commissioners from Scotland, just as his
father might have done. These hopes, however,
were soon at an end, for Montrose,
having raised a few hundred exiles in
Germany, and landed with them in Scotland,
found that the people there, instead of joining
him, deserted the country at his approach. He
was soon taken prisoner and carried to Edinburgh.
There he was received with every
possible insult, and carried to prison in a cart,
his officers going two and two before him.
He was sentenced by the Parliament to be
hanged on a gallows thirty feet high, to have
his head set on a spike in Edinburgh, and his
limbs distributed in other places, according
to the old barbarous manner. He said he
had always acted under the Royal orders,
and only wished he had limbs enough to be
distributed through Christendom, that it
might be the more widely known how loyal
he had been. He went to the scaffold in a
bright and brilliant dress, and made a bold
end at thirty-eight years of age. The breath
was scarcely out of his body when Charles
abandoned his memory, and denied that he
had ever given him orders to rise in his behalf.
Oh, the family failing was strong in
that Charles then!

Oliver had been appointed by the Parliament
to command the army in Ireland, where
he took a terrible vengeance for the
sanguinary rebellion, and made tremendous
havoc, particularly in the siege of Drogheda,
where no quarter was given, and where he
found at least a thousand of the inhabitants
shut up together in the great church: every
one of whom was killed by his soldiers,
usually known as OLIVER'S IRONSIDES. There
were numbers of friars and priests among
them, and Oliver gruffly wrote home in his
despatch that these were " knocked on the
head" like the rest.

But, Charles having got over to Scotland
where the men of the Solemn League and
Covenant led him a prodigiously dull life,
and made him very weary with long sermons
and grim Sundays, the Parliament called
the redoubtable Oliver home to knock the
Scottish men on the head for setting up
that Prince. Oliver left his son-in-law,
Ireton, as general in Ireland in his stead (he
died there afterwards), and he imitated the
example of his father-in-law with such goodwill
that he brought the country to subjection,
and laid it at the feet of the Parliament.
In the end, they passed an act for the settlement
of Ireland, generally pardoning all the
common people, but exempting from this
grace such of the wealthier sorts as had been
concerned in the rebellion, or in any killing of
Protestants, or who refused to lay down their
arms. Great numbers of Irish were got out
of the country to serve under Catholic
powers abroad, and a quantity of land was
declared to have been forfeited by past
offences, and was given to people who had
lent money to the Parliament early in the
war. These were sweeping measures; but, if
Oliver Cromwell had had his own way fully,
and had stayed in Ireland, he would have
done more yet.

However, as I have said, the Parliament
wanted Oliver for Scotland; so, home Oliver
came, and was made Commander of all the
Forces of the Commonwealth of England, and
in three days away he went with sixteen
thousand soldiers to fight the Scottish men.
Now, the Scottish men, being then—as you
will generally find them now—mighty
cautious, reflected that the troops they had
were not used to war like the Ironsides, and
would be beaten in an open fight. Therefore
they said, " If we lie quiet in our trenches in
Edinburgh here, and if all the farmers come
into the town and desert the country, the
Ironsides will be driven out by iron hunger
and be forced to go away." This was, no
doubt, the wisest plan; but as the Scottish
clergy would interfere with what they knew
nothing about, and would perpetually preach
long sermons, exhorting the soldiers to come
out and fight, the soldiers got it in their
heads that they absolutely must come out
and fight. Accordingly, in an evil hour for
themselves, they came out of their safe position.
Oliver fell upon them instantly, and
killed three thousand, and took ten thousand
prisoners.

To gratify the Scottish Parliament, and
preserve their favour, Charles had signed
a declaration they laid before him,
reproaching the memory of his father and
mother, and representing himself as a most
religious Prince, to whom the Solemn League
and Covenant was as dear as life. He meant
no sort of truth in this, and soon afterwards
galloped away on horseback to join some
tiresome Highland friends, who were always
flourishing dirks and broadswords. He was
overtaken and induced to return; but this
attempt, which was called " The start," did
him just so much service that they did not
preach quite such long sermons at him
afterwards as they had done before.

On the first of January, one thousand six
hundred and fifty-one, the Scottish people
crowned him at Scone. He immediately took
the chief command of an army of twenty
thousand men, and marched to Stirling. His
hopes were heightened, I dare say, by the
redoubtable Oliver being ill of an ague; but
Oliver scrambled out of bed in no time, and
went to work with such energy that he got
behind the Royalist army and cut it off from
all communication with Scotland. There was
nothing for it then, but to go on to England;
so it went on as far as Worcester, where the
mayor and some of the gentry proclaimed
King Charles the Second straightway. His
proclamation, however, was of little use to
him, for very few Royalists appeared, and on
the very same day two people were publicly
beheaded on Tower Hill for espousing his
cause. Up came Oliver to Worcester too,