 
 unhealthy confinement, when otherwise they 
 might have escaped. The magistrates were 
 very strict, however, and the rule appears 
 never to have been relaxed. This led at 
 
 times to violent scenes between the watch- 
 man and some of the people confined ; and 
 often they broke out by main force, and many 
 were the arts and deceptions practised to> 
 outwit the watchman and escape. 
 
 Pest-houses, or special hospitals for the re- 
 ception of the patients, were also established 
 in various parts of the town, and the church- 
 yards being full, the dead were buried in 
 the open spaces around, greatly to the dis- 
 gust of certain of the inhabitants. Thus we 
 find Pepys, in his Diary, writing, " I was 
 much troubled to hear at Westminster, how 
 the officers do bury the dead in the opeu 
 Tuttle-fields (Tothill-fields), pretending want 
 of room elsewhere." 
 
 King Charles and his Court left the town. 
 and went first to Hampton Court, then \.o 
 Salisbury, and finally to Oxford, where the 
 Parliament was held. The Duke of Albemarle 
 was left Governor of London, and he co- 
 operated cordially with the Lord Mayor in, 
 his measures of relief. Most of the ministers 
 fled, as also did many of the doctors. Tc» 
 their everlasting credit be it said, there were 
 many of the Nonconformist ministers who 
 stayed. One of these, the Rev. Thomas 
 Vincent, M.A,, who happily lived through 
 the fearful scenes, wrote a remarkable ac- 
 count, entitled, "God's Terrible Voice in the 
 City," in which he says : — 
 
 ." The citizens, when under the dreadful 
 and deplorable circumstances to which the 
 plague had reduced them, and in the greatest 
 want of spiritual guides, were forsaken by 
 their parochial ministers ; and the people^ 
 crowding into eternity (bewailing the want 
 of spiritual assistance), the Nonconformist 
 ministers, considering their great obligations 
 to God, and indispensable duty in this 
 dreadful visitation to their fellow-citizens^ 
 were induced, though contrary to law, to- 
 repair to the deserted Church pulpits j 
 whither the people, without distinction 
 of Church and Dissenters, joyfully resorted. 
 The concourse on those occasions was sc» 
 exceedingly great that the ministers were 
 frequently obliged to clamber over the pews 
 to get at the pulpits ; and if ever preach- 
 ing had a better effect than ordinary, it was 
 at this time ; for the people did as eagerly 
 catch at the Word as a drowning man at a 
 rope." 
 
 The Dreadful Days of July. 
 But these regulations of the Lord Mayor 
 did not stay the plague. Indeed, after the 
 1st of July, the number of deaths increased 
 from 470 in the week to 725, 1089, 1843, and 
 even 2010. The pestilence was in every street, 
 and door after door was shut, and marked 
 with a red cross and the pathetic appeal, 
 "Lord have mercy on us," while before 
 it stood the silent watchman. The stillness 
 
 423 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 in many places was most profound, for half 
 the people were away, and of the other half 
 many were dead or dying or attending to the 
 sick. Quiet and hot lay the bright sunshine 
 on the desolate streets, and so deserted were 
 the usually crowded thoroughfares, that grass 
 began to grow between the stones. All trade 
 was stopped, and no sound was heard save 
 the shrieks of the plague-stricken people, or 
 the agonised cries of those mourning fo 
 their dead. Scarce any person passed through 
 even the largest thoroughfares. There were 
 but very few besides the devoted doctors or 
 ministers, save the watchers or the corpse- 
 carriers, and even these stepped in the 
 middle of the roadway, and carried myrrh, 
 wormwood, or rue in their hands. In the 
 
 looked on strange and fearful sights, such 
 as might well have eclipsed her mellow 
 light. The churchyards being full, great pits 
 were dug at Aldgate, at Finsbury, and other 
 places; and into these the dead-carts were 
 emptied one after another, the corpses being 
 shot pell-mell into one common grave, and 
 the buriers shovelling in earth over every few 
 bodies. 
 
 The Plague-pits. 
 These pits were in some cases twenty feet 
 deep, forty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and 
 more than i,ioo bodies were buried in them.* 
 They were dug out until they could be dug no 
 more because of the water, and the corpses, fre- 
 quently naked, — for incredible as it seems, it 
 
 Pest-houses, Totkill Fields, Westminster. 
 
 Star-lit dusk of the summer night, the 
 dead-cart rolled on its awful rounds, and the 
 desolate streets echoed to the melancholy 
 cry, '■^ Bring out your dead, Brmg out your 
 dead." 
 
 Then the red-crossed doors were silently 
 opened, and in the summer twilight the 
 ghastly burdens were brought forth and 
 thrown into the cart, accompanied by the 
 groans and lamentations of the living. And 
 the cart moved on with its gruesome freight, 
 and the street was once more left to the 
 solemn silence of death. London has never 
 witnessed such scenes of horror before or 
 since. It was no longer the busy metropolis. 
 It was a city of the dead. 
 
 Out in the suburbs the summer moon 
 
 is said that the nurses and buriers often stole 
 the linen or rugs wrapped round the poor 
 bodies, — were hurriedinto them. Theseburiers 
 were taken from the refuse of society; and so 
 hardened and brutal did they become, that it 
 is almost impossible to believe the tales of 
 depravity reported against them, — some of 
 them even secretly conveyed contagion from 
 the sores of the sick to those who were well 
 in order to rob them of their clothes. Some- 
 times infected persons, in the frenzy of their 
 fever and mad with pain, rushed up to the 
 pits and threw themselves in, crying aloud 
 that they would bury themselves ; and wher 
 
 * Dimensions given by Defoe of the great pit ii 
 Aldgate. 
 
 423 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the men descended into the pit to rescue 
 them, they were found quite dead though not 
 yet cold. There were also many pits dug of a 
 smaller size, capable of containing from fifty 
 to sixty corpses, and these were sunk in any 
 convenient place. By command of the 
 magistrates, no body was allowed to be left 
 within six feet of the ground, and so it was 
 necessary to dig deep in order to bury any 
 number of bodies at all. 
 
 The Horrors of August. 
 
 It was in this way that July passed and 
 the fourth month of this terrible visitation 
 drew on. All this time the plague had been 
 increasing, and notwithstanding all efforts to 
 stop its ravages, it still continued to spread. 
 The people were now dying at the frightful 
 rate of more than 2,000 per week, and so 
 virulent had the pestilence become that some 
 dropped down dead suddenly in the street. 
 Several of the drivers of the dead-carts were 
 taken in this way. The explanation of these 
 astounding instances may be found in the 
 fact that in some cases the premonitory 
 symptoms of the disease were so mild that 
 the sufferer could not or would not admit 
 that he was attacked, when suddenly a severe 
 faintness palsied his limbs, the fatal maculae, 
 or tokens, as they were commonly called, 
 appeared on his body, giving unmistakable 
 signs of the corruption within, and the 
 disease — all the more deadly because secret 
 — completed its fatal work at once. 
 
 But in the majority of cases the symptoms 
 were far too painful and severe to admit of any 
 doubt. The disease usually commenced with 
 severe sickness, shiverings, and headache; 
 then followed pains in the limbs, swellings on 
 various parts of the body, and carbuncles, or 
 sores. If these could be made to discharge 
 and so relieve the system of the poisonous 
 matter, it was considered that the patient 
 might recover, and great efforts were made to 
 obtain this result, but usually, alas, with no 
 success. Sometimes the swellings were 
 cauterized to such a barbarous extent that 
 the poor patients, already tortured almost past 
 bearing by the disease itself, became frenzied 
 under the added pain, and in their raving 
 madness burst the bands which bound them 
 to their beds, and either leaping from their 
 windows or breaking down the doors of their 
 houses, fought the watchman, and ran naked 
 about the streets, eventually to leap into the 
 river or into the burying pits, or to fall dead. 
 
 As the sultry days of August advanced, 
 the heat became more oppressive, and the 
 horrors of the plague increased tenfold. 
 The death-rate rose to 8,000 a week, so that 
 the regulations of the magistrates could no 
 longer be enforced, and the dead-carts were 
 obliged to convey their ghastly freights to 
 the great graves at all hours of the day as 
 
 well as in the night. House after house 
 stood open to the winds of heaven, and the 
 death-like solitude and stillness which now 
 brooded over the city was appalling. The 
 great thoroughfares became so overgrown 
 with grass that they looked like fields. 
 
 The dread silence was here and there 
 broken by the wild ravings of delirium or 
 the wailings of woe, borne from out the 
 open casements on the soft summer air; 
 and sometimes the solitude of the streets was 
 startled by the cries of poor frenzied fanatics, 
 whose brains had been turned by the terrible 
 scenes around. 
 
 One of these, named Solomon Eagles, 
 walked about the desolate streets entirely 
 naked, with a pan of burning coals on his 
 head, proclaiming the judgment of the 
 Almighty upon the inhabitants of the great 
 city ; while another, pacing the pathway 
 with ghostlike tread, never ceased day or 
 night to cry aloud in hollow, sepulchral 
 tones, — " Oh, the great and dreadful God! 
 Oh, the great and dreadful God!'''' and 
 a third, remembering only in his wearied 
 brain the prophecy of Jonah, solemnly 
 exclaimed, as with stealthy tread he walked 
 the streets, — "Yet forty days and London 
 shall be destroyed." 
 
 And indeed it seemed as though the 
 prophecy would be fulfilled ; for sometime 
 since there had been a complete stop put to 
 the exodus from the city, and it appeared as 
 though all who remained would perish. The 
 Lord Mayor, Sir John Lawrence, could no 
 longer grant certificates of health; for all 
 streets were alike infected, and the country 
 towns would not permit any stranger to 
 enter within their gates. Some persons 
 managed to evade all regulations, and escape, 
 and lived by the roadside or in barns ; others 
 took tents with them, and lived a literally 
 nomadic life. But there were very few of 
 these ; and it seemed as though all shut 
 up in the doomed city must perish. The 
 absence of all or nearly all the wealthy 
 persons, the complete cessation of trade, 
 and the breaking up of so many establish- 
 ments had thrown thousands out of work. 
 It is said that 40,000 servants alone were 
 without a home, and left literally in the 
 streets to starve or die of the plague, while 
 the number of artisans without employment 
 was too large to be calculated. 
 
 During the whole of this trying time the 
 Lord Mayor — Sir John Lawrence — and Alder- 
 men remained in town and nobly fulfilled 
 their duty. When the plague had begun 
 seriously in May they did all that lay in 
 their power to compose the minds of the 
 people and keep them from the tricks of the 
 astrologers and from that state of panic which 
 we have seen prevailed to such an alarming 
 extent, and so powerfully help to spread the 
 
 4.24, 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 plague. They published their determination 
 not to quit the city, and announced their 
 resolve that whatever happened they would 
 remain to preserve order and do everything 
 possible to prevent the ravages of the plague. 
 Every day they held councils, inspected the 
 markets to see that food free from taint 
 was sold, and collected large sums for the 
 benefit of the starving and plague-stricken 
 poor. Fearful as were the scenes through 
 which London passed during that fatal 
 ■summer, they would have been still worse 
 but for the noble, self-denying conduct of 
 Lord Mayor Lawrence, for the horrors of star- 
 
 There were various plans pursued for the 
 purchase of provisions without spreading 
 infection. On some occasions the money 
 was placed in vinegar on a stone some little 
 way out of the city, and the purchaser then 
 retired some distance away, while the persons 
 from the country having the food, vegetables, 
 fruit, etc., to sell, and who had watched 
 the proceeding from a place of safety afar 
 off, came forward and took the money, 
 and left the provisions bargained for. When 
 meat was bought in the market it was hung 
 on hooks in the same way, and the pur- 
 chasers deposited the money in vinegar and 
 
 
 
 Purchasing Provisions in the Days of the Plague. 
 
 vation would have been added to those of the 
 plague, and whatever mitigations were in 
 force would have been wanting. A fund for 
 the relief of the suffering city was inaugu- 
 rated and regularly dispensed. The King 
 subscribed a thousand pounds per week, and 
 the city six hundred. The Earl of Craven, 
 the Duke of Albemarle, Sir John Lawrence, 
 Dr. Sheldon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 who remained in London all the time, the 
 Oueen-dowager, and others, also gave liber- 
 ally. It is said that for several weeks the 
 Lord Mayor and Aldermen were able to dis- 
 pense ^100,000 a week, but it is probable 
 that this is an exaggeration. 
 
 took it themselves off the hook, so that the 
 vendor and purchaser came not at all near 
 each other. The pestilence raged fearfully 
 among the butchers and slaughter-houses of 
 Whitechapel, and the market there was 
 shunned as much as possible ; it is said 
 that no person could go near the market 
 without seeing several dead bodies lying 
 about or across the narrow lanes leading 
 to and from it. And there they lay until 
 the dead- cart came and they were found by 
 the buriers. 
 
 The Death-fires of September. 
 As August passed and the sultry days of 
 
 425 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 September set in, the mortality still con- 
 tinued to increase. As a last hope it was 
 resolved to endeavour to dissipate the pesti- 
 lential miasma by burning huge fires in the 
 streets. There were many doctors who op- 
 posed this plan, but it was ordered by the 
 council, and on the 2nd of September a 
 proclamation was issued by the Lord Mayor 
 to the effect that as the number of deaths 
 still continued to increase, huge fires of 
 sea-coal were to be kindled in every street, 
 court, and alley, in the proportion of one fire 
 to six houses on every side of the way. For 
 three days and nights did these death-fires 
 continue to burn, when they were extinguished 
 by a heavy fall of rain. Whether caused by 
 the suffocating smoke which arose from the 
 fires put out in this way, or from the reeking 
 mist caused by the hot sun shining after the 
 heavy rain is not known, but certain it is 
 (that the mortality rose higher than ever, 
 more than 4,000 deaths occurring in the night 
 following. 
 
 The plague was now at its height, and it 
 spread with an irresistible fury which seemed 
 as though in a very few days it would sweep 
 away every person left within the doomed 
 city. The citizens, in the desperation of 
 despair, gave over all efforts to stop its 
 ravages. 
 
 Some poor creatures paraded the streets, 
 crying and wringing their hands, and pray- 
 ing God for mercy ; others sat in their houses 
 and wearily waited for death. Mothers mur- 
 dered their own children in their desperate 
 despair, and many went melancholy mad. 
 Whole streets were now deserted, and it was 
 a common thing for the buriers to find a 
 houseful of persons all lying dead together. 
 Frequently there were many dead-carts con- 
 gregated at the pit's mouth full of dead 
 bodies, but there was neither bellman or 
 burier with them. These men had fallen 
 dead while employed in their ghastly but 
 necessary work. 
 
 In the curious little book before alluded 
 to, and published by Mr. Vincent after the 
 plague, he saeaks thus of the days of August 
 and September : — 
 
 "Now the cloud is very black and the 
 storm comes down upon us very sharp. Now 
 Death rides triumphantly on his pale horse 
 through our streets, and breaks into every 
 house almost where any inhabitants are to 
 be found. Now people fall as thick as the 
 leaves in autumn when they are shaken by a 
 mighty wind. Now there is a dismal solitude 
 in London streets ; every day looks with the 
 face of the Sabbath day, observed with greater 
 solemnity than it used to be . . . and a deep 
 silence almost in every place, especially within 
 the walls. No prancing horses, no rattling 
 coaches, no caUing in customers nor offering 
 wares, no London cries sounding in the ears. 
 
 If any voice be heard it is the groans of 
 dying persons breathing forth their last, and 
 the funeral knells of them that are ready to 
 be carried to their graves. Now shutting up 
 of visited houses (there being so many) is at 
 an end, and most of the well are mingled 
 among the sick, which otherwise would have 
 got no help. . . . Never did so many hus- 
 bands and wives die together ; never did so 
 many parents carry their children with them 
 to the grave and go together into the same 
 house under earth, who had lived together in 
 the same house upon it. Now the nights are 
 too short to bury the dead ; the whole day, 
 though at so great a length, is hardly suffi- 
 cient to light the dead that fall thereon into 
 their graves. ... Now the grave doth open 
 its mouth without measure. Multitudes — 
 multitudes in the valley of the shadow of 
 death thronging daily into eternity ! The 
 churchyards now are stuffed so full with dead 
 corpses that they are in many places swelled 
 two or three feet higher than they were 
 before ; and new ground is broken up to 
 bury the dead." 
 
 The week ending the 19th of September 
 was that in which the pestilence reached 
 its greatest destructiveness. It is impossible 
 to give the accurate figures of those who fell 
 in this fearful week, as the buriers themselves 
 said they were unable to reckon how many 
 they had carried to the grave each day, and 
 they frequently did not know the number in 
 their carts ; but it is certain that more thani 
 10,000 perished. The number returned is 
 8,297, but it was well known that the Bills 
 seldom gave more than two-thirds or three- 
 fourths of the actual number. 
 
 Yet even in this awful time there were some 
 persons so desperate in their wickedness, and 
 so utterly lost to all sense of shame, that 
 they rioted in the basest licentiousness, and 
 prowled about bent on robbery and murder. 
 They literally fulfilled the heathenish maxim, 
 " Let us eat and drink, for to-moirow we die." 
 To-day they indulged in the grossest vice — on 
 the next, their bodies were in the dead-cart. 
 
 The Pest-houses. 
 Without doubt the Lord Mayor and 
 Council were remiss in one particular — viz.,. 
 the erection of pest-houses or hospitals^ 
 where stricken persons could have been 
 taken directly they were infected. Defoe 
 mentions that during the whole of this tinie 
 there were but two pest-houses — one in 
 the fields beyond Old Street, and one in 
 Westminster, Tothill Fields ; but he must 
 have been mistaken, for according to other 
 sources, such as the parish book of St. Giles, 
 etc., we learn that there were certainly others, 
 though probably only small ones. Lord 
 Craven, who remained in London during the 
 whole of the time, caused one to be buUt on 
 
 426 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 what is now known as Golden Square. This 
 consisted of about thirty-six small tenements, 
 and was capable of holding about two hundred 
 patients, but certain charges appear to have 
 Tseen made for admission, which of course 
 prevented its usefulness, and defeated the 
 very object for which it was erected, as the 
 very poor, among whom the plague raged so 
 violently, could not avail themselves of it. 
 
 The "pest-houses" inTothill Fields, West- 
 minster, consisted of a few red-brick build- 
 ings, also built by Lord Craven ; and many 
 a torch or lanthorn-lighted group of mys- 
 terious figures bore litters of plague-stricken 
 people to this then solitary spot when the 
 pestilence was at its height. 
 
 The other pest-house belonged to the City. 
 It consisted of several tenements, and was 
 situated on the spot upon which Pest-house 
 Row now stands, near Old Street, St. Luke's. 
 
 In these pest-houses the people were so 
 well looked after that there were but com- 
 paratively few burials from them, only about 
 1 60 from each of the two principal ones 
 having occurred during the entire time. 
 
 Abatement of the Plague. 
 
 Towards the end of September, cool winds 
 began to blow, and the scorching heat of this 
 most sultry summer sank to a more normal 
 temperature. The effect was instantly seen 
 in the weekly Bills of Mortality, and men 
 thanked God as they had never thanked 
 Him before when, on the 26th of September, 
 they saw that there had been a considerable 
 decrease in the number of deaths during the 
 week. There were, in fact, nearly two thousand 
 less than in the week preceding. Although 
 the number was still very great, yet the 
 citizens regarded this decrease as a most 
 favourable sign ; and grim Despair, which 
 for so long a time had been their dread fami- 
 liar, now gave place to white-winged Hope. 
 Joy began again to beam forth on faces 
 which for so many weary weeks had been 
 stricken with gloom. 
 
 We can well imagine that bright autumn 
 morning when this first good news was pub- 
 lished. Those who knew it went from street 
 to street, repeating it to those whom they 
 met. 
 
 " Have you heard the good news, neigh- 
 bour?" 
 
 " Nay, what good news ? There can be 
 no good news in these dreadful days !" 
 
 " Yes, but the plague is abating.^'' 
 
 "The plag7ie is abating? Oh! thank 
 God. God be praised !" And he would cry 
 or weep aloud for joy, and hasten to tell his 
 friends. And those who could not leave their 
 houses would shout the glad tidings from their 
 narrow casements to any persons who might 
 be near; and thus the city of the dead and 
 dying began again to take hope and courage. 
 
 But at this time it has been computed that 
 there were no less than 60,000 people sick 
 of the plague ; and if it had not been that 
 many of them began now to rapidly recover, 
 the mortality must have been greater than 
 even when the plague was at its highest, in 
 the third week in September. But the most 
 cheering feature of this period was, that 
 whereas before, most persons who were in- 
 fected died, and died very rapidly, a very 
 great number now began to recover. The 
 poison of the plague seemed to have lost its 
 virulence, and out of that large number — 
 60,000 — it is believed that the vast majority 
 became healthy again. 
 
 This fact received still more striking con- 
 firmation during the next and following 
 weeksj for the number of deaths decreased 
 daily, and the same cold winds and crisp 
 frosts of that chill October which shook the 
 sere leaves of the long, hot summer to the 
 ground, gave new life and vigour to the poor 
 plague- stricken and enervated people in town. 
 The cold, bracing vi^eather of late autumn and 
 early winter seems to have done more to stop 
 the plague than all the efforts of physicians. 
 
 The city now made rapid progress to 
 health, and people began gradually to return 
 — very slowly and timorously at first, lest the 
 contagion might not be really gone. By 
 degrees the shops were re-opened, and the 
 bustle of business was again heard in the 
 streets. Every morning when the Bill of 
 Health was published, and the numbers were 
 seen to be still on the decline, the people 
 would go about with smiles on their faces, 
 repeating the good news one to another. 
 
 As the plague still further abated, the people 
 returned in crowds to occupy their houses. 
 In fact, such foolish haste did many of them 
 exhibit, that several cases occurred of persons 
 sleeping in beds from which but a itw days 
 before bodies dead of the plague had been 
 taken to the grave. Thus Dr. Hodges, in 
 his Loijiiologia, writes : " Those citizens who 
 were before afraid even of their friends and 
 relations, would without fear venture into the 
 houses and rooms where infected persons 
 had a little before breathed their last ; nay, 
 such comforts did inspire the languishing 
 people, and such confidence, that many went 
 into the beds where persons had died, even 
 before they were cold or cleansed from the 
 stench of the disease." This foolish temerity 
 caused many persons to lose their lives, and 
 in the first weeks of November, when the 
 people were fast returning to their homes, 
 the bills rose again ; but by degrees people 
 began to resume their usual occupation. 
 
 London once more appeared full and busy. 
 The Court returned in February to White- 
 hall, and the nobility followed. So many 
 people again crowded the streets that in a 
 short time those who had perished seemed 
 427 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 not to be noticed ; and though the plague 
 ■still lingered in out-of-the-way streets, its 
 terror seemed almost forgotten. 
 
 According to the official returns, there 
 perished in London during the time of the 
 plague-year — i.e., from the 20th of December, 
 1664, when the plague first broke out in 
 Drury Lane, by the death of the two French- 
 men, to the 19th of December, 1665, when the 
 number had decreased to about 200 — the 
 immense number of 68,596 ; but as many 
 deaths were known to have been unrecorded, 
 and as in the six most terrible weeks of August 
 and September the dead-carts were so con- 
 stantly full that the buriers lost all count, it 
 has been computed that the real number of 
 ■deaths must have been at ]east 100,000, while 
 Clarendon gives the appalling number of 
 160,000. It is believed, however, that this 
 last number is an exaggeration. 
 
 What was the Plague? 
 
 Happily the plague has been unknown in 
 England since the times of which we have 
 written, and there has been no opportunity 
 for our scientific men to study it with accuracy. 
 Its true home seems to be in Egypt and 
 the Levant. Great difference of opinion 
 still exists among medical men as to its 
 cause, exact nature, and treatment. It would 
 seem that a subtle poison, which has hitherto 
 •escaped all chemical tests and microscopic 
 examination, is communicated and absorbed 
 in the system, where it speedily alters the 
 blood and tissues, and decomposes the whole 
 body before even life has become extinct. 
 It is known, however, to be a very ma- 
 lignant contagious fever, prevailing epidemi- 
 cally, and accompanied by buboes or painful 
 swellings of the lymphatic glands, and also by 
 carbuncles. It appears usually to commence 
 with sensations of intense weariness, accom- 
 panied by shivering and sickness, giddiness 
 and pains in the loins. Mental disturbance, 
 delirium and stupor, follow ; there is a painful 
 sense of constriction about the heart, and 
 darting pains are felt in the armpits, groins, 
 and other parts of the body where the 
 lymphatic glands are situated, and which 
 presently swell painfully, although some 
 accounts exist in which these swellings have 
 not occurred. Carbuncles appear on various 
 parts of the body, and also petechial spots, 
 or purple patches resembling bruises, and 
 dark-looking stripes. These spots are sup- 
 posed to have been the " tokens * alluded to 
 by the old writers on the subject. 
 
 Most writers agree that it spreads rapidly 
 by contact, and that temperature exerts a 
 i"onsiderable influence over it. Both extreme 
 Iieat and cold seem to be fatal to it. Thus 
 in tropical and in extremely cold countries 
 it is unknown, while in Europe it has been 
 always most fatal in September. 
 
 It may be that it is a very malignant and 
 complicated combination of other epidemics 
 with some of which we are even now at times 
 familiar ; such malignancy and complication 
 being due to the closeness, sickening heat, 
 and filth of the old cities. In any case there 
 is no doubt but that the better sanitary con- 
 ditions under which Europeans now live, the 
 free use of cold water, good ventilation, wider 
 streets, and moderate habits of life, all con- 
 duce to keep us free from this horrible 
 pestilence. 
 
 In former times, however, seeing that the 
 people could find neither adequate cause or 
 certain cure for the disease, it is not to be 
 wondered at that many persons believed that 
 the Almighty had for the time being put 
 aside all natural laws, and inflicted upon the 
 people a strange and terrible disease which 
 should baffle all human skill, and which He 
 alone could stop at His pleasure. 
 
 Fire ! Fire ! 
 
 Scarcely had the terror and tribulation 
 occasioned by the ravages of the plague 
 died away before another appalling calamity 
 burst upon the devoted city, — a calamity 
 which, although at first it appeared so des- 
 perately disastrous, was to prove a veritable 
 blessing in disguise. 
 
 It was just a year after the terrible death- 
 fires were burning in London streets, and 
 doubtless there were many who were speak- 
 ing of those dismal times, when about ten 
 o'clock on the evening of Saturday the 
 2nd of September, 1666, the late loiterers 
 in the narrow streets near London Bridge 
 were startled by the sight of a bright 
 tongue of flame shooting upwards into 
 the darksome sky ; and before long they 
 learned that the house of a poor baker 
 named Farryner, situated in Pudding Lane, 
 near Fish Street Hill, had caught fire. 
 
 Unfortunately in those days a fire in the 
 close and crowded London streets, built of 
 wooden houses, some of them a century old, 
 was no uncommon occurrence ; and after 
 the first shock of surprise had passed, most 
 of the people went quietly home to bed. 
 " Oh, it is only the half-decayed house of 
 a poor baker who has over-heated his oven," 
 they said. " It is better down than up, no 
 doubt, it is so old." But before morning 
 had dawned they thought otherwise, for the 
 fire spread with startling rapidity, and all 
 efforts to stop it were unavailing. 
 
 The house in which it originated was a 
 very old and worm-eaten structure ; and 
 being dry as tinder by reason of the recent 
 drought, it was rapidly consumed. A high 
 wind was blowing from the east, and the 
 flames speedily spread to the neighbouring 
 houses, which, being all old and half-decayed, 
 and filled with oil, tar, and other combus- 
 
 428 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 tibles used in ship-building and ship-furnish- 
 ing, afforded ready fuel for the wind-driven 
 fire. In a few hours the whole of Billings- 
 gate ward was in flames ; and then, fanned 
 by the fierce wind, the fire tore along Thames 
 Street, and seized upon St. Magnus' Church, 
 which was situated at what was then known 
 as Bridgefoot. 
 
 At first the few citizens who were alarmed 
 were so affrighted and amazed that they 
 knew not what to do. The cumbersome 
 engines then in the neighbourhood were 
 reduced to ashes before they could be used. 
 Then as the terrible cries of " Fire ! Fire ! 
 Fire !" resounded through the streets, the 
 inhabitants of the surrounding houses rushed 
 
 sparks and flakes of fire a great distance- 
 ahead, and set many buildings on fire before, 
 the original conflagration reached them. 
 Still the flames swept on, and their lurid 
 light fell upon the white faces of the terrified 
 people who thronged and struggled in the 
 crowded streets. Their terrible rattling and 
 roaring was now mingled with the din of 
 falling houses and the shrieks and shoutings, 
 the oaths and curses of the panic-stricken 
 people. Now the terrible scene was lighter 
 than day by reason of the ruddy flames, and 
 again it was dark as night when the fire 
 seized some warehouse of oil and tar and 
 poured forth volumes of dense black suffocat- 
 ing smoke. 
 
 The Great Fire of London, seen from Bankside, tiouTHWARK. 
 {Frotn a print of the period by Visscher^ 
 
 from their beds in terror, panic-stricken, and 
 numbers of half-dazed, half-dressed creatures 
 thronged into the narrow thoroughfares and 
 increased the panic. 
 
 Then burst forth the fire-bells from the 
 neighbouring churches, and their loud alarums 
 now mingled with the roar of the rushing 
 flames, and the terrible cries of "Fire ! Fire !" 
 The confusion and terror increased every 
 minute. Every one seemed bent on saving 
 what they could of their own property, and 
 the narrow streets were choked with piles of 
 household goods. But the flames were so 
 fierce that they burned even these, and the 
 terrified people had to fly for their lives. 
 
 The summer had been long and hot, and 
 all the wooden houses were dry as touch- 
 wood. The wind, blowing fiercely, carried 
 
 No Water ! 
 To add to the terror and confusion the pipes 
 of the New River Company were found dry, 
 and no water could be obtained. This added 
 to the belief that the fire was the work of in- 
 cendiaries, either fanatical papists or foreign 
 enemies, or, as an old writer quaintly said,. 
 "The same doth smell of^ popish design." 
 And there were not wanting religious enthusi- 
 asts who sternly shouted aloud that this was 
 another judgment of the Almighty for the 
 wickedness of the times, and that He, seeing 
 that the people had not been turned to repent- 
 ance by the plague, now intended to make an 
 end of the wicked city. Every minute the 
 flames gathered fresh force, and seemed to 
 justify the belief that every building would 
 be bnrned to the ground. 
 
 42Q 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Lord Mayor — Sir Thomas Bludworth 
 —and the civic authorities were long m 
 coming to the scene, and when they arrived 
 they shrank from such bold and decisive 
 measures as the blowing up of houses and so 
 localizing the flames, which alone could 
 have availed anything. For many hours the 
 Lord Mayor would not even accept the aid 
 of the soldiers, and, in short, nothing worth 
 mentioning seems to have been done to 
 prevent the spread of the flames. 
 
 As the night passed, the flre continued to 
 rage with the utmost fury, rushing from 
 house to house with marvellous rapidity. 
 The narrow lanes and streets speedily- be- 
 came streets of flame, and the half-naked 
 people, abandoning all hope, fled before them 
 ' in abject terror. 
 
 Sunday morning dawned, and the Septem- 
 ber sun showed through the canopy of lurid 
 smoke like a spot of blood. Still the flames 
 rushed on, and the whole city resounded 
 with their roaring and rattle and the cries 
 of "Fire! Fire! Fire!" The houses near 
 London Bridge, all Thames Street, and up 
 to Cheapside, appeared now but heaps of 
 hot and smouldering ruins. The consterna- 
 tion and confusion increased every minute. 
 Never was there such a Sunday before or 
 since in London. The terror and tribula- 
 tion, the frenzied fright and panic-stricken 
 confusion were without parallel. The people, 
 deprived of house and home as it were in 
 a second of time, were driven westward and 
 northward to find refuge in the fields about 
 Islington and Highgate, for there was fear of 
 every building being destroyed. The city 
 train-bands were put under arms, with orders 
 to watch at every quarter for treacherous 
 men, because it was rumoured that fire-balls 
 were thrown into houses to increase the fires, 
 and that popish emissaries were at work. 
 And indeed men's thoughts seem to have 
 been almost more turned on these stories of 
 malice and treachery as to the cause of the 
 fire than how to prevent it. Immediately 
 near to it were gathered a vast number of 
 wretched ruffians who carried on their 
 work of plunder even in the very teeth of 
 death. Oaths and shrieks, the clanging of 
 fire-bells and the roaring of the flames, were 
 all mingled in one horrible din. Many 
 churches were in flames that day ; and of 
 this the Rev, Thomas Vincent writes in the 
 quaint pamphlet to which we have before al- 
 luded : — 
 
 " God seemed to come down and preach 
 Himself in them, as He did in Sinai 
 when the mount burned with fire ; such 
 warm preaching those churches never had ; 
 such lightning dreadful sermons never were 
 before delivered . . . Instead of a holy rest 
 which Christians had usually taken on 
 that day, there was tumultuous hurrying 
 
 about the streets toward the places that 
 burned, and more tumultuous hurrying upon 
 the spirits of those that sat still, and had 
 only the notice of the ear of the strange and 
 quick spreading of the fire." 
 
 As that Sunday night drew on, the spectacle 
 became most appallingly magnificent. Thou- 
 sands of houses were burning, and a vast sheet 
 of fire, a mile in diameter, was seen ascending 
 to the sky ; the flames were bent and broken, 
 and twisted by the fierce wind into a thou- 
 sand fearful shapes,- and every blast bore 
 through the air large flakes of fire which, 
 falling on the pitched roofs of the old houses, 
 kindled new conflagrations on every side. 
 The lurid glare of the sky, which for miles 
 was like a burning vault, and the oppressive 
 heat, the roaring of the flames and the falling 
 of the houses and churches, combined to 
 make a scene the like of which has never 
 been witnessed before or since. For ten 
 miles around the country was bright as mid- 
 day, while for fifty miles the billows of smoke 
 rolled, and London seemed like a sea of 
 flame. The fire had now reached Garlick- 
 hithe, in Thames Street, and had levelled 
 part of Cannon Street to the ground. It 
 was blazing all along by the water's edge, 
 and advancing up towards Cornhill. 
 
 All efforts made this day to stop the 
 flames proved ineffectual, the wind still con- 
 tinued high and swept the fire onward with 
 merciless rapidity. Little sleep was taken 
 in London that night. 
 
 Complete consternation had seized upon 
 all the people, and those who had hitherto 
 regarded the fire as a local affair, not con- 
 cerning them, were now aroused and fearful. 
 The slothful king himself was startled from 
 his selfish pleasures, and leaving his luxurious 
 palace, appeared in person and gave direc- 
 tions for fighting the flames. Houses were 
 pulled down, and water was thrown on the 
 burning masses by means of buckets ; but all 
 to no purpose. The fire leaped over the gaps 
 caused by the ruined dwellings, crossed the 
 narrow streets, and lapped up the water like oil. 
 
 When Monday morning dawned, Grace- 
 church Street was all in flames, with Lombard 
 Street and Fenchurch Street. The burning 
 was like a bow, the point of which soon 
 reached Cornhill, and attacked the Royal 
 Exchange. This splendid building, which 
 at that time was the best of the kind in 
 Europe, had been built just one hundred 
 years before by Sir Thomas Gresham. 
 
 But very quickly the noble galleries of 
 that spacious building were burned down, 
 and with an appalling noise the walls 
 fell in, and all the stone statues of the 
 English kings which had stood within its 
 quadrangle cracked and crumbled with the 
 intense heat, leaving only the founder's 
 statue, which, strange to say, remained un- 
 430 
 
PLAGUE AND FIRE. 
 
 shaken. But when the merchants and the 
 townspeople saw their celebrated Exchange 
 consumed, then indeed did they quail and 
 tremble. They feared that everything must 
 go, and became full of distraction and con- 
 fusion, running hither and thither in utter 
 bewilderment and having no command of 
 their own thoughts. 
 
 Efforts to preserve Property. 
 
 Some persons who still kept their wits 
 about them chartered boats and barges, and 
 filled them with such goods as they could 
 save and sent them floating down the Thames. 
 Others paid as much as £10 for a cart to 
 convey some of their property far beyond the 
 outskirts of the city. The fields for many 
 miles around were strewn with movables 
 of all kinds, and tents were erected to cover 
 a few of the thousands of burned-out people. 
 
 It was indeed a piteous sight to see these 
 terror-smitten myriads wearily wending their 
 way, with their wives and little ones, into the 
 fields. There were some so terror-stricken 
 that tears ran down their pallid cheeks like 
 rain, others beat their breasts and wrung 
 their hands in utter despair, while many 
 sobbed and shrieked aloud in their agony 
 and distress of soul. Here might be seen 
 sick invalids just borne from their beds, and 
 others only just able to drag themselves along, 
 and close by were aged persons whose 
 withered cheeks and white hair told of many 
 a painful struggle past, and now in their old 
 age they were reduced t6 utter penury and 
 want. Sick and sound, aged and young, 
 were all going forth in their thousands to 
 seek shelter in the shelterless fields, and so 
 Monday night drew on. 
 
 If the evening of Sunday had been' fearful, 
 Monday night was much worse. The very 
 pavements were glowing with fiery heat, and 
 the air was so hot that no person could ven- 
 ture within a furlong's space of the burning 
 streets. The blaze was so fearful that it was 
 lighter than noonday. The fire had now 
 worked backward against the wind along 
 Thames Street East, and up towards Tower 
 Hill. The other part of the conflagration had 
 burned Cheapside, and was close upon St. 
 Paul's, while another portion had blazed 
 along the water's edge towards Fleet Street 
 and the Temple. 
 
 There were some who hoped that the 
 Cathedral, being isolated and only very lately 
 rebuilt of stone, would remain untouched, 
 and for a long period it towered grim and 
 dark above the sea of flame like a massive 
 rock amid the stormy waves. But it yielded 
 at length; and the all-conquering flames, 
 driven furiously towards it by the fierce east 
 wind, caught the roof and some of the 
 scaffold poles which were still standing 
 around it. The molten lead from the roof 
 
 ran down its walls in a fiery stream, and the 
 stones split and peeled off with the intense 
 heat, and pieces flew from side to side with 
 loud reports as if shot from a cannon ; mas- 
 sive beams fell to the ground with a noise like 
 thunder, and as the splendid building was 
 consumed, the triumphant flames shot higher 
 and higher into the burning sky. 
 
 After this, the fire raged down Fleet Street 
 with wonderful rapidity, and blazed to the north 
 along Newgate Street, and attacked Newgate 
 Prison, which was soon consumed. The 
 flakes of fire now fell thick on every side, and 
 so rapid was the spread of the flames that 
 King Charles feared that not only Whitehall, 
 but Westminster Abbey would be consumed. 
 Then indeed he bestirred himself. He sent 
 numbers of gentlemen to various posts, with 
 instructions at all hazards to stop the flames; 
 and as it seemed quite clear that nothing 
 short of blowing down houses — so as to create 
 wide gaps over which the fire could not leap 
 — would be of service, this plan was now 
 adopted. But the fire was spreading with 
 such marvellous rapidity that it was now 
 several miles in compass. Beginning near 
 the Temple, it was blazing northward along 
 by Fetter Lane to Holborn ; here it bent back- 
 ward by Snow Hill, Newgate Street, Guildhall, 
 Coleman Street, Lothbury, Broad Street, 
 Bishopsgate Street, and Leadenhall Street. 
 All through Tuesday night the fire raged 
 with unabated force, the roaring of the flames 
 was increased by heavy sounds as of thunder, 
 as houses were blown down. This night 
 Guildhall was a splendid though appalling 
 spectacle. Being built of solid oak, it stood 
 for many hours after the fire had seized upon 
 it, glowing with heat like the heart of a fire 
 or burnished brass. 
 
 Thus, notwithstanding all efforts, the fire still 
 1 a jed fiercely ; and when Wednesday morn- 
 ing dawned on the weary eyes of the terrified 
 people, there were many who believed that 
 all the suburbs would be burned. King Charles 
 had sent all his belongings down the river to 
 Hampton Court, and great preparations were 
 made for a still further exodus of the people 
 and removal of property. But now provi- 
 dentially the wind fell, and the efforts that 
 had already been made seeming likely to be 
 successful, the people were encouraged to 
 make still further exertions ; the gaps caused 
 by the blown-up houses being wider than 
 previously, and the wind being far less 
 furious, the fire could not leap across ; conse- 
 quently it began very sensibly to abate. It 
 came no farther west than the Temple, and no 
 farther north than the entrance to Smithfield; 
 but within these limits it still raged, and so 
 great was the heat thrown out by the burning 
 ruins that no one could venture near. 
 
 The people stiil worked with a will, and 
 the fire being thus localized and limited in 
 
 431 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 its extent, was kept under, although so fiercely 
 did it rage in certain quarters — towards 
 Cripplegate and also near the Tower, while 
 it also broke out again in the Temple — that 
 there were many who still feared it might 
 spread. The exertions of the King on this 
 day were most praiseworthy. He made the 
 round of the fire twice, and by commands, 
 threatenings, and a good store of money, 
 kept the workers at their various posts. He 
 also exerted himself to obtain food and 
 procure provisions and shelter for the thou- 
 sands of burned-out people who were lodging 
 in the fields. Orders were sent into various 
 parts of the country for supplies of food and 
 tents, and also for boards wherewith to 
 construct temporary huts. During Wednes- 
 day afternoon the flames gradually decreased, 
 and on Thursday the fire was everywhere 
 extinguished. Curiously enough, it ended at 
 a place called Pye Corner, where a tablet still 
 marks the spot. « 
 
 A Walk through the Ruins. 
 
 It was a fearful and melancholy sight that 
 the September sun shone upon, that Friday 
 morning following the fire. London in ruins 
 — smoking, smouldering, burning ruins. A 
 traveller making his way with extraordinary 
 difficulty along what once was Fleet Street, 
 would see on every side the heaps of smoking 
 rubbish where once had been quaint and 
 picturesque houses, ancient churches, and 
 historical edifices. And when, often mis- 
 taking his way, he reached the spot on which 
 St. Paul's Cathedral had reared its imposing 
 front, he would be able to see straight down 
 to the river on one hand, and obtain a clear 
 view of the Tower before him on the other ; 
 there was nothing to obstruct his view — on 
 every side were the blackened heaps. But the 
 sad ruins of the Cathedral itself would arrest 
 his attention. Before him lay long flakes of 
 the huge stones, all split asunder, and many 
 pieces of the massive Portland stone quite 
 calcined; ornaments and arches, capitals and 
 columns, all destroyed and crumbled into 
 dust ; yet, singularly enough, the inscription 
 on the architrave was yet entire. 
 
 But the ground was still so hot that he 
 would not be able long to stand at one spot ; 
 and indeed in the narrower streets he could 
 not pass at all, while the clouds of suffoca- 
 ting smoke that here and there arose almost 
 choked him ; so making his way north, he 
 would come in time to Moorfields and Fins- 
 bury Fields, where for several miles around, 
 and as far as the eye could reach, were 
 encamped the poor inhabitants burned out of 
 house and home. Many of them, by reason 
 of the hurriedness of their flight, had scarcely 
 any clothes to cover them ; many more had 
 nothing but the dress on their backs. Yet, 
 though on the verge of starvation, they were 
 
 for the most part quiet and orderly, although 
 it was the quiet of melancholy and despair. 
 On every side were ruin, poverty, and distress. 
 
 The City's Resurrection. 
 
 The sturdy English spirit soon reasserted 
 itself, and before long great eff"orts were made 
 for the rebuilding of the city. Even before 
 the ruins were cold, Sir Christopher Wren, 
 by the King's command, had been over the 
 great plain of ashes, roughly surveyed the 
 ground, and drawn out plans for the recon- 
 struction of the city on a uniform and 
 magnificent scale. Unfortunately the owners 
 of the various sites could not be brought to 
 agree, and a splendid opportunity of re- 
 building a magnificent city was los't. 
 
 But as it was, London soon rose phoenix- 
 like from its ashes, with more spacious streets 
 and splendid edifices than had ever been 
 seen before in England. The Act for re- 
 building was drawn by Sir Matthew Hale 
 with great wisdom, so that no lawsuits ensued ; 
 and here and there houses began speedily 
 to arise, as far as possible on the old sites • 
 these were gradually joined into wide streets. 
 
 In four years' time, according to the writers 
 in one of the papers of the period, London 
 was rebuilt with so much beauty and mag- 
 nificence that all Europe was amazed. 
 
 And in order to preserve the memory of 
 this terrible visitation, it was enacted by 
 Parliament that a tali column should be 
 erected as near to the place where the fire 
 began as was possible ; in consequence of 
 which Sir Christopher Wren erected the 
 famous monument on Fish Street Hill, on 
 which is set forth, in accordance with the 
 searches of the city surveyor, that the de- 
 struction comprised eighty-nine churches, 
 1 3,200 houses, the city walls and gates, Guild- 
 hall, four hundred streets, St. Paul's Cathedral,, 
 and many other public edifices, the total 
 amount of loss being estimated at ;!^7,33 5,000. 
 
 But however much the good citizens of 
 London might have suffered through these 
 dreadful three days, and however great the 
 destruction might have been, there is no 
 doubt birt that the fire was one of the great- 
 est blessings that ever befell London. For 
 not only did it purify the city from the plague, 
 and banish it from our midst, but instead 
 of the close, and crooked streets, with 
 their dark and ill-contrived wooden houses, 
 each having its various stories jutting out 
 one above another, so that light and air could 
 scarcely penetrate into the street below, where 
 pestilential vapours always hung, — instead of 
 a foul and filthy town, the nest of noisome 
 disease, there arose a handsome and healthy 
 city, well adapted for the grand part it was 
 destined to play as the great centre of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race and the mighty metropolis. 
 of the whole world. F. M. H. 
 
 432 
 
The Cathedral at Palermo. 
 
 THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 THE STORY OF A NATION'S VENGEANCE. 
 
 " Ill-lording, which doth desperate make 
 The people ever, in Palermo raised 
 The shout of ' Death ! ' re-echoed loud and long." 
 
 Dante : Paradiso, Canto viii., I. 78 i 
 
 National Outbreaks and their Effects— The " Roman Empire " of the Germans— Italy in the Middle Ages — Her Municipal 
 Institutions — The Hohenstauffen Emperors and the Popes — Guelphs and Ghibelines— Sicily under the Saracen and the 
 Norman rule — Frederick Barbarossa and his Successors — Policy of the Popes — Supremacy of Rome — Manfred the 
 Suabian Hero ; and Conradin the Last of the Hohenstauffen— Papal design to establish a King in Sicily — Charles of 
 Anjou and Manfred— Battle of Benevento — Conradin's invasion of Italy — Tagliacozzo — l3eath of Conradin — 
 Vengeance of Charles of Anjou — Feudal Oppressions — Condition of Sicily and Apulia — Peter of Aragon and John of 
 Procida — The Massacre of March 31st, 1282 — Its Results — Conclusion. 
 
 NATIONAL Outbreaks and their 
 Effects. 
 
 N his glorious Lay of the Bell, 
 Schiller describes, in thrilling verse, 
 the sudden uprising of a people, 
 that breaks its bonds asunder, and in a 
 
 sudden burst of fury sweeps away, like a 
 mighty inundation, the landmarks esta- 
 blished by law and government. With a 
 vivid recollection upon him of the scenes of 
 slaughter and violence that horrified Europe 
 in the first French Revolution, the poet 
 declares that though it is dangerous to 
 
 433 FF 
 
EPOCHS AND. EPISODES OF HISIORY. 
 
 arouse the slumbering lion, though the 
 tiger's fang is destructive, "Das Schreck- 
 lichste der Schrecken'' (the horrible of 
 horrors) is man when fury has bereft him 
 of reason. With glowing eloquence he 
 paints the scene of rapine and of ruin ; 
 emphatically denouncing the folly of those 
 who place in the grasp of the blind, besotted 
 helot the torch of liberty, which sheds no 
 light upon him, but becomes in his hand 
 the instrument of the incendiary, laying 
 habitations and cities in ashes, and spread- 
 ing woe and desolation around. 
 
 It is not, however, always thus. Sudden 
 outbursts of popular indignation do not 
 always end in impotent bursts of fury ; 
 "Time and destiny also travel on." Thus 
 in Paris, on the 14th of July, a mob as- 
 sembles suddenly, — a fierce "sansculotte" 
 mob, such as the majority of great cities can 
 produce at a moment's notice. "A hundred 
 and fifty thousand of us," says Carlyle in 
 his magnificent History of the French Revo- 
 lution, "and but the third man furnished 
 with so much as a pike ! Arms are the one 
 thing needful : with arms we are an uncon- 
 querable, man-defying National Guard ; 
 without arms, a rabble to be whiffed with 
 grape-shot." Arms are procured ; and be- 
 fore the shades of the short summer night 
 have descended upon Paris, the Bastile 
 has fallen, and the last hour of the despotic 
 government and of the power of poor Louis 
 XVI. has sounded. Again, an adventurer 
 who had failed repeatedly and disastrously 
 when the conditions of success seemed in 
 his favour, puts forth from a port of Northern 
 Italy, with a few hundred companions, in 
 a steamer bound for Sicily, in i860; and 
 men shrug their shoulders, and cynically 
 speculate on the probable fate of the mad- 
 man Garibaldi who has engaged in a 
 desperate venture to overthrow the govern- 
 ment of the Neapolitan Bourbons. But the 
 hour has come, and the man ; and the 
 enterprize, to the marvel of Europe, succeeds 
 — succeeds brilliantly ; and Garibaldi the 
 conqueror marches from triumph to triumph, 
 until Francis II. and his troops and his sbirri 
 have been hustled out of Italy. These and 
 many other instances bear witness to the 
 great results achieved by desperate ventures 
 and in sudden tumults, when the time is ripe 
 for action, and when the heart of a nation 
 has been thoroughly stirred by a feeling 
 of hatred and a determination to endure 
 wrong no longer. 
 
 Such a sudden and irresistible outburst 
 it was that occurred at Palermo just six 
 hundred years ago, on the Tuesday in 
 Easter week in 1282, Easter falling in that 
 year on the 31st of March. The event is 
 known in history as the Sicilian Vespers, 
 and has justly been designated by the 
 
 Italian Amari, the historian of the "War 
 of the Sicilian Vespers," as the most im- 
 portant thing that happened in Sicily during 
 the middle ages. Its effect was to wrest 
 the Kingdom of Sicily, consisting of the 
 island and of the large territory on the 
 mainland, from the rule of the French, and 
 ultimately to transfer it to the Spaniards. 
 It also had a most important influence on 
 the fortunes and destinies of the continent 
 of Europe generally. National vanity and 
 other causes had obscured the facts of the 
 revolution, and surrounded it with fables 
 that arose in long subsequent times, and 
 were repeated by various historians. It 
 was reserved for the intelligent and acute 
 reasoner, the Sicilian Michell Amari, to» 
 sweep away the accumulated errors, and to- 
 place this important Epoch of History in its 
 true light before the world. A new interest 
 has been given to the event, moreover, by 
 the recent celebration of the six hundredth 
 anniversary of the Sicilian Vespers, a pro- 
 ceeding which to many has appeared like 
 commemorating a massacre of St. Bartho- 
 lomew. But the cases are widely different. 
 The St. Bartholomew was a treacherous 
 and cruel conspiracy, involving the murder 
 in cold blood of a number of peaceful 
 citizens against whose lives fanaticism had 
 been roused in its most hideous form. In 
 the " Sicilian Vespers," though involving a 
 lamentable butchery, may be recognised 
 the furious outburst of anger of an oppressed 
 people seeking a kind of wild justice in 
 righting its own wrong. Therefore, also, 
 the defenders of the celebration declared 
 that the event was to be commemorated as 
 the French were accustomed to observe the 
 anniversaries of the taking of the Bastile, — 
 not with reference to the violence and blood- 
 shed it involved, but in its character as a 
 great effort made by a people to free itself 
 from unendurable tyranny. 
 
 To place before the reader this event in 
 an intelligible form, it is necessary briefly 
 to speak of the state of things in Italy and 
 the German Empire some time previously. 
 
 The Roman Empire of the Germans « 
 
 It had been a fundamental principle from 
 early times, that the German Emperors- 
 should protect the Church with their great 
 material power, and stand forth with their 
 armies to defend the pope in his rights 
 and immunities whenever these should be 
 attacked by an enemy. In return the 
 sovereign pontiff was to uphold the au- 
 thority of the Emperors by all the great 
 spiritual influence he wielded as the Head 
 of the Church, — an influence that was greatly 
 increased in the course of centuries. The 
 old formula that defined the respective 
 position of the greatest of earthly and the 
 
 434 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 first of spiritual rulers ran thus : " God 
 hath sent two swords into the world for the 
 protection of Christendom — to the Pope He 
 hath entrusted the spiritual, to the Emperor 
 the temporal. Thus the feudal supremacy 
 of the Emperors of the West, from Charle- 
 magne downwards, extended over Italy ; 
 and m the tenth century, under the powerful 
 Saxon House, under Henry the Fowler and 
 his descendants the Othos, this dominion 
 and supremacy was real and actual. But 
 after the Saxon House came feeble suc- 
 cessors ; and the influence of the Church 
 increased as that of the Empire diminished, 
 the long minority of Henry IV. , afterwards 
 the opponent of Gregory VII., giving a 
 good opportunity for the increase of the 
 ecclesiastical power throughout Germany, 
 while the imperial sway in Italy became 
 merely nominal. Humiliation was inflicted 
 upon the Emperor Henry IV. at Canossa, 
 where the unfortunate monarch's only hope 
 of regaining his authority over his re- 
 volted vassals was in reconciliation with 
 the pontiff whom he had bitterly offended, 
 and who revenged himself by keeping the 
 suppliant waiting in penitential garb in 
 the outer court for several days before 
 admitting him to an audience ; and even 
 then, though the kiss of peace was at last 
 reluctantly given to the suppliant emperor, 
 it was only on condition that the points in 
 dispute between Henry and the pontiff 
 should be referred to a council to be sum- 
 moned the next year. 
 
 It may easily be supposed that such a 
 spectacle was not calculated to raise the 
 respect of the Italians for the imperial 
 authority ; and, indeed, the popes now re- 
 pudiated the idea of the divided power, 
 and arrogated to themselves temporal as 
 well as spiritual sway over the nations of 
 the earth ; alleging that the emperor's 
 power was of human, and that of the pope 
 of divine institution, and that the divine 
 must in the nature of things prevail over 
 the human. 
 
 Italy and her Municipal Institu- 
 tions, 
 
 The material prosperity of the beautiful 
 land of Italy meanwhile continued to in- 
 crease with astonishing rapidity as time 
 went on. Italy was the great emporium 
 for the commerce from the East in those 
 days when a maritime route to the Indies 
 was yet undreamt of; and in intelligence, 
 in literature, science and the arts, she was 
 as far in advance of the rest of Europe 
 as in opulence, in those days "when com- 
 merce proudly flourished through the state," 
 and when at wealth's potent command 
 "the palace learnt to rise ; Again the long 
 fallen column sought the skies; The canvas 
 
 glowed, beyond e'en nature warm; The 
 pregnant quarry teemed with human form ' ' — 
 ere yet, "more inconstant than the southern 
 gale. Commerce on other shores displayed 
 her sail." 
 
 As feudal communities are by the nature 
 of things aristocratic in their constitution, 
 so are commercial states inclined towards 
 the republican form. The wealthy cities of 
 Italy aspired to govern themselves inde- 
 pendently; and a municipal system, or con- 
 federacy of cities, sprang up, each with its 
 separate polity and laws, but sometimes 
 joining together to resist any attack from 
 without on their privileges or their self- 
 government ; and thus, especially in Lom- 
 bardy and in Tuscany, thriving and warlike 
 cities, each with its own army and its citizen 
 nobles, flourished in opulent pride ; jealously 
 guarding their national honour and freedom, 
 and cherishing an intense feeling of hatred 
 against the strangers from beyond the Alps. 
 
 The Hohenstauffen Emperors and 
 THE Popes; Guelphs and Ghibelines. 
 
 For a long time the German Emperors 
 were unable to assert, in any practical form, 
 the rights of dominion they claimed over 
 Italy. Their position in Germany itself 
 was full of difficulty ; for there also the 
 municipal system, as exhibited in the free 
 towns, had taken deep root, and each 
 imperial city jealously. guarded its privi- 
 leges, and was always on the watch to 
 resist encroachment, if necessary at the 
 point of the lance and sword. The con- 
 stitution of the Empire was moreover feudal ; 
 and feudalism always means the supremacy 
 of a powerful nobility. Many a great noble 
 had more real authority, and could bring a 
 greater number of vassals into the field, than 
 the Emperor himself : the character of 
 Richard Neville the King-maker had many 
 representatives at the Courts of the Kaisers. 
 
 The German imperial crown also was not 
 hereditary but elective ; and though a kind 
 of prescriptive custom kept the diadem in 
 the same family for successive generations, 
 there was always the prospect of its transfer 
 from one great House to another. ^^ Die 
 Kaiser-krone gehtvo?i Stamin, zic Stamtn, 
 sie hat fiir tretie Dienste kein Geddcht- 
 nisz" (The imperial crown goes from race 
 to race. It has no memory for faithful 
 service), says the discontented Swiss noble 
 in Schiller's William Tell. And the 
 Popes took advantage of this circumstance 
 to increase their own power, arrogating to 
 themselves the right of approving or annul- 
 ling the election of an emperor ; and such 
 was the deference paid to them at this 
 period, that they were able to assert this 
 power in the most practical manner. For 
 high and low courted their favour : the 
 
 435 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 people, as the protection the Church afforded 
 them against feudal oppression ; the nobles, 
 for the sake of the influence it could exert 
 with their vassals and dependents either 
 in their favour or against them. 
 
 In the middle of the twelfth century the 
 imperial power in Germany passed into 
 the hands of the great Suabian House, the 
 Hohenstauffen, They were a high-spirited, 
 warlike race. The ruins of their old 
 " Stammburg," or Castle of Stauffen, are 
 still to be seen not far from Stuttgart in 
 Wiirtemberg, the seat of their sway. 
 Conrad III., the first Emperor of the 
 dynasty, after being duly elected, had 
 almost to conquer his kingdom from rebel- 
 lious knights and townsmen ; and the story 
 of the women of Weinsberg has preserved 
 among the people the memory of his 
 clemency as well as of his warlike prowess. 
 It relates how at the siege of the revolted 
 town of Weinsberg, Conrad, exasperated at 
 the obstinate resistance of the place, had 
 vowed to put every man of the garrison to 
 the sword ; but that he acceded to the 
 request of a deputation sent by the women, 
 begging that, according to the custom of 
 war with chivalrous leaders, they might be 
 permitted to quit the doomed town with so 
 much of their personal possessions as they 
 could carry away. Whereupon, to the 
 astonishment of the Emperor and his fol- 
 lowers, they were shortly afterwards seen 
 emerging from the gates of Weinsberg, 
 carrying husbands, fathers, brothers, lovers, 
 and friends on their shoulders. The Em- 
 peror's followers cried out against the trick ; 
 but Conrad, though at first somewhat dis- 
 concerted at the wide interpretation put by 
 the fair dames upon ' ' personal possessions, ' ' 
 presently declared that an Emperor's word 
 ■once given must not be twisted and turned, 
 and that the women of Weinsberg should 
 do as they pleased, and carry off their 
 belongings unmolested. 
 
 The Suabians had, in their native 
 domains, an allodial possession called 
 Waiblingen, from which they were known 
 as the " Waiblinger." This name, cor- 
 rupted by foreign pronunciation, became 
 converted into the term Ghibeline, and 
 became the designation of those who sup- 
 ported the claims of the German Emperors 
 on Italy. On the other hand, the powerful 
 family of the Welfen, the Dukes of Bavaria, 
 the great opponents of the Suabian House, 
 took every opportunity of thwarting the 
 Ghibeline Emperors in their pretensions 
 and efforts, and assisted and supported all 
 who resisted their authority. Thus the 
 name Welf, corrupted into Guelph, became 
 the war-cry of the faction opposed to the 
 rule of the German Emperors in Italy; and 
 for generations the battle-cry of Guelphs 
 
 and Ghilbelines resounded throughout the 
 fair fields of the peninsula, — the Guelph 
 adherents being those who supported the 
 sovereign pontiff, and endeavoured by every 
 means to keep away foreign influence and 
 German dominion from Italy, while they 
 upheld municipal government and the great 
 union or confederation of the Lombard 
 cities ; while on the other hand, the Ghibe- 
 line faction was strengthened by many 
 Italians who considered that the future 
 welfare of Italy lay in the establishment of 
 a great imperial power which should unite 
 the strength of the country into one har- 
 monious whole, whereas under the municipal 
 system it was split up and distracted by the 
 quarrels and enmities of a number of 
 separate republics and communities con- 
 tinually at strife with one another. It was 
 the old controversy of the concentrated 
 strength of a dictatorship as against the 
 freedom of individual and independent 
 action. But the feuds of Guelph and Ghi- 
 beline brought lasting calamity and de- 
 gradation, as well as present bloodshed and 
 devastation, upon the fair Italian land. 
 
 Sicily under the Saracen and the 
 Norman Rule. 
 
 In the general overturn of authority and 
 the barbaric scramble for power that 
 followed the downfall of the great Roman 
 Empire, the southern portion of the Italian 
 peninsula and the island of Sicily had a 
 different fate from the rest of Europe that 
 came under the dominion of the northern 
 races, whose rule was distinguished by 
 ferocity and savage strength. Like Spain, 
 these two portions of fair Italy fell into the 
 hands of the Saracens, at that time far 
 more enlightened and intellectual than 
 their northern compeers, and thus were 
 decidedly in advance of the rest of Europe 
 in civilization, enlightenment, and polity. 
 A number of states were established on 
 the mainland, independent of each other, 
 and holding their own as best they might 
 against the attacks of northern barbarians 
 and the occasional invasions of the armies 
 of the Greek Emperors. Gradually they 
 adopted the republican form of govern- 
 ment ; and in the effort to maintain them- 
 selves, adopted the method often employed 
 before and after those times by states whose 
 existence was jeopardised by foreign ene- 
 mies. 
 
 They called in the aid of foreigners, 
 and were undone by their allies. It was 
 a handful of Norman adventurers who, 
 summoned as defenders, established them- 
 selves rulers in Southern Italy and in 
 Sicily in the eleventh century, expelling 
 the Saracens, whose religion and foreign 
 nationality made them hateful to the in- 
 
 436 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 habitants of Italy ; and thus was established 
 the feudal dominion of the Normans in 
 Sicily. In this enterprise they had the 
 assistance and countenance of the Church ; 
 for they were looked upon as the champions 
 of the Christian religion against the Moslem 
 infidels ; and their leader, the Norman 
 Count Roger, was invested with the autho- 
 rity of a legate by the Pope at Rome. 
 This gave to their dominion the strength 
 of prescriptive and legitimate authority, 
 and undoubtedly contributed in a marked 
 and valuable degree to its permanence ; 
 just as in former times the Gothic con- 
 querors who established their rule on the 
 ruins of the effete Empire of the West 
 had considered it advisable to have the 
 sanction of a commission and charter from 
 tlie Emperors of Constantinople. The degree 
 of power and independence attained by the 
 different states before their arrival also 
 rendered feudalism in Southern Italy less 
 burdensome and oppressive than elsewhere. 
 The power of the barons was modified 
 and decreased by the prevalence of free 
 municipal institutions among the towns, 
 and could not therefore assert itself, as else- 
 where, in the form of unmitigated military- 
 tyranny. Count Roger ruled over what 
 could almost be considered a free state, 
 judged by the standard of those times ; 
 and the son of the first Count Roger, 
 treading in the footsteps of his father, 
 raised the Norman principality to the rank 
 and dignity of a kingdom; a strong kingdom, 
 moreover, able to defend itself for a long 
 period against the various enemies raised up 
 against it by jealousy and ambition. The 
 monarchs also were able to keep down the 
 power and resist the encroachments of the 
 nobility. The second Roger increased the 
 extent of his dominions by definitely esta- 
 blishing his authority over the other Norman 
 princes in Calabria and Apulia ; and as 
 King of Sicily, Prince of Capua, and Duke 
 of Apulia and Calabria, his authority was 
 recognised by the Pope. Industry, arts and 
 sciences, trade and commerce, flourished 
 throughout the monarchy ; and in the 
 dominion of the Normans in Sicily there 
 was the hope of a national unity, which 
 might in time have raised Italy to the rank 
 of a gieat and harmonious power, able to 
 resist the turbulence of factions from within 
 and the encroachments of ambition from 
 without ; and realised that dream of a 
 great and solid Italian kingdom, in which 
 patriotism saw the best hope of stability 
 and happiness. But this was not to be. 
 
 Frederick Barbarossa and his Suc- 
 cessors ; Policy of the Popes. 
 
 The successor of Conrad III. in Germany, 
 the renowned Frederick I., surnamed Bar- 
 
 barossa, the * ' Kaiser Rothbart ' ' of mediseval 
 story and popular tradition, was undoubtedly 
 one of the greatest historical characters of 
 the twelfth century, and indeed of the middle 
 ages. Since the time of Otho the Great, 
 the sceptre of imperial rule had not been 
 wielded by so sagacious and so determined 
 a hand. In him the whole strength of the 
 Ghibelines was concentrated and personi- 
 fied ; and in his character were found united 
 the great qualities of the warrior and of the 
 statesman. Alike at the council-board and 
 in the field his majestic figure towered above 
 his contemporaries. His reign was long, 
 and his fortunes were varied. At one time 
 he was supreme in authority, and had his 
 rivals at his feet ; at another, he himself 
 was impelled, under the pressure of terrible 
 anxiety and fear of the future and its un- 
 certainties, to kneel before his proud and 
 powerful vassal, Henry the Lion, the head 
 of the Guelph family, imploring the man 
 upon whom he had bestowed the duchies 
 of Bavaria and Saxony not to desert him 
 in his utmost need, — a prayer to which the 
 haughty Guelph, a kind of King-making 
 Warwick in his vast extent of dominion 
 and the number of vassals swayed by his 
 command, remained obstinately deaf; and 
 for this refusal to listen to his master's 
 appeal and to fulfil his feudal duty by 
 following his lord to the war, Henry was 
 obliged at length to pay the penalty in 
 deprivation of his estates, and in long years 
 of foreign exile. 
 
 The one great aspiration of Barbarossa, 
 and indeed of the Suabian House of which 
 he was the noblest representative, was to 
 consolidate the rule of the German Em- 
 perors beyond the Alps. Long afterwards 
 the politic and cautious Rudolph of Haps- 
 burg, the founder of the great Austrian 
 Power, was accustomed to liken Italy to 
 the lion's den in the ^sopian fable ; for 
 he declared, like the fox in that fable, that 
 he saw traces of the footsteps of many 
 German Emperors and of great German 
 armies going into that region of peril, 
 while few were found returning thence. 
 It was against the league of the Lombard 
 cities that his warlike enterprises were 
 again and again directed ; and it was in 
 the hope of inducing Henry the Lion to 
 follow him into Italy that he had abased 
 himself before his haughty vassal. Milan, 
 the chief in size, wealth, and power among 
 the cities of Northern Italy, was pre- 
 eminently the scene of the struggle he 
 carried on for many years ; and around 
 Milan's walls the battle-cries of Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines sounded continually. The 
 proudest moment of the warlike Emperor's 
 life was perhaps that in which, after a long 
 oiid arduous contest, he triumphantly en- 
 
 437 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tered the once stubborn but now humiliated 
 city with a long train of armed followers ; 
 not in the ordinary way, through one of 
 Milan's lofty gates, but through a breach 
 made in the walls ; through which the con- 
 queror passed, in token of his resolution to 
 punish the proud Lombard town that had 
 so long bidden defiance to his authority. 
 
 One of the greatest causes of the long 
 resistance made by Italy to the claims of 
 the Emperor and his House to dominion in 
 Italy was found in the policy pursued with 
 equal astuteness and perseverance by the 
 popes at Rome. The powerful pontiffs who 
 wore the tiara in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries, claimed the fullest authority over 
 the monarchs of Europe and the right of 
 intervention in all great political questions of 
 the time. Consequently they upheld in their 
 resistance any towns or communities that 
 set up the standard of opposition against 
 the Ghibeline Emperors ; and even the 
 mighty Emperor Barbarossa himself was 
 compelled to acknowledge that in an accom- 
 modation with the Pope was his only hope 
 of retaining permanent authority in the 
 peninsula. And on his part the Pope was 
 not indisposed to a compromise, or unwil- 
 ling to acquiesce in the authority of the 
 Emperor in Italy, provided that authority 
 was subordinate to his own, and was avow- 
 edly held and maintained under his sanction. 
 Thus we find Frederick Barbarossa pro- 
 ceedingto Rome to seek the Pontiff's favour 
 and friendship, and consenting to do a 
 deed of vassalage, holding the stirrup of 
 Pope Alexander's mule, in token that he 
 considered himself the Pope's "man," or 
 one bound to render homage and service 
 to him. It was the custom of the Roman 
 rule to hold the balance between Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines, lest either should become 
 independent, and to maintain himself in his 
 position as the umpire and supreme judge 
 among the princes of Europe. 
 
 While in Northern Italy the German 
 Emperor thus gained an authority, though 
 at best a precarious and unstable one, by 
 the joint exertion of conciliation and arms, 
 he endeavoured to establish his dominion 
 in the south by dynastic successors, and 
 succeeded in bringing about a marriage 
 between his eldest son Henry, afterwards 
 the Emperor Henry VI., and Constance, 
 the Norman heii^ess of Naples and Sicily. 
 Thus the dominion of Sicily passed from the 
 Normans to the German House of the Ho- 
 henstauffen ; thus the Ghibeline ascendency 
 was for a while established in Southern 
 Italy, and for a few short years Henry VI. 
 governed that countiy with undisputed sway. 
 But his nature was harsh, cruel, and vindic- 
 tive ; and by his severities he raised such a 
 storm of indignation agaipst him in Italy, 
 
 438 
 
 that at his death in 1196 the party of his 
 adversaries was considerably strengthened. 
 
 Again the strife of Guelphs and Ghibe- 
 lines raged in Italy, and Sicily and Apulia 
 were involved in the struggle. Henry had 
 left an infant son, who afterwards became 
 the Emperor Frederick II. of Germany, to 
 which realm his uncle, Philip of Suabia, 
 had succeeded on the death of Henry VI., 
 though the Pope upheld the pretensions of 
 Otho of Brunswick, the head of the Guelphs, 
 who had been elected by that faction in 
 opposition to Philip, and for a long time 
 maintained his sway over part of Germany. 
 
 When Frederick was of an age to take 
 the authority into his own hands, he brought 
 about a great and salutary reform in Sicily 
 and Apulia. The magistracy was reformed ; 
 a new code of laws based on that of the 
 Normans, but more adapted to the spirit of 
 the times, was introduced ; the turbulent 
 nobles were kept in check by the warlike 
 and sagacious Emperor, who ruled with a 
 vigour and dexterity that would have done 
 honour to his grandfather the great Bar- 
 barossa himself; the syndics of the various 
 towns were summoned to Parliament, and 
 the foolish and unjust trials by ordeal, which 
 had utterly ceased to command respect or 
 credence, were abolished. The pecuniary 
 resources of the state were also developed 
 by the energetic Emperor, who indeed in- 
 curred considerable blame in this matter ; 
 being accused of taxing his subjects to the 
 verge of tyranny and extortion, for the means 
 of carrying on the foreign wars in which he 
 was frequently engaged. 
 
 The brilliant success of the Ghibeline 
 Emperor was the reverse of welcome to the 
 Papacy ; for it manifestly involved the dan- 
 ger of a rule in Italy independent of the 
 authority of Rome, and subversive of that 
 subserviency of the temporal powers which 
 it had been the continued effort and desire of 
 the popes to perpetuate. Innocent IV., one 
 of the most vigorous and politic of the occu- 
 pants of the chair of St. Peter, perceived this 
 danger, and also saw the means of combat- 
 ing it ; for the exactions of Frederick had 
 aroused a formidable spirit of discontent 
 throughout ^icilyand Apulia. Accordingly 
 the astute pontiff took advantage of this 
 state of things to rouse the subjects of 
 Frederick to resistance against their master. 
 Everywhere in Sicily, in the Lombard cities 
 of Northern Italy, and in Frederick's Ger- 
 man dominions, the Emperor's vassals were 
 incited to rise against his authority ; and 
 at length Innocent went to the length, at a 
 great council of Lyons, of declaring that 
 the Suabian Emperor had forfeited the im- 
 perial throne, and absolving all Frederick's 
 vassals from their allegiance. The heroic 
 Suabian opposed an undaunted front to all 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 enemies, and. met every peril with equal 
 vigour and skill ; but his health was sapped 
 by anxiety and care, and his spirit was 
 heavy at the discovery of the treachery of 
 many trusted friends. He sank into the 
 grave in 1250, his end hastened by disap- 
 pointment and vexation. The death of 
 Frederick greatly strengthened the hands 
 of Innocent IV., who was moreover jealous 
 of the long tenure of imperial power by the 
 Suabian House ; and as the German Empire 
 was elective, he now saw a welcome oppor- 
 tunity for the transfer of the imperial dignity 
 to another family. He exerted his power to 
 the utmost against Conrad IV., the son of 
 Frederick, appearing as an open enemy, 
 and stirring up all the vassals of Conrad to 
 resistance. Liberty and extensive privileges 
 were offered to the citizens of Southern Italy 
 as the price of rebellion against the Ghi- 
 beline. The bishops and clergy were ex- 
 horted to join in the general movement 
 against the enemies of the pontiff; remission 
 of sins was promised to every zealous up- 
 holder of the papal cause ; and Conrad, 
 though he had been elected King of the 
 Romans, was virtually shut out from the 
 enjoyment of real authority. But the party 
 of the Ghibelines in Italy was strong ; and 
 papal denunciations and promises, em- 
 bodied in various briefs and mandates, and 
 all having for their aim the overthrow of the 
 monarchical authority in Southern Italy, did 
 not succeed in entirely accomplishing that 
 object. 
 
 Manfred ; and Conradin, the last 
 
 OF THE HOHENSTAUFFEN. 
 
 In 1254, the Emperor Conrad died, leaving 
 an infant son of the same name, who after- 
 wards became known in history, through a 
 most tragic episode, as Conradin, or the 
 little Conrad. But there was a member of 
 the House of Hohenstauffen, who, though 
 illegitimate by birth, was not likely to allow 
 the honours of that renowned family to be 
 reft from it without a struggle. This was 
 Manfred, a son of the Emperor Frederick 
 TI. and of a noble Italian lady whom the 
 Emperor married after the death of his wife. 
 Manfred fought valiantly to reconquer the 
 country that the Pope had incited to revolt ; 
 and when Innocent IV. died, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the far less energetic Alexander 
 IV., whom the chronicle states to have been 
 "jovial, ruddy, corpulent, and incapable of 
 carrying out the designs of his fiery pre- 
 decessor," the warlike Manfred fought with 
 considerable success to put down the 
 municipal and republican system that had 
 arisen in Sicily and Calabria under the 
 fostering care of the enemies of the Suabian 
 dynasty, and to set up the monarchy once 
 
 more ; and a more capable and chivalrous 
 champion could scarcely have been found. 
 
 During the short and troubled reign of 
 Conrad IV., the affairs of Sicily and Cala- 
 bria had been administered by a viceroy, 
 Pietro Ruffo. This man, originally a menial 
 follower of Frederick II., had been raised 
 to high honour and invested with the im- 
 portant of&ce of governor by that monarch, 
 who had a high opinion of his fidelity, valour, 
 and capacity. Conrad had continued the 
 favour shown by his father to Ruffo, whom 
 he created Count of Catanzaro, and retained 
 in his dignity of viceroy. After the death 
 of Conrad, the Governor endeavoured to 
 maintain his authority against the repub- 
 lican movement organized by the Pope ; 
 and afterwards, when his position became 
 critical, entered into negotiations with the 
 Vatican, offering to rule Sicily, if he were 
 allowed to retain his position, as a depen- 
 dency of the Church, and to pay tribute to 
 Rome as a vassal. Manfred's authority he 
 entirely repudiated. 
 
 But the cities, bent on municipal inde- 
 pendence, would have nothing to do with 
 him ; and the confusion was presently worse 
 confounded by their proclaiming a republic, 
 with Palermo at their head, under the pro- 
 tection of the Church. With the help of an 
 army chiefly consisting of soldiers from 
 Messina, Ruffo gained some slight advan- 
 tages, but was speedily overwhelmed by the 
 united resistance of the cities. Leonardo 
 Alighieri, a member of the family afterwards 
 rendered illustrious by the great name of 
 Dante, was chosen captain of the people. 
 " Success to the municipality ! Down with 
 the viceroy ! " was the cry raised every- 
 where ; and the unfortunate Count of 
 Catanzaro, who had negotiated with all 
 parties, without succeeding in gaining the 
 confidence of any, was fain at last to com- 
 pound for his personal safety by a total 
 abandonment of his ambitious claims, and 
 ultimately hid his shame and humiliation 
 beneath the shelter of the Papal Court at 
 Rome. Palermo, Messina, and various other 
 cities thereupon declared a republic, and 
 the confederation placed itself under the 
 papal protection ; and there was great 
 rejoicing among the Liberal party, various 
 of whose chiefs, long exiled as Guelphs, or 
 opponents of the Suabian House, now re- 
 turned in triumph to their homes. 
 
 But the new republic had no time to con- 
 solidate its institutions, or to establish itself 
 on a firm and permanent basis. " In times 
 of revolution," Amari justly observes, "men 
 often expect to reap the fruit of a political 
 revolution earlier than nature will yield it, 
 and, finding themselves disappointed, rush 
 into the opposite extreme ; individuals are 
 sundered by envy, and reaction again rears 
 
 439 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 its head." There were various great feuda- 
 tories in Sicily and Apulia, whose interests 
 would be better served under a monarchical 
 than under a republican form of government. 
 These rose in support of the pretensions of 
 Manfred ; and in two years the fate of the 
 Republic of Vanity, as Bartholomew of 
 Neocastro contemptuously terms it, was 
 sealed. Frederick Lancia, with one army 
 compelled Calabria to return to its allegiance 
 to the House of Suabia ; Henry Abbate 
 entered Palermo with another ; and after 
 Lancia' s victory on the plain of Corona, not 
 only Calabria but the whole of Sicily sub- 
 mitted to Manfred ; who, after governing for 
 a while in the name of the child Conradin, 
 caused a report of his nephew's death to 
 be spread abroad, and on the nth of August, 
 1258, had himself crowned in Palermo; 
 assuming the sovereignty of Sicily in his 
 own right as the son and successor of the 
 great Emperor Frederick H. 
 
 The Pope looks round for a King 
 FOR Sicily ; Charles and Manfred, 
 
 The establishment of Manfred on the 
 throne of Sicily and Apulia was a sore 
 blow to the Roman Pontiff. Though com- 
 pelled to acknowledge that the Holy See 
 was not sufficiently strong in the material 
 force represented by armies and a well- 
 filled treasury to rule Southern Italy as a 
 direct possession. Innocent II. would have 
 preferred to see those fertile regions in 
 the hands of any potentate rather than 
 under the sway of the hated Ghibeline. 
 Accordingly he revived a scheme already 
 entertained in the time of Frederick II., 
 and looked round for a prince who might 
 conquer Naples under his patronage, and 
 hold the title of king as a vassal of Rome ; 
 thus strengthening the hands of the Guel- 
 phic party in Italy, and increasing the re- 
 spect an'd honour in which the Vicar of 
 Christ was held as the distributer of 
 thrones and principalities. It was in 
 Western Europe that he hoped to find a 
 ruler to his mind for Sicily and Apulia, 
 and consequently he offered the throne first 
 to Duke Richard of Cornwall, brother of 
 the weak and vacillating Henry III. of 
 England ; then to a prince of very different 
 character, Charles of Anjou, brother of 
 the pious Louis IX., " Saint Louis," of 
 France ; and thirdly to Prince Edmund of 
 England, ayoungerson of Henry III. That 
 monarch, at once feeble and extravagant, 
 a lover of splendour and magnificence, and 
 destitute of the knowledge and statesman- 
 ship that would have made him aware of 
 the difficulties of the enterprise, negotiated 
 with Innocent, accepted the investiture for 
 his son, and made every preparation in the 
 
 way of raising money and troops to carry 
 out the design. But the troubles in which 
 his foolish disregard of the laws and liberties 
 of England involved him with his barons 
 had already begun. The Parliament, then 
 in its infancy, but already putting forth its 
 power to good purpose, compelled him to 
 desist from his enterprise, and Innocent 
 quickly saw that he must choose a prince 
 who possessed more freedom of action and 
 greater material means than the weak King 
 of England could boast. Accordingly he 
 made every exertion to secure Charles of 
 Anjou ; and for this purpose endeavoured 
 by all the arts of cajolery, persuasion, and 
 intimidation, to obtain the consent of Louis 
 IX. to his brother's candidature— repre- 
 senting the undertaking in the light of a 
 crusade against unbelief and rebellion as 
 impersonated in the half heathen Manfred^ 
 who would introduce Saracen customs and 
 the abominations of the infidel into the 
 beautiful land of Italy, and against whom 
 it behoved every Christian potentate to 
 fight, as against a pestilent enemy of the 
 faith. 
 
 His efforts were ably seconded by the 
 ambition of Charles himself, and of Beatrice, 
 of Provence, the consort of the Duke of 
 Anjou, in whose right Charles had become 
 ruler over vast estates. The three sisters of 
 Beatrice were all queens ; being married 
 respectively to Henry III., King of England,, 
 Louis IX., King of France, and Richard, 
 Earl of Cornwall, who had been nominated 
 "King of the Romans," — a title bestowed 
 on the successor to the German Empire, 
 though in his case it was a title only. It 
 is said that the Countess Beatrice, who at 
 the French Court had suffered a slight in 
 not being permitted to take her place on 
 a raised platform of state, with two of 
 the queens, her sisters, ardently urged her 
 husband to accept the offer made him 
 of a throne, with all its perilous surround- 
 ings ; and that the desire to make Beatrice 
 a queen was a powerful motive with Charles 
 of Anjou, impelling him to use every 
 exertion against Manfred in Sicily. The 
 consent of the King of France was gained, 
 and a bargain was made between Charles 
 of Anjou and Pope Urban IV., and ratified 
 by Clement IV., that Pontiff's successor. 
 It set forth that the Count of Anjou was to^ 
 take possession of Naples and Sicily, witk 
 the exception of Benevento, and was to 
 hold that kingdom as a gift from the Pope, 
 doing service in war as a vassal, and paying 
 a tribute of 8,000 ounces of gold annually. 
 It is only just to add that in the bull which 
 thus gave over the people of Southern Italy 
 to a foreign ruler, some provisions were 
 inserted for the maintenance of their ancient 
 privileges. 
 
 440 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 In some of its features, the invasion of 
 
 -Sicily and Apulia by Charles of Anjou 
 
 bears an analogy to the invasion of Eng- 
 
 some of the spoils of the conquered nation. 
 Charles's army consisted in great part of 
 Condottieri and mercenary troops, attracted 
 
 Naples, and Mount Vesuvius. 
 
 land by the Normans two centuries before. 
 As in that memorable case, a multitude of 
 adventurers now flocked to the standard 
 set up, each hoping to be rewarded with 
 
 by the prospect of plunder. Part of the 
 expense of the outfit was borne by Louis 
 of France, and part was defrayed by ex- 
 actions levied from Provence, of which terri- 
 
 441 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tory Charles of Anjou had become lord by 
 his marriage with the heiress of the last of 
 its dukes. Beatrice is said to have even 
 pawned her jewels to furnish money for the 
 •enterprise ; and large sums were borrowed 
 by her husband from nobles and merchants. 
 He had a great stake for which to play, 
 and took every precaution to ensure suc- 
 cess. 
 
 The valiant Manfred fully appreciated 
 the gravity of the situation. He saw the 
 storm that was gathering around his head, 
 and seems to have had little doubt that 
 it would speedily overwhelm him ; but he 
 determined to uphold the hpnour of the 
 Ghibelines, and to fight it out to the last. 
 It was in the summer of 1265 that Charles 
 of Anjou landed in Italy, and Manfred 
 speedily saw that the fidelity of many on 
 whom he had reckoned for aid was not to 
 be trusted. The nobles proved fickle, and 
 showed a disposition to m.ake terms for 
 themselves ; the people, who had been 
 harassed by taxes and forced contributions 
 during the late war, were inclined to hope 
 for some benefit to themselves from a 
 change of government. Manfred gathered 
 together as numerous an army as he could 
 muster, of Germans, Apulians, and of the 
 Saracens of Sicily, whose fortunes were 
 identified with his. Charles had met with 
 no resistance in invading Italy. He had 
 been awarded the rank of a Senator of 
 Rome by the Pope ; and on the 6th of 
 January, 1266, he and Beatrice were 
 crowned at the Vatican as King and Queen 
 ■of Sicily. Manfred's hope was in delay, 
 that should compel Charles to disband his 
 troops ; the Duke of Anjou's prospect of 
 success lay in prompt action, before Man- 
 fred could sufficiently strengthen his forces. 
 The Guelphs of Italy played into the in- 
 vader's hands, and a decisive battle was 
 quickly brought on at Benevento. 
 
 That day was fatal to the brave Manfred. 
 In spite of the bravery of his German and 
 Sicilian troops, the French had the advan- 
 tage almost from the first ; and the Suabian 
 hero, perceiving that all was lost, sought 
 and found a soldier's death. He fell fight- 
 ing valiantly among his men. His corpse, 
 discovered by the enemy on the field of 
 battle, was at first honourably buried by the 
 soldiers, and a heap of stones was raised 
 over it as a memorial; but the vindictive- 
 ness of the hostile leaders would not 
 accord a soldier's grave to Manfred of Ho- 
 henstauffen. His corpse, to their shame, 
 was dragged from its resting-place and 
 subjected to the grossest ignominy. The 
 triumph of Charles of Anjou was complete, 
 and the fair inheritance of Sicily and 
 Apulia had passed away from the House of 
 Suabia. 
 
 The Enterprise of Conradin, and ■ 
 ITS Result. 
 
 The victory of Benevento gave the supre- 
 macy in Italy to the Guelphs, and seated 
 Charles of Anjou on the throne of Naples 
 and Sicily. The usual consequences of a 
 successful invasion followed. The partisans 
 of the victors were rewarded with lands, 
 money, and plunder of various kinds ; and 
 the inhabitants were made to experience 
 the truth, so often exhibited in history and 
 so continually disregarded and forgotten, 
 that the burden of a war ultimately falls 
 upon the people, whichever side may be 
 victorious. They had been angry with 
 Manfred and had fallen away from him on 
 account of the contributions he exacted 
 from them ; but they found their new 
 master far more severe and rapacious ; and 
 the extortions were accompanied by every 
 circumstance of contumely and insult. 
 
 Accordingly a reaction soon began ; and 
 the Ghibeline party meditated revolt against 
 the authority so suddenly and harshly im- 
 posed upon the land. The young Conradin, 
 son of the Emperor Conrad IV.. was now 
 past the age of childhood. He was un- 
 doubtedly the rightful heir to Sicily and 
 Apulia ; and it was resolved to invite the 
 imperial youth to come to Italy and claim 
 his inheritance. Conradin himself eagerly 
 embraced the proposal. He was sixteen 
 years of age, full of hope and promise, 
 and ardently hoped at once to regain the 
 patrimony of his race, and to raise the 
 name of the great Hohenstauffen House 
 of which he was the last representative. 
 
 Various partisans took up his cause, in- 
 cluding two princes of the royal family of 
 Castile, Henry and Frederick, who had been 
 fighting in Africa, and in the former of 
 whom unjust treatment and ingratitude on 
 the part of Charles of Anjou had aroused a 
 feeling of revenge. It was in 1267 that 
 Conradin appeared in Italy with an army 
 of some seven or eight thousand men ; and 
 his coming was the signal of open revolt 
 against King Charles throughout Southern 
 Italy. A temporary success gained over 
 Fulk de Puy- Richard, who governed the 
 island of Sicily, gave additional hopes to 
 the Ghibelines and to the partisans of 
 Conradin. But the gallant boy had not the 
 experience or the knowledge to make his 
 authority acknowledged and respected. 
 His army was scanty in number, disorderly 
 and unreliable in action ; and at the ap- 
 proach of Charles of Anjou, many who had 
 at first taken part with Conradin submitted 
 to the French tyranny as the established 
 government ; fearing the result of the 
 Suabian prince's enterprise, and above all 
 
 442 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 things dreading the vengeance that would 
 surely overtake them, in case of failure. 
 
 Still the army of Conradin had sufficiently 
 increased in numbers to warrant him in 
 risking an engagement. He advanced 
 southward with about 20,000 men. At 
 Tagliacozzo, in the plain of San Valentino, 
 the decisive battle was fought, on the 23rd 
 of August, 1268. At first the army of 
 Conradin had the advantage, and fortune 
 seemed to promise the gallant young 
 invader a brilliant triumph over his foes. 
 But here as elsewhere the steady delibe- 
 ration of disciplined valour decided the fate 
 of the day. It was the veteran Alard de 
 Vallery who appeared with the reserve of 
 the French army at the decisive moment, 
 and restored the battle that seemed already 
 lost. The followers of Conradin were thrown 
 into confusion, and their defeat was igno- 
 minious and irretrievable. They were 
 slaughtered by thousands by the victorious 
 army of the French, and Charles, exaspe- 
 rated at the attempt to overthrow his 
 authority, showed no mercy to the pri- 
 soners who fell into his hands. Some 
 Romans were singled out for atrocious 
 vengeance. He had at first ordered that 
 their feet should be cut off ; but fearing 
 that their condition might excite sympathy, 
 and rouse indignation against him, he 
 revoked the command and had them im- 
 prisoned in a house, which was then set on 
 fire. Conradin, who fled from the field, was 
 soon after delivered by treachery, with his 
 friend and partisan the young Duke of 
 Austria, into the victor's hands. Towards 
 his prisoner Conradin Charles behaved with 
 extreme cruelty ; and that cruelty was 
 augmented by a cynical observance of the 
 outward forms of law. A great assembly 
 of lords, syndics, and citizens was convened 
 for the trial of the unfortunate youth whose 
 attempt to regain his own had ended so 
 disastrously. By this tribunal, whose judges 
 were too completely under the influence of 
 Charles of Anjou to dare to oppose his will, 
 Conradin and his companions were pro- 
 nounced guilty of high treason, in levying 
 war against a sovereign prince. Only one 
 of the council, the famous lawyer Guidone 
 da Suzara, dared to record his protest 
 against the proceedings of Charles, and 
 to pronounce an opinion in favour of the 
 prisoner. On the 29th of October, 1268, a 
 scaffold covered with scarlet cloth was 
 erected in the market-place at Naples ; 
 and the last descendant of the mighty race 
 of monarchs who had swayed the sceptre 
 of Germany for more than a century, was 
 led forth, with a train of his friends and 
 followers, to die. He bore himself on the 
 occasion with a fearless dignity worthy of 
 the proud race of the Hohenstauffen. He 
 
 indignantly repudiated the charge brought 
 against him of sacrilege and treason, and 
 looked round with bitter scorn on the venal 
 crowd who had doomed him to death at a 
 tyrant's behest. A feeling of mingled 
 shame and horror seized the spectators of 
 this mournful and tragic sacrifice. The 
 Count of Flanders, who was present on the 
 scaffold, though a son-in-law of Charles, 
 was seized with such fury at the sight, that 
 he suddenly killed the man who had 
 framed the iniquitous sentence and read 
 it aloud on the scaffold. It is told, also, 
 that Conradin, before stooping his neck to 
 the axe, flung his glove over the rail as a 
 token that he bequeathed his rights as 
 well as the task of avenging his death to 
 Peter of Anjou, the son-in-law of Manfred. 
 Other details are related, such as Conradin' s 
 taking up the severed head of his friend the 
 young Duke, and kissing the lifeless lips ; 
 but these rest rather on tradition than on a 
 reliable basis. The last page in the history 
 of the Hohenstauffen is one of the most 
 mournful in history. 
 
 Oppression exercised by the new 
 Government; Charles of Anjou 
 AND his Rule. 
 
 A reign of terror now began throughout 
 Apulia and Sicily. The partisans of Charles 
 of Anjou hastened to show their zeal ; the 
 nobles and citizens whose sentiments were 
 doubtful endeavoured to clear themselves 
 from suspicion by executing vengeance 
 upon all who had been concerned in the 
 late rebellion. A frenzy of cruelty appears 
 to have seized upon the agents and partisans 
 of the monarchy. " They confiscated, they 
 plundered," says the historian, "they 
 blinded, they tortured, till Charles himself 
 checked the inhuman zeal which was reduc- 
 ing the kingdom to a desert, and at length 
 vouchsafed to forgive. But for the Sicilians 
 there was no mercy." Among the warlike 
 leaders who executed vengeance upon the 
 unhappy island, one William I'Estendard is 
 described as more cruel than cruelty itself; 
 " Drunk with blood," says Saba Malaspina, 
 "and thirsting for it the more fiercely the 
 more he shed." One of the most horrible 
 stories of those times is that of the siege 
 of Agosta, the one place that held out after 
 all the other strongholds of the Ghibelines 
 had surrendered in despair. L'Estendard 
 and his men became masters of the town 
 through the treachery of six of the in- 
 habitants, who opened a postern gate to 
 them in the night. The place was given 
 up to the violence of the soldiers, who, 
 according to the custom of the middle ages, 
 and, unhappily, of later times also, slew and 
 plundered, murdering the inhabitants with- 
 
 443 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 out distinction of age or sex. But after the 
 vengeance of the soldiery had been satiated, 
 and when no object was to be gained by a 
 further exhibition of cruelty, in the mere 
 wantonness of savagery, the brutal leader 
 caused the captive citizens of Agosta to be 
 brought bound into his presence, and had 
 them put to death by a gigantic executioner, 
 who went about his work of butchery in the 
 style of the " Septembriseurs " of 1792 in 
 Paris, the heads and bodies of the victims 
 being gathered into a great pile. Never 
 was a massacre more purposeless. The un- 
 happy town was literally emptied of its 
 iuhabitants ; and the memory of the deeds 
 done there remained rankling in the hearts 
 of the dwellers in every part of the island, 
 and had doubtless much to do with the 
 tremendous vengeance executed some years 
 afterwards. " These inhuman butcheries 
 and equally inhuman triumphs," says the 
 latest commentator on the events of that 
 period, "are passed over by the greater 
 number of the historians who so studiously 
 dilate upon the massacre of the Vespers, 
 which was but measure for measure." 
 
 " VcB victis I" might have been written 
 on every habitation of the captured island. 
 The effect of the revolt had been to impose 
 a heavier yoke than ever on the unhappy 
 country, which was now vexed by exactions, 
 in which no distinction was made between 
 the partisans of the rulers and their oppo- 
 nents ; for an equal oppression weighed 
 upon all. The naturally cruel and vindic- 
 tive temper of Charles had been exasperated 
 by the i^esistance he met with, and his 
 suspicious nature saw the means of safety 
 only in thoroughly keeping down the people 
 to whom he knew his rule to be hateful ; 
 and thus, for a series of years, the materials 
 of hatred and vengeance were smouldering 
 among the inhabitants of Southern Italy : 
 kept down for a time by fear, but certain to 
 burst forth, sooner or later, into conflagra- 
 tion. The brave Manfred had left three 
 sons, Henry, Frederick, and Enzo. These 
 children were kept in strict imprisonment 
 by the conqueror. Documents found in the 
 archives of Naples prove them to have been 
 still living and in captivity in the year 
 1299 ; and their confinement probably only 
 terminated with their lives. There was, 
 however, another scion of the Suabian 
 House, and one who was not in the power 
 of the savage victor. This was Constance, 
 daughter of Manfred, and wife of Peter, 
 King of Aragon, the prince to whom Con- 
 radin on the scaffold had bequeathed his 
 rights and his vengeance. 
 
 Charles of Anjou soon made enemies in 
 every direction ; and especially aroused 
 against himself the very important hostility 
 of the Church. He broke the promises 
 
 he had made to Pope Clement regarding 
 the privileges and immunities of the eccle- 
 siastics, for his insatiable rapacity drove 
 him, like John of England to "shake the 
 bags of hoarding abbots," and to extort 
 money wherever it was to be had. The 
 powerful associations of the Templars and 
 Hospitallers were also roused to enmity 
 by exaction. The feudatories, too, were 
 harassed by means similar to those em- 
 ployed in England at a later date by Emp- 
 som and Dudley ; inquisition being made 
 into title-deeds of demesnes and baronies, 
 with total disregard of the prescriptive right 
 arising from long possession ; and thus 
 Charles obtained the opportunity of trans- 
 ferring many a fair estate from its owner to 
 a follower of his own, who held it on feudal 
 tenure. The customary practice of sub- 
 tenure was followed, and thus each foreign 
 master was surrounded by French soldier- 
 followers, whose petulant and licentious 
 manners, total disregard of justice in deal- 
 ing with the natives, and openly expressed 
 contempt of them as a conquered people, 
 added to the general mass of hatred that 
 was accumulating in secret. Impressive 
 warnings and counsels addressed to Charles 
 by Pope Clement, who exhorted him to be 
 content with the taxes he could justly claim, 
 and to leave his subjects free, were disre- 
 garded by the despot, whose collectors 
 practised every kind of injustice, fraud, and 
 extortion in the districts they visited. The 
 unfortunate peasants, unable to pay the 
 sums demanded of them, were deprived of 
 all they possessed, even to their implements 
 of husbandly, and dragged off to bondage 
 in loathsome prisons. " Oh, that they 
 would but leave a bit of bread to the cul- 
 tivators ! " thus run the words of a pathetic 
 remonstrance of the civilians; "would they 
 but be content to eat, instead of devouring \ 
 But no ; the owner can neither secure the 
 goods, nor can the goods secure the owner. 
 . . . We are hardly allowed to fight with 
 the crows for the carrion." The exactions 
 upon the rich were equally general ; while 
 oppressive monopolies fettered the action 
 and development of trade and commerce ; 
 and frequent loans exacted from the cities 
 increased the general discontent. A new 
 coinage was introduced, and the people 
 were compelled to receive the " Carolines " 
 at a rate much above their real value. The 
 most oppressive features of feudalism were 
 introduced ; the game laws and forest laws 
 were enforced with increased severity. The 
 King claimed and carried to its fullest 
 extent the right of bestowing heiresses to 
 great fiefs and estates in marriage, thus 
 obtaining large sums from noble ladies that 
 they might not become the wives of some of 
 the lowest partisans of the King, to whom 
 
 444 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 he had adjudged them, or for the removal 
 of the royal prohibition against marriages 
 they were desirous to contract. It would 
 be an endless task to enumerate all the 
 particulars of oppression and wrong that 
 afflicted the unhappy countries under the 
 dominion of Charles of Anjou. The mon- 
 arch, considering himself strong in the 
 allegiance of those who participated in his 
 ill-gotten gains, and in the terror his savage 
 cruelties had inspired, seems to have had 
 no idea that vengeance could overtake him 
 from the wrath of the oppressed people. 
 He seems to have judged the Sicilians 
 and Apulians by the standard of his own 
 country ; forgetting that the Italians had 
 been used to a far greater measure of 
 liberty, and were more quick to feel and 
 resent wrongs, than the lower classes among 
 his own countrymen. 
 
 The Age of Conspiracy and Intrigue; 
 Peter of Aragon and John of 
 Procida. 
 
 The two ruling passions of the life of 
 Charles of Anjou were ambition and avarice. 
 It has been rightly said of him that he saw 
 in wealth only a source of power, and in 
 power only a source of wealth. Utterly 
 unscrupulous and devoid of any sense of 
 justice, he made use of any and every means 
 to increase his riches and widen his domin- 
 ions ; and, possessed of talents, valour, and 
 determination far beyond most of his con- 
 temporaries, he contrived to turn to his own 
 advantage the circumstances and events 
 by which others were governed. 
 
 In the chief features of his character he 
 presented a striking contrast to his brother, 
 Louis IX. of France, a mild and just prince, 
 filled with a pious and romantic enthusiasm. 
 Not unfrequently Charles took advantage, 
 for his own purposes, of the religious zeal of 
 his brother. When his power was to all 
 appearance firmly established in Southern 
 Italy and Sicily, his ambition soared with 
 a stronger wing, and he meditated new 
 triumphs and conquests. His aim was to 
 extend his dominion over Upper Italy, and 
 ultimately over the Greek Empire ; trusting 
 for success to the political dissensions in 
 the former country, and to the contests of 
 two rival families, represented by Baldwin, 
 Count of Flanders, and the usurper 
 Michael Paloeologus, in the latter. For 
 .a time he was diverted from these schemes 
 "by Louis, who compelled him to take part 
 in that crusade which terminated so disas- 
 trously with the pious king's death at 
 Tunis. Charles arrived with his forces in 
 Africa at the very moment of his brother's 
 death ; and turned that calamity to his own 
 profit by an advantageous treaty with the 
 
 King of Tunis, stipulating that the crusa- 
 ders should retire, but that he himself should 
 receive an augmented tribute and a large 
 sum of ready money. He then took up the 
 cause of Baldwin, who had been driven 
 from Constantinople, promising to lead an 
 army against the usurper Palceologus ; in 
 return for which he was to receive a third 
 of the conquered territory, and the reversion 
 of the throne of Constantinople itself if the 
 direct line of succession failed. He also 
 affianced his infant daughter, Beatrice, to 
 Baldwin's heir, Philip. 
 
 In Italy he had become so powerful that 
 he utterly disregarded the stipulations 
 originally made with the Pope, and per- 
 petrated the greatest violence and injus- 
 tice, attacking Genoa and other states, 
 and upholding his agents and followers in 
 the commission of the worst crimes. Thus 
 he inflicted no greater punishment than a 
 reproof upon Guy de Montfort, son of the 
 famous Simon, Earl of Leicester, when the 
 said Guy, in revenge for the fate of his 
 father, with his own hand murdered Prince 
 Henry, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 
 and nephew to King Henry III., in the 
 church at Viterbo. By force or by fraud, 
 he managed to obtain power in Northern 
 Italy ; and the see of Rome beheld with 
 affright its supremacy menaced by the man 
 upon whom it had bestowed the kingdom of 
 Apulia and Sicily. 
 
 Then it was that the celebrated scheme 
 for the liberation of Sicily was promulgated, 
 which was rendered famous in history by 
 the name of John of Procida. This able 
 and energetic man was an Italian noble, 
 who had stood high in the favour of the 
 Emperor Frederick II. and of the warlike 
 Manfred. He had considerable reputation 
 for scientific knowledge,' and was justly 
 accounted one of the most learned and 
 astute of the men of his time. After the 
 cause of the Ghibeline party was lost in 
 Italy, he took refuge at the Court of Peter 
 of Aragon. His estates had been con- 
 fiscated by Charles of Anjou ; and it is 
 said that insults to his personal honour 
 increased his natural desire for revenge. 
 Queen Constance received him with wel- 
 come as a faithful friend and supporter of 
 her late father ; and John of Procida soon 
 gained the favour and confidence of her 
 husband, the King Peter. With two other 
 noble exiles, Roger Loria and Conrad 
 Lancia, he contrived to persuade Peter 
 that the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily 
 was a practicable, as it certainly must be 
 a glorious, enterprise. They could count 
 upon the influence of the Pope, who was 
 bitterly displeased at the faithlessness and 
 arrogance of Charles ; on the help of 
 Michael Paloeologus, whom he undertook 
 
 445 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 to convince of the danger that would 
 threaten his own throne so long as Charles, 
 the insatiably ambitious, occupied that of 
 Sicily ; and, above all, on the exertions of 
 the Sicilians themselves, among whom the 
 tyranny of Charles and the horrible malad- 
 ministration and injustice of his govern- 
 ment had excited universal hatred. Each 
 of the powers could contribute an important 
 element to the contest : Michael Paloeo- 
 logus could find gold ; the King of Aragon 
 would be able to furnish troops ; and the 
 Pope would work for them with the spiritual 
 weapons of ban and excommunication, 
 which in those days had a powerful in- 
 fluence on men's minds. 
 
 There has of late been considerable doubt 
 cast on the accounts of the transactions of 
 this time as related by the earlier his- 
 torians, who represent John of Procida as 
 the head and the chief agent in the great 
 conspiracy for the dethronement of Charles 
 of Anjou. Certain it is, however, that he 
 was very active in bringing about an under- 
 standing between the King of Aragon, the 
 Greek Emperor, and the Pope, who also 
 desired to see the power of Charles of 
 Anjou overthrown. The circumstances 
 appearing favourable for an effort, Peter 
 of Aragon began to make extensive pre- 
 parations for war, ostensibly against the 
 Saracens in Africa. He made a five years' 
 truce with the King of Granada, put his 
 country in a complete state of defence, and 
 provided himself with "the sinews of war" 
 in the shape of ample funds. The Pope, 
 Nicholas III., whom Charles of Anjou had 
 converted into an enemy by his violent pro- 
 ceedings, looked with favour on the enter- 
 prise of Peter; which might have been 
 brought to an issue at once but for the 
 death of the Pontiff in 1280. This was a 
 great blow to the conspirators. By this 
 time also the preparations of Peter, in 
 spite of his attempts to keep them secret, 
 had been noised abroad ; and Charles of 
 Anjou became suspicious as to the inten- 
 tions of the Spanish king. Charles had 
 never been wanting in determination, or in 
 the faculty of seizing upon a favourable 
 moment. He saw the opportunity afforded 
 him by the death of Nicholas III. ; and in 
 defiance of all public opinion, he imprisoned 
 three cardinals of the house of Orsini whom 
 he considered inimical to his interests, and 
 so closely pressed the others, when the duty 
 of electing a successor to Nicholas came 
 before them, that a Frenchman and a tool 
 of his own was chosen in the person of 
 Martin V., in February 1281 ; and thus the 
 scale seemed again to have turned in his 
 favour. He now began extensive prepa- 
 rations for carrying out his designs in the 
 East, under pretext of taking the cross for 
 
 the recovery of the Holy Land. Bartholo- 
 mew of Neocastro describes this as "the 
 cross of the thief, not that of Christ!" 
 With the Pope thoroughly in his interest, 
 and only Peter of Aragon to oppose him, he 
 had not the slightest doubt of success. 
 
 But in Italy the national feeling was 
 against him ; and there were many even of 
 the Guelphic faction to whom the idea of 
 the rule of a Frenchman was odious. At a 
 later period even Dante, at first a Guelph, 
 became converted to the idea of the power 
 and unity of Italy under the rule of a German 
 Emperor, and thus we find him, in his im- 
 mortal epic, welcoming Henry VII. ot 
 Luxemburg, who renewed the designs ot 
 the Hohenstauffen, as the liberator of his 
 country from internal strife and consequent 
 weakness. From day to day the antagonism 
 between the French and the Latin race 
 became more embittered ; and the detesta- 
 tion in which the arrogant rule of Charles 
 was held was increased by the appointment 
 of the cruel and merciless William I'Es- 
 tendard to the office of Charles's deputy in 
 Rome. The cup of iniquity and oppression 
 was almost full. Deeming themselves 
 secure in their ascendency, the followers of 
 Charles of Anjou perpetrated every kind of 
 wrong on the people subject to them, un- 
 mindful of the slumbering ferocity in the 
 Italian character, that might at any time 
 burst forth into a flame. Here and there 
 warning voices were raised to predict the 
 calamity that would happen, when the 
 temper of the people should be tried beyond 
 all bearing, and when the time came at 
 which endurance should suddenly end. 
 Very remarkable are the words uttered by 
 the good and learned Bertrando, Arch- 
 bishop of Cosenza. "He who lives long 
 enough," said this wise priest "shall see 
 adversaries of abject condition rise up 
 against these proud oppressors, expel them 
 from the kingdom, and destroy their do- 
 minion ; and the time will come when he 
 who slays a Frenchman will deem that he 
 is offering a pleasing sacrifice to God." 
 
 The Massacre of Easter Tuesday,, 
 1282. 
 
 Palermo, the ancient capital of Sicily, 
 was the place where the tyranny of the 
 Angevin King and his satellites appeared 
 in its most odious colours. John of St. 
 Remigia, the Justiciary who ruled in the 
 name of Charles, with a number of subor- 
 dinate officers, carried out his master's 
 system of terrorism and coercion with an 
 exaggeration of tyranny almost inconceiv- 
 able, and the very submissiveness of the 
 people seemed to inflame his cruelty. The 
 Easter festival, regarded in those devout 
 
 446 
 
THE SICILIAN VESPERS. 
 
 if ignorant days with especial veneration, 
 was chosen by the Justiciary and his men 
 for the display of their relentless spirit. 
 Men who had failed to pay their propor- 
 tion of the taxes were dragged from the 
 churches where they were praying and cast 
 into prison in chains. The insulting name, 
 "Paterini," was applied to the people in 
 jeering contempt of their dependent condi- 
 tion. But Easter Day, with the week it 
 ushers in, is a season of joy ; and the 
 
 or stood chatting in groups, while some 
 made merry at the tables with meat 
 and wine, and others danced upon the 
 greensward. But suddenly the harmony 
 of the meeting — it was at the hour of 
 vespers — ^was disturbed by the appearance 
 of some officers of the Justiciary. These 
 men appeared angry at the cheerfulness 
 displayed by the people, and proceeded 
 rudely to- interfere with them, under the 
 pretext of maintaining order. They forced 
 
 SCENt ON THE COAST OF THE GuLF OF GeNOA. 
 
 Sicilians, who have all the elasticity of the 
 Southern character, seemed for a time 
 to have forgotten the bitterness of their 
 servitude; and on that Tuesday the 31st 
 of March, 1282, many of the inhabitants 
 of Palermo had assembled near a church 
 dedicated to the Holy Spirit, about half 
 a mile from the southern wall of the city. 
 On the open space near the church, now 
 enclosed as a cemetery, tables and benches 
 had been placed, as for a feast, and the 
 people from the city walked to and fro, 
 
 their way noisily among the chatting and 
 dancing groups, accosted the women with 
 coarse barrack-room jests, and insulted 
 them with unseemly behaviour. Temper- 
 ately remonstrated with at first, they per- 
 sisted in their annoyance, until such a 
 threatening murmur arose among the 
 younger men that the soldiers declared 
 " these paterini must be armed, or they 
 would not dare to speak out so loud." 
 
 Accordingly they began to hustle and 
 strike them, and insisted upon searching 
 
 447 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 them for hidden weapons. In mere bravado, 
 or with a hideous relish of the pain and 
 humiliation they w:ere causing-, they added 
 all possible insult to these violent proceed- 
 ings. One of them, whose name history 
 has preserved for infamy, seized a young 
 woman of great beauty and of modest and 
 dignified bearing, and proceeded in an in- 
 sulting manner to search her. She sank 
 fainting into her husband's arms. Then the 
 fierce Southern nature suddenly sprang up, 
 and the submission of years was in an in- 
 stant, cast to the winds. A fierce shout of 
 "Death to the French!" arose from a 
 hundred voices, and a youth rushed from 
 the crowd and laid the insulting French- 
 man dead at his feet. A still fiercer yell 
 greeted this summary act of vengeance. It 
 seemed as though an electric spark had 
 kindled the spirit of the people. " Death, 
 death to the French!" resounded again 
 and again, now taken up as a battle-cry ; 
 and in another moment the people and 
 their oppressors were in fierce conflict. Of 
 the citizens many perished ; but though they 
 .had only sticks, stones, and knives to oppose 
 ±0 the warlike weapons of the soldiers, and 
 the courage of hatred and despair where- 
 with to combat their discipline, they pre- 
 vailed in the end. The corpse of Drouet 
 was hidden under heaps of the slain, who 
 fell on both sides ; but the victory remained 
 with the citizens, — for two hundred French- 
 men were present when the death-struggle 
 began, and when it ended every one of 
 those two hundred was stretched lifeless on 
 the plain. 
 
 But the slaughter on their own side had 
 been immense ; and, indeed, it could not be 
 otherwise, the inequality of the conflict 
 considered. The sight of the corpses of 
 brothers, fathers, and sons roused the sur- 
 vivors to still greater fury. The throng 
 rushed back into the city brandishing their 
 bloody weapons, and more fiercely than 
 ever rose the shout, "Death to the French ! " 
 Through the streets they ran, their numbers 
 continually increased by fresh accessions ; 
 and a spectacle of horror ensued, such as 
 is seen when a city is taken by assault. 
 The houses of the French were broken 
 open, and the occupants dragged forth 
 and poniarded. Women and children were 
 included in the fierce vengeance of that 
 moment of madness. The massacre con- 
 tinued until darkness put an end to it for 
 the time, only to be resumed with un- 
 diminished fury on the morrow. The 
 
 castle of the Justiciary was surrounded by 
 a raging mob, clamouring for his blood. 
 With fierce imprecations they stormed that 
 "Bastile" of Italy; but the Justiciary 
 contrived to escape, with two attendants, 
 and to get out of the city. When the 
 massacre ended for want of victims, two* 
 thousand French had been slain. In the 
 case of persons whose nationality was 
 doubtful, they were made to pronounce the 
 word " ciciri," and those who uttered it 
 with a foreign accent were at once pat to 
 death. The convents were broken open, 
 and the French friars were slain. The 
 memory of the massacre of Agosta seemed 
 to have quenched every feeling of humanity 
 and pity in the breasts of the Sicilians ; 
 and horrible instances of cruelty and ferocity 
 occurred. The historian of these events finds 
 in the wrongs inflicted on Sicily an extenu- 
 ation for the atrocity of the reprisals. " I 
 do not blush for my country at the remem- 
 brance of the Vespers," he says, "but 
 bewail the dire necessity which drove Sicily 
 to such extremities — bleeding and tortured, 
 consumed by hunger, trampled underfoot, 
 and insulted in all she held most precious." 
 In one respect the completeness of the 
 massacre proved of high political import- 
 ance. The people had gone too far for any 
 hope of forgiveness. There was no possi- 
 bility of compromise with Charles, and in 
 speedy action lay the only chance of life 
 and safety. A parliament at once assem- 
 bled, abolished monarchy, and proclaimed 
 a republic. Messina, astonished and be- 
 wildered at first, after a few weeks made 
 common cause with Palermo, and slew or 
 drove away the Frenchmen resident within 
 its walls. Charles of Anjou, who was at 
 that time staying at Ovieto, was filled with 
 rage at the news of the massacre at Palermo 
 and Messina, and at once turned the force 
 he had assembled for the Greek war against 
 the insurgents. He besieged Messina, and 
 might have obtained submission but that 
 the citizens knew that submission to such 
 a man meant death. They determined to 
 resist to the last man ; and before Charles 
 could conquer them, Peter of Aragon ap- 
 peared with an army, and landed at Trapani 
 in Sicily. The strife was long and arduous ; 
 but in the end Peter triumphed, and he and 
 his wife Constance were crowned as King 
 and Queen of Sicily. Thus tyranny and 
 oppression cost the House of Anjou the fair 
 dominion of Italy. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 448 
 
The Embarkation of William of Orange at Helvoetsluys for Torbay. 
 
 FROM TORBAY TO ST. JAMES'S. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 
 
 "This revolution, of all revolutions the least violent, has been of all revolutions the most beneficent. . . It is because 
 we had this preserving revolution in the seventeenth century that we have not had a destroying revolution in the nineteenth 
 . . . For the authority of law, for the security of property, for the peace of our streets, for the happiness of our homes, our 
 gratitude is due, under Him who raises and pulls down nations at His pleasure, to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, 
 and to William of Orange. — Lord Macaulay. 
 
 Torbay — An Eventful Week — James's Early Designs — His First Parliament — Revenge on Titus Oates — The Insurrections 
 in the North and West ; The Battle of Sedgemoor — The " Bloody Assizes " — Persecution of the Nonconformists — The 
 Dispensing Power — Trial of Sir Edward Hales — James coerces the Universities — The First Declaration of Indulgence 
 — The Child of Prayer — The Second Declaration of Indulgence — The Prayer of the Prelates — The Trial of the Seven 
 Bishops — For Parliament and Protestantism — William enters Exeter ; Marches on Salisbury — Defections from James 
 — The King escapes, is captured, and again flies — William enters St. James's Palace — Conclusion. 
 
 TORBAY. 
 WAY down on the east coast of Devon- 
 shire, where the wild Atlcintic waves, 
 as yet unchecked by the narrows of 
 the Channel, still roll in long and unbroken 
 billows on the pebbly beach, lies a wide and 
 spacious harbour, well-known from time 
 immemorial as a safe and sure anchorage 
 in times of storm and stress. 
 
 For many years its smooth waters were 
 scarcely cut by a keel larger than that of a 
 fishing-smack, and the wide amphitheatre of 
 grassy rocks rising around remained desolate 
 and deserted, save for the huts of a few fish- 
 ermen and farm-labourers. But one mild 
 morning in the month of November 1688, 
 the silence of years was suddenly broken, and 
 a large fleet rounded the lofty promontory at 
 
 its south-western extremity, and rode securely 
 at anchor within its peaceful limits. 
 
 The shores, once so lonely and deserted, 
 were now crowded by numbers of anxious 
 and excited people, who had thronged from 
 all parts to witness the disembarkation from 
 the fleet ; and as boats put off from the ships, 
 and soldiers, speaking for the most part a 
 strange tongue, landed on the stony shore, 
 they were welcomed with loud huzzas, and 
 overwhelmed with offers of assistance. It 
 was more like the home-coming of a victorious 
 prince than the invasion of a foreign army. 
 
 Yet such, we suppose, it must be called, 
 for the ships and most of the soldiers were 
 Dutch ; and although English royal blood 
 ran in the veins of their leader, William, Prince 
 of Orange, yet he had come to wrest the 
 449 C G 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 throne from its possessor, and to establish 
 himself thereon instead. But he came at the 
 invitation of the people, who were still full of 
 bitterness when they remembered the Bloody 
 Assizes and the cowardly cruelties of the 
 King ; he came as the champion of liberty 
 and the defender of Protestantism ; he came, 
 if possible, to end once for all the weary con- 
 test which had so long been waged between 
 the English sovereign and his subjects, — the 
 Stuart princes and their people. 
 
 How time changes all things ! Where once 
 the wild bee hummed over the thyme-scented 
 grass of those quiet sunny slopes ; where once 
 William of Orange landed on the stony shore 
 amid the huzzas of English Protestants, now 
 stands the thriving town of Brixham, and in 
 the quay is still shown a certain stone which 
 they say is the veritable piece of rock on which 
 he first stepped ashore, while at the north- 
 western extremity of the bay flourishes the 
 fair town of Torquay, famous everywhere 
 for the beautiful softness of its air and the 
 mildness of its climate. 
 
 It was thus that Torbay was awakened 
 from the sleep of centuries, and became for 
 ever famous in our "rough island story." 
 Let us now endeavour to set forth the causes 
 which led to the landing of the Prince of 
 Orange, and the errors which had so com- 
 pletely alienated the hearts of the English 
 people from their sovereign. To do so we 
 must glance at the chief events of the reign 
 of that sovereign — James II. 
 
 An Eventful Week. 
 
 We said just now that it was hoped the 
 coming of the Prince of Orange would ter- 
 minate the contest between the English 
 sovereign and his subjects. That contest, 
 in short, was for parliamentary power and 
 for the Protestant religion. The Stuart kings 
 were all cursed with an insane desire for 
 absolute power, and blinded by their belief 
 in their "divine right" to rule and do as 
 they pleased with their subjects. To this 
 mad desire for despotic rule, James added a 
 desperate determination to overturn the Pro- 
 testant religion, and make England a province 
 of the Pope. It was known that he was an 
 avowed Romanist, and during the previous 
 reign certain members of parliament had 
 brought forward a Bill to exclude him from 
 the throne. By reason of the support of the 
 Episcopalians the Bill was thrown out, and 
 James laid up schemes of vengeance in his 
 heart, — schemes which he executed with only 
 too great success when he came to the throne. 
 
 Still there were many men whose faces 
 turned pale as they remembered the dreadful 
 doings of the last Romanist sovereign of 
 England, and knowing the autocratic and 
 unreasoning temper of the Stuart race, feared 
 
 for a return of the fires of Smithfield and the 
 Torture Chamber of the Tower. 
 
 His accession came somewhat suddenly 
 upon the country, for only a few days before, 
 on Sunday morning the ist of February, 
 1685, the shameless sovereign known as the 
 " Merrie Monarch" was still well and pre- 
 sumably happy, and both he and his people 
 looked forward to a lengthened reign. But 
 on this day, as he was laughing gaily with 
 his three favourite court ladies in the great 
 gallery at Whitehall, and listening with languid 
 pleasure to the love-songs sung by a little 
 French page, suddenly, in the midst of his 
 Sunday revel, he was stricken with a severe 
 sickness. He reeled, strove to rally, and 
 finally tottered to his bed-chamber. Next 
 morning, as he was dressing, he was seized 
 with a fit of apoplexy, and for five days his 
 life trembled in the balance. On Wednesday 
 he was better, and joy-bells pealed throughout 
 the land, for the people feared the accession 
 of his brother, James, Duke of York. But 
 at noon on Friday, the 6th of February, he 
 died ; and a quarter of an hour afterwards 
 the new King made his first speech to the 
 Council, in which he declared his determi- 
 nation to rule according to the tenets of the 
 Reformed Church. During the same after- 
 noon James II. was proclaimed as king from 
 Whitehall Gate, Temple Bar, and the Ex- 
 change, and thus within a week the whole 
 course of events was changed, and an avowed 
 Romanist ruled on the English throne. 
 
 James's Early Designs. 
 
 Notwithstanding the King's declaration at 
 the meeting of the Privy Council, it was not 
 long before he showed himself in his true 
 colours. On the second Sunday after his 
 accession he went publicly to mass, and 
 ordered the doors of the chapel to be flung 
 open, so that he might be seen kneeling 
 before the altar. He encouraged Romanists 
 to flock to Court, so much so that even 
 Evelyn says in his Diary the Romanists 
 " were swarming at Court with greater con- 
 fidence than had been ever seen in England 
 since the Reformation, so that everybody 
 grew jealous as to what this would tend." 
 Still further he caused his hatred of freedom 
 to find vent in a special letter which he sent 
 to the "Estates of Scotland," by which it was 
 enacted that if any person should preach or 
 attend a conventicle under a roof or in the 
 open air, he should be liable to the punish- 
 ment of death, and all his goods and lands 
 should be confiscate ! 
 
 Romanists were released from prison in 
 thousands, and every favour was shown to 
 them. Many were given high appointments 
 in the army and public service. This was 
 in direct defiance of the Test Act, which 
 
 450 
 
FROM TORE A V TO ST. /AMES'S. 
 
 liad been passed in the previous reign, and 
 provided that all persons holding public ap- 
 pointments should take an oath against 
 transubstantiation. A Papal nuncio vs^as 
 entertained at Court, and Father Edward 
 Petre, one of the most active of the Jesuits, 
 became the confidential adviser of the King. 
 In short, although it was gradually and by 
 slow degrees at first, he began to unfold the 
 grand design of his reign, which was not 
 only to rule as a despotic prince, but to 
 completely restore the Romish worship in 
 England, and to crush all freedom, not only 
 of speech and action, but also of thought out 
 of the land. 
 
 One of his first aims was to become omni- 
 potent in the House of Commons. The 
 Commons of England have always been a 
 difficulty with our autocratic kings, and in 
 the long run they have generally forced the 
 sovereign to submit ; for although in the far 
 past the prerogatives of the prince were ex- 
 ceedingly extensive, yet the consent of the 
 Commons was necessary to both legislation 
 and taxation. And as a rule, whenever the 
 sovereign endeavoured to pass laws or levy 
 taxes vvithout their co-operation, they have 
 not only failed miserably, but in the end have 
 had to confess themselves beaten. 
 
 At the time of the accession of James, 
 however, the representation of the people was 
 almost entirely in his hands. The municipal 
 charters imposed by Charles enabled the 
 sovereign to practically secure the return of 
 any member he chose for the boroughs, 
 while the county members were almost 
 certain to be extreme Tories, who considered 
 it part of their religion to believe in " divine 
 right," and a religious duty to support the 
 King at all risks, and supply all the money he 
 asked for. 
 
 But even before James summoned a par- 
 liament, his determination to rule with 
 despotic power showed itself most unmis- 
 takably. He put forth an edict declaring it 
 to be his will and pleasure that certain 
 custom-duties given only to the late King 
 for life should still be paid, although accord- 
 ing to the fundamental law of the realm no 
 duties could be levied without an Act of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 James was urged to take this course by 
 Chief Justice Jeffreys, whom he had caused 
 his brother, the late King, to appoint, and 
 who undoubtedly was the greatest ruffian who 
 ever wore the ermine. His brutal nature 
 was precisely of that character which tyrants 
 require to carry out their worst designs, and 
 James had been on the throne but a few days 
 when this abandoned wretch was raised to a 
 peerage and a seat in the Cabinet. The 
 whole of the legal patronage was in his 
 hands, and his selection by James reveals 
 still more clearly his determination to have 
 
 the whole of England under his thumb, to 
 rule it with a rod of iron. 
 
 James put off the general election as long 
 as he could, for, to tell the shameful truth, 
 he was afraid of the displeasure of Louis 
 of France. This king greatly feared t'"e 
 English Parhament, whose policy and in- 
 fluence he believed to be antagonistic to his 
 growing power on the Continent. He had 
 therefore paid Charles II. large sums to keep 
 his Commons quiet. The same course was 
 pursued with James, and the shameless tyrant 
 was thus the virtual vassal and paid partizan 
 of the French king. But there were signs 
 that although the nation was now quiet 
 enough, discontent was beginning to show 
 itself, and unless a parliament were soon 
 summoned there was every probability of a 
 decided outbreak. Moreover James wanted 
 to have certain large revenues settled on him 
 for life. The summons for the Parliament 
 was therefore sent out, and at the same 
 time James sent messages to Louis inform- 
 ing him that he would certainly keep the 
 Commons from meddling with foreign affairs, 
 and prevent them from getting into mischief. 
 The immediate result of this message was 
 that large sums of money found their way 
 from Louis of France into the coffers of King 
 James, who received the money with tears of 
 joy and words of abject gratitude. He then 
 proceeded to fill the House of Commons 
 with representatives who would be slaves of 
 his will. The most illegal pressure was put 
 upon the voters to return James's candidates. 
 Never was there an election so shamelessly 
 conducted : the clergy were ordered to pro- 
 claim from their pulpits that the righteous 
 wrath of God would descend upon any one 
 who voted for a Whig candidate ; and the re- 
 turning officers were all bribed to act in the 
 interests of the Court. Evelyn, in his Dt'arj, 
 writes under date May loth, 1685: "Elec- 
 tions were thought to be very indirectly 
 carried on in most places. God grant a 
 better issue of it than some expect." And 
 again on May 22nd : " The truth is there 
 were many of the new members whose elec- 
 tions and returns were universally censured." 
 
 The result of the elections was, in truth, 
 far more favourable to James than ever he 
 had dared to hope ; but we might almost 
 say that it was one of the first of the series 
 of steps which led to his downfall, for there 
 were many royalists who had fought and 
 bled for his father who stood aghast at the 
 shameless manner in which the almost 
 universal return of James's candidates had 
 been secured. 
 
 James's First Parliament, 
 The session opened on the 19th May, and 
 with very little delay the subservient parlia- 
 ment settled on the King for life the whole 
 
 451 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of the revenues previously enjoyed by King 
 Charles. A few days after this, however, 
 they passed two resolutions : " To stand by 
 His Majesty ... for the defence and support 
 of the Church of England;" and the other 
 was to petition the King to "put into exe- 
 cution the laws against all dissenters whoso- 
 ever from the Church of England." As 
 these laws would operate against Romanists 
 as well as Puritans, James was highly indig- 
 nant. He was willing enough to take ad- 
 vantage of the Toryism of the Episcopalians 
 to answer his own purpose, but he had no 
 notion of their acting on the initiative in any 
 way or petitioning against the members of 
 his own Church. He therefore issued orders 
 to rescind these resolutions, which the servile 
 House did immediately, and shortly after sub- 
 mitted to be adjourned sine die. 
 
 James, having obtained a servile Parlia- 
 ment, now proceeded to curb the power of 
 the Established Church, and to advance the 
 spread of Popery. Naturally the clergy were 
 much alarmed at the rise of Romanism, and 
 many of them fiercely denounced the "Scarlet 
 Lady," as they called the Church of Rome, 
 from their pulpits. James, in high dis- 
 pleasure, sent for certain of the bishops, and 
 sternly commanded them to put an end to 
 all such preaching, and for a time he was 
 successful. 
 
 But the sturdy Nonconformists required 
 stronger treatment. Thus Richard Baxter, the 
 venerable and pious Puritan divine, was 
 heavily fined and imprisoned, and the odious 
 Five Mile Act— by which no dissenter could 
 hve within five miles of any town — was 
 rigidly enforced. 
 
 The Trial of Titus Gates. 
 Then James bethought him of revenge, and 
 Titus Gates, the infamous perjurer who had 
 given false evidence of a Popish plot, and 
 had grievously libelled James, in the pre- 
 vious reign, was brought to trial. Un- 
 doubtedly Gates was a deeply dyed villain 
 and well deserving of punishment, but his 
 sentence savours more of cruel revenge than 
 justice. He was sentenced to be first pil- 
 loried at the Royal Exchange, then in Palace 
 Yard ; then he was to be whipped from Aid- 
 gate to Newgate on one day, and then from 
 Newgate to Tyburn within the next forty- 
 eight hours. He was to be imprisoned for 
 life, and five times every year he was to be 
 pilloried. Intercession was made to James 
 to remit the second flogging. The King's reply 
 was characteristic : " He shall go through 
 with it, if he has breath in his body." And 
 Gates did go through with it, and received 
 more than seventeen hundi'ed lashes, every 
 one of which drew blood. The groans and 
 shrieks of the wretched criminal were enough 
 to have pierced the stoniest heart. Many 
 
 times he swooned, and had to be dragged to 
 Tyburn on a sledge. Under the tyrant James 
 fearful floggings of this kind soon became 
 quite common for the smallest of political 
 offences, until the Petition of Rights under 
 William of Grange stopped this, together with 
 all cruel punishments. 
 
 The Insurrections in the North and 
 West; The Battle of Sedgemoor. 
 The Dukes of Argyle and Monmouth, who 
 were now exiles in Holland because of their 
 attempts in the previous reign to limit the 
 despotic power of Charles, thought this a 
 favourable opportunity to raise again the 
 standard of liberty and Protestantism. Their 
 partizans in England and Scotland supplied 
 money and assured them that whenever they 
 appeared, the country would rise as one man 
 to overturn the Popish king. Moreover, Argyle 
 counted upon the support of the persecuted 
 Presbyterians of Scotland, and Monmouth 
 relied upon the Protestants of the west and 
 the belief, which many persons held, that he 
 was the rightful heir to the throne. He was, 
 in fact, the illegitimate son of Charles II. and- 
 Lucy Walters, a Welsh girl ; but there were 
 several stories in circulation of a secret mar- 
 riage having taken place, and there were 
 many who credited the story and honestly 
 believed him to be the true heir to the throne. 
 It is not within the scope of this paper to 
 give a detailed account of these ill-advised 
 insurrections. Both failed utterly and mise- 
 rably. Both leaders were captured and speedily 
 executed. The battle of Sedgemoor, in which 
 Monmouth's hopes were crushed, is memo- 
 rable as being the last fought on English soil. 
 But although it is not necessary to our pur- 
 pose to refer more particularly to the details 
 of these revolts, the cruelty with which James 
 punished the rebels must be noticed, as afford- 
 ing another link in the chain of evil and 
 tyrannical deeds which finally alienated from 
 him the hearts of even his most devoted 
 adherents. 
 
 The Bloody Assizes. 
 Among the first of the victims was Abraham 
 Holmes, one of Cromwell's Ironsides. He had 
 been an officer in the Protector's own regi- 
 ment, and was one of those to whom the idea of 
 a Popish king being the head of the Protes- 
 tant Church was nothing short of blasphemy. 
 Hewouldacknowledge noking and no superior 
 —in spiritual matters at least — but King Jesus. 
 When examined in London before the Privy 
 Council he said boldly that he had fought 
 against the tyrant James Stuart even as he 
 had fought under Cromwell against his father, 
 Charles Stuart, and if he had the chance he 
 would certainly fight again. When told that 
 if he would give certain information his life 
 should be spared, the stern old soldier 
 
 452 
 
FROM TORE AY TO ST. JAMES'S. 
 
 replied : " Not I. Cromwell's Ironsides never 
 submit, and never turn against their com- 
 rades." He was taken back to Bridgewater 
 and there hanged. 
 
 To Judge Jeffreys was given the task of 
 reaping the bloody harvest sown by the sword 
 of the rebellion. The gaols were full of 
 "rebels," either taken as prisoners after 
 Sedgemoor, or arrested on suspicion of being 
 concerned in the revolt. Numbers had 
 already been slain by Colonel Kirke, who, 
 after the battle, had pursued his opponents 
 far and wide and butchered hundreds in cold 
 blood. 
 
 Taunton was the scene of a horrible mas- 
 sacre. Kirke and his officers lodged at the 
 White Hart Inn, and whilst they drank 
 beer within, the prisoners were hanged by 
 scores, one after the other, over the sign-post 
 of the house, the band playing meanwhile 
 various lively tunes, 
 to afford them, as Kirke 
 said, music for their 
 dancing. The victims 
 were then drawn and 
 quartered, and so many 
 were slaughtered, that 
 the executioner stood 
 ankle deep in blood 
 while streams of gore 
 flowed down the streets 
 like water. 
 
 During that woeful 
 autumn, Jeffreys con- 
 demned to death no less 
 than 331 persons ; 849 
 were transported ; and 
 33 were fined or whipped. 
 His first victim was 
 Lady Alice Lisle, whose 
 sole offence consisted in 
 giving a meal and a 
 night's lodging to two 
 fugitives. For this she was condemned to be 
 burned ; and neither her extreme age — she 
 was seventy years old — nor the fact that she 
 had frequently sheltered the adherents of 
 James during the time of the civil war, and 
 it was by no means clear that she knew whom 
 she was now helping, could avail aught. 
 In reply to the most passionate appeals for 
 mercy, sent in even by Romanists, James only 
 commuted her sentence from burning to 
 hanging. 
 
 But the barbarity of these executions were 
 equalled, if not surpassed, by the villany of 
 the courtiers who thronged James's palace and 
 made money out of the unfortunate prisoners 
 who were transported for life, by selling them 
 for field labour in Jamaica and Barbadoes. 
 It is said that eleven thousand pounds were 
 paid by the West Indian. planters for these 
 sturdy Somersetshire peasants whose faults 
 were that they had fought for Protestantism 
 
 Judge Jeffrey 
 
 and for him whom they considered to be the 
 rightful king. The^-e was fierce contention 
 among James's courtiers for shares of this 
 unholy spoil. Of course Jeffreys took good 
 care of himself in the matter, as also did the 
 Queen and her ladies. The action of her 
 maids of honour (!) was most reprehensible. 
 There were twenty or thirty Somersetshire 
 maidens whose only fault was that they had 
 presented to Monmouth a silk banner and 
 a Bible. The Queen's maids of honour 
 obtained their imprisonment, hoping and 
 beheving that their friends would purchase 
 pardon for them at any price. Their atrocious 
 scheme succeeded only too well. The ladies 
 were arrested and thrown into prison, and 
 the Queen by degrees obtained the King's 
 pardon for them as their friends paid the 
 exorbitant bribes demanded into the hands 
 of her agents. Thus did James wreak his 
 vengeance on the " re- 
 bels." 
 
 This was the state of 
 affairs in " merrie Eng- 
 land" duringthe first year 
 of the reign of James II. 
 The people were impri- 
 soned and sold for the 
 benefit of the King's 
 favourites ; they were tor- 
 tured because of their re- 
 ligious opinions ; they 
 were forced to pay il- 
 legal taxes ; the laws were 
 administered by villains 
 for judges ; and last 
 though not least, the 
 country was governed 
 without a parHament and 
 in direct defiance of con- 
 stitutional law, by the 
 despotic will of the King 
 who was himself the 
 hireling of the King of France. It was not 
 thus that the so-called " rebel " Oliver ruled 
 England, — at least he had made her name 
 respected throughout the world. 
 
 Persecution of the Nonconformists. 
 James was exultant in his victory. At last 
 he had this turbulent England at his feet, 
 and had carried out some of the despotic de- 
 signs of his father and grandfather. Poor 
 fool ! he little knew the Enghsh people ; and 
 even while he thought he had conquered 
 them, the storm was rapidly rising which 
 would hurl him from the throne like a vvi- 
 thered leaf on a mountain torrent. But at this 
 period, the autumn of 1685, his power was at 
 its height. Everywhere his enemies had been 
 vanquished. The Whig party seemed exter- 
 minated. The parliament was entirely under 
 his control ; it had voted him immense sums 
 of money, and had then quietly submitted to 
 
 453 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 be dismissed. Even the Nonconformists, the 
 most persistent and invincible advocates of 
 the civil and religious liberty which the Stuarts 
 were so madly determined to crush, seemed 
 completely beaten and discouraged. Their 
 most famous and pious ministers were afraid 
 to be seen in the streets lest they should be 
 grossly insulted and their lives endangered ; 
 their places of meeting were literally the holes 
 and corners of the earth ; and when they 
 gathered together for worship in any building, 
 sentinels were posted to give the alarm if 
 strangers drew near. Trap-doors were con- 
 structed in their houses so that in case of danger 
 they might escape unseen ; and so keen was 
 the persecution that at last the bolder spirits 
 determined to oppose forceby force. England 
 seemed on the verge of the fiercest of all 
 fights — a religious war. Thus, when a Mid- 
 dlesex magistrate, hearing that certain Non- 
 conformists were wont to meet for prayer in 
 an obscure gravel pit a mile or two out of 
 London, marched upon them with a strong 
 posse of police, the assembly turned upon 
 them, rescued their minister, and put the 
 magistrate and his constables to an ignomi- 
 nous flight. On the site of this place of meet- 
 ing a chapel was erected, which we believe 
 still stands, being known to this day as the 
 Old Gravel Pit Chapel. 
 
 It was thus that James, helped in some 
 instances by the extreme partisans of the 
 Established Church, strove to stamp out 
 Dissent, and burned into the hearts and 
 minds of the Nonconformists bitter memories 
 which unhappily, in some cases, have lasted 
 to this day. Persecution has only strength- 
 ened its growth and increased its hold on the 
 affections of its people. Even as the perse- 
 cution by Papists only promoted the pros- 
 perity of the Reformed Church, so the per- 
 secution of Dissent increased its life and 
 vigour. Strange that the people who had 
 witnessed the fact in their own case should 
 not have seen it in the case of others. 
 
 In those dark and gloomy days of which 
 we write, England might be likened to a wide 
 arena, in which the three parties — the Roman- 
 ists, the partisans of the Established Church, 
 and the Dissenters — all fought and strove for 
 victory, and all of them professing to be the 
 exact followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, 
 who when He was reviled reviled not 
 again ! 
 
 Without doubt the first-named party ap- 
 peared to have the greatest chance of success, 
 for the King himself was a pronounced Papist ; 
 and now that his enemies were under his feet 
 he prepared to realize more fully his obstinate 
 desire to make England once more a Roman- 
 ist country. It seemed comparatively easy 
 for him to do this, for the Episcopalians and 
 Tories, strong in their belief in the " divine 
 right " of James to rule and do as he pleased, 
 
 at first refused him nothing, and followed 
 his every act with a chorus of sycophantic 
 praise. 
 
 But a change was at hand, for James had 
 set his heart upon accomplishing two or three 
 designs to which his zealous cavaliers were 
 bitterly opposed. These things were in fact 
 but further exemplifications of his pernicious 
 principles ; but now they would touch his 
 friends, who would speedily discover how bad 
 those principles were when applied to their 
 own case. Thus, Episcopalians could applaud 
 James when he violated the principle of 
 liberty by persecuting the Dissenters ; and it 
 was only when he began to exalt the Papists 
 to the detriment of the Churchmen that the 
 latter discovered how precious that principle 
 was. Again, James and his vile judges might 
 unlawfully slaughter and imprison any number 
 of the common people who were suspected ot 
 being secretly connected with Monmouth's 
 insurrection, but directly James spoke openly 
 of repealing the Habeas Corpus Act, — the 
 principle of which he had violated again and 
 again, — even his most obsequious Members 
 of Parliament began to grow restive. Well 
 might Englishmen of all classes and of all 
 shades of opinion value this Act, for it is 
 second in importance only to Magna Charta. 
 It secures the liberty of the subject, and no 
 king dare keep even the meanest person in 
 prison without a full and fair trial. Macaulay 
 speaks of it as " the most stringent curb that 
 ever legislation imposed on tyranny ;" and 
 even Dr. Johnson, a veritable Tory of Tories, 
 praises it, and says that it is the single ad- 
 vantage which our government has over that 
 of other countries. 
 
 But this was one of the changes which 
 James was bent upon accomplishing. It 
 is almost impossible to understand how he 
 could have been so blind as to endeavour 
 to force this repeal on his people. He 
 must have remembered how it had been 
 wrung from his brother, and he must have 
 known how highly it was prized even by the 
 dependents on his Court and the most red-hot 
 royalists. 
 
 Another design upon which James was 
 fully resolved was the establishment of a 
 large standing army under his own per- 
 sonal control. In defiance of the law he had 
 already increased the number of his soldiers 
 from six to twenty thousand, which was the 
 largest force any King of England had at his 
 own command in time of peace, and not con- 
 tent with this he was bent on a still larger 
 increase. This again was most hateful to 
 even his warmest supporters, for it meant 
 the complete supercession of the militia ; and 
 in that force the gentlemen of nearly all the 
 noble and county families held important 
 posts, and thereby gained much dignity and' 
 influence. 
 
 454 
 
FROM TORE AY TO ST. JAMES'S. 
 
 The Dispensing Power. 
 
 There was yet another most audacious 
 design which James was bent upon accom- 
 phshing. This was to claim and exercise 
 the power to dispense with the execution of 
 the laws, — a right which he declared was 
 inherent in the Crown, and could certainly not 
 be denied by persons who held — as the Church- 
 men and Tories then held — that complete 
 and passive obedience to kings was a subject's 
 most sacred duty, and that the only guide 
 and controller of a king was his own con- 
 science ! More audacious tyranny England 
 had never known. Not even in the days of 
 the Plantagenets did the sovereign claim such 
 despotic powers. 
 
 When Parliament met on the gthNovember, 
 James made a bold avowal of these intentions, 
 and asked for further supplies mainly to sup- 
 port his large standing army, which was 
 principally officered by Romanists. But in 
 those days of hideous persecution, to put the 
 sword into the hands of Papists, and then ask 
 Protestants to pay them, was more than even 
 that servile Parliament could bear, and by a 
 majority of one it refused to grant James's 
 requests. Finding it completely imprac- 
 ticable, he dissolved it quite suddenly on 
 the 20th, and determined to rule absolutely, 
 and without a Parliament. But if he had 
 had the slightest spark of wisdom he would 
 have acted otherwise, for even that timid 
 Parliament had shown some sign of that 
 sturdy English spirit which had forced his 
 grandfather, his father, and his brother to 
 yield, and which, by persistently and unne- 
 cessarily opposing it, finally swept him from 
 his throne. 
 
 Trial of Sir Edward Hales. 
 James felt it necessary, however, to obtain 
 some authoritative recognition of his prero- 
 gative to dispense with the laws, and the 
 judges being completely obedient to his will, 
 he resolved to bring the matter before them, 
 with the certainty of a decision in his favour. 
 Of course, to admit that this dispensing power 
 was a definite principle, and applicable to all 
 statutes of the realm, would be to render the 
 monarchy completely absolute, and repre- 
 sentative government a perfect farce. And 
 it was upon achieving this result that James 
 was resolutely bent. He therefore openly 
 proclaimed his determination to dispense with 
 the Test Act, and appointed Sir Edward 
 Hales, a Papist, to be Governor of Dover 
 Castle and colonel of a regiment. He then 
 caused the coachman of Sir Edward to bring 
 an action, under the Test Act, against his 
 master, to recover a sum of five hundred 
 pounds for serving in the army without taking 
 the Test, intending that the judges should 
 rule in Sir Edward's favour. To James's 
 
 surprise and displeasure, four of the judges 
 privately remonstrated with him before the 
 trial on the illegality of his proceeding; where- 
 upon they were at once dismissed, and four 
 servile judges put in their places. The 
 Solicitor-General, Hencage Finch, was also 
 dismissed for the same reason, and an insig- 
 nificant creature named Thomas Powis, who 
 had no recommendation but his servility, was 
 given the post in his stead. 
 
 On the day appointed, the mockery of a 
 trial commenced. There were twelve judges, 
 all of them prepared to decide in favour of 
 James, and a Solicitor-General to argue on 
 the King's behalf. Sir Edward Hales pleaded 
 the King's power of dispensation under the 
 Great Seal; and on June 6th the Chief Justice 
 and ten of his colleagues gave judgment that 
 there was no law with which His Majesty 
 could not dispense. The King was sovereign, 
 therefore the laws were his laws, and it fol- 
 lowed that in certain cases he could dispense 
 with their execution, he alone being the best 
 judge as to the suitability of these cases. 
 
 Of course, after this most astounding and 
 unconstitutional procedure, James assumed 
 absolute power. He would do as he liked, 
 in defiance of all law. He appointed Roman- 
 ists to numerous important posts, and within 
 a few days four openly professed Popish 
 Lords were sworn members of the Privy 
 Council. Commands were also sent to the 
 clergy that they were not to preach on doc- 
 trinal points, while in many cases preferment 
 was given to Romanist priests. The churches 
 of the Establishment were absolutely turned 
 into Popish mass-houses, and the revenues 
 put into the pockets of followers of the 
 "Scarlet Lady." 
 
 The whole of the Established Church was 
 placed under the control of a High Commis- 
 sion Court of seven judges, of whom the 
 villain Jeffreys was at the head. Scotland 
 was placed under the control of Drummond, 
 Earl of Perth, who seems to have won the 
 heart of the tyrant by inventing the steel 
 thumb-screw for torturing Presbyterians ; while 
 Ireland was delivered up to the iron rule of 
 Tyrconnel, a fierce Romanist, of whom the 
 popular opinion may be fittingly expressed 
 by quoting his nickname, " Lying Dick 
 Talbot." 
 
 As time went on, James continued to pursue 
 his plans, and to push his pernicious princi- 
 ples farther and farther. He appointed John 
 Massey, who was notoriously a Romanist, 
 to the deanery of Christchurch, Oxford; while 
 both the bishoprics of Chester , and Oxford 
 having become vacant, he filled them with 
 the vile sycophants, Cartright and Parker, 
 whose religion, if anything, was purely Popish, 
 but whose chief reconmiendation was that 
 they would do anything that James bade 
 them. 
 
 455 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Indeed, it appeared as though the whole 
 government of the English Church would be 
 placed in the hands of its most deadly 
 enemies, the Papists, and that even as James 
 claimed to be the absolute owner and ruler of 
 England, so the Church was to be at the 
 entire disposal of the Pope. 
 
 James coerces the Universities. 
 
 Of course these proceedings aroused the 
 greatest alarm and indignation amongst the 
 clergy and supporters of the Established 
 Church, and numerous indeed were the works 
 then poured forth against the advocates of 
 Rome. But the contest soon grew above a 
 paper war. The 7th of February, 1686, will 
 be ever memoralDle as the day on which 
 James endeavoured to coerce the University 
 of Cambridge, and the sullen discontent of 
 the people began to shape itself into dangerous 
 and active agitation. On the day named 
 James sent a letter to the senate of Cambridge 
 University ordering them to admit Alban 
 Francis, a Benedictine monk, to the degree of 
 Master of Arts. Thereupon the senate required 
 Francis to take the oaths against Romanism 
 prescribed by law, which of course he de- 
 clined to do, and the senate, of which body 
 Sir Isaac Newton was one, was accordingly 
 summoned before the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 mission for opposing the King, and acting 
 strictly in accordance with the laws ! The 
 Vice-Chancellor lost his office and his income, 
 and James was triumphant. 
 
 But at Oxford he acted with even more 
 illegality and despotism. The presidency 
 of Magdalen College having become vacant, 
 the King appointed Antony Farmer, a Ro- 
 manist, a man of immoral life, and one, 
 moreover, not qualified by the statutes 
 of the college. The Fellows, in the exercise 
 of their right, chose instead, John Hough, a 
 man in every way worthy of the office. They 
 were cited before the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 mission, and produced the most unmistakable 
 proofs of Farmer's unfitness for the post. 
 Nevertheless Hough's election was declared 
 void. The Fellows persisted that Hough was 
 their lawfully elected president, as he was un- 
 doubtedly, and strictly maintained that no 
 other should rule over the college. The 
 King went in person to browbeat the Fellows, 
 but in vain. Hough refused to give up the 
 keys of the college when called upon, and 
 the doors were broken open and he and the 
 Fellows were ejected by soldiery. The end 
 of the matter was that a Romish bishop 
 was placed over the college, and twelve 
 Romish Fellows were appointed in one 
 day. 
 
 These were the acts which the blind bigot 
 and tyrant thought consolidated his power. 
 Foolish man ! They were desperate blows at 
 the very supports of his throne. The party 
 
 whom he was now insulting so needlessly 
 w^is composed of the very men who had given 
 him the crown. But for the staunch support ^, 
 of members of the Established Church he ■■ 
 would certainly have been prohibited from " 
 succeeding to the throne by reason of the 
 Exclusion Bill, introduced by the Whigs in the 
 previous reign. 
 
 It is' quite easy to understand the intense 
 hatred of the English people to the Romanists 
 of that day,. Not only did they remember 
 the hideous slaughter during the reign of 
 Bloody Queen Mary and the iniquitous 
 Gunpowder Plot, but the idea of the do- 
 minion of the Pope was ever mingled with the 
 idea of the Romanist religion, and was just the 
 one thing which Englishmen could not bear. 
 And still further, the opinion was widely 
 prevalent that a Romanist felt it his bounden 
 duty to lie like the devil, to increase the 
 prestige and dominion of his Church. When, 
 therefore, these high-handed proceedings took 
 place, even the most zealous royalists began 
 to look alarmed and to question among 
 themselves as to the soundness of the doctrine 
 of "divine right." 
 
 The First Declaration of Indulgence. 
 Thus passed the dark and doleful year of 
 1686, — a year heavy with the burden of 
 despotism. Nearly the whole of the time 
 the Parliament was prorogued, and James 
 ruled as absolute king. In February 1687, 
 he took his next great step in the complete 
 subjugation of the realm to Popery by issuing 
 in Scotland a Declaration of Indulgence, 
 whereby all the various prohibitions against 
 Romanists were to be completely repealed. 
 Quakers also might meet in any place, and 
 moderate Presbyterians only in their own 
 houses. But field conventicles were still to be 
 put down with the utmost severity. As the 
 servile Council of Scotland made no re- 
 sistance to this decree, not even pointing 
 out that, being issued on the King's authority 
 alone, it was absolutely illegal, James resolved 
 next to try the same experiment in England. 
 He had first thought of summoning a Parlia- 
 ment, but on sounding several peers and 
 influential commoners, he found so much 
 opposition, that he resolved to do without 
 their legislature ; the Parliament was there- 
 fore prorogued for another six months, and 
 James continued to reign as absolute monarch. 
 Early in April 1687, James issued the Decla- 
 ration of Indulgence, which, as he fondly 
 thought, set the coping-stone to the fabric 
 of despotic power and Romanist supremacy 
 which he had so zealously reared. It proved 
 too heavy, however, and toppled over the 
 whole building, and buried its founder in its 
 ruins. In other words, although at first suc- 
 cessful, this Declaration ultimately gave the 
 final blow which overturned the throne. 
 
 156 
 
*f=fc}B=lJ- 
 
 --y=m* 
 
 _™j 
 
 The Battle of Sedgemoor 
 
 457 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 It gave absolute liberty to all persons to 
 worship as they pleased, and abolished all 
 religious tests ; while it also professed to 
 maintain the legal rights of the Church of 
 England. The King evidently hoped that 
 the satisfaction of the Nonconformists would 
 form an important counterbalance to the 
 dissatisfied Churchmen. 
 
 But while the Dissenters were anxious to 
 profit by the advantages thus offered to them, 
 the Declaration was looked at with suspicion 
 by all parties except the Romanists. The 
 Dissenters well knew the intense hatred of 
 James, and, indeed, all the Stuarts, to every 
 kind of nonconformity, and they could not 
 but suppose that this kindness hid some 
 deeply-laid design. Still further, being made 
 on the King's own responsibility, it was 
 utterly illegal, and the Nonconformists under- 
 stood too well the principles of constitution- 
 alism to accept even liberty in an unconsti- 
 tutional manner. For if the King's caprice 
 gave them liberty suddenly on one day, it 
 might as suddenly take it away again on the 
 morrow. Further, all parties regarded it as 
 formed especially to promote the spread of 
 Romanism ; and if the liberty were accepted 
 at the King's hands to-day, and thereby his 
 prerogative and right of legislating without 
 parliament acknowledged, there would belittle 
 difficulty in the King's making another law 
 to-morrow whereby every person must em- 
 brace the Romanist faith. 
 
 These were some of the objections raised 
 by the Nonconformists, and subtle as was 
 the Jesuitical policy which directed the 
 Declaration, most of the Dissenters were 
 too wary to be caught by it ; by far the 
 greater number of them joined with the 
 Episcopalians against their common enemy. 
 
 During the year, however, no resistance 
 was made to the autocratic rule of the King, 
 and James, heedless of the widespread 
 discontent, rejoiced at the success of his 
 schemes. 
 
 The Child of Prayer. 
 James now believed himself paramount, but 
 there was one very important thing wanting 
 to complete his designs. He had no son to 
 whom he could leave his crown, and whom he 
 could indoctrinate with his views to perpetuate 
 his system of rule. In default of a son being 
 born to him, the throne at his death would 
 go to his daughter by his first wife, Mary, 
 now married to her cousin, the Prince of 
 Orange, a great Protestant prince, and the 
 chief opponent of Louis of France on the 
 Continent. The thought that his son-in- 
 law, the Prince of Orange, would succeed to 
 his throne was gall and wormwood to the 
 Romanist James. But what was to the King 
 such a source of sorrow was to his people a 
 cause of joy. The King being old, it was 
 
 not anticipated that any more children would' 
 be born to him, and therefore the people 
 hoped to find speedy relief from his tyrannous 
 rule when in due time his Protestant daughter 
 and her husband succeeded to the throne. 
 
 But this hope was destined to be quickly 
 overthrown, for early in 1688 it was publicly 
 announced that the Queen expected a child,, 
 and prayers were offered up in all the Roman 
 Catholic places of worship that the infant 
 might prove to be a boy. On the loth of June 
 a son — the child of prayer, as he was called— 
 was born, and great was the consternation 
 throughout Protestant England. Indeed the 
 popular belief then was that the so-called son 
 was a suppositious child, and not the true 
 son of James and his Queen ; and although 
 this was afterwards proved to be false, it was 
 made much of at the time by Mary and her 
 husband, William of Orange. There is no 
 doubt but that the fear of the perpetuation of 
 James's evil tyranny under James's son formed 
 another reason for the determination of the 
 people to drive their tyrant from his throne 
 in favour of his daughter Mary ; still further, 
 the strong belief that it was a Jesuitical trick, 
 set in motion by the disciples of Loyola for 
 the purpose of increasing their power, added 
 to the extreme detestation with which the 
 people regarded the Romanists. The fact 
 that such stories were generally believed 
 gives us a clear glimpse of the embittered 
 state of popular feeling at the time, and also 
 affords a clue to the popular hatred of the 
 Romanists. "They are always plotting treach- 
 erously and in the dark; they cannot be trusted 
 or believed." Thus the people thought. 
 
 The Second Declaration of In- 
 dulgence. 
 
 We now come to the more immediate cause 
 of the revolution in favour of the Prince 
 of Orange. This was not the birth of a son 
 to James, although that incident without 
 doubt increased the popular feeling in favour 
 of the movement. It is to be found in the 
 outbreak of the discontent between James 
 and the Established Church into open war. 
 
 On the 27th of April, 1688, the King, em- 
 boldened by the success of his Declaration of 
 Indulgence of the preceding year, issued a 
 second, which in many respects was a repe- 
 tition of the former, but contained certain 
 sentences in addition which rendered it more 
 obnoxious. He said that it had come to his 
 knowledge that designing men had spread 
 the report that he might be persuaded to 
 change his mind on the subject, and he 
 therefore thought it necessary to state that 
 his purpose was immovably fixed; only those 
 who would concur in his plans would be 
 employed in his service, and that for this 
 reason many persons had been dismissed, 
 from both civil and military appointments 
 
 458 
 
FROM TORE AY TO ST. JAMES'S. 
 
 A new Parliament would be summoned in 
 November, and he relied upon his subjects 
 sending him members who would support him 
 in his plans. Alas for the mutability of all 
 human schemes ! That Parliament was never 
 held ; and when November came, James was 
 a fugitive, flying from the land over which 
 he had ruled with such cruel tyranny. 
 
 At first this Declaration produced but little 
 result. People wondered why James should 
 issue a second proclamation merely to ac- 
 centuate the first, and say that he would not 
 be likely to change his mind. 
 
 But it was followed on the 4th of May by 
 an Order in Council, commanding that the 
 Declaration should be read in all churches 
 and chapels throughout the land on two 
 Sabbaths in succession, and by ministers of 
 all denominations. In the Gazette of the 
 7th of May it was published that the 20th 
 should be the day of the first reading in 
 London and its vicinity, and in the country 
 the first reading was fixed for the 3rd of June. 
 
 This command was in very truth the throw- 
 ing down of the glove, and challenging to 
 open war. It snapped the last link which 
 bound James to the Churchmen who had put 
 him on the throne. It was a direct insult to 
 the whole of the Established clergy, for not 
 only was it a most atrocious affront to cause 
 them to proclaim the triumph of Father Petre 
 and the Jesuits (for so they regarded the Decla- 
 ration), a sect which they hated so intensely, 
 and from whose professors they had suffered so 
 much; but the great point to be noted is that 
 this Declaration, being proclaimed by the 
 King's authority alone, was utterly illegal, and 
 a direct violation of the laws of the realm. It 
 was, moreover, a distinct breach of his kingly 
 promises, and by obeying the command 
 the clergy would be made the instruments 
 of spreading, and at the same time acknow- 
 ledging, the King's right to absolute power 
 and complete despotism. It was therefore 
 not only the great detestation of the religious 
 toleration of Romanism which caused the 
 clergy to object, it was the hearty disapproval 
 of King James's tyranny and unconstitutional 
 conduct. 
 
 At this moment the action of the Protestant 
 Dissenters of London was such as to win for 
 themselves a title to the lasting esteem of 
 their countrymen. They had been estranged 
 by reason of many cruel wrongs heaped upon 
 them both by the Church of England and 
 the House of Stuart, and at first they had 
 witnessed this war between the tyrant Church 
 and the tyrant King which it had placed on 
 the throne with a spice of spiteful pleasure ; 
 but at this time, understanding how much 
 was at stake, and sympathizing with their 
 Episcopalian brethren in the day of their 
 tribulation, they boldly threw in their lot with 
 them. We must not forget, moreover, that 
 
 it was partly in favour of the Nonconformists 
 that the Declaration was drawn so that their 
 action exhibits all the greater self-denial. 
 But Baxter, Howe, and others, who had known 
 frequently what it was to suffer for conscience' 
 sake, now led the way in encouraging the 
 clergy to do likewise. Their object was to 
 form a coalition among ministers of all 
 persuasions to refuse to read the illegal 
 Declaration. 
 
 The congregations of these Independent 
 and Presbyterian ministers were even more 
 enthusiastic than some of their pastors, and 
 deputations waited on several of the London 
 clergy to urge them to strike a blow for the 
 liberties of England and the Protestant reli- 
 gion, by not reading the Declaration. 
 
 The outcome of this agitation was that the 
 flower of the London clergy held a meeting to 
 decide upon their course of action. The feel- 
 ing first seemed to be in favour of yielding to 
 the King, for there were many who feared the 
 power of James. The King could at a week's 
 notice turn them out of their parsonages, take 
 from them their incomes, and leave them to 
 beg their bread from door to door. But the 
 fervent words of Dr. Edward Fowler, Vicar 
 of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, seem to have turned 
 the majority into a minority. He argued 
 strongly in favour of a determination not to 
 read the Declaration, maintaining that his 
 conscience would not allow him to publish 
 abroad so illegal and monstrous a proclama- 
 tion. The result was that a resolution was 
 passed, written down and signed by many of 
 the incumbents then present, binding them- 
 selves that whatever others might do they 
 would not read the Declaration. Dean 
 Patrick of Peterborough and Rector of St. 
 Paul's, Covent Garden, was the first to sign, 
 and Fowler followed him. 
 
 The Prayer of the Prelates. 
 The movement thus set on foot gained 
 strength every day. The resolution was 
 sent round the city, and numbers signed it. 
 Fuither, it helped the action of the bishops, 
 and on the 12th of May a company of them 
 gathered at Lambeth Palace to discuss the 
 course they should take. The general opinion 
 was that the Declaration should not be read, 
 and letters were sent by special messengers 
 to several prelates in the country urging them 
 to come to London without delay and confer 
 with their brethren. These letters were for 
 the most part answered in person, and on 
 the 1 8th of May another meeting was held, 
 at which a number of bishops and eminent 
 divines were present. After long deliberation 
 and many prayers, it was decided that a peti- 
 tion should be drawn up and presented to the 
 King, in which all disloyal terms or expres- 
 sions should be studiously avoided, but that 
 though His Majesty could rest assured that 
 
 459 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Church was, as ever, loyal to the throne, 
 yet as parliament had declared that the 
 sovereign could not dispense with statutes 
 in matters concerning the Church, the Decla- 
 ration was illegal and the petitioners could 
 not be parties to it by reading it in public. 
 
 The petition was signed by Archbishop 
 Sancroft and six of his suffragans, and was 
 then taken to Whitehall, and presented to 
 the King. 
 
 When James read it his brow grew dark. 
 " This is flat rebellion," he said ; " I will be 
 obeyed. Go to your dioceses, and see that 
 the Declaration is read next Sunday." The 
 bishops maintained their loyalty, but said they 
 must obey God rather than man. " But," 
 said James, " God has given me the dispens- 
 ing power; I am king by divine right; you 
 yourselves have preached and maintained 
 this doctrine; I will maintain my rights, and if 
 you question them, as you are now doing. 
 
 London Bridge. The populace hned the 
 banks of the river and cheered them to the 
 echo, for the citizens believed they were 
 fighting against Romanism, and they dreaded 
 a return of the horrors of Queen Mary's 
 reign. 
 
 The Trial of the Seven Bishops. 
 
 On the 15th of June the bishops were 
 brought before the Court of King's Bench, 
 and the legal objections against their com- 
 mitment having been over-ruled, they were 
 released on their own recognizances until the 
 29th of June, when the trial was appointed to 
 come on at Westminster Hall. On that day 
 the whole neighbourhood was thronged with 
 eager and expectant crowds, who begged the 
 blessing of the bishops as they passed on to 
 the great hall. 
 
 The charge against the bishops was that 
 
 Medal Struck in Honour of the Petitioning Bishops. 
 
 you are trumpeters of sedition; I will be 
 obeyed," 
 
 That night, the bishops' petition was printed 
 and scattered broadcast all over the city, 
 and the prayer of the prelates was loudly 
 praised. When Sunday came the churches 
 were crowded as they never had been before; 
 but in only f 07 ir of the places of worship was 
 the order obeyed, and when a week had 
 passed and the second Sunday came, the 
 same thing occurred. For once in his life at 
 least, the tyrant had been completely set at 
 naught. 
 
 King James's rage knew no bounds, and, 
 acting on the advice of Jeffreys, he ordered 
 that Archbishop Sancroft and the other six peti- 
 tioners should be brought before the Court of 
 King's Bench on a charge of uttering aseditious 
 libel. In the meantime they were committed 
 to the Tower. The enthusiasm of the people 
 on their behalf was so great that they were 
 sent by water to the great prison palace below 
 
 of having published in the petition a false 
 and seditious libel ; and as the judges were 
 nearly all the creatures of the King, His 
 Majesty hoped to win a signal victory, and 
 either make these high dignitaries completely 
 subservient to his will or remove them from 
 their sees, so that men more to his taste 
 might be placed in their stead. 
 
 So exuberant were the people in their de- 
 monstrations of delight on behalf of the 
 bishops that it was difficult to maintain order. 
 It was quite clear how the people regarded 
 the matter, and there were those on the 
 King's side who feared a riot when the 
 bishops were convicted. For there was but 
 little doubt among the King's partisans but 
 that they would be convicted ; the King's 
 wishes were well-known, and all the forensic 
 force at his command had been retained to 
 prove their guilt. 
 
 All through the long, hot midsummer day 
 the legal conflict raged, and it was dark when 
 
 460 
 
FROM TORE AY TO ST. /AMES'S. 
 
 the final summing up of the judges was 
 ended. The Chief Justice held that the peti- 
 tion was a libel. Judge Alibone was of the 
 same opinion. The two other judges, Hollo- 
 way and Powell, differed from these decisions ; 
 and the latter boldly said that the dispensing 
 power lately assumed by the King was beyond 
 his right, and unless repressed would vest 
 the whole legislative power in the king per- 
 sonally, a result utterly illegal and unconsti- 
 tutional. 
 
 All through that June night the excitement 
 and anxiety were most intense. The people 
 waited for the verdict as if it were a personal 
 matter, and numbers of them paced the 
 streets till dawn. The jury were locked up 
 till ten o'clock next morning, when, pale and 
 haggard, they came into court to deliver 
 their decision. 
 
 The jurymen filed into 
 
 their box amid breathless 
 
 silence. The vast hall, 
 
 Palace Yard, and the streets 
 
 around were packed with an 
 
 immense crowd. 
 Sir Samuel Astry, the 
 
 Clerk to the Crown, put the 
 
 question to the jury : "Do 
 
 you find the defendants 
 
 <^ilty or not guilty?" Sir 
 
 Roger Langley, the foreman, 
 
 answered , '" Not Guilty ; " 
 
 and even as he spoke a shout 
 
 from a thousand throats 
 
 cheered them to the echo, 
 
 — a shout which was taken 
 
 up by the tens of thousands 
 
 without, and answered and 
 
 reansweredfrom Temple Bar 
 
 to the Tower. Guns were 
 
 fired, bells were rung, and 
 
 everybody everywhere seem- 
 ed transported with jo3^ The 
 
 jury were overwhelmed with 
 
 the manifestations of the 
 
 popular praise. They could scarcely make 
 
 their way from the hall,for the people crowded 
 
 round them, shook their hands, and blessed 
 
 them for preserving the liberties of England. 
 The good news was soon known at the 
 
 great camp on Hounslow Heath, where the 
 King was then staying. As soon as the 
 
 soldiers heard it they took up the joyful 
 
 shout, and cheered so lustily that the King 
 
 demanded to know the cause. " They cheer 
 
 for the acquittal of the bishops, Your Ma- 
 jesty ;" to which James rephed, " So much the 
 
 worse for them." 
 
 Even in that hour of humiliating defeat, 
 when the temper of the whole nation was 
 so unmistakably displayed against him, he 
 still meditated on persisting in his folly. But 
 even then his hour had come, although he 
 knew it not, and the fiat had gone forth, 
 
 William, Prince of Orange. 
 
 " Thou art weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting." Even then, while the people were 
 giving themselves up to the joy of the mo- 
 ment and preparing for the illuminations of 
 the night and the burning of the Pope and 
 Papists in effigy, while James was meditating 
 new schemes of revenge and tyranny, while 
 the glad tidings were flying all over the king- 
 dom, and steeples everywhere were rocking 
 with the ringing of joy bells, — even then an 
 invitation was presented to William of Orange, 
 the King's nephew and son-in-law, signed 
 in cipher by many leading noblemen and 
 clergymen, to appear in England at the head 
 of a body of troops and drive the tyrant from 
 the throne, — an invitation which William then 
 and there accepted. 
 
 For Parliament and 
 Protestantism. 
 The invitation which had 
 thus been presented to the 
 Prince of Orange has a his- 
 tory of its own which is wpII 
 worth relating ; but tradition 
 has been so much mixed 
 with fact that it is difficult ac- 
 curately to distinguish the 
 one from the other. The 
 simple truth, however, ap- 
 pears to be this : — Ten miles 
 south of Sheffield lies the 
 little village of Whittington, 
 near which stands a little 
 inn known to all the country- 
 side as the " Cock and 
 Pynot." Now it is a dilapi- 
 dated cottage fast falling 
 to decay, but at the time 
 when King James tyrannised 
 over the English people it 
 was a thriving ale-house. 
 One day, when hunting with 
 his harriers on Whittington 
 Moor, the Duke of Devon- 
 shire met here the Earl of Danby, and 
 arranged to send the invitation to the Prince 
 of Orange, which, as we have seen, was 
 delivered to him on the 30th of June. 
 The co-operation of Compton, the sus- 
 pended Bishop of London, was then ob- 
 tained. Other influential persons joined the 
 plot, and many meetings were held in the 
 vaults of Lady Place, a picturesque mansion 
 situated on the banks of the Thames between 
 Henley and Maidenhead. 
 
 Edward Russell had been over to the 
 Hague in May, but the Prince desired a 
 full and formal invitation, and now it had 
 come. He accepted it instantly. With a 
 promptitude exceeded only by the secrecy he 
 set about the consolidation of a force that 
 would be certain to command success if, 
 as he was led to believe, ninety-nine hun- 
 
 461 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 dredths of the population would join him on 
 his progress through the country. 
 
 But notwithstanding all his efforts news of 
 his preparation began to leak out. Louis of 
 France, who was the inveterate enemy of the 
 Prince of Orange, exhorted James to prepare 
 for the invasion. But James, with the most 
 incomprehensible obstinacy, refused to believe 
 it, and rejected Louis' offers of assistance. 
 
 But on the loth of October William issued 
 a proclamation to the people of England, 
 setting forth in a singularly clear and calm 
 manner the violation of law and liberty 
 of which James had been guilty, and also 
 pointing out the popular belief that a pre- 
 tended heir had been foisted on the country 
 to set aside the right of the Princess of 
 Orange. In consequence of these things, the 
 Prince of Orange, at the earnest request of 
 many lords, both spiritual and temporal, and 
 of many gentlemen of all ranks, had thought 
 fit to come to England with a sufficient army 
 to defend him from the violence of the King. 
 The proclamation proceeded : " We for our 
 part will concur in everything that may procure 
 the peace and happiness of the nation which a 
 free and lawful parliament shall determine, 
 since we have nothing before our eyes, in this 
 our undertaking, but the preservation of the 
 Protestant religion, the covering of all men 
 from persecution for their consciences, and 
 the securing to the whole nation the free 
 enjoyment of their laws, rights, and liberties, 
 under a just and legal government." 
 
 Six days after the publication of this mani- 
 festo the Prince of Orange embarked at 
 Helvoetsluys, with a large force of four thou- 
 sand horse and ten thousand foot soldiers. 
 A fleet of fifty men-of-war and four hundred 
 transports conveyed his army, while he had 
 also many fine ships and frigates. Contrary 
 winds delayed their passage, and, indeed, 
 compelled them once to return to the shelter 
 of their own shores ; but on the evening of 
 the 1st of November they were able to sail 
 steadily out to sea. 
 
 Too Late ! 
 Meantime James had not been idle. The 
 publication of the manifesto by the Prince of 
 Orange had convinced him beyond any pos- 
 sibility of doubt that Louis' apprehensions 
 were correct. Then, in a state of panic, he 
 yielded in a few hours almost all the points 
 for which he had so blindly and so obstinately 
 struggled throughout his reign. He dissolved 
 the Ecclesiastical Commission which had so 
 unjustly judged and unlawfully oppressed the 
 clergy ; he restored to London its ancient 
 charter, and gave the Bishop of Winchester 
 power to reinstate the Fellows of Magdalen 
 College, while he restored their ancient fran- 
 chises to all the municipal corporations. 
 Father Petre was dismissed, and James 
 
 announced his determination henceforth to 
 govern strictly according to law. But. these 
 reforms came too late. He should have 
 thought of them before. The hearts of his 
 people were gone from him, and their eyes 
 were turned longingly to his daughter and 
 her husband from over the sea. On review- 
 ing his resources James found that he had 
 but a fleet of thirty ships, and an army of 
 about forty thousand men. The ships were 
 at once ordered to oppose the Prince's pro- 
 gress, but were kept in the mouth of the 
 Thames by the baffling east winds which 
 filled the sails of William's vessels and 
 wafted them swiftly onward towards England. 
 The greater part of the army was held in 
 readiness to march to any point at a mo- 
 ment's notice. Some regiments were sent 
 northward, as William was expected to land 
 on the Yorkshire coast. 
 
 But though at first the Dutch vessels had 
 been steered in this direction, the Prince of 
 Orange, on the eve of the and of November, 
 suddenly gave directions to alter their course 
 towards the English Channel; and on the 
 morning of the 3rd of November they passed 
 the Straits of Dover. The coast of Kent 
 was covered with innumerable spectators, 
 who could see distinctly the soldiers standing 
 on the Dutch decks, and could plainly hear 
 their martial music. It was a time of intense 
 excitement for England. 
 
 A courier sped post-haste from Dover to 
 Whitehall to inform the King of the sudden 
 change in William's plans. He found every- 
 thing in confusion. James knew not what 
 to do. The regiments sent north were 
 hurriedly recalled and told to march on Salis- 
 bury, while some of the available troops were 
 sent to Portsmouth and others to Plymouth. 
 The idea never seems to have entered 
 James's mind that Torbay would be the 
 landing-place. But so it was, and the 
 selection by William of this harbour as a 
 landing-place gives a signal proof of his 
 sagacity and astuteness. On Sunday the 
 4th of November, sail was slackened, and 
 divine service was held on board William's 
 ships ; and on the next day, after passing the 
 place in a sea-fog, the wind having changed, 
 the fleet steered round and sailed quietly 
 into Torbay. 
 
 Among the first to land were the Prince 
 of Orange and Marshal Schomberg, and 
 they proceeded at once to reconnoitre the 
 country. The outlook was far from pleasant. 
 The ground was drenched with rain which 
 had fallen on the preceding evening, and 
 the roads were in a most deplorable state. 
 Nevertheless on the next day, when the 
 horses were landed, William began to march 
 up the country, and a few of his regiments 
 advanced as far as Newton Abbot, in the 
 centre of which little town a stone still stands 
 
 462 
 
FROM TORE AY TO ST. /AMES'S. 
 
 to mark the spot where the Prince's mani- 
 festo was solemnly read to the inhabitants. 
 
 Four days after his landing, William 
 entered Exeter. This town was crowded 
 with people who had thronged from all the 
 country near to welcome the champion of 
 their religion, and shout after shout rent the 
 air as they saw on the folds of the Prince's 
 banner the words, " For Protestantism and 
 the Liberties of England." With his accus- 
 tomed sagacity, William ruled his army with 
 the most rigid discipline, and restrained 
 them from committing the slightest misde- 
 meanour. Every item of food and forage was 
 duly paid for, and the people, who still re- 
 tained a shuddering recollection of the 
 excesses of James's troops, regarded these 
 invaders with great favour. At Exeter the 
 Prince of Orange remained a few days, 
 and then moved slowly on Salisbury. He had 
 a superlatively difficult part to play, and his 
 plan was to wait for the support of the English 
 people. A large force had been gathered 
 at Salisbury to oppose him, but on the 1 5th the 
 King received the news that Lord Cornbury, 
 the eldest son of the Earl of Clarendon, had 
 suddenly left the camp at the head of three 
 regiments and was marching to join the 
 Prince. After this, the news of several defec- 
 tions reached the wretched despot ; noble- 
 men, gentlemen, and officers of all grades 
 -were constantly leaving the royal cause and 
 joining the Prince. Even his daughter, the 
 Princess Anne, left him ; and in the depth of 
 despair the King cried : " God help me, even 
 my own children have forsaken me ! " 
 
 A humorous story is told of the Princess's 
 -husband, George of Denmark. Never bril- 
 liant at his best, he was so bewildered by 
 the news of the repeated defections that he 
 could do nothing but feebly lift his hands 
 and, as each fresh report was brought in, 
 exclaim in utter astonishment, '■^ Est-il pos- 
 sible V (Is it possible.) And when he knew 
 that even his wife had deserted her father 
 he could only repeat his eternal exclama- 
 tion in precisely the same tone. 
 
 But the next day, having in the meantime 
 no doubt received private instructions. 
 Prince George himself absconded, where- 
 upon the King exclaimed, with a slight 
 smile lighting up for a moment his sad face, 
 "What! est-il possible, gone, too.'"' 
 
 And now James himself thought of ab- 
 sconding, for it seemed the only chance left 
 him. He had already summoned a meeting 
 of the peers then in London, and they 
 attended him at Whitehall on the 27th of 
 November. The decision arrived at was to 
 send commissioners to treat with the Prince 
 of Orange, to proclaim a general amnesty, 
 and issue writs for the summoning of a Parlia- 
 ment which was to settle all matters in dis- 
 pute. James's great army had only engaged 
 
 in a few trifling skirmishes, the Earl of Bath 
 had put Plymouth into the hands of his op- 
 ponent, and every hour fresh adherents 
 gathered round the Prince. The negotia- 
 tions did not appear likely to proceed as 
 James would desire, so on the loth of 
 December he sent his queen and infant son 
 privately down the river on the way to 
 France ; and in the darkness of the wintry 
 morning of the next day he stole out of 
 Whitehall by a secret passage, and in a 
 hackney coach, procured by Sir Edward 
 Hales, proceeded to Millbank. Here he 
 crossed the Thames in a small boat, and 
 landed at Vauxhall, where a conveyance was 
 in waiting to drive him to Sheerness. Be- 
 fore leaving Whitehall he threw the writ 
 summoning a Parliament into the fire, and 
 sent an order to Faversham to disband the 
 army. While crossing the Thames he threw 
 the Great Seal into the water, whence it was 
 afterwards dragged up by a fishing net. 
 These things he did in the childish hope 
 that they would complicate matters for 
 his son-in-law. Arrived at Sheerness, he 
 went at once on board a hoy, meaning to sail 
 to France. But the wind was against him, 
 and the vessel was boarded by fishermen 
 who had recognized the King and Sir Edward 
 Hales and carried them back to Sheerness, 
 where he was kept a close prisoner. Re- 
 leased by an order from the Lords, he 
 returned to Whitehall and then to Rochester, 
 whence he made a second attempt to escape, 
 which succeeded. 
 
 On that morning (the nth of December), 
 when the news spread that the King had gone 
 and that for the moment there was absolutely 
 no government for England, great was the 
 consternation. Fierce multitudes burnt Ro- 
 man Catholic chapels and attacked the houses 
 of Roman Catholic ambassadors. But at 
 this terrible time Archbishop Sancroft came 
 forward, and supported by several lords 
 spiritual and temporal, drew up a declaration 
 that the King, having fled and destroyed the 
 writs, thereby stopping the hope that a 
 proper parliamentary settlement could be 
 arrived at, they were determined to join 
 WiUiam of Orange, and until that prince's 
 arrival they would preserve order. Thereupon 
 the city trainbands were got under arms, 
 the wrecking mobs were restrained, and hap- 
 pily all loss of life was prevented. On this 
 eventful day the hated Judge Jeffreys was 
 discovered lurking in disguise in a low ale- 
 house at Wapping. The fierce mob rushed 
 upon him, and would have torn him limb 
 from limb but that the soldiers saved him 
 and conveyed him to the Tower by virtue of 
 an order from the Lords. On the night of 
 the 1 2th, London was convulsed with terror 
 at the rumour that a number of rough Irish 
 troops, brought over by James, were marching 
 
 463 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 on the town bent on plunder and outrage. A 
 satirical ballad named Lillibulero, written by 
 Thomas Wharton some months before, in 
 which two Irishmen congratulate each other 
 on the approaching massacre of the Protes- 
 tants, had been sung in every street for many 
 weeks past,andthe passionsof the people were 
 greatly inflamed against James's Irish troops. 
 The alarm spread, the drums of the militia 
 beat to arms, and everywhere husbands and 
 fathers might be seen equipping themselves 
 for the fight. But as the night wore away, 
 and the late winter daybreak of the next 
 morning dawned, it was discovered that the 
 rumour was quite false; but that evening has 
 ever since been known as the " Irish night," 
 and the occurrence exhibits the state of panic 
 into which the ungoverned people had fallen. 
 
 William enters St. James's Palace ; 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Our story now draws to a close, for very 
 shortly afterwards, on the i8th of December, 
 William of Orange marched into London 
 amidst the rejoicings of the multitude, and 
 quietly took up his abode at St. James's 
 Palace. In a few days he summoned a large 
 assembly of the Estates of the Realm known 
 as a Convention (which differed only from a 
 parliament in that the writs summoning it 
 were not issued by a king), which declared the 
 throne vacant, and after great debate drew up 
 and passed the famous Declaration of Rights, 
 by which William and Mary were appointed 
 King and Queen of England, the chief power 
 resting with him. Failing any issue, the 
 crown was to pass to Mary's sister, Anne, 
 and the son of James II. and his posterity 
 were to be shut out from it for ever. Halifax 
 
 offered the crown, which William accepted 
 for his wife and himself, promising faithfully 
 to observe all the laws of the land, and con- 
 firming the great principles of our constitu- 
 tion, that no sovereign can make or unmake 
 laws, levy taxes, or keep a standing army 
 without the consent and co-operation of Par- 
 liament. Further it was declared that not 
 the meanest subject could be kept in prison 
 without a fair trial, and that the judges, who 
 before held their of6ce at the pleasure of the 
 sovereign, were in future to hold their appoint- 
 ments for life or "good conduct." Moreover, 
 although the Reformed Church was to remain 
 the established religion of the country. Dis- 
 senters henceforth were to be released from 
 persecution. And finally it settled for ever 
 the vexed question of " divine right," by 
 declaring that the sovereign simply reigns by 
 the will of the people, and a right no more 
 " divine " than, and in no respect different 
 from, the right of the subject to vote for his 
 representative in Parliament. 
 
 Thus ended the great English Revolution — 
 that conflict between king and people which 
 had been waged with varying success through 
 so many weary years, — a revolution which 
 ended, not in the establishment of a wild 
 democracy, nor in the maintenance of an 
 absolute monarchy, but in the formation of 
 a free self-government, in which all classes 
 are represented, and exercise their due influ- 
 ence, —a government which, containing within 
 itself the power of reformation without revo- 
 lution, is always willing to admit the claims 
 of liberty and progress, without being un- 
 mindful of the glorious traditions of a storied 
 past. F. M. H. 
 
 464 
 
Glencoe. 
 
 A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY 
 
 THE STORY OF THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE. 
 
 " Then woman's shriek was heard in vain. 
 Nor infancy's unpitied plain 
 More than the warrior's groan could gain 
 Respite from ruthless butchery ! " 
 
 Scott. 
 
 BattleofKilliecrankie— The Chief of Glencoe— Fall of Dundee— King James's Gift of Brandy— Tarbat and Dalrymple— 
 The Burnmg Questions of Scotland— Estimate of Highland Loyalty— Treachery of the Aboriijines- Letters of Fire 
 and Sword— Projected Massacre by James VI.— Tarbat's Golden Bait— The Earl of Breadalbane— A Pious Colonel- 
 Loses his Patience— Castle of Achallader— A strange Armistice— Glenooe's Quarrel— Brutalities of his Clan- 
 Friends of Rob Roy— Dalrymple's Objects in "rooting out" the Thieves— The Royal Indemnity— Dalrymple's 
 "Mauling Scheme "—Maclan of Glencoe takes the Oath— Military Preparations— Dalrymple's Letters— The 
 Campbells in Glencoe— Merry-makings in the Glen— Orders of the Officers— Maclan slain— Details' of the Massacre 
 
 Threading KiLLiECRANKiE in 1689; 
 Glencoe and other Giants. 
 
 ITH fear and trembling General Mac- 
 kay made a desperate plunge with 
 his four thousand soldiers and 
 twelve hundred baggage horses into the 
 "infernal defile," as he termed it,— the 
 grim and gloomy gorge two miles long, 
 now known far and wide over the world 
 as the Pass of Killiecrankie, and spoken of 
 
 465 
 
 with calm admiration by gentle tourists as 
 highly romantic and picturesque. Although 
 it was the hour of noon, scarcely a glint of 
 the summer sun could find its way into the 
 depths of the mysterious Perthshire defile. 
 The " motley rabble of Saxons and Dutch," 
 as they crept slowly along the narrow and 
 perilous track where a single false step was 
 death, imagined that their savage and 
 stealthy foes might be concealed in hundreds 
 
 IH 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 behind the gigantic piles of overhanging 
 rock, and that those invisible birds of prey 
 might at any moment pounce upon their 
 baggage or dash them down with one fell 
 swoop into the raging torrent of the Garry. 
 This dreaded "pass of the withered brush- 
 wood " — the same which the Hessian troops 
 refused to enter during the Jacobite rebellion 
 of 1 746 — having been safely threaded by the 
 timid forces, their cautious commander ex- 
 tended them in a thin line, only three deep, 
 on the rough vale above the flooded river. 
 
 Mackay was unfortunately unequal to the 
 occasion. He had been forced into this 
 position by the sudden appearance in the 
 afternoon, upon the heights above his army, 
 of the plaided giants of the Grampians 
 under the gallant Graham of Claverhouse. 
 It was a splendid host, with heroes that 
 might well have graced the field of Troy, 
 which had been gathered by the fiery cross 
 from the miserable huts and proud castles of 
 the Scottish highlands to do battle for the 
 unworthy cause of the last of the Stuart 
 kings. In the array of blooming tartan and 
 blazing brass might be seen the majestic 
 figure of Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, the 
 Cetewayo of King James's Court, mounted on 
 a bright bay horse, and with a blood-red 
 plume waving from the crest of his helmet ; 
 the rude and dauntless young Glengarry, the 
 fierce Keppoch, the handsome boy of Duart, 
 the Macdonald chiefs of Clanranald and 
 Sleat, both of whom were also of tender years, 
 and as yet in the bud of martial fame ; and 
 at the head of his small contingent, for his 
 poor and ferocious sept was feeble as regards 
 number, the venerable chieftain of Glencoe, 
 whose appearance is thus described in a 
 Latin poem of the period : — 
 
 " Next, with a daring look and warlike stride, 
 Glencoe advanced ; his rattling armour shone 
 With dreadful glare ; his large, broad, brawny back 
 A thick bull's-hide, impenetrably hard, 
 Instead of clothes, invest ; and though along 
 Twice fifty of gigantic hmbs and size 
 The warrior led, fierce, horrid, wild, and strong, 
 Yet his vast bulk did like a turret rise 
 By head and shoulders o'er the surly crew. 
 Round, in his left, his mighty shield he twirled. 
 And in his right his broadsword brandished high, 
 And flashed like lightning with affrighting gleams. 
 His visage boisterous, horribly was graced 
 With stiff mustachios like two bending horns, 
 And turbid fiery eyes, as rneteors red, 
 Which fury and revenge did threaten round." 
 
 The Rush of the Avalanche; Death 
 OF Dundee. 
 Claverhouse saw at once that his antago- 
 nist was in a trap, as safe within the grasp 
 of his dashing Highlanders as a feeble deer 
 in the coils of the boa constrictor, that one 
 fierce and swift rush from the heights upon 
 the thin line below would cut it through 
 into disorganised groups, and leave it at the 
 
 466 
 
 mercy of the irresistible broadswords. While 
 Mackay did his best to comfort his timid 
 soldiers with the information that the savage 
 mountaineers were accustomed to cast off 
 their brogues and plaids and fight in a semi- 
 nude state, not because of excessive bravery 
 and eagerness for battle, but in order that 
 they might be able to take more quickly to 
 their heels in case of defeat, Dundee, on the 
 other hand, had difficulty in holding back 
 his impatient host from the onset. Although 
 he had begun to draw out his line on the 
 crest of the hill at five in the afternoon, he 
 continued till close on sunset to gaze with 
 his eagle eye on the doomed and mesmerized 
 chickens — "boddachs'' his men called them 
 — underneath ; the plated armour of the hero 
 glistened in the sunbeams as he rode along' 
 on his favourite dun-coloured charger, calling 
 out to his tartaned host, " Steady, Claymores I 
 we must wait till the sun is lower ; they can't 
 run away." The Lowlanders attempted to 
 strike terror into their foes by discharging 
 three small leather field-pieces, known as 
 " Sandy's stoups," but without the least effect 
 except smoke and noise, not a single ball 
 alighting among the bonnets of Bonnie 
 Dundee. It was within half an hour of sun- 
 set — the light had crept out of the valleys, 
 and was only beating on the lofty peaks of 
 Benvracky and the mighty Benygloe ; there 
 was just time left for making a complete 
 holocaust of the boddachs, when the leader 
 of the highland host exclaimed, "In God's 
 name, let us go on, and let this be your word, 
 King James and the Church of Scotland, 
 which God long preserve !" There was a 
 terrible pause, like that which precedes a 
 thunderstorm ; then from the dead silence 
 the furious avalanche of shoeless and stock- 
 ingless redshanks swept down the hill with 
 their bodies bent forward; rushed across 
 the short space of level ground towards the 
 embattled line, shielding their faces with their 
 targes, but halting not for a moment as the 
 bullets whizzed among them on front and 
 flank from the wider line of Teutons ; stopped 
 for an instant, fired one deadly volley that 
 echoed up the mountains like a clap of 
 thunder, and then throwing away their guns, 
 dashed pell-mell on the foe with their clay- 
 mores. "After this the noise seemed hushed," 
 say " Lochiel's Memoirs," "and the fire ceasing 
 on both sides, nothing was heard for some 
 few moments but the sullen and hollow 
 clashes of broadswords, with the dismal 
 groans and cries of dying and wounded 
 men." The rout was complete and instan- 
 taneous ; Mackay turned his head and found 
 himself alone ; struck with surprise, knowing 
 that the day was hopelessly lost, and fearing 
 the pursuit of Dundee and his hawk-eyed 
 legions, he rode off with the remnant tithe 
 of his army across the flooded Garry, con- 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY. 
 
 tinuing his flight during the night-time ; and 
 late in the next day — Sunday — arrived at 
 Drummond Castle as the hero of one of the 
 most pitiable tales of blunder and discomfi- 
 ture recorded in the annals of his country. 
 
 " It was a famous victory ." At least fifteen 
 hundred of Mackay's men were butchered. 
 The men of Athole, who had been marched 
 out to join them, and instead had drunk the 
 health of King James in their tartan bonnets, 
 brought in five hundred prisoners who had 
 been caught like conies in the Pass of Killie- 
 crankie. Highlanders used to roll the narra- 
 tive of the ghastly revel as a sweet morsel 
 under their tongue : " There were scarce 
 ever such strokes given in Europe as were 
 given that day." Officers and soldiers were 
 cut down through the head and neck to the 
 very breast ; skulls were shaven off above 
 the ears by a backstroke as if they were 
 nightcaps ; the single blow of a claymore 
 cleft through shoulder and cross-belt to the 
 entrails ; skull-caps were beaten into the 
 brains of their wearers ; pikes and small 
 swords were cut through as if they were con- 
 temptible willow wands. Glengarry mowed 
 dovra two men at every stroke of his pon- 
 derous claymore. 
 
 But to what purpose all this carnage and 
 the magnificent piles of baggage on the 
 haughs above the Garry that came into the 
 hands of the looting redshanks ? With that 
 nightfall there fell the last hope and the most 
 heroic spirit of the old cause. There perished 
 in the rebel ranks not only Donald of the 
 Blue Eyes — the valiant boy of Glengarry — 
 the huge Haliburton, who stalked about like 
 a moving castle, throwing fire and sword on 
 every side, but greatest of all, James Graham, 
 " Bonnie Dundee," the man with a woman's 
 face and a hero's heart ; his body was found 
 upon the field, and buried in the church of 
 Blair Athole. " He could not fall," said the 
 elegy, " but by his country's fate." His faith- 
 ful friend, the Earl of Balcarres, on the Sunday 
 morning after the battle, while in prison in 
 Edinburgh, saw the ghost of the handsome 
 Graham move across the room in stately and 
 melancholy silence ; and when King William 
 was urged to despatch a strong force to 
 retrieve the disaster of the " infernal defile," 
 that shrewd Dutchman remarked that "it 
 was needless ; the war ended with Dundee's 
 life." 
 
 DUNKELD AND CROMDALE ; KiNG JaMES'S 
 
 Tenderness and Brandy. 
 The Highlanders were indeed still ready to 
 flock blindly around the standards of their 
 chiefs, but there was now no supreme spirit 
 to launch them at full tide on the soldiers of 
 the plains ; there was no name to charm 
 more, only an Irish Cannon or an unknown 
 Buchan in place of the gallant Graham. The 
 
 fiendish rush of the horde broke and was 
 shivered at Dunkeld on the steady pikes of 
 the grim and pious Cameronians, and their 
 host was finally surprised by night on the 
 haughs of Cromdale, when the leaders were 
 fain to escape in the scantiest attire into the 
 mists of the mountains. 
 
 " The English horse they were so rude, 
 They bathed their hoofs in Highland blood." 
 
 The battle of the Boyne, in July 1690, to use 
 the words of the Memoirs written by the hand 
 of James II., marked " the melancholy extinc- 
 tion of the King's hopes and authority." The 
 martial fury of the Celts among the picturesque 
 hills of Scotland and the green meadows of 
 Erin could not win back the throne for the 
 feeble Popish despot ; the avalanche of 1689 
 had lost its soul, its cohesion, and its force ; 
 it was broken up into heartless masses on 
 the scattered braes and glens : Buchan was 
 content to skulk in the remoter wilds of the 
 western Highlands, until the dethroned mon- 
 arch could assure his faithful Scots whether 
 there was any hope of soon seeing the friendly 
 lilies of France floating on the Grampians. "The 
 King " and his " subjects " were equally in a 
 bad plight. A cordon often thousand soldiers 
 hemmed them in from trading with and plun- 
 dering the lowland valleys ; the neglect of 
 their cattle and of the little tillage that had 
 supplied meal for their brose brought them 
 to the verge of famine and to the necessity of 
 assistance or surrender. The purse of the 
 royal exile was also in a state of ebb. In the 
 exhaustion of his resources during the last 
 determined stand in Ireland he had " made 
 a shift " to despatch a ship from Nantes to 
 the relief of the destitute and desponding 
 patriots, laden with flour, salt, flints, tobacco, 
 drugs, and, above all things, larandy — for the 
 bibulous proclivities of the Scottish Gael were 
 as ravenous as the tastes of Red Indians 
 and unconverted negroes, and had been bit- 
 terly assailed by Acts of Parliament. More 
 he was unable to promise after the wreck of 
 the Jacobins (Jacobites we call them now) in 
 Ireland. His Majesty was "too tender of 
 their lives" to expose them to a desperate 
 course ; a trifle of ;^200 was sent across to 
 the suffering Episcopal clergy by the Popish 
 exile " as a mark of his impartial love and 
 charity ; " they might fight if they wished, but 
 it would be wiser to make peace with Nero 
 and wait for better times, when they might 
 shake off the fetters of the unnatural son-in- 
 law who had torn the crown from his sacred 
 brow. 
 
 Tarbat and Stair ; The Kirk and 
 Highlanders. 
 
 At this momentous crisis Scotland had the 
 fortune to possess a host of clever politicians, 
 who, if they brought around the Court of 
 
 467 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Orange the dangerous and despicable ele- 
 ments of duplicity, greed, and ambition, were 
 also able to contribute to the settlement of 
 the seething elements the better endowments 
 of perception, tact, energy, and determination. 
 William had the wisdom, or the luck that 
 goes for wisdom, to select the men for the 
 hour, men it might not be of lofty and un- 
 swerving principle, but who, when a certain 
 goal was placed before them, would make for 
 it with implicit obedience, and were able by 
 splendid skill, unscrupulous craft, and unbend- 
 ing determination, to grasp the means and 
 place the prize in the hands of their master. 
 Scotland had two burning questions, either 
 with a blood-stained history : the one was the 
 Kirk, the other was the Highlanders. The 
 Dutch prince, ignorant of these two grave 
 and tragic State questions, would not be able 
 without the greatest care to hold the crown 
 of Scotland on his head, and would probably 
 endanger his seat upon the throne of England. 
 The two statesmen to whom, perhaps, the 
 highest niche of honour is due for consolidat- 
 ing the Revolution in Scotland, and working 
 out her union to England, were the plastic 
 Sir George McKenzie, Viscount Tarbat, after- 
 wards first Earl of Cromartie, and more pre- 
 eminently still. Sir John Dalrymple, afterwards 
 first Earl of Stair. He was the changeling 
 son of a reputed " witch " and a pious judge, 
 who, too, had been nicknamed a changeling, 
 and was the author of a renowned legal 
 treatise and a less renowned one on the 
 Divine Attributes. So utterly, however, has 
 the name of Stair been blasted by his con- 
 nexion with one side incident of the Revolu- 
 tion, known as the Massacre of Glencoe, that 
 he has not even been allotted the dignity of 
 a separate mention in the most extended 
 dictionaries of Scottish biography. So true 
 is Shakespeare's dictum — 
 
 "The evil that men do lives after them, 
 The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 He was the guide of his sovereign and the 
 genial soul of the social circle ; yet, in spite 
 of his wit, his imagination, his ready elo- 
 quence, against which no Scotsman of his 
 day could safely take up the cudgels, and his 
 vast success as a statesman, his name is to 
 most men now but the suggestion of an 
 " infamous " massacre. But, after all, he 
 was but one of many — the King and others 
 were his fellows ; he was only the ablest repre- 
 sentative of old Scotland in the tyrannical 
 oppression of a shameless tyranny that, 
 to use a homely expression, deserved all it 
 got. Clans, be it remembered, exist not now ; 
 in those days they were terrible living forces, 
 lawless and dangerous associations, not mere 
 memorial manes existing only to cherish 
 "peaceful pageantry, social enjoyment, and 
 family traditions. " 
 
 468 
 
 Estimate of Highland " Loyalty;" 
 Treachery of the Aborigines. 
 
 The Highlander was a grievance of the 
 worst type to all peacefully disposed Scots- 
 men. The clans and septs v/ere as little 
 dependent on the Crown as are the Kroumirs 
 or Beni Hassan of our day on the Bey of 
 Tunis or the Sultan of Morocco. Their 
 feuds form a ghastly and appalling tale 
 of treachery and bloodshed. The records of 
 the Scottish Privy Council during the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries are exceed- 
 ingly sensational ; the pages bristle with the 
 barbarous achievements of the aborigines of 
 the isles and highlands. "The inhabitants of 
 the Lowlands," says Sir Walter Scott, " were 
 indeed aware that there existed in the 
 extremity of the island, amid wilder moun- 
 tains and broader lakes than their own, 
 tribes of men called clans, living each under 
 the rule of their own chief, wearing a peculiar 
 dress, speaking an unknown language, and 
 going armed even in the most ordinary and 
 peaceful vocations. The more southern 
 counties saw specimens of these men follow- 
 ing droves of cattle, which were the sole ex- 
 portable commodity of their country, plaided, 
 bonneted, belted, and brogued, and driving 
 their bullocks, as Virgil is said to have spread 
 his manure, with an air of great dignity and 
 consequence. To their nearer Lowland neigh- 
 bours they were known by more fierce and 
 frequent causes of acquaintance ; by the 
 forays which they made upon the inhabi- 
 tants of the plains, and the tribute, or pro- 
 tection-money, which they exacted from 
 those whose possessions they spared." 
 
 That is really a gentle and generous picture 
 of the Gael. No ordinary adjective can ex- 
 press the intense and deserved hatred and 
 detestation of them which existed in the 
 Lowlands till quite recent times. It is almost 
 provoking to a true student to hear a word 
 spoken in favour of the Highland Jacobins. 
 We admire the staunchness of their loyalty, 
 yet it is contemptible from a statesman's 
 point of view. It was simply a wider feeling 
 of clanship, — a graft on the reverence for a 
 chief; only the larger growth of a blind 
 barbaric serfdom. They had only for two or 
 three decades made the slightest show of 
 submission to law when Montrose led them 
 out — like the Red Indians in the American 
 war a hundred years later — to interfere 
 in the constitutional government of Britain 
 by true and serious patriots, who and 
 whose ancestors had thought and toiled and 
 bled for many centuries in the best interests 
 of the country ; these Stuart kings, and their 
 Claverhouse, had dared to flourish the savage 
 plumes of the armed " Highland host " — 
 ignorant of all that was national, theological, 
 or urbane — for the persecution of the pious 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY. 
 
 "hillmen" of southern Scotland; besides, 
 the dans were fascinated by plunder, and 
 had no particular horror of assassination. 
 To decide how to deal with these abori- 
 gines m a grave crisis like the Revolution 
 of 1688, we must cast aside to-day's senti- 
 mental ethics and place ourselves in the 
 arena of the time. How were statesmen to 
 deal with the bull that rushed from the 
 mountains upon the civilization of Britain ? 
 
 No one of the clans could well cast a stone 
 at another. Cruelty and treachery, rapacity 
 and rebellion, embellish the annals of them 
 all. The struggle for the subjection and im- 
 provement of the Highlands and the Isles had 
 been carried on for centuries, and the policy 
 had been to dash the hostile tribes against 
 each other, or, to use the old Scotch phrase, 
 " set one devil to ding another." King 
 James IV. had struck the first effective 
 blow by breaking up the lordship of the 
 Isles, and by crushing and forfeiting the 
 Macdonalds — such as the sept of Glencoe — 
 who attempted to revive it. It is unfair to 
 single out any clan for specimens of treachery, 
 but we may refer to one conspicuous ex- 
 ample of that period. Maclean of Duart, 
 after taking a leading part in the rebellion 
 of 15 13 to place young Donald of Lochalsh 
 on the throne of the Isles, offered his service 
 to the Government, and promised to act with 
 double zeal in destroying " the wicked blood 
 of the Isles ; for as long as that blood reigns, 
 the kings shall never have the Isles in peace, 
 whenever they find an opportunity to break 
 loose, as is evident from daily experience." 
 A later instance of the savage treachery of a 
 Maclean chief is found in a massacre of 1 588. 
 On the very night on which Maclan of 
 Ardnamurchan (the head of a powerful 
 Macdonald sept that was crushed by Argyll 
 in 1624, took to piracy, and finally sank 
 among the clan Ranald) was married under 
 Maclean's own roof to that chieftain's mother, 
 the infainous host caused a number of the 
 Maclans to be slain ; he marched at dead 
 of night into the bridal chamber, and but 
 for the eager entreaty of the newly married 
 wife would have sacrificed her husband, who 
 was then mercifully doomed by his step-son 
 to the tortures of a dungeon. 
 
 Letters of Fire and Sword ; Projected 
 Massacre by James VI. 
 
 The ordinary process of law was in most 
 cases unavailing for the capture of criminals. 
 The chiefs of hostile clans were accustomed 
 to obtain " letters of fire and sword" from 
 the Privy Council, such as the commission 
 given to the laird of Mackintosh in 1688 
 against Coll of the Cows, the chief of the 
 Macdonalds of Keppoch, one of Dundee's 
 most vigorous supporters and among the 
 fiercest warriors that ever trode the hills of 
 
 Scotland. The order to burn houses and 
 corn, and to destroy man, woman, and child, 
 was carried out with ruthless severity, and 
 the rebel chief was driven among the moun- 
 tains. Such tragedies were lamentably 
 common. 
 
 Not till the reign of James VI. were any 
 serious steps taken by Parliament to bring 
 the lawless Highlands more directly under 
 the control of the Government. Chiefs and 
 landlords were commanded to find sureties 
 for the peaceful behaviour of their vassals ; 
 the King, in 1596, summoned all the nobles, 
 freeholders of a certain rental, and burgesses 
 of the realm, under pain of death and for- 
 feiture, to assemble with ships and arms at 
 Dumbarton in order to proceed against the 
 rebels of the West ; all the inhabitants of the 
 Isles and Highlands were in the following 
 year ordered to "come compear" at Edin- 
 burgh and show their title-deeds; the royal 
 mandate charged them with frustrating 
 His Majesty of his rents and service, with 
 "barbarous inhumanity," which caused the 
 fertile ground and rich fishings to be worth- 
 less, and with "neither entertaining any civil 
 or honest society amongst themselves, neither 
 yet admitted others ... to traffic within their 
 bounds with safety of their lives and goods." 
 In 1607 the Scottish Solomon determined on 
 a measure of the most dreadful character, 
 and empowered Lord Huntly " to extirpate 
 the barbarous people of the Isles isjithin a 
 year." The moral capacity of the Gordon 
 chief for executing this gigantic feat of exter- 
 mination had been shown by his vigorous 
 execution of former letters of fire and sword 
 against the Mackintosh, when he threatened 
 even the wife of the chieftain, and uttered 
 the rudely humorous menace that he would 
 "cut her tail above her houghs." Had not 
 an accident befallen Huntly and destroyed 
 the compact, the result would have far eclipsed 
 the horrors of the Glencoe massacre. Fortu- 
 nately for the memory of James, this project 
 was superseded by the sweeping but milder 
 Statutes of Icolmkill (1609) and other agree- 
 ments, by which the northern chiefs were 
 called upon to deliver up their strongholds 
 and their war galleys ; to submit themselves 
 to the jurisdiction of the laws ; to remedy 
 the "ignorance and incivility" of the High- 
 lands, all gentlemen owning sixty cattle were 
 to send their youth to the Lowlands to learn 
 to read, speak, and write English, as became 
 the children of barons and gentlemen ; the 
 household of the chiefs was to be diminished, 
 and the hosts of sorners — masterless vaga- 
 bonds who lived at free quarters on the poor 
 natives — were to be punished as thieves and 
 oppressors ; the bards were threatened with 
 the stocks and banishment ; the inhabitants 
 were not to import for sale any wine or 
 brandy, the inordinate love of which was one 
 
 469 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of the main causes of their poverty and their 
 inhuman barbarity ; handfasting (marrying 
 for a term of years) was declared illegal ; 
 none but the chiefs were to wear armour ; 
 the land was to be let to tenants at fixed 
 rents ; and the " beastly and barbarous in- 
 humanities" were to be assuaged by a more 
 solemn observance of the Sabbath, and by 
 the devoted services of an increased supply 
 of orthodox Presbyterian pastors. 
 
 Tarbat's Golden Bait for settling 
 
 THE Highlands. 
 One of the charges levelled against the 
 dethroned Stuart by the Scottish Convention, 
 when they sent up Sir John Dalrymple and 
 two other deputies to London with an offer 
 of the crown to William, was that he had 
 not taken " an effectual course to repress the 
 depredations and robberies by the Highland 
 clans." The astute Viscount Tarbat, who 
 knew that the haughtiest bosom beyond the 
 Grampians was not unimpressionable to the 
 argument of a bribe, accepted a commission 
 from the King, in which he was authorized, 
 "for encouraging the Highlanders to return 
 to their duty, ... to offer such honour under 
 that of Earl, and such sums of money not 
 exceeding ^2000 sterling, to any one chief 
 and tribe." The Viscount, however, was 
 personally without sufficient immediate in- 
 fluence, but he attempted to secure a power- 
 ful, insinuating, and unscrupulous agent in 
 the person of the Earl of Breadalbane, one 
 of the greatest Highland princes, whose vast 
 estates stretched far into the wildest districts 
 of the north, and were fringed by the glens 
 and mountains of several of the disaffected 
 chiefs. However broad his acres and nume- 
 rous his vassals — of whom he could bring at 
 least fifteen hundred into the field — very little 
 gold ever found its way into the pockets of 
 the semi-civilized prince. Tarbat shrewdly 
 suspected that the offer of ^5000 to him for 
 the conclusion of a " cessation of arms" would 
 be eagerly grasped at. The fair-complexioned 
 chief was not likely to have any nice scruples 
 on this or any other business, for with all the 
 grave and lofty bearing of a Spanish grandee, 
 he was " as cunning as a fox, as wise as a 
 serpent, and as slippery as an eel," although 
 perhaps in some of these qualities he scarcely 
 surpassed several other Scottish peers, such 
 as Argyll, Hamilton, and Athole. Unfortu- 
 nately the " encouragement" was rejected by 
 Campbell, greedy and cunning as he was, 
 for at that moment Balcarres, Linlithgow, 
 and other Jacobites were intriguing with the 
 extreme Presbyterian party for the overthrow 
 of the new Government ; he was in the thick 
 of the plot, and, by the advice of his Jacobite 
 comrades, he refused, no doubt with great 
 sorrow, the golden bait of Tarbat. The 
 scheme, however, does not appear to have 
 
 been long lost sight of by the sinuous Bread- 
 albane or the clever politicians who were 
 deftly rounding off the corners of the Scottish 
 edifice ; after deliberating on the merits of 
 other possible agents, like the Earl of Men- 
 teith, they decided on the superiority of their 
 first love, and pocketing the previous affront, 
 they chartered Breadalbane again, in th e 
 autumn of 1690, to bring the dangerous High- 
 land cargo into the haven of submission. 
 
 Christmas Letter. of a pious Colonel; 
 Change of Tone : The Scheme of 
 Extermination. 
 
 The Fort of Inverlochy, or Fort William, 
 lay at the base of the giant mountain of 
 Ben Nevis, in the centre of the nest where 
 all the Highland schemes of rebeUion were 
 hatched. Sitting there on Christmas Day 
 in 1690, its pious and gentle governor, 
 Colonel Hill, wrote with evident satisfaction 
 of the brighter prospects that had begun 
 to dawn ; that the brave Lochiel and the 
 ferocious Keppoch had submitted to " the 
 associate gentlemen" a proposal of sur- 
 render ; that some of the chieftains had ex- 
 acted an oath from their people against 
 stealing or receiving stolen goods ; and that 
 Sir Ewan had given earnest of his honesty 
 and zeal by actually hanging a man for 
 robbery. Sir John Dalrymple, who had just 
 been appointed Secretary of State, and had 
 accompanied his royal master to the seat of 
 war on the Continent, wrote home in February 
 1 69 1, in his peculiarly vigorous and terse 
 style, his opinion that there was no chance 
 that year of a Jacobite invasion ; he hinted 
 that the expectation of French troops by 
 them was " a mere delusion with vain 
 dreams," and to entertain it was to " aban- 
 don the common sentiments of mankind to 
 make their native country a cockpit." But 
 the fall of Mons in the early spring before 
 the arms of the great French general, 
 Luxemburg, regarded as a most serious 
 disaster by King William, was quickly fol- 
 lowed by rumours of an invasion, which 
 spread freely through Edinburgh, and awoke 
 in the glens of the north the old expectation 
 of the triumphant lilies of King Louis. 
 
 Sir Thomas Livingston, commander-in- 
 chief of the Scottish forces, the Lords of the 
 Treasury, the pious colonel who occupied 
 Fort William in the very hotbed of the High- 
 land rebels, were thrown into a state of 
 fierce excitement, growled at each other, and 
 bandied about accusations as to the wretched 
 condition of the army. Livingston was posi- 
 tive that the north would go to the dogs 
 with such a weak and gentle governor as 
 Hill at Inverlochy ; he was eager to exone- 
 rate himself from the blame of the catastrophe 
 that all supposed impending : it was im- 
 possible, he said, to concentrate the troops. 
 470 
 
 ( 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY 
 
 The Lords were without funds ; they had 
 'only 1800 bolls of meal in store, and they 
 Tvere in urgent need of 1000 fresh firelocks, 
 300 brace of pistols, and 300 barrels of 
 powder. Hill's Christmas hopes and senti- 
 ments had altogether disappeared by May- 
 day. He breathed out threatening and 
 slaughter. Havelock was changed to Crom- 
 well. The gentle soldier who was proud to 
 speak of his men as sober and God-fearing 
 was roused to a thirst for vengeance when 
 ■Tie saw his Highland hopefuls retreat in dis- 
 gusting haste to their old path and look for 
 .aid from Irish rapparees and French troops ; 
 he had no expectation now of the surrender 
 of the great castle of Duart on the Isle of 
 Mull, a fortress of many tragically savage 
 memories. Glengarry, too, had begun to 
 fortify his house of Invergarry. The man 
 of peace was driven to desperation. If they 
 rose again, he wished that " all the west 
 ■country and all the clans whom they have 
 injured may be let loose upon them till they 
 be utterly rooted out." He had abandoned 
 his former Christian suggestion of pensioning 
 the chiefs during good conduct for the old 
 Scottish method of a massacre. But he 
 scarcely meant this tall talk in earnest. The 
 Privy Council sent him orders to "fall upon 
 those Highlanders within his reach" who did 
 not forthwith give up their arms and take the 
 oath ; he was also to destroy their cows, in 
 other words, reduce the natives to a state of 
 total destitution. This command made him 
 somewhat nervous. He replied that with all 
 his eagerness to press forward those methods 
 for His Majesty's service " which wiser men 
 than I judge convenient," he was not able 
 to work miracles and subdue the entire High- 
 lands with his handful of soldiers. He 
 pointed out that the surrender of arms would 
 prove a mockery, as in Mull and Athole, 
 where the men had only parted with "some 
 old rusty trash;" the men of the glens and 
 mountains could not be expected — any more 
 than the Basutos of our day — to surrender 
 the sword and gun, which were their most 
 precious heirlooms, and thus place themselves 
 at the mercy of other savages, their hereditary 
 foes. 
 
 Breadalbane, provided by Queen Anne with 
 the promise of money for bribes, was busy 
 with his strange and secret diplomacy in the 
 early summer. Hill was recovering once 
 more his hopeful attitude, although he had 
 his eyes opened to the shameless treachery 
 of the Highlander. On all sides he saw that 
 the common people, in spite of the report 
 that six thousand Frenchmen were coming, 
 longed for peace ; in Skye, and on the braes 
 of Lochaber, the Macdonalds would welcome 
 it ; so would the Cameron men ; Glencoe 
 and Appin desired their vassals to take the 
 oath from their superior, Maccallum More. 
 
 A number, too, of the chiefs and "gentle- 
 men " were willing to submit ; the pride of 
 the separate clans was the main obstacle. 
 The great Sir Ewan had announced that he 
 would not stir to rise in arms, and that the 
 gentlemen and people of his name might act 
 at their own pleasure ; as for himself, " he 
 stood upon a point of honour with his con- 
 federates that they should not accuse him as 
 the first to break the ice." The news was 
 altogether too exhilarating for Hill, too good 
 to be true. " I trust in the Lord," he said, 
 when he heard that some of the chiefs had 
 hastened from their homes to meet the French 
 frigates on the coast. 
 
 Castle of Achai,lader ; Glencoe ac- 
 cused ; Barbarities of his Sept ; 
 Rob Roy's Brother-in-law. 
 
 His ancient castle of Achallader in Glen- 
 orchy, now a heap of ruins, was the spot 
 chosen by Breadalbane for the delicate and 
 mysterious meetings with the rebel chiefs. 
 The old fortalice is now in ruins. It stands 
 amid the wild and bleak moorlands of Argyll, 
 on the Perthshire border, at the north-east 
 end of Loch ToUa, near the tremendous soli- 
 tude of the Rannoch, and a few miles from 
 the desolate region of the Macdonalds of 
 Glencoe. It was not a day's walk from Ben 
 Nevis, to the west and east of which dwelt 
 the Camerons of Lochiel and the Keppoch 
 Macdonalds in the Braes of Lochaber. By 
 the wayside the tourist passing into Glencoe 
 or across the Devil's Staircase towards Fort 
 William sees groups of stately deer wander- 
 ing through the vast preserve of Corichbad, 
 the property of the modern Breadalbane. 
 
 On the 30th of June, 1691, the final con- 
 ference was held in the ancient fortalice. The 
 harmony of the day was not remarkable : such 
 a gathering could at no time be so ; and the 
 two sons of old Sandy Macdonald of Glencoe 
 heard in the " town " of Achallader that the 
 great Perthshire chief had sought a quarrel 
 with their father about some cows the Glen- 
 coe men were alleged to have stolen from the 
 vassals of Breadalbane. The accusation was 
 probably a just one. This sept of Macdonalds, 
 living in a desolate and dreary glen, could 
 not subsist except by " creachs," or predatory 
 forays, on their neighbours ; the naked and 
 precipitous mountains which shot up from 
 either side of the roaring Cona could support 
 but a small sprinkling even of wild animals, 
 such as red deer, hares, foxes, eagles, ptar- 
 migan, and a chance moorcock. They had 
 long been the thievish and ferocious allies of 
 the broken clan of Macgregor, the most 
 " wicked and lawless limmers " that ever 
 robbed and murdered in the glens and valleys 
 of stern Caledonia. A hundred years had 
 rolled by since the Macdonalds had perpe- 
 trated a terrible outrage on Drummond of 
 
 471 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Drummondernoch. Some of the young mem- 
 bers of the clan, wandering from the wild and 
 poor recesses of their own mountains, were 
 captured by the royal foresters in the act of 
 carrying off deer in the forest of Glenartney, and 
 were sent home with their ears cropped. The 
 Macdonalds vowed vengeance, slew Drum- 
 mond, the chief author of the inhuman act, 
 and having cut off his head, proceeded with 
 confidence to the house of his married sister 
 at Ardvoirlich (the " Darlinvaroch " of the 
 " Legend of Montrose ") on the southern shore 
 of Loch Earn. It was with no small fear that 
 the lady received these formidable strangers, 
 whose visits on former occasions had been in 
 the unwelcome trade of freebooting ; but in 
 the absence of her husband she was obliged 
 to make some show of Highland hospitality, 
 and placed some bread and cheese before her 
 guests. On her leaving the room the savage 
 ruffians brought forth her brother's bloody 
 head, and placing it on the table, put a piece 
 of bread and cheese in its mouth. When she 
 returned and saw the ghastly spectacle, the 
 poor woman rushed from the house in a state 
 of the wildest distraction, and wandered in 
 that harvest season over the hills and glens a 
 wretched maniac, living on the wild berries 
 that grew in the loneHest spots. Her discon- 
 solate husband sought fruitlessly for her 
 among the woods and mountains. A famished 
 female figure was at last seen by some milk- 
 maids lurking among the brushwood on the 
 higher pastures of Ardvoirlich ; they flew to 
 their master with the news that they had wit- 
 nessed the apparition of his lady's ghost : and 
 the husband, who guessed the truth, succeeded 
 in capturing her. The Macdonalds, after 
 their barbarous procedure, carried the head to 
 their associates at Balquhidder ; and the 
 chief of the Clan Gregor, with the whole sur- 
 name, " purposely conveined," says the decree 
 of fire and sword issued against the enactors 
 and abettors of this abominable tragedy, 
 " upon the next Sunday thereafter, at the 
 Kirk of Buchquhidder ; where they caused 
 the said umquhill [whilom] John's head to be 
 presented to them, and there avowing the 
 said murder, laid their hands upon the pow 
 [poll], and in ethnic and barbarous manner 
 swore to defend the authors of the said mur- 
 der." A century had passed, and the Glencoe 
 men were still the allies of the Macgregors. 
 Sandy Macdonald, the second son of the old 
 chieftain who wore the ferocious horn-like 
 moustachios, was married to Sarah Macgregor, 
 a sister of Rob Roy, and assisted his father- 
 in-law in thievish depredations as far south 
 as the vicinity of the banks of the Clyde. 
 
 Old Macdonald did not return to his native 
 glen from the conference at Achallader in a 
 contented state of mind ; he talked to his sons 
 and others of a threat of mischief which 
 Breadalbane had uttered, and the menace of 
 
 so powerful a chief against his little sept 
 caused him to be alarmed. He was heard to 
 speak of there having been " blood " in former 
 times betwixt Breadalbane's family and the 
 clan. That was true, doubtless, but too much 
 has been made of the statement, for the whole 
 race of Campbell and the whole race of 
 Donald were hereditary foes. It is true, also, 
 that Breadalbane, although he had become 
 an earl and, moving about among refined 
 society, had been slightly veneered by the 
 habits of civilized life, still clung at heart to 
 the old crafty and revengeful Highland in- 
 stincts ; and while he sought to conceal the 
 fact, he was as ready as his " ethnic " neigh- 
 bours to despatch his vassals on a creagh, 
 and take his lion's share of the plunder. 
 
 The Armistice ; Dalrymple's Object. 
 The conference at Achallader on the 30th 
 of June, 1 69 1, closed with a "cessation of 
 arrrs"for three months. Its secret articles 
 show the audacity and obstinacy of the High- 
 land chiefs : they are defiant even to insult. 
 The rebels required permission to ask a warrant 
 for their surrender from the Stuart Court at 
 St. Germains ; ^12,000 "to refund them of 
 the great expenses and losses they had sus- 
 tained by the war," otherwise they could not 
 prevent their impoverished people from com- 
 mitting depredations on their Lowland neigh- 
 bours ; the purchase by the King of the 
 superiorities claimed over their lands in any 
 way by landlords like Argyll and Mackintosh 
 •^the most degrading of all circumstances in 
 the eyes of a haughty chief ; and among the 
 other strange articles, the startling condition 
 that Breadalbane, "manager" for the Go- 
 vernment, should give his oath and honour 
 to bring a thousand men to the side of the 
 chiefs if William and Mary did not accept 
 the terms offered ! 
 
 Dalrymple, the Scottish Secretary, was 
 determined on taking advantage of the 
 armistice. " Their doing," he said shrewdly, 
 " after King James's allowance is worse than 
 their obstinacy, for those who lay down their 
 arms at his command will take them up at 
 his warrant." A mysterious, and perhaps 
 suspicious, game of King and Queen was car- 
 ried on at this juncture. Dalrymple ordered 
 the commander-in-chief to keep his force of 
 ten thousand men close on the Highland 
 border and be on the alert for further orders. 
 The Queen instantly countermanded its pro- 
 gress. Stewart of Appin, young Sandy 
 Macdonald (Rob Roy's brother-in-law), and 
 others, violating the armistice by seizing some 
 of the King's soldiers, were caught napping, 
 and conveyed by sea to the Tolbooth of 
 Glasgow : they were immediately set at 
 liberty by the Queen's order. 
 
 Dalrymple's mind was made up as to 
 carrying out the scheme of extermination ; 
 
 47: 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY. 
 
 not that he was inspired by the fiendish lust 
 of blood which had animated the " Spanish 
 bloodhounds/' Alva and Vargas, in their 
 massacres in the Netherlands where he now 
 lived : he is not to be likened to a King 
 Theebaw or an Ashanti despot. He had 
 two objects in view : to create abroad the 
 impression that all parties had accepted 
 William as their sovereign, and for this pui- 
 pose it was 
 necessary that 
 the Highland- 
 ers should 
 take the oath 
 of allegiance ; 
 to draw off 
 certain troops 
 from Scotland 
 in order to as- 
 sist in the Con- 
 tinental cam- 
 paign — and 
 for this pur- 
 pos e it was 
 necessary that 
 the more im- 
 portant of the 
 Highland 
 
 strongholds 
 
 should be 
 
 surrendered 
 
 and garrison- 
 ed by loyal 
 
 troops, so as 
 
 to hold the 
 
 rebels in awe, 
 
 and that the 
 
 mock submis 
 
 sion should be 
 
 made a real 
 
 one, by stamp- 
 ing it on the 
 
 treacherous 
 
 memories of 
 
 the aborigines 
 
 by the simple 
 
 method of 
 
 slaughtering 
 
 every clan and 
 
 every man 
 
 that refused to 
 
 take the oath. 
 
 His plan, and 
 
 the plan of his 
 
 coadjutors, 
 
 Pass of Killiecrankie 
 
 was to obtain a real submission ; but it was 
 hoped, and it was believed, that some would 
 tiold out through obstinacy ; these septs were 
 to be rooted out, hunted from their holes and 
 shot down like beasts of prey. Prepara- 
 tions were made, and tools secured for 
 striking the blow at these banditti. It was 
 as thieves, as incorrigible savages born with 
 ineradicable instincts that hated industry 
 
 and good order, that they incurred the fierce 
 political wrath and vengeance of Dalrymple. 
 
 The Royal Indemnity; The Council 
 
 PUZZLED. 
 
 In the month of August the Lords of the 
 Privy Council issued a proclamation as an 
 effective supplement to the tardy, secret, and 
 '^ii'^Dinous negotiations of Breadalbane.' Its 
 
 piofessed ob- 
 ject was to re- 
 duce theHigh- 
 lands " from 
 1 a pi n e and 
 ai ms to virtue 
 and industry," 
 1)\ the extinc- 
 tion of ancient 
 feuds; it 
 offered pardon 
 of all robber- 
 ies, treasons, 
 rebellions, and 
 other crimes, 
 tosuchas took 
 the oath of 
 alleg ianc e 
 from sheritts 
 or sherift"-de- 
 putes before 
 the first day 
 of January, 
 1692. Exact 
 lists of those 
 who submit- 
 ted were to be 
 sent, at the 
 highest peril 
 to those who 
 were responsi- 
 ble, to the 
 clerks of the 
 Council with- 
 in ten days of 
 the expiry of 
 this time of 
 grace ; rebels 
 who remained 
 incorrigible 
 were to be 
 punished with 
 the utmost ex- 
 tremity of the 
 law. The pro- 
 c lam at i on 
 
 473 
 
 contained one clause which it is well to bear 
 in mind in view of the horrid massacre which 
 closed the episode : The ministers of the law 
 were called upon "to interpret this indemnity 
 in the most favourable and ample manner." 
 The document was printed, and was pro- 
 claimed at every market cross in the kingdom 
 of Scotland. 
 
 The royal letter on which this proclamation 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was based seems to show that for once in 
 Scottish history the fiat of government would 
 "be carried out, that the threat of punishment 
 was not to be the mere empty blast of a 
 trumpet. It was a land bill and a coercion 
 bill in one. It proposed the purchase of the 
 lands and superiorities of the chiefs, so that 
 they might be immediately dependent on the 
 Crown, and be relieved from the deep degra- 
 dation of vassalage to rival chiefs ; but it also 
 commanded the Council to order the Governor 
 of Inverlochy and other officers to be " exact 
 and diligent in their several posts ; but that 
 they show no more zeal against the Highland- 
 ers after their submission than they have ever 
 done formerly wheti they were in open rebel- 
 lion." The Lords were staggered by this ex- 
 pression ; they thought it "somewhat unclear," 
 and asked an explanation from the King as it 
 might be misunderstood by the officers. Pos- 
 sibly they imagined that the document, which 
 was drawn up and subscribed by Dalrymple, 
 had been hurriedly superscribed by William 
 in the fatigue of the camp. Doubtless the 
 fimbiguity was there of set purpose, for Wil- 
 liam's secretary was the master of clear and 
 forcible expression. There is no reason to 
 doubt that the King was completely cognisant 
 of Dalrymple's programme : he detested the 
 name of Scotland, and once expressed the 
 wish that that fractious hot-bed of theology 
 were a thousand miles away. 
 
 The Council, in obedience to the royal in- 
 structions, issued orders for the surrender of 
 the great Highland castles. Dalrymple had 
 pointed out the importance of garrisons in 
 Ellandonan, Invergarry, and elsewhere ; the 
 rebellious clans would not be able to sleep in 
 peace with these watch-towers all around as 
 stern reminders of their submission. 
 
 Weeks passed, and the chiefs continued to 
 higgle with Breadalbane over the amount of 
 money each should receive from the treasury. 
 Submission was the smallest topic in their 
 thoughts. Glengarry was the most hot-headed 
 opponent of a surrender ; and while debating 
 over his share in the bribe, he was busily 
 spreading rumours through the Highlands of 
 a fresh invasion ; it was reported even that 
 the Pope had presented an immense sum of 
 gold to King James. The chiefs knew the 
 character of Breadalbane ; the name of Camp- 
 bell was synonymous with craft and avarice, 
 and they feared that after all they might 
 never lay their fingers on a single penny of 
 the royal bonus. The wily diplomatist as- 
 sured his northern friends that the money 
 was safely locked up in a box in London. 
 He was even accused of constantly preaching 
 to them in public and private that he was as 
 faithful to James as any of them, that he 
 would show his true colours in the nick of 
 time, that his submission to the Prince of 
 Orange was only given to save himself and 
 
 his family from ruin. Colonel Hill was quietly 
 watching him and reporting the results to 
 Dalrymple. Breadalbane stormed at the 
 officer as the tool of his ruin, and the ob- 
 structor of his country's peace ; and Hill re- 
 plied that his "proceedings were bottomed 
 on low condescension and mean proposals." 
 The Council whispered dark hints of Bread- 
 albane's treachery into His Majesty's ear ; but 
 the King remarked with his usual brevity that 
 men who manage treaties must use fair 
 words. Dalrymple cheered his worthy tool, 
 and assured him that all the devices of his 
 enemies would only strengthen his favour in 
 the royal eyes. 
 
 " Dalrymple's Mauling Scheme." 
 
 One evening in October, Viscount Tarbat 
 paid a visit to the Earl of Linlithgow, one of 
 the Treasury commissioners, at his Edinburgh 
 mansion, in deep anxiety about the news that 
 the Macdonalds and others were not likely to 
 come in. He was distressed about the chief 
 of Sleat, and also about Glengarry, and letters 
 — not the first — from Tarbat to those deter- 
 mined rebels, urging them to make their 
 peace, were sent by the Earl to Breadalbane. 
 In a few days we find the conclave — Dal- 
 rymple, Tarbat, Linlithgow, Oueensberry, and 
 others — gathered around the King and Queen 
 in London, discussing with them the project 
 of extermination, and taking the liveliest in- 
 terest in the correspondence that was con- 
 stantly arriving from Breadalbane. The 
 chiefs continued to grumble at the unfairness 
 of the proposed distribution of the money ; 
 and the King himself condescended to enter 
 into the discussion of this question of minute 
 detail. Dalrymple, although he could not 
 bear the slightest personal grudge against 
 any of the Highland chiefs, warmed the 
 Highland blood of his tool, Breadalbane, 
 into a thirst for vengeance against the " in- 
 veterate enemies" of his clan, more espe- 
 cially the Macdonalds. Extracts from some 
 of these letters will exhibit the cool manner 
 in which those statesmen contemplated and 
 hoped for the extermination of the Highland 
 rebels. 
 
 "Both Glengarry and Keppoch," wrote 
 Dalrymple on the 27th of October, "are Pa- 
 pists, and that is the only Papist clan in the 
 Highlands. Who knows, but by God^s pro- 
 vidence they are permitted to fall into this 
 delusion, that they may only be extirpated, 
 which willvindicate their Majesty's justice, 
 and reduce the Highlands without further 
 severity to the rest .'' " Linlithgow wrote four 
 days later in the same lively strain about the 
 " last standers out" : " I know the King does 
 not care that some do it, that lie may make 
 examples of them." 
 
 On the 3rd of November Dalrymple in- 
 
 474 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY 
 
 formed Breadalbane that he had shown the 
 King his letter of the 27th. " I wrote to you 
 formerly that if the rest were willing to concur, 
 as the crows do, to pull down Glengarry's 
 nest this winter, so as the King be not hin- 
 dered to draw four regiments from Scotland, 
 in that case the destroying him and his clan 
 and garrisoning his house . . . will be full 
 as acceptable as if he had come in." In 
 December the correspondence of Dalrymple 
 assumed a tone of fierce eagerness. His 
 words were sharpened into a keen edge. 
 The pace of his passion increased like that 
 -of a stone rolling down a hillside. At the 
 beginning of December he speaks with glee 
 of what he terms "the winter campaign." 
 The smell of war on the Continent had accus- 
 tomed him to martial ideas. It is not one 
 insignificant sept that is to be swept out of 
 existence ; the Camerons, Glengarry, Kep- 
 poch, all the rest of the Macdonalds, Appin, 
 the Macleans, are to be "rooted out" before 
 they can get help from James. " God knows 
 whether the ;^i 2,000 sterHng had been better 
 employed to settle the Highlands or to ravage 
 them." His pen has become restless ; he 
 ■writes to Breadalbane on the very next day. 
 He is maddened that these impecunious 
 robber-chiefs should still be higgling about 
 a few hundred pounds. "By the next I 
 expect to hear either these people are come 
 to your hand, or €i.'s>& your scheme formauling 
 them. ... I am not changed as to the expe- 
 diency of doing things by the easiest means, 
 -and at leisure, but the madness of these people 
 and their ingratitude to you makes me plainly 
 see there is no reckoning on them ; but 
 deletida est Carthago. Yet who have accepted 
 and do take the oaths will be safe, but deserve 
 no kindness ; and even in that case there must 
 Tdc hostages of their nearest relations." In all 
 this correspondence the Glencoe men were 
 never once mentioned ; they were too insig- 
 nificant : what he wished was not only a 
 terrific example, but the seizure of some 
 •castle for a good military post. " Because I 
 breathe nothing but destruction to Glengarry, 
 Tarbat thinks that Keppoch will be a more 
 proper example of severity. But he hath not 
 a house so proper for a garrison, and he hath 
 not been so forward to ruin himself and all 
 the rest. But I confess both's best to be 
 ruined." Breadalbane closed his long and 
 arduous task in complete failure, left his 
 native country and the refractory chiefs, and 
 proceeded to London by invitation to enjoy 
 the Christmas festivities of the civilized me- 
 tropolis. Lochiel might also have gone, had 
 he been so minded ; a sum of ^200 was 
 offered him by the royal agent to defray the 
 expenses of the trip. 
 
 At the same time Dalrymple — for in the 
 capacity of Secretary of State for Scotland 
 -he was compelled to appear above board, 
 
 and accept the responsibility of the entire 
 group of William's advisers, some of whom, 
 indeed, had been utterly opposed to the offer 
 of an indemnity to the Highlanders — secured 
 fit military agents to carry out the scheme in 
 its details. Colonel Hill was too gentle for 
 the work of "mauling" ; by his own confes- 
 sion he did not "like the business." But 
 one of Hill's of^cers at Fort William was 
 somehow recommended, and Dalrymple 
 seems to have been so sure of his man, with 
 whom he was hitherto unacquainted, that in 
 the very first letter addressed to Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Hamilton he writes with vigorous 
 transparency and a reckless freedom : " It 
 may be shortly we may have use of your 
 garrison, for the winter time is the only season 
 in which we are sure the Highlanders cannot 
 escape us, nor carry their wives, bairns, and 
 cattle to the mountains. The Clan Donald 
 is generally Popish. Since the King hath 
 to demonstration shown his exception, I am 
 content that clan doth except itself." It was 
 on the 3rd of December that he used the 
 word " mauling " in his correspondence with 
 Breadalbane. On the same day he wrote to 
 Hamilton : " Let me hear from you with the 
 first, whether you think this is the proper 
 season to maul them in the long, coldmgfits* 
 It never occurred to the minister that the 
 world would be shocked; and although we 
 cannot read these words without a shudder, 
 Sir John Dalrymple declared it would be 
 ^'popular to take severe course" with the 
 Macdonalds, the only Popish clan in the 
 kingdom ! 
 
 The Chiefs submit; MacIan's Pride 
 AND Blunder. 
 
 In spite of the facts that the King's forces 
 were on the alert in the Highland garrisons 
 and on the confines of the Highland line, 
 and that the chiefs must have been perfectly 
 aware of the proposed measures of extermi- 
 nation, — as the letters of Tarbat, Livingston, 
 and Dalrymple show, — the oath was not 
 administered by any sheriff or sheriff-depute 
 to a single Jacobite chieftain when Christmas 
 Day had come. What of the two messengers 
 that had been despatched to the Court of 
 St. Germains to consult the " tender " King 
 James ? Six months had nearly passed since 
 the conference of Achallader, and four since 
 the proclamation of the royal indemnity. 
 
 The exiled prince withheld his consent to 
 the submission of the chiefs until the last 
 moment consistent with their safety. His 
 letter was dated from St. Germains on the 
 1 2th of December. The deputies hastened 
 to London in a Government vessel ; the 
 original missive was shown to the ministers 
 of state, who retained it ; one of the messen- 
 gers, Menzies, was provided with a copy, 
 and travelled post with it from London, 
 
 475 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 reaching Dunkeld from Paris in the short 
 space of eleven days. Overcome with 
 fatigue, the eager deputy sent on the royal 
 message to General Buchan at Invergarry. 
 When Menzies arrived at the Highland 
 border, and saw the royal forces ready to 
 march, he was in a state of deep alarm ; he 
 beseeched Buchan to send immediate ex- 
 presses to all the chiefs to submit, and he 
 requested Sir Thomas Livingston to suppli- 
 cate the Council for an extension of the time 
 of grace. The Commander of the Scottish 
 forces laid the matter before the Council on 
 the 5th of January. The heart of Colonel 
 Hill was softened also, and on the 28th of 
 December he wrote to Tarbat with a similar 
 request. 
 
 On Christmas Day the pious Colonel 
 received a visit at Inverlochy from the 
 greatest of all the chiefs, Sir Ewan Cameron, 
 who was on his way to Inverness to take the 
 oath, after which he was going straight to 
 London to kiss the hand of King WilHam : 
 so that, after all, Lochiel was "the first to 
 break the ice " and lower the flag of Highland 
 honour. The combination was broken like 
 a Rupert's ball, and the other chieftains 
 hastened like sheep in his footsteps to their 
 respective sheriffs. The last to hold out was 
 Alexander Macdonald, chief of the Clan Ian 
 Abrach, which owned but the small and bar- 
 ren domain of Glencoe, and numbered only a 
 hundred fighting men, but claimed the proud 
 dignity of representing a special line of the 
 Macdonalds. 
 
 The haughty and venerable chief gave way, 
 like the rest of his kinsmen, and on the 31st 
 day of December presented himself at Fort 
 William, some fifteen miles distant from 
 Glencoe, in order to take the oath. But the 
 governor of that garrison was not empowered 
 to administer it. The proper person to do 
 so was the sheriff or sheriff-depute of Argyll- 
 shire, some eighty miles away, at Inverary. 
 Wild torrents, terrific passes, snow-covered 
 tracks through desolate glens and over 
 mountains lay between the old man and his 
 destination. The tender-hearted colonel 
 furnished the chieftain with a letter to Sir 
 Colin Campbell, the sheriff-depute of Argyll, 
 recommending him to mercy. It was good, 
 he said, to bring in a lost sheep at any time. 
 With this kindly missive the gigantic " lost 
 sheep " with the fierce moustachios turned his 
 face southward, wending his wild and weary 
 way over mountain and glen, through the 
 tempestuous weather, not even stopping — as 
 his son afterwards declared — when he crossed 
 the ferry over the Leven, to visit his home- 
 stead, though it lay at only half an hour's 
 distance. Captain Drummond detained him 
 at Barcaldin for four-and-twenty hours. 
 When he arrived at Inverary, three days 
 more elapsed before Sir Colin appeared, 
 
 476 
 
 owing to the bad weather that in due course 
 was sweeping over those desolate regions. 
 At first he declined to accept the offer of 
 allegiance from Glejicoe, until the old chief- 
 tain besieged him with tears, promising at 
 the same time to bring in all his people 
 quickly, and have them imprisoned or sent 
 to Flanders if they refused to take the oath 
 and submit to King William. The sheriff- 
 depute despatched the list of those who had 
 taken the oath at Inverary, among them the 
 name of Alexander Macdonald of Glencoe 
 upon the 6th of January, to the sheriff of 
 Argyll at Edinburgh : and he accompanied 
 the list with Hill's missive about the lost 
 sheep. The clerks of the Council, puzzled 
 as to how to deal with this case of late sub- 
 mission, laid the matter before one of the 
 Privy Councillors, Sir Colin Campbell of 
 Aberuchill, a Perthshire laird and a lord of 
 session. He spoke, or said he spoke, to 
 several members of the Council, although he 
 did not put the question formally before that 
 body, as ought to have been done ; and on 
 his authority the clerks scored out the name 
 of Macdonald of Glencoe. Meanwhile the 
 old rnan had returned to his native glen. 
 He summoned his people together, told them 
 he had made his peace, and desired them to 
 live as faithful subjects of King WiUiani. 
 
 Preparation for the "Rooting Out." 
 
 Dalrymple did not forget the Highland 
 thieves amid the festivities with which his 
 countrymen welcome the new-born year. It 
 never for a moment occurred to him that the 
 prey he had been licking for six months 
 would at the last moment creep out of his 
 clutches. The news as to the submissions 
 had not yet reached London ; it was only one 
 day after. old Glencoe had sworn at Inverary 
 to be a faithful subject to ^ King William, 
 when the Secretary, determined on taking 
 time and the rebels by the forelock, wrote to 
 Sir Thomas Livingston to have his forces 
 ready, with grenades, shovels, and other 
 warlike instruments for the campaign against 
 the "barbarous people," the "deluded devils." 
 The v/hole of Lochaber, the lands of Lochiel, 
 of Keppoch, of Glengarry, of Appin, and of 
 Glencoe, were to be " entirely destroyed." 
 Charity would invite us to set down a portion 
 of his ferocity to the social excitements of the 
 season. " I assure you their [the troops'] 
 power shall be full enough, and I hope the 
 soldiers will not trouble the Government 
 with prisoners. It's true it's a rigid season 
 for the soldiers to work, but it's the only time 
 they cannot escape you ; for human consti- 
 tution cannot endure to be now long out of 
 houses." The imagination of the writer is so 
 vivid that he forgets for the moment that he 
 is in the south of England and not among 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY. 
 
 the deep snows and biting winds of the 
 Scottish mountains. 
 
 Two days later he wrote to the commander, 
 lamenting that Lochiel and others had 
 submitted. " I am sorry," he said, " that 
 Keppoch and McKean of Glencoe are safe." 
 But there were still left the Macdonald of 
 Skye, Grant of Glenmoriston, and his chief 
 desire, Macdonald of Glengarry : and on the 
 I ith of January, orders, superscribed and sub- 
 scribed by the King, were sent to Livingston, 
 commanding him to march the troops at 
 Inverness and Inverlochy against the rebels 
 who had not taken the benefit of the in- 
 demnity, " by fire and sword and all manner 
 of hostility, to burn their houses, seize or 
 destroy their cows or cattle, plenishing, or 
 clothes, and to cut off the men. '' Several of 
 the loyal clans had been ordered out to assist 
 in the work of destruction, on the lines of the 
 old Scottish policy of setting " one devil to 
 ding another" — a sufficient guarantee that 
 there would be little mercy. The " yeomen 
 and commonalty " might receive quarter and 
 indemnity for life and fortune on taking the 
 oath and surrendering their arms, but no 
 such grace was to be extended to chieftains, 
 heritors, and leaders ; and if their lives were 
 spared, they were to be treated as prisoners 
 of war. On the i6th, additional instructions, 
 superscribed and subscribed like the former 
 ones, were sent to Livingston and Hill. In 
 these Maclan of Glencoe is singled out for 
 vengeance. Glengarry was to be spared if 
 he took the oath and surrendered his lofty, 
 rock-perched castle by Loch Oich ; other 
 rebels were to surrender "upon mercy;" 
 but " if McKean of Glencoe and that tribe 
 can be well separated from the rest, it will 
 be a proper vindication of the public justice 
 to extirpate that sept of thieves." 
 
 If we turn from these public documents 
 to the correspondence of Dalrymple with 
 Livingston, whom he begins to pet and cajole 
 as " dear Sir Thomas," when pressing on 
 him the necessity of stern measures, we shall 
 find the instructions interlined with language 
 of picturesque ferocity. In it we read the 
 secret of the massacre. When he was 
 writing to the commander on the nth of 
 January, Argyll, who joined in the work of 
 blood with the spirit of his race, seems to 
 have dropped in upon him with the welcome 
 news that after all Glencoe had not taken 
 the oath — " at which I rejoice ; it's a great 
 work of charity to be executed in rooting out 
 that damnable sept, the worst in all the High- 
 lands." In correspondence of later date with 
 the gentle Hill and " dear Sir Thomas," who 
 has had impressed upon him already the 
 circumstances that the orders for destruction 
 bore the King's own genuine signature at 
 top and bottom, and that they gave full 
 powers while they left the plan of execution 
 
 to Livingston's own genius, the Secretary 
 broadly hints to him what it would be best to 
 do : " By no means leave anything standing 
 ouL. . . I entreat that the thieving tribe in 
 Glencoe may be rooted out in earnest. . . 
 To harry their cattle or burn their houses 
 is but to render their {sic) desperate, lawless 
 men to rob their neighbours ; but I believe 
 you will be satisfied it were a great ad- 
 vantage to the nation that thieving tribe 
 were rooted out and cut off It must be 
 quietly done " — not because the affair might 
 get wind; oh, no! but "otherwise they 
 will make shift for both the men and their 
 cattle." Argyll and Breadalbane were ready 
 allies in such a pleasant game as the ex- 
 termination of these irrepressible foes of the 
 Campbells and of all industry : Argyll's 
 detachment " lies in Keppoch Well to assist 
 the garrison to do all on a sudden. . . . Pray, 
 when anything concerning Glencoe is re- 
 solved, let it be secret and sudden, other- 
 wise the men will shift you, and better not 
 meddle with them than not to do it to 
 purpose." 
 
 The Campbells quartered in Glencoe. 
 
 The Scottish officers could not fail to grasp 
 the intention of the Government. The news 
 of the determination to root out entirely the 
 Macdonalds of Glencoe was received in 
 Edinburgh with warm welcome. But they 
 were not the only clan that was doomed, as 
 historians persistently assert. They were, 
 however, the worst gang of thieves left, and 
 were therefore set down as the first article in 
 the delicious programme. The Secretary's 
 great object of securing Glengarry's castle, 
 however, was first attained, and the soldiers, 
 under Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, 
 moved southwards, crossed the ferry of Loch 
 Leven, and entered the valley of Glehcoe. 
 
 The appearance of Glenlyon, along with 
 Lieutenant Lindsay, Ensign Lundy, and one 
 hundred and twenty men of Argyll's regiment 
 on the 1st of February, was calculated to 
 cause alarm to the Macdonalds of Glencoe. 
 It was an unwonted sight, and perhaps for 
 the first time in their long history did the in- 
 habitants look upon the army of a Scottish 
 sovereign in their sequestered valley. The 
 most obnoxious and the most exciting feature 
 of the invasion was the fact that the men 
 who ventured into the pass were not merely 
 soldiers of King William, but, worse than 
 that, members of the hated and hostile clan 
 of Campbell. The mission could mean no 
 good, it might well be thought, under the 
 colours of Argyll ; as Burton has expressed 
 it, " The boa constrictor might as well be 
 expected to visit the tiger's den as a minister 
 of peace, as the Campbells to go in force 
 into the country of the Macdonalds without 
 bloody intentions." Still, when the eldest 
 
 477 
 
EPOCHS AhD EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 son of Maclan went down to meet the 
 invaders with a company of twenty men, saw 
 the orders of blunt and honest Hill for 
 quartering the soldiers, — the good-hearted 
 governor who had written that touching 
 letter for the " lost sheep," and was known 
 to be incapable of a cruel or dishonourable 
 word or action, — and passed a pleasant 
 greeting with the captain, whose sister was 
 the mother of his brother Sandy's wife, the 
 fear was changed into a thorough Highland 
 welcome, such as the poet Burns scarcely 
 hoped for on his exit from this present 
 terrene state. Yet just there lay the depth 
 of the treachery : the friendly face of Glen- 
 lyon was the smiling mask of the assassin. 
 Doubtless, if Dalryniple, or Tarbat, or 
 Linlithgow, or Queensberry, could have had 
 a glimpse into the distant Highland glen, 
 they would have grinned and chuckled at 
 the pleasant interview of these aboriginal 
 savages ; Argyll and Breadalbane would 
 have gazed or shouted with the delight born 
 of their native instincts. 
 
 The Macdonalds made merry with their 
 strange visitors, — merrier, we might be 
 allowed to guess, for in such circuuistances 
 as theirs the mirth was certain to be some- 
 what hysterical. It was no easy matter for 
 the small clan to accommodate so many visi- 
 tors under the thatched roofs of their rude 
 huts ; yet there was sufficient usquebaugh with 
 which they might regale themselves during 
 the long, cold winter nights, which Dalrymple, 
 by his warm fire in London, had pictured to 
 himself as excellent for the purpose of maul- 
 ing ; and there were at least one thousand five 
 hundred cattle and thousands of goats and 
 sheep, which pastured on the greener and more 
 sheltered spots of the valley and the slopes. 
 Near the mouth of the roaring Coe, where 
 the glen has not assumed its aspect of utter 
 wildness and nakedness, there is a little bit 
 of pleasant woodland scenery : an avenue of 
 old ash and plane trees leads the tourist to 
 the ruin of Invercoe, marking, it is said, the 
 homestead of the old chief. Further up the 
 glen there were a few groups of huts, the 
 nearest to the mouth of the pass being that 
 of Inverigan, where Glenlyon had his quar- 
 ters ; close by was the hamlet of Auchnaion, 
 where another party was lodged, under the 
 command of Ensign Barber. For twelve 
 short days and twelve long nights the time 
 seems to have passed pleasantly enough, the 
 captain calling at the chiefs every day for his 
 " morning drink," — something merrier, to 
 use the language of an old Irish poem, than 
 the cold ale of Fingal : the two brothers 
 played cards of an evening by the glow of 
 the peat fire in the quarters of Glenlyon. 
 
 There would be no dearth of weird and 
 stirring tales. The clear stream that roared 
 down the wild glen into Loch Leven was the 
 
 Cona of Ossian, which the old bard or bards- 
 had immortalized : he or they had described 
 it as fed by a thousand torrents, that after 
 a stormy night turned their dark eddies 
 beneath the pale light of the morn, — had 
 sung of the thunder of night, when the cloud 
 bursts on Cona and a thousand ghosts 
 shriek at once on the hollow wind, and of 
 the high, blue, curling sides of the pass 
 beneath which were the winds with their 
 wings. On the evening of the 12th it was 
 arranged that Glenlyon, Lieutenant Lindsay,, 
 and Ensign Lundy should dine on the 
 morrow in the house of the chief. The 
 captain, at the time he was passing the late 
 hours with his niece's husband over the cards- 
 and usquebaugh, had the order in his pocket 
 for the murder of " the old fox and his sons "■ 
 before daylight reached the glen on the next 
 morning. 
 
 "His blithest notes the piper played, 
 Her gayest snood the maiden tied, 
 The dame her distaff flung aside. 
 To tend her kindly housewifery. 
 
 The hand that mingled in the meal, 
 At midnight drew the felon steel." 
 
 The Wheels that did the Work ; An 
 Early Morning Call ; The Hand of 
 A Lost Child. 
 
 It is worth while to learn how Captain 
 Campbell came to have that infamous order 
 in his pocket, how the energy derived from 
 the great wheel of State had passed into those 
 minuter wheels which were armed with the 
 savage teeth of the assassin. On the 23rd 
 of January, General Livingston, aware of the 
 slowness of Colonel Hill in "the exaction of 
 such things," wrote to a gentleman with whom 
 we are already familiar through the corre- 
 spondence of Dalrymple, that Lieutenant 
 Hamilton, at Inverlochy, to whom he had 
 suggested the mauling of the Clan Donald 
 in the long, cold nights. The commander 
 informed the lieutenant that the Secretary of 
 State had made special mention of the thiev- 
 ing nest of Glencoe in his last three letters : 
 " So, sir, here is a fair occasion for you to 
 show that your garrison serves some use ; 
 and being that the orders are so positive 
 from Court to me not to spare any whatever 
 not timely come in, as you may [see] by the 
 orders I sent to your colonel, I desire you 
 would begin with Glencoe, and spare nothing 
 which belongs to him, but do not trouble the 
 Government with prisoners." 
 
 As we already know, a part of Argyll's 
 regiment was quartered in Glencoe about a 
 week later, under the command of Glenlyon, 
 whose superior officer. Major Robert Dun- 
 canson, had his quarters at Ballahulish, on 
 the north side of the Leven, and almost, 
 opposite the mansion of Maclan. Living- 
 
 478 
 
A DARK DEED OF CRUELTY. 
 
 ston's orders to Hill might possibly have 
 been given, and were probably given, without 
 the knowledge that the agents of destruction 
 were to be entrusted with the butchery while 
 living under the hospitable roofs of their 
 victims. The Colonel, who " liked not the 
 business," and from whose hands the power 
 was virtually taken by his subordinate Ham- 
 ilton, gave to this officer an order dated at 
 Fort William on the 12th of February, which 
 ran in general terms as follows : " You are 
 with four hundred of my regiment, and the 
 four hundred of my Lord Argyll's regiment 
 under the command of Major Duncanson to 
 march straight to Glencoe, and there put in 
 due execution the orders you have received 
 from the commander-in-chief." Hamilton 
 then wrote to Duncanson to have his men 
 stationed at the posts assigned him by seven 
 o'clock on the following morning (Saturday), 
 and that he would himself march to his own 
 post with the party from the garrison to join 
 in the action. He pointed out with due 
 emphasis the necessity of Captain Campbell 
 securing all the avenues on the south side of 
 the glen, which had been set apart for his 
 special attention, so that neither " the old 
 fox nor none of his cubs get away :" none 
 vi?ere to be spared, as the Government did 
 not wish to be troubled with prisoners. 
 
 The last wheel was set in motion by Dun- 
 canson. He was a sullen, brutal monster, and 
 his orders to Campbell of Glenlyon seem to be 
 the pantings of a short-breathed ferocity. 
 The few lines written by this obscure Highland 
 savage, the only evidence that such a person 
 ever existed, are sufficient to confer upon him 
 an immortal memory of shame. Campbell 
 was to fall on the Macdonalds precisely at 
 five o'clock in the morning ; by that time, or 
 shortly after, the major would be there with 
 a stronger party : " If I do not come to you 
 at five, you are not to tarry for me, but to 
 fall on." There was the King's own special 
 hand for cutting off the miscreants root and 
 branch, for the good and safety of the country. 
 He seems to fear that the heart even of a 
 Campbell might fail him before the awful 
 task; he remembers the tie of kindred between 
 the captain and the chief's family. You are, 
 he commands, to put all under seventy to 
 the sword, taking especial care that the old 
 fox and his sons do not escape ; do it without 
 fear or favour, else you may expect to be 
 dealt with as a traitor to your King and 
 country, as a man unfit to carry a commission 
 in the King's service. 
 
 The soldiers were not made aware of the 
 work cut out for them until the morning, 
 when the order was given them to kill every 
 man and woman they met, and shoot down 
 every one they saw taking to the hills. John, 
 the eldest son of the old chief, was alarmed 
 during the night by the sound of soldiers' 
 
 voices outside his window, and went up to 
 Inverigan to inquire of Glenlyon what was 
 the meaning of the disturbance. " If ill were 
 intended," said the treacherous Campbell, 
 " would I not have told Sandy and my 
 niece ? '' 
 
 It was close on five o'clock when Lindsay 
 called at the chiefs house with a party of 
 soldiers ; the old man rose out of bed to 
 receive his early visitors. He did not have 
 time to dress himself before a couple of bul- 
 lets whizzed from behind his back and laid 
 him dead in his wife's arms. It was stated 
 on oath that the brutal soldiers stripped off 
 the whole attire of the chiefs widow and 
 tore the rings from her fingers with their 
 teeth. She expired on the following day. 
 At the different centres further up the glen, 
 where the other parties were stationed, the 
 work of murder went on simultaneously, and 
 with equal fiendishness. At the little village 
 of Auchnaion the laird of Achtreachtan was 
 sitting at his brother's fire Avith eight other 
 men, when a volley of balls was poured into 
 the group by Sergeant Barber and his com- 
 rades. Four fell down dead, and the others 
 threw themselves on the floor. One of them 
 was Achtreachtan's brother, whom Barber, 
 suspecting he was not dead, took hold of and 
 asked if he were alive. The poor Highlander 
 asked the sergeant to grant him the favour of 
 being shot in the open air. " I will do you 
 that favour," said the menial officer, " for the 
 sake of your meat which I have eaten." Tak- 
 ing advantage of the darkness, the powerful 
 mountaineer dashed himself on the soldiers 
 before they had time to take aim, and fling- 
 ing his long tartan plaid in their faces, fled in 
 a moment up the mountain with the swiftness 
 of a deer. During this short interval the 
 other three Macdonalds had risen from the 
 floor and escaped by the back of the building. 
 A child was afterwards missed from this 
 hamlet, and nothing but its hand was ever 
 found. 
 
 The tragedies enacted at Inverigan under 
 the eyes of Captain Campbell were, if pos- 
 sible, of a more savage character than 
 those which were witnessed at the other 
 hamlets. The men were dragged out of bed 
 and killed one by one ; a lad of twelve was 
 shot dead, although he ran up to Glenlyon 
 declaring with passionate entreaty that he 
 would go anywhere with Glenlyon, would 
 follow him over the world, if only his life 
 were spared ; a woman and a child of the 
 tender age of four or five v/ere also among 
 the victims. One old man of eighty was mur- 
 dered. Inverigan himself, after having been 
 left for dead at his own door, crept into 
 another house. It was only to suffer a worse 
 fate : the building was set on fire by the sol- 
 diers, and the old man perished in the flames. 
 There was one young man of twenty whom 
 
 479 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Glenlyon was disposed to spare, but an ofificer 
 named Drummond, who arrived with ad- 
 ditional troops about daybreak, found fault 
 with the leniency of his comrade, and ordered 
 him to be shot by a file of musketeers. 
 
 Results of the Massacre ; The Fall 
 OF Stair. 
 
 Some twenty-five persons had been slaugh- 
 tered. Women and children, too, it was 
 believed had perished in the storm and deep 
 snow on the hill sides, and became the prey 
 of the eagles that haunted the lofty spires of 
 Buachal Etive. The plot for the extermina- 
 tion of the whole clan of Maclan of Glencoe 
 had proved a complete failure, and it served 
 no other purpose than to brand with infamy 
 the name of every man who had art or part 
 in the foul thing. The two " cubs," above 
 all, had succeeded in escaping together up the 
 mountains on hearing the iirst shots fired. 
 The severe weather had hindered the march 
 of Hamilton, and it was within an hour of 
 midday when he arrived with his forces upon 
 the scene. It has been remarked with a 
 terrible terseness that nothing was left for 
 the lieutenant-colonel but an old man to kill 
 and houses to burn. All the possessions of 
 the Macdonalds of Glencoe were destroyed 
 or carried off. 
 
 Tradition and a Jacobite pamphlet which 
 Macaulay has used more freely than he 
 ought perhaps to have done, assert that Glen- 
 lyon and his descendants were haunted by 
 the spectre of Maclan and the blood of 
 Glencoe ; but the fact is that he lived' long 
 afterwards to serve his King and country 
 in Flanders and the Highlands. Within a 
 fortnight it was widely known and talked 
 of in London that the Macdonalds had been 
 murdered in bed after taking the allegiance. 
 But Stair was not ashamed. He even pressed 
 on Hill to continue the work of vengeance : 
 " All I regret is that any of the sept got 
 away ; and there is necessity to prosecute 
 them to the utmost. If they could go out of 
 the country, I wish they were let slip." 
 
 In May the Council gave permission to 
 the ruined Macdonalds, who had associated 
 themselves with other " loose and broken 
 men " for pursuing the career of freebooters, 
 to return to their native valley under suffi- 
 cient securities for good conduct ; and in the 
 summer of 1695 the Scottish Parliament, 
 under the pressure of the bitter pohtical 
 opponents of Dalrymple, appointed a com- 
 mission of inquiry as to the authors of the 
 dark tragedy. Even Tarbat was frightened, 
 and was eager for a full and formal pardon 
 for himself, covering the whole of his career : 
 he alleged that the high-toned morality was 
 a mere sham, assumed for the ruin of himself 
 
 and his associates by another political clique 
 that, to use his own words, would put a 
 beast's skin on every one not belonging to 
 their club and set the hounds on him. The 
 King was exonerated by the Parliament ; 
 the Secretary was declared to have gone 
 beyond his instructions ; Livingston and Hill 
 were acquitted of blame ; all the other officers, 
 from Hamilton downwards, ought to be 
 prosecuted if His Majesty thought fit. 
 
 The matter ended in a mere resolution. It 
 was attended by no disastrous consequence 
 to any of the persons involved in the actual 
 work of blood ; and even the maligned Dal- 
 rymple, on whom his political enemies on the 
 right and left alike aimed at casting the 
 odium of the barbarous massacre, was 
 acquitted by the King of having any participa- 
 tion whatever in the method by which the 
 scheme of extermination was attempted to 
 be carried out. So far his connection with 
 the Glencoe massacre was fatal to his career 
 as a statesman ; he resigned the office of 
 Secretary during the summer in which the 
 Commission instituted its inquiries. Long 
 exiled from the councils of the King and the 
 debates of Parliament, he at last weathered 
 the hatred and the disgrace. His sovereign, 
 remembering the services he had bestowed 
 upon the realm of Scotland, exalted him to 
 the dignity of an earldom, and he died in 
 honourable harness, while fighting with all 
 his wisdom and eloquence for the union of 
 the two kingdoms. As novi homines^ he and 
 his father were detested by the needy and 
 less capable patricians over whose heads he 
 floated into power, as great men always do, 
 in the crisis of his country ; and the screech- 
 ing calumnies of his jealous foes have been 
 too readily accepted as a basis for the eloquent 
 invective of historians. It is no purpose of 
 ours to enter into any tedious discussion 
 as to the real authors of the massacre. We 
 may not approve of the " legal advantage " 
 on which Dalrymple insisted in striking a 
 blow at the bandits of Glencoe ; we confess 
 that he was by no means scrupulous as to 
 the possible method of extermination, and 
 simply put his hands over his eyes while the 
 savage clansmen took their own way of doing 
 his work ; but we beg to protest against the 
 constant insinuation or assertion that he 
 dictated the massacre as it actually occurred. 
 His own letter, written in London on the 
 30th of January, affords incontrovertible evi- 
 dence that he was utterly ignorant of the 
 project of treacherous assassination under the 
 mask of friendship, and that he was guilty 
 only of advising that the work should be 
 " quietly done," so that the extermination of 
 the thievish clan might be complete. 
 
 M. M. 
 
 480 
 
iHE Attack on the Bastille. 
 
 THE VENGEANCE OF '89. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE. 
 
 The Mud-Town- The Merovingian Kin?s-The Carlovingians-The Capets-Pans under the Capets-The House of 
 Valois-Troubles in the Jacquerie-Foundation of the Bastille-Growth of the Bastille-lhe Boiirbon Kings— 1 he 
 Bastille and the Absolute Monarchy— A Poet's Indignant Denunciation— An Escape from the Bastille— Ihe Beginning 
 of the Revolution—" To Arms ! "— " To the Bastille "—Taken— The Sequel. 
 
 TS^ 
 
 The Mud-Town. 
 AM writing these words on the top of 
 a lofty tower, some one hundred 
 and seventy-five feet high. On 
 one side, the north, I look down upon 
 magnificent streets, the dainty colours of the 
 ever-moving crowd set off by the foliage of 
 
 -^81 
 
 the trees, just now in their spring lovehness 
 In the garden beneath, mothers and nurse- 
 maids in blue garments and white caps 
 tend little children also white-capped ; and 
 all day long— nearly all night long— the roll 
 and roar of carriages goes on without ceasing. 
 I turn to the other side, and there is a river 
 
 1 1 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 beneath me, not nearly so wide as the Thames, 
 but spreading out opposite to where I am 
 standing, and enclosing two islands, with 
 more bridges than I am able to count. 
 Beyond the river again the busy streets 
 continue, with many a grand spire and 
 dome rising among them. And all these 
 things together make up the city of Paris, the 
 most beautiful city, probably, in the world. 
 Rome is infinitely greater in historical inter- 
 est, London is vaster, Edinburgh is grander 
 in situation, but in splendour of streets and 
 gaiety of appearance, Paris surpasses them 
 all. 
 
 One of these islands of which I have spoken 
 is called " the Isle of the City." It contains 
 the cathedral and the Palace of Justice. 
 When Julius Caesar came here 2000 years 
 ago this formed the whole city, and its name 
 then was Lntetia Parisiofum, " Mud-Town of 
 the Borderers."* The " Borderers," who occu- 
 pied the whole district known now as the 
 Isle of France, were at first disposed to be 
 more friendly towards him than their neigh- 
 bours, and he showed his appreciation of 
 this by convoking a general assembly of the 
 Gauls in this island ; but they afterwards 
 turned against his lieutenant, Labienus, and 
 shared the usual fate of being conquered. 
 
 When the Romans became possessed of 
 all Gaul, Paris for a while disappears out of 
 the history. Yet it throve, chiefly in con- 
 sequence of its river commerce. It gradually 
 extended itself from the islands to the main- 
 land, chiefly on the left bank of the river. 
 The chief temple, that of Jupiter, was on the 
 island, but a great amphitheatre rose up on 
 the left bank, and afterwards a palace of the 
 Emperors, who began, after a while, to make 
 it a favourite residence. 
 
 When Christianity began to make its rapid 
 strides towards victory over heathenism, St. 
 Denys, or Dionysius, came to Paris with two 
 companion preachers. He and these com- 
 panions were beheaded on a hill, which was 
 consequently called "the Martyr's Hill," — 
 Mons Martyru7n. You will find the spot in 
 the map of Paris, Montmartre. 
 
 It was Julian " the Apostate " who caused 
 the first great advance of Paris to splendour. 
 He preferred it to every city in his empire, 
 and relics of his baths remain to this day. 
 He died in 364, and his successor also dwelt 
 a good deal in Lutetia, though it never 
 became the official capital of Roman Gaul ; 
 that honour belonged sometimes to Lyons, 
 sometimes to Treves, sometimes to Aries. 
 It was not even the capital of a province ; 
 and this explains why its prelates never took 
 rank as archbishops until the 17th century. 
 
 * This is Carlyle's interpretation of Parisii, or 
 Barisii. Numerous other interpretations, however, 
 have been given. 
 
 They were suffragans only of the Bishop 
 of Sens. 
 
 Early in the 5th century lived St. Marcel, 
 who is said to have " delivered the country 
 from a terrible dragon," which, being inter- 
 preted, probably signifies that he was the 
 means of destroying paganism. In his time 
 the temple of Jupiter gave place to the first 
 Christian cathedral in Paris. It was dedi- 
 cated to St. Stephen. But the chief saint of 
 Paris in early times was St. Genevieve, the 
 details of whose history are given in many 
 frescoes on the walls of the Paris churches. 
 Suffice it to say that she spent her life in 
 works of piety and self-denial ; that when 
 the fierce Attila came into Gaul bringing 
 destruction and death in his train, it was her 
 prayers, according to popular belief, which 
 kept him out of the city ; that when Clovis^ 
 King of the Franks, crossed the Rhine and 
 conquered Gaul, and formed the new Frank 
 monarchy, it was Saint Genevieve who per- 
 suaded the Parisians not to acknowledge 
 him until he should embrace Christianity ; 
 that he was accordingly baptized at Rheim& 
 in 496, and entered Lutetia next year ; that she 
 died in 512, at the age of eighty-nine, and was 
 buried beside him in the Abbey of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, which had been founded by 
 his wife Clotilde. The church was from that 
 time known as St. Genevieve, though since 
 it was rebuilt in the i8th century it is 
 more commonly called the Pantheon. The 
 National Convention inscribed on it, "To the 
 memory of our great men ; " and here were 
 brought Voltaire, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Marat^ 
 to be buried. Their remains, however, were 
 afterwards removed; those of Marat were 
 thrown into a sewer. The shrine of St. 
 Genevieve is now to be seen in the neigh- 
 bouring church opposite, " St. Stephen on 
 the Hill." 
 
 The Merovingian Kings. 
 Clovis, which is the Latin form of the 
 Teutonic Chlodwig, the same name which 
 the French softened into Louis, was the 
 founder of what is known as the Merovin- 
 gian dynasty in France. It had been, as 
 we know, a Roman country ; then, as the 
 Roman power dechned, it fell under the 
 Visigoths, whose chief seat of power, how- 
 ever, was in Spain. But the Visigoths were 
 I out of harmony with the Church,— they were 
 Arians, who denied the divinity of Christ, — 
 and therefore, so it is said, the clergy en- 
 couraged King Clovis to come from the 
 Rhine country, and establish himself in GauL 
 He was nothing loth, and, as we have already 
 said, he agreed after a while to be baptized. 
 It was done by St. Remigius, Bishop of 
 Rheims. " Lower thy head with humihty," 
 said the eloquent bishop, " adore what thou 
 hast burned, burn what thou hast adored." 
 
 482 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF '89. 
 
 From the time of Clovis, the city has come 
 to be called Paris. There are many interest- 
 ing relics of the Meroving kings in and 
 about Paris, not only coins and implements 
 of war, but deeds and charters with the 
 kings' signatures. The student of French 
 history will find a collection of woiiderful 
 interest in the Archives Nationales in the 
 Rue Franc Bourgeois, — a collection to which 
 we shall have to refer again. One looks 
 there upon the very documents which passed 
 under the hands of those Meroving kings, 
 who rode in their bullock carts with long 
 hair flowing ; for it was law absolute as that 
 of the Medes and Persians that no king 
 could have a razor come upon his head ; 
 here are their deeds, grants of lands to 
 faithful followers and to churches. In days 
 when all else was moving and in unrest, the 
 Church remained a permanent institution, 
 and all men felt and recognized its power 
 and usefulness. "The Church!" exclaims 
 Carlyle, " what a word was there ; richer 
 than Golconda and the treasures of the 
 world ! In the heart of the remotest moun- 
 tains rises the little kirk ; the dead all 
 slumbering around it, under their white 
 memorial stones, ' in hope of a happy resur- 
 rection.' Dull wert thou, O reader, if never 
 in any hour (say of moaning midnight, when 
 such kirk hung spectral in the sky, and Being 
 was, as it were, swallowed up in darkness), 
 it spoke to thee things unspeakable, that 
 went up into thy soul's soul. Strong was 
 he that had a Church, what we can call a 
 church ; he stood thereby, though in the 
 centre of immensities, in the conflux of 
 eternities, yet manlike towards God and 
 man ; the vague, shoreless universe had 
 become for him a firm city, and dwelling 
 which he knew. Such virtue was in belief; in 
 these words well spoken, / believe. Well 
 might men prize their Credo, and raise -state- 
 liest temples for it, and reverend hierarchies, 
 and give it the tithe of their substance : it 
 was worth living for and dying for." * 
 
 There are two monuments of Merovingian 
 royalty in the abbey church of St. Denys, — 
 King Dagobert and Queen Frdddgonde. 
 The greater part, however, of this race of 
 kings were buried in the church of " St. 
 Germanus in the Meadows." And now the 
 city began to grow on the north side of the 
 river as well as the south. Two monasteries, 
 St. Martin and St. Lawrence, formed each 
 a nucleus of population, and a hunting-lodge 
 in the midst of a wood was called Lupara, 
 from the number of wolves which infested it. 
 This hunting-lodge was afterwards turned 
 into a castle by King Philip Augustus ; and 
 this again was removed to make room for a 
 
 * "French Revolution," I., 8. 
 
 new palace by Francis I., in 1541. This 
 has been altered and enlarged by several 
 monarchs since ; but what an effort of ima- 
 gination is needed to transform the Lupara, 
 or " wolf-haunt," of the 8th century into the 
 Louvre of the present day. 
 
 The Carlovingians. 
 To the Merovingians succeeded the Carlo- 
 vingians, or, as Mr. E. A. Freeman calls them, 
 the Karlings, the descendants of Charles 
 Martel. The greatest monarch of this line 
 was Charles the Great, commonly known as 
 Charlemagne. This form of his name is 
 unfitting for two reasons. First, he did not 
 speak French but German ; and secondly, he 
 did not live at Paris, or in what is now called 
 French territory. His home, and that of 
 nearly all his race, was on the banks of the 
 Rhine. His capital was Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 The period of the Carloving kings, indeed, 
 was not a prosperous one for Paris ; they 
 treated it as a simple fief, and as far as 
 French territory was concerned, held their 
 court at Laon. When the fierce Northmen 
 came in the 9th century, and sailed up the 
 Seine and the other northern rivers to plunder 
 and too often to kill, the Karlings almost left 
 Paris to their mercy. This was indeed the 
 cause of their downfall in France, and of the 
 final separation of the empire of Charles the 
 Great into the two divisions which we know 
 as France and Germany. 
 
 The Capets. 
 Whilst the Carlovingian kings were leaving 
 Paris and the Seine country to its fate, a 
 new family was coming into note destined to 
 play a brilliant part in the history of the 
 Frankish nation. In 885, Eudes, or Odo, 
 Count of Paris, aided by the Bishop Gos- 
 selin, briUiantly defended the city against an 
 attack of the Normans. They besieged it 
 for a year in vain ; then the Carloving king, 
 Charles the Fat, came to succour the city 
 with an army. And his succour consisted 
 in offering the Northmen a large amount of 
 gold to go away. Such a method of deliver- 
 ance angered both his German army and his 
 Frankish subjects. The former deposed him, 
 the latter severed the connection with the East 
 Franks, preferring to be ruled by their own 
 leader. So Eudes, Duke of Paris, became 
 King of the Franks. He transmitted this 
 crown to his brother Robert, who was unable 
 to hold it long ; but his grandson, Hugh 
 Capet, was more successful. He was elected 
 king at Senlis, June 30th, 987, and solemnly 
 crowned at Rheims, the ecclesiastical metro- 
 polis of France, on the following day. But 
 let it be remembered that this King of the 
 Franks by no means held undivided do- 
 minion over the whole country which we now 
 call France, or even over the greater part of 
 
 483 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 it. If we take Normandy to begin with, we 
 must remember that it was ruled by a Duke 
 of Normandy, whose dominion, so long as he 
 ruled justly, was as much his as that of Paris 
 was under the personal rule of the King. If 
 there were complaints made of his govern- 
 ment, appeal .lay to the King of the Franks. 
 He was " overlord " of the country, and the 
 peers who ruled the provinces were his vas- 
 sals ; they did homage to him on their enter- 
 ing upon their inheritance, but with this 
 provision for their righteous rule, their pos- 
 sessions were like a freehold. There were 
 many times when these great fief-holders were 
 quite as powerful as he who was called king. 
 The first Capets only held as their personal 
 heritage the provinces of the Isle of France, 
 Picardy, the Orleannois. The rest were fiefs 
 which became added one by one to France, 
 as we shall see presently. 
 
 From Hugh Capet the French crown de- 
 scended directly from father to his eldest 
 son for twelve generations, then the line was 
 broken. King Louis X. left no son. He had 
 a daughter ; but, according to the Salic law 
 which prevailed among the Franks, she could 
 not succeed, so the kingdom passed to the 
 brother of King Louis. He too died without 
 sons, so a third brother came, Charles IV. 
 He was the last male of the line ; so the 
 Crown went to his cousin Philip, son of 
 Charles of Valois, who was a younger brother 
 of King Philip IV. Hence we know the first 
 branch as the House of Capet, the second as 
 that of Valois. But as we see, both alike 
 sprang from Hugh Capet. 
 
 Paris under the Capets. 
 We have now to review the history of 
 Paris under the Capet kings. The first four 
 of them, Hugh, Robert, Henry I., Phihp I., 
 resided not so much at Paris as at Orleans. 
 Louis VI. and VII. principally dwelt at Paris, 
 but it was the next monarch, Phihp Augus- 
 tus, who did more for it than any of his 
 predecessors. He it was indeed who defi- 
 nitely made it the capital, established the 
 officei'S of government there, and built the 
 "great tower of the Louvre," in which he 
 deposited the State papers and treasures. 
 He also fortified the " faubourgs " which had 
 grown up on both sides of the river, and for 
 the first time made them an integral part of 
 the city. He reigned for forty-three years, 
 during which the city grew so much that it 
 was divided into eight " quarters " instead of 
 four. He also paved the streets, which 
 hitherto had been impassable in rainy 
 weather, built great market-places and seve- 
 ral bridges. But he further vastly increased 
 the importance of Paris by organising and 
 grouping together, under the title of the Uni- 
 versity, the lectures in literature, philosophy, 
 and theology, which were at that time flour- 
 
 ishing in their strength under the hands of 
 those learned men who have given to these 
 days the name of "Age of the Schoolmen." 
 The University of Paris was founded in 1200, 
 and completely organized by 1215. It was 
 on the left bank of the river, separate from 
 the rest of the city, and called " The Latin 
 Quarter,"- — a name which it retains to this 
 day. The character which it soon acqiu'red 
 for learning, the facilities which it rendered 
 to those who sought its benefits but were 
 too poor to pay for them, gave it a renown 
 surpassing that of any place in Europe. Thus 
 Paris now became the political capital of 
 France and the literary capital of Europe. 
 To have studied at Paris was among the 
 highest honours which a literary man could 
 aspire to. It is remarkable that in the 13th 
 century, which produced the noblest cathe- 
 drals, so many of the architects were from 
 the University of Paris. The further de- 
 velopment of the Sorbonne, named after its 
 founder, Robert Sorbon, belongs to the reign 
 of Louis IX., A.D. 1250. 
 
 To Philip Augustus also France owed much 
 for uniting the monarchy. The original per- 
 sonal domain of Hugh Capet, as we have 
 seen, included only the Isle of France, Picardy, 
 and Orleannois. Normandy, formed into a 
 state by Rollo, or Rou, whose name survives 
 in its capital, Rouen, where his tomb is still 
 to be seen, passed to the kings of England 
 when a duke of Normandy became the 
 English conqueror. Phihp Augustus wrested 
 it from King John. But by his able centra- 
 lisation of the administration of justice he in- 
 creased his power and influence over the other 
 fiefs. The result of this showed itself in a very 
 marked way under Louis IX., who established 
 a parliament. The Provost of Paris was at 
 the head of the municipal administration. 
 He was a judiciary, always a royal officer. 
 He was a distinct personage from the " Pro- 
 vost of the Merchants," who took charge of 
 all which concerned commerce and provision- 
 ment. He was in reality, though not in title. 
 the mayor of Paris. The first town-hall was 
 on the left bank of the river, not far from 
 St. Genevieve. Louis IX. built a grand 
 palace on the Isle of the City. The present 
 Palace of Justice is built on the site of it, 
 and several portions of the original palace 
 still exist, as the kitchens, the great guard- 
 room, the round towers which face the street, 
 and above all the beautiful Sainte Chapelle, 
 a church of two stories, in the upper of which 
 is an empty shrine, formerly containing the 
 relics which he brought from the East, and 
 which are now in Noij'e Dame. This church 
 is one of the most lovely specimens of Gothic 
 architecture in the world. 
 
 Of all the French kings, Louis IX. loved 
 justice most. It was a veritable passion with 
 him. Hallam expresses his opinion that his 
 
 484 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF '89 
 
 is the most beautiful character in history. 
 He would go into the Wood of Vincennes and 
 sit unr'er a tree, that his subjects might have 
 free in tercourse with him and tell their needs. 
 But we must not linger on his life, — it is like 
 going back to the Age of Gold, — but pass on. 
 
 The House of Valois. 
 
 To this House belong thirteen kings of 
 France, beginning with Philip VI. in 1328, 
 and ending with Henry III., assassinated in 
 1589. It is a period full of activity, full of 
 tumult. Two of the kings fell into the hands 
 of an enemy : John, at Poitiers, to Edward 
 the Black Prince ; Francis I., at Pavia, to 
 Charles V. Twice the sceptre was on the 
 very point of slipping from the. King's hand : 
 once into the hand of the EngUsh king, pre- 
 vented by Joan of Arc ; once into that of the 
 Guises, prevented by the League. Three 
 great foreign wars belong to this period : 
 the first with England, begun through the 
 unjust claims of Edward III.,* and con- 
 tinued through the renewal of them by 
 Henry V., in which the kingdom was all but 
 lost, but was recovered, as I have already 
 said, by the Maid of Orleans ; the second 
 with Italy, a source of great evils ; the third 
 with Germany, begun under most unhappy 
 auspices. 
 
 But further, to the epoch of the House of 
 Valois belong also three of the four civil wars 
 which sadden the annals of France : that of 
 Chajies tJie ^cT(/, under John and Charles V.; 
 that of the Arniagnacs and Bnrgundians, 
 under Charles VI. ; that of the Protestants and 
 the League, under Francis II., Charles IX., 
 and Henry III. The most terrible defeats 
 and the most glorious victories belong to this 
 period; and as if all things concurred to make 
 it famous, this was the age of those remark- 
 able discoveries which were as a new revela- 
 tion to man, — artillery, printing, the compass, 
 America, the way to the Indies. And now, 
 too, began French poetry and drama. 
 
 But what appears so strange is that not 
 only did the misfortunes of the House of 
 Valois not impede the progress of its power, 
 they even contributed so much to hasten and 
 increase it. Every reverse was followed by 
 a solid success, and every civil trouble by 
 an increase of the royal authority. Philip of 
 Valois, who was utterly routed at Crecy, 
 added Dauphine to his possessions ; and 
 John, the conquered of Poitiers and the 
 Black Prince's captive, added Burgundy ; 
 Charles VII., who on his accession was left 
 
 * He claimed the French crown on the groiind that 
 his mother was the daughter of PhiUp IV. But even 
 had there been no such thing as the Salic law, his 
 claim would have been bad, because Louis X. had 
 left a daughter who would have come before him. 
 
 485 
 
 ' seemingly without any resource or hope, had 
 i before his death completed the conquest of 
 I the English provinces in the west. 
 j But what concerns us most, the kings of 
 France, who at the beginning of this dynasty 
 had, as we have already noticed, possessed 
 but a limited authority over a large portion 
 of France, found themselves before its close 
 lords of a united monarchy. The treachery 
 and cruelty of Louis XI. cannot bhnd us to 
 his great ability. He overcame the great 
 vassals who had bidden defiance to liis power, 
 and held themselves almost as independent 
 sovereigns ; and from his time France was, 
 both in word and fact, a monarchy. To this 
 end the fierce civil wars begun by the dukes 
 of Burgundy had so greatly tended. 
 
 Troubles ; The Jacquerie, 
 When Philip of Valois ascended the throne, 
 he found before him the task ot composing a 
 kingdom half distracted with the bad govern- 
 ment of his predecessors. Philip IV. (the 
 Fair) and his three sons had frightfully mis- 
 managed the finances of the countr}% ta.xes 
 were oppressive, and the frequent alterations 
 in the currency brought trouble and confusion 
 into every transaction. But this heritage of 
 trouble was aggravated by Edward the Third's 
 unrighteous claim, and the war that followed 
 increased public .misery, and consequently 
 public discontent. The fatal battle of Poitiers, 
 in 1356, by leaving King John a prisoner in 
 the hands of the English, caused Charles the 
 Dauphin, afterwards Charles V., to convoke 
 at Paris the States-General, as his father 
 had done twice before. This convocation of 
 the nobles, clergy, and people, only resorted 
 to on e.xtraordmary emergencies, invariably 
 showed itself on the side of popular rights 
 and liberties. On the present occasion the 
 presiding spirit was the Provost of the Mer- 
 chants, Stephen Marcel, a man of political 
 intelligence far in advance of his age, though 
 unscrupulous. Under his guidance, aided 
 by his friend Robert Lecoq, Bishop of Laon, 
 the States-General in 1356 and the two fol- 
 lowing years reformed the administration, 
 insisted on a just apportionment of the taxa- 
 tion, and of a controlling power to be vested 
 in elective assemblies. This was the begin- 
 ning of a constitutional government, imprac- 
 ticable under simple feudalism. The Dauphin 
 promised, even put the new provisions into a 
 sort of charter, though he found means to 
 elude them afterwards. Marcel, foreseeing 
 that he would attempt this, placed the bur- 
 gesses of Paris under arms. At that time 
 was living Charles the Bad, King of Navarre. 
 He was a direct descendant of Hugh Capet, 
 the great-grandson of Philip IV., but as it 
 was through his mother, he was prevented 
 from reigning by the Salic law. He deserved 
 his unpleasant surname, for he had neither 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 faith nor morals, and passed his life in strata- 
 gems and treasons. He came to Paris now, 
 harangued the people, and, in concert with 
 Marcel, excited them against the Dauphin, 
 A body of armed men invaded the Louvre 
 and massacred the principal Counsellors of 
 State before the Dauphin's eyes, whereupon 
 he escaped from the capital, and retired to 
 Compi^gne, where he called together fresh 
 representatives of the nation, who, jealous of 
 the overpowering influence of Paris, showed 
 themselves more favourable to Charles, while 
 they still insisted on reform of government. 
 Marcel, now in open revolt, dreading the 
 return of the Dauphin, excited, or at least 
 encouraged, the terrible insurrection called 
 ihe Jacquerie. It was crushed ; then Marcel, 
 in despair, endeavoured to introduce the King 
 of Navarre and the English into Paris. But 
 this was further than the people of Paris 
 were prepared to go ; the plot was discovered, 
 and Marcel was slain as, with the keys in 
 his hand, he was approaching the St. Denis 
 gate to let the King of Navarre in. The 
 Dauphin immediately afterwards entered Paris 
 as a conqueror. 
 
 When he became king, Charles V. pro- 
 fited by the severe lesson which he had 
 received in his youth, and though he did not 
 see fit to carry out the reforms which the 
 excesses of Marcel had now rendered less 
 popular, he yet used his absolute authority 
 well and beneficently. His administration 
 was hailed by the people as the return of the 
 happy days of St. Louis. By the help of the 
 illustrious Bertrand Duguesclin, — a simple 
 Breton gentleman possessed of so few advan- 
 tages that he could not even read, but bold 
 as a lion and as honourable as bold, — he 
 reversed the Black Prince's successes, and 
 added the provinces north of the Loire to his 
 own dominions. 
 
 Foundation of the Bastille. 
 
 And now we come to the work of the reign 
 of Charles V. which more especially concerns 
 this paper. The building of the Bastille, so 
 far from being a blot on his memory, was 
 intended not for a prison, but to provide for 
 the defence of Paris. It was one of several 
 works of the same character. * 
 
 The first stone of the Bastille was laid by 
 Hugh d'Aubriot, Mayor of Paris, April 22nd, 
 1370. He was a native of Dijon, who had 
 come very poor to Paris, but had prospered 
 there, come under the King's notice, and 
 attracted his confidence. He built the Pofif 
 au Change, then called " the Great Bridge," 
 
 * The name Bastile, or Bastel, was given to any 
 erection intended to withstand a military force. 
 There were, therefore, many in France, but this 
 retained the name longest. 
 
 provided sanitary improvements, and planned 
 the Bastille. That is, he built two strong 
 towers facing the Street St. Anthony, joined 
 them with a strong wall, in the centre of 
 which was the gate of the town. But Aubriot 
 fell into trouble. After the death of Charles 
 v., whether rightly or wrongly we have no 
 means of knowing, he was accused of irre- 
 ligion both in profession and practice, and 
 was condemned to be shut up in one of the 
 towers of his own Bastille. He was after- 
 wards removed from thence to the Chatelet. 
 Fresh riots presently rose, in consequence of 
 the taxation caused by the war with England. 
 The insurgents went about with clubs {jnail- 
 lots) loaded with lead, and therefore were 
 called Maillotins. The name of Aubriot 
 happening to be mentioned, was caught up 
 with acclamation, his prison was forced, and 
 he was carried out in triumph, elevated on 
 men's shoulders, and even saluted as king. 
 But he was too wise to commit himself by 
 acceptance of this dangerous title. He with- 
 drew privately on the first night of his libera- 
 tion, made his way back to his native Dijon, 
 and ended his days in peace at an advanced 
 age. 
 
 Growth of the Bastille. 
 In the next reign two more towers were 
 added opposite the first. Then came four 
 others, with connecting walls, until the whole 
 presented a quadrangular form, somewhat 
 bulging out, however, on the east side, the 
 long side of the quadrangle being in face of 
 the Rue St. Antoine, and the entrance was in 
 the narrow end of the quadrangle on the 
 south, between the two towers. A broad 
 ditch, thirty-six feet deep, was dug round the 
 whole, lined with masonry. It was, how- 
 ever, dry, except when the Seine was flooded, 
 and was used as a garden. The visitor who 
 wished to enter the fortress passed through 
 a gateway on the right side of the Rue St. 
 Antoine, crossed a drawbridge, passed be- 
 tween walls within which were offices and 
 sutler's shops, and so passed round to the 
 southern side of the fortress till he stood 
 opposite the gateway. Here, over the fosse, 
 was another drawbridge. This being crossed, 
 he found himself within the walls. The 
 walls were of enormous thickness, and nearly 
 a hundred feet in height. As we have 
 already said, the ground-plan was quad- 
 rangular, the interior was divided into two 
 courts, the first 102 feet long, the second 42, 
 the width of them was 72 feet. In the first 
 court was the great clock, the only sound, 
 says one of the prisoners in his Reminiscences, 
 that broke the stillness for many an hour 
 together. It was a cruel idea to ornament 
 the dial with sculptures of a man and woman 
 chained hand and foot. The tops of _ the 
 towers and of the curtain walls that joined 
 
 486 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF '89. 
 
 them were flat, with a parapet wall, and on 
 the towers were a few pieces of cannon. The 
 rooms which were used as prisons are de- 
 scribed by some of the prisoners as not 
 uncomfortable as prisons go, that is, they are 
 said to have been neither damp, nor cold, 
 nor ill-ventilated, and the furniture was 
 sufficient. It must, however, be said that 
 there is discrepancy of testimony on this 
 point. Probably treatment varied at diffe- 
 rent epochs and under different governments. 
 The statement that on the demolition rooms 
 for torturing prisoners were discovered is 
 entirely a myth, neither places nor instru- 
 ments of torture were found. 
 
 The Bourbon Kings. 
 
 The last monarchs of the House of Valois 
 were as much under clouds as those of the 
 preceding line. The troubles now arose out 
 of the Reformation struggles. The last king 
 of the Valois line, Henry HI., was assas- 
 sinated at St. Cloud by a fanatic monk, 
 July 31st, 1589, and the crown then devolved 
 on Henry, King of Navarre, whose descent 
 was from Hugh Capet, like the rest of the 
 kings. He was a ninth descendant of 
 Louis IX. 
 
 The House of Bourbon produced some of 
 the greatest kings of France, and under this 
 dynasty were produced its most famous 
 captains. Henry IV. was a man whose 
 memory was always deeply cherished. Louis 
 XIV. seemed to have arrived at the perfec- 
 tion of earthly greatness, yet in his reign 
 were gathered together the elements of the 
 terrible revolution which swept his House 
 away. The slightest sketch of their history 
 is all that we can offer. 
 
 Henry IV., though stained with some 
 personal vices, was a brilliant hero, and a 
 king who strove for the good of the nation, 
 and governed it in the spirit of a father. 
 Finding that the Reformed faith was at the 
 lowest ebb in France, — for, indeed, the St. 
 Bartholomew massacre in 1572 had almost 
 extinguished Protestantism, — he committed 
 the grievous error of abjuring it, though he 
 loved it, and of declaring himself a Roman 
 Cathohc. He believed that by so doing he 
 should best promote peace, and be enabled 
 to secure liberty of conscience. The Edict 
 of Nantes was the outcome of this policy, 
 which provided for equality as to religious 
 profession, and admission on equal terms to 
 public employments. This was in 1599. 
 The original document is in \h.Q Archives Na- 
 tionales. So also is the revocation of it by 
 Louis XIV., a deed full of evil consequences. 
 Henry was able now to devote himself to the 
 state of the finances, for France had ap- 
 proached nearly to bankruptcy ; he introduced 
 order, economy, and good government every- 
 where, being much assisted by his wise 
 
 minister, Sully. France had begun to re- 
 cover after a long period of misery, when 
 Henry Avas stabbed by an assassin in the 
 street. May 14th, 1610, and the country was 
 again thrown into confusion. His son, 
 Louis XIII. , was only nine years of age. 
 He was not a great man, but he allowed a 
 great man to govern, though he disliked him, 
 being honestly desirous for the advancement 
 of France. This great man was Cardinal 
 Richelieu, and the policy with which he is 
 most identified is his determined endeavour 
 to humble the House of Austria. What is 
 known as the Thirty Years' War (16 18- 1648) 
 was a bitter contest between Romanism and 
 Protestantism in Germany. Richelieu took 
 the Protestants' side in pursuance of his set 
 policy. He died six months before the King, 
 whose death took place on the thirty-third 
 anniversary of his accession, May 14th, 1643. 
 
 The reign of Louis XIV., beginning in his 
 fifth year, lasted for seventy-two years. As 
 his father's reign was controlled by Richelieu 
 so the early part of that of Louis XIV. was 
 under Cardinal Mazarin. The long reign 
 has three distinct divisions. The beginning 
 was troubled with the miserable civil war of 
 the Fronde. The middle was full of glory ; 
 the King was successful in war, adding 
 largely to .his territory on the last at the 
 expense of Germany ; he surrounded himself 
 with illustrious men, and covered France 
 with handsome buildings. The end was 
 darkened with troubles. The victories of 
 the Duke of Marlborough did much to 
 crumble to pieces the power and prestige 
 which Louis had gained by his previous 
 successes. It was a time when absolutism 
 carried all before it ; but a heritage of evil 
 was being stored up for those who came 
 after. 
 
 Louis XV., great-grandson of his prede- 
 cessor, was but six years old at his succession. 
 The Regent Orleans, so long as he lived, 
 ruled him wisely, but died in 1723. For a 
 while Louis was greatly loved by his people ; 
 but his life became scandalously corrupt and 
 self-indulgent, the nation was ill-governed 
 and oppressed, the finances again became 
 embarrassed. He died in 1774, and was 
 succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI., the 
 best-intentioned of men, the most unfortunate 
 of kings. He was not yet twenty years old; 
 his beautiful wife, Marie Antoinette, was in 
 her nineteenth year. She had been married 
 before she was fifteen. 
 
 The Bastille and the Absolute 
 
 Monarchy. 
 We have given the above sketch, because 
 the attack on the Bastille, which we have to 
 relate, was really an attack on the principles 
 of absolutism, of which the Bastille was held 
 to be a standing symbol. We have seen how 
 
 487 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 it was turned into a prison in its early days, 
 though not intended for that purpose. To 
 this purpose, however, it was now constantly 
 put. Several victims of Louis XL were 
 thrown into it: the Bishop of Verdun and 
 Duke of Alencon died there; the Count of 
 St. Paul, and Jacques d'Armagnac, Duke of 
 Nemours, were shut ud until they were taken 
 out to the 
 Place de 
 Greve to 
 execution. 
 In succeed- 
 ing reigns 
 many illus- 
 trious pri- 
 soners were 
 shut up 
 within the 
 fortress; the 
 Dau phin, 
 who after- 
 wards be- 
 came Louis 
 XIL, and 
 the great 
 C o n d e 
 am o n g 
 them. It 
 was the 
 cruel and 
 crafty Louis 
 Xl.who first 
 made it 
 serve exclu- 
 sively as a 
 State pri- 
 son. 
 
 It is not, 
 how ever, 
 until 1663 
 that we 
 have any 
 comple t e 
 and regular 
 register ot' 
 the prison- 
 ers in the 
 Bastille 
 Fifty-foui 
 persons 
 were con- 
 fined there 
 that year, 
 mostly for 
 
 writing against the Government. In 1664, 
 there were thirteen, mostly confined for 
 Jansenism. But let us set down some of 
 the charges from the list as it lies before 
 us: — "For writing a work, 'Une Histoire 
 Amoureuse' ;" "for poisoning;" "for selling 
 poisons;" "for sacrilege;" " for pretending 
 to foretell events ;" " for having assisted 
 persons to go clandestinely to America;" 
 
 To THE Bastille 
 
 " for intriguing with the Spanish ambas- 
 sador;" "for intrigues with the Prince of 
 Orange;" "for matters touching religion" 
 (many) ; (a priest) "for marrying Protestants;" 
 "for pretending to make love potions;" 
 "for saying that the King (Louis XI Y.) 
 oppressed his subjects and only thought of 
 amusing himself with his old woman 
 
 ( Madame 
 de Main- 
 tenon), that 
 he would 
 soon be a 
 kmg of beg- 
 gars, that 
 ins officers 
 ^^ ere star- 
 vmg, and 
 that he had 
 lumed the 
 kmgdom by 
 driving 
 away the 
 H u g u e - 
 nots;""for 
 disrespect 
 to King 
 George in 
 not m e n- 
 tioning him 
 m his Al- 
 manack as 
 King of 
 Great Bri- 
 tain;" (Vol- 
 taire) " for 
 writing 
 against the 
 Reg ent ; " * 
 " for selling 
 a print re- 
 pie sen ting 
 the roast- 
 1 n g of a 
 pope larded 
 with Jes- 
 uits;" "for 
 selling 
 drugs, pre- 
 tending 
 they would 
 produce the 
 appearance 
 of youth ; " 
 " for teach- 
 convulsions." 
 
 ing persons to counterfeit 
 
 * He was confined here for a year, and composed 
 most of his Hcnriade duruig the time. On being 
 hberated he was presented to the Regent, who asked 
 him if he had any request to make. " Monseigneur, " 
 was the reply, " I shall take it very kind if His. 
 Majesty will charge himself with feeding me. But 
 I earnestly trust he will not again do so with lodging 
 me." 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF '89. 
 
 These are but specimens ; they indicate pro- 
 bably that some deserved imprisonment, and 
 others not, which is really all that one can say 
 'rom the items themselves. 
 
 The plan of imprisoning in the Bastille 
 usually was to issue a warrant called letlre de 
 cachet, i.e. sealed letter, which empowered 
 police officers to seize a man wheiever they 
 found hini, 
 and at one _ 
 carry hn 1 
 off to the 
 prison. 
 
 Many who 
 had been 
 prisoners m 
 the Bastille 
 wrote their 
 exp eriences 
 of it; but 
 the writei 
 whose work 
 contributed 
 most of all 
 to its de- 
 structi on 
 was Simon 
 L i ngue t, 
 con cernm j 
 whose hib- 
 tory a fev/ 
 words are 
 needed. He 
 was b 1 n 
 at Rhemia 
 July 14th 
 (the date 13 
 remar kabl e 
 when con- 
 nected with 
 the event 
 which he 
 contrib uted 
 so much to 
 bring about 
 that d a v 
 fifty-three 
 yearsXi/s"^ 
 His father 
 was a pio- 
 fessor in a 
 college, wl 
 was druen 
 
 into exile At the Door ! 
 
 and poverty 
 
 for his Jansenist opinions. The youth, having 
 found opportunity of studying in Paris, led a 
 somewhat roving and unsettled life, travelling 
 through many countries and making good use 
 of his eyes, and finally settled down to litera- 
 ture as a profession. The catalogue of his works 
 fills many pages, but the chief of them, "Politi- 
 cal,Civil,and LiteraryAnnals of the Eighteenth 
 Century," formed by far the most important. 
 
 They were begun in 1777, and fill nineteen 
 volumes, and were written from a point of 
 view altogether hostile to the French form of 
 government, very energetic and powerful in 
 style, bitter, trenchant, and not unfrequently 
 spiteful. " He burns, but he throws light," 
 said Voltaire tersely, after reading one of his 
 volunies The volumes \\eie written some in 
 
 Engl an d, 
 
 some m 
 S w i t z e r- 
 land, some 
 In Brussels. 
 According 
 to his own 
 account he 
 desired to 
 come to 
 Paris while 
 the publica- 
 t i o n was 
 going on, 
 and wrote 
 to the mini- 
 sterVergen- 
 nes, asking 
 for a safe- 
 conduct. 
 The Min- 
 is t e r p ro- 
 niised that 
 he should 
 not be mo- 
 lested ; he 
 came, and 
 was arret- 
 ed in the 
 street and 
 thrown into 
 the Bastille, 
 Sept. 27th. 
 1780. There 
 he remain - 
 c d until 
 I\ray 19th, 
 i 1782, when, 
 having first 
 been com- 
 pelled to 
 3wear that 
 h e w o u 1 d 
 " never re- 
 veal, either 
 directly or 
 indirectly 
 what he had seen or what he had suf- 
 fered," he was allowed to go into exile to 
 Rethel. Thence he escaped to London, 
 where he wrote his "Memoirs of the Bastille," 
 declaring that he did not consider an enforced 
 oath binding. From this time he continued 
 to write, pamphlets and historical essays 
 chiefly. He had, however, fallen into neglect 
 until the break-out of the Revolution and the 
 
 489 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 destruction of the Bastille, — as we have said, 
 in consequence to a great degree of his 
 revelations. Then he went to France again, 
 and betook himself to agriculture. But his 
 sour and suspicious characteristics seemed 
 to have grown with his years, as every page 
 of his latter life indicates. In the Reign of 
 Terror he was seized and guillotined, June 
 27th, 1794. 
 
 In these Memoirs he declares that pre- 
 vious inmates have given such rose-coloured 
 descriptions of their treatment that ." one 
 would think that Tartarus after all was a 
 sort of Champs Elysees." And he goes on to 
 draw a terrible picture of the misery which 
 he underwent himself, — for twelve months 
 knowing absolutely nothing of what' was 
 going on outside, subjected to cold and pri- 
 vation, above all to solitude and silence, and 
 he ends his work by a passionate appeal to 
 Louis XVI. Recounting what that king 
 has done to ameliorate the condition of pri- 
 soners and of the poor generally, he exclaims, 
 " In God's name give to all Europe the 
 spectacle of a miracle which you are able to 
 work. Speak! At your voice the walls of 
 this modern Jericho will be seen to crumble, 
 a thousand times more deserving than the 
 ancient Jericho of the lightning of heaven 
 and the anathemas of men. The reward of 
 this noble work will be the glory of your 
 reign, a redoubling of the love of the people 
 for your person and your house, the blessing 
 of the age which is now, and of all ages to 
 come." 
 
 An Escape from the Bastille. 
 _ Many are the tq.les of misery and some- 
 times of romance which are connected with 
 this gloomy prison. Out of them all we 
 select the story of Henry Masere de la Tude. 
 He was born in 1725, the son of a French 
 marquis, and on arriving at manhood entered 
 the army. It happened however to be a time 
 of peace, he had no occupation, and in an 
 evil hour for himself he came to Paris. In 
 1749, hearing on all sides the hatred with 
 which Madame de Pompadour, the mistress 
 of the dissolute Louis XV., was regarded, the 
 shameful project occurred to him of gaining 
 her favour by pretending to discover a plot 
 against her life. The scheme was so shallow 
 as to be at once detected, and the schemer 
 was sent to the Bastille. He was treated 
 kindly, however, by the lieutenant of police, 
 M. Berryer, but after-a while was transferred 
 to the prison of Vincennes. Here he was 
 very miserable for a while, but by wonderful 
 assurance and coolness he managed to 
 escape, after nine months detention. 
 
 One hardly knows whether to call his next 
 act chivalry or folly. From his hiding-place 
 in Paris he addressed a letter to the courtesan, 
 " I judged," he says, " of Madame de Pompa- 
 
 dour by myself, and idly fancied I might 
 pique her into generosity by avowing the 
 place of my retreat, and throwing myself on 
 her clemency for pardon of the past." But 
 she was as revengeful as she was dissolute. 
 He was seized, and (so he says) was promised 
 mercy if he would explain how he contrived to 
 escape from Vincennes. He told, and was 
 immediately sent back to the Bastille, and 
 no longer allowed any of the mitigations he 
 had received before. After six months of 
 this, half-maddened by the incarceration 
 which was made infinitely worse by "his fiery 
 and restless temperament, he revenged him- 
 self by writing a satire on Pompadour. It 
 was conveyed to her, and her rage was almost 
 maniacal. She swore that nothing should 
 ever induce her to relent towards him. 
 
 Berryer, however, who evidently felt a 
 great interest and pity for him, allowed him 
 to have a companion, one AMgre, who had 
 also incurred Pompadour's wrath, though in 
 a nobler manner, for he had written her a 
 letter of remonstrance. To this young man 
 La Tude imparted a scheme of escape ! 
 They would climb their chimney, descend 
 from the top into the fosse, and climb the 
 wall on the other side. But what a scheme ! 
 The chimney, full all the way up of bars and 
 gratings, rose to the height of the topmost 
 tower, whence the descent into the fosse was 
 a sheer two hundred feet. Where was the 
 material to be found for the rope ladder for 
 such a descent, or for the wood for the ascent 
 from the ditch? And how conceal their 
 preparations, watched every hour of the day 
 and night? No wonder that to Alegre the 
 whole idea seemed madness. 
 
 "As for ropes," said La Tude one day 
 when his companion had expressed his sense 
 of the impossibility of escape, "my trunk 
 contains a thousand feet at least. Don't you 
 know that it is stuffed full of linen, — shirts, 
 towels, stockings, night-caps, and I don't 
 know what besides?" His companion was 
 so far moved by such enthusiasm that he 
 began actually to have hopes. 
 
 The first object was to find a hiding-place 
 for their tools, if they could contrive to get 
 any. La Tude knew that there must be a 
 prisoner in the cell beneath him, though he 
 I could not hear him move. He guessed there- 
 fore that there must be some interval between 
 the two rooms. To ascertain this he bade 
 Alegre, whilst going to chapel, to draw out 
 some trifle from his pocketalongwithhis hand- 
 kerchief and let it roll down the stairs. Whilst 
 he should send the turnkey to recover it, 
 La Tude was to take a hasty glance into the 
 lower room. The plan succeeded ; the 
 glance was taken. La Tude saw by the 
 height within, compared with the number of 
 steps outside, that there must be a vacant 
 space of some five feet. They set to work 
 
 490 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF 'I 
 
 then ; sharpened the iron clamps of their 
 table on the stones of the hearth, wrenched 
 up a square of the tiled floor, and formed a 
 hollow of four feet between the two stories. 
 Here was their secret cupboard then. There 
 they ripped up shirts, unravelling them thread 
 by thread. Thus slowly they began their lad- 
 der. Then it cost them six months hard labour 
 to remove the bars of the chimney. These 
 bars were fixed in cement so hard that there 
 was no way of softening it but by squirting 
 ivater from their mouths into holes previously 
 bored. " We never left off a single night 
 but with bloody hands," he says. Then 
 further, when a bar was wrenched out, it had 
 to be replaced in its socket for the time, lest 
 it should be detected. 
 
 For the wooden ladder they sawed the 
 wood delivered to them for firing, which was 
 in billets of from eighteen to twenty inches. 
 But there were parts of this work for which 
 a can was indispensable. They made one 
 out of an old candlestick with the help of the 
 steel of the tinder-box. They made a single 
 rail, boring holes through it, into which the 
 steps were to be mortised, each part to be 
 tied in its place. Of course it was necessary 
 to hide this, and therefore as fast as one part 
 was completed, it was numbered and stowed 
 away. They knew that they could put it 
 all together in a night when they needed it. 
 
 So passed eighteen months ; weary work 
 enough, but sustained and cheered by inex- 
 tinguishable hope. On the 2Sth of February, 
 1756, the attempt was begun. With terrible 
 anxiety and cat-like stillness La Tude as- 
 cended the chimney with such labour that 
 both arms and legs ran down with blood. 
 As soon as he reached the top he let down 
 a ball of twine, to which Al^gre tied the 
 portmanteau containing their effects, and 
 it was drawn up, Al^gre following it. They 
 stood at length on the top of the tower; 
 so far, so good. Then the rope was tied 
 securely to a cannon, and La Tude began 
 his perilous descent, swaying and fluttering 
 in the air at every movement that he made, 
 and knowing that there was but this thin rope 
 between him and death. He descended in 
 safety, then held the rope steady for his 
 companion. Another danger passed ! 
 
 Crossing the ditch in the fosse they sud- 
 denly heard the sentry pass. Nothing was 
 possible but to hold their heads under water 
 until he was gone by. The pavement outside 
 was swarming with sentries . There was no 
 possibility of evading these ; nothing re- 
 mained but to dig through the wall between 
 the two fosses. It took them nine hours, 
 standing in water above their waists. And 
 this on a winter's night ! At length it was 
 done. As the clock struck five they were in 
 the Street St. Atoine, and both alike knelt 
 down in the street and thanked God. 
 
 He reached Amsterdam, was there recog- 
 nized, and, to the disgrace of the Dutch 
 government, was handed over to Pompadour's 
 insatiable vengeance, and once more lodged 
 in his gloomy prison. His enemy died, and 
 after thirty-five years' confinement he re- 
 gained his freedom. His words of con- 
 clusion are most touching from their very 
 simplicity. " We arrived at home. I saw a 
 neat though plain apartment, where every- 
 thing told that I had been long expected. I 
 looked round on all with the interest, almost 
 with the curiosity of childhood ; the most 
 trifling object gave me enjoyment : all was 
 food for happiness. I was restored to free 
 intercourse with my fellow-creatures." 
 
 He was present atthe capture ofthe Bastille, 
 and saw on that eventful day the implements 
 of his wonderful escape, which had been pre- 
 served as curiosities in the fortress. He 
 lived on till 1 804. 
 
 A Poet's Indignant Denunciation. 
 
 The effect of the work of Linguet was 
 almost as powerful for the ultimate destruc- 
 tion of the Bastille as " Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
 was for the abolition of slavery. Cowper 
 had evidently read it when he wrote these 
 lines, — 
 
 "Ye horrid towers, the abode of broken hearts, 
 Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair. 
 
 There's not an Enghsh heart that would not leap 
 To hear that ye were fallen, 
 
 :fc :^ :^ :{: $ic :J: ^ 
 
 Here dwell the most forlorn of human kind, 
 
 Immured, though unaccused, condemned untried 
 
 Cruelly spared, and hopeless of escape. 
 
 Here, like the visionary emblem seen 
 
 By him of Babylon, life stands a stump 
 
 And, filleted about with hoops of brass, 
 
 Still lives, though all its pleasant boughs are lone 
 
 To count the hour-bell and expect no change, 
 
 And ever as the sullen sound is heard, 
 
 Still to reflect that though a joyless note 
 
 To him whose movements all have one dull pace, 
 
 Ten thousand rovers in the world at large 
 
 Account it music, — that it summons some 
 
 To theatre or jocund feast or ball ; 
 
 The wearied hireling finds it a release 
 
 From labour ; and the lover, who has chid 
 
 Its long delay, feels every welcome stroke 
 
 Upon his heart-strings, trembling with delight. 
 
 To fly for refuge from distracting thought 
 
 To such amusements as ingenious woe 
 
 Contrives, hard shifting and without her tools — 
 
 To read engraven on the moulden walls, 
 
 In staggering types, his predecessor's tale, 
 
 A sad memorial, and subjoin his own ; 
 
 To tiirn purveyor to an overgorged 
 
 And bloated spider, till the pampered pest 
 
 Is made familiar, watches his approach. 
 
 Comes at his call, and serves him for a friend ; 
 
 To wear out time in numbering to and fro 
 
 The studs that thick emboss his iron door, 
 
 Then downward and then upward, then aslant, 
 
 And then alternate, with a sickly hope 
 
 By dint of change to give his tasteless task 
 
 Some relish, till the sum exactly found 
 
 491 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 In all directions, he begins again; 
 
 Oh comfortless existence ! hemmed around 
 
 With woes, which who that suffers would not kneel 
 
 And beg for exile, or the pangs of death ? 
 
 That man should thus encroach on fellow-man, 
 
 Abridge him of his just and native rights, 
 
 Eradicate him, tear him from his hold 
 
 Upon the endearments of domestic life 
 
 And social, nip his fruitfulness and use. 
 
 And doom him for perhaps a heedless word 
 
 To barrenness, and solitude and tears, 
 
 Moves indignation, makes the name of king 
 
 (Of king whom such prerogative can please) 
 
 As dreadful as the Manichean God, 
 
 Adored through fear, strong only to destroy. * 
 
 The Beginning of the Revolution. 
 
 We have now to trace out, as succinctly as 
 we can, the causes which brought on the 
 tremendous revolution, the effects of which 
 remain to this day, — a revolution, indeed, 
 which affected the political condition of 
 every country in Europe, and of which 
 almost the first result in France was the 
 destruction of the Bastille. 
 
 The causes may be classed under three 
 heads : — 
 
 1. The circumstances of the monarchy. 
 
 2. The ideas which had taken possession 
 of the popular mind. 
 
 3. The character of the monarch. 
 
 We have already seen how France had 
 emerged out of barbarism and become the 
 most poHshed nation in the world, and the 
 oldest monarchy in Europe. The monarch 
 was held to be subject to law, as Bossuet 
 declared when preaching before Louis XIV. 
 The nobility was a hereditary class devoted 
 to the service of the State. The clergy had 
 become rich through the bequests of the 
 pious, and its ranks were open to all classes. 
 The commons, or " Third Estate," who made 
 up the body of the nation, comprised bur- 
 gesses, artizans, peasants. Many of them 
 had become proprietors, and were very 
 jealous of their privileges, electing their ' 
 municipal officers, and controlling the affairs 
 of their parishes. 
 
 In all this there were the elements of govern- 
 ment altogether admirable, but abuses had 
 come in which needed reform. Thus the 
 clergy, though in theory equal, had come to 
 be divided into classes, — members of the 
 nobility and men born of the commonalty, 
 and the rich prizes of the Church too much 
 fell to the former. The nobility were many 
 of them given to dwelling in Paris, instead of 
 on their estates, leading a frivolous life in- 
 stead of fulfilling the theory of the constitu- 
 tion, that they should be as fathers of their 
 neighbours. 
 
 Much indeed which is brought against the 
 " old regime " is merely imaginary. Thus 
 men talk of serfage, whereas it had ceased 
 pver since the 12th century. The right of 
 pr'mogeniture was a custom confined to the 
 
 nobility ; it was abolished at the Revolution^ 
 not for love of natural right, but as a politic 
 measure. There are stories about the 
 peasantry having to pass the night in beating 
 the ponds to prevent the frogs from croaking 
 and disturbing the landlord's sleep. It is a 
 fiction out of some romance depicting a 
 wretched hypochondriac, like Fairlie in the 
 " Woman in White." The more any reader 
 chooses to examine into the facts of society 
 in France before the Revolution, the more he 
 will be convinced that there was need for 
 reform, and that there was also every reason to 
 deprecate the destruction of a system of which 
 the fundamental principles were sound, — 
 principles which had through the progress of 
 centuries combined to place France among 
 the first of the nations. 
 
 For administrative purposes France was 
 divided into thirty-eight Provinces, some ad- 
 ministered by officers of state in the name of 
 the central power, others governed by local 
 parliaments of the three Estates freely elected 
 in the Province. The former of these two 
 classes had been greatly injured by the sel- 
 fishness of the stewards,who had sought to ex- 
 tend their own authority at the expense of the 
 local liberties. This led to serious mischiefs. 
 
 But — and here we touch the real causes of 
 the evil days which came — the i8th century 
 was an epoch of moral evil. The nobility 
 who, as we have said, had done much to for- 
 feit their legitimate influence by living away 
 from their country seats, had become liber- 
 tine and free-thinking. The infidel writings 
 of Voltaire and Rousseau had been received 
 with the welcome accorded by men whose 
 careless living incited them to hope that a 
 godless creed was true ; the clergy had gone 
 with the multitude into a life of careless ease 
 and sloth ; legions of pamphlets embodying 
 the ideas of the infidel encyclopjedists fami- 
 liarized the people with the idea that all that 
 was old was false, and ready to be swept 
 away. The character and work of Christ, the 
 Sacraments and the Scriptures, Avere treated 
 as if they were on the same footing with the 
 myths and corruptions of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The catastrophe which ended the reign of 
 Louis XVI. almost blinds us to the first 
 fifteen years of his reign. They formed an 
 epoch of great national prosperity ; agricul- 
 ture had been blessed with ten uninterrupted 
 years of good harvests, industry had been 
 developed, and commerce was extending 
 itself abroad. Military glory, too, had not 
 been wanting, though for this the King had no 
 taste. It must be confessed that the war 
 which the French people undertook against 
 England in this reign was an unrighteous 
 war, and brought a heavy penalty. When 
 the American colonies revolted from England, 
 the French nation took part with them, partly 
 out of spite and a desire of revenge for past 
 
 492 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF '89. 
 
 wounds, partly with the behef that prestige 
 might be won by taking part with the win- 
 ning side. But its effect was disastrous to 
 the monarchy, both because the expense tjxv- 
 barrased the national finances, and also 
 because the French soldiery returned home 
 enamoured of the spirit of democracy and 
 kindled with enthusiasm for successful re- 
 bellion. 
 
 Thus the finances fell into confusion ; and 
 this was aggravated by the incapacity of 
 several ministers, chiefly Calonne, a showy, 
 reckless man, who dazzled everybody's eyes 
 with his dexterity, but who went on the sys- 
 tem of ruinous loans ; " trying to put fire out 
 by throwing oil upon it," says Carlyle. The 
 King was economical in disposition, and took 
 pleasure in personal sacrifices and reforms in 
 his household. Not only he, but the wisest 
 and truest men in France, believed that after 
 the reforms which seemed feasible, — the read- 
 justment of taxation, the abolition of certain 
 privileges, and a better discipline among the 
 clergy, — a happy time would be seen, and the 
 nation would continue in the traditions of 
 nobleness which it could boast of for ages 
 past. The summons of the States-General, 
 therefore, filled all hearts with hope. Few 
 were able to see that the new system of things 
 would be not one oi principles, hut oi ideas. 
 And these ideas would have met with the 
 usual fate of unpractical dreams but for the 
 character of the King. 
 
 Louis XVI., king at the age of twenty, was 
 a prince of irreproachable morals, with a deep 
 sense of duty, loving peace and always 
 anxious for the good of his people, well in- 
 structed, economical and yet generous, and 
 of a good-heartedness which too often became 
 weakness. So distrustful of himself was he 
 as to shrink from his own good resolutions. 
 Unprincipled men, bent on forcing on an 
 upset of government, took advantage of his 
 fatal weakness, and so he whom they nick- 
 named " Tyrant " lacked courage to be king. 
 Long before the troubles began he had shown 
 all the world this infirmity of purpose, starting 
 one project after another only to abandon 
 and reverse them. And by such a course he 
 encouraged his enemies and shocked his 
 friends until, when his monarchy at length 
 had fallen, he was sent a prisoner to the 
 Temple. Then his nobler character exhibited 
 itself. He set himself steadfastly to face the 
 dread realities of the future and to die as be- 
 came a Christian. 
 
 His wife, Marie Antoinette of Austria, 
 had a firmer character, which excited enmity 
 against her at Court. She had made no 
 secret of her disgust at the roiie's and courte- 
 sans of the Court of Louis XV., and they 
 hated her with a hatred that pursued her to 
 death. Her mother, Maria Theresa, had 
 held firmly the power which was hers by 
 
 birth, and asserted her sovereignty at home. 
 Marie Antoinette perhaps believed it her 
 duty to follow her example, forgetting that 
 in France she was a foreigner, from the very 
 nature of the case regarded by suspicious 
 eyes as not loving the honour of France. 
 This hapless woman, destined to drink to 
 the very dregs the cup of bitterness and 
 agony, to pass from the condition of the 
 most flattered of queens to the most wretched 
 of Vvives and mothers, was far from being 
 the strong woman which she has sometimes 
 been represented. She was truly believed to 
 have great influence with the King ; but she 
 knew how to win by her grace and loveli- 
 ness. Beautiful, flattered gueen of eighteen, 
 loving amusement and hating formality, 
 endowed with a sensitive and tender spirit, 
 she sought outlets of affection, and suffered 
 herself to be too readily betrayed into confi- 
 dences which compromised hei", and were 
 turned against her. Devoted to her friends, 
 she let no obstacle stand in the way of serv- 
 ing them, and knew not the dangers which 
 lie at the door of royalty, worse than any 
 others because they are the most exclusive. 
 Counselled by unwise friends, who under- 
 stood neither men nor the course of events, 
 she gave herself up, when the Revolution 
 began, to regrets for the overthrow of her 
 husband's power, and for the loss of the 
 friends who were now removed from her. 
 Like her husband, she became the prey of 
 cruel uncertainties, but they took a different 
 line from his. For whereas he could not 
 make up his mind whether he ought to be a 
 constitutional king or not, she did know 
 that she did not wish him to be. .She hesi- 
 tated as to the means to be used, but never 
 as to her intentions : she had no system of 
 action arranged, and was only firm in her 
 repugnances and dislikes. She could not 
 tolerate those nobles who embraced the 
 popular side, and therefore, in her eyes, had 
 destroyed their caste. This explains mucli 
 of her action in sometimes throwing herself 
 during the Revolution on the side of violent 
 leaders rather than making terms with mode- 
 rate men. At the last moment she refused 
 an offer which might have saved her, of a 
 hiding-place at Rouen, because it was made 
 by a noble who had joined the Commons 
 against the Court. Her personal character 
 stands unassailable, though the freedom and 
 vivacity natural at her age exposed her to 
 shameful calumnies ; the cruel slanderers 
 who called her husband tyrant called her 
 harlot. 
 
 Of the sixty-two Ministers two require 
 special mention, Turgot and Necker. The 
 former was a clever financier who had dimi- 
 nished the National Debt by 112,000,000 fr. 
 (^4,480,000). Necker had created provincial 
 assemblies for the redistribution of taxes. 
 
 493 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Both unhappily craved after popularity ; 
 they enfeebled the royal authority, and 
 disturbed men's spirits. " A king less good, 
 ministers more efficient, and there would 
 have been no revolution," said the celebrated 
 Mayor of Paris, Bailly. 
 
 The Court was greatly divided : the King's 
 eldest brother, the Count of Provence (after- 
 wards Louis XVII I.), was somewhat in 
 favour of the new ideas ; the younger. Count 
 of Artois (Charles X.), was opposed to them. 
 The Duke of Orleans, a cousin of the King, 
 three or four times removed, for he was de- 
 scended from a brother of Louis XIV., made 
 himself a patron of the most advanced revo- 
 lutionists. He hated the Oueen for despising 
 his evil life. 
 
 The financial embarrassments of the country 
 still increasing in spite of the reforms of 
 Turgot and Necker, and all endeavours to 
 redistribute taxation by other means having 
 failed, the King was persuaded into convok- 
 ing the States- General, after an interval of 
 one hundred and seventy-five years. On 
 previous occasions it had been the custom for 
 each order, Nobihty, Clergy, Third Estate, to 
 send three hundred members each. This 
 custom was now departed from, and the Third 
 Estate was called upon to send up six 
 hundred representatives, — a number, there- 
 fore, equal to both the others together. This 
 was not done without angry protests against 
 such an innovation. But another question 
 had been mooted. Were they all to meet in 
 OJie room or in separate rooms ; to vote par 
 tete or par ordre, as the phrase was? The 
 question was shelved for a while ; " it would 
 be time to settle that when they met." This 
 proved a fatal omission. 
 
 As the day drew on, all license was allowed 
 to the Press. Writers were even invited to 
 throw any light on the subject by free dis- 
 cussion. At the same time were opened the 
 first Cltibs, an English importation, destined 
 to play a fatal part in the Revolution. In 
 the last three months of 1788, two thousand 
 five hundred pamphlets were issued. '' The 
 most celebrated was that of the Abbd Sieyes, 
 "What is the Third Estate? — Everything. 
 What has it been hitherto ? — Nothing. What 
 does it wish to be ? — Something." 
 
 The day of opening arrived at length. 
 The visitor to Versailles who arrives from 
 Paris by the " Left Branch " railway will 
 alight near the Church of St. Louis. This 
 was the first rendezvous on the morning of 
 May 4th, 1 789. They walked thence in proces- 
 sion along what is now the Rue Satory, across 
 the Place d'Armes to the Church of Notre 
 Dame, where there was high mass, and the 
 Bishop of Orleans preached a sermon. It is 
 said that whenever he mentioned the word 
 "liberty" the members cheered loudly. 
 Readers of Carlyle's History will not forget 
 
 his marvellous description of that great scene, 
 destined to change the whole history of 
 Europe. He imagines himself looking out 
 of an upper window upon the procession as. 
 it goes by, noticing "that large ugly man 
 with thick matted black locks," Mirabeau ; 
 that insignificant looking man with sea-green 
 complexion and spectacles on, tossing his 
 nose in the air, " Robespierre, a poor lawyer 
 of Arras ; " " an ugly, muddy-faced, dirty 
 horseleech, not a member but a spectator,, 
 sprawling up ungainly to look over the 
 people's heads," Marat, 
 
 Everything seemed to go wrong from the 
 first. The King was cheered as he passed 
 along in the procession ; the Queen was re- 
 ceived with disdainful silence, if not with 
 muttered words of hatred towards "the 
 Austrianess." And she showed by her sad,, 
 proud looks how deeply she felt it, and how 
 she struggled to return contempt for con- 
 tempt. After the service at Notre Dame the 
 first meeting was held in the Salle de Menus- 
 Plaisirs in the Palace of Versailles, the 
 King making a loving and wise speech. 
 
 But immediately afterwards the great 
 struggle began. The nobility and many of 
 the clergy were bent on the meeting in 
 separate chambers. The Third Estate was 
 equally determined the other way. After an 
 interval of passive resistance on both sides,. 
 the Third Estate suddenly declared themselves 
 the National Assembly ; and in a tennis-court 
 hard by, they met on the 20th of June, under 
 the presidency of Mayor Bailly, and took a 
 solemn oath that they would never separate 
 till they had made a new constitution for 
 France. I have just returned from the room 
 as I write. On the spot where Bailly stood 
 is an empty pedestal. It is about to receive 
 a statue of him. An inscription on the wall 
 has the words of the oath. This is the famoua 
 Tennis-Coiirt Oath. The original document 
 is in the Archives Nationales, with all the 
 signatures. Robespierre's struck me as the 
 prettiest and gentlest hand there. 
 
 The King and his friends struggled for a 
 short time to resist the carrying out of this 
 oath, but in vain. When he showed himself 
 inclined to yield, his ministers told him it 
 would be fatal to the monarchy, and exhorted 
 him to use force to compel them to constitu- 
 tional obedience. He refused. He " would 
 have no fighting." It was his misfortune 
 always to fight, and to refrain, at the wTong 
 times. He sent his orders to the nobles tc 
 join the National Assembly, One noble 
 broke his sword over his knee : " Since the 
 King does not wish to be a king, he needs 
 no sword to defend him," he said. 
 
 This was the first move towards revolution. 
 
 To Arms ! 
 Meanwhile the excitement in Paris was in- 
 
 494 
 
THE VENGEANCE OF 'i 
 
 tense. Multitudes crowded the streets day 
 by day to hear what was passing at Versailles, 
 and to read the placards which succeeded 
 one another without ceasing on the walls. 
 But on the 12th of July a climax was reached 
 in consequence of its becoming known, first 
 that an army of forty thousand men were being 
 concentrated in Paris under Marshal Broglie, 
 and secondly that Necker,the Prime Minister, 
 who was believed to be on the side of re- 
 form, had been dismissed by the King and 
 ordered to leave France. His busts were 
 bought from the shops, enveloped in crape, 
 and carried in procession through the streets. 
 The Palais-Royal, the residence of the King's 
 bitter enemy, the Duke of Orleans, was at 
 this time the rendezvous of agitators and 
 political disputants. On the evening of Sun- 
 day, July 1 2th, while an excited crowd was 
 gathered in the gardens, a young man named 
 Camille Desmoulins, afterwards to become 
 one of the leaders of the Revolution, suddenly 
 sprang upon a table, his hair flying in the 
 wind, and cried : " My friends, our lives are not 
 safe, they are sending armies to murder us, 
 if we do not defend ourselves. To arms !" 
 The cry was taken up in wild excitement, 
 and the night that followed was such as Paris 
 had never known before. The mutitudes 
 rushed to the Hotel de Ville demanding 
 arms, and a charge made upon them by a 
 German regiment, under the Prince of Lam- 
 besc, inflamed their indignation into madness. 
 An assembly was established at the Hotel 
 de Ville to direct the movements of the 
 insurgents; a "National Guard" was en- 
 rolled. Camille, in calling them to arms, 
 plucked a bunch of leaves from a tree which 
 he bade them wear as a cockade ; where- 
 upon there was such a rush for leaves that 
 whole trees were stripped bare. But in 
 a few hours there was an outcry that green 
 was the colour of the Count of Artois, the 
 King's unpopular brother ; whereupon it was 
 agreed to take the old Paris colours of red 
 and blue, and to base these on a ground of 
 constitutional white. This was the famous 
 tricolor, which remains the republican 
 badge to this day. All Monday men were 
 hard at work hammering pikes, and women 
 making tricolor cockades ; all shops, except 
 food and wine shops, were close shut, while 
 the tocsin rang out fiercely from all steeples, 
 and everywhere the cry went forth for fire- 
 arms. Three hundred and sixty firelocks, the 
 equipment of the city watch, were found in 
 the Town Hall. In the King's repository, 
 called Garde Meitble, two silver-mounted 
 cannon were found, a present to Louis XIV. 
 from the King of Siam ; they were dragged 
 out and trailed through the streets. Flesselles, 
 Provost of the Merchants, was called upon to 
 give up what arms he had, and promised to 
 send for some from Charleville, but declared 
 
 he had none by him. His promise was not 
 kept, but instead he was detected in the act 
 of sending away five thousand pounds of gun- 
 powder in a Seine boat. On the morning of 
 the 14th a body of the new guard, acting on 
 information which they had received, hastened 
 to the Hotel of the Invahdes and seized thirty 
 thousand muskets and twenty pieces of 
 cannon. 
 
 To THE Bastille ! 
 
 The seizure of the firearms had been made 
 early. At 1 1 o'clock the cry arose, " To the 
 Bastille!" 
 
 The Bastille was execrated. The sombre 
 prison, it was true, had never shown itself 
 an enemy of the Parisian populace. It was 
 mostly a prison for great persons. But in 
 its frowning blackness it was taken as a 
 symbol of the overshadowing absolutism of 
 monarchs which was now held to be the one 
 thing deserving hate. The Faubourg St. 
 Antoine had "Bastille" both on the brain 
 and the heart ; from its towers the cannon 
 might be turned upon every street in that 
 quarter. Its strategic power was great, but 
 its moral influence appeared now infinitely 
 greater. It was the concretion of the royal 
 prerogative, and so long as it stood there it 
 seemed, in the fierce eyes of the revolutionists, 
 to declare that prerogative enormous, mas- 
 sive, unshaken, founded on a rock. To 
 destroy another monument would be noth- 
 ing, to destroy this would be like crushing 
 absolute power in France. 
 
 The first drawbridge presented no diffi- 
 culty. A few determined men at once rushed 
 to the chains and broke them. The crowd 
 burst into the outer court, men, women, and 
 children, the latter busy picking up bullets. 
 De Launay had some "ammunition," eighteen 
 cannons apparently good for nothing, a dozen 
 old muskets, and for men, thirty-two Swiss 
 and eighty-two invalids. The governor, how- 
 ever, endeavoured to treat with the insur- 
 gents : "What do you want?" "We want 
 to come in." " Get an order from the Town 
 Hall," said he. During the parley, some of 
 the besiegers rushed at the second draw- 
 bridge, and were received with a discharge 
 from one of the old cannons, the only one 
 fired during the day. This terrified them, 
 and they fell back and occupied themselves 
 with burning the buildings around. A girl, 
 who was seized in the belief that she was 
 De Launay's daughter, was on the point of 
 being burnt alive, but was rescued by an 
 heroic soldier who rushed upon her and con- 
 veyed her to a place of safety. 
 
 Taken. 
 It was nearly mid-day when the attack 
 began ; at three in the afternoon no progress 
 had been made. But the arrival of three 
 
 495 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 hundred Gardes Frangaise with some can- 
 nons gave fresh hopes. But these hopes, 
 too, were somewhat dashed when it was 
 found that the bullets fired went over the 
 fortress and hit people on the other side. 
 One piece burst under their bad manage- 
 ment of it. 
 
 De Launay, it is said, had received this 
 letter from Flesselles, "Hold out while I 
 amuse the Parisians with cockades." But the 
 fierce clamour all around him, the apparent 
 hopelessness of succour, the failure of the 
 little ammunition that he had had, caused 
 him to despair. He resolved to blow up the 
 fortress. An invalid struck from his hand 
 the torch with which he was approaching 
 the powder magazine. A white handkerchief 
 was waved through a window ; then a letter 
 was passed through: an adventurous be- 
 sieger walked across a plank and received 
 it. It said, "We have twenty thousand 
 pounds of powder ; we will blow up the 
 fortress and the whole quarter if you do not 
 accept our capitulation." " Lower your draw- 
 bridge and you shall have no hurt," was the 
 answer. It was lowered. The crowd rushed 
 in and filled the courts. The Bastille was 
 taken. Those who promised safety to the 
 garrison had no power to give it, even if 
 they had the will. 
 
 The Sequel. 
 
 The newly-appointed committee were sit- 
 ting at the Hotel de Ville at half-past five 
 that afternoon, in a state of the utmost anxiety, 
 -when a new and pi'olonged murmur was 
 heard swelling out into a roar. An excited 
 multitude rushed in with shouts of victory, — 
 " The Bastille is taken ! " Two ghastly 
 objects they bore with them,— the head 
 •of De Launay and a severed hand. The 
 bodies to which they belonged were hanging 
 in the Place de Greve. The hand was that 
 of the invalid Bequart who had saved thou- 
 sands of lives by preventing De Launay from 
 blowing up the fortress. Then the savage 
 crowd turned upon Provost Flesselles. " You 
 have deceived us," they shouted. He at- 
 tempted to defend himself, but turned pale 
 with terror as he watched their blood-thirsty 
 countenances, and at length exclaimed, 
 " Since I am suspected I will withdraw." 
 " No, no, you must come to the Palais Royal 
 to be tried." He thereupon went down to ac- 
 company them. The crowd closed upon 
 him ; but on the Quai Pelletier an unknown 
 hand laid him low with a bullet. 
 
 And what of Louis XVI. ? He seems not 
 to have comprehended at all the gravity of the 
 circumstances whichi surrounded him. His 
 journal is preserved in the Archives 
 Nationales. We will give a few extracts 
 from it without comment : — 
 
 "1789. — July 1st, Wednesday. Nothing. 
 Deputation of the States. 
 
 " July 2nd, Thursday. Rode on horseback 
 to the Maine Gate to hunt deer at Port 
 Royal. Took one. 
 
 " July 3rd, Friday. Nothing. 
 "July 4th, Saturday. Hunt roebuck at 
 Butard. Took one and shot twenty-nine 
 head. 
 
 " July 5th, Sunday. Vespers and Benedic- 
 tion. 
 
 " July 6th, Monday. Nothing. 
 " July 7th, Tuesday. Hunt at Port Royal. 
 Took two . 
 
 "July 8th, Wednesday. Nothing. 
 "July 9th, Thursday. Nothing. Deputa- 
 tion of States. 
 
 " July loth, Friday. Nothing, Answer 
 to deputation of States. 
 
 "July nth, Saturday. Departure of M. 
 Necker. 
 
 "July 1 2th, Sunday. Vespers and Benedic- 
 tion. Departure of MM. de Montmorin, 
 Saint-Priest, and Luzerne. 
 
 "July 13th, Monday. Nothing. 
 "July 14th, Tuesday, Nothing." 
 He had written this last entry, when late at 
 night he was aroused from his bed by the 
 Duke of Rochefoucald-Liancourt, who came 
 to announce to him that the Bastille had 
 fallen. "Why, this is a revolt," said thepooi 
 man. " Sire," was the answer, " it is a 
 revolution." 
 
 How he took counsel with his queen and 
 his brother which came to nought ; how he 
 hesitated and doubted whether to employ 
 force, and resolved to go to Paris and declare 
 himself satisfied, and then in terror planned 
 to regain his independence of action — all 
 this belongs to another chapter of history. It 
 only remains to add that seven prisoners only 
 were found in the fortress. One was a lunatic, 
 who was transferred to the asylum at Charen- 
 ton ; four were notorious forgers ; the other 
 was a young man of good family who had 
 been shut up at the request of his father for 
 dissipated life. 
 
 For two years the great fortress was left 
 dismantled, then by an order of the Assembly 
 it was destroyed. In secret places manu- 
 scripts were brought to light, bitterly lament- 
 ing the helpless position of the writers, one 
 of them furnishing some details, to which 
 Dickens added many imaginary ones in his 
 well-known narrative of Alexander Manette, 
 in his " Tale of Two Cities." The materials 
 were in great part used to build the Carrousel 
 Bridge. A model of the fortress, as it was, 
 made from one of the stones, is at the en- 
 trance of the Archiiies Nationales. There is 
 a similar one in the museum at Amiens, and 
 another in the museum of the Porte de Hal 
 at Brussels. 
 
 W. B. 
 
 49G 
 
Inaugl-ration of the League of the Gueux. 
 
 a 
 
 LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS!" 
 
 THE STORY OF THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 " Heaven is above all, yet. There sits a Judge 
 Whom no king can corrupt ! " — Shakespeare, Henry VIII, 
 
 A Great Inheritance and an Unworthy Heir — Charles V., his Work and his Abdication — The Great Inheritance of Philip II. 
 — Power and Importance of" Spain in the i6th Century — The Netherlands, and how Charles and Philip ruled 
 There — The Harshness of Charles V. in the !^'etherlands tempered by Policy — The Great Cities — Ghent and its 
 Power — " Roland " the Bell of Ghent — Character of Philip II. — His System of Rule by Terror and Coercion — The 
 Inquisition ; Its Establishment in Spain, and Development under Philip II. — William of Orange Nassau, the Libera- 
 tor of his Country — Lamorel, Count Egmont — Margaret of Parma, the Regent of Flanders— Cardinal Granvella and 
 his Influence — How William of Orange incurred the Hatred of Philip II. — Discontent in the Netherlands — The 
 Compromise and Its Object — How the Great Petition was presented to Margaret of Parma — "Long Live the 
 Beggars ! Vivents les Gueux ! " — The Protestant' Preachers and the Image Breakers — King Philip and his Councillors 
 — Alva — The Storm bursts forth at Last. 
 
 A Great Inheritance and an Un- 
 worthy Heir. 
 N the history of the world there occur 
 moments in which the destiny of king- 
 doms and principahties seems to 
 waver in the balance — moments fraught with 
 tremendous issues for the weal or woe of 
 
 millions of people, and with the fate of gene- 
 rations yet unborn — in which are to be decided 
 the great and momentous questions of liberty 
 or slavery, happiness or misery, strife or 
 peace, with* the blessings of religious free- 
 dom or the horrors of fanatical persecution. 
 Such a moment occurred in the year 1555, 
 
 497 
 
 KK 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and again in the following year. For it was 
 at the first of these epochs that the splendid 
 inheritance of the Netherlands, Spain, and 
 Naples, and of the New World was surren- 
 dered by the Emperor Charles V. to his son 
 Philip ; while at the second the government 
 of the Austrian States, with the management 
 of the affairs of Germany, was transferred by 
 the same potentate to his brother Ferdinand. 
 Never were two men of more entirely dif- 
 ferent character invested with imm.ense 
 authority ; and never in the world's history 
 was it shown how greatly the disposition and 
 the actions of a ruler may influence the destiny 
 of nations. With the rule of Ferdinand, who 
 was raised at the same time to the dignity of 
 Emperor of Germany, a dignity he managed 
 to make hereditary in the Austrian House, 
 began an era of splendid prosperity and 
 development for Germany. From the acces- 
 sion of the gloomy tyrant and fanatic Philip 
 II. dates the ruin and desolation of the 
 Spanish monarchy ; and it was in his reign, 
 moreover, that the spectacle was exhibited of 
 a nation fighting desperately and with ultimate 
 success for its religious and civil liberties, 
 against such tremendous odds that no issue 
 seemed possible but utter and inevitable 
 defeat. It is with the events that led to this 
 struggle, second to none in history in the 
 exciting features of the contest and in the 
 mighty interests involved, that we have now 
 to do. 
 
 Charles V. ; His Work and his 
 Abdication. 
 The moralist who in search of a proof that 
 "the glories of our birth and state are 
 shadows, not substantial things," could find 
 no more telling illustration than that fur- 
 nished in the career of the Emperor Charles 
 V. That monarch had succeeded to an in- 
 heritance more vast than mortal men had 
 possessed since the corpse of Charlemagne 
 had been laid to rest in the great church of 
 Aachen more than eight centuries before. 
 Spain and Austria and the Netherlands, the 
 golden Americas and the Indies, acknow- 
 ledged his sway. During more than five-and- 
 thirty years he toiled with patient energy to 
 achieve a great purpose, unity of belief and 
 uniformity of practice in the Western Church; 
 only to acknowledge at last that the spirit of 
 the time was too strong for him; and that he 
 had failed in his long battle to maintain 
 mediceval tyranny over the human intellect. 
 The Reformation was too strong for him; and 
 in granting the religious Peace of Augsburg, 
 at the Diet of the Empire, on the 26th of 
 September, 1555, he acknowledged himself 
 beaten. The great contest of his life had 
 brought him only defeat. No wonder, there- 
 fore, that his spirit sank under the bitter 
 feeling of satiety, and he felt that he had 
 
 been " walking in a vain shadow," and dis- 
 quieting himself only to find failure and dis- 
 appointment. " Nine expeditions into Ger- 
 many, six jto Spain, seven to Italy, four to 
 France, ten to the Netherlands, two to Eng- 
 land, as many to Africa, and eleven voyages 
 by sea," were among the labours of his life 
 enumerated by the Emperor, as — prematurely 
 decrepid and white-haired, for he was only 
 fifty-five years of age — leaning on his crutch, 
 with feeble and indistinct utterance, he gave 
 the reasons that induced him to abdicate his 
 throne and to invest with his dignities his 
 well-beloved son Philip, there present, whose 
 vigorous youth would be able far better than 
 his own enfeebled age to support the burden 
 of royalty. For himself, inasmuch as his 
 broken health no longer permitted him to 
 work for the good of his subjects, it was his 
 intention to devote what remained of his life 
 in this world to meditation and prayer and 
 to pious preparation for the next. 
 
 It was a touching scene ; nor were there 
 wanting any elements of earthly grandeur to 
 give it impressiveness and solemnity. For 
 in that great hall at Brussels were assembled 
 the knights of the great order of the Golden 
 Fleece, the great Counsellors of the Empire, 
 the representatives of the various provinces, 
 and many men whose names had already 
 been or were destined to be written in inef- 
 faceable characters on the annals of their 
 country and their time. There was Philip, 
 the inheritor of the magnificent empire, thus 
 put into possession in his predecessor's life- 
 time — small of stature, icy and proud in 
 demeanour, hardly melted by the sight of 
 the feeble, tearful old man whom the posses- 
 sion of half the world had failed to render 
 happy ; there was the young Prince William 
 of Orange, handsome and of lofty height, 
 upon whose shoulder the venerable Emperor 
 leaned with familiar affection ; there was 
 Duke Alva, his stern, cruel features impas- 
 sable and scornful as ever ; there were 
 Counts Egmont and Horn, great Flemish 
 nobles, wealthy, popular, and potent for good 
 or evil ; there was Queen Mary of Hun- 
 gary, come to lay down a regency of a quar- 
 ter of a century in the Netherlands at the 
 feet of the fortunate heir. The assembly 
 was worthy of the great occasion, with 
 "princes to behold the swelling scene." 
 Never since Diocletian withdrew from the 
 cares and turmoil of the Roman imperator- 
 ship, and choosing the better part laid down 
 that " ghstening grief," the sovereign rule of 
 Rome, had such an empire been voluntarily 
 laid down by the possessor. " Other princes 
 consider themselves happy" said the feeble 
 Emperor, " in endowing their children with 
 the crown that death demands them to resign. 
 I wish to enjoy this pleasure for myself; I 
 wish to see you live and rule. Few will fol- 
 
 498 
 
''LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS!" 
 
 low my example ; few have preceded me in 
 it ; but my deed will be praiseworthy, if your 
 future life warrants my confidence. If you 
 never depart from the wisdom you have 
 hitherto displayed ; if you remain firm and 
 unchangeable in the purity of the faith, which 
 is the firmest pillar of your throne." 
 
 And then the Emperor laid his hand in 
 blessing on the head of him to whose hands 
 such tremendous power and such mighty 
 interests were entrusted, and the pageant 
 was at an end for that time. A few days 
 later Philip, in the presence of an equally 
 splendid and august assembly, took the oath, 
 by which he pledged himself to maintain the 
 liberties, rights, and immunities of the various 
 classes of his subjects in the Low Countries, 
 and to practise towards them that which it 
 behoves a good and just lord and prince to 
 do. How he kept that oath, history has 
 abundantly set forth. 
 
 The Inheritance of Philip II. ; Power 
 OF Spain. 
 
 It was noticed that the form in which the 
 oath was set up was far more stringent than 
 that exacted from Charles V., and from his 
 predecessors in the suzerainty of Flanders, 
 the Dukes of Burgundy. In this stringency 
 has been found an evidence of the sus- 
 picion which was even then entertained of 
 the disposition of Philip, and of his tendency 
 towards tyrannical rule. Such suspicions, if 
 they existed, were abundantly verified by the 
 subsequent conduct of the ruler. Philip was 
 a gloomy tyrant, whose religion was bigotry 
 and superstition, and who turned all the 
 powers of a mind versed in all the subtleties 
 of statecraft towards the task of stifling 
 every spark of civil and rehgious liberty 
 throughout his wide dominions. Rather to 
 descend from his throne than to rule over 
 those whom he designated as heretics ; to 
 fight religious inquiry with the hangman's 
 cord, the faggot, and the stake ; to see in 
 every expression of free opinion and every 
 tendency towards independent action a 
 dangerous treason that must be put down 
 by condign punishment, — such were the 
 principles from which, during his long and 
 bitter reign, he never deviated ; and thus it 
 was that from his time may be dated that 
 decline of Spain, almost unexampled in its 
 rapidity and completeness in the history of 
 nations, which converted the mighty country 
 that had been the terror of Europe in the 
 sixteenth century into the carcase round 
 which the eagles were gathered together at 
 the end of the seventeenth. 
 
 In extent, revenue, and power, the vast 
 empire to which Philip was made ruler was 
 undoubtedly the chief and foremost of its 
 time. His father had indeed thought fit to 
 dissever the German dominions from the vast 
 
 inheritance, and to leave them to his brother 
 Ferdinand, painfully conscious by his own 
 experience that Spanish and German nation- 
 alities could no more unite than fire and 
 water ; but at one time during the period of 
 his greatest power, Philip's empire included, 
 in Europe, Spain, Portugal, the Nether- 
 lands, Franche Comte, Roussillon, the Mi- 
 lanese, and the two Sicilies ; while in the 
 gorgeous East rich settlements on the coasts 
 of India, the Spice Islands and the Philip- 
 pines, owned his sway and poured wealth 
 into his coffers ; and Mexico and Peru, with 
 the rich islands of the Caribbean Sea, in- 
 creased his revenues, until they are calcu- 
 lated to have reached nearly ten times the 
 revenue of England under Elizabeth. More- 
 over, he held for a time the dominion at 
 once of the land and of the sea, and in that 
 particular it has been rightly said that his 
 power was greater than that of Napoleon. 
 Lord Macaulay aptly quotes the words of the 
 wise Burleigh, spoken concerning Philip to 
 the English Parliament : " The King of 
 Spain, since he hath usurped upon the king- 
 dom of Portugal, hath thereby grown mighty 
 by gaining the East Indies ; so as, how great 
 soever he was before, he is now thereby 
 manifestly more great . . . he is now become 
 as a frontier enemy to all the west of England, 
 as well as all the south parts, as Sussex, 
 Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight." And 
 this was spoken some years after the great 
 disaster of PhiUp's reign, the overthrow of 
 " that great fleet invincible," which bore in 
 vain the richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest 
 hearts of Spain, against the indomitable sea- 
 dogs of England. And yot, when this man 
 died, Spain's power was gone ; and the 
 disease of bad government and despotic 
 cruelty was eating into her vitals. 
 
 The Netherlands, and how Charles V. 
 AND Philip II. ruled there. 
 At the present day it is difficult to realise 
 in the quiet, sedate Belgian towns, such as 
 Ghent and Bruges and Louvain, and even 
 in iron-working Liege itself, the idea that 
 some centuries ago these were among the 
 very wealthiest and most stirring communi- 
 ties in Europe ; pre-eminent alike in the 
 extent and importance of their commerce, 
 the variety and ingenuity of their manifold 
 industries, and the constitutional advantages 
 enjoyed by their citizens. It is natural that 
 regions deriving their prosperity and position 
 from trade should incline towards free in- 
 stitutions. When Napoleon sneered at the 
 English as '' ime nation doutiquikre" a 
 nation of shopkeepers, the sarcasm was 
 directed quite as much against the common- 
 sense of a community that refused to acknow- 
 ledge the advantages of a military dictator- 
 ship, and insisted on managing its own affairs, 
 
 499 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Holland, Brabant, 
 a lari^e share of 
 
 as against the commercial spirit he affected 
 to despise. Where a great field is open to 
 private enterprise, the citizen, the merchant, 
 and manufacturer naturally acquire political 
 power ; and thus it was that Flanders was 
 almost repubhcan in system and in sen- 
 timent during an age of feudal tyranny. 
 "Already in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries," says a writer, " Friesland was a 
 republic except in name ; 
 Flanders, had acquired 
 s e 1 f- g o V e r n- 
 ment.'' When 
 the provinces 
 were obliged to 
 acknowledge a 
 general master 
 in the person of 
 the Duke of 
 Burgundy, and 
 Duke Philip the 
 Good founded 
 the order of the 
 Golden Fleece, 
 at that time the 
 proudest in 
 Europe, he 
 found every- 
 where a consti- 
 tution in full 
 working order, 
 and citizens 
 ready to defend 
 their free insti- 
 tutions to the 
 last extremity ; 
 and none of the 
 Dukes of Bur- 
 gundy, not even 
 tire splenetic and 
 furious Charles 
 the Bold him- 
 self, attempted 
 the task of over- 
 throwing the 
 freedom of the 
 provinces, or in- 
 terfering with 
 their laws. 
 
 The great 
 wealth of the 
 Netherlands 
 also, that pro 
 
 vided the princes of the Burgundian House 
 with the chief part of their magnificent 
 revenues, formed a reason for respecting their 
 institutions which did not exist in the case of 
 such poor communities as, for instance, Swit- 
 zerland ; to offend a nation who could put 
 armies in the field for them, and furnish 
 them with the means of keeping up splendid 
 courts, was manifestly opposed to the first 
 principles ofpohcy. Accordingly the Nether- 
 i-'nds continued to increase in wealth, con- 
 
 sequence, and in a spirit of independence 
 that amounted at times even to turbulence, 
 until through the marriage of Mary of Bur- 
 gundy, the daughter and heiress of Charles 
 the Bold, with the Archduke Maximilian of 
 Austria (afterwards the Emperor Maximilian 
 I.), they came under a new dominion, and in 
 due course passed under the sway of Charles, 
 First of Spain and Fifth of Germany, the 
 grandson of Maximilian and Mary, and of 
 Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. 
 
 Here was a 
 complete 
 change of the 
 political situa- 
 tion. Charles 
 was not, like 
 the Burgundian 
 dukes, depen- 
 dent upon Flan- 
 ders for his re- 
 venues; he • 
 could bring a 
 loreign force 
 into the country, 
 in case of ne- 
 cessity, to put 
 down discon- 
 tent and enforce 
 despotic enact- 
 me nt s. He 
 would combat 
 Flanders with 
 Spain. No 
 wonder, there- 
 fore, that the 
 N ether landers 
 looked with ex- 
 treme distrust 
 and jealousy 
 upon the foreign 
 power to which 
 they had be- 
 come subject, . 
 and were more 
 than ever tena- 
 cious of their 
 liberties; or that 
 Charles should 
 endeavour to 
 make his power 
 felt by curtailing 
 those liberties 
 in various particulars. The antagonism of 
 race had also a powerful influence in prevent- 
 ing a good understanding between Spain and 
 the Netherlands. Grotius remarks on the im- 
 possibility of the unnatural union of two 
 such opposite nations turning out well. The 
 Netherlanders could live on an admirable 
 footing with the nations around them, who 
 were of kindred race with themselves and 
 had advanced to greatness by the same 
 roads. But Spaniards and Netherlanders 
 50c 
 
 William the Silent. 
 
"LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS!" 
 
 were in most things entirely different. The 
 martial ardour and warlike proclivities of the 
 Spaniards had been kept alive by campaigns 
 in Italy and in Africa. Considerations of 
 profit and home prosperity had inclined the 
 Netherlander to peace, while he was exceed- 
 ingly tenacious in defending what he had 
 gained. The Spaniards are portrayed by 
 Grotius as an exceedingly laborious people, 
 dauntless in danger, keen alike in the pursuit 
 of wealth and of fame, proud to a degree that 
 inspired them with a contempt for foreigners, 
 piously inclined, and mindful of benefits re- 
 ceived ; but on the other hand, revengeful, 
 and so devoid of self-restraint in the hour of 
 victory, as to lose all considerations of con- 
 science and honour in dealing with the van- 
 quished. All this is opposite to the character 
 of the Netherlander, who is cunning but not 
 vindictive, and who, stationed in the midst 
 between France and Germany, exhibits, in 
 a mitigated degree, the weaknesses and 
 strength of both. Respect towards their 
 rulers is a sentiment they have in common ; 
 with this difference that the Netherlander 
 places the laws above the king. It was a 
 difficult task for the ruler of these two nations, 
 so different from each other, to so divide his 
 care and his favoui's between them, that a 
 preference shown towards the Castilians 
 should not offend the Netherlanders, while 
 the equality granted to the latter should not 
 outrage Castilian pride. 
 
 The Harshness of Charles V. in the 
 Netherlands tempered by Policy. 
 Under the rule of Charles V., the Nether- 
 lands soon found that from being a nation 
 they had become a province, and were looked 
 upon by their ruler as a means of carrying 
 out his ambitious views, and a storehouse of 
 men and arms, to be used in his warlike ex- 
 peditions, and in enterprises that frequently 
 brought loss rather than profit to the inhabi- 
 tants of the Low Countries. The nobles and 
 citizens stood aghast at the innovations made 
 by the Emperor, and at his haughty way of 
 disregarding their privileges and immunities. 
 Thus the Tribunal at Mechlin, formerly an 
 independent court, was subordinated to a 
 royal council established by Charles at 
 Brussels, — a council which was a mere mouth- 
 piece of the monarch's will. Spaniards were 
 mtroduced into every department of State 
 business, and invested with the most im- 
 portant offices. Contributions were demanded 
 to defray the expenses of the ruler's foreign 
 wars, and in many cases the States were 
 obliged to put on an appearance of voluntary 
 acquiescence to escape the coercion that 
 would have followed a refusal. Worse than 
 all, as inflicting a deeper wound upon the 
 national pride of the Netherlands, foreign 
 troops were quartered in the Flemish towns, 
 
 and soldiers were recruited from among them 
 for foreign wars. 
 
 " And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with 
 
 terror smote, 
 And again the loud alarum sounded from the 
 
 tocsin's throat, 
 Till the bell of Ghent responded o'er lagoon and 
 
 dike of sand, 
 I am Roland, I am Roland, there is victory in the 
 
 land." 
 
 For the great and populous city of Ghent, 
 whose walls measured nine miles in circuit, 
 and whose complement of fighting men old 
 Froissart already estimated at eighty thousand, 
 — Ghent, that has been rightly described as 
 " rather a commonwealth than a city," in an 
 evil hour rose up in insurrection against the 
 powerful Emperor. The great bell " Roland," 
 ihe palladium and emblem of the city's 
 liberties, called the burghers to arms ; and 
 Charles at once repaired with an army to 
 Ghent, and inflicted such a chastisement 
 on the rebels as struck terror through the 
 whole of the Netherlands. A tremendous 
 confiscation, in which even the bell Roland 
 was included, taught the citizens that the 
 day of their freedom was past ; and that, 
 though the Emperor might at times 
 graciously please to wear the velvet glove, 
 the iron hand was ever present. A hundred 
 and thirty persons implicated in the rising 
 had to beg their lives, and express their 
 deepest contrition for their misdeeds, in the 
 shirt of penitence, with halters round their 
 necks. Nineteen of the ringleaders were 
 beheaded ; and Charles only granted pardon 
 to the city on the intervention of the Oueen 
 Regent, who begged him of his imperial 
 clemency to show favour to the city that 
 had witnessed his birth. 
 
 But, though sufficiently inclined to tyran- 
 nise over the Netherlands, Charles was a 
 politic, if not a just, ruler. He understood 
 that in commerce lay the true strength of his 
 kingdom, and that for commercial supremacy 
 a certain amount at least of municipal free- 
 dom is indispensable. Accordingly it was 
 not his design entirely to humiliate the 
 Netherlands, and to deprive that valuable 
 part of his dominions of all political signi- 
 ficance. Moreover there was much in the 
 moral character of the Netherlanders, with 
 their bluff, hearty manners, their magnificent 
 banquets, — for he was a gluttonous man, even 
 to the days of his monastic retirement at 
 St. Yuste, — and in their outspoken pride of 
 wealth and trade, that attracted him, and 
 proved a welcome relief from the sedate 
 gravity of the Spaniards. His frequent visits 
 to the Low Countries, and the favour he 
 extended to some of their chief men, attest 
 this. Moreover he understood and spoke 
 their language, and was fond of holding long 
 conversations with them, in which he could 
 
 cci 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 infuse a certain grace and condescension; 
 and familiar intercourse with monarchs often 
 goes far towards pacifying rebellious minds. 
 Thus he retained a certain personal popularity 
 in spite of the weight with which his exactions, 
 his agents, and his recruiting continually 
 burdened the land. 
 
 Character of Philip II. 
 
 In appearance and manners Philip was 
 very different from his father. He was a 
 Spaniard of the coldest and gravest type, 
 impassive and ceremonious in manner, un- 
 sympathetic, untouched by the joys and 
 sorrows of men, whom he was accustomed 
 to regard as tools wherewith to work out his 
 schemes. He spoke only Spanish, would 
 have none but Spaniards about his person. 
 A pupil of the monks, he was perfect in the 
 art of concealing the workings of his mind 
 under an appearance of stony indifference. 
 It is told that when his father summoned 
 him from Spain to Brussels in his youth, to 
 show him to the nation whom he was one 
 day to rule, neither the shouts of the populace 
 nor the gorgeous magnificence of his recep- 
 tion could bring a smile to the youth's 
 gloomy face ; and that the first impression 
 he made upon the Flemings was the con- 
 viction that they would find in him a tyrant 
 whose schemes it would behove them to 
 thwart by every means in their power. 
 
 The seventeen provinces that made up 
 Philip's possessions in the Netherlands were 
 in the most flourishing condition when they 
 came into his hands. Prosperity and plenty 
 were everywhere apparent ; the numerous 
 great and important towns had never been 
 so wealthy. "No people on earth," says 
 Schiller, in his " History of the Revolt of the 
 Netherlands," " could have been more easily 
 ruled by a sensible prince, and none could 
 have been found more difficult to rule by a 
 juggler or a tyrant." If Philip could have 
 made up his mind to allow even a qualified 
 freedom to his Flemish subjects, he might 
 have gained the good-will of the nobles, whose 
 pride was flattered at the idea of serving a 
 mighty prince, and whose influence would 
 have gone far to reconcile the country in 
 general to his rule ; but it was the peculiarity 
 of his character that nothing would satisfy 
 him short of the slavish submission of the 
 serf or the unquestioning obedience of the 
 Jesuit to his superior. Terror was the means 
 by which he chose to rule ; and his mind, 
 busy and indefatigable in the working out of 
 details, had neither the elevation nor the 
 breadth to work out a statesmanlike scheme 
 of rule, or to read the signs of the times. 
 
 The Inquisition ; Its Development 
 
 UNDER Philip. 
 Among the difficulties experienced by 
 
 Charles V. in the government of the Nether- 
 lands, and, indeed, of his vast dominions 
 generally, one of the chief arose out of that 
 greatest of the movements in his century, 
 the Reformation. Charles from the first took 
 up a position of uncompromising antagonism 
 against the Reformation ; for not without 
 reason he saw an analogy between an aspira- 
 tion for religious and a striving for political 
 liberty; and looked upon Protestantism as 
 certain to interfere with his scheme of 
 universal government. Accordingly he 
 stood up with all his strength against Luther 
 and the other reformers, and against the 
 princes who, like Frederick of Saxony, 
 adopted the new doctrines. His opposition 
 had at least as much a political as a religious 
 character ; and indeed the extravagances of 
 the fanatical leaders, the Bockholts and the 
 Miinzers, the atrocities of the Anabaptists at 
 Munster, and the crimes of the revolted 
 peasants, who tried to affiliate their rising to 
 the cause of the Reformation, might well 
 warrant distrust and suspicion in the brain 
 of a cautious and jealous ruler like Charles. 
 
 In the Low Countries, too, the Reformed 
 doctrines had established themselves with 
 astonishing rapidity among a quick-witted 
 and argumentative people, accustomed to 
 freedom of speech, and eager to discuss a 
 question that affected them so nearly. Sa 
 much alarmed* had Charles been by the 
 movement, that he introduced, to combat it, 
 the most terrible weapon ever employed by 
 a government, — a weapon doubly dreaded 
 from the secrecy with which its deadly 
 wounds were inflicted, — the Spanish Inquisi- 
 tion. 
 
 Under every form the Inquisition has been 
 a foul blot on the civilisation of Europe, and 
 a reproach to every Christian government 
 that could establish, and every Christian 
 community that could endure it'; but in Spain it 
 has always been invested with a darker horror 
 of wickedness. The Spanish Inquisition 
 introduced by Ferdinand of Aragon, with 
 Torquemada for its high priest, far surpassed 
 in its fiendish cruelty, in the ingenuity and 
 duration of the tortures inflicted on its 
 victims, and the utter abnegation of humanity 
 in its every proceeding, that older institu- 
 tion of the " Holy Office," of which it was 
 the logical sequel and outcome. The object 
 of the Inquisition in Spain was in the first 
 instance to root out the remains of the Ma- 
 hometan religion, which had become part 
 and parcel of the fife of those Moorish in- 
 habitants of southern Spain, whose country 
 had been conquered by the armies of Ferdi- 
 nand and Isabella, and many of whom sought 
 by a nominal conversion to Christianity to 
 escape the hard fate of exile, while in secret 
 they remained attached to the faith of their 
 forefathers, and practised its rites. After- 
 
 502 
 
"LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS ! " 
 
 wards, under the auspices of the monks, the 
 system was elaborated with a completeness 
 of fiendish cruelty hardly credible. No rank 
 
 placed by reason, justice, or humanity on 
 their proceedings. Not a single one among 
 those forms of ordinary judicial proceeding 
 
 was exempt from the overwhelming power 
 of the femiliars of the holy office ; no place 
 was safe from their intrusion ; no check was 
 
 upheld by the general consent of humanity 
 in the interest of accused persons was 
 allowed to come between the prisoner and 
 
 503 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Inquisition, Once entangled in the 
 meshes of its horrible net, escape was im- 
 possible. The nnhappy prisoner was first 
 kept for forty-eight hours in a solitary 
 dungeon, without food. Then he was brought 
 before the tribunal ; but a definite charge 
 was seldom made against him. He was 
 told to remember in what way he had 
 offended, and was exhorted to accuse him- 
 self, and made to beheve that in free con- 
 fession lay the only means for pardon and 
 reconciliation with the Church. No limit 
 was placed on the amount or the frequency 
 of the torture emjployed to extort admissions ; 
 whatever was extorted from bodily anguish 
 was used for procuring condemnation ; and 
 denial was looked upon as evidence of 
 hardened contumacy, in itself a sufficient 
 warrant for condemnation. The Auto-da- 
 fe, or act of faith, as the public ceremonial 
 at the execution of a number of con- 
 demned prisoners of the Inquisition was 
 called, was invested with all the pomp and 
 circumstance of a public hohday. The vic- 
 tims condemned to die were clad in long 
 yellow gabardines, on which figures of imps 
 and demons were painted in black ; on their 
 heads they wore conical mitres or hats 
 similarly decorated. Those who confessed 
 and abjured their heresy were strangled 
 before the flames consumed their bodies ; 
 those who persisted were burnt alive. Any 
 look of pity or manifestation of sympathy 
 for a heretic was sufficient to bring a man 
 under suspicion ; and to fall under suspicion 
 was enough to consign any one to a dun- 
 geon. Even kings and queens, the virtuous 
 Isabella of Castille herself not excepted, were 
 present. At these executions the Grand 
 Inquisitor sat on a higher chair than that 
 occupied by the monarch himself, who on 
 these occasions, with bared head, acknow- 
 ledged the supremacy of the Church ; and 
 the solemnity of the occasion was considered 
 as enhanced where a large number of 
 victims were delivered over at one and the 
 same time to the secular arm. For the 
 Church, too merciful herself to inflict punish- 
 ment of death on the victim, gave him up to 
 the executioner, with recommendation that 
 he should be dealt with tenderly, and without 
 effusion of blood. 
 
 The Inquisition had been partially intro- 
 duced into the Netherlands by Charles V. in 
 1522 ; but it was more open in its action, 
 more like a regular court, and was not pre- 
 sided over by Dominicans — nor did it act in 
 secret. It was reserved for Philip to esta- 
 blish an atrocious tribunal, in the Spanish 
 form, in the fair country of the Flemings ; 
 and this would in itself be a sufficient reason 
 for the revolt which convulsed the land some 
 years later. 
 
 William of Orange, Egmont, Margaret 
 OF Parma, and Cardinal Granvella. 
 
 That the establishment of such a horrible 
 tribunal as the Inquisition should be the 
 occasion of widespread anger and disaffection 
 can be well imagined ; and to this other 
 grievances were added. The quartering of 
 Spanish troops in the Netherlands, intro- 
 duced by Charles V., had often been ener- 
 getically protested against. During the wars 
 of the German Emperor there seemed some 
 necessity for the burden ; now, however, in 
 time of peace, "these troops were looked upon 
 as the terrible preparations for oppression, 
 and as the instruments of a hated hierarchy." 
 There was a general and clamorous demand 
 for their departure. Philip, without exactly 
 refusing the request, contrived to keep them 
 in the country ; and, at length, when the 
 Estates protested more energetically than 
 before against the retention of these troops, 
 as seeming to imply that they, the inhabitants, 
 were not competent to defend their own 
 country for the King, Philip angrily exclaimed 
 that he was a foreigner, and asked whether 
 he ought not on that account to be expected 
 to quit Flanders without delay ? And with 
 these words he descended from his throne, 
 and quitted the council-hall in high dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 The various subjects of annoyance which 
 the imperious King continually found in the 
 independent spirit of the Netherlanders made 
 him anxious to quit a country so uncongenial 
 to his temperament, and where he was so 
 often reminded of a public spirit he was 
 determined to crush. But it was necessary 
 to appoint a regent for the Netherlands, an 
 office second to none in importance during 
 the absence of the monarch. It had been 
 provisionally administered by Duke Philibert 
 of Savoy ; but as the recently concluded peace 
 of Chateau Cambresis had restored that prince 
 to his dominions, the duty of appointing a 
 successor urgently presented itself 
 
 Of those who were entitled to aspire to this 
 high office, the first in rank and in merit was 
 William, Prince of Orange Nassau, This 
 remarkable man, who afterwards earned the 
 proud title oi pater pai7'ice, belonged to one 
 of the most illustrious of the German houses, 
 and one that in the 13th century had given 
 a ruler to the Empire in the person of Adol- 
 phus of Nassau, who met his death in the 
 battle of Gollheim, in 1298, fighting valiantly 
 against Albert of Austria, the son of Rodolph 
 of Hapsburg. He was brought up at the 
 Court of Charles V., with whom he was an 
 especial favourite, and who, it is told, per- 
 mitted him alone to be present when the 
 Emperor gave audience to foreign ambas- 
 sadors; which is taken as a proof that already 
 at that time he had earned by his discretion 
 
 S04 
 
''LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS/" 
 
 the honourable title of" the Silent,"' by which 
 he was afterwards distinguished. His father, 
 the Count of Nassau, was a Lutheran. The 
 Emperor, nevertheless, caused the young 
 prince to be brought up in the Catholic 
 religion, which, in later years, William ex- 
 changed for the Calvinistic form of Pro- 
 testantism. When Charles abdicated his 
 throne, William was three-and-twenty years 
 old. The Emperor had twice distinguished 
 him by proofs of his especial regard — once, 
 when he gave him the honourable office of 
 carrying the Imperial crown to Charles's 
 brother and successor, Ferdinand ; and again, 
 when he bestowed on the Prince of Orange 
 the command of the Imperial troops in Flan- 
 ders on the retirement of Philibert of Savoy. 
 He was enormously wealthy, and exercised 
 a great and noble hospitality. 
 
 The second, who had a right by his position 
 and services to aspire to the great office of 
 Regent of the Netherlands, was Lamoral, 
 Count of Egmont and Prince of Gavre. He 
 was a descendant of the Counts of Gueldres, 
 and, like William of Orange, had been dis- 
 tinguished by the favour of Charles V., who 
 made him a knight of the great Order of the 
 Golden Fleece. The two victories at Grave- 
 lines and St. Ouentin had gained him an 
 almost exaggerated fame, and made him 
 enormously popular among his countrymen. 
 He was looked upon as the man who had, 
 by his courage and conduct, procured for 
 them the blessings of peace. The Nether- 
 landers were proud of him, as the greatest 
 of their countrymen. The Count himself, a 
 man of kindly feelings, and with his heart 
 expanded by the sunshine of prosperity, in- 
 creased the favourable impression among his 
 countrymen by the engaging freedom of his 
 manners and address, and by the genial plea- 
 sure he evidently took in the expressions of 
 good-will with which he was greeted whenever 
 he appeared in pubhc. While the acute in- 
 tellect of the Prince of Orange looked "quite 
 through the deeds of men," and could esti- 
 mate actions and motives at their true value, 
 the sunny optimism of Egmont refused to 
 believe in the existence of duplicity and cun- 
 ning, which were entirely foreign to his own 
 nature ; and thus not unfrequently was led 
 into error by the kindliness of his disposition. 
 
 The claims of the two great nobles to the 
 regency were equally balanced, and Phihp 
 passed both of them by. He distrusted and 
 detested the Prince of Orange, and was con- 
 scious that he himself was thoroughly under- 
 stood by that astute prince, and, consequently, 
 he would not advance the Prince of Oi-ange. 
 Egmont, on the other hand, was far too 
 popular with his own countrymen to render 
 him a fit servant of Philip as ruler of the 
 Netherlands ; while his descent from the 
 Counts of Gueldres seemed to point him out 
 
 as the natural leader of the Flemings, if it 
 should at any time occur to them to stand 
 up for their independence against the son of 
 the man who had introduced the Inquisition 
 among them and had taxed them illegally ; 
 and an appearance of impartiality was given 
 by the fact that the King passed over them 
 both, as if he did not wish to favour one of 
 these distinguished men at the expense of 
 the other. The truth was, their popularity 
 was an invincible obstacle with each of them. 
 The person whom the King chose as regent, 
 to the exclusion alike of Orange and Egmont, 
 was a relative of his own, the Duchess Mar- 
 garet of Parma. Margaret was an illegitimate 
 daughter of the Emperor Charles V., who 
 gave her a royal education, and already in 
 her fourth year caused her to be betrothed 
 to a Duke of Ferrara. This engagement 
 was afterwards cancelled, and after the return 
 of the Emperor from Africa, Margaret was 
 married to Alexander of Medicis, whom she 
 lost a year later ; and again Margaret's hand 
 was given away by her Imperial father, this 
 time to Alexander Farnese, who received as 
 the dowry of his wife the duchies of Parma 
 and Piacenza. Margaret was a woman of 
 masculine appearance and manners. She 
 spoke and moved like a man, and was a great 
 huntress, like her ancestress, Mary of Bur- 
 gundy. Her masculine appearance was in- 
 creased by the moustachio that adorned her 
 upper lip. In religion she was a bigoted 
 Romanist. 
 
 How William of Orange incurred 
 
 THE Hatred of Philip II. 
 It is supposed that Philip considered the 
 innovations he purposed introducing in Flan- 
 ders would be more easily accepted at the 
 hands of a woman, and that this had detei'- 
 mined his choice. He veiled his hatred 
 against the nobles, and especially against 
 the Prince of Orange and Egmont, by the 
 bestowal of important offices upon them, and 
 by offering to each in turn the command of 
 the Spanish troops who were to be left in 
 the provinces. At a solemn assembly of the 
 nobles and estates of the realm at Brussels, 
 he recommended to the loyal consideration 
 of his loving subjects the sister whom he left 
 with them as regent, recapitulated the benefits 
 he claimed to have conferred upon the State, 
 promised to send his son Carlos if he him- 
 self should be unable to return, and took leave 
 of the country he was never to behold again. 
 On one occasion only his anger and spite 
 against the Prince of Orange burst forth 
 through the artificial veil of dissimulation. 
 When he was about to embark at Flushing, 
 the Prince of Orange was present, with many 
 other nobles, to bid him farewell. The King 
 took William bitterly to task for the discon- 
 tents that had been manifested in the pro- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 vinces. The Prince respectfully replied that 
 nothing had been done except by the autho- 
 rity of the Estates. "No, no !" exclaimed 
 Philip, his anger for once blazing out, as he 
 seized the Prince's wrist and shook it vio- 
 lently ; " not the Estates, but you — you — 
 you !" In astonishment at this outbreak, 
 the Prince turned away, and wished the King 
 a pleasant voyage, without accompanying him 
 on board his ship. 
 
 A deep-seated distrust of all men was a 
 part of the system of Philip II. ; but if there 
 was one man whom he looked upon with 
 something like confidence it was Antony 
 Peranot, Bishop of Arras, afterwards Arch- 
 bishop of Mechlin and Metropolitan of the 
 Netherlands, better known and universally 
 hated in Flanders under the name of Cardinal 
 Granvella. He was a man of remarkable 
 talents and deep and wide erudition, inde- 
 fatigable in the discharge of State business, 
 carrying out the smallest details with labo- 
 rious conscientiousness. He thoroughly un- 
 derstood his master, and would frequently 
 put into definite shape a thought but half 
 formed in the sluggish mind of Philip, to 
 whom he would transfer the credit of the 
 invention, illustrating the old proverb, " The 
 page slew the boar, the king took the gloire." 
 He really led Philip, in the only way in which 
 that gloomy and superstitious tyrant could 
 be led, by concealing his power and affecting 
 to depreciate his own skill. Philip had espe- 
 cially recommended Granvella to his sister 
 the Regent, impressing on Margaret that she 
 should make use of the advice and experience 
 of this astute and reliable counsellor on all 
 occasions of difficulty. 
 
 Discontent in the Netherlands ; The 
 Compromise and its Object. 
 The projects of the King at Madrid were 
 soon apparent in the actions of his minister. 
 During the years that immediately followed 
 Philip's departure from the Netherlands, the 
 chief efforts of the Regent, seconded, or rather 
 divided, by Granvella, tended to the setting 
 up of an episcopal tyranny in the provinces, 
 and to the carrying out of the edicts against 
 the heretics with increased severity by the 
 agency of the Inquisition. Gradually a 
 clamour of discontent and opposition arose, 
 which swelled into an universal roar of execra- 
 tion against Granvella, who, as primate in 
 Flanders, actively carried out the new system, 
 which redounded greatly to his profit ; for 
 among the new bishoprics that were created, 
 six, namely, Antwerp, Bois-le-duc, Ghent, 
 Bruges, Ypem, and Riiremonde, were imme- 
 diately subordinate to the archbishopric of 
 Mechlin. In the State Council the voice of 
 Granvella prevailed against the opinion of all 
 the rest ; and even the Regent herself had to 
 defer to his opinion. Worse than all was 
 
 the fact that these new bishoprics were asso- 
 ciated with the spreading and strengthening 
 of the Inquisition ; for to each of them two 
 inquisitors were attached, while the Cardinal 
 had the title of Grand Inquisitor. Granvella 
 himself at last recognized his position as 
 untenable in the face of the urgent petitions 
 addressed to Philip for his removal ; and at 
 length, after he had earnestly himself solicited 
 his recall, and the three great nobles, William 
 of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, Lamoral, 
 Count Egmont, Stadtholder of Flanders, and 
 the wealthy and influential Count Horn, re- 
 fused to appear at the council-board, Philip 
 reluctantly called away his subservient agent, 
 and Granvella quitted the Netherlands, leav- 
 ing behind him the curses of millions, and 
 the reputation of a persecutor and a traitor 
 to the country. Even the Duchess Margaret 
 disliked him intensely, and felt a relief at his 
 departure. 
 
 But "the evil that men do lives after them." 
 Granvella was gone from Flanders, but his 
 system remained ; and the King was deter- 
 mined at all cost to establish religious uni- 
 formity in the Netherlands. On his return 
 to Spain from the N etherlands he had bound 
 himself by an oath to extirpate heresy through- 
 out his dominions : the dungeon, the rack, 
 and the faggot had been unsparingly employed 
 in carrying fulfilment of this oath ; and Philip 
 would hear of no mitigation of the penalties 
 against religious offenders. Egmont, as a 
 man whose loyalty and patriotism were alike 
 well known, was deputed, in 1565, to lay the 
 state of affairs before the King ; but he could 
 get no satisfaction at Madrid, the King dis- 
 missing him with that famous declaration, 
 that rather than rule over heretics he would 
 not rule at all. He would rather lose every 
 foot of his territories, and die a thousand 
 deaths, than sanction the slightest change in 
 matters of religion. 
 
 Such an answer could not fail to inflame 
 popular feeling, and create disgust and anger 
 among the higher classes. The Prince of 
 Orange showed his sense of Philip's conduct 
 and of the cruelties and injustice practised 
 upon the people by abjuring the Roman 
 Catholic faith, in which he had been brought 
 up, for that of his ancestors. The nobles 
 for the most part belonged to the old religion; 
 but they were as antagonistic to the Inqui- 
 sition as the Protestants themselves, seeing 
 in it the future ruin and desolation of their 
 country. Accordingly some four hundred of 
 them came together and signed a document 
 called the Compromise, wherein they pledged 
 themselves to stand by one another in resist- 
 ance against the Inquisition, and religious 
 persecution generally. This step, in which 
 tyranny saw nothing less than a conspiracy 
 to subvert all authority, they followed up by 
 a petition for the abolition of the laws against 
 
 506 
 
" LONG LIVE THE BEGGERS ! " 
 
 Procession of Nobles to Margaret of Parii.i 
 
 heretics, and the suspension of the prose- 
 cutions undertaken by the Inquisition. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1 566, the members of 
 the league who had signed the Compromise 
 met in the Kinlemburg House, the palace of 
 Count Egmont ; and here Brederode, one of 
 
 507 
 
 their chiefs, obtained from them a second 
 oath, that they would stand by one another, 
 if necessary, with arms in their hands. At 
 the same time their zeal and indignation were 
 inflamed by the exhibition of a letter from 
 Spain, which set forth " how" a certain Pro- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 testant, whom they all knew and respected, 
 had been burnt alive there by a slow fire. 
 It was determined to present the petition to 
 the Regent Margaret next day. 
 
 How THE Great Petition was pre- 
 sented TO Margaret of Parma. 
 
 On the morrow, accordingly, the 5th of 
 April, a company of nearly four hundred men, 
 among them many nobles and persons of 
 liigh position, and with the Count of Nassau 
 and Brederode at their head, marched in 
 procession, four and four, through the streets 
 of Brussels to the palace, while all the city 
 looked on in breathless expectation. The 
 Regent Margaret, not a little disturbed to find 
 so many of the foremost men in the country 
 among the throng of petitioners, received 
 them surrounded by her counsellors, and by 
 the Knights of the Golden Fleece. Brederode 
 addressed her in the most respectful terms, 
 assuring her that the petition, of whose im- 
 portance the numerous assembly was a suffi- 
 cient guarantee, contained nothing that was 
 incompatible with the good of the country 
 or the dignity of the King. The chief object 
 of the petition was to beg that a competent 
 person might be despatched to Madrid to 
 entreat the monarch to rescind the objection- 
 able edicts, and stop the progress of the 
 Inquisition ; for their continuance could not 
 fail to produce the worst consequences to the 
 Netherlands. Margaret gave them hopes 
 that the prayer of their petition would be 
 granted, and promised to give them their 
 answer on the morrow. 
 
 The next day, accordingly, they came in 
 yet stronger numbers to receive the reply, 
 which was to the effect that though the 
 granting of their petition went beyond the 
 powers with which the Regent was entrusted, 
 one of the nobles should be despatched to 
 Spain to lay their case before the King, 
 backed with all the influence of the Regent ; 
 and that meanwhile directions should be 
 issued to the inquisitors to fulfil their office 
 in as moderate a manner as possible ; while, 
 on her part, she expected that the League 
 would show a similar moderation, and under- 
 take nothing against the dignity or authority 
 of the monarch. This was quite as much as 
 the petitioners expected to achieve for the 
 time, and accordingly they withdrew not ill- 
 pleased. 
 
 '•' Long Live the Beggars ! Vivent 
 
 LES GUEUX ! " 
 
 It happened that Brederode that night 
 entertained at a banquet the majority of those 
 who had taken part in the procession. The 
 events of the day were talked over, and the 
 courage of the guests, who were present to 
 the number of some three hundred, rose as 
 
 the wine mounted to their brains. Then it 
 happened how one of the guests told how he 
 had noticed that Margaret of Parma had 
 changed colour when the petition was pre- 
 sented, whereupon one of the Council, Count 
 Barlaimont, had said to her she was not to 
 be frightened at a lot of beggars {guenx). 
 The designation had a certain grim humour 
 in it ; for, as Schiller says, " in truth the 
 majority of them had been reduced by bad 
 economy in a manner that only two well 
 justified the word." The idea of adopting 
 the epithet as a name for the League at once 
 struck a number of the company, and there 
 arose a shout of "Long live the Beggars !" 
 which was repeated again and again, amid 
 a tumult of applause. What had been first 
 started as a jest was adopted in earnest. 
 Brederode presently appeared with a wallet' 
 such as the mendicant friars and pilgrims 
 were accustomed to wear. With this strange 
 insignia suspended round his neck, he drank 
 to the company, having exchanged " his 
 figured goblet for a dish of wood," thanking 
 them for joining the union, and vowing that 
 he was ready to risk his life and everything 
 that he had for each one among them. The 
 cup was then passed to each one in turn, and 
 each man took the same oath as he drained 
 it. Wallets were then passed round, and the 
 guests hung them up behind their chairs, as 
 distinguishmg marks of the fraternity of the 
 Beggars. 
 
 The shouting and tumult of these proceed- 
 ings had attracted the attention of William 
 of Orange and of the Counts Egmont and 
 Horn, who happened to be passing the door, 
 and wondered what made Brederode's guests 
 so noisy. They stepped into the house, and 
 were received with acclamations ; and the 
 host would take no denial but they must 
 stay and take a glass with their friends. 
 This they did amid the frantic applause of 
 the guests, who looked upon the proceeding 
 as a formal joining of the League by these 
 three illustrious visitors. " We only drank 
 a single small glass," said Egmont afterwards 
 inhis defence, when arraignedfor high treason, 
 " and they shouted ' Long live the King, and 
 long live the Beggars !' I heard the expres- 
 sion for the first time, and certainly it dis- 
 pleased me ; but the times were so evil, that 
 one had to take part in many things against 
 one's inclination, and I thought I was doing 
 a harmless thing." And now the festivity 
 grew last and furious ; the spirits of the 
 company were raised to the highest point of 
 triumphant joviality in the pleasure of gain- 
 ing three such recruits to their cause ; they 
 drank and shouted with redoubled vigour, 
 and many were intoxicated, not entirely by 
 joy, on the occasion. Never was a national 
 league of vital importance more whimsically 
 inaugurated. 
 
 508 
 
''LONG LIVE THE BEGGARS/'' 
 
 How THE GREAT CONSPIRACY WENT ON. 
 
 The zeal of the newly-established league 
 did not evaporate with the fumes of the fes- 
 tive wine. What had been resolved upon 
 in the joyous tumult of a banquet was de- 
 liberately carried out when reflection came. 
 The members of the new fraternity chose a 
 dress, of an ashen grey coloL:r, such as was 
 worn by mendicant friars and penitents, 
 and in this garb they clothed their servants 
 and families ; and whenever the grey gowns 
 appeared in the streets of Brussels, some 
 wearers, moreover, displaying in their hats or 
 at their girdles wooden cups, dishes, and 
 similar insignia of the beggar's trade, the 
 fraternity increased in numbers and import- 
 ance. Then it was that a medal was adopted, 
 a gold or silver coin, displaying on one side 
 the eftigy of Phihp II., with the legend, 
 " Faithful to the King," and on the other a 
 pair of folded hands supporting a wallet, 
 with the words, " To the beggar's staff." In 
 time, the name '" Gueux" was adopted by all 
 who, in the Netherlands, separated them- 
 selves from the Papacy, and ultimately took 
 up arms against the King. 
 
 After a closing interview with Margaret of 
 Parma, in which the Regent exhorted the chiefs 
 of the confederation to behave peaceably and 
 moderately, and above all to abstain from all 
 innovation, and from increasing the numbers 
 of their union, until the King's answer should 
 arrive from Madrid, Brederode, Kuilemberg, 
 and Bergen, the three chiefs, quitted Brussels 
 at the head of a cavalcade of more than five 
 hundred horsemen. But they had no inten- 
 tion of limiting their activity ; on the con- 
 trary, they wished to extend the confederation 
 of the Gueux as widely as possible. Brede- 
 rode proceeded to Antwerp, where he ap- 
 peared at the window of a tavern with a 
 brimming wine-glass in his hand, and told 
 the expectant crowd that he had come, with 
 peril of his life and property, to relieve them 
 from the burden of the Inc|uisition. Mean- 
 while Margaret of Parma, with the help of 
 her councillors, drew up a document which 
 halted half-way between the demands of the 
 malcontents and the edicts of tlie King, and 
 which was known by the name of the Mode- 
 ration. To this document she cleverly ob- 
 tained the consent of the various towns and 
 districts separately, thus giving them no op- 
 portunity for common discussion or remon- 
 strance. But there was reason to believe 
 that the nation would not be content with 
 this " Moderation," even if it were confirmed 
 by the King ; for the document hgid been 
 drawn up without consultation with the 
 Estates ; and this had been made a great 
 point. It was also decided, against the advice 
 of the Prince of Orange, to keep the docu- 
 ment secret until the King's sanction had been 
 
 obtained. The document itself was of a most 
 unsatisfactory nature, for it did not include 
 the abolition of a single important griev- 
 ance, and at a later period was nick-named 
 by the angry people the " Murderation." 
 
 William, Prince of Orange, and the Counts 
 Egmont and Horn had hitherto maintained 
 a position midwny between the malcontents 
 and the party of the government. They now 
 determined to withdraw from public affairs 
 altogether, having no hope that a favourable 
 answer would be received from Madrid, and 
 conscious that their counsels were systemati- 
 cally opposed and overruled. Margaret of 
 Parma protested vehemently against this pro- 
 ceeding, representing to the Prince of Orange 
 especially that as the heads of the conspiracy 
 of the Gueux, Prince Louis of Nassau and 
 Brederode, were respectively his brother and 
 his friend, if William suddenly forsook the 
 councils of his king, it would be universally 
 held that he favoured the conspirators. For 
 a time the Prince of Orange and Count 
 Egmont were persuaded by the Regent to 
 remain ; but Horn retired to one of his 
 estates, declaring he would serve emperors 
 and kings no more. 
 
 The party of the Gueux, meanwhile, in- 
 creased rapidly in numbers and importance. 
 In the provinces they were looked upon as 
 the friends and supporters of the popular 
 cause, and in various towns merchants and 
 citizens of note openly declared themselves of 
 their party, and wore their insignia. All who 
 were discontented, all who conceived them- 
 selves injured by the tyranny and injustice ot 
 the government, all who looked to see the ex- 
 isting state of things overthrown, gathered 
 round them. "To be pointed out as a valu- 
 able recruit to the confederacy," says Schiller, 
 " flattered the vain man ; the opportunity of 
 mingling unobserved and unpunished in the 
 great crowd, lured the coward." And now 
 there came flocking into the Netherlands a 
 crowd of German Protestants and French 
 Huguenots, bent on proselytizing, for which 
 they saw a favourable opportunity. Calvin- 
 ists, Lutherans, and Anabaptists vied with 
 each other in the endeavour to win souls ; 
 the three sects having little in common ex- 
 cept a bitter and inextinguishable hatred 
 against the Roman Church and the Inqui- 
 sition, and against the Spanish Government 
 as its tool. Expecting that the " Moderation " 
 would be accepted at Madrid, the Regent 
 had given directions to the magistrates of 
 various districts that the Inquisition should 
 proceed with caution and moderation. This 
 recoinmendation had been understood in so 
 wide a sense that for a time the operations 
 of that tribunal were almost suspended. 
 Emboldened by this, the Protestants, who 
 until then had ht&n fain to meet for worship 
 by night and in secret places, came together 
 
 509 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 openly in crowds to listen to the fiery exhor- 
 tations of favourite preachers ; and a magis- 
 trate who rashly endeavoured to arrest one 
 iA these preachers who was addressing an 
 open-air meeting of some thousands, was so 
 ■furiously attacked by the populace with sticks 
 and stones that he barely escaped with his 
 life. Hermann Strieker, a quondam monk 
 ■who had escaped from his convent, and 
 Peter Dathan, a monk who had abjured his 
 belief, were the most popular and influential 
 among the preachers ; and Ambrosius Ville, 
 a French Calvinist, excited the Protestants 
 of Tournay. 
 
 The boldness of the preachers and of the 
 audiences increased with the sympathy they 
 found. Besides Tournay, Valenciennes, and 
 Antwerp distinguished themselves by the 
 audacity with which they defied the laws 
 against heresy. They soon got so far as to 
 establish camps by making an enclosure of 
 carts and waggons, within which their ser- 
 vices were held, guarded by armed men ; 
 and in many cases these meetings were 
 defaced by the wildest extravagance. The 
 Romish Church and its ceremonies, the doc- 
 trine of purgatory and the various dogmas 
 were turned into ridicule, and made the 
 subjects of coarse wit and buffoonery, the 
 hearers expressing their approval by clap- 
 ping of hands, as at a dramatic show. The 
 wonted impunity increased the boldness of 
 the sectaries ; and after a short time they 
 actually made a practice of conveying their 
 preachers home in triumph, with a mounted 
 escort, in open and contemptuous defiance of 
 the law. 
 
 The Storm bursts forth at last. 
 The confederacy of the Gueux was mean- 
 while becoming stronger and stronger. The 
 lower class of people became more and more 
 turbulent, and in Antwerp the disturbance 
 reached such a pitch that some of the great 
 merchants meditated quitting the town alto- 
 gether, fearful of being plundered by the unruly 
 mob. Urgent messages were sent to Mar- 
 garet of Parma, begging her by her personal 
 presence to restore order in the distracted 
 city, or at least to send the Prince of Orange, 
 the only man of sufficient weight to control 
 the jarring factions. Though it went against 
 her inclination to entrust Antwerp to William, 
 the Regent felt bound to comply with the 
 latter of these requests, and the Prince was 
 welcomed in Antwerp with the utmost enthu- 
 siasm. The whole city seemed to have turned 
 out to meet him. Again the cry, " Long live 
 the Gueux !" was raised with joyful shouts 
 in honour of the Prince. " Look at him," 
 cried others, " he it is who brings us liberty." 
 " He is everything to us !" cried others ; and 
 thus, amid a jubilant clamour of young and 
 old, the Prince rode into the city, grave and 
 
 anxious, and with Avords of warning on his 
 lips to the excited populace, whom he adjured 
 to be careful what they did lest they should 
 one day repent it. Brederode meanwhile had 
 taken advantage of the Regent's request that 
 he would aid her in maintaining peace to 
 issue a general summons of the whole league 
 of the Gueux, in the town of St. Truyea, 
 whither Brederode and Ludwig of Nassau 
 had betaken themselves, at the head of two 
 thousand men, with the intention of obtain- 
 ing new concessions from Margaret, who 
 negotiated with them through the Prince of 
 Orange and Count Egmont, and who bitterly 
 complained of this display of force as un- 
 necessary, and calculated to produce distur- 
 bances. The Gueux, on the other hand, 
 defended the step they had taken by de- 
 claring that while they thanked the Regent 
 for all she had done for them, they feared 
 her commands for moderation were but ill 
 carried out, so long as they saw their fellow- 
 countrymen dragged to prison and to death 
 on account of their religion. They declared 
 themselves loyal to the King ; but at the 
 same time they let it be plainly seen that 
 they intended to stand together for their 
 own defence, and were as inimical as ever 
 to the Inquisition. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Spain, the envoys who had 
 been sent to procure the consent of the King 
 and Government to the Moderation, were able 
 to effect nothing. The Council summoned to 
 deliberate on the matter, among whom was 
 the Duke of Alva, the most suspicious and 
 unscrupulous of bigots, could see nothing in 
 the demands of the Gueux but an organized 
 attempt to create a rebellion, and a deter- 
 mination to overthrow all authority, and to 
 obtain what they declared the King could 
 not grant, — complete freedom of religious 
 belief. The advice of the Council to the 
 King was that His Majesty should refuse to 
 grant the Moderation in the form demanded, 
 but should grant some smaller concessions, 
 while a partial amnesty might be given for 
 past offences ; and, on the other hand, all 
 public preaching, all confederations, meet- 
 ings, leagues, should be forbidden under the 
 heaviest penalties ; and that meanwhile the 
 Regent should avail herself of the garrisons 
 in the different towns, and, if necessary, raise 
 fresh troops to combat any attempt at insu- 
 bordination. The advice of the Council was 
 taken. Philip made some trifling and value- 
 less concessions that he might at any time 
 revoke, but certainly promised some modi- 
 fication in the action of the Inquisition. The 
 boon, such as it was, came too late, for the 
 question had now assumed a new aspect. 
 
 King Philip and his Councillors ; 
 
 Alva. 
 The storm of popular fury that had been 
 
 ■Iio 
 
" L ONG LIVE THE BEGGARS .' " 
 
 long gathering had at length burst violently 
 forth in various towns in the Netherlands. 
 The anger of the populace showed itself first 
 in expressions of contempt directed against 
 the monks and their teachings, and against 
 the worship of images and of sacred symbols, 
 from the host downwards. Suddenly in all 
 Flanders and Brabant, in all the chief cities 
 such as Brussels, Antwerp, Ypern, etc., the 
 rage of the people vented itself upon images, 
 
 escape ; in many places the roads were 
 strewn with the fragments of broken sculp- 
 ture and of objects used in the church 
 services. Nor did the convents escape 
 uninjured ; and various valuable libraries 
 also became the prey of the fanatic mobs, 
 and were committed to the flames. 
 
 Margaret of Parma found herself com- 
 pelled, in the extremity to which her authority 
 was brought by these disturbances, to 
 
 church ornaments, and consecrated vessels 
 and implements. Crowds of people belong- 
 ing to the lowest classes ranged through the 
 towns, breaking in pieces and destroying 
 furniture, decorations, and pictures and 
 images. It was on the 14th of August, 1566, 
 that this carnival of sacrilege began ; and 
 within three days more than four hundred 
 churches and chapels had been plundered 
 and desecrated. Even the crucifixes and 
 images of saints by the wayside did not 
 
 negotiate with the league of the Gueux ; and 
 again the Prince of Orange and the Counts 
 Egmont and Horn were chosen to act 
 between the contracting parties. The Regent 
 pledged her word that no member of the 
 League should be in any way called to account 
 for the petition presented to the King, in 
 return for this promise of indemnity, which 
 was formally signed and sealed by Margaret, 
 the League promised to give every assistance 
 towards putting down the sacrilegious icono- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 clasts and restoring tranquillity through- 
 out the provinces. Margaret felt deeply 
 humiliated at . being thus obliged to treat 
 with men whom she looked upon as the op- 
 ponents and enemies of the King's authority ; 
 and in her letters to Philip excused herself by 
 declaring that she had been little better than 
 a prisoner in the capital where she nominally 
 ruled. She was especially bitter against 
 William of Orange, and her complaints were 
 not likely to be passed unheeded by the vin- 
 dictive tyrant to whom they were addressed. 
 For the time, however, the danger was suc- 
 cessfully encountered. The Prince of Orange 
 did good service in putting down the riotous 
 and sacrilegious despoilers of the churches. 
 Some of the ringleaders were hanged, and 
 various punishments inflicted on others, pro- 
 duced a salutary feeling of terror, and put 
 an end to the work of plunder and destruction. 
 Margaret of Parma, too, showed considerable 
 skill and policy in mingling severity towards 
 the most ruthless offenders with conciliation 
 and compromise where these means could 
 answer her purpose. Troops were obtained ; 
 and with forces hastily raised the rebellious 
 town of Valenciennes, and somewhat later 
 Antwerp itself, was reduced to obedience, and 
 it seemed as if peace and tranquilhty would 
 succeed to the troubles that had so long 
 
 shaken the Netherlands. All depended on 
 the course that should be decided on in 
 Madrid. 
 
 In the Spanish capital, grave deliberations 
 had been held on the state of things in the 
 Netherlands. In the royal council, several 
 were for a policy of strict justice, and for the 
 removal of grievances, for this would deprive 
 those who persisted in their opposition of all 
 claim to support and sympathy. But the 
 opposing faction, headed by the Duke of 
 Alva, declared that the King would be show- 
 ing culpable weakness by such a course ; 
 that it behoved him first to vindicate his 
 authority, by the unsparing punishment of 
 all who had opposed him, and that afterwards 
 there would be time enough to think of the 
 redress of grievances. This advice was too 
 congenial to the despotic temper of Philip to 
 be rejected ; and in an evil hour for himself 
 the KuigdespatchedAlvato enforce obedience 
 with fire and sword ; and the splendid and 
 wealthy provinces, with their turbulent but 
 warm-hearted and affectionate inhabitants, 
 were at length goaded by the insolence of 
 tyranny and oppression into desperate revolt, 
 
 The events of that revolt, its vicissitudes 
 and ultimate success, must be told separately. 
 
 H, W. D. 
 
 Ghent. 
 
 512 
 
The Conspirators at Work. 
 
 GUY FAWKES: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 " Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, 
 The Gunpowder Treason and Plot." 
 
 Scene in the Tower— Guy Fawkes— His Examination and Hearing— The King's Questions— English Catholics- 
 Origin of the Plot— The Family of Fawkes— Meeting in St. Clement's Danes— Vinegar House— The Mine— The 
 Conspirators— Frank Tresham— The Warning— Check by the King— Checkmate— The Springing of the Mine— Arrest 
 of Guy Fawkes— Run to Earth— The Executions— Search for the Priests— End of the Jesuits— Garnet's last Efforts- 
 Conclusion. 
 
 In THE Tower of London. 
 
 T noon, upon a certain early day in 
 
 November 1605, the inhabitants of 
 
 the city of London were surprised to 
 
 see some of the highest nobihty of 
 
 the land hurrying with anxicus mien to the 
 
 513 
 
 Tower. But their visit was not unexpected 
 by the Lieutenant of that frowning pile. Sir 
 William Waad was awaiting them ; he met 
 them as they arrived, and these great person- 
 ages passed through to his house directly 
 across the Green. They met in a small 
 
 I,L 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 apartment, now covered with inscriptions 
 and "plated" with records, — The Powder 
 Plot Room ! 
 
 This room is a small one, and the window 
 looks upon the Thames. The apartment is 
 constructed curiously upon the wall ; and 
 around it are (or were) certain inscriptions 
 in Latin — one a prayer for "James the Great, 
 King of Great Britain, his Queen and 
 children, and for their protection." Other 
 records are inscribed upon the wall, for this 
 little chamber is the Powder Plot Room, and 
 the great men have hurried from Whitehall 
 to the Tower to examine a prisoner captured 
 in Parliament Place upon the previous 
 evening. 
 
 The prisoner was Guido Fawkes, his inter- 
 rogators the Secretary of State, the Lord 
 High Admiral, the Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, and the Lord Privy Seal, — offices 
 holden by men whose names carried with 
 them all the weight of the English nation, 
 viz., Cecil, Earl of Sahsbury, Charles Howard, 
 Earl of Nottingham, Charles Blount, Earl of 
 Devon, and Henry Howard, Earl of North- 
 ampton. These noblemen had been instructed 
 to question the man, who had given his 
 name as John Johnson, and his master's as 
 Thomas Percy, but whose identity had been 
 discovered from a letter found upon the 
 prisoner, written by Anne Vaux, of Har- 
 rowden, daughter of Lord Vaux, and whilom 
 of White Webbs, in Enfield Chase, where 
 English Jesuits and English ladies lived 
 under assumed names, and in questionable 
 relationship. 
 
 Sir William Waad was despatched to bring 
 in the prisoner ; and in a few moments he 
 entered the room and confronted his accusers 
 boldly, — as boldly as he had joked the night 
 before when caught all grimy and black 
 from coal and dust in Parliament Place. 
 This was the man whose name has been 
 handed down to execration by generations 
 as Guy Fawkes. It is with this man and his 
 associates, his aiders and abettors, that we 
 have now to do. 
 
 Guy Fawkes examined. 
 
 The prisoner entered calmly, and seemed 
 not alarmed nor dismayed at the reception 
 he had met with, or the fate that impended. 
 He waited boldly and defiantly before the 
 Commissioners. He had played for life or 
 death, and lost the stakes. He was an 
 upright, well-bearing soldier, bronzed and 
 sandy of hue, with grey hair; his appearance 
 — notwithstanding the circumstances in which 
 he was placed — being that of a man of no 
 low lineage. Even Cecil testified to his 
 bearing. "He is no more dismayed," said 
 he, " than if he were taken for a poor robbery 
 upon the highway. 
 
 The King had set down certain questions, 
 
 and given certain instructions concerning 
 the examination of the prisoner, "The 
 gentler tortures are to be first used unto 
 him," writes the King, ^^ et sic per gradus ad 
 ima tendatur, and so God speed you in your 
 good work." The good work was not long 
 in beginning, and a number of questions 
 were put to Fawkes. The King's exami- 
 nation was as follows, as written by James 
 himself: — 
 
 " (i) Quhat he is, for I can neuer yett heare 
 of any man that knowis him ? 
 
 " (2) Quhaire he uas borne ? 
 
 " (3) Quhat uaire his parents' names ? 
 
 " (4) Ouhat aage he is of? 
 
 " (5) Quhaire he hath lined ? 
 
 " (6) How he hath lined, and by quhat 
 trade of lyfe ? 
 
 " (7) How he ressaued those woundes irti 
 his breste ? 
 
 " (8) If he was euer in seruice with any 
 other before Percie, and quhat they uaire,. 
 and hou long? 
 
 " (9) Hou came he in Percie's seruice, by 
 quhat meanes, and at quhat tyme ? 
 
 "(10) Quhat tyme was this house hyred 
 by his maister ? 
 
 "(11) And hou soone aftir the possessing 
 of it did he begin his deuillishe prepara- 
 tions ? 
 
 "(12) Quhen and quhaire lernid he to 
 speake frenshe ? 
 
 "(13) Quhat gentlewoman's lettir it uas 
 that uas found upon him ? 
 
 " (14) And quairfore doth she giue him ati 
 other name in it than he giues to himself? 
 
 "(15) If he was euer a Papiste, and if so- 
 quho brocht him up in it ?" 
 
 Then follows a long list of other questions 
 which the King wished to have put to Guy 
 Fawkes. 
 
 The prisoner answered them all in the 
 way that suited him best. A great many of 
 his answers were untrue, and others only 
 partially true. Some few were answered 
 truly. But the Commission and the King 
 were not satisfied ; and Sir Edward Coke 
 came down, and soon put Fawkes out of 
 countenance. The rack was hinted at, and 
 then Fawkes, though steadily refusing to 
 bear witness against his accomplices, told 
 the truth concerning himself. He confessed 
 his birth, parentage, and cccupation, of 
 which more hereafter. 
 
 When he was told that his friends had es- 
 caped, and that the very fact of their attempted 
 flight condemned them, Fawkes said it would 
 be superfluous for him to declare them. But 
 next day we find Sir William Waad, the 
 Lieutenant of the Tower, writing to Lord 
 Salisbury as follows : — 
 
 " This morning, when Johnson was ready 
 
 SH 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 (who hath taken such rest this night as a 
 man void of all trouble of mind), I repaired 
 unto him, and told him if he held his resolu- 
 tion of mind to be so silent, he must think 
 that the resolution in the State was as con- 
 stant to proceed with him with that severity 
 which was meet in a case of that conse- 
 quence ; and for my own part I promised 
 that I would never give him over until I had 
 gotten the inward secrets of his thoughts, 
 and all his complices, and therefore I wished 
 him to prepare himself. He confessed he 
 had made both a solemn vow and oath, and 
 received the Sacrament on it, not to disclose 
 it, nor to discover any of his friends. He 
 knew not what torture might do, but other- 
 wise he was resolved to keep his vow." 
 
 It was evident from this letter* that Sir 
 William Waad was under the impression that 
 Fawkes would betray all he knew ; but next 
 morning the prisoner was as stubborn as 
 ever, and would say nothing. There are 
 sensational and romantic accounts of the 
 tortures to which Fawkes was afterwards 
 subjected ; but though it is probable he was 
 racked to make him divulge the names of 
 his accomplices, we do not find any authority 
 for the statement that he was hung up by 
 his thumb, put upon the "hot-stone," or 
 imprisoned for a night in the horrible pit, 
 the dungeon amongst the rats, which may 
 or may not have been a form of torture 
 applied to refractory prisoners. He probably 
 made acquaintance with the " Scavenger's 
 Daughter'' and the "Little Ease," if the 
 rack failed to extract his information. 
 
 However, the torture succeeded, and Guido 
 Fawkes made full confession; but he stipu- 
 lated that it must not be in writing. " From 
 the Tower of London, the 9th of November, 
 1605," Sir William Waad wrote to the Earl of 
 Salisbury, signifying that the prisoner (" my 
 prisoner" the Lieutenant calls him) had 
 " faithfully promised me by narration to dis- 
 cover to your Lordship only all the secrets 
 of his heart, but not to be set down in 
 writing." So the Earl came quickly to the 
 Tower, and in the little "Powder Plot" 
 chamber he obtained a full and complete 
 history of the Gunpowder Treason from the 
 lips of one of the chief conspirators. 
 
 The words were copied, and subsequently 
 offered to Fawkes to sign. We have now 
 the proof that the man had been tortured. 
 He made an attempt to sign his name; but 
 ere he could complete the signature the pen 
 fell from his nerveless hand, having traced 
 only the Christian name, GuiDO. 
 
 His first narrative, dated the 8th of No- 
 vember, was added to ; and when his accom- 
 plices were arrested, the whole tale of the 
 memorable Gunpowder Plot was written. 
 
 * MSS. British Museum. 
 
 There is one narrative in the Harleian Mis- 
 cellany, dated 1678, to which we are in- 
 debted for some of the circumstances herein 
 set forth. This, with other papers, have been 
 consulted, and now we will piece together the 
 various histories of the Treason. 
 
 The English Catholics. 
 
 The Gunpowder Treason has been ascribed 
 to the Roman Catholics as a body, but that 
 statement is not wholly true. No doubt the 
 idea of the plot was first communicated to 
 Catesby by a pupil of Owen the Jesuit, 
 named Morgan, but the conspirators were 
 originally of the Protestant faith. If we 
 examine the records we shall find they were 
 perverts or converts to the Romish Church, 
 and receiving little or no support from the 
 Pope or the high Catholic authorities or 
 from the secular priests. The Jesuits were 
 scarcely in favour of it ; but there can, on the 
 other hand, be no doubt that the English 
 Catholic families had been treated with great 
 severity by Elizabeth. Their houses were 
 searched, and many indignities were put upon 
 them and their families. The Jesuits were 
 driven from house to house, and concealed in 
 secret passages and behind the open chim- 
 neys, and these proceedings enraged them. 
 
 The Jesuits had been banished by EHza- 
 beth ; and the penalty for entering England 
 was death ; and it was also proclaimed that 
 all persons harbouring priests were guilty of 
 a "capital felony." So all the English 
 Catholics were more or less affected ; and it 
 appears that the families and houses or 
 the conspirators of the "Popish Plot" had 
 all suffered directly or indirectly from the 
 strict Acts of Elizabeth's reign. Even those 
 who had entertained her right royally were 
 not exempted, and some families were ruined 
 by the payment of fines. 
 
 But the priests were actually driven about 
 in real terror of their lives. The many nar- 
 ratives and romances of the period do not 
 exaggerate the shifts and disguises to which 
 the Jesuits had recourse to avoid discovery 
 and death. There are some old mansions 
 now extant, and there were many more then,, 
 which were full of hiding-places ; and when, 
 the hunted ecclesiastics were warned from 
 one by the faithful spy, they hurried to an- 
 other, like rabbits from hole to hole before the 
 dogs. At Enfield, at Henley, at Erith, near- 
 Woolwich, were houses which sheltered these 
 priests ; and " White Webbs," in Enfield. 
 Chase, is a celebrated instance. 
 
 James being of Romish descent, the Eng- 
 lish Catholics entertained great hopes that 
 he would favour them on his accession ; but 
 he disappointed them, although after his. 
 proclamation he had made some advances, 
 towards conciUating them, and removed 
 their "recusancy'' fines, and made some 
 
 515 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 high and lucrative appointments from their 
 body. 
 
 But scarcely had he ascended the throne 
 than James changed his opinions, and the 
 Catholics who had been led to expect 
 toleration were hardened into treason by the 
 enactments and the increased severity of the 
 penal laws directed against them. Any pro- 
 mises that James had made were now thrown 
 to the winds, and the English Catholics re- 
 opened negotiations with the court of Spain 
 for placing a Catholic sovereign upon the 
 English throne, and for the embarkation of 
 a Spanish army for the purpose. But the 
 idea fell through, and the discontented and 
 harassed Catholics had to strike out in 
 other directions. 
 
 The Origin of the Plot. 
 
 At the close of the year 1601, Thomas 
 Winter, a younger brother of Robert Win- 
 ter, of Huddington, in Worcestershire, was 
 sent over into Spain by the Jesuits Garnet 
 and Tesmond to treat with the King respect- 
 ing the levy of an army to espouse the 
 Catholic cause in England. Thomas Winter 
 was a pretty shrewd fellow ; he had already 
 seen considerable service, and was afterwards 
 employed by Lord Monteagle as secretary, or 
 in some such capacity. He was a Roman 
 Catholic at that time, and related to Catesby 
 and Tresham. He had been variously em- 
 ployed in intrigues, and delighted in them. 
 
 Such a mission was very acceptable, and 
 the promise of an army was given. But the 
 death of Elizabeth in 1603 put a stop to the 
 negotiation. Wright was at once despatched 
 to Spain, and on his way Christopher met 
 Guy Fawkes, who had been sent by Father 
 Owen from Brussels on the same errand. 
 Fawkes was no stranger to Wright, and 
 when these worthies had been rebuffed 
 by the Spanish monarch, who was treating 
 with the King of England, they returned to- 
 gether. 
 
 But while Fawkes and Christopher Wright 
 were travelling and plotting abroad, a much 
 more serious project had been set on foot at 
 home. Catesby, a man of very considerable 
 position and influence, was the son of Sir Wil- 
 liam Catesby, a convert of the Romish Church, 
 and a man possessed of large estates in 
 Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. To 
 Robert Catesby, his son, the idea of gun- 
 powder seems first to have occurred as an 
 useful agent in destroying the obnoxious 
 James. By gunpowder they could at one 
 fell stroke demolish James and his associates. 
 Gunpowder had killed Darnley his father ; 
 was it not quite in the fitness of things that 
 powder should destroy the son as easily? 
 The precedent was a good one from the con- 
 spirators' point of view. 
 
 With soldiers such as they were, to men 
 
 so well accustomed to the use of powder, 
 and mining, entrenching tools and sub- 
 terranean engineering, the most powerful 
 and secret agent was gunpowder. They 
 were familiar with it, and trusted to its 
 qualities as a sure and swift destroyer which 
 would " leave not a wrack behind." Whether 
 Catesby was the actual originator of the idea 
 is not material. He communicated it to 
 Winter, and boldly stated his intention to 
 blow up Parliament with gunpowder, for " in 
 that place " (Parliament) " they have done us 
 all the mischief." 
 
 The man named by Catesby as the per- 
 son best calculated to assist them in their 
 design was Guy Fawkes ; and Winter crossed 
 to the Netherlands and brought him back to 
 England " as a fit and resolute man for the 
 execution of the enterprise." As we shall 
 have to mention Guido or Guy Fawkes very 
 often, we must give some particulars con- 
 cerning him : for these we are mainly in- 
 debted to a small volume entitled, " The 
 Fawkes of York." 
 
 The Family of Fawkes. 
 
 When interrogated after his apprehension, 
 Guy Fawkes said he had been born in York. 
 He was the son of Edward Fawkes, a notary 
 of York, and the second of four children. 
 He was born on i6th April, 1570. His 
 father died when the children were still young, 
 but " Guye " was educated at York school, 
 which was under Church patronage, and we 
 might conclude that the parents were of the 
 Protestant faith, even if existing evidence 
 did not prove such to be the case. 
 
 Somehow the young Guye displeased his 
 wealthy uncle ; and when he died he left 
 little to his nephew ; " my golde ring, and my 
 bedde, and one payre of shetes," seem to be 
 all that Thomas Fawkes bequeathed to the 
 lad, though his sisters were well provided for. 
 Mrs. Fawkes had married a second time, 
 and Guye was living with his stepfather at 
 Scotton,v/here he no doubt became acquainted 
 with Percy and the Wrights his relatives. 
 
 These young men were all very religious ; 
 and they being rigid Catholics it is no wonder 
 that Fawkes went over to their faith. Green- 
 way the Jesuit describes Fawkes as a man 
 of great piety, of exemplary temperance, or 
 a mild and cheerful demeanour, an enemy of 
 broils and disputes, a faithful friend, and 
 remarkable for religious observances. Such 
 a character is not at all what we are accus- 
 tomed to attribute to Guy or Guye Fawkes. 
 
 The future conspirator and would-be regicide 
 had a little property left him by his father ; 
 but he seems to have left England in 1593, 
 after disposing of his land. He enlisted as 
 a soldier of fortune {i.e. without it) in the 
 Low Counti-ies, and soon obtained a com- 
 mand. As already stated, he accompanied 
 
 516 
 
GUY FA WKES. 
 
 Winter to Madrid in 1601 ; and in 1603 he 
 went with Wright to Philip of Spain. In April 
 1604, he was serving with the Archduke's 
 army in the Netherlands, and was brought 
 to England by Thomas Winter, according to 
 Robert Gatesby's desire. 
 
 At this time Fawkes was "about forty-six 
 years of age, though from the whiteness of 
 his head he appeared to be older ; his figure 
 was tall and handsome, his eyes large and 
 lively, and the expression of his countenance 
 pleasing though grave; and, notwithstanding 
 the boldness of his character, his manners 
 were gentle and quiet." * 
 
 Such was the man who stands forward 
 
 talking and doing nothing ?" he had said. 
 But Catesby assured him that this time at 
 any rate something was to be attempted, and 
 something done ere long, enough even to 
 satisfy his homicidal tendencies. However, 
 before he entered into particulars, he desired 
 those present to take an oath not to divulge 
 the secret. This oath was administered by 
 Gerard, a Jesuit, and was as follows : — 
 
 "You shall swear by the Blessed Trinity, and by 
 the Sacrament which you now purpose to receive, 
 never to disclose directly nor indirectly, by word or 
 circumstance, the matter which shall be proposed to 
 you to be kept secret, nor desist from the execution 
 thereof undl the rest shall give you leave." 
 
 Conspirators' House at Lambeth. 
 
 most prominently from his fellow-conspirators 
 in the Gunpowder Plot. 
 
 The Meeting at St. Clement's. 
 
 Percy had volunteered to assassinate the 
 King, but Catesby was too wary to accept 
 this too zealous assistance. "That would 
 be too dear a purchase when his own life 
 would be hazarded in it." So a meeting was 
 arranged in a small house in Butcher's Row, 
 St. Clement's Danes, between Catesby, Percy, 
 KitWright, Thomas Winter, and Guy Fawkes, 
 in May 1604. 
 
 Thomas Percy appears to have been im- 
 patient for action. "Are we always to be 
 
 * Greejiway MSS. 
 
 This oath was taken, and the Sacrament 
 was then administered to those present ; but 
 it does not appear that the secret of the plot 
 was ever imparted to Gerard the Jesuit. 
 
 Catesby then made a clean breast of the 
 project, and explained that when Parliament 
 next assembled they would all have their 
 revenge. He explained his design to strike 
 one fatal blow at the Parliament, and destroy 
 the King and his family; "for so long as 
 there were these branches of the Royal 
 Family remaining, to what purpose would 
 it be to make away [with] the King?" The 
 others all concurred ; the blow was to be 
 struck at the Houses of Parliament ; and the 
 means being already decided on, the way 
 alone remained to be considered. 
 
 517 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Ihe conspirators then left the house, which 
 had been taken by Catesby for a Mr. "John- 
 son." This Johnson was none other than 
 Guy Fawkes, who had assumed that name 
 when he quitted the Netherlands. He gave 
 out that he was Percy's servant. The upper 
 chamber was the one in which the Sacrament 
 was administered before an extemporized 
 altar. The room underneath was the cne in 
 which the actual disclosure of the secret was 
 nade. 
 
 All was now ready. But how should they 
 proceed? How could they drive a mine? 
 They must get possession of some tenement 
 close by. Catesby had a house in Lambeth, 
 nearly opposite the Parliament House. If 
 they could only get possession of some place 
 to which they could at once convey the pow- 
 der, and where they could work unperceived, 
 they felt assured of success. Such a tene- 
 ment they found in Vinegar House. 
 
 "Vinegar House." 
 
 This " small stone tenement" was situated 
 in Parliament Place, and was a portion of the 
 House of Lords. Underneath Catesby had 
 found there were vaults in which the powder 
 could be stored. But how was the house to 
 be obtained ? Percy undertook to get it ; and 
 this is the way he proceeded to carry out his 
 part. 
 
 The house was held by a person named 
 Ferris or Ferress, who had been living in 
 Warwickshire, and as a neighbour of Cates- 
 by was known to Bates, his serving-man. 
 This Ferris was under-tenant to Whinneard, 
 or Whinyard, the keeper of the wardrobe, at 
 whose disposal the house was during the 
 intervals between the prorogation and assem- 
 bling of Parliament. There was some diffi- 
 culty attending the possession. The tenant 
 was out of town, and Mrs. Whinyard did not 
 like to proceed in the matter without her 
 husband's consent. But Percy having been 
 formerly about the Court, and not being sus- 
 pected, managed by promises and money to 
 overcome the dame's scruples. She gave up 
 the keys. The house was taken in Percy's 
 name, and Fawkes, as his servant, by the 
 name of Johnson, was to remain in posses- 
 sion. Ferris secured twenty pounds for his 
 under-lease, and a certain payment every 
 quarter was agreed upon. 
 
 Thus the first step was successful, and as in 
 other and less treasonable matters, " ce liest 
 que le premier pas qui coute." Vinegar 
 House was occupied, and a small place next 
 door, inhabited by "Gibbins, the porter," 
 was to be at Percy's disposal. No suspicion 
 was aroused as Percy, being connected with 
 the Earl of Northumberland, was enabled to 
 declare his comings and goings were all on 
 his business, and were known and approved 
 by him. 
 
 So far so good, and all promised well. But 
 there was one great difficulty, How were they 
 to convey the powder into the vaults ? A 
 great quantity had been stored at Catesby's 
 house in Lambeth, on the opposite side of the 
 river, and that was in the care of a house- 
 keeper. She must be got rid of. Accord- 
 ingly a creature named Kay or Keyes was 
 chosen to look after the magazine. Here 
 a number of planks and combustibles were 
 concealed, and subsequently transported 
 across the river in the night. No one took 
 any particular notice of the conspirators, and 
 the operations were concluded in safety. 
 
 A very small space separated them from 
 the vaults under the Houses of Parliament, 
 and preparations were made to begin the 
 mine. But many weeks had elapsed, and 
 sometimes the rumour that the house was 
 required for the Crown threw the conspirators 
 in confusion and alarm. During the intervals 
 the fell purpose of the band was whetted by 
 the treatment experienced in the provinces 
 by the priests and Jesuits, who were con- 
 demned and executed, and Mr. Pound, who 
 ventured to address a protest to the Crown 
 on the subject, was put in the pillory and 
 nearly deprived of his ears. Priest-hunting 
 became quite a pastime, a kind of sport where 
 the game was human, and this recreation was 
 greatly enjoyed by certain officials. 
 
 In the midst of the conspirators' prepara- 
 tions news came that this government house 
 was required for the purposes of a Committee. 
 There was no time to remove the powder and 
 faggots, the only thing was to leave them 
 covered up and trust that the committee 
 would not think of descending into the cellar. 
 So there day after day the Commission as- 
 sembled until their labours were finished, the 
 members little dreaming that they were sit- 
 ting daily over a mine which might at any 
 moment have blov/n them into eternity. 
 
 The Mine. 
 
 As soon as the Commissioners had finished 
 their sittings, the real excavation commenced. 
 Armed and fully equipped, the workers 
 crossed stealthily to the house in Parliament 
 Place one dark December night, and the re- 
 maining arms and implements were con- 
 veyed to their destination. As soon as they 
 arrived. Garnet knelt down and offeredprayer 
 for the success of the undertaking. When 
 this " pious " duty had been performed, the 
 party descended to the cellar and there placed 
 the barrels of powder in as dry a corner as 
 they could find. They were then covered 
 over with wood and coals so that in the event 
 of any sudden investigation the barrels might 
 remain undiscovered. 
 
 All day the windows were kept closed, and 
 no one went out. The conspirators had pro- 
 vided themselves with hard-boiled eggs, dried 
 
 518 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 meats, and " baked pies," so that there was 
 no necessity for them to leave the house to 
 procm-e food. They were at one time 
 alarmed by an intrusive lad who came over 
 the wall, and this incident, absurd and trivial 
 as it was, greatly terrified them. At night 
 the rest of the working party arrived, and 
 then the mine was commenced in earnest, 
 Christopher Wright being admitted to the 
 confederacy. There were seven employed in 
 the digging and mining ; JFawkes stood 
 sentinel generally, and they all worked with 
 determination until Christmas Eve, discussing 
 their plans when they rested from their 
 labours at intervals. 
 
 This mining was no child's play. Fav/kes 
 ;and Keyes both threw all their strength into 
 •the task but made little impression upon the 
 scarce yielding stones and mortar. With 
 immense labour one stone was loosened, and 
 then another. The rubbish when removed 
 was buried in the garden at the dead of 
 jiight ; but the necessary secrecy, and the fear 
 of being heard at work, caused them much 
 annoyance and greatly impeded their pro- 
 gress. Notwithstanding that the proceedings 
 had been opened with prayer and the wall 
 sprinkled with holy water, the obdurate 
 stone, as hard as many a human heart, did 
 not yield to the prayers and solicitations of 
 the Church, as represented by Garnet. 
 
 For three days and nights the men laboured 
 to make the excavation, and at the expira- 
 tion of that time they had dug out a hole 
 sufficient to admit one of their number. 
 They worked in relays, Fawkes keeping 
 watch when his turn for rest came, and by 
 these means some progress was made. The 
 gravel was buried as soon as excavated. 
 
 One night when they were working as 
 usual, a most mysterious sound was heard. 
 Fawkes is said to have been working at the 
 time ; and when it became evident that the 
 sound was not an echo, he leaped from the 
 hole, and throwing down the pick, declared 
 lie could do no more. At the same time he 
 lield up his hand for silence. 
 
 Nobody spoke, all listened intensely. 
 Suddenly the tone of a bell, clear and solemn, 
 was heard proceeding apparently from with- 
 in the wall. Its weird tones struck the con- 
 spirators with a superstitious awe. They 
 looked at each other — they were all speech- 
 less for a moment. 
 
 " Try holy water," said Catesby to Garnet ; 
 ■^'if they be evil spirits that will quell them." 
 
 The holy water was brought, and the wall 
 and flooring of the vault were sprinkled. The 
 sound ceased, but was again heard. A sub- 
 sequent and copious application of holy water, 
 however, quite quenched it. At any rate it 
 was not heard again for some time. 
 
 But more serious difficulties awaited them. 
 Though they could not entirely silence the 
 
 bell they worked continually nearer and 
 nearer to the river. At length the water 
 percolated the soil, and masses fell in, fol- 
 lowed by the water. When they were all 
 considering what this portended, a loud 
 rushing noise was heard, and even as they 
 listened, the roaring and falling as of stones 
 forced itself upon their ears. Garnet im- 
 plored the protection of the saints, and a 
 general feeling of dismay and a conviction 
 of failure came upon the party. Heaven 
 evidently disapproved of their enterprise, 
 and even while they were conversing the 
 terrible roaring came again. 
 
 They were all greatly alarmed at the con- 
 tinued noise, and looked upon it as a device 
 of the Evil One. But Fawkes, who went out 
 to reconnoitre, made inquiry, and observed 
 that the alarm had proceeded from the vaults 
 overhead (immediately underneath the House 
 of Parliament and the throne), where a sale 
 of coals was proceeding. Here was indeed 
 an opportunity not to be neglected. What 
 was the use of their driving a shaft three yards 
 long through a wall and floor to find only a 
 vault which could be had for purchase ? 
 
 Great joy was manifested at the turn things 
 were taking. Parliament had been prorogued 
 from the 7th of February, when it had been 
 appointed to assemble, until the 3rd of Octo- 
 ber ; and the conspirators had therefore 
 ample time to mature their plans, and when 
 they had gotten possession of the vaults now 
 vacated, they had only to wait events. 
 
 Butjhow was the vault to be obtained.'' By 
 universal consent the arrangement was left 
 to Percy. Bright, the late occupier, had 
 disposed of his lease to a person named 
 Skmner, and with this worthy, or rather with 
 Mrs. Whinyard, Percy had to make his bar- 
 gain. In these transactions on behalf of his 
 companions and himself, Percy appears to 
 have appealed to the ladies, and as he bore 
 the character of a gallant in former days, 
 probably he understood the fair sex better 
 than the rest. 
 
 So this scion of the House of Northumber- 
 land and a pensioner of the King went to 
 Mistress Whinyard, and induced her by 
 liberal offers of money to influence Mrs. 
 Skinner of King Street to part with the 
 lease. She persuaded her husband to do as 
 Mrs. Whinyard requested, and so the vaults 
 were leased for one year to Percy. This 
 accomplished, the conspirators believed them- 
 selves specially favoured by Heaven. 
 
 While things were thus being got into 
 train, several discussions had taken place 
 respecting their respective friends in the 
 Houses of Parliament. Was it right that 
 acquaintances should be destroyed with the 
 strangers and the hated King 1 There were 
 many in the House of Lords who were 
 staunch Catholics, and to blow them up 
 
 519 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 would be inconvenient if not wrong. But no 
 decision was arrived at on this point, and the 
 question remained in abeyance in con- 
 sequence of the difference of opinion that 
 existed. 
 
 The fate of the Royal Family was then dis- 
 cussed. There was no doubt concerning the 
 fate of the King and Prince Henry, who would 
 be in the House, but Charles they thought 
 would be absent, "for he was but four years 
 old." Percy undertook to take charge of the 
 royal child, and agreed to wait at the cham- 
 ber door until the blow had fallen, and then 
 convey him away. The Lady Elizabeth, who 
 was with Lord and Lady Harrington in War- 
 wickshire, was to be seized by the adherents 
 of the conspirators, who were to organize an 
 ostensible "hunting match " for that purpose. 
 
 Thus all being prepared, — the powder and 
 faggots and wood having been carried into 
 the vaults underneath the House, which were 
 low and spacious, — the conspirators departed 
 on their several ways to avoid suspicion. 
 The combustibles were covered with coal 
 and stones, and then the cellars were locked 
 up, and the plotters left London till the 
 assembling of Parliament should again 
 aummon them to town. 
 
 The Conspirators. 
 
 We have already given some particulars 
 concerning Catesby, Fawkes, and Winter. 
 We may supplement our brief account of 
 them with a few remarks concerning the 
 other chief plotters, as we trace their move- 
 ments until they again returned to Parliament 
 Place. 
 
 The conspirators had all got themselves 
 out of the way as quickly as possible. 
 Fawkes went abroad to Sir William Stanley 
 and Hugh Owen, carrying with him letters 
 from Garnet to Baldwin the Jesuit in 
 Flanders. Sir William Stanley was not then 
 in the Low Countries, he had gone to Spain ; 
 but when Fawkes communicated his news to 
 Father Owen that dignitary was greatly 
 pleased, and offered to make things smooth 
 with the Pope. 
 
 Catesby rode home with John Wright. 
 The latter was of Yorkshire fa^nily, but lived 
 in Lincolnshire at that time. He, Winter, 
 and Catesby had been friends for many 
 years, and he was also related by marriage 
 to Thomas Percy, for Wright's sister had 
 married that reckless rake. So well and 
 intimately was he known by Catesby that he 
 was persuaded to leave his own residence 
 and take the old manor-house at Lapworth, 
 in Warwickshire, and thither he, with Winter 
 and Catesby, rode when they left London as 
 aforesaid. The two latter proceeded on to 
 Oxford. 
 
 At Oxford they enlisted Winter's brother 
 Robert, and one John Grant, whom they 
 
 had appointed to meet them there. Grant 
 was a Worcestershire squire, and had a nice 
 place at Norbrook ; he assented to the plot, 
 and was sworn in But: Robert Winter ob- 
 jected and declined. He was at length per- 
 suaded, however, and Bates, Catesby's body- 
 servant, was also included. They were now 
 nine in all : Catesby, Percy, two Winters, 
 John and Christopher Wright (both ruined 
 men), Kay, Bates, and Guido Fawkes. But 
 these were not sufficient, neither were the 
 means at their disposal enough to carry them 
 through, and raise adherents. To effect their 
 object they proposed to communicate the 
 plot to anyone likely to join in it, if the 
 disclosure were made in the presence of one 
 already in the secret. Catesby made provi- 
 sion of horses and arms and ammunition, and 
 when he found money getting low he made 
 an appointment to meet Percy at Bath, where 
 the latter was undergoing a course of the 
 waters. These worthies talked over their 
 plans respecting the disposal of the royal 
 children ; and it was also decided that cer- 
 tain Catholic gentlemen should be invited to 
 join the plot. These were Sir Everard 
 Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, and Francis 
 Tresham, a relative of Catesby, and brother- 
 in-law of Lord Monteagle, who had married 
 Tresham's sister. 
 
 Sir Everard Digby was a very wealthy 
 man, possessed of large estates. He was 
 very enthusiastic, and a great friend of Robert 
 Catesby. Ambrose Rookwood, of Coldham 
 Hall, in Suffolk, was the head of a very 
 ancient family. One great advantage he 
 possessed in the eyes of the conspirators, he 
 had a magnificent stud of horses, which would 
 be very useful to them as mounts for their 
 men, or as relays if pursuit were made. 
 Rookwood required some persuasion to unite 
 with the fanatics, but he yielded to Catesby's 
 arguments and powers of guidance. He 
 accordingly removed his family to Clapton, 
 near Stratford, in order that he might be 
 near his leading spirit. Notwithstanding 
 that he, like many others, had suffered fines 
 and persecutions, he had ample means. 
 
 Francis Tresham was the third addition to 
 the party. His father. Sir Thomas Tresham, 
 had been severely punished under the penal 
 laws of Elizabeth, and the Star Chamber 
 had held him in its grip. He said he had 
 undergone twenty years of restless adversity 
 and deep disgrace only for testimony of his 
 conscience. Francis Tresham had been 
 mixed up with the revolt of the Earl of Essex, 
 and narrowly escaped with his head. A 
 heavy bribe to, and all the influence that 
 could be brought to bear upon, a "very 
 great lady," were the means whereby Sir 
 Thomas released his son. 
 
 Tresham's personal character is not a high 
 one. He engaged in many plots, but never 
 
 520 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 The Arrest of Guy A'awkes. 
 521 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 commanded or enjoyed the confidence of his 
 fellow-conspirators. In the case under con- 
 sideration Catesby repented of his confidence 
 with Tresham very quickly, and became a 
 prey to alarm and misgiving in consequence. 
 
 But about this time the intelligence that 
 Parliament had been again prorogued gave 
 rise to some anxiety in their minds. So 
 anxious were they, that Winter, who was one 
 of the household of Lord Monteagle, made an 
 endeavour to ascertain whether any suspicion 
 existed in the minds of the Lords commis- 
 sioned to prorogue Parliament. But no 
 .anxiety was evident ; all was reported well. 
 Money was promised by Tresham ; but when 
 ■Catesby studied him more closely he repented 
 that he had ever entrusted the secret to such 
 a vacillating character. Sir Everard Digby 
 advanced fifteen hundred and Tresham con- 
 tributed two thousand pounds. 
 
 The conspirators agreed to assemble in 
 London at the end of October, and when a 
 rumour arose that Prince Henry would very 
 Jikely be absent from the ceremony, a plan 
 was devised to carry him off. The old diffi- 
 culty again also arose about the destruction 
 of the Catholic Lords, and Catesby appears 
 to have had some scruples on the subject 
 which he communicated to Garnet, but the 
 Jesuit over-ruled the plotter's objections. 
 
 Still others were anxious. Tresham wanted 
 to save Lords Monteagle and Stourton, his 
 brothers-in-law ; Kay objected to blowing up 
 Lord Mordaunt; and Fawkes had friends in 
 the House. Percy, too, adv-anced his claim ; 
 h)ut Catesby, now reassured, sneered at these 
 suggestions and combated his friends warmly ; 
 he declared he had himself already endea- 
 voured to dissuade some, and did not think 
 •others named would attend at all at the 
 opening of Parliament. But it was resolved 
 that indirectly their relations should be dis- 
 suaded, in general terms if practicable. 
 
 This arrangement did not suit Tresham at 
 all. He determined to warn Lord Monteagle, 
 and the manner in which he set about it will 
 now be related. 
 
 The Warning. 
 
 As October drew towards its close some of 
 the conspirators met and had frequent con- 
 sultations at White Webbs. The final 
 arrangements for the firing of the mine were 
 made. Guy Fawkes undertook to do this 
 Avith a slow match, and a boat had been 
 hired to lie in wait close by to carry him to 
 a ship which Tresham's money had procured. 
 It was here that Tresham appeared and 
 demanded security for his relative Lord 
 Monteagle. 
 
 Catesby hesitated ; and Tresham said that 
 they had better defer the execution of their 
 design till Parliament had ended their 
 labours. He declared he could not furnish 
 
 the money required, and thought the interval 
 should be passed in Flanders. But the 
 seniors would not alter one iota in their 
 plans. Fawkes and Catesby had made all 
 the arrangements, and were not men to 
 swerve from their determination. 
 
 There can be little doubt that many people 
 were warned of the impending blow to be 
 struck at the Parliament, though in such a 
 way that no real clue was obtained by them. 
 But the Government, or rather Cecil, was 
 perfectly well aware of all the circumstances, 
 and we may conclude that Tresham was also 
 cognisant of the knowledge possessed by the 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Tuesday, November the 5th, was the day 
 upon which Parliament had been summoned 
 to meet, and all the conspirators — except 
 Percy, who was in the country ; and Catesby, 
 who remained at White Webbs — were in 
 London. Fawkes was at Butcher's Row, 
 biding his time with grim determination. 
 The others were in lodgings in various parts 
 — at Lambeth, at Clerkenwell, or in St. Giles' 
 Fields, waiting for the signal. 
 
 Lord Monteagle was at Southwark, but 
 upon the afternoon of Saturday, October the 
 26th, he, without apparent reason, suddenly 
 determined to ride up to Hoxton, where he had 
 a residence as well as his house in Montague 
 Close, where Winter was also domesticated. 
 He did not often go out to Hoxton, but that 
 evening he took with him an attendant 
 named Ward, a friend of Winter, who was 
 cognisant of the plot. With him Lord 
 Monteagle sat down to supper, and nothing 
 worthy of comment occurred until the meal 
 was nearly over. 
 
 As Monteagle was finishing his supper, 
 a page arrived and desired to see his lord- 
 ship immediately. He was admitted, and 
 handed his master a note which he declared 
 had been given to him in a most mysterious 
 manner. 
 
 " As I was coming by the lane just now," 
 he said, "a man muffled in a cloak came 
 suddenly forth, and demanding if I were one 
 of your lordship's servants, handed me this 
 letter, enjoining me as I valued my existence 
 to deliver it to your lordship without delay." 
 
 Lord Monteagle took little notice of the 
 epistle. His assumed indifference might 
 have imposed upon his servants, but he was 
 evidently conscious of the contents. Toss- 
 ing the note to Ward, he desired him to read 
 it aloud. The letter had neither date nor 
 signature, and was written in a feigned hand, 
 as follows :* — 
 
 " My lord, out of the love I bear to some 
 of your friends I have a care for your preser- 
 vation, therefore I would advise you as you 
 
 * A fac-simile of the letter is now before the 
 writer. 
 
 522 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 tender your life, to devise some excuse to 
 shift from your attendance at this Parlia- 
 ment, for God and man have concurred to 
 punish the wickedness of this time. Think 
 not slightingly of this advice, but retire into 
 the country, where }'0u may expect the'event 
 in safety ; for though there be no appearance 
 of any stir, they will receive a terrible blow 
 this Parliament, and yet they shall not know 
 who hurts them. This counsel is not to be 
 contemned. It may do you good, and can 
 do you no harm, for the danger is past as 
 soon as you have burnt the letter. God, I 
 hope, will give you grace to make good use 
 of it, to whose holy protection I commend 
 you." 
 
 " A singular letter ! " exclaimed Mont- 
 eagle, when he had heard it. He then pre- 
 tended to take counsel from his attendants, 
 most of whom had heard it read. The 
 mystery that surrounded the affair was not 
 lessened when Monteagle called for his horse 
 and rode into London, going direct to 
 Whitehall with the mysterious document in 
 his pocket. 
 
 It is a disputed point as to who wrote the 
 letter, and the authorship of this celebrated 
 epistle has been attributed to many men — 
 even to women ; but all probability points to 
 Tresham himself as the dictator, if not the 
 actual penman, of the warning note. But at 
 any rate Monteagle, who was on good terms 
 with all the Court, proceeded immediately to 
 the Secretary of State. 
 
 Check. 
 
 It was past two o'clock at night when the 
 apparently alarmed and anxious peer dis- 
 mounted at Whitehall Yard and desired to 
 see Cecil in his private chamber, if the 
 Secretary of State had not retired to rest. 
 Salisbury had not retired ; quite the con- 
 trary, he had a small reception in his 
 apartments. By the most curious coinci- 
 dence in the world, several noble and 
 Catholic lords had been supping with Cecil, 
 and they had not yet left him. This was 
 extremely fortunate ; and as the attendants 
 were not aware that the whole thing had 
 been planned and rehearsed beforehand, they 
 looked upon it with awe and fearful appre- 
 hension. 
 
 The Earl of Salisbury pretended to be 
 greatly alarmed at the intelligence which was 
 communicated to the guests, such men as 
 Suffolk, Northampton, and Worcester, who 
 were discreet members of the Council, and 
 could be trusted to keep the secret of the 
 affair which had been cleverly brought about 
 by Salisbury. The King was at Royston, 
 " hunting the fearful hare," and under these 
 circumstances the Friends in Council deter- 
 mined to remain silent until their sovereign's 
 return. On Sunday morning the man who 
 
 had read the letter at Lord Monteagle's house 
 went and warned Thomas Winter that the 
 note had been put in the possession of the 
 Secretary of State. But the conspirators 
 were not alai'med. The Government were 
 proceeding with extreme caution, and work- 
 ing up for a dramatic finish to the farce of 
 the Gunpowder Plot. Salisbury could at any 
 moment have put, his hand upon the men, 
 but he preferred to make a sensation, and so 
 he bided his time. 
 
 Ward, Monteagle's attendant, probably 
 urged by his master, went to Winter early 
 upon Sunday and begged him to warn 
 Catesby and fly the country. Winter, be it 
 remembered, was at Montague Close, which 
 was Monteagle's residence in Southwark, 
 and he left it to see Wright and Oldcorne, 
 and tell them the news. They all hurried 
 down to Enfield Chase, and found Catesby 
 at White Webbs. He was almost upset by 
 the intelligence, but endeavoured to put a 
 bold face upon the circumstances, though full 
 of the most intense anxiety. 
 
 The advice so honestly sent by Monteagle 
 was not acted upon. Catesby professed to, 
 if he did not, believe in the success of his 
 schemes. He could scarcely constrain him- 
 self to realize the fact that his pet project, 
 the great design which had been so carefully 
 kept, could have been betrayed, much less 
 discovered by such a man as Robert 
 Cecil, for whose abilities the chief conspi- 
 rator professed a supreme contempt. But 
 Cecil was an adversary not to be despised. 
 He was only playing with Catesby and his 
 confederates as a cat plays with a mouse. 
 He could at any moment dart at them, 
 seize them, destroy them. 
 
 However, Catesby determined to proceed, 
 and Guy Fawkes was equally firm in his 
 resolve to fire the mine. No stir was 
 apparent, though instructions for the search 
 of the vaults were being issued to Cecil's 
 most trusty creatures. Fawkes went up to 
 Westminster to make an examination of the 
 fastenings and marks. He can-ied out this 
 dangerous duty on the Wednesday, and found 
 all secure; and upon that day, the 30th of 
 October, a meeting was held at White Webbs, 
 where Fawkes attended to report that all was 
 quiet at Parliament Place, and no signs of 
 any disturbance could be perceived. At 
 this meeting Catesby and Winter boldly 
 charged Tresham with perfidy, and de- 
 clared he had betrayed them all to Mont- 
 eagle. 
 
 Tresham swore the accusation was base- 
 less. ''It is false," he cried; "I have only 
 just been made acquainted with the facts, 
 and have com.e hither to warn you." 
 
 " Why did you leave us in that secret 
 manner?" demanded Catesby, pointedly. 
 
 But Tresham was furnished with answers 
 
 523 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and excuses of so very plausible a nature, 
 and displayed such apparent frankness, the 
 excess of which was in itself suspicious, that 
 the fears of his comrades were allayed, 
 though they distrusted him. He was so bold 
 and apparently fearless that he — though 
 narrowly — escaped death at Fawkes' hands. 
 After a consultation, pending the result of 
 which Tresham must have suffered exquisite 
 mental torture, the plotters suffered him to 
 depart, he declaring that the enterprise had 
 failed. 
 
 On the next day, Thursday, 31st of Octo- 
 ber, James arrived in London from Royston, 
 and the mysterious letter was laid before 
 him and the Privy Council by Salisbury, who 
 called his attention to the words "a terrible 
 blow," which the astute statesman emphasized 
 so as to give the King the idea of gunpowder 
 without exactly telling him the nature of the 
 plot. 
 
 James rose to the bait like any jack ; he 
 seized the line, and at once took the idea. 
 " I should not wonder if these mischievous 
 Papists mean to blow us all up with gun- 
 powder," said the sagacious monarch. 
 
 At this remark Salisbury declared that 
 " His Majesty must have received an inspi- 
 ration from heaven." Such an idea had never 
 occurred to him (Salisbury) ; and the wily 
 minister flattered the monarch to the top of 
 his bent. Although all the circumstances 
 had been well known to the Council for days, 
 the noblemen united in praising the wisdom 
 of the King, and the sharpness of the royal 
 nose which could scent powder in Parliament 
 Place. 
 
 "Where does Your Majesty think gun- 
 powder may be hidden ? " asked the Secre- 
 tary deferentially, as one who addresses a 
 superior intellect. 
 
 "Are there any vaults beneath the House ? 
 Gude guide us ! " ejaculated James, " we 
 have walked over the mine ! " 
 
 This important clue having been given to 
 the men who had given His penetrative 
 Majesty the original idea, the delight of the 
 Council at the King's sagacity was almost 
 unbounded. James rose in importance, and 
 acquiesced in Salisbury's suggestions (which 
 he was about to make himself !) that the 
 denouement should be postponed till the eve 
 of the meeting of Parliament. 
 
 The discovery was entirely attributed to 
 the King, and Coke, at the trial of the con- 
 spirators, held up His Majesty as an example, 
 and a medium of divine illumination. So 
 James was regarded as the special mouth- 
 piece of an offended Deity who inspired him 
 to the discovery. 
 
 Checkmate. j 
 
 November came, and nothing had occurred I 
 
 to alarm the conspirators afresh. Tresham | 
 
 524 
 
 had promised a sum of two hundred pounds 
 to Catesby to purchase arms, and paid half of 
 it to Winter on the Friday ; but when the 
 remainder was demanded, the vacillating 
 conspirator agreed to pay, in the hope that 
 Catesby would meanwhile escape with the 
 money already received. 
 
 Tresham and Winter met next night in 
 Lincoln's Inn Walk, and then the former 
 disclosed many things indirectly. He de- 
 clared they v/ere all well known, and that 
 the plot was an utter failure. It were better 
 that the conspirators should fly and take 
 their chances abroad. There was a boat in 
 the river, let them take his vessel so that 
 they only saved themselves ! 
 
 This importunity did not escape the pene-. 
 trating Catesby. He was now assured that 
 Tresham was in communication with the 
 Secretary of State, and knew what steps 
 were to be taken, and yet he determined to 
 remain and see what the next day would 
 bring forth. Fawkes, with the stern deter- 
 mination of his character, made up his mind 
 to remain in Parliament Place, and if need 
 be, to die at his voluntarily assumed post of 
 danger. 
 
 On Sunday morning, November 3rd, Ward, 
 Lord Monteagle's attendant, again called 
 upon Winter, and gave him very serious in- 
 telligence : the King had seen the mysterious 
 letter, and had penetrated its meaning ap- 
 parently, but the result of his cogitations 
 had only been communicated to the Privy 
 Council. The man also added that search 
 was to be made beneath the vaults of the 
 Houses of Parliament, particularly in the 
 cellar underneath the throne, and if any- 
 thing were there hidden it would be surely 
 discovered ! 
 
 This was plain enough, and one would 
 have thought that the conspirators would 
 have profited by the intelligence and the 
 hints thus vouchsafed to them. But nothing 
 appeared to move Catesby. Incapable of 
 fear, he either scorned the danger or did 
 not credit its existence. Although Winter 
 hurried away to White Webbs with the news, 
 Catesby would not stir. Let them search ! 
 They would find nothing if only Guy Fawkes 
 were there to put them off the scent. Unfor- 
 tunately for himself Catesby did not understand 
 that the net had been woven around him 
 by a hand more cunning than his own, and 
 that the meshes could be drawn at any 
 moment. 
 
 Percy, too, who came up, was in favour of 
 waiting one day more, the last day of doubt 
 and bitterness, to lead up to so many more 
 of danger and distress. Fawkes was still at 
 Vinegar House ; nothing could have happened. 
 No search had been made by the Court, and 
 the '' I told you so" feeling was uppermost 
 in the mind of Catesby. In thirty hours all 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 would be over — the King dead and the con- 
 spirators triumphant. And Fawkes, too, 
 resolute as ever, kept watch and ward in the 
 vault, provided with a time-piece, which, set 
 truly, would tell him when to fire the mine. 
 The Wrights and Catesby rode away to join 
 Sir Everard Digby at Dunchurch ; Winter 
 remained with Monteagle ; Percy dined at 
 Sion House with his august relative ; Rook- 
 wood had his relays ready — five horses 
 saddled, and equal to any emergency. And 
 so on that Monday afternoon the conspi- 
 rators separated, to await the springing of 
 the mine on the morrow, in doubt and in 
 fear. 
 
 The Mine is Sprung. 
 
 And the mine was ready ; not only the 
 gunpowder and the faggots in the vaults, but 
 the mine prepared by Salisbury, and towards 
 which he had been leading the blinded con- 
 spirators. His time had come ! 
 
 Monday afternoon, November 4th, 1605, 
 saw the conspirators dispersed to wait the 
 fatal 5th; and in the course of the day, while 
 it was yet light, Suffolk, the Lord Chamber- 
 lain, whose duty it was to see all the arrange- 
 ments for the meeting of Parliament properly 
 carried out, came, accompanied by Lord 
 Monteagle, to the House. They examined 
 and inspected the chamber, and thence they 
 proceeded, " as a matter of form " no doubt, 
 to see that all was right underneath the Par- 
 liament House. 
 
 The two noblemen came with a light 
 excuse, quite unattended, laughing and talk- 
 ing as they proceeded from cellar to vault, 
 and to inner vaults, till they reached the 
 part immediately beneath the throne. 
 Fawkes was present, and the Chamberlain 
 carelessly inquired who he was, and his 
 business. 
 
 "I am Mr. Percy's servant," replied 
 Fawkes, " and am looking after my master's 
 coals ; " when Suffolk caused a smile by a 
 remark concerning Christmas fires and 
 timely preparation. Nothing could be plea- 
 santer ; there was no suspicion ; the merry 
 gentlemen saw nothing, suspected nothing, 
 brought no guard to effect an arrest, and all 
 was well. Fawkes was a judge of faces, and 
 watched his visitors narrowly, but no trace 
 of fear, no shade of suspicion crossed their 
 features. The time was almost come. The 
 dreaded search had been made and was over. 
 All was well ! 
 
 Fawkes could not restrain his impatience, 
 and in his satisfaction at the result he at 
 once rode to Isleworth to tell Percy what had 
 occurred, and how well their plans had 
 succeeded. This so affected Percy that he 
 came away from Sion House with Fawkes, 
 and accompanied him to London. Fawkes 
 bade him farewell in Westminster, and 
 
 descended to the vault. Percy rode to St. 
 Giles' Fields and told Rookwood and Kay 
 that all was well, and the deed would be done 
 upon the morrow. 
 
 The hours passed — ten o'clock struck. 
 Surely there would be something stirring at 
 Westminster if there were any suspicion. 
 So excited and restless were the men that 
 they left their hiding-place in the darkness 
 of the night and hurried down to Westminster 
 to see what was going on. Nothing ! All 
 was quiet and still as the grave in which 
 they hoped the King would, in a few hours, 
 be lying. Not a sound of preparation broke 
 the stillness. The royal residence was 
 slumbering ; all lights were extinguished ; no 
 sign of alarm or suspected danger. The 
 three conspirators breathed more freely, 
 though with quivering lips ; and as quietly 
 as they had paced the deserted roads, they 
 returned again to their lodgings to sleep, and 
 then to listen for the terrible explosion which 
 they hoped, yet feared, would come next 
 day. 
 
 While they were sleeping, tossing restlessly 
 from side to side with muttered thoughts of 
 the expected tragedy escaping in their 
 dreams, Guy Fawkes was acting and wide 
 awake. He had made all his sinister pre- 
 parations — the watch was wound up, the 
 lanthorn lighted, the train laid. Fully aware 
 of the desperate nature of the attempt, 
 Fawkes, booted and spurred, was ready for 
 flight by land or by water if the boat were at 
 the stairs. 
 
 The vault was close and warm even that 
 wintry morning, and about two o'clock Fawkes 
 left the inner chamber and came into the 
 further room. He ascended the stairs to 
 pass into Vinegar House, where were the 
 porter and Robartes the priest. He came 
 slowly forth ; all was quiet. He advanced 
 more cautiously, and reached the court, 
 when he was suddenly seized and bound. 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " demanded 
 Sir Thomas Knyvett, a magistrate of West- 
 minster. 
 
 " Had you but taken me inside," was the 
 bold reply, " I would have blown you all up 
 with the house and myself." 
 
 Sir Thomas directed the prisoner to be 
 searched at once, and found tinder, slow 
 match, and some " touch "-wood on his per- 
 son ; the lanthorn was lighted in the vault, 
 and the top of a barrel of powder was stove 
 in ; the train was ready, — but Salisbury had 
 sprung his mine first. The prisoner was 
 taken, i.nd then carried to the King at 
 Whiteitall, to be interrogated by His Majesty 
 in Council. 
 
 Thus while Catesby and his friends were 
 quietly riding to Ashby, their luckless ac- 
 complice was cursing his fate on his . straw 
 pallet in the Tower. 
 
 525 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Run to Earth. 
 
 Fawkes declined to reveal anything more 
 than what concerned himself. In reply to 
 the King, he confessed his object and the 
 means he had taken to attain it. When asked 
 how he had the heart to destroy the Sovereign 
 and his children, the bold man replied 
 that " Dangerous diseases required desperate 
 remedies," and told the Scottish courtiers he 
 wanted to have "blown them all back to 
 Scotland!" Such hardihood appeared in- 
 credible to the King, and Fawkes was quickly 
 removed to the Tower. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 5th of Novem- 
 ber, a report ran like wildfire through the 
 city that a man had been arrested in the 
 vault beneath the Parliament House, with a 
 dark lantern. The gunpowder which had 
 been discovered put aside all doubt as to 
 his object, and public indignation was aroused 
 with public curiosity. The rumour reached 
 St. Giles's Fields and its occupants, who were 
 greatly stirred, and the three conspirators 
 hurried away to find that all was known, and 
 that flight was only possible. 
 
 Percy and Wright immediately fled ; the 
 former, who had made his arrangements, now 
 found the benefit of his foresight, and they 
 journeyed to Fenny Stratford unharmed, 
 while Cecil's messengers were seeking them 
 in other roads. Here they met the others, 
 who were also flying for their lives ; Catesby 
 and John Wright having only heard the news 
 from Rookwood, who had come fast with his 
 relays. The friends then proceeded through 
 Dunstable, and thence to Towcester, and 
 to Ashby St. Leger, where Lady Catesby 
 resided. 
 
 It was six o'clock in the evening when the 
 dusty and travel-stained troop entered the 
 house where many members of the great 
 "hunting party" which had been convened 
 had already assembled at supper. The new- 
 comers did not take long to acquaint them 
 of the failure of the enterprise, which their 
 condition and presence so fully endorsed. 
 "To horse!" was still the cry, and accom- 
 panied by many members of the party, the 
 fugitives rode to Dunchurch to Sir Everard 
 Digby. 
 
 But cool air and cooler reflection rapidly 
 thinned the ranks of the adherents. All was 
 lost; there was no hope for those who resisted ; 
 and in the darkness many a horseman drew 
 rein and turned aside for home to wait events. 
 Kay had long ago quitted his friends and 
 made for his home, where he was afterwards 
 captured. 
 
 Arrived at Dunchurch, the dread news was 
 received in silence, and a deep gloom fell 
 upon those assembled there. The result was 
 that many fell away notwithstanding the 
 determination of Catesby; and on the morrow 
 
 a small but desperate band continued their 
 headlong flight to Leamington Priors, where 
 they rested and attempted to recruit their 
 band, but without success. Men looked upon 
 them with suspicion, and resented the manner 
 in which they sought to appropriate arms 
 and steeds. Thus they raised up opposition 
 instead of making friends. 
 
 They proceeded across Warwickshire and 
 Worcestershire, and made for the residence 
 of Stephen Littleton at Holbeach, after en- 
 listing a few adherents at Norbrook where 
 Grant resided. As they proceeded they 
 called upon the country people to take up 
 arms and join them, but not one man did so. 
 Whatever idea the people had respecting a 
 change of ruler, the condition of the con- 
 spirators was not one to inspire much confi- 
 dence in any one just then. 
 
 Sir Richard Walsh was by this time upon 
 their track ; and without attempting further 
 flight the conspirators and their adherents 
 awaited the arrival of the troops at Holbeach, 
 determined to defend it. But Littleton left his 
 house, and during the night many servants 
 stole away also. On the morrow, after much 
 consultation, Sir Everard Digby quitted his 
 friends to procure assistance, and Catesby 
 made preparations for defence. 
 
 ' They had been harassed across the Stour 
 by the royahst troopers, and the arms and 
 ammunition had got wetted. The powder 
 was most valuable to them, and Catesby pro- 
 ceeded to dry it by the fire, in the hall, on a 
 platter. A large bag of gunpowder was also 
 left, at a safe distance as was conjectured, 
 while Catesby pursued his dangerous task. 
 
 Percy watched this proceeding, and ex- 
 pressed a wish respecting its effects — that the 
 powder would prove more destructive than 
 the quantity stored beneath the Parliament 
 House, and Catesby joked grimly upon the 
 subject as he continued his work. The others 
 had scarcely quitted the hall when a tremen- 
 dous explosion occurred. A coal had shot 
 from the fire, and the powder had exploded, 
 though the large bag had been blown bodily 
 through the roof uninjured. Four of the men, 
 Catesby, Rookwood, Percy, and Grant, were 
 hideously wounded and burnt, but staunch to 
 the last. 
 
 The attack began in the forenoon, and pro- 
 ceeded with spirit. Robert Winter and Bates 
 escaped early in the morning. Tom Winter 
 was quickly disabled by the assailants. The 
 sheriff directed some of his men to fire the 
 house, and the rest to attack on the opposite 
 side ; and thus the fight proceeded. 
 
 "Stand by me, Tom," cried Catesby, "and 
 we'll die together." As they were standing 
 back to back they were shot through, and fell 
 side by side. Catesby crawled into the 
 vestibule and expired, embracing an image 
 of. the Virgin. The Wrights were also shot 
 
 526 
 
GUY FAWKES. 
 
 dead; Rookwood and Percy were severely- 
 wounded. Digby was afterwards captured 
 near Dudley, and the others were betrayed 
 in their hiding-places. The wounded in the 
 house died miserably; and within a week all 
 the plotters, except the priests, were dead or 
 in the Tower of London, where Guy Fawkes 
 had already confessed his crime. 
 
 Torture and Confession. 
 
 The Government made every effort to get 
 at the truth by question, rack, and pressure ; 
 but although much was said, there was a 
 great difficulty in sifting the chaff from the 
 grain. What was said one day was contra- 
 dicted or explained away the next, and every- 
 one concerned in the plot seemed quite 
 oblivious or incapable of speaking "the truth, 
 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 
 The determination of the Secretary of State 
 had almost given way under the repeated 
 disappointments, but through Tresham a 
 clue was at length obtained to the priestly 
 adherents of the plot. 
 
 Tresham, though he was implicated by the 
 tardy confession of Guy Fawkes, was not 
 arrested for some days after the public an- 
 nouncement of the discovery of the plot. 
 But at length Master Frank, a past master 
 in the art of duplicity and Jesuitical cunning, 
 was committed to the Tower, and told all he 
 thought it worth while to tell. Monteagle's 
 name was frequently mentioned, but it was 
 not the intention of the Secretary of State to 
 impeach his colleague. 
 
 From Tresham and Winter information 
 was received concerning Garnet, Gerard, 
 and Oldcorne, and more definite action was 
 taken when the servant Bates had been per- 
 suaded, with more or less force, to reveal all 
 he knew. His information was very useful, 
 and the priests Garnet and Oldcorne, who 
 were at Hendlip, were sought for. Mean- 
 time Tresham was suddenly taken ill after 
 his confession. Romancers tell us that 
 Monteagle visited the unhappy man in the 
 Tower, and with the connivance of the gaoler, 
 poison was administered to " Cousin Frank," 
 who died from the slow effects. Be that as 
 it may, there is no doubt that after his com- 
 mittal and confession he was taken ill and 
 died in the Tower in great agony. Finding 
 the hand of death press closely upon him, 
 his wife and confidential servant were sought 
 and permitted to visit him. In their presence 
 he made and signed a statement contradict- 
 ing all he had said about the Jesuit priests. 
 Tresham signed this document, and had it 
 attested by Vavasour, his servant. Frank 
 died that same night, leaving the document, 
 which was entirely untrue, and which had 
 been written by the servant, to the care of 
 his wife for the information of the Council. 
 
 The Executions ; Search for the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 On the 15th of January, 1606, a proclama- 
 tion was issued against the English Jesuits,, 
 and pending their arrest the trial of the sur- 
 viving lay members of the Gunpowder Plot 
 had been postponed. But on the 27th of 
 January, the Spaniards having declined to 
 deliver up those Jesuits in their dominions 
 who had been implicated, the conspirators 
 were arraigned. Their trial did not last long, 
 nor was any mercy shown them. On the 
 30th of January, Sir Everard Digby, Robert 
 Winter, Grant, and Thomas Bates, were 
 hanged at Paul's Cross. Guy Fawkes, Kay,. 
 Rookwood, and Thomas Winter were hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered in Palace Yard, West- 
 minster. But for ^ the presence of a strong 
 armed force the conspirators would have 
 been dragged from the ignominious hurdles 
 and torn to pieces by the crowd. 
 
 Digby was the first to suffer, and kneeling 
 down he desired the prayers of all good 
 Catholics. " Then none will pray for you," 
 remarked an individual in the crowd as the 
 young man was launched into eternity. 
 Robert Winter came next, and he ascended 
 the blood-stained scaffold. The executioner's 
 assistants had already dismembered his late 
 associate, but Winter remained firm and 
 died defiantly. Grant and Bates were soon 
 despatched ; but the crowning tragedy was 
 enacted in Old Palace Yard on the 31st of 
 January. 
 
 Every available position which commanded 
 a view of the scaffold was occupied. The 
 Abbey roof was crowded with spectators, the 
 pinnacles and buttresses black with clinging- 
 figures. Thomas Winter was the first to 
 ascend the scaffold and die firmly. Rook- 
 wood and Kay came next. The latter 
 threw himself off with such violence that the 
 rope broke, and he was despatched like a 
 dog. Guy Fawkes, the stern soldier, was 
 the last of all. 
 
 As this brave but misguided man ascended 
 the steps of the scaffold his firm foot slipped 
 upon the bloody surface, and had he not 
 been supported he must have fallen. He 
 ascended deliberately and then turning to 
 the multitude, said : " I ask forgiveness of 
 the King and the State for my criminal inten- 
 tion, and trust that my death will wash out 
 my offence." He then ascended the drop, 
 and ere his heart had ceased to beat, his 
 quivering frame was cut down and hacked 
 to pieces by the savage knives of the execu- 
 tioners. 
 
 While the conspirators were being led tc^ 
 execution, the search for Garnet and Oldcorne 
 had been busy and unremitting. The other 
 Jesuits had escaped, and the pair might 
 easily have got away in safety. But they 
 7 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 preferred to play the old game of hide-and- 
 seek, and at Hendlip Hall they found an 
 asylum. Like many other old mansions, 
 Mr. Abingdon's house was a perfect " rabbit 
 warren" of passages and hiding-places. 
 Secret stairs and panels, holes and corners, 
 abounded. Wide chimneys with duplicate 
 flues, and cunning recesses for priest or 
 plotter were in many rooms, while hollow 
 walls and fissured wainscots were general. 
 To such a house the Jesuits were glad to 
 retreat and hide. 
 
 But Sir Henry Bromley had orders to 
 track them out, and to Hendlip came he in 
 due course and suddenly, to search the 
 house. He surrounded it closely and then 
 proceeded to examine the interior. From 
 room to room he sounded the walls, and 
 discovered many a secret passage and 
 hidden panel. Measurements were made 
 inside and out ; and so suddenly had Bromley 
 come upon the Hall that no provisions had 
 been stored in the recesses for the priests. 
 But no success at first attended the Knight's 
 efforts. Day after day passed and no real 
 discovery was made, though all evidence 
 tended to confirm suspicion that the men 
 were there. 
 
 At last one night, towards the witching 
 hour, two ghostly figures appeared to the 
 guard in the hall of the mansion. These 
 were the priests' servants, Owen and Cham- 
 bers, who had had no food for two or three 
 days. Gaunt, grimy, and hollow-eyed, they 
 tottered along, and surrendered themselves 
 to Bromley's men, but would confess nothing 
 — not whence they came nor who they were. 
 
 Mr. Abingdon and his wife were at once 
 put under arrest by Sir Henry Bromley, and 
 every exertion was made to ascertain the 
 hiding-place of the priests, for no doubt 
 existed in Bromley's mind now. They were 
 sought for, but unsuccessfully, and at last 
 even Sir Henry lost patience and issued 
 orders for retiring. 
 
 But soon afterwards, acting on informa- 
 tion of a condemned prisoner, Garnet and 
 Oldcorne were found in the recess of a 
 chimney, cramped and starving. They were 
 carefully tended — as fowls are fed for killing 
 — and brought to London and the Tower. 
 
 The Jesuits' End. 
 
 On the 13th of February the Jesuit priests 
 were confronted by the Council at White- 
 hall, and Garnet was received with all the 
 " treacherous courtesy " he had already enjoyed 
 as he was being conducted to London. A 
 good impression was left upon the priest's 
 mind, though he was closely questioned. His 
 cell at the Tower was changed for a better, 
 and, as he subsequently said in a letter to Ann 
 Vaux, whose reputation he had so seriously 
 compromised, " I am allowed every meal a 
 
 good draught of excellent claret wine, and I 
 am liberal with myself and neighbours for 
 good respects, to allow also out of my own 
 purse some sack, and this is the greatest 
 charge I shall be at." 
 
 But before long this interesting correspon- 
 dence came to an end. Cecil questioned and 
 received many damaging answers from the 
 Jesuit leader, and before very long Mistress 
 Vaux was herself committed to the Tower as 
 a participator in the Gunpowder Treason. 
 
 By this time nearly all the English Jesuits 
 had been arrested and put in the Tower; and 
 the kind Lieutenant was so obliging as to put 
 Garnet and Oldcorne into adjacent rooms, and 
 caused a communication to be shown to them 
 by means of which they could quietly con- 
 verse when the warders were out of the way. 
 
 This was an opportunity not to be neglected. 
 The Jesuits held many interesting conversa- 
 tions through the panel, curiously oblivious of 
 the danger they incurred. The craft of Cecil 
 does not appear to have been suspected by 
 either, but spies were so placed that the 
 dialogue was heard and transmitted to the 
 Secretary of State. These conversations 
 tended to clear up much that had been before 
 obscure. Ann Vaux was closely questioned, 
 but nothing against the Jesuits could be ob- 
 tained from her. The queer, if not unusual, 
 relationships lately existent at White Webbs, 
 and the meetings of the plotters there, were 
 disclosed by the dame ; and then Cecil sent for 
 the priests, and told them he was well aware 
 of their conversation through the panels. 
 
 This was too much for Oldcorne ; he con- 
 fessed his share in the dialogue, and added 
 various other words which proved very in- 
 jurious to him and his associates. Garnet, 
 on the contrary, firmly denied the facts until 
 threatened with torture, when he confessed, 
 and was ordered for trial in March 1606. 
 
 When Garnet had confessed it was of no 
 use to keep Oldcorne any longer in prison. 
 He was therefore sent to Worcester with Mr. 
 Abingdon of Hendhp to be tried before a 
 special Commissioner. Mr. Abingdon was 
 pardoned, and yet Lord Monteagle, with the 
 priest Oldcorne and others, were executed. 
 Gerard had esc3.ped. 
 
 A volume might be written concerning 
 Garnet's latter days, his correspondence with 
 Ann Vaux, whose character he defended at 
 the last, and his interviews with Cecil. By 
 degrees, as we have seen, enough was found 
 to criminate him, and by means of spies and 
 such devices, proof was adduced against all 
 the priests. Henry Garnet was then con- 
 demned and executed. So the active principle 
 of the terrible plot died out, and there remain 
 but a reproach and a by-word and a doggerel 
 rhyme, to bring prominently before us the 
 great " Gunpowder Treason, which should 
 never be forgot." H. F. 
 
 528 
 
The Spanish Armada attacked by the English Fleet. 
 (From the Ancient Tapestry in the House of Lords, destroyed in the Fire at the Houses of Parliavient in 1834.; 
 
 HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND, 
 
 THE STORY OF THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 A Nightof Suspense-England's Hour of Trial-The Growth of the Bitter Feehngs between England and Spa.n-The Policy 
 ^f the Vatican-" Singeing the King of Spain's Beards-Drakes Expeditions at Cadp and Corunna-Pla^ng at 
 Peace-making-Hand in Hand for England-The Spanish Scheme-The First Day s Fighting-The Fight off Poit- 
 land; Plucking the Feathers of the Spaniards one by one-Correspondence between ^ledina Sidonia and Parma- 
 The Fire^Ships-The Action off Gravelines-The Flight through the Straits-Home round the Orkneys ! -The 
 Western Storms— The Return to Spain. 
 
 A Night of Suspense. 
 HE long, hot summer day was draw- 
 ing to a close, and the level beams 
 of the setting sun were lighting up 
 with resplendent beauty the dancing 
 waters of Plymouth Sound, when suddenly a 
 small armed vessel, with all sails set, ran 
 smartly in from the Channel, before the wind. 
 A few minutes more, and down rattled her 
 canvas, the anchor was thrown out, and the 
 vessel's head swung round. Another minute 
 passed and her captain sprang ashore, and 
 quickly made his way to the bowling-green 
 on the Hoe, where a group of officers and 
 sea-captains were engaged in the old English 
 game of bowls. 
 
 Seeking out one of the officers who from 
 his appearance seemed to be a person of 
 some distinction, and who, in fact, was none 
 other than Lord Howard of Effingham, High 
 Admiral of England, the new-comer exclaimed 
 
 excitedly, — "My Lord, the Spaniards are 
 upon us ! I saw the Armada this morning 
 off the Cornish coast, and I have cracked 
 on all sail to let your Lordship know in time." 
 
 Instantly there arose shouts for the ships' 
 boats, and some of the captains hurried away 
 to the water ; signs of excitement and haste 
 began to manifest themselves on every side ; 
 but there was one there, holding a large ball 
 in his hand, who coolly checked the excite- 
 ment of his colleagues, and insisted that the 
 match should be played out. " There is time 
 to beat both you and the Spaniards too," he 
 said. A hearty laugh was the response, and 
 then Drake (for the last speaker was that 
 famous captain) and his friends played out 
 their game as coolly as though the invading 
 Spanish ships were thousands of miles away. 
 
 But while they were concluding their game, 
 the news of the Spaniards' arrival had spread 
 far and wide. Fire-signals, ready to burst 
 
 S29 
 
 M M 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 forth into lurid flame, had been prepared on 
 every eminence, and one by one the hill tops 
 blazed forth into beacons of warning, sym- 
 bolical, indeed, of the sturdy English spirit 
 which leapt forth to meet the invader. In 
 every southern seaport, ships and boats were 
 on the watch, and in every shire and city, 
 horses and men were waiting ready to fight 
 for hearth and home. 
 
 A great camp had been formed at Tilbury 
 to guard London, and from every side troops 
 were pouring in to swell the numbers already 
 gathered there. Thus, when the warning 
 light shone out, it found England well pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Meantime Drake and his companions on 
 the Hoe finished their game and went on 
 board their vessels. The wind was dead 
 against them, therefore they were obliged 
 to warp the ships laboriously out of harbour ; 
 they stood westward under easy sail, waiting 
 for the Spaniards to appear. But though the 
 wind was in the Spaniards' favour, the vessels 
 of the Armada were so huge and vmwieldy 
 that they made but little progress, and it was 
 not until the night of suspense had passed, 
 and the July sunlight of the next morning 
 gUnted on the glad waters of the Channel, 
 that the huge fleet hove in sight. It appeared 
 like a crescent seven miles wide, and the 
 vast vessels seemed more like floating castles 
 than ships of war. First of all, two white 
 wings were visible, clearly defined against the 
 western sky ; then by degrees, as the day wore 
 on, others loomed above the line of the sea, un- 
 til the broad crescent was complete ; and as the 
 high hulls appeared, the keen-eyed watchers 
 could count at least one hundred and fifty 
 invading vessels. On they swept, those 
 magnificent ships, slowly and proudly, and 
 perchance they did not see those few light 
 vessels, closely hugging the shore, which 
 were lying in wait for them, and ready to 
 pounce upon them at the first opportunity, 
 even as the lithe-limbed tiger springs upon 
 his prey. So passed Saturday the 20th of 
 July, 1588, and another night drew on. 
 
 England's Hour of Trial. 
 The news of the presence of the Spanish 
 ships in the English Channel was now 
 known over the greater part of the island. 
 The blaze of many beacons and the tidings 
 taken by mounted messengers had told most 
 Englishmen that their country's hour of trial 
 had come. We can well imagine the feelings 
 of many a family, at that time hidden in the 
 depths of the country. They had seen the 
 warning fires flash along the lonely hills 
 for many a mile, and mayhap the father, 
 husband, or son had gone days before to 
 join the masses of troops then being mar- 
 shalled throughout the land. But the summer 
 sun would rise and set many times before 
 
 these poor people would know more of the 
 stirring events then happening round their 
 coasts. Through the long, hot days they 
 would sit and think of those who were gone, 
 and wonder what had befallen them ; whether 
 the Spaniards were victorious, and " Good 
 Queen Bess " was to yield her power to the 
 hated Philip, and they themselves were to 
 bow their necks to the conqueror's yoke 
 and suffer all the horrors of a vanquished 
 people; whether these fields, which now 
 waved white with harvest, were to feed the 
 haughty Spaniards ; and their lands, which 
 now smiled with the rich beauty of summer, 
 were to be stained with bloodshed and burn- 
 ing ; — all these things doubtless passed 
 through the 'minds of those who, silent and 
 inactive, had to pass those sunUl: summer 
 days in the agonies of suspense, not knowing 
 from hour to hour what might, or had already 
 happened for their country's weal or woe. 
 
 It was the crucial moment of a long period 
 of suspense. For eighteen months it had 
 been known that Philip of Spain was pre- 
 paring an immense army and fleet to 
 invade England, and for some years the 
 bitter feelings between the two countries had 
 been increasing until at last they had broken 
 forth into open war. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for these bitter 
 feelings. Ever since the day when Queen 
 Mary had caused absolute panic in the 
 country by reason of her marriage to Philip 
 of Spain, and he with her had endeavoured 
 to re-establish the Pope's supremacy in Eng- 
 land and to consolidate his own hold on the 
 island, a hatred against Spain as the chief 
 aggressive power in the world, and the 
 principal persecutor of Protestants, had been 
 steadily growing. Englishmen of all parties 
 were agreed that no foreign despot, whether 
 he were Pope or prince, should tax or toll in 
 their dominions, and in the Spanish marriage 
 and the Spanish policy Englishmen saw not 
 only the overthrow of the Protestant religion 
 and the opening up of fearful persecution 
 (fears which had been onlytoo surely realized), 
 but also the loss of their lands and posses- 
 sions. That England should become a mere 
 appanage or province of Spain was not to 
 be thought of; and though at the death of 
 Mary Tudor this disaster had not happened, 
 and so far Philip's plans had not been 
 accomplished, yet the fear that he was bent 
 upon this scheme naturally excited the feel- 
 ings of Englishmen against him. Moreover, 
 the calamitous French war, into which Philip 
 had forced England for his own benefit, did 
 not tend to soothe the hatred ; for it had 
 greatly reduced the resources of the country. 
 But up to the present time the Spanish king 
 had been able to accomplish a part of his 
 designs. He had kept England and France 
 at enmity with each other. France was his 
 
 530 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 great rival on the Continent, and most of all he 
 feared that France and England should be- 
 come united against him, .and his way to his 
 •dominion in the Netherlands be thus barred. 
 
 When, therefore, at the death of Mary, he 
 lost the crown of England, sheer necessity of 
 keeping intact his vast possessions led to his 
 wish to still keep England under his thumb. 
 He therefore proposed himself to Elizabeth 
 as her husband, but the young Queen — re- 
 solved on no account to repeat her half- 
 sister's mistakes — courteously refused his 
 offer. But still the politic Philip resolved 
 to keep England to his side, and to reduce 
 her to his will by seeming kindness ; and the 
 ■apparent alliance between the two countries 
 might have continued, and the final colHsion 
 averted, but for the interference of the Pope. 
 When he heard that Elizabeth had succeeded 
 •to the throne of England, his rage knew no 
 bounds, for between the Oueen and the 
 Vatican lay the fatal dispute of her own 
 illegitimacy. That she, whom the solemn 
 judgment of the Holy See had asserted to 
 have no legal claim, should succeed to the 
 throne of England without consulting the 
 Pope's views on the subject was not to be 
 borne, and he summoned her instantly to 
 submit her claims to his jurisdiction. But 
 if Elizabeth had been prepared to submit to 
 so arrogant a proposal, which she certainly 
 was not, she well knew the English people 
 would never yield to it ; and from the moment 
 of receiving that message the hope of the 
 English Romanists that Elizabeth would 
 prove herself a true daughter of the Romish 
 Church was irretrievably lost. She decidedly 
 and definitely refused to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of the Pope. And from that hour 
 he and his successors were her dire enemies ; 
 especially so after it was known that she had 
 given her subjects a measure of religious 
 toleration, and had revived the Reformed 
 Prayer Book. Therefore he never ceased 
 to urge upon Philip the necessity of purging 
 England of her heresy with the sword. 
 
 Philip, however, waited the course of 
 events, and endeavoured to mitigate the 
 wrath of Rome, although he was in truth 
 much vexed at the course events were taking 
 in England. He might well be vexed, for 
 these events threatened the entire subversion 
 of his most cherished schemes, although at 
 that time we can hardly imagine that he 
 foresaw all the mighty consequences that 
 would spring therefrom. But this was one 
 of the most critical periods of the history of 
 Europe. Everywhere the new religion was 
 struggling against the might and bigotry of 
 the old ; and at this most critical period 
 England ranged herself in the Protestant 
 ranks. In a few years Elizabeth became the 
 most powerful Protestant sovereign in Europe, 
 and the aid she and her subjects gave to tl.e 
 
 Netherlands enabled them eventually to throw 
 off the gaUing yokeof Philip and estabhsh their 
 civil and religious freedom. The English 
 Queen's support of the Huguenots enabled 
 Henri IV. to save French Protestantism by 
 the Edict of Nantes, and it gave free play to 
 that sturdy English spirit which was to break 
 the power of Spain and establish Britain as 
 Mistress of the Sea. 
 
 The Increase of Bitter Feelings 
 BETWEEN England and Spain, 
 
 As England and England's Queen became 
 more decidedly Protestant, and Philip saw 
 the realization of his schemes recede farther 
 and farther from his view, his anger greatly 
 increased. In fact, when he heard of Eliza- 
 beth's support of the Huguenots, he flew into a 
 violent passion, for he feared, and not with- 
 out reason, that it would give an impulse to 
 "heresy" in his dominions in the Nether- 
 lands. These were among his richest pos- 
 sessions, and the fabrics of Flanders at 
 that day were justly esteemed throughout 
 Europe. But the Flemings and Dutch 
 already resented his rule, and claimed to 
 worship God in their own way, nor could 
 their Protestantism be purged out with fire 
 and sword. And when at last it came to 
 open war between them and their Spanish 
 tyrants, Elizabeth sent over the Earl of Lei- 
 cester and a body of troops to assist them 
 in their efforts to establish a Protestant re- 
 public. This was a well weighed political 
 scheme, and executed simply to keep "war 
 out of our own gate;" for while engaged in 
 suppressing the "heresy" and revolts in 
 Flanders, it was thought the Pope and Philip, 
 having enough to do in Europe, would be 
 prevented from the invasioQ of England. 
 
 The great policy which ran thi-ough all the 
 tortuous acts and diplomacies of the early 
 part of Elizabeth's reign was to keep Eng- 
 land from war and out of foreign complication. 
 To keep England out of Philip's schemes, and 
 yet to prevent an open war with him, to 
 prevent the Pope from having authority in 
 her realm, — these were Elizabeth's plans, and 
 steadily and unfalteringly she pursued them. 
 For Elizabeth loved England, and her whole 
 heart and mind were bent on developing the 
 resources of the country and fostering the 
 national spirit. " Nothing, no worldly thing 
 under the sun, are so dear to me as the love 
 and goodwill of my subjects." These were 
 the words she spoke to her first parliament, 
 and she certainly had the love and goodwill 
 of her people. She laughed to scorn the 
 Bulls of Deposition which the Pope launched 
 at her devoted head, and secure in the 
 affections of her people she could view with- 
 out alarm the turmoils and strife around her. 
 
 The policy of the Vatican remained un- 
 changed. Pope succeeded Pope, but there 
 
 531 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was still the same fiery zeal to reduce the 
 whole world to own their sway. They were 
 determined to depose Elizabeth, and re- 
 estabhsh their supremacy in England ; and 
 it was money of the Pope's treasury tifet finally 
 helped to furnish Philip's great Armada. It 
 seemed as if nothing would reduce this little 
 stubborn western island. Jesuit priests had 
 been sent over in great numbers to stir up 
 Romanist revolts and to indoctrinate the 
 people in the teachings of the Vatican, and 
 conspiracies were formed to place the Ro- 
 manist Mary Stuart on the throne. Bulls of 
 Deposition were issued, but all to no purpose. 
 
 By means of the Test Act the popish pro- 
 pagandists were debarred from taking any 
 office ; and an Act was passed whereby they 
 were commanded to leave the realm within 
 forty days on pain of being treated as traitors. 
 Had it not been that the Pope so much in- 
 sisted on Ehzabeth's deposition by reason of 
 the illegality of her mother's marriage, it may 
 have been that the Queen at this time would 
 not have been so determined to thwart the 
 Papacy. But to acknowledge this was of 
 course just the one thing that Ehzabeth 
 would not do, and her subjects supported 
 her loyally and chivalrously, until at last 
 it became clear to the Pope that only by 
 force of arms could he regain his power over 
 his lost domain ; and the greatest pressure 
 was now put upon Philip to bring back the 
 heretics with fire and sword into the fold of 
 the true Church. 
 
 And now Philip himself began to show 
 signs of yielding to the Holy See, for he be- 
 gan to fear the growing power of England, 
 and longed to crush her spirit of naval daring. 
 He regarded the whole of the newly dis- 
 covered Western World as his property, and 
 he resented the incursions thither by Drake, 
 Hawkins, Frobisher, and other English 
 rovers. He would not allow them even to 
 trade with those rich shores, and laid an em- 
 bargo on English vessels and property 
 throughout the extent of his wide dominions. 
 In reply to this decree Ehzabeth gave her 
 sailors permission to make war on Spanish 
 ships and seize their merchandize ; and she 
 and her subjects treated with undisguised 
 contempt the Papal decree which gave the 
 New World absolutely to Spain. 
 
 The daring English adventurers of those 
 days were quite as willing to trade as to fight, 
 and the bhnd bigotry of PhiHp which refused 
 to allow any heretic to traffic on his domains, 
 and determined him to keep the whole of the 
 wealth of Peru and Mexico for himself, only 
 stirred their religious and patriotic zeal to a 
 still higher pitch. The consequence was that 
 English ships encountered Spanish galleons 
 long before the Armada sailed up the English 
 Channel. The Puritanism of the sea-rovers 
 was added to their hatred of Spain. They 
 
 thought they did God service in slaughtering 
 the Spaniards who burned Protestants and 
 tortured them in, the vile Inquisition; and 
 it was religious fanaticism, as well as national 
 pride and naval daring, which urged on 
 Drake to those deeds of daring which made 
 his name the terror of the Spanish main. 
 
 But his successes stirred Philip's anger 
 to the utmost, and at last the Spanish king 
 resolved to conquer the obstinate island for the 
 Vatican, and at the same time crush out all 
 opposition to his selfish schemes in the East and 
 West Indies. His recent conquest of Portugal 
 had completely changed his position and 
 strengthened his power, for not only the king- 
 dom itself, but all her recently acquired colo- 
 nies in the East and Western World now 
 acknowledged his sway. The magnificent 
 victory, also, which his fleet had gained at 
 Lepanto over the Turks had greatly exalted 
 the repute of his arms, and at this period 
 there seemed to be only one nation who dared 
 to defy his mandates and resist his authority. 
 This was that turbulent England, which had 
 helped, and still continued to help, his re- 
 volted subjects in Flanders ; which sent ships 
 to his farthest dominions and maintained 
 their right to trade and conquer as well as he ; 
 and which, more than all, insulted him per- 
 sonally by ridiculing him (as the hated hus- 
 band of their former queen) in their stage 
 plays and masquerades. If the growing 
 power of England were destroyed, the Dutch 
 must submit ; France would be unable to 
 oppose him, and universal dominion appeared 
 to be the natural consequence of a subjuga- 
 tion of this obstinate island. 
 
 Further, the execution of Mary Stuart 
 roused the papal passion to its fiercestfiiry, and 
 also gave some pretence to Philip's claims, 
 inasmuch as she bequeathed to him, as being 
 the nearest heir by blood of the Romish faith, 
 her rights to the English crown, which the 
 Pope had always supporjted, and which were 
 by no means inconsiderable according to the 
 then received opinions. Philip therefore 
 counted upon the support of the English 
 Romanists who had hitherto maintained the 
 pretensions of Mary Stuart ; and he was 
 assured by the Jesuit emissaries already in 
 the island that three-fourths of the EngHsh 
 nation were Romanists, and at the command 
 of the Pope they would surely rise against 
 their heretic Oueen. 
 
 But in this view, as the event proved, they 
 were utterly mistaken ; and it was a Romanist, 
 Lord Howard of Effingham, who was ap- 
 pointed High Admiral of the fleet. They did 
 not know the temper of the English people 
 any more than they knew the strength and 
 sternness of the power that was rising in 
 the foggy little northern island. 
 
 These, then, were the causes which led to 
 Philip's invasion of England and the pre- 
 
 532 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 paration of the celebrated Armada. By 
 crushing England Philip could alone crush 
 the revolt in the Netherlands, for she had 
 supported the insurrection both with money 
 and men ; he was determined to maintain 
 his supremacy of the seas, which England 
 alone seriously threatened ; he wished to 
 bring back again the heretical island into 
 the fold of the Church by force of arms, 
 while last but not least he desired to enforce 
 what he called his personal right to the 
 throne and the rights bequeathed by Mary 
 Stuart, Pope Sixtus V. renewed the Bull 
 of Deposition, and denounced Elizabeth as 
 a murderous heretic whose destruction was 
 the bounden duty of all true sons of the 
 Church, He also bound himself to con- 
 tribute a million of scudi to the expenses 
 of the war. The army of the Armada was 
 thus a great triumph of Jesuit intrigue. 
 
 "Singeing the King of Spain's Beard," 
 
 As early as the year 1584 the first ves- 
 sels of the great Armada — a Spanish word 
 signifying a fleet of armed ships — began to 
 gather in the Tagus. Philip knew he had 
 engaged in a task of no ordinary magnitude, 
 and he was resolved to be fully prepared. 
 For a long time his preparations were secret, 
 but Drake and his companions were every- 
 where, and news of it eventually leaked out. 
 
 Furnished by the Queen with six ships of 
 war, and assisted by twenty-six privateers 
 supplied by the merchants of London, the 
 dauntless adventurer left Plymouth Sound 
 in April 1587, and sailed straight for Cadiz, 
 bent on destroying as many as possible of 
 the ships which had so long and so labori- 
 ously been prepared by the King of Spain. 
 
 He found the mouth of Cadiz harbour to 
 be narrow, and heavy batteries flanked it 
 on both sides. To run into it seemed like 
 putting one's head into a Hon's mouth ; but 
 although Admiral Burroughs refused to allow 
 the ship over which he had control to join in 
 so hazardous an undertaking, Drake deter- 
 mined to make the daring attempt. 
 
 On the morning of the 19th of April, there- 
 fore, the wind being fair and the tide at the 
 flood, Drake gave the word, and into the 
 harbour flew his twenty-nine ships as fast as 
 sails and tide could carry them. The bat- 
 teries opened a feeble fire, but only one shot 
 took effect, and on dashed the ships. They 
 fell first on a large galleon, and concentrating 
 their fire upon her, riddled her with shot so 
 completely that she speedily sank. Then on 
 to the others, — large store-ships most of them, 
 containing food and stores for the Armada, — 
 burning and destroying everything they could 
 touch. The crews fled in dismay or made 
 but a feeble resistance, and in one day all 
 the harbourful of preparations of many months 
 were destroyed or captured. 
 
 Riding out to sea next day with the tide, 
 Drake shaped his course for Cape St. Vin- 
 cent, plundering and burning all the Spanish 
 store-ships and galleons he could find. All 
 these vessels were loaded with arms and 
 provisions for the Armada, and Drake de- 
 stroyed them without mercy. United to his 
 patriotism, which caused him to carry the war 
 into the enemy's country and, if possible, 
 prevent the Armada from ever sailing at all 
 towards England, was his opinion that he 
 was doing God's service ; thus we find him 
 writing, "When men thoroughly believed 
 that what they were doing was in defence of 
 their religion and country, a merciful God 
 for Christ's sake would give victory, nor 
 would Satan and his ministers prevail against 
 them." 
 
 Arrived off Cape St. Vincent, Drake 
 dropped anchor, there to await the coming 
 of some Spanish ships of war from the Medi- 
 terranean, which he had heard were on their 
 way to join the Armada. While waiting, 
 Drake sent his boats ashore, stormed the 
 forts of Faro, and thus had a safe anchorage 
 and also access (for a time) to the mainland 
 for fresh water and provisions. But whether, 
 thus early, the Spaniards were so afraid of 
 Drake that the ships would not venture near 
 him if they could help it, certain it is the 
 contingent for which he waited came not, 
 and l3rake was reluctantly compelled to 
 leave the forts he had so valiantly taken and 
 move again to the north. For he had set 
 his heart upon accomplishing the most daring 
 deed of all ; he had determined to venture 
 into the Tagus itself, where the Armada was 
 lying at anchor, and destroy it in its very 
 home. This would be to strike at the very 
 heart of Philip's enterprise, and prevent for 
 some time, if not entirely, the despatch of an 
 Armada. Hitherto what he had done had 
 been (to use his own expressive phrase) but 
 ^'■singeing the King of Spain's beard" a,ndi he 
 wished to strike at his heart, and kill his 
 enterprise once for all. 
 
 Time being precious, therefore — for he 
 knew that to be successful his action must 
 be swift and sudden — he set sail from Faro 
 for the Lisbon estuary. He did not under- 
 rate the magnitude of the danger, for he 
 knew that in the Tagus the Spaniards were 
 in overwhelming force, but the mouth of the 
 river was wide, and he well knew that his 
 lightly-built frigates could easily outsail and 
 fly round the ponderous war-castles of the 
 Spaniards. His design, therefore, was to 
 repeat the tactics which had been so suc- 
 cessful at Cadiz, — to sail in suddenly on a 
 flood tide, take the Spaniards entirely by 
 surprise, riddle the closely-packed, unpre- 
 pared, and half-manned ships with bullets or 
 set them on fire, when, being thick together, 
 he could leave the flames to do their destruc- 
 
 533 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tive work while he retreated triumphantly on 
 the ebb-tide. 
 
 These were his plans, and there seems 
 little doubt but that if he could have had his 
 way he would have so effectually disposed of 
 the Armada that the Spanish expedition 
 would never have sailed ; but as he was near- 
 ing the Tagus he was overtaken by orders 
 from Elizabeth forbidding him to do anything 
 of the kind, and, in fact, that although he 
 might watch the preparations, he must 
 moderate his efforts against the King of 
 Spain, for there was every prospect of a peace 
 being patched up. 
 
 That negotiations for peace were going on 
 was certain, but it was such a peace that 
 Ehzabeth could not accept without national 
 dishonour. 
 
 The bold captain, therefore, was obliged to 
 forego his most cherished design ; but he 
 hung about the Spanish shores, steadily de- 
 stroying everything he could lay his hands 
 upon. He made a descent on the harbour 
 of Corunna, and repeated here the successful 
 raid of Cadiz. In fact, in about two months' 
 time he had destroyed about half the Armada 
 and a great quantity of the stores accumu- 
 lated for the equipment of the ships. 
 
 This splendid service accomplished, he set 
 sail for the Azores in the hope of finding some 
 treasure-ships returning from the Indies with 
 which to pay his men ; for the supplies from 
 home were so scanty that the wages and 
 most of the rations of his sailors had to be 
 provided out of what they could get. Drake 
 was again successful in his quest, for he had 
 not set sail many days from the shores of 
 Spain when he fell in with a richly freighted 
 carrack, which so satisfied his sailors that they 
 counted their services well paid ; thus having 
 done all they could for that time they returned 
 home, feeling well assured that no Armada 
 could set sail from Spain that summer. 
 
 Playing at Peacemaking. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts of her 
 ministers, Elizabeth was still bent on making 
 peace, although it was clear to all that Philip 
 was simply endeavouring to gain time. The 
 Prince of Parma, the most able commander 
 of that day, and captain-general of the 
 Spanish forces, had gathered in the Nether- 
 lands about fifty thousand of the finest troops 
 Europe could furnish, — not only from Spain 
 herself, but from the countries and provinces 
 which owed Philip allegiance or were his 
 allies. Thus, four thousand'men were drafted 
 from Philip's kingdom of Naples and Sicily, 
 three thousand from Germany and Austria, 
 and four thousand from northern and central 
 Italy, besides the flower of the splendid 
 troops from Arragon and Castille. Immense 
 flat-bottomed boats had been made and were 
 
 floating off the coast of Holland to convey 
 this superb army, with all its gun-carriages 
 and siege-machines, over the narrow seas to 
 the eastern coast of Kent ; but Parma, like a 
 wise general, would not trust his heavily ladeii 
 transports to the tender mercies of Drake 
 and his colleagues unless the Armada was 
 there to protect them. But for the time 
 being the Armada could not sail, so the Prince 
 of Parma was obliged to wait ; and thus 
 the winter of 1587 closed in, the provinces 
 of Spain resounding with preparations for 
 the crusade against the "obstinate" little 
 island, notwithstanding that negotiations for 
 peace were still going forward. 
 
 Into the details of these negotiations we 
 need not enter, nor into the vexed question of 
 what may have been the Queen's motive. Pro- 
 bably in her secret heart she may have feared 
 the issue, and thought that peace at any price 
 might be better than the loss of her crown, 
 and that England, whose welfare she was 
 passionately determined to promote, should 
 pass under the heel of the conqueror. One 
 object of those negotiations seems to have 
 been to obtain the aid of France, both sides 
 manoeuvring to obtain this aid. In the end 
 Philip gained the assistance of Guise, if 
 assistance it might be called, or what was as 
 much to his purpose, he prevented the King 
 from assisting Elizabeth, for the fanatical 
 Romanists of Paris raised barricades in the 
 streets, vanquished the royal troops, and the 
 King, Henry of Navarre, — who was well 
 affected towards the Protestants, — found him- 
 self a prisoner in the hands of their leader, 
 the Duke of Guise. 
 
 England, therefore, now stood alone ; she 
 was face-to-face with her foe. At last all 
 Elizabeth's diplomacy was pushed aside, and 
 Philip, who had so long waited for a favour- 
 able, opportunity, found the moment for which 
 he had manoeuvred. 
 
 It seemed incredible that this little island 
 could successfully defy the mightiest power 
 in the world — for such Spain was at that time. 
 Since the days of the Csesars, no such mighty 
 power had existed, and backed as she was by 
 the Pope and the fanaticism of the Roman- 
 ists, she was regarded as invincible. All 
 Europe looked on with excited interest, for 
 it was felt that a crisis in the world's history 
 had come. And even so it was, for, humanly 
 speaking, had Spain been successful, Europe 
 might have been crushed for another century 
 under a grinding tyranny, and the Reforma- 
 tion, with all the freedom and progress and 
 enlightenment it was bringing in its train,, 
 might have been swept away. 
 
 Hand in Hand for England. 
 
 There was one ally, however, which failed 
 Philip. He had been led to i3elieve by his 
 
 53^ 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 emissaries that his invasion would be sup- 
 plemented by a rising of the Romanists in 
 England itself, who would hasten to his stan- 
 dard at the first note of war. But such was 
 not the case. At this great crisis, patriotism 
 was stronger than priestism, and all sects 
 forgot their differences and quickly rallied 
 round their Queen. Puritan and Episcopalian, 
 Protestant and Romanist, all joined as it were 
 
 HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND ; and if 
 
 Parma should ever get so far as to land on the 
 Kentish coast he would find a hundred thou- 
 sand well-trained and stubborn Englishmen 
 ready to dispute every inch of ground. There 
 may have been a few traitors in the country, 
 but they were harmless amid the universal 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Letters from the sovereign were sent to the 
 lords-lieutenant of the various counties, 
 commanding them to urge upon the gentle- 
 men under them to provide and call together 
 as many footmen and horsemen as possible, 
 fully furnished for war ; similar letters were 
 also sent to the great towns and to each of 
 the nobility. The result of these efforts was 
 that the whole country soon rang with the din 
 of arms. Everywhere bands of soldiers were 
 being trained and exercised. At the great 
 camp at Tilbury, the Queen rode through 
 the ranks, encouraging the levies by her 
 spirited words. 
 
 It has been often said that Elizabeth 
 showed her greatest wisdom in knowing how 
 to summon the best men to her councils, and 
 never perhaps did this fact reveal itself more 
 fully than in the government she now con- 
 voked to her aid,— the best and wisest men in 
 the realm, — among whom were Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter Knolles, and others well 
 trained in wai". Some were for concentrating 
 their whole energies upon an army that should 
 oppose the landing of the enemy ; others, 
 among whom was Sir Walter Raleigh, were 
 for putting out a fleet, and encountering the 
 Spaniards in the Channel, to prevent them 
 from landing at all ; and happily these wiser 
 counsels prevailed. In his " Historie of the 
 World," he makes this notable remark which, 
 doubtless, embodies the advice hegave toEliza- 
 beth's council : " Surely I hold that the best 
 way is to keep our enemies from treading on 
 our ground, wherein if we fail, then must we 
 seek to make them wish they had stayed at 
 their own home. . . . But ... as to whether 
 England without the help of her fleet be able 
 to debar an enemy from landing, I hold that 
 it is unable to do so, and therefore, I think it 
 most dangerous to make the adventure.'' 
 
 Raleigh got his way, and England deter- 
 mined to fight her foe first at sea and, if 
 possibb, debar him from landing, by means 
 of her lleet. At that time the ships of Her 
 Majesty's navy numbered only 29 or 30 
 vesse.s ; but the citizens of London, Bristol, 
 
 Plymouth, Southampton, and other great 
 ports exhibited as great zeal in furnishing 
 ships as the gentry of the midland counties 
 displayed in mustering soldiers, so that in 
 a short time the number was raised to 80. 
 The number of sailors to man these vessels 
 (including volunteers) was about 9,000 ; but 
 England's national treasury was at that time 
 so poor, or, as some writers assert, the Queen 
 was so parsimonious, that the armament 
 was but very badly provisioned, while of gun- 
 powder and shot the store was still more 
 limited. Lord Howard of Effingham was 
 appointed High Admiral, and the redoubtable 
 Sir Francis Drake was the second in com- 
 mand. All the old "sea-dogs," Hawkins, 
 Frobisher, and others, whose names were the 
 terror of Spanish treasure- ships, were there 
 also, and invincible as the Armada was held 
 to be, and splendidly equipped as the immense 
 fleet certainly was, there were those on board 
 who knew that a hard fight was before them to 
 reduce these English rovers of the sea. 
 
 The Armada sets sail. 
 
 While Philip had been playing at peace he 
 had been steadily adding ship to ship and 
 regiment to regiment. The ravages com- 
 mitted by Drake had been speedily repaired, 
 for the fanatical enthusiasm of the people was 
 enormous. The "holy war" against England 
 was preached from a thousand pulpits, and 
 Spaniards came forth in thousands to strike 
 a blow for the Holy Catholic Church. Their 
 enterprise was blessed by the Pope, and 
 undertaken to execute his wishes. Elizabeth 
 of England was a wicked woman, an usurping 
 heretic, who flouted the decrees of the Vicar 
 of Christ, kept their King from his own, and 
 aided his rebellious subjects. She had turned 
 England into a hot-bed of heretics, and had 
 persecuted their co-religionists ; it was the 
 bounden duty therefore of every Romanist to 
 aid in expelling her from her throne. 
 
 The " crusaders '' were embarked in 149 or 
 150 vast vessels, 65 of which were immense 
 galleons, built very high of well-seasoned 
 wood. The timbers were four or five feet 
 thick to resist the shot, and well-pitched 
 cables were wound round the masts to 
 strengthen them likewise against the fire of 
 their enemies. Next to these came 8 large 
 galleys, or galleasses, bristling with cannon, 
 loaded with soldiers, and each rowed by the 
 sinewy arms of 300 slaves who had been 
 dragged by the all-conquering Spaniard 
 from the sunny shores of Algiers and the 
 Bosphorus. These vessels were held to be 
 very dangerous, as they were supposed to be 
 superior to all chances of wind and tide, and 
 could be rowed anywhere at any moment. 
 Fifty-six well-armed merchant vessels and 
 20 caravels or pinnaces propelled with oars 
 and attached to the larger vessels com- 
 
 535 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 pleted the armament. The number of sailors 
 to- man this large fleet was computed to be 
 eight thousand, the soldiers twenty thousand, 
 and the slaves two thousand. There were 
 nearly three thousand pieces of cannon, the 
 greater number of which were able to dis- 
 charge much heavier shot than those on 
 board the English vessels. It had been 
 intended that the expedition should be com- 
 manded by the Marquis of Santa Cruz, 
 who was undoubtedly the ablest sailor that 
 Philip had. But he died suddenly in January, 
 and Philip then gave the chief command to 
 the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a court favourite, 
 who knew but little of the sea. He was sup- 
 ported, however, by all the ablest captains in 
 Spain. 
 
 The instructions given to this fleet were 
 that the ships were to sail for England direct, 
 gain command of the Channel, and assist and 
 cover the crossing of Parma's immense army 
 from the Netherlands. On the 20th of May, 
 1588, the magnificent armament, designated 
 by the Spaniards the " Invincible Armada," 
 and believed by nearly the whole of Europe 
 to be so, set sail from the Tagus. But the 
 hills of Spain had not faded from the sailors' 
 sight before a heavy storm struck the ponder- 
 ous high-built vessels and damaged many of 
 them so severely that the whole expedition 
 had to return to the nearest ports to refit. 
 Ofders had been given, that if scattered the 
 ships were to collect in the Bay of Ferrol. In 
 the course of some days this was done, but it 
 was the 12th of July before the Armada was 
 again completely ready for sea. On the 
 morning of that day, with the briUiant sun 
 shining on their red-crossed sails and flaunt- 
 ing flags, the great ships slowly stood out for 
 the northern seas,— the largest, most magni- 
 ficent, and heavily-armed fleet that the world 
 then had ever seen. 
 
 The Preparations of the English. 
 
 The English ships had not been idle while 
 the Armada had been refitting. The Queen, 
 anxious to save money, hearing that the 
 Spaniards had put into port, sent orders to 
 disband some part of the English fleet; but 
 Lord Howard, judging that the danger had 
 not yet passed, dared to disobey his royal 
 mistress, and sailed off towards Spain, 
 hoping to discover the real design of the 
 enemy, and, if possible, attack him on his 
 own shores. We may well be sure Drake 
 seconded his chief in this bold policy, and 
 accordingly, early in June, Howard sailed 
 towards Corunna, but when near this port 
 the north wind changed, and, fearing lest the 
 Spaniards should pass him unobserved and 
 enter the Channel, which was now unguarded. 
 Lord Howard put back and cruised some 
 time at the entrance. The Armada still fail- 
 ing to appear and rations running short, — 
 
 indeed they appear to have been short all the 
 time, — Howard returned to Plymouth, to 
 await further news. 
 
 Fishing boats, privateers, and other vessels 
 were cruising about on the look-out for the 
 Armada, and on the morning of the 20th, 
 eight days after leaving Ferrol Bay, a small 
 privateer was observed by the Spaniards 
 hanging about quite close to them and coolly 
 counting their numbers. Chase was given, 
 but Captain Fleming, — for such was the name 
 of the captain of the little vessel, — having 
 seen enough for his purpose, shook out all 
 his sails, and scudding swiftly before the 
 wind soon left his ponderous pursuers far 
 behind. Not long afterwards he landed at 
 Plymouth, as we have seen, and gave the 
 important news to the English Admiral and 
 his captains. 
 
 After warping out his vessels, Lord How- 
 ard slowly cruised about outside Plymouth 
 Sound waiting for the Spaniards to appear. 
 He had not even the whole of his scanty fleet 
 with him, for part of it, under-* Lord Henry 
 Seymour, was employed, with a few Dutch 
 vessels, in blockading the ports of Flanders, 
 and preventing the Prince of Parma from 
 endeavouring to cross. 
 
 The Spanish scheme was to avoid an 
 action in the Channel, and steering straight 
 for Calais roads, scatter the ships waiting 
 there, and join the Prince of Parma's army, 
 which, under cover of the Armada, was to 
 land at once at Margate. Such was their 
 scheme; but they had reckoned without their 
 host. If, contrary to Philip's orders, they had 
 attempted to take the English fleet by sur- 
 prise or land on the Devonshire shore, they 
 speedily found they could not have done so, 
 at least without opposition ; for when they 
 arrived off the Devonshire coast, they saw 
 by the pale light^of the summer moon, much 
 to their astonishment, that the English fleet 
 was cruising about outside the Sound quite 
 on the alert and prepared to oppose them. 
 
 Another surprise was waiting for the 
 Spaniards, when in the dawn of the next 
 morning they saw that the English ships had 
 skilfully slipped to windward of them, and 
 were so well handled and so well-built that 
 they could sail at least two feet for their one, 
 and could glide round them so quickly and 
 easily that by the time their guns were pointed, 
 behold ! the vessel aimed at had shot away 
 out of reach. The huge, high-built galleons, 
 upon which the Spaniards prided themselves 
 so much, were unmanageable as huge punts 
 piled with hay, while the well-built English 
 frigates were like the modern steam-launches, 
 or high-mettled, well-managed horses when 
 compared to them. 
 
 The preparation of the Queen's ships had 
 been entrusted by her to Sir John Hawkins, 
 and he had certainly sent them to sea in a 
 
 36 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND, 
 
 splendid manner, notwithstanding her parsi- 
 mony. Her wisdom in the appointment of 
 Hawkins for this duty was another instance 
 of her choosing the right man for the right 
 post, and notwithstanding the storms which 
 
 The First Day's Fighting. 
 
 When Medina Sidonia saw the Enghsh fleet 
 near him he attempted to close with them and 
 crush them at once by sheer force of superior 
 
 •• i'HE Spaniards are upon us !" (seepage 529.^ 
 
 the ships encountered on their voyage to 
 Corunna, they were in a perfect state on their 
 return. It was not so with the Spaniards, 
 for after leaving Ferrol Bay the storms 
 they had net with had wrecked four of their 
 number. 
 
 numbers ; but the English squadron sailed so 
 quickly that the Duke found it impossible to 
 come up to them. The English ships seemed 
 able to fight or not fight as they chose. 
 
 The battle began by a bold little pin- 
 nace named The Disdain^ commanded by 
 
 537 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Jonas Bradbury, sailing quickly up to one of 
 the lagging Spanish galleons, and pouring a 
 scathing broadside into her at close quarters. 
 Then four of the English ships sailed behind 
 the entire rear line of the Spaniards, pouring 
 full broadsides into each galleon as they 
 passed, then bearing round and returning and 
 repeating the same operation. 
 
 The Spaniards were considerably surprised 
 at this course of action. These smart English 
 ships could sail, manoeuvre, and fire their 
 cannon much faster than they could, and 
 each English ship seemed to discharge four 
 broadsides to the Spaniards' one. Moreover, 
 as the Armada had allowed the English to slip 
 behind them, Lord Howard had the wind 
 in his favour, while the heavy and ponderous 
 galleons lay almost like huge logs on the 
 water. All the English ships were now 
 engaged, sailing quickly by the big ships, and 
 pouring in a broadside as they passed ; and 
 by the time the Spaniards were ready for 
 them they were off to another vessel. When 
 the Armada did fire, the shot frequently went 
 hissing over the English vessels, and splash- 
 ing into the sea beyond, wrought no damage. 
 But the English broadsides crashed into the 
 huge galleons near the water-line, ripping 
 through the thick timbers and scattering 
 death and destruction in the crowded lower 
 decks ; for many wounds were inflicted by the 
 splintered wood. The rigging also was much 
 damaged, and in some of the largest ships 
 spars were carried away, and the masts were 
 seriously weakened by being shot through. 
 
 As the evening drew on, the wind and 
 sea rose high, clouds rolled up from the 
 south-west and west, and all things promised 
 what sailors call a dirty night. Medina 
 Sidonia, finding he could do these sharp- 
 sailing English but little hurt as the weather 
 then was, gave orders for the Armada to sail 
 on towards Calais. The English followed, 
 and took every opportunity of harassing 
 their large and unwieldy enemy. The tactics 
 of the Spaniards rendered this task com- 
 paratively easy, for they sailed close together 
 in one large mass, which seriously impeded 
 their movements. As dusk drew on, a large 
 galleon, bearing the flag of Don Pedro de 
 Valdez, one of the ablest officers in the fleet, 
 collided with another galleon, and sustained 
 severe injury. The bowsprit broke, and also 
 the foremast, which had probably been much 
 weakened by the English shot, and both 
 hung at the vessel's side, a mass of wreckage 
 which seriously delalyed the vessel's progress. 
 Two galleys were sent to take her in tow, and 
 row her along, but the sea ran so high that 
 the ropes parted, and she became an easy 
 conquest, for the Spaniards, terrified at the 
 name of Drake, yielded at once when the 
 English commander boarded her. She proved 
 to be a rich prize, containing many casks of 
 
 gold pieces and some tons of gunpowder, 
 which were speedily transferred to the English 
 ships to be used against the Spaniards next 
 day. 
 
 But the misfortunes to the Armada on the 
 first day of fighting had not ended with the 
 wreck of Don Pedro's vessel. An explosion, 
 either accidental or caused wilfully by one of 
 the men who had been quarrelling, blew up 
 the deck of one of the largest and strongest 
 vessels, which bore the flag of Oquendo, a 
 daring and able officer. The ship was so 
 strongly built that she still floated, but many 
 of the men were killed, while the others were 
 taken off into the nearest Spanish vessels. 
 This wreck also afforded a rich prize next 
 day to the enterprising English, who found 
 much money and also some unexploded 
 barrels of powder in the hold. Thus, tossed 
 by the tempest and battered by the enemy's 
 bullets, ended the first day's " triumph " of 
 the Invincible Armada ! 
 
 The Fight off Portland ; Plucking 
 
 THE Feathers of the Spaniards one 
 
 BY one. 
 
 The next day, July 22nd, dawned calm and 
 still. As the rosy light stole over the still 
 heaving waters the two fleets were discovered 
 lying off Portland, about four miles apart. 
 The wind was so gentle and so much in 
 favour of the Armada that the English could 
 do little or nothing, and Medina Sidonia de- 
 termined to rest his crews after the turmoil 
 of yesterday. But next day the wind had. 
 increased still in the Spaniards' favour, and 
 they therefore bore down on the English^ 
 who flew off to sea. Medina Sidonia, think- 
 ing they were afraid of him, pursued them 
 as fast as the wind and the sinewy arms of 
 his slaves could force his ponderous vessels 
 through the water. But the English were 
 not afraid. Their plan was to draw off the 
 galleys and galleons one by one and encounter 
 them, if possible, singly, or only two or three 
 at a time. To use their own phrase, they 
 determined to " pluck the feathers of the 
 Spaniard one by one." This had been the 
 explanation of their conduct hitherto, and 
 was the policy they determined to still 
 pursue. It proved to be successful to-day 
 also. Some of the galleons outsailed the 
 others, and when the wind changed, as it 
 frequently does in the Channel in the after- 
 noon. Lord Howard turned and attacked the 
 one nearest him. She defended herself with 
 great bravery, but the English sailed so 
 quickly that the Spaniards could not close 
 with them. At last, when the English 
 powder and shot failed. Lord Howard was 
 obliged to sheer off for more, and the main 
 body of the Armada thought he had been 
 worsted in the fight. 
 
 The next day was calm, and through the 
 
 538 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 shimmering summer haze the Needles stood 
 out calm and still in distant view. Fight 
 as the English would, the Armada was 
 slowly sailing up Channel. The galleys 
 now endeavoured to row close to the 
 English ships, but they do not seem to 
 have accomplished their purpose or to have 
 done much damage. Lord Howard was 
 waiting for supplies, and this day, the 24th 
 of the month, was mostly a day of rest. 
 
 But that night a breeze sprang up, and 
 sloops bearing ammunition came to the 
 English ships, as also did a great number of 
 small private vessels, owned and chartered by 
 the gentlemen of the southern counties, and 
 all anxious to share the danger and glory of 
 defending their coasts. Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 too, had joined Howard and Drake. "And 
 now," says the old historian Stow, "the 
 English navy being well increased, gave 
 charge and chase upon the enemy, squadron 
 after squadron seconding each other like 
 swift horsemen that could nimbly come and 
 go and fetch the wind with most advantage." 
 Another contemporary writer. Sir Henry 
 Wotton, says that the battle off Portland was 
 like " a morrice-dance upon the waters," so 
 light and quick were the movements of the 
 Enghsh ships compared to the slow and un- 
 wieldy motions of the Spanish galleons. 
 
 This was the day when Medina Sidonia 
 was destined to learn that the English were 
 by no means afraid of him, and that the 
 failure of their powder and shot had been 
 their principal reason for sheering off before. 
 The battle this day seems to have been opened 
 by Hawkins placing men in boats to row his 
 ship — the Victory — alongside a large galleon 
 which had been so disabled in the fight of the 
 23rd that it was unmanageable. Medina 
 Sidonia seeing this, sent three galleys, rowed 
 against the wind by slaves, to rescue her. But 
 Hawkins had taken possession of the galleon, 
 and four English ships — the Liofi, the Eliza- 
 beth Jonas, the Bear, and the Triumph — 
 quickly beat up to the rescue, and gave the 
 galleys broadside after broadside with such 
 rapidity that it was not long before the blood 
 of the Spaniards flowed out of the scupper- 
 holes like water. The round shot crashed 
 through the much-vaunted thick sides of 
 their ships, and the splintered wood flying 
 like new missiles among the crowds of slaves 
 and soldiers did fearful damage. The rescu- 
 ing galleys had quite enough to do to defend 
 themselves, and seem to have given no more 
 thought to rescuing the galleon. 
 
 But the fight had now become general, 
 and the close order of the Armada having 
 become broken. Lord Howard, in the Ark 
 Raleigh, supported by his best ships, went 
 straight to the centre of the Spanish squadron, 
 where was Medina Sidonia himself, in the 
 huge sea-castle, San Martin. In everv case 
 
 the tactics of the English were the same. 
 They would sail close in under the great 
 galleons and pour in broadside after broad- 
 side with terrible effect into their high-built 
 sides, and then while the slow vessels were 
 veering round to attack, or the Spaniards 
 were endeavouring to grapple, they would 
 dart away and fire another broadside inta 
 another vessel. Like will-o'-the-wisps the 
 English ships darted hither and thither 
 spouting fire and flame, death and destruc- 
 tion, wherever they went. Yet by no manner 
 of means could the Spaniards put their hands 
 on them. When the Spaniards fired, the 
 shot, for the most part being delivered from 
 such high decks, and by reason of the bad 
 aim, flew wide and wild over the English 
 ships or through the rigging, and splashed 
 harmlessly into the sea beyond. Once, when 
 the bold Spanish commander, Oquendo, ran 
 right across the bows of the Ark Raleigh and 
 damaged her somewhat severely by the col- 
 lision so that her rudder was lost, and for the 
 time being she became unmanageable, a 
 number of galleons, wishing to make sure of 
 this their one poor chance of success, endea- 
 voured to close round her at once like wasps 
 on a ripe plum, but quick, almost as lightning, 
 Howard had out his boats, took his ship in 
 tow, and pulled her head round ; the wind 
 swelled her sails, and she slipped out of the 
 hands of the Spaniards as easily and grace- 
 fully as a bird ! 
 
 Such smartness and energy as the English 
 everywhere displayed dismayed the Spaniards 
 almost as much as the terrible torrents of 
 shot which so frequently crashed through 
 their ships' sides and smashed them ta 
 splinters. 'Tween decks, on many of these 
 tall sea-castles, the carnage was something 
 fearful. Thousands of soldiers were con- 
 gregated here, together with many slaves. 
 They had thought that four feet of timber 
 would be ample security ; but the English 
 round shot went ripping through the oaken 
 planks, and the splinters flying in all direc- 
 tions proved almost as destructive among the 
 crowded ranks as the shell fire of modern days. 
 
 As the sun passed the zenith, and the long, 
 hot summer afternoon wore on, the English 
 ammunition gave out once more, the ships 
 sheered off one by one, and the battle gradu- 
 ally died away. But the havoc among the 
 Spaniards had been enormous. Rigging and 
 masts, boats and bulwarks, sides and steering 
 gear, had all suffered, and the placid surface of 
 the summer sea was strewn with splintered 
 fragmentsfor manyamile. Even the Admiral's, 
 ship, the San Martin, had had its main mast 
 shot away, and the weak and inexperienced 
 commander, Medina Sidonia, was only kept 
 from striking his flag by the fiery ardour of 
 Oquendo and the bravery of Recalde. Had 
 the English been well supplied with ammu- 
 
 539 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 nition there seems but little doubt but they 
 would have continued their tactics until they 
 had smashed the whole of the " Invincible" 
 Armada to splinters, or forced the ships one 
 by one to strike their flags. But the Queen's 
 poverty or parsimony was such that they were 
 continually running short of all supplies. 
 Even when a prize was taken, the conquerors 
 were obliged to carefully register all the 
 powder and provisions obtained before they 
 could use them. Thus the next day, instead 
 of completing the rout, Lord Howard was 
 obhged to hasten to Dover for fresh supplies. 
 On the following day, Saturday, 27th July, 
 the opportunity was gone, for the week of 
 light wind and sunshine came to an end, and 
 the rough seas of the Channel prevented any 
 concerted attack. Medina Sidonia, bent on 
 carrying out his instructions and effecting a 
 junction with the Prince of Parma, beat 
 further up Channel, but at length was obliged 
 to anchor in Calais Roads for fear of running 
 on the Goodwins or some of the innumerable 
 shoals of the narrow seas. All Saturday 
 night and Sunday he lay there, sending off 
 messenger after messenger to Parma praying 
 him to send him some light vessels in which 
 to attack the English, and also some skilful 
 pilots to steer him through the straits. 
 
 But these were just the two things Parma 
 could not do. He did not or he could not at 
 first even reply, so closely was he block- 
 aded by Lord Seymour ; so here was the 
 splendid spectacle for all Europe to witness, 
 of two great armies having boasted loudly 
 and long of their determination to beard the 
 English lion in his den, and having got near 
 enough to do so, yet both afraid to take the 
 final step and meet him face-to-face and 
 touch his teeth. Truly the Spanish com- 
 mander seemed to fear the narrow seas, with 
 that terrible English fleet behind, as if they 
 were indeed as dangerous as the mouth of a 
 raging lion. 
 
 He wrote again and again to Parma, ask- 
 ing for ship-loads of powder and shot, and 
 also for gun-boats, which could move quickly 
 and keep the terrible English at bay. 
 
 Parma's answer, when it did come, was that 
 he could not and should not stir until the 
 Armada had cleared the Channel and dis- 
 persed the English fleet. To embark his 
 immense army in transports unprotected by 
 big ships would be certain destruction. The 
 magnificent Armada was sent to help and 
 protect Parma, and Parma could not protect 
 it. Once set on English shores then he would 
 know what to do, and would strike quickly 
 and well, but he could do nothing until then. 
 This seems to have been the substance of 
 Parma's answer put into the plain English of 
 to-day, and without doubt he was right to a 
 great extent. His was an army for fighting 
 on land, and he had no armed boats to pro- 
 
 tect the numerous transports for conveying 
 that army. The English fleet could almost 
 blow them out of the water without coming 
 to close quarters. Philip had anticipated 
 that without doubt the Armada could dispose 
 of the English fleet in one decisive sea-fight, 
 and that Parma should cross under the pro- 
 tection of the Armada. But there was the 
 despised English fleet watching the Armada 
 just out of cannon shot and only waiting op- 
 portunity to destroy it piecemeal. 
 
 The Fire-ships. 
 This waiting, however, did not suit the Eng- 
 lish at all. Their supplies were still very short, 
 and some of the ships appear to have had — 
 even with the supplies from Dover — only suf- 
 ficient for one day's fighting and one day's 
 food. At that time they did not know 
 Medina Sidonia's fears, nor the extent of 
 damage they had done him. They only 
 knew he was in communication with Parma, 
 and that he had anchored close on shoal 
 water near the French coast, where they 
 could not attack with any chance of success. 
 
 As the Sunday afternoon wore away, 
 Medina Sidonia seems to have sent another 
 message to Parma, saying that he must cross 
 at once, and that he would endeavour to keep 
 the English engaged. To this Parma replied 
 that he would be ready during the week, and 
 that his army should embark on the Friday 
 following. But he again insisted on the fact 
 that the Armada must do all the sea fighting, 
 and must protect his troops while crossing. 
 
 But while these messages were passing, 
 while the sun of the Sabbath afternoon sank to 
 a stormy sunset, and all England was praying 
 in her churches with greater fervour than ever 
 before, " Save us and deliver us, we humbly 
 beseech Thee, from the hands of our 
 enemies," the English captains had held a 
 hurried and anxious consultation in the cabin 
 of the Ark Raleigh, Lord Howard's flag- ship. 
 The fate of England seemed almost settled. 
 Although they had done their utmost the 
 immense numbers of the Spaniards had en- 
 abled them to hold out, and they were anchored 
 in communication with Parma, and that prince, 
 if energetic, could land some, if not all, his 
 troops. What was to be done ? 
 
 Presently the captains left their Admiral's 
 cabin with brighter faces. A bold step had 
 been decided on, — a step which, according to 
 Camden, was commanded by Elizabeth her- 
 self; but remembering how she loved 
 flattery, we may perhaps be pardoned for 
 inclining to the belief that the design really 
 originated with the daring Drake than with 
 her, although contemporaries wishing to gain 
 her favour might give her the credit of it. 
 
 In the fancied temporary security of that 
 evening the Spaniards went to sleep. No 
 English could surely attack them that night. 
 
 540 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 But while most of them were in their first slum- 
 ber, and the watch on deck had been almost 
 lulled to unconscious repose by the wash of 
 the waves against their ships' sides, suddenly 
 in the darkness of the cloudy night bright 
 flashes of light shot upward from some 
 small ships that had crept unseen into their 
 midst, and before any one could tell what 
 was the matter, the Armada was lit up by the 
 burning blaze of several fire-ships, and dense 
 volumes of suffocating smoke rolled around. 
 
 The tireless English had taken eight of the 
 most worthless of their attendant vessels, and 
 smearing the rigging and decks plentifully 
 with pitch, and putting aboard sulphur and 
 
 fleet to follow him. When he reached the 
 clear water of the Channel, and in the dim- 
 ness and dusk saw the huge forms of his gal- 
 leons looming around him, he congratulated 
 himself on having skilfully checked the evil 
 design of the enemy — when, in fact, he had 
 done just exactly what they wanted him to 
 do. At daybreak he discovered that many of 
 his ships had drifted off towards Flanders, 
 that the largest of the galleys was aground 
 on Calais bar, and that others were collecting 
 off Gravelines. 
 
 The energetic English commander sent off 
 boat-loads of sailors at the earliest dawn to 
 attack the stranded galley, and ere long, the 
 
 The FiRE-SHii-s sent among the Spanish Vessels. 
 
 small quantities of gunpowder, had towed 
 them under cover of the night near to the 
 Armada, and then setting fire to them with 
 slow matches, had set theiTi drifting with the 
 tide right into the centre of the Spanish ships. 
 The result was successful even beyond the 
 hopes of the English. The Spaniards were 
 thrown into a fearful panic, and fearing that 
 floating mines were upon them, they cut their 
 cables and put out to sea. If the Spanish 
 commander had been equal to h i s post he might 
 perhaps have quelled the panic by getting out 
 boats quickly, rowing to the hre-ships, and 
 tugging them clear ; but anxious to prevent 
 disaster he hastened out to sea and ordered his 
 
 English were swarming over her bulwarks. 
 It was a fierce fight, for the Spaniards de- 
 fended themselves with the bravery of despair ; 
 but the victory was with the EngUsh, although 
 they lost many men. The Spaniards lost four 
 hundred men. 
 
 The Action off Gravelines. 
 During this time Medina Sidonia, with the 
 ships which had remained near him, en- 
 deavoured to take up his position again in 
 Calais harbour ; he also signalled for his 
 other vessels to follow his example. But 
 Drake had made up his mind that the 
 Spaniards should never drop anchor again 
 
 541 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 in their former place of security, and, more- 
 over, he was determined that they should be 
 driven through the straits into the wild North 
 Sea. Drake and Fenner therefore commenced 
 the fight in the early morning by sailing close 
 in to the galleons, and between them and 
 the French shore ; while Hawkins, Frobisher, 
 Howard, and others soon came up; and follow- 
 ing the tactics which had answered so well 
 on the preceding days, the English ships 
 coming to windward of the Spaniards, sa.iled 
 smartly in under the high-decked galleons 
 and pouring in a continuous torrent of shot, 
 swiftly passed away out of danger as necessity 
 arose. 
 
 The "Invincible" Armada, huddled close 
 together, sailed slov/ly up Channel to the fatal 
 straits, smartly followed by the EngUsh, who, 
 reserving their fire till they could get quite 
 near, sent crashing broadsides one after the 
 other into the unwieldy castles, which, 
 hemmed in on every side, and unable to 
 grapple with their swiftly darting enemy, 
 were forced slowly but surely to the surf- 
 beaten shoals of the Flemish coast. All 
 through that long summer day, from the 
 time when the early morning dawn glinted on 
 the Channel waves, to the evening hour when 
 long lines of red light from the sinkmg sun 
 streaked the wreck-laden sea — all day long 
 did the rain of round shot continue, until 
 every charge of powder was gone, every 
 ball sent on its deadly errand, and every 
 seaman weary with the hard and incessant 
 toil. The carnage among the Spaniards 
 had been fearful. Riddled with shot, masts 
 in splinters, sails in rags, and guns dis- 
 mounted, half the seamen killed, and drift- 
 ing on an unknown and inhospitable shore, 
 the Armada was indeed in a pitiable plight. It 
 is computed by the Spaniards themselves that 
 they lost not less than four thousand men that 
 day, besides the number of wounded. The 
 crowded galleons became slaughter-houses, 
 and blood poured out from many a scupper- 
 hole like bilge-water. In many cases the 
 vessels were only kept afloat by plates of 
 iron nailed over the shot holes, and the 
 principal occupation of many a man that 
 day was thus to stop the leaks of his ship. 
 
 As it was, three of the huge galleons went 
 down before the day was done, and three 
 •others, totally unmanageable, drifted help- 
 lessly on Ostend, where two fell afterwards 
 into English hands, and the men of the 
 other finally were able to join Parma. But 
 as the sun finally sank, and the grey twilight 
 crept over the water, another terrible misfor- 
 tune befell : the Santa Maria, one of the 
 largest galleons left afloat, went down with 
 all hands. 
 
 During the evening and night of this 
 terrible day — the 29th — Medina Sidonia col- 
 lected his ships, and crowding on all the sail 
 
 their shattered masts could carry, stood out 
 for the Northern Sea. The English, not 
 knowing how severely their enemies were 
 injured, and thinking that, as Howard said, 
 " they were still wonderful great and strong," 
 resolved still to give chase and do what more 
 damage they could. 
 
 But the Spaniards thought no more of 
 fighting. Their proud spirit was completely 
 broken, and they only thought of saving 
 themselves. A few officers were still unsub- 
 dued, but the men were completely panic- 
 stricken. 
 
 " What af^e we to do, Senor Oquendo.'' we 
 are lost — utterly lost ! " exclaimed Sidonia in 
 despair to his bravest officer. 
 
 " Lost ! " exclaimed Oquendo in scornful 
 anger. " Not so, your Excellency ? order up 
 fresh gunpowder." 
 
 But at the council of war held in Sidonia's 
 cabin it was resolved to retreat to Spain by 
 the one unopposed course, — up the North 
 Sea, round the Orkneys, and home by way of 
 the west of Ireland. And although the wind 
 swung round to the east, and consequently 
 in their favour for taking up again their safe 
 and sure anchorage in Calais harbour, yet 
 the timorous counsels prevailed, and the 
 "Invincible" Armada set sail for the cir- 
 cuitous retreat. As the Spaniards slowly 
 beat northwards, they refitted their vessels as 
 best they might, and all the men were put on 
 short rations of water, so that the casks might 
 last out until they saw again the blue hills 
 and fair shores of Spain. 
 
 But it was few of them that ever saw 
 their native land again. A fierce south- 
 west wind blew up, and the sea was soon in 
 a raging fury. The sailors had hard work tc 
 keep their shaken and shattered ships afloat 
 in such a tempestuous sea ; and when the 
 straining seams of one poor wounded vessel 
 after another gave way, and she became 
 water-logged and dropped behind, the others, 
 still in woeful fear of the terrible English 
 fleet, pressed on and left the laggards to 
 sink. 
 
 The English ships still continued to follow 
 the fleeing Armada, although they were but 
 poorly supplied with provisions. They pur- 
 sued the Spaniards as far as Dunbar, and 
 then finding that the enemy passed by the 
 Firth of Forth, and that there seemed to be 
 no chance whatever of their putting into any 
 Scotch port. Lord Howard was reluctantly 
 compelled to return for more supplies. 
 
 It was a bitter, bitter disappointment to 
 see the Armada once again elude his grasp. 
 Once more, and for the third and last time, 
 the Armada escaped, simply because the 
 English ships were so ill supplied. At the 
 time of returning they had but three days' 
 rations on board. Howard beat back to the 
 Thames, the vessels so admirably fitted out 
 
 5 12 
 
HAND IN HAND FOR ENGLAND. 
 
 and equipped by Sir John Hawkins standing 
 the strain splendidly. 
 
 The Flying Armada. 
 
 But it was far otherwise with the miserable 
 Armada. Out of the hundred and fifty proud 
 vessels which had sailed so majestically out of 
 Ferrol Bay in the glad sunlight of the summer 
 morning, thirty already were gone (some 
 accounts state forty), and of the one hundred 
 and twenty remaining, many were so shattered 
 that it seemed hardly possible for them to 
 weather another gale. So many men were 
 ■wounded that each ship seemed like a hospi- 
 tal, and every day the sad ceremony took 
 place of sinking the dead in the shotted 
 hammock shroud. 
 
 As they passed round the coast of Cromarty 
 and came to the north of Scotland, a great 
 storm burst upon them, and the huge gal- 
 leons rolled so much in the wild sea that no 
 boat could be lowered. Sail after sail was 
 split to tatters by the furious wind ; masts 
 weakened by the shot fell with a crash, and 
 hanging overboai-d cumbered the vessels and 
 made them still more unmanageable. The 
 ships became scattered; next morning they 
 had lost sight of each other. This was on 
 the 20th of August, and it was three days 
 before they became in some measure reunited. 
 
 Their position was indeed miserable ; in a 
 ■wild and unknown sea, their vessels battered 
 by shot and tossed by the fierce wind, anchors 
 lost, hulls riddled with holes, masts and 
 rigging gone, and crews decimated by war 
 and sickness, their misery was extreme. 
 
 They now made for the coasts of Connaught 
 and Kerry, hoping to find some kind friends 
 among the Romanists of the west of Ireland, 
 But wild western storms came on again, and 
 they were exposed to the full fury of the At- 
 lantic. For a dozen days they were driven 
 about hither and thither, able only to com- 
 municate by signals, and each one sailing by 
 itself. Deluged with rain and battered by 
 the tremendous billows and fierce winds, one 
 after the other gave up, and, with rudder torn 
 away, either sunk in the raging sea or drifted 
 to the rock-bound shore where the surf cease- 
 lessly breaks on a wild beach ; and those of 
 the men who escaped the perils of shipwreck 
 were massacred by the wild Irish peasantry 
 for the sake of plunder, or executed by order 
 of the English governors of Limerick and 
 Tralee, who feared a Spanish- Irish rising in 
 the west, and but imperfectly knew of the 
 defeat of the Armada in the Channel. 
 
 Ship after ship touched at several Irish 
 ports and seaside villages begging for water. 
 Pipes of wine, rich silver plate, casks of 
 golden doubloons were offered for a little 
 water, but everywhere refused. The fear of 
 the English prevailed, and no Irish mayor 
 or sheriff dared to run the risk of the gallows. 
 
 Of the scores of Spaniards that were flung 
 ashore when the ships were wrecked, all were 
 murdered or died in prison except one, a 
 nobleman, whose friends were expected to 
 pay a rich ransom for him. 
 
 The rocks of the Orkney Isles, of the Faroes, 
 of Arran, of Mull, of the whole of that ter- 
 rible shore which breaks the fury of the 
 Atlantic on the west of Ireland, and of the 
 dreaded Blaskets were strewn that stormy 
 ] autumn with a rich sea-wrack which the 
 savage wreckers of those wild days seldom 
 found : chests of Spanish doubloons, the 
 gold and silver plate of haughty Dons, casks 
 of wine, heavy cannon, and timber enough to 
 build a respectable fleet, — all were cast here 
 ashore. And more dismal wreckage besides, 
 for on the shore near Sligo more than eleven 
 hundred corpses were counted in one day as 
 the dead cast up by the sea ; while between 
 Giant's Causeway and the Blaskets over 
 eight thousand are computed to have per- 
 ished ; about eleven hundred were officially 
 executed as the Queen's enemies, while over 
 three thousand fell before the swords of the 
 Irish wreckers. 
 
 The Return Home. 
 
 Early in October, fifty-three shattered 
 ships, with ragged sails, torn rigging, and 
 leaking sides, half-manned by a few toil-worn, 
 diseased, exhausted seamen, crawled one by 
 one into Santander, Corunna, and other 
 Spanish ports, the miserable remnant of that 
 splendid fleet which a few months before had 
 set forth so proudly from the Tagus. Ninety- 
 eight large vessels had perished, either by 
 the shot of the enemy or the fury of the ■waves, 
 while upwards of fourteen thousand men had 
 fallen in action with the English fleet or had 
 died from sickness or from shipwreck. 
 
 The defeat was a terrible blow to Spain. 
 It was a national disaster ; nearly every 
 family was in mourning, and the signs of 
 personal sorrow appeared on every face. An 
 universal cry of bitter grief went up from the 
 land. The Duke of Medina Sidonia im- 
 mediately on his landing retired to his house 
 in the depths of the country, and refused to 
 see any one ; his heart was sick with the 
 humiliation of defeat and dishonour. 
 
 And the sorrow was the greater inas- 
 much as it was reaction from the joy felt at 
 the first news of triumphant victory. For in 
 those July days it was industriously spread 
 abroad that the dreaded Drake had been 
 beaten, that he was a prisoner, that the Eng- 
 lish ships had been all destroyed, that the 
 Armada was in Portsmouth and Parma in 
 London. All kinds of reports filled the air, 
 but everybody agreed that the turbulent 
 English, the " hens of heretics " were beaten 
 at last. But a few more days and the notes 
 of joy and triumph were turned to weeping 
 
 ^M 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY, 
 
 and wailing. The news came (of course ex- 
 aggerated) of the action off Portland, of the 
 midnight affair with the fire-ships, of the 
 disaster at Gra valines, and of the flight through 
 the Straits, 
 
 Then came days and weeks of prolonged 
 uncertainty, filled with the agony of suspense ; 
 then came home the shattered remnant with 
 the sick seamen, of whom many died after 
 landing ; and then the mourning for those 
 who never would return. The priests and 
 strong supporters of the Pope explained the 
 wrath of heaven by saying that the earthly 
 designs of Philip to annex England to his 
 crown had spoiled the spirituality of the 
 enterprise ; and that if he had been content 
 to win the heretic island for the Pope alone, 
 without doubt he would have succeeded. 
 Others maintained that Drake and Howard 
 and Frobisher were devils incarnate, and 
 that mortal man could not stand against 
 them ; while there were those again who 
 blamed Medina Sidonia and Parma. " Who 
 could stand against such storms?" said 
 Philip when he received the news. " I sent 
 my ships against men, not against the wild 
 seas." All kinds of mendacious stories were 
 circulated throughout Europe to cover the 
 Spaniards' defeat ; and concerning these 
 Strype tells us that Sir Francis Drake wrote, — 
 " They were not ashamed to publish in 
 sundry languages in print great victories in 
 words which they pretended to have obtained 
 against this realm, and spread the same in a 
 most false sort over all parts of France, 
 Italy, and elsewhere ; when, shortly after- 
 wards, it was happily manifested in every 
 deed to all nations, how their navy, which 
 they termed invincible, . . . were by thirty 
 of Her Majesty's own ships of war, and 
 a few of our own merchants, by the wise, 
 valiant, and advantageous conduct of the 
 Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral of 
 England, beaten and shuffled together even 
 from the Lizard in Cornwall, first to Portland, 
 where they shamefully left Don Pedro de 
 Valdez with his mighty ship ; from Portland 
 to Calais, when they lost Hugh de Mongado, 
 with the galley of which he was captain ; 
 and from Calais, driven with squibs from 
 their anchor, were chased out of the sight of 
 England, round about Scotland and Ireland. 
 Where, for the sympathy of their religion, 
 hoping to find succour and assistance, a 
 great part of them were crushed against the 
 rocks, and those others that landed, being 
 very many in number, were, notwithstanding, 
 broken, slain, and taken. . . . With all their 
 great and terrible ostentation, they did not 
 in all their sailing round about England so 
 
 much as sink or take one ship, bark, 
 pinnace, or cockboat of ours, or even so 
 much as burn one sheep-cote on this land." 
 
 Like the Spanish soldiers who returned 
 home to die, many of the brave English 
 seamen also died of disease and semi-starva- 
 tion when the excitement of the defence was 
 over. Hundreds of poor fellows were taken 
 ashore and died in the streets of Margate 
 and other places on the coast. Drake and 
 Howard and other officers opened their 
 purses freely to supply their needs, for not 
 medicine, good food, or wages would Eliza- 
 beth supply. 
 
 Only about fifty Englishmen were killed 
 in action with the Spaniards, but they died 
 by hundreds a few days after on the shores 
 of the island they had so bravely saved. 
 
 It is sad to read these details, and learn 
 that the lustre of the great victory was 
 thus marred by the needless death of the 
 brave men who won it. But the work 
 accomplished by those half-starved and 
 ragged seamen lived after them. T-heir 
 victory was one of the most momentous the 
 world has ever seen. It broke the power 
 of the Romanist despotism over Europe, and 
 gave free play to the progressive intelligence 
 of Protestantism. Spain, which for so long 
 a time had held the greater part of Europe 
 in her bigoted and blighting clutch, received 
 a blow from which she never afterwards really 
 rallied. Philip's next attempt in Ireland 
 failed miserably, and Parma was obliged to 
 retire discomfited from the Netherlands. 
 English ships chased galleon after galleon 
 from the ocean, and slowly the great empire 
 broke in pieces. And while the naval 
 supremacy of Spain declined, that of England 
 increased ; she became at once one of the 
 powers of the world. 
 
 The statesmen of Europe saw that hence- 
 forth the " heretic island " would have to 
 be reckoned with. There was no longer a 
 fear of her becoming a mere appanage of 
 Spain or France. She who had beaten the 
 Armada could no longer be lightly con- 
 sidered. Moreover, her trade penetrated 
 everywhere, her colonies were planted on 
 every soil, and her flag became supreme on 
 every sea. Thus to the wise ministers of 
 Elizabeth, to Francis Drake and his brave 
 colleagues, and to those ragged, half-starved 
 seamen who beat the Spaniards and then 
 lay down to die, we owe it in some measure 
 that our beloved land rose to the proud 
 position of a Great Power of the world, the 
 Mother of Free Nations, and the Sovereign 
 of the Seas. 
 
 F. M. H. 
 
 544 
 
Signing the Covenant. 
 
 BIBLE AND SWORD: 
 
 THE STORY OF CLAVERHOUSE AND THE COVENANTERS 
 
 The Mad, Roaring Time— A happy Martyr— Nicodemus— The Cabbage-woman's Stool— The Covenants of 1638 and 1643 
 —Prince Charles swallows them— Character of Archbishop Sharp —The Drunken Act— Sandy Peden's Farewell- 
 Tricks on the new Curates— The greatest Drunkard of his Age— Lauderdale's shock Head— The Scots Mile Act— 
 A Martial Student of Quevedo— Spotting the Absentees— Four " Honest Men"— Turner in his Nightgown— Turning a 
 Turner— The Fight at Rullion Green— The Torture of the Bjots— Ephraira Macbriar at the Scaffold— The " Honest" 
 Hangman of Irvine— The Forty Dumb Dogs— Cruelties of Dalziel— Act against Conventicles— The Highland 
 Savages brought down— Appearance of "Bloody Clavers "—Magus Moor— Defeat of Claverhouse at Drumclog— 
 His Horse pitchforked— Bothwell Bridge— A dreadful Ship»vre:k -The Cameronians— Given over to Satan— 'The 
 Killing Time— F.xecution of Women— The Wigtown Female Martyrs— The True Story of John Brown— Graham's 
 own Confession. 
 
 The Coming of the Merry Monarch ; 
 Execution of Ja.aies Guthrie. 
 TIFF-NECKED Scotland— persist- 
 ing, as Caiiyle has expressed it, in 
 her own most hide-bound formula 
 of a Covenanted Charles Stuart — was thrown 
 
 into a state of delirious joy by the news of the 
 arrival of the Merry Monarch in England on 
 the 29th of May, 1660. The roar of cannon 
 and the blaze of tar barrels echoed and 
 gleamed over the country ; everywhere there 
 was loud and demonstrative rejoicing ; ladies 
 545 NN 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and gentlemen even indulged in the dance in 
 the exuberance of triumph ; and one young 
 lord, touched with the fervour of a spinning 
 dervish or marabout, vi^as only held back by 
 strong arms from tossing his rings, chains, 
 jewels, and all that was precious about him 
 into the fire. 
 
 But there were some who were still stiff- 
 necked enough to dote upon the Covenants 
 in that mad, roaring time — so-called Remon- 
 strants or Protesters, extreme Presbyterians, 
 who saw nothing worth living for but to stamp 
 their " pure and spotless " church polity over 
 the whole land — who had a fervid way of 
 moving heaven and earth to that end in 
 prayers, sermons, petitions, and pamphlets. 
 Patrick Gillespie, who held the pen to the 
 royal scapegrace in 1650, and Samuel Ruther- 
 ford, who had a passion for the tropes and 
 figures of the vSong of Solomon, and wrote a 
 book against tyrants, entitled " Lex Rex," were 
 the burning and shining lights of this small 
 but loud party. In August a dozen of them 
 were seized in Edinburgh, while concocting 
 some wholesome advice for the benefit of the 
 royal rake about the ceremonies of his chapel, 
 and an honest but imprudent reminder of his 
 former solemn approval of the Covenants. 
 They were shut up in the castle ; they were 
 threatened with a process of treason ; they 
 remained as inflexible as adamant on the 
 point that they had a right to petition. 
 
 One of them, the Reverend James Guthrie, 
 was specially detested by General Middleton, 
 the King's chief Scottish adviser, a fierce 
 military upstart who had followed war as 
 his trade since boyhood. The untamable 
 tongue of the minister of Stirling might do 
 a deal of mischief yet, if it were allowed to 
 wag, for he was little more than forty years 
 of age. Banishment was the severest penalty 
 hitherto imposed on preachers for their 
 opinions. But this man had been the author 
 of papers full of " damnable and execrable " 
 slanders against the Royal Martyr and other 
 crowned heads, and had " let fly at the King " 
 in his sermons ten years before. In February 
 he was indicted for treason, fought his own 
 battle, and was condemned to death. He 
 received the sentence with a light heart. 
 It had long been the wish of his life to die a 
 martyr. In the streets of Edinburgh he had 
 once had a vision of this blessed consum- 
 mation. On the 1st of June, 1661, in the same 
 week that saw Argyll's head fall, he suffered 
 martyrdom. He discoursed from the ladder 
 for an hour with as much composure as if he 
 were only delivering one of his usual sermons. 
 " I take God to record upon my soul I would 
 not exchange this scaffold," he cried, " with 
 the palace or mitre of the greatest prelate in 
 Britain." When the napkin was laid upon 
 his face, he lifted it and shouted, " The Cove- 
 nants, the Covenants, shall yet be Scotland's 
 
 rejoicing ! " With the words of the aged 
 Simeon on his lips he was executed. 
 His "dying testimony" was preserved as 
 sweet and precious. When his head was cut 
 off to be spiked on one of the city gates, the 
 body was tenderly dressed in church by a 
 number of ladies, who dipped their handker- 
 chiefs in the blood and carried them away as 
 precious memorials to be held up to heaven 
 in their invocations. There was another 
 remai'kable incident at this strange scene. 
 " There came in a pleasant young gentleman^ 
 and poured out a bottle of rich ointment on 
 the body, which filled the whole church with 
 a noble perfume." Weeks after, it was said^ 
 drops of blood fell from the withered head 
 on the cover of Middleton's coach, and no- 
 art of man could wipe them out. 
 
 This infamous execution failed to raise in 
 Scotland anything like universal indignation ; 
 partly because the Presbyterian camp had 
 long been divided into two parties that were 
 ready to fly at each other's throat, and partly 
 because there had arisen a new generation) 
 which rebelled against the social tight-lacing of 
 the Commonwealth, But it sounded the key- 
 note of the policy of the Stuarts ; and vv^e shall 
 see hovv, step by step, the faithful adherents 
 of the Covenants were " cabined, cribbed,, 
 confined," until at last they rose in arms, were 
 butchered and banished, gave the Stuarts 
 over to Satan, and were shot down remorse- 
 lessly by the dragoons of Claverhouse in the 
 wilds ol Ayr and Galloway. 
 
 Jenny Geddes ; The Covenants. 
 
 Blunder after blunder had been committed 
 by the Scottish Solomon and the " Royal 
 Martyr" in their attempts at the personal 
 government of democratic Scotland. King 
 James, once seated on the English throne^ 
 sought to thrust prelacy upon his native 
 country, although he had at one time as- 
 sured the Presbyterians of Scotland that 
 they possessed the purest Church on earth. 
 When some distasteful doctrines were about 
 to be ratified in the Black Parliament of 162 1, 
 and the King's commissioner rose to touch 
 the Act with the tip of the sceptre, a vivid 
 flash of lightning, then a second and a third, 
 gleamed through the window, amid loud 
 claps of thunder ; a storm of hail and rain 
 swept across the northern metropolis, and 
 the streets ran like rivers. Many declared 
 that the wrath of heaven had descended on 
 a deed so impious ; other readers of God's 
 judgments likened the omen to the majestic 
 sanctions of Sinai. 
 
 In the time of the first Charles, an old 
 woman in Edinburgh, named Jenny Geddes, 
 rose up in church one summer day, and 
 hurled her stool at a surpliced dean who was 
 about to read Laud's liturgy, shouting out the 
 immortal words, " Villain, dost thou say the 
 
 546 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 mass at my lug ? " This was not, as Charles 
 fondly thought, but the idle and foolish 
 word of a scolding virago : the whizz of that 
 cabbage-woman's chair across the Kirk of St. 
 Giles was a symbol and prelude of the wrath 
 of Scotland which drove the tyrant from his 
 throne. Nobles, gentlemen, ministers, and 
 the people erected tables in an Edinburgh 
 churchyard (1638), and there, and all over 
 the excited country, signed, sometimes with 
 their own blood, a document known as the 
 National Covenant, abjuring prelacy and 
 binding its subscribers to stand up for their 
 own religion and Presbyterian government. 
 The foolish King marched with an English 
 (to them a foreign) army against the cove- 
 nanters, the historic name of those who main- 
 tained that the sovereign had no right to 
 dictate to assemblies on religious matters ; 
 but " old crooked " Leslie waited for him at 
 Duns Law with the blue banner ; and in the 
 next year the blue-bonneted "Jockies" sent 
 his riff-raff redcoats flying in a panic at 
 Newburn. 
 
 The Solemn League and Covenant (1643) 
 was another memorable document. In this 
 the parliaments of England and Scotland 
 joined hands for the mutual defence of the 
 true religion, and for the extirpation of popery 
 and prelacy in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
 land. King Charles would not accept it after 
 his surrender to the Scottish forces in 1646. 
 He was accordingly given over to the tender 
 mercies of the English Parliament, and, as 
 all the Avorld knows, the " royal martyr," de- 
 nounced by his foes as "tyrant, traitor, mur- 
 derer, and public enemy," was beheaded on 
 the 30th day of January, 1649. 
 
 The Farce that closed with a Tra- 
 gedy ; Prince Charles accepts the 
 Covenants. 
 The merry monarch, who "never said a 
 foolish thing nor ever did a wise one," acted 
 in 1650 one of the most selfish farces on 
 record. It is ludicrous if we contrast the 
 secret grimaces of the young scapegrace with 
 the grim countenances and credulous loyalty 
 of the Scotsmen who gazed on him, but 
 tragic when we view it in the fierce light of 
 the coming years and see the faithless de- 
 bauchee — a secret papist— thrust episcopacy 
 into the pulpits of Scotland, and in clearest 
 breach of his vow to the patriots who fought 
 and bled for him against Cromwell, suffer 
 and prescribe them to be eaten out of house 
 and home, fined, plundered, imprisoned, sent 
 into slavery, hunted to their holes and shot 
 down as vermin. On the i6th day of 
 August the clever prince, then twenty years 
 of age, was in the tiny city of Dunfermline, 
 the ancient residence of many of his pre- 
 decessors. Before him was spread out a 
 "most remarkable" document, containing 
 
 things that were "doubtless of hard diges- 
 tion." The lad expresses deep contrition 
 before God for his father's opposition to the 
 cause of the Scottish Church and for the 
 idolatry of his esteemed mother ; declares 
 that he had sworn to the Covenants, not 
 " upon any sinister and crooked design, for 
 attaining his own ends, but so far as human 
 weakness will permit, in the truth and sincerity 
 of his heart ; " and promises to extirpate po- 
 pery, prelacy, and all schisms from every part 
 of his dominions. The Rev. Patrick Gillespie 
 held out the pen, appealing to him not to 
 sign the paper, no not for three kingdoms, 
 if he could not do so with his soul and con- 
 science. But Charles "could swallow any- 
 thing," as occasion demanded. "Mr. Gillespie, 
 Mr. Gillespie, I am satisfied, I am satisfied," he 
 exclaimed, and signed the indigestible docu- 
 ment. We do not wonder that Charles in later 
 days often spoke with bitter jest of his un- 
 fortunate Scottish trip, and maintained that 
 Presbytery was no religion for a gentleman. 
 
 The Primate Sharp ; The Drunken 
 Act; "Auld Sandy's" Farewell. 
 Scotland, Guthrie's execution showed, was 
 not to have the theocracy, the New Jeru- 
 salem, of the Protesters. But still most of 
 the ministers were not attached to this party ; 
 they were "sober" Presbyterians ; and Charles 
 assured them in 1660 that the Scottish Church 
 would remain as it had been settled by law. 
 He kept his word, but in a strange way. The 
 "terrible parliament" of 1661 acted as if its 
 members had just risen from a drunken bout : 
 the Covenants were condemned as illegal ; all 
 Acts since 1633 were swept away ; the royal 
 supremacy in Church and State was declared ; 
 the settlement of the Church's government 
 was pronounced an inherent right of the 
 Crown. The Scottish courtiers hastened to 
 the scramble in London. In the teeth of the 
 covenanting Lauderdale and others, Charles 
 declared for prelacy : publicly he branded 
 the Presbyterian Church as violent and hos- 
 tile to the royal prerogative, out of harmony 
 with the Churches of England and Ireland ; 
 privately he said it was no religion for a 
 gentleman. James Sharp, the man whom the 
 Scottish ministers had trusted as their own 
 souls to manage their affairs at Court, was 
 offered the honour of primate, and dishonour- 
 ably accepted it. Scotland was rolled back 
 to where she stood in 1637. 
 
 " Take it, and the curse of God with it,"' 
 the gentle Robert Douglas is reported to 
 have said as he clapped Sharp's shoulder 
 and shut the door. And the curse did come. 
 He shared with Middleton, Lauderdale, Mac- 
 kenzie, Dalziel, Lagg, and Clavers, the fierce 
 obloquy of the covenanters. He was called 
 a monster of hypocrisy, perjury, and vileness. 
 
 He was the murderer of his own child of 
 
 547 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 shame, and had buried the innocent babe 
 under the hearthstone. He was a sorcerer ; 
 an old woman saw him closeted with the Prince 
 of Darkness after midnight. Such was the 
 mud thrown at him. Yet James Sharp had 
 his small virtues. His friend Cromwell had 
 called him " Sharp of that Ilk." We have 
 admired his beautiful penmanship. His early 
 letters, too, have the flavour of a graceful 
 piety. The perfume quickly evaporated under 
 the sunshine of royal smiles. He was a 
 despot's tool, and, like the proverbial beggar, 
 rode at full gallop. Nature had destined 
 him for an attorney's clerk ; and in a few 
 years some wild Scotsmen stabbed him hor- 
 ribly on Magus Moor, after they had prayed 
 long and often and had heard the voice of 
 God. 
 
 The covenants were burned and caricatured. 
 Patronage, which had been abolished in 1649, 
 was restored. Ministers who had been in- 
 stalled since that date by popular election 
 were to be presented by the patrons and col- 
 lated by the bishops ; they were to observe 
 the 29th of May as the royal anniversary ; 
 they and all persons in public trust were to 
 sign a declaration against the covenants. It 
 was thought that this last would finish the 
 career of Lauderdale ; Stair boggled at it, 
 but the earl laughed, and declared that he 
 would sign a careful of such oaths before he 
 would lose his place. Some ministers, like 
 Donald Cargill and John Livingstone, who 
 preached with Pentecostal fervour and suc- 
 cess, would not celebrate the anniversary 
 because they disliked all holy days, and 
 would not take the oath of allegiance as it 
 was expressed ; they were summoned before 
 the Council and banished beyond the Tay or 
 into foreign lands The Council— the Star 
 Chamber of Scotland — went into the west, 
 and learned that the bishops were mere 
 ciphers. The "Drunken Act" of Glasgow 
 banished all ministers from their houses, 
 parishes, and presbyteries who did not re- 
 ceive collation by a certain day. 
 
 Three hundred and fitty ministers refused to 
 yield to the mandate of the " Drunken Coun- 
 cil." The peasants of the west and south, 
 clad in black and white plaids and scarlet 
 mantles, or in suits of hodden grey, flocked 
 in thousands to listen to the farewell sermons 
 of their devoted pastors. Perhaps the strangest 
 of all these partings was that of " Old Sandy" 
 Peden, of Glenluce, the Thomas the Rhymer 
 of the Scottish covenanters. He is described 
 as of diminutive stature, but with an athletic 
 frame and elastic step ; long dishevelled hair 
 floated on his shoulders from beneath his 
 blue bonnet ; he had a sallow complexion 
 and dark, penetrating eyes. His voice was 
 shrill, but he was endowed with a fervid, 
 ready, and homely eloquence pecuharly fitted 
 to rivet the attention and stir the feelines of 
 
 the Scottish peasant. At his farewell to his 
 flock in Galloway, the vast multitude burst 
 forth into sobs and tears. When the long 
 service was closed with the benediction, the 
 venerable seer descended from the tent with 
 the Bible in his hands, while the slow music 
 of a psalm rose to heaven in the twilight 
 from thousands of lips. The hymn of praise 
 ended in a deep silence, amid which the 
 solemn multitude beheld their pastor lock 
 the door of the church, and then knock thrice 
 upon it with the back of the pulpit Bible, 
 uttering the words, which were deemed pro- 
 phetic : " I arrest thee, in my Master's name, 
 that never any enter thee but such as come 
 in at the door as I did ! " 
 
 The Rise of Lauderdale. 
 
 The Scottish dilution of episcopacy must 
 not be imagined as having any doctrinal or 
 ceremonial likeness to that of England. 
 There was no surplice, no altar, no liturgy, no 
 kneeling at communion, no signing with the 
 cross in baptism ; the Confession of Faith was 
 that of the first reformers ; there were kirk 
 sessions, presbyteries, and synods. But the 
 spirit of the evil thing was in it. There were 
 lay patrons instead of the divine call of 
 the people ; King Charles had taken the 
 supremacy that belonged to King Jesus ; 
 hierarchy was hierarchy, and led back the 
 suspicious Presbyterian eye to the mediaeval 
 iniquities of Rome. 
 
 The recruits who were thrust into the 
 churches of the ejected were far from being 
 able to fill the shoes of their predecessors. 
 Bishop Burnet declared they were the worst 
 preachers he ever heard. They were the 
 scum of the north, — ignorant, mean, violent ; 
 some of them were addicted to swearing, 
 drunkenness, and other vices. The people 
 treated them with contempt : they received 
 them with tears and begged them to be gone ; 
 they reasoned and argued with them; they stole 
 the clapper of the churchbell; they barricaded 
 the doors against them ; they poured ants 
 into their boots on the way to the pulpit. A 
 ridiculous tumult at Irongray, near Dumfries, 
 where John Welsh, the sturdy great-grandson 
 of Knox had ministered, threw the Court into 
 such alarm that it was rumoured that a huge 
 and wild army would soon cross the Border, 
 although the simple fact was that a number 
 of base women had assembled in the kirk- 
 yard and driven off the curate and a band of 
 armed soldiers with no other weapons than 
 the stones of the highway. The Earl of 
 Linlithgow was sent down with three hundred 
 soldiers to quarter in the parish, and the poor 
 inhabitants had to pay for their whistle to 
 the tune of half-a-crown a day for each horse- 
 man, and a shilling for each foot-soldier. 
 But it was impossible to gain respect for the 
 curates. Boys would pelt them in the pulpit 
 
 548 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 with rotten sticks and accompany them home 
 with cheers, while men plundered their houses 
 by night. On one occasion three men in 
 female disguise entered a minister's dwelling, 
 dragged him out of bed, and robbed his 
 trunks. 
 
 Middleton was soon hurled down from the 
 giddy height where he had spread out his 
 gay plumes, and was succeeded as King's 
 Commissioner bv the young and witty Earl 
 
 Although he had the saintly Baxter for a 
 chaplain, and was deeply read in theology, 
 he remained a profligate. He scarcely looked 
 a courtier ; he was a huge, uncouth man, with 
 a bloated face and wildly flowing red hair. 
 He spluttered and slobbered people with 
 whom he talked, and was subject to insane 
 fits of temper. But he had a coarse and 
 ready wit, and could fiddle before Saul ; he 
 once danced in a petticoat before the melan- 
 
 Jennv Geddes hurls the Stool at the Head of the Surpliced Dean. 
 
 of Rothes, the most consummate drunkard 
 in that age of hard drinking. He had the 
 reputation of being able to drink two or three 
 relays of his friends dead drunk, and after a 
 few hours' sleep wake up as fresh as a daisy. 
 But the man who stepped into Middleton's 
 place in the Merry Monarch's counsels was 
 the notorious John, Earl (afterwards Duke) 
 of Lauderdale. In the words of Hudibras, — 
 
 "He had cunning to unravel 
 The very mysteries of the devil." 
 
 choly Charles. For yeai's and years the 
 poor covenanters had faith in this Machia- 
 velli, even while he ruled them with a rod of 
 iron. But Scotland was capable of breeding 
 worse men than him. After him came the 
 deluge of blood under Perth and Queensberry. 
 
 Origin of the Rebellion. 
 Many of the ejected ministers continued 
 to preach and administer the sacraments in 
 private houses or in the fields, and the people 
 
 549 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 flocked out of their own parishes, sometimes 
 to a great distance, to attend the minis- 
 trations of the old pastors whom the Acts 
 had not expelled. Stricter measures were 
 therefore put in force by the Parhament and 
 Council in 1663. It was declared sedition 
 for nonconformist ministers to exercise their 
 calling ; they were ordered to remove with 
 their families to a distance of at least 
 twenty miles from their former parishes, 
 and were forbidden to reside within three 
 miles of any royal burgh ; and finally the 
 people were commanded, under the penalty 
 of sedition, not to extend charity to any of 
 these ejected ministers. Those who dared 
 to regularly disobey these persecuting orders 
 by absenting themselves from the parish 
 church were fined in a fourth of their revenue 
 or possessions. Chiefly at the instigation of 
 Sharp, the Court of High Commission was 
 established, composed of nine prelates and 
 twenty-five nobles ; it had the power of in- 
 flicting any punishment short of death, and 
 officers of the army and militia were em- 
 powered to apprehend delinquents and bring 
 them before this odious tribunal. 
 
 Had measures such as these, not only 
 inconsistent with the simplest principles 
 of liberty but proceeding from an upstart 
 party which had prostituted itself to the 
 will of a " divine right " despot in the 
 face of the history of the Scottish nation, 
 been simply brtita fulmina., they might have 
 been passed by without notice ; but far from 
 being a mere dead letter, they were brought 
 down upon the shoulders of the people with 
 brutal force. Gentlemen of high position 
 were suddenly apprehended without any 
 specific charge and detained in prison for 
 years ; lairds and ministers were burdened 
 with fines, — sometimes as high as ^500 
 sterling,— thrown into wretched dungeons, 
 and banished into remote towns, or even to 
 the Shetland Isles ; the miserable gaols 
 were crowded with prisoners, some of whom 
 petitioned to be shipped off to the Barbadoes ; 
 a woman was whipped through the public 
 streets ; men were banished to Virginia. 
 The Commission even condescended to 
 scourge some naughty boys, and after brand- 
 ing them in the face with a hot iron, sent 
 them off" to the slavery of the Indies. Masters 
 were declared responsible for their servants 
 and landlords for their tenants. 
 
 A small military force was dispersed over 
 the southern districts, under the direction of 
 Sir James Turner, a man who had served 
 since boyhood on the battle-field, and was 
 " naturally fierce, but quite a madman when 
 drunk, and that was very often ; " although 
 we learn from his Memoirs that he was 
 also a student of Tasso and Quevedo, and 
 wrote extensively on military and other sub- 
 jects. The curate in many of the parishes 
 
 was accustomed, like a pedagogue, to call 
 out the names of his parishioners on Sunday 
 after sermon, and hand over the list of 
 absentees to the soldiers. In the families 
 where they quartered, the graceless soldiers 
 ridiculed that private worship of the house- 
 hold which has been so nobly pictured in 
 the Cottafs Satnrday Night; they beat 
 and dragged unwilling folks to church and 
 prison ; they resorted to the neighbourhood 
 of the churches of the old ministers, and 
 when they heard the music of the last psalm, 
 stalked from their cups to the doors of the 
 sacred buildings, and " spotting " those who 
 were not residents of the parish, fined them 
 off-hand, or seized what money they had, 
 carrying off Bibles, coats, and plaids from 
 the poor men and women who had no money 
 to pay the fine of 2od. sterling. When 
 neither the widow nor the orphan was spared, 
 when starving children saw their bread tossed 
 to the dogs, when furniture was sold or burned, 
 when the poor were compelled to beg in order 
 to pay these exactions, and when at last the 
 army was increased to three thousand men 
 and placed under the command of the fierce 
 soldier Dalziel of Binns, who was believed 
 to have acquired in Muscovy the habit of 
 roasting captives, no other course was left 
 open for the desperate objects of this abomi- 
 nable and petty persecution but — rebellion. 
 
 Rout of Covenanters at Rullion 
 Green. 
 
 One November morning in 1666, as the 
 story goes, four "honest men," who had been 
 driven from their homes to wander among 
 the morasses and mountains, were sitting in 
 a village alehouse in one of the southern 
 counties, when they heard that Turner's 
 soldiers were stripping a poor old man pre- 
 paratory to roasting him on a red-hot grid- 
 iron. Their blood was stirred, and hastening 
 to the scene, they disarmed the ruffians. 
 Although this was but a simple and sudden 
 blow in defence of an outraged man, they 
 surmised, and perhaps justly, that their life 
 was now imperilled ; and thus the second and 
 bolder step was taken of assembling a few 
 neighbours, and surprising a dozen other 
 soldiers quartered in the district, one of 
 whom was unfortunately slain. That story 
 may perhaps be true, but it is very doubtful. 
 Turner himself, who already had an inkling 
 of a widespread insurrection, was alarmed 
 by the appearance at the garrison in Dumfries 
 Castle of a corporal who had been shot in 
 the abdomen because he would not take the 
 Covenant, and immediately despatched orders 
 to gather in the soldiers who were scattered 
 in small par ties over the country. But the order 
 was too late ; the Covenanters, aroused by the 
 oppressionofsoldiery,had gathered withintwo 
 days into a company of one hundred and fifty 
 
 550 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 horse and foot. Armed with muskets, pistols, 
 swords, pikes, scythes, pitch-forks, and stout 
 cudgels, they marched towards Dumfries, — 
 some twenty miles distant from the village 
 alehouse, — and about nine o'clock in the 
 morning of the 15th of November, sur- 
 rounded the house where Turner lay with 
 -only a dozen men. He appeared at the 
 window in his night-gown, and was ordered 
 downstairs if he had any respect for his life. 
 In this condition he was led out into the 
 street, with swords and pistols ominously 
 presented to his breast, but was afterwards 
 taken back to dress himself in more becom- 
 ing raiment. With rueful face he saw his 
 ilinen, clothes, papers, arms, and horses 
 carried off, and, worst of all, the great bags 
 of money which he had been at the pains of 
 gathering from the stift'-necked "fanatics." 
 The rebels proceeded to the cross, and with 
 ironical loyalty pledged the healtla of King 
 Charles and prosperity to his government. 
 
 Picking up recruits, horses, and arms by 
 the way, the rebels marched north-west into 
 Ayrshire, through the wild moorland district 
 that was in a few years to be strewn with the 
 corpses of the Cameronians. They carried 
 Turner and his little drummer with them ; 
 .they subjected the martial student of Ouevedo 
 £0 the grim joke of being lectured for a whole 
 night on the ghastly topic of death ; several 
 divines tried to convert him, but he declared 
 it would be a hard task to "turn a Turner." 
 Striking eastward, they arrived at Lanark 
 on the Sabbath evening ; and there on 
 the next day the whole army held up their 
 hands towards heaven, vowing to stand 
 up for the Covenants. The army — which 
 numbered at least eleven hundred men, al- 
 though writers on the covenanting side have 
 placed it at three thousand — was no weak 
 and disorderly rabble, but a host of stalwart 
 men, mostly trained to martial exercise, and 
 with splendid staying power for marching. 
 They were the pick of Scotland, as the High- 
 iand Jacobites learned at the Revolution, and 
 the like of them may be seen at this day in 
 Ayr and Galloway, — a big-boned, sincere, 
 thoughtful, stubborn set, of which Thomas 
 Carlyle of Ecclefechan is the nineteenth- 
 century representative. Even Turner's hostile 
 eye could not help admiring them. Knowing 
 that the royal troops under the Muscovite 
 roaster were at their heels, those sturdy cove- 
 nanters marched from Lanark in the mire 
 and snow all through a stormy night, passed 
 Edinburgh just out of the range of the Castle 
 guns, and halted at Cohnton, on the heights 
 two miles above the city. They were deeply 
 disappointed. The fertile plains of the 
 Lothians did not smile upon their cause ; 
 the gates of the metropolis were closed 
 against them. 
 
 On the morning of the 2Sth November 
 
 they turned their faces sadly, determinedly, 
 southwards, along the base of the Pentland 
 Hills. Their leader. Colonel Wallace, halted 
 at a spot known as RuUion Green, to meet 
 the forces of Dalziel, which had marched 
 through a pass of the Pentlands, and now 
 appeared on the heights above him. The 
 day had been bright and sunny, and twilight 
 was approaching. Wallace had only a 
 remnant of nine hundred men, badly rationed 
 and jaded with long marches, some of them 
 armed only with pitchforks and cudgels. 
 His hope lay in the descent of night. Two 
 charges were made upon his troops by a part 
 of the royal forces, and were repulsed ; the 
 sun had fallen when Dalziel himself ad- 
 vanced with his foot, flanked by the cavalry. 
 This time the right wing of the rebel host 
 was broken, a flank charge was made upon 
 the main body, and the peasants were com- 
 pletely routed. In vain they had fought a 
 desperate struggle, in vain were the shouts of 
 the ministers, " The God of Jacob, the God 
 of Jacob ! " More than fifty were slaughtered, 
 and as many taken prisoners. Many were 
 murdered by the country-people after their 
 escape from the battle-field. 
 
 The Martyrdom of Hugh Mackail; 
 An "Honest" Hangman. 
 
 Not content with hanging numbers in 
 Edinbugh, and before their own doors in 
 the far-off districts, — on the scarecrow prin- 
 ciple, — sticking their heads on the gates of 
 different towns, and their hands on those of 
 Lanark, Sharp and his coadjutors on the 
 Council singled out two of the conspirators 
 for torture by the " boots," a cylindrical in- 
 strument between which and the leg wedges 
 were driven until the marrow started from the 
 bone. This terrible course was not resorted 
 to from sheer cruelty ; there was a very 
 strong suspicion that these paltry rebels had 
 great friends behind them. Tyrants are ever 
 trembling. It was believed that those cove- 
 nanting ministers and peasants were in league 
 with Holland for the overthrow of Charles. 
 
 The death of the young minister Mackail 
 — he was only twenty-six — has always re- 
 mained one of the most prominent and affect- - 
 ing incidents of the covenanting period. He 
 was the prototype of Scott's " Ephraim Mac- 
 briar." Torture and confinement had thrown 
 him into a fever, so that he was unable to 
 stand when the day of trial came. About a 
 week later he was brought up, found guilty 
 by the jury of treasonable rebellion, and 
 sentenced to be hanged in four days at the 
 cross of Edinburgh. His petition for a 
 reprieve, on the ground that he had deserted 
 the rebels " with the first conveniency," was 
 rejected by the Privy Council. At two o'clock 
 on the 22nd of December, he and five 
 others were carried to the scaffold. At the 
 
 551 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 foot of the ladder, with a calm and pleasant 
 countenance, he harangued the people against 
 " that abominable plant prelacy, the bane of 
 the throne and of the country." Many wept 
 while he sang and prayed. On the top of 
 the ladder he sat down, and declared his 
 belief that the blood of the victims lay at the 
 door of the prelates rather than of the nobles 
 and rulers. He embraced the fatal noose as 
 the hangman placed it round his neck. He 
 read aloud the glowing picture of heaven in 
 the last chapter of the Bible, and spoke of 
 the welcome that awaited him among the 
 hosts of the New Jerusalem. Even when 
 the napkin was put over his face, with a 
 theatrical self-consciousness that makes one 
 shudder even now, he raised it and expressed 
 the hope that the bystanders had seen no 
 alteration in his face or manner. 
 
 " Farewell father and mother," he cried, 
 " friends and relations ; farewell the world 
 and all delights ! farewell meat and drink ; 
 farewell sun, moon, and stars ! welcome 
 God and Father ; welcome sweet Jesus, the 
 Mediator of the new covenant ; welcome 
 Blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all con- 
 solation ; welcome glory ; welcome eternal 
 life ; welcome death !" 
 
 The charm of bravery like that of the 
 young Roscius of the Covenant spread far 
 and wide over the land. Stories of the 
 time — possibly exaggerated— prove that the 
 very lowest strata of society were moved as 
 they could have been in no other countiy 
 than Scotland, where the passion for religious 
 metaphysics and Bible knowledge had become 
 an inherited and ineradicable instinct. When 
 Charles returned to England, every Scottish 
 parish had a minister, every village a school, 
 and every family a Bible. It would appear that 
 in those days even the men whose business 
 it was to perform the duty of Ketch, wielded 
 logic-choppers on the knotty questions of 
 theology. The hangman of Ayr refused to 
 imbrue his hands in the blood of eight men 
 who were condemned for "treason." The 
 poor ignorant Highlander from the distant 
 wilds of Strathnaver, who acted as hangman 
 in the neighbouring town of Irvine, also 
 declined the work, was sent to prison, was 
 compelled to go to Ayr under a military 
 escort, was reasoned with from Scripture by 
 a curate whom he looked on as the devil's 
 advocate, was threatened with the "boots," 
 — he told them to bring the spurs too, — was 
 ready to hold out his hands for the contents 
 of a cruse of melting lead, stood the wheed- 
 ling of Lord Kelly, was offered fifty dollars 
 and liberty to retire to the Highlands, was 
 clapped in the stocks, opened his breast to 
 receive the contents of four muskets, was 
 threatened with being rolled up and down in 
 a barrel filled with iron spikes ; but all failed, 
 and the obdurate hangman was finally ex- 
 
 552 
 
 empted from the task of " taking good men's 
 lives." The sentence of the commissioners 
 had to be carried out. It was accomplished 
 by offering his life to one of the condemned 
 men, and keeping him drunk until the deed 
 was done. 
 
 Persecution after Pentland ; The 
 Forty Dumb Dogs ; Terrible Act 
 AGAINST Field-preaching. 
 
 Ample vengeance was taken on scores of 
 those who had joined in the Pentland rising ; 
 twenty or thirty landed proprietors and min- 
 isters, who fled abroad or wandered through 
 the country as pariahs, were condemned in 
 their absence to forfeiture of Hfe and fortune ; 
 the country curates in the infected districts — 
 if we might so term them — of the south and 
 west were goaded on by Sharp to spy upon 
 their flocks ; and the flocks in return looked 
 on their pastors not as shepherds but as 
 wolves. Even the most eager advocates in 
 modern times of the policy of Sharp, assuming 
 the actual existence of a conspiracy in concert 
 with the Dutch government, and pointing to 
 the bad example of persecution set by the 
 covenanters in previous years, admit that the 
 severities which followed Rullion Green did 
 "little honour either to the clemency or 
 the wisdom of His Majesty's Government." 
 All the instances of horrid cruelty set forth 
 by partisans may not be true, and indeed 
 are not ; still, making full discount, we cannot 
 hesitate in charging the Scottish Council with 
 the most heinous and reckless prostitution of 
 justice, in sending down such military monsters 
 as Dalziel and Sir William Bannatyne to act 
 as agents in the repression or spiteful punish- 
 ment of an insurrectionary spirit, which as 
 yet had uttered not one word of treason 
 against Charles, at least had not been proved 
 to have done so, but merely declared against 
 the method of his administration. On the 
 principle that there is no smoke where there 
 is not fire, we must take for granted that 
 beneath the terrible traditions that have de- 
 scended to us there are terrible facts. Had 
 there been, as there is now, a free parliament 
 through which the nation coiild speak with 
 one certain and collected voice, those broad- 
 shouldered and conscientious men of the 
 south and west of Scotland would not have 
 dreamed of marching with their pitch-forks 
 and cudgels towards Edinburgh ; but the 
 spirit of toleration was as yet only in its 
 birth-throes, and neither party — despot king 
 nor despot democrats — stood on the platform 
 of social equity. 
 
 Dalziel took up his head-quarters at 
 Kilmarnock after the victory of Pentland ; 
 and another officer of equally savage instincts 
 was sent to Galloway with a considerable 
 party of soldiers. The former is said to have 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 extorted 50,000 merks from the district of 
 his ravages, to have kept suspected persons 
 standing continually on their feet, night and 
 day, in the " thieves' hole ; " to have shot 
 down a man who refused to inform whom he 
 saw at Lanark ; and one of his subordinates 
 is accused of having seized two men who had 
 given a night's shelter to some of the Pent- 
 land rebels, and hanging them by the thumbs 
 on a tree. The conduct of Bannatyne and 
 his soldiers was marked by equal if not 
 greater licentiousness, rapine, and barbarity ; 
 they are accused of holding lighted matches 
 for hours between the fingers of a woman 
 who had assisted her husband to escape in 
 female attire, and of practising the savage 
 joke of roasting prisoners in front of huge 
 bonfires. What amount of truth there is in 
 these horrid tales it may be impossible now to 
 discover ; but certain it is that the system of 
 extortion and confiscation carried on under 
 the orders of government drove many into 
 hiding in dens and caves, deserted coal-pits, 
 and holes in the earth, while others fled 
 abroad ; and Turner and Bannatyne had to 
 be dismissed from their posts for the op- 
 pressive use of the power that had been 
 placed in their hands. After the treaty of 
 Breda, which concluded a peace between the 
 Dutch and British, the army was disbanded 
 in Scotland, only two troops of horse and a 
 company of foot being retained ; an indem- 
 nity was granted to most of the Pentland 
 rebels, on condition that they accepted the 
 " bond of peace." Scores refused, and were 
 shipped off to Virginia when caught ; but 
 when the excitement produced by the at- 
 tempt of a lunatic upon the life of Sharp 
 had blown over, Lauderdale (the " L " of that 
 famous " cabal " which went in for toleration 
 of dissent in England) issued an Indul- 
 gence under the royal hand in the summer 
 of 1669, permitting the ousted pastors to re- 
 turn to their churches and parishes, under 
 certain restrictions. Some of the episcopal 
 clergy presented an address against this 
 assertion of the royal supremacy, and the 
 Archbishop of Glasgow was deposed ; while, 
 on the other hand, only some forty and odd 
 Presbyterians were captured by the bait. 
 They were contemptuously called the King's 
 curates, and dumb dogs that could not bark. 
 Let us observe that from this time, when 
 Sharp had fallen into disgrace for lying, and 
 the helm was completely in the hands of 
 Lauderdale, the question of episcopacy was 
 sunk liito a secondary place, and the sole and 
 single aim of the furious statesman was to 
 establish the royal siipi'emacy over the Church 
 irrespective of any particular form of 
 Church government. 
 
 With this fact before us, we can readily 
 
 understand how in the month of August 1670, 
 
 ' the famous or infamous Act against con- 
 
 5 
 
 venticles was passed, prohibiting on pain of 
 death all assembling in the fields for religious 
 purposes. His Majesty, "considering that 
 these meetings are the rendezvous of rebellion, 
 . . . doth therefore statute . . . that whoso- 
 ever, without license or authority, shall preach 
 ... or pray at any of these meetings in 
 the field, or in any house where there be 
 more persons than the house contains, so as 
 some of them be without doors, or who shall 
 convocate any number of people to these meet- 
 ings, shall be punished with death and confis- 
 cation of goods." Heavy penalties were inflicted 
 on those who attended these irregular meetings 
 in house or field. Ministers were sent to 
 " chant Babel's captive song " in the strong 
 dungeons of the Bass Rock, husbands were 
 fined for their wives' misdoings, lesser men 
 were forced as recruits into military service, 
 garrisons were stationed in the mansions of 
 gentlemen in several counties ; but still 
 conventicles increased and multiplied. In 
 the three years over which* the Act ex-, 
 tended, the fines of eleven persons in a single 
 county for such "atrocious crimes" as absence 
 from church, attending conventicles, and dis- 
 orderly baptisms, amounted to more than 
 ;;{^30,ooo sterling. A second and wider In- 
 dulgence was granted in 1672, and was ac- 
 cepted by nearly all the ministers — Welsh, 
 Blackadder, and Cargill being the chief ex- 
 ceptions- Under such threats as those of 
 death, imprisonment, and exile, conventicles 
 were by no means suppressed, even with the 
 aid of garrisons and spies. Men now appeared 
 in arms to defend themselves against attack 
 from the soldiers and militia. When the male 
 portion of the covenanting people did not 
 dare to be present, their wives flocked in 
 multitudes ; and when, at last, "letters of 
 intercommunion" were issued against a large 
 number of ministers, gentlemen, and ladies, 
 by which all whb harboured or conversed 
 with conventiclers, or furnished them with 
 meat, drink, or clothing, were declared guilty 
 of the same crime, then, to use the words of 
 Bishop Burnet, whose words are scarcely 
 those of a friend to the outcasts, " many, 
 apprehending a severe persecution, left their 
 houses, and went about like a sort of banditti, 
 and fell under a fierce and savage temper." 
 Even ladies of rank were hunted from their 
 homes, and were compelled to wander in the 
 wilds. 
 
 The Highland Host brought down 
 TO scourge the Covenanters. 
 
 Clearly there could be no terms made 
 between the despotism of Charles and 
 Lauderdale and the many armed bands of 
 irreconcilables that wandered over Fife and 
 over the south and west of Scotland, and had 
 now dared to erect their own preaching 
 
 54 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 houses. Thus it came that on the 24th day 
 of January, 1678, a host of warriors had 
 assembled in the town of StirUng, under 
 orders to march into the districts infected 
 with rebelhon, with hberty to kill, wound, 
 seize, and imprison all who offered resistance. 
 It was a combination of the most striking 
 nature, fit to awaken tremor even in a large 
 and well-trained host of soldiers, not to speak 
 of small scattered groups of peaceful peasants. 
 Scotland had not witnessed such a sight as 
 this since the time when the great Montrose 
 raised the royal standard against the blue 
 banner of the Covenant ; for here once again 
 the ignorant and ferocious inhabitants of the 
 glens and mountains were called away from 
 their black cattle and their "creaghs" and 
 their own mutual massacres to do military 
 service in the Lowlands for a despot Stuart. 
 There were also a couple of thousand of the 
 militia, with several troops of horse, and a 
 thousand regulars ; but the main body and 
 the main menace lay in those six thousand 
 bare-legged and stalwart caterans, who were 
 trained to and dependent on plunder, trea- 
 chery, and blood. There was also a multi- 
 tude of stragglers, who were tempted to 
 follow the invading host by the vision of rich 
 spoil in the towns, villages, and mansions of 
 the fertile and industrious Lowlands. The 
 hearts of the poor savages must have been 
 exalted with hopes of boundless wealth in 
 the great melee that was to take place beyond 
 the Clyde, for there was all the aspect of a 
 glorious campaign : there were field-pieces, 
 an immense quantity of spades, shovels, and 
 mattocks— evidently intended for the siege 
 of fortresses glutted with wealth ; and there 
 were iron fetters and thumb-locks, doubtless 
 to secure the captives and carry them off into 
 slavery. If anything that could attach these 
 rude barbarians to the Crown and mould them 
 into faithful supporters of the doomed despo- 
 tism of the Stuarts, it was to bring them 
 down once in a while from the heath-clad 
 hills to fight and feast in the valleys of the 
 Sassenach. 
 
 Of course there was required a show of 
 Jaw before the savages were sent in to enjoy 
 the banquet. The mouths of the holes, were 
 in the first instance stopped. Noblemen, and 
 landlords were forbidden to leave the kingdom 
 without permission of the Council ; an Eng- 
 lish force was brought to the border, and 
 Irish savages — possibly kinsmen of those who 
 in Montrose's time stole the church Bibles 
 and the communion cloths — were collected 
 at Belfast. All the landlords in the south 
 and west, where the covenanting whigs 
 flourished, were called upon within a short 
 space of time to sign a bond, under heavy 
 penalties, that neither they, nor their wives, 
 bairns, tenants, cottars, tenants' wives, 
 tenants' bairns, etc., etc., would in future 
 
 attend conventicles, or harbour vagrant 
 preachers ; they were also to surrender their 
 arms. Still more severe was the demand that 
 landlords and masters should not receive a 
 tenant or servant who could not produce a 
 certificate of having taken the bond of alle- 
 giance. The gentlemen everywhere refused 
 to yield to so outrageous an order. Lauder- 
 dale, sitting at the council board, burst into 
 one of his mad fits, bared his arms above 
 the elbow, and " swore by Jehovah he would 
 make them enter into those bonds." 
 
 Little did the Highlanders reck about such 
 mysterious trifles, and entering Ayrshire in 
 the first week in February, they began to rob 
 and ravage with the most complete indiffe- 
 rence as to bonds, covenants, and creeds. 
 Their one guiding principle was to make 
 hay while the sun was shining. An audaci- 
 ously eccentric writer declares that they 
 exhibited "in a wonderful degree the more 
 humane characteristics of these simple moun- 
 taineers." We shall pass by the story of 
 disgusting crimes, for those old covenanters 
 had a very shocking habit of casting dirt : 
 but what of the ;{^ 134,000 of damage suffered 
 in Ayrshire alone during the one single 
 month that elapsed before the " simple 
 mountaineers " were ordered off from very 
 shame by the government ? Did they not 
 loot the town of Kilmarnock, and repay the 
 hospitality of a merchant on whom some of 
 them were quartered by breaking his ribs, 
 plundering his house gear, carrying off the 
 money carefully hoarded up in old stockings, 
 and frightening his delicate wife clean out of 
 this wicked world? Did not one of them 
 strike a minister a fatal blow with the butt- 
 end of a musket because the good man re- 
 primanded them ? Is it not the case that 
 far from finding any employment for shovels 
 and claymores, they only discovered a people 
 too dumbfounded to make any resistance? 
 And when the gallant defenders of the supre- 
 macy of King Charles over the Scottish 
 Church turned their back on the Land of 
 Burns, did not they carry off horses, a vast 
 quantity of silver plate, whole webs of linen 
 and woollen cloth, pots, pans, gridirons, and 
 bed-clothes? On their departure a force of 
 five thousand regular troops was sent to crush 
 the " fanatics " ; and in this capacity we meet 
 the name of Graham of Claverhouse. 
 
 The Voice of God ; Assassination of 
 Sharp. 
 
 In the beginning of 1678 a sensation of 
 horror passed over Scotland, because Arch- 
 bishop Sharp had insisted on the trial and 
 death of the lunatic who had fired a pistol at 
 him ten years before, and who, in 1674, had 
 confessed to the attempt on assurance of 
 being given his life. There was a mysterious 
 
 555 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 feeling abroad — one of those deep and sullen 
 wishes which men hide away in the corner of 
 their heart, and which excited minds at last 
 utter as a prophecy — that the " bloody and 
 deceitful man" would perish in some sudden 
 and awful manner. " He'll get a sudden and 
 sharp off-going, and ye will be the first," said 
 a dying minister at the beginning of April 
 1679 to a young gentleman, "that will take 
 the good news of his death to heaven." 
 
 At the close of March some women on the 
 way to a field-meeting near Lanark had been 
 robbed of their plaids and Bibles by a party 
 of soldiers, and some men had been taken 
 prisoners. A party of armed covenanters 
 left the meeting in order to release their 
 comrades, and, as was common enough in 
 the fierce days of the persecution, a serious 
 scuffle ensued, in which the military party 
 was severely handled. The Council was 
 prompted to a fresh and vigorous spurt of 
 oppression ; and among its other applications 
 it inflicted a person named William Car- 
 michael on the little "kingdom" of Fife, one 
 of the chief hot-beds of the " fanatics," in 
 order to hunt the dissenters and intercom- 
 muned to the earth. He was a monster of 
 whom the world would indeed be well rid 
 if the stories of his iniquities might be trusted. 
 He beat children so as to make them inform 
 against their parents, and for the same pur- 
 pose placed lighted matches between the 
 fingers of servants. Among his other dis- 
 graceful customs was that of citing people 
 on baseless charges, knowing that their con- 
 science would not permit them to appear at 
 such tribunals, and then stripping them of 
 their goods because they did not present 
 themselves in answer to his summons. A 
 number of peasants within his jurisdiction 
 had for weeks been accustomed to meet 
 together, pray, and take counsel on the sub- 
 ject of his enormities. At last God's spirit 
 urged them to go forward. Saturday, the 3rd 
 of May, was fixed for dealing with Car- 
 michael, and a messenger was despatched 
 to secure a preacher for the conventicle they 
 resolved to hold on the following day in 
 celebration of the deed. Carmichael, how- 
 ever, was forewarned of some premeditated 
 danger, and the twelve men who were told 
 off to strike the blow at the miscreant, having 
 made a long and eager search, at last came 
 to the pious decision that God had remark- 
 ably kept him out of their hands. 
 
 But there was one man in that little group, 
 the fierce Balfour of Burleigh, who was 
 unable to believe that their counsels would 
 come to nought. Two years before this time 
 the minions of the spy Carstairs had fired 
 into his house at Kinloch, while he and a 
 little company of friends were at dinner, and 
 they had beaten off their stealthy foes. He 
 tad been denounced as a rebel, and had 
 
 lived in exile ; but on one occasion, when he 
 rose from prayer, the voice of heaven had 
 called him back to Fife. He now assured 
 his comrades that there was work for them 
 to do. 
 
 While thus they communed, a boy an- 
 nounced to them that the archbishop's coach 
 was coming. And there, on Magus Moor, 
 before his daughter's eyes, the arch-enemy 
 of the Covenant was shot and stabbed — 
 horribly, too ; it took three-quarters of an 
 hour to do the deed. The covenanters did not 
 lament over his assassination ; they remem- 
 bered the exploits of Jael, who hammered a 
 nail into the temple of the sleeping Sisera,and- 
 of Ehud, whose dagger was struck into the 
 bowels of the oppressor of Israel, Eglon, King 
 of Moab. It has often been noted as re- 
 markable that, in spite of the most rigorous 
 search, none of the actual participants in 
 the work of blood were ever touched by the 
 hand of justice. 
 
 Sharp's Legacy ; The Career of Cla- 
 VERHOUSE ; His Defeat at Drumclog. 
 
 There can be no question that the primate 
 who had now fallen in broad daylight on the 
 open highway on Magus Moor, near St. 
 Andrew's, was mainly responsible, so far as 
 the higher clergy were concerned, for the 
 small-minded and malicious cruelty of those 
 years of persecution. Just two days before 
 his death he had crowned his fifteen years of 
 service as the lickspittle of a soulless despo- 
 tism by draughting a fresh measure, empower- 
 ing not only judges but officers to treat all as 
 traitors who appeared at field-meetings. He 
 was succeeded in the royal councils by a 
 distinguished lawyer and essayist, Sir George 
 Mackenzie, of Rosehaugh, the lord-advocate, 
 who has been compared to the English 
 butcher Jeffreys, but most unjustly so, al- 
 though he held very decided opinions against 
 the covenanters, and was in the habit of in- 
 sulting men and women who appeared for 
 trial with the Bible in their hand. The pro- 
 clamation was issued ten days after Sharp's 
 assassination. On the 29th of May, when 
 the quiet little burgh of Rutherglen, now 
 a thriving suburb of the city of Glasgow, was 
 celebrating the restoration of King Charles, 
 a band of eighty armed men, under Robert 
 Hamilton, a young gentleman of high social 
 connection, appeared upon the festive streets, 
 extinguished the bonfires as signs of ty- 
 ranny, affixed on the market cross an un- 
 signed " Testimony " against all the " sinful 
 and unlawful Acts emitted and executed, 
 published and prosecuted against our cove- 
 nanted reformation," and burned all the Acts 
 specified in the body of the document. 
 
 On Saturdaynight a body of troops marched 
 out from Glasgow to inquire the names of 
 
 556 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 the men who had. thus openly defied the 
 Government. Their commander was John 
 Graham, of Claverhouse in Fife, whose deeds 
 have given him a higher niche in the hatred 
 of the Scottish peasants than even Sharp, 
 Lauderdale, Perth, Lagg, Dalziel, or the 
 " bloody Mackenzie," and who is to this day 
 remembered and spoken of with horror as 
 the " bloody Clavers." His skill and bravery 
 were worthy of a better cause than that for 
 which he fought and died. Lowland tradition 
 
 least the possessor of a soft and handsome 
 face, a true, thoroughbred young cavalier of 
 thirty-four, with grace and charm to carry off 
 the heart and hand of the daughter of a stern 
 covenanting earl, much against the wishes of 
 the young lady's pious parent. Through the 
 influence of his relative, the Marquis of Mon- 
 trose^ he was appointed, soon after his return 
 to his native country, to the command of one 
 of three independent troops of horse that 
 had just been raised to crush the '' fanatics ; " 
 
 The Murder of Archbishop Sharp. 
 
 forgets the briUiant soldier who fell victorious 
 at KilUecrankie, and remembers only the 
 blood he shed, the good men he and his 
 dragoons shot down upon the moors like 
 partridges in the weary, lurid, and stormy 
 sunset of the Stuart dynasty. In 1677 
 he had returned from Holland, after serving 
 with some distinction under the Prince of 
 Orange, " every inch a scholar and a gentle- 
 man," — according to the peculiar judgment 
 or sentiment of Sir Walter Scott, — and at 
 
 and in the month of December 1678, he 
 started for Dumfries on his first campaign, 
 in order to act as a mild substitute for the 
 atrocious " trevvsmen " of the Highland host. 
 He brought to the execution of his orders 
 the courage, the keen glance, and the organ- 
 izing power which gain for an officer the 
 deep attachment and confidence of his own 
 soldiers, and at the same time the dread .ind 
 the hatred of his foes. Hardly had he en- 
 tered on his duties when he discovered a 
 
 557 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 building that was constructed like a byre, 
 and passed by that name among the peasants, 
 but was really a " meeting-house," numbers 
 of which doubtless existed all over the south 
 country with like furtive appellations. In 
 March 1679 the energetic officer obtained 
 the power of the mace as well as of the 
 sword, with judicial sway over conventicles 
 throughout the counties of Wigtown, Kirk- 
 cudbright, and Dumfries. His troops were 
 detested, watched, and attacked by the 
 "fanatics" whenever a fair chance offered 
 itself ; for instance, a band of his soldiers 
 were surprised in a barn at Newmilns, in 
 Ayrshire, at two o'clock on an April Sunday 
 morning, two of them being slain; and quite 
 recently, on the 29th of May, the anniversary 
 of His Sacred Majesty, a couple of bullets 
 found their way from a shoemaker's window 
 to the feet of three of his dragoons who were 
 sitting at breakfast in the house of a Falkirk 
 bailie. 
 
 On the following Saturday night, he mar- 
 ched to Rutherglen, and sent out parties to 
 secure those " rebels " whose names he had 
 discovered. At a very early hour in the 
 morning he was mounted, and with 180 men 
 he made a circuit towards the Ayrshire 
 border, in the hope of breaking up a great 
 conventicle that was to be held that day on 
 Loudon Hill, about twelve miles distant from 
 Glasgow. The preacher had opened the 
 service when the approach of the dragoons 
 was intimated. The women and children 
 were immediately (fismissed from the scene 
 of danger ; the armed men, said to have 
 numbered three times more than those of 
 Claverhouse, moved two miles to the east, to 
 the farm of Drumclog, and drew up in line 
 of battle. When Graham came within sight 
 of his foes, he saw that they held an advan- 
 tageous position, with moss and pool in front ; 
 and he could make out that their four batta- 
 lions of foot, armed with fusils and pitchforks, 
 and their three squadrons of horse, far out- 
 numbered his own force. Had he known 
 that in the host in front of him there were 
 men whose hands had been imbrued in the 
 blood of the primate, or who, at least, looked 
 upon the assassination, — the cool and resolute 
 Hackston of Rathillet, and the fierce, fanati- 
 cal Balfour, — his martial ardour would have 
 glowed with a double fire. He was now 
 about to try the mettle of his dragoons for 
 the first time in conflict with a strong body 
 of the rebels, and he had long before de- 
 termined that his men should fight at any 
 odds. After an idle skirmish of two small 
 parties,Hamilton decided onageneral engage- 
 ment. The foot, under Hackston and William 
 Cleland (then only eighteen years of age, and 
 still known in Scottish annals and literature 
 as a poet and as the leader of the Cameron- 
 ians who retrieved the disaster of Killie- 
 
 crankie by a complete victory over the red- 
 shanks at Dunk eld in 1689) ; and the horse,, 
 under Balfour of Burleigh, advanced steadily 
 in the face of the foe. A volley from the 
 whole body of the dragoons met them when 
 they were only ten paces distant, but they 
 halted not, and with one rush they broke up 
 the royal troop and sent it flying in an instant 
 from the field, defeated, thoroughly defeated. 
 " Besides that," wrote Clavers in his despatch, 
 when overcome with fatigue and sleepiness 
 he reached Glasgow, " with a pitchfork they 
 made such an opening in my horse's belly 
 that his guts hung out half an ell, and yet he 
 carried me off half a mile, which so dis- 
 couraged our men that they sustained not 
 the shock but fell into disorder. Their horse 
 took the occasion of this, and pursued us so' 
 hotly that we got no time to rally. I saved 
 the standard, but lost on the place about 
 eight or ten men, besides wounded." There 
 is one circumstance which stains this victory. 
 Robert Hamilton, who was a bloody fanatic 
 and at heart a coward, finding fault with his 
 men for giving any quarter, slew one of the 
 " Babel's brats " on the spot with his own 
 hand. 
 
 Battle of Bothwell Bridge ; Ship- 
 wreck OF two hundred Coven anters_ 
 
 When the news of this victory was spread 
 over the country, the scattered bands flocked 
 in multitudes around the triumphant nucleus, 
 and in a few days formed an army, ranging 
 from five to ten thousand men. Clavers 
 declared that Drumclog was the beginning 
 of a rebellion ; the old Muscovite Dalziel 
 growled at his subordinate for risking a 
 conflict at such odds, as he might have 
 known that " the ruffle of an inconsiderable 
 party of the King's troops" would raise a 
 formidable insurrection ; the Council was in 
 a panic, and the King trembled. It was 
 decided that a disinterested person should 
 be placed in the command of the royal army, 
 and so the fierce laird of Binns was super- 
 seded for the time by the . Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, who had assumed the name of Scott 
 on his marriage to the young Scotch heiress 
 of Buccleuch. He was despatched to the 
 north with a small body of cavalry, and on 
 the 22nd of June, 1679, this company, with. 
 the troops of Clavers and others, altogether 
 amounting to ten thousand men, was face 
 to face at Bothwell Bridge with the five thou- 
 sand covenanters under the nominal com- 
 mand of Hamilton. It was most unfor- 
 tunate for the rebels that they should have 
 had such a leader. He was a fierce and 
 truculent fanatic, who styled himself " poor, 
 contemned, and every way persecuted, un- 
 worthy, unworthy Robin Hamilton," and his 
 piety seem.s not a little to have resembled 
 
 558 
 
BIBLE AND SWORD. 
 
 that of St. Dominic, as the great inquisitor 
 has been recently depicted by the pen of 
 Victor Hugo. A bitter and violent wrangle 
 had been carried on between the extreme 
 and moderate parties of the army, the former 
 represented by Donald Cargill, the other by 
 John Welsh, on the question whether the 
 Indulgence should be denounced in their 
 declarations. Two deputies had been sent 
 by the latter to the camp of Monmouth, 
 which now lay on the other side of the 
 bridge, asking for the free exercise of reli- 
 gion, a free parliament, and a free general 
 assembly ; but although anxious for peace, 
 the Duke could offer no terms but an ab- 
 solute capitulation. While still engaged in 
 squabbling, the two divisions of the rebel 
 force, which seems to have formed no plan 
 of conflict, were summoned to the sense of 
 a common danger by the news that the 
 great army of Monmouth was close at hand. 
 Hackston, a converted rake and the ablest 
 soldier of the Covenant, marched with three 
 hundred men to defend the gate in the centre 
 of the bridge, under which the deep current 
 of the river Clyde swept along rapidly be- 
 tween steep banks. There he kept his ground, 
 driving back colunm after column of the royal 
 troops, until his small supply of ammunition 
 failed, and he was compelled to retire from 
 the post he had held with the valour of a true 
 hero, and would have held, perhaps, had 
 Hamilton paid a little more attention to him, 
 and less to the erection of a huge gibbet, 
 around which cartloads of rope were piled 
 to celebrate the pjean of victory. When 
 Hackston, after an hour's determined resist- 
 ance, was forced to retire from the bridge, 
 he flew from rank to rank of the wretchedly 
 confused mass, threatening them, pleading 
 with them to stand their ground. Monmouth 
 crossed the bridge. There, before him, was 
 the hopeless, helpless mass that might have 
 caught him as he moved over from the other 
 bank if the covenanters had not been fight- 
 ing between themselves, like furious dogs, 
 over the " bone of contention." The first dis- 
 charge of his cannon swept into the broken 
 lines of the disorderly rabble, which had 
 " neither the grac6 to submit, the courage to 
 fight, nor the sense to run away." Mon- 
 mouth had issued merciful orders at the 
 commencement of the battle ; but the dra- 
 goons of Claverhouse, smarting under the 
 swift and sharp defeat they had suffered at 
 Drumclog upon the ist of June, gave hot 
 chase to the panic-stricken fugitives. At 
 least four hundred fell in the brief contest 
 and the pursuit ; but the worst incident of 
 the tragedy lay, not on the battle-field, but 
 in the wretched fate of many of the twelve 
 hundred prisoners. " There cannot be any 
 just account given of the number of the slain, 
 because they were murdered up and down 
 
 the fields, as the soldiers met them. . . > 
 Twelve hundred surrendered prisoners on the 
 Muir, who were not only disarmed, but stripped 
 almost naked, and made to lie down flat on 
 the ground, and not suffered to change that 
 posture. And when one of them but raised 
 himself a little, he was shot dead." 
 
 Two ministers, one of whom underwent tor- 
 ture, were executed ; five others of the Both- 
 well prisoners were hung in chains on Magus 
 Moor, as a peace-offering to the pale ghost 
 of the murdered primate, and buried in i a 
 corn-field hard by. But it must not be 
 overlooked that these persons, who by no 
 means appear to have been ringleaders, re- 
 fused the bond which offered liberty to all 
 who promised not to take up arms against 
 the throne. The twelve hundred captives, tied 
 two and two together, were driven from the 
 battle-field to Edinburgh, and huddled up in 
 that same churchyard where the Covenant was 
 first subscribed, with wild fervour, in 1638. 
 There they remained for months, strictly 
 guarded by soldiers, under the open and 
 often inclement sky of the north by day and 
 night. Some few escaped ; some were carried 
 off by death ; most of them were finally set 
 free. About the middle of November, two 
 hundred and fifty-seven of the prisoners^ 
 many in a wretched state of health, were 
 crammed into a ship at Leith, where they 
 had scarcely room to turn themselves. They 
 were destined for the plantations ; but on the 
 loth of December, during a stormy night, 
 when they were fastened down under the 
 hatches, the vessel struck upon a rock on 
 the Orkney coast, more than two hundred 
 of those brave Scottish covenanters — the 
 most honest and sincere stuff in all this 
 human world — finding an end to their theo- 
 logical and other troubles beneath the wild 
 waves of the North Atlantic. 
 
 The Cameronians ; The Declarations. 
 
 After the battle of Bothwell the extreme 
 party of the covenanters, under the ministers 
 Cargill and Cameron, separated from the 
 rest of the Presbyterians. They issued a 
 series of " testimonies," beginning with the 
 Sanquhar Declaration in June 1680, in which 
 they utterly renounced allegiance to Charles, 
 and his brother : the most famous and 
 singular being the Apologetic Declaration^ 
 issued by James Renwick, their last pastor 
 and last martyr, in October 1684, and set up. 
 on a number of church doors and market 
 crosses throughout the country. In this re- 
 markable' document war was declared against 
 the government, its militia, soldiers, spies,, 
 and other persecuting agents. But perhaps 
 the most interesting of all the solemn acts ot 
 this new government — for such it claimed to 
 be— was that which was carried out at Tor- 
 
 559 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 wood, in Stirlingshire, in 1680, when old 
 CargilL then the only minister that ventured 
 to preach in the fields, did "excommunicate, 
 cast out of the true Church, and deliver up to 
 Satan," Charles II., James, Duke of York, 
 James, Duke of Monmouth, the Duke of 
 Rothes, Sir George Mackenzie, Dalziel, and 
 John, Duke of Lauderdale, the last of these 
 undergoing this sentence "for his dreadful blas- 
 phemy, especially that word to the prelate of 
 St. Andrews, ' Sit thou at my right hand, 
 until I make thine enemies thy footstool ; ' 
 his atheistical drolling on the Scriptures of 
 God ... for his gaming on the Lord's Day, 
 and for his usual and ordinary cursing." 
 
 The story of the persecution from the day 
 that Cameron fell at Airdsmoss, in Ayrshire, 
 in July 1680, and Hackston was taken 
 prisoner, to be led to Edinburgh in ignominy 
 and have his hands chopped off by the hang- 
 man, tortures which he suffered quite un- 
 concernedly, until the soft-voiced Renwick 
 died upon the scaffold in 1688, is one of sad 
 and dreary martyrdom — men and women 
 even throwing away their lives without the 
 least reluctance ; for after the Apologetic De- 
 claration was issued, common soldiers were 
 empowered to kill all persons in the fields, 
 who, in the presence of two witnesses, refused 
 to take an oath against it. 
 
 The Killing Time; The Wigtown 
 Martyrs; The True Story of John 
 Brown. 
 
 Our limits prevent us from going into 
 details of the " killing time " in 1 684 and 1 685, 
 when the furnace was heated seven times 
 hotter, when the demons who scoured the 
 country reckoned every one a fanatic, an 
 assassin, and a rebel whom they discovered 
 perusing a Bible, running from them, or hesi- 
 tating in answering their questions. Writers 
 on the covenanting side assert that eighty 
 persons were shot down in cold blood during 
 those two years. " Farewell," cried one of 
 two poor, humble women who were bullied 
 and condemned by the Council, as she stood 
 upon the scaffold in Edinburgh Grassmarket, 
 in 1681, — " farewell sweet Bible, in which I 
 delighted most, and which has been sweet to 
 me since 1 came to prison." But worse than 
 this infamous Act — worse than all the brand- 
 ing on the cheek, cropping of the ears, 
 squeezing with the boots and thumbkins, 
 was the drowning of an old woman and a 
 young girl on the shore of the Solway Firth, 
 on the nth of May, 1685, even after a re- 
 spite had been asked for and granted by the 
 Council. 
 
 It must be noted most distinctly that 
 the popular writers on the Covenant have ac- 
 cepted stories and traditions which are based 
 
 on facts, but so exaggerated and decorated 
 as to represent Clavers and others engaged 
 in executing the orders of the Privy Council, 
 alias Star Chamber of Scotland, as the 
 greatest fiends that ever dwelt in human 
 flesh. There is one story, always quoted as 
 the great proof of Graham's inhumanity, to 
 which we must refer in closing — that of John 
 Brown, the " Christian Carrier " of Muirkirk. 
 This "pious, solid Christian" rose early on 
 the 1st of May, 1685, and after family worship 
 went out to work. He was surrounded by 
 Clavers and his horsemen, and led back to 
 his own house. He "distinctly" answered 
 some questions that were put. " Go to your 
 prayers," said Clavers, " for you shall imme- 
 diately die ; " and interrupted him while he 
 was so engaged. Brown kissed and blessed 
 his wife and children. Clavers ordered six 
 of his men to shoot. " What thinkest thou 
 of thy husband now, woman ? " She replied, 
 " I ever thought much good of him, and as 
 much now as ever." " It were justice," he 
 answered, " to lay thee beside him." When 
 Graham had departed, she set the child on 
 the ground, gathered up the scattered brains 
 of her husband, tied up his head, covered 
 his body with her plaid, sat down and wept 
 over him. It so happens that a trustworthy 
 narrative by Graham himself — in fact the 
 military despatch — still exists. From that it 
 appears that far from Brown being a man of 
 peace, and ready to give "distinct" answers, 
 he declared most emphatically that he had 
 no king, had bullets in his house, had been 
 engaged in the battle of Bothwell Bridge, 
 and owned an underground house in a hill — 
 which contained swords and pistols, and was 
 able to hold a dozen men — where he had 
 lurked ever since the engagement just referred 
 to. He " suffered very unconcernedly." 
 
 Still we have evidence from Clavers's own 
 declaration that fearful hardships were in- 
 flicted by him in the "killing time." His 
 plan was to establish magazines of corn and 
 straw everywhere, so that he could spring in 
 a moment with his whole party upon the in- 
 tended victims, to quarter on the rebels and 
 eat them up, then to search for them and 
 " play them hotly with parties ; " " so that," 
 he says, " there were several taken, many 
 fled the country, and all were dung [knocked] 
 from their haunts." Then, he continues, he 
 rifled their houses, ruined their goods, and 
 imprisoned their servants ; so that " their 
 ■wives and cJiildren were brought to starving, 
 which made them glad to renounce their 
 principles.^' It is difficult to say one word, 
 except in bitter condemnation, of the man 
 who wrote those words ; and it would be 
 hard indeed to say of him what Sir Walter 
 Scott has written, that he v/as " a scholar 
 and a gentleman." M. M. 
 
 S6o 
 
British Troops on the March to Cabul. 
 
 DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN 
 
 THE STORY OF THE FIRST AFGHAN WAR. 
 
 An Impressive Warning- -Cabul and its Rulers— Russian Influence in Persia— General Apprehensions- Dost Makomed, 
 Khan of Cabul— Various Opinions concerning him — Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India ; His Policy — The 
 Meeting with Shah Soojah— Rungeet Singh, the Ally of the English — The Army of the Indus— Shah Soojah restored 
 to his Throne— The Entry into Candahar— Mistaken Notions oi Shah Soojah's Popularity— The Advance to Ghuznee 
 — Its Fall— Flight of Dost Mahomed— The Great Dourannee Order distributed at Cabul— Gallant Struggles of Dost 
 Mahomed— Battle of Purwan Durrah— Cabul in Insurrection— Dost Mahomed in India— Assassination of Sir 
 Alexander Burnes and his Brother— From Bad to Worse— The English Army beleaguered at Cabul— Consequences 
 of the Insurrection— Akbar Khan and his Doings— Murder of Sir W. I\l acnaghten— Pitiable State of the Army — The 
 Retreat from Cabul— The Khyber Pass— Lord Auckland and Lord EUenborough— Revenge— The Advance into 
 Afghanistan — Conclusion. 
 
 An Impressive Warning. 
 EFORE the British army crossed 
 the Indus, the English name was 
 honoured in Afghanistan. Some 
 dim traditions of the splendour of 
 Mr. Elphinstone's mission were all that the 
 Afghans associated with their thoughts of 
 
 the English nation ; and now, in their place, 
 are galling memories of the progress of a 
 desolating army. The Afghans are an un- 
 forgiving race. . . . There is scarcely a 
 family in the country which has not the 
 blood of kindred to revenge upon the ac- 
 cursed Feringhees. The door of reconcilia- 
 561 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 tion is closed against us ; and if the hostility 
 of the Afghans be an element of weakness, 
 it is certain that we have contrived to secure 
 it." 
 
 These memorable and prophetic words 
 are to be found at the conclusion of Sir John 
 Kaye's admirable history of the first war 
 waged by the British in Afghanistan. They 
 were written more than thirty years ago ; 
 and subsequent events have fully vindicated 
 the writer's sagacity. No page of the history 
 of England in the present century — not even 
 the great Indian Mutiny of 1857 itself — is 
 more fraught with solemn warning than the 
 story of the operations, diplomatic and war- 
 like, of the British in Afghanistan in the first 
 years of the reign of Queen Victoria. The 
 surrender of Cabul, the utter destruction of a 
 British army in the retreat through the ter- 
 rible Khyber Pass, and the miserable failure 
 of the operations that were expected to lead 
 to increased power and prosperity, form an 
 epoch in our Eastern history which, for 
 many reasons, it may not be unprofitable to 
 recall. 
 
 Cabul and its Rulers. 
 The Kingdom of Cabul, in the wild and 
 mountainous realm known as Afghanistan, 
 is the most important of the divisions of that 
 country. It is bounded on the north by the 
 Hindoo Koosh range, in some parts rising 
 to an altitude of 20,000 feet ; on the east 
 by the deserts of the Paropamisan chain ; 
 on the south by the Afghan kingdom of 
 Candahar ; and on the west by the province 
 of Peshawur, taken by the Afghans from the 
 Sikhs. In ancient times the geographer 
 Ptolemy mentioned the city of Cabul under 
 the name Kubara. Among the four principal 
 places of the country (the other three being 
 Ghuznee, Candahar, and Herat) it is the 
 most important. Afghanistan possesses 
 great importance from being the high-road 
 from Persia to India. When, in 1747, Nadir 
 Shah was murdered, disturbancesbroke out in 
 the country, and Ahmed Shah took advan- 
 tage of the confusion to detach Afghanistan 
 from the dominion of Persia, and founded 
 the Dourannee dynasty. After a warlike 
 reign, which extended to the year 1773, he 
 was succeeded by his weak and indolent son 
 Timour Shah, under whom the seat of 
 government was transferred from Candahar 
 to Cabul. In 1793 Timour died; and his 
 death was the signal for the commencement 
 of a struggle between his sons ; the second 
 of whom, Zemaun, succeeded in establishing 
 himself on the throne, after driving his elder 
 brother from Candahar, and causing that 
 wretched prince to be blinded. His brother 
 Mahmoud, too, who resided at Herat, was 
 vanquished by Zemaun, and compelled to 
 take refuge in Persian territory, where he 
 
 entered into a compact with Tutteh Khan, the 
 head of the powerful Barukzyes, the two chiefs 
 swearing on the Koi-an an oath of enmity 
 against Zemaun. They took possession of 
 Candahar ; Shah Zemaun, defeated in his 
 turn, was blinded and kept for a time in 
 captivity. He ultimately found protection 
 with the East India Company, on whose 
 bounty he lived as a pensioner at Loodianah. 
 
 Mahmoud was not allowed long to enjoy 
 his conquered territory in peace. The year 
 1 801 brought into the field a new claimant 
 for sovereignty in the person of a man 
 destined to attain a mournful celebrity in 
 the history of Afghanistan. This was a still 
 younger son of Timour, Shah Soojah, then 
 about twenty years of age. He took ad- 
 vantage of the unpopularity of Mahmoud 
 to attack him. and, though at first repulsed 
 by Tutteh Khan, succeeded, in 1803, in de- 
 priving Mahmoud of his throne, during the 
 absence of the brave chief of the Barukzyes. 
 For six years he contrived to maintain a 
 doubtful and precarious authority ; but in 
 1 8 10 was driven from his kingdom by Tutteh 
 Khan, and in his turn became a pensioner 
 of the East India Company, while Mahmoud 
 once more resumed the sovereignty ; though 
 the boundaries of his dominions were conside- 
 rably narrowed by the victories of Runjeet 
 Singh, who, after taking Attock and Mool- 
 tan, conquered Cashmere in the year 18 19. 
 Though Tutteh Khan had placed Shah 
 Mahmoud on the throne, he was treated with 
 great ingratitude, being even deprived of 
 sight by a son of Mahmoud at Candahar, 
 in revenge for contemptuous words spoken 
 of the ruler of Cabul. The three brothers 
 of Tutteh Khan were stirred up to vengeance 
 by this act, and drove Mahmoud away again. 
 He ultimately died, in 1829, a fugitive with 
 his son Kamran at Herat. 
 
 With him fell the Dourannee empire in 
 Afghanistan. The Barukzyes became rulers 
 of the whole country, with the exception of 
 Herat. Dost Mahomed, the eldest of the 
 three brothers, ruled in Cabul. In 1833, 
 Shah Soojah made a final attempt to regain 
 his throne ; but after obtaining some ad- 
 vantages, he was completely defeated near 
 Candahar by Dost Mahomed ; and now, at 
 sixty years of age, became permanently a 
 pensioner of the East India Company, and, 
 apparently, desired no better fate than to 
 end his days in peace and affluence, away 
 from the ambition and the cares of state. 
 
 The Russian Scare ; "Bokara" Burnes 
 AND his Mission. 
 At that time there existed in England a 
 profound distrust of Russia, and a very 
 exaggerated notion of the might of that 
 colossus of the north to injure British in- 
 terests in the East. The great storm of 
 
 56: 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 1830 that swept away the restored throne 
 of the elder branch of the Bourbons in 
 France, and dissolved the forced and un- 
 natural union of Belgium and Holland, 
 liad failed to shake the throne of Russia; 
 and that power was generally supposed 
 to be intriguing to supplant Great Britain 
 in the East, and to shake the foundations of 
 her Indian Empire. Dost Mahomed Shah 
 and his brothers had risen to power on the 
 ruin of a great family, of which one repre- 
 sentative still remained enthroned as the 
 Prince of Herat. Between the Prince of 
 Herat and the Shah of Persia there had 
 long been ill feeling, and it would appear 
 that the Persian ruler had real and genuine 
 cause of quarrel. But in England it was 
 thought that Russia was behind the scenes, 
 and was the wire-puller in this affair. Thus, 
 in 1835, Lord Palmerston, then Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs, wrote to Mr. EUice, the 
 English ambassador at Teheran, directing 
 him to warn the Persian Government against 
 aggressive warfare. Mr. Ellice himself 
 appears to have been persuaded of the 
 sinister designs of Russia, and that Persia was 
 merely a puppet in her hands. In January 
 1836, he wrote a letter announcing that 
 the Shah had determined to attack Herat ; 
 and that his success was anxiously looked 
 for by Russia, " whose minister did not fail 
 '£0 press its execution." Mr. Ellice added that 
 the motive for this could not be mistaken, 
 for that Herat, once annexed to Persia, 
 might become, according to the commercial 
 treaty, the residence of a consular agent, 
 who might from thence push his researches 
 and communications, avowed and secret, 
 throughout Afghanistan. He further de- 
 clared that Russian influence would be 
 brought to the very threshold of India if 
 the Persian monarchy were extended in the 
 ■direction of Hindostan ; and that Persia, 
 unwilling or unable cordially to ally herself 
 with Great Britain, must be considered, not 
 as the bulwark of India, but " as the first 
 parallel from which the attack could be com- 
 menced or threatened." Thus the Russian 
 scare began. 
 
 Rightly or wrongly, it took full possession 
 of the official mind that regulated British 
 statesmanship in India. The establishment 
 of a Russian commercial agent on the fron- 
 tiers of Persia, certainly not an unusual pro- 
 ceeding considering the extensive trade 
 between Russia and Persia, appeared to the 
 Foreign Office as the darkest of intrigues. 
 " The shake of Lord Burleigh's head," says 
 Dr. Buist of the Bombay Times, in writing 
 some years after of these events, "conveyed 
 not half so many meanings, when nodded 
 most strongly, according to the directions of 
 Mr. Puff, as did the most meaningless civil 
 speech of the Russian ambassador, inter- 
 
 preted by the lights of Mr. Ellice and Mr. 
 McNeil." The Russian Government, it must 
 be observed, disavowed any but strictly com- 
 mercial intentions in this communication 
 with Persia, and Count Nesselrode assured 
 Lord Palmerston that the best efforts were 
 being made for the re-establishment of pacific 
 relations between Persia and Herat. 
 
 One of the most promising English officers 
 in India in those days was Captain, after- 
 wards Sir Alexander, Burnes. He had been 
 the leader of an exploring expedition to 
 Bokara some years previously, and had pub- 
 lished the result of his travels in a once 
 popular book, and had acquired the honour- 
 able soubriquet of " Bokara Burnes." 
 
 Sir Alexander Burnes was now despatched 
 on a mission to Cabul ; and his personal 
 observations quickly convinced him that 
 Dost Mahomed Khan, a wary, astute, and 
 valorous ruler, valued the friendship of the 
 English far above that of the Russians, and 
 might be looked upon as a steady, trust- 
 worthy, and valuable ally. On the morning 
 of the 19th December, 1837, Sir Alexander 
 writes to the Government of India : " The 
 Ameer came over from the Bala Hissar (the 
 citadel of Cabul) with a letter from his son, 
 the Governor of Ghuznee, reporting that a 
 Russian agent had arrived at that city on 
 his way to Cabul. Dost Mahomed Khan 
 said that he had come for my counsel on the 
 occasion ; that he wished to have nothing to 
 do with any other power than the British ; 
 that he did not wish to receive any agent 
 from any other power whatever, so long as 
 he had a hope of sympathy from us ; and 
 that he would order the Russian agent to be 
 turned out, detained on the road, or act in 
 any other way that I desired him." Though 
 sufficiently ready to be alarmed by the 
 Russian scare, Burnes persevered in regard- 
 ing Dost Mahomed as sincere in his profes- 
 sions of loyalty and attachment to England. 
 
 But both in Downing Street and at Simla 
 the opinion was very different. It was taken 
 for granted that Dost Mahomed must be a 
 traitor, and Burnes was expressly and re- 
 peatedly admonished to regard him in that 
 light, and to place no reliance on his pro- 
 mises. Burnes protested strongly against 
 this view, urging that though Dost Mahomed 
 had received tempting offers from Russia, 
 from Bokhara, and from Persia, all bidding 
 for his alliance, he had disregarded every 
 overture, and continued steady in his deter- 
 mination to be loyal to the Enghsh. " In 
 all that has passed, or is daily transpiring," 
 writes Sir Alexander, " the chief of Cabul 
 declares that he prefers the sympathy and 
 friendly offices of the British to all these 
 offers, however alluring they may be, from 
 Persia or from the Emperor ; which places 
 his good sense in a light more than promi- 
 
 ses 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 nent, and, in my humble judgment, proves 
 that by an earlier attention to these countries 
 ■we might have escaped the whole of these 
 intrigues, and held long since a stable in- 
 fluence in Cabul." Still the authorities 
 refused to believe ; and, incredible as the 
 fact may seem, in their anxiety to impress 
 their opinion upon parliament and the coun- 
 try, the despatches relating to these affairs 
 were disgracefully garbled, only such portions 
 of them being made public as tended to sup- 
 port the view of the Government ; and when 
 afterwards Lord Palmerston was called to 
 account for this, he actually defended the 
 practice ; declaring that as the Government 
 had determined not to adopt the policy re- 
 commended by Bumes, there was no obliga- 
 tion to publish the arguments of that unfor- 
 tunate officer in their entirety. The grave 
 complaint the country had afterwards to 
 make regarding these affairs was, that by 
 the unscrupulous manipulation of his des- 
 patches, the publication of detached sen- 
 tences, and the withholding of the context, 
 Burnes was made to appear as condemning 
 a policy which he warmly advocated. That 
 policy was, close alliance with the ruler of 
 Cabul for counteracting adverse influences 
 in Afghanistan. In writing to Mr. , afterwards 
 Sir William, Macnaghten, in 1838, he says : 
 " It remains to be considered why we cannot 
 act with Dost Mahomed. He is a man of 
 undoubted ability, and has a high opinion of 
 the British nation ; and if half you must do 
 for others were done for him. and offers made 
 which he could see conduced to his interests, 
 he would abandon Russia and Persia to- 
 morrow. . . . Government have admitted that 
 he had at best a choice of difficulties ; and it 
 should not be forgotten that we promised 
 nothing, and Persia and Russia held out a 
 good deal." His opinion was that by 
 strengthening Dost Mahomed's hands the 
 interests of England in India would be best 
 served. 
 
 Lord Auckland's Policy ; The Meeting 
 WITH Shah Soojah. 
 The Governor-General of India at that 
 time was Lord Auckland ; an amiable and 
 well-meaning official, but vacillating and 
 unsteady, and altogether lacking the com- 
 prehensiveness of mind which would have 
 enabled a Clive or a Warren Hastings to 
 take in the situation at a glance. He re- 
 solved to drive Dost Mahomed, whom it was 
 convenient to regard as an usurper, from the 
 throne of Cabul, and to set up in his stead 
 the roi faineant Shah Soojah, for whose 
 return the Afghans were represented as 
 pining, though he had long been forgotten, 
 and even during his short tenure of power 
 long before had never been able to estabhsh 
 a real influence over his turbulent subjects. 
 
 It was announced to Shah Soojah, accord- 
 ingly, that he was to be restored to his throne ; 
 and Runjeet Singh, the ruler of the Punjaub, 
 with whom Dost Mahomed was at war, was 
 drawn into the enterprise. Sir William Mac- 
 naghten conducted this part of the negotia- 
 tion. In a manifesto issued at Simlah on 
 the 1st of October, 1838, the Governor- 
 General declared that the troops of Dost 
 Mahomed had made an unprovoked attack 
 upon those of the Maharajah Runjeet Singh, 
 the faithful ally of the British ; that intrigues 
 were actively prosecuted throughout Afghan- 
 istan for the purpose of extending Persian 
 authority to the Indus and beyond it ; that 
 the British missions had been insulted ; that 
 Dost Mahomed entertained ambitious schemes 
 incompatible with the well-being of the Eng- 
 lish in India ; that the Barukyze chiefs, from 
 their disunion and unpopularity, were ill fitted 
 to be useful allies to the British Government ; 
 that it was necessary the English should have 
 upon the western frontier an ally interested 
 in resisting aggression and establishing tran- 
 quillity ; that accordingly pressing necessity, 
 policy, and justice warranted the English in 
 espousing the cause of Shah Soojah-ool- 
 Moolk, "whose popularity throughout Af- 
 ghanistan had been proved to his Lordship 
 by the strotig and imatiintoiis testimo7iy of 
 the best atithoritiesj" that the position of the 
 Maharajah Runjeet Singh, and his unde- 
 viating friendship towards the British had 
 entitled him to be associated in the enter- 
 prise, and that accordingly a triplicate treaty 
 had been made between Soojah-ool-Moolk, 
 the Maharajah, and the British Government, 
 to co-operate in the restoration of Soojah-ool- 
 Moolk. The Secretary to the Government, 
 Sir W. Macnaghten, was to reside at Shah 
 Soojah's court, with Sir Alexander Bumes 
 to act under him. 
 
 At the end of November 1838, Runjeet 
 Singh, once known as the Lion of the Pun- 
 jaub, the conqueror of a great kingdom, but 
 now a decrepid, half imbecile little old man, 
 met Lord Auckland in solemn durbar at 
 Ferozepore. The scene was one of barbaric 
 splendour; and some costly presents flattered 
 the vanity of the old conqueror. The balance 
 of splendour was, however, considered to 
 be on the side of the followers of Runjeet 
 Singh. Mr. Stoqueler, in his " Memorials 
 of Afghanistan," has recorded that the 
 Sikhs "shone down the English." "The 
 camp of the Maharajah was on the other 
 side of the river," says Sir John Kaye in his 
 " History of the Afghan War," "and there, 
 amidst a scene of Oriental splendour, 
 difficult to describe or imagine, the great 
 Sikh chieftain received the representative 
 of the British nation. The splendid costumes 
 of the Sikh sirdars, the gorgeous trappings 
 of their horses, the glittering steel casques 
 
 564 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 and corslets of chain armour, the scarlet 
 and yellow dresses, the tents of crimson 
 and gold, made up a show of Eastern 
 magnificence equally grand and picturesque. 
 As the Maharajah saluted the Governor- 
 General, the familiar notes of the National 
 Anthem arose from the instruments of a 
 Sikh band, and the guns of the Kalsa roared 
 forth their expected welcome." It was quite 
 in character with Oriental usage that even 
 on such a solemn occasion as this the old 
 Maharajah should cause to be exhibited, in 
 the durbar tent itself, " an unseemly display 
 of dancing girls and the antics of some 
 male buffoons." Old Runjeet Singh's was 
 
 heard. It was considered as a misfortune, 
 however, that Sir Henry Fane, the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Indian army, de- 
 clined to command the expedition, and 
 resigned his trust into the hands of Sir John 
 Keane, who had been in command of the 
 Bombay army, and in whom the Bengal 
 force had nothing like the confidence they 
 felt in the tried capacity and soldierly quali- 
 ties of Sir Henry Fane. The route to be 
 followed by the force was to the south-west, 
 towards the Indus, which was to be crossed 
 at Bukkur. Afterwards, turning to the north- 
 west, the army was to make for the Bolan 
 Pass, through which the road lay to Guettah, 
 
 Ghuznee. 
 
 a strangely mixed character, compounded of 
 some great and heroic qualities, in which he 
 could compare even with his predecessor in 
 another part of India, Hyder Ali, the " Tiger 
 of Mysore," intermingled with a strong leaven 
 of sensuality and low vice. 
 
 The Army of the Indus ; Shah Soojah 
 restored to his throne. 
 The expeditionary force started upon the 
 campaign in the highest spirits, and with 
 every prospect of success. Indeed, no very 
 great resistance was expected, and the old 
 expression of " a military promenade to the 
 capital," so often put forward, and so often 
 miserably falsified by events, was here also 
 
 and so through the Kojuck to Candahar, — 
 a strangely devious route, as the historian 
 of the war justly observes, from Ferozepore 
 to Candahar ; like taking the two sides of 
 a triangle instead of the base. It was on 
 this occasion that the Ameers of Sindh 
 were converted into bitter enemies by the 
 peremptory demand made upon them to 
 supply the English army with provisions 
 as it passed, without demanding their per- 
 mission, through their territories. They were 
 told that " the Sindhian who hoped to stop 
 the approach of the British army might as 
 well seek to dam up the Indus at Bukkur." 
 If the object of British statesmanship in India 
 at that time had been to arouse hatred and 
 
 56s 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 a desire for revenge, the measures taken 
 could not have been more eminently calcu- 
 lated to accomplish that end. Those who 
 knew the character of the Ameers of Sindh 
 considered that the British authorities were 
 sowing those " dragons' teeth " from which, 
 at some future time, an evil harvest would 
 spring up. 
 
 The army of the Indus marched curiously 
 encumbered with impedimenta in the shape 
 of a very long train of baggage. A force of 
 9,500 men marched accompanied by 38,000 
 camp-followers and 30,000 camels. This was 
 before the days when sturdy Sir Charles 
 Napier uttered his trenchant and sarcastic 
 protests against the comforts to which the 
 British officer of that day thought himself 
 entitled in moving through an enemy's 
 country. It is curious to imagine what such 
 a commander as Frederick the Great, with 
 his Spartan ideas of simplicity and self- 
 denial on a march, would have thought of 
 such a procession. But at the outset the 
 weather was bright, the roads were good ; 
 there was no prospect of any great difficulty 
 or privation to be endured before they met 
 the enemy, whom they were anxious, as a 
 British army always is, to encounter ; and 
 officers and men were in the highest spirits. 
 
 But soon the hostile feelings of the Ameers 
 began to be practically felt in the exceeding 
 difficulty of obtaining provisions ; and when 
 Sir John Keane, who had come by sea 
 with the Bombay contingent, arrived to take 
 the command, he had practical proofs of 
 the inimical attitude of the native chiefs. 
 Macnaghten, the envoy, found the position 
 embarrassing, and vehemently urged the 
 necessity of pushing forward without a 
 moment's loss of time. "We should not, 
 I think," he wrote to the Governor-General, 
 " on any account lose the season for advanc- 
 ing upon Candahar. With one European 
 regiment, some more artillery, a couple of 
 native regiments, and a small battering train, 
 we might not only occupy Candahar but 
 relieve Herat ; and by money, if we have no 
 available troops, make Cabul too hot for 
 Dost Mahomed." In another letter he urged 
 that delay would altogether imperil the suc- 
 cess of the enterprise. But the military and 
 political authorities were ah'eady at variance, 
 and almost in a state of antagonism, with 
 divided counsels. 
 
 The march also became more difficult day 
 by day, and as the country became more arid 
 and inhospitable, the camels began to drop 
 dead by scores, and then by hundreds. It 
 was a foretaste of what was to happen ; and 
 it was clear that every impediment was being 
 thrown in the way of our troops in collecting 
 supplies. But the column pushed on, sorely 
 harassed by the Beloochee freebooters, who 
 hovered in plundering and murdering bands 
 
 566 
 
 on the flanks, carrying off cattle and putting 
 stragglers to death. And thus, amid a thou- 
 sand difficulties, the Bolan Pass was tra- 
 versed; and on the 26th of March,Guettah was 
 reached, though by this time disease and pri- 
 vation (for the troops were now almost upon 
 famine allowance) had worked sad havoc 
 in their ranks. Sir John Keane, on the 6th of 
 April, assumed the personal command of 
 the army, and soon after the army marched 
 through the Kojuck Pass ; and Macnaghten,, 
 persuaded " that Afghan cupidity could not 
 be proof against British gold," began the 
 disastrous policy of buying up the allegiance 
 of the chiefs ; a policy to which many subse- 
 quent calamities have been ascribed. 
 
 Shah Soojah's triumphal entry into Can- 
 dahar, when that city was at last reached^ 
 proved a failure. At first curiosity and the 
 natural desire of men to see a pageant 
 brought together a large crowd ; and it is 
 reported that the people shouted, " Welcome 
 to the son of Timour Shah ! " " We look to- 
 you for protection ! " " Candahar is rescued 
 from the Barukzyes ! " " May your enemies 
 be destroyed ! " and thus the signs of ap- 
 parent popular enthusiasm were not wanting;, 
 and Macnaghten, with his sanguine tempera- 
 ment, took these shouts as really meaning 
 something appreciable, and wrote a glowing- 
 report of success to the Government. Still 
 he seems to have had his eyes partly opened 
 as to the Afghan nature during the long and 
 toilsome march. " Of one thing I am cer- 
 tain," he says in the same letter, " that we 
 must be prepared to look upon Afghanistaa 
 for some years as an outwork, yielding no- 
 thing, but requiring much expenditure to- 
 keep it in repair." On the other hand he 
 says : " Dost Mahomed will, I doubt not,, 
 take himself off like his brothers, though, 
 not, perhaps, in quite so great a hurry, when 
 the intelligence reaches him of the manner 
 in which Shah Soojah has been received at 
 Candahar." 
 
 Dost Mahomed was a thoroughly sagacious 
 man, and no doubt appreciated the value of 
 the shouts raised by the many-headed multi- 
 tude. Had he been a reader of European 
 literature, he might have remembered the 
 bitter words Scott put in the mouth of the 
 Scottish king in The Lady of the Lake, 
 when the shouts for Douglas fell on his ear^ 
 and he reflected how — 
 
 ' ' The selfsame crowd, with loud acclaims, 
 Strained for its morning note King James ;. 
 The like applause would Douglas greet 
 If he could hurl me from my seat." 
 
 The truth was, that the people felt not the 
 slightest affection or loyalty for Shah Soojah. 
 On the 8th of May, all the troops having now 
 arrived, there was to be a grand ceremonial 
 and review on the plains outside Candahar, 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 a kind of public fete of the restoration. All 
 things were duly prepared, and when the 
 time came there lacked nothing but the 
 guests. The officers and the soldiers were 
 there, and the high officials, native and 
 British, but the expected crowd of delighted 
 and enthusiastic spectators was conspicuous 
 by its absence. A place had been set apart 
 in the day's proceedings for "the populace 
 restrained by the Shah's troops," and this 
 part of the programme, as Captain Havelock 
 justly remarked, became rather a bitter satire 
 — there was nobody for the Shah's troops to 
 restrain. " The people of Candahar are said 
 to have viewed the whole thing with the 
 most mortifying indifference," wrote the cap- 
 tain; "few of them quitted the city to be 
 present in the plains." The "adoration" 
 bestowed upon Shah Soojah by his subjects 
 was about on a par with the feeling experi- 
 enced by the French in 1814 for Louis XVIII., 
 brought back by foreign bayonets to the 
 throne from which his brother had been 
 driven twenty-two years before. Barely a 
 hundred Afghans, it is said, were present as 
 spectators. 
 
 The Advance to Ghuznee ; Its Fall ; 
 Flight of Dost Mahomed. 
 
 It became abundantly clear, even to that 
 proverbial blindness which consists in un- 
 willingness to recognize distasteful truths, 
 that as the British power had seated Soojah 
 Dowlah on the throne of Candahar, the 
 British power alone could keep him there. 
 The Sirdars of Candahar had submitted to 
 the British armed force, and had been bribed 
 by British gold ; had they loyally supported 
 Dost Mahomed it might have been fatal for 
 our army, struggling famine-stricken through 
 the Bolan and Kojuck Passes. But Dost 
 Mahomed had his sons, Akbar Khan, Hyder 
 Khan, and Afzul Khan, in whom he trusted 
 to stop, or at any rate to retard, the advance 
 of his enemies, while he collected his strength 
 as best he might. 
 
 After a couple of months spent at Can- 
 dahar, the bulk of the British force advanced 
 upon Ghuznee. about 230 miles on the road 
 to Cabul. Here Afzul Khan was in com- 
 mand. The siege train had not yet come 
 up. It was determined to take the city by 
 blowing up one of the entrances, the Cabul 
 gate, with gunpowder, which was successfully 
 accomplished, and the British were quickly 
 masters of Ghuznee. On this occasion, the 
 fanatics called Ghazees, who fight devoting 
 themselves to death to attain the joys of 
 Paradise, distinguished themselves by fierce 
 resistance ; and a party of fifty of them, taken 
 prisoners and brought into the presence of 
 Shah Soojah, so enraged the old king by their 
 hardihood and reproaches that he caused them 
 all to be instantly massacred with circum- 
 
 stances of great cruelty. This made him more 
 unpopular than ever, and roused the religious 
 fanaticism of the country against him, and, 
 as appeared in the sequel, with fatal effect. 
 Here Hyder Khan fell as a prisoner into 
 the hands of the English. The loss of the 
 Afghans at Ghuznee is estimated at about 
 1000 slain. The casualties on the English 
 side amounted altogether to 191, the number 
 of those actually slain being only 17. It was 
 remarked that the wounded men recovered 
 with most uncommon and gratifying celerity. 
 This was attributed to the fact that the supply 
 of intoxicating liquors having been exhausted 
 some time before, the force commanded by 
 Sir John Keane was a "temperance" army. 
 Afzul Khan, the "fighting" son of Dost Ma- 
 homed, fled to Cabul, eighty miles distant, 
 with his force of 5,000 cavalry, when he saw 
 the British flag waving on the battlements of 
 Ghuznee. 
 
 From Ghuznee the troops proceeded to 
 Cabul, from which city Dost Mahomed fled 
 at the approach of the victors. The old 
 Shah Soojah was installed in the capital, as 
 he had been at Candahar, and under very 
 similar circumstances. The King entered 
 the city with great pomp, escorted by English 
 hussars and dragoons, and accompanied by 
 Sir Alexander Burnes and a number of 
 English officers. But the most favourable 
 account of his reception describes it omi- 
 nously as " respectful but cold." The more 
 outspoken narratives talk of utter indif- 
 ference, and a feeling very like contempt. 
 The chiefs did not appear. " There was 
 no enthusiasm," says Dr. Buist, the editor 
 of the Bombay Times ; " and not even that 
 clamorous exultation which a crowded popu- 
 lace commonly display on the first fall of one 
 who has kept them in order, or in the mani- 
 festation of any important change in the order 
 of things." A great durbar was held, at 
 which the badges of the Dourannee order 
 were conferred on some officers of the army. 
 The whole affair appears to have been ludi- 
 crous in its failure as a spectacle,— the old 
 King seated in a camp-chair, in a ruinous 
 and neglected garden, with two old fat 
 eunuchs behind him, each holding a dish 
 in his hand, and the English ofificers march- 
 ing gravely up to " this extraordinary dumb 
 show." 
 
 Dr. Kennedy relates how " Sir John Keane 
 stepped before the said camp-chair with the 
 King in it, and gravely dropped on his knees 
 before the Dourannee Emperor, whereupon 
 Shah Soojah, with great difficulty, stuck 
 the decoration of the Dourannee order on the 
 Commander-in-Chiefs coat ; and then," says 
 the narrator, " Sir John, standing before the 
 Emperor, delivered himself of a speech, in 
 which there was a great deal about ' hurling 
 a usurper from the throne,' at which my 
 
 567 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 cousin Toby might, perhaps, have whistled 
 his 'liUibullero.'" 
 
 Soon afterwards the Bombay and the 
 Bengal armies separated, and returned to 
 India through the tremendous passes which 
 were soon to have a sinister fame by the 
 disasters they were destined to witness. The 
 usual " general order '' was issued, thanking 
 the troops for their gallantry and endurance 
 during the Afghan campaign. Lord Auck- 
 land, the Governor-General, was advanced a 
 step in the peerage ; Macnaghten,who really 
 seems to have believed that the Dourannee 
 kingdom was firmly established, received a 
 baronetage, and other rewards were distri- 
 buted. 
 
 Even men who knew the East well, and 
 had experience of the Indian and Afghan 
 character, were unaccountably deceived in 
 their estimate of the situation, and of the 
 completeness of the work that had been 
 achieved. Lord Macaulay, in his masterly 
 essay on Malcolm's " Life of Clive," pub- 
 lished just at that time, speaks of the storming 
 of Ghuznee as the closing act of a series of 
 triumphs of which the defence of Arcot by 
 the undaunted young captain, almost a cen- 
 tury before, had been the first ; and speaks 
 in terms of exultation of the prowess and 
 brilliant success of the conquering nation 
 who had seated their vassal on the throne of 
 Candahar. There was no misgiving as to 
 the stability of that throne — no apprehension 
 of the tremendous reverses that were soon to 
 follow. 
 
 Gallant Struggles of Dost Mahomed ; 
 
 PURWAN DURRAH ; CaBUL IN INSUR- 
 RECTION. 
 
 Dost Mahomed did not tamely submit to 
 the transfer of his dominions to an enemy. 
 He made a good fight for his throne, even 
 after Shah Soojah had been established at 
 Cabul, and won the respect and admiration 
 of his enemies by his gallantry and skill. 
 After a time he proceeded to Bokhara, where 
 the King, who had promised him assistance, 
 treacherously took him prisoner, with several 
 of his sons. In August 1840, he escaped, 
 and was soon at the head of a formidable 
 force. On the 2nd of November, 1840, was 
 fought the battle of Purwan Durrah. Here 
 Dost Mahomed gained a victory; and the 
 British officers found to their mortification 
 that, either from cowardice or disaffection, 
 the native troops, commencing with the 2nd 
 Bengal Light Cavalry, refused to advance 
 against the enemy. When Captains Eraser 
 and Ponsonby ordered them to draw and 
 charge, they first hesitated, then wavered, 
 and ultimately turned and fled before a body 
 of Afghans not superior to themselves in 
 number. The officers were left to face the 
 enemy alone ; some being cut down, and 
 
 others, among whom was Captain Eraser, 
 contriving to escape, desperately wounded, 
 to the British Hnes. Dost Mahomed him- 
 self led on his men, crying aloud : " In the 
 name of God and the Prophet, fight and 
 drive the Eeringhee Caffirs from the land, 
 or I am gone !" The successful charge made 
 by the Afghans gave them the right to claim 
 the victory. The battle had been most 
 mortifying to the English, from the bad 
 behaviour of the Sepoy soldiers, now mani- 
 fested for the first time in the war. The 
 regiment whose ill conduct had been most 
 glaring was degraded and disbanded. On 
 the other hand, the gallant manner in which 
 Eraser, Ponsonby, and other officers, though 
 desperately wounded, had fought their way 
 through the enemy, excited the highest ad- 
 miration. During the night the enemy re- 
 treated from the field. 
 
 But the wily old ruler saw that, in spite 
 of a temporary success, he would not be able 
 to maintain himself against the hostility of 
 the British, more especially as the Sikhs had 
 consented to open their country for the march 
 of large reinforcements of troops from India 
 into Afghanistan. He seems to have resolved 
 to trust to time and the dislike of the Afghans 
 to Shah Soojab, and meanwhile to put him- 
 self into the hands of the British, from whom 
 he anticipated honourable treatment, — a hope 
 in which he was not disappointed. On the 
 evening of the battle he quitted the field on 
 horseback, and rode off direct for Cabul, 
 where he arrived on the following evening, 
 having performed a journey of sixty miles in 
 less than twenty-four hours. Sir W. Mac- 
 naghten was returning from his customary 
 ride in the outskirts of Cabul, on the evening 
 of the 3rd of November, when, to his great 
 surprise, a horseman rode up to him and 
 informed him that Dost Mahomed had 
 arrived, and begged his protection. The 
 ex-Shah thereupon appeared, alighted from 
 his horse, and presented his sword, which 
 was immediately returned to him. He was 
 treated with every respect, and at once wrote 
 to his sons, informing them of the step he 
 had taken, and requesting them to join him, 
 which thy all did with the exception of Akbar 
 Khan. Being joined by his whole family, he 
 was sent to India ; and being permitted to 
 visit Calcutta, was received with distinction 
 by Lord Auckland the Governor- General. 
 A pension of ^30,000 a year was assigned to 
 him, and till the end of 1842 he continued to 
 reside in India, watching the course of events, 
 but loyally maintaining a position of friend- 
 ship to the nation whose pensioner he had 
 become. 
 
 Indeed, we are told by Dr. Atkinson that 
 in December 1840, while on his way to India, 
 Dost Mahomed strongly warned his captors 
 of the difficulties they would encounter from 
 
 568 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the Suddozyes, who had never been accus- 
 tomed to obey, and declared that the Enghsh 
 would find the courtiers about Shah Soojah, 
 who had for years been fattening on their 
 bounty, the readiest to plot and intrigue 
 against them. He declared that they would 
 do far better to take the government of the 
 kingdom entirely into their own hands, than 
 to stand in the anomalous position of pro- 
 tectors to Shah Soojah — held responsible 
 for and reaping unpopularity by all the bad 
 measures, the extortions and mistakes of that 
 weak and incapable ruler. 
 
 On the 3rd of November, the anniversary 
 of the disastrous battle of Purwan Durrah, 
 a formidable insurrection broke out in Cabul. 
 A report had spread among various of the 
 chiefs that they were to be taken prisoners 
 or put to death ; and they determined to 
 forestall what they believed to be a con- 
 spiracy against their lives and liberties. At 
 first the commotion in the city was compara- 
 tively slight ; and Sir W. Macnaghten, who 
 was about to quite Cabul and return to 
 Bombay, leaving Sir Alexander Burnes as 
 his successor at the Shah's court, quite failed 
 to appreciate the real gravity of affairs. 
 Against Burnes the Afghans were especially 
 bitter, for they believed that, after professing 
 friendship for Dost Mahomed, he had been 
 guilty of treachery in abandoning the cause 
 of that ruler to support Shah Soojah. The 
 accusation was groundless, but seemed to be 
 based on reasonable deductions from appear- 
 ances. They could not know how entirely 
 against the advice and opinion of Burnes 
 had been the policy adopted by the British 
 Government. 
 
 Sir Alexander Burnes dwelt in the city ; 
 and in his house on that morning were his 
 brother. Lieutenant Charles Burnes, and his 
 military secretary. Lieutenant Broadfoot, a 
 brother of a gallant officer who had fallen a 
 year before at Purwan Durrah. Early in 
 the morning. Sir Alexander received warning 
 through a friendly native that there was a 
 plot for a rising in the city, and for his 
 assassination ; and he was earnestly recom- 
 mended to quit his house and proceed to 
 the cantonments outside the city, where the 
 troops were quartered. He refused to believe 
 the report, confident in the friendly feeling 
 of the Afghans towards him, as he had ever 
 been their friend, and had always endea- 
 voured to advance their interests. But pre- 
 sently a raging mob assembled round his 
 house, some thirsting for blood, and others 
 for plunder. He then sent two messengers 
 to the cantonments to demand a force for 
 his protection. Only one of these messen- 
 gers returned, covered with wounds ; the 
 other was murdered by the mob. 
 
 From a gallery or balcony of his house, 
 Burnes harangued the raging assailants. 
 
 reminding them that he was their old friend, 
 and promising that, if they would disperse 
 quietly, the grievances of the chiefs and 
 people should be rigidly inquired into. It 
 was utterly in vain ; Lieutenant Broadfoot 
 was laid low by a shot from the crowd, who 
 now yelled for the lives of the British officers. 
 Lieutenant Burnes and a party of chuprassies 
 now fii-ed upon the mob ; but this, instead of 
 intimidating the assailants, only roused them 
 to wilder fury. In his extremity the unfor- 
 tunate resident made an appeal to the avarice 
 of his assailants, promising them large sums 
 if they would spare his life and his brother's. 
 The reply was a repeated summons that they 
 should come down to the garden. A Mus- 
 sulman solemnly pledged himself to convey 
 Burnes and his brother safely to one of the 
 forts, and Sir Alexander, partly disguised in 
 some articles of native attire hastily assumed, 
 descended to the garden. Whereupon his 
 treacherous conductor immediately cried 
 out : " This is Secan der Burnes ! " Where- 
 upon the savage assailants fell upon him, and 
 killed him with many wounds ; Lieutenant 
 Burnes was despatched at the same time. 
 
 From Bad to Worse ; The Conse- 
 quences OF THE Insurrection. 
 It is the opinion of the survivors of that 
 lamentable day that a vigorous demonstration 
 of the six thousand troops encamped within 
 a couple of miles of th>e city would have 
 strangled the outbreak in its birth ; and, in- 
 deed, at the outset it was a mere rising of the 
 mob, the discontented chiefs holding aloof 
 out of fear of the large force so near them, 
 whom they expected promptly to avenge the 
 murder of the English officers. The savage 
 crowd, having tasted blood, proceeded to 
 fresh outrages. The treasury of Captain 
 Johnson, the paymaster, was attacked and 
 plundered of ^ 1 7,000 ; all the property of that 
 officer was carried off or destroyed, and his 
 servants were massacred, and also the guard 
 who kept watch over the plundered treasury, 
 and stuck to their duty with rare fidelity until 
 overpowered and slain. The mob then 
 rushed through the city, plundering shops 
 and attacking the houses of British officers, 
 where they slew women and children, 
 and the whole town was a scene of murder 
 and rapine. Meanwhile the wretched old 
 king, the " beloved of the people," sat trem- 
 bhng in the Balla Hissar, the citadel of 
 Cabul. He indeed made one effort by send- 
 ing out some Hindustani troops into the 
 streets to quell the tumult ; but they did 
 little, and soon retired discomfited ; and 
 after losing, it is said, two hundred of their 
 men, were obliged to fall back in confusion 
 through the narrow streets upon the Balla 
 Hissar ; the arrival of a body of infantry and 
 artillery from the British cantonments, under 
 
 570 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 Brigadier Shelton, the second in command, 
 first enabling them to save their field-pieces 
 from capture. 
 
 General Elphinstone,the chief in command, 
 on that day, of the force surrounding Cabul, 
 was in many respects a good and tried officer, 
 but now enfeebled by age and by utterly 
 broken health, and oppressed by indecision, 
 he allowed the time when a few hundred men 
 could have easily suppressed the revolt to go 
 by ; the fatal inactivity being increased by 
 the disunion which unhappily existed between 
 himself and Brigadier Shelton, the second in 
 command. Nothing more was done. '* Gen- 
 eral Elphinstone," says Sir John Kaye, in 
 narrating these events, "had been talking 
 about to-morrow when he should have been 
 acting to-day ; " and he tells us how the in- 
 surgents were strengthened by the indecision 
 of the authorities, and by the inactivity of 
 the army that should have put them down. 
 The unhappy want of co-operation between 
 the first and second in command, Elphin- 
 stone and Shelton, continued with ruinous 
 effects. In their respective handwriting we 
 have the complaints of Elphinstone of con- 
 tumaciousnes and insubordination on the 
 part of Shelton, who on his side bitterly com- 
 plains that the carping spirit of his chief 
 thwarted every disposition he made for the 
 general good. While acknowledging that 
 both were brave men, and in spite of the 
 drawbacks of physical infirmity and dogma- 
 tical perverseness respectively, might in any 
 other situation have done efficient service. 
 Sir John emphatically declares these two 
 commanders to have been " miserably out of 
 place in the cantonments of Cabul." Sir 
 William Macnaghten, too, though a con- 
 scientious, and in many respects an able, 
 official, lacked the firmness required by the 
 crisis ; aAd so in those days of danger and 
 humiliation things went from bad to worse. 
 
 As for Shah Soojah, that unhappy ruler 
 remained shut up, virtually a prisoner, in the 
 Balla Hissar, in a miserable state of terror 
 and dejection. He was never again to have 
 even the semblance of authority, but was 
 destined during the short remainder of his 
 existence to remain, what indeed he had 
 always been, a mere puppet king. 
 
 The Afghans quickly marked the irresolu- 
 tion and the divided counsels of those against 
 whom they had risen in rebellion, and be- 
 came proportionately bold. They attacked 
 the British cantonments, and gained such 
 successes that our army, cut off from the 
 forts where the provisions were stored, were 
 menaced with the horrors of famine. In an 
 action on the Beh-meim hills, on the 13th of 
 November, Brigadier Shelton gained a last 
 fleeting success. Lieutenant Eyre, whose 
 chronicle of the events that followed has 
 been acknowledged as thoroughly accurate 
 
 and faithful, says, after recording the doubt- 
 ful triumph : " Henceforward it becomes my 
 weary task to relate a catalogue of errors, 
 disasters, and difficulties, which, following 
 close upon each other, disgusted our officers, 
 disheartened our soldiers, and finally sunk u& 
 all into irretrievable ruin, as though heaven 
 itself, by a combination of evil circumstances^ 
 for its own inscrutable purposes, had planned 
 our downfall." 
 
 The great hope of the army was in the 
 expected arrival of the brigade of Sir Robert 
 Sale, a gallant and experienced officer, whose 
 name has become famous no less by his own 
 achievements than by the devotion and hero- 
 ism of the high-souled lady, his wife, whose 
 ''Journal" furnishes a spirited and authentic 
 account of some of the darkest passages of 
 those troublous days. But the expected 
 succour did not come, and Macnaghten, in 
 an urgent letter, written only two days after 
 the Beh-meim action, describes the position 
 of the army as very grave, and urges the 
 immediate despatch of help as necessary to 
 avert complete destruction. 
 
 Akbar Khan and his Doings; Fate of 
 Sir William Macnaghten. 
 
 More and more critical did the condition 
 of the beleagured British force become in 
 the weary weeks that closed the year 1841. 
 The Afghans attacked again and again, and 
 with undoubted success, and after a time the 
 humiliating fact became only too apparent 
 that our soldiers had become demorahsed, 
 and would no longer look the enemy in the 
 face. Negotiations of a description very alien 
 from the English character were entered into 
 at this time. Among the unholy policy de- 
 nounced by Sir John Kaye there is no doubt 
 that there was included a scheme for the 
 assassination of some of the insurgent chiefs, 
 and that the proposals, though unknown to 
 Sir Wilharn Macnaghten, were made iri his 
 name. Such proceedings could not fail to 
 embitter the feeling of hatred in the country 
 against the English. 
 
 There were three courses from which the 
 hard-pressed army, whose position in canton- 
 ments was rapidly becoming untenable, 
 might choose. The first, which was strongly 
 recommended by brave Eldred Pottinger, 
 who had already distinguished himself by 
 the defence of Herat, was to advance boldly, 
 and occupy, the Balla Hissar at all hazards ; 
 but this course was vigorously opposed by 
 Brigadier Shelton, who did not consider the 
 advantage to be gained equivalent to the 
 risk. Ttie second was to abandon the bag- 
 gage and all useless encumbrances, and force 
 a passage towards the frontier, in spite of all 
 resistance ; but this was also overruled. 
 The third course, the one least hkely to 
 recommend itself to British soldiers and 
 
 571 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 statesmen, was the one finally adopted .; it 
 was to negotiate with the enemy for a safe 
 retreat. 
 
 By this time Akbar Khan, the fiercest, the 
 most ambitious, and certainly the ablest of 
 the sons of Dost Mahomed, had appeared 
 before Cabul. Already there had been ne- 
 gotiations for peace between the Afghans 
 and the English ; but the Afghan ambassa- 
 dors had insolently demanded nothing less 
 than unconditional submission from the 
 British ; that they should surrender at dis- 
 cretion, giving themselves up, with all their 
 arms, ammunition, and treasure, as prisoners 
 of war. These terms had been at once re- 
 jected by Macnaghten. 
 
 But when Akbar Khan arrived, and was 
 received with noisy demonstrations of delight 
 by the Afghans, negotiations were resumed ; 
 and a treaty was drafted, of which the chief 
 stipulations were, that the British should 
 evacuate Afghanistan, to which country Dost 
 Mahomed Khan and his family were to be 
 sent back ; that Shah Soojah should quit 
 Cabul and be allowed to go to India or 
 elsewhere at his pleasure ; and as hostages 
 for the fulfilment of the treaty certain British 
 officers should remain at Cabul. 
 
 This was a very different treaty from those 
 a British envoy had been accustomed to 
 sign, and it is not to be wondered at that 
 Sir William Macnaghten, sorely harassed 
 with doubts and misgivings, sought to delay 
 its fulfilment, in the faint hope that some- 
 thing might occur to procure for him more 
 favourable conditions. And while the con- 
 clusion of matters was thus delayed, Akbar 
 Khan suddenly proposed an accommodation 
 on an entirely new basis. His proposal, 
 which was indeed in the nature of a con- 
 spiracy, involved nothing less than the 
 ^'throwing over" of the chiefs with whom 
 he professed to act, or rather, he proposed 
 that he and his followers should unite with 
 the British against those chiefs, to maintain 
 Shah Soojah on the throne, Akbar Khan 
 himself governing as Wuzeer. The English 
 would thus be relieved from the humiliation 
 of being compelled to leave the country ; for 
 they might remain till the spring, and their 
 nominee would still continue on the throne 
 of Cabul. He further stipulated for a large 
 sum of money for himself in recompense for 
 the service he was doing to the British. 
 Poor Sir William, sorely harassed and half 
 heart-broken at the idea of a compulsory 
 and shameful retreat, was tempted by the 
 insidious offer, and eagerly clutched at the 
 prospect of escape from humiliation. He 
 closed with the proposal at once, and desired 
 the reluctant General Elphinstone, who was 
 startled at the ominous word " plot," and 
 asked how the chiefs were to be disposed 
 of, to be prepared to support him with 
 
 troops. Macaulay, in speaking of Clive, 
 says how that gifted but unscrupulous man 
 was accustomed to look upon Indian politics 
 as a game at which nothing was unfair ; how 
 directly he was matched against an Indian 
 intriguer, he became himself an Indian in- 
 triguer, and descended without shame "to 
 falsehood, to hypocritical caresses, to the sub- 
 stitution of documents, and to the counter- 
 feiting of hands." Something of this reckless 
 spirit seems to have come upon Macnaghten 
 on this occasion. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances, and with his faculties unclouded by 
 overwhelming misfortune, he would certainly 
 not have listened to such a proposal as that 
 of Akbar Khan. 
 
 But he was falling into a trap, set and 
 baited for him by Akbar. It was that 
 treacherous chiefs intention to get the per- 
 son of the British envoy into his power. 
 Accordingly a conference was arranged, to 
 which Macnaghten came, accompanied by 
 three British officers. Akbar Kha.n arrived, 
 surrounded by a great retinue of followers 
 and friends ; and the Afghans, many of them 
 fanatic Ghazees, came pressing round in a 
 hostile and ominous manner. The pro- 
 ceedings had hardly begun, when suddenly 
 the arms of each of the Englishmen were 
 seized from behind, and they were made 
 prisoners. Akbar Khan himself endeavoured 
 to secure the envoy, who struggled violently, 
 with surprise and horror in his countenance. 
 It appears that the chiefs were suspicious of 
 Akbar Khan, and apprehensive that he would 
 make a bargain for himself by sacrificing 
 their interests, and that Akbar wished to 
 dispel their suspicion and prove his sincerity 
 to them by handing over to them the person 
 of the English envoy. When the envoy was 
 being seized by Akbar he struggled violently. 
 That fierce chief, who was subject to ungovern- 
 able fits of passion, lost all control over him- 
 self, in the fear of losing his prisoner, and 
 in a sudden impulse of rage, fired a pistol, 
 which was one of a pair presented to him by 
 Macnaghten a few days before. Thereupon 
 the fanatic Ghazees cut the body to frag- 
 ments. Thus perished one of the kindest 
 and most loyal-hearted of men, betrayed by 
 momentary weakness into a position unworthy 
 of his high character, and treacherously be- 
 trayed by the man he had trusted. Two of 
 the three officers who accompanied him were 
 carried away as prisoners ; the third was 
 slain. 
 
 Akbar Khan always put forth the above 
 explanation of his conduct, asserting that the 
 capture of the envoy was absolutely necessary 
 for the re-establishment of his own credit 
 with the suspicious chiefs. It is but a lame 
 defence ; at best it only substitutes treachery 
 for premeditated murder, and reduces the 
 slaying of Macnaghten to manslaughter. 
 
 ST-^ 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 The Retreat from Cabul ; Massacre 
 AND Ruin. 
 
 In the cantonments there was consternation 
 and dismay at the terrible news that Mac- 
 naghten had been massacred and his com- 
 panions taken prisoners, and that the mangled 
 body of the envoy had been publicly paraded 
 through the streets of Cabul, and the lifeless 
 head stuck up to public view. What should 
 the army do ? To hold the position seemed 
 impossible ; to break through the investing 
 hordes of Afghans and secure a retreat ap- 
 peared equally so. Major Eldred Pottinger, 
 
 Hissar, and holding out to the last, but had 
 been overruled by Shelton, poor General 
 Elphinstone being too ill and depressed to 
 give a decided opinion either way. He was 
 overruled ; and by means of the captured 
 officers, whose lives had been saved at con- 
 siderable difficulty and risk by Akbar Khan 
 from the enraged fanatics, a negotiation was 
 opened for the evacuation of Afghanistan by 
 the British force. It was agreed that, with 
 the exception of six field-pieces, all the British 
 guns were to be given up, with all the treasure 
 and property in the hands of the English ; 
 that a large sum should be paid to the Afghan 
 chiefs for the safe-conduct of the Enghsh on 
 
 Cabul. 
 
 whose heroic conduct at Herat entitled his 
 opinion to every consideration, was for at- 
 tempting the latter course, beating off the 
 enemy as long as possible, and dying sword 
 in hand, if better might not be. But less 
 heroic counsels prevailed, and it was resolved 
 to treat with the triumphant Afghans, and 
 with their chief who had imbrued his hands 
 in the blood of a British envoy. Seldom has 
 a British force been exposed to such humi- 
 liation as in this unhappy negotiation with 
 Akbar Khan. 
 
 It was at a council held on Christmas Day 
 in the cantonments that Pottinger had pro- 
 posed his scheme of occupying the Bala 
 
 their march ; that the departure of the English 
 should take place at once ; and that in addi- 
 tion to Lieutenants Airey and Conolly, who 
 were already in the hands of the Afghans, 
 four other officers should be placed in the 
 hands of Akbar Khan as a guarantee that 
 the articles would be duly carried out. " There 
 is nothing more painful in all this painful 
 history," says Sir John Kaye, " than the pro- 
 gress of the negotiations which resulted in 
 the accomplishment of this treaty. ... It is 
 so rare a thing for Englishmen to throw them- 
 selves upon the clemency and forbearance of 
 an insolent foe, that when we see our officers 
 imploring the Afghan chiefs 'not to overpower 
 
 573 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the weak with suffering,' we contemplate the 
 sad picture of our humiliation with as much 
 astonishment and shame." Indeed, the 
 ■Ghazees were enjoying the very intoxication 
 of triumph ; and in those dark days that 
 preceded the evacuation of the cantonments, 
 they used to hover round the English lines, 
 insulting the officers and soldiers, who, burn- 
 ing to chastise them, were not allowed to fire 
 a shot, and plundering and carrying off the 
 stores of corn and the cattle that had been 
 purchased with much trouble and expense by 
 the commissariat for provisioning the army 
 •on its retreat. 
 
 It was at the beginning of January 1842 
 that the fatal retreat from Cabul began. The 
 army numbered about four thousand fighting 
 men, and these were encumbered, unfortu- 
 nately, with twelve thousand camp followers, 
 and with women and children, including the 
 widow of the murdered Sir William Mac- 
 naghten, some officers' wives with their chil- 
 dren, and the heroic Lady Sale, whose husband, 
 General Sir Robert Sale, was holding the 
 fortress of Jellalabad, upon which the retreat- 
 ing army was marching. In the wretched 
 arrangement with Akbar Khan, it had been 
 stipulated that the British garrison should 
 leave Jellalabad, and proceed towards India 
 before the arrival of the force from Cabul ; 
 but General Sale and Captain Macgregor the 
 political agent, having good information that 
 the Afghans intended to massacre his force 
 on their retreat, with admirable judgment 
 refused to move from the strong position he 
 felt himself capable of defending ; and when 
 Abdool Ghuffoor Khan, a chief who had been 
 appointed governor of Jellalabad, presented 
 a letter from General Elphinstone and Major 
 Pottinger, requesting that the fort should be 
 •evacuated, Macgregor and Sale declined to 
 move until they should receive security for 
 their safe march to Peshawur. They took 
 the course Elphinstone and Shelton should 
 have taken at the beginning. 
 ' It was in the depth of the bitter Afghan 
 winter, and the route of the army lay through 
 the tremendous pass of Khoord Cabul. The 
 cold was intense, and the snow lay deep on 
 the ground, when on the 6th of January the 
 troops moved out of their cantonments. 
 Newab Zemaun Khan, the Abdiel of the 
 Afghan chiefs, " among the faithless faithful 
 only found," had warned Pottinger thSt it 
 would be highly dangerous for the British 
 force to march without the strong escort 
 that had been promised, and that was 
 necessary to defend the retreating troops 
 from the fanaticism of the Ghazees and the 
 rapacity of plundering Afghan bandits. But 
 it was too late to remonstrate on the absence 
 of the escort. The one thing to be done was 
 to get away as fast as possible, and to. endea- 
 vour to preserve something like order. 
 
 In both these respects there was failure. 
 Delay occurred in starting, and the enormous 
 number of camp-followers were soon mixed 
 up with the soldiers, to the utter destruction 
 of all efficiency and discipline. The plunder- 
 ing natives and the fierce Ghazees soon began 
 their attacks. " Darting in among the bag- 
 gage they cut down the helpless camp-fol- 
 lowers," says Sir John Kaye, " and carried 
 off whatever they could seize. The snow 
 was soon plastered with blood . . . there 
 was an enormous mass of struggling life, 
 from which arose shouts and yells and oaths, 
 an indescribable uproar of discordant sounds; 
 the bellowings of the camels, the curses of 
 the camel drivers, the lamentations of the 
 Hindoostanees, the shrieks of women, and 
 the cries of children, and the savage yells 
 of the Ghazees rising in barbarous triumph 
 above them all," Thus the retreat was begun ; 
 and on the very first day, within a few miles 
 of the starting-point, numbers were already 
 lying down to die in the snow, —women and 
 children, and even sepoys, numbed and 
 smitten to death by the terrible cold. The 
 chief features of Napoleon's retreat from 
 Russia were here reproduced — the bitter frost, 
 the want of provisions, the continual attacks 
 of a relentless enemy. " It was no longer a 
 retreating army," says Sir John Kaye, " it 
 was a rabble in chaotic flight." The one 
 chance of escape for the fighting men of the 
 army now lay in pushing forward through 
 the pass at their best speed, shaking off the 
 camp-followers, who retarded their progress. 
 But here again there was difference of opinion 
 between General Elphinstone and Brigadier 
 Shelton, andinvaluable time was lost. Another 
 night was passed by the despairing, perishing 
 army on the snow before they entered the 
 Khoord Cabul Pass. In two days they had 
 only traversed ten miles of the way, when on 
 the second night they halted, " a great con- 
 geries of men, women, and children, horses, 
 ponies, and camels, wallowing in the snow. 
 There was no shelter, no firewood, no food. 
 The sepoys burnt their caps and accoutre- 
 ments to obtain a little temporary warmth. 
 .... The sun rose upon many stiffened 
 corpses." And meanwhile the enemy were 
 blocking up the further end of the pass. 
 
 Akbar Khan now appeared with some six 
 hundred horsemen, declaring that he had 
 come to protect the English retreat, and at 
 the same time to demand additional hostages 
 for the evacuation of Jellalabad by General 
 Sale. He professed himself anxious for the 
 lives of the British, but unable to restrain 
 the hostility and fanaticism of the Ghazees. 
 There was nothing to be done but to comply 
 with his demand, and three officers placed 
 themselves in his hands as hostages. The 
 struggling, panic-stricken mass now rolled 
 into the stupendous defile of Koord Cabul, — 
 
 574 
 
DOST MAHOMED AND AKBAR KHAN. 
 
 a dark, narrow pass five miles long, shut in 
 by precipitous walls of rock that render it 
 dark and gloomy even at noonday. Here 
 was perpetrated a fearful massacre, in which 
 three thousand men are said to have fallen, 
 shot down by the enemy or despatched by 
 the cruel Afghan knives. When the pass 
 was cleared, another halt was ordered by 
 General Elphinstone, Akbar Khan having 
 promised provisions, fuel, and protection to 
 the retreating force. The native troops now 
 began to desert to the enemy, and large 
 numbers went over to save their lives. 
 
 And now Akbar Khan made a new pro- 
 position. It was that the English ladies 
 should be placed under his charge, he en- 
 
 army melted away beneath the attacks of the 
 Afghans, Akbar Khan and his men hover- 
 ing on the flanks, watching the butchery and 
 doing nothing to prevent it. Day by day 
 heaps of stiffened corpses showed where the 
 pitiless foes had lain in wait to deal destruc- 
 tion upon the fugitives ; and at last came the 
 climax of the miserable calamity. The Jug- 
 dulluck Pass, through which the survivors 
 would have to make their way, was barri- 
 caded by the enemy, and "the Cabul force 
 ceased to be." A few managed to clear the 
 barricades, but only to be cut down by the 
 natives. At last the garrison of Jellalabad 
 saw a solitary horseman, pale, faint, and 
 almost ready to fall to the ground from the 
 
 Mountain Road across the Frontier. 
 
 gaging to convey them safely to Peshawur. 
 It was the best thing to be done under the 
 circumstances — indeed, the only chance of 
 saving the lives of the unfortunate ladies ; 
 ''and so Lady Macnaghten, Lady Sale, and 
 the other widows and wives of the Cabul 
 force became the "guests" of the son of Dost 
 Mahomed Khan. Of their subsequent for- 
 tunes, the hardships they endured, and their 
 ultimate preservation, we read in the admi- 
 rable "Journal" of Lady Sale. The married 
 officers accompanied their families ; and on 
 the loth of January the remnant of what had 
 once been an army staggered forward again 
 in the hope of reaching the haven of refuge, 
 Jellalabad. 
 The effort was vain. Day by day the 
 
 wretched pony that carried him, slowly making 
 his way to the walls. It was Dr. Brydon, 
 the sole survivor of the force of more than 
 sixteen thousand men who had quitted Cabul 
 only a few days before. 
 
 Retribution and Vengeance ; Con- 
 clusion, 
 
 Undaunted, General Sale had now occa- 
 sion to congratulate himself on his refusal to 
 evacuate Jellalabad. Had he issued forth 
 from that stronghold, England would have 
 had to lament the loss of two armies instead 
 of one. As it was, he had reasonable hope 
 of holding out until Pollock, who was march- 
 ing to. his aid, should arrive ; while brave 
 General Nott was upholding the honour of 
 
 575 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 England at Candahar. Akbar Khan ad- 
 vanced against Jellalabad ; whereupon the 
 English came out to attack him, and inflicted 
 upon him a complete defeat ; utterly disper- 
 sing the army he had brought against 
 them. 
 
 This success of the British marked the 
 turning of the tide. Presently Pollock, having 
 fought his way through the Kyber Pass, 
 reached Jellalabad ; and Nott was ready at 
 Candahar to co-operate with the two other 
 generals. Lord Auckland, the Governor- 
 General, had returned to England, and was 
 succeeded by Lord Ellenborough, a man of 
 acknowledged ability, though even then he 
 had acquired the reputation of a tendency 
 to indulge in " brave words," of a showy and 
 theatrical character, not sufficiently followed 
 up by corresponding deeds. On this occa- 
 sion, however, stimulated it is said by an 
 unmistakable expression of public feeling, 
 he concurred in the idea of inflicting chas- 
 tisement on the Afghans for the shame and 
 humiliation brought on our troops by their 
 treachery. 
 
 Thus, in the summer of 1842, a brilliant 
 series of successes effaced the stain of the 
 defeat and disaster with which the year had 
 begun. On the 1 5th of September Pollock 
 entered Cabul, and as a punishment for that 
 city's treachery, the great bazaar was de- 
 stroyed. The ladies who had become the 
 "guests" of Akbar Khan, and who had 
 suffered much hardship and privation, were 
 given up ; and it was like a piece of poetical 
 justice that the task of effecting their libera- 
 
 tion should have been entrusted to and com- 
 pleted by General Sale. 
 
 The return to Cabul and the destruction ot 
 the bazaar where poor Sir William Macnagh- 
 ten's corpse had been exposed to the insults 
 of the populace was a just and necessary 
 vindication of British honour ; but Lord Ellen- 
 borough incurred no little ridicule by a 
 " coup de theatre^'' at which Mahometans 
 and Hindoos alike laughed. He caused the 
 gates of the temple of Somnauth to be carried 
 off from Afghanistan to India, while a pom- 
 pous proclamation set forth how the despoiled 
 tomb of Sultan Mahmoud looked upon the 
 ruins of Ghuznee, and how the insult of eight 
 hundred years was at last avenged. The 
 gates were not genuine relics, and the whole 
 affair excited ridicule alike in England and 
 in the East. 
 
 Having vindicated the prestige of England, 
 the Government took the very sensible step 
 of leaving Afghanistan to itself. Shah Soojah 
 had been murdered some time before, having 
 gained nothing by the help of his allies but 
 the uncertain tenure of a menaced throne 
 during a few unquiet months, and for this 
 the unfortunate old man had given up the 
 security and affluence he enjoyed in India. 
 Dost Mahomed Khan, released from his 
 honourable captivity, was restored to the 
 throne of which he should never have been 
 deprived. Never was there a more striking 
 example of the folly of hasty intervention in 
 the quarrels of others than was afforded by 
 the events of the first Afghan war. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 576 
 
LlELFTHAVEN, WHENCE THE PlLGRIMS SET SAIL FOR THE ISeW WORLD. 
 
 THE MEN OF THE "MAYFLOWER:" 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS AND THE 
 COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 The Departure from Defthaven— Who were the Puritans— Rise of the Party under Henr>- VIII., Mary, and Elizabeth — 
 Commencement of the Puritan Exodus — Departure frcm England — The Voyage — Landing at Cape Cod — The 
 First Sunday on Shore — ''Welcome, Englishmen!" — The Colonists' First Summer^More Emigrants arrive — Disa- 
 greements with the Merchants— Continued Emigration of the Puritans— The Dorchester Adventurers — Adoption 
 of a Confession of Faith — Civil Laws passed — Roger Williams, one of the Noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers — Intoler- 
 ance of the Puritans — Laws against Witchcraft — Progress of the Colonies. 
 
 The Departure from Delfthaven. 
 N that low-lying shore, where the 
 slowly-moving Meuse mingles its 
 sluggish waters with a sombre sea, 
 and the grey northern ocean frets 
 for ever in foaming surge on dull-coloured 
 dykes, lies the quiet little port of Delfthaven. 
 Unpicturesque and uninteresting as it may 
 be, it was yet the scene of an episode which 
 may well be termed one of the turning-points 
 of the world's history, — an episode which, 
 though humble in itself, has been produc- 
 tive of the mightiest and most momentous 
 
 results. For, from that harbour set forth 
 the men who founded the New England 
 over the sea, and who led the way ot that 
 great Puritan emigration which made the 
 Greater Britain across the Atlantic. 
 
 There were no picturesque surroundings to 
 the humble scene. The huge dykes which 
 shut out the sullen sea from the marshes 
 and mud-banks of Holland, the dull-looking 
 architecture of the old Dutch town, the sombre- 
 coloured quay, the sluggish river, — none of 
 these things presented an imposing picture ; 
 but the scene became singularly affecting and 
 
 577 PP 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 •deeply impressive when, as the sun shone 
 ieebly out, a group of sad-faced men and 
 weeping women came slowly from the town 
 to the wharf, and as they reached the water's 
 edge, the pastor of the little flock fell on his 
 knees and, with uplifted hands and heart- 
 stirring voice, besought the blessing of the 
 Almighty on their anxious enterprise. Then 
 followed the lingering embraces and the 
 agonised farewells, the bursts of passionate 
 weeping and choking sobs which tell of break- 
 ing hearts, and those who were bound for the 
 far-off West tore themselves away from their 
 relatives and friends and betook themselves 
 to the little vessel slowly swinging at anchor 
 in the dingy harbour. The sails were spread, 
 the anchor weighed, and with a booming 
 ■ discharge of their little pieces of cannon 
 and a few small arms, the vessel slowly 
 glided from the shore, soon to be hidden below 
 the line of the sea from the tearful, straining 
 eyes of their companions on the quay. 
 
 And thus, amid blessings and prayers, the 
 little band departed for their unknown future. 
 They went because they had been driven 
 from Old England, the land of their birth 
 and of their love, to seek shelter in exile ; 
 and they set forth now to found a New 
 England in the realms of the setting sun, 
 — a New England where they could carry 
 with them the language and the traditions 
 
 • of Old England, — a New England where 
 they could establish the life and labour, the 
 manners and the customs, of the Old Country. 
 
 Here in Holland, whence they had first 
 fled from the persecution of a tyrant Church 
 and a tyrant king, they had met with 
 respect and kindness ; but they yearned for 
 . a home, they felt they were as yet strangers 
 in a strange land, they were pilgrims and 
 
 • exiles; a strange tongue was spoken around 
 them, the manners and customs of the 
 
 -country were different, and they feared 
 their children would soon be merged into 
 the people of the Netherlands. Let us 
 go, said their pastor, to that new Western 
 World across the Atlantic, and found there 
 .a new country which shall be but another 
 England, and a better England, seeing that 
 there we can worship God as seems best 
 to us, and no man shall dare to make us 
 afraid. And we may hope to advance the 
 gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the New 
 World, yea, if we be but even stepping-stones 
 unto others for performing so great a work. 
 And so they set forth, they whom the world 
 now knows as " The Pilgrim Fathers," a 
 band of English Puritans, to win for them- 
 selves and their children a new land and a 
 new home, where they might worship God 
 as their conscience dictated. 
 
 Who were the Puritans. 
 Notwithstanding many opinions to the 
 
 578 
 
 contrary, there is probably no religious party 
 which has exerted greater influence on the 
 history of the English speaking race than 
 the bitterly persecuted sect known as the 
 English Puritans. It is to them we owe 
 that complete religious toleration which for 
 so many years has proved to be such a rich 
 blessing to our country, giving us compa- 
 rative peace and quietness when other 
 nations have been plunged in the horrors of 
 religious and theological strife ; and it is to 
 them the world very largely owes the exis- 
 tence of that Great Republic formed hy "our 
 kin beyond the sea," upon which they im- 
 pressed their own character and policy to 
 a marvellous degree. 
 
 No doubt there is much to criticise in 
 many old English Puritans ; their austere 
 theology, their gloomy views of life and 
 religion, their endless disputes, their dreary 
 dogmas, and their bitter fanaticism, are 
 repulsive to us of these latter days, and were 
 repulsive to many in their own day ; but for 
 their tenacious adherence to the great prin- 
 ciple of religious liberty, the principle that each 
 individual has the inalienable right to pursue 
 his own course in rehgious matters without 
 interference from the state or a dominant 
 Church, for their magnificent vindication of 
 this great principle the world owes them 
 lasting honour. And not all of those old Puri- 
 tans were the gloomy fanatics it has been the 
 custom to paint them ; many were cultivated 
 and refined in the highest degree, and were 
 quite willing to give to others the religious 
 toleration they claimed for themselves. 
 
 Theologically and socially they were divided 
 into four or five distinct parties, and possibly 
 even more: there were the educated gentlemen, 
 scholars and men of high position ; there were 
 mild enthusiasts, of a somewhat lower social 
 class, who wished to give every one the tolera- 
 tion they asked for themselves ; there were 
 coarse and vulgar fanatics ; there were those 
 of the lower classes, socially honest and hardy, 
 but unrefined ; while, alas ! there were disgust- 
 ing hypocrites, the Maw-worms of the satirist. 
 The various religious opinions of these classes 
 differed very largely even among themselves, 
 but with their dogmas we have now nothing 
 to do. It is their ecclesiastical position alone 
 that concerns us — the position they took up 
 that they would suffer persecution and ex- 
 patriation rather than give up the principle 
 of religious liberty. 
 
 Rise of the Puritans. 
 As everyone knows, or should know, 
 when Henry VIII. abolished the supre- 
 macy of the Pope in England, he estab- 
 lished his own authority instead, and the 
 Church of England, which then differed in 
 doctrine but very slightly from the Church of 
 Rome, took its place, with the very pious 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWER: 
 
 King Harry as its head. The principle of 
 private judgment in spiritual matters was 
 by no means recognized, and every man in 
 those days had to formulate his faith in 
 accordance with the latest whim of the 
 despot " on the throne, or to suffer for his 
 disobedience. But there were many good 
 and worthy men who strongly objected to 
 this state of things. They maintained, that 
 only to deny the Pope's authority in 
 spiritual matters was not a sufficiently far 
 removal from Romish errors and supersti- 
 tions. They maintained that the Bible, and 
 the Bible alone, should be the trae test and 
 guide in all spiritual matters ; they held that 
 Christ alone could be the true Head of the 
 Church, and further, that His Church was a 
 spiritual Church. They denounced every- 
 thing Popish, and in their zeal they went to 
 such extremes as to maintain that the wear- 
 ing of surplices was as erroneous as the 
 worship of images. Hooper the Bishop of 
 Gloucester (who suffered death in the reign 
 of Mary) was the chief of this party, and 
 it is said that he underwent imprisonment 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. rather than 
 'wear the episcopal dress then prescribed by 
 law. 
 
 During the reign of Mary, all parties of 
 Protestants suffered alike, and were united 
 ■in their common opposition to the Papists 
 and the revival of the Pope's authority. But 
 the Act of Uniformity, passed in the first year 
 of Elizabeth's reign, re-established the su- 
 premacy of the Crown in spiritual matters, 
 and re-opened the division between the 
 Protestants. For some years this Act was 
 not rigidly enforced, although much perse- 
 cution went on under it. As time went on, 
 it became quite clear, however, that the 
 Protestants had indeed split into two parties ; 
 and from the fact that many of the Puritans 
 would not, on conscientious grounds, con- 
 form to the Act of Uniformity, they were, 
 and of course are still, known as Non- 
 conformists, and also Dissenters. When 
 Elizabeth died, it has been reckoned that 
 the party numbered one hundred thousand 
 declared adherents. 
 
 The Puritans hoped much from James I. 
 They forgot he was the son of Mary Stuart, 
 and thought that, as he had been brought 
 up as a Calvinist, and had been partly trained 
 in their views, he would be favourably dis- 
 posed towards them. But he was a Stuart, 
 and far too fond of despotic power. On his 
 accession he found the sweets of spiritual 
 authority too gratifying to be put aside. 
 Therefore, at the famous conference in 
 January, 1604, at Hampton Court, when the 
 Puritan leaders petitioned for a redress of 
 their ecclesiastical grievances, he told them 
 plainly that in his realms he would have but 
 "one doctrine, one discipline, one religion in 
 
 substance and in ceremony." In effect he 
 went on to say, "You must conform, or I will 
 persecute you out of the land." He did so, 
 and the colonization of New England was the 
 result. 
 
 The determination of the King to be abso- 
 lute in religious matters was fully upheld by 
 the leaders of the Anglican Church of that 
 day. They utterly failed to see, or refused 
 to see, that the only logical alternative to the 
 Church of Rome is individual liberty of con- 
 science. The idea of Henry VIII., Mary, 
 Elizabeth, or James I., that they were infal- 
 lible, and therefore had the right to dictate 
 to their subjects in religious matters, was 
 particularly unfortunate, as well as utterly 
 illogical, and we can well believe there were 
 many who preferred to remain within the 
 fold of Rome and accept the long estab- 
 lished decrees of that outwardly splendid 
 and superb Church, which, with all its errors, 
 had around it the glamour of tradition, and 
 whose head called himself the Vicar of Christ, 
 than accept as their pope the secular sove- 
 reign, whose opinion varied greatly from 
 year to year or from reign to reign. The 
 whole subject turned on the vexed question 
 of authority in religious matters — the Puritans 
 maintaining that Christ alone has authority 
 over His Church, the Anglicans of that day 
 believing that the sovereign is the proper 
 authority, and the Romanists owning the 
 authority of the Pope. 
 
 James, however, was determined to be as 
 absolute in spiritual matters as in secular; 
 and the Puritans, who were only prepared to 
 " render unto Cccsar the things which were 
 Ccesar's," or, in other words, to obey him in 
 earthly matters, were persecuted with the 
 utmost severity. And, as usual, persecution 
 only served to increase their numbers. Their 
 position ecclesiastically was so logical and so 
 strong that some of the most vigorous thinkers 
 of the day were to be found in their ranks. 
 
 Commencement of the Puritan 
 Exodus. 
 
 As early as 1559 small bands of Dissenters 
 had settled on the coasts of Holland, where, 
 under the equable laws of the Dutch Repub- 
 lic, they enjoyed complete freedom of con- 
 science ; and when the persecution under 
 James I. waxed hot, there were many who 
 turned their eyes longingly to those low-lying 
 shores where their co-religionists had found 
 shelter. 
 
 About this time there lived in the little 
 town of Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, an 
 eloquent preacher named John Robinson. 
 He was one of the leaders of a Puritan sect 
 now known as Independents, and used to 
 minister to a small party who were wont to 
 meet secretly for worship in the house of one 
 of their number named Brewster. These 
 
 579 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 meetings at length became known, and the 
 bitter persecution which followed determined 
 them to take refuge in Holland. The attempt 
 to escape was first made in 1607, but was 
 frustrated for the time by the authorities ; but 
 in the following year the would-be emigrants 
 were successful, and, under the guidance of 
 their pastor, they formed a religious and social 
 community at Amsterdam. They soon fell 
 into great poverty, and thereupon they moved 
 to Leyden, where for twelve years they seem 
 to have enjoyed a certain amount of pros- 
 perity and peace. By their thrift, hard work, 
 and rehgious conduct, they earned the respect 
 of the Dutch. 
 
 At that time all Europe was filled with 
 news of the great Western continent, and of 
 the colonies founded there. The wonderful 
 fertility of those far-off shores had been 
 painted in glowing terms by Raleigh and 
 others, and it was to this new land that 
 Robinson turned, as being likely to afford 
 the place of refuge which they needed. There 
 they hoped to establish a colony which should 
 be under English rule, and should be in- 
 habited by none but their own countrymen. 
 Some of their Dutch friends wished to ac- 
 company them, but they would not listen to 
 the proposal. " We go to found a New 
 England^ they said, " where we can pre- 
 serve our language and nationality intact. 
 We wish to live under the protection and 
 government of our native land." Probably 
 the disturbed state of Holland was also 
 another reason why they wished to leave 
 for those vast solitudes across the sea, where 
 they could worship as they pleased, without 
 interference from Church or State. But in 
 such a perilous undertaking it would never 
 do to have those engaged who were not 
 entirely of one heart and one mind. 
 
 There were many difficulties to be over- 
 come, however, before the emigrants could 
 set forth. They were poor, and had not the 
 means to purchase or hire a vessel to take 
 them across the Atlantic, or to procure the 
 necessary implements for building houses 
 and cultivating the rough soil when they 
 arrived at their destination. Still further, 
 as they had decided to inhabit a territory 
 far removed from the colonies which had 
 already been planted on those far-away 
 shores, they wished to make arrangements 
 with one of the two companies to which 
 different portions of the country belonged, 
 whereby a distinct district might be allotted 
 to them, separate, and indeed remote, from 
 the other colonies, where they could live " in 
 a distinct body by themselves." 
 
 In 1617, therefore, the intending emi- 
 grants sent John Carver and Robert Cush- 
 man, their minister, to London, who finally 
 entered into arrangements with what was 
 then known as the London Company, to form 
 
 a plantation in the northern part of Virginia. 
 This State was the first British settlement 
 in North America, having been discovered 
 by John Cabot in 1497. It was taken pos- 
 session of for England by Sir Walter Raleigh 
 in 1584, and by him named Virginia after 
 the virgin-queen, Elizabeth. 
 
 The Puritans' Petition. 
 The consent of the London Company hav" 
 ing been obtained, there only remained the 
 religious difficulty. A petition was drawn up 
 to King James, stating that the emigrants 
 wished to extend the dominions of England, 
 and to live under English rule, but that, if they 
 risked so much in going to a wild and un- 
 known country, they must have perfect liberty 
 of conscience accorded to them, and wished 
 the same to be confirmed by the sovereign. 
 The narrow-minded and mean king con- 
 sidered that to advance the dominions 
 of England was indeed "a good and 
 honest notion," but wanted to know who 
 were to be their ministers and what was to 
 be their calling. They answered that the 
 power of making ministers required no 
 bishop, and that they hoped to engage in 
 fishing. The King replied grimly that 
 " fishing was an honest trade, and the 
 apostles own calling," and so far all was 
 well ; but as for their rehgious difficulties he 
 must refer their petition to their Graces the 
 Bishops of London and Canterbury. Of 
 course these right reverend fathers could 
 not agree to the Puritans' petition, and the 
 utmost the emigrants could receive was a 
 promiseTh^t they should be neglected. With 
 this they were obliged to be content; and they 
 comforted themselves with the thought that 
 if they had obtained the King's consent, 
 means would have been found to evade or 
 withdraw it, supposing that sufficient interest 
 were taken in them afterwards to wish to 
 persecute them. 
 
 These difficulties having been overcome, 
 they next formed a jointstock company 
 with some of the London merchants, by 
 the terms of which each emigrant mort- 
 gaged his labour for seven years, and was 
 reckoned as a ;£io shareholder. At the end 
 of seven years all profit was to be reckoned 
 up, and the London merchants, who had 
 advanced 2^ £100, were to receive ten times 
 as much as each settler. This arrangement 
 was obviously very unfair to the Pilgrims, 
 but it appears to have been the only one that 
 they could make, and even as it was the 
 money they could obtain, even on these terms, 
 was barely enough to supply their most 
 pressing needs. 
 
 Two vessels, the Speedwell and the May- 
 flower, were procured and prepared for 
 their reception. The Speedwell, which was 
 bought in Holland, was a small ship of 
 
 580 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWER:' 
 
 sixty tons ; and the Mayflower, hired and 
 freighted in England, was of one hundred and 
 twenty tons burthen. These two ships could 
 hold but about a third of Mr. Robinson's 
 congregation, and it was therefore decided 
 that a party of the youngest and strongest 
 men, with a few young women, should go 
 under the leadership of Brewster, the govern- 
 ing elder, while the remainder stayed behind 
 under Mr. Robinson's guidance until they 
 learned how their brethren had fared. 
 
 As the day drew on for their departure, the 
 emigrants were feasted and feted by their 
 friends and relatives. Special religious exer- 
 cises were also held, for the Pilgrims wished 
 that all their enterprises should be begun, 
 continued, and ended in God. 
 
 At the farewell services, their eloquent 
 pastor addressed them in high and holy 
 words, which even at this lapse of time stir 
 the heart and breathe a breadth of thought 
 far from universal even now in this en- 
 lightened nineteenth century. 
 
 " I charge you," said he in a firm voice, 
 that yet shook Avith the strength of his emo- 
 tion, — " I charge you, before God and His 
 blessed angels, that you follow me no farther 
 than you have seen me follow the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If God reveal anything to 
 you by any other instrument of His, be as 
 ready to receive it as ever you were to 
 receive any truth by my ministry, for I 
 am persuaded the Lord h:\s more truth yet 
 to break forth out of His Holy Word. I 
 cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of 
 the Reformed Churches, who are come to a 
 period in i-eligion, and will go at present no 
 further than the instruments of their Refor- 
 mation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn 
 to go beyond what Luther saw ; whatever 
 part of His will our good God has revealed 
 to Calvin they will rather die than embrace 
 it. And the Calvinists, you see, stick fast 
 where they were left by that great man of 
 God, who yet saw not all things. This is a 
 misery much to be lamented, for though 
 they were burning and shining lights in their 
 times, yet they penetrated not into the whole 
 council of God ; but were they now living, 
 would be as willing to embrace further light 
 as that which they first received, for it is 
 not possible the Christian world should come 
 so lately out of such thick Antichristian 
 darkness, and that perfection of knowledge 
 should break forth at once." He then went 
 on to tell his followers that their life's work 
 was not to found a settlement by Haarlem 
 Mere nor by the Zuyder Zee, but to carry 
 the Gospel of Christ and plant the flag of 
 religious freedom on those new shores in the 
 realms of the setting sun. We must go to 
 found a New England, the corner-stone of 
 whose constitution shall be complete civil 
 and religious liberty. 
 
 Departure from England. 
 
 All preparations being now concluded, the 
 little party set sail from Delfthaven amid 
 the prayers and tears of their relatives and 
 friends. Among the names of those who 
 then sailed we meet with some familiar to 
 us in Longfellow's well-known poem. Thus 
 there were Miles Standish, John Alden, 
 John Carver, William Brewster, — the leader 
 of the little band, — WiUiam Bradford, Edward 
 Winslovv, and others, all pious and godly 
 men. Miles Standish, it may be observed, 
 although well-disposed to them, was not a 
 member of their congregation; but, being a 
 true soldier, and one whose military ex- 
 perience might well be relied upon, the 
 Puritans were glad to have him with them, 
 for it was quite to be expected that they 
 might have to encounter wild savages in this 
 new land, and that his strong arm and 
 knowledge of war might be of great value. 
 
 The intention of the emigrants was to sail 
 first to Southampton and there join theyl/^y- 
 flozuer, whence the two vessels would sail 
 together for the northern part of Virginia. 
 Southampton was duly reached on the 5th of 
 August, and then dividing their number and 
 their baggage and implements into the two 
 ships, they sailed down Channel. Scarcely 
 had they set forth, however, before it was 
 found that the Mayflower was sadly out 
 of repair, and they were compelled to put 
 in at Dartmouth to refit. 
 
 Eight precious days passed in the Devon- 
 shire port, and then they set sail once more. 
 
 Every day was precious now, for the 
 summer was well advanced, and they wished 
 to land as long before winter time as possi- 
 ble. But no sooner had the two little vessels 
 seen the last of their loved England recede 
 below the blue line of the sea, and they 
 began to experience the long roll of the 
 mighty Atlantic waves in all their majestic 
 force, than Reynolds, the captain of the Speed- 
 well, became afraid of facing the ocean in his 
 little barque at that season, and he refused 
 to proceed. There was no help for it there- 
 fore but to return to Plymouth. Here they 
 abandoned the Speedwell and its timorous 
 captain. Some of their number being now 
 obliged to return to London, because there 
 was not sufficient room on board the May- 
 floiver for all, they re-embarked, and on the 
 6th of September the little vessel — the lonely 
 pioneer of freedom — set forth on its solitary 
 way to the land of the setting sun. 
 
 The Landing at Cape Cod. 
 
 Storms and rough weather delayed their 
 
 passage sadly, and the captain mistook his 
 
 reckoning and sailed much farther north 
 
 than was intended, consequently the voyage 
 
 581 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 which is now completed in about ten days 
 took them sixty-five I 
 
 In the meantime, much had been done, 
 for the constitution of their body-politic had 
 been decided upon, — a constitution which 
 affirmed the great principle of American 
 government to be a righteous democracy 
 based upon equal laws and equal rights. On 
 board the little Mayflower, before landing, 
 the following compact was drawn up and 
 signed by all the men present: — " In the name 
 of God, Amen. We, whose names are under 
 written, the loyal subjects of our dread sove- 
 reign King James, having undertaken, for the 
 glory of God, and advancement of the Chris- 
 tian faith, and honour of our King and coun- 
 try, a voyage to plant the first colony in the 
 northern parts of Virginia, do, by these pre- 
 sents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence 
 of God, and of one another, covenant and 
 combine ourselves together into a civil body 
 politic, for our better ordering and preser- 
 vation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; 
 and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and 
 frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, 
 acts, constitutions and offices, from time to 
 time, as shall be thought most convenient 
 for the general good of the colony. Unto 
 which we promise all due submission and 
 obedience." 
 
 After signing this document, John Carver 
 was elected governor for the first year, with 
 five magistrates to assist him. 
 
 There were forty-one signatures, being the 
 names of all the men present, who, with their 
 wives and children, — numbering 102 souls all 
 told, — constituted the first Pilgrim band to 
 New England. 
 
 They had selected the country near the 
 Hudson River as their point of settlement ; 
 but by reason of a mistake on the part of the 
 captain (or, as some writers state, by reason 
 of his treachery, being bribed by some Dutch 
 settlers who wished to occupy the land fixed 
 upon by the emigrants), they were taken much 
 further north, to the barrenest part of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Wearied and wasted by their long, rough 
 voyage, there were overjoyed to see the dark 
 headland of Cape Cod loom out of the wil- 
 derness of waves at last, and soon after they 
 rounded the cape, and cast anchor in the 
 Bay of Fundy. 
 
 Their position was miserable in the 
 extreme. The weather was bitterly cold, 
 and the shores wild and bleak ; low sand- 
 hills, sparsely covered with stunted woods, 
 sloped drearily down to the sea. A far 
 different picture indeed from that they had 
 expected to find. Their stock of provisions 
 was very low, and their health much en- 
 feebled by the long and trying voyage ; 
 one of their number had already succumbed 
 to the inclemency of the season and the 
 
 trials of the journey. But nothing could 
 daunt the bold spirit and resolute will of 
 these stout-hearted Englishmen. They had 
 come to found a colony, and found it they 
 would, or perish in the attempt. 
 
 As it was useless now to attempt to reach 
 the land they had first decided upon, they 
 had no alternative but to look about them 
 for a suitable spot for settlement. The 
 present spot would not do — a few minutes' 
 walk upon the barren shore soon convinced 
 them of this ; they decided, therefore, to sail 
 round the coasts in the large boat they had 
 brought with them, known as a shallop. 
 
 But this, like the Mayflower herself 
 when they had first started, was sadly out of 
 repair, and it was nearly three weeks before 
 the slow carpenter pronounced it fit for sea. 
 
 While these repairs were being executed, 
 Standish and some other of the boldest 
 among them frequently landed, and made 
 excursions to explore the surrounding coun- 
 try. But no suitable spot could be found. 
 
 The cold was excessive ; the spray froze 
 on their steel corslets, and the bitter wind was 
 their only welcome. In ranging over the 
 country, they came at times upon a few 
 graves of Indians ; occasionally they saw a 
 group of deserted wigwams, near which they 
 once found a few heaps of maize ; and on one 
 occasion saw a desolate house, where they dis- 
 covered more maize and an iron kettle ; the 
 latter had apparently been washed ashore 
 from some European ship, and utilized by 
 the Indians. Of these the explorers saw but 
 little on this their first expedition, and' 
 those of whom they did obtain a glimpse, 
 fled at their approach. To add to their diffi- 
 culties, snow fell in great quantities, and 
 dreariness, desolation, and death seemed to be- 
 their only portion in the land of their choice. 
 
 Covering over, the graves they had unwit- 
 tingly opened, — for they did not wish to be- 
 sacrilegious or needlessly provoke the hostility 
 of the Indians, — they carried away the corn 
 and the kettle and returned to their ship. 
 
 When the shallop was ready, they set sail 
 along the coast and landed at various places, 
 but only to meet with disappointment. The 
 snow lay half-a-fodt thick, and they soon 
 became tired of ploughing their way through 
 it. And this day they found "no more corn,, 
 nor anything else but graves." 
 
 Again, on the 6th of December, they set 
 forth — Carver, Standish, and others — on 
 another voyage of discovery. This time they 
 intended to venture farther afield, for it was 
 evident that there was no spot near, suitable 
 for a settlement. The first night they 
 kindled a watch-fire at Namskeket, or Great 
 Meadow Creek. Huddled around the blaze^ 
 they passed the hours of darkness ; and next 
 morning, before the red winter dawn streaked 
 the eastern sky, they were up, and had scarce 
 
 582 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWER:' 
 
 finished their prayers before a yelling war- 
 whoop and a cloud of arrows— which rattled 
 harmlessly on their steel corslets — gave evi- 
 dence that Indians were near. Betaking 
 themselves to their little boat again, they 
 continued their course around the dreary 
 shore. The weather was bitterly cold ; the 
 wild wind blew fiercely ; hail and snow beat 
 in their faces ; the spray froze on their 
 clothes ; the sea became so rough and bois- 
 terous that their rudder broke. Steering with 
 their oars they unfurled more sail, for the 
 Sabbath was near, and they had determined 
 to rest upon the holy day. They wished to 
 find a suitable spot where they could keep 
 it in devotional exercises, but they could 
 make but httle headway. The wind was 
 still rising, and presently their little mast, 
 yielding to the great pressure upon it of the 
 extra sail, snapped like a withered branch, 
 and the shallop rolled helplessly in the 
 roaring surge. The pilot wished to run the 
 boat ashore, but the others persisted in keep- 
 ing her before the wind. "If you are men," 
 cried one, " turn her about ! " They did so, 
 and providentially they were presently able 
 to shelter themselves under a high rock. 
 
 The First Sunday on Shore. 
 
 The dull twilight of the short winter after- 
 noon had now deepened into night, and all 
 was dark about them. The rain beat pitilessly 
 upon them, but they managed to effect a 
 landing, and with great difficulty they kindled 
 a fire among the rocks. Crouching over the 
 cheery flames they ate their scanty supper 
 and dried their wet clothes, and then sought 
 the rest they so much needed. 
 
 On looking about them next morning, they 
 found their landing-place to be a small island 
 — which they subsequently named Clark's 
 Island— situated just inside a fair harbour. 
 They were too weak and tired to explore 
 far, but saihng gently round the shore, they 
 saw that the soil appeared better here than 
 the barren sand-hills they had left, and they 
 decided to stay to make further investi- 
 gations. 
 
 But the next day being Sunday, they 
 desisted from all efforts, and went through 
 their religious observances as though they 
 had been comfortably situated in their old 
 homes. On Monday morning, the nth of 
 December, they sounded the harbour and 
 found it sufficiently deep for shipping. 
 Gratified by this encouraging circumstance, 
 they then landed and proceeded into the 
 interior, where they found what had been 
 cornfields, and running streams of fresh 
 water. The whole neighbourhood seemed to 
 promise better than any they had yet seen, 
 and with joy they returned to the Mayflower 
 to report their good news. 
 
 In a few more days the sea-worn and 
 
 weary party landed at the same spot ; and,, 
 true to their purpose to found a New England,, 
 where they might reproduce the best charac- 
 teristics, and even the names, of their old 
 home, they named the place New Plymouth,. 
 in grateful remembrance of the last town.; 
 they had seen in the old country and the- 
 "God speeds" they had received from its 
 inhabitants. The large boulder of rock upon 
 which they landed, and upon which probably 
 the pioneers had landed when a few days- 
 before they had come here, is still preserved,, 
 and named Pilgrim, or Plymouth, or Fore- 
 fathers' Rock to this day. Part of its face 
 has been removed to a spot in the town 
 near the court-house, and the remainder is 
 still pointed out with pride at the head of 
 the longest wharf of the busy town. 
 
 According to tradition, a young woman 
 named Mary Chilton was the first to step- 
 ashore. She shortly afterwards married John 
 Winslow, and her sister Susannah, Edward 
 Latham; and the direct descendants of both, 
 the Winslows and the Lathams are living to- 
 day in Boston and Bridgewater. 
 
 But though the emigrants had landed on a 
 favourable spot, the sufferings of these bold, 
 colonists were but little lessened. The soil 
 was hard bound in the bands of an iron 
 frost ; wind and snow fell continuously ; and 
 although the woods soon resounded to the 
 unusual noise of their axes, their progress was 
 but slight. The majority were still obliged 
 to live on board ship. The terrible weather 
 to which they had been exposed, and the- 
 insufficient food, brought on sickness, which 
 swept away half their number. At one period 
 so many were ill that only seven were suffi- 
 ciently well to tend the sick. These sufferings,, 
 and the almost daily burials in the wilderness, 
 sadly hindered and depressed the survivors. 
 The first work to which they set their hands- 
 was to build houses, and it was agreed that 
 each man should raise his own. But the bad 
 weather was so continuous that it was only 
 now and again that they could work. In 
 course of a few months, however, nineteen 
 little wooden tenements were erected, which 
 were quite enough to contain the survivors of 
 the little pilgrim band. Around this group 
 of houses they then proceeded to erect a 
 strong palisade, while .on an eminence, also 
 within the walls, they erected as strong a 
 fortress as they could, on which they mounted 
 six cannon. This fort served two purposes ;. 
 for while the upper part was useful as a point 
 of observation and work of defence, the lower 
 part was used as a church. 
 
 And thus, in tending their sick, burying 
 their dead, and building their little town, the 
 dreary winter passed, and in March the south 
 wind blew and brought warm and welcome- 
 weather. The snow melted, the birds sang, 
 bright and beautiful spring beamed over the 
 
 5B3 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 land. Then they bethought themselves of 
 planting cornfields. 
 
 " Welcome, Englishmen ! " 
 
 Up to this time they had seen but little of 
 the Indians. Occasionally they had marked 
 the smoke of the Indian watch-fires rise 
 against the cold, grey winter sky ; and in 
 their exploring expeditions they had found 
 deserted wigwams and other signs of the 
 presence of savages in the vicinity. But one 
 day in early spring they were greatly startled 
 by the sudden appearance of an Indian in 
 their midst, who exclaimed, in their own 
 language, "Welcome, EngHshm,en ! " He 
 proved to be one of the Wampanoa^s, and 
 had picked up a few words of the English 
 language in his intercourse with the fisher- 
 men of Penobscot. He was disposed to 
 be very friendly, and soon introduced them 
 to Massasoit, the chief, with whom they 
 made a treaty of friendship, which lasted a 
 considerable time. In their intercourse with 
 the natives they learned that a terrible pesti- 
 lence had recently swept over this part of 
 the country, which not only accounted for 
 the numerous graves they had seen, but also 
 explained the absence of the aborigines, who 
 had fled farther south. The mistake of the 
 Captain, therefore, in bringing the May- 
 fiower here instead of taking the emigrants, 
 as had been first decided, to the neighbour- 
 hood of the Hudson, probably proved their 
 salvation, for at that time that part of the 
 country was crowded with savages who had 
 fled there from the pestilence which had 
 raged in the neighbourhood of New Ply- 
 mouth. 
 
 Unfortunately there were other tribes of 
 Indians far less favourably disposed towards 
 the English settlers. Among these were the 
 Narragansetts, who were also at enmity with 
 the friendly Indians ; and one bright morn- 
 ing the English were astonished at receiving 
 a serpent-skin filled with arrows as a declara- 
 tion of war. William Bradford, the head of 
 the little colony, promptly returned the skin, 
 filled with powder and shot, which bold reply, 
 significant of the contempt in which the Eng- 
 hsh held the Indians, produced the intended 
 effect, for the savages had witnessed the 
 deadly powers of the English guns, and for 
 a time the settlers were unmolested, until 
 some years later their enmity was rearoused 
 by the evil deeds of some of the other settlers. 
 
 Soon after the visit of the Indian who had 
 so strangely bade them welcome, the little 
 colony was greatly grieved by the death of 
 their first governor — John Carver. William 
 Bradford was elected in his stead ; but the 
 new governor ruled over a sadly diminished 
 number, for only fifty were now left alive. 
 The others had fallen victims to the terrible 
 
 privations and severities of that long and 
 bitter winter. When, therefore, the May- 
 flower returned home in the early spring, it 
 was to leave half her passengers as victims 
 to their struggle for religious freedom. But 
 there was no faltering in the hearts of the 
 survivors, as they stood on the sloping shore 
 and watched the spring sunlight glisten on 
 the white sail now fast disappearing, and 
 leaving them lonely and strange in a strange 
 land. Yet resolute and stern though they 
 were, their hearts were saddened and softened 
 as they thought of the distant home to which 
 their little vessel was returning, and which 
 they themselves would see no more. 
 
 The Colonists' First Summer. 
 
 But there was no time to give way to these 
 feelings, natural though they were. There 
 was hard and stern work before these men 
 and women, and well they knew it. A wild 
 and desolate region had to be brought into 
 cultivation, and meanwhile they were often 
 famishing for want of food. '" I have seen," 
 says Winslow, " men stagger by reason of 
 faintness for want of food;" and frequently 
 at night they knew not whence the food for 
 the next day would come. For some time 
 they had no corn, and subsisted entirely on 
 fish. It is worthy of remark, however, that 
 after the season of the greatest mortality had 
 passed, the survivors — about fifty in number 
 — lived to a good old age. 
 
 Their material progress was but very slow. 
 The land was not fertile, and their toil was 
 incessant. A space of ground, three poles 
 in length by half a pole in breadth, had 
 been allotted to each person upon which to 
 build a house and cultivate a garden, other- 
 wise the land was held in common, and all 
 shared alike. This arrangement produced 
 great discontent, for the idle did not work, 
 and yet reaped as large a proportion as 
 those who were industrious. The plan v/as 
 therefore continued only two years ; and in 
 1623, land was allotted to each person, as 
 had been the case with the gardens. This 
 new arrangement answered much better. 
 Each family felt that their bread depended 
 on their own exertions, and, indeed, it pro- 
 duced such good effects that even the women 
 and children went out into the fields to work. 
 Soon so much corn was produced that the 
 Indians used to purchase it, giving beaver 
 skins and the fur of other animals in ex- 
 change. Before this prosperity was reached, 
 however, the colonists had to pass through 
 several seasons of scarcity and want, and it 
 seemed as though their trials and difficulties 
 would never end. 
 
 More Emigrants arrive. 
 During the summer and autumn of 1621, 
 
 584 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWER." 
 
 other Puritan settlers — undeterred by the 
 accounts taken home by the Mayflozuer 
 of the difficuhies the first emigrants had to 
 meet — arrived from England, and being 
 totally unprovided with the necessaries of 
 life, they made great demands on the slender 
 stores of the early colonists. It is said that 
 they were in these days frequently at star- 
 vation point, at times being reduced to live on 
 the shell-fish from the shore, their corn having 
 been all used. Yet, notwithstanding all trials 
 and difficulties, they never lost their faith in 
 God nor in the future prosperity of their 
 colony. 
 
 In the summer of 1622, another community 
 of colonists also arrived ; these men were 
 
 form menial work for food. This appears 
 to have led to a quarrel, and a conspiracy 
 was formed among the savages to murder 
 all the English. But Massasoit, with whom 
 the Pilgrims had made the friendly treaty, 
 and who had always treated him well, re- 
 vealed the design. Standish saw the 
 desperate nature of the situation, and, 
 accompanied with eight men, immediately 
 marched off to the wigwams of the chief 
 conspirators ; and, without a word of parley, 
 he attacked them. He had frequently been 
 insulted by some of the savages because he 
 was a small man, and we may perhaps 
 imagine that he was not altogether dis- 
 pleased to have an opportunity of giving 
 
 Tut; PiLGUiJib' First Fort and JMeeting-house at New Plymouth. 
 
 known as Weston's Company. They be- 
 longed to the Church of England, and were 
 brought over by Thomas Weston, one of the 
 merchants who had advanced money to the 
 Pilgrim Fathers. He imagined that a pro- 
 fitable trade might be established in furs ; 
 but neither he, nor the men whom he brought 
 with him, were of the character likely to cope 
 successfully with the difficulties of an early 
 settler's life. They were improvident and 
 disorderly, and soon exhausted the supplies 
 brought with them. The emigrants at New 
 Plymouth assisted them so far as they were 
 able, but the distress continued. They 
 parted with all their goods, and some of 
 them took service with the Indians to per- 
 
 them a taste of his quality. Seeing four of 
 his tormentors in a wigwam by themselves, 
 he instantly marched in with three of his 
 followers, and, without a word on either side, 
 a desperate hand-to-hand encounter took 
 place. The door had been closed by the 
 last Englishman who entered ; no help came 
 from either side. With frowning brow and 
 compressed lips they began the combat at 
 once ; it was long and bloody, and did not 
 end until three of the Indians were slain. 
 Standish attacked his opponent with a de- 
 termination and energy which bore down 
 all opposition, and desperately though the 
 Indian fought, he was killed at last. The 
 fourth savage was taken captive, and finally 
 
 58^ 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 hanged. After this the other Indians were 
 soon put to flight, and Standish and his 
 eight men returned victorious and exultant. 
 This was the first fight with the Indians, 
 and it is well worthy of note that it was 
 not caused by the Pilgrims themselves. 
 Indeed, they were anxious to be on friendly 
 terms with the natives, and to trade with 
 them. A triumphant account of this — Stan- 
 dish's capital exploit, as it was termed — was 
 soon forwarded to their friends at Leyden. 
 But instead of the joyful congratulation they 
 expected, their pastor, Mr. Robinson, sent 
 them in reply a gentle rebuke. " How 
 happy a thing," he wrote, "if you had 
 converted some before you killed any." 
 There is every reason to believe, however, 
 that it was a stern necessity which compelled 
 Standish's " capital exploit," and that it was 
 of immense importance to the infant colony, 
 not only in preserving it from a foul and 
 treacherous conspiracy, but in intimidating 
 the Indians, and showing them of what stern 
 and resolute stuff the English settlers were 
 made ; thus, it doubtless saved further blood- 
 shed. As for Weston's Company, who were 
 responsible for this unhappy episode, a few 
 short months saw the end of its efforts. Some 
 of the men died of hunger and cold, some 
 returned to England, while a few seem to 
 have cast in their lot with their preservers 
 at New Plymouth. At all events, as a 
 separate colony, Weston's Company was at 
 an end. 
 
 Disagreements with the Merchants. 
 
 All this time Robinson and the remainder 
 of his congregation at Leyden were anxiously 
 seeking the means of joining their brethren 
 in New England, but they could not pro- 
 cure the necessary funds. The merchants 
 who had advanced the money to the first 
 colonists absolutely refused to risk any more ; 
 they were not satisfied with the small profits 
 from their investments, and contentions had 
 arisen between them and their partners at 
 New Plymouth. The merchants endeavoured 
 to force upon the colonists a clergyman more 
 favourable to the Established Church than 
 they deemed desirable, and the goods sent 
 were sold to the emigrants at the enormous 
 advance of seventy per cent. Naturally 
 these and similar acts of unfair treatment 
 produced great dissatisfaction, and the emi- 
 grants finally borrowed money at high 
 interest to pay off their partners in England. 
 
 Unhappily, when these arrangements were 
 complete and the gradual increase of pros- 
 perity enabled the remainder of Mr. Robin- 
 son's congregation at Leyden to follow their 
 friends, their good pastor had passed away. 
 Like Moses, he died before he reached the 
 promised land,— the land that offered a 
 resting-place from pilgrimage and exile, — the 
 
 land to which he had directed his followers. 
 His bones were buried by the Rhine, and 
 the colony which he did so much to esta- 
 blish, and which never gladdened his sight,, 
 flourished afar off. 
 
 In 1626, the year following his death, his- 
 wife and children, with the remainder of his 
 congregation, joined their brethren at New 
 Plymouth, At that time the little town con- 
 sisted of about thirty-two small wooden 
 houses, built within the palisades, and the 
 population numbered nearly one hundred 
 and eighty persons. They had established 
 a manufacture of salt from the sea, with 
 which commodity they cured fish, and were 
 now so successful as to be able to freight a 
 vessel with a cargo for export. In Novem- 
 ber 1624, the little town of wooden houses 
 had been nearly all burned down, but had 
 been soon re-built. The principles of self- 
 government had been steadily adhered to, 
 the Governor and Council being chosen hj 
 general suffrage, while for several years the 
 numbers of the population was so small that 
 all the male inhabitants were included in 
 the Legislature. The laws enacted were ex- 
 ceedingly severe, but as a matter of fact were 
 very mildly administered. Thus, death was 
 the punishment for most crimes, but it was 
 never inflicted except in cases of murder. 
 But in those early years, these crimes were 
 never committed. 
 
 The fact that the Pilgrims had been carried 
 so far north from their contemplated place 
 of settlement on the Hudson, and the fact 
 also that the patent from the London Com- 
 pany had been made out in the name of one 
 of their number who eventually never sailed, 
 rendered that patent of no value. The 
 land on which they had settled belonged 
 for colonising purposes to the Plymouth 
 (England) Company ; and in the year follow- 
 ing the landing of the Pilgrims (1621), they- 
 obtained a patent from this Company, which 
 secured to them their possessions, although, 
 as James still refused to grant a charter, the 
 settlers had no abstract right — according to 
 the principle of English law then in vogue 
 — to assume self-government and a separate 
 jurisdiction. The Pilgrim Fathers, however, 
 were made of far too stern stuff to be 
 bound by nominal restrictions, and, as we 
 have seen, they did not scruple to exercise 
 their principles of self-government, and inflict 
 punishments for crime whenever necessary. 
 
 The Plymouth Company, with which the 
 Pilgrims had now to do, appears to have 
 originally consisted of forty noblemen and 
 gentlemen, for the planting, ruling, ordering,, 
 and governing New England in America. 
 The title " New England " seems to have 
 been borrowed from the Pilgrims, who were, 
 however, for some time completely ignored. 
 It was this Company which granted the 
 
 S86 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''-MAYFLOWER:' 
 
 patent to Weston's Company, and also to 
 some others which proved as great failures 
 as did that brought over by Weston. In 
 1621, the Plymouth Company endeavoured 
 to obtain some benefit from their vast tracts 
 of land by levying a tax on the English fish- 
 ing vessels. As they were not disposed to 
 plant and cultivate themselves, this was the 
 only plan for obtaining an immediate revenue. 
 But these extortions were opposed by the 
 House of Commons, and the debates which 
 ensued reveal the unsettled state of affairs 
 between the colonies and the mother country. 
 And it is worthy of note that Sir George 
 Calvert, the principal advocate of the claims 
 of the Company, argued that the American 
 settlements were outside the jurisdiction of 
 Parliament, as they were not annexed to the 
 realm of. England. On the other hand, it 
 was argued that an Act passed by Lords and 
 Commons and signed by the Sovereign would 
 control the patents granted to the colonists. 
 
 During several sessions these debates were 
 continued, and a Bill was finally passed which 
 strictly limited the rights of the Companies. 
 And although the King refused to sign the 
 Bill, yet the unmistakable expression of the 
 opinion of the Houses of Parliament was of 
 great service. Among other results may 
 be noted the fact that many of the members 
 of the Plymouth Company lost heart in their 
 enterprise, and the colonization of New 
 England was henceforth left almost wholly 
 to private endeavour. It was clear that the 
 best course the Council could pursue would 
 be to abandon all absurd pretensions, and 
 grant lands, if possible, to such parties of 
 stern, hard-working, practical men who 
 would be able to cultivate and occupy the 
 soil within a few years. 
 
 Meanwhile the Pilgrim Fathers, quietly 
 ignoring all these discussions and claims, 
 had been steadily working and gradually 
 prospering. While others had been talking, 
 they had been doing. A small community 
 for trading had been established ; the Indians 
 were friendly, and brought them many furs ; 
 their corn-fields were flourishing. These facts 
 are the more worthy of remark as nearly 
 every other attempt to colonize New England 
 up to this time appears to have failed. The 
 other colonists had not the resolute character 
 necessary to cope with difficulties, nor the 
 zeal for religious liberty which caused these 
 mighty men (for mighty they were if we 
 regard the innumerable hardships and diffi- 
 culties they had to overcome) to give up 
 everything rather than forfeit so precious 
 a right ; they had not the iron wills which 
 had been born by the scenes of gloom and 
 misery, of persecution and trial through which 
 the Puritans had passed. The stern spirit 
 of self-denial and of simple living, the thrift, 
 the tact, the indomitable perseverance which 
 
 characterized the Pilgrims, — all were wanting 
 in the other colonists. 
 
 Continued Emigration of the 
 Puritans. 
 
 The accounts brought back to the southern 
 coasts of England of the success of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers and the religious freedom 
 which they enjoyed, coupled with the grow- 
 ing discontent of the English Puritans at the 
 constant persecution to which they were 
 subject, stimulated their determination to 
 follow the men of the Mayflower into the 
 wild regions of North America. A Puritan 
 clergyman named White, the Rector of 
 Trinity Church, Dorchester, was prominent 
 in urging his hearers to a great effort to 
 colonize the wilderness, and to carry the 
 pure Gospel to the benighted lands where 
 a faithful few are already busy at work. 
 "Think not," said he, "that better times 
 shall come to you in England. This hope 
 is a vain dream, and will prove a delusive 
 snare. Prince Charles has espoused a 
 Catholic wife, so that he does not promise 
 to be well affected toward us when he shall 
 come to the throne. Purity of religion and 
 freedom of conscience can only be found ia 
 the New World. Let us go there, and found 
 a new nation that shall be both English and 
 truly Christian." The aid of the press was 
 also invoked, and publications were issued 
 by eloquent and enthusiastic men urging 
 their Puritan brethren to emigrate. Other 
 arguments were also adduced, and by them 
 we may suppose that the cries of " over- 
 population " and " keen-competition were 
 heard as much in the days of the first 
 Stuarts as they now are. 
 
 The consequence of these great efforts was 
 that an extensive movement for emigration 
 was organized among the Puritans of the 
 south-western counties. Indeed, numbers all 
 over the land prepared to follow the Pilgrim 
 Fathers into the wilderness to seek an asylum 
 from persecution. 
 
 Negotiations for a tract of land were 
 entered into with the Plymouth Company, 
 who were all the more ready to accede to 
 their proposals by reason of the complete 
 failure of their attempts to obtain a monopoly 
 of the fishery rights. And at length a deed 
 was drawn up, dated the 19th of iVEarch, 1628, 
 and called "The Colony of Massachusetts 
 Bay Patent," by which the Plymouth Council 
 sold to Sir John Young, Sir Henry Russell, 
 and others, for the purposes of planting and 
 settling all that part of North America which 
 lies and extends between Merrimac River 
 and Charles River, in the bottom of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, and three miles to the north 
 and south of every part of Charles River, and 
 three miles south of the southernmost part of 
 the said bay, and three miles to the north of 
 
 S87 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 €very part of Merrimac River, and all lands 
 and hereditaments whatsoever lying within 
 the limits aforesaid, north and south in lati- 
 tude and breadth, and in length and longitude 
 •of and within all the breadth aforesaid, 
 throughout the mainland, thence from the 
 Atlantic Sea in the east part to the Pacific 
 Sea in the west part." 
 
 About a year later, on the 4th of March, 
 1629, this charter was contirmed by King 
 Charles I.; by which we may gather that 
 there was as much dilatoriness then as there 
 is said to be now in governmental affairs. 
 
 It will be seen that this charter, or patent, 
 no more than any other, authorized the exer- 
 cise of separate political or judicial power. 
 These companies of colonists seem to have 
 been regarded rather as trading associations, 
 to which it was thought necessary to give 
 certain rights, in order to facilitate the ex- 
 pansion of trade, than as separate com- 
 munities. It would seem, therefore, that 
 many men in those days utterly failed to 
 grasp the principal idea which animated 
 the Puritans, and which they had in view 
 when they emigrated ; for they went not only 
 to plant and colonize for the purposes of 
 trade, but to found a community, where they 
 could practise those principles which were 
 then denied them in England, and which 
 have had their full fruition in the great 
 American Republic. In anticipation these 
 far-seeing men enjoyed the thoughts of their 
 future influence on ages yet unborn, and of 
 the fame which they would obtain as the 
 founders of New England. 
 
 The Dorchester Adventurers. 
 
 As early as 1623, Mr. Whice had been 
 Tnstrumental in forming an unincorporated 
 joint-stock society, which, under the name of 
 ■"The Dorchester Adventurers," emigrated 
 to Massachusetts Bay, with the object of 
 prosecuting a ti'ade in dried fish. This at- 
 tempt was a failure ; and next year the " Ad- 
 venturers '■' obtained some land near Cape 
 Anne from the New Plymouth emigrants. 
 This proceeding also was not very successful, 
 and all the settlers deserted save four, one of 
 whom was Roger Conant, who seems to have 
 been a wise and prudent man. He and his 
 three colleagues removed to a better place 
 for planting a colony, about twelve miles to 
 the south-west of Cape Anne ; and here they 
 hung on until just as they were on the point 
 of returning from sheer necessity, letters of 
 encouragement were received from White, 
 promising to send over help if they would 
 but continue in their endeavours. 
 
 In 1628 the advance guard of this second 
 great Puritan emigration set sail. It con- 
 sisted of about a hundred colonists, under 
 the leadership of John Endicot, a man of 
 indomitable will and fierce religious zeal. 
 
 His companions unanimously agreed that he 
 was the best man to be leader in " this wild 
 wilderness work." And, indeed, when he 
 landed and saw the bleak and dreary wilder- 
 ness to which they had come, and found 
 Roger Conant and his three colleagues so 
 much reduced by want and hardships, he 
 felt indeed that he needed all his courage 
 and resolution. Thick and gloomy forests, 
 wild and uncultivated waste land, greeted 
 them on every side, while, as winter came 
 on, the severely cold weather and lack of 
 comfortable homes caused many to sicken 
 and die. The early Pilgrims sent them a 
 doctor from New Plymouth, who stayed with 
 them all through the winter. 
 
 But notwithstanding all difficulties, English 
 courage would not be beaten, and we find that 
 seven of these dauntless men beat their way 
 through the tangled woods to the spot where 
 the city of Charlestown now stands. To their 
 surprise they found that English enterprize 
 had preceded them, for they found one of 
 their countrymen already living there in a 
 wooden shanty 
 
 Next year a still larger number of colonists 
 set forth. The news of the success of those 
 who had already gone was published abroad 
 all over the land, and Puritans everywhere 
 began to think of voyaging across the At- 
 lantic. 
 
 Six small vessels were collected, — one of 
 them being the MayJlozver, — 2iVi^ on the 
 1st of May they departed for New England. 
 Accounts differ as to the number who em- 
 barked, from 250 to 350 being the numbers 
 given. They took horses, cows, and goats, 
 and also cannon and musketry, with which 
 to arm a fort. The voyage lasted two months ; 
 and it was not till the 24th of June that the 
 colonists saw the few mud or wooden hovels, 
 surrounded by rough corn-fields, which 
 showed that they had arrived at their new 
 home. One-third of the new emigrants went 
 at once to Charlestown, and the remainder 
 stayed with Endicot, and founded the town 
 of Salem. 
 
 In the following spring a still larger num- 
 ber departed from England. Seventeen ships 
 were chartered, and 1,500 Puritans, among 
 whom were some persons of high rank, set 
 sail from different ports for the distant West. 
 From Southampton proceeded the Atabella 
 and a few sister vessels, which sailed down 
 Southampton Water in the glad sunlight of 
 a bright May morning, amidst the resounding 
 cheers of the crowds which lined the beach. 
 And though the religious zeal of the exiles 
 had been stirred to the utmost by the im- 
 passioned appeals of their eloquent pastors, 
 and their determination to suffer expatriation 
 for conscience' sake never failed, yet as the 
 loved shores of England faded from their 
 view, their sternness melted, and instead of 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWER:' 
 
 denouncing their country as the home of 
 persecution, they sorrowfully said with tear- 
 dimmed eyes, " Farewell ! dear, dear 
 England." 
 
 At Yarmouth, also, a great number set 
 forth under the leadership of John Winthrop, 
 a man so highly esteemed for his sincere and 
 unaffected piety, benevolence of temper, and 
 righteousness of judgment, that he was ap- 
 pointed governor of the new colony. Before 
 leaving Yarmouth a declaration of their views 
 was published, in which they set forth the 
 reasons for their removal, and bade a touch- 
 ing farewell to the countrymen and land of 
 their birth. " Our hearts," they said, " shall 
 be fountains of tears for your everlasting 
 welfare, when we shall be in our poor cot- 
 tages in the wilderness." 
 
 At intervals during the latter part of June 
 and early days of July, 1630, the ships arrived 
 at Salem, — to find poverty, hardship, and 
 sickness. IMany of the earlier colonists had 
 died, and the others were on the brink of 
 starvation. Tents of sail-cloth were speedily 
 erected for temporary protection, and the 
 colonists then sought for suitable sites for 
 towns. Among other places, Boston was 
 one city the foundations of which were then 
 laid, doubtless by some settlers from Lin- 
 colnshire. This spot was fixed upon because 
 it had " sweet and pleasant springs, and good 
 land affording rich corn-fields and fruitful 
 gardens." But sickness soon became busy 
 among these as among the former parties 
 of colonists, and strong men who feared 
 nothing, became utterly broken as they saw 
 their loved ones fade from their eyes to a 
 premature grave. Before the holy Christmas 
 time came round, quite two hundred had 
 died. Many were there who had been ac- 
 customed to the refinements and comforts 
 of life which wealth in those days could 
 bring, and the arduous life they were now 
 compelled to live told severely against them. 
 Among the first to succumb was the excellent 
 Lady Arabella Johnson, sister of the Earl of 
 Lincoln, and wife of Mr. Isaac Johnson, one 
 of the richest men in the colony, and very 
 zealous for pure religion. Not long after her 
 death he followed his wife to the tomb, pass- 
 ing peacefully away. 
 
 As winter drew on they were often reduced 
 to subsist on mussels and shell-fish from the 
 sea-shore. Acorns and ground-nuts also fur- 
 nished them with many repasts. The first 
 Pilgrims at New Plymouth rendered them all 
 the assistance they were able ; but they had 
 exhausted all supplies when, on the 5th of 
 February, 1631, a vessel amved from Eng- 
 land bringing the mucii needed stores. 
 
 The reports of the great poverty of the new 
 settlements and of the terrible hardships and 
 bitter winters, deterred many others from 
 coming over; and in 1631 only ninety new 
 
 emigrants cheered those who had already 
 gone. In 1632, about 250 came. But mean- 
 while, in spite of all difficulties and privations, 
 the infant colonies were slowly prospering. 
 The trials through which the settlers passed 
 served but to strengthen their faith, and no 
 repining or rebellion against the Almighty 
 appears in their records. At stated times their 
 public meetings for worship were held— some- 
 times in the open waste, and sometimes under 
 a spreading tree. They had come hither to 
 obtain civil liberty and treedom of conscie.vce, 
 to put into practice certain doctrines they 
 held dearer and more precious than life 
 itself, and even as martyrs went cheerfully 
 to the stake rather than yield, so these noble 
 men and women calmly and contentedly 
 pursued their course, believing they were 
 doing God service and fulfilling His will. 
 
 Adoption of a Confession of Faith. 
 
 Not long after their arrival, the settlers at 
 Salem held communications with the Pilgrims 
 of New Plymouth as to their form of Church 
 government ; and after some correspondence 
 on the subject, they decided to establish a 
 similar organisation to that which the older 
 colonists had already adopted. The 6th of 
 August, 1629, was devoted to fasting and 
 prayer, and a confession of faith, embodying- 
 Puritan principles, was drawn up and signed 
 by many there present. Several ministers from 
 New Plymouth attended, and after the cere- 
 mony, a pastor, a teacher, and an elder of the 
 New Church were elected, although there were 
 some dissentients. The fact is that, although 
 all the colonists were Puritanically inclined, 
 all were not separatists from the Church of 
 England ; and Dr. Cotton Mather says, in his 
 " Ecclesiastical History of New England," 
 that when the emigrants of 1629 were leaving 
 their native land, their pastor, Francis Hig- 
 ginson, said to his company : " We will not 
 say, as the Separatists were wont to say at 
 their leaving of England, ' Farewell Babylon ! 
 Farewell Rome !' for such they used to call 
 her in their exaggeration of their Puritanical 
 fervour ; but we will say, ' Farewell, dear 
 England ! Farewell, the Church of God in 
 England, and all the Christian friends there. 
 We do not go to New England as separatists 
 from the Church of England, though we 
 cannot but separate from the corruptions in 
 it." 
 
 It will therefore be readily understood that 
 dissensions soon arose, for there were those 
 among them who determined to worship 
 according to the old form of the Anglican 
 Church, and ignored the new organization al- 
 together. Unhappily the true principle of 
 religious liberty seems to have been quite for- 
 gotten by many among them, and the Puritans 
 themselves repeatedly violated the great law 
 of freedom of conscience they had crossed 
 
 589 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the seas to practise. They objected to the 
 supremacy of the king or his archbishops 
 in religious affairs, but they wished to sub- 
 stitute their OAvn supremacy ; and their 
 bigotry in favour of their own religious forms 
 was, unhappily, quite as great as that of 
 Laud himself. So long as the members of 
 the community were separatists and thought 
 alike, or fairly alike, well and good, but 
 directly any one showed independence of 
 judgment they quarrelled with him, pun- 
 ished him, or in some cases sent him back 
 to England. Woefully wrong though this 
 was, we must yet remember the sufferings 
 and persecution that had been inflicted upon 
 them at home by the doiranant Church, and 
 we cannot wonder at their dislike to it in 
 any form. It was not, however, from feel- 
 ings of revenge that they opposed its profes- 
 sors in America, but because they appeared 
 to believe that Dissent, or a very purified 
 form of Anglicanism, was the only righteous 
 form of religion. 
 
 Passing of Civil Laws. 
 
 Soon after the arrival of Governor Win- 
 throp in 1630, a number of laws were passed, 
 all decreeing severe punishments against 
 evil-doers. Whipping seems to have been 
 the principal penalty inflicted. Thus we 
 find that one man was whipped for shooting 
 on the Sabbath day ; another for striking a 
 neighbour ; another for stealing ; another 
 for uttering bad language against the court, 
 etc., etc. This punishment was also varied 
 by the stocks, while for criminal offences 
 death was decreed. These severe laws were 
 administered with the utmost impartiality, 
 and there were careful restrictions, so that 
 the magistrates could not impose penalties 
 from individual malice. Thus we find that 
 Endicot himself was fined forty shillings — 
 a large sum in the colony in those day — for 
 striking a man, even though he had received 
 considerable provocation. One very impor- 
 tant law that was passed required compensa- 
 tion to be given to the Indians for damages 
 done them by the colonists. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the constitution 
 of the Massachusetts colony was, like that 
 at New Plymouth, essentially democratic ; 
 and although the composition of the govern- 
 ing body was frequently changed during the 
 early years of its existence, yet the leading 
 principles remained inuch the same. Un- 
 fortunately, as time went on, the rulers did 
 not relax their laws against religious liberty ; 
 and Cotton Mather records the case of a 
 man named Blaxton, who refused to join any 
 of the colonies or towns, for he said, "As he 
 left England because he would not be coerced 
 by the Lord Bishops, so he left the colonies 
 because he would not be coerced by the 
 Lord Brethren." 
 
 Meantime, constant intercourse was kept 
 up with the colony at New Plymouth, and 
 the most friendly relations were maintained 
 with the Indians, many tribes of which 
 solicited the help of the English against 
 their enemies ; thus we find that in the 
 autumn of 1632, Governor Winthrop and 
 the Rev. Mr, Wilson, the pastor of Boston, 
 walked from the latter settlement to New 
 Plymouth without suffering any molestation. 
 
 The early difficulties of both colonies were 
 now overcome ; more emigrants arrived every 
 year ; the system of electing representatives 
 to a <:eneral assembly or parliament was 
 adopted, and a true commonwealth began 
 to arise out of the chaos of little colonies 
 established by joint-stock enterprise. 
 
 About this time there were twenty little 
 towns scattered over the shores of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, and of these Boston was 
 regarded as the capital and the fittest for 
 public assemblies. These towns, most of 
 which were known by familiar English - 
 names, such as Ipswich, Dorchester, Wey- 
 mouth, etc., were, of course, small and 
 irregularly built, many of them consist- 
 ing only of a few cabins made of mud 
 and thatched with straw. Paper that had 
 been soaked in oil and dried, served as 
 a substitute for glass in the windows, while 
 the smoke escaped by a hole in the roof. 
 Others there were, more substantially built 
 of wood, but generally speaking the dwell- 
 ings were as rough as they well could be, 
 and the furniture was as rough as the rooms. 
 The group of buildings was enclosed in a 
 palisade, as a protection against the attacks, 
 not so much of Indians as of the wolves and 
 other wild animals which infested the forests 
 near. For the dense and tangled woods 
 came close to the little cleared space around 
 the villages, and lulled the settlers to sleep 
 with their murmuring music in the still 
 summer evenings, or kept them awake in 
 the wild winter nights as the stormy 
 wind moaned through their mysterious and 
 gloomy depths. 
 
 Here and there small spaces of ground had 
 been cleared, and, together with the plots 
 near the houses, were being steadily cul- 
 tivated, principally with corn. Kine and 
 goats, sheep and pigs, had been imported, 
 and had increased in large numbers. Fish 
 had been caught, dried, and cured, and 
 formed a staple article of export ; furs and 
 timber were also sent abroad, and formed a 
 great source of profit to the colonies. Other 
 trades and businesses were also established, 
 although agricultural pursuits, hunting, and 
 fishing formed the principal occupations of 
 the emigrants. For food they entirely de- 
 pended on the corn they raised, the animals 
 they hunted, or the fish they caught. 
 
 For several years the colonies of New 
 
 590 
 
THE MEN OF THE ''MAYFLOWERS 
 
 England were increased by the further influx 
 of Puritans from Britain, and in 1634, the 
 colonists numbered about four thousand per- 
 sons. The iron rule of Laud and Strafford 
 ■caused numbers to leave their homes for the 
 wilderness, especially as the accounts were 
 now far more cheering, and the colony, 
 liaving taken deep root, was now progressing 
 rapidly. Bancroft, the historian of the United 
 States, says that 21,200 Puritan emigrants 
 left England from 1620 till the year 1640, 
 when Laud was imprisoned, and the rule of 
 the Long Parliament ended the persecution 
 of the Puritans and caused the movement as 
 a distinctive one to cease. 
 
 The work accomplished by these men 
 during these years was enormous, and the 
 progress of the colony truly marvellous. In 
 1643, they had cleared the ground for and 
 partially built fifty towns, thirty villages, and 
 forty chapels. Their export trade was largely 
 increasing, not only to the mother country, 
 but to the West Indies ; while, above all, they 
 had commenced to build their own ships, and 
 bad vessels on the stocks of over four hundred 
 tons burthen. Other colonies on the same 
 shores had not been equally successful. The 
 Dutch, French, and Spanish had established 
 settlements, and other men from England 
 had planted, but none had achieved the 
 success of the Puritan population of New 
 England. 
 
 Roger Williams, one of the noblest 
 OF THE Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 Unhappily there were blots — foul and dark 
 blots — on the early history of the New Eng- 
 land settlements ; and amongst these we must 
 mention the terrilale law which inflicted torture 
 and even death upon any infringement of 
 the severe code of Puritanical worship. The 
 spirit of intolerance seemed to grow every 
 year, and when any opposition manifested 
 itself, it only caused the spiritual despotism 
 to wax hotter. Roger Williams, a young 
 Welsh preacher, one of the greatest and 
 noblest of the Puritan emigrants, speedily 
 detected this spirit of intolerance, and early 
 preached against it. He denounced with 
 all the force of his fervid eloquence the re- 
 enactment of the very tyranny — though ex- 
 hibited in a different form — which they had 
 fled from England to escape. Roger Williams, 
 in his enthusiasm, would tolerate all classes 
 and all sects. He seems to have had some 
 ;glimpse of the great truth that the /arm of 
 worship is of little value so that the spirit be 
 sincere. The preaching of this pious and 
 gifted man seems to have been eagerly 
 listened to by crowds of colonists, and his 
 influence was powerful and far-reaching. 
 The Rev. Cotton Mather says of him that 
 ■*'the windmill in the young Welshman's 
 
 head seemed likely to turn everything topsy- 
 turvy in the settlement." 
 
 At last it was decided to force him back to 
 England. But when the armed men went 
 to the settlement where his house was situated 
 he had fled. Like the true pioneer of pro- 
 gress and civilization that he was, he was 
 forcing his way, alone and unaided, through 
 the thick forests to the Indian settlement, 
 bent on accomplishing alone the great object 
 which the Pilgrims had so far failed to accom- 
 plish, — the establishment of a settlement 
 where true religious liberty should be the 
 ruling principle. History records fewer 
 examples of splendid courage and resolute 
 endurance. "For fourteen weeks," he 
 wrote, " I was tossed in bitter season, not 
 knowing what bed or bread did mean," living 
 on roots and berries. But the Indians 
 grew so fond of him that " the barbarous 
 heart of Canonicus, the chief of the Nar- 
 ragansetts, loved him as his own son till his 
 last breath." 
 
 A deed from Canonicus granted to him 
 the whole of Rhode Island; and crossing 
 over to it in his canoe, Williams encamped 
 on a spot which he named " Providence," and 
 which is now the thriving and prosperous 
 capital of a thriving and prosperous state. 
 
 In the meantime the Narragansetts had 
 come to terms with their enemies the Pequod 
 Indians, and the latter urged them to break 
 with the English. In the winter of 1636, 
 therefore, a hasty summons was sent to 
 Williams by the very men who had driven 
 him forth, to come and exert his influence 
 with the Narragansetts to prevent war. The 
 dauntless man at once set forth, and travelling 
 night and day through the frost-bound and 
 snow-covered wilderness, he arrived at length 
 at the camp of wigwams where the great 
 Indian palaver was being held. Canonicus 
 and Miantonimoh, chiefs of the Narragan- 
 setts, and both devoted friends of Williams, 
 listened quietly to his earnest entreaties, but 
 for a long time they would not yield. For 
 three days did the devoted man plead the 
 cause of his countrymen who had wronged 
 him, and for three nights did he sleep calmly 
 near the houses of the enraged Pequods. At 
 length the Narragansetts acceded to his pro- 
 posals, and decided to hold by their treaty 
 with the English and reject the terms of the 
 Pequods. 
 
 The latter, however, determined to attack 
 the English alone, and two battles took place, 
 in which the English were so successful that 
 they struck terror into the hearts of the 
 savages, and the colonists were unmolested 
 for some time. 
 
 Unhappily Roger Williams was not able to 
 influence the authorities of New England 
 against intolerance. They were anxious to 
 secure his eloquence on their behalf when in 
 
 591 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 trouble with the Indians, but they were not 
 disposed to yield on points of ecclesiastical 
 government. 
 
 Another prominent victim was Mrs. Anne 
 Hutchinson. She was a woman of peculiar 
 doctrinal views, and the ministers soon ar- 
 raigned her of heresy. 
 
 She was ultimately banished, and with her 
 family took refuge in Rhode Island with 
 Williams, where, indeed, a great number of 
 New Englanders were constantly arriving. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, fearing she was not sale 
 from persecution even here, escaped even- 
 tually to the Dutch settlements, when one 
 fearful night she and her family, all but one 
 child, were surprised and massacred by 
 Indians. 
 
 The news of the intolerance of the Puritan 
 governors was not long in reaching England, 
 and certain fussy females took upon them- 
 selves to journey to the wilderness to pro- 
 test against such doings, and to defy the 
 authority of the ministers. Thus we find 
 that one lady journeyed from London for 
 this express purpose, and it is recorded that 
 she received twenty stripes for her pains and 
 was promptly sent home again. But others 
 arrived, many of them young Quakeresses 
 burning with lively zeal against the Puritans; 
 and although they were banished to Rhode 
 Island, they continued to return, until at last, 
 in pursuance of the terrible laws of death 
 passed against all persons of this sect, they 
 were executed. The most prominent of these 
 was Mary Dyar. Another of these prosely- 
 tising young Friends— named Mary Fisher — 
 subsequently sailed to Adrianople for the pur- 
 pose of publicly rebuking the Sultan for his 
 Mahommedanism. The innocent Orientals 
 thought her mad, and treated her with the 
 courteousness and kindness which they 
 bestow upon all whom Allah has so terribly 
 afflicted ; whereupon Miss Fisher drew a 
 most affecting contrast between the persecut- 
 ing New Englanders and the "gentlemanly" 
 Turks. 
 
 However much we may reprobate — and 
 we do most strongly — the fierce intolerance 
 of these early settlers in New England, and 
 their forgetfulness of the wise words of 
 Mr. Robinson and others of their leaders, yet 
 we must remember that they only wished 
 people who thought as they did to come to 
 their colonies. There was plenty of room 
 for the others to have gone elsewhere. The 
 penal code against Quakers was well known, 
 and all who entered the settlement entered 
 it in gratuitous defiance of these laws ; 
 whereas, in the Old World, the persecuted 
 people were proceeded against in their old 
 homes. Here, many of them deliberately 
 walked into persecution, and did their ut- 
 
 most to court a martyr's crown, when they 
 might have easily remained in Rhode Island 
 or have removed there when they found the 
 existence of the penal laws. 
 
 The law was however at length repealed. 
 William Leddron was the last Quaker victim, 
 and he was offered his life if he would leave 
 the colony and promise never to return. But 
 he reiused to compromise, and was hanged 
 forthwith. 
 
 And yet, we may add upon the authority of 
 an unimpeachable witness, Roger Williams 
 himself, that these pitiless persecutors were, 
 in all other relations of life, the best and 
 kindest of men. " I know they mean well," 
 said the benevolent Williams; "I am sure 
 they are earnest, sincere, and naturally kind- 
 hearted men ; they verily believe they are 
 serving God, whilst they are nevertheless 
 doing the work of the devil." Thus the 
 measure of their cruelty was the fervency of 
 their zeal. 
 
 Not less bitter was the fury of the New 
 Englanders against witchcraft, a savage super- 
 stition brought with them from the mother 
 country, and which lingered there in nooks and 
 corners of the land long after it had died out in 
 America. Both Dr. Cotton Mather and his 
 son, who rejoiced in the curious name of 
 Increase Mather, were fearful foes to witches; 
 and the latter lamented sorely when common 
 sense and the increasing love of true liberty 
 led the New England citizens to stop the 
 cruel persecution. The last witch-court was 
 held at Charlestown on Feb, 17th, 1693, 
 and all the witches then in custody were 
 discharged. 
 
 But these internal dissensions, and wars 
 with the savages, did not hinder the social 
 and material progress of the New England 
 colonies. When the first difficulties of emi- 
 gration were over, the settlements rapidly 
 increased in wealth and influence. And ever 
 since New England may be said to have 
 been the intellectual centre of the great 
 Republic of the West, and to have impressed 
 its own characteristics, to a large extent, 
 upon the whole commonwealth. It was in 
 New England that free schools were first 
 established, and the slave trade was first 
 declared a capital felony ; while her people 
 were the life of that great agitation which 
 finally swept the foul blot from the fair face 
 of the New World. Through a stormy and 
 troublous dawn she has passed on to the full 
 light of a splendid day, and many thousands 
 of our kindred across the sea acknowledge 
 with pardonable pride that they are the lineal 
 descendants of those hardy English Pilgrims 
 who made the desert wilds to blossom as 
 the rose. 
 
 F. M. H. 
 
 592 
 
Fort on the Island of Scio. 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF SCIO: 
 
 A STORY OF THE GREEK REVOLT AGAINST TURKEY. 
 
 " Chios, the island of renown and wealth and noble men, which shone upon the Sea of Greece like the star of morning 
 on the gloomy sky, the fairest seat of commerce, benevolence, and learning — Chios the Blessed." 
 
 CONSTANTINE OiKONOMOS. 
 
 The Centuries of Turkish Despotism— Origin and Fierce Temper of the Revolution— The Force of Wealth and Education- 
 Secret Societies— Invasion of Hypsilantes— The Sacred Battalion— Noble End of the Patriot Georgaki— The Flag 
 hoisted in the Morea— A Fighting Bishop—" Death to the Turks ! "-Bloodshed at Patras— Massacres by Greeks- 
 Dreadful Scenes in Constantinople— Execution of the Patriarch— A Canopy of Vultures— The " Hares" of the A;gean — 
 First Cruise of the Greek Fleet— Timid Scio— Individual Sacrifice and National Aspiration— W; y Scio did not rise— 
 The Island overrun— The Harems and their Mastic— Despatch of a Turkish Force— The Chiote Peasant and the 
 Samians— Wretched Rivalry of the Patriots— The Vengeance of the Turk— " Fire, Sword, Slavery "—Flight of the 
 Samians— Dreadful Massacres, Ruin, and Universal Plunder by Asiatic Hordes— Slaughter of the Monks— The Slaves 
 and Fugitives— Sailing of the Greek Fleet— The Vengeance of Kanaris— The Fire-ships— Fate of two thousand 
 Turks — Navarino and the Independence of Greece. 
 
 power 
 
 Wrongs of the Greeks. 
 
 HE scope and the method of the 
 daring and ghastly revolution of the 
 Greeks — when a nation only a mil- 
 lion strong rose against a gigantic 
 
 stretching from the banks of the 
 
 Tigris to the deserts of Algeria — are un- 
 fofded in a single paragraph from the pen 
 of the English historian of modern Greece : 
 " In the month of April, 1821, a Mussulman 
 population, generally of the Greek race, 
 amounting to upwards of twenty thousand 
 
 593 QQ 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 souls, was living, dispersed in Greece, em- 
 ployed in agriculture. Before two months 
 had elapsed, the greater part was slain ; 
 men, women, and children were murdered 
 on their own hearths, without mercy or 
 remorse. . . . The crime was a nation's 
 crime, and whatever perturbations it might 
 produce must be in a nation's conscience, as 
 the deeds by which it must be expiated 
 must be the acts of a nation," Whole Mus- 
 sulman families were destroyed in hundreds 
 of villages, and as no orthodox Christian 
 would pollute his soul by digging a grave 
 for an infidel, the carcases of men, women, 
 and children were piled up in outhouses, 
 which were then set on fire. 
 
 The stormy dawn has broken over Greece 
 after the long night of centuries, during which 
 the Western World had almost lost sight of 
 her except as a museum of classical anti- 
 quities, and heard little of her servile and 
 decayed inhabitants but that on occasions 
 they were butchered and sold into slavery. 
 Travellers and official Turks, who had the 
 foolhardiness to venture their persons and 
 their pockets among the independent moun- 
 tains, fell into the clutches of the Klephts, 
 robbers of a far more ruthless type than the 
 brawny Scottish black-mailer immortalized 
 by Scott and Wordsworth ; while those who 
 were content to journey along the beaten 
 tracks came back disgusted with the hope- 
 less degradation of the modern Greek. They 
 saw nothing to remind them of the ancient 
 glory and civilization of the race whose 
 subtle intellect had marched into the high- 
 est regions of human thought long before 
 the coming of the Saviour and of Paul of 
 Tarsus ; whose eye and hand had shaped 
 the finest types of strength and beauty ; 
 whose bravery had driven back the vast 
 hordes of Eastern despots, and carried their 
 victorious arms into the heart of Asia. 
 
 The last of the Byzantine emperors fell in 
 an aureole of fatal glory at Constantinople, 
 on a summer morning in the middle of the 
 fifteenth century, amid a heap of slain ; and 
 the Greeks, then debased and enfeebled, lay 
 during these four intervening centuries at 
 the mercy of the Turkish sabre and tax- 
 gatherer, under land tax, capitation tax, 
 " angaria " or gratuitous labour on public 
 works, occasional levies in money or in 
 kind, quartering of soldiers, sale of produce 
 at compulsory prices, and other forms of 
 oppression. But the worst feature in the 
 whole category of Turkish iniquities was 
 the absence of all proper justice ; for, as the 
 fact has been grimly expressed in a famous 
 novel, when the Tui'ks cut off the wrong 
 man's head, they found comfort in the pious 
 reflection that, after all, it could not be helped, 
 as it had been so destined by the will of 
 Allah. It was true, however, that the wily 
 
 and servile Greeks had farmed the revenues' 
 and become the oppressors of the toiling 
 masses of their own countrymen — that they 
 too had furnished the great generals, coun- 
 sellors, and governors of the sultans — that 
 the patriarchs were base enough to purchase- 
 their lofty post as heads of the Greek Church 
 from the emperor of the infidels, and in turn 
 to sell the bishoprics ; while the inferior 
 clergy were poor and ignorant, and had to- 
 work as common labourers. 
 
 Origin and Temper of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 But the brains and hands belonged still tO' 
 the Greek people. And when at last their 
 commerce flourished, and they acquired 
 wealth as carriers at sea, through the neu- 
 trality of Turkey during the Napoleonic 
 wars, schools were planted at Smyrna, Scio, 
 Patmos, and elsewhere ; Greek boys were 
 sent to Paris and other stirring centres of 
 thought ; Koraes and other learned men 
 kindled the memory of the ancient wisdom 
 and glory of the race, and the "chill, change- 
 less brow " once again throbbed with a 
 frantic love of liberty. Poets have arisen 
 to make the songs of the nation, and the 
 lads and lasses in the glens and isles sing 
 them to their herds and playmates ; Voltaire 
 has spoken with stinging satire, the Paris 
 clubs and the revolutions of France, Spain,, 
 Portugal, and America have infected even 
 Greece with the epidemic ; Egypt, Tunis, 
 and Algiers have almost cut themselves, 
 adrift from the Ottoman rule ; Ali Pasha, 
 the monster of Janina, defied it even within 
 the bounds of Greece ; Russia, the mighty- 
 defender of the Greek Church, is ready to- 
 spring upon Constantinople ; the Sultan has 
 become poor and sick, it is believed, even 
 unto death. 
 
 When a fifth of the present century had 
 passed away, Greece had made up her mind 
 to revolt. The military barbarians who had 
 poured into Europe, driven by their own fiery 
 fatalism from the coasts of Asia in the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries, were to be 
 knocked ' down like cockchafers from the 
 cushioned divans on which they sleep and 
 smoke, pulled from their harems, stabbed 
 and shot in their mosques, hustled out of 
 Wallachia, Macedonia, Greece, the Morea,, 
 and the Archipelago, and by some means or 
 other made an end of. For Turkey, it v/as 
 averred, never was, never could be, any- 
 thing but a military despotism : by sword 
 and butchery and plunder the Turks came, 
 and by those same weapons they should 
 be turned out. Learned professors, priests, 
 generals, thieves, sailors, gardeners, would 
 take up guns, scythes, pitchforks, fire-ships, 
 daggers, and fight or assassinate them till 
 not a Moslem man, woman, or child should 
 
 594 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 breathe the same air with the countrymen of 
 Epaminondas, and Themistocles. The cruel 
 tyranny of centuries cannot be extinguished 
 with rose-water from the Balkans. Quarter 
 there shall be none, said the patriots, to 
 the barbarians whose only right in this 
 famous land is that of gun and yataghan, 
 whose fingers are all thumbs, and who, as 
 Gibbon justly said, are only encamped, not 
 settled, in Europe. It is simply the crusade 
 of Greece that is proclaimed by the short 
 and sharp cry of the uprisen country : 
 " Peace to the Christians ! Respect to the 
 Consuls ! Death to the Turks !" The re- 
 volution of Greece is the vengeance of a 
 nation that is filled with shame, contempt, 
 and hatred. The secret societies, which, 
 working in silence and gloom, have scattered 
 their active apostles over the isles and 
 valleys of the oppressed country for several 
 ■ years, have determined on the principle of 
 " burning their ships," of inaugurating the 
 rebellion with a baptism of blood, so that 
 retreat and a dishonourable peace shall be 
 impossible. 
 
 Our main purpose in the present paper is 
 to afford a sketch of one incident in this war 
 of extermination, when the whole of the 
 lovely and peaceful island of Scio (the ancient 
 Chios), three times the size of the Isle of 
 Wight, was laid waste by Asiatic savages 
 from the one end to the other ; five and 
 twenty thousand men, women, and children 
 butchered, and perhaps twice that number 
 dragged into slavery. Many are the tragic 
 convulsions, by war and plague and earth- 
 quake, that have run through it since the 
 birth of Homer, "the blind old bard of 
 Scio's rocky isle," since the grand battue of 
 its inhabitants by the Persians in the fifth 
 century before Christ; but none was ever 
 so appalling as the massacre of 1822, which 
 sent a shudder through the whole of Europe, 
 and called forth the invincible sympathy of 
 the civilized Powers. The horrific episode is 
 known in Chian annals as "The Catastrophe." 
 Our story of the massacre will serve to show 
 the uncompromising nature of the six years' 
 struggle, and that Greece could only rise by 
 deeds of superhuman daring, and by huge 
 holocausts on the altar of liberty, from the 
 abyss into which she had sunk by centuries 
 of slavery. 
 
 The Rising in the North ; The Sacred 
 Battalion ; Noble End of Georgakl 
 The first torch of insurrection was thrown 
 into the Turkish empire, when, on the 6th of 
 March, 1 82 1, attended only by his two brothers 
 and eight other companions. Prince Alexander 
 Hypsilantes, a Russian officer and the son of 
 a former Greek governor of Wallachia, crossed 
 the river Pruth, which separated the empire 
 of the white Czar from that of the dark and 
 
 savage despot. Sultan Mahmoud. He had 
 been chosen by the secret societies to carry- 
 out the scheme at which they had been 
 plotting for several years ; but the election* 
 was in many ways the very worst possible, 
 and his attempt quickly and naturally ended 
 as a rmsershlejiasco. He issued a manifesto,, 
 plainly hinting that the movement was backed 
 by Russia, under the expectation that with 
 this promise the subject peoples would at 
 once hasten to his standard ; but the Czar 
 soon swept away this ground of hope by 
 the most emphatic denial, at the same 
 time striking the name of Hypsilantes from, 
 the list of Russian officers. The aged 
 patriarch of the Greek Church hurled his 
 anathema at the rebels, — a terrible blow, for 
 the people were most intensely devoted tO' 
 their religion. The prince, however, kept 
 the field, although he had but little artillery,, 
 in spite of the collections made by the 
 " apostles," as the secret agents were desig- 
 nated ; officers too, some brave, some 
 treacherous, rallied round him in Moldavia,, 
 far north of Greece ; but he was without 
 any of the virtues or accomplishments of a 
 soldier, a leader, a hero, or a martyr. He 
 chilled the willing nobles with his obtrusive 
 and repressing vanity and haughtiness ; he 
 aped at royal dignity, and indulged in the 
 light pleasures of the play instead of preparing' 
 for the grim tragedies of the battle-field. He 
 adorned his brief career with two massacres 
 of Mussulmans : in one of these, at Yassy,, 
 fifty prisoners who had surrendered on assur- 
 ance of their life were put to death in cold 
 blood; he boasted of the other at Galatz, 
 and raised the murderer to the rank of 
 general. The dilatory Turks came face to 
 face with him in May ; and after some, 
 wretched blunders by himself and the 
 drunken Caravia, he retreated to the Austrian 
 border, was arrested, and shut up in a 
 noisome Hungarian castle, where he pined 
 away till 1827, shortly after which this con- 
 temptible liar and mountebank patriot expired 
 in the gay city of Vienna. 
 
 But the brief campaign was not closed 
 without leaving behind it traces of a true and 
 incorruptible love of country. Greece will 
 not readily forget the bravery of the Sacred 
 Battahon, consisting of a thousand of the 
 flower of her cultured youth, whose deter- 
 mination to do or die was symbolized by 
 their black dress and the death's-head on 
 their caps : only a hundred of them survived 
 the carnage, and, shoeless and almost naked,, 
 succeeded in buying the privilege of crossing 
 the Austrian frontier. Nor must the name of 
 Captain Georgaki, proud only that he was a 
 native of Olympus, pass unnoticed. His 
 modesty and sublime courage were well fitted 
 to inaugurate the freedom of a noble race. 
 The wretched weakness of his health could 
 
 595 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 not prevent him from straining every nerve 
 to rouse the people to the conflict. After 
 many marvellous escapes he was surrounded 
 with a few followers in the monastery of 
 Seko. For nearly two days he defended 
 himself with gallantry, thrice declining the 
 offer of the Ottoman general to depart un- 
 molested, and at last, seeing that escape was 
 hopeless, he called his followers together and 
 addressed them in the style of the bravest 
 days of ancient Greece : " Brothers, in our 
 present circumstances, a glorious death is all 
 we ought to wish for, and I trust there is no 
 one here base enough to regret his life. Let 
 us imitate those true Greeks, our comrades, 
 whose dead bodies are stretched on the fields 
 of Dragashan and Skuleni, and whose blood 
 yet cries for vengeance. If we die like them, 
 perhaps on some future day our countrymen 
 will gather up our bones and transport them 
 to the classic land of our forefathers I " Then, 
 according to one version of his mysterious 
 end, having observed that a number of the 
 soldiers were anxious for surrender, he retired 
 to the belfry, and, after a short prayer, blew 
 himself and four companions into the air. 
 Thus tragically closed, on the 26th of 
 August, the rebelHon of the Greeks beyond 
 the Danube. 
 
 Better Success in the Morea; Fear- 
 ful Massacres by the Greeks. 
 
 It was hard to rouse the slothful Turks to 
 think other than contemptuously of Greek 
 courage, and, in spite of plain warning, they 
 delayed all steps for the prevention of re- 
 bellion in the south of Greece until their 
 power had almost collapsed to the crack of 
 doom. Far away down in the Morea and 
 in the brisk commercial isles the secret 
 societies were strong and active ; and there 
 even the lower classes were on the qui vive 
 for some impending shock; their nerves were 
 strung up by the mysterious hints of the 
 apostles, by the visions of the hermit monks, 
 and by the news of the war in the Epirus 
 under the ferocious lion of Janina. North 
 of the Gulf of Corinth the people were also 
 rendered doubly wretched by the constant 
 march of troops against the old rebel, Ali 
 Pasha, and all through the winter there 
 ran along the coast and among the moun- 
 tains a feverish rumour that a Russian fleet 
 was coming into the Mediterranean to thrust 
 the Turks for ever out of the country. In 
 the early spring of 182 1 the provincial divan 
 (or council) of Tripolitza, the capital of the 
 Morea, crept out of its shell. It imposed a 
 double poll-tax for that year, issued a pro- 
 clamation for disarming the rayahs (or non- 
 Mussulmans), and summoned the leading 
 clergy on the pretence of taking counsel as 
 to the condition of the country. Several 
 
 bishops were tame or foolish enough to put 
 their heads into this Tripolitza trap. 
 
 On the night of the i8th of March, Ger- 
 manos, archbishop of Patras, the chief com- 
 mercial town of the Morea, and a hot-bed of 
 Russian intrigue, situated in a lovely valley 
 by the sea at the foot of lofty hills, turned his 
 face eastward along the road to Tripolitza. 
 But he did not travel far in that direction. 
 In a fortnight he raised the standard of the 
 Cross in the little town of Kalavryta, high 
 up among the mountains on the way from 
 Patras. Already the first blows had been 
 struck : tax-gatherers and a military party 
 had been murdered, and an aga (or noble) 
 had been robbed of his treasures, escaping 
 with difficulty to the capital. On the 3rd of 
 April a large number of Mussulmans were 
 driven into Kalavryta, besieged, murdered, 
 or carried off as slaves. The news travelled 
 quickly down to Patras, and within two days 
 the balls of the Turkish soldiers in the for- 
 tress were whizzing amid the burning houses ; 
 old men, women, and children fled from the 
 flames, which a high wind drove furiously 
 after them ; Greeks and Turks stabbed each 
 other among the smoking ruins without a 
 thought of mercy. The primates, or head- 
 men, of Vostitza, which lay to the east along 
 the shore of the Gulf of Corinth, marched 
 into Patras with five Mussulman heads borne 
 before them as trophies ; and on the 6th — 
 the day on which the secret society at Vos- 
 titza had fixed for proclaiming the insurrection 
 throughout all Greece — the valiant archbishop 
 came down to Patras from his mountain perch, 
 the monks and clergy in the front chanting 
 psalms, followed by thousands of peasants 
 with guns, slings, clubs, daggers stuck on 
 poles, all rendered courageous by the faith 
 that every man who fell against the infidel 
 should gain the crown of martyrdom. The 
 crucifix was planted in the great square, 
 Grecian banners floated from the mosques, 
 the proclamation of "Peace to the Chris- 
 tians ! Respect to the Consuls ! Death to 
 the Turks ! " was issued, and within a week 
 from the unfurling of the flag in the mountain 
 village a Greek senate was assembled at 
 Calamita, on the southern shore of the 
 Morea. Its president was no less a man 
 than the Bey of Maina, a wild district that 
 had never been subdued, and he had brought 
 down with him a still more famous warrior, 
 Theodore Colocotrones. The latter was a 
 large and powerful man, cunning, but with 
 an air of persuasive frankness ; from his big 
 head there waved a wealth of black hair ; 
 his intellect was keen, and his heart as hard 
 as the nether millstone ; he was now fifty 
 years of age, and for twenty-seven of these 
 he had pursued the career of a notorious and 
 murderous brigand. He recited the stories 
 of his butcheries with glee. Yet he and his 
 
 596 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 klephts did valuable, if sometimes atrocious, 
 service in the cause of Greek independence. 
 Within three months the rebels -were 
 masters of the whole of Greece south of 
 
 some of the fearful massacres perpetrated 
 by the Christians. Vrachori, the most im- 
 portant town of western Greece (north of 
 the Straits), had a population of 500 Mus- 
 
 SciOTE Pfasamts driven away by the Approach or the 1li b 
 
 the famous battle-field of Thermopylse, but 
 most of the fortresses remained for some 
 time in Turkish hands. We shall here 
 move forward a little out of the order of 
 our narrative, with a view of mentioning 
 
 sulman families, with 600 Christians, and 
 200 Jews. It was besieged by 4,000 armatoii, 
 or Christian militia, formerly employed by 
 the Porte to keep order in their respective 
 districts, — warriors who were inured to the 
 
 597 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 severest hardships, and were accustomed to 
 sleep on the ground in all weathers with no 
 'Other protection than their shaggy cloaks. 
 The Turks and Jews laid down their arms 
 Tunder a promise of safety, but, in spite of 
 this, they were all immediately murdered by 
 the ferocious mountainers under circumstances 
 ■of the most shocking cruelty, only a few of 
 the richer being let off unscathed. 
 
 The town of Navarino was starved into 
 capitulation on the 19th of August ; and on 
 the surrender of all the public and private 
 property, except wearing apparel and house- 
 hold furniture, the Greeks undertook to 
 convey the inhabitants to Egypt or Tunis. 
 A dispute having arisen on the delicate sub- 
 ject of searching the women for concealed 
 valuables, every single human being that 
 had not yet gone on board was put to death 
 with the most ruthless barbarism : women, 
 bleeding from the cuts of sabres, or stripped 
 ■of their very clothing, ran into the sea to hide 
 themselves, and were shot down ; children 
 of the age of three or four years were tossed 
 into the waves, and tender infants were torn 
 from the maternal bosom and dashed against 
 the rocks. 
 
 During the sack of Tripolitza at the begin- 
 ning of October, women and children were 
 in many cases tortured before being put to 
 death ; but still greater fiendishness^perhaps 
 the deepest stain on Greece during the whole 
 period of the revolution — was shown when, 
 after the city had been occupied by the 
 Greeks for two entire days, two thousand 
 men, women, and children were led out to 
 a neighbouring ravine and murdered in cold 
 blood. One writer declares that years after 
 the event he saw the unburied bones of 
 the massacred victims lying in the hollow, 
 bleached by the winter rains and summer 
 suns. No wonder that Raybaud and other 
 friends of Greece hung their heads in shame 
 and sorrow ! 
 
 Dreadful Reprisals at Constanti- 
 nople; Execution of the Patriarch; 
 Canopy of Vultures. 
 It was not the Greeks alone, however, who 
 built up this barrier of blood ; for if we cast 
 ■our eyes back to the beginning of April, we 
 shall witness in the streets of the capital of 
 " the butcher," Sultan Mahmoud, scenes that 
 far eclipse in magnitude and reckless atrocity 
 the horrors enacted by the fierce klephts and 
 armatoli. The melancholy Sultan, who is 
 credited with having at one time seriously con- 
 templated the extermination of every single 
 Greek in his dominions,-^the financial loss 
 probably alone prevented him from the 
 attempt, — no sooner learned of the appear- 
 ance of Hypsilantes in Moldavia, than he 
 -appealed to the religion and loyalty of the 
 iaithful, and called on every Mussulman to 
 
 provide himself with arms. It was simply 
 a Holy War that was announced between 
 the Cross and the Crescent. In consequence 
 of this proclamation a hundred thousand 
 armed Turks, not only men of mature years, 
 but mere ignorant children of the "tender" 
 age of ten, were let loose into the streets of 
 Constantinople like a host of demons to 
 murder and mutilate the Greeks, who could 
 not venture from their homes for food except 
 at the risk of perishing by the long daggers 
 of the desperadoes. But Turkish justice was, 
 if possible, more fiendish than Turkish law- 
 lessness. When the news reached Constanti- 
 nople that hundreds of Mussulmans werebeing 
 murdered in Greece, the Sultan gave orders 
 to Benderli Ali, the Grand Vizier, to seize 
 the leading Greek officials and execute them 
 as hostages. On the i6th of April, Constan- 
 tine Murusi, the first dragoman (or interpreter) 
 of the Porte, was beheaded in his official 
 dress. Other dignitaries met with the same 
 fate ; but there was one especial blow struck 
 at the Greek Church, which sent a thrill of 
 horror through millions, from the hills of 
 Greece to the banks of the Neva, and placed 
 the topmost layer on the barrier of blood. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, 22nd of April, 1821, an 
 unusually large crowd of wretched Greeks 
 assembled in the cathedral of the Phanar to 
 witness the most solemn ceremony of high 
 mass, and to hear from the lips of the 
 venerable head of their Church the sacred 
 salutation, " Christ is arisen !" which had for 
 them a peculiar and deep significance in 
 those weeks of agony, fear, and slaughter. 
 Doubtless the patriarch conceived himself 
 secure, for he had issued a pastoral condem- 
 ning the revolution and its supporters ; but 
 to the horror of the worshippers, just as 
 he had uttered the words of benediction, a 
 party of tchaouses entered, and seized him 
 under an imperial warrant. A janissary, who 
 had been appointed to guard his person, 
 and had acquired a deep reverence for the 
 aged prelate, rushed forward to defend him, 
 and was stabbed by the yataghan of an 
 associate. The three officiating bishops and 
 his two chaplains were led with him to exe- 
 cution. " The patriarch was hanged on the 
 doorway of his palace, and left to struggle in 
 his robes with the agony of death. His 
 person," wrote a member of the British 
 Embassy, " attenuated by abstinence and 
 emaciated by age, had not weight sufficient 
 to cause immediate death. He continued 
 for a long time in pain, which no friendly 
 hand dared to abridge, and the darkness of 
 night came on before the last convulsions 
 were over." His lifeless body, dragged by 
 Jews through the streets of the Greek 
 quarter, and tossed into the harbour, was 
 shortly after cast up on the shore, and 
 interred with due solemnity in the island 
 
 598 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 •of Corfu ; but the memory of this horrid in- 
 sult to their religion rankled in the breast 
 -of every Christian Greek, and the name of 
 the murdered Gregorios became a vengeful 
 war-cry in the fierce struggles of the revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Foreign residents of Constantinople vs'it- 
 nessed in the streets of the capital and the 
 neighbouring cities scenes of horror that 
 surpass conception or description. These 
 places were for several weeks in anarchy 
 and at the mercy of murderous mobs ; every 
 day the bodies of fresh victims were seen 
 hanging on walls and doors, headless trunks 
 were trampled in the streets, vultures and 
 other birds of prey gathered overhead and 
 covered the capital like a canopy, ravenous 
 dogs prowled by night, uttering dismal howls 
 ;and fighting for possession of the trunks and 
 skulls of hapless Greeks . We must leave to 
 imagination the fearful agonies of women, 
 many of the most refined tastes, whose 
 husbands, fathers, and sons were dragged to 
 prison, torlure, and death, who were them- 
 selves reduced to absolute starvation, and 
 lived in sickening suspense lest still more 
 ■dreadful and unnamable outrages should 
 be inflicted, if the brutal passions of the 
 Turkish mobs were suffered longer to con- 
 tinue unrestrained. Where were the repre- 
 sentatives of the civilized Powers of Europe ? 
 What was done to put an end to this 
 abominable anarchy ? To our shame be it 
 said, that the Russian ambassador proposed 
 the despatch of a combined European fleet 
 to protect the Christians, but that the 
 English ambassador objected to this pro- 
 cedure, and the Powers satisfied themselves 
 with a remonstrance ! Of course this was a 
 necessary piece of statesmanship ! And so 
 poor Greece must wade her own solitary way 
 through seas of blood. Perhaps it was best 
 that it should be so ; for intervention at this 
 early stage might only have thrown her down 
 again, under certain limitations, beneath the 
 detested domination of the Crescent. 
 
 The conflict proceeded; and on the ist of 
 January, 1822, the independence of Greece 
 was proclaimed. Its first president was 
 Alexander Mavrocordatos, a Phanariot of 
 Sciote origin. He was a little man with a 
 fine, massive head, set off with a profusion 
 of jet-black hair ; he had large and sparkling 
 eyes, with bushy eye-brows, and immense 
 whiskers and mustachios. He wore an air 
 of goodness, but lacked dignity, not in dress 
 only but in mien ; and his character had one 
 prime and fatal fault which prevented him 
 from being a splendid leader, — he was with- 
 out decision. Indeed, in all the period of 
 struggle, Greece had not one central and 
 commanding spirit. Meanwhile thousands 
 of pairs of ears were sent to the Sultan from 
 different parts of the revolted country, and 
 
 piled up as ghastly trophies before the gate 
 of the seraglio. 
 
 The Island Hares ; Their Importance 
 IN THE Struggle, 
 The Turks were in the habit of showing 
 their contempt for the Greek inhabitants of 
 the Archipelago by bestowing on them the 
 nickname of " hares " ; and to some of the 
 islands the epithet was not ill applied. But 
 however true it might be that many were 
 more adapted by nature for the timid occu- 
 pations of the kitchen, the nursery, and 
 the garden than for the arts of cruel 
 warfare and selfish diplomacy, on which 
 alone the Ottoman sets any value, the fact 
 turned out to be that the fabric of Greek 
 independence was to find its surest materials 
 on some of these same barren, mountainous, 
 and, it was fondly believed by the jesting 
 tax-gatherer, timid isles. With the exception 
 of Samos, none of the little rocks which 
 came to the forefront as glorious stars on the 
 forehead of new Greece had even the slightest 
 importance in the annals of ancient Hellas. 
 You will search in vain through the pages of 
 old Lempriere for one decorative gleam of 
 light on the rocks of Spetzia, Hydra, and 
 Psara. They had no history. They had 
 sprung up from the depths of the sea, as it 
 were, quite recently. During the eighteenth 
 century the Sultans, in order to give a fillip 
 to native commerce, very kindly — fatally to 
 their own power after the lapse of a century 
 — relieved the three rocky islets above 
 mencioned, along with that of Kasos, and 
 the two barren promontories of Trikeri and 
 Galaxhidi, from the heavy blight of taxation 
 that destroyed the vigour of the empire ; 
 and during the period when the noisy and 
 imperious Frenchmen were playing the part 
 of Ishmael against the whole of Euiope, 
 these little rocks became the outlets of 
 Greek enterprise, acquiring very considera- 
 ble wealth as traders, especially in carrying 
 grain between the Black Sea and the south 
 of Europe. They administered their own 
 affairs, almost like independent republics. 
 It must be noted, however, that the mer- 
 chants and sailors of Hydra and Spetzia, off 
 the coast of Argolis, were not Greeks but 
 Albanians, races quite as distant and dis- 
 tmct from each other in origin and character 
 as are the Welsh and English. The Alba- 
 nian is proud and turbulent, but truthful and 
 honest ; the Greek is more intellectual, bul 
 crafty to his finger-tips. Hydra, with her 
 four thousand families, was the wealthiest 
 and most populous ; her merchants, such as 
 the Conduriotti, had amassed great sums, 
 and their ships were ungrudgingly placed 
 at the disposal of revolutionary Greece. 
 When Hydra, Spetzia, and Psara showed 
 the national colours at the mast-head in 
 
 599 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the spring of 1821, they had respectively 
 115, 60, and 40 ships over 100 tons 
 burden. The most brilHant deeds of the 
 fierce vi^ar of vengeance were to be accom- 
 pHshed by the money, the men, and the 
 vessels of these traders v^'hom the Turk 
 ridiculed as coward conies, and from them 
 there was destined to arise one glorious 
 figure, who seemed to the Ottoman a demon 
 wrapped in flames of fire, yet who was after 
 all but a pious, poor, and simple sailor of 
 the rock of Psara. Constantine Kanaris, the 
 Garibaldi of Greece, and Andrew Miaoulis, 
 his fellow Psariot, admiral of the Greek fleet, 
 stand out conspicious by their simple honesty 
 and unsullied patriotism more than by their 
 bravery, from the herd of unscrupulous, 
 murderous, plundering, ambitious phanariots, 
 primates, captains, and robber-chiefs who 
 fought with Turkey, quarrelled with each 
 other, and gave the Western World a very 
 sorry impression of the latter-day Greek and 
 of his fitness for independence. 
 
 First Cruise of the Greek Fleet ; 
 Visit to the Isle of Scio. 
 
 With all haste the isles transformed their 
 merchant vessels into ships of war; and early 
 in the spring of 1821, a little fleet of over 
 twenty vessels was ready to sail forth on its 
 first cruise, under the command of James 
 Tombazes, one of the primates of the rock of 
 Hydra, and the only man in that enterpris- 
 ing centre who was not suspicious and 
 positively rude to strangers. Its original 
 destination was the coast of the Epirus, 
 where the Ottoman fleet was then cruising. 
 Had it proceeded there, as was intended, 
 the ill-manned Turkish vessels would have 
 fallen into its grasp as a heap of dead logs, 
 and the spirits of the western Greeks would 
 have been roused. But when it was on the 
 eve of departure, there arrived at Hydra a 
 native of the Isle of Scio, named Neophytos 
 Vambas. He was a man whose opinion and 
 advice could not well be despised at such a 
 critical moment ; he had spent years of his 
 life in France, and, though in feeble health, 
 had shown himself a true patriot by re- 
 nouncing his peaceful and scholarly life as 
 head of the famous college in his native 
 island for the noise of camps, the hardships 
 of the battle-field, and the spectacle of carnage. 
 He afterwards acted as chief secretary of 
 Demetrius Hypsilantes (who was leader of 
 the insurrection during hisbrother's captivity), 
 and did high service to his country in later 
 years as a teacher, by cultivating the moral 
 feelings as well as the intellect of his distin- 
 guished pupils. But Vambas was too much 
 of a doctrinaire to be a sound political adviser. 
 By his counsel Tombazes made Scio instead 
 of the Epirus the destination of the fleet. 
 
 The particulars of this ciniise, which was 
 
 projected with the commendable object of 
 stirring up Scio and other large and wealthy 
 islands to declare for the revolution, form an 
 interesting narrative, but a very sad one, in 
 view of its complete failure, of the horrible 
 deeds committed by the fleet, of the still 
 more horrible cruelties perpetrated by the 
 Turks under the name of vengeance, and of 
 the selfish rapacity of the patriots which was 
 displayed in quarrels over the division of the 
 spoil, and the unpatriotic separation of 
 several of the ships to act as privateers on 
 their own account. It is true that now for 
 the first time fire-ships, of which we shall 
 have more to say by-and-by, were used with 
 deadly effect on a Turkish ship of the liae, 
 compelling her companions to fly in terror to 
 the shelter of the Dardanelles ; but, on the 
 other hand, such a dark deed as that enacted 
 by the Hydriot brigs on a richly-laden 
 Turkish vessel, when ladies of rank, beau- 
 tiful slaves, infant children, and helpless old 
 men, were all butchered in cold blood, was 
 impolitic and selfish, to say the least, for it 
 gave a colour of justice to such easy and awful 
 reprisals as that taken on the flourishing 
 young city of Kydonies on the Asiatic coast, 
 which contained thirty thousand Greeks within 
 itself and the surrounding villages. A general 
 massacre took place, and droves of innocent 
 and industrious Greeks, when the barbarous 
 thirst for blood was sated, were led away to 
 stock for months the slave-markets of Smyrna, 
 Brusa, and Constantinople. 
 
 On the 9th of May the Greek fleet cast 
 anchor at Pasha Fountain, a bay situated a 
 little to the north of the town of Chios or 
 Castro, on the eastern side of the island, and 
 secret agents were sent ashore to proceed 
 through the villages with proclamations, 
 appealing to the people to throw off the 
 Turkish yoke and avenge the death of the 
 patriarch Gregorios. The moment was well 
 chosen, for the castle which commanded the 
 port of Chios was in a bad state of repair and 
 held by a feeble garrison. The town itself had 
 a population of thirty thousand, that mighi 
 easily have crushed the keepers of the citadel. 
 The handful of Turks were thrown into a state 
 of consternation. " Are you not,'' said they 
 in alarm to the Greek natives, '' the happiest 
 Christian subjects of the Sultan ? Remain 
 tranquil in the midst of this general confla- 
 gration : if your brothers are conquerors, we 
 shall be ' rayas ' in our turn ; if the Crescent 
 triumphs, you will not have to suffer the con- 
 sequences of a revolt to which you will be 
 strangers." The emissaries of the Greek 
 invaders were seized; the "primates" of Scio 
 wei'e afraid to compromise themselves in the 
 eyes of their Turkish masters, and beseeched 
 the navy to depart, entertaining, however, an 
 inward reserve in favour of the patriotic cause, 
 Tombazes, afraid that his presence mighs 
 
 600 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 
 An Amblscadf or Sciotes watching tht Mo\emlnis of the Turkish Army 
 
 60 1 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 provoke a rigorous treatment of the inhabi- 
 tants, abandoned the main purpose of his 
 cruise and sailed off into other waters. Such 
 was the first voyage of the fleet that had set 
 forth with the grand idea of repeating the 
 ancient glory of Salamis. 
 
 The Paradise of Greece ; Why the 
 
 Hares of Scio did not rise. 
 The question is interesting, how this im- 
 portant island, with a Greek population of the 
 purest blood amounting to perhaps more than 
 one hundred thousand persons, refused to enter 
 the alliance and break from the barbarous 
 despotism of the Turks, The Sciotes were the 
 most flourishing community of Greeks under 
 the Ottoman sway ; their rich merchants 
 had houses established in all the great cities 
 of the Levant and Europe, in England, 
 Amsterdam, Marseilles, Leghorn, Trieste, 
 Malta, Alexandria, Moscow, Taganrog, 
 Odessa, Vienna, Constantinople, and in 
 many Asiatic towns, such as Beyrout and 
 Smyrna, the whole cloth- trade of this last 
 city being in their hands. Their culture was 
 the foremost ; they could boast of the first 
 Greek scholar of the day, Koraes, whose 
 '"sublime apostolate," carried on in France, 
 sought to regenerate his country by present- 
 ing the purest models of the ancient tongue, 
 — striving to arouse at once an equal love of 
 knowledge and of liberty, — and whose elo- 
 quent exposition of the state of Greece in 
 1813 first opened the eyes of Western scholars 
 to the fact that it was something more than a 
 museum ; and since the year 1792 they had 
 possessed a handsome college, where at this 
 time five hundred pupils of the island and 
 two hundred from abroad received the advan- 
 tage of a free education. Travellers, like our 
 own Chandler, represented the hilly Scio as a 
 sort of fairyland. The town was filled with 
 splendid structures of white marble, and 
 surrounded with mansions embowered in 
 gardens that were fragrant in spring-tide with 
 oranges and citrons and the rarest flowei's, and 
 were enlivened with the songs of nightingales; 
 the honey of Scio rivalled that of Hybla and 
 Hymettus ; the slopes were dotted with 
 villages, vineyards, pomegranates, olives, 
 and other fruit-trees; and the mastic tree 
 flourished in the south-west, yielding the 
 delicious gum so pleasant to the palates of 
 the ladies of the East and of the Sultan's 
 harem. The fragrance of the balmy island 
 was felt miles off at sea. Its women, luscious 
 Ionian Greeks of unadulterated type, were as 
 lovely, says Bulwer (not the novelist), "as 
 God or even Sir Godfrey Kneller could have 
 made them." If there were any spot of Greece 
 that could and should have given effective 
 aid and European sympathy to the revolution 
 against Turkish tyranny, it was the isle of 
 Scio. And at this moment the whole troops 
 
 in command of the island were the seven or 
 eight hundred frightened janissaries in the old 
 citadel that had been built by the Genoese 
 while masters of the island, from the four- 
 teenth to the sixteenth century ; the fortifica- 
 tions were sadly ruined, and most of the guns 
 were without carriages. There was a proverb 
 which asserted that it was as rare to find a 
 green horse as a prudent Sciote. Unfor- 
 tunately this referred to the reckless gaiety, 
 not the patriotic instincts, of the citizens. 
 
 Finlay and others have stood up for the 
 policy of the Sciotes. There were thousands 
 of its natives engaged in business or as 
 gardeners in Turkish towns like Smyrna and 
 Constantinople, so that a large amount of 
 human life as well as wealth was involved in 
 the insurrectic-n of the island. Their hands 
 were tied by the bonds of commerce far more 
 firmly than those of any other spot of Greece. 
 To take up arms against a foe whose hands 
 were deep in your pockets, and whose sabre 
 hung over the necks of your absent fathers 
 and sons, was a resolve that would make the 
 heart of the stoutest patriot tremble and his 
 face grow pale. There was this further fact, 
 that the despotism of Scio was of an ex- 
 tremely mild type. The inhabitants were to 
 all intents and purposes independent. Their 
 prosperity was greatly due to the circum- 
 stance that the island had lived under the 
 gentle sway of several successive sultanas. 
 Every year the town of Chios chose its own 
 five native demogeronts, who held almost 
 complete control. 
 
 True enough all this. And we shall add 
 that at the outbreak of the revolution the aim 
 of the Greeks was not so much to erect an 
 independent nation as to sweep away the 
 Turks. The movement was to a large extent 
 of an ecclesiastical character. Hypsilantes, 
 and thousands of others, had no higher aspi- 
 ration than to transfer Greece from the heel 
 of the Sultan to that of the Emperor of 
 Russia, the chief patron of the Eastern 
 Church, But this argument breaks down 
 after the proclamation of independence on 
 the 1st day of January, 1822, The spring 
 and summer of that year will tell a horrid 
 tale and teach a great political lesson, "The 
 more far-sighted and consistent friend of 
 liberty," says an anonymous writer, "will 
 recognise in this case one of those instances, 
 of rare occurrence, in which the duty of the 
 citizen is to sacrifice his property, his tran- 
 quillity, the security of his family, in pursuit 
 of a good, abstract and remote as far as his 
 own enjoyments are concerned, for the pure 
 and unmixed love of his country. And s«uch 
 policy is in truth the safest, as a thousand 
 instances have proved, no less than the 
 manliest. Had the Sciotes taken the national 
 side, and fortified their island in co-operation 
 with their Samian neighbours, they, with 
 
 602 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 •wealth and population such as theirs, were 
 secured almost against the remotest contin- 
 gency of capture from the wild and desultory 
 efforts of the Ottomans." We shall only seek 
 to enforce this by remarking that the Sciotes 
 were so deeply distrusted by patriotic Greeks 
 that they were at first excluded from becoming 
 members of the secret society known as the 
 Philike Hetairia. They were the true "hares " 
 of the Turkish tax-gatherers. They were 
 doomed to be worried as excellent game by 
 the wild dogs of Constantinople and Asia. 
 
 Arrest of Leading Citizens ; The 
 Island overrun by an Asiatic Horde. 
 
 Immediately on the departure of the fleet, 
 the musselim, or governor of the island, gave 
 •orders for the disarming of the Christians, 
 ■strengthened the fortifications, and sent to 
 the divan at Constantinople for military 
 stores. He summoned the mesas, or council 
 of demogeronts, and, in spite of their distinct 
 aversion from rebellion, shut them up in the 
 citadel as hostages of peace, along with the 
 archbishop and thirty men, heads of the 
 leading families of the town, who were in- 
 vited or forced into the fortress under the 
 pretence of taking counsel on the situation. 
 The archbishop was never allowed to pass 
 from the safe du^-ance of the citadel, but the 
 others were permitted to exchange the in- 
 sufferable confinement of their gaols for that 
 of a Turkish coffee-house, where they occu- 
 pied together one large room with thick 
 walls, almost subterranean in aspect, and 
 •cheered by a very small portion of the bright 
 Chian sunshine. In a few days the number 
 was increased to forty-six, and, besides these, 
 twelve leading men were brought down from 
 the chief mastic villages to share their prison. 
 After a time thirty-two other citizens entered 
 as hostages, an equal number being permitted 
 to go out on business for a month ; this 
 monthly alternation of prisoners continued 
 until the destruction of the island. Even in 
 the worst sickness no one was permitted to 
 enjoy the affectionate care and comforts of 
 his home, and, in consequence of this treat- 
 ment, two of the hostages died during their 
 incarceration. Another was shot by way of 
 amusement by the pistol of a savage soldier. 
 As if these precautions were not sufficient, 
 three of the most prominent Sciotes were sent 
 as prisoners to Constantinople, and confined 
 in the horrible dungeon of the Bostangi 
 Bashi (or police minister), which had a ter- 
 rible reputation for the marvellous severity 
 of the tortures there inflicted in the name of 
 justice. Murders were of daily occurrence 
 in Scio, the markets were opened only by 
 •order, and the people -were continually kept 
 in terror by red-handed violence. 
 
 A wild horde of armed Asiatics, a thou- 
 :sand in number, soon arrived in the island, 
 
 attracted by the wealth and helplessness of 
 its inhabitants. .Not a day passed without 
 some fresh tale of murder, plunder, and such 
 foul crimes as were sufficient to rouse the 
 spirit of the tamest and make the blood run 
 cold. People scarcely dared to move along 
 the streets, or even show their faces at the 
 windows. The leading Turks were also 
 alarmed by their presence ; neither the com- 
 mand of the Sultan himself, nor the efforts 
 at restraint made by day and night by the 
 musselim and his few soldiers, had any effect 
 on the plundering savages. Commerce was 
 at a standstill ; the ships which were accus- 
 tomed to supply the town with provisions 
 did not appear, and the dread of famine laid 
 the copestone on the woes and despair of the 
 unhappy people. The threatened outburst 
 of an insurrection was only driven off by the 
 generosity of the demogeronts, who supplied 
 the wants of the starving poor. At last, under 
 the pressure of the Sciote merchants in Con- 
 stantinople, a force of eleven hundred soldiers 
 was despatched under the command of Vehid 
 Pasha ; the horde of Asiatics was controlled 
 and dispersed, and the people again breathed 
 freely. But the island had only changed 
 the ravages of bandits for the stern exactions 
 of a military despotism. Vehid imposed a 
 tax of 34,000 piastres monthly for the main- 
 tenance of his troops, laid his hands on 4,000 
 centals of grain that had been stored up by 
 the demogeronts for the use of the inhabi- 
 tants ; the goods in the markets were seized 
 by the brutal soldiers, who then sold them 
 on their own account ; the poor niiserables 
 in town and country were compelled to work 
 at the trenches of the citadel without pay, 
 spurred to energy by the application of the 
 bastinado. 
 
 Invasion by the Samians ; Blunder 
 
 and Disgrace. 
 In the month of November 1821, shortly 
 after the conquest and horrible carnage of 
 Tripolitza, a Sciote peasant from the village 
 of Vrondado, named Antonaki Bournia, who 
 had served in Egypt under Napoleon, pre- 
 sented himself before Demetrius Hypsilantes 
 with a fantastic scheme for the redemp- 
 tion of Scio, asking authority and means for 
 raising and completing the insurrection in 
 that island. The Greek leaders — Vambas, 
 the Sciote who had instigated the invasion of 
 Tombazes' fleet, among the number — not dis- 
 covering in him any special capacity for such 
 an enterprize, or that he had any great in- 
 fluence among his co-patriots, rejected his 
 proposal. They were reluctant to compromise 
 an immense population of unwarlike tastes, 
 and they thought it best that the island, lying 
 only a few miles from the hordes of the Asiatic 
 continent, should hold its choice in reserve 
 until the issue of the bloody struggle was 
 
 603 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 decided. But the unlettered peasant — what 
 the French call a inmcvazs stijet — had a strong 
 determination and lust for fame, if he was 
 destitute of genius or character. In spite of 
 his cold reception from Hypsilantes, he betook 
 himself to the brave historic island of Samos, 
 affiliated himself with four other Sciote adven- 
 turers who had fled as bankrupts from the 
 bazaars of Smyrna, and secured the active 
 service of the Samian adventurer, Lycurgus 
 Logothetes, a physician by profession, and 
 the accepted dictator of his native island. The 
 attack was concerted with an enthusiasm that 
 amounted to impatience : there was nothing 
 so easy as to master Scio. The island would 
 surrender with the willingness of a loving 
 maiden. Their victory would be as simple 
 to record as that described by Cassar — Veni, 
 vidi, vicij they dreamed of nothing but the 
 expulsion of the Turks and the chastisement 
 of the primates who had refused to join in 
 the national struggle. The leading Sciotes 
 and Psarians, however, were opposed to the 
 project of an invasion.* 
 
 Suddenly there spread through Scio a 
 rumour that the men of Samos were arming 
 for the " deliverance " of that island ; the 
 most responsible inhabitants were thrown 
 into consternation, which was aggravated by 
 the fact that it was now the mastic season ; 
 the archbishop and demogeronts instantly 
 despatched agents through the villages to 
 warn them against raising a hand in favour 
 of the conspirators, and a deputy was sent 
 off to Samos to investigate the truth of the 
 report. But the fact was only too certain 
 long before the possibility of his return. On 
 the evening of Saturday, 22nd of March (or 
 at break of day on Sunday), a flotilla of forty 
 to fifty boats, with about two thousand five 
 hundred men, under the joint command of 
 the Samian dictator and the whilom captain 
 of the Chasseurs d'Orient, landed at the Bay 
 of St. Helen, a few miles south of the port 
 of Scio. A Turkish force of five or six 
 hundred men was sent to oppose the advance 
 of the Samians, but retreated in haste with 
 great loss ; four thousand other Turkish 
 inhabitants fled into the citadel along with 
 the hostages, victuals, and ammunition. Soon 
 the van of the invading army was seen on 
 the heights of Turlotti above the town, and 
 a little firing of their cannon was directed 
 without effect at the citadel, serving no other 
 
 * Our statement as to Bournia's visit to Hypsilantes 
 is based on the Memoires sur la Grcce of Raybaiid, 
 the French philhellene, who was present. Finlay, 
 however, mentions that Hypsilantes authorized a 
 Sciote merchant, Ralli, to undertal^e an expediuon 
 with Lycurgus ; that in January 1822 he wrote to 
 Lycurgus to defer it, and that Lycurgus replied, on 
 the ist of February, that he would do so, but praying 
 that the delay might not be long as he " considered 
 the conquest of Scio to be a sacred duty." 
 
 purpose than to waken up the country people 
 to the fact that something unusual was go- 
 ing on. Signals waving on the mountains 
 announced the arrival of the liberators, whO' 
 soon marched into the town with a host of 
 twenty thousand peasants, armed with blud- 
 geons, fusils, picks, sickles, spits, and pitch- 
 forks. " Popes," or priests, advanced in 
 front of the regiments, bearing the banner 
 of the Cross, and the frantic, motley crowds 
 raised the shout of " Liberty ! " 
 
 The Greek inhabitants of the town did nofe 
 welcome the disturbers of their peace. At 
 first they shut themselves up in their dwell- 
 ings, but in the course of the afternoon they 
 thought it prudent to raise a feeble cheer as 
 the Christian standards were borne past 
 through the streets. All night long there 
 were illuminations. A large number of 
 priests, clothed in their sacred habits, moved 
 about among the excited crowds, bearing 
 crosses and waving incense ; the intonatioa 
 of sacred hymns mingled with the music of 
 patriotic songs. During the nineteen days- 
 of occupation by the Samians, the town was 
 one continual scene of anarchy and pillage z 
 not only were the custom-house, two mosques, 
 and the dwellings of Turks plundered and 
 destroyed, but even the stores of the Sciote 
 merchants had their turn and were looted 
 by the Samians and the native mobs. This 
 disorderly conduct caused many of the 
 wealthy families to flee across the country 
 from the island. Bournia, styling himself 
 " commander-in-chief," gave orders to the 
 ephors to prevent the " great and rich " from 
 taking flight ; officers imprisoned some of 
 the leading merchants and black-mailed large 
 sums of money from others on the plea ofi 
 protecting them from the violence of the 
 soldiers ; a domiciliary inquisition v/as esta- 
 blished, authorizing the houses of the chief 
 men to be entered at any hour of day or 
 night on the pretext of stopping "desertions." 
 The invasion was at once a blunder and 
 a disgrace, and yet somewhat typical of the 
 whole Greek revolution in its selfish rivalries, 
 and robberies. The demogeronts had been 
 deposed, and a revolutionary junto of six 
 ephors set up in their place ; but the two. 
 leaders, instead of concerting on active and 
 effective measures for the reduction of the 
 fortress and the defence of the island whose 
 prosperity and inhabitants they had thrown 
 in jeopardy, quarrelled with each other for 
 the chief command. Lycurgus snubbed all 
 round, and exacted a respectful kiss of hand ;. 
 Bournia flaunted the tricolour, and gathered, 
 round him a huge tail of peasants. Thsre 
 was no artillery of sufficient power to telli 
 upon the citadel. The invaders were so> 
 deficient of aminunition as to pick up the 
 spent balls fired from the fortress. Lycurgus 
 several times made offers to Vehid for capi- 
 604 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 tulation, but the Turkish pasha only rephed 
 with bombs from the citadel, which the 
 Greek patriots — such was their contempt of 
 ■the stupid Turks — had expected to surrender 
 without a blow. Two deputies, one of 
 whom was the honest and peaceful patriot, 
 Glarakes, afterwards a minister of state 
 under King Otho, were despatched to the 
 central government at Corinth to ask for 
 aid ; the news of the revolt created a sensa- 
 tion not of the most hopeful character, but 
 a promise was dutifully given that two 
 mortars and five siege batteries should be 
 sent to Scio, along with competent gunners. 
 A fortnight passed before this necessary aid 
 was furnished, and within that period the 
 death-knell of the isle of Scio had been 
 sounded. 
 
 Arrival of the Turkish Admiral; 
 Flight of the Samians. 
 
 Sultan Mahmoud was infuriated by the 
 attack on Scio,' which he regarded as a 
 personal insult ; and the ladies of the 
 harem, afraid of losing their delicious mas- 
 tic, insisted on the utter destruction of the 
 people who had dared to deprive them of 
 the chief luxury of their existence. The 
 three Sciote hostages who had been sent to 
 Constantinople from the island were ordered 
 to be hanged, the Sciote merchants and 
 bankers had their counting-houses pillaged, 
 and such as did not succeed in making their 
 escape were thrown into prison, and sub- 
 jected to the unspeakably savage tortures of 
 the Bostangi Bashi. The Sultan uttered the 
 fate of the island in the three terrific words, 
 "Fire, Sword, Slavery !" 
 
 Little did the peaceful and wealthy por- 
 tion of the inhabitants of Scio's rocky isle, 
 when they welcomed with manifest delight 
 the news that a Turkish armament was on 
 its way, under the command of the Capitan 
 Pasha, or admiral, Kara Ali, imagine the 
 terrible mission with which he was entrusted ; 
 little did they dream that this monster, who 
 had been raised to the head of the Ottoman 
 fleet because of his single small success 
 against the Greek navy in the previous 
 autumn, when he had entered the port of 
 Constantinople amid the tremendous roar of 
 greeting cannon with gulls screaming over 
 the thirty bodies that hung lifeless from the 
 yard-arm of his flag-ship, was now sailing, 
 with the most truculent and blood-thirsty re- 
 fuse of the East, with plain orders to con- 
 vert their lovely island into a vast cemetery. 
 There was no secret in Constantinople as to 
 the destination of the fleet ; the report was 
 spread that the island would be given up to 
 the volunteers ; every ruffian who could lay 
 his hand on a knife or pistol hurried on 
 board, and the expedition was manned and 
 equipped with a celerity that had never been 
 
 605 
 
 approached in the annals of the Turkish navy. 
 The pashas on the coast of Asia Minor also 
 received orders to send boat-loads of men and 
 provisions over to the island so long as the 
 Greeks remained upon it. A hundred thou- 
 sand barbarians assembled with alacrity 
 when the news spread in Anatolia ; all the 
 ports were crowded with them ; for weeks, 
 in spite of the pasha's attempts to suppress 
 the reign of anarchy, every Greek who dared 
 to show himself in the streets of Smyrna was 
 instantly murdered ; and the eyes of the 
 faithful were filled with tears of joy at the 
 sight of a regiment, composed entirely of 
 imaums, marching along through that city 
 to join in the plunder and massacre of the 
 infidels of Scio. At last the fleet of the 
 Capitan Pasha entered the northern channel 
 between Scio and the mainland on the nth of 
 April, crossed to Chesme on the Asiatic coast, 
 eight or nine miles distant from the town of 
 Scio, and having added some ten thousand ■ 
 porters from Smyrna and other ruffians to 
 those brought from Europe, sailed across 
 with its host of attendant boats ; and on the 
 1 2th of April, the vast army of savages 
 was vomited upon the shore of the island, a 
 little to the south of the citadel and harbour. 
 The forces of Lycurgus made a very feeble 
 resistance ; the battery of Turlotti was taken 
 in an hour; and the ''dauntless Samians" 
 fled with precipitation to the western shore 
 of the island, where they embarked on some 
 Psarian vessels, leaving the poor Sciotes, 
 whom they had forced into rebellion, to the 
 fury of the countless savages who swarmed 
 across like locusts, attracted by the riches 
 of the island and the far-famed beauty of its 
 women. 
 
 The Massacre; The Slaves and 
 
 Fugitives. 
 It would be impossible to describe the 
 massacre which followed the first rush upon 
 the town of Scio, and was continued without 
 interruption for fifteen days, and even nights, 
 upon a population that was almost entirely 
 without arms. All that could be wrought by 
 the hands of human fiends was done there — 
 done by the " unspeakable Turk," by direct 
 orders of the Sultan of Turkey, the head of 
 a great European power. Who would care 
 to read the details of the horrid carnage at 
 the first storming of the town, when it is 
 thought no less than nine thousand persons 
 fell before the fury of the armed savages — of 
 the roar of cannon, the report of guns, the 
 hissing of balls, the cries of rage from the 
 assassins, and of anguish from their helpless 
 victims — how the inmates of the mad-house, 
 the hospital, and the asylum for the deaf and 
 dumb were butchered in the thirst for blood 
 — how the famous college was destroyed, its 
 professors hewn in pieces, and its pupils 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 carried off to slavery — how the people, when 
 not benumbed by terror, fled with the speed 
 of panic to the mountains, seeking the highest 
 and roughest spots, hiding in caves and brush- 
 wood, dying in the agony of hunger and thirst 
 — how delicate mothers, who had lived in the 
 bosom of luxury, flung themselves over preci- 
 pices, in order to save themselves and their 
 infants from a more cruel destiny — how ladies 
 had their fingers chopped off to test whether 
 they were still alive— how churches and every 
 other building of importance were set on fire 
 and laid in ruins — how in the delirium of 
 fanaticism and plunder the very tombs were 
 rifled and the ashes of the dead trampled 
 underfoot and thrown to the winds — how 
 dervishes, drunk with the aromatic wine of 
 Scio, decorating their brows with garlands of 
 ears, formed a fiendish dance round the piles 
 of human heads ? A few hundreds found a 
 refuge in the consulates, and fifteen thousand 
 are said to have escaped in boats of Psara, 
 many of the fugitives having gone through 
 terrible sufferings before they succeeded in 
 reaching the shore. When the lust for blood 
 was sated, the savages led off their victims 
 into slavery ; and in this way more than forty 
 thousand persons were thrown into the slave- 
 markets of Constantinople, Smyrna, and other 
 Eastern cities. Of these victims, who were 
 attached by cords and tossed pell-mell into 
 the boats of their Asiatic captors, a large 
 proportion consisted of young girls and 
 children : many died from fear, wounds, and 
 brutal treatment, some committed suicide, 
 and others who tried to starve themselves, so 
 as to escape from the horrors of slavery, 
 were compelled by horsewhips to take food. 
 At this time the mastic villages were to 
 a large extent saved from the general mas- 
 sacre and pillage, a matter about which 
 the Capitan Pasha was particularly anxious. 
 On his invitation the consuls proceeded, in 
 uniform, at their own great peril, into the 
 country with an amnesty from the Sultan 
 and a letter from the Archbishop, urging its 
 acceptance by the i-nhabitants. They suc- 
 ceeded in their useless mission, and returned 
 to the town on Easter Monday, the 22nd of 
 April, with seventy primates from the mastic 
 villages, and a train of mules laden with the 
 arms which the peasants had surrendered in 
 simple faith. On that same day the primates 
 were hanged on the masts of the Turkish 
 fleet, and on Easter Tuesday the Archbishop 
 and seventy-five other hostages were similarly 
 executed by order of the Sultan. After this 
 the villages were again ransacked, when, as 
 stated by an old priest in Volisso to a visitor 
 in later years, "the lamentation began in true 
 earnest : there was no more such a thing as 
 concealment — those who hastened to hide 
 themselves were soon discovered. As we 
 hunt the partridges on the hills, so they 
 
 tracked men up and shot them ; some, how- 
 ever, saved themselves by mingling with the 
 dead, and feigning to be dead themselves." 
 
 Amid the wreck and ruin, the trepidation^ 
 and the flight, there was here and there a 
 stand made against the invaders with the 
 courage of despair. The village of Vrondado, 
 the native place of Bournia, whose vanity 
 had to a large extent prompted the disaster of" 
 Scio, was defended by fifteen hundred Greeks 
 against a force of Asiatics double that num- 
 ber : the latter were driven back to the for- 
 tress; but they returned with considerable 
 reinforcements to the charge, and succeeded 
 in compelling the Christians to retreat. The 
 Greeks in this instance exhibited the highest 
 proof of courage by withdrawing in good 
 order to the coast, whence they finally es- 
 caped to Psara. A heroine in this company 
 is said to have slain three Turks with her 
 own hand before she was overpowered by 
 her antagonists and fell. At Chimiano, a 
 few miles to the south of the town of Chios, 
 a few brave Greeks seized the guns of a 
 frigate that had run aground, and burned 
 her. 
 
 Three thousand Sciotes had crowded inta 
 the great monastery of St. Minas, five miles 
 south of the town, where they were sur- 
 rounded by the Turks and summoned to 
 surrender. They refused, however, to lay 
 down their arms, under the certainty that 
 death or slavery awaited them in spite of their 
 assurances. The result was, that the Turks 
 stormed the place, butchered the monks and 
 every other man, woman, and child, and 
 carried off the sacred vessels and other 
 valuables, — a sufficient load, it was said, for 
 fifteen mules. In this case the poor Greeks 
 were brought out in detachments of two 
 hundred at a time, and mercilessly cut to 
 pieces. At the ancient foundation of Nea 
 Mone, the richest and most interesting of the 
 nine monasteries then existing in Scio, and 
 occupied by four hundred monks, some two 
 thousand fugitives had found an asylum ; the 
 building was carried by storm, the doors of 
 the church were forced open, even women 
 were slaughtered while praying to heaven on 
 their knees, and, to save further trouble, the 
 assailants set fire to the whole pile of build- 
 ings, leaving the Christians who had escaped 
 the sword to perish in the flames. At a 
 convent in the north, near Mount St. Elias,, 
 the ruffians dug out the priests' eyes, and 
 then I'oasted their victims alive ! 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the horrors- 
 inflicted on those who were carried from^ 
 their native home into the slavery of the- 
 East, or the agonies endured by the fifteen or 
 twenty thousand who escaped with their 
 lives, many of them suffering from wounds,, 
 disease, hunger, and nakedness, and wan- 
 dered in search of a home to the mainland 
 
 606 
 
THE MASSACRE OF SCIO. 
 
 of Greece, to Trieste, to London, to Man- 
 chester, even to Teheran, Astrakhan, and 
 America. Raybaud has left a thrilling 
 description of the fugitives he saw in Corinth : 
 — "There was not a portion of wall still stand- 
 ing that did not serve for shelter to some 
 unfortunate who had escaped from the mas- 
 sacres. Among the number we saw many 
 beautiful and delicate women, who had long 
 enjoyed the luxuries of opulence, obliged to 
 resort to public charity in order to sustain a 
 life from that time doomed to misery and 
 sorrow. Others, attacked by the pangs of 
 child-birth, and with none to attend them, 
 lay in the open air, exposed to the heat of 
 the sun and to the dampness of the night. 
 The condition of these unhappy victims 
 offered a touching contrast with the gold- 
 embroidered rags which most of them wore." 
 
 The Vengeance of Kanaris and his 
 Fire-ship. 
 
 When the Greek fleet of fifty-six sail put 
 out to sea on the loth of May, there was 
 nothing left for it to do at Scio but to take 
 vengeance on the Turkish navy. Under 
 the direction of Andrew Miaoulis, an able 
 and prudent seaman, the " motley assemblage 
 of vessels called the Greek navy " sailed tor 
 the channel of Scio, and at the end of May 
 made several attacks on the vessels of the 
 Capitan Pasha, both in open engagement and 
 with fire-ships, but without success. 
 
 After this fruitless attempt, the Greek 
 squadron met at Psara. There, in a secret 
 council, the captains resolved on darting two 
 fire-ships by night against the foe, and, after 
 long deliberation on the choice of bi'iilo tiers .^ 
 they fixed on Constantine Kanaris, of Psara, 
 and George Pipinos, of Hydra. The former 
 was a poor sailor, not more than twenty-eight 
 years old, who had not as yet distinguished 
 himself by any exploit ; his fellow-Psariots 
 knew the extreme simplicity of his nature, 
 and did not regard him as capable of any 
 brilliant action ; he was of small stature, and 
 this circumstance, taken with his timid ap- 
 pearance and his melancholy air, did not 
 dispose strangers to entertain a flattering 
 idea of his courage. Yet this simple and 
 pious boatman was destined to prove the 
 Garibaldi of the Greek revolution. 
 
 On the 1 8th of June, the last day of the 
 Ramadan, Kanaris and Pipinos, after receiv- 
 ing the benediction at Psara, stepped on 
 board the two xebecs which had been con- 
 verted into fire-ships. Each of the vessels 
 carried four-and-twenty men. Before they 
 reached the Spalmatori Isles, at the entrance 
 of the Chian Channel, a calm struck them. 
 The comrades of Kanaris were afraid, as 
 they were within range of the cannon of two 
 Turkish frigates, and appealed to him to 
 make back for Psara. " If you are afraid," 
 
 said the plain hero, " throw yourselves into- 
 the sea and swim for it : as for me, I mean 
 to burn the pasha!" His companions 
 blushed for a moment at their cowardice, 
 and then resolved to share their lot with him. 
 " Don't let the calm trouble you," he said, 
 by way of comfort ; " it hinders our foes as 
 well as us ; we shall have wind by ten 
 o'clock." At nine there sprang up a fresh 
 breeze, and the two ships, which had been- 
 hugging the shore all day, as if endeavouring 
 to make for the Gulf of Smyrna, bore down,, 
 at dusk, upon the Turkish fleet in the road 
 of Scio. Kanaris, seeing that his boat had 
 not the speed of that of his companion, said 
 to him : " Friend, if you precede me, you will 
 have burned a vessel before I can even enter 
 the port, and our enterprise will be only half 
 accomphshed : give me the lead ; you will 
 always be in time to throw yourself on the 
 prey, and both of us will have success.** 
 Pipinos, thinking only of the interest of his 
 country, agreed to the proposal. 
 
 It was the close of Ramadan, the month 
 when every true believer is not permitted to 
 eat, smoke, drink, or even to swallow his 
 own spittle from the first streak of morning 
 light until sunset. This period of fasting 
 winds up with the revelry of Bairam. The 
 Mohammedans were on this fatal night 
 celebrating the feast and the consummation 
 of the destruction of Scio. The evening was 
 dark, but the whole fleet was illuminated, 
 and the eighty gun ship of the Capitan Pasha 
 and the seventy-four gun ship of Reala Bey 
 were conspicuous by the prodigious quantity 
 of variegated lamps on their yards and mast- 
 heads. No fitter moment could have been 
 chosen for the blow of vengeance. The 
 leading officers had gathered on Kara All's 
 ship to celebrate the feast ; the air was filled 
 with the sound of festive tambours, cymbals^ 
 and trumpets ; the vessel of the pasha was 
 filled with the riches stolen from the mur- 
 dered Sciotes ; besides the two thousand 
 sailors and warriors who formed the crew, 
 a crowd had swarmed on board to gaze on 
 the head and hands of the gallant French- 
 man Baleste, who had just fallen in Crete in 
 the cause of Greece. 
 
 Like a flash of lightning the fire-ship of 
 Kanaris darts into the centre of the fleet ; he 
 runs her bowsprit into an open port of the 
 flagship, fastens her grappling irons near the 
 bows of the doomed vessel ; in an instant, 
 standing on the platform at the poop of the 
 fire-ship, he applies the torch to the inflam- 
 mable material, and leaps into the skiff below, 
 where his comrades are waiting breathless 
 with their hands upon the oars. Away went 
 the boat into the shade, while, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, the powder, saltpetre, petroleum, 
 camphor, and other combustibles on the 
 deck and spars and cordage of the fire-ship 
 
 607 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 are ablaze ; the flames sweep with the wind 
 through the open ports of the great Turkish 
 ship, and seize the tents that lie piled upon 
 the lower deck ; the fire roars like a furnace, 
 rushes up through the hatches, and envelops 
 the vessel with the fury of a whirlwind, from 
 stem to stern, from deck to top-mast. "Vic- 
 tory to the Cross ! " shouted Kanaris as he 
 sped in his scampavia past the poop under 
 the luxurious cabin of Kara Ali. No boat 
 could venture to approach the burning vessel ; 
 the crafts which were lowered from the flag- 
 ship sank with their overburdening loads : 
 there was no escape but by plunging into 
 the sea. Masses of molten iron, spars, and 
 yard-arms fall around ; the cannon explode 
 with a terrific roar ; the magazine bursts 
 like an earthquake ; the crowds of prisoners 
 who can make no effort to escape utter dis- 
 mal shrieks ; and at last the sea, roaring and 
 foaming around the hull of the ship, opens 
 its jaws and swallows her up with her two 
 thousand tyrants. The Capitan Pasha him- 
 self was a victim to the vengeance of Kanaris. 
 As he leapt into a boat from the ship, he was 
 struck by a burning spar, and died in agony 
 on the beach. 
 
 We need only add further that the fire-ship 
 of Pipinos, although it succeeded in grapphng 
 the vessel of Reala Bey, was set adrift by the 
 Turkish sailors, and burned to the water's 
 edge without doing much damage ; that the 
 Ottoman fleet vanished in terror towards the 
 Dardanelles; that after its departure even 
 the remaining mastic villages were destroyed 
 by the Asiatic savages. 
 
 During that eventful night of the i8th of 
 June, the inhabitants of the Rock of Psara 
 kept watch in arms and in prayer ; they saw, 
 wavering between hope and fear, a brilliant 
 light on the coast of Scio. When, at the 
 dawn of day they peered into the horizon, 
 they beheld a sail in the distance, with a 
 purple streamer flying as the sign of victory, 
 they hastened to the beach, they climbed on 
 masts and roofs to catch a ghmpse of their 
 seaman brother, whom one night had trans- 
 figured into an immortal hero. And the 
 simple sailor — destined to be sung by Victor 
 Hugo and to offer the crown to a king of 
 independent Greece— moves forward, bare- 
 footed and with uncovered head, heeding not 
 the clapping of hands or the shouts of " Long 
 live Kanaris ! " throws himself in gratitude 
 before the altar, and then runs from the 
 acclamations of the crowd to his humble 
 home and the bosom of his family. And 
 when his comrade, Pipinos, arrived at the 
 rock of Hydra, — " the island which produces 
 prickly pears in abundance, splendid sea- 
 captains, and excellent prime ministers," — 
 and reported to the senate the news of the fate 
 of the Capitan Pasha, Lazarus Conduriottes, 
 the wealthy president, rose from his seat and 
 
 said : " It belongs to you and to Kanaris to 
 sit here ; you have made yourselves greater 
 far than me by saving your native land." 
 
 Miaoulis and his comrades were rightly 
 suspicious that the fire which gleamed so 
 brightly over the channel on that night of 
 Mahommedan rejoicing would kindle the 
 fury of the Mussulman savages to deeds of 
 still more brutal vengeance on the few 
 poverty-stricken Christians that had not 
 succeeded in escaping from the island, or 
 had been protected hitherto by the guardians 
 of the mastic villages. They were by no 
 means mistaken as to the character of their 
 ibes. The sight of the body of the Capitan 
 Pasha at once roused the passion of the des- 
 peradoes, who rushed to the consulates, in 
 which several hundred refugees had found 
 shelter ; but their attempts were baffled. 
 Vessels of the Greek fleet cruised along the 
 shores of the island to pick up any chance 
 fugitives who might escape from the daggers 
 and the sabres of the Asiatics, and a small 
 party of marines landed in the north, so as 
 to render aid, and witness with their own 
 eyes a httle of the devastation and atrocities 
 that had been inflicted on the innocent and 
 helpless natives of the "blessed" isle. A 
 report sent to the Hydriot Admiralty by 
 M. Jourdain, a French captain in the Greek 
 navy, states that at the first hamlets reached 
 by a relieving party they saw the corpses of 
 the inhabitants piled up in regular heaps, 
 around which old men dragged their muti- 
 lated frames, raising their hands to heaven 
 and praying that an end might be put to 
 their terrible sufferings ; elsewhere they saw 
 women who had been cruelly murdered, with 
 their dead infants clasped in their rigid 
 arms, and others embracing the forms of the 
 fathers and husbands, in whose defence they 
 appear to have given up their last breath 
 with the courage of true heroines. 
 
 The dreadful massacre of the peaceful and 
 cultured inhabitants of Scio opened the eyes 
 of Europe to the nature of the struggle that 
 was waged between the Turks and Greeks, 
 and called forth the sympathy and aid of the 
 West. The hope of the Greeks had become 
 desperate when, in the month of July 1827, 
 the European Powers recognized their inde- 
 pendence by the Treaty of London. Then 
 followed the battle of Navarino, on the 26th 
 of October, when the allied fleets of England, 
 France, and Russia almost annihilated the 
 Turkish navy under Ibrahim Pasha, whose 
 violation of an armistice and horrible atro- 
 cities — almost rivalling those of Scio — had 
 roused the blood of civilized Europe to war- 
 heat ; and, on the 14th of September, 1829, 
 thrashed in Europe and Asia by the Russian 
 army, the Suhan signed the Peace of Adria- 
 nople, and formally acknowledged the inde- 
 pendence of Greece. M. M. 
 
 608 
 
Leyden in the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THE 
 ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 THE STORY OF A GREAT DELUSION. 
 
 " O terrible excels 
 Of headstrong will ! Can this be piety? 
 No ; some fierce maniac hath usurped her name. 
 All peace destroyed ! All hopes a wilderness ! 
 All blessings cursed, and glory turned to shame ! ' 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 Introduction — " Corruptio optlmis pesslma" — The Peasants' War — Rise ofthe Anabaptists— Luther's return to Wittenberg— 
 — Principles of the Anabaptists — John of Leyden— Arrival of Matthys and Bockelson in Miinster — Anabaptisnx 
 triumphant — The City Beleaguered — A Glimpse of City Life — John of Leyden Supreme — He is made King — ^The 
 Progress of the Siege — A Failure — The King in Danger — Overthrow — The Execution — Retrospect. 
 
 There 
 
 Introduction. 
 |HERE never has been, or will be, in 
 this erring world, any great move- 
 ment, however necessary or good, 
 but it brings in its train some abuses. 
 is a Latin proverb, Corricptio optiini 
 pessima — "The corruption of that which 
 is best is the worst corruption of ail." And 
 there are words of our Divine Lord, which 
 express the same truth : "No man putteth 
 new wine into old wine-skins : else the skins 
 burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins 
 perish" (Matt. ix. 17. Rev. Ver.) We 
 are about to look on a melancholy illus- 
 tration of this truth. The new wine, the 
 declaration of the liberty of conscience and 
 the sole responsibility of man to God, was 
 taught to men who had no desire to use that 
 liberty aright, nor to walk in the truth that 
 they might find. They v/ere as old bottles 
 into which the new wine was poured ; and 
 the truth was turned into a curse to them : 
 
 "that which should have been for their 
 wealth, was unto them an occasion of fall- 
 ing." 
 
 Even Luther was alarmed at the manner 
 in which some of those professing his prin- 
 ciples began to act ; and, in fact, it was this 
 which caused him to come forth from his 
 retirement in the Wartburg, and return to 
 Wittenberg, where one Thomas Miinzer and 
 other fanatics, of whom we shall hear pre- 
 sently, were disturbing the peace. Luther's 
 chief helper was Philip Melanchthon, a much 
 younger man than himself, very gentle, and 
 also one of the most learned men of his time. 
 We cannot stay to dwell on the various con- 
 troversies in which Luther became involved 
 with other Reformers, but we have to record 
 first of all the outbreak of v/hat is known 
 as the Peasants' War. 
 
 The Peasants' War. 
 In another of these papers, some account 
 has been given ofthe French Jacquerie, the 
 609 R R 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 rising of the peasantry against oppression 
 in the 14th century. The same causes had 
 been at work in Germany; the peasants had 
 been kept in utter poverty by the princes, 
 who had not only exacted service from them 
 and heavily taxed them, especially on their 
 favourite drinks, but had frequently destroyed 
 their crops with hunting parties. When, 
 therefore, Luther had proclaimed freedom for 
 them, they understood him to speak of 
 political and social rather than spiritual 
 freedom, and in 1524 they rose against their 
 tyrants. They were greatly animated by the 
 example of the Swiss, who had fought for 
 and won their freedom against the House of 
 Austria. The first outbreak was in Swabia, 
 thence the agitation spread into Thuringia 
 Franconia, Alsace, and Lorraine. They 
 issued a manifesto, caUing for the right to 
 choose their ov/n pastors, the abolition of 
 serfdom, the right of hunting and fishing, 
 and freedom of forest land. And they ap- 
 pealed to Luther for his approval of their 
 demands. He was greatly embarrassed, for 
 he did not wish to break with the princes 
 who had befriended him. He issued an ex- 
 hortation by way of reply, teUing both sides 
 some home truths : he ascribed the disturb- 
 ances to the repression of the Gospel ; be- 
 sought the princes to clemency and justice, 
 and the people to submission. No wonder 
 that both sides were angry with him ; he 
 who preaches moderation in the mJdst of 
 furious passions must expect such a result. 
 At first all seemed to promise in their 
 favour. Some nobles even joined them, — 
 among themGotz von Berlichingen, one of the 
 most famous of German knights,* — and they 
 proceeded to deeds of violence and cruelty. 
 Thus, having captured the town of Weins- 
 berg, they put to death with great cruelty 
 Count Ludwig von Helfenstein, with sixty 
 of his followers, mocking the entreaties of 
 
 * As honest narrators, we feel bound to quote a 
 word or two here from a modern historian; — " The 
 impregnable castles of the German knights, the 
 nature of their arms and equipments, the number 
 of their retainers, made them so many little sove- 
 reigns, with no law but that in their own breasts. 
 And how did they use this power ? — As the per- 
 pretrators, instead of the redressers, of wrongs and 
 grievances. They were nothing but public robbers, 
 highwaymen on a grand scale, ready for any deed 
 of violence. To illustrate this subject by a few in- 
 stances. In May 1512, Gotz von Berlichingen and 
 Hans Selbig von Frauenstein two of the most re- 
 nowned of German knights, at the head of one hun- 
 dred and thirty horse, attacked between Forcheim 
 and Neusess the caravan which was returning to 
 Nuremberg from the Leipsic fair, and carried off 
 thirty-one persons and a booty valued at 8800 gulden. 
 About the same time another troop assembled in the 
 castle of Hohenkrahn for the abducdon of the daughter 
 of a citizen of Kaufbeuern, whom a nobleman had 
 wooed in vain. Such deeds were common." — Dyer's 
 Hist, of Alodern Europe, i., 301. 
 
 610 
 
 his wife (who was a daughter of the Emperor 
 Maximilian) that they would spare him. They 
 followed this up by killing, first her child of 
 two years old and then herself, while a boy 
 who had been in the Count's service gam- 
 bolled about the scene, and played a march 
 on his flute. It was this deed which spoilt 
 their cause in the eyes of Luther. He 
 denounced them all as murderers, and called 
 on the princes to show them no mercy, but 
 to destroy them root and branch. By this 
 time Luther and Erasmus, who had origi- 
 nally been friends, had become alienated, 
 Erasmus being terrified at the thought of 
 leaving old moorings altogether; and this 
 fierce denunciation of the rebel peasants 
 by Luther led to a fresh bitterness between 
 him and Erasmus. The peasants next laid 
 siege to Wiirzburg, which the princes had 
 made their head-quarters. It was nine 
 o'clock in the evening of May 15th, 1525, 
 when the rebel flag was unfurled against 
 the citadel, and the peasants rushed to 
 the attack, filling the air with horrible cries. 
 The castle was under the orders of Sebas- 
 tian von Rotenheim, one of the warmest 
 partizans of the Reformation. He had put 
 its defences into a formidable state, and the 
 soldiers had responded to his appeal to 
 defend it by solemnly raising their hands to 
 heaven, and swearing to do so. The most 
 terrible conflict ensued. The castle responded 
 to the desperate efforts of the peasants by 
 pouring upon them showers of burning brim- 
 stone and boiling pitch and by a vigorous 
 cannonade. Thus unexpectedly attacked 
 by enemies whom they could not even see,, 
 the peasants recoiled ; but, with renewed fury 
 at being baffled, they rushed up once more. 
 Night came on, and the battle still raged. 
 Lit up with countless battle-fires, the for- 
 tress stood out from amid the surrounding 
 darkness like some huge giant, vomiting forth 
 flames, and struggling alone amid thunders 
 and lightnings for the salvation of the Em- 
 pire against the ferocious valour of Pande- 
 monium itself. At two o'clock in the morning 
 the assailants turned and fled. After a day's 
 pause they resolved to await the imperial 
 army in the open field. They had not to 
 wait long. The artillery and cavalry made 
 hideous havoc in their ranks. Day after 
 day fresh bodies of them were met, and the 
 same terrible fate was for them all. Then 
 princes, nobles, bishops proceeded to vie 
 with one another in cruelty. Hundreds of 
 prisoners were hanged on trees all along the 
 roads, often having been tortured to death. 
 The Bishop of Wiirzburg, who had fled, re- 
 turned and went through his diocese, accom- 
 panied by executioners, whom he kept un- 
 ceasingly at work. Gotz von Berlichingen 
 was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. 
 Eighty-five rebel prisoners had their eyes 
 
JOHN OF LEVDEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 pulled out, and then were turned loose to wan- 
 der about and grope their way as best they 
 could, stumbling over the roads, and begging 
 their bread, if so be they might thus be saved 
 from starvation. The wretched boy who had 
 played on his flute at the murder of Count 
 von Helfenstein was chained to a stake and 
 burnt alive, enough length of chain being left 
 him to dance about in his agonies, and so give 
 the more sport to his tormentors. Similar 
 outrages overtook the wretched peasants in 
 Lorraine and Alsace, and more than one 
 hundred thousand persons perished, whilst 
 whole districts once fertile were turned into 
 hideous solitudes and ruins. 
 
 Rise of the Anabaptists. 
 
 The peasant revolt would now have been 
 at an end had it not been fanned into fresh 
 life by a band of fanatics who had arisen in 
 Wittenberg, called Anabaptists. " When any 
 great religious ferment takes place," says 
 the venerable historian of the Reformation, 
 D'Aubigne, " some impure elements are ever 
 found to mingle with the manifestations of 
 the truth. One or more false reforms are seen 
 to arise, and they serve as a testimony or 
 countersign to the true reform. Thus, in the 
 times of Christ, many false messiahs attested 
 the appearance of the true." 
 
 In the little town of Zwickau there were 
 some persons who were so excited by the 
 great events which were agitating Christen- 
 dom that they aspired to direct revelations 
 from God, and thought not at all of sancti- 
 fication of heart and life. " What good is 
 there," they cried, " in keeping so close to 
 the Bible ? The Bible— always the Bible ! 
 we are weary of it. It is by the Spirit' 
 that we are illuminated. God Himself 
 speaks to us then, and reveals to us what to 
 do and what to say." A cloth weaver 
 named Storch asserted that the angel Gabriel 
 appeared to him in the night, and after com- 
 municating matters which it was not yet 
 time to reveal, said to him, "As for thee, 
 thou shalt be seated on my throne." Then 
 a student of Wittenberg joined him, one 
 Mark Stiibner, who, abandoning his studies, 
 declared that he had received a supernatural 
 gift of interpreting the Scriptures. But a 
 fanatic named Miinzer gave the new sect its 
 regular organization. Under his guidance, 
 Storch, professing to follow the example of 
 Christ, chose twelve new apostles and seventy- 
 two disciples ; and the new body declared, as 
 has been declared by a sect in our own days 
 which is rapidly dying out, that Apostles and 
 Prophets had been restored to the Church of 
 God. They began to deliver their message : 
 " Woe, woe ! to the world ! woe to the 
 Church ! Within a few years universal deso- 
 lation will overspread the land ; a great 
 
 tribulation is coming on the earth. The un- 
 godly shall be hurled to destruction, and the 
 earth being purified with blood, God will 
 establish His Kingdom, and his saints shall 
 reign gloriously. Storch will have supreme 
 authority, and then there shall be only one 
 faith, one baptism." The sect received the 
 name of "The Zwickau prophets." Their 
 rejection of infant baptism, which was in accor- 
 dance with their view that all justification must 
 be preceded byconscious faith in the recipient, 
 and their consequent repetition of baptism of 
 adults, became the distinctive badge of their 
 party. This preaching profoundly impressed 
 the people. Some godly souls were affected 
 and overjoyed at the thought of prophets 
 being restored to the Church, while all who 
 loved the marvellous and were craving after 
 novelties, threw themselves into the arms of 
 the eccentric prophets of Zwickau. 
 
 The pastor of Zwickau, Nicholas Hauf- 
 mann, to whom Luther gave the beautiful 
 testimon}', "What I teach, he practises," 
 raised his voice against all this fanaticism, 
 and not in vain. Then the prophets pro- 
 ceeded to form themselves into societies, and 
 taught subversive doctrines; tumults arose in 
 the streets, and Storch and his followers 
 migrated to Wittenberg (December 1521), 
 where they appealed to the public, and 
 claimed to be the true representatives of 
 Luther. Storch, indeed, soon left Witten- 
 berg, for he was a most restless spirit, but 
 the rest remained, and the excitement grew. 
 
 Whilst it was at its height, two young Swiss 
 were, one stormy night in the spring of 1522, 
 travelling through Germany, and arrived, wet 
 through, at the " Black Bear " Inn, at Jena. 
 The town was quite engrossed with the re- 
 joicings of the carnival, and all its inhabitants 
 were dancing, masquerading, and feasting. 
 Fatigued, dispirited, and melancholy, they 
 halted at the inn door; so woe-begone in 
 appearance by the soaking which the rain 
 had given them, that they paused at the 
 door, ashamed to come further. But a knight 
 who was seated by the fire, with his trunk- 
 hose over-lapped by his bright red doublet, 
 rose and kindly invited them in. He had 
 one hand on the pommel of his sword, and 
 the other grasped the handle, but in front of 
 him lay a book, which he seemed to be read- 
 ing attentively. However, he made much of 
 the deluged travellers, invited them to sup 
 with him, and pledged them in some beer. 
 "You are Swiss," he said, presently, after 
 some conversation ; ''. I can tell it by your 
 tongues. What is your canton ? " " St. 
 Gall," was the answer. " You are students ?" 
 "We are." "You must study Greek and 
 Hebrew if you want to understand Holy 
 Scripture." The youths stared. " We are 
 going to Wittenberg," they said, "to hear 
 Doctor Luther, and, if God spares our lives. 
 
 611 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 we will not return till we have done so. Can 
 you tell us whether he is there or not ? " "I 
 believe he is not," was the answer ; " but 
 Philip Melanchthon is there ; you should go 
 and hear him; and there is a countryman 
 of yours there, a good man, Dr. Schurff." 
 Pausing for a moment, he continued, "Where 
 have you been studying lately ? " They told 
 him at Basel. "Is Erasmus of Rotterdam 
 still there?" said the knight. The youths 
 stared more than ever. Imagine a knight 
 talking about learned Erasmus, and Dr. 
 Schurfif, and the need of the study of Greek 
 and Hebrew! "What do they think of 
 Luther in Switzerland?" pursued the knight. 
 "The opinions are very various," was the 
 reply ; " some cannot praise him sufficiently, 
 and some hold him an abominable here- 
 tic." " No doubt," said the knight, drily. 
 Encouraged by his cordiality, one of the 
 students ventured to take up the book that 
 the knight was reading, and found, to his 
 amazement, that it was a Hebrew Psalter, 
 Whilst they were wondering afresh at this, 
 the landlord quietly beckoned one of them 
 out. " You have a great desire to see Luther," 
 he whispered. " That is Luther that you have 
 been talking to, but don't betray that you 
 know him. / know him, in spite of his dis- 
 guise." It was even so, though the youths 
 were still incredulous. They supped together ; 
 then, according to German custom, Luther 
 took up a large glass, and with a serious air 
 said, "Swiss, one more glass on returning 
 thanks. But you are not used to beer. 
 Pledge me in this light wine," Then, hold- 
 ing out his hands to the students, he said, 
 "When you arrive at Wittenberg, give my 
 compliments to Doctor Schurff." " With all 
 our hearts," said the youths ; " but in what 
 name ? " " Tell him that he that ought to be 
 there, salutes him." 
 
 The great Reformer was even on his way 
 to Wittenberg, to try to put down the anarchy, 
 but he was obliged to travel thus disguised, 
 for being under the ban of the Empire he was 
 liable to be killed by any one who should re- 
 cognize him. He had learned how his teach- 
 ing concerning faith had been perverted in 
 Wittenberg, and determined to run all risks 
 rather than see his work undone. 
 
 It was Friday, the yth of March, that he 
 re-entered his native town. All the bur- 
 gesses welcomed him, for they had again 
 found the pilot whom they trusted to extri- 
 cate the vessel from the shoals into which it 
 had drifted. 
 
 We can hardly imagine to ourselves the 
 profound thrill with which the great congre- 
 gation saw him mount the pulpit next day. 
 His sermons, preached on that and on eight 
 successive days, are among his very best. 
 They were simple, noble, full at once of 
 vigour and of mildness. He explained eagerly 
 
 that justification is the work of God, that it 
 must precede everything; that faith is the 
 acceptance on the part of man of Christ's 
 finished work. And thus he maintained that 
 it was in accordance with God's will to bap- 
 tize little children, seeing that from birth, they 
 are spiritual beings, and to be formally pro- 
 claimed such by outward sign. The work of 
 f-dth in them is to believe as soon as they 
 are able to learn that they have been pre- 
 sented to, and accepted by, God. His 
 sermons are earnest appeals to the people, 
 yet having for their object the calming and 
 allaying of passion, " You want more than 
 faith ; you want charity. If a man with a 
 sword in his hand happens to be alone, it 
 matters little whether he keep it in the scab- 
 bard or not. But should he be in the midst 
 of a crowd, he ought to keep it from hurting 
 any one. You think the abolition of the mass 
 agreeable to Scripture. Agreed. But what 
 regard have you for order and decency ? You 
 ought to have been addressing the Lord with 
 fervent prayers, and not to have proceeded 
 with all this violence. Without sincerity of 
 heart and Christian love no work can prosper, 
 and I would not give for the finest of work 
 which is without these even the stalk of 
 a pear. When Paul arrived at Athens, he 
 found there altars to false gods ; he dealt 
 with them without tumult or violence or fraud. 
 So did I when I began to preach. If I had 
 appealed to violence, Germany might have 
 been soaked in blood. Do you know what 
 the devil thinks when he sees people employ 
 force in disseminating the truth ? Seated with 
 his arms crossed beside hell-fire he says with 
 a spiteful leer, 'These fellows are sages indeed 
 thus to do my work for me,'" Day by day 
 the effect increased. Melanchthon and the 
 magistrates saw with delight that peace was 
 coming back, and even some of the Augus- 
 tinian friars who heard him were persuaded 
 to accept his doctrines. Then came a further 
 task. He held a conference with the Zwickian 
 prophets, but soon dismissed them as alto- 
 gether contemptible. He listened calmly 
 while Stiibner explained how the Church 
 was to be changed and the world regenerated. 
 When the latter paused to see what impres- 
 sion he had made, "Nothing of what you 
 have said rests upon the Holy Scriptures," 
 said Luther, " it is all fables." Miinzer could 
 not contain himself for rage. He shouted 
 and gesticulated like a madman, and beat 
 the table with passion, Luther remained 
 calm, " The first apostles," said he, " proved 
 their mission by miracles. Do you the same," 
 " We shall do so," said the prophets. Stiib- 
 ner added, " Martin Luther, I am going to 
 tell you what is passing in your soul. You 
 are beginning to believe that my doctrine is 
 true;" and he fixed his eyes on Luther with 
 a commanding look. Luther paused for a 
 
 612 
 
JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 moment while he returned the look with 
 interest, then he said, " The Lord rebuke 
 thee, Satan." Then the "prophets," foaming 
 and gnashing their teeth, withdrew, after 
 pouring upon him all the hard names which 
 their anger could invent. Grievous mischief 
 was hereby caused to the Reformation, for 
 the Duke of Bavaria and others who had 
 espoused it, disgusted at the fanaticism of 
 the Zwickian party, began to draw towards 
 Rome again. 
 
 Miinzer having been expelled from Witten- 
 berg, went to Alstadt in Thuringia, where he 
 protessed to be inspired by the Holy Ghost, 
 and announced that he was about to restore 
 the Church to what it was under the apostles. 
 First he abolished Church music and all 
 ceremonies, and maintained that to obey 
 princes who were not " spiritual " was to 
 serve both God and Belial. Next, marching 
 at the head of a number of parishioners to a 
 chapel near Alstadt, and to which people 
 had resorted on pilgrimages from all quarters, 
 he pulled it all down. But this exploit was 
 a little too much for the good townsfolk, and 
 he was driven from thence, and then from 
 Nuremberg ; but at Miihlhausen the people 
 rallied to him, and helped him to drive the 
 magistrates from their seats and the monks 
 from the convents. He then established a 
 " Perpetual Council," of which he himself 
 was president, that proclaimed equality and 
 community of goods. No wonder that Miihl- 
 hausen was speedily filled with idle knaves 
 and ruffians. And, as usual in such cases, 
 he soon lost all control of them. A renegade 
 monk named Pfeiffer, a still more violent and 
 dangerous fanatic than himself, persuaded 
 the sect to make an inroad into the neigh- 
 bouring country, where they plundered 
 churches, convents, and castles, and returned 
 home laden with their booty. The country 
 rose in arms against them. Philip of Hesse, 
 the leader of the forces chosen to put down 
 the disorders, was unwilling to shed un- 
 necessary blood, and sent a young nobleman 
 to treat with the Anabaptists. Miinzer re- 
 sponded by torturing him to death. Of 
 course there was but one course open now — 
 that of war. Miinzer went forth with his 
 herd of fanatics on the ii^th of May, 1525, 
 exactly a year after the siege of Wiirzburg. 
 He promised them the miraculous protection 
 of God, and invoked the Holy Spirit with 
 cries and chants. "We shall this day," said 
 he, " see the arm of the Lord revealed, and 
 all our enemies shall be destroyed." At that 
 moment there appeared a rainbow ; and in it 
 the fanatical crowd, who bore a rainbow on 
 their standards, saw a sure token of the pro- 
 tection of heaven. " Fear nothing," said Miin- 
 zer, " I shall catch in my sleeve all the bullets 
 which are shot against you." 
 
 The artillery soon broke their rude ram- 
 
 part to pieces, and carried dismay and death 
 into the midst of them. Fanaticism and 
 courage disappeared together ; they fled 
 panic-stricken in all directions ; but five 
 thousand perished on that day alone. 
 
 When the battle was over one of the 
 soldiers went up into a loft in the house in 
 which he was quartered, and found a man 
 lying on the floor. " Who art thou ? art 
 thou a rebel?" he asked; and as he spoke he 
 took up a portfolio, and found in it letters 
 addressed to Thomas Miinzer. "And art 
 thou Miinzer?" was his next question. " No," 
 was the terrified answer. But the soldier 
 did not believe him, and was right. Miin- 
 zer it was. " Thou art my prisoner," said 
 his captor, and dragged him off to the im- 
 perial commander. In a few minutes his 
 head rolled on the ground. 
 
 A nobleman discovering among the prison- 
 ers a fine-looking rustic, went up to him and 
 said, " Well, young man, which government 
 do you like best, that of peasants or that of 
 princes ? " " Ah, my lord," said the poor 
 fellow with a deep-drawn sigh, "no knife 
 cuts so keen as when one peasant lords it 
 over others." 
 
 The remains of the insurrection were ex- 
 tinguished in blood. 
 
 And thus ended the Peasant War, with so 
 much to cause us to sympathize with the 
 oppressed, but brought to nought through the 
 brutality of these fanatics. The new wine 
 had broken the wine-skins, and the burdens 
 upon the peasantry for many a long year were 
 heavier than ever, while the cause of the 
 Reformation was identified in the minds of 
 honest but not deep-seeing men with the 
 extravagances and perversions of Scripture 
 of the Anabaptists. 
 
 Principles of the Anabaptists. 
 
 Here seems the proper place for endea- 
 vouring to form some idea of the principles 
 which underlay the movements which caused 
 so much disaster at the time and was the 
 cause of much of the division which has so 
 deeply afflicted Christianity ever since. The 
 question which first engaged the attention of 
 men was a deeply practical question. It re- 
 lated to the acceptance of the soul before 
 God ; the forgiveness of sin. In one word, 
 it was the question of Justification. This 
 being put foremost, there came this further 
 question : How did the doctrines of the 
 Church and the Scriptures bear upon it ? 
 What had the doctrine of the two natures of 
 Christ to do with it, for example ? How far 
 has man freedom of will ? The different 
 answers given by different parties were the 
 causes of strife. 
 
 One school held that man could win salva- 
 tion by his own endeavours, and that Christ 
 
 613 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 is his teacher and example to that end. This 
 was the meaning of our being saved by 
 Christ. The first leader of this doctrine was 
 one Hans Denk. He was a learned and 
 conscientious young man, who, making "God 
 is love" the basis of his teaching, formulated 
 a scheme which differs little from Unitarian- 
 ism, except that he appears not to have held 
 universal salvation. However, he is said 
 to have retracted his views shortly before 
 his death. A disciple of his was Ludwig 
 Hatzer, a man of immoral life and of vio- 
 lence in the expression of his opinions. He 
 formally denied the divinity of Christ, but 
 the manuscript of the treatise which he wrote 
 upon it was burned after his death. These 
 views spread through Germany, blown about 
 apparently like thistle-down, for there is no 
 evidence how they got, for example, to Salz- 
 burg, where dwelt a community of people who 
 rejected all divine worship, established bro- 
 therhoods by voluntary contributions, and 
 called themselves "Garden Brethren " {Gart- 
 ner Briider). They were laid hold of ; those 
 who would not recant were burnt alive, those 
 who would were beheaded and their bodies 
 burnt. In some cases they were locked up 
 in their meeting-houses^ and the buildings set 
 on fire. There was one beautiful girl of 
 sixteen who refused to recant ; but the people 
 pitied her so much that the executioner took 
 her in his arms, held her head in a horse- 
 trough till she was drowned, and then threw 
 her into the fire. 
 
 Another school started opinions which 
 seem to be identical with those of the 
 Gnostics of the first two centuries. They 
 began with the distinction of the flesh and 
 the spirit. Instead of holding that man is 
 able to fight against evil and overcome it, 
 they held that sin is in the flesh alone, not in 
 the spirit, and that the spirit is free from the 
 evil which the flesh commits. Christ was 
 altogether spiritual; He took not on Him the 
 bodily nature of man because it is accursed. 
 The leader of this party, Melchior Hoff- 
 mann, invented adult baptism as a badge 
 of those who adopted these "enlightened" 
 views. 
 
 These diversities branched off into a 
 hundred lesser ones. Some thought infant 
 baptism merely useless ; some thought it an 
 abomination. Some were of opinion that 
 Sabbath observance was a breach of liberty ; 
 others thought it wrong to affect separation 
 and singularity. Some were for communism, 
 others for voluntary charity. Some refused 
 to perform military service, others to take an 
 oath. Some held the marriage tie to be only 
 binding when it was concluded in the spirit. 
 Such reformers deserted their wives and took 
 others. All held Church government to be 
 insupportable bondage. All these vagaries 
 of course very soon brought them into contact 
 
 with the civil power ; but they showed them- 
 selves ready for this, for their numbers in- 
 creased equally with their fanaticism. They 
 were convinced that the time was close at 
 hand which should give them complete 
 victory over all their opponents ; and Hoff- 
 mann, after travelling far and wide over 
 Germany, at length settling himself in Stras- 
 burg, announced that it was to be the seat of 
 the New Jerusalem, and that a hundred 
 and forty-four thousand virgin apostles were 
 to go foith from thence and gather all the 
 people of God into the fold. They were to 
 seal the elect of God, after which Christ 
 would come and deliver the sword into their 
 hands, that they might utterly sweep all 
 the ungodly of the earth away. Then the 
 saints were to reign gloriously, without 
 laws or authorities or restrictions of any 
 kind. They were to live in overflowing 
 abundance. 
 
 The dream was too intoxicating not to find 
 believers, and the next movement followed 
 inevitably and obviously, — those who would 
 not accept the truth must be compelled by 
 the sword The attempt of the civil power 
 to repress those who held themselves to be 
 "the elect people," did but add to their 
 arrogance and precipitate violence 
 
 John of Leyden. 
 
 Holland at this time was full of Anabaptists, 
 many having fled thither on the suppression 
 of the Peasants' Revolt. John Matthys, a 
 baker of Leyden, a disciple of Hoffmann, who 
 had adopted these last-day views with wild 
 enthusiasm, announced himself as Enoch, 
 sent to preach to the ungodly, ordained a new 
 apostolate, and sent them to the neighbouring 
 provinces to seal the people of the Lord. 
 One ofthis new "twelve" was John Bockelson. 
 He was the bastard son of a magistrate at the 
 Hague named Bockel and of a serf woman 
 who had been bought from her husband. 
 The youth became a tailor, and after wander- 
 ing about Europe, from Lisbon to Lubeck, 
 finally married and settled at Leyden, where, 
 growing discontented with his business, he 
 opened a beer-house. Of handsome presence 
 and agreeable manner, he was also possessed 
 of a powerful eloquence, and it was his great 
 ambition to cut a figure in the " Rhetoric 
 Chamber," which had been estabhshed at 
 Leyden as in the other Dutch towns. At one 
 time he became a player, and wrote comedies; 
 but this did not prove lucrative, and he cast 
 about for something else, and found it. Hos- 
 tility to the Church was fashionable in these 
 chambers, and Bockelson followed the fashion. 
 Thus it was that he adopted Anabaptist views, 
 and became one of Matthys's "apostles." He 
 went successively on a preaching mission to 
 Briel, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Enkhuysen, 
 
 614 
 
JOHN OF LEYDEN AND- THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 Alkmar, baptizing wherever he went, and 
 ordaining " elders," who, in their turn, were 
 to be propagators of his doctrines. 
 
 The course of this narrative now carries 
 us into Westphalia, the name which had been 
 given to that portion of the great ancient 
 duchy of Saxony which laybetween the Weser 
 and the Rhine. In Westphalia the Reformed 
 principles had made great progress, and for the 
 most part peacefully. But there were a few 
 exceptions, as at Soest and Paderborn, where 
 there was cruel persecution of the new doc- 
 trines, which put them down indeed, but 
 kindled a fierce feeling in the hearts of the 
 persecuted, who looked forward to an oppor- 
 tunity of reasserting their opinions. But the 
 disorders and conflicts nowhere reached such 
 a height as in the city of Miinster, the 
 Westphahan capital. It is, as it stands at 
 present, a well-built and interesting looking 
 as well as flourishing town of some twenty- 
 three thousand inhabitants, standing on the 
 river Aa, in the midst of a flat country 
 covered with fields of flax and hemp. In 
 ancient times it was called Meiland, but 
 when Charles the Great forced the Saxons 
 in a body to accept Christianity, he founded 
 a monastery and bishopric here, and the 
 name Miinster has ever since superseded the 
 original iMeiland. 
 
 In this city there was living in 1530 a 
 certain man named Wiggers, — a worthy, 
 respectable man, but with an unworthy and 
 not respectable wife. Passionate admirers 
 were in attendance upon her every day, one 
 of whom was Bernhard Rottmann,a Lutheran 
 preacher. Her husband died, and she was 
 suspected, rightly or wrongly, of having 
 poisoned him in order to marry Rottmann, 
 which she immediately did. But public 
 opinion was so unequivocal in its condem- 
 nation of Rottmann, that he strove to set 
 ■ himself right by ostentatious profession of 
 the severest morality. He denounced the 
 corruption of the world, inveighed against 
 the Lutheran Reformers for want of thorough- 
 ness, rejected infant baptism, and invented 
 a ceremonial of his own for the Lord's 
 Supper. He was bribed to go out of "the 
 city by persons anxious to avoid disturbance, 
 and afterwards visited several German towns 
 without settling anywhere. At length he 
 returned to Miinster, and fixed himself for a 
 while in the suburbs ; but his influence in the 
 city so increased that his friends brought 
 him back, and, after some struggle, succeeded 
 in securing for him the church of St. Lambert. 
 Not only so, but his partisans at length 
 obtained a majority in the city council, and 
 succeeded in passing a decree that all the 
 churches were to be delivered up to the new- 
 fangled preachers. Upon this the clergy 
 and the minority of the council quitted the 
 city, betook themselves to the surrounding 
 
 country, and devoted themselves to raising 
 public opinion against Rottmann and his 
 devotees. All communication between the 
 city and the country was cut off, supplies 
 were stopped, and any citizens that could be 
 caught were imprisoned. The bishop was 
 at Telgte, a mile from Miinster, and from 
 hence a summons was issued to the citizens 
 to return to their ancient faith. Their re- 
 sponse was to march at night, fall upon 
 their sleeping enemies, upon councillors and 
 church dignitaries, and .carry them back 
 prisoners at daybreak. The bishop dared 
 not attempt force, lest they should slay their 
 prisoners, and negotiations ensued, the result 
 of v/hich was that the victorious citizens were 
 to have the six parish churches for worship 
 on Rottmann's system, while the bishop and 
 his chapter might practise their own. The 
 bishop himself, like Hermann, Bishop of 
 Koln, seems to have desired to carry out 
 reform without abandoning the main prin- 
 ciples of the ancient liturgy. He would, in 
 fact, have taken, if he could, the same ground 
 as the body now known in Germany as the 
 " Old Catholics." 
 
 But it was evident that the divergence 
 between the two parties was too great to 
 allow the peace to be lasting. There was no 
 hope of formulating any terms which should 
 include the professors of the ancient creed 
 and a man who refused to consider baptism 
 an essential of Christian life. Rottmann felt 
 that his position was precarious ; the outside 
 world was against him, some of his own 
 folfowers were alarmed at him, and he saw 
 that the civil power would in the long run be 
 too strong for him. But he saw a way of 
 escape from his difficulties. His followers, 
 in the general moral and intellectual con- 
 fusion in which he had landed them, were 
 easily persuaded to take up Anabaptism. 
 For the Lutheran system ascribed great 
 power to the civil government and recognized 
 the secular element in the state. The ac- 
 knowledgment of an authority in the civil 
 power is simply, when it is looked into, the 
 acknowledgment of the rights of the citizens 
 who make up the state. On the other hand, 
 Anabaptism was an exclusive despotism ; it 
 claimed to have no authority controlling it. 
 Its members were the servants of the Lord 
 alone, and refused any other lordship. But 
 for a while the organization was lacking which 
 should direct these high aspirations, and give 
 them aim and object. We are now to see it 
 suddenly furnished. 
 
 Arrival of Matthys and Bockelson 
 
 IN MiJNSTER. 
 
 On the day of the Epiphany, 1534, the 
 prophet Matthys and his fanatical apostle 
 John Bockelson of Leyden suddenly ap- 
 
 615 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 peared in the city in the house of one 
 Knipperdolling, a rich burgher who had 
 adopted Anabaptist opinions. Their re- 
 markable dress, their commanding bearing, 
 their self-possessed confidence in their preach- 
 ing, and withal their persuasive manners, 
 made a deep impression on the citizens, 
 tossed as they were by all kinds of doubts, 
 and ready to close with anything that offered 
 them certainty. The prospect held out to 
 them by the new-comers is easily expressed, 
 — " holy sensuality ; " and when men are cut 
 away from their religious moorings, and at 
 the mercy of any wind that blows, there can 
 be none more powerful than this : " Please 
 and gratify any desire that offers itself, and 
 believe that all the while you will be pleasing 
 God." 
 
 All the city seemed to have gone mad. 
 Wives came to the meetings by stealth, and 
 brought their jewels as the first-fruits of their 
 devotion. Their husbands began with indig- 
 nation against them, and ended by being 
 converted too. Nuns openly blasphemed 
 the mass in the market-place, girls danced 
 while they shouted, "Woe to sinners ! " The 
 burgomaster was mobbed by women because 
 he remained firm on the side of the town 
 pastor, who refused assent to the new opinions. 
 A blacksmith's boy began to preach the new 
 gospel, and when the Council ordered him to 
 be imprisoned, all his comrades assembled 
 and let him out. 
 
 About a month after the delirium began, a 
 tumult broke out between the Anabaptists 
 and the Town Council, who were by no means 
 ready to go at such a pace. It was soon 
 clear that the Anabaptists, though noisy, 
 were in a great minority, and the word went 
 round that they were to be expelled. But 
 who shall attempt to gauge the power of 
 fanaticism ? Their danger seemed to raise 
 them altogether above the earth. They saw 
 visions in the air : a man -wearing a golden 
 crown, with a sword and a scourge in his 
 hand ; another with blood streaming from 
 his hands ; the conqueror of the Apocalypse 
 on the white horse going forth conquermg 
 and to conquer. The calmer Lutherans 
 were moved with pity, if not with secret 
 sympathy ; they feared, too, that the putting 
 down the fanatics might be followed by 
 thraldom to the bishop, and they began to 
 propose terms. These were, that every one 
 should enjoy liberty of conscience, but should 
 obey the civil magistrate in temporal matters. 
 The Anabaptists rightly regarded this as a 
 victory to themselves. They were wild with 
 dehght. " The faces of the Christians be- 
 came beautiful in colour," said one of them 
 (Christians being themselves exclusively). 
 Children of seven years old prophesied. 
 " We do not believe that ever such joy was 
 known before," said another. 
 
 And now there came additions to their 
 number every day. For their existence being 
 now legally recognized, men of like opinions 
 came pouring into Miinster, — women who had 
 left their husbands, and husbands who had 
 deserted their wives. Rottmann promised 
 them all tenfold compensation for whatever 
 they had given up. And thus within two 
 months from the first appearance of Matthys 
 and Bockelson in the town, their followers 
 had gained a majority. How they used their 
 power was soon to appear. 
 
 Anabaptism Triumphant. 
 
 The elections for the Town Council, which 
 showed how the tables had been turned, 
 were held on the 21st of February, 1534. 
 " The electors," was the triumphant boast, 
 "were not now men of the flesh, but of the 
 spirit." On the 27th a great meeting of 
 Anabaptists for prayer was held in the town- 
 hall. In the midst of it the prophet Matthys 
 seemed to sink into a deep slumber, when he 
 suddenly started up and announced that the 
 will of God had been revealed to him that all 
 unbelievers who refused to be converted must 
 be instantly driven out. "Away with the 
 children of Esau," he cried ; " the inheritance 
 belongeth to the sons of Jacob." The cry 
 was taken up instantly, " Away with the un- 
 godly ! " The snow lay deep on the ground, 
 the wind and the rain were converting it into 
 horrible mire, when every house was entered, 
 and all who would not abjure their infant 
 baptism were driven into the streets. Women 
 with half-naked babies, little children knee- 
 deep in slush and snow, old men with not a 
 penny left of their life's earnings, went forth 
 homeless. Young lads, with scared faces, 
 holding in their hands a bit of bread which 
 their schoolmasters had givento comfort them 
 or to allay their hunger, went side by side with 
 their parents with bare feet through the snow. 
 But on reaching the gates all the wanderers 
 were searched ; the fanatics took away from 
 the mothers the bottles of milk which they 
 had secured for their children, and the bread 
 which the lads were conveying to their 
 mouths, and the few small coins which the 
 men had been able to secure for their wants. 
 If their clothes were good, they took these 
 too. Then they drove them out, with the 
 cry, " Away, ye wicked pagans ! " The Ana- 
 baptists were thus masters of the situation. 
 They gathered together all the property that 
 could be found, and Matthys appointed seven 
 "deacons" to distribute it among the faith- 
 ful. All intercourse with the " pagans " was. 
 strictly forbidden. Those who received the 
 new baptism alone were saints. Marriages, 
 previously solemnized were annulled ; laws 
 w^ere abolished as infractions of liberty. AH 
 distinctions of rank were suppressed. 
 
 616 
 
JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THf. 
 
 The City Beleaguered. 
 The fanatics would olarii-,, \. 
 -tend .heir don^^i'^^^L^K^ - Jo 
 
 and leave the Bishon of \r- ! °'".' '^°°^^' 
 own ,a„.e3. B„^.,°41r';Vaf gji^i? 
 
 Anabaptists plundering thf C»„^r~ ■ 
 
 THE Churches and breaking the Images. 
 
 
 b?p"!s.rs;ccVed"L™"''" ^''°""<' 'he Ana- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Should these be victorious, might he not turn 
 on those who refused their help, and humble 
 them before the bishop of Miinster? They 
 resolved, therefore, to send help, artillery, 
 cavalry, infantry; only stipulating that the 
 see should compensate them. The promise 
 was made, the helps were sent, and by the 
 end of April 1534 a strong army beleaguered 
 the town. 
 
 A Glimpse of Citv Life, 
 
 Besieging a town is not the same thing as 
 taking it, and the allied princes knew that 
 they had their work to do. The city was 
 well provisioned and well armed, and the 
 besieged fanatics betrayed no signs of fear. 
 They at once showed that they would tolerate 
 nothing that was not altogether identified 
 with themselves. All the pictures and statues 
 in cathedral and market-place were destroyed. 
 It is said that in richness they had no equal 
 save at Ko!n. A splendid collection of manu- 
 scripts, which had been brought from Italy, 
 and had cost twenty thousand florins, was 
 solemnly burnt in front of the cathedral. No 
 book v/as to be allowed but the Bible, and 
 this also was to be subjected to the judgment 
 of the prophets. Next, all property was de- 
 clared to be common. Not only the property 
 of the exiles, but that of the faithful also, all 
 gold, silver, and jewels had to be brought 
 forth for the common use. Each man was 
 to exercise his own craft as heretofore, but 
 tailors were enjoined to introduce no new 
 garment or fashion. Meat and drink were 
 provided at public cost, at which the 
 " brothers and sisters " sat apart from each 
 other, while one i-ead and expounded a 
 chapter of the Bible. As for the civil 
 government, nothing could be simpler. The 
 prophet Matthys was supreme and absolute, 
 Avith Bockelson for his lieutenant and Rott- 
 mann for his chief preacher. The besieged 
 made no progress. The town was not only 
 well fortified, but it stood in a plain, and 
 there was no rising ground in its neighbour- 
 liood on which the besiegers could erect their 
 engines. Some of their soldiers who were 
 taken prisoners in the sorties were beheaded 
 by order of the prophets, and their heads 
 were set up on the walls to show their com- 
 rades what fate awaited tliem. But accidents 
 will happen even in the best regulated 
 states. On Easter Day of that year, before 
 Matthys had been two months upon his 
 throne, an attack was made by the besiegers. 
 He rushed out to put it down with a strong 
 hand, and was killed. Bockelson claimed 
 to have foretold it; there were some who 
 even averred that he had contrived it. He 
 now took his place, and ruled not less 
 absolutely. 
 
 John of Leyden Supreme. 
 
 The new monarch for a while kept silence. 
 Those about him were not slow to declare 
 that even in civil matters merely human laws 
 were to -be disregarded, and that the Word 
 of God, as interpreted by His servants, was 
 the only supreme authority. At length he 
 spake. God, he said, had made known to 
 him His will ; there were to be twelve elders 
 in the new, as in the ancient, Israel, and he 
 proceeded to nominate them. The faithful 
 Rottmann assured the congregation from the 
 cathedral that a revelation to himself con- 
 firmed the prophet's utterance, and presented 
 the newly appointed elders to it. No sort of 
 objection was made, no form of election was 
 gone through. Six of them were to sit each 
 day, morning and afternoon, to administer 
 justice: the prophet was to proclaim their 
 sentences unto Israel, and Knipperdolling 
 was to execute them. Then further, a code 
 of laws was put forth. It consisted entirely 
 of extracts from the books of Moses. 
 
 What next ? One might almost answer this 
 question from the analogy of other similar de- 
 lusions. Fanaticism is usually accompanied 
 by debauchery, and he who throws over his 
 faith may look to throw over also his morality 
 before long. Prophet John was already mar- 
 ried, but he desired Divara, the young and 
 pretty widow of his predecessor, who, we may 
 say in passing, had divorced his aged spouse to 
 marry Divara. What wonder that the great 
 man found no difficulty in seeing his way! 
 He announced that it was as lawful now as 
 it was under the old covenant for a man to 
 have a plurality of wives. Such a proposition, 
 indeed, had been made to Luther, who in- 
 dignantly rejected it. W^e need not say that, 
 Bockelson was not likely to be affected by 
 such scruples ; was he not living entirely by 
 the Scriptures ? and was not he the inter- 
 preter of them ? Yet the consciences of the 
 citizens were not yet prepared for such 
 abominations, though Rottmann thundered 
 for several days together in defence of the 
 new utterance, and practically demonstrated 
 his own conviction by taking four wives. 
 
 A smith named Mollenhok raised his voice 
 in defence of decency, and called upon the 
 citizens not to return to barbarism. All o( 
 the old-fashioned people who were not utterly 
 given up to the new opinions rallied round 
 him, and some of the prophet's partizans 
 were imprisoned, while proposals were made 
 for recalling the exiles. But John's organiza- 
 tion was too strong, and the lowest class 
 were staunch to one who had taught them 
 confiscation. Mollenhok's party were driven 
 from one post to another till they took refuge 
 in the town-hall. Their enemies immediately 
 invested it, and planted cannon, which women 
 had dragged thither, in front. The besieged 
 
 6i8 
 
JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 saw that their case was hopeless, and an- 
 nounced their surrender from the windows. 
 They had better have died at their posts 
 than trust such ruffians, John ordered that 
 they should be tied to trees and shot, an- 
 nouncing that he who fired the first shot 
 would receive the special favour of God. 
 But as presently the fear arose among the 
 faithful that the continual discharge of the 
 guns would induce the belief that the citizens 
 "were fighting, and as also it was considered 
 that this was a waste of powder, it was 
 ordered that the rest, sixty in number, were 
 to be slain with the sword, and the execution 
 was committed to Knipperdolling. At first 
 he proceeded in a leisurely and capricious 
 manner, as if he would lengthen out the 
 sweet delights of his task, killing one or two 
 a day. But presently, fearing that by chance 
 the prophet might somewhat relent, he 
 finished off the whole in a batch. From 
 this time he had the power of putting to 
 death on the spot any man whom he detected 
 disobeying the new laws. He stalked about 
 the streets with a drawn sword in his hand, 
 preceded by four heralds, and striking terror 
 into all hearts . 
 
 BOCKELSON IS I^IADE KiNG. 
 
 All was now ready for the next move. A 
 fellow-prophet, Tausendschuer, declared one 
 morning that God had revealed to him that 
 John of Leyden was to be king ; the preachers 
 with one consent supported him. Declared 
 and agreed to, every man came forward and 
 signed allegiance. Then the king called on 
 the congregation to join him in prayer that 
 he might have good assistants in his govern- 
 ment. After they had all prayed, Rottmann 
 produced a list of those whom the Divine 
 will had appointed. Rottmann himself was 
 to be biirgermeister, and Knipperdolling lieu- 
 tenant, the most eminent of the preachers 
 were to be privy councillors. 
 
 The views of the Anabaptists as to the 
 course of the world were set forth by Rottmann 
 in a treatise. All things, he said, run in 
 triads. The first period of the world ended 
 with the deluge ; in the second, God had 
 called men by Abraham, by the prophets, by 
 Christ. But all was in vain, none would 
 hear ; therefore the wrath of God was about 
 to descend once more, as in the days of Noah, 
 and destroy all the ungodly and bring in the 
 perfect kingdom. The kingdom of the world, 
 the ungodly empire under which they had 
 been living, was already reft and falling to 
 pieces ; a few years more and all its riches 
 would come into the hands of the true be- 
 lievers, among whom Christ would reign for 
 a thousand years. True that sacrifices were 
 needed before the happy day would dawn ; 
 the siege which they were enduring was such 
 
 a sacrifice. But God would not only deliver 
 them, He would put His sword into the 
 hands of His people that they might cut off 
 all that believed not. And inasmuch as the 
 Old Testament prophets had foretold a uni- 
 versal king, it followed that John of Leyden 
 was the king of the whole earth ; as such 
 Tausendschuer saluted him, and he accepted 
 the title and assumed it in his edicts. Here 
 is a specimen of one : — 
 
 '• Be it known and proclaimed to all lovers 
 and followers of 'truth and godly righteous- 
 ness, as well as to all who understand not 
 like those who are learned in the hidden 
 things of God. Inasmuch as the Christians 
 and their disciples have gone forth under the 
 banner of righteousness as true Israelites in 
 the new Temple in the present kingdom 
 long foreseen, promised by the mouth of the 
 prophets, begun by Christ and His apostles 
 in the wisdom of the Spirit, and now come in 
 the person of John the Righteous, the pro- 
 mised and incontestable occupant of the 
 throne of David," etc., etc. 
 
 He wore a gold chain round his neck, on 
 which was suspended agolden globe transfixed 
 with two swords. His uniform was of three 
 colours — green, the symbol of youth, white, 
 of innocence, grey of death to his enemies.* 
 Thrice a week he appeared in crown and 
 gold chain in the market-place, seated him- 
 self on his throne, and administered justice, 
 while Knipperdolling stood one step lower, 
 sword in hand. When he rode through the 
 town, two boys walked beside him, one with 
 an Old Testament, the other with a naked 
 sword. All who met him knelt down. "Had 
 he been a king born," says one writer, "he 
 could not have arranged more ostentatiously, 
 for he was a wondrous manager of pomp and 
 show." 
 
 To all this ostentation he added debauchery. 
 Besides Divara, who was his queen, he took 
 fifteen wives, and he declared that he would 
 have three hundred. His queen and these 
 young girls he attired magnificently, having 
 seized all the rich vestments from the 
 churches for the purpose. Each of his apos- 
 tles and adherents also had several wives. 
 He considered it necessary to keep his 
 followers in a state of drunkenness, to pre- 
 vent them from foreseeing the catastrophe 
 which hung over them. 
 
 Knipperdolling was not far behind him in 
 extravagant pretension. Once he caused 
 himself to be suspended over the heads ol 
 the crowd in the market-place that he might 
 breathe the Holy Spirit upon them all. He 
 danced indecent dances before the King, and 
 broke out into horse-play with him. Once 
 
 *This use of the tricolor as a revolutionary sym- 
 bol is one of many resemblances, pointed out by 
 Ranl<e, to the proceedings in the French Revolution 
 of 1789. 
 
 )I9 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF PI I STORY. 
 
 they had a quarrel ; but it was dangerous 
 v/ork to both sides quarrelling in such a 
 state of the atmosphere, and they soon made 
 it up. 
 
 In October 1534 there was a great religious 
 festival, which he called the Lord's Supper ! 
 
 Tables were set for the Lord's Supper for 
 all the adult women, and for those of the men 
 who were not watching upon the walls — in all 
 four thousand two hundred persons. John 
 of Leyden and Divara appeared with all their 
 courtiers and served. After the general 
 meal the King took wheaten cakes and the 
 Queen took wine, and, after having first 
 partaken themselves, they gave of them to 
 the others, saying, " Brother (or sister), take 
 and eat ; as the grains of wheat are baked 
 together, and as the grapes are pressed 
 together, so are we also one." Then they 
 sang the hymn, " Glory to God in the H ighest." 
 Whilst this was proceeding the King thought 
 he saw one who had not on a wedding gar- 
 ment. He ordered him to be dragged out, 
 followed him, and with his own hands cut off 
 his head. Then he returned to the feast, 
 and many times burst out laughing at the 
 thought of what he had done. 
 
 When the feast was over, he asked if they 
 were all ready to do the will of God. " All," 
 they replied. "Then," said the king, " His 
 will is that some of you should go forth to 
 make known the wonderful things which 
 God hath wrought for us. Thereupon he 
 chose six, who were to go to Osnabruch, and 
 the same number who were to go to other 
 towns in the neighbourhood. To each he 
 gave a piece of gold of the value of nine 
 florins, and also a charm for safety. They 
 all left Munster the same night ; and those 
 who succeeded in reaching the town assigned 
 to them, made night horrible, filling the air 
 with outcries. " Ee converted and repent," 
 they shouted. "The time which God in His 
 mercy has lelt you is short. The axe is laid 
 to the root of the trees ; if you do not receive 
 peace, your town will be soon destroyed." 
 Next, presenting themselves to the Town 
 Councils, they spread their cloaks on the 
 ground, on which they laid the piece of 
 gold. "We proclaim peace to you," they 
 proceeded; "if you accept our peace, bring 
 hither all that you possess, and lay it on 
 this gold. Our king will ere long have 
 conquered the world, and subdued it to him- 
 self in righteousness." It seems as if the 
 Bishop of Miinster had contrived to make 
 himself hated, for the envoys were in some 
 cases well received at first, simply on the 
 ground that they were hostile to him. But 
 presently they were all arrested, and seme 
 were put to the torture. But not one would 
 confess himself in the wrong. " We wait for 
 new troops from Friesland," they said ; "when 
 these arrive, the king shall go forth in his 
 
 might and subdue the whole earth." They 
 were all put to death as guilty of sedition. 
 
 There was one woman in the city who 
 boasted that no man could control her. The 
 boast excited John of Leyden to desire her 
 for another of his wives. Accordingly he 
 married her, and she lived with him for 
 some time ; but, finding his morals and the 
 manners of his harem intolerable, she left 
 his house and sent back all his presents. In 
 his fury the Anabaptist king had her brought 
 into the market-place, beheaded her himself, 
 and kicked the corpse about with his foot,, 
 while his wives once more joined in singing 
 the Gloria in Excelsis. 
 
 The Progress of the Siege ; 
 A Failure. 
 
 There was still, however, one drawback to 
 John of Leyden's perfect triumph, namely, 
 the beleaguering army of the bishop out- 
 side. Within, for the time, all opposition 
 seemed at an end ; the people one and all 
 professed willing homage. They had bartered 
 their liberty for grotesque and horrible living, 
 seeking to fill themselves with the husks 
 that the swine did eat. As for the leader he 
 is past all analysis of character. Spiritual 
 pride, fleshly brutality, enthusiasm, crafti- 
 ness, lofty pretension, hideous coarseness, 
 all mingled together into such a being as 
 the history of the world has rarely seen. 
 And still his devotees believed in him. A 
 woman who had come a long way to dwell 
 in Munster, "in order to seek the salvation 
 of her soul at John's hands," had heard the 
 story of Judith read at table, and resolved 
 to imitate her, and deliver the besieged city 
 by killing the bishop, as the Jewish heroine 
 did Holofernes. She dressed herself in fine 
 garments, borrowed jewels from the treasury,, 
 in fact, imitated Judith in all particulars 
 except in her success. For on presenting 
 herself in the camp, she was suspected and 
 questioned, confessed the truth, and was put 
 to death. 
 
 In August the bishop had made an unsuc- 
 cessful attempt to storm the city. Nothing 
 could have been more complete or better 
 arranged than the counter preparations. 
 All threatened places were carefully guarded ; 
 and on the walls, between the men-at-arms, 
 stood women and boys. The boys had bows 
 and arrows, the women cauldrons, some filled 
 with boiling pitch, others with lime. The 
 stormers carne on in six parties, planted 
 their ladders, and began to climb. The fire 
 of musketry which poured upon their crowded 
 ranks, deadly as it was, was less horrible 
 than the tortures produced by the women's 
 attack. " The victims of it," says one nar 
 rator (Kersenbroik), "maddened with the 
 flames which penetrated through their ar- 
 
 620 
 
JOHN OF LEY DEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 mour, rushed hither and thither distractedly, 
 but only to strengthen the fire the more by 
 their movements. In vain they tried to 
 drag off their burning garments ; they only 
 increased their agony by covering their hands 
 with the fiery pitch. Some of them rolled 
 on the earth with horrid cries ; others threw 
 themselves into the ditches, where the weight 
 of their armour sunk them.'' 
 
 Such a catastrophe as this was sufficient 
 to rob the landsknechts of any desire to 
 renew the attack ; it was clear that there 
 was skill as well as desperate courage 
 matched against them. Nothing was left 
 to the bishop but to make the blockade 
 closer. 
 
 We have already told how, in October, 
 after the communion which we have de- 
 scribed, emissaries were sent by " the King 
 of Zion " to go into the neighbouring cities, 
 and relate the signs and wonders that were 
 done on behalf of the people of the Lord. 
 But many failed to run the blockade, were 
 seized by the bishop's people, and put to 
 death. Yet John's courage was not broken by 
 tl|is. He knew that the Anabaptist principles 
 had taken deep root among the German 
 peasantry, and in some places among the 
 nobility as well. In Erfurt and Anhalt and 
 Wiirtemberg, there were thousands of them ; 
 in Augsburg another Anabaptist king was 
 actually set up. Still their stronghold was 
 the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam 
 and Leyden. In February 1535, hundreds of 
 these fanatics ran naked about the streets 
 of Amsterdam by night, crying out, " Woe ! 
 woe ! woe!" They were arrested and be- 
 headed. So were others who formed a plan 
 to anticipate the Divine judgment by burning 
 down unbelieving Leyden. Near Franeker, 
 in Friesland, three hundred of them took 
 possession of a convent. They, too, after 
 some trouble, were seized and put to death. 
 Yet the opinion was universally held among 
 them that if John of Leyden could only win 
 a few more victories, the whole of Lower 
 Germany would rise in his favour. For he 
 abated none of his pretensions ; he still laid 
 claim to the monarchy of the world ; and he 
 now proceeded coolly to apportion it among 
 twelve dukes, that of Germany being the 
 first. He wrote to the Landgrave of Hesse, 
 addressing him as "dear Phil.," that if he 
 would but study the Bible he would see that 
 the King of Zion had not unlawfully usurped 
 his title. 
 
 It seems strange to us that this upstart, 
 vile brute as he was, should thus be able to 
 Jiold all Germany at bay. But his impunity 
 lay in the jealousies which divided the princes 
 and states. We have seen how Koln and 
 Cleves had been induced to join against John 
 more through jealousy of Hesse than for 
 love of righteousness. The failure of the 
 
 621 
 
 assault upon the city was very near caus- 
 ing them to withdraw their assistance ; but 
 better counsels prevailed, and they agreed to 
 furnish fifty thousand gulden to the bishop. 
 They had already sent him sixty thousand. 
 But they did more. They made an appeal 
 for help to the surrounding states. The 
 councillors of the Palatinate, of Mainz, Trier, 
 and Wiirzburg, met them accordingly at 
 Obervvesel ; and, again, jealousy was as 
 powerful as patriotism, for Mary of Bur- 
 gundy had already given hints of gathering 
 succours for Miinster from her states in the 
 Netherlands ; and should the city be de- 
 livered by her means, it would at once be 
 lost to Saxony and won to Burgundy. There 
 were other wheels within wheels in the whole 
 matter ; but this was the guiding principle, 
 and the results proved favourable to the 
 bishop. The three circles of the Lower 
 Rhine, the Upper Rhine, and Westphalia, 
 met in conference at Coblenz in December, 
 and agreed to raise fifteen thousand gulden 
 a month to keep up the blockade. And they 
 also drew up a petition to the Emperor Fer- 
 dinand, who had just succeeded Charles V., 
 to convoke a general assembly at Worms, 
 with a view to delivering the bishop of 
 Miinster from his troubles. Nearly all the 
 States agreed to send help. The Elector of 
 Brandenburg, it is true, responded that the 
 three circles concerned should do their own 
 work ; but the agreement of the rest assured 
 the bishop that he would now be enabled to 
 continue the blockade. A commander-in- 
 chief, too, was appointed, Count Whirich 
 von Dhaun, 
 
 The King in Danger, 
 
 And now for the first time the besieged 
 realized the possibility of starvation. They 
 by no means lost heart. They knew that 
 there were zealous Anabaptists through- 
 out the Netherlands, crying, "Death to 
 all priests and nobles ! The only lawful 
 sovereign in the world is the King of Miin- 
 ster!" They even rose up in many centres 
 simultaneously at Easter 1535, and the 
 Anabaptists actually got possession of the 
 Stadthius at Amsterdam for one night. Jan 
 van Geelen, a clever, crafty man, set on by 
 Bockelson, having first, by a feigned renun- 
 ciation of his errors, won the good-will of 
 Mary of Burgundy, gathered a large number 
 of followers and burst into the city in the 
 dead of night, and seized the Stadthius, The 
 townsfolk, however, aroused by the tocsin, 
 drove away the fanatics with cannon shot, 
 not without suffering great losses themselves, 
 particularly in the death of a burgomaster. 
 The rebels were cruelly treated. Many of 
 then\ were stretched on butcher's blocks and 
 had tbeir hearts torn out. The women who 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 had taken part in the rising were drowned. 
 It soon became evident that the fanatics had 
 no chance. Everywhere they were dispersed 
 by the armed forces of the country without 
 any difficulty. One legitimate commander, 
 who expected to meet an armed host of 
 some thousands, found five men and thirteen 
 women. He says naively, that he soon con- 
 verted them from their errors. 
 
 These dispersed, the last hope of the 
 upstart king was really gone. He had 
 continued to encourage his people ■ with 
 promiises of assistance. Their fellow-be- 
 lievers, he declared, would not be hindered 
 from coming to their king by sword nor 
 fire nor water. But murmurs arose ; and a 
 deserter from the city to the blockading army 
 on the 7th of May announced that the King 
 had much work to prevent insurrection. 
 Many fled from the city, whom the besiegers 
 would have driven back but that pity stayed 
 their hands ; and the landsknechts handed 
 food to the women and children who sat 
 down in despair in the ditches by the 
 stockade. Men moved to and fro in the 
 city, mere skeletons covered with skin, with 
 necks which seemed not equal to supporting 
 their heads, with ghastly cheek-bones and 
 blue lips and starving, wolfish eyes, which 
 opened and shut with sudden jerk. They 
 ate the flesh of horses, of dogs, and cats, and 
 dormice, as well as grass and leather. They 
 tore up books, and devoured the parchment. 
 Half the population, it is said, died of star- 
 vation. Bockelson had told them that if it 
 were necessary for the saving of his subjects 
 the stones would be turned into bread ; and 
 some of his devotees were seen biting the 
 stones, and breaking them in pieces, in hope 
 of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Despair 
 led to madness of the most hideous character. 
 The wife of one of the King's " senators " 
 killed her three children, salted their bodies, 
 and placed them away in jars ; and on this 
 awful provision she fed day after day. In 
 the midst of this frightful spectacle, which 
 seems to rival the last days of Jerusalem 
 itself, the King's palace continued daily to 
 be the scene of feasting and debauchery. 
 
 And even now there were those who were 
 determined, to use John of Leyden's phrase, 
 "not to go back into Egypt." A summons 
 to them, to surrender on terms which was 
 sent to them in the beginning of June by the 
 commander-in-chief was indignantly rejected. 
 They hoped, now all other hope failed them, 
 that though the beast, of which Daniel 
 had spoken and which their King had inter- 
 preted of the Empire, should crush them 
 under his hoofs, yet that the great stone, 
 which the same prophet had foretold, would 
 crush him in turn and the kingdom be given 
 to the saints of the Most High; and they 
 resolved when all should be lost to set 
 
 fire to the city, and rush out on the enemy's 
 guns. 
 
 Overthrow. 
 
 The wretched victims of delusion had no 
 opportunity of attempting to carry out their 
 intentions. A deserter came to the besiegers' 
 camp, and, offered to show them a way by 
 which they might enter the city. They were 
 glad enough to hear of it, for they were tired 
 of their straw beds in the block-houses, but 
 their terrible experience when they made the 
 attempt to storm the place was fresh in their 
 memories. But they knew that if they, could 
 only surmount the dangers of the ditch and 
 outer wall, the enemy within was not in a 
 condition to make any resistance v/orth the 
 name. Under such conditions we are not 
 likely to find a record of brave deeds and 
 heroic exploits. It was the eve of St. John 
 the Baptist's Day, June 23rd, 1535, when the 
 betrayer led a few hundred landsknechts 
 across the ditches where they were narrowest, 
 and showed them where to plant their ladders 
 on the safest spots on the walls. He had 
 possessed them with the Anabaptists' watdii- 
 word, and so they were able to deceive the 
 sentinels till they were ascended in force, 
 then they threw the sentinels over the wall. 
 Securing a bastion in their reai', they pressed 
 on to the cathedral close, then shouted the 
 war-cry and beat their drums. The Anabap- 
 tists sprang from their beds in terror, and 
 rushed to defend themselves. But by this 
 time the gate was opened from within, and 
 the main body of besiegers came rushing 
 through it. 
 
 The unhappy fanatics fought for a brief 
 hour with all the fury and energy of despair. 
 A hundred and fifty nobles and officers who 
 were in the foremost ranks of their enemies 
 fell by their muskets before they were subdued. 
 The King and Knipperdolling were seized and 
 made prisoners in a bastion within which 
 they had hid themselves. Rottmann resolved 
 to escape from the ignominy of execution or 
 captivity by rushing into the thickest of the 
 fight and meeting death there. A few 
 hundreds of them still held out, and en- 
 trenched themselves behind some carriages, 
 presenting such a fierce and determined front 
 that the besiegers fell back and treated with 
 them. If they would yield they should be 
 allowed to go quietly home, and when the 
 bishop came he should determine their fate. 
 There was poor comfort for them even in this, 
 for it is not likely that he would have spared 
 their lives. But they could hope for nothing 
 better ; had they held out, they would have 
 all been killed to a certainty. ' They yielded, 
 laid down their arms, and turned their faces 
 to their homes. But the landsknechts, furious 
 at the loss of their comrades, after a minute's 
 hesitation, rushed upon them and smote them 
 
 622 
 
JOHN OF LEYDEN AND THE ANABAPTISTS. 
 
 down in their helplessness, even hacking 
 them to pieces. The few that were not 
 killed were reserved only for formal exe- 
 cution. 
 
 What a miserable and ghastly story it 
 makes ! The wretched creatures thus 
 butchered had given themselves up to crime 
 and debaucheries. Yet who can refuse them 
 pity in their horrible misery ? And who can 
 wonder at the fury which had gotten the 
 mastery in the souls of their victorious foes ? 
 We at this distance of time can pity and 
 sympathise. For the moment, one thought 
 alone seems to have taken possession of the 
 conquerors' souls, namely, that Anabaptism 
 must be destroyed, root and branch. Even 
 the women were driven out of the city ; every 
 one offering them shelter was to be treated 
 as an Anabaptist. What became of them was 
 never known. No record remains to tell. 
 Those who had been driven out of the city 
 before were suffered to return ; but as they 
 were not held entirely guiltless, they had 
 to pay a fine. Any man suspected of 
 Anabaptism had to give security to the 
 amount of 400 gulden before he could be re- 
 admitted. 
 
 Cleves and Koln were so shocked at the 
 severity of the reaction, that they tried to 
 mitigate it. A deputation of the Empire 
 called for the restoration to the city of its old 
 privileges and rights. But of this there was 
 no hope. The nobles and cathedral chapter 
 were determined to keep the power now that 
 they had it, and to crush the independence of 
 the city which had long been hateful to them. 
 They built a fortress in the very heart of the 
 city at the expense of the citizens, though the 
 princes of Koln and Cleves protested against 
 it as tyranny. This fortress they placed 
 under the command of one of the nobles, 
 and made him swear allegiance to themselves; 
 he was to obey only them, though even the 
 Emperor himself should be present. Even the 
 Town Council must be approved by them 
 before its election could be valid. 
 
 Thus the city was once more entirely at the 
 feet of the nobles and clergy, though it had 
 once emancipated itself from them. And 
 this was the result of the fanaticism and in- 
 tolerance of the so styled ''faithful Christians." 
 
 The Execution. 
 
 Meanwhile, John Bockelson ofLeyden,the 
 captive King, with his chief councillor Knip- 
 perdolling, were brought to trial. John at 
 tirst braved it out. He assumed the air of a 
 king, and spoke arrogantly to the bishop. 
 When reproached with his polygamy he an- 
 swered with insolent jests, and declared that 
 he would never have surrendered the town, 
 though his people should all have died of 
 hunger. Two theologians of Hesse were 
 
 62^ 
 
 sent to endeavour to bring him to repentance ; 
 he treated them with the same insolence, and 
 affected an air of complete superiority. 
 
 Reflectian,however, soon wrought a change. 
 For he was an impostor rather than a mis- 
 guided enthusiast, and he was ready to do 
 anything to save his life. He asked for a 
 second conference with the Hessians, and 
 affected to be converted. '-'I confess," he said 
 to them, " that the resistance which I have 
 offered to authority was unlawful ; that my in- 
 stitution of polygamy was rash and untimely ; 
 and that the baptism of children is obliga- 
 tory on Christians. If pardon should be 
 granted me and to Melchior Hoffmann and 
 his wives, I undertake to obtain from all my 
 adherents obedience and submission." He 
 likewise acknowledged to the bishop's chap- 
 lain that if he were to suffer ten deaths, he 
 had deserved them all. This is the language 
 of a knave willing to give up his imposture 
 if it may save his life. Knipperdolling and 
 Krechting, on the other hand, were perfectly 
 obdurate. They were not so clever or so 
 well-skilled in theological language as John 
 of Leyden, and they asserted that they had 
 but followed the guidance of God. 
 
 Cruelties of various kinds were inflicted on 
 the miserable wretches. They were led about 
 publicly, sometimes chained, sometimes in 
 iron cages, and exhibited like strange ani- 
 mals to the various princes and their courts. 
 After a month of this, they were sentenced to 
 death for high treason. They were brought out 
 into the great square of Miinster, to the spot 
 where John as king had borne the sceptre 
 and worn the crown, and where his executive 
 minister Knipperdolling had held his sword 
 of office. Here they were stretched out naked, 
 and their bodies were plucked to pieces 
 with red-hot pincers. The horrible scene 
 lasted for an hour. All three bore the torture 
 with courage ; not one cry, it is said, escaped 
 Bockelson. After he had breathed his last, 
 they pierced his heart with a dagger. His 
 wife Divara and the rest of the chief fanatics 
 were beheaded. 
 
 Relics of this strange phenomenon of his- 
 tory are still to be seen at Miinster. The old 
 fortifications have been dismantled, but there 
 are still the ancient ramparts, now a pleasant 
 walk planted with lime-trees. In the cathe- 
 dral is to be seen the tomb of the victorious 
 bishop. There is also the beautiful Gothic 
 church of St. Lambert, and outside the towers 
 are two iron baskets in which the bodies of 
 John of Leyden and his two fellow-sufferers 
 were hung up after execution. His house, 
 ornamented with curious carvings, is in the 
 market-place. In the Rathhaus, are the tongs 
 and pincers with which the poor wretches 
 were tortured ; and in the Friedensaal (so- 
 called because the peace of Westphalia 
 was afterwards signed here, May 1648) are 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 shown John of Leyden's shrivelled and dried 
 hand, cut off before his execution, his bed, 
 and Divara's shoes. 
 
 Lutherans and Catholics had united to put 
 down these wicked and wild fanatics, and 
 it has been said that the combination had 
 the effect of promoting a better understand- 
 ing between the two confessions (Hardwick's 
 "Reformation," 276). But it was not very 
 cordial apparently. One of the two Hessian 
 divines who received Bockelson's confession, 
 and who, it is not unlikely, was moved with 
 compassion towards him at the last, writes 
 indignantly to the court chaplain of Saxony 
 that "the mass priests" showed a savage 
 dehght over the execution, and that he is sure 
 that they would like to serve the Lutherans 
 the same. Without question, the cause of 
 the Reformation was all but lost in Miinster 
 by these wild excesses and crimes. Protes 
 tantism barely exists there at present. 
 
 Retrospect. 
 
 Three causes had combined to produce 
 this hideous chapter of history. First, the 
 cruel persecution of Charles V. of all who 
 asserted the liberty of the conscience. Se- 
 condly, the need which all men I'ecognized 
 of reformation in the state and in social life. 
 The poor felt that they were oppressed, and 
 looked for a helper. Thirdly, the unbridled 
 license and lust of the fanatics, who met the 
 desire for deliverance by promising impos- 
 sibilities, and who did not remember that 
 man has duties as well as rights, and that 
 unrestrained libertv to sinful beings must be 
 
 After this terrible catastrophe, there still 
 remained some enthusiasts and libertines. 
 But the terror of mankind at the sight of 
 them prevented their obtaining a following, 
 and so they dwindled away, Ranke, in his 
 "History of the Reformation," — a work to 
 which we owe much of the information con- 
 tained in this article, — has gathered together 
 a great number of hymns written by milder 
 members of this wild sect. There are refe- 
 rences to " crafty serpents " and " the great 
 dragon," resolutions not to be terrified by 
 fire or sword, faith that God can and will 
 save His true children, and will deliver their 
 souls though their bodies perish ; and so on 
 (iii. 620). 
 
 At the moment of their total overthrow in 
 Miinster many of them fled to England, and 
 became important actors in the stormy 
 period of the seventeenth century. A great 
 deal of what is peculiar in the history ol 
 George Fox and his followers was a mere 
 reproduction of some of the more harmless 
 vagaries of the Anabaptists. 
 
 Let us close with the calm reflection of the 
 good old historian of this period. Merle 
 d'Aubigne:— " We have traced the horrible 
 episode of Miinster, and we have exhibited it 
 like one of those placapds which we have 
 sometimes met with in the Alps, nailed to a 
 post near an abyss, on which were to be 
 read such words as these: — ''Traveller, be- 
 ware ! Any one approaching, falls and rolls 
 over. He is hurled from rock to rock till he 
 is dashed to pieces and kiiled, the sad victim 
 of his rashness.' " 
 
 VV. B. 
 
 624 
 
Entrance of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, into Brussels. 
 
 WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' 
 
 REVOLT. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE FREEDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 " But in the course of time the laws of the land were corrupted ; 
 Might took the place of right, and the weak were oppressed, and the mighty 
 Ruled with an iron rod." — Longfellow. 
 
 How Duke Alva superseded Margaret of Parma— Arrival of Alva in Brussels— General Apprehension of Evil — The 
 Treacherous Calm — Arrest of Counts Egmont and Horn — Escape of Hoogstraten — Trial and Condemnation of 
 the Two Counts— Egmont's Last Letter to the King — The Execution in the Market-place at Brussels — How Duke 
 Alva ruled in the Netherlands— The Reign of Terror— The Council of Blood— Vargas and His Colleagues - Atrocities 
 and Oppression— Departure of Margaret of Parma — William of Orange, the Champion of Religious Liberty — His De- 
 feat by Alva— The Duke's Insolence and Pride— The Statue — Taxation and Resistance— The Resignation of Alva — 
 Renewal of the Contest — Beggars of the Sea — Alva's Successors — The Struggle and the Triumph — Death of William 
 the Silent — Conclusion. 
 
 How Duke Alva superseded Mar- 
 garet OF Parma. 
 HE 22nd day of August, 1467, may 
 well be marked with a black stone 
 in the annals of the Netherlands. 
 For on that day the man whose 
 reputation for ruthlessness preceded him, and 
 
 whose subsequent proceedings more than 
 justified the terror with which the news of 
 his approach was greeted, appeared with his 
 formidable army of Spaniards before the 
 gates of Brussels. That he came in the 
 character of an avenger, armed with un- 
 limited power — that he came as the minister 
 
 625 
 
 ss 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of a monarch who never forgot and who 
 never pardoned, and whose wrath had been 
 fiercely kindled by the efforts of the Flem- 
 ings to protect the ancient freedom and 
 privileges Philip II. and his father Charles 
 V. before him had consistently striven to 
 subvert, — these things were sufficient to ac- 
 count for the stupor of terror in which the 
 city seemed sunk. But in addition to all this 
 there was in the character of Alva a profound 
 dissimulation equal to that of his master, 
 and his open enmity was less formidable 
 ' than the insidious friendship he was known 
 sometimes to extend towards those he had 
 determined to ruin, until the moment for 
 their destruction had come. 
 
 The powers with which the gloomy noble 
 had been invested by the tyrant, whose v/ill 
 he was determined to carry out to the utmost, 
 were starthng and almost unlimited ; and 
 aroused the indignation and disgust of the 
 Regent, Margaret of Parma, King Philip's 
 half-sister, when he waited upon her to pre- 
 sent his credentials. For she saw at once 
 that her influence was entirely superseded 
 and rendered of no effect by these astonish- 
 ing commissions ; although, according to the 
 literal purport of the first royal letter, while 
 the command and control of all the garrisons 
 and of all the troops were entrusted to Alva, 
 the administration of civil affairs was still to 
 remain in the hands of Margaret. But a 
 second commission which the Duke put into 
 the Regent's hands in private placed his 
 authority in a very different light. This 
 second commission gave Alva full power to 
 carry on war, to build fortresses, to appoint 
 or depose governors of provinces, and all 
 officials from the highest to the lowest, at his 
 will, to punish all who had been concerned 
 in the late disturbances in Flanders, and to 
 reward those whose conduct had merited 
 the favourable consideration of the govern- 
 ment. To the indignant remonstrances and 
 inquiries of the mortified princess he replied 
 by hints that he held a third commission, 
 whose contents it would not be expedient to 
 divulge, but which conferred upon him a 
 mysterious power of still wider and more 
 formidable extent. From that day Margaret 
 of Parma clearly understood that the moderate 
 counsels she had advocated were unpalatable 
 at the Court of Madrid, and that the authority 
 in everything but its outward signs had de- 
 parted from her ; nor was it to be wondered 
 at that she quickly determined to resign an 
 office of which only the name remained. 
 
 The troops were at once quartered in the 
 suburbs, and in a few hours' time had spread 
 themselves through the streets. Brussels 
 appeared like a city smitten with the plague. 
 The streets were deserted, the doors of houses 
 closely barred. Friends and acquaintances 
 hurried past one another on the open places, 
 
 afraid to be seen in conversation, distrustful 
 of the interpretation that might put upon 
 a chance word^the taint of treason ; and 
 whenever a Spaniard appeared in the streets, 
 the few passengers hastened to get out of his 
 way. " The two nations," says Schiller, 
 " seemed to have exchanged their characters ; 
 the Spaniard to have become communicative, 
 and the Brabanter dumb." 
 
 The nobles at first kept rigidly within therr 
 own houses. Reminiscences of the part they 
 had played at the assemblages of the " Gueux," 
 and of the bold language held in that Cu- 
 lemburg Palace, in which the union of the 
 " Beggars " had once been jovially estab- 
 lished, and where the fierce Alva had now 
 taken up his quarters, made them anxious 
 not to recall themselves to the recollection of 
 the avenger ; and so general was the appear- ■ 
 ance of distrust and apprehension that Alva 
 began to fear that his victims would by a 
 timely flight elude the vengeance he held 
 ready to hurl against them. For it was his 
 object to get the chiefs of the confederacy of 
 the Gueux into his power; well knowing that 
 the people, deprived of their leaders, could 
 do little or nothing against the disciplined 
 strength of the army by which his authority 
 was upheld. 
 
 Accordingly, during the first few days of 
 his residence in Brussels, no steps of a hos- 
 tile character were taken ; and the nobles, 
 especially Count Egmont, a man of a jovial, 
 open, and confiding disposition, began to 
 hope that after all they might have exagge- 
 rated the extent of the danger, and that the 
 formidable Spaniards would content them- 
 selves with maintaining order and quietness 
 in the country. Accordingly Egmont began 
 to show himself once more in public ; and his 
 friend Count Horn, who had at first prudently 
 retired from the capital, came back to Brus- 
 sels, thus putting his head into the lion's 
 mouth. It was Alva's especial desire to get 
 possession of the persons of these two nobles, 
 and of a third, the Count of Hoogstraten, 
 who was also returning to Brussels, misled 
 by the treacherous calm ; but, fortunately for 
 himself, sickness compelled Hoogstraten to 
 travel slowly, and he was some distance 
 from the city when the blow fell upon his 
 fellow nobles, and enabled him, by a timely 
 flight, to avoid the fate that overwhelmed 
 them. William of Orange, the silent, saga- 
 cious judge of the character of men, had 
 estimated Alva and his master with unerring 
 prescience when he warned Egmont and 
 Horn to depart from the wrath to come. 
 
 How Egmont and Horn were arrested 
 
 AND TRIED. 
 
 Meanwhile the sons of Alva, Ferdinand 
 and Frederick of Toledo, seconded the plans 
 of their treacherous parent by meeting the un- 
 
 6^„ri 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 suspecting Flemish nobles with grave Spanish 
 courtesy mingled with a feigned cordiahty 
 that quickly won the hearts of the unsus- 
 pecting victims. Gradually some of those 
 heads of great houses who had fled from the 
 capital began to return, and to resume their 
 former manner of living, though in a some- 
 what half-hearted way ; and the Culemburg 
 House was frequented by a number of suitors 
 ready to pay court to the stern Governor, 
 and concealing anxious hearts under an out- 
 ward aspect of enforced cheerfulness ; un- 
 willing by their absence to give colour to 
 suspicion, and yet full of apprehension that 
 the calm that brooded over the city was but 
 the precursor of a scathing tempest. 
 
 In truth, Alva had determined to strike a 
 blow worthy of himself and of the master he 
 served. He would bring terror into the city 
 and the whole country by doing a thing that 
 should make the ears of all who heard of it 
 to tingle. This was nothing less than the 
 arrest of that Lamoral, Count Egmont, who 
 had been the envoy of the Gueux to Philip, 
 and whom the relentless and suspicious 
 monarch hated as the most popular man in 
 Flanders, the darling of the people, beloved 
 for his open, hearty manners, his liberality 
 and splendour, and for the ardour with which 
 he upheld national customs, regulations, and 
 sports. With Egmont was to be arrested at 
 the same time Count Horn, a man of great 
 position and influence, though far less im- 
 portant than Egmont ; and Count Hoogstra- 
 ten was to be the third prisoner. Before 
 making the capture, Alva was anxious to 
 secure certain persons of distinction at 
 Antwerp, including the burgomaster of that 
 city, and to get into his possession some im- 
 portant documents that could be used against 
 the prisoners at Brussels ; and until this was 
 done he maintained an appearance of amity 
 and good-will. 
 
 On the day when he expected the news 
 from Antwerp that the captures had been 
 efi'ected, Alva summoned a council in his 
 house, at which Egmont and various other 
 nobles, Flemings and Spaniards, were present. 
 The Duke caused the sitting to be unusually 
 protracted, until a courier from Antwerp 
 brought him the intelligence that his orders 
 in that city had been fulfilled. Then the 
 council broke up, and Egmont was proceed- 
 ing to the apartments of Alva's son Ferdinand, 
 to resume an interrupted game, when, to his 
 astonishment, the Captain of the Guard, 
 Sancho de Avila, appeared, followed by a 
 company of Spanish soldiers, who had until 
 then been kept in the background, and 
 demanded the Count's sword in the name 
 of th(; King. For a few moments Egmont 
 gazed upon the Spanish officer in speechless 
 bewilderment ; and then recovering himself, 
 he calmly took his sword from his side and i 
 
 delivered it up, observing with dignity that 
 it had more than once done good service to 
 the Spanish crown. Count Horn was arrested 
 at the same time, as he was leaving the 
 palace ; and on hearing of the capture of his 
 friend, merely declared that "as he had 
 regulated his conduct according to Egmont's 
 advice, it was just that he should share his 
 fate." The two prisoners were carefully 
 guarded in difterent rooms of the Culem- 
 bui'g House. 
 
 Meanwhile the whole of the Spanish 
 garrison, drawn up under arms in front of 
 the palace, gave token that something serious 
 had occurred, and a panic of terror spread 
 throughout the city, increasing as the truth 
 became known. And now the Duke threw 
 ofl" the mask ; and the arrest of a number of 
 citizens and nobles gave token of what was 
 to follow. A hundred thousand people had 
 already fled the country, and twenty thousand 
 more now followed ; though every obstacle 
 was put in the way of such a proceeding, the 
 ports being strictly guarded and the punish- 
 ment of death threatened to all who endea- 
 voured to emigrate without permission. 
 Granvella, at Rome, heard of the capture of 
 the two counts. "Have they the Silent one?" 
 he eagerly asked the messenger ; and when he 
 answered in the negative, the astute Cardinal 
 shook his head, and said, " Then they have 
 nothing at all, as they have let the Silent 
 one escape." 
 
 In a few days the two illustrious prisoners 
 were led away under a guard of three thou- 
 sand Spanish soldiers to Ghent, v/here they 
 were kept in confinement, for eight months, 
 in the citadel. The proceedings against 
 them were scandalous, for injustice and utter 
 contempt of law and right, even in an age 
 when State prisoners had little chance of a 
 fair trial. Deprived of all means of calling 
 witnesses, their papers seized and used 
 against them with all the malignity of per- 
 version, subjected to harassing interrogations 
 with the object of entangling them in their 
 talk and betraying them into admissions and 
 contradictory statements, the unfortunate pri- 
 soners saw that their chance of purgation was 
 infinitesimal. Their servants were arrested 
 and intimidated, and the secretary of Egmont 
 especially was cruelly tortured to extract 
 evidence from him against his master. But 
 to his honour he remained firm and constant, 
 and baffled the plans of his tormentors. The 
 articles exhibited against Egmont were ninety 
 in number, and those against Horn amounted 
 to more than sixty. Many were entirely fri- 
 volous ; but the chief crimes alleged against 
 the prisoners were their approval of, and 
 participation in, the actions of the Gueux 
 confederacy. It was asserted and maintained 
 by their enemies that, in conjunction with 
 the Prince of Orange, they had treasonably 
 7 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 conspired to destroy the authority of the 
 King in the Netherlands and to seize the 
 government for themselves. Every action 
 of the two prisoners was viewed in the aspect 
 of treason ; their concessions to the Protes- 
 tants in their governments, Granvella's ex- 
 pulsion, Egmont's embassy to Madrid — 
 everything was interpreted as treasonable, 
 and subversive of the rule of their lawful 
 monarch. 
 
 As the unfortunate men were accused of 
 the crime of lese inajeste, no friend was 
 allowed access to them. They were required 
 to give in their answer to the voluminous 
 accusation within five days. After they had 
 done this, they were allowed advocates and 
 defenders. Their first plea was, that as 
 Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 
 they were entitled to be tried by the King 
 alone, as the Grand Master of the Order ; 
 but they were told that this privilege did net 
 extend to men accused of the crime of high 
 treason. The answers they gave to the 
 various allegations against them are still on 
 record, and are such that no impartial tri- 
 bunal would have failed to acquit them ; but 
 the whole protracted trial was a ghastly farce. 
 Their condemnation had been determined on 
 from the beginning. 
 
 The relatives of the two Counts meanwhile 
 made every effort to save them. The 
 Countess Egmont appealed to one German 
 potentate after another, to the King of Spain 
 and to the Emperor ; and the mother of 
 Horn, a high-born lady, related to various 
 princely houses, did the same. The prisoners 
 themselves protested against the competency 
 of Alva and his council as a court to try 
 them ; and after having been summoned 
 various times to produce their documents in 
 evidence, they were declared contumacious 
 and guilty by the council of twelve on the 
 1st of June, 1568; and three days afterwards 
 sentence of death was pronounced against 
 them. 
 
 How Egmont and Horn were executed 
 AT Brussels. 
 
 When once the sentence was passed upon 
 the prisoners, Alva became anxious that it 
 should be carried out without delay. The 
 numerous petitions addressed to the King 
 of Spain, from princes and other exalted 
 personages, might alter the determination of 
 Philip ; and the Count of Aremberg, Alva's 
 general, had been beaten in battle by Count 
 Louis of Nassau. A revolt in I3russels 
 might at any moment endanger the Spanish 
 supremacy in the Netherlands and set the 
 prisoners free. Again, the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian n. of Germany had interfered in 
 favour ol" the condemned men, and was so 
 confident of success that he had announced 
 to the despairing Countess of Egmont that 
 
 6: 
 
 she had nothing to fear for her husband's hfe. 
 Accordingly the ruthless commander resolved 
 to strike promptly and decisively. The exe- 
 cution of twenty-five nobles in the market- 
 place at Brussels within three days was but 
 the prologue to the deeper tragedy shortly to 
 be enacted on the same spot. And then 
 came the reflection that perhaps Philip, 
 trusting to the promptitude of his lieutenant, 
 would yield to the various intercessors, and 
 despatch a pardon to Brussels for the two 
 condemned men, in the confident expecta- 
 tion that it would arrive too late. There was 
 thus every reason for despatch. Accord- 
 ingly on the day after sentence had been 
 pronounced, the two Counts were conveyed 
 under a strong guard from Ghent to Brussels. 
 The house, formerly the " Brodhaus," and 
 now called the " Maison du roy," in which 
 they were lodged, is situate in the great 
 market-place. The council was assembled, 
 and the sentences were opened and read. 
 Both prisoners were declared guilty of lese 
 majeste because they had favoured and for- 
 warded the detestable conspiracy of the 
 Prince of Orange, had taken the confederate 
 nobles under their protection, and had 
 served the King and the Church badly in 
 their governorships and other offices. They 
 were to be publicly beheaded, and their 
 heads were to be stuck on spears, and not 
 to be taken down without express permission 
 of the Duke. All their estates, fiefs, and 
 rights were forfeited to the royal treasury. 
 The sentence was signed by the Duke and 
 by Pranz the Secretary. 
 
 Martin Bithov, Bishop of Ypern, a kindly, 
 benevolent prelate, was entrusted with the 
 mournful office of announcing their doom to 
 the condemned men. Shocked and horrified 
 he fell at the Duke's feet and implored 
 mercy or at any rate delay for the prisoners. 
 But Alva sternly reminded him that he had 
 been summoned from Ypern not to criticise 
 the sentence but to announce it to the 
 culprits and to prepare them for death. 
 
 The jovial and cheerful nature of Egmont, 
 which always disposed him to look at things 
 in a hopeful light, had made him confidently 
 believe that his life would be spared. Ac- 
 cordingly when in the night between the 
 4th and 5th of June the bishop came to his 
 prison with the sentence of death in his 
 hand, and tears of compassion in his eyes, 
 the unhappy nobleman turned pale, and his 
 voice trembled. " That is, indeed, a severe 
 sentence," he cried ; " I did not think I had 
 so deeply offended His Majesty as to deserve 
 such treatment. But if it must be, I submit 
 to my fate with resignation. May this death 
 wipe away my sins, and not be injurious to 
 my wife or my children ! So much, at least, 
 I think I may expect for my past services. 
 I will endure deaih with a quiet mind since 
 
V/HAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 k pleases God and the King." Still he seems 
 hardly to have been able to believe that his 
 sentence would be carried out. But when, 
 on his urgent inquiry, the bishop replied that 
 there was no hope of mercy, he turned his 
 thoughts to the great change so soon and so 
 unexpectedly to come upon him. He con- 
 fessed to the bishop and received the sacra- 
 ment ; and asking his spiritual adviser if 
 there were any prayer more suited than 
 others to his situation, received the admi- 
 rable reply that the " Our Father," the sup- 
 plication dictated by the lips of the Saviour 
 Himself, was undoubtedly the best in his as 
 in every case ; whereupon the Count recited 
 it with great fervour. Then he thought of 
 his family ; and he called for pen and ink 
 and wrote two letters, one to the King, the 
 second to the Countess Egmont. 
 
 The letter to King Philip was as follows : — 
 "Sire, this morning I have heard the 
 sentence which it has pleased Your Majesty 
 to have passed upon me. Far as I have 
 ever been from undertaking anything against 
 the person or the service of Your Majesty, 
 or against the one, true, old, and Catholic 
 religion, I yet submit with patience to the 
 fate which it has pleased God to bring upon 
 me. If during the late disturbances I have 
 permitted, counselled, or done anything that 
 seems contrary to my duty, it was certainly 
 ■done with the best intentions, forced from 
 me by the power of circumstances. There- 
 fore I entreat Your Majesty to pardon me 
 for it, and, in consideration of my past 
 services, to have pity upon my unhappy wife 
 and my poor children and servants. In this 
 firm hope I commend myself to the infinite 
 mercy of God. 
 
 "Brussels, the 5th of June, 156S, near my 
 last moment. 
 
 "Your Majesty's most faithful vassal and 
 servant, 
 "Lamoral, Count of Egmont." 
 
 He was especially anxious that this appeal 
 for his wife and family should reach the 
 hands of the King, and even made a copy 
 of the letter to be deposited with the town 
 councillor, Viglius. As the petition was 
 granted, the estates being restored to the 
 family, there is no doubt the letter was duly 
 ■delivered to Philip. 
 
 Meanwhile preparations were being made 
 in the great square of Brussels for the last 
 mournful scene. A scaffold was erected, 
 hung with black, and provided at the two 
 front corners with spiked poles planted erect 
 to receive the heads of the criminals. A 
 silent horror seemed brooding over the city, 
 every man seeing in the deed about to be 
 •committed a menace against himself. A 
 large body of Spanish troops surrounded 
 the scaffold ; for, cowed and disheartened 
 
 as the people were, it was yet probable that 
 the sight of the death of their favourite 
 might excite them to some act of tumultuous 
 vengeance. When the guard appeared in 
 his prison, with cords to bind his hands, he 
 refused to submit to the indignity, declaring 
 himself willing to die. He had already cut 
 off the collar of the jerkin he wore, to render 
 the headman's office more easy. He was 
 dressed in a gown of red damask, with over 
 it a short, black Spanish cloak, embroidered 
 with gold. It was about eleven o'clock when 
 he mounted the scaffold, followed by the 
 Bishop of Ypern and Don Juhan Romero 
 and Salinas, Spanish officers. The execu- 
 tioner was kept concealed beneath the scaf- 
 fold until the last moment. 
 
 It had been his intention to address a few 
 words to the people before he died ; but he 
 was dissuaded from this intention by the 
 bishop, who pointed out that the Flemings 
 were too far from the scaffold to hear his 
 words, while the Spanish soldiers who stood 
 near would not understand them ; and that, 
 moreover, in the excited state of popular 
 feeling, a disturbance might arise. The 
 Count traversed the scaffold several times 
 with long strides, deploring that fortune had 
 not permitted him to lose his life gloriously, 
 on a field of battle, in defence of his King 
 and country. Even then he could hardly 
 realise the idea that this was his death hour. 
 He turned towards Romero and asked if 
 no mercy was to be hoped for. Romero 
 shrugged his shoulders and looked down in 
 silence ; whereupon the unfortunate man 
 ground his teeth in momentary anger ; and 
 then recovering his composure, submitted to 
 his fate. 
 
 He threw off his cloak and robe, knelt on 
 the cushion in front of the block, and re- 
 cited the Lord's Prayer with the Bishop 
 of Ypern, who afterwards, at his' request, 
 repeated it. Then he took of his hat and 
 the collar of the Golden Fleece, drew a cap 
 over his eyes, and with the exclamation, 
 "Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit!" 
 calmly awaited the stroke. The executioner 
 then advanced and severed his head from 
 his shoulders at one blow. A black cloth 
 was at once thrown over the bleeding 
 remains. 
 
 It had been the Count's last petition that 
 he should die before his friend, Horn, for 
 whose fate he in some degree considered 
 himself responsible. This request, it has 
 been seen, was granted ; and thus but a few 
 minutes had elapsed after the Count had 
 ceased to breathe, before the Count Horn 
 appeared advancing to the scaffold sur- 
 rounded by Spanish guards. Like Egmont 
 he was not bound. He walked with head 
 erect, calmly saluting those of his friends . 
 whom he recognised in the crowd. He was 
 
 629 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 dressed in black, but did not, like Egmont, 
 wear the insignia of the Golden Fleece. 
 As he mounted the scaffold, he cast his 
 eye on the motionless heap concealed by 
 the black pall, and asked if that was 
 the body of his friend ; on being answered 
 in the affirmative, he said a few words 
 in Spanish, whose purport was lost. He 
 caught sight of his own coat of arms 
 reversed, and expressed some displeasure 
 at the indignity, which he declared he had 
 not deserved. He addressed a few words to 
 the spectators, and desired them to pray for 
 his soul. Then he joined in prayer with the 
 Bishop of Ypern, and, like his friend, pulled 
 a black silk cap over his face, and com- 
 mended his soul to^the hands of his Creator. 
 As in Egmont's case, his head rolled on the 
 scaffold at the first stroke. 
 
 The bearing of the two men in their last 
 moments had been full of mournful dignity. 
 Even Alva, who witnessed the execution 
 from a neighbouring window, and whose 
 iron nature was so far touched that un- 
 wonted tears ran down his cheeks, declared 
 in a despatch to his master, King Philip, 
 that the Counts Egmont and Horn died 
 '"''fort modestement et cathoUquement" The 
 people were deeply moved. The oppressive 
 silence that prevailed until the tragedy was 
 over was broken by a confused sound of. 
 groans, sobs, and weeping. Not all the 
 terror inspired by the Spanish soldiery could 
 prevent the citizens from pressing forward 
 with handkerchiefs to the scaffold where 
 Egmont and his friend had fallen, "to dip 
 their napkins in their sacred blood ;" nor is 
 it an undue stretch of imagination to suppose 
 them "mentioning" these relics "in their 
 wills, bequeathing them, as a rich legacy, 
 unto their issues." Apart from the cruelty 
 and treachery of the whole proceeding, 
 Philip could not have committed a greater 
 political blunder than he perpetrated by 
 putting to death in Egmont the man who 
 more than all others could have been useful 
 to him in pacifying Flanders ; and who, 
 exceedingly fond of pomp and splendour, 
 ambitious for the sort of honours and dis- 
 tinctions kings can readily give, and a devout 
 worshipper alike of royalty and of the Ca- 
 tholic Church, was at the same time the man 
 to whom the Flemings would most readily 
 listen ; while with regard to Horn, who was 
 still less of a great man than Egmont, he 
 was the very reverse of a dangerous character, 
 being in general " indifferent alike to t^e cry 
 of "FzW les Gueux I" and of " Vive k roy/'-' 
 and caring nothing for Cardinalists or Confe- 
 derates ; for, indeed, while he cordially detested 
 Granvella, he detested Brederode also. He 
 was a morose man, brooding over the injuries 
 and slights he considered himself to have 
 received, and little disposed to enter actively 
 
 into political life. "How wretched is that 
 poor man who hangs on princes' favours," 
 seems to have been the sum of his expe- 
 rience ; and though it was in his house that 
 the Gueux met on a celebrated occasion, he 
 sedately went to bed, and left them to shout 
 and make speeches as they chose. On 
 various occasions he manifested kindliness 
 of feeling and even generosity ; and there is 
 something approaching the romantic in his 
 attachment to Count Egmont, whom he 
 sincerely admired, and whose fate he pro- 
 fessed, and indeed showed himself willing to 
 share ; but of the talents and qualities that 
 mark men out as leaders in times of national 
 danger and perplexity, and that render them 
 formidable foes to the persons and systems 
 they oppose, he had absolutely none. From 
 few prominent men had Philip less danger 
 to apprehend than from Philip Montmorency, 
 Count Horn. 
 
 But the infamous treachery and cruelty that 
 characterised the arrest, trial, and execution 
 of these men converted them, and especially 
 Egmont, into popular heroes and martyrs ; 
 and the hatred of Alva was intensified by it 
 to a degree that at last proved fatal to him. 
 " Like things of another world seem the cries^ 
 lamentations, and just compassion which 
 all the inhabitants of Brussels, noble or 
 ignoble, feel for such barbarous tyranny," 
 wrote Hoogstraten, " while this Nero of an 
 Alva is boasting that he will do the same to 
 all whom he lays his hands upon." 
 
 The heads of the victims were duly fixed 
 upon the poles in front of the scaffold, where 
 they remained for a few hours ; they were then 
 taken down. One account describes them 
 as having been sent to Madrid, that Philip 
 might be gratified with ocular assurance 
 that his vengeance had been completed. 
 
 How Duke Alva ruled in the Nether- 
 lands. 
 
 The chief instrument of Alva in the 
 government of the country he came to tran- 
 quihze, or rather to terrorise, was a council 
 called by himself the Council of the Dis- 
 turbances, and more appropriately by the 
 outraged nation the Council of Blood. 
 This tribunal, consisting of twelve members^ 
 was presided over by the Duke himself, his 
 chief lieutenant being a certain Vargas, a 
 Spaniard of abandoned character, who had 
 been expelled from his own country for an 
 infamous crime perpetrated on a ward of his 
 own, and anxious to ingratiate himself with 
 his savage master by utter ruthlessness of 
 conduct. With him were associated certain 
 " Spanish vagabonds," as Schiller calls them, 
 and some men of repute, Flemings, who, 
 however, appeared seldom or never at the 
 council board ; so that frequently sentences 
 involving the lives and property of men of high 
 
 630 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 rank and unblemished character were signed 
 by Vargas and the secretary alone. "As an 
 administrator of the civil and judicial affairs 
 of the country," says Motley, " Alva at once 
 reduced its institutions to a frightful sim- 
 plicity. In the place of the ancient laws of 
 which the Netherlanders were so proud, he 
 substituted the Blood Council. This tribunal 
 was even more arbitrary than the Inquisition. 
 Never was a simpler apparatus for tyranny 
 devised than thisgreat labour-savingmachine; 
 never was so great a quantity of murder and 
 robbery achieved with such despatch and 
 regularity. Sentences, executions, and con- 
 fiscations were turned out daily with an 
 appalling regularity." Those who were 
 summoned before this tribunal, which was 
 more dreaded than even the Inquisition 
 itself, usually failed to appear; for conviction 
 and execution were certain to follow. In- 
 deed, it is told that one of the m.embers of 
 the Council of Blood, a councillor named 
 Hesselts, frequently falling asleep at the 
 sittings of the court, on being awakened to 
 give his vote for or against a sentence of 
 death, used to call out, half in his sleep, '■' Ad 
 patibuhnn I ad patibitlum P' so accustomed 
 had he become to condemn accused persons 
 to the stake. 
 
 And in this tribunal of blood and destruc- 
 tion, the Duke's instinct of despotism pre- 
 vailed over all other considerations. In 
 his gloomy, fanatical mind there was no 
 natural wish to divide the sinister responsi- 
 bility that attached to the daily judicial 
 murders, the headings, hangings, quarter- 
 ings, burnings, that had become the ordinary 
 incidents of every day. The members of the 
 tribunal had only counselling voices ; the 
 Duke reserving to himself the determining of 
 the sentences. Those who failed to appear 
 were banished from the country, and all their 
 property was confiscated to the government. 
 Thus these summonses became a useful and 
 unfailing supply for the royal treasury, forty 
 or fifty persons being frequently summoned 
 in one day ; and it was noticed that the 
 greatest danger was incurred in this matter 
 by the richest citizens. Every circumstance 
 of terrorism was employed to increase and 
 heighten the dread excited by these proceed- 
 ings. The oldest and most respected citizens 
 were treated like common malefactors, 
 paraded through the streets with their hands 
 bound behind their backs, or dragged to the 
 tribunal at the tail of a trooper's horse. The ] 
 Duke had immediately on his arrival ordered 
 the building of a number of new prisons, and 
 all these were quickly crowded with captives. 
 In one day fifty-five men were executed at 
 Valenciennes. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine a more utterly 
 miserable condition than that of the Nether- 
 lands during the six years of Alva's ruthless 
 
 63 
 
 rule. No man's life, no man's property 
 was safe for an instant. Against the sen- 
 tences of the Council of Blood there was 
 no kind of appeal. The wholesale con- 
 fiscations of estates undermined all public 
 credit and confidence ; the creditors of those 
 who were thus rendered unable to pay their 
 debts were frequently ruined ; and an attempt 
 to enforce a claim against a forfeited estate 
 was met by the Council of Blood with such a 
 system of chicanery and delay that the un- 
 fortunate appellant was generally beggared 
 before his case was decided. " Of such a 
 thorough reversal of the laws, of such violent 
 attacks upon property, and such prodigal 
 waste of human life," says the chronicler of 
 the Revolt of the Netherlands, " the history 
 of civilised states can give hardly more than 
 one other example ; but Cinna, Sulla, and 
 Marius entered the vanquished city of Rome 
 as offended conquerors, and at least they 
 practised without concealment what the 
 Governor of the Netherlands carried on 
 under the respectable veil of the law." It 
 was at that time that the Regent, Margaret of 
 Parma, horrified at the atrocities everywhere 
 committed, and finding herself deserted by 
 the sycophantic Court that now cringed and 
 bowed around the all-powerful duke and his 
 sons, urgently entreated to be relieved of her 
 functions, which, indeed, had become but 
 nominal. 
 
 Her request was granted indeed, but not 
 in the manner she would have wished. Some- 
 what fond of pomp and splendour, she had 
 hoped to take leave of the Netherlanders at a 
 solemn ceremonial, like that observed on the 
 day when her father, the Emperor Charles V., 
 transferred his power to the hands of the son 
 who afterwards made such evil use of it. 
 But this was not in Alva's plan. He desired 
 that all eyes should be fastened, in a fasci- 
 nation of terror, on himself ; and theex- Regent 
 was obliged to take leave of the Estates in a 
 letter, in which she reviewed the chief points 
 of her nine years' administration, and asserted 
 that she left behind her a completed work, 
 and that her successor had no task to per- 
 form but the punishment of criminals. How 
 competent he was to undertake that task, 
 and to include the whole population of the 
 country in the list of the criminals on whom 
 vengeance was to be taken, the Duke had 
 already sufficiently shown. It was at the 
 end of 1567 that Margaret quitted Brussels. 
 
 She had been at best but a vacillating and 
 unsatisfactory ruler, giving grudgingly and of 
 necessity, when she Ijad not the power to 
 refuse, and misrepresenting to her cruel and 
 despotic brother the people who were only 
 too ready to believe loyally in her good 
 intentions. She was learned in the Italian 
 policy of the time, that rested upon 
 chicanery and cunning, and therefore totally 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY 
 
 incompetent to rule a people -with whom 
 honesty was emphatically the best policy, 
 and, indeed, the only one which could ensure 
 permanent success and tranquillity. But 
 her rule, unsatisfactory as it was, appeared 
 bright and happy in contrast to the reign of 
 terror inaugurated by Alva, and her occa- 
 sional harshness appeared mercy itself when 
 weighed against his undeviating and syste- 
 matic cruelty; and thus it was that she quitted 
 Brussels amid the regrets of the inhabitants, 
 who felt only too keenly that a far worse 
 thing had come upon them than could have 
 befallen them under the rule of Margaret of 
 Parma. 
 
 A pension, and a large sum in hand as a 
 present, were awarded to her ; but the pension 
 appears to have been very irregularly paid, if 
 at times it was not altogether withheld ; to 
 the serious embarrassment of the ex-Regent, 
 whose efforts had certainly deserved a better 
 recognition. 
 
 Her departure left Alva entirely free to 
 pursue his own course ; and by his own letters 
 to the King at Madrid, that course was 
 sufficiently explained. It was simply to look 
 upon the provinces in general as one great 
 and collective criminal, to be punished to the 
 utmost in life and goods — to make a solitude 
 and call it peace. 
 
 In a contemporary document the system is 
 summed up in vigorous language of denunci- 
 ation, as consisting of " plundering, robbing 
 and harrying, drivhig away and devastating, 
 terrorising and tormenting, banishing, exiling, 
 and confiscation, even in burning and hang- 
 ing, heading, gashing, breaking on the wheel, 
 torturing with horrible and ghastly pains, 
 punishing and murdering the subjects, the 
 noble as well as the lowborn, the poor and 
 the rich alike, young and old, widows and 
 orphans, men, women, and maidens." Such 
 was Alva's rule in the Netherlands. Such 
 were the deeds committed with the full 
 approbation of his monarch by one who 
 impiously declared himself the champion of 
 a religion whose fundamental doctrine is 
 charity, and of a Master whose service is 
 perfect freedom. 
 
 How William of Orange fought for 
 Civil and Religious Liberty. 
 While the Netherlands thus lay under the 
 horrors of a ruthless tyranny, and a dumb 
 terror seemed to have seized on every class 
 of the inhabitants, an eagle eye beyond the 
 frontier was watching the course of events, 
 and a bold hand was already stretched out 
 to bfing succour to the oppressed in their 
 utmost need. Wilham the Silent, Prince of 
 Orange Nassau, who had estimated the 
 character of Alva and of Alva's master with 
 a prescience and sagacity very opposite to 
 the careless trustfulness which had cost 
 
 Egmont and Horn their lives, had already 
 been at work for years in the endeavour to 
 unite all lovers of justness and liberty in an 
 organised opposition against a brutal and 
 stupid despotism. He saw the fatal con- 
 sequences of disunion in the reaction which 
 even then was undermining the freedom of 
 various states in Europe. Already at his 
 departure from the Netherlands in 1567 he 
 had urgently advised the Reformers to stand 
 together, and to sink religious differences in 
 the common effort to secure recognition and 
 protection for Protestants. During the next 
 years he had diligently investigated for 
 himself the great truths of the Christian 
 faith, with the result that, more and more 
 convinced of the truth of the Protestant creed, 
 he had quitted the communion of the Church 
 of Rome, and enrolled himself among the 
 ranks of the Reformers, with whom from 
 that day forward he cast in his lot. But 
 there was about his Protestantism none of 
 the narrowness which became a source of so 
 much misfortune and evil to the Reformed 
 Church, splitting it up into factions, while its 
 enemies stood in compact array against it. 
 Protestant principles were recognised by him 
 as containing " the root of the m^atter," and 
 to the Protestant faith he accordingly con- 
 formed ; but he deprecated anything like 
 persecution of the Roman Catholics. "Should 
 we obtain power over any city or cities," he 
 wrote, " let the communities of Papists be as 
 much respected and protected as possible. 
 Let them be overcome, not by violence, but 
 with gentle-mindedness and virtuous treat- 
 ment." He fully recognised the mistake 
 Luther had made when in his obstinate 
 mood he had refused the proffered friendship 
 and co-operation of Zwingli, declaring that 
 the Zurich reformer and his followers were 
 animated by a different spirit from his own. 
 William of Orange even believed in the 
 possibiUty of joining Lutherans and Calvin- 
 ists together, to make efforts in common 
 for the great cause ; though the general 
 opinion was that these two branches of the 
 Protestant Church could no more mingle than 
 oil and water. He stood up consistently and 
 boldly for freedom of conscience. "In an 
 age when toleration was a vice, he had the 
 manhood to cultivate it as a virtue." This 
 alone would have been enough to stamp him 
 as a remarkable man. 
 
 After quitting Flanders, he had zealously 
 set himself to the task of raising forces in 
 Germany ; devoting his own funds to thi? 
 object, and caUing upon the Protestant 
 princes of that empire, the Count Palatine, 
 the Duke of Wurtemberg, the Elector of 
 Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, — all, in fact, 
 whose names were identified through their 
 predecessors with the great struggle made 
 against Charles V. and his attempted 
 
 632 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 religious and political despotism, to join in 
 the great task of resisting this new and 
 crushing tyranny which threatened to enslave 
 one portion of Europe after another. "The 
 danger is common," he emphatically declared, 
 " and so should the cause be. The Spanish 
 forces, once in Flanders, will be always ready 
 to enter Germany ; and you will have new 
 taxes, new 
 customs, se- 
 vere laws 
 more severe- 
 ly executed, 
 heavy yokes 
 upon your 
 persons, and 
 more heavy 
 upon your 
 consciences. 
 I am held," 
 said he, "to 
 be the con- 
 triver of con- 
 spiracies; but 
 what greater 
 glo ry can 
 there be than 
 to maintain 
 the liberty of 
 a man's coun- 
 try, and to 
 die rather 
 than to be 
 enslaved ?" 
 and gradu- 
 ally he recog- 
 nised more 
 and more 
 the fact that 
 " he is a free 
 man whom 
 the truth sets 
 free," and 
 that to fight 
 for political 
 liberty was 
 vain, unless 
 the boon of 
 religious free- 
 dom were 
 obtainedlike- 
 wise. 
 
 It was a 
 tremendous, 
 and appear- 
 ed at first an 
 
 utterly hopeless, struggle. It aged the 
 gallant champion before his time. The effi- 
 gies of William the Silent, and the accounts 
 given of him by those who described him 
 from personal intercourse, alike show him as 
 a man made prematurely old by care, anxiety, 
 and effort, — an old man at little more than 
 forty years of age ; but he had the indomi- 
 
 The Murder of William the Silent. 
 
 table energy and perseverance that at a la'^r 
 period distinguished his illustrious descen- 
 dant, William III. of England, and pushed 
 steadily on, through failure, disaster, and dis- 
 couragement, to ultimate success. 
 
 At the time when his prospects of success 
 seemed most hopeless, he came forward with 
 a remaikable document called an Apology, or 
 
 Justification 
 against his 
 calumnia- 
 t o r s. He 
 disavowed 
 any inten- 
 tion of sub- 
 jecting the 
 rule of Philip 
 of Spain, but 
 subsequently 
 denounced 
 the tyranny 
 of Alva, re- 
 fusing to be- 
 li e ve that 
 the atrocities 
 of the vice- 
 roy could 
 have the 
 sanction or 
 approbation 
 of the go- 
 vernment at 
 Madrid. He 
 solemnly 
 called upon 
 the Nether- 
 landers to 
 unite in re- 
 sistance to 
 this dark 
 tyranny, 
 wa r n i n g 
 them that 
 their lives 
 and liber- 
 ties, and the 
 lives and 
 liberties of 
 their child- 
 ren, were 
 upon the 
 issue. He 
 made every 
 possible ex- 
 ertion, by 
 thesaleof his 
 plate, tapestries, and valuables of all kinds, 
 to raise the necessary funds for paying troops; 
 and gave his brother, Louis of Nassau, a 
 skilful and enterprising general, a commis- 
 sion to enlist a second army, and to fight in 
 the cause of the emancipation of the Nether- 
 lands. 
 
 It seemed as if everything were in vain. 
 
 633 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Alva, though no politician, was a most talented 
 general, and well versed in all the stratagems 
 and points of war, an adept in the mili- 
 tary art as it was understood in those days ; 
 and both the Prince of Orange and his 
 brother met with discomfiture and defeat. 
 The Flemings themselves remained singu- 
 larly inactive, and seemed content to endure 
 the tyranny of Alva, without striking a blow 
 on their own behalf ; and after a struggle, in 
 which the Prince and his brother exhausted 
 every art in the endeavour to maintain them- 
 selves against overwhelming odds, the one 
 was obliged to disband his army he could 
 no longer find means to pay, and the other 
 to seek safety in flight. 
 
 How Alva taxed the FLE]\nNGS, and 
 HOW Taxation brought Revolt. 
 
 The pride and insolence of Alva were 
 raised to the highest pitch by his triumphs 
 over his enemies ; and, indeed, his consum- 
 mate strategy and military skill in the field 
 are worthy of admiration. Four armies had 
 been defeated within a short period, and it 
 seemed as though the victory of despotism 
 could not be more complete and conclusive. 
 The Governor returned to Brussels in triumph, 
 and compelled the city whose houses he had 
 made desolate to put on the garb of rejoicing. 
 Hethat wasted them required of them a song ; 
 and joy-bells pealed from the steeples of the 
 capital in honour of the tyrant whom every 
 man looked on with secret aversion and 
 horror. As a lasting record of his triumphs, 
 Alva caused a colossal statue of himself to 
 be erected, as Dupleix afterwards had a 
 pillar with a vaunting inscription raised to 
 commemorate his triumphs in the Carnatic. 
 On the pedestal of Alva's statue appeared 
 the words : " To Ferdinand Alvaro de Toledo, 
 Duke of Alva, Governor of the Netherlands 
 under Philip the Second, for having extin- 
 guished sedition, chastised rebelhon, restored 
 religion, secured justice, established peace : 
 to the King's most faithful minister this 
 monument is erected." Motley relates how De 
 Thou, who saw this statue after it was over- 
 thrown, described himself as equally struck 
 by the beauty of the work and by the insane 
 pride of him who ordered it to be made. 
 The fact of the erection of this statue is 
 important as showing the state of mind of 
 Alva ; and the circumstance had at a later time 
 an important bearing upon the fortunes of 
 the Duke. For Philip,jealous and mistrustful 
 at all times, did not view with complacency 
 this self-glorification of his lieutenant ; and 
 the statue, with its inscription, was an impor- 
 tant factor among the reasons which brought 
 about the recall of Alva at a later time. 
 
 Alva now entered upon a course that, if per- 
 sisted in, would not fail to bring speedy ruin 
 on the provinces he was misgoverning. He 
 
 interfered, and that ihost clumsily and igno- 
 rantly, with the system of taxation. It had 
 been for centuries the privilege of the Nether- 
 landers that they had the control of the 
 levying of imposts throughout their country, 
 and this privilege had been expressly 
 confirmed to them by Xh.^''^ Joyeicsc entree^^'' 
 and by the various enactments at different 
 times. The king could not by his own power 
 raise any tax in the Low Countries. When 
 money was wanted, the course of proceed- 
 ing was, that he should, in person or by 
 his representatives, present a request to the 
 Estates, stating the sum he required, and that 
 it should lie with the Estates to grant or 
 refuse the request, or to defer the supply to 
 a future time. On the 20th of March, 1569, 
 Alva, having summoned a General Assembly 
 of the provincial Estates in Brussels, made 
 three arbitrary demands : — Firstly, a tax of 
 the hundredth penny, or one per cent., to be 
 paid immediately upon all movable or im- 
 movable property, that is upon real estate and 
 personality. Secondly, a tax of the twentieth 
 penny, or five per cent., on all immovable 
 goods or heritage each time such estate was 
 sold or transferred. Thirdly, a tax of ten 
 per cent, on all merchandise, goods, and 
 movable property, to be paid each time such 
 property was sold. 
 
 The first of these three taxes was to be 
 levied only once, though there wds not the 
 slightest guarantee that it would not be re- 
 demanded ; the second and third were to be 
 perpetual. 
 
 The imperious Duke could not have made 
 a greater administrative and financial blunder 
 — could not have shown himself more utterly 
 ignorant of the first principles of political 
 economy. In a commercial and manufac- 
 turing community, where rapidity and fre- 
 quency of sale were the very conditions of 
 prosperity and success, such a tax as ten per 
 cent., repeated at every sale, would soon 
 amount to an utterly prohibitive impost, and, 
 if enforced, would at once stop production 
 and commerce. Moreover, it weighed upon 
 every individual in the community, threaten- 
 ing all alike. Catholics and Protestants, rich 
 merchants and small traders, with an equal 
 ruin ; and thus was exactly calculated to pro- 
 duce something like union in resistance. 
 
 The strongest remonstrances were ad- 
 dressed to the Duke, to whom it was repre- 
 sented in vain that " if this ten per cent, was 
 paid on every sale of an article, — first, on the 
 wool, for instance, then on the yarn, then on 
 the cloth before it was dyed ; then when sold 
 first to the merchant, secondly to the retailer, 
 and lastly to the consumer,— no foreigner 
 would be willing, and no home customer would 
 be able to buy it ; and that, on the whole, 
 such a tax could only produce the ruin of the 
 manufacture itself and all concerned, or, in 
 
 634 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT 
 
 other words, of all the sources of revenue 
 together." On this occasion the members 
 of the Council were in entire opposition to 
 the Duke. Even Viglius, generally the most 
 time-serving and pliable of men, entered his 
 strong protest against Alva's proceedings, 
 and endeavoured to persuade the viceroy 
 that such a measure as this must inevitably 
 defeat itself, and that the King would probably 
 disapprove of it. The Governor replied that 
 it was only a reproduction of the Spanish tax 
 called alcabala, which had been levied with 
 success in Spain, and in his own town of 
 Alva had produced fifty thousand crowns. 
 Vighus in vain argued that a sparsely popu- 
 lated, agricultural country like Spain was 
 very different from Flanders. The Duke was 
 inexorable, and declared himself determined 
 to carry out his decrees to the letter. 
 
 Then first did the position begin to be un- 
 tenable for him. His name was pronounced 
 with such execrations throughout the pro- 
 vinces that.he himself began to wish himself 
 away from a country whose air seemed laden 
 with curses. In Holland especially, where 
 the community was more commercial than 
 in the southern provinces, the indignation 
 swelled at last into overt resistance, the town 
 of Utrecht flatly refusing to pay the impost. 
 And even in Brussels a practical protest was 
 made, people shutting up their shops and 
 declining trade altogether, rather than carry 
 it on under conditions involving certain ruin. 
 The emigration also recommienced with re- 
 doubled force ; towns sank into the condition 
 of villages, and villages were deserted. A 
 deputation also set off for Spain, personally 
 to lay this grave matter before the King, who, 
 it might be hoped, would give his subjects 
 some relief in this case, as it was not one 
 connected with heresy or the supremacy of 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 How THE GUEUX CAME INTO THE FlELD 
 ONCE MORE. 
 
 For a time the question as to the obnoxious 
 tax was provisionally adjusted ; but Alva was 
 bent on making the impost perpetual, and the 
 strife broke out with more acrimony than 
 ever. Philip had by this time also begun to 
 contemplate the judiciousness of recalling the 
 governor, whose measures had not succeeded, 
 as it seemed, in entirely crushing out the 
 spirit of disaffection in the provinces. Alva, 
 on his part, made ardent application to be 
 recalled, assuring His JVIajesty in his letters 
 of the safe and prosperous condition of 
 affairs, and declaring that his successor would 
 have nothing to do out to maintain affairs in 
 the pacified state which he boasted of having 
 brought about "without violence." Towards 
 the end of 157 1, Philip, after much hesitation, 
 determined to give Alva a successor in the 
 Netherlands, and a commission as governor- 
 
 general was made out in the name of the 
 Duke of Medina Coeli. 
 
 Early in 1572, Don Francis de Alava, the 
 Spanish ambassador to the Court of France, 
 paid a visit to Brussels, and had an oppor- 
 tunity, during his progress through Flanders, 
 of seeing with his own eyes the disastrous 
 state of affairs ; and Noircarmes, once a hot 
 partisan of Alva, bluntly declared to him that 
 "the Duke would never disabuse his mind of 
 the filthy penny," and that, in addition to all 
 the merchants and artisans who had already 
 fled the country, there were ten thousand 
 more who vrould go if the Governor persisted 
 in his demand, and that a disaster might 
 arise beyond human power to remedy. The 
 other chief men in the city held the same 
 language ; and Alava, thoroughly alarmed, 
 reported to Philip, on his return to Spain, 
 how dangerous a crisis might be expected at 
 any moment in the Netherlands, and how, 
 with regard to Alva, the whole nation was 
 uniting in one cry, " Let him begone ! Let 
 him begone ! " Even Philip could not hear 
 such a report, from such a quarter, without 
 serious disquietude. 
 
 Meanwhile the Prince of Orange, undis- 
 mayed by frequent failures and defeats, was 
 hard at work to find the means of resuming 
 the struggle. He understood the extent of 
 the hatred borne to Alva, and how the pros- 
 pect of commercial ruin had stimulated many 
 to the thought of resistance who could have 
 been influenced by no other means. " Had 
 we money now," he wrote, " we should, with 
 the help of God, hope to effect something. 
 This is a time when, even with small sums, 
 more can be achieved than at other seasons 
 with ampler funds." In fact, a new organiza- 
 tion was being brought together. A number 
 of the merchants, and of those employed by 
 them in sea-faring pursuits, were uniting for 
 active contest against the power that had 
 ruined them, by taking " the means whereby 
 they hved." They called themselves Water 
 Gueux, or Beggars of the Sea, and became 
 formidable by attacking coast towns and 
 capturing Spanish ships. These "sturdy 
 beggars " levied contributions at the sword's 
 point. Their warfare was of the most 
 irregular kind, and, indeed, in many in- 
 stances, bore a curiously close resemblance 
 to piracy. But they contrived to make them- 
 selves as much dreaded as the Normans of 
 old by their unfailing energy and prowess ; 
 and they exerted a vast influence on the issue 
 of the great struggle. Their one dominant 
 idea was hatred to Alva and determination 
 to overthrow his power. 
 
 How THE Tide began to turn, and 
 HOW Brill was taken and held. 
 The more it appeared that the scheme of 
 the "tenth penny" was impracticable the 
 
 635 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 more determined was Alva to enforce it. At 
 length the citizens of Brussels adopted the 
 violent remedy of avoiding carrying on trade 
 at a loss by ceasing to trade at all. They 
 shut up their warehouses ; and even the 
 dealers in the necessaries of life, the butchers 
 and the bakers, closed their shops. The 
 despotic Governor had no idea of being 
 foiled in this way, and prepared to teach the 
 burghers of Brussels a lesson in his own 
 •characteristic fashion. He sent for Master 
 Carl, the executioner of Brussels ; and that 
 functionary was ordered at once to prepare 
 eighteen ropes, and the same number of 
 ladders, twelve feet long. The spectacle of 
 a dozen and a half refractory butchers, 
 bakers, and grocers suspended at their own 
 doorposts would, the Governor thought, teach 
 a salutary lesson to recalcitrant traders in 
 general, and bring them to a better frame of 
 mind with respect to taxation. Viglius was 
 aroused from his bed at midnight to prepare 
 the warrants for the executions (the men 
 were to have no form of trial), and Mastei 
 Carl was busily making his preparations for 
 what was to happen at the next morning's 
 dawn, when startling intelligence arrived, 
 that caused the Duke to pause, and saved 
 the lives of the doomed citizens. 
 
 A fleet of ships, manned by the Beggars of 
 the Sea, had been lying in the Channel near 
 the south coast of England. Elizabeth, who 
 was anxious at that juncture to avoid a war 
 with Spain, had hstened to the remonstrances 
 of Alva's commissioners, who protested 
 against the victualling of the ships of 
 enemies from England ; and accordingly 
 provisions were refused, and the ships were 
 compelled to sail away. The little fleet was 
 commanded by a certain William de la 
 Mark, who seems to have had much in 
 common with the ancestor described by 
 Scott in " Quentin Durward" as the Wild 
 Boar of the Ardennes, — a black-bearded, 
 fierce rover of the sea, with more than a 
 suspicion of the pirate about him, and 
 seconded by captains, most of whom had 
 personal injuries inflicted by Alva to avenge. 
 
 Compelled to sail away from Dover, 
 De la Mark and his ships crossed the 
 North Sea, entered the Meuse, and sud- 
 denly appeared opposite the town of Brill, 
 which they had once summoned to surrender, 
 declaring they would hold the place for 
 William of Orange, as the lawful stadtholder 
 for Philip, King of Spain. The burgomaster 
 and officials of the town were taken by sur- 
 prise, and in their bewilderment knew not 
 what to do. Many saved themselves by 
 flight, carrying off so much of their goods 
 as they could remove. But a feeble resist- 
 ance was made. William de la Mark's 
 followers lighted a bonfire at one of the 
 city gates, and battered in the charred por- 
 
 tals with the stump of an old mast. They 
 were quickly lords of the town. They 
 spared the inhabitants, offering them no 
 violence or indignity. But the churches 
 were plundered, the vestments, chalices, and 
 valuables of all kinds being carried off to 
 the ships. Thirteen priests were also taken 
 prisoners, and soon afterwards cruelly put 
 to death. A footing had at last been estab- 
 lished on Flemish ground for the revolution, 
 which design had been so long cherished ; 
 and it has rightly been said that with the 
 capture of Brill the foundation was laid for 
 the Dutch Republic. 
 
 Such was the news that startled Alva, and 
 caused him to postpone for the time the exe- 
 cution of the burghers of Brussels. He tried 
 to make light of it, and dismiss it with the 
 remark, '' It is nothing;" but even his dull 
 apprehension could not fail to see and note 
 the impulse this first success gave to further 
 resistance. The capture of Brill had occurred 
 on All Fools' Day, the ist of April, a cir- 
 cumstance which satire and sarcasm did not 
 fail to note. The name of the town Brill 
 happens also to be the Flemish and German 
 term for spectacles. Accordingly a punning 
 rhyme was repeated throughout Brussels, 
 setting forth how " Den ersten dag van 
 April., Verloos Due cCAlva signen BriW' — 
 On the ist day of April Duke Alva lost his 
 Brill (spectacles). Though he affected to 
 make light of the loss, Alva at once gave 
 orders to one of his lieutenants, Count Bossu, 
 to recover the place. But De la Mark and 
 his courageous and skilful second. Com- 
 mander Treslong, succeeded in holding the 
 place. And the spark once kindled quickly 
 spread from town to town along the coast 
 of Holland, until that which had at first ap- 
 peared a foolhardy and desperate venture 
 gradually shaped itself into a great enterprise, 
 fraught with hopes and probabilities of good 
 and enduring success. 
 
 How Alva's Rule in Flanders came 
 
 TO AN END. 
 
 The year 1572 was a memorable one in the 
 annals of the Netherlands. It was a time of 
 great and rapid gains to the movement which 
 had commenced at Brill. Flushing presently 
 declared for the Prince of Orange, and 
 then Enkhuizen, the great arsenal city of 
 the Zuyder Zee, followed the example ; 
 and presently a number of cities, includ- 
 ing Alkmaar, Dort, Oudewater, Haarlem, 
 Gorcum, Leyden, Gouda, Horn, etc., ac- 
 knowledged the authority of William the 
 Silent as their stadtholder. The movement 
 spread from the provinces of Holland and 
 Zeeland throughout Gelderland, Overyssel, 
 and the See of Utrecht.. In some parts the 
 revolution was quietly and peacefully ef- 
 fected ; in others, as in the island of 
 
 636 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 Walcheren, where one half declared for the 
 Prince of Orange while the other held out for 
 Alva, there was a fierce struggle, character- 
 ised by the horrors of civil war. The hatred 
 towards the Spaniards showed itself in acts 
 of savage cruelty. The republic of North 
 Holland was formed, and placed by the 
 Prince of Orange under the lieutenant- 
 governorship of Diedrich Sonoy. As yet, 
 however, all that was done was done in the 
 name of the King's authority. Alva was 
 the man against whose ruthless rule the 
 rising professed to be directed. 
 
 To do the Duke justice, he was never 
 wanting in courage, energy, or skill, when 
 enemies were to be encountered in the field ; 
 but he was bitterly conscious of the detes- 
 tation he had excited in the provinces, and 
 felt that his name was a signal for still more 
 desperate resistance. " The hatred Avhich the 
 people bear me, because of the chastisement 
 which it has been necessary for me to inflict, 
 although with all the moderation in the 
 world, makes all my efforts vain. A suc- 
 cessor will meet with more sympathy, and 
 prove more successful." Now at last he v/as 
 obliged to humble his pride so far as de- 
 finitely to give up his cherished scheme of 
 the "Tenth penny," in return for a supply of 
 money for the war, of which he stood urgently 
 in need. 
 
 Like many concessions made by tyrants, 
 this came too late. The Estates, when they 
 met at Dort, repudiated the authority of 
 Alva, and while they still professed to look 
 on the Spanish Crown as their suzerain, 
 determined that William the Silent should 
 be their ruler. It was at the summons of 
 the Prince of Orange, who assembled them 
 by right of the stadtholdership conferred 
 upon him in 1559, that the Estates met at 
 Dort on the 15th of July, 1572. "The 
 Prince represented the royal authority, the 
 nobles represented both themselves and the 
 people of the open country, while the twelve 
 towns represented the whole body of burghers. 
 Together they were supposed to embody all 
 authority, both divine and human, which a 
 congress could exercise. 
 
 The fairest hopes of a speedy and com- 
 plete success now brightened the path of the 
 Prince of Orange. France was supposed to 
 be favourably disposed towards the cause of 
 freedom in the Netherlands ; and Admiral 
 Coligny, the chief of the Protestant party in 
 that kingdom, had even written to William, 
 assuring the stadtholder of the good inten- 
 tions of his master, Charles IX., towards 
 him, and announcing a hope of soon joining 
 him with a large body of French arque- 
 busiers and cavalry, when the terrible mas- 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew dashed all these 
 fair prospects to the ground, striking the 
 Prince, as he expressed it, "as with the 
 
 blow of a sledge-hammer." More than 5,000 
 Huguenots massacred in Paris alone, and 
 a slaughter throughout the kingdom, com- 
 puted according to the lowest calculation at 
 25,000, according to the highest estimate at 
 100,000, struck all Protestant Europe with 
 horror, while it rendered Philip and the 
 Vatican jubilant with triumph. For a time 
 the plans of the Prince of Orange in the 
 south were frustrated. Mons, the capital of 
 Hainault, fell into the hands of Alva, who, 
 after deceiving the citizens by promises of 
 fair treatment, adopted his usual measures 
 of heading, hanging, burning, and confis- 
 cation, so soon as the place, trusting to his 
 word, had capitulated on the distinct under- 
 standing that all the soldiers, as well as such 
 of the inhabitants as had borne arms, should 
 be allowed to leave the city with all their 
 property, while the rest of the people might 
 remain without molestation to their persons 
 or estates. Noircarmes, the captain of 
 Alva, distinguished himself on this occasion 
 alike by his ferocity and cupidity, selecting 
 the richest citizens as his victims, often 
 putting twenty to death on the same day, 
 and enriching himself by the plunder of 
 their estates and goods. The archiepiscopal 
 city of Mechlin was the next victim, being 
 delivered over to the rapacity of the Spanish 
 soldiers, who had become mutinous through 
 the withholding of their pay, and were thus 
 allowed to indemnify themselves. Not only 
 the houses of the citizens, but the churches 
 themselves were plundered by these profes- 
 sors of the Roman Cathohc faith with a fury 
 equal to anything the iconoclasts had ever 
 shown in their most extravagant fanaticism ; 
 while the scene of plunder was now sup- 
 plemented by a massacre which spared 
 neither man, woman, nor child in the un- 
 happy city, its horrors being recorded by 
 the testimony of the most credible witnesses 
 among the Catholic party itself Thus 
 Richardot, the nephew of the Bishop of 
 Arras, after describing the horrors he had 
 witnessed, declared "he could say more if 
 his hair did not stand on end, not only at 
 recounting, but even at remembering, the 
 scene." The Duke congratulated Philip upon 
 a pious and signal success. 
 
 The horrors were even exceeded by the 
 enormities practised at the sack of Zutphen 
 and the taking of Haarlem. For a time the 
 ascendency of Alva and Philip seemed in 
 a fair way to be restored ; but the courage 
 of the Protestants mounted with the occa- 
 sion. Each new enormity only strengthened 
 the determination never to submit to a go- 
 vernment whose tender mercies were thus 
 cruel, and deeds of heroic valour marked 
 every stage of the strife. " Never was a 
 place defended with such skill and bravery 
 as Haarlem," Alva wrote to Philip, "either 
 
 637 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 by rebels or by men fighting for their lawful 
 prince." 
 
 At last, on the 17th of November, 1573, 
 Don Louis de Requescens, whom Philip had 
 appointed to relieve Alva of his governorship, 
 arrived in Brussels; to the great joy of the 
 inhabitants, who entertained good hopes 
 from this change of rulers, and felt that they 
 could not possibly be in worse hands than 
 those of the ruthless satrap who for six years 
 
 was among the offences Philip never par- 
 doned. During the rest of his life he was 
 looked upon with much decreased confidence 
 and favour. The King, indeed, employed 
 him occasionally in State affairs, but rather 
 as a tool than an adviser ; and Alva died 
 at length, after lingering for a time in a 
 state of pitiable physical weakness, leaving 
 a name as typical as that of Nero of cruelty 
 and wrons:. 
 
 Fighting in the Streets of Antwerp. 
 
 had turned their fair city into a shambles. 
 On the 1 8th of December Alva departed, 
 pursued by the curses of the whole country. 
 He boasted that during his rule he had put 
 more than eighteen thousand persons to death 
 by the axe and the brand, in honour of the 
 holy Church, and for the maintenance of his 
 master's authority. He had not even the 
 consolation of having completely satisfied 
 his cruel master ; for he had failed in the 
 task of subjugating the provinces ; and failure 
 
 How Alva's Successors ruled for 
 Philip in the Netherlands. 
 
 Requescens, the "Grand Commander," was 
 virtually compelled by the circumstances 
 under which he assumed the government of 
 the Netherlands in some measure to reverse 
 the poUcy of his predecessor, and to rule with 
 at least an appearance of conciliation and 
 benevolence. But it was not in the inten- 
 tion of his master to grant the concessions 
 
 638 
 
WHAT CAME OF THE BEGGARS' REVOLT. 
 
 without which permanent peace in the 
 Netherlands was impossible, namely, freedom 
 of conscience and self-government in the 
 matter of taxation. He was moreover ham- 
 pered by his inability to control the brutal 
 violence, rapacity, and cruelty of the troops, 
 which during his time broke out in that 
 "Spanish fury" whose enormities and crimes 
 have further stained a page of history 
 already sufficiently dark. The limited am- 
 nesty with which he sought to conciliate 
 the provinces failed to induce submission ; 
 nor had the well-meant and repeated efforts 
 of the Germ.an Emperor, Maximilian IL, 
 who repeatedly interfered with the hope of 
 bringing about peace by his mediation, a 
 better result. Prince William the Silent 
 continued his attacks, and 'though success 
 appeared almost as far off as ever, the heroic 
 upholders of the Protestant cause, and the 
 defenders of civil and religious liberty, every 
 year they were able to maintain them- 
 selves, they strengthened their position, and 
 increased the sympathy aroused in Europe 
 for their cause. 
 
 At the battle of Mookerheyde, or Mook 
 Heath, near Nimeguen, March 14th, 1574, 
 Requescens gained a great victory over 
 his enemies ; and here the heroic career of 
 Louis of Nassau, the brother of William tlie 
 Silent, closed in death. When all was lost, 
 Louis, with his younger brother. Count 
 Henry of Orange, and a trusted friend, 
 collected some troopers and made a last gal- 
 lant charge upon the foe. They were never 
 seen or heard of more, and it is supposed, 
 therefore, that, slain with their comrades, 
 and trampled out of all recognition by the 
 hoofs of the horses, their plundered corpses 
 were buried, unknown, among the thousands 
 who fell on that disastrous day. Among 
 all the warlike figures that stood forward in 
 those years of strife and bloodshed, none 
 shines with so pure a lustre of single-minded- 
 ness and fidelity as Louis of Nassau. 
 
 But a different result attended the siege 
 of Leyden ; the heroic resistance of the citizens 
 was proof against all the efforts and all the 
 taunts of their enemies, who, having closely 
 invested the city, would cry to the half-starved 
 defenders : "Go up to the tower, ye Beggars, 
 go up to the tower, and tell us if ye can see 
 the ocean coming over the dry land to your 
 relief ! " But the words spoken in scorn were 
 destined to become truth. The dykes were 
 cut, and the ocean poured over the flat land 
 around Leyden, bearing on its bosom the 
 ships of the fierce Beggars of the Sea. The 
 Spaniards fled in terror, as the very elements 
 seemed to fight against them ; and Leyden, 
 after undergoing frightful hardships from 
 famine and pestilence, was saved to the 
 cause of liberty. Great numbers of the foe 
 perished in the waters that came rolling in. 
 
 Requescens died almost suddenly of a fever, 
 brought on by mortification at the failure of 
 his plans. 
 
 His successor was Don Juan of Austria, a 
 natural son of Charles V. ; but an interval 
 elapsed before his arrival, during which time 
 the military and civil affairs of the provinces 
 were conducted by a Council of State. But 
 the authority of this council was totally inade- 
 quate to control the insubordination of the 
 Spanish troops, who had become savagely 
 angry by the withholdhig of their pay, and 
 wreaked vengeance on the foe by indiscri- 
 minate slaughter and rapine. This was es- 
 pecially seen in the sack of the cities of 
 Maestricht and Antwerp. With regard to the 
 former place a contemporary historian says : 
 " The burghers who had escaped the fight had 
 reason to think themselves less fortunate than 
 those who died with arms in their hands, for 
 the indiscriminate slaughter was accompanied 
 with horrible details of torture and cruelty." 
 At Antwerp the Spanish soldiers rushed 
 through the streets with the hid'ious cry : "A 
 sans;re, a came, a fiieso, a sacco .'" (^lood, 
 flesh, fire, sack ! ") ivlotley, in d(?scribing the 
 scene, says : "Of all the deeds of darkness 
 yet compassed in the Netherlands, this was 
 the worst. It was called the Spanish Fury, 
 by which dread name it has been known for 
 ages. The city, which had been a world of 
 wealth and splendour, was changed to a 
 charnel-house, and from that hour its com- 
 mercial prosperity was blasted. . . . Three 
 thousand dead bodies were discovered in the 
 streets; as many more were estimated to have 
 perished in the Scheld ; and nearly an equal 
 number were burned or destroyed in other 
 ways. Eight 'thousand persons undoubtedly 
 were put to death. Six millions of property 
 were destroyed by the fire, and at least as 
 much more was obtained by the Spaniards. 
 ... In this Spanish Fury many more were 
 massacred in Antwerp than in the Saint 
 Bartholomew at Paris." The effect of this 
 horrible crime in rousing the confederate pro- 
 vinces to still more vigorous and determined 
 resistance was like that exercised at a later 
 period in Germany by the sack of Magde- 
 burg under Tilly. 
 
 How THE Prince of Orange triumphed, 
 
 RULED, AND WAS MURDERED. 
 
 William the Stadtholder now succeeded 
 in inducing his adherents to join in the 
 Treaty or Pacification of Ghent, in which the 
 various districts bound themselves to unite 
 in a league, offensive and defensive, for the 
 expulsion of the Spanish armies. Don Juan, 
 on his arrival, also attempted concihation ; 
 but th^ article respecting religious toleration, 
 and a threatening bull of the Pope, made 
 Holland and Zeeland suspicious of the 
 sincerity of the new governor ; and accord- 
 
 639 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ingly they continued the struggle. The other 
 States soon became impressed with the same 
 conviction that they were being deceived ; 
 for they saw now all offices were engrossed 
 by Spaniards, and there were ominous signs 
 of fresh religious persecutions. The States of 
 Brabant accordingly refused obedience to 
 Don Juan, and transferred their allegiance 
 to William of Orange, in conjunction with 
 whom, as he was somewhat distasteful to 
 them as a Calvinist, they associated the 
 Archduke Matthias of Austria. Hainault, 
 and Artois, the Walloon provinces, on the 
 other hand, made an alliance with the French 
 Duke Charles of Anjou. In 1578, death 
 carried off Don Juan. He died, hke his pre- 
 decessor, deeply chagrined at the failure of 
 his plans. 
 
 A man of far greater talent and of stronger 
 mind now became governor of the distracted 
 provinces in the person of Alexander Farnese 
 of Parma, the son of the former Regent 
 Margaret. " Cool, incisive, fearless, artful, 
 he united the unscrupulous audacity of a 
 condottiere with the wily patience of a Jesuit. 
 He could coil unperceived through unsus- 
 pected paths, could strike suddenly, sting 
 mortally. He came prepared not only to 
 smite the Netherlanders in the open field, but 
 to cope with them in tortuous policy; to out- 
 watch and outweary them in the game to 
 which his impatient predecessor had fallen a 
 baffled victim." A partial triumph was won 
 by Alexander Farnese, for he succeeded in 
 preserving the tottering empire of his master 
 in the southern provinces. With consummate 
 cunning he managed to awaken the jealousy 
 of the nobles of Brabant against the Prince 
 of Orange, and to set the Romanist south 
 against the Protestant north, using difference 
 of religion as his lever. WiUiam the Silent 
 found it his best policy to unite the northern 
 provinces, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, etc., 
 into the Union of Utrecht ; and this after- 
 wards widened into the States-General of the 
 United Provinces, or the Dutch Republic. 
 
 In the south, things were still unsettled. 
 Matthias of Austria had exerted little in- 
 fluence on the affairs of South Brabant, and 
 left the country. The Duke of Anjou was 
 found to be intriguing to gain the chief power 
 for himself, with French assistance ; accord- 
 ingly all confidence was withdrawn from him, 
 and he retired to France. Thus the Estates 
 of the southern Netherlands had no head to 
 whom they could look up with the trust that 
 in the sixteenth century could hardly exist 
 where there was diversity of creed ; and 
 Farnese took advantage of theirbewilderment, 
 and regained many cities. 
 
 The King of Spain looked upon William 
 the Silent as the great obstacle to the com- 
 
 plete re-establishment of his power, and 
 resolved to put him out of the way by assas- 
 sination. This method had already been 
 tried at various times, and once, indeed, the 
 Prince had barely escaped with his life. 
 This time it was destined to be successful. 
 A wretched fanatic, Balthasar Gerard, one of 
 those strong instances of frenzied intellect, in 
 which notions of right and wrong seem utterly 
 confused, impelled by the idea that he who 
 slew William the Silent, the arch-heretic, 
 would do a service to religion and the Church, 
 journeyed to Delft, where the Prince was then 
 residing, with the intention of earning the 
 great reward offered for the Prince's death 
 or the martyr's crown by murdering him. 
 It appears he had meditated his design for 
 six years. At Delft he assumed the cha- 
 racter of a zealous Calvinist whose father had 
 given his life for the cause, and thus dis- 
 armed suspicion, which his insignificant and 
 meagre form and undistinguished appear- 
 ance was moreover little calculated to excite. 
 He zealously attended divine service, and 
 thus his person became familiar to the guards. 
 At length he purchased two pistols of a 
 soldier; and, under pretence of an application 
 for a passport, waylaid the Prince as the 
 latter was coming down the staircase from 
 his dining-hall, and discharged three bullets 
 into his body. With an exclamation, " Lord 
 have mercy upon me ! Lord have mercy 
 upon this community ! " the stadtholder sank 
 to the ground, and a few moments later he 
 had breathed his last. It was on the loth of 
 July, 1584. 
 
 The murderer turned and fled, and had 
 almost succeeded in effecting his escape 
 when he was seized by two of the Prince's 
 servants. From that instant till the moment 
 of his death he exhibited the most astonish- 
 ing firmness, glorying in his deed, declaring 
 that he had won paradise by the meritorious 
 action he had performed, and looking upon 
 himself evidently as a martyr in the holiest 
 of causes. " Ecce homo ! " he cried with 
 blasphemous triumph, raisicg his bleeding 
 head from the bench on which he had been 
 made to undergo the utmost extremity of 
 torture. The very executioners were 
 astonished at his constancy, which many 
 ascribed to witchcraft. The extremity of 
 agony was insufficient to wring a cry from 
 him ; and he died at last not only cheerful 
 but triumphant. Philip caused a large sum 
 to be paid to his surviving relatives, and his 
 family was ennobled for the merit of the man 
 who had murdered William the Silent, the 
 great stadtholder, the founder and consolida- 
 tor of Protestant liberty in the Low Countries. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 ^o 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1792. 
 
 A History Crowded into Two Years. 
 
 HE period known as the Reign of 
 Terror in France, comprises the 
 time during which the Revolution 
 passed through its great agony ; when the 
 
 desperate men at the head of the Government, 
 whose position was so precarious that no one 
 could tell what great and startling change the 
 day that was passing over France would 
 bring forth, were ready to adopt any and 
 
 T T 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 every means to keep the ship of the state 
 afloat, to cut away the masts if need were, 
 to scuttle the ship, in the chance of extin- 
 guishing the fire that was consuming it from 
 within, and to fire the magazine and reduce 
 all to heaps of ruin, rather than yield to the 
 foe that assailed them from without. 
 
 It was a time (and thence, indeed, it 
 derived its name) when the great and al- 
 most the sole means employed to maintain 
 authority over cities, provinces, and indi- 
 viduals throughput the length and breadth 
 of France was fear. The one great engine 
 of the Government was the guillotine, the 
 instrument of death introduced by a French 
 physician with the humane intention of 
 rendering execution painless, and employed 
 as the great final argument that was to put 
 down all opposition and remonstrance, 
 causing high and low, the patriot and the 
 intriguer, the warrior and the citizen, to 
 crouch for a time in common submission. 
 So many heads struck off daily, in the 
 presence of a shouting, applauding, ferocious 
 mob ; so many denunciations before the 
 revolutionary tribunals, the accusation being 
 in itself synonymous with condemnation to 
 death, for few and far between were the 
 acquittals ; so many decrees, each surpassing 
 its predecessor in stringent severity, and all 
 having for their object the suppression of 
 resistance by word or deed to the will of the 
 dominant faction, — such were the features 
 by which the Reign of Terror was distin- 
 guished. In that evil period, between the day 
 of the loth of August, 1792, which witnessed 
 the storming of the Tuileries by an infuriated 
 populace, and the downfall of the last 
 remnants of royal authority, to the 9th of 
 Thermidor, the 28th of July, 1794, when the 
 Reign of Terror came to an end with the de- 
 struction of those who had been mainly 
 instrumental in producing it, barely two 
 years intervened ; but into that time was 
 crowded an amount of crime, bloodshed, 
 and sorrow which roused against the great 
 movement in France a bitter outcry from 
 those even who at the outset had been in- 
 clined to look with complacency on the 
 spectacle of a nation bursting the bonds of 
 feudal tyranny that had confined it for years, 
 and awakenmg to self dependence and 
 national life. It was the misfortune of 
 France that she had to achieve in the course 
 of a few months what in England had been 
 spread over many years, even over centuries. 
 In the great events of the struggle, called by 
 Clarendon " the great rebellion," in England, 
 and in the subsequent contest against James 
 IL, a certain deliberation, a sober weighing 
 of alternatives and of consequences by strong, 
 calm men, is everywhere seen. But in 
 France all was wild hurry and excitement; 
 a kind of madness seemed to seize upon men. 
 
 642 
 
 in the face of threatenings from abroad and 
 factions at home. " On joue sa vie a 
 Pepoque ou nous sommes " (" Men gamble 
 for their lives in these days of ours ") said a 
 popular writer of that time. Men and 
 women alike were possessed by a strange 
 morbid restlessness, mainly owing to the 
 insecurity in which they lived, and the 
 feverish excitement of the tremendous changes 
 going on around them. Great deeds of heroism 
 and deeds of detestable cruelty, intense self- 
 devotion and cynical indifference, seemed 
 all chaotically jumbled together in that time 
 when the old form of society, long utterly 
 rotten and honeycombed with wrong, 
 suddenly collapsed, and fell with a crash 
 under the tremendous pressure of the burden 
 of its own injustice and wrong. 
 
 What Followed the Taking of the 
 Bastille in 1789. 
 
 The great outbreak of the 14th of July, 
 showed in an unequivocal manner the strength 
 of the people, and their audacity. The Court 
 and its adherents had proved " in that wild 
 hour how much the wretched dare." The 
 days were evidently gone and past in which 
 popular discontent could be met by a charge 
 of cavalry, and when a volley of musketry 
 was considered a sufficient answer to a 
 despairing people's cry for bread. The fight 
 between the old system and the new had 
 begun, and to the King two courses remained 
 open, with the prospect of at least temporary 
 success. The first was, to place himself 
 frankly at the head of the onward move- 
 ment, and as a constitutional monarch to 
 guide the ship of the state safely into the 
 new course. The other was, to meet the 
 movement with uncompromising opposition, 
 checking its progress by means of the large 
 party who were opposed to innovation and 
 change of any kind, and fighting as best he 
 might to maintain the old order of things so 
 dangerously menaced on all sides. Unhappily 
 for himself, Louis, a good-natured and 
 benevolent, but heavy and apathetic man, 
 did neither. He wavered between the two 
 courses, and failed to conciliate the popular 
 party by the half-hearted concessions he made, 
 while he forfeited the confidence of those 
 high-born and aristocratic followers and as- 
 sociates, who were angry at the compromise he 
 had made with the constitutionalists, deeming 
 every concession made to the spirit of freedom 
 as something robbed from themselves. Louis 
 was not intended by nature to be, as Max 
 Piccolomini in Schiller's play, describes the 
 stern and energetic Wallenstein, the man 
 who, " the pause, the central point to 
 thousand thousands. Stands fixed and stately, 
 like a firm-built column. Where all may press 
 with joy and confidence." He was simply a 
 weak, undecided, well-meaning man, whose 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 lot had been cast, to his misfortune, in times 
 where nothing but decision could avail. 
 
 Thus in the first instance, the King made 
 efforts to concihate the national good-will. 
 He listened to the prayer of the National 
 Assembly ; removed the foreign troops whose 
 presence had created deep indignation and 
 mistrust among the people ; dismissed his 
 unpopular ministers ; and recalled Necker, 
 the Minister of Finance, in whom the nation 
 fondly expected to see the re-establisher of 
 French national credit, and the rescuer of 
 the nation from the state of bankruptcy. 
 But scarcely had the general satisfaction 
 made itself manifest on the 4th of August at 
 the concessions then made, especially the 
 abolition of those old feudal privileges that 
 had kept the people in serfdom, and the 
 favourable attitude of the King, when the 
 fair prospect was clouded, and suspicion and 
 turbulence were again in the ascendent. 
 
 The chief enemies of the King were found, 
 in the first instance, in the extreme demo- 
 cratic party, who declared that the favour- 
 able conduct of Louis was merely a specious 
 appearance, to gain time, and allow space 
 for the plots and intrigues to develop, that 
 were being carried on beyond the frontiers. 
 Hardly less prejudicial to his true interests 
 were the efforts of those aristocratic and 
 high-born advisers, who continually poisoned 
 the mind of the King against those true and 
 loyal men, such as La Fayette, Bailly, Bar- 
 nave, and their colleagues, who wished to 
 unite justice for an oppressed people with re- 
 spect and homage to the crown. In the first 
 instance, when the Estates General assembled, 
 they had endeavoured by various arts to 
 neutralise the voting power of the Commons. 
 Failing in this, and astonished at the firm 
 attitude displayed by the deputies, under the 
 guidance of Mirabeau and other popular 
 leaders, great numbers of them ungrate- 
 fully abandoned the King, deserting him in 
 the difficulties they had so greatly contributed 
 to bring about, A wholesale emigration of 
 the nobles and higher classes commenced, 
 the example being set by the Count of Artois, 
 the brother of the King himself. Carrying 
 with them what they could secure in the 
 way of jewels and portable valuables, the 
 emigres betook themselves respectively to 
 Brussels, to Coblentz, to London, and many 
 other points ; everywhere denouncing the 
 course things were taking in France, mis- 
 representing the national feeling there as the 
 restless machinations of a single faction, and 
 calling upon the despotic governments to 
 interfere actively to restore the King to his 
 former position of autocratic power. It is 
 not to be wondered at, therefore, that the 
 democratic faction in France should repre- 
 sent the King as sharing the aspirations of 
 the emigrants, who were thus stirring up 
 
 foreign foes against the liberties of their 
 country, and as looking forward to liberation 
 by means of foreign bayonets. 
 
 Hunger, also, that powerful factor in all 
 revolutionary outbreaks, contributed to rouse 
 a spirit of tigerish rage among the people. 
 Thus it was that they seized upon the 
 State-Councillor Foulon, and his son-in-law 
 Berthier, who had long been objects of popu- 
 lar hatred, and massacred them in the streets, 
 carrying their heads on pikes as trophies 
 of victory ; Foulon's head with a wisp of 
 grass stuck in the dead mouth, in angry 
 memory of a sneer he had once uttered, that 
 the people, if they could get no corn, might 
 feed on grass like cattle. In the provinces 
 also, the people began to revive the old 
 doings of the Jacquerie of a past century. 
 During the autumn and winter of 1790, the 
 skies were reddened, night after night, in 
 various parts of France, by the glare of burn- 
 ing chateaux and country houses of the 
 nobility, set on fire by incendiaries who 
 travelled through the country, in pursuance 
 of a fixed plan, and acting under orders from 
 the heads of the organisations to which they 
 belonged. Jacques Bonhom77ie, the peasant, 
 had been a serf and a helot for century 
 after century. His turn was coming now, 
 and with hideous wrongs in his memory, and 
 in many instances degraded to the semblance 
 of a mere beast, Jacques prepared to take 
 his revenge in tigerish fashion, with no more 
 compunction in tearing and slaying than if 
 he had been indeed a beast of prey. 
 
 The Triumphs of the Populace ; The 
 Mob at Versailles. 
 
 Feudal privileges having been abolished, 
 the great question that occupied the National 
 Assembly was the settling of the constitution ; 
 and here the reformers and the Court party 
 were continually at issue. On the question 
 whether the nobles and clergy were to 
 deliberate separately, or in the same chamber 
 with the Commons, and on various other 
 points, popular triumphs had been gained. 
 Meanwhile, to the future sorrow and dis- 
 comfiture of all true friends of progress and 
 liberty, the mob of Paris, the lowest and 
 most violent denizens of the slums and alleys, 
 the " roughs " of the period, became power- 
 ful and turbulent elements in the political 
 forces of the day. The intelligence and 
 moderation which might have guided the 
 national councils to a safe and prosperous 
 issue, were overborne by the fierce ravings 
 of a mob, at first the tools, and afterwards 
 the tyrants of violent demagogues. Noisy, 
 blatant troops of hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water, \\\& forts de la Balle,porters and day- 
 labourers from the public markets, appeared 
 in the streets armed with pikes, sabres, and 
 pistols, forced themselves into the halls of 
 
 643 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 justice, where they noisily interrupted the 
 proceedings with threats and objurgations, 
 and attached themselves to the most violent 
 of the factions, whose ends they unconsciously 
 served while indulging in a carnival of un- 
 accustomed license. On the question whether 
 the King should have " the power of the 
 veto," or be able to forbid the passing of a 
 measure voted by the Assembly, a furious 
 contest arose. The matter was at length 
 compromised by the according of a modified 
 and limited veto to the King ; but the nick- 
 name of Monsieur and Madame Veto, be- 
 stowed by the mob on Louis and the Queen 
 Marie Antoinette, kept the remembrance of 
 the struggle alive, and found expression in 
 the most truculent of the gutter songs of 
 the time, the horrible Carmagnole, which 
 triumphantly declares how Madame Veto 
 had promised to have all Paris murdered ; 
 and how, thanks to the brave cannoneers of 
 the people, the '''' son coup a manque^'' her 
 scheme had failed. 
 
 The poor King, in this time of danger, was 
 half inclined to place himself frankly in the 
 bands of the moderate party, but was again 
 influenced in the opposite direction by the 
 faction who surrounded the Queen, and who 
 declared that nothing but the complete re- 
 establishment of the King's authority would 
 be effectual ; and that this re-establishment 
 must be brought about by the means used 
 of old' against every outbreak of popular dis- 
 content, namely the display of military force. 
 
 A new corps, the Flanders regiment, and 
 some cavalry were called to Versailles ; and 
 the Gardes du Corps, the King's body-guard, 
 gave a banquet to these troops on their 
 arrival. Immediately afterwards it was told 
 in Paris, amid intense and general indigna- 
 tion, that this banquet had been given, con- 
 trary to all precedent, in the great hall 
 reserved for solemn and grand occasions ; 
 that the guests had indulged in seditious 
 outcries against the people, had flung under 
 the tables the tricoloured cockades adopted 
 as the national colours, and that the King 
 and Queen, accompanied by the Dauphin 
 and the Princess Royal, had graced the orgie 
 with their presence, manifestly with the in- 
 tention of inflaming the passions of the 
 drunken soldiery against the nation, for the 
 re-establishment of despotism and tyranny. 
 
 Accordingly the morning of the 5th of 
 October was signalised by an outbreak 
 secretly prepared by leaders who put forward 
 the ignorant, hungry mob to draw the ches- 
 nuts of power from the fire for their use. 
 The cousin of the King, Philip, Duke of 
 Orleans, who boastfully styled himself 
 Philippe Egalite, and effected the very 
 exaggeration of democracy, and Mirabeau, 
 the popular representative whose tremen- 
 dous energy and eloquence had placed him 
 
 644 
 
 at the head of the opponents of the Court, 
 by which he was. afterwards bribed and 
 bought, succeeded in fanning the smoulder- 
 ing fire of distrust and jealousy of the people 
 against the Court into a flame. A mob of 
 the lowest of the women who haunted the 
 markets and the streets of the capital, re- 
 inforced by a multitude of men of the same 
 class, met suddenly, and marched, to the cry 
 of " Bread ! Bread ! " to the town arsenal, 
 which they plundered. Then the crowd, 
 gathering like a snowball as it rolled its 
 course onward, set out for Versailles. Other 
 and more formidable, because disciplined, 
 malcontents presently took part in the 
 enterprise. The Gardes Frangaises, and the 
 National Guards, a popular force that had 
 been levied, greatly against the will of the 
 Court party, from among the citizens of 
 Paris, followed the first tumultuous proces- 
 sion a few hours afterwards, bent on the 
 same errand. The King and the royal 
 family were to be brought to Paris, so that 
 there might be no further tampering with 
 soldiers against the people, and that the 
 actions of the Court might be under the eye 
 of the patriots. The National Assembly, too, 
 was to be removed to Paris : " What had the 
 King to do with these Gardes du Corps, 
 who, under the guise of loyalty to their 
 master, carried on treason against the 
 nation, and opposed the will of the sovereign 
 people .'' " 
 
 The King brought to Paris. 
 
 La Fayette, on hearing of this general and 
 threatening movement, after vainly seeking 
 to dissuade the National Guards from its 
 execution, placed himself at their head, and 
 arrived with them in time to clear out from 
 the palace the howling insurgents who had 
 taken possession of it, and were insulting the 
 royal family and the National Assembly alike. 
 They bivouacked that night in the court- 
 yard of the palace, the exertions of La Fayette 
 having averted worse consequences for the 
 moment ; but the next morning a conflict 
 was provoked by the rashness of one of the 
 Gardes du Corps, which almost brought on 
 a general massacre, and really cost some 
 lives. The King, yielding to hard necessity, 
 consented to accompany the malcontents, 
 whose anger was thereby changed to loud 
 rejoicing, back to Paris. It was a dreary 
 procession of humiliated royalty. " We 
 shall not lack bread any more,'' shouted the 
 triumphant mob, as they danced round the 
 windows of the carriage in which.the King 
 and his family were seated, " for we've got 
 the baker, and the baker's wife, and the 
 little apprentice boy ! " 
 
 The natui-al consequence of this proceed- 
 ing was a reaction in favour of the insulted 
 King in the minds of many moderate and 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 honest men. The Duke of Orleans was got 
 rid of for a time by a mission to England, 
 and Mirabeau was so much blamed for the 
 part he had taken in the affair, that all his 
 great popularity barely saved him from im- 
 peachment. The National Assembly was 
 removed from Versailles to Paris, and when 
 tranquillity had to some degree been restored, 
 the work of building up a constitution was 
 carried on with such zeal as to produce a 
 still further feeling in favour of the King. 
 Louis, indeed, had the good of the nation 
 at heart. He loved his people, and would 
 have been the best of kings, as he was the 
 most placable of men, had he only known 
 how to set about his task, and had he not 
 always been under the influence of any will 
 and a mind much more resolute than his 
 own. When, for instance, the King appeared 
 before the National Assembly on the 4th of 
 
 February, 1790, and sol- 
 
 emnly declared his adhe- 
 sion to the constitution, 
 towards the completion of 
 which he called upon the 
 deputies to work with their 
 best zeal and energy ; and 
 when he emphatically re- 
 nounced the rights of a 
 despotic king, and de- 
 clared he would hence- 
 forth rule as the constitu- 
 tional monarch of a free 
 people, the enthusiasm 
 raised was great and gen- 
 uine. Even the Queen, 
 whose well-known attach- 
 ment to despotic principles 
 of rule had rendered her 
 intensely unpopular with 
 the nation, for a time 
 received a share of the 
 affection bestowed upon l^iif, 
 
 her husband by the bulk of 
 the nation, among whom his speech diffused 
 general joy. And the satisfaction was in- 
 creased when the chief conditions of this 
 new constitution were made known. But 
 the faction of the aristocrats and the friends 
 of the Queen stood aghast at the magnitude 
 of the innovations involved, and became the 
 deadly enemies of the measure. For it 
 abolished all the privileges of the nobles, 
 and even put an end to titles of nobility, the 
 use of coats of arms, and all honorary dis- 
 tinctions of the governing class, who were 
 afterwards designated as " ci-devants," or 
 " have-beens." It converted the enormous 
 estates of the Church into national property, 
 the clergy to be provided for by law, out of 
 the national exchequer. It divided France 
 into eighty-three departments, each of which 
 was to be represented in the great legislative 
 assembly which, under the presidency of the 
 
 King, was henceforth to govern France. The 
 terrible financial difficulties that oppressed 
 the country were to be overcome by the 
 issue of paper money, assignates or bonds 
 on the security of the Church property and 
 certain of the royal domains that were made 
 over to the nation. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1780, the anniversary 
 of the taking of the Bastille was held, in the 
 Champ de Mars, near Paris, the great fete 
 of the Federation, at which the King, the 
 Queen, the members of the Assembly, and 
 deputations from the army, the National 
 Guards, and every branch of the naval, 
 mihtary, and civil service, took the oath of 
 fidelity to the new constitution. It was the 
 last occasion on which the nation and its 
 King and Queen met on terms of real amity 
 and confidence. 
 
 Enemies of the Revo- 
 lution ; Death of 
 Mirabeau. 
 
 The shouts of the im- 
 mense multitude who 
 "rent the sky with loud ac- 
 claims" at the festival of 
 the Federation had scarce- 
 ly died away before the 
 fair prospects of union 
 and peace began to be 
 clouded. The priests were 
 mortified and angry at 
 being made dependent on 
 the civil power. Numbers 
 of them refused to take 
 the oath to the constitu- 
 tion, and being deprived 
 of their offices and emo- 
 luments in consequence, 
 were in many cases looked 
 upon as martyrs for con- 
 science' sake by the more 
 devout among their follow- 
 ers, especially in Bretagne and La Vendue. 
 The nobles also, indignant at being reduced 
 to the level of the ordinary citizen, and at the 
 admission of untitled men as officers into the 
 army, bitterly opposed the new order of things. 
 Great numbers of titled officers emigrated, 
 and a still larger proportion of the unattached 
 scions of noble houses. The King's brothers 
 themselves set the example. They were not 
 content to go into a quiet exile, but made the 
 frontier towns, such as Coblenz, and the 
 great capitals, such as London, the centres 
 of continual efforts at counter revolution. 
 The nonjuring priests represented the 
 National Assembly and the new order of 
 things generally to their flocks as the 
 impersonation of evil, to be strenuously 
 combated and promptly overthrown. The 
 emigrant officers and nobles represented to 
 
 the foreign despotic states that if the French 
 
 645 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 succeeded in permanently shaking off the 
 autocratic pow$r of their rulers, their ex- 
 ample would inevitably be followed by the 
 nations of Europe generally, and the fate of 
 the kings would be sealed. Already pre- 
 parations were made for that great strife 
 between citizenship and despotism that was 
 to fill the world with combats for a series of 
 years. 
 
 The rapid course of events, and the facility 
 with which men turned their eyes to new 
 aspirations, is illustrated by the fact that 
 Necker, the Minister of Finance, at one time 
 the most popular of men among the French 
 community, and whose dismissal from office 
 a year or two before had caused an enormous 
 excitement, and had been one of the chief 
 causes of the attack on the Bastille, while 
 his reinstatement had been welcomed with 
 transports of joy, had now resigned his office 
 in discouragement and disgust, and quitted 
 France almost unnoticed, to be speedily and 
 completely forgotten. 
 
 Various political clubs had been established 
 in Paris, and to these others were affiliated 
 throughout the country : that of the friends 
 of the constitution, afterwards called, from a 
 disestablished convent, in which they held 
 their sittings, the Jacobins ; and another, 
 whose members were noted for their furious 
 demagogism, that of the Cordeliers. La 
 Fayette, as the representative of moderate 
 counsels, founded the club of the "Feuillans," 
 which was thus designated after a church of 
 that name near the Tuileries. . 
 
 The Court, naturally alarmed at the in- 
 creasing ambition of its foes, made efforts to 
 win to its side those whose allegiance was still 
 doubtful. One great victory it achieved by 
 winning over the great orator Mirabeau, the 
 most formidable of the opponents of despotic 
 monarchy. 
 
 Mirabeau died just in time to preserve the 
 enormous popularity that had begun to be 
 endangered by his defection from the people's 
 cause. The King and Queen are said to have 
 regretted him, as a partisan won with infinite 
 pams, and who might have done them infinite 
 service. The people regretted him, for they 
 had no suspicion that he had abandoned their 
 cause. The Jacobins, on the contrary, re- 
 joiced at his death ; for he was the only man 
 strong enough to stand against them. A 
 magnificent funeral was accorded to him. 
 
 " These villainous clubs have ruined 
 France !" was the mournful observation 
 uttered by Louis XVI. a short time after- 
 wards. The factions of which these assem- 
 blies were the representatives were, indeed, 
 rapidly substituting the impulse of the fever- 
 ish moment and the passionate outbursts of 
 petulant zeal, and occasionally of fury, for 
 the sober and deliberate counsels of states- 
 manship. The discussions were carried on 
 
 in the evening, that the working classes, who 
 were present in large numbers at them, might 
 not be hindered m their daily toil. All 
 political events and political characters 
 formed the subjects of debate ; and the 
 hatred and passions of the people were 
 studiously aroused against the higher classes. 
 Lamartine, in his eloquent " History of the 
 Girondists,'' has left us a vivid picture of one 
 of these hotbeds of revolution. He asks the 
 reader to fancy " one of those sittings, in 
 which the citizens, already agitated by the 
 stormy air of the period, took up their abode 
 at nightfall in one of those churches lately 
 devoted to far other purposes. A few candles, 
 brought by the affiliated members, shed an 
 imperfect light on the gloomy space around, 
 showing the naked walls, wooden benches, 
 and a tribune where the altar had stood. 
 Around this tribune some orators, beloved of 
 the people, crowded to get an opportunity of 
 speaking. A crowd of citizens of all classes 
 and of all costumes, rich, poor, soldiers, 
 workmen ; women, who brought passion, 
 enthusiasm, tenderness and tears wherever 
 they came ; children, whom they held aloft 
 in their arms, that they might early breathe 
 the soul of an irritated people. A gloomy 
 silence, broken at times by sharp ejaculations, 
 by applause or by hisses ; the incendiary 
 discourses, stirring with magic words to the 
 very depths the passions of this crowd, new 
 to the impression made by words ; enthu- 
 siasm, real in some, simulated in others ; 
 ardent motions and patriotic gifts, with 
 awards of civic crowns, and parading of 
 the busts of great republicans ; then, burning 
 of the symbols of superstition and of the 
 aristocracy, vociferation of demagogue songs 
 in chorus at the beginning and at the close 
 of each sitting ; — what people, even in a 
 period of calm, would have resisted the 
 pulsations of this fever, the fits of which 
 were renewed daily, from the end of 1790, in 
 all the towns of the kingdom r It was the 
 regime of fanaticism, preceding the regitne 
 of terror. Such was the organization o the 
 club of the Jacobins." 
 
 Flight of the Royal Family. 
 
 Surrounded by dangers and by enemies 
 on all sides, insulted by the mob when he, 
 or a niember of his family, approached the 
 windows of their dwelling, and with no hope 
 of help or rescue from within, the King at 
 length resolved to fly from the capital. In- 
 deed, this expedient had been discussed 
 between the Queen and Mirabeau, in some 
 mysterious interviews with the Queen shortly 
 before the death of the great traitor, who 
 seems to have entertained the hope that he 
 himself would be called in by the people as 
 the arbitrator between themselves and the 
 King for the restoration of the royal authority. 
 
 646 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR 
 
 What the King's ultimate design was must 
 ever remain matter of conjecture. Whether 
 he intended to fly beyond the frontiers of 
 the kingdom, and to return, as his accusers 
 afterwards averred, at the head of a foreign 
 army, to put down, by force, the government 
 he had sworn to maintain ; or whether his 
 design was simply to repair to some place on 
 the frontier, there to surround himself with a 
 portion of his army, and to treat with the 
 Assembly from that point of vantage. Be 
 this as it may, flight was resolved on ; and 
 a faithful friend of the King, and gallant 
 soldier, the Marquis de Bouille, was en- 
 trusted with the principal arrangements. A 
 Swedish nobleman, M. de Fersen, attached 
 to the Queen by a chivalrous devotion, felt 
 called upon to risk everything in her ser- 
 vice ; and with him were associated three 
 provincial noblemen, who had formerly been 
 members of the King's bodyguard. The 
 design of flight was that the King and the 
 royal family should escape to the frontier of 
 Luxembourg, a place where Bouilid had 
 assembled a considerable military force. The 
 date of departure was fixed for the i8th of 
 June ; and a passport from the Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs was procured for a Baroness 
 Korf and her children, governess, and ser- 
 vants. The King was to play the part of a 
 valet of Madame Korf; and precautions 
 had been taken to have parties of cavalry 
 on the road to protect the King if necessary, 
 under the pretext that they were waiting to 
 escort a military chest coming from Paris 
 for the pay of the troops. 
 
 Detection and Ruin. 
 
 The preparations were too elaborate to 
 escape notice, and a delay of a day threw all 
 the arrangem.ents out of gear. Count Fersen, 
 in the disguise of a coachman, played his 
 part admirably. He drove the King and 
 Queen (who, with their children and Madame 
 Elisabeth, the sister of Louis, had managed 
 to pass secretly at night out of the palace) 
 safely to the Bois de Bondy, where a large 
 travelling carriage was waiting for them. The 
 King, imprudently putting his head out of 
 the carriage window at Chalons, was recog- 
 nised by the postmaster, who, however, kept 
 the secret loyally, and hastened the travellers 
 on their way. He was not so fortunate 
 further on the road, at St. Mdndhould, where 
 Drouet, the son of the postmaster, recognised 
 his features, and at once rode on in advance 
 of the carriage to the next station, Varennes, 
 the last the fugitives had to pass before 
 reaching the frontier. He at once spread 
 the alarm that the party who would shortly 
 arrive were the King and the royal family, 
 escaping from Paris. It was in the middle 
 of the night ; but the whole town was speedily 
 awake, and the King and his party were at 
 
 647 
 
 once arrested. In vain they appealed to 
 the loyalty of M. Sausse, the postmaster, and 
 his colleagues, and begged to be allowed to 
 depart. Marie Antoinette even condescended 
 to appeal to the wife of Sausse the grocer, 
 begging her to intercede for her, the King, 
 and their children. "Yes, madame," said 
 the embarrassed woman, " I should be glad 
 to be useful to you, but you think of the 
 King, and I'm thinking of M. Sausse. A 
 wife must think of her husband." National 
 Guards began to assemble, and the small 
 posting house was soon filled with eager and 
 excited men, declaring that the King and 
 his family must be detained until the Legis- 
 lative Assembly in Paris should decide as to 
 his fate. He bore his misfortune with a 
 calmness bordering on apathy ; but the con- 
 flict of hope, apprehension, grief, and ma- 
 ternal anxiety in the mind of the Queen was 
 so great that, within that one night of horror, 
 her hair turned grey. She was only thirty- 
 five years old. 
 
 In Paris, meanwhile, the excitement and 
 indignation of the populace, when the news 
 of the escape of the royal family was spread 
 abroad, nearly culminated in a general out- 
 break. The chief anger of the people was 
 at first directed against La Fayette, who, as 
 commander of the National Guard, had under- 
 taken the responsibility of the safe keeping 
 of the fugitives. He defended himself with 
 admirable self-possession and judgment ; 
 and for the time succeeded in convincing all 
 honest-minded persons of his sincerity. The 
 King had left behind him a manifesto, which 
 was read in the Assembly amid interruption 
 and ironical laughter. In this document he 
 set forth the insults and injuries he had 
 received at the hands of the factions by 
 whom the country was distracted, and peace 
 and concord rendered impossible. " I am 
 but the responsible chief of anarchy," he 
 wrote, addressing the Assembly, "and the 
 seditious influence of the clubs tears from 
 you that power of which you have deprived 
 me. Frenchmen, is that what you expected 
 from your regeneration 1 Your love for your 
 King used to be reckoned among the number 
 of your virtues. That love has been turned 
 into hatred, and your homage into insults. 
 From M. Necker down to the last of the 
 factious persons, every one has been king, 
 except the King himself There have been 
 threats to take from the King even that vain 
 title, and to shut up the Queen in a convent. 
 . . . M. de la Fayette himself has been unable 
 to enforce respect for the law, or to restore 
 the liberty of the King." After enumerating 
 the humiliations and violence to which he 
 had been subjected, the protest concluded 
 with these words : " In such a situation 
 nothing remained for me to do but to appeal 
 to the justice and the affection of my people, 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and to take refuge beyond the reach of the 
 factions, and of the oppression of the Assembly 
 and the clubs, in a town of my kingdom ; 
 and there, in full liberty, to direct the modi- 
 fications that the constitution demands, — the 
 restoration of our holy religion, the strength- 
 ening of the royal power, and the consolida- 
 tion of a true liberty." 
 
 The clubs of the Cordeliers and the Jaco- 
 bins, on the other hand, declared that the 
 King was a traitor, who had deceived his 
 people as Henry III. in the old times had 
 deceived the Duke of Guise, to murder him. 
 " On the morning of the 19th," wrote Marat, 
 the most implacable member of the Cor- 
 deliers, "Louis XVI. laughed at the oaths 
 he had taken, and rejoiced, in advance, ovei 
 the terror his flight would inspire in you. 
 The Austrian woman seduced La Fayette 
 last night ; Louis XVI., in a priest's gown, 
 has absconded with the Dauphin, his wife 
 his brother, and all his family. He is laugh- 
 ing now at the folly of the Parisians, and 
 soon he will be wading in their blood. Citi- 
 zens, this flight has been prepared covertly 
 by the traitors of the National Assembly. 
 You are brought face to face with ruin." 
 The whole article was written in the same 
 truculent spirit, and admirably calculated to 
 stir up the passions of hatred and revenge 
 in the lowest classes in Paris, and, indeed, 
 throughout the whole kingdom. 
 
 The King's Return ; Foreign Powers ; 
 The Beginning of a Long War. 
 When the news reached Paris that the 
 royal family had been stopped at Varennes, 
 the Assembly at once sent orders that they 
 should be brought back to the capital ; and 
 Pdthion, the Mayor of Paris, and Barnave, 
 both members of the Assembly, were de- 
 spatched to receive them, and protect them 
 on the way. It was a miserable journey. 
 Sometimes the carriage was surrounded by 
 a howling mob, breatning out cursings and 
 threatenings against the King and Queen. 
 A gentleman who approached with a gesture 
 of respect was absolutely seized and mur- 
 dered by the infuriated mob ; and a priest 
 narrowly escaped the same fate through the 
 heroism of Barnave, who leant out of the 
 coach window and harangued the people, 
 asking boldly whether from a nation of brave 
 men the French had been transformed into a 
 horde of assassins ? In the capital itself the 
 crush was so great, and the heat and dust 
 caused by the crowding of multitudes round 
 the carriage so overpowering, that the Queen 
 appealed to the people on behalf of the little 
 Dauphin and his sister, who were almost faint- 
 ing. " You see the state of my poor children, 
 gentlemen," cried the poor mother, " we are 
 stifling " [iioiis etouffons). " We'll stifle you 
 in a different fashion," was the brutal reply. 
 
 The Assembly meanwhile had taken 
 measures to prevent disturbance on the 
 occasion of the King's return. Placards 
 had been everywhere posted with the laconic 
 announcement : " Whoever applauds the 
 King shall be cudgelled {bdiotme), whoever 
 insults him shall be hanged !" During the 
 journey Barnave won the hearts of the unfor- 
 tunate monarchs by his delicacy and kind- 
 ness ; and from that time showed a zeal in 
 serving them which ultimately cost him his 
 head. Pethion, on the other hand, osten- 
 tatiously displayed the rudeness of his nature 
 in the presence of fallen royalty — eating 
 oranges and throwing the peel out of window 
 past the faces of the King and Queen, and 
 resppnding to the mild questions of the King 
 with a coarse bluntness that quickly reduced 
 the offended monarch to silence. 
 
 Once more he was installed in the Tuile- 
 ries ; but this time little better than a 
 prisoner. La Fayette being made responsible 
 for his safety. Of all who in those difficult 
 days endeavoured to bring about a healthy 
 and lasting reform, and to secure the liberties 
 of the people without destroying the position 
 of the King, the Marquis was the most honest 
 and well-meaning, — a true gentleman, who 
 combined loyalty and patriotism in his lan- 
 guage and conduct, and who might have 
 guided his master safely through the dangers 
 of the time, but for the unconquerable preju- 
 dice of the Queen, who hated him, and 
 influenced the poor undecided King against 
 him. " Let us have the love of liberty for 
 our guide," he nobly said in the Assembly ; 
 " but let us never forget that liberty, severe in 
 all its principles, fears license as much as 
 tyranny, and that to conquer and retain it 
 is less the reward of courage than the triumph 
 of virtue." He maintained the utmost respect 
 towaras the King at this crisis of the unfor- 
 tunate monarch's life. " Has Your Majesty 
 any orders to give me ?" he asked deferen- 
 tially when Louis had at length taken refuge in 
 his apartments in the Tuileries, and the miser- 
 able journey was over. " It seems to me," re- 
 plied the poor King with a quiet smile, " that 
 I am more at your orders than you at mine." 
 Still, the game of royalty was not over. 
 The Assembly, "like the Long Parhament in 
 England during its second session, when the 
 reaction in favour of Charles had set in, con- 
 tained a large party, and ardent indeed for re- 
 form, but still anxious for moderate measures, 
 and not indisposed to maintain Louis on the 
 throne as a constitutional monarch. Thus 
 gradually the King was allowed to resume 
 the functions of royalty ; and when the con- 
 stituent Assembly had finished its work of 
 arranging the details of the constitution, 
 Louis publicly took an oath to maintain that 
 constitution ; and the Queen, after expressing 
 similar sentiments, held up the Dauphin in 
 
 648 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 her arms to the crowd, and for the last time 
 in her Hfe was for a few moments popular. 
 The question now was, whether this consti- 
 tution which the King had accepted, and 
 which included personal responsibihty on his 
 part to the nation, would be satisfactorily- 
 put in force. Subsequent events showed it 
 to be a miserable failure. This failure some 
 
 of French government. If France was to 
 be a constitutional monarchy, would the 
 other thrones of Europe long remain despotic ? 
 It was determined to combine and actively 
 combat the movement in France; to reinstate 
 the King in all the privileges he had enjoyed 
 before 1789, and to bring back the old 
 regime, Tne emigrants at Coblenz, Brussels, 
 
 'The Country in Dakgkr " — Volunteers Marching to the Frontier. 
 
 attributed to the weakness and vacillation of 
 the King, others to the preponderance of 
 furious and uncompromising demagogues in 
 the Assembly. Probably it was the result of 
 both these causes combined. 
 
 The despotic powers of Europe, especially 
 Austria and Prussia, looked with mingled 
 anger and alarm upon the new programme 
 
 and elsewhere, represented the task of restor- 
 ing despotism in France as easy of accom- 
 plishment. Louis himself had had his eyes 
 rudely opened, as he himself confessed after- 
 wards to La Fayette on his journey to, or 
 rather from, Varennes; but abroad, the notion 
 that the changes in France were desired merely 
 by a faction, and not by the great bulk of the 
 
 649 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 nation, was industriously spread abroad ; and 
 the project of invading France began to 
 assume definite proportions. 
 
 The unhappy King, vacillating between 
 his wish to keep his oath to the constitution, 
 and his alarm at the dangers he saw multi- 
 plying around him, committed a grevious 
 error. At the very time when he was officially 
 sending letters desiring his emigrant brothers 
 and the Prince de Conde to return to France, 
 declaring that the duty of every good citizen 
 bound him to resist invasion, he was secretly 
 appealing to the other powers of Europe to put 
 down by force of arms the government he had 
 sworn to uphold. A letter of Louis, dated 
 December 3rd, 1791, addressed to the King 
 of Prussia, and preserved in the archives at 
 Berlin, furnishes positive proof of the dupli- 
 city of Louis. It is nothing but an urgent 
 appeal for the invasion of France by the 
 united powers of Europe. In it the King 
 writes : " I have addressed myself to the 
 Emperor (of Germany), to the Empress of 
 Russia, to the Kings of Spain and Sweden, 
 and I present to them the idea of a congress 
 of the principal powers of Europe, seconded 
 by an m nied force, as the best method of 
 stopping the factions here, giving a means to 
 establish a more desirable order of things 
 and preventing the evil which is harassing 
 us from spreading to the other states of 
 Europe. I hope Your Majesty will approve 
 of my ideas, and will maintain the most 
 profound secresy on the overture I have 
 made to you." The letter concludes by 
 pointing out the means for sending a reply 
 secretly, and means, in fact, " Put down 
 constitutional government in France by 
 sending invading armies, or you will have it 
 in your own countries presently." And this 
 was while the King was ordering his brothers 
 and Cond6 to disperse and disarm the 
 emigrants who had rallied round them. 
 
 On the 1st of October the Legislative 
 Assembly met — the successor of the Consti- 
 tuent Assembly, whose office had been the 
 preparation of the constitution for France. 
 It immediately appeared that the Jacobins, 
 the party who were clamorous for the most 
 complete and violent change, even to the over- 
 throw of the monarchy, were very strongly 
 represented in the Assembly. And they had 
 formidable means of stirring up the national 
 wrath against the King and his friends. At 
 Pilnitz in Saxony, the King of Prussia and 
 the Emperor of Germany had met, and issued 
 a declaration utterly hostile to the constitu- 
 tion in France ; the popular indignation was 
 aroused in France by the opposition of Louis 
 to the decrees against those priests who had 
 refused the oath to the constitution, and 
 were endeavouring to undermine the govern- 
 ment in every direction ; and gradually the 
 Jacobins obtained the chief power in the 
 
 Assembly. On the 20th of April, 1792, war 
 was declared against Austria. 
 
 The Events to the Tenth of August ; 
 The Fall of the Monarchy. 
 
 It was evident that the King of France 
 had very unwillingly declared war against 
 Austria, a state governed by a near relative 
 of Marie Antoinette, and one to which 
 Louis had looked for protection for himself. 
 When, therefore, at t'ne outset, the war was 
 pursued in a languid, half-hearted way, and 
 a disgraceful panic and defeat of the troops 
 led by Rochambeau was announced, it was 
 declared in Paris that treason was at work 
 among the leaders of the French army, who 
 were alleged to have been secretly bought 
 over by the Court. Presently a second enemy 
 appeared in the field, in the person of the 
 King of Prussia, who despatched an army 
 towards the French frontiers. Both Austria 
 and Prussia declared their conviction that 
 the constitution had not been voluntarily 
 accepted by the King of France, and was 
 therefore no valid act. Twenty thousand 
 emigrants joined these armies, and the com- 
 bined force was commanded by the Duke 
 Ferdinand of Brunswick. That general pre- 
 sently committed an unpardonable blunder, 
 by issuing a manifesto, in which he treated 
 the French nation as a horde of rebels, com- 
 manding them to submit instantly \ threaten- 
 ing with all the rigour of war any district 
 that should dare to resist, and Paris itself 
 with utter destruction. The nation might 
 have said with Decius in Addison's Cato : 
 " A style like this becomes a conqueror ! " 
 The manifesto was received with mingled 
 scorn and indignation. Great exertions 
 were made to drive back the foe, and 
 the combined powers soon found that the 
 "promenade militaire" they had promised 
 themselves was likely to turn out some- 
 thing very different. 
 
 A few successes gained at first served only 
 to confirm the invading generals in their 
 error concerning the real power of the 
 enemy, and the magnitude of the task they 
 had undertaken. Dumouriez, a veteran 
 general of considerable ability, was sent 
 against them ; and the Duke of Brunswick 
 was obliged, after losing a great number of 
 his men by disease, famine, and the attacks 
 of the enemy, to retreat into Germany, 
 strewing the way with the corpses of the 
 unhappy victims of overweening confidence 
 and pride. On the 20th of September, brave 
 Kellermann successfully maintained his 
 position against the Prussian cannonade at 
 Valmy, and by the 23rd of October the 
 French soil had been cleared of the invaders. 
 
 The unfortunate King had by this time 
 lost the last remains of his popularity ; and 
 his fall was only a question of months or 
 
 650 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 weeks. He would have been strong enough 
 to defy the violent demagogues, by the aid 
 of the real and moderate friends of liberty, 
 if he had frankly acted with them. But he 
 remained always secretly attached to three 
 classes who were powerless to save him, 
 while they alienated from him the friends 
 with whom he might have found safety, — 
 the emigrants, the foreign monarchs, and the 
 nonjuring priests. By exercising his veto 
 against a decree for the banishment of the 
 priests, and by opposing a motion for establish- 
 ing a camp of twenty thousand men around 
 Paris, he aroused the hatred of the popu- 
 lace in Paris. On the 20th of June an enor- 
 mous crowd assembled on the Place de la 
 Bastille, and from thence marched towards 
 the hall of the Legislative Assembly. The 
 deputies permitted the mob to defile before 
 them, suspending the sitting for that purpose. 
 Thereupon the whole concourse, increased by 
 many recruits during its march, bent its way 
 towards the Tuileries. Here they burst into 
 the palace, and for a time the lives of the 
 royal family were in imminent danger. The 
 pikemen of the Faubourg St. Antoine, and a 
 mingled crowd of the lowest of the inhabi- 
 tants of Paris — men and women, lads and 
 girls, defiled hour after hour through the 
 apartments of the palace before the King. 
 Louis was obliged to put the red cap, the 
 sign of the demagogue, on his head, as a 
 token of fraternity with the people ; and 
 contrived by his calmness and courage 
 partly to appease the mob. The Queen 
 and the royal children, in another apartment, 
 were subjected to similar indignities ; for the 
 hatred of the people was especially concen- 
 trated on the Queen, who was considered as 
 the cause of the King's opposition to the 
 popular will. " Down with the veto ! The 
 camp by Paris !" "Give us back the pa- 
 triot ministers ! " " Where is the Austrian 
 woman ? " — such were the cries, mingled with 
 cursings and revilings, that filled the halls 
 where the flatteries of courtiers had for 
 centuries fallen on the ears of despotic 
 monarchs. The King calmly refused to 
 alter his decrees or take back his veto at 
 the demand of the furious people, who were 
 at last even in some degree impressed by 
 the sight of his calm and deliberate courage. 
 The Queen also was obliged to put the red 
 cap on the head of her little son, the Dauphin. 
 Santerre, the commandant of the National 
 Guards, at last cleared the Queen's room of 
 the crowd ; and Pethion, the Mayor of Paris, 
 persuaded the throng to disperse from the 
 hall, where the King was a prisoner, and 
 enabled him to join the Queen, and con- 
 gratulate her on her escape. 
 
 For the moment the storm had passed 
 over ; but it burst forth presently with re- 
 newed violence, and, blinded by prejudice 
 
 65 
 
 and influenced by evil counsels, the King 
 failed to make use of the services of La 
 Fayette, the brave and honest counsellor, 
 who was consistently and sincerely devoted 
 to constitutional '"lonarchy, and hastened to 
 Paris from his camp at Maubeuge, and 
 solemnly adjured the Assembly to uphold 
 the royal authority, greatly to his own peril; 
 for the Jacobins, who now held the chief 
 influence, threatened his life, while the King 
 and Queen treated him with distrust and 
 ingratitude. The fortune of this honest and 
 true friend of moderation and of limited 
 monarchy was a hard one. Endeavouring 
 shortly afterwards to induce his troops to 
 renew their oath to the constitution, and 
 strive for the restoration of limited monarchy, 
 he was deserted by his army, and compelled 
 to fly across the frontier. Captured with 
 some of his staff, by a party of Austrians, he 
 was most unjustly, with some of his com- 
 panions, kept in imprisonment in various 
 fortresses, especially at Olmiitz, for five years, 
 till 1797, when Bonaparte at length insisted 
 on and procured his liberation. 
 
 The Tenth of August. 
 
 The hands of the Jacobins meanwhile had 
 been greatly strengthened through the foolish 
 manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick. The 
 most violent accusations were brought against 
 the King in the Legislative Assembly. The 
 country was declared to be in danger, and 
 the deposition of the King was openly dis- 
 cussed, and vehemently demanded by the 
 more violent of the factions. 
 
 The loth of August is the fatal day on 
 which the monarchy fell. During the pre- 
 vious night masses of men had been assem- 
 bling ; and prominent among them were the 
 fifteen hundred " Marseillais," fierce, deter- 
 mined men who had marched from the 
 South, chanting the famous song which has 
 been identified with their name, and has 
 been for almost a century the revolutionary 
 hymn of France. " To arms ! " cried the 
 fierce Danton, haranguing the Marseillais in 
 the club of the Cordeliers, that had been 
 opened to them. " You hear the tocsin, that 
 voice of the people. It tails you to the help 
 of your brethren in Paris. You have hastened 
 from the extremity of the empire to defend 
 the head of the nation, menaced in the capi- 
 tal by the conspirators of despotism ! Let 
 the tocsin sound the last hour of kings, and 
 the first hour of the vengeance and the 
 liberty of the people ! To arms and qa 
 ira ! " 
 
 The King was not without brave defen- 
 ders, ready to die for him and for his 
 Queen, and their children. The Swiss 
 Guard fought with admirable courage and 
 devotion, disputing the staircases of the 
 Tuileries step by step against the furious 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 hordes of the Marseillais, the denizens of the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine, and the other furious 
 assailants who pressed round them, raging 
 for blood, and massacring even those who 
 threw down their arms in token of surrender. 
 A number of nobles had also rallied round 
 the throne and fought to the last in defence 
 of their master. The popular victory was 
 not gained without the sacrifice of nearly 
 three thousand men. The Queen, against 
 whom the most violent outbursts of popular 
 fury were directed, showed the dauntless 
 spirit of her house, and was ready to die 
 with honour, by her husband's side. But 
 the King suffered grievously in character as 
 well as in fortune on the loth of August. 
 While the friends who rallied round him and 
 the faithful Swiss Guards, true to the last, 
 were fighting, he took refuge with his family 
 in the hall of the Legislative Assembly ; and 
 sat during that fatal day with the Oueen 
 and the royal children in the reporters' box, 
 listening apathetically to the debate that was 
 to decide the fate of the monarcny. For 
 deputation after deputation from the muni- 
 cipahty of Paris, and from the victorious 
 sections arrived, all clamouring that the 
 King should be deposed. And thus, in the 
 very presence of the unhappy monarch, the 
 decree was passed that suspended him from 
 his functions, and deprived him of his civil 
 list. It was also resolved that the Legisla- 
 tive Assembly should be brought to a close, 
 and succeeded by a National Convention. 
 This new assembly was to act in the name 
 of the " sovereign people." Every citizen 
 who supported himself, even if it were by 
 daily labour, was to have a voice in its 
 election. Its powers were to be unlimited, 
 and it was to meet on the 20th of Septem- 
 ber. 
 
 France a Republic ; The National 
 Convention; Transition to the 
 Reign of Terror. 
 
 The horrors of the loth of August, the 
 horrible orgie of blood that stirred up all 
 the worst elements in the great city, was the 
 commencement of that worst of tyrannies, 
 the rule of a raging and bloodthirsty mob. 
 Three men, whose names will remain to all 
 time branded with detestation, as the chief 
 actors in the darkest period of the Revolu- 
 tion, — men who had already for some time 
 been becoming terribly famous in the annals 
 of that fierce time, — now became the repre- 
 sentatives of the chief power in the State. 
 These men are Danton, Robespierre, and 
 Marat, the idols of the Jacobin and Corde- 
 lier clubs, and the almost omnipotent leaders 
 of the extreme revolutionists. Among these 
 Danton is the one to whose name perhaps 
 the least. turpitude is attached. He was an 
 enthusiast for popular liberty, the fiercest of 
 
 652 
 
 democrats, and an uncompromising hater of 
 royalty. Fits of dark rage seemed some- 
 times to obscure his reason. " Audacity, 
 again audacity, and always audacity," was 
 the doctrine he preached. If thousands 
 conspired against the State, let every one 
 of them expiate his crime on the scaffold. 
 The cruellest and most comprehensive 
 massacre was justified in his eyes, if he 
 deemed it necessary to uphold the power 
 of the people against that of the King's. 
 Sincere he was in his endeavours to esta- 
 blish the supremacy of the sovereign people, 
 and the thorough belief he had in himself 
 and in his system rendered him doubly 
 dangerous. In some respects he resembled 
 Mirabeau — in his fiery eloquence, his tre- 
 mendous strength of voice, and of deter- 
 mination in his power of swaying the 
 multitude by the force of his energy. 
 Robespierre, on the other hand, with his 
 cadaverous face, his mean form, his shrill 
 tones, and his cracked-brained theories, was 
 a caricature of the republicans of the ancient 
 world whom he professed to emulate. He 
 prided himself on being " the incorruptible," 
 living almost in penury at the time when the 
 factions were prostrate at his feet, and 
 while he wielded the tremendous power of a 
 people who had thrown aside all restraint of 
 law and custom, and all the old habits of 
 obedience. Never was there a man who so 
 entirely threw to the winds all ideas of 
 friendship, natural affection, or pity, in 
 pursuit of the chimera of a model republic, 
 whose foundations were to be laid in blood. 
 In time, he became suspicious of all parties, 
 and no thought of old comradeship or of 
 services received withheld him from crush- 
 ing any man or any number of men from 
 whom he apprehended danger to his supre- 
 macy. But far more vile than the two 
 others was Marat, the lowest and most filthy 
 of miscreants. Hideous and loathsome in 
 appearance, raging with an insane hatred 
 against all who possessed education, refine- 
 ment, wealth, or any of the advantages that 
 raise men above the lowest strata of the 
 community, he appealed to the lowest 
 passions of the most degraded of men, 
 publishing with a horrible and industrious 
 malignity the most atrocious calumnies, with 
 which he fed the fury of the mob, and aroused 
 them to renewed rage whenever there was a 
 chance that their evil passions might cool. 
 With the ascendency of these men the 
 crimes of the period assume a darker dye. 
 Murder and wholesale proscription become 
 recognised means of government, and the 
 guillotine is established permanently as the 
 great and only effectual means of retaining 
 power and supremacy. 
 
 Already in the Legislative Assembly there 
 had been two powerful parties, whose incessant 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 antagonism was certain to culminate in mortal 
 strife. These were that of the Girondists, 
 so called from the department of the Gironde, 
 represented by their chiefs, Vergniaud. Gua- 
 det'Gensonn^, Ducos, Grangeneuve,' and 
 others ; that of the " Montagne," comprising 
 the rnost uncompromising of demagogues, 
 shouting for the hands of their opponents. 
 
 There was little doubt as to where the 
 victory would be found. With the nation at 
 fever heat, with every fierce pass' on at work, 
 the lowest dregs of the populatici stirred up 
 to vengeance by every art of invective and 
 calumny, and suddenly invested with power 
 and trusted with weapons, it was impossible 
 that moderate counsels should prevail. The 
 
 The Prison Massacre of September 1792. 
 
 and dominating all the debates by noise and 
 clamour, backed by the mobs and the Jacobin 
 and Cordelier clubs ; and between the two, 
 the moderate and the extreme party, were a 
 large number of neutral members, ready to 
 take part with whichever side should prove 
 its strength by gaining the victory over its 
 opponent. 
 
 65 
 
 Girondists, whose efforts had lately been 
 directed against the reactionary Court party, 
 and who had forced the King to accept 
 ministers such as Roland, Servan, and Cla- 
 viere, from among themselves, vainly tried to 
 arrest the course of the raging flood of revo- 
 lutionary hcense now let loose. The Reign of 
 Terror, accompanied by blood, slaughter, and 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 barbarous horrors — the Reign of Terror had 
 fairly begun. 
 
 The municipality of Paris, in whose hands 
 the whole of the authority was for the time 
 placed, and in which Robespierre, Danton, 
 and Marat were the ruling spirits, refused to 
 answer for the safety of the King unless he 
 were removed, with his family, to the strong 
 tower of the Temple, a fortress that in old 
 time had belonged to the famous chivalric 
 order of that name. Accordingly the King 
 and Queen, with their two children and 
 Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis, were 
 transferred to that domicile which became 
 their prison, and from which only one of 
 them, the Princess Marie, was destined ulti- 
 mately to escape with life. 
 
 Meanwhile house to house search was 
 made for any fugitives who had taken part 
 against the people on the loth of August, or 
 who would be suspected of conspiring against 
 the nation. All the prisons of Paris were 
 crammed with captives, to the number of 
 some thousands, and the churches were 
 similarly crowded when the prisons would 
 hold no more. Then, to increase the general 
 frenzy, came the news of the successes of 
 invading armies, — of the Prussians marching 
 upon Paris and of Verdun surrendered to 
 them — of royalists and emigres threatening 
 vengeance, and the possible re-establishment 
 of the old re'gijne. 
 
 The people were in a state of savage ex- 
 citement, The tocsin was rung, thousands 
 of men and women assembled in the Champ 
 de Mars, and volunteers were enrolled in 
 great numbers to march to the frontier, and 
 hurl back the invaders. " Marchonsf qu'tcn 
 sang impiir abrezive nos sillons !" was every- 
 where the cry ; and then came the further in- 
 telligence that in La Vendue the royalists 
 were in insurrection. This led to the horrible 
 massacre that deluged every prison of Paris 
 with blood from the 2nd to the 5th of Sep- 
 tember. Ferocious men of the labouring 
 classes, armed with cutlasses and bayonets, 
 congregated in the prisons, where mock 
 tribunals were formed, before which the 
 prisoners, men and women, nobles, captive 
 Swiss Guards, priests, working people, repre- 
 sentatives of every grade and class, wei'e 
 brought out, briefly interrogated, and then 
 sent from the haU of judgment to pass out 
 at a door, outside which a number of 
 men were waiting to strike them down 
 with sabres and axes, and to run them 
 through with pikes and bayonets. These 
 horrible ruffians worked like butchers in a 
 slaughterhouse. Many of them, after tho- 
 roughly exhausting themselves, ate, and 
 drank, and slept, and then woke up to 
 resume their hideous work. Danton and 
 Marat have been accused of being the movers 
 of this massacre, the chiefs of the " Septem- 
 
 briseurs," as the murderers were called, but 
 much doubt rests upon the point. The state 
 of wild and savage apprehension, the reckless 
 desperation of the hour, caused by the sur- 
 rounding dangers, will sufficiently explain 
 the outburst. The numbers who perished 
 during the five days has been very variously 
 stated ; but the estimate of the advocate 
 Maton (who states the number at 1089) seems 
 the most correct. With the establishment of 
 the National Convention, a new page in the 
 history of the Revolution begins ; for the 
 first act of the body that thus succeeded to 
 the Legislative Assembly was to declare the 
 abolition of the monarchy and the erection of 
 France into a republic. 
 
 Trial and Execution of the King. 
 
 The quarrel between the " Mountain " and 
 the " Gironde " became more embittered day 
 by day. The Girondist deputies boldly 
 accused the Jacobin chiefs of aiming at 
 dictatorship, and of the design to establish 
 a tyranny founded on the noisy suffrage of 
 the Parisians. The "mountaineers" retorted 
 by accusing their opponents of Federalism ; 
 while public opinion was suspicious of both 
 parties, and, on the motion of Tallien, de- 
 clared the Republic to be one and indivisible. 
 The question was hotly debated whether the 
 King had, or had not, forfeited his inviola- 
 bility, and rendered himself liable to be 
 judicially accused before the Convention. 
 The " Mountain " party, supported by the 
 Parisian mob, who yelled frantically for the 
 tyrant's blood, procured an answer in the 
 affirmative; and on the nth of Decembei 
 the fallen monarch was brought before a 
 tribunal, the great majority of whose m,embers 
 had already made up their minds as to his 
 guilt. The veteran Malesherbes undertook the 
 defence of the King. Unhappily, there had 
 been discovered in the Tuileries an iron safe 
 or chest, containing papers that told only toe 
 plainly the story of the negotiations with 
 Mirabeau, and various acts of bribery and 
 duplicity. After long and stormy debates, 
 that lasted far into January of 1793, three 
 questions were put before the Convention 
 to decide: — Whether Louis Capet (for undet 
 that name the King was arraigned) had been 
 guilty of conspiring against the freedom or 
 the safety of the State ? Whether the sen- 
 tence to be passed upon him was to be placed 
 before the people for confirmation ? And 
 what punishment was to be inflicted on him? 
 Out of 717 members present, 683 answered 
 the first question in the affirmative. The 
 second was answered in the negative by 424 
 voices against 283. In replying to the 
 third question, 366 voices out of 721 — there- 
 fore a majority oi Jive — voted for death 
 unconditionally. Among the remainder, 266 
 voted for imprisonment until the conclusion 
 654 
 
THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 of peace, or until banishment, while the rest 
 voted for death, but " avec stirsis" (with a 
 respite),— an understanding that the extreme 
 sentence would not be carried out. The vote 
 itself had been another proof of the triumph 
 of the Mountain over the Gironde. The last- 
 mentioned party would gladly have saved the 
 King's life, but many were intimidated by the 
 threatening attitude of their opponents and 
 the spectators into giving a vote they inter- 
 nally disapproved. But they felt that to 
 show favour to the prisoner would have 
 been to place their own republicanism under 
 suspicion. 
 
 All efforts to obtain a delay in the carrymg 
 out of the sentence were vain. The Conven- 
 tion insisted on immediate execution; and 
 on the 2 1 St of January, I793, after having 
 shown in the last days of his life the resigna- 
 tion and charity of a Chris- 
 tian, and solemnly par- 
 doned all his enemies, 
 Louis XVI., the most ami- 
 able, virtuous, and well- 
 meaning of the Bourbon 
 kings, was brought forth, 
 like Charles I., to die in 
 the face of the nation he 
 was accused of betraying. 
 He had endured through- 
 out four years every stage 
 of degradation ; and on 
 his devoted head had de- 
 scended the punishment 
 for the tyranny and wrong 
 perpetrated throughout 
 centuries by those who 
 had gone before him. 
 "After us, the deluge," 
 had already been the pro- 
 phecy of Philip the Re- 
 gent eighty years before. 
 The barriers of sand had stood longer than 
 any man had a right to expect ; but they had 
 given way at last, and the deluge was sweep- 
 ing everything before it. 
 
 The Fall of the Girondists; 
 dumouriez. 
 The death of the King sent a shudder 
 through the whole of Europe. In England 
 the French ambassador was at once expelled 
 from London, and prepared for war. Prussia 
 and Austria determined to pursue the con- 
 test with increased vigour ; for the execution 
 of the 2 1st of January seemed a challenge to 
 every crowned head in Europe. Soon after 
 was brought about the first of those six great 
 coalitions of the nations against France ; the 
 last of which succeeded in setting up the 
 Bourbon monarchy once more in 1814. 
 England was at the head of this coalition ; 
 and with reason ; for on the ist of February 
 the French Convention, angry at the expul- 
 
 sion of the envoy, had declared war. Most 
 of the powers of Europe were participators 
 in this coalition. At the same time the civil 
 war in La Vendue took more formidable pro- 
 portions. 
 
 But the Convention was undismayed ; and 
 the party of the Mountain was more bitterly 
 bent than before on the destruction of the 
 Girondists. 
 
 Circumstances soon occurred to facilitate 
 that design. General Dumouriez had been 
 for some time at the head of the French 
 forces in the Low Countries ; and had gained 
 great credit by the victory of Jemmapes, 
 in November 1792, But after this the for- 
 tune of war changed. Custine in Germany, 
 and Dumouriez in Flanders, were alike un- 
 successful ; and the latter, on the 1 5th of 
 March, 1793, was defeated in the battle of 
 __ Neerwinden. Five com- 
 
 missioners were sent into 
 the general's camp to call 
 him to account, and to 
 summon him to Paris be- 
 fore the Committee of 
 PubHc Safety. But Du- 
 mouriez had for some time 
 been meditating playing 
 the part of General Monk, 
 by leading his army over 
 to the Austrians, and 
 marching with them to 
 Paris, there to restore the 
 Bourbon monarchy. And 
 now he threw off the 
 mask ;■ and knowing that 
 if he returned to Paris 
 his doom would probably 
 be the guillotine, he took 
 the five envoys prisoners, 
 and delivered them up 
 to the Austrians. There- 
 upon he attempted to induce his army to 
 desert with him to the enemy ; but with a 
 few exceptions they refused, and Dumouriez 
 and his staff were compelled to appear in the 
 Austrian camp with only a few hundred men. 
 From that time the career of the traitorous 
 general was ended. He lived to a great age, 
 surviving till 1823; and subsisting in his 
 declining years on a pension granted to him, 
 it is difficult to say for what reason, by the 
 English Government. 
 
 In Paris the party of the Mountain made 
 use of this defection of Dumouriez as a 
 means of overthrowing the Girondists. Du- 
 mouriez had been one of the most prominent 
 men of the party ; and accordingly the Jaco- 
 bins declared in the Convention that the 
 Girondists were aware of, and participators 
 in, the treason of the general. They tried 
 to defend themselves, but in vain. The 
 voice of reason and moderation in the 
 Convention was always in the end over- 
 
 655 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 powered by the threats of the furious 
 demagogues, behind whom stood the mob. 
 Every remonstrance against cruelty and 
 wrong was now fraught with mortal peril. A 
 revolutionary tribunal was established. Its 
 members, the most ruthless men of those 
 ruthless days, were convenient tools in the 
 hands of Robespierre and his accomplices. 
 Attempts Y,-ere made to procure the down- 
 fall of Robespierre, Hebert, and Marat, the 
 most truculent of the enemies of the Gironde, 
 but in vain. The people insisted upon their 
 release when arrested, and greeted them as 
 martyrs. At length a great mob, composed 
 of the "Sections" of the capital, partly urged 
 by their own ferocity, partly by the chiefs of 
 the Mountain party, marched against the Con- 
 vention, with Henriot, one of the miscreants 
 of September, at their head, and peremptorily 
 demanded the arrest of twenty-two chiefs of 
 the Girondists. The Convention temporised 
 with these men, and flattered them. The 
 insurrection being renewed, and cannon 
 threateningly pointed against the hall of the 
 Assembly, it was desired that thirty-four 
 members, most of them Girondists, should 
 be arrested. Some of those whose names 
 were thus proscribed saved themselves by 
 flight. Others perished during their retreat 
 by starvation and misery ; the rest were kept 
 in prisons until they were at last, in October 
 1793, brought before their judges, and on the 
 31st of that month they weie executed to- 
 gether, to the number of twenty-one. 
 
 One of their brother deputies, named 
 Bailleul, then a proscribed fugitive hiding in 
 Paris, had contrived to let them know that 
 he would send them a supper on the day 
 when their fate was decided— a triumphal 
 or a funeral banquet, according as the verdict 
 devoted them to life or death. He kept his 
 word ; and on that last night of their lives 
 the condemned Girondists sat together at 
 the feast of death, Vergniaud presiding ; as 
 he had presided in the Convention on the 
 loth of August. Towards morning the con- 
 versation took a more serious turn, and the 
 dying men spoke of the future of the country. 
 Brissot spoke prophetically of the misfortunes 
 of the Repubhc, deprived of its most virtuous 
 
 and patriotic citizens. " How much blood 
 would it not require," he said, " to wash out 
 ours ? " The words of Vergniaud were singu- 
 larly impressive. " My friends," he said, " in 
 grafting the tree we have killed it ; it was 
 too old. Robespierre is cutting it down. 
 Will he be more fortunate than we ? No ! 
 this soil is too light to nourish the roots of 
 civic liberty ; the people too childish to 
 handle its laws without wounding itself. It 
 will come back to its kings, as a child comes 
 back to its playthings. We were mistaken 
 in the time when we lived, and died for the 
 liberty of the world," he continued. " We 
 thought ourselves in Rome, and we were 
 in Paris. But revolutions are like those 
 great agonies which whiten the head of a. 
 man in one night. They ripen people 
 quickly. The blood in our veins is warm 
 enough to fertilise the soil of the Republic." 
 
 Within a few hours they went to the scaf- 
 fold, sitting side by side in the rough tumbril, 
 and singing the chant of the Marseillaise 
 that told how the day of glory had arrived, 
 though the blood-red flag of tyranny was 
 upreared against them. At the foot of the 
 scaffold they embraced as a last sign of 
 fraternity. As each in turn laid his head 
 under the axe, the song of the Marseillaise 
 became weaker by one voice. Vergniaud was 
 the last to die; and the corpses of the friends 
 were carried away in the same tumbril, and 
 one common grave received them. 
 
 Other prominent persons of the Girondist 
 party who had been proscribed at the same 
 time endeavoured to escape by flight. Some 
 few succeeded, but the greater number of the 
 fugitives perished. Some hiding in the 
 woods and desert places, were, like Pethion, 
 stoned to death. Other<=. like Roland, put 
 an end to their misery by suicide; others 
 again, like Barbaroux, vi/ere taken, and 
 perished on the scaffold. 
 
 The triumph of the Jacobins was complete. 
 Robespierre, Marat, and Danton, and their 
 faction, ruled supreme. It will be the work 
 of another narrative to tell how the terrorists 
 ruled, what sanguinary victories they gained, 
 and how by righteous retribution they fell. 
 
 H. W. D. 
 
 656 
 
The Battle of Agincourt, 
 
 GALLANT KING HARRY: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF. AGINCOURT, OCTOBER 25th, 1415. 
 
 "Upon Saint Crispin's day 
 Fought was this noble fray, 
 Which fame did not delay 
 
 To England to carry ; 
 
 Ojwhen shall Englishmen 
 
 With such acts fill a pen, 
 
 Or England breed again 
 
 Such a King Harry ! " 
 
 — Drayton. 
 
 The Cause of the War— The Condition of France in 1415 -Henry's Preparations for War— More Attempts at Diplomacy— 
 Iraitors m Henry's Camp— Discovery and Punishment of the Conspirators— The Fleet sets Sail— The Siege of 
 Harfleur— Gallant Defence of the French— Negotiations for the Surrender of the Town -The Fall of Harfleur and 
 Ceremony of giving up the Keys— Continuance of the Campaign— The Preparations of the French for a great Battle— 
 Ihe Defence of the Somme— Henry finally crosses the River— The Sight of the French on the Plains of Agincourt— 
 1 he Night before the Battle— The Disposition of the opposing Forces— The Attack of the Archers— The Brilliant 
 Charge of the Constable of France— Defeat of the First Division of the French— Forward Movement of the English- 
 Defeat of the Second Division and Flight of the Third Division of the French— Incidents of the Battle— Henry's Return 
 to England. 
 
 The Beginning of the Quarrel. 
 
 N the audience chamber of the old 
 royal palace at Westminster, which 
 
 long since has been swept away to 
 
 make room for the New Palace, otherwise 
 known as the Houses of Parliament, there 
 was gathered together one bright spring day 
 in the year 141 5, a brilliant assemblage of 
 England's most famous nobility. 
 
 Among them might have been seen Lord 
 Scrope, of Masham, the bosom friend of the 
 young King, Henry V., the Earls of Cam- 
 bridge, Westmoreland, and Erpingham, Sir 
 Thonias Gray, the Duke of Exeter, uncle to 
 the King, and many others whose names were 
 then as familiar in the ears of most English- 
 men as are those of the prominent statesmen 
 of to-day. 
 
 657 
 
 u u 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 In the midst of this brilhant assemblage sat 
 the young King. The severe simphcity of his 
 apparel presented a remarkable contrast to 
 the rich dresses of those about him ; and 
 not only was his costume far less gay, but 
 his slight form and smooth face gave him 
 a more youthful appearance than any then 
 present. Yet his features, plain and young- 
 looking though they were, bore the un- 
 mistakable stamp of a powerful will and 
 a noble character. 
 
 When all things were ready for the audience, 
 liis Grace of Exeter, with much state and 
 ceremony, ushered into the royal presence 
 four ambassadors from the Court of France, 
 The Frenchmen bowed low as they drew 
 near the throne, and Henry, with great 
 courtesy, rose to meet them. " And what 
 answer does the French King send to our 
 just claims ? " said he. 
 
 " May it please Your Majesty, the answer 
 is not from the King of France," replied De 
 Gaucourt, one of the ambassadors, "for un- 
 happily our royal master is now unable to take 
 part in the affairs of state, but the reply is 
 from his son, the Dauphin, who said that you 
 were over young as yet to talk of war, and 
 that he could not fear any preparations for 
 battle which you might make against him ; 
 and as he regards you as far more fit for the 
 sports of youth than for the stern realities of 
 the tented field, he herewith sends you a 
 ton of tennis balls, with which to amuse 
 yourself and your lords. " 
 
 For a few moments there was a terrible 
 silence in the audience-chamber. Surprise 
 and anger at this scornful rejoinder struck 
 the young King and his courtiers dumb. 
 Then with frowning brow and flushed cheek 
 the King cried, " By heaven, I will send the 
 Dauphin some great gun stones to play with 
 in place of tennis balls, and my tennis racket 
 shall toss his father's crown instead of these 
 toys." 
 
 In haste the audience broke up, and the 
 Frenchmen departed, while the King held a 
 council of war, in which instant action against 
 France was decided upon. 
 
 Such was' the scene which we may imagine 
 took place in King Henry the Fifth's palace 
 in London on that memorable day. He had 
 but recently come to the throne, but enough 
 had been seen of his conduct to show that the 
 "madcap prince," the riotous Hal, had been 
 transformed into a brave and manly king. 
 
 A short time after he ascended the throne 
 he sent demands to the French Court that 
 the Treaty of Bretigny should be fulfilled. 
 This deed, signed in 1360 by Edward III. 
 of England and John of France, and known 
 as " the Great Peace," gave to the Enghsh 
 sovereign, among other dukedoms, the pro- 
 vinces of Poitou, Guienne, and the town of 
 Calais. The French king, however, had not 
 
 658 
 
 respected the terms of this treaty, and Henry 
 sent special ambassadors, among whom were 
 Lord Scrope, the Earl of Cambridge, and 
 Sir Thomas Gray to demand its fulfilment. 
 To these noble lords the French king, or his 
 son the Dauphin, uttered his determination to 
 refuse the application, and, it is said, bribed 
 them to conspire against their king ; and 
 after further negotiations had passed between 
 the two Courts, he at last sent a formal 
 embassy to London to refuse all Henry's 
 claims with scorn. 
 
 There are some chroniclers who regard 
 the incident of the tennis balls as entirely 
 mythical ; and it is also asserted that Henry's 
 claims were not only to certain dukedoms, but 
 also to the sovereignty of the whole realm, in 
 virtue of his descent from Isabella of France, 
 wife of Edward II. Whatever may have 
 been the exact nature of the claims first pre- 
 ferred by King Henry, it seems certain that 
 latterly he restricted them to the restitution 
 of dukedoms awarded by the Treaty of Bre- 
 tigny, and that the French refused to accede 
 to his request. The authority for the scorn- 
 ful rejection of the claim .by sending tennis 
 balls rests principally upon Holinshed's 
 chronicles ; and it is also mentioned in an 
 old MS. supposed to have been written at the 
 time, and now in the British Museum. Many 
 other old writers also speak of it. It may 
 therefore very fittingly stand as the opening 
 scene of that brilliant epoch of English his- 
 tory, when gallant King Harry, the idol of the 
 English people, closed for a time by victory 
 the constant wars then raging between 
 the countries north and south of the Channel, 
 and justified the pretension that so many 
 English kings made that they were sovereigns 
 of France as well as rulers of Britain. 
 
 France in 141 5. 
 
 With all haste, the preparations for the 
 French war were pressed forward. Troops 
 were hastily collected, commanders were 
 appointed to the various corps, merchant 
 vessels were hired for the conveyance of 
 troops, and Henry made arrangements for 
 the government of his kingdom during his 
 absence. 
 
 The condition of France at that time was 
 very favourable for such an enterprize. The 
 King was either an imbecile or a madman ; 
 and so much was then dependent on the here- 
 ditary ruler (no provision being made for a 
 successor except in case of death, or a regent 
 except in case of youth), that the country was 
 left without a ruler or the means of legal 
 government ; the death of the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, whose power and influence had pre- 
 served some order, added to the confusion, 
 and all parties strove for the custody of the 
 maniac king. 
 
 The contest principally existed between 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 the Duke of Orleans, brother of the King, 
 and the presumptive heir to the throne, whose 
 party was known as the " Armagnacs," and 
 the youthful Duke of Burgundy, whose broad 
 lands and numerous retainers, known as 
 " Bourgnignons," made him the most power- 
 ful prince at the Court of France. 
 
 In the midst of the contending factions the 
 Dauphin strove in vain to preserve order, and 
 the country was given up to the horrors of 
 civil strife. 
 
 Henry's Preparations for War. 
 
 On the i6th of April, a great council was 
 assembled at Westminster, and to this body 
 Henry announced his intention of making a 
 voyage "in his own proper person, by the grace 
 of God, to recover his inheritance." He ap- 
 pointed his brother, the Duke of Bedford, 
 Lord-Lieutenant of his kingdom during his 
 absence; and a council, which included the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of 
 Durham and Winchester, the Earl of 
 Westmorelandj and Lords Grey, Morley, and 
 Berkeley, was convened to assist and support 
 him. 
 
 Meanwhile the Duke of Exeter, the Earl 
 of Westmoreland, Sir Walter Hungerford, 
 and other chiefs to whom the duty of col- 
 lecting soldiers had been entrusted, pre- 
 ceded the King and gathered their troops 
 together at Southampton. This seaport had 
 been appointed the rendezvous, and it was 
 from this point that Henry intended to 
 sail. The King was much occupied with 
 the arrangement of certain affairs of state, 
 and it was not until the iSth of June that 
 he journeyed south. He found a large 
 fleet of vessels awaiting him ; between twelve 
 and fourteen hundred ships had been pre- 
 pared, of from twenty to three hundred tons 
 burthen each, and were floating at anchor in 
 and around Southampton Water. About 
 thirty thousand men had been collected, and 
 were encamped on a low-lying plain, which, 
 it is said, has long since been submerged by 
 the ever encroaching sea, and is now known 
 as West Point. In the records of the town of 
 Southampton there is an old document which 
 sets forth with some minuteness the details of 
 the encampment before the embarkation. 
 
 The majority of the men had been obtained 
 by impressment ; and for serving the King 
 the following rate of pay was proclaimed: — 
 " Every duke was to receive thirteen and 
 fourpence per day ; every earl, six and eight- 
 pence ; every baron, four shillings ; every 
 knight, two shillings ; every man-at-arms, 
 twelve-pence ; and every archer, six-pence 
 per day." 
 
 Sailors to man the ships had also been 
 obtained in the same manner, and commis- 
 sions had been issued to other captains to 
 compel all vessels of twenty tons and upwards, 
 
 that they might meet with, to sail to South- 
 ampton for the conveyance of the troops. 
 Sheriffs of counties were to levy and send to 
 the same port a certain number of cattle, 
 and the sheriff of Southampton was to get a 
 sufficient quantity of ale brewed, and bread 
 baked, in the towns throughout the county 
 for the support of the great army gathered 
 there for the French wars. 
 
 The same pressure was put upon the nation 
 to furnish money. Parliament voted a large 
 sum, the crown jewels were pawned, and 
 loans were obtained on all sorts of securities 
 until about ^170,000 had been made up. 
 
 King Harry, knowing something of the wild 
 nature of his troops when excited by the 
 prospect of war, and desirous of keeping the 
 goodwill of his people, caused an elaborate 
 set of rules to be drawn up, the object of 
 which was to maintain strict discipline among 
 the soldiers, decreeing severe punishment for 
 those who aggrieved or molested any of the 
 inhabitants. The sheriff of Southampton 
 was ordered to proclaim publicly that if any 
 person had been so molested,he wasto lodge a 
 formal complaint before the Seneschal of the 
 Treasury,or the Controller of the King'sHouse- 
 hold, when the mattei would be examined, 
 and complete justice should be done them. 
 
 More Attempts At Diplomacy. 
 
 While these preparations were being pushed 
 forward, further attempts to promote peace 
 seem to have been made. 
 
 It is reported that while Harry was staying 
 at Southampton, or on his way thither, he 
 was met by the Archbishop of Bourges, who 
 had been sent by the Dauphin from France, 
 to prevent the war if possible, and turn Henry 
 from his purpose by argument. Henry told 
 the prelate that he was bent on vindicating 
 his rights by the sword. The Archbishop 
 replied, "If thou makest the attempt, we shall 
 invoke the aid of the Blessed Virgin and all 
 the holy saints, and thou wilt be driven back 
 into the sea, or taken captive, or slain." To 
 which Henry, like a true Englishman, replied 
 with quiet determination, " We shall see." 
 
 The English people applauded his re- 
 solution with great enthusiasm, for the war 
 exactly hit the temper of the time ; and both 
 Parliament and the Church urged on their 
 young king to assert his claims by force of 
 arms. A French war seems to have been 
 always popular in those days, not only be- 
 cause of the great antipathy existing between 
 the two races, and their constant struggles 
 for victory, but because of the claims of the 
 English kings to the throne of France. 
 
 The validity of this claim was really pre- 
 posterous ; but it served as an incitement to 
 conquest and as a pretext for the fictitious title 
 of King of France which was used by the Eng- 
 lish sovereigns for some five hundred years. 
 
 6?c 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Until the reign of George III., it was 
 customary for the English sovereigns to add 
 this title to the style of their designation. 
 This was first assumed, and the French arms 
 quartered, by Edward III., in right of his 
 mother Isabella, the wife of Edward II.; she 
 was the daughter of Philip le Bel, King of 
 France; and he claimed to be the nearest 
 male heir through her. The Salique Law 
 excluded females from the throne; but Edward 
 maintained that it could not operate against 
 their male descendants. 
 
 Traitors in Henry's Camp. 
 
 The expedition to France was greatly 
 delayed by the discovery of a conspiracy 
 against the King. This came upon Harry with 
 the suddenness andviolenceof athunder-clap, 
 for his bosom friend. Lord Scrope of Mas- 
 ham, "who shared his bed and half his heart," 
 was found to be one of the leaders; and 
 until the most indisputable proofs were before 
 him, he refused to believe the report. It is 
 said that the conspirators were bribed by 
 the Dauphin of France, and that the object 
 of their plot was to execute Henry and 
 put the Earl of March on the throne. It 
 does not appear possible, however, at this 
 lapse of time to ascertain with accuracy the 
 exact motives or objects of this conspiracy. 
 The Earl of Cambridge had married Anne 
 Mortimer, the sister of March, and it is 
 quite possible that he thought the event of a 
 foreign war a favourable opportunity to urge 
 ,his kinsman's claims. The French Court also 
 may have helped it forward, seeing in it a 
 chance of keeping their country free from 
 invasion. In any case the diabolical plot 
 was discovered in time, and the Sheriff of 
 Southampton summoning a jury for the trial 
 of the conspirators, they were found guilty 
 of treason, and condemned to death. 
 
 According to Holinshed, Henry said to the 
 prisoners, " If you have conspired the death 
 and destruction of me, which am the head of 
 the realm, and governor of the people, with- 
 out doubt I must of necessity think that you 
 likewise have compassed the confusion of all 
 that here be witli me, and also the final de- 
 struction of your native country, . . . Where- 
 fore, seeing that you have enterprised so great 
 a mischief, to the intent that your fautours, 
 being in the army, may abhor so detestable 
 an offence by the punishment of you, haste 
 you to receive the pain that for your demerits 
 you have deserved, and that punishment that 
 by the law for your offence is provided." 
 
 The Earl of Cambridge and Lord Scrope 
 demanded to be tried by their peers ; and the 
 lords then at Southampton were formed into 
 a court, which ratified the verdict of the first 
 jury, and, on the 5th of August, they were 
 executed. 
 
 The Fleet sets sail. 
 
 These untoward events caused great delay, 
 and it was not until the nth of August that 
 the whole of the large fleet finally set sail. 
 On the 7th of August, Henry left Porchester 
 Castle, where he had been staying, and pro- 
 ceeded in a little ship to his own vessel, the 
 Trinity Royal, which lay off the coast between 
 Southampton and Portsmouth. The final 
 arrangements were then completed, and the 
 wind being then favourable, he signalled for 
 the whole fleet to weigh anchor and hoist up 
 sails, and they went off with the tide in very 
 much the same direction that the steamers 
 to Havre now take. It must have been a 
 superb sight to have seen those gaily decorated 
 vessels sail away so proudly in the splendid 
 sunshine of that August morning; and the 
 people lining the shores cheered their King 
 and countrymen to the echo. The ships 
 were divided into squadrons, each led by one 
 of the King's carracks, in which was an able 
 commander; and they all kept their appointed 
 place as well as a horse in the battle-field. 
 Henry had fixed upon Harfieur, at the mouth 
 of the Seine, as the landing-place ; and it was 
 here that two days afterwards the transports 
 discharged their soldiers without resistance 
 from the French. On the 17th, Henry 
 moved to the siege of the town. The old 
 historian Stow thus describes the place in 
 those days : — 
 
 " Herflute (Harfieur) is the key of the sea 
 of all Normandie, and is scituated upon the 
 seaside, by the river of Seene, betwixt two 
 hils ; through the middle thereof runneth a 
 river, which not farre from the same towne 
 entreth into the Seene, and from thence both 
 those rivers in one descend into the sea, 
 whereas a great and goodly haven is be- 
 longing to the same towne, which haven is 
 garnished by the defence of two fine and 
 strong towers ; and in the same haven, a right 
 great navie of shippes may ride in safetie ; 
 and if the inhabitants of this towne inclose and 
 keepe within the towne, the course of the 
 foresaide river by their sluces, as they may 
 righte well doe, then the river riseth without the 
 towne so high that it forecloseth all entries 
 to the walls, so that no man may approach 
 the towne on that part. This towne is also 
 defended with high and thick walles and 
 towers, and is also environed with broad and 
 deepe ditches. To this towne also belongeth 
 only two gates for entries, the one called 
 Calturances, the other Mostrouillier." 
 
 The Siege of Harfleur. 
 
 As soon as a sufficiently strong force had 
 landed, Henry moved forward to besiege the 
 town. Though small, it was of great strength, 
 being well fortified with embattled walls. 
 
 660 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 One of the towers, on the side nearest the 
 English, was formed of thick trunks of trees 
 strongly fastened together, inside of which 
 was a wall of earth, with narrow apertures 
 through which the defenders could annoy the 
 English with arrows and other missiles. 
 
 The army having taken up its position 
 before the town, Henry issued orders to 
 prosecute the siege with the utmost vigour. 
 A detachment was sent, under the Duke of 
 Clarence, to beleaguer the fortress from the 
 other side, and that movement completed the 
 entire investment of the place, for it was 
 blockaded from the sea by the fleet, from 
 the river by boats, and from the other quarters 
 by the army. This being done, Henry sent 
 a formal summons to the town to surrender, 
 and meeting with a haughty refusal, he at 
 once caused the guns and siege-trains to be 
 placed within range of the walls. 
 
 Anticipating heavy siege-work, Henry had 
 taken the precaution to provide himself with 
 the newest inventions in siege machinery and 
 cannon, which included large catapulta fitted 
 with movable coverings of thick boards to 
 protect the men who worked them, and mor- 
 tars fired with gunpowder, which had then 
 recently come into use. The catapulta were 
 capable of throwing stones of such enormous 
 size that they speedily reduced the fortifica- 
 tions to heaps of ruins, and caused the walls 
 to fall in with a frightful noise. 
 
 The French defended themselves with great 
 gallantry, and numerous stratagems were re- 
 sorted to by them to resist their tireless and 
 persistent foes. When their outer defences 
 were demolished, they worked all night to 
 repair the wreckage of the day, piling up 
 Avood and earth to fill the breaches. They also 
 ensconced themselves in the heaps of ruins, 
 and kept up a continuous fire upon their 
 enemies. Pots of quick-lime to throw in 
 the eyes of the English were prepared, also 
 jars of burning sulphur and boiling oil, in 
 case the besiegers came too near. 
 
 As the days went on, and the defence con- 
 tinued very stubborn, Henry ordered mines 
 to be dug from the side on which the Duke 
 of Clarence was situated, hoping to reduce the 
 town in this way, but the French sunk counter 
 mines, which, opening into those of the 
 English, became the scenes of violent encoun- 
 ters — and the subterranean trenches speedily 
 became choked with the dead and dying. The 
 French also made several sallies, and troops 
 were sent by the Dauphin to relieve the 
 town. On one occasion, a large body of 
 horse came near to the English camp, in- 
 tending to harass the invaders by ambus- 
 cades ; but Henry detached troops to meet 
 them, and a sharp engagement took place, 
 in which the French Avere forced to fly. 
 
 The surrounding country was now scoured 
 by the English for food and forage, and also 
 
 for faggots of wood with which to fill up the 
 trenches dug round the town. In these excur- 
 sions, Henry's troops frequently fell in with 
 companies of the French, who were now 
 assembling in larger numbers than ever. 
 
 Meanwhile the siege continued with great 
 vigour, being carried on in accordance with 
 the directions laid down by one " Master 
 Giles," the great authority on besiegers' 
 science in those days. The faggots, consist- 
 ing of bundles of wood ten feet in length, 
 having been procured, they were carried to 
 the trenches and thrown in, and built up one 
 upon the other, so that they afforded com- 
 plete and useful screens from the enemy's 
 shot. Archers were also placed behind them ; 
 and being now within range of the ramparts, 
 could pick off the Frenchmen on the walls. 
 Thus the trenches, instead of being a hind- 
 rance, became of great service to the English. 
 The Duke of Clarence also made a deep 
 trench on his side of the town, and fenced it 
 with trees and earth, behind which his 
 soldiers kept up a continual fire upon the 
 besieged. 
 
 But now a fiercer foe than the French, 
 men-at-arms began to attack the English- 
 army. A frightful attackof dysentery visited 
 the invaders, and thousands fell victims^ 
 Among the deceased was Richard Courtenay, 
 Bishop of Norwich, a great favourite of 
 the King. He expired on the 15th of 
 September, after an illness of five days. It 
 is reported that the same disease also at- 
 tacked the besieged, and greatly thinned their 
 numbers ; but notwithstanding the mortality 
 on both sides, the attack and defence were 
 still continued with the utmost vigour. 
 Bundles of flaming tow were tied to the 
 missiles hurled from the catapulta; and these 
 fires not only set fire to the town in various 
 parts, but greatly hindered the French from 
 repairing the ruins, for in the darkness 
 they showed the English where to direct their 
 shot. Night and day missiles of every 
 description were poured upon the devoted 
 town, and the garrison was worn out 
 with fatigue and want of sleep. They daily, 
 almost hourly, now expected the assault. But 
 on Tuesday the 17th of September, Henry 
 again summoned the town to surrender. Not 
 coming to terms, however, the King gave 
 orders that it should be stormed on the 
 following day. 
 
 During the night an unceasing shower of 
 shot was sent into the town, the flames from 
 its burning houses showing the archers 
 where to shoot. About midnight, however, 
 I the besieged changed their minds, and mes- 
 sages were sent over the walls asking for a 
 cessation of fighting until the 6th of October. 
 This being refused, and an answer being 
 sent that they must unconditionally yield up 
 the town on the morrow morning or not 
 
 661 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 expect any terms, they agreed to send 
 hostages the next day. 
 
 Negotiations for the Surrender of 
 THE Town. 
 
 Soon after dawn on Wednesday the i8th 
 of September, twenty-four of the most in- 
 fluential rrien were sent from the town into 
 Henry's camp, and a message was also 
 delivered stating the deplorable state of the 
 town, and asking that delay might be granted 
 until the following Sunday. It was finally 
 agreed that the Frenchmen should send to 
 the Dauphin, and if not relieved by Sunday, 
 the town should be formally given over to the 
 English. 
 
 The commissioners acting for the English 
 and the French hostages having mutually 
 sworn on the sacred elements of the Eu- 
 charist, orders were given for the hostilities 
 to cease, and the inhabitants of the town were 
 told that they need not fear harsh treatment 
 from the invaders, as their rightful king, 
 Henry, did not desire to injure his territory, 
 and wished his people to live in peace and 
 plenty. 
 
 The messengers to the French Prince re- 
 turned in due time, with the answer that the 
 army, not having been yet assembled in any 
 numbers, relief could not be sent to the 
 town. It was therefore given up to the 
 English on the 22nd of September, the cir- 
 cumstance of rendering up the keys being 
 made the occasion of a most imposing cere- 
 mony. At the hour appointed, Henry, 
 apparrelled in his best armour, took his 
 seat on a throne erected under a silk 
 pavilion. He was surrounded by his prin- 
 cipal officers and the peers who had journeyed 
 with him to France, while the soldiery, 
 standing in two lines, formed a long pathway 
 from the tent to the town, through which Sir 
 Lionel Braquemont, the governor of the town, 
 attended by his chief knights, and those 
 who had sworn to the treaty, walked to the 
 presence of the King. As soon as they 
 entered the tent. Sir Lionel Braquemont 
 knelt before the throne, and presenting the 
 keys to the King, addressed him thus, — 
 
 " Victorious King, here are the keys of this 
 town, which we yield to you by treaty and 
 conquest, together with myself and my 
 followers." 
 
 Henry ordered his Earl Marshal to take 
 the keys, and then made a gracious speech, 
 in which he said that although they had kept 
 hi*- town from him, yet, in consideration of 
 their final submission to him, he would not 
 be harsh to them. They were then enter- 
 tained at dinner, after which they were 
 handed over to guards who were strictly 
 charged to treat them well. 
 
 Some accounts state that the hostages 
 were subjected to great humiliations, and that 
 
 they were kept kneeling in an outer tent a 
 long time before Henry deigned to order 
 their approach ; however this may be, there 
 was no doubt great ceremony observed, and 
 they were in the main well treated for 
 prisoners of war in those days. 
 
 The fall of Harfleur was of great value to 
 Henry from a mihtary and strategic point of 
 view. It had taken thirty-six days of vigorous 
 siege, and the defence had been conducted 
 with the utmost skill and bravery, yet it had 
 fallen at last, and the prestige attaching to 
 his arms was consequently all the greater. 
 The key to the fair province of Normandy 
 was in his hands, and a large portion of the 
 territory he claimed was thus laid at his feet. 
 
 On Monday, the 23rd of September, Henry 
 entered and took formal possession of the 
 town. At the gate he dismounted, removed 
 his shoes and stockings, and walked barefoot 
 to St. Martin's Church, where he offered 
 solemn thanksgivings to the Almighty for his 
 success. He then issued commands that a 
 number of women, children, and all those 
 who would not swear allegiance to him should 
 be sent out of the town. About t\vo thousand 
 persons were thus turned away from their 
 homes. An escort was sent with them as 
 far as Lislebone, where Marshal Boucicault 
 received them, and whence they were con- 
 veyed to Rouen. The principal burghers, 
 with several knights and gentlemen, were 
 permitted to leave, after making oath that 
 they would surrender themselves at Calais 
 in the following November. 
 
 In order to re-people the town, Henry 
 caused to be proclaimed throughout England 
 that those tradesmen who would settle there 
 should receive the gift of a freehold house, 
 to be secured to him and his heirs for ever. 
 
 Continuance of the Campaign. 
 
 So far the campaign had proceeded satis- 
 factorily, but Henry's position was now such 
 as to give him serious concern. The sur- 
 render of Harfleur had been obtained at a 
 terrible cost. Numbers of his men had been 
 slain in the siege, a far greater number had 
 been carried off by dysentery, and others 
 were so weakened by the disease that they 
 had to be sent home. It is said that at least 
 five thousand men of all arms were thus 
 forced to return; and as twelve hundi'ed were 
 left to garrison Harfleur, and great numbers had 
 deserted, the army was reduced to about six 
 thousand archers and three thousand men- 
 at-arms, — a very small number wherewith to 
 prosecute the invasion in face of the large 
 army the Dauphin was known to be collect- 
 ing to oppose him. 
 
 On the 5th of October, therefore, Henry 
 held a council of war, at which several' of 
 his officers urged him to return to England. 
 It is said that about eight days before this 
 
 662 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 CO :ncil was held, a message had been sent to 
 the Dauphin from the Enghsh King challeng- 
 ing him to single combat if he was not now 
 prepared to acknowledge Henry's claims. 
 No answer was received to this, or, at all 
 events, if an answer were sent, it was a re- 
 fusal, and thereupon Henry called his council. 
 The advice that he should return to England 
 found no favour in his eyes. He said that he 
 wished to view the territories that were his by 
 right, and that if he quitted France so soon 
 after such a glorious conquest as that of Har- 
 fleur, he would be stultified in the eyes of his 
 people, and his enemies would call him a 
 coward. He trusted in God, and determined 
 to proceed, and at least make a progress 
 through his domains and embark at Calais. 
 To this bold resolution we may say, as was said 
 of another splendid feat of English arms some 
 hundreds of years later, "It was magnificent, 
 but it was not war." It was magnificently 
 brave, but it was not wise. It seemed but to 
 court disaster thus to ma^rch a hundred miles 
 through a hostile country when he knew that 
 for weeks his opponent had been collecting 
 all the troops he could possibly summon to 
 meet him. 
 
 Upon the 8th of October, however, Henry 
 and his little army quitted Harfleur and, 
 proceeding in three columns, marched to- 
 wards Fecamp. They were only provisioned 
 for eight days. The young King published 
 a proclamation forbidding his soldiers on 
 pain of death to plunder any house or build- 
 ing, or commit any depredation upon the 
 inhabitants; no one was to burn, lay waste, or 
 take anything except victuals and necessaries. 
 Henry kept strictly to the terms of this pro- 
 clamation, and every excess was punished 
 with the utmost severity. 
 
 The English at first met with but little 
 opposition. Slight skirmishes took place 
 here and there ; and at Arques, a small town 
 about four miles south of Dieppe, some shots 
 were exchanged, and Henry prepared for a 
 battle, but the town surrendered and acceded 
 to his demands to grant a free passage and 
 an ample supply of provisions for his troops. 
 
 On the I2th of October, the English army 
 approached the town of Eu, where a division 
 of the French army was staying. They 
 came out in great numbers to meet the 
 English, and a smart encounter toolc place, 
 in which, however, the French were soon 
 repulsed. An arrangement similar to that 
 made at Arques was then entered into, 
 the army being again refreshed with bread 
 and wine. The next day they reached 
 Abbeville, and found the bridges over the 
 bomme all destroyed, and the fords held by 
 strong detachments of the French army. 
 
 The Preparations of the French. 
 It was now felt that the crisis of the 
 
 struggle was at hand. Hitherto the English 
 army had not met the main body of their 
 opponents ; and although up to the present 
 time the invaders had been successful, yet 
 they had not met the full force of the French. 
 Henry and his officers now rode all day clad 
 in their full fighting armour, and an engage- 
 ment was constantly expected. 
 
 The next natural barrier to their progress 
 was the river Somme, which they rhust 
 cross to reach Calais. For some time past 
 the French had been actively engaged in 
 collecting a magnificent army, which was 
 gathered now on the other side of the river 
 opposing the progress of the English. Until 
 Henry had actually laid siege to Harfleur 
 the French seem to have done but little for the 
 defence of their country. This was owing, no 
 doubt, to the imbecility or insanity of the 
 King, Charles VI., the youth of his heir, the 
 Dauphin, and the rivalries and jealousies of 
 the two powerful factions, the Burgundians 
 and Armagnacs. The danger of Harfleur, 
 however, roused Charles's Council, and troops 
 were urgently summoned from all parts of the 
 kingdom. It was not, however, till Harfleur 
 had fallen that patriotism rose superior to 
 jealousy, and rival parties joined hands to 
 support the common cause. 
 
 On the 9th of September, at Notre Bame, 
 Charles offered prayers for success against 
 the English, and with great ceremony received 
 the Oriflamme — the ancient royal standard 
 of France — from the Abbot. He then marched 
 direct for Rouen. There a council was held 
 on the 20th of October, consisting of the 
 most eminent personages in the realm, to 
 consider of the affairs of the kingdom. After 
 much deliberation it was decided to meet the 
 English with overwhelming numbers, and 
 fight a pitched battle which should entirely 
 crush them. Accordingly, every effort was 
 made to collect an enormous army, and the 
 forces were concen' rated on the banks of 
 Somme to oppose the crossing of Henry's 
 soldiers. 
 
 The Passage of the Somme. 
 It had been the intention of the English 
 King to cross the river at Blanchetache, a 
 place of glorious memory, for it was here that 
 Edward III. had crossed before the battle 01 
 Cressy. But when near, Henry learned the 
 passage was strongly held by six thousand 
 French men-at-arms and many noblemen, 
 and that to pass over in face of the dense 
 masses of hostile troops lining the opposite 
 bank was simply impossible. Some accounts 
 state that this intelligence afterwards proved 
 to be false, but that Henry could not pass 
 because the ford was staked. Whatever 
 may be the exact facts, it was decided to 
 cross by another ford, higher up the river ; 
 and the army marched southward in search 
 
 663 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of a suitable place, , but they found all the 
 bridges broken, and all the fords strongly- 
 guarded. 
 
 The position of the English troops was now 
 of the greatest danger. Before them ran a 
 broad and rapid river, guarded by a large and 
 watchful army ; their stock of provisions was 
 failing ; disease was rife in their midst ; they 
 were exhausted with long and fatiguing 
 marches, and worn with anxiety. To cross 
 the river appeared impossible, to march sixty 
 miles inland to its source was but to court 
 greater disaster, for even should they be able 
 to obtain food to support them during so long 
 a march, they would fall an easy prey to the 
 enormous army the French could then bring 
 upon them, when utterly exhausted with 
 marching and weak from want of food. Yet 
 to retreat to Harfleur was out of the question, 
 for not only was the thought of the dishonour 
 intolerable to the brave young King, but his 
 ships having sailed from that port, there would 
 be no prospect of getting to England ; more- 
 over the difficulty of obtaining food would 
 be as great there as here, for the French were 
 laying waste the whole country. After long 
 and anxious debate, Henry determined to 
 skirt the banks of the river, watching his 
 opportunity to cross. 
 
 For some days did this state of affairs 
 continue ; the English passing Amiens and 
 Boves (where they obtained bread and wine 
 as at Arques and Eu), proceeding along the 
 bank of the Somme searching for a means 
 of crossing; and the French on the opposite 
 bank watchful and vigilant following all the 
 movements of their enemies, and guarding 
 the passages closely. By this means they 
 hoped to tire out their English foes and weary 
 them with fatigue and semi-starvation. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these difficulties and 
 dangers, the strict discipline of the English 
 army continued to be well preserved. When 
 near Corbie, Henry caused a soldier to be 
 hung for stealing a pyx from a church. It 
 was when near this place also that he gave 
 that important order which was to prove 
 of so much service to his army. One morn- 
 ing as the young King was riding on through 
 the wood near the Somme slightly in advance 
 of his troops and surrounded by his principal 
 officers, a scout came riding in with the news 
 that the French cavalry were about to descend 
 upon the archers; whereupon he gave the 
 famous order that each man should provide 
 himself with a sharply pointed pole, six feet 
 long, and when attacked by cavalry, he should 
 place it sloping before him. This was on 
 the 17th of October; and next day the whole 
 army was rejoiced by the news that an un- 
 defended ford had been found at Voyenne, a 
 small village not far from Nesle, which was 
 to be their resting-place for the night of the 
 1 8th. 
 
 Immediately on the receipt of this encourag- 
 ing intelligence, Henry sent forward an 
 advance guard to prove the accuracy of the 
 report, and to make sure of the ford, while he 
 followed with the main body. It was an 
 undertaking of extreme peril, for the way led 
 across a treacherous marsh, through which 
 ran a rivulet, and he was thus shut up in 
 a corner between the two streams. It is 
 difficult to ascertain why the French should 
 have omitted to take advantage of such an 
 opportunity; but it is very probable that the 
 English were too quick for them, and they 
 knew nothing of it until their foes had passed. 
 Some writers assert that the French were 
 not even aware of this ford, and that it was 
 undiscovered until Henry's sharp-sighted 
 emissaries, with wits quickened by neces- 
 sity, discovered it ; others again assert 
 that the French broke up the causeways 
 through the marsh leading to it, and relied 
 upon that manoeuvre for defence, being con- 
 vinced that Henry could not attempt such a 
 perilous passage. We are inclined to believe 
 that by skilful generalship and prompt 
 marches, Henry had for the moment eluded 
 their sight, for after leaving Corbie he left 
 the bank of the river in order to cut off a 
 corner, for it bends considerably not far from 
 the latter place; and as the movements of the 
 English were remarkably quick, we may 
 believe that whether the ford was known to 
 the French or not, he was so swift in his 
 march that he completely took the defenders 
 by surprise, for they were obliged to march- 
 round the bend of the river. Consequently 
 his advance guard was over and the passage 
 in his hands before the French were near 
 the place. When they made their appear- 
 ance, which they did about an hour after the 
 advance guard had crossed, to their great 
 surprise they received a cloud of cloth-yard 
 shafts from the archers, and they found that 
 the English had nearly accomplished what 
 they had so long striven to prevent. 
 
 First of all a detachment of lancers, archers,, 
 and cavalry was sent across, and the water 
 was found to be no higher than the horses' 
 knees. The broken causeways through the 
 raarslies were meanwhile mended with trees, 
 faggots, straw, and stones. Henry then took 
 up a position near the river to prevent crowding, 
 and caused the soldiers to file across in order, 
 which they did three abreast. It is said 
 that some houses in the vicinity were 
 rapidly pulled down, and the doors and walls 
 used in constructing a rough bridge over the 
 shallow ford. Whatever were the exact 
 means employed, they were quick about it, 
 for they were all over by the evening of the 
 day— the 19th— on which it was discovered. 
 
 The detachment of the French army which 
 discovered the passage of the English, finding 
 that their opponents had so speedily made 
 664 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 good their position, retreated on their main 
 body, and trusting to their superiority of 
 numbers and their determination to crush the 
 English in a pitched battle, left them un- 
 
 greatly to Henry's credit. His boldness and 
 promptitude were unequalled, and he darted 
 hither and thither among his men encouraging 
 and giving orders with the most untiring energy. 
 
 Sir Lionel Bra uemont presenting the Keys of Harfleur to Henry V. 
 
 molested, while they concentrated their forces 
 around the Calais road. 
 
 Without doubt this passage of the Somme 
 was a brilliant achievement and redounds 
 
 665 
 
 As Henry marched on direct to Calai?, 
 he found signs everywhere of the enor- 
 mous force which the Dauphin had col- 
 lected to bar his progress. Onward, by 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Peronne, the roads were found so trodden as 
 if multitudes had passed before his httle army, 
 while no food or forage could be found, for 
 the French had laid the whole country waste. 
 The position of the English was now truly 
 desperate, and the joy of crossing the river 
 was speedily forgotten as the terrible dangers 
 awaiting them became realized. 
 
 But nothing could daunt the courage of 
 the young King, and it was his presence and 
 his manly words which kept up the hopes of 
 his troops. He was met by heralds from the 
 French King, who told him that they should 
 certainly fall upon him and crush him in 
 revenge for his conduct. The gallant prince 
 replied with firm voice and unruffled face 
 that all things would be done according to 
 the will of God, that he intended to march 
 straight through his dominions to Calais, and 
 that if his enemies opposed him he should 
 fight them, but he warned them to desist 
 from the attempt, and prevent the effusion of 
 human blood. 
 
 Henry was as good as his word, and his 
 little army marched steadily forward. Early 
 on the morning of the 24th they crossed the 
 little river Canche, and reached Blangy in 
 perfect discipline. Arrived there, Henry 
 lound from his scouts that the enemy were 
 miassed in considerable numbers on some 
 rising ground about a league distant across 
 the Ternoise, a tributary of the . Canche. 
 Perfectly undismayed, he gave orders to pass 
 over this stream before it should be defended. 
 
 The French are here ! 
 
 On the other side of the Ternoise, as the 
 English were ascending the hill towards 
 Maisoncelles, a scout came riding in, his 
 face all pale with fear, with the news that 
 the French were coming, and in such immense 
 numbers that they resembled a moving forest. 
 
 Undismayed at this intelligence, Henry 
 completed his ascent of the hill, and then, 
 halting his army, went forward to view the 
 enemy. Before him lay the plain of Agin- 
 court, a name then scarcely known, but des- 
 tined to become the scene of a battle which 
 should immortalize the victor's name, and 
 become one of the most glorious achieve- 
 ments of the English arms. The French 
 army lay there ; it was drawn up in three 
 columns, and appeared so numerous that it 
 seemed like a host of locusts spread over the 
 plain. 
 
 Calmly Henry returned to his men, and 
 with great coolness ordered them to dismount, 
 and arrayed them for battle. His bold 
 language and courageous deportment ani- 
 mated them even more than reinforcements 
 would have done. I'hey expected to be at- 
 tacked immediately, and after being drawn 
 up in order of battle, they gave their thoughts 
 to prayer and preparation for death. Many 
 
 there were who fell on their knees and be- 
 sought the blessing and protection of God ; 
 the few priests that were with the army were 
 in constant request for confession, so much 
 so that there were not enough to attend to 
 the numerous demands. 
 
 It was here that Sir Walter Hungerford 
 made that famous exclamation which caused 
 one of King Harry's most characteristic re- 
 marks, and which Shakespeare has immor- 
 talized in his drama. While waiting for the 
 shock of battle on that eventful night, Sir 
 Walter (Shakespeare places the words in the 
 mouth of the Earl of Westmoreland) exclaimed 
 as he looked on the well filled French lines, 
 and then on the small English army, " Oh that 
 we had here to-day ten thousand of those good 
 English archers who are in England, and 
 would be glad to be with us if they knew our 
 situation." To which Henry promptly replied, 
 " I do not wish a man here more than I have ; 
 we are indeed in comparison with the enemy 
 but few, but if God in His clemency do favour 
 us and our just cause (as I trust He will), we 
 shall speed well enough." 
 
 The Night before the Battle. 
 
 After waiting in order of battle for some 
 time, it was found that the French had taken 
 up their quarters for the night in the villages 
 of Agincourt and Ruisseauville, and had evi- 
 dently put off the battle until the morrow. 
 Accordingly Henry moved forward to the town 
 of Maisoncelles, where his wearied men found 
 rest and food. But before quitting the posi- 
 tion, the gallant young King gave orders that 
 all prisoners should be allowed to depart on 
 condition that if he were victor in the ex- 
 pected battle they should give themselves 
 up again the next day ; but if he suffered 
 defeat;, they were to consider themselves 
 released. 
 
 This done, he turned his attention to the 
 disposal and arrangement of his army for 
 the morrow. Gallant King Harry was the 
 very life and soul of his toil-worn troops, and 
 his men forgot their troubles when they heard 
 his cheery voice, and saw his active form busy 
 about them. For days the weather had 
 been wet and wintry, the roads heavy with 
 thick mud, the food woefully poor, and in- 
 sufficient. It was only with the greatest 
 difficulty that the baggage waggons had been 
 forced forward. For several nights the men 
 had been obliged to encamp with little or no 
 shelter ; yet King Harry never gave up ; he 
 passed from company to company encourag- 
 ing the men by his presence and his cheery 
 words, and even helping them light their 
 watch-fires. And to-night his presence was 
 needed more than ever, for their difficulties 
 seemed to have reached their height, and 
 many of the men feared for the morrow, the 
 enemy being so numerous and powerful. 
 
 666 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 Through the thick night they could see the 
 French watch-fires gleam redly in the gloom, 
 and could hear the shouts and cries of the 
 great host as it made merry before turning 
 in to sleep. Confident in the superiority of 
 numbers, the French were certain of victory, 
 and played at dice for the disposal of the 
 prisoners they would surely take on the 
 eventful morrow. Their banners were furled, 
 their armour and weapons laid aside, their 
 baggage unpacked, and straw had been 
 brought from the surrounding villages to afford 
 them soft and easy couches. Their numbers 
 have been variously computed at from one 
 hundred, to one hundred and thirty thousand 
 fighting men, while the English army cannot 
 have been more than ten thousand, including 
 the servants of the knights and the camp- 
 followers. During the night heavy rain fell, 
 and the weary soldiers suffered severely from 
 cold and wet. In silence they burnished their 
 weapons for the fateful morrow, and then 
 confessed their sins and received the sacra- 
 ment. A solemn stillness brooded over the 
 English encampment, while their opponents 
 spent the time in noise and revelry. 
 
 Henry, wet to the skin, covered with mud, 
 and aching all over from exposure and fatigue, 
 visited every company of his little army to see 
 that his men were as comfortably bestowed 
 as was possible under the circumstances. 
 With encouraging words he passed from one 
 to another, and frequently gave them a help- 
 ing hand in the erection of shelter-tents, or 
 the making of watch-fires. As one of them 
 is reported to have said, "The sight of the 
 King was more refreshing than a draught of 
 wine." 
 
 Having thus spent some hours, he retired 
 to a small hut near Maisoncelles, where a 
 final council of war was summoned. Assisted 
 by all his principal officers, the disposition 
 and movement of the troops was decided 
 upon for the morrow. He then sent out 
 scouts to examine the ground ; and this done, 
 he retired to rest. 
 
 It was a dark and stormy night. The wind 
 blew in chilly blasts, and cold showers 
 drenched the sodden earth; the last leaves 
 of autumn were whirled to the ground, even 
 as on the morrow many a brave man now 
 in lusty life would fall to his last resting-place. 
 Gradually the noise subsided from the French 
 camp, and all was hushed save for the moan- 
 ing wind and the pattering rain. So the 
 night passed, — an ominous, gloomy pause 
 before the cries and shouts and shock of 
 battle which would come with the dawn. 
 
 The Day of Battle. 
 
 Slowly and cheerlessly the morning broke. 
 
 Gradually the cold grey light stole over the 
 
 heavily clouded sky, and the stiffened soldiers 
 
 rose one by one to their frugal breakfasts. 
 
 There was as yet no sign that this day was 
 to differ from any other that had just preceded 
 it, for everything was still and quiet ; but 
 to-day would see their fate decided, to-day 
 would see a battle fought, the fame whereof 
 would last for ever. The King had been 
 up long before his men, and had reverently 
 heard mass in his cottage. Then he pre- 
 pared himself for the battle with unusual 
 care. He put on his best and most magnifi- 
 cent armour, which bore embossed on the 
 breast the arms of France and England, while 
 on his helmet, which was of that particular 
 kind known as a bacinet, he wore a splendid 
 crown. Having breakfasted, he mounted a 
 small grey horse and rode forth to marshal 
 his ranks, as coolly and collectedly as if it 
 were a hunting morning in merrie England. 
 
 As yet it was but scarcely light, dense 
 masses of cloud had gathered overhead, but 
 now no rain fell. The early morning air was 
 keen and sharp, and the cold wind pierced 
 the men to the very bone. Noiselessly, 
 without the heart-stirring blast of trumpet 
 or the roll of drum, the troops were led out 
 to their various positions. The priests, the 
 sick persons, and the baggage were left near 
 Maisoncelles, with a small detachment to 
 guard them. The former were commanded 
 to continue praying all day for the success of 
 the army. 
 
 The main body, commanded by Henry in 
 person, and consisting of about equalnumbers 
 of archers and men-at-arms, was led forward 
 some distance beyond Maisoncelles, to a fine 
 open plain, where they could manoeuvre with- 
 out difficulty, and the archers could have fair 
 play for their weapons. The right wing, 
 which also acted as the advance guard, under 
 the Duke of York, was drawn up near a small 
 forest; the left wing, under Lord Camoys, 
 rested on another small wood. Both of these 
 divisions consisted almost exclusively of 
 cavalry. 
 
 These positions being taken up, Henry 
 next caused the archers to advance a little 
 distance before the men-at-arms and formed 
 them like a gigantic triangle, the point of 
 which was towards the enemy, so that nearly 
 all could shoot at once. The sharpened 
 stakes, which they had brought with them 
 from Corbie, were placed in readiness to be 
 fixed in the ground, sloping upward and out- 
 ward towards their opponents. They were 
 also armed with hatchets and short swords 
 or hunting knives, with which to defend them- 
 selves at close quarters. 
 
 Everything being now in readiness, Henry, 
 accompanied by the Dukes of York and 
 Gloucester and the Earls of Huntingdon and 
 Kent, rode through his ranks stopping at vari- 
 ous points, to address them in heart-stirring 
 and inspiriting speech (which Shakespeare 
 has paraphrased in his immortal play) : — 
 
 667 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 " I charge you to remember, my brothers — 
 for all Englishmen are my brothers — why you 
 fight this day. It is to regain my just and 
 lawful heritage, and to win for you a portion 
 of this fair land. In support of my honest 
 claims you may safely fight. Remember 
 whom you are and whence you came. Your 
 limbs were made in England ; your ancestors 
 gained many a victory over those who now 
 scorn you, and who have diced for you as 
 captives last night over their watch-fires. 
 But they will not take you captive. They 
 have boasted they would cut three fingers off 
 the hands of every archer, so that he shall 
 shoot no more. But you will conquer or 
 die; and you will never prove yourselves 
 unworthy sons of such great sires. Not far 
 off is the field of Cressy, where your fathers 
 fought so well and gained the victory. Think 
 of your fathers and of your wives and children 
 now in England. The path home to them hes 
 through yonder host. You cannot go home 
 to them without cutting your way through it. 
 Rouse ye then ! Think of the glory that will 
 be yours, when you conquer an army not 
 twice, but ten times your number ; how ye 
 will talk in days to come when this day's 
 work is remembered, and how proudly you 
 will tell your children's children that you too 
 fought with Harry at Agincourt on Crispin 
 Crispian's day !" 
 
 His address was received with shoutings 
 long and loud. " Long live King Harry ! 
 Harry for England ! St. George and Merrie 
 England. God give you good life and a 
 victory over your enemies!" These and 
 similar exclamations sounded wide and far 
 over the field, and gave the first intimation 
 to the French that their enemies were astir 
 and full of spirit. 
 
 The French position was between the 
 valleys of Agincourt (called by the French 
 Azincourt) and Tramecourt, the main body 
 having a large wing on either side. They were 
 arrayed in three divisions, or " lines," each 
 "line" being about thirty men deep. The 
 advance guard, led by the Constable of 
 France, consisted of eight thousand knights 
 and noblemen, with their esquires, and about 
 six thousand archers and cross-bow men, who 
 were posted at various points of vantage, 
 whenceit wa s considered they could most 
 effectually harass their enemies. 
 
 The immense quantity of rain which had 
 fallen, rendered the ground a mere marsh, 
 and greatly impeded the movements of the 
 men, who were heavily weighted with their 
 thick armour, and sank into the soddened 
 earth at every step. For a short period, there- 
 fore, no movement was made. 
 
 After remaining in this position for some 
 time, the French commander, probably think- 
 ing that Henry would be intimidated by the 
 sight of the great host opposing him, sent 
 
 messengers proposing a truce. By the terms 
 of this treaty Henry was to renounce his 
 claim to the crown of France, and to restore 
 the town of Harfleur. He was to be allowed 
 to retain certain ancient conquests in 
 Guienne and Picardy. 
 
 But the Frenchmen little knew the man 
 with whom they had to deal. He showed 
 no sign of yielding or of fear, and his reply, 
 dictated in the centre of the enemy's country, 
 and in face of a hostile host ten times the 
 strength of his own, was but little diffe- 
 rent from the claims he had sent at first 
 from his palace at Westminster. He offered 
 to waive his claim to the crown if the 
 King of France would surrender to him 
 the duchy of Guienne and certain other 
 cities and territories, and also give him his 
 daughter Catherine in marriage, with 800,000 
 crowns for her dowry. These terms were re- 
 jected, and Henry, finding the morning was 
 wearing away, for it was now eleven o'clock, 
 and thinking that the enemy were purposely 
 waiting in order to weary out and starve his 
 men, whom they knew to be poorly provided, 
 gave the signal to advance. Thereupon Sir 
 Thomas Erpingham, a venerable soldier of 
 the highest reputation, rode out to the front, 
 and, addressing the archers in a short and 
 vigorous speech, bade them fight their hardest, 
 but to be wary, threw his baton in the air, 
 and cried, " Now strike!" 
 
 Forward went the triangle of archers in 
 splendid style, the trumpets sounding and the 
 men shouting. On either side were the 
 men-at-arms flanking them, and bringing up 
 the rear; and the confident Frenchmen, seeing- 
 the small body approach with so much 
 boldness and firmness, could hardly believe 
 their eyes. The men over whom they ex- 
 pected to gain such an easy victory were 
 actually marching to the attack, instead of 
 acting on the defensive ! But on they went 
 those sturdy English yeomen unfearingly 
 and unfalteringly against the mail-clad thou- 
 sands of France. 
 
 "Halt !"and at the word the archers stopped 
 instantly, as one man. They were within 
 range, lor the Constable of France had 
 ordered his men to press forward. 
 
 Another short, sharp word of command 
 and the air was literally dark with the clouds 
 of cloth-yard shafts which winged their way 
 without pause from the mass of English 
 bowmen. With fatal precision the arrows 
 went straight to the mark, piercing through the. 
 joints of the armour, and many a bold knight 
 fell from his horse and died in mortal agony 
 before he had a chance of wielding a stroke. 
 Numbers of the horses were also wounded, 
 and becoming unmanageable from pain and 
 fright, they reared and threw many of their 
 riders and dashed back upon the main body, 
 which they threw into confusion. 
 
 658 
 
GALLANT JUNG HARRY. 
 
 It was the same on every side. From the 
 front and flank poured forth the continuous 
 flights of deadly arrows ; and the French 
 cavalry, which liad been ordered to overlap the 
 body of archers, on both sides, like a living 
 wave, were sent back reeling on their supports, 
 leaving at least half their number dead on 
 the field. Some companies suffered even 
 more severely ; and it is reported that of one 
 division alone, of 800 men led by Clignet de 
 Brabant, 650 were slain. 
 
 Disheartened at this firstrepulse, something 
 like a panic seized the advance guard ; and 
 it was a critical moment indeed for the 
 French arms, when the Constable, seeing the 
 danger, rushed to the head of one of his nu- 
 merous reserves, and, with splendid courage, 
 dashed forward to the httle band like a hving 
 avalanche. "These troublesome archers must 
 be swept away," cried he. 
 
 Regardless of the arrows which still poured 
 on in deadly flight, regardless of the comrades 
 who fell around them, supported by the 
 burning excitement of the moment, and the 
 overpowering desire to vindicate the honour of 
 their arms, the mail-clad men swept on, and 
 the ground shook beneath their heavy tread. 
 With heads bent low, lances close to the side, 
 and points well to the front, they came on, as 
 though nothing should stand before them. 
 It was a critical moment for the English. 
 The tide of victory seemed suddenly to have 
 swung back to their opponents. Their 
 arrows were beginning to fail, and at this 
 most supreme moment the deadly shower 
 slackened. But now was seen the immense 
 value of those sharp-pointed wooden pikes 
 which Henry's foresight had provided. The 
 archers kept them always close at hand, and 
 now they were planted firmly in the ground 
 sloping upwards and outwards towards the 
 enemy. When therefore the shock of battle 
 came, the mail-clad horsemen found them- 
 selves and their horses impaled by their own 
 speed on these lines of dreadful pikes. It 
 was a fearful scene. In one terrible moment 
 the air was rent by the agonised screams and 
 yells of the tortured horses and the wounded 
 men, whilebehind their shelter the archers still 
 sped a few arrows to aid in the deadly work 
 and add to the confusion. In vain the French 
 horse attempted to ride over the barrier, or 
 sweep the stakes away. If at places they 
 partially succeeded, the archers rushed for- 
 ward in a body, and with their sharp bills or 
 small swords wounded the horses, causing 
 them to rear backwards, while their riders 
 were taken prisoners or slain on the spot. 
 Terrible was the slaughter of the French, 
 and the soft ground was soon covered ankle- 
 deep with blood. At close quarters the 
 long lances were most inefficient, and the 
 nimble English, unencumbered with heavy 
 armour or weighty weapons, darted hither 
 
 and thither behind their lines of pointed pikes 
 slaying their opponents by scores. 
 
 Seeing, that in spite of his most brilliant 
 efforts, it was useless to endeavour further to 
 pierce ihe triangle of archers, the Constable 
 of France called off his men, who retired in 
 confusion. Instantly Henry ordered his men- 
 at-arms to follow; and these sturdy warriors, 
 bursting upon the French from either side, 
 cut up the division completely. The English 
 King paused not a moment, but taking advan- 
 tage of the further confusion of his enemies, 
 pressed all his men forward before the French 
 had time to re-form their scattered line. The 
 whole of the Enghsh line dashed onwards and 
 drove the shattered remnant of the French 
 first division back on their second line. It was 
 now that the English loss was greatest, and 
 the battle at its height. The Duke of York 
 was killed bravely fighting at the head of his 
 troops, and other noble Englishmen were 
 slain. Henry had dismounted from his 
 horse and now fought shoulder to shoulder 
 with his men, sharing all their dangers and 
 encouraging them with his manly words. 
 The battle raged hottest where the sparkle of 
 his crown was seen, and many a man died 
 bravely in sound of his voice. The fighting 
 was terribly severe. The French struggled 
 bravely, notwithstanding their first reverses. 
 But the English, flushed with victory, and 
 remembering the desperate nature of their 
 position, rushed on like an all-conquering 
 tide, sweeping all before them. The archers 
 threw away their bows, and catchingup lances, 
 broadswords, or long handled hatchets, with 
 which the field was strewn, rushed on with 
 overwhelming impetuosity, slaying all before 
 them. 
 
 The second line of the French could not 
 extricate themselves from the confusion 
 caused by the rout of their advance guard. 
 And being shut in by woods on either side, 
 they could not deploy their men, or bring 
 greater numbers to bear at one time upon 
 their opponents. The carnage was so 
 immense that the dead lay piled up in 
 great heaps; and those from behind, not 
 knowing the position of affairs, pressed for- 
 ward to get at the English, and thus their 
 comrades were made to fall over the dead 
 bodies, and were easily put to death by their 
 enemies. As the wall of corpses grew 
 hideously higher, the English mounted upon 
 them, and slew the French from this ghastly 
 vantage post with their swords and axes. 
 
 The battle now became more like a 
 slaughter than a fight. The French, wearied 
 and dispirited, over-weighted with their ar- 
 mour, and massed together in such immense 
 numbers so that they could hardly move, 
 slipped on the soft and marshy ground and 
 became an easy prey. Noble and gallant 
 efforts, however, were made by some of the 
 
 669 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 French leaders to stem the tide of defeat ; 
 and when the Duke of Alengon saw the 
 lines giving way, he rode forward in the press, 
 rallying his men and leading them again and 
 again to the charge. In the last of these 
 encounters he came to that spot where the 
 fighting was most severe, round the jewelled 
 crown of England's gallant , young king. 
 Then indeed came the supremest effort, and 
 the commonest men on both sides performed 
 prodigies of valour. Henry's sword kept a 
 circle clear about him, and Frenchman after 
 Frenchman fell before his blade. Alen§on 
 pressing forward, entered into personal 
 combat with him, and strove his utmost to 
 vanquish the young hero; but Henry seemed 
 to bear a charmed life, and his sword smote 
 his adversary to the earth at last. 
 
 Around the King, who was now re- 
 mounted, fought the Duke of Gloucester, 
 Sir Thomas Erpingham, the Earls of Kent, 
 and Suffolk, and other noblemen, and the 
 French made continuous efforts to break 
 the little band. At last came sweeping 
 through the field, like a thunderbolt of war, 
 a company of eighteen knights belonging to 
 the train of the Lord of Croy, who had bound 
 themselves by a mighty oath that they would 
 strike the crown from Henry's head or perish 
 in the attempt. These men, keeping close 
 together and putting their horses to their 
 highest speed, dashed on to the spot where 
 Henry, like a royal lion, fought fiercely at bay. 
 With a tremendous sweep of his mighty 
 sword Henry smote the nearest to the earth, 
 while those around him engaged the others. 
 His brother, the Duke of Gloucester, was 
 severely wounded and fell to the ground. 
 The King, with splendid bravery, leaped 
 before him, and defended him until he was 
 carried from the field ; but while stooping to 
 assist in lifting him, a sweeping blow was 
 aimed by one of the knights at the King's 
 crown, and as Henry swerved it struck some 
 of the jewels on one side and broke them 
 off. The knight was instantly killed by 
 those around, and all the men of that daring 
 band were cut to pieces. 
 
 Duke Anthony of Brabant also made a 
 strenuous effort to reverse the failing fortunes 
 of the French. He threw himself into the 
 thickest of the fight and nobly endeavoured 
 to turn the tide of battle, but he was speedily 
 slain, and at his death the second division 
 gave way. 
 
 The third line, seeing the disaster which 
 had befallen their comrades, took to flight ; 
 the victorious English pressing on, made 
 captives of those who remained. 
 
 Slaughter of the Prisoners. 
 And now occurred one of those extra- 
 ordinary actions which at first sight ap- 
 pears simply inexplicable. The gallant 
 
 and manly King Henry, whose conduct 
 throughout had been so magnanimous and 
 generous, suddenly gave order that all 
 prisoners were to be slaughtered. He had 
 been informed that a large body of those who 
 had been routed had re-formed and marched 
 to his rear to attack his baggage and sick, 
 and to engage him under more favourable 
 circumstances. This, considering the number 
 of prisoners, would, without doubt, have been 
 productive of the direst consequences, and 
 consequently the imperative necessity of 
 self-preservation dictated the measure. 
 Every man was ordered to put his prisoners 
 to death. They refused, however, not, it 
 would appear, so much from feehngs of 
 humanity, but because they feared to lose 
 their ransoms. A detachment therefore was 
 told off for the bloody work, and the fearful 
 massacre took place, in which only the most 
 illustrious persons were spared. 
 
 It had the desired effect, for the French, 
 finding that the English were prepared to 
 receive them, sheered off An attack had 
 actually been made, however, on the baggage 
 of the EngHsh, and many horses and much 
 of the jewellery belonging to Henry and his 
 nobles had been carried off. This appears 
 to have been done by a number of armed 
 peasants, who were severely punished after- 
 wards by the French authorities. Moreover, 
 those Frenchmen who were the cause of the 
 slaughter of the prisoners by reason of their 
 hostile demonstrations, without the courage 
 to follow them up, were also severely censured. 
 
 It is also worthy of note that all the French 
 writers of the time regard Henry's action in 
 this matter as perfectly justifiable under the 
 circumstances, and consider that he had re- 
 course to it with repugnance. They give 
 him credit for his usual generous and noble 
 conduct ; and, as it was with him a matter of 
 life and death, they regard it simply as a stern 
 necessity. If this is the view taken by those 
 who were certainly influenced by every feel- 
 ing to abuse him, we can hardly be expected 
 to regard it differently, especially as the 
 oblivion of the four hundred years which 
 have since rolled by has concealed so many 
 of the details. 
 
 The Night after the Battle. 
 
 This was the closing scene of the great 
 conflict. The immense French host was 
 scattered far and wide like autumn leaves 
 before the breath of a mighty wind. But a 
 short time since they were crowding thick 
 together like locusts, full of confidence and 
 elate with hope : three fateful, fatal hours had 
 passed, and thousands were dead or dying on 
 the field, and the rest were fleeing to the four 
 winds of heaven. 
 
 The carnage had been fearful. The corpsess 
 lying as they had fallen, were piled in heap, 
 
 670 
 
GALLANT KING HARRY. 
 
 higher than a man's head. The French 
 position was covered with waggons laden 
 with provisions, bows, bill-hooks, arrows, 
 lances, and military stores of every descrip- 
 tion. After pursuing the flying enemy but a 
 very short distance, Henry called off his 
 troops and, assembling them in order, 
 addressed them in a brief speech, in which 
 he thanked them for their courage and their 
 perseverance, and bade them regard their 
 victory as an absolute proof of the justice of 
 their cause, and admonished them to attribute 
 it to the Almighty and not to pride themselves 
 upon it. 
 
 He then asked the name of the nearest 
 fortress, and on being told it was Agincourt, 
 he replied, — 
 
 " Then this shall be for ever known as the 
 Battle of Agmcotirt, for all battles should 
 bear the name of the nearest fort to which 
 they occur." 
 
 The English now bethought themselves of 
 rest and food. An abundance of the latter 
 was quickly found in the numerous provision 
 waggons left by the French, and soon a 
 hundred watch-fires were gleaming red in the 
 dusky gloom of the autumn afternoon. JVlany 
 of the dead were plundered as they lay. A 
 French writer, Monstrelet, says that the Eng- 
 lish carried off the jewels and gold, but 
 that the neighbouring peasantry robbed the 
 dead of their clothing. Under the heaps of 
 slain were found many men yet alive, who, as 
 far as possible, were attended to. Huge piles 
 of armour were collected and brought in to 
 Maisoncelles. 
 
 As the dusk drew on and evening closed 
 in, the wind blew in stormy, fitful gusts, and 
 heavy rain fell. The victors withdrew from 
 the well-fought field, and left it to the silence 
 and dreariness of death. 
 
 The King entertained the most distin- 
 guished of his prisoners at supper, and the 
 men gathered around the fires in such shelter 
 as they could find to recount the incidents 
 of the eventful day ere they sank into well- 
 earned sleep. 
 
 Out there in the desolate battle-field, 
 miserable, wounded forms, aroused from 
 their swoons by the rain, crawled out from 
 among the heaps of corpses into the adjoin- 
 ing wood, where some expired, while others 
 contrived to reach some of the surrounding 
 villages. 
 
 Early the following morning — Saturday, 
 the 26th of October, 141 5 — the English were 
 up and, securing their remaining prisoners, 
 continued their march to Calais. Passing 
 over the field of battle, they found many of 
 their enemies still alive, some of whom, it is 
 said, they put out of their misery, and others 
 were made prisoners. Henry halted for awhile 
 on the fateful field, and then made all haste 
 forward. 
 
 671 
 
 It is impossible to tell accurately the 
 number of the slain and missing on this 
 fearful day. Sir Harris Nicolas, in his 
 admirable and exhaustive work on the Expe- 
 dition of Henry V. into France, gives a list 
 of no less than sixteen different accounts 
 taken from old records, in which the numbers 
 vary from three o. four thousand to eleven 
 thousand and upwards of the French, and 
 from seventeen persons only, to sixteen 
 hundred of the English. 
 
 Contradictory as these statements may 
 appear, Sir Harris Nicolas explains them, 
 and forms an approximate estimate by re- 
 garding the smaller numbers given as those 
 of superior rank only. In that case we may 
 believe that about eleven thousand men of 
 all ranks were slain on the French side, and 
 sixteen hundred of all ranks on the English. 
 
 After the English had departed from the 
 ground, the bodies of the most eminent of 
 the French were sought out, and having 
 been washed, were interred in the Friars' 
 Minor church at Hesdin. Others were taken 
 by their retainers to their own estates, while 
 the great bulk of the dead were buried in 
 three immense trenches, each twelve feet wide 
 and twenty-four feet long. This ground was 
 afterwards consecrated by the Bishop of 
 Guisnes, and a strong thorn hedge planted 
 round it to preserve it from the depredations 
 of wild animals. The English had collected 
 their dead, and burned the corpses in a barn, 
 with the exception of the bodies of a few 
 eminent persons, which were taken to Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The English army entered Calais on the 
 29th of October, much hampered with their 
 numerous prisoners and booty. Bread was 
 very scarce, and the men suffered greatly from 
 insufficiency of food. Henry stayed here a 
 few days, and the people were very obsequious, 
 the women and children crying aloud in the 
 streets, "Welcome the king, our sovereign 
 lord." On Sunday, the 3rd of November, a 
 special service of praise and thanksgiving 
 was celebrated for his great triumph. Mean- 
 time, the victorious army was sent by divisons 
 back to England. Some portions landed at 
 Sandwich and Deal, and others at Dover; and 
 delighted indeed were the men at finding 
 themselves once more in their own country, 
 and wonderfully proud of their great victory, 
 and eager to repeat it to their friends. At 
 many and many a chimney corner was the 
 tale told that winter, throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land. 
 
 Henry delayed his passage until the i6th of 
 November. He then embarked with many of 
 his principal prisoners and distinguished men. 
 And for the benefit of those who shrink from 
 the horrors of the Channel passage in these 
 days, we may record the fact that the passage 
 was so rough that the sufferings from sea- 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 sickness of those brave men were so severe, 
 that they said they suffered more severely 
 then, than on the day of battle. It appears, 
 however, that Henry was superior to even 
 this complaint,— so the old chroniclers say 
 (perhaps they slightly garbled the truth, wish- 
 ing to flatter their sovereign), and that the 
 others were much astonished that he escaped 
 sickness and appeared as composed as when 
 on shore. 
 
 The people were overjoyed to see their 
 gallant young King, and so excited were 
 they, that they rushed into the foaming sea 
 to meet his ship. He remained at Dover 
 but one day, and then hastened to London 
 with his prisoners. At every town on 
 the way he was met by joyous crowds, 
 and his entry into London was made the 
 occasion of a gorgeous pageant, during which 
 Henry's deportment is reported to have been 
 singularly modest and unassuming. 
 
 The war was renewed in future years, and 
 slowly but surely the young King continued 
 his career of conquests, until the fall of Rouen 
 and the death of the Duke of Burgundy 
 enabled him to dictate terms to the French 
 king. By the terms of this treaty— known 
 as the Treaty of Troyes— his duchies were 
 secured to him, he was to act as regent during 
 the life of the imbecile French King, and at 
 his death succeed to the crown, while last, 
 but no doubt Henry did not regard it as least, 
 he was to receive in marriage the beautiful 
 princess Catherine of France. 
 
 Henry had now obtained all he desired, 
 and his power and prosperity were at their 
 height. He was the" virtual King of France, 
 and all acts of authority v/ere headed, " By 
 this the King, on the relation of the King of 
 England, heir and regent of France;" while 
 the imbecile King was forced to call him 
 " Our well-beloved son, the heir and regent of 
 the kingdom." 
 
 But alas for the mutability of earthly honours 
 
 and happiness ! Henry died in the plentitude 
 of his power and the zenidr of his glor3\ And 
 no doubt that event which then seemed so 
 disastrous was a great blessing to the nation. 
 For during the reign of his young son, the 
 great possessions in France were wrested 
 from his grasp, and with this loss ended all 
 the English projects for large territorial 
 acquisition on the Continent. These would 
 have been found incompatible with that 
 liberty which, after all, is the principal glory 
 of England, and has so largely caused her to 
 occupy her present proud position. It may 
 be that there were far-sighted statesmen even 
 then who thought this, and were not sorry to 
 see France once more under her own kings. 
 
 But be this as it may, it does not detract 
 from the glory of the victory of Agincourt, — a 
 victory the splendour of which is perhaps 
 unsurpassed by any since, save the defeat of 
 the Armada, and, four hundred years later, 
 the victory gained at Waterloo. Of the 
 splendidbravery,rigid discipline and admirable 
 conduct of the English itis impossible to speak 
 too highly, and, together with the courage and 
 manliness of their gallant young King, will 
 ever remain a glorious tradition in the annals 
 of this country. That Englishman must be 
 indeed unworthy of the name whose heart is 
 not stirred at the memory of the noble deeds 
 of that great day. 
 
 The men who fought and won that glorious 
 fight have long since mouldered into dust. 
 The helmet of the King looks quietly down 
 amid the solemn silence of the Abbey, and 
 of Agincourt itself there remains but a 
 memory and a monument. But through 
 all the centuries yet to come, as long as 
 the English name endures, the memory of 
 Agincourt will remain as the most brilliant 
 achievement of that brilliant epoch when 
 gallant King H^.rry conquered France. 
 
 F. M. H. 
 
 672 
 

 JoSEi'H LiVESEY (the Pioneer of the Temperance JSloveJucnt). 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT: 
 
 ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 "The most remarkable instance of a combined movement in society, which history, perhaps, will be summoned to 
 notice, is that which in our own day has applied itself to the abatement of intemperance." — Thomas de Quincey, 1845. 
 
 " Every day's experience tends more and more to confirm me in my opinion that the Temperance cause lies at the 
 foundation of all social and political reforms." — Richard Cobden, 1856. 
 
 ' Adam's Ale " and Noah's Wine — Temperance of the Ancients— Old Testament Temperance — Temperance of Early 
 Christians — Temperance in Later Ages — Spirits and Anti-Liquor Legislation — Anti-Spirit Movement, 1829-32 — 
 Development of " Teetotalism," 1832-35 — Joseph Livesey's Teaching — The Rechabite Order, 1835 — Abstinent 
 Temperance Leagues, 1835-37 — Ireland and Father Mathew, 1838-40 — Teetotal Life Insurance, 1840 — Organization 
 and Work, 1S41-49 — A Decade of Organization, 1850-60 — Sunday Closing Association. 1861-63 — Permissive Bill and 
 Local Option, from 1864 — Temperance Public-houses, 1867 — Establishment of Good Templary, 1868-72 — Medical 
 Temperance Movement, from 1873 —Denominational Movements, 1873-80 — Auxiliary Movements and Special Work, 
 1S80-82 — Conclusion. 
 
 "Adam's Ale" and Noah's Wine. 
 
 GOOD many years ago, a writer in 
 the Westminster Review remarked 
 that Temperance Societies may boast 
 of as ancient and honourable an ancestry as 
 any in the world, and that in some of their 
 features they are as old as history, and in 
 others as modern as yesterday. V/e will 
 merely glance at their ancient " water-marks," 
 and then record their modern operations more 
 fully. 
 
 67 
 
 The popular inference that water was the 
 primitive beverage is crystallized in the 
 phrase which yet calls it " Adam's Ale ;" yet 
 Milton not unreasonably depicts Eve drink- 
 ing and enjoying the " inoffensive must " 
 freshly pressed from the luscious vine fruit. 
 The brief records of the next seventeen hun- 
 dred years give no indication of the existence 
 of fermented or intoxicating wine ; but then 
 came the Deluge, after which Noah planted 
 a vineyard, and became drunken. An He- 
 
 XX 
 
EPOCHS AND' EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 brewfable says that Noah's vines were fertilized 
 by the blood of a sheep, an ape, a lion, and 
 a sow ; and thereafter wine-drinkers became 
 successively innocent, mischievous, fierce, and 
 filthy, like these animals. But this discredits 
 the grape, as erroneously as does theTurkish 
 proverb, " Every berry of the vine hath a devil 
 in it." 
 
 Intoxication (from toxicum, "poison") is 
 solely induced by the spirit alcohol, and the 
 grape contains none. The grape contains 
 about 25 per cent, of sugar, and, protected in 
 its natural bottle, its skin, it will long remain 
 intact, as witness our Christmas " raisins " 
 and "currants," which are varieties of dried 
 grapes. Old Noah, however, probably 
 pressed out the fresh juice — the " inoffensive 
 must" — and, during a few days' exposure, 
 atmospheric germs would settle in it, de- 
 compose or ferment the grape sugar, and 
 transform it into say 12 per cent, of alcohol. 
 Such, in brief, probably was, as it now is, 
 the course whereby fresh unfermented wine 
 changes into an alcoholic and consequently 
 intoxicating beverage ; and— as the author of 
 Hudibras puts it — 
 
 "Which since has overwhelmed and drowned 
 Far greater numbers on dry ground 
 Of wretched mankind, one by one, 
 Than ere before the Flood had done. " 
 
 The Temperance of the Ancients. 
 
 Grapes fresh and dried have generally 
 been a staple food among Eastern peoples ; 
 the fresh juice, too, was a grateful beverage ; 
 and several processes of long preserving it 
 from fermentation were commonly known 
 among the ancients, as indicated in the 
 Hebrew term Debesh, by the Roman Passim, 
 and the Greek Glukos. Such wines were 
 described by Pliny and other ancient writers, 
 and are most recently expounded by Dr. Nor- 
 man Kerr, in "Wines, Scriptural and Eccle- 
 siastical." Pharaoh's butler, in telling Joseph 
 his dream, at least indicated Egypt's royal 
 beverage at that period — 1718 B.C. — when 
 he said, " And I pressed the grapes into 
 Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's 
 hand." Old writers refer to ancient Egyp- 
 tian rules limiting the allowance of intoxi- 
 cating wine to the priests, and prohibiting it 
 to the kings; and Plutarch cites Psametichus 
 (650 B.C.) as their first king to depart from 
 this rule. Solomon, husband of an Egyptian 
 princess, may have reflected that law where 
 his proverbs declare that " it is not for kings 
 to drink wine, nor princes strong drink." 
 In ancient Hindustan, too, Megasthenes' 
 History (cited by Strabo) shows that the 
 Costes, known as Brachnians, Germanas, and 
 Hylobians, had been abstainers from time im- 
 memorial; and Budda, "the Sage" (500 B.C.), 
 enjoined all to "drink not liquors that 
 intoxicate and disturb the reason" — a pre- 
 
 cept siiW generally practised by his followers, 
 who now constitute a fourth of the population 
 of the world. Chinese tradition tells how 
 four thousand years ago the Emperor forbad 
 the use of intoxicants, whereupon heaven 
 rained gold three days; and history tells how 
 his successor. Key, punished three thousand 
 drinking subjects by drowning in wine ; 
 and how (about 1,000 B.C.) the vines were 
 uprooted by imperial edict. The Chinese 
 philosopher Confucius (500 B.C.) also enjoined 
 abstinence ; and the old precepts to the 
 Chinese priesthood exhorted them "rather 
 to drink melted copper " than sin-producing 
 intoxicants. 
 
 The Magi were an abstinent community 
 in the Medean Empire. Herodotus says the 
 ancient Persians drank only water ; and old 
 writers tell how Persia's hero, Cyrus the 
 Great, when a youth, refused the wine and 
 rebuked the drinking of his maternal grand- 
 father, Astyages, whose Medean Empire he 
 subsequently overthrew, as he did that of 
 drunken Babylonia, with soldiers whose ab- 
 stemiousness he commended. 
 
 The dawn of the Grecian Empire, about 
 1200 B.C., reflects temperance knowledge in 
 the reply of the noblest Trojan, Hector, to 
 his royal mother's offer of wine : — 
 
 " Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind, 
 
 Unnerves the limbs, and dulls the noble mind," 
 
 — an advanced exposition by the "father of 
 poetry," Herodotus, 900 B.C. Ancients tell us, 
 too, that the Spartans warned their children 
 against wine by exhibiting their slaves in- 
 toxicated ; that Lycurgus (884 B.C.) uprooted 
 all vines in Laced^monia ; that Zalucas made 
 it death to drink wine undiluted; that later the 
 Epizephrii law decreed death to any taking 
 wine save under physician's prescription ; and 
 (340 B.C.) Epicurius's precept to his followers 
 was, "Wilt thou support life?— Have bread 
 and water ; for twenty years less than a penny 
 a day has kept me." 
 
 Of the Roman Empire, founded 753 B.C., 
 Dionysius and others cite the early law pro- 
 hibiting women taking fermented wine under 
 a penalty of death, though they could drink 
 unfermented raisin wine. Men under thirty 
 years of age were also prohibited, save at 
 festivals. Pythagoras, the Italianphilosopher, 
 taught entire abstinence: Milo, "the Italian 
 Samson," being one of his disciples. The 
 African territories touched by Greece and 
 Rome furnish other examples. The long- 
 lived Macrobians of Ethiopia abstained, 
 and the Theraputffi — "Healers" — of Egypt 
 abhorred wine ; while Plato cites the valorous 
 Carthaginians as allowing only water to be 
 drank in camp, and compelling magistrates 
 to abstain during their year of office, etc. 
 The warlike Suevians of south-west Europe 
 prohibited wine ; while, in Arabia, another 
 
 674 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 people — the Nabathte-ins — existed, of whom 
 Diodorus Siculus (60 B.C.) wrote that it was 
 a law among them not to use wine. 
 
 Old Testament Temperance. 
 
 A Divine command of abstinence from 
 intoxicants was given during the Exodus 
 (1491-1451 B.C.), when the priests were com- 
 manded under pain of death for ever to 
 abstain from drink during their ministrations, 
 — an injunction repeated through Ezekiel 
 nearly 1,000 years later, prior to the building 
 of the second Temple. During the Exodus, 
 too, God called into existence the Nazarites, 
 whom hecommanded to "separate themselves 
 unto the Lord " by a vow to entirely abstain 
 from all grapes and wine— fermented and 
 unfermented — an extreme safeguard called 
 forth perhaps by unintentional drunkenness 
 resulting from the people's lack of discrimina- 
 tion between unfermented and fermented 
 grape juice. This Nazarite vow was termina- 
 ble by a ceremonious withdrawal. Three 
 centuries later an angel told Manoah's barren 
 wife that she must immediately similarly 
 abstain, and she should bear a son who must 
 be " a Nazarite unto God from the womb," 
 and who should begin to deliver Israel ; and 
 thus the mighty Sampson was born, who ruled 
 Israel twenty years. The Prophet Samuel 
 was born and dedicated under somewhat like 
 circumstances, and is referred to by Philo 
 and others as a Nazarite. Eventually, how- 
 ever, the Israelitish rulers became "sick" with 
 wine ; the administrators of justice greedily 
 "drank the wine of the condemned ; " and even 
 "the priest and the prophet erred through 
 wine," and sunk into idolatry. Further, they 
 had even given wine to the Nazarites, — to 
 whose former purity and comeliness Jeremiah 
 refers, — and for these misdeeds God ordained 
 the fail of the kingdom of Israel, and its people 
 were lost in captivity. 
 
 Before the Kingdom of Judah similarly 
 ended, a lesson was taught them by God com- 
 manding Jeremiah to assemble the household 
 of the sojournmg Rechabiies and place wine 
 before them, which he did. The Rechabites 
 replied that their forefather had commanded 
 thein to secure length of days by abstaining 
 for ever from wine, and by living a nomadic 
 life, and they therefore refused the wine. 
 God, contrasting such obedience against 
 Judah's disobedience, condemned the latter 
 to captivity, while He said of the Recha- 
 bites they " shall not want a man to stand 
 before Me for ever," — a promise repeatedly 
 verified. Thus, Dr. Wolfe, when in Arabia 
 in i8j6, found the multiplied descendants 
 of Rechab still distinctive, and practising their 
 old abstinence and other precepts. 
 
 The refusal of the courageous Daniel and 
 his three brave companions in captivity to 
 take the king's meat and wine, and their 
 
 consequent greater comeliness, only needs 
 mention as beginning a period which fitly 
 ended when he probably influenced their 
 deliverer, Cyrus the Great, to facilitate Judah's 
 return (606-536 B.C.). 
 
 And then another abstinent community 
 arose — the Essenes — whom Josephus tells 
 us numbered four thousand about Jerusalem ; 
 whose regulations combined the strictness 
 of the Nazarites and of the Rechabites, 
 and exhibited a purity of life extorting 
 admiration even from opponents of their semi- 
 monasticism. 
 
 Temperance of the Early Christians. 
 
 As the Christian era dawns, an angel fore- 
 tells the birth of its herald, John the Baptist, 
 and commands that he too shall be a 
 Nazarite from his birth. He therefore not 
 only abstained from fermented wine, but 
 from the " fruit of the vine " in the cluster, or 
 freshly pressed. His Divine Master was 
 under no such pledge, and certainly drank 
 ' ' the fruit of the vine " at the last supper, 
 and turned a large quantity of water into wine, 
 at the marriage of Cana : but abstainers 
 generally believe such wine to have been 
 analogous to the pure unfermented blood of 
 the grape which is still attainable, and not to 
 the fermented wine which they admit was 
 also in common use. The cause, however, 
 need not depend upon disputed points, for its 
 Christian adherents can anchor their prin- 
 ciples to Paul's words : " It is good neither 
 to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything 
 whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, 
 or is iTiade weak." 
 
 The Temperance Bible Commentary cites 
 old authorities showing that entire sections 
 of the early Christians enjoined abstinence ; 
 that tradition names Matthew, Peter, and 
 St. James the Less as abstainers ; that Tatian 
 (172 A.D.) abhorred the use of wine ; that the 
 Severians " were averse to wine ; " that the 
 Eucratites said it was " of the devil ; " and 
 that the Manichees rigidly abstained from 
 wine, but did not refuse the unfermented 
 fruit. St. Augustme, though opposed to the 
 Manichees, heartily commended others who 
 avoided wine, and preferred water as the 
 safer ; and St. Monica and others of un- 
 questionable orthodoxy practised total ab- 
 stinence. 
 
 Temperance in the Later Ages. 
 Mahometanism united various Eastern 
 peoples under a rule of abstinence which 
 no doubt promoted their physical vigour, 
 and was in marked contrast to the inebriety 
 which obtained among some of their "Chris- 
 tian " opponents in the early and middle ages. 
 " Pay tribute" cried the Saracen leader, Abou 
 Obeidah, to besieged Jerusalem, " and be 
 under us forthwith, otherwise I will send mer 
 
 675 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 against you who love death better than you 
 do the drinking of wine." And uhimately 
 these Asiatics drove the Christian forces from 
 Asia, captured Constantinople, and obtained 
 a grip on Europe which is not quite loosed 
 yet. 
 
 At the other end of Europe the Spanish 
 nation rose into greatness, and of its early 
 soldiers Mariana {Hist, de Rebus Hispania, 
 1540) says: "In war their sustenance was 
 coarse and simple ; their common drink water, 
 seldom wine. The lightness and activity of 
 their bodies were wonderful." 
 
 True, as the Germanic element dominated 
 Central Europe, drinking became a virtue ; 
 but even then some of the very poets 
 of Bacchus abstained, for, as Longfellow- 
 writes : — 
 
 " Claudius, though he sang of flagons, 
 
 And huge tankards filled with Rhenish 
 From the fiery blood of dragons, 
 
 Never would his own replenish. 
 Even Pedi, though he chanted 
 
 Bacchus in the Tuscan valleys, 
 Never drank the wine he vaunted 
 
 In his dithyrambic sallies." 
 
 As early as 1517 the Order of St, Chris- 
 topher was founded in Prussia to discourage 
 health-drinking ; in 1600, an Order of Tem- 
 perance was formed in Hesse to limit wine 
 drinking ; soon afterwards a kindred society, 
 called the Ring of Gold, was formed by the 
 Count Palatine ; and later on Scandinavian 
 drinking was rebuked by Carlos XII. of 
 Sweden, of whom Swedenborg wrote : " He 
 knew not what that thing was which men 
 called fear, neither did he know of that 
 spurious courage which is inspired by in- 
 ebriating draughts, for he drank nothing but 
 water." 
 
 In England, too, the principle had its 
 votaries. Not unreasonably does Mr. 
 Bardsley, in his "Romance of the London 
 Directory," assume that the ancestors of the 
 many people named Drinkwater got their 
 names from their abstinent practices. The 
 sublime John Milton was a water-drinker too; 
 so was the poet Waller. Sir Isaac Newton 
 was generally abstemious, and so was John 
 Locke. Sir Matthew Hale vowed against 
 health-drinking. Benjamin Franklin, when 
 working as a journeyman printer in London 
 in 1727, drank only water, and showed his 
 shopmates how a penny loaf was better than 
 a pint of beer. Pepys Liary tells how he 
 himself improved by giving up wine; Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson strictly abstained ; and John 
 Wesley denounced spirit-sellers as "poisoners 
 general," and forbad preachers dram drink- 
 ing. 
 
 In 1814, Basil Montagu, O.C, published 
 his '"'' Essay onFej-inenicd Liqitors, lay a Water- 
 drinker." In 1820, William Cobbett (though 
 believing in beer) issued his Plea for Sobriety, 
 
 to show that spirits neither nourished nor 
 warmed, but undermined the hiwnan system : 
 and later, the witty Sydney Smith, in an 
 hilarious letter to his daughter, Lady Holland, 
 urges her to leave off wine, as he has done, 
 and thus secured robust health and happy 
 dreams. 
 
 Spirits : and Anti-liquor Legislation 
 
 The common sale of ardent spirits and 
 malt liquors, as well as wine, was early inter- 
 fered with by law. At first spirits were called 
 Aqua VitcB ("Water of Life"), and were 
 only used as a drug ; but as their use 
 became common, they proved, as Dr. Ure 
 says, the Aqua Mortis ("Water of Death ") 
 to thousands. The earliest distilled beverage 
 was probably Brandy, named from Brant 
 Weill (" Burnt Wine "), consisting of the 
 alcohol separated by heat from the residue . 
 of the wine. Its original element is grape- 
 sugar; and this fact led Jamaica sugar-planters 
 to similarly ferment and distill cane sugar 
 into an alcoholic liquor, and call it Rum, 
 — from Sacchar;/;;?, " Sugar." Then grain, 
 being malted, produced malt-sugar, and this 
 (flavoured with juniper berries) was distilled 
 at Geneva and called Gin; and finally another 
 grain spirit was mainly produced in Scotland 
 and Ireland, called Usquebaugh, hence the 
 word Whisky. The process and product is 
 so identical that the fermentation of grape, 
 cane, or grain sugar, is equally called ''''vinous 
 fermentation," and the intoxicating principle 
 alcohol as produced from either is technically 
 called " Spirits of Witie" " Full proof," or 
 strongest rum, gin, whisky, or brandy is fifty 
 per cent, alcohol ; forty-five per cent, water, 
 and five per cent, flavouring etc. 
 
 In the reign of Edgar, only one alehouse 
 was allowed to remain in each parish, and 
 large drinking cups had pegs inserted, to 
 limit the quantity to be drunk — hence our 
 phrase " taking down a peg." Ever since 
 that time the traffic in intoxicants has been 
 more or less under restrictive license-laws, 
 which, in effect, permit a few, but prohibit 
 the many from drink-selling. Entire pro- 
 hibition was affirmed as early as 1552, when 
 magistrates were empowered to suppress the 
 ale-houses and " tippling houses " in any 
 towns they thought fit. In 1556, distillation 
 of spirits was absolutely prohibited ; but was 
 afterwards allowed as a source of revenue, 
 often for war purposes. In 1698, a tax was 
 also levied on " malt, sweets, and cider," to 
 raise money for war with France ; but the 
 next year distillation was prohibited, as the 
 grain was needed for food. In 1743, the 
 " Gin Act" was passed, to raise funds for the 
 German war. Lord Chesterfield, in a speech 
 (still reprinted in the Treasicry of British 
 Eloquence) vehemently opposed it as money- 
 raising by poisoning and demoralising the 
 
 676 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 people, he declaring that "vice is not properly 
 to be taxed, but suppressed," and that the use 
 of things hurtful should be prohibited. 
 Eighteen years later the distilleries had to be 
 stopped again to similarly save the grain ; 
 the people of Leadhills protesting against their 
 re-opening, 1759-60, and refusing to drink 
 their produce. In Ireland, during the years 
 of scarcity, such as 1811-12, 1813-14, the 
 distilleries were closed by Parliament on the 
 same ground, and the consumption of spirits 
 there was consequently reduced nearly one- 
 half : the result (as proved by Parliamentary 
 returns) being that the people imported and 
 purchased more real home comforts during 
 scant harvests with closed distilleries, than 
 in years of plenty with the distilleries at 
 work. 
 
 Yet in 1823-25 such legislation was enacted 
 as so facihtated spirit distilling and vending 
 that the spirit consumption in the United 
 Kingdom increased 120 per cent, in five 
 years, and the increasing drunkenness called 
 loudly for some movement to promote 
 national sobriety. 
 
 The Anti-Spirit Movement, 1829-32. 
 
 Intermittent efforts having resulted in the 
 formation, at Boston, in 1826, of the parent 
 "American Temperance Society," and of its 
 later numerous branches, the progress of the 
 American movement attracted attention in 
 Ireland ; and on August I4ih, 1829, the Rev. 
 Dr. Edgar issued an appeal on Temperance 
 in the Belfast Neius-Letter. 
 
 On August 20th, 1829, the first of a series 
 of Temperance Societies, on the Anti-Spirit 
 basis, was formed, at New Ross, by Rev. 
 George W. Carr, after correspondence with 
 Dr. Edgar. The latter, with others, formed 
 the "Belfast Temperance Society," on Sep- 
 tember 25th. A "Dublin Society" followed ; 
 and a "National Hibernian Temperance 
 Society" had developed by 1831, wnen its 
 secretary, Mr. (afterwards Judge) Crampton, 
 — then Solicitor-General for Ireland, — re- 
 ported 15,000 members in that country. 
 
 In Scotland there had been intermittent 
 efforts before the National movement began 
 at Greenock, where, in October 1829, an 
 Anti-Spirit Society was formed by John 
 Dunlop, who long continued a leading advo- 
 cate, and wrote a work on " Compulsory 
 Drinking Usages '' of that period. The 
 formation of the Glasgow Society followed 
 in November; and in 1830 this developed the 
 Scottish Temperance Society, their Teni- 
 perance Record being issued by William 
 Collins, the Glasgow publisher. 
 
 From Scotland the movement spread to 
 England through the efforts of Henry Forbes, 
 a Bradford merchant, who started the Brad- 
 ford Society in February 1830. Others 
 soon followed at Warrington, Manchester, 
 
 Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, and 
 in London. As early as 1829, one Boatswain 
 Smith had republished some American anti- 
 spirit tracts in the metropolis ; but it was 
 left to William Collins of Glasgow to plant 
 the first society in London, as in some other 
 centres, and he having done this late in 
 1830, a "British and Foreign ' Temperance 
 Society" developed by 1831, and a Tem- 
 perance Herald was issued. 
 
 Now came the turn of Preston. On 
 January ist, 1832, a Temperance Society was 
 established there, in connection with a 
 Mission School associated with the philan- 
 thropic efforts of Joseph Livesey. It was 
 headed by Henry Bradley, formerly of 
 Bradford, where he had been associated 
 with Temperance work. A general society 
 for Preston soon followed, and, like the 
 preceding societies throughout the kingdom, 
 prohibited the use of spirits, but allowed 
 the moderate use of wines or malt liquors. 
 But Preston moved on, as we shall see. 
 
 The Development of "Tetotalism" 
 1832-35- 
 
 In Ireland there had existed as early as 
 1817a Total AbstinenceSociety at Skibbereen, 
 but it had not headed any national movement. 
 In Scotland in 1830, the "Dunfermline Tem- 
 perance [Anti-Spirit] Society " had a leading 
 spirit in Mr. John Davie, who, on Sept. 21st, 
 concurred in promoting a re-organization on 
 the lines of Total Abstinence, "excepting 
 small beer, " — said to mean treacle-beer, as 
 sometimes eaten with porridge. Dr. Rich- 
 mondand others started the " Paisley Youths' 
 Society" on January 14th, 1832, excluding all 
 intoxicants, " except when absolutely neces- 
 sary, " — i.e., as a vicdicine. " The Tradeston 
 (Glasgow) Total Abstmence Society" was 
 formed next day ; and the battle of Total 
 Abstinence versus Anti-Spirit pledges was 
 soon being waged in all directions. 
 
 In England also the work developed. 
 Among the members of the Preston Anti- 
 Spirit Society were John King and Joseph 
 Livesey — the benevolent Cheesemonger — the 
 latter issuing The Moral Refornier, in the 
 interest of morality and sobriety. These 
 and others soon began to find reclaimed 
 spirit drinkers could not take malt liquors 
 without becoming intoxicated ; and hence 
 the confab and agreement in Livesey's shop, 
 where these two signed a total abstinence 
 pledge on August 23rd, 1832. Several others 
 similarly signed at a meeting of the society 
 on September ist. Tfie matter was debated 
 at the society's later meetings, in the old cock- 
 pit ; and on March 23rd, 1833, the society 
 agreed to constitute a separate section for 
 total abstainers— the pledge being only "for 
 one year." In discussing the matter a 
 fervent convert, one Richard Turner, had 
 
 677 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 declared that as to malt liquor?, "mode- 
 ration was botheration " — he was for " tee, 
 total abstinence;" whereupon Joseph Livesey 
 cried, "That shall be the name, Dicky!" 
 The word " Teetotal " was, however, in 
 use generations ago, in some parts, as an 
 emphatic "expression of total or entire; but 
 here it was supposed to be an emphatic 
 utterance of the word " total," and it was so 
 caught up, and has become a dictionary word 
 signifying total abstinence from intoxicating 
 drinks. Richard Turner's tombstone records 
 that he was its author in this connection. 
 
 On April i8th, 1834, a "Youths' Temper- 
 ance Society " was started at Preston on an 
 exclusively teetotal basis, with a pledge " for 
 one year ;" and in the following year the 
 Parent Society abandoned its anti-spirit 
 pledge, and, amidst great rejoicing, adopted 
 continuous teetotalism as its sole basis. 
 
 Joseph Livesey's Teaching. 
 Societies in a few other towns had began 
 to adopt teetotalism, but Preston was the 
 centre from which earnest men missioned 
 the country. Joseph Livesey mainly pro- 
 pagated the new departure by his " Malt 
 Liquor Lecture," which has been published 
 and republished through fifty years. Num- 
 bers of working men had spent so much of 
 their substance in beer, that to them it was 
 truly the '''poor man's beer," for they became 
 poor enough. They preferred beer to bread, 
 as illustrated on the sign of "The Brewer 
 and the Baker": — 
 
 " The Baker said, ' I've the staff of life, 
 And you're a silly elf.' 
 The Brewer replied, with artful pride, — 
 ' Why, this is life itself.' " 
 
 Malt liquor had not been regarded as a 
 cause of, but as a nourishing cure for, the in- 
 temperance caused by ardent spirits. Livesey 
 demonstrated that in making a gallon of 
 malt liquor, ale, beer, or porter, 6 lb. of 
 barley would be required. Out of this the 
 malting process took away \\Vo. as " sprits" 
 or " combs ; " by mashing, 2 lb. would be 
 removed as "grains ;'' \iy fer-menting, i lb. of 
 the malt sugar is changed into alcohol and 
 acid ; and by fining or clearing, f lb. is re- 
 jected as " barrel bottoms," leaving only | lb. 
 of solid material in the liquor ; and this 
 mostly gum and other innutritious substances 
 including the hop flavouring. He showed 
 that the brewers thus annually appropriated 
 60,000,000 bushels of ^rain food, occupying 
 1,565,000 acres to grow it. He demonstrated 
 that a gallon of ale weighing 156 oz. con- 
 sisted of 140 oz. of water, 7 oz. of alcohol, and 
 9 oz. of remnants of barley ; and that 100 
 parts of beer comprised 90 of water, 5 of 
 alcohol, and 5 of barley extract, etc. It 
 would seem that malt liquors have not 
 
 greatly changed, seeing that at the recent 
 Brewers' International Exhibition in London, 
 the analysed barrel (144 qt.) of Burton Ale 
 was labelled as : " Alcohol [Spirits of Wine, 
 strongest), i^"^ pints ;" " Dextrine (substance 
 resembling guni), -]lb. 1 2oz ; " " Maltuose 
 {sugar of malt), 3 lb. 6 oz. ; " " Albtwienoid 
 {fleshforming matter), i lb w oz. ;" the re- 
 mainder being v/ater. Roughly recast, this 
 would give in quarts : Alcohol 7, gum 4, 
 sugar 2, flesh-forming matter i, water 130 ; 
 total 144. Livesey further pointed out that 
 apart from being valueless as food, all malt 
 liquors were spirituous : a quart of such 
 averaging about as much alcohol as an aver- 
 age pint of wine, or half a pint of rum, gin, 
 whisky, or brandy. 
 
 The Rechabite " Benefit" Order, 1835. 
 
 Abstainers did not Hke public-house clubs, 
 and so, at Salford, on 25th August, 1835, there 
 was formed the " Independent Order of 
 Rechabites," a total abstinent sick-benefit 
 fraternity, consisting largely of working men. 
 It takes the lead as the oldest and largest 
 abstinent benefit society, and has from its 
 head-quarters at Manchester established 
 branches, or "tents," throughout the kingdom, 
 and elsewhere ; and has attained a member- 
 ship of 36,000, and an accumulated fund of 
 ^200,000. Its statistical returns during its 
 whole existence present a marvellous record 
 ofthe generally good health of total abstainers. 
 In comparison with those of the similar but 
 non-abstaining "Order of Odd Fellows," the 
 statistics (omitting fractions) of each of five 
 successive years, gave the following averages: 
 — Ofthe Rechabites 16 per cent, came on the 
 sick list ; of the Odd Fellows, 28 per cent : 
 the Rechabite invalids averaged six days' 
 sickness each ; the Odd Fellows ten days' 
 each ; showing that while there were 350 
 days' sickness among 1,000 Rechabites there 
 were 1050 days' sickness among 1,000 Odd- 
 Fellovvs— three times as much as the 
 abstainers. During the same five years the 
 Rechabite annual death-rate averaged just 
 over 7 per 1,000 ; the Odd Fellows' dealh- 
 rate, just over 12 per 1000 — a rather high 
 percentage for a Friendly Society. 
 
 A kindred society, the " Order of the 
 Sons of Temperance," was soon afterwards 
 started in America, and being introduced 
 into the United Kingdom, has here a fund 
 of ;/^45,ooo, and 15,000 members. They 
 exhibit a similarly low death-rate with the 
 Rechabites ; while for five years their sick 
 rate was nearly 8 per cent., in contrast to 
 the Foresters' sick-rate of nearly 28 per cent. 
 
 Abstinent Temperance Leagues, 1835-7. 
 
 On September i5-i6th, 1835, delegates of 
 
 many societies of Lancashire, Yorkshire, etc., 
 
 met at Manchester, and constituted the 
 
 67S 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 " British Temperance League," — then called 
 an "Association." In 1836, under the pre- 
 sidency of Dr. R. B. Grindrod, a very noted 
 advocate, the League insisted on teetotalism 
 being adopted by its remaining Anti-Spirit 
 Societies. Its head-quarters were at Bolton, 
 and are now at Sheffield. With its staff of 
 agents, and its 7 evipe^'ance Advocate, it still 
 continues a leading — as it is the oldest — 
 association inculcating both abstinence and 
 prohibition. 
 
 London had heard of teetotalism, too, but 
 it was left to Joseph Livesey to inaugurate in 
 1835 the first total abstinence society in the 
 metropolis ; and after this an organization 
 was developed, which, in 1836, was reorganized 
 as the '•''New British and Foreign Temperance 
 Society," Earl Stanhope soon signing the 
 pledge, and becoming its president. 
 
 On August loth, 1837, the Western Tem- 
 perance League originated at Street, Somer- 
 set, and, being afterwards reorganized at 
 Bristol, gradually covered the West of 
 England and South Wales with its missioning 
 influence. With its agents and its Herald, 
 it still carries on, in fourteen counties, an 
 extensive advocacy. 
 
 Ireland and Father Mathew, 1838-40. 
 
 The most remarkable era of the Tem- 
 perance cause was inaugurated in Ireland by 
 the Rev. Theobald Mathew, a Capuchin friar, ' 
 who attended a Temperance tea meeting, 
 arranged by a Quaker, at Cork, on April loth, 
 1838, and there signed the pledge of total 
 abstinence. Fired with new-born zeal ; 
 possessed of a yearning for the delivery of 
 Ireland from its whisky curse ; gifted with a 
 most lovable countenance and persuasive 
 powers, he became the great apostle of 
 Temperance. His priestly calling doubtless 
 added to his influence. The people crowded 
 into the towns he visited, and scores of 
 thousands simultaneously, on their knees, 
 assented to his pledge, and wore his tem- 
 perance medal. His converts actually 
 numbered millions ; the face of the country 
 was changed as he laboured ; and in a very 
 few years (as shown in Parliamentary 
 blue-books), crime and the consumption of 
 ardent spirits in Ireland diminished one-half; 
 its drink revenue diminished over ^750,000 ; 
 but the loss was far more than met by 
 revenue from sales of more necessary com- 
 modities. Father Mathew visited English 
 centres, and the United States, with much 
 success, noblemen and statesmen vieing to 
 do him honour. He was an irresistible 
 speaker like Whitfield, but not an organizer 
 like Wesley ; and though many thousands 
 ever followed his teaching, the bulk no doubt 
 lost -interest in after years. While abused 
 by traducers as selfishly making money by 
 
 the sale of his medals, he actually became 
 bankrupt. But his record was honest, and 
 he was not allowed to fall. He peacefully 
 ended his days with ^300 a year granted 
 by the Queen, and his statue at Cork com- 
 memorates his work in the Emerald Isle. 
 
 The Teetotal Life Insurance 
 Movement, 1840. 
 
 In 1 840, Mr. Robert Warner (who hves to 
 tell his story in 18S2) found that, owing to his 
 known teetotalism, an Insurance Company 
 wished to charge an extra premium for in- 
 suring his life. Speedily he and other ab- 
 stainers determined on independent action, 
 and on Dec. 31st, 1840, the "United King- 
 dom Temperance Provident Institution" was 
 started in London, to insure total abstainers 
 only for sums of ^100 and upwards, the 
 insured to have a share in the profits. The . 
 death-rate during the first ten years proved 
 to be much lower that the average in other 
 insurance offices. This success assured, they, 
 in 1850, added a "general" section for ad- 
 mitting moderate drinkers. The receipts, 
 claims, and bonuses of each section were, 
 however, kept separate, so that each should 
 bear its own claims, and share its own profits. 
 About 76,000 policies havebeen issued, and the 
 accumulated capital is over ^3, 100,000. The 
 comparative returns of the two sections startle 
 the unthinking and impress all. Throughout 
 the thirty years during which the two sections 
 have existed side by side, the pcr-centage of 
 deaths per thousand in the abstaining section 
 has invariably been much lower than in the 
 "generaP'section. Yet the acceptabihty of the 
 administration to non-abstainers is shown by 
 the fact that they outnumber the abstainers 
 in the assured. Taking the ten years from 
 1870 to 1880, the deaths in the "general" 
 section, according to common insurance aver- 
 age, should have been 2,753 i ^^^ they were 
 a few over — viz. 2,810. By the same aver- 
 age per cent, the deaths in the teetotal section 
 should have been 1,556, but the actual deaths 
 were only 1,162, leaving alive 394 of those 
 abstainers who should have died, but who 
 "could not die for the life of them;" and 
 who thus left in the funds about ^80,000, 
 which, had they died, their relatives would 
 have drawn out. Had those insured in the 
 general section exhibited a similar tenacity 
 of life, 87S out of the 2,810 deceased moderate 
 drinkers would have been still alive, and their 
 section would have retained their claims in the 
 treasury. The abstainers being longer-lived, 
 receive a much higher percentage of bonus 
 every five j'ears than do those in the non- 
 abstaining section. 
 
 Several of the other large Insurance Com- 
 panies have since added total abstinence 
 sections, and with similar results, as their 
 
 679 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 prospectuses testify ; while on the other hand, 
 many large companies will not insure drink- 
 sellers at all : for while, as the Commercial 
 World says, these statistics prove abstinence 
 to be " most favourable to longevity," the 
 Insurance Directory has to admit that " it is 
 notorious amongst Life Insurance Offices 
 that innkeepers and publicans are a short- 
 lived class." 
 
 Organization and Work, 1841-49. 
 
 In 1841, an.^;i;//-teetotal Society was born, 
 and died. A National Temperance Society 
 c o m - 
 bined the 
 London 
 workers 
 in 1842. 
 In 1843, 
 theEvan- 
 'g el i c a 1 
 Union of 
 Scotland 
 ori g i n- 
 ated ; and 
 all its 
 eighty 
 ministers 
 are ab- 
 stainers, 
 and all its 
 ninety 
 churches 
 use un- 
 fermented 
 sacra- 
 mental 
 wine. 
 
 Scotch 
 represen- 
 t a t i V e 
 societies 
 in 1844 
 harmoni- 
 ouslyuni- 
 t e d in 
 forming 
 the Scot- 
 tish Tem- 
 perance 
 League, 
 
 which has reached over 10,000 members — 
 subscribing over ^3,500 annually — and dis- 
 tributes yearly ;{^4, 500 worth of its valuable 
 Temperance literature. 
 
 Then in 1845 the "Scotch United Presby- 
 terian Abstinence Society" started ; and 250 
 — or one-half — of the United Presbyterian 
 ministers are now abstainers. 
 
 In 1846, there was held in London the 
 first "World's Temperance Convention," 
 when the leading spirits of America and else- 
 where fraternised with their British kindred. 
 
 In 1847 was published a Declaration of 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Lavvson (President o/ the " United Kingdom Alliance") 
 
 2,000 medical men that abstinence was safe 
 and desirable. In 1848 the first National 
 MinisterialTemperanceConferencewasheldin 
 London; and in 1849 was formed the-Scotch 
 Free Church Abstinence Society, which, with 
 its strengthened pledge to neither drink nor 
 offer intoxicants, has Sir William Collins and 
 Principal Cairns as Presidents. One-half of 
 the Free Church ministers and 78 per cent. 
 of its students are abstainers. 
 
 A Decade of Organization, 1850-1860. 
 The Established Church of Scotland started 
 
 its Tem- 
 perance 
 organiza- 
 tion in 
 1850. 
 This 
 c o m- 
 menced a 
 decade of 
 organ iza- 
 tion,forin 
 1 85 1 the 
 English 
 Friends, 
 Qitakers, 
 and the 
 Irish 
 Pre sby- 
 t er i ans 
 similarly 
 organ- 
 iied; and 
 in 188 I 
 the latter 
 had a ma- 
 jority of 
 its min- 
 ister s 
 and stu- 
 dents ab- 
 stainers; 
 18,000 
 me m bers 
 in its adult 
 abstain- 
 ing socie- 
 ties, and 
 20,000 in 
 in its Bands of Hope. 
 
 In 1852 Glasgow started the City Mission 
 system which so unobtrusively labours to re- 
 claim the inebriate and fallen. 
 
 On June ist, 1853, there was formed at 
 Manchester, on the instigation of a "Friend," 
 Nathaniel Card, the "United Kingdom Alli- 
 ance," for the suppression of the liquor 
 traffic. Four years later it had secured the 
 names of 4,000 ministers in support of its 
 principles. The late Sir Walter C. Trevelyan 
 was long its president, and was succeeded 
 by Sir Wilfrid Lawson. With an income 
 
 6S0 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 reaching ^20,000 a year, it has grouped the 
 English counties under fullyemployed district 
 superintendents ; established local auxiliaries 
 with agents in populous centres ; sent its 
 organ, The Alliance News, everywhere, 
 and strewn the land with millions of pages 
 of temperance literature. 
 
 In 1854 there was started in London "The 
 Temperance Permanent Building Society," 
 relating to property free from drink sell- 
 ing, and whose receipts have amounted 
 to ^5)53o,ooD, while it has advanced 
 ;^3,ooo.ooo. An Artizans' and General 
 Dwell- 
 ings 
 Company 
 since 
 fo rmed, 
 with a 
 capital of 
 1 , 000, 000 
 pounds, 
 has built 
 some 
 3,000 
 houses on 
 metropo- 
 litan land 
 where no 
 drink 
 license is 
 allowed. 
 
 Before 
 this 
 period, 
 children's 
 abstinent 
 organiza- 
 tions had 
 been 
 formed ; 
 among 
 them 
 the " Lea- 
 g u e of 
 Juvenile 
 Abstai- 
 ners" at 
 Edin- 
 burgh, 
 founded 
 
 by WiUiam Hope, W.S., who has expended 
 ^60,000 in connection with it. Now, how- 
 ever, in 1856, the "United Kingdom Band 
 of Hope Union" was founded in London by 
 Stephen Shirley, who is still Vice-President, 
 Samuel Morley, M.P., being the Presi- 
 dent. The Union has an income of 
 ;^6,ooo, and has affiliated to it about 8,000 
 societies with their juvenile abstaining 
 membership of about 1,000,000 souls, who 
 are taught through its monthly C/t7'onicle, 
 and its many other publications, and stimu- 
 lated by prize competitions. 
 
 Samuel Bowly {President of the " National Temperance League "). 
 
 In 185 6, the "National Temperance Society" 
 and the '"London Temperance League "united 
 to constitute the " National Temperance 
 League," of which Mr. Samuel Bowly, of 
 Gloucester, is still the venerable president. 
 Its annual income is ;^5;5oo, and its in- 
 dispensable organ The Temperance Record. 
 Its work is distinctively " moral suasion," by 
 the agency of visitations, lectures, drawing- 
 room meetings, and breakfast conversations 
 in connection with the learned societies and 
 educational institutions ; Crystal Palacey^/^J/ 
 and the extensive circulation of Temperance 
 
 . literature 
 through 
 an asso- 
 c i a t ed 
 " Nation- 
 al Tem- 
 perance 
 Publica- 
 tion De- 
 pot." 
 
 In 1857 
 was held 
 the first 
 anniver- 
 s a r y of 
 what 
 has de- 
 veloped 
 into the 
 ' Midland 
 T e m - 
 
 per ance 
 League," 
 andwhich 
 still con- 
 tin u e s, 
 with in- 
 creasing 
 activity. 
 In 1858, 
 t h e 
 "North of 
 England 
 Temper- 
 ance Lea- 
 gue" was 
 formed, 
 and, led 
 
 by Alderman Charlton, has ever since worked 
 Northumberland, Cumberland Westmore- 
 land, and Durham, for abstinence and pro- 
 hibition. 
 
 The busy decade was closed by the start- 
 ing in 1859 of the "Scottish Permissive Bill 
 and Temperance Association" at Glasgow, 
 with the Social Reformer as its organ ; and 
 the "Irish Temperance League" at Belfast, 
 issuing the League yonrnal. Both of these 
 still continue active organizations, disburs- 
 ing ^4,000 to ;^5jOOo annually. 
 
 6S1 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 " Sunday Closing Association," 
 1861-63. 
 
 In 1 861, the first local society for closing ; 
 public-houses on Sunday was started at Hull; . 
 and from this came a National organization | 
 at Derby in 1863. Sabbatarian Scotland had i 
 in 1853 secured entire Sunday closing; and in 
 the following ten years the Scotch con- 
 sumption of spirits decreased fifteen million 
 gallons, or over 20 per cent, (although the 
 population had largely increased) ; on the 
 other hand the consumption of spirits in 
 England and Wales increased in the same 
 ten years twenty million gallons, or over 20 
 per cent. 
 
 The " Central Sunday Closing Association" 
 was reorganized at Manchester in 1866, Mr. | 
 Edward Whitwell of Kendal being its lead- 
 ing spirit. It has probably spent ^35,000 in 
 active advocacy, and early helped to establish 
 a separate society in Ireland. The latter 
 scored a victory ini 878, when the Irish Sunday 
 Closing Act was passed, except as to five 
 towns, where the hours of sale were reduced 
 from seven to five. Government returns 
 show that since Sunday closing in Ireland 
 there has been a reduction in the consumption 
 of spirits and beer from ^12,169,915 worth in 
 1877 to ^9,174,803 in 1880, being ^2,995,112 
 less than when Sunday sale was allowed. 
 The arrests for drunkenness were reduced from 
 110,903 in 1877, to 89,980 in 1880, or 20,923 
 fewer. Of arrests on Sundays — apart from 
 other days — there were during the last two 
 and a half years preceding Sunday closing, 
 11,887 arrests, and in the succeeding two 
 and a half years only 4,269, — a reduction of 
 7,618, or 64 per cent. A separate analysis 
 shows a reduction of 30 per cent, in the five 
 exempted towns following on the reduction 
 of hours ; and a late canvass of house- 
 holders in these towns, show 76,817 for, and 
 only 13,702 against the extension of entire 
 Sunday closing to them. 
 
 A canvass of house-holders in all parts of 
 Wales showed 98 per cent, in favour of 
 entire Sunday closing for the Principahty. 
 In the last days of the session of 1881, 
 Parliament passed the Welsh Act, and it 
 came into force at the various hcensing 
 sessions in 1882. 
 
 In England the householders in 500 towns 
 and villages have been canvassed with 
 separate voting papers, the result showing 
 seven to one in favour of Sunday closing. 
 In June 1880, the House of Commons, with- 
 out a division, affirmed the necessity for 
 legislation stopping the Sunday sale of 
 liquor for consumption on the premises ; 
 and the Cabinet has later supported the 
 right of counties to secure entire Sunday 
 closing when they so desire. 
 
 The Permissive Bill and Local Option, 
 FROM 1864. 
 
 Between 1823 and 1830, legislation cheapen- 
 ing spirits had increased the consumption 
 120 per cent. Then the Beer Act of 1830 
 had been advocated to correct excessive spirit 
 drinking, by making malt liquors more 
 accessible ; but while during the succeeding 
 five years the consumption of beer increased 
 25 per cent., that of spirits also increased 8 
 per cent. Then in 1 860 the Wine Bill was 
 adopted, and soon several thousands of 
 grocers obtained, first wine, and then spirit 
 licenses; their main source of supply — Messrs. 
 Gilbey increasing their annual sales to over 
 800,000 gallons of wine, and over 900,000 
 gallons of spirits. This " legislation in the in- 
 terest of Temperance" ! commenced a decade 
 which showed 25 per cent, increase in the 
 national expenditure on intoxicants, and 
 drew a protest, through the Lancet, from 
 nearly r,ooo medical men, who attributed to 
 these Grocers' Licenses the great increase in 
 female intemperance. 
 
 In 1864 commenced the parliamentary 
 campaign of Sir Wilfrid Lawson with his 
 " Permissive Bill," which measure had all 
 the forces of the " United Kingdom Alli- 
 ance " at its back ; and had been no doubt 
 stimulated by a great International Temper- 
 ance and Prohibition Convention held in 
 London three years before. The principle of 
 the Bill was, that if any locality determined 
 by a majority of two-thirds of the taxpayers 
 that there should be no license issued for 
 the term of three years, then that decision 
 should prevail, and no common sale of in- 
 toxicating beverages be allowed during that 
 time — nor after, unless the taxpayers reversed 
 their decision. On the first division, the votes 
 were 40 for, and 279 against. 
 
 The agitation was, however, continued. 
 Originally moved by an " Alliance " sup- 
 porter (Archdeacon Sandford) the Convoca- 
 tion of Canterbury instituted an exhaustive 
 inquiry into the subject of Intemperance, and 
 in 1869 its voluminous report was published, 
 and presented to Her Majesty. It contained 
 thousands of returns from Clergyman, Gov- 
 ernors of Gaols, Masters of Workhouses, and 
 Heads of Lunatic Asylums, which showed 
 that over 1,400 parishes in the Southern Pro- 
 vince had no drinkshops, and consequently 
 little or no crime, pauperisrn, or insanity ; 
 while, on the other hand, the bulk of the 
 crime, pauperism, and insanity of the Pro- 
 vince, and its consequent burden of taxation, 
 etc., came from drink consumption, fostered 
 by the public-house .system, against which 
 the public should possess protective powers. 
 
 After varying divisions, SirWilfrid Lawson, 
 in 1878, secured in the House of Commons 
 106 votes for, to 319 against, his Permissive 
 
 68: 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 Bill ; and the next year he deferred to state- 
 men who objected to its provisions but 
 assented to its principle, and resolved to 
 drop the Bill, and proceed by resolution. 
 Accordingly in 1879 Sir Wilfrid moved as a 
 resolution an almost literal extract from the 
 above-named Convocation Report, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " That inasmuch as the ancient and avowed 
 object of licensing the sale of intoxicating 
 liquors is to supply a supposed public want, 
 without detriment to the public welfare, 
 this House is of opinion that a legal power 
 of restraining the issue or renewal of licenses 
 should be placed in the hands of the persons 
 most deeply interested and affected, namely 
 the inhabitants themselves, who are entitled 
 to protection from the injurious consequences 
 of the present system, by some efficient mea- 
 sure of local option." 
 
 The resolution was lost; it receiving 185 
 votes for, and 273 against. On March 5th, 
 1880, just as the Beaconsfield Government was 
 going out of office, the resolution was again 
 rejected: receiving 166 votes for, and 280 
 against it. The dissolution of Parliament 
 gave temperance people the wished-for oppor- 
 tunity to use their political influence, and the 
 Gladstone Government coming in, the above 
 quoted Local Option resolution was, on June 
 1 8th, 1880, adopted by 245 votes, against 219 
 — including pairs. This triumph scored, Sir 
 Wilfrid, in 1881, induced the House of Com- 
 mons to declare that Government ought, by 
 Bill, to give effect to the resolution. This 
 the Premier assented to, but the pressure of 
 business connected with the Anti-rent agita- 
 tion in Ireland was held to prevent action 
 upon it then, and in the 1S82 session. The 
 Times observes that Mr. Wm. Hoyle, the 
 most notable statistican on the subject, com- 
 putes that the entire rental value of land in 
 Ireland (before recent reductions) amounted 
 to ^11,518,392 per annum; while the in- 
 habitants ot Ireland have during the ten 
 years, 1870-80, spent in intoxicants an average 
 of ^13,823,102 annually ; or ^2,304,710 more 
 per year in drink than all dues for rent. 
 
 In the meantime the question has moved 
 on in the British Colonies, and in 1878 the 
 Canadian Parliament adopted " The Tem- 
 perance Act,"givingtothevotersofeachcounty 
 in the Dominion the power to entirely suppress 
 the drink traffic. An appeal from Nova 
 Scotia against this Act, as unconstitutional, 
 was dismissed by the Dominion Court in 
 1881 ; and the same case has been similarly 
 decided in 1882 by the English courts, which 
 thus declare the constitutionality of such 
 prohibition of the traffic in intoxicants. 
 
 The Temperance Public-house Move- 
 ment, 1867. 
 
 Temperance Hotels had multiplied, in- 
 
 683 
 
 eluding the "Trevelyan" at Manchester, 
 costing ^20,000; London had long had its 
 coffee-houses of various kinds ; but the era 
 of temperance public-houses may be said to 
 have commenced in 1867, when Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hind Smith originated the " British Work- 
 man Public-house" movement at Leeds, 
 v^fhere, by securing old beer-houses, etc., they 
 transformed them into temperance public- 
 houses, where labouring men could resort to 
 read the newspapers, hold their "free and 
 easy," and purchase unintoxicating beverages 
 and light refreshments. The idea spread else- 
 where, and many hundreds of such houses 
 were thus secured. Some, however, cost 
 thousands of pounds, and included public 
 dining rooms and hotel accommodation; but 
 the bulk were simply rivals to the beer-houses. 
 The spirit shops, however, also met with 
 rivalry when the idea was further developed 
 in Liverpool by Ronald McDougall and others, 
 and "Temperance Cafes" were opened; and 
 what was called the " Cocoa-house " System 
 took root there in 1875. The beverages sold 
 included coffee and tea also, and the vast 
 business done incited the formation of 
 " Coffee-house" companies in all directions 
 — some of which, by the way, sell more tea 
 than coffee. The promoters, however, have 
 not been content with old beer-houses, but 
 have in places opened " Coffee Palaces," 
 rivalling the great gin palaces in appearance, 
 and furnishing excellent refreshments at low 
 yet remunerative rates. The fact that the 
 Liverpool Company can sell weekly 20,000 
 gallons of unintoxicating beverages, and 
 receive ^75,000 a year ; the Birmingham 
 Company, ^^55,000; Swansea, ^40,000, and 
 the Bradford Company, ^35,000 a year, will 
 in some measure account for the now lessen- 
 ing consumption of intoxicants, and the de- 
 creasing value of public-house property. An 
 illustrated organ, the Coffee Public-house 
 News, represents the movement. The chan- 
 nels opened in these houses for cheap 
 aerated beverages seemed to invite higher 
 attempts, which have resulted in the invention 
 and consumption amongst the middle classes 
 of enormous quantities of "Zoedone," "Phos- 
 phodonc," "Vin Sante," "Hygeia," and other, 
 non-alcholic rivals of the wine bottle. A 
 notable indica ion of the further extension of 
 Temperance principles among others besides 
 the working classes is furnished by Mr. Cook, 
 the Excursionist, in successfully establishing 
 the "City Club," at Ludgate Circus, on total 
 abstinent principles, at a first cost of several 
 thousands of pounds. 
 
 Establishment of Good Templary, 
 
 186S— 72. 
 
 The "Good Templar Order" (which origi- 
 nated in America thirty years ago), is a non- 
 beneficiary fraternity — " The Freemasonry 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 of Teetotalism" — and was planted in this 
 kingdom in 1868 by its present English 
 chief, Joseph Malins, at Birmingham, which 
 remains its English head-quarters. In 1869 it 
 was planted in Scotland; and by 1870, Grand 
 Lodges were established in both countries. 
 In 1 87 1 -the Grand Lodge of Ireland opened ; 
 and in 1872, the Grand Lodge of Wales, 
 which was afterwards divided into two — an 
 English speaking and a Welsh speaking one. 
 From 1872 to 1874, the increase of the Order 
 in the United Kingdom was abnormally 
 rapid, and a reaction followed, but this has 
 ceased, and latterly it has been steadily 
 gaining. Persons of both sexes are equally 
 eligible for membership, and to serve in any 
 capacity, each paying a small entrance fee 
 and quarterly subscription. The rules and 
 journals of proceedings are accessible to the 
 public ; and the opening, closing, and initi- 
 atory services, though not publicly issued, 
 consist only of counsels, prayer, the com- 
 munication of exclusive methods of recog- 
 nition, and the taking of 1 pledge of Ufe long 
 abstinence from intoxi- 
 cants. It also aims at 
 the legal suppression 
 of the drink traffic. 
 Its local lodges hold 
 '• sessions " — for mem- 
 bers only — every week, 
 when, besides the 
 ceremonial and formal 
 business, conducted 
 under parliamentary 
 rules, there are read- 
 ings, music, debates, 
 addresses, or lectures. 
 Every member wears 
 a " regalia," or sash, 
 attained in the Order. 
 
 Tf.mi'erance Orphanage, Sunbury-on-1hames. 
 
 indicating the rank 
 Third deeree mem- 
 
 bers are elected to constitute the District, 
 or County Lodge, which may meet quarterly ; 
 and the various districts elect representatives 
 constituting the National or Grand Lodge, 
 a movable annual meeting. The Grand 
 Lodges are represented in the International 
 or " Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the 
 World," which met in 1881 in Ireland 
 (where the five divisions of the globe were 
 represented), and fixed its next meeting 
 for 1883 in Nova Scotia. The Order exists 
 in eighty different countries and territories. 
 The membership in the United Kingdom in 
 1881 was 142,853 adults (12,000 more being in 
 a separate Order), and about 85,000 in the 
 juvenile section, the latter inculcating not 
 only abstinence from intoxicants, but from 
 tobacco, gambling, and profanity. There are 
 over 40,000 adults in 683 lodges, and 20,000 
 juniors in about 300 branches under the 
 Scotch Grand Lodge, which employs a staff 
 of agents, and (like the Welsh Grand Lodges, 
 which also have some thousands of adult and 
 
 junior members), issues a monthly organ. The 
 Grand Lodge of England'now has over 90,000 
 adults in 2,000 lodges, and about 50,000 
 juvenile templars in 800 temples ; all meeting 
 weekly, besides holding about 10,000 public 
 meetings each year. The English organ is 
 the weekly Good Templajs' Watchword; 
 several districts also issuing monthly papers. 
 The members throughout the kingdom 
 probably subscribe ^50,000 per annum, and 
 spend most of it in local working, — a per- 
 centage supporting the District, Grand, and 
 Right Worthy Grand Lodges. By voluntary 
 contributions they have " annuitied " old 
 John King, the early pledge signer; expended 
 hundreds of pounds in enrolling the ex-slaves 
 of the American States ; presented a life- 
 boat, etc., to the National Life-Boat Insti- 
 tution ; raised ^1,500 towards the Temper- 
 ance Hospital ; and started the Temperance 
 Orphanage at a cost of ^4,500. 
 
 The Medical Movement from 1873. 
 All thiough the hst century certain medical 
 writers were dis- 
 puting the utiHty of 
 alcohoUc beverages, 
 and in 1802, Dr. 
 Beddoes had declared 
 in his Hygeia, that the 
 injury from any fer- 
 mented liquor is to be 
 measured by the quan- 
 tity of alcohol or ar- 
 dent spirit which is 
 to be obtained from 
 it. Later, Sir Astley 
 Cooper, President of 
 the Royal College of 
 ' I never suffer ardent 
 believing them to be 
 evil spirits." Dr. Beaumont, of Bradford, 
 was one of the ablest sponsors of the move- 
 ment of 1830, while his American namesake 
 spent years in experimenting upon the 
 accidentally exposed stomach of Alexis St. 
 Martin, demonstrating the power of intoxi- 
 cants to retard digestion. By 1839, Dr. 
 Percy found by experiments on dogs, that 
 within two minutes after intoxicants were 
 swallowed, the alcohol reached the brain. 
 In 1849, Dr. Davy demonstrated to the 
 Royal Society, how alcohol lowered, instead 
 of increased the temperature of the body. 
 In 1853, Virchow, and in 1854, Boecker, 
 showed how alcohol kept effete matter in the 
 blood, and lessened its vitality ; in 1865, Dr. 
 H. Munroe, and Dr. Thompson verified in 
 England Beaumont's experiments as to 
 alcohol retarding digestion; and in 1870, 
 Parkes and Wallowitz's experiments were 
 brought before the Royal Society, showing 
 that one ounce of alcohol caused the heart to 
 beat 43,000 times more in twenty-four hours. 
 
 Surgeons, had said, 
 spirits in my house, 
 
 684 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 In the meantime the action of intoxicants 
 even as medicines was being questioned. 
 Dr. Higginbotham of Nottingham had never 
 prescribed such since 1832, and challenged 
 disproof of his increased success in curing 
 patients ; Dr. Simon NichoUs, of Longford, 
 by stopping alcoholic prescription during the 
 cholera epidemic, claimed to have reduced 
 the mortality among his patients from ninety- 
 four to thirty-three per cent. ; others gave 
 like testimony, while Dr. Mudge, of Bodmin, 
 had published a dictionary of non-alcoholic 
 treatment. Others also protested that the 
 past "bleeding" and "purging" eras were 
 no more irrational than the later " alcoholic " 
 era; and this was emphasised when, in 1871, a 
 document was signed by 269 members of the 
 medical staffs of the London Hospitals urging 
 that alcoholics should be prescribed with 
 the same care as any other drug, and not be 
 indiscriminately obtained or continually taken. 
 
 The fact, too, that by the needless prescrip- 
 tion of intoxicants reclaimed drunkards were 
 sometimes drawn to fatal intemperance, 
 helped to lead the Rev. 
 Dawson Burns and 
 G. Wilson McCree 
 further 
 1872, at 
 of the 
 Temper- 
 
 to suggest 
 steps, and in 
 the rooms 
 " National 
 
 ance League," a Con 
 ference projected a 
 hospital where all 
 diseases and opera- 
 tions should be treated 
 without intoxicants. 
 
 Accordingly, on 
 October 6th, 1873, the 
 " London Temperance Hospital" was opened 
 in temporary premises in Gower Street ; and 
 by 1880, it had received 860 in-patients, of 
 whom 472 had been cured, and 350 relieved, 
 while only 38 died — a very low death-rate for 
 a hospital. The out-patients numbered over 
 7,000. About one-third of each class were 
 not previously abstainers. Such success led 
 to their projecting a new hospital in Hamp- 
 stead Road, part of which was opened by the 
 Lord Mayor on 4th March, 1S81, costing over 
 ;£ 20,000, which sum was already subscribed. 
 The senior physician is Dr. James Edmunds, 
 the triple gold medallist. The hospital has 
 during its nine years' existence never spent a 
 penny in alcoholic intoxicants. During the 
 same period the twelve principal metropolitan 
 hospitals have apparently spent in wine, 
 spirits, and malt liquors, over ^50,000, their 
 exact expenditure on such in the year 1878 
 being £6,j66 ias. 2d. ; the amount of alcohol 
 prescribed varying from 85 oz. per patient in 
 one hospital to 33^ oz. in another. 
 
 Our prisoners have thrived under constant 
 compulsory abstinence ; but in our Unions 
 
 London Temperance Hospital. 
 
 not only officers, but paupers — sick, aged, 
 and " working " — have often had '' drink 
 allowance," the average annual cost varying 
 for indoor paupers, from 4^. yd. per head 
 in Carnarvon, to ^4 6s. z^d. per head in 
 Radnor ; while outdoor paupers varied from 
 4d. per head in Cardigan, to ^i ly. per 
 head in Berks. Scotland and Ireland, dur- 
 ing the last decade have similarly varied, — 
 one Irish Union spending 3^-. 4^. per inmate, 
 and another spending in the same year 
 £1 ^s. lod. per inmate; and one Scotch 
 Union spent is. 2d. per inmate, while ano- 
 ther spent £2 8s. ']\d. per inmate. Some 
 years ago, Mr. Luke Ralph, Master of the 
 Wrexham Workhouse, polled the inmates 
 on the matter of their drink allowance, and 
 a majority voted for its discontinuance. 
 Subsequent years showed a reduced per 
 centage of sickness and death there, and the 
 scheduled results were widely published. 
 Since then many other unions have stopped 
 or lessened the drink allowance — that of 
 Marylebone saving ^300 a year by doing so 
 — and in no case has 
 diminished health 
 been alleged to result; 
 except at West 
 Derby Workhouse, 
 and that allegation 
 has been dispelled by 
 a Government inquiry. 
 The workhouse doctors 
 generally have wide 
 latitude in these mat- 
 ters. 
 
 Following the esta- 
 blishm ent of the 
 Temperance Hospital 
 in 1873, came the promotion of the British 
 Medical Temperance Society, which was 
 formed in 1876, it being originated by its 
 Hon. Sec, Dr. J. J. Ridge, of Enfield. 
 It has enrolled hundreds of the abstaining 
 medical practitioners. A quarterly Medical 
 Temperance yourua/strQngthensihe orgamza- 
 tion, which now has as its President the emi- 
 nent scientist Dr. B. W. Richardson, whose 
 Cantor Lectures on " Alcohol" have gained 
 a world-wide circulation, as has his "Tem- 
 perance Lesson Book," now adopted by many 
 School Boards. It was before this that he 
 had declared that the practice of temperance 
 would increase the national vitality one-third ; 
 and the subsequent testimony of Sir William 
 Gull, before the House of Lords' Committee, 
 that '■ Alcohol is a most deleterious poison," 
 injuring "even in so-called moderate quanti- 
 ties ;" the concurrence of Sir Henry Thomp- 
 son, that men are generally better without 
 alcohohc drinks," even beer ; and the later 
 confession of the Premier's physician, Dr. 
 Andrew Clark, that true health " cannot 'be 
 benefited by alcohol in any degree,"— have 
 
 685 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 raised the abstainers up to the seventh 
 heaven ; and helped to lead the Times in 
 1882 to tell its readers that the doctors, 
 though much too prudent to connect them- 
 selves to a losing cause, have declared 
 for temperance ; and that if a patient is out 
 of sorts they no longer advise a little more 
 drink, but tell him to abstain altogether from 
 intoxicants. 
 
 The Denominational Movement, 
 1873-80. 
 
 The Bible Christian Conference had 
 endorsed total abstinence in the infancy 
 of the cause, and all its 312 ministers, 
 aud most of its students, teachers, and 
 scholars, are regarded as abstainers. The 
 Primitive Methodist Connection was founded 
 by an abstainer, the Rev. Hugh Bourne, 
 and has always endorsed abstinence. The 
 ministers of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists 
 have commonly been abstainers ; while the 
 great majority of the entire Society of Friends 
 (" Quakers ") are probably teetotalers. 
 
 An " unofficial " Church of England Total 
 Abstinence organization, formed in 1862, had 
 registered over seven hundred of the clergy 
 as abstainers. Canon Ellison always being a 
 leading spirit. 
 
 Not till 1873, however, did the general 
 Denominational Movement begin. In that 
 year, under the authority of Convocation, the 
 present " Church of England Temperance 
 Society" was formed, with tlie Archbishops as 
 Presidents, and, later, Her Majesty as Patron. 
 Its basis is dual : the parish pastor is ex officio 
 president of the parochial society, which can 
 adopt a "moderation" or "teetotal" basis, 
 or both. It has enrolled three hundred 
 thousand members in nine years ; several 
 bishops, many canons, and some thousands 
 of the clergy being abstaining members. Its 
 Irish branch has fifty thousand members. 
 Its annual income is ^9,000 ; and it issues 
 weekly an able, illustrated. Temperance Chro- 
 nicle. No doubt this organization made it 
 possible for thirteen thousand five hundred 
 (about two-thirds of the whole) of the clergy 
 in 1876 to memorialize the bishops in favour 
 of that principle of " Local Option" (in repres- 
 sing the liquor traffic) which has latterly been 
 so generally endorsed. Three years after the 
 Church of England, the Church of Scotland 
 also reorganized its Temperance Society on 
 a dual basis. Its statistics are not out. 
 
 The "Total Abstinence League of the 
 Cross," headed by Cardinal Manning, dates 
 from 1872, when Father Nugent began his 
 Temperance work at Liverpool ; but its first 
 National assembly was at the Crystal Palace 
 in 1874; and in 18S1 it counted about one 
 hundred and eighty thousand members. The 
 " Congregational Union Total Abstinence 
 Society" was endorsed in 1874. Its president 
 
 is the octogenarian, Sir Edward Baines, an ab- 
 stainer of forty-five years. There are over two 
 thousand Congregational ministers, and of 
 these 1,168 are known abstainers, as are nearly 
 all its ministerial students. The year 1874 
 also saw the projection of the " Baptist Total 
 Abstinence Association." About six hundred 
 of the Baptist ministers, and eighty percent, 
 of the college students, are now known to be 
 abstainers. 
 
 In 1875 the old Sacramental Wine question 
 began to take an organized form in Ireland ; 
 and in 1876 in Scotland, and later in Eng- 
 land, by the formation of societies to promote 
 the use of unfermented wine at the Lord's 
 Supper. Prior to 1841, the Primitive Metho- 
 dist Conference had thus used tmfermented 
 wine ; while in that year the Wesleyan Con- 
 ference, among other things, prohibited such 
 use of ?/;^ fermented wine in the ordinance ; 
 these prohibitions resulting in a secession. In 
 1872 the American Wesleyan Conference en- 
 joined the use of unfermented wine ; and five 
 yearslater the English Methodist Conference 
 declared it could only sanction the fruit of 
 the vine, and recommended the "light," 
 but yet alcoholic "Tent" wine, while not 
 prohibiting the unfermented element. It is 
 curious that in the same year the Virginia 
 Conference of the African Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church prohibited the use of any but the 
 unfermented juice of the grape. One firm 
 at Kensington, which has long made pure 
 unfermented grape wine for this purpose, 
 now imports foreign wines similarly preserved 
 unfermented, and supplies one thousand eight 
 hundred places of worship with it, including 
 some of every denomination. 
 
 The Wesleyan Reform Union, which largely 
 consists of abstainers, and uses unfermented 
 sacramental wine, got so far in 1876 as to 
 urge personal abstinence upon all, and to 
 advise voters to support only such candidates 
 for Parliament as would vote for the people 
 having power to suppress the drink traffic. 
 
 The Wesleyan Methodist Conference iri- 
 augurated its Temperance movement in 1877, 
 but many of its adherents were previously 
 temperance workers ; and the Methodist 
 Temperance Magazine had circulated- since 
 1869, its leading editor being the Rev. Charles 
 Garrett, a zealous abstainer for forty years, 
 and who was recently elected President of 
 the Conference. The Temperance Societies 
 organized on the Conference basis are 
 managed by an equal number of abstainers 
 and moderate drinkers. Wesleyan abstainers 
 cannot have generally enrolled in these 
 societies, which only report 10,000 members, 
 while the Conference Bands of Hope, on a 
 strictly abstinent basis, soon reported two 
 hundred thousand members in two thousand 
 societies. 
 
 In 1878, the United Methodist Free Church 
 
 6S6 
 
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 
 
 Conference projected a " Temperance League," 
 which was inaugurated on a total abstinence 
 basis, in 1880, the Rev. John Thornley being 
 subsequently engaged by the Conference as 
 its organizing secretary. Of the 341 home 
 ministers, 300 are abstainers, and 250 belong 
 to the League. 
 
 The Methodist New Connection had long 
 recognised Bands of Hope ; but its present 
 "Temperance and Band of Hope Union " 
 was formed in 1879, and its juvenile adhe- 
 rents now number about twenty- five thousand. 
 Of its 186 ministers, 120 are abstainers, as 
 are all its college students. 
 
 The Primitive Methodists in 1879 pro- 
 jected a Connexional Temperance League ; 
 and also organized, in connexion with their 
 Sunday-Schools, Bands of Hope, which 
 comprise over 60,000 members. The great 
 majority of their ministers and students are 
 abstainers. 
 
 The New Church (Swedenborgians) pro- 
 jected a Temperance Society in 1880 ; as 
 have other smaller denominations, during the 
 last few years. 
 
 AuxiLARY Movements ; and Special 
 Work in 1881-2. 
 
 The last decade fitly preceded the Tem- 
 perance Jubilee Year by enlisting so many of 
 the medical men and the ministers of the 
 land in the ranks of the movement ; and it 
 also witnessed or heralded many other im- 
 portant, though sectional, organizations. For 
 instance, the " British Women's Temperance 
 Association," with Mrs. Lucas (sister of the 
 Right Hon. John Bright) as its president, 
 has its two hundred branches among the 
 gentler sex ; and other female societies do 
 similar work. The new " Young Abstainers' 
 Union" is enrolling children of the middle 
 class, and educating and interesting them by 
 monthly letters, garden parties, etc. A 
 "National Total Abstinence Society" has 
 been formed for the deaf and dumb ; and 
 another for " Travellers " — showmen, etc. — 
 attending fairs. The police of Hull, Bir- 
 mingham, London, etc., have total abstinence 
 societies, as have metropolitan postmen and 
 cabmen. Scotland now boasts an " Highland 
 Temperance League," and a " Scotch Railway 
 Temperance Society." The army, though 
 producing ^100,000 in a few years as fines for 
 drunkenness, is being encouraged to be sober, 
 its Good Templar Lodges, at home and 
 abroad, flourishing under military sanction ; 
 the "Soldiers' Total Abstinence Society" in 
 India, under the Rev. Gelson Gregson, having 
 official support, and numbering ten thousand 
 members ; while Sir Garnet Wolseley is 
 almost emulating the rigidly abstinent Sir 
 Henry Havelock, in denouncing drink as 
 the soldier's worst foe, and total abstinence 
 as his best friend. Miss Robinson's tem- 
 
 perance "Soldiers' Institute" at Portsmouth, 
 and Miss Weston's " Sailor's Home " at 
 Devonport, are two of the monuments of pro- 
 gress ; the " National Temperance League's" 
 two hundred branches in the navy are en- 
 couraged, and the latest legislation lessens 
 the facilities for insobriety which the service 
 formerly afforded to its jack tars, while the 
 abstinent seamen are now specially served 
 with temperance fare instead of the old 
 allowance of grog. Of late all these efforts 
 have been stimulated by the Gospel Tempe- 
 rance or "Ribbon'' movement, started in 
 London by William Noble, and carried 
 through the kingdom with unprecedented 
 success by the American advocates, Messrs. 
 R. T. Booth and Francis Murphy ; while 
 the abstinence teaching of the " Salvation 
 Army " has done much to reclaim those in 
 the lowest strata of society. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Our readers will judge whether that was a 
 reasonable saying of the writer in the West- 
 minster Review, that temperance is as old as 
 history, and yet as modern as yesterday. 
 
 We have seen that the practice of absti- 
 nence from intoxicating drinks was as old as 
 humanity ; contemporaneous with the civili- 
 zation of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, 
 and Hindoos ; was practised by the Recha- 
 bites, the Nabathaeans, the Essenes, the wise 
 Magi of the East, the warlike Suevi of the 
 West, the soldiers of Carthage, and by the 
 Macrobian warriors of Ethiopia ; was iden- 
 tified with the best days of the Medes and 
 Persians, and associated with the empires of 
 Greece and Rome ; while a history of In- 
 temperance could show the share strong 
 drink had in the downfall of successive 
 nations. 
 
 The Israelites were taught to abstain by 
 divine command in such special cases as the 
 Priesthood, and the honoured Nazarites ; 
 the practice was associated with the strength 
 of Sampson, the wisdom of Solomon, the 
 comeliness of Daniel, and with the sacred 
 mission of the forerunner of Christ, John 
 the Baptist ; while in early Christian ages 
 it was adopted by some of the saints and 
 martyrs. 
 
 In the middle ages, total abstinence held 
 a place in at least some communities ; and 
 in later times could count among its ad- 
 herents the poet Milton, the philanthropist 
 Howard, the patriot Franklin, the philo- 
 sopher Locke, and many other men of fame. 
 John Bright's eloquence was first aired at a 
 temperance meeting, and for nearly half a 
 century he has neither drank intoxicants nor 
 allowed them in his house. John Cassell, 
 when a journeyman carpenter, signed the 
 pledge after an address by Dr. Grindrod, and 
 then went through the country ringing a bell 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and speaking for temperance ; and after- 
 ward, still practising abstinence, founded 
 and reared the great publishing house to 
 which his name is still attached. The inimi- 
 table caricaturist, George Cruikshank, who 
 would whistle and dance at eighty-four years 
 of age, was an abstainer from an early period. 
 And Sir Wilfrid Lawson's " gay wisdom " is 
 that of a strict abstainer. 
 
 Among eminent abstaining divines are the 
 Bishop (Temple) of Exeter (with several 
 other Bishops), Canons Farrar, Fleming, 
 Ellison, Barker, and Wilberforce ; Cardinal 
 Manning ; and such leaders in Noncon- 
 formity as the Revs. C. H. Spurgeon, C. Gar- 
 rett, and Newman Hall. 
 
 The physical excellence of abstainers is 
 testified to in the persons of such examples 
 as David Livingstone, the great Christian 
 traveller; Elihu Burritt, the blacksmith-con- 
 sul ; Grace, the eminent cricketer ; Angus 
 Cameron, twice the winner of the Queen's 
 prize at Wimbledon ; Hanlan, the oarsman ; 
 and Weston, the pedestrian. 
 
 Many temperance pioneers of half a cen- 
 tury ago still live to rejoice in the jubilee of 
 their work. Instance Richard Allen, of 
 Dublin; Erskine Mayne, of Belfast; John 
 Davey, of Dunfermline ; Dr. Richmond, of 
 Paisley; Dr. Grindrod, of Manchester; John 
 King and Joseph Livesey, of Preston. 
 
 These may be regarded as representative 
 of the great army of abstainers, of whom 
 fully a million adults, and a million and a 
 half of children, are registered members of 
 the various societies ; while probably an 
 equal number of both adult and juvenile 
 abstainers are unattached ; giving an aggre- 
 gate of 5,000,000, or about one in eight of 
 the population of the United Kingdom ! 
 
 In America (where the movement has pro- 
 gi-essed even more rapidly than at home), 
 
 the Beecher family were from the first identi- 
 fied with it ; and the roll of illustrious ab- 
 stainers of that country includes Presidents 
 Lincoln and Hayes, and Lloyd Garrison, the 
 founder of the Anti-Slavery movement. 
 
 On the Continent of Europe, the propor- 
 tion of abstainers is small, but, through the 
 influence of International Temperance Con- 
 gresses, and especially in Scandinavia of 
 Good Templary, steady advances are being 
 made. Probably the great majority of the 
 peoples of Asia, Africa, and South America 
 are practically abstainers, though some in- 
 toxicating compounds are to be found in most 
 countries. 
 
 Among most Christian nations the ab- 
 stainers are in the minority; but it is perhaps 
 not unreasonable for them to claim that, the 
 world over, a majority of the people practise 
 their principles. 
 
 When, on July 5th, 1882, the Total Absti- 
 nence Jubilee was celebrated by 50,000 people 
 at the Crystal Palace, a critic seized the 
 occasion to suggest that " the net result, after 
 half a century's propagandism of total absti- 
 nence, seems to be that there are more public- 
 houses, that more people get drunk, and that 
 more money is spent in drink." The fact is, 
 that the last few years have witnessed a 
 material decrease in the consumption of, and 
 expenditure of money on, drink ; and that, 
 in spite of depression in general trade and 
 less wage earning, the people have annually 
 deposited millions of money in savings banks 
 more than before. But the critic had already 
 answered himself, when in the same article 
 he wrote : " // is always open to the total 
 abstainers to reply that Ifthins;s are no better 
 now than they were in 1832, they would have 
 been infinitely worse if there had been no 
 temperatice propaganda." 
 
 J. M 
 
 / ^ 
 
 AuTo-jRAPH OF Joseph Livesey. 
 
 68S 
 
"~w^^^ 
 
 Charles I. hooted by the Jt'eui-le after his ATTEiUi'TEu AuKtiT of the Membeks. 
 
 THE ARREST OF THE FIVE 
 MEMBERS. 
 
 THE STORY OF KING CHARLES'S FOLLY. 
 
 Flight of the Royal Fam'Iy— A Gay Scene on the Thames— The People's Kings— Incompatibility of Temper between 
 Charles and England— The Long Parliament— The Earl of Strafford sacrificed— The Queen threatened— Charles's 
 Scottish Trip— King Pym— A Plague-rag in the House— Dreadful Massacre in Ulster— What about the Army?— 
 Peep at the Inside of the House of Commons in 1641 — Some of the Leaders--The Grand Remonstrance— Eleven 
 * Years without a Parliament— The Policy of "Thorough" — Pillory and other Iniquities— What the Long Parliament 
 had done already — The Great Debate — Bloodshed imminent between the Parties— What Mr. Oliver Cromwell had 
 resolved on— Citizens fired on at Westminster— The Whitehall Guard— The Bishops sent to the Tower— The New 
 . Year opens, 1642 — Impeachment of Pym and other Members— Their Chambers Sealed— The Action of the Houses 
 — ITie Lord Mayor gone to Bed — King marches into the Commons — The Birds flown — Raising of the Royal Standard. 
 
 Flight of King Charles, and Arrival 
 
 OF King Pym. 
 
 !S the bells of Westminster were 
 
 chiming the hour of four on the 
 
 afternoon of the loth day of the 
 
 bitter month of January 1642, a coach issued 
 
 from the gate of Whitehall Palace, contain- 
 ing the King himself, his wife, and five 
 young children, accompanied by a very small 
 number of the noble courtiers who had so 
 often enjoyed themselves in the gay scenes 
 of the luxurious banqueting-hall, but attended 
 !q XX 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 by a large retinue of officers, mainly of 
 the braggadoccio type. If we could look into 
 the somewhat rude vehicle and catch a 
 glimpse of the royal features, we should 
 readily discover traces on them of discontent 
 and anger; and a glance at the handsome 
 face of the merry, black-eyed French princess, 
 to whom he was so passionately devoted, 
 would probably reveal deeper tokens of 
 the same emotion. It is a sad, eventful 
 day in the hfe of this little band of noble 
 travellers, and they are leaving the great 
 surging metropolis behind them, without the 
 comfort of a single cheer from the thousands 
 of close-cropped citizens who witness their 
 departure, each sullenly holding in his hand 
 a staff on which there flies a white paper 
 inscribed with the word "Liberty." Little 
 did either of those royal heads dream that 
 the gates of the happy mansion were left 
 behind them for ever — that the " bright Glo- 
 riana" would never again fill the splendid 
 galleries of the palace with the enchanting 
 cadences of her divine voice, or that the 
 haughty Charles would never again enter the 
 spacious banqueting-hall until he passed 
 through it to the scaffold erected outside one 
 of its windows. In fact, by the flight of 
 Charles and Henrietta, with their priests and 
 desperadoes, the English Revolution was 
 morally consummated ; but far from appre- 
 hending this, they only turned their backs 
 on London, its Parliament, merchants, and 
 apprentices, in order that the Queen might 
 escape to the Continent to raise funds with 
 the stolen crown jewels, that the King by 
 " divine right " might speedily return with a 
 strong and loyal army to overawe and over- 
 power the rebellious spirit of the city. 
 
 At noon on the day after this sudden flight, 
 far from there being any trappings of woe 
 visible in London for their departure, the crisp, 
 bright winter air was filled with sounds and 
 sights that seemed to betoken the approach 
 of some conquering hero. The broad bosom 
 of the Thames, then the chief highway of 
 London, was covered on either side, from 
 London Bridge to Westminster, with a 
 glittering array of armed boats and other 
 gaily decorated craft, while both shores 
 were lined with thousands of the militia of 
 Southwark and the City, who wore on their 
 pikes, hats, and bosoms, printed copies of a 
 document by which they bound themselves 
 to stand up for the King, the liberties of 
 Parliament and the country, and the " true 
 religion." 
 
 For the people's real kings were coming 
 back that day to sit secure and grand upon 
 the humble thrones from which they had 
 been driven by the traitor who had fled 
 unloved from Whitehall, — the five men whose 
 lives had been placed in jeopardy, and who 
 had been outlawed because they had dared 
 
 to lift up their voices somewhat loudly within 
 the privileged walls of old St. Stephen's 
 against the deeds and plots of a tyrant, and in 
 defence of the ancient rights of Englishmen ; 
 and when the heroes of the day embarked on 
 one of the gayest of the city barges, passed 
 in triumph amid the thundering volleys of 
 the seamen along the " large, gentle, deep, 
 majestic king of floods," and stepped as 
 proud freemen on the stairs at Westminster 
 towards their accustomed seats in the dim 
 and dingy House, they were welcomed with 
 the roar of muskets and cannon, mingled 
 with the ringing cheers of immense crowds 
 of enthusiastic citizens of every rank, from 
 the luxurious merchant to the struggling 
 artizan. 
 
 Incompatibility of Temper the Secret 
 OF AN Unhappy Reign. 
 If we may venture to compare political 
 with private life, there is perhaps no term 
 that would so well sum up the source of 
 distraction between Charles I. and the 
 English nation, as the unfortunately too well- 
 known one, — "incompatibility of temper." 
 " He and his respectable traditions and 
 notions," says Carlyle, "clothed in old sheep- 
 skin and respectable Church tippets, were 
 all pulling one way ; England and the 
 eternal laws pulling another ; — the rent fast 
 widening, till no man could heal it." When 
 we have spoken the worst word that can be 
 uttered with truth against Charles, when we 
 review temperately the intrigues against 
 liberty that have been proved against him, — 
 intrigues which include his wife's dealing 
 with the Pope and France, — we shall not be 
 able to charge him with a lack of moral 
 earnestness, of regard for the country, how- 
 ever much we may regret and disapprove of 
 the " temper " with which it was asserted. 
 He endeavoured to live in a high and lonely 
 solitude, moving amid a galaxy of chosen 
 favourites, esteeming himself the fountain of 
 wisdom and honour, looking down on Parlia- 
 ment as " a mere excrescence of the constitu- 
 tion, and on the public opinion on which it 
 rested as a wild beast to be put down." Just 
 as everything touched by the hand of Midas 
 turned into gold, so did every scheme, how- 
 ever fairly it bade for success, change into 
 dross and failure under the unblessed touch 
 of Charles. Perhaps there never lived a man 
 who, with the very best intentions, had such 
 an unhappy knack of stirring the pool in 
 which he angled : for example, in reclaiming 
 the fen country from marshes, ague, and wild 
 geese, he managed to rouse the poor natives 
 into serious riots ; in trying to bestow on 
 Scotland a decent church service, he threw the 
 people into a rebellion he could not fairly meet 
 and allayed only byconcession thatwasamere 
 cloak for treachery and assassination; intrying 
 
 690 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 or pretending to construct a good navy of 
 wooden walls around our sea-girt isle — when 
 Barbary corsairs swept the channels, landed, 
 plundered villages, and carried off thousands 
 into slavery, and France and Holland had 
 their ej'-es on Dunkirk — he inflicted an "illegal 
 and insupportable" ship-tax that made the 
 '•'■ farmers faint and the plough go heavy," and 
 set John Hampden, the Parliament, and the 
 whole country in opposition to his pretensions. 
 All his sins are laid bare with the grim 
 severity of the Puritan scalpel in the pre- 
 amble and two hundred and six clauses of 
 the Grand Remonstrance, — a document we 
 shall have occasion to notice at some length 
 in the present paper. 
 
 In his unbending attitude and his lamen- 
 table struggle, carried on until his ill-acted 
 royalty was hissed off the stage by the indig- 
 nant voice of the country, he stands before 
 us as the very opposite of Queen Elizabeth, 
 who managed, in spite of her Tudor nature, 
 as intensely autocratic as his, to gain the 
 worship of her country and leave to posterity 
 the reputation of being by far the greatest 
 woman that ever wore a crown. The dif- 
 ference between them lay in this, — that 
 while she- mingled with a hearty sympathy 
 among her ''good people," and yielded under 
 the internal pressure of the country, he, on 
 the other hand, did not hesitate to appeal to 
 external force, and thus raised against himself 
 the patriotic instincts of the nation. 
 
 The Long Parliament ; Execution of 
 Strafford; An Unheeded Warning. 
 
 The Long Parliament started on its me- 
 morable career on the 3rd of November, 
 1640. It was only summoned by the King 
 that it might grant him an immediate vote of 
 money. Up to the time of the Short Parlia- 
 ment, which had assembled in the spring of 
 that year onlyto be dissolved at once, eleven 
 years had passed since Charles deigned to 
 consult the nation. Multitudes had fled 
 across the broad ocean to make new homes 
 for themselves in the forests of America. As 
 the King had gone through all those years 
 without appealing to the voice of the country, 
 the new Parliament was determined to have 
 its turn without consulting him. It would 
 not be got rid of Knowing the fears of 
 Charles that the army of the rebellious 
 Scottish Covenanters might march on London 
 if Parliament were dissolved before the Scots 
 were satisfied, the members stuck this time 
 to legislative existence with the obstinacy of 
 leeches. They passed a triennial bill ; they 
 forced the King to grant this parliament the 
 right of sitting so long as it pleased, taking 
 from him the power of dissolution. Prynne 
 and his fellow-martyrs, whose ears had been 
 lopped off in the pillory by the sentence of 
 
 the obnoxious Star Chamber, — a juryless 
 court that had done good service in older 
 days, and was composed of two judges and 
 the members of the King's Council, — were 
 released from their prisons in the Scilly and 
 Channel Isles, and entered London in 
 triumph, with laurels strewn upon their 
 path. The several hated tribunals were 
 abolished, and a clean sweep was made of 
 many other grievances that had weighed 
 heavily on the shoulders of the nation. Yet 
 the important Acts of this Parliament, even 
 Hallam has allowed, did not disturb the 
 balance of the constitution ; rather they 
 restored it to its former equipoise, and by 
 new retrenchments of pernicious or abused 
 prerogative shaped our constitution pretty 
 much as it now exists. 
 
 Its policy, hesitating to touch the person of 
 His Sacred Majesty, was to cast the blame on 
 his advisers, especially on the junto of which 
 the heads were Laud and Strafford. A 
 few leading examples were to be struck down, 
 so as to re-establish the principle of parlia- 
 mentary control of the administration. Laud, 
 sacred archbishop though he was, was bridled 
 in the grim Tower, and other ministers fled 
 to the Continent in wholesome terror from 
 its outstretched arm. The Parliament did 
 not halt in the least in carrying out the pro- 
 gramme hinted at in a conversation that 
 took place between Pym and Hyde (after- 
 wards the whitewashing royalist Earl of 
 Clarendon), when at the time of its assembly 
 they paced up and down the floor of West- 
 minster Hall. Those two worthies, so soon 
 to stand at opposite poles of the political 
 compass, were agreed that they must not 
 only sweep the lower part of the house, but 
 pull down all the cobwebs in the tops 
 and corners that they might not breed 
 dust. 
 
 The chief scapegoat was the Earl of Straf- 
 ford, a gentleman whose picture has been 
 drawn by the Queen herself with true Parisian 
 touch. He was ugly, she said, but agreeable 
 enough in person, and had the finest hands 
 in the world. To a part of the nation he was 
 "the wicked earl ;" by others he was loved. 
 He had succeeded in raising a stron^g and 
 necessary army in Ireland, but it was feared, 
 and perhaps justly, that he woul d bring it across 
 the Channel to overawe the English Parlia- 
 ment. The unwillingness of Charles to sacri- 
 fice his faithful servant was within an ace of 
 costing him his throne ; by the House and 
 the threatening mobs that backed them, his 
 reluctance was looked on as a guarantee of 
 the horrid rumour of a French invasion 
 which had raised a wild panic in the streets of 
 the metropolis. Under the influence of the 
 revelation that roused this terrible alarm, on 
 Pym's disclosure of the approach of French 
 troops to the coast with probable intent to 
 
 691 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 sail across the Channel and seize Portsmouth, 
 and of the connection of some of the Queen's 
 immediate attendants with these dangerous 
 and disreputable plots, the House of Lords 
 drifted into consent to the condemnation of 
 Strafford. On the morning of the 8th of 
 May, 1 641, the alarmed citizens shouted for 
 the confinement of Charles and Henrietta in 
 the Tower. The Queen herself, in her sinful 
 consciousness, had her carriage standing at 
 the palace door to hie her off to Portsmouth 
 from the righteous and ruthless outburst of 
 the wrath of an uprisen mob, and was only- 
 kept back from this suicidal act by the posi- 
 tive assurance given her that escape was 
 impossible. An armed multitude followed 
 the two Houses to Whitehall, demanding 
 Strafford's head, became furious when the 
 King put off his answer from Saturday till 
 Monday, besieged the palace all that day 
 and during the whole of Sunday with threats 
 against the Queen's life, the courtiers mean- 
 while employing the time of panic in making 
 confession to the priests or secreting their 
 jewels in case the doors should be dashed 
 open. It is scarcely probable that the King 
 closed his eyelids during that Saturday night, 
 trembling as he did for the fate of Strafford, 
 and still more for that of the beloved woman 
 whose eyes he had seen bedewed with tears 
 and who he feared might be torn to pieces by 
 the sharp clutches of the fierce mob. At 
 last, worn out with mental agony, he made 
 up his mind on Sunday evening, just as the 
 sun was setting on the western horizon, to give 
 up Lord Strafford, — a resolve that haunted 
 him ever after like a spectre, even to his own 
 scaffold at Whitehall. " If my own person 
 were only in danger," said Charles in tears to 
 the Council, " I would gladly venture it to 
 save Lord Strafford's life ; but seeing my wife, 
 children, and all my kingdom are concerned 
 in it, I am forced to give way unto it." And 
 so, two days later, the statesman whom his 
 enemies denounced as a black tyrant fell as 
 a scapegoat on the scaffold. " I thank God," 
 said he, with true courage, " I am not afraid 
 of death, but do as cheerfully put off my 
 doublet as ever I did when I went to 
 bed." 
 
 But Charles was not taught even by this 
 terrible lesson to learn the nation's temper or 
 to forecast the possibility of his own stubborn 
 head going the way of Strafford's. Still he 
 persisted in his obstinate course, wishing to 
 rule England after his own ideas, not from 
 any instinct of injustice or of money-grabbing, 
 but that the people might enjoy the fruits of 
 his paternal wisdom, ignoring that he was 
 wantonly driving in and in the people's con- 
 fidence, arousing an ever-growing suspicion 
 of his designs, while he had no army in 
 England or Scotland to strike down any 
 possible rebellion he might provoke. 
 
 The King's strange Visit to Scotland ; 
 Attempts on Pym's Life j A Plague- 
 rag IN THE House. 
 
 Immediately after the assembling of the 
 Long Parliament in November 1640, it had 
 been passionatelymoved that a Remonstrance 
 should be drawn up to give the King " a 
 faithful and lively representation of the de- 
 plorable state of the kingdom ;" but the matter 
 hung fire for months, while Charles continued 
 to give his assent— his "royal varnish" 
 Carlyle would say — to the sweeping changes 
 passed by the Commons. Pym, Hampden, 
 and their friends, who formed the majority of 
 the strenuous and lynx-eyed Liberal party, 
 were not ignorant of the hollowness of the 
 royal condescension — that the Bills which 
 had been carried and had received the im- 
 primatur of the sovereign, would be shuffled 
 aside with uncourteous hauteur when His 
 Majesty imagined his feet safely enough 
 planted to deal thus with them. They also 
 saw that popular enthusiasm was falling off, 
 and that a reaction had set in since the blow 
 had been struck at Strafford ; the life of Pym 
 himself, the recognised leader of the reform- 
 ing party,hadmore than once been threatened. 
 The King set forth at the beginning of August 
 on his memorable journey to Edinburgh, 
 under the delusion that he would be able to 
 win over the Scottish army to assist him in 
 pressing home a charge of treason against 
 the English parliamentary leaders for having 
 acted in complicity with the Scottish Cove- 
 nanters. It therefore appeared necessary to 
 Pym, Hampden, and their allies that they 
 should make a direct appeal to the waning 
 affection of the people, and firmly hold ofi" 
 and crush the plots of their suspected 
 sovereign. 
 
 From the 9th of September to the morn- 
 ing of the 20th of October, the doors of 
 Parliament were closed. On the first day of 
 meeting, Pym, who had been Chairman of 
 the Committee during the six weeks' recess, 
 laid before the House information of a new 
 army plot in England, and of the conspiracy 
 in Scotland to assassinate Argyll and Hamil- 
 ton, the chiefs of the Covenanters. Instruc- 
 tions were issued for the occupation of the 
 military posts of London, and for the defence 
 of Parliament, night and day, by the train- 
 bands of the city. The crisis was fast 
 approaching. When the quiet and subtle 
 Hampden returned from Scotland, where he 
 had been watching keenly the conduct of 
 the King, the great Liberal party was broken 
 up on the burning question of the expulsion 
 of the bishops from the House of Lords. 
 The two divisions were from that time to run 
 neck and neck in a contest that grew more 
 and more sharp and bitter until the hour 
 arrived when they stood face to face, with 
 
 6g2 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 drawn swords, upon the battle-fields of the 
 Great Rebellion. Chief among those who 
 fell away from the popular ranks was the 
 honest, learned, and broad-minded Lord 
 Falkland, who was by-and-by to yield up 
 his saddened life for a cause he never loved. 
 The popular party saw that all the redoubts 
 that had been gained by years of struggle 
 would now be lost, unless they stood firm and 
 ^lear-eyed to their guns amid the plots that 
 were suggested or woven round them in Holy- 
 rood and Whitehall. 
 
 Pym, the " great and comprehensive brain" 
 of his party, who dauntlessly led it in the 
 mighty conflict, was the constant target of the 
 vilest calumnies and the frequent object of 
 political assassination. On the morning of 
 the 25th October, 1641, a man arrived at the 
 door of Parliament with a letter for the famous 
 tribune. He said it had been handed to him 
 by a gentleman on horseback whom he had 
 met on Fish Street Hill, and who had given 
 him a fee of one shilling to carry the message 
 with the greatest care and speed. Pym 
 opened the letter, from which a piece of rag 
 dropped upon the floor ; he glanced at the 
 contents, and then denouncing it as a scan- 
 dalous libel, sent it up to the table, where it 
 was read aloud by the Clerk's assistant. 
 Besides containing abuse of Pym, it threat- 
 ened him with a dagger if he escaped the 
 present attempt, which the writer proceeded 
 to explain was contained in the rag that had 
 covered a plague-wound, and as we have seen 
 had fallen out on the letter being opened. 
 After these lines had been read, in what was 
 naturally an agitated manner, the letter was 
 thrown down by the Clerk's assistant and 
 thrust out of the door. Pym had the good 
 fortune to escape the infection of the foul and 
 fatal disease then raging virulently in the 
 vicinity of the Houses ; but in a few days a 
 man who had been mistaken for him was 
 stabbed in Westminster Hall. This was 
 possibly done in fulfilment of the threat that 
 had accompanied the plague-rag. 
 
 These and other attempts to strike down 
 " King Pym," the darhng of the people, and 
 the chief object of the doggerel and ribald 
 lampoons of the royalists — " wretch," "mali- 
 cious Puritan," " poisonous man," "a man 
 whom even the devil to fear begins," are a 
 few of the choice epithets — all ended in 
 failure, and the cause of English freedom was 
 thereby saved. For John Pym, a courteous 
 Somersetshire gentleman, and Member for 
 Tavistock in Devon, was the mainstay of the 
 barque of liberty in the stormy seas, the 
 greatest tribune of his time, and the greatest 
 statesman of his party. In years long gone 
 by he had done yeoman's service in the 
 House, and when the Short Parliament 
 assembled he rose without dispute as a 
 veteran chief above the bantlings that now 
 
 took their untried seats upon the benches. 
 His one passion was to re-establish those 
 rights of Parliament that had been won in the 
 days of the Plantagenets. In the eleven 
 dreary years of t5Tanny, when the doors of 
 Parliament were closed, when the civil and 
 spiritual courts were filled with injustice and 
 violence, when favour was shown to Papists 
 and persecution dealt out to Puritans, he, 
 like many others, had adopted the project of 
 seeking another home in New England. He 
 was something more than a man of eloquence, 
 vigour, and daring ; as Mr. Green puts it, he 
 was the embodiment of law. Before the 
 elections to the Long Parliament, he and 
 John Hampden rode over England, beating 
 up the people to a sense of their rights and 
 duties. The unselfish struggles of years 
 impoverished him, and he died in debt. 
 But no worthier man than the Member for 
 Tavistock was ever laid to rest in the sacred 
 precincts of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 The Irish Massacre ; Mr. Oliver 
 Cromwell speaks. 
 
 Although the King's party had become 
 more powerful by the secession to its side 
 of men like Hyde and Falkland, (who may be 
 called the moderate faction), who had formed 
 a vigorous portion of the irresistible array of 
 members that had condemned the ship tax, 
 that had empowered the Usher of the Black 
 Rod to march to the King's Bench and carry 
 off to prison from his judicial seat one of the 
 impeached judges who had given his opinion 
 in favour of the impost, that had swept away 
 as at a single breath the Star Chamber and 
 other pestiferous cobwebs of tyranny, that 
 had sent Laud to the Tower and Strafford to 
 the scaffold, — the majority, though sadly re- 
 duced, still remained with the great tribune, 
 who knew well how to hold it together and 
 lop off on all occasions every possible element 
 of dissension. 
 
 Such dexterity was shown when, in the 
 midst of angry discussions on depriving the 
 bishops of their votes, the startling news was 
 received in the hushed House regarding the 
 Irish rising and fearful massacre of Protestants 
 in Ulster — what Carlyle has called " an Irish 
 Catholic imitation of the late Scotch Pres- 
 byterian achievements in the way of ' religious 
 liberty' ; — one of the best models, and one 
 of the worst imitations ever seen in this 
 world." Some forty thousand English and 
 Scottish colonists, it has been said, were 
 murdered by the ignorant and oppressed 
 race, and men and women were stripped and 
 sent forth to wander naked over the friendless 
 country in the cold winter nights. The 
 narratives that flew through England about 
 the extent and barbarous cruelties of this 
 massacre weie of such a nature as might 
 have driven Parliament to forget party and 
 
 693 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 issue incautious orders for vengeance, placing 
 a strong army under the King's will. It was 
 said, among other wild rumours, that in a 
 single month two hundred thousand men, 
 women, and children were put to death with 
 savage tortures " scarce to be equalled by any 
 the most black and baleful story of any age ; " 
 plunder and fire fell as in a single instant on 
 the unsuspecting people; servants were struck 
 down by murderous hands while following 
 the plough ; children had their brams dashed 
 out before the eyes of helpless mothers ; 
 some were burned, others drowned for the 
 pastime and delight of the barbarians, shot 
 as they swam about or tried to land, buried 
 alive up to the breast in the ground and thus 
 left to perish in the agonies of starvation. 
 
 Surely the hour of triumph for the King 
 iiad come at last ! Would not all parties in 
 the House bow before their common love of 
 England, and place an army in the King's 
 hands against the Popish rebels ? Pym was 
 equal to the dread emergency. After a fierce 
 debate he carried a resolution which traced 
 the evil to its root in the King's advisers, and 
 declared that if he did not dismiss them, the 
 House, nevertheless continuing in the obedi- 
 ence due by the laws of God and the Kingdom, 
 would take such a course for the securing of 
 Ireland as might likewise secure themselves ; 
 and Mr. Oliver Cromwell, Member for the 
 town of Cambridge, carried another very 
 important motion, that they should desire 
 the Lords to give power to the Liberal Earl of 
 Essex to assemble, at all times, the trained 
 bands of the kingdom to the south of the 
 Trent, for its defence, till further orders were 
 taken by the Houses. A doubt was expressed 
 as to the right of Parliament to raise men 
 without a warrant under the Great Seal ; but 
 the Commons forthwith passed a declaration 
 that an ordinance of both Houses was in 
 itself sufficient for levying volunteers at beat 
 of drum. Here we have the birth of the 
 parliamentary army that was to do such 
 wonders under this same country squire who 
 sat for Cambridge. Once again the King of 
 England had played into the hands of his 
 mortal foes. Indirectly he was the cause of 
 that horrid massacre. While in Scotland he 
 had begun to plot with some Irish chiefs for 
 the collection of an army that was to seize 
 Dublin Castle in the King's name and make it 
 a basis of operations against Westminster ; 
 but this deep plot proved only a fatal plunge, 
 for the scheme slipped out of his hands into 
 those of Phehm O'Neil and other wild Irish 
 patriots, with terrible issues that led the way 
 to his final expulsion from the throne. The 
 panic and horror then aroused really provoked 
 the civil war. On the same day which begot 
 the army of the Parliament and checkmated 
 the policy of Charles, the first rough draft of 
 Pym's Grand Remonstrance was submitted 
 
 694 
 
 to the House, read, and ordered for discussion 
 on the following morning. This memorable 
 day of resolutions was Monday the 8th of 
 November, 1641. 
 
 The story of the arrest of the Five Mem- 
 bers has a sensational interest of its own, but 
 it has a broad historical significance as being 
 the last card in Charles's hand, as the last 
 straw which broke the back of the refractory, 
 sullen camel, Charles Stuart. It was his 
 churlish and foolish answer to the great — 
 great even in the sense of lengthy — document 
 called the Grand Remonstrance. This huge,, 
 and perhaps in part unfair, exposure of the 
 King's sins over a period of fourteen years, 
 was a perfect Puritan hydra, split up into a 
 multitude of heads, and recalls at once the 
 clear style and the quaint expression of the 
 good old serious sermons that have, unfor- 
 tunately perhaps, gone out of date now-a-days. 
 In it, if we may so speak, the country pro- 
 ceeded to wind up finally the hands of the 
 royal clock that had been moving so strangely 
 since King James crossed the Border with his 
 Scottish crawlers into what he was pleased 
 with full mouth to call, in sacred parlance, 
 the land of promise ; to wind up that royal 
 progress which had been going on so foolishly 
 since a little boy of four, named Oliver 
 Cromwell, by-and-by to be more famous 
 than any king of his time, first cast his eyes 
 on the ungainly, slobbering, red-haired son 
 of Mary, Queen of Scots ; to wind up the mad. 
 profligacy, insane personal insistence of 
 kings, shameless expenditure, petty persecu- 
 tion, and petticoat rule that had been running 
 the rig since England came under the sway 
 of the Stuarts, who claimed to be hedged 
 round with divinity, to be God's vicegerents, 
 and to be endowed with superior wisdom ; in 
 short, to wind up the long course of lectures 
 and bullying to which Parliament had been 
 treated by Kings James and Charles. 
 
 A Glance at the Old House of Com- 
 mons ON the Twenty-second of 
 November. 
 On the morning of Monday, the 22nd of 
 November, an eager multitude of at least 
 three hundred men, wearing swords, steeple 
 hats, and Spanish cloaks, had assembled on 
 the amphitheatre of benches in the narrow, 
 dim, and dingy vestibule of St. Stephen's 
 Chapel, where the EngUsh House of Com- 
 mons had met since the Reformation, when 
 the Speaker, Mr. William Lenthal, not a very 
 dignified sort of person, entered a little late 
 — nine or ten was the usual hour of meeting in 
 the good old times of early rising — and took 
 his seat upon the chair at the eastern end of 
 the room, in front of a large window that 
 looked out upon the river, the ever-throbbing 
 artery of England's commerce. The people's 
 representatives have evidently some exciting 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 work on hand. It is now to be decided 
 whether the House will adopt the Grand 
 Remonstrance, that huge vote of want of 
 confidence in the sovereign, which was laid 
 upon the table at two o'clock on the previous 
 Saturday. However dull reading it makes 
 in our days, its every clause and word then 
 thrilled the souls of the grave men of old 
 England. There, close to the bar, sat the 
 veteran Pym, who has come up determined 
 in the bracing morning air from his Chelsea 
 lodgings ; behind him sat the Member for 
 Bucks, Mr. John Hampden, a thoroughbred 
 gentleman of the fine old English type, with 
 a face of wondrous calm resting on a soul of 
 fire and a will of iron ; on the back benches 
 might be seen Mr. Denzil Hollis, brother of 
 the dead Lord Strafford's beloved wife Ara- 
 bella, a resolute friend of freedom, who had 
 been sent to prison twelve years before along 
 with Sir John Eliot ; near him was seated a 
 stalwart country squire of forty-two, the 
 "rude, tempestuous" Mr. Oliver Cromwell. 
 Opposite, on the left hand of the entrance, 
 sat their great moderate opponents, a group 
 hardly less famous and scarcely less excited 
 on this momentous morning, — the tall and 
 shapely Hyde, tiny Lucius Cary, Lord Falk- 
 land, accomplished and sweet, though very 
 far from possessing a dulcet voice, and the 
 witty Sir John Culpeper, who had made a 
 very remarkable speech in this same Parlia- 
 ment some time before, likening the hideous 
 network of monopolies that oppressed the 
 country to the frogs of Egypt, " supping in 
 our cup, dipping in our dish, and sitting by 
 our fire." The Remonstrance was by no 
 means smuggled through the House by a 
 trick. The debates had already lasted seven 
 days, and had been carried on steadily and 
 vehemently from morning to night, the House 
 being illuminated during those chill Novem- 
 ber evenings by candle-light, " according to 
 the ancient use of Parliaments." Yet even in 
 those critical days the sound of the dinner 
 bell at noon was a strong temptation to 
 honourable members with hearty appetites. 
 Mr. Speaker, himself provoked at the uncon- 
 scionably long hours he was kept like a statue 
 in his beat, on one occasion fairly lost all 
 patience with this rude though pardonable 
 stampede, and declared that members were 
 "unworthy to sit in this great and wise 
 assembly in a Parliament, that would so run 
 forth for their dinners !" 
 
 The Ghostly Finger of the Remon- 
 strance. 
 The professed aim of this huge document 
 was to declare the root and growth of the 
 mischiefs by which it had been attempted to 
 hinder the struggle carried on by the Com- 
 mons during the past twelve months for the 
 restoration of the ancient honour, greatnes?, 
 
 69s 
 
 and security of the nation and the crown, and 
 to foment jealousies between the King and 
 Parliament ; the measures that had been 
 taken to extirpate those designs, and the 
 steps that were still necessary for the final 
 removal of the mischievous obstacles. There 
 were three classes of conspirators whose 
 efforts had tended to undermine the founda- 
 tions of the throne and the liberty and 
 prosperity of the kingdom — the Jesuits, the 
 bishops and ill-affected clergy, the officers of 
 state who preferred their private ends to 
 those of His Majesty and the commonwealth 
 — all acting alike on the principle of exalting 
 the royal prerogative against the authority of 
 the people in Parliament, and degrading the 
 true religion by seeking to set up an ecclesi- 
 astical tyranny and sow dissensions between 
 the common Protestants and the Puritans. 
 
 This terrible indictment of a self-righteous 
 sovereign, as it finally emerged, after a fierce 
 contest, with the caustic additions of the 
 impetuous, outspoken Strode, Member for 
 Beeralston, was voted clause by clause in 
 those dim November days. It brought up 
 in strong relief the whole black range of 
 iniquities, from some of which not one single 
 man, perhaps, in all the House had escaped, 
 through which some of them, like Hollis, 
 had undergone imprisonment, and one ot 
 their comrades, the dauntless Sir John Eliot, 
 had perished — virtually been murdered — in 
 the gloomy walls of the Tower. 
 
 It pointed back, like the honest ghost in 
 Hamlet, with a deep and serious tone that 
 might well have harrowed up the soul of some 
 of thoseyoung courtier Rosencrantzes, dressed 
 with gay peaks and wigs and shining swords, 
 who sat on the left hand near the entrance — 
 to the days of the first Parliament of the 
 reign, when " Baby Charles," just mounted 
 on the throne with his friend "Steenie" 
 beside him, tricked the Commons out of two 
 subsidies and then sent them about their 
 business ; to the shameful disasters of Roch- 
 elle,when the honour of England was dragged 
 in the mire ; to that pitiable expedition to 
 Cadiz, when the soldiers got rascally drunk, 
 and returned home, gaining no other laurel 
 but that of the nursery rhyme — 
 
 " There was a fleet that went to Spain ; 
 When it got there, it came back again ; — 
 
 to the costly and universally detested billeting 
 of licentious soldiers ; to the treacherous 
 attempt to introduce mercenary troops into 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Then the ominous finger traversed its 
 dismal path to the short-lived Parliament of 
 1626, which was dissolved to save Buckingham 
 from the result of his impeachment — he was 
 only reserved for Felton's dagger ; to the 
 costly banquetings, such as that given by the 
 gay Duke at an expenditure of ^4000— the 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 sweet water, which cost ^200, " descending 
 into the room as a shower from heaven " — 
 while vast sums of money were raised by- 
 illegal demands for loans, in consequence of 
 which many who refused to pay were thrown 
 into prison, contracting sicknesses from which 
 they never recovered. It then pointed to the 
 forcible dissolution of the third Parliament, 
 whose famous Petition of Right — demanding 
 that the King should never levy taxes or forced 
 loans without the nation's formal consent, 
 billet soldiers in private houses, or imprison 
 any freeman without reason given — had been 
 reluctantly accepted by Charles, and had 
 been welcomed in London with bells and 
 bonfires. That Parliament of 1629, every one 
 knew, closed in a wild tumult ; the Speaker 
 had been held down in his chair, and Denzil 
 HoUis, amid shouts of " Aye ! aye ! '' read 
 aloud a copy of the stern resolutions, that 
 every one was to be counted an enemy to the 
 nation's liberties if he introduced innovations 
 into religion, advised the levying of tonnage 
 and poundage without a grant from Parlia- 
 ment, or voluntarily paid those duties. The 
 doors were then flung open, and for eleven 
 years from that day no Parliament sat with- 
 in the time-honoured walls of St, Stephen's. 
 The ghostly finger did not omit to pause on 
 the imprisonment of several members under 
 the closest restraint, religious comfort and the 
 liberty of reading and writing being denied 
 them; one of them. Sir John Eliot, the un- 
 bending champion of the doctrine that the 
 control of the constitution lies in Parliament, 
 being kept cooped up until he died, in spite 
 of the many petitions sent in for his release 
 or "refreshment," the petty-minded King 
 even refusing his dead body the privilege of 
 burial in his Cornish home. 
 
 The Wrongs of Eleven Years. 
 The finger moved on to the long and dark 
 period of oppression, the eleven miserable 
 years from 1629 to 1640, the nature of which 
 was by no means badly portrayed by Alder- 
 man Chambers, when he declared the English 
 were more screwed up and wronged than the 
 Turks — a few rash words that cost him dear, 
 as he was fined in two thousand pounds, and 
 kept for twelve years in prison, only leaving it 
 a beggar. Those were the days when, to quote 
 the words of Mr. Forster, there " passed over 
 the land a net-work of tyranny so elaborate 
 and comprehensive . that, excepting only its 
 agents and projectors, not a single class of 
 the community escaped it." Not only was 
 there no Parliament summoned, but it was 
 forbidden even to speak of such an obnoxious 
 thing ; effete feudal exactions were dug up 
 and galvanized into fresh life ; sums that often 
 entailed ruin were dragged out by fines, by 
 forest laws, by plunder of poor cottagers who 
 had not the statutory four acres of ground 
 
 attached to their dwellings, by appropriations 
 of land on the decision of packed juries, by 
 extensive alienation of the public commons. 
 The too well-known imposts of tonnage and 
 poundage and ship-money, largely destruc- 
 tive of our growing commerce, were exacted 
 in the teeth of the Petition of Right, the last 
 of these burdens filling the prisons with re- 
 cusants until the memorable test-case of the 
 silent squire, John Hampden, was decided in 
 1637 ; titles and legal posts were sold, taxes 
 were laid on heavy coaches and other things 
 of a still more inconceivable nature, mono- 
 polies were sown broadcast, although they 
 had been abolished in the reign of James, — 
 on salt, starch, coals, pens, cards, dice, meat 
 dressed in taverns, butter-casks, buttons, 
 spectacles, rags, and even on the privilege of 
 gathering rags. Two of these monopolies 
 had a serious political character, — that of 
 soap, granted to a Catholic corporation, who 
 would appear to have manufactured such 
 bad stuff that complaints arose against it 
 as being a conglomeration of lime and tal- 
 low, which burned the linen and scalded 
 laundresses' fingers ; and that of gunpowder, 
 the price of which was so extortionate that 
 poor people could not buy it, and on that 
 account the defensive power of the country 
 was materially crimped. Justice was unknown, 
 and as venal as in the days when Jugurtha 
 trode the streets of ancient Rome ; the judges 
 held their seats only as the slaves of the 
 royal will, and in other case were promptly 
 degraded. Then, what hideous enormities 
 could not the finger of that Puritan remon- 
 strance point to, when, in the thirty-seventh 
 and other clauses, it turned the eyes of those, 
 three hundred representatives of free England 
 on the Star Chamber, the High Commission 
 Court, the Bishops' Courts, and other like 
 tribunals that flourished during the tyranny 
 of Laud ! Gentlemen like Prynne, Bastwick, 
 and Burton, who had used such pretty ex- 
 pressions regarding the bishops as that they 
 were devouring wolves and lords of Lucifer, 
 limbs of the beast and factors of Antichrist, 
 were imprisoned, pilloried in Palace Yard, 
 and mutilated of their ears,— at Prynne's 
 second turn only the stumps remained to be 
 shorn, and " there was such a roaring " among 
 the crowd " as if every one of them had at 
 the same instant lost an ear." But, what 
 was worse, the persecuting ecclesiastical 
 courts struck at worthy ministers who 
 failed to accept the Romish leanings and 
 dictations of Laud, — who objected, for 
 instance, to bow their head at the mention 
 of the name of Jesus,— and seriously injured 
 thousands of honest tradesmen (Walloons 
 and others), who fled in consequence to 
 Holland, and other lands of greater free- 
 dom. A heavy blow was in this way 
 dealt at the great woollen manufacture of 
 696 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 Mr. Speaker refuses to tell the King where the Five Members have Gone, 
 
 697 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the country. The Church was then filled with 
 clergy whom Milton passionately attacked 
 as " blind mouths," whose 
 
 " Lean and flashy songs 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." 
 
 The Puritans, it was resolved in the high tide 
 of Laud's power, were to be rooted out of the 
 country. But it is to this high-handed poHcy 
 that America is indebted for the settlement 
 of New England. 
 
 Still that determined finger moves on, 
 showing how the first utterances of the lusty 
 lungs of the Short Parliament were stifled 
 in the spring of 1640; how the pernicious 
 advance towards Romish " idolatry " was 
 maintained ; how in the face of the statutes of 
 the realm Papists were permitted to celebrate 
 the mass, while the Protestant absentee from 
 the parish church, not wishing to bow before 
 the altar, was hable to transportation after a 
 second offence ; how the prisons were choked 
 with persons who refused to pay the forced 
 loans ; how the Scottish army drove the 
 King to desperation, and he was at last com- 
 pelled to pay heed to the petition of some of 
 the chief nobles and summon together his 
 last and greatest Parliament, that which was 
 now about to spurn him from the throne and 
 dig his grave. 
 
 And then the finger pauses on the bright 
 and solid record of the House that had 
 assembled but one year before ; tells how 
 in that brief period monopohes, ship-money, 
 and the like evils, which had burdened the 
 people with a weight of a million and a half 
 yearly, had been swept away ; how the right 
 of taxation was restored to the Commons ; 
 how the chief of those evil counsellors — 
 Strafford, Laud, Finch, and others — were 
 sent to the scaffold, the Tower, and exile, 
 where their machinations were for ever ended; 
 how the juryless Star Chamber and other 
 " forges of oppression, misery, and violence " 
 were abolished, while the wrongs inflicted by 
 church canons, by bishops and their courts, 
 were rendered no longer possible. Yet 
 during that short period Parhament had 
 shown its entire good-will towards the King 
 by granting subsidies that amounted to the 
 solid sum of a million and a half. In further 
 defence, the Remonstrance pointed to the 
 two army plots, happily nipped in the bud, 
 for the seizure of the popular leaders of the 
 Commons ; declared that there was no inten- 
 tion of destroying scholarship but "to reform 
 and purge the Fountains of Learning, the 
 two Universities, that the streams flowing 
 from them may be clear and pure, and an 
 honoivr and comfort to the whole land ;" 
 that although the Lower House had passed a 
 Bill excluding the bishops from temporal 
 power, its only purpose was that they might 
 apply themselves with meekness to their 
 
 spiritual duties ; that it had no desire " to 
 let loose the golden reins of discipline and 
 government in the Church," but held by the 
 necessity of a scriptural conformity, wishing 
 to "unburden the consciences of men of 
 needless and superstitious ceremonies," and 
 to settle the government of the Church by a 
 general synod of the "most grave, pious, 
 learned, and judicious divines of this island, 
 assisted with some from foreign parts, pro- 
 fessing the same religion with us." 
 
 The close of this memorable — if somewhat 
 lengthy, and, it must be confessed, intolerant 
 and not altogether just — Declaration an- 
 nounced the safeguards the people should 
 demand for their protection against those 
 evils and oppressions : a watchful attitude 
 towards the Catholicism of Rome, which was 
 intolerant and destructive of all other religion ; 
 security for the just administration of law in 
 accordance with the Petition of Right ; and 
 the right of holding the purse-strings tight 
 against the sovereign, unless he appointed 
 counsellors in whom Parliament could place 
 confidence. 
 
 The Great Debate ; A Narrow Vic- 
 tory; Hands on the Swords; Crom- 
 well's Resolution. 
 The debate of Monday, the 22nd of 
 November, was a pitched battle of demigods, 
 in which every nerve was strained, every 
 possible argument and touch of eloquence 
 advanced by the copious Hyde, the impas- 
 sioned, screaming httle Falkland, the con- 
 ceited Dering, the rough and ready Culpeper, 
 the ingenious and witty Waller, and others 
 of less note, to throw out at its final stage 
 this tremendous indictment of the career of 
 Charles. It ought not to be made public, as 
 it would tell against the peace of the land ; 
 it reflected on the honour of Majesty, of 
 which they should be chary ; to claim the 
 right of approval of the royal counsellors 
 was a ridiculous pretension ; the charge 
 against Laud's party of being in league with 
 Rome was unfounded, said the honest and 
 broad-minded Falkland ; it might be de- 
 fensible to hold up the glass unto His Majesty, 
 but they should not remonstrate downward, 
 tell stories to the people, and talk of the King 
 as a third person ; great prizes were neces- 
 sary in the Church, for if the great basin and 
 ewer were taken out of the lottery there 
 would be few adventurers for the small plate 
 and spoons ; it was unconstitutional and 
 dangerous to send the Declaration from the 
 Commons alone, hopping on a single leg. 
 
 But the gallant charge was shattered on 
 the firm spears of the Opposition champions. 
 That "fine old English gentleman, all of the 
 olden time," Sir Benjamin Rudyard, in a 
 speech of masterly eloquence, defended the 
 publication of an apology against the slanders 
 
 698 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 to which this Parliament had been subjected 
 by papists, delinquents, and libertines, al- 
 though he shrank from the statement of 
 prospective legislation. Pym passed the pre- 
 vious speakers in review with his usual com- 
 pleteness and in steady sledge-hammer style. 
 The honour of the King, he said, lay in the 
 safety of the people : it was too late in the 
 day to talk of concealment, after they had 
 narrowly escaped great dangers, and plots 
 had been brought home to the Court and 
 Popish party. The gentlemanly, subtle, and 
 persuasive Hampden delivered one of his 
 clear, dispassionate speeches, and Denzil 
 HoUis urged in stronger tone the necessity 
 of control over the King's advisers, and the 
 constitutional right of the Commons to issue 
 declarations. 
 
 After the desperate struggle had lasted 
 from morning till a Httle past midnight, the 
 main question was put, and in a pretty full 
 House of three hundred and seven members, 
 the Grand Remonstrance was carried by a 
 majority of eleven votes. But the whole matter 
 was not yet settled, A lawyer, Mr. Peard, rose 
 and moved the printing of the Declaration. 
 This proposal was met with fierce opposition 
 by the minority. Amid a scene of confusion 
 honourable members exclaimed that they pro- 
 tested, a privilege which the leaders of the 
 majority contested ; and at last, when, about 
 the hour of one, Mr. Geoffrey Palmer moved 
 that the Clerk should now enter the names 
 of " all " whose claim to protest would have 
 to be determined on another day, the tumult 
 reached a height of frenzy almost unex- 
 ampled in the peaceful annals of St. Stephen's. 
 From every throat in the opposing party 
 there came the shout of "All! all !" around 
 the chamber. "Some waved their hats over 
 their heads, and others took their swords in 
 their scabbards out of their belts, and held 
 them by the pummels in their hands, setting 
 the lower part on the ground ; so, as if God 
 had not prevented it, there was very great 
 danger that mischief might have been done." 
 The terrific storm was quelled by the tact of 
 the calm Hampden. A decision was come 
 to that the Remonstrance should not be 
 printed without the particular order of the 
 House ; and the members, fatigued by a long 
 sitting of sixteen hours, walked out towards 
 their separate lodgings as the bells of St. 
 Margaret's were chiming the hour of two on 
 that November morning. To some the 
 issue of that day's struggle was a matter of 
 life and death. Many of the members went 
 out into the chill night with grateful heart. 
 One of these was Oliver Cromwell, who 
 gently declared to an opponent as they 
 walked along, that had the result been 
 different, he and many of his friends would 
 have sold all their goods that morning and 
 never have looked on England more. 
 
 Beginning of the Tumults; A Mon- 
 ster Petition ; The Remonstrance 
 sent to the Printer. 
 
 On the following Thursday, the King ar- 
 rived in London from his Scottish trip, was re- 
 ceived by the populace with shouts of welcome, 
 and was entertained in the city at a banquet 
 of unusual magnificence. If some hoped 
 that this might cozen Charles out of his ill- 
 tempered opposition to the cause of freedom, 
 it only served to delude him into the mis- 
 chievous opinion that the Puritanic citizens 
 were sorry for their past ways and would 
 now bend cheerfully before the royal prero- 
 gative. In his delight he raised the mayor 
 to the rank of baronetcy. 
 
 On Saturday afternoon, another keen debate 
 in the House of Commons decided on sending 
 the Remonstrance to him along with a peti- 
 tion, and on Tuesday a committee of twelve 
 members set out for Hampton Court with 
 the two stiff documents. A ready and 
 gracious reception was accorded them. The 
 King even ventured on a joke, and conde- 
 scended to utter a trifling curse. He pro- 
 mised as early a reply as possible, and giving 
 them his royal hand to kiss, dismissed them 
 with the request that they should immediately 
 deliver a message to the House that the 
 Declaration might not be published until his 
 answer was received. 
 
 But long before any formal answer was 
 volunteered, the hands of the popular party 
 were forced by the King's own menaces and 
 displays of unconstitutional violence. He 
 had already, with sinister purpose, removed 
 the honest commander of the Tower ; he 
 had dismissed the city guard that had pro- 
 tected the Commons for some time, and had 
 appointed another under Lord Dorset. The 
 earl's tenure was short-lived. On the very 
 day of his appointment, he ordered the guard, 
 to fire on the citizens, who had shown some 
 signs of tumult at the removal of Balfour, 
 and on the very next morning he was dis- 
 missed by Parliament. The citizens con- 
 tinued to indulge in demonstrations, and 
 cries of "No Bishops ! No Bishops!" were 
 heard in Westminster from armed com- 
 panies, much to the dismay of the royalists. 
 The drill of the popular party in the House 
 was splendid. The slightest whisper of the 
 f je was reported at headquarters. Dr. Chil- 
 lingworth, a famous divine of small stature, 
 had dropped some incautious words about 
 several members being guilty .of treason, and 
 that they would be accused in a day or two : 
 he was instantly summoned before the bar 
 of the House. Four officers who had been 
 convicted of complicity in the second Army 
 Plot were expelled from their seats in the 
 Commons. When the members assembled 
 on the next morning, they found a guard of 
 
 699 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 two hundred halberdiers set upon the House. 
 This was declared a breach of privilege ; the 
 force was at once discharged, and the under- 
 sheriff who had given the order was com- 
 mitted to the great state prison that still 
 frowns over the Thames near London Bridge. 
 The alleged object of this siege was to pre- 
 vent the tumultuous march of thousands of 
 citizens who were to present a petition against 
 the bishops on the following day. The huge 
 petition, with its fifteen thousand signatures — 
 t*-/enty-four yards long, and twenty-seven 
 inches broad, the greatest the world had yet 
 seen-^made its appearance duly, but instead 
 of the gigantic and alarming host, it was con- 
 veyed by twelve peaceful city gentlemen in 
 coaches, who received the thanks and the fair 
 promises of the House from the lips of Mr. 
 Speaker. At last, amid a terrible uproar, it 
 was decided on the 15th of December that an 
 appeal should be made to the people by print- 
 ing the Grand Remonstrance and the Peti- 
 tion, and then that "fatal" Puritan document 
 went forth, as an enemy has described it, to 
 ■"poison the heart of the people." 
 
 lunsford charges the crowds; the 
 Whitehall Guard. 
 
 A week after this decision, a fast was held 
 in London and at the Court. The King, with 
 his usual perversity, celebrated the occasion 
 by the threatening and discreditable step of 
 appointing Colonel Thomas Lunsford to suc- 
 ceed Sir William Balfour, a worthy Scotsman, 
 as lieutenant of the Tower. This Polyphe- 
 mus, the debased and dissolute scion of an 
 old Sussex stock, had no other recommen- 
 dations than his total want of character and 
 his readiness to carry out the basest purpose 
 of the King. What that purpose was will 
 shortly transpire. 
 
 The Commons heartily condemned him. 
 The alarming news of his appointment 
 spread through the city ; and on the 27th 
 of December, thousands of unarmed holi- 
 dayers — chiefly apprentices, sailors, water- 
 men, and the "baser sort of citizens" — 
 in the idleness and excitement of the Christ- 
 mas festivities, swarmed around the Parlia- 
 ment, filling Westminster Hall and the two 
 Palace Yards by which the Houses were 
 approached. No one was suffered to pass 
 through the avenue between the living 
 masses without their approval, manifested 
 by such shouts as "A good Lord!" "A 
 good man \" The weather was intensely 
 cold and stormy, so that the tendency to 
 active exercise must have been increased, 
 and it is just possible that the grimy book- 
 sellers, the sprightly seamstresses, and others 
 •who carried on business in the hall and near 
 the gate, thought it prudent to close their 
 stalls, and abandon sorrowfully whatever 
 chance they had of driving a brisk trade. 
 
 Had not the obnoxious Lunsford appeared 
 on the scene, possibly the matter might have 
 ended with such little rude interferences, 
 with the harmless, though unpleasant salu- 
 tation of the ecclesiastical peers with shouts 
 of " No Bishops!" or with such objection- 
 able horseplay as surrounding and tearing 
 the sacred gown of the Archbishop of York, 
 who had taken the undignified step of laying 
 hands on a loud-voiced boy. The crowds 
 possibly were not aware that Lunsford had 
 already been dismissed by the King with the 
 honour of knighthood and a solid pension of 
 ;^5oo ; but in any case they were not likely 
 to let him pass without insult. The dissolute 
 officer and a dozen of his friends drew their 
 swords and charged on the unarmed people, 
 chased them round the hall, dashed through 
 the crowds in Palace Yard and King Street, 
 and then made their way triumphantly to- 
 wards Whitehall Palace. Several persons 
 were wounded, and one eminent citizen, Sir 
 Richard Wiseman, was slain. Hundreds 
 of infuriated apprentices, when Lunsford's 
 dastardly assault became known through 
 the city, rushed with swords and staves 
 towards Westminster. A wild uproar pre- 
 vailed in that district and the city. The 
 mayor and sheriff rode about all night in 
 order to allay the tumults ; the gates were 
 shut and watches set ; and in the morning 
 trainbands were sent to Whitehall. Rioting, 
 however, of a similar nature occurred at 
 Westminster on the following day. 
 
 Conspicuous in the tumults of that Monday 
 was Captain Hyde, an officer of the disbanded 
 army of the north, to whom has been attri- 
 buted the equivocal honour of originating 
 the word " roundhead " as a nickname for the 
 close-cropped Puritans. Drawing his sword 
 in the midst of a few more " gentlemen " at 
 the time the archbishop was surrounded, he 
 exclaimed that he would cut the throats of 
 those roundhead dogs that bawled against 
 bishops. 
 
 But a far more serious trespass on the free- 
 dom of Parliament was already showing itself 
 at Whitehall. The King, under pretence 
 that the persons of himself, the Queen, and 
 their children were in danger (in fact, the 
 idea was widely spread in London that the 
 impeachment of Henrietta should be pro- 
 ceeded with as the main abettor of the 
 Catholics and of the opposition to Parlia- 
 ment, and Pym and his associates were con- 
 ferring on the matter), thought he had good 
 reason "to accept the dutiful tender of the 
 services of any of our loving subjects;" in 
 other words, delaying his answer to the 
 nation's will so clearly expressed in the 
 Remonstrance, he was gathering around him 
 a strong company of trainbands and swagger- 
 ing officers of the disbanded army, and was 
 feasting and carousing them in a guard-house 
 
 700 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 erected at the very gate of the palace. He 
 had secretly attempted to bribe Pym over 
 into his service as Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, and had failed. With his lofty 
 ideas of the royal prerogative, there was no 
 course left open to him but that of unconsti- 
 tutional violence, a weapon that had hitherto 
 in almost every instance snapped like a reed 
 in his timid hands and was now destined 
 to turn on himself with fatal sharpness. 
 Already wise men feared that under the 
 intense strain on both sides a civil war was 
 brooding of which none might know the 
 end and consequences, and throughout the 
 metropolis the talk was "of nothing but 
 drawing of swords and a war between the 
 Protestants and Papists." 
 
 The first brush with this " perpetual guard," 
 the nucleus of the royal army, took place at 
 the palace gate on Wednesday the 29th of 
 December, when the city wore an aspect of 
 greater peace through the efforts of the 
 popular leaders to prevent the irritating 
 presence of crowds such as had gathered 
 during the two preceding days. Fifteen or 
 sixteen officers of the Whitehall guard 
 attacked a body of citizens who were return- 
 ing from the House, where it seems they had 
 gone with a petition, and wounded forty or 
 fifty of them with cuts and slashes. The 
 " sectaries and desperate varlets " threatened 
 to return and take vengeance for an outrage 
 perpetrated under the King's very eyes. It 
 was dreaded at Whitehall that ten thousand 
 citizens would muster at the palace on the 
 next day ; the number of soldiers was 
 increased ; five hundred volunteers from the 
 Inns of Court tendered their services, and 
 were permitted to kiss the hands of the 
 Queen and Prince. The shops were shut all 
 over the city, and the streets teemed with 
 angry, armed men. Blood and war were 
 words now freely bandied about. 
 
 The Bishops committed to the Tower; 
 Close of the Old Year. 
 
 Cautiously yet doggedly the brave men of 
 the Commons took their accustomed seats 
 in St. Stephen's in those last electric days 
 of the year 1641, listening to reports of 
 the tumults • and of strange words that had 
 dropped from priests about fifteen thousand 
 Frenchmen coming across the Channel soon, 
 and about the necessity of hanging half-a- 
 dozen Parliament men ; listening also to the 
 vehement language of Mr. Cromwell, who 
 found himself in his true element as he spoke 
 of officering the army, especially m Ireland, 
 with men in whom they could place confi- 
 dence. On Thursday morning a message 
 from the Upper House called them to a 
 conference on a momentous matter, nothing 
 less than a protest by the bishops against all 
 votes taken during the three preceding days 
 
 as null and void, because they had been 
 compelled to absent themselves owing to 
 the obstruction and menaces of the crowds. 
 This stroke was probably designed to afford 
 Charles a plausible ground for sweeping 
 away every vestige of the work of freedom. 
 It insinuated that the Parliament was not a 
 free one, and offered a pretext for forcing a 
 dissolution. 
 
 The step taken by the Commons against 
 the foolish Bishops was swift and bold. In 
 half-an-hour an impeachment was sent up 
 to the Lords, and by eight o'clock that night 
 ten of the bishops were safely escorted to 
 the grim gateway of the Tower amid the 
 frost and snow, while the two others were 
 impounded, owing to their extreme age, in a 
 house near Charing Cross ; and the two 
 benches on which the sacred peers had sat 
 were piled up as lumber, never again for 
 many long years to be used for the special 
 accommodation of " lord bishops." 
 
 The insolent dignitaries having been 
 quickly disposed of, to the evident delight 
 of most members, Pym rose with unusual 
 gravity and moved that the door should be 
 shut. The House was startled into a fear of 
 some mysterious danger impending. He 
 announced that there was a plot for destroy- 
 ing the House of Commons on that very day, 
 and urged that a request should be sent to 
 the city for the despatch of the trainbands 
 to protect it. This motion seems to have 
 fallen through ; but on the next day, Denzil 
 Hollis presented himself at Whitehall, in the 
 name of the House, and verbally desired the 
 appointment of a guard from the city under 
 the Earl of Essex. The King, with his usual 
 habit of irritating delay, called for a written 
 message. This was instantly despatched. 
 His Majesty was in no hurry to reply ; the 
 Commons immediately empowered three of 
 its members to establish a guard, and twenty 
 halberts were brought into the House in case 
 of some sudden surprise. Thus ominously 
 closed the old year in the midst of excite- 
 ment and suspicion. In the new year, 
 which shall triumph — King Charles and his 
 royal prerogative, or King Pym and the 
 liberties of the people ? 
 
 Impeachment of Pym and Other 
 Members. 
 
 Shortly after the Lords had assembled on 
 the morning of Monday, the 3rd of January, 
 1642, Sir Edward Herbert, the Attorney- 
 General, appeared at the clerk's table with a 
 message from His Majesty. When read aloud, 
 the noble lords were appalled at its contents, 
 which ran as follows : — 
 
 "Articles of High Treason and other high 
 misdemeanours against the Lord Kimbolton, 
 Mr. John Pym, JV^r. John Hampden, Mr. 
 
 701 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Denzil HoUis, Sir Arthur Haslerig, and Mr. 
 William Strode. 
 
 " I. That they have traitorously endea- 
 voured to subvert the fundamental laws and 
 government of the Kingdom of England, to 
 deprive the King of his royal power, and to 
 place in subjects an arbitrary and tyrannical 
 power over the lives, liberties, and estates of 
 His Majesty's loving people. 
 
 "2. That they have traitorously endea- 
 voured, by many foul aspersions upon His 
 Majesty and his government, to alienate the 
 affections of his people and to make His 
 Majesty odious unto them. 
 
 " 3. That they have endeavoured to draw 
 His Majesty's late army to disobedience to 
 His Majesty's commands, and to side with 
 them in their traitorous designs. 
 
 "4. That they have traitorously invited 
 and encouraged a foreign power [Scotland] 
 to invade His Majesty's kingdom of England. 
 
 "5. That they have traitorously endea- 
 voured to subvert the rights and very being 
 of Parliament. 
 
 "6. That for the completing of their 
 traitorous designs, they have endeavoured, as 
 far as in them lay, by force and terror to 
 compel the Parliament to join with them in 
 their traitorous designs, and to that end have 
 actually raised and countenanced tumults 
 against the King and Parliament. 
 
 " 7. That they have traitorously conspired 
 to levy, and actually have levied, war against 
 the King." 
 
 Lord Kimbolton, the peer included in this 
 impeachment, rose with perfect coolness from 
 the side of Lord Digby (probably a main 
 instigator of the King's perilous venture), 
 without the slightest trace of tremor in his 
 voice, denied the accusation, and boldly 
 challenged a full inquiry. The lords kept 
 themselves on the level of a dignified caution. 
 Paying no heed to the King's demand for 
 the surrender of the accused, they charged 
 some of the members to produce precedents 
 as to the regularity of such an accusation, 
 and at once sent a message to the Commons 
 for the purpose of a conference, at the same 
 time offering to join the Lower House in a 
 petition to the King to appoint a guard under 
 an officer of their own choice. 
 
 Meanwhile the members of the Commons 
 were not sitting idle or benumbed. They 
 had received a royal message refusing their 
 request for a guard under the command of 
 Essex, Charles promising on the word of a 
 king that he would protect every one of 
 them from violence with as much care as his 
 own children ; and Pym, pointing out to his 
 agitated hearers the threatening implied in the 
 groups of military outside, had succeeded in 
 urging the House to request the authorities of 
 the metropolis to send a guard to Westminster 
 
 to see to the defence of the streets and walls. 
 He and Hollis were summoned to the door, 
 and learned from their servants that their 
 chambers and trunks, as also those of 
 Hampden, had been sealed up by a royal 
 warrant. On the announcement of the news, 
 a perfect chorus of members declared the 
 outrage to be a serious breach of privilege. 
 At every step in this critical struggle we meet 
 with the assertion of the great principle that 
 no action could be taken against a member 
 without the assent of the House. But the 
 present seizure of property was of a danger- 
 ously sweeping character : it would have 
 been a violation of the simplest rights of the 
 meanest subject of the realm. The most 
 ordinary reader will rise from a study of this 
 period with a profound respect for the 
 cautious, patient, and constitutional spirit of 
 the popular heroes, even more than for their 
 ability, eloquence, and bravery. It was not 
 merely the persons and the rights of Pym, 
 Hollis, and Hampden, of which the English 
 Parliament thought when they passed with 
 loud cheers the declaration of privilege and 
 of the right of resistance — they thought, they 
 voted, and they cheered for the broad rights 
 of the entire English nation. 
 
 An announcement, by no means unexpected, 
 is made that Mr. Francis, King's Sergeant- 
 at-arms, is at the door with a message to 
 the Speaker. He is allowed to cross the 
 threshold after laying his mace aside. There 
 is a deep silence. In His Majesty's name he 
 requests the Speaker to deliver to him, under 
 arrest for high treason, Mr. Denzil Hollis, and 
 other four members. Mr, Francis is calmly 
 enjoined to wait the pleasure of the House 
 outside. Four members, two of whom are 
 Privy Councillors, are sent to Whitehall to 
 inform His Majesty that a message of such 
 high gravity to the privileges of the Com- 
 mons would receive serious and speedy 
 consideration, and that in the meantime the 
 five members would be ready to answer 
 any legal accusation. The Serjeant of the 
 House is ordered to break open the seals of 
 the arrested property and to arrest the King's 
 agents. Finally Mr. Francis is relieved from 
 his tedious post at the door. The House 
 adjourns for the day, and printed reports of 
 its stout behaviour are rapidly spread over 
 the city. 
 
 At an audience given that evening by the 
 King to the deputation from the Commons, 
 His Majesty stated that he would send his 
 reply the first thingin the morning. That night 
 he also despatched copies of the articles of 
 treason to the four Inns of Court, with orders 
 to attend at Whitehall in the morning ; and 
 sent a messenger to the Lord Mayor, who 
 was to take especial care that none of the 
 trained bands were raised to guard the 
 Commons, but was to call them out if neces- 
 702 
 
THE ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 sary to shoot rioters with bullets or otherwise, 
 and "destroy such of them as persist in 
 their tumultuous ways and disorders." The 
 deputies of the Commons, however, had 
 forestalled him ; the clocks of Whitehall had 
 been going slow, and his Lordship hadjetired 
 to rest when John Latche reached his desti- 
 nation. The Mayor promised, iTowever, to 
 open the letter in the morning in the pre- 
 sence of the sheriffs. 
 
 The King enters the House of Com- 
 mons ; The Birds flown, and Mr. 
 Speaker refuses to tell whither 
 
 THEY have gone. 
 
 Charles had determined to make the final 
 plunge next morning (4th January), by march- 
 ing to the House of Commons with his guard 
 of desperadoes and there entrapping the 
 leaders. His heart failed him in the morning; 
 but when the dark eyes of the Queen flashed 
 on him, and she exclaimed, " Get along, 
 poltroon ! Go, pull these rogues out by the 
 ears, or never look upon my face again ! " 
 his fears and scruples were overcome. He 
 promised that if one hour elapsed without 
 her hearing ill news of him, she would see 
 him, when he returned, master of his kingdom. 
 She waited in terrible suspense. The time 
 mentioned by the King had probably passed 
 by, when her bosom friend, Lady Carlisle, 
 entered. " Rejoice," exclaimed the gushing 
 Henrietta to Venus of the fair ivory face and 
 soft, dark eyes, " for I hope that the King is 
 now master in his States, and that Pym and 
 his confederates are in custody." Within an 
 hour this rash communication was imparted 
 to Pym, for it was no secret that the noble 
 dame was on intimate terms with the gallant 
 old leader of the popular party. To the end 
 of her days, Henrietta bitterly lamented her 
 malheureuse indiscretion, and attributed her 
 husband's ruin to the foolish disclosure of the 
 meditated blow. At any rate, Pym and his 
 associates were forewarned and forearmed. 
 
 The great tribune never acquitted himself 
 with such effect as an adroit orator as when 
 he rose in the House that morning wiih the 
 articles of treason in his hand, and turned 
 the edge of each keenly on the heart that had 
 aimed them ; each step he made was greeted 
 with approval, andwhenhe closed the defence, 
 which he had converted with consummate 
 skill into an indictment, loud shouts of " Well 
 moved ! " fell upon his ear. The great con- 
 stitutional statesman paused only for an 
 instant, and stepping forward again towards 
 the table, he inquired of the Speaker whether 
 it was not a breach of privilege to exhibit 
 articles of treason by the King's !iand ? and 
 — a still more ominous question — whether it 
 was not also a grave breach of the privileges 
 of Parliament for an armed guard to beset 
 the doors of the House during such accusa- 
 
 tion of any member ? It was then resolved 
 that a conference should be held with the 
 other House for the discovery of the authors 
 and publishers of the "scandalous paper" 
 (the articles of treason), and to consider the 
 subject of the palace guard : three members 
 were despatched to lay before the city council 
 the dangers by which Parliament was envi- 
 roned, and a deputation was sent for infor- 
 mation as to the alleged summons issued to 
 the Inns of Court on the previous night. 
 
 After the dinner-hour had passed and the 
 House had re-assembled, the news of the 
 intended arrest was openly communicated. 
 In the midst of a hurried discussion as to 
 whether the five members should await the 
 King's arrival, a certain French captain 
 named Langres, who had clambered over 
 the roofs of some neighbouring buildings, 
 arrived breathless at the door and asked for 
 Nathaniel Fiennes, Member for Banbury. 
 A few words passed between the two gentle- 
 men, and in a trice the House, which was 
 already worked up to a pitch of terrible 
 excitement, was informed by the Speaker 
 that His Majesty was on his way from the 
 palace with a large body of armed men. 
 There was not a moment to be lost in 
 debate. It was at once decided that the 
 five members should withdraw. Strode 
 exclaimed that he would stay and seal his 
 innocence with his blood, and had to be 
 dragged out into the barge that was waiting 
 at Westminster Stairs. " Away we went. 
 The King immediately came in, and was in 
 the House before we got to the water." 
 
 The Speaker was sitting in silent dignity, 
 with the mace before him, when the door 
 opened and King Charles stepped into the 
 House of Commons, " where never king was 
 (as they say) but once King Henry the 
 Eighth." The notorious Captain Hyde took 
 his station in the open doorway, holding up 
 his sheathed sword, while a force of several 
 hundreds — including "a great number of- 
 officers of the late army, and men desperate 
 of purpose and in fortune, armed some of 
 them with halberds and swords, others with 
 swords and pistols" — occupied the lobby and 
 the floor of Westminster Hall. The whole 
 House rose and uncovered at the entrance of 
 the King, who walked forward with his eye 
 fixed on the spot where the greatest of the 
 impeached commoners was accustomed to 
 sit. Bowing as he went along, he approached 
 the Speaker, saying, " Mr, Speaker, I must 
 for a time make bold with your chair." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the King, "I am 
 sorry for this occasion of coming unto you. 
 Yesterday I sent a sergeant-at-arms upon a 
 very important occasion to apprehend some 
 that by my command were accused of high 
 treason ; whereunto I did expect obedience 
 and not a message," 
 
 703 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 After a few more words, in which he 
 declared there was no such thing as privilege 
 in cases of treason, he looked round the 
 House and said, " I do not see any of them; 
 I think I should know them." 
 
 When he asked, "Is Mr. Pym here ? " the 
 Speaker, who was by no means a man of 
 invincible courage, rose for once to the true 
 dignity of his office, and replied amid deep 
 silence : " I have neither eyes to see nor 
 tongue to speak in this place, but as the 
 House is pleased to direct me, whose servant 
 I am here ; and I humbly beg Your Majesty's 
 pardon that I cannot give any other answer 
 than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to 
 demand of me." 
 
 " Well," said the baffled and angry King, 
 stammering badly, after he had "looked round 
 about the House a pretty while to see if he 
 could espy any of them," " since I see all my 
 birds are flown, I do expect from you that 
 you will send them unto me as soon as they 
 return hither. But I assure you, on the word 
 of a king, I never did intend any force, but 
 shall proceed against them in a legal and 
 fair way, for I never meant any other. . . . 
 I will trouble you no more, but tell you I do 
 expect, as soon as they come to the House, 
 you will send them to me ; otherwise I must 
 take my own course to find them." 
 
 As the King passed out, the House that 
 had hitherto been hushed in sullen silence 
 hurled after him the words, " Privilege ! 
 Privilege!" and the doors of St. Stephen's 
 were closed on him and his desperadoes, 
 who seem to have anticipated a feast of 
 blood. " Zounds ! there are none of them 
 here ! " one of those worthy guards was 
 heard to exclaim, " and we are never the better 
 for our coming ! " Discretion had in this 
 instance proved the better part of valour, and 
 there can be little doubt that if the five 
 members — or any one of them, say the 
 impetuous Strode — had remained, and their 
 comrades stepped forward in their defence, 
 
 history might have had to tell the story of a 
 fearful massacre instead of the prudent 
 flight and triumphant return of its five 
 members. 
 
 Pages more, and pages, too, of deepest 
 interest, might be occupied with the story ot 
 the week of panic that followed in the city — 
 of the adjournment of the House for a single 
 week, and the meetings of its committee in 
 the Guildhall and the Grocers' Hall, where 
 brave words were uttered and prudent 
 measures taken — of the King's visit to the 
 city, when he invited himself to a grand 
 banquet, whence he was pursued to the 
 palace gate by the cries of thousands, "Par- 
 liament ! Privileges of Parliament ! '' — how 
 sober Captain Skippon was created Major- 
 General of the London Militia, how four 
 thousand gentlemen and yeomen from Bucks 
 rode into the city to stand up for brave John 
 Hampden and live and die with the Parlia- 
 ment, and how even the "water rats" sent up 
 a petition to the Committee to be allowed to 
 defend the return of the members to old St. 
 Stephen's honoured walls, which never held so 
 deep a place in the nation's heart as at that 
 time. About the hour that the Committee 
 closed its last day's proceedings in the 
 Grocers' Hall, the King, seeing how thor- 
 oughly he was deserted, how pitiful a show 
 he made in a city where a hundred thousand 
 men were ready to watch his every step 
 where thousands of Hampden's gallant yeo- 
 men rode defiant past his very gate, threw 
 himself into his coach, as told at the opening- 
 of our little story ; shortly afterwards sent 
 his scheming wife across to Holland with the 
 jewels in order to raise materiel for a con- 
 flict ; tossed back churlishly the last rem- 
 nant of loyalty that the people hugged in 
 their stern British bosoms, and took the 
 final and fatal step of setting up his standard 
 — the standard of a traitor — at Nottingham^ 
 on the 22nd day of August, 1642. 
 
 M. M. 
 
 
 '04 
 
Robespierre, wounded cn the qth of Thermidor. 
 
 THE QTH OF THERMIDOR: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE END OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 ' But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
 Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
 The better reason to perplex and dash 
 Matures! counsels." — Milton's Paradise L si. 
 
 Marat and Charlotte Corday-The Murder of Marat-The Eflfects of Marat's Death-The Law of the S^>spected-The Fate of 
 the Captive Oueen— Progress of the " Terror "—How the Convention earned on the War- Death to the i raitors i 
 ''Woe^o the Cities of th! Vanquished !"-The Republic on the Battle-field-The Fall of the Hebertists-Danton and 
 his Followers ; Their Struggle and their Extinction— The Darkest Period before the Dawn— 1 he 9th of Ihermidor 
 —The End of the Terror and of the Terrorists. 
 
 virate of the Mountain was triumphant ; but 
 before the day when the famous twenty-two 
 traversed Paris in the fatal tumbrils that 
 went but one way and carried no return 
 passengers, the most ruthless of the three 
 
 zz 
 
 Marat and Charlotte Corday. 
 
 T has been told how on that 31st of 
 May, 1793, when the Girondists were 
 proscribed, the blood-stained trium- 
 
 705 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 had been smitten by the hand of sudden 
 vengeance, — a vengeance all the more re- 
 markable in that the squalid, hideous, pitiless 
 miscreant, whom the seething flood of revo- 
 lution had flung up into a high place, whence 
 he dominated and sickened the souls of men, 
 was struck down by the feeble hand of a 
 girl ; even as that Zastern tyrant who, after 
 being an object of terror to the undaunted 
 Romans themselves, had his skull ignomini- 
 ously battered in with the brick flung by the 
 old woman from the wall of Argos. 
 
 At that time there lived in modest obscurity, 
 almost in poverty, in the town of Caen in 
 Normandy, a granddaughter of the great 
 tragic poet, Pierre Corneille. Her name was 
 Charlotte de Corday d'Armont. Her father 
 was a provincial noble of long descent ; but, 
 as with the majority of the rural noblesse, 
 his means were not proportionate to his 
 rank ; and after the death of his wife, he 
 was glad, being left with five children, to 
 procure admission for Charlotte, the second 
 of his daughters, in the Abbaye aux Dames, 
 a conventual establishment, where she earned 
 a high reputation for piety, and was remark- 
 able for a dreamy, speculative tendency of 
 mind, through which she seemed to live 
 rather in a phantom world of her own, 
 than in the cares and interests of actual 
 daily life. 
 
 She had returned to her quiet home on the 
 suppression of the convents in 1792, with a 
 soul filled with vague aspirations for the 
 happiness of her country, and a mind con- 
 fused by the turgid philosophy of the period. 
 The story of the persecution endured by the 
 Girondists at the hands of their victorious 
 opponents of the Mountain, had roused a 
 deep indignation in her heart. The pro- 
 scriptions, the arbitrary imprisonments, the 
 horrible September massacres, and the con-, 
 tinual and sinister activity of "that sharp 
 female recently born, and called la Guillo- 
 tine" seemed to her to presage the rapid fall 
 of the country she loved so well. Various of 
 the leading Girondists, who had taken refuge 
 at Caen from the persecution, were moreover 
 her friends. Marat appeared to her as the 
 odious personification of the tyranny that 
 was raging against the best patriots, and the 
 most zealous and honest public servants. 
 And she resolved that the dagger of Har- 
 modius, wielded by a female hand, should 
 pierce the bosom of the tyrant who profaned 
 the name of Liberty. She would sacrifice 
 herself for the good of her country ; and 
 would account her own life well lost if she 
 paid it as the price for the death of the I 
 bloodthirsty tyrant, the ruthless persecutor 
 and common enemy of all. Danton and j 
 Robespierre appeared in her eyes as secondary j 
 personages, unworthy of her vengeance, as ' 
 lot having the power for evil which Marat's > 
 
 706 
 
 boundless influence over the people gave to 
 that sanguinary persecutor. She determined 
 to proceed to Paris with the means of pro- 
 curing an introduction to Marat ; and for 
 this purpose came several times to the official 
 residence where the Girondist deputies were 
 accustomed to assemble, and to receive those 
 citizens who had business with them. She 
 had two interviews with the young and 
 gallant-looking Barbaroux, to the amusement 
 of Pethion, who, with a smile, expressed his 
 surprise at " the fair aristocrat who came to 
 see the Republicans." The young girl blushed 
 with indignation. "You judge me without 
 knowing me. Citizen Pethion," she replied ; 
 " one day you will know what I am." 
 
 Under the pretext that she was going to 
 solicit the favour of the Government on behalf 
 of a friend, the daughter of an emigrant, she 
 procured from Barbaroux a letter of intro- 
 duction to Duperret, a Girondist deputy, who 
 had not quitted the capital ; and furnished 
 with this, and with a passport for Argenton, 
 she made her way to Paris. Her aunt seeing 
 her in tears before her departure, asked the 
 cause ; and received the reply, " I weep for 
 the misfortunes of my country, for those of 
 my parents, and for yours ; so long as Marat 
 lives, no one's life will be safe for a single 
 day." As a further proof of the determination 
 with which the young girl's heart was filled, 
 her aunt afterwards spoke to having found 
 an open Bible on Charlotte's bed, after her 
 niece's departure, open at the book of Judith, 
 in the Apocrypha, with the passage under- i| 
 lined that tells how Judith went forth from Ij 
 the city endowed with marvellous beauty 
 which the Lord had given her to deliver 
 Israel. On the nth of July she arrived in 
 Paris. The next day she carried her letter 
 of introduction to Duperret, whom she mys- 
 teriously counselled to quit the Convention 
 of Paris, where he could be of no further 
 service, and to join his colleagues at Caen 
 without loss of time. She purchased a dagger- 
 knife for three francs. After an ineffectual 
 attempt to procure an interview with Marat, 
 she obtained admittance by means of a letter, 
 in which she told him that she brought im- 
 portant news from Caen which it behoved 
 him to learn without delay. 
 
 The all-powerful leader of the people lived 
 in a state of ostentatious poverty in a shabby 
 and almost unfurnished set of rooms in what 
 was then the Rue des Cordeliers. He was 
 at the time sick of a low fever, but con- 
 tinued to write and harangue against his 
 enemies with ceaseless activity. He received 
 his visitor seated in a long slipper-bath, across 
 which a plank had been laid to serve as a 
 writing-table ; and was at that moment 
 writing a requisition to the Committee of 
 Public Safety for the proscription of the 
 remaining members of the Bourbon family 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 in France. He was covered up to the 
 shoulders in a soiled sheet that left only his 
 head and neck and one of his arms at liberty 
 as he wrote. Squalid Marat questioned his 
 visitor concerning the Girondist deputies 
 who had taken refuge at Caen, and noted 
 dbwn their names as she mentioned them. 
 " Cest bien^'' said Marat ; " within a week 
 they shall all go to the guillotine." 
 
 The words were scarcely out of his mouth 
 when Charlotte Corday, snatching the dagger 
 from her bosom, plunged it with one sudcTen 
 downward blow into the demagogue's heart. 
 With a single frenzied cry for help, Marat 
 fell back in his bath a dead man. The 
 housekeeper and servant of Marat came 
 running in at the noise, and raised an alarm. 
 At their cries the people of the house came 
 running in, soon followed by a crowd from 
 the street ; and amid an indescribable 
 tumult, Charlotte Corday was secured by a 
 party of soldiers, who could hardly protect 
 her from the fury of the populace, raging to 
 tear her limb from limb, and carried her olf" to 
 the prison of the Abbaye. She replied with 
 perfect calmness to the questions concerning 
 her crime and its motive. " I saw civil war 
 about to tear France," she said ; " convinced 
 that Marat was the principal cause of the 
 perils and calamities of the country, I set 
 the sacrifice of my life against his to save 
 my native land." Pinned to her dress was 
 an address to the French friends of the laws 
 and of peace. When the president of the 
 revolutionary tribunal, Montane, came to 
 interrogate her next day, he was so touched 
 by her youth, beauty, and courage that he 
 made an attempt to save her life by attribut- 
 ing to insanity the crime she had committed; 
 but she gloried in her work and persistently 
 frustrated his efforts. Transported to the Con- 
 ciergerie, she wrote a letter to Barboroux, — 
 a strangely graphic production, describing all 
 the circumstances of her crime and her arrest 
 with a philosophic calmness, as if she were 
 speaking not of herself but of some stranger. 
 I'o her father she also wrote a kindly, affec- 
 tionate letter, asking him to forget her, or 
 rather to rejoice in her fate, and quoting the 
 line of her grandfather, Corneille : "Z^? a-iiiie 
 fait la honte, et non pas PecJiafaiuiP 
 
 At her trial she maintained the same appear- 
 ance of inliexible determination. "Since when 
 had you formed this design 1 " was one of the 
 questions asked her ; to which she replied, 
 " Since the 31st of May, when the deputies 
 of the people were arrested here. I have 
 killed a man to save a hundred thousand. 
 I was a republican long before the revolu- 
 tion." 
 
 In the short interval between her condem- 
 nation and the departure of the tumbril for 
 the place of execution, she preserved her 
 serenity unaltered. Her portrait was hastily 
 
 taken by an artist named Haner, whom she 
 rewarded by cutting off for him with the 
 executioner's scissors a lock of her long hair. 
 She passed to her death as to a triumph, sitting 
 with head erect in the rumbling death- cart, 
 utterly indifferent to the angry shouts and 
 execrations of the populace furious at the loss 
 of the friend of the people." Robespierre 
 and Camille Desmoulins had stationed them- 
 selves on the way to see her pass by. 
 
 " Such was the end of Marat," says Lamar- 
 tine ; " such was the end of Charlotte Corday. 
 In the presence of murder, History dares not 
 praise; in the presence of heroism. History 
 dares not condemn. The appreciation of 
 such an act places before the mind the 
 terrible alternative to misjudge virtue or to 
 praise assassination." When Vergniaud in 
 his prison heard of Charlotte Corday's crime, 
 condemnation, and death, he said : " She 
 kills us, but she teaches us how to die." 
 
 The Effects of the Murder of 
 Marat. 
 
 Robespierre and Danton were not ill 
 pleased to be rid of their formidable colleague, 
 whose influence upon the fiercest of the 
 Jacobins had always been a menace to them. 
 They gladly conciliated public opinion among 
 the " Sansculottes " by decreeing a magnificent 
 pubhc funeral to the dead man, at which the 
 most extravagant and blasphemous panegyrics 
 were pronounced in favour of the dead 
 monster. His heart was deposited in the 
 club of the Cordeliers, where an altar was 
 voted to him. "Precious rehcs of a god !" 
 cried an impassionate orator at the foot of 
 the altar, " shall we be faithless to thy manes ? 
 Thou callst upon us to avenge thee, and thy 
 murderers still breathe!" and pilgrimages and 
 processions were instituted to the tomb of 
 Marat. His name was in every mouth, and 
 young girls dressed in white chanted funeral 
 hymns around the catafalques in funeral 
 processions in his honour in various parts of 
 France. 
 
 The effect of the murder of Marat was the 
 calling forth of a tremendous vengeance 
 from the Jacobin party. A fury of hatred 
 and suspicion appeared to seize the whole 
 nation ; no man was sure of his life ; for 
 suspicion pointed to the ardent republican as 
 to the aristocrat and the royalist ; the artisan 
 was denounced equally with the ci devaiitj — it 
 was the full development of the Reign of 
 Terror. A great and fatal madness seemed to 
 have seized upon the minds of men; " the 
 time was out of joint ;" and the clang of the 
 sharp blade of the guillotine, ever rising in 
 its groove to descend on the neck of fresh 
 victims, was to set it right. 
 
 Of the fate of the Girondist deputies in 
 Paris, the twenty-two v/ho were despatched 
 together in the death-carts to the place of 
 
 707 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 execution, we have already spoken else- 
 where. The fate of the other chiefs of that 
 faction, the deputies who had taken refuge 
 at Caen, was lamentable in the extreme. 
 They were compelled to fly for their lives, — ■ 
 the bold Barbaroux, Guadet, Salles, Louvet, 
 Valadi, Brizot, Pethion, once the idolized of 
 Paris mobs, and the rest of them. They 
 had to wander as outlaws through the 
 country districts, in the attempt, vain in 
 most cases, to get out of France and await 
 better days elsewhere. They had to pass 
 long days and nights, thirty-three hours at 
 a stretch on one occasion, hidden in 
 marshes, or in the bleak, rain-saturated 
 fields, famishing, faint, tormented, and some 
 of them with the pangs of sickness, and not 
 daring to knock at any man's door and crave 
 the shelter that the lowest beggar might 
 have claimed in right of his hunger and 
 destitution. Some, like Guadet, Salles, and 
 Valadi, were taken and guillotined at Bor- 
 deaux and elsewhere ; Louvet, after "hair- 
 breadth escapes that would fill three roman- 
 ces," contrives to elude spies and pursuers, 
 and to escape into Switzerland. Barbaroux, 
 worn out by months of hardship and con- 
 tinual harassment, at length mistakes an 
 approaching crowd of peasants gathered on 
 a holiday for a horde of Jacobins approach- 
 ing to capture him, and puts an end to his 
 life with a pistol. Stern Roland also, driven 
 to despair when he hears that his heroic wife 
 has been guillotined in Paris, perishes by 
 his own hand. Pethion and Brizot died 
 miserably of famine, their dead bodies being 
 found, gnawed by dogs, in their last place of 
 refuge. The saying of Vergniaud that the 
 Revolution, like the fabled Saturn, was 
 devouring its children, proved itself true. 
 
 " Cry Havoc, and Let slip the Dogs 
 OF War." 
 
 The people were exasperated at the loss of 
 their squalid idol Marat ; the general anger 
 was raised to boiling point by the news from 
 the frontier concerning the war. The lines 
 in the Marseillaise, in which the Frenchman 
 is desired to hearken to fierce invading 
 soldiery yelling in his fields, was likely to 
 become dismally significant. For on the 
 26th of July, the Duke of York succeeded in 
 taking Valenciennes, and quickly proceeded 
 to invest Dunkirk ; at Weissembourg, des- 
 tined in future days to be memorable in a 
 new struggle between Frenchmen and Ger- 
 mans, the Austrians forced the lines of 
 defence, and are actually marching into 
 French territory. If ever France and the 
 Republic were in danger, they are so now ; 
 and no sacrifice must be shunned by good pa- 
 triots to meet the threatened peril. To the 
 Committee of Public Weal (Sabit Public) 
 founded some six months before, unlimited' 
 
 powers were given, at the proposal of Danton; 
 a larger Committee, that of the Public Safety 
 {Siirete Generale), was at work as its subordi- 
 nate; and the forty-four thousand JacobinClubs 
 throughout France support the victorious 
 faction of the Mountain ; the sectionaries 
 being now paid by law, the sum of foriy 
 sous a day, for their services at the meetings. 
 Then the action of the revolutionary tribunals 
 became more stern, swift, and pitiless than 
 ever; the full violence of the Reign of Terror 
 raged throughout France. Then was passed 
 that " Law of the Suspected," according to 
 which proof was no longer required, but 
 mere suspicion was enough to deprive any 
 man, woman, or child of liberty and life ; for 
 on the mere denunciation of a person as 
 suspected, without any shadow of evidence, 
 he was immediately consigned to prison, 
 which in most cases he only left to pass in 
 swift succession through the stages of judg- 
 ment, condemnation, and execution. 
 
 The system of government by the party in 
 power is indeed " writ large," that all who 
 run may read,— to bring down swift retribu- 
 tion on the head of every plotter at home, 
 and thus silence every opposing voice in the 
 dumb terror of submission; to oppose the in- 
 vasion from abroad to the last man and the 
 last cartridge; for which purpose a " levy in 
 mass '' is ordered of all the combatant popu- 
 lation. It is publicly declared that France 
 is in danger, and that she has risen against 
 tyrants; and woe to the general who shall 
 now attempt to play the game of Dumouriez, 
 and draw upon himself the wrath of that ter- 
 rible Committee of Public Safety ! Several 
 incur suspicion, among them brave Custine, 
 formerly so successful against his country's 
 enemies, the idol of his soldiers. A Com- 
 missioner appeared in his camp to arrest 
 him, and convey him to Paris for trial. The 
 soldiers murmur, and are inclined to resist 
 any attempt to carry their general away from 
 them; conscious in their hearts, probably, of 
 the utter hopelessness of the acquittal of any 
 prisoner once brought forward for trial. 
 But the Commissioner is a bold, dauntless 
 man, suited for those iron times; he has 
 come for Custine, and Custine he must have. 
 "Wilt thou answer for his innocerice with thy 
 head ? " he demands of a remonstrating 
 sergeant. " If your general is guiltless, he 
 will be set at liberty ; if guilty, he will pay 
 the forfeit — and woe to traitors and con- 
 spirators ! " To Paris accordingly was brave 
 Custine hurried off. At his trial he defended 
 himself with an energy and eloquence rare 
 even in those fiery days ; so completely did 
 he vindicate himself from every charge but 
 that of ill-success, that even before such 
 judges and such a tribunal it was thought an 
 acquittal must follow ; and the prisoner him- 
 self looked confidently for the verdict. It 
 
 708 
 
THE K11N2H OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 was Guilty ; and the sentence the usual 
 one of death, to be inflicted within twenty- 
 four hours ; and Custine, brave soldier 
 though he was, sunk down on his knees, 
 overwhelmed by the sudden surprise, and by 
 the revulsion from hope to despair; remain- 
 ing speechless and motionless tor two hours; 
 then indeed dying with a sufficiency of calm 
 dignity, but with a bitter feeling in his heart 
 of the injustice and ingratitude that requited 
 with the felon's doom such services as he 
 had ren- 
 dered to the 
 Republic. 
 
 Towns 
 there were 
 also, im- 
 p o r t an t 
 places such 
 as Lyons, 
 Bordeaux, 
 Toulon,and 
 others, in- 
 clined to 
 favour the 
 Girondists, 
 andeventhe 
 Royalists. 
 Against 
 Lyons, 
 Dubois- 
 Cranc^ the 
 Montagard 
 was des- 
 patched 
 with orders 
 to bombard 
 the place, — 
 a command 
 which he 
 carried out 
 with u n- 
 sparing se- 
 verity. After 
 a long and 
 vigorous 
 resistance, 
 and the en- 
 during of 
 all the 
 severest 
 h a r d sh i ps 
 
 of war, the place surrendered, and the order 
 went forth that the disobedient city was to be 
 razed to the ground, and its very name was 
 to disappear from the Hst of the towns of 
 France. But not even the ruthlessness of a 
 revolutionary government can wipe out of 
 existence such a city as Lyons, and the atten- 
 tion of the Committee was diverted to other 
 objects in the enormous swiftness with which 
 events moved onwards in those weeks of 
 blood and crime. 
 
 Chaklotte Corday. 
 
 The Fate of the Captive Queen. 
 
 With an Austrian army knocking at its 
 gates, and even bursting through the barriers 
 of its frontier land, it was natural that the 
 anger of a people roused to vindictive fury 
 should turn once more to that doleful prison 
 of the Temple, where languished the dis- 
 crowned, widowed Oueen, the " Austrian " 
 whose name had been associated from the 
 first with every burning thought of wrong and 
 
 vengeance. 
 " Never 
 
 surely, in 
 an age that 
 boasted of 
 civilization, 
 and in a 
 country 
 where bells 
 hadknolled 
 to church, 
 had a queen 
 been sub- 
 jected to 
 such a fate 
 as had be- 
 fallen the 
 most un- 
 happy 
 daughter of 
 the haugh- 
 tyEmpress- 
 queen Ma- 
 riaTheresa. 
 Surely the 
 vanity of 
 human 
 wishes and 
 the frailty 
 of human 
 greatness 
 had never 
 been more 
 impressive- 
 1 y i 1 1 u s- 
 trated than 
 in the his- 
 t o r y of 
 Marie An- 
 toinette. 
 Burke, the 
 great orator, in his place in the House of Com- 
 mons, described how in earlier days he had 
 seen her shining like a bright particular star 
 amid all the splendour of the French Court, 
 when it seemed as though a thousand blades 
 would leap from their scabbards to avenge 
 the shghtest insult offered to her. Now she 
 was sitting in a dungeon, a desolate captive, 
 the " Widow Capet," exposed to outrage from 
 the brutality of municipal guards, and the 
 vulgarest of coarse pai ve?m officials. She had 
 seen her husband, whose chivalrous respect 
 
 709 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 for " the Queen " was one of the best traits in 
 his amiable though weak nature, torn from 
 her, to be carried off to the scaffold. At dead 
 of night her persecutors had appeared, to drag 
 from her arms her only boy, the unhappy 
 little Dauphin, whom the mockery of fate has 
 chronicled as Louis XVII. in the chronicle of 
 the French Kings, and whose last days of 
 royalty were passed under the tyranny of the 
 brutal cobbler Sin^^jj^ and whom merciful 
 Death at last set free from bodily and mental 
 misery. She had now for consolation in her 
 dreary captivity only the affection of her 
 daughter, the Princess Marie, destined to be 
 the only one among the group of royal captives 
 in the Temple who was to survive those days 
 of horror, and the piety of the excellent 
 Madame Elisabeth, the sister of the dead 
 King, who bore her sufferings with the con- 
 stancy and resignation of a martyr. To any 
 ordinary view, it might appear that the Queen, 
 in the depths of her misfortune, had sunk 
 below the fiery horizon of politics, and might 
 be left unmolested in her wretchedness. But 
 it was declared that there had been plots for 
 her liberation, and on the subject of conspiracy 
 and plotting the French were at that time 
 stark mad. Besides, the exhibition of the 
 ex-Queen, the " Austrian," brought to the bar 
 of the revolutionary tribunal, would be sweet 
 in the eyes of the nation, and an acceptable 
 offering from the Government to the sovereign 
 people, in the Year 3 of the Republic of hberty, 
 equality, fraternity, and death. It would be 
 a living proof that the justice of the incorrup- 
 tible rulers, like Death itself, knocked equally 
 at the doors of kings and peasants. Accord- 
 ingly it was resolved that the " Widow 
 Capet " should be brought to her trial. The 
 parting from her daughter and her sister-in- 
 law was as the bitterness of death to the 
 unhappy Queen. She solemnly embraced and 
 blessed the princess, and commended both 
 her children to the care and affection of 
 Madame Elisabeth, and bade her fellow- 
 captives a last farewell. Then she quietly 
 turned away to accompany the emissaries 
 who had come to convey her to that anti- 
 chamber of death, the Conciergerie. In 
 passing out she struck her forehead violently 
 against the stone above the portal. One of 
 the guards, more humane than the rest, asked 
 if she had hurt herself. She replied that no- 
 thing in the world could hurt her now. 
 
 The public accuser, Fouquier Tinville, con- 
 ducted the prosecution against her. In 
 general her attitude was that of weary indif- 
 ference, as of one who has to pass through 
 a harassing set of' forms, and wishes the 
 infliction were over. Once only she flashed 
 out in indignant scorn, when she appealed to 
 all the mothers present in the court against a 
 horrible accusation of profligacy brought 
 against her by Fouquier Tinville. She had 
 
 been immured in a cell in the Conciergerie 
 from the 21st of August, and it was now the 
 middle of October. Those weeks of solitary 
 imprisonment had told upon the captive. 
 She was only thirty-seven years of age, but 
 she looked an old, gray, faded woman. But she 
 met her accusers and the howling crowd who 
 thirsted for her blood with all the dignity of 
 a queen. When accused of having abused 
 the weakness of the King, she quietly replied 
 that she had not considered his character as 
 weak, that she was his wife and had made it 
 her pleasure as it was her duty, to obey him 
 in all things." The genius of Delaroche has 
 portrayed for the world the aspect of the gray, 
 discrowned queen passing along from the 
 court to the prison after her condemnation ; 
 the woeful eyes, dim with much weeping, 
 staring straight out before her, but the haughty 
 mouth still compressed into an expression of 
 ineffable scorn for the howling viragoes who 
 insult her on her way. It was the 15th of 
 October, at four o'clock in the morning, that 
 she was brought from the hall of judgment to 
 the gloomy apartment where the condemned 
 awaited the arrival of the executioner. The 
 last day of her life was dawning ; when she 
 sat down to write a letter full of blessings and 
 thanks to her sister-in-law, a gleam of the 
 queenly pride of her nature flashed up even in 
 these the last words she was to write on earth. 
 She had the greatest abhorrence of the priests 
 who had taken the oath to the republic. "As 
 my actions are not free," she writes, " they 
 will perhaps send me a priest. But I protest 
 here that I shall not say a word to him, and 
 shall treat him as an entirely strange being." 
 
 After finishing this letter, the Queen slept 
 for a few hours. She then changed the black 
 gown she had worn until then for a white 
 robe. Her cap was white also, but with a 
 black riband, in token of the mourning she 
 wore for her husband. At eleven o'clock the 
 guards and executioners appeared. The 
 Queen herself cut off her hair, and quietly 
 submitted to have her hands bound, and with 
 a firm step walked between the hedges of 
 bayonets towards the portal of the prison, to 
 start on that last dreary death-ride. She 
 recoiled for a moment when she caught sight 
 of the vile tumbril waiting for her ; she had 
 expected at least to be conveyed in a carriage 
 to the scaffold, as her husband had been ; but 
 " equality " was one of the watchwords of the 
 time ; and the terrorists could gain popularity 
 from the fact of making no difference between 
 the Queen of France and the humblest prisoner 
 convicted of conspiring against the Republic 
 one and indivisible. 
 
 The first part of the death-journey was 
 through one of the lowest quarters of Paris, 
 and the mob had turned out in its thousands, 
 including a large number of the vilest and 
 most degraded women, to scoff and jeer at 
 
 710 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 the death-doomed victim, who had once been 
 the proudest of queens. The vilest execration, 
 the most horrible gutter epithets, were show- 
 ered upon the prisoner, whose cheeks were 
 purple with shame, and who seemed anxious 
 to hide her head from the sight of the horrible 
 furies yelling and blaspheming about her. 
 As the tumbril jolted slowly along over the 
 rough stone pavements, the Queen, with her 
 bound hands, tottered, and could with diffi- 
 culty keep her balance. The crowd noticed 
 it, and yelled with delight, shouting, " These 
 are not thy cushions of Trianon ! " But after 
 a time the course lay through a quieter 
 quarter ; the yells ceased, and the Queen 
 could wend to her death with head erect and 
 unquailing courage. As the procession 
 •passed through the Rue St. Honore she was 
 noticed to look fixedly at the upper windows 
 of a house, and then to bov.'^ her head. In an 
 upper chamber of that house a priest of her 
 own religion was concealed, waiting to give her 
 the last blessing as she passed. Unable with 
 her bound hands to make the sign of the cross, 
 she moved her head slowly forward, and from 
 side to side, as a sign of faith. After that 
 the only token of emotion she is said to have 
 given was when the death-cart passed near 
 the entrance of the Tuileries, where she had 
 ruled with such supreme and brilliant sway. 
 A few tears dropped from the heavy eyes as 
 she looked her last at the " theatre of her 
 greatness and of her fall ." Presently the 
 cart stopped at the foot of the scaffold. The 
 Queen mounted to the platform with a hrm, 
 majestic step. Treading inadvertently on 
 the executioner's foot, she asked his pardon 
 as calmly and grandly as she would have 
 addressed a courtier at Versailles. She did 
 not, like the King, address any words to the 
 bystanders from the scaffold. When her 
 lifeless head was shown to the populace, a 
 frantic shout of " Vive la Repiiblique! " arose. 
 Carlyle has described, in one of the most 
 eloquent passages he ever wrote, that terrible 
 ride of the discrowned Queen. " Is there a 
 man's heart," he asks, " that thinks without 
 pity of those long months and years of slow 
 wasting ignominy.'' . . . Look there, O man 
 born of woman ! The bloom on that fair 
 face is wasted, the hair is gray with care ; 
 the brightness of those eyes is quenched, their 
 lids hang drooping ; the face is stony pale, 
 as of one living in death. Mean weeds, which 
 her own hand has mended, attire the Queen 
 of the world. The death hurdle where thou 
 sittest pale and motionless, which only curses 
 environ, has to stop ; a people drunk with 
 vengeance will drink it again in full draught, 
 looking at thee there. Far as the eye reaches 
 a multitudinous sea of m.aniac heads, the air 
 deaf with their triumph-yell. . . . O think 
 not of these ; think of Him whom thou wor- 
 shippest,the Crucified— who, also treading the 
 
 winepress alone, fronted sorrow still deeper, 
 and triumphed over it, and made it holy, and 
 built of it a ' sanctuary of sorrow ' for thee 
 and all the wretched." 
 
 Progress of the Terror ; How the 
 ■ Convention carried on the War, 
 The execution of the Queen and the pro- 
 scription and death of the Girondist chiefs, 
 mark an epoch in the downward course of 
 the Revolution. For now there is no sem- 
 blance of pity, no sense of shame, no recoiling 
 before the horrible; allbutone idea seems to be 
 abandoned. Like Shakespeare's guilty thane 
 the Republic had " in blood stepped in so far, 
 returning were as tedious as go o'er." The 
 Law of the Suspected rendered every man's 
 life so utterly insecure, and threw the shadow 
 of the guillotine so gloomily across every 
 hearth, that men went mad with a kind of 
 furious fever, denouncing their neighbours, 
 and sometimes even themselves, in what ap- 
 peared to be mere impulses of mad excitement. 
 To be apparently in the possession of means, 
 and to employ those means in purchasing the 
 luxuries and conveniences of life, was to be at 
 once suspected ; for were not the armies of 
 the nation suffering, marching with never a 
 shoe to their feet, enduring want and hunger 
 and cold in the face of the enemy at the 
 frontier.'' And what was the duty of a good 
 patriot if not to devote his means, his time, 
 and all his energies to the relief and succour 
 of those heroic troops '^. Accordingly, wealth 
 and competence abandoned the use of all 
 superfluities until such time as they should be 
 once more safe, and put down its carriages 
 and lacqueys, — by the way, there were no 
 lacqueys left, but only helps, — and trudged 
 on toot, and put on coarse attire, the carmag- 
 nole and the red cap, and strove thus to tide in 
 safety over the period of peril. For the sharp 
 female '' La Guillotine " is more hungry than 
 ever; and the batches of victims became larger 
 day by day: their passive acquiescence in the 
 present state of things will no longer serve ; 
 there must be active promotion of the Repub- 
 lic one and indivisible ; and as the perils 
 thicken from foreign armies beyond the fron- 
 tier, and surviving Girondist partisans, and 
 worse still, from concealed or open royalist 
 partisans and would-be restorers of the old 
 state of things, when the inhabitants of France 
 were divided into tyrants and slaves, " What 
 hast thou done that thou wouldst be hanged 
 for, if the counter-revolution triumphed ? " 
 has been sternly promulgated by authority 
 as the test by which a true patriot was to be 
 tried. 
 
 I'he revolution had now reached the stage 
 when her children were her daily food ; and 
 thus not only Madame Roland the Girondist 
 was executed, with many more who had been 
 enthusiastic partizans of liberty and progress, 
 
 711 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 but not even the Jacobinism of the Duke of 
 Orleans, Philippe Egalite, could save him in 
 the day when " high-sighted tyranny," as re- 
 presented by the most ruthless form of mob 
 law, "ranged on, and each man fell by 
 lottery." And thus, on the 6th of November, 
 1793, Orleans, who had voted for the death 
 of his cousin the King, and had outhcroded 
 
 with the traitor Dumouriez months before,was 
 making his way to Switzerland, there to earn 
 his living as best he might by teaching 
 mathematics, and destined, more than a 
 generation later, to sit on the throne as Louis 
 Phihppe, King of the French, the chief of the 
 most unreal of constitutional monarchies. 
 A very different victim was immolated at 
 
 Danton going to the Guillotine. 
 
 Herod in his assumption of republicanism, 
 was obliged to mount those fatal steps, 
 dying with a grim cynical composure, and 
 a shrug of utter disdain for the sovereign 
 people, urging the executioner to despatch, 
 and reminding that functionary, who wished 
 to remove his boots, that they "would come 
 off more ea^/ily afierwards.^^ Meanwhile, 
 his son, the Dake de Chartres, who had fl^d 
 
 the shrine of St. Guillotine only a few days 
 later, in the person of Bailly, once the Pre- 
 sident of the National Assembly and Mayor 
 of Paris, — illustrious astronomer, moderate 
 politician, and the most honest among the 
 advocates for improvement and reform, but 
 doomed to death, as Carlyle forcibly expresses 
 it, for leaving his astronomy to meedle with 
 revolution. The increasing ferocity and 
 
 712 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 utterly pitiless temper of the Paris mob, 
 growing more bloodthirsty day by day, was 
 nowhere more clearly seen than in the cruel 
 circumstances of the execution ofthe innocent 
 old man. They flirted in his face the red 
 flag as they dragged him to execution ; they 
 prolonged his agony through hour after hour 
 of the cold, bleak November day, dragging 
 
 ing spectator. "Yes, my friend," was the 
 undaunted reply, " but it is with cold ! " And 
 thus, with the heroic courage which was a 
 characteristic of all ranks during that strange 
 period, he died. 
 
 Another phase of the revolutionary mad- 
 ness was shown in the furious outbreak of 
 anger and contempt against all that had till 
 
 Charlotte Cokday stabs Marat. 
 
 him first to the Champ de Mars, and then 
 setting up the guillotine in a distant spot on 
 the borders ofthe Seine, onthe pretext that 
 the place where the altar of Liberty had stood 
 would be desecrated by the death of a traitor. 
 Meekly and submissively the old man bore 
 every indignity, accepting with heroic calm- 
 ness all the ignominy of that dark hour. 
 " You're trembling, Bailly," shouted an insu't- 
 
 then excited reverence and respect among 
 men, and chiefly a;4'a:nsc religion. The royal- 
 ism ofthe priests had much to do with this. 
 The churches were now desecrated, their 
 treasures plundered, the leaden statues, roof 
 coverings, and decorations carried off to be 
 used for the casting of bullets. The worship of 
 God is considered a delusion, a relic of the 
 priestly tvrannv that has been swept away. 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Henceforth Liberty is to be worshipped, and 
 Reason ; and in the year 1793, accordingly 
 an actress, dressed in a bhie robe, and be- 
 dizened that she may allegorically represent 
 Reason, is paraded about Paris to personify 
 the idea penetrating into the National Conven- 
 tion itself Away, too, with the old reckoning 
 of time, the old calendar, the record of 
 slavery and superstition. The French nation, 
 regenerated by Liberty, should have a new 
 reckoning, the world starting fresh, as it 
 were, from the founding of the Republic one 
 and indivisible, which was to be the year 
 07ie, — to be to the French what the building 
 of the city was to the Roman, the birth of the 
 Saviour to the Christian, the Megira to the 
 Mahometan, a starting-point from which time 
 should be computed, — Han I. de Republiqiie. 
 And the old division into months and weeks 
 again was to vanish away, the months being 
 superseded by twelve periods of thirty days 
 each, such as Frimaire, the cold or frost time; 
 Ventose, the windy ; Thermido}% the heat time ; 
 Bt'umaire, the foggy; Pliiviose, the rainy 
 time; Fructidor,thQ fruit season, etc., etc.; 
 the five days of the year not provided for 
 by this arrangement being considered as holi- 
 days, with an additional one for leap-year. 
 For the weeks were to be substituted periods 
 of ten days, so as to include exactly three in 
 each of the new months — the tenth day, or 
 Decadi., being kept as a holiday. 
 
 Thus wild excitement and change at home, 
 a frenzy pervaded by the guillotine, kept up 
 the Reign of Terror ; but abroad there was 
 war and danger and threatening of failure — 
 indeed, reality of failure in some cases, for 
 which the generals of the armies were made, 
 like Custine, to pay with their heads ; and 
 among those who thus perished was a 
 General Beauharnais, who left behind him a 
 widow, Josephine, immured in a Paris prison, 
 who very narrowly escaped the fate of fur- 
 nishing an item in the "supply" provided 
 daily for the guillotine, which represented 
 "with its rapid beat the whole machine of 
 government. Commissioners from the Con- 
 vention and from the terrible Committee of 
 Public Safely were despatched to the armies 
 and to the communities of various towns, 
 with authority of oyer and terminer with a 
 vengeance, — unhmited authority of life and 
 death. These men, formidable in their 
 official plumed hats and tricolored scarves, 
 were sent on missions throughout the country 
 to collect what was necessary for the armies, 
 or to see that it was collected, to stamp out 
 treason, and to take cognisance of all luke- 
 warmness and disaffection. Thus St. Just 
 and Lebon came to Strasbourg to exhort the 
 citizens to do their duty to the army. Ten 
 thousand pairs of shoes were required im- 
 mediately ; let all good citizens strip off their 
 shoes and send them to the army. A thousand 
 
 beds, too, are required ; let those thousand 
 beds be despatched within twenty-four hours. 
 Good citizens were to spare neither house 
 nor field, life nor limb, in the strife against 
 the enemies of the Republic in the days when 
 it became a crime " to have done nothing to 
 further its interests." 
 
 Death to Traitors ! Woe to the 
 
 Cities of the Vanquished ! Toulon, 
 
 Nantes. 
 
 The enemies of France, England foremost 
 among them, were vigorously prosecuting the 
 war against the Convention ; receiving much 
 aid and comfort from the disaffection in the 
 country itself, where Girondists and Royalists 
 abounded in certain districts, kept only in 
 partial subjection by the terror and the ever- 
 present guillotine. Toulon had declared 
 against the Republic, and admitted into its 
 harbour a British fleet ; therefore the fiat 
 went forth that Toulon was to be besieged, 
 and swept away from the face of the earth. 
 The duty of besieging the royalist town was 
 entrusted to stern old General Dugommier, a 
 tried veteran, who would not flmch ; and 
 commanding in the Artillery was a taciturn 
 young Corsican, Colonel Bonaparte, shortly 
 destined to do some very notable things, — a 
 young Hannibal, vigilant, frugal, and abste- 
 mious, able, like the great Carthaginian, to do 
 with a little sleep snatched among the soldiers 
 by the watch-fires of the camp. This young 
 Bonaparte it was who suggested to Dugom- 
 mier the plan of capturing the city by con- 
 centrating the attack upon one vulnerable 
 point, the possession of which would place 
 the ships of the English under fire ; which 
 being done, Lord Hood's fleet was fain to 
 sail away out of the harbour, after taking on 
 board such Royalists as chose to withdraw 
 themselves in this fashion from the vengeance 
 .certain to descend on the city so soon as the 
 victors made their entry into its streets. 
 
 A great and signal triumph for the Republic 
 was the capture of this great arsenal city, with 
 its docks and storehouses and ships of war ; 
 and signal was the vengeance taken by the 
 victors, by means of the guillotine and whole- 
 sale fusillading of prisoners ; but the threat 
 of razing Toulon with the ground could not 
 be carried out. Prominent among the horrors 
 of that wicked frenzied time stands forth the 
 fate of Nantes, the great city in the west. 
 Thither was despatched as a representative. 
 Carrier, exceptionally ruthless even among 
 the emissaries of that merciless government. 
 The proconsul at once commenced holding 
 an assize of blood ; the ordinary process of 
 death by the guillotine was too slow for 
 Carrier and his myrmidons ; some method of 
 more wholesale slaughter must be discovered, 
 and the presence of the glorious river, the 
 I Loire, furnished the means required. Large 
 714 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 barges were filled with prisoners, who had 
 been condemned to be transported {deporta- 
 tioii). The hatches were secured over the 
 prisoners, and the barges towed out into mid 
 stream. Then holes were broken, from with- 
 out, in the sides of the barges, so that the 
 whole freight sank together, and the '■^noyade," 
 or wholesale drowning, gave a respite to the 
 over- worked guillotine. The ferocious banter 
 of the ruffianly perpetrators designated these 
 wholesale drownings as "vertical transporta- 
 tions." A horrible ingenuity in torture was 
 displayed in the murders done by Carrier 
 and his subordinates. Perhaps the worst was 
 that fiendish device of tying men and women 
 together, and thus launchmg them into the 
 waters of the Loire — republican marriages, 
 these atrocities were called ; while a fusillade 
 of prisoners, with which the day's proceedings 
 closed, was termed, in ferocious jest, " Citizen 
 Carrier's evening prayer." At a later period, 
 when called to account, under a subsequent 
 Government, for these atrocious proceedings, 
 Carrier, who proved a thorough cur, attempted 
 to make out, as indeed might have been the 
 case, that things not sanctioned by himself 
 had been done in his name, and that the 
 reports of what had actually been done were 
 exaggerated ; but abundance of evidence 
 exists to utterly condemn him as a monster 
 in the eyes of mankind. But the main ob- 
 ject was gained. " Royalism is dead," says 
 Carlyle, " sunk, as they say, m the mud of 
 the Loire. Republicanism dominates without 
 and within ;" though not without a fierce and 
 deadly struggle in both cases. 
 
 The Republic on the Battle-fields. 
 The headings and drownings, the fusillades 
 of Lyons, the wholesale drownings at Nantes, 
 and the horrors enacted everywhere through- 
 out the length and breadth of the country 
 were the shame of the Revolution ; the con- 
 duct of the nation in the fierce war for the 
 existence of the Republic formed its glory. 
 Never had a war been thus carried on. One 
 thing appears certain, as an unchanging truth 
 amid the shifting scenes and changes of that 
 tremendous time, — the determination of the 
 people to maintain the Republic. As aguiding 
 central power, combining into united action 
 the scattered armies that had been bravely 
 but almost hopelessly striving to hold their 
 own against the invaders of the country, 
 towered the military genius of Carnot, regu- 
 lating and arranging, indefatigably urging the 
 generals, by the commissioners despatched 
 to their camps, to "do their duty." Of him 
 it may justly be said, as Addison wrote of 
 Marlborough, that he "inspired repulsed 
 battalions to engage. And taught the doubtful 
 battle where to rage." The levies efi masse 
 had produced a splendid number of soldiers; 
 rough indeed, and probably very imperfect 
 
 in their drill, and dressed and accoutred in a 
 manner that would have made a Prussian 
 Serjeant's soul to be heavy within him, but 
 full of ardour and zeal, and as hard as the 
 muskets they carried. France was turned 
 into a huge arsenal," — everywhere there was 
 hammering of gunlocks andforging of cannon 
 and manufacturing of gunpowder. With the 
 generals, too, the alternative of victory or 
 death became more than ever a grim reality. 
 Thus Dampierre, the successor of Dumouriez 
 in the army of the Netherlands against the 
 Austrians, had been ordered by the Conven- 
 tion to attack the Austrian army that lay 
 between Maubeuge and Saint Amand. The 
 task was simply a hopeless one, as Dampierre 
 knew well ; but there was nothing for it but 
 to obey. After being driven back five times 
 with great slaughter, the general was seen by 
 his son, who acted as his aide-de-camp, to 
 place himself on horseback at the head of a 
 few picked men, to advance against a redoubt. 
 The young man ventured to remonstrate 
 against the father's thus sacrificing himself, 
 declaring that death would be here equally 
 certain and useless. "I know that, my friend," 
 answered the old general, " but I would 
 rather die on the field of honour than under 
 the axe of the guillotine." A few moments 
 later he was lying, mortally wounded by a 
 cannon ball, upon a heap of slain. 
 
 Everywhere the gaunt, hungry, ragged, 
 indomitable battalions of the French hurled 
 back the-enemy across the frontier; in many 
 cases pursuing them hotly, and pouring on- 
 ward in a resistless tide. Thus brave Du- 
 gommier, of Toulon celebrity, carried the war 
 into Spain, and there perished gloriously, 
 after gaining such successes as assui'ed the 
 French from molestation from that quarter 
 for a long time. In these wonderful armies, 
 too, Serjeants who proved themselves pos- 
 sessed of extraordinary talent, developed in 
 a rapid and bewildering way into generals; 
 such as Serjeant Hoche, who became the 
 leader of an army, and did some remarkable 
 things on the Rhine and elsewhere ; Serjeant 
 Pichegru, once a teacher of Mathematics in 
 the military school of Brienne, where one 
 Napoleon Bonaparte had been his pupil, and 
 who now showed how mathematics .could be 
 appHed to war; Serjeant Bernadotte, destined 
 before his career was ended to be a king ; 
 Serjeant Junot, who had attracted the approv- 
 ing notice of the Artillery officer Bonaparte 
 before Toulon ; and various others. France 
 was also fortunate in her opponents, who, 
 with the exception of England, were but 
 half hearted in the cause. Austria and 
 Prussia watched each other with mutual 
 jealousy. Russia and ^Sweden were not 
 disposed to take any very active measures. 
 And thus against the fiery energy and un- 
 ceasing activity of Carnot was set a dilatori- 
 
 715 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 ness that was of infinite service to him. The 
 new tactics, moreover, fairly bewildered the 
 commanders of the old school, whose 
 hesitation gave just the respite required by 
 the new levies of the French to learn the 
 rudiments of an art quickly acquired by a 
 military people. Thoroughly roused, the 
 French marched forth, with the motto, " The 
 French people risen against tyrants " on 
 their banner. " From the central Carnot in 
 Sahtt Public to the outmost drummer on the 
 frontiers," says Carlyle, " men strove for their 
 Republic. . . . Majesty of Prussia, as Majesty 
 of Spain, will by-and-by acknowledge his 
 sins and the Republic ; and make a peace of 
 Bale." 
 
 Presently there comes news to Paris which 
 causes much shouting and jubilation. " The 
 army of the north does not cease to merit 
 well of its country," runs the despatch. A 
 great victory has been gained. The German 
 general, Walmoden, is utterly discomfited, 
 and the Duke of York, son of George the 
 Third, has been obliged to raise the siege of 
 Dunkirk suddenly, after losing many valuable 
 lives, and burning much expensive powder. 
 About which time also, M. le Marquis, who 
 is now to be met in Newgate Street, with a 
 rough deal on his shoulder, adze and jack- 
 plane under arm, — he has taken to the 
 ioiner trade, it being necessary to live, — begins 
 "to have an idea that this pestilent revolution 
 will take more trouble to put down, and may 
 n its desperate effrontery last longer than he 
 had at first supposed, and that in some way 
 the results of the coalition are not altogether 
 satisfactory ; and that it may even be 
 necessary for Madame la Marquise to turn 
 that exquisite taste she is acknowledged to 
 possess in matters of dress to a means of 
 living by becoming a modest e, which, as Mr. 
 Samuel Pepys says of his various embarrass- 
 ments, " does trouble him in his mind." For 
 through all his bewilderment he sees, that be 
 the frenzy in France never so wild the 
 RepubUc is growing stronger day by day. 
 
 The Fall of the Hebertists. 
 
 And now, in the tremendous frenzy that 
 had seized upon the minds of men, impelling 
 them forward in the headlong, rushing flood 
 of revolution, as if carried along by a mighty 
 tide, without any volition of their own, or 
 even the power to guide their course, as the 
 waters bore them onward, the Convention 
 itself, now that the opposition of the Gironde 
 had been overcome with such blood-stained 
 triumph, was a scene of suspicion and dis- 
 trust, even in the dominant Mountain itself, 
 which was split up into factions, which 
 quickly became so hostile that they were 
 ready to tear one another to pieces. Among 
 these factions there were three chief divisions. 
 
 First and foremost, most noisy and blatant 
 of all, shrieking defiance, and breathing out 
 threatenings and slaughters against all who 
 were not "thorough," to the extent of wishing, 
 like Nero, that their enemies had but one 
 neck, and might therefore be exterminated at 
 a blow, stood the Madmen's faction, the 
 Enrages, supported by the frantic Cordelier 
 club, with its tremendous influence over the 
 mob of Paris and its ramifications through- 
 out the country. The leaders of this party 
 were Hebert, Momoro, Anacharsis Clootz, and 
 Ronsin Chaumette, the chief promoter of the 
 infamous Law of the Suspected, and others ; 
 followed by a gang ready to go to any 
 length in hanging, shooting, and drowning, 
 identifying the successful march of the 
 Revolution with the activity of the guillotine, 
 and urged on by Hubert, their chief, to ever 
 wilder deeds of violence ; bent on intensifying 
 the Terror, and mainly desirous that more 
 and more heads might fall every day, as a 
 sweet sacrifice to the genius of Liberty. 
 
 Thus, in his infamous paper, the Pere 
 Duchesne, and in frantic speeches spoken in 
 the Cordelier club, Hebert poured forth a 
 fiery flood of rabid denunciation, declaring 
 that he had "held his tongue and his heart 
 these two months at sight of Moderates, 
 Crypto Aristocrats, Canvilles, Scelerats in 
 the Convention itself, but could not do it any 
 longer ; would, if remedy were not, invoke 
 the sacred right of Insurrection." Opposed 
 to these stood the faction of Danton and 
 Camille Desmoulins, men who could hardly 
 be accused of lukewarmness in the cause of 
 the Revolution, as evidenced by their action 
 on the loth of August and the days of Sep- 
 teinber, 1793, but who began to grow weary 
 of bloodshed and horror. Between the two 
 stood Robespierre the incorruptible, with his 
 sinister face and sea-green complexion, his 
 indomitable perseverance and enormous am- 
 bition, distrusting both alike, and cherishing 
 his own wild scheme of building up a regene- 
 rate republic when all opposition should 
 have been quelled, and the hostile factions 
 should have been compelled to submit to 
 him. Among his chief supporters was 
 St. Just. 
 
 Suddenly, on the 15th of March, a blow 
 was struck by Robespierre which made the 
 ears of even the most advanced revolutionists 
 to tingle. Hebert and his chief associates 
 were arrested and thrown into the prison of 
 the Luxembourg, their arrival there being 
 bailed with jeering surprise and delight by 
 numerous denizens of that abode of woe, 
 whom they had sent thither, and whom they 
 were thus at a moment's notice sent to join. 
 The accusation against them was that they 
 were concealed traitors, who by their actions 
 were playing into the hands of the enemies of 
 the Republic, especially of the English Minister 
 16 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 Pitt, "the enemy of the human race," by making 
 the Government odious, and discrediting the 
 Revolution itself by their crimes ; that their 
 plundering of the churches, their worship of 
 the Goddess of Reason, and other similar 
 proceedings, had had this end in view, whereat 
 tlie Cordelier club stood aghast with sudden 
 dismay. According to the fashion of those 
 
 vendors, the "grand choler of the Pere 
 Duchesne." And thus had the Revolution 
 devoured another company of its children, 
 for no less than nineteen Hebertists made 
 the fatal journey on the 24th of March, 1794. 
 As Carlyle wisely observes, in writing of 
 these tilings, "All anarchy is not only de- 
 structive, but self-destructive." 
 
 ROBESMERRE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 headlong times, judgment quickly followed 
 arrest; and within a few days Hebert and 
 his associates mounted the steps of the 
 guillotine; the mob, thirsty for blood, and 
 caring little who were the victims so long as 
 the daily spectacle of murder was exhibited, 
 surrounded the death-carts gleefully as the 
 Enrages went to their doom, and jeeringly 
 calling out, after the manner of newspaper 
 
 Danton and his Followers ; Their 
 Struggle and their Extinction. 
 The blow that had fallen upon Hubert 
 and his faction was so tremendous, so un- 
 expected, and so rapid,— only nine days 
 intervening between the arrest of the chiefs 
 of the Madmen's faction and their execution, 
 — that a general panic was spread throughout 
 
 717 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 the capital. Men began to look on one 
 another in blank dismay, ready to ask, with 
 Mark Antony in Shakespeai-e's play, " Who 
 next must be let blood, who else is rank ? " 
 Whom would Robespierre the incorruptible 
 think it necessary to sacrifice next for the 
 safety of the Republic ? 
 
 One thing appeared clear to many who 
 watched the signs of those troublous days 
 with a sagacity sharpened by the sense of 
 their own peril, namely, that there was not 
 room for Robespierre and Danton in the 
 same Government ; and that the natural 
 antagonism between the great, loud-voiced, 
 fiery revolutionist, the man of action, advo- 
 cating audacity and the bold confronting of 
 peril, the man of the Revolution, and the 
 " poor, spasmodic, incorruptible pedant, with' 
 a logic formula instead of a heart, the "wind- 
 bag" of the Revolution, could not continue. 
 But bound as Robespierre was to Danton, 
 who had been long his friend, and frequently 
 his defender, it seemed impossible that in- 
 gratitude should go so far as to make him 
 compass his colleague's ruin. Moreover, 
 Danton had been such a towering figure 
 during the whole period of storm and stress, 
 had been so identified with popular struggles 
 and popular triumphs, that it seemed as 
 though policy, if no higher feeling, would 
 induce the Incorruptible to remain on good 
 terms with such a man ; and so thought 
 Danton himself. 
 
 For his own part, he was wearied and dis- 
 gusted by the brawling in the Convention 
 and the ruthless system of legahsed murder 
 and massacre. He had, moreover, married 
 a young wife; and withdrawing himself for a 
 time from public affairs, was enjoying what 
 domestichappiness and rest could be snatched 
 at such a time in his native place, Arcis, 
 from whence he was summoned in hot haste 
 by his friends, Camille Desmoulins, Philip- 
 peaux, and others of their faction, who under- 
 stood the full significance of late events, and 
 saw that in the presence of a man who could 
 annihilate Hubert and his faction, no man was 
 safe. Accordingly Danton raised the voice of 
 remonstrance in the Convention against the 
 indiscriminate course of proceedmg lately 
 adopted, declaring that while the enemies of 
 theRepublicought to be punished, the innocent 
 should not be confounded with the guilty. 
 With unparalleled shamelessness, Robespierre 
 declared there was no proof that a single 
 innocent person had perished. "What do 
 you think of that, Fabricius.^" exclaimed 
 Danton, with grim irony, to one of his friends. 
 A hollow reconciliation, patched up for the 
 moment between him and Robespierre, re- 
 tarded the course of events only for a few 
 days. Several of his friends, seeing what 
 was impending, urged him to fly ; his wife 
 added her solicitation to theirs : but the giant 
 
 was not to be moved. Even when told by 
 one who had the best sources of information 
 that the warrant for his arrest had been 
 made out, he only replied : " They would not 
 dai'e ; " and retired to bed as usual, to be 
 aroused at midnight by functionaries who 
 carried him off to prison. 
 
 Thus, again, the gloomy Luxembourg gaol 
 receives a strange group of captives, to 
 occupy the places so lately vacated by He- 
 bert and his ruffianly gang. Even in the 
 Convention some feeble efforts are made 
 fur Danton, Legendre proposing that he 
 should be heard at the bar, as a preliminary 
 to, perhaps a substitute for, indictment ; but 
 Robespierre would not allow it. Danton 
 must submit to the usual mode of procedure. 
 With the " Incorruptible," no distinction can 
 be made between persons. The great Re- 
 volutionist himself seems to have been be- 
 wildered with the suddenness of the fate that 
 had fallen upon him ; and declared in the 
 prison that everything would be left in a 
 horrible confusion, for that not one of the 
 men then dominant knew anything about 
 government : prophetically also he asserted 
 that in his fall he should drag down Robes- 
 pierre. " Better to be a poor fisherman than 
 to meddle in the government of men," he 
 bitterly exclaimed. Before his judges he bore 
 himself with proud, disdainful resolution ; 
 answered to the formal question respecting 
 his name, that it was Danton, tolerably well 
 known in the Revolution ; indignantly de- 
 nounced the indictment against him, which 
 accused him of having hung back on the 
 loth of August, as a mass of lies ; protested 
 against being ranked with peculators and 
 cheats ; covered the supporters of Robespierre 
 with withering scorn, and raised such a feel- 
 ing in his favour that he stood a good chance 
 of triumphant acquittal ; which consummation 
 was only prevented by a law passed in hot 
 haste by the Committee of Public Safety, 
 decreeing that whoever insulted justice should 
 have his mouth closed, and declaring that 
 Danton and his colleagues stood in that pre- 
 dicament. For Camille Desmoulins there 
 was less chance. He had in his newspaper, 
 the Vieux Cordeliers, denounced with pungent 
 wit and burning satire the bloodthirsty 
 absurdities of those new Cordeliers, Hebert 
 and the rest, who had done their best to 
 make Paris a shambles, and to spread mas- 
 sacre throughout France. The power of 
 Robespierre reduced all remonstrance and 
 all compunction for the time to terrified 
 silence ; and the sentence of death was 
 passed upon Danton, Camille, Herault de 
 Sdchelles, and the rest, to be carried out that 
 same day. 
 
 Danton preserved his undaunted bearing 
 and his fierce scorn to the last. " Never mind 
 that vile rabble," he said in the death-cart 
 
 718 
 
THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR. 
 
 to Camille Desmoulins, who was disturbed 
 by the shouts of the howhng mob. " Show 
 my head to the people," was his injunction 
 to Lamson the executioner, " Elle est vaut 
 la peine!"— ''li's worth the trouble:" a 
 great, bold, fiery man, indomitable, ostenta- 
 tious, devoted to the cause of liberty, whose 
 triumph he fancied himself strong enough 
 to ensure : blackened by crimes, and with 
 much to answer for, but sincere and thorough- 
 going, and not without warm affections. 
 " He saved France from Brunswick," says 
 the great historian of the Revolution ; " he 
 walked straight his own wild road, whither 
 it led him." That the invasion which set 
 out to crush the Revolution and restore 
 feudal slavery in France was ignominiously 
 beatea back, and that Frenchmen did not 
 continue through successive generations to 
 be serfs, " Taillable et corveable a tnerci" as 
 the old law form expressed it, taxable and 
 burdenable, at the mercy of the privileged 
 classes, is due in a great measure to the in- 
 domitable resolution of the farmer's son of 
 Arcis-sur-Aube. 
 
 The Darkest Period before the 
 Dawn. 
 
 And now all cringed and cowered before 
 the sea-green man, beloved of the Jacobin 
 club and the howling mob, the idol of the 
 hour, Maximilian Robespierre, President of 
 the Convention, dominating France for the 
 hour from that bad eminence. " He that 
 stands upon a shppery place makes nice of 
 no vile hold to stay him up," says subtle Pan- 
 dulph in Shakespeare's King JoJui. "The 
 vile hold" of Robespierre was in the Jacobin 
 faction; but it was at best a "slippery place" 
 upon which he stood, for he had wit enough 
 to see the necessity of steering clear of the 
 mere atheistical anarchy of Hebertism on the 
 one hand, and of avoiding the imputation of 
 moderatism, which would have lost him his 
 Jacobin following, on the other. Conse- 
 quently two things must be done at the 
 same time. The batches of prisoners for 
 the guillotine must be regularly supplied day 
 by clay, for the Sansculottes hungered for 
 their daily feast of blood ; on the other hand, 
 something must be substituted for the atheism 
 pure and simple, the deadly poison of the 
 " Goddess of Reason " worship, whose mad 
 mummery had been lately enacted. 
 
 Accordingly, the tumbrils were kept well 
 filled, and made their dreary journey 
 every day, except the Decadi, to the scaffold. 
 In those last months of the Reign of Terror, 
 men scarcely turned their heads to mark who 
 were the occupants. The most illustrious, 
 the high born and the beautiful, sat side by 
 side with the poorest and the most degraded 
 in those leveUing vehicles, — the young and 
 the old,— decrepit old people, long past three 
 
 score and ten, wended along the same dark 
 road with young girls and children,— the 
 King's sister, Madame Elisabeth, almost un- 
 noticed, went to her death, — and Lavoisier, 
 the man of science, and poor old Monsieur de 
 Gombreuil, once saved by the devotion of his 
 daughter from the September massacres, — 
 and brave old Malesherbes, who had defended 
 the King on his trial, and the wives of Danton 
 and Camille Desmoulins, — for the guillotine 
 is omnivorous, and devours all with a horrible 
 impartiality. The official lists for Paris give 
 the following numbers of persons guillotined 
 in Paris in each month of 1794, up to the end 
 of July, when the Terror ceased :— January, 
 83 ; February, 75 ; March (including Hubert 
 and his accomplices), 123; April, 263; May, 
 324; June, 672; and July, 835. On some 
 days forty, fifty, even sixty victims were 
 executed. When Tonquier Tinville, the Pub- 
 lic Prosecutor, was at a loss for a pretext for 
 new arrests, the magic word " conspiracy " 
 always sufficed to procure the requisite num- 
 ber of convictions. The very name of a plot 
 was enough to ensure the verdict of guilty 
 from the juries ; and thus, in many cases, 
 persons who had never met in their lives 
 were accused of conspiring together. A few 
 among the convictions will show the various 
 causes which brought men, women, and chil- 
 dren to the scaffold during the Terror. On 
 June 23rd, 1794, were executed together 
 twenty-two women of the poorer class, for 
 having in various ways forwarded the designs 
 of the fanatics, aristocrats, priests, and the 
 other agents of England. On the 6th of Sep- 
 tember, a journeyman tailor, Jean Baptiste 
 Henry, a lad eighteen years old, was executed 
 for sawing down a tree of liberty. Further 
 convictions, followed by execution, are those 
 of— Bernard Augustus d'Absac, aged 17, ex- 
 noble, late Captain in the nth Regiment, and 
 formerly in the sea service, convicted of having 
 betrayed several towns and several ships into 
 the hands of the enemy; Henrietta Frances 
 de Marboeuf, aged 55, widow of the ci-devant 
 Marquis de Marboeuf, residing at No. 47, 
 Rue St. Honore, in Paris, convicted of 
 having hoped for the arrival of the Austrians 
 and Prussians, and of keeping provisions for 
 them ; Jacques de Beaume, a Dutch mer- 
 chant, convicted of being the author and 
 accomplice of a plot, which existed in the 
 month of June 1790, tending to encourage 
 our external and internal enemies, by nego- 
 tiating, by way of loan, certain bonds of 
 ^100 each, bearing interest at 5 per cent, 
 of George, Prince of Wales, Frederick, Duke 
 of York, and William Henry, Duke of 
 Clarence; James Duchesne, aged 60, for- 
 merly a servant, since a broker ; John Sau- 
 vage, aged 34, gunsmith ; Frances Loizelier, 
 aged 47, milliner ; Melanie Cunosse, aged 
 21, milliner; Mary Magdalen ViroUe, aged 
 19 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 25, female hairdresser, convicted of having-, in 
 the city of Paris, where they resided, tittered 
 criesj Genevieve Gonvon. aged seve7ity-seve?i, 
 sempstress, convicted of having been the 
 author or accomphce of several conspiracies 
 formed since the beginning of the Revolution 
 by the enemies of the people and of liberty, 
 tending to create civil war, to paralyse the 
 public, and to annihilate the existing govern- 
 ment ; Francis Bertrand, aged ^j, tinman 
 and publican at Leure, in the Department of 
 the Cote d' Or, convicted of having furnished 
 to the defenders of the country some wine 
 injurious to the health of citizens; Mary 
 Angelica Plaisant, sempstress, at Donai, con- 
 victed of having exclaimed that she was an 
 aristocrat, and cried, " A fig for the nation." 
 These are samples of the various offences 
 that brought men and women to the guillo- 
 tine in the Reign of Terror. 
 
 The 9TH of Thermidor ; The End of the 
 Terror and of the Terrorists. 
 But Paris began to tire of all this blood- 
 shed ; and very significant tokens appeared 
 of disgust and displeasure at the daily passage 
 of the death-carls through the streets. The 
 guillotine itself was removed from its origi- 
 nal place in the Place du Caroussel, had 
 thence been shifted to the Place Louis XV. 
 at the time of the King's execution, where it 
 had executed 1256 persons, and was now re- 
 moved to the other end of Paris, near the ruins 
 of the Bastille ; for the householders in the 
 streets through which the death- carts passed 
 daily, complained that the ghastly spectacle 
 drove people away ; and showed their sense 
 of the proceeding by shutting up their shops. 
 For six weeks the guillotine was accordingly 
 at work— in very full work — near the site of 
 the Bastille, and during that time it disposed 
 of no fewer than 1403 persons ; for the 
 Terror raged most furiously during the last 
 days of its existence. 
 
 I3ut at last the hour of deliverance was to 
 come. Robespierre, who had made a bid for 
 popularity by instituting a grand Revolu- 
 tionary allegiance feast on the 8th of June, at 
 which he, as a kind of high priest, publicly 
 
 put a torch to two figures of canvas and wood 
 representing Atheism and Discord, and a 
 figure was made to rise by machinery from 
 beneath a platform, representing Wisdom. 
 But people were beginning to laugh grimly 
 at the farce, and Robespierre himself was 
 secretly jeered at for having listened to, and 
 it is said been influenced by, the ravings of 
 Catherine Theot, a mad old woman of the 
 Joanna Southcote type. Moreover, among 
 the five thousand prisoners in the twelve 
 houses of arrest in Paris, there was a certain 
 female of great beauty, named Cabarus, well 
 beloved of Deputy Tallier, who exhorted her 
 friend to make an effort to save her life. 
 More significant than all, accident brought to 
 the knowledge of those whom it most con- 
 cerned a list of many names of members of 
 the Convention who were to follow Hubert 
 and Danton on the dark journey. There was 
 no time to be lost. A great conspiracy was 
 organized in the Convention itself for put- 
 ting down the tyrant and his party. Robes- 
 pierre, ind.gnant and astonished at the 
 sudden accusation of tyranny brought 
 against him, attempted in vain, on the 9th 
 of Thermidor, to obtain a hearing. He was 
 shouted down ; and v/hen at last his voice 
 failed him, was told it was the blood of 
 Danton that suffocated him. He was de- 
 clared accused, but still hoped for rescue from 
 the mob and from Henriot, the commandant 
 of the municipal guards. But the drunken 
 Henriot deceived him, and bungled the busi- 
 ness of rescue. In the excitement of the 
 scene he received a pistol shot in the face, 
 or, as some accounts report, he shot himself. 
 The wound, however, was not mortal ; it 
 broke his jaw, and in this state he was con- 
 veyed to tne Convention. This was on 9th. 
 Next day, the loth of Thermidor, the 28th 
 of July, Robespierre and his accomplices 
 travelled in the fatal tumbril to the guillo- 
 tine, which had in the previous night been 
 brought back to its old position in the Place 
 Louis XV. ; and as the heads of the blood- 
 thirsty chiefs fell beneath the fatal knife, 
 men breathed more freely, and saw that the 
 Reign of Terror had finished. 
 
 720 
 
HOLYROOD PALACE, 
 
 RIZZIO AND DARNLEY 
 
 THE STORY OF A DARK REVENGE. 
 
 ' I was the queen o' bonnie France, 
 Where happy I ha'e been ; 
 Fu' lightly rose I in the morn. 
 
 As blithe lay down at e'en : 
 And I'm the sovereign of Scotland, 
 And mony a traitor there. 
 
 — BuRNSt 
 
 Return of Queen Mary from France— Weakness of the Scottish Sovereigns— Her First Mass— Sketch of Darnley's Earlv 
 J<'^® ""ll f^^'^^f-rP^ ^'^'^^ Jlf Hand at Wemyss Castle-Unpopularity of the Marriage-Flight of Murray and 
 Other Nobles -The Career and Cha.racter of Rizzio— The Parties engaged in Plotting— The Judas Kiss— Murder of 
 Rizzio— After the Murder— Darnley s Betrayal of the Bond— A Strange Supper and Talk— Midnight Flight of the 
 Royal Couple -Darnley's Brutality— Queen's Contempt for Him— Rise of Bothwell— Some of His Adventures- 
 Mary's Visit to the Hermitage— Getting Rid of Darnley— The Croaking of the Raven— Darnley's Murder— The 
 Queen's Complicity— Bothwell's Sham Acquittal and Marriage with the Queen— His Flight from Scotland and 
 Death in Draxholm Castle. — His Fate. 
 
 Queen Mary's Return to Scotland. 
 
 HE marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 to the Dauphin — the Dolphin of old 
 Scottish writing's — was celebrated 
 with great splendour in France in the spring 
 of 1558 ; in the summer of the following year, 
 her husband ascended the French throne; and 
 in December 1560, at the age of eighteen, she 
 became a widow, and was perhaps the most 
 fascinating woman in Europe. The career 
 before her, however, was of a very different 
 nature from that in which she had hitherto 
 moved. The fair claimant of three crowns — 
 France, Scotland, and England — was now 
 
 reduced to the miserable heritage of her 
 paternal ancestors among a poor and rude 
 people, whose most potent leaders were here- 
 tics, and had fought boldly and successfully 
 against her Catholic mother and the French 
 soldiers. The schooling she had received at 
 the French Court was the worst possible for 
 the government of such a country. Patriotism 
 she could not be expected to have ; indeed, 
 at the time of her marriage she had signed 
 away the thistle of Scotland to be a mere fief 
 and appendage of the French lilies. She had 
 learned from her mother's friends, the Guises, 
 to look upon herself as a champion of the old 
 
 721 AAA 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 faith, while the country of her fathers was a 
 hot-bed of heresy. Her relation to the chief 
 men of Scotland may be understood from the 
 fact that her half-brother, the Earl of Moray, 
 had received the censure of herself and her 
 husband in 15 59 for his ingratitude, while her 
 outspoken uncle, the Duke of Guise, had 
 thought the best way to "amend the garboils " 
 was to apprehend and put to death the Earl 
 of Argyll and the " Bastard of Scotland." 
 The spiritual governor of the country was 
 John Knox, with a Genevan creed and a 
 saturnine soul as hard as steel ; and there was 
 at least a score of warlike and high-mettled 
 chiefs, each filled with an unscrupulous 
 passion for his own aggrandisement. The 
 sovereign was actually weaker than any one 
 of them. There was no permanent royal 
 guard, while each of these feudal lords had a 
 little army of dependents at his own beck. 
 
 Such was the condition of the country, such 
 were the fierce fires she was thrown into 
 after her husband's death. The story of her 
 voyage to Scotland, sorrowful like her coming 
 destiny, has been gracefully expressed in a 
 well-known poem by the late Mr. Glassford 
 Bell. 
 
 ''It was a barque that slowly held its way, 
 And o'er its lee the coast of France in the hght of 
 
 evening lay ; 
 And on its deck a lady sat, who gazed with tearful 
 
 eyes 
 Upon the fast-receding hills that dim and distant 
 
 rise. 
 No marvel that the lady wept — there was no land on 
 
 earth 
 She loved like that dear land, although she owed it 
 
 not her birth : 
 It was her mother's land ; the land of childhood and 
 
 of friends ; 
 It was the land where she had found for all her griefs 
 
 amends ; 
 The land where her dead husband slept ; the land 
 
 where she had known 
 The tranquil convent's hushed repose, and the splen- 
 dours of a throne : 
 No marvel that the lady wept, it was the land of 
 
 France, 
 The chosen home of chivalry, the garden of romance ! 
 The past was bright, like those dear hills so far 
 
 behind her barque ; 
 The future, like the gathering night, was ominous 
 
 and dark ! — 
 One gaze again — one long, last gaze ; ' Adieu, fair 
 
 France, to thee ! ' 
 The breeze comes forth — she is alone en the uncon- 
 
 scious sea ! " 
 
 Her First Mass in Scotland. 
 
 As our purpose is to confine ourselves, so far 
 as is consistent with clearness of exposition, 
 to the story of the Rizzio and Darnley tragedies, 
 the early period of Mary's residence in Scot- 
 land must be passed over very briefly. The 
 aspect of nature at the time of her arrival, with 
 two galleys, in Leith harbour, on the morning 
 of Tuesday, the 19th of August, 1561, seemed 
 to forbode an evil destiny. " The very face 
 
 of heaven," said the great Scottish reformer, 
 who was not altogether devoid of superstition, 
 "the time of her arrival, did manifestly speak 
 what comfort was brought unto this country 
 with her ; to wit, sorrow, dolour, darkness, 
 and all impiety ; for in the memory of man, 
 that day of the year, was never seen a more 
 dolorous face of the heaven than was at her 
 arrival, which two days after did so continue ; 
 for besides the surface wet and corruption of 
 the air, the mist was so thick and so dark 
 that scarce might any man espy another the 
 length of two pair of butts." The religious 
 trouble asserted itself very emphatically on the 
 first Sunday after her arrival in the country. 
 As a faithful Catholic, she had " that idol the 
 Mass"- — to use the words of Knox — celebrated 
 in the royal chapel. Cries were raised by the 
 stern Master of Lindsay and other gentlemen 
 that "the idolater priest should die the death" 
 according to God's law ; a priest who carried 
 in the candle was attacked, and only reached 
 his chamber through the protection of the 
 Earl of Moray and his brother. In the after- 
 noon, immense crowds ot furious citizens 
 flocked towards the Abbey of Holyrood, the 
 scene of the disturbance. On the following 
 day, a proclamation was issued by the Privy 
 Council, stating that Her Majesty would not 
 interfere with the religion of the country as 
 it had been established before her arrival, 
 and commanding all the lieges that none of 
 them, under pain of death, should molest or 
 deride her domestics or the French strangers 
 who had accompanied her. A singular scene 
 took place when this sensible edict was pro- 
 claimed at the Edinburgh market-cross. In 
 presence of the heralds and people, the Earl 
 of Arran, the most powerful of the Scottish 
 nobles, entered a protest against it, quoting 
 the words of Scripture that " the idolater 
 shall die the death." No wonder, as Knox 
 puts it in his History, " this baldness did some- 
 what exasperate the Queen." 
 
 Darnley's Character and Courtship. 
 
 Here we shall not go into details of the 
 m.any proposals of marriage that were at 
 various times on the carpet for the handsome, 
 subtle, and brilliant young widow, Spain, 
 France, Denmark each supplying one or more 
 candidates. Of course the interest and policy 
 of Queen Elizabeth were decidedly averse 
 from any marital alliance of her sister of 
 Scotland with any strong Catholic prince, as 
 the existence of English Protestantism, as 
 well as that of Scotland, would be seriously 
 imperilled. The Queen of England, with an 
 insolence at which Mary was startled into 
 righteous womanly indignation, actually 
 suggested her own favourite subject, the Earl 
 of Leicester, as a husband for the dazzhng 
 widow of a French monarch ; but the person 
 whose hand Mary Stuart was ultimately des- 
 
RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 
 
 tined to accept was her own boyish relative, 
 Henry Stuart, son of the Earl of Lennox, but 
 better known to history by his courtesy title 
 of Lord Darnley. He stood in a very close 
 kinship to the wearers of both the crowns of 
 England and Scotland. He first saw the 
 light on the 7th of December, 1545, so that 
 he was three years younger than Mary. His 
 mother was Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter 
 of that Margaret Tudor who was the sister 
 of King Henry VHI. and the wife and widow 
 of King James IV. of Scotland. In very 
 early years he had acquired some pleasant 
 superficial accomplishments ; he had learned 
 to play upon the lute and dance, and, curious 
 to say, his priestly tutor, like that of the 
 Maiden Queen, had taught him the secret 
 of fine penmanship. In childhood this English 
 boy gave sorr»e signs of turning out " a witty, 
 virtuous, and an active, well-learned gentle- 
 man ; " he was precocious enough to have 
 penned a treatise, under the name of Utopia 
 Nova, in his ninth year, although it is to be 
 feared that his production — gone, alas! into 
 Time's big waste-basket — would never rival 
 the work of the wise and witty Sir Thomas 
 More ; he has even been credited with poetical 
 aspiration, and with having composed a ballad 
 to his mistress's eye-brow. 
 
 It is a common error to suppose that 
 Mary and he were totally unacquainted until 
 within a few weeks before she married 
 him. It was not quite a sudden love-match. 
 When a beardless boy of fourteen, he 
 appeared at the French Court shortly after 
 the coronation of Francis II., Queen Mary's 
 first husband. The young couple gave him 
 a warm welcome at Chambord, where they 
 kept their Christmas festival, and they sent 
 him home with a goodly gift of a thousand 
 crowns, not at all a bad present for the son 
 of an earl in reduced circumstances. He 
 carried letters of condolence from his mother 
 to Queen Mary after the French King's death 
 in December 1560. Even before the Queen's 
 return to Scotland, .the Countess of Lennox 
 had mooted the subject of their marriage ; 
 and immediately after she reached the mist- 
 veiled shores of Scotland, Darnley's tutor was 
 despatched to her by the Countess with a 
 direct proposal. Although the young widow 
 of the King of France aimed at something 
 infinitely higher than the hand of the boy 
 she had patronised at Chambord as a poor 
 relative, the probability of their marriage was 
 a current rumour up till the time when, in the 
 early days of 1565, he obtained license from 
 Queen Elizabeth to join his father in Scotland. 
 He was admitted to kiss the hand of Mary in 
 the splendid, cliff-perched fortalice of Wemyss 
 Castle on the north side of the Firth of Forth, 
 on the 1 6th of February. The Queen's visit 
 is still commemorated by a carved likeness of 
 her head upon the ancient mansion. " Her 
 
 M^'esty," says Sir James Melville, "took very 
 well with him, and said that he was the pro- 
 perest and best-proportioned long man that 
 ever she had seen ; for he was of a high 
 stature, long and small, even and straight." 
 The Queen, however, had bigger game in 
 view, and refused the ring he offered. He had 
 an active and useful friend in an Italian well- 
 known to fame, whose terrible fate was to be 
 closely linked by-and-by with the name of 
 Darnley. This person was David Rizzio, 
 familiarly styled Davie by his Scottish con- 
 temporaries. She " took ay the better liking 
 to Darnley and at length determined to 
 marry him." He was the very opposite in 
 appearance to Bothwell, her third husband. 
 The latter was ugly, it is said, with something 
 of an ape's face. The beardless son of 
 Lennox, on the other hand, had a lady's 
 features. It was to no purpose that her 
 uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, warned her 
 against the foolish alliance. It was to no 
 purpose that Queen Elizabeth grumbled at 
 the theft of a subject from England, and 
 pretended to be extremely angry. Within a 
 month from the time the young heir of the 
 ancient and royal house of Lennox kissed her 
 hand in Wemyss Castle, on the Fifeshire 
 coast, Mary had informed Elizabeth of her 
 intention. He was made a knight ; lands 
 and honours were showered on him. The 
 title of Duke of Albany was the; big plum 
 reserved to grace the bridal ceremony. The 
 young couple — he in his twentieth, she in 
 her twenty-third, year — were married, ac- 
 cording to the rites of the Romish Church, 
 on the 29th of July, 1565, in Holyrood 
 Chapel, with great pomp,' and in the presence 
 of many of the nobles. The Queen, says 
 Knox's History, was all clothed in mourning, 
 according to the French custom. " During 
 the space of three or four days, there was 
 nothing but balling and dancing and ban- 
 queting." 
 
 The marriage was unpopular in Scotland, 
 for Darnley was a Catholic — though a very 
 bad one, and even went to the Reformed 
 service in St. Giles's Church, so as to gain 
 the favour of the strong Protestant party, 
 although the caustic words of Knox galled 
 him severely when that preacher alluded con- 
 temptuously to " boys and women " being 
 placed by God at the head of the State to 
 plague and scourge the people for their 
 offences and ingratitude. At the same time 
 the rude insolence of the boy towards the 
 nobles — shown, for instance, before marriage, 
 when he struck at Ruthven with a dagger 
 because that lord had brought him unpleasant 
 news — acted against him. Moray (the Queen's 
 half-brother) and some others rose in arms ; 
 but, to quote the language of the late Earl of 
 Crawford, "after dodging up and down the 
 country in such a manner that the insurrection 
 
 723 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 was ever afterwards called in derision the 
 Runabout Raid, they were obliged to disband 
 their forces and retreat into England." Darn- 
 ley's head was simply turned by his elevation. 
 The Queen had promised in a rash moment, 
 before the discovery of his weakness, that he 
 should have the crown-matrimonial ; in other 
 words, that, issue faihng by the Oueen, Darn- 
 ley's children by any subsequent marriage 
 should have a right to the throne. He kept 
 up incessant jars with her about the non- 
 fulfilment of this promise. It soon became 
 known that he was vicious and a drunkard. 
 The gentle expostulation of Mary at a bur- 
 gess's house in Edinburgh, where he was 
 imbibing freely, led to a scene, and the Queen 
 left the place in tears. " It is greatly to be 
 feared," wrote the English ambassador weeks 
 before the marriage, " that he can have no 
 long life amongst this people." 
 
 The Rise of David Rizzio. 
 When the Savoy ambassador came to 
 Scotland in December 165 1, to congratulate 
 the charming young widow on her return to 
 her native land, there was in his suite a young 
 Piedmontese named David Rizzio, then about 
 twenty-seven years of age. Doubtless the 
 musician's son hoped to push his fortune in 
 that far-off country. A picture of him in 1564 
 shows him playing on an instrument. He was 
 dark of complexion and had a low forehead, 
 was full-eyed, with just a trifle of mustachio 
 and beard. The face is of a low-cast Semitic 
 type. We have seen the identical fellow of 
 him turning a hand-organ for coppers in the 
 streets of London. That such a mere "minion 
 of fortune" should be chosen by Mary to chase 
 away the loneliness of her midnight hours 
 over a pack of cards or with a harp, to con- 
 duct her foreign intrigues against the Protes- 
 tants, almost goes to hint at a stratum of bad 
 taste in her nature, or perhaps a blundering 
 lack of perception. He had skill in music, 
 and was acquainted with several European 
 tongues, so that he at once found favour in the 
 eyes of the handsome Queen. Immediately 
 after his arrival at the Court he was appointed 
 tobe a"chalmer-cheild,"or valet-de-chambre, 
 at a yearly salary of threescore fifteen pounds. 
 When he landed, his pockets would seem to 
 have been rather empty, as a sum of fifty 
 pounds, or two-thirds of his first year's salary, 
 was advanced to him at the beginning of 
 January. A single box of modest dimensions 
 was sufficient to contain his whole worldly 
 goods. His salary rose to eighty pounds in 
 1564. In December of that year, when Raulet 
 went abroad on an embassay, Rizzio stepped 
 mto that person's place as French Secretary. 
 From that time royal gifts of dress, furniture, 
 and funds were lavished by the Scottish 
 Lamia on her favourite and confidant, and 
 his power, pomp, and pride soon swelled into 
 
 full blossom. He helped on the marriage 
 with Darnley — partly, perhaps, from a selfish 
 eagerness to cater to Mary's silly taste for the 
 handsome, overgrown boy ; partly, perhaps, 
 from the thought that her Catholic policy 
 would be furthered by the selection of a facile, 
 Popish husband. He and young Darnley 
 were almost " chums," and he was entrusted 
 by the royal couple with the entire riianage- 
 ment of their household. He began to treat 
 the nobles scornfully, and it was feared by 
 them that his influence with Mary was great 
 enough to persuade her to proceed in the ap- 
 proaching parliament against Moray and the 
 other exiled lords. His stud was the envy of 
 the nobilit}\ "Great men made in court unto 
 him, and their suits were the better heard." 
 His equipage and train surpassed the King's. 
 He sat near the Queen at public banquets, — 
 "sometimes more privately," it was hinted, 
 "than became a man of his condition." The 
 child yet unborn was already branded as the 
 fruit of their intrigue ; and it was from this 
 suspicion that the taunt arose in later years 
 that King James was called the Scottish 
 Solomon because he was the son of David 
 who played upon the harp. Mary found 
 excuse in the ceaseless debaucheries of Darn- 
 ley for having a duplicate of his seal made 
 and placing it in Rizzio's hands. A friendly 
 voice advised him to make his fortune and 
 clear out of Scotland. He laughed with 
 scorn at the suggestion, and remarked that 
 the Scots were too timorous to touch him. 
 It was even stated that he was to sit as Chan- 
 cellor in the next parliament. All this, with 
 the suspicion that he was the mainspring of 
 a movement to restore Popery, won for him 
 a wholesale hatred, and his ruin was talked 
 of long before he perished by the hands of 
 assassms. On the i8th of February, 1566, 
 the English ambassador declared : " I know 
 that if that take effect which is intended, 
 David, with the consent of the King, shall have 
 his throat cut within these ten days." Eight 
 days previously, Darnley had started a pro- 
 posal to Ruthven on the matter; and it is just 
 possible that the foolish boy had blabbed the 
 secret as he went about whining like a school- 
 boy over the Queen's unkindness, and her 
 delay in giving him the crown-matrimonial. 
 Meanwhile Rizzio was heard to boast that the 
 bastard Moray should never live in Scotland 
 in his time. 
 
 The Murder of Rizzio. 
 At last Darnley opened his heart to Ruthven, 
 one of the most determined of the Protestant 
 nobles, who had been lying ill for months in 
 his house in the Bow, in Edinburgh. Young 
 George Douglas passed like a shuttlecock day 
 after day between the two parties. The faith- 
 less character of Darnley was only too well 
 known, but he swore on the Book that he 
 
 724 
 
RIZZIO AND DARN LEY. 
 
 cou:d be trusted this time. Ruthven, Morton, 
 Lindsay, and the other conspirators had quite 
 another aim than the prince in agreeing to 
 put Rizzio out of the way : they stipulated 
 " that the lords banished for the Word of God 
 might return to their country and estates," 
 and that "they should have their religion 
 freely established, conform to Christ's Book 
 and to the articles subscribed by the King to 
 the lords." Darnley bargained for the 
 pleasure of having the Italian seized at the 
 supper table, that the Oueen and her alleged 
 paramour might be taunted face to face with 
 their guilt ; the others were determined to 
 strike him down as a " known minion of the 
 Pope." The ruthless spirit of the plotters is 
 shown by Ruthven's narrative, written shortly 
 after the murder, and while the author was 
 approaching death. It is a calm, cold-blooded 
 story, without a single trace of 
 penitence, without one sigh of 
 gentle regret. It winds up with 
 the pious wish for Mary : " The 
 Eternal God, who hath the rule 
 of all princes in His hand, send 
 His Holy Spirit that she may 
 rule and govern with clemency 
 and mercy ! " 
 
 The words of the old historian 
 of Edinburgh, written a hundred 
 years ago, are still applicable 
 to the condition of Holyrood 
 palace : — " In the second floor 
 are Queen Mary's apartments, in 
 one of which her own bed still 
 remains. It is of crimson da- 
 mask, bordered with green silk 
 tassels and fringes, and is now 
 almost in tatters. . . . Close to 
 the floor of this room, a piece 
 of wainscot, about a yard square, 
 hangs upon hinges, and opens a 
 passage to a trap-stair which 
 connects with the apartment be- 
 neath." The boudoir or cabinet of the 
 Queen, leading off from the bedchamber, 
 was a very small place, being only some 
 twelve feet square. 
 
 At seven o'clock on Saturday evening, the 
 9th of March, 1566, the Queen sat in this 
 last-mentioned room on a low couch. The 
 party around the little supper-table seems to 
 have been a most informal one. There was 
 the Countess of Argyll at the one end of the 
 table, and at the other sat David Rizzio, with 
 his cap on, and wearing a night-^own of 
 damask, furred, a satin doublet, and hose of 
 russet velvet. Arthur Erskine, Captain of 
 the Queen's Guard, and others of the palace 
 domestics were also present ; Darnley, who 
 had supped early, so as to have his hands clear 
 for business, entered the group and placed 
 himself amorously beside his bei U-iful spouse, 
 giving her a "Judas-kiss" she never forgot 
 
 MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 
 
 or forgave. At the same time, just before 
 the closing of the gates, a body of one 
 hundred and fifty men, comprising the Earl 
 of Morton, Lord Lindsay, and Lord Ruthven, 
 marched into the palace court and took the 
 keys from the porter. Ruthven, a man of 
 forty-six, with face looking pale and ghastly 
 from "an inflammation of the liver and a 
 consumption of the kidneys " that had kept 
 him constantly in bed for three months, 
 passed up from the King's chamber by the 
 private staircase into the Queen's bedroom, 
 and thence into the cabinetr There sat the 
 boy-husband, chatting affectionately with the 
 delicate Queen, and with his arm round her 
 waist. 
 
 The grim guise in which Ruthven entered 
 was more suggestive of a raid against the 
 Highland savages, or against such notorious 
 Border thieves as the Armstrongs 
 and Elliots, than of an evening 
 visit to a delicate and courtly 
 Queen. Something like a feeling 
 of uncanniness must have run 
 through the merry party as they 
 caught the first ghmpse of that 
 haggard visage and helmet- 
 covered head ; and the first 
 words he uttered with sepulchral 
 voice were in keeping with the 
 terrifying aspect : " Let it please 
 Your Majesty that yonder man 
 David come forth of your privy- 
 chamber, where he hath been 
 over long ! " Rizzio saw his 
 doom plainly written on the stern 
 features of the Scottish baron. 
 As in a nightmare, he heard his 
 royal mistress launch out her 
 cutting sarcasm in his defence, 
 and order Ruthven to leave her 
 presence on pain of treason ; he 
 listened tremulously to the 
 accusation that he had taken 
 bribes ; that he had committed foul dis- 
 honour against Darnley; that he had sought 
 to prevent the Queen from carrying out her 
 promise of the crown-matrimonial ; that he 
 brought about the banishment of the chief 
 nobles so that he might himself get rank 
 among the nobility. Darnley stood quite 
 stunned, while Ruthven thus addressed him 
 — " Take the Queen your wife and sovereign 
 to you,"and at the same time made an attempt 
 to seize Rizzio. Queen Mary was standing m 
 the recess of a window, and the terror-struck 
 Italian, who had mocked at the bravery of 
 Scotsmen shortly before, now cowered behind 
 his royal mistress, holding by the folds of her 
 gown, and clutching his drawn dagger in un- 
 conscious desperation. 
 
 Some of the domestics tried to seize Ruth- 
 ven, but he shook them off and kept them at 
 bay with his naked dagger. Some of the 
 
 7-5 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 conspirators, who had followed Ruthven into 
 the bedchamber by the private staircase, 
 rushed upon the scene, tilting over the table 
 in the unseemly scuffle, and making sad 
 havoc among the royal viands. One of the 
 candles that threw a dim flicker of light over 
 the boudoir was luckily captured by the 
 Countess of Argyll. The King loosed Rizzio's 
 hand from the Queen's dress, and the con- 
 spirators laid hold on him, while the fanatic 
 earl gallantly seized the Oueen and placed 
 her in her husband's arms, assuring her of 
 her own safety, as they were only acting 
 under her husband's orders, and would sooner 
 spend their own heart's blood than that she 
 should suffer harm. Rizzio was dragged out 
 of the cabinet, appealing to the Queen with 
 piercing shrieks and cries for mercy : " Gius- 
 tizia, Giustizia ! Sauve ma vie ; Madame, 
 sauve ma vie ! " Ruthven gave orders to his 
 followers to take him down the private 
 passage into the King's chamber, and then 
 returned to the boudoir, possibly to keep 
 guard on Darnley, lest he should babble to 
 Delilah. It seems to have been intended by 
 the determined leaders to try Rizzio that 
 night in the palace, and hang him on the 
 morrow : cords, indeed, had been brought as 
 if for that purpose. But when the Italian 
 was hurled out into the larger company of 
 Morton, which had ascended to the ante- 
 chamber, he was met by an explosion of fury. 
 The " shameless butcher," George Douglas, a 
 bastard son of the Earl of Angus, struck him 
 in the side with the King's dagger, and the 
 savage work of assassination was completed 
 with over fifty blows from swords and hangers. 
 A large, dark ineffaceable stain at the outer 
 door of the ante-chamber is still believed in 
 popular conviction to mark the spot where 
 the furious assassins threw themselves 
 upon their victim. A portrait of Darnley, 
 removed from Hampton Court in 1864, now 
 looks down upon the scene of the tragedy : 
 it is the feeble face of an overgrown and 
 overweening boy, who seems more suited for 
 the cane of a severe grammar-master than 
 for a crown-matrimonial or association with 
 a band of Scottish ghouls. When the body 
 had lain weltering in blood for some time, 
 Darnley, after parting from his wife for the 
 night, ordered it to be thrust out of the 
 palace ; and the mangled corpse was tossed 
 down-stairs into the porter's lodge. There 
 the assistant porter laid it out on a box, and 
 proceeded to strip off the hacked and stained 
 raiment, remarking, " Upon this chest was 
 his bed when he entered into this place, and 
 now here he lieth again, — a very ingrate and 
 misknowing knave ! " It is worth mentioning 
 that Darnley's own dagger had been leit 
 sticking in the body of Rizzio after the murder 
 was completed, as if to fix the main responsi- 
 bility for the deed upon the young King, and 
 
 prevent his cowardly nature from retreat and 
 betrayal of his associates. 
 
 After the Murder. 
 There is no space to introduce discussion 
 as to particular acts of cruelty, and so forth, 
 but we must make a brief remark on the 
 allegation by the Queen that "some held 
 pistols to Her Majesty, some stroke whiniards 
 so near her that she felt the coldness of the 
 steel." Ruthven declares before God that this 
 "was never meant nor done." Mary's charge, 
 however, is corroborated by one of Darnley's 
 attendants, Anthony Standen, who seems 
 afterwards to have held a pension of five 
 shillings a day from Queen Mary up to the 
 time of her execution. This person, who 
 in old age was imprisoned in the Tower as 
 a plotting Papist, was one of the spectators 
 of the murder, and declares in a petition he 
 addressed to King James that in the "bloody 
 tumult and press," one of Ruthven's followers 
 offered to fix his poniard in the Queen's left 
 side, but that he (Standen) turned aside the 
 dagger and wrested it from the traitor ; thus, 
 he alleges, saving two lives together, — a sei-vice 
 which their Majesties esteemed accordingly. 
 Another interesting question is the guilt of 
 John Knox. The greatest Scottish teacher 
 of his age justified political assassination, 
 and he has left on record his approval of the 
 deed. The murder of "that great abuser 
 of this commonwealth, that poltroon and vile 
 knave Davie," is lauded in the most un- 
 equivocal terms as a "just act, and most 
 worthy of all praise." 
 
 During the enacting of the tragedy in the 
 ante-chamber, Ruthven and Darnley were 
 back in the Queen's cabinet, and a pretty 
 httle dialogue went on, full of mutual recrimi- 
 nation. Darnley's charges need not be 
 quoted, as they will readily suggest them- 
 selves. Ruthven, sadly tired, called for a 
 cup of wine. Mary railed at him fiercely 
 after he had refreshed himself, and threatened 
 him, should anything happen to her or her un- 
 born infant, with the vengeance of the King ot 
 Spain, the Emperor, the King of France, her 
 uncles, and the Pope. The earl replied with 
 grim humour that these great folks would 
 not trouble themselves to " meddle with such 
 a poor man as he was." During this lively 
 altercation some servants reported a disturb- 
 ance below with Morton. Ruthven went 
 down, supported under the arm ; and after a 
 convivial glass in Bothwell's lodgings, paid a 
 visit to those of Athole, who was also resident 
 in the palace at that time. He then returned 
 to the Queen's cabinet with the news that 
 they were all merry, and no harm done, and 
 told her that Rizzio was in her husband's 
 chamber. The provost of the city and a 
 crowd appeared before the palace, but the 
 Queen was prevented from speaking to them 
 726 
 
RIZZIO AND DARN LEY. 
 
 from her window, and Ruthven declared that 
 all was well. Bothwell and Huntly, in spite 
 of the convivial meeting with Ruthven, thought 
 it prudent to escape that night by a low 
 window of the palace. 
 
 Preparations for Flight of Mary and 
 Darnley ; A Supper of Rope.* 
 After Darnley and Ruthven had left the 
 Queen, tired and indignant, to pace her 
 chamber during the weary night hours, the 
 former showed a disposition to back from the 
 precipice. The cool and resolute Protestants 
 told him it was too late ; his part was in the 
 forefront ; and if he were so chicken-hearted 
 as to refuse to carry out their project to its 
 end, they would support each other to the 
 utmost and spare no man. Alone in the 
 group of murderers, the frightened lad sent 
 for his father, who joined the conclave. It 
 was decided that on the following day 
 (Sunday) Darnley should issue a proclama- 
 tion dissolving the parliament that was to 
 meet on Monday. It was also proposed — 
 was it? — that the Queen should be removed 
 to the castle of Stirling, where, Lord Lindsay 
 remarked, she would have no lack of amuse- 
 ment in rocking her baby and singing it asleep, 
 shooting in the garden with her bow, and 
 doing whatever she liked with herself. But 
 some, it was hinted, might take to arms in 
 opposition. His remedy was a simple one : 
 " We will cut her into gobbets and throw her 
 to them from the top of the terrace." Lord 
 Lindsay of the Byres, who is charged in Nau's 
 story with these unamiable suggestions, was 
 perhaps capable of uttering them and even 
 carrying them out ; his character and appear- 
 ance will be familiar to most readers from 
 the description of him in Sir Walter Scott's 
 admirable novel, " The Abbot." The blunt 
 but honest peer is there depicted as being 
 strong-limbed, with bushy, grizzled eyebrows, 
 dark fiery eyes, scar-seamed face, and harsh, 
 haughty tone. Men like the spectral Ruthven 
 and the herculean Lindsay were not likely to 
 flinch from any measure they took on hand, 
 and there is no wonder that the hare-brained 
 and hare-hearted son of Lennox shook in the 
 presence of these dreadful Scotsmen. To 
 this day the Lindsays have maintained the 
 Titanic bodily vastness of the old stock ; and 
 the father of the present chief, who success- 
 fully claimed the old peerage five years ago, 
 
 * To a large extent this portion of the story is 
 based on a French document in the British Museum, 
 hitherto unpublished, to which attention was first pro- 
 perly called in the Month for 1879. This abstract we 
 have used along with the original. This narrative by- 
 Mary's secretary, Nau, is fresh at least, although in 
 parts incredible ; it was possibly derived from Mary's 
 own lips. It sets forth ad nauseam the brutalities 
 of Darnley towards his wife which led to his detes- 
 tation by the whole body of the nobles, and finally to 
 his murder. 
 
 Major-General Sir Henry Lindsay, has been 
 described to us as " one of those nobles of 
 nature, whom many will remember as being 
 almost of gigantic size." 
 
 Darnley, now forced into the position of 
 figure-head of a revolution, was frightened 
 by the strange side-whisperings of the nobles, 
 and was warned with open threats against 
 talking with the Queen except in the presence 
 of the lords. When he retired, a guard was 
 placed outside of his chamber instead of his 
 cwn attendants. The boy felt terribly alone 
 curing the night watches. In his feverish 
 imbecility he crept up the private stair, like a 
 child afraid of ghosts, and finding the door of 
 his wife's bedchamber locked, he called on 
 her to open it as he had something important 
 for their mutual safety to communicate to 
 her. His prayer was refused, and the Queen 
 spent the whole night in lamentation with her 
 domestics. " Ah, my Mary ! " said Darnley 
 on Sunday morning when he was admitted 
 to a secret interview, and threw himself on 
 his knees, "I must now confess, though too 
 late, the wrong I have done you, for which I 
 can make no amends but seek your forgive- 
 ness and plead my youth and lack of judg- 
 ment." He beseeched the Queen to have 
 pity on him, on their unborn child, and on 
 herself The silly traitor, now that his own 
 immediatepassion for vengeance was satisfied, 
 actually handed to her the secret articles 
 agreed on between him and the conspirators, 
 remarking that he was a dead man if it were 
 ever discovered that he had done so. " Since 
 you have set us on this precipice," she said, 
 "strive to get us off it." He assured her 
 that he would be wise in future, and would 
 never rest till he had avenged her on these 
 inalheureux traistres — these wretched traitors 
 — when once they had escaped from their 
 hands. Flight was agreed on ; but on her 
 " conscience " — she could never tell a lie, 
 she said — she objected to his offer of a com- 
 promise between her and the conspirators. 
 
 These men, however, kept a strict watch. 
 On that Sunday she partook of no food till 
 four in the afternoon, and even this was 
 closely examined by the stubborn Lord 
 Lindsay before it reached her. 
 
 Passing over the dissolution of parliament, 
 and the appearance of Moray and the other 
 banished lords at the Tolbooth on Monday 
 to answer before the parliament which had 
 been dissolved by the proclamation of the 
 previous day, — a strange freak of diplomacy, 
 — we shall allude to a curious story, scarcely 
 credible on the face of it, but told with 
 complete gravity in Nau's narrative. The 
 old lady of the story — who does not even 
 appear as a character in Swinburne's drama 
 of Bothwell — was the Dowager-Countess of 
 Huntly, wife of the " fat lurdane " who had 
 been slain by the Queen's forces, and in her 
 
 727 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 presence, on the field of Corrichie — a piece of 
 wild and lonely moorland in Aberdeenshire we 
 have visited years ago — and was also mother of 
 Edom of Gordon, of that young candidate for 
 Mary's hand who had been ex. cuted before 
 the Queen's own eyes at the cros j of Aberdeen, 
 and of Bothwell's own wife, whose nuptials 
 had been celebrated with great pomp only a 
 few days before. Bothwell and Huntly, as 
 we have seen, had made their escape on the 
 night of the murder, and the mother of the 
 latter of these two nobles, being permitted to 
 wait upon the Queen, brought in a rope- 
 ladder between two plates — a peculiar kind 
 of supper, reminding us of the cask of butter 
 sent into Edinburgh Castle eighty years later, 
 by which James Grant (the bandit known as 
 An Tuim) descended the precipitous wall and 
 rock of that grim fortress. 
 
 The old dame dehvered a message from 
 her son the Earl, Moray's mortal enemy, and 
 the other nobles who had taken flight, 
 stating that they would be ready to receive 
 her if she could find means of descending by 
 a window. This " confab " — for so we must 
 term it — was carried on while the Queen sat on 
 a chaise percee. Mary succeeded also in re- 
 plying by letter that the plan of Bothwell and 
 Huntly was impracticable owing to the close 
 guard kept overhead and in front of the 
 window, but requesting them to meet her the 
 next night in a village near Seton, the palace 
 of one of her most faithful adherents, on the 
 route to the famous rock-perched castle of 
 Dunbar, which was in future days to be even 
 more closely and romantically associated with 
 her name. Lindsay became suspicious of 
 the colloquy, and entered the room, ordered 
 Lady Huntly out, searched her, and sent her 
 off for good. The old countess, however, had 
 succeeded in concealing the Queen's letter 
 next her body. 
 
 On the same day (Monday), the lords of 
 the Lennox faction presented themselves in 
 the ante-chamber, all on bended knees, the 
 Earl of Morton, who was spokesman of the 
 party, kneeling on the very spot that was 
 still red with the blood of Davie. This inter- 
 viewwas intended to win the Queen completely 
 over into the hands of the Protestant lords. 
 " True," said Morton, "they had violated their 
 duty as subjects ; but the like had happened 
 pretty often before, and the loss of a single 
 foreigner was not to be set against the rum 
 of many lords and gentlemen, her subjects, 
 who might one day render good, great, and 
 signal service." The Earl, of Moray also' 
 begged his sister's pardon for returning with- 
 out her leave from exile, swearing by his God 
 that he knew nothing of the murder till after 
 his return, and begged her clemency for those 
 who were guilty. Mary had always an un- 
 limited amount of the bitterest sarcasm at 
 her tongue's end, and she did not spare her 
 
 728 
 
 petitioners on this occasion. The nobles 
 and others had given her frequent oppor- 
 tunities for practising the virtue of mercy. 
 " I owe justice," she said, "to everyone, and 
 I cannot deny it to those who shall ask it in 
 the name of the man who has been murdered. 
 Whatever his rank may have been, the honour 
 to which he had attained a-s my servant should 
 have protected him from any outrage, 
 especially in my own presence." The as- 
 surance given by Mary of a full and ready 
 pardon was not satisfactory; and as the nobles 
 continued to press the necessity of her signing 
 a bond of indemnity, she cried out as if smit 
 with sudden pain. The delicate barricade 
 behind which the Queen thus suddenly 
 and adroitly sheltered herself was suspected 
 by the lords. They quizzed the nurse 
 ija sage fe mine), whom they had themselves 
 appointed ; but she assured them that the 
 Queen was really in the perilous condition to 
 which she had confessed. They were therefore 
 forced to defer their conference with her till 
 the morrow : and by that time the royal bird 
 had flown, in company with her timorous and 
 treacherous husband. 
 
 The Midnight Flight From Holy- 
 rood ; Rizzio's Ghost ; Brutality of 
 Darnley. 
 
 The plan having been arranged by Mary, 
 she and Darnley descended the wall of 
 Holyrood, beside his bedroom, shortly after 
 midnight on Tuesday, the .T2th of March, 
 and thence made their way to the office of the 
 butlers and cupbearers, all or most of whom 
 were French, and might be trusted. A low, 
 narrow door, fortunately with a broken lock 
 and open to any one, led from this into the 
 chapel burying-ground. Near this door were 
 stationed Sir John Stewart of Traquair, 
 Captain of the Quten's Guard, William his 
 brother, Arthur Erskine, the esquire of the 
 Queen stables, along with Anthony Standen; 
 Erskine stood ready with a strong, tall 
 gelding, with a pillion for the Queen to ride 
 behind him, and there were two or three 
 other horses for the King and his attendants. 
 On their way through the cemetery, Mary 
 and Darnley passed close by the fresh-made 
 grave of Rizzio, the exact locality of which 
 Darnley knew, although the Queen did not. 
 He sighed audibly, as if he had seen the 
 ghost of the murdered Italian, and the Queen 
 mquired the cause of his lamentation. 
 " Madam," said her timid husband, "we 
 have just passed the grave of poor David. 
 I have lost in him a good and faithful servant, 
 and I shall never look upon his like again. 
 There will not be a day in my life when 
 I shall not regret him." This indulgence 
 in lamentation, however pleasing it might be 
 to Mary's feelings, was rather inopportune. 
 
RIZZIO AND DARN LEY. 
 
 7-9 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 as there was danger lest the enemy should 
 be wakened up. This story, however like 
 the character of Darnley, can scarcely be 
 true, for the body of Rizzio does not ap- 
 pear tb have been removed to the chapel 
 ground for some time after the flight ; and it 
 is just probable that this romantic tale was 
 invented by Mary during the long, weary, 
 and miserable years of her imprisonment in 
 England. 
 
 As soon as the little band had got clear of 
 the town, Darnley put his horse into a gallop, 
 and continued at "that pace until they neared 
 Seton, where a band of soldiers had been 
 posted by the loyal' nobles. Darnley was 
 scared by the sight, which grew in the mirage 
 of his timorous nature into a host of those 
 horrible enemies with whom he had recently 
 made an unfortunate aUiance. He spurred 
 his horse into a furious gallop, and flogged 
 the Queen's also, exclaiming (the reader of 
 Swinburne's Boihwell will not fail to observe 
 Darnley 's constant habit of swearing), " Get 
 on ! Get on ! God's blood, they'll murder us, 
 both you and me, if they catch us ! " In her 
 delicate condition the Queen asked him to 
 have a little mercy, for she would rather run 
 the greatest personal danger than risk the 
 life of her unborn child. The brute turned 
 on her in a passion, and bestowed on her one 
 of his customary oaths and a sentence that 
 can scarcely be termed decent. 
 
 The heartless fellow, when his suffering 
 wife told him she could not gallop longer, 
 and advised him to go ahead himself and 
 look to his own safety, actually took her at 
 her word, and pushed on towards the castle 
 of Dunbar. She was joined on the way by 
 Bothwell and other chiefs, and reached Dun- 
 bar in safety. They denounced Darnley as a 
 fickle fool, and some of them even refused to 
 speak to the man who was a brute towards 
 his wife and a traitor alike to both political 
 parties. They declared that he had no title 
 to their obedience as king, and in future his 
 orders and promises would be thrown away 
 on them. 
 
 The story of the midnight ride has been 
 told smartly and briefly enough by Hill Bur- 
 ton: — "The Queen seated on a crupper behind 
 Erskine,they all rode straight to Seton House, 
 where the Lord Seton gave them an escort 
 on to Dunbar. The governor of that strong 
 fortress was amazed, early on Tuesday morn- 
 ing, by the arrival of his King and Queen, 
 hungry and clamorous for fresh eggs for 
 breakfast." But as we have now followed 
 it, as probably told by Mary in England, a 
 ghastly light is thrown on Darnley's character, 
 while an intense pathos gathers round the 
 lovely Queen. We seem to look down into 
 the heart of the domestic tragedy that was 
 ripening rapidly towards Darnley's fearful 
 doom. 
 
 DARNLEY Utterly Deserted. 
 
 At Dunbar a proclamation was issued for 
 the immediate gathering of an army ; and 
 those who were connected with the Rizzio 
 plot fled with precipitation across the Border, 
 or at least to a safe distance. Only a few of 
 the leeser actors in the tragedy suffered the 
 last penalty of the law. On the 19th of 
 March, the Queen arrived once more in Edin- 
 burgh, in conipany with the Hamiltons, 
 Huntly, and other nobles, Bothwell having 
 behind his back a force of two thousand 
 horsemen. On the next day a document of 
 a shamelessly astounding nature was posted 
 up in Edinburgh — nothing less than a denial 
 by the King of any connection with the murder. 
 The star of Darnley had fallen completely 
 so far as the leaders were concerned; and 
 the only way in which he could manifest his 
 power was by trying to influence the Queen 
 lay tricks of sottish brutality. 
 
 He was eager for the dismissal of the astute 
 Maitland of Lethington, and charged him 
 with being a principal in the Rizzio conspiracy; 
 but in the turmoil the Queen felt the need of 
 the sagacity and experience of that mysterious 
 and wily Protestant statesman ; and in the 
 whole group that surrounded her he seems to 
 have been the only man whose real ability 
 exerted something like a spell over her own 
 intellect. Darnley was passionately indignant 
 at her refusal to accept his nominee as Secre- 
 tary of State, and sent avalet-de-chambre one 
 evening to inform her that she would find 
 his two pistols, loaded and primed, lying at 
 the back of his bed. The Queen at once met 
 his mad threat by paying him a long visit in 
 his own room, and succeeded in carrying off 
 the weapons. On the next day she exposed 
 the matter before the Council. It was neces- 
 sary, in the momentous peril of motherhood, 
 that the enmity of the chief members of the 
 twoparties — such as Lethington and Bothwell, 
 against the former of whom there were dark 
 whispers of his having instigated a plot for 
 the latter's assassination — should as far a^ 
 possible be swept away, knowing the risk of 
 her offspring becoming a bone of contention 
 among the lords if she were carried off. She 
 showed her final contempt for Darnley by 
 attempting a reconciliation of the two parties 
 in April, so as to ensure the safe guardianship 
 of her offspring. While the Queen, a little 
 later, was passing through a mother's period 
 of excitement and agony in Edinburgh castle, 
 the infant's father was leading a life of stillen 
 dissipation, reeling from his cups and debau- 
 cheries to the castle gates at all hours of the 
 night, talking wildly among his drunken 
 associates of killing Moray, or of shipping 
 himself off to France, and spending a jolly 
 life on his wife's dowry. The threat of deser- 
 tion, if carried out, would have provoked a 
 
 730 
 
RIZZIO AND DARNLEY. 
 
 wide European scandal, especially as Darn- 
 ley's tongue had a foolish habit of wagging 
 on his woes in a.11 sorts of company. The 
 Queen called a meeting of the lords, and, 
 in answer to her appeal, the churlish King 
 allowed, somewhat sulkily, that she had given 
 him no ground for such a step. He then 
 walked out of the presence-chamber, bidding 
 farewell to the matrimonial court, and re- 
 marking to the Queen herself, " Adieu, 
 madam : you shall not see my face for a 
 long space," 
 
 Another amiable scene may be mentioned. 
 Towards the close of August, Mary went 
 to the Borders, and while there, Darnley 
 requested her to go out to a stag hunt. The 
 Queen suggested in a whisper that galloping 
 would be dangerous in her present condition; 
 whereupon he answered indecently, in the 
 hearing of the company, receiving in return 
 a sharp reproof from the Laird of Traquair 
 for using language that did not become a 
 Christian. 
 
 The impotent and ambitious debauchee, 
 thus scouted on every hand, was driven to 
 desperation. Possessing some dangerous 
 acquaintance with Mary's diplomatic relations 
 to France and Rome, he endeavoured to stir 
 up a spirit of opposition to her in those 
 courts, alleging that she had abandoned the 
 restoration of the Catholic faith. The result 
 of this stupid and offensive dabbling may be 
 given in the words of Knox's "History:" — 
 "The King being now contemned of all men 
 because the Queen cared not for him, he went 
 sometime to the Lennox to his father, and 
 sometime to Stirling, whither the prince was 
 carried a little before. Always he was des- 
 titute of such things as were necessary for 
 him, having scarcely six horses in train. 
 And being thus desolate and half desperate, 
 he sought means to go out of the country : 
 and about the same time, by the advice of 
 foolish cagots, he wrote to the Pope, etc. (as 
 above). By some knave, this poor prince 
 was betrayed, and the Queen got a copy of 
 these letters into her hands, and therefore 
 threatened him sore ; and there was never 
 after that any appearance of love betwixt 
 them." 
 
 Character and Rise of Bothwell; 
 Queen Mary's Ride to the Hermitage, 
 
 The wretched, foolish Darnley having been 
 cast aside as a child's toy when it is found to 
 contain only sawdust, Mary drifted into the 
 hands of Patrick Hepburn, Earl of Both- 
 well, the most powerful noble in the south of 
 Scotland after the Earl of Arran. Born in 
 1535, he was now turned thirty, and was 
 the Queen's senior by seven years. His life 
 had been one of adventure, gallantry, war- 
 fare, with a strong dash of unscrupulous 
 scoundrelism. In his early years abroad, he 
 
 had espoused and cruelly deserted, in a 
 strange land, a Norwegian lady named Anna 
 Throndson, the daughter of an admiral of 
 Christian III. of Denmark. Whence re- 
 turned home, more than one fair dame had 
 fallen a victim to the wiles of the dashing, 
 ill-featured chevalier. Among these reputed 
 frail ones was the heroine of the Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel, Dame Janet Betoun, a rela- 
 tive of the famous cardinal of that surname. 
 Divorced from her second husband, she had 
 taken to herself a third and last, that Sir 
 Walter Scott who was murdered in Edin- 
 burgh streets in 1552. She was a perfect 
 Amazon, and on one occasion led two hundred 
 armed men of the Scott clan to a border 
 conflict. She had the reputation of a witch, 
 and was openly accused of having produced 
 the peculiar attention of Queen Mary to 
 Bothwell by the use of the black art. His 
 name was a byword for low profligacy in 
 the Scottish capital; but he had tried to con- 
 vince Knox of his repentance, and had gone 
 to sermon on Sunday, although in this case 
 " God had another work to work than the 
 eyes of man could espy," Accused of a plot 
 to seize the Queen in 1562,- — possibly his 
 accuser was as insane as the great Reformer 
 suggested, — he was imprisoned, but succeeded 
 in making his escape to France, where he 
 obtained the dignity of Captain of the Scots 
 Guard. Finally, when his arch-enemy, the 
 pious Moray, had fled into England after 
 Darnley's marriage, he returned to his native 
 country, and was received with honour. 
 
 Only a fortnight before Rizzio's murder, he 
 married by dispensation Lady Jane Gordon, 
 a member of the powerful Catholic house of 
 Huntly, and a daughter of the old dame 
 whose services were so strangely utilised two 
 days after the murder. The alliance was 
 accompanied with festivities and tournaments 
 for five days ; and into these the Queen 
 entered with special zest. At last he had 
 come to the front as Mary's most prominent 
 defender. One episode that took place to- 
 wards the close of 1 566, and has been exag- 
 1 gerated and distorted into a serious calumny, 
 I demands a little notice out of sheer justice 
 to the Queen, As Warden of the Marches, 
 Bothwell was hunting down some of the 
 Border freebooters for trial at the circuit 
 court at Jedburgh, where Mary arrived with 
 her oflicers of state on the 9th of October. 
 On the very day on which the Queen left 
 Edinburgh, Little Jock EUiot, one of the most 
 notorious thieves in Liddesdale, was seized 
 by the earl ; the marauder, however, succeeded 
 in slipping from horseback and made to run 
 off. In the attempt to recapture his prey, 
 Bothwell tumbled down a ditch, and received 
 three serious wounds — one of them, it is worth 
 bearing in mind, was in the hand — from the 
 freebooter, after having shot him in the body 
 
 731 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 vvilh a pistol. George Buchanan, in his elo- 
 quent and skilful indictment known as the 
 " Detection,'"' a work that spread all over 
 Europe, and formed the popular hideous im- 
 pression of Mary's wickedness, raised on this 
 matter an unjust slander against her honour. 
 "When," he says, "news hereof was brought 
 to Borthwick to the Queen, she flingeth away 
 in haste like a mad woman, by great journeys 
 in post in the sharp time of winter, first to 
 Melrose, and then to Jedworth.* There, 
 though she heard sure news of his life, yet 
 her affection, impatient of delay, could not 
 temper itself, but needs she must bewray her 
 outrageous lust, and, in an inconvenient time 
 of the year, despising all discommodities of 
 the way and weather and all danger of thieves, 
 she betook herself headlong to her journey 
 with such a company as no man of any honest 
 degree would have adventured his life and his 
 goods among them." The fact is, however, 
 that Mary exhibited no such mad hurry. She 
 actually remained at Jedburgh till the i6th 
 of October, when the press of business was 
 over, before she set off on her white 
 palfrey for Hermitage Castle, where the 
 warden lay sorely wounded. Going and 
 coming, it was a ride of sixty miles across 
 the moors ; but Mary was an accomplished 
 horse-woman, and her figure, dashing along 
 mounted on her steed, was familiar in those 
 days over the length and breadth of Scotland. 
 The people of the district of that eventful 
 and almost fatal ride still give the name of the 
 Queen's Mire to a morass in which her 
 palfrey was bogged. Far from giving way 
 to " outrageous lust," she even transacted 
 state business at the Hermitage. On her 
 return to Jedburgh, she fell into a sickness of 
 the most severe t) pe, and for ten days the 
 physicians regarded her case as hopeless. 
 In a touching document brought to light in 
 1881, entitled "The Declaration of the 
 Will," etc., she most unmistakably points to 
 Darnley's cruelty as the cause of her sickness. 
 Her careless and selfish and dissolute hus- 
 band did not arrive from Glasgow until she 
 had become convalescent. It is not im- 
 possible that not only her physical system, 
 but her mind itself, became temporarily 
 deranged. She was often heard to murmur, 
 " I could wish to be dead." Just after this 
 period of severe anguish, the following 
 ominous words were penned by Mary's 
 secretary, Lethington : " It is a heartbreak 
 to her to think that he should be her husband, 
 and how to be free of him she has no outgait 
 [escape]." 
 
 The pitiable isolation into which Darnley 
 had sunk, his lamentable estrangement from 
 his wife and the nation's leaders, is most 
 completely unveiled by the fact that he was 
 not even present at the baptism of his own 
 * This is the old form of the name Jedburgh. 
 
 child. Prince James, in December 1566. On 
 the evening when that ceremony was per- 
 formed in the Chapel Royal at Stirhng with 
 great pomp, and the little Solomon underwent 
 the initial rite of the Christian Church by 
 water from a rich gold font presented by the 
 Maiden Queen, the father of the babe was 
 actually residing in Stirling Castle. He was 
 even not tempted by the gorgeous banquet 
 that followed in the great hall, but remained 
 sulkinar in his chamber, and, without saying 
 good-night, he stole away from the aching 
 scene of the festivities to his father's residence 
 in Glasgow. The presiding genius at the 
 Stirling ceremonies was the chivalrous, 
 courtly, and ambitious Bothwell. 
 
 Getting rid of Darnley. 
 
 So the lords met and talked the matter 
 over. There was but one thing that stood 
 in the way of a divorce in the Queen's mind 
 — how it would affect the legitimacy of her 
 infant son. They assured her that parlia- 
 ment would make the matter right on this 
 point. What regard Mary now had for 
 Darnley was only due to the circumstance 
 that he was the father of her child. Instead 
 of a divorce so shocking to a mother's feelings, 
 would not it be better that he should be got 
 rid of in a way that would at least bury any 
 doubt as to the legality of the marriage and 
 the legitimacy of the little Prince James ? 
 
 It almost seemed as if Providence itself 
 were anxious to cut the Gordian knot. In 
 the midst of all this plotting, the scapegrace 
 was struck down with some foul disease, which 
 has commonly been called small-pox, and 
 was removed to his father's house in Glas- 
 gow, near the old cathedral. Several times 
 during his illness he requested to see the 
 Queen, and, according to the narrative of 
 Nau, "although she was ill, having injured 
 her bosom by a fall from her horse at Seton, 
 she went, sat with him, and tended him on 
 his return to Edinburgh. During the journey, 
 a raven accompanied them from Glasgow to 
 Edinburgh, where it remained. It perched 
 on the King's lodging, and sometimes on the 
 Castle. On the day before his death it sat 
 and croaked for a very long time upon the 
 house." Something else than the croak of a 
 raven had to do with the removal of Darnley 
 to Edinburgh and the hideous extinction of 
 his life. In the interview with her husband, 
 the Queen pressed on him to agree to his 
 removal to Craigmillar Castle, close by Edin- 
 burgh, when he had made some progress to- 
 wards recovery, and take the bath there. 
 Darnley would seem to have had a strange 
 premonition of his doom ; still, he declared 
 to a faithful attendant, " he would go with 
 her, and put himself in her hands, though she 
 should cut his throat." 
 
 The old castle of the Prestons was not, 
 
 732 
 
RIZZIO AND DARN LEY. 
 
 after all, the final destination of the fated 
 man. He was escorted by Mary to the 
 Kirk-of-Field, a place abutting on the city 
 wall, situated on the spot where the Univer- 
 sity now stands. Nau insists that this was 
 not the Queen's choice, but that she was 
 in favour of his being taken to Craigmillar, 
 and that he was not settled in Holyrood 
 because of the danger of the young prince 
 being infected. Buchanan, on the other 
 hand, attempts to make out a horrid charge 
 against Mary and the lodgings of Darnley: — 
 " Is it among dead men's graves to seek the 
 preserving of life ? For hard by there were 
 the ruins of two kirks ; on the east side a 
 monastery of Dominic friars ; on the west, a 
 kirk of Our Lady, which, for the desolateness 
 of the place, is called the Kirk-in-the-Field ; 
 on the south side the town wall, and in the 
 same, for commodious passage every way, is 
 a postern door ; on the north side are a few 
 beggars' cottages, then ready to fall, which 
 sometime served for stews for certain priests 
 and monks, the name of which place does 
 plainly disclose the form and nature thereof, 
 for it is commonly called the Thief Row." 
 Nothing can really be charged against Queen 
 Mary, on any authority that is beyond ques- 
 tion, of actual foreknowledge of the crime 
 about to be perpetrated in this retired spot — 
 for such it then was, although it now lies in 
 the very heart of the city. We know that 
 when he was in Glasgow, she sent her own 
 physician to attend him, wrote many friendly 
 letters to him there, and when he was removed 
 to the squalid district in Edinburgh, she often 
 sat with him in his room like an affectionate 
 wife, walked in the neighbouring garden, or 
 brought her choir to him to elevate his 
 spirits. The lodgings provided for him were 
 elegantly if hastily furnished. " In a chamber 
 on the ground floor," says Joseph Robertson, 
 " directly under the King's chamber, there 
 was a Httle bed of yellow and green damask, 
 with a furred coverlet, in which the Queen 
 slept on the nights of Wednesday and Friday." 
 There was therefore every appearance of be- 
 coming wifely attention and of returning love ; 
 and if we may take Nau's word for it, the 
 Queen was frequently blamed by the lead- 
 ing nobles of the country for coming to an 
 understanding with him. But, on the other 
 hand, as we have seen, she was perfectly 
 well aware that the national leaders were 
 desirous of removing Darnley as a complete 
 nuisance from the scene of pohtical action. 
 It is impossible to say who were all the 
 persons involved in the plot against the life 
 of the foolish young King, but it must be 
 accepted as a fact that a bond was prepared 
 by which the chief parties bound themselves 
 to free the Queen from the bondage and 
 misery to which she had been reduced by 
 her husband's conduct ; and it must also be 
 
 accepted as a fact that the most active person 
 in carrying out the plot was Hepburn of 
 Bothwell. We have not the slightest faith 
 in the theory that, in associating with and 
 marrying Bothwell, Mary was stricken blind 
 by a woman's mad love, and believed in his 
 innocence in the teeth of all public accusa- 
 tion. 
 
 The Gunpowder Plot at Kirk- 
 of-Field. 
 
 On Saturday the 8th of February, Darnley 
 received warning of his danger from Lord 
 Robert Stuart, a younger brother of the more 
 famous Earl of Moray ; and the patient sent 
 information to the Queen, who in her turn 
 wrote to Stuart, who was her half-brother, 
 on the matter. The latter gentleman went 
 to Darnley's residence in the Kirk-of-Field, 
 and had an altercation with him, denying 
 vehemently that he had ever given any such 
 intimation to the King. That Mary should 
 in any case have been content to leave her 
 husband unprotected by a guard, or to have 
 remained away from him after this terrible 
 revelation, is an argument against her inno- 
 cence which the keenest of her advocates and 
 admirers will have considerable difficulty in 
 dealing with. 
 
 It was clear now to the plotters that the 
 bird must be disposed of at once, in case the 
 roused suspicion should lead to his taking 
 immediate flight beyond their power ; and at 
 a final consultation on Sunday in Bothwell's 
 rooms, it was arranged that on that very 
 night the powder which had been brought 
 up from Dunbar Castle, of which arsenal he 
 was governor, and stored in his rooms at 
 Holyrood Palace, should be used to blow up 
 the house in which the doomed man lay. 
 There were two festivals on that Sunday 
 evening, — one to be given on the departure 
 of the Savoy ambassador, and another an 
 the wedding of the Queen's French servant, 
 Sebastian Pagez, to Lhristily Hogg. At the 
 former the Queen and Bothwell were both 
 present ; and as it grew dark, the latter left 
 the banquet to meet his assistants, who were 
 four small Scottish lairds, his own three 
 servants, and his own minion Nicholas Hu- 
 bert, commonly called French Paris, whom 
 he had brought from France and placed in 
 Her Majesty's service. 
 
 At ten o'clock two horses, in two succes- 
 sive loads, carried the powder along the out- 
 side of the city wall to the gate at the Kirk- 
 of-Field ; it was then taken in bags into the 
 Queen's chamber, which lay right under that 
 of her husband. Before or while this tedious 
 process was going on, evidently under Both- 
 well's own superintendence, the Queen arrived 
 at the solitary house with several of the nobles, 
 and, without visiting her own room, either in 
 going up or down past it, went into Darnley' 
 
 733 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 apartment, where she seems to have remained 
 for a considerable time. • Darnley's guests 
 were playing dice upstairs, and Bothwell, 
 after having seen a large portion of the 
 powder quietly deposited, went up to join 
 the group, returning with the Queen to Holy- 
 rood about eleven o'clock. After leaving the 
 feast at midnight, he repaired to his own 
 rooms, doffed his court attire for a coarser 
 doublet and a dark trooper's cloak, and then 
 set forth with his three minions and French 
 Paris towards the scene of the coming tragedy. 
 As the Canongate Port was closed, they were 
 challenged by the keeper, who admitted the 
 party without scruple on receiving the reply 
 that they were friends of the Earl of Both- 
 well. The thick match leading to the gun- 
 powder was lighted by Hay of Talla, a wild 
 district on the borders, and Bothwell's own 
 relative, John Hepburn of Bolton. It burned 
 so slowly that the earl grew impatient, and 
 was thinking of approaching to see what was 
 the matter, when a loud explosion shook the 
 earth, and roused every citizen in Edinburgh 
 from his peaceful slumber. 
 
 It was now between three and four o'clock 
 on Monday morning. The murderers tried to 
 escape over the city wall near Leith Wynd, at 
 a considerable distance from the scene of the 
 tragedy, but the injury " Little Jock Elliot" 
 had done to his hand in the previous October 
 •was still sufficient to prevent Bothwell's escape 
 in this manner, and he was forced to seek exit 
 at the Port by which he had entered. Half- 
 an-hour later he was roused from bed by a 
 messenger. He called out treason, donned 
 the silver-embroidered court dress he had 
 laid aside at midnight, and, along with his 
 brother-in-law Huntly, sought an audience 
 of the Queen, so as to inform her of some acci- 
 dent that had just occurred at the Kirk-of- 
 Field, and had caused a general consternation 
 jn the city. Between eight and nine in the 
 morning he returned to her with the infor- 
 mation that she was a widow ; and as he left 
 her presence, he told a courtier that the Queen 
 was " sorrowful and quiet." Such had been 
 the force of the explosion that the whole 
 lodging was shattered down till not one stone 
 remained above another, "but all either cari'ied 
 far away, or dung in dross to the very ground- 
 stone." There were five servants in attend- 
 ance at the time of the explosion, all of whom 
 were hurt or killed, while the body of Darnley 
 was found under a tree outside the garden 
 wall. He wore his linen only, had neither 
 scorch nor bruise, and his boots and clothes 
 were by his side. A letter from Queen Mary 
 to her ambassador at the French Court states 
 that God, not chance, had that night saved 
 her from sleeping at the Kirk-of-Field, and 
 intimates that it must have been done by gun- 
 powder, but " by whom, or in what manner, 
 it appears not as yet." 
 
 Will the reader now compare the following 
 statement from Nau's narrative, probably 
 taken down from Mary's own lips ? — On the 
 night of the murder, as she was about to 
 leave the King, she met Paris, Bothwell's 
 valet-de-chambre, and noticing that his face 
 was all black with gunpowder, she exclaimed, 
 just as she was mounting her horse, "Jesu, 
 Paris, how begrimed you are ! " 
 
 The body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 
 was embalmed for ^42 6^-., and was buried in 
 Holyrood Chapel by torchlight on the Satur- 
 day following the murder. 
 
 After the Murder ; Bothwell's Sham 
 Acquittal; His Marriage and Fate. 
 
 Queen Maryhasbeen credited with becoming 
 melancholy and fastings after the death of her 
 worthless husband ; but what is certain is that 
 she did not spend the usual forty days in 
 mourning according to the Scottish custom, 
 by keeping her darkened rooms lit by 
 candles in the day-time ; that on the very 
 next day after the somewhat secret interment 
 of her murdered husband she withdrew from 
 Edinburgh, under medical advice it was 
 alleged, to Seton House, with Bothwell, 
 Argyle, Huntly, andLethington, as the lead- 
 ing members of her Court. During the week 
 of the assassination, although no one dared 
 publicly to claim the reward of ^2,000 offered 
 to any who should discover the author of the 
 murder, voices were heard at night openly 
 proclaiming Bothwell as the guilty person, 
 and placards were affixed to the door of the 
 Tolbooth accusing him and certain others as 
 the authors of the crime ; and yet the widowed 
 Queen, knowing of these tickets, could join 
 with Bothwell in shooting with steady hand 
 and excellent aim at the butts at Seton against 
 two noble opponents, and then proceed to 
 a dinner at the miserable village of Traneat ; 
 the expense of the public-house festivities 
 being paid by the losers of the contest. Mary 
 showed her indecent and insane contempt 
 for public opinion and public justice by 
 granting a pension at Seton, only ten days 
 after the murder, to Signer Francis, one of 
 those whom the placards accused of being 
 guilty of the King's blood. True it is also 
 that, after repeated applications by the father 
 of her murdered husband, she complied with 
 his request that the persons accused by him— 
 the same as those mentioned on the Tolbooth 
 placards — should have an immediate trial 
 before the Lords ; and the Privy Council fixed 
 the 1 2th of April for the ceremony. But as 
 the Earl of Bothwell had in his power the 
 command of the castle, and had several 
 thousand men behind him in the streets of 
 the city, Lennox did not dare to make per- 
 sonal appearance at the trial, and Bothwell 
 was in consequence acquitted of " art and 
 
 734 
 
 I 
 
RIZZIO AND DARN LEY. 
 
 part of the said slaughter of the King" by 
 the jury of fifteen nobles, over whose pro- 
 ceedings the Earl of Argyll, one of Both- 
 well's cronies, acted as president. Both well 
 made a public challenge to engage in single- 
 handed contest with any one who continued 
 after this verdict to 'charge him with the 
 murder. 
 
 It was patent to every one who moved 
 about the Court that the relation between the 
 Queen and Bothwell would end in marriage; 
 and a letter written by Kirkcaldy of Grange, 
 afterwards the most famous and chivalrous 
 of her defenders, expresses her mad devotion 
 to her husband's murderer by the remark 
 that " she cared not to lose France, England, 
 and her own country for him, and shall go 
 with him to the world's end in a white petti- 
 coat before she will leave him." The hand 
 of the fascinating royal widow was finally 
 secured to Bothwell by the parliament which 
 met at Edinburgh in the middle of April. 
 Fresh possessions vi'ere added to his already 
 immense power and wealth, and, as far as 
 any ordinary human eye could perceive, he 
 had attained a height and strength not likely 
 to be toppled down by any possible combi- 
 nation of the other chiefs of the country. On 
 the 19th of April, the parliament held its last 
 sitting, and at a feast held in an Edinburgh 
 tavern in the afternoon, the magnates of the 
 country entered into a bond for the support 
 of Bothwell, and recommended Mary to adopt 
 him as a husband in the distressed state of 
 the nation. The support of the nobles was 
 hollow, and Bothwell was very far from being 
 a favourite in Scotland. In the previous 
 summer the English ambassador had reported 
 his insolence, declaring that he was the most 
 hated man among the noblemen ; and that 
 Da.vid (that is, Rizzio) was never more ab- 
 horred than the Earl. A device even then, 
 it was said, " was working " for him, and he 
 had woven around himself such intense 
 hatred that he " could not long continue," 
 After the farce of the proposed marriage was 
 over, the nobles retired to their country seats 
 to plot the ruin of Bothwell, and let the ugly 
 events develop themselves. 
 
 Mary, it would appear from the narrative 
 of Monsieur Nau, reminded Lethington and 
 the others who presented themselves as dele- 
 gates on the matter of the reports that had 
 been current about Bothwell's connection 
 with her husband's murder, and more than 
 once refused to accept his hand. It is of 
 course denied by Nau and all her defenders 
 that it was by collusion with him that she 
 went to visit her infant son at Stirling two 
 days after the closing of the Parliament, and 
 on the way back three days later, when 
 within a few miles of Edinburgh, was seized 
 by him at the head of fifteen hundred horse- 
 men, and carried off to the castle of Dunbar. 
 
 Steps were immediately taken for the divorce 
 of Bothwell and his wife, — a shameless 
 mockery, for the dispensation we have already 
 mentioned, discovered at Dunrobin Castle, 
 in Sutherlandshire, some ten or eleven years 
 ago, had been granted, annulling all possible 
 obstacles to their marriage. Mary herself 
 pardoned him, or pretended to do so, for the 
 treasonable offence of carrying her off into 
 captivity, on account of his good behaviour 
 towards her and his thankful service done in 
 time bygone; and so the wedding of the 
 loving couple was celebrated on the 15th oi 
 May, — although an unlucky month, and Mary 
 was not without her superstitions. It belongs 
 to another chapter of the Oueen's Vi^etched 
 life to tell how a single month later the con- 
 federate lords met the forces of Bothwell and 
 Mary at Carberry Hill, near the fishing 
 town of Musselburgh, and how on that 
 bloodless field the husband and wife parted, 
 never to meet again on earth. It has been 
 asserted by Nau that just before escaping 
 from the scene he handed to the Queen 
 the bond he and others of the nobles had 
 entered into for putting Darnley out of 
 the way. 
 
 The story of Mary's life after her surrender 
 at Carberry Hill to the rebel forces is full of 
 pathos, sadness, and romance. Sorrow fol- 
 lowed her without a moment's pause from 
 the day when, passing over into the ranks of 
 the confederate lords, she took the grim Lord 
 Lindsay by the hand, exclaiming, " By the 
 hand which is now in yours, I'll have your 
 head for this !" Her imprisonment in the 
 castle of Lochleven, her romantic escape, — 
 although her half-brother, Moray, saw no 
 romance in it but merely the result of his 
 own folly in giving the "unmerciful Jezebel" 
 too much liberty, instead of giving her " to 
 the dogs to devour her flesh and bones," 
 according to the teaching of God's Word, — 
 her final stand at Langside, her flight over 
 the borders into England, there to spend 
 years in grief and plots, until her head fell 
 at Fotheringay Castle, form perhaps the 
 best known narrative in the annals of our 
 country. 
 
 If we refrain from telling the story of the 
 " casket letters," on the basis of which she 
 was accused in England of complicity with 
 Bothwell in the murder, we must for this once 
 plead want of space and the general belief 
 that they were nothing better than forgeries ; 
 but the less known story of the latter days of 
 the unscrupulous nobleman, which has been 
 unearthed by careful investigation of Danish 
 records during recent years, and has not yet 
 become familiar to British readei^s, perhaps 
 deserves, to be set forth in some little detail 
 as one of those tragedies that are stranger 
 than fiction, in which poetic justice is dealt 
 out to the guilty. 
 
 735 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 The Exile of Bothwell ; His Death 
 IN Draxholm Castle. 
 
 Partly through the Queen's entreaties and 
 the advice of the astute Laird of Lethington, 
 Bothwell leapt on horseback at Carberry 
 Hill and rode away from the impending 
 contest with his face set towards his strong 
 castle of Dunbar, having, in his anxiety to 
 " ease his conscience," left the bond of the 
 conspirators in Mary's hands, implicating 
 Morton, Lethington. and others. 
 
 On the next day the lords bound them- 
 selves to have the shameless marriage dis- 
 solved, and not to rest until Bothwell was 
 duly punished " as truly as we are noblemen 
 and love the honour of our native country;" 
 and a week later a proclamation at different 
 market-crosses throughout Scotland set a 
 reward of a thousand crowns upon his head, 
 and forbade any person from providing the 
 criminal with food or shelter. Bothwell 
 seems to have made an effort to raise his 
 partisans, but the sympathies of the country 
 were dead against him. Twelve days after 
 his flight from Carberry Hill, the former 
 Admiral of Scotland set out from his castle of 
 Dunbar towards the north with two vessels, 
 and paid a visit to Strathbogie, the seat of 
 Huntly, brother of his divorced wife, but 
 without succeeding in the attempt to obtain 
 the support of that nobleman. For a time 
 he found a refuge at Spynie Castle with his 
 aged uncle and namesake, the Bishop of 
 Moray, under whose dissolute tutelage he had 
 spent a portion of his early life ; but even 
 there he was not safe from the threats of an 
 assassin. For two months he had held 
 the dignity of Duke of Orkney, and he now 
 sought a refuge in those distant isles from 
 which his ducal title was derived. The 
 governor of Kirkwall Castle, formerly one of 
 nis own minions at the time of the Darnley 
 tragedy, had turned with the tide, and Both- 
 well sailed still further northward, towards 
 the bleak isles of Shetland. There he pur- 
 chased two ships from the ports of Bremen 
 and Hamburg, which traded, we imagine, in 
 corn, beer, whisky, cloth, fish, and the nimble 
 little ponies known as shelties. A small 
 Scottish fleet was despatched against him, 
 and his vessels were compelled to sail from 
 the coast of Shetland. 
 
 Shortly after this, the Earl found himself 
 tossed by the storms of the North Sea on the 
 rocky coast of Norway, and his two "pinkers" 
 were captured as privateers by a war-ship of 
 Frederick the Second. In vain did he ex- 
 postulate against this seizure, declaring who he 
 was, and that he had never taken a farthing's- 
 worth without payment ; for the Norwegian 
 captain could not well be expected to recog- 
 nise the husband of the famous Scottish Queen, 
 for whom his own royal master had been a 
 
 suitor, in the ill-featured and shabby-looking 
 man before him, who was attired in " old, torn, 
 coarse boatswain's clothes." While he was at 
 Bergen, an ugly memory of his earlier dissi- 
 pated life turned up in the shape of his long- 
 abandoned spouse, Anna Throndson, who 
 had returned to her native Norway, where 
 she was known as " The Scottish Lady." She 
 summoned him before a legal court on the 
 ground of his desertion of her ; but the wrath 
 of the fair dame was appeased when her 
 faithless lover handed over to her the smallest 
 of his ships, and promised her an annuity 
 from Scotland. He was carried over to 
 Copenhagen, where he proceeded to lay his 
 case before King Frederick, tempting that 
 sovereign to assist him against the Scottish 
 rebels by offering the old Norse possessions 
 of Orkney and Shetland that had been 
 pledged to Scotland several centuries before 
 as the dowry of a Norwegian princess. In 
 December of the same year (1567), a mes- 
 senger arrived from Scotland, demanding the 
 extradition of Bothwell as a murderer ; but 
 the Danish King did not accede to the request, 
 and instead ordered his removal to Malmoe 
 Castle, across the Sound. The Scottish par- 
 liament had already condemned him to the 
 forfeiture of his rank, honours, life, andfortune. 
 Although Frederick did not hand him over to 
 the Scots, two of the other conspirators, 
 Murray and Paris, who had accompanied 
 Bothwell, were given over to justice in 1568; 
 and the latter, after making a confession that 
 implicated the Queen, was executed on the 
 i6th of August in the following year. 
 
 Till 1573 the " Scottish Earl " enjoyed con- 
 siderable liberty in Malmoe, enjoying the 
 King's munificence, feasting and carousing 
 with his friends, and dressing himself in silk 
 and velvet. In this retreat he was even per- 
 mitted to correspond with Mary after her 
 escape from Lochleven and while she was a 
 prisoner in England. But from the year 
 mentioned till his death in April 1578, he was 
 practically buried from the world in a solitary 
 and loathsome cell in the castle of Dragsholm, 
 or Dragon's Island. Two iron bars in the 
 wall are still pointed out by tradition as those 
 to which his fetters were attached; and in 
 those terrible years of divine vengeance no 
 one had access to him except the persons 
 who brought to a little window such " scurvy 
 meat and drink as was allowed." The 
 wretched end of him is thus told by Professor 
 Schiern : " The Earl's coffin was brought from 
 Dragsholm to the nearest church at Faareveile. 
 This church, which stands away from the 
 village, on the west of Isefjord, in a lonely 
 and quiet spot, the haunt of gulls and sea-fowl, 
 is said to be the last resting-place of him who 
 once was the husband of Scotland's Queen." 
 
 M. M. 
 
 736 
 
Magellan's Vessels in a Storm. 
 
 MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE 
 
 THE FIRST JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 " Thus hast thou all the regions of the East, 
 Which by thee given unto the World is now ; 
 Opening the way with an undaunted breast, 
 Through that vast sea which none before did plough." 
 
 The Sea of Pitchy Darkness — Former Discoveries— Fernando Magalhaens — His Services declined at Lisbon— Arrival at 
 the Spanish Court — Agreement with the King— The Expedition Sets Sail — The Brazils—The Patagonians — Mutiny 
 at San Julian — The Straits Discovered — The Pacific Entered — The Ladrone Islands — Disputes with the Islanders — 
 Continuation of the Voyage — Manners and Customs of the Natives — Baptism and Conversion of the People — The 
 Dispute at Malan — Death of Magellan — The Expedition Continued — Arrivaland Reception at Borneo — The Voyage 
 Home — Run into Danger at Cape Verde Islands — Escape and Arrival in Spain — Conclusion. 
 
 "The Sea of Pitchy Darkness." 
 
 O Marco Polo is due the credit of 
 removing the veil from the Asiatic 
 shore of the South Seas, which had 
 previously been regarded with such terror. 
 The Arabic geographers portrayed the South 
 Sea as a terrible waste of waters, which 
 no voyager had been able to explore in 
 consequence of its difficult navigation and 
 great obscurity. The "Sea of Darkness" 
 was supposed to be impenetrable, with its 
 mountainous waves, "haughty winds," and 
 "mighty fishes ;" no mariner dared to enter 
 its waters. 
 
 But when Marco Polo penetrated to China, 
 and reached its eastern boundary, he calrried 
 back to Europe a very different picture of 
 the Sea of Darkness. He certainly con- 
 firmed public opinion as to its extent and 
 majesty ; but he also removed the unfavour- 
 
 able impressions concerning it. "There were-, 
 hundreds of islands," he said, "and all the 
 trees were perfumed ;" and he concluded by 
 saying that "it was impossible to estimate 
 the value of the gold or other articles found 
 in the islands." 
 
 Christopher Colum.bus fancied that by 
 sailing westward he would reach the Easterly 
 continents, and arrive in Asia and Japan. The 
 result of his voyages is known to every reader, 
 and contemporary and later voyagers suc- 
 ceeded in rounding the Cape of Storms, and 
 made many other important discoveries. 
 But Nunez de Balboa and the Spaniards 
 were the first people to reach the coveted 
 Southern Ocean in 15 13. 
 
 Nunez, following the directions given him 
 by a chief in Darien, near Santa Maria,, 
 ascended to the summit of a mountain, and 
 thence beheld the long-wished-for ocean.. 
 
 737 8 B B 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 He fell on his knees and thanked God. 
 The Spaniards then descended to the shore, 
 and named the bay San Miguel, for the 
 ocean was reached (exactly to this day of 
 writing 369 years ago) on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, 1 5 13. 
 
 Tidings of the discovery were at once sent 
 to Spain. The ocean was called the South 
 Sea. Yet Nunez got no reward. His re- 
 compense was the sword of the public execu- 
 tioner. But, his successor could find no 
 passage across the continent for vessels. 
 The Isthmus of Darien was the easiest line 
 of communication, and attempts were made 
 to utilize it ; but they failed, and the un- 
 dertaking was abandoned. 
 
 Thus the " Sea of Pitchy Darkness " was 
 brought to light ; but prior to 15 19, no ad- 
 venturer had been sufficiently bold to explore 
 it. Ships had indeed sailed upon it, coasting 
 along the continent ; but no one had launched 
 out to explore it in its length, and find a 
 strait from ocean to ocean. This success 
 was reserved for Fernando Magalhaens, 
 or Magellan as the French called him. 
 
 Fernando Magalhaens. 
 
 The birthplace of the first circumnavigator 
 of the world is doubtful. It may, however, 
 be accepted that he was born at Villa de 
 Sabroza, in the district of Villa Real, in Por- 
 tugal.* He was of good family ; and a man 
 of considerable aftainments, who had seen 
 service in the East. Pope Alexander had 
 assigned all the newly-discovered territories 
 to the west of Ferro, in the Canaries, to the 
 Spaniards ; and all to the eastward to the 
 Portuguese ; and Spain continued to extend 
 her conquests and cruelties ; while Da Gama 
 doubled the Cape, nnd the Portuguese sailed 
 up the eastern coast, reaching Calicut and 
 the Moluccas. 
 
 The Duke of Albuquerque was then Viceroy 
 of the Indian possessions of the Portuguese ; 
 and in his suite was Magellan, who had 
 studied geography and navigation. From 
 the Indies he returned to Lisbon ; and while 
 endeavouring to obtain preferment he still 
 studied geography and the maps of the 
 world. He was permitted to see all the 
 charts.; and it is stated by Pigafetta, that 
 while thus occupied he came across a chart 
 made by Martin Boheim, a celebrated geo- 
 grapher, in which the strait which now bears 
 the name of Magellan is marked. But this 
 statement is unsupported by more recent 
 investigations ; and if he did see the strait 
 indicated, he placed no reliance upon the 
 fact, because at the time of Boheim the 
 Pacific Ocean had not been discovered. 
 
 Magellan sought advancement at the hands 
 of the King of Portugal ; but he did not 
 
 * So stated in his will executed at Lisbon in 1504. 
 — See " Hakluyt Society's Publications." 
 
 "choose to hear him," nor would he coun- 
 tenance the projected plan of exploration of 
 the geographer. The Court of Portugal thus 
 declined to accept the offer of the services of 
 Magellan ; and lost the honour of the cir- 
 cumnavigation of the globe as they had lost 
 the honour of the discoveries of Columbus. 
 
 Magellan therefore threw off his allegiance 
 to the King of Portugal, and proceeded to 
 Spain to offer his services to the Emperor 
 Charles V. He was accompanied in his 
 expedition by the astrologer Ruy Falero ; 
 and they sought the Emperor at Valladolid. 
 Charles V, listened to the proposals Magellan 
 and his friend submitted to him, and became 
 convinced of his sincerity. Cardinal Ximines, 
 the Prime Minister, paid particular attention 
 to Magellan when the latter demonstrated 
 that the country he desired to explore was 
 really within the line of demarcation per- 
 mitted by the Pope. 
 
 But the agents of the King of Portugal 
 did all they could to thwart the designs 
 of Magellan. Discussions arose as to the 
 legality of the Spanish attempts ; nevertheless 
 Charles V. was satisfied that he was within 
 his rights, and he acquiesced in Magellan's 
 proposals. 
 
 The Agreement with Spain. 
 
 Articles of agreement were accordingly 
 drawn up with the Emperor, who was 
 strongly supported by his nobles. These 
 articles are dated 1518, quite a twelvemonth 
 previous to the actual sailing of the expedition, 
 which was probably delayed by Portuguese 
 intrigues, that at one time threatened the 
 life of Magellan himself 
 
 It was agreed that the navigators (Magel- 
 lan and Falero) should sail to the Moluccas 
 Avestward, and enjoy a ten years' monopoly 
 of the track they explored. They were to 
 receive one-twentieth part of the revenue 
 and profits arising from their discoveries 
 after paying necessary expenses. Magellan 
 was also to be deemed Adelantado, and he 
 and his heirs were to retain the possessorship 
 of any islands he discovered. Five vessels 
 were arranged for — viz., two ships, or " cara- 
 vels," of 130 tons, two of 90 tons, and one 
 of 60. The vessels were to be victualled for 
 two years, and to carry crews amounting to 
 - 234 men. 
 
 This agreement was concluded at Sara- 
 gossa, and the final orders were given at 
 Barcelona on the 19th of April, 1519. (The 
 first document is dated Valladolid, 22nd 
 March, 15 18.) These five vessels were 
 named the Trinidad, San Antonio, Vittoria, 
 Concepcion, and Santiago. Magellan com- 
 manded the expedition in the Trinidad, Luis 
 de Mendoza was captain of the Vittoria. 
 The San Antotiio was captained by Don 
 Juan de Carthagena ; the Santiago by Don 
 
 738 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 Serrano ; and the Concepcion by Caspar de 
 Ouixhada. The commander took several of 
 his own countrymen in his vessel, for they 
 were experienced navigators. 
 
 Even while the arrangements were being 
 completed, the King of Portugal did all in 
 his power to induce Magellan to return to 
 him, and abandon the rival country, but in 
 vain. After the treatment he had received, 
 Fernando was not inclined to put himself 
 into his sovereign's power, and he remained 
 firm. 
 
 The course decided upon was laid down 
 as follows : — "Straight from Cape Frio, Brazil 
 remaining on their right hand until they 
 reached the line of demarcation ; from thence 
 theyare to navigate west and west-north-west, 
 straight to Maluca. . . . From this Cape Frio 
 until the islands of Maluca, there are no lands 
 laid down in the maps they carry with them. 
 Please God the Almighty that they may 
 make such a voyage as did the Cortereals ; 
 and that Your Highness may be at rest and 
 for ever be envied, as you are, by all 
 princes." * 
 
 The Departure of the Expedition. 
 
 M agellan reached Seville upon the 20th of 
 October, 15 18; and on Wednesday, August 
 loth, 1 5 19, he sailed thence upon his ever 
 memorable voyage round the world. The 
 ships remained outside, however, until the 
 2 1 St of September, and then steering south, 
 they reached the Cape de Verd Islands on 
 the 3rd of October. They then fell into the 
 " Doldrums," a zone of calms, and remained 
 for a long time (two months) drifting upon 
 the glassy sea, experiencing " dead calms with 
 rain," says the narrator. Sharks came 
 alongside, and many were captured in calm 
 weather. During the squalls subsequently 
 encountered, St. Elmo's Fire frequently 
 appeared upon the ships, and this was wel- 
 comed as a prosperous omen. 
 
 The vessels crossed the line, and steering 
 south-south-west, made for the coast of 
 Brazil, and obtained abundant supplies from 
 the natives of the neighbourhood. The value 
 of the playing cards was immense ; for a King 
 of Spades the Spaniards obtained half-a-dozen 
 fowls, and the native flattered himself he had 
 gained the best of the bargain after all, by 
 which a knave might have largely benefited. 
 
 Rio Janeiro was reached upon St. Lucy's 
 Day, 13th of December, and the heat caused 
 much inconvenience. Many amusing details 
 are given of the costume and manners of the 
 natives. After a stay of thirteen days, the 
 Admiral coasted farther, and reached a "large 
 river of fresh water," which is probably the 
 Rio de la Plata. 
 
 The inhabitants of that district appeared 
 to be cannibals, and one native is described 
 
 " First Voyage round the World," Hakluyt Society. 
 
 as of gigantic size, and bellowing like a bull. 
 He came down to instil confidence into his 
 friends, and to alarm the Spaniards. They 
 landed, however, and endeavoured to capture 
 this Goliath of Brazil ; but the speed at which 
 he and his friends ran away, rendered pursuit 
 vain. 
 
 Magellan stopped at two islands, the Isle 
 of Penguins and the Isle of Lions, where a 
 number of black geese were captured, as well 
 as some seals, which the navigators called 
 " sea- wolves. They are minutely described, 
 and are what we term sea-bears. On Easter 
 Eve the fleet reached St. Julian; and as winter 
 was approaching, Magellan determined to 
 remain there. He accordingly cast anchor, 
 and stayed five months in that port. 
 
 For two months the fleet remained at San 
 Julian without any incident occurring at all 
 worthy of mention. But one day a man of 
 gigantic stature appeared. The heads of the 
 explorers only reached to his waist. His 
 clothing was made of the skin of the guanaco, 
 which is described as having the " head and 
 ears of a mule, the body of a camel, the legs 
 of a stag, and the tail of a horse." The giant 
 wore a kind of short shoe, and this gave 
 his feet the appearance of the bear's paw. 
 For this reason Magellan named the people 
 "Patagonians," or clumsy-footed (Patagones). 
 
 Here the first convert was made, the in- 
 dividual also being of enormous stature. He 
 was taught the Lord's Prayer, and subse- 
 quently was baptized by the name of John, 
 but very little was afterwards seen of him. 
 The medical practice of these natives was 
 very simple, yet apparently effective. If 
 they suffered from what we may now term a 
 bilious attack, they simply thrust an arrow 
 down the throat of the afflicted one, to serve 
 as an emetic ; or gashed their foreheads 
 when they had an headache, which we hope 
 was seldom. They cut themselves wherever 
 they felt pain, and let blood. These and other 
 interesting particulars are given in the chro- 
 nicles of the voyage, but it is not necessary 
 to reproduce them all here. 
 
 Mutiny at San Julian. 
 A very untoward incident occurred during 
 the stay of the vessels at this port. Three 
 of the captains mutinied against Magellan. 
 They were Spanish officers, and jealous of 
 the authority invested in the Commander-in- 
 Chief. A Portuguese, Luis de Mendoza, was 
 the ringleader of this mutiny ; the other three 
 malcontents were Juan of Carthagena, 
 Antonia Cocea, and Caspar de Casada, or 
 Ouixhada. The ringleader was stabbed while 
 he was reading a letter on his own quarter- 
 deck. Magellan sent him this note, and^, 
 while reading the communication, the Admi- 
 ral's orders were carried out, and Mendoia 
 was assassinated, or executed. 
 
 739 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Juan is reported to have suffered terribly, 
 being flayed alive ; and Caspar, Pigafetta 
 says, was put ashore destitute, and left to 
 the mercy of the natives ; * but from other 
 evidence it would appear that Caspar, the 
 Captain of the Concepcion, was decapitated 
 and quartered. The prompt and severe 
 measures taken by the Admiral had a good 
 effect, and the mutiny was quelled. 
 
 Another misfortune, and one not so easily 
 remedied, here befell the expedition. The 
 Santiago, commanded by Juan Serrano, was 
 sent upon a surveying cruise, and while en- 
 gaged in their very necessary duty was cast 
 upon the rocks. All the men, however, were 
 saved, and two even travelled overland to 
 acquaint the Captain-Ceneralwith the disaster 
 that had occurred. 
 
 A great deal of energy and determination 
 were displayed by the men under the cir- 
 cumstances. The wreck occurred nearly 
 a hundred miles from St. Julian ; and though 
 the men and officers of the wrecked ship 
 remained two months on the spot, collecting 
 the timbers and merchandize that was con- 
 tinually being washed ashore, Magellan kept 
 them supplied, at that distance from his base, 
 by land along a very bad road, and one 
 infested with thickets and briars, in a hostile 
 country, with no other beverage for the bearer 
 of the provisions but the ice he could break 
 and melt. There was some solid stuff 
 amongst these explorers. 
 
 Some attempts had been previously made 
 by the Spaniards to capture two or three 
 Patagonians in order to carry them to Spain; 
 but though treachery was employed, and craft 
 opposed to native confidence, this attempt 
 failed even on land, for the men and women 
 ran away so speedily that they escaped even 
 the bullets sent after them. But they were 
 afterwards successful in keeping two natives. 
 One of the Spaniards was hit by a poisoned 
 arrow and died, on the first expedition. 
 
 On the 24th of August, tlie expedition 
 sailed from San Julian; and after sailing along 
 the coast for some distance, a "river of fresh 
 water " was found, which was called Santa 
 Cruz. It was so named because it was 
 entered upon the 14th of September, the day 
 of the exaltation of the Cross. There, owing 
 to a strong wind and rough water, the whole 
 squadron very nearly came to grief. But 
 " owing to God and to the Corpora Sancta, 
 the fire which burned upon the mast," says 
 the chronicler, they all arrived safely. 
 
 In this place they passed nearly two 
 months, laying in wood and water and pro- 
 visions; and on the 21st of October, Magellan 
 again sailed away, and discovered a strait 
 
 * Pigafetta says, that when Gomez, commander of 
 the Sa7i Aiiio?iio, deserted Magellan in the Straits, he 
 returned and picked up Caspar and the priest his 
 accomphce, and carried them home to Spain. 
 
 called the " Strait of the Eleven Thousand 
 Virgins," which proved to be the great object 
 of the expedition. 
 
 The Straits of Magellan. 
 
 The Cape of the Virgins had been first 
 sighted, and just beyond it Magellan found 
 , the bay, as he termed it. The Vittoria was the 
 first vessel to perceive it ; and sailing along the 
 coast for a time, the Admiral determined to 
 anchor within the entrance of the bay. 
 
 The crews were all firmly persuaded that 
 the Strait had no western entrance, and there 
 was little disposition amongst the majority 
 to explore it. But Magellan and the bolder 
 spirits were firm. Two ships were sent in 
 to see whether any opening existed beyond ; 
 the Trinidad and Vittoria remained at 
 anchor at the mouth of the bay. 
 
 Pigafetta, in his narrative of the voyage, — 
 he was onboard the Trinidad, — mentions that 
 Magellan was quite aware of the existence of 
 the Channel from an inspection of Boheim's 
 maps. He was determined to make the 
 attempt, though the forbidding nature of the 
 surroundings, the lofty mountains which en- 
 close it being covered withsnow,and thewater 
 very deep, with frequent storms, did not tend 
 to raise the spirits of any of the crews. The 
 Strait of Magellan quickly gave the explorers 
 a test of its quality. Scarcely had the vessels 
 proceeded upon their expedition when a 
 tremendous hurricane arose, and compelled 
 the Trinidad and Vittoria to run before it,, 
 " at the mercy of the winds and waves in the 
 gulph.'' The hurricane continued for thirty- 
 six hours, and although in imminent danger, 
 no damage was caused to the vessels. Indeed 
 the tempest in one sense was advantageous. 
 
 The storm which had forced Magellan to 
 leave his anchorage had been equally un- 
 sparing with the vessels farther in. They 
 had to run before the gale, and every 
 moment the crews fancied they would be 
 dashed against the rocks at the sides, or, 
 at any rate, wrecked at the end, for they 
 fancied the bay was a cut de sac. But as 
 the hurricane drove them onward to the 
 threatening coast ahead, the pilots began 
 to discover that openings existed in these 
 ' terrible precipices. 
 
 A small inlet into which they ran, carried 
 them, with the roughly-following wind, into 
 a second channel, and then into another bay, 
 and by a channel to a third bay, larger than 
 the preceding. Nearly two days had already 
 passed, and the commanders of the surveying 
 ships, finding the tempest was blowing itself 
 out, determined to return and report progress 
 to the Admiral at the entrance of the channel. 
 
 Meantime, Magellan had been somewhat 
 anxious concerning the safety of his vessels. 
 The shore was closely scanned, and the bay 
 searched for traces of the missing ships, but 
 
 740 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 in vain. They were almost given up, when 
 some smoke was observed, and the Admiral, 
 believing it arose from a fire made by his 
 distressed men, immediately advanced. 
 While thus making for the smoke, to the 
 great joy of all on board the Admiral's ships, 
 the two missing vessels were seen approach- 
 ing, with bunting displayed. So soon as 
 they came near, guns were fired and replied 
 to, with every demonstration of joy. The 
 meeting was a very joyful one, and Magellan 
 heard with much satisfaction, the report of 
 his cruising captains. They named the 
 smoking land Tierra del Fitego. 
 
 The ships thus united, made the best 
 of their way into the channels already dis- 
 covered. When the third bay, from which 
 the two pioneer ships had turned back, had 
 been reached and traversed, two more open- 
 ings, or channels, were discovered, — one run- 
 ning south-east, the other south-west. 
 Magellan then sent the Antonio and Con- 
 cepcion forward again, to ascertain whether 
 the channel penetrated to the ocean. 
 
 Estevan Gomez, or Emmanuel Gomez as 
 Pigafetta calls him, was the pilot of the San 
 Anfo7no, and cherished a deep hatred against 
 Magellan.* When ordered to advance, he 
 clapped on all sail and made off, intending 
 to return to Spain. The captain, Alvaro de 
 Mosquita, a relative of Magellan, who had 
 been appointed to the command after the 
 mutiny at San Julian, was seized and put in 
 irons. Gomez incited the crew. One of the 
 Patagonian giants already captured was on 
 board, and no doubt Gomez anticipated a 
 hearty welcome on his arrival to announce 
 new discoveries. 
 
 The Passage Completed. 
 
 The captain of the Concepcion could not 
 conceive what had become of the Antonio, 
 and he waited vainly for his consort. But 
 not finding her, he returned to Magellan and 
 reported progress. Then the Admiral set 
 sail, and with three ships entered the south- 
 westerly channel, and reached the Sardine 
 River, which abounded with those fish. 
 
 In this (Sardine) river the vessels re- 
 mained four days; and while thus awaiting 
 the return of the Antonio, which had by this 
 time reached the Atlantic again, Magellan 
 despatched a boat to examine a cape, or 
 headland, in front, where he fancied the 
 strait ought to end. 
 
 The boat, fully equipped, left, and, after a 
 rapid survey, returned with the intelligence 
 that they had examined the cape, and there 
 the channel ended, and beyond it the ocean. 
 "We wept for joy," says the simple chronicler, 
 
 *" Magellan's appearance at Seville with his plans 
 had thwarted Gomez, who had also proposed to 
 command an expedition. Hence his hatred of 
 Magellan. 
 
 " and the cape was denominated II Capo 
 Diseado (Wished-for Cape), for in truth we 
 had long wished to see it." 
 
 Magellan now made every possible effort 
 to find the inissing Antonio. He sent back 
 the Vittofia to the entrance of the channel 
 to erect a signal, and left letters in Hkely 
 places for the lost ship. But no tidings came 
 of it. Other posts and signals were hoisted 
 in prominent places as the three vessels pro- 
 ceeded through the straits, and the islands 
 were likewise visited, but all in vain. There 
 was scarcely any darkness at this time, the 
 nights only lasting three hours while the 
 Spaniards were in the strait, which they 
 called the Strait of the Patagonians. 
 
 The description of the channel, now so 
 well-known as the Strait of Magellan, is given 
 by the narrator : — " At every half league it 
 contains a safe port, with excellent water, 
 cedar wood, sardines, and a great abundance 
 of shell-fish. . . . Indeed, I do not think 
 the world contains a better strait than this." 
 
 Thirty-seven .days had been expended in 
 the passage, and Magellan estimated the 
 length to be no leagues. The narrator of 
 the voyage relates that during the passage 
 he learned many words from the captive 
 Patagonian on board, whose god was called 
 Setebos, and mentioned by Shakespeare in 
 the "Tempest," a revengeful deity apparently. 
 The Patagonian was subsequently baptised 
 by the name of Paul. 
 
 The diary of the voyage gives us the princi- 
 pal dates as follows : — 
 
 Sailed from Seville August lo, 1519. 
 
 Arrived at Teneriffe October 3, „ 
 
 Arrived at Rio Janerio Dec. 13, „ 
 
 Sailed from R'o Dec. 26, „ 
 
 Sailed from Rio dela Plata February 2, 1520 
 Arrived at San Julian March 31, „ 
 
 Sailed from Port San Julian August 24, „ 
 Sailed from Santa Cruz October 18, „ 
 Arrived at the entrance of 
 
 the Patagonian Strait October 21, „ 
 San Antonio missing November „ 
 
 Arrival at the Cape of Desire Nov. 28. „ 
 
 We now enter upon another portion of this 
 famous voyage, and one no less interesting 
 than that already related. 
 
 Discoveries in the Pacific. 
 
 On Wednesday, 28th of November, 1520, 
 the squadron entered the calm waters of the 
 great sea to the westward of the strait. This 
 apparently boundless expanse of ocean the 
 Spaniards named the Pacific, a name it has 
 always since retained, notwithstanding that 
 travellers will find it occasionally little de- 
 serving of the title. 
 
 As soon as the Straits had been cleared 
 the admiral made sail in a northerly direction 
 in order to reach a milder climate for the 
 
 741 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 approaching winter ; and in the Pacific the 
 expedition sailed for three months and twenty 
 days without tasting any fresh provisions. 
 The sufferings of the Spaniards at this time 
 were very great. Worms had consumed 
 nearly all the biscuit, nothing but dust re- 
 mained. The water was " putrid and 
 offensive," and so reduced were these brave 
 navigators that to keep body and soul together 
 they were obliged to gnaw the leather with 
 which the mainyard was covered. This, after 
 being soaked in water for days, was eaten 
 with avidity, while meantime saw-dust, varied 
 with a dinner of mice, was the only food the 
 explorers could command. Mice were actually 
 caught and put up to auction, and such was 
 the demand for even this food that a mouse 
 sold for half a ducat. 
 
 In addition to the pangs of hunger and 
 thirst, the terrible scurvy made its appearance. 
 The disease is minutely described by the 
 chronicler ; and he reports that nineteen of 
 the Trinidad's men succumbed to it. The 
 Patagonian also died from it, and nearly forty 
 men beside were attacked, but recovered 
 eventually. Pigafetta himself had not one 
 day's illness. 
 
 Fortunately the weather continued fine, and 
 the ocean deserved its baptismal name. 
 During the period the ships sailed nearly 
 four thousand leagues, passing from the 
 Straits north westward, outside Queen Ade- 
 laide's archipelago, as now laid down on 
 our maps. Thence towards Juan Fernandez, 
 immortalized by Selkirk and De Foe, to the 
 tropic of Cancer. Then the voyage was con- 
 tinued in a more westerly direction, until the 
 24th of January, 1521, when they saw distant 
 land, which soon proved to be an island. 
 Here they buried the Patagonian, and called 
 the islet St. Pablo. 
 
 On the 4th of February the vessels sighted 
 the Tibourones (or Shark) Islands, and called 
 the " Unfortunate Isles" also. From calcu- 
 lations with the log, it was found that the ships 
 ran about seventy leagues a day ; and the 
 writer says, " I do not think any one will in 
 future venture upon a similar voyage."* The 
 Southern Cross was discovered on this expe- 
 dition, and mentioned by the explorers. 
 
 The Ladrone Islands. 
 
 After crossing the line, Magellan steered 
 west by north, and changed afterwards, still 
 keeping westerly until, on the 6th of March, 
 (Wednesday) three islands were disco-vered. 
 The first seen was the " most lotty and the 
 largest, as may be expected, considering it was 
 perceived soonest. 
 
 Here the Captain-General wished to re- 
 victual, and endeavoured to obtain fresh 
 provisions; but any long stay was impossible, 
 
 * Fifty years later Sir Francis Drake ventured. He 
 was the first after Magellan to make the circuit. 
 
 because the natives came on board and stole 
 everything they could carry away, including 
 the " dingy," which was fastened astern. The 
 natives came off in canoes, and are described 
 as handsome and of olive-brown complexion. 
 The Spaniards called the islands the Ladrones, 
 or Thieves, out of compliment to the inherent 
 propensities of the inhabitants. 
 
 But when the dingy or skiff disappeared, 
 Magellan determined to take revenge. He 
 landed with a force of ninety men, and burnt 
 a number of the native huts, plundering them 
 first. The natives were perfectly astonished 
 at this cruel retaliation. They had no idea of 
 fire, and fancied it was a strange animal which 
 devoured the wood.* However, they suffered 
 greatly; and when the Spaniards shot arrows 
 at them, they excited pity even in the Spanish 
 heart by their futile and painful attempts to 
 draw the barbs from their bodies. But the 
 unwounded men attacked the explorers with 
 stones vigorously. 
 
 The natives are described as ignorant o; 
 any laws, and are all guided merely by their 
 own inclinations. They had no king nor any 
 chief, and worship no gods. They wore small 
 hats but no other clothing; but the people 
 " generally are of good size and well built." 
 The women are described as pretty and less 
 dark than the men. They wore clothing of a 
 primitive kind, and their hair also afforded 
 them a certain protection, for it is described as 
 being very long and trailing on the ground. 
 A lengthened description is given in the 
 original narratives of the voyage of the inhabi- 
 tants of these islands. Their curiosity was 
 excessive, and their pilfering propensities have 
 already been mentioned. The islanders were 
 apparently under the impression up to the 
 time of Magellan's arrival that there were'no 
 other people in the world besides themselves. 
 
 Sailing from the Ladrones, the ships came 
 in sight of a " high island," some three 
 hundred leagues distant from the " Thieves' 
 Isles." This island they called Zamal ; it is 
 now included under the name of Samar 
 amongst the Philippines. Next day they 
 arrived at an uninhabited isle, which they 
 called Humunu, where abundant supplies of 
 water were found, and the sick were accom- 
 modated in tents, and fresh meat, probably 
 brought from the Ladrones, was supplied to 
 them. 
 
 The Spaniards and the Natives. 
 
 While thus resting ashore, a native boat 
 was one day observed approaching. It con- 
 tained a crew of nine men, and very strict 
 orders were given by Magellan respecting 
 the conduct and movements of his men. 
 The strangers seemed very pleased to see 
 the new-comers, and friendly relations were 
 immediately established between the natives 
 * Le Goben, " History of the Ladrones." 
 
 742 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 and Europeans. Magellan gave them many- 
 presents, and food and drink were also 
 supplied. Such gifts as looking-glasses, 
 bells, and small red caps, were highly- 
 appreciated by the natives. 
 
 The islanders on their side were not to 
 be outdone in politeness. They presented 
 the Spaniards with fish and other simple 
 food, with a kind of wine made from the 
 palm (cocoa-.nut) called Uraca. There were 
 also fruits in abundance, bananas and 
 " cochos," or cocoa-nuts. 
 
 The cocoa-nut palm seemed sufficient for 
 nearly all the requirements of the natives. 
 It supplied them with bread, oil, wine, 
 vinegar, and medicine. Two of these trees, 
 says the narrator of the incident, can 
 maintain a family of ten persons ; but they 
 do not draw wine always from one tree. 
 They draw one for eight or ten days, and 
 then go to another. i3y this treatment the 
 palms " last one hundred years." 
 
 • The natives of the neighbouring island 
 who had come over got very friendly, and 
 were so agreeable that the Captain-General 
 took them on board his ships and showed 
 them his stores and weapons of offence. 
 He treated them to a salvo of artillery, and 
 thereby scared them nearly into the sea. 
 But all continued in harmony, and good-will 
 was everywhere apparent. The natives who 
 had gone away promising to return with sup- 
 plies, now came back with boats laden with 
 fruit, and the Spaniards purchased all they 
 brought. The expedition remained at these 
 islands eight days for the benefit of the sick. 
 
 It was here that the historian of the voyage, 
 Pigafetta, fell overboard; and had he not 
 fortunately seized the main-sheet he would 
 have been drowned. " I was assisted," he 
 writes, " not by my merits, but by the mercy 
 and grace of the Fountain of Pity." The 
 island was called the Watering-place of Good 
 Signs, and the ships did not leiwe it until the 
 25th of March. 
 
 The Voyage Continued. 
 
 On the following Thursday evening, the 
 crews descried a fire upon an island ; and 
 next morning they came to an anchor near 
 the land. No sooner had the ships brought 
 up, than a native boat put out from shore 
 and paddled towards the Trinidad; but when 
 the crew of the canoe caught sight of the 
 Spaniards they withdrew again, and were 
 afraid to come on board. However, the 
 Captain hung out a red cap, which had the 
 contrary effect to that it has upon the 
 bovine species. The natives came alongside 
 again, and then went ashore to tell their 
 prince what they had seen and received. 
 
 A few hours afterwards two large boats 
 came out, each full of men. In one of these 
 sat the King under an awning, and a conver- 
 
 sation was commenced with His Majesty 
 through the interpretation of a Sumatran 
 slave, who happened to be on board the 
 Spanish flag-ship. The European comman- 
 der made presents to all who came on board 
 his vessel; but the King would not come. He 
 wished Magellan to accept some handsoine 
 gifts, but the Admiral would not do so. 
 Next day, however, an interchange of 
 courtesies took place. 
 
 Magellan next morning (Good Friday) 
 sent his Sumatran slave to the King as an 
 interpreter, requesting provisions, for which 
 he stated himself as ready and willing to 
 pay, and expressing a wish to become his 
 friend, for he had no hostile intentions. 
 This message pleased the King very much, 
 and he immediately ordered his boat and 
 came out to the ships. Without showing 
 any signs of fear he boarded the Trinidad, 
 and embraced Magellan, giving him at the 
 same time some fresh provisions and fish. 
 
 The Spanish Admiral then determined to 
 show the native potentate what he could do, 
 and by way of striking a wholesome terror 
 into him, he caused a soldier to be clad in 
 armour, and putting him on deck, told his 
 comrades to strike at him with their swords 
 and daggers. The effect on the King and 
 his men was very great. When the big guns 
 were fired also, the astonishment of the simple 
 people knew no bounds. 
 
 The Spanish com.mander took care to 
 inform the King that his own single soldier 
 in armour was worth quite a hundred of the 
 natives. To this assertion the King assented ; 
 and Magellan then showed him two hundred 
 in each ship also clad in similar armour. 
 The swords, helmets, and cuirasses were 
 then exhibited; and a small "assault of 
 arms" arranged for the royal visitor, who 
 ■was greatly impressed with all he saw and 
 heard. 
 
 It was then agreed that two of the Spaniards 
 should accompany the King ashore ; and 
 Pigafetta, the historian, was one of the two 
 selected. After signs of amity had passed 
 between them by raising hands to the sky, 
 the King took the Europeans by the hand, 
 and led them into his boat, which was 
 moored in a place " covered with canes." 
 In this canoe, or " ballanghai," the strangers 
 sat conversing by signs, and by means of the 
 interpreter, until refreshments in the shape 
 of " pig's flesh and wine " appeared. The 
 fashion of eating is curious, and may be 
 described. 
 
 When they drink, the people raise their 
 hands to heaven, and take the drinking 
 vessel in the right hand, and extend the left 
 hand closed before the people. " This the 
 King did," says Pigafetta, "and presented to 
 me his fist, so that I. thought he wanted to 
 strike me." 
 
 743 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 But the savage inhabitants had no ill-inten- 
 tions towards their white visitors. Magellan 
 appears to have endeavoured to treat the 
 people fairly, and by gentle means to have 
 gained their confidence. The Spaniards 
 appeared pleased with their reception, and 
 they supped with the King. Afterwards 
 they went to the palace, which is described 
 as a hay-loft, covered with fig and plantain 
 leaves, built high off the ground, so that 
 " steps and ladders " were found convenient, 
 and by means of these the party entered. 
 
 The Manners and Customs of the 
 Natives. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that though these 
 islanders had never heard of Christianity, 
 they made the sign of the cross at their 
 meals ; and it is also curious that their god 
 to whom they prayed should have been 
 known as Abba, which is the term used 
 for " Father " in our Bibles. Magellan en- 
 deavoured to develop their religious feel- 
 ings, for he caused a cross to be erected, 
 and made all his men bow down before it 
 in the presence of the King. The monarch 
 looked upon the banner of the cross as a 
 charm against thunder and lightning, and 
 willingly consented to have it erected at the 
 top of a hill as a greater security. 
 
 The entertainment at the "palace" was 
 of an extremely hospitable, but nevertheless 
 limited, nature. Fish, with sauce and rice, 
 appear to have been the chief constituents 
 of the banquet ; and when the King retired 
 for the night, he left his son to entertain the 
 visitors, who were next morning sent for by 
 the Admiral. The King's brother, the ruler 
 of another island close by, also came on 
 board, and the Spaniards made him presents 
 too, and had the honour of his company at 
 dinner. 
 
 The simple-minded natives were very much 
 impressed by seeing the Spaniards write ; 
 and still more when they perceived that they 
 could read what they had written ; but even 
 in later times it is not given to everybody to 
 read their own writing. This latter attribute 
 of the strange beings who had reached the 
 island seems to have puzzled the natives 
 very much. 
 
 The King of the neighbouring island ap- 
 pears to have been of a very liberal turn of 
 mind. He possessed much gold, some nug- 
 gets being as large as hens' eggs ; and these 
 munificent gifts he pressed upon the voya- 
 gers. He was a very good-looking man, of 
 olive complexion, and perfumed with native 
 oils and fat, which no doubt rendered him 
 a most agreeable personage. He wore gold 
 rings in his ears, and metal rings upon his 
 fingers ; a sword was girt about him ; and 
 so rich was he that "a crown of massy 
 gold was offered in exchange for six strings 
 
 of glass beads ; " but we are informed that 
 Magellan would not permit such one-sided 
 transactions. 
 
 These kings of the islands were lords of 
 the district. One governed the island of 
 Butuan, the other Calaghan or Caragua. The 
 names of these kind-hearted natives were 
 Raia Calambu and Raia Siani ; the former 
 was the perfumed monarch, the latter the 
 first friend of the explorers. It was on 
 Easter Day that the religious observances 
 were practised ; and after dinner on that 
 anniversary the Admiral inquired of the 
 kings concerning his future course and 
 means of soon obtaining supplies. 
 
 He was informed that there were three 
 places or ports where he could find supplies ; 
 and these were Ceylon (or Leyte), Zzubu (or 
 Sebu), and Calaghan, which last sounds 
 Hibernian. The King willingly lent the 
 Spanish commander his pilots to see them 
 safely on the way ; and his brother monarch 
 volunteered to accompany the expedition if 
 the Admiral would wait until he had got 
 in his rice crop. This Magellan consented 
 to do. 
 
 After the expiration of the time necessary 
 to gather the rice, the vessels weighed 
 anchor ; and, conducted by the royal pilots, 
 the Spaniards passed Ceylon, Calaghan, etc. 
 in safety. In one place they found dogs, 
 cats, hogs, and poultry, and many kinds of 
 grain, with abundance of gold. Some un- 
 known fowls were killed and eaten ; and 
 " there are certain large birds as large as a 
 fowl with a long tail." 
 
 Arrival at Zebu. 
 
 It was on Sunday, the 7th of April, that the 
 vessels cast anchor off Zebu, where houses 
 built upon trees seemed the commonest 
 objects of the shore. The sails were dropped, 
 and the loud-voiced artillery fired as a salute ; 
 but it had a great effect upon the barbarians, 
 who were however assured that this custom 
 was always observed by civilized nations as 
 a token of friendship and respect. This ex- 
 planation satisfied the King, who, with all his 
 court, had been greatly frightened at the 
 discharge of the guns. 
 
 A conversation then ensued, and the inter- 
 preter assured the monarch that the Spaniards 
 only desired peace and trade. The King 
 replied that they were very welcome, but at 
 the same time gave the interpreter to under- 
 stand that it was customary to pay tribute ; 
 and instanced a ship of Siam which had paid 
 it, and left a merchant to trade. So he hoped 
 the Spaniards would be equally complaisant. 
 
 Magellan, through his man, replied that it 
 was quite impossible that he as the repre- 
 sentative of the greatest king in the world 
 should even think of paying any tribute. If the 
 King of Zebu wanted peace he could have it. 
 
 744 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 745 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 If war, they were equally at his disposal ; but 
 payment of tribute was entirely out of the ques- 
 tion. The Siamese merchant hereupon warned 
 the King to be careful ; for, said he, " these 
 people are one of those who have conquered 
 Calicut, Malacca, and all Greater India; and if 
 you entertain them well, and treat them well, 
 you will find yourself the better for it ; but if 
 ill, it will be all the worse for you." 
 
 These considerations, added to the judicious 
 advice of the interpreter, had a considerable 
 effect upon the King. But his dignity would 
 not permit him to give way all at once. He 
 would consult with his council, he said, and 
 upon their advice he would act in the morning. 
 Meantime he sent some food and a conside- 
 rable quantity of wine, which was accepted by 
 the visitors. 
 
 Next morning the clerk went with the 
 interpreter to hear the decision at which the 
 monarch had arrived. In the open space or 
 " square " the King appeared, and seemed 
 anxious to know whether he should have to 
 pay tribute. But the Spaniards re-assured 
 him upon that point — that trade only was 
 required by the visitors; whereat the King was 
 content, and hinted that presents were custo- 
 mary both on his side and on that of strangers. 
 Whereupon the clerk very judiciously replied 
 that the King, knowing the customs, had better 
 set the example in this matter, and no doubt 
 the Admiral would immediately reciprocate. 
 
 Progress of the Negotiations. 
 
 Thus the palavers went on ; and on the 
 following day the King of Mazzagua and a 
 Moor who had came to the King of Sebu, 
 arrived onboard, and announced thepresents 
 from the King. The gift would be accom- 
 panied by a number of the people, so the 
 Admiral judged it advisable to make a little 
 display of force, and armed a few of his men. 
 Even the merchant — the Moor aforesaid — 
 was astonished at the display ; and when he 
 was reassured, he returned to the King to 
 tell him all the facts. 
 
 After dinner the prince, — nephew of the King, 
 — the Moor, the governor, and "chief of the 
 police, " with several of the principal inhabi- 
 tants, came out to the" ship, where the Admiral 
 was sitting in great state, surrounded by his 
 officers, and altogether making an imposing ap- 
 pearance. The embassy came, and was much 
 impressed. Magellan then spoke to them of 
 peace, and the advantages that would accrue 
 to them if it were continued. From the 
 lesser questions he proceeded to the greater, 
 and enlarged upon the Christian virtue of 
 peace and the benefits of Christianity gene- 
 rally. The natives listened with much 
 pleasure, and were almost induced to become 
 converts to the Spanish tenets. Magellan, 
 finding that his arguments influenced the 
 people, continued his address; and so willingly 
 
 did the people accept his instruction, that 
 they requested Magellan to leave some men 
 behind him on the island to teach them his 
 religion. 
 
 Now the Admiral was scarcely prepared to 
 do this, though the people assured him 
 the men would be well treated ; but he offered 
 to permit the priest to baptize them, and to 
 send his teachers to instruct them while he 
 remained at the island. The men only 
 demanded permission to inform the king; and 
 all those present shed tears to think of the 
 great success which had attended the exhor- 
 tations of the Admiral. He then continued to 
 address them, showing them that they were 
 not to become Christians through fear or 
 favour, but because they were willing to 
 embrace the laws of the Supreme Being 
 whom the Spaniards worshipped. The gentle 
 natives replied that they were the Admiral's 
 servants, and he might do with them as he 
 pleased. 
 
 A definite treaty of peace was then entered 
 into. Magellan embraced the prince and the 
 King, assuring them of his friendship and 
 affection. He swore to them a perpetual 
 peace, and then, this very satisfactory ar- 
 rangement made, refreshments were served up, 
 large presents were made by the prince and 
 the King of Mazzara, who apologized for 
 the insufficiency of the gifts, Magellan re- 
 sponded, and gave them fine cloth red caps, 
 and a quantity of glass, which was very 
 highly prized, with numbers of beads, and 
 gilt glass cups. 
 
 The same kind of present was sent into 
 the town to the King, who was seated in his 
 palace in the costume of the country. The 
 arrangements which had been made were 
 then explained to him, and after a repast 
 with the prince, the Spaniards who had come 
 on shore took leave of the royal family and 
 returned to the ship. 
 
 Thus trade was established, and merchan- 
 dise was soon carried on shore. For many 
 days the vessels remained at the island, and 
 finding there was still a disposition on the 
 part of the islanders to become Christians, 
 Magellan determined to have a regular 
 service and baptise those who would leave 
 their idols and worship the rehgion of the 
 Cross. The King had promised to become a 
 Christian on Sunday, and the preparations 
 were quickly made. 
 
 Conversion of the Natives. 
 
 On that Sunday morning, the 14th of 
 April, the Admiral went ashore, accompanied 
 by his guard, with colours flying, and saluted 
 with salvos of artillery. The Commander 
 and the King embraced, and then seated 
 themselves on chairs under the canopy, 
 while the principal personages squatted upon 
 the ground or upon mats. Then Magellan 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 carefully explained the simplest rites of the 
 Church, enjoining prayer, and showing the 
 King how he was to pray and make the sign 
 of the Cross. The King and his people soon 
 learnt all the necessary forms, and then the 
 ceremony of baptism was commenced. The 
 Captain took the King by the hand, and 
 named him Don Carlos; and equally noble 
 names were given to the other royal and less 
 noble people, including the Moorish mer- 
 chant, who was called Christopher. All the 
 people — quite fifty — were baptised in a very 
 short time, each receiving the name he most 
 fancied. The mass was celebrated; then the 
 King returned to his palace, refusing 
 Magellan's invitation to dinner. 
 
 Subsequently the Queen of the island and 
 her ladies were also baptised. There were 
 forty attendants. She was named Jehanne, 
 after the Emperor's mother ; the Prince's 
 wife was called Catherine, and so on; the 
 rest as they pleased were named in turn. 
 In all that day were baptised eight hundred 
 people; and the Queen Isegged an image of 
 the Infant Jesus to put in the place of the 
 idol she had. The town was afterwards 
 called the " City of Jesus " from this figure. 
 
 Entire unanimity reigned amongst the 
 people and their European visitors, and in 
 the course of the eight days following, the 
 natives of that island, and of that adjacent, 
 were baptised Christians. It is stated that 
 in one of the neighbouring islands Magellan 
 burned a village because the inhabitants 
 would not become Christians. This seems 
 an unnecessary, cruel, and certainly an un- 
 Christian-like measure for a man professing 
 peace to adopt. But according to the nar- 
 ratives of the time, the village was certainly 
 destroyed, 
 
 A Miracle Performed. 
 
 Magellan had performed what is termed a 
 " miracle ; " and however the manner in 
 which it is regarded, it certainly appears 
 extraordinary, if the truth of the narrative be 
 accepted. The Spaniards had enjoined the 
 people to burn all their idols, and many did 
 so, but still many others clung to them, and 
 made offerings to them. A very influential 
 man in the island being ill, Magellan said 
 that if he would believe he would be cured ; 
 and so full of faith was the SpanishCommander, 
 that he declared he would be content to 
 stake his head upon the result ; and the 
 attempt was made. 
 
 The man was certainly very ill. He had 
 not spoken for several days, and every one 
 believed he was on the point of death. He 
 consented to be baptised, "with two of his 
 wives and ten girls. The Commander then 
 inquired how he felt, and, to the astonish- 
 ment of all, he at once replied, " By the grace 
 of our Lord he was well enough." This 
 
 utterance was regarded as a miracle; and 
 when some medicines had been administere^l, 
 he speedily recovered. 
 
 We give the narrative as it appears ; but 
 there is rather a suspicious flavour about it : 
 Magellan may have used his influence to 
 enact a "pious fraud" to bring the remainder 
 of the inhabitants under the Christian dis- 
 pensation. The very "pat" reply of the 
 sick man may have been that of the inter- 
 preter; but the result of the "miracle" was 
 immediate, and many natives more were 
 baptised. The idols were thrown down and 
 burned; the natives themselves joining in the 
 demolition, shouting " Castile ! Castile ! " 
 
 The people of the island appear to have 
 been honest in their dealings, using weights 
 and measures. There are many curious 
 customs related of them, and many supersti- 
 tions, but these need not be here set down. 
 The Spaniards made a " very good thing " of 
 their trade here, exchanging iron for gold in 
 considerable quantities, and obtaining abun- 
 dance of provisions for mere trifles. But a 
 sad ending of these happy arrangements was 
 at hand. 
 
 The Dispute at Mat an. 
 
 The Rajahs, or rulers, had become quite 
 pleasant, and even submissive. Mazzagua 
 and Zebu were willing to pay tribute through 
 their kings ; and everything was made plea- 
 sant for the Spaniards, who were plentifully 
 supplied with provisions, and treated with 
 great hospitality when they first came on 
 shore. News also came to Magellan that 
 the Moluccas, which he had a great wish to 
 find, and in which he really had come in 
 search, were not very far to the south. So 
 under all the circumstances his prospects 
 were good, and a reward was opening to him 
 in the future. 
 
 The island of Matan is close to Zebu, and 
 its capital is the same name as the island. 
 Close by was the village burnt by Magellan ; 
 and, trilDute having been extorted, Zula, one 
 of the chiefs, sent his son with some goats 
 to the commander of the expedition, saying, 
 that if there were any failure in the tribute 
 from the island it was not his (Zula's) fault, 
 but that of the other chief, who declined to 
 acknowledge the authority of the King of 
 Spain. He added that if Magellan would 
 send him assistance to subdue his rival, the 
 whole island would thenceforth be tributary 
 to the Spaniards. 
 
 Under these circumstances Magellan de- 
 termined to send three boats' crews to the 
 rescue of the loyal chief; and, moreover, 
 made up his mind to lead the expedition 
 himself. His followers endeavoured to dis- 
 suade him ; but he replied that a good 
 pastor ought not to be away from his flock, 
 
 747 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 and the arrangements were proceeded with 
 accordingly. 
 
 At midnight the boats quitted the ships 
 with an armed crew of sixty men. The King 
 of the island, with the Prince his nephew, 
 several chiefs, and a number of warriors, 
 accompanied the Europeans to the wished- 
 for conquest of Matan. Three hours before 
 daylight the boats reached the island ; and 
 then Magellan would not begin the engage- 
 tnent, but sent the Moorish merchant ashore 
 with a message to inform the rebellious chief 
 that if he would consent thenceforward to 
 acknowledge the King of Spain, and obey 
 the Christian King of Zebu, and pay tribute, 
 all would be well. If not, he would be at- 
 tacked, and experience the strength of the 
 Spanish lances. 
 
 This message was delivered with all solem- 
 nity ; but did not have the deterrent effect 
 the Spanish Admiral anticipated. The de- 
 fiant answer came back to the effect that the 
 islanders had lances as well as the strangers. 
 The natives with some craft added a request 
 that the enemy would not attack them during 
 the night as they expected reinforcements ; 
 and if the Spaniards would wait until day- 
 light the engagement would take place upon 
 a more equal footing. 
 
 This suggestion was thrown out to induce 
 the Spanish commander to attack at once ; 
 for pits had been dug, and the islanders 
 hoped that in the darkness the attacking 
 force would be caught in these dykes and 
 pitfalls. But the chivalrous Magellan ac- 
 cepted the message in good faith, and 
 awaited daylight. The landing was then 
 commenced ; but the water being very shal- 
 low, the invaders hnd to leave their boats at 
 some little distance from the shore, and wade 
 to land. 
 
 The Attack on the Island. 
 
 Forty-nine Spaniards landed, the remainder 
 staying with the boats, and found the 
 islanders, fifteen hundred in number, drawn 
 up in three lines or battalions to resist the 
 landing. Immediately the Spaniards came 
 within range, the natives set up a horrible 
 shouting ; and opening their ranks, two of 
 the battalions attacked the small Spanish 
 force in flank, and the third in front. Ma- 
 gellan divided his men into two platoons, 
 and the engagement became general. All 
 this time the Zebu islanders had not come 
 up; and it seems that Mngellan requested 
 the King and his men to remain in their 
 canoes in crJer to witness the engagement, 
 and the anticipated triumph of the Spanish 
 soldiers. 
 
 The European troops kept up a continuous 
 fire for quite half an hour without making 
 any impression upon the thick ranks of the 
 natives. The bullets and arrows indeed 
 
 penetrated their wooden shields, but being 
 fired from a distance, they did not do much 
 harm. The natives quite expected to be killed 
 outright by the strange weapons, and when 
 they found that they were only slightly 
 wounded, began to despise the great enemy, 
 and became more and more determined and 
 courageous. 
 
 Besides, the numbers were so irnmensely 
 disproportionate that they believed they could 
 easily overcome the small Spanish contingent, 
 and so they continued to shower darts and 
 spears at the soldiers to such an extent that 
 the Spaniards with great difficulty protected 
 themselves and were unable to continue the 
 attack. The larger guns in the boats could 
 not be brought to bear, and the result of the 
 engagement began to look very doubtful. 
 
 Magellan, however, was quite cool ; and in 
 order to distract the attention of the islanders, 
 he sent some of his men to burn the village, 
 which was done. This act only served to 
 increase the animosity of the savages, who 
 detached a party to the village and succeeded 
 in killing two of the Spaniards, while the 
 main body pushed on with more vigour and 
 determination than ever. 
 
 The fight now was going all against the 
 Spaniards, and Magellan being wounded in 
 the leg by a poisoned arrow, gave orders for 
 a retreat to the boats. He retired slowly, with 
 his men in hand for a time ; but the savages, 
 finding they could not penetrate the Spanish 
 armour, discharged their lances and arrows 
 incessantly at their enemy's legs. This 
 attack proved successful, and the retreat was 
 ordered. 
 
 Death of Magellan. 
 
 For more than an hour this unequal contest 
 continued — the Spaniards fighting bravely in 
 the water ; and it seems curious that under 
 the circumstances little or no assistance was 
 rendered by the Zebu warriors. A tremendous 
 rush was made at last, and the natives came 
 on vigorously, picking up their lances as they 
 kept advancing, and throwing them again 
 with great force and accuracy. They knew 
 Magellan, and aimed at him chiefly. Twice 
 was his helmet knocked off, but still, with the 
 small number of men who had not retreated, 
 he remained bravely resistmg the enemy. 
 
 At length a native succeeded in thrusting 
 his cane lance through the visor of the 
 Commander's helmet, and thus wounded him 
 in the forehead. Magellan lost patience, and 
 with a vigorous spenr-thrust an his assailant 
 through the body. This blow was fatal both 
 to the islander and the Spanish Admiral, for 
 the latter, weakened by wounds, was then 
 unable to withdraw his weapon immediately; 
 and the islanders, or " Indians " as they are 
 termed in the narrative, at once perceiving 
 
 748 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 his helpless condition, came down upon him 
 in a crowd. 
 
 A violent blow upon the leg caused the 
 unfortunate admiral to fall prone upon his 
 face, and that sealed his fate. The natives 
 rushed in, and dealing him blow after blow, 
 quickly despatched the brave Commander, 
 who had been caring for the safety of his men 
 to the last. Indeed, it was really owing to his 
 fall that the few men remaining with him 
 managed to escape, for they were all grievously 
 wounded. The moment Magellan succumbed, 
 the islanders all rushed to the spot, and left 
 the coast clear for the retreat of the remainder 
 of the Spaniards. 
 
 " Thus perished our guide, our light, and 
 our support," writes the chronicler. The 
 King of Zebu bewailed the fate of his friend 
 bitterly, and no doubt would have rendered 
 him assistance but for the positive orders of 
 the unfortunate Magellan. " But his glory 
 will survive him ! " 
 
 "He died. He was adorned with every 
 virtue, and in the midst of the greatest adver- 
 sity he constantly possessed an immovable 
 firmness. At sea he subjected himself to the 
 same privations as his men. Better skilled 
 than any one in the knowledge of nautical 
 charts he was a perfect master of navigation, 
 as he proved in making a tour of the world, — 
 an attempt that none before had ventured." 
 
 This fatal engagement took place upon the 
 27th of April, 152 1, a day particularly selected 
 by the Admiral as a lucky one for himself. 
 Eight Spaniards and four converted Indians 
 are said to have perished ; and by this it would 
 seem that the Zebus did offer some assis- 
 tance to their allies. Very few escaped 
 without being wounded. The enemy lost 
 only fifteen men. 
 
 After the Battle ; Treachery. 
 
 In the course of the day the King of Zebu 
 sent to the rebellious chieftain a request that 
 he would restore the body of the Spanish 
 commander and soldiers. If so, the natives 
 might have any merchandize they required. 
 But the islanders would not consent to part 
 with their trophies, and the bodies of the 
 admiral and the two men killed in the village 
 remained in the hands of the savages as a 
 "monumenc of victory." 
 
 The Spaniards then decided to elect a 
 commander in the place of the deceased 
 Admiral, and two men were appointed, viz., 
 Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese, a relative of 
 Magellan, and Juan Serrano, a Spaniard. The 
 first-named had already voyaged in Indian 
 seas, and was quite competent to command. 
 
 A difficulty arose almost immediately. The 
 slave Henry, who acted as interpreter, had 
 been slightly wounded in the battle, and was 
 then " nursing himself," considering as he had 
 belonged personally to Magellan, he need not 
 
 serve any longer, his master's death having 
 freed him. But Barbosa, who commanded 
 Magellan's ship, was of a different opinion, 
 and reminded the man that he was still a 
 slave, so if he refused to perform his duties 
 for the advantage of the fleet he would have 
 him well beaten, and would also carry him 
 home and deliver him to Donna Beatrix 
 (Magellan's widow). 
 
 Acting upon these gentle hints, the slave 
 consented to go ashore ; but without any 
 apparent resentment he was nursing his 
 vengeance carefully. He sought an audience 
 with the King of Zebu, "the Christian king" 
 as he is called, and proposed to him to revolt 
 and make a bold stroke for all the Spanish 
 merchandize, etc., which he might then seize. 
 The King at once swallowed the glittering 
 bait, a plot was formed, and then the slave 
 returned on board. 
 
 On the 1st of May, in accordance with the 
 agreement made with the slavish interpreter, 
 the Christian King sent to the commanders 
 of the Spanish ships a message saying that 
 the jewels were ready as promised for tribute, 
 and would they come and fetch them. The 
 commanders with twenty-four men went,, 
 suspecting nothing; but Juan Carvalho turned 
 back again, for something excited his sus- 
 picions. The prince who had been cured 
 took the almoner or priest aside, and put him 
 away in his house from the rest of the party. 
 This incident confirmed or aroused the fears 
 of Carvalho, and he went back at once. 
 
 But the others proceeded; and the men had 
 hardly returned to the ships when cries and 
 lamentations were heard. The vessels were 
 warped in, and shots discharged at the houses. 
 Then Juan Serrano was perceived being led 
 wounded and bleeding to the beach, and tied 
 hand and foot by the natives. He implored 
 the Spaniards to cease firing or he would be 
 murdered; and when questioned as to what 
 had become of his companions he said that 
 they had all been massacred, and the interpre- 
 ter had sided with the enemy. He implored 
 the commander to ransom him; but this 
 Carvalho refused to do, and would not permit 
 a boat to go ashore. The petition of the 
 unhappy Serrano was disregarded, and the 
 squadron immediately set sail without him, 
 abandoning him cruelly to his fate. But 
 what became of him or how he was treated 
 the narratives of the voyage give no account. 
 
 Continuation of the Expedition. 
 
 After quitting Zebu, the Spaniards mustered 
 their men, and found that they had sustained 
 serious losses. In fact, there were not suffi- 
 cient to navigate the three vessels, and so it 
 was determined to burn the Concepcion, and 
 to divide her crew amongst the other two 
 ships, the Trinidad s.nd Vittoria. This was 
 accordingly done. All the merchandize and 
 
 749 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 stores were removed from the doomed ship, 
 and then she was destroyed. The squadron 
 proceeded S.S.W., and anchored in a port of 
 Mindanao. 
 
 Here the Spaniards were well received by 
 the King, and Pigafetta was permitted to see 
 the Queen, who lived by herself in a house on 
 the top of a hill. The palace was handsomely 
 furnished " with vases of porcelain, which 
 were suspended from the sides of the apart- 
 ments." Abundance of gold was seen in the 
 island, and valleys were indicated in which 
 quantities of the precious metal existed, which 
 could not be obtained for want of iron tools, 
 the labour of mining being otherwise too 
 severe. 
 
 From Mindanao the ships sailed for Borneo 
 (Burnd); and while pursuing the voyage, 
 reached another island called Palaloan, where 
 the crews were furnished with fresh victuals, 
 and became intoxicated with arrack. 
 
 The people and their king were very friendly, 
 and developed a wonderful taste for brass 
 wire, with which they bind fish-hooks. They 
 kept fighting-cocks, and betted freely upon 
 the birds in their contests ; but whether 
 this custom can be said to be an attribute of 
 savagery may now be regarded as an open 
 question. Some Western nations have since 
 imitated the savages in this respect. 
 
 Proceeding south west, Borneo wasi-eached, 
 and there an interview with the King was 
 sought and granted. The narrator gives a 
 long description of the reception. The monarch 
 sent his "prahus " for the visitors, and was very 
 friendly toward them. They took him pre- 
 sents of cloth and velvet, glass, and cups. 
 The Queen also received handsome gifts as 
 well as the chiefs. 
 
 The visitors had to wait some time until 
 the arrival of the elephants which had been 
 sent to convey them to the palace. The- 
 conductors of the elephants carried vases to 
 hold the expected presents; and, preceded by 
 twelve men, the Spaniards roJe on the 
 elephants to the house of the Prune Minister. 
 Then they rested until the next clay, and ap- 
 pear to have been made very comfortable 
 and generally well treated. 
 
 The Reception at Borneo. 
 
 Next day the visit was paid to ti e King, but 
 the visitors were not allowed to address them- 
 selves to His Majesty. The opt ration, as we 
 may call it, of gaining the King's ear was very 
 curious, and strongly suggestive of "red tape" 
 and the Circumlocution Office. 
 
 For instance, the petitiortr must not 
 address the King directly, bul he may in- 
 form a courtier of the stib.^iance of his 
 petition in a general way. The courtier 
 would then communicate with another of 
 higher rank, who would repeat tlie petition 
 to a brother of the Governor. A minister. 
 
 who was seated in a private apartment, having 
 communicated with the King's officer by 
 means of a sarbacane, in lieu of telephone, 
 the officer in waiting would then inform the 
 King. 
 
 The " reverence" was performed by making 
 a certain number of inclinations and raising 
 hands above the head, lifting first one leg 
 and then the other. If the petitioner tumbled 
 down we suppose he would be punished, but 
 the Spaniards managed to perform these 
 antics successfully, and were graciously re- 
 ceived ; and during their stay in Borneo they 
 appear to have been royally entertained. 
 The King was a Moor named Raja Surpada, 
 and very corpulent. He never went out of 
 doors except to hunt. 
 
 On Monday the 29th of July the Spaniards 
 were rather alarmed at perceiving more than 
 a hundred boats in battle array approaching 
 them. Fearing treachery, orders were given 
 to " up anchor;" and the ships set sail, leaving 
 an anchor in their hurry. A number of war- 
 junks also came out, and the Spaniards at 
 once opened fire upon them, taking four and 
 killing a number of men. The rest ran away: 
 some got aground, and the victors found a 
 prince amongst the captives, and much mer- 
 chandize. The junks had been upon an 
 expedition, and had conquered a place in 
 Java, commanded by the King's Captain- 
 General. 
 
 The monarch professed much regret that 
 his vessels had menaced the Spanish ships, 
 but assured the Commander that they had 
 meant no harm. The pilot, Juan Carvalho, 
 thereupon released the Captain-General with- 
 out consulting his colleagues in consequence 
 of receiving a heavy bribe. The pilot was 
 however punished indirectly, for the King had 
 retained his son as a hostage ; and had he not 
 accepted the bribe and permitted the Captain- 
 General to go free he might have exchanged 
 him for his own son and two other Spaniards. 
 
 So the pilot lost his son, but retained 
 sixteen of the chief men, and three women, 
 who had been sent on board for the Queen of 
 Spain. 
 
 The Voyage Continued. 
 
 When the ships quitted Borneo, the pilots 
 retraced their course, looking for a con- 
 venient place to refit. The voyage was not 
 without its dangers, for the vessels ran upon 
 a sandbank, and with difficulty were got off. 
 A sailor also in snuffing a candle accidentally 
 threw the burning wick into a cask of gun- 
 powder. But, we read, " he was so quick in 
 putting it out, the powder did not catch fire." 
 
 At length a convenient port was discovered, 
 and at it (Cimboubou) the ships anchored 
 for forty-two days, every one working hard 
 and according to his taste for the benefit of 
 the community, and for the fitting of the 
 
 750 
 
MAGELLAN'S GREAT VOYAGE. 
 
 ships. The babyrussa was found here, and 
 one specimen was killed. Crocodiles and 
 turtles were also encountered. The " ani- 
 mated leaves " of certain trees very much 
 surprised the voyagers, and they put some in 
 a box to watch them walking round. * 
 Insects were probably enclosed in those 
 leaves, for the trees are described as a { 
 species of mulberry, and perhaps silk-worms ! 
 and other insects had rolled themselves j 
 within. j 
 
 A junk was captured when the voyage was j 
 resumed, and the Governor of Pulavan was 
 found on board with his son and brother. 
 He was commanded to pay tribute and 
 ransom himself. He complied in a very 
 generous way, and received presents in ac- 
 knowledgment of his good faith. The captives 
 and the captors parted excellent friends. 
 
 Discovery of the Moluccas. 
 
 It would be tiresome to recapitulate all the 
 places visited by the ships in the search for 
 the Moluccas. We will therefore pass by 
 the numerous islands visited, and come j 
 direct to Tadore (or Tidore), where the ex- i 
 pedition was welcomed by the ruler. This i 
 island, and those near it, the Spaniards to 
 their great joy heard were the long sought 
 Moluccas, and a demonstration was made. 
 " Nor will it excite astonishment that we 
 should be elated, when it is considered that 
 we had been at sea now twenty-seven 
 months all but two days, and had visited an 
 infinity of islands in search of those we had 
 now attained." 
 
 The King assured the Spaniards that he had 
 been warned in a dream of their arrival, and 
 he had then consulted the moon, which con- 
 firmed him in his belief He also professed 
 friendship for the King of Spain, and would 
 be content to be his vassal. In proof of his 
 honesty of purpose, he decided to change the 
 name of the island from Tadore to Castiile, 
 out of compliment to the Spaniards. Nume- 
 rous and handsome presents were exchanged, 
 and peace reigned in the islands. Friendly 
 relations were thus immediately set up, and 
 the narrative of the voyage written by 
 Pigafetta gives minute descriptions of the 
 manners and customs of the natives, and of 
 the Spice Islands, Tarnate, Tadore, Mutir, 
 Marchian, and Bachian. The 'first-men- 
 tioned is the chief, he says, and generally 
 governs the other four, excepting Tadore, 
 which has its own king. The Europeans 
 here heard of a Portuguese, who had been 
 living in the island, and had married the 
 daughter of the King of Tarnate. He had 
 died only a few months previously, and his 
 name was curiously enough Francisco 
 Serrano. 
 
 Here the Spaniards received presents of 
 * The leaf insect — mantis. 
 
 some curious birds, now known as Birds of 
 Paradise. The sailors were informed that 
 these birds never fly, but were blown from 
 place to place by the wind. 
 
 Departure of the Spaniards for 
 Home. 
 
 At length the time came when the ships 
 had to leave, and orders were given for the 
 passage home. But the Trmidad was found 
 to be so leaky they were obliged to abandon 
 her, and the Vittoria sailed alone to Spain 
 with a crew of forty-seven Europeans, 
 thirteen " Indians," and the pilots of the 
 district. Various ships were attacked en 
 route, and from the Portuguese traders the 
 Spanish Commander took all that he re- 
 quired without asking leave. So the expe- 
 dition proceeded by Java and Sumatra, and 
 steered direct for the Cape. 
 
 But as Madagascar was reached, a serious 
 mutiny broke out amongst the crew. The 
 men wished to put in and refit, as the con- 
 dition of the Vittoria after so long a voyage 
 was not calculated to resist the weather 
 anticipated in the neighbourhood of the 
 Cape of Storms. But the Commander, hear- 
 ing that the Portuguese were there, did not 
 wish to run any risk with his old rivals, as 
 awkward questions might be asked as to 
 where they had been, and it would never do 
 to permit the Portuguese to know that the 
 once despised Magellan had found the strait 
 by which the world might be sailed around. 
 The officers, therefore, determined to steer 
 for the Cape of Good Hope ; and they suc- 
 ceeded in passing it on the 6th of May, 1522. 
 The men were all suffering terribly. Want 
 of food, and scurvy, despair, and mutinous 
 feelings were rampant in the single ship 
 which carried the decimated survivors of 
 the great expedition. The Cape de Verde 
 Islands were at length reached. And here 
 exhausted nature gave way. The Spaniards 
 put into the Portuguese harbour, trusting to 
 the generosity of their foes, and preferring to 
 risk the sentence of death rather than die of 
 hunger. 
 
 To what a pitch was the expedition re- 
 duced ! Nearly all the Europeans had died. 
 The gallant leaders had nearly all suc- 
 cumbed, and Sebastian del Cano was in 
 command. The almanac being consulted, 
 informed them that they had lost a day 
 during the voyage round the world. They 
 fancied the date was the 9th of July, when 
 they put into Santiago harbour ; it was really 
 the loth of the month. Sailing west with 
 the sun they naturally lost. We remember 
 in M. Jules Verne's tale, the trip "Around 
 the World in Eighty Days," was made against 
 the sun, and a day was gained. 
 
 Food was supplied to the starving crew ; 
 and no hint of the result of the voyage would 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 have transpired had not some of the men 
 offered spices in exchange for food. Sus- 
 picion was immediately aroused. They must 
 have visited the Spice Islands, the Mo- 
 luccas, the great end and aim of navigators 
 at home. The Vittoria must be detained. 
 The Commander, however, suspected the 
 Portuguese designs, and cut his cable. The 
 ship cleared out in safety, and all sail was 
 made northward. 
 
 The Return to Spain. 
 
 The remainder of the voyage lasted nearly 
 two months ; and Sebastian del Cano, the 
 surviving chief of the expedition, brought 
 the Vittoria, the type of Victory, into the 
 harbour of St. Lucar, on the 6th of Sep- 
 tember, 1522. The voyage round the world 
 had lasted nearly three years. During that 
 period — a long time in any men's lives, but 
 in those days when ships were "cockle-shells" 
 compared with the magnificent vessels now 
 afloat, astonishingly short — they had per- 
 formed wonders. Considering the necessary 
 delays, and the adverse winds on which the 
 vessels were dependent, the voyage of four- 
 teen thousand six hundred leagues of sea 
 was astonishing. 
 
 Of the crew who had left the Moluccas, 
 but eighteen remained to enter Spain. They 
 landed amid the acclamations of the popu- 
 
 lace, and walked barefooted to church, bear- 
 ing tapers in their hands, a thanksgiving 
 procession for their safe return after so many 
 dangers. 
 
 Sebastian del Cano was amply rewarded. 
 Many equally brave Spanish servants had 
 been treated with scorn and derision, remain- 
 ing unrewarded after all. But he received a 
 patent of nobility, with the globe for his 
 crest ; and round the globe was the proud 
 motto — 
 
 Primus me circumdedisti.* 
 
 One word respecting the Vittoria, the 
 surviving ship — a name almost sacred to 
 Englishmen in connection with our own 
 Victory, and her peerless Admiral. The 
 Vittoria, which had been all round the 
 world, and which had stood all the strains 
 of climate and of sea, was lost on a sub- 
 sequent voyage from St. Domingo in a very 
 commonplace manner. 
 
 And this is the end of Magellan's voyage 
 round the world. He lived not to see his 
 hopes reahzed ; but he pioneered the way to 
 posterity, and has left behind him a death- 
 less name as the first voyager who found the 
 open sea-way round the globe. 
 
 H. F. 
 
 * You first encompassed me. 
 
 752 
 
Cowling Castle, Stormed by Wyatt's Followei s. 
 
 WYATT'S INSURRECTION 
 
 THE STORY OF MARY TUDOR'S MARRIAGE. 
 
 The National Dislike to the Spanish Marrlage^An Insurrection proposed — Arrival of the Spanish Embassy — The 
 Insurrectionists' Final Meeting — The Leaders Depart to Arou«e the Country — Courtenay Fails to Meet the Carews — 
 Their Discomfiture — Wyatt Raises his Standard of Rebellion and seizes the Ships in the Medway — Suffolk seeks 
 refuge in a Hollow Tree ; is Finally Captured — Wyatt's Fatal Delay — Marches to Deptford — Mary Addresses the 
 Citizens of London in the Guildhall — Wyatt finds the Gates of London Bridge closed against him — Four Days of 
 Armed Suspense — Marches to Kingston — Enters London — Is Defeated and Imprisoned — Mary's Vengeance — 
 Wyatt is Executed — Philip comes at last, and the Marriage is Solemnized. 
 
 The Discontent of the People 
 Aroused. 
 HEN, in the autumn of 1553, it began 
 to be noised abroad throughout the 
 length and breadth of merrie England 
 that the Queen — Mary Tudor, who had only 
 recently succeeded to the throne — was bent 
 on marriage with Philip of Spain, the discon- 
 tent of the people began to be greatly stirred. 
 Persons of all parties were agreed that no 
 
 foreign prince should rule in England, and 
 least of all a Spanish prince ; for Spain at 
 that time was the greatest aggressive power in 
 the world, and seemed bent on subjecting every 
 other state to its sway. That the England 
 of the Plantagenets and Tudors should sink 
 to the despicable position of a mere province 
 of haughty Spain was not to be borne ; and 
 the sturdy English yeomen (whose plain 
 common-sense and love of justice saw through 
 753 ccc 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 all the juggleries of Henry the Eighth's 
 divorces, and were quite content that Mary, 
 his elder daughter, should succeed to the 
 throne at her brother's death) were yet deter- 
 mined that their Queen's husband ought not 
 to hail from foreign parts, and that they would 
 not submit to foreign rule. Still further, it 
 » was greatly feared that the Queen was bent 
 on re-establishing the Papacy in England, 
 and that Philip, her husband-elect, a Roman 
 Catholic to the heart's core, would urge her 
 on to this objectionable course. He would 
 establish the iniquitous Inquisition, suppress 
 the Parliament, bring over a large army of 
 ruthless Spaniards to oppress the people and 
 drain the resources of the country, while 
 last, but not least, the land would be purged 
 of Protestantism with fire and sword. To 
 Protestants the expected marriage seemed a 
 national calamity, and even those who were 
 not Protestants were as bitterly opposed to 
 the coming of the Spanish Prince, for they 
 feared foreign entanglements. 
 
 Discontent grew to such a degree that a 
 large and influential party, including even 
 members of the Queen's Privy Council, seeing 
 that Mary was so bent on having her own way 
 in this matter, began to consider the advisa- 
 bility of an insurrection to depose the Queen, 
 proclaim the complete independence of Eng- 
 land from all foreign interference, and to raise 
 her half-sister Elizabeth to the throne in her 
 stead. 
 
 Pamphlets setting forth these and similar 
 schemes, and pointing out the irremediable 
 disasters that would undoubtedly spring from 
 the Spanish marriage, were scattered broad- 
 cast throughout the land, some even finding 
 their way to the palace itself. 
 
 But nothing could turn Mary from her 
 design, and when, on the 8th of November, 
 Renard, the Spanish ambassador, presented 
 the formal proposal, and requested the favour 
 of a distinct reply, she wrung a reluctant 
 consent from her Council, and joyfully an- 
 swered, "Yes." 
 
 A week later, however, on the i6th, the 
 Speaker of the House of Commons presented 
 a petition, in which Her Highness was en- 
 treated to marry an Englishman, as a foreign 
 prince might lead the country into disastrous 
 wars, and betray the true interests of the 
 nation. 
 
 To thispetition Mary returned a veryhaughty 
 and indignant answer, in which she seems to 
 have ignored the fact that her marriage was 
 fraught with the most important political 
 issues, and declared her determination to 
 marry whom she pleased, no matter the 
 effect on the country. The Speaker Was 
 commanded to leave her presence at once ; 
 and in this summary manner she rebuffed 
 Parhament, and declared her still unaltered 
 determination to marry the Prince of Spain. 
 
 Still further, it was rumoured abroad, — and 
 rumour in this instance seems to have spoken 
 truth, — that on the evening ofth is eventful day, 
 the Queen eijtered her private oratory, accom- 
 panied by Lady Clarence and Renard, and 
 the three, kneeling before the altar, with eyes 
 fixed on the Host, chanted the " Vent Creator; " 
 and then, as the solemn notes died away into 
 silence, she rose from her knees like one in- 
 spired, and announced that she had implored 
 the direction of the Almighty in the matter 
 of her marriage, and that He had vouchsafed 
 her an answer, that it was His will she should 
 marry Philip. Thereupon she called Him to 
 witness that she solemnly plighted her troth 
 to that Prince. 
 
 It being now clear beyond all doubt that 
 Mary was determined upon the Spanish 
 marriage, several lords and influential gentle- 
 men began to hold private meetings in Lon- 
 don to discuss the details of a rebellion. 
 Noailles, the French ambassador, took a 
 large share in the plot, and promised the 
 help of France, for it was clearly to the in- 
 terests of that country to thwart the plans of 
 the Spanish sovereign ; there were also several 
 noblemen, representing various parts of the 
 country, who all promised their aid. The 
 rebellion, therefore, appeared to have great 
 chances of success. 
 
 The chief difficulty was with Elizabeth 
 herself. She warily refused to give direct 
 answers to any proposition made to her ; 
 while Lord Courtenay, the last representa- 
 tive of the White Rose, whose influence was 
 great in Devonshire and Cornwall, and who 
 was looked upon as the titular leader at least 
 of the enterprise, was weak, incapable, and 
 cowardly, and men were afraid to trust them- 
 selves too far with him. Much talking, there- 
 fore, took place, but little was done ; and 
 meantime the year drew nearer its close, and 
 the preparations forthe hated marriage were 
 hastily forced forward. 
 
 Arrival of the Spanish Embassy. 
 
 Early in December, the draft of the marriage 
 treaty was sent over from Spain, and the very 
 liberality of the articles were suspicious, inas- 
 much as men thought that the Emperor did 
 not intend to fulfil them. Mary's Council 
 sullenly accepted them; and there is little 
 doubt but that many thousands of gold pieces 
 crossed the seas with the treaty, and surrepti- 
 tiously found their way into the pockets of 
 various Lords and Commoners to expedite 
 the passing of the treaty and to soften their 
 hostility. Five new clauses, however, were 
 added, — to the effect that, though Phihp was 
 to have the title King of England, the govern- 
 inent should rest solely with the Queen, and 
 that no foreigner should be admitted to any 
 office in the Queen's household or in the state; 
 that the Oueen should not be taken abroad 
 
 754 
 
W YA TT'S INS [/J? /SECTION. 
 
 against her will ; that England should not be 
 involved in the Spanish wars; that the Prince's 
 connection with the realm should cease at 
 the Queen's death if no children were born r 
 and that all the Crown jewels and the Trea- 
 sury should remain entirely under Snglish 
 control. 
 
 These provisions being agreed to, the 
 treaty was approved, although it was abun- 
 dantly clear that the Parliament and Council 
 were as much opposed as ever to the match. 
 Immediately after this was accomplished an 
 embassy was sent over, consisting of Counts 
 Egmont and Lalaing, and M.M. de Courieres 
 and De Nigry, with a numerous retinue, their 
 duty being to publicly solicit Mary's hand in 
 marriage for Philip, and settle the details of the 
 marriage. The French threatened to oppose 
 their passage over the Channel ; but the ship 
 conveying them slipped across in the dark- 
 ness of the December night, and the ambas- 
 sadors pressing on with all speed, arrived in 
 London about Christmas time. 
 
 It was what is now called " old-fashioned 
 Christmas weather." The snow lay deep on 
 the ground, and the merry English boys 
 pelted the shivering sons of the south with 
 showers of snow-balls. 
 
 But when the ambassadors reached the 
 court,Count Egmont was so courteous that he 
 charmed all with whom he came into contact, 
 and the Emperor's emissaries received no 
 personal slight. Meantime messengers were 
 sent to Rome to procure the consent and 
 blessing of the Pope ; and it was fully ex- 
 pected that Mary and Philip would be wed 
 before the weeks of Lent arrived. 
 
 But though the opposition to the marriage 
 was somewhat smoothed over among the 
 Queen's courtiers and councillors, the dis- 
 content of the people grew every day. The 
 Emperor Charles, Philip's father, had gained 
 his object at last, they said. He had obtained 
 a footing in England ; and with his son as 
 its king, and at the head of a large foreign 
 army, he could easily disregard the terms of 
 the marriage-treaty, and rule England with a 
 rod of iron, even as he was ruling the Nether- 
 lands and Naples and other European states. 
 
 This was the opportunity of the insurrec- 
 tionists. A final meeting of the conspirators 
 was called in London, and certain gentlemen 
 undertook to raise levies in different parts of 
 the countrj'. ac d march onthe metropolis, which 
 was then to rise for itself. Lord Courtenay, 
 Sir Peter Carew and his brother Sir Thomas 
 Carew, with Sir Nicholas Throgmorton and 
 others to assist, were to arouse the men of 
 Devonshire and Cornwall, where Courtenay's 
 name was powerful ; Sir James Crofts was 
 to lead an expedition from the borders of the 
 Severn ; the Duke of Suffolk and his brothers. 
 Lords Leonard, Thomas, and John Grey, were 
 to marshal their tenantry in Leicester and 
 
 Warwickshire ; while last but not least. Sir 
 Thomas Wyatt, the younger son of Sir 
 Thomas Wyatt, the poet who had been a 
 great favourite of Henry VIII., was to raise 
 the men of Kent ; Noailles, on behalf of the 
 French king, promised to put a fleet to sea, 
 and hold some of the southern ports on behalt 
 of the conspirators ; and already, it was said, 
 Plymouth had agreed to receive a French 
 garrison until all fears of a Spanish marriage 
 had passed away. 
 
 At this lapse of time it is impossible to 
 estimate with accuracy the real motives of 
 the revolutionary leaders, but it seems more 
 than probable that Wyatt at least was actuated 
 solely by what he believed to be patriotic 
 impulses. Undoubtedly he was strongly of 
 opinion that the Spanish marriage was likely 
 to prove a grave national disaster. He appears 
 to have been a Papist, but having been at 
 the Spanish Court, he had obtained a strong 
 idea of its aggressive character and of the 
 cruelty and bigotry of the Spaniards; and he 
 was determined that his beloved land, should 
 not become the scene of their exploits. 
 
 The First Fatal Mishap. 
 
 In the second week in January, the various 
 leaders all departed on their several ways. 
 The Carews went offto the west ; Wyatt betook 
 himself to Kent ; and Lord Suffolk to his house 
 at Sheen, until he should hear from Wyatt ; 
 and his brothers to the Midland Counties. 
 And now occurred the first fatal mishap of 
 the rebellion, though it was so early that it 
 had hardly begun : Courtenay proved false 
 or cowardly, as had been feared. It had been 
 arranged that he was to follow the Carews to 
 Devonshire ; but they waited for him in 
 vain. After the others had gone, his natural 
 timidity overcame him, and he delayed his 
 departure. His vanity led him to believe 
 that after all the Queen would marry him, as 
 so many of the English people desired. He 
 was young, handsome, and of as royal descent 
 as herself — s'ky then should she not yield to 
 their wishes ? and if so, the rebellion would 
 ! not only be useless but a fatal mistake. He 
 decided for the present therefore not to throw 
 in his lot with the rebels, but to wait ; and 
 meantime he hung about the palace hoping 
 for a summons to appear before the Queen. 
 
 Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, one of 
 Mary's principal advisers, saw him frequently 
 at this time, and by degrees drew from him 
 certain remarks which led the astute prelate to 
 suspect the plot. His suspicions once roused, 
 he was not long 'n discovering the little that 
 Courtenay knew. The Carews were forth- 
 with summoned to reappear at Court ; but 
 they, not knowing how much Gardiner had 
 learned of their plans, excused themselves 
 from obeying the order. 
 
 It forced their hand, however, and caused 
 
 755 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 them to manifest their designs, which was 
 what Gardiner desired. They immediately 
 raised the standard of revolt, whereas it had 
 been arranged with Wyatt and Suffolk that 
 each should wait until all preparations were 
 complete, and the hated Philip had actually 
 appeared in England, when the popular dis- 
 content would be at fever-heat ; then all the 
 leaders were to simultaneously proclaim the 
 deposition of the Queen, and march to London. 
 As it was, the Carews avowed their designs 
 before their accomplices were ready, or they 
 themselves had completed theii" preparations. 
 Their endeavours to rouse the men of Devon- 
 shire met with but little success ; and mean- 
 time an order was sent express from London 
 to the sheriff of the county for their arrest. 
 Being warned of their danger, however, they 
 fled to Weymouth, and escaped to France. 
 Thus one part of the plot was stifled in its 
 birth, and the efforts of the other leaders 
 greatly discouraged. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of Courtenay's 
 vacillation and the Carews' failure, the others 
 resolved to persevere. Chief among these 
 was Sir Thomas Wyatt , and on the 22nd of 
 January, he called a meeting of his friends 
 and supporters at his castle of Allingham, on 
 the Medway. The resolve come to at this 
 meeting was that the gentlemen then present 
 should at once prepare thfir tenantry for 
 the rising, and three days later, they should 
 lead them to the ancient city of Rochester, 
 where Wyatt would unfurl the flag of 
 revolt and at once commence his march on 
 London. 
 
 This agreed upon, Wyatt at once sent 
 messengers to the Duke of Suffolk, who de- 
 parted instantly for Warwickshire ; where 
 he caused proclamations to be made, stating 
 that Phihp was close at hand, and urging upon 
 all men to rise in defence of their liberties. It 
 is said that on the very morning he left, 
 Gardiner — who had been following up the 
 tracesof the conspiracy, and who hated Suffolk 
 as a zealous Protestant — had caused the Queen 
 to send for Suffolk to court, meaning to 
 arrest him. 
 
 Suffolk grimly replied that he was on his 
 way to the Queen, and would certainly see 
 her ere long. And being booted and spurred, 
 the messenger was satisfied, and departed ; 
 but Suffolk, meaning not to see the Queen 
 till he could dictate terms to her, mounted 
 his horse and rode as fast as he could to- 
 wards his estates. 
 
 Wyatt Raises the Standard of 
 Rebellion. 
 
 While these events were transpiring in 
 London, Wyatt had raised his standard at 
 Rochester, and had caused copies of a stirring 
 proclamation to be widely disseminated, 
 
 declaring that Philip of Spain was about to 
 land in England, accompanied by a band of 
 aggressive foreigners, and that all true-hearted 
 and loyal Englishmen should rise to resist 
 them. His colleagues had not been idle ; and 
 it was not long before numbers of sturdy 
 yeomen and lusty labourers, armed for battle, 
 gathered round the revolutionary flag. 
 
 Wyatt's first enterprise was to seize the 
 Queen's ships in the Medway nearest to 
 Rochester, and appropriate their guns and am- 
 munition. This he did without much diffi- 
 culty ; and being accomplished, he set himself 
 to organize the force that the patriotic enthusi- 
 asm of the people had brought him. 
 
 From the first, Isowever, he met with much 
 disappointment, for certain gentlemen upon 
 whose support he had relied, failed to help 
 him at the critical moment. Such an one 
 was Sir R. Southwell, the sheriff of the 
 county, who had protested loudly against 
 the marriage in the House of Commons, 
 but at the last minute determined to restrict 
 his opposition within the bounds of loyalty. 
 Lord Cobham also, Wyatt's uncle, had been 
 expected to arrive with suppoi'ts, but he did 
 not come ; and a party of his servants who 
 had been trusted by messengers from France, 
 sent the despatches intended for Wyatt to 
 Gardiner. 
 
 In the meantime the news of the rising 
 had reached the startled Court, and Mary at 
 once despatched a herald to Rochester, to 
 proclaim pardon to the rebels, if they would 
 immediately disperse. Then she applied to 
 the corporation of the City of London for a 
 company of men to send against the insur- 
 gents. Five hundred soldiers being forth- 
 coming in answer to her appeal, she placed 
 them under the command of the Duke of 
 Norfolk, upon whose devotion to her cause 
 she had good reason for believing that she 
 could rely, and directed him to proceed against 
 the rebels without further delay. Mary also 
 wrote to Elizabeth, who was at Ashridge, 
 suggesting that she should, because of the 
 disturbance, take shelter with her in the 
 royal palace. This suggestion seemed more 
 of a command than a recommendation, and 
 no doubt the shrewd Elizabeth regarded it as 
 such, and kept out of the snare accordingly ; 
 for she would assuredly have been imprisoned, 
 had she placed herself in the Queen's power. 
 She replied that she was too ill to leave her 
 house, and hoped the country would soon be 
 quieted. 
 
 The herald Mary had sent rode as fast as he 
 could through the snow-laden lanes of Kent, 
 and arrived at Rochester early on Saturday 
 morning, the 27th of January. But the insur- 
 gents, who now held the town, would not per- 
 mit him to enter ; and he therefore read the 
 Queen's message aloud to them on the bridge. 
 For answer, Wyatt's followers merrily shouted 
 
 756 
 
IV YA TT 'S INSURRECTION. 
 
 that they had done no wrong, and therefore 
 they needed no pardon. 
 
 There was no longer any doubt but that 
 they meant to fight, and, having assured 
 himself of this, the herald returned to his 
 royal mistress. Thereupon the Duke of 
 Norfolk, with the five hundred men be- 
 longing to the city train-bands, instantly 
 set out to Rochester, hoping to crush the 
 insurrection in the bud, and prevent the 
 insurgents from reaching London. Rein- 
 forcements were also expected from Dover ; 
 Lords William Howard and Abergavenny 
 had exerted themselves and collected troops, 
 which, uniting together, would prove, it was 
 hoped, a formidable force. 
 
 " Wyatt for Ever ! We are all 
 Englishmen ! " 
 Through the bitter wind and srtow of that 
 terrible January weather, Norfolk marched 
 his men towards Rochester; and as the short 
 winter afternoon was waning into night, he 
 drew them up before the bridge, and placed 
 
 the cannon he had ^ 
 
 brought in readi- =^-:- - :£^' ^^"'^^t^- 
 
 ness to attack the " ->-;-^v5S^;;j:g:-^-r 
 
 town. But just at 
 the critical mo- 
 ment when he 
 was about to give 
 the order to fire, 
 and the matches 
 to discharge the 
 guns were already 
 glowing in the dull 
 twilight, one of his 
 captains galloped 
 to him through the 
 dusk, and ex- 
 claimed, in the greatest excitement, that the 
 men refused to fight, in fact, they were 
 changing their sides ! In haste the Duke 
 spurred his horse towards the troop, — 
 for he had been superintending the placing 
 of the guns, and could see the men but 
 indistinctly in the gloom, — and, to his indig- 
 nation and alarm, he saw the London 
 train-band, headed by their captain, march- 
 ing over the bridge, shouting, " Wyatt 
 for ever ! Wyatt for ever ! We are all 
 Englishmen ! " In the first impulse of his 
 wrath, Norfolk shouted to turn the guns 
 upon these new insurgents ; but on second 
 thoughts, he decided that discretion in this 
 case was certainly much the better part of 
 valour, and he therefore turned his horse, 
 and, followed by about a dozen of his more 
 immediate attendants, galloped as hard as 
 he could back to town. 
 
 Wyatt then came forward to meet his new 
 supporters, and, addressing them, said : "All 
 those who choose to tarry with us and oppose 
 the coming of these cruel Spaniards shall be 
 
 757 
 
 RoCilliSTER. 
 
 welcome ; but for those who do not care to 
 cast in their lot with us, let them go." It is 
 reported that very few acted upon this latter 
 alternative, and that the great majority joined 
 the revolutionary troops. 
 
 This success was of the greatest value to 
 Wyatt. Many men who had hitherto wavered, 
 now elected to join him, for the sympathy 
 with his cause was genuine and widespread. 
 Although Lord Cobham still held back, yet 
 his sons joined on the same evening after the 
 Duke of Norfolk's discomfiture; and several 
 thousand more men came in on the following 
 day, until W}'att's total force reached nearly 
 fifteen thousand men. 
 
 Mary sends Messengers to treat 
 WITH Wyatt. 
 Norfolk's appearance in London as a fugi- 
 tive, and with the news of the defection of his 
 troop, was the signal for widespread panic. 
 It was quite clear that the city was greatly 
 disaffected, and Mary knew not whom to 
 trust. Her immediate councillors, and even 
 the wily Renard, 
 advised that the 
 marriage should 
 be relinquished, 
 or, at all events, 
 postponed ; and 
 the Spanish am- 
 bassador offered 
 :neantime to bring 
 over an army from 
 the Low Countries 
 CO put down the 
 insurrection. But 
 Gardiner wisely 
 refused to counte- 
 nance this pro- 
 posal, for the appearance of foreign troops 
 would only increase opposition ; and it was 
 finally decided to send two gentlemen to con- 
 fer with Wyatt, and endeavour to come to 
 terms. This plan, which was almost entirely 
 Mary's own idea, was scarcely honest, for she 
 knew full well that the chief reason of the 
 people for rising was the Spanish marriage ; 
 and she was also determined to make no 
 peace with the insurgents that would post- 
 pone or stop the marriage. This attempt to 
 negotiate was simply a trick to gain time 
 until more definite measures for resistance 
 could be decided upon. 
 
 It had the desired effect ; for Wyatt, flushed 
 with his success, and thinking Mary was 
 about to give way, named outrageous con- 
 ditions, which enabled her to place herself in 
 a better position with the citizens of London. 
 She had directed her messengers to tell 
 Wyatt that she believed he thought himself 
 acting for the best interests of the country, but 
 nevertheless he was mistaken ; that she would 
 appoint suitable persons to confer with him 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 on the subject of the marriage ; and if it could 
 be proved that the marriage was inimical 
 to the good of the commonwealth, she would 
 not allow it to proceed. In reply, Wyatt 
 said that he would willingly talk over the 
 subject of the marriage ; that he was con- 
 vinced it would be harmful to the country ; 
 but that — and here was his mistake in using 
 words which could be so misconstrued against 
 him — he must have hostages for the due ful- 
 filment of the Queen's promise ; he must have 
 custody of the Queen, the Tower of London, 
 and four members of the Queen's Council. 
 
 But while he waited to hear what answer 
 was returned to these demands, Mary, seeing 
 her opportunity, prepared for her grand 
 stroke of defence. She received his answer 
 with flushed cheeks and frowning brow, and 
 when Count Egmont, the chief of Philip's 
 embassy, came to her and offered to deiend 
 her with his life, she bade him hastily 
 begone, for she feared the presence of 
 foreigners only served to irritate the people. 
 That afternoon, therefore, when the dusk 
 drew on, they quietly betook themselves 
 below bridge, where, in the Pool, some mer- 
 chant brigs from Antwerp were waiting to 
 go out with the tide, and when the next 
 morning dawned, behold the Spanish em- 
 bassy was gone ! 
 
 Mary addresses the Citizens of 
 London. 
 
 A few hours after Mary's interview with 
 Egmont, when the Antwerp ships were 
 quickly slipping down the Thames, the 
 Queen, composing her face to an aspect of 
 great grief and deep dejection, ordered out 
 the royal carriage ; and, attended by Bishop 
 Gardiner and a troop of soldiers, drove rapidly 
 through the streets to the Guildhall to speak 
 to the citizens. 
 
 The hall of the city fathers was densely 
 crowded ; many had come from motives of 
 curiosity, and a few from feelings of pity. But 
 boldly she entered the historic edifice, relying 
 on her womanly weakness as her strength ; for 
 she knew that none would then openly insult 
 a woman or take advantage of her. Standing 
 on the raised dais at the end of the hall, she 
 spoke to them in her rough masculine voice 
 that had in it a strange ring of her father's. 
 
 " Certain of our subjects have risen against 
 us," said she, "and we are told that the 
 cause thereof is our intended marriage with 
 ihe Prince of Spain. We have now come to 
 confer on the subject, and to hear the ob- 
 jections. But we cannot believe that these 
 are the only reasons for the rising ; for the 
 rebel leader, in answer to our message, has 
 demanded the custody of our person, and of 
 our Tower of London. We appeal to the 
 loyalty of the citizens of our great city to 
 preserve us from this insolent rebel who. 
 
 under pretence of opposing our marriage, 
 means to subdue the laws to his will, and 
 to give scope to rascals to make havoc and 
 spoil of your great city. As for our mar- 
 riage, we thought that so splendid an alliance 
 could not fail to be agreeable to our loyal 
 subjects. To us and to our Council it seemed 
 to promise great advantage to the common- 
 wealth. We only desire to marry for the 
 good of the country, for marriage in itself is 
 indifferent to us. We will call a parliament, 
 and the subject shall be duly considered in 
 all its aspects ; and if, after grave delibera- 
 tion, it should appear that the Prince of 
 Spain is not a fitting consort for us, we 
 promise, on our royal word, that we will 
 think of him no more." 
 
 This speech was clever, but cunning and 
 dishonest. Mary intended to mary Philip of 
 Spain at all hazards ; and shortly afterwards 
 she told his ambassador that she would sacri- 
 fice even her life rather than give him up. 
 Her sole object now was to gain time, and 
 prevent the junction of the London citizens 
 with Wyatt's forces. For this purpose she 
 cleverly twisted Wyatt's words, and used 
 them against him. News travelled but 
 slowly in those days, and the vaguest ac- 
 counts of Wyatt's movements had reached 
 the citizens. If his only object was to oppose 
 the Spanish marriage, well and good ; but 
 if, indeed, he was bent on sacking the city, 
 and letting loose a number of ruffians to 
 plunder and pillage, under pretence of oppos- 
 ing the marriage, that was quite another 
 thmg, and it would be necessary to keep the 
 rebels outside the city gates until such time 
 as their exact object was rendered quite 
 clear — especially as the Queen now promised 
 not to marry except in accordance with her 
 subjects' wishes and had sent the Spaniards 
 away. Further, there was the spectacle oi 
 womanly distress which Mary cleverly ex- 
 hibited, and which won the hearts of the 
 sympathetic British householders even then 
 as it has done many a time since in the jury- 
 box ! And this settled the matter. The 
 men shouted for the Queen ; and Mary left 
 the city feeling more secure than she had 
 done for many a day. On the morrow the 
 Lord Mayor enrolled twenty-five thousand 
 men for the express purpose of defending 
 the Queen and capital ; and orders were given 
 for the gate on London Bridge to be closed. 
 Thus Wyatt's great opportunity was lost, ' 
 Had he quickly followed up his first success, 
 and arrived close on the heels of the flying 
 Duke of Norfolk, he would have found the 
 bridge-gate open and all the citizens ready 
 to help him. But Mary had gained her first 
 important point by winning London to her 
 side ; and she accomplished this mainly by 
 duplicity and lies. 
 
 Had she but acted honestly in this matter, 
 
 758 
 
IVYATTS INSURRECTION. 
 
 and refused the Spanish match; had she 
 not misrepresented Wyatt's words ; had she 
 continued to consult the wishes of her 
 subjects, and throw herself on their love ; 
 had she but proved herself more of a 
 " good Englishwoman " and less of an intol- 
 erant bigot, her reign would have been 
 peaceful and prosperous, if not briUiant; and 
 her name, instead of being branded by the 
 dreadful epithet by which she is always 
 known, would have passed down to posterity 
 as a cherished if not as a proud memory, 
 like that of her half-sister, Elizabeth. But it 
 was not so ; and pity her as we may, there 
 can be no excuse for her deliberate deceit 
 and unpatriotic lying in this matter. 
 
 Doubtless many of her hearers thought so 
 when, not so very long after they applauded 
 her in the Guildhall, they saw the haughty 
 Spaniards throng the streets, and marked 
 the smoke of fearful martyr fires rise from 
 Smithfield Green. 
 
 The Rebels march to London. 
 
 But meantime Wyatt, not finding an an- 
 swer foi'thcoming to his demands, marched 
 on London. On his way some of his men 
 stormed Cowling Castle, the residence of 
 Lord Cobham. This appears to have been 
 an act of revenge ; for Cobham seems to 
 have played fast and loose with them, now 
 promising to assi:^t them, and anon turning 
 back. About two thousand of the rebels 
 blew up the castle gates, pillaged his house, 
 and carried him off prisoner to Wyatt. 
 This was on the last day of January ; and 
 next morning they marched on to Dartford. 
 The next day they reached Greenwich, their 
 march being entirely unopposed; and, indeed, 
 the country people appear to have welcomed 
 them everywhere, and bade them " God speed." 
 
 Rendered too confident by his success, 
 "Wyatt again waited at Greenwich, uncertain 
 whether to cross the river in boats at this 
 point and march to the metropolis by way of 
 Aldgate and Whitechapel, or to abide by his 
 former plan, and advance through Deptford. 
 Finally he decided to adopt this course, and 
 arrived at Southwark on Saturday afternoon, 
 the 3rd of February, to find his farther pro- 
 gress across London Bridge barred by the 
 closed gates. But more disheartening than 
 this was the news which reached him of 
 Suffolk's failure. 
 
 How Wyatt's Colleague, the Duke of 
 Suffolk, fared. 
 As agreed upon with Wyatt, the Duke 
 had proceeded to Leicester ; and on the 
 morning of Monday the 29th of January, he 
 had read a duphcate of Wyatt's proclamation 
 in the market-place of that town. He said 
 that the leaders of this movement were ready 
 to die in the defence of the Queen, and they 
 
 intended her no harm, but that they were 
 determined England should not fall under 
 foreign dominion. 
 
 The proclamation met with no success. 
 The people heard it with complete indif- 
 ference, and Suffolk was only able to collect 
 a hundred of his own retainers. 
 I Undeterred by this failure, however, he 
 I marshalled his men, and, clad in full armour, 
 I rode out of the town next morning at their 
 [ head. His plan was to proceed first to 
 ! Coventry, where he had friends. These 
 i gentlemen had undertaken to open the 
 I gates, and promote a rising; and on the 
 I previous day he had sent a servant to com- 
 i municate with his supporters, and stir up the 
 I people. But this servant made a mistake as 
 to the person whom he should first address, 
 and consequently news of the intended in- 
 surrection soon spread, until it reached the 
 ears of the Town Councillors. Their action 
 was prompt and decisive. The city gates 
 wei'e quickly shut, and the city watch was 
 placed in complete possession of the streets. 
 When therefore Suffolk arrived without the 
 walls in the dusk of the next afternoon, it 
 was to find the gates fast closed against him, 
 and all hope of help from the great War- 
 wickshire city completely gone. 
 
 News also now reached him that an 
 attempted rising of the garrison at Warwick 
 Castle had also failed ; his messengers said 
 the whole of the Midlands seemed opposed 
 to the insurrection. The popular feeling 
 seemed to be that, although the Spanish 
 marriage was a national disaster, yetrebellion 
 was not the proper plan to pursue in order 
 to oppose it. It was clear, therefore, that the 
 rising in the Midlands had failed. 
 
 With a heavy heart, Suffolk, ill in body 
 and anxious in mind, gave order to his men 
 to wheel round, and retreated with his party 
 to Astley Park, a small estate belonging to 
 him, and distant only a few miles from 
 Coventry. There he disbanded his men ; 
 and giving them such supplies of money and 
 food as he was able, he bade each one shift 
 for himself. One of his brothers rode at 
 once to the west, meaning to join Sir James 
 Crofts ; while Suffolk betook himself first to 
 the hovel of one of his retainers, where 
 he hid for a while, and then, fancying that 
 this was not sufficiently secure refuge, he 
 sought shelter in the hollow of a decaying 
 tree in the park. Here he remained for two 
 terrible days and nights without food. Bitter 
 indeed must have been his thoughts as the 
 hours dragged slowly by. His schemes had 
 all failed miserably. His daughter, Lady 
 Jane Grey, was a close prisoner in the Tower, 
 and he himself was compelled to hide like a 
 common felon. Faint, famishing, and almost 
 frozen with the severe cold, he watched the 
 I winter sun twice decline to the west, and 
 
 759 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 then, unable to bear his exposure longer, he 
 crawled forth to warm his numbed limbs at 
 the nearest cottage fire. Here he was dis- 
 covered by a party of the royal troops, who 
 had been despatched to scour the country 
 in search of him, and it is generally believed 
 that the man in whose cottage he first took 
 shelter betrayed him, and put the troopers 
 on his track. 
 
 He was at once conveyed to London ; and 
 thus it came about, that while Wyatt was 
 waiting outside London Bridge, his colleague, 
 upon whose efforts he had counted so much, 
 was taken to the Tower. A very different 
 journey thither from that he had intended to 
 take. He had hoped to go there it is true, 
 but as a conqueror, not as a prisoner. 
 
 And the hard features of Mary Tudor 
 doubtless lost for a while their grave look of 
 deep anxiety, as she learned that her enemies 
 were thus one by one putting themselves 
 into her power. But Wyatt yet remained 
 unconquered, and the hopes of the anti-papal 
 party were now centred in him. 
 
 Wyatt's Adventure on London 
 Bridge. 
 
 The news of Suffolk's failure seemed only 
 to give Wyatt fresh courage, and nerve him 
 to still greater efforts. His position was one 
 of great peril, and the support he had counted 
 upon receiving from the citizens of London 
 seemed likely to fail him. Yet no thought of 
 turning back appears to have entered his 
 mind. Possibly he thought it was as dan- 
 gerous to retreat as to go forward. 
 
 His difficulty was to cross the Thames. 
 In those days, no other archways spanned the 
 river between London Bridge and Kingston. 
 And London Bridge was a narrow lane of 
 houses, viith a strong gate near the South- 
 wafk side, while in the centre was a draw- 
 bridge. Wyatt at once saw the difficulty of 
 his situation. Having halted his men, he 
 gave strict instructions that no plundering 
 would be permitted, and then allowed them 
 to disperse for a while among the inhabitants 
 of the Borough, who received them with great 
 cordiality. 
 
 Across the grey water of the river he could 
 hear the hum of the excited populace on the 
 other side ; and as the dusk drew on, a boat 
 stole across, and he learned that a price was 
 set on his head. The Queen had proclaimed 
 him a traitor, and offere'd a substantial reward 
 for his capture. To show how much he 
 despised this, he caused his name to be graven 
 in large letters, and set them on his helmet. 
 Then as dusk deepened into night, he crept 
 out alone from his quarters and went down 
 to the gate. Peeping in the lodge window he 
 saw that the porter and his wife were cosy 
 beside their winter fire. He then cHmbed 
 
 over the gate, and crept along till he came 
 to the drawbridge. Below flowed the black 
 water; across the narrow chasm, standing out 
 clearly in the torchlight, he could see the 
 muzzles of several cannon; and behind them 
 crowds of armed men kept watch and ward. 
 
 It was quite clear that there was no chance 
 of obtaining a passage over London Bridge, 
 and Wyatt returned the way he came, un- 
 decided whether to march to Kingston, or 
 return to Deptford and cross by boats. 
 
 The next day occurred the only case of 
 pillage. Some of the men being near 
 Winchester House, the residence of Bishop 
 Gardiner, their dislike to him overcame their 
 feehngs of obedience, and, shouting aloud^ 
 they burst open the doors and overran the 
 house like an overwhelming flood. They not 
 only carried off his victuals, of which there 
 was plenty, but with unpardonable vandal- 
 ism they left not a book in his library 
 untorn, so that, says Stow, " men might have 
 gone up to their knees in leaves of books, 
 cut out and thrown underfoot." But their 
 leader was quickly on the spot, and with stern 
 voice bade them desist. They were in arms 
 against foreign oppression he said, and not 
 against their brethren, no matter what might 
 be their religious opinions. No harm was 
 intended even to Mary herself Let them 
 take heed therefore to do no one injury. 
 
 These words produced their effect, and 
 there were many citizens across the water 
 who began to doubt Mary's plausible words 
 at the Guildhall. They found that Wyatt's 
 troops were not bent on pillage, as she had 
 said they were ; they were behaving them- 
 selves quietly, and their leader was not acting 
 as the presumptuous rebel she had described 
 him. The prisons were not tampered with^^ 
 and no undue efforts to obtain soldiers were 
 resorted to. Beyond fortifying his position 
 by placing a battery of two guns at the 
 Southwark end of the bridge, and digging a 
 deep trench in front of the guns, and keeping 
 his other cannon in readiness, Wyatt did 
 nothing. His rebellion seemed indeed more 
 like an armed protest against the Spanish 
 marriage than an attempt to seize the crown 
 and produce lawless anarchy. Therefore 
 no attempts were made to engage Wyatt's 
 troops, and thus the second night closed in. 
 
 The situation was now becoming most 
 alarming; so much sympathy existed for the 
 rebels, that none ot Mary's generals could 
 trust their troops. Moreover, the attack 
 could only be made at considerable dis- 
 advantage, and they hesitated before preci- 
 pitating the quarrel, and deluging the streets 
 with their brothers' blood. Mary was alter- 
 nately furious and fearful; but in the main 
 her Tudor spirit kept her up, and her 
 obstinate resolve to marry Philip never fal- 
 tered. " Crown, country, even life itself;, 
 
 760 
 
iY iO iLXtCUTION, DELLAI ES T H -^ f THE LaDY ElIZ \LL1 H HAD MO Jr'AKT KOR LoT 
 
 IN HIS Insurrection. 
 761 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 shall go before I give up the Prince of Spain," 
 she said. 
 
 An Ominous Pause. 
 For four days did this anomalous state of 
 things continue. The capital was in a 
 situation of armed suspense. The Council 
 were divided, the people were suspicious, and 
 Wyatt's cause was slowly gaining ground. 
 To this ominous state of things had Mary's 
 perversity brought the country, which only six 
 months before, had resounded with joy bells 
 for her accession. At last, events decided 
 themselves, and a slight incident altered the 
 whole course of action. Late on Monday 
 afternoon, the 5th of February, one of 
 Wyatt's sentries seeing a boat belonging to. 
 the Tower pass up the river near the South- 
 wark side, challenged it, and receiving no 
 ansv/er, he fired, and killed one of the water- 
 men. Next morning Sir John Brydges, the 
 governor of the Tower, gave notice, that 
 in return he should open fire upon the 
 rebels. In alarm the people of South wark 
 crowded round Wyatt, beseeching him either 
 to protect them from the bombardment or to 
 flee. Wyatt, half beside himself with agita- 
 tion and indecision, resolved to march to ] 
 Kingston Biidge, and endeavour to force his 
 way across. Had he been able to have 
 remained quietly at Southwark, most likely 
 be would have been ultimately successful, for 
 the popular feeling was steadily rising in Ins 
 favour. But he was obliged to take decided 
 action, and, unfortunately for himself, he took 
 that which ended in his ruin. 
 
 His army seems to have sadly dwindled 
 down, and chronicles of the period stale that 
 only fifteen hundred men followed him out 
 of Southwark. His feelings of keen dis- 
 appointment may well be imagined from a 
 conversation he is reported to have held 
 with one, Master Dorell, a merchant from 
 London, whom he met on his way to the 
 west. "Ah ! good Master Dorell," said he, 
 " I pray you commend me unto your citizens; 
 and say unto them from me, that when liberty 
 was offered them they would not receive it; 
 neither would they admit me within their gates, 
 who for their freedom and for rescuing them 
 from the oppression offoreigners would frankly 
 spend my blood in this cause and quarrel." 
 
 The rebels reached Kingston at dusk, and 
 found half the bridge broken down, and a 
 strong guard posted on the opposite side. 
 Without any delay Wyatt loaded his cannon 
 and sent shot after shot through the twi- 
 light among his opponents. These doughty 
 warriors, not liking this state of things, 
 speedily decamped, and Wyatt set to work 
 to repair the broken bridge. This was 
 quickly done by means of barges, and before 
 midnight the little army had crossed and 
 were marching back towards the town. 
 
 76 
 
 As they tramped along, we imagine that 
 every one of those men must have, to an 
 extent, regretted their adventure. The 
 weather was very cold, the keen winter 
 blast cut their faces like whip-cord, and the 
 roads were ankle-deep in thick mud ; weary 
 and footsore, with sadly diminished numbers, 
 their project of taking London with scarce 
 more than a thousand men seemed the 
 wildest scheme that ever entered the mind of 
 man. Had it not been that they expected 
 support from the citizens within the gates, 
 they would surely never have inarched on. 
 
 Through the thick night the rebels struggled 
 slowly onwards to London. Most of the Kentish 
 men had returned home, and ihose who now 
 composed the troops were disalTected persons 
 from various parts of the country, including 
 the city-band who had gone over to Wyatt 
 at Rochester. They had cannon with them ; 
 and the heavy pieces of ordnance proved a 
 terrible hindrance to the celerity of their 
 movements ; once, near Brentford, one of the 
 guns was fixed firmly in the mud, and much 
 precious time — nearly two hours — was lost in 
 extricating it. 
 
 Preparations to resist the Rebels. 
 
 The news of Wyatt's coming preceded him, 
 and shortly after midnight the alarm was 
 given at the Oucen's I-'-i'ace that Wyatt was 
 near. Instantly drummrs were sent down 
 the dark and silent streets of the slumbering 
 city, and by four o'clock in the morning the 
 alarum had been beaten all round the town, 
 the train-bands had been aroused, and Pem- 
 broke, with ten thousand men, was posted at 
 Charing Cross ; and near Hyde Park Corner, 
 which had then recently become the property 
 of the Crown, was placed a strong body of 
 cavalry, upon whose loyalty Mary could rely. 
 
 These preparations being complete, the 
 troops waited quietly through the stormy 
 dawn for Wyatt's appearance. The morning 
 gradually grew lighter, but still he did not 
 come ; when at last, towards ten o'clock, the 
 v/eary watchers on the top of the hill above 
 Kniyhtsbiidge saw the advance guard of 
 the rebel forces straggling feebly along by the 
 open fields. It was clear that they were greatly 
 exhausted by their tiring night march, and 
 faint for want of food. The royal troops 
 waited until about half had passed, then 
 dashing down the lane by Hyde Park, they 
 cut the rebels completely in two, and those 
 who were lagging behind were either scattered 
 or slain. Wyatt, believing that his friends in 
 the city would welcome him at Temple Bar, 
 pressed forward along what is now Piccadilly. 
 A small battery had been placed at the point 
 which is now the top of St. James's Street ; 
 and as Wyatt appeared, the guns opened fire, 
 and a few of his men fell ; but undaunted, he 
 
WVATTS INSURRECTION. 
 
 pressed forward, and swerving to the right so 
 that the great mass of his opponents were on 
 his left, he made a short cut toward Charing 
 Cross. 
 
 Part of his band, led by Knyvett and the 
 sons of Lord Cobham, struck across the 
 Green Park, which had then been but re- 
 cently enclosed, meaning to attack the 
 Queen's palace from the west, while Wyatt 
 engaged the guards on the opposite side. 
 
 Until the rebel leader drew near Charing 
 Cross, not a blow was struck against him. 
 The citizens marshalled along the way let him 
 pass, and it was not until he reached what is 
 now Trafalgar Square, when he met Sir John 
 Gage and part of the Queen's Guard, that a 
 sword was drawn to oppose his progress. 
 But here the vain and weak-minded Cour- 
 tenay, — who was a source of weakness on 
 whichever side he elected to stand,— annoyed 
 at being put under Pembroke, and perhaps 
 ashamed to actually appear in arms against 
 the very party he had possibly helped to 
 raise, or perhaps acting from a definite plan 
 of treachery, turned his horse and hastened 
 to Whitehall, crying, " Lost ! lost ! all is over ! 
 Wyatt has conquered ! " 
 
 Some of the soldiers followed him, believing 
 what he said to be true ; and others, not 
 liking Wyatt's determined attitude, broke 
 their ranks also. They hurried to the Palace, 
 and meeting the men led by Knyvett and 
 the Cobhams at the entrance, were some of 
 them slain and others knocked over. Their 
 leader himself was rolled in the mud, so great 
 v/as the onslaught of the rebels. Others 
 rushed through the palace galleries crying 
 aloud that Pembroke and their other leaders 
 had betrayed them. 
 
 Shouts of " Treason ! Treason ! " and 
 " Lost ! lost ! all is lost ! " rang alarmingly 
 through the Palace. Mary, who had watched 
 the whole proceedings from her palace win- 
 dows, cried aloud, " I myself will fight and 
 die with those who die for me ! " It was the 
 crucial moment of the insurrection, and she 
 knew it. If the Londoners sympathised with 
 the rebels, as they seemed inclined to do, 
 Mary would indeed have lost both crown 
 and husband. But at this moment a strong 
 company of archers, who had been sent by 
 Pembroke to protect the Palace, made their 
 appearance, and their clouds of arrows did 
 great damage in the rebel ranks. A sharp 
 fight followed, in which Knyvett's party were 
 dispersed, though he himself, with the sons 
 of Lord Cobham, managed to cut their way 
 through and joined Wyatt. 
 
 Meanwhile the rebel leader was riding along 
 the Strand ; he had heard the noise of the 
 battle, and hurried on still faster to enter 
 Ludgate before it should be closed, and join 
 those within the city who had promised their 
 help. The men still divided their ranks to 
 
 let him pass, and hope rose high in his 
 heart as from along Fleet Street he could see 
 the gate open on Ludgate Hill ; his progress 
 was still unopposed, and, spurring their tired 
 horses, the rebels hastened forward. But 
 when within a few yards of it, to their keen 
 disappointment and indignation, they saw 
 the gate shut in their faces ! Lord Howard of 
 Effingham and a party of men had just arrived, 
 and, amid the murmurs of the bystanders, 
 they just closed the gate in time, and, in 
 spite of all opposition, they meant to keep 
 it fast. Wyatt still rode on, and knocked 
 for admittance ; but Lord William's angry 
 voice replied, " Begone traitor ! thou shalt 
 not enter here ! " 
 
 Wyatt's reply was the sad and melancholy 
 answer of a brave man who felt keenly the 
 faithlessness of those upon whom he had 
 relied, — " I have kept touch," he said, which 
 in the English of to-day we may suppose to 
 mean, " I have done my part, and fulfilled my 
 share of the bargain ; I can do no more." 
 And then, wearied and exhausted, he sank 
 on a seat near the Belle Sauvage Inn, and 
 waited the course of events. 
 
 Wyatt's Last Fight. 
 
 Along the Strand sounded the shouts of 
 Pembroke's victorious troops. " Down with 
 the draggle-tails ! " they cried, alluding in 
 derision to the clothes of Wyatt's wearied 
 troopers, which had been soiled by the mud 
 and dirt of their midnight tramp. The men 
 who had followed him thus far, seeing now 
 how hopeless the struggle had become, betook 
 themselves to the narrow lanes and streets 
 on either side, and in a few moments Wyatt's 
 force had vanished like the morning mist 
 before the sun, scarce a score or so remaining 
 round their leader. 
 
 In a minute more, up came Knyvett with 
 the poor remnant of his men, and, seeing 
 that to remain outside Ludgate would be 
 instant death, the little band resolved to turn 
 back by the path they had come, hoping to 
 cut their way through any opposition, and 
 that the city train-bands would let them pass 
 as before. They were successful until th^iy 
 reached the Temple, for the men were des- 
 perate, and they quickly disposed of such 
 opposition as they met with. But Pembroke's 
 cavalry, having dispersed the half of the 
 rebels they had cut off at Hyde Park, were 
 now riding up, and although Wyatt and his 
 friends charged them with a dauntless cou- 
 rage which deserved success, they were soon 
 overpowered. 
 
 Clarenceux, one of the Queen's heralds, 
 rode up to Wyatt and persuaded him to 
 yield, saying, " Sir, the day has gone against 
 you ; it were best to yield, and not surcharge 
 yourself with the blood of your brave followers. 
 
 763 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 Sir Maurice Berkeley was near, and to him 
 Wyatt surrendered his broken sword. Berke- 
 ley took him up on his own horse and 
 galloped rapidly to Westminster. Knyvett, 
 Brett, and the Cobhams, were also taken 
 back to Westminster. At Whittehall stairs 
 they were placed in a barge and conveyed to 
 the Tower, Mary, still at her window in the 
 palace, seeing them go. 
 
 Brave Wyatt ! we pity him as we see him 
 pass along the silent highway to his prison 
 and his doom. He had "kept touch;" he 
 had done what he could ; he had done all a 
 brave man dared do to preserve England 
 from that 
 which he held 
 tobe a national 
 disgrace and a 
 national dis- 
 aster, and this 
 was the end ! 
 Perchance as 
 he stepped into 
 the .boat, he 
 caught a 
 gli mps e of 
 Mary's exul- 
 tant, spiteful, 
 and hard-fea- 
 tured face as 
 she saw her 
 captives within 
 her grip. For 
 himself, he 
 knew what he 
 might expect 
 — a short shrift 
 and the heads- 
 man's block ; 
 but for his 
 loved England 
 to be at the 
 mercy of a 
 bigoted Span- 
 iard, — this was 
 the bitter 
 thought that 
 burned within 
 the patriot's 
 soul ; forWyatt was a patriot, though possibly 
 a mistaken one. He acted as he thought for 
 the best. His purpose was honest, and his 
 designs were sincere. Had his confederates 
 resembled him in his bravery and disin- 
 terested earnestness, — had they supported 
 him as they led him to expect they would, — 
 had he not hastened when he should have 
 waited, and waited when he should have 
 hastened, — had he even retrieved his errors 
 by leaving his dismounted gun at Brentford, 
 and thus arrived in town two hours earlier, 
 before Pembroke had had time to make 
 his preparations, — had he been even a few 
 minutes before Ludgate was closed, though 
 
 his friends in the city should have seen that 
 it was not closed, he might have been suc- 
 cessful, and Philip of Spain would revjr have 
 come to England, and possibly the Protestant 
 martyrs would never have been burned. 
 
 But Wyatt's attempt had failed, and the 
 Queen's party was triumphant all along the 
 line. Shortly afterwards Sir James Crofts was 
 captured in Wales, and thus all the insurgent 
 leaders were either in prison or in exile. 
 
 Queen Mary's Bitter Revenge. 
 And now Mary, having obtained a signal 
 victory, began to show her vengeance. Her 
 
 temper was 
 aroused and 
 she meant 
 to make short 
 work of her 
 opponents. 
 
 The next day 
 a proclamation 
 was circulated 
 thro ughout 
 London, to the 
 effect that all 
 persons who 
 sheltered any 
 of the insur- 
 gents would at 
 once be put to 
 death. The 
 rebels were 
 given up in 
 scores, and all 
 theprisonsand 
 churches were 
 speedily filled. 
 Every one who 
 had taken part 
 in the rebellion 
 against the 
 Prince of 
 Spain was to 
 be hung; every 
 one, indeed, 
 who could by 
 any chance be 
 thought to op- 
 pose the Queen's wishes was to suffer. 
 Courtenay, Elizabeth, and even the gentle 
 Lady Jane Grey, who had taken no part 
 whatever in this rebellion, — all were to die ! 
 Renard and h is Spanish master had triumphed, 
 England nowwould beunder their thumb,and 
 joyously the wily ambassador wrote home the 
 news. All along he had been urging Mary to 
 deeds of cruelty, and now she listened to him. 
 A few months previously. Lady Jane Grey 
 and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, had 
 been convicted of high treason, and although 
 they had nothing whatever to do with this 
 last trouble, yet she was a descendant of 
 Henry VH., and her father, with others, had 
 
 764 
 
WYATT'S INSUREECTION. 
 
 called her queen for nine days, so the sooner 
 she and her husband suffered death the better 
 now. On the very day after her victory, Mary 
 signed the warrant for their execution, and 
 they were beheaded on the I2th of February. 
 
 The same gloomy day saw Courtenay con- 
 veyed to the Tower ; and Commissioners 
 having been appointed to try by martial law 
 the wretched prisoners with which the jails 
 were crowded, the terrible slaughter com- 
 menced. Gibbets were erected all over the 
 city, and in nearly every street a ghastly 
 corpse swayed horribly to and fro in the dull 
 February twilight. 
 
 According to 
 the old his- 
 torian Stow, 
 no less than 
 eighty men 
 were thus gib- 
 beted on the 
 first day, while 
 twe n t y- two 
 were sent into 
 Kent to suffer. 
 Others fol- 
 lowed on suc- 
 ceeding days, 
 sothatbetween 
 the 7th of Feb- 
 ruary and the 
 12th of March 
 four hundred 
 " common 
 men " were ex- 
 ecuted and 
 many others 
 afterwards. By 
 these severe 
 measures Mary 
 hoped to strike 
 terror into the 
 hearts of her 
 people. 
 
 The leaders 
 were — most of 
 them — pre- 
 sumably re- I 
 
 servedformore 
 
 important trials by jury, but in fact, to extort 
 confessions from them which should incrimi- 
 nate Elizabeth, Renard — or the Emperor, 
 Philip's father, through him — seemed bent 
 on procuring her death, and also Courtenay's. 
 Until they were decapitated, Mary could never 
 rest secure on her throne, they urged. But the 
 Lords forming the Queen's Council insisted 
 most pertinaciously upon the due observance 
 of all forms of law, and, indeed, were most 
 bitterly opposed to even the imprisonment of 
 Elizabeth in the Tower. She was the next heir 
 to the throne, and was not to be thus hghtly 
 accused to gratify the present sovereign's 
 ill-feeling. For a few months Elizabeth had 
 
 resided at her home at Ashridge in Bucking- 
 hamshire; and although it was surmised that 
 suggestions had been made that she should 
 allow the insurgents to act in her name, yet 
 her acceptance of such suggestions could 
 not be in the slightest degree proved. 
 
 Nevertheless, immediately upon the dis- 
 comfiture of the insurrectionists, Mary sent 
 a troop of horse to conduct her half-sister to 
 Loiidon. The instructions were to bring her 
 alive or dead. She was reported to be ill, and 
 Mary sent the Court physicians to see if her 
 illness were real or feigned ; and if real to 
 tend her, and cause her to be comfortably 
 
 moved when 
 
 ^5= I SO 
 
 Philip of Spain (^ from a painting ly Tiliaii). 
 
 out of danger. 
 The soldiers 
 reached Ash- 
 ridge at night, 
 after the Prin- 
 cess had re- 
 tired to rest ; 
 and being de- 
 nied an inter- 
 v i e w, they 
 forced their 
 way into her 
 bed chamber. 
 " Is the haste 
 great that 
 you could not 
 have waited 
 until morn- 
 ing?" she said 
 leebly, as they 
 ranged them- 
 selves in her 
 room. 
 
 She was un- 
 mistakably so 
 ill . that the 
 rough troopers 
 seemed asham- 
 ed of their 
 orders, and an- 
 swered that 
 " they were 
 sorry to see her 
 in so bad a 
 case ; " to which she replied with a quiet 
 touch of humour, " And I am not glad to 
 see you here at this time of night." 
 
 Elizabeth became worse, and she was un- 
 able to bear the journey until the i8th, when 
 they set out in obedience to the Queen's 
 commands, and proceeded by easy stages to 
 London. The first day she travelled_ no 
 farther than Redbourne ; on the second night 
 she rested at Sir Ralph Roulett's house at 
 St. Albans ; the third night she slept at the 
 house of a Mr. Dodd at Mimms ; and on the 
 fourth she stayed at Highgate, proceeding to 
 Westminster by way of Smithfield and Fleet 
 Street. Meantime the trials and gibbetings 
 
 76s 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HISTORY. 
 
 hcd been continued, but of the more illustrious 
 prisoners, only Suffolk had at present sufifered. 
 He was sentenced on the 17th of the month, 
 and executed on the 23rd, — repentant, it is 
 said, for his share in the insurrection, but as 
 firm in his Protestant faith as his unfortu- 
 nate daughter, Lady Jane Grey, had been 
 before him. 
 
 Elizabeth enters London. 
 
 1 1 was on the day of Suffolk's death Eliza- 
 beth reached London. Well might she look 
 around with horror and dismay. The 
 streets were ghastly with gibbets, and every 
 public building was covered with the heads 
 of England's bravest sons. The people, sub- 
 dued, sullen, and silent, moved about with 
 stealthy tread and suspicious aspect, as if 
 dreading what might next occur ; and though 
 crowds followed Elizabeth to the Palace at 
 Westminster, few, if any, dared to cheer her. 
 
 To give the lie to all lying reports about 
 her, the haughty Princess ordered her litter 
 to be opened that all could see her as she 
 passed. 
 
 She was dressed in white, and her pale, 
 proud features, worn by sickness, bespoke 
 the pity of the bystanders. When she 
 arrived at Westminster, she desired to see 
 the Queen; but Mary refused her request, 
 and commanded her to be confined in a 
 small suite of rooms in a remote corner of 
 the Palace, where, strictly guarded, she re- 
 mained until a confession — true or false 
 it mattered little — implicating her could be 
 wrung from Wyatt or his colleagues. 
 
 But the confession never came; for in all 
 probabiHty Elizabeth was far too shrewd to 
 have done anything which could be proved 
 against her. It is not too much to assume 
 that a Princess, who in after years exhibited 
 such powers oi finesse, would, in the difficult 
 position in which she was now placed, have 
 managed to take care of herself. 
 
 Wyatt made a few vague admissions, 
 which, however, could only be twisted into 
 definite charges by the most bloodthirsty 
 partisans. No doubt Mary would have 
 sacrificed her on the slightest pretext, if for 
 no other reason than that she was "Boleyn's 
 daughter ; "but the Lords of Mary's Council 
 would have none of this. They insisted on 
 the plainest proof, and would not allow 
 her even to be committed to the Tower for 
 "safety." 
 
 Affairs were in this critical condition 
 when, the rebellion being over, the Emperor's 
 ambassadors, Counts Egmont and Horn, ar- 
 rived to hasten forward the marriage, and to 
 press for the execution of Elizabeth. While 
 her head remained on her shoulders, they 
 said, Mary was never safe. They also 
 brought over large supplies of Spanish gold, 
 which were judiciously distributed among 
 
 influential gentlemen of the Court and 
 Council, and all outward opposition to the 
 Spanish marriage by the Council was with- 
 drawn. On the 6th of March, Mary was 
 formally betrothed, Egmont acting as Philip's 
 representative. But the country was far 
 from being satisfied, and every day fresh 
 indications came that the people were still 
 opposed to Philip as the Queen's husband ; 
 in London especially the insurrectionary 
 spirit continued vigorous. The people, how- 
 ever, made no further attempt at organized 
 insurrection, for the chief opponents of Philip 
 sided too much with France, and they feared 
 a French occupation even more than the 
 Spanish marriage. 
 
 As the time drew near for Philip to land, 
 it was said that French cruisers swept the 
 seas wherever his vessels would be likely to 
 sail; and many sympathisers with Wyatt 
 having passed over to Paris, it was rumoured 
 that another insurrection was hatching there: 
 whether this was the case or not, it came to 
 nothing, and Mary and her evil counsellors 
 were left free to pursue their course. 
 
 Wyatt was pressed to confess that 
 Elizabeth was deeply implicated in the 
 rebellion, and flattered with hopes of pardon 
 if he would make such a statement. Lady 
 Wyatt was also urged to entreat her husband 
 to make such confession, but all to no 
 purpose. The brave man said nothing 
 which could clear the way for the Court to 
 proceed against the Princess. It appears 
 that he did give evidence against Elizabeth 
 to some extent, but not nearly sufficieo for 
 the Crown to demand her execution. 
 
 Wyatt proving obdurate, his trial was 
 fixed for the 15th of March. It was brief, 
 and to the point. The evidence against him 
 was clear and decisive, and he pleaded 
 guilty to the indictment. But he said that 
 Courtenay had instigated the plot, and that 
 Elizabeth had thanked him for his efforts. 
 He was speedily condemned to death ; and 
 was privately given to understand, that he 
 might still be pardoned, if he would 
 incriminate Elizabeth. 
 
 On the day after his trial, the Princess was 
 brought belore the Council, and severely 
 cross-questioned. The result was, that 
 Bishop Gardiner demanded her imprisonment 
 in the Tower. Several of the Lords de- 
 murred to this ; whereuDon the wily Bishop 
 cunningly asked which of them would be 
 responsible for her safe keeping and safe 
 conduct. No one being prepared to accept 
 so great a responsibility, a reluctant consent 
 was at last wrung from them ; and next 
 morning — the 17th of March — Lord Sussex 
 and the Marquis of Winchester waited upon 
 her to take her to the Tower in a barge. They 
 could not trust the people to convey her by 
 land. 
 
 766 
 
/ F VA TTS INSURRECTl ON. 
 
 The summons came upon the Princess quite 
 suddenly, and at the dreadful news, Elizabeth 
 stood aghast, as if turned to stone. For the 
 moment she lost her self-command. It was at 
 the Tower that her mother had been beheaded, 
 and that Lady Jane Grey had recently fallen. 
 Those who entered its terrible walls rarely 
 came out again, except to take that journey 
 from whence no traveller returns ; and to her 
 the words sounded like a knell. At last that 
 which she had feared so long had suddenly 
 come. The inveterate hatred of her half- 
 sister was to have its way at last. 
 
 Then the Princess begged for a little delay 
 while she wrote to the Queen. Her im- 
 prisonment was Gardiner's and Renard's 
 doing, it could not be Mary's alone. So she 
 sat down and wrote her letter, pleading that 
 she should not be condemned unheard and 
 without clear proof, and stating and restating 
 her complete innocence. As for the letter 
 the " traitor Wyatt " was reported to have 
 sent to her she denied receiving it, or having 
 sent any letter to the French King. 
 
 The letter was taken to Mary, but had no 
 effect upon her stony heart. It only irritated 
 her the more ; and Lord Sussex was sharply 
 rated for presuming to allow Elizabeth to 
 write it. " Boleyn's daughter" was therefore 
 taken to the Tower ; and at last Mary began 
 to hope that her troubles were over. Philip 
 would come soon now, and then a heaven 
 upon earth would begin for her. 
 
 Execution of Wyatt. 
 
 Every effort having failed to cause Wyatt 
 to make a confession seriously implicating 
 Elizabeth, it was determined to execute him. 
 Day after day executions of prisoners con- 
 nected with the rebellion had taken place, until 
 the country was sickened with the slaughter , 
 and even Mary's earnest supporters began 
 to counsel moderation, and to urge that 
 her policy of vengeance should be stopped. 
 Parliament had met on the 2nd of April, and 
 had passed the Marriage Bill. Philip was 
 certainly coming, and the match was now as 
 certain as anything mortal could be. Why 
 then should the gibbeting of poor peasants 
 continue, whose only crime had been that 
 they had done as their lords required them? 
 The representation of the Council had some 
 effect ; and it was decided to execute the 
 leaders, and to leave the rest. 
 
 On the nth of April, therefore, Wyatt was 
 brought from his cell, and confronted with 
 Courtenay ; but the words which passed at 
 the interview are so differently reported by 
 conflicting accounts, that it is literally im- 
 possible to tell what really was said. But 
 when he came upon the platform he ad- 
 dressed the people in loud tones, and said 
 distinctly that the Lady Elizabeth had no 
 part nor lot in his rebellion. 
 
 767 
 
 " I assure you, good people," said he, 
 " that neither the Lady Elizabeth nor my 
 Lord Courtenay were privy to my rising or 
 commotion before I began." To which, 
 one who was attending him on the scaffold 
 replied in loud voice, — "Beheve him not, 
 good people, he has confessed otherwise 
 before the Council !" 
 
 And Wyatt again cried, — " That which I 
 say now is true." 
 
 Then commending his spirit to Him who 
 gave it, the brave man laid his head on the 
 block, and in a few moments was no more. 
 Whether his last words, completely excul- 
 pating Elizabeth and Courtenay were ab- 
 solutely true or not, they had the desired 
 effect ; for no sooner was Wyatt beheaded 
 than his confession was the talk of the town. 
 The tribunals declared that there was ab- 
 .solutely no evidence against Elizabeth; and 
 the feeling of the people was such that it was 
 simply impossible for Mary to procure a 
 death-sentence against her sister. 
 
 It is very likely that Wyatt's words were 
 true in spirit if not in literal fact ; for although 
 Elizabeth would no doubt have been quite 
 content to profit by the insurrection had it 
 been successful, yet it is very probable she 
 neither instigated nor aided it. As for 
 Courtenay, he was but a weak fool, who was 
 only told as much as was thought absolutely 
 necessary, and very likely knew but little of 
 the plot, otherwise the wily Gardiner would 
 have drawn from him more than he did. 
 
 But it is of little moment now to discuss 
 the actual guilt of these persons, except 
 to point out the fact that by his confession 
 Wyatt probably preserved to the nation the 
 Princess, who afterwards became "Good 
 Queen Bess." Perhaps as he mounted the 
 scaffold, and the affairs of earth began to 
 fade from his view, he had a glimpse of 
 what might be the effect of his words ; and 
 rather than purchase life at the cost of im- 
 plicating Elizabeth he would die at once, 
 and preserve her to the nation. Even the 
 sight of the dreadful block and the heads- 
 man's axe could not alter his resolve. 
 
 It being impossible to commit Elizabeth, 
 she was removed from the Tower on the 19th 
 of May, and conveyed to Woodstock, where 
 she was kept in confinement for a long period. 
 This was the utmost that the feeling of the 
 people would permit. Courtenay was first 
 sent to Fotheringay Castle, and finally sent to 
 Germany, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, who 
 had been associated with the Carews, was 
 tried on the 17th of April, and by reason of 
 the boldness with which he defended himself, 
 the jury found him " Not Guilty," — for which 
 they were imprisoned and heavily fined ! The 
 jury no doubt intended this verdict as a 
 rebuke against the cruelty with which the 
 insurrectionists were punished. As such Mary 
 
EPOCHS AND EPISODES OF HlSlORY. 
 
 felt it. She kept her room for three days, 
 being ill with inortitication or ill-temper, — 
 perhaps both. 
 
 Philip comes at last ! 
 
 All obstacles being now removed, the final 
 arrangements were made for the reception of 
 the royal bridegroom. He came reluctantly, 
 for he was not in love either with the lady 
 cr the land over which she ruled. Never- 
 theless he came at the bidding of his father, 
 and because he believed in the political 
 advantages to be derived from the marriage. 
 Early in July he set sail, accompanied by a 
 fleet of a hundred and fifty vessels, which 
 brought over a force of six thousand soldiers 
 as escort. At Mary's own request, he also 
 brought over his own cook, for fear of being 
 poisoned — so great was the dislike even now 
 entertained to the marriage ; and under his 
 doublet he wore a shirt of mail. Truly these 
 were merry arrangements for a joyful bride- 
 groom to make ! The marriage must have 
 been very delightful to him ! 
 
 The voyage was long and bad, and the 
 Prince suffered horribly from sea-sickness. 
 But at length, on the 19th of July, he arrived 
 at Southampton, and learned that the Queen 
 was waiting for him at Winchester. As soon 
 as the vessel dropped anchor within sight of 
 the town, a royal barge, in which were many 
 of the English nobility, approached ; and 
 Philip was rowed to land. The weather 
 was still bad, and, completely exhausted 
 by the voyage, he waited for three days at 
 Southampton before proceeding to Winches- 
 ter. Each morning as his lattice was opened, 
 his eyes met the cheerful view of the steady 
 downpour with which we are still familiar on 
 some of the days of our English July. This 
 did not tend to raise his royal spirits ; and 
 used as he was to sunny Spain, he must have 
 thought he had indeed come to an unpleasant 
 country. Nevertheless, he conducted himself 
 with the most scrupulous politeness. The 
 rain continued for some days ; and it was 
 in the midst of a storm of wind and wet 
 that, on the 23rd, he rode to Winchester. 
 Arrived there, he proceeded at once to the 
 cathedral, to pray at the altar and bow 
 before the holy wafer, no doubt asking 
 blessings upon his marriage. Then, when 
 the watery twilight had sunk into the 
 darkness of a wet summer night, he was 
 conducted into the presence of his elderly 
 
 bride, who was- staying close by at the 
 Bishop's palace, and doubtless awaiting his 
 coming with anxious delight. And so at 
 length the so-called lovers met 1 
 
 Two days afterwards, en the 25 h, the 
 marriage was solemnized with great splen- 
 dour in the cathedral, by Garduier, Bishop 
 of Winchester. And thus th^ Spanish mar- 
 riage, upon which Mary had fi ced her heart 
 with such pertinacity, and for which she had 
 poured out the blood of her subjects like 
 water, became an accomplished fact. 
 
 Unhappy queen ! She soon found that 
 this marriage, which she hoped would open 
 to her the gates of an earthly paradise, only 
 brought her more unhappiness, even as many 
 of her warmest supporters had feared that it 
 would. The people at Court seemed pene- 
 trated with a gloomy distrust, and the people 
 in the country were sullen and suspicious. 
 Philip's cold and reserved manners were 
 repugnant to the English nobles, and their 
 dislike to the marriage grew. Moreover it 
 was soon shown that, notwithstanding his 
 influence in the coming of Cardinal Po'e 
 and the reconciliation of England with 
 Rome, Philip was to have little or no real 
 power in the govei-nment of the country. 
 The Parliament, slavish though it was, would 
 not consent to his being crowned King of 
 England ; and though he scattered his gold 
 withalavish hand, he still remained obnoxious 
 to the people. After a few short but eventful 
 months, he returned to Spain, and but seldom 
 visited England again. 
 
 So ends the story of Wyatt's insurrection 
 and Mary Tudor's marriage, and it throws a 
 strong light upon subsequent events in 
 English history. Disappointed at her wedded 
 unhappiness, Mary doubtless regarded her 
 misery as a punishment of heaven for the 
 heresy within her realm, and she burned all 
 the more martyrs to appease the wrath of an 
 offended God. But her first fault, and, per- 
 haps, in some respects one of her greatest, was 
 when she deliberately broke faith with her 
 people in this matter of the Spanish mar- 
 riage. She then commenced that course of 
 alienation from her subjects which, in a few 
 months, changed her from one of the most 
 popular to one of the most execrated, if not 
 the most execrated, of English sovereigns ; 
 and her name now comes down to us cursed 
 with a terrible epithet, which will cling to it 
 for all time. •. F. M. H. 
 
 Tee End. 
 
 Lt Mr '08 
 
^' Written on mt original, but attractive plan . . . extractijtg and present- 
 ing to the reader in a condensed though telling for7n, the gems of history^ 
 
 Chicago Tribune. 
 
 EPOCHS AND EPiis OF HISTORY: 
 
 A BOOK OF 
 
 Memorable Days and Notable Events. 
 
 FULLY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 nPHIS Work will consist of a number of Narrative Sketches, each complete in itself, setting forth in a 
 ' popular form those important events in the History of Nations by which the various periods are 
 defined and characterized, or which are important links connecting one period with another. While 
 Battles, Sieges, and warlike operations generally will be duly recorded, just prominence will be "-iven 
 to those peaceful triumphs of Invention and Discovery, of Statesmanship and organizing genius, that 
 have contributed, equally with the noisiei events of Military and Naval Warfare, to influence the destin\' 
 of nations and define the character of various periods. The range of subjects necessarily extends to all 
 ages and countries. Each separate event will be treated completely in connection with its causes and 
 consequences ; the object being to present a number of pictures and striking scenes, which, interesting 
 and instructive when viewed apart from each other, will, wlien grouped together, give a general idea of 
 the nature and character of the different aspects exhibited by the nations at various'periods, as the 
 course of the \iorld's history rolls onward " down the ringing grooves of change." 
 
 A FEW OF THE SUBJECTS TREATED WILL BE: 
 
 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION: The Story of the Anti-Corn Law League ; UNIONISTS AND C:ON- 
 FEDERATES : The Story of the American Civil War ; THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS : or, The Times of the Crusaders- 
 INDIA S AGONY : The Story of the Mutiny of 1857 ; THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND ■ The Story of Kn.rlisl,' 
 Protestantism; WILKES AND LIBERTY: The Story of a Popular Victory ; THROUGH SLAUGHTER TO ' \ 
 •IHRONE: The Story of the Co:tp d' Etat : METHODISM: The Story of a Great Revival; FROM ALMA TO 
 SKISASTOPOL: The Story of the Crimean War ; THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE : The Story of a Speculative Mania • 
 WHAT CAME OF A " NO POPERY CRY " : The Story of the Gordon Riots of 1780 • THE ELIZABETHAN -VGE •' 
 •J-he Story of a Great Time ; C/ES ARISM IN ROME : The Story of the Fall of the Republic 
 
 One large octavo volume, 780 pp., beautifully bound in cloth, - %^ 00 
 
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