ceremonies, which their souls hated, would be dispensed with? The Book of
Common Prayer had been long disused; might it not be relegated to
permanent abeyance, like the feudal tenures, which all agreed should be
swept away? Might not, at least, only parts of it be revived, to be
mingled with more edifying forms of extempore prayer?

This was precisely what Hyde was not prepared to concede, and Charles
answered in the spirit that he would have wished, and must have prompted.
The King was ready to give toleration to tender consciences, but he
claimed liberty also for himself. In his own presence and by his own
chaplain, the Common Prayer Book should certainly be restored. "He would
never discountenance the good old order of the Church in which he had been
bred." We can have little doubt by whom this answer was inspired. The
Presbyterian ambassadors were forced to return with the consciousness that
the day of their triumph was gone, and that the Church would oppose to
their pretensions a front of resistance as determined as that of the
Independents.

On May 24th, Charles sailed in the ship, lately named the
_Protector_, but now rechristened as _The Prince_. On the 26th he landed
at Dover, and on May 29th, he was back in the Palace of his fathers, and
the universal acclaim evinced the heartfelt joy with which his people
hailed the restoration of their King. The ship which Hyde had steered so
long and warily was safe in port. A new and perhaps harder task awaited
the pilot.




CHAPTER XV