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174 their's and the glory of England together. Their reigns had been most pacific, and their few warlike attempts unsuccessful; and yet what devotion and attachment they inspired!—fortune, liberty, and life, were yielded, and joyfully, in their cause. Wrongs were forgiven; violated privileges and outraged laws forgotten; and nothing but the still mightier spirit of fanaticism could have been opposed with any success to the spirit of loyalty. It was Charles's bigotry that cost him his crown. If he had given up the bishops, uncurled his hair, and spoken through his nose, he might have been an absolute monarch in all but name. As it was, he contrived to die a martyr, and to be mourned with a degree of personal affection which one, now-a-days, scarcely expects from the nearest and dearest friends.

Evelyn was but one of many. Reckless, loving pleasure and ease; with much of worldly wealth and aggrandisement to tempt him on the other side of the question; yet was he heart and soul devoted to the Stuarts—prepared to sacrifice his own enjoyment, risk his life; in short, to be all but actually disinterested; and, indeed, his only drawback to that, was his cordial hatred to the Roundheads.