k away to his country-seat, what wonder is it that young
Charles came back to England and caracoled through the streets of
London with a smile for every one and a happy laugh upon his lips? What
wonder is it that the cannon in the Tower thundered a loud welcome, and
that all over England, at one season or another, maypoles rose and
Christmas fires blazed? For Englishmen at heart are not only
monarchists, but they are lovers of good cheer and merrymaking and all
sorts of mirth.

Charles II. might well at first have seemed a worthier and wiser
successor to his splendid father. As a child, even, he had shown
himself to be no faint-hearted creature. When the great Civil War broke
out he had joined his father's army. It met with disaster at Edgehill,
and was finally shattered by the crushing defeat of Naseby, which
afterward inspired Macaulay's most stirring ballad.

Charles was then only a child of twelve, and so his followers did
wisely in hurrying him out of England, through the Scilly isles and
Jersey to his mother's place of exile. Of course, a child so very young
could be of no value as a leader, though his presence might prove an
inspiration.

In 1648, however, when he was eighteen years of age, he gathered a
fleet of eighteen ships and cruised along the English coast, taking
prizes, which he carried to the Dutch ports. When he was at Holland's
capital, during his father's trial, he wrote many messages to the
Parliamentarians, and even sent them a blank charter, which they might
fill in with any stipulations they desired if only they would save and
restore their king.

When the head of Charles rolled from the velvet-covered block his son
showed himself to be no loiterer or lover of an easy life. He hastened
to Scotland, skilfully escaping an English force, and was proclaimed as
king and crowned at Scone, in 1651. With ten thousand men he dashed
into England, where he knew there were many who would rally at his
call. But it was then that Cromwell put forth his supreme military
genius and with his Ironsides crushed the royal troops at Worcester.

Charles knew that for the present all was lost. He showed courage and
address in covering the flight of his beaten soldiers; but he soon
afterward went to France, remaining there and in the Netherlands for
eight years as a pensioner of Louis XIV. He knew that time would fight
for him far more surely than infantry and horse. England had not been
called "Merry England" for