Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/84



is the first description of Oliver Cromwell by an eye-witness that history relates; the writer is a courtier, and the scene, the :

And here is a characteristic outburst by the man himself:

A great democrat, this Oliver, and a mighty fighting man; but, above all, a man who looked upon himself as chosen by the Lord to the winning of His battle. After defeating the king at, he wrote to his friends in this wise:

After the battles were all won, and was dead and  defeated at Worcester, Cromwell ruled England for five years as protector. A short, but surely an amazing, interlude in the long line of kings and queens from to.

Charles fled to after having surrendered to Cromwell's army at Holmby House. In a book written for young people by S. R. Keightly, “” (Harper, $1.50), this period of time is given with much interest and sympathy. Cromwell is, of course, one of the chief characters. And there is one of Captain Frederick Marryat’s stories that pictures the fortunes of a Royalist family at about the same time, “.”

There are two stories by Beulah M. Dix that you must certainly try to get. One is “,” and it pictures the atmosphere and the manners of the day with the greatest felicity, meanwhile telling a delightful tale; the other is “,” with scenes in Holland and England. This book is perhaps even more charming reading than the first. In both, the author has striven to create the very feel and look of those passed days, and in both she has succeeded to a remarkable degree.

A different type of book, but accurate historically and full of adventurous incidents, is one of Henty’s books for boys that covers the period from the outbreak of the civil war to the execution of the king, and defeat of the second Charles. It is called “,” and relates the fortunes of a Roundhead and a Royalist youth who fought on opposite sides.

I dare say many of you have read Dumas’ story “,” and remember the thrilling adventures leading up to the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, and the moving narration of the king's death. Dumas does not bother particularly about historic accuracy, to be sure, but he tells a splendid story, and he gets into it much of the fire and fury of the age.

One of G. P. R. James’s novels takes up the Royalist cause with immense fervor. Its title is “,” and it walks right into the Roundheads in the roughest kind of a way. It is full of vigorous portraiture, however, and very well worth the reading. In a case of this sort, one wants to see what people have to say on either side. Between the two, you get a pretty fair notion of how those who really lived through the business came, each of them, to be so sure that he was right and the other fellow wrong.

So, after you have read James’s book, turn to Amelia Barr’s “.” Here Cromwell stands a true hero before you, with his stout captains about him, and in his heart the dream of a great Commonwealth of Saints. This dream failed, and after Cromwell’s brief rule, England returned to the Stuarts, to king-rule and an extravagant court, to jewels and May-poles, and all the fun and frippery which the stern Puritan would have naught to do with. Nevertheless, this failure of Puritanism and democracy was only apparent. In truth, the bulk of Englishmen remained serious and purposeful, free of mind, determined to take their full share of the government, men who respected them