nd dreaded by
the country each year. In vain did they impeach Buckingham. Charles, in
his blind affection, took all the blame of the duke's deeds upon
himself--burnt the remonstrance of the Commons--and actually dissolved
Parliament in order to save his favorite.

But what the Commons of England failed to do, came to pass by the hand
of one discontented man.

The Duke of Buckingham, after wasting men, money, and English prestige
in one disastrous expedition to help the French Protestants at La
Rochelle, was on the eve of setting out for a second attempt to relieve
the beleagured town. He was at Portsmouth, and was to embark the very
next day, when he was stabbed by John Felton, a lieutenant in the navy
who had been disappointed of promotion.

All England and the court rejoiced at the death of the favorite. But
King Charles "flung himself upon his bed in a passion of tears when the
news reached him."[82] On his first visit to the widowed Duchess of
Buckingham he promised to be a father to her sons. He ordered the duke
to be buried in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh--which hitherto had been
reserved for anointed kings. And it is George Villiers who lies in state
to this day on the splendid tomb we have been looking at.

Soon after the duke's death, the lovely boy who leans sleeping above his
father's monument was born.

The king stood godfather to the baby at his christening, together with
Francis, Earl of Rutland, the duchess's father. "After some compliments
who should give the name," the king called the baby Francis, and the
grandfather gave him his benediction, which was in the very pleasant
form of seven thousand pounds a year.

King Charles faithfully kept the promise he had made the duchess. Alas!
it had been well for him had he kept all other promises as faithfully.
He was indeed a father to young Francis and to his handsome, headstrong,
worthless elder brother the young Duke of Buckingham.

The boys were brought up with the royal children under the same tutors
and governors. They were sent quite young to Trinity College, Cambridge,
where their names were entered in the college-book in the same year as
that of Prince Charles. And here among other famous and learned men,
they made the acquaintance of Abraham Cowley, the poet, who had lately
published his pastoral comedy "Love's Riddle," which had been performed
by members of the college.

[Illustration: TOMB OF GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.]

From