Friends, though divided | Page 3

Germany are torn by internal dissensions, we
should be happy indeed that England has so long escaped such a
scourge. It is indeed sad to think that friends should be arrayed against
each other in a quarrel in which both sides are in the wrong."
"I hope," Harry said, "that if they needs must fight, it will soon be over,
whichever way fortune may turn."
"I think not," Herbert answered. "It is a war of religion as much as a
war for power. The king and the Commons may strive who shall
govern the realm; but the people who will take up arms will do it more
for the triumph of Protestantism than for that of Pym and Hampden."
"How tiresome you both are," Lucy Rippinghall interrupted, pouting.
"You brought me out to gather flowers, and you do nothing but talk of
kings and Parliament, as if I cared for them. I call it very rude. Herbert
is often forgetful, and thinks of his books more than of me; but you,
Master Harry, are always polite and gentle, and I marvel much that you

should be so changed to-day."
"Forgive me," Harry said, smiling. "We have been very remiss, Miss
Lucy; but we will have no more of high politics, and will, even if never
again," he said sadly, "devote all our energies to getting such a basket
of flowers for you as may fill your rooms with beaupots. Now, if your
majesty is ready to begin, we are your most obedient servants."
And so, with a laugh, the little party rose to their feet, and started in
quest of wild flowers.
The condition of affairs was at the outbreak of the civil war such as
might well puzzle older heads than those of Harry Furness or Herbert
Rippinghall, to choose between the two powers who were gathering
arms.
The foundations of the difficulty had been laid in the reign of King
James. That monarch, who in figure, manners, and mind was in the
strongest contrast to all the English kings who had preceded him, was
infinitely more mischievous than a more foolish monarch could have
been. Coarse in manner--a buffoon in demeanor--so weak, that in many
matters he suffered himself to be a puppet in the hands of the
profligates who surrounded him, he had yet a certain amount of
cleverness, and an obstinacy which nothing could overcome. He
brought with him from Scotland an overweening opinion of the power
and dignity of his position as a king. The words--absolute
monarchy--had hitherto meant only a monarch free from foreign
interference; to James they meant a monarchy free from interference on
the part of Lords or Commons. He believed implicitly in the divine
right of kings to do just as they chose, and in all things, secular and
ecclesiastical, to impose their will upon their subjects.
At that time, upon the Continent, the struggle of Protestantism and
Catholicism was being fought out everywhere. In France the Huguenots
were gradually losing ground, and were soon to be extirpated. In
Germany the Protestant princes had lost ground. Austria, at one time
halting between two opinions, had now espoused vehemently the side
of the pope, and save in Holland and Switzerland, Catholicism was

triumphing all along the line. While the sympathies of the people of
England were strongly in favor of their co-religionists upon the
Continent, those of James inclined toward Catholicism, and in all
matters ecclesiastical he was at variance with his subjects. What caused,
if possible, an even deeper feeling of anger than his interference in
church matters, was his claim to influence the decisions of the law
courts. The pusillanimity of the great mass of the judges hindered them
from opposing his outrageous claims, and the people saw with
indignation and amazement the royal power becoming infinitely greater
and more extended than anything to which Henry VIII. or even
Elizabeth had laid claim. The negotiations of the king for a marriage
between his son and the Infanta of Spain raised the fears of the people
to the highest point. The remembrance of the Spanish armada was still
fresh in their minds, and they looked upon an alliance with Spain as the
most unholy of contracts, and as threatening alike the religion and
liberties of Englishmen.
Thus when at King James' death King Charles ascended the throne, he
inherited a legacy of trouble. Unhappily, his disposition was even more
obstinate than that of his father. His training had been wholly bad, and
he had inherited the pernicious ideas of his father in reference to the
rights of kings. Even more unfortunately, he had inherited his father's
counselors. The Duke of Buckingham, a haughty, avaricious, and
ambitious noble, raised by King James from obscurity, urged him to
follow the path of his father, and