"We have been very remiss, Miss Lucy; but we will have no more of high politics, and will, even if never again," he said sadly, "devote all our energies to getting such a basket of flowers for you as may fill your rooms with beaupots.

Now, if your majesty is ready to begin, we are your most obedient servants." And so, with a laugh, the little party rose to their feet, and started in quest of wild flowers.
The condition of affairs was at the outbreak of the civil war such as might well puzzle older heads than those of Harry Furness or Herbert Rippinghall, to choose between the two powers who were gathering arms.
The foundations of the difficulty had been laid in the reign of King James.

That monarch, who in figure, manners, and mind was in the strongest contrast to all the English kings who had preceded him, was infinitely more mischievous than a more foolish monarch could have been.
Coarse in manner--a buffoon in demeanor--so weak, that in many matters he suffered himself to be a puppet in the hands of the profligates who surrounded him, he had yet a certain amount of cleverness, and an obstinacy which nothing could overcome.

He brought with him from Scotland an overweening opinion of the power and dignity of his position as a king.

The words--absolute monarchy--had hitherto meant only a monarch free from foreign interference; to James they meant a monarchy free from interference on the part of Lords or Commons.