native tongue.

Time passed on, and the difficulties and contests between King Charles
and his people and Parliament became more and more exciting and
alarming. One after another of the king's most devoted and faithful
ministers was arrested, tried, condemned, and beheaded, notwithstanding
all the efforts which their sovereign master could make to save them.
Parties were formed, and party spirit ran very high. Tumults were
continually breaking out about the palaces, which threatened the
personal safety of the king and queen. Henrietta herself was a special
object of the hatred which these outbreaks expressed. The king himself
was half distracted by the overwhelming difficulties of his position.
Bad as it was in England, it was still worse in Scotland. There was
an actual rebellion there, and the urgency of the danger in that quarter
was so great that Charles concluded to go there, leaving the poor queen
at home to take care of herself and her little ones as well as she
could, with the few remaining means of protection yet left at her
disposal.

There was an ancient mansion, called Oatlands, not very far from London,
where the queen generally resided during the absence of her husband.
It was a lonely place, on low and level ground, and surrounded by moats
filled with water, over which those who wished to enter passed by draw
bridges. Henrietta chose this place for her residence because she
thought she should be safer there from mobs and violence. She kept the
children all there except the Prince of Wales, who was not allowed to
be wholly under her care. He, how ever, often visited his mother, and
she sometimes visited him.

During the absence of her husband, Queen Henrietta was subjected to