his own temper, he pleaded warmly in defense of hard flogging. Dr.
Wootton, in softer tones, sided with the Secretary. Sir John Mason,
adopting no side, bantered both. Mr. Haddon seconded the hard-hearted
Sir William Petre, and adduced as an evidence that the best
schoolmaster then in England was the hardest flogger. Then was it that
Roger Ascham indignantly exclaimed that if such a master had an able
scholar it was owing to the boy's genius and not the preceptor's rod.
Secretary Cecil and others were pleased with Ascham's notions. Sir
Richard Sackville was silent; but when Ascham after dinner went to the
Queen to read one of the orations of Demosthenes, he took him aside,
and frankly told him that though he had taken no part in the debate he
would not have been absent from that conversation for a great deal;
that he knew to his cost the truth Ascham had supported, for it was
the perpetual flogging of such a schoolmaster that had given him an
unconquerable aversion to study. And as he wished to remedy this
defect in his own children, he earnestly exhorted Ascham to write his
observations on so interesting a topic. Such was the circumstance
which produced the admirable treatise of Roger Ascham.

THE MARTYRDOM OF CHARLES THE FIRST

From the 'Commentaries on the Reign of Charles the First'

At Whitehall a repast had been prepared. The religious emotions of
Charles had consecrated the sacrament, which he refused to mingle with
human food. The Bishop, whose mind was unequal to conceive the
intrepid spirit of the King, dreading lest the magnanimous monarch,
overcome by the severity of the cold, might faint on the scaffold,
prevailed on him to eat half a manchet of bread and taste some claret.
But the more consolatory refreshment of Charles had been just imparted
to him in that singular testimony from his son, who had sent a _carte
blanche_ to save the life of his father at any price. This was a
thought on which his affections could dwell in face of the scaffold
which he was now to ascend.

Charles had arrived at Whitehall about ten o'clock, and was not led to
the scaffold till past one. It was said that the scaffold was not
completed; it might have been more truly said that the conspirators
were not ready. There was a mystery in this delay. The fate of Charles
the First to the very last moment was in suspense. Fairfax, though at
the time in the palace, inquired of Herbert how the King was, when the
King was no more