The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of Rochester constantly attended at his bedside, and prayed with him during his illness. He bore his sickness with patience, and called upon God in humble faith and hope, whenever his sufferings would permit him; but from his malady chiefly affecting his head, he was conscious only at intervals.

He expired at the age of eighteen years eight months and eighteen days, and his body was buried in Westminster Abbey.

CHAPTER XI.

HENRY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER,

YOUNGEST SON OF CHARLES THE FIRST;

BORN JULY 8, 1640; DIED SEPTEMBER 13, 1660.

'In youth, with more than learning's wisdom wise!
As sainted martyr's, patient to endure !
Simple as unwean'd infancy, and pure!

By mortal sufferings now no more oppress'd,
Mount, sinless spirit, to thy destined rest!

CANNING.

HIS Prince was born at Oatlands, an old mansion in Surrey, a favourite

summer residence of his mother,

Queen Henrietta Maria.

At the time of Henry's birth, England was in a very troubled state; for his father, King Charles the First, though an amiable man, a

I

kind husband, and an affectionate parent, was not well qualified to govern a nation..

He had not the strength of mind, nor judgment, requisite for so important an undertaking; and he was too easily led by the opinions of weak counsellors.

His subjects considered that he did not treat them with justice and due confidence, and became so discontented, that at last a war broke out between Charles and his Parliament, which ended in the King's being taken prisoner, tried as an offender, and condemned to death by his cruel judges.

On the coast of Hampshire stands a round sea-girt fortress called Hurst Castle. Even on a bright summer's day, it is but a dismal-looking spot, and in gloomy wintry weather, when a sea fog wraps it round, and rough waves are dashing against its walls, it looks desolate and melancholy indeed.

Poor King Charles had a great horror of it, for when Cromwell's officers burst into his room in Carrisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of

Wight, where he had been confined a few weeks, at daybreak, on a dark December morning, and told him they were going to remove him to Hurst Castle, he said they could not have named a worse place.

And in this dreary spot, in the space of less than a month, his hair and beard turned gray, and his whole appearance changed so sadly, that when taken from this doleful prison, his friends scarcely knew him again. For he had quite thought that he had been brought there to be murdered in that lonesome castle, jutting out into the sea, and separated from every one but his fierce-looking jailor. The room he sat in was so dark as to require candles at noonday, and he had nothing to do but to walk up and down the narrow sandbank that joined the castle to the mainland. When at last he was awoke one night out of his sleep by hearing the drawbridge let down, and was told that an officer of the Roundheads, a man whom he had once been warned intended to assassinate him, had come to take him to Windsor, he said he

was glad to leave Hurst Castle, even under such an escort.

What agony filled the hearts of the royal children, when they heard that their beloved father was to be dragged to the scaffold, there to have his head cut off!

The night before the poor King was to die, the Duke of Gloucester, who was then a very young child, and his sister Elizabeth, were allowed to visit their poor father, to take a last farewell of him.

They had not seen him for some months; and when they entered his presence, and beheld his pale sorrowful countenance, and remembered that never again after that day would they look upon his dear kind face, now beaming with love towards them, they both burst into tears, and sobbed as if their hearts would break. And then they fell upon their knees, and begged their father's blessing.

The poor King solemnly blessed them; then raising them up, affectionately kissed, and tried to soothe and console, his sorrowing little ones.