Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/86

72 appears in this book, with many another famous leader. The Quakers had their own troubles, and many of them came to America at this time, but, on the whole, the Roundhead government allowed great spiritual freedom to the people.

Touching on events in the three countries of Holland, England, and America is an interesting juvenile by S. H. Church, entitled “Penruddock of the White Lambs” (Stokes, $1.50); and Emma Marshall has a little book, “The White King’s Daughter,” which tells in a moving way the fate of the Princess Elizabeth at Carisbrooke. Another excellent juvenile with Royalist sympathies is Ronald MacDonald’s “God Save the King” (The Century Co., $1.50).

Another of Scott’'s novels comes in here, “Woodstock.” This is a romantic tale, set at Woodstock, the royal demesne, and the time is after the king's flight. The story is royalist in feeling, but the hero is a fine and generous Roundhead. The view of Cromwell is interest- ing. Scott loves a setting like that of this old and picturesque castle, and he has evoked the whole situation between the divided English peo- ple with wonderful success.

0. V. Caine’s book “Wanderer and King” tells, in a free way for boys, the story-of Charles II's loss of the battle of Worcester, and his strange wanderings. It is good reading.

A most delightful book that gives many glimpses of English life during all the vears be- tween 1622 and 1685 i1s “John Inglesant,” by J. H. Shorthouse. The book 1s a work of great talent, a tender, saintly, exquisitc story of a rare character. It is not a story of adven- ture, yet you will find yoursclves reading it with absorption. For it is so living and real, and especially so lovable. Though in no sense his- torical, it is valuable because it makes clear the strong undercurrent of thought and feeling that brought about the extraordinary historical changes of the times. And, in any case, it is a story you should know, and which you will prob- ably re-read (MacMillan, $1).

I have suggested a good many books for this special period in England’'s story because it is of such importance in the life of the nation. You will probably not be able to find them all, but from the list you can surely get enough to give you a very clear conception of both sides of the struggle.

After Naseby, England is the England of to- day. The long, long struggle between the peo- ple and their overlords, which we saw beginning in the days of Harold, had finally scen the tables turned. Henceforth, the English Government was a government by the people. There was no

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longer any question of the king’s controlling Parliament. Much remained to be done bhefore frecedom was a firmly established fact; but it was quickly coming into practical life.

Milton was the great literary genius of the Puritan spirit, and perhaps its finest lower. Read some of his solemnly splendid poetry in con- junction with the novels and stories I have men- tioned. He wrote a great deal beside poetry. But his prose works have lost their value to-day, since the ideals they uphold are no longer in dis- pute.

You will find that there was much that was hard and narrow in Puritan England, as there was in Puritan America. There is something far more taking about the gay and dashing cavalier, with a pretty word for a pretty maid and a ready sword for any enemy of the king’s, than in his sober opponent, who was generally more given to finding fault than to praising. Just the same, the dashing followers of Rupert and Maurice were dashed to pieces by that same quiet fellow and his like. And many things in the England of that time really deserved a lot of faultfinding, when you come down to it.

Death came to the great Cromwell with a wild storm that blew down mighty trees and tore the roofs from houses. A fitting death-song for that fighter's spirit, which was not ready to depart, seeing much work still waiting to be done.

Richard Cromwell took his father's seat, and held there for two ycars, a weak and worthless man, while the country was in turmoil about him. And then the people, tired out with contentions and disturbances, rows between the army and Parliament, and the entire incompetence of this new protector, called Charles II to the throne.

The old constitution was restored, the vote of the convention being “that according to the an- cient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons.”

On the twenty-fifth of May, 1660, Charles landed at Dover. A mighty multitude welcomed him, cheering him all the way to Whitehall.

But Cromwell’s old army gave no cheer of welcome. In gloomy silence, rank on rank, they watched the king as he reviewed them at Black- heath. Even careless Charles could not but shiver before these dark and stern men who had once thrown all the royal pomp of England into the dust and sent him flying at Worcester. But their work was done. Without fuss or fury, they returned to their farms and their trades, to become industrious workers in the fields and shops of England. And the last chapter in the wonderful story of Cromwell had been told.