IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 9 



violent exaggeration of each party for the time. 

 The King became a martyr, and the Parlia- 

 mentarians traitors and vice wrsd." 



It has been well said that it is the privilege of 

 posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious 

 persons, and to set matters right between those 

 antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness 

 divided a whole age into factions. 



We wonder if Walton ever hesitated as to 

 which party he would side with. He says, 

 in his Life of Bishop Sanderson: "I praise 

 God that He prevented me from being of the 

 party which helped to bring in this Covenant, 

 and those sad confusions that have followed 

 it." 



However, his hesitation, if the sentence really 

 means he ever thought twice on the subject, was 

 not for long, as he became a strong partisan and 

 the trusted friend of the Royalists. 



After the Battle of Worcester, the Eoyalists 

 who took part in it dispersed. The follow- 

 ing extracts taken from Boscohel, or, The 

 Compleat History of His Sacred Majestie's Most 

 Miraculous Preservation after the Battle of 

 Worcester, 3rc/ September 1651, by Sir Thomas 

 Blount, follow the account of the King's hiding 

 in the neighbourhood of Worcester : "His Majesty 

 having put off his garter, blue riband, George of 

 diamonds, buff coat, and other princely ornaments, 



