Chapter XXXIV - England Under Oliver Cromwell

by Charles Dickens

　　Before sunset on the memorable day on which King Charles the Firstwas executed, the House of Commons passed an act declaring ittreason in any one to proclaim the Prince of Wales - or anybodyelse - King of England. Soon afterwards, it declared that theHouse of Lords was useless and dangerous, and ought to beabolished; and directed that the late King's statue should be takendown from the Royal Exchange in the City and other public places.Having laid hold of some famous Royalists who had escaped fromprison, and having beheaded the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Holland, andLord Capel, in Palace Yard (all of whom died very courageously),they then appointed a Council of State to govern the country. Itconsisted of forty-one members, of whom five were peers. Bradshawwas made president. The House of Commons also re-admitted memberswho had opposed the King's death, and made up its numbers to abouta hundred and fifty.

　　But, it still had an army of more than forty thousand men to dealwith, and a very hard task it was to manage them. Before theKing's execution, the army had appointed some of its officers toremonstrate between them and the Parliament; and now the commonsoldiers began to take that office upon themselves. The regimentsunder orders for Ireland mutinied; one troop of horse in the cityof London seized their own flag, and refused to obey orders. Forthis, the ringleader was shot: which did not mend the matter, for,both his comrades and the people made a public funeral for him, andaccompanied the body to the grave with sound of trumpets and with agloomy procession of persons carrying bundles of rosemary steepedin blood. Oliver was the only man to deal with such difficultiesas these, and he soon cut them short by bursting at midnight intothe town of Burford, near Salisbury, where the mutineers weresheltered, taking four hundred of them prisoners, and shooting anumber of them by sentence of court-martial. The soldiers soonfound, as all men did, that Oliver was not a man to be trifledwith. And there was an end of the mutiny.

　　The Scottish Parliament did not know Oliver yet; so, on hearing ofthe King's execution, it proclaimed the Prince of Wales KingCharles the Second, on condition of his respecting the SolemnLeague and Covenant. Charles was abroad at that time, and so wasMontrose, from whose help he had hopes enough to keep him holdingon and off with commissioners from Scotland, just as his fathermight have done. These hopes were soon at an end; for, Montrose,having raised a few hundred exiles in Germany, and landed with themin Scotland, found that the people there, instead of joining him,deserted the country at his approach. He was soon taken prisonerand carried to Edinburgh. There he was received with everypossible insult, and carried to prison in a cart, his officersgoing two and two before him. He was sentenced by the Parliamentto be hanged on a gallows thirty feet high, to have his head set ona spike in Edinburgh, and his limbs distributed in other places,according to the old barbarous manner. He said he had always actedunder the Royal orders, and only wished he had limbs enough to bedistributed through Christendom, that it might be the more widelyknown how loyal he had been. He went to the scaffold in a brightand brilliant dress, and made a bold end at thirty-eight years ofage. The breath was scarcely out of his body when Charlesabandoned his memory, and denied that he had ever given him ordersto rise in his behalf. O the family failing was strong in thatCharles then!

　　Oliver had been appointed by the Parliament to command the army inIreland, where he took a terrible vengeance for the sanguinaryrebellion, and made tremendous havoc, particularly in the siege ofDrogheda, where no quarter was given, and where he found at least athousand of the inhabitants shut up together in the great church:every one of whom was killed by his soldiers, usually known asOliver's Ironsides. There were numbers of friars and priests amongthem, and Oliver gruffly wrote home in his despatch that these were'knocked on the head' like the rest.

　　But, Charles having got over to Scotland where the men of theSolemn League and Covenant led him a prodigiously dull life andmade him very weary with long sermons and grim Sundays, theParliament called the redoubtable Oliver home to knock the Scottishmen on the head for setting up that Prince. Oliver left his son-in-law, Ireton, as general in Ireland in his stead (he died thereafterwards), and he imitated the example of his father-in-law withsuch good will that he brought the country to subjection, and laidit at the feet of the Parliament. In the end, they passed an actfor the settlement of Ireland, generally pardoning all the commonpeople, but exempting from this grace such of the wealthier sort ashad been concerned in the rebellion, or in any killing ofProtestants, or who refused to lay down their arms. Great numbersof Irish were got out of the country to serve under Catholic powersabroad, and a quantity of land was declared to have been forfeitedby past offences, and was given to people who had lent money to theParliament early in the war. These were sweeping measures; but, ifOliver Cromwell had had his own way fully, and had stayed inIreland, he would have done more yet.

　　However, as I have said, the Parliament wanted Oliver for Scotland;so, home Oliver came, and was made Commander of all the Forces ofthe Commonwealth of England, and in three days away he went withsixteen thousand soldiers to fight the Scottish men. Now, theScottish men, being then - as you will generally find them now -mighty cautious, reflected that the troops they had were not usedto war like the Ironsides, and would be beaten in an open fight.Therefore they said, 'If we live quiet in our trenches in Edinburghhere, and if all the farmers come into the town and desert thecountry, the Ironsides will be driven out by iron hunger and beforced to go away.' This was, no doubt, the wisest plan; but asthe Scottish clergy would interfere with what they knew nothingabout, and would perpetually preach long sermons exhorting thesoldiers to come out and fight, the soldiers got it in their headsthat they absolutely must come out and fight. Accordingly, in anevil hour for themselves, they came out of their safe position.Oliver fell upon them instantly, and killed three thousand, andtook ten thousand prisoners.

　　To gratify the Scottish Parliament, and preserve their favour,Charles had signed a declaration they laid before him, reproachingthe memory of his father and mother, and representing himself as amost religious Prince, to whom the Solemn League and Covenant wasas dear as life. He meant no sort of truth in this, and soonafterwards galloped away on horseback to join some tiresomeHighland friends, who were always flourishing dirks andbroadswords. He was overtaken and induced to return; but thisattempt, which was called 'The Start,' did him just so muchservice, that they did not preach quite such long sermons at himafterwards as they had done before.

　　On the first of January, one thousand six hundred and fifty-one,the Scottish people crowned him at Scone. He immediately took thechief command of an army of twenty thousand men, and marched toStirling. His hopes were heightened, I dare say, by theredoubtable Oliver being ill of an ague; but Oliver scrambled outof bed in no time, and went to work with such energy that he gotbehind the Royalist army and cut it off from all communication withScotland. There was nothing for it then, but to go on to England;so it went on as far as Worcester, where the mayor and some of thegentry proclaimed King Charles the Second straightway. Hisproclamation, however, was of little use to him, for very fewRoyalists appeared; and, on the very same day, two people werepublicly beheaded on Tower Hill for espousing his cause. Up cameOliver to Worcester too, at double quick speed, and he and hisIronsides so laid about them in the great battle which was foughtthere, that they completely beat the Scottish men, and destroyedthe Royalist army; though the Scottish men fought so gallantly thatit took five hours to do.

　　The escape of Charles after this battle of Worcester did him goodservice long afterwards, for it induced many of the generousEnglish people to take a romantic interest in him, and to thinkmuch better of him than he ever deserved. He fled in the night,with not more than sixty followers, to the house of a Catholic ladyin Staffordshire. There, for his greater safety, the whole sixtyleft him. He cropped his hair, stained his face and hands brown asif they were sunburnt, put on the clothes of a labouringcountryman, and went out in the morning with his axe in his hand,accompanied by four wood-cutters who were brothers, and another manwho was their brother-in-law. These good fellows made a bed forhim under a tree, as the weather was very bad; and the wife of oneof them brought him food to eat; and the old mother of the fourbrothers came and fell down on her knees before him in the wood,and thanked God that her sons were engaged in saving his life. Atnight, he came out of the forest and went on to another house whichwas near the river Severn, with the intention of passing intoWales; but the place swarmed with soldiers, and the bridges wereguarded, and all the boats were made fast. So, after lying in ahayloft covered over with hay, for some time, he came out of hisplace, attended by Colonel Careless, a Catholic gentleman who hadmet him there, and with whom he lay hid, all next day, up in theshady branches of a fine old oak. It was lucky for the King thatit was September-time, and that the leaves had not begun to fall,since he and the Colonel, perched up in this tree, could catchglimpses of the soldiers riding about below, and could hear thecrash in the wood as they went about beating the boughs.

　　After this, he walked and walked until his feet were all blistered;and, having been concealed all one day in a house which wassearched by the troopers while he was there, went with Lord Wilmot,another of his good friends, to a place called Bentley, where oneMiss Lane, a Protestant lady, had obtained a pass to be allowed toride through the guards to see a relation of hers near Bristol.Disguised as a servant, he rode in the saddle before this younglady to the house of Sir John Winter, while Lord Wilmot rode thereboldly, like a plain country gentleman, with dogs at his heels. Ithappened that Sir John Winter's butler had been servant in RichmondPalace, and knew Charles the moment he set eyes upon him; but, thebutler was faithful and kept the secret. As no ship could be foundto carry him abroad, it was planned that he should go - stilltravelling with Miss Lane as her servant - to another house, atTrent near Sherborne in Dorsetshire; and then Miss Lane and hercousin, Mr. Lascelles, who had gone on horseback beside her all theway, went home. I hope Miss Lane was going to marry that cousin,for I am sure she must have been a brave, kind girl. If I had beenthat cousin, I should certainly have loved Miss Lane.

　　When Charles, lonely for the loss of Miss Lane, was safe at Trent,a ship was hired at Lyme, the master of which engaged to take twogentlemen to France. In the evening of the same day, the King -now riding as servant before another young lady - set off for apublic-house at a place called Charmouth, where the captain of thevessel was to take him on board. But, the captain's wife, beingafraid of her husband getting into trouble, locked him up and wouldnot let him sail. Then they went away to Bridport; and, coming tothe inn there, found the stable-yard full of soldiers who were onthe look-out for Charles, and who talked about him while theydrank. He had such presence of mind, that he led the horses of hisparty through the yard as any other servant might have done, andsaid, 'Come out of the way, you soldiers; let us have room to passhere!' As he went along, he met a half-tipsy ostler, who rubbedhis eyes and said to him, 'Why, I was formerly servant to Mr.Potter at Exeter, and surely I have sometimes seen you there, youngman?' He certainly had, for Charles had lodged there. His readyanswer was, 'Ah, I did live with him once; but I have no time totalk now. We'll have a pot of beer together when I come back.'

　　From this dangerous place he returned to Trent, and lay thereconcealed several days. Then he escaped to Heale, near Salisbury;where, in the house of a widow lady, he was hidden five days, untilthe master of a collier lying off Shoreham in Sussex, undertook toconvey a 'gentleman' to France. On the night of the fifteenth ofOctober, accompanied by two colonels and a merchant, the King rodeto Brighton, then a little fishing village, to give the captain ofthe ship a supper before going on board; but, so many people knewhim, that this captain knew him too, and not only he, but thelandlord and landlady also. Before he went away, the landlord camebehind his chair, kissed his hand, and said he hoped to live to bea lord and to see his wife a lady; at which Charles laughed. Theyhad had a good supper by this time, and plenty of smoking anddrinking, at which the King was a first-rate hand; so, the captainassured him that he would stand by him, and he did. It was agreedthat the captain should pretend to sail to Deal, and that Charlesshould address the sailors and say he was a gentleman in debt whowas running away from his creditors, and that he hoped they wouldjoin him in persuading the captain to put him ashore in France. Asthe King acted his part very well indeed, and gave the sailorstwenty shillings to drink, they begged the captain to do what sucha worthy gentleman asked. He pretended to yield to theirentreaties, and the King got safe to Normandy.

　　Ireland being now subdued, and Scotland kept quiet by plenty offorts and soldiers put there by Oliver, the Parliament would havegone on quietly enough, as far as fighting with any foreign enemywent, but for getting into trouble with the Dutch, who in thespring of the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-one sent afleet into the Downs under their Admiral van Tromp, to call uponthe bold English Admiral Blake (who was there with half as manyships as the Dutch) to strike his flag. Blake fired a ragingbroadside instead, and beat off Van Tromp; who, in the autumn, cameback again with seventy ships, and challenged the bold Blake - whostill was only half as strong - to fight him. Blake fought him allday; but, finding that the Dutch were too many for him, got quietlyoff at night. What does Van Tromp upon this, but goes cruising andboasting about the Channel, between the North Foreland and the Isleof Wight, with a great Dutch broom tied to his masthead, as a signthat he could and would sweep the English of the sea! Within threemonths, Blake lowered his tone though, and his broom too; for, heand two other bold commanders, Dean and Monk, fought him threewhole days, took twenty-three of his ships, shivered his broom topieces, and settled his business.

　　Things were no sooner quiet again, than the army began to complainto the Parliament that they were not governing the nation properly,and to hint that they thought they could do it better themselves.Oliver, who had now made up his mind to be the head of the state,or nothing at all, supported them in this, and called a meeting ofofficers and his own Parliamentary friends, at his lodgings inWhitehall, to consider the best way of getting rid of theParliament. It had now lasted just as many years as the King'sunbridled power had lasted, before it came into existence. The endof the deliberation was, that Oliver went down to the House in hisusual plain black dress, with his usual grey worsted stockings, butwith an unusual party of soldiers behind him. These last he leftin the lobby, and then went in and sat down. Presently he got up,made the Parliament a speech, told them that the Lord had done withthem, stamped his foot and said, 'You are no Parliament. Bringthem in! Bring them in!' At this signal the door flew open, andthe soldiers appeared. 'This is not honest,' said Sir Harry Vane,one of the members. 'Sir Harry Vane!' cried Cromwell; 'O, SirHarry Vane! The Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!' Then hepointed out members one by one, and said this man was a drunkard,and that man a dissipated fellow, and that man a liar, and so on.Then he caused the Speaker to be walked out of his chair, told theguard to clear the House, called the mace upon the table - which isa sign that the House is sitting - 'a fool's bauble,' and said,'here, carry it away!' Being obeyed in all these orders, hequietly locked the door, put the key in his pocket, walked back toWhitehall again, and told his friends, who were still assembledthere, what he had done.

　　They formed a new Council of State after this extraordinaryproceeding, and got a new Parliament together in their own way:which Oliver himself opened in a sort of sermon, and which he saidwas the beginning of a perfect heaven upon earth. In thisParliament there sat a well-known leather-seller, who had taken thesingular name of Praise God Barebones, and from whom it was called,for a joke, Barebones's Parliament, though its general name was theLittle Parliament. As it soon appeared that it was not going toput Oliver in the first place, it turned out to be not at all likethe beginning of heaven upon earth, and Oliver said it really wasnot to be borne with. So he cleared off that Parliament in muchthe same way as he had disposed of the other; and then the councilof officers decided that he must be made the supreme authority ofthe kingdom, under the title of the Lord Protector of theCommonwealth.

　　So, on the sixteenth of December, one thousand six hundred andfifty-three, a great procession was formed at Oliver's door, and hecame out in a black velvet suit and a big pair of boots, and gotinto his coach and went down to Westminster, attended by thejudges, and the lord mayor, and the aldermen, and all the othergreat and wonderful personages of the country. There, in the Courtof Chancery, he publicly accepted the office of Lord Protector.Then he was sworn, and the City sword was handed to him, and theseal was handed to him, and all the other things were handed to himwhich are usually handed to Kings and Queens on state occasions.When Oliver had handed them all back, he was quite made andcompletely finished off as Lord Protector; and several of theIronsides preached about it at great length, all the evening.

　　SECOND PART

　　Oliver Cromwell - whom the people long called Old Noll - inaccepting the office of Protector, had bound himself by a certainpaper which was handed to him, called 'the Instrument,' to summon aParliament, consisting of between four and five hundred members, inthe election of which neither the Royalists nor the Catholics wereto have any share. He had also pledged himself that thisParliament should not be dissolved without its own consent until ithad sat five months.

　　When this Parliament met, Oliver made a speech to them of threehours long, very wisely advising them what to do for the credit andhappiness of the country. To keep down the more violent members,he required them to sign a recognition of what they were forbiddenby 'the Instrument' to do; which was, chiefly, to take the powerfrom one single person at the head of the state or to command thearmy. Then he dismissed them to go to work. With his usual vigourand resolution he went to work himself with some frantic preachers- who were rather overdoing their sermons in calling him a villainand a tyrant - by shutting up their chapels, and sending a few ofthem off to prison.

　　There was not at that time, in England or anywhere else, a man soable to govern the country as Oliver Cromwell. Although he ruledwith 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 required. He caused England to be so respectedabroad, that I wish some lords and gentlemen who have governed itunder kings and queens in later days would have taken a leaf out ofOliver Cromwell's book. He sent bold Admiral Blake to theMediterranean Sea, to make the Duke of Tuscany pay sixty thousandpounds for injuries he had done to British subjects, and spoliationhe had committed on English merchants. He further despatched himand his fleet to Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, to have every Englishship and every English man delivered up to him that had been takenby pirates in those parts. All this was gloriously done; and itbegan to be thoroughly well known, all over the world, that Englandwas governed by a man in earnest, who would not allow the Englishname to be insulted or slighted anywhere.

　　These were not all his foreign triumphs. He sent a fleet to seaagainst the Dutch; and the two powers, each with one hundred shipsupon its side, met in the English Channel off the North Foreland,where the fight lasted all day long. Dean was killed in thisfight; but Monk, who commanded in the same ship with him, threw hiscloak over his body, that the sailors might not know of his death,and be disheartened. Nor were they. The English broadsides soexceedingly astonished the Dutch that they sheered off at last,though the redoubtable Van Tromp fired upon them with his own gunsfor deserting their flag. Soon afterwards, the two fleets engagedagain, off the coast of Holland. There, the valiant Van Tromp wasshot through the heart, and the Dutch gave in, and peace was made.

　　Further than this, Oliver resolved not to bear the domineering andbigoted conduct of Spain, which country not only claimed a right toall the gold and silver that could be found in South America, andtreated the ships of all other countries who visited those regions,as pirates, but put English subjects into the horrible Spanishprisons of the Inquisition. So, Oliver told the Spanish ambassadorthat English ships must be free to go wherever they would, and thatEnglish merchants must not be thrown into those same dungeons, no,not for the pleasure of all the priests in Spain. To this, theSpanish ambassador replied that the gold and silver country, andthe Holy Inquisition, were his King's two eyes, neither of which hecould submit to have put out. Very well, said Oliver, then he wasafraid he (Oliver) must damage those two eyes directly.

　　So, another fleet was despatched under two commanders, Penn andVenables, for Hispaniola; where, however, the Spaniards got thebetter of the fight. Consequently, the fleet came home again,after taking Jamaica on the way. Oliver, indignant with the twocommanders who had not done what bold Admiral Blake would havedone, clapped them both into prison, declared war against Spain,and made a treaty with France, in virtue of which it was to shelterthe King and his brother the Duke of York no longer. Then, he senta fleet abroad under bold Admiral Blake, which brought the King ofPortugal to his senses - just to keep its hand in - and thenengaged a Spanish fleet, sunk four great ships, and took two more,laden with silver to the value of two millions of pounds: whichdazzling prize was brought from Portsmouth to London in waggons,with the populace of all the towns and villages through which thewaggons passed, shouting with all their might. After this victory,bold Admiral Blake sailed away to the port of Santa Cruz to cut offthe Spanish treasure-ships coming from Mexico. There, he foundthem, ten in number, with seven others to take care of them, and abig castle, and seven batteries, all roaring and blazing away athim with great guns. Blake cared no more for great guns than forpop-guns - no more for their hot iron balls than for snow-balls.He dashed into the harbour, captured and burnt every one of theships, and came sailing out again triumphantly, with the victoriousEnglish flag flying at his masthead. This was the last triumph ofthis great commander, who had sailed and fought until he was quiteworn out. He died, as his successful ship was coming into PlymouthHarbour amidst the joyful acclamations of the people, and wasburied in state in Westminster Abbey. Not to lie there, long.

　　Over and above all this, Oliver found that the VaudoiS, orProtestant people of the valleys of Lucerne, were insolentlytreated by the Catholic powers, and were even put to death fortheir religion, in an audacious and bloody manner. Instantly, heinformed those powers that this was a thing which ProtestantEngland would not allow; and he speedily carried his point, throughthe might of his great name, and established their right to worshipGod in peace after their own harmless manner.

　　Lastly, his English army won such admiration in fighting with theFrench against the Spaniards, that, after they had assaulted thetown of Dunkirk together, the French King in person gave it up tothe English, that it might be a token to them of their might andvalour.

　　There were plots enough against Oliver among the franticreligionists (who called themselves Fifth Monarchy Men), and amongthe disappointed Republicans. He had a difficult game to play, forthe Royalists were always ready to side with either party againsthim. The 'King over the water,' too, as Charles was called, had noscruples about plotting with any one against his life; althoughthere is reason to suppose that he would willingly have married oneof his daughters, if Oliver would have had such a son-in-law.There was a certain Colonel Saxby of the army, once a greatsupporter of Oliver's but now turned against him, who was agrievous trouble to him through all this part of his career; andwho came and went between the discontented in England and Spain,and Charles who put himself in alliance with Spain on being thrownoff by France. This man died in prison at last; but not untilthere had been very serious plots between the Royalists andRepublicans, and an actual rising of them in England, when theyburst into the city of Salisbury, on a Sunday night, seized thejudges who were going to hold the assizes there next day, and wouldhave hanged them but for the merciful objections of the moretemperate of their number. Oliver was so vigorous and shrewd thathe soon put this revolt down, as he did most other conspiracies;and it was well for one of its chief managers - that same LordWilmot who had assisted in Charles's flight, and was now Earl ofRochester - that he made his escape. Oliver seemed to have eyesand ears everywhere, and secured such sources of information as hisenemies little dreamed of. There was a chosen body of six persons,called the Sealed Knot, who were in the closest and most secretconfidence of Charles. One of the foremost of these very men, aSir Richard Willis, reported to Oliver everything that passed amongthem, and had two hundred a year for it.

　　Miles Syndarcomb, also of the old army, was another conspiratoragainst the Protector. He and a man named Cecil, bribed one of hisLife Guards to let them have good notice when he was going out -intending to shoot him from a window. But, owing either to hiscaution or his good fortune, they could never get an aim at him.Disappointed in this design, they got into the chapel in Whitehall,with a basketful of combustibles, which were to explode by means ofa slow match in six hours; then, in the noise and confusion of thefire, they hoped to kill Oliver. But, the Life Guardsman himselfdisclosed this plot; and they were seized, and Miles died (orkilled himself in prison) a little while before he was ordered forexecution. A few such plotters Oliver caused to be beheaded, a fewmore to be hanged, and many more, including those who rose in armsagainst him, to be sent as slaves to the West Indies. If he wererigid, he was impartial too, in asserting the laws of England.When a Portuguese nobleman, the brother of the Portugueseambassador, killed a London citizen in mistake for another man withwhom he had had a quarrel, Oliver caused him to be tried before ajury of Englishmen and foreigners, and had him executed in spite ofthe entreaties of all the ambassadors in London.

　　One of Oliver's own friends, the Duke of Oldenburgh, in sending hima present of six fine coach-horses, was very near doing more toplease the Royalists than all the plotters put together. One day,Oliver went with his coach, drawn by these six horses, into HydePark, to dine with his secretary and some of his other gentlemenunder the trees there. After dinner, being merry, he took it intohis head to put his friends inside and to drive them home: apostillion riding one of the foremost horses, as the custom was.On account of Oliver's being too free with the whip, the six finehorses went off at a gallop, the postillion got thrown, and Oliverfell upon the coach-pole and narrowly escaped being shot by his ownpistol, which got entangled with his clothes in the harness, andwent off. He was dragged some distance by the foot, until his footcame out of the shoe, and then he came safely to the ground underthe broad body of the coach, and was very little the worse. Thegentlemen inside were only bruised, and the discontented people ofall parties were much disappointed.

　　The rest of the history of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell is ahistory of his Parliaments. His first one not pleasing him at all,he waited until the five months were out, and then dissolved it.The next was better suited to his views; and from that he desiredto get - if he could with safety to himself - the title of King.He had had this in his mind some time: whether because he thoughtthat the English people, being more used to the title, were morelikely to obey it; or whether because he really wished to be a kinghimself, and to leave the succession to that title in his family,is far from clear. He was already as high, in England and in allthe world, as he would ever be, and I doubt if he cared for themere name. However, a paper, called the 'Humble Petition andAdvice,' was presented to him by the House of Commons, praying himto take a high title and to appoint his successor. That he wouldhave taken the title of King there is no doubt, but for the strongopposition of the army. This induced him to forbear, and to assentonly to the other points of the petition. Upon which occasionthere was another grand show in Westminster Hall, when the Speakerof the House of Commons formally invested him with a purple robelined with ermine, and presented him with a splendidly bound Bible,and put a golden sceptre in his hand. The next time the Parliamentmet, he called a House of Lords of sixty members, as the petitiongave him power to do; but as that Parliament did not please himeither, and would not proceed to the business of the country, hejumped into a coach one morning, took six Guards with him, and sentthem to the right-about. I wish this had been a warning toParliaments to avoid long speeches, and do more work.

　　It was the month of August, one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight, when Oliver Cromwell's favourite daughter, ElizabethClaypole (who had lately lost her youngest son), lay very ill, andhis mind was greatly troubled, because he loved her dearly.Another of his daughters was married to Lord Falconberg, another tothe grandson of the Earl of Warwick, and he had made his sonRichard one of the Members of the Upper House. He was very kindand loving to them all, being a good father and a good husband; buthe loved this daughter the best of the family, and went down toHampton Court to see her, and could hardly be induced to stir fromher sick room until she died. Although his religion had been of agloomy kind, his disposition had been always cheerful. He had beenfond of music in his home, and had kept open table once a week forall officers of the army not below the rank of captain, and hadalways preserved in his house a quiet, sensible dignity. Heencouraged men of genius and learning, and loved to have them abouthim. Milton was one of his great friends. He was good humouredtoo, with the nobility, whose dresses and manners were verydifferent from his; and to show them what good information he had,he would sometimes jokingly tell them when they were his guests,where they had last drunk the health of the 'King over the water,'and would recommend them to be more private (if they could) anothertime. But he had lived in busy times, had borne the weight ofheavy State affairs, and had often gone in fear of his life. Hewas ill of the gout and ague; and when the death of his belovedchild came upon him in addition, he sank, never to raise his headagain. He told his physicians on the twenty-fourth of August thatthe Lord had assured him that he was not to die in that illness,and that he would certainly get better. This was only his sickfancy, for on the third of September, which was the anniversary ofthe great battle of Worcester, and the day of the year which hecalled his fortunate day, he died, in the sixtieth year of his age.He had been delirious, and had lain insensible some hours, but hehad been overheard to murmur a very good prayer the day before.The whole country lamented his death. If you want to know the realworth of Oliver Cromwell, and his real services to his country, youcan hardly do better than compare England under him, with Englandunder Charles the Second.

　　He had appointed his son Richard to succeed him, and after therehad been, at Somerset House in the Strand, a lying in state moresplendid than sensible - as all such vanities after death are, Ithink - Richard became Lord Protector. He was an amiable countrygentleman, but had none of his father's great genius, and was quiteunfit for such a post in such a storm of parties. Richard'sProtectorate, which only lasted a year and a half, is a history ofquarrels between the officers of the army and the Parliament, andbetween the officers among themselves; and of a growing discontentamong the people, who had far too many long sermons and far too fewamusements, and wanted a change. At last, General Monk got thearmy well into his own hands, and then in pursuance of a secretplan he seems to have entertained from the time of Oliver's death,declared for the King's cause. He did not do this openly; but, inhis place in the House of Commons, as one of the members forDevonshire, strongly advocated the proposals of one Sir JohnGreenville, who came to the House with a letter from Charles, datedfrom Breda, and with whom he had previously been in secretcommunication. There had been plots and counterplots, and a recallof the last members of the Long Parliament, and an end of the LongParliament, and risings of the Royalists that were made too soon;and most men being tired out, and there being no one to head thecountry now great Oliver was dead, it was readily agreed to welcomeCharles Stuart. Some of the wiser and better members said - whatwas most true - that in the letter from Breda, he gave no realpromise to govern well, and that it would be best to make himpledge himself beforehand as to what he should be bound to do forthe benefit of the kingdom. Monk said, however, it would be allright when he came, and he could not come too soon.

　　So, everybody found out all in a moment that the country must beprosperous and happy, having another Stuart to condescend to reignover it; and there was a prodigious firing off of guns, lighting ofbonfires, ringing of bells, and throwing up of caps. The peopledrank the King's health by thousands in the open streets, andeverybody rejoiced. Down came the Arms of the Commonwealth, upwent the Royal Arms instead, and out came the public money. Fiftythousand pounds for the King, ten thousand pounds for his brotherthe Duke of York, five thousand pounds for his brother the Duke ofGloucester. Prayers for these gracious Stuarts were put up in allthe churches; commissioners were sent to Holland (which suddenlyfound out that Charles was a great man, and that it loved him) toinvite the King home; Monk and the Kentish grandees went to Dover,to kneel down before him as he landed. He kissed and embracedMonk, made him ride in the coach with himself and his brothers,came on to London amid wonderful shoutings, and passed through thearmy at Blackheath on the twenty-ninth of May (his birthday), inthe year one thousand six hundred and sixty. Greeted by splendiddinners under tents, by flags and tapestry streaming from all thehouses, by delighted crowds in all the streets, by troops ofnoblemen and gentlemen in rich dresses, by City companies, train-bands, drummers, trumpeters, the great Lord Mayor, and the majesticAldermen, the King went on to Whitehall. On entering it, hecommemorated his Restoration with the joke that it really wouldseem to have been his own fault that he had not come long ago,since everybody told him that he had always wished for him with allhis heart.