The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-21 00:00:00

always revered and now awful assembly; and the royal
voice was heard above the it clamour cemmanding, on
their lives, his eager followers to stand beck.' And 11. e
King entered, lie took cff his hat and bowed in respect
to the senate, whose honour ho so outraged, and then
he advanced to the Speaker's chair. The Elector Pala-
tine alone accompanied him through the numbers who
had risen, and stood uncovered to receive his Majesty.
Thel solemn silence with which he was received con-
fused the irresolute and wavering King; the Speaker
left the chair for him; but he stood hesitating on the
step, as he looked round for the five who had so long set
his power at defiance, His glance encountered a sight
to make a firmer spirit quail; the representatives of
England and its wrongs stood there; made strong
through the King's former weakness, stronger than ever
now! His present accusers, his future jeges, with quiet
and stern observance noted down every act end word of
their invader and their future victim. It was a trying
ordeal: a Cromwell might have braved it, as afterwards
he did, with unflinching hardihood; but Charles was
unequal to the task. Suddenly his false position became
apparent to him; he faltered in his demand for his
enemies' arrest, and then broke down into the exclama-
tion, The birds are flown!' A few hurried word;, de
siring that the accused Members' might be sent to him,'
was all he added, and then he left the House as ab-
ruptly as he had entered. Sounds of Privilege! pri-
vilege!' followed him as he passed from the House; and
Cavalier shouts of For a King! for a King,' received
him in the street."
It is now time, however, that we withdraw our
gaze from the calm sad countenance of Charles to con-
template his impetuous and gallant nephew—the os-
tensible hero of this book :
" There is a loud tame of Prince Rupert in our civil
wars," says Mr. Warburton, " yet singularly little of his
private history is known. He seems to start into exist-
ence when the royal standard of England is set up; he
advance s that fatal banner through its terrible career
with supernatural but ill starred bravery; and when it
is finally struck down at Naseby, he vanishes at the
same time from our view. Yet even during that memo-
rable strife, there is a rumour, rather than a knowledge
of him; mothers hush their infants with the terror of
his name, leaguring armies retire at the first challenge
of his trumpets, the stern energy of the Puritans gives
way before his resistless charge; Roundhead hatred and
Royalist recrimination accuse him as the evil genius of
the war. Yet, whence he came, or whither he went, few
have inquired or can tell.
" The few glimpses by which he is afterwards viewed
are equally singular and varied. We find him a veteran
in arms and renown while yet a boy; a prisoner for
years before he attains to manhood; leader of the Cava-
liers from the first hour that he meets them; conqueror
in every battle, though defeated; maintaining the war on
sea when it has been crushed upon the land; buccaneer-
lag in the name of loyalty on the Spanish main; honest
amid corruption, philosophic among triflers in the Court
of Restoration; laying aside his impetuosity, but not his
gallantry, as admiral of our fleets; returning thence to
the chemist's laboratory and the painter's study; and,
finally, dying in peace and honour, here in old England,
beloved by all the gentlemen of the county,' and gene-
rally lamented; having maintained such good temper and
such happy neutrality in the present unhappy divisions,
that he was honoured and respected by men of the most
varying interests.'
" Cun this be the person whom we have hitherto
known, only to neglect or to condemn? Surely there
must have been some heroic nature its this man which
prejudice alone has darkened or denied: some prejudice
more fatal to his fame than the hatred or the obloquy of
his contemporaries. Let the generous and candid reader
but take the facts of Prince Rupert's life as they are
here imperfectly arranged; let him grant to them such
credence as their authorities may seem to deserve and
such interest as their romantic character may claim;
and surely he will admit that the chief of the Cavaliers
deserves a higher place in story than he has hitherto ob
rained."'

Such is the romantic hero, whose eventful fortunes
we are now invited to follow. Prince Rupert seemed
fitted by nature to be the leader of the Cavaliers. He
was an impersonation of that chivalry and heroism to
which they were devoted, and with which they were
filled—" frank, haughty, rash,' ;and irresistible, he role
to war, "no vizor on his helm." His exploits, like
those f the French Paladin Murat, whota in daunt-
less gallantry he much resembled, seemed to revive
again the days of Charlemegne, and the marvels of
the Round Table. While yet in early youth, before
his visit to England, he made his stern apprentice-
ship in war, and that same reckless daring which
proved so fatal to the Royal cause on Edgehill, made
the young hero a prisoner in the Castle of Lintz be-
fore he had attained the age of twenty. Here he
remained imprisoned three years, " his spirit pining
like that of a caged eagle." We quote the following
passage, referring to an incident of this captivity as
a contrast to the more serious matters which we have
just been considering, and as a specimen of that
singular gracefulness of style and sentiment which
occasionally gives such a charming fascination to the
writings of Eliot Warburton :

" Among the few recreations permitted to the Prince
was an occasional dinner with the governor, and iree
access to his gardens It was destined that his impri-
sonment, as well as his chivalric career, should lack no
tbirg el the requirements of romance. Strange as it
may read in these matter-of-fact pages, Count Kuffstein
had a daughter, an only, cherished child, who lived in
his stern old castle, like the delicate Dryad of some
gnarled tree. She was one of the brightest beauties of
tier age,' and rarely gifted, .no lease excelling in the
chorales of her mind° than of her faire budye, The
imagination of the reader silt easily supply what the
faithful historian is not permitted to record. How the
heroism, the misfortunes, and the noble person of her
royal captive, touched her imagination: how the impe-
tuous young Prince, whose thoughts bad ever fed on
tales of love and glory, passed his time in that grim
castle, hitherto without an object save to watch time and
the old Danube rolling by: how this fair girl dawned
upon his gloomy lite, charged by her father to cheer
her royal prisoner, and, if it might be, to win his soul
over to the ancient faith. Does the reader pity him—or
even her? Though soon to be forsaken, she never was
forgotten in all the wild vicissitudes of his dangerous
and reckless career ; and to woman's foolish heart even
this is something. And for hun—how often, when
wearied of the doomed yet charmed life he bore, must
his thoughts have flown back to that fair girl : back,
from the hushed ambush, or raging battle-field, or stormy
seas, to those quiet and innocent days, when he listened
to her loving controversy, as they stood by the antique
battlements, with the old Danube rolling by!
" We are not writing romance, but actual biography,
gleaned painfully out from crabbed old manuscripts,
through which her character still shines fair and purely.
For those quaint old letters tell me that thenceforward
hee never named her without admiracon, and ex-
pressinge a devotion to serve her with his lyfe ;' and it
requires nothing more to tell me that her honour had
been guarded by bis own.
"Nevertheless, with war resounding all around him,
with so many prizes to be fought for, and so much glory
to be won, Mdlle. de Kuffstein must have sometimes
found it a hard task to cheer her captive in his cage.
How his young spirit must have chafed as he saw
glimpses of the war roll by and vanish far away. And
to loose himself from this captivity, this living grave, he
had but one word to utter; be had but to follow the ex-
ample of the chivalrous Henry of Navarre, to profess
himself a proselyte, and to be true. His Royal uncle, his
imperial enemy, his lady-love, his worldly interest, were
all in favour of the change; his own conviction, his own
brave and manly heart alone against it. Be this remem-
bered when his many errors are recounted!"
When released from his imprisonment, the young
Prince joined his uncle, Charles 1., in England
(Prince Rupert was the son of King Charles'
sister, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia). He
arrived at a very opportune moment. The
King was at Nottingham, prepared for the first time
to raise the STANDARD and proclaim war. Rupert's
presence " at the little court of Nottingham," says
Mr. Warburton, "infused new life and confidence
among the drooping followers of the King. Charles,
harassed by timorous and conflicting counsels, found
relief in the prompt, vigorous, and decisive character
of his nephew. Prince Rupert not only then, but
throughout the war, was most useful to that
cause by infusing the confidence that he felt,
and by a soldier. like simplicity of purpose more
difficult to balk or to cope with than all the wiles of
Illachievelli." Decision was a quality much required
in the vacillating councils of Charles. Had Prince
Rupert been half as prudent as he was brave, and
half as skilful in carrying out as he was in achieving
a victory, the cause of the Royalists would indeed
have been strengthed by his advent. Charles reposed
unbounded confidence in his nephew. Rupert
received orders " from no one but the King," and the
King almost invariably allowed him to take his own
course. We have said that the first volume of this
work, where it relates to the political history of the
time, is better written and more interesting than the
succeeding portions, but we are inclined to contradict
this assertion when we turn again to the opening of the
second volume, where we " march forward with the
is
tc,trihe
es
exclaimsc o n a morre:,obc:"dnbeTejafhutohodrigeheedaosiosnfsaleys
Cavaliers." Eliot IVarburton paints these martial
the
heewrer
eh
edhoxa
ochs
nat
withered
mei
linhewneki
rtt
eon
odfe
fs
ots
ahne
ndee
'olrfinitYs.hsifigrhstholpneasr,
soldier's genial brotherhood. There is something
mysterious in the stirring and irresistible appeal that
trumpets and banners make to the heart through ear
and eye. The very war-horse feels the spell of that
fierce music; myriads of gallant hearts have shed
their blood to save that silken rag ; whole troops have
flung away their lives that the symbol of their honour
might still float in triumph over the bloody remnant
of their forces." The Cavalier army presented
a gallant appearance on the eve of the
battle of Edgehill, but unfortunately for their cruse,
the jealous rivalry and the scrupulous etiquette of
the-Court, too much predominated in the royal camp.
"The jealousies and enmities, inseparable from such
volunteer and independent corps, began to exhibit
themselves. Prince Rupert himself, I fear," says
his biographer, " had not sufficient tact to accommo-
date himself to his peculiar position ; he was im-
patient of the military neglect and courtier conven-
tionalities of his noble associates. Ile was somewhat
~Basefuosrueatlhedibvaidttelde
Lord Lindsay, the General in-
into two parties."
cautious p
ea
rntd,
osnt etandeyo
ttactics
do f,
jealous, I (zdsg,
Edgehill too, o
af his
council
own a uwt
ahsor held,ity.'
the in-
Chief,
Low C favouredo untr ;stchheo oc
was all for the.bold and rapid tactics of the glorious I

. -
and their leader ,`,00; he 'insisted on theexpediency of the
he 'scorned the Roundhead forces,
Sroostwedesi(n:ulestaavnufl. )d;as,,li.og
unpractised hut hig)-a-r.::ettled army as the King's."
movements, with such an
Rupert prevailed, ',Ad certainly had it been followed
up with prudence, his plan would, in all likelihood,
have been successful, When he comes to describe
the King addressing 'his army on the morning of the
battle, Eliot Wa.rb urtun very appropriately intro-
duces ALlcaulay's sr,iriteci lines in the "Battle of the
League "
" The King .has come to marshal us," &c. _ _

"I do not know," he observes, in a parenthesis,
" whether Mr. Macaulay will pardon my application
of these noblg lines of his, but most of my readers
will." Appropriate as the lines are, most certainly
Macaulay would not have applied them to King
Charlts—
" Ile looked upon'the traitors and his glance was stern
and high," &c.
Macaulay, as we all. know, is a zealous
advocate of the Parliament ; he considers
the execution of Charles perfectly justifiable
—vide an essay its the Edinlmrgh Review
written when, as Mr. Warburton justly defines it,
" he was an advocate, and not as now a judge, in the
court of' history." Throughout these volumes the
annalist and eulogist of the Cavaliers seems to be
essay,
illustrioussai ssraronaognt.don about:,
eeoastrhgeepeGra:sndas
recently
passages
publishedost good-humoured u r
liee l controversy
continually
his
in
vporelussi3.e ofT
from the is t above-mentioned
v tinseonatui
anye,ds
history was not published until the first volume ami
spilltNana,rsanstrtebol
passed
hbeoaorktilytheaxtpsrveessleidk.e slolweejlelalaosushyisofrank
and generous admiration of Mr. Macaulay, so con-
noble exception au-
thorswin we
proverbial, and all true lovers of lite.raftur
h"eljr er Prince
nothing
hadliot
arc
t o confident,a 1
tooilt e
generalour selve sr, u rejoicele. u t
t htelssies
reflections have led us far from Edgehill. We will
let Eliot Warburton himself describe the grand and
terrible opening
valour, and, alas ! his reckless impetuosity, were evi-
denced in so remarkable a manner :
" There is no sound that ever rent the air so terrible
as the deep silence of suspense before the battle-word is
given; it is the moment when the soul sinks under the
awe of something that thrills deeper than any fear.
During that dread pause many a fervent prayer was
offered up by the true hearts that abounded in both
armies, but none was more simple and sincere than Sir
Jacob Astley's, uttered manfully- aloud—, Oh, Lord!
thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget
throughratthenordcs secondth e
thee, do not thou forget me!' then rising, he exclaimed,
March on boys!'
" The Parliamentary army began the fight by three
shots from their guns upon the right; the King's artil-
lery instantly replied. Then the whole line advanced;
as the Cavaliers approached, a horseman darted from the
enemy's column and rode up to Prince Rupert, flinging
from him the orange badge he bore. It was a lieutenant
in Sir Faithful Fortescue's troop, to announce the deter- •
tion of his commander with all his men, and that the
signal would be the firing of a pistol in the ground. The
Prince, already on the move, observed the signal ant',
forebore to assail the deserters, but Killigrew and Byrn
slew several of them before they discovered their pur-
pose. Rupert now led on the royal horse, commanding
them to use their swords alone, and charge!' Before
the word was fairly uttered, that brilliant cavalry was
on the spur; away in one wild sweep of magnificent con-
fusion the proud chivalry of Lngland dashed; in generous
rivalry each seeking to strike the first home-stroke for
God and for the King!' What could abide that thun-
dering charge, all spur, no rein, every heart within that
armour flashing was on fire, every voice a shoutof triumph,
every plume bent forward to the charger's mane! The
Roundheads seemed swept away by the very wind of that
wild charge. No sword was crossed, no sakidle emptied,
no trooper waited to abide the shock; they fled with
frantic tear, but fell fast under the sabres of their pur-
suers. The cavalry galloped furiously until they reached
such shelter as the town could give them; nor did their
infantry fare better.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, seemed as if carried
away by the torrent of the fugitives; they had encoun-
tered no opposition, and they thought the battle won;
its prizes were before them: Roundhead waggons laden
with spoil, and magazines full of the arms so sought for
and desired, choked up the narrow streets, and were
soon plundered by the troopers, whilst others pursued
the flying enemy as madly as they fled, until Hampden's
brigade, coming up from Stratford, checked and turned
backward the pursuit.
" Meanwhile the royal left wing was equally broken
and routed by success. Sir Arthur Aston's stout dra-
goons had cleared the way for IVilmot, who found
riot, so also the left lost all control over itself, and
the field in pursuit of Meldrum's flying
spread over
head horse. As the right wing of thep Cavaliers had run
troopers.
Byron and Lord Digby, who commanded the reserve, Nor did the contagion stop here, Sir John
led forward their eager horse to share in the pursuit.
and the King's infantry was left exposed and unpro-
tected. . • • • • •
" And now the fortunes of the day seemed whelly
changed; the royal cavalry was all scattered as if de.
feated, and for the most part wandering beyond the
enemy; the artillery harness was cut away and rendered
useless; the Royal Guards in total rout, and only a few
battalions under ituthven and Astley still showing an
unbroken front. The whole field of fight was so be-
wilderingly confused that none knew where to seek his
officer or troop, and many were slain or made prisoners
by those whom they mistook for their own then." . .
" When Prince Rupert returned with such troops as
he could rally from the chase, he found a great alteration
in the field; his Majesty, with only a few noblemen
about him, and the hope of so glorious a day quite
vanished.' The Prince vainly attempted to gather his
broken troops again, for one last charge, which would
probably have been final for that war. But it was impos-
sible to get together effective men enough even to at-
tempt it. Evening was set in; the few horses that
could be mustered were exhausted by want of food, and
their long and furious chase. Wilmot's, indeed, on the
far left were comparatively fresh, and Lord Falkland,
whose blood was now up, and whose oft repeated cry of
Peace, peace, peace,' was forgotten, conjured the Com-
missary to charge Sir William Baltour's dragoons, who
alone remained unbroken, and protected their exhausted
infantry. Wilmot made a most unsoldierlike reply—
'My Lord, we have got the day, let us live to en-
joy the frit thereof.' The King thought, and with
better reason, that he had lost it; and what is
stranger still, Lord Essex also thought himself defeated;
so much so, that in one of the last attacks made by
Ruthven and Astley's brigade, he took his stand in the
front of his pikemen, resolved to take no quarter, and to
die. For him, indeed, there would have been no alterna-
tive, if defeated.
"' In this doubt of all sides,' says Lord Clarendon,
who was an anxious spectator of the battle, Night, the
common friend to wearied and dismayed armies, parted
them; and in dismal anxiety and doubt the Cavaliers
and their King prepared to bivouack on the fiercely-
contested and undecided field."
Such was the battle of Edgehill, "one of the
bloodiest fights on record ; scarcely thirty thousand
men were engaged, and of that uumber nearly six
thousand were buried on the field." Both
sides suffered grievously. " Victor uterque fuit,
victus uterque fuit, is the truthful and candid
verdict of Sir Richard Bulstrode, who bravely
fought the battle he describes." But we
have followed the Cavaliers far enough on their ad-
venturous march. We have quoted sufficiently from
Mr. Warburton's eloquent narrative to corroborate
our assertion that it is as attractive in manner as it
is romantic in material. And yet we have not ana-
lyzed one-half of the three volumes. The history of
Rupert is as various in character as it is startling.
Not only does his adventurous career display the
prowess of the soldier ; we meet with him again on
the blue waters, bearing the name of an admiral,
and following the course of a buccaneer. The
perils and glories of his sea exploits form
another very interesting episode in this work.
We have, however, dwelt so long upon the first
portion that we must content ourselves with
this brief reference to the marvellous chapter entitled
" Rupert at Sea." Yet another vicissitude, another
and a more marvellous transformation ! On sea or
on land, in the Court or the camp, Rupert has
hitherto appeared the same, "Il etait toujours soldat,"
as Sir Philip Warwick said of him ; now, however,
an
appears
In long after incredible, we behold
himd tahe nphirotsaomphoerrphounsis
anartist.d
King Charles's stormy life was over, we find his sol-
dier-nephew thus occupied :
" In the first leisure of his manhood, his mind re-
vel ted with a sense of luxury to the philosophical pur-
suits in which even his youth had taken pleasure. He
now found new sources of unexhansted interest in the
forge, the laboratory, and the painter's studio.
" It was during this lull in the stormy life of Rupert,
that he discovered or improved upon his art of mezzo-
tinto. So long ago as 1637, when
immured in the
Castle of Lintz, he had exercised his active genius in
some etchings that still remain, and bear that date. He
now returned, in his voluntary retirement, to the objects
that had then charmed his enforced leisure. His varied
biography presents no more striking period than this,
when his name was hidden from the world that had been
busied with it for so many years. The plumed helmet,
the cuirass, and gallant war-horse are laid aside; the
good sword that so often hewed his fearless way through
fiercest danger hangs idly on the wall; the stout ship
that so long stemmtd the storm, and explored
strange seas, lies rotting on the banks of Loire, The
beauties of Paris are forgotten, calumny itself is silent.
The Young philosopher, royal, warlike, and renowned,
has retired from the world, and adopted the student's
bravely ascetic life; the same energies that once led
hgions along the battle-field, and fleets across the
ocean, are now devoted to the discoveries of science and
the creations of art.
" Among the former, the Prince turned his first atten-
tion to those that related to his own profession—of arms.
He laboured heartily at his own forge, and applied him-
self to the practical as well as the theoretical details of
science. The writer of his funeral ode, which is quoted
from in the first chapter of this work, describes him as
forging ' the thunderbolts of war, his hands so well
could throw.' The transactions of the Royal Society
record his mode of fabricating a gunpowder of ten times
the ordinary strength at that time used; likewise a mode
of blowing up rocks in mines, or under water, an in-
strument to cast platforms into perspective, an hydraulic
engine, a mode of making hail-shot, an improvement in