had arrived the day
before. He had already the honor of the personal acquaintance of the
king, for he had in one of the early parliaments sat for Oxford.
Disgusted, however, with the spirit that prevailed among the opponents
of the king, and also by the obstinacy and unconstitutional course
pursued by his majesty, he had at the dissolution of Parliament retired
to his estate, and when the next House was summoned, declined to stand
again for his seat.

"Welcome, Sir Henry," his majesty said graciously to him, "you are
among the many who withstood me somewhat in the early days of my reign,
and perchance you were right to do so; but who have now, in my need,
rallied round me, seeing whither the purpose of these traitorous
subjects of mine leads them. You are the more welcome that you have, as
I hear, brought two hundred horsemen with you, a number larger than any
which has yet joined me. These," he said, pointing to two young noblemen
near him, "are my nephews, Rupert and Maurice, who have come to join
me."

Upon making inquiries, Sir Henry found that the prospects of the king
were far from bright. So far, the Royalists had been sadly behindhand
with their preparations. The king had arrived with scarce four hundred
men. He had left his artillery behind at York for want of carriage, and
his need in arms was even greater than in men, as the arsenals of the
kingdom had all been seized by the Parliament. Essex lay at Northampton
with ten thousand men, and had he at this time advanced, even the most
sanguine of the Royalists saw that the struggle would be a hopeless one.

The next day, at the hour appointed, the royal standard was raised on
the Castle of Nottingham, in the midst of a great storm of wind and
rain, which before many hours had passed blew the royal standard to the
ground--an omen which those superstitiously inclined deemed of evil
augury indeed. The young noblemen and gentlemen, however, who had
gathered at Northampton, were not of a kind to be daunted by omens and
auguries, and finding that Essex did not advance and hearing news from
all parts of the country that the loyal gentlemen were gathering their
tenants fast, their hopes rose rapidly. There was, indeed, some
discontent when it was known that, by the advice of his immediate
councilors, King Charles had dispatched the Earl of Southampton with
Sir John Collpeper and Sir William Uvedale to London, with orders to
treat with the Commons. The Parliament, howe