ourselves back to the year 1648, when King Charles I was a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle. Young Edward Hales, who had married Lady Anne, daughter of Lord Wotton, seems upon a sudden impulse to have taken up the cause of the King; his vanity being flattered by an idea of the great results likely to follow from his doing so.
   Referring to the trustworthy statements of Clarendon, we find (vol. vi.) that there were at this time some commotions in Kent, and one Mr. L'Estrange, who had been taken prisoner by the Parliament, and by a court of law condemned to die, contrived to ingratiate himself with the weak young Edward Hales. L'Estrange had been set at liberty at the end of the war, as one no longer dangerous; but he retained his old affection, and more remembered the cruel usage he had received than the

fact that he had got off scot-free. "He had," says Clarendon, "a great friendship with a young gentleman, Mr. Hales, who lived in Kent, and was married to a lady of noble birth and fortune, he being heir to one of the greatest fortunes in that country; but was to expect the inheritance from an old severe grandfather, who for the present kept the young couple from running into any excess. The mother of the lady being of as strict and sour a nature as the grandfather, and both of them so much of the Parliament party that they were not willing that any part of their estates should be hazarded for the King. At the house of this Mr. Hales, L'Estrange was ............. when the report did first arise that the fleet would presently declare for the King, and those seamen who came on shore talked as if the City of London would join with them. This drew many gentlemen of the