Page:The Harveian oration 1905.djvu/22

 owing to the interruptions by travel and the well-known events associated with the Civil War, his ordinary professional pursuits and avocations must have been seriously interrupted. From the year 1633 he appears to have devoted much of his time to Charles and to the retainers of the Court, and from 1636 to have been personally attached to the King in his various expeditions. He is said, however, to have kept himself aloof from all the intrigues and dealings of the party with which he was connected, and to have held himself exclusively to the discharge of his professional duties. Harvey informs us, that after the rupture between Charles and the Parliament, he attended the King, not only with the consent but by the desire of the Parliament. His coolness and remarkable want of solicitude on the occasion of the is familiar history, when he sat under a hedge in charge of the Prince and the Duke of York, and read a book, until a bullet from a great gun grazed the ground near him, which made him remove his station. Whatever the short-comings of his Sovereign may have been, the sentiments between him and Harvey seem to have been those of mutual love and respect; while, as is well known, Charles, as well as the Queen and Court, took a deep personal interest in his investigations and dissections. The incident of the young nobleman who, owing to a fracture of his ribs on the left side, had a large opening in that region, through