5, 1646, to the Scots at Newark, and by
them, in the following January, was handed over to the Parliament. His
four months captivity at Holmby House, near Northampton; his seizure on
June 3d by Cornet Joyce; the three months at Hampton Court; the fight on
November 11th; the fresh captivity at Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of
Wight--these lead up to the trial at Westminster of the tyrant, traitor,
and murderer, Charles Stuart. He had drawn the sword, and by the sword
he perished, for it was the Army, not Parliament, that stood at the back
of the judges. Charles faced them bravely and with dignity. Thrice he
refused to plead, denying the competence of such a court: and his
refusal being treated as a confession, on the third day fifty-five out
of seventy-one judges--sixty-four more never were present--affixed their
names and seals to his death-warrant; four days later, sentence was
pronounced.

No need here to tell the well-known story of his meekness toward his
persecutors, of the pathetic parting from two of his younger children,
of his preparation for a holy death; or how, on the morning of January
30, 1649, he passed to that death on the scaffold in front of Whitehall,
with a courage worthy of a very martyr. On the snowy 7th of February
they bore the "white king" to his grave at Windsor in Henry VIII.'s
vault; in 1813 the Prince Regent had his leaden coffin opened. Six
children survived him--Charles and James, his successors; Mary, Princess
of Orange (1631-60); Elizabeth (1635-50); Henry, Duke of Gloucester
(1639-60); and Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans (1644-70), the last born
ten weeks after Charles's final parting from his queen. At the
Restoration Charles II. appointed, on his sole authority, a form of
prayer, with fasting, for the day of the martyrdom of the Blessed King
Charles I., to be annexed to the Common Prayer Book, with the other
state services; it kept its place there till 1859.

A far stronger man than Charles might scarcely have extricated himself
from the difficulties that beset him; true, those difficulties were
largely of his own creating. But was he right in abandoning Stafford?
should he also have sacrificed wife, faith, and crown? If yes, then was
he wholly in the wrong; if no, he was partly--for once at least--in the
right. Vices, other than duplicity, he had none, as we use the word. He
was vague, vacillating, obstinate, unable to lead or to be led;
superstitious, heedful of omens; unsympathet