o try the weak resource of foreign succors; and he went to the
Pyrenees at the time when the two ministers were in the midst of
their negotiations. Don Louis received him with that generous civility
peculiar to his nation; and expressed great inclination, had the low
condition of Spain allowed him, to give assistance to the distressed
monarch. The cautious Mazarine, pleading the alliance of France with
the English commonwealth, refused even to see him; and though the king
offered to marry the cardinal's niece,[*] he could for the present
obtain nothing but empty profusions of respect and protestations of
services. The condition of that monarch, to all the world, seemed
totally desperate.

* King James's Memoirs.

His friends had been baffled in every attempt for his service: the
scaffold had often streamed with the blood of the more active royalists:
the spirits of many were broken with tedious imprisonments: the estates
of all were burdened by the fines and confiscations which had been
levied upon them: no one durst openly avow himself of that party: and so
small did their number seem to a superficial view, that, even should
the nation recover its liberty, which was deemed nowise probable, it was
judged uncertain what form of government it would embrace. But amidst
all these gloomy prospects, fortune, by a surprising revolution, was now
paving the way for the king to mount, in peace and triumph, the throne
of his ancestors. It was by the prudence and loyalty of General Monk
that this happy change was at last accomplished.

George Monk, to whom the fate was reserved of reestablishing monarchy,
and finishing the bloody dissensions of three kingdoms, was the second
son of a family in Devonshire, ancient and honorable, but lately, from
too great hospitality and expense, somewhat fallen to decay. He betook
himself in early youth to the profession of arms; and was engaged in the
unfortunate expeditions to Cadiz and the Isle of Rhe. After England had
concluded peace with all her neighbors, he sought military experience in
the Low Countries, the great school of war to all the European nations;
and he rose to the command of a company under Lord Goring. This company
consisted of two hundred men, of whom a hundred were volunteers, often
men of family and fortune, sometimes noblemen, who lived upon their own
income in a splendid manner: such a military turn at that time prevailed
among the English.

When the sound of war