The men who hurried
him to the scaffold were a small faction of bold and ambitious spirits, who
had the address to guide the passions and fanaticism of their followers,
and were enabled through them to control the real sentiments of the nation.
Even of the commissioners appointed to sit in judgment on the king,
scarcely one-half could be induced to attend at his trial; and many of
those who concurred in his condemnation subscribed the sentence with
feelings of shame and remorse. But so it always happens in revolutions: the
most violent put themselves forward; their vigilance and activity seem to
multiply their number; and the daring of the few wins the ascendancy over
the indolence or the pusillanimity of the many.
CHAPTER IV.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
Establishment Of The Commonwealth--Punishment Of The Royalists--Mutiny And
Suppression Of The Levellers--Charles Ii Proclaimed In Scotland--Ascendancy
Of His Adherents In Ireland--Their Defeat At Rathmines--Success Of Cromwell
In Ireland--Defeat Of Montrose, And Landing Of Charles In Scotland-Cromwell
Is Sent Against Him--He Gains A Victory At Dunbar--The King Marches Into
England--Loses The Battle Of Worcester--His Subsequent Adventures And
Escape.
When the two houses first placed themselves in opposition to the sovereign,
their demands were limited to the redress of existing grievances; now that
the struggle was over, the triumphant party refused to be content with
anything less than the abolition of the old, and the establishment of a new
and more popular form of government.
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