Windham told the king, that Sir Thomas, his father, in the year 1636, a few days before his death, called to him his five sons.

"My children," said he, "we have hitherto seen serene and quiet times under our three last sovereigns: but I must now warn you to prepare for clouds and storms.

Factions arise on every side, and threaten the tranquillity of your native country.

But whatever happen, do you faithfully honor and obey your prince, and adhere to the crown.

I charge you never to forsake the crown, though it should hang upon a bush." "These last words," added Windham, "made such impressions on all our breasts, that the many afflictions of these sad times could never efface their indelible characters." From innumerable instances, it appears how deep rooted, in the minds of the English gentry of that age, was the principle of loyalty to their sovereign; that noble and generous principle, inferior only in excellence to the more enlarged and more enlightened affection towards a legal constitution.