His children in the worship of Him; and I hope you will in time take off the severity of your laws here in this particular. Pr. I am no friend to severity of laws upon men's consciences; but reformation among us is not soon to be brought about, where there hath been a long usage of the contrary. Wh. In England we have of late obtained great reformation in many things, particularly touching the observation of the Lord's Day; and pardon me, Sir, if I wish the like reformation in this kingdom, and that the Lord's Day were not so much neglected, nay profaned, as I have seen in this place. I hope and humbly advise your Royal Highness that, when God shall place you in the sovereignty over this people, you will take care to provide a remedy and reformation herein, and also of that sin of excessive drinking and swearing with which the people are so much infected, and which may cause a fear lest the anger of God should go forth against this nation; but it will be very much in your power to apply a fit remedy to these evils, and doubtless God will require it at your hands, as his vicegerent. Pr. I have not heard many soldiers discourse in this strain; but I like it well, and it becomes you; and I hope God will assist me, if He shall call me to the government of this people, to acquit my duty to Him and to His people for the restraining of these sins, which I acknowledge are too common among us. Wh. In doing so, you will render service to God, and find His blessing to accompany such most pious, most honourable, and truly royal endeavours; and I hope your Highness will not think amiss of this liberty which your servant hath taken, to speak to you of these things. Pr. I am so far from thinking amiss of it or taking in ill part what you have said to me, that I do most heartily thank you for it, and do promise that I shall be mindful to put in practice the good counsel you have given me, as soon as it shall please God to give me an opportunity for it, and that the temper of this people will bear it; being convinced of the duty which lies upon me herein, and the service and honour which will thereby be done to God and to the people of this kingdom, both in respect to their temporal and eternal estate. Wh. I am very glad to find your Royal Highness so sensible hereof, and shall humbly and earnestly leave it to your thoughts. Pr. I hope I shall not forget it.* They had other discourse touching the princes and states of Christendom, particularly of the House of Austria, and of the design of the Papists against the Protestants, the which, and the increase of the interest of Rome, Whitelocke said could not be better prevented than by a conjunction of the Protestants; * [Whitelocke, in his zeal to exhort the Heir-apparent to the service of God and the observance of the Lord's Day, appears to have appreciated very imperfectly the extraordinary character and the political capacity of the Prince who paid him so signal a mark of deference. Yet in the romantic and chivalrous annals of the House of Vasa, scarcely any reign is more remarkable than that of the sovereign to whom Christina ceded the throne. In the course of the ensuing five years Charles Gustavus, at the head of a chosen band of Swedish veterans, conquered Prussia, and compelled the Great Elector to acknowledge himself to be a Swedish vassal; invaded Poland, and commenced the partition of that republic; allied himself to Rakoczy, to the terror of the House of Austria, and attacked Denmark with such success that he crossed the Little Belt on to which the Prince fully agreed. The Prince took his leave of Whitelocke with very great respect and civility. After the Prince was gone, there came to Whitelocke Grave Eric Oxenstiern and Lagerfeldt, to take their leaves of Whitelocke, they being to go to Stockholm by command of the Ricksdag; and Grave Eric gave unto Whitelocke a paper, in French, of damage sustained by a Swedish ship taken and brought into London, which he recommended to Whitelocke to be a means that satisfaction might be procured. goes to a the ring. Whitelocke being informed that now at the Court, Whitelocke among other solemnities and entertainments to wel- running at come the Prince, the gallants used the exercise and recreation of running at the ring, a pleasure noble and useful as to military affairs, improving horsemanship, and teaching the guidance of the lance, a weapon still used by horsemen in these parts of the world; this generous exercise having been in use in England in Whitelocke's memory, who had seen the lords, in presence of the King and Queen and a multitude of spectators, in the tilt-yards at Whitehall and at St. James's House, where the King, when he was Prince, used also that recreation: it made Whitelocke the more desirous to see the same again, and whether, as the ice and laid siege to Copenhagen, which was only saved by the mediation of the Maritime Powers. Such was the splendid career of Charles Gustavus between the period of his accession to the throne and the year 1660, when he died, not having completed his thirtyeighth year. More than any of his predecessors or of his successors on the Swedish throne, he may be said to have held the Empire of the North; and the favour here shown to Whitelocke indicates the importance attached by the Swedish Prince to secure at least the goodwill of Cromwell during the prosecution of these Extraordinary enterprises.] The Sound they used it here, it were the same with that he had seen in England. He went incognito in the coach of General Douglas, without any of his train, to the place where the running at the ring was. He would not go into the room where the Queen and Prince and great lords were, but sat below in a room where the judges of the course were, with divers other gentlemen, who, though they knew Whitelocke very well, yet seeing him cast his cloak over his shoulder, as desiring not to be known, they would take no notice of him-a civility in these and other countries usual. The Senator Vanderlin, Grave Tott, and the Baron Steinberg were the challengers to all the rest; and of the other part were Marshal Wrangel, Grave Jacob de la Gardie, and nine or ten others. All were well mounted; Wrangel upon an English horse, given him by Whitelocke. Their clothes, scarfs, feathers, and all accoutrements, both of men and horse, were very gallant. They ran for a prize which the Queen had ordained, and they comported themselves with much activeness and bravery; and it was the same exercise which Whitelocke had formerly seen in his own country. May 19, 1654. Woolfeldt visited Whitelocke in the morning, and brought with him a paper concerning the Sound, written in French with his own hand, wherein he showed much affection to the Protector and to England, and as much distaste to his own country. The paper Whitelocke laid up, and transcribed in a larger treatise. Woolfeldt acquainted Whitelocke that the public the Prince's ministers in this Court discoursed much of the extra- Effect of ordinary respect showed by the Prince to the English visit. Ambassador, both in his reception and the Prince's visit to him. And particularly the Danish Ambassador was greatly discontented, and said that never any ambassador had that honour done him before, and it was so far beyond what he had received that he knew not how to bear it; that the entertainment of public ministers of the same character ought to be with the same ceremony, and not one to be preferred so much as the English Ambassador had been before others of equal quality with him, and much matter of complaint of that nature; which being reported to the Prince, he said that neither the Danish Ambassador nor any other public minister had cause to complain that he had not given them the respect due to their several qualities; and if he, out of a particular affection to the English Protector and Ambassador, had a mind to express more than ordinary particular respects to them, it was no wrong or cause of complaint to any other public minister, who had what was due to him, because another had perhaps more than was due to him; and he said he understood not why his condition should render him less capable than other gentlemen to show particular respects where they did bear a particular affection. General Douglas, a Scottish gentleman in great favour and honour in this country, came late this year to the Court, being hindered by a violent ague upon his coming hither. He made frequent visits to Whitelocke, and expressed much of respect and civility to him as his countryman. This day Whitelocke was to dine with Douglas by |