The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-25
"Crommel1,s OWN

"Cromwelr,s own" by Arthur Paterson.
Paul Book and Stationery company.
The most interesting period of Eng
lands history, the dawning of her COM
monwealth, is the time in which the
scenes of this romance are enacted. That
sturdy figure, Oliver Cromwell, his fam
lily, and few of his friends, are the
characters who are met, known, and for
the most part, loved within the pages
of this book.
There is sympathy, too, with his
troops, hastily collected, without train
ing, and with no fixed principle of ac-
ton; but yet, with one feeling in COM
mon. All believed that the time had
come when a determined protest must be
made by force of arms against a sys-
TEN of government which had oppressed
rich and poor alike. which defed the
laws, narrowed religion, and rendered
the lives of the majority of its subjects
hardly worth the living.
The story opens with a scene at Sidney
college, Cambridge, and has to do chief
ly with a. young man of seventeen years
@ student there, Ralph Dangerf1eld. He
receives a message from a friend of his
father that there is trouble at home, and
hastens away, to find that his father
has been found guilty of heresy, having
written a book which proved him
Sccinian. He was tried by the star
chamber, and his sentence made 95,
the pillory and mutilation. From the ef-
fects of this exposure and suffering he
dies, leaving to Ralph q letter addressed
to his friend, Oliver Cromwell, whom he
describes as a man who loves true free
DOM but not anarchy, who fears nothing,
q man faithful to his country and his
friends The letter is to be delivered
should there ever come a time ripe for
the uprising of the common people. After
two years of fighting abroad Ralph re-
turns to find that the time has come.
He is made a member of the Cromwell
household, which consists of Nine. Crom-
well, a fit mother for the hero, Oliver,
Mistress Cromwell, a fretful semi-invalid,
Bridget and Betty, the daughters, Oliver,
the son, and Rachel, a ward, and the
most lovable member of the household.
She has an uncle, a narrow Presbyterian
minister, who, like many of his time, be-
lieves anything like liberation a cardinal
sin He at once becomes antagonistic
towards Ralph, when he learns that the
youth is the son Of a Socinien, for he
feels that the son inherits the fathers
lack of faith. He threatens to take
Rachel from the Cromwell family. should
Ralph be allowed to remain, whereupon
Cromwell swears to him that, should
Ralph prove to be of his fathers faith,
and any love-leaning appear between him
and Rachel, he will separate their lives
as With sword. Things seem to go on
we'll after this rash VOW is made, for
Rachel, who is a very child at heart,
though as womanly in mind, is affianced
to Oliver Cromwell's son.
At this juncture the exciting scenes of
battle occur, when King Charles himself,
clad in armor and velvet cloak, leads his
men forth to meet the hero of the COM
monwealth, who, with his firm belief In
the divinity of his cause, encourages his
men with his own unflinching bravery.
Ralph is in the thickest of the fight,
where he wins honors and love.
Rachel, now with soul awakened, finds
that it is not Oliver she loves, but Ralph
The interest of the story is sustained
throughout, and the romance is one Of
the best English historical novels.