A small slip of paper, carefully preserved, is the memorial of an
interesting incident connected with the last days in Oxford of the
Martyr-King whose history is so indissolubly united with that of the
place. Amidst all the darkening anxieties which filled the three or four
months preceding the surrender of himself to the Scots, King Charles
appears to have snatched some leisure moments for refreshment in quiet
reading. His own library was no longer his; but there was one close at
hand which could more than supply it. So, to the Librarian Rous, (the
friend of Milton, but whose anti-monarchical tendencies, we may be sure,
had always hitherto been carefully concealed) there came, on Dec. 30,
an order, 'To the Keeper of the University Library, or to his deputy,'
couched in the following terms: 'Deliver unto the bearer hereof, for the
present use of his Majesty, a book intituled, _Histoire universelle du
Sieur D'Aubigné_, and this shall be your warrant;' and the order was one
which the Vice-Chancellor had subscribed with his special authorization,
'His Majestyes use is in commaund to us. S. Fell, Vice Can.' But the
Librarian had sworn to observe the Statutes which, with no respect of
persons, forbad such a removal of a book; and so, on the reception of
Fell's order, Rous 'goes to the King; and shews him the Statutes, which
being read, the King would not have the booke, nor permit it to be taken
out of the Library, saying it was fit that the will and statutes of the
pious founder should be religiously observed[104].'
Perhaps a little of the hitherto undeveloped Puritan spirit may have
helped to enliven the conscience of the Librarian, who, had he been a
Cavalier, might have possibly found something in the exceptional
circumstances of the case, to excuse a violation of the rule; but, as
the matter stood, it reflects, on the one hand, the highest credit both
on Rous's honesty and courage, and shows him to have been fit for the
place he held, while, on the other hand, the King's acquiescence in the
refusal does equal credit to his good-sense and good-temper. We shall
see that this occurrence formed a precedent for a like refusal to the
Protector in 1654 by Rous's successor, when Cromwell showed equal good
feeling and equal respect for law.
[104] Bp. Barlow's Argument against Lending Books. _MS._