It was a dark and gloomy afternoon in the latter
days of November, when Ardenne, having already
gone through all the necessary steps preliminary
to his entering on his novel duties, and having devoted
a few days to renewing ancient intimacies,
or forming new relations, with some of the most
leading men of either party, took his way for the
first time toward the honoured precincts of St.
Stephens, around the walls of which—now, alas!
levelled to the ground for ever—the collective eloquence
of ages had shed even then a halo of more
than mortal glory. The house had been some
time in session when he entered, and, to his almost
irrepressible surprise, in passing to his seat,

[figure description] Page 118.[end figure description]

the object that first met his eye was the ungainly
figure of the stranger who had succoured him near
Royston, habited, as heretofore described, in garments
coarse, unseemly, and ill-made, standing beside
the table, which at times he violently struck
with his clinched hand, and speaking in a sharp,
croaking voice, against delay in the discussion of
some motion then before the house. It did not
seem to Edgar, as he looked hastily around him,
that the members listened with much attention to
the fiery but somewhat involved declamations of
this worthy; but, after a few moments' survey, his
notice was attracted by the bent brows and compressed
lips of a considerable number—gravely-attired
and stern-looking men, who sat apart even
from those who were completely recognised as
favourers of sweeping measures of reform, and
ever and anon responded to the sentiments expressed
by the speaker with a deep hum or sullen
cheer of approbation. He could see, too, that
Hampden, with whom he had advanced already
beyond the earliest steps of friendly intercourse,
was not inattentive to the words of this strange-looking
personage; although at times a smile
would flit across his comely features at some wild,
undigested thought, or strong denunciation fiercely
disproportionate to that against which it was levelled.
He had not, however, much space for observation,
since the orator, who, it seemed, had
wellnigh finished his harangue ere he came into
the assembly, now resumed his seat; and was at
once succeeded by a youthful gentleman, whom
Edgar recognised for Lucius Carey, Viscount
Falkland, of an exterior so prepossessing, that in
another man it would have been the principal attraction,
though in this instance it was but the
goodly shrine of a surpassing soul. His form was

[figure description] Page 119.[end figure description]

slight, but elegantly framed—his countenance, of
singular and softened beauty, had for its most obvious
traits a low, fair forehead, from which the
waves of his light brown or almost flaxen hair hung
down in natural curls below his cheeks—a full
blue eye, well opened and expressive—a bright
complexion—and a lip, rich, ripe, and wooing as a
woman's. He was clad handsomely, in doublet,
short trunk hose, and cloak of dark blue velvet
slashed and lined with rich white taffeta, and was
in all respects a person whose appearance would
denote a man of birth and bearing. His voice, as
he began to speak, was sweet and tunable, and, although
weak at first, increased in energy and
power as he proceeded, till Ardenne felt that he
had never listened heretofore to any one combining
in so eminent a degree persuasiveness and
strength of language. From the Lord Falkland's
words he quickly gathered that the measure under
consideration was no other than the famous and
much contested bill of general remonstrance, which,
it appeared, had been at this late hour brought forward
by the opposition party, when the morning
had been wasted in minor and unprofitable questions,
with the hope of smuggling it, as it were,
through the house, during the absence of many, its
most known opponents. The speech of the young
nobleman was luminous, though brief; and touching
in no respect on the principles or object of the
bill, went clearly and directly to the point, asserting
that it should not, at that irregular and most
indecent hour, be forced upon the assembly, unprepared,
at least, if not reluctant to consider it.
Loudly applauded by the moderate party, as well
as by the open antagonists of the measure, throughout
the whole of his speech; and not less warmly,
though more sparingly, at times by its impartial

[figure description] Page 120.[end figure description]

and sincere espousers—Hampden, and Pym, and
Hollis—he concluded with a motion that the house
should presently adjourn, and that this question
“should be entered upon the next morning at nine
of the clock, and every clause debated, the speaker
in the chair.” As he sat down, a dozen members
rose at once on opposite sides, and for some minutes
all was clamour and confusion, trampling of
feet, loud cries of “Question!” “Order!” and “Go
on!” mixed with vociferated names of favourite
orators, called on to utter their opinions. At length,
however, Lenthal, the speaker of the house, with
his clear, sonorous voice, enforced obedience to the
chair, and quiet was again restored. Lord Falkland's
motion instantly was seconded by Hampden,
in a few words, forcibly but simply urging the necessity
that this great question should be freely discussed
and openly, by all who might decide to take
a part therein. The house was cleared for question,
and the adjournment carried with few dissenting
voices. There was but little tarrying within
the body of the house; but, as they passed into the
lobby and down the parliament stairs, men fell into
little knots of two or three, discoursing, some on
the occurrences of the discussion just concluded,
and some on matters of more general and varied
interest. It was at this moment, just as Edgar fell
into a group in which he had observed the figures
of Hyde—in after days more celebrated as Lord
Clarendon and Chancellor of England—St. John,
Lord Digby, Colepepper, and Hampden, all spirits
in some sort congenial to each other; all being
favourers, ostensibly at least, though differing in
mode and measure, of reform, both in the church
and state—that the orator, whom he had judged at
the first sight to be Lord Falkland, passed by so
closely as almost to brush his person with his

[figure description] Page 121.[end figure description]

cloak, deeply engaged in conversation with his
mysterious fellow-traveller. This latter cast a
glance of recognition toward him, accompanied by
a short, unceremonious nod, though without making
any pause, or breaking off in his discourse, which
he continued in such tones as reached the ears of
Ardenne.

“But verily,” he said, “but verily, I see not
wherefore you would have it thus put off—for this
day would right quickly have decided it.”

“There would not have been time enough,”
replied the other, shortly; “for it would sure take
some debate.”

“A very sorry one! a very sorry one, my lord,
if any,” answered the puritan, who was already
passing out of sight, when Edgar touched the
shoulder of John Hampden, whom he had previously
addressed. “I pray you, of your courtesy,”
he whispered, “Master Hampden; I pray you,
tell me, who is yon slovenly and clownish-looking
man in converse with my lord of Falkland? for I
do see he is on your side, by his warm speech
to-day.”

“That sloven,”[1] answered Hampden—and, in
after days, when the undaunted breast of him who
spoke was mouldering in its bloody cerements, not
the least noble victim of that lamentable strife, his
auditor remembered those prophetic words—
“whom you see before you, hath no ornament in
his speech. That sloven, I say, if we should ever
come to a breach with the king, which God forbid!
in such a case, I say, that sloven will be the greatest
man in England.”

[figure description] Page 122.[end figure description]

“Indeed!” said Ardenne, thoughtfully, “indeed!
I had not thought of him so highly. And yet, I do
believe, nay, I am well assured, I have encountered
him before. His name—”

“His name is Cromwell,” replied the patriot;
“Oliver Cromwell—member now for the good
town of Cambridge, and little known as yet, or listened
to, save by a few austere religionists; yet
of great parts! unwearied diligence—undaunted
courage—penetration, that intuitively reads the
wariest hearts, and perseverance, that will yield to
nothing human! That you have met him I can
well believe—at leastwise he doth know, and reckons
of you highly! You will be here to-morrow,
Master Ardenne,” he continued, after a momentary
pause; “you will be here to-morrow—and with us,
I trust! If we should lose this bill, it will, I fear
me much, go hard with England's liberties.”

“Here I shall be, past question,” answered Edgar.
“I scarce should hold myself an honest
man were I to quit my station in the crisis of the
storm; although,” he continued, with a smile, “although
that station be a new one, and its occupant
but strange and inexperienced. Here shall I be,
but more you must not ask of me. How I shall
vote, or if indeed at all, till I have heard both reasons
and objections, I may not easily decide.
Wherefore, good Master Hampden, if you do care,
in truth, for the assistance of my vote, you were
best call to aid that eloquence and depth of reasoning
whereof I hear men bear such testimony; and
so convince me that my country's weal requires it
at my hand! Give you good-night, fair gentlemen,”
he added, with a courteous motion toward
the company; “we meet again to-morrow.”

“If you be not in more than common haste,”
said Hampden, laying a slight detention on his

[figure description] Page 123.[end figure description]

arm as he turned round to leave the lobby, “I
will entreat you tarry, while I speak ten words
with my Lord Digby. Your lodging lies, if I
mistake not, this side Charing; and my road is
the same. If you can wait on me five minutes at
the farthest, I will rejoice to have your homeward
company; and will upon the way, I do assure you,
exert what reasons I possess to win you to conviction.”

Ardenne assented. Nor did the minutes which
elapsed while that high-minded patriot remonstrated—
as it would seem by his quick, energetic
whispers—with the tergiversating noble, pass heavily,
as he conversed with the distinguished men
who seemed to give—desirous each, perhaps, of
winning to his respective faction a partisan so like
to prove of weight in the then equally poised state
of parties—that eager and respectful heed to every
word he uttered, which cannot fail to please the
minds even of those the least accessible to ordinary
adulation. With a glance pregnant of meaning,
and an admonition strongly urged, although its
import could not be distinguished by the by-standers,
Hampden turned from Lord Digby and announced
his readiness to walk, flinging his cloak
in several folds over his left arm, and bringing
round his rapier's hilt to meet his grasp if needed—
precautions not uncalled for in those times of
fierce and virulent commotion.

As they passed down the stairs, the men in
waiting recognised their masters, and fell at once
into their places; two moving on in front with
lighted links or flambeaux, necessary in those days,
when the most frequented thoroughfares of the metropolis
could boast few lamps but those which
graced the residence of some great noble—and
two stepping along three paces in the rear, their

[figure description] Page 124.[end figure description]

eyes warily moving to and fro, and watching with
keen scrutiny the air of every passenger who met
or overtook them; and their hands in frequent contact
with the pommels of their swords. For, notwithstanding
the eulogium passed some years before
by a French resident of high distinction on the
orderly and peaceful regulation of the English capital,
in honourable contrast to the debauched and
dangerous turbulence of Paris, party spirit at this
time ran to such a height, and tumults were so constant
between the factions recently accommodated
with distinctive titles of cavaliers and roundheads—
tumults in which much blood was spilt and even
some lives lost, the sturdy citizens resisting with
their bats and cudgels the rapiers of the disbanded
officers and other desperadoes ever to be found
about the palace of Whitehall—that few, whose
purses could maintain such followers, esteemed it
safe to walk the streets by night without their
armed attendance; particularly such as were obnoxious
to assault, or insult at the least, in consequence
of party eminence or of political renown.
At a few steps distance from the house they encountered
a stout body of the train-bands, well
equipped with muskets, swords, and bandoleers,
forming a portion of the guards which, on the
news of the attempt against Argyle and Hamilton,
the commons had required to be detailed for their
protection by the Earl of Essex, at that time general-in-chief
on this side Trent; and to this it might
perhaps in some degree be owing, that during their
walk homeward no circumstance of annoyance or
attack occurred to interrupt the converse of these
high-minded men; who, though but newly and imperfectly
acquainted, already felt, each for the
other, that reverential admiration which is often
the precursor to familiar friendship. At Ardenne's

[figure description] Page 125.[end figure description]

lodging door, with feelings of increased respect,
and with renewed promises of a meeting on the
morrow, they then parted—the one hastening to
some nightly conclave, there to deliberate with his
associate patriots on measures rife with England's
weal—the other to stretch his limbs upon a sleepless
couch, and ponder the effects of his accession
to the popular party on his own fate and fortunes.
Kind sleep, however, came at last, to seal up for a
little space the sources of his deep disquietude, and
to allay, until another sun should wake him to fresh
struggles, fresh anxieties, the feverish tumults of
his bosom. Still, so engrossing was the subject
which last had occupied his mind before he sunk
into slumber, and so powerful the operation of his
spirit even while the body was buried in what
seemed absolute oblivion, that scarcely had the
earliest indications of the wintry twilight crept
through the fogs of the near river ere he awoke,
and, starting instantly from his bed, began to do his
garments on, summoning the while his sluggard
followers to prepare his morning meal. But, notwithstanding
all his haste, so gloomy was the
dawning, and so late, at that drear season, the uprising
of the sun, that he had scarce the time to
snatch a hasty morsel before his horses were announced
to bear him to St. Stephen's, and, almost
at the self-same instant, two gentlemen to speak
with Master Ardenne!—and, with the word, John
Hampden entered the apartment, accompanied by
a person of most “unusual” and forbidding aspect.
Austere, fanatical, and gloomy he might have been
pronounced at the first sight by any person moderately
skilful at deciphering men's characters from
the expression of their features. His dress would
not, perhaps, entirely bear out the charge—for such,
and a most grave one, was it deemed by the wild

[figure description] Page 126.[end figure description]

cavaliers—of puritanism; for, although uniform
and rather grave in colour, it yet was cut with attention
to the prevailing mode, as well as to the
setting off a person infinitely less ungainly than his
countenance was harsh and extraordinary. His
hat, too, which he carried in his hand, was decorated
with a feather, and his sword hung from a
shoulder-knot adorned with fringe and tassels. Before,
however, Edgar had well surveyed the stranger,
he was addressed by his companion of the previous
evening. “We have, I fear, intruded somewhat
on your privacy,” he said, “at this unwonted
hour, I and my good friend, Harry Vane the younger;
whom I beseech you, Master Ardenne, know as
such; right soon, I trust, to stand in similar relation
to yourself; but we were both desirous of your
company this morning to the house, and I would
fain propose that you shall for the present occupy
a seat nigh mine. Till you shall be in some degree
accustomed to the usages and method of the
house, it may be my experience shall in somewhat
profit you; and I fear not to make this offer, seeing
that, should you find hereafter that your conscience
may not justify your being one of us, I
shall provide that none may look on you as a defaulter
from our party—and I have heard and seen
enough, methinks, already of your character and
bearing to know that, even should you differ from
us as to the quality or manner, you are not like to
be against us as to the needfulness of some reform;
so that to be seen companying one so hateful to the
courtly faction as John Hampden, shall in no sort
prevent you of advancement.”

“Most thankfully,” said Edgar, after exchanging
courtesies with Vane, “do I accept your offer;
the rather, that as yet I know not, though I fain
would learn, the persons of many among your

[figure description] Page 127.[end figure description]

famous orators—and for the rest, my vote will not,
nor my opinion either, be affected anywise by sitting
in this place or that. But now, if I mistake
not, time is urgent, and we should be on our way.
Ride you, fair gentlemen? My horses wait even
now; but if you walked thus far I shall dismiss
them—”

“We came on horseback, and it is indeed full
time we were at the house; the bells rang nine
some time ere we arrived,” replied Sir Harry.
“We will, if it so please you, get us at once to
horse.”

The pace at which they rode, when they had
mounted, prevented the possibility of any serious or
connected conversation, and but few minutes were
consumed in the brief gallop that brought them to
the low-browed portal of St. Stephen's. The privates
of the civic guard on duty at the door presented
arms, as if to some high officer, as the patriot
leaders passed them; and it was not long ere
they were seated all together in the body of the
house, at no great distance from the speaker's chair.
The galleries were crowded, as it seemed, wellnigh
to suffocation, not with the ordinary idlers who resorted
thither only to dissipate the tedium of an
hour not otherwise employed, but with men whose
anxious faces, and limbs that almost trembled with
excitement, announced the deep and painful interest
they took in the debate, which had commenced
already; and with a spirit so unusual at the opening
of a measure as might be held a sure prognostic of
the fiery and determined ardour with which it would
be carried on ere it might come to question. At
the moment when they entered, Hollis was on his
legs, urging with logical and beautiful precision the
absolute necessity of fixing, and on grounds so sure
that they should never more be moved the limits

[figure description] Page 128.[end figure description]

between right constitutional prerogative and absolute
despotic power—pointing out the gradual and
successive innovations by which the ruling monarch
had encroached on all the liberties, both civil
and religious, of the English people—the tampering
with jesuited papists—the evident dislike to
parliaments—the most illegal levyings of money
by violent and arbitrary contribution—the billeting
of irresponsible and lawless soldiery on private
householders—the imprisoning of members contrary
to privilege of parliament, for words or sentiments
expressed therein—“One of whom,” he proceeded—
“one noble, and eloquent, and wise, and
loyal—than whom no better subject breathed the
breath of life within the girt of the four seas that
compass Britain—DIED—miserably died—for want
of natural refreshment! Whose blood,” he added,
in loud and pealing tones, that woke an echo in the
breast of every free-souled man—“whose blood
of life, untimely and unrighteously dried up, still
cries—cries even from the dungeon-walls wherein
yet lies the mouldering clay whence persecution
drove the free and fearless spirit—still cries, I say,
to every English heart—cries, trumpet-tongued,
for vengeance!” Wildly and fiercely rose the
mingled shout—for it was nothing less—of approbation
and disgust. “Eliot!” exclaimed one bolder
than the rest, making aloud the application which
all had tacitly perceived; “Eliot! the murdered
Eliot!” while the hall rang with diverse cries of
“Treason!” “Vengeance!” “Order!” the latter
word prevailing gradually, even as the rest subsided,
till the orator again obtained a clear field for
his manly elocution. With a lower voice and less
impassioned manner, he proceeded to recount a
train of grievances that seemed to defy enumeration—
the new and unfair tax of ship-money—the

[figure description] Page 129.[end figure description]

seas ill guarded, and the mariners left naked to the
violence of Turkish pirates—the depopulating of
the city, so to raise enormous fines—the seizing
of the merchants' money in the mint—the shameless
project of brass coinage—the barbarous and
reckless censures of self-constituted courts—“with
their imprisoning and banishing—their stigmatizing,
gagging, scourging, and mutilating—ay! I
said mutilaling!” he went on, with energy befitting
well his subject—“mutilating the free limbs
of uncondemned and unoffending Britons! And I
say this,” he cried, louder and clearer yet, “I say
this, not of an Ottoman Divan—not of a Spanish
Inquisition—but of an English Chamber!—of a
Star Chamber HERE! Here, in the land of Magna
Charta!—Here, where the code of Alfred is not as
yet forgotten or extinct! A chamber judging not
by law, and trying not by jury! A chamber
forcing men to yield their substance to be wasted
in the raising armies and equipping fleets—for
what?—what, but to compel their fellows, their
Protestant and pious brethren, to worship Him
who made them, according, not to conscience nor
to faith, but to the will of painted potsherds!—
scarlet iniquities!—hoary and venerable sins!—
wolves in sheep's clothing!—faithless and hireling
shepherds, hounding the dogs upon the flock which
they should guard and cherish!—prebends, and
deans, and bishops!” And, amid a tumult of applause,
the popular and weighty orator resumed his
seat, while Hyde uprose—not, as it seemed, to answer,
but to palliate, to palter, to procrastinate; for
not once did he summon courage to question or
deny that which no earthly wit or wisdom could
disprove. And fiercely as the measure was discussed,
it was yet most remarkable that not one of
the royal partisans, maintaining, as they did most

[figure description] Page 130.[end figure description]

resolutely, the debate from morning till past midnight,
spoke so much as a word to the denial of
these charges—urging alone the wantonness of
representing with such sharp reflections things,
some of which already were amended, and others
in fair state of promise toward adjustment—the
impolicy of alienating more the good-will of the
king, now well disposed to gracious reformation—
or, above all, the wickedness of thus infusing jealousies,
and strife, and discord into the bosom of a
state at this time flourishing, as some had the audacity
to add, beyond all previous precedent in the
fair growth of freedom. All this made forcible impression
on the clear mind of Ardenne, as he listened
with enthusiastic feelings, it is true, but still
with calm discrimination, to the successive bursts—
sometimes of eloquence, thrilling, sublime, and almost
superhuman in its majesty—sometimes of
coarse, fanatical, and phrensied ravings—while Glyn
and Maynard, Cromwell and Pym, and lastly, the
unrivalled Hampden, advocated this great measure—
equals all, if not in perspicuity of argument or
vividness of torrent elocution, if not in talent or
ability, at least in truth and fervour, and in that single-minded
earnestness which proved past doubt
their genuine and deep sincerity. At first he waited
with strong interest the rising of some champion
who should turn, or at the least dispute, the triumph
with the speakers of the liberal party; then,
as one after one they took their places at the table,
and spoke their speeches, varied in vigour and in
brilliance, but monotonous in argument, or rather in
the want of it, a sense of disappointment overcame
him; and by slow degrees the strong conviction
gained, that the cause must be indeed vicious and
feeble for which its most devoted favourers, wise,
eloquent, and witty as confessedly they were, had

[figure description] Page 131.[end figure description]

nothing to advance beyond what he had that day
heard with mingled feelings of contempt and wonder.
Hours flew past like moments; and, before
Edgar knew that it was noon, evening fell dark on
the discussion; then, neither party willing to adjourn,
candles were called for, and the strife of
words went on, waxing more wild and fierce as
each successive speaker added his mite of fuel to
the fast-kindling blaze. Meantime the house grew
thinner, as the weary and the weak, the delicate in
health or frail in years, reluctantly departed, actually
worn out by the lassitude that succeeds ever
to unnatural excitement; and the arena of the mental
gladiators became more open to their virulent
contention. And still, at each succeeding pause,
the liberal party seemed to gain in strength—the
mighty hum of approbation rose more audibly at
every bold and popular sentiment; while the cheers
of the diminished royalists now failed to rouse their
flagging and disheartened orators. So wondrous
was the prevalent excitement, that it drove even
the calm, dispassioned blood of Ardenne dancing
through all his veins like streams of liquid fire;
and he found himself ere long lending his breath
to swell the shout of admiration that followed every
sentence uttered by the latter speakers. At length
the house divided on the passing of the bill; and
however certain the result had seemed while distant,
so thickly mustered the opponents of the
measure, that many an honest heart fluttered in
doubt, and many a face of England's noblest sons
was dark as midnight with despondency. During
the moment of confusion which always must occur
at such a crisis, a whisper fell upon the ear of Edgar—
a low, stern whisper, not addressed to him,
nor at that instant comprehended—uttered, as he
fancied, in the sneering tones of St. John. “Look

[figure description] Page 132.[end figure description]

now!” it said—“look now, friend Oliver, to your
most promising recruit!” The answer came,
though he saw not the speaker, in the harsh voice
of Cromwell—“Nay, verily! but do thou look—
and thine eyes shall see the truth of that I told
thee!”

All, at the time, passed with the speed and nearly
with the tumult of a whirlwind; nor, although afterward
he sometimes deemed the words had reference
to himself, did they then penetrate beyond his
outward ear. Without a momentary doubt, a
thought of hesitation, Edgar stepped forth, and
sealed the downfall of his private fortunes by the
vote which he recorded in the cause of England's
liberty. A small majority of but eleven voices
passed that eventful bill, the loss of which would
have exiled hundreds—the best and wisest of the
land—driving them forth to seek, amid the snowclad
wilds of the New-England shore, what they
had then despaired at home—“freedom to worship
God.”

Scarce had the hearty cheering which followed
this announcement ended, ere Hampden rose again,
to move “that there might be an order entered for
the present printing of it”—and straightway, as if
all that had preceded it were but the prelude and
slight skirmish which so generally leads to a pitched
battle, a debate—if that which was all animosity,
and virulence, and fury can be called debate—ensued,
which speedily effaced all recollection of the
previous struggle, and had wellnigh steeped the
hands of the contending factions in each other's
gore. Hyde started to his feet the first, praying
that he might have permission to enter his protest—
believing, as he said, such printing of the bill,
without concurrence of the lords, to be alike unprecedented
and illegal; and, ere he had well

[figure description] Page 133.[end figure description]

ended, up sprang Jeffry Palmer, a member of high
standing in the house for wisdom and experience,
no less than for distinguished talent, with flashing
features and a voice that quivered with hot passion,
moving “that he likewise might protest!” The
mildest and most stately of demeanour among the
assembled counsellors might be seen with bloodshot
eyes, and tones husky and cracked with clamouring—
and the more sullen and fanatical sitting
with teeth hard set, and hands upon their hilts, as
if but waiting for a voice to cry “The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon,” or some other text of warlike
and blood-thirsty import, before they should betake
them, in their own language, to the carnal weapon.
So critical, indeed, was the conjuncture of affairs,
and to such lengths had private pique and public
animosity been carried, among men all armed in
token of their gentle birth, that, writing coolly in his
journal after the heat and passion of the contest
had gone by, Sir Philip Warwick has recorded,
“that when they voted it I thought we had all sat
in the valley of the shadow of death; for we, like
Joab and Abner's young men, had catched at each
other's locks, and sheathed our swords in each other's
bowels, had not the sagacity and great calmness
of Mr. Hampden, by a short speech, prevented
us, and led us to defer our angry debate until next
morning.” And so in truth it was; for at two of
the clock past midnight, when he saw that nothing
could be hoped in the then temper of the house,
that wise and upright statesman moved an adjournment
until two of the next afternoon, prescribing
motives so replete with good sense and good feeling,
that none so stubborn as could, with any show
of right, gainsay him.

Worn out and wearied, body and mind alike,
with the protracted contest, men of both parties

[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]

mingled hurriedly as they flocked homeward; and
again it was the chance of Ardenne strangely
enough to be ear-witness to a conversation between
Cromwell and Lord Falkland. The former
he had joined, hard by the foot of the great
staircase, desiring in some degree to cultivate relations
with a man whose words and aspect had imbued
him with a feeling which he could not well
account for or define, but which in after days he
mentioned as a prophetic awe, for that he was in
presence of a spirit mightier than his own. The
latter overtook them suddenly, and was passing
onward at the first without addressing either, till
he caught the eye of Cromwell. “Ha!” he said,
with a quiet smile, not wholly free from irony—
“Ha! Master Cromwell, think you there hath been
a debate to-day?”

“Another time,” replied the puritan—“another
time, and I will take thy word—but verily, I say to
you—verily, as the Lord Jehovah liveth, had this
remonstrance been rejected, then had I sold mine
all of worldly substance on the morrow—ay! and
had taken up my staff, and girt me with my sword
upon my thigh, and never had seen England any
more!”

“Nor you alone, perchance!” answered the
youthful noble, after a moment of reflection. “Methinks
I have heard others named for a like resolution!”

“Perchance!—Me no perchance!” cried Oliver,
with a triumphant smile. “Had the malignants
carried it, I tell you that their victory had robbed
old England of her trustiest spirits! But now, my
lord, mark well my words!—and you too, friend—
if that you be, as I do partly think you are—and if
you be not, and I be in error, then may the Lord
enlighten and amend you—a friend to liberty, mark

[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]

well my words! There shall be no stint more, nor
let, nor hinderance! Papists and tyrants in this
soon-to-be-regenerated land shall no more hold dominion!
The name of Englishman, now scorned
and scoffed at throughout Europe—you, Edgar
Ardenne, you do know the truth of that which I
aver—shall be as far and wide revered as ever was
the name of antique Roman! For verily I tell ye—
and I tell ye truth—that now the Lord's good
time hath come, when he shall choose him out a
MAN! I say not whom—nor were it meet that I,
the vilest and most worthless of his instruments,
should judge whom the Lord listeth to appoint—
but verily, I say, a MAN, who shall bring mighty
things to pass in Israel!”