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98 to convulsion; for the tranquillity of the last few months was again to be disturbed by political commotion.

It matters little to the progress of this narrative to trace how the reins of government fell, rather than were taken, from the hands of the incompetent Richard; and how the dull caution and straight-forward devotion to expediency of George Monck replaced the Stuarts on the throne: thus giving a nation the fairest opportunity that was ever thrown away of adjusting ancient privileges and existing rights, of limiting power, yet preserving authority, and of realising those many theories of liberty and justice which to this day remain theories. But England at the period of the Restoration was, like a child escaped from school, weary of restraint, impatient for amusement, and little inclined to balance the future against the present. The whole island became one festival, to welcome the return of the man whom they had banished, and whose father they had executed. Heaven knows, consistency ought to be valued, were it only for its rarity.

Lord Avonleigh was at once liberated from his imprisonment, well prepared to be considered, and to consider himself, a martyr to the cause of loyalty; and as the services of the rich nobleman, who