every other thought in the king's mind, and this was a resolve
"not to set out on his travels again." His father had fallen through a
quarrel with the two Houses, and Charles was determined to remain on
good terms with the Parliament till he was strong enough to pick a
quarrel to his profit. At no time has party strife raged more fiercely;
in no reign has the temper of the Parliament been more threatening to
the Crown. But the cynicism of Charles enabled him to ride out storms
which would have wrecked a better and a nobler king. He treated the
Lords with an easy familiarity which robbed opposition of its
seriousness. "Their debates amused him," he said in his indolent way;
and he stood chatting before the fire while peer after peer poured
invectives on his ministers, and laughed louder than the rest when
Shaftesbury directed his coarsest taunts at the barrenness of the queen.
Courtiers were entrusted with the secret "management" of the Commons;
obstinate country gentlemen were brought to the Royal closet to kiss the
king's hand and listen to the king's pleasant stories of his escape
after Worcester; and still more obstinate country gentlemen were bribed.
Where bribes, flattery, and management failed Charles was content to
yield and to wait till his time came again.

[Sidenote: Dissolution of the Union.]

But even while yielding and waiting he never lost sight of the aim he
had set himself. If he had no mind to play the tyrant, he was resolved
to be something more than "a king in name." If he could not get back all
that his father had had he could go on patiently gathering up what
fragments of the old royal power still survived, and availing himself
of whatever new resources offered themselves. One means of recovering
somewhat of the older authority of the Crown lay in the simple refusal
to recognize the union of the three kingdoms. If he could not undo what
the Puritans had done in England Charles could undo their work in
Scotland and in Ireland. Before the Civil War these kingdoms had served
as useful checks on English liberty, and by simply regarding the Union
which the Long Parliament and the Protector had brought about as a
nullity in law it was possible they might become checks again. In his
refusal to recognize the Union Charles was supported by public opinion
among his English subjects, partly from sheer abhorrence of changes
wrought during "the troubles," and partly from a dread that the Scotch
and Irish membe