all times, I am uncertain whether I can have the liberty to look into it or not; for it seems it is not his chamber, but the great rooms of the house, and perhaps the whole, he commands, and upon this occasion, I may most properly say it, that his extremest vanity and want of judgment are so known that there will be some wonder at it."

Sidney was recalled from his retirement by the downfall of the protectoral government, and the summoning together on the 7th of May, 1659, of the members of that Parliament which Cromwell had dissolved. Here he met his old associates, Vane, Marten, Scot, and the other chiefs of the republican party. Sidney co-operated with them in their first act, the passage of a resolution to secure the liberty and property of the people, and to administer the government without a single person, kingship, or a House of Lords." The forms of the Commonwealth were once more revived; the republic was for a brief season re-established; the statesmen of the revolution were again at the helm. Sidney took his place in the Executive Council of the government. He remained in it, however, but a brief period. Within a month after the Parliament assembled, he was called to a new sphere of duty, and to the performance of other and no less responsible services in behalf of the Commonwealth. He accepted the trust, and resigned his seat in the Council and House. His legislative career closed forever.

It is unnecessary to trace the counter revolution

which overthrew the Commonwealth and brought in the king. That the Parliament was decrepid and powerless; that it had outlived the public sentiment which had formerly sustained it; that the people were wearied with these frequent changes in the government; that a strong re-action had taken place in the public mind in favor of royalty, is evident from the events which so rapidly followed. The golden moment had gone by when the Republic might have been established. The soul of the Commonwealth lay entombed in the grave of Cromwell. Monk marched his army from Scotland to the city of London. He found the republican party broken, discordant, and aimless. The noblest of them, in the front rank of whom stood VANE, made a stout resistance; but resistance was idle. Monk, at the head of his army, acted the dictator, as Cromwell had done. He declared for a "free Parliament." All London, we are told, was wild with joy; the streets blazed with bonfires; the gutters ran with ale. The king was invited back "to enjoy his own again," and raised without conditions to the throne. In a moment of enthusiastic loyalty and blind folly, the people of England surrendered, unreservedly, to Charles II., the liberties which the swords of the Puritans had wrung from the reluctant hands of his father.

CHAPTER IV.

Appointed on the embassy to Denmark and Sweden-Importance and nature of the mission-Arrives at Copenhagen-Goes to Stockholm— His conduct in the discharge of his duties as ambassador-Embarrassment of Sidney at the Restoration-Letters respecting it to his father -Progress and close of his negotiations-Prepares to return from Sweden-Letters to his father-His equivocal position with the government at home-Letters to his father respecting it-Returns to Copenhagen-Goes to Hamburgh-Letter of Lord Leicester-Discouraging prospects of Sidney-He abandons the idea of returning to England, and refuses to submit to the terms required of him at home -Letter of Sidney from Hamburgh-Letter from Augsburgh-He acknowledges and justifies the offences charged against him-His views of the act of indemnity-Cause of the hostility of the government against Sidney-Letter of Sidney in respect to it-He submits to voluntary exile-Conduct of the government in the execution of the regicides-Scrope, Sir Arthur Hazelrig, and Lambert-Partial statements of Hume respecting the execution of the regicides-Reflections on the trial and execution of General Harrison-Reasons of Sidney's refusal to return to England-His letter to his father on that subject-His views of the government at home and his relation to it -Letter to a friend.

HAVING accepted the mission conferred on him by Parliament, Sidney at once entered on the discharge

of its duties. In conjunction with Whitelocke and Sir Robert Honeywood, who were appointed to act with him, he was charged to mediate a peace between the kings of Denmark and Sweden. Whitelocke was unwilling to undertake the service, by reason, as he alleged, of his old age and infirmities, but really, as it seems, out of jealousy. He had been sent by Cromwell sole ambassador to the Queen of Sweden, and he could not brook the thought of acting a subordinate part at the same court. "I well knew," he observes in his Memoirs, "the overruling temper and height of Col. Sidney." Whitelocke thereupon declined the appointment, and Thomas Boone, a merchant of London, was named one of the commissioners in his stead. It appears manifest, however, that Sidney had the chief control of the negotiations, and that he derived very little aid from the counsels of his associates.

This mission was one of much importance to both England and Holland, as a peace between their allies, Denmark and Sweden, would secure to both nations the free navigation of the Sound. Accordingly the States General united with England in the appointment of plenipotentiaries to negotiate a peace. The English commissioners set out early in July, 1659, and arrived at Elsineur on the 21st of the same month. Admiral Montagu, afterwards Earl of Sandwich, was then in command of the English fleet lying in the Sound. The officers of the several ships, who had been apprised of the change of government, had sent in their adhesion to the Commonwealth; but Mon

tagu was secretly attached to the interests of Charles II., and was even then preparing to return to England with his whole fleet, to favor the royal cause. He had an interview at Elsineur with Sidney, who soon fathomed his intentions, and immediately apprised the Parliament. Six additional frigates were ordered to be equipped, under the command of Lawson, to prevent the attempt, and to oppose any invasion by the cavaliers from Flanders. But, as it proved, it was not from this point that the real danger to the republic was to arise. It lay less obvious and nearer home. Traitorous friends, and not foreign enemies, were to destroy the fabric which the statesmen of the Commonwealth had reared, and lay the liberties of England once more at the footstool of her kings.

In the prompt execution of this mission, Sidney repaired from Copenhagen to Stockholm. He was eminently successful. In this new field-the field of diplomacy-his fertile genius appeared as well adapted to advance the honor of his country, as it had proved to be in the senate and on the field. Having completed the negotiations, as he subsequently with truth expressed it, "to the advantage of all Europe, and the honor of this nation," he was ready to return to his own country, according to the permission given him and his colleague by the council of state; but, in the mean time, the restoration of the king had been effected, and Sidney, not knowing what construction would be put upon his conduct by the restored government, wisely concluded for the present to remain be