OLIVER CROMWELL. 
339 
utmost wish, it is said, was at one time to have been created earl of 
Essex, honoured with the garter, made first captain of the guards, 
and declared vicar-general of the kingdom. It is true, these demands 
have the appearance of being very extravagant ; and yet when his 
consequence in the state, at the time the demand was made, is consi- 
dered, and that his namesake and relation, Sir Thomas Cromwell, 
from the meanest situation had been invested with greater honours 
and revenues than these by so haughty a monarch as Henry VIII., it 
will not be thought that he was so unreasonable in his proposals. The 
parliament, who had much less to fear or hope from him than the 
king, when the propositions for peace were under consideration of the 
house, voted that he should be created a baron, and have two thou- 
sand five hundred pounds a year settled upon him. The unfortunate 
Charles, whose mind was unsettled, wavering, distrustful, and insin- 
cere, histead of closing with terms which alone could save his crown, 
his life, and the constitution, endeavoured by artifice, first to amuse, 
and then to ruin him 
But Cromwell, to whom nothing, how secret soever, was unknown, 
excelled the king as much in policy as he did in real power; and he 
now agreed, though with some reluctance at first, to secure his own 
life, by the sacrifice of that of his sovereign. At this time he could 
have formed no idea of attaining the eminence he afterward did. On 
the contrary, there is every reason to believe, that he would have been 
happy to have closed with his majesty, had he found him sincere, and 
could have done it with safety to himself, by not risking the hatred 
of the army ; for it appears that they were so jealous of him, that he 
durst not be seen with, or permit any one to come to him from 
the king. Oliver, however, is known to have averred that *‘it must be 
expected, he would perish for his sake.’' 
But it was not till after this that Oliver met with a full confirmation 
of Charles’s insincerity, in a letter from him to the queen, wherein he 
says, “that he was courted by both parties, but would close with that 
which offered him the best terms a declaration highly ungenerous, 
as he had at that time pledged his honour to the army. The king 
even w^ent farther: in another letter he informed her majesty, “that 
it would be easier for him to take off Cromwell when he had agreed 
with the parliament, than now he was at the head of his army.” Oliver, 
who was perfectly acquainted with every step taken by the king, 
acquired a knowledge of the contents of these letters ; and probably 
it was upon this occasion that he said, “If it must be my head or 
the king’s, can I hesitate which to choose 
Though these deceptions may seem to render Oliver’s unremitted 
enmity to the king in some degree warrantable, yet his hypocrisy to 
the public, and jocularity throughout the dreadful tragedy of his 
majesty’s trial and execution, will not admit of the least palliation. 
A great part of the latter indeed was afl'ected, and only a cover to 
hide the perturbation of his mind. 
The first principle of nature, self-defence, might be pleaded in his 
justification, or at least as an extenuation, in putting the king to death ; 
, but to indulge a vein of mirth and pleasantry in the misfortune of any 
one, particularly a person of so high a dignity, and who stood in so 
