The royalists, though oppressed, harassed, persecuted, disdained all affinity with their masters.

The more they were reduced to subjection, the greater superiority did they affect above those usurpers, who, by violence and injustice, had acquired an ascendant over them.
The manners of the two factions were as opposite as those of the most distant nations.

"Your friends, the cavaliers," said a parliamentarian to a royalist, "are very dissolute and debauched." "True," replied the royalist, "they have the infirmities of men; but your friends, the roundheads, have the vices of devils--tyranny, rebellion, and spiritual pride."[*] Riot and disorder, it is certain, notwithstanding the good example set them by Charles I., prevailed very much among his partisans.
Being commonly men of birth and fortune, to whom excesses are less pernicious than to the vulgar, they were too apt to indulge themselves in all pleasures, particularly those of the table.

Opposition to the rigid preciseness of their antagonists increased their inclination to good fellow-ship; and the character of a man of pleasure was affected among them, as a sure pledge of attachment to the church and monarchy.
Even when ruined by confiscations and sequestrations, they endeavored to maintain the appearance of a careless and social jollity.

"As much as hope is superior to fear," said a poor and merry cavalier, "so much is our situation preferable to that of our enemies.