ey could not
enter into the intense introspection and the outward circumspection of
the Puritan dame. When the return of Charles II. brought to the front
a code of manners which revealed the real morals of the people, many
women who had walked "circumspectly," and were not under suspicion of
playing a part, did not any longer conceal their real proclivities,
but stood forth as women of pleasure. The Countess of Pembroke, Lady
Crawshaw, and Mrs. Hutchinson, all ornaments of their sex during the
Puritan regime, were yet alive at the Restoration, and beheld with
dismay the shameless performances of their countrywomen.

As marking an epoch, Puritanism is to be regarded as having destroyed
the last relics of medievalism. "Under the Stuarts," says Creighton,
"society became essentially modern, and many of the institutions upon
which the comfort of modern life depends had their origin."

CHAPTER XII

THE WOMEN OF THE RESTORATION PERIOD

"I stood in the Strand and beheld it and blessed God," wrote John
Evelyn in his _Diary_, referring to the magnificent pageantry with
which Charles II., on returning from his exile in France, was received
by the London populace. With this pious ejaculation, the courtly
Royalist welcomed the presence in England of that scion of the house
of Stuart whose reign of profligacy was to mark his period as one of
the most reprehensible in the history of the country. It is little
wonder that Charles was so affected by the great demonstration in his
honor that he marvelled that he should have remained away from the
country so long when the people were languishing for his return. The
manner with which London threw off its garb of Puritanical gray and
manners grave, and donned bright attire and assumed the airs of gayety
and frivolity, showed how insincere and superficial was the religious
seriousness which had been worn as suited to the temper and times of
the austere Protector.

The change was not so sudden but that it had begun to appear during
the weak rule of the second Cromwell--Richard. But the spontaneousness
with which the people welcomed Charles in all the towns through which
he passed on his way, and the abandonment and joyousness which spread
over the land, signalized one of the most important reactions which
have occurred in public sentiment and public morals of any age. Music,
dancing, revelry, and license suddenly wrenched the times from all
their wonted decorum, and in the flood