The Lord Protector, his Parliament having been dismissed with зuch brevity, is somewhat embarrassed in his finances. But otherwise his affairs stand well; visibly in an improved condition. Once more he has saved Puritan England; once more approved himself invincible abroad and at home. He looks with confidence towards summoning a new Parliament, of juster disposition towards Puritan England and him.* With a Parliament, or if extremity of need arrive, without a Parliament and in spite of Par liaments, the Puritan Gospel Cause, sanctioned by a Higher than Parliaments, shall not sink while life remains in this Man. Not till Oliver Cromwell's head lie low, shall English Puritanism bend its head to any created thing. Erect, with its foot on the neck of Hydra Babylon, with its open Bible and drawn Sword, shall Puritanism stand, and with pious all-defiance victoriously front the world. That was Oliver Cromwell's appointed function in this piece of sublunary Space, in this section of swift-flowing Time; that noble, perilous, painful function: and he has manfully done it, and is now near ending it, and getting honorably relieved from it. * Thurloe, ii., 84, 99, 128, &c (April, May, 1658) DEATH OF THE PROTECTOR. THERE remain no more Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell for us; the above is the last of them of either kind. He takes his leave of the world, in these final words addressed to his Second Parliament, on the 4th of February, 1657-8: "God be judge between you and me !"-So was it appointed by the Destinies and the Oblivions; these were his last public words. Other Speeches, in that crisis of Oliver's affairs, we have already heard of; 'Speech of two hours' to his Officers in Whitehall; Speech to the Lord Mayor and Common Council, in the same place on the same subject: but they have not been reported, or the report of them has not come down to us. There were domestic Letters also, as we still find, written in those same tumultuous weeks; Letters to the Earl of Warwick, on occasion of the death of his Grandson, the Protector's Son-in-Law. For pooi young Mr. Rich, whom we saw wedded in November last, is dead.* He died on the twelfth day after that Dissolution of the Parliament while Oliver and the Commonwealth are wrestling against boundless Anarchies, Oliver's own Household has its visitations and dark days. Poor little Frances Cromwell, in the fourth month of her marriage, still only about seventeen, she finds herself suddenly a widow; and Hampton Court has become a house of mourning. Young Rich was much lamented. Oliver condoled with the Grandfather in seasonable and sympathizing Letters;' for which the brave old Earl rallies himself to make some gratefullest Reply :-" Cannot enough confess my obligation, much less discharge it, for your seasonable and sympathizing Letters; which, besides the value they derive from so worthy a hand, express such faithful affections, and administer such Christian advices * 16 Feb., 1657-8 (Newspapers in Cromwelliana, p. 170). † Earl of Warwick to the Lord Protector, date 11 March, 1657–8; printed in Godwin, iv., 528. as renders them beyond measure dear to me." Blessings, and noble eulogies, the outpouring of a brave old heart, conclude this Letter of Warwick's. He himself died shortly after ;* a new grief to the Protector.-The Protector was delivering the Commonwealth from Hydras and fighting a world-wide battle, while he wrote those Letters on the death of young Rich. If by chance they still lie hidden in the archives of some kinsman of the Warwicks, they may yet be disimprisoned and made audible. Most probably they too are lost. And so we have now nothing more; more. His Speakings, and also his --and Oliver has nothing Actings, all his manifold Strugglings, more or less victorious, to utter the great God's-Message that was in him,-have here what we call ended. This Summer of 1658, likewise victorious after Thenceforth he enters struggle, is his last in our World of Time. the Eternities; and rests upon his arms there. Oliver's look was yet strong; and young for his years, which were Fifty-nine last April. The 'Three-score and ten years,' the Psalmist's limit, which probably was often in Oliver's thoughts and those of others there, might have been anticipated for him : Ten Years more of Life ;-which, we may compute, would have given another History to all the Centuries of England. But i was not to be so, it was to be otherwise. Oliver's health, as we might observe, was but uncertain in late times; often 'indisposed' the spring before last. His course of life had not been favorable to health! “A burden too heavy for man!" as he himself, with a sigh, would sometimes say. Incessant toil; inconceivable labor, of head and heart and hand; toil, peril, and sorrow manifold, continued for near Twenty years now, had done their part : these robust life-energies, it afterwards appeared,‡ had been gradually eaten out. Like a Tower strong to the eye, but with its foundation undermined; which has not long to stand; the fall of which, on any shock, may be sudden.— The Manzinis and Ducs de Crequi, with their splendors, and congratulations about Dunkirk, interesting to the street-populations and general public, had not yet withdrawn, when at Hampton 19 April, 1658 (Thurloe, vii., 85). t Heath. Dr. Bates, on examination post mortem. Court there had begun a private scene, of much deeper and quite opposite interest there. The Lady Claypole, Oliver's favorite Daughter, a favorite of all the world, had fallen sick we know not when; lay sick now,-to death, as it proved. Her disease was of internal female nature; the painfullest and most harassing to mind and sense, it is understood, that falls to the lot of a human creature. Hampton Court we can fancy once more, in those July days, a house of sorrow; pale Death knocking there, as at the door of the meanest hut. 'She had great sufferings, great exercises of spirit.' Yes-and in the depths of the old Centuries, we see a pale anxious Mother, anxious Husband, anxious weeping Sisters, a poor young Frances weeping anew in her weeds. 'For the last fourteen days' his Highness has been by her bedside at Hampton Court, unable to attend to any public business whatever.* Be still, my Child; trust thou yet in God: in the waves of the Dark River there too is He a God of help !—On the 6th day of August she lay dead; at rest for ever. My young: my beautiful, my brave! She is taken from me; I am left bereaved of her. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away ;. blessed be the Name of the Lord! 'His Highness,' says Maidston,† 'being at Hampton Court, sickened a little before the Lady Elizabeth died. Her decease was on Friday, 6th August, 1658; she having lain long under great extremity of bodily pain, which, with frequent and violent convulsion-fits, brought her to her end. But as to his Highness, it was observed that his sense of her outward misery, in the pains she endured, took deep impression upon him; who indeed was ever a most indulgent and tender Father ;-his affections' too * Thurloe, viir, 295 (27 July, 1658). † A Collection of several Passages concerning his late Highness Oliver Cromwell, in the Time of his Sickness; wherein is related many of his Expressions upon his Deathbed, together with his Prayer within two or three Days before his Death. Written by one that was then Groom of his Bedchamber. (King's Pamphlets, sm. 4to., no. 792, art. 22: London, 9 June, 1659.) We have called him Maidston,' on Noble's bad authority; and to avoid confusion shall continue to do so; but must warn the reader that Maidston was Steward of the Household,' not 'Groom of the Bedchamber,' and that the authorship of this Pamphlet remains uncertain for the present. 6 'being regulated and bounded by such Christian wisdom and prudence, as did eminently shine in filling up not only that relation of a Father, but also all other relations; wherein he was a most rare and singular example. And no doubt but the sympathy of his spirit with his sorely afflicted and dying Daughter' did break him down at this time; considering also,'-innumerable other considerations of sufferings and toils, which made me often wonder he was able to hold up so long; except' indeed 'that he was borne up by a Supernatural Power at a more than ordinary rate. As a mercy to the truly Christian World, and to us of these Nations, had we been worthy of him!' 6 The same authority, who unhappily is not chronological, adds elsewhere this little picture, which we must take with us: • At Hampton Court, a few days after the death of the Lady Elizabeth, which touched him nearly,-being then himself under bodily distempers, forerunners of that Sickness which was to death, and in his bedchamber,―he called for his Bible, and desired an honorable and godly person there, with others, present, To read unto him that passage in Philippians, Fourth: "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and 1 know how to abound. Everywhere, and by all things, I am instructed; both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me. ""* Which read, said he, to use his own words as near as I can remember them "This Scripture did once save my life; when my eldest Son" poor Olivert "died; which went as a dagger to my heart, indeed it did." And then repeating the words of the text himself, and reading the tenth and eleventh verses, of Paul's contentation, and submission to the will of God in all conditions,―said he: “It's true, Paul, you have learned this, and attained to this measure of grace; but what shall I do? Ah poor creature, it is a hard lesson for me to take out! I find it so!" But reading on to the thirteenth verse, where Paul saith, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” * : Philippians, iv., 11, 12, 13 ↑ A blank in the Pamphlet here: see Antea, vol. i., 125, 150. |