London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1889

All rights reserved

[CONTENTS]

CHAPTER I
PAGE
Devonshire and Foreign Service[1]
CHAPTER II
For King and Parliament[15]
CHAPTER III
The King's Commission[33]
CHAPTER IV
The Parliament's Commission[46]
CHAPTER V
The Treaty with the Irish Nationalists[56]
CHAPTER VI
Cromwell's New Lieutenant[69]
CHAPTER VII
General-at-Sea[83]
CHAPTER VIII
Governor of Scotland[95]
CHAPTER IX
The Abortive Pronunciamento[116]
CHAPTER X
The Neglected Quantity[129]
CHAPTER XI
The Bloodless Campaign[144]
CHAPTER XII
On the Wings of the Storm[160]
CHAPTER XIII
The Uncrowned King[178]
CHAPTER XIV
The Father of his Country[195]

[CHAPTER I]
DEVONSHIRE AND FOREIGN SERVICE

In the middle of September, 1625, the great expedition by which Charles the First and Buckingham meant to revenge themselves upon the Spaniards for the ignominious failure of their escapade to Madrid was still choking Plymouth harbour with disorder and confusion. Impatient to renew the glories of Drake and Raleigh and Essex, the young King went down in person to hasten its departure. Great receptions were prepared for him at the principal points of his route, and bitter was the disappointment at Exeter that he was not to visit the city. For the plague was raging within its walls, and while holiday was kept everywhere else, the shadow of death was upon the ancient capital of the west.