Connecticut." When he gave that order, he
recalled the man who was to be his evil genius. Cromwell could not so
accurately have defined the constitutional right of his cause as Pym
had done, nor make himself its adored head as was Hampden; but he had a
more compelling genius than either. His figure stands up colossal and
grim away above all others from the time he raised his praying,
psalm-singing army, until the defeat of the King's forces at Naseby
(1645), the flight of the King and his subsequent surrender.

[Illustration: Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament, 1653. Having
commanded the soldiers to clear the hall, he himself went out last, and
ordered the doors to be locked. From the drawing by Seymour Lucas.]

It was at this time that Cromwell began to manifest as much ability as
a political as he had done as a military leader. Hampden had fallen on
the battlefield, Pym was dead, he was virtual head of the cause.
Perhaps it needed just such a terrible, uncompromising instrument, to
carry {118} England over such a crisis as was before her. Not
overscrupulous about means, no troublesome theories about Church or
State--no reverence for anything but God and "the Gospel."

When Parliament halted and hesitated at the last about the trial of the
King, it was the iron hand of Cromwell which strangled opposition, by
placing a body of troops at the door, and excluding 140 doubtful
members. A Parliament, with the House of Lords effaced, and with 140
obstructing members excluded, leaving only a small body of men of the
same mind, sustained by the moral sentiment of a Cromwellian Army,--can
scarcely be called a Representative body; nor can it be considered
competent to create a Court for the trial of a King! It was only
justifiable as a last and desperate measure of self-defence.

Charles wins back some of our sympathy and esteem by dying like a brave
man and a gentleman. He conducted himself with marvellous dignity and
self-possession throughout the trial, and at the end of {119} seven
days, laid his head upon the block in front of his royal palace of
Whitehall.

That small body of men, calling itself the "House of Commons," declared
England a "Commonwealth," which was to be governed without any King or
House of Lords. Cromwell was "Lord Protector of England, Scotland and
Ireland." He scorned to be called King, but no King was ever more
absolute in authority. It was a righteous tyranny, replacing a vicious