days after his birth. Of course, she did not lead a very happy life
in England. Her husband the king, like the majority of the English
people, was a Protestant, and the difference was a far more important
circumstance in those days than it would be now; though even now a
difference in religious faith, on points _which either party deems
essential_, is, in married life, an obstacle to domestic happiness,
which comes to no termination, and admits of no cure. If it were
possible for reason and reflection to control the impetuous impulses
of youthful hearts, such differences of religious faith would be
regarded, where they exist, as an insurmountable objection to a
matrimonial union.

The queen, made thus unhappy by religious dissensions with her husband,
and by the public odium of which she was the object, lived in
considerable retirement and seclusion at St. James's Palace, in
Westminster, which is the western part of London. Here her second son,
the subject of this history, was born, in May, 1630, which was ten
years after the landing of the pilgrims on the Plymouth rock. The babe
was very far from being pretty, though he grew up at last to be quite
a handsome man. King Charles was very much pleased at the birth of his
son. He rode into London the next morning at the head of a long train
of guards and noble attendants, to the great cathedral church of St.
Paul's, to render thanks publicly to God for the birth of his child
and the safety of the queen. While this procession was going through
the streets, all London being out to gaze upon it, the attention of
the vast crowd was attracted to the appearance of a star glimmering
faintly in the sky at midday. This is an occurrence not very uncommon,
though it seldom, perhaps, occurs when it has so many observers to
witness it. The star was doubtless Venus, which, in certain
circumstances, is often bright enough to be seen when the sun is above