Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/69

 summer of his eleventh year, in May 1610, there doubtless failed not news and talk, How the Great Henry was stabbed in Paris streets; assassinated by the Jesuits;—black sons of the scarlet woman, murderous to soul and to body.

Other things, in other years, the diligent Historical Student will supply according to faculty. The History of Europe, at that epoch, meant essentially the struggle of Protestantism against Catholicism,—a broader form of that same struggle, of devout Puritanism against dignified Ceremonialism, which forms the History of England then. Henry the Fourth of France, so long as he lived, was still to be regarded as the head of Protestantism; Spain, bound up with the Austrian Empire, as that of Catholicism. Henry’s ‘Grand Scheme’ naturally strove to carry Protestant England along with it; James, till Henry’s death, held on, in a loose way, by Henry; and his Political History, so far as he has any, may be considered to lie there. After Henry’s death, he fell off to ‘Spanish Infantas,’ to Spanish interests; and, as it were, ceased to have any History, nay began to have a negative one.

Among the events which Historical Students will supply for Robert Cromwell’s house, and the spiritual pabulum of young Oliver, the Death of Prince Henry in 1612, and the prospective accession of Prince Charles, fitter for a ceremonial Archbishop than a governing King, as some thought,—will not be forgotten. Then how the Elector Palatine was married; and troubles began to brew in Germany; and little Dr. Laud was made Archdeacon of Huntingdon;—such news the Historical Student can supply. And on the whole, all students and persons can know always that Oliver’s mind was kept full of news, and never wanted for pabulum! But from the day of his Birth, which is jotted down, as above, in the Parish-register of St. John’s, Huntingdon, there is no other authentic jotting or direct record concerning Oliver himself to