his bed, "Lord, although I am a miserable and a wretched
creature, I am in covenant with Thee through grace, and I may and
will come to Thee for Thy people. Pardon such as desire to
trample upon the dust of a poor worm. And give us a good night
if it be Thy pleasure. Amen."

It was now the 2nd of September. As the evening of that day
approached he fell into a stupor, and those who watched him
thought the end had come.

Within the darkened chamber in Whitehall all was silence and
gloom; without all was tumult and fear. Before the gates of the
palace a turbulent crowd of soldiers and citizens had gathered in
impatient anxiety. Those he had raised to power, those whose
fortunes depended on his life, were steeped in gloom; those whose
principles he had outraged by his usurpation, those whose
position he had crushed by his sway, rejoiced at heart. Not only
the capital, but the whole nation, was divided into factions
which one strong hand alone had been able to control; and terror,
begotten by dire remembrances of civil war and bloodshed, abode
with all lovers of peace.

As evening closed in, the elements appeared in unison with the
distracted condition of the kingdom. Dark clouds, seeming of
ominous import to men's minds, gathered in the heavens, to be
presently torn asunder and hurried in wild flight by tempestuous
winds across the troubled sky. As night deepened, the gale
steadily increased, until it raged in boundless fury above the
whole island and the seas that rolled around its shores. In town
houses rocked on their foundations, turrets and steeples were