A Child's History of England.208

SECOND PART

Oliver Cromwell - whom the people long called Old Noll - in accepting the office of Protector, had bound himself by a certain paper which was handed to him, called 'the Instrument [文件],' to summon a Parliament, consisting of between four and five hundred members, in the election of which neither the Royalists nor the Catholics were to have any share. He had also pledged himself that this Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent until it had sat five months.

When this Parliament met, Oliver made a speech to them of three hours long, very wisely advising them what to do for the credit [信赖] and happiness of the country. To keep down the more violent members, he required them to sign a recognition of what they were forbidden by 'the Instrument' to do; which was, chiefly, to take the power from one single person at the head of the state or to command the army. Then he dismissed them to go to work. With his usual vigour and resolution he went to work himself with [对付] some frantic preachers - who were rather overdoing their sermons in calling him a villain and a tyrant - by shutting up their chapels, and sending a few of them off to prison.

There was not at that time, in England or anywhere else, a man so able to govern the country as Oliver Cromwell. Although he ruled with a strong hand, and levied a very heavy tax on the Royalists (but not until they had plotted against his life), he ruled wisely, and as the times [时代] required. He caused England to be so respected abroad, that I wish some lords and gentlemen who have governed it under kings and queens in later days would have taken a leaf [书页 {leaflet}] out of Oliver Cromwell's book. He sent bold Admiral Blake to the Mediterranean Sea [地中海], to make the Duke of Tuscany pay sixty thousand pounds for injuries he had done to British subjects, and spoliation [掠夺] he [the Duke] had committed on English merchants. He further despatched him and his fleet to Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, to have every English ship and every English man delivered up to him that had been taken by pirates in those parts. All this was gloriously done; and it began to be thoroughly well known, all over the world, that England was governed by a man in earnest, who would not allow the English name to be insulted or slighted [slight: 冒犯] anywhere.

https://www.history.com/news/8-real-life-pirates-who-roved-the-high-seas

Sailing from North Africa’s Barbary Coast, the Barbarossa (which means "red beard" in Italian) brothers Aruj and Hizir became rich by capturing European vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

Francis Drake, nicknamed "my pirate" by Queen Elizabeth I, was among the so-called “Sea Dog” privateers licensed by the English government to attack Spanish shipping.

Perhaps the best-known pirate of the buccaneering era, Henry Morgan once purportedly ordered his men to lock the inhabitants of Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, inside a church so that they could plunder the town unhindered.

Once a respected privateer, Captain William Kidd set sail in 1696 with the assignment of hunting down pirates in the Indian Ocean.

Born Edward Teach, Blackbeard intimidated enemies by coiling smoking fuses into his long, braided facial hair and by slinging multiple pistols and daggers across his chest.

六级/考研单词: bind, summon, parliament, pledge, dissolve, consent, wise, advice, prohibit, dismiss, vigor, resolve, frantic, preach, chapel, jail, levy, plot, pamphlet, bold, commit, merchant, farther, dispatch, fleet, pirate, thorough, earnest, insult, sail, vessel, nickname, era, inhabit, assign, hunt, intimidate, coil, fuse, multiple, pistol

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来源： https://www.cnblogs.com/funwithwords/p/15836481.html