Friends, though divided | Page 5

would be composed solely of one party in the state, and that
this party would be controlled by the fanatical leaders and the ministers
of the sects opposed to the Established Church, which were at that time
bitter, narrow, and violent to an extent of which we have now no
conception.
The attitude thus assumed by Parliament drove from their ranks a great
many of the most intelligent and enlightened of those who had formerly
sided with them in their contest against the king. These gentlemen felt
that intolerable as was the despotic power of a king, still more
intolerable would it be to be governed by the despotic power of a group

of fanatics. The liberty of Englishmen was now as much threatened by
the Commons as it had been threatened by the king, and to loyal
gentlemen the latter alternative was preferable. Thus there were on both
sides earnest and conscientious men who grieved deeply at being
forced to draw swords in such a quarrel, and who felt that their choice
of sides was difficult in the extreme. Falkland was the typical soldier
on the royal side, Hampden on that of the Commons.
It is probable that were England divided to-morrow under the same
conditions, men would be equally troubled upon which side to range
themselves. At this period of the struggle, with the exception of a few
hot-headed followers of the king and a few zealots on the side of the
Commons, there was a general hope that matters would shortly be
arranged, and that one conflict would settle the struggle.
The first warlike demonstration was made before the town of York,
before whose walls the king, arriving with an armed force, was refused
admittance by Sir John Hotham, who held the place for the Parliament.
This was the signal for the outbreak of the war, and each party
henceforth strained every nerve to arm themselves and to place their
forces in the field.
The above is but a brief sketch of the circumstances which led the
Cavaliers and Puritans of England to arm themselves for civil war.
Many details have been omitted, the object being not to teach the
history of the time, but to show the general course of events which had
led to so broad and strange a division between the people of England.
Even now, after an interval of two hundred years, men still discuss the
subject with something like passion, and are as strong in their
sympathies toward one side or the other as in the days when their
ancestors took up arms for king or Commons.
It is with the story of the war which followed the conversation of Harry
Furness and Herbert Rippinghall that we have to do, not with that of the
political occurrences which preceded it. As to these, at least, no doubts
or differences of opinion can arise. The incidents of the war, its
victories and defeats, its changing fortunes, and its final triumph are
matters beyond the domain of politics, or of opinion; and indeed when

once the war began politics ceased to have much further sway. The
original questions were lost sight of, and men fought for king or
Parliament just as soldiers nowadays fight for England or Prance,
without in any concerning themselves with the original grounds of
quarrel.
CHAPTER II.
FOR THE KING.
It was late that evening when Sir Henry Furness returned from Oxford;
but Harry, anxious to hear the all-absorbing news of the day, had
waited up for him.
"What news, father?" he said, as Sir Henry alighted at the door.
"Stirring news, Harry; but as dark as may be. War appears to be now
certain. The king has made every concession, but the more he is ready
to grant, the more those Puritan knaves at Westminster would force
from him. King, peers, bishops, Church, all is to go down before this
knot of preachers; and it is well that the king has his nobles and gentry
still at his back. I have seen Lord Falkland, and he has given me a
commission in the king's name to raise a troop of horse. The royal
banner will be hoisted at Nottingham, and there he will appeal to all his
loyal subjects for aid against those who seek to govern the nation."
"And you think, sir, that it will really be war now?" Harry asked.
"Ay, that will it, unless the Commons go down on their knees and ask
his majesty's pardon, of which there is, methinks, no likelihood. As was
to be expected, the burghers and rabble of the large towns are
everywhere with them, and are sending up petitions to the Commons to
stand fast and abolish everything. However, the country is of another
way of thinking, and though the bad advisers