"I never will!" cried the little prince, stamping his foot.

"Peace, Charlie, peace!" said the king; then addressing Sir Oliver and
the attendants, "Harm not the urchin; for he has taught my son a good
lesson, if Heaven do but give him grace to profit by it. Hereafter,
should he be tempted to tyrannize over the stubborn race of Englishmen,
let him remember little Noll Cromwell and his own bloody nose."

So the king finished his dinner and departed; and for many a long year
the childish quarrel between Prince Charles and Noll Cromwell was
forgotten. The prince, indeed, might have lived a happier life, and
have met a more peaceful death, had he remembered that quarrel and the
moral which his father drew from it. But when old King James was dead,
and Charles sat upon his throne, he seemed to forget that he was but a
man, and that his meanest subjects were men as well as he. He wished to
have the property and lives of the people of England entirely at his own
disposal. But the Puritans, and all who loved liberty, rose against him
and beat him in many battles, and pulled him down from his throne.

Throughout this war between the king and nobles on one side and the
people of England on the other there was a famous leader, who did more
towards the ruin of royal authority than all the rest. The contest
seemed like a wrestling-match between King Charles and this strong man.
And the king was overthrown.

When the discrowned monarch was brought to trial, that warlike leader
sat in the judgment hall. Many judges were present besides himself; but
he alone had the power to save King Charles or to doom him to the
scaffold. After sentence was pronounced, this victorious general was
entreated by his own children, on their knees, to rescue his Majesty