"The omens were against me from the first," he said suddenly. "I was crowned in white, like a shroud, and at my coronation sermon the text was: 'Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a crown of Eternal Life'; then my flag was blown down at Nottingham—and the other day, at what they call my trial, the head fell off my cane."
This speech showed that his mind still ran on worldly things; but Juxon seized hold on a portion of his words with which to give him comfort.
"Thou hast been faithful unto death," he said, "and to-day will enter on to Eternal Life."
"I said I would die rather than betray the Church of England," answered Charles, "and I have redeemed it to the letter."
As he spoke there entered unceremoniously Colonel Hacker, one of the three officers appointed to convey him to Whitehall.
Charles rose with such majesty and undaunted dignity that the stout Puritan was, for a moment, abashed, and held out his warrant in silence.
"I submit to your power, but I defy your authority," said the King contemptuously, and with that clapped on his hat and followed the officer, Juxon following him.
When they reached the fresh air Charles felt a new vigour, a certain excitement; in all the depth of his fall and the bitterness of his humiliation, in all the extreme of his failure and the mightiness of his defeat, he had his own inner triumph. He might be broken but he was not bent; he died a King, not yielding a jot of his rights, bequeathing to his son a lost heritage, but one uncurtailed by any concession of his. He was dying for his beliefs—because he would not forgo them they were killing him; he found satisfaction in that thought.
When he came to where his escort of guards waited, he cried out in his usual tone of authority, "March on apace!"
It was now about ten o'clock; the heavy air had hardly lifted over London, but it was pleasant in the Park, and from the bare fields and hedgerows beyond came a waft of winter freshness; all the view was blocked by people and regiment upon regiment of soldiers, all motionless and expressionless.