Parting of King Charles and his children.
The next morning very early, the king called Mr. Herbert to help him to dress, and said it was like a second marriage-day, and he wished to be well dressed, for before night he hoped to be in heaven.
While he was dressing, he said, “Death is not terrible to me! I bless God that I am prepared.” Good Bishop Juxon then came and prayed with Charles, till Colonel Hacker, who had the care of the king, came to call them.
King Charles I. on the Scaffold.
Then the king walked to Whitehall, and as he went one soldier prayed “God bless” him. And so he passed to the banqueting house, in front of which a scaffold was built. King Charles was brought out upon it; and, after speaking a short time to his friends, and to good Bishop Juxon, he knelt down and laid his head upon the block, and a man in a mask cut off his head with one stroke.
The bishop and Mr. Herbert then took their master’s body and head, and laid them in a coffin, and buried them in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, where several kings had been buried before.
CHAPTER L.
THE COMMONWEALTH.—1649 to 1660.
How the Scotch chose Prince Charles to be their King; how Oliver Cromwell quieted Ireland; how the Scotch put the Marquis of Montrose to death; how Prince Charles’s army was beaten by Cromwell at Worcester; how the Prince escaped to France after many dangers; how the English went to war with the Dutch, and beat them; how Cromwell turned out the parliament, and was made Protector; and how he governed wisely till his death.
As none of the people either in England, Scotland, or Ireland, had expected King Charles would be put to death, you may suppose, my dear little Arthur, how angry many of them were when they heard what had happened.