of this to pollute His Honour than those who had even forced Him to it like those malignant and damned Spirits who upbraid unhappy Souls with those Crimes and ruines to which they themselves have tempted and betrayed them But the heaviest Censor was Himself for He never left bewailing His Compliance or rather Connivence with this Murder till the issue of His Blood dried up those of His Tears By the other Bill He had as some censured renounced His Crown and granted it to those men who at present exercised so Arbitrary a Power that they wanted nothing but length of time to be reputed Kings and this they now had gotten But the more Speculative concluded it an act of especial Prudence for the King made that an evidence of His sincere intention to oblige His People and overcome the Malice of His Enemies with Benefits which the Faction would have usurped and by the boldness of the attempt ingaged the People to them as the only Patrons of their Liberty And they were furnished with an Example for it by their Confederates in Scotland who indicted an Assembly without the King's leave and continued it against His pleasure and as all imitations of Crimes exceed their first pattern it was conceived these men whose furies were more unjust and so would be more fierce intended to improve that Precedent to the extremest guilt The Bill was no sooner signed but they hastened the Execution and so much the more eagerly because the King desired in a most passionate Letter delivered by the Prince to the Lords that that Excellent Soul which found so much Injustice on Earth might have the more time to fit it self for the Mercy of Heaven But this favour which became Christians to grant agreed not with the Religion of his Adversaries and therefore the second day after he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill in his Passage thither he had a sight of the Archbishop of Canterbury whose Prayers and Blessing he with a low Obeisance begged and the most pious Prelate bestowed them with Tearss where with a greater presence of mind than he had looked his Enemies in the face did he encounter Death and submitted his neck to the stroke of the Execucutioner He was a person of a generous Spirit fitted for the noblest enterprises and the most difficult parts of Empire His Counsels were bold yet just and he had a Vigour proper for the Execution of them Of an Eloquence next to that of His Master's masculine and most excellent He was no less affectionate to the Church than to the State and not contented while living to defend the Government and Patrimony of it he commended it also to his Son when he was about to die and charged his abhorrency of Sacrilege His Enemies called the Majesty of his Miene in his Lieutenancy Pride and the undaunted execution of his Office on the contumacious the Insolency of his fortune He was censured for committing that fatal Errour of following the King to London and to the Parliament after the Pacification with the Scots at York and it was thought that if he had gone over to his charge in Ireland he might have secured both himself and that Kingdom for His Majesties Service But some attributed this Counsel to a necessity of Fate whose first stroke is at the brain of those whom it designs to ruine and brought him to feel the effects of Popular Rage which himself in former Parliaments had used against Government and to find the Experience of his own advices against the Duke of Buckingham Providence teaching us to abhor over-fine Counsels by the mischiefs they bring upon their Authors The Fall of this Great Man so terrified the other Officers of State that the Lord High Treasurer resigned his Staff to the Hands from whence he received it the Lord Cottington forsook the Mastership of the Court of Wards and the Guardian of the Prince returned Him to the King These Lords parting with their Offices like those that scatter their Treasure and Jewels in the way that they might delude the violence of their greedy pursuers But the King was left naked of their faithful Ministery and exposed to the Infusions and Informations of those who were either Complices or Mercenaries to the Faction to whom they discovered his most private Counsels When the Earl of Strafford was dead then did the Parliament begin to think of sending away the Scots who hitherto had much impoverished the Northern Counties and increased the charges of the Nation but now they were Voted to receive 300000 pound under the notion of a Brotherly Assistance but in truth designed by the Faction as a reward for their Clamours for the Earls Blood yet were they kept so long till the King had passed away more of His Prerogative in signing the Bills to take away the High-Commission and the Star Chamber After which spoils of Majesty they disband the English and the Scotch Armies August 6. and on the 10. of that Month the King follows them into Scotland to settle if it were possible that Kingdom But the King still found them as before when He satisfied their greedy appetites then would they offer Him their Lives and Fortunes but when gain or advantage appeared from His Enemies they appeared in their proper nature ungrateful changeable and perfidious whom no favours could oblige nor any thing but Ruine was to be expected by building upon their Love While the King was in Scotland labouring to settle that Nation by granting all that the Covetousness and Ambition of their Leaders pretended was for the Publick good and so aimed at no less than a Miracle by His Benefits to reduce Faith which like Life when it is once departed doth never naturally return into those perfidious breasts the Parliament adjourns and leaves a standing Committee of such as were the Leaders or the Servants of the Faction These prepared new Toils for His Majesties Return and by them was the Grand Remonstrance formed in it were reckoned for Grievances all the Complaints of men that were impatient of Laws and Government the Offences of Courtiers the unpleasing Resolves of Judges the Neglects or Rigours of the Ministers of Justice the undigested Sermons of some Preachers yea the Positions of some Divines in the Schools were all exaggerated to defame the present Government both in Church and State and to magnifie the skill of these State-Physicians that offered Prescripts for all these Distempers Besides more easily to abuse the Vulgar who reckon Misfortunes as Crimes unpleasing accidents were represented as designs of Tyranny and those things which had been reformed were yet mentioned as continued burthens From which the people were assured there could be no deliverance but by the wisdom and magnanimity of the Remonstrants To prepare the way for this the most opprobrious parts of it were first whispered among the Populacy that by this seeming suppression men impatient of Secrets might more eagerly divulge them and the danger appear greater by an
Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47. p. 417. THE LIFE and DEATH OF King CHARLES the First WRITTEN By Dr. R. PERINCHIEF Together with ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ REPRESENTING His Sacred Majesty IN HIS SOLITUDES and SUFFERINGS AND A VINDICATION Of the Same King CHARLES the Martyr PROVING Him to be the Author of the said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against a Memorandum of the Late Earl of Anglesey and against the Groundless Exceptions of Dr. Walker and others LONDON Printed for H. Hindmarsh at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange 1697. TO THE KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II. By the Grace of God KING of Great Britain France and Ireland c. May it please Your MAJESTY SO Clear and Indisputable is Your Majesties Title to the following Papers that to prefix any other name before them were a boldness next door to sacriledge They had the honour when first published to attend the Works of Your Majesties Royal Father of blessed Memory the greatest part of which Impression collected with great Cost and Care having in the late Conflagration perished in the common flames I was ambitious by reviving this Piece to do some honour to the Memory of so Great a Prince and that the world might see how far Truth and Justice and a better Cause is able to hold out under the most prosperous Triumphs of violence and oppression and that when Villains may be suffered so far to prevail as to despoil Majesty of all advantages of Power and Greatness it can at the same time be secure in the comforts of its own innocence and vertue That Heaven would bless Your Majesty with a long Life and a prosperous Reign with all the blessings of this and a better world is the hearty and incessant prayer of Your Majesties most humbly devoted Subject and Servant Richard Royston CHARLES R. CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all Our loving Subjects of what Degree Condition or Quality soever within Our Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland or any of Our Dominions greeting Whereas We have received sufficient Testimony of the Fidelity and Loyalty of Our Servant Richard Royston of Our City of London Book-seller and of the great Losses and Troubles he hath sustained for his Faithfulness to Our Royal Father of blessed Memory and Our Self in the Printing and Publishing of many Messages and Papers of Our said Blessed Father especially those most Excellent Discourses and Soliloquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know ye That it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure and We do by these Presents Grant unto the said Richard Royston his Executors Administrators and Assigns the sole Printing and Publishing of the said Messages Papers and Discourses contained in the Book Intituled Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae and of all or any other the Works of Our said Royal Father with other Papers and Declarations concerning Our said Royal Father in any Volume or Volumes whatsoever Of which Our Grant and Royal Pleasure We will and require all Our loving Subjects to take notice And that none of them presume to print or cause to be printed vended or put to sale the said Book Intituled Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae or any part of the said Papers or Works of Our said Royal Father within these Our Realms and Dominions or any of them whether Printed within these Our Dominions or Imported from Foreign Parts contrary to Our express Pleasure herein declared without the Licence and Consent of the said Richard Royston his Executors Administrators or Assigns under such Penalties as are by the Laws and Statutes of this Our Realm imposed upon such Persons as Imprint Import Vend or Put to sale unlicensed and prohibited Books Any Privilege Custome or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding In witness c. Given at Our Court at White-Hall the nine and twentieth day of November in the twelfth year of Our Reign TO THE READER IN these Papers READER thou hast a short Account how this best of PRINCES Lived and Died a Subject that was fit to be writ only with the point of a Scepter none but a Royal Breast can have Sentiments equal to His Vertues nor any but a Crowned Head can frame Expressions to represent His Worth He that had nothing Common or Ordinary in His Life and fortune is almost profaned by a Vulgar Pen. The attempt I confess admits no Apologie but this that it was fit that Posterity when they read His Works for they shall continue while these Islands are inhabited to upbraid Time and reproach Marble Monuments of weakness should also be told that His Actions were as Heroick as His Writings and His Life more Elegant than His Style Which not being undertaken by some Noble hand that was happy in a near approach to Maiesty and so could have taken more exact measures of this Great Example for Mighty Kings rendered it in more full proportions and given it more lively Colours I was by importunity prevailed upon to imitate those affectionate Slaves who would gather up the scattered limbs of some great Person that had been their Lord yet fell at the Pleasure of his Enemies burn them on some Plebeian Pyle and entertain their ashes in an homely Vrn till future times could cover them with a Pyramid or inclose them in a Temple by making a Collection from Writers and Persons worthy of Credit of all the Remains and Memoires I could get of this Incomparable Monarch Whose Excellent Vertues though they often tempted the Compiler to the Liberty of a Panegyrick yet they still perswaded him to as strict an observance of Truth as is due to an History For he praises this King best who writes His Life most faithfully which was the Care and Endeavour of Thine Rich. Perrinchief MAJESTY in MISERY OR An Imploration to the KING of Kings Written by his late Majesty King CHARLES the First during His Captivity at Caris-brooke Castle Anno Dom. 1648. 1 GREAT Monarch of the World from whose Power springs The Potency and Power of Kings Record the Royal Woe my Sufferings sings 2 And teach my tongue that ever did confine Its faculties in Truths Seraphick Line To tract the treasons of thy foes and mine 3 Nature and Law by thy Divine Decree The only Root of Righteous Royaltie With this dim Diadem invested me 4 With it the sacred Scepter Purple Robe The Holy Vnction and the Royal Globe Yet am I level'd with the life of Job 5 The fiercest Furies that do daily tread Vpon my Grief my Gray Dis-crowned head Are those that owe my bounty for their bread 6 They raise a War and Christen it The Cause Whilest sacrilegious hands have best applause Plunder and Murther are the kingdoms Laws 7 Tyranny bears the Title of Taxation Revenge and Robbery are Reformation Oppression gains the name of Sequestration 8 My Loyal Subjects who in this bad
from the safest Arts of Empire it was in the neglect of a just Severity on Seditious persons whom the Laws had condemned to die And in the War it was known how often His Lenity had clipped the wings of Victory But it appeared that these men as they had broken all Rights of Peace so they would also those of Conquest and destroy that which their Arms pretended to save How little credit their Accusation found appeared by the endeavours of all Parties to preserve the King's Person from Danger and the Nation from the guilt of His Blood For while they were thus engaged to perpetrate their intended Mischiefs all Parties declare against it The Presbyterian Ministers almost all those of London and very many out of the several Counties and some though few also of the Independents did in their Sermons and Conferences as also by Monitory Letters Petitions Protestations and Remonstrances publickly divulged adjure the Assassinates not to draw so great a guilt upon themselves and the whole Nation by that Murther For it was contrary to those numerous and fearful Obligations of their many Oaths to the Publick and Private Faith which was exprest in their Protestations and many Declarations to the Laws of the Land those of Nature and Nations and the Commands of Scripture That is was to the dishonour of our Religion and against the publick good of the Kingdom But all was fruitless for they had lost their Ministerial Authority by serving the Faction so long till they needed not their Assistance and despised their admonitions Besides the very same Principles they preached to kindle the War were now beat back into their faces and made use of against them to adjust the Murther The People also contemned them for their short-sightedness in that they would be the heady and indiscreet Instruments of such men and in such practices as must of necessity at last ruine them and all Ministers as well as the King and Bishops The Scots also by their Commissioners declare and protest against it The States of Holland by their Ambassadors if they were faithful in their trust did intercede and deprecate it as most destructive to the Protestant Interest Some of the most eminent of the Nobility as the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford the Earl of Lindsey and others neglect no ways either by Prayers or Ransom to save the King Yea they offered themselves as being the prime Ministers of the King's Commands as Hostages for Him and if the Conspirators must needs be fed with blood to suffer in His stead for whatsoever He had done amiss The Prince piously assaies all ways and means to deliver His Father from the danger For besides the States Ambassadours whom He had procured both He and the Prince of Orange did daily send as Agents the Kindred Relations and Allies of Cromwell Ireton and the other Conspirators with full power to propose any Conditions make any Promises and use all Threatnings to divert them if it were possible from their intended Cruelty or at least to gain some time before the Execution But all was in vain for no Conditions of Peace could please them who were possessed with unlawful and immoderate desires their Ambition that is more impetuous than all other affections had swallowed the hopes of Empire therefore they would remove the King to enthrone themselves Some thought that their despair of Pardon had hardened them to a greater Inhumanity for if after all these attempts they continued the King's Life they must beg their own which they knew Justice would not and they resolved Mercy should not give for this is reckoned among the benefits which we hate to receive and Men are usually ashamed to confess they deserved death Whatsoever it was that truly made them thus cruel they publickly pretended no other Motive than the Calls and Ducts of Providence and the Impulses of the Blessed Spirit To carry on this Cheat Hugh Peters the Pulpit-Buffoon of a luxuriant Speech skill'd to move the Rabble by mimical Gestures Impudent and Prodigal of his own and others fame Ignominious from his Youth for then suffering the contumely of Discipline being publickly whipt at Cambridge he was ever after an Enemy to Government and therefore leagued himself with unquiet Sectaries preaches before these fictitious Judges upon that Text Psal 149.8 To bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron He assures them undoubtedly that this was prophesied of them that they were the Saints related to in that Scripture that they should judge the Kings of the Earth often calling them in his profane Harangue the Saint-Judges Then he professed that he had for a certain found upon a strict Scrutiny that there were in the Army 5000 Saints no less holy than those that now in Heaven conversed with God Afterwards kneeling in his Pulpit weeping and lifting up his hands he earnestly begs them in the name of the People of England that they would execute Justice upon that Wretch CHARLES and would not let Benhadad escape in Safety Then he inveighs against Monarchy and wrests the Parable of Jotham to his purpose wherein when the Trees would chuse a King the Vine and the Olive refused the Dignity but the Bramble received the Empire and he compared Monarchy to the Bramble And all the while of contriving and executing this Murther he preached to the Souldiers and in some places about the City bitterly and contemptuously railing against the King Others also of the Congregational perswasion acted their parts in this Tragedy but more closely and not so much in the face of the Sun The Conspirators taking heat from their infamous Preachers whom they themselves had first kindled and somewhat doubting that these several strong Applications from all Parties to save the King and the Universal Discontents might take some advantage from their delay with more speed hasten the Assassination In order to which they send a Serjeant of Arms with a guard of Horse lest the People should stone him for his Employment into Westminster-Hall and other places in London to summon all that could lay any crime to the King 's charge to come and give in their evidence against Him Having proclaimed their wicked purposes and dress'd up a Tribunal at the upper end of Westminster-Hall with all the shapes of terrour where the President with his abject and bloody Assistants were placed thither afterwards they bring this most Excellent Monarch whom having despoiled of three Great Kingdoms they now determined also to deprive of Life Into which Scene the King enter'd with a generous Miene shewing no signs of discomposure nor any thing beneath His former Majesty but as if He were to combate for Glory the Monsters of Mankind He undauntedly took the Seat which was set for Him with scorn looking upon the fictitious Judges and with pity upon the People who crouding in the great Gates of the Hall being flung open did bewail in Him the frailty of our
being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in White-Hall and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where He continued some time in Devotion while they were fitting the Theatre of His Murther While these things were acting the Lord Fairfax who had always forborn any publick appearance in the practices of this Murther had taken up as is credibly reported some Resolutions either in abhorrency of the Crime or by the Solicitations of others with his own Regiment though none else should follow him to hinder the Execution This being suspected or known Cromwell Ireton and Harrison coming to him after their usual way of deceiving endeavoured to perswade him that the LORD had rejected the King and with such like Language as they knew had formerly prevailed upon him concealing that they had that very morning signed he Warrant for the Assassination they also desired him with them to seek the LORD by Prayer that they might know his mind in the thing Which he assenting to Harrison was appointed for the Duty and by compact to draw out his profane and blasphemous Discourse to God in such a length as might give time for the Execution which they privately sent to their Instruments to hasten of which when they had notice that it was past they rose up and perswaded the General that this was a full return of Prayer and God having so manifested his pleasure they were to acquiesce in it There was likewise another attempt made by Col. Downes who had disturbed them in their Court to obstruct them in their Execution for it is said that he endeavoured to make a Mutiny in the Army to hinder the Wickedness but the hast of the Assassinates prevented him While these men acted their Wickedness by Prayers to the lasting reproach of Christianity the King after He had finished His Supplications was through the Banqueting-House brought to the Scaffold which was dress'd to terrour for it was all hung with Black where were attending two Executioners in Disguises and the Axe and the Block prepared But it prevailed not to affright Him whose Soul was already panting after another Life And therefore He entred this ignominious and gastly Theatre with the same mind as He used to carry to His Throne shewing no fear of death but a Solicitude for those that should live after Him Looking about He saw divers Companies of Horse and Foot so placed on each side of the Street and about the Scaffold that the People could not come near Him and those that saw could not be Hearers therefore omitting that Speech which it was probable He would have spoken to the People He spoke to the Officers and those that were then about Him that which is now printed among His Works Having ended His Speech He declared His Profession of Religion and while He was preparing for the Block He expressed what were His Hopes for all the Righteous have such in Death saying I have a good Cause and a Gracious God on my side I go from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world After this composing Himself to an Address to God having His Eyes and Hands like forerunners lifted up to Heaven and expressing some short and private Ejaculations He kneeled down before the Block as at a Desk of Prayer and meekly submitted His Crowned Head to the pleasure of His God to be profaned by the Axe of the disguised Executionerâ— which was suddenly severed from His Body by one strong stroke So fell CHARLES the First and with Him expired the Glory anâ— Liberty of Three Nations Thus the King finished His Martyrdom but His Enemies not their Malice who extended their Cruelty beyond His Life and abused the Headless Trunk Some washed their hands in the Royal Blood others diâ—â— their staves in it and that they might indulge their insatiate Covetousness as well as their boundless Inhumanity they sold the chips of the Block and the sands that were discoloured with His Blood and exposed His very Hairs to sale which the Spectators purchased for different uses Some did it to preserve the Reliques of so Glorious a Prince whom they so dearly loved Others hoped that they would be as means of Cure for that disease which our English Kings through the Indulgence of Heaven by Their touch did usually heal and it was reported that these Reliques experienced failed not of the effect And some out of a brutish malice would have them as spoils and trophees of their hatred to their Lawful Sovereign Cromwell that he might feed his eyes with Cruelty and satisfie his sollicitous Ambition which aspired at Monarchy when the Lawful King was destroyed curiously surveyed the murthered Carcass when it was brought in the Coffin into White-Hall and to assure himself the King was quite dead with his fingers searched the wound whether the Head were fully severed from the body or no. Afterwards they delivered the body to be unbowelled to an infamous Empirick of the Faction together with the rude Chirurgions of the Army not permitting the King 's own Physicians to this Office who were all most implacable enemies to His Majesty and commanded them to search which was as much as to bid them so report whether they could not find in it Symptomes of the French disease or some evidences of Frigidity and natural impotency that so they might have some colour to slander Him who was eminent for Chastity or to make His Seed infamous But this wicked design was prevented by a Physician of great Integrity and Skill who intruding himself among them at the Dissection by his Presence and Authority kept the obsequious Wretches from gratifying their Opprobrious Masters And the same Physician also published that Nature had tempered the Royal Body to a longer life than commonly is granted to other men And as His Soul was fitted by Heroick Virtues to Eternity so His Body by a Temperament almost ad pondus made as neâ—â— an approach to it as the present Condition 〈◊〉 Mortality would permit Failing in these Opportunities of Calumny with more Impudence and Rancor they usâ— other ways to make Him odious and rase the Love of Him out of the People's heartâ— They conclude from the outward unhappinesses of His Reign unto an hatred of God against Him and with the same Confidence as they inrolled themselves in the List oâ— the Saints and entred their own names in the Book of Life they blotted His out and placed Him in some of the dark and comfortless Cells of the damned and they commonly professed it among the Disciples of the Faction as an Article of their belief that iâ— was impossible for Him or any of His party to be saved Not content with these Injuries to His Body and Soul they endeavour likewise to murther His Memory For they pull'd down His Statue which was placed at the West end of S. Paul's Church and that other in the Old
Brainford But yet the Casuist of the Cause would soon dispense with their Faith and send them forth to die in contracting a new guilt Those whom the fury of War had left gasping in the Field and fainting under their wounds He commends in His Warrants as in that to the Mayor of Newbury to the care of the Neighbourhood either tenderly to recover or decently bury and His Commands were as well for those that sought to murther Him as those that were wounded in His Defence This made the Impudence and Falshood of Bradshaw more portentous when in his Speech of the Assassination he belch'd out those Comparisons of Caligula and Nero the first would kill numbers of Senators to make himself Sport and the last thought it just enough that Paetus Thraseas should die because he look'd like a School-master But this Prince's Anger was without Danger to any His Admonitions were frequent Corrections seldom but Revenge never He grieved when His Pity had not Power or Skill to save Offenders and then He punished the bad but yet gave them space to repent and make their Execution as near as He could like a natural Death to translate them from hence to a place where they could not Sin He had nothing of the Beast in Him which Machiavel requires in such Princes as make Success the only end of their Counsels and consult a prosperous Grandeur more than an unspotted Conscience He scorned to abuse the Character of God upon Him by turning a Fox to dissemble and abhorred to think that He whom Heaven had made above other men should degenerate to the Cruelty of a Lyon He sooner parted with Mortality than Mercy for He ended His days with a Prayer for His Enemies and laboured to make His Clemency immortal by commanding the practice of it to His Son None of His Vertues were in the Confines of Vice and therefore this Admirable Clemency proceeded not from a defect of Spirit His Fortitude as His Detractors tractors imputed it and the Vulgar who mistake Cruelty for Valour imagined but like the Bowels of the Supremest Mercy which are incircled with an Infinite Power so the Pity to guilty and frail men was attended with an Incomparable Fortitude For this Vertue consisting in despising Dangers and Enemies in those Causes that render Death comely and glorious the King gave several Evidences of a Contempt of all Power be neath that of Heaven When the Lord Râ—y first acquainted Him with the Conspiâ—â—â—y of Ramsey and Hamilton He was upon I Remove to Theobalds where the Marques was to wait upon Him as Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber who having some notice given him of the Discovery besought His Majesty to spare his attendance till he could clear his innocence and return the Treason upon the Accuser The King answered that He would therefore make him wait 〈◊〉 let him see He did as little fear his strength as distrust his Loyalty for He knew he durst not attempt His Life because He was resolved to sell it so dear And to make good His Confidence He made him ride alone with His in His Coach to Theobalds and lie in Hâ—â— Chamber that Night while the sollicitous Court admired and even censured His Magnanimity for it went beyond His pattern and did more than that Emperour who was stiled the Delight of Mankind who being informed of a Conspiracy against him invited the two Chiefs of it to accompany him to the Spectacula and caused them both to sit next on each side to him in the Theatre and to give them more advantage for their design put the swords of the Gladiators under colour of enquiring their judgments concerning their sharpness into their hands to shew how little dread he had of their fury But the British Prince's Magnanimity exceeded that of the Excellent Roman's as much as the privacies of a Bed-Chamber and the darkness of Night make up a fitter Scene for the Assassination of a beloved Soveraign than a publick Theatre As He never provoked War so He never feared it and when the miserable Necessity lay upon Him to take up Arms to preserve Himself from an unjust Violence He shewed as much if not more Valour than those can boast of that with equal force finished Wars with Conquest in the success of these Fortune the Vanity of an Enemy and the assistances of Friends may challenge a part of the Praise but in that none but His own brave Soul had the Glory For to attempt at Victory against an Enemy that had almost more Forts and Garrisons than He had Families to joyn with Him that with Cannon out-vied the Number of his Muskets that had gotten from Him a Navy which His Care had made the most formidable in the World and not left Him the command of a Cock-boat that were prodigal with the Treasure of a Nation and His Revenues when He begged for a subsistence was such a Courage that would have made that Senate of Gallant Persons who were the most competent Judges of Valour and never censured Vertue by the Success but thanked their Imprudent Consul for not despairing of the Commonwealth when he gathered up those broken Legions which his Rashness had obtruded to an Overthrow to have decreed a Triumph for CHARLES had His life been an Honour to that Age or could those Generations have reckoned Him among their great Examples Most men indeed thought the King's side most glorious yet they concluded the other more terrible those that minded their Duty were in the Royal Camp but such as cared for Safety took part with the Faction or at least did not oppose them As He first entred the War so did He continue in it His Moderation always moved Him to desire Peace and His Fortitude made them sometimes sue for it His Adversaries never prevailed upon His Fears but upon the Treachery and Covetousness of some of His Party who could not endure an Honourable Want and on such their Gold was stronger than their Iron on Him and He was rather Betrayed than Overcome His Greatness of Mind forsook Him not with His Fortune Arms and Liberty it being Natural and not built upon them this made Him tenacious of Majesty when His Power was gone For when Whaley that had the Command of the Guards upon Him while He was in the Army insolently intruded into His Presence to hear His Discourse with a Foreign Minister of State and being bold in his Power and Office refused to obey the Command for a greater Distance the King caned him to an Observance When the Parricides sent their party of Soldiers to force Him from the Isle of Wight to the Slaughter Cobbet that commanded them thrust himself into the Coach with Him but the King sensible that the nearness of such a Villain was like a Contagion to Majesty with His Hand forced him away to herd among his bloody fellows His Spirit always kept above the barbarous Malice of His Enemies and of their rudest Injuries would seem