Year: 1876

In January King Charles was taken to
London, and there tried and beheaded,
as you know. You and have not the
time to inquire (and perhaps, between
ourselves, are not clever enough to de-
cide) how far this could have been helped,
or what excuse they had who did it.
The only thing we can be sure of was,
that Charles was not a bad man, nor
Cromwell an ambitious hypocrite, though
/ do not think the one was martyr, and
the other a spotless peer. 1t was on the
30th of January, 1649, that this terrible
event occurred, and, after that, occurred
the saddest scene that old Windsor ever
saw. Four of the Kings faithful serv-
ants (and he had faithful servants all
through his career), the "Duke of Rich
mond, the Marquis of Hertford, and the
Earls of Southampton and Lindsay" re-
quested leave to bury him, and carried
the body back to the Castle. They took
with them that Bishop Juxon who at
tended the King on the scaffold, to read
the service over him now. But the
Governor of the Castle, who was a GER
tain Colonel Whitchcott, would not al
low the burial service. He told them
that "the common prayer-book had been
put down, and he would not suffer it to
be used in that garrison when he COM
manded." You will see from this that
persecution was not all on one side, but
that whoever was uppermost in these


violent times did his best to crush his
neighbor. You could not fancy nything
more heartless than the Puritan's refusal
to allow these heart t-broken men to say
holy prayer over their Kings and their
friend'sgraye-except, indeed, the refusal
of that same King to let these Puritans
live along with him in the native En-
gland which had room for them all.
When the faithful lords found it impossi-
BILE to change this decision they went
sadly to st. Georges to find place to
lay him, but found the chapel so bare, so
naked, so altered, that it was only with
hard ado that they found vault in the
middle of what had once been the choir,
where they could lay the King. Here
they found little space for King
Charles, close by the great leaden coffin
where Henry VIII lay peacefully, un-
whiting who was coming. The Duke of
Richmond marked out roughly upon ga
scarfe of lead" the letters of his name
and the date. Then, all in silence, at
three o'clock in the January afternoon,
when 1t was no more than twilight in the
cold and naked chapel, they carried the
coffin, then covered with black pail,
of which "the foure lords" carried the
corners, with a forlorn attempt at state.
AS they came down the Castle hill to-
ward the chapel with their burden, it be-
gan suddenly to snow, and the snow fell
so thickly and fast that soon "the black
pail was all white" Was there ever a
more mournful sight? In the dim chapel
that snow-covered coffin would be the
onespot of wintry lightness. "The Bishop
of London stood weeping by to tender
that his service, which might not be ac-
cepted." Thus they laid him in the dark
vault to molder with the other royal
bones, dropping the whiteness of the
snow-covered pail Gan emblem, tLey said,
of his innocence) into the black gulf
with him-not a word said, 1t a prayer
except in their hearts, the Puritan gov
ernor of the Castle standing by to see his
orders executed. When all was over, he
locked up the empty echoing chapel and
took the keys away. Windsor has seen
weeping and sorrow like every other old
house where men for generations have
lived and died, and more than most, for
in the old days suffering and sorrow were
apt to follow in the paths of kings; but
never has our venerable Castle seen so
sight.


If the story of the Stuarts had been a
drama, a great tragedy such as Shaks-
peare could have made, no doubt it
would have ended here.