no longer with us, but with him. On the 5th
of September, 1651, sire, the anniversary of the other battle of Dunbar,
so fatal to the Scots, I was conquered. Two thousand men fell around me
before I thought of retreating a step. At length I was obliged to fly.

"From that moment my history became a romance. Pursued with persistent
inveteracy, I cut off my hair, I disguised myself as a woodman. One day
spent amidst the branches of an oak gave to that tree the name of the
royal oak, which it bears to this day. My adventures in the county of
Stafford, whence I escaped with the daughter of my host on a pillion
behind me, still fill the tales of the country firesides, and would
furnish matter for ballads. I will some day write all this, sire, for
the instruction of my brother kings.

"I will first tell how, on arriving at the residence of Mr. Norton,
I met with a court chaplain, who was looking on at a party playing at
skittles, and an old servant who named me, bursting into tears, and who
was as near and as certainly killing me by his fidelity as another might
have been by treachery. Then I will tell of my terrors--yes, sire, of
my terrors--when, at the house of Colonel Windham, a farrier who came to
shoe our horses declared they had been shod in the north."

"How strange!" murmured Louis XIV. "I never heard anything of all that;
I was only told of your embarkation at Brighthelmstone and your landing
in Normandy."

"Oh!" exclaimed Charles, "if Heaven permits kings to be thus ignorant
of the histories of each other, how can they render assistance to their
brothers who need it?"

"But tell me," continued Louis XIV., "how, after being so roughly
received in England, you can still hope for anything from that unhappy
country and that rebellious people?"

"Oh, sire! since the battle of Worcester, everything is changed there.
Cromwell is dead, after having signed a treaty with France, in which
his name is placed above yours. He died on the 5th of September, 1658, a
fresh anniversary of the battles of Dunbar and Worcester."

"His son has succeeded him."

"But certain men have a family, sire, and no heir. The inheritance of
Oliver was too heavy for Richard. Richard was neither a republican nor a
royalist; Richard allowed his guards to eat his dinner, and his generals
to govern the republic; Richard abdicated the protectorate on the 22nd
of April, 1659, more than a year ago, sire.

"From that time England is nothing but a te