at the pains and at the expense of
providing for his comfort.

A few years afterwards Marvell wrote the following lines:--

"Of a tall stature and of sable hue,
Much like the son of Kish, that lofty Jew;
Twelve years complete he suffered in exile
And kept his father's asses all the while.
At length, by wonderful impulse of fate,
The people called him home to help the state,
And what is more they sent him money too
To clothe him all from head to foot anew;
Nor did he such small favours then disdain,
Who in his thirtieth year began his reign."[90:1]

The "small favours" grew in size year by year.

Why it was impossible for Charles to keep his word may be read in
Clarendon's _Life_, and in the history of the Savoy Conference, and need
not be restated here. In the opinion of the Anglican clergy, the king's
divine right stood no higher than their own. They too had suffered in
exile. They had been "robbed" of their tithes, and turned out of their
palaces, rectories and vicarages, and excluded from the churches they
still called "theirs." Their Book of Common Prayer was no longer in
common use, having been banished by the "Directory of Public Worship"
since 1645. So late as July 1, 1660, Pepys records attending a service
in the Abbey, and adds "No Common Prayer yet." If we find ourselves
wondering why the Anglican party should have been so powerful in 1660,
our wonder ought not to be greater than is excited by the power of the
Puritan party when Laud was put to death. Both parties were, on each
occasion, in a minority. Though England has never been long
priest-ridden, it has often been priest-led.

The Convention Parliament did all that was expected of it. It was,
however irregularly summoned, a truly representative assembly. Its
members all swore--what will not members of Parliament swear?--that the
king was supreme in Church and State, the only rightful king of the
realm and of all other his dominions, and that from their hearts they
abhorred, detested, and abjured the damnable doctrine that princes,
excommunicated or deprived of the Pope, might be murdered by their
subjects. They proceeded to pass a very useful Act of Indemnity and
Oblivion, agreeing to let bygones be bygones, except in certain named
cases. They ordered Mr. John Milton to be taken into custody, and
prosecuted (which he never was) by the Attorney-General. Later on the
poet was released from custody, and we find