GOD'S PRISONER. 81 'Copye of my letter sent to the Deputie Chancelor for removal of some scruples wch arose among ye Knights of ye Order before ye Time of their meeting in Council.' 'Honble Chancelor. I have no pticular aime in this my humble suite to ye Lords of ye Order to propose any private or Personal Interest of my owne, or any other man's, much lesse to engage their Honors in anything that may seeme to contest with or dissent from ye Highe Court of Parliament wherein they now sit & from whence I am not ignorant ye Most Honble Society of ye Most Noble Order receaved as at first Life and Being soe now holds its establishment. My humble & earnest desires, are to represent such Things only as I humbly conceave may nearly concerne ye Honor & Interests of their Most Noble Order. To wch (next as yr. Selfe Honored Sir) I am by oath obliged (to preserve ye Honor thereof, & of all in itt to my utmost Power) For zeale of this duty wch upon ye intimation of what I here profess, I presume they will not reject, I beseech you to give ym this assurance as yf itt were from ye tender of my owne mouthe, who am at this period God's Prisoner, & under Him, Yr servant, C. W.' Whether the Dean succeeded in gathering the Knights together, and what the 'Things nearly concerning their Honor' may have been if they were not, G as the letter implies they were not, the King's deliverance, the Parentalia' does not say, neither does it give any hint of the illness to which the end of the Dean's letter appears to point. CHAPTER IV. 1646-1658. DEATH OF MRS. M. WREN-KING CHARLES MURDERED-A MONOTONOUS WALK-INVENTIONS-A DREAM-ALL SOULS' FELLOWSHIP— BEGINNINGS OF ROYAL SOCIETY-ASTRONOMY-AN OFFER OF RELEASE -THE CYCLOID-CROMWELL'S FUNERAL-LETTERS FROM LONDON. La Royauté seule, depuis vingt ans, n'avait pas été mise à l'épreuve ; seule elle avait encore à faire des promesses auxquelles on n'eut pas été trompé. . . . On y revenait enfin, après tant d'agitations comme au toit paternel qu'a fait quitter l'espérance et où ramène la fatigue.-Monk, par M. Guizot, p. 69. CHAPTER IV. A HEAVY Sorrow fell upon the imprisoned Bishop of Ely at the close of 1646. His wife was worn out by grief for the loss of her children and anxiety for her husband, for whom Laud's fate seemed but too probable, and the Bishop's diary records that on 'December 8, 1646, Ad Christum evolavit pia anima conjugis E. mediâ post 5um matutinam.' 1 The diary contains no remark, no murmur, though this loss left Bishop Wren very desolate and full of anxiety for his seven surviving children, of whom the eldest, Matthew, was but seventeen. Upon such troubles as these prison life must have pressed heavily, and if Bishop Wren's captivity was half as strict as was that of Dr. John Barwick, who was consigned to the Tower in 1650,2 it was a sufficient hardship. Every rumour which reached his ears from the tumultuous world outside must have added to his grief. The King's affairs grew more desperate, and the shadow of Cromwell loomed larger and larger. Probably the Bishop did not expect a long captivity. It must have come to his ears that in the proposed treaty of Newport (1648), 'the persons only who were to expect no pardon 1 'December 8, 1646. The pious soul of my wife Eliza flew up to Christ at half-past five in the morning.' 2 Life of Dr. Barwick, ed. 1724, p. 122. |